Social Gaming is Taking Over

Who doesn't like playing games with their friends? Whether hosting a game night at your apartment on a Saturday night or an impromptu game of Poker with a friend during your lunch break, people always enjoy playing games with friends. This is because playing games is a great way to socialize and learn about your friends. You get to see how they make strategy, and how they show off their skills.

With the rise of social networking site, play games with your friends has been taken to the next level. It's called social gaming, and it's taking the Internet by storm. This massive phenomenon is taking passive and inactive social networking users, and turning them into social gaming addicts.

Games like the hugely popular Farmville are played on Facebook and fans of the game are hooked. The most interesting facts to come out of the social gaming craze are the demographics - going against what I would perceive as the norm, the average social gamer is a 43-year-old woman. And 55% of social gamers are women. This is huge information for advertisers and the people who social networks like Facebook. If women are returning to Facebook multiple times a day to play games like Farmville with their friends, how are some other ways that Facebook can make sure they stay?

Also, fascinating is how successful the companies that own and run these social games are. Zynga, the developers behind Farmville, has over 750 employees worldwide and gains millions of dollars from it's users.

I see social gaming only expanding from this point. It seems to be popular among all types of demographics, and people are willing to spend money on these games that they are playing so frequently. If there is revenue, more and more people are going to start being interested, and more and more innovative games will be coming out for people to get hooked on.

Return on Investment: Worht It?

ROI. Return on Investments. It's the big buzzword that social media enthusiasts love to throw out to make their social media gospel more appealing. But, is the return on investments you get with social networking really that groundbreaking? The short answer is yes.

The amount of people you can reach on Twitter alone who are actively following your message and supporting what you do trumps any kind of traditional advertising. Once someone has chosen to follow you, they have chosen to invest in you and your message. This is a very active audience who will value your realtionship online greater than them just passing by a billboard on the street.

The Blog is the New Resume

As an avid reader of blogs and follower of young people doing great things in the online space, I have seen the rise of blogs that also act as resumes. What a great way to show future employers who they can hire. Unlike a resume, which lists current and prior positions held and schools attended, a blog shows the reader a complete picture of who someone is, what their interests are, and what assets they can provide for you. It's truly a piece of work, whereas a resume is a list of work. A blog is a picture, while a resume makes you uniform like everyone else.

A great thing that a lot of bloggers are doing is adding a tab or linkable section to their blog that features a traditional resume in the form of a blog post, so that those who are looking can see experience intermixed with current ideas and thoughts. Someone who is doing this well is Joe Coscarelli, a recent NYU grad and aspiring cultural writer. He includes a resume with experiences and training along with blog postings about pop culture, which is what he would like to be hired to do.

In this day and age, you have to be willing to give some of yourself, your content away for free in order for people to get a taste of who you are and what you are all about. If they see that you are being extremely successful and crushing it on your blog for no cost, they are going to be compelled to want your talents to be a part of what they are doing.

I need to finally get on this. New blog, tomorrow.

Teamworking around the world

After recently reading some articles on virtual teams and coworking, I have been thinking about the idea working in teams in the workplace.

Teamwork is definitely an excellent way of working - through collaboration come innovation and some of the best ideas. So, to me, working in teams is essential. With the Internet, working together means that you can be anywhere at anytime, as long as you have an Internet connection.

There are so many collaborative tools online which can be used to optimize coworking. Tools like Google Wave, Yammer, and Skype are revolutionizing the way virtual teams work together. Companies like Cisco Systems are dedicated to making products that make virtual teams more effective than ever.

What World Am I In?

Honestly, I have a hard time related to Virtual Worlds. Video games have never really been my thing, whether they were played on a console or the computer, so the draw of digital worlds like Second Life never really reached me. But, I have followed them, and after reading about some of them and their uses, I see their importance.

It's interesting how schools like Yale are using their presence on Second Life to promote education and learning in and outside of the classroom. It's a cool place where collaborative, teamwork can be used and taught, as well as how communities work. I can see Second Life being a great tool in classes for Urban Studies or Development courses. Also, it can be a great tool for students learning about Business because it can address issues such as team building, business making, and community impact. The fact that these companies are worth so much money is a testament to how successful they can be. Another virtual world that would be interesting to look into would be popular game World of Warcraft, which I know is also worth a major amount of money and has users spending a lot of time in.

It's also interesting to see how new technology will embrace various virtual world. With the introduction of Apple's iPad, will virtual world become more common place as the platform by which you access them becomes more and more comfortable? Will virtual worlds like Second Life and Farmville become more of a community when it is more comfortable to access these worlds with your hands and senses?

Get Linked In With LinkedIn

It's an interesting phenomenon that has happened to me since I have been at college. Every time a job fair comes along on campus or the a semester is ending, I get a flood of emails in my inbox saying that "Someone new would like to Link to you on LinkedIn!" It is at that time I am reminded of my LinkedIn profile that I made sometime in my senior year of high school after reading that it would be a good tool. I still do think it will be a good tool, but it is a working profile/resume that takes time to develop before you can start searching for others to become a part of your network. I feel like I want to keep my profile and maintain it every once in a while and then when the big time comes closer, I will make it more public and open so that I can enter the world of LinkedIn with confidence. After all, networking with someone with a lot of experience is a lot more valuable than networking with someone who know less than what you know. To me, it's all about learning the ropes before diving in... (I might have used two idioms right there and combined them into one, I hope you get it.)

As I read in the Yahoo article by Liz Ryan, "Networking gives you a chance to meet new people, but quality trumps quantity in human relationships, every time."

As a business I would love to use LinkedIn as a recruiting tool because it puts all the information you need right in front of you. Having prospects send you a link to their profile makes everything so easy and efficient.

In a world where everyone has a cell phone, everyone is constantly communicating, and the Internet is in the palm of your hand, it is hard to believe that the world of mobile technology has not reached it's full potential. The fast growing world of mobile 2.0 is still a toddler and it's still learning how to walk and talk, and everything that it can do.

In the United States, ultra-connectivity is still a fairly new world. Texting is only recently become the norm to most, and having a Internet-connected phone is still a feature that most do not have. But, the future looks bright.

The recent high-tech trends in the mobile all have to do with one things: location. Startups like Foursquare and Gowalla are location based social-networks in which you "Check-In" your location on your phone to show those in your network where you are. Your friends can meet up with you based on where your last check in was. Foursqaure even rewards your for checking in to different locations. Business have figured out ways to monetize these location based social networks by offering discounts and rewards if your check-in. For example, some bars will offer free drinks if you show them that you check into their location.

In Japan, what are known as "thumb novels" have become popular. More and more people are reading stories that are made to be read on a cell phone. I think these are a great idea, especially in a country that is heavily populated with people living in large cities like Tokyo and Kyoto who are commuting on trains and subways. It seems like a great way to pass the time.