Social Media Round Up for January 22, 2010

Doug Walker, January 22 2010

Rung added to Social Technographics Ladder

Remember Forrester’s Social Technographics ladder from back in 2007? Well things have changed since then and surprise, surprise all, the active categories are growing, showing that we are all doing more with social media. Most notably though, the ladder has received a much needed new rung for those of us considered “conversationalists”.

Bill Gates joins Twitter

The world’s wealthiest man now has a twitter account and likely has the highest ratio of followers to tweets (currently approaching 300k followers with only 9 tweets). It appears that he is using Twitter to help launch his new web site thegatesnotes.com which features an inside look at his work with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Kids and Media consumption

USAToday summarizes  a Kaiser Family Foundation study which has kids spending an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes consuming media, much of which is taking place on mobile devices (perhaps it would be even higher with improved battery life A friend told me an interesting story that her son was spending so much time organizing social plans via text on a weekend night that in some cases it was too late to go out by the time they had finished the discussion.

Apple’s Tablet

The masters of Anti-social media are at it again, with no official details released of the expected Apple tablet, the rumor mills are churning away before the expected announcement on January 27. One note-worthy point from the WSJ (according to AppleInsider) is that the device is intended to be shared by multiple family members, which if the device is successful could again shift how we consume electronic media. Until the facts are revealed we can enjoy a favourite parody of Apple’s publicity machine from MadTV.