Social Verbs

I've been thinking about social verbs lately and what they mean to me and how I want to use them, as opposed to how the social networks want me to use them. So I'm compiling a little work-in-progress list:

• I like something when it brings a smile to my face. (aliases: Love, Heart, Favorite)
• I share something when it is noteworthy and assume others might find interesting. This could be my own content or someone else's content or something someone else has shared. In the context where my blog is separate from my activity stream, I post to my blog and I share the link to the post with others. When my blog and activity stream merge into one, I just share content. (aliases: blog, tweet, status update)
• I bookmark something when I want to save it for future reference. (aliases: save)
• I star something to mark it as important/significant.
• I upvote something (in the context of a list of things) when it is more relevant.
• I recommend something when I really believe in it and want to tell others about it. (aliases: endorse, promote)
• I +1 something when I agree with it or support it.

What do the verbs mean to you?


References:

• "Clicking Like under something you or a friend posts on Facebook is an easy way to let someone know that you enjoy it, without leaving a comment." - What does it mean to "Like" something?
• http://wiki.activitystrea.ms/w/browse/#view=ViewFolder&param=Verbs
• Social verbs: if Facebook is 'to like', Twitter is 'to tweet' and FourSquare is 'to check in', what is Google +? To...

• “Like,” “share,” and “recommend”: How the warring verbs of social media will influence the news’ future
• The verbs of social media
• MMO Language as a Power-up
• Social Verbs
• We need Business Verbs in Social Software
• The 5 Universal Verbs of Social Learning
• Six Verbs You Need to Understand for the New Web
• Learnings about web ratings systems
• POSHstream, a POSHformat profile of activitystrea.ms
• http://indiewebcamp.com/ActivityStreams
• Facebook Like vs Recoomend

Distributed Mentions

Given the URI-centric approach of Activity Pingback (and Activity Web) I'm leaning towards /username over @username to mention/reply-to users on Converspace. This works very well because it's just a relative URI and lends itself well to the Federated Social Web by allowing you to mention/reply-to someone on another network with simple prefixing: some-other-social-network.com/username or another-social-network.com/users/username.

Inspired by:

• "/ is the new @." - Dave Morin
• Slide #37 of Social Network Supermarkets and How to Defeat Them - Chris Messina

See also:

• Consider using emails instead of URIs for identity

Facebook designing your online identity is like IKEA designing your apartment

"Facebook designing your online identity is like IKEA designing your apartment. The only individuality lies in the family pictures standing in your BILLY shelves." 

While early online networks like Geocities.com encouraged its users to entirely modify their online presence, Myspace.com and Web 2.0 have steered this "User Generated Content" into a commercially valuable structure. Facebook has finalized this "evolution" by disabling the user to do anything but feeding the system that gives FB it's estimated value of 50 Billion.

- http://fbresistance.com/#mission

The new needs friends

The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations. The new needs friends

- Anton Ego (food critic) in Ratatouille (movie) 

The Pricing Game: Charge More

For a product priced at $10 with a profit of $1, if you raise the price by 1% ($0.10) that's a 10% increase in profit. Raise the price by 10% ($1) and it's a 100% increase in profit!


References:

• http://www.pricingsolutions.com/index.php/en/more-about-joomla/the-newsletters/157-pricing-for-profit
• http://iterativepath.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/another-cpg-reporting-profit-rise-from-price-increase/
• http://iterativepath.wordpress.com/2010/06/06/the-1-price-increase-fallacy/
• http://iterativepath.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/3-components-of-effective-price-management/
• http://pricingforprofitbook.com/pricing
• http://www.amazon.com/1-Windfall-Successful-Companies-Profit/dp/0061684325/
• http://www.amazon.com/Price-Advantage-Wiley-Finance/dp/0470481773/

Should you build an ecommerce platform for small businesses in India?

Asking small businesses in India to get their own ecommerce store is like selling them retail space in the remotest part of town.

The first problem to solve for small businesses is to help them get more customers.

I learned this the hard way with AceSeller.

How can I help small businesses get more customer? is a better question to ask than Should I build an ecommerce platform for small businesses?

The former is a problem statement looking for a solution and going down that path will lead you to many interesting solutions. The latter is a solution looking for a problem, where you already think you know the solution and you're just looking for validation.