Generation Nerd

I love my iPod. It’s incredible…I hope that’s enough of a plug for them to send me cash or a check…

Confused? I was too until I read this article by BrandWeek. It says, “More brands will compensate bloggers and social media users in an attempt to generate chatter about their products, a new study found. 

PQ Media said such “sponsored conversations” — which compensate social media users for discussing brands’ products — grew to $46 million in 2009, a 14 percent increase from a year earlier.”

Trust is the biggest problem with Internet advertising. I work hard to bring quality content to my readers and this advanced form of bribery is devaluing the trust that I try to build. In the long run, I hope that those who post true insight without financial backing will be rewarded with the trust of their readers. By the way, I haven’t received a dime from any company so far. Have you?

What do you think?

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For those of you who thought Foursquare was annoying (including myself), you may want to hide for the next decade or so. The social media giant, Facebook (more than 400 million users strong), is launching a new application that will combine status updates with physical locations. The large nation of Facebook users will ultimately take geotagging to the next level.

Location updates have been an increasing trend among social media. Foursquare is everywhere and seems to be growing at a steady rate. Gowalla, Brightkite and Loopt are also jumping in on the success of location based messaging. Even Twitter has an option for sharing locations through tweets. So, what’s pushing this application? Is it the users or marketing?
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