Reason #19 we should go to Thailand: We know social networks

So Theo and I have been making plans today to attend the Association of Internet Researchers Conference in Milwaukee next week. We're excited about the conference not only because of our own research interests, but also because we think we'll learn about some upcoming technologies we can use to promote Chiang Mai. We'll be tweeting and blogging about the conference too, so you'll definitely be hearing more from us about our trip to Milwaukee.

I also spent the day working on my research proposal for my dissertation, so I've been thinking a lot about social networking sites. One of the reasons we're the most qualified group to be the Ultimate Thailand Explorers is our knowledge of social networking sites. We each have accounts on at least a dozen, including everything from the popular and general sites like Facebook, to more professional and academic sites like LinkedIn and Academia.edu, sites that are about collections like Delicious and Citeulike, to niche sites like MyColts.net and Reptile Channel. The things we've gained from being a part of so many different Web 2.0 sites is an understanding of how they work and how they can work together. One of the great things about Web 2.0, of course, is convergence, and it is so easy to link our different accounts together and to syndicate content between them. Add a phone with a good data plan, and we can send updates to all of our networks from almost anywhere!

Because of our involvement in a variety of social networks, we have a large number of people we can draw from to publicize the UTE contest. While the people we know through Facebook and through Reptile Channel don't overlap much, overall we're able to reach a large number of people relatively easily. This becomes incredibly important when it comes time to share our amazing adventures in Chiang Mai.

We've talked before about our technical expertise in creating and editing images and video and designing webpages. But most importantly, we understand the societal impact of technologies like social networking sites and their growing importance in any number of countries around the world. We know which Web 2.0 sites are popular in Brazil and the UK. We know why the Americans who popularized Friendster left the network; we understand the MySpace to Facebook migration; and why Twitter exploded and with which demographics. But more importantly, we know how best to craft a message on each site and to utilize it to its potential. Syndication is indeed important, but even more critical is knowing when to use Twitter, and when YouTube or Facebook might be needed instead. For example, we knew when creating a page on Facebook for our friends to follow, a fan page was a much better idea than a group page. Fan page status updates telling everyone what we've been up to automatically appear on our fans' newsfeeds, a feature a group page simply does not have.

We've already been busy promoting the UTE contest through this blog, Twitter, and our Facebook fan page. And we know that we can put our knowledge of social networking sites to use in sharing our traveling experiences in Chiang Mai with the world better than anyone.