Monday, February 1, 2010

In Beat with BeBo

By Andrew Maddux,


The world of Bebo is one that is of interest not only to you the individual, but to musical groups, and lends support to causes.  With Bebo, registered users can make their own online blog, post numerous photos, and even send messages in an instant. (bebo.net,2009) The features found in Bebo do contain lots of the same elements as Facebook, MySpace. Bebo recognizes this fact and responds simply, “Bebo is used to meet new people but also to stay in touch with their old friends, colleagues, and more who are now far away from them.”(bebo.net, 2009) This is a great idea I believe to not try and replace their friends by finding new ones, instead it’s used to foster and improve the relationships that they already have.

Bebo is also doing something interesting by allowing, “Bebo members are able to keep up with their friends’ activities on other sites, such as Flickr, Twitter and Delicious. Now Facebook, MySpace and YouTube are being supported as well.” (Schonfeld, 2009) The capability listed above is very convenient for me as a user of Bebo, and for bands and organizations to be able to channel their efforts through one media source. By allowing other people to see what you’re up to on other sites means you can share information over several mediums and get a unique result with each, along with a combined result on Bebo.
The website has several other advantages and accomplishments associated already with its name; first and foremost it was recently acquired by AOL.  “AOL migrated all of its AIM Profiles members over to Bebo on Wednesday and Thursday. This single move will more than double Bebo’s presence in the U.S” (Schonfeld,2009) Along with this the website boast more than 22.5million visits a year, in 2007 Bebo was one of the most searched terms on Google, along with the top Social media site in several countries such as Ireland, Australia and other European countries. (Schonfeld,2009)
The features that I personally enjoy on the website are the lifestream mentioned above, however I also enjoy the fact that Bebo, integrates the ability to list music groups, Create Polls and Quizzes along with widgets a comment wall, and a very important aspect a blog integrated right into the profile. With all the above mentioned services and the ability to integrate other social media websites through it, the Timeline service is simply amazing with the simplicity it breaks down your Bebo and the actions you partake in. The way that customer service is done on Bebo is also personalized, and feedback is presented to the person who submitted the inquiry to reassure their time was not wasted. (Schonfeld,2009)
There are several different bands that are using Bebo as a platform to increase their popularity, however I have no doubt that as a PR student I can use the site to increase visibility of my cause of, “Lowering college tuition and fees.” The site is sleek, interesting and integrated which is why I suggest to everyone to get in beat with Bebo!

Sources
  1. Shonefeld, E. (2009, February 23). Bebo zeroes in on lifestreaming for the masses: gets massive bump form AIM profiles [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/23/bebo-zeroes-in-on-lifestreaming-for-the-masses-gets-massive-bump-from-aim-profiles/
  2. Bebo information center. (2009). Bebo Info. Retrieved February 1, 2010, from http://beboinfo.net/

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