Happy Friday everyone! Today we’d like to draw your attention to Mashable.com, the world’s leading news source for all things social and digital media, technology, and web culture.
They have just recently launched a beta version of Mashable Follow. The purpose? Mashable wants to evolve from being a “purely editor-driven news site to becoming a true news community”. Essentially, they want to start engaging the loyal community that eagerly visits the site, using its articles for research, knowledge building, and recreation.
Mashable Follow will allow its users to do the following:
- Follow topics using the “Follow” buttons available on every story.
- Create a profile pages where you can also connect your Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, and Digg accounts.
- Connect with other Mashable Follow users.
- Earn Badges for engagement on the site.
Mynewsdesk founder, Kristofer Björkman, has written an article on this development over on his own blog (in Swedish).
Kristofer says, “The possibility to follow people and companies in social media is of course very popular. On Facebook, you can add friends or ‘Like’ a company. On Twitter you can ‘Follow’ them. On LinkedIn you ‘Connect.’ On Mynewsdesk, you join a company’s ‘Network.’”
“Now Mashable is going down the same road as these social networks,” he continues. “Readers can tailor-make their own Mashable media by following the subjects and articles they are interested in”
In conclusion, Kristofer writes: “It won’t be long until you can follow specific writers. Maybe one day, readers call also sign up as guest authors, allowing others to follow them in that way. Perhaps companies can even get their voices heard using a more personal method than advertisements, allowing readers to follow these companies too. I guess it won’t be long until Mashable actually becomes a community for those interested in news about social and digital media, technology, and web culture.”
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