Wired Magazine’s Jargon Watch picked up on our very own Online Analysts as an upcoming term, which is fitting as many of them are, in fact, trend setters. While Social Network Fatigue can be a problem in the position, it’s nothing that Slow Travel can’t fix, especially when it’s to meet an Ecosexual. I have now used all of the Jargon Watch terms in a sentence, which is oddly fulfilling.

From the TV section of today’s Washington Post: “And finally, the online analysts at Arlington-based New Media Strategies reported yesterday that the impersonations of mostly dead people delivered by Rich Little — who we also thought was dead — at the correspondents’ dinner had enjoyed 4,600 views on YouTube — but Sanjaya’s red-carpet arrival at the prom for politicians and news talent copped 7,000 views.” The most viewed clip, according to our team, was actually neither of these earth-shattering, paradigm redefining moments, but rather David Letterman’s remote contribution of a Top 10 list, dwarfing both with over a half million views during the same time period. No word on the blogosphere’s tone on Sanjaya’s mop, however.

Great article “Wonderful World of Wikis” over at Read/WriteWeb, which gives an overview of the many different flavors of social reference tools. One interesting point made at the end is that social networks are a type of Wiki, though limited in user input to an individual’s profile. I think that the announcement by WetPaint that they are adding social media tools to their product, showing the inverse to be true as well, points to a growing trend of Web 2.0 convergence. For social reference sites to be viable, they must have an active community that ensures the validity and value of the content. Conversely, for a social network to be a success, they must make it easy for members to provide worthwhile information to other members. Add to this equation the development of Wikia Search, and this convergence will potentially have a huge impact on marketers.

This, of course is entirely new ground for brands, as striking the balance between providing marketing speak and valuable, balanced information. What will most likely happen, however, is that brand information will be provided at a much quicker pace by consumers, both pro and con, than brands can adapt to participate in the conversation. Though the impact of an unflattering or inaccurate Wikipedia profile today is significant, it will pale in comparison to the damage that can be done as these types of sites proliferate and a potentially large share of the search market migrates to a user-indexed product. The challenge will be navigating a slew of protocols that are implemented to prevent abuse by those who would look to “game” the system. While the threat of such behavior is definitely real, companies can be an extremely valuable source of information to these communities once they look at these platforms as another way to talk with the consumer versus just marketing at them.