The clever money among informed sources is that apple's much speculated mobile is actually on its way this time. There's even talk of firm orders being placed for 12m of the little white jobs with a Taiwanese manufacturer.
Expect to see it in March next year.
I've seen discussions where there is a suggestion that Apple will take the brave decision to make this a telephone. ie a communication device rather than convergent with its I-pod. The argument goes that they could take an innovative lead in making devices connect with each and communicate with each-other in an intuitive way, rather than build their own I-pod killer.
Hmmm. I don't see anti-convergence working - not now there is talk of 20GB of storage on next generation phones, and security systems which recognise the phone's owner, and lock as soon as you move more than a couple of feet away from it (being launched in Japan right now).
I'm a firm believer in the convergence cause. Every objection I've seen can be overcome with either online storage accessible via mobile internet, or orb networks solutions.
There's a reason nobody carries a filofax anymore...
The further ahead you look - the faster you go | davidpcushman AT gmail.com | These are my views and my views only.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Monday, November 27, 2006
First glimpse of a new economy...
Online gamers have long talked about 'gold farms', but they have now been captured on film for the first time. In basic terms, they are sweatshops dedicated to procuring exclusive items from a variety of online games, which are then sold on auction sites and forums for real cash.
MTV was actually the first place to air the clip from a new documentary film which looks into the phenomenon.
You can watch the film here: http://chinesegoldfarmers.com/Index.html.
It's certainly evidence of a change in the global economy, with the young generation of blue collar workers now beginning to spend their working lives in repetitive virtual employment, rather than simply walking to the nearest factory every morning to work on a real-world production line.
MTV was actually the first place to air the clip from a new documentary film which looks into the phenomenon.
You can watch the film here: http://chinesegoldfarmers.com/Index.html.
It's certainly evidence of a change in the global economy, with the young generation of blue collar workers now beginning to spend their working lives in repetitive virtual employment, rather than simply walking to the nearest factory every morning to work on a real-world production line.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Reason report on MIT's Futures of Entertainment conference
Alan Moore on Communities Dominate Brands draws our attention to this post.
It's by Jesse Walker at Reason magazine. Read the whole thing here.
Here's some of my personal highlights, Alan selects others at CDB here.
And there are a few of my own conclusions at the end. Feel free to add your own as posts.
INTERNAL COMMUNICATION!
Last summer, as the explosive popularity of YouTube became obvious to the older media companies, the marketing department at the Cartoon Network decided to use the site to promote its shows. So it posted some video clips there, hoping the promos would get forwarded in emails, linked on blogs and MySpace pages, and otherwise spread through the Internet, strengthening the channel's fan base and drawing in new viewers.
Happily, people noticed the videos. Unhappily, some of the people who noticed the videos worked for the Cartoon Network's legal department, who mistook their colleagues' new marketing tactic for an unauthorized appropriation of the firm's intellectual property. They promptly sent cease-and-desist letters demanding that the clips come down...
PUT THE CONSUMER FIRST - AND MEAN IT!
...a business meeting she and some colleagues once had with Apple... the TV people were caught up in pleasing all their stakeholders, while the Mac man was concerned solely with improving the consumer's experience. It's a pretty good snapshot of the difference between a company that sells eyeballs to advertisers and a company that sells tools to the audience....
NEVER MIND THE QUALITY, FEEL THE COMMUNITY
The second panel... was devoted to content generated by the audience itself. The speakers included Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr; Rob Tercek of the (M)FORMA Group, which produces mobile entertainment; Kevin Barrett of BioWare, which makes computer-based role-playing games; and Ji Lee, who started sticking empty speech balloons on ads around New York City, waiting to see what people would write inside them and photographing the results... They all build structures where users can roam, interact, and create and share their own content.
Fake suggested that there is a "general exhaustion with mass consumer culture," and that less passive forms of entertainment are arguably the natural state of affairs. It wasn't long ago, historically speaking, that quilting bees and front-parlor music occupied the space now filled by movies and television.
Tercek argued that economic logic favors user-generated content.
And Barrett noted that, while only a minority of the grassroots creations... might be "good" by mainstream standards... that doesn't matter from the ordinary consumer's point of view. What's important is that it fills a need for the people who make it, not that anyone outside their immediate circle find it engaging...
FOLLOW YOUR USERS
You can't predict the way those people will use those tools. Flickr began as a feature in a long-dead online game, a way players could drag and drop photos into instant messages. The programmers soon added the ability to post those pictures on webpages, and that was the side of their service that succeeded.
Wise companies -- put another way, companies that survive in the marketplace -- understand that it's better to foster and follow such serendipitous developments than to try to force your users to conform to your original vision.
BUILD YOUR OWN SECONDLIFE
Ron Meiners of multiverse.net described his company's plan to build a platform that will let other people build yet more worlds on a license-free basis, from enormous World of Warcraft-style games to amateur, user-generated realms, each with their own aims and mores.
Of all of the above, the most telling for me is the notion that the natural human state is to join in - to interact, to be part of the entertainment rather than to sit back and stare at a screen: hence the success of social-networked sites, of blogging, of computer games... etc etc etc
It's why engagement marketing beats interruptive marketing, why UGC is essential, why micro mass media beats mass media, why broadcast is failing and self-cast is growing.
Even when we thought we were a mass media, passive-entertainment addicted society, the clues were still there: It's why people always liked Letters pages in magazines and newspapers, why phone-ins have always been at the heart of talk radio and why gossip happens.
Hollywood and TV have masked some human truths. The tools of the internet have done nothing more than reveal the huge commercial potential in understanding them.
It's by Jesse Walker at Reason magazine. Read the whole thing here.
Here's some of my personal highlights, Alan selects others at CDB here.
And there are a few of my own conclusions at the end. Feel free to add your own as posts.
INTERNAL COMMUNICATION!
Last summer, as the explosive popularity of YouTube became obvious to the older media companies, the marketing department at the Cartoon Network decided to use the site to promote its shows. So it posted some video clips there, hoping the promos would get forwarded in emails, linked on blogs and MySpace pages, and otherwise spread through the Internet, strengthening the channel's fan base and drawing in new viewers.
Happily, people noticed the videos. Unhappily, some of the people who noticed the videos worked for the Cartoon Network's legal department, who mistook their colleagues' new marketing tactic for an unauthorized appropriation of the firm's intellectual property. They promptly sent cease-and-desist letters demanding that the clips come down...
PUT THE CONSUMER FIRST - AND MEAN IT!
...a business meeting she and some colleagues once had with Apple... the TV people were caught up in pleasing all their stakeholders, while the Mac man was concerned solely with improving the consumer's experience. It's a pretty good snapshot of the difference between a company that sells eyeballs to advertisers and a company that sells tools to the audience....
NEVER MIND THE QUALITY, FEEL THE COMMUNITY
The second panel... was devoted to content generated by the audience itself. The speakers included Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr; Rob Tercek of the (M)FORMA Group, which produces mobile entertainment; Kevin Barrett of BioWare, which makes computer-based role-playing games; and Ji Lee, who started sticking empty speech balloons on ads around New York City, waiting to see what people would write inside them and photographing the results... They all build structures where users can roam, interact, and create and share their own content.
Fake suggested that there is a "general exhaustion with mass consumer culture," and that less passive forms of entertainment are arguably the natural state of affairs. It wasn't long ago, historically speaking, that quilting bees and front-parlor music occupied the space now filled by movies and television.
Tercek argued that economic logic favors user-generated content.
And Barrett noted that, while only a minority of the grassroots creations... might be "good" by mainstream standards... that doesn't matter from the ordinary consumer's point of view. What's important is that it fills a need for the people who make it, not that anyone outside their immediate circle find it engaging...
FOLLOW YOUR USERS
You can't predict the way those people will use those tools. Flickr began as a feature in a long-dead online game, a way players could drag and drop photos into instant messages. The programmers soon added the ability to post those pictures on webpages, and that was the side of their service that succeeded.
Wise companies -- put another way, companies that survive in the marketplace -- understand that it's better to foster and follow such serendipitous developments than to try to force your users to conform to your original vision.
BUILD YOUR OWN SECONDLIFE
Ron Meiners of multiverse.net described his company's plan to build a platform that will let other people build yet more worlds on a license-free basis, from enormous World of Warcraft-style games to amateur, user-generated realms, each with their own aims and mores.
Of all of the above, the most telling for me is the notion that the natural human state is to join in - to interact, to be part of the entertainment rather than to sit back and stare at a screen: hence the success of social-networked sites, of blogging, of computer games... etc etc etc
It's why engagement marketing beats interruptive marketing, why UGC is essential, why micro mass media beats mass media, why broadcast is failing and self-cast is growing.
Even when we thought we were a mass media, passive-entertainment addicted society, the clues were still there: It's why people always liked Letters pages in magazines and newspapers, why phone-ins have always been at the heart of talk radio and why gossip happens.
Hollywood and TV have masked some human truths. The tools of the internet have done nothing more than reveal the huge commercial potential in understanding them.
Friday, November 24, 2006
Expert content does have a role in social-networked success
Social networking has been a huge success on the web. Tomi T Ahonen (Communities Dominate Brands) has called it the killer application of 3G. It's certainly going to be one of them.
But one of the difficulties for media companies (or at least, those which existed before the internet took off) is that these sites (orkut, myspace, faceparty, youtube etc etc) attract huge audiences, offer compelling propositions - and manage all this without going to the trouble or expense of providing expert-created content (though, it has to be said, often without troubling themselves about such trivialities as profit, at least in the short term, either).
So it might be easy for us to spit our collective dummies and assume no one wants our fantastic creative genius any more. They just want an opportunity to show off their own.
Maybe. Maybe not.
What if we gave them our fantastic, crafted, creations AND engaged them in a vibrant, co-creation-rich, social-network?
So far, I haven't seen anyone doing both really well - great content to give you reasons to arrive, keep coming back, sample other media etc, combined with a killer social networking function which results in communities with the freedom to interact and form groups in the way they prefer.
Why not? Perhaps because recognised brands create instant 'them and us' in the communities which could form around them. Perhaps it's as simple as the proposition hasn't been right so far?
So let's not give up just yet.
Expert content (off the top of my head...):
I'll throw in a third and a fourth strand to this proposal:
But one of the difficulties for media companies (or at least, those which existed before the internet took off) is that these sites (orkut, myspace, faceparty, youtube etc etc) attract huge audiences, offer compelling propositions - and manage all this without going to the trouble or expense of providing expert-created content (though, it has to be said, often without troubling themselves about such trivialities as profit, at least in the short term, either).
So it might be easy for us to spit our collective dummies and assume no one wants our fantastic creative genius any more. They just want an opportunity to show off their own.
Maybe. Maybe not.
What if we gave them our fantastic, crafted, creations AND engaged them in a vibrant, co-creation-rich, social-network?
So far, I haven't seen anyone doing both really well - great content to give you reasons to arrive, keep coming back, sample other media etc, combined with a killer social networking function which results in communities with the freedom to interact and form groups in the way they prefer.
Why not? Perhaps because recognised brands create instant 'them and us' in the communities which could form around them. Perhaps it's as simple as the proposition hasn't been right so far?
So let's not give up just yet.
Expert content (off the top of my head...):
- gives advertisers confidence,
- presents a touchstone/testing board for the community,
- is initially more compelling and (if you get it right) trustworthy,
- offers access everyday users can rarely acquire (exclusive)
- provides an historic archive of great content (UGC can't be retrospective!).
- Offers an assurance of a certain quality standard
- er... I'm sure you can think of some others (please post them below)... that expert content is and which UGC isn't
I'll throw in a third and a fourth strand to this proposal:
- It must be optimised for mobile
- And it must have its commercial thinking rooted in engagement marketing.
Old style interruptive ads just won't work on the optimised mobile environment (and one in which, don't forget, people will be used to watching TV on within two years)...
So, if you can tick all those boxes (and check it against recently identified trends - particularly among Generation-C) you really ought to have something worth investing in.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Ericsson predicts mass global mobile TV by 2008
Interesting to see Ericsson predicting mobile TV will go mass-market global by 2008 (here for the full story).
Given that other sources were predicting a mobile TV audience of 25 million in Asia by 2008 recently, you'd have to think the Sony Eiricsson tie-up has even more up its sleeve.
Add this to predictions of primary access to the internet being mobile by 2008 and that thing you text and call with becomes ever more valuable.
Nokia referred to its latest handset as a 'computer' rather than a phone throughout the launch of 3's fixed-price 3G browsing deal.
Makes me wonder how long it'll be before Microsoft (and others) come up with a rival device.
Bottom line is that the convergent technology of the mobile has to make it your primary consideration in any digital launch. And it's no longer the future calling...
Given that other sources were predicting a mobile TV audience of 25 million in Asia by 2008 recently, you'd have to think the Sony Eiricsson tie-up has even more up its sleeve.
Add this to predictions of primary access to the internet being mobile by 2008 and that thing you text and call with becomes ever more valuable.
Nokia referred to its latest handset as a 'computer' rather than a phone throughout the launch of 3's fixed-price 3G browsing deal.
Makes me wonder how long it'll be before Microsoft (and others) come up with a rival device.
Bottom line is that the convergent technology of the mobile has to make it your primary consideration in any digital launch. And it's no longer the future calling...
What media companies should do next
I believe there are two very simple strategic imperatives:
1. Be where it’s at
2. Understand how you can make money from where it’s at.
So, where is it at? Mobile internet (optimising for). But know this; even though 3’s announcement tears down the walls by setting a fixed-rate for broadband access on your mobile (rather than per-mb data charges), this is not the end of the story.
When broadband access is free on your fixed line (and that’s where analysis insists this is all going) then mobile internet access will have to follow. So where's the money?
2. Understanding how you will make revenue from this is tougher than it’s ever been. Which is why we have to get well and truly, thoroughly expert in engagement marketing before the rest. Forget data-charge sharing – embrace new marketing techniques which take advantage of new consumer demands and desires and understand what a new generation understands.
Netservices positive step...
It's not often I get the chance to be happy...hence my pseudonym...
But following the recent V21/Netservices problem, at least Netservices have made themselves heroes in some way by reinstating broadband for all affected customers until the mass cease order comes into effect
But following the recent V21/Netservices problem, at least Netservices have made themselves heroes in some way by reinstating broadband for all affected customers until the mass cease order comes into effect
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What's in your wallet? Oh a sim card
Over at one of my recommended blogs 'Mobile Weblog', you'll find this which takes us a step closer to your mobile-is-your-wallet, by widening the availability of the required technology.
This element of the convergent technology of mobiles opens loads of new doors. Imagine you sell a magazine aimed at kids - who run out of pocket money. Give them a mechanism by which they can buy your mag in a shop (where they see it, when they want it) without needing cash and you've just made their lives a little easier.
One interesting take on the 3G revolution is that before too long there will be more machines communicating with each other by mobile than humans - and they'll probably generate the bulk of the revenues (Tomi T Ahonen, M-Profits). A tip of that iceberg is automated billing.
Media companies wanting users to renew subscriptions may find it rather easier to have a machine send them a text message offering them a new deal - which also offers them the opportunity to buy with one click of their mobile phone.
Try the same with classified ads, display ads etc etc.
This element of the convergent technology of mobiles opens loads of new doors. Imagine you sell a magazine aimed at kids - who run out of pocket money. Give them a mechanism by which they can buy your mag in a shop (where they see it, when they want it) without needing cash and you've just made their lives a little easier.
One interesting take on the 3G revolution is that before too long there will be more machines communicating with each other by mobile than humans - and they'll probably generate the bulk of the revenues (Tomi T Ahonen, M-Profits). A tip of that iceberg is automated billing.
Media companies wanting users to renew subscriptions may find it rather easier to have a machine send them a text message offering them a new deal - which also offers them the opportunity to buy with one click of their mobile phone.
Try the same with classified ads, display ads etc etc.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
If we keep repeating, they will listen....
John Audette, responsible for the Internet News Bureau, has chosen to share his 'Sweet 16' of things that have worked well in making successful internet sites...e.g. integrity, niches etc...
Most are probably pretty obvious to anyone schooled in the web, but they bear repeating...particularly when dealing with people who don't use/understand this wonderful "new" technology which is being forced upon them...
e.g. "The customer might not always be right -- but the customer always rules."
There are a couple which might not be so apparent, such as No 4..."Put the power of inertia on your side", No5 "Build scalability", and my personal favourite...No15 "Respect the power of the index finger"
An important note for print types:
" If you try to do business the old push way and simply focus on what you want and try to jam products or services down the markets throat, then it's bad. In fact, you don't have a prayer of succeeding."
The man talks sense. Read more at The Sweet 16
Most are probably pretty obvious to anyone schooled in the web, but they bear repeating...particularly when dealing with people who don't use/understand this wonderful "new" technology which is being forced upon them...
e.g. "The customer might not always be right -- but the customer always rules."
There are a couple which might not be so apparent, such as No 4..."Put the power of inertia on your side", No5 "Build scalability", and my personal favourite...No15 "Respect the power of the index finger"
An important note for print types:
" If you try to do business the old push way and simply focus on what you want and try to jam products or services down the markets throat, then it's bad. In fact, you don't have a prayer of succeeding."
The man talks sense. Read more at The Sweet 16
Optimising for mobile: The time is NOW!
It occurs to me that optimising your website for mobile NOW has to offer significant strategic advantage.
Since mobile will become the primary access point for the internet within two years (probably less post 3's announcement of fixed-price 3G internet access last week) then it follows that those users arriving on the mobile web will prefer (and fall in long term love with) the first sites they find on the subjects they are interested in AND which are best optimised for the mobile user experience.
Brand will give you a head start - but if you offer a poor user experience (by not being optimised for mobile) then bye bye! Your user is off to find someone offering what you've got - on a mobile-optimised site.
We are in an internet ground zero situation.
Imagine being able to be at the start of the internet revolution knowing all that you know now. You are in that position now - if you recognise the mobile internet opportunity and move fast.
The alternative is to repeat the mistakes of sitting, watching, and following too late. The alternative is unthinkable.
eBay is already there, google is already there, yahoo is already there, microsoft is already there.
Where are you?
Since mobile will become the primary access point for the internet within two years (probably less post 3's announcement of fixed-price 3G internet access last week) then it follows that those users arriving on the mobile web will prefer (and fall in long term love with) the first sites they find on the subjects they are interested in AND which are best optimised for the mobile user experience.
Brand will give you a head start - but if you offer a poor user experience (by not being optimised for mobile) then bye bye! Your user is off to find someone offering what you've got - on a mobile-optimised site.
We are in an internet ground zero situation.
Imagine being able to be at the start of the internet revolution knowing all that you know now. You are in that position now - if you recognise the mobile internet opportunity and move fast.
The alternative is to repeat the mistakes of sitting, watching, and following too late. The alternative is unthinkable.
eBay is already there, google is already there, yahoo is already there, microsoft is already there.
Where are you?
Monday, November 20, 2006
Yahoo goes shopping...
Yahoo has been on a multi-million spending spree, investing in MyBlogLog, a social netowrking site and tracking site for bloggers, and Bix, a site which lets anyone set up their own online content (see previous post on this blog HERE).
More on the buying spree, here.
And just to keep David happy here's Movidity.....who plan to launch movy.tv in January, allowing users to upload audio or video content, which gets converted in formats for most smartphones and PCs...but like the report writer, I'm not sure that a new start up will get people using the service, rather than waiting for youtube....unless an opportunistic Mobile operator gets involved, of course.
More on the buying spree, here.
And just to keep David happy here's Movidity.....who plan to launch movy.tv in January, allowing users to upload audio or video content, which gets converted in formats for most smartphones and PCs...but like the report writer, I'm not sure that a new start up will get people using the service, rather than waiting for youtube....unless an opportunistic Mobile operator gets involved, of course.
Why 3 has changed the world
Further thoughts on 3's ground-breaking fixed-charge mobile internet announcement of last week.
It's a no-going-back moment. All other operators will have to follow. If they won't, they'll lose market share - and rapidly.
For example; when I rang 02 to say I was ending my contract and going to 3 to take advantage of this deal, the chap on the other end of the phone was so impressed with the 3 offering he took himself off to their website to sign up too.
The deals with eBay, google, yahoo, orb networks, sling media etc are unlikely to be exclusive, either (can you imagine eBay doing an exclusive deal with one network with only 14 million users globally? No? Me, neither).
So all the networks must change and change fast - and they will ALL have great offerings.
3 has a headstart because it's that handset-changing contract ending time of year. Nice timing 3.
It's a no-going-back moment. All other operators will have to follow. If they won't, they'll lose market share - and rapidly.
For example; when I rang 02 to say I was ending my contract and going to 3 to take advantage of this deal, the chap on the other end of the phone was so impressed with the 3 offering he took himself off to their website to sign up too.
The deals with eBay, google, yahoo, orb networks, sling media etc are unlikely to be exclusive, either (can you imagine eBay doing an exclusive deal with one network with only 14 million users globally? No? Me, neither).
So all the networks must change and change fast - and they will ALL have great offerings.
3 has a headstart because it's that handset-changing contract ending time of year. Nice timing 3.
Reasons not to go on the internet....
Imagine you'd paid your phone bill on time, by direct debit for a couple of years. Then, one evening, you get home from work, to find that you could only access a recorded message, telling you that you had been cut off, and the only way to phone anyone would be to sign up for a more expensive package?
That's what's happened to the 9,500 customers of Internet Service Provider V21. On November 16th, all internet connections were lost, due to a dispute between business supplier Netservices, and V21, who resell their broadband.
V21's subscribers (Of which I was one) could only acess a single web page, which told them that they could sign up for a service by Ezzeedsl, at an increased cost, and be reconnected in a couple of hours.... or they could wait for Netservices to issue a cease order to their account on November 24th, and then wait for the BT process to end, which takes around 10 days. At which point they can then begin signing up for a new account with a new ISP, potentially regaining their broadband connection around Dec 11th onwards.
Netservices will not release MAC codes to allow a quicker transfer to individuals, as they claim it breaks their confidentiality with their business customers. They will, however, facilitate the switch to Ezzeedsl within hours...strange....
Ofcom previously issued a warning about netservices using this practice in the past to trap customers, but despite complaints, are powerless to act, leaving almost 10,000 people in the cold. And that includes people that pay their bill on time, people that use the internet for their main income, and basically anyone who has an account with V21.
To add insult to injury, this follows the recent buy-out of V21 by another ISP, Biscit, in the last couple of months, which have seen the service slow, and the Biscit helpdesk overwhelmed...
I can safely say there are several thousand people who will now make every effort to avoid Netservices, despite the hassle of waiting a month without a service they've paid for. And they'll continue to recommend avoidance of such shoddy dealings... In the event of legal action between Netservices and V21, there were several options, whether it was issuing MAC codes to V21 customers immediately, continuing the service and billing, or at the very least, giving more warning that this was to happen, or a free trial with the new service. By choosing none of these, Netservices has done itself no favours at all...
Right, I'm off to go adn post these details on several other blogs and forums. Now imagine 5000 other people doing the same, and you'll see how much a lack of thought about your customers can achieve....
That's what's happened to the 9,500 customers of Internet Service Provider V21. On November 16th, all internet connections were lost, due to a dispute between business supplier Netservices, and V21, who resell their broadband.
V21's subscribers (Of which I was one) could only acess a single web page, which told them that they could sign up for a service by Ezzeedsl, at an increased cost, and be reconnected in a couple of hours.... or they could wait for Netservices to issue a cease order to their account on November 24th, and then wait for the BT process to end, which takes around 10 days. At which point they can then begin signing up for a new account with a new ISP, potentially regaining their broadband connection around Dec 11th onwards.
Netservices will not release MAC codes to allow a quicker transfer to individuals, as they claim it breaks their confidentiality with their business customers. They will, however, facilitate the switch to Ezzeedsl within hours...strange....
Ofcom previously issued a warning about netservices using this practice in the past to trap customers, but despite complaints, are powerless to act, leaving almost 10,000 people in the cold. And that includes people that pay their bill on time, people that use the internet for their main income, and basically anyone who has an account with V21.
To add insult to injury, this follows the recent buy-out of V21 by another ISP, Biscit, in the last couple of months, which have seen the service slow, and the Biscit helpdesk overwhelmed...
I can safely say there are several thousand people who will now make every effort to avoid Netservices, despite the hassle of waiting a month without a service they've paid for. And they'll continue to recommend avoidance of such shoddy dealings... In the event of legal action between Netservices and V21, there were several options, whether it was issuing MAC codes to V21 customers immediately, continuing the service and billing, or at the very least, giving more warning that this was to happen, or a free trial with the new service. By choosing none of these, Netservices has done itself no favours at all...
Right, I'm off to go adn post these details on several other blogs and forums. Now imagine 5000 other people doing the same, and you'll see how much a lack of thought about your customers can achieve....
Niche brands need UGC, broad brands need ultra exclusives
While sweeping leaves on Sunday afternoon (and ain't it always the case that our best ideas come to us when we're not at our desks..?) I had some further thoughts on how media brands can be successful. This builds on my thinking posted here, about why what we traditionally regard as niche, just doesn't count anymore.
In short; We might once of thought of serving a niche as segmenting a market by 'motorcycling' or 'classic cars'. And that served well for a print-formed world. But that's not niche enough any more. Niche is 'BMW R1200GS owners'. Try searching for them on google - you'll get offered a range of sites with very expert advice - and it's all UGC. There's more about micro niching and the global play here.
The lesson is that our ultra niche products have a reliance on UGC and getting the interplay with your expert content right offers your best chance of success. It is the access to really focused expert (and that's the UGC stuff too) content and, crucially, to belonging to a community with shared needs which offers the opportunity for success. This model also meets the challenges of engagement marketing. An advert in this space (provided it is in-context and related) is unlikely to feel like an interruption - it becomes part of the user-welcomed content.
Our other opportunity for success - in broader brands - is to offer ultra exclusives. And this must be content genuinely not available anywhere else. Users are prepared to pay for this because they can't get it for free.
For brands like these we have to recognise that users only want to pay once. They don't want to buy the magazine, then pay for access to the same content on the web or via mobile - new and different and (again) exclusive content - ok. Same old thing again - why would you?
However, there are place-shifting opportunities for content you've already paid for once - ie buy the mag and get an access code to see it on your pc or mobile (content where you want it). Where's the revenue in that? Consider engagement marketing techniques - if the user wants to access your content at different locations what are the new opportunities that creates and how could we serve the consumer better by meeting those demands?
I guess for long term strategies you have to consider - how are you going to retain ultra-exclusives when the whole world is a blogger?
In short; We might once of thought of serving a niche as segmenting a market by 'motorcycling' or 'classic cars'. And that served well for a print-formed world. But that's not niche enough any more. Niche is 'BMW R1200GS owners'. Try searching for them on google - you'll get offered a range of sites with very expert advice - and it's all UGC. There's more about micro niching and the global play here.
The lesson is that our ultra niche products have a reliance on UGC and getting the interplay with your expert content right offers your best chance of success. It is the access to really focused expert (and that's the UGC stuff too) content and, crucially, to belonging to a community with shared needs which offers the opportunity for success. This model also meets the challenges of engagement marketing. An advert in this space (provided it is in-context and related) is unlikely to feel like an interruption - it becomes part of the user-welcomed content.
Our other opportunity for success - in broader brands - is to offer ultra exclusives. And this must be content genuinely not available anywhere else. Users are prepared to pay for this because they can't get it for free.
For brands like these we have to recognise that users only want to pay once. They don't want to buy the magazine, then pay for access to the same content on the web or via mobile - new and different and (again) exclusive content - ok. Same old thing again - why would you?
However, there are place-shifting opportunities for content you've already paid for once - ie buy the mag and get an access code to see it on your pc or mobile (content where you want it). Where's the revenue in that? Consider engagement marketing techniques - if the user wants to access your content at different locations what are the new opportunities that creates and how could we serve the consumer better by meeting those demands?
I guess for long term strategies you have to consider - how are you going to retain ultra-exclusives when the whole world is a blogger?
Friday, November 17, 2006
Another social networking UGC site bought
Yahoo has bought bix.com, according to brand republic. I guess it's the response to failing to buy YouTube.
Says President and CEO Mike: "With Bix's platform focused on talent-based competitions combined with Yahoo!'s global audience and leadership in social media, as well as its sales and marketing muscle, we will take Bix to the next level. Expect many more contests with cool prizes, more community features, tons of entertaining content, and integration with many of your favorite Yahoo! services."
Sponsored contests (from both advertisers and consumers) has been the revenue model so far - a rather more engaging way of marketing than most seen in old media. I'll be keeping my eye on this.
The New York Times, said: "Some advertisers are using the site to reach potential customers. Six Flags, for instance, has created a contest on Bix.com called the Great American Scream-Off, in which participants upload videos of themselves screaming — as they might do on a roller coaster — for prizes including free passes. Yahoo would not discuss how much it charges advertisers to sponsor contests."
Says President and CEO Mike: "With Bix's platform focused on talent-based competitions combined with Yahoo!'s global audience and leadership in social media, as well as its sales and marketing muscle, we will take Bix to the next level. Expect many more contests with cool prizes, more community features, tons of entertaining content, and integration with many of your favorite Yahoo! services."
Sponsored contests (from both advertisers and consumers) has been the revenue model so far - a rather more engaging way of marketing than most seen in old media. I'll be keeping my eye on this.
The New York Times, said: "Some advertisers are using the site to reach potential customers. Six Flags, for instance, has created a contest on Bix.com called the Great American Scream-Off, in which participants upload videos of themselves screaming — as they might do on a roller coaster — for prizes including free passes. Yahoo would not discuss how much it charges advertisers to sponsor contests."
Thursday, November 16, 2006
3 accelerates mobile web in the UK
Sounds to me like 3 may have hooked up with orb.com (see post below, oh and here's the confirmation)... given that their new package appears to include the ability to access your home pc from your mobile.
The BBC reports that you'll also be able to make free internet calls from 3 mobiles (via a deal with Skype).
You'll be charged a flat-rate monthly fee (can't find anywhere saying how much!)
Here's the '3' webcast on the subject
And here's the full 3 promo for the X-series:
And me? I've just done another deal with 02 for 12 months - a company which had to have its arm twisted to let me have a 3G phone for less than £140 and which has a set data price!
Anyway, 3 looks the way ahead. Interesting that they describe themselves, not as a mobile network service provider or operator, but as a mobile media company.
Perhaps those who couldn't quite believe the predictions that mobile web would outstrip fixed web within two years can start to see the sense now? (See previous post).
Right of this minute, I think this is the single most significant digital development I've heard of since I started this blog.
The implications include:
a) the massive potential acceleration of mobile internet
b) A solution to the mobile memory problem (see post on orb.com, below)
c) A solution to potentially off-putting run-away data charges (though it remains to be seen how much 3's set price is
d) An answer to the 'problem' (for network providers) of free internet calls and access which would inevitably be made through wifi connected mobiles accessing the internet.
And of course (a) takes us rapidly to Tomi T Ahonen's conclusions about how websites will inevitably be designed for mobile as their primary access point within two years. Two years? Perhaps he'll have a recount.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
YouTube on your mobile - too late!
My blogging colleague StressedBadger pointed us to YouTube's plan to get on to a mobile platform within a year. Sorry guys - too late. Click here.
In fact the new offering from Orb Networks gives you access to not only YouTube but GoogleVideo and others. Orb have an interesting earlier application which allows you to access anything stored on your pc from your mobile - answering the memory storage issue for mobile phones. In fact I think they're so interesting they're going straight in the 'one's to watch'.
But I digress. Given mobile internet's instant ability to turn video blogging (and any other form of socially-networked co-creation of content) into cash, perhaps Chad & Co missed a trick.
Even on a simple YouTube the publisher-You the Consumer model, there has always been cash in them there phones.
Apparently YouTube have 'declined to comment'.
In fact the new offering from Orb Networks gives you access to not only YouTube but GoogleVideo and others. Orb have an interesting earlier application which allows you to access anything stored on your pc from your mobile - answering the memory storage issue for mobile phones. In fact I think they're so interesting they're going straight in the 'one's to watch'.
But I digress. Given mobile internet's instant ability to turn video blogging (and any other form of socially-networked co-creation of content) into cash, perhaps Chad & Co missed a trick.
Even on a simple YouTube the publisher-You the Consumer model, there has always been cash in them there phones.
Apparently YouTube have 'declined to comment'.
Useful social networking?
LinkedIn has been around a while and has some use as a business networking tool, but it's not often that you discover a web 2.0 social networking site which actually has a worthy and useful function...
So if you've ever fancied learning a foreign language, read more about Friends Abroad at The Way of the Web
So if you've ever fancied learning a foreign language, read more about Friends Abroad at The Way of the Web
US firm surrenders licence to online
US publisher Ziff Davis has announced it will close the official US Playstation Magazine after the next issue, due to the pressures of the internet. The publisher has already closed two other magazines, as it concetrates on building up internet portal site 1up.com
It recently posted a quarterly loss of $0.5 million for its game division, citing "a decline in print advertising and circulation revenues", partially offset by online revenue increases.
STORY HERE
For those not into gaming, the official licenced magazines were always seen as a surefire way to make cash from game fans, with most publishers competing for the kudos it gives to be official. Moving that proposition entirely online is a major step.
Partly this move is down to the practice of cover discs becoming essential to games mags. It raised the price substantially, and now that broadband has taken over, people are less likely to pay £7 for something they could download at home...
Partly it's down to advertising revenue shifting.
And partly it's because the publisher has not only realised a valid online offering, but also worked to create a viable portal site with a comprehensive range of titles. It's an alternative to having seperate sites for each title in your portfolio, and has also worked well for publisher Cnet.
There are blog posts already on 1up from ex-staff:
http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=7621407&publicUserId=5380025#comments
http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=7621386&publicUserId=5380375#comments
It also allows your editorial and advertising staff to work across titles, creating greater economies....
It recently posted a quarterly loss of $0.5 million for its game division, citing "a decline in print advertising and circulation revenues", partially offset by online revenue increases.
STORY HERE
For those not into gaming, the official licenced magazines were always seen as a surefire way to make cash from game fans, with most publishers competing for the kudos it gives to be official. Moving that proposition entirely online is a major step.
Partly this move is down to the practice of cover discs becoming essential to games mags. It raised the price substantially, and now that broadband has taken over, people are less likely to pay £7 for something they could download at home...
Partly it's down to advertising revenue shifting.
And partly it's because the publisher has not only realised a valid online offering, but also worked to create a viable portal site with a comprehensive range of titles. It's an alternative to having seperate sites for each title in your portfolio, and has also worked well for publisher Cnet.
There are blog posts already on 1up from ex-staff:
http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=7621407&publicUserId=5380025#comments
http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=7621386&publicUserId=5380375#comments
It also allows your editorial and advertising staff to work across titles, creating greater economies....
Ones to watch: Orkut.com 32M+ users
I added Orkut.com to the 'ones to watch' (See left hand navigation) a couple of days back - but thought it worth drawing attention to here.
My apologies if you are one of the 32M plus people already connected through Orkut.com. Yes, that's right 32M. I hadn't even heard of it until early this week.
I only checked it out because I was having a look at the dominance social networking sites are having in Alexa.com's top 10 global sites. Orkut was a new one on me in at No10!
3 out of 10 are English language social-networking sites.
Orkut is owned by google. How long that has been the case (the site has been around since early 2004) I'm afraid I don't know. What makes this one to watch is how and when they intend to monetise it. I can't spot a single ad on it! Not even a google one.
Remember the google motto: "You can't milk a calf..."
Why hadn't I heard of one of the top 10 biggest sites in the world? Almost certainly because it's Brazillian based - and here's where there is potential for this to grow further. About 65% of users are Brazillian, 15% American, 11% Indian. More Iranians use the site than UK citizens (0.7% of users were from the UK on Nov 15, 2006). If the European figures grow now that Europeans (like me) are starting to discover it, how big could this get?
My apologies if you are one of the 32M plus people already connected through Orkut.com. Yes, that's right 32M. I hadn't even heard of it until early this week.
I only checked it out because I was having a look at the dominance social networking sites are having in Alexa.com's top 10 global sites. Orkut was a new one on me in at No10!
3 out of 10 are English language social-networking sites.
Orkut is owned by google. How long that has been the case (the site has been around since early 2004) I'm afraid I don't know. What makes this one to watch is how and when they intend to monetise it. I can't spot a single ad on it! Not even a google one.
Remember the google motto: "You can't milk a calf..."
Why hadn't I heard of one of the top 10 biggest sites in the world? Almost certainly because it's Brazillian based - and here's where there is potential for this to grow further. About 65% of users are Brazillian, 15% American, 11% Indian. More Iranians use the site than UK citizens (0.7% of users were from the UK on Nov 15, 2006). If the European figures grow now that Europeans (like me) are starting to discover it, how big could this get?
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Google AdNoSense
An interesting issue with Google Adsense has been raised on a forum I frequently use. Having had Google Adsense running for several months, the owner has been told it has been disabled due to invalid clicks...
Fair enough, you may think, but crucially:
"We will not receive any income accumulated over the last month, instantly creating a funding void. We have no idea why they have disabled the account, we have never encouraged clicking on adverts, nor have we clicked on the links to gain income. "
And the appeal procedure is a single email to Google, with a response within 24 hours, only if the appeal is successful. If not, presumably it goes into the Googlebin...
Something to bear in mind if you're implementing Google ads, particularly on a large scale. It would be interesting to see exactly how many ads you would need to serve daily to gain access to any kind of negotiation...
Fair enough, you may think, but crucially:
"We will not receive any income accumulated over the last month, instantly creating a funding void. We have no idea why they have disabled the account, we have never encouraged clicking on adverts, nor have we clicked on the links to gain income. "
And the appeal procedure is a single email to Google, with a response within 24 hours, only if the appeal is successful. If not, presumably it goes into the Googlebin...
Something to bear in mind if you're implementing Google ads, particularly on a large scale. It would be interesting to see exactly how many ads you would need to serve daily to gain access to any kind of negotiation...
Monday, November 13, 2006
The geeks are listening...
It seems like I'm not the only person fed up with the internet schizophrenia which comes as a side effect of uploading images to flickr or photobucket, videos to youtube, and words to Blogger, whilst also managing social networking sites for work and pleasure...
Blake Ross, one of the main guys behind the Firefox open-source browser which has severly dented Internet Explorer's monopoly, has now revealed his new project, Parakey. There's lots of clever stuff behind it, but basically it's an interface which resides on your home computer, but creates a portal for everything you might want to upload. And it's all done in a simple, one-click fashion, rather than sending you off to log into your usual 12 or 13 different sites to manage your online persona.
Read more; http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/nov06/4696.
Blake Ross, one of the main guys behind the Firefox open-source browser which has severly dented Internet Explorer's monopoly, has now revealed his new project, Parakey. There's lots of clever stuff behind it, but basically it's an interface which resides on your home computer, but creates a portal for everything you might want to upload. And it's all done in a simple, one-click fashion, rather than sending you off to log into your usual 12 or 13 different sites to manage your online persona.
Read more; http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/nov06/4696.
Two years until mobile internet is bigger than fixed line
I use this blog as a thoughtpad as much as anything else - and so - here's some thoughts about mobile internet pulled together from the many blogs and brilliant minds I access - so credit to you all (see recommended blogs and links):
By 2008 more people will access the internet by mobile than by PC* (Tomi T Ahonen).
By 2008: Mobile TV reaches 25m users in Asia Pacific (72m by 2010). (3g.co.uk)
Mobile on internet delivers things you can't get on PC:
i) a mobile phone-based internet is totally personalised. Our PC is often shared (family, work restrictions etc)
ii) The mobile phone is always on. Alerts can always be delivered at the moment they are needed.
iii) The mobile phone is always within hand's reach. No other technology is so close to us physically at all times.
iv) Mobile phone offers a built-in payment mechanism. On a fixed line internet we need to set up something like Paypal, or need to submit a credit card. On the mobile we can pay with a click.
v) Give the above it's inevitable that the internet big boys will optimise for mobile RATHER THAN pc.
For Content providers:
Users on the traditional PC-based internet expect content to be free, but mobile phone users expect mobile content to be paid-for.
Collecting money on the traditional fixed wireline internet is very cumbersome. Collecting money on the mobile internet is built-in.
The world's biggest internet company by revenues is not Google, Yahoo, eBay, Amazon or AOL. It is Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo's domestic mobile internet arm, i-Mode. i-Mode alone makes bigger profits than the five internet darlings combined.
Where will you put your best content? On the mobile internet of course.
Merge the above thoughts with the following trends I've identified re social-networking - and the idea that social networking is the killer app of mobile internet (ie 3G) and we seem to be building an increasingly compelling case for putting mobile internet at the heart of content provider strategy. See below (previously published)
By 2008 more people will access the internet by mobile than by PC* (Tomi T Ahonen).
By 2008: Mobile TV reaches 25m users in Asia Pacific (72m by 2010). (3g.co.uk)
Mobile on internet delivers things you can't get on PC:
i) a mobile phone-based internet is totally personalised. Our PC is often shared (family, work restrictions etc)
ii) The mobile phone is always on. Alerts can always be delivered at the moment they are needed.
iii) The mobile phone is always within hand's reach. No other technology is so close to us physically at all times.
iv) Mobile phone offers a built-in payment mechanism. On a fixed line internet we need to set up something like Paypal, or need to submit a credit card. On the mobile we can pay with a click.
v) Give the above it's inevitable that the internet big boys will optimise for mobile RATHER THAN pc.
For Content providers:
Users on the traditional PC-based internet expect content to be free, but mobile phone users expect mobile content to be paid-for.
Collecting money on the traditional fixed wireline internet is very cumbersome. Collecting money on the mobile internet is built-in.
The world's biggest internet company by revenues is not Google, Yahoo, eBay, Amazon or AOL. It is Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo's domestic mobile internet arm, i-Mode. i-Mode alone makes bigger profits than the five internet darlings combined.
Where will you put your best content? On the mobile internet of course.
Merge the above thoughts with the following trends I've identified re social-networking - and the idea that social networking is the killer app of mobile internet (ie 3G) and we seem to be building an increasingly compelling case for putting mobile internet at the heart of content provider strategy. See below (previously published)
- Users want to tag their world (3G, geolocation)
- People are making use of new social networking tools to re-establish a ‘we-species’ (as in communities everywhere, but with 3G geolocation these communities can be focused on where you are right now, with the fluidity to allow you to connect with new communities as you move through your world).
- Users want to remain permanently connected to their communities (through text messaging if not ‘online all the time’.)
- People are (naturally) creative and want to co-create their content if we give them the tools.
- People want their opinions to matter – and will rate things (including content others have created).
- People are increasingly used to using several channels, increasingly at once.
- They demand speed of response.
- They have an open-minded approach to change and to experimentation (creative hacking).
- Convergent technology is helping to drive much of the above.
- Crowd-sourcing draws on all these to create contributory communities willing to help develop products which can self-perfect. This can inform all digital development.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Social software: Things to accept, things to design for
Clay Shirky has a collection of (regularly updated) work about the economics and culture, media and community and open source, on his site (see recommended blogs/links).
One of the documents you’ll find there captures a talk he gave in June 2003 on writing social software – and particularly on dealing with the dangers inherent in large groups forming social networks (read it in full).
Might sound like old news, but with the growing excitement around a 3G revenue revolution around Social-Networking on mobile internet, it's worth considering once again (and it's new to me, anyway!).
Read it in full if you can. If you can't here are a few (very) edited highlights:
Three things you have to accept
1. You cannot completely separate technical and social issues… the group is real. It will exhibit emergent effects. It can't be ignored, and it can't be programmed, which means you have an ongoing issue. And the best pattern, or at least the pattern that's worked the most often, is to put into the hands of the group itself the responsibility for defining what value is, and defending that value, rather than trying to ascribe those things in the software upfront.
2.) Members are different from users. A pattern will arise in which there is some group of users that cares more than average about the integrity and success of the group as a whole. And that becomes your core group, Art Kleiner's phrase for "the group within the group that matters most." In all successful online communities that I've looked at, a core group arises that cares about and gardens effectively. If the software doesn't allow the core group to express itself, it will invent new ways of doing so.
3.) The core group has rights that trump individual rights in some situations. This pulls against the libertarian view that's quite common on the network, and it absolutely pulls against the one person/one vote notion. The people who want to have the discussions are the people who matter. And absolute citizenship, with the idea that if you can log in, you are a citizen, is a harmful pattern, because it is the tyranny of the majority. The core group needs ways to defend itself so that it can stay on its sophisticated goals and away from its basic instincts.
All groups of any integrity have a constitution. The constitution is always partly formal and partly informal. At the very least, the formal part is what's substantiated in code -- "the software works this way."
The informal part is the sense of "how we do it around here." And no matter how is substantiated in code or written in charter, whatever, there will always be an informal part as well. You can't separate the two.
Four Things to Design For
1.) 'Handles' (IDs) the user can invest in.
Anonymity doesn't work well in group settings, because "who said what when" is the minimum requirement for having a conversation. Weak pseudonymity doesn't work well, either. Because I need to associate who's saying something to me now with previous conversations.
The world's best reputation management system is right here, in the brain. And actually, it's right here, in the back, in the emotional part of the brain. If you want a good reputation system, just let me remember who you are. That requires nothing more than simple and somewhat persistent handles.
Users have to be able to identify themselves and there has to be a penalty for switching handles.
2.) You have to design a way for there to be members in good standing. The minimal way is, posts appear with identity. You can do more sophisticated things like having formal karma or "member since."
3.) You need barriers to participation.
It has to be hard to do at least some things on the system for some users, or the core group will not have the tools that they need to defend themselves.
Now, this pulls against the cardinal virtue of ease of use. But ease of use is wrong. The user of social software is the group, not the individual.
The user of social software is the group, and ease of use should be for the group. If the ease of use is only calculated from the user's point of view, it will be difficult to defend the group from the "group is its own worst enemy" style attacks from within.
4.) You have to find a way to spare the group from scale.
Scale alone kills conversations, because conversations require dense two-way conversations. You have to have some way to let users hang onto the less is more pattern, in order to keep associated with one another.
This doesn't mean the scale of the whole system can't grow. But you can't try to make the system large by taking individual conversations and blowing them up like a balloon; human interaction, many to many interaction, doesn't blow up like a balloon. It either dissipates, or turns into broadcast, or collapses. So plan for dealing with scale in advance, because it's going to happen anyway.
The people using your software, even if you own it and pay for it, have rights and will behave as if they have rights. And if you abrogate those rights, you'll hear about it very quickly.
One of the documents you’ll find there captures a talk he gave in June 2003 on writing social software – and particularly on dealing with the dangers inherent in large groups forming social networks (read it in full).
Might sound like old news, but with the growing excitement around a 3G revenue revolution around Social-Networking on mobile internet, it's worth considering once again (and it's new to me, anyway!).
Read it in full if you can. If you can't here are a few (very) edited highlights:
Three things you have to accept
1. You cannot completely separate technical and social issues… the group is real. It will exhibit emergent effects. It can't be ignored, and it can't be programmed, which means you have an ongoing issue. And the best pattern, or at least the pattern that's worked the most often, is to put into the hands of the group itself the responsibility for defining what value is, and defending that value, rather than trying to ascribe those things in the software upfront.
2.) Members are different from users. A pattern will arise in which there is some group of users that cares more than average about the integrity and success of the group as a whole. And that becomes your core group, Art Kleiner's phrase for "the group within the group that matters most." In all successful online communities that I've looked at, a core group arises that cares about and gardens effectively. If the software doesn't allow the core group to express itself, it will invent new ways of doing so.
3.) The core group has rights that trump individual rights in some situations. This pulls against the libertarian view that's quite common on the network, and it absolutely pulls against the one person/one vote notion. The people who want to have the discussions are the people who matter. And absolute citizenship, with the idea that if you can log in, you are a citizen, is a harmful pattern, because it is the tyranny of the majority. The core group needs ways to defend itself so that it can stay on its sophisticated goals and away from its basic instincts.
All groups of any integrity have a constitution. The constitution is always partly formal and partly informal. At the very least, the formal part is what's substantiated in code -- "the software works this way."
The informal part is the sense of "how we do it around here." And no matter how is substantiated in code or written in charter, whatever, there will always be an informal part as well. You can't separate the two.
Four Things to Design For
1.) 'Handles' (IDs) the user can invest in.
Anonymity doesn't work well in group settings, because "who said what when" is the minimum requirement for having a conversation. Weak pseudonymity doesn't work well, either. Because I need to associate who's saying something to me now with previous conversations.
The world's best reputation management system is right here, in the brain. And actually, it's right here, in the back, in the emotional part of the brain. If you want a good reputation system, just let me remember who you are. That requires nothing more than simple and somewhat persistent handles.
Users have to be able to identify themselves and there has to be a penalty for switching handles.
2.) You have to design a way for there to be members in good standing. The minimal way is, posts appear with identity. You can do more sophisticated things like having formal karma or "member since."
3.) You need barriers to participation.
It has to be hard to do at least some things on the system for some users, or the core group will not have the tools that they need to defend themselves.
Now, this pulls against the cardinal virtue of ease of use. But ease of use is wrong. The user of social software is the group, not the individual.
The user of social software is the group, and ease of use should be for the group. If the ease of use is only calculated from the user's point of view, it will be difficult to defend the group from the "group is its own worst enemy" style attacks from within.
4.) You have to find a way to spare the group from scale.
Scale alone kills conversations, because conversations require dense two-way conversations. You have to have some way to let users hang onto the less is more pattern, in order to keep associated with one another.
This doesn't mean the scale of the whole system can't grow. But you can't try to make the system large by taking individual conversations and blowing them up like a balloon; human interaction, many to many interaction, doesn't blow up like a balloon. It either dissipates, or turns into broadcast, or collapses. So plan for dealing with scale in advance, because it's going to happen anyway.
The people using your software, even if you own it and pay for it, have rights and will behave as if they have rights. And if you abrogate those rights, you'll hear about it very quickly.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
'Crowd-sourcing' and citizen journalism go mainstream in 'old media'
Those of you who check my profile will know I work for emap. It's also a matter of public record that the company is currently undergoing a strategic review of its business known as Magazines 2010 - with the assistance of the Boston Consultancy Group.
With that in mind, you'll understand why this particular post on Communities Dominate Brands is one I'm very keen to share - particularly with anyone working on Magazines 2010.
What it reveals is that the idea of citizen journalist and crowd-sourcing have come together, been tested and proven and are being rolled out across mainstream mass media in the United States TODAY.
The post, by Alan Moore, quotes Wired: "According to internal documents provided to Wired News and interviews with key executives, Gannett, the publisher of USA Today as well as 90 other American daily newspapers, will begin crowdsourcing many of its newsgathering functions. Starting Friday, Gannett newsrooms were rechristened "information centers," and instead of being organized into separate metro, state or sports departments, staff will now work within one of seven desks with names like "data," "digital" and "community conversation."
The article continues: "The initiative emphasizes four goals: Prioritize local news over national news; publish more user-generated content; become 24-7 news operations, in which the newspapers do less and the websites do much more; and finally, use crowdsourcing methods to put readers to work as watchdogs, whistle-blowers and researchers in large, investigative features.
Alan says: "What we have seen and witnessed over the last 15 months is a body politic that wants to engage, given the right context, in a process that they can share in, be part of."
Apart from today's post. I'd also recommend this post on Group Forming Network Theory which helps to explain WHY people are responding so well when provided with these routes to contribute and publish and why joining in them is so important.
With that in mind, you'll understand why this particular post on Communities Dominate Brands is one I'm very keen to share - particularly with anyone working on Magazines 2010.
What it reveals is that the idea of citizen journalist and crowd-sourcing have come together, been tested and proven and are being rolled out across mainstream mass media in the United States TODAY.
The post, by Alan Moore, quotes Wired: "According to internal documents provided to Wired News and interviews with key executives, Gannett, the publisher of USA Today as well as 90 other American daily newspapers, will begin crowdsourcing many of its newsgathering functions. Starting Friday, Gannett newsrooms were rechristened "information centers," and instead of being organized into separate metro, state or sports departments, staff will now work within one of seven desks with names like "data," "digital" and "community conversation."
The article continues: "The initiative emphasizes four goals: Prioritize local news over national news; publish more user-generated content; become 24-7 news operations, in which the newspapers do less and the websites do much more; and finally, use crowdsourcing methods to put readers to work as watchdogs, whistle-blowers and researchers in large, investigative features.
Alan says: "What we have seen and witnessed over the last 15 months is a body politic that wants to engage, given the right context, in a process that they can share in, be part of."
Apart from today's post. I'd also recommend this post on Group Forming Network Theory which helps to explain WHY people are responding so well when provided with these routes to contribute and publish and why joining in them is so important.
How NOT to do search
I liked this post for the real life example (poor Nike!) it offers.
AND it's got a great link to this SEO tool to help with keyword research.
Anyway - the mistakes big brands make with search are (according to writer Wil Reynolds, and detailed in his article):
1. Missing out on the long tail: Search daddy Danny Sullivan says: "Typically, big brands want to target the big unbranded terms like "tennis rackets," "golf clubs," or "running shoes." I do recommend that they target such terms as a way to position their brand in the minds of people who are searching. But they often miss terms like "golf club reviews" or "women's trail running shoes." Typically, these long-tail terms are the ones that convert best.
2. All-Flash sites with no alternative.
3. Not reinforcing search query results on landing page.
4. Not developing a descriptive meta description tag.
5. Making things 'cool' rather than easy to find.
6. Driving a user with a very specific query to the homepage - a waste of pay-per-click budgets
7. News flash—you can't pay to be No. 1 on Google anymore. An algorithm that decides how well your landing page matches with the user's search mission will affect where you rank (along with your cost per click, and other factors). Yahoo is apparently going this route as well.
8. Flash sites adversely impact natural search rankings
9. Flash sites do poorly on froogle
10. Great tools are a mistake without investment to drive traffic to them
AND it's got a great link to this SEO tool to help with keyword research.
Anyway - the mistakes big brands make with search are (according to writer Wil Reynolds, and detailed in his article):
1. Missing out on the long tail: Search daddy Danny Sullivan says: "Typically, big brands want to target the big unbranded terms like "tennis rackets," "golf clubs," or "running shoes." I do recommend that they target such terms as a way to position their brand in the minds of people who are searching. But they often miss terms like "golf club reviews" or "women's trail running shoes." Typically, these long-tail terms are the ones that convert best.
2. All-Flash sites with no alternative.
3. Not reinforcing search query results on landing page.
4. Not developing a descriptive meta description tag.
5. Making things 'cool' rather than easy to find.
6. Driving a user with a very specific query to the homepage - a waste of pay-per-click budgets
7. News flash—you can't pay to be No. 1 on Google anymore. An algorithm that decides how well your landing page matches with the user's search mission will affect where you rank (along with your cost per click, and other factors). Yahoo is apparently going this route as well.
8. Flash sites adversely impact natural search rankings
9. Flash sites do poorly on froogle
10. Great tools are a mistake without investment to drive traffic to them
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
What users want from modern digital offerings
I compiled the below list of recognised current trends when thinking about the boxes that need ticking when developing a social-networking mobile internet offering. But they probably apply to all current digital planning.
Granted, my thinking is probably a bit focused on Generation-C (the under 27s this year, the under 29s, next) but then, they are the most likely group to take-up a 3G mobile offering anyway - I'd have thought. What other trends do you think ought to be considered?
Check the list and add your thoughts by posting below.
Granted, my thinking is probably a bit focused on Generation-C (the under 27s this year, the under 29s, next) but then, they are the most likely group to take-up a 3G mobile offering anyway - I'd have thought. What other trends do you think ought to be considered?
Check the list and add your thoughts by posting below.
- Users want to tag their world (3G, geolocation)
- People are making use of new social networking tools to re-establish a ‘we-species’ (as in communities everywhere, but with 3G geolocation these communities can be focused on where you are right now, with the fluidity to allow you to connect with new communities as you move through your world).
- Users want to remain permanently connected to their communities (through text messaging if not ‘online all the time’.)
- People are (naturally) creative and want to co-create their content if we give them the tools.
- People want their opinions to matter – and will rate things (including content others have created).
- People are increasingly used to using several channels, increasingly at once.
- They demand speed of response.
- They have an open-minded approach to change and to experimentation (creative hacking).
- Access to mobile internet is accelerating and looks set to overtake fixed line. Design for it!
- Convergent technology is helping to drive much of the above.
- Crowd-sourcing draws on all these to create contributory communities willing to help develop products which can self-perfect. This can inform all digital development.
Social bookmarking
After having a play with stumbleupon.com (and great fun it was, too) I thought it best to log this link, which is currently in the RSS feeds in the left-hand column (though, no doubt, won't be for long).
Google is trying to capture some of this with new iterations. In the meantime there remains a hole for niches. When you search on google it's sometimes possible to miss really specifically useful sites to you because they don't have the scale of audience to appear high up on returns.
These social bookmarking sites resolve that (particulalry those which allow ratings of links).
Google is trying to capture some of this with new iterations. In the meantime there remains a hole for niches. When you search on google it's sometimes possible to miss really specifically useful sites to you because they don't have the scale of audience to appear high up on returns.
These social bookmarking sites resolve that (particulalry those which allow ratings of links).
Free classified video ads on YouTube - an update
Some of you may recall this earlier post: YouTube and a whole new world of free classified ads.
I contacted Icapmedia (the small firm dabbling with video classified ads for dealers on youtube).
The chap behind it has just got back to me. He says: "It is a great tool to help promote the cars, allot of work but I post on google now more than youtube, one in the same now I guess."
He adds that the idea has proved successful - though hasn't revealed exactly what kind of response rate he gets.
"I've sold many cars this way, it gives an honest, un-adulterated,fresh approach"
I suspect the honest and unadulterated aspects are why it works so well in a social-networking environment like YouTube.
I contacted Icapmedia (the small firm dabbling with video classified ads for dealers on youtube).
The chap behind it has just got back to me. He says: "It is a great tool to help promote the cars, allot of work but I post on google now more than youtube, one in the same now I guess."
He adds that the idea has proved successful - though hasn't revealed exactly what kind of response rate he gets.
"I've sold many cars this way, it gives an honest, un-adulterated,fresh approach"
I suspect the honest and unadulterated aspects are why it works so well in a social-networking environment like YouTube.
Monday, November 06, 2006
Big ideas about ideas
I keep regular tabs on the musings of Doc Searls.
This recent work (Ten Ideas About Ideas) is an interesting take on how being open about your ideas will make them the best they can be.
The problem for the doc, I guess, is that the bottom-line is often shouting loudest with its 'keep it a secret' message. How else will you retain your competitive advantage, it will insist?
But that secrecy can be infectious. How many hold back on ideas within organisations, hoarding them to play their cards at the right moment, in order to score a competitive advantage politically/internally?
I'd like to think the company I work for is pretty open internally. But I also know it could be better. This blog is one of my responses to that.
Have a read of doc's ideas about ideas.
If it makes you feel just a few per cent more collaborative today, job done.
This recent work (Ten Ideas About Ideas) is an interesting take on how being open about your ideas will make them the best they can be.
The problem for the doc, I guess, is that the bottom-line is often shouting loudest with its 'keep it a secret' message. How else will you retain your competitive advantage, it will insist?
But that secrecy can be infectious. How many hold back on ideas within organisations, hoarding them to play their cards at the right moment, in order to score a competitive advantage politically/internally?
I'd like to think the company I work for is pretty open internally. But I also know it could be better. This blog is one of my responses to that.
Have a read of doc's ideas about ideas.
If it makes you feel just a few per cent more collaborative today, job done.
Friday, November 03, 2006
Youtube on your mobile?
YouTube CEO Chad Hurley has said that they hope to "Have something on a mobile device within the next year".
Whether or not they do a carrier deal, or use a WAP site, the fact that Google have just started offering GMail on mobile, and could now add a limitless supply of comedy videos means that you've only got until they sort the current copyright problems to get any video content mobile services up and running, or it'll be too late...
http://gigaom.com/2006/11/02/youtube-mobile/
Whether or not they do a carrier deal, or use a WAP site, the fact that Google have just started offering GMail on mobile, and could now add a limitless supply of comedy videos means that you've only got until they sort the current copyright problems to get any video content mobile services up and running, or it'll be too late...
http://gigaom.com/2006/11/02/youtube-mobile/
Cyworld: 21M uu a month, 16M page impressions a day, $100M a year.
Alan Moore has just posted this on communities dominate brands
Apart from anything else, I hope the headline on this suggests we all could learn a little here.
Visit this link and there's a 100-page plus report on best practices learned from Cyworld to download free.
The interview Alan conducts reveals, for example, that the US version I link to on this site (one's to watch) and have sampled is a much watered down version of the full-on Korean one. So that explains that then!
The numbers alone are staggering. A third of the population of South Korea has an account. And most of them appear to visit almost every day.
Take a look at Alan's full post.
Here's a few highlights from an interview with Benjamin Joffe of Plus Eight Star
"Among the most interesting aspects are Cyworld's business model relying on micro-customization, which concerns not only avatars but the whole page with music and many other functions. Also, the mobile aspects of Cyworld can certainly inspire companies who wish to step into this next 3-billion dollars industry'."
"The key point in Cyworld is its 'real-name policy'. Basically you need to use your real name associated with your official ID number to register. This has become more or less a standard among South Korean Internet services... Real name policy does not damage free speech, it brings responsibility, courtesy and a lot of benefits for users themselves in terms of trust in the information they can find."
"It is useful to note here that most Cyworld users write for their 'offline friends' and not for strangers. They can set privacy levels to their hompy, setting accessibily by content category to themselves only, friends or everybody. The role of the 'il-chon' friendship link is critical here. Visiting friends' pages and friends-of-friends' can help deepen relationships by understanding people better.
"Among the most important issues has been this privacy aspect: many information are at risk on (western) blogs: appearance, name, address, contact info, pictures, relationships, age, etc. Some problems have appeared in services like MySpace."
"what do users value in the service?
This is a critical question to ask yourself as a SNS operator, as it will largely condition service development, marketing and eventually revenues! In Cyworld we found the following drivers:
a). Not being left behind
b). Their creations
c). Their relationships
d). Their image"
Apart from anything else, I hope the headline on this suggests we all could learn a little here.
Visit this link and there's a 100-page plus report on best practices learned from Cyworld to download free.
The interview Alan conducts reveals, for example, that the US version I link to on this site (one's to watch) and have sampled is a much watered down version of the full-on Korean one. So that explains that then!
The numbers alone are staggering. A third of the population of South Korea has an account. And most of them appear to visit almost every day.
Take a look at Alan's full post.
Here's a few highlights from an interview with Benjamin Joffe of Plus Eight Star
"Among the most interesting aspects are Cyworld's business model relying on micro-customization, which concerns not only avatars but the whole page with music and many other functions. Also, the mobile aspects of Cyworld can certainly inspire companies who wish to step into this next 3-billion dollars industry'."
"The key point in Cyworld is its 'real-name policy'. Basically you need to use your real name associated with your official ID number to register. This has become more or less a standard among South Korean Internet services... Real name policy does not damage free speech, it brings responsibility, courtesy and a lot of benefits for users themselves in terms of trust in the information they can find."
"It is useful to note here that most Cyworld users write for their 'offline friends' and not for strangers. They can set privacy levels to their hompy, setting accessibily by content category to themselves only, friends or everybody. The role of the 'il-chon' friendship link is critical here. Visiting friends' pages and friends-of-friends' can help deepen relationships by understanding people better.
"Among the most important issues has been this privacy aspect: many information are at risk on (western) blogs: appearance, name, address, contact info, pictures, relationships, age, etc. Some problems have appeared in services like MySpace."
"what do users value in the service?
This is a critical question to ask yourself as a SNS operator, as it will largely condition service development, marketing and eventually revenues! In Cyworld we found the following drivers:
a). Not being left behind
b). Their creations
c). Their relationships
d). Their image"
Hollywood and the digital consumer
Angus Farquhar points us at the videos you'll find here at DigitalHollywood
"All the top names in the industry discussing most of the stuff we are all currently talking about using in both advertising and consumer stuff," he tells us.
Subjects included in the conference videos include:
Hollywood and the Digital Consumer: How Technology, Content and Services Establish the Next Level of Consumer Entertainment Experience
Programmable Web, Podcasting & Blogging - is Transforming and Disassembling the World of Traditional Media, Communications & Advertising
Digital Music & its Transformation: Downloads and Subscriptions in Mobile, Broadband, Pods & Digital and Internet Radio
Strategies in Wireless Devices and Services - from Audio & Video to Downloads: How Innovation Drives Avenues for Subscriber and Revenue Expansion
Game Power - Entertainment as Franchise - Crossover into Music, TV, Cable, Movie, Mobile, Advertainment & Custom Branded Experience
TV & Interactivity: Evolving Content & Business Models: Content, Commerce and Branded Entertainment
Branded Media Marketing - TV, Film, Broadband, Podcasting & Blogging, Mobile, Music and Games – Reinventing the Commerce & Media Model
Internet Video, Advertising & Marketing: The Next Generation of Consumer Reach
Entertainment Expands the Digital Home: Networking, Sharing and Protecting
etc etc,
I'll no doubt have more to say once I've had a chance to watch them! If you get a chance to see them before me (or after, for that matter), by all means have your say by posting below!
"All the top names in the industry discussing most of the stuff we are all currently talking about using in both advertising and consumer stuff," he tells us.
Subjects included in the conference videos include:
Hollywood and the Digital Consumer: How Technology, Content and Services Establish the Next Level of Consumer Entertainment Experience
Programmable Web, Podcasting & Blogging - is Transforming and Disassembling the World of Traditional Media, Communications & Advertising
Digital Music & its Transformation: Downloads and Subscriptions in Mobile, Broadband, Pods & Digital and Internet Radio
Strategies in Wireless Devices and Services - from Audio & Video to Downloads: How Innovation Drives Avenues for Subscriber and Revenue Expansion
Game Power - Entertainment as Franchise - Crossover into Music, TV, Cable, Movie, Mobile, Advertainment & Custom Branded Experience
TV & Interactivity: Evolving Content & Business Models: Content, Commerce and Branded Entertainment
Branded Media Marketing - TV, Film, Broadband, Podcasting & Blogging, Mobile, Music and Games – Reinventing the Commerce & Media Model
Internet Video, Advertising & Marketing: The Next Generation of Consumer Reach
Entertainment Expands the Digital Home: Networking, Sharing and Protecting
etc etc,
I'll no doubt have more to say once I've had a chance to watch them! If you get a chance to see them before me (or after, for that matter), by all means have your say by posting below!
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Skills for a 'participatory culture' world
Henry Jenkins has written a paper for the MacArthur Foundation which is all about what he calls: "participatory culture" and what this means for 'media literacy'.
He and colleagues have also identified core cultural competencies and social skills they believe the kids of today have got to pick up if they want to participate fully.
They also argue that many are acquiring these skills informally from the way they use digital media.
It might be useful to think of these alongside your own digital publishing plans. Does what you are offering allow participation on these levels:
Play – the capacity to experiment with your surroundings as a form of problem-solving
Performance – the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery
Simulation – the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real world processes
Appropriation – the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content
Multitasking – the ability to scan one's environment and shift focus as needed to salient details.
Distributed Cognition – the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities
Collective Intelligence – the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal
Judgement – the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources
Transmedia Navigation – the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities
Networking – the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information
Negotiation – the ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms.
Read more HERE (start with the post by Alan Moore and move on to Jenkins own blog.
He and colleagues have also identified core cultural competencies and social skills they believe the kids of today have got to pick up if they want to participate fully.
They also argue that many are acquiring these skills informally from the way they use digital media.
It might be useful to think of these alongside your own digital publishing plans. Does what you are offering allow participation on these levels:
Play – the capacity to experiment with your surroundings as a form of problem-solving
Performance – the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery
Simulation – the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real world processes
Appropriation – the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content
Multitasking – the ability to scan one's environment and shift focus as needed to salient details.
Distributed Cognition – the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities
Collective Intelligence – the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal
Judgement – the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources
Transmedia Navigation – the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities
Networking – the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information
Negotiation – the ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms.
Read more HERE (start with the post by Alan Moore and move on to Jenkins own blog.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Current trends in consumer behaviour
Nokia will publish a white paper at the end of this year on where it sees gaming in 2010.
You can read a preview HERE on Communities Dominate Brands
It's extrapolated from recognition of what is currently going on in gaming and social networking. But I think the insight is worth bearing in mind in any digital publishing plan.
Here's some of what the paper has to say:
"Three interesting aspects about current consumer behavior are:
1) leaving traces,
2) media acrobatics’ multi-tasking culture and
3) pleasure orientation.
"It is increasingly relevant to leave your own mark (tags, comments, modifications, patches (for a really graphic example, see plazes.com...fasterfuture) to the networked media communities and interlinking with mobile with online communities.
"Multitasking refers to a way of using several channels, devices and services simultaneously to link with other products and related themes.
"Media acrobatics refers to the fast reception ability of new technologies, devices and services, as well as an open-minded experimentation mentality and misuse (also known as " creative hackerism").
"As a general effect of these, one can say that media use is in transition points. The change affects mobile games and the expansion and creation of new active consumer groups."
Perhaps the most all-encompassing learning being made from the success of social interaction via digital devices is that the human is a "we species", one which is naturally (ie built to be) social.
That should be at the heart of all new developments.
You'll find more on this from Alan Moore an CDB.
You can read a preview HERE on Communities Dominate Brands
It's extrapolated from recognition of what is currently going on in gaming and social networking. But I think the insight is worth bearing in mind in any digital publishing plan.
Here's some of what the paper has to say:
"Three interesting aspects about current consumer behavior are:
1) leaving traces,
2) media acrobatics’ multi-tasking culture and
3) pleasure orientation.
"It is increasingly relevant to leave your own mark (tags, comments, modifications, patches (for a really graphic example, see plazes.com...fasterfuture) to the networked media communities and interlinking with mobile with online communities.
"Multitasking refers to a way of using several channels, devices and services simultaneously to link with other products and related themes.
"Media acrobatics refers to the fast reception ability of new technologies, devices and services, as well as an open-minded experimentation mentality and misuse (also known as " creative hackerism").
"As a general effect of these, one can say that media use is in transition points. The change affects mobile games and the expansion and creation of new active consumer groups."
Perhaps the most all-encompassing learning being made from the success of social interaction via digital devices is that the human is a "we species", one which is naturally (ie built to be) social.
That should be at the heart of all new developments.
You'll find more on this from Alan Moore an CDB.
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The rate of change is so rapid it's difficult for one person to keep up to speed. Let's pool our thoughts, share our reactions and, who knows, even reach some shared conclusions worth arriving at?
