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Blogger Gets More Social, Get Excited! Posted: 29 Aug 2008 10:51 AM CDT Today Caroline McCarthy posted about a new feature which is being added to Blogger-based blogs and makes them inherently more social. It’s a simple widget-like feature which enables you to view other people in the network that are following that blog. It is extremely similar to the MyBlogLog community features and it extends Google Friend Connect. One interesting thing about this new feature is that you can import the “Blogs I’m Following” directly into your Google Reader. I’m not quite sure how useful this feature is for me since a large portion of the blogs I’m reading aren’t hosted by Blogger but I figure a lot of people will begin using it. The shift toward a more social web is clearly continuing and Google is one of the companies leading the push. The only problem with this new feature is that it doesn’t extend to blogs outside of Google. I want a single identity and a single community on the web and this surely isn’t a step in that direction. Then again we can’t make all of our decisions with data portability as the primary end-goal. Now you have yet one more way to interact with people you don’t know on the web thanks to Blogger! What does the future hold for social blogs? You’ve got me! It’s Friday so I’ll leave you all to figure out the future of the social web. Everybody, including Google, appears to like throwing kinks in the whole equation. With all this socializing taking place on the web it’s too complicated to figure how it all will end up in the end given that it’s the Friday before a 3-day weekend!

The Increasing Market for Free Posted: 29 Aug 2008 10:01 AM CDT Yesterday afternoon I read an interesting article by Caroline McCarthy about how BuzzCity, the company behind the mobile social network MyGamma, has raised $10 million. According to McCarthy, “MyGamma is geared toward ‘unwired’ customers–those who have a mobile device but lack access to either a PC or a reliable broadband connection.” In other words it helps those that are unconnected get connected with other people that were also previously unconnected. It’s an interesting model and it must have a long-term vision. If the company was a non-profit I would completely understand their strategy but I’m not quite sure how you generate money when your target market is a demographic which isn’t marketed to. I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t develop technology which benefits the impoverished or the uneducated but I’m not sure when doing so on venture capitalists’ dimes makes sense. The Chase Toward Acquisition is Based on Free One company after the other that we see get acquired by Google, Yahoo or AOL appears to inspire more and more people to launch free sites. We are building tools which appear to help us “communicate more effectively” but do nothing to help generate revenue. It’s a result of the tech boom as Judy Estrin describes in today’s New York Times, “Starting in 1998, there was such a shift in Silicon Valley toward chasing money and short-term returns.” I completely agree with Judy for the most part (at least in the Web 2.0 industry) and think that this perspective is damaging industries. If people weren’t chasing short-term returns, would there still be this massive influx of new, free products? Most definitely because not everybody is incentivized by short-term returns. The Destruction of Traditional Media Another side-effect of this “market for free” is that traditional media is being damaged as content creators give away their content for free and consumers become satisfied with new types of user-generated content. While the destruction of traditional media is arguably inevitable in the digital age, it’s still an important issue that needs to be explored. When the margins on content creation continue to diminish, it becomes challenging for anybody in the media business to become highly profitable. Then again, the music industry has shifted their primary revenue generating activity to concerts and tours and it seems that an event-based model makes sense for many other forms of media. An Interesting Dynamic, An Unknown Future Unfortunately I can’t tell you what the long-term effects of a large market for free is but most of the implications appear to be negative. The only person supposedly “benefiting” from this free market is consumers and the few companies that can get acquired. Do you think that the market for free is sparking innovation or is it really stunting it? What do you think the best models of revenue generation in this environment will be?

Best Free Screen Recorder Ever! Posted: 29 Aug 2008 08:00 AM CDT Yesterday, after checking out the classic video intro that John McCain completed for his new social network, I decided to go searching for a free screen recorder. The reason? Just in case somebody decided to take down the video there would still be a copy. Honestly, I’m surprised that the video has not been taken down yet but after embarking on a search through Google I found an amazing screen recorder that you cannot live without. Prior to yesterday I had been using Camtasia, a paid screen recorder software tool which I stopped using after my 30 day trial demo. The new free screen recorder that I found is called Jing. If you haven’t heard of it, you have to check it out. Jing enables you to easily record what’s taking place on your screen with audio included. I’ve included an example of the McCain video that I recorded yesterday. The software integrates into Screencast.com and enables users to upload and store their videos for free making it embeddable anywhere on the web. I honestly never knew this existed but this has literally saved me a ton of money and a ton of time looking for other tools as it is extremely intuitive. If you wish to capture images as well and have them immediately uploaded to Flickr that is possible as well through a few quick steps. The one thing that I have not been able to figure out yet is how to resize screencasts that I’ve created. I’ve modified variables within the embed code but that still doesn’t seem to work. Enough of my technical mumbo jumbo though. If you need a free screen recorder, then you have to go check out Jing which is available for both Mac and Windows. Seriously, this is a must have application for any serious blogger or other content creator on the web. As a quick heads up, the video below takes some time to load because it is highly video intensive but most screen recordings take up an extremely small amount of space.

Yahoo Mash Crashes and Burns Posted: 29 Aug 2008 12:09 AM CDT Well I can’t say that I didn’t see this one coming. Then again, it happened much earlier than I expected. Following the launch of the Facebook platform last year, Yahoo! went searching for a strategy to try to compete against the increasingly popular Facebook. The conclusion? Yahoo! Mash, a social network which embraced all open standards. Honestly, it was so open that it had practically no design to it. Back in November I called Yahoo! Mash a poor attempt to compete with Facebook. Now, just under a year after the site launched, the site has been shut down as Techcrunch points out. Good call by the Yahoo! team to call it quits but it’s definitely disappointing for whatever team was working on making this happen. So how does Yahoo! fit into the social networking space at this point? Honestly the company doesn’t for the most and is now behind AOL which acquired Bebo, Google which created Orkut and Microsoft which has …. Windows Live Spaces! While Facebook is blazing by all the old guard, Yahoo! is falling behind when it comes to social networking. So what’s next up for Yahoo? It’s not exactly clear but if you want to get the rumor mill going, I would say that hi5, imeem and MyYearbook.com look like three great acquisition opportunities for the company. If the company can some how “mash together” (pardon the pun) all the other social services including Yahoo! Messenger, the company might have a shot of becoming a player in the social networking space. For today the company will simply have to live with one more product headed to the deadpool. I guess it’s good to see that the company quitting early rather than beat a dead horse for too long!

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Google Prepares the Android Market Posted: 28 Aug 2008 04:18 PM CDT Remember that thousand-dollar application that was for sale on the iPhone? Remember how it was shut down? Worry no more about meaningless applications being banned from mobile application directories with the soon to be released Android Market. This market place marks the emergence of the portable platforms, first released by Apple with the launch of their iPhone. The first version of the Android Market may not have applications for sale but they soon will once a later version is released. How will applications be paid for? Not quite sure about that one yet but we can bet that Google is pushing hard for Google Checkout to serve as the backbone. I can hear geeks rejoicing as this platform is the first competitor to the iPhone directory positioning Google at the forefront of the mobile platform competition. So where is Microsoft and Blackberry in this whole equation? Both companies have a massive reach but they appear to be falling behind when it comes to the latest technology. Almost overnight the mobile industry has been transformed from a battle of devices to a battle for the software running on this new wave of mobile platforms. The Android Market appears to be the most open version of the market with no limits on the applications that can be displayed. This strategy mimics Facebook’s strategy when they first launched their platform last year which also resulted in a one of the largest shifts in developer attention ever. While I’m not sure how attractive the “open marketplace” is to most developers, there have been a ton of complaints about Apple’s restrictions in their directory. Whether or not we’ll see a massive developer shift is still unknown but over the coming months Google and Apple are about to lead the battle of the mobile platforms of the future.

McCainSpace Makes Me Feel Really Connected Posted: 28 Aug 2008 03:08 PM CDT This afternoon I saw an article on Techcrunch which highlights the launch of McCainSpace, a social network for John McCain supporters. Its competition? my.barackobama.com of course which has actually succeeded at becoming a hub for the Obama grass roots campaign. The new portal was launched by KickApps (also one of the sponsors of Social Ad Summit) and provides a much needed upgrade to what previously existed. The most hilarious part of the site is the video of John McCain when you first view the homepage. I’ve embedded a copy of the video below and if I’ve ever met an enthusiastic person, John McCain is it. Check out the video: The site also displays videos of individuals that support McCain for one reason or another and describe why they support him. One video appears to be a joke though. Maybe the person is being serious but it appears to be a little bit sarcastic. “I support John McCain because he likes the Bush tax cuts which really helped out economy.” I won’t get too political but the guy speaking in the video appears to be joking a significant amount. If you are big Republican fan then go jump on the bandwagon over at McCainSpace, something McCain is clearly passionate about. While McCain may not be technically savvy, as he just learned about Google and the internet a couple weeks ago, his campaign definitely is. According to the Wall Street Journal today, the McCain campaign is snapping up search terms faster than you can say “Barack Obama”. As the campaign heats up, it appears that both candidates are taking it to the web. While it’s one area that Obama used to dominate it appears that the McCain campaign is trying to shake things up a little. It will definitely be interesting to watch how the next few months play out.

C-SPAN Gets Social for the Dem Convention Posted: 27 Aug 2008 08:46 PM CDT Have you been paying attention to the Democratic National Convention? It’s pretty much the only thing in the news for the entire week so if you haven’t heard about it you have probably been living under a rock (or some similar form of shelter). There are a bunch of sites covering the events but when it comes to the mainstream press there aren’t many doing a great job as it applies to social media. If you haven’t read about it elsewhere, C-SPAN in partnership with JESS3 (who is also drives the images of the Social Times) released a site which has full coverage of the convention from C-SPAN as well all other sources around the web. It is not a single sourced coverage but is instead an aggregation of everything which is going on around the country. The site is significant because it places blogs on the same platform as traditional media. For the boring old C-SPAN, this site appears to be a complete shift from the company’s more traditional past. Included in the site are live streams from QIK and best of all an aggregator of all the Twitter activity surrounding the DNC as well as the RNC. The difference between this and Politweets, another political Twitter aggregator, is that this site has a basic level of statistics about the tweets taking place. Take a look at the DNC08 Twitter Page to see more DNC coverage. As the coverage concludes later this week, look to the site to give full coverage of the RNC convention. It’s a competition between the parties for building the most buzz and we are only half way through the process. This week the Democrats have taken the stage, continue to watch the coverage through next week on the RNC Convention Hub.

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The Social Web Economy: Designers Posted: 27 Aug 2008 10:51 AM CDT This is a continuation in the series on “The Social Web Economy“ You can't have a good product if it doesn't look good. While the initial launch of the Facebook platform brought about applications with poor design but broad success, the quality of design has slowly begun to improve. The reality is that designers give products that extra bit of appeal necessary to get users to try it out. Absolutely everybody in the social web economy wants to have a good image and design is the best way to instantly get a great image. While a great logo doesn't mean you run a great company, having a good initial image is important part of any business. Since everybody wants their company to look good, designers frequently get to know just about everybody in the social web economy. They design everything from websites to applications, from user interfaces to color combinations, from logos to brochures. Everybody can give you their own opinion on how important design is for your company. A venture capitalist may tell you that having an amazing looking presentation with great slide transitions isn't as important as having good content. That doesn't mean they will take you seriously if your presentation looks like a third grader designed it. While developers are hard at work ensuring that products work properly, the designers are making sure that the product looks good. Interestingly enough, developers are frequently one of the sources of tension for designers. Some times extravagant designers are not easily implemented and as such designers are forced to work with constraints, which is something no designer enjoys. The primary source of design for designers? Clients. Regularly, a client will come to a designer with preconceived ideas of how they'd like something to look. This immediately places more restrictions on the designer, something I just said they don't enjoy. You will find designers working within just about all the companies in the social web economy. While you can debate the importance of top tier designers, you can't debate whether or not design is an important aspect of the social web economy. Next Post: “The Social Web Economy: Consumers”

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The State of Social Advertising Posted: 26 Aug 2008 03:47 PM CDT Over the past few months I have been speaking with countless professionals in the social media space about the state of advertising within the industry. Over the past year I have attended countless conferences and spoken to countless individuals all of whom appear to have a firm grasp on what’s taking place in regards to social advertising. Over the past few months I have tried to articulate it on this blog but I don’t think I’ve succeeded at aggregating all of this information into a single post. While this post is not an attempt to aggregate all the various offerings, I hope that it sufficiently articulates the dynamic between advertisers and social networks currently. Poor Job of Advertiser Education “Have I got an opportunity for you! Imagine being able to reach out to your exact target audience and influence their conversation about your product or service,” the social networking sales professional says to the brand manager. “How do I correlate these advertisements directly to my sales,” the brand manager asks. “You can’t! This is a new form of engagement advertising which is changing the way your customers interact with your brand,” the sales professional replies. “Well I’ll tell you what,” the brand manager says cautiously, “since your name is Facebook, we’ll give it a shot with $5 million in advertising and see how it goes. If good results are produced, perhaps we’ll try it out again.” While this may not be the exact exchange that takes place between the average social network sales team and the advertisers, this is essentially what’s taking place in the industry today. While it was a great day for the sales person that closed the deal, the sustainability of this type of advertising is questionable especially when the advertisers don’t understand what they’re buying. Ask anybody what results they are producing from social advertising campaigns and the response is usually along the same lines: “We are getting great client feedback and many have returned to run new campaigns.” What was the rationalization of their clients decision to return? You’ve got me but whatever numbers are being produced they appear to be sufficient for a select few. What types of numbers are being produced for those clients though? Inconsistent Offerings Companies from Meebo to Facebook to MySpace are all coming up with new types of offerings for clients in which engagement hold a high value. Some reports will count the numbers of conversations about a topic, while others will determine how many new “fans” a company attracted. Whatever the model, they are not traditional and they are not the same from one company to the other. While there is the urge of the social media/social network expert to produce new types of metrics for clients, “Most every ad agency in the U.S. and Europe are still 100% attached to impressions and clicks” as Ted Rheingold of Dogster pointed out in the comments earlier this week. Ted continued with a great statement, “They are becoming less scared of non-traditional clicks (such as contests, Groups, virtual gifts, etc.) but that’s only because they can still tie it to a user and a click.” There are currently CPM, CPC and CPA advertisements that the advertisers are aware of but there is no current metric that are used for “engagement ads” (which is what leading social networks are currently offering). In order for the industry to move forward as a whole, some sort of standard metric needs to be developed for social advertising. Otherwise, each service is simply competing against the other and the reality is that we are competing against search and traditional advertising. Social Advertising Can’t Beat Search Anytime Soon Absolutely everybody in this industry is looking to “revolutionize” the way advertisers interact with consumers. We all sense the increased connection that can be generated between brands and consumers via social media and social networks but most can’t seem to find the perfect solution. When Facebook reverts to “engagement ads” as their “new offering”, it becomes clear that everybody (even Facebook) is struggling to find an answer that will help advertisers better relate to this new form of advertising. While I personally cannot answer whether better advertiser education or better offerings by social networks (and social products in general) is more important, it’s clear that advertisers still don’t understand what’s being offered. If those selling social advertising can’t even track the diverse offerings that exist, how can the advertisers? If I was an advertiser looking into social advertising offerings, I would most definitely end up reverting back to my other advertising solutions (search and more traditional channels). That’s because for now, social advertising is inconsistent and overly diverse. The real question now is do we just continue down our own paths unassisted or is there a way for competing social advertising providers to work together?

The Social Web Economy: Communications & PR Professionls Posted: 26 Aug 2008 10:29 AM CDT This is a continuation in the series on “The Social Web Economy“ Communications and public relations professionals have one of the most interesting positions in the social web economy. The primary role of these individuals is to gain exposure for their clients and ensure proper image. In the past few years we have seen the emergence of a number of firms focused strictly on companies participating in the social web economy or simply looking to leverage the social web. These individuals typically work for agencies or firms but a few have decided to go it alone, often times resulting in full-time, temporary positions in the companies they are consulting. On the social web, the emergence of influential blogs has transformed the dynamic between journalists and PR professionals. New technologies have also made it easier for companies to engage directly with their consumers. All of these things have combined to transform the role of the communications and public relations professionals. From helping prepare executives to speak to the press, to engaging increasingly accessible journalists about a negative article, the communications professional's job is a challenging one. While communications and public relations professionals are not directly tied to any sort of revenue generating activities, they help protect their clients' image so that revenue generating activities can go on as usual. The main source of tension for these individuals is with the journalists and analysts, as they are frequently the gate keepers of the client's image. Next Post: “The Social Web Economy: Designers”

Facebook & MySpace Hit New Milestones Posted: 26 Aug 2008 09:00 AM CDT Yesterday MySpace announced a record breaking month, surpassing 122 million visitors “according to comScore”. That last part of the statement means that the statistics should be questioned. As Caroline McCarthy points out, comScore stated that Facebook reached 144 million visitors. Yesterday though, Dave Morin claimed that the company just reached 100 million users (as Venturebeat points out. comScore has been criticized for highly inaccurate numbers in the past and the most recent set appears to confirm that. Additionally, having a reach of more than 100 million is significant but when you think about it in terms of the world population, there is still a long way to go! MySpace has been striving to highlight that growth continues internally as they prepare to launch the highly anticipated MySpace music service. Some could argue that the company’s image has become tarnished as Facebook hogs the limelight as it has surged past all competitors to become the largest global social network. It’s no wonder that MySpace is concerned as all global metrics show Facebook trouncing all other competition. Just take a look at the following Alex chart: Not everything is doom and gloom for MySpace and painting such a picture would be inaccurate. The company continues to grow abroad and domestically MySpace continues to dominate all the other competitors. When it comes to publicity, the name of the game is continued growth and both MySpace and Facebook have managed to do that is most regards. While domestic growth has slowed for both, international expansion has provided both companies with a substantial opportunity. As the months pass, analysts and journalists will both be looking for both companies to post stellar growth abroad. Otherwise we could soon hear of the “global social network downturn”!

hi5 Launches Mobile Service in 26 Languages Posted: 26 Aug 2008 08:03 AM CDT Today hi5 announced the launch of their mobile service. The social networking site is now available on mobile in 26 different languages. According to a release, users will be able to easily “send and receive messages, update status, view friends’ profiles, share photos, find out who is online and add new friends.” The service has been optimized to run on phones including the Apple iPhone, Nokia, Motorola, Blackberry, LG, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. 26 languages on a mobile service is significant as many competing social networks do not currently offer such a wide offering via mobile. hi5 is one of the top social networks globally but still ranks below Facebook and MySpace. The site is growing quickly though and appears to have a relatively large global reach with over 56 million unique visitors each month according to the release. Mobile is going to increasingly become the center of discussion when it comes to the social web as mobile platforms become ubiquitous. Currently we are still in the early stage of the social/mobile revolution but competition is heating up. Today’s announcement by hi5 only emphasizes the ongoing race to the handset. In contrast to a downloadable version of the site, the new hi5 service is available directly through mobile web browsers.

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