Archive for September, 2006

Podcasts put users in control, and is an “Ambient” medium

Categories: Podcasts, Web Tools, Web UsagePosted on September 24th, 2006

This post in response to Phil’s experience listening to the TalkCrunch podcast “Pocasts are Too Long“. While yes, an hour could be considered long, he’s in more control than he realizes. Phil, here’s some tips and suggestions that could empower as a podcast consumer:

1) Browser players give you control: You can control the podcast in the browser, the player that Mike’s embedded lets you fast forward, rewind, stop the podcast. Try dragging the arrow left and right. (TV, Talk radio, radio doesn’t give you this control)

2) MP3 gives you control: On your mobile MP3 Player you have the same amount of controls if not more.

3) Most of the time, more is better: Having more content in this medium may be better than not having enough, since with points 2 and 3, you’re in control (kind of like Tivo)

4) Podcasts put the listener in charge: you can simply turn it off.

5) Podcast are an Ambient Medium: which means you can do other things unlike reading, or watching video. You can drive, cook, eat, or put one earbud in your left ear when your wife is chewing you out about blogging too much while driving. (don’t forget to nod once in a while and mutter the occasional “yes dear”)

Oh, and I’m not getting into the whole Podcast naming debate so I’ll just use the term “Podcast” for now.

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Seth’s “Top things to do if you run a website” and responses from a Web Strategist

Categories: Web Analytics, Web Strategy, Web Theory, Web ToolsPosted on September 24th, 2006

Seth Godin one of the top minds in Marketing has released this post called top 8 things to do if you manage a website.

Good starting list but from someone involved with corporate websites (and know many others) not all of these are valid corporate web strategies.

I see this list as great for small websites trying to harness low cost marketing and social media, but for a large eCommerce site, more serious tools, considerations and strategy need to be considered, measured and analyzed.

My thoughts below:

1. Register with Technorati
Jeremiah: Register a corporate site for Technorati is an interesting idea, but does this model work if your homepage is not pushing RSS?

2. Become a Digger
Jeremiah: Become a Digger, yup, makes sense, soon we’ll have all of our employees digging and we’ll learn to game the system. So if one company that has 300,000 employees gets all their employees to digg every press release will that make Digg effective and accurate?

3. Build a Squidoo lens
Jeremiah: I’ve not used it (Mike Arrington didn’t speak highly of it at Future of Web Apps) Squidoo is a company that Seth is involved with.

4 Get your team to spread the word
Jeremiah: Agreed! Some of the best evangelists in your company are you loyal employees.

5. Issue a press release
Jeremiah: Perhaps when relevant, also consider using blogs?

6. Get a sister site for testing
Jeremiah: Most corporate web groups have staging sites, development sites, testing sites, production sites for testing, refining and iterative changes.

7. Google Analytics
Jeremiah: I have a buddy who’s a senior analytics guy at a eCommerce company in Silicon Valley, they have dozens of analysts who are measuring their website using analytics tools, and they’re NOT using Google Analytics.

8. Don’t be boring
Jeremiah: Agreed.

Seth, I think these are great points for the small business, however they may not apply to the larger or corporate web strategy. I’d love to hear the thoughts and opinions from others.

Oh, I met Seth in Vegas, he’s an amazing speaker.

Posted in Web Analytics, Web Strategy, Web Theory, Web Tools | Comments

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Understanding DEMO

Categories: Conference, EventsPosted on September 24th, 2006

I’ve never been, but hear quite a bit about this unique ’show’, it’s an opportunity for emerging and hopeful startups to show off their product to a large and captive audience in a creative non-traditional way.

DEMO: The Launchpad for Emerging Technology.

“DEMO is the premier launch venue for new products, technologies and companies. For more than 16 years, DEMO has established a reputation for identifying and presenting to an elite audience the products most likely to have a significant impact on the marketplace and market trends in the coming year. Each product is carefully screened and selected by DEMO’s Executive Producer, Chris Shipley, one of the top trend spotters in the personal technology product industry. DEMO is held two times a year; one in February, and one in September.” -Read About page

A Unique Way to Launch your Product, it’s a Show!
This next week in San Diego several companies will be taking the stage, the process is different than any expo as here’s the challenge, it’s a like a show.

“…DEMO would be about the products; would require timed, live demonstrations; and would not allow PowerPoint presentations! These rules still stand and, in recognition of the difficulty of communicating the power and value of emerging technologies on stage in a short 360 seconds, DEMO producers honor outstanding presentations by selecting DEMOgods…” More about Demo gods, and some previous ‘winners’

The official DEMO organizers have provided some tips to those who are presenting. Interesting followup suggestions here. Perhaps the best thing to do is to hire a consultant who specializes in this unique presentation. Shel Israel has quite a bit of experience with this, I’d recomend talking to him if you’re going to present, here he is with his Blogging Partner Robert and client Carlos.

I wanted to wish CEO Carlos Garcia a successful presentation. I’ve had a sneak screenshots and some time to play with his product Scrapblog and suspect it’s a unique product for a wide audience. It could be a network publishing platform if deployed and positioned correctly. He’s recently launched a blog which will chronicle his journey. A podcast recording of Scoble’s review of Scrapblog is on TalkCrunch (26:16 minutes into the podcast).

I know this is cheesy, but DEMO reminds me of that song by Eminem, Lose Yourself. Carlos please hold your spaghetti.

What other companies are presenting at DEMO? It’s not listed on the site, (although the schedule says it was supposed to announnce on Sept 22) I’m curious to know. (Techcrunch lists some companies from Feb 07 to watch)

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Online Video Services Taste Test

Categories: Social Media, Video, Web ToolsPosted on September 23rd, 2006

I’ve been testing a few of the online video services, not sure which one is best for my needs, or which ones will emerge the winner. I suspect when it comes to technology adoption getting the influencers to use it first is key. Think about Blogger, Wordpress, and Typepad. There’s tons of other blog software out there, but we don’t hear about them.

Blip
Here’s a video I just took this afternoon in Chicago of Millenium Park, it’s an interactive digital public art piece (although not picture the mouths spurt out water, and there’s waterfalls that flow over the LEDs). You can view the Fountains in a small version in Quicktime and webpage, or the higher-res Quicktime. I like how flash videos load fast, but often the quality is noticably lower in sound quality and color desaturation as I suspect the files are being optimized. I also recorded The “Bean”, Higher Res. and the view from the top of the John Hancock (Higher Res) building on the 95th floor.

Revver
I’ve started uploading some videos in Revver. The flash interface is pretty slick. did you know Revver splits revenue with the uploader? Update: I couldn’t publish my other videos above as we could be making revenue off other’s art work. I’ll take some orginal content today. I love the dashboard concept, makes it easy for me. (Update: here’s my revver video, I uploaded one before of the fountains above, and couldn’t be used as it’s a protected art work. Since Revver is generating revenue, uploaders must be selective in the process)
Google and YouTube
I’ve uploaded videos to Google Video and YouTube before, view my Online Video Archive.

Things I’m Looking For
I’ll make a decision to which video services I’ll be using. Some of the requirements are, high res video, blog friendly, rss/microformat, easy to upload, unlimited upload storage, fast streaming, no-cost, easy to use interface. Revenue Generation is nice, but not why I do it. (picky huh?).

Posted in Social Media, Video, Web Tools | Comments

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Notes for Ragan PR Conference: Day 2 (Mayo Clinic, Katie Paine, Interactive Session)

Categories: Conference, Social Media, Web UsagePosted on September 23rd, 2006

Here’s my final notes from the Ragan PR Conference. I had a great time, learned a lot and have a new respect for the PR industry.

Observational Summary of the Whole Conference:

1) The PR industry is in a state of shift, I attribute a lot of this to social media.
2) Many PR profesionals are not fully aware of all the social media tools (but are ready and willing to learn, god bless em!)
3) It’s interesting that this PR conference Opened with a Keynote by a blogger, had a full track of at least 6 Social Media sessions, and then ended by a PR Podcaster.
4) OMG, these people like to have fun and it’s a blast to talk to them.
5) All photos tagged “RaganPR“.

Session: Mayo Clinic Integrate old media with the new—and vice versa—to build awareness among your audiences

Excellent presentation of showing how “New Media” and “Old Media can co-exist.

blog called Lines from Lee, (I couldn’t find) demonstrated his YouTube integration.
There’s a bridge between old media and new media.
Created a podcast aligned around the Medical Edge website.
New Media Challenges and Opportunities

Reality #1: Audiences continue to become more fragmented (Jeremiah: think long tail). A few years ago one could but a superbowl ad an get 85% of the entire market.

Reality #2: Traditional media still extremely important. Discussed that Scoble gets over 30k visitors a day, and that’s great, but News TV in a specific market can still reach farther. You must integrate both. (I agree).

Reality #3: Content is (or will be) King

Opportunity: Barriers to entry in new media are practically non-existent, can can lead to news media coverage.

How New Media Can Lead to Big-Time Mass Media:

Discusses how Vincent Ferrari who called AOL to cancel his account and went mainstream and global. Folks were amused in the crowd. This flips the model now customers are in charge.

New Media

Genomics of new media. Opportunity for individual to get media content in the way they want and when they want. For communicators this is a way to pass the gatekeepers of communication.

What it’s not:

A replacement for traditional media.

He’s a great overview of all the media types that are available for you.

Katie Paine: Measurement on a budget: Make the most of your metrics dollars
Last time I saw Katie speak was at the New Communications Forum, she’s the maven of ROI and measurement. Aside from being a measurement maven she does a great job of communicating it to others, and connecting with her audience. So logical, but yet so human in her presentation.

Measureofsuccess.com, or visit her blog dkpaine.blogs.com
Started this exploration process originated for her desire to offer measurement for non-profits.
Why Measure?

Getting the data to make better decisions.

The new philanthropist has very different expectations and definitions of measurement. More and more folks are asking for data.
Accountability: If you think measurement is expensive, try ignorance (Brilliant!)
The world according to Martians (Numbers orientated folks, not related to gender)

Work = Reviewing Results, Looking at Spreadsheets, Downsizing
Results = ROI, Hard Numbers

The world according to Venetians (people persons)

Work = Schmoozing, lunching
Results = words, talking, relationships

Biggest Mistakes

1) Measuring something not tied to organizations mission

2) Lack of agreement upon measures of success up front

3) Measures unrelated to objectives

Step 1: Define relations within your organizations

Step 2: Prioritize

Step 3: Defining the Dashboard

Contains three or four charts or numbers which you must check

Step 4: Define your benchmarks

Past Performance, Peer Organizations, Whatever keeps the Martians up at night.

Step 5: Select a measurement tool

What can you afford to measure? Outputs, Outtakes (what did the audience takeaway) Outcomes?

Many types of research

-observations of attendees, advisory groups, interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, content analysis, cyber analysis, internal data (calls, email, letters, suggestions, complaints, inquiries)

Step 6: Action

Step 7: Take action and measure again

Relationship Measures

-control mutuality
-trust
-satisfaction
-commitment
-exchange
-communal

Interactive Session: “What’s killing PR and how can we fix it? Join the conversation!”
This was the best session. It was interactive, everyone had a voice, and all kinds of emotion and passion came out. I didn’t realize how much in common I had with Jen McClure but we say nearly the same things. People looked at my funny after I clapped for her during her passionnate call to actions.

Here’s what people said were the problems in the PR Industry (their words, not mine)

Relationships needed
Viewed as Spinmeisters
Lack of good writers (as lawyers and marketers and communications folks can construct)
Don’t let others craft the message
PR folks are not doing measurement
Very few PR folks are using technology
Dialogues are needed, top-down messaging over
PR ain’t dead
Legalese strips the passion out of PR
Gap between real communicators and technology folks
Lack of self-policing, lots of scandals
No one is doing PR for PR, who is promoting the craft?
Go start a personal blog
Did Robert Scoble’s Presentation confuse or go over the heads of the attendees? (Note: Many folks had never heard of Scoble, which is understandable if you’re not in tech, but the impacts that bloggers are making on this industry need to be reckoned)

What I said at this session as a Social Media guy looking into the PR Industry.
I don’t have a PR background but I do get social media. My first time learning so much about the PR Industry, and I have a new respect for the practice. I suspect I was the only non-PR person at the conference. I gave some general observations and some suggestions. Several folks asked for my card later, I told them I’ll publish all my thoughts and will be happy to help them using my blog.

Early speakers said that excellent writing is so important. Why so much focus on writing? There are so many mediums to learn (images, video, podcasts)

Robert Scoble had the most effective communication tool at Microsoft and he’s not the best writer.
It’s about being human, relating to others and having a dialogue with them at their writing level.
Good writing or bad, it’s the communication from the dialogue that is important.
Also remember it’s not about ‘pitching’ or ‘communicating messages’ it’s now about building relationships using all the tools at our hip.

Learn to let go, empowering many others to deliver the message.

This is a tough one, as PR folks have usually been the message creator, keeper and sometimes deliver. Much of that is changing as social media empowers everyone to have a voice.

Technology awareness is very very low, considering how disruptive or beneficial these tools are to the PR Industry

I was pretty amazed (see my posts on the bubble here and here) by the lack of awareness of the tools. I’m willing to help, and have started to leave some suggestions below.
These tools must be harnessed, and PR pros should learn these mediums to take full advantage of the benefits they can bring, or the damage from ignorance.

It’s interesting that this conference the Keynote by a blogger, with a full track on Social Media and ended by a Podcaster.
Lots of talk about media but what about topics that

Customers are now reviewing products and telling others?

Customers are now producers

PR should covers the whole customer experience

Social Media, Web, Marketing does too FYI.

Helpful Reccomendations to learn more about Social Media

1) Listen to blogs, podcasts in your industry

Technorati, Sphere, Google, iTunes, other podcast directories

2) Understand mediums

Start a blog, podcast, pick a topic that you personally are interested in. start to learn the mediums

3) Use the tools to dialogue, relationships, build trust…has this been done before?

Now that you understand the mediums, use them to connect with others

4) Message Empowerment!

Teach the right people in your orginzation to use these tools

5) Practice and Apply

Consider hiring an expert.

Quick Glossary (since I know many of the attendees will be visiting here)

Use Wikipedia to learn more or Google searches
Blog = Weblog, personal journal that anyone can easily use
RSS = Web Feeds, or Syndication, great for those press releases
Blog Search = Use tools like Technorati, Sphere, Google Blog Search to find out the voice of your customer and market
FeedReader = This is how you read RSS, you must first subscribe to feeds (by clicking on the icons) and then you can see it in your reader. Look at bloglines, google has two, or you might be using MyYahoo.
Wiki = A Website anyone can edit
Flickr = Image uploading and sharing site (can be used for PR/Marketing)
Online Video = See YouTube, Google Video, etc
Social Site = Folks network and communicate online, popular ones are MySpace, Facebook, CyWorld. (keep in mind the age usage is above teen and in some cases over 30)
Got another question? leave a comment below.

If you have any questions, leave a comment or send me an email at jeremiah _owyang ‘at’ Yahoo.com David took some high level notes from my presentation, thanks David and for all the information over the week! Joseph wrote up some detailed notes from my session as well.
Day 1 Notes here

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Phil Harvey shares his Bandwidth costs over the last 3 months, WOW it’s gone down!

Categories: Web UsagePosted on September 22nd, 2006

Phil’s price has fallen 80% over the last 3 years. Many folks think that internet access will be like water or electricity, a public utlity. The same will be considered of data storage.

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PayPal to offer Online Storage, Online Storage Market to heatup

Categories: Data Storage, Web UsagePosted on September 22nd, 2006

Details are not fully fleshed out, however I’m not surprised as TechCrunch reports. More news on Techmeme. I predict that nearly every major website will offer online storage.

Read my thoughts on the Future of Online Storage, or cruise all posts labeled Data Storage.

David Berkowitz from MediaPost commenents on the search marketing angle to it. We discuss that at some point the model will flip and online data storage companies will PAY consumers to upload content. (Revver has started that model with Online Video)

There are so many online storage companies, see this here and here.

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Venture Capital Investments Grow, 668 Blog Jobs Available

Categories: Web IndustryPosted on September 22nd, 2006

Nice report from Venture Beat: “VC investments in Web 2.0 companies booming, better study shows”

“Venture capital investments into “Web 2.0″ Internet companies this year are on track to double last year’s levels to about $500 million, according to a new report on the bubbling sector.”

SimplyHired (A job aggregator) shows that there are 668 jobs with the word “BLOG” in it. I checked this last year and the number was under 10. 90 jobs have the words Podcast in it. Please note that SimplyHired often repeats job listings (as it gets it from several sources) but it’s an indicator of the changes.

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Notes for Ragan PR Conference: Day 1 (Robert Scoble, Shel Holtz, Jen McClure)

Categories: Community Marketing, Conference, Social Media, Web MarketingPosted on September 22nd, 2006

Thanks Jen McClure for the intro to Ragan group. Kickoff by Fraser Seitel, he really got the room warmed.

Thanks to the Ragan group who’ve produced a very organized conference. Well staffed, well greeting, and well informed.

Having a full track on Social Media for a conference that has been running 10 years is an impressive change. Perhaps next year it would be good to consider a venue that can provide wifi.

My Flickr Set of the conference is here. Tagged: raganpr

Robert Scoble Keynote (A blogger as a Keynote at a Traditional PR Conference, times are changing!)
These notes are incomplete as I had to go on stage and tend to the powerpoint as Robert has having technical difficulties with the presentation not displaying correctly on the screen.

I sat on stage and clicked the next button while Robert stood near the audience. I guess I could stretch the truth and say I was on stage with Scoble on his Keynote –heh.

Robert has some brief notes here

Robert Scoble was introduced as the “Internet King” and a “Child of Silicon Valley”.
The Hugh McCloud deck was the backbone of the preso.
Created the Scoblizer blog that both praised and attacked his own employer, Microsoft. In 1999, there were only 200 bloggers.
As Robert kicked off his blog, he was linked to by Winer, and then invited to Woz’s party.
Discussed the Vloggercon informal ‘press release’ with 15 bloggers leaving Microsoft. (I was one of them)
Audience sizes aren’t really big yet, but they’re growing.
Digg.com has major traffic (60,000k traffic).
Videos on Channel 9 received 20 times the traffic than the product pages
Ways to get Attention: Be different
Use Video
Dell Hell Story, how Jeff Jarvis got in NYTimes listen to the grassroots
When Robert first started at MS he linked to the “Micrsoft Hate” sites and blogs
Gave the Facebook example of how the CEO told the customers to “Calm Down” –not the appropriate response to embrace customers
Robert has blogged for 16 days about the HP debacale and no one has left comments on his blog or contacted him. Sheeeeesh.
Told story about Channel9 and how that’s an airline channel you can hear the pilots talk –builds trust
ZeFrank is a great storyteller
Kids in Australia blogged about Xbox crashing and the snowball effect started. Many press folks are focused on one company and have technorati watchlists, they found the story quickly
Robert puts his cell phone number on his blog
SL has 400k users, still emerging
Robert was getting pitched when his mother was dying. Bad timing. Some have called him and were blog readers, but some didn’t even read it.
BBC has a great site on what RSS feeds are.
See Democracy Now, Zefrank

Jen McClure: The New World of PR
Jen told me the next NewComm forum will be produced by Ragan PR in Vegas, March 2007.

Jen picks up where Robert left off. Robert helped to convince most of this crowd WHY this is important, however Jen’s room was packed as she showed HOW the tools that were used. Observations:

She had internet access and was able to show Technorati and Typepad.
Jen discusses RSS, Social Networks, Social Bookmarking, and Tagging
All of these tools allow for positive and negative feedback
Check out Symphony, which does conversation Benchmarking. They have a report that indicates that:

40% of companies said blogs have affected their company

90% of them reported they were in a positive way

Case Study about Fedex. One customer had created furniture with fedex boxes, fedex sent a cease and desist. The blogosphere reacted, and Fedex stock dropped (was that directly a cause effect?)
Jen stopped doing “traditional” PR about 2 years ago. (Jeremiah: What’s a “Smile and Dial?”)
Casestudy: Lonely Girl’s real identity was discovered by Jen’s contact. Tom Forensky’s blog broke the story, major media was contacting Tom’s son who figured it out. So fast.
She quotes Scoble: “If you don’t have an RSS feed on your press page you should be fired”
Check out press-feed.com, weblog wire, PRweb use these to publish feeds. (Jeremiah: Also consider feedburner to measure how many are subscribing)
These tools help to establish thought leadership.
Todd Deffran (spelling?) from Shift Communications: The new media press release.

Characteristics: Numerous web links in the copy, can be labeled and tagged, Includes a lot of links, Allows media to quickly find. (should link to memes as well)

Jen is partnering with Social Media Club, awesome!
Spin is not received well from the blogosphere, and story telling replaces Spin. Tell a story, use all the mediums available to you.
PR folks are becoming “Media Engineers”, Jen quotes Tom.
What’s CGM: “Citizen Generated Media” (I Like that, better than consumer)
Next Steps:

Gather Examples

Launch: Test, Practice, Deploy

Monitor and Measure

See opinmind.com

Shel Holtz
Shel delivered a strategic overview of podcasting, as well as gave some tactical details on ‘how to’. In true multi media fashion he brought samples of podcasts and a small speaker setup to demonstrate.

These notes are also incomplete as the camera team and I traded spots and I had to move.

Publication Methods

56% of podcasts are consumed at the computer
Burn to CD
Any Portable digital media

Discussed iTunes and it’s usage
Important message from Shel Holtz: “You don’t need a iPod to listen to podcasts”
Who listens to Podcasts

11% of adults have downloaded a podcast
Most penetration in 18-54 age range
45% of listenership is 35-44
Gender split is even (52% male, 48% female)
Educated
Affluent
Trend Leaders

Podcasting Advantages

Time Shifted
Niche Shifted
Detachable
Audio
Low Barriers to Entry
Every other communication channel requires attention, (Jeremiah says: podcasting is an ambient medium)

Shel uses Audactiy (free software) to edit his sound files. Took him an hour to learn how to use it, and he’s never worked with audio before in his life.
There are 20k independent podcasts listed in Podcast Alley

I’ll post more later, going to Day 2 today. (Day 2 notes here)

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Public Relations and Social Social Media Intersections: Flexing the Bubble

Categories: Community Marketing, Social MediaPosted on September 22nd, 2006

While I’m clearly out of the tech bubble, I wanted to give an update. Some (not all) PR folks are hungry to learn about Social Media. Most didn’t need to know the “Why” but wanted answers “How” to use social media.

Finished my speech on Community Marketing (how companies can harness social media) and then had quite a few conversations. Chris Kent fed me questions, and kept the conversations going at great speed (Thanks Chris!) The crowd were mostly PR pros that wanted to learn more about Social Media, they realize the impact and it’s not going away. Quite a few were from the non-profit sector.

The MySpace generation cometh and understanding the impact to get ahead of it was needed.

Other questions like “What’s next, what technologies and media will come next?” I talked about IPTV, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Contextual Marketing using mobile devices.

I chatted with a Director of Comm at a well known non-profit, and we discussed how she could even create a community written blog, gaining input from members.

Some non-profits were under strict rules on what and what they could not blog, I talked about the Wells Fargo blogs, and how they’re building community by being a resource –without financial discussions!

Some PR folks during cocktail hour said that Community Marketing or Blogger Relations is actually PR. Yes, I agreed, but only if you think Customer Support is PR too. The answer of course is yes, and yes. Marketing and Public Relations extend before a prospect is a customer and after the customer has left. Social Media is a medium, and it’s used across organizations, and throughout the whole customer lifecycle.

Of course, the obligatory “What’s the ROI” question came up as usual. It’s always fun to show the impacts you can gain from very little cost.

At dinner, I had dinner with Fraser Sietel, (Jen of NewComm and Katie too) who was one of the keynote speakers, is a NYU prof, and wrote the following text book on the Practice of Public Relations. Over cocktails we explored Web Strategy, PR and Social Media. Topics ranging from Yahoo vs Google’s ad model, Rocketboom, Scoble’s Audience, what’s the ROI.

Update: Here’s a picture of me speaking

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