Archive for October, 2007
7
You have 5 minutes, what will you tell the world?
Categories: Events, MicroMediaPosted on October 31st, 20076 things I’ve learned since becoming an analyst
Categories: Forrester, RuminationsPosted on October 31st, 2007I really owe it to you to continue to live and work as transparently as possible, this is after all, what I preach. It starts with me first sharing, so here goes. The last month has been a whirlwind, I’ve traveled from SFO > Boston > Chicago > SFO > Boston with a quick trip to NY met hundreds of people, even more photos, and I’m just getting started. I’ve officially been an analyst for 31 days, and it’s time to take a look back, here’s what I’ve learned:
1) I’ve a lot to learn
I was in training for three weeks, (well I missed most of the second week at a conference) to learn some very rigorous methodology, meet people, and absorb into the culture. I even had a meeting with the CEO on my first week. I was amazed at the organization that a company of 1000 could have. I’ve made a lot of new friends with common interests in the firm, and I’ve come to learn that many are now blog readers who comment from time to time *jeremiah waves*2) Evolving communications a challenge
A big part of my training is to learn how to communicate effectively and succinctly. I’m already starting to feel this change in how I write, speak, present, and think. Check out the large binders we received in training, they are a desktop reference and I’m using them frequently. I recently tweeted that working along side Charlene is like getting a masters in business.3) New incoming pipes
There are a LOT of inputs in this role, from vendor briefings, announcement briefings (It’s easier to glance at techmeme and tell what will be reality in 24 hours and what won’t be). Another major input is the problems and challenges I hear information from many clients. I’m even listening to trends from the press (they have many inputs too). Most importantly it’s amazing to have access to hard core data and research from the firm. Overtime, I’m hoping that my analysis will move up a level so I can start seeing macro trends, in addition to the small changes, I’m not quite there yet, but hope to be soon.4) Helping clients succeed fires me up
I feel good inside when customers are happy as direct result of my actions. In addition to the time I’m spending inputting, a great deal of my time is spent helping clients in advisory sessions and creating reports. On a related note, A CEO of a startup recently contacted me and said that other startups in the valley don’t understand the influence that analysts have, nearly everyday I’ll be recommending vendors to look at. (By the way, the best way to get my time and other analysts is to do a briefing, not send me an email)5) Time management has become more important than ever
Compared to previous jobs, this role is incredibly more time demanding. I’m rigorous on how I structure my time (such as avoiding IM as much as possible). I read and research and blog for two hours in the morning (I sleep in 2 three hour shifts at night, and am up right now at 3am to blog) as I really believe in paying myself first. Learning how to manage all the input and output time (and time spent writing reports) around travel and speeches is going to be a challenge, maybe I need a lesson from Tim Ferris.6) I’ll continue to blog and share
Many people are wondering if I’ll continue to share online as I have in the past. Speculation if what I’ve learned and know will be sucked up behind the “paywall” for clients only. Part of why I was hired was because of my blog, so that’s not going away, and I’m a believer in walking the talk. Since I’ve started, I’m still part of the conversation, have been very active on Twitter (add me), and continue to experiment with social media tools. What do I not share on my blog? Research and reports that I work on in the day job based around data that I would not have had access to if I wasn’t an employee. Also, giving advice from a blog is far too generic. Each client has a unique culture, unique market, and is at a different stage in their social media strategy, there’s no way a blog or any other dispersive communication tool can be successful in delivering true value.
So what did I learn? I learned I have a lot to learn! So if you can’t tell, I’m undergoing a metamorphosis right now, and I want to keep this cocoon as opaque as possible, so stay with me, let’s grow together, and thanks for all your support!
If you have any experiences to share about how you’ve smoothly (or not) moved into a new role, I want to hear.
Update: I just learned that a white paper (PDF) I wrote 2 years ago with Dennis McDonald was seen by a client, and they requested my involvement on the account. I’m a believer that one thing leads to another, it’s just amazing that it can take nearly 24 months for work to come to fruition. Then again, the white paper is on IT and Business for social media, it’s just now becoming relevant. At the time, I wrote this as I was frustrated with my own IT department not understanding or supporting the social media program.
Weekly Digest of the Social Networking Space: Oct 31, 2007
Categories: Digest, Social NetworkingPosted on October 31st, 2007
Big Update: You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these type of posts. I’m confident I’ll earn your trust, deliver value and you’ll visit my blog anyways.
I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly summary, it’s great to send to busy executives.
I’ve created a new category called Digest where you can start to track and access these going forward. The hope? To make it easy for a web strategist to quickly scan the activity in the last week. I strive to make headlines on items categorized and succinct.
Need to make decisions about your web strategy? I’m here to help: subscribe to my blog, sign up for emails (right nav), follow me on Twitter, or add me on Facebook (I’ll add you back for each).
Web Strategy Summary
The big news? Microsoft invests in Facebook and gets access to it as a major advertising platform. Now, Meebo has launched as a platform, and Google is expected to release a Facebook competitor tomorrow. This is the move movement I’ve seen since starting this series. Sadly, there’s not been too much news produced on other social networks.
Partnership: Facebook and Microsoft in Bed
There’s sure been a lot of speculation, and regurgitation about the deal, but let’s boil it down to what it means. Advertising opportunity for MS, expansion of software on the ‘web platform’ access to all your identities. For Facebook, it means: larger than life valuation, a hold out for growth, until potentially an IPO. I participated in this article from Cnet which gives a good starting overview.Platform: Meebo launches platform
The web based IM aggeregator, Meebo launches a platform encouraging developers to expand on top of it’s instant messaging community. What’s the biggest difference between Meebo and Facebook? Facebook has rich user profiles, whereas Meebo does not. I predict this will influence how the same applications are used on top of each.Money: Facebook’s Stock options not that rosy?
The NYT questions if the stock will be a good play to retain talent, the potential problem? Diluted value of stock for new employees, among other risks. But who cares? Facebook is a hot company, there were loads of people going to Google over the last yearish (nearly doubling in size) under the same climate…because it was Google.Enterprise: How do social networks impact the Intranet?
I participated on a panel hosted by Visible Path, where we discussed how the social graph of our work lives can be harnessed and captured to improve sales, recruiting, and communication. The big takeaway? We’ve yet as an industry to really leverage the power of people in the enterprise although some tech recruiters are starting to get savvy.Community: Rabid fans and votors assemble on Facebook
The new ‘vote’ has become an affinity joining Facebook groups. It first started with Barack Obama, and now with Stephen Colbert beating him out…in just one day. Despite the rabid popularity, the quality and topics of Facebook apps appear to be ’strange’ and silly.Money: Myspace touts it’s value
MySpace can tout it’s virtues if the runner up can score market valuation of 15billion, in fact there are claims that myspace could be worth, but in reality, the numbers are much less.Rumors: Google to launch Facebook Competitor
The rumors are circulating that Google is to launch a platform to compete with Facebook decries Techcrunch: “OpenSocial is a set of three common APIs, defined by Google with input from partners, that allow developers to access core functions and information at social networks:”Rumors: Facebook to launch new Advertising product
More speculation on what Facebook could be releasing: “Not the deliciously moist kind, but the kind that keep tabs on your whereabouts while surfing the web. The goal is to combine all the information collected within Facebook user profiles with users’ web surfing habits to deliver targeted ads via Microsoft.”
I use a variety of techniques to find this news, and as an Analyst it’s good practice for me to stay on top of my industry. If your boss needs to stay on top of this digest, be sure to send it to her, and subscribe to this unique feed.
The many mediums of the Web Strategy Community (50 replies from one tweet)
Categories: Social MediaPosted on October 30th, 2007I posted one Tweet on Twitter and recieved about 50 back in return. I now have a pretty good idea of how my network (my community, the web strategy community) communicates.
From who? From the pebble people. What’s a pebble? They’re often first generation adopters. they are followed by swimmers, surfers and others.
Most of the people in Twitter fall into one of those three categories, they’re early adopters, tech influencers, and what Forrester calls “creators”.
I tweeted this question: “@everyone quick, count the many tools you’ve communicated over today. Twitter, FB, blog, email (personal and work), phone, cell =7″
Two hours later, I had quite a few responses (nearly 50)
I’ve removed any private tweets (at least 5), all of the following are public. And no, this is far from the methodology at Forrester, this is just a segment of MY network. No, I’m not going to use this information in any other way than to understand how my network of pebbles works. Since it’s just my network, this is completely biased.
It makes no sense for me to tally or average them as people counted the same version of tools multiple times. What’s clear is that we are communicating with each other using so many multiple channels. We’re easy to access, easy to find, and easy to talk to.
It’s pretty safe to estimate that between 5-7 communication mediums are being used by my community.
John McCrea who works at Plaxo suggested that a unified communications platform could fix this, but we’ve got to first ask, is it a problem?
Here’s how my community responded from my one tweet:
Mark Twomey Storagezilla @jowyang - Twitter, Blog, Email, Forums, Mobile Phone. 5
Lee Aase LeeAase @jowyang I’ve used Twitter, land line, cell, SMS, Facebook, 2 email accts, personal blog, work blog = 9
Mukund Mohan mukund @jowyang, @astrout email (gmail, work), Twitter, IM(Gtalk, Yahoo, MSN), Phone, Cell, Voice, FB, Blog, Text Messaging, WEBEX - dang
astrout astrout @jowyang — sorry, missed blog. That makes 8 or maybe 9 for me.
Wade Rockett waderockett @jowyang: 5 - email, blog, Twitter, message board, IM.
Krish krishnan @jowyang Twitter, Facebook. blog, IM, email, phone (in that order)
astrout astrout @jowyang — face2face, cell phone, voip phone, text, trillian, twitter, FB and e-mail (7 if you combine voip & cell - 8 otherwise)
GiGi iad2la @jowyang Twitter, TXT/phone, FB, AIM and MSN messenger via Trillian, GTalk, Gmail, Outlook (oh the agony)
Christian Burns™ ChristianBurns @jowyang Gmail, twitter, Jaiku, Utterz, outlook web portal, facebook, cell phone, txt msg sms, gtalk
Alex de Carvalho alexdc @jowyang GTalk, MSN, Twitter, GMail, FB, phone, cell, Flickr, Scrapblog, Orkut, Basecamp … and the ol’ fashioned face-to-face
Luis Suarez elsua @jowyang 16! Can list them if you would want to …
CSP missusP @jowyang - @CreativeSage reminded me - yes, also LinkedIn - that makes 12 today.
karl long karllong @jowyang twitter, pownce, text msg, phone, email, blog post, blog comment, message forum, FB =9 a
Jason Preston jasonp107 @jowyang twitter, AIM, e-mail, phone, cell & (plans for blog & FB!) = 5
Cathryn Hrudicka CreativeSage @jowyang: Landline ph., Twitter, Facebook, primary email, LinkedIn, Flickr, blogs, Pownce (feeds going to other socnets).
Will Pate willpate @jowyang: gmail, twitter, basecamp, highrise, aim, msn, skype, conceptshare, mobile, facebook, google docs, adium, blackberry PIN about
Kyle Flaherty kflaherty @jowyang facebook, cell, blog, twitter, email, gmail, flikr, SMS, ning=9
Doug Meacham DougMeacham @jowyang: landline, cell, blog, twitter, wk email, Yahoo Mail, GMail, Face to Face (do people still do that?), Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr=11
Tete TeteSagehen @jowyang (twitter, IM, home phone, blog, Faecbook, e-mail)
Ian Wilker iwilker @jowyang: yeesh… 8! (adium, FB, email, cell, voip, IM, twitter, blog)
Andy Beal andybeal @jowyang cell, email, twitter, facebook, IM, skype, blog = 7
Marcel LeBrun lebrun @jowyang email (2), twitter, FB, office phone, cell phone, Gtalk, MSN & BB messenger about
TedC TedC @jowyang Twitter, email, seesmic, phone, ms communicator, icq, blog = 7
Lee Odden leeodden @jowyang For me it’s: email, facebook, mybloglog, twitter, pownce, blog, linkedin, cell, landline
John McCrea johnmccrea @jowyang: work email, webmail, mobile, blog, Plaxo Pulse, Twitter, SMS. I guess that’s 7 for me, too.
Arek Dreyer arekdreyer @jowyang Twitter, email, ichat, phone = 4
TDavid TDavid @jowyang - email, IRC, blog, Twitter, phone (work+personal), Skype = 7, not ordered
Clay Newton tastybit @jowyang SMS, vmail, mobile, email, landline, twitter, Fb, blog, IM = 9
Suki_MHC05 Suki_MHC05 @jowyang “in person” and skype=9 plus all those you already listed.
CSP missusP @jowyang 11: phone, email, IM, blog, Twitter, FB, WBEx office, BBerry, fax, Ezmo, Sosius
KayDub kaydub @jowyang 5 5
Thomas Han thomashan @jowyang twitter, FB, blog, land-line, iPhone, emails (3), SMS, IMs (several platforms) = ~12
Jeff Greco jeffgreco @jowyang twitter, facebook, aim, gtalk, email (personal + work), cell, work phone, tumblelog = 9
Jeremy Pepper jspepper @jowyang - recounting, then, if you want email and IM separate (or as one, even if it’s Hotmail, GMail and corp mail)
Shashi Bellamkonda shashib @jowyang 3 email accounts, pidgin( AIM, GTalk,Yahoo IM) , phone, 2 cell phones, Twitter, Facebook, utterz, blogs, Google reader, Jaiku, Pown
Jeremy Pepper jspepper @jowyang - 5 (counting meebo as 1 for all my IM systems)
Shea Gunther sheagunther @jowyang 9 communication tools today for me- twitter, blog, FB, email, Vonage phone, cell phone, text message, Ning, StumbleUpon
Kami Huyse kamichat @jowyang I have used 10 tools: 3 e-mail accounts, Twitter, FB, SMS, Blogs (mine and others), cell phone and land line
Mike Keliher mjkeliher @jowyang …and chatting within Scrabulous within Facebook.
Evan Hamilton evanhamilton @jowyang: twitter, gmail, hotmail, outlook, cell, AIM, Messenger, iChat = 8
Jess K escapetochengdu @jowyang I have one more to add to that list: instant message (via gchat)
Christopher Gilmer chrisgilmer @jowyang 7, same set as yours.
chrisgilmer @jowyang 7, same set as yours.
Mike Keliher mjkeliher @jowyang Cell phone calls, cell phone text messages, regular phone, Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, Ning site, blog comments = 8 + face to face.
Connie Reece conniereece @jowyang for me it’s 6 communication tools today
LisaBarone LisaBarone @jowyang Twitter, FB, blog, work email, home email, cell, Skype, IM, Webcast = 9. All before lunch!
Jen Cardew jencardew @jowyang 8 myspace, fb, sms, phone, email, webct (course discussion board), email, & twitter … and counting o.0
Len Edgerly LenEdgerly @jowyang - 6
Erica OGrady ericaogrady @jowyang: Twitter, Cell, Facebook, Email, Virb, Blog, GTalk = 7
Craig Cmehil ccmehil @jowyang 17 including various IM tools
Yndy:(Update) @jowyang - tools today so far? Twitter, LiveJournal, MySpace, Network54, Wordpress, cell phone, email (x4), Digg, various other boards (9?) 04:12 PM
If you weren’t in on the fun and still want to contribute, leave a comment below.
Update: I know a lot of Marketers what would be thrilled to have 5 responses to 1 tweet, or even 15, but 50? How to do it? Become part of the community, (not yelling at it) and join the conversation. The world is moving smaller, faster, and distributed, but most importantly it’s trending towards opt-in.
How should you allocate your web strategy budget for 2008?
Categories: Web Industry, Web TheoryPosted on October 30th, 2007
Update: What better way to kickstart the conversation by using my real voice? Listen in.
It’s planning time, and many of you have submitted your strategies, budgets and resource requests to management, how do I know? Because I get tons of emails, facebook messages, and formal emails at work requesting advice and guidance.
Recently, I posted a question to Ian, who’s the CEO of an internet marketing firm in Seattle:
[What's the best way to balance a diverse web marketing budget? How should I allocate my funds? How do I prioritize, there are so many tools to consider!]
In his response, He’s broken it down by type of company . Ian lays it down, while some may find it dangerous to suggest how to invest before discussing the business strategy and needs, this is a good starting point for a conversation.
I realize the sensitivity in posting specific numbers on a public blog, so I’d love to hear your process in budgeting (or a best practice). Do you work at an agency? How do you encourage clients to spend with you? On the client side? What are some ways your prioritize?
Update: Mukund (A VP of Marketing) has listed out his budget allocation, wow thanks for the transparency! Interesting that 15% of his resources are to reach people like me in my day job yet 2% is spent on reaching me as a blogger (Social media), so does that mean I would get 17%? I also attend events (industry and social) so there’s other allocations that may cross over to me.
Social Graph for the Workplace: A discussion hosted by Visible Path
Categories: Enterprise Web, Events, Social Graph, Web MarketingPosted on October 29th, 2007I spoke at Visible Path’s (client) Corporate Social Network Design Council in San Francisco today. The panel, moderated by Anneke Seley Founder & CEO, PhoneWorks, included Anthony Lye, SVP of Oracle CRM, Ross Mayfield of Social Text, and Matt, the program manager of Motorola’s Internet and Collaboration Technology.
Highlights of the discussion:
-Initially, when the web was launched, it was estimated that business folks were separated by 7 degrees, now it can be measured at nearly 3 degrees
-Ross suggested that every brand will have a wiki associated with them. Take for example “lost” which has a handful of wikis, both from corporate and the fan base
-The big question of how do personal and professional networks become both a private asset to an individual as well as be shared by the enterprise.
-How many social graphs do we need? Is there conflict as they cross over? (I suggested there are four social graphs on average: public, work, friends, and family)
-Motorola is already experimenting with internal social networks and wikis, with success.
-”Sales 1.0 is about lots of reporting, and sell less, Sales 2.0 is about less reporting and more selling”
-The future is focusing on the people, and their relationships
-One HR manager had concerns as legal and compliance need records of how candidates are found, and sometimes this process happens in hard-to-track social networks.
-Ross has two strategic questions he applies to the enterprise: 1) How do you make programs more transparent and 2) How do you make them more participatory.
-Ross had the best line: “In school, sharing was called cheating, but in the workplace it’s called collaboration”
I shared the edgeworks concept and how the web, marketing, sales and recruiting is distributed on the networks.
It was held at San Francisco’s beautiful Olympic Club, I didn’t realize it until I was stopped by the guard by jeans weren’t allowed. Being a techie, I’m so used to wearing jeans to social media events (Ross was wearing jeans too, thank god I wasn’t alone). My visible path hosts were so nice to fetch me, I apologized of course. How is this a good lesson in understanding online communities and social networks? One should always research their community to understand their culture, behavior, and norms before joining. I’ve done other embarrassing things in public, and learned a lot from them.
I created this Utterz (short mobile audio) from my mobile phone while driving up to the event. Social Graphs, identity, relationships and how we communicate is at top of mind. Here’s the post I was referring to.
If you click on the “click for more” on the utterz player, it will go to their site where you can see more conversations, such as Christian who left me an utterz response. We’re having a mobile, audio, asynchronous conversation online and via the cell. I can even listen to his messages while driving, and respond.
Videos of Consumer Forum: Richard Edelman, Christie Hefner (Playboy), Christina Norman CMO of MTV, Ze Frank, Charlene Li, Josh Bernoff, Henry Jenkins and Pud!
Categories: Forrester, VideoPosted on October 29th, 2007The summarized videos from the recent Forrester consumer forum conference in Chicago are now up.
The videos are choppy (update: go for the high speed options for best viewing, it should stream smoothly) , but the content is what to focus on, so turn ‘em on and listen, and glance at the slides while you multi-task. Richard Edelman was insightful from the top of the mountain, Christie Hefner delivered powerful examples of virtual worlds and social networks, Christina Norman of MTV pushed energy into her polished presentation.
The Zefrank, Jeremy Allaire, and Pud panel is the most entertaining, but if you’re thinking of implementing a social media strategy, listen to Charlene’s presentation followed by Josh. I love blogged the event, see my day 1 coverage, and day 2.
Leave your feedback on the content, which speakers dropped some ‘gems’ of knowledge?
Utterz: Mobile Audio MicroMedia, is blogging old and slow?
Categories: MicroMedia, MobilePosted on October 28th, 2007I just created my first utter, a new mobile web service. What is it? yet another form of MicroMedia (a phrase that I coined, and it’s taking off, see Steve Rubel and Scoble).
What is Utterz? An audio version of Twitter.
Here’s how I did it (with a time breakdown):
1) I went to their site and registered (2 minutes)
2) Dialed the phone number, listened to greeting messages (1 minute)
3) Recorded it, reviewed it (and took a second cut) and confirmed (2 minutes)
4) Saved the number to my phone so I can use it again (15 seconds)
5) Refreshed website and was amazed to see it was instantly there. (30 seconds)
6) embedded on blog and wrote this post (5 minutes)
Looking at the breakdown analysis by time, blogs are long form, and perhaps a richer and older form of social media. I could easily embed a twitter and utter feed in my blog, and let it self update, saving me time from writing these longer formats.
Are you prepared to embrace the media snackers? A few days ago, I started the media snackers meme, and tagged a few people, asking them to share how they respect media snackers, it’s now taking off (see all incoming links to that post, and what the mediasnackers team is tracking).
Communication is moving faster, smaller, and hooking into mobile, are you prepared?
WSJ’s Kara Swisher joins the conversation, how will traditional media adopt the live web?
Categories: Web IndustryPosted on October 28th, 2007I’m becoming a fan of Kara Swisher, who writes Boomtown. She’s a case study of how traditional newspapers (Wall Street Journal) have embraced social media. I see a lot of other newspapers who use blogs and podcasts and rss, yet they don’t really engage and be part of the experience of social media –they just report on it. It’s more than being an embedded reporter, she’s interacting with the ecosystem, I’ve been noticing this more and more.
Kara’s blog posts are punchy and stir up the issues, her videos irreverent, she keeps them fast, brings us the experience and pushes her interviewers with challenging, and sometimes almost leading questions. In many ways she’s picking up on Scoble’s beat, by bringing a first person human look to the industry.
I’d be interesting to see how other large newspapers (who are having a hard time staying relevant from the internet and the changes it’s brought) adopt and try to learn from her. Likely there will be some Kara copy cats, but I think she’ll innovate.
What I’ve been reading and think you should too:
Jason did some searching on the top Measurement firms and discovered that the Web Strategy Blog was on the top search results for the term Social media measurement. Thanks Jason for the wonderful feedback, but keep in mind there are folks that are smarter on the topic than me, the sad think about Google is that it prioritizes the content that is most popular, but not the most accurate. Ken Kaplan enjoyed hosting the Social Media Club and is really digging into some of my recent posts and presentations, thanks! (Oh, and most people don’t get the joke of “Jeremiah the web prophet” it’s a play on words and homage to one of the first biblical prophets, my namesake) Curt sends a great white paper from Universal McCann on Social Media, fancy layout, good data. David Armano ran a poll asking if ‘Digital Agencies’ should blog. To me, it’s an obvious answer, read the comments to see a polarized view. Beth Kanter has a great presentation on slideshare on the topic of Social Media Measurement, we had a brief strategy discussion at a meetup in Boston and she integrated part of it in her presentation, I love how our industry works together to collectively grow, great job Beth. I’m listening to Marketing Voices on my iPod, the quality consistently stays high, I recommend you subscribe for your walk (I listened to five this morning). Jennifer is a good friend of mine, and I’m going over to her house this week for dinner. She’s one of the live long friends I’ll be keeping.
2:30 Video: PC World’s Editor in Chief Harry McCracken loves Flock
Categories: Interview, Video, Web ToolsPosted on October 28th, 2007
Editor in Chief (I flubbed the intro) of PC World Harry McCracken (personal blog) loves Flock, so much so that he gave me 2 minute of his time to tell me why. If you want to read his full review, it’s on PCWorld. Previously, I was unconvinced there was room for three browsers in my life, but downloaded it and gave it a whirl. The jury is still out, it takes me time to see if it will really integrate into my lifestyle. I received some feedback about it on Twitter, such as Dennis Howlett tweets “you realize Flock’s OPML import is utterly borked, rendering it almost useless?” amid a mixture of other responses.
One of the best part of the experience is the truly human experience, it’s so common that large and small companies are so visibly unhuman in their website experience. If you’ve any questions about flock, or need quick answers Evan Hamilton the community ambassador (who stepped in after Will Pate moved on) is available. Next time I see him, I’ll get him on video to find out how he’s enjoying being a community manager.
I met up with Harry at Eastwick Communication’s halloween party in Santa Clara, had a great time, met a lot of folks, pics are in flickr of the party.
Have you tried the latest version of flock? It has social features that hook into Facebook, Flickr, Blogging platforms, and Twitter.
Web Strategy Show: Jason Baptiste on the Social Media Press Release
Categories: Interview, PR, Video, Web Strategy ShowPosted on October 27th, 2007Although filmed a while ago, Jason Baptiste and I get together at Miami’s WeMedia conference, and discuss the future of the social press release. There are several PR firms that are adopting and implementing them, although there’s been some criticism about it. (Brian has a lengthy counter)
Upon further inspection, Brian Solis has a guide on the SMPR, but sadly, I don’t see a very clear one sentence definition.
I realy enjoy speaking with Jason from Publictivity, he’s clear, articulate and knowledgeable on his topic area, thanks for the patience on posting this video! I’m meeting with some potential folks who may publish my archived videos, stay tuned.
Upcoming Events: Play, Visible Path, Nokia’s Mobile Mashup
Categories: EventsPosted on October 27th, 2007Today (Saturday) I’ll be headed over to the soldout Play Conference being held at UC Berkeley, I’ll be on a panel with Google, Yahoo, and Mozilla discussing Asian internet strategies, I’ll be pulling what I learned from the many interviews I’ve done with CEOs, entrepreneurs, developers, strategists, and even analysts.
Monday, I’ll be at Visible Path’s event discussing how the social graph can be used to improve enterprises, knowledge sharing, and networking. Our panel “How to Apply Social Networks in the Enterprise” will include: Matt Beveridge of Motorola, Anthony Lye of Oracle CRM On Demand, Ross Mayfield CEO & Co-founder, SocialText. I’ll be applying my experiences running an intranet, it’s all very related.
I like Ross’s definition of a Blogalyst: “What’s a Blogalyst? Part blogger, part analyst and part catalyst.”
I was recently quoted for being bearish on an upcoming ’scripted’ reality show that is to appear on MySpace. Scripted or ‘forced’ authenticity isn’t always successful on the web, what happened to the lonely girl show after it was found out to be a set with actors? People can sniff out authenticity quickly, the filters are set to ‘high’. I’d rather see an existing popular show start to integrate social features in it, rather than it coming the other way.
Next week is Nokia’s mobile mashup event on Thursday, although my schedule is filling up, I’ll try to swing by. The problem with living in the valley is that there are just too many events. Exactly how many? I started this list of just ongoing events in the valley.
Sometime next week, I’ll let you know about an upcoming webinar I’ll be on with the talented Seth Godin, stay tuned!
Video: Favorite Canadian Web Companies (from Canadians). 2:30 min
Categories: Global Web, Interview, VideoPosted on October 26th, 2007
I was in Vancouver last month at the VidFest conference, I was able to attend a regular meetup with the local social media folks, people I really relate to. Over drinks, they told me about the unique web culture in Canada, in my usual form, I whipped out my camera and was able to get their opinion.
What’s the difference between Canadian and US web cultures? I asked them that too, see related video. I’ve traveled a lot, and it’s amazing to hear how culture, (beyond language) impacts web usage, the web is truly a representation of people and the culture they relate to.
In the spirit of Micromedia, or Mediasnacking, I keep these videos short and tight.
FaceSoft: What the VP of Microsoft Sales is thinking
Categories: Facebook Strategy, Web IndustryPosted on October 25th, 2007I’m following the Facebook and Microsoft deal closely, this really hammers home a few ideas
Industry confirmation
It’s for real people, finally, Microsoft is putting some skin in the game for the new web, other than the corporate only social computing programs they’ve put together (like Channel 8,9,10) as marketing tools this is the first deployment for the social media tool set. Secondly, this triggers confidence in the social media space as the future of communications, this is for real people.
Why this deal makes sense
I have the pleasure of sitting next to Charlene and we’re bouncing ideas of each other, her predictions (from Sept 24) on why this make sense were spot on 1) The experience and ability to execute online advertising is Microsoft’s strength and 2) For MS, a platform company, this is a key play to bring their slew of developers to now build on the new platform, the web platform. A concept I’ve been discussing for some time.
Why else does this deal make sense? 3) The application development can go both ways, utility widgets (not food fights) that glean information or bubble up network data will be prime suspect to be reused on existing internal apps for Microsoft. Such as desktop widgets on MS Vista, or widgets embedded nicely into sharepoint.
4) Identity: Next, imagine fluidity between enterprise collaboration tools. We already know that many Microsoft employees are using Facebook, and this is becoming an identity tool that Microsoft has always wanted (remember Passport?). Microsoft will experiment with connecting Facebook, looking for alignments to daily work and personal lifestyles, and combine where appropriate.
What the VP of Sales and Microsoft’s Advertising group is thinking
Ok, back to the primary reason why this deal works, it’s because of the advertising. I’m going to do the VP a favor and kick start her (or him) new sales book, here’s how I see the new additions:
Intelligence: User and Network Data from 42million opt-in members. Sure about one third of the profile information may be incorrect, but what we can learn from what they do is invaluable. Google doesn’t have this level of granularity, that’s why we’re more accurate. Your marketing and advertising dollars will be better spent with us
Demographics: If you’re trying to reach the educated, white collar, engaged, interactive, and growing segment of North America, Middle East, part of Europe and Asia then you’ll go with us. We can also segment by band or market to isolate and make your marketing spend effective. Need to reach a male in detroit that is conservative and single, yeah we got that.
Community in a box: Tired of trying to kick start your own community? Building those engaging social communities on your own web domain is a challenge, who wants to deal with IT or go through the motions of getting users to come? We’ve got an instant community you can interact with and engage with.
Brand Experiences: Advertising not enough? want to build true interaction around your brand and get customer and user feedback? We’ve got that too, you can purchase a sponsored group in Facebook for 100k, which is just a drop for most advertising spends at the Fortune 1000 level. You’ll get your own branded community, and we will cross promote from other areas in Facebook. Users will be engaged, self-identify, and get closer to your brand, and yes, you can deploy an eCommerce application in the group.Flexibility: With the smallest flyer, to a branded sponsored group, we can custom tailor any marketing initiative to correctly fit your needs, and those of the Facebook community.
Data and Reporting: By far the most important thing for you is to prove the value of your advertising and marketing dollars, by using our platform we’ll tell you who you are resonating with, when, and by how much. You’ll be able to course correct any campaigns in real time. Google doesn’t give you the personal and network data. Numbers are safe, and we know your boss is risk averse.
Holistic Strategy: Already deployed advertising campaigns on the web (maybe with us) we’ll help from a strategic media partner sense and take a look at your entire holistic strategy. Work with us to deploy on Microsoft properties, our search engine, affiliate partners, and Facebook.
But what are the risks?
With any shiny object the cool kids get on it first, play with it and the adoption process starts (read the theory on the personas of early adopters), over marketing and too many branded invasions (MySpace may be suffering from this) causes the cool kids to move away –with the platform provider unaware or not caring while cashing in– taking their groups with them. Over advertise and destroy the experience results in a ghost town of billboards, popups and targeted ads.
Although I’ve been quoted by the press before, today is a milestone as this was my first quote as an analyst in this Bloomberg piece answering why this deal makes sense, and nicely positioned at the top of the article.
Do you need to learn more?
Thinking of deploying in Facebook? then first read What the Web Strategist should know about Facebook. Also, I publish a weekly digest of the Social Networking industry (I add my insight as well), stay up to date and read these every Wednesday. Also, I’ll be keynoting this upcoming Facebook conference in December in Seattle, hope to see you then.
3 Min Video: What tech skills are needed in Asia? How do people find jobs?
Categories: Asia, Interview, VideoPosted on October 25th, 2007
I interviewed Maneck Mohan (who works for Recruit.net, an Asian job aggregator) to find out what skills are needed for the technology industry, his perspective, from Asia and specifically Hong Kong. Are you surprised by his answer? I’m not. How do people find jobs, and what would be more efficient?
I know I’m a rare case, but I’ve got my two last jobs primarily from blogging. Social media impacts the recruiting process, I saw a stat that indicates that 35% of all employers do an online search about their candidates. I know I do and encourage everyone else to “Google them” and see what comes up. You can learn a lot (aside from the personal stuff), how do they think, how do they write, how do they interact with others, how do they self-represent themselves and their employer.
The debate rages on: Should IT be involved in the business side of social media? or are they just support?
Categories: Enterprise Web, ITPosted on October 25th, 2007The conversation took a sudden turn in the comments of my recent post: ” The Challenges of Social Media in the Enterprise, why Business and IT need to align” I was attempting to highlights the danger of IT being separated from the business. (Please read this post to get context)
I really enjoy the conversation points, and they deserved to be highlighted then here, because this is a real world issue we are all dealing with. To be fair, there are voices from the web strategists on the business side, folks from IT, IT consultants, IT vendors, and there is even at least one CEO I know of that chimed in.
Here’s the highlights from the comments in the previous post:
IT should manage infrastructure only
Ian Laurie:
“Don’t you think IT has needed to align with business for a long, long time? I’ve seen search marketing campaigns, web site launches, PR initiatives and more derailed by stubborn or overworked IT folks.”
The truth is that, in most cases, IT should be managing infrastructure, not web sites. The smart marketer or strategist puts their site somewhere where they can control it, or gets a dedicated IT resource, or screams until the do.”
IT may not want to evolve
Jennifer agrees with Ian (and she’s posted about it on her blog):
“I want to believe that joining together is an option and I always offer them the opportunity to be involved, but at the end of day they either don’t want to be involved, refuse to open their minds to new thinking, or just don’t get it. The IT departments I’ve worked with just aren’t ready to take on websites because they’re still trying to get infrastructure right, so in that sense I have to agree with Ian”
IT is Business Support
In the comments, Jake McKee poses some very strong questions about roles:
“As mentioned above, IT (as a general “thing”) is primarily responsible for infrastructure. They’re the group that keeps the phones on, the internal mail servers functioning, and the firewall secure. They’re not, by default, business support. The same group of people dealing with firewalls shouldn’t be be designing Web sites and activities. The marketing people aren’t calculating production line times in their downtime; the in-house lawyers aren’t taking customers service calls between writing briefs. Why do we expect something different from IT?”
IT not resourced for this change; third parties may be needed
Dennis McDonald, an experienced IT consultant relates from his perspective:
“In many large companies it is precisely because corporate IT departments spend so much of their time and money maintaining infrastructure technologies that they are shortchanged when it comes to being funded with enough staff to support agile and business-oriented responses to rapidly changing business needs….
…It’s a vicious circle that in some companies has led to so much IT outsourcing that providing support for new technologies can’t happen without the involvement of outside contractors.”
From the IT perspective: “we think bigger, do you?”
Nik Butler shares from the perspective of the IT pros:
“First of all IT Departments, Heck IT any Support guys dont like clients carrying out random acts of software delivery and implementation because its the very same IT guys who are reached for when it stops working or wont share or wont export or wont do a whole host of things which werent considered when the “New and Shiny” product is implemented.”
IT: No lust here, business doesn’t see full costs
Wade Rocket acknowledges the desires of IT:
“Your typical IT guy does not “lust” to work on the sweet new Web site you’ve been inspired to create. He just wants to be sure that nothing awful is going to happen that will require him to sweat over the damn thing for hours (or days).”
One solution: develop a corporate plan, but who owns it?
Josh Maher gets strategic and suggests a sensible plan, but the ownership still isn’t clear:
“Any organization actually looking to deploy social media technology needs to have the IT department support them. Not doing so would be a waste of time, money, and resources. If you can’t get the support than you are selling the wrong people.
Step 1. develop social media concept
Step 2. implement pilot on your own time
Step 3. sell your management on the idea
Step 4. leverage you management buy-in to develop corporate strategy
Step 5. use corporate strategy to get funding and prioritization for IT
Step 6. bring project to IT for company wide implementation”
Len also draws upon his experience in his day job and how he works with his IT department, a must read coming from a technologist at a very large IT company.
Takeaways
In the end, what really matters? Is that business is moving forward.
Culture and relationships will vary in every company, on one hand if IT is too stubborn to provide or support social computing tools…the business will adopt them on their own, and there’s little IT alone can do about it. Banning the tools won’t work, especially if they involve customer communications.
On the other hand, if social media tools aren’t going away, IT has an opportunity to step forward and lead the tool selection and deployment for the business, these tools impact every business unit. My new CEO told me that IT should be renamed “Business Technology” and I think he’s right.
I hope I’ve represented the select quotes well, I spent at least 30 minutes reading and pulling this content together. For what it’s worth, I’ve worked in both IT and on the Business side of web projects.
So where does IT start and stop? Do they have a role here? What’s at stake for them not to step up to the adoption of social media by the business units?
Jobs for the Web Strategist- Copywriter (part time) at Carroll Enterprises, Inc. (Worcester, Massachusetts)
- Social Media Project Manager at Creative Labs, Inc. (Milpitas, California)
- Director of Social Media Marketing at PTC (Massachusetts)
- 2166 Global Digital Communications Manager at Ford Motor Company (Dearborn, Michigan)
- Online Connection Pastor at LifeChurch.tv (Edmond, Oklahoma)
- Search Marketing Analyst at OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network (Los Angeles, California)
About
Jeremiah Owyang
Silicon Valley
The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer, Forrester Research.
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