Archive for October, 2008

The 7 Tenets of the Connected Analyst

Categories: Analyst, Social MediaPosted on October 17th, 2008

Two weeks ago I crossed the one year mark as an industry analyst, in retrospect, I approach the role differently than others before me. Recently, Forrester published a report signaling evolution to the Connected Agency, and states that agencies of yesteryear will evolve from ‘pushing’ messages to ‘pulling’ interactions and faciliating conversations. I know the same evolutionary steps applies to analysts, but to be clear, these tenets are just my opinion, and doesn’t necessarily represent that of any others.

[Rather than analyze from afar, the connected analyst should listen, join, and lead the online discussions in the market they cover]

Summary
Social technologies allow individuals to connect and get what they need from each other rather than from institutions –including analyst firms. Rather than analyze from afar, the connected analyst should listen, join, and lead the online discussions in the market they cover. As a result, they will be a trusted first resource to their market, and a profitable investment to the firm.

The 7 Tenets of the Connected Analyst
The connected analyst should:

1) Conduct community based research
The connected analyst’s relationships to the market using social technologies that the research subjects, vendors, and end users are at links reach. The connected analyst will use social media tools to improve the research process by: finding topical hot spots, conducting social research, and then promoting the findings using the same tools. Learn how crowdsourcing helps some –but not all research activities.

2) Lead the online discussion
Industry analysts are paid to learn, think, and provide guidance, as a result a tremendous amount of tacit knowledge is left outside of the reports. In this Google world, thought leadership can be measured by links, and the connected analyst should use social tools to lead the conversations in their marketplace –not just behind “paywalls”.

3) Be an accessible and transparent public resource
The connected analyst listens, responds, and helps the market they are part of. The connected analyst could provide indexes, digests, wikis, and other online resources to help the market find information –include pointing to other sources. The connected analyst will provide a behind the scenes look at the research process, findings, and interesting meetings.

4) Allow for community feedback
The connected analyst knows they can always improve, and is on a mission to constantly increase their insight, as well as improve how they relate to others. The connected analyst should allow for public feedback, ackwnoledge valid criticisms, and improve.

5) Converse with competitors
The connected analyst is on a quest for knowledge, and recognizes that smart analysts are not just at their firms, as a result, the connected analyst will participate in public discourse will fellow analysts, and is always gracious and respectful. Also, when findings from multiple independent research firms point the same direction, this can only reinforce market direction.

6) Be human
The credo of some analysts is to be god, yet ironically, like all humans, come with many faults (just ask my wife). The connected analyst should quickly correct mistakes in public, learn, then grow. Oh, yeah, it also helps to have a sense of humor once in a while.

7) Be profitable
All of the above tenets make the connected analyst more relevant, a public thought leader, and therefore, more likely to be a first resource to their industry and clients. Although laborious, the connected analyst must be a profitable investment for the firm by extending their thought leadership, I make sure this is top of mind.

So how well am I doing? Not that great actually, looking back at my tenets, I need to improve on 3 of the 7 tenets: I should join more conversations where they exist, run a public survey to get market feedback on my efforts as an analyst, (maybe analyst watchers Carter Lusher or Jonny Bentwood will survey on my behalf) and I’m not as accessible and responsive to the market as I want to be, but I simply can’t scale more than I am now.

I look forward to your feedback below, what’s missing? Is this a good approach for analyst firms?

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Google’s Social Media Team Reaches to Agencies (and hosts Facebook, MySpace, and H&R Block)

Categories: Events, Social MediaPosted on October 16th, 2008

Left Image: The panel: Dick Costolo from Google, Paula Drum from H&R Block, Chris George from MySpace, and Tom Arrix of Facebook. See more pics on Picassa.

Did you know that Google has a social media team intent on reaching brands and agencies? I didn’t either, and it’s my job to know.

A few weeks ago I spoke at Google Chicago at an event for interactive agencies, Scuba Chris has the details, I presented my latest research The Best and Worst of Social Network Marketing followed by VP of Marketing Paula Drum of H&R Block. She was absolutely amazing as she toured the agencies through all the different social media programs that they’ve done over the past year, one amazing feat, at least to me was she was able to get several of her agencies to work together on projects –nicely done.

[Although this newly formed Google Social Media product team has big backing and a hot shot product set, to truly be a solution partner to brands and agencies, Google will have to deliver the right services, support, and reporting --not be a one off technology vendor]

Perhaps what’s really interesting is that Google, often known for being a bit quiet on the PR front, invited MySpace, and Facebook to participate on a panel with us. I moderated a panel that included:

Chris George- VP of Ad Solutions, MySpace
Tom Arrix – VP of Sales, Facebook
Dick Costolo – Head of Product Management, Google Social Media (Twitter)
Paula Drum, VP of Marketing, Digital Tax Solutions, H&R Block (Twitter)

You see, Google has a story to tell about how they can help brands with social media, while most overlook YouTube, and Orkut as marketable social networks, there’s quite a few tools they offer such as iGoogle, Google Friend Connect, and the protocol they lead called OpenSocial.

To be successful, Google will absolutly need to open up and engage in the dialog that they want to participate in, being part of the social media conversation where agencies, brands and vendors are chatting and jockeying for every day. Why? I asked H&R’s Paula if she’d ever hire an agency that didn’t practice what they preach, and she said “no”. The interactive agencies, and Google know the importance of participating.

I then asked the agencies how many of them actually eat their own dogfood, a few sheepishly were bold enough to admit they do not –yet sell the social media services.

The panel was amazing, I had Facebook, MySpace, and Google there, and H&R Block to represent the demand side (the most important side), I asked a few hard questions, such as why Facebook hadn’t joined OpenSocial, the panelist punted and said: “That was a question for Mark Zuckerberg” MySpace talked about media and self-expression, and did a good job responding to my questions on why their CTRs were so low. Facebook jockeyed back and retorted that their community is for “real people” and not fake personas. The two were having a good time despite some casual coughing during each others questions –all in good fun.

Out of everyone I met, the person I was the most struck with was Dick Costello, who was the founder and CEO of Feedburner which is now part of the Google portfolio, also impressive is Yvette from the social media team as well as her colleagues, Sarah Hoople, Google is known to hire the cream of the crop.

Until that day, I didn’t know that Google had a ‘social media’ team, and if I didn’t know (as an industry analyst) then chances are many others don’t either –Google, is slowly coming out of it’s shell, so watch these folks.

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Social Media Measurement: Dashboards vs GPS

Categories: Social Media Measurement, Web AnalyticsPosted on October 16th, 2008

Left Image: The dashboard in a car measures key health metrics, but the most important screen is the GPS, it tells me where I’m headed, where I am. and how to get there.

Yesterday, I attended Federated Media’s Conversational Marketing Summit in the gorgeous Presidio (my family has history there, my Grandfather was a First LT in the Airforce in WW2 and spent much time there) and moderated a panel on one of my favorite topics: Social Media Measurement. On the panel I had Rob Crumpler, President and CEO, BuzzLogic, Avinash Kaushik, Author, Blogger, Analytics Evangelist, Google, Shahar Nechmad, Founder and CEO, NuConomy, and David Veneski, representing demand from the brands at Intel. These guys were smart.

Although I wasn’t there, apparently the first panel on this topic broke the rules on panels (pushing their products) and didn’t give the audience what they wanted, and we had a fiery conversation. Essentially, we pushed why measure, starting with questions to the brand side, as you may know Intel, a culture of engineers takes measurement very seriously, then learned about the different types of measurement from NuConomy’s X Engagement measurement, Google’s Web Analytics, and Buzz Logic’s Influence measurement style.

[Although Social Media Dashboards tell us key health readings, to be successful, brands need "GPS" to find out where are you headed, where are you now, and where are you going. Measure against an objective]

I questioned them to prove that their methdology was really going to help brands know if this triggered a true conversion all the way to buying cycle –they group could not prove it except with one off anecdotes. This is not a fault of the panel at all, but a major challenge with social media marketing –it’s generally unproven.

Also, FM (who have fielded some impressive campaigns) launched a brand new metrics dashboard called the Conversational Marketing Toolbox that aggregates data from many conversational sources (including Twitter) and was one of the first aggregated dashboards that I’ve seen out of the box, I certainly will take a closer look. I’ve seen the measurement dashboards of quite a few social media measurement companies, and have also advised large brands on how to configure their own dashboards internally, and I’ve noticed a trend across many of them.

Everyday we prescribe the POST methodology (someone published some slides), essentially, we want brands to have an actual objective before they set off and and experiment with social media tools. The same applies here:

The one piece of insight I provide them, and now you, is that social media measurement is like driving a modern car. You may have a dashboard with all the lights, toggles, gauges, and metrics, but remember, the most important piece of data to have in front of you is the GPS screen. The GPS screen indicates where you want to go (your objective), where are you now, and how to get there.

Update: Susan Etlinger has key quotes from the panel yesterday that she published from the Horn group blog, I enjoy how she stays engaged in the conversation.

Thanks to Brett Crosby for taking these pics of the panel yesterday.

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Adapting to Change on the Reef

Categories: Challenges, Social Media, Web IndustryPosted on October 15th, 2008

Left Image: I was stunned by the diversity and co-existence of thousands of species at this tropical reef exhibit

Change is coming, whether you like it or not. Jive software, a company I formerly cover slashed 1/3rd of it’s workforce (see update below), likely in response to it’s own VCs suggestion to slash costs to become cash flow positive in the now famous RIP Good Times preso. Cutting ~~33%~~ closer to 20% of your body off to make sure you can still float in a few years is cutting very, very deep, no doubt customer service will be impacted, and a slow down in the product roadmap.

(Update: I spoke to Sam Lawrence of Jive’s marketing last night, and learned that the layoffs were actually closer to 20%, not the 33% that was reported, I’ve since updated the post)

Coincidently, I’m having a meeting with a VC over at Sequoia (have had this planned for a while) and believe me, the economy is one discussion we’ll be having and how it applies to the social media space. I’ll also discuss how this one is different from the dot com bust.

On Monday on my “day off” I went to the brand new California Academy of Sciences in SF, and was amazed and stunned by the phillipine tropical reef, one of the largest of that kind. There were thousands of species of fish within this exhibit, that many were co-dependent, co-operative, symbiotic and in some cases –parasitic.

I see the world through an ‘internet lens’ everything I see or do relates back to my passion, web strategy. I saw a quote that was gilded to the floor that completely resonated with me, and the changes in our reef.

[It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change -Darwin]

Expect to see more slashes and cuts, even from strong and intelligent companies who are gearing up for the long haul, In a morbid (but necceary function as an analyst) I’m keeping track of these layoffs, but also feature new hires and jobs.

Recommended Reading:
Here’s a few opinions and news that I’m reading that discusses the impacts of an economic downturn and it’s impact on social media, and the web and general. Really take the time to read these.

O’Reilly Media: Effect of the Depression on Technology

Video: Tech Players that May Benefit from the Financial Crisis

Richard MacManus of RWW What’s Next After Web 2.0

Adage: Even Search Not Immune to Financial Malaise

SFGate: Venture capital slashed $476 million in quarter

Fast Forward: In uncertain times, Enterprise 2.0 takes the stage

Direct Marketing News: To gain market share in a recession, try social marketing

Dave McClure: Fear is the Mind Killer of the Silicon Valley Entrepreneur (we must be Muad’Dib, not Clark Kent)

If you have any reactions to any of these articles, or want to submit a related one, please leave a comment below.

Here comes the humans to mess it all up...

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Weekly Digest of the Social Networking Space: Oct 15, 2008

Categories: Digest, Social NetworkingPosted on October 14th, 2008

In the age of meme trackers, aggregators, and news.google.com I hear from more people that this hand created editorial list I do each week is helpful. With so much content being created now, it just goes to show that editing (by humans) is more important than ever. One key for this digest to be successful is to link to anything that I think is important, regardless of source, and even competitive research –expect more of that as I go forward.

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly digest on the Social Networking space, which I cover as an industry analyst. By creating this digest (I started this over a year ago) it really helps me to stay on top of the space I cover.

I’ve created a new category called Digest (view archives). Start with the Web Strategy Summary, then quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read text for my take, and click link to dive in for more.

Subscribe to this blog in your feedreader, or use the email subscription box in the right column.

Web Strategy Summary
Interesting week, given the top of everyone’s minds is the financial changes in the global economy. I’m paying closer attention to the discussions, visions, and strategy to the social networks. While CEO of Facebook decrees a focus on growth –not revenue –MySpace launches a revenue generation ad aimed at SMB. For vendors and brands focused on the enterprise side, Forrester releases a report predicting a downturn in deal size over the next few years.

Vision: Zuckerberg focused on Growth –not revenue
Interesting interview here, as most companies during a recession want to focus on revenues, Facebook CEO wants to focus on growth. He can do this, as he has partners with deep pockets like Microsoft that can hold him out for the long term –they’re more likely to weather the storm.

Advertising: New “MySpace MyAds” aim at SMB
Reaching to small businesses MySpace launches new advertising product that allows them to self serve by buying –and creating –their own ads. The big challenge isn’t self service, but if traditional ads actually work on social networks. Read that article to hear my take on the different use cases between social network and the ‘hunt and gather’ approach we do.

Deployment: Kohler launches social media efforts
Kohler launches blogs, social network and ratings features in their latest ‘labs’ deployment. This appears to be a Pluck deployment.

Forecast: Forrester predicts reducing in Enterprise 2.0 Apps
Colleague Oliver Young is quoted in this latest RWW article pointing out how many enterprise software prices will reduce, including social networking software.

Layoffs: Jive lays off 1/3rd of workforce
In a response to the changing economy, Jive has asked 1/3rd of it’s workforce to move on, I’ve updated this list of companies that are having layoffs.

Funding: JS-Kit receives $3.6mm in funding
An embeddable social media JS-Kit company helps webpages get social has now received a small round of funding that could propel them for some time. The challenge? This is a very crowded space with larger encumbants like Pluck, Kickapps and a host of others that could repel them from the enterprise space. I’ll be briefed by them in a few weeks, more news to come.

Career: How to use social networking for your career
Whenever jobs are at threat, professionals will seek online tools to educate, connect, and find jobs, in this particular case, the NYT showcases some tactics to do all three.

Vision: Zuckerberg says people will continue to share
Citing Moore’s law, CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg claims users will continue to grow at an exponential rate. While too early, Forrester’s technographic data will continue to monitor and track this, it also depends on how you count sharing.

Music: Kiwibox launches music via Universal
Teen aimed Social Network Kiwibox, launches music features, partnered with Universal Music Group as well as premium content, I’m mentioned in this article.

Productivity: LinkedIn and Ning help corporations
The story for enterprise social networking software has never had a bigger opportunity than now, by cutting down email inbox clutter and helping customers connect.

OpenSocial: Ning allows developers on it’s platform
Ning, which is much like Yahoo Groups 2.0 gives third party application develoepers access to it’s large community of millions of users, in an effort to continue to grow their viablilty.

Analysis: Social network usage in UK slowdown
Hitwise reports that in the UK Facebook is the second top social network, and although still trending upward, a slowdown in adoption is being seen.

Opinion: Social Networks have jumped the shark
GigaOm has an interesting perspective that Hasselhoff’s niche social network has finally signaled the last straw for the buzz –and comments on Facebook’s CEO vision of growth before profit.

Culture: Churches use Facebook
Social networks seep into every social institution, why not religion? Religious groups and churches use social networking for finding, evangelizing and helping members self support.

Humor: What Annoys us with Facebook
How do you know you’re a popular generational icon? Blog posts like this that point out what people don’t like about Facebook.

If you’re a social network, or widget company, I want to know of your news, send me an email, or leave a comment below. Help me stay up to date.

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Compare and Contrast: Dot Com Bust and Web Two Point Doh

Categories: Challenges, Web IndustryPosted on October 14th, 2008

I’m spending my quiet time thinking about what lays in front of us, in fact, given the market data, there’s troubled times ahead not just for tech, but the US economy which of course impacts globally, as we’re major importers of goods from other nations.

I was part of the first web bust, at a high flying startup that had 5 splits then came crashing to Chapter 11 –twice. I tell my story about Exodus and remember it vividly, as without recalling history, we’re doomed to repeat it again.

In this post, I’ll compare and contrast how this was different from the last dot com bust in 2001, but I’ll do my best to provide an objective viewpoint –not one filled with panic.

Compare and Contrast: Dot Com Bust and Web Two Point Doh

VC funding
I don’t have access to a 10 year funding graph, but this article shows a rise in the number of silicon valley companies that were funded during the first web wave. While Techcrunch shows a noticable increase (a doubling from 05-08 in funding dollars from 2006-2008) in funding for the second wave, but shows VC confidence drastically lowering in 2008.

IPOs
In the first web wave, the exit strategy was IPO, where private equity was then made available to the free market, selling the ownership of the company to shareholders. In the second round, most companies exit strategy weren’t M&A but instead are acquisitions, or merger activity.

911 and Credit Crunch
This tragic day was the start of the collapse in the United States and other global partners. For the second wave, this was triggered by the credit crunch, perhaps very disastrous as well, and appeared to hit us out of nowhere.

Stock Drops
In the first dot come bust, many industries were reeling from the impacts of 911, (airlines come to mind) this set off a different kind of panic. We saw stock prices of dot coms bottoming out, then becoming penny stocks and resulting in a few companies collapsing. While some of the big players like Google have seen 60% devaluation of their share prices, most startups, being private, haven’t be hit in this way.

Market Performance
I’m not a financial analyst, so I can’t give much insight to this arena, but although the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index is currently at 9387 today, we forget that it was even lower at 7528 in October 2002, this Google Finance map (set to 10 years) shows.

Revenues
In the first web wave, while many were able to stand the test of time with actual revenues like Paypal, eBay, Yahoo, Weather, Google, Amazon, Linkedin, for many others it was about getting eyeballs, brand awareness, and pumping stock prices with announcements. Today, we don’t hear of many stories of companies who are now hand over first profitable, in fact, the largest players like Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks still struggle with defining clear revenue model.

Layoffs
The first web bust was known for the massive hacking of jobs, I remember many being layed off in silicon valley, and they fled to other tech centers like Seattle, Portland, Texas, and San Diego. I also recall that the number one migration of jobs in the valley was to become a realtor. I shifted to the banking industry (intranet) but would be somewhat hesitant today given all that’s gone on.

Innovation
The first web boom was funded by VC and private investors who had to put in a substantial amount of investments to get companies lifted off the ground, as a result, there were just a few players in each space. Today, development technology and open source have enabled companies to get launched from very little funding –sometimes none at all. Of course, this comes with a downside as you soon start to have too many players in one space, my list of community vendors caps out at 90 companies doing the same thing. Update: Jeroen de Miranda, points out in Twitter that today’s web delivery is more software as a service, not on premise software, making adoption faster, cheaper, in many cases.

Recruiting
Barbera Ling in the comments below nods to the point that recruiting will suffer now as it has suffered before. One contrast however is that now anyone can build an online reputation, and network with others with little technical skill using social media tools.

I’d love to hear your compare and contrast of the first web bust and what could happen in the next few years.

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How to have a Successful Briefing with me

Categories: AnalystPosted on October 13th, 2008

Briefings are a core part of being an analyst, this constant input fuels me with new ideas, examples, and vendors to recommend to our vast client base in our inquiry calls, speeches research reports, and even blog posts.

I want you to be effective and efficient in your communications, although keep in mind that each analyst may have their own preference.

Thanks to all who have requested briefings to meet with me, here’s a few things to know that’ll help you to quickly communicate your value proposition to me, so I can best understand your company. First of all, see this list of the dreamteam, in many cases, I may not be the right analyst to cover your company. In most cases, I’m limiting my briefings to 30 minutes rather than an hour, if you can’t communicate your value in that time, we’ve other issues to consider. Powerpoint slides are good, but only as a supplement for discussion, allow me to ask questions, I can learn far more when it’s a dialog. Rushing through your presentation just to make sure you hit each slide isn’t going to do you –or me– any good, I can read slides on my own.

Lately, my schedule has gone awry, (my lack of blogging is one indicator) and I’m on average 30 days out for most briefings. I’m very unlikely to blog about your announcement for a few reasons: 1) I leave that for the smart bloggers with far more traffic and press folks to break news, but I’m happy to provide them with 3rd party quotes 2) In most cases, I just don’t have the time. With that said, I’ll likely link to an announcement from Twitter if I think it’s relevant (so be sure to include URLs).

As an analyst, I serve the Interactive Marketer at Enterprise class companies, and I primarily focus on social media, with a primary focus on social networks, communities, widgets therefore, on a briefing, I’m going to filter your company that way. I’ve been getting quite a few briefing requests, I hope this helps you to understand how to best approach me.

I really look forward to learning about your company, I hope these suggestions help make your time –and mine –efficient and effective.

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Layoffs in the Social Media Space

Categories: Career, Challenges, Industry IndexPosted on October 10th, 2008

With the financial crises impacting not just US but global markets, as an industry analyst focused on social computing, I’m going to watch how this impacts layoffs in the tech and social media space.

While I take no joy in seeing jobs get cut, I do feature recent ‘on the moves’ and have links to many job sites related to social media. It’s only fair that I point out the new hires as well as the exits.

To be clear these layoffs aren’t just hitting the social media space, but will hit other industries. Most recent at the top, in some cases these are hard to confirm as sources from company feed rumor sites, so take them as you will.

Layoffs in the Social Media Space

Oct 14: Jive lays off around 20% of worforce

Oct 13: Redfin lays off 20% of workforce leaving 75 (link via TomCummings)

Oct 10: Fast Company, which has social network for website and popular videoblogger, lays off 20

Oct 10: Seesmic, a video conversation player lays off 7

Oct 6: eBay to lay off 10% of workforce to streamline after recession.

Oct 3: Gawker blog network lays off 19, and brags about it.

Leave a comment below with a submission, or watch these tweets with the tag #techlayoffs, there are three there now

Techcrunch has a layoff tracker, it’s like we’re seeing f-d company all over again.

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Web Conferences: Does Your Booth Standout?

Categories: EventsPosted on October 10th, 2008

I go to a lot of conferences, more than I want to admit. Part of my job is to cruise the vendor rows and talk to folks to learn about what new offerings that they have. It’s rare that I ever see a booth that grabs my attention, forces me to take a picture and then share it with many others.

Last week at Online Market World in SF, I stumbled upon Doba appears to be an inventory middle-man that connects ebay sellers with companies with merchandise allowing for a marketplace where the sellers don’t have to have physical inventory, I guess in a way this is a digital wholesaler.

Have you been to O’Reilly’s Web 2.0 expos? There are hundreds and hundreds of vendors crowded in Moscone West, it’s an absolute jungle and I hide my badge so folks don’t see I’m from an analyst firm and get stopped every few feet. When the marketplace gets this crowded and everyone who walks by is a prospect, companies will need to stand out in order to get noticed.

Click on the image to read comments, the Chris Knudson of Doba ended up responding to me, a clever group.

Help me caption the above photo, leave a comment below, have fun with it.

Update: see this gallery of other creative outdoor advertisements.

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Thanks!

Categories: ForresterPosted on October 8th, 2008

Image: The Mother Ship: Forrester Research, HQ, 400 Technology Square, Cambridge, Ma (see Google map)

There’s a lot of people behind the scenes at Forrester that are supporting the public facing analysts, and they often have thankless jobs. I want to take a moment to recognize them: Among them include the Inquiry team that helps to coordinate client calls between analysts and clients, a very difficult job: imagine trying to coordinate the schedules of over 2500 clients and 300 analysts, this isn’t easy, and I forget to be thankful for their support. The Briefing team helps to schedule key meetings with vendors, also a challenge given there are thousands of companies and their PR firms that are trying to connect with analysts, this takes a considerable amount of effort. The PR marketing team helps to provide best practices, thought leadership, arranges speaking engagements and sets analysts up with press and media interviews. Account teams have a difficult job too, they bridge research and clients, and ultimately need to make sure clients are happy. I’ve spent long hours with patient IT staff who have to deal with my abused laptops, and there’s also a team of Researchers who really hold down the fort, and I’m thankful, for their support. The biggest thanks is to my coach Christine, who has been clearing my schedule back for some time to focus on reports and client deliverables, thanks.

To all of these groups who are rarely talked about in public, but are critical to our success, thanks!

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Weekly Digest of the Social Networking Space: Oct 8, 2008

Categories: Digest, Social NetworkingPosted on October 8th, 2008

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Web Strategy Summary
A broad range of offerings, media deals, and announcements have taken place in the last two weeks. Of note: MySpace launched a significant media player launch, SocialText has a complete redesign of their enterprise platform, and Slide cuts a media deal with some big brands.

Media: MySpace launches music service
In it’s latest announcement, MySpace builds partnerships with key media firms to extend their reach into the social networking space. Forrester data shows that around 1/3 of youth in social networks use those tools to find new types of music. MySpace launches music service, gets one billion plays in a few days.

Launch: SocialText 3 enterprise collaboration
SocialText launches new version of enterprise tool with social networking features, twitter like tools, and collaboration tools. I added them to my big bad list of community platforms.

Media: Slide cuts deals with media companies
This partnership gives Slide cuts access to firms likel with CBS, Comcast’s E! Entertainment channel, NBC, Time Warner’s Warner Bros., and other media companies for content repurposing –smart move.

Deployment: Drupal is ubiquitous
You’d never never know till you’d see this gallery of websites that are Drupal based.

Analyst: social network campaigns flop
Gartner says half of social media campaigns will flop, I’d say the number is likely higher. In my recent report, 15/16 brands failed.

Analyst: Companies adopt communities
More Gartner analysis says “More Than 60 Percent of Fortune 1000 Companies With a Web Site Will Connect to or Host a Form of Online Community by 2010″. A pretty accurate measurement, but we should assume that many more communities will be created organically without the brands involved at all.

People: Facebook founder aims for enterprise apps
Facebook founder splits off to build enterprise and utility features, will use Facebook’s platform.

Deal: Friendster allows Facebook apps
Friendster announces support for Facebook applications, which triggers even more relationships in this social web ecosystem. Yet, we must ask, what of OpenSocial?

Usage: Facebook to overtake MySpace?
Facebook set to overtake MySpace in the US within a month according to Royal Pingdom analysis. Yet hitwise shows MySpace is still on top, although Facebook growing quickly.

Productivity: Facebook is a time sink –and job killa’
Employers in Ireland use Facebook to catch workers that are idle at work.

Localization: More languages for Kickapps
Kickapps adds more languages to it’s platform extending it’s global reach for it’s many media clients

OpenSource: Elgg gets coverage
Interview with Elgg team, on creating your own social network

Recruitment: Facebook helps to hire spies
Facebook being used to recruit ’spies’, shhhhh.

Mobile: Upgrade for Facebook on iPhone
Facebook launches upgraded iPhone application, making social geeks rejoice around the states.

Humor: WWPF (What Would Palin Facebook?)
Internet culture ties with political culture for new outputs, this fictional screenshot says it all.

If you’re a social network, or widget company, I want to know of your news, send me an email, or leave a comment below. Help me stay up to date.

Thanks to @SteveKayser who noticed a typo.

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Four Social Media Questions You Must Answer During an Economic Downturn

Categories: Challenges, Social Media, Web IndustryPosted on October 7th, 2008

Most of my readers are interactive marketing professionals, they are experimenting, using, or living in the social media world –for some, it’s part of their very being and defines them professionally, and personally.

Social Media (which has gained popularity in the last few years) has never stared down an economic downturn, My CEO sees at least three to four quarters of reduced technology spending, and Chris Kenton sees even a more dire situation.

Four Social Media Questions You Must Answer During an Economic Downturn Whether you’re a CEO of a social media company, a professional blogger, or a community manager at a large corporation, you’d better be able to answer the following questions:

1) Is social media usage going to increase or decrease during a recession by consumers? In the last tech bust, I remember many tech professsionals going back to school, becoming real estate agents, or fleeing silicon valley, will migratory usage patterns evolve in social media? Yet even if usage of these tools increases, yet do these consumers have buying power?

2) Will brands and marketers increase spending on media that is generally unproven? Blog network Gawker recently laid off staff in anticipation of advertising dollars dried up, the key word here is anticipation, it hasn’t fully hit yet. Anecdotal case studies are available everywhere about social media, but hard ROI measures are hard to find –will marketers lean on the guaranteed 1-5% return on traditional advertising?

3) Will these be tools to improve communiation and collaboration within the enterprise? Time to think internally here, with travel prices going up, companies reduce travel plans, will these tools increase productivity, or will face to face meetings still prevail? Are these tools effective in communication beyond the ’shiny’ factor?

4) Will the economic downturn force efficiencies to occur by shedding companies that lack innovation? The dot com bust was considered a market correction, is it now time to get rid of the new wave of dot coms that are missing vowels? or are the operating costs just too inexpensive that they will still thrive –and keeping markets crowded.

I’ve lightly weighed both sides above, I have my ideas, but would love to hear your thoughts below, I’ll state mine too.

Update: this post by James Duthie has thorough analysis, a must read.

Posted in Challenges, Social Media, Web Industry | Comments

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The Silicon Valley Transplant CEO

Categories: Funding, VCs, Web IndustryPosted on October 6th, 2008

I’m extremely busy these past few weeks, and you’ve noticed a slow down in my posting (have you met our other analysts?), so I’m going to do a series of short blog posts, unlike my longer meaty posts.

I met with Ali Partovi, CEO of iLike today, who told me about a recent trend of what I call “Transplant CEOs” that have addresses in Silicon Valley, are often here for meetings, but their company is located in other tech hubs like Seattle, Portland, Texas, Canada and beyond. Why this pseudo address? two reasons:

1) Running a company in silicon valley is expensive, talent tends to be flighty, and cost of living is high. In other cities, take Seattle for example there’s only a handful of web companies, keeping churn to a minimum.

2) Clients, investors, and prospects tend to want their leaders to be connected to silicon valley so having the CEO in the area makes sense, even if he or she just has a second house here.

It’s amazing that even in this day an age of the digital natives, that location still is important. Well for some this isn’t anything new, way back in 2006 (I know many of you weren’t even born then) the NYTimes had a article showing that most startups had to be 20 minutes driving distance from VCs.

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Meet Forrester’s Social Computing Analyst Team

Categories: Analyst, ForresterPosted on October 1st, 2008

I’m writing this from 30,000 feet as I fly back from Chicago to SF, it took nearly 2 hours to clean out my inbox, and that’s not even my personal one.

Thank you for all the wonderful suggestions and kudos for hitting my one year mark, without a doubt the demand for social computing research, inquiry (client calls) and vendor briefings is increasing.

If you can’t tell, we’re working overtime to make sure our clients are happy and we’re completing research. Frankly, I’m a bit behind on where I need to be, and am putting in extra hours to get caught up on the wave report, take excellent care of my clients (I really love helping folks), being part of the conversation, and watching –and commenting on the industry.

You’ve probaly noticed a decrease in my blogging and believe me, I’m learning so much and have a lot to share, but things are getting pretty busy, I’m getting close to the burn out stage.

Some vendors are getting impatient with me as my briefings dates are getting pushed back to Nov, travel has been heavy, and I go to Japan, then Dallas this month for Forrester’s Consumer Forum.

So, to be upfront, I want the market to know I’m not the only guy, in fact, Forrester takes this space very seriously, (learn about our first team meetup), and with the recent acquisition of Jupiter Research, and I’d like to introduce to our other analysts focused on this space:

Josh Bernoff: Do I really need to introduce him? He’s one of my favorite people at Forrester, and we’ve become friends, if you’re looking for the strategic view, he’s the guy, and has a long background in media. Like me, Josh serves Interactive Marketing professionals

David Card: Hailing from Jupiter, David has a strong background in media, and when we had drinks a few weeks ago, it was quickly apparent he’s very quick and will speak his mind –as an analyst should.

Laura Ramos: With a strong focus on B2B Marketing, Laura gets how companies (esp tech) need to approaching social computing in a strategic web, we’ve done a few projects together, and have more to come.

Emily Riley: The reports I was the most impressed with from Jupiter were Emily’s, she and I have covered quite a few of the same topics but our insight and recommendations were very similar.

Steven Noble (APAC): Having recently joined the Forrester team, Steven is in Australia and covers the Asia Pacific space, covering marketing, and has a strong focus on social computing. Also like me, he serves the Interactive Marketing professionals

Oliver Young: Is one of the top minds when it comes to Enterprise 2.0, and we frequently talk in the Foster City office. He’s a strong analytical mind, and can spot weaknesses quickly, if you’ve enterprise focused products, talk to him esp if your a Vendor Strategy Professional.

Rob Koplowitz: Also covers the Enterprise 2.0 space, and has a strong background in serving the Information & Knowledge Management professionals

Gil Yehuda: Also new to Forrester, Gil has impressed me with his passion for enterprise 2.0 and how it impacts internall communications. He practices what he preaches and coordinates many of our internal discussions on the topic of social computing. Gil serves Information and Knowledge Management professional.

Mary Beth Kemp (EMEA): Her coverage succint, her wit and charm impressive, Mary Beth has a strong focus on serving Marketing Leadership professionals.

Rebecca Jennings (EMEA): Has done quite a bit of social computing research from a European aspect –and has quite the cool accent. She serves the Interactive Marketing professionals

Nate Elliott (EMEA): Although I’ve never met Nate, we chatter on Yammer, Twitter, and the occasional email. He’s an expert at marketing and advertising, and has a strong nose for social media, Nate’s based in Germany as I last recall.

Suresh Vittal: Although he serves the direct marketer, Suresh is now picking up the brand monitoring space, which would of course include companies that are measuring, monitoring, and reporting on social media.

Barry Parr: When I have questions about media, I’ll turn to bay area local Barry, as a former media executive, Barry knows how media –and technology are intersecting. I hear he also cooks an award winning cheesecake.

Mike Gualtieri: Mike and I started Forrester at the same time, and as an analyst serving the Application Development & Program Management professional, he’s published research on Software, Mashups, SOA, and website infrastructure. I remember our white board talks on AJAX when we were in training, I’d turn to him first if I had questions on the technology side of the space.

Many other analysts: I’ve noticed that the social computing topic is crossing over to other analysts that cover other roles, most recently, I was impressed with Sarah Rotman Epps report on the intersection of social media and traditional media companies. It doesn’t stop with her, there are over 300 reports with the keyword social computing, and over 600 reports with the keywords web 2.0.

There’s a ton of other folks that I didn’t mention, such as researchers, consultants, and our management team, inquiry team, briefing team, marketing, pr, and of course helpdesk!

Also, did you know our CEO George Colony is blogging? He’s on Twitter too, and as I’ve mentioned before, we’ve hired a community manager, John Cass, find him on Twitter.

Hmm who did I miss? I’m sure a quite a few others.

Some have commented to me that I link a lot to Forrester (I recently learned that I’m the fourth top referrer to Forrester.com) , but I link to many other firms too, and point to any research that’s relevant in my space.

Key takeaways: I’m doing all that I can to serve the industry, but I’m just one guy, that’s having a hard time scaling. While I may be very visible, Forrester takes this space seriously and has the all-star team that’s watching this space, get to know us!

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One Year as a Forrester Analyst

Categories: AnalystPosted on October 1st, 2008

Today marks my one year anniversary as an industry analyst at Forrester. It’s been an amazing journey so far, from conducting research to presenting it, advising clients, traveling the world, and following my passion for the web. I’ve learned a lot, messed up a few times and self-corrected (or have been market-corrected), met amazing leaders in the social space, and have helped brands and vendors move forward. Analysts are known for being critical (both positive and negative) of their market, and I certainly have given my fair share, now’s the chance for you to critique me back. I’d love to know what you think I could do better to improve as an analyst, a blogger, and as a professional, I’m listening.

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