Archive for November, 2007

Are we moving too fast?

Categories: MicroMedia, Web IndustryPosted on November 30th, 2007

It’s my day job (and I spend most of my nights and mornings) staying on top of social technologies, being aware of them, experimenting with them, breaking them, and analyzing them for brands and clients. At least two days this week I worked 15 hours. If I can barely keep up, (I’m not the only one) so how do you?

Are we moving too fast? Leave a comment here, or on the media page.

Update Monday Morning: Thank you all for the kind words and support, I took a few days off blogging (although I had some other work to catch up on) but am now refreshed. I’ve made a resolution to try to look at the trends of the movement, and where I see traction, then I’ll take a closer look at the tools.

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Evangelism, Technographics, Culture, and Early Adopters…A lunch time conversation at Mozilla

Categories: Asia, Community Marketing, Europe, Events, Social MediaPosted on November 29th, 2007

(Left: Clever HR ploy or relaxed place to work? Mozilla’s “Beach” must keep vacation requests to a minimum)

Update: My host, Seth has responded from his community blog.

I’ve been an observer of the browser market for some time, since I live much of my awake live within one, and have been privy to interview the IE7 team on their launch, and also have been recently got a demo from Flock’s CEO (my thoughts on the opportunities).

Seth Bindernagel, of Mozilla’s Evangelism team invited me to swing by the Mountain View headquarters, I was in luck, as there were folks from out of town like Gen Kanai (Japan) that I’ve been wanting to meet for quite some time. As soon as I walked in the door, it was apparent these was a very, very savvy web team, so I wasn’t sure how much value I could add. Seth and I discussed in advance that success would be to get the teams to talk about the globalization of the web, how different users share products, and how social media impacts product adoption. You see for Firefox, and other Mozilla products, adoption is often done by customer word of mouth and referral –and blogs empower much of this.

There were a few main topics we hit: From Technographics (how different people use technologies depending on their needs) Early adopters vs Laggerds, and how Marketing and Product teams can improve to listen and talk. For most of these topics, each of the respective teams (Executives, Marketing, User Experience, Analytics, Engineering) had a response, so they were for the most part moving forward.

Technographics
Each culture shares differently online, and when you’re applying social media products (which encourage sharing) you need to be sensitive to understand if they are: creators, joiners, critics, collectors, consumers or inactives. Will internet users that just consume the web, and just visit a few websites a week be interested in the advanced functionality of Mozilla products?

Localization
The web is a fascinating medium, many companies think that by slapping on a .cn or a .de, doing some navigation localization will be enough to get product adoption…rarely is that the case.

Early adopters to laggards
For Firefox, many of the early adopters are the ones that are ‘sneezing’ the product to others, and Mozilla has been great reaching to those folks. But what happens when the early adopter market becomes saturated with Firefox and now the focus has to shift down the adoption curve. Should Mozilla rely on ‘traditional’ marketing and advertising?

Stay tuned, I did a couple of web strategy videos talking about social media, marketing in Japanese and European perspectives, and even how to improve products with community, so stay tuned over the next few weeks for those.

Oh, and one of the employees (was it John?) made some funny remarks how Firefox was the greatest thing for IE6 innovation, do you agree or disagree?

Posted in Asia, Community Marketing, Europe, Events, Social Media | View Comments

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How I use Twitter, and you?

Categories: MicroMediaPosted on November 29th, 2007

Everyone will approach Twitter in a different way, and should find the way that works for them, here’s my approach on Twitter:

[Rather than answering "What are you doing" reframe your thinking to answer "What's important to my followers and me?"]

How I use Twitter
While I am high volume twitter publisher, I try to add value, here’s how:

1) As a ‘shared feed’ reader. I’ll post up links of what I’m reading that I find is interesting in near real time, and give some commentary. I try to add value here, rather than adding to noise. So use me as a news filter.

2) As a chat room. We collectively work out problems, issues, and I gain insight to other people’s viewpoints. Often when conversations are just between a few folks, I shift to direct messages or email –sparing my community from hearing my minutia.

3) Event capture: Lately, when I attend an event (like Mark Cuban’s presentation at BlogWorldExpo, or Teresa’s webinar on Facebook yesterday) I’ll fire off the top nuggets I learn.

4) Listening tool: It’s interesting to find out what others are sharing and talking about, from very personal to big concepts. I frequently use the search tools around different topics to keep on top of what’s happening.

5) Traffic driving tool: I use it to direct people to this blog, sometimes (I’ll admit) a bit too enthusiastically. Google Analytics indicates this is one of the largest referrers of folks to my blog.

6) For work: When I’m conducting interviews or briefings that aren’t confidential, I’ll state who I’m speaking to and what I find interesting, if you listen closely, you’ll hear me tweet about other interesting findings from my job as a social media analyst. Also, I will announce new research, request interviews, and promote workshops, conferences and other services.

How I don’t use Twitter

1) Personal Minutia: I rarely talk about waking up, eating lunch, or starting my car, instead, I want to add value.

2) Excessive personal discussions: I’ve been criticized for not @replying at people, but it’s because I’m sensitive to not overload the community with a discussion that’s only relevant to a few people. Instead, I may direct message them, favorite a tweet, or shift to email. Update as of Sept 2008, I have sent/received over 4000 direct messages, out of 10,000 updates. So 40% of my communications shift to private discussions.

A few people have found me too noisy (filling up their stream) but there’s a simple solution, although I would hate to see it happen, one can simply opt-out. You’ve got to do what’s right for you and I understand.

If you’re a Web Strategist at a company or agency, read Web Strategy: What the Web Strategist should know about Twitter.

I hope to see you on Twitter, add me as a contact. Also, one of the keys to Twitter is to add people you know, it then becomes more like a chat room. Following me alone isn’t sufficient, see a list of active twitter accounts on Twitter Poster.

So, how do you use Twitter?

Recent Mentions About My Twitter Usage

Business Week: CEOs talk about who they follow on Twitter, see what CEO of Mzinga, and CEO of SocialText said.

Mashable: Twitter Professors: 18 People to Follow for a Real Time Education

ZDNet: The 10 best techies worth following on Twitter

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A Debate: Can the Social Graph be Monetized?

Categories: Events, Social GraphPosted on November 28th, 2007

Background info: Social Graph
If you’re not familiar with the social graph, it’s a representation of our relationships in social networks. There’s a movement underway to be able to separate our social graphs from the social networks, so we can ‘transport’ our friends whatever website we decide to use –without having to re add them. Start with Explaining what the “Social Graph” is to your Executives.

Last night, at a roundtable hosted by the Conversation Group and new company called Something Simpler we conversed > debated > argued if the Social Graph can indeed be monetized.

Naysayers
Tom Foremski also fears monetization and suggests that “I think this could be the Achilles’ heel of social networks–if you push the monetization too far–you will lose your networks.” Tom wasn’t alone, as Om Malik suggested that the only way you could monetize the graph was to ‘pimp your friends’.

Hopefuls
Yet John McCrea and I agreed, I suggested that authentic, efficient, word-of-mouth can evolve to information no longer being advertising. I’m talking about natural endorsements. How could this work? It happens every day. Many of my friends tell me which brands they like by simply wearing the logos, driving a brand car, to outright telling me what they like. Can this truly be different on the web? Why does it scare us so? I mean just last night, Salim Ismail from Yahoo’s Brickhouse (also on the panel) whispered into my ear, he had questions about my new Nokia N95, I gave him my clear and honest feedback –without being paid by Karl Long, Nokia’s top blogger.

Even if we agreed, aggregating the Social Graph isn’t easy
The challenges continue to mount, besides the fact we can’t agree if we should move forward, trying to implement will be a challenge. Aggregating the social graph (which is what we’re trying to do) has many obstacles, here’s a few from a recent blog post on the topic:

-Social Network vendors scared to open up and let customers and their relationships easily move to other networks
-Agreement needed between all vendors and participants
-Ownership over project and data
-Lack of general market awareness
-User adoption (sadly, I think most users are sheep)
-Likely, a need for a single login
-Creation and costs of third-party silo
-Privacy concerns: many European countries may not embrace
-Multiple security issues
-Legal and government may get involved

[When it comes to friends and marketing, trust continues to be a point of contention. Yet for every free service people rush to use, they forget that they are the ones entering the data, and that companies need to monetize. A balance must be struck as success will require trusted and authentic marketing]

Votes from around the room
If things weren’t cloudy enough, at the close, we went around the room to give our final thoughts and to answer “Can the Social Graph be Monetized?”. Chris Heuer was recording, and I hope he posts it up, yet I took a tally from the attendees.

Votes | Answer
3 – Users must engage with social graph first/ monetization comes later
2 – Brands will benefit by ‘pullling’ social graphs (communities) to their site
2 – Over advertising will kill it
1 – Embed in Value now
1 – Advertising (but must be honest) can work
2 – It can’t be monetized

Your voice wanted
Enough. Let’s turn it over to you. Can the social graph be monetized? Chime in the comments. What would make it work, what are the pitfalls. Can marketers make money in an authentic and trustful way using social networks?

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Weekly Digest of the Social Networking Space: Nov 28, 2007

Categories: Digest, Social NetworkingPosted on November 28th, 2007

I’m respecting your limited time by publishing this weekly summary, please send to your busy executives.

I’ve created a new category called Digest where you can start to track and access these going forward. Quickly scan the succinct and categorized headlines, read summary for analysis, and click link to dive in for more. You can subscribe to this digest tag only, which filters only these posts tagged digest.

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
I’m starting to hear of OpenSocial creep into strategies of many brands, including companies that are briefing me. Privacy continues to be a major concern as users feel uncomfortable with how their data is being used, expect this backlash to continue as marketing becomes more personal. Money is starting to trickle into this space, from IPOs of older and existing social networks.

Trends: The social web with the Giant Global Graph
Tim Berners Lee in his latest blog post, supports the Giant Global Graph (GGG), which suggests that what’s really important on the web isn’t documents or the data, but the relationships and people and topics that we’re interacting with. As we evolve and shift to the socialized web, we should expect to share content with peers online.

Privacy: Beacon cause concern, backlash forming
Colleague Charlene pointed out to me last week that she’s seeing how Beacon can really expose personal information to her online network –without her expressed consent. The problem may not be entirely on Facebook’s shoulders, as the third party companies that are partnered with this social selling program should be held accountable by allowing the service to be opt-in, and not opt-out. Respect of users is critical for success.

NewsFeed: MySpace to replicate Newsfeed –a nod to OpenSocial
In order for viral apps to spread among a community the newsfeed has been invaluable at Facebook. No surprise that MySpace appears to be gearing up to launch the same feature, giving developers in the upcoming OpenSocial movement an opportunity to quickly share.

Money: Classmates.com early Social Network to IPO
One of the oldest with a strong hold with baby boomers in North America is going to have an IPO –a rare exit strategy for web companies. They’re looking at a total 12M Class a Shares and Price at $10 to $12 Each. So that means a total an estimate of about $117.7 million after fees and expenses.

Advertising: China’s Alibaba seeks monetization
This recently IPO’d SMB online marketplace Social Network launched web advertising products. Alibaba, which calls this product Alimama (which has been tested) will have ties to blog advertising.

Performance: Yahoo 360 reliable, MSN Spaces not so much
With users spending an average of 20 minutes on some social networks, the need for dedicated website uptime is critical –especially when you’ve got paying advertisers or customers. This list compiles which websites have the best performance, where Yahoo 360 (an unremarkable social network) is followed by Facebook to lead the pack. MSN Spaces suffers from the most downtime.

Talent: Facebook is the “Cool” company
I live very closer to Facebook, and can drive to Google, and have friends working at both. While Google is still clearly the established leader, there’s been a few rumors being discussed as Facebook as the “hot” company to work for, and talent leaves. With Google’s stock prices being so high, many who join are interested in the great culture, and amenities, but the promise of ‘cashing out’ still is the desire for many Facebook employees.

Stats: LinkedIn and Facebook have largest growth
Take a look at the growth percent numbers of Facebook and Linkedin, both are way above the 150% mark. Myspace has single digit growth, but has an established foothold with a large audience. The other to watch? Disney’s club penguin, with small numbers, has over 150% growth.

Privacy: Youth not sensible, Political Crackdowns
Many of today’s youths are putting tremendous amount of personal information online without giving thought to future employers, colleges, fraudsters and the malicious. BBC explores the alarming trend of youth an their online footprint precedes their reputation. In a somewhat similar situation, the government of Syria is using information within social networks to track criminals –digital finger prints may just be easier to track.

Demographics: Facebook mainly women, US, UK, Canada
Great data here, this graph (click on image to see full size) indicates a breakdown of self-identified Facebook users, most from US, UK, Canada, and a majority are female. It would be great if the graph could further break down ‘penetration’ by country, so we can see which countries have the highest adoption rates.

Although I’ve been doing this digest for a while, I’ve recently become an analyst covering this space, so I need to know what’s happening. If I missed any stories (or if your company is doing something cool in this space) leave a comment.

Need to know more? Here’s 10 Web Strategy articles I wish you would read.

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Ten Web Strategy Blog Posts I wish you’d read

Categories: Reading SamplerPosted on November 26th, 2007

I’m answering a lot of questions and see myself referring to the same blog posts and concepts over and over. There’s a few posts that I recommend that you read, some of them were published a few months ago, but are starting to become very relevant. In fact, I’ll send this post to a few clients that need to get up to speed.

If you’re new to my blog, or need a quick review, please read these 10 posts:

1) The Three Spheres of Web Strategy (and the skills required)
It’s a role at many large corporations, a program and defines a scope. Find out what it means (the three spheres) the roles and requirements needed to do it right.

2) How to explain Open Social to your executives.
There’s a lot of geek talk about this new alliance between Google, MySpace, Six Apart, LinkedIn, Oracle, and Salesforce, but what does it really mean? I explain in clear English with my analysis.

3) How to evolve your Irrelevant corporate website
When I first introduced this concept at a conference, some audience members were not happy with me, they felt threatened that all of their energy fixing the corporate website will need to change. The earth turns.

4) Edgeworks Concept: How Social Media impacts Company Communications (Expanding upon Brian Oberkirch’s theory)
Are you in corporate communications or PR? This one is for you.

5) What the Web Strategist should know about Twitter
“Twitter, a scalable instant messaging service, is being used by early adopters in the tech industry, what is it? and how can it improve my communications?”

6) The Many Forms of Web Marketing for the 2007 Web Strategist
“This document catalogs the many tools and tactics available for corporate web strategy in 2007. Even if your strategy or resource limitations restrict you from entering all spaces, awareness of the changes in our digital landscape are critical.”

7) Explaining what the “Social Graph” is to your Executives
Similar to the one listed above, this explains the concept, again in boiled down easy to understand English.

8 ) Web Strategy: The Many Forms of Monetization using the Web
Here’s all the various ways that companies can generate revenues from their website.

9) The Impacts of Social Media on Corporate Customer Reference Programs
Traditionally, these programs have companies harvest customer opinions and hand back (filtered) to customers. What happens when customers talk to themselves directly.

10) Web Strategy (Advanced): Applying a Social Computing Strategy to the entire Product Lifecycle
For the corporation that is really advanced and wants to apply social media to all aspects of the customer experience. Do not attempt until your organization is ready.

In a few days, I plan to break down VRM and Intention economy, still doing some reading on it.

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Web Strategy Reading: Nov 28th, 2007

Categories: Reading SamplerPosted on November 26th, 2007

Video: KD Paine on Social Media Measurement, on Program Plans, Strategies, and Best Practices

Categories: Interview, Social Media Measurement, Video, Web Analytics, Web Marketing, Web Strategy ShowPosted on November 26th, 2007

Katie Paine shares how internal teams use measurement of social media, she’s been doing PR measurement for years, and has evolved to measure social media. She’s often told me “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”. Of course, trying to manage social media has been hotly debated in my last post.

She invited me to present at her metrics conference a few months ago, but new hire training took priority. She’s one of the top thinkings and practitioners in the space, so give her your full attention in this video. Learn more about her company KDPaine and Partners, thanks KD for your time.

You may remember the video blog, Web Strategy Show I used to run at PodTech (my previous employer), the show is designed for those who make decisions for websites, (I call it a Video White Paper) and I interviewed many of the top thought and practice leaders in our industry. These videos tend to be longer in duration, I use a tripod, and we discuss the topics in advance. This is different than my quick “street” video shots I do with my digital camera.

Having left PodTech, (a great place for content creators, as I get to take my show with me) I didn’t get a chance to publish all my tapes (there’s just a few interviews left), and put out a blog post to see if anyone wanted to publish them on my behalf. Cece, from On24.com, a webcasting and media company for some well known brands, immediately contacted me and followed-up. They have a quite a few other videos focused on IT and Marketing topics, on Insight24. They’ve even created a specific channel for the Web Strategy show.

Thanks to Cece and the very professional On24 team!

Posted in Interview, Social Media Measurement, Video, Web Analytics, Web Marketing, Web Strategy Show | View Comments

Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang

Archive for November, 2007

Are we moving too fast?

How I use Twitter, and you?

[Rather than answering "What are you doing" reframe your thinking to answer "What's important to my followers and me?"]

Ten Web Strategy Blog Posts I wish you’d read

Web Strategy Reading: Nov 28th, 2007

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