Archive for the ‘Collaboration’ Category
September 4, 2008
Events at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in the US have seriously electrified the blogosphere and comments pages across the Internet. More accurately, it has been Sarah Palin’s introduction to the Republican ticket and her acceptance speech which has created some very serious seismic activity, outdoing even Steve Jobs and his iPhone hyperbole.
From Yahoo!’s poll of polls and TechPresident through to Politicaltrends and Wonkosphere, the measurement of online commentary and sentiment has never been so prolific or detailed. In short, the sudden reframing of this campaign has crystalised some very stark differences between all four candidates across the two tickets, effectively polarising general opinion, and more importantly, reducing the independent vote to a negliable number.
The result? A massive influx of individuals prepared to step forward and be counted by their words, many of whom, it might be assumed, have previously been observers (readers) rather than contributors.
This is a digital scream-fest, consuming the worlds of both UGC and professional media. Every story, video, sound-byte attached to the RNC, and Palin’s speech in particular, is being hammered by both liberals and conservatives with a blend reasoned opinion and out-right vitriol.
And the result? An immediate change in online sentiment, with McCain racing to intersect Obama’s lead. Palin’s introduction has been a game-changing event, for better or worst, and online momentum has resoundingly swung in the Republican’s favour. It is this real-time measurement of opinion (though skewed in so may ways) which acts as a very powerful barameter on issues, personalities and tone.
It also puts into perspective the relatively static social media space, in particular Facebook and MySpace and the weight previously given to such stats as Obama’s and McCain supporters (Obama outnumbering McCain more than 5 to 1 on Facebook and more than 6 to 1 on MySpace).
No doubt there is some correlation between funds raised and friends enlisted, but the true test seems to be whether these ’supporters’ are resolute enough to go in and fight for their candidate as the two party machines open up all guns in a broadside battle? The Palin factor was the opening salvo.
August 31, 2008
Curiously, the innovation investments made in the spaces of search and social media seem to be paralleling one another. Both areas are increasingly recognising need to emphasis quality over scale.
In other words, both platforms have matured in recent years to a point where their diffusion and ubiquity has reached a scale where their value, in terms of search results and the quality of personal networks, is arguably diminishing.
In other words, a tipping point has been reached where diminshing returns are setting in. A response to this system failure (in relative terms), is an increasing range of innovations to do with vertical search systems (or databases) and subject or audience-specific social networks have emerged. Interestingly, the one subject area which is straddling both is health - witness the beta of Google Health and Health 2.0 social networks like Patients Like Me and Organised Wisdom.
In the case of social networks, current set-ups simply do not offer the prerequisite integrity to give members confidence in crowd ‘wisdom’. Every network has ‘influencers’, but in a large scale operation like Facebook or MySpace, their influence diminishes over time for two key reasons: fewer people have confidence in their opinion (diminshing credibility), and they are seen to be less likely to resemble the average member as the network grows.
Further, as the number of nodes in the network increases, the search to confirm an individual’s expertise in a particular subject area becomes more laborious, presenting a real barrier to the ongoing efficiency of the network as a conduit for reliable information. Enter the emergence of specialist social networks.
In the case of health, the trend is being spearheaded by primarily by patients, or at the very least, individuals affected by a particular illness, either directly or via friends and family. This commonality of experience, told through stories, opinion and advice, represents a powerful influence on individuals who feel isolated through a lack of support, or overwhelmed by a plethora of professional advice.
To breach the gap comes social media technologies and platforms operating within a far more specialist environment. As the following graph illustrates, the sources most preferred by people seeking answers on matters of health include the Internet and doctors, followed at a distance by relatives/friends/co-workers.
In this research (iCrossing, January 2008), the Internet was most nominated because it had the ability to put people in contact with individuals and/or their personal stories telling of their own experiences. It is this desire for first-hand knowledge which so completely overwhelms every other potential source of news, and for that matter, comfort.
The Health 2.0 phenomenon represents social media’s ‘higher calling’, far removed from the banalities of current systems.
July 24, 2008
Putting aside practical issues such as fact checking and the legal necessities required to avoid contempt of court, the winds of change within the professional media circuit clearly flag that publishers and other outlets can no longer afford to sustain products which are produced exclusively by professional journalists, writers and film crews.
Instead, the mix is increasingly being diluted by social or community contributions. These ‘contributions’ are, more often than not, appearing as direct content pieces, but emerging is another type of contribution - that of personal data, including editorial preferences.
In effect, the media’s expertise in news gathering and analysis is now being de-constructed to follow several agendas at once, each serving key customer segments, rather than the one agenda which has previously been set by the outlet’s editorial team.
A very recent example of this trend is the association now developing between the New York Times and LinkedIn. Aggregated data on occupations, geographic spread and other details are being used by the paper to make its editorial coverage more relevant to readers, or in this case, members of LinkedIn.
There is nothing unusual in media outlets market researching their audience to determine profiles and story preferences, but linking part of its editorial coverage to a dynamic membership base like LinkedIn, where profile characteristics are changing every day, if not every hour, is a new proposition in audience engagement. And this time, the information is incredibly granular, as opposed to the handful of traditional psychographic segments so loved by market researchers.
A sudden surge in membership from a certain industry vertical, for example, (the above image highlights energy professionals) would flag a requirement to re-evaluate existing reporting around energy issues, and perhaps force the paper to re-focus its efforts in this area. Hypothetically, several such insights or changes could emerge during the day, placing considerable pressure on resource allocation to capitalise on new members and secure their loyalty by demonstrating an immediate insight into issues relevant to their profile through editorial coverage.
In dealing with an influx of new readers who are engaged in energy production, for example, the paper could produce a special feature on carbon trading systems around the world, canvassing a range of professional opinions (including some from LinkedIn members!).
In broader terms, this dynamic transfer of audience details (in aggregated form) provides the media outlet with two positive outcomes. Firstly, it secures a more engaged audience, improving retention and acquisition metrics. Secondly, advertisers now have fantastically improved methods of validating audiences, which in turn creates greater value for sponsors and brands.
But before any of this can happen, media of all persuasions must recognise that data strategies, particularly those around audience profiling, including the identification of behavioural characteristics and preferences, are needed to not only negate the risks and general loss of control associated with UGC, but to go some way towards repairing an arguably broken revenue model.
July 6, 2008
Digital advertising is a peculiarly asymmetrical place. When the effectiveness of one piece in the strategy begins to wain, another piece is devised or conceptualised. The coincidence of a decline in the online display market currently (or at least its confirmed slow-down) with the emergence of social media (and associated applications), as a panecea for this increasing budgetry void, should not be lost on anyone.
Yet in the haste to create a new poster child (mobile is next), a healthy dose of scepticism has gone MIA. This is not to say social media technologies are a convenient but ineffectual fade - far from it. This maturing of the Internet to include peer networking, open sourcing and meta-data architecture is clearly the genesis of a transformation in communications which will impact every facet of human endeavour in the long-term.
Like Grandpa Jo said about Wonka Vision: “It will change the world.”
Yet, what has been the overwhelming response of the commercial world to this obvious inflection point in world history? In short, to give itself a choice between either a CPM or CPC deal! Is this as good as it gets?
As previously discussed on these pages, the context of most social media platforms experiencing high levels of activity and recency is one of High Context, where networks of individuals discuss, debate and share information of a personal and private nature. There is simply no room for advertising and its ROI considerations, no matter how sophisticated the targeting.
This is not to say there is no allowance for commercial entities to engage a market via social media architecture. In fact, if done with consideration of its High Context pedigree, a commercial social media channel can have some extraordinarily positive implications for the brand.
Faced with an option to design and build a customer-centric social network, or at the very least, pay good money to participate in a more broadly designed social paltform (like Facebook), the organisation must recognise the very investment in technology which empowers customers to ‘collaborate’ is already an implicit act of brand reinforcement.
In other words, the organisation is now in the game but should play in the backroom, mindful that being subtle in a High Context environment will be always be recognised by participants; there is simply no need to force the issue.
The challenge, however, is to avoid building short-term ROI templates around these social media investments, where next quarter’s sales figures have a higher priority than longer-term customer retention issues. If this can’t be avoided, then the advice is simple: avoid social media altogether as a marketing mechanism.
If, however, the organisation is prepared to commit to social media architecture as part of a broader CRM and Customer Experience Management (CEM) strategy, then consider the following points as a guide to building the required dynamic:
- Can the platform be designed around the particular needs of customers as opposed to a list of wants?
- Recognise that a customer base fragmented by geography, socio-demographics, technology and even psychology will enrich the platform, and hence provide greater value back to customers. Fragmentation/segmentation like this is a strength;
- Always provide the option of anonymity without penalising the user through a lesser experience. The architecture’s priority is to encourage collaboration between customers, not to probe into a customer’s identity;
- Insist on transparency with regards to issues and opinions expressed by constituents. The more diversity of opinion, the higher the incidence of collaboration;
- Encourage storytelling around experiences before encouraging customers to open their wallets;
- Be prepared to intervene in issues by way of professional advice; never let matters go unresolved.
If these points suggest the organisation is expected to make a commitment to understand a customer’s lifestyle and their own networks, then that is indeed the right conclusion. If, however, the resident CMO is scared of the ‘C’ word, then for the sake of not wasting everyone’s time, the CMO should also drop “social media” from their lexicon as well.
June 5, 2008
Driving along the freeway, near perfect conditions, and the speedometer reads 120km/h in a 100km/h zone. An oncoming car flashes his headlights and your immediate reaction is to reduce speed and continue cruising slightly under the 100km/h limit, knowing there are police ahead monitoring the traffic.
It’s a common scenario of how shared information between ‘consumers’ leads to a better outcome for some. Other drivers in the same vicinity, who don’t have that knowledge, wont be so lucky.
Some drivers who are particularly paranoid about being booked (and don’t want to slow down!) will most likely surf the available radio stations to get a traffic report in the vain hope there is news about a potential radar trap on their way home from work.
In this case, knowledge about a situation hinges on the economies of search, which in this case proves to be very inefficient.
Now bring in the ability for an individual or organisation to push information to a network of like-minded people, all of whom would benefit from having near-instantaneous knowledge about an event or situation at a time when they can most profit from that knowledge.
Further, even knowing your network of like-minded individuals are increasingly active at a certain time (an in a certain place) only escalates your own awareness that you are likely to profit, and are therefore more engaged in the network’s activity, ie, the information broadcasted by members. The visualisation of a consumer network through mobile location-based services (LBS) would do just that.
The ability of a customer entering a shopping mall, or even visiting the town’s commercial centre, to maximise the value from their shopping dollar is ultimately constrained in this regard by a deficit in knowledge - not knowing the pricing of all competing products or not knowing where all the sales events are located.
A mobile channel which pushes this information out to registered users not just once a day but potentially every time a retailer decides to offer a discount to shoppers in the immediate vicinity for the next hour (a micro-sale model, for example), is now challenging the three key issues which can optimise the value acheived by consumers and retailers in a physical retailing space - perfect knowledge about their surroundings, the efficiency of search and intra-day price adjustments to take advantage of the crowd’s spend-profile.
What Google did for search, mobile will do for retail. It’s as simple as that.
June 3, 2008
User generated content (UGC) went ‘professional’ in June with America’s leading home renovation magazine, This Old House, handing over the house keys to readers to effectively design and contribute 100% of the magazine’s content - both for online as well as hard copy.
And just in case we don’t have enough acronyms, the exercise was also a strong case study in User Edited Content (UEC) as well.
According to editor, the June edition was “the best issue I’ve ever read.” Looks like the new neighbours are here to stay!
Interestingly, advertising spend for the edition rose 3% on previous editions - a spike that is sure to have managers considering the implications of UGC and UEC for future issues.
There’s no doubt the novelty of such contributions will play into hands of circulation managers and their accountants, but by and large, the issue was a remix of derivative material, with little in the way of originality and certainly ot researched based. As the editors of the magazine admitted, this grass roots experiment was more an exercise in PR than a permanent change in perspective.
This begs the question as to whether a subscription model can be sustained by a permanent shift towards UGC, or is this tactic, which could become a full blown strategy, likely to undermine the value sort by subscribers in the first place? The evidence isn’t in yet, but the impression was that This Old House had no intention of building its foundations on UGC.
The economics of the situation would tend to suggest that UGC and even UEC is not, over the longer term, compatiable with the subscription model. This is certain to throw a spanner in the works for every publilcation surging headlong into the UGC space while at the same time spending enormous marketing dollars to secure subscription revenues at an ever increasing proportion of total revenues.
May 29, 2008
Call it a media hack or remix, but the blog French Laundry at Home is grabbing the attention of big media as the site’s visitor numbers rise exponentially in response to the innovative use of the original recipe book, French Laundry, by blog author Carol Blymire.
In effect, Blymire, an amateur cook at best, is attempting every recipe in the book, and blogging on both her succcesses and failures. French Laundry, by the way, is regarded as being a collection of the most technically complicated recipes available anywhere. Blymire’s attempt is akin to a bungy jumper taking on the challenge of a moon landing.
The blog represents how the remix of professionally produced content and IP by the end consumer has a market in itself, let alone extending the life-cycle of the original content, in this case book sales of French Laundry which have risen 30 to 40 percent in the last few months.
Conceptually, this remix process is about a brand decentalising control (unintentionally in this case) of both the elements of that brand, as well as to the content which contributes to the brand’s reputation to end users. However, this is a risk-reward formula that few directors are willing to contemplate.
Concurrently, Blymire is effectively positioning herself as one of the most important actors in modern marketing: the ‘influencer’. Blymire’s amateur status (read: integrity), combined with her cache as a foodie, provides food producers and their strategists with the option of using Blymire to endorse their product.
This in turn becomes the catalyst to ripple the message across a large cross-section of the digital food network.
Remix + engagement = eWOM
May 20, 2008
Now it’s getting serious. Up to now, the only thing standing between a new found artist and fortune was the marketing savvy of the major labels. Their dollars and industry networks have greased the wheels of radio playlists for decades. But what if the power of ‘crowd sourcing’ or social production, which is already powering the operations of Google, YouTube and CraigList, could be harnessed to drive the fortunes of music artists?
The BBC’s SoundIndex (currently in Beta) is one step towards demonstrating how network power can determine winners in the fickled music space. Similar to the network power of a Digg platform (without the proactive tags), SoundIndex effectively monitors the online “buzz” (e-Word of Mouth) around artists and music tracks by spidering links, terms, conversations, comments and the like.
Partners involved include Google Groups, Bebo, Last.FM, YouTube and iTunes. As an aggregator of public taste, rather than as an arbiter, SoundIndex is well placed to signficantly impact the buyer’s decision by circumventing the millions spent by labels on marketing their pool of artists. It’s about ‘mob intelligence’ impacting the decision of potential buyers to purchase immediately, or at the very least, move them along the sales cycle and closer to an actual purchase decision.
As with most new media plays, the brains behind the build are technology plays. In this case it is IBM and its Almaden Research Center. Using Semantic Super Computing, the Index lists the top 1,000 mentions collated from more than 17.8 million comments, plays, posts and views. The list s updated every six hours.
April 21, 2008
Forget the comparisons to MySpace or Facebook, Second Life never has, nor ever will achieve a level of membership or for that matter, communal harmony, on that scale. In March 2008, for example, 544,290 active users logged onto the grid (active user is someone who spends more than hour on the system for the month). That’s just over 4% of the total registered population of 13 million.
Of those active users in March, approximately 12,200 were Australians (rank 11th), compared with 195,000 from the US (rank 1st), and just under 45,000 from Germany (rank 2nd). In January 2007, the Australian figure was closer to 29,000. On this scale (and performance), the real investments made by the likes of Telstra and the ABC into establising a virtual presence in Second Life seem ill-advised.
Yet this post is far from another public trial (and lynching) of the virtual community, far from it. In many respects, Second Life is achieving a number of outstanding initiatives, not the least being a level of transparency around performance and audience engagement which puts even the largest publisher to shame. This is best-practice market reporting and Second Life deserves kudos for the initiative.
From user hours, active members and age splits through to land size, transaction values and volumes - its all publically available, and updated every month. The good, the bad and the ugly - no exceptions.
The group is also very forthright about the negative impact certain decisions have had on both activity and transaction levels. Stricter credit card processes, the closure of gambling facilities and charging a VAT (similar to Australia’s GST) on transactions were all responsible for hits on the business’s performance, yet done in the name of improving the user experience as well as prudential governance.
Unlike other social networks, Second Life doesn’t seem to be playing a volumes game. With just 982 premium accounts signed up in December 2007, how could it? Thus, a smaller, transaction-focused membership base seems to be the MO. It is this transaction issue which is the key metric, and a determinant in the enterprise’s longevity.
With 260L$ equivalent to US$1, more than US$9m was converted, via the LindExchange (LindEx), in March 08 - up 26% on March 2007. In terms of value, US$885,000 in sales were recorded in March 08 - which is only 6% up on the previous March.
In regards to these figures, two important points should be made.
Second Life is the first to acknowledge that its decision to ban gambling activity and introduce a VAT in Aug/Sept 07 did have a dramatic impact on transaction volumes (and values). Yet, despite the set-back, sale activity has now rebounded, with March 08 being a record month.
Secondly, the current record highs in currency transactions indicates that a) the US real-world slow-down is only having a marginal impact on Second Life’s own economic performance, and b) these currency exchanges should be seen a barometer for future transaction activity. On this basis, future transaction volumes look bullish.
Of course, I could be deluding myself and instead acknowledge that this is all just a currency play to hedge against a falling US dollar in the real world!
April 15, 2008
Google’s Knol project was Beta launched in December 07, with a remit to give subject experts a very public voice, both through peer and reader reviews, as well as through Google’s own search results. Unlike Wikipedia, these entries require nominated authors, so accountability and transparency is supposedly high.
For authors, the payoff is a share in advertising revenues derived from the eyeballs as well as the kudos of ‘expert’.
Yet, Knol (meaning unit of knowledge) is not out of Beta and could possibly be one of those Google projects which start with the best of intentions, but quickly submerges in a sea of releases.
This delay presents local publishers (or entrepreneurs) with an opportunity to further build on their local credentials (and page impressions) by developing ‘who’s, who’ of local experts in fields as diverse as science, business, finance, technology, environment, community, marketing, and sport.
In fact any subject or issue can and should be canvassed by a relevant expert, who more importantly can put a local slant on the issue, with facts discussed in an Australian context.
Just as local directories are rapidly value-adding to their listings using maps and other location-based services, perhaps the addition of expert-based services adds further weight to a directory’s market position as first point-of-search?
In this mock-up, a search for computer software retailers will return the relevant business listings, store geo-locations and an advisory peice under the brand Second Opinion (see pink box). In this break-out box, the expert opinion (which is highly rated by readers) discusses the pros and cons of Microsoft’s Vista platform.
The objectivity of the opinion piece in no way comprises the businesses listed in the directory. On the contrary. A potential purchaser is now more informed, and certainly more confident about any software purchase. This empowering customer experience has a positive association with the directory’s listings.
One question remains, however. Will a revenue-share arrangement between publisher and author be the ticket to draw out the policy wonks, propellor heads and general class geniuses into the open, or are motivations more altruistic than that?
