BlackBerry Rules the Smartphone Roost
BlackBerry users rejoice: we are still currently on top of the smartphone heap for now. iPhone is #2. Why does this provoke me to do a bit of cheering and hoist Kara Swisher’s Jolly Rogers? Well, realizing that it’s as temporary as my belief that the New England Patriots were going to go 25-0 (halfway into the next season) instead of somehow falling short in the SuperBowl, I think it’s important to pause and consider why. ( Mary-Lynn, are you listening?)
People want their email. It’s the main request for mobile devices. We BlackBerry types have used email for years. We wanted the Internet and cameras (just showed up in Berries a year ago). But the rest of you seeking smartphone features wanted email.
Note: my BlackBerry Curve supports 10 email accounts on one phone, so I get my primary mail service (Gmail) plus my corporate, plus 8 more.
Buttons
Yes, I’ll grant that the iPhone is sexy, and that for a while, it sucked conversations out of the room because once one came out, everyone would stop what they were talking about and go into how hot iPhones are. But here’s one: my phone has buttons. I can type words the first time, without asking Apple to guess what I’m saying. (Given some of the more arcane curse words I sometimes type, I don’t want Apple guessing). This becomes useful when typing under the table in meetings.
Everything Else
Okay, the iPhone is a media killer. It’s half iPod on its mother’s side. You win there. It’s a better browsing platform. Even now that I have wifi, the iPhone has a much nicer browser. The widgets you can put on an iPhone are amazing. You’ve got all that, and I won’t take that away.
So the question becomes: what do you want from your phone? After voice, what comes next?
Tell you what I want to do on my BlackBerry Curve: edit the menus. There are options there I will *never* push. Can I remove them? I haven’t found out how yet.
And before you get all “you hate Apple” on me, I’m writing this on a black Macbook, which is seven feet from a white Macbook, which is 15 feet from a Mini, 20 feet from an old iMac, and 30 feet from an Apple TV.
What’s your phone of choice?
Succeeding in Independent Online Media
Last year around this time, we all thought for sure that independent video makers were all just months away from making it. Someone would be first, and then the rest of us would roll along behind in this massive zeitgeist and we’d all be making $200,000 a year or something making videos. (Maybe we “all” didn’t think that. I thought it, and so did a bunch of folks I’d talk with at events.)
This year, I get into conversations all the time, usually in email, and often in desperation, about how people might make it in the independent media creation market. I believe that people will make it. Not all of us. Not nearly as many as I would’ve said at this time in 2007.
So who will succeed faster? People finding targeted projects that are immediately obvious in their fundability and their value proposition to advertisers.
Am I saying this is the best way, that this is the way it should be, that this is a great and amazing thing? Not a lick. What I am saying is that the road between not making it and making it big is a little shorter for people who have the triangle figured out: content-value to advertisers-appeal to audience.
Even then, it’s not always a slam dunk, but I think that’s probably the way it will happen for folks first.
Some of my bets for people who will get there sooner than later:
- Gimp.TV
- Bigg Success (Yes, Paul Colligan, I named an audio podcast). : )
- PulverTV (for the novelty of doing the first programmed Internet TV station).
- Gardenfork or another Rochow project, because of his quality and niche.
- EpicFU, because they’re more MTV than MTV these days.
If you’re not on this list, it’s not that I don’t think you’ll make it. I might have even forgotten that you’re also a candidate for getting there. Don’t focus on that part of the message.
The message is this: if you ask me about who’s going to make it in online media, it’s people who are figuring out the triangle, delivering something of quality, and are connecting targeted content to interested audiences.
Facebook Could Get Really Creepy
Disclaimer: part of me thinks this video is a little bit of “Do you think your food is safe? Think again! Film at 11!”, and yet, another part of me thinks this is all really worth considering further. It relates a bit to my post about Facebook’s use of the Social Graph data from the other day.
What do YOU think?
Hat tip to Pamela Rosenthal, a Boston area community specialist you should get to know.
Question about OpenID
Falling into the category of “you’re smarter than me,” I have a question for those of you who know anything/much/lots about OpenID. As you can see in the illustration, I’ve chosen to use the Wordpress.com installation of OpenID. I tied it to my Wordpress.com account and have so far used it in only two places. I’m thinking that every time I offer up an OpenID, I’ll point to that one. So far so good, right? ( To get up to speed on OpenID, go here).
What happens if Wordpress.com folds? What happens if they change their mind and start charging me, or I leave them for someone else, or whatever? By choosing Wordpress.com (or Yahoo.com, or anyone.com) as my OpenID host/provider/whatever you call it, what happens to my ID should I choose to move it?
What do you know/think?
Facebook and the Social Graph- Who Benefits
Sometimes it takes a while for something to sink in. Today, one of those things finally hit me. Facebook asks me for all kinds of information on how I know the people I accept as friends, but I realized that I get nothing out of the exchange, and that Facebook and potential advertisers get tons of gain.
Populating the social graph for Facebook is essentially modeling even more data for advertisers to absorb into their information. This isn’t 100% bad. For instance, if advertisers looked at every friend I had and noticed that only 11 of them EVER clicked a Facebook ad, wouldn’t that tell them something? If my friends and their friends by extension all seem to spend time very actively on facebook apps, that might tell me the value of building an application versus buying a more passive ad.
And who owns that data? For instance, a “friend” on their own page links to me and now we’re linked as “friends” in Facebook. I can see her data, read her updates, etc. But can I extrapolate that data out of the environment? I would hope not. Because it’s one thing if it’s real friends, but what if it’s someone who maliciously just wants to slurp my data, add it to some kind of spammy marketing project, and move on?
So, I ask YOU: who benefits from Facebook’s Social Graph data?
The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.
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Social Networks are Your Local Pub
Walking out the door the other night to watch the SuperBowl last night was interesting. I walked past the Barking Dog (another bar), past the Ale House (another bar), past the Carriage Wheel, and then into the Stage 2 Cinema Pub, which is normally a movie theater, but when there’s a big sports event, it transforms into a great place to watch a game. I realized that any one of those places I walked past had people watching the game. I knew that each one of those places had “regulars” and “visitors,” and a sense of what’s okay and what draws disapproving stares. Sounds a bit like social networks, if you squint.
What Happens at Pubs
Pistachio called Twitter a village. That’s one way to look at it, as lots of different things happen there, and her analogy works out well. I’m going to go another way. I’m going to call Twitter what happens at a pub. And I’m going to call Utterz and Facebook and Seesmic and Yahoo Groups and Digg all kinds of other pubs. Jonathan Schwartz blogged recently about Sun’s intent to reinvigorate their software communities. Another pub.
Pubs are where people talk. There’s news. There’s gossip. There are deals and selling. There are pronouncements. There are silly moments. There are conversations, and chance, random happenings. The thing is, pubs aren’t where you do things. It’s where you talk about things. Right? It might be where the seed of ideas comes from (lots of the work of the Founding Fathers of the United States happened in pubs, for example), but the actual work and doing took place elsewhere.
Are Pubs Necessary?
Hell, yes. Pub is short for public house, and there is a long history of the value pubs have served to several nations. They are places where people of all backgrounds can gather, though as it true with most of social situations, some feel left out, or unwelcome at certain pubs. In general, overall, pubs are common ground, where people can come to be refreshed, to talk, to meet with like-minded and dissenting people alike.
If Social Networks are Pubs
First, be ready to buy someone else a drink. Take that as a metaphor for sharing overall. If you’re a marketer, share something of value to me. If you’re an aspiring blogger, ask to hear my story first. If you’re a salesman, do something for me before launching into what’s in it for you.
Second, mind the place. Pubs everywhere aren’t run by the barkeep. They’re run by the people who come there often enough to keep the place set straight, who know when a stranger might need welcoming, and who will keep an eye out for the place while you’re taking care of something in the back. This means a two-way relationship with the barkeep/management and the regulars. How you manage that makes all the difference in the world.
Lastly, if you look through that lens and consider these networks pubs, and consider the other people here are pubgoers, one thing comes right to mind: it’s not what you do inside the pub that makes you or changes you or gives you something to call your own. It’s what you do outside the pub that counts in the long run.
So, with this in mind, let’s talk about pubs. Where do you go for your “drinks?” Where is the conversation good? What are you getting out of this pub of yours for discourse, for new ideas, for challenges that you can then take outside the pub to work upon? Or is my idea all suds and no beer? You tell me.
The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.
Get the entire series by subscribing to this blog, and subscribe to my free newsletter here.
Photo credit, Pixel fixer
Is Social Media More for PR than for Marketers
Consider this second in a series of posts where I don’t really know what I’m talking about. In this case, I’ll make the post short, and ask you to educate ME.
Is social media built more for PR types? Is the value there much easier to define than the value for marketers?
What do you think?
Marketers in a Social Network World
Consider what a marketer’s role is: deliver more customers/clients/purchases. You can talk about education and building community and brand management, but there are really only a few metrics that ultimately will get a marketer noticed:
- Increase in sales.
- Good media coverage.
- Healthy sales/customer pipeline.
Am I right? (I’m not a marketer by trade or experiences. I’m a hack who sometimes gets put in the position of helping people market.)
If so, we have to consider what it’s going to be like for you as a marketer, being told to try out things like Facebook and Twitter and other social networks to do what you’re tasked with doing. One problem is that there are obvious benefits to using online methods to market, and yet, it’s not as easy as just blasting your traditional messages via electronic channels. here are some thoughts.
You’re the Visitor
In some cases, newly arriving marketers are quick to dive in and and get their message heard. They make a few cursory passes around the “neighborhood” and then set to work talking about their product or service. The problem is, even though it feels like this new neighborhood is filled with random people, lots of us know each other, and we don’t know you. We understand the pace, the patter, the social norms of this environment. Coming in and getting down to business is frowned upon in almost all cases.
Get to know some people. It does take a little more time, but the results are better. I know plenty of people who could pitch me their new project without me feeling weird or put out by them. Why? Because we’ve already gone through the effort of getting to know each other. I assume that what they’re pitching will be of interest to me, and I trust that they’ll be straightforward with what they need, while being sensitive to their relationship with me.
In the end, people who pitch me well get what they seek, and I do even more than a “cold call” would expect, because by that point, I feel invested in the outcome because I know and appreciate the person who pitched me.
And when the pitch doesn’t match my interests, no harm no foul. Try doing that with a “cold” dive into a social network and see what you get.
Collaboration and Two Way Roads
We do a lot of collaboration in social media and social networks. Sometimes, it’s about your cause. Other times, it’s about mine. Even the non-marketers are marketing for attention. Make a point of helping out others often. Try to be there when they need you, and Digg their story, chip in the $10, or do whatever else needs doing.
People remember those who help out. And then when the time comes, it’s a little more likely that people will be inclined to help.
Is this “quid pro quo?” Maybe. But it’s very tacit and explicit, and people who are collaborating understand that it’s a give-and-take relationship.
When you come without that kind of investment already built into the community, you have to spend some time sharing and doing what else needs doing, as well.
Shared Value
Marketing is used to the idea of giving something to get something. It’s not very different in the social networks world. Only, really consider the value before making the offer. If you’re marketing something that has a fan base, give ways for people to have access to something (give Sony pictures fans cool games to play, like they did with 30 Days of Night’s vampires game on Facebook). Give people who love your software a badge to place on their site, if they want, but make a value link back to the person displaying such a badge.
In short, in the universe of social networks, it’s not enough to hit people over the head with your message. Instead, the goal shifts towards finding supporters and giving them something of value, on one front.
Wooing Non-Customers
Social networks afford marketers the opportunity to learn lots about people. You can read Facebook profiles and understand what people like, who they know, what they support, etc. This means it’s a great environment to find out about people who aren’t engaged with your product, or who use a competing product.
If you’re a smart company like the guys from Zoho, you have search terms and triggers set up for when people mention their products, and I’m going to bet that they have terms set up on certain competing products, as well. (I’m not singling them out, but I’ve met the Zoho team, and have talked with them online - on my blog plenty of times and also in email - and I think they’re a great example of people paying attention to their non-customer base, as well as those who are already believers).
With this knowledge, you have the chance to build relationships, and offer opportunities for people to try out a product they might not be currently using. Don’t be pushy about it, but by paying good attention to blog posts and profile information and the flow of words on Twitter, a marketer can also find their non-customers identifying themselves over and over again.
Because these social networks capture data that isn’t usually considered - watercooler-like conversations, for instance- you have an opportunity that doesn’t exist in the offline world. How you execute on it is the real question. Will you be ready?
Marketers Can Do Magic on Social Networks
But only smart ones. Those who choose to roll their existing methods onto the web will find themselves writing articles in magazines about how the web is a horrible place to market. For the rest of you (and I mostly mean YOU), this is a great place to start out learning, and then grow into being a transplant to this new community. In no time, you’ll be one of the gang, and hopefully, the metrics that matter most to your organization will be growing in the right ways, by way of your efforts.
The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.
Get the entire series by subscribing to this blog, and subscribe to my free newsletter here.
Why Microsoft Buying Yahoo COULD Rock
Should I just stop at this picture of Ray Ozzie? This is why MSFT buying the big purple Y! makes sense. You can argue that there are some cool parts of Microsoft. I’ll grant that there are whole areas of the company that I like and think are doing better than people give them credit for. You might even be a fan of MSFT.
But the thing is this: Ray is super cool. His stuff with Groove Networks (which got watered into being Office Groove- and no, I don’t know what I’m talking about because I haven’t used the MSFT version) is killer collaboration stuff. Ray’s mind is set up for this kind of thinking. He’s one of us. He’s participatory.
And to that end, I think that with Microsoft picking up Yahoo, there might be some interesting collaboration points.
Who’s going to argue about what Yahoo has going for it? I think you could say Groups (which I think are some of the best 1.0 technology out there), and you could say that Finance is pretty good. What else? (No! You may NOT count upcoming, del.icio.us, Flickr, and more).
So yeah.
Photo credit, Jeff Sandquist
Google Releases Social Graph API
Just when you thought it was a lazy rainy (in Boston) Friday afternoon, you see news that Google and Social Graph exist in the same sentence. This is interesting. Just by trying out the My connections demo application, you can start to see what’s coming with this API. Some really interesting (and perhaps some scary) applications are coming soon, friends.
