Flickr is entertainment

I’ve always felt there were huge entertainment opportunities with Flickr due to the sheer amount and immediate nature of photos being uploaded [on virtually any subject or place.]  Guess I’m not the only one [see Flickr Wants To Show You The World Through Pictures  because this new feature makes just that … simple:-)

Yes, exactly…it is the feed!

This is a  fun guy to follow  when it comes to Web 2.0 and evolving web- related schemes. The larger point in that post may be that Feedburner, a Co. he’s helped to finance, is going places.

He’s making an argument we made, indirectly, for the longest time about where the valuable advertising was going to be. With MyInfoPage.com  we focused on the value of making local promotional content available - direct - to loyal customers and constituents. That was a direct promotional scheme, but he’s suggesting advertisers should concern themselves more with the Blog feed than the actual Blog, which I believe is similar in point. “The value is in going direct.”

He says, “…But here’s the problem with focusing on the blog page. Less than half of all my impressions last month happened on my site. I delivered about 300,000 ad impressions in September. Over 60% of them were in my feed. That’s right, sixty percent….If you want to reach them, you have to be in the feed. “

I said “….Simply put, the complete customization of incoming information for all people is now possible. To traditional media, readership is at stake: once informed of the choices the readers may no longer want the entire newspaper, opting instead for a customizable news reader. For the enterprise, it’s a different opportunity for getting the promotional message out….”

Direct via feed is going to become more and more important and Feedburner may very well get the high CPMs.

Content relevance and a great virtual land grab opportunity!

On the web, a businesses’ relevance to a search (E.G. “Real Estate in Westfield, NJ”, “for sale homes scarsdale, new york”, etc.) or their organic search engine optimization is directly related to how a no. of search engine heuristics, weighted into search engine crawler algorithms, identify and index its content. 

In the midst of a proliferation of sophisticated ’linking cheat schemes’ by various pornographers, pharmaceutical resellers, automobile dealerships and even politicians, the weighting of those proprietary heuristics are periodically adjusted making linking less and great content more the logical anchor to relevance. In terms of keeping search engine indexing of content and/or search results highly relevant this is, ultimately, a longstanding battle waged by the Googles, Yahoos, MSNs, etc. in order to assure their search users’ satisfaction and their own means for generating revenue.

As a business, if you’re a believer in Google’s ability to index content including at the most specific levels (E.G. The Long Tail of Search) and if relevance to many different search inquiries is your goal, it’s incredibly important to understand that crawlers don’t necessarily focus their attention on websites so much as they do specific content. The consistent creation & presentation of great content is your opportunity! If all of your very specific content is presented in a way that cooperates with crawler algorithms, it is much more likely you will succeed in becoming one of, if not, the most relevant ‘answer providers’ to lots of particular search inquiries. The end game being, direct connections to interested parties, qualified leads and potential buyers.

Liken this to a great virtual land grab opportunity where, when your content is presented to crawlers correctly & consistently, there is a harnessing of search engine indexing power (E.G. your content reaching those who want it,  when they want it) in your favor.  

Disintermediation (written awhile back affiliating it to MyInfoPage’s ‘enterprise in the community’ purposes), it’s happening fast!

August 02, 2005

RSS/ Content Syndication: ‘The Killer App’ 

‘The Killer App’ is not the Blog so much as it is the rapid develop and deploy capabilities of it and any content (personal journals, news, promotions, calendars of events and more) created by anyone in a syndicating format such as RSS.

The story here is how, because of RSS, traditional sources of content could easily become disintermediated. Coverage has focused on the Blogging phenomena mostly because there are so many Bloggers on the web, but there’s a deeper evolving story here and it is the content itself.

It’s about the freedom of content and how syndicating content formats (RSS, Atom, etc.) offer the individual consumer customization and/ or choice of information. Direct. With the average ‘newsreader’ or ‘feed aggregator’ application a person can actually identify and connect direct to any source of content created in a syndicating format. They can develop their own direct & continuous flow of timely, personally relevant & secure information from the sources they value. They can eliminate the noise!

Simply put, the complete customization of incoming information for all people is now possible. To traditional media, readership is at stake: once informed of the choices the readers may no longer want the entire newspaper, opting instead for a customizable ‘newsreader.’ To the average journalist or thought leader it’s the chance to go direct to her audience. For the enterprise, it’s a different opportunity for getting the promotional message out, but one that requires careful consideration. It means there’s a 2nd chance to reach the people actually interested in their products, services & expertise.

Relationship customers & constituents no longer need to search repetitively in order to be informed, to concern themselves with ‘artificial personalization’ deployed by intrusive cookies & spy ware and they will no longer accept abusive email practices. It means that if the enterprise can offer useful content information, can respect a person’s right to privacy and can respect a person’s right to control the exchange, they can build direct, loyal & informed relationships.

Transparency

I think he’s a must read because he wants to share his opinions honestly, he seems to be accountable to them and he’s undoubtedly been out on the front edge of an evolving web.

Not suggesting one should always agree with everything there, but it’s why open or user generated media is so useful. He demonstrates why, by being so transparent. Essentially he invites open & honest debate on virtually anything he puts out there. This guy puts his money where his mouth is: he lives in the glass house.

No surprise, he’s from Brooklyn

http://www.calacanis.com/2006/07/06/keeping-talent-happy-a-primer/

http://www.calacanis.com/2006/06/28/the-new-publishing-model-or-on-rafat-om-federated-media-ad/

Note to JC: So much as I can see, you’re no Elitist. Elitism & transparency don’t mix so well. Careful what you wish for.

Fascinating…….Wow!

http://www.paulgraham.com/marginal.html

III. Sales Management, it requires real- world experience and the repeated delivery of client value

My third and final post in three on Sales. In my (humble) opinion, Sales Management’s primary focus should be on how to repeatedly deliver client value. How it’s handled, with many other challenges, will determine whether or not clients buy and return to buy again.

Understanding that prospective clients perceive value in many different ways, a company’s business plan is often typically challenged by the marketplace. Because the Sales Operation fields various off- plan demands from its prospect pipeline and because it is required to produce new business revenue it has the potential to become an incredibly disruptive force. Managing Sales People, trying to stick to a business plan, meeting revenue projections AND repeatedly delivering client value are only a few of the challenging responsibilities at hand.

Fundamental skills (IE nos. forecasting, motivation, prospect pipeline, etc.) a given, Sales Management must ultimately lead by supporting their people’s ability to close deals. Repeatedly closing a gap between a planned ‘value proposition’ and the client’s perception of value is a real- world challenge requiring real- world experience. Experienced Sales People work to close that gap by listening and by strategically advocating for the client, but will also minimize internal disruption by qualifying their new business opportunities (before dedicating company resources) carefully. They can accept the responsibility of new business production while managing the least disruption to resources possible, but in return expect Sales Management to support their efforts.

Often many forces exist to defend various agendas (IE Business Plan, Engineering/ Programming execution, Investor Equity, Egos, etc., etc.), meaning a Company’s resources aren’t necessarily dedicated to the sole purpose of providing clients with value. Sales Management must be able to interpret this and to leverage information gathered in the field in order to determine where and/or where not to challenge a plan. She must be prepared to fight (the balance of) management for change, for resources and for more Sales support in order to succeed.

The demands, both internal & external, make for a challenging environment, but at the end of the day all agendas rely on successful selling. Experienced Sales Management knows success ultimately depends upon the repeated delivery of client value.

II. Sales People, much more than producers of new business

Good Sales People can sell virtually any ‘value proposition’ and while they’re motivated by commissions it’s never at the expense of personal integrity. A Sales Person’s contacts are typically a result of the value they willingly add and, while invaluable, are only a small piece of the much larger scope of responsibility.

Training & experience can never be discounted, but the most productive Sales People are crackerjack prospectors, accomplished strategic thinkers, focused listeners, willing teachers, tactful in follow through and, for client, a ‘value added resource.’

Prospecting requires discipline for a nos. game the average person will not play. Experienced Sales People identify their target market, develop a plan for engagement (IE Contact 100 prospects, communicate with 50, propose to 15 and close 5 per month) and, despite massive doses of rejection, pursue their plan with a sense of urgency! ‘Sense of urgency’, by the way, is never at the expense of tactful follow through nor should it ever be a prospective client’s burden.

Product knowledge & preparation are a given, but experienced Sales People also speak less and listen more. They inherently know conversations are driven by questions and good questions lead to more meaningful answers. They possess a keen interest for what businesses do, for what they need in order to do it better AND for how to leverage a ‘value proposition’ accordingly. By listening, the answers to how are often discovered. Strategic thinking doesn’t suggest one become an expert on a prospect’s business (IE every aspect of a Co. like IBM) when the goal is to repeatedly sell through. In terms of a discipline IBM is only one…or maybe a couple sales, but hopefully the point of ‘a nos. game’ as a priority resonates here.

In summary Experienced Sales People are a great deal more then producers of new business: they develop a prospect pipeline, they create good will in the marketplace, they are long term relationship makers and they are the gatherers of invaluable field intelligence for their employers. Without these core Sales Competencies, it is unlikely said Co. can operate at its maximum potential. Without them, “good luck.”

Next Post: Sales Management

I. Sales, the most misunderstood discipline in business

Forgive me in advance, but I’m going to jump on my Sales pedestal for a few posts including a take on Sales, Sales People and Sales Management.

For Companies selling to other Companies, repeatedly producing Sales requires a heckuva’ lot more effort than simply showing up and, in an ever more time- challenged business environment, invitations are unlikely. Additionally and especially in the land of the startup, I’ll go out on a limb and say management is typically heavy on product knowledge, projections and plan but light on core Sales Competencies.

Sales is a process and it requires a repeated closing of the gap between ‘value proposition’ and where value is perceived on the part of prospective clients. In that gap lay any number of unpredictable circumstances (IE knowledge- base, existing relationships, pre- conceived notions, competition, available time, budget, etc., etc.) making Sales virtually unpredictable AND the most misunderstood discipline in business. It’s been my experience across multiple start-up companies that management often feels their product/service is so unique prospective clients will “trip over themselves” to buy. Passion is perfectly acceptable, but unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth.

Recent history shows that in order to be successful in a hyper- competitive world companies selling to other companies need to combat these unpredictable variables with an experienced & disciplined Sales effort. Because Sales is so misunderstood there is rarely investment in training making the need to employ either experienced individuals OR to mentor & manage undeniable. Good Sales People will -despite less than optimal personal treatment, imminent rejection and vast exposure to support systems (who may have little in the way of personal accountability to a client)- repeatedly fight to close the gap between proposed & perceived value based upon their rare nature. If managed well, those same people will create good will, long term relationships and they will gather invaluable strategic intelligence from the marketplace.

Without these core Sales Competencies, it is unlikely said Co. can operate at its maximum potential. Without them, “good luck.”

Next Post: Sales People

For Bloggers, are there reliable methods for ‘Blog Feed Subscription Tracking’?

Bill French, MyST Technology Partners, is an insightful guy with a rare combination of business acumen, 'top of the heap' Information Architecture skill & programming experience. He’s a thought leader on how Web 2.0, Blogs, RSS and syndicating' content formats will and do apply to the Enterprise. It's relevant to mention, MyST provides Intel, Verisign, Borland and many other brand name Technology Cos. with their Web 2.0 Architecture. I believe there are Cos. stepping forward with some reliable 'Blog Feed Subscription Tracking' solutions and I had a discussion with Bill on the subject, as follows:

Q: "Correct me if I’m wrong, but it may be awhile before Blog Feed Subscription tracking can be perfected for the Blogger or Enterprise Blogger?"

BF: "The web (really, the HTTP protocol) was never designed to be measured. Web 2.0 tosses a new curve ball to that reality. It may be a very long while. "

Q: "I was speaking with a prominent Web 2.0 Executive and he expressed pride in their world class caching* techniques. It wasn’t relevant to the conversation at hand, but I thought to myself, 'it’s where accurate feed tracking breaks down.' If the Feed or Newsreader Co. caches, they’re undermining the Content Management Software or Blog Software Cos. ability to track Blog Feed Subscriptions accurately for their Bloggers."

BF: "Caching*-forward content has been around along time – Akamai perfected the model in the late 90’s, and it now happens in almost every application. It’s necessary for many reasons (performance is a big one), and it will not likely end."

Q: "So if they grab & cache a Blog Post or Feed once and then redistribute to many, can there be an accurate tracking path between Blog & individual?"

BF: "Bloglines, MyYahoo, and pretty much everyone does this. Everything about syndication undermines tracking. If you have 300 unique IP addresses requesting a feed, that doesn’t mean you have 300 subscribers. One IP address could represent a proxy server for 70,000 people inside a firewall. Or One IP address could be a NewsGator server with 3500 subscribers behind it. Furthermore, One subscriber might have 30 different IP addresses in a single day. So all measures (that we’ve come to know for Web 1.0) are pretty much useless."

Q: "That said, is it sensible for the Blogger to offer a ‘summary only’ feed whereby, at least, they can track the page views of those that click into their Blog website in order to review the entire post?"

BF: "This is an often-debated point, and (in my view) it should be decided based on the content consumer’s requirements, not the producer’s requirements."

Q: "Tracking of ‘subscriber to Blog’ connections and therefore 'Return on Investment' metrics for a sponsor may not ever be a completely accurate science."

BF: "Correct."

* Cache- In computer science, a cache (pronounced kăsh) is a collection of data duplicating original values stored elsewhere or computed earlier, where the original data is expensive (usually in terms of access time) to fetch or compute relative to reading the cache. Once the data is stored in the cache, future use can be made by accessing the cached copy rather than refetching or recomputing the original data, so that the average access time is lower.

Wiki says, “Accountability is a concept in ethics with several meanings.” To me it very simply means, “take responsibility for what you say you will do.”

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The goal of accountability is at times in tension with the goal of leadership. A constituency may have short-term desires which are at odds with long-term interests.

Accountability is a concept in ethics with several meanings. It is often used synonymously with such concepts as answerability, responsibility, blameworthiness, liability and other terms associated with the expectation of account-giving. As an aspect of governance, it has been central to discussions related to problems in both the public and private (corporation) worlds.

At its root, accountability involves either the expectation or assumption of account-giving behavior. The study of account giving as a sociological act was first explicitly articulated in a 1968 article on “Accounts” by Marvin Scott and Stanford Lyman, ^[1] although it can be traced as well to J.L. Austin‘s 1956 essay “A Plea for Excuses,” ^[2] in which he used excuse-making as an example of speech acts. Communications scholars have extended this work through the examination of strategic uses of excuses, justifications, rationalizations, apologies and other forms of account giving behavior by individuals and corporations, and Philip Tetlock and his colleagues have applied experimental design techniques to explore how individuals behave under various scenarios and situations that demand accountability.

In politics, and particularly in representative democracies, accountability is an important factor in securing good governance. Accountability differs from transparency in that it only enables negative feedback after a decision or action, while transparency also enables negative feedback before or during a decision or action. Accountability constrains the extent to which elected representatives and other office-holders can willfully deviate from their theoretical responsibilities, thus reducing corruption.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accountability

“help them help you”

In theory, the companies that do things well for you get your business. Right?

A huge thing about the evolving web is it’s actually super productive to Blog ones own opinion about products and brands because the smart Cos. and their marketing people are listening!

These days, because anyone can publish an opinion, potentially exposing any marketer misinformation or product defect, they had better listen… or expect to face the consequences of lots of unhappy consumers creating & rapidly sharing their negative opinion content. Companies no longer control distribution of their message and the smart marketers know that because content is created so rapidly by and shared amongst the consumer critical masses (IE I hate my Dish Network service because its always reloading. ), they ought to be listening.

CGM or ‘Consumer (IE you, me, anyone) Generated Media’ via use of Blogs, Message Boards and other web- based forums offer those marketers, keen enough to recognize the value of listening, a no- brainer opportunity. Just as easily as consumer product opinion content is created (IE I love Verizon EVDO because of its portability and becaue its reliable. It’s so good I may do away with my T- Mobile WiFi subscription & my home based Comcast wireline services. ), it can be searched, viewed, aggregated and data- mined for invaluable marketer strategic insight. Listening tools are readily available via free (manual search tools via a Technorati or Icerocket.com  ) and paid (includes extensive data- mining like Umbria) services.

So folks, use the power instilled in all of us consumers. Get a blog, publish your opinion and (assuming the Co. and its marketers concern themselves with your business) ‘help them help you!’

Deserving praise

Having worked in the area of Web 2.0 applications since September of 2002 (first, entrepreneurial as a designer & a promoter of Blogs, Syndication & Web 2.0 Community Portals and, more recently, as someone who works with Marketers & Analysts on gaining strategic insight from those same things), I was thinking recently I should practice what I preach.

So here goes: The first brand I’d have to praise as one I trust & appreciate is Toyota. Since purchasing a Toyota Sequoia Limited in December 2003 and, more recently, a 4 Runner Limited I’ve got to say I’m very happy. Even better, I’m enthusiastic about the Co., the products and their culture of excellence. Lots of Auto brands are fighting for our attention, but as far as I can see there’s no better value in the automotive marketplace. 

From people I’ve met in work related situations to the folks I deal with at Stevenson Toyota West here in Colorado, I can’t say I’ve ever met anyone who wasn’t proactive & professional in this Company. Its leadership for incredibly reliable automobiles, for customer service, for responsible fuel conserving hybrid technologies to employees who live their brand makes Toyota a great Company…….deserving of praise.

The intention for MyInfoPage.com, Part IV / Trying to understand Local, Small to Medium- sized Enterprise Requirements, originally posted 092205

To clarify a distinction in the area of Community & Blogs, a great new age media Co. like Weblogs Inc. is interested in providing a network or portal environment for its readers based upon niche industry ‘participatory journalism’ or Blogs. They establish Community around their niche industry Blogs and, in doing so, also develop a distinctly ‘targeted advertising value proposition’ for marketers. Not to mention, WebLogs successfully reaches the elusive early adopter crowd that show up because they understand & value the honest nature of this form of media.

Understanding that Weblogs Inc. provides great content to serve entire industries, MyInfoPage’s approach to Community & Blogs was more about the creation of local, timely & useful promotional content by Enterprises (using Blogs) in a geographic area or Community. We created portal environments to feature and syndicate the latest events, drink specials, sales and local expertise from individual enterprises in these Communities. Because the local, small to medium sized enterprises we pursued were the promotional advertiser (e.g. the Advertorial Blogger), the Business Requirements, as targeted marketers, were more about being present when qualified traffic interested in the community they do business in arrived.

At that stage in the evolution of ‘the live web’ and in this arena, our research showed Business Requirements for the local restaurant were pretty straight forward and didn’t necessarily require thought leadership nor the leading edge Content Management System (we’re most certainly not.) Certainly, these enterprises have much smaller & less competitive markets than a Cisco targeting the VOIP crowd or Toyota the Auto enthusiasts. What’s important is they have the simple tools that enable their timely promotional message to find a qualified audience when that audience needs or is looking around for good information………in the Community.

Summarized, the Business Requirements for local, small to medium- sized enterprises we developed included:
1.      Advertising Value/ traffic to the community portal
2.      Affiliation with a ‘business discipline’ in the community or a taxonomy
3.      Controlled forum for comments, if at all
4.      Simplicity/ ease of content creation, user tracking, etc.
5.      Linking or integration with an existing HTML website
6.      Automated Blog- post reminders, promote yourself often
7.      Usage tracking
8.      Data model supporting the multi- location Enterprise

Challenges for MyInfoPage continued to include the development of certain financial resources, a website redesign, the strategic integration of leading Search Engine Optimization technology, an RSS 2.0 Standards Architecture upgrade and the decision to either integrate open search & feed subscription technology into the Aggregator offering………or simply to continue to recommend them all.

I’ve since moved on, but Directory Xpress and MyInfoPage lives on with a current focus on serving schools in the community. Best of luck guys!

The intention for MyInfoPage.com, Part I (A few posts I had written to document some of what my Co., which I’ve since left for a different Web 2.0 opportunity, was attempting to do in the community. They were meant to describe the goals, struggles & successes of MyInfoPage.com, an early stage Interactive Media Co. with some unique/ some not so unique ideas on how to leverage Blogs & RSS.), originally posted 09/05/05

MyInfoPage.com of Directory Xpress, Inc. was conceived in September of 2002 to promote 1) the discovery of and 2) subscription too (via RSS feed) ‘useful promotional information’ from enterprises by people in their communities. 

It intended to leverage a complete Yellow Pages Directory, proprietary Blog- enhanced Listings, a promotional Community Portal Platform and leading Search Engine Optimization technology to achieve its goals. Based upon realistic (Focus Group driven) business requirements, we felt relationships between local enterprises and their valued customers & constituents could be served using Web 2.0 content creation & feed subscription technology. 

The Community Portal Platform was constructed to attract traffic interested in the community, drawing on some news but mostly ‘timely sales & event promotional advertising’ from local enterprises that Blog: the voice of enterprises in a community environment! A unique feature was the users ability to search (a complete YP directory) and connect, regardless of active or inactive status, to the Blog- enhanced Listings of their choice ……using a News Aggregator of their choice.

Because Blog/ RSS adoption was just getting its legs, data generated by initial user connections helped to show the local enterprise an indisputable direct to the customer promotional advertising value. By Browser, by Search Engine and now by ‘Feed Subscription’, relationships in communities could, in theory, flourish! 

Challenges included the development of certain financial resources, a website redesign, the strategic integration of leading Search Engine Optimization technology, an RSS 2.0 Standards Architecture upgrade and the decision to either integrate open search & feed subscription technology into our Aggregator offering………or simply continue to recommend them all. More coming soon.