Social Networking and Web 2.0

There’s a new trick that some webmasters use to get high rankings on Google. Just like the trick we mentioned in a previous issue of our newsletter, this new technique exploits security holes of other web sites.

All things Web 2.0 - a huge huge list of Web 2.0 applications running into hundreds.They are categorized under:

Wow… I am humbled … I knew of less than 50% of these. [link via gapingvoid]

web 2.0

Hiding content and Links in CSS code that is not visible to human web surfers has become popular among webmasters who want to trick search engines. Should use use this for your web site?

Google’s latest update Big Daddy continues to cause problems for some webmasters. Many webmasters have reported that all of their web pages except for their index page have been moved to Google’s supplemental index. What can you do to solve this problem?

Thought I’d share some great blog posts and papers I had bookmarked and finally got down to reading:
 
Rashmi Sinha has some really good essays on Tagging.  She has a whole category dedicated to this area, and I found the following posts particularly useful:
-  A cognitive analysis of tagging (or how the lower cognitive cost of tagging makes it popular)
-  A Social Analysis of Tagging (or how tagging transforms the solitary browsing experience into a social one)
- “Tagging: From Personal to Social” - a powerpoint presentation here.

Doc Searls introduces the concept of the Intention Economy turning on its head the Attention Economy conversation that focusses more on the ’seller’.  He says:

“The Intention Economy grows around buyers, not sellers. It leverages
the simple fact that buyers are the first source of money, and that
they come ready-made. You don’t need advertising to make them.

The Intention Economy is about markets, not marketing. You don’t need marketing to make Intention Markets.

The
Intention Economy is built around truly open markets, not a collection
of silos. In The Intention Economy, customers don’t have to fly from
silo to silo, like a bees from flower to flower, collecting deal info
(and unavoidable hype) like so much pollen. In The Intention Economy,
the buyer notifies the market of the intent to buy, and sellers compete
for the buyer’s purchase. Simple as that.

The Intention
Economy is built around more than transactions. Conversations matter.
So do relationships. So do reputation, authority and respect. Those
virtues, however, are earned by sellers (as well as buyers) and
not just “branded” by sellers on the minds of buyers like the symbols
of ranchers burned on the hides of cattle.

In
The Intention Economy, a car rental customer should be able to say to
the car rental market, “I’ll be skiing in Park City from March 20-25. I
want to rent a 4-wheel drive SUV. I belong to Avis Wizard, Budget
FastBreak and Hertz 1 Club. I don’t want to pay up front for gas or get
any insurance. What can any of you companies do for me?” — and have the
sellers compete for the buyer’s business.”

Reading this, and with my limited understanding of the Attention Economy, am wondering …. does one follow the other … from Attention to Intention … or Intention to Attention?

Tracking the Future of Telephony … a great transcript of a very interesting by Norman Lewis director of research for France Telecom at eTel.  Really good stuff … some snips:

 
danah who is a really really smart researcher, ethnographer, media-ecologist, digi-culturist, sociologist, (she’s looking for someone to bestow upon her an ‘ist’) explains Why Youth Heart MySpace.

Geeks in Toyland - a Wired article on how Lego managed to effectively convert their customers to their R&D labs and effectively re-wrote the innovation game! [link via Steve at All this chittah-chattah]

I tested VoiFi …was disappointed with the basic sound quality.  Uninstalled.

Bookmarked … and still to read/play with:

- When The Long Tail Wags the Dog and The Long Tail of Popularity

- On quick glance, basic orientation by Paul Beleen in a whitepaper called Advertising 2.0 (pdf), on “what everybody in advertising, marketing and media should know about the technologies that are reshaping their business”  Printed, to be read in detail on my flight to Delhi later this week.

- Veer, who has an excellent blog that I recently discovered on the Indian mobile revolution, has launched MyToday, a public RSS aggregator, with Rajesh Jain.  Haven’t yet played with it … will soon!  I like that it has a mobile phone edition too.

- A collection of articles on Creative Thinking [link via Chuck Frey’s Innovation Weblog]

Jennifer Rice at Brand Mantra has an excellent series of posts on Maslow and Branding. She’s looked at 8 core consumer needs: Security, Connection, Esteem, Control, Aesthetic, Cognitive, Self-Actualization and Transcendence. She starts the series with this ….

“Remember back in your Psych 101 class when you learned about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? Bet you never expected to see it again in the business world, but…ta da! Here it is. Personally I think a few are missing like freedom and control. But in general, we can easily see how strong brands relate back to the hierarchy. In the next couple posts, I’ll walk through the expanded hierarchy (8 needs instead of 5) and discuss their relation to brand strategy.”

For the uninitiated, an explanation of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.  I’ve culled out, from Jennifer’s multiple posts, some of the key points and examples that she makes - they are in italics:

on Security:

“This is the “No one ever got fired for buying IBM” syndrome. There are people everywhere who will only purchase products and services from companies that have proven themselves over time. They stuck with SBC when their more adventurous counterparts were fleeing to try one of the new competitive phone companies.”

on Connection:

on Esteem:

on Control:

on Aesthetic:

“Aesthetic used to be a nice-to-have, but it’s increasingly becoming foundational. Witness the explosive success of Apple and the iPod, or the gotta-have Razr phone. Target is bringing designer style (Isaac, Oldham) to the masses, along with InStyle magazine and “The Look for Less” show. Starbucks combined coffee with an aesthetic environment. Barnes & Noble did the same for books. There are now 250 bathroom faucets from which to choose. Style is important because it’s an external representation of our own self-image. What we wear, drive, carry… they’re all badges to demonstrate who we are. It makes me wonder if Aesthetic really is the core need; perhaps it’ something much more basic, like ‘validation of self-existence.’ Perhaps style is our subconscious way of defining who we are, or attracting a mate (like peacocks and bird plumage).”

on Cognitive:

“This is about learning and understanding the world around us. While many people still blindly accept the doctrines of traditional authority (church, state, corporations, media, etc.), others are taking control, asking questions and seeking answers. Brands that knock down barriers to knowledge and provide easy access are delivering on this need. These aren’t just the obvious brands like Google; they’re also brands that practice transparency and educate customers on the how’s and why’s of their products, services and business practices. Transparency and openness deliver on customers’ desire to know. FedEx tracking is a great example (of both Cognitive and Control). And of course, blogs and forums fit into this category as well.”

on Self-Actualization:

on Transcendence:

There is so much potential for social tools and technologies to address
so many of these needs - the needs for Esteem, Connection,
Self-Actualization, Cognition, Control . Am looking forward to reading
Jennifer’s thoughts on how they interact. It would require a cultural change in organizations to acknowledge
that some of the more powerful human needs, or in marketing terms, customer drivers, lie in the value of actually passing on
the control and freedom to customers. Tied into this need are the needs for connection, esteem, cognitiion, self-actualization and ultimately, transcendence.

Web 2.0 companies have shown the
way - their products are in perpetual beta, their architecture and
marketing is decentralized, they encourage communities of users to
self-organize around them. Recently, in an email to Rob,
I wrote …. I think one of the most difficult things for people to do
is give up control and relinquish ‘power’ to the many unless they see
tangible ‘cost-per-click’ sort of gains. It’s the single largest
barrier to accepting and adopting a process that is different to one we
have been so conditioned to. Sadly, what few realise the act of giving
up that power itself can be so empowering for them - why is Wordpress
gaining popularity - why is Flickr so popular - why are del.icio.us and Skype and
so many others gaining traction today? They weren’t built in a day and
pushed onto us as a final product or service - they are being built by
and around the community that breathes them. The folks behind them had
the guts and vision to say - let’s see how our customers ‘play’ - how they self-organize
into networks (developers for instance) - embrace the criticisms with the accolades - and build around what they
build. Chaos ….. and creativity. So powerful.

web 2.0

Kiruba announces BarCampChennai. Check out the Wiki on BarCampChennai for all details.

“BarCamp is an ad-hoc unconference
born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open
environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and
interaction. The two day BarCampChennai focusses on Web 2.0 and Next Generation Internet. It takes place on April 8th and 9th (Saturday and Sunday). It’s an open, welcoming, once-a-year event for geeks to camp out for a couple days with wifi and smash their brains together.”

This time I am going . I thought I’d bring in a slightly non-geeky perspective and engage in a conversation around how you can build Brand 2.0 on the web. Will share my presentation here when done. Initial thoughts as a starting point for a conversation …

How
does a world of rapidly evolving social media affect your
organization’s brand strategies and values? Organizations large and
small, public and private - continue to extrapolate this year’s brand
plan and fail to recognize and adapt quickly enough to market changes
impacting future strategy. Brand strategy tools must be rethought. From
blogs to podcasting - social networking sites to Google Adsense -
participation, economics and structure of media and communication is
being reinvented.

The brand no longer lives with consumers and marketers alone. In the
experience economy the Brand is the nexus of a new connectivity between
employee and customer, organization and stakeholders, evangelists and
community. There is a third space that is evolving - the social web. It
is changing how we ‘consume’ brands and promises.

Tags :

For Technorati - BarCampChennai, web 2.0
For Flickr - BarCampChennai
For del.icio.us - BarCampChennai

At the recent Wharton Technology Conference in Philadelphia representatives from Google, Yahoo and MSN Search discussed the future of search technologies. The big Search Engine companies have different ideas on how search engines will change over the next few years.

Last weekend at Khandala, there were many birds in the trees that I couldn’t recognise and put a label to.   I wished my dad was there - he probably knows every species. As I was about to doze off this afternoon, I remembered one such bird I did manage to capture in a not-so-clear photograph.

Made me think, and I know it might sound crazy, but what fun if I could place an image or audio clip into a search box, which returned a whole host of Links (like they do with text) that matched the image or audio clip. Is anything like this available today - i just read about Podzinger … interesting … but this is different. 

Hmmm.

Notable quotes on youth lives online :

“My generation draws the Internet as a cloud that connects everyone;
the younger generation experiences it as oxygen that supports their
digital lives.” [Kevin Marks, epeus epigone blog, via Susan Mernit]

“The young will read anything on the
internet. More so, they get their information from their peers rather
than from the press. That means from blogs. These blogs may not be
objective bastions of news reportage, but they do speak to the youth in
a way few mediums ever do. It’s like learning about the world or the
country from one’s buddies.”
[Sushila Ravindranath, Newindpress, link via Sambharmafia]

“Many teens are frustrated by the press’ account of their behavior, but
they have no voice. They are frustrated by their parents’ fear, but
they have no power. Parents are scared, and their fear is misguided.
There are more actions against minors in San Francisco on a daily basis
than there have ever been in the 3-year history of MySpace. More and
more cases are failing to pan out. Yet, there are more kids on MySpace
than in any single state. I wish i knew how to reach out to parents and
say, “It’s OK… your kids will be OK… just teach them trust and
love.” In statistical terms, MySpace is safer than going to school. It
is safer than being in a car with your parents. It is safer than going
to the mall. And yet, we are more scared because we don’t understand it
and we’re afraid. This makes me so sad because this kind of fear is
anxiety producing and culturally dangerous. ” [danah boyd in an insighful post about the recent controversy around the disappearance of two young girls, being linked wrongly to MySpace]

Now …. advertising on podcasts.

“The podcasting
landscape still remains mostly populated by small-audience amateur
radio shows, but traditional media companies ranging from VH1 to NPR to
CBS have added podcasting content to their media output over the past
year.

Part of the reason
that the podcasting has yet to go mainstream is due to the still small
number of MP3 players in the market–with some reports estimating that
11 percent of Americans own such devices. Also, awareness among the
general population of just exactly what a podcast is is relatively
low–though its much larger amongst young adults and early adopters,
says eMarketer.


It’s those audiences that have made podcasting
attractive to several big name advertisers, despite its small usage
numbers. Already, auto brands like Volvo, Toyota and Honda are
sponsoring podcasts, and the report predicts that since “podcasting is
positioned to deliver highly specialized content to niche groups,” that
all sorts of advertisers are likely to tap into the medium.”

Here’s an extract from an excerpt of the book Connected Marketing: The Viral, Buzz and Word of Mouth Revolution by Justin Kirby and Paul Marsden (Butterworth-Heinemann, 2005):

“In the US, NOP (now GfK) research shows that 92% of Americans cite
word of mouth as their preferred source of product information.
Advertising company Euro RSCG has found that when it comes to
generating excitement about products, word of mouth is 10 times more
effective than TV or print advertising.⁸

Why should this be? Why should word of mouth connections become even
more important in influencing buying behavior in an age when media
formats and channels are proliferating? The answer has five facets:

1. New personal communications technologies and digital media such as
   blogs, instant messaging, mobile telephones, email, online review
   sites, and personal Web sites are increasing the speed, reach, and
   utility of word of mouth.

   Digital media’s capabilities in
   turbo-charging the viral spread of information means that well-planned
   and well-executed connected marketing initiatives—particularly those
   that integrate more traditional marketing communications techniques in
   their activities—can help business messages reach the mass market in a
   way that would require a significant investment if left to more
   traditional techniques alone.

2. Increased marketing literacy among buyers means people
   increasingly dismiss traditional marketing campaigns as biased
   “propADganda.” Instead, they turn to trusted word of mouth sources for
   advice.

3. Acute advertising clutter is making it increasingly difficult
   for traditional marketing campaigns to break through and capture
   people’s attention. To avoid the advertising cacophony, buyers turn to
   their friends for word of mouth recommendations.

4. Accelerating media fragmentation is shrinking media audiences;
   more channels, more media are making it harder for advertisers to find
   and reach their target markets through traditional marketing campaigns.

5. New ad blocking technology is empowering people to skip, stop,
   or avoid unwanted advertising messages and interruptive marketing
   campaigns.

Today, consumers are more involved than ever before in controlling
communications and message delivery at a global level. And many brands
are now finally realizing that “the most powerful selling of products
and ideas takes place not marketer to consumer but consumer to
consumer.”⁹

I’ve been mulling over questions for marketers, advertisers and agencies to get them to start thinking of Social Media built around the principles of Web 2.0:

How
can you make your customers your marketers? What is your strategy to adopt new
forms of communication and collaboration that both enable and enhance consumer
participation in your brand? How can
you empower them to believe they trust you and can make a difference? How can
you make them your brand ambassadors and evangelists? How is this trust and
loyalty built in an open environment where you and they ‘play’ together? How can you make your market a conversation
in ways traditional media has failed?

There is a third space that
is evolving - the social web. It is
changing how we ‘consume’ brands and promises.
And its not just restricted to the desktop - it is mobile too. Jay Rosen articulates this so well - “Jay Rosen said something terribly important that (imo) went over the
heads of most people in the room. He said the nature of authority is
changing in our culture, and that this directly impacts all media. He
used the example of a person who goes to the doctor and gets a
prescription for an ailment. The doctor explains how the medication
will work. The patient then proceeds to the drugstore and receives the
medicine, along with (perhaps) an explanation from the pharmacist about
how the medicine will work. But then the patient goes home and gets on
the internet to research the thoughts of others who’ve used the
medicine to discover what THEY think about how it works, and this
impacts the doctor’s authority. The doctor is still the doctor, but
gone is the automatic acceptance of his or her words as gospel.”

Are there other questions or issues you think that I might add?

web 2.0