One Flew Over the Cubicle's Nest

Podcasts, the Death of Radio and the Possibilities for Small Business

Reading through The New Influencers on the chapter on podcasts, one quote struck me. Ron Bloom, CEO of Podshow Network, calling it "5/50", believes that within 5 years 50 percent of all content consumers listen to will be generated by other consumers. I would have doubted this statement a year ago, but I'm now becoming a believer. And why not? Radio is an outdated media that's  geared for the masses (whoever they are) built on an advertising model that doesn't hold up in the new world. Satellite radio and Internet radio have helped but they don't go far enough.

Podcasts fit well into the new world, where you can find whatever kind of content you want, when and where you want it. So no wonder it's exploding, from less than 100 podcasts three years ago to likely over 100,000 by now.  Advertising revenue could hit $300million by 2010--small by online advertising standards, but growing rapidly.

What's fueling this is a raging consumer demand. It's all part of a bigger trend of time-shifted media, which got ignited a few years ago with digital video recorder services like Tivo. Now consumers like me  can pick and choose whatever programs we want on our own schedules. Podcasts are a similar breed--download them and listen to them (in the car, on your iPod, PC, etc) at your convenience. I've discovered old radio shows and obscure NPR programs, among others.

  The ramifications for small business are enormous.   

Facebook Plans Personalized Ads

Get ready for customized ads from FB. The social media site, which is already exploding in growth, wants to duplicate what Google did with Adwords, which generated $10.6 billion last year for the search engine, according to the Wall Street Journal. The move may frighten privacy advocates but makes sense from FB's perspective with the treasure trove of information users divulge on their profiles. According to the Journal, "The new service would let advertisers visit a Web site to choose a much wider array of characteristics for the users who should see their ads -- based not only on age, gender and location, but also on details such as favorite activities and preferred music, people familiar with the matter say. Facebook would use its technology to point the ads to the selected groups of people without exposing their personal information to the advertisers."

The Wall Street Journal story points out that, "The new service would let advertisers visit a Web site to choose a much wider array of characteristics for the users who should see their ads -- based not only on age, gender and location, but also on details such as favorite activities and preferred music, people familiar with the matter say."  Facebook would use its technology to point the ads to the selected groups of people without exposing their personal information to the advertisers."

The ads would apparently show up different than the banner and box ads, instead being sprinkled in the user's "newsstream," a running list of updates on the user's friends. This may get a backlash from users, but FB apparently is serious and the money may be too big to ignore.

read more | digg story

Too Good for Facebook or MySpace? Try aSW

It's the social media equivalent of a snooty country club. For the rich and well-connected who don't want to rub elbows with those who aren't, exclusive social networks pledge to keep out the riff-raff.  BusinessWeek article looks at one of the latest private social networks, aSW or a Small World .

Membership in these networks is heavily restricted. Rather than common Web 2.0 strategy around "the bigger the better," this is all about "quality membership."  The BW article states that aSW "confines membership to the relatively small group of people who travel in the same elite, often moneyed, social circles. The goal is to filter out the marginal users and build, " "a private place where people could be much more forthcoming with information."

People have been complaining about the lack of openness in  social media sites like Facebook for a long time. As Scott Gilbertson, pointed out in a recent Wired article the Facebook experience is built around the circle of "friends" and relationships data. Unlike a public blog or open site, everything is closed to the outside world.

"When entering data into Facebook, you’re sending it on a one-way trip. Want to show somebody a video or a picture you posted to your profile? Unless they also have an account, they can’t see it. Your pictures, videos and everything else is stranded in a walled garden, cut off from the rest of the web."

(see ZD Net article for more on this) But private social media sites take it to another level.

About Face: How Powerful Will Facebook Become?

You know a fad—or “movement”--has gone mainstream when it lands on the cover of Newsweek. The story of Facebook and the 23 year old boy wonder named Mark Zuckerberg is more than just another "gee this is a cool technology and look who's getting rich" story, however. More than 1 million people A WEEK are flocking to Facebook, creating a crossroads for the social media movement--will it really cross into mainstream America and, if so, how will it play out? 

Facebook is rapidly reinventing its platform to go beyond the pizza-eating, party going college crowd for a much bigger audience--you, me and Uncle Fred.This has big ramifications for everyone, from Uncle Fred to Microsoft, Google and their likes in Silicon Valley, and beyond. Many of these new users are over 35, and there's even a stampede from big companies, according to BusinessWeek.

For now, it's a transition that’s fun to watch. I’ve witnessed as dozens of sophisticated professionals have jumped into Facebook, only to find it filled with teenage gadgets and features. One executive says his account, using My Questions application, accidentally sent out a question asking his colleagues, “do you kiss on the first date?”

You can “poke” or “superpoke” “friends”, turn them into Vampires, Werewolves or Zombies and pick their brains on every interest. There are thousands of whacky applications. One—Social Moths-- is a “group confessional.” See which confessions came from friends, but not which friend made the confession.”

Do I really want to know my boss' (or employee's) deepest secrets?

“Friends” keep up with other friends every move, and every passion or emotional twitch it seems. It’s all about being constantly connected, and it all has the feel of a narcistic culture gone overboard.

The New Influencers: Turning Companies into Publishers

The New Influencers: a Marketer's Guide to the New Social Media. Solid book on the new social media, particularly for marketers, PR people and others in the communications profession trying to find their way. It could almost be a followup to ClueTrain Manifesto from a few years ago--but without the  hard hitting edge (that took many swipes at the PR profession). This book describes how many marketers and PR folks are trying to make the switch into the new social media world. It's not a smooth transition. These people come out of a world where it's all about controlling the message, filtering every word, and focusing on pitching select media, led by a handful of big names like the Wall St. Journal, BusinessWeek and Fortune on the business print side. I'll talk more about the whole book later (I'm almost finished), but one of my favorite sections is entitled "Putting "Public" Back into Public Relations." Author Paul Gillin talks about the evolution away from the old days of courting and wining and dining reporters, to a new era of connecting with bloggers, podcasters, even directly with their audiences. The world has certainly changed, "Today a news story in a major newspaper may begin as a blog discussion or a viral e-mail thread that takes on a life of its own."  There's a lightning rod statement on page 127, where he quotes Larry Weber, who runs his own integrated marketing company, and believes that companies are at a turning point, "one in which businesses have the opportunity to break out of their traditional roles as message makers and become legitimate publishers."

This is huge.

Professionals flocking to Facebook

Nice post by Brian Solis comparing  the  social media sites led by Facebook and Linked in. Not long ago Facebook was the domain of college kids and the 20-something set. Banter was about the latest hot date, cool bands and so on. I never figured busy professionals would have time to mimic the You Tubers, who I envisioned all living with their parents and doodling away day and night posting videos and every thought that came across their brains. But I may be wrong (on all accounts). Now professionals are (surprisingly) starting to flock to Facebook. Turns out it's a very intuitive platform for establishing multi-faceted profiles with all the bells and whistles and keeping abreast of your colleagues and more, extending your network. The site has its own version of a news feed that will show you what each of your "friends" are doing or posting. Also, there seems to be an infinite amount of Facebook add-ons for your site. Want to show your favorite You Tube videos, post your blog, compare your friends to others, trade book reviews, etc---it's all there if you have the time.

Cisco mood

Sitting in one of the Cisco cafes now, waiting for an appointment. People are buzzing in and out, the parking lot is full and it all has the feel of a company on fire--and Cisco is on fire. Earning, revenues, stock price, all growing. John Chambers exudes the confidence of a leader on top of the world when he speaks to the troops and others. It feels a little like Intel back in the 90s when everything was booming. Then it was the new glitter of the Internet and all those cool dot com companies. Now it's web 2.0, video, and a new set of players...Will it keep going? Who knows, but the ride will be interesting.

Guy Kawasaki leads Silicon Valley NewTech Meetup Panel

Great little set of web 2.0 demos Tue night at the offices of DLA Piper in Palo Alto. I can't say too much for the technical quality or presentation skills--one fellow seemed to just start in the middle of his presentation; the screen was hard to see from the back, each had only five minutes (except Guy) to give their spill and so on. But the content and demos were very cool. And when you're getting this for "free," it's hard to complain (unless you're a speechwriter).
Guy Kawasaki was the star attraction. The former Apple evangelist showed off his Truemors  site, a sort of Digg like site on steroids that allows users to post various kinds of material, ranging from National Enquirer level stories like "woman found with pencil in head after 55 years" to studies on  "why your teen is tired" to real news (the latest YouTube lawsuit).

Guy explained that he launched the site because he got tired of sitting behind the desk and rejecting 49 out of 50 venture capital deals coming his way (his day job is still venture capitalist). He launched the whole thing for $15k..Along the way, he broke the crowd up with one joke after another: He pointed out that, "in the past you had to have $100,000 or $200,000 to do something stupid..now you can do it for $15,000" He also said reading Truemors could make even the homeliest geek an interesting guy, making the site the perfect read before that hot date. He's truly an idea-a-minute guy with a lively blog  and an entertainer to boot...Let's hope he makes more local appearances. Thanks to the SV NewTech Meetup group and DLA Piper for putting this on.
The other demos included:

* silverstripe.com - A content development site offering all the web 2.0 bells and whistles, coming to you from New Zealand.

* ustream.tv - Live interactive video for everyone...perfect for the youtube crowd who need a platform to stream weddings, little leagues sports or just a day in the life.

* licketyship.com - Brilliant idea; these guys play middleman between consumers and courier services (100 in the BAy area), helping you get stuff delivered at competitive prices--including furniture, stereos, big screen tvs.  They've now expanded across the Bay area into the rest of CA.

I also met a few more interesting folks, including the founder of something called The Idea Mama Club
which brings together inventors, venture capitalists and more, a sort of social media site for brains seeking to strike the next BIG thing.

All in all, a very energetic, passionate bunch. May they all make millions and even join Guy as the next rock star in Silicon Valley.