As an entrepreneur and digital media consultant I spend lots of time “walking-the-walk” before making recommendations to executives or investors about what to do.  I’ve always believed it is critical to actually use and try digital products and services before you are qualified to opine. Frustrated by the lack of this by key folks making decisions I wrote a post “learn by doing” over a year ago.  This philosophy is the same for joining social communities or releasing Facebook functionality on your website.  I believe you need to have been there, experienced it, and have a good understanding of the associated nuances.

Over the past several weeks there has been several situations that point to a basic question about social media and the web – Is it too public?  There are many in the industry debating this question, myself included.  Generally speaking, over time, I have seen myself enjoy exposing more, sharing more, yet sometimes have mixed feeling about the topic given the multiple hats I wear (Son, Father, Husband, Media Executive, Entrepreneur, Partner, etc.)  However, innately being a private person, I have seen the holistic and commercial benefit of transparency. Less about ego, rather allowing others to understand me in different ways.  More importantly, being somewhat transparent and out there allows me to be open to experience, share, and connect with others in deeper ways.

Let’s look at some of the recent public issues.  For those not totally aware, below is a cheat sheet:

• Facebook’s decentralized “like” button launch.  Big news – now independent websites can incorporate the Facebook “like” functionality on their own website.  Previously, this was only available on Facebook.  For example, if you are browsing an article on CNN – you can now “like it” and share that with all your friends on Facebook.
• Facebook’s Privacy Loophole.  Facebook (inadvertently) disclosed private data in feeds to advertisers.  More specifically, they shared personally identifiable private information (name, age, hometown, etc.) with sites such as Google, Double Click, Yahoo, etc.  Not Good, especially for a site that prides itself on protecting users privacy.
• BP Oil Fiasco – Today is day 35 of continuous oil flow spilling into the Gulf coast with estimates over six million gallons so far.  This article from Huffington Post is an example of how social media provides transparency to the issues everyone should know about.  Given the circumstances I expect BP will collapse as a company without quickly learning how to do three things  a) become be more transparent with the public about the situation b) quickly figure out how to fix the problem c) do the right thing by the people affected by this mess.
• Announcement of Jeff Jarvi’s Next Book “Public Parts.“  Among other things, Jeff is a key digital media veteran with a successful blog called BuzzMachine.  This week he announced his next book about the end of privacy and the benefits of publicness.  Yes, the name is a plug to Howard Stern.
• The list goes on…

Where do you stand on the public vs. private social media debate?

Do you feel you’ve experienced enough social media to understand it’s implications?

Do you feel drawn to frequently check your Facebook Newsfeed?  Do you check it on your mobile phone?

Do you enjoy being a voyeur – reading status updates or viewing pictures from Facebook friends?

Do you like when social media exposes terrorism, unethical businesses or people?

Do you enjoy watching young entrepreneurs grow successful business through the use of Social Media?

Are you scared where this is all going?

We are half-way through Q1 2010 and there is lots of healthy activity going on in the world of digital media.  New funds are starting to pump capital into digital start-ups, online media entities are filing to go public, Facebook now has 100 million active mobile users on a monthly basis, and Apple finally launched the anticipated iPad media tablet.

Exciting.

Digital media executives/entrepreneurs finally getting over the pain from soft 2009 numbers and are optimistically looking at 2010 to jump-start your businesses, I thought you may enjoy some industry metrics (thanks to Comscore.)

Below are published Comscore 2009 year-end data points that I found interesting:

• US eCommerce spending was $209.6 billion (first year on record with a decline)
• Books and magazine eCommerce achieved the highest growth rates in 2009 (12%,) presumably bolstered by declining prices and best-sellers
• US search grew 16% with the biggest gains at Google and Microsoft
• Nearly 80% of all Internet users visited a social networking site in Dec 2009.  Hands down the most engaging activity on the web.
• Facebook (112 million monthly visitors – up 105%) and Twitter (20 million monthly visitors) dominated the social networking growth
• Facebook metrics (12/08 vs. 12/09) are super interesting; unique visitors up 105%, average daily visitors up 181%, total minutes up 198%, total pages viewed up 151%, and total visits up 236%
• As of December 2009 the Facebook demographic breakdown is as follows; 18.7% is 50+, 31.6% is between 35 and 49, 23% is between 25 and 34, and 26.8% is 24 or younger
• Twitter’s demographic growth in 2008 came from the 25-54 segment (65% of audience.)  In 2009 the younger segments (24 and younger) represented the highest growth while the older age segments lost share.
• US Display Ad impressions were up 21% (total of 4.3 trillion.)
• AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless, and Experian Interactive, respectively were the top three US online display advertisers
• Yahoo, Fox Interactive Media, and Facebook, respectively were the top three US display publishers
• 86% of the total US Internet population viewed video content in December 2009 with the average online viewer consuming 187 videos in a month
• Hulu viewers watched 1+ billion video streams (97 million hours) in December 2009 (up 140%) with the average viewer watching 2 hours of video a month
• December 2009 smartphone market share… Blackberry (42%) iPhone (25%) Windows Mobile (18%) Palm (6%) and Android (5%)
• December 2009 wireless carrier market share… Verizon (31.2%) AT&T (25%) Sprint (12.1%) and T-Mobile (12.1%)

Since our industry loves buzz words I decided to create my own for 2010, Somoloco.  No, it is not a country, disease, medication, or religion.  Rather, a pseudo-acronym identifying areas I predict will continue to see explosive commercial growth over the next 12-24 months.

1. SO – Using Social Media to build audience through developing and nurturing transparent and authentic relationships with customers
2. MO – Great mobile experiences for customers to engage in your content (text, images, video, interactive tools, etc.)
3. LO – Local (Everything nearby your current location)
4. CO – eCommerce (silly simple, yet sophisticated capability to purchase anything on any device, anywhere)

Heads-up media executives and entrepreneurs.  If your business plan for 2010 does not include a strategy in all or most of these growth areas you should think long and hard about.

What do you think?  Comment and let me know.

I am a Steve Jobs fan.  He is a role model of a great entrepreneur with vision, talent, and most importantly – the ability to truly understand customer desires and deliver products that wow.  Not an easy task.  After roughly six months he finally decided to listen to me (re: Mr. Jobs, If You Build It – I will Buy) and launch the iPad.  I have not yet used the iPad so my comments are based upon my experience and publicly-disclosed knowledge of the specifications.  Although is has been received by the marketplace with mixed emotions, for me the iPad’s launch will be a game changer in the world of digital media.  Below are a few high-level commercial reasons:

1. It enables a great mobile web browsing experience. Those of you enjoying touchscreen access to the web on your cramped smartphone (iPhone, Android, Palm, etc.) are going to really like the experience of the iPad.  Those of you enjoying reading books on an eReader (Kindle, etc.) yet desire more are going to upgrade to the iPad.
2. It’s a catalyst for healthy digital media business models.  Even with all the great advances in technology, consumers and digital media companies are still struggling to find a balance between ‘free’ and ‘paid’ as it relates to the intellectual property of content (text, pictures, music, video, games, books, etc.)  I’m not saying the iPad will be the industry savior, yet it’s a great device with significant consumer adoption, loaded with an abundance of media content, and multiple legitimate opportunities for content creators to generate revenue from consumers.
3. Keeps Big Company Competition in Check – Good For Consumers.  As with every consumer technology format war (Betamax vs. VHS, CDMA vs, GSM, HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray, etc.) big business wants their format to dominate consumer adoption.  There are excellent arguments on both sides for single formats and multiple formats, yet being a fan of capitalism I enjoy a healthy balance whereby consumers are not taken advantage of and commercial entities thrive.  As an example, in book publishing many can tell you about the power Amazon holds.  They own the relationship with the end consumer and are a material part of publisher sales volume.  The Amazon Kindle has been wildly successful in migrating consumers from print book purchasing to ebook purchasing.  However, the Kindle continues to tip the traditional publisher/distributor power scale.  As Kindle ebook sales grow by double digits publishers continue to feel threatened by Amazon.  Since Amazon negotiates wholesale pricing directly with publishers they are now setting ebook street prices (to consumers) below their cost, effectively frustrating publishers trying to move print book inventory.  Apple’s iBookstore allows publishers to control street prices and garner 70% of the ebook purchase price (Apple gets 30%.)  This will likely force Amazon to adjust their ebook pricing model.

In a dream the other night I had the pleasure of spending time in Dagobah with Yoda and wanted to share a few of his insights on the iPad:

1. The iPad’s Purpose.  One thing I like about Steve Jobs is his ability to make product decisions that seem unnatural to most technology product companies.  Typically product companies focus on the race of features and functions to build based upon priority-driven consumer research.  I know, I’ve been there.  More often than not many of the features don’t get used and the complexities overtake the products basic purpose – seriously effecting usability.  The iPad is not going to replace a desktop computing experience – the Mac, iMac or Macbook is for that.  Its goal is to provide an awesome ‘touch-computing’ based mobile web and media content viewing experience, period.  If you think further than that you may be disappointed.
2. Why No Camera? For those who think Steve Jobs needed to price the device at $500 and the camera was too expensive – you’re wrong.  I agree a camera would of been a nice addition to the product spec.  As noted in #1 above, Jobs understands product feature sets as it relates to available technology.  Everything coming together for a great user experience.  The unfortunate reality is that wireless carriers can’t support the current data traffic demands of their users.  Introducing video conferencing in scale on existing strapped 3G networks is a recipe for disaster.  One reason I buy Apple products is the trust built over years.  They understand how to deliver transformative products that deliver a great user experience.  That said, I have been frustrated with several defective iPods, iPhones, etc. over the years, yet every one of them was supported by Apple.
3. Why No Flash? The lack of Flash support on the current iPhone and expected on the production models of the iPad is super disappointing and frustrating. Apple complains that “Flash is buggy” and the “primary reason when Mac’s crash.” David Hyatt of Apple, Inc is the co-editor of HTML 5, which is likely soon be supported in the next phase of browsers, thus reducing the need for plug-in based rich internet application-based technologies (Flash, Silverlight, Java FX, etc.)  All that said, I will remain surprised if Apple does not support some kind of Flash solution in production iPad models as a sizable amount of existing web pages use Flash.  In the end consumer suffers.

Even with Google, are you confused about where to find the best web sites for the information you want or need?

Do you wonder if the online postings you read are actually written by those who know what they are talking about?

When you heard about the earthquake in Haiti, where did you go to find out more?

Was it the same place you would have gone a year ago to find out more?

Who do you trust today to give you accurate and unbiased information?

Who do you think you will trust a year from now for similar information?

These are some of the questions I ask myself as well as others ask me.

You are not alone.

You may recall when the majority of information you consumed was delivered and controlled by the typical media distribution channels: TV, Radio, Magazines, Newspapers, etc.  These traditional media outlets are under siege today, losing readers and influence.  Consumers are slowly shifting to other “trusted sources” of information.  At the same time every 1.5 seconds there is a new blog created which equates to 900,000 new blogs per day.  No longer can mass media control the conversation, rather it’s you and I that determine what we like and want others to read and like.  Marketers will struggle to find ways to communicate with you and me, resulting in more transparency and accountability.

The majority of folks have no interest or time to write blog postings expressing their knowledge or opinions on topics. These people are looking to trusted friends to tell them what to read, believe, like, or buy.  As an example, Facebook soon to hit 400,000 registered users, is slowly becoming an important place where you and I find out the news, what we like, what we want to know, and what we ultimately will buy.  Clear evidence of Facebook’s influence is on the home page of almost every media company that promotes their presence on Facebook or a link to login via Facebook Connect.  Aside from writing about this as part of an effective Social Media strategy, I’ve been working with media companies for years helping them to implement this thinking.

Since I like data and metrics, here are some numbers to chew on:

• One in ten Americans tells the other nine how to vote, where to eat and what to buy
• There are 3.5 billion word-of-mouth conversations each day in America and 2.3 billion of those are about brands
• Certain consumers (Influentials) are at the “center of the conversation,” making up approximately 10% of the population, but account for 1/3 of all word-of-mouth.
• Influential consumers have 60% more conversations each day and 90% more brand conversation.

Net net, choose your list of influentials carefully and learn some good urban New Yorker b$ll sh$t instincts.

It’s not bad – I actually enjoy being told what to read by trusted influencers on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

What about you?  Comment and let me know your thoughts.

I wrote a blog post some time ago about the iPhone being a catalyst to the growth of mobile media content. A year later it remains a fact that smartphone access to mobile content and applications are in hockey stick growth.  Even Morgan Stanley predicts that in the next five years the web will be accessed by more mobile users than PC users.  Bottom line, if you are a media company, content owner, developer, or entrepreneur you should be thinking about, learning from, or implementing your mobile strategy to compete and monetize.  Yes, I agree, there has been a lot of  historic “hurry-up-and-wait” related to mobile content distribution.  However, 2009 numbers are healthy and having that empirical evidence should motivate you to act accordingly in 2010.

I think Kevin Nakao (VP of Mobile & Business Search for Whitepages.com) has it right in his Mashable posting on Mobile Advertising. He focuses on several issues and opportunities related to mobile content distribution and  customer acquisition.  Given my background I receive lots of questions about mobile content distribution, especially with the latest iPhone app frenzy.  Yes, all the applications are great, and for me it was about time.  However, I will use this post to express my suggestions to those making investments in time, capital, and mindshare to carefully look at the data and be strategic.  In other words, build your mobile strategy with a customer point of view, rather than only drinking the Apple Kool-Aid.

Although Apple now offers 126,939 applications available for download in the iTunes App store (as of 1/3/2010,) commands 41.5% of US smartphone handset data requests, and is on track to sell over 40 million iPhone and iPod touches this year worldwide there are sizable amounts of mobile data consumers not served by Apple.

Why you ask?

1. AT&T is the exclusive iPhone carrier in the US and their 3G coverage is limited, excluding 25% of the US population. I’m sure you’ve seen the commercials.
2. Google’s Android is showing the most sizable penetration and likely surpassed shipping over 1 million devices as of the end of 2009.  Whitepages.com is predicting that Android will penetrate roughly 6% of Sprint, Verizon, and TMobile customers by the end of 2010, representing 10.1 million Android devices.
3. Apple and AT&T (similar to Blackberry apps) require that each application is submitted for review and approval before it can be exclusively sold in the iTunes store.  These applications can take weeks to get approved.  Android and Palm do not require this blessing from Steve Jobs and it remains a point of frustration for many.
4. The iPhone currently allows only one application to run at a time.  Imagine you could only run one application at a time on your office computer.  In other words, you would have to quit typing that document in MS Word to write an email.  Then quit Outlook to surf the web… super frustrating.  This is the reality today with the iPhone.  If you are listening to Pandora and want to check your email, you lose your Pandora connection and the music stops.  Palm and Android both allow multiple applications to run at the same time.  As Kevin points out correctly, 2010 will likely be the year when mobile location-based services see substantial growth.  Without Apple figuring out how to let the iPhone freely run multiple applications at the same time, location-based services within applications could be crippled.
5. On 12/18/09 Research in Motion (makers of the Blackberry) reported stellar earnings, selling 10 million devices in that quarter.  Interestingly, these devices were primarily purchased by non-business users outside of North America.
6. Mobile users are starting to get used to seeing mobile web sites that look great on their devices.  It often raises the frustration levels when popular sites don’t sniff the device and thus provide a weak interface to their respective content.  This trend of delivering great mobile web experiences is getting more and more popular and yielding strong performance and monitization benefits for media companies and publishers.  It begs the age-old question, “is there a need for a device-specific client-based application or can I do everything on the web?”  Aside from fueling Apple’s business model, I suspect this trend to continue in scale making AT&T more of a dumb pipe.
7. Significant international competitors in the mobile handset business (Nokia, HTC, Samsung, Sony, Motorola, LG, etc.) have seen Apple eat their lunch over the past year.  Some of these companies still command double digit market share positions in the worldwide smartphone business and I expect an aggressive 2010 where many capitalize on Android as a strong competitor to the iPhone.

The moral of this story is not to ignore the iPhone/iTouch as a wildly popular platform, rather embrace a more holistic view of where and how to target all potential customers in 2010 with great mobile content and technologies.  Look at other carriers in the US and abroad, build for Android, use the web to deploy your content/applications, etc.

Good luck.

Just about everyone I speak with lately is thinking about or making improvements to their home Internet experiences.  The concept of digital networks has clearly extended to consumer homes and created lots of questions and, for many, lots of frustration.  I will use this post to review the basics for non-geeks, and outline my suggestions on how to incorporate four digital staples in the home: shared Internet, music, pictures, and video.

First, it doesn’t matter if you use Cablevision, FIOS, Time Warner, Comcast, or any other Internet provider.  Everyone that has Internet access, with some kind of equipment from your provider, has a computer network in the house.  The geeks call this a LAN (local area network.)  This is a good thing, as it allows you to easily add more computers or other devices that can talk to each other and share Internet access on them.

Second, lets review the basic equipment that you likely already have or may still need:

1) Cable Modem, FIOS box, etc.:  This is the box with the funny flashing lights that connects your home to an Internet provider’s (Cablevision, FIOS, etc.) network.  It is usually wired to the side of your house where larger wires connect it to the street.  Essentially it provides your access to the Internet.  Sometimes (in the case of FIOS) it also acts as your router.

2) Router (wired/wireless/both):  This is a sophisticated device that manages security, and access to the Internet both in and out of your home.  In most cases it includes a splitter so many devices can access the Internet simultaneously.  Basically, you plug-in (or connect via wireless) a fat phone jack (called a patch cable) from your computer (or device) to the router and voila you get access to the Internet.

3) Cabling (or not):  Many people use wireless access between their home computers and their router.  In many cases this works fine for basic Internet access/email with minimal complaints.  However, this is not my suggested solution for video, pictures, gaming, etc. as there is more of a bandwidth demand and wireless access can often seem like bumper-to-bumper traffic on a Friday evening.  I suggest wired cabling (Cat 5e or Cat 6 for those who want to know) for maximum speed and throughput performance between the router and computers.

4) PC, Mac, iPhone, etc: I use all three listed devices (and more) on my home network and they work fine connected to my router.  Macs can be easier to use and manage, PCs have their benefits, and iPhones are simple mobile, and fun.  Essential to know is that regardless of what device they are, or how many of them you have (one or many,) they all get connected (via a wire or wireless) to a router so they can gain simultaneous access to the Internet.

5) Switch:  When you want to connect many wired devices to your network and find your router only provides a few wired ports you need a switch.  Switches come in varying size (4, 8, 12, 16, 24, etc. ports) and speed (Fast Ethernet or Gigabit) configurations.  My suggestion is to purchase a Gigabit switch with a few extra ports.  The switch simply connects to your router and to other devices you want to have Internet/network access.  A relatively inexpensive life saver in many cases.

6) Network Areas Storage Device (NAS):  In my humble opinion this is one of the most important devices for the digital family as it centralizes data security, storage, and backup for every computer in the house.  It is very likely you have any number of computers in the house with super important and disparate data (music, pictures, financial information, etc.)  Some of these computers are haphazardly backed-up, and you will likely not do anything to improve the situation until you have a hard drive failure.  You will then cry at all the data you just lost, and then consider a smart solution to this overwhelming collection of data.  If this is you then I suggest you consider purchasing a four-drive NAS device and configure it so all your data is secure and centralized. If setup correctly (which is typically rather easy,) the NAS shows up as a centralized hard drive on all computers connected to your LAN.  In other words, one Music folder, one Video folder, etc. that is shared amongst all computers on the LAN.  Yes, you can add private personal folders and adjust which computers/users have access to those folders.  The NAS automatically protects the data across the four hard drives, providing real-time backup. So, if one of the hard drives in the NAS fails your data is fine on the other three.  Feel free to review my previous posts; Mike Damone’s Plan on Holiday Gifts for Techno-Geeks, and Three Location Backup and the Cloud for more information on a NAS and backup.

How does the family benefit from a LAN with a centralized NAS?

1. Shared Internet access.  Once all the devices are connected to a router and configured correctly, each has simultaneous access to the Internet, the NAS for data, and each other.
2. Shared Digital Music.  If your family is like mine your music collection is growing and getting more valuable each day.  With your home LAN and NAS you can keep all your music organized in one location, and readily accessible by various deices and computers.  In other words, several devices (PC, Mac, iPhone, etc.) on your LAN can individually setup iTunes (or other media player software) to pull music from the same music folder on the NAS.  Even better, if you are like me and looking for ways to bring your digital music collection off your computer and into your everyday family experience, go buy a Sonos system. I’ve tried two other competing systems and selected Sonos.  It’s a small device and software that connect your digital music collection (or Internet radio, or and online radio station) to your home stereo, speakers, or a boom box.  So simple, yet such an incredible experience.  Also, take a look at a previous post I wrote, Apple Genius vs. Internet Radio, Who Wins in which I explore purchased digital music vs. rented digital music.
3. Shared Digital Pictures and Video.  Similar to how you would store and share your digital music, the storage of digital pictures/video should be centralized on your LAN via a NAS as well.  To enjoy your home pictures/video I suggest every computer (PC or Mac) downloads a FREE copy of Google’s Picasa software.  If configured correctly, this software can automatically access and update your pictures/video from the NAS.  Basically, everyone in my house takes pictures/video and individually uploads them (from a SD Card reader on individual personal computers) to newly-created sub-folders (ex. Winter Sledding 12-2009) in a master “Pictures” or “Video” folder on our NAS.  That’s it.  Picasa automatically recognizes new pictures/video loaded on the NAS and updates/organizes the content on each individual computer with the latest and greatest for viewing and editing.
4. Online Video.  There is lots of great Internet video available today with lots more being added every day.  Free video aggregation sites such as Hulu or YouTube, and paid video aggregation sites such as the a-la-carte iTunes store or subscription-based Netflix Watch Instantly service provide great options for movies, TV shows, etc.  You can also visit sites such as CBS.com, ABC.com, etc. for network-specific shows.  The question I am often asked is how to take that great video content and get it on my big screen TV as a computer monitor is less than ideal.  My suggestion is to find someone (for $100) to clean-off (reformat) an old laptop and connect that to your TV (with a VGA cable.)  Assuming you change the TV input accordingly and connect your laptop to your LAN, you will instantly be able to watch Internet video on your TV.  You can also purchase a new computer specifically for the TV, in which case I would suggest a Mac Mini.  Alternatively, there are several stand-alone devices that have capabilities to play Internet video on a home TV, such as; Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Roku Digital Video Player, Internet-connected Blu-Ray Players, Internet-connected HD TVs, etc.

Gear-up and enjoy.

Back in the late 90’s I was a Senior Product Manager at Prodigy, tasked with bringing a rather new concept called “instant messaging” to market.  I worked alongside a talented Prodigy Engineer who created a novel software that enabled a great end user digital communication experience. It was an exciting time as the concept of instant messaging was no longer for geeks, rather it entered the mainstream as a viable digital communication alternative to email.  A good analogy today is the growing popularity of text messaging.

Looking back, it was truly a great experience for me working alongside smart technologists, outside research agencies, and a bunch of savvy marketers.

During that time I spent a lot of time investigating the metrics associated with the instant messaging, or rather, digital communications market.  Aside from AOL’s instant messaging product, there was a significant player in the market called ICQ. ICQ was an Israeli company that had recently been acquired by AOL.  It was hot.  Its technology was advanced and it had a large and growing global user base.  It seemed AOL acquired ICQ to build upon its success in the growing instant messaging marketplace.

Unfortunately, AOL did little with the company. Now, with AOL’s separation from Time Warner, and its strategic focus on content development and distribution, ICQ is on the block to be sold.  ICQ is the No. 1 instant messaging service in Israel, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, and other small countries with 40 to 50 million unique monthly visitors.  In the US, ICQ lags behind bigger rival services from AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google (GOOG).  In addition, Facebook and Twitter have also become major players in the status-update space.  AOL is looking for $300 million for the moderately profitable company that employs roughly 100 in Israel.

Jeff Bezos, you might want to take a look at purchasing ICQ as I believe Amazon.com is a good fit to capitalize on the next phase of agent technologies, something I call “push shopping 2.0.”

The concept of intelligent software agent technologies has been around for a long time, with limited mainstream strategic deployment.  An oversimplified explanation of agent technologies goes something like this… Software that monitors multiple activities in multiple places, and makes automatic suggestions based upon predefined or learned criteria.  A current-day example of an agent technology is Amazon.com’s recommendation engine, a software tool that suggests products Amazon.com offers consumers based upon historical purchase behavior.

I’ve always been a big fan of agent technologies, especially with the successful learnings to date and potential future commercial implications.  The challenge has typically been compiling the necessary components to deploy a comprehensive solution.  That is where a marriage of Amazon and ICQ makes sense.  Below are the components:

• Knowing who is online and when they are actively communicating with others – ICQ
• Having a trusted brand for consumers to interact with – Amazon
• Capability to instantly communicate with customers at an appropriate time – ICQ
• Gobs and gobs of historical transaction data with extremely valuable customer purchase insights – Amazon
• Performance metrics associated with current version 1.0 agent technologies (Amazon’s recommendation engine) – Amazon
• Credit card (or ACH, etc.) billing information on file – Amazon
• Ownership interests or deep relationships with a plethora of online merchants – Amazon
• One-click purchase solution – Amazon
• Significant web and mobile distribution – Amazon
• Significant global client-based software distribution – ICQ

An example of my vision for push shopping 2.0 goes something like this:

1. Company knows consumer enjoys going to Bruce Springsteen concerts as every time Bruce plays in NY the consumer purchases front row tickets via Ticketmaster
2. Company knows Bruce is coming to town as Ticketmaster just released the updated schedule
3. Company knows the consumer’s billing information and one-click purchase is enabled
4. Company know consumer typically purchases four tickets from Ticketmaster
5. Company knows the consumer is online via their activity on instant messaging
6. Company engages the consumer at the right time on instant messaging with a message “Hey, Bruce Springsteen is playing at Madison Square Garden on x date.  Click here to instantly purchase 4 front row tickets to your credit card on file with Company, and get a 15% off discount.  Act now as the tickets are expected to sell out within the hour.”

If we can collectively resolve the outstanding privacy issues, this makes for an interesting ecommerce opportunity.

What do you think?

It’s that time of year when parents and teenagers eagerly wait for college acceptance letters. Even with the recession, there’s lots of competition to get into the top private schools, as well as the state-subsidized university systems.

Being a digital guy, it’s hard for me not to ponder if (and how much) the admissions experts are looking into the students online social media profiles as part of the evaluation process.

Last year WSJ ran an article warning students about their Facebook pages. USAToday recently did an article with some interesting data on the effects Facebook is having on the college admissions process.

Below is what they found:

• 86% of students have Facebook accounts, according to Harvard University
• 13% of the 401 admission officials surveyed in 2009 have a policy on how to deal with social networking sites related to admissions activities
• There are murky legal, ethical, and privacy issues related to social media and admissions, so academics are hesitant to use any information they find online
• Kaplan surveyed 401 schools in 2009 and only 9% looked into student social networking pages to help evaluate them as an applicant to a university .  Of the 9%, 33% of the students were negatively impacted and 31% were positively impacted by the review.

Although my three kids are in Pre-K and elementary school, they are beginning their affection with mobile and the Internet.  My wife and I do our best to facilitate our children’s digital experiences with an appropriate level of parental supervision and involvement so they understand online social manners.  More specifically, what is appropriate, what is not, how to navigate challenging situations, as well as the implications of abuse.  If you look hard enough you will find lots of doomsday advice about how terrible social media is for kids.  Alternatively, I contend that online-safety conversations with your kids should be handled the same way conversations are handled about sex, drugs, or any other adolescent issues that require strict boundaries.  I choose an open and honest parental approach with my kids that includes rules, responsibility, and accountability.

Another critical point to mention – if not for college admissions today, surely companies are currently scanning social media profiles to evaluate prospective employees.  Thanks to Google, what is posted on the Internet likely lives online in perpetuity.  Last thing you or your children want is to get rejected for a great internship or job due to provocative Facebook postings from years ago that still exist on their respective profiles.

That said, I wanted to use this opportunity to share some of my tips about teaching your kids online social manners. Some of these manners are based upon Microsoft’s Online Kids Safety Policy created in conjunction with the American Academy of Pediatrics.

1. Start Young – Many folks decide to wait until their kids get older to shield them from the dangers of social media.  I don’t agree.  I contend that once kids begin to use and learn about computers in school, and generate interest, nurture those skills in an engaged and appropriate way.  It doesn’t mean throw your kids on Facebook at 7 years old, rather encourage them to participate in age-appropriate online environments.  There are several social networks for kids, including Webkinz, Club Penguin, Whyville, and one that caters to children as young as five – KidSwirl.  Remember, Facebook and Myspace require your kids to be 13 years old to use the site.  However, age verification is laughable as many younger kids just claim to be older.  Another key benefit I’ve noticed with my kids (while they are still young) is that they are the more engaged with spending Daddy time together, rather than older kids that tend to push for more independence and time with their friends.
2. Setup the computer your kids use in an open, public location in the house. In other words, no computer use in bedrooms, basements, or a hidden office.  This allows the opportunity for you to physically monitor, and participate in, their online activities.  We like the concept of “screen” time (TV, computer, DS, etc.) and “screen-free” time where kids can read, play board/card games, ride bikes, etc.
3. Work with your kids to create a rules list for computer use with pre-defined and agreed-upon consequences for abuse.  This seems hokey, yet it allows your kids to actively participate in, and be responsible for, defining what is appropriate, and what they lose if they abuse the rules.  I suggest steep consequence as that works well in our house  The rules should include when they can use the computer, taking turns with siblings/friends, what information is allowed to be shared, etc.
4. Help your kids sign-up and create their profiles on the social media sites you feel are appropriate for their age.  This is most important as spending time with your kids, explaining the details of a social media profile, is critical.  This should include role paying so you can describe situations your kids should avoid or be conscious of.  Some examples include: who to become friends with online, referring to the rules list in #2 above – items they can enjoy with their online friends, and what not to share publicly (name, address, phone#, etc.)
5. Review online ethical behavior with your kids.  In my humble opinion, much of kids abuse of the Internet relates to unethical behavior.  Spending some time with your kids, helping them to understand the feelings associated with gossip, cyber-bullying, inappropriate pictures, etc. is super important.
6. No downloading of anything. There are many enticing opportunities for free music, pictures, video, etc. where a software download is required.  My suggestion is to setup “limited” user accounts for your kids whereby they can be restricted from downloading or visiting specific sites.  However, parents must make sure their kids login to the Windows or Mac computer with the kids “limited” account login, rather than the parent login.
7. No online purchasing without a parents direct involvement. No credit cards or online banking when they are young.
8. Never, never, never plan to meet someone they only met online.
9. No online gambling – ever. It’s illegal.
10. Have fun with it. Play games, watch videos, learn.  It can be a great experience that you share together with your kids.

As media companies continue their quest to survive and grow in the challenging macroeconomic climate, two recent conflicting strategies have emerged and are worth taking a look at.

1) AOL’s upcoming launch of it’s new content management and production engine

2) News Corp.’s efforts to keep their content out of Google and only in Bing search results, with resulting direct compensation from Microsoft

To start with, Tim Armstrong (CEO of AOL) deserves kudos for his recently announced plans as he is faced with a set of challenging circumstances:

• Overhead is not in line with revenue and the company is bleeding cash
• 20% of AOL’s major revenue source (ISP subscribers) annually defect causing significant cash flow issues
• Between 20 and 50% of AOL’s traffic is generated from ISP subscribers directed to their core AOL Mail, AOL.com, or AOL/Google search pages

So, what has he done?

1. Announced a voluntary layoff plan to reduce 2500 jobs with, what I would call, generous severance packages.  This should tighten their belts and align overhead against projected revenue.
2. Managed the separation from Time Warner so AOL acts as an independent entity.
3. Re-branded the company in preparation for the 12/10/09 date when the new AOL common stock trades on Wall Street
4. Publicized his renewed focus on becoming a super content engine with the soon-to-be-launched AOL content and analytics engine

Tim’s decision to build technology and align people resources against a massive analytics-based content engine is smart.  According to a Pew Internet Study the data is clear – roughly 50% of users consume their content via search.  Focusing on solutions to drive SEO must be prioritized as a critical component of any media business.  Coming from Google, Tim gets the importance and quantitative nature of content and search.  Although there are lots of “so called” SEO experts few recognize and prioritize the necessary data-driven approaches to a comprehensive inbound marketing strategy.  Trust me, it is no small feat to build an engine (people and technology) that uniquely generates thousands of user-centric and analytically-driven content pages.

I commend Tim for his strategy.

My prediction is that if he is able to successfully launch this “AOL content analytics engine” and rallies the appropriate people resources he will drive traffic and scale back to AOL as a network of premier media brands.

Good luck Tim, I believe you’ve turned on Google.

In contrast to AOL’s strategy to work with Google,  Rupert Murdoch (Chairman and CEO of News Corp.) and company have relentlessly voiced their disapproval of Google strategy and have announced plans (or threats) to block their content from Google search.  News Corp. is on the street trying to rally other media companies to join them.  Additionally, they are in discussions with Microsoft to strike a deal whereby Bing pays them for exclusive access to their content.

I think Jeff Jarvis’s Buzz Machine articulates it well, “Rupert Has Balls.”  Basically, Jeff contends that although Mr. Murdoch is a smart man with years of experience he makes mistakes and doesn’t always know something that others don’t.  TechCrunch wrote an interesting post about the real strategy behind the public threats to block Google. They contend there is a much bigger strategy by playing both sides (Google and Bing) in search result prominence, as Murdoch would never pull his content from Google.

My take is simple – there is no way News Corp. can convince shareholders of value without making sure their content gets listed and is actively promoted by Google.  The media propaganda around “turning Google off” is nuts.  Even though Jonathan Miller comments that Google’s value is not as big as you would expect – I don’t believe it.  If this is part of a larger leverage strategy, I hope it works for them.  We all get it, the challenges and frustration are high for media companies:

• Google holds a lot of power with their search technologies and doesn’t pay anything for the content from which they make their bread and butter.
• With “free on the web” in a poor advertising market, the economic value of content is not recognized and can’t continue.
• An effective content site relies on a material amount of traffic from Google.

The solution is not to turn-off Google, rather media companies should find ways to do a few things right:

• Cost-effectively produce exceptional unique content
• Diversify business models so as not to be completely reliant on Ad revenue
• Leverage a comprehensive inbound marketing strategy that includes SEO, Social, SEM, and landing page optimization
• Create win-win partnerships that extend content in meaningful ways

If News Corp. does end up turning Google off – they will desperately need some digital Viagra for that libido problem.

As a young adolescent, it was visual bliss watching the late 70’s Wonder Woman TV reruns.  She had those cool bullet-deflecting wrist bands, an invisible airplane, and a seat at the Hall of Justice.  Not scared of anyone, Wonder Woman always was sucessful at beating up the bad guys.

Best of all, in two seconds Wonder Woman could transform from ordinary person into hot superhero chick with knee-high red boots, ready to take on the world.

If Wonder Woman could boot-up that fast why do I still have to painfully wait a long time for my computer too boot-up?  It’s not as if Microsoft or Apple hasn’t had decades of time and tons of capital to figure this one out.  It’s such a simple user experience desire, yet agonizingly unfulfilled.

In the past few months both Microsoft and Apple launched their latest operating system software, respectfully Windows 7 and Snow Leopard.  As I’ve been testing both of these systems for months, I am pleased to report they are nice improvements to previous versions and run rather well.  However, the big caveat – it still takes a crazy long time to boot-up the computer.  In general, an operating system (OS) software means nothing to most folks as they don’t quite know what it does.  An OS upgrade is kind of like getting a new roof on your house – you focus on it when you know there is a problem or when you are making the purchase choice, then never think about it until the next purchase cycle.  However, being handicapped to wait a long time when booting up your computer changes how you use your computer.  It makes you think twice whether you should invest the time and commit to a computer experience, rather than incorporate it into your busy life as you would a mobile phone.  However, with smaller computers gaining momentum and the trend toward mobile computing, things need to change.

Here comes Google with their latest announcement of the Chrome Operating System.

For most of us in the media business, depending on the day, you either love or hate Google.  Today I love Google as I predict Chrome’s technology advancements will be a game changer, paradigm shift, gate jumper, or whatever you want to call the overall value benefit it provides computer users.  Google has figured out a novel approach to solving many of the pain points for computer users, such as:

1) Computer boot-up in three to four seconds, rather than minutes.  Plus, suspend to live in a second.

2) No more local security issues

3) Centralized data and application storage on the web (AKA, Cloud Services.)  In other words, if you drop your computer in the toilet – just get another computer and simply login to get everything (settings, email, data, etc.) as you had it before.

4) No more hardware compatibility issues

According to October 2009 numbers from Net Applications, Microsoft currently has 93% market share for their Windows operating system, with Apple at 5%, and Linux at 1%.  When Chrome officially launches (expected in the second half of 2010) and goes open source (source code becomes available to everyone for FREE,) I predict the Microsoft Windows OS to greatly suffer in terms of market share.  More specifically, we could see a repeat of the awful downturn Microsoft is experiencing with their Windows Mobile OS.

If Google can pull this off by delivering a solution that does everything they claim it will, I say, “bring it on and boot it up.”

What do you think?