MuseStorm Riding the Storm blog

Promoting Events Online

2008-08-28T16:57:47-08:00

Simon over at Events Listed has written an interesting blog post worth reading about promoting events and marketing on the Web today.
I especially liked his take on marketing: ”Marketing is all about spreading the word to the right people at the right time. ” - well said. That requires the right solution, and Simon points to… MuseStorm

Thanks Simon!

Have you checked out our Knowledge Center?

2008-07-08T16:09:00-08:00

It’s located here:

http://www.musestorm.com/knowledge

Inside you’ll find original thought leadership pieces we’ve authored on best practices in fielding campaigns based on widgets and social applications, articles published elsewhere on the web, as well as presentations we’ve given at various tradeshows and the like from our channel on Slideshare.

The 5 most recent additions to the knowledge center are these:

Practical Content Necessary For Mobile Phone User Satisfaction

2008-07-07T17:08:13-08:00

A recent study by the AKQA’s Research & Insights department in conjunction with dotMobi, finds that there is a strong consumer desire for practical mobile content on phones. Many of us here at MuseStorm came to the widget world with previous experience in mobile. So this kind of finding is not new to us. For years now, we’ve watched as many otherwise smart companies pursue mobile in the wrong way, by either building a WAP site that is every mobile phone can access but that has poor usability for all -or- by spending too much on custom mobile development before fully understanding what kind of content is engaging to their audience while using a mobile phone. Mobile can be a great marketing vehicle so long as you have the kind of practical content that consumers want and need while mobile. MuseStorm offers professionals marketers - including agencies, brand marketers, and entertainment companies - the opportunity to create widgets and social applications for the widest variety of social and viral environment, including mobile phones such as the iPhone. Our solution provides a low-cost, highly measurable way for companies to test, learn, and build on what they learn as they distribute their brand assets all over the desktop and mobile web.

Source
Study sponsored by .mobi and AKQA

Study: Cross platform advertising multiplies sales; same will hold true for widgets we believe

2008-06-25T19:59:00-08:00

Advertising campaigns that use a number of different media platforms increase not only their reach but also the likelihood that consumers will actually buy the product or service, according to a new study from Integrated Media Measurement. “Until now, the value of a multiplatform advertising campaign was thought to be just an increase in reach,” said Amanda Welsh, head of research for Integrated Media. “But the impact of advertising on multiple platforms on conversion and getting consumers to engage in the target behavior is potentially more important. You can read about the study here or get the complete report from the IMM site.

What We Think
This makes sense ... because advertising on multiple platforms serves to increase not just reach but also frequency. Also, to the extent you use multiple channels of communication, consumers may start to experience your brand differently, by hearing your brand on radio, for example, or experiencing your brand in a more visceral hands-on way when they engage with a widget or social application. What we find interesting about this research is that it has clear applications for the widget space. For some time now, we’ve been working with agencies and brand marketers who are forward thinking enough to recognize to move beyond the “GMOT” phase - when some one in management has barked “get me one of those” and in response the agency or marketing manager hopped to and built a widget as a knee jerk response. Instead, companies that work with us may start out by building a widget or social application for a single platform - say Facebook, the web, or MySpace, but end up taking what they’ve built and morphing it just a few clicks to support multiple platforms. The benefits of doing this are enormous. Yes, they expand their reach, but also they increase their frequency for virtually no additional cost, something that is increasingly important in a media world that is fragmented and cluttered and where younger and more influential targets tend to consume multiple kinds of media at a time. The old rule of thumb in media was that it took a frequency of 3 to break through the clutter and get heard. The new rule? Who knows. A frequency of 6-7x is generally recommended but may not be sufficient. Which makes the new imperative not “GMOT” but “BIO DIE” - build it once and deploy it everywhere, from Facebook, to OpenSocial, to the web, to mobile phones such as the iPhone.

Study: PCs Steal TV’s ‘Share of Screen’

2008-06-20T21:25:00-08:00

When thinking about video, think horizontally about how the media is consumed - on television, on the computer at various sites and inside of widgets, on mobile phones (likewise), versus vertically by technology. This lesson was underlined by recent market research coming out of Ipsos that points out that consumers are watching more video online and - as they do so - consumption on TV tends to drop.

People are still watching programs, but not necessarily on their TV screens. The amount of video consumed on TV has dropped 5 percent among people who actively stream and download content, per a study conducted by Ipsos MediaCT, New York.

Meanwhile, movie theater consumption fell 2 percent while personal computer viewing grew 8 percent. One out of every five hours spent watching video is now done online.

Still, TV is the place the 1,102 respondents surveyed online in February went to watch video 70 percent of the time. However, Adam Wright, director of Ipsos MediaCT, said marketers need to be mindful of this subtle shift.

“Folks that are downloading and streaming are clearly adopting the activity, they are not just experimenting with it,” said Wright. “If you don’t already have a plan to reach consumers online via video, you are missing a big tool in your kit when you put together your media plan.”

More than half (52 percent) of Americans over the age of 12 have streamed or downloaded a digital file. Consumers 18-24 spend the largest percentage of their time (27 percent) watching video on their computers.

Relevant Links
Study: PCs Steal TV’s ‘Share of Screen’ as reported by Kenneth Hein, Brandweek, June 20, 2008
Mobile Insider June 19, 2008

Widget Web Expo recap

2008-06-18T18:56:01-08:00

I had a blast at the recent Widget Web Expo in New York. The show was smaller than some I’ve been to lately, most likely because corporations are cutting travel budgets in response to a tighter economy. Still the people who came to the show were there to learn more about widgets and social applications and those that I talked to felt like they walked away from the show with actionable knowledge they could use. Sessions that were particularly popular were Josh Bernoff’s from Forrester Research and Linda Abraham’s from Comscore, both of which were very data rich.

We’re in New York at Widget Web Expo

2008-06-16T18:01:01-08:00

I’m here in New York speaking at Widget Web Expo, the conference formerly known as Widgety Goodness, in Brooklyn. I’ll be speaking on the goodness of Widget Platforms on Monday from 12:15 to 1:00 and then again on Tuesday from 5:00 to 5:45 on the Top 10 Widget Mistakes in a Hands On Session. The show is only a hop-skip and a quick subway ride from Manhattan at the Brooklyn Marriott on Adams Street. Highly recommended. Hope to see you there!

iPhone fever here at MuseStorm

2008-06-04T17:55:01-08:00

Yes, I know it’s a tad early for iPhone fever. (Although we do hear rumors that people are lined up in front of the Apple Store in New York - for no apparent reason!). Here at MuseStorm, we recently announced that we extended our Engagement Platform to include support for the iPhone as a core part of the platform. We made the announcement on June 3rd but really it is the culmination of 3 years of work building out a cross-platform widget strategy. Today, MuseStorm is the only player in the widget category with a platform that supports all 5 types of widgets popular with customers today:

Here’s just some of the nice things people have been saying in response to this announcement:

Musestorm raised the game and it should be enough to play against the recent Clearspring Update that aims to fight not only to musestorm but everyone in the widgetsphere...Now the ball is the court of the rest of the Big players. now we only need to wait for Widgetbox, Gigya and SpringWidgets response to all this new development in the widget market. Whatever happens. i will sure remember may as the month that changed Boosted the prospects of the widget market yet again.
— WidgetLabs, May 23, 2008

The small screens of mobile devices are blurring the lines between webpages and widgets. So it should come as no surprise that MuseStorm, hitherto a platform for developing widgets for syndication across the web and onto desktops, is coming out with a tool for making iPhone-ready websites. ... The creation of MuseStorm widgets for the iPhone consists of the same PowerPoint-like interface users have come to expect. ... Consumer-oriented alternatives to MuseStorm include WidgetBox, Wix, and Sprout (although good luck getting the latter two working on the iPhone; they’re based entirely in Flash).
— TechCrunch, May 19, 2008

The widgets clearly are coming to phones across multiple operating systems. Today, online social app platform MuseStorm announced an extension to its Widget Studio that quickly develops widgets for the iPhone. CEO Ori Soen tells me that brand marketers, agencies, and media clients have been pressing for tools that port widgets to the phone, specifically the iPhone. Publishers can use the same tools that also produce their Facebook and Bebo apps and save it as an iPhone app. Soen tells me that one retailer will be rolling out a cross-platform widget campaign that will distribute tips and how-to videos.

The strength of using a consistent widget platform on mobile is measurability. You can track distribution and engagement, sharing, page impressions, stream usage, etc. Soen says that media companies like CBS are using their daily metrics to adjust programming and update content.

— Mobile Insider, June 3, 2008

Video walk through now available

2008-05-23T03:32:00-08:00

You can check it out here:

http://www.musestorm.com/demo/overview

Enjoy!

Nice analysis of the latest social numbers

2008-05-21T21:15:01-08:00

Over on Caroline McCarthy’s blog “The Social” ... a relatively new blog on social networking that is part of C|NET and looks to be a promising resource on social networking.

Here’s the key chart - courtesy of Neilsen:

Here’s Caroline’s analysis:
The April 2008 iteration of those numbers that Nielsen releases each month about social-networking site activity indicate that growth on News Corp.’s MySpace continues to slow, and that kiddie virtual world Club Penguin--acquired by Disney last year for $350 million--is just about static.

The Nielsen numbers, which track monthly unique visitors to social-networking sites, found that MySpace’s growth from April 2007 to April 2008 was just 3 percent, and that Club Penguin’s traffic shrank 7 percent. If Nielsen’s numbers are accurate (which is always debatable with online metrics), that’s not good for News Corp and Disney. In August, for example, the same methodology from Nielsen found that Club Penguin had grown 250 percent year-over-year and that MySpace was still growing at a healthy rate of 23 percent.

The numbers also reveal that business social network LinkedIn, which may or may not be aiming for a billion-dollar valuation, is still growing rapidly, pulling in 361 percent more unique users than it did a year ago. Facebook is growing more slowly, with 56 percent more visitors--and keep in mind that April 2007 was just a month before the company announced its developer platform and “exploded,” at least in terms of Valley chit-chat.

Music-focused social-media sites Imeem and Buzznet are also notable, pulling in 92 percent and 104 percent growth respectively. Over the past year, both well-funded sites have been pursuing ambitious development strategies: Imeem has been inking licensing deals with both music and video content providers, and Buzznet has been acquiring blogs like Stereogum and the formerly Gawker Media-owned Idolator.

Source
The Social a blog by Caroline McCarthy

MySpace moves to limit spammy applications … just like Facebook did

2008-05-21T20:52:00-08:00

MySpace may once again start to take action against third party applications that disrupt the user experience (or their revenue streams), it seems. Back before MySpace Platform this was limited to the occasional widget provider that got out of line. But third parties now have a broad arsenal of features to attack users and get additional installations and clicks. Messaging users is among the most effective, and most annoying.

Cofounder Tom Anderson is making a rare blogging appearance on the MySpace Developer blog this evening - outlining changes to their developer guidelines regarding how third party applications can communicate with users.

This is a a problem that Facebook has had to deal with extensively, including early changes to their platform to limit what we called “black hat” activity by application developers. Facebook has continued to refine the rules over time, but has also shown that they are willing to break their own rules when revenue is at stake.

MySpace has added a new section the guidelines called “Application Communications.” Specifically, applications are now restricted:

No incentives may be given to a member for sending a message, bulletin, comment, or any other form of communication. This includes “points,” “bucks,” increased standing, or even features within the app.
It must be very clear to a member what they are sending, when they are sending communication. “Share with friends” is not sufficient messaging, the link must state “send comment,” “send bulletin,” and so on.
The “no popups” rule we have had in place since day one applies to messaging windows. This means no more popping up a messaging window the first time someone tries to use an app. No popping up messaging windows without a user clicking on a very clearly marked link.

Source
TechCrunch

Distributed media … it’s the new black

2008-05-20T22:20:00-08:00

According to brand marketers (blue) and agency leaders/publishers (white), the new black in interactive media is distributed media like widgets. Results come from a study fielded to attendees at the 2008 iMedia Brand Summit in Coconut Point, Fla.

Widgets are one of the fastest, easiest, and least expensive way to pick up your brand and distribute it across the web. More and more marketers are finding that if you build a dynamite website, people will not necessarily come and that instead, you must bring your content to where your customers spend time online, be it on sites like Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, YouTube, blogs, or other special interest sites.

Source
iMedia Connection

Excellent post on what openness means on the various social networks

2008-05-13T16:35:00-08:00

Over on Marc Canter’s blog. As Marc explains, data portability is in the eye of the beholder, or in this case ... varies considerably depending on which social network you are talking about. You can read his excellent analysis here:

http://blog.broadbandmechanics.com/2008/05/the-religion-of-bringing-social-to-software

If the entry gives you a headache - as it does me - imagine how hard it is to develop widgets that tightly integrate into the social graph at each and every social network and you get some idea of the complexity we deal with daily here at MuseStorm. OpenSocial - is starting to force definition of social graph APIs - but the standard is still too new and too loose. Even as the standard get mature and tightens up experience tells us that each social network will continue to advance and enhance its functionality ... making integration an ongoing challenge.

Brand new website (and blog)

2008-05-11T23:00:00-08:00

They’re have been some changes at MuseStorm of late ... and more changes are on there way for May. In preparation for this, we’ve updated our corporate website and the blog with a new look and feel and site architecture. Watch this space for more details on new product announcements which will be forthcoming later this month.

Viral loops

2008-04-30T02:25:00-08:00

Great article over on Andrew Chan’s blog defining viral loops. Viral loops are hot right now, thanks to a recent Fast Company article featuring Gina Bianchini, CEO of Ning, on the cover. We love the concept behind Ning (80,000 social networks, 80,000 opportunities to place our widgets!) but many of the networks are small and self contained, which makes them less than ideal for marketing widgets, where the idea is to spread them far and wide and for that you need the depth of Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, or at least Dogster. If you don’t have the patience to read through the article at Fast Company, Andrew’s article is on point and a remarkable fast read.

Relevant Links
Fast Company article
Andrew Chan’s post on viral loops