Marketing Articles About Networking

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110 items found:

People String Paid Social Networking: 5 Great Reasons To Join This Free Home Business. People String paid social networking is a really exciting business and social networking site that actually pays you for using the site. When you are on both Facebook and MySpace, you will most likely... (03/11/10 09:01 AM)

Affiliate Program Network Drives Marketing Efforts. The Internet is perhaps the single greatest asset for small, medium and large businesses to reach an ever-larger market base. While traditional business networks are still important for business, an a... (03/11/10 09:01 AM)

Affiliate Network Helps Business Reach Target Market. In today's difficult economy, businesses are seeking to find better choices to invest their marketing dollars. In response to the demand for increased return on investment (ROI), businesses ar... (03/11/10 09:01 AM)

Tweet-Mapping Arrives, Along with the Twitter's Battle Against Google.

geo-location on twitter

Twitter's geotagging powers could transform the lifecasting service into something extremely powerful. And the company's just taken the first steps to making this happen through its own Web page: It's turned on Tweet mapping.

Twitter's geolocation code has been enabled since late 2009, ready for third part developers to build the right hooks into their smartphone app code that grab the user's location from AGPS tech and whizz it off to Twitter HQ. But that's about all that happened for a while, until just recently the company slightly adjusted how it deals with a user's geotagging data--making it comply with a common standard, and enabling a layer of user decision-making as to how much location data is revealed to the World.

But now Twitter's added the system to its Web page, and has turned on a little blue-colored icon next to Tweets in your Tweet stream that come with associated geotagged data. Hover your mouse over the icon, and you'll be rewarded with a pop-up map that reveals where the Tweet originated from, leveraging Google Maps tech from the search giant's own location-based APIs. You'll also get Tweet maps for people who merely assign their Twitter account location to one near you, even if they've disabled per-Tweet location data, and that may make things a little confusing.

The net result is similar to the effect you can currently get via some of Twitter's numerous third-party apps, and even in the augmented reality Twitter360 app, or AR browser Layar--via plug-ins like Tweetaround--giving a very neat "who Tweeted nearby" video-overlay view of the world through the smartphone lens.

The company hasn't implemented any sort of "search nearby" system yet, however. This would really be the secret sauce that could turn Twitter into a powerful hyperlocal news-discovery or PR-promotional vehicle, much the same way that I've already speculated Google could go with its Buzz lifecasting system. And this is where Twitter's geo-tags raise some questions. Because Google's loving the Tweet feed, which is powering its real-time search systems rather nicely at the moment, even while it's launching Buzz as a sort-of-competitor to Twitter. And Twitter could be aiming for hyperlocal news and possibly targeted advertising...which is very much Google's game. It's even using Google's code for the location-based data on the Twitter Web page. Pulling all this together, and what you've got is two companies, each with valuable assets, gently maneuvering to try to steal bits of each other's territory, while simultaneously collaborating to deliver a neat real-time Web search facility to the public. How this plays out, nobody knows. But as Twitter slowly ramps up its location powers as it certainly looks like it will (perhaps next requiring users to opt-out of transmitting location data, rather than opt-in) then the Google/Twitter relationship is only going to get more complex.

[Via VentureBeat]

Follow me on Twitter, occasionally with geotag data bolted in, to hear more news like this.

(03/11/10 09:00 AM)

1-Click and Social Network Patents and a Jet Pack. ... (03/10/10 09:00 PM)

Virgin Media Launches Community For Young Entrepreneurs. Virgin Media and Enterprise UK have joined together to launch Virgin Media Pioneers, states UTalkMarketing.com. This creative new community will help connect young entrepreneurs with business experts. By connecting young entrepreneurial talent to a network of peer support, entrepreneurial contacts and expert business advice, Virgin Media Pioneers aims to help build better businesses and close [...] (03/10/10 09:00 PM)

As SocNets Get Serious About Geo-Location, What Else Needs to be Done?. Twitter, Foursquare and Facebook have all stepped up their location-based services. The most comprehensive - just by its size and presence - is Facebook. The social networking site will be... (03/10/10 09:00 PM)

Failblog: France's Tough Piracy Law Makes Piracy Rates Go Up.

Pirate

Here's one of those fabulous stats that basically explodes an argument people thought was done and dusted: New data shows that online content piracy has risen in France despite the nation's super-tough three-strikes Net ban law.

France, among several controversial legal moves concerning Net technology, has been busy enacting some draconian Web piracy laws that almost rival the Big Brother-ish moves going on in the U.K. (which even the boss of the country's biggest telecoms network disagrees with.) France's new "Hadopi" law is the real monster we're talking about--it actively connects the country's music biz through ISPs to music pirates, and penalizes repeat offending users by severing their Net connection after three warnings.

Sounds fierce, right? May deter you from downloading that episode of How I Met Your Mother (rather, "La Manière Dont Je Me Suis Rencontreé Avec Ta Mère") or Mika's latest album? You may think so. Mais...Non. Those French types are actually defying their government, as a frank telephone study of 2,000 Bretons by the University of Rennes shows. Comparing user habits before and after the enactment of Hadopi revealed that piracy rates of all types have risen 3%.

The manner pirates are using to acquire the illicit data has shifted though--away from peer-to-peer sharing systems like bit torrenting, to "file locker" systems like Megaupload or Rapidshare, or illegal file-streaming systems which aren't explicitly covered in the Hadopi law. This sort of piracy actually soared by some 27% after Hadopi (and probably actually more than this, assuming survey responders were wary of admitting to it), which demonstrates that the French public are much cannier than the legislators. We can assume, though, that before long there'll be a legal move to fix these loopholes.

But we're human. So you can also expect that piracy will just bubble up elsewhere in France once this fix occurs. And that's where the real stupidity of tough laws like Hadopi is exposed: If so many people want to pirate content, in France and elsewhere around the World, then the system itself (where the content providers are overly aggressive about their IP, which they simultaneously want sold to as many suckers as possible) is broken.

[Via TorrentFreak; image: akahodag]

To hear more news like this, totally legally, follow me on Twitter.

(03/10/10 09:00 PM)

Need a Plumber? Redbeacon Adds Facebook Support to Its Service Provider Finder.

Redbeacon

Redbeacon, a site that matches users up with service providers (like plumbers, painters, personal trainers, and housekeepers), announced a few new options, most notably Facebook, that'll encourage a more social use of the site--and hopefully gain some users in the process.

Redbeacon, which won the TechCrunch50 award last year, is less a reviews site than a straight utility. You type in your location and service needed, and Redbeacon finds a local provider that'll best address the job. It does snatch reviews from Yelp and Google to help you make your decision, but it's more specific than a search engine.

Even better, it retrieves an actual quote from the business it recommends: not an estimated quote, or a base quote, but an actual quote from the business, directly responding to your inquiry. Redbeacon says that in the few months since their October launch, they've been able to secure a 100% response rate for quotes, usually within hours. The service then lets you book an appointment right from the site, like OpenTable, and it's all free to the consumer (Redbeacon takes 10% off the top from the service provider).

Redbeacon's announcing a bunch of changes today. Users can now upload photos and more detailed descriptions of the service they need, which should help businesses deliver more exact quotes. But most importantly, they're now using Facebook to add a social element to the service. It only makes sense; when you're looking for an electrician, you'd typically ask a friend or relative before just calling someone in the yellow pages. Redbeacon now uses Facebook Connect to allow users to ask questions of friends and post about good experiences.

It's a bit similar to Aardvark, which we wrote about before--algorithms aren't necessarily the best way to find out what you want to know, and social networking is one way to get answers from people, rather than a search engine. Redbeacon's still expanding out from its San Francisco base, and its userbase is still pretty small, but it's a great idea--and seeing as how Redbeacon is more concerned with the service than with users visiting their Web site, we could start seeing embedded uses of the service in other platforms soon.

[Redbeacon]

(03/10/10 09:00 PM)

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Hard Work and Consistency in a Network Marketing Internet Business. Network marketing is a marketing strategy used by many companies in promoting their products and services through a sales force that not only generates income from the sale of these products and servi... (03/10/10 09:00 AM)

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Cisco Beefs Up Internet Backbone With New Router.

Cisco has unveiled a new $90,000 networking router with triple the capacity of its previous model. The Cisco CRS-3 Carrier Routing System will help the Internet's backbone accommodate a new level of high-powered communications, including video.... Read more

(03/09/10 09:00 PM)

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Help Bring Google Fiber 1Gbps Network to Boulder. ... (03/08/10 09:00 PM)

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Network Marketing Recruiting Can Be Easy. I'd like to share a story about when I first began in network marketing like they were a day ago. I recollect just staring at my cellphone, dreading the moment that I was going to have to use it, an... (03/08/10 09:01 AM)

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Industry Buzz & News: 03/04/10. Measurement & Analytics: The PPC controversy around credits for website visits. Campaigns & Creatives: GM, Yahoo first to use NYTimes' digital sign network. Agencies & Ad Departments: New... (03/04/10 09:00 PM)

Women, Middle-aged Do Most Mobile Social Networking. Women and people between 35 and 54 are most apt to perform social networking activities via mobile device, according to data from The Nielsen Company. Mobile Social Networking Gender Gap A clear... (03/03/10 09:01 PM)

Coca-Cola Snaps Up Digital Billboards to Own Its Own Net. Coca-Cola is now operating its own digital billboard network, made up of 29 digital faces in 20 cities. It is leasing the actual space from outdoor media owners such as Clear Channel Outdoor and... (03/03/10 09:01 PM)

Software Beats Network In My Book. ... (03/02/10 09:00 PM)

TargetSpot Streams Ads in Mobile Radio Applications. TargetSpot, the nation’s largest internet radio advertising network, has launched a mobile advertising platform that allows marketers to serve audio ads to mobile applications on various... (03/02/10 09:00 PM)

Industry Buzz & News: 03/02/10. Ad Technologies & Vendors: AOL sells affiliate firm buy.at Social media ad network LifeStreet acquires competitor SocialCash. Email Marketing: Email still powerful marketing tool despite booming... (03/02/10 09:00 PM)

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Mompreneurs Band Together. While there are many networking opportunties for women, it was becoming painfully obvious to Sherry Nouraini that not many of them were mom friendly, reports The Orange County Register. She used to be part of a women’s networking group, but when she missed a few meetings to take care of her daughter, members told her she [...] (03/01/10 09:00 PM)

Clear Channel Outdoor Offers Sponsored Traffic Data on Digital B’Boards. Clear Channel has launched what it is calling Total Out of Home Network, featuring traffic data on its digital billboard networks. The Illinois Lottery is the network’s first sponsor. The program has... (02/25/10 09:00 PM)

Industry Buzz & News: 02/25/10. Agencies: Meredith builds up sideline in marketing. Ad Buying/Planning: Marketers targeting 'green moms' in ad networks. Smartphones: Never-ending iTunes sales taly reaches 10 billion. Social... (02/25/10 09:00 PM)

Why Social, Mobile, and Email Are BFFs (Not Archenemies). The digital-marketing trifecta of social media, mobile, and email are fueling (not cannibalizing) one another. One clear example is the impact that smartphones are having on the use of email and social networking. (02/23/10 09:00 PM)

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How to Make Networking Work.

The Harvard Business Review has a good article on how to make networking work for you. Among their tips: The most universally agreed upon networking tip is this: Offer to help others first, and they will return the favor. "You should always ask... Read more

(02/22/10 09:00 AM)

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Small Business Speaker Series at CES.

Small Business Speaker Series at CES

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Small Business Speaker Series at CESThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing If you are planning to attend the Consumer Electronics Show (CES ) in Las Vegas Jan 7-10 make sure you check out the American Express OPEN Booth in the South Hall. They are sponsoring a central hang out hub for small business folks to network, [...] (01/05/10 09:00 AM)

Protecting Corporate Brands One Keystroke at a Time. Brand identity is one of the most valuable assets that all organizations?from healthcare providers to financial institutions?seek to protect. But the ease of employee access to the Internet from the office exposes the corporate network, which is your brand identity online, to every website your employee visits. (12/08/09 09:05 PM)

Ten Commandments for Effective Online Social Networking. Here's a 10-step game plan for social-network involvement. You don't have to think of these steps as commandments; rather, they are practical guidelines that will make you a better member of the social-networking communities in which you participate. (12/01/09 09:00 PM)

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Two new web services from my inbox. Maybe these are useful to some readers: 1. Trade your contacts with others with the Reach Lead Network ala Jigsaw. Cool feature is that they can resolve ’social media’ contacts (i.e. Twitter followers) into real contact info. 2. If you are looking for new product/brand/company names to trademark, searching out conflicts is a pain. Well, until you’ve [...] (11/23/09 09:01 PM)

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Lessons on Using LinkedIn for Lead Generation. I've heard more B2B marketers citing LinkedIn as a key social network they want to add into their lead generation and marketing strategy. I often get asked questions like "how do you generate leads via LinkedIn (without alienating your network)?... (07/29/09 09:00 PM)

Email vs. Phone vs. In-Person Meeting? Four Viewpoints. To what extent can emails be used in place of phone calls and face-to-face meetings when maintaining and developing relationships with clients and other important network contacts? Four bloggers have all agreed to post their answers to the email question... (02/25/09 09:00 AM)

The Ryder Cup of Word of Mouth. Sean Moffitt at Agent Wildfire, author of blog Buzz Canuck, just published a list of top 23 U.S. Word of Mouth bloggers. As described by Sean..."...these broad-minded bloggers and company heads have distinguished themselves by trying to understand how ideas spread, online and offline, through a range of different strategies and tactics. In my opinion, they are much closer to the purpose and benefits of web 2.0, co-creation, social networks and other web, cultural and social phenomenon."I tip my hat to him for adding me to the list. I'm honored to be among this group. And I need to work on fulfilling this honor by keeping up on this blog, though these days I do a lot of blogging on Social Commerce and WOM on Bazaarblog.Here's his list of the USA Team:1. Jackie Huba/Ben McConnell - Church of the Customer (Austin, Texas)2. Andy Sernovitz - Damn! I Wish I Thought of That! (Chicago, Illinois)3. Pete Blackshaw - CGM (4. Jim Nail - Cymfony5. Ed Keller - Keller Fay6. Jeremiah Owyang - Web Strategist7. Rohit Bhargarva - Influential Marketing8. Owen Mack - CoBrandIt9. Walter Karl - WOM Study10. Fred Reichheld - Net Promoter - Boston11. Max Kalehoff - Attention Max12. Oliver Blanchard - Brand Builder13. Charlene Li - Groundswell14. Sam Decker15. Joseph Jaffe16. John Moore - Brand Autopsy (Austin, Texas)17. Peter Kim, Being Peter Kim (Austin, Texas)18. Mack Collier - The Viral Garden19. Spike Jones - Brains on Fire20. Ron McDaniel - Buzzoodle21.John Jantsch - Duct Tape Marketing22. Kim Proctor -... (02/24/09 09:00 AM)

Social media: It's all about risk, resources and rewards..

In countless discussions about social media, digital marketing tools and "what's next," I've determined that it's critical for all marketers to put a framework around their decisions on what tools to use, when to use them and how to get started. I put these decisions into a general "3-R" framework.

Risk: What's your tolerance?
Whether you're catapulting your brand into the social media sphere by simultaneously starting a blog, moderating a customer community and twittering, or if you're simply monitoring social media to get a glimpse of how the world sees you, there's a certain modicum of risk involved. You need to determine how much risk you're willing to take.

Social-media risk can manifest in the following ways:
> Exposure to issues that you'd rather not confront in a Web-based public forum.
> Suppliers and competitors watching your every move and your every flaw.
> Legal ramifications of customers commenting on bugs, defects, recalls, etc.
> Sharing control of your finely crafted brand message with passionate, yet misguided, fans.

Organizations that are ethical, honest, have strong brands and a strong sense of self will prevail and enjoy a low-risk environment in their social media endeavors. However, if your organization is secretive, insecure and does things you wouldn't tell your mother about, then you'll likely find there's simply too much risk for you in social media.

Resources: Do you have them?
This is probably the number one question I hear: "What does it take to do this stuff (blogging, social media, podcasts, etc.)?" For most companies, the cost of technical resources is the least of their worries. In fact, a majority of marketers who deploy social-media campaigns find it's the least expensive part of their budget. It's much more important to have the right people in place to help with your social media efforts. Whether that's a knowledgeable person in-house or a paid consultant, human resources are the most important aspect of putting social media to work in your organization.

Rewards: What do you expect?
Let's be serious. The only reason we're in marketing is to pursue capitalistic rewards. If we really want to pursue social media as part of our marketing - with low risk and few resources - we can certainly have at it. In the final analysis, however, we need to show substantial rewards in order to make it worth our while.

The ROI of social media depends on your overall goals. Most marketers define social-media rewards in the following ways:
> An increase in Website page views from social media sources.
> A larger network of customers and fans on social networking sites.
> Growth in your prospect email database.
> Increased conversation about your company on the Internet.

When considering social media as a component of your marketing mix, remember the three R's: risks, resources and rewards. By vetting your plans against these criteria and asking the right questions, you'll be on the path to social-media success.

(02/24/09 09:00 AM)

8 Tips for Selling Social Marketing to CFOs. Marketers are usually challenged to justify word of mouth social media marketing programs to the finance department. With economic challenges ahead, your job doesn’t get easier. As someone who’s focuses on both creative and measurement, and as Interim CFO at Bazaarvoice, I started thinking more about the question of what marketers need to sell CFOs on the social marketing opportunity. Ultimately everything comes down to the bottom line – drive revenue, margin or costs down – but every marketing strategy has a different familiarity, timeline to ROI, or measurements that have to tie back to the P&L. So the approach to start, grow and sustain social marketing through the eyes of the finance department will differ from doing business as usual. And the justification needs to span beyond the numbers to get the entire management team to understand the ‘ecosystem’ effect of how customers make purchase decisions in a networked world.I posed a question on LinkediN question to my marketing peers and colleagues: With the economic downturn, how will you convince the CFO that "social" marketing is a priority?I’ve summarized the 25 answers to the question into these 8 tips: Provide financial leaders with hard facts—give numbers representing the anticipated dollar value of social media marketing compared to its cost (ex: anticipated ROI) for your company, cite research on the proven effectiveness of social media (ex: reviews/testimonials turn potential customers into actual customers, which is crucial, especially during an economic downturn) and emphasize that a company should always aim to... (02/24/09 09:00 AM)

Social Media Marketing Best Practice Tip.

I'm fond of saying that social media doesn't have 'best practices' per se, we just have 'current practices'. Those things that we know are working right now with very, very limited play in a real market. That said, I see that Mitch Joel, Six Pixels of Separation, has started a blog meme on pulling together the best practices and has challenged bloggers to write one post. I also see that Toby has already contributed some outstanding insights. Here's my take

Social Media Best Practice Tip:

Alignment: Yes, that's it. Alignment. If your organization is considering (or is well on their way) pursuing social media in your tactical marketing plans. It (social media) MUST be in complete alignment with your strategy and differentiator as an organization and in complete alignment with what you're already doing in your marketing plan.

Strategic & Differentiation Alignment:
If you've not yet read Seth Godin's book, Meatball Sundae, I highly recommend you check it out. In a nutshell, it gets after this very issue. If you're in charge of marketing for any organization that does not (and is not likely to in the future) embody openness, sharing, trust and all of those things that are required in a customer-owns-your-brand world that is social media, this might not be a strategic fit for you. Should you change, perhaps, but that's not the issue here. Just as I would rarely advise a B2B startup client to advertise on network television, there are some companies that aren't going to align on social media. One last thing - even though your company has some aligning characteristics...if your legal department doesn't, your social media marketing plan may have a hard time getting off the ground. I'm just sayin'...

Marketing Plan Alignment:
This one's a bit easier, but still a challenge, and we're still talking about alignment. If you decide to setup a Twitter account because it's cool, but you're not blogging and you're expecting things to just explode for you, that's unrealistic (but, you already knew that...) You need to align social media vehicles with that you're already doing and plan appropriately for their launch. If you have a customer database but you've never sent an email, maybe do that first...then put up the videos, then email your customers again, then get the blog going, then seed you customers with that and get the real conversation going... I'm still bullish on data and collecting it on prospects and customers (RSS subscribers and video viewers are not success metrics in the end) and employing that data in your marketing and social media efforts.

[UPDATE] One more thing... This 'social media thing' is new, and it's not...you know what I mean...right? Well, here's what I mean. Companies that do well in social media are those same types of organizations with the criteria identified by Jim Collins in Good to Great. They would meet the test of social media readiness. Examples of that criteria include: humility, acting as a servant leader, being able to accept brutal honesty, availability, a willingness to share credit (ideally, give full credit to others) and take sole responsibility and blame for failures.

(02/24/09 09:00 AM)

Social media: It's all about risk, resources and rewards..

(10/01/08 09:00 PM)

Social Media Marketing Best Practice Tip.

(09/11/08 09:00 PM)

Webinar Today! How to Create a Web 2.0/Social Media Marketing Strategy for Your (Professional Service) Firm.

Join me and the fine folks at RainToday.com (I love their site - seriously!) for a web seminar on leveraging social and emerging digital media (and a little bit of thought leadership marketing thrown in) for the professional service firm.

We're on this afternoon, September 9th, at 2PM Eastern.

Many professional services firms have a burning desire to somehow leverage the power of Web 2.0 and Social Media to grow their own business. They see others blogging, connecting in social networks, and launching podcasts and online videos, and wonder, "How do I get a piece of this social media action and how will it grow my business?"

There are several sound strategies marketers can use. In this RainToday.com webinar, online marketing expert Dana VanDen Heuvel will provide you with ideas, examples, and a plan of action for immediately putting these technologies to work to attract new clients.

Specifically you will learn:

* What Social Media and Web 2.0 is and how it came to be
* How various tactics - blogging, social networking, social bookmarks, and online media - can help you market your firm
* Examples of how other firms have grown their business with Social Media and Web 2.0
* How to plan a Social Media and Web 2.0 marketing strategy that works best for you

Sign up or become a RainToday.com member today and you will know how to derive business value from the latest online tools.

For a deep dive into using the social networking site LinkedIn, don't miss Jason Alba's webinar, LinkedIn 101: How to Unlock the Power of this Online Tool on Thursday, September 11. Become a RainToday.com Member and attend both these events, plus all other live events for an entire year for only $199.

(09/09/08 09:00 AM)

Off to the ALI Social Media Summit in Chicago.

If you're in Chicago between Monday and Wednesday, drop me a line!

I'll be presenting at the ALI Social Media Summit in a pre-conference workshop. Check it out:

How To Use Social Media To Enhance And Improve Your Internal Communications Efforts - And 7 Steps To Take Your Internal Social Media Program To An External Marketing Program

Some people may think that social and emerging media tools are just for customers. However, they can greatly improve your internal communication, peer networking and knowledge sharing and management initiatives if used properly. This workshop will show you how to leverage the most prominent social media tools to strengthen your internal communications processes and improve the effectiveness of any customer-focused organization. If you're considering social media for customer/external communications, this workshop will also give you specific insights and help you to 'eat your own dogfood' before going headlong into social and emerging media & marketing with your customers and prospects.

Each attendee will take away:

A comprehensive understanding of each and every internal social media tool available to their organization
Concrete examples of organizations that are employing these tools
A roadmap of where to start and how to progress in your internal social media endeavor
Develop the business case to sell internal social media based communication tools to management
The seven steps to taking social media from an internal endeavor to an external marketing program
A comprehensive workbook which explains how to learn more about each of the tools discussed

(06/09/08 09:00 AM)

A Free Web 2.0 Tool For Every Need. I was thinking of pulling together some of my favorite Web 2.0 sites and tools that could be used to run and market your business. Well, I can't get much more comprehensive than this...259 pages of Web 2.0 sites. The cover says these are social networking sites, but the list is much more broad than that. You can look at the full screen version here and just do a search for 'invoice' and you'll find 30 sites, or 'chat' (167 results). I'm becoming more and more convinced you could run an entire company on free tools. Question is, are you willing to take the risk....as most of these companies are unprofitable and will run out of VC money at some point. Read this doc on Scribd: Web2-Directory (05/18/08 09:00 PM)

The Gap in Customer Engagement. Late post from the Forrester Marketing Forum Conference I attended a couple weeks ago. The topic was “Customer Engagement”, which is heralded by many publications as the new marketing buzzword. I love buzzwords…they get buzz! Which gets people talking, which gets people trying things, which causes failures, which creates learning, which (hopefully) creates better companies. I digress. The primary research and paper behind customer engagement was conducted by Brian Haven, who’s a great Forrester Analyst. I’ve known him for years and spoken in his workshops on Social networking and UGC. I’m a big believer in the idea of customer engagement. But I have 2 cents to add on where customer engagement comes from and where the gap is in achieving this goal in organizations. The conference was a balance of ideas to measure customer engagement, with tools, principles and experiences that result in more engaged customers. During the show I posted to Facebook “Customer Engagement is a more measured way of defining Customer Experience”. Said another way, Customer Engagement is an outcome…and outcomes (as well as inputs) are measurable. There are a lot of metrics that can point to engaged customers. I don’t think the absolute figures of these measures matter as much as trending to understand if you’re winning or losing customer engagement. But what is a point of customer engagement worth in revenue, margin or saved costs? Some of the metrics for customer engagement – such as time on site, Net Promoter, or Brand awareness -- could track... (04/23/08 09:01 PM)

Purchase the Marketech '08 Marketing Technology Guide!.

$19.99

Marketech 08: Using Emerging Media in Marketing - eBook - $19.99

Today's service industry organizations depend on deeper and more relevant customer connections to drive loyalty, retention, referrals and reactivation within their coveted client base. These companies don't just need technology however, they need a systems perspective on how to integrate the ever changing world of social media, social networking and Web 2.0 into their core business infrastructure to meet their customers in their medium, now and in the future.

Purchase Now to Discover:

2008 Emerging Media Vehicles

How to Use New Media Vehicles to Your Advantage

The Latest Internet & Marketing Technologies that can Impact Your 2008 Marketing Plans

Your copy of the Marketech 08 Guide PDF will show you how to put these technologies to work for you.

This guide includes a service-organization perspective that will help you:

Utilize relevant marketing & customer service technologies that today's leading service organizations employ to connect with their customers. This includes an overview of tools from social networking via Facebook, organic corporate networks and customer community programs to communication vehicles like blogs, online video and podcasting.
Integrate with existing common customer loyalty, retention, referrals and reactivation initiatives.
Identify benefits and risks associated with these techniques and technologies such as lower cost to service and increased referrals vs. loss of central control and the increasing customer control of your brand reputation.
Discover who's doing this already examples and how is it working for them. We'll look at a myriad of case examples with learning's and action items than any organization can apply.

This eBook is available as an Instant Download in Adobe PDF *** Full disclosure: I wrote the e-book as part of a project for the AMA in late 2007 and retained the rights to publish. The response to the guide in my TechnoMarketing sessions and other speaking engagements has been so positive that I've decided to offer the item for sale.
(04/04/08 09:00 PM)

Private Bid Notification Services.

In addition to the government's bid notification services from FedBizOpps and Grants.gov, there are many private firms that provide these types of services. You can find some of these firms by doing a Google search on phrases such as "find RFPs" and "bid notification."

Although you have to pay for it, there are several advantages to using a private bid notification service:

Many of these services can also provide you with information on solicitations issued by state and local governments. While more and more state and local governments are putting their bid opportunities on the Internet, not all of them have geared up to do this.
Since FedBizOpps and Grants.gov may not cover all all bureaus and departments within each federal agency, you may be able to get access to these bureaus' bid opportunities via a private service rather than having to search for them by going to individual websites.
If you are interested in seeing bid opportunities at two or three levels -- federal, state and/or local -- you can may be able to receive these opportunities via daily e-mails or through online access. This can be a real time-saver.

One of the private serices that has been around for a long time is Bidnet (see clip below), which offers customizable packages to meet your specific needs and interests. However, since Bidnet is only one of many private services, it will probably be worth your while to research and compare these services with respect to their prices and offerings.

clipped from bidnet.com

With BidNet, you will have access to Government Bids from thousands of Federal, State and Local agencies, and see bid opportunities you won't find anywhere else. Our diverse network of agencies will give you the competitive intelligence needed to compete effectively for the nation's largest buyer of goods and services - governments across the nation and right in your hometown.

(04/02/08 09:02 AM)

Learn Word of Mouth Marketing -- WOMM-U, May 8-9. This year the Word of Mouth Marketing Association is doing something completely different (disclosure: I'm on the board). It will be WOMM-U (Word of Mouth Marketing University), the first training-based conference full of case studies, operational cookbooks, and practical advice to make Word of Mouth Marketing work in your organization. The tracks will include topics on Managing a blog program Activating WOM in Social Networks Building a Sustained WOM Program Measurement: The ROI of Fans Selling into the CEO ...and much more. Keynote presenters includes my friend Joseph Jaffe (author of "Join the Conversation") and Jeffrey Graham, who leads research for NYTimes. Join me at this unique conference, May 8, 9 in Miami. Register here. (02/28/08 09:01 PM)

The Beginning of the Facebook Revenue / Experience Squeeze?. History repeats itself. A social networking site begins pure and unique, entirely focused on what users find cool. In truth, they're building on the backs of VCs. Eventually they are pressured to grow revenue and it's a race against time. The revenue pressure starts to squeeze the original purity of the experience that brought the crowd in the first place. And then the crowd moves on to the next great experience. Remember Tripod and GeoCities? Remember Friendster and Orkut? Remember MySpace? When will we say "Remember Facebook?". Ok, it's not that dire, yet. I'm a Facebook fan. But logging into my profile tonight I saw an ad like I never saw before. See that Car insurance ad? If I start seeing more of these ads in my profile every time I log in, the profile won't feel like 'mine' anymore. Moreover, the ad is crap. Cheesy picture. And I clicked through...sure enough, cheesy company.The difference with Google ads is they are all text, so cheesiness is more hidden from the expeirence. And Google is not my personal page. Which may make advertising on social networks more difficult, for the advertiser and the longevity of the social network. What do I like? I like how people can join brands (see the Apple brand at the bottom), and how I invited in marketplace listings on the right. And I'm ok with ads on the left (not shown) because that seems like a place for ads, not in my news feed. Anyway, they... (02/27/08 09:00 PM)

Free Help With Government Contracting.

Are you an entrepreneur? If you are, you can get FREE assistance to help you learn about government contracting and how to sell your products and services to this huge market. My guest blogger, Kurtis Clark, gives you the scoop.

Most small businesses don’t realize the tremendous opportunities there are to contract with Federal, State, and local government entities. Although selling to the government can be more challenging than selling to the general public or even to other businesses the sheer size of this market justifies at least looking into the potential. Last year, all levels of government combined purchased a staggering amount of goods and services. Experts estimate that figure to be over $1 trillion. Where can you find assistance to help you break into the complex world of selling to the government? Several excellent sources of free assistance are available.

The Small Business Development Center program (SBDC) is a nationwide network of independent centers funded in part by the U.S. SBA. They have counselors who can help business owners complete application and registration forms and deal with the bureaucratic process. Counselors usually know local agency procedures, which agencies are preparing for large construction projects, and may even know many of the persons responsible for local government purchasing. All SBDC’s offer free consulting services and low-cost training classes. Most SBDC offices host annual or bi-annual government contracting seminars often in conjunction with government procurement experts free of charge. Check with your local SBDC for upcoming seminars in your area. For a listing of local SBDC offices visit the SBA website.

One of these experts and another excellent source of assistance are Procurement Technical Assistance Centers or PTAC’s. They are located throughout the country, with many of the larger states having multiple offices. These Centers are funded by the Department of Defense but most offer assistance on state, local and federal procurement opportunities. Several excellent websites for Federal procurement information are Business.Gov and FedBizOpps. Also check our Deborah’s small business page for excellent information on programs for disadvantaged-, minority-, women-, and veteran-owned business procurement opportunities.

Kurtis Clark is the Director of the Alliance Small Business Development Center, one of 5 SBDC’s in the U/C Merced Regional SBDC network. The network serves a 15-county area in Central California and last year assisted over 3,000 business entrepreneurs.

(02/21/08 09:01 PM)

Prioritizing Marketers Top Priorities. This morning I got a research brief from Mediapost summarizing the findings from the Marketing Effectiveness Networking Group (MENG) and Anderson Aanlytics study. This study surveyed marketing executives to identify key trends and strategies of effective marketing. The subject line of the email said: "Marketing Execs Say Basics Are Most Important in 2008". By "basics" I thought they meant strategies such as becoming measurement-oriented, shifting ad portfolio, investing in email infrastructure, build operational data warehouse, and improve web site. However the 'basics' by definition from this study were more customer-centric and more concepts and objectives rather than strategies. And unfortunately for most companies, they're not all that 'basic' in achieving success. 60% of marketing executives said the following 'marketing basics' were important: Customer satisfaction Customer retention Segmentation Brand loyalty ROI I have a copy of the study. To be clear, the study asked marketing executives to choose from over 60 concepts or buzzwords (such as the 5 above) which were then categorized. Other categories, in order of votes, included: SEO (by itself) Personalization: concepts include Data mining, CRM, Lead Generation, Personalization, Ecommerce, Competitive Intelligence Green Marketing: Multicultural / Ethic issues. Breakdown of old media Innovative Branding Viral / WOM: concepts include viral, WOM, blogging New Media: concepts include Web 2.0, Mobile, CGM, Long Tail, Social Networking Macro Economics Tech Strategy Outsourcing Social Issues Other Now, as a marketer, if I participated in this study I may have answered the same way. After all, the 'marketing basics' are overarching objectives. What... (01/02/08 09:00 AM)

Seattle Networking Takes A Turn for the Better. We have lots of great networking happening in the Northwest. I was appreciative of a new effort, though, to bring quality and thoughtfulness to a social networking mixer - like the one I attended a couple of weeks ago. It... (12/11/07 09:01 PM)

Future of Online Retailing -- Four Predictions. Forrester and Jupiter report that more than 70% of online shoppers seek out user reviews before making a purchase decision. MarketingSherpa reports that 84% of consumers prefer the opinion of other consumers vs. experts. Hundreds of retailers including WalMart, Best Buy, HP, and the Home Depot have followed Amazon’s lead by allowing their consumers to review products in the online channel. Consumers demand social commerce solutions and retailers are driving measurable results. As consumers are presented with increasing choices, channels, and messages, they will continue to turn to peers to discover, research, and make decisions about products and services. Retailers will need to utilize technology and best practices to provide authentic, relevant, and effective social commerce solutions to retain their customers into the future. 1) SOCIAL CONTENT IS GOING MULTI-CHANNEL The future of reviews and social content is going beyond the product page and into other channels such as mobile phones, kiosks, print collateral, online advertising, and social networks. It is clear that consumers rely on social content to make purchasing decision. They will expect to be able to access to this content regardless of channel in order to inform their purchasing process. The retailers that provide this multi-channel access will develop competitive advantages in their markets to attract and retain consumers. Additionally, more retailers will see the value of integrating social commerce with CRM and other “back-end” channels. Retailers will start to leverage social content as a key input into driving decisions in marketing, sales, advertising, customer support, and... (12/09/07 09:01 PM)

Why, How and Who of Web 2.0. A couple weeks ago I moderated a panel and roundtable for Austin Venture portfolio companies on Web 2.0. As many of the companies were not in the "Web 2.0" bullseye, the discussion focused on the what, why, how and who of Web 2.0. I'll skip the "What" question...here are the some of the other notes: Why? * Analysts read blogs. Reporters read blogs * Empowers customers * Blogs are turning into a trusted media outlet * 78% of online customers trust brands more that have reviews on their site * Marketing (PR) is being Master of Reality (Edelman) * From conversation about your brand, to your brand’s values (ex: Saturn’s findyourdetour.com site) * From monologue to dialogue (how web 2.0 changes marketing’s voice) * Demonstrates your brand’s authenticity * Longer life vs printed articles * Get insight into audience and build relationship * 90 / 9 / 1 rule: 90% read, 9% participate, 1% narcissism (+1% paid participation) * Viral growth via networking and connectivity * Your brand = your Google content * 25% of Google search results is user generated content * C to C marketing (customer to customer) is much more effective * Word of mouth marketing works online because the content is archived while word of mouth marketing offline can be quickly forgotten How? * Keep messaging consistent through channels * Treat online media same as traditional media, but use a different pitch to target each media * Video metadata, and taking advantage of Google’s universal search... (10/30/07 09:00 AM)

Focus Word of Mouth Marketing on Influencers or the Network?. At the WOMMA conference in Las Vegas (Nov. 14, 15) one of the primary topics on the table is the debate and implications to the marketer focusing on the influencer or the network. The influencer model suggests you should focus on the few (say 15%) who are disporportionately influential. Malcom Gladwell called these the Connectors and Mavens. The netowrk model suggests that the importance is having many connections is more important. I'm not fully versed on both of these equally. I'm looking forward to learning more at WOMMA Summit. However, in my experience and in practice, I don't think a word of mouth marketing strategy is complete without a consideration and strategy for both. The breadth of the network is like reach. Your message can carry throughout a broad set of diverse influencers...some more influential than others. However, I believe there are personas that are more likely to share word of mouth. In my experience these people spend more and more frequently, in a retail example. For example Jupiter found the online 'Super Communicators" represent less than 20% of user generated content but over 30% of spend.Bigger mouths = bigger wallets! I think frequency and reach are still relevant concepts, but more relevant when applied to word of mouth. If I see a brand in facebook, in a review, in an online review, in a forum post, and then perhaps I see it in advertising as well then I will be more predisposed to buy. Along that journey perhaps one... (10/07/07 08:58 AM)

Liveblogging TechCrunch 40: Day 2. Here are some highlights from Day 2 of TechCrunch 40 (in reverse-order of appearance): Kaltura: This startup was voted on-stage from the demo pit by the conference attendees. Slick, collaborative video editing software. It's all Web-based. Lets you collectively create a video with your friends. A wiki/peer production platform for making videos. Zivity: User-generated porn. The site shares revenues with the "models"who upload photos. Just what the world needs: a company that is lowering the bar on porn. One of the presenters had this weird handlebar mustache. What's with that? WooMe: Speed dating site where you spend a minute meeting potential mates via Webcam. Real-time social networking. Skype founder Niklas Zennstrom is a backer. Metaplace: Build your own virtual world that can appear on any site as a 3D virtual-world widget. The big idea is that every object in the world can be linked to. "Metaplace is trying to Facebook Second Life," says panelist Loic Le Meur. Yahoo's Brad Garlinghouse argues Second Life has too much traction to be displaced. BeFunky: Turns photos and videos into cartoons. Sort of makes everything look like A Scanner Darkly. Also lets you create "uvatars" that look exactly like you. (They are hand-drawn now, but will soon use the same "Cartoonizer" technology you can already apply to photos and videos). Startup is from Turkey. Cool FX. Panelist MC Hammer thinks its funky. Wixi: Yet another file sharing site. As panelist Loic Le Meur says, "Everybody is doing that." mEgo: Have too many social networks... (09/18/07 09:00 PM)

Disruptors Video: One Laptop Per Child. In this week's episode of the New Disruptors, I visit One Laptop Per Child, the non-profit building $176 laptops for children in the developing world. I think they are disruptive for many reasons, but foremost is that by trying to design a laptop that initially was supposed to be under $100 they had to rethink many things about computers that most of us take for granted, like the display, the networking, the power consumption, and the durability. (There's no hard drive in this thing). It's also one of the greenest computers on the planet. CTO Mary Lou Jepsen explains to me in the video how getting the power consumption down to a fraction of what a normal laptop needs was one of the main challenges. (It turns out they do this by turning things off when they are not in use to a greater degree than conventional computers do). Don't be surprised if you start seeing many of these features copied in regular laptops soon. Watch the video. (09/14/07 09:00 PM)

Disruptors Video: Social Networks for Healthcare (Sermo/PatientsLikeme). The problem with healthcare is that too often information does not flow easily between those who need it most: doctors and patients. In this week's episode of the New Disruptors, I speak with the CEOs of two startups—Ben Heywood of PatientsLikeMe and Daniel Palestrant of Sermo—trying to change all of that. Both are creating social networks for healthcare. PatientsLikeMe gathers together patients who suffer from the same diseases and compare notes, track their symptoms, and anonymously compare their progress with one another (read our profile here). On the flip side, Sermo is a social network for physicians to communicate directly with one another about the latest treatments and how they are working with actual patients. Watch the video. (Full transcript after the break). Subscribe to The New Disruptors Check out my weekly video series on CNNMoney and iTunes where I discover startups with the potential to overturn existing industries or open up new markets. (09/01/07 09:00 AM)

Imeem is Rocking. Dalton Caldwell is finally finding his groove. His Sequoia-backed social network, Imeem, started out a couple years ago as a standalone, instant-messaging application. He soon scrapped that in favor of a Web-based social music site. But then, a victim of his own success, Imeem was banned from MySpace and threatened with a lawsuit from the Warner Music Group. Caldwell, though, has turned all of that around, and made Imeem into a legitimate, ad-supported music streaming site. He won over Warner Music, which dropped its lawsuit and licensed its entire catalog of songs to Imeem in return for a share of the advertising revenues associated with its music. In fact, Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman, Jr. found the relationship with Imeem important enough to highlight in Warner Music's most recent earnings conference call. Now, not only can you listen to songs from indie groups like The Essex Green (and embed them on your blog): But you can also also listen to Warner Music acts like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and embed (30-second samples of) those as well: Imeem claims 16 million unique visitors in July, 10 million registered users and more than one million unique logins a day. Third-party measurement site Compete.com puts the number of unique visitors at 4.6 million, but shows that U.S. traffic is growing and beating both Last.fm and Bebo (see graph above). Comscore shows Bebo slightly ahead of Imeem in the U.S., with 4.4 million visitors in July versus 3.9 million for Imeem (and 1.8... (08/20/07 09:00 AM)

The Race to Buy Facebook Apps. Facebook only opened up its social network to outside applications last May, but already there are 2,960 of them. And the top apps are being snapped up by larger companies. For instance, Slide acquired an app called Favorite Peeps in June. The latest rumor in this regard is that TripAdvisor is paying $3 million for a mapping application called Where I've Been. That's would be a nice check for Craig Ulliott, the sole developer who cobbled together the Facebook app in his spare time. It used to be that a few smart engineers could build a Web 2.0 site, and if i took off, Yahoo or Google or some other large company would buy it after a couple years for as much as $30 million. Now all you need to do is build a blockbuster Facebook app, and you can be bought for $3 million after just a few months of work. If you are only one person, and you own the entire company, you could end up with almost as much on an individual basis as if you owned 10 percent of a larger company. The race is now officially on to buy the most successful Facebook apps. Still, the majority of these Facebook apps are nothing more than features. It's just that anyone can buy a features on Facebook these days, not just Facebook. Where I've Been is a widget you can put on your Facebook page and mark each country or state you've ever visited or lived... (08/17/07 09:01 AM)

Find Web 2.0 Tools to Help Grow Your Business. Over the past months, Biznik has been improving and developing in big ways. What is Biznik? The tagline is business networking that doesn't suck - but don't think this is just a cutesy site for an alternative in networking --... (08/14/07 09:01 PM)

Bubble Watch: Glam Media Shops Around a $200 Million Private Placement. How much froth is there in the online ad industry? One market signal comes from a leaked private-placement document for Glam Media, which is trying to raise an eye-popping $200 million (which is very large for a private deal). Allen Company and Bank of America are raising the round on behalf of Glam. According to the leaked document (thank you, TechCrunch):Glam Media is the fastest-growing web property in the United States based on the year over year increase in unique visitors from 782,000 to more than 19.1 million monthly unique visitors in June 2007.Except that it's not. Glam Media owns a collection of women oriented sites, including its flagship Glam.com. But the bulk of those 19 million visitors comes from the ad network that it runs for other sites like MyYearbook.com, QualityHealth.com, and Kaboodle (which was recently acquired). In other words, Glam Media is trying to tell prospective investors that because it serves up ads on a site, the visitors to those affiliated sites should count towards its own total as a web property. Yet, according to comScore, all of Glam Media's sites accounted for only 1.6 million of those 19 million visitors in June. And Glam.com itself only accounted for 654,000 visitors. Some of its lesser sites include Celebrity-Hairstyles.org. The fact is that the bulk of Glam Media's traffic and revenues comes from its ad network, not its web properties. Trying to sell itself as the No. 1 destination on the Web for women is misleading at best. Hyperbole... (08/13/07 09:01 PM)

Time Warner Cable Tries to Turn Back the Clock on DVRs. Please, just give me back that one hour... Originally uploaded by SylV - like Sylvie... Cable companies may hate TiVo, but at least they've come to accept that digital-video recorders are here to stay. Or have they? Time Warner Cable is introducing a DVR-like service called Look Back that lets viewers time-shift shows but doesn't let them fast-forward through the ads. (Time Warner Cable is a sister company of my employer, Time Inc.). From a viewing-experience point of view, Look Back is a step backwards compared to a full-throttled DVR like TiVo. You can only watch shows from earlier the same day and you are forced to watch the ads. The whole point of DVRs is that they allow you to watch shows when you want to watch them, which might include catching up on a whole week's worth of The Daily Show at 3 AM on a Saturday. Being limited to one day's worth of TV sort of defeats the purpose. And don't underestimate the appeal of being able to skip through the ads. It makes the TV-viewing experience both more enjoyable and more efficient (you can watch more actual TV when you strip out the ads). So what are the folks at Time Warner Cable smoking? They are betting that people will put up with their hobbled, networked version of a DVR because it will be free. (TiVo, in contrast, charges an extra $13 to $17 a month for its service). It's amazing what people will put up... (08/13/07 09:01 PM)

Disruptors Video: The Future of the Wireless Web (Vanu). This week's New Disruptors video is up on CNNMoney. In this episode, I speak with Vanu Bose, the founder of Vanu, about how wireless networks could be more like the Internet if they were open to all devices (as the FCC is requiring in the rules for the upcoming auction of broadband spectrum). Vanu's technology, software radio, can help connect multiple wireless standard to the same network, whether it's GSM, CDMA, or iDen. Thus, the open-device rules could really play into its hands. Vanu is also an investor in Frontline Wireless, which was hoping to use Vanu's software radio technology to build a network that could seamlessly switch to support public-safety radios in cases of emergency. Frontline's plan looks like it may be in jeopardy now, but Vanu still hopes to cash in on the need for device-agnostic wireless networks.... (08/10/07 09:00 PM)

Is That Your Onion in MySpace?. From a press release announcing that The Onion is partnering with MySpace (primarily to bring video to the social network):THE ONION BRINGS JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY, CORRECT PUNTCUATION TO MYSPACE Respected Pillar of Journalism Partners With Fledgling Unknown “Website” The news business is like the tobacco business: you want to reach new readers at as young and impressionable an age as possible, Onion president Sean Mills said. MySpace was, of course, a natural partner in that regard.It's good to see that they take the same care in writing their press releases as they do their hard news.... (08/08/07 09:00 PM)

Disruptors Video: Not Your Typical Rental Car (Zipcar). Most people associate rental cars with airports and travel. But Boston-based Zipcar is trying to turn the car-rental equation on its head. It targets urban dwellers who need a car for a few hours at a time to run an errand, go out on a date, or get groceries. Using the Web, the cellular data network, and RFID cards for entry into the vehicles, Zipcar has created a self-serve car rental business that is targeting not so much the Avises of the world as it is the very concept of car ownership. Since Zipcar members, who now number more than 100,000 in 23 cities, book and pick up their own cars, the company can manage its fleet of cars much more efficiently than incumbent car-rental agencies. (Zipcar can manage nearly twice as many cars per employee as Avis, for instance). It is on track to make $60 million in revenues this year, and says it is profitable in its four largest established markets (Boston, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.) The downside to Zipcar's distributed network of cars sprinkled throughout residential neighborhoods is that there might not be a car available on the weekend when you want it. Or if the car you reserved is broken or dirty, you might be stuck without an alternative. Zipcar is trying to mitigate against such scenarios by clustering its cars together in denser packs. I visited Zipcar CEO Scott Griffith to learn more in this week's episode of the New Disruptors (video).... (08/02/07 09:00 PM)

Google Should Take the Spectrum and Run. The Big Bang Originally uploaded by CrispyMo Yesterday, the FCC decided to abide by two very important open principles in the upcoming auctions for broadband wireless spectrum in the 700 MHz range. The rules will require that any auction winner build a wireless network that does not discriminate by device or application. In that sense, such a broadband wireless network would be more like the wired Internet than today's closed mobile networks. That's good news for any company or startup who may want to develop hardware or software for any such future network. They won't need the approval of the network operator to do so, just like they can build any Website or Web device today and be fairly sure that it will work for anyone with an Internet connection. Such open rules are good for competition and innovation. There is one caveat: these open-access rules will go into effect only if the FCC receives a minimum bid of $4.6 billion for use of the spectrum. It's a put-up or shut-up condition that the FCC is giving to the tech industry, and Google in particular.Even though Google didn't get all the rules it had asked for (such as requirements that any auction winner resell capacity to other companies on a wholesale basis and allow for open access points into their network), it should bid on the spectrum and put its ideas into action. If it wins the auction, there would be nothing stopping it from wholesaling the spectrum to other... (08/01/07 09:01 PM)

Disruptors Video: An eBay for Manufacturers (MFG.com). Remember all of those B2B exchanges that were supposed to change the industrial landscape before they evaporated at the tail end of the last dotcom boom? Well, at least one of them survived—a small company based in Atlanta called MFG.com. Today, it is a thriving Web marketplace for manufacturers and their suppliers. I talk with CEO Mitch Free in this week’s episode of the New Disruptors. MFG.com is a Website where engineers and purchasing managers from places like Apple or Northrop Grumman can put up CAD diagrams of parts they want manufactured and get bids from suppliers all over the world. In the past twelve months, over $2 billion worth of parts have been sourced over MFG.com. But instead of trying to take a cut of each transaction like eBay does, MFG.com charges a subscription fee of about $6,000 a year to each supplier. Free says the company is on track to pull in $25 million in revenues this year and is running at break-even. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the largest outside investor (he learned about it from one of the engineers at his spacecraft startup, Blue Origin). Germany’s Samwer brothers—their startup Alando became eBay Germany—also own a stake. Free wants to turn MFG.com into an online platform for the manufacturing industry. Last year, he bought Europe’s SourcingParts (a Salesforce.com for purchasing managers), and launched a manufacturing social network last March called MFGx.com. “We’ve borrowed some of the elements from Craigslist, MySpace, and Wikipedia,” he says. But perhaps the... (07/26/07 09:00 PM)

ABC.com Launches HD Streaming (in Beta). Ready to watch Ugly Betty in high-def? Yeah, neither am I. But if your computer screen can handle HD video (a minimum 1024 x 768 resolution is recommended), you don't need to buy an HD TV. ABC.com is experimenting with streaming shows over the Web in HD. You will need to download a new player from Move Networks (that won't let you fast-forward through the ads, sorry) and a broadband connection. (Move just hired the former CTO of the Disney Internet Group, Douglas Parrish, as a senior VP). This is a beta, though. When I tried to install the player, nothing happened. But it shows that media companies are thinking about bringing HD to your PC as well as your TV. They just need to get it to actually work (caveat: the problem could very well be on my end).... (07/25/07 09:01 PM)

AT&T Launches Mobile Video Sharing Service For its (Non-iPhone) 3G Network. From the folks who brought you the Picturephone, ATT now lets some customers (those with 3G phones in one of 160 select markets) stream live video over their mobile phones. Want to show your friend in LA how funny your dog looks in sunglasses? Turn on the video cam. Startups like Kyte.tv already allow you to shoot and broadcast videos from your phone, but ATT now let's you do it live, while you are still talking on the phone. I admit that is pretty cool. But is it worth an extra $5 to $10 a month? We'll soon find out. ATT needs to give people a reason to upgrade to their 3G network, and they hope this is it. Today, a cell phone without a digital camera seems crippled. Video is the next logical step, especially as wireless networks become faster. The problem is that it doesn't work with the iPhone because that is not a 3G phone (and the iPhone only takes pictures, not videos). So all those folks who just shelled out $500, if you want this feature you will have to buy another ATT phone (or wait for the 3G iPhone to come out and pay another $500 for that). I'm scheduled to discuss this on CNBC tonight around 7:30 PM ET.... (07/23/07 09:01 PM)

Links for 2007-07-22 [del.icio.us].

Why Feedburner is trouble (Scripting News)
Winer warns that Google may want to own all our feeds. But just because Google is the new Microsoft does not mean it thinks like Microsoft.

GigaOM Social Network Hi5 gets $20 million «
It's not exactly Facebook money, but VCs are obviously spreading their bets.

The Once and Future Prince - New York Times
Prince: the new media music machine.

(07/23/07 09:01 AM)

Google Starts the Wireless Bidding at $4.6 Billion. .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } From inside a rainbow..., originally uploaded by jerikojosh. The auctions for the largest chunk of wireless spectrum to become available in several years have not even started yet and Google (GOOG) is already starting the bidding at $4.6 billion. That commitment, though, is only good if the FCC agrees to play by all of Google's rules: open apps, open devices, open services, and open networks. What is really going on here is that the FCC is still determining what the rules of the auction are going to be, and Google is trying to influence that process. In the opposite corner are the big telcos like Verizon and ATT who are deploying their substantial lobbying muscle to make sure the auction rules go their way.Google is serious about the wireless Web, to the tune of at least $4.6 billion, and it wants to make sure it does not get locked out of it. As Vanu CEO Vanu Bose put it to me in a recent conversation:There are two aspects to openness: unblocked and unlocked. Unlocked means you can buy any phone and connect it to any network. But unblocked is open unfettered access to content, not a walled garden. The FCC should mandate that you cannot block access to Google. Where it really hurts is applications.What Google is trying to do is to impose Net neutrality on the wireless world.... (07/20/07 09:01 PM)

Facebook Buys Webtop Startup, Parakey. Yesterday, Facebook announced its acquisition of Parakey, a startup founded by Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt of Firefox fame. Parakey, which has yet to launch, is creating an open-source Webtop. According to its Website:Parakey is a platform for building applications that merge the best of the desktop and the Web. Like desktop applications, these applications work offline, offer more privacy than pure websites, run quickly, and integrate with your computer and its deviceses. But like Web applications, they are also more creative, visually alluring, accessible from anywhere and potentially accessible by anyone. That should be a nice addition to Facebook's evolving Web platform. Already, everyone and their brother is already rushing to create a Facebook version of their Web applications to tap into all the millions of people who already use the social network. In the future, as a result of the Parakey deal, you can imagine that software developers will be able to create Facebook apps with offline components as well. Did somebody say Web operating system?... (07/20/07 09:01 AM)

Why Facebook will Network Business Users. Facebook launched its open platform in late May, preceded and followed by a lot of buzz. As a (late) early adopter, I launched a profile several weeks ago. I uploaded my contacts and found many professional friends were already on Facebook. People who joined after me did the same thing, and added me as a friend. Today I have 140 friends on Facebook, and growing. I’ve told my team to get on Facebook and introduced colleagues to Facebook. I suppose I’m an evangelist right now, encouraging people to get on Facebook to, if nothing else, experience a turning point in social networking. In the ‘early days’ I was on Ryze, Orkut and eCademy, but I wasn’t very active. Several years ago, I got on LinkedIn. Its superior interface and quality of professional members hooked me. I’ve focused my time there to reconnect with colleagues, find employees, and answer questions. I’ve amassed hundreds of (mostly relevant) contacts. LinkedIn is a superior tool for finding people with relevant business connections or experiences. Now that Facebook is open, how will the landscape of these online networks be affected? For professionals on both networks, which will garner more care and feeding? How will each network evolve, especially after LinkedIn’s announcement of opening its platform to application developers? My prediction is LinkedIn will remain as a business network. It is suited to accomplish tasks: hire people, get answers, find experts/contractors and maintain professional contacts. At the same time, despite its heritage being rooted in fun... (07/11/07 09:01 PM)

Spectrum Auction to Be Run By Google Rules. From inside a rainbow... Originally uploaded by jerikojosh It appears that the FCC is going to adopt open-access rules backed by Google and other tech companies in its upcoming spectrum auctions. This is not good news for incumbent wireless carriers. What Google (GOOG) wants is for the resulting 4G networks built on top of the auctioned spectrum to be more like the Internet, so that you can plug in any device or run any application on it no matter who happens to be billing you for your wireless broadband access. Google's principles going into this are: * Open applications: consumers should be able to download and utilize any software applications, content, or services they desire;* Open devices: consumers should be able to utilize a handheld communications device with whatever wireless network they prefer;* Open services: third parties (resellers) should be able to acquire wireless services from a 700 MHz licensee on a wholesale basis, based on reasonably nondiscriminatory commercial terms; and* Open networks: third parties (like internet service providers) should be able to interconnect at a technically feasible point in a 700 MHz licensee's wireless network. It might not get everything it asked for, but even one or two concessions would make it much more likely that Google will decide itself to bid for some of the spectrum. If such rules were in effect today, you would be able to buy an iPhone and not be locked into ATT's network. It's nice to see Internet rules finally winning the day... (07/10/07 09:01 PM)

Ning Raises $44 Million. Gina Bianchini Originally uploaded by jdlasica Gina Bianchini, No. 48 on B2.0's 50 Who Matter list, is smiling now. As Ning's main backer Marc Andreessen reports, the startup has just raised $44 million from Legg Mason and others. Andreessen threw some more of his cash into the venture as well. Ning lets people build their own social networks, and 73,650 have done so to date. (Many of those social networks have only the person who built it and his dog as members, but that's another story). Here's a CNN video about Ning where I explain how Bianchini made it on the list.... (07/10/07 09:01 AM)

Apple Takes Its Bite of iPhone Mobile Service Fees. iPod Originally uploaded by stublog In the competition to carry the iPhone in Europe, it looks like Vodafone (VOD) is balking at Apple's demands; The Guardian reports:Apple is understood to be demanding that its European mobile phone partners hand over a significant proportion of revenues generated by the iPhone and restrict the content that users can access.The portion of network revenues demanded by Apple is believed to have been behind Vodafone's decision not to sign up as the exclusive partner for the iPhone in the UK. ... The iPhone is expected to launch in November in the UK through O2, in France with Orange and in Germany with T-Mobile.So not only does Apple (AAPL) keep all the revenues from the $500 iPhones, but it gets a cut of the monthly service fees as well. I guess even (most) hard-nosed telecom execs have a hard time saying No to Steve Jobs. But if this report is true, good for Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin for sticking to his guns. Update: Another tidbit about the economics of the relationship between Apple and the mobile carriers. Citigroup analyst Richard Gardner models iPhone revenues for Apple to include the entire $500 average selling price plus a $100 bounty from ATT. (This is from a June 28 note of his). Gardner does not model in any cut of the monthly subscription revenues, however. (The $100 bounty would be more like a typical subsidy). So if Apple is also getting part of ATT's monthly fees, not to... (07/06/07 09:00 PM)

Microsoft Plays With P2P TV. Video: LiveStation Demo Microsoft Research (MSFT) and a UK-based company called Skinkers are developing peer-to-peer software called LiveStation for streaming live television over PCs. Think of it as a Slingbox Without the Box. (See demo video above). Except that TV stations would have to sign up to stream their broadcasts over the service. Using P2P networks is the most bandwidth efficient (and least costly) way to deliver video over the Internet. Joost, Babelgum, and Veoh also all use P2P distribution techniques in one form or another. But they all deliver videos that are already stored somewhere (their servers or the computers of their members), as opposed to live streams. I'm not sure how difficult it would be for any of these services to offer live streams as well. It doesn't seem like that big a deal. Joost, for instance, is working on (or already has) the ability to synchronize the streaming of a particular show so that you and all of your friends can watch it at the same time while chatting over Joost. Making that a live stream should be easy enough. The bigger question is: On the Internet, does live TV even matter any more? The TV schedule is a product of the historical limitations of broadcast television, where you have to broadcast the same shows to everyone at the same time. But those limitations are falling away. Even in cable and satellite TV, the growth of pay-per-view and on-demand channels proves that if you give consumers more... (07/06/07 09:01 AM)