Jan

24

Human aggregators of the web

Filed Under Culture, Social Media, Web | Comments

“We are all human aggregators now,” says Nick Bilton from the New York Times. While I’m sure he was simply trying to make his point stand out, it’s important for heavy social media users to keep in mind that our behavior is not the norm. There is, however, definitely a gradual increase in the amount of effort people are putting into information sharing. The latest research from Forrester and Altimeter Group confirms this.

Forrester claims that 24% of us are now creators, 33% of us are conversationalists, and 20% of us are collectors. If you add those up, you reach about 75% of the web crowd who have fully adopted social technology. This can be summed up as “most of us”, but it’s certainly not all of us. To compare, a couple years ago conversationalists weren’t even recognized on the social ladder while creators were at 13% and collectors at 15%.

Altimeter Group’s latest findings also suggest about 60% of us are sharing information to “support others” and “demonstrate knowledge”.

This got me thinking about why I collect and share the most interesting things I come across (online through Facebook/Twitter/IM/Blog and offline through word-of-mouth).

These 3 reasons are also why I enjoy the serendipitous nature of social networks most and have a great level of respect for others who are great aggregators, curators, and conversationalists. It’s also the reason why sites like Digg and Buzzfeed along with Twitter will continue to be relevant and evolve at helping us filter the web.

Update: A good excerpt from @ivanovitch’s post titled “Getting Past Viral” over at Big Spaceship’s Think blog:

People share things for their own reasons, not ours. When consumers tell friends about a brand, they’re not trying to help the brand; they’re trying to help their friends. At the same time, they’re also making a statement about themselves and the recipient: “I want you to understand that I found this interesting, and believe you will too.” When we want consumers to share things, we need to focus on understanding and supporting their motives, rather than pretending consumers can be convinced to do something for our benefit.

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Dec

10

Online fun: better include my friends

Filed Under Gaming, Mobile, Social Media, Web | Comments

The obvious: there’s a rapid rise in social gaming along with social network integration within almost anything fun we’re doing online. When we play offline, it usually involves our closest friends so it’s not surprising the same is becoming true online.

What surprises me is the fact that major brands haven’t really been too aggressive in experimenting with social games and simple, fun apps. Of course that will change soon, but hopefully only if it makes sense for the brand. If they aim to target a younger audience, I think a branded social game can be a very powerful marketing effort based on the success stories we’ve seen so far.

This quote from a recent article in Ad Age sums it up nicely:

While the heavy gamers remain highly serious and addicted to games, we’ve begun to see another emerging, and even larger, market — casual gamers who are into social networking. They visit gaming sites during their lunch break for a shoot-out, for instance, or for a fun break at night or on weekends. This changing demographic is opening a wider opportunity for marketers who should definitely look into gaming as an area of growth potential for communicating their brands.

And two more quote’s from the Three Minds blog:

If customer engagement and social relevance are the new holy grails of marketing then designing for play should be put on the agenda of all marketers.

The fact that gaming is still unexpected is an opportunity to surprise and delight your audience.

Below, I wanted to highlight some of the examples that came to mind since social games/apps and other miscellaneous fun social sites started gaining traction. I’ve included some general usage stats and pointed out what made them social.

OMGPOP

For those unfamiliar with OMGPOP (formally called iminlikewithyou), it has been around for a couple years now and growth isn’t slowing. It can be highly addictive and judging by the chat rooms, it seems to be most popular among teens. Teen or not, I think some of their most popular games such as Draw My Thing and Balloono can appeal to anyone. They’ve made it extremely easy to invite friends to instant matches which is one of my favorite features (no sign-up required).

omgpop

The stats:

  • Balloono has been played over 106 million times which amounts to nearly 3 million hours
  • Blockes has been played over over 52 million times which amounts to nearly 2 million hours

What makes it social:

  • Private games w/ unique invitation links to invite friends through AIM, Facebook, and Twitter
  • Quickly join live multiplayer games, make friends by randomly challenging them
  • See which friends are playing after logging in & join their games

JibJab

You’ve probably seen these videos or eCards pop up in your Facebook news feed or at least read about JibJab on TechCrunch. Sure they’re a bit cheesy but there’s no denying people love to create and share these with their closest friends.

jibjab

The stats:

  • 6 million registered users, over 100 million visits/yr (source)
  • Gained 1.5 million users through Facebook in 5 months (source)
  • 80% of new users are now signing up using Facebook connect

What makes it social:

  • Taps into Facebook to remind you of friends’ birthdays for eCards
  • Import Facebook photos to easily customize videos to share

Fishville

Plenty has been said about all the very popular Zynga games. I recently decided to give Fishville a try instead of Farmville and Mike Arrington is not lying, it’s very easy to get hooked (which shouldn’t surprise you).

Jason Calicanis has said “they have figured out what’s addictive about social games. And what do we like about playing games? It’s playing games with other people.”

fishville

The stats:

  • 25 million monthly active users and growing (source)
  • Zynga sees revenues of $50 million in 2008 from sales of virtual goods (source)

What makes it social:

  • Become neighbors with your Facebook friends playing Fishville (like most Zynga games) plus incentives for helping them out and sending free gifts
  • Frequent news feed publishing if user allows it

Parking Wars

I had to include Parking Wars which is probably still the best example of a branded social game to live on Facebook by A&E.

parkingwarz

The stats:

  • 66,905 monthly active users but declining (down from 110k)
  • 400,000 people signed up in the first two months (source)

What makes it social:

  • Adding more friends gives you more places to park

Other notable Facebook apps: Pet Society, Scrabble, Mafia Wars, Flixster Movies, Social Interview, Friends Exposed, etc.

I Am T-Pain

iamtpain

The stats:

  • Users have created over 10.2 million recordings (source)
  • 300,000 downloads after 3 weeks w/ average time spent in app being 66 minutes (source)
  • During it’s most popular time period, was receiving 10,000 downloads a day (source)

What makes it social:

  • Basic posting to Facebook Wall or Myspace profile
  • Demoing sure to get friends wanting to try it themselves

Tap Tap Revenge

There’s no denying Tapulous is leading the way when it comes to social iPhone apps.

taptap3

The stats:

  • Downloaded by 1 out of every 3 iPhone/iTouch owner
  • 500,000 paid app downloads, over 6 million users (source)

What makes it social:

  • Challenge and battle friends online or real life 2 player mode
  • Now including messages, integrated chat, and rich profiles

Other notable iPhone apps: Words with Friends, Foursquare, Live Poker, Who Has The Biggest Brain, VW GTI, Moron Test, etc.

Modern Warfare 2

Gaming consoles made huge improvements several years ago with the most recent generation releases but it’s not until now we are starting to see the next phase of social features.

modernwarfare

The stats:

  • 7 million copies sold on day one (source), $550 millions in sales first 5 days (source)
  • 8 million online players within the first five days (source)

What makes it social:

  • Instant online play with logged on friends
  • Link your gamertag to Facebook profile

Other notable gaming console/handheld games: Animal Crossing, Halo, and basically any other game with online multiplayer mode.

———————

Most brands probably wouldn’t be creating their own console games like Burger King, but they need to keep in mind how hard it is to reach hardcore gamers. Some of my old work friends spend most of their spare time playing games like Modern Warfare.

Social gaming sites and Facebook apps are threatening multiplayer sites like Big Fish Games, Pogo, Addicting Games, Candy Stand, and Yahoo! Games and casual games in general. I’ve also been wondering why peer-to-peer iPhone games over Bluetooth have not really taken off (some examples).

For much more in-depth and daily news only on social gaming, definitely check out the Inside Social Games blog.

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Oct

30

How I bookmark the internet

Filed Under Misc, Social Media, Web | Comments

I think bookmarking can be an art. Since there are always new web services and desktop apps being released to help people manage information online, it’s an always evolving process. I frequently spend my spare time browsing the web to stay up to date on the topics I care about and without bookmarking I’d feel completely lost.

More importantly, I’m constantly adjusting the news sources that I subscribe to on Twitter, Netvibes, and via email to keep things manageable (I support information environmentalism). For example, I used to subscribe to TechCrunch by email and follow Mashable on Twitter. I unsubscribed to both because it was simply too much to keep up with and found I usually stumbled on the most of the important articles from there anyway.

Here is what my bookmarking habit currently looks like:

Safari

safaribookmarks

My Safari bookmarks are probably the least updated. The Bookmarks Bar organizes the sites I most frequently visit (forums, personal accounts, social networks, etc.) and the many subfolders I have such as Social Web, Blog, Cars, Apple, Web Dev, Work, and Misc organize all the sites I want to keep handy.

Twitter

twitterfavs2

I follow a lot of people who share interesting things. That little star next to every tweet may not get a lot of use from most people but for me it’s used to bookmark tweets I want to check out later. My favorites usually include blog posts, articles, video’s, and the occasional good quote.

Instapaper

instapaperfavs

Love Instapaper. I now use it daily when it comes to long blog posts or articles that I can read during down time. I save these to Instapaper using the site or the incredibly easy Safari/iPhone bookmarklet. Because of the ease of use, Instapaper has quickly become one of my most used iPhone apps while commuting. Syncing is usually flawless and cool app features like auto-tilting and several sharing options make it miles ahead of most of the other popular News related apps.

Delicious

deliciousfavs

I use Delicious (lie a lot of people) for articles that I’ve read once then want to save and possibly refer to later. I think it’s too time consuming to try and include descriptions so I stick to relevant tags which help me easily filter my 900+ bookmarks. Sometimes I bookmark 5-10 articles a day, and sometimes my account is dry for days. What you find here will typically double-up with my Twitter and Instapaper bookmarks.

Other Thoughts

Of course, there is no right or wrong technique when it comes to bookmarking but I find this system works well for me. So how does all of this relate to marketing a new site or content online?

Marketers :: most social media strategies right now focus on trying to get more Diggs, Facebook fans, and Twitter followers. Some Twitter apps like Tweetie are now including an easy way to see other people’s favorites, so I think it will slowly become a more popular way for users to discover new content. I usually keep a close eye on who’s bookmarking my blog posts on Delicious and I don’t see why any brand or blog wouldn’t do the same. Just like Quantcast and Compete, Delicious can also be used to gauge popularity of any site (Ex. TechCrunch vs. Mashable or Apple vs. Microsoft).

Publishers :: although an app like Instapaper still has a small user base, it should be on your radar. In the same way the DVR has disrupted TV, apps like Instapaper that get rid of ads and place all the content on one page instead of 6 will continue to gain in popularity. The most frequently bookmarked articles on Instapaper and Delicious are also great places to get a sense of what people are reading and sharing online. Any publisher on Twitter can also see who’s favoring their tweets using Favstar.fm.

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Mar

17

6 ways to provide customer support and handle feedback online

Filed Under Engagement, Social Media, Web | Comments

Gone are the days when the simple contact form or a lengthy FAQs section enough to provide the level of customer support savvy consumers now expect. And traditional feedback methods like focus groups and phone surveys don’t really make sense for primarily web-based companies.

Thankfully, there are now several online services available that help companies of any size go above and beyond to connect with their customers through social media, create self-help communities, and consult their early adopters for valuable feedback. What’s great about using the web for customer support and feedback is most of the methods mentioned below empower your own customers to help each other. In a recent post from Seth Godin, he states “Self-service customer support outperforms the traditional model because people don’t have to wait in line.” Effective online support will help get rid of those lines, therefore helping decrease operating costs and also increasing the amount of success stories that people will tell their friends about.

Here are just 6 online approaches I have seen companies taking recently, with examples of each in parentheses:

1. UserVoice (Sling Media & Twhirl)

Described as “Customer Feedback 2.0″, UserVoice is essentially an open forum that empowers users to prioritize and vote on product or service improvements they would like to see implemented first. It’s a great way to organize those requests into one location (instead of emails). UserVoice creates a new level of transparency when it comes to developments since any company using the service is now forced to constantly update their users and loyal customers on their progress. The option of embedding a tab onto any site creates a quick way for suggestions to be added to a company’s UserVoice page.

2. Get Satisfaction (Timbuk2 & Zappos)

Similar to UserVoice, Get Satisfaction offers a service that allows for embedding a widget that site visitors can quickly use to submit ideas and feedback. A major benefit of using Get Satisfaction is it creates one central location for questions, suggestions, problems, and testimonials without having to clutter a company’s own site. Employees join in to answer any concerns as soon as possible. Happy customers also love to leave praise on Get Satisfaction so it’s not always bad news when there is new activity.

3. Online Chat (Vimeo)

Online chat is instance and effective when done right but that all depends on the size of the company. Any customer would appreciate not having to deal with any case numbers or a waiting queue. If instant chat is an option, just click on the screen name link, make sure they are online (probably only during normal business hours), then start chatting to get help. Vimeo goes one step further by even putting faces behind the AIM screen names. Ironically, I found that neither Skype or AIM offer instant online help using their own chat clients.

4. Twitter (JetBlue & Comcast)

There is already a ton of discussion on how Twitter is being used by companies such as JetBlue and Comcast for customer service so I won’t get into that. Assuming someone from the company is constantly monitoring Twitter, it can be one of the quickest ways to address concerns online. The most important thing to note here is that negative feedback about a company can spread very quickly, so it’s up to the company to monitor Twitter to turn negative situations into positives.

5. Forums (Apple & Dell)

Forums have been around forever and are still a great, inexpensive way to support a community. The best benefit of an active forum is that your knowledgeable customers will most likely end up resolving other customer issues before your employees even have time to respond. That does not mean you shouldn’t have employees moderating the forums to make sure things are running smoothly.

6. Facebook Fan Page (Virgin America)

There are many ways a facebook page can be used – two of them include addressing customer concerns and soliciting feedback. As a fan page grows, companies should pay closer attention to new discussion board posts and comments left by fans and respond through a private or public messages to any concerns. There are also add-ons like the Reviews app which allows fans to leave reviews of the company on your fan page.

Final Thoughts

Of course many companies use several variations of the above to keep customers happy. There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to evaluating which of these different approaches any one company should take. Do a Google search for ‘online customer service’ and you will find a ton of services promising you to be the best and cheapest solutions. Most of these offerings are complete crap which likely don’t get any love now that there are options like the 6 above.

Am I missing any other methods which you have noticed companies using recently? Why is one way better than another? Connect with me on Twitter @jsmakr.

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Feb

16

Some thoughts on iPhone apps

Filed Under Apple, Mobile, Web | Comments

How are they changing the Web? The obvious is iPhone apps are increasingly allowing people to access online content during times when they didn’t have access to it before, therefore continuing to speed up the rate of information sharing. Where apps are having trouble is keeping the users interested after a few uses or a short trial period. Social networking apps like the ones for Twitter and Facebook don’t have this problem because they are allowing people who are connected on the web to continue their relationships away from their computers. The rising popularity of iPhone apps with location-based capabilities (and soon to come the iPhone version of Google Latitude) are creating useful ways for people to access relevant data about events, businesses, and even people that are nearby.

How are they being used by brands? The smart brands are the ones that have already thought of ways to connect with a large base of current iPhone users (Kraft, Obama, Audi, to name a few). Most other major brands are most likely in the process of or just starting to think about developing an iPhone app because of the successes they are continuing to hear about. But only a select few out of the rapidly growing database of 20,000+ apps with be successful because they will either be really useful, linked to a well-liked brand, or very creative. Of course the longer it takes for the app to be released, the smaller the chance of it being successful. It’s worthwhile to note that companies like Remember the Milk, Salesforce, Mint.com are creating iPhone apps to supplement their web services as an added benefit to offer to their customers. Some of the most impressive apps aren’t just displaying content in a mobile-friendly manner, but also paying very close attention to creating a sleek user interface and coming up with unique ways to engage people using the iPhone’s features.

What about publishers? They need to recognize that besides an electronic reading device like the Kindle, people are already browsing their content frequently on the iPhone (and most likely not having the best experience if nothing has been developed for them). Even though it will take time, the iPhone will be a big advertising platform for publishers in the future. Besides newspapers, I think most major magazines will have iPhone apps soon. What they will need to figure out is a revenue model that makes sense because as of now the app store does not allow publishers the freedom of charging readers a recurring monthly fee to subscribe to the latest content downloads. The first successful magazine app will owe a lot of it’s success from free PR and it looks like Lucky Magazine and People Magazine are very close to launching. Update: Apple has announced that the 3.0 software update will allow subscription based purchases to be made within the app. Great news for publishers.

How are they affecting the gaming industry? The cost of the app plays a huge factor, but not as much as you might think. We are starting to see more findings that indicate increases in spending for apps on mobile devices. People are willing to spend $5-$10 on good game because it’s an inexpensive alternative when compared to most video games that cost over $40. It’s only a matter of time before more games that offer online play gain in popularity just as we saw happen for all the major gaming consoles over the past couple of years and the classis example of the iPhone game Tap Tap Revenge. While no one is sure yet if increasing sales of iPhone games are damaging the sales of the major players, it doesn’t take a genius to realize that the iPhone’s popularity is already hurting the sales of other handheld gaming devices.

Some further reading: 8 reasons for building an iPhone Web application, Mobile ROI: You get what you pay for, and Apple iPhone controls over 66% of all mobile web use.

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