Live Blogging The FTC Workshop On Journalism & The Internet

I’m at the FTC’s “Journalism & Internet Age” Workshop in Washington DC today, where we’re expecting addresses from Rupert Murdoch and Arianna Huffington, along with Josh Cohen of Google News and a variety of panels. I’ll be on one of those panels later today. I’m going to do a big live blog of things I [...]

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Social Media and Content Discovery: A Growing Relationship

While the commercial Internet age is in its teens according to linear age it has some difficulty focusing. Just when users are getting used to a world that is search engine centric there comes along the social web or social media or social networking or social (insert your word here) to truly change how people make sense of the sheer volume of data on the Internet. This change or movement toward the social web is happening at an ever increasing rate and creates opportunities as well as difficulties for those who are trying to harness this power for business.

Nielsen reports at its blog in a post from Jon Gibbs, VP Media Analytics

In the beginning there were ISPs, which then gave way to portals ― aggregators of content and links ― which then led to the rise of “search” as the dominant form of Internet navigation or, how we get to where we we’re going on the web. However, as with most forms of evolution, change is constant, and over the past two years search navigation has appeared to shift to social media.

We continue to see that social media has not only changed the way consumers communicate and gather on the Web, but also impacted content discovery and navigation in a big way. But how? Is social media taking the place of portals and search as the hub of online navigation?

Nielsen goes on to categorize people as either ‘searchers’ who primarily get their data from search engines, ‘portalists’ who use a portal site to access data and ‘socializers’ who use, you guessed it, social media to get their information. As this last group grows there could be some significant implications moving forward for everyone who is using the Internet for business.

As a result the socializer group actually feels that there is too much information on the Internet. Much more so than those who simply use search engines. Think about it. A search engine user takes it on faith (the vast majority of the time) that the entire Internet for a keyword or key phrase is boiled down to just 10 best results. Of course, if they only take their online sophistication that far then the Internet does appear to be easy to manage. Socializers, on the other hand, spend a lot more time online and hear / see a lot more than regular Internet users. It can become very noisy very quickly.

So how do they manage this? Through their online social network of buddies, of course. At this point, now the real recommendations and buying decisions are happening based on what other people, not an impersonal engine says. Hopefully, they are giving actual experience to help their online connections make more informed purchasing decisions. That’s the theory at least. Take a look at the significant differences in how socializers and searchers use various formats for information. Why Wikipedia is even part of the discussion baffles me but what do I know?

So what are you? Searcher? Portalist? Socializer? A little of all of them. Will social media displace search engines as a primary source of information in the near future? What does it mean to you TODAY as an Internet marketer? Share your thoughts and let’s learn from each other.

Why iPhones & Blackberries Are Replacing iHop & Blueberry Pancakes

If you’re an avid dayparter, you might already know that breakfast is one of the best times of day to target your advertising.

According to the NYT, more and more people are checking emails, tweeting, texting and updating their Facebook status, before they grab breakfast. Some, are even more addicted!

This is morning in America in the Internet age. After six to eight hours of network deprivation — also known as sleep — people are increasingly waking up and lunging for cellphones and laptops, sometimes even before swinging their legs to the floor and tending to more biologically urgent activities.

Hah!

Seriously, breakfast is the new lunchtime! It used to be that lunchtime was the best time of day to target your online advertising. There’s nothing more captive than a bored worker with company provided broadband! Now it appears that more of us are getting our fix at home, before our Cheerios, and so marketers need to adapt.

This rise in pre-breakfast internet use could help mobile marketers finally figure out how to reach their target audience. As the report suggests, iPhones and Blackberries are becoming more popular than iHop and blueberry pancakes! Consumers are packing in a lot of mobile browsing first thing in the morning–the perfect time to capture their attention!

Have you had success targeting your ads at breakfast time?

Battle Lines Become Clearer Among Biggest Internet Players

Maybe everyone was waiting for the Microhoo giddiness to be over. Maybe everyone had enough of hearing about the whole deal. Whatever it is there appears to be a more clearly defined landscape emerging as to who is going after what amongst the largest Internet players in the world. One thing for sure is that as the next phase of the Internet Age starts to unfold there is going to be some serious ‘contact’. It’s the corporate version of training camp opening up and preparations are being made to knock the snot out of the competition.

Techcrunch reports

Microsoft and Google have seen their rivalry kicked up a notch in recent weeks. First, Google announced Chrome OS, the company’s first operating system. Then Microsoft announced the new version of Office with major cloud app support. Then Microsoft announced its deal to take over Yahoo’s search business. Starting today, Google is back on the offensive, with a major promotional campaign to get the word out about organizations switching to Google apps for their daily computing needs.

The offensive includes billboards in San Francisco, Chicago, New York City and Boston that will display a different message about Google Apps every day for a month. There are apparently 3,000 new organizations turning to Google daily to put together varying combinations of Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and the other Google apps. With the Microsoft Office online version looming in 2010 there is no time like the present for Google to grab the minds of those who do not want to invest in Microsoft products or are so fed up that they would make the switch to Google. To hear Google tell it they are going to make the work of IT departments and everyone else magically more productive and float on fluffy clouds of perfection at the office.

Add to the mix that Google’s CEO has resigned from the Apple board of directors because the amount of competitive overlap between the two company’s would force Eric Schmidt to recuse himself from board business more often than not an you have the makings of an Internet ‘Battle Royale’. Four will enter (we’ll throw Yahoo into the fray since the are now co-habitating with Microsoft) and quite possibly all four will remain. What is going to happen for sure is that they are going to look different after it is all said and done.

It appears that Google is trying to be “The Search Engine That Is Your Business Engine” with the ability for small businesses to enterprise level accounts having “all things Google” except for the hardware. Microsoft is trying to make people forget that they have complained about their OS and their software for forever and now they are THE search engine that actually get the web. Yahoo is ‘all about community, man’ where they are trying to keep their massive number of users in the ‘family’ as much as possible. And then there’s Apple. They just sit on the sideline and screw up everyone’s game plans with cool devices and things that the others can’t do as well or even at all. They’re like the high school nerd who has come back to wreak havoc on the jocks that tormented him years ago. I almost feel like they are toying with everyone and waiting to take over the world themselves.

So what’s this going to look like in the next year or so Pilgrims? Who stands the best chance to end up on the top of the heap and why? Who will the big losers be? Will it be a company or the consumers? Please leave your thoughts and your crystal ball prognostications below. Thanks.

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TV Better Learn a Lesson From Newspapers

We have chronicled the slow death of the newspaper industry for a while now. First, there was the thought that maybe the Internet could displace newspapers with the delivery of content in a more timely and personalized manner. Newspapers decided that they were doing just fine and that they were moving into the digital world in a way that could help them maintain their content delivery fiefdom with no problems. Now, we see a landscape of wreckage where some of the most venerable names in newspaper including the Boston Globe are losing value both monetarily and in reputation. It’s been painful to watch but now there is even more carnage predicted as a result of the Internet age.

Henry Blodget penned a column over at Ad Age that can be summed up neatly in its headline “Sorry, There’s No Way to Save the TV Business; It Should Take Its Cues From What Happened to Newspapers”.

The traditional TV industry — cable companies, networks and broadcasters — is where the newspaper industry was about five years ago: in denial.

If this is even half true the folks on the TV side of the ledger better wake up and smell the erosion. The erosion of their leverage, profits and influence is taking place but it is believed that the arrogance that led to the dismantling of the newspaper industry is just as active in the TV world.

Specifically, the TV industry’s attitude is the same as the newspaper industry’s attitude was circa 2002 to 2003: Stop calling us dinosaurs. We get digital; we’re growing our digital businesses; we’re investing in digital platforms; people still recall ads even when they fast-forward through them on DVRs; there’s no substitute for TV ads. And traditional TV isn’t going away: Just look at our revenue and profits!

Blodget posits that the Internet still represents such a small percentage of profits and revenue of TV today but as it continues to grow the tide will quickly turn. As a result, the traditional broadcast industry will buckle and eventually crumble under the weight of its own in cost structure. Sounds painful.

So why is TV still successful? The old model may still have some legs but it is certainly aging out fast. Less and less people are dependent on TV of their information and entertainment. A quick comparison shows the following:

Television Depends On

1. Few options at home other than TV
2. No way to get video content other than TV
3. Only broadcast, cable and satellite options to get TV content
4. Choke points for delivery give inordinate control to those who own the access points

Reality Is

1. More and more simple fun options including games, Internet, social media etc.
2. New ways to get traditional TV content like Hulu, YouTube, iTunes etc.
3. More options for video content including telcos and cable companies providing broadband
4. The Internet is everywhere. You can connect more easily, more often than ever and that will only get better

So how has the TV industry responded?

Thus far, the TV industry has reacted to these changes the way most people would: by trying to port its existing model to the new world and maintain its hold on power and money. This is why we’re getting so many ridiculous, consumer-unfriendly TV solutions

These solutions include, but are not exclusive to, market-based control over what can or can’t be watched, single episode downloads that expire after 24 hours and time shifting of popular shows.

So Blodget’s conclusion is as you may have guessed; TV is headed for the gallows and a slow death from their own ignorance and arrogance.

You won’t have five channels, or 50 channels, or 500 channels. You’ll have millions of channels. You’ll be able to watch anything you want, live or taped. You’ll be able to watch it wherever you want — TV, computer, mobile device. You won’t have to sorry about “slinging” video content around or programming your DVR. You’ll just plug a pipe (internet) into a box (device) and watch.

So all of folks in TV land better take heed. The same day that you reach for your morning paper that no longer exists at your desk in the corporate office could be the same day that your control is handed over your viewers and they leave you for greener pastures. Then what?

Twittersphere Ain’t What It Used to Be

A study was released today, conducted by inbound marketing company HubSpot, which looked at 4.5 million Twitter users over a nine month period. The data was gathered by their proprietary Twitter Grader tool and provides more confirmation of what we reported last week following a study conducted by a Harvard MBA candidate and assistant professor: As the tool as grown its usage has not in the same proportion.

What in the world does that mean, right? Of course if there are a gazillion people signing up for Twitter accounts and lawsuits being filed over impersonation accounts then it must be that all the world is atwitter with Twitter-itis, correct? HubSpot’s study shows that despite the top line growth in number of accounts the actual usage of Twitter may still rest with the technology crowd that claimed it as their own oh those many years ago (well actually around 3 years ago but in the Internet age that’s like a generation or two).

The most shocking difference year over year was that when HubSpot last conducted this study about 80% of those studied had created a bio in their profile. That number in less than a year has dropped to just 24%. What’s that say? Looks like people are signing up in droves but not using the service to its fullest (or even half fullest for that matter). Other data includes:

• 79.79% failed to provide a homepage URL
• 68.68% have not specified a location
• 55.50% are not following anyone
• 54.88% have never tweeted
• 52.71% have no followers

The graph below shows though that those who are tweeting are taking full advantage of that 140 character limit. Lucky for us since they have so much to say.

Other points to ponder include that the vast majority of tweets occur during business hours, many users are located in major metro areas and only 1.44% of tweets are re-tweets.

So speculation as to the real worth of Twitter to business can start now. While you’re at it make sure you spend some time wondering if the $500 million offered by Facebook was high or low or just right.

As for business applications, they are still there and can be very powerful. In some cases it could just be marketing by presence (better to be there than not) while others, like a Dell or Comcast, can do full on engagement of customers and prospects that falls to the bottom line in revenue or goodwill. None of that opportunity has gone away. What may have changed, however, is the speed of the hype freight train that Biz and the crew are engineering.

To put it in search terms it’s a classic case of traffic v. conversions. You can have all the traffic in the world but if it doesn’t turn into business then what have you really accomplished? With Twitter, you can all of the accounts in the world but if the vast majority is not really using the service then what is the real value? That’s why there are no cookie cutter solutions in the Internet space despite what agencies and service providers might say. It is not a “Tweet it and they will come” world, at least not yet.