Got Social Intent?

I’ve got the worst excuse for not blogging for a while: I started a social media company. Ironic, huh?

We’re called Social Intent and we help brands ‘friend’ customers though Social Network-centric marketing strategies, backed by development of innovative social web technologies, including applications for Facebook and MySpace.

This month we’ve been working on a co-marketing project between Coca-Cola and Sony in promoting the new James Bond movie. You can check out the app here.

My eBay seller community site for sale

As some of you may know, I recently built an online community site for eBay sellers, helping them protect themselves against bad and unprofitable bidders (since that eBay doesn’t allow sellers to leave negative feedback on bidders anymore).

The site has been getting rave reviews from ebay sellers and industry bloggers. Even the Wall Street Journal called me to ask me about it!

I’m looking to sell it now as I need cash for my next project! (and I like building things more than I like managing them…;-) )

 

Adtech San Francisco

Just back from exhibiting at ad:tech SF. Lots of fun and interesting new companies. Can’t be easy to be a marketer with so many exciting, new ways to get in front of one’s customers…

Linkstorm, with only 8 other companies out of the hundreds of exhibitors, were selected by ad:tech for a special ‘hot new company’ press briefing, and it was very encouraging to see the interest among the attending press and bloggers.

Other companies that I though were interesting included:

Placecast / 1020 inc.

Lotame

AdShuffle

and ion interactive

The Brilliant Google App Engine Strategy

Google gets it and is ready to do to the web what Microsoft did for the Desktop.

Microsoft won the desktop wars not only because everybody was using their OS, but because they also ensured the continued success of their OS by having the best developer tools to ensure a steady stream of new applications.

Now, with the web is the new OS, Google is the only company who is seriously building an ecosystem of applications and developer tools and resources to develop, host and launch new applications. (Yahoo and Microsoft is dabbling with this too – but they are followers with no clear strategy or credibility. They are focused to catching up to Google as an ad machine, and are thus many steps behind).

What’s so smart about Google is that their approach is always a little more long term focused than their competitors. The App Engine, Google Gagdets, Gadget Ads, OpenSocial, Android, etc. will shortly be highly integrated web OS components that will ensure Google’s dominance. Like Microsoft, these Google initiatives may not be designed to play well with other technologies, but then again, that’s how you create lock in.

Facebook apps will be a footnote in the history of cross-platform apps. Amazon’s EC2 and S3 services are doomed for death by Google. 

Latent Communities mean Social Networking Business

Are there communities, on-line or off-line, where its members are unaware of their memberships – or that the community even exists?

This might sound like a far-fetched academic argument, and in part it is (academic, that is). However, I believe that understanding the nature of this question will enable social networking entrepreneurs to create sticky communities in response.

My hypothesis is that a community, online or offline, can exist without its members’ knowledge of the existence of the community and thus does not engage in a mediated communication with other members. Maybe it’s not your father’s definition of a community. Or maybe that’s just what it is; let me indulge you with an example.

My in-laws used to have an old VW Camper. They tell me stories of going on road-trips in the 70’s where fellow VW Camper drives would honk when passing each other on the road, as to say “you’re one of us.” However, what’s “us?” My in-laws never attended any Camper owners’ fairs, or even knew if any such meet-ups existed. Did they feel, nonetheless, part of a distinct group of people with whom they had shared experiences, (albeit their shared experiences where derived individually)? You bet.

Speaking of freewheeling romantics; I remember in grad-school reading a somewhat obscure study about housewives in Des Moines who read romance novels. Unaware of the other romance novel reading housewives, the study make a case for classifying them as a community by virtue of their shared experiences as romance novel readers. (For the literary arts geeks: This study was a tangent of the concept of ‘interpretive communities’ – coined by Stanley Fish).

Now, you might not agree to classify these housewives or motorists as unknowing members of any communities, but consider this: Is red paint in a can still red when the lid is closed? The best answer might be “It’s latent. It’s got the potential for red.” Similarly, these people belong to latent communities.

Offering social networking solutions for latent communities could be a gold mine for social networking entrepreneurs for a multitude of reasons, including:

• They represent a new type of growth of the social networking ‘sector’ where membership growth has primarily been based on friend-networks, not subject matter networks.
• There is existing passion and engagement among its members that will lead to a lot of UGC.
• The subject matter may require a different platform for social networking than what’s offered by the one-size-fits-all platforms like Facebook.

Ego-mediacs

Oy Vey! I haven’t written a blog post in a year and a half. Avid readers of my 4 or so previous posts may wonder why I got cured from blogging Tourette’s so quickly. Well, I just couldn’t be bothered.

I started to blog because I wanted to experiment with this new, new thing. I didn’t have threesomes in college and still don’t have a tattoo – blogging seemed like the perfect way to catch up with what all the cool kids were doing. In fact, it seemed like the perfect thing to do for an opinionated instigator like myself.

That said, let me not make this post about myself….again…yet.

I recently met some new, interesting people at a Social Media gathering in New York, of which whom most were avid bloggers. They were made up of the usual suspects: technologists, media and marketing consultants, business consultants, etc. What struck me about them was that their use of social media wasn’t always that social. In fact, most of them used tools like blogs primarily for self-promotion. Now let me just make it clear that I think that is a tremendously good use of blogs. But is it social media?

I’d rather call it ego-media – and I don’t mean that in a negative way (having grown up in left-leading Norway where ego is a four letter word, this disclaimer feels necessary). While blogs are wonderful in that they do allow for asynchronous discussions, they are nonetheless more a soapbox than a conversation pit. There are more effective tools for maintaining a dialogue.

My point is, (thanks for asking)  I realized why I hadn’t blogged. I just didn’t feel the need to self promote. Since you’re now reading a blog post written after this epiphany, you might think that I realized that I needed to self-promote. And the answer is yes. And no, I’m not looking for a job.