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Classmates Versus Facebook: The Social Network Dichotomy

January 21, 2009 By 2 Comments

cm_logo The bane of my existence currently is my ever increasing inbox of emails I need to respond to, and I am apparently only worsening the problem as I sign up for more and more social networks.  There is the wild game recipe club, the used furniture network, the parenting pull your hair out network, the underwater basket weavers network, and…well you get the idea.  I don’t actually belong to all of these clubs or social networks, but I can assure you they are out there with more then 3,600 clubs to join and be a part of online. One of the emails I get frequently is Classmates.com.

fb_logo I was looking into this pre-social networking social network recently because I wanted to compare the use of it versus the use of Facebook.  I get my login found out about the page where I could go to see friends and others, and when I tried to navigate to the next step, wham!  The protective firewall dropped and I was shut out, barred, and could go no further.  The next step was something that baffled me.  They wanted me to join for a small monthly fee.  There went the idea of using Classmates.com.  Why?  The answer to that is easy, I can use Facebook for free.

The catch-22 here is the fact that we are all asking Facebook to find ways to monetize and not make it intrusive, and then when a company like Classmates.com is monetizing, we tell them in order to compete they have to make it free. It’s like those arguments I have with my kids.  The only one that understands the argument is 3 years old.  Classmates.com is making money for being a part of its network, and Facebook is free to anyone with a computer and an Internet connection.  It’s like getting cable television and paying for it and having it available over the free airwaves. 

Last time I looked Facebook was worth a boat load of money and it is all anyone is talking about.  Classmates.com comes on the radar as a vehicle for spam and it is immediately ignored.  There is no reason why Classmates.com should not be able to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Facebook and take a large portion of its market share.  I recently sent out a message over Twitter stating the same thing with the gist being, why would I use Classmates for pay when I can use Facebook for free?  I had lots of responses to that Tweet stating the same thing.

I am not beating down Classmates here as that would not be constructive, but I think I have a solution that might work for them.  Open up your application to everyone and bring down that wall.  Thought sounded somewhat Reaganish didn’t it.  It’s true however that they need to change their thinking.  Instead having that mass database grow stale and have everyone treat Classmates like the spam king of email, shop that database as well.  Those that are struggling, i.e. Yahoo, perhaps a purchase of classmates to take on the world of Facebook is a good move? Either way, we will see the likes of Classmates.com fade away as Facebook grows stronger, and then the next thing will come along and be better.

You are the Classmates.com CEO.  How do you compete?  I want to know how you take on Facebook free, when you are sitting on income already coming in?

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Tools, Blogonomics, Business Blogging, Marketing, Media, Social Media

Speaking of Blogging For A Living At Las Vegas and Wordcamp

January 6, 2009 By 1 Comment

I’ll be headed to Vegas this week to talk to people at CES and will be also headed to Affiliate Summit the first part of next week. Sandwiched between and/or during those events, I am lucky enough to attend and speak to attendees of WordCamp Las Vegas.

My discussion is one i have had before on Blogging For A Living. I will be providing the information to people on Sunday at the end of the event, and to say the least there is an all-star lineup of talent all weekend that will be presenting ahead of me and I cannot wait to see some of the great stuff that will be talked about while there. This is the event’s first year and I’m impressed with how much they have accomplished. John Hawkins should be commended for his hard work and the way he has leveraged the Consumer Electronic Show and the Affiliate Summit to help him with the attendance.

If you are going to be in Vegas for either of those events, take some time out to see some of the people speaking, and to hang out with the WordPress people that are attending. Save your $20.00 at the tables and spend it on this event instead. Register before the event as there will not be a way to get in the event at the door. In addition if your company is looking for a way to get some inexpensive exposure, i know that this is a great way to help promote yourself and they are still taking last minute sponsorships.

Filed Under: Announcements, Conferences/Trade Shows, Featured Articles, Marketing, Services, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , ,

Budgeting Social Media Management

December 4, 2008 By 1 Comment

Reading Marketing Profs Paul Dunay’s post regarding the company budget for social media I found it interesting specifically about the idea behind content creation. Paul states:

Ok but the real cost (again unlike the traditional media stuff) is in Content Creation to fill up those social media / new media channels – here is where the cost can get large. I happen to think I am very fortunate since I work at a consulting firm where many people are thought leaders – so we have no shortage of opinions ;-)

He does not get into the costs specifically as he does with pricing the actual tools of social media. The tools he itemizes are:

A Blog;

A Podcast;

A Video;

A Wiki; and

A Community.

I refer to these things as tools as I also believe that applications can be used in a social media planned budget as well. The applications are mostly free to very inexpensive. I did notice he did not budget for the activities surrounding the likes of Twitter or other which enhance the above tools. Basically, they are free. He is correct however when he states:

So unlike traditional media – Print, TV and Radio – which can cost big money. Social media’s upfront costs very little…

You have to read through his original post regarding the overall budgets to get an idea of the numbers, but I wanted to wrap my mind around the budget ideas first and foremost. The low cost of social media is right now making it a hot and much sought after way of accomplishing a company’s advertising, marketing and public relations strategy.

The real cost is the people that can manage this strategy, someone that can understand the uses of each tool and application and how to make it work for its intended use. This is where the budget has to be difficult to nail down. The person that is responsible for this doesn’t even have a job title or description these days. Is it the marketing person, the advertising person or the public relations person that handles this? What department do we charge for the implementation of this new way of handling our media? These are some difficult questions to answer. I am personally seeing many more job openings on job boards, and seeing recruiters provide the answers to the question of who to place in the position. The real question I have for Paul is the budget for the wage for this person. How much does your company expert in the leadership of social media get paid? Do you have a budget line item for a social media manager?

Filed Under: Blog Metrics, Blog Revenue, Blog Tools, Bloggers For Hire, Blogonomics, Corporate Blogs, Marketing, Media, Services, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The State of The Micromediasphere

December 1, 2008 By Leave a Comment

One of the things I used to love about Technorati was when Dave Sifry would come out with his State of the Blogosphere address to all of us bloggers.  It sort of gave us a pie in the sky look at the number of blogs and what was happening on the back end of the blogosphere.  Those of us that consider ourselves old timers in the arena could sit back and watch as things began to unfold and we could talk about the good old days.  Technorati recently did another State of the Blogosphere that was released at Blog World Expo and CEO Richard Jalichandra was instrumental in getting the word out.

twitterlogo Now there has been a new sphere of influence in new media, and I have been labeling it the micromediasphere.  I know that others in my industry like Laura Fitton of Pistachio Consulting who refers to it as “microsharing“, and others are calling it something else like microblogging, but for the most part we are all talking about the likes of Twitter, Jaiku, Plurk, Yammer and up to an including today, powncelogoPownce. As of this writing, the folks at Pownce have given their 2 week notice that they are no longer going to be in the game.  I know that is a shame for some as they were one company that was well liked by developers and someone that was pushing the others applications to not suck.

I’ll be talking about the State of the Micromediasphere tomorrow on my radio show over at Blog Talk Radio.  My show The Social Mediasphere looks into hot topics like these and this is shaping up to be one of those topics.  I am hoping to get some guests on the show that can also talk about the State of the Micromediasphere.  I am inviting all to participate and give us your opinion and see what we can come up with and how things are looking for the future.

UPDATE:  This email just received today from the Pownce people:

We are sad to announce that Pownce is shutting down on December 15, 2008. As of today, Pownce will no longer be accepting new users or new pro accounts.

To help with your transition, we have built an export tool so you can save your content. You can find the export tool at Settings > Export.

Please export your content by December 15, 2008, as the site will not be accessible after this date.

Please visit our new home to find out more:
http://www.sixapart.com/pownce

Our thanks go out to everyone who contributed to the Pownce community,

The Pownce Crew

Filed Under: Advertising, Announcements, Blogonomics, Business Blogging, Marketing, Media, Mediasphere Radio, Social Media

Jim Turner and WebProNews Talk About Professional Blogging in Las Vegas

September 24, 2008 By 1 Comment

Abby Johnson of WebProNews got a chance to catch up with me while we finished up our presentation about hiring professional bloggers while out at the Blog World and New Media Expo in the Executive and Entrepreneur Track. I moderated the panel of Darren Rowse of Problogger fame, Will Chen and Greg Go. It was a fun session and even I was able to learn a few things. Here is the video that Abby did following that session.

Jim Turner Video

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Bloggers For Hire, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Conferences/Trade Shows, Corporate Blogs, Marketing, Media, Professional Blogging, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Live From Las Vegas

September 23, 2008 By 1 Comment

btr_logo_black.jpgIt’s not exactly “Live From Las Vegas”, okay it is actually recorded from Las Vegas, but you can get a listen in on an interview that was done of me while I was out at Blog World and New Media Expo in Las Vegas last weekend. I intend to post some other thoughts on the experience, but wanted to give props to the folks at Blog Talk Radio and especially Mr. Daily who did the interview.

Listen to the show.

Feel free to get over to Blog Talk Radio and listen to some of the pre-show interviews I have done with Rick Calvert as well. We will be doing post show interviews of some of the sponsors, speakers and exhibitors as well so stay tuned and we will be providing a lineup of people we intend to talk to and interview about their experience in Las Vegas.

Filed Under: Blog Consulting, Bloggers For Hire, Client Sites, Conferences/Trade Shows, Marketing, Media, Mediasphere Radio, Services, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Black Friday–Are We Seeing The Demise of Blogging Networks?

July 30, 2008 By 2 Comments

I have been watching the recent demise of one of my favorite blogging networks called Know More Media. A business blogging network with its focus on the business world. I have been reading Easton Ellsworth’s blog since it’s inception at Business Blog Wire. As I understand it they intend to discontinue paying their bloggers as of this Friday on August 1, 2008. An open letter from Jeremy Wright, CEO at b5Media to the leadership at Know More Media was my first alert to this happening. dead.jpg

I have also been following the rumors, innuendo and some of the people involved with the blogging network at Weblogs, Inc., a blog network company that was purchased by AOL, and the idea that they too may be stopping the payment to their bloggers for the content that they are providing. They are supposed to also learn their fate on August 1, 2008. I would say that this Friday could be referred to as Black Friday as it relates to the blog networking agencies.

What is the cause of this demise? I believe there are two components to this dilemma and it starts with the economy and the ad spends we are seeing in the online marketing realm. I too have felt the economic crunch with companies that were early adopters to enter into the social media arena. Experimental marketing such as the kind I provide, is usually the first to suffer the cuts of companies tightening their belts to prepare for the new downturn. Companies using blogs to market their products and services are still seeing the advertising as experimental not being able to yet show a return on their investment. Measurement of social media marketing is still in it’s infancy and companies are falling back on what they believed was working before they began to experiment and then experience tougher times. The economy has taken its toll. Advertisers are repositioning their budgets to go to something more stable and more quantifiable.

Another problem I see is the way blogging networks are managing their properties. Some of the companies that are in trouble with their networks are those companies that are not flexible and have the ability to move with the market. The leadership of these companies are beginning to see what happens when you rest upon your laurels and get too comfortable with a business plan that really must grow with its market and adapt to market changes. Leadership continues to take profit and not go back to those leaner times. In addition, since the sale of Weblogs, Inc., we have seen the emergence of social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace and the explosive emergence of microblogging sites such as Twitter and other applications. These blogging networks must also evolve to adapt these tools to make them a part of their own properties. They may have some components in place, but for the most part relying on their bloggers to keep them profitable is a tough chore for those bloggers and it will not last forever.

What do I see for the future of the likes of blogging Networks? I see smaller niche networks fracturing off to make single networks and written by perhaps multiple bloggers. We are seeing the emergence now of social sites such as in the food realm, the sports realm, and the automobile industry and other hobby type sites. The mommy blogs have embraced the idea of community and are some of the best in the business at making a social group made of many bloggers. The only problem we are seeing is the bloggers themselves are not making money from these groups. It’s an advertising property for the owners. Groups that are joining as a member/friend/follower of the group as a whole are becoming their own target market. They are generating content for the group and it all ends up in one place. They have built in forums for discussion, they have feeds that are brought in from each member of their own member blogs, and they have a Facebook look with each community member owning a certain part of the real estate. We see it now with FriendFeed Groups and other places.

Some of the players like b5 and others are still able to show profits because they have positioned themselves to give the best product. I believe even b5 has adjustments that they make on a regular basis to bring in new properties and cutting off the parts of the network that are bringing their number down. A type of survival of the fittest as it relates to their participating core. The problems we face have to do with metrics and what those with money see as the value. I have heard tell that those that have a target audience with the most impressions are the most valuable and are riding that wave. It seems Jeremy Wright is able to continue to surf that wave.

What do you think. What is the new thing to replace networks? Do you think networks are here to stay? As we all become our own citizen journalists, how can we monetize that content, or is their a different way of thinking for advertisers. These are questions I get and wrestle with on a regular basis. Any ideas?

[photo via Benny Bloomfield]

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Metrics, Blog Revenue, Blogonomics, Marketing, Media, Professional Blogging, Services, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Meet Me in Austin at SXSW Interactive

March 6, 2008 By Leave a Comment

interactive_icon I’m headed to Austin today and I am typing this post from the airplane trip on the way.  It seems to be a good way to get a post up and I am using Windows Live Writer which allows me to post numerous articles and blog posts from my desktop.  I can draft a number of posts and later when I find wifi or Internet access I can upload them to the blog for posting.  Us professional bloggers can use all the help we can and I recommend that you give it a try.

While in Austin I will be trying to meet as many people as possible.  I have a few appointments set up and I have a few parties on the schedule.  Luckily, I have been asked to be a wingman for Rick Calvert at Blog World Expo which I am looking forward to as much as the trip.  I’m going to be representing Twitterlights while I am at Barcamp as they are a sponsor.  If you have any questions about the application or you want a quick tour, please feel free to stop by and ask me how it works.  I’ll also be helping my friends at Lijit, by connecting them with some of my friends and helping show off their cool Lijit wijit and hopefully get a few of you to download the application and see how it works.  I’ll bet I even have a few stickers to give away too.  I am also helping out a long time client with his company’s new ad feed that they are introducing to everyone from Hostway.  They are hoping to show off their new launch.  Finally, I may even drop in have a meeting with my friends at Photrade as I understand they will be there looking to show off their new photo sharing site.  As it turns out this cool convention where everyone is there to party is turning out to be a lot of work for me.  I suppose this makes up for last year as I got nothing done and spent far too much time at the bar.

If you are going to be at the SXSW Interactive conference, please look me up.  I’ll be the one hard at work, and still having fun.  This after all us the ultimate social networking you can do.  If you want to be introduced to any of the people I’ll be their with, by all means come on up and buy me a drink, or dinner, or just give me the cash…well that’s not a requirement.  Hope to see you all there!

Filed Under: Client Sites, Conferences/Trade Shows, Services

Technorati Changing The Way It Does Business

February 29, 2008 By 1 Comment

richardjalichandra Technorati has been an icon of the blogosphere since Dave Sifry began the company to track blogs and provide bloggers with statistics and search.  It was the first thing people downloaded to their blogs, and the first part of setting up a blog.  They seem to have lost that celebrity status.  There are so many companies that have been cracking away at that Technorati keystone that it appears they may crumble.  I have been waiting to hear some news from the Technorati camp and it appears that news is bubbling up as reported by TechCrunch.

When I talked with Richard Jalinchandra in Las Vegas at the Blog World Expo in November, he mentioned then that Technorati was in for some changes and that he wanted to lead the company back to its glory days.  He couldn’t talk then about what he was doing but it seems that the cool stuff I expected and the things the head of marketing, Aaron Krane,  talked about on my Social Mediapshere radio show would make them a shining star again.  I didnt expect them to enter the advertising arena.

Tris an I questioned them on why they were not indexing search results past six months and it looks like they may be rethinking that with adding an advertising component to their search.  Arrington states:

Technorati will certainly be competing head to head with FM, although sources say they’ll focus on the long tail of the market as well (FM only takes larger sites). The network will be a self-serve exchange for bloggers (and other publishers) as well as advertisers. Ad units will include both display and text ads, and will allow units to be charged on both a CPM and CPC basis. (emphasis added)

I was hoping that Technorati would be adding some features that would be more than just another way for bloggers to add a revenue component to their blogs.  I want to see them return to an application I would run to five times a day because they offered a way to see stats and a something that was cool to experience as I did back in the day.

This is part of the reason I have hooked my wagon to the folks at Lijit*.  I certainly see that they have ideas to make their “wijit” something that is a first add-on to a blog.  I am not sensing that Technorati has that coolness factor in mind.  I certainly understand that after raising $20M in funding you might want to start thinking of making money and perhaps they will change the way they run their business and we have only seen the beginning of their new glory days.  It appears Richard is doing his job of CEO and is running the company in the best interest of those investors, but I for one want to see them do some things they used to do, only better.  Don’t make it about the page views make it about the blogger and a company that every blogger loves to use.

[photo via Brian Solis]

*Lijit is a client and I do some evangelism for them.

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Metrics, Blog Revenue, Blog Tools, Blogging News, Blogonomics, Business Blogging, Marketing, Mediasphere Radio, Social Media

Startup Companies Making Money From Free

February 20, 2008 By 2 Comments

I have been thinking about the comment left on my post about Blog Talk Radio and their attempt at monetizing their application.  Then I read today over at HipMojo the article about why companies that are basing themselves on ad revenue will fail.  It helped me formulate my own opinion about how companies in the tech world are struggling with making money.  It is a dance that seems hard to learn.

The game plan seems to be along these syllogistic lines.

  • Come up with an application that fills a need.
  • Develop the application.
  • Launch it and see if it scales, get user feedback and adjust its use accordingly.
  • Begin to build your user base until you reach some determined tipping point number. (This is probably the most difficult step in the overall business plan.)

These are the initial outlines I have seen.  During this period you may have an angel investment or a small first round to get to the tipping point number.  The next step is where it gets tricky.  Now that we are at our initial goal, how do we make it profitable?

Companies have built the trust and admiration of their users by providing a great application that is free and useful.  The users are making it an integral part of their lives.  The company has developed and gathered this large community.  They must leverage that into real money.  As I see it, they have but two choices, advertise or begin charging for the service they once before gave away for free.  A blend of these two would be a third choice.

Advertisers want eyeballs and reach.  The users are what they seek, and the more the better.  It’s all about the page views and the numbers generated from people.  Fewer users, the less they pay for your real estate.  Increasing page views and users increases revenue.  This is a hard fact as CEO’s try to guide the company to profitability.  If an application has 100,000 users it is worth more to an advertiser than 10,000 users.  Companies sell to advertisers and tell them, “We have 100,000 users at X amount of page views.”  The media buyers line up for those numbers.  Problem is, companies such as Blog Talk Radio have to sell based on those numbers, but then they must get the customer or users to get behind the plan. If they ask the users permission perhaps they only have 50,000 of the 100,000 users that will allow ads.  Now their property is worth 50% less to advertisers, and they don’t make money at that level.

Their second choice.  They begin charging the users for using the service.  Or as I indicated above the third choice, charging those that elect not to have advertising on the application a premium. The third choice allowing both opt in and opt out income.  This is risky as you may chase off users that were really sold on the application that was free, but not so warm to paying a fee for the service, or having advertisements show up on a usually clean page. 

It’s a chess match played by advertisers and CEO’s and ultimately users.  How can they all be happy?  I’m not sure that is entirely possible but their must be a compromise somewhere.  Companies are struggling to be profitable, advertisers are cutting their spend to increase their return on their own investment, and meanwhile, the user holds the power of being part of the community and whether the user wants to sell their eyeballs.

I have been touting 2008 as “The Year of The User.”  Companies have been building their user base.  The power the users hold with their attention and their eyeballs and presence make the other parties to the dance want to court them.  I’m not sure the answer, but I think ultimately it will raise the cost of advertising, and may force a new metric not based upon the number of eyeballs and page views.  Who flinches first has not been determined.

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Metrics, Blog Revenue, Blogonomics, Marketing, Media, Mediasphere Radio, Partnerships, Services, Social Media
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