August 10, 2009 • 10:15 pm 1
A nice presentation created by Matt Dickman, and posted on his slideshare page.
Filed under: 2.0, Advertising, Branding, Business, Customer Experience, Design, Influence, Strategy, Twitter, Web, Web2.0, ideas, marketing, technology, web 2.0, word of mouth
October 23, 2008 • 10:26 pm 0
Dirk van Graver at “Record | Preserve | Share” has commented on a business week article that asks us to imagine one number that sums up how influential we are. It is a subject I discussed some time ago, when I was craving a golden ratio in relation to social networking.
Back then I said;
It is pretty obvious Trust would be a great dimension for social networks to embrace. So would Influence or Buzz (or both). And when elements like this are developed I believe Social Networks will be onto something very significant indeed.
If you didn’t follow the link, according to the Business Week piece, Google has a patent pending “for ranking the most influential people on social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook.”
It is a great idea. Clearly if this works, it would finally make adverts on social networks relevant and potentially profitable.
It would seem (if the report is to be believed) that Google is applying the same approach to social networks that it has used to dominate the online search business (it would be like a page rank). Apparently the Google approach would take into account all manner of aspects of influence, from ‘how many’ people you know, to ‘how frequently’ you talk with them, to ‘how strongly’ they value your opinion. So your ’score’ could be compared with that of pretty much anyone in the world. A personal Google ‘influence score’ if you like.
Hear are my hopes and fears:
FEAR #1: I worry that if an influence score is used to justify, or generate a monitization strategy for social networking sites, the emphasis on what constitutes ‘influence’ must start on a sound footing. This is an area that I really don’t want to see messed up – as I’m not sure many social networking sites can withstand high profile failures at monitization.
FEAR # 2: If influence is measured by Google, (or anyone else) surely everyone will be able to find their (or their companies, or their competitors) biggest advocates or doomsayers? Yes? Well I cannot see that happening accurately. I would be very surprised if your biggest influencers are known by you (i.e connected to you) and so how do Google propose to measure or track that? And in fact, surely influencers by definition are 3rd parties (i.e. are unconnected to you) in the first place?
Hey, maybe I missed something and that is the whole reason why Google is exploring this.
Which brings me on to my great hope.
Hope #1: I hope how ‘many’ people you know (‘follow’, ‘connect’ with, ‘add’ as a friend) is not closely related to your degree of influence. Those fools who have adopted a strategy of following ‘en-masse’ in Twitter (in the hope that a high percentage will return the favour) must not be seen by advertising buyers and sellers as ‘influencial’. They are not. Bob with 1000 friends is not necessarily more influential than Susan with just 85.
Equally seniority isn’t the be-all either. John the 46 year old bachelor & CEO is not necessarily more influential than Raphael the 28 year old IT Manager, who is a father of two. And postcode xyz, doesn’t bear higher influencers than postcode 123, in the same way that an OxBridge student shouldn’t be seen as more influencial that a 2:2 student from a ‘lesser’ ranked university. My hope is that an influence algorithm doesn’t arbitrarily look at volumes and a set of pre-determined values and rules.
Influence is, I believe, far more multi dimensional and complex than that.
If this becomes a reality what are your hopes and fears for ‘Influencer’ tracking? I’d love to here your views.
Filed under: Business, Buzz, Facebook, Google, Ideas and Riffs, Influence, Measurement, Online, Social Graphs, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter, Web2.0, ideas, marketing, technology, trust, web 2.0 , Branding, Business Week, Google, Influence, Personal Brand, ranking, Social Networking, Twitter
August 12, 2008 • 8:22 am 0
Chris Brogan points us at 20 Free eBooks about Social Media
(Don’t ignore the extras in the comments)
Filed under: 2.0, Books, Business, Ideas and Riffs, Influence, Media, Planning, Public Relations, Social Media, Social Networking, Strategy, Twitter, User Generated Content, Web, Web2.0, digital, ideas, marketing, technology, trust, web 2.0, word of mouth , Chris Brogan, ebooks, freee, Media, social, Social Media
June 17, 2008 • 6:49 am 0
ChangeThis wrote to me today with a special offer from Dave Balter. Dave is the author of “The Word on Word of Mouth,” a manifesto they published in 2004.
The creator of BzzAgent, co-founder of WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) and author of THE GRAPEVINE, Dave has a new book out. It is entitled THE WORD OF MOUTH MANUAL: VOLUME II, and in an rather unorthodox move, he has decided to self-publish it. The physical edition costs $45.00, but he is offering a digital edition free of charge. If you’d like a copy, simply download a PDF of the book.
Filed under: Advertising, Business, Buzz, Influence, Media, PR, Social Media, Strategy, ideas, marketing, trust, word of mouth , Bzz Agent, Dave Balter, Free, Free Book, WOMMA
March 31, 2008 • 11:22 am 1
Out of millions to choose from, the UK’s Telegraph picks the 101 most useful websites.
Filed under: Awards, Business, Design, Fun, Influence, Measurement, Research , best, Telegraph, useful websites
January 30, 2008 • 6:21 pm 0
Here is an opportunity for all you technology marketers to rub shoulders and ask questions of two technology heavyweights.
Second Chance Tuesday are chatting to the BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones and Niklas Zennström, the latter who was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the year in 2006 and is one of Europe’s most successful technology, media and telecoms entrepreneurs.
When: 19 February 2008, 6.30pm to 9.30pm
Where: The Royal College of Physicians, 11 St Andrews Place, London NW1 4LE
Cost: £45, with a discount to £25 for entrepreneurs and is payable in advance.
For those of you who have been asleep for 5 years, Niklas Zenntröm is an Internet entrepreneur and co-founder of Atomico investments, Joost, Skype and Kazaa among other companies. Through Atomico, Niklas serves as a Board Member for several start-up companies, such as FON.
In his career to date, Niklas has won a series of industry awards including ‘Business Leader of the Year 2006’ (European Voice), ‘Innovation in Computing and Communications 2006’ (Economist Innovation Awards) and the ‘Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award for Technology Change Agent of the Year 2006. Niklas has also been named ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ (European Business Leaders Awards 2006).
Rory Cellan-Jones is a journalist for BBC News. Starting out as a presenter at BBC Wales, he transferred to London and became the business and economics correspondent. After the dot com crash of 2000, he wrote the book Dot.bomb. Since January 2007, Cellan-Jones has been the BBC’s Technology Correspondent with the job of expanding the BBC’s coverage of new media and telecoms, and the cultural impact of the Internet.
Update 20/02/08: BBC take on Zennstrom and the TV revolution here
If you are a networking freek, previous guests have included have attended from organisations like: 7Digital, ASOS, B3ta, Babble.net, Bebo, Betfair, BT, Buildersite.co.uk, The Cloud, Cominded, Crowdstorm, eBay, DTi, Endemol Gaming, Figleaves, Firebox, Freshminds, The Friday Project, Friends Reunited, Friends Abroad, Gala Coral, Glasses Direct, GNR, Google, Gumtree, Hitwise, Houses of Parliament, Imagini, Joost, iSporty, Ladbrokes eGaming, Last.fm, Lulu.com, Play.com, Match.com, MoveMe.com, Million Dollar Homepage, Microsoft, Ministry of Sound, Mofo Games, MOO, Monumental Games, Moreover, MTV, Mydeo, Myspace, News International, Nexagent, Oracle, Orderwork, Oxygen Games, Quikker, Paypal, Play.com, Reuters, Shopping.com, Shop Qwik, Skinkers, Skype, Snipperoo, Sony, Technovate, The Universal Music Group, Toptable, Yahoo!, The Young Foundation, Weeworld, Zopa, Zoomf, Zubka.
Typical investors have included : 3i, Atlas Ventures, Accel Partners, Advent Ventures, Atomico Investments, Benchmark, Battery Ventures, Close Ventures, Creative Capital Fund, Deutsche Bank, DFJ Esprit, Doughty Hanson Technology Investors, Episode 1, Fleming Private Equity, Goldman Sachs, IBIS Media, Index Ventures, Ingenious Ventures, London Seed Capital, London Technology Fund, Liberty Global Investors, Morgan Stanley, Nesta, New Media Spark, Mathematical Capital, Oxford Capital Partners, Seraphim Capital Fund
And of course the press has included: Angelnews, BBC TV and Radio, Business Week, Channel 4, City am, The Daily Express, The Evening Standard, The Financial Times, Fortune, The Guardian, ITN, Netimperative, New Media Age, The Observer, Sharp Edge, Silicon.com, Techcrunch, The Daily Telegraph, The Times and The Spectator.
I can’t make it, so I would really like to hear from anyone who attends.
Filed under: 2.0, Business, Entertainment, Events, Fun, Influence, Planning, Research, Second Chance Tuesday, Strategy, dotcoms, ideas, marketing, startups, technology, venture capital , 0 most influencial, 10, Atomico investments, BBC, Dot.Bomb, FON, investment, Joost, Kazaa, marketing, Niklas Zennström, Rory Cellan-Jones, Second Chance Tuesday, Skype, technology, Time Magazine, venture capital, Zennstrom
January 3, 2008 • 10:56 pm 1
It’s bugged me for a while, and low and behold Seth Godin sums it up again. First. And that’s two posts in a row from me, with a Godin influence! Damn it that guy is good.
Anyway, Seth says “One of the mantras of networking (and the many social networking sites that people are flocking to) is that it matters who you know. The goal of having a thousand or more friends online is that you’re well known. Connected. A click away. I wonder if there’s a more useful measure: who trusts you?”
I really think that Godin is spot on. The plethora of social network sites will each raise the bar in 2008, particularly those supporting business professionals. Those that do a remarkable job will win and those that don’t will be bought – ironically for their members.
You see the way I see it, is that all the social networking sites want today is users, more users, more eyeballs, and more traffic. Their offerings are geared around this fact…….it’s an ethos based around getting users to create as many new users as possible.
And as a result, members of these sites are caught up in a fake narrative, “the larger the quantity of friends or contacts or watch lists you have – the more influence or connected you are.” Offcourse this can be right. But it’s not a rule. And it’s not the whole truth. I think continuous improvement of Social Networks will bear fruit.
It is pretty obvious Trust would be a great dimension for social networks to embrace. So would Influence or Buzz (or both). And when elements like this are developed I believe Social Networks will be onto something very significant indeed.
I hope when this concept is implemented however, it is more scientific (for example) than LinkedIn’s current ‘recommendations’, which is just a partial attempt to add intrinsic value; and is actually pretty valueless.
No, I am thinking Social Networks need some kind of ‘Golden Ratio’ that is both complex (like the actual Golden Ratio) that can be translated into something very simple and easily understood for network or community members. For instance if you park the equation elements of the Golden Ratio to one side for a moment, some very simple manifestations occur: like the distance from outstretched fingertip to fingertip equalling your height, or the length of your forearm equalling your foot size.
Suddenly it would be much easier to understand the value of connections, visualise them, interpret them and apply them appropriately. I’d really love some kind of ’sphere of Influence’ or Trust ‘rating’ to be applied to Social Networks.
Suddenly Digg, Technorati, Open Social and LinkedIn and Facebook bring on whole new dimensions – particularly for business users.
How would you like Social Networking sites to unfold or mature?
Filed under: 2.0, Business, Computing, Facebook, Influence, Media, Open Social, Social Graphs, Social Media, Social Networking, Web2.0, ideas, marketing, technology, trust, web 2.0 , Digg, Facebook, Godin, Golden Ratio, Influence, LinkedIn, Social Newtorking, Technorati, trust
December 18, 2007 • 4:32 pm 4
I’ve never copied anything into my blog verbatim so I really want to reference the source on this one……so for the absence of doubt what follows is taken entirely from The Business, and was authored by David Crow (Not me). It is a great piece, and I think you should read it.
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It is hard to overstate the changes that took place in the media in 2007. In Europe, this was the first ever year that 16-24 year olds – the consumers behind today’s technological revolution – accessed the internet more frequently than they watched TV. Now, nearly eight years into the millennium, even the heretics who dismissed the internet as a flash in the pan are realising just how wrong they were.
While 2008 will be a year of flux, some things are unlikely to change. Circulation figures for daily paid-for newspapers will continue to dip, with the odd exception; the best editors will be the ones who adopt a two pronged approach of managing the decline in print sales – instead of trying to avert it – while investing more and more resources in their digital operations.
The Daily Mail – one of the few papers to post a year-on-year increase in November’s ABC figures – will continue to be the envy of all on Fleet Street. Last month’s assurance by editor Paul Dacre, 60 next year, that he has no plans to step down came as a relief to shareholders; it is hard to imagine the paper reading the mood of modern Britain so expertly without him. In 2008, the title will build on its newfound digital success after it hit the ground running earlier this year.
Sunday titles will continue to fare better than their daily counterparts in 2008. The Observer – which reported a 1.41% year-on-year increase in November’s ABCs – is testament to the fact that the peculiar British relationship with Sunday newspapers will remain strong. All eyes will be on how its integration with The Guardian goes, however.
Daily freesheets will be one of the few print products to see increasing revenues in 2008. Metro, owned by Associated Newspapers, is likely to be the star of the sector; its combined regional distribution – currently at around 1.4m – will continue to rise and, at some point in 2008, overtake the Daily Mirror’s circulation.
The latter, along with nearly every other daily and Sunday red top – with the inexplicable exception of the Daily Star titles – will watch The Sun continue to demonstrate that it is possible to build a successful red top brand online and in print. Hopes that the Mirror will be able to follow suit are fading.
Across the pond, staff at the Wall Street Journal will realise that Rupert Murdoch’s plans to turn the title into a global power brand can only benefit the newspaper. Media coverage of the presidential election – like Australia’s recent vote – will be increasingly defined by web giant Google, which will come into direct competition with newspapers and broadcasters by reporting the contest first hand.
DAB digital radio will continue its march to become Britain’s preferred radio platform. By the end of 2008, 30% of households will own a DAB radio, with sales rising by 26% to 2.6m units worth £200m. 4 Digital – the consortium behind the 10 new digital radio stations that will launch next year – is hoping to open up digital radio in the way Channel 4 boosted the fortunes of digital Freeview TV.
The new stations will provide some much needed competition to the BBC. E4 radio, which will focus on the youth market, will go head to head with Radio 1 while Channel 4 Radio – a contemporary speech station with what the consortium call “public service values” will provide an alternative to BBC Radio 4. Earlier this month 4Digital poached the controller of BBC Radio 5 Live, suggesting it is serious about taking on the Beeb. BBC radio stations account for 54% of all radio listening and a massive 86% of speech-based listening; 2008 will be the year that this starts to change.
For established broadcasters, next year will be one of unlikely alliances, formed in an attempt to see off the growing threat from new competitors. The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 will launch a joint on-demand service, enabling customers to download content from all three broadcasters on one platform. The trio hope that the on-demand service – codenamed Kangaroo – will provide an alternative to Sky+ and Virgin On Demand.
In America, Murdoch’s NewsCorp and NBC Universal will officially launch their joint internet TV effort, Hulu, a website hosting popular shows such as Saturday Night Live and Journeyman alongside user-generated clips. Google’s YouTube will continue to be the product to beat.
In 2007, social networking sites finally reached the tipping point, becoming truly mainstream for the first time. In 2008, they will be increasingly counted alongside TV, newspapers, magazines and radio as the fifth staple of the consumer’s media diet.
Facebook will continue to be the social network to beat, although top-dog status will bring new woes. Mark Zuckerberg, its founder and chief executive – once the poster-boy for the Facebook generation – is fast becoming a scapegoat for the increasing panic over social networking and privacy. Having bungled its attempts to reassure customers over their concerns, Facebook will have to get better at managing its success.
The firms that succeed in 2008 will be those that focus on the needs, desires and interests of their consumer in the contemporary marketplace – and discard their archaic, elitist prejudices born of a different era. For those still referred to as the “traditional” media, 2008 will be the make or break year.
Filed under: 2.0, Advertising, Business, Facebook, Google, Influence, Media, Social Media, Social Networking, Strategy, User Generated Content, Web2.0, YouTube, ideas, marketing, web 2.0 , Advertising, Business, contemporary, David Crow, Facebook, Google, Media, On Demand, Social Networking, Strategy, The Business, traditional, Traditional Media, YouTube
November 14, 2007 • 11:39 am 0
Silicon.com has come up trumps with its Agenda Setters for 2007. Take a look at the List and see who’s on it. Alternatively take a peek at the break downs by Business Leaders, Technologists, Entrepreneurs, and Media Movers.And for the real trend followers there is the Achievers 2000-07 trackback (which charts the top performers over the last 7 years) and a review of the Panel who was sitting in judgement.
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Extra Stuff from Silicon.com
The world’s 50 most innovative companies BusinessWeek
The world’s 100 most powerful women Forbes.com
Chron 500 – The San Francisco Bay Area’s top public companies San Francisco Chronicle
100 fastest growing tech companies Business 2.0
Filed under: Analyst, Awards, B2B, BBC, Business, Computing, Entrepreneur, IT, Influence, Measurement, Research, Web, Web2.0, marketing, startups, web 2.0 , , Agenda Setters, Business Leaders, Entrepreneurs, innovation, Media Movers, Silicon.com, Technologists
November 13, 2007 • 10:24 pm 1
“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” Dale Carnegie
Filed under: 2.0, Influence, Quotes, Social Media, Web2.0, ideas, marketing, web 2.0 , Dale Carnegie, Social Networking
November 11, 2007 • 10:27 pm 0
This was so funny that I laughed out loud. And then, damn it I nearly turned the laptop off.
Was it tongue in cheek perhaps? No. I didn’t realise the list was quite so serious.
You see on the blog (a blog about blogging btw) they have listed their ‘Fifty Most Influential Bloggers‘. The Fifty Most Influential Bloggers?
Exactly who are the 50 blog authors influencing, and how are the league table authors measuring, or weighing up one set of influencers against another?
I think being ‘popular’ is very different to being ‘influential’. And a blog about blogging should realise that.
That said it is a great list of English language blogs, worth taking a look at. Maybe one or two will influence you? Then again so might one or two in a random list of 50?
Filed under: Blog, Blogging, Influence, blogs, ideas , , blogs, Influence, measuring
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March 14, 2008 • 10:42 pm 0
Please help
Sport Relief
(I should apologise for bringing you here by illicit categorisation and tagging, but I won’t. You might have wasted just 10 seconds. Hopefully you will make the choice to change someone’s world in less than a minute).
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