The head of interactive and innovation at P&G, Ted McConnell, added to the downbeat buzz on the monetization of social networks.  Here’s a pretty biting, yet insightful comment, captured in a recent AdAge article:

“I think when we call it ‘consumer-generated media,’ we’re being predatory,” he said. “Who said this is media? Media is something you can buy and sell. Media contains inventory. Media contains blank spaces. Consumers weren’t trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant. … We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it.”

While I personally take exception to his perspective, I’ll restrict my comments to the local social space.

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social, local social, strategy | No Comments »

The business of social media is morphing, which is no surprise.  What is interesting to note is the growing importance of what I’d label “filtration and curation” (not just because of the Jesse Jackson ring it brings to the title!).

In the “early days” of social media, we focused on aggregation - picking up the crumbs of commentary wherever it can be found and blending it to amass some scale of commentary.  As the world gets more and more conversant, aggregation hatches a new problem, in its quest to solve an old one. Every day, the problem of scale is being solved naturally, via the sheer volume of user participation. Context and interaction form the mantra, replacing more.

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web 2.0, social, local social, local guides, strategy, OpenSocial | 1 Comment »

go here first!

A local guide for you Interactive Local Media scenesters…

Enjoy!

social, local guides | No Comments »

Sometimes humor provides an instructive lens into business reality!  The Onion just did an entertaining article entitled “iPhone Left in Hot Car for Three Hours“. With classic Onion wit, they indirectly observe how deeply personal mobile devices have become to our lives.

As I commented in a recent Kelsey Group panel, never before in the history of technology have people slept with a computer.

The bold new world of mobile devices with open applications and fast networks forever changes the way consumers will use the technology. We, in turn, need to adapt our thinking on how we engage users through these devices and applications.

This isn’t about a screen that needs IYP reformatted to do YP searches. In fact, search is tangential to the shift. This is about a rapidly morphing form of active, location-aware communications that is deeply personal. It ignites commentary, conversation and interaction. It’s not about “driving more searches that find advertisers”, it’s about inserting the advertiser into the conversation.

The future of local media and mobile is not about “mobile search”, it’s about live interaction with and among consumers.  If we think of this as a search problem, or as a new screen format, we’ll miss the fundamental opportunity to participate in the consumer conversation; it’s this dialog that will envelope and drive the shopping opportunity.

social, local mobile | No Comments »

With news today of Twitter’s first organized stream - “Election08” - I’m willing to bet we’re witnessing the first instance of a plan to bring Twitter into main stream usage.  When I blogged about this a couple of weeks back, I suggested the current geek user ecosystems needs to give way to pop culture streams like sports for Twitter to reach its scale potential.

Well, the pop culture icons of today are vying for Washington - the Elections.  The Elections08 stream is pretty interesting and entertaining - people are tweeting voraciously. I am betting this model will really propel the usage upward.

Smart move, look for a whole new series of channels to form - ad hoc and organized. Make sure you catch the #mccainshot thread, it’s suggesting a drinking game from the election debates - such as: take a swig every time John McCain says “my friends”, and so on…

So, here it comes - a whole new stream of feeds that form tributaries into an ocean of conversations!

social | No Comments »

Back in April, 2007, I first blogged about the early emergence of Twitter.  It’s since become a fundamental “must have” tool to the media and silicon valley crowd.  Not using Twitter is akin to carrying a Motorola Razr phone at Web 2.0!

Following my innate tendency to pick up shiny new objects, I joined Twitter a few months ago.  I was a reluctant laggard by silicon valley standards - the advertised premise of telling everyone “what are you doing?” didn’t sit well with me. Broadcasting to the world where I stop for a drink, or when I’m waiting for a plane seemed to be on the time-wasting side of social media, not to mention feeling a tad narcissistic.

And now I’m hooked.

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social, IM, Jabber | 1 Comment »

There has been a very interesting dialog recently in a couple of leading blogs surrounding the question “who owns comments?”.

In the blog universe, the most interesting content often comes from the dialog that a blog post triggers. The interaction drives both engagement and content value.

So, what are the thought leaders saying about the balance of rights between the blogger/publisher and commenter?

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social, local social, strategy | No Comments »

I’m guessing a bunch of you are heading to Seattle for the upcoming Kelsey Conference, Drilling Down on Local ‘08. If you’re undecided, take this as a strong recommendation - this will be one of the top events of 2008 for local search industry vets and newbies alike.

Unfortunately, I have to be in Europe. However, I thought you’d enjoy seeing a handy Guide that was created by a Seattle native, to give you an orientation beyond the hotel walls. It’s kind of a cool way to preview our local social beta site, Guidespot.com.

Click on the widget to the left, and you’ll see it.

Hope you enjoy, and feel free to pass it along - even better, make your own!

social, local guides | No Comments »

Greg Sterling previewed our new 3-week old beta of GuideSpot.com in his blog yesterday, with an appreciated nod “Over time the site could evolve into something very interesting and valuable.” At Local Matters, we certainly would agree. Here’s a little more on the site, and how we see it positioned in the social-vertical-search triangle of local.

Clearly, the growth momentum is there for social participation - consumers are more comfortable with self-expression and interaction every day. Sites that align with this trend generally outperform those that center on search, and create more fundamental pull and engagement. When we looked at this space, we centered our energy on the concept of a consumer’s list at the core of a social engine.

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social, local shopping, local guides, publishing, OpenSocial | No Comments »

We’ve long differentiated between searching and browsing. I like the new term “Discovery” because browsing is about to be expanded in bold ways by the newly forming connective tissue known as the “social graph”.

Consumers have been using the internet more and more frequently for information exploration; Building on this behavior, Discovery will emerge to become an increasingly critical dimension of consumer shopping and purchase behavior. Far more personal than search, Discovery can smartly traverse paths forged or suggested (directly or indirectly) by people you know, trust or admire. (more…)

social, local social, strategy, OpenSocial | No Comments »