CrowdVine - Meet Smarter

Earlier this year, I accepted an advisory and research position with CrowdVine.  CrowdVine is in the “white label” social networking business.  The company helps people in groups, associations, and attending events to meet smarter through their software solutions and associated services.  You can learn more about the current product features here:  http://www.crowdvine.com/home/features

I can’t believe my good fortune! It is an honor to work with and learn from CrowdVine’s visionary product team and their dedicated customers.  The company is viable and boot strapped.   My role is to help the CrowdVine community “cross the chasm” in pursuit of a sustainable social networking platform.

My thoughts on social networking, product management and community management will likely be organized on CrowdVine’s blog in the future and cross referenced here when appropriate.

Welcome to your Network!

The invention of Brand equity was loosely defined in the 90s as intangible value that companies and products held in the mind of a prototypical“consumer”.  Brand equity was driven by a comprehensive brand strategy or brand identity.   Brand marketing enthusiasts featured the difference between a company’s asset book value and its stock price as one representation of brand equity.  They also pointed to price premiums commanded by market leaders as another representation of brand equity.  The priority for brand development during this time was placed on developing a brand identity through differentiation messaging first, and form (billboards, magazines, sponsorships, etc.) second.

Brand equity proved as difficult to measure as it was to define.  The introduction of the internet and e-commerce within the consumer value change has further complicated the process of creating a “brand”identity and driving brand equity.

I believe the last 10 years has seen a priority shift in marketing efforts from“brand identity content” to “brand identity context”.   In today’s “branding” arms race, how a a company messages is perhaps more important than what a company messages.

Engaging customers through Twitter, blogs, forums, chat rooms, instant messaging, physical to virtual product promotions, Second Life, user affiliate communities, rating systems like yelp, mobile applications, Youtube, technology partners/vendor promotions,  etc. all inform the connected customer about your company, your products, and how you relate to your customer.

In the early days of internet marketing, the following maxim held true: If you can’t search for it, it doesn’t exist.   While this is still true in today’s marketing world, it is highly likely that if you maintain a top competitor position within a mass market niche, your name WILL come back in a search result.  It also highly likley that you name WILL come back via a communication context you have not leveraged, containing content you did not create!

Companies need to choose how they engage their customers and stakeholders through internet carefully.  A company’s messaging and listening capabilities informs the world about its brand just as much as its logos and other marketing materials.  Marketing leaders are recognizing this shift.  They recognize the internet IS NOT a “paved cow path” replacing magazine and billboard placements.  They recognize the need to proceed with caution when engaging customers on the internet because the internet is an interactive medium and captures a reference-able digital product history forever.   Building a marketing presence on the internet is no longer about placing an ad, but rather, building a relationship.

The last day of conference treated attendees to some really good KeyNote speakers.   Here are the big ideas I that made an impression on my notebook:

• Cool new concept:  “The Adopter Class”  These people live on the bleeding edge.  Pros:  They love the new and the next and will willingly sign up for any new web 2.0 service.   Cons:  They love the new and the next and will willingly sign up for any new web 2.0 service, but will be eternally disloyal!!!   “Tech Cool” changes faster than hem lines, but for these people, that okay, they weren’t actually relying on your service as a viable or valuable part of their lives (except to say they were on it before everyone else) in the first place.   New companies need to figure out ways to segregate this user base and deal with them for what they are.  You can’t plan a business around a user population that wasn’t intending to solve a technical problem, but rather takes joy in the “singing up” process itself!  

• The main highlight for me today was watching Marc Andresson speak.  Marc writes one of my favorite blogs and on this day shared many insights into the founding of Netscape and great prospective on the impending Web2.0  “nuclear winter”:  

1. When designing the original netscape communicator, the team is surprised at how many internet browsing “paradigms” have stuck and been adopted over 10 years later, including:  backward/forward buttons; Javascript; amongst other.
2. Convergence is a natural progression of the computing.  Its not a a conspiracy, but rather, meme competition.   Paradigms shift.  Ideas get present.  Something sticks and the industry moves on.
3. Marc had plenty of great things to say about Microsoft despite being baited to attach by the interviewer.  He challenged the interviewer and audience to Imagine what this world would be without the Bill Gates driven personal computing revolution?  He then answered by stating, “The industry was not going the direction it went after Bill got involved.  For better and for worse, Bill’s push toward standardization and uniformity in the PC space is what seeded the opportunity for a rich internet by delivering rich users. “

• I will not comment Jonathan Swartz’s speech but only to say that  its apparent that he needs to find his Ed Zander and find him fast, lest the sunset continue.  Sun should be doing better than continuing to be the punch-line dot in .bomb.  
• Data Portability continued to be a topic discussed frequently though out the keynotes.  It inspired the following question in my notebook:  What is the middle-ware of me?  I believe there will be a GRAND opportunity to invent in the “middleware of me” space.  A tool that organizes, combines, and re-articulates the many messages (data bits), mediums (contexts), and messengers (relationships)  I develop across social media platforms could be extremely valuable.  I am not talking about a simple life-stream aggregator, but application more rich than that.  Facebook is trying to do that, but that’s about as safe as having your entire computing experience be delivered by MIcrosoft.  I need a personal Brio or Microstrategy to combine and re-articulate my “social media” data.   Is it open social, android, or even Firefox itself?   

Yesterday I had the opportunity to have many great conversations about Web 2.0 tools, techniques, and business strategies. Here are a few points that stand out to me:

1. I need business cards! I need a reference flier that describes my services. Old media / traditional networking is still modus operandi for the business professionals I met with. They weren’t interested in my handout that had my social networking information on it AND they told me so!

2. Social Media is now synonymous with WORK! Social network fatigue was discussed often. People are really not interested in another service or rating system. In the evolving expectations of customers, people want their tools to bring more value to them than is required for them to maintain in their profile.

3. Most people I spoke with are more interested in building on existing social networks and adding to communities than inventing new communities. I believe this is short sighted. Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, and High 5 will not be the significant social platforms that stick over time! Remember when there were 15 search engines, and then 3 major ones, and people thought the space was dead? Then remember how Google made the space relevant through magic and marketing? My bet is the same thing is going to happen in the social networking space. Those companies that figure out how to “embed” social networking in background functions are ultimately going to win. Maybe its Tumblr, or better yet, why not Firefox / Flex / Flack and the like?   This horse race has just begun in this space. People want portable data.   If you are going to target a platform, I believe the smart money is figuring out a way to bolt on to the emerging social media middle utilities – Twitter or Flickr or Unnamed company X – or become that middle ware yourself. Customers will demand to eventually demand to “not enter data all”. They will just want it to be collected in the background, access as it suits them, and MOVE it anywhere they choose.

4. Monetization angles were very very very weak across the board. The motivation behind many of the services I spoke with (aside from the source technology suppliers) was crowd entertainment. The mantra was “build a crowd” and figure out ads later. Just because all boats rise with the rising tide (ad money shifting from old to new media) does not mean they are fit for an ocean voyage. A micro bubble is going to pop with these “pop-entertainment” companies. If you take a fashion designer prospective with the products you build, I guess you deserve to be cast aside in the following fashion season.

Contact Me [leads at lucefocus dot com] for more information! I will work on a fix bid basis for “sprint” research projects between 6-10 hours. Get results today!

A myriad of information forms are making their way onto the Internet about everything and everyone. Your customers, potential customers, vendors, and yourself leave a digital trance on the net through blog forums, search engines, web pages, professional and social networks, etc. I am available to help you understand this thread for any given “information target” and to advise you on what the implications of this information means for your tactical sales, product development, or public relations goals.

In the late 90s, I really enjoyed doing this work for the Strategic Account Sales Force of Jupiter Communications. This national accounts Sales team sold internet research to the Fortune 1000, Venture Capital firms, and across the “startup” ecosystem. Their clients were experimenting with the internet in many ways. They wanted to understand the business potential of the internet, new markets, usage trends and predictions, emerging technology, and the dynamic competitive landscape (remember Webvan?).  My job for Jupiter Communications, was to make sure their Sales Representatives were able to understand the following types of information about their most important clients:

• New product announcements or agreements (especially in areas where we could sell new market research)
• Company Promotions and PR announcements – especially as it related to any Internet division / product line
• Company Mergers and Acquisition Information – this was an active space in the late 90s and early 2000s
• Manage and Update Company Organizational Charts, Profiling a top 5 of Who’s Who as it related to Internet Research sales

This work demanded incredible research discipline, ability to synthesize large amount of information into actionable suggestions, and an efficient communication style. This service is now available for your company or organization. Contact me for a Sales Quote today!