This is Why Google Scares the Sh*t Out of Companies

On October 29, 2009, In Biz, By Tac Anderson

Wow. I mean really, WOW! One announcement of a Web based product that is currently inferior to your product that only runs on a very limited number of devices and your company looses Billions of dollars. Wow.

This is what happened to TomTom and Garmin stock prices when Google announced Maps Navigation. I suspect their stock prices will come back *some* but not to their previous levels. A new bar has been set and it’s very, very low. There was a certain amount of value in those companies because there existed a barrier to entry: satellites, relatively expensive hardware, distributors, supply chains, etc.

Google had all of that or didn’t need it. New rule book and they made it up.

via mashable.com

Now a similar announcement by a different company wouldn’t have had this effect. But it’s Google. And Google doesn’t play the way your company does. It doesn’t have the same cost structures and it has a major cash cow that can fund that free product for many years before it becomes profitable. Basically long enough to drive you out of business. (This reminds me of another company in the 80’s and 90’s)

Google scares companies. But Google is also starting to scare people. It was bad enough when the only real data they had on you was your publicly available data and your search history. But now imagine a scenario that Louis Gray is toying with, where someone goes all Google.

You run the Chrome OS, which is basically the Chrome Browser running on Linux. You use only the Google Docs product and of course Search and Gmail, then Google Chat and  Google Reader. Now throw in to that an Android phone with GPS and Maps Navigation.

Google knows every Web page you visit, every search you make and has your documents and email in their searchable database, plus they know where you are at any given point (because no one goes further than 10 feet from their phone anymore).

As a user you can control the products you use and where your data is stored (at least to some degree). But as a company how do you compete with this?

A few days ago  I suggested every company needs to be reevaluating all aspects of their business and I meant it.

Going even further back, two years ago (ironically when writing about Google and their effect on your business model) I suggested to disrupt your own business model. Don’t wait for Google or someone else to disrupt your model do it yourself. At least theoretically. This way you’re less caught off guard and maybe even come up with a whole new business.

HP did this when they launched their Ink Jet devision to compete with their highly profitable LaserJet devision. Google even did this when they launched Google Wave, which is *supposed* to be a replacement for email.

What does your disruptor look like?

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Your Social Media Basic Training. Where to Start.

On September 29, 2009, In Biz, By Tac Anderson
BootCamp

BootCamp

Someone asked me yesterday to share with them where I get my news from. What feeds did I subscribe to and who did I follow on Twitter. Well I subscribe to 401 blog feeds and follow 3500+ people on Twitter and each source was manually added by me over the last 3+ years. I’ve worked my way up to where I am and I don’t recommend anyone try and get to where I’m at from a stand still.

So here is a list of my recommendations as to where everyone should start. For many of you this may to basic, if so pass it onto your friends who are just getting started.

  • First off if you’re not using Google Reader you need to. There is no better feed reader out there right now.
  • I believe social bookmarking is a basic tool everyone in this space should be a  using. Go sign up for Diigo right now. I prefer it over Delicious (but that will work too).
  • Next, sign up for Posterous if you aren’t blogging yet and start using it.

Now for the feeds. Visit each link and add each site to your feed reader.

The People

These are the people that are pioneering this space. Read each and every blog they post. I’m happy to report that I’ve met all of these guys in real life, except Peter Kim (but we’ve talked on the phone so that’s almost the same), and they’re all genuine, smart and all around good guys.

  1. Marshallk Marshall Kirkpatrick is the VP at ReadWrite Web and one of the best new journalists out there, IHMO.
  2. ChasNote Chas Edwards was co-founder or Federated Media but has moved on to Digg and covers the digital advertising space.
  3. Web-Strategist Jeremiah Owyang is probably best known for his work at Forrester and is now a partner at the Altimeter Group.
  4. Louis Gray is a prolific geek blogger and probably one of the more consistent bloggers on this list.
  5. BattelleMedia John Battelle the founder of Federated Media, author of the Search and a really smart guy.
  6. Steve Rubel recently gave up blogging for life streaming and besides being a smart digital PR guy he has tons of tips and tricks that will make your life better.
  7. BeingPeterKim Peter Kim, also from Forrester and now with the Dachis Group is one of the leader taking social into the next phase of business.
  8. Mike Manuel is one of the hardest working PR people in this space and sadly doesn’t blog nearly enough but it’s worth subscribing to his feed for when he does.
  9. Scobleizer Robert Scoble, love him or hate him, he is a force unto himself.
  10. Global Neighborhoods Shel Israel, is co-author of Naked Conversations (along with Robert) and recent author of Twitterville.

Bonus Homework. Each of these blogger is on Twitter and instead of making it easy for you as you subscribe to each of their blogs also find the link to their Twitter account and follow them.

The Tech Blogs

This is the source of news for our industry. These blogs all post at considerable volumes. You don’t have to read every post. Try to at least skim their headlines but if you fall behind just mark them all as read and move on,

  1. ReadWrite Web My personal favorite tech blog. Unlike many bloggers they consider themselves journalists and the post with that level of quality.
  2. TechCrunch The grand daddy tech blog but is a business not journalists.
  3. Mashable the current leader in site traffic but is a more geared towards social media marketers as much as the tech crowd.
  4. GigaOm doesn’t often get the credit that these first three do but is right up there in traffic and quality.
  5. Venture Beat has always been a  little more focused on the money side of the equation but is really steering more into main stream waters lately.
  6. Gizmodo is high volume, pure geek, tech and WTF. Don’t even try and read every post.
  7. Engadget more tech than you could ever handle.
  8. PaidContent The content side of the business and one of my favorites.
  9. The Next Web social tech geek from across the pond.
  10. TechDirt all this overlap in tech content and social ends up with a lot of stepped on toes. TechDirt is the best source for the legal/business side of all this. I promise it’s better than I made it sound.

That’s probably enough for now. Are there any must read blogs I didn’t cover? Leave a link in the comments.

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Mobile App Blogging Thanks to Posterous: Regator vs MeeHive vs Byline

On August 19, 2009, In Biz, By Tac Anderson

If you haven’t noticed, I like Posterous. I think they may have single handedly made email relevant for me again. Here’s my Posterous blog. I also like using tools in ways they weren’t meant to be used. That’s the case with this post. Please note that none of these apps were designed for mobile blogging so my review of them is completely irrelevant to the real reason people made them.

The main way I use Posterous is for mobile blogging. If I’m at me desk I’d just as soon use Windows Live Writer with the Zemanta plugin. Most of my mobile blogging is done from Byline. Byline is an amazing app that synchs with Google Reader making my RSS feeds portable. Byline is my secret weapon for reading hundreds of blog posts a day. But Byline has another cool feature: Mail Link to this Page. The mail a link option in many mobile news readers turns them into a mobile blogging app thanks to Posterous.

Last night Louis Gray turned me on to two new apps. Regator and MeeHive.

My problem with Byline is that it’s a little ugly for blogging. Heck it’s even a little ugly for an email. The link it sends is the feed proxy link not the Web URL or permalink.

My typical process is to copy and paste a section of the post, then select the email a link option. This redirects me to the iPhone’s mail program which I have linked to my Gmail account. I then paste the pull quote, edit the message of the email, which is the title of post and usually add a sentence or two of my own thinking.

Bellow is a screen shots of a post I did with Byline. As you can see the link at the end of the article is kind of ugly.

Byline

Byline2

It’s a little dirty but it works. Posterous is even kind enough to convert wordpress.com into a link even though I didn’t send it over than way.

Next are two quick posts done with MeeHive and Regator:

MeeHive

MeeHive1

Regator

Regator2

Regator wins hands down for pretty links. Even if you’re only sending an email and not blogging it seems like a hyperlink would be nicer to get than a raw proxy link. Granted if they view email in plain text then it will separate the link out anyway but it can’t be any worse.

MeeHive did a cool thing though when I highlighted text it inserted that into the email. That was cool.

No real conclusion here, I’ll continue to use whatever app I’m in to do quick blogs but I have to wonder if, as blogging continues to get easier, this is something app builders will need to take into account.

Anyone else out there mobile blog? Any tips or tricks?

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You Do Not Have to be Social Media Famous.

On August 10, 2009, In Comm, By Tac Anderson
Almost Famous album cover
Image via Wikipedia

I see a lot of marketers get into social media with the goal of being the next Steve Rubel, Louis Gray, Robert Scoble, Chris Brogan or Jeremiah Owyang. Really? That’s what you want? Why?

Don’t get me wrong, I know all of them and they are all great. They deserve their “fame” (assuming that’s what they want). They’re brilliant and nice guys despite it all.

But why would you want that headache?

I guess it’s some basic human desire to be famous. Even if it’s just “famous” in certain circles .

Personally I like being a lurker, being on the fringe, an outlier of sorts. I like being able to speak my mind and not have hundreds of people argue with me. I like not having to worry about everything I say being scrutinized. I don’t have to worry about the barnacles of social media latching on for a ride. I don’t have to worry about people I’ve never met hating me.

I think some people believe in order to work in social media they have to be Social Media Famous. I’ll tell you a secret; you don’t. You don’t have to be from Silicon Valley (or in Steve’s case NYC) you don’t have to have tens of thousands of subscribers to your blog or hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter.

You are not them and you don’t have to be. You may be brilliant. You may be a nice guy/gal. I have worked as a social media professional for the last 5 years and never had anywhere the “fame” others do. (And I don’t want it.) Yet I’ve still managed to turn social media into my career.

Here’s my secret:

Whatever you are doing now, turn that into a social media job.

Seriously try it. I don’t care if you’re a fry cook or an accountant. Unless you’re in the Marines you can make social media a significant portion of your current job. Learn the tools and figure out how to use them in your job. Social media is not just about marketing.

I’ll tell you the down side: It will take a while. It probably won’t take you years to do it like it did for these early adopters but it may take a while. It also takes personal investment. You may have to start learning these tools on your own time. Consider it night school. Eventually it’s all you’ll be doing. Just ask Heidi Miller.

The next 5 years are going to see social media become a part of every job out there. Some more than others.

But stop worrying about how many followers you have. Stop worrying about how many subscribers you have.

I’m also not saying you should do social media in a vacuum. That kind of defeats the purpose. It’s nice to be connected enough to get feedback and participation.

So, to paraphrase Tyler Durden:

You are not the contents of your Twitter stream.

You are not your blog post.

Nothing is static. Everything is evolving.

I say never let me be an A Lister.

I say may I never be Social Media Famous.

I say evolve and let the tweets fall where they may.

This is your life and it’s ending one status update at a time.

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Blogs Aren’t Dead, They’re Just Fragmenting

On June 24, 2009, In Comm, By Tac Anderson

Twitter, FriendFeed, Tumblr, Flickr, Posterous, to name a few, can all serve as a blog. If you look at how Robert Scoble and Louis Gray use FriendFeed, they create for more content there than on their blogs.

Blogs aren’t dead, they’re just fragmenting.

Steve Rubel has always been an early adopter of tools and while he hasn’t been as active on FriendFeed or Twitter as some he has recently fallen in love with Posterous. You can see more on his post. You post blogs to Posterous by sending an email to post@posterous.com. Seriously it’s that easy, go ahead and try it. This isn’t a huge surprise since as I’ve pointed out Steve uses Gmail as command central. I would add that the way he uses email it almost isn’t even email anymore. Steve seriously needs to publish a book on how he uses email.

I’ve been toying with Posterous but really that’s it. Steve is quickly turning it into his personal CMS powered by his email ninja skills.

Some people have declared that blogs are dead. Ironically they always do this on their blog. But with blogs now powering full Websites it makes you wonder if people really need to start their own blogs anymore.

I obviously think they should.

But for those with blogs we’re often left to ask: What do I do with my blog?

I also have struggled with this. Should I try and post everyday? Should I only post when I have something really epic to say? Should I post link blogs? Should I only post about marketing? Should I post more personal topics? The only way I know what works is through trial and error. There is no one right answer. It depends on you, your readers and what your goals for your blog are.

Personally I think of my blog as a repository for a *slightly* higher level of content. A place where I hash out my bigger ideas. A place where I write about what I’ve learned that I think would be useful to others.But I still try and post frequently, almost everyday.

Twitter, FriendFeed, Posterous and all the other places online are where I connect with people and get my ideas or share my random off topic (occasionally inappropriate) thoughts.

My blog is home base.

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Where are all the good long tail blogs

On April 28, 2009, In Comm, By Tac Anderson

Where are all the good long tail blogs?

blogger license plate on my mazda 3
Image by Tac Anderson via Flickr

I love blogs. I love blogging. Hell, my license plate even says BLOGGER (pretty sure I won’t be able to score than one when I move to Seattle).

My biggest complaint is finding fresh new voices with fresh new ideas. Marketing and Tech blogs have been around just as long as blogging itself. There are no shortage of blogs on these topics. We all read the top blogs. Everyone shares the same links to the same blogs (unless it’s your own).

Where’s the promise of the Long Tail in the blogosphere?

Despite the rise in in the number of tech and marketing blogs it becomes even harder to find original ideas. Most bloggers just mimic and point to the top blogs that we all read. We all do this sometimes and we usually throw in some additional commentary and add our own take on an idea. I just find it that with more people talking we’re all saying the same thing.

I try to not just add to the noise and I know I could be doing a better job.

I have found some good blogs lately by going through my Twitter followers and clicking through to their site. This is very, very time consuming. I wish someone would develop a recommendation engine like Pandora for blogs.

Louis Gray used to does a monthly ‘5 blogs to check out‘ post but he hasn’t done one this year. (see comments for current posts)

Setting up alerts in Google, searches in Twitter and filters in FriendFeed can help find new voices but, again, this is a very manual process.

Ironically I often find new bloggers while writing my blog posts. I use Zemanta and while I’m writing they use semantic data to recommend related posts. It would be great if they had a standalone service where you could enter a blog and find similar posts.

This is only going to become a bigger problem as blogs continue to take over the main stream and more verticals other than tech and marketing are effected (I couldn’t imagine trying to find good mommy blogs).

If anyone knows of such a service please let me know.
If anyone is working on such a service please let me be a beta tester.

Do you have any tips for finding new relevant blogs?

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