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Posts Tagged ‘imedia’

More on Twitter - paradigm-shifter, or flash in the pan? Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008

Finding Twitter more fascinating the more I explore it.

Have installed TweetDeck to manage the firehose of activity.

Waiting to hear back from Mr Tweet, who will tell me who I should be following (how many of them am I already following?)

Am starting to think in <140 character bursts - am annoying the heck out of my wife!

OK, enough of that, back to proper blogging mode… as the media declares the death of MySpace and the rise of Facebook, has the digerati (or is that twitterati) already moved on to Twitter as the next big thing? Not everyone thinks so. Sean Carton has written a thought-provoking piece on ClickZ comparing Twitter to Second Life (which is so early 2008 (or maybe even 2007)) “and other now-embarrassing fads.”

He quotes stats showing that ‘only’ 200,000 people are using the service, and that 1% are super-users (he uses the word ‘addicts’) who account for 34% of all ‘tweets’.

He writes that, “the people writing most of the glowing reviews about Twitter are probably its most avid users and are therefore part of a hermetically sealed group that lacks perspective. People who write about technology online are paid (well, ‘paid’ might sometimes be a relative term) to write about online technology and to be the first to use it. Pumping a new technology makes them look smarter and raises their street cred because it gets others to use it and makes them (and I’ll even include myself in the ‘them’ here) look like they got the scoop before everyone else.”

Not surprisingly, this has sparked a lot of debate, with strong arguments on both sides. As one commenter writes, “In 12 months, this will look like the most ridiculous thing posted on ClickZ in 2008. Citing Twitter’s April, 2008 usage numbers is absurd in this context. Usage has increased by at least 1000% since then (reported and estimated by several good sources). The examples of real business being done on Twitter, major company heads using Twitter to reach out to their customer base, journalists relying on Twitter for sources… These are not ‘let’s take on a fake identity and chat to other cartoons’ like Second Life. Twitter is becoming the new email, and you miss the boat at your own peril.”

The next comment on the list: “Consider me in peril because Twitter is useless.”

TechCrunch has just published a post which backs up the observation that Carton’s numbers were low, while Denise Zimmerman on iMedia has written a good guide to ‘Becoming a Twitter all-star’. There are many more salient postings, such as the one I heard about on Twitter this morning but which has already been washed away in the flood of postings, where the writer said to treat Twitter like a river - you step into it on occassion, get wet and splash around, and get out again; the point is to not worry about all the water flow you miss when you’re not in the river.

To extend the analogy, I think you also have to make sure you don’t wade too deep that you get in over your head and drown. Here’s to a strong swimming stroke for 2009!


Web 3.0 means bringing it all together Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

Confused by all the hype around Web 2.0? Still trying to get you head around the differences between Web 1.0 and 2.0? Totally flummoxed by the prospect of Web 3.0? Well, worry no more - Web 3.0 doesn’t mean a new suite of technologies to come to terms with. It means integration and consolidation of existing technologies into a form that can be used - and understood - by business.

Razorfish CEO Clark Kokich’s view of Web 3.0 is that “It’s not a new technology or a new technique. Rather, its how clients and agencies are using digital to transform how brands deal with customers.” 

In a recent interview with iMedia, Kokich said that at the heart of Web 3.0 vision is full integration of all the aspects of interactive.

“Web 3.0 will be much more focused on business solutions and less on marketing communications,” he said. “We’re at a point now where you take all of these tools - websites, search, mobile, targeted ads - and put them together in an integrated fashion.”

Kokich said clients want to work with digital agencies “because they offer the ability to look immediately at the metrics to determine if a campaign is working.”

“There is much more of an appetite on the part of clients for programs that deliver strong short-term ROI,” he said. “Right now, marketers are moving more toward programs that can cut the cost and marginalize costs in the short term.”

A good takeaway from this interview is that companies have to be willing to fail in order to innovate.  Kokich argues that the path to Web 3.0 - and a new level of integrated marketing communications - will be blazed by risk takers. Are you willing to take a risk on digital in the current climate? He reckons the benefits are definitely there.