James Ainsworth

Jul 05 2011

Wheat

Google+ stream of consciousness

Google+ or Google Circles or G+, as some are choosing to call it, is the new social network on the block. You can read great overviews here, here and here. The curious thing is that it gets no coverage in this month’s Wired magazine but is arguably the biggest thing in tech, networks and online right now. But that is surely for another blog about the pace of print.

Google+ then…

It looks good, there is no clutter. Gone are the days of generating your own html code for a terrible MySpace profile and the parasitic Apps that Facebook suffers from are (currently) not evident in Google+. Keep it simple never worked so good.

It is the myriad opportunities that Google+ affords that make it such a compelling social network. This piece about what Google should offer brands is near spot on. Moreover, it highlights the driving force behind what Google+ is and will be. A social network where user input is valued, changes, new features and yes, sweet sweet privacy are driven by consumer demand and not thrust upon the user a la Zuckerberg and his book of faces. The collaborative nature of Google+ and its features already sets it apart.

I can see that I will use Google+ as an internal comms network, no need for Yammer et al.

I can see that I will use it as a sCRM system to segment and communicate what I want and with the right people. Targeted comms were made for Circles or vice versa

I am using it to connect with (supposedly unreachable) people. I can be part of their conversation and not just a bean counted in their Twitter metrics.

Localisation is going to be more usable than ever, again via Circle based segmentation.

Could it be used as the main communication/website hybrid for business, big and small, why not? Im not saying websites are dead but I think it could sit pretty as destination 2 for a business, with Facebook pages 3^rd and Twitter 4^th.

G+ commerce…one day but F commerce isn’t exactly setting the world on fire right now

I find it is making me consider audience more, yet helping me reach more and wider.

I have spotted some netiquette issues already. This article, the one you are kindly still reading here, in essence, it is a blog post –arguably it is a Google+ based stream of consciousness. But where should it go? Not bound by a 140 character limit, it could go straight into my stream on Google+ (and get more comments) but I am still a stickler for the long tail benefits of content and blogs.

Game-changing, even if it just becomes a niche business/geeks/marketers network, yes. Challenger to Facebook? Not likely, I don’t really think it needs to be.

Sparks, they’re rubbish (at the moment)

Quora, now redundant.

Networking and online communication dynamics; Google+ allows varying dynamics under one roof. One user’s categorisation of individuals into a circle may differ wildly from someone else.

Can it enter the everyday behaviour of many? Can you G+ along to TV like you can with Twitter? I don’t think the dynamics of regular updates in the stream would be tolerated, unless of course you create a reciprocated Circle of those that tolerate fast and furious updates about XFactor etc

Scalability – just you wait for more people to get on board, will it be manageable? Time will tell.

I could go on, I want to go on. I want to write about the need for integration with Evernote, Buffer and Twitter. Heck, integration with other products that belong to Google.

Google+ is work in progress, no one refers to it as “in Beta” but you can beta your bottom dollar or Empire Avenue groat that this is early days, toe-in-the-water stuff before the invitation wall comes down. There is much wrong with Google+ but then there is a great deal wrong with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and MySpace…

Tell me what you think and do feel free to disagree vehemently with anything I have said.

Tagged circles, facebook, Google, myspace, scrm, social networks, Twitter

Jun 27 2011

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Wheat

Social media analysis of U2, Coldplay and Beyonce at Glastonbury

I watched some of the highlights of this year’s Glastonbury music festival from the comfort of my living room and as with any TV spectacle I had one eye on the TV and one eye on Twitter.

Let us take a look at some of the online data* generated by this year’s headline performances from U2, Coldplay and Beyonce:

U2 – Friday night

41% of the conversations generated by the three headline acts belonged to U2
The net sentiment score of the data about the performance was +1
Thematically speaking, Money was a common topic of discussion around the performance as a result of a tax related protest incident. Common clusters were ‘protest, security, tax’, but also ‘Bono, stage, band’ highlighting the frontman as driving force of band notion.

Coldplay – Saturday night

19% of the data relating to the headline acts was occupied by Coldplay and their performance on the second night.
The net sentiment score was +22
The themes and patterns that come out of the data about Coldplay speak of ‘live, good, best’

Beyonce – Sunday night

40% was the share of conversation owned by Beyonce as the third and final headline act.
The net sentiment score for the performance was -6
The language of the social data relating to her performance was notably sexual in nature but also spoke of the broad appeal of the music itself.

Which act did you enjoy the most and did you get involved with the Twitter discussions?

*Readings were taken for each act around a number of keywords and only looking at conversations on the day of the bands’ performance using Alterian SM2.

Tagged beyonce, bono, coldplay, concert, festival, glasto, glastonbury, glastontelly, live, Music, sentiment analysis, Social Media, social media monitoring, songs, television, TV, Twitter, U2

May 31 2011

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Wheat

You are NOT as good as your last blog post

“That blog you wrote, yeah, I saw it. It was good. But it was yesterday.”

Andy Warhol said “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” Your flash-in-the-pan opportunity to be seen, taken notice of and talked about has now been considerably increased but the time-frame has been downsized when it comes to online content.

Consider your latest blog post. You have crafted a message that puts across your point of view, is informed of your experience in a niche and ready to be shared with an external audience. You have peppered it with keywords, linked to relevant sources of clarification or counter-argument and invited comment.

You hit ‘Publish’.

You blog post is out there. No going back.

You may have hooked up your publishing platform of choice to automatically tweet the title of your prized piece of content, you may prefer to pull out a champion quote and draw the reader in with a tweet that promises more, teases out the context or simply summarises what lies behind the link.

The promotion of the content enters the Twitter stream and in that snapshot of time – whoever is online with eyes pointing Twitterwards – will see it and have the opportunity to click-through, that is, until it falls off the stream. (Naturally, this depends on the number of people you follow amongst other factors)

All that work for a stab-in-the-dark, hope for the best moment of someone, everyone or just the influential one taking notice and sharing it further. Has content delivery become about timing the publishing, does the content itself matter or is it about setting it free downstream when there is a critical mass of users?

There are various conflicting pieces of research that suggest numerous optimum tweeting times. There is a line of thinking that the sweet spot is during the lunch break when internet access for ‘non-work activities’ is relaxed, but then people leave their desks for lunch too. Around 3pm – 4pm is also considered ripe for publication as daily tasks begin to wind down and clock-watching for 5pm sets in.

Of course, the long-tail of your content can be propped up with your SEO efforts, taking the content elsewhere and linking back to it as part of comments on the blog posts of others and elsewhere. Every blog has that one post that just keeps performing, nestled in a ridge of constant visibility, the traffic just keeps on coming to “Why social media is like a ripe Tomato” or other.

A poorly performing blog post may not be due to the content itself being a bit duff, it could just as easily be a timing issue but it is certain that for a good blog post to be noticed it needs a lot of nurturing external to its creation and a bit of luck too thanks to the fragmented attention mind-set of social media.

Good SEO is the saving grace of online when it comes to writing for the web. It brings longevity to the content that you wish to be seen, cherished and shared. If every blog post was only visible in that snapshot of when it enters the Twitter stream, the dynamics would be very different.

Are we now conditioned to view the ever increasing bulk of online content in the moment? Is it acceptable to retweet the same ‘new’ piece of content more than two or three times over a day, week or month without the fatigue of repeated links and the delivery of stale content? It is all a perception thing but what do you feel is acceptable?

Tagged Blogs, Content, SEO, Social Media, Twitter, web content, writing

May 20 2011

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Wheat

The wisdom of the clouds

I have come across a new App for my iPhone that I am a little excited about (Please do indulge my geeky moments). It has an element of gamification and it relies on the wisdom of the crowd, or at least the subjective ability to judge current weather conditions.

Weddar is a current state of play application that allows you to report to your network weather conditions, as it happens, where it happens. You can pinpoint your weather report using the geo-location and get a truly localised report to inform your crucial ‘Raincoat, Umbrella or Sun Cream’ decision making. You are also invited to provide a snapshot report on request from other users.

As location and gaming is gaining in popularity thanks largely to the empowerment of technology, the make or break of this App will be encouraging a repeat visit, to make it habitual. This needs to be guaranteed by ensuring there is an active and sizeable pool of users. Another tipping point for this app will be where judgement falls on connecting the service to your Twitter and Facebook updates. My feeling is that, at a local level, this kind of update offers more value than a tweeted Foursquare Check-In.

I often find that an exciting new App makes it on to the homepage of my iPhone and the test of time is whether it remains there or slides down the pecking order of pages or faces the ultimate humiliation of deletion and a 1 star rating.

If professionals can’t predict the weather with their fancy and expensive instruments then you may as well get snapshot reports that are updated in 10 minute intervals from those that are experiencing whatever nature has to offer.

According to their website:

“Instead of the usual machine-based weather reports telling you “New York, 96 Degrees, NE Wind, 80% humidity”, in Weddar you have real people letting you know that “It feels great.” While resting from a jogging session inside Central Park, or “It feels good but windy” near the river.”

Give it a go and let me know what you think of it.

www.weddar.com

Tagged App, gamification, geolocation, location, tagging, weather, weddar

May 12 2011

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Wheat

The APPrentice App challenge: What social media said…

The Apprentice has returned to the UK for another series of businessmen and women exchanging clichés, back-stabbing and showcasing “the best” of entrepreneurial Britain…and I love it! Perfect trashy TV, the twists and turns (and not just when it comes to the back-stabbing) and the mild peril of Sir Alan in the Boardroom are all part of what has made the show a success over the years.

This week’s episode was particularly interesting as the challenge was for the two teams, boys against girls, to come up with a mobile phone App that would get the most downloads within a 24 hour period.

Both teams went for soundboard type Apps, a quick and easy type of application that wouldn’t push the limits of developers but would raise a smile, if only for 30 seconds, when you press a button. In the instance of the boys’ App, Slangatang, was pitched as a “local vocal” soundboard that generated mild insults and sayings that were delivered in a variety of regional accents. The girls created an App that generated a random, yet irritating noise and went by the name of Ampi Apps.

The power of television and social networks means that there is an abundance of data to be gained from those that Tweet-along during the show or fire off a missive on an App developers’ message board soon after transmission ends. So let’s take a look…

Volume

96 per cent of the conversations yesterday and this morning took place on Twitter, further illustrating the match-made-in-heaven relationship that has blossomed between the two media formats.

35 per cent of the noise generated via Twitter was discussion around the girls’ Ampi Apps product and 65 per cent was attributable to the boys and their Slangatang. To reiterate this point on volumes by product, Slangatang was the only one to break into the Top 10 UK trending topics during the show. This is fairly interesting considering the actual outcome.

Sentiment

The social data indicates that sentiment around the Slangatang App registered 20 per cent as very negative and 15 per cent as very positive. Ampi Apps, the one that was downloaded the most, registered a 48 per cent score in expressions that would be considered as very negative in sentiment and an 11 per cent score for the other end of the scale, very positive.

What can we deduce from this? Knowing that it was the media pick-up on the Ampi Apps that saw them over the line, there are certain questions to be asked. How many people deleted it in the blink of an eye? What ratings did the App receive at the time? Of course, the name of the game was to shift quantity; the brief never said anything about the quality of the App.

What did you think of the result? Did you contribute to the social media data during the show?

Tagged Ampi Apps, apps, blackberry, data, mobile, phone, Slangatang, Social Media, social media monitoring, The Apprentice

May 09 2011

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How can you use social media to leverage your web content management?

A coordinated approach to delivering content via multiple channels is not a pipe dream but a reality but it needs to be executed in a consistent manner so that the messaging is clear, effective and suitable for the audience with which it wants to make a connection. That said, the delivery of content alone is important but it is just one part of creating a cycle of engagement. Did you hear about social media?

Listening is as essential as broadcasting your messaging. Make your listening and publishing measurable and your communication responsive at the right time on the relevant platform.

A website need not be run in isolation to the rest of your communications efforts. Empower the marketing department(s) with workflow procedures, or a web master with overall control of multiple functions and all from within the one platform. This increases messaging consistency, the handling of inbound queries and reporting the value of your website to the business internally.

Social media communication is expected, even if it is to direct users to your website as the ultimate target, you need to draw in or direct people to where they need or want to go. It makes little difference if your website is an ecommerce offering or a Government information portal, communicating via the social channels – not just Twitter – can breathe life into your website by drawing in an external audience.

Listen to what is being said about your company for proactive brand management: Whitepaper
More effective Search Engine Optimization with keyword analysis: Whitepaper
Support links to other channels (e.g. Email)
Geographic tracking
Topic trending to drive site design and ongoing content development: Whitepaper
Make the web team self-sufficient to manage their own research
Engage other site tracking resources such as Web Analytics data

Empowered with social media analytics and insights, you can now optimize your site and draw on any additional analytics you have to present the best possible content for your clients, customers and/or a wider online public. Combine Alterian SM2 with Alterian Content Manager for stronger brand management, more effective Search Engine Optimization, and a deeper level of engagement with your customers. A holistic web experience via engaging and coordinated communication will deliver a dynamic web presence from the get go.

How do you join the dots between social and your website? Do you do this through one consolidated web content management solution?

Tagged acm, cms, SEO, Social Media, wcm, web content management, Website, workflow

Apr 11 2011

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Wheat

Some common web content management issues affecting all sites and organisations

These include:

How do we make it easy, for everyone who needs to, to contribute to the site but keep CONTROL?
How do multiple contributors update MULTIPLE websites simultaneously without chaos resulting?
How is the approved corporate BRAND retained across the site?
How is this information published and how is the STRUCTURE of the site administered?
How quickly can content be published to the websites and to EMAIL, BLOGS and other SOCIAL MEDIA Channels?
Organisations appreciate that content viewed through MOBILE devices content is as importance, how can we maintain consistency across the two platforms?
What is the difference between Open and Closed CMS?
How much should I pay for a CMS?

Over the coming weeks I shall answer these web content management questions and more in a series of blog posts. If you have any more burning questions you would like me to explore then please do leave a comment below.

…if you are too impatient to wait for the blog series, take a look at some Alterian Web Content resources

Tagged alterian, cms, Marketing, wcm, web content management, Website

Apr 06 2011

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Wheat

Tablet Invasion – Social Metrics for this year’s hottest devices

Tablets Invasion Social Metrics for this Years Hottest Devices

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Tagged android, apple, blackberry, ipad, ipad2, tablet, technology

Digital Trail

exploring the possibilities of online

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The wisdom of the clouds

Some common web content management issues affecting all sites and organisations

Tablet Invasion – Social Metrics for this year’s hottest devices

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