Facebook Is Not All Powerful

The controversy over privacy with Facebook’s Beacon application and Mark Zuckerberg’s subsequent apology tells us that in spite of what web 2.0 fan boys think, Facebook is not all powerful. Many people have been harping on the fictional valuations and the fact that prominent Googlers have been trading in free massages for a bigger upside on the stock options. And the euphoria on the Beacon announcement was silly. I wasn’t impressed and neither were at least seventy thousand users who joined a Facebook group protesting the lack of a total opt-out for Beacon.

Seventy thousand people is a small slice of Facebook’s membership but there were enough influencers in there to convince partners like Coke and Overstock.com to walk away from the program for the moment. It’s hard for me to believe that an old hat brand like Coke had the brains to walk away before Facebook threw in the towel and added a way to opt-out completely. The message is clear. You can’t build an empire on the backs of your users without giving them something in return. And features like that should always be added on an opt-in basis. The Facebookers made a rookie mistake that leaves me wondering if other social networks are taking notice before they put serving ads above all else.

Famous Bloggers Can Be Stupid Too

The blogging culture really loves to deify and demonize people. The pack moves fast. If they love you then you are golden. And if they hate you then you are torn to shreds. I followed last years drama with a guy named Sam Sethi splitting TechCrunch in a very public disagreement with TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington. I was mildly amused. I watched silently as Sam’s blogger pals congratulated him on the launch of an overly ambitious blog network called BlogNation. Several months after the launch there are claims that good ole Sam didn’t pay people what he promised. And on top of that he’s accused of lying about getting funded.

One mark of a bubble is the lack of fundamentals. Both sides of this story failed to use good business sense. On Sethi’s side, he made the foolish mistake of trying to launch an empire before he even owned an acre of ground in the blogosphere. An ambitious blog network could work if the various writers were willing to work for sweat equity. But that wasn’t the case. So it seems that instead of growing organically Sam decided to throw a hail mary and hope the ball would come down before he had to cut some checks. Ooops! Meanwhile supposedly intelligent bloggers let themselves go for months on promises alone. How dumb is that? If you expect and need to be paid for your work then you best do a strong assessment of your employer’s ability to pay. I kept hearing that Sam Sethi worked at Microsoft and wrote for TechCrunch so he must be a rock star.

Evidently social web ventures are all about trust. Try presenting trust at the supermarket when it comes time to pay. I’d rather protect myself against fools who fail to pay.

Many More Will Be Folding

Speaking of TechCrunch, Michael Arrington announced today that his other startup called Edgeio would be shutting down very soon. I know this sent ripples through the bay area web 2.0 community. After all, so many marketing plans are based on getting onto the front page of TechCrunch. Why do you think startups love to hire ex-TechCrunch writers. It never helps but they will keep trying it. But if the TechCrunch founder, who has unlimited access to pump his own company can’t make a go of it, then what future do the other outfits have? Not much.

This goes back to the issue of fundamentals. Most businesses can be built to succeed if they are solving a problem, doing it first or better than others who are doing it and operating in a way meant to maximize innovation while conserving capital. That means you live like a pauper until the company has strong revenue. That’s not happening these days. Edgeio went through $5 million in about a year. Does it really cost $400K per month to build a classifieds site? They certainly weren’t spending money on proof readers. Their press release announcing some nifty media sales platform has several basic words (like download, inherently and result) spelled incorrectly. Sloppy work there.

The point here is that it doesn’t matter what you did before. These businesses should not be judged and heralded based on the past experiences of their founders. They should be judged based on the quality of their business plan and their ability to actually execute at a reasonable cost. Edgeio’s features for selling digital media actually looked interesting to me so maybe they will be able to sell those off to another party. But at the end of the day it still didn’t matter that Mike Arrington was behind the project. There seem to be a lot of social web startups that are relying upon the name of a person rather than relying on outstanding features and paid services. Many of those startups will burn capital and fold in the coming year.

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

We are more than two years off from News Corp.’s purchase of MySpace and a year from Google’s purchase of YouTube. While there have been continued acquisitions and investments into the space they are surely getting smaller. Some might point to all the hysteria over Facebook and their mysteriously high valuation as a sign that the good times are alive and well.

We’ll here’s a bold prediction. Facebook will be the WebVan of Web2.0. Investors will put in a ton of cash and get nothing in return. People are so high on the fact that Facebook has sold out all of their users to marketers. But in spite of what Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook has not reinvented media or advertising. Facebook technology is not revolutionary. And neither is any other technology being offered by Web2.0 outfits. It may be fun. It may be useful. It may help people to network. But it isn’t going to change the world either.

I for one am not sad that the money flow is turning to a trickle. I believe that we need a new wave of innovation in the United States. We need one that goes way beyond friending, comments, ratings and short messages. Too many of these startups have decided to take shortcuts, throwing up sites with old features with new names and logos. If I hear someone say “Its twitter for…”, ‘Its digg for…” or its “Myspace or Facebook for…” one more time I think I’m gonna puke.

That’s not to say that people shouldn’t start new social networks or other internet ventures. They should use what we’ve got and do with it what they like. But they shouldn’t think for one second that they are innovators when they launch one of these sites. And they shouldn’t expect that investors are going to throw money at them. Those days are over…for now at least. The smart investors are spending money on technology that matters.

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

Mark’s central argument is that the internet has become, “A utility.” I think Mark is right in that respect. The internet is reliable and we expect it to be there when we need it. It is definitely a more exciting (and not in a good way) situation when a service is volatile. Volatility is also usually accompanied by cries for better service though. Who is crying for better service on the internet these days? My perception is that the vast majority of web users feel satisfied.

I remember when AOL made the jump to unlimited net access for a flat fee. This move to flat rate access caused log jams as people were vying for a limited number of entry points to the information superhighway. People were crying out then. Those cries buoyed the net all the way to solid dial-up performance followed by so called “high speed” access.

During that time the web has been utilized for many different uses but they are really all variations on the same theme. We’re still doing a lot of the old stuff like using email, instant messenger and e-commerce. The newer stuff involves personal publishing, social networking and rich media. I think that rich media publishing is probably the most significant advancement in the last eighteen months.

If you really take a look at the situation you’ll see that the web is stuck in second gear. We have a ton of new sites and services coming at us but they are all variations on the same theme. Nothing I’ve seen in the last year has been ground breaking or game changing. The last two things I remember feeling like that about were podcasting and YouTube.

Here are some things that are holding back the progress of the internet.

• A mindset ruled by the belief that Google will do everything and do it well. I hear a lot of people taking for granted that Google will rule the web forever. They think that if there’s something they want that Google will either build it or buy it. Google may try to do this but its not possible to sustain that kind of dominance in this environment. As a company gets larger they get more inefficient. They will have more disgruntled employees who are out of the running to be millionaires and just see a job at Google as a stepping stone. And Google will make mistakes. Every company does. So stop stifling innovation by thinking your efforts are futile.
• The belief that any one company or application can “be the internet”. It is an interesting thought but we’ve been there before. There was a time when people believed that AOL was the internet. AOL was the access point. They had email, messaging, search, news and more. AOL had the stock valuation too. That was less than ten years ago folks. Some people are saying that Facebook will dominate the internet soon. Its not going to happen. No company or service can be the internet. The internet is much larger than that and people should think about that when forming ideas on how to change things.
• The limited amount of bandwidth that gets to the end user. Mark Cuban points out this issue in his post. I agree. Mark points out that, “Few people’s actual throughput to their homes have increased more than 5mbs in the past 5 years…” Most people in the U.S. are restricted enough on download and upload speeds that certain innovations are just not possible. Some amazing things could happen with video and personal media storage if only we had the pipe to deliver what we need. Joost works on my cable modem connection but the experience isn’t good enough for me to spend any real time on it.

Mark started a game changing service of his own with Audionet back in the late 1990s. So we might want to think a little bit more about the discussion he’s trying to get started. Some have reacted viscerally as they see this as a challenge to what people have worked hard to build. I see it differently. This is a call to action for those who realize that the internet can be much more than it is today.

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

I recently started using Facebook as a way of reaching more podcasters and members of our communities over at RawVoice. I also have a personal Facebook account. I have a pair of MySpace accounts. One is personal and one is for business. I have a Flickr Pro account which used to be a Flickr account but is now attached to a Yahoo! account. I’ve also got several accounts on Google. In addition I run a personal family website and several blogs.

There is so much information that we want to get on or push across the web. We do this for a variety of reasons. We have several categories of people that we are communicating with. The last few years have been exciting in that RSS and rich media have made the web a much more vibrant place. New communities have been created that speak to the needs of the average web user. Services like Flickr, YouTube, MySpace and Facebook are great examples of that.

Unfortunately all these free and low cost services come at a price. Your friends have to sign up for extra accounts that they may not need. Advertising is served in a very random manner. Some content that you want to keep private may end up being public. There is little flexibility on the categorization of relationships. Some services focus on a single discipline (like showing videos) and you are forced to adopt multiple services (and accounts) to meet your communication needs.

I want to use the web to communicate in an efficient manner. The current state of things does not lend itself to efficiency.

I want to be able to identify a person based on information they already have. So they shouldn’t have to sign up for a new account. I want to have flexible options in categorizing that person. Everyone can’t be just a friend. I want to control the experience that people who visit my site are going to have. That means if there are ads I will decide what they will be. I want to be able to communicate in variety of media formats including text, audio, video and photos. Finally, I want to be able to do this at a single location on the web.

The vast majority of this is possible right now. I can use a system like Drupal to configure my own site that does all of these things from a single presence. It will take a bit of time and a lot of effort. I’m actually working on something like this for my family right now. What about everyone else though?

After a bit of consideration I think that Ning has come the closest to creating something that supports this idealistic view of web community building. You can do a lot (but not all) of the things I mentioned above there. You can pay a fee that allows you to remove advertising and place your community on a custom domain. People still have to sign up for a Ning account though. Still, its probably one of the better options for those who are not technically inclined and at the same time care about the experience for their visitors.

Now I realize that certain services are better at certain tasks. WordPress.com is a great personal publishing service. But WordPress can’t touch Flickr as a photo publishing and management tool. That’s just one example.

I think there’s a way that all these services can do what they do best and still serve people who want to create communities. It involves the cooperation of open source platforms like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. First you need need paid hosting for all of these platforms. WordPress.com and Bryght (for Drupal) already offer hosting for a couple of these platforms. The hosting should be paid because we want these services to be around forever. And as such they will require financial resources.

All the major media publishing and community building services should consider creating APIs that allow the open source platforms to interact with their servers. These APIs would allow each person’s community to interact with their system in order to bring the service’s features to that person’s community. There is plenty of precedence here. The Akismet anti-spam platform is doing it. Google Maps is doing it. Others are doing it as well.

Some services might object to this anonymous access that bypasses their standard identity and advertising delivery systems. That’s fine. Put a price on access to your technology. Let the user sign up from their web management dashboard. Either charge the user directly or charge the host of the platform for that user.

The point here is to allow non-technical users access to today’s (and tomorrow’s) communications tools for the web. To create a best of breed solution that meets their needs and respects their desires to work efficiently and create an excellent experience for members of their communities.

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

Even more amazing is the fact that all of the aforementioned players offer their services for free. I’m not sure how long all this free video hosting and delivery will last. Far be it from me to question a situation I’m benefiting from.

The Giants - YouTube, MySpace, Google Video, Yahoo! Video, MSN SoapBox

With these services you automatically have your videos included in massive communities. So there’s a lot of audience but also a lot of content. Don’t be surprised if yours gets lost in the shuffle. One good thing about these services is the fact that their parent entities have plenty of cash to keep the party going for a long time.

The Upstarts - Brightcove, Veoh, Blip.tv, Vimeo, Viddler, Revver …to name a few…

These players are venture or angel funded at various levels. I think that Brightcove and Veoh are probably the most highly funded in the group. Some tout features, some monetization. Some tout both. They all allow you to create your own channel of videos that get converted to flash and can be embedded in other sites. How long these companies will be around is anyone’s guess. I would be willing to bet that there will be some consolidation of the many video startups in the next year.

The Roll Your Owns - Ning, KickApps, VideoEgg

These players are also venture funded but add the component of allowing you to build a community around your video content. VideoEgg allows you to add on video to an existing community. KickApps allows you to create a stand alone community or integrate with an existing site. Ning lets you build standalone communities around content. KickApps and Ning also host audio and photos for your community as well.

The Archives - Archive.org, Amazon S3, Dreamhost, GoDaddy …insert large storage host name…

Some of the services above preserve the original files you upload. Most just convert your originals to flash. You definitely want a backup copy somewhere that’s not local. The links above are basically storage options. You don’t get flash encoding or any kind of community features. Archive.org is totally free. The others cost money but are economical. Dreamhost offers an easy to use Files Forever service for their hosting customers. S3 appears to be a great bet for archiving video as well although the interface options for uploading and maintaining are a bit lacking for non-tech users.

This analysis is not meant to be a comprehensive one. It simply represents what I’m seeing in the market. If there are other interesting and notable players in the space feel free to let everyone know in the comments.

[tags]Social Media, Video, Online Video[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

Sometimes the issues raised in these phases lead to the development of technologies that push the industry forward. And other times companies find themselves hitting a dead end. Either way there are many lessons to be learned.

• You Get Hot - This is the phase when everyone is talking about you. You can’t scan a series of social media blog posts without someone gushing over your service. Life is good. I think that Second Life is currently on the back end of this phase. Digg has also been one of the hottest social services over the last six months as well. These are good times where anything seems possible.
• You Get Slow - The hype of hotness leads to many new users and plenty of performance challenges. Second Life is there now, with only 40 avatars able to be present of what island or whatever you call them. I hear people saying that MyBlogLog is there too with people starting to remove the MyBlogLog widgets from their sites due to performance problems. For a in 2005-2006 there was plenty of grumbling about TypePad slowing to a stop some days. I also hear that the very popular Amazon S3 (which could also be called Social Startup Storage) service has slowed considerably in recent weeks. These are tough times but still a good position to be in because a heavy load means that you’re popular.
• You Get Bought - This happens either by generous funding or direct sale of the company. Either way, someone lobs in a ton of cash. All the big names get here despite their performance issues. Google jumped in early with their purchase of Blogger. Flickr and Del.icio.us were early pickups by Yahoo. They also purchased MyBlogLog recently. Fox Interactive shocked everyone when they paid big dollars for the formerly sizzling hot MySpace.
  
• You Get Spammed - Users of the web based map app Frappr got caught by this last year. A sudden flood of spammers onto the maps prompted users to quickly configure moderation features. Blogger has long been a target for spammers via comments and creation of spam blogs, aka splogs. Wikipedia has similar issues related to the motivation of certain contributors. This phase is only real bad if you don’t have the features designed to protect your users. If the spammers want you then at least people know that your service is worth paying some attention too.
• You Get Silly - Once you deal with all the other phases it can be easy to forget what your core mission was all about in the first place. Sometimes the price of forgetting involves doing something absurd. Facebook got hit by a mini revolt after introducing new features that reduced the security of member profiles. Flickr recently announced a forced move to Yahoo! accounts and limits on friends and tags. Frappr! has switched site designs and map technologies much to the chagrin of it’s many users. WordPress.com switched on the much derided Snap feature by default on every single blog. This phase tends to occur after companies ‘get bought’ and become servants to new masters. Definitely not a good time but not necessarily curtains either.
• You Get Marginalized - Sometimes technology, features and hotness pass by quick. Friendster was an early social network that is still going but nowhere near the powerhouse it used to be. Odeo started with millions in funding and a huge cache but lacked a coherent strategy. The company founders bought out the VCs and are charting a new course. Google Video seemed certain to control the web video space for a long time to come. Then this upstart called YouTube turned GV into a second class social citizen. Google responded by pushing YouTube into the ‘you get bought’ phase much to the delight of YT investors.

I think the lesson here is that the process of building a social startup is rife with pitfalls as well as great opportunities. At any given time many social startups are dealing with one or more of these phases. And even startups that seem to have crested the mountain hit difficult snags. It is patently obvious that there are always lessons to be learned. Copius amounts of funding guarantees nothing but existence for a period of time and popularity can be a burden all its own.

[tags]Social Media, Startups, Pitfalls, Phases, Analysis[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

WordPress 2.1 is out and contains some significant upgrades that publishers will really like. Drupal 5.0 was recently released and contains some significant upgrades that make it easier to use and more flexible than ever. So which one should you use to satisfy your web publishing needs?

First off, if you’re currently invested in one package or the other I would recommend that you upgrade and stick with your platform for the time being. There are too many variables in place with each implementation to justify me blindly recommending migration.

If you’re starting fresh then you have an opportunity to consider your options. I’ll try to make my assessment as simple as possible.

There are a few similarities between WordPress and Drupal that should be pointed out. Both sites facilitate traditional blogging for one to many authors. Both platforms foster interaction via commenting. Both sites have vibrant developer communities contributing themes and plugins. Both sites can handle rich media and integration with other communities. Both also have hosted options available via WordPress.com and Bryght.

I like WordPress for sites where publishing content among a defined set of authors is the primary objective. I like Drupal for sites that require community input, persistent presence and/or aggregation from other sites. By persistent presence I mean the ability for a community member to set up a profile and return to contribute information at later dates of their choice.

WordPress is simpler to implement and manage. But Drupal has more powerful features that allow you to scale your site into a full blown community if that’s what you want.

The choice is yours. Think about the kind of web presence you would like to build. Think about who will be contributing content. Think about whether or not you will aggregate information from external sources. If you have the time and inclination you should set up a couple of test sites and try out both to get a feel for the experience.

Both tools provide the backbone for a lot of great sites. You can’t lose by considering and trying out either of them to meet your needs.

[tags]Social Media, Tools, Drupal, WordPress, Drupal 5, WordPress 2.1, Comparison, Blogging, Community[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

We’ve also saw the rise of sites like Blip.tv, Revver, Guba, MySpace Video, Eyespot, MetaCafe, Brightcove and let’s not forget Google Video. So what do all these sites have in common besides the fact that they’re probably all operating in the red? None of these sites charge users for storage space or bandwidth. In fact, some like Revver and MetaCafe even pay users based on the number of views received by their videos.

Storing and reliably delivering video content costs money. And those costs increase exponentially when you have open communities where just about anyone can upload anything at anytime. Open is good, but you need limits. And you also need revenue in order for a business (these sites are businesses right?) to survive. I know, they’ll make it up with advertising. Sounds like a bubble to me.

So I figured that I might as well throw in my own predictions on where the online video community space will head in 2007.

I remember the tech bubble of the late 90s and at that time a lot of things did not make sense to me. I have the same feeling about all of these online video communities. The numbers just don’t add up.

Prediction #1: Some of the players mentioned above will not exist by the end of 2007. They will either go away as a result of consolidation or outright collapse. I’m sure that a couple of existing sites that I don’t mention will also go away as well.

Prediction #2: New players will emerge into the space with new money and new ideas.

Prediction #3: Google will make a strategic decision to change the model of YouTube either by charging to upload content or collapsing YouTube into Google Video.

Prediction #4: Major brands will move away from using the free video services (mainly YouTube frankly) in favor of paid services that allow them to control delivery, statistics and the community surrounding their content.

I have a couple of strong reasons for these predictions. The first reason is that I think many of the smaller players (which means everyone but Google or MySpace) will feel great financial pressure in the coming year. Don’t expect VCs to pour wads of cash into companies that they know can’t be acquired for eight figure sums. In short, YouTube won the big prize already.

My second reason involves the fact that these communities can easily deteriorate as the content pool becomes polluted by advertisements, pseudo porn and self serving advertistments. Mark Cuban rips GooTube based on the fact that most of the top content are commercials in one form or another. Since when do commercials add up to quality entertainment?

Craigslist learned that one way they could improve the quality of broker listed apartment ads in the New York City area was to start charging a small amount ($10) for each listing. By doing so they gained a source of revenue and greatly reduced the amount of useless and repeat listings on their site. I think that a flat fee for uploading videos on all of these sites would strengthen their bottom lines and increase the quality of the content in the communities.

The real issue for businesses and brands is the fact that their content might just show up adjacent to pseudo porn or some other commercial that conflicts with their message. Segregating the content to a separate part of the site doesn’t work since users are less likely to go there.

Why should organizations deal with the hassle? Larger businesses and brands will start building their own content communities, possibly driven by the engines of some of the services mentioned above. Smaller players and individual producers should get smart and start paying for media hosting. They should still selectively take part in other communities, but having paid hosting will insure that their video can be delivered in the event of a sale, merger or collapse of one of the free services.

Happy New Year!

[tags]Social Media, Video, Predictions, 2007, Predictions 2007[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

While I don’t have a problem with a wiki as the information center for an event I also have to recognize that there are people entering the social media arena that are still figuring out what this stuff is all about. And rather than snicker at those who are still figuring it out, we should think about the next level of tools that make adoption a snap for people who are new to the space.

The PodCamp series of podcasting un-conferences, like the BarCamp series that came first, uses a service called PB Wiki as their center for registration, planning and information dissemination. PB Wiki is so named because you can create a site, “as easily as a peanut butter sandwich.” I believe that is true but managing the growth of these types of sites may not be so easy.

The open nature of the resulting sites can cause a bit of chaos once dozens of new people put their hands to the pages that are coming together. Some, like myself, take great care to make sure that formats are uniform with previous editors and that things like lists are numbered properly as they expand. Others are a bit more careless. And I think some people are just plain confused and may end up walking away for fear of messing things up.

So the question that comes to my mind is this one. Are wikis the ideal tool for planning a social event? The answer may be yes for a high level tech event like a BarCamp, but I think that podcasting events are attracting an audience that is passionate about content but not as knowledgeable on the technical side.

The wiki is a good tool for planners because it allows maximum flexibility in creating the pages you want. But for this same reason it can be a poor tool for scaling beyond the needs of a handful of users. In a recent blog post the folks at PBWiki acknowledge some of the things that educators want from the service. Most of the items in their list should apply to people running events where participants might not be veterans of wiki editing.

It seems to me that in this case the technology being used can get in the way of the effectiveness of planning an event. Some of the other PodCamp tools include blogs and podcasts, which are not easily integrated into typical Wiki apps. Looks like people have chosen WordPress.com as the service of choice to meet those needs. So now you have information spread across two websites. Plus the organizers usually perform planning using a Google Group. Good luck getting a social media newbie to engage across three sites with three different RSS feeds.

Recognizing the need for flexible page creation, simple user registration, blog/podcast functionality and information tracking one has to think that a new type of service is needed allow these grass roots types of events to be planned and organized under one roof. The service would also provide great flexibility on who could edit what content. On most wikis users can either edit a page or not. Not very flexible. A more ideal solution would allow admin users to edit a section of a page while allowing other users to edit another section, but only by entering a form designed by the planners of the site. Even then some moderation of submitted content should be an option.

Recent incidents on other wikis indicates the strong need for moderation features to protect site content from being harmed. Because before you can worry about organizing your information and giving the user a simple experience you have to make sure that your content is secure.

So its becoming clear to me that wikis as they stand at this point in time are inefficient tools for planning events. They lack the robustness of functionality required to cover the needs of event organizers. A new type of service is needed.

Services like Upcoming.org cover announcements and visitor tracking, but don’t address the planning or repeated news dissemination needs of events. The Google Groups Beta looks like a step in the right direction but seems to be missing the levels of access to prevent people from editing certain pages. Confabb only allows you to track and discuss conferences.

There is a lot of functionality to wrap into a single web application to crack this case, but I think the answer could be a lucrative one for the individual or group that can help to power the grass roots conferences of the future.

[tags]Social Media, Wiki, Conferences, PodCamp, Events, Planning, Organization[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

I believe that the phrase ‘post mass media world’ refers to a world in which social media is a prevalent form of communication. At one point during the discussion someone made a point about the need for catering to consumers rather than bloggers. In general the response in the room to this comment was a positive one. I believe that I had a different (as in negative) take on the implications of this concept. You see, in declaring bloggers to be in a different social category from consumers there is an important point that is being overlooked. BLOGGERS ARE THE CONSUMERS! Bloggers are consumers who start and continue conversations that other consumers latch onto as well. So if you ignore bloggers then by default you are ignoring a strong segment of the consumer population.

The reaction to the aforementioned comment leads me to believe that the public relations community (or at least the segment of the community that was present in the room) may not yet fully realize the impact of social media on the way companies relate to the general public. There’s a lot of talk about acknowledging the fact that the message can no longer be controlled by crafty PR organizations. Is it just talk though? Because attempting to go around bloggers to get to the real consumers indicates that PR firms with this mindset think that they somehow can control the message. If they could only eliminate those pesky bloggers from the scenario. Or better yet, the PR firms can blog and drown out the messages coming from other non-approved bloggers.

But what do the people on the inside of PR firms really know about blogging and social media? If the recent Edelman/Walmart fiasco is any indication I’d say that they know very little. These firms may hire individuals who maintain a blog but that’s not a real credential in the world of social media. According to a recent report by Shel Holtz, Richard Edelman blames the fiasco on the fact that senior members of his team were not very experienced in social media. Then why were they assigned to an account that was social media driven? Or why weren’t those individuals properly educated on the ethics of social media prior to leading their client into a firestorm? Sounds like a company that knows how to talk but hasn’t yet learned how to walk. The client and the social media consuming public both lose in this situation.

Now I’m not here to crucify Edelman or their folks on the Walmart account. Lord knows enough of that has taken place in the highly reactionary blogosphere. I’m just using it as an example of a high profile firm that apparently has a long way to go in developing the services it provides to clients in the area of social media. I believe that the new people in the industry are probably far more adept at applying the tools. But the thought leaders are still stuck in the 1990s. Hence the situation with the Walmarting Across America blog.

There is a need for educating on and application of social media from the top down in public relations, marketing and advertising organizations. I believe that there are gaps in understanding that need to be closed. And the only way to close those gaps is by having people at all levels learn and practice using tools such as wikis, blogs and podcasts to get a message across. And not only get it across, but get the message across with honesty and transparency.

The fact is that the smartest people in social media do not lie within public relations, marketing and advertising firms. The smart people in the room are the bloggers, podcasters and other long time practitioners of this new medium. So the bottom line is that public relations firms can’t control the message and they shouldn’t try. They should assist their clients with relating to the public in an honest, intelligent and entertaining manner. They can also assist their clients in monitoring the conversations so that these firms can take part and reap the benefits of community. But before the types of organizations mentioned can do this they must reach out to get some education from the people who long ago made the choice to make social communication a part of their daily lives.

[tags]Social Media, Blogging, Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing, Edelman, Walmart, Education[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

Big name tech firms are swallowing up independent outlets as fast as they can get their hands on them. Fox bought MySpace. Yahoo bought Del.icio.us and Flickr. Google bought Writely and YouTube. There will be more deals to come.

Now we get the news that Odeo has bought their company back from investors. According to the story on TechCrunch, “Odeo has kicked out its investors and is going it alone. Evan Williams along with Biz Stone and all other current Odeo employees have created a new company called Obvious Corp. ”

Evan Willams raises the question about whether or not the little guys can exist in a world where the large players dominate. Evan states on his post, “Nearly everyone I know in the Internet business is either at one of the giants, wishing they were at a startup, or at a startup that hopes get bought by a giant.”

Is it possible to start and grow an independent company in the world of social media without being squashed or bought? I hope so. Being bought certainly isn’t the worst fate for a company but small players would like to think that they have a choice that allows them success on their own.

[tags]Social Media, Acquistions, Odeo, Obvious Corp[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

The act of unsubscribing from these feeds was based on two factors. First, it is highly frustrating to browse my RSS reader of choice in an offline mode while dealing with content summaries. As I go down the list of feeds that I read I sometimes come to a content summary and then have to take the step of marking the item as ‘unread’ so that I can come back and read the item via my browser once I get back online. What a waste of my time!

The second factor in my decision to unsubscribe is based on convenience. Whether I’m online or offline I get into a nice flow when reading RSS feeds that allows me to absorb quite a bit of information in a short period of time. So maybe I could deal with bumping into partial content feeds while offline by placing them in a different folder in my RSS reader, which happens to be Onfolio. Now I’m creating a separate process just to deal with summaries. Even more of a time waster. Even if I did that I would still be taken out of my flow of absorbing information when reading partial content feeds. If I want to read the whole of an item I then must go to the web page in a new window. This process slows me down and defeats the purpose of using an RSS feed reader.

In my opinion RSS is about convenience. By utilizing RSS to distribute content the publisher is making it more convenient for the content consumer by allowing them to: a. Get automatic updates when new content is published and b. Read using the tool of their choice at the time of their choice. Both of these are very good things that maximize the uptake of content published on the web.

Some publishers balk at full content feed items because they want visitors to go to their website to maximize ad impressions or affiliate link clicks. That’s not exactly the best way to gain the affection of users on the web. I don’t think anyone likes to feel like a fish that needs to be reeled in so the publisher can get a payday. Other publishers might subscribe to the theory that partial content feeds spur participation via comments on posts. I can’t speak for the many people who consume web content via RSS. I only know that reading via RSS has never stopped me from commenting when I want to comment. I simply mark an item and then come back later to check my marked items so that I visit the website and comment.

You might be a bit confused because the last process I described is the same as the process for dealing with partial content feeds. That is true. The difference is that I make the choice to visit the site. Publishers who post partial content feeds make the choice for me by not providing the content to allow me to make my own decision.

My advice for publishers is simple. Remember that RSS is about convenience for the content consumer. It is possible to use full content RSS feeds to promote your products and services or earn revenue via advertising if that’s what you want to do. You will be better served in the long run if you focus on distributing compelling content that convinces visitors to patronize your business or visit your website to take part in the extended conversation. Treating your subscribers as fish on the end of the line may seem like a good idea but you just might be limiting the reach and effectiveness of your message.

[tags]Social Media, Blogging, RSS[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

Here are some of the more notable no shows:

• Apple - The mack daddy of podcasting kept an ultra low profile at the event. I know that there was at least one person there who works on the iTunes music store. You wouldn’t have known it unless you bumped into him though. They didn’t even except their award for Best Podcast Directory. They’re successful enough so they don’t have to take part. It would be nice if they did though.
• Odeo - I didn’t even hear the word ‘Odeo’ uttered once. Last year I heard the word all over the place. No booth and no meaningful representation for a company that launched to much fanfare in 2005. Perhaps they are working on a plan for the next year and didn’t have time to make it down the pike to Ontario.
• Pluggd - Another Odeo-like player who fronts cool technology and Ajax driven interfaces. Like Odeo, there’s no discernable business model. The 2006 Podcast Expo would be a good place to go fishing for one. They passed in favor of DEMO. And they did so right on the heels of announcing some promising technology for searching audio and video files. They’re obviously looking ahead to bigger rounds of funding.
• PodShow - PodShow’s various personalities were there, but the company wasn’t really represented. Podcasters were invited to the Un-Expo which meant a poolside hang with the cool kids and a chance to be told to remove your podcasts from Blubrry if you sign one of their contracts. Where is this company going and what can they really do to help podcaster’s spread their message? Those were the questions I would like to ask their leadership. Too bad they were busy performing juvenile stunts inside a Hummer limousine. With the new round of funding its pretty obvious that PodShow will soon go past podcasting and move into mainstream media.

Does skipping the biggest event of the year in Podcasting mean doom for these big players in the industry? Most likely not. Apple is very successful with podcasting because their directory serves to increase sales in the iTunes music store. PodShow has proven they can bring in cash via ad deals and partnerships such as BT Podshow.I hear their burn rate is $500K per month though and they may need the long tail users when they’ve whittled down their VC pile back to the six digit range.

Odeo seems to be regrouping by laying off (yes firing) some managers and eliminating the Audioblogger project. They’ve got a decent amount of cash and some time to figure out a sustainable strategy. Pluggd is the most vulnerable player in my opinion. They have the smallest amount of funding and their directory has a smaller user base than the other three players. That said, they also have the most promising technology with their new HearHere media search tool at the early demo stage. If anyone should have been at the Expo it should have been Pluggd. This was a chance to connect with users and explain why people should go with Pluggd over Odeo or Podshow. Alas, the opporunity was missed.

We hear that the 2007 Podcast Expo will be three days long, which leaves plenty of time for networking, demoing and wooing the long tail users in the podcast community. The smart players in the podcasting game will make sure they are represented next year.

[tags]Social Media, Podcasting, Podcast Expo, Apple, iTunes, Odeo, Pluggd, HearHere, PodShow[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

A comparison to last year is inevitable. Many of the same people and companies were in attendance, although some took a different approach. Gary Leland of Podcast Pickle had a great booth last year complete with huge jars of pickles and a live recording setup. This year he opted for a Pickle Suit and a the Presidential Suite at the Marriott, which was occupied in ‘05 by PodTrac. Audible was back in a less prominent position on the Expo floor. Is anyone using Audible for podcasting?

PodTrac was back, throwing a party at the Pavillion near the Marriott pool with an impromtu performance by Brother Love. Last year Yahoo threw the big party near the pool. LibSyn was in attendance, sporting racing outfits and touting a new pro service. And just like last year, PodShow officially opted out of the event while some of Adam Curry’s minions attempted to lure podcasters away from the action to have a snooze by the pool at the Sheraton.

There was plenty of new blood in the house as well. Podango and Podcast Ready occupied very prominent spots near the entry to the exhibit hall. Podango held an “unconference” where people were constantly speaking. That’s one way to keep the conversation off of the holes in your service. Have other folks talking constantly. Podzinger showed up to show people about podcast search services.

New podcast services firms abounded offering various levels of service. Raw Voice came on strong with their Raw Voice Generator and Blubrry offerings. They had a friendly crew giving people demos at their booth. Podcast Spot was talking up some impressive server side features for video podcasts. SwitchPod is run by a seventeen year old and feels like the young newcomer to the space. The folks from Blip.tv made the trip from New York to promote their robust video blog/podcast services.

Hardware and software providers made the trip as well. Samson and Shure were showing off some great mics. TechSmith was showing off the Camtasia product and giving a glimpse of their new Screencast.com service. Rogue Amoeba was featuring some great audio software for Macs. FeedBurner had a couch and was giving away some t-shirts and helping people figure out the details of their RSS enhancement services.

I could go on but you get the picture. The Ontario Convention Center was transformed into a social media mecca. I can’t forget the podcasters though. The L.A. Podcasters, Orange County Podcasters and Red Bar Radio were doing live shows from the Expo floor. Keith and the Girl were doing shows from their hotel room. Dozens of other podcasters (including me) were doing shows in the hallways of the convention center and the hotels where they were staying.

This post could go on a lot longer so I’ll do my best to make the ending concise. I didn’t get to see or hear nearly everything that went on at the Expo but I think I have a good feel for how it turned out. I’ve got three conclusions based on what I experienced.

1. This movement is going forward at a nice pace. There were more podcasters, more vendors and more parties than last year. People have no problem investing their time and money to be at the center of independent media distribution. All good things for podcasting.
2. There are more tools and services available at the individual and commercial level to assist with all aspects of podcasting. Simpler is better for beginners but options help bring down costs and competition usually means better features. Not all of the new services and products are ready for primetime.
3. The long tail is alive and well. The exhibitors who showed up were generally selling to individuals and small businesses. There are people who have no problem selling to small frys and growing their products and services from the ground up. The same thing holds true on the podcasting end. Lots of relatively new podcasters showed up expecting to grow their shows.

So the tone was positive. There were lots of good contacts made by myself and others. I look forward to the 2007 Expo which just might be in Las Vegas.

[tags]Social Media, Podcasting, Podcast Expo[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

When you moderate comments they are pushed into a queue for review prior to being made viewable on the website. This feature adds an extra step to your process as the proprietor of a social site because you have to take the time to review your moderation queue on a regular basis. The time is well spent because your site visitors will appreciate the fact that your pages are not ridden with nonsensical links that include links to shady drug sites, gambling sites and online porn portals.

Moderation features differ depending on the tool or service that you are using. All the good blogging tools including my staples, MovableType, Blogger and WordPress have good comment moderation features. These tools will send an email along if a comment has hit your moderation queue. This saves a bit of time since I don’t have to keep checking my queue for the latest updates.

Moderation isn’t just for blog sites either. Think of any and all sites you’re maintaining that allow users to post feedback. Bulletin Board systems are a great example of a site where you want to be careful about how easily spam can get onto your board. A few months ago I experienced a spam attack on a Frappr map that I maintain. Those dirty spammers hit the whole community on a single day and lots of folks were scrambling to clean up their sites and get the comment moderation features configured for their maps.

It is very important to note that comment moderation features alone won’t solve all of your spam problems. One frustration that you’re likely to experience is having to sift through a mountain of spam in order to approve the few good comments. According to the folks who’ve created the spam early warning system Akismet, 92% of all comments are spam. One way to get around this problem is to add another layer of protection.

I’ve already written about Akismet and Bad Behavior in earlier posts. These are tools that you can employ to stop spam before it gets to your moderation queue. The extra effort in implementing early warning tools is paid back when you’re spending a lot less time managing your comments.

That being said, here are some guidelines for configuring and utilizing comment moderation on your social website:

• Know your site comment moderation features.
• Use your site comment moderation features.
• Configure so that you are notified when new comments are posted to the queue.
• Approve good comments as promptly as possible.
• Do your best to implement features that balance security against spammers with friendliness for legit contributors to your site.

I know that there is some gray area in those guidelines. That’s the nature of the game unfortunately. Since security tools and ugly spammer techniques change its best to try and keep up with the latest and greatest in spam protection. The good news is that if I find out anything new I’ll let you know.

[tags]Social Media, Blogging, Spam, Security, Comments, Moderation[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

I define a tool as a piece of software that you can host on your own domain. This is in contrast to the many services that run solely on their own domain. I call WordPress a tool while WordPress.com is a service.

Tools are important because they typically provide the user much more control than a service. And I’ve found that businesses value control over the look, feel and function of their social presence on the web. What tools provide in power and flexibility they do give up in terms of simplicity and maintenance. Services are typically quicker to set up and a lot easier to maintain. How much you want your business to rely on services because they are easier depends on a lot of factors including your budget and technical expertise.

I’m a big believer in businesses utilizing social web tools that run on their own domains. And while cost and expertise can be important factors for some businesses there are plenty of economical options for creating your own unique social presence on the web.

No tools are more powerful and economical than Open Source tools. Open Source tools are free to use. The best Open Source tools also have vibrant development communities that are free to extend these apps in any way that they can think of.

The tools that I will write about this week can change the way that businesses think about developing their own presence on the web. The features and functions available now via Open Source tools were previously only available via custom developed solutions that cost many thousands of dollars just to design and build. The costs for maintaining or (heaven forbid) altering custom developed tools could also put a serious dent in the wallet of a business.

Times have changed considerably over the last few years. There’s still money to be spent on implementation, styling and maintenance of social web tools. The difference now is that there’s no built in license or maintenance fee to weigh down your implementation budget while many upgrades you desire may already be present via free extensions or plugins.

Take a few moments to research and experiement with the great tools I’ll point you to this week. Knowledge of their existence may just change the way you think about the possibilities for your presence on the web.

[tags]Social Media, Open Source, Tools[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

Dave has also taken a few select blogs and created mobile versions like this one for Steve Rubel’s Micro Persuasion. Unfortunately Dave’s ability to take select sites and mobilize them doesn’t fulfill my mobile RSS reading needs. Individuals have the ability to create their own mobile versions of sites and blogs but I don’t expect that to happen in a massive way anytime soon.

So I did a bit of research to see how I could consume RSS feeds on my mobile device of choice, which happens to be a Nokia 6620.

My first thought was to find RSS feed reader software that I could load up onto my phone and then subscribe away. The pickins I found were very thin. I came across a service called LiteFeeds that allows users to manage feeds online and have them delivered to a mobile device via an application installed on the device. I had some problems with the LiteFeeds over the air install. Support is provided via email and I checked their blog and saw no updates since April of this year.

I decided to keep looking for another solution. I found a mobile feed reader created by Burning Door, the folks behind FeedBurner. The tool looks great but I couldn’t get it working on my device. It also appears that development on the tool has been halted so I can’t count on it to be updated to work with future devices.

At this point I figured that integration and support would continue to be an issue in a world where hardware is so varied and technology changes fast. I then started to think about a browser based solution. Then I remembered Google Reader.

I read on the Google Reader Blog a few months back that Google Reader had a new mobile component. I decided to try it out by viewing the subscriptions that I was maintaining in their tool. I access my subscriptions by pointing the web browser on my phone to www.google.com/reader/m. This has been working very well for me.

The feeds delivered by the mobile version of Google Reader load fast and maintain many of the (ever increasing) functions found on the regular version of the site. This is a very good mobile feed reading tool for mobile devices. And since it is browser based, chances are that your device will support it.

As a bonus of rediscovering Google Reader I’ve gotten the opportunity to see some of the enhanced features which have moved the service in the right direction over the last few months. This isn’t a full review of Google Reader so I’ll save those thoughts for a future post.

[tags]Social Media, RSS, Mobile, Nokia, 6620, Lite Feeds, Burning Door, Google, Google Reader, Analysis[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

I started thinking about stats again after seeing that the FeedBurner stats for TechCrunch indicated that blog eclipsing 100K readers. Interestingly enough that number has dipped to around 87K as I write this post.

First off, I want to congratulate Michael Arrington on a very successful venture. He has built that blog into social media juggernaught in just about 15 months, bypassing all the antiquated requirements of the old media world to create a valuable internet based information resource. I recommend that anyone looking to make a business out of blogging keep an eye on what they’re doing over there.

Now here’s the other side of the coin. I don’t think that TechCrunch has anywhere near 100K unique readers via their RSS feed. In fact, the number is probably lower than 50K. Those assertions have absolutely nothing to do with TechCrunch because they can’t control what FeedBurner reports as their stats. But they do exemplify the confusion caused by accepting the numbers of any given resource that publishes statistics on social media.

Lest I be chewed to pieces by the blogging wolf pack I feel that it’s important to make the following statement. I don’t think that individuals and businesses should ignore blogging, podcasting and other social media technologies due to a lack of defined stats on actual consumption. I’m a firm believer that these tools should be used in spite of the ambiguities present in statistics for these tools.

In fact, I’ll state that the worth of any social media property is best defined by the core audience of avid consumers who not only follow but also take part in the conversation. This is in contrast to the people who are subscribed but really don’t read every post. How can you tell the difference between the two? You can’t.

No matter how hard firms like FeedBurner try to deliver accurate stats, at the end of the day they are still counting only page hits and IP addresses. What do those stats tell you about the people consuming social media? Very little in my opinion. Josh Hallett may disagree. He wrote a post in 2005 about finding gems in your stats.

It is true that you can gather countries and even specific domains of large corporations from your statistics. But then what? Can a domain tell you the title of a person consuming your media? Can an IP address or country of origin tell you if the person viewing the media is someone in a position to respond intelligently? No and no.

My point here is that the majority of what people gather from stats is based on wild assumptions. So why sweat the details of stats? I say don’t sweat the small stuff in stats. And instead of focusing on IP addresses and page hits, focus on contributions and loyalty. Because the subscribers that really matter are those who contribute and are loyal to what you’re doing. Those are the subscribers who will fill your venture with interesting content and opinions. Those are the subscribers who will tell others about what you’re doing and link back to you from their sites. Those are the people who help you grow. Can you tell who those people are just from hits and IP addresses? I say no.

If you stop and think for a second it’s very easy to see how the numbers that FeedBurner reports can be inflated. Many people like me are quite mobile and as mobile people we are likely to be subscribed in more than one place, via more than one subscription tool. In fact, many of the feeds that I am subscribed to in my offline reader (which happens to be Onfolio) I’m also subscribed to in online readers such as Google Reader and Netvibes.

Speaking of Netvibes. Have you noticed that TechCrunch is a default subscription on the Netvibes start page? Does FeedBurner consider everyone who has a Netvibes account and doesn’t remove TechCrunch to be a reader? Given the popularity of Netvibes I would say that feature has the potential to skew the numbers of readers far upward. None of this is FeedBurner’s fault by the way. It’s just a fact of the slippery nature of statistics with regard to social media.

Here’s the bottom line. The old models of statistics like page hits, unique IP addresses, even subscribers simply don’t apply anymore. In a world where individuals and businesses are likely to have a web presence across multiple sites, pure numbers really don’t mean much. It’s the intangible value put forth by a resource that determines its worth.

So don’t stress stats. Instead focus on quality and community. And then you’ll have a decent shot at building the kind of value that TechCrunch has built over the past 15 months.

[tags]Social Media, TechCrunch, Stats, Statistics, FeedBurner, Analysis[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

In the comments, Josh indicated that some firms don’t have good direct channels. That’s a shame because those businesses likely find themselves losing customers on a daily basis. The comment got me to thinking that it would be interesting to compare the top computer companies on their use of Social Media to connect with their customers and investors. So I did a bit of research and here’s what I found when comparing Apple, Dell, HP and Lenovo.

The four areas of comparison are RSS, Blogs, Podcasts. Wikis, Forums.

Apple: RSS feeds galore here including news, developer information and Mac OS X downloads. They also list support article feeds here. Apple even generates a number of feeds for the iTunes music store. And you even have the option create your own. Apple is notorious for not maintaining a corporate blog. Apple maintains a discussion forum where customers can trade information on a wide variety of topics. Apple does not produce a podcast or maintain a public wiki that I know of.

Dell: Very nice RSS feed page that includes one click subscribe links for Google and My Yahoo. Categories include News, Product Information, Promotions, Blog and Forums. Dell recently started a corporate blog called Direct2Dell. Dell maintains a discussion forum for many topics including hardware, software and gaming. The forum includes the option of subscribing to topics via RSS. Dell does not produce a regular podcast although they do distribute the audio of their earnings calls via a podcast RSS feed. They do not maintain a public wiki that I know of.

HP: Corporate RSS feeds found here. Categories include Company Info, HP Labs, Business Services and Enterprise. A nice variety of blogs by executives and others can be found here. HP regularly publishes podcasts on a variety of subjects and maintains a podcast information page here. They do not maintain a public wiki or discussion forum that I know of.

Lenovo: Leonovo maintains a blog called Design Matters with plans for more to come. Only using RSS for Design Matters. No feeds for corporate information or support. Lenovo does not produce a podcast, maintain a public wiki or discussion forum that I know of.

Conclusions

HP is the hands down leader in using Social Media to create channels to connect with their customers. Their prodigious use of blogs and podcasts tells me that this a company that really understands the benefits of reaching out to your audience. Dell is the overall runner up in my opinion. They have emraced RSS in the areas of corporate information via their many news feeds and customer support via their RSS enabled forums. Their use of a podcast feed to distribute earnings calls makes great sense as well.

Apple and Lenovo pull up the rear. Apple has some very nice RSS support. And I like the use of RSS as a way to extend iTunes. But the absence of a blog or podcast just doesn’t make sense for a company that creates so much hardware and software used by podcast producers. Lenovo is way behind the other three companies profiled here. The lack of RSS support for corporate news is puzzling given the low cost and effort required to produce RSS feeds.  They are making strides with the introduction of the Design Matters blog so this situation could change at any moment.

Wiki use is non-existent as a channel for connecting with customers of these organizations. That doesn’t necessarily reflect poorly on wiki functionality. I would be interested to hear ideas on how these companies could possibly use a public wiki to collaborate or exchange information with customers.

The most important conclusion I derived from this analysis was the fact that all of these companies have taken steps to open non-traditional channels to customers by using social media. The technology is accessible enough that one or more of these companies could catch up to or maybe even surpass HP in the next few months in terms of utilization of social channels. As companies increasingly compete with each other to use social media driven channels as a differentiator for their business I believe that customers will emerge as the clear winner in the contest.

[tags]Social Media, Blogging, Podcasting, Wikis, Forums, Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Direct2Dell, Design Matters, iTunes, Analysis[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

I think that one of the limiting factors in widespread adoption of social media tools involves the ability of the everyday person to understand exactly what these new outlets are and how they can fit into their everyday lives.

So when a person says, “Read this blog.” Or when they say, “Listen to (or watch) this podcast.” What do they really mean?

It may be easier to wrap it up with a definition of what I know both blogs and podcasts are. Blogs and Podcasts are both channels whose content is delivered via the web.

A Blog is a text driven channel presented to users via the web. Blog content is presented in a stream of individual posts called ”blog posts.” Blog posts can contain photos, video and audio but ultimately bloggers use text to frame the messages delivered via their blogs. And delivery via the web means through a web page or through RSS that is stored on the web. So no matter how a person consumes a blog the web is always the central point of access for the blog content.

A Podcast is a rich media driven channel that uses RSS with enclosures as its primary vehicle for the delivery of content. Podcast content is presented in a stream of individual media files called “podcast shows.” A podcast can be supplemented by a blog whose posts parallel the podcast shows and contain additional information such as notes, links and images relevant to the podcast show.  This supplemental information is typically referred to as “show notes”.

I realize that these definitions are not the most succinct ones in the world. But I do believe they bring us closer to a better understanding of what these two social media tools can accomplish for their producers and their users.

Bloggers are delivering their primary message via text while Podcasters are delivering their primary message via audio or video files. Both are using the web with RSS as a catalyst for syndicating their content.

I’ve come to believe that the tools used to enhance blogs and podcasts are separate from the more important factors of the primary content and method of delivery. Commenting, trackbacks and tagging can be used to enhance both blog posts and show notes for podcasts, creating a more social experience for both the content producer and content consumer.

So if you’re on the social media sidelines trying to decide whether you should start with a Blog or a Podcast, ask yourself some questions. Do you prefer rich to express yourself in audio or video form? Or do you prefer writing, possibly supplemented by images. If you said yea to the former then you would probably do well with a podcast. If you chose the latter then a blog would probably be your best choice.

Either choice does not restrict you to one medium forever. I think it’s perfectly fine for a blogger to supplement their blog with the occasional “podcast show” while podcasters can (and certainly will) supplement their podcast with an occasional “blog post.” 

[tags]Social Media, Blogging, Podcasting, Analysis[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

1. Centralized RSS Feeds - A recent scare involving the country of China blocking RSS feeds from the Feedburner domain underscores the dangers of having too many feeds hosted at one source. If that source goes down, a good percentage of the world of podcasting will go down as well. If the domain is blocked then the same result occurs. Are we all putting too many eggs in one basket?

   It is worth noting that the FeedBurner service is a necessity for some people due to shifting requirements like iTunes custom podcast tags and the Yahoo! Media RSS format. Feed statistics are another reason why podcasters and bloggers alike are compelled to use the FeedBurner services. There aren’t many other options for getting reliable statistics on access to RSS feeds.

2. Lack Of A Community Directory - One of the things that keeps people from adopting podcasting as a preferred form of entertainment is the fact that many people simply can’t find shows that they like. A robust community podcast directory would go a long way towards solving this problem. The directories with commercial aspirations simply have too much of an agenda when it comes to categorizing podcasts. The agenda is based in the desire to have people utilize their sites in ways that maximize potential revenue.

   A community podcast directory could feature hundreds, or even thousands of node editors managing lists of podcasts that they are passionate about. Lists could be created by geography, culture, podcast topics and almost any other possibility you can think of. This sort of approach allows the user more options to find a path that will lead to enjoyable podcast content.

3. Misuse Of Content - There are certain individuals and companies who feel that freely available content is free to use in any way they like. Reasonable individuals understand that this is not the case. Even the ever present Creative Commons licenses in podcast feeds don’t stop someone from misusing your content. That means producers of podcasts may have to resort to methods that limit the reach of their shows in order to protect the content that they have worked very hard to create.Since directories are able to crawl the web for RSS feeds with enclosures then snatch those feeds into their ad laden directories, producers may be forced to publish multiple version of feeds.

   So the podcast producer might publish a feed with limited content that then points the subscriber to a protected feed like their iTunes podcast. This is definitely not a preferred option, but producers concerned about misuse of their content might just have to take it until the legalities of reproducing syndicated content are clarified and accepted by the larger community.

[tags] Social Media, Podcasting, FeedBurner, Community Podcast Directory, Centralized RSS, RSS, Creative Commons, Misuse Of Content[/tags]

© Robert J. Safuto - visit the Awakened Voice Blog for more great content.

A podcaster was a person who created an audio (and later video) file, uploaded the file to the web and then generated an RSS 2.0 feed with enclosures to allow podcast receiving apps (or podcatchers) to automatically download the content. The definition of the podcast itself was centered around the media file. A podcaster might ask, “Have you listened to my latest podcast?” In saying that they are obviously referring to the media file.

I believe it’s a universally agreed upon fact that a podcast isn’t really a podcast unless you have the media wrapped in an RSS 2.0 feed with enclosures. Very early in this process podcasters learned that the best way to generate an RSS 2.0 feed was to use a blogging tool. As I stated in Part I of this series, blogging tools have advanced to the point where they are the natural choice for this type of functionality.

In addition to realizing that blogging apps were a natural tool for generating their podcast RSS feeds, podcasters also realized that the post by post functionality of blogging apps was the perfect fit for them to provide a face for their podcast on the web by allowing them to chronicle each post with show notes.

Notice how I used the word podcast in the previous paragraph. I used the word not as a reference to the media file but in a more general sense. As the idea of podcasts moved from the very basic, early interpretation to a more accepted medium, things became more complicated. The idea of a podcast shifted from just the media file to the idea of a podcast as a channel. So when a podcaster refers to, “my podcast” they are referrring to more than just the media. They’re referring to the whole package of the media plus the face of their channel on the web. So their becomes a logical separation between individual podcast episodes and the overall podcast.

As time has gone on the difference between a blog and a podcast has blurred even more. Many podcasters didn’t know much about blogging at the outset of their experience with podcasting. I had maintained a blog using Blogger for four years when I started podcasting but definitely didn’t consider myself a blogger. As such I really didn’t understand some of the advanced techniques that bloggers used to get the word out on their blogs while making connections with other bloggers. Ah, but we learn.

Since early 2005 when podcasting first came into the light of the mainstream,