technology

Why Social Software Platforms Fail

In my role as Chief Technologist over at ArCompany, and from a love of technology in general, I test, play with, compare and recommend all sorts of different platforms, software technologies and solutions.

There’s just something about the promise and potential of data and technology – when used properly and for the benefit of customers as well as the business – that gets my motor running (sorry, Steppenwolf fans!).

An interesting side effect of this is you get to see firsthand why certain social software technologies succeed while others fail, even though on paper they may look the same.

The ironic thing is, the ones that fail could easily avoid their fate – or at least have a better chance of avoiding it – by simply being better prepared.

They Don’t Understand the Space

One of the biggest mistakes where I see companies tripping over is building a platform for a space they have no experience in. Being a great coder or developer is one thing; being a great developer or coder for a space you don’t understand is another.

With social media offering a real-time and often pervasive invitation to look at how people converse with each other, and what opportunities this offers for brands and organizations, the potential for true customer understanding is huge.

But this level of understanding comes at a price – you need to understand text analytics, ontology, and how these two interconnect when it comes to identifying emotional triggers in a conversation.

Because each social platform has its own little nuances, this task becomes even more convoluted. If you, as a software company, don”t have the personnel that understands these nuances and what that means for data analysis and filtering, your platform will be rendered ineffective.

Too many companies would rather place this important part of the puzzle in the hands of developers only, instead of partnering developers with the kind of data analysts and human language scientists that can turn a so-and-so platform into something so much better at connecting the human dots.

This immediately limits the usefulness of the platform. After all, you wouldn’t ask a learner driver to get behind the wheel of an F1 race car, would you?

They’re In It Just for the Money

Businesses need to make money. That’s a given. As I’ve said several times before when talking about influence marketing and how companies should be using it, I challenge any business to stay afloat on goodwill and social proof alone.

But here’s the thing – when you create something purely with the intent of making a lot of money, and not really caring about the quality of the product or the customers that will be using it, it will more often than not bite you in the ass.

While he receives a lot of criticism about his platform, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg always struck me as having the right mentality when it came to this issue.

We don?t build services to make money; we make money to build better services.

Fourteen words. A simple mission statement in fourteen words. Yet it’s one that has seen Facebook become – arguably – the biggest social software platform in the world.

It’s a mantra the likes of Apple and Google follow. By putting the needs of the user first, and building solutions that will actually benefit them and solve their problems, success is the organic end result.

The way Apple products seamlessly connect to each other via the iCloud platform; the way Google+ drives every Google product touch-point when it comes to interacting with Google’s customers.

It wasn’t luck or chance that saw these three companies, and others like them, make this focus on the end user the core product feature. Each company knew that by offering something that just works, and isn’t complicated or trying to be something it’s not, money would follow.

Too many social software platforms enter the space thinking that social media is the golden goose for profit. It can be; but not if the sole intent is to make money and to heck with the user experience.

They Don’t Understand Community and Content

For many startups, marketing dollars are a luxury. While some companies are fortunate to have generous investors from day one, the majority of startups, especially in the social space, don’t enjoy that umbrella.

For these companies, content and community are two of the core methodologies for getting people to know about you and/or your product, and why they should use you over your competitors who have been established for a while.

Not only that, but you’re walking the talk as well as just sharing cool soundbites. This is just as true for established companies – the social space is a hive of conversations, groups, communities, chats and more. Get the right people for that part of your company’s growth and you’re giving yourself a fighting chance of success.

Look at companies like Marketwired, with Sheldon Levine; or Salesforce MarketingCloud, with Trish Forant; or InNetwork Inc., with Daniel Hebert and Kelly Jennex. The first two companies are well-established, while InNetwork Inc. has just come onto the scene in the last few months.

All three, though, share the mindset that content and community will help them not only grow awareness of their products and what their company does, but also create a loyal user-base as well as drive innovation through the feedback from their communities, and the content that community leaves points of view on.

Too many social software platforms, unfortunately, see content and community as a burden rather than an opportunity.

So instead of hiring the right people that can truly drive this part of the strategy, they instead do nothing or, perhaps worse, hand over the reins to engineers or developers that – through no fault of their own – are clearly out of their depth.

The three companies mentioned above show what happens when your social footprint strategy is as key as the social software you’re developing.

Wake Up or Break Up

In the last 12-18 months, there’s been a lot of consolidation in the social space. Some of this is through choice; some, through financial needs.

Either way, these companies have continued to evolve and, for the most part, improve. Because they’ve continued to keep the right people; stay on the right path; and concentrating on the user experience as much as the cool development experience.

Newer platforms coming into play continue this mindset. Guys like oneQube, TrendSpottr and SqueezeCMM, for instance, place utility and solutions over features and vapourware.

They understand the marketplace: ?what works, what doesn’t, and – more importantly – why. It’s not rocket science, yet so many social platforms make it look that way.

Then again, they only have themselves to blame. A CEO of a company that’s struggling in the space right now once said to me,

It doesn’t matter what we build. Good marketers can market shit.

While that might be true, it’s also a damning statement on your goals and vision, or lack thereof. While you might be able to sell shit, customers and users that can’t use that shit will soon move elsewhere, where their needs are actually met.

Leaving you to wonder why it’s your company that’s now in the shit…

UX image: headspace

5 Influence Platforms to Watch in 2013

As we enter a new year, I traditionally start by highlighting people and news to keep an eye on in the year to come.

This year is no different, (yeah, I?m predictable that way). Previously, I shared 5 bloggers for you to watch in 2013 as well as 5 blogs to subscribe to in 2013. In today’s final look ahead, and in no particular order, here are 5 influence platforms to keep an eye on in 2013.

1. Appinions

Recently I was asked what was one of my goals in 2013, and my response was to see social scoring as a means for measuring influence disappear. A number does not reflect a person’s influence – context, relevance, action and integrity do, which is why I like the approach Appinions is taking to social influence.

Working directly with brands – they’re not interested in a consumer interface – Appinions uses over a decade of research and academia from Cornell University to connect brands to influencers through a mix of earned, paid and owned media. They also offer strategic partnerships between these brands and their clients, with nary a social score in sight.

2. TrendSpottr

I’ve already featured these guys here earlier this year, but the reason I think TrendSpottr warrants a closer look in 2013 when it comes to influence is simple – they truly have the potential to change the way content is used as a business strategy for companies of all sizes, and how that content influences your marketing strategies.

When you think of trends today, you probably think of something like what’s currently trending on Twitter. Yet that’s not a true barometer of trending – that’s simply showing what’s currently popular. For true predictive trend analysis – highlight what has the propensity to become popular based on organic and social conversations – TrendSpottr is the platform to check out.

If you as a publisher or brand can tap into what content is going to go viral – including YouTube videos – and then prepare your own content around that optimized for search, your equity as a thought leader and, by correlation, an influencer has just grown.

3. Traackr

I’ll admit, I confused Traackr with the similarly-named service Trackur, and haven’t looked at them in too much depth before because of this. My bad, since Traackr offers much promise when it comes to highlighting the kind of influencers that really matter to your brand.

Instead of pure numbers and how they might amplify a message, Traackr looks to identify influencers based on three core concepts – Reach, Resonance and Relevance. While the Reach part of the equation does take audience size into equation, it’s complemented by the Resonance (the ability to effectively engage that influencer’s community) and Relevance (how contextual that influencer is to your brand) factors, making the overall process much more targeted.

Having just written the chapter in our upcoming book on social influence marketing that looks at these factors as well as others that truly impact your company’s bottom line, I’ll be taking a much closer look at Traackr in the coming weeks for sure.

4. Wahooly

Apart from having a name that reminds me of something a drunken Scot would say in celebration, Wahooly has caught my eye for the approach they’re taking, which is more skewed towards crowdsourced influence.

Kind of like a KickStarter for influence, Wahooly tracks the conversations about startup companies in their database. The more influence your conversation effects around a chosen company, the more points you earn with that company. You can then redeem these points to enjoy “rewards” with that company, from free samples to a chat with the founders and even equity in the company.

It’s an interesting concept, although one that could easily be gamed due to the nature of online chatter and adapting conversations to suit a need. However, the ability to potentially have a say in which startups succeed is one to admire – here’s hoping they can keep the gamification aspect honest.

5. Tellagence

I’ve loved what the Tellagence guys are doing from the first moment I heard about them, mainly because these guys are doing everything right when it comes to online behaviours and understanding how influence truly works on the social web.

Geared solely for Twitter at the moment, but with more networks to follow, Tellagence looks at evolving variables in online behaviour, and how that translates into identifying an influencer at any given time. Instead of saying “Joe is influential in sports”, Tellagence can say “Joe is influential in sports this month, but Sarah will be more influential next month”.

This advanced analysis truly reflects the fluid nature of influence based on a person’s changing interests and makes Tellagence a strong player in the new wave of influence tools about to take off in 2013 and beyond.

Social Scoring is Over

Currently, when you ask someone about influence online, most people will say, “Oh, you mean companies like Klout and Kred and other social scoring platforms”, mainly because that’s all the mainstream really knows about at the minute.

The problem is, social scoring isn’t anywhere near a true measure of someone’s online influence and the impact that can create. Instead, context, situations, relevance, audience behaviour and more are the new currencies of influence.

Or, perhaps they’ve always been the currency, and the platforms such as the ones mentioned above are helping to shape how influence can truly be measured and used in a business setting where lead generation and sales are the end result.

Which, for any business, is what matters the most at the end of the day. Here’s to the future.

Note: As we gear up to the launch of our book in the near future, we’ll be hosting a series of exclusive webinars with the platforms and founders we feel are shaping the influence industry for the next 12-18 months and beyond. You can get access to these webinars, and choose which one you’d like to attend, when you pre-order our book and forward a copy of your receipt to info@influencemarketingbook.com – look forward to seeing you there.

Why Tech Already Has Women (And Why They?re Better Than Arrington)

Women in tech better than Michael Arrington

By Geoff Livingston and Danny Brown. Cross-posted on Geoff’s blog.

Contrary to Violet Blue?s disappointing stance about women in tech in 2010, this year saw a terrible new trend, the outright enforcement of the glass ceiling in technology.

First there was Michael Arrington?s terribly ignorant rant, followed verbally by the likes of Robert Scoble and Ms. Blue, as well as the visual use of boobs to sell copies of WIRED by Chris Anderson and crew.

Before opining too much, here are some statistics for you (the first three were originally cited by Allyson Kapin in F@st Company):

Women-run tech startups generate more revenue per invested capital and fail less then those led by men, according to New York Entrepreneur Week.

“Companies, including information technology, with the highest percentages of women board directors outperformed those with the least by 66%,” according to research by Catalyst.

“Gender diversity [is] particularly valuable where innovation is key,” according to studies by Illuminate Ventures.

Women own 40% of private businesses in the U.S. (including ? of Geoff?s company Zoetica).

Generally women outpace men in their use of social technologies. For example, 10% of women use Twitter, while only 7% of men do.

The European Center for Women and Technology is a perfect example of women leading the way in innovation in the technology field.

Microsoft Canada is recognizing women?s importance in technology with Canada-wide conferences advancing women in technology and their roles within companies.

In spite of the statistical advantages of women in tech, negative trends towards male speakers and executive leadership continue. Worse, reading this negative enforcement of sexism in tech has been a damn shame.

Working with great women in tech — Susan Murphy, Beth Kanter, Kami Huyse, Allyson Kapin, Amber MacArthur, Sarah Prevette, Lisa Kalandjian and Cali Lewis to name a few this year — has been a phenomenal experience for both of us, and they demonstrate every day how brilliant and capable they are.

In fact, these women are better than the likes of Arrington and crew, because they would never allow themselves to demean an entire race, gender or religious sect of people on the Internet. Even if they had such feelings (which we doubt), they would rise above this kind of baseless attack to offer solutions.

Then again, perhaps that shouldn?t come across as too surprising. TechCrunch is hardly the purveyor of common sense and good ?fights,? as they?ve shown continuously in the past with their attacks on PR, CEO?s, bloggers — basically anyone who doesn?t bow to Arrington?s missives.

There are certainly issues for women, as pointed out by Allyson Kapin in the above articles as well as many other women who discuss this issue. Men have a role in it, too, as evidenced by this year?s newest glass blowing experiences. Moving forward, men need to be more active about providing solutions to create a more level playing field. For example:

Actively support women in business, both through choices of partners, vendors and employees, and in promotion.

Support men and women trying to help women. Whether it?s Girls, Inc., supporting female entrepreneurs abroad, efforts to highlight Women Who Tech, or a host of other efforts, support women.

Stop trashing and reacting to women trying to succeed. Rather than get into throw downs about how women create their own problems in tech — or worse revert to past bad practices like conferences for men — work to create an inclusive balanced playing field for every human being.

If you are a man and you don?t like these types of actions against women — posts, magazine articles, speaking rosters — say something. When both genders actively voice dissatisfaction in this matter, it becomes a powerful statement.

Instead of supporting old structures for speaking — such as soliciting speaking submissions from chest beating male A-Listers — build an editorial mission for the conference, and seek out great male and female speakers beyond the comfortable and immediate social network.

Stop thinking with the mindset that ?women? and ?success? are two words that — together — are news, and start thinking it?s the norm.

Think of the challenges your great-grandmother, grandmother and (possibly) your mother went through to be someone. Then ask if you?d want that still, and add your wife or daughter into the mix. Would you want them to be viewed as ?unique? because of their industry choice? And that?s ?unique? in a negative way, not in a good one-of-a-kind way.

To be fair, this isn?t an isolated issue with the technology sector. Think of a lot of industries, and you?ll find that women are often viewed as second-best to their male counterparts. They may have won the vote but it?s clear that women still trail men when it comes to advancement, recognition and financial reward compared to their male peers in too many industries.

But it?s even more evident in the technology sector, where too many geek overlords want to keep the sandpit for themselves, and maybe the women can solder a chip or connect a conference call between the male kingfishers.

And it?s just plain stupid. For every Michael Arrington there?s a Bindi Karia; for every Robert Scoble, there?s a Gina Trapani; for every Chris Anderson there?s a Stephanie Agresta. And with new innovators being sponsored to come through from India, and developing countries making women and technology one of their key focuses, these names (and others like them) will only be added to.

Frankly, an argument can be made that most of the modern gender imbalance issues are rooted in men not consciously looking for great women, as opposed to them not existing. 2011 can be a year where forward progress can be made — by both women and men. Let?s hope the community joins together in working towards that goal.

Given how great women are in business, why wouldn?t you?

Geoff Livingston is the co-founder of Zoetica, serving nonprofits and socially conscious companies with top-tier, word-of-mouth communication services. A social change agent, Geoff is the author of Now Is Gone and the forthcoming book Welcome to the Fifth Estate.

“UPDATE: Robert Scoble believes our comments are taken out of context, and has offered this Cincast on his views about women in tech. We appreciate Mr. Scoble’s participation in this important topic, and wish to encourage all parties to discuss the matter.”

“UPDATE: Robert Scoble has shared his thoughts on Women in Tech over at Geoff’s blog. You can view his take here.”

image: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Ucubd Offers Cool Mashup Options for Bloggers

I love hearing about cool new start-ups, and Ucubd might be one of my favourites, at least as much as fun factor goes.

Standing for “you cubed”, Ucubd is (in their own words) “a mashup platform that allows bloggers and other web publishers to combine popular social media content from YouTube, Twitter, Amazon and others and embed these mashups on their sites or link to them on our site.”

So, basically, Ucubd creates a fun info box based on the information you give it.

How It Works

Ucubd is based around embed codes (like those found on YouTube and Hulu), which you would normally use to embed your favourite video on your blog, website or anywhere that accepts HTML code.

The platform then looks at the video and produces relevant content to it. This could be tweets based around a keyword, or products on Amazon using the same formula.

Ucubd then places a box next to the video with that information. So, for example, you get the latest trailer for The Expendables movie, and you’ll have tweets about all the buzz surrounding this cool-looking guy flick.

Or, you get a video about the World Cup winners history, and you see products like books, tee shirts, footballs and more on sale at Amazon.

There are also templates for Hulu and Flickr, and the option to use Flash and Silverlight in your mash-ups (depending on the template used).

Once you create your mash-up, you can then customize the theme to suit your blog or site; get embed codes or links for blogs, websites or forums; and share via your social networks.

Ucubd and the Semantic Web

One of the cool features about Ucubd is its tie-in to the semantic web.

By tying relevant products and platforms together, Ucubd is part of the growing number of technologies that doesn’t just want to rely on simple keyword searches, but how these keywords are being used by communities and socially connected profiles.

So, in essence, you could make a mash-up, and if you’re logged in via the upcoming Facebook Connect option, similar mash-ups by your friends might pop up on your radar.

You could then feasibly find partners to work with on a collaborated project; or find like-minded people that you could exchange ideas with; or simply find new mash-ups and use them to expand your own.

The technology isn’t perfect. When I tried to make some mash-ups, Ucubd simply used the first word of the YouTube video I selected, and as you can imagine, the results were pretty funky! But, you can define what keywords are used, so this isn’t too much of an issue.

Additionally, the website embed code seems to open up your mash-up on the Ucubd website – it’d be much better to keep on your own site, for obvious reasons (the HTML-only code is ideal for blog sidebars).

The templates are also a little limited at the minute, being restricted to tweets and Amazon products that tie-in with your embed code.

However, these are minor quibbles on a new platform. The idea behind it is fun and solid, and as much as you could make countless fun mash-ups, there could also be a great business use for something like Ucubd (think presentations or after-show events).

Here’s a mash-up of my TEDx talk. What do you think – something that bloggers could find useful?

Ten for 10 in 2010 – Technology

iScream iNano - ipod series As we approach the end of the year, I thought it might be fun to share Ten for 10 in 2010 ? a list of people, blogs, apps, platforms and more that I think you might enjoy checking out in 2010.

These are just personal takes and, as with any list, this is subjective so please feel free to leave your own thoughts in the comments after the post.

Yesterday I looked at blogs. This time around it’s technology – I hope you enjoy.

HTML 5. The Holy Grail for any web technology has been to offer true collaboration between desktop and cloud services. With HTML 5, 2010 might just be the year it finally happens. By removing the need for plug-in Internet applications like Adobe Flash and Javascript, and introducing the semantic web and improved media use, HTML 5 could be a game changer.
Smartphones. With Apple’s iPhone continuing to grow its loyal fanbase and RIM’s BlackBerry finally breaking away from its business-only audience, 2010 promises to be the year the Smartphone finally takes the mainstream. With numerous Android-powered handsets hitting the market and Google itself selling handsets directly, the mobile market is set to explode once more.
Microsoft Office 2010. Microsoft has found itself floundering recently, with Macs stealing thunder on the computer front and Firefox and Google Chrome enjoying success on the web browser front. But Microsoft is hitting back. 2009 saw a great launch for Bing and Windows 7, and Microsoft Office 2010 is set to continue this revival of fortunes. With web versions of its key desktop appliances, threaded emails and Wave-like collaboration, Office 2010 promises much and actually looks like it could deliver.
Barnes and Noble Nook. The Kindle may be taking the tech hearts along with Sony’s eReader, but don’t discount the Nook from book retailer Barnes and Noble. A colour touch screen and virtual keyboard is cool, but the real trick is LendMe – now you can lend books to other devices like iPods, computers and smartphones. Let’s see you do that, Kindle!
Project Natal. This might slip to 2011, but it’s just too damn sexy not to feature! Microsoft’s foray into controllerless video games, Project Natal looks set to redefine how we play games forever. Depth sensor, directional microphones, camera to gauage movement – if you’re a gamer and Project Natal doesn’t excite you, you may want to go back to playing cards.
Microsoft Surface. Having played with this at the recent launch of the new Microsoft Canada portal, this was nothing short of stunning. If you think touch-screen computers are cool now, wait until you get a load of?Microsoft Surface . Manipulate, design, download, upload, communicate, share and more – this will blow your mind.
OLED Televisions. If you think today’s LCD High-Definition TV’s are cool, then you’ll love the next generation. OLED televisons are thinner, better, more energy efficient, have sharper images, can connect effortlessly to the web and much more. The cost is higher than LCD television’s but the difference is like night and day.
Foursquare. Coming from out of nowhere and taking the mobile world by storm, Foursquare is enjoying a great uptake in 2009 and looks set to explode in 2010. With plans to “be everywhere” coming from the Foursquare office itself, expect this mobile app to become the next Facebook and Twitter and see marketers look at how they can leverage the audience that’s in their neighbourhoods.
Google Chrome OS. While Internet 8, Windows 7 and Bing have seen Microsoft resurgent in the home computer market, it may be short-lived if Google Chrome OS has anything to do with it. Built around their Chrome web browser, Chrome OS looks set to take desktop computing to the web and make it as user-friendly as possible. Should be an interesting battle.
3D Television. James Cameron’s Avatar shows that, done properly, 3D can be exciting and involving without being intrusive. With OLED sets offering improved performance and Sony leading the way, 3D television could be the next contender in 2010. And no, you won’t need those crazy green and red glasses.

So that?s the second part of Ten for 10 in 2010. Some of the products mentioned here are out, or close to being out, while others are further down the line. Some may succeed; some may fail miserably. Either way, I think they offer us some cool times ahead. And please, feel free to leave your own views on what’s ahead next year in the comments.

Hope you join me tomorrow when I have the first guest blogger, UK social media maven Shannon Boudjema, who’ll take a look back at 2009 and what she hopes for in 2010.

Disclaimer – Microsoft is a client of Maritz Canada, yet the views about the products mentioned here are mine alone.

photo credit: Themis was here