Digital Media Diva by Lynne d Johnson

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Technology: I'm Wondering Why Y! Mash

Whoa, I'm a little concerned right now. Today I received an e-mail that a friend created a profile for me on a new social networking service. The new service is Yahoo's attempt at entering the MySpace and Facebook space, although it isn't the company's first. You do remember Yahoo! 360 don't you?

Well the new service, Y! Mash, allows others to create profile pages for you that you then either approve, edit, or delete. And that's the first reason I'm concerned. Do you really want a page sitting out there with your name on it, that you didn't create yourself? And how long does the page stay up, if you don't approve it? If you don't approve the profile, then you don't get to click around and see much of the other features.

The other features, are a mashup of sorts, just as the network's moniker insinuates. There's a little bit wicki -- where you can decide whether others can edit content about you and add modules for you, and they can decide whether you can do the same for them in return. Then there's a little bit Facebook -- where you litter your profile with modules. There's also something called "Pulse," that acts a lot more like Facebook's newsfeed -- alerting you on updates made by your friends to their pages -- than it does Plaxo Pulse, which creates a Web presence or lifelog, by allowing you to bring in feeds from multiple services that you use, to share with contacts in your address book. The Mash Blog has the rest of the lowdown on the service, which is still in beta on an invite only basis.

I, like many others I'd imagine, am none to keen on creating yet another Web profile, especially not one that appears to be more socially than business-or-career focused. (In that regard I'm an evangelist for social network portability.) Right now I'm not seeing a real branding benefit here either, but I do see where it could be fun. I think perhaps teenagers and college students have time for fun, but businesspeople on the other hand, need some other sort of social networking tool. And though I don't want too be especially harsh on the service before it officially launches, I'm not betting that it's meant to be more than what it currently appears to be.

10:58 am | 0 recommendations | 12 comments

Customer Service: Bose Gets It Right

Several months ago, I wrote about how Bose's advertising campaign for the TriPort in-ear headphones prompted me to purchase them. And it wasn't just your average advertising either. During the 2006 Holiday season, anyone who traveled in New York saw these ads everywhere.

I felt I made an excellent purchase. The sound quality, though not perfect, was fine for my iPod. It was definitely better than the Apple buds that ship with iPods. There was only one problem though. The little rubber tips that help the headphones fit snugly in your ears, kept falling off every time they weren't on my ears. It was a frustrating experience, as they often fell onto the ground and were too dirty to put back into my ears. Apparently I wasn't alone in thinking this.

A couple of weeks ago, I received three sets -- in sizes small, medium, and large -- of new rubber tips from Bose, with a letter that read:

Dear Bose Customer:

We have received feedback from some customers indicating that under certain conditions, the silicone ear tips originally provided with the Bose in-ear headphones do not remain securely attached to the headphones. We've taken this feedback seriously and have designed new ear tips, which should remain more firmly in place. A complete set of these new ear tips are in this package along with instructions to help you select the proper ear tip size and obtain the best fit. They are being sent to you at no cost.

Additionally, later this summer, we will ship you our new Bose stability enhancement accessories, also at no cost to you. These accessories include a lanyard and a clothing clip that are designed to help the headphones stay more securely in place during certain activities such as exercise. These stability accessories are designed for use with Bose in-ear headphones, including those already purchased.

If you have any questions about this information, contact us at 1-800-819-7032.

Your satisfaction is out top priority, and we appreciate your support of Bose products. We hope your Bose in-ear headphones continue to provide you many years of enjoyable listening.

Sincerely yours,

Bose Corporation
G. Sean Garrett
General Manager

I still haven't received those additional accessories yet, but don't you just love it when companies listen to their customers?

09:43 pm | 0 recommendations | 10 comments

Tech Monday: How Apple Sold A Million iPhones

It's not rocket science. We learned a valuable lesson from Steve Jobs in recent weeks. If a product isn't selling so well, and its cost seems to be its main prohibitor -- then, slash it's price significantly. That's exactly what Apple did, dropped the 8GB iPhone to $399, and gave $100 store credit to the crybabies who were early adopters and originally paid $599 for the device.

I must confess, initially we didn't think the iPhone would hold up to its predecessor's numbers. But by all accounts, it has not only exceeded expectations, but surpassed early sales activity of the original iPod. Go figure.

Of course the slashed prices made a major impact. But we also have to look at the third-party unlock software now out on the market, like iPhoneSimFree and iPhone Worldwide Unlock among others, that enables an iPhone purchaser who doesn't have AT&T service to swap out the AT&T sims card for their own carrier's. And while these are the best known in the retail sphere, numerous hacks for unlocking iPhones have been around on the Internets for a while now. Some work, some don't, and some don't even survive iPhone software upgrades--which often turn the unlock feature off.

Regardless, the iPhone is experiencing a healthy success. And while Apple may not have become the goliath of desktops and laptops, or even software, it's proving that handheld entertainment and communications devices is quickly becoming its forte. We'll just forget about its earlier flop that was the Newton, a personal favorite of mine. Looking back on the device now though, it was ahead of its time and has definitely become the blueprint for all PDAs and Smartphones ever since. And let's not forget how the company changed the music game either.

Sure, it may be Jobs' smoke and mirrors to some, but the truth is, the more the company innovates, the more successful it becomes. And the takeaway from that one is -- never let your company become a stalemate, otherwise new players will take your position. Apple may have written the book on that one, but it's also the sort of advice that companies like Google and Amazon hold to their core.

06:00 pm | 0 recommendations | 2 comments

Tech Monday: New Media News Roundup

• New York City Launches 9/11 Health Website
  New York City has launched a 9/11 Health Website, which not only has the city owning up to the fact that 9/11 has contributed greatly to the poor health of thousands of its inhabitants, but it also works the other side of the fence and does the clean up act and its part for social responsibility by providing beneficial resources.
• Viral Campaigns Waste Marketers’ Time
  The recent JupiterResearch report “Viral Marketing: Bringing the Message to the Masses,” states that only 15% of viral campaigns launched within the last year have proven successful. Funny thing is, it's not that viral campaigns don't work, it's that marketers don't fully understand their audiences or what they're doing.
• Bionic Woman Fan Community Launches on Ning
  After watching an Amazon.com free first episode of the NBC's Bionic Woman, a fan decided to enlist the power of community and create a social network on ning dedicated to the show. So far only the creator of the network, myself, and the series' cast are members, but hey you've got to love the power of the Web for even making this possible.
• Social Networking Sites Don't Deepen Friendships
  Dr. Will Reader at Sheffield Hallam University and his team found that although the sites (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo) allowed contact with hundreds of acquaintances, as with conventional friendship networks, people tend to have around 5 close friends. Also, 90% of contacts that the subjects regarded as close friends were people they had met face to face.
• Frogify Your Mobile Phone
  Frog is like the iGoogle or MyYahoo homepage for mobile phones. It's a free set up that enables you to easily access your most used Web services simply from one home page. It's better than creating a Favorites list, and it's definitly made my mobile surfing a lot easier.
• YPulse Tween Mashup Comes to New York
  The Mashup conference, produced by Ypulse.com in partnership with Modern Media, helps media and marketing professionals understand how to reach tweens using technology in a multi-platform world. Kyra E. Reppen, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Nickelodeon MTVN Kids and Family Group's Neopets will provide the opening keynote focused on the original youth-oriented virtual world, while Renee Hobbs, Professor of Communication and Director, Media Education Lab, Temple University, will present the luncheon address focusing on MyPopStudio.com, a media literacy project for girls. Early adopter registration open until September 15.

Do you have news tips or suggestions for New Media News Roundup, email: Lynne.

04:13 am | 0 recommendations | 1 comment

Technology: Could Livecasting Become A New Advertising Model?

For months now I've had friends tweet on Twitter about watching Justin.tv, a live video streaming network founded by Justin Kan, who started the service by wearing a webcam attached to his cap 24 hours a day, every day. That was back in March 2007. Since then, Justin has garnered media attention and has grown the network to about 30 channels of livecasting entertainment, featuring 30 different personalities.

It's about 3:46 am ET right now and I'm logged onto, "24/7 with Ronald Lewis," where a topless African-American man is sitting near his bed with a boom microphone in hand, with a microphone filter affixed to the microphone as if he's in a recording studio. He appears to be viewing a computer screen, and after a short while of looking at the chat window on his live stream page I realize that's exactly what he's doing -- because he's seductively speaking into the microphone, responding to the comments being posted in the chat.

I've got an excuse for watching this though, I'm a terrible insomniac. I don't know what to say about the 1,707 users that are currently logged into Justin.tv or the five to ten consistent chatterers watching Ronald's channel. I lost my original amusement for the livecast a while ago, but I'm still sitting here with it open trying to figure out the possible business implications.

Sure there are ads to be interspersed, or pre-rolled within these videos, but imagine, if you will, Victoria's Secret 24/7. Picture it: a bevy of models prancing up-and-down the stage, all day and all night. Each one stopping at the end of the stage, and peering into the webcam to talk about what they're wearing, and to interact with customers who are watching and chatting. There'd be sponsors of course, but I envision another layer as well. What about shopping? A Victoria's Secret shopping experience could be embedded onto the Web page where the video and chat are housed, with customers being enticed to click as each new outfit or item appears in the live video. The shopping experience would contain search functionality so that a customer could look up whichever item the current model is wearing and talking about.

It might sound like a crazy idea. The programming and production would be major tasks. And where would VS get all of those models from anyway? Yeah, I know I'm coming at this with a lack of sleep, and Ronald Lewis now has his shirt on again. But if Victoria's Secret does this -- I want my consulting fee.

05:01 pm | 0 recommendations | 3 comments

Web: Can A Social Network Save Business 2.0?

Yesterday, I completely missed the news. The New York Times's Brad Stone wrote about, "Ad Downtown Threatening the Survival of Business 2.0." Forbes Brian Caulfield had even covered the impending demise of the publication, "Bye-Bye, Business 2.0."

And while I was sleeping on the development of this story, I even missed that a faithful reader, Colin Carmichael, had started a Facebook group called, "I read Business2.0 - and I want to keep reading!" The magazine's Editor in Chief Josh Quittner, who has been trying to secure private investors to keep the magazine afloat has even joined the group, along with various Web 2.0 luminaries, like Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist; Matt Cohler, VP-strategy at Facebook, and others as reported by Advertising Age in "Can Fans Save Business 2.0?"

Carmichael just launched the Facebook group yesterday, and it has already escalated to 281 members.

Yet, as the Advertising Age article reports, fans have been known to save television shows on the Internet -- via blogs, forums, and online positions, but bringing this method to the print media is an entirely different thing.

The power of social networking, though, can't be denied. Sites like MySpace and YouTube have broken music artists' careers, effectively launched products into the marketplace, and have even affected the 2008 Presidential Campaign -- just look no further than sites like techPresident, a group blog that covers how the 2008 presidential candidates are using the Web, and vice versa, how content generated by voters is affecting the campaign.

It's definitely a telltale sign about what the future of media looks like. Not that I think print will cease to exist, in fact I'm rallying against that, but the ways in which we receive our news will be more converged. And though I know that was promised in good 'ole Web 1.0, the reality is here now.

For instance, Red Herring was completely dead in 2003, but was later resurrected by publisher Alex Vieux and a group of investors. Now led editorially by Joel Dreyfuss, the magazine has a heavy focus on its Web content, particularly its blogs, and it offers an interactive digital version of the magazine.

Using Red Herring as a case study, we could say that it's possible that if enough people want something, they'll get that something. So maybe Time won't save Business 2.0, but if the enthusiasm and evangelism of the Facebook group ends up wielding any real powers, then maybe someone, somewhere, with a fat bankroll will come to save the day.

06:42 pm | 0 recommendations | 1 comment

Web: Why Your Web Marketing Strategy Needs A Widget

The thing about Web 2.0 is that it keeps us on our toes, constantly changing the game. For instance, whoever thought that Travelocity's Roaming Gnome would need a MySpace profile page or that there'd be a presidential debates channel on YouTube or that JetBlue Airways could become your Twitter friend?

Honestly, there are far too many social networking sites on the Internets nowadays for any one company trying to build a brand to keep up. First you had to have Web video as part of your online marketing strategy, then you had to plug into social networks. Now the latest thing you must have, is a widget.

Back in October, Frank Gruber of the blog Somewhat Frank wrote an interesting entry, where he explained:

"A widget is a portable chunk of code that can be installed and executed within any separate html-based web page. A widget can be created for just about every site or service possible thus allowing users to pull it into personalized homepages (Netvibes, Spotback and Pageflakes), blogs (WordPress and Typepad) or other social website pages (AIM Pages, TagWorld and MySpace). "

So why does your business need one? Gruber discusses Widgets as a Web 2.0 tool, but after visiting last week's Widgetcon, an event expressly focused on widget marketing, Daniela Capistrano wrote about widgets as a Web 3.0 concept.

As page views are nearly out the door already and clickthroughs are likely not very far behind them, consumers are interacting with brands in entirely different ways than ever before.

Capistrano had this to say:

"Welcome to the Me2 Generation aka Web 3.0. It is their world, we just live in it. And as precious as your content may be to you, ultimately it means little to them if they are unable to interact with it, share it, and personalize it...

Have you made it possible for your content to live in the worlds that are important to your audiences?

We are not serving content to a passive generation anymore, satiated with just digesting our messages without any opportunity for interaction. We are dealing right now with an active generation, and we should be excited about that, because it opens avenues for not only boring-but-necessary things (like new methods of monetization) but for new ways of distributing truly creative content to passionate, informed, and engaged audiences. A true brand experience should be able to thrive in all sorts of environments."

Now that's not really her talking, it's more or less the overall message she took away from the conference. What she really had to say was this:

"I understand the urgency to monetize, to track, to measure, to control. But in the scramble to place a dollar value on every eyeball we just might be losing track of the real point - to strengthen the bonds between our content and our audience. Providing users with the tools to carry on the brand experience in useful and engaging ways is essential to remaining culturally relevant. A widget should not be seen as just a method of repackaging or recycling your existing content, nor as just a tool to create compelling experiences that inspire a viral sharing effect. I don’t believe there is a “super widget” that will save your company."

Like Capistrano, I've seen widgets used really well in teen marketing. It works because it enables younger generations to pimp out their profile pages on social networking sites, their blogs, or their signatures in HTML-based e-mail or forums. In fact I've even used a few widgets myself, to port my content from one site to another. Mostly, I use widgets as gadgets in my Mac OS on my computer. They provide quicker methods of my accessing some of my Web-related applications.

Yet it wasn't until I heard that Widgetbox created a set of widgets for Forbes.com that I started thinking about the potential for widgets beyond entertainment content and social networking.

But it also made me realize that there is the potential to overdo a widget marketing strategy. I'm not saying that Forbes has. In fact, they've created very useful widgets for their users. But what I mean is, companies could get it wrong. Companies that don't really need them may create them just because of the thinking that widgets are the next killer app -- that widgets are better than advertising.

The truth is, in this new age, the name of the game is engagement. So it's not really a banner vs. widget argument here. What it is though, is a time to be creative about your brand and about how you market your brand. What points of engagement work best for your constituency? If you're marketing to 65 year olds, maybe widgets won't matter much.

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Marketing: How to Market to Tweens and Teens

The young ones are a difficult crowd. They're not known for responding to traditional forms of advertising and marketing. They're not known for consuming traditional forms of media and entertainment. They use P2P networks, and listen to their music and watch their TV and films on the Web. They even stay in touch with friends and make new ones there too. A difficult nut to crack for businesses who want to get them to purchase their wares and use their services.

The truth is, teens are a lot less connected then they were back in your day. What I mean by less connected, is that they're a lot less connected to adults. Studies reveal that this demographic spends less time with adults overall, and its primarily because the adults in their lives have enabled them with devices -- handheld gaming consoles, MP3 players, cell phones, and the like -- that keep them isolated.

So how do you reach them? And that's assuming you want to reach them. I'm betting that you do, because their spending power is huge and it's growing -- fast. According to The Teens Market in the U.S., a report from market research publisher Packaged Facts in June, the market for products bought by and for the 25.6-million-member teen market will experience a slight growth spurt, increasing from $189.7 billion in 2006 to $208.7 billion in 2011, despite an estimated 3% decline in the 12- to 17-year-old population in that same period.

With these numbers in mind, next week in San Francisco there'll be an entire conference that aims to helping brands better understand and reach that huge, elusive market. Mashup 2007, the brainchild of Anastasia Goodstein, author of Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens are Really Doing Online, and founder of YPulse, an independent blog for teen/youth media and marketing professionals providing news, commentary and resources on commercial teen media, takes place at Hotel Nikko San Francisco, July 16 - 17.

"The 2007 Ypulse Mashup is the direct result of 3+ years of me blogging about youth culture daily for media and marketing professionals at Ypulse.com. It's an opportunity for both longtime readers as well as new readers to meet each other and for topics discussed on the blog to come alive with the top thought leaders in the youth and technology space," says Goodstein.

Fast Company readers can register with the code FSTCMP for a 10% discount.

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Internet/Web: The Weekend I Got Pownced

This weekend I was whisked into the thrilling world of a private beta launch of a new Web 2.0 site, started by Digg founder Kevin Rose. A select few had invites, and they used a pay-it-forward system for sharing entry into Pownce. I got mine from Mashable.

Rose's new community site features one-on-one and group communication with friends, as well as file and event sharing, and challenges other microblogging services like Twitter and Jaiku.

I'm not certain about the benefits of Pownce just yet. It's visually appealing and has a great user interface, but for many who already use social networks, adding just one more will become overkill. Whether it can kill Twitter is still to be seen. Twitter, founded by Evan Williams, founder of Blogger and Odeo, already has a headstart with applications -- such as plugins in Facebook, Firefox, and desktop applications. Besides Twitter is mobile reader, through both text messaging and a simple mobile browser interface. Yet, that Pownce enables file sharing is definitely a major advantage. For branders and marketers, especially those of gadgets and tech products, both already have the built in audience of early adopters that you want to reach.

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch did a feature by feature analysis yesterday on his site that you can read here. In his review, Arrington says:

"Frankly, unless you really like the mobile aspect of Twitter, there isn’t a whole lot of difference between the two services. I expect Twitter will add most of the Pownce features in the short term anyway. And many of the unique features of Pownce - like file sharing, group messaging, etc., are handled pretty well already by…email. Gmail, for example, lets users send files of up to 20 MB. Pownce lets you send up to 10 MB files, unless you pay for a pro account (then the limit is 100 MB). And email is certainly very useful for private and group messaging.

People use Twitter to quickly tell the world (or at least the people who care) what they are up to and what they are looking at on the web. Like blogging, it’s a one-to-many application that works very well. Twitter does that perfectly, and does little else. Pownce does it, too, but all the other features are really just distractions."

As expected in beta, Pownce has been choking a lot lately. Most likely it's growing faster than expected and the system wasn't yet quite ready. In fact, that might be the only thing that stops me from testing it out and figuring out whether it's a better communications tool than the umpteen others I use or not. From the point of registration, I was quickly setting up, adding friends and sharing messages about the site's advantages and disadvantages. We were even discussing Pownce on Twitter. But once I had problems getting into the site and became inundated with email notifications of all of my friends' actions (I have since turned them off), it suddenly became yesterday's news. Just like that.

07:34 pm | 0 recommendations | 2 comments

The Music Industry: No Longer a One Trick Pony

There was a time when all a record label had to worry about was making hits. Good hits paved the road to successful albums, and then the label got paid--really paid. As holder of the majority of the publishing rights of music artists' songs, label executives where in a perpetual phase of not having to think about how to make money. But that was then, and this is now.

Now is the time when the recording industry is truly embattled. With CD sales on the costant decline and the surge in digital musical sales making very little impact on the overall bottom line, the recording industry could use a saviour.

The savior du jour happens to be Chris Lighty, CEO of talent management firm Violatar, and most notably, manager of superstar rapper 50 Cent. As reported in the Wall Street Journal today, later this month Lighty goes into business with Warner Music Group to launch Brand Asset Group, a consulting firm that will aid record labels in structuring product endorsement and equity deals--like the ones Lighty brokered for 50 Cent with Mark Ecko Enterprises for a clothing line and with Vitamin Water for the Formula 50 sports drink. The money an artist made on branding, touring, and licensing deals normally went to the artist and his management team, similar to the way it works with an athlete. But now, companies like the one Mr. Lighty proposes, will cut record labels in on a piece of the action.

"If the next 50 Cent comes along and the label that signs him doesn't get a part of all that brand extension, shame on them," Mr. Lighty recently told Samantha Marshall of Crain's New York Business.

Lighty isn't the only one hoping to change the recording industry into the music industry. Mark Pitts, president of urban music at Zomba Label Group, is always thinking about how his artist's music will fit into advertisers' youth marketing plans. Warner Music Group is also calling itself a music-based content company nowadays, with plans on foraying into film and video production. Other labels are venturing into network series and reality shows based on their artists. Long gone are the days of being hitmakers. Labels are in the business of entertainment, where today entertainment means making a hit that works well for radio and the club, as well as for ringtones. It also means making videos not only for MTV and BET, but for the YouTube and MySpace generation as well. What it mostly means, is thinking about new and novel ways of doing business and creating excitement about an artist.

It's sort of like the deal Prince brokered with Verizon Wireless recently. The artist's new single "Guitar," from his upcoming album Planet Earth was made available for free download on V CAST, as a direct-to-mobile release for anyone who participates in an online demo of Verizon's new Song ID music identification service. This was weeks before the single was available on radio and before the album picked up Columbia as a distribution partner, as reported in Billboard.

Related Links:
Why the Music Industry Needs A Makeover
Branding the Music Artist
The Long Tail of Music
Music Marketing 2.0
The Future of Music
Way Behind the Music