Category: Business

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Attensa Looks Good

smart rssMatthew Bookspan of Attensa gave me a tour of their new RSS reader right before they released it. I was particularly impressed with the ease of Outlook Sync.

My first negative thoughts were on privacy issues, but their privacy policy is pretty clear and I have no concerns there anymore.

It does beg the question, “what happens when Office 12 comes out and Outlook has RSS built in already?”

Some thoughts:

1. Attensa offers online sync ($20 a year) so that when you are not home you can check your feeds from any web connection. Mobile RSS is optional but will probably be a pretty hot ticket for them as well.

2. Is there an easy OPML export?

3. It’s Enterprise-level service so you should expect extreme stability. Compared to Bloglines, and other free services that’s pretty darn important.

4. The sync is almost real-time if you push the sync button and within 30 mins if you don’t. I think that’s pretty important.

5. The attention-stream part will be exciting to advertisers at some point I’m sure.

All in all, it was enough to induce me to download and install the demo.

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Kweschun Is a Hit

kweschun.gif

What is Kweschun? Well, even Chris Nolan didn’t say, though he’s overly tired from coding, and probably from playing around with eh list. He promises to post further soon.

My thoughts are:

  • the sign-up process is easy and the movement, on screen (Ruby?) is pretty
  • by clicking on advanced I was able to write a good description for my Kweschun
  • tags (I <3 tags)
  • allows preview because once someone answers your Kweschun, there’s no more editing
  • drag and drop answers (very cool)

Here’s a mash-up of the Canadian election, and there’s a nice sampling of user-createds on the site as well.

My only problem with Kweschun so far is that it’s not the prettiest font/design out there, but I guess that doesn’t really matter. Functionality seems on the mark and I’ll probably add Kweshun to my blog tools. Interesting concept for social users, and aren’t we all social…? I’m going to play with it more and probably post on it later this weekend on the Social Networking blog.

I did go ahead and post a question of my own. Click the screenshot to answer it. I chose to allow others to add their own answers, I may regret that (kinda like the Washington Post huh?). But, I’m a risk taker 😉

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Disclosure on Viral or WOM (word-of-mouth) Marketing Is VITAL

This should come as no shock to bloggers. We are notorious for over-disclosure, almost to the point of redundancy. But, that seems to be what people want. A new survey compiled from WOM marketing data concluded this:

Rather than being put off by the notion of a friend or relative was engaging them with a commercial message, many participants didn’t seem to care. More than three-quarters of respondents called the affiliation a “non-issue.” And, Mr. Carl found, people who knew of an agent’s commercial affiliation were more likely to register positive feelings toward both the agent and the company he or she was working for. —AdAge (emphasis is mine)

I’m really glad to see those numbers, because sometimes I get clients who suggest I promote a product w/o disclosure, and I’m just not going to do it. Now, I’m not going to tell you a product is good, even for money with my disclosure.

I have always appreciated the Paul Harvey school of advertising, that says I’m not promoting it unless I use it and enjoy it.
What blogger would risk their reputation for a check? Not many, I think…

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Google Buys Radio Firm

Adwords may soon be via radio. Today Google bought dMarc broadcasting (ironically, that’s a Yahoo! news link) for $102M up front, and a total of $1.14B over the next 3 years.

dMarc connects advertisers directly to radio stations through its automated advertising platform. The platform simplifies the sales process, scheduling, delivery and reporting of radio advertising, enabling advertisers to more efficiently purchase and track their campaigns. For broadcasters, dMarc’s technology automatically schedules and places advertising, helping to increase revenue and decrease the costs associated with processing advertisements.

In the future, Google plans to integrate dMarc technology into the Google AdWords platform, creating a new radio ad distribution channel for Google advertisers.

Since their hope is to really make Local Search a viable alternative to traditional local media, more radio and then TV strategic partnerships buyouts are ahead.
MSN and their local search, via Verizon’s SuperPages.com, will be a tough competitor, especially since Verizon already has a large customer base.
And, keep in mind that Google just partnered with CBS to launch the Google Video Store.

It’s always fascinating to watch the purchases of GYM to see what the big three has up their sleeves; ads, ads, and more ads…

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SunRocket VoIP’s Hogwash

PR and the BlogosphereSorry Steve, I just can’t get worked up about this. I appreciate a company trying to ‘touch’ the blogosphere and I am thankful there are forums to ‘get a company’s attention’ now (although I realize there are others).

I think the pay is to encourage use of the site, not necessarily to pay negatives, however since they only accept negatives, I guess that’s the end result.

I wish you hadn’t pulled out. I would have liked to have seen what you did with it.

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Perfect Example of Corporate Blogging – Negative Responses

Major Nelson (of XBox Live!) noticed XBox 360 made The Top Ten WTF Moments of 2005 list at 1UP.com. Now, most corporate PR people would:

  1. Ignore it and hope it goes away

    The problem with this method is that yes, it will eventually go away, but it won’t be forgotten. People will remember the negative comment, the lack of notice by the company and will be emboldened to make stronger statements.

    This also lends credibility to the claim. If it were false, the company would have said something, right? I mean, it’s not on a rarely-read site, 1UP is pretty well traveled.

  2. Respond Negatively

    PR people are less likely to do this than employees. When *we* are the one being called out we tend to get angry and defensive. “Well, maybe if we’d had more time to prepare, or more money, or whatever, then it would have been right.”

    Anger is ALWAYS a bad move. Righteous indignation works sometimes, but for the most part, it’s even too harsh.

Major handled it just the way I would have, by humorously pointing out that while they made a ‘bad’ list, they also made a ‘good’ list. He even refers to a geeky IRC direction in the Edit and thanks the tipster in the post.

Oops Hey look …we made number 1 in the 1up “Top Ten WTF Moments of 2005.” I guess that’s not quite the list we’d hope we’d be on. We fared a little better on CNET’S ‘Top 10 Must Have’ list (beaten by the PSP.)

I guess it’s better then not being on any lists at all, huh? We all know that the Core System, or as 1up calls it the “Tard Pack”, is not for everyone…but people must want them since they are also sold out everywhere. By the way, I forgot to mention that we have a third manufacturer (Celestica) coming online in February to help ease the availability pain. Hopefully they’ll won’t be making just Xbox 360 Core Systems. ;)

Thanks to reader Mike-E who pointed the list out

Edit: Hey guys, my comment about the core system was meant with a bit of humor, so please re-read my comment with /humor on.

He couldn’t have handled it better.

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Launch, Scalability, Web 2.0

Project Manager: So it sounds like the only thing holding us back from launching early is being ready.

I have a friend who is in the middle of launching a startup. He’s coding the site himself, and is spending his days and nights locked in his room hunched over his desk typing frenetically, furiously creating a masterpiece. He’s got drive, he’s got passion.

We talked last night about VC, that’s venture capital for my Mom’s benefit (Hi Mom), and about when, if ever, it’s needed in today’s Web 2.0 culture.

Of course, I’m a business writer/analyst so I said that many times , a large influx of cash IS necessary. I’ve seen businesses that struggle and can’t even upgrade their stinkin’ servers because they’re giving away something they can’t afford to upgrade enough to monetize. So, I think everyone should have a board member with deep pockets.

He, wisely, said his business wasn’t ready.

Here I am thinking “go, go, go” and he’s telling me he can wait a few months to test and then decide on VC. He might even bootstrap it completely.

I have a few other acquaintances that bootstrapped it and they tell me they haven’t regretted a thing.

On a related note, our podcasting startup’s site is up now. I still am not allowed to announce it, but at least for those of you following that, know were are a week or two away from a quiet launch.

We are bootstrapping it, but we’ve been blessed with some strategic partnerships that have allowed us to get majorly-expensive services for a slight percentage of ownership. I know we couldn’t have afforded it otherwise.

Shoot, I can’t even afford to travel to DEMO, even after I was given free tix. Bummer, huh???

So, as usual I’ve given you far too much info but hopefully I’ve spurred some thought for you on VC.

I don’t know how I feel, but right now I think it just depends on the situation. A startup like Digg probably could have done w/o venture, though I see how much faster they were allowed to grow due to the influx of cash.

However, something that required a major amount of employees and physical property would HAVE to have VC. Any thoughts on this?

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Calendaring and Startups

I just read (sorry can’t remember where) that Trumba got financing. I like both Trumba and Zimbra for different reasons.

I’ve demo-ed Zimbra (fabulous) and used Trumba through the free 60-day trial. Zimbra is more like a version of Outlook that’s ajax-y and utilizes tags. I really think it is the Outlook killer, unless Office 12 lives up to the hype.
Trumba is less robust, but it’s designed to be *just* a calendar. There’s no email, no tags, etc, but the calendar sharing and small size make it a great app for an organization that wants to offer their calendar to others. I mean, how great would it be if your little league, gymnastics, the Y, and maybe your church all shared their Trumba calendars online. Then you could just flip through the drop down menu that you loaded with your chosen calendars, and pick which events from each shared calendar to merge with *your* Trumba calendar.

Now, if you could import that calendar into your Zimbra or Outlook *main* calendar…

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Bloggies are almost over – Submit your weblog (and your favorites) to the contest


You only have until the 10th to submit your blog to the Bloggies. Jump on it. The prize is especially significant:

Because of the large amount of categories, I won’t personally give a award to every winner, but the Weblog of the Year owner(s) will receive 2,006 US cents (US$20.06).

Seriously though, the traffic you’ll gain is more than worth the paltry prize. Also, it’d be cool to be nominated, even if you do it yourself.

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A Corporate Blogging Policy

Are you struggling to build a blogging policy? It requires a delicate balancing act: 


It’s a big deal,’ says Lisa Poulson, managing director for Burson-Marsteller, a global public relations and public affairs firm. For example, she says, ‘If you allow employees to blog and then fire someone for blogging, you’re creating a PR disaster that didn’t need to exist.’ 

Poulson has helped dozens of companies create a corporate blogging policy. Here, she shares her strategy for coming up with a policy that works.” 

 

Assemble the blogging team. Take time to find out what you want to achieve, then write, with your team, the policy that will accomplish those objectives.