Thinking about Disruptive Innovation?

Posted on | May 13, 2010 | 3 Comments

Very impressive presentation by Frog Design regarding innovation.

My favourite aspects of their presentation is their take on types of Innovation:

Disruptive Innovation?

Most businesses try to be disruptive innovators but are either just catching up with their competitors i.e. evolving or growing as a company hence just expanding. Truly disruptive innovation requires thinking out of the box, which has it’s own challenges but also potentially opens new doors.

Too many features?

Also, during various parts of the presentation it explains that many companies are knowingly or unknowingly involved in feature creep, although the product or service is truly innovative when one can’t remove anything else from it, to improve it’s performance. So it’s not about more cool stuff, it’s actually about few things which work perfectly.

Why Ning’s Business model doesn’t make sense!

Posted on | April 16, 2010 | 8 Comments

Recently found out that Ning is cutting is costs inorder to be more competitive , firing 40% of it’s staff. Having run a social networking software company myself. I ‘m well aware of the challenges and opportunities in running a social media shop.

Apart from it’s advertisement supported business model, one of the principle reasons why Ning isn’t making as much money as it should is the chicken and egg situtation they find themselves in. If you give a highly valuable item i.e. the software, to customers for free, there is a good chance that they underestimate it’s power and not fully utilise it. Equally if the company decides to charge for templated social networking service, especially if it’s around $75 per month i.e. $900/year, users begin to question it’s value. Question like, “Should we just get a self hosted social media site instead?” “How do we extend the social network and innovate when it gets bigger” “What if our user’s don’t like Ning’s usability” etc

Ning deploys a tried and tested Software as a Service (SaaS) business model, although we shouldn’t forget SaaS works best for internal communication platforms for example in the case of Basecamp, SalesForce etc. There are examples of blogging software like WordPress or several widget based companies which have done exceptionally well using SaaS, although they are different. WordPress allows SaaS on WordPress.com but also has the option to download the entire software on WordPress.org, where bulk of the goodwill and open source innovation happens. Equally widget based companies are primarily slotting into a bigger web presence i.e. a website, social network etc and isn’t a standalone solution.

In my opinion it’s impossible to find a successful standalone SaaS customer-facing software, without a concrete open source offering.

[Pic] Becoming a Fan on Facebook? :)

Posted on | February 25, 2010 | No Comments

Think this is really funny:

Source: Harry Sethi

Videos interviews with recruitment experts at #TruLondon

Posted on | February 22, 2010 | No Comments

I had some really interesting conversations with people at #TruLondon unfortunately not all videos came out. Technology fail! Never the less some really interesting content  available below.

Social Sourcing and Future of Blogging

SourcerSrini mentions how he is uses social media for sourcing candidates.
PunkRockHR good insight on the future of blogging.

Innovative startup in Recruitment

@James_Mayes talks about innovative stuff they are doing within their new start-up

Live streaming of #trulondon 19th Feb 2010

Posted on | February 19, 2010 | 1 Comment

TruLondon is a social media recruitment unconference held on the 18th and 19th Feb at Incisive Media‘s offices in Soho London. 9.30am (GMT) onwards I will be streaming live video of the event.

Online video chat by Ustream

Broadcast schedule:

9.30 – 10.00

All tracks: Day One Learning

10.00 – 10.30

Video track from Deloitte’s NZ – Facebook live event featuring Richard Long and the social recruiting champions from Auckland.

Below content might differ depending on availability.

10.30 – 11.30
Return On Investment featuring Rayanne Thorne (Broadbean)

11.30 – 12.30
Taking Recruiting Mobile featuring Gordon Lokenberg

1.30 – 2.30
The Future for Recruiters featuring Matt Burney and Mervyn Dinnen

2.30 – 3.30
Linking In featuring Mark Williams and Jacco Valkenburg

3.30 – 4.30
Battle of the Bloggers featuring Andy Headworth, Laurie Ruettimann, Jon Ingham, Jason Davis, Peter Gold and Trish McFarlane

Google Buzz, a new social media aggregator

Posted on | February 10, 2010 | 1 Comment

Yesterday Google released it’s new social media aggregator, Buzz. Bizarrely, looks very similar to FriendFeed, saw Techcrunch was reporting that as well. This is not Google’s first attempt to integrate their service in a FriendFeed style system. Google Wave was certainly on a similar track. Although Wave has a major disadvantage that it doesn’t allow user’s to integrate it with their existing email services. So users can only use it amongst Wave users and can’t receive emails.

Releasing Buzz is really interesting because:

1. Google has access to a massive audience who could use a service like FriendFeed, through Gmail.
2. Google has launched the service mainly with it’s own content (YouTube, Google Chat etc). Helps Google distribute and help users discover a new Google product.

Facebook (with their acquisition of FriendFeed) will be watching this very closely.

Email, Super-hero tool, underrated to build Mobile/Web Apps!

Posted on | February 4, 2010 | No Comments

The email was invented in the 1970s and till date it is one of the most commonly used tool on the Internet. 92% of people read or send emails on the Internet, followed closely by using a search engine (89%) source. Email has the advantage of being platform independent i.e. you can send an email from your mobile, web, desktop etc. Blackberry, a mobile telephone aimed at business people, till date promotes it’s email functionality as one the most important feature for users.

Rise of smart phones

Rise of smart phones with multimedia make email even more important. Smart phones like iPhone, HTC (using Google Android - Google’s mobile Operating System), Blackberry etc means that developers need to build applications for each phone. It’s really frustrating for a company to launch their offering first on the web and then provide it’s users with the functionality on individual mobile phones. This implies that many applications are limited to the iPhone or Google Android enabled devices. Hence many major applications are missing out potentially on a huge opportunity, whether it’s targeting business  users on Blackberry or the general public on Samsung, Nokia, Palm or other major phone providers.

Email provides us with the opportunity to solve this increasingly inconvenient experience by having a unified approach. Email allows users to send in their data: images, texts, music and videos in an easy to consume format. Given that all major email providers follow a standard, it means that sending and receiving data is easier, faster and relatively problem free.

Email is the universal App

In essence my suggestion is that email is the platform independent universal application, which any developer can be confident to build and appeal to any mobile, desktop or laptop user. Email provides a great opportunity to not only send (output) information but also receive information in a easy to understand format.

To understand how this works best to look at the non-technical version of the email, Snail Mail. Till recently (and to some extent even now), mail was the way we communicated for most formal engagements: work related, housing, invitations etc. For instance request was sent in the form of letters for a brochure of houses available in the area. Now there is an app for finding houses! Clearly this was how we use our email today and will do till applications like Google Wave, real-time un-interpretive form of communication are widely adopted.

When does Email work as an app

Unfortunately though, email doesn’t always make the ultimate app. Email is good for responding and submitting but rubbish at receiving, let me explain. Email is good at responding because you know what you are reacting to, usually the response is simple and you can easily address it to a person. Similarly when you are submitting information, it’s targeted, user understands the limitation and send appropriate material across.

Two applications for example are:

1. Facebook respond to comment via email. Facebook allows users to respond to comments on profiles via email. It formats the response and removes elements of the email which are not constitute as a response.
2. WordPress, blog via email. WordPress, popular blogging platform, allows users to post a blog via a secret email address. User’s can send their posts including images via email, WordPress then works out the content and translates them into a blog.

Innovation in email applications

Facebook and WordPress are just tip of the iceberg when it comes to using email as an application or an interface. My favourite examples are TripIt and Posterous:

TripIt allows you to manage everything related to your travel like airline bookings, hotel reservations, maps etc in one place. The unique selling point is that TripIt unlike other travel sites allows users to enter information by just forwarding the confirmation email to the TripIt system. User’s don’t have to manually enter data, how fantastic it that?

Posterous is a Y Combinator startup that was founded in mid 2008. It’s a simple web publishing platform via email. Text and files can be uploaded to the site via email. Users can send multimedia and text, which is automatically processed and is added to the user’s profile.

Conclusion

Email is a fantastic, a true super-hero tool for users. Developers should use more of it to build a unified approach to building applications. One which would save them time, money and most importantly provide users a great user experience and satisfaction.

7 ways iPad will revolutionise Media by 2011

Posted on | January 28, 2010 | 3 Comments

Apple’s new iPad at first might look like a bigger version of the iPhone although it has the capabilities to change the way publishers sell content and help package goods. As a multimedia tablet it supports not only textbooks but also video, audio and whole heap of applications, 140,000 o of which are out already. Best of all you can pick one up for as little as $499. So how will this effect the media market?

1. Paid content gets more attractive. Suddenly major publishers will have the opportunity to sell their content on a subscription basis, bundled into your monthly iPad contract. A bit like Spotify selling music on their platform. You have the option to buy advertisement funded content or if you want it uninterrupted just subscribe for $xx.xx

2. Social Media subscription. Suddenly we will have social networking application which be designed for Apple iPad only. What are the advantages? Firstly you have a big enough screen to navigagte easily. It will help form a niche social network which will work like real social networking events. It will work online when you are away (via video chat perhaps?) and will require you to hold up the iPad in your hand when you are physically networking to identify the members. Great example of online meets offline.

3. News readers. Apple iPad will become the preferred gadget for news readers on your television. They will ditch their bulky laptops and embrace the iPad. This will happen sooner than you think!

4. Video game market. More video games will be released on a 12/18 months contract basis. Games as a Service (GaaS). This will bring the prices down and distribute the cost to a affordable monthly payment. Making game publishers a recurring revenue and boosting sales by making it affordable.

5. iTunes will be your digital subscription Walmart. If you haven’t still realised iTunes now sells anything from video, music, applications, e-Books and games. More so it will become the one stop shop to buy anything digital, whether it’s news, jokes, video games, social networking etc. In essence like your local Walmart store.

6. Movie premier on iPad. As iPad becomes popular there will be movies which will be released on it before they hit DVDs. It’s already happening to an extent on iTunes but now the tablet has given us a reason, especially for people who spend a awful amount of time commuting everyday.

7. iPad ready websites. Soon we will have wesbites compatible with the ipad i.e. they will render the experience to fit your iPad. A bit like iPhone/iTouch websites (example Facebook iPhone). These will provide new opportunities for web developers and publishers, providing a new range of rich media pages and e-commerce transactions. iPad-commerce?

In conclusion, these 7 changes are only the tip of the iceberg. We will see a wide variety of innovative products and services on the iPad. The mobility, screen size and mainly the prize have really made this an exciting opportunity for publishers and consumers.

Pros and cons of Social Media Advertising (SMA)

Posted on | January 19, 2010 | 3 Comments

Social Media Advertising spend is growing rapidly, whilst others traditional online (if you can call it that ) is on the decrease. According to Neilsen AdRelevance, social media advertising has risen by 812%, 364% and 184% in Entertainment, Travel and Business to Business industries respectively . Travel and Business to Business has seen a decrease of spend on other forms of online advertising by 11% and 8% respectively.

Hardware and electronics have seen the 47% cuts on other online advertising, biggest in percentage, although social media advertising has risen by 56%.  So harware stores like Halfords and B&Q prefer to advertise on Facebook and LinkedIn as oppose to ITV.com and  Guardian.co.uk. Below is an analysis of why we are seeing these changes and why social media advertising is becoming so

Pros of SMA:

1. Social Media advertisements are more engaging.

Have you seen Facebook advertising? It allows you to conduct polls and get users to like your advertisement. If the user likes the advert (and clicks on the thumbs up icon), it automatically tells their friends that someone they know has endorsed the ad. It’s great way for your friends to recommend products and brands to you.

Also, if the user doesn’t find the advertisements relevant, they can click on the close button and that will stop advertisements similar to the ones displayed earlier. Saving advertisers money by targeting relevant people and making users happy about the adverts they see.

2. More targeted.

Social Media advertisers on Facebook can target a niche, in the example I’m looking to target executve vice presidents and executive directors who live in the UK. What’s great is that it gives me an estimate on number of people in this category in real time. I can no loosen the criteria to get more people to see my campaign or vice versa.

You can target your audience by their location, age, sexuality, job roles, music genre preference, political views, books they read, authors they like, etc. That sort of pin point accuracy is very hard to achieve on other sites and even search engines.

3. Larger communities for large campaigns.

Social networks have a larger audience than most of the other sites. This is fantastic, if the mission of your advertisement is brand awareness. For example if you are looking to target corporate or business owners, it might strike you that LinkedIn has 5.4million active members versus other business publications with an online presence.For instance WSJ.com (Wall Street Journal) has 3million, Forbes.com 2.9million and BusinessWeek 1.3million. If you are looking to target a wider audience (niche or generic), sites like LinkedIn provide you with a huge opportunity.

4. Social media are the search engines of tomorrow.

As the search engine market is maturing, users are increasingly realising that most sites on the front two pages are highly optimised sites. Mainly owned by large publications, who pay a lot to get on the front two pages of major search engines. It doesn’t work for them when they are looking to get opinions on ‘How to get a graduate job’, ‘Which car to buy’ etc. They need forums  and real user feedback on questions they ask. Social Media allows users to achieve that as a conversation and not a broadcast as forums, groups, blogs etc.

5. Better User Experience.

Social Media’s success is based on good online technology coupled with intuitive usability, making lives simpler for the end user. We usually find social media easier to use than the average software or website. Less clutter and making sure the user is happy, this is the reason why you don’t require a manual to use social networking sites. Better user experience also means that punters are more informed, for instance they know the advertisement areas on the site and if they are interested, they would follow the adverts through. Some websites disguise the advertising areas and as a result users click on it, to realise that they have been redirected to another site.

Another aspect to it is connecting Facebook advertisements to your corporate Facebook Pages. Many users on clicking an advertisement want to stay on the same platform, typically on clicking on an advert, on search engine you go to a new website for which you might need to register or login. With Facebook you can develop a page and have a related advertisement on the site. It’s a great way to get user engagement and brand awareness.

Cons of Social Media Advertising

1. SMA is Interrupted Advertising.

Most social media sites like Myspace, YouTube, Bebo etc have advertisements which are placed around profiles, inbox, multimedia pages etc. As a busy user the chances are that you overlook the adverts are high. On the flip side sites like Myspace where advertisements include flashy banners, distracts users from their social networking experience, causing anger and frustration. Hence I often think of some social networking sites as experts in interrupted advertising, more often than not, users ignore them.

2. Timing of Advertisement.

Search engines are great for advertising because generally when you are looking for a product or a service you go on to a site like Google and type to find typical costs, suppliers, best practices etc. When it comes to social networks the chances are that advertisements are not relevant to you at the time, even though you are the right demographic.

Unfortunately social media sites won’t be able to put advertisements on their searches as Overture Inc. a paid search specialist pioneered the bid-for-placement mechanism. In July 2001, the US patent office issued Overture a patent for the mechanism.Patent 6,269,361; also known as the ’361 patent, essentially covered all AdWords like business models.

Conclusion

Looking at all the pros and cons of social network advertising, my conclusion is that we have just seen the tip of the iceberg. Social networking is barely 8 years old and SMA even younger. There are new platforms like Spotify popping up who are revolutionising the way we advertise and engage with audience on social media. Facebook is certainly the leader in innovative social network advertising, I’m sure we’ll see much more from them in the coming years.

Entrepreneur grows home-based translations business international

Posted on | January 13, 2010 | No Comments

From time to time like to feature guest bloggers on my site. This is a story of Christian Arno who founded Lingo24, business more or less bootstrapped from the beginning. Lingo24 translated over thirty million words in 2009, covering clients in over sixty countries and every industry sector. Their turnover in the twelve months to September 2009 was £3.65m.

About Christian Arno

With a degree secured in Italian and French from the University of Oxford, Christian Arno’s passion for languages and a more-than-passing interest in the newly-flourishing e-business boom led the 22 year old Scot to launch his home-based translation service – Lingo24 – just a few months after completing his studies in 2001.With the support of a £5,000 loan from the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust (PSYBT), and a shrewd £500 investment of his student loan on the stock market which yielded a return of £15,000, Arno was able to build Lingo24’s website and IT infrastructure which would facilitate the young company’s success in the early years.

Arno’s main ambition was to build the ‘top online brand’ for translation services and set about doing so entirely from a spare bedroom in his parents’ home in Aberdeen.“It was nice to have such a short commute from my bed to the office”, says Arno. “But the main benefit was that I didn’t have to pay for premises and had minimal overheads. This meant I could offer some pretty big clients prices up to a third cheaper than our industry competitors.”

The Business

Indeed, this allowed Lingo24 to develop a lot faster than it may otherwise have done and in 2003 he launched a virtual office in New Zealand, followed by China a year later, both staffed by home-based workers. Arno says, “We recruited some fantastically talented management and linguistic personnel in China and New Zealand, and having operations in other time-zones meant we could operate ‘round the clock’. When our handful of home-based staff clocked-off in the UK, we could pass the reigns over to the guys on the other side of the world. It was a very effective system.”

Going global

Having operational capacity in multiple time-zones was key to Lingo24 ‘going global’, and they launched their first physical office space in Romania in 2005, followed by Panama in 2008 and finally their first UK office arrived in Edinburgh later the same year. “The key for businesses going global is carefully managed growth”, says Arno. “I found that by doing things in stages, building up one part of the business, seeing the success and then moving on to the next stage was crucial. Trying to grow things too quickly can spell disaster for young companies and their precious start-up funds.”

Indeed, carefully managed growth has been pivotal to Lingo24’s success. Equally important has been Arno’s realisation that the foreign language internet is the best way to tap into new and emerging markets:

“Three quarters of the world’s population speak no English at all”, says Arno. “And of those who do speak English as a second language, the simple fact is people prefer to do business in their native tongue. I arranged for Lingo24’s website to be translated into ten or so languages in our key target markets, so that businesses in Germany, France, Sweden, Japan or wherever they may be know that we’re serious about what we do.”

And there it is. From home-working and carefully managed growth, to multilingual websites and staff across multiple time-zones, businesses of all sizes can go global with nothing more than a networked computer and a touch of entrepreneurial nous.

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