4 posts tagged “blogging”
I'm a huge fan of Marc Andreessen. His blog is one of the first things I read daily. He's a success story from the wild, wild west days of the Dot.Boom and has gone on from Netscape to start (sell) and focus on new companies. He started Ning (with a partner) in 2005, which I think shows that he still has a critical eye for what the next net commodity will be. I've set up a couple of Ning Networks for clients and am trying to get motivated to work on one that focuses on Mac software, services and developers.
After Selling Opsware, Andreessen Turns to His Third Startup, Ning
TECH BIZ : START-UPS
After Selling Opsware, Andreessen Turns to His Third Startup, Ning
"When Hewlett-Packard acquired Opsware for $1.6 billion in cash last week, it changed the reputation of serial entrepreneur and web pioneer Marc Andreessen forever.
Andreessen was the golden boy of the internet's early days, but Microsoft eventually pummeled his first company, Netscape Communications, into a decidedly secondary market position. When he launched Loudcloud in 1999 without any immediate or obvious payoff potential, Andreessen's critics had a field day."
A Backlash Against Facebook Applications Will Come — This is How.
This came to me from my Twitter link to Scoble's Link Blog. I've been following the Jason Calacanis posts (and he actually "friended" me on Facebook today - after I first "friended" him. It gets confusing.). I can understand how the "A-List" bloggers MUST get sick and tired of all the developers pinging them for facetime on their applications/services - there must be hundreds per day, most worth little time, looking for the one who might start the gold rush.
"For those who follow popular tech bloggers (and I expect most, if not all of you do, if you’re reading this blog), there have been two interesting posts within the last 48 hours few days or so.
One involves Jason Calacanis who has decided to declare Facebook Bankruptcy over how many people are pinging him via Facebook Apps, wherein he’s basically thrown up his hands and has given up. (Boo hoo, I’m too popular). The other involves Mike Arrington’s post over at TechCrunch where he details how there is a burgeoning business in trying to monetize Facebook applications — most noticeably (for me) through selling ad space *on* Facebook applications."
(Via Scoble's Link Blogand DeepJiveInterests).
I've just started reading "Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business", by Larry Weber.
The book talks about how he future of marketing is "a two-way street" (Amazon.com) and that you have to "communicate with, not at, customers". I agree. Companies, especially large corporate entities, don't own their brand or message anymore. Users will adapt, modify as they like (and sometimes give back) what they see on the web - it's the ultimate communication mashup.
I do think that Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr (especially after video), YouTube and MySpace(for a time...) are increasingly important for any company's marketing program. I think Second Life and other metaverses will have a strong part to play (look at IBM's use of SL as an example of forward-thinking corporate managemnt).
Everyone's a marketer, designer, blogger, etc. now. Soon the call to action won't be "Embrace change..." - it'll be far too late.
One of the things that I'm trying to focus on within the Social Networking space right now is its business application. How will business adapt social networking's potential?
I'm so excited about this new service from NewsGator Technologies, Inc. NewsGator owns NetNewsWire which is my newsreader and one of my "Can't Live Without" apps. It's a build-your-own-widget for use on Facebook, blogs, etc.
I decided to build my own and see how easy it is. It's a three-step process:
1st step - Figure out your feeds
2nd step - Design - pick your layouts and colors
3rd Step - cut and paste your code and it's finshed!
See it under my Twitter Posts (on the rightside)!
There's a gallery of existing widgets here (Love Shark Week!).
They are also hosting "Widgets and the Future of Advertising" - a webinar on August 1st at 2pm EDT. I'm really looking forward to this and inviting any and all that I feel have any interests in Social Networks.
With so many companies starting networks (as well as opening their platforms...), monetizing these networks is becoming a necessary (evil?) focus.
