"It's myspace now, facebook" - Myspace aquisition of iLike

Last week a curious thing happened. Newscorp-owned Myspace aquired social music application iLike. In itself this isn't too newsworthy, until you factor in that iLike is not only facebooks default music player but also one of their most trafficked applications, then things get very interesting.

The two points this incident raises is a) the future viability of facebook's application platform and b) the implications of myspace basically owning a large chunk of that platform.

Future viability of facebook's application platform

facebook is well within their legal rights to shutdown iLike in two ways. Either wiping it off the platform overnight in one king hit, execution style. Or cutting it off incrementally, effectively strangeling it out of existence by killing its visibility and usability through the platform over time.

Here's the kicker though. If facebook were to do something like the above, what sort of message is it sending out to the thousands of application developers on the platform who have poured their own money, time and resources into their own app's, hoping for a return? The message I would get is this - 'If you get too big (thus profitable), we'll either re-create you as a facebook owned app, or simply kill you off our platform one way or another - because we can'.

Bottom line - if they did kill off iLike now, they would effectively be killing off the trust of all third party facebook app developers, trust they desperately need to keep in check if facebook is to become the next google, which increasingly looks more and more plausible.

Implications of myspace owning one of the biggest applications on facebook

Rupert has played his cards well on this one. Now newscorp has a (floodgate sized) backdoor into its main rival and more importantly, its users. As explained above, I can't see that door closing anytime soon, so what is newscorp going to be able to acheive through this coup?

i) A constant finger on facebook's pulse - they now have a legitimate and qualified reason to pour alot of money into analyzing how facebook platform architecture works, as they are inside it.

ii) User data - With an app the size of iLike now under their control, they have access to deep analytics of the app's userbase. Which is effectively a snapshot of facebook's userbase. Data is key in social networking. By being able to combine their own myspace data and now a relatively solid grasp of facebooks user data they will be far more informed on trends than they have been previously.

iii) Links - Myspace can now pull users from facebook through to myspace via iLike. If a facebook user finds a song they like through iLike and then wants to buy it, how will they do that? Why, through myspace music of course.... enough said.

Will facebook kill iLike and thus its credibility?

Will myspace use this opportunity as the starting block for a much needed renaissance?

Fascinating times lie ahead for all us social media/networking fanboys in seeing how this one pans out.

For all those who just have a fleeting interest in this space, hopefully this gives you some watercooler ammo for the coming week.

KFC's Cayan Grill O’Clock fb Campaign = FAIL

So I haven't blogged for a while and was concious of the fact that I needed to get back in the mix if I am to build a small but fledgling reputation for myself. But I didn't know what to write about.

This all changed when KFC dropped into my facebook world this morning via an inline fanning ad.

The ad said I could score a free chicken burger this afternoon. Salivating with anticipation I fanned the ad, then headed over to their page.

Page looks OK, sooo, whats the deal....

After closer inspection it turns out they are only giving the burgers away at one store each in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Seen as im at UNSW right now, the George street store is too far away, even for a free burger. But what is interesting here is that almost everyone else on the page is too far away too, and they're telling KFC about it.

Add to this the fact that they started spamming my newsfeed with two identical posts in 30 minutes and you have a marketing company that doesn't get social media.

Right now, in my opinion, KFC's facebook strategy is blowing up right in their faces.

How hard would it have been to issue a special code that all members of the page could've used at any KFC store nationwide during 1300-1400? Or even an application strategy ala whoppersacrifice?

Both these options would have left consumers a shit load happier than they are at the current minute. Don't agree? Click on the pic and tally the negative vs positive comments for me :|



Consider this an opportunity wasted, a brand trashed and tarnished and a lesson to all others of how a poorly executed social media strategy can get seriously fucked up.

Social Media In Australia - Talk is good, but is anyone actually doing anything?

Written By Michael Watkins for DigitalMinistry.com on Jan 19th 09

These past few months i have been actively following the emerging trends in the Australian social media market. What became clear to me is this. Australia has a very healthy scene of social media commentators, bloggers, twitterer's and evangelist's that do a great job of de-mystifying what social media is and how it works. What is harder to find, is actual working examples or case studies by Australian companies leveraging off social media effectively. There are benefits of talking up social media, but even bigger benefits if there is proof it can work for the commercial sector in Australia.

I keep hearing that social media is the second coming for the digital marketing and advertising space in Australia.  However to get proof of social media's effectiveness, I need to get data from the States or the UK.  I recently had a chat to one of Sydney's most well respected Digital marketers about this issue and the conclusions were interesting.

• There is alot of talk, but not much doing.  
  

• Everyones a social media strategist, complete with no personal case studies available to examine or personal track record available to inspect.

• In order for big corporates to start using social media, they need proof it can work.

• Once the market see's two or three large companies benefiting from a new media space, confidence in the space will grow quickly and SM will begin to be seen as a very viable advertising and marketing platform to leverage off.  

Talking up a scene is great, for the scene.  Doing is even better. 

Doing = Action

Action = Results

Results = Proof

Proof = Confidence

The market needs to be confident in SM before it invest's in it.  Confidence will only grow from proof.  Proof can only be displayed by results and results can only be generated from action. 

This is not a beatup on the the Social Media Scene in Australia, its a call to arms.  I love talking about SM as much as anyone working in the space, but big clients do not.  They love talking about results, results that proove a marketing platform can work for them.  They love talking about proof because it grows their confidence in the idea.  They love confidence because it gives them the backing needed to actually try something new. 

We all know how effective Social Media can be, so its high time we started talking about the results and proof that our campaigns generate.  The sooner this is done, the faster the scene will grow, the more clients we will all have, more jobs will become available and the healthier the scene will be as a whole.

I think this will be a very polarising post, with readers either agreeing wholeheartedly or disagreeing completely on the case I have presented.  This does not worry me, I urge that if you have a position, or if you have your own proof from previous campaigns, please leave them in the comments. This will be a start to understanding what is actually being done, versus what is being talked about.

The State of Australian Social Media 2009

[Article published by Michael Watkins for technation on 1st Jan 2009]

Happy New Year to all!

I thought I would start off 09 with a few predictions of how I think the Australian Social Media Scene will play out for the next 12 months.

• There will be a big increase in Australian companies starting to really dip their toes into Social Media Marketing. This will be mainly due to the delicate economy and organizations wanting to get as much ROI on their marketing strategies as possible. As Social Media offers a highly targeted and measured approach and the fact that Social Media is currently cheaper than the alternatives, it will appear an attractive option to advertisers.

• The Australian Startup and Social Media community will become much tighter and closer due to the increased recognition the sector will receive. New work spaces such as Pollenizer’s co-working space which is opening in March will serve to fill in the gaps of who’s who in the scene and ultimatley pull the community closer together still. The ramifications of this happening is huge, with a tighter scene, more people meet one another and share ideas, most of these idea’s are left as ideas. But some will make the jump from ideas to real startups, the more Startups there are, the bigger the entire scene becomes, which is what we all want!

• With most other economies around the world in recession [or quickly heading that way] and Australias still in the black, it will give AU startups a healthy global platform to start from. There will be less global competition which will only help smart Australian startups grow faster globally. Think of it as a head start.

• Lastly, Australia is yet to fully embrace the Twitter phenomenom that has gripped the US and some parts of Europe throughout 2008. 2009 will be the year that Twitter does start picking up serious traction in Australia. I realize most early adopters in Australia are avid Twitter users already, but I am looking more towards when Twitter goes mainstream and what implications the micro blogging site will create for us here.

These are only four quick thoughts for the Startup and Social Media scene in Australia in the coming year. I have many more, but these appear to be the most relevant at the moment.

If you have any thoughts or insights regarding the year ahead for Startups and Social Media in Australia, please leave them in the comments.

I hope you all, like me, are looking forward to an amazing 2009.

Facebook Redesign + App’s Program = App’s 2.0?

[Article published by Michael Watkins for News Ltd's 'Wires and Lights Blog' on Dec 1st 2008]

Facebook has announced that they will be introducing a ‘Verified App’s Program‘ early in ‘09. Applications will be evaluated on Facebooks three core principals, those being Respect, Transparency and Security. If all these principals are met, the application is deemed ‘Facebook Verified’.

The advantages of being an Facebook verified application will include more visibility in the news feed, higher ranking in the application directory and a big fat green tick next to your app when potential users are reviewing it. All good things.

All good things, if you are willing to pay a price. The price being $US375 a year…. recurring.

There has been a lot of talk regarding this move by Facebook, a lot of it critical. As the markets continue to tank, many see it as a blatant grab for cash, after all a ‘$US15B’ company wont be worth that for much longer in this climate, if it can’t pump out some steady revenue streams. Others claim that open-source on the platform is dead, as developers will have to pay to have their app formally ‘accepted’ by Facebook.

My thoughts are that this move is smart for Facebook and for serious application developers who have a vision to make serious money off the platform. Why?

In unison with the new site redesign, the program will help clear the backlog of useless and annoying app’s that clogged the news feeds which is what makes Facebook so useful
App’s as a whole got a bad wrap from the applications that just wasted your time or plain annoyed you. The new redesign changed all this. People said applications were dead due to the new design. I think they cleared the platform of all the shitty app’s that you don’t want or use and are gearing the platform to make way for credible app’s that actually solve real problems and have real revenue models. The program builds on this thinking and actually asks the real app developers who back themselves with a great idea, to come to the table and put there money where their mouth is.

Serious business ideas can be realized and be credible
In allowing the verified app access to more news feed exposure, notifications, invitations and emails, the program gives serous app developers an elevated platform to work off and the chance to prove that their app can work within a busy, highly exposed environment. Its like a head start, it gives the app more visibility above all the other unverified app’s. Lastly, since the app is officially verified, it will instill more confidence in the user to trust the app and therefore use it more.

It will provide a better user experience for users
With the crap, spammy, annoying app’s out and well built, designed and relevant app’s on the way through, users experience’s will inevitably begin to get better as time goes on.

It will usher in the next generation or ‘Web 2.0’ of app development
This is a big call on my behalf, feel free to abuse me in the comments… But I think we are seeing a small renaissance in application development being kicked off by Facebooks redesign and this program. Think back to Web 1.0, there was a massive rush of sites being created for no real purpose, other than to be seen, then the market died, along with all those websites… Then, technology got better, the masses became more comfortable online and smart people built sites that actually helped people solve real-world problems. The same trend appears to have happened with applications, I think over the last 18 months we’ve seen the rush of app’s that want to be seen. Now with proper guidelines and systems coming into place the platform is being set for a new wave. A wave of smart app’s that actually offer value, create money and solve real problems.

It is going to be fascinating to see how this pan’s out and if Facebook does start making real bucks off it. For now though, if I had built an app that I truly believed in, I would be one of the first to pay that $US375.

If you want to apply to get your app verified, visit here.

Feeding You Jobs In Realtime - Jobfeedr.com

[Article published by Michael Watkins for technation on Dec 16th 2008]

Sydney based garage startup Jobfeedr.com is on to something.

The site crawls all the worlds major IT jobs boards every few minutes, then automatically feeds these jobs to their homepage, your twitter channel or via RSS to your browser.

The service is one condusive to the times. Quoting co-founder Mike Nicholls -

More people [are] fighting for less jobs, more online job sites that need to be checked constantly for new jobs, job sites making candidates wade through 100s of screens to get through jobs just so they can show more ad impressions. Looking for jobs turns into a full time job.

In making this process automated, the Jobfeedr team just saved thousands of stressed out job hunters the hassle of wading through the irrelevant material that is pushed at them through the major jobs boards.

The setup process is dead simple. Head to Jobfeedr.com, set the specific fields you want for your feed then hit ok. A list of job’s will then appear below. Click on the twitter channel link of a chosen job, this will direct you to that job category’s twitter feed on twitter. Click follow and presto, all jobs found by jobfeedr relating to that specific job field will be automatically twittered to your feed.

Same goes with RSS. Click the RSS button and that stream will begin feeding into your browser.

I really do see some promise here. The idea is great, serves a real purpose and will save alot of time stretched people alot of time!

The global approach from launch is encouraging, the team is not just focusing on the smaller Australian or Australasian markets, they have San Francisco and New York City on the cards too - something we dont see enough of in the Aussie startup scene.

Mike Nicholls and Dale Hurley look like an experienced team who have the knowledge to keep pushing Jobfeedr forward.

Lastly and most importantly, although the look is currently very bare, the interface design and functionality is extremely simple, which is something alot of other twitter app and RSS app developers have yet to master.

Advert’s may come into play later down the track, with small ad’s being integrated into the twitter feed and possibly the RSS feeds. However for now, the team is focused on getting the core technology right, believing if they do this, users will pick up and advertising streams will follow.

Keep an eye on Jobfeedr in the future and if your looking for your next job, employ jobfeedr to do the work for you, saving you alot of time for other things during these xmas holidays.

Recessions Are Good News For Immature Aussie Startups

[Article published by Michael Watkins for technation on Dec 10th 2008]

With all the news around at the moment, indications are that they sky is falling and Aussie Tech Startups have little or no chance of surviving through the ever-widening financial quagmire that is the current world economy. I thought on this, felt sorry for myself and my own startup for 5 minutes, then decided to dig deeper into the effect economic downturns have had on small tech companies.

The results may encourage you ­

Talent Pool

When a market tanks, job cuts follow. When the market really tanks, lots of job cuts follow. The IT industry is one of the worst industries hit by layoffs, as companies prefer to keep on their core staff that provide the bread and butter applications for the company, then cut the rest of their roster. Most of the time it’s the young ones working on the cool new things the company had envisaged 6-12 months earlier, that get the chop.

Suddenly, almost overnight, the talent pool changed. The market is offering up brilliant young developers and designers that would have normally cost squillions an hour, to virtually nothing ­ all they want is to make their next rental payment.
If you had trouble finding good staff before, look now, in the right places and you will find them in abundance.

Less Competition

Remember reading about all those promising new tech startups that received bucket-loads of venture capital cash 12 months ago ­ and competed directly in your space -while you were busy writing your own business plan, in your makeshift office? Most of them will be out of business in the next 12 months, which gives you a clear start. VC backed companies usually have very aggressive business plans that are well suited to an aggressive market, once the market turns south, that business then chews through cash with a burn rate that would smoulder any page it was written on. Some will be smart and begin saving cash quickly, others won’t and will head down into the deadpool.

If your startup is compelling enough and you focus only on your primary proposition, you may find it easier and faster to grow in a lonely, lame marketplace than that of a busy, crowded marketplace. The time to jump in is now.

Perseverance and Money Management

If you thought juggling finances was hard 6 months ago, its gotten exponentially harder since. An economic downturn whittles out the companies that have bad revenue models and bad fiscal management, those companies simply deadpool. The ones that survive have solid revenue streams - no matter how much they make and strong fiscal management. So if you want to survive this, better start learning how to control, allocate and conserve money well, very well. If you come out the other end looking relatively bruised and battered, but all in all healthy, the market then has only one way to head and that’s up. If you take the lessons learned during a market fall and keep applying them to your business while in good times, it will only serve to make you as an entrepreneur and your company that much stronger when the next one comes.

Real VC’s

The time of the VC firm that had too much money is now over. VC’s will only invest in companies that they have researched to the point of lunacy, then they’ll research them some more. Its good news for startups because the wrong investors wont get involved with your company. Your business plan will only attract those VC’s or investors that know and connect with what you are trying to achieve. It will be harder to raise money, but know once you have raised it, you will be on board with an investor who truly understands you, your business and its future.

History

Apple and Microsoft were both conceived and then later founded during the tail-end of the 1973-74 stock market crash - supposedly one of the worst stock market downturns in modern history at the time, where did they end up?
They now have a current combined market cap of US$316.3B.

To sign off, here are some of my ideas - Go out now and build your dream team, the people you need probably have no job at the moment. Be frugal and smart with your companies money, if you get through this, there will be plenty on the other side. Take advantage of a desolate playground, market your brand in smart ways, get in customers faces while no one else is.

Raise money smartly, if your idea is compelling and growing, you’ll be 1 in 100, rather than 1 in 100,000, so you have more room to move - get the investor that sees your vision.

If you do come out the other side, you and your company would have been born in and persevered through one of the worst economic landscapes the world has ever known. You’ll probably have one of the strongest and smartest staff going around, have VC’s throw money at you and be in one of the best economic landscape the world has ever known.

Recession?? I think Progression.