the Web Chef's e-Bytes

Web Tidbits - Keys to Success Online, Etsy, Jellyfish

Business Week has put together an online exclusive called "The Keys to Online Success".   The series of articles includes everything from case studies on small business use of Web 2.0 tools to coverage of Podcasting to an online video on best practices for online businesses.

Catching up on my reading, I found an article in Business Week reviewing Etsy, an online marketplace for arts and crafts.  According to the article, the site doesn't use an auction model, but collects a .20 listing fee and 3.5% commission.

Madison-based Jellyfish, a comparison shopping site with a twist has been acquired by Microsoft according to the Capital Times.  The deal was apparently worth $50 million and for those of us that live in and love Madison, Microsoft will reportedly keep the company in town.  ZDNet's blogger Mary Jo Foley on Microsoft reports that it fits nicely with their focus on shopping results.

Newspapers and the Internet - Good, Bad and Ugly

Editor and Publisher has an interesting article "Web Editors Reveal Flops and Failures" discussing the ways that newspapers have succeeded and failed with their online initiatives.  For anyone with an interest in online content strategies the article is quite interesting in describing the lessons learned.  Among those referenced are the following:

1. Blogs can backfire - typically from lack of reader interest or from content that doesn't connect
2. Technology can flop - interesting discussion of how the The Denver Post added a feature where content was refreshed every ten minutes in an effort to be very timely only to find that crossword puzzle lovers complained after losing their work or the failure of contextual ads for example where one paper had a story about unusual adult coated brownies only to find a Google ad next to it for brownies.
3. Readers can get ugly - with reader opinions ready to go ( I know I've added my voice once in awhile), content filters that editors provide have been missed with racy or inappropriate comments.
4. Not everyone wants to chat
5. Local content might be limiting
6. Pay for content can backfire
7. Print stories don't always translate to the web
8. Be selective in Podcasts
9. Manage the obits
10. Watch out on the types of databases that you provide
11. Separate Web and Print Sales Staffs Don't Succeed
12. Traffic spikes can cause unintended consequences

Read the article for specific case studies for each lesson learned.

Web Tidbits - Web 2.0 Miscellaneous

Strategy & Business has a new article "Web 2.0 Profiting from the Threat" that makes some interesting points.  In the article they reference recent Booz Allen & Hamilton research that found 50% of internet users visit a social media site.  They had 3 summary suggestions for businesses to keep in mind as their strategies evolve:

1. Businesses are no longer in charge of their message
2. Marketing channels are fragmenting
3. Web 2.0 is magnifying customer complaints

For each of these items case studies are supplied.

For more Web 2.0 coverage, you might want to take a look at the series of articles I've written for Wisconsin Technology Network under the Buzz Networks column with a series of 13 articles on a wide range of Web 2.0 topics - podcasts, social networks, RSS feeds, wikis, blogs, etc.

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I offer presentations and consulting services on Web 2.0 techniques.  I'd be happy to speak to your group and/or talk to you about your organization's needs for enhancing your web strategies.  Give me a call at 608 255 4092 or e-mail me for more information.

Paul Gibler
the Web Chef

WPP in the Know and on the Grow, MSFT not too Slow

Today's news brings interesting information on the WPP Group's growing interest in the Internet.  Two items of interest demonstrating their strategy were reviewed in the mainstream media today.  The first and larger of the two is that WPP has agreed to purchase Internet Ad distributor 24/7 Real Media (TFSM) for $637 million in cash according to the Financial Times and interesting $649 million according to the New York Times.  I wonder where that extra $12 million came from and why the discrepancy in reporting from these two media powerhouses?  (Note: It was explained by the WPP website press release announcement on the acquisition explaining the purchase price as being $649 million based on $637 million to shareholders and "Unvested stock and options are valued at US$49 million and net cash is expected be approximately US$37 million to value TFSM at US$649 million.")

24/7 Real Media will continue to be run as an independent entity within WPP to allow for it to service a broad range of competing ad agencies and clients according to the reports.  The New York-based company had sales of around $200 million and provides services in 12 countries according to the press release.

In other WPP news today, The Wall Street Journal reports on the WPP Group's agency Kansas City-based VML and their brand monitoring software SEER that is "Monitoring thousands of web sites for key phrases, SEER tracks how criticism or praise of a company spreads from one blog site to another."  The brand monitoring technology is reportedly similar to that of Nielsen's Buzz Metrics* and NameProtect a Madison-based company acquired earlier this Spring by Corporation Services Company that I discussed in my article on Brand Protection in the Age of Digital Engagement that was published a couple of months ago on Wisconsin Technology Network.

Meanwhile in an even bigger deal showing the projected growth and belief in the advertising market, Microsoft (MSFT) announced the $6 billion purchase of aQuantive (AQNT) a leading Internet Advertising player.  It was interesting to see that while the deal was announced on the Microsoft website, I didn't see it on the aQuantive home page. The only indication of the action was in the significant increase in the share price on their investor relations page.

These purchases follow Google's acquisition of DoubleClick earlier this spring.

*(Aside - Interesting to see Nielsen Buzz Metrics branding strategy of an endorsed brand, while VML is kept in WPP's portfolio as part of a house of brands.)

New Article in IABC CW Bulletin - Spreading the Word

The International Association of Business Communicators online publication CW Bulletin, has published my latest article "Spreading the Word" about word of mouth marketing.  The article focuses on describing different word of mouth marketing techniques including videsos, white papers, web pages and blog postings.

Paul J Gibler
the Web Chef

Web Tidbits - Wikis, Web 2.0

ReadWrite Web has a great posting called the World of Wikis.  The article explains the history of wikis, offers suggestions on what they can be used for and provides links to wiki creation tools.  For another resource on wikis see my recent article in Wisconsin Technology Network "Joining the wiki waki world".

In other recent news McKinsey research released on March 22nd "How Businesses are Using Web 2.0" and reported by Business Week finds that large corporations are wary to invest in web 2.0 technologies.  The research found that of common web 2.0 technologies that well under 50% planned to invest in them.  Among the findings of those using or planning to use specific tools were the following:

• Social Networking - 37%
• RSS - 35%
• Podcasts - 35%
• Wikis - 33%
• Blogs - 32%
• Mashups - 21%

The disheartening results were attribued to fear and lack of familiarity with the technologies.  Not to surprisingly smaller more entrepreneurial companies were found to be more conversant and willing to adopt these new technologies.

Celebrating 250th Post on the Web Chef's e-Bytes

Hurray!

This post marks the 250th post I've made to the Web Chef's e-Bytes since starting up the blog last July.

I'm proud of the contributions I've made to the dialogue and evolution of the Internet through the postings on this blog, through the monthly column Buzz Networks that I've been writing for Wisconsin Technology Network, as a professional speaker and trainer on the latest topics in e-Business and Marketing, as a consultant helping companies re-define and enhance their e-business strategies and as a teacher where I've taught graduate and undergraduate e-Business and Marketing courses.  Through each of these activities, I've been able to share my perspectives, knowledge and insights with a wide range of audiences around the country.

Over the course of the past several months I've focused this blog on Web 2.0 and the changing world of the Internet.  Particular topic areas you might want to review include:

• Global Tastes - global internet statistics
• Online Video
• Photo Sharing Sites
• Podcasts
• Social Networks
• Weblogs
• Wikis
• and Web Tidbits - nuggets from the blogosphere

I encourage you let me know if there are other topics you'd like to see me cover or to contact me (608 255 4092) about my consulting or speaking services.  You can find out more about my background by visiting my website at CONNECTINGDOTS. 

I look forward to continuing to be of service.

Paul J. Gibler

Online Newspaper Readership Continues to Rise

Newspaper publishers must be sighing with relief if not jumping with joy, as they continue to see increasing online readership of the news according to data compiled from the Newspaper Association of America's Newspaper Audience Database (NAdbase).  Nielsen/Net Ratings research shows that year over year there was a 15% increase in unique visitors to newspaper sites.  Even better news for the industry is Scarborough research data showing that there was an increase in key demographic segments favored by some advertisers with the 25 - 34 year old segment increasing 13.7% and the 18 - 24 year old segment seeing an increase of 9.2%.   The research also found that combined between these two segments 65.8% read a newspaper during the week.

What the report doesn't address is the growing trend of online newspapers to use Web 2.0 tools to enhance their products.  Leading papers are utilizing RSS, including video and audio podcasts, photo sharing, blogs, improved word of mouth marketing features and enhanced reader comment sections.

UPDATE
Proving that a web 2.0 community centric strategy works, Media Post reports that Nielsen Net Ratings research shows that USAToday.com has seen a 380% increase in visitor registrations and a 21% increase in unique visitors since their site re-design launch in February.

Brand Building and Destruction in the Web 2.0 Era

As a follow-up to my two most recent articles on Wisconsin Technology Network - "Brand protection in the age of customer engagement" and "On the case: web lessons for connecting with customers" you might find that the following two articles provide supplementary insights.  The first from Knowledge @ Wharton is titled "Brand Building in the Digital Age: A Dizzying Array of Choices" and the other from Business Week is titled "Web Attack".  An interesting contrast of stories looking at building and destroying brands online. 

The Knowledge @ Wharton article reviews suggestions generated from a panel discussion framed around a central premise that in Web 2.0 era "any media offering has to be true to the established brand name -- taking that brand's strengths and then figuring out which technology platforms are most compatible with its core mission".   

The Business Week article has a listing of 5 Best Practice Ideas for managing your brand given the potential nastiness online.  Among the five steps they suggest that you follow are the following:

1. Engage critics
2. Be vigilant - (See tips in my article on Brand Protection on the importance of brand monitoring.  Although they don't mention NameProtect, they do reference BuzzLogic and ReputationDefender.com in the article.)
3. Jump in and Open Up
4. Don't Overreact
5. Stay Professional

Is your brand protected?

Technorati State of the Blogosphere

David Siffry, from Technorati has released his quarterly status report on the state of the blogosphere.  Their research findings indicate a continued growth in the number of blogs with 120,000 new ones being created every day and a total of 70,000,000 being tracked by Technorati, a doubling since the last quarterly report in October.  In parallel with the creation of legitimate blogs, Siffry reports on the growth of splogs (spam blogs) indicating that they had removed 341,000 splogs from their indexes during the last measurement period.  The number of posts/day has started to decline according to their tracking results. 

One interesting result is that when blogs are compared to the mainstream media among the top 100 visited sites, the number of blogs in these rankings continues to grow, now at 22/100.  Another interesting factoid is that Japanese is the number one language of blog postings followed by English.