commbasics

Last week I started a series on the importance and future of geolocal (also called geosocial) apps and outlined a few of the roadblocks to success including the lack of widespread adoption of the underlying technology (smart phones), holding the interest of the audience, and the lack of community building inherent in the current options.  Today I want to look more into that last problem and how some players are overcoming it. As I said last week, the big benefit of social media is its ability to build communities through the web.  But those communities are, for the most part, virtual.  If you are in Facebook or any other platform, you have a large group of people in your network that you have never actually met face to face.  Yet, you are in contact with them regularly no matter where they are in the world.  you know a lot about them and you have several common interests.  However, try to do that on a local level with social media and you run into a p...

News came in this morning that UBM is acquiring Canon Communications  for $287 million.  That means EDN will become part of the EE Times Group, once the sale is approved by US regulators. It was just last February that Canon bought EDN , Test and Measurement World, Design News and Packaging Digest off the struggling Reed Business operation, followed by an ill-advised layoff of Robert Cravotta, picking up Rich Nass from Embedded Systems and the defection of Ron Wilson back to EE Times .  At that point I was concerned about the future of EDN and T&M World because it was obvious from discussions within Canon that they really didn't understand what EDN was all about, even though they were a successful and profitable publishing company. With this acquisition one might assume that EDN is not long for this world as they were an active competitor to EE Times, but a call with Paul Miller, CEO of the EE Times Group, this morning allayed that concern.  Miller sees t...

Recently, Dan Holden did a series on how apps are changing the face of the web which came right at the time I was considering a series on that very thing, but a bit more focused.  He's right and we need to consider how these technologies are going to affect our lives because in the modern world, the user has a greater stake in the outcome than ever.  So today we start looking at  on geolocal, or geosocial apps. These platforms are the latest darlings of the tech world.  VCs are throwing money at them like frat boys throw at strippers, the press can’t stop writing about them and, at this writing, there are more than 100 of them launched worldwide.  The biggest name, at the moment, is Foursquare , but Gowalla and Booya are making inroads and Twitter , Google and Facebook -- the gorillas of social media -- have launched their own initiatives. It’s not really a new phenomenon.  Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley launched a primitive version in Dodg...

I mentioned a few months ago that I've been studying the geolocal scene for a while and I'm about ready to let loose with some of this stuff.  Probably starting next week.  Why now?  Because all this stuff I've been writing about social media for the past 6 years has actually gotten my phone lines ringing this week from companies doing geolocal, measurement and engagement platforms ( see yesterday's post/video ) from companies wanting my counsel (yay, payday!) and review of their stuff.  Some of this I will be getting some compensation and I will let you know when that is.  But a lot of it will be on my own dime.  In all cases, I intend to be fair and objective as humanly possible.  Nothing is perfect, but parts are excellent. Why am I telling you this now?  Because I don't have all the answers nor do I know every permutation of this stuff.  So I want comments and suggestions of what to look at.  This is imp...

A few weeks ago I mentioned a company called Operational Transparency out of Austin, Texas.  I just finished an interview with the CEO, Robert Jones. What makes this remarkable is a short snippet about midway through the 10 minute interview where I ask about social media measurement.  What this company's product, OpDots, does, is make the input you put into it an actionable item.  If you are using it with a social media program, it makes it possible to incorporate the data you gather from social media into any appropriate information silo in your organization be it marketing, sales, customer service, operations or manufacturing. I told you this social media stuff can be measured! Oh yeah, this interview was partially sponsored by Operational Transparency, as well as Magma Design and Vpype .

   So I just got back from a 2 hour meeting with a handful of on-fire entrepreneurs from Europe who want to shake up the establishment and start building relationships, companies and jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.  "The 12 Entrepreneurs," as the group calls themselves (12 stars in the EU logo... get it?), come from all over Europe ( Austria, France, Spain, Germany, United Kingdom, Romania, Poland, Portugal, Norway, Italy, Czech Republic, Netherlands and Centrope Region (encompassing Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary)  and h ave launched multiple successful companies, but they have grown frustrated with Euro-reticence and Silicon Valley no-it-all-sim (yes I spelled it that way on purpose). They want to get our respective economic engines humming again. I like these guys so I have volunteered my time to get it started. The kickoff event will be a small gathering of no more than 50 invitees at the Plug-and-Play Center in Sunnyvale on Septe...

I love it when great minds think a like.  First Brian Solis sets up the segue from low-level to high-level engagement, and then Dan Holden talks about what the most important influencers might be.  so today I can talk about where you find the highest-level engagement in your social media program As a recap, since it was almost a week ago, the first level of engagement is made up of people that agree with you and give you kudos.  You know, the really intelligent readers ;).  The second level are the people who disagree with you and can include competitors.  these are people that can help you make course adjustments by giving you a reality check.  You don't have to accept what they say, but looking into the criticism can often make what you share so much better. The most valuable of all engagement, however, is the expansion level -- the people that take your ideas and concepts to different levels.  It may start as either agreement or disagre...