Focus + Purpose = Readership [Project Tinity]
Every website has a purpose. A vision. A reason for people to come and visit and more importantly a reason to come back. Essentially you need a value proposition that visitors want. For 99% of websites today that has to do with content. Content could be the written word, pictures, audio, or video. Each type of content has different levels of engagement. Some is informative. Some is entertainment. Some makes us angry. Some makes us cry. Content, at the end of the day, is the essence of the World Wide Web.
Pick a niche. Successful websites pick a space to play in; they focus, and stick to it only adjusting when necessary. When websites try to be all things to all people, either in a vertical industry, or just in general they will always have problems organizing their content in a manner that is acceptable to the visitor. Visitors will become frustrated and leave. Niche sites, on the other hand, can stay focused and deliver high-quality content in an organized fashion.
Examples of successful niche sites:
- Mashable – social media news
- TechCrunch – technology news
- Huffington Post – news, gossip
- VentureBeat – venture capital, start-ups, and entrepreneurship
And while theses are examples, they are not the only sites that fill these niches. So there is indeed room for everyone. The only question is where do these sites provide a value proposition, or a differentiation factor. Is it to break news? Provide insights and opinions? Aggregate information into one site?
Value Proposition. This will vary from site to site and from individual to individual. However, for a good website to keep visitors coming back, a value proposition must exist. When that value proposition is around content, the content itself is the proposition. It has to be well written, relative, timely, aggregated, and in some cases protected. Sites like Wall Street Journal have had a content value proposition for years. In fact they are one of the few last standing with that business model, though some like the New York Times will re-introduce a paid wall in January 2011.
I’m very partial to the types of sites that can aggregate industry news and information in concise ways. That’s why I think sites like Mashable and TechCrunch end up being daily visits for me. Both sites eloquently write about industry news about social media and technology respectively Sometimes they break news, sometimes they share rumors. I also really enjoy resource sites like MarketingProfs where it isn’t just news, but research, best practices, user community, and even a membership proposition.
For Project Trinity, let’s think about combining the best of both worlds. The site will be specific to a vertical market that can build traffic based on that niche audience. It will feature content, resources, and even a gated community of content and features that are exclusive to a subscriber base. So what industry should this site address? What industry do you see right now that has a void that needs filling? Give me some ideas in the comments.
Every website has a purpose. A vision. A reason for people to come and visit and more importantly a reason to come back. Essentially you need a value proposition that visitors want. For 99% of websites today that has to do with content. Content could be the written word, pictures, audio, or video. Each type of content has different levels of engagement. Some is informative. Some is entertainment. Some makes us angry. Some makes us cry. Content, at the end of the day, is the essence of the World Wide Web.
Pick a niche. Successful websites pick a space to play in; they focus, and stick to it only adjusting when necessary. When websites try to be all things to all people, either in a vertical industry, or just in general they will always have problems organizing their content in a manner that is acceptable to the visitor. They will become frustrated and leave. Niche sites, on the other hand, can stay focused, and deliver high-quality content in an organized fashion.
Examples of successful niche sites:
- Mashable – social media news
- Techcrunch – technology news
- Huffington Post – news, gossip
- VentureBeat – venture capital, start-ups, and entrepreneurship
And while theses are examples, they are not the only sites that fill these niches. So there is indeed room for everyone. The only question is where do these sites provide a value proposition, or a differentiation factor. Is it to break news? Provide insights and opinions? Aggregate information into one site?
Value Proposition. A;lskjaf
I’m very partial to the types of sites that can aggregate industry news and information in concise ways. That’s why I think sites like Mashable and TechCrunch end up being daily visits for me. Both sites eloquently write about industry news about social media and technology respectively Sometimes they break news, sometimes they share rumors. I also really enjoy resource sites like MarketingProfs where it isn’t just news, but research, best practices, user community, and even a membership proposition.
For Project Trinity, let’s think about combining the best of both worlds. The site will be specific to a vertical market that can build traffic based on that niche audience. It will feature content, resources, and even a gated community of content and features that are exclusive to a subscriber base. So what industry should this site address? What industry do you see right now that has a void that needs filling?
Project Trinity – My Kind of Website
There has been a lot of flack over Facebook and their decreasing control and increasing complexity of privacy for their users. Several industry leaders have started a revolt and put out an open call for a new site to be created. While I’m not in a position to build such a site (that is what the Dispora Project will do), Project Trinity is my exploration into building a robust, user focused website.
Over the coming weeks I’ll be sharing ideas about this website and the process I’m going through in conceptualizing it. I’ll be sharing links to resources and tools that are interesting in providing value and a business model. Future posts will include:
- User Interaction Graph
- Privacy Concerns / Permissions
- Content Development and Support
- Engagement Strategy
- Features and Functionality
- Integrations with and Between Other Sites
- User Experience Design
- Revenue Sources and Models
- Platforms, Architecture, and Performance
- and much more
Maybe Project Trinity could be something real someday, but that isn’t the intent here. It is to discuss the components of building a website that is full featured, engaging, social, and content focused. In other environments I have to be diplomatic and receptive to ideas and decisions made by others. Project Trinity is my project. It is how I would do it. I hope you come along for the ride and participate in the discussion.
Balancing Social Convenience with Privacy
Evolution of Facebook Privacy - Matt McKeon 2010
In a world where being able to connect with old friends, family, co-workers, and connections is now the “norm” it surprises me when we start to see backlash as we are with Facebook recently. Especially when these are FREE services. However, everyone in the Internet age has been foregoing bits and pieces of their privacy for the convenience of connecting with each other and interacting in a social way online.
The thing is that when we interact online we are always leaving a little digital signature of who we are, where we came from, what we did, etc. Part of this is an aspect of the Web in general through cookies and GPS coordinates. Another part is just by virtue of how the Web works and how analytics are tracking site behavior. While Web sites may not know who you are specifically (unless you log in), they will certainly get a good idea of what you like and deliver better content next time.
Free sites have to make money. Running Web servers, development costs, etc all costs money and no investor or venture capitalist is going to invest in a company without the potential to get their money back. So for companies like Facebook, Twitter, Hulu, (insert name of cool website with free service), they all have the same issue; how will they make money? For many, it will be in online advertising. Google does this with most of its products from Google Search to Gmail to YouTube. Facebook does it with ads and virtual gifts. Even LinkedIn does it with their online recruiting (job board), research arm, and advertisements. However, nobody really seems to care about it when it is advertising because most often it is what keeps the service free to use. Do you remember when Google first rolled out ads that were contextual to your search, or your email messages? Everyone was outraged, yet millions of people still use those services. When you go onto Amazon and you see products that are based on your behavior, your information you have shared and more. No matter what we do online, the more we want convenience of personalized information and use of free services we will have to give up a piece of our privacy. When you check-in at a restaurant using Yelp, Foursquare or Gowalla, you are sending out your location over the web. “I’m here!”
Surprisingly I?ve seen little mention of the possible reasons why Facebook has shifted their privacy policy. I was recently at Facebook?s HQ and the light bulb went off for me when it came up in conversation. Facebook doesn?t want to be a social network anymore, they want to be a single source of your online presence. They want to provide you, the user, with news, communications, and ability to interaction with all your social graphs (friends, family, co-workers, and brands). Facebook has become a platform and stopped being a social network.
The easiest way that Facebook, and other social networks, are integrating your personal information is via their authentication tools. In Facebook?s world this is Facebook Connect. It allows you, the user, to log into another website with your Facebook credentials. In some cases, like a registration for a site, you can populate certain fields and share your activity with this new site with your Facebook friends. This is where everyone is getting their arms up air over this privacy invasion. But if you want the convenience of not having to remember dozens of usernames and passwords, using one, like what you use for Facebook becomes convenient.
The other big discussion is around Facebook?s social widgets. These are actually less intrusive as one might think. They are what we call iframes, which means the ?Like? button that they just rolled out is actually a page within a page. The Web site that the ?Like? button is on actually doesn?t get any information about that person. So for me, I have the ?Like? button on this blog post. If you see other people who ?like? this post, I get none of that data. It doesn?t go into a database of mine, or into an email to me. Zip. Nada. What makes them attractive to Web site administrators, like me, is that it provides a level of personalization that I couldn?t achieve otherwise. And because Facebook is 500M strong, the chances are of that personalization working on my Web site is pretty good. The same goes for CNN and thousands of other sites which have integrated these new features into them.
The next time you think about your privacy and where your information is being shared, or even sold, think about he conveniences you have online when you use Web sites. You are giving up your privacy every day, but you are also willing to do so. In fact, if you really want to know who else is using your personal information just look into the fine print of the following:
- Your Bank
- Your Credit Cards
- Your Loyalty Cards (Grocer, Movie Rental, Book Store)
- Google Account (Oh, how quickly we forget about them)
- Professional Association or Trade Association
You may be surprised on what you read.
What Facebook, Google, and Microsoft Taught Me About Culture
I’ve looked into they eye of the beast, and what I saw was glorious. I get the opportunity every few years to go visit a technology company through work with one of our Standing Committees. This year we took a trip out to Palo Alto, California to visit Facebook. Facebook has been a hot topic in the legal profession for a while, mostly circling their privacy changes. We didn’t get a chance to debate those issues on this trip, but we did get to discuss how brands are using Facebook and how lawyers and law firms can take advantage of the platform.
While I’m not going to get into all the details of this visit here (that will come out in other posts) I am going to quickly talk about work culture. I’ve visited three major technology companies over the last few years: Microsoft, Google, and now Facebook. Each experience was different and I think that has to do with when they were started, what their focus is on, and how they execute their product.
New School vs. Old School. I think there are clear differences between old school vs. new school companies. Old school is hierarchical with office space, titles and corporate environment. They have high-walled cubes and offices with doors. Microsoft is old school. When I visited Microsoft you didn’t feel the innovation happening. Maybe that was because it was in a different building than the one I was in. When I visited Google and Facebook the environment was much different. They have open spaces, collaboration areas, appropriate levels of distractions (like FB has a Guitar Hero room and ping pong tables). You could feel the magic happening. You could tell there were smart people in the room coding ideas, sharing thoughts, working towards common goals. It was energizing to be around and just observe. People were excited to be at work and working on their projects. It could also have been the fact that people were in jeans, walking around with Macs, working on 40″ monitors, etc.
Location, Location, Location. Maybe it is just being in Silicon Valley that is the biggest difference. Both Google and Facebook are miles away from each other. In fact, Facebook is practically in the middle of a residential district just outside of Standford University. However I’d be willing to bet that HP, which is around the corner and was in the building Facebook now occupies, is a little more old school. Microsoft, on the other hand, has a campus that has a highway that runs right down the middle outside of Seattle. Impressive, yes, but still corporate in nature for sure. However, it may not be your location. I’ve also visited Total Attorney’s offices in Chicago and their set up is very similar to Google and Facebook, so maybe the Valley isn’t as critical as one might think.
Focus. While Google and Facebook haven’t been around for a decade yet, I think that is actually one of their prime reasons they are as successful as they are. They are focused. Every employee who works there knows how their project fits into the grand scheme of their company. These companies have a focus (beyond profits), and that is something their employees embrace and motivates them. They want to be the best, breaking new ground in their industry, and setting trends, not fads. Google lets their employees work on pet projects for 20% of their time. This is how products like GMail, Google Talk emerged. Those have then taken Google into directions they initially didn’t assume they would get into — office tools. Facebook has a focus on transforming itself from a social network to a profile management and communication tool. Products like their lists which help you categorize your friends helps you manage who sees what and what you communicate to whom. It has opened a whole new door to the Social Graph for them — and how we communicate and share information.
Microsoft, on the other hand, is very diverse in their product lines. They have several divisions: Search, Gaming, Office, etc. and from a conglomerate standpoint, the act and operate like a big corporation — each division responsible for their own bottom line. While Google has several product lines as well, their delivery vehicle is the same — the Web.
Photos from Facebook HQ
Photos from Google Visit
So while one may wear a tie to work and the other scoots around on a skateboard, think about how your company works. Is it effective in producing your products and services? Does every employee know how their project fits within the overall strategy of the organization? What changes could you make that would allow for better work product, focus, and commitment from your employees? Maybe business casual is OK everyday. It may depend on the profession you are in. It may depend on experience and longevity of your management team. My biggest take away from these visits is that your work environment and culture is very critical to the success of your company.
Are You Up to Speed on Socialnomics?
Socialnomics, the economics of the social world and social media. It isn’t a fad, it is here to stay. Brands, companies, and industries have been paying attention — have you? Erik Qualman, the author of Socialnomics has updated his video that has mind-blowing stats regarding the use of social media in today’s world. It is an update of his original one that came out when he launched his book. Some of his interesting statistics include:
- If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 3rd largest ahead of the United States and only behind China and India
- Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web
- 80% of companies use social media for recruitment; % of these using LinkedIn 95%
- 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations
- Kindle eBooks Outsold Paper Books on Christmas (COMMENT: I wonder how this will change next year with the iPad out)
- Successful companies in social media act more like Dale Carnegie and less like Mad Men Listening first, selling second
Here is the latest video. What do you think about the stats? Anything jump out at you?
What is Facebook Really Up To?
Pete Cashmore, of Mashable, talks with Bloomberg about some interesting thoughts regarding Facebook, what they are doing, where they are going, and who they might be competing with.
I will have some thoughts on this and other Facebook stuff soon.
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