Category: The Conversation Economy

Twitter Bumps Ceiling

It had to happen, and it has. Twitter’s unbelievable growth numbers have flatlined, or even gone down, if you look at Quantcast (the site is not Quantified).   This was predictable, given all the media hype and new folks, and the very real newbie problem I outlined in this post last…

quantcast twitter june.pngIt had to happen, and it has. Twitter’s unbelievable growth numbers have flatlined, or even gone down, if you look at Quantcast (the site is not Quantified).  

This was predictable, given all the media hype and new folks, and the very real newbie problem I outlined in this post last month.

I predict Twitter will address this issue, and growth will resume, but at a more moderate and sustainable pace. But this is a very clear sign that Twitter, which made the cover of Time magazine last week, is on the other, less happy side of a traditional hype cycle.

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English’s Millionth Word: Web 2.0

For the past few days I've been focused on a final draft of an essay, co-authored with Tim O'Reilly, focusing on the theme of this year's Web 2.0 Summit. It's rewarding work, reminiscent of the early days of Wired, when I'd regularly edit or write long form pieces focusing on…

web2.pngFor the past few days I’ve been focused on a final draft of an essay, co-authored with Tim O’Reilly, focusing on the theme of this year’s Web 2.0 Summit. It’s rewarding work, reminiscent of the early days of Wired, when I’d regularly edit or write long form pieces focusing on big ideas and the future, but grounded in real world examples from today.  

But writing and editing this kind of stuff is also challenging work, and I often procrastinate, as I am right now, by writing a blog post or skimming the web for interesting tidbits. And boy, did I find a funny one today. According to CNN, the term “Web 2.0” is not only now an “official word” in the English language, it’s also the millionth one, of all things. (This according to the Global Language Monitor, a website that uses algorithms to determine when words enter the language.)

Too funny!

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As We Head Toward A More Conversational Interface, Can AdWords Keep Up?

Gian Fulgoni, Executive Chair of Comscore, has an interesting analysis of what's happening in paid search lately. It's germane to my earlier posts about paid search share sliding and Google's decision to allow trademark ad bidding. In his post, Gian notes that overall search queries are up dramatically (68% over…

Gian Fulgoni, Executive Chair of Comscore, has an interesting analysis of what’s happening in paid search lately. It’s germane to my earlier posts about paid search share sliding and Google’s decision to allow trademark ad bidding.

In his post, Gian notes that overall search queries are up dramatically (68% over two years) but:

if one looks at the number of paid clicks, the growth rate is a lower 18%, which raises the question: why have paid clicks grown 3x slower than the total number of queries?

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New SMB Post: Cultivate That Garden

Over at the HP SMB marketing site, my second post is up. Now, for most of you, this stuff will not be particularly new, but it's good to recall that just 42% of all SMBs have websites, and most of those are not particularly social in nature. From my post:…

Over at the HP SMB marketing site, my second post is up. Now, for most of you, this stuff will not be particularly new, but it’s good to recall that just 42% of all SMBs have websites, and most of those are not particularly social in nature. From my post:

Most small business websites are not very good. That means you have a chance to really stand out. And that’s a huge competitive advantage.

At this point you’re probably rolling your eyes and saying “Yeah, right. Now I have to spend thousands of dollars making something that’s just going to break in a few months, and then I’ll have to pay another grand to fix it.”

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The Conversational Interface

I have been thinking about this a lot. How we are finally taking technology and making it serve our evolution, the two major breakthroughs of being human – our fingers – finely tuned gesticulation as a reflection of our minds – and our voices – again, finally tuned expression of…

I have been thinking about this a lot. How we are finally taking technology and making it serve our evolution, the two major breakthroughs of being human – our fingers – finely tuned gesticulation as a reflection of our minds – and our voices – again, finally tuned expression of our minds.

Pattie is on to something here.

http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf

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New York CM Summit Lineup Posted, Registration Open

Our annual event in New York, The Conversational Marketing Summit, has just announced its initial lineup. It’s going to be very, very good. I host this event each year in New York and this year we are focusing on answering a simple question: What Works?   Speakers include: Fred Wilson, who…

cmsny2009_colorlogolarge.jpgOur annual event in New York, The Conversational Marketing Summit, has just announced its initial lineup. It’s going to be very, very good. I host this event each year in New York and this year we are focusing on answering a simple question: What Works?  

Speakers include:

Fred Wilson, who I can’t wait to talk to about his investments in Twitter, Comscore, Tacoda, Boxee, Clickable, Etsy, Tumblr, and tons of other really intersting CM companies.

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P&G Digital Hack Night – Moving the Conversation

I could not make the event, but FM had two participants. Chas summed it up this way: "the format is like a reality TV show: A contest among groups of digital marketing experts, Apprentice-style, in an effort to tap social media tools to sell Tide t-shirts for charity." It…

tideshirt.png

I could not make the event, but FM had two participants. Chas summed it up this way: “the format is like a reality TV show: A contest among groups of digital marketing experts, Apprentice-style, in an effort to tap social media tools to sell Tide t-shirts for charity.”

It was a fun night, from what I’ve heard, and $100,000 was raised for charity, which is really cool.

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Can Google Find Its Voice?

This is going to be a very big deal. Or forgettable. I am not sure which. I had a conversation with a NYT reporter about this today. (Story here, but I was not quoted). It made me think. First off, this product was not launched by Eric, Sergey, or…

Googlevoice

This is going to be a very big deal. Or forgettable.

I am not sure which.

I had a conversation with a NYT reporter about this today. (Story here, but I was not quoted). It made me think. First off, this product was not launched by Eric, Sergey, or Larry. So who knows if this is a Big Deal Inside Google, or Pasta Against the Walls?

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Another Conversational Economy Milestone

Found in this Wired piece on Comcast: Thanks to Famous Frank (here's Searchblog's interview), Comcast began thinking about going even further. The weekend that the company published its response to the FCC—outlining how it managed its network and how it planned to change—one of Roberts' lieutenants suggested something even…

Found in this Wired piece on Comcast:

Thanks to Famous Frank (here’s Searchblog’s interview), Comcast began thinking about going even further. The weekend that the company published its response to the FCC—outlining how it managed its network and how it planned to change—one of Roberts’ lieutenants suggested something even more radical: having ordinary company engineers go on message boards to answer questions. It was the kind of proposal that violated every tenet of the old cable code of business, and the matter could be settled only at an executive board meeting on the 52nd floor.

Roberts, sitting with his back to the window, listened to both sides. Then he declared it was time to be a bit more transparent. He finally got it. He was turning a page. “I think we should do this, but we all have to have thick skins,” he said. “People are going to vent. But that’s all right.”

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Pizza Joint Employs Conversational Jujitsu

This is priceless: (via Boing Boing) At San Francisco's Pizzeria Delfina, they know how to own their pain. Rather than wringing their hands over Internet sourpusses who give them one-star Yelp ratings, they've printed up tees with excerpts from the most scathing reviews ("This place sucks") and given them…

This is priceless: (via Boing Boing)

At San Francisco’s Pizzeria Delfina, they know how to own their pain. Rather than wringing their hands over Internet sourpusses who give them one-star Yelp ratings, they’ve printed up tees with excerpts from the most scathing reviews (“This place sucks”) and given them to the staff to wear.

I call this practice “conversational jujitsu” – take the negative force of complaints, embrace them, and use them to your advantage. Just wait until really large companies start to do this. Then we’ll see remarkable change in this economy.

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