It seems these days that everyone needs to have their very own social media consultant at the ready and in my case many companies recently have felt the need to have me at their ready.  I have been swamped with business opportunities, speaking engagements and appointments to boards and committees.  My business is social media and right now I must say business is good.

The latest news that I must take time to report is that I have been appointed to the executive board of the International Blogging and New Media Association as they announce their latest re-launch.  This is at the same time that Paul Chaney has been appointed President of the association.  I am also joined by new executive board member Zane Safrit who was most recently CEO with Conference Calls Unlimited.  The rest of the board is comprised of Rick Calvert of Blog World and New Media Expo, the trade show that is partnered with the association, and Miles  Durfee the past President.  The release can be read for more information.

I welcome the challenges that being on the executive board of directors will bring and I hope that I can make the IBNMA something that all blogger and people involved with new media can be proud of and be happy to be members.  We will be having our annual meeting at the Blog World and New Media Expo in September on the 19-21, in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Convention Center.  Come on out to enjoy and be a part of a great organization. 

Now I can finally say that I have updated my blog with information which is better to say than “A cobbler’s son has no shoes.”

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I’m headed to Austin today and I am typing this post from the airplane trip on the way.  It seems to be a good way to get a post up and I am using Windows Live Writer which allows me to post numerous articles and blog posts from my desktop.  I can draft a number of posts and later when I find wifi or Internet access I can upload them to the blog for posting.  Us professional bloggers can use all the help we can and I recommend that you give it a try.

While in Austin I will be trying to meet as many people as possible.  I have a few appointments set up and I have a few parties on the schedule.  Luckily, I have been asked to be a wingman for Rick Calvert at Blog World Expo which I am looking forward to as much as the trip.  I’m going to be representing Twitterlights while I am at Barcamp as they are a sponsor.  If you have any questions about the application or you want a quick tour, please feel free to stop by and ask me how it works.  I’ll also be helping my friends at Lijit, by connecting them with some of my friends and helping show off their cool Lijit wijit and hopefully get a few of you to download the application and see how it works.  I’ll bet I even have a few stickers to give away too.  I am also helping out a long time client with his company’s new ad feed that they are introducing to everyone from Hostway.  They are hoping to show off their new launch.  Finally, I may even drop in have a meeting with my friends at Photrade as I understand they will be there looking to show off their new photo sharing site.  As it turns out this cool convention where everyone is there to party is turning out to be a lot of work for me.  I suppose this makes up for last year as I got nothing done and spent far too much time at the bar.

If you are going to be at the SXSW Interactive conference, please look me up.  I’ll be the one hard at work, and still having fun.  This after all us the ultimate social networking you can do.  If you want to be introduced to any of the people I’ll be their with, by all means come on up and buy me a drink, or dinner, or just give me the cash…well that’s not a requirement.  Hope to see you all there!

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Technorati has been an icon of the blogosphere since Dave Sifry began the company to track blogs and provide bloggers with statistics and search.  It was the first thing people downloaded to their blogs, and the first part of setting up a blog.  They seem to have lost that celebrity status.  There are so many companies that have been cracking away at that Technorati keystone that it appears they may crumble.  I have been waiting to hear some news from the Technorati camp and it appears that news is bubbling up as reported by TechCrunch.

When I talked with Richard Jalinchandra in Las Vegas at the Blog World Expo in November, he mentioned then that Technorati was in for some changes and that he wanted to lead the company back to its glory days.  He couldn’t talk then about what he was doing but it seems that the cool stuff I expected and the things the head of marketing, Aaron Krane,  talked about on my Social Mediapshere radio show would make them a shining star again.  I didnt expect them to enter the advertising arena.

Tris an I questioned them on why they were not indexing search results past six months and it looks like they may be rethinking that with adding an advertising component to their search.  Arrington states:

I was hoping that Technorati would be adding some features that would be more than just another way for bloggers to add a revenue component to their blogs.  I want to see them return to an application I would run to five times a day because they offered a way to see stats and a something that was cool to experience as I did back in the day.

This is part of the reason I have hooked my wagon to the folks at Lijit*.  I certainly see that they have ideas to make their “wijit” something that is a first add-on to a blog.  I am not sensing that Technorati has that coolness factor in mind.  I certainly understand that after raising $20M in funding you might want to start thinking of making money and perhaps they will change the way they run their business and we have only seen the beginning of their new glory days.  It appears Richard is doing his job of CEO and is running the company in the best interest of those investors, but I for one want to see them do some things they used to do, only better.  Don’t make it about the page views make it about the blogger and a company that every blogger loves to use.

[photo via Brian Solis]

*Lijit is a client and I do some evangelism for them.

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You have all had a chance to throw a zombie sheep at someone or poked, pushed,  prodded, slapped and rode hard and put away wet your friends and followers on Facebook, and I myself of course have had enough of the fun.  It’s being termed “application spam” or what Mike Arrington is calling “friend spamming.”

Facebook has become nearly a dead entity for me.  I continue to build my community there and I have used it to talk to some of my friends and colleagues, but for the most part I ignore it.  Some of my friends on Facebook are rabid users.  I say this only because I get 100 emails a day about my Funwall and Superwall and Likeness results and everything else that goes on inside the community.  At first I tried to keep up with the madness, but I already have ADD from Twitter and I can’t do both. 

Arrington reports:

I think Facebook must have their ear to the ground and a bug in my office.  Whenever I say something bad about them, they do something that doesn’t suck.

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I have been thinking about the comment left on my post about Blog Talk Radio and their attempt at monetizing their application.  Then I read today over at HipMojo the article about why companies that are basing themselves on ad revenue will fail.  It helped me formulate my own opinion about how companies in the tech world are struggling with making money.  It is a dance that seems hard to learn.

The game plan seems to be along these syllogistic lines.

These are the initial outlines I have seen.  During this period you may have an angel investment or a small first round to get to the tipping point number.  The next step is where it gets tricky.  Now that we are at our initial goal, how do we make it profitable?

Companies have built the trust and admiration of their users by providing a great application that is free and useful.  The users are making it an integral part of their lives.  The company has developed and gathered this large community.  They must leverage that into real money.  As I see it, they have but two choices, advertise or begin charging for the service they once before gave away for free.  A blend of these two would be a third choice.

Advertisers want eyeballs and reach.  The users are what they seek, and the more the better.  It’s all about the page views and the numbers generated from people.  Fewer users, the less they pay for your real estate.  Increasing page views and users increases revenue.  This is a hard fact as CEO’s try to guide the company to profitability.  If an application has 100,000 users it is worth more to an advertiser than 10,000 users.  Companies sell to advertisers and tell them, “We have 100,000 users at X amount of page views.”  The media buyers line up for those numbers.  Problem is, companies such as Blog Talk Radio have to sell based on those numbers, but then they must get the customer or users to get behind the plan. If they ask the users permission perhaps they only have 50,000 of the 100,000 users that will allow ads.  Now their property is worth 50% less to advertisers, and they don’t make money at that level.

Their second choice.  They begin charging the users for using the service.  Or as I indicated above the third choice, charging those that elect not to have advertising on the application a premium. The third choice allowing both opt in and opt out income.  This is risky as you may chase off users that were really sold on the application that was free, but not so warm to paying a fee for the service, or having advertisements show up on a usually clean page. 

It’s a chess match played by advertisers and CEO’s and ultimately users.  How can they all be happy?  I’m not sure that is entirely possible but their must be a compromise somewhere.  Companies are struggling to be profitable, advertisers are cutting their spend to increase their return on their own investment, and meanwhile, the user holds the power of being part of the community and whether the user wants to sell their eyeballs.

I have been touting 2008 as “The Year of The User.”  Companies have been building their user base.  The power the users hold with their attention and their eyeballs and presence make the other parties to the dance want to court them.  I’m not sure the answer, but I think ultimately it will raise the cost of advertising, and may force a new metric not based upon the number of eyeballs and page views.  Who flinches first has not been determined.

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There are many people that believe that social media is some sort of new religion.  In fact, many believe that adopting social media will somehow take them to the promise land, and make them successful beyond their wildest dreams.  This I’m afraid to say is not actually the case.

Joshua Porter has posted entitled “The Problem with Social Media Marketing“.  This is a great common sense approach to social media marketing, and well worth the read to get a very practical look at social media marketing.  I want to “amplify” his statement:

This is the lesson I want to get out to everyone about this post.  Social Media tools simply enable businesses.  It’s not an injection of coolness for your service or product.  Social Media is about community.  Building your community around your product or service.  As your community grows and your product becomes more well known, it will also be successful.  That is of course if you listen to what is being said in your community.  If you have a cool product or a cool service, it will be more cool in a larger community.  If it stinks, guess what it will stink more in a larger community.  Social Media is not some magic you turn on to make your product or service better.  It’s a tool that you use to tell people how good you think your product or service would be to them.

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I am a really big fan of Blog Talk Radio and have met Alan Levy, John Havens, Lisa Padilla, their newest addition, Kris Smith, and have spoken to others in their organization.  They are a bunch of great people.  They have a super application that is easy to use, is free for its users, and overall they have allowed me to have a radio/podcast show where I otherwise would not have had the ability or technology.  I can use something I am familiar with using, my computer and my phone.  I have done numerous shows on Social Mediasphere Radio and on Blog World Expo Radio and have praised them at every step.

This is why it will be difficult for me to shell out some harsh criticism now.  It is more than a small matter to me.  The have moved to their next level of “monetization” of their application.  After all, companies must make money and this is new territory still and companies are working hard to figure ways to get into the black.  I know first hand of companies that are making this a priority for 2008.  There has yet to be a surefire way for people to do this besides the obvious, advertising.  Blog Talk Radio is no different.

I received this email from Frank Neill, Director of Advertising, today that indicates that they are moving into this next phase of monetizing their application.

Obviously I am not the only one that loves the program and their system.

I am always happy to earn money from my efforts and if a company is using my content and my participation to earn that revenue, I think it is actually only fair that they offer me a piece of the pie.  But this is where the email turns south for me.

Big scratching noise across the LP for that last sentence.  If I’m to understand that paragraph, I can opt in to be paid for my content on Blog Talk Radio and they cay earn money and I can earn money, but if I don’t opt in to the rev share, they are going to put ads on my content whether I like it or not.  Huh?  What if I don’t endorse the product that is being advertised on my content?  Perhaps I have a religious, political, or moral reasons I don’t want to have a certain company using my content for their gain.  The tone behind it is one that is difficult to swallow as well.  “We’ll do it whether you like it or not.”  I know that was not the company intent.  A conversation with John Havens confirms it was in no way the company’s position.

The email goes on to say how they will be paying out for the revenue earned, and then talks about some ads already in place for “Run In Network” ads that run on all shows.  Examples given are “LifeLock, AccuQuote, Rosetta Stone and Internet Speedway.”

What if I don’t want Internet Speedway showing up on my content.  What happens if I am a direct competitor of theirs?  I have no control over their being splashed across my Social Mediasphere show?  I don’t endorse or approve of their business, but I am now forced to accept that forced endorsement?

To me as a business owner it is unacceptable.  Would I pay for ads not to appear on my shows or would I pay for a “pro” account” to control my own ads?  I probably would given the benefits I am receiving, but to put an add on my show that I do not endorse or don’t want is madness.  John made mention that this may be an offering that will later be put into place.  Yes, growing pains are just that, painful.

I have spoken to John Havens at Blog Talk Radio for comment about this and as always he is the very professional and asked that I speak directly to Frank Neill the advertising director. I will certainly post a follow up to that conversation.  I’m also about to scour the terms of service as it may reveal something I have missed.  I guess I don’t often rant about things here so this is new ground for me, but I guess I should ask, “Am I making a mountain out of a molehill?”  How about suggestions for the team at Blog Talk Radio?

UPDATE:  If anyone had any doubts about how cool the team is at BTR, check out their response from Frank Neill in the comments here.  I also want to reprimand myself for forgetting to change the title here after I spoke the first time to John Havens.  I changed the content but forgot the title.  I wont change it now but I think more appropriate title should be more like “Blog Talk Radio Enters Monetization and Learns How Hard It Can Be To Make A Buck.”  My hat is off to them as they give away the cow and try to sell the milk to their users.  I think a new post is now forming as well.  Are we too used to getting things for free?

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Just after their presentation at DEMO 08, I had a chance to sit down and have lunch with Fred Ngo of Standout Jobs. Ben Yoskovitz, a friend and someone that has helped me get my business on track here, is also one of the co-founder’s and is CEO of the company.  I was also joined by a couple of my colleagues Paul Swansen and Ronald Lewis.  It was a nice lunch with some great conversation.  Ronald had a chance to live cast a little on his Justin TV channel and he recorded some of the conversation.  You can go over to Ronald’s site and listen in on what was recorded.

If you are a startup company or if you are a company looking to hire someone using a great application that is mashed up with social media, Standout Jobs is the company you should choose.  Recruiters looking for a better way to reach your audience, you should try their site as well.  I was able to see first hand the power behind their ideas and it is truly a revolutionary way of using social media as a tool for companies hiring people. 

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I have been waiting for the newest release of Firefox as I understand it will help cure my memory woes with the boat anchor*.  I was glad to read on Techeme as reported by CNet News that Firefox has now come out with its latest version in beta.  I ran right over and downloaded the latest version before even thinking of the consequences.  Consequences?  Yeah its the new beta version and all of the extensions and add-ons and even client applications are no longer operable that I had installed.

I assume that companies are scrambling to make their toolbar applications work with this latest version.  I am not sure how hard it will be to update all of those companies like Stumbleupon or others that are no longer on my extensions but I hope they move quickly.  It is funny how we become accustomed to having things work.

The problems with the boat anchor?  Well, I’m sure that those troubles will continue until we have a burial at sea, but for the most part, the memory seems to work a little better. 

*What I like to call this joke of a laptop with little to no memory I am forced to use.

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Silicon Alley Insider is discussing the fact that Fox News Corp. is trying to make a back door deal with Yahoo. In the words of my friend Dave Taylor, “so what?”  Apparently, Yahoo will do anything not to fall into the hands of Microsoft or do they actually realize this is inevitable and they are trying to make Microsoft hurt a little when they raise the stakes.

Mike Arrington goes into a little more detail about what the deal may entail as it relates to what money or assets would trade hands or at least be a part of the deal.

I’m really failing to see what the benefits are to the shareholders of Yahoo.  They after all are the decision makers here.  Besides a big dose of cash what are the shareholders really gaining as it values their stock?  MySpace may be a nice carrot, but not something Yahoo really needs.  I doubt Myspace has the momentum to pull Yahoo from its current slide.

My thought is that this is a deal that is really just going to make Microsoft really hurt when they write that check.  Yahoo wants a competing offer to make sure that Microsoft must raise its own offer.  I think that Yahoo sees the writing on the wall but is doing what they can to make sure they go out in blaze of glory.  Of course at this point with all of those 1,000 employees now looking outside Yahoo for jobs, glory is a relative term.

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