Integrating Friendfeed into Twhirl

This is an awesome new development coming from Chris Brogan via Twitter (link here). Reason why I'm excited about this new development is two fold:

1. I'm a huge fan of Data Aggregation and I feel sites like FriendFeed is just the tip of the iceberg since the future of internet in this age of ageless & countless information and on top of that millions of social tools available to track them makes our life more complex. So data aggregators like FF is sigh of relief since it has not only aggregated data but social tools like Flickr, Twitter, Blogger, digg, StumbleUpon and others in one platform from where we can track everything.

2. I always tried to keep a tab on Friendfeed (FF) but unfortunately always forget to check it out.

So this little bit of information made me quite excited since now I can track FriendFeed & Twitter together from Twhirl (twhirl is a desktop client for the Twitter microblogging platform, powered by Adobe AIR).

Down below is the steps of how to pull FriendFeed in Twhirl account (Source: Mzinga):

If you don't have Twhirl already, you need to start by downloading Adobe Air.

Once you download air and install it, download the beta version of Twhirl from Leo Laporte's site (don't go to Twhirl's site, the latest version they have is only .0.8.5)

Before you install Twhirl, make sure you have your current version of Twhirl closed if you currently use it.

This is the slightly tricky part - open up the new version of Twhirl and click on the logo in the top right-hand corner of the application (it looks like a mini green and white hurricane)

See screenshot below: The key is to select "FriendFeed" as an application option in the bottom left-hand corner:
a) Once you do this, enter your account info in the box just to the right and click the plus sign.
b) Now select your Friendfeed account from the list above.
c) Click "Connect" and this should prompt you for your "remote key" - click on the link below the box if you don't have one and it will pop up a FriendFeed browser window with your key.
d) Copy, cut and paste the key into your Twhirl dialogue box and hit enter.

Thanks again to Chris Brogan & Aaron Strout for sharing this information.

Image Courtesy: Mzinga

Read the official Twhirl release: twhirl 0.8 released - adding friendfeed support

Revenue Models for Twitter

This post is dedicated to Twitter. Some may think I've lost it but most of you won't doubt my reasoning. Those who doubt should spend sometime in Twitter (It's a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers called Tweets) to understand why am I so nuts to dedicate a blog post to an entity who's existence lies in bits & bytes. For those who feel for twitter (including myself), even though it fails too often, one thing we can't deny is that it's very much intertwined into our lives.

Some of the reasons for its usual or supposedly (if I may say) failures is its funding part of it. So in this post, what I've tried is to work around on some of the possible Revenue Generation models on which Twitter may work on. Though one of my previous post was on Community-led Business Model Monetization for Twitter in Facebook but this one will delve somewhat deep. So here are my thoughts:

• Monetization through 3rd part Apps: First of all, 3rd party applications are those like Twhirl, TweetDeck etc. The realtime stream of all the messages in those apps are carried by the use HTTP to pull msgs from twitter. But twitter, since they use Jabber in the backend, can use something called XMPP). It is a push technology mostly. So instead of clients (say tweetdeck) requesting to twitter over a period of time, the messages gets pushed to the tweetdeck's server (which tweetdeck has to incorporate additionally - after that tweetdeck clients can either use XMPP or HTTP to connect to their own servers to get msgs) and user experiences a near real time (messages gets shown immediately) experience with tweetdeck. This can be a Premium Service by twitter. In fact they do it for free - ex. Gnip is using it in this way. So Twitter can charge 3rd party apps (like TweetDeck) on the 2 way model: One is the free one and the other being the paid one depending on parameters like no. of tweets per day etc. Even 2 cents will also do. (Thanks to Arun Vijayan for bringing this to notice and re-correcting this model)


• Twitter as Search Tool: Summize (Rechristened as search[dot]twitter[dot]com) can be used for the next level of Search Indexing where the USP may be “What are you Searching?” The answer lies in the conversations Tweople (people residing the Twitterland) are having. Relevancy will be based on Time Frame, No. of conversations on the specific topic, No. of users endorsing/conversing on the same topic.


• Monetizing for Corporate Clients: In the recent trend, lot of companies are following online conversations via twitter like Dell, Comcast, FireFox etc. Search[dot]Twitter[dot]Com can be used for corporate clients to refine/optimize their search regarding the conversations customers/client/partners are having about them. It's more on the online-offline service model to help them out in understanding, refining and optimizing tweople's conversations across twitterland.


• Twitter as News Aggregator: Recent developments in Twitter Blog says that "...Twitter is increasingly being described as a personal news-wire—shared world events like this morning's earthquake near Los Angeles support the definition." Users nowadays have started concentrating on the trending topics of twitter search (Summize) to get relevant news in the web and the best part is it's people shared and it comes faster than traditional news medium which makes it different & premium. So isn't this a new model of attracting users through which Twitter can earn revenues.

These are the broad guidelines in which Twitter can definitely monetize going forward in the future. So please contribute your own ideas, so that we can help OUR TWITTER!

Comments are most welcome...

The “X”-ing Generation: “SOS-CAR” Model

Click to enlarge the image above.

Internet Generation (or Net Gen) can be classified into 3 broad categories:

1. Wiki Generation

2. B.S.O.S. (Bright & Shiny Object Syndrome) Generation

3. Baby Boomers Generation

First of all, understanding the SOS-CAR model, we have to first see what all activities are being performed by internet users. The activities can be broadly classified as Searching (S), Reading (R), Scrutinizing (S), Authenticating (A), Collaborating (C) and Organizing (O).

The whole analysis will flow like this:

1. Firstly, understanding the WHAT aspect of this model.
2. Secondly, the WHERE aspect.
3. Lastly, WHEN aspect of the model.

(I) “WHAT” is “SOS-CAR” MODEL:

Internet surfing (according to the web parlance) consists of these 6 steps which we can identify with. Searching (S), Reading (R), Scrutinizing (S), Authenticating (A), Collaborating (C) and Organizing (O). Putting it accordingly, the step by step process goes like this:

Searching>>Reading>>Scrutinizing>>Authenticating>>Collaborating>>Organizing

1. Searching: In this step, the user seeks information in the infinite information-soaked world of the web. E.g. - Google, Yahoo, Mahalo, Craiglist.
2. Reading: Once he gets his needed information, he reads it to know much about it. E.g. Blogs, News site like NYT, WSJ or Technology info site like TechCrunch, Engadget.
3. Scrutinizing: After the initial phase of reading, he wants to scrutinize it by checking or cross-checking it with other related information. E.g. Robert Scoble for Technology etc.
4. Authenticating: In this stage, he tries to authenticate it by getting in-depth into the information by narrowing his interest. This stage also involves going through opinionated bloggers or site pertaining to specific information. E.g. Information only about Apple iPhone’s launch blogs/news.
5. Collaborating: In this, he tries to collaborate with others by writing in blogs, bookmarking in del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Digg etc or spreading the word through Twitter, Jaiku or Friendfeed etc.
6. Organizing: In this final stage, he organizes the much needed information in Readers or keeping a copy for future references, both online or offline.

(II) “WHERE” is “SOS-CAR” MODEL:

The basic understanding of the different facets of the model helps us to segregate different kinds of users based on the activity they perform most often. The users are differentiated as:

1. Wiki Generation: This generation of people will be found in the wee hours of the night Digging/Stumbling some news article. Dubbed by some as geeks and nerd by others (but personally I believe, these are the people who make the floating data in the web more filtered for me and many more).

2. B.S.O.S. Generation: Dubbed as Bright & Shiny Object Syndrome generation, these people are mostly short in attention span but very high on filtration rate. They quickly filter any important information and pass it down via their blogs or bookmark it for the whole world to see. So if you hear that the next big things are Web 2.0, Social Media or stuff like that then accuse them for sure since they are responsible to carry the baton ahead (Pun intended).

3. Baby Boomers Generation: They are the passive recipients of mass consumer culture and often refrain from getting into the groove of spreading online and restrict only to minor personalization of information.

(III)“WHEN” is “SOS-CAR” MODEL:

Firstly, hate to break the news but slowly & steadily, the audience is dying (mostly in terms of attention span), which makes it imperative to reach them and add value to their lives. One of the ways would be to look beyond demographics to wants & desires. For Net Gen, it is crucial to create such content which will allow your audience to add more value to their lives. Ask me why? It’s because in today’s low-trust world you will definitely want to permeate into people’s consciousness and then try engaging them which pulls your audience further into a dialogue (far different from traditional monologues) and then into a rich & insightful conversation.

N.B. My analysis is partly inspired from Wikinomics.

Eureka Bar: 8 Lessons for & from a Bookstore

I just love reading books. It's not that I'm a big enthusiast but whenever I get some time, I'm into it. So this habit of mine usually takes me to a place where I personally feel very relaxed i.e. A Bookstore. Though trust me I used to hate going to the library when I was in school and used to think it's a simple waste of space by keeping books rather than making a playground out of it. Hehe :-)

Anyway this month's flavour is "Why do I love these People" by Po Bronson (thanks to Gaurav via Facebook Apps). I will give a review of it later in my Facebook profile if not in my blog. But first things first. This post is about Bookstores. I learnt new things during my visit which actually made me sit and write this post. So some of the learnings as well as the strategies that bookstores may/can use are:

• I came to know that modern day Bookstores use mostly two types of cataloging- One is the type of books kept on categories like on Management, Sociology, Philosophy etc and the other is shelving books of all A's or B's separately like you will find all the books of Seth Godin under "S" named shelf and likewise. But my personal favorite is the former one. Thinking how many people buy like me...I mean by topics rather than having a book already in their mind??


• The inner ambience is more important than the external visual appeal.


• People get inside the bookstore to spend some quality time. So have plenty of comfy chairs strategically placed in between the shelves.


• Don't keep nudging the customers too often to make him buy a book rather make him more comfortable and if possible give the options of variety of book (this should be used only if it's a first time customer).


• Give him a booklet with a small "thank you for visiting us" smiley as well as of the category of books that the store has and if customer service is your prime aim then booklet with the store layout is not a bad idea.


• Personally I don't like bookstore having two or more floors as it becomes tedious to stroll through easily but if it is then go back to #5.


• Pass the rebate as discount coupon on the next item they buy. Just stamp it at the back of the coupon to keep a track.


• A must have section dedicated only for “Harry Porter typo kids” where a storyteller can recite small part of a story and then suddenly stop and make it all the more interesting for the kids to pester their parents to buy that buy. Trust me it works (seen it, it works…Parents beware!!!). Anyways please excuse me if I’m acting like a hard-bound marketer here.

So let me know if you have experienced something like this in a bookstore or some new type of strategy bookstores are using...

Eureka Bar: Backstory as a Marketing tool

Few weeks back, my friend Bozo told me that he bought a new shirt from Peter England (Do check this interactive site, quite interesting I must say). Though this won't hit the headlines for sure, still it did helped me to write this post in "Eureka Bar".

I observed an interesting narrative in Peter England (an apparel brand in India) shirts' packaging which tells us more about how the brand came into existence with "Peter England Story". This piece of simplistic marketing effort goes beyond the traditional capitalist overture.

Now product backstories is not new in the consumer centric markets. It has been there for ages. But now its importance is very well understood. If we dig deep, we will understand that product back stories have more potential than just from societal point of view. It's more on a cultural basis where you are trying to engage your customers with your product.

The backstories run deep inside the human psyche and forms an emotional bond. Now as far as I am concerned, I believe that backstories generate better Word-of-Mouth as people are more thrilled to know about where the product came from, how is it made etc. Nowadays marketing efforts are concentrating more on benefits, creating demand or focusing on attributes. So marketing companies' backstories become all the more important in this case.

The real lesson is "Simplicity in Marketing". Nowadays customers know that "You are Marketing" so simplicity becomes all the more imperative to break through the clutter. Basically no one adapts marketing which is simple and at the end of it all, it just gets ignored. But, simple stories are easier to pass along as they respect their audience by not wasting their time.

At least in this case, an Indian brand has taken to this concept of selling through Simplistic Marketing.

Eureka Bar: Brand me and a little bit more..!!

We all love Tees. But I don’t know if you have noticed it or not but somehow people love expressing themselves through this little piece of cloth. Take for instance, this company lastexittonowhere who got inspired by some of the most memorable places, corporations and companies in 20^th century fiction (Look at the inset picture). Idea is simple; people love to attach themselves to the stories which these signages have to say.

Time & again, countries (sometimes cities too like “I love NY” campaign have tried to indulge their audience with them. So why should the companies forget this little idea of communicating their companies’ messages amongst their target audience. More often than not, we have seen companies fancying into sophomoric promotion/marketing through distributing tees to their employees. Now get out and spread the message to the larger mass alike.

Some of the reasons why I think that it will work:

1. Long term benefits in terms of brand recall.
2. At the end of it all, you are creating audiences who are inspired by the authenticity & transparency of the company’s story.
3. Don’t forget the WOMM for this sort of communication which has become the lingua franca for neo emergent companies.

Eureka Bar : The "0th P" in Marketing

Open any marketing book by any marketing guru, you will find one thing in common i.e. 4 P’s for products and to stretch it a bit, 7 P’s for services (someone of course thought of the intangible aspect of a service) and so on and so forth. Now this post obviously won’t talk about the credibility of this practice, because time and again, we have seen how these very principles guide the marketing managers to their well deserved zenith.

Now I somehow see one thread attached to all the P’s without which they would be void. I call the P as "PROMISE". Now looking back again at the conventional 4 P’s i.e. Product, Place, Price and promotion, the "Promise-P" is the only element which holds or binds all the other P’s. This "promise" element can be a token of assurance to its customers or in the form of a guarantee to its vendors or suppliers.

I will illustrate it with an example. Take the case of a mobile phone.

• First and foremost thing is the promise to its component suppliers that it will have a rewarding relationship.

• Secondly, a promise to its customer that the product is secure and they can endorse it (this is entangled with 1^st P-product). Now if a company fails to do it, then all other P’s will simply fade away.

• Then comes a promise to deliver it as conveniently as possible in a nearby location to reap maximum benefit, both for the company and the customer.

• Then the promise to give the product/service within stipulated MRP and this constitutes the Price-P.

• Last but not least the promise to its customers that the promotional message is accurate.

Taking cues from the above stated quotes, we can realize that promise acts as fundamental principle for the 4P’s.

Since Aryabhatta gave the world the number zero which revolutionized the number system, hence I have framed my hypothesis too in the same line and named it as the "0th P-Promise".

Related articles

• 12 Reasons Why Products Outweigh Promotion.

Eureka Bar: Effective trend spotting from the movies

Remember Marlon Brando in 1953 movie “The Wild Ones” as a leader of a motorcycle gang riding high on Harley Davidson. Or for that matter our very own Saif Ali Khan in a stripped Calvin Klein out of his jeans. What is the common factor among these two examples? They started a trend- Brando’s case a motorcycle craze and in Saif’s case a symbol of Metrosexualism.

Few days back I was discussing about the same topic with a friend about how can companies tap the market by using “trend” as a tool. Since our discussion was on how we can spot the trend as an effective source and further use it for revenue generation, we comprehended certain problems. For example, sometimes we say isn’t this a new trend but the same trend withers away slowly. That’s the reason sometimes companies can’t rely on it. But what matters most is to understand the subtle indication towards an effective trend.

Now the million dollar question is to analyze and measure the trend to its prime effectiveness.

First of all, our actions and behavior are becoming more universal since we are living in a global village. So this becomes easy for a company whose products have a universal appeal.

Secondly, it’s not about matching the trend with your product but its all about matching the product with the trend. In this way companies won’t fall into the trap of “trend perplexity”.

This can be done by using effective positioning strategies for a product with little scope for doubtful positioning in the mind of the customer. This way companies can leverage the brand value for a sustainable period.

Though the list is not exhaustive still this way companies can have an extra edge from its competitors.