Uba Kontrovasie

Digital Freegans

2009-01-04T22:17:08Z

Not too long ago I was watching a TV program about Freeganism and Freegans, it was a Cutting Edge style show, not quite sure what channel it was on. It got me thinking…

The web is turning people into Digital Freegans, people who use the webs’ free resources as alternatives to traditional paid for sources of information, entertainment and applications.

People often ask me about the longevity of social media. With so many brands jumping on the bandwagon, will social media end up on the pile of communication methods that people become dismissive of?

Brian Solis tweeted one of his findings recently: “Only 16% of consumers trust corporate blogs”, stats like these possibly support the sceptical question raised above. There are many brands embracing blogging, social media etc. The problem is they’re probably not “doing it right”, and they’re probably not working to deliver any value to the audiences or communities they wish to interact with.

I believe we’re heading towards to the second evolution in social media/marketing, the most helpful brands are the ones that will carry on growing. Everyone in the social media business, at some same stage probably talks to their clients about delivering value exchanges and listening to audiences. I think there’s another magic ingredient that should be added to the mix, it’s called innovation!

Not only should brands be working hard to deliver value to the public, they should also be working to deliver value in the most innovative way possible. In time this will mean going beyond blogging and actually delivering personal B2C responses via mediums such as video, and this is where platforms like Seesmic deliver real beneficial functionality.

With so much useful content available on the web, the successful brands appear to be the ones that have taken an extra step forward and delivered value in innovative ways.

Take for example Gary Vaynerchucks’ Wine library TV, it was one of the first blogs of its kind and even now with so many wine review websites, forms, blogs and TV shows it is still as popular as ever.

His success can be accredited to his full length, online TV shows, which are all free to watch (true freegan feast) and secondly his content delivery is innovative in comparison to other wine review shows.

He makes wine accessible and easy to understand through his style of presenting. Let’s face it we’re all normally use to out of touch, snoty characters who keep droning on about the South of France, Gary changes all this with informal style of presenting and humour.

So…whilst it is important to build relationships with key influencers and interest led communities, it is also important to provide something for the growing number “Digital Freegans” who occasionally may require something that a brand could deliver, thus making that initial connection.

The Audio Freegans

The music industry and its artists claim that they have been the victims of music piracy and attribute this to declines in financial growth.

What they call piracy should be seen as digital freeganism, which empowers the consumer. P2P exchanges and bitorrent websites have given people limitless access to music they have never had.

This movement has turned people into more informed music critics, that are more likely to invest further into quality artists. We’re heading towards an era where an artist can no-longer release an album with two good songs and fill the rest of the album up with crap! Sorry to be blunt it’s just the way it is. With so much good music freely accessible, nobody in their right mind will continue to pay for mediocre material.

If people are downloading music for free, the next most profitable revenue stream for the music industry resides with live performances, merchandise, special edition TV appearances and guest journalism. In order for these opportunities to arise artists need to turn themselves into brands.

This movement will require some give and take, artists and labels and will need to become more lenient towards downloading and see it as a brand building activity, which allows people to become more familiar with them. By feeding the freeganism, or at least not trying to stamp it out, artists can aid efforts of gradually turning themselves into brands with multiple revenue streams.

DIY DJ

2009-01-03T16:44:34Z

I’ve stumbled upon Mac DJAY, easy to use DJ software for Mac OSX. It is very cool indeed as it imports all your music from iTunes and lets you record your own mixes.

The software easy to use for amateurs (like me) and it has features for the pro’s too. I sense a few house parties brewing!

Google going Social

2008-12-31T19:44:22Z

I suppose none of us have been oblivious to the birth of Google Search Wiki in recent weeks, I’ve already heard lot’s of people say “hang on a sec, it’s not really a wiki”.

Search Wiki at the moment serves a purpose for Google account holders, who want to annotate, customize and improve the quality of their own search results pages.

I personally think Google might have bigger plans for Search Wiki as they may; over time use Search Wiki annotations and amendments collectively, as a means to improve the quality of their overall search results.

Google already have a very firm stance on aggressive link building activity, especially towards paid-for back links. Search Wiki along with other sources of internal data may, in the near future reduce Google’s dependance on analysing back link portfolios in order to judge website authority and relevancy.

The natural search results of Google are often just as manipulated as the sponsored search listings that advertisers use, It’s about time Google did some thing to clean up their search results. I’m sure Search Wiki will be warmly received by Google account holders, who in time will become self-motivated, vigilantly search Police.

It’s a real early warning for old school SEO practitioners that need to wake up and smell the coffee! Delivering good website structure, amazing content and excellent user experience will stop the public from deleting you from their search results.

Friendly Friends

In addition to Search Wiki, Google has also launched Friend Connect. With a quick copy and paste of code any website can now have “social” features. The ease of use makes Friend Connect a great quick win for any webmaster that wants social features on their website at minimum cost.

In addition to the simplicity of the installation, Friend Connect also allows people to join website groups using non-Google ID systems, such as Open ID and Yahoo ID. This is not only handy for users, it is also handy for Google as it increases the amount of people using their products and services.

Further to the points I raised above about Search Wiki annotations and amendments effecting natural search results, will the most socially active websites gain greater authority or improved rankings in the future? It does make sense to some degree as there are newer, UGC heavy websites on the web, which are more useful than top ranking websites that rank well because of their link equity.

3 Pretty cool examples of product design

2008-12-27T19:47:37Z

What a hatchback! This Alpha Brera hands-down beats any of it’s equivalents in the market. Whilst people are oogling over the Audi A5, this older (2006) Alpha still beats it in the aesthetics dept.

Arcoroc Pint Glasses, found these in the office. French made, such attention to detail and even the typeface used for the etching looks good.

IWC Schaffhausen Steel Dress Watch, I saw a Longines that looked like this today, immediately reminded me of the IWC. Simpler the better!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-26T17:23:56Z

I’ve been absent from the blogosphere for quite sometime, my friends say it’s normal not to be such a prolific blogger.

To be honest I’ve been preoccupied with that little thing called life. I can say it’s now a fraction tamer therefore I’m back, expect a flow of my usual ramblings soon.

Hope everyone is having a fab Crimbo.

And the wall came tumbling down

2008-12-13T11:19:20Z

A client e-mailed me today to notify me about their IT department putting exceptions on their firewall, so all staff can now access social websites.

Long live the revolution!

Good usability cannot be found behind a login screen

2008-12-11T11:55:28Z

The recent launch of Google Website Optimiser probably got a lot of web-masters thinking “Great! a free, off the shelf solution to usability”, just like Google Analytics was a free, off the shelf equivalent to all the big names such as Omniture, Nedstad and Hitbox.

Multivariate testing can provide insight into effective landing page rotations and web analytics can provide insight into navigation paths, dwell times and user journeys. Whilst these snippets of information are useful, I believe they cannot replace the expertise delivered by UE creatives and IA’s.

Working with UE creatives has made me realise that their day-to-day work involves:

- Detailed qualitative and quantitive research
- Defining typical user personas and user journeys
- Accessibility auditing and consulting
- Information architecture design
- User interface design and optimisation
- Content consulting and landing page design
- User testing

In addition to their practices and output, they have an understanding of web technologies, web design, consumer psychology and many of them come from backgrounds in design, web-design or product design.

User centered design has never been so important and even when I speak to clients about the design of basic things such as blogs, I always reiterate the importance of taking UI design and overall usability into consideration.

Good usability increases dwell times, lowers bounce rates, increases repeat visitors and most importantly helps the end user achieve their goal or purpose for using your website.

Whilst the mentioned benefits seem fairly straight forward, people often overlook the benefits that user centered design has on Natural Search Optimisation. Approaches adopted to improve usability and accessibility often simultaneously facilitate more efficient search engine crawling and indexing too.

In an economic and digital climate where the customer really has become King and every penny really does count, ensuring your website is user friendly is essential for maximising efficiencies and gaining the most value from website traffic.

Anti-drugs

2008-12-07T01:25:03Z

I’m a massive supporter of any anti-drugs campaigning, however, above the line anti-drugs adverts have always lacked a degree of “cred”.

Finally the new FRANK ad has changed this. It’s just damn clever!

Tweet with caution!

2008-12-15T23:08:22Z

I was out partying not to so long ago and having access to twitter via mobile, whilst you’re drunk is not a good idea.

I must have tweeted about how drunk I was, why? I don’t quite know, I suppose using twitter has become akin to using the phone. You often call people whilst you’re drunk and I suppose tweeting whilst you’re drunk is the next step after using twitter becomes second nature.

Anyway a friend of mine Googled my name and guess what got indexed? My drunken tweet! Not a very good example of “personal reputation management”.

I found the whole thing quite hilarious, hope you guys do too.

The value of listening

2008-12-06T09:58:04Z

I always notice that when people start talking about Social Media they often refer to it as a new method of talking to audiences, customers and people with shared interests.

I suppose none of this is untrue, however, I rarely hear people refer to Social Media as an alternative method of LISTENING to audiences, customers and people with shared interests.

I always tell clients; if you’re using social media effectively, anything in between 50-60% of your time should be spent on listening to people.

Forums, blogs, Facebook groups and even microblogs hold so many answers in regards to how people feel about a brand and its offerings. For this reason I believe Social Media should be perceived as a valuable quantitative and qualitative research base.

Information derived from social environments can and should be used to influence product development, CRM/after-sales strategy and even marketing and advertising for traditional channels.

Should every brand be utilising Social Media?

Yes! With so many social platforms available to the public, every brand should be utilising Social Media in order to listen to relevant online communities and key influences at the very least.

For years brand owners have spent millions of pounds on product and market research. Whilst these processes are all still necessary, it is also important to realise that the foundations for these types of research can be laid with insight from social spaces and assessment of online conversations.