kdykes

Which brings us to the one thing that will kill the Lego building block internet; it will be all about service and how service is perceived by the end user. Would anyone have trusted Facebook Connect four years ago and would anyone trust a MySpace connect now? If a service provider (and if you are providing a widget or an API, you are a service provider) fails, then it becomes a problem for the entire ecosystem that is build around that service. If the service becomes unreliable, then people will flee the ecosystem. Even a hint that a service provider is not reliable will cause adoption issues.

Right now developers are looking only at the big systems, Facebook, Google, and Twitter (even with its track record Twitter has been compelling) to build their eco systems around. Much like people built applications based on the Linux, Apple or Windows eco systems, people are focusing on the major systems because they have a longer staying power and a better chance of survival over time. When someone is building something on your API, widget or infrastructure, being 99.999% available is critical, anything less means that the developer or the company quickly loses credibility. Companies need to address the SLA issues first, and then the Lego building block internet might be something that many companies can participate in.

Interesting discussion about the perception of trust regarding third-party API's such as Facebook Connect & others. He's dead on regarding need for a focus solid SLA issues first before rapid adoption as an ecosystem or social layer to the web.

The lines are blurring between sites & their extended, decentralized core business processes as FB becomes more and more a social layer on top of the web.

Last month, at WordPress () headquarters with leaders from the technology community, we launched DataSF.org. This new web site is designed to improve transparency in government, increase access to City data, and engage our highly skilled workforce to create apps from that data.

After the kick off there was a discussion about next steps for Gov 2.0 in San Francisco with Tim O’Reilly, Matt Mullenweg and other technology innovators. One idea was to create a City App Store to highlight and centralize programs created from City data. This has worked for Apple and Facebook, at last check; there are 60,000 apps available in the Apple App store and more than 350,000 different Facebook apps. Why not create a government app store as well?

KDYKES: It's official - API's are popping up everywhere. This is changing the face of the web & app development at a very rapid rate.

The top three concerns of marketers and merchandisers related to social media:

• Brand degradation fear - “people can trash my products in front of large audiences”?
• Competence fear - “I am using outdated marketing/merchandising techniques”?
• Competitive fear - “customer’s inclination to leave their site to find a more socially-engaging site”

These motivators, which drove the last wave of social media adoption, will also be driving the next wave in the coming year, says the study. Over the next 12 months, study respondents say they plan to adopt:

• Facebook Connect (31%)
• Social Listening Tools (31%)
• Customer Reviews (26%)
• Product Suggestions (26%)

The study also found the primary goal for adopting social media was:

• Customer engagement (39%)
• Mobilizing advocates to drive “word of mouth” (30%)
• Increasing brand loyalty (21%)

Lauren Freedman, President of the e-Tailing group, says “The integration of community and social networking within e-commerce has reached critical mass… failing to engage consumers via community and social media will have brand and bottom-line implications… “

Regarding advocacy and word of mouth (the #2 goal of using social media tools), the study found that Facebook is considered by brands and merchants to be the “single most effective tactic in mobilizing brand advocates and influencers to spread the word about products/services.”

Great insights from this study tells a bit about what demand in services will be over the coming year.

Odds are a large percentage of your company’s attention and budget goes toward customer acquisition.  That makes sense if your customer lifetime value is high - but if you aren’t driving repeat business, it’s ultimately a waste of resources. Securing the second transaction is a key step to generating a good return on your investment.

A 10 percent increase in the number of new customers who buy a second time results in a 15-25 percent revenue improvement (depending on your level of repeat business today).  That directly impacts your break-even cost for customer acquisition and makes more acquisition options feasible.

KDYKES: Great set of ideas on how to capture keep/grow the customer past the first transaction.

Automaker is Relying on Consumers and Social Media for a 2010 Concept Car

Posted by Laurel Wentz on 08.21.09 @ 03:01 PM

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Fiat is building a consumer-generated car in Brazil, using input gathered through social media to inform everything from the automobile's design to its marketing communications.

 

--> Working with Sao Paulo-based AgenciaClick, part of Aegis Group's Isobar network of digital agencies, Fiat started a website this month requesting ideas for the work-in-progress Fiat Mio.

"We're inviting Brazilian consumers to invent the concept car that Fiat will exhibit in the Salao do Automovel, Sao Paulo's auto show, in October 2010," said Abel Reis, AgenciaClick's president and chief operating officer.

They are all answering the key question posed on the site: "In the future we're building, what should a car have that makes it mine, while still working for others?"

In the two weeks starting Aug. 3, the site had 67,000 unique visitors who submitted 1,700 ideas, and more than 40,000 comments were posted on Twitter. So far, up to 20% of traffic to the Portuguese-language site is coming from outside Brazil. An English-language version was added Aug. 21, with Spanish to follow next month. Posts, mostly in Portuguese, can be translated into English, Spanish, French and Italian with a click.

Users submit ideas for the car-design project -- recent posts and tweets pitch bamboo car-seat covers, biometric car-owner identification and outlets to charge laptops -- which are studied by Fiat staff. Later, users will be asked for branding and marketing ideas. The concept car will be displayed at Brazil's 2010 auto show.

KDYKES: wow this is a powerful example of integrating the social web & fostering engagement deep into the company & brand. Bravo Fiat!

Integrations Business Manager

Are you an entrepreneur at heart? Do you like the idea of leveraging your knowledge and passion for developing new products AND marketing them? Do you love the idea of building relationships and working with partners? If that’s you then we’d love you to consider our role for Integrations Business Manager.

FreshBooks is one of the most popular small business web applications on the Web. But that’s not enough — we want to continually add value for our customer by integrating with the other tools and services our customers use every day. We've done a pretty good job so far with some pretty sweet partners and apps - and now need someone to grab hold and drive this business forward.

As our Integrations Business Manager you’ll be responsible for building our Integrations business out. You’ll source new partners that are a fit for our customers, and then help them understand our API, design, and test their integrations to make sure they are FreshBooks worthy. You’ll build a developer network around FreshBooks that creates a steady stream of new, cool apps for FreshBooks. You’ll help us advance our mobile applications and their adoption. And, importantly, you’ll be a marketing genius when it comes to promoting these integrations to our community.

We will be successful if:

• You accelerate the growth of customer acknowledged awesome add-ons around FreshBooks
• You drive a boat-load of new business through the relationships with our partners
• You establish FreshBooks as the friendliest and smartest integrator… ever
• You demonstrate and qualify the impact of all your efforts so we can all celebrate your success

We absolutely need you to have:

• A passion for product, partners and marketing — all of them
• Proven ability to negotiate win-win arrangements with partners
• A proven commitment to quality, design, and testing
• Online marketing savvy and ingenuity
• A rock solid ability to work with technology
• The ability to make things happen and get things done
• Entrepreneurial chutzpah

Startups were not just smaller versions of a large company, they were about invention, innovation and iteration - of business model, product, customers and on and on. Startups were doing discovery of the problem and solution in real-time.

KDYKES:"invention, iteration and invention"... the exciting times that draw us to work with startups

Being an startup founder is like playing the piano. It’s something you can really only learn by doing, but some instruction goes a long way. TechCrunch Europe is therefore launching a series of articles offering advice on common issues faced by first-time entrepreneurs. Here’s the first.

As Paul Graham says “Cofounders are for a startup what location is for real estate.” They are one of the most important predictors of success and one of the most difficult things to change. A business partnership is a bit like a marriage and divorce will probably be painful. So choose wisely based on the paraphrased wisdom of our readers.

KDYKES: Starting a company is an exciting time and many people tend to make rash decisions about co-founders & partners. Pay attention & choose carefully - I say this from painful & expensive experience!