Common Challenge

I was just watching EpicFu on Revision3 and I had a little revelation when arriving at ‘user comments’ section. They were all Seesmic. Now, I used to think Seesmic was rubbish until I read that, but even afterwards I didn’t really see it as a viable business. Mainly because I didn’t know exactly what was it supposed to be: a blog commenting tool, a video conversation platform? Blog comments using Seesmic always seemed a bit out of place, mainly because you had to switch your attention from quickly scanning text to watching motion picture - this used to set me off track. Public video conversations? You could easily do it on Youtube if you wanted. So, what should it really be? Why, of course - a web TV commenting tool - just check out episode of EpicFu embedded below to know exactly what I mean (you have to watch it till the end).

You may now ask - what’s in it for me? (Well, all of you except Loic of course)

You have to know your context in more ways than you (probably) are aware of. In this particular case you have to watch how users consume content that you are utilizing and check whether your medium of communication is right for them.

Negative examples (of how not to do it):

• Text ads embedded in videos - too static
• Video ads on quick access pages (such as search engines, most of blogs etc) - too short recipient attention span
• A meal in a fast-food chain that takes 15 min to prepare - just plain wrong

Positive examples:

• Seesmic in video shows - obviously
• Text ads next to search - proved
• A printable up-to-date Internet travel book - after all, who carries a laptop on a world trip?
• Zemanta plug-in - that sits next to this post helping me edit it - right where it should be, just in time

So, if you are a web-gaming startup, don’t pitch your products to consumers in places where they spend 5 second (google front page) but rather in those where they spend hours (facebook). If you are in podcasting - iTunes is far better distribution channel for you than any RSS aggregation service.

You can basically break it into 3 simple check-points you should define about both your product and context/channel :

1. What amount of time does your user spend in the distribution channel? [define attention span]
2. What is the type of content in the channel? [text, visual, auditory - define medium]
3. Is the customer expecting/requiring interaction

Or maybe you think I missed something or you have different experiences? Please, share them in comments.

Getting a ‘comment notice’ e-mail from Mashable today got me thinking - it clutters my inbox, but also it helps me track the conversations I commented on (disqus and co.comments were not very helpful with that). So I clicked the included link and followed this conversation. It served mashable at least one page view, and probably some more from other people that commented the story (thus it’s effect could be expotential instead of linear). So using the simplest possible tool Mashable helped me engage into conversation and also helped itself by increasing revenue.

Modelling it for the rest of the web-world, we should focus on helping our users interact with our content - simple RSS is not enough anymore (although it probably could be used here as well if I had an auto generated channel for posts that I commented on) - as it brings users only once. You need mechanisms that constantly remind your users that the conversation (interaction) is on, and they should take part in it.

Seek balance though - if you push too much on your users they might stop coming back at all. Give them an instant opt-out to any incoming information (but don’t cut the whole stream, just one thing that’s not currently appealing) and keep the total interaction at a reasonable level (thus reducing the overeat effect).

Photo credit (cc): afroswede

Bloggers, especially A-list ones like to trash services whenever a new and effective competitor apears. This is not a new thing by any means - when TV was announced radio was dead. When video was announced - cinema was dead. When computers were announced - books and paper were dead. But they’re all still walking. From economical point of view, a consumer here has a choice of two free products that serve a similar need (and are thus substitutes). Since the transaction cost (of for instance switching or simultaneous use) are marginal - consumer has no other incentive to choose one product over another than the utility she or he gets. On the other hand, with no usage cost consumer has absolutely no incentive to abandon either product completely. Thus one product must produce ultimately higher utility than it’s substitute to be a real winner. Which is usually the case when technological leap happens (CD to MP3 for instance).

So when someone is writing that Twitter will die because Friendfeed is here, or comments are dead because Seesmic (and Friendfeed) is here, or Myspace is dead because Facebook is here - they slept on history classes. The truth is - if you have two competing services, both of which are free (vide Radio vs TV) people will either:

1. split their attention
2. split into target groups

If #1 happens, you have to make sure to be able to give them as much access to your service as possible (so their possible attention span is longest). For comments on blog, that means they should be pulled back from Friendfeed. For Friendfeed it means posting a comment on blog and on Friendfeed should be simultaneous.

If #2 happens, you have to choose your side. That’s what  Facebook vs Myspace is all about: reality vs dreams. Someone once wrote that on FB people are who they are while on MS they show who they want to be. In other words it’s communication vs entartainment. Sometimes people get confused and that’s what happens.

In other words - it’s very unlikely that a free product would have no customers. Of course, it doesn’t mean it will survive because of business issues (such as lack of sufficient revenue), but it’s not beacuse all users will abandon it.

What it means for you? Don’t worry if you get some competition in your (free) space, even if it’s big. Focus on the user, focus on utility, and grab your market share.

Photo credit goes to: http://flickr.com/photos/eelssej_/