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.

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