Content Matters

LinkedIn took the wraps off the beta version of their new user interface today.

The "borrowed" aspect would be the more prominent positioning given to the "Network Updates" section, taking a page from Facebook's news feeds.  They've also added a "Company news" section, which pulls web news content, tied to your company or industry as well as what others in your network are reading.

 

LinkedIn also announced today the launch of their API, what they call their Intelligent Applications Platform.  The first three apps are internally built widgets for People Search, Job Search and Answers.  They have also announced a partnership with Business Week whereby links within Business Week content will link directly to a pop-up box showing the user the number of LinkedIn contacts they have who are tied to that keyword.

 

The Intelligent Applications Platform will support two types of applications:

1. Bringing LinkedIn content into your own website or application via API or widget
2. Developing your own applications to run within LinkedIn, leveraging OpenSocial.  According to the LinkedIn blog, they will maintain some level of filtering or control over the apps that can run on their platform.  Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn will manage the flow of new apps to ensure relevancy to their business market.  That's probably a good thing for both users and publishers.

The goals of the new site appear fairly straightforward.  LinkedIn is trying to reposition itself as more of a destination social network site, as opposed to a tool used periodically for specific tasks.  That's critical if they are to increase their page views.  As I've described previously, only about a third of LinkedIn users login at least once per quarter, as compared to nearly 60% of Facebook users who log in on a daily basis.

 

That said, LinkedIn has an advantage over Facebook today in that it has more than 15 million users who already use it for business purposes.  While it may not match the hype of Facebook, the LinkedIn platform could enable b2b content providers to actually make money.

While the early Facebook widgets have been fairly primitive, some of the more recent offerings are showing promise.  No, I'm not talking about Pirates vs. Ninjas.  A simple widget that I just installed is Friend Wheel.

Friend Wheel creates a simple visual map of the relationships between your friends.  There's even an interactive (flash) version that lets you drag and drop elements around the screen. The map looks remarkably like the type of visual maps that we provided to the intelligence community during my ClearForest days.  Of course, none of the people in my map would be showing up in their maps (I'd hope).

You can grab the Friend Wheel widget here.

With nine-figure investments and multi-billion dollar valuations comes the expectation that Facebook can effectively monetize the pages in its rapidly growing social network.  So, it was no surprise that Facebook yesterday announced Facebook Ads, a new advertising network.

Facebook Ads will be focused on brand advertising.  They are positioning the ads as "socially aware" advertising, leveraging a user's social network, akin to personal referrals.  There are three components to Facebook Ads:

1. Social Ads: ads which are targeted to Facebook users based upon demographics compiled from their profile information, such as age, sex, relationship status, employment history and indicated interests.
2. Facebook Pages: Corporate ad widgets (formerly project Beacon) where corporations will be able to create corporate Facebook pages, placing an ad widget on the page which can be grabbed by users, in essence becoming endorsers of that product; and
3. Insight: Analytics and usage metrics fed back to advertisers providing aggregated demographic profile information of the types of users who are clicking on their ads.

These ads will be managed directly by Facebook; this is not part of the deal announced with Microsoft, which is focused on the sale of banner ads.

The profile-aware social ads make sense to me, though it depends how effective Facebook is at mining the interest data and matching that to potential advertisers.  While age, sex and relationship status can easily trigger some demographic ads such as dating services, that's pretty limited.  But if they can mine the interests, for example, to serve Prius ads to people who focus on the environment, that could be more compelling.

The corporate ad widgets could be effective, but will require advertisers to become much more creative than they've been until now.  Paul Kedrosky sarcastically envisions receiving a Coke Wants to Be Your Friend message, thinking "ooh I can't wait".  I think there are a limited number of products for which users may be openly willing to act as an endorser.  Apple would have little problem getting iPhone endorsers, as could Nintendo for the Wii.  Entertainment companies could effectively find endorsers for movies, bands and television shows and auto manufacturers have shown that they can drum up enthusiasm for at least some of their offerings.  The (Red) campaign, as featured in the Facebook sample to the right, would certainly attract users.  But most traditional industries will struggle in this regard.  I can't see too many endorsers for CPG products "boy, this new Tide detergent really cleans my clothes well".

In the early stages, products will either need to have a sense of "coolness" about them or perhaps be tied to social issues.  For example, environmentally friendly products could quickly find support among green-focused Facebook users.  These ads will work for enthusiasts, but finding passionate users won't be easy for many segments.  Users may be willing to refer their friends to products that seem cool or where they are viewed as an expert because of the endorsement, but they are likely to resist if they come across as a corporate shill.

Lots more details and analysis are available on the Facebook blog, Valleywag, Mashable, Read/Write/Web and Scoble,  while Om Malik asks if Beacon is a privacy nightmare.

For those of you who may have missed last week's SIIA panel on widgets (or those who were there and want to relive the moment), the team at Scribe Media has made a video version available here.

The video includes the full panel discussion and Q&A.  The panel featured three panelists:

• Steve Touhill, VP, Business Development for Clearspring
• Alex Iskold, Founder and CEO, AdaptiveBlue
• Jeff Yolen, Chief Marketing Officer for Sphere

My summary of the panel discussion can be found here.  Alex Iskold provided an in-depth summary on the AdaptiveBlue blog.

Earlier today, I had the opportunity to serve as moderator for a fascinating panel at the SIIA Brown Bag.  The panel, Think Small: Why Widgets are the Next Big Thing for Content Distribution, featured three terrific speakers:

• Steve Touhill, VP, Business Development for Clearspring
• Alex Iskold, Founder and CEO, AdaptiveBlue
• Jeff Yolen, Chief Marketing Officer for Sphere

The panel began with an discussion of why widgets are emerging as an important vehicle for the content industry.  While Web 1.0 was led by the "Field of Dreams" approach to creating massive portals, Web 2.0 is focused on personalization of content.  Users don't want to use your site; instead, they want to take your content, arrange it with other content of their choosing, customize the look and feel, comment on it and share it with others.

The discussion quickly moved to monetization, where the panelists discussed the various business models (sponsorship, eCommerce/affiliate programs and advertising).  Alex Iskold described how the AdaptiveBlue widgets allowed bloggers to use their affiliate accounts for Amazon and others to generate revenues.  All agreed that it was very early and the monetization models were just being established,
although Google's announcement yesterday of its Gadget Ads should accelerate adoption of that model.

Jeff Yolen walked through the Sphere model, which is more of a pull than push.  While most widgets are used to push content out to users, the "Sphere It" widget is used on content provider sites to pull other relevant content in, improving the user experience.

The panelists agreed that one challenge with widgets is getting them discovered.  There were more than 3,000 Facebook apps launched in the first two months after their platform was launched; catalogs from Google and Netvibes are similarly overrun.

According to Steve Touhill, the most successful models for widget distribution have been those that include the widget inline with their other content (as the NBA does with player cards) and the "grab it" functionality that most widgets offer, which fosters viral growth.

The strong turnout and many questions posed reinforced that widgets are on the minds of content industry professionals.  While the business models may take another 6-12 months to work out, it looks as though widgets will be an important component of any content strategy.

My key takeaways from the discussion were:

1. The content model on the web is shifting from the comprehensive portal to the personalized page where the user controls the selection and arrangement of content.

2. Widgets can be an effective way to increase brand awareness, drive advertising sponsorship and for eCommerce/affiliate marketing.
3. It's already getting crowded out there and it's hard to get notice for your "widgets in the wild".  Making your widget playful is key for viral adoption.
4. We're still in the early days of widgets; if you're blogging or have a Facebook page, start experimenting with widgets.  If you don't have one, create a Facebook page and spend an hour per week on it.  Your future might depend on it.

Here's Alex Iskold's take on the panel on the AdaptiveBlue blog.

Were you at the brown bag?  Add your thoughts in the comments.