LinkedIn – Page 3

NY Tech Meetup – Let’s Play Two

June 2, 2009 by tmcgMNM

NY Tech Meetup

A busy day around FIT for the the NY Tech Meetup scene thanks to New York Internet Week. Late in the afternoon the FIT Great Hall hosted 60 NY start-ups and at least 500 people (my estimate) for a showcase event. Attendees had free access to visit all the start-up tables for demos and questions.

From there the action moved into the Auditorium for the monthly Meetup gathering where the program was the standard 5 minutes to demo your product. It was a great a night for the demo teams. I can honestly say that I will try out each of these products, with the exception of the MakerBot. However, it was cool enough that I’ll share it with a brother-in-law who likes these robotic thingies.

Here are some links that you should check out:

– UpNext – If you are in the NYC area or a frequent visitor, you will want this great iPhone app that features a 3-D vision of the city, subway maps, and built in directory all by simple tapping on the map.
– Centrl – Another map-type app for iPhone and BB, but it focuses more on the social networking that pulls in feeds from all the major social platforms.
– Livestream / Procaster — High-quality live video from your lap-top is possible with these simple tools.
– Aviary – Think online Photoshop.
– MakerBot – It was hard for some of us to grasp what was being discussed here, but think of it as a desktop robot builder that grinds out mini objects. Check out the web site and you’ll see.
– NYSenate.gov – The new web site that will bring transparency to NY government. Cool I guess.
– Mahalo 2.0!
— Jason Calacanis showcased the new Mahalo and their plans for sharing the revenues with page owners.

Social Media Feeds – You, Now

April 3, 2009 by tmcgMNM

Gratuitous Donuts Photo

Very compelling article in Ad Age today from Peter Hershberg at Reprise Media about search and social media called What Social Media Means for Search. On the upside, it adds to the observation that search and social media are coming together, and it also provides a good backgrounder for understanding the relationship. However, it does not offer any tactical side to take advantage of this activity.

Using his Search 3.0 label, Peter and I agree that the new feed-driven social world takes us beyond the “intent” shown by a user during their search engine experience and provides us direct insight to the “it is happening now” stage, such as the millions of daily tweets for “need coffee.”

We’ve heard the story forever from proponents of mobile advertising that they will be able to deliver a Dunkin’ Donuts (my coffee of choice) coupon when we walk past a store. Great in theory, but when does it reach the masses and will it work? My answer to when, is who knows. I’m sure it can happen now with the proliferation of location-based services, but is it better plan than monitoring social media feeds — I say no.

The mobile ad plan is not marketing to a person who has shown intent in this activity; they just happen to be walking by a Dunkin’ Donuts, so now you are hoping that you can change a user behavior as they pass by. However, monitoring a Twitter/Facebook feed will directly let you know who is going to get coffee, NOW! It is up to the marketeer to hit them directly with the coupon for the coffee or a complimentary donut. I guess the next question is when will Twitter or the Twitter apps we use start monitoring our Twitter feeds, or Facebook for that matter, to match ads to its updates.

Update: As I was posting this, I took a look back at the current Ad Age they have posted an article “Google Uses Twitter to Sell Ads.” So it looks like this idea is taking its first steps. This will evolve to feed-targeted networks, not the general Adsense network, because the higher “happening now” feed network will be drive higher CPC values.

Track the Trends from Social Media to Search

March 22, 2009 by tmcgMNM

TreetStats - Twitter TrendCloud

It seems all of our favorite insider blogs are floating a heading that contains “Search” and “Social Media.” Even next week’s Search Engine Strategies Conference in New York contains no less that 6 sessions around social media, including a special social media track. However, with as many of these articles that I have read, none seem to explain how social media and search mesh other than being buzz topics for them to claim an expertise.

I see it as a “Chicken or the Egg” discussion on whether social media drives search or search drives social media. More importantly, if you are in the business of identifying trends, where should you watch if you want to stay ahead of the curve? For my money, I would look at two places, Twitter analysis tools to understand breaking news events and search tools for identifying what people are interested in.

Why two places? News events get reported first on twitter. The event could be as big as the Hudson River plane landing or “I’m having coffee.” It’s highly probably that 99 of 100 event trends discovered on Twitter may have no legs to affect the social media space. However, there is still that 1 in a 100 that strikes a chord with someone. That person does an entry in their blog, that entry gets posted on a Twitter feed, that eventually finds its way into Facebook by someone who has their Twitter and Facebook accounts linked, and all of a sudden you have people searching for the topic to learn more.

The life-cycle of this event would be like this:
News Event > Twitter Post > Twitter Trend > (Facebook) > Search Trend > Steady Search Traffic

Think of the Motrin Mom story or the Octomom. To so many people these were non-issues when they first read it. I remember reading about the women who gave birth to eight babies, and then thinking how amazing that was and that she would get the hero treatment. Then someone looked closer and the story got some serious legs. Soon “Octomom” had regular Google search traffic, and the sentiment completely shifted.

Let’s look at how you can track events and that lead to social trends. Below are some tools that I have used for in tracking terms:
1) Discovering Breaking Trends – Using Twitter trending tools
Below are some tools

Twitter Search – Found below the search box
TweetStats – Provides a trend cloud and historical list
@trending – From Karelia Software (http://karelia.com/)
Twendz – Highlights conversation themes and sentiment of tweets

2) Identifying What People Actively Want – Use search engine trends

Update (4/1/09)- Thanks goes out to David Berkowitz and his fine blog, Inside the Marketers Studio, for pointing out this article on other Twitter analysis tools: 8 Excellent Tools to Extract Insights from Twitter Streams by Yung-Hui Lim on Social Media Today.

Irish It Up

March 17, 2009 by tmcgMNM

From: Irish-Americans Gear Up For 'The Reinforcin' O' The Stereotypes'

Nothing big today except for the expectations set by my forefathers that today I will drink an excessive amount of Guinness. Unfortunately to bystanders this is one (another) of those expectations that I never fulfill. Part of the enigma of being Tim McGuinness.

Maybe it’s the phoniness of the season. Yesterday I received an email promo from a big website addressed to “Timothy O’McGuinness”. Seriously, if you Google “Tim+Mc+Guinness,” the top result is a bar fight. Do we really have to add the “O’whatever” to Irish-up my name?

Affiliate Marketing – Without a Net

February 17, 2009 by tmcgMNM

Install. Forget.

A few weeks ago I wrote about converting SoccerClub.com to a social network from its original Web 1.0 format and the subsequent revenue drop. The story at the time was that the Google Adsense links took a serious click-thru hit in the new format, even though page views were way up. This confirms the issues that face big-league social networks like Facebook and Myspace, but now it was affecting my “Tortured-NY-Sports-Fan” ticket account. I mean I have a late season collapse by the Rangers coming up in April to attend.

A man has to eat, so I decided to jump into the world of affiliate marketing. The steps were easy to outline:
1) Sign up for affiliate networks — The key was to find networks that offer soccer-related ads. I signed up for a couple of the leading services, Linkshare and Commission Junction, because they represent many of the big box sports stores and some specialty shops, like Soccer.com and SoccerGarage.com. I also signed up for a smaller service called Shareasale.com who represents SoccerPost.com.
2) Upgrade Ad Server — Sounds like a scary high-tech nightmare. It was. I installed the Open Ads software 3 years ago to serve banners on the original site, but I had NO IDEA how it was working. It just did. I had a message in my inbox that suggested I upgrade to the new Open X version, so I figured — why not give it a try and ruin everything. I couldn’t even remember how to do a back-up, so I was working without a net. Well I did it, and it works!! Cue the engineer dance music.
3) Find the banners — This was like crawling through a dark room to find a flashlight, only to learn that you then had to find new batteries. After pulling the HTML code for the banners, I had to figure out how to set up a test page so I could see how to set the display banners. Once again, it worked*. Amazing. So I loaded up the new banners and they are appearing now.

* The asterisk — Technically the banners are displaying, so it “works.” Unfortunately, no one is buying, so it’s not working too well. So there have been extra late-night meetings over pizza between the engineering director and the business manager. However, it’s only been two weeks, so I have continued to expand the banner coverage and monitor the reports to see what works. I have stayed true to the sports / soccer relevancy for the most part. I’ll admit that I slipped in a Match.com link to see how it performs. Ya gotta do, what ya gotta do to pay for those pizzas.

More updates after I let this run for a full month.

The Licensing of Tmac — Ground Rules

February 10, 2009 by tmcgMNM

Bad News for Red Stripe

I am all for the idea of making some money where it can be made, but there’s one area that irks me a little, and that is the licensing of a person’s name or likeness after their death.

Today’s Wall Street Journal, has a article about Bob Marley’s family working with Hilco Consumer Capital to use Bob Marley’s name and likeness. One of the first products on the list is a “Marley Lager, a Jamaican beer featuring the singer’s likeness.” This means sell your Red Stripe stock.

Now, the Marley family and a private equity firm that invests in retail brands are preparing a major push to license Mr. Marley’s likeness, trademarks and themes to apparel, food and even video games. Hilco Consumer Capital, which has compiled a stable of retail brands including Halston and Ellen Tracy, this month invested some $20 million for half of House of Marley LLC, a joint venture with the Marley family, according to people familiar with the matter.

I am not sure how Bob would treat this idea, but in case my family gets any ideas about licensing my image, I have set some ground rules for the products that I will allow. Here we go:

Bowling Shoes — For the shoe fashionista who is comfortable to let others know their foot size.
No-Tuck Shirts — The first cool guy that made wearing untucked shirts fashionable is a man that we should all envy, and I would like to think I can take that guy’s credit by attaching my name to this fashion trend.
Instant Coffee Brandy — Who has time to mix a Down East Maine “Brandy”? I mean Coffee Brandy, milk and ice (optional) takes way too long to get right, so let’s just create a freeze dried version, with my name on the label, that packs the fun of alcohol and caffeine without filling us up.

What would you allow? Add it in the comments below.

Super Bowl XLIII – Super Bowl XXXIIII = X

February 2, 2009 by tmcgMNM

Finally I can say it -- This was not even the worst thing that happened to Eugene Robinson that day.

Watching the game yesterday, it hit me that it has been X years (10 to you non-Romans) since my big break came when I worked on the SuperBowl.com site for the 1999 game between Denver and Atlanta.

The biggest change in that time is how SuperBowl.com handles news. The site was being produced and managed at Lycos under the strict guidance of the NFL which means at that time the site was just NFL propaganda. That was the year that Eugene Robinson of Atlanta found himself arrested for solicitation the night before the game. Big news, obviously, but we were not allowed by the NFL to mention it. The rules were so strict on blocking bad news that we were not allowed to even link to articles where coaches were being fired, and that’s all of the news during the weeks of the playoff run.

My involvement started as a photo editor for a six-week contract which became an offer to be the Lycos Search Producer. By Super Bowl night, I had worked myself up to where they trusted me with the keys to the whole site so I was publishing content from a dark, cold office park in Waltham until late into the night with my developer Mats. That was the year that Denver beat my Jets in the AFC Championship. I always wondered if I would have been able to come up with the pitch to go to Miami if the Jets were in the Super Bowl … if the Jets were Super Bowl (I seem to say that alot). My confetti celebration that night was a leftover pizza and a couple of beers around 3am while I watched game highlights on ESPN. There is nothing like game day.

Online Journalism — Past, Present, and Future(?)

January 15, 2009 by tmcgMNM

Before we start, I have to share a fear. Since I am writing about journalists and news, a real journalist may read this. That’s like playing golf with a PGA pro, except I can’t blame sentence structure on the wind. So now let’s start …

Even an icy morning did not stop a full room from gathering at The Harvard Club for The Future of News and Information panels presented as part of The Digital Breakfast series by Gotham Media. The first panel was a group of savvy news people that work in a day-to-day news creation role and the second panel featured a group that is using new publishing technologies and models to build, support, or maybe destroy (depends on your view) the news business as we see it today.

I’ll start by saying that I have always been a newspaper and magazine guy. I still subscribe to three newspapers, even during this “demise” of the newspaper business. In saying that, I know the problem because I was there at the beginning. When I lived in Boston, I would occasionally trek over to Out-of-Town News in Cambridge to load up on New York papers that covered Mets spring training or grab the Newark Star Ledger for job listings in New Jersey (forgive me, but I was young and wanted everyday to be a Wildwood summer day). The Internet ended that. I no longer had to buy the NY Daily News to read Lupica or The NY Post to read headline puns; I could do that online (or read the Boston Herald we used to line the parrot’s cage).

Back to the panels…The first panel was moderated by Andy Nibley, Chairman and CEO at Marsteller, and it included Tom Bettag, formally of Discovery and ABC News, Chrystia Freeland from Financial Times, and a brink-of-being-angry Martin Nisenholtz from NY Times Digital. Some points that they covered were that they felt you could charge for content, a model used by FT, but that content needed to be special and unique and it needed to add a level of value to the subscriber’s life, but what is that price point? Local news was unique, but had very low perceived value, whereas content that can help make or save the subscriber time or money could be packaged for a price. You can read more here from Kelly Samardak in the Online Minute.

The second panel featured new technology and services that could either enhance the news experience or provided a new means for building or aggregating an online presence. First up was Apture, and they offer a publishing tool that allows a publisher to link to supporting content that will display as on-domain content in a pop-up window. The idea is to keep the user on your site. It sounds very interesting, and I plan to investigate its free personal version very soon. Keith McAllister of Mochila outlined how they provided news publishers a chance to back fill their original content with news pulled from their syndication partners, such as Reuters, AP, Getty Images and many more. Andrea Spiegel of True/Slant (and formally down the hall from me at AOL where she had an office and I had a cube), explained that the yet-to-be-launched service focuses on aggregating content around a “Name” contributor, and then provide the contributor a chance to add their voice around the news of the day. They are looking for contributing specialists to fill out their line-up, so visit their site and submit your name. A couple of observations are that: 1) Mochilla seems like a perfect content supplier for Apture; 2) the old-school journalists in the office are very shaky when they saw Wikipedia being used and in discussions about identifying authoritative news sources, and 3) Unigo was the fourth company, but as a standalone publisher of a successful online college guide they are outside the scope of the other tools presented.