On a Porch with Ken Mueller [Podcast]

On a Porch With Ken Mueller Episode LogoThis week I was joined by Ken Mueller, founder and proprieter of Inkling Media, a business that is often associated with his porch in Lancaster, Pensylvania.

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Summary

Ken shared his perspective on social media marketing as it pertains to his typical clients – nonprofits and small businesses. His unique insights will be useful for companies looking to take the plunge in Social Media.

This episode was live on Blog Talk Radio on 3/28/2012.

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The Ins and Outs of Blogging: Episode 2 Building Community [Podcast]

Ins and Outs of Blogging LogoThinking about starting a blog? Want to get more out of your current one? Check out episode 2 of 3 “Building Community” on the ins and outs of blogging with my featured guest Gini Dietrich of Arment Dietrich and the Spinsucks blog.

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Summary

This episode helps you evaluate the value of a community for your blogging objectives and provides you with some guidance on how to do it effectively if you do determine it’s important for your mission. You may also want to read this Resource of the Day feature by my friend and past guest @Tinu who honored us by doing a great review of this episode. You might also want to check out Episode 1, “Getting Started“.

This episode was live on Blog Talk Radio on 10/26/2011.

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You can also signup to be notified when I have new Podcasts scheduled by clicking the “follow” button for my show on Blog Talk Radio.

Hyperalerts provides a hint of monetization strategy

This morning I saw something new in a Hyper Alert notice that provided a hint of a potential monetization strategy:

Hint of Hyper Alerts monetization strategy

The “We are hiring” portion of this alert is new, and could just as easily have been a paid advertisement for a product or service. This is both brilliant and appropriate as long as the ads don’t get more and more annoying and disruptive. If Hyper Interaktiv were to ask me my opinion about monetizing their service, here are some tips I would give them:

  1. Limit the ads to one very small ad at the very top and any additional ads after all of the alert content.
  2. Bend over backwards to protect the privacy of your users.
  3. Build a community around your application and enlist the support and ideas of that community to keep your product viable.

Limiting Ads

The big concern with advertisements would be cramming too many of them in-line and ruining the clean and easy to read alerts that your system produces. A very small advertisement at the top of the page would be easy enough to read or skip over and one larger ad after all alert content could be easily ignored or read/clicked if they had interest. If ads were included in the alert stream itself it would disrupt the value of the alert messages.

Privacy is of utmost importance

Your users are already feeling pinched on privacy, there is a vacuum for leadership in this area from the provider side. Too few companies take the high road with this, the temptation is evidently too great to opt people in to features that they are not fully aware of these days. One classic example here in the USA is how we have to mail, call or fill out a form to opt out of our information being shared by our creditors.

Community Involvement

Too few companies fail to really engage and enlist the support and ideas of their users, or they do it too late. There seems to be great opportunity in this area to build a much stronger community and product/service by really listening and engaging the audience that is ready to be heard and to participate. @Ginidietrich really nailed this issue in a recent comment on my post about Headup closing shop:

See…we’re all becoming social companies yet so few actually engage their users. Sad. – Gini Dietrich, Arment Dietrich

It is evident to me that this is an example where a more robust community could have taken up the charge to help the product become viable and be a commercial success.

Hyper Interaktiv Weigh’s In

I contacted Are Sundnes to find out the official company position on this feature. He indicated to me that right now quality of the service has been the top priority:

This is all in a very early stage, and our main focus now is to make the service as good as possible. -Are Sundnes, Hyper Interaktiv

When I queried him more directly about any plans to monetize the service he said only:

We don’t know where Hyper Alerts will take us, but as for now we’re not trying to monetize. -Are Sundnes, Hyper Interaktiv

So what do you think, do you like my advice?

On the Fly Expertise Connections (Idea)

A light-bulb moment creates Web 3.0 idea

I had an idea while driving to a client after hours last night. It was one hour each way and my second trip there for the day. I often do a couple of different things while driving, one of them is make calls and the other is just think or let my mind wander. Last night I was thinking what could we use all these cumulative hours for? Then it occurred to me, the best thing would be something I am good at. During the day that would ideally be something I could get paid to do. Then I considered that others around me probably would have a similar desire and that others would equally have a desire to have access to that information at any given moment. Conceptually the idea could be considered a relative of Aardvark.

Then just imagine for a moment that there was a place I could go to register topics I am knowledgeable about. I would probably include things like:

  1. Information technology
  2. Social Media
  3. Non-profits
  4. Community

Of course those topics are a little vague, so let’s add a little more clarity in the form of tags of some areas of experience:

Information Technology

Windows XP, Windows 7, Networks, Gnatbox, Lenovo, Microsoft Office, PC Hardware

Social Media

Blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, Amplify, Twitter, Hootsuite, Youtube, Bit.ly, Google Reader, Blogtalkradio

Non-Profits

Rotary, Volunteering, 501(c)3, Asante Africa, Danville/Sycamore Valley Rotary

Community

Leadership San Ramon Valley, Leadership Programs, City Government, Danville CA USA, San Ramon CA USA, Bonita CA USA, Yuba City CA USA

Information side

So now I’ve built a picture of things I might be able to speak about, teach, answer questions, troubleshoot, consult, coach and mentor about. I know that at any given moment when I am driving in my car, done with my calls, done thinking and ready to either help people or perhaps help people while also earning a few bucks that someone is going to have a great need for that information at that very moment. The app would put that individual in touch with me and say after a 2 minute conversation both parties could agree to continue the discussion for some pre-established fee, points, credit or nothing at all.

Information Seekers Side

On the “need” side, an individual could access the website/install the app or whatever else made the most sense. Put the information or expertise they are seeking and be connected to the resource that fits the criteria of timing, cost, experience, and other variables.

Application Summary

Overall this could be built as a purely social chat roulette meets vark to a robust commercial platform. It could easily start as one extreme and morph over time to encompass more.

Closing thoughts and Questions

This has gotten my gears spinning a bit, anyone know of an application (that wasn’t already mentioned) that does this or something similar? Am I going out on a limb here calling this a Web 3.0 idea or would you argue it falls under Web 2.0? I am curious also what people think, please share your thoughts. The most interesting responses will be featured in this post and I’ll link to your blog, so people can also check it out.

Never miss another Amplify.com Community Chat Second Friday of every month at 11:30AM Eastern @amplifytheweb

After our community chat this week I discussed options with Eric for future chats to be regularly scheduled. We worked out that the second Friday of every month at 11:30AM Eastern would work out well for him and is early enough for our friends in the Euro zone to join us. Sign up now via Plancast so you don’t forget. The link goes to my Blog Talk Radio account, the episode will be created shortly.

Amplify’d from plancast.com

Joe Hackman
Amplify.com community Chat on Blogtalkradio

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New Vision of Charitable Groups on Facebook

Tonight I launched on a whim a Charity “Community” page on Facebook. I sought and failed to find a top level organization where all charitable/philanthropic groups could go to promote their organizations, seek support and share ideas. That group now exists and if the need is actually there the page should do really well.

Please join us and become a fan!

The Charity Community on Facebook

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