July 20, 2007
Aggregate the Aggregators- Bring the edges to you
Aggregate the Aggregators- Bring the edges to you
A post on Scbleizer today frames a similar thought I had about Google reader, he uses Facebook as his example:
“Facebook: the new data black hole — Oh, my. — I added the Wordpress Facebook Application a few days ago. Now my blog, and your comments, are showing up on my Facebook Profile Page. Along with my Twitters. My Flickr photos. My Google Reader items. My Kyte videos. And a bunch of other things.”
(http://scobleizer.com/2007/07/19/facebook-the-new-data-black-hole/)
Facebook is a meta application host network a web OS on top of everything else. It now hosts my Google Reader feed which is already a data mashup of various feeds.
I migrated over hundreds of daily bookmarks into Google Reader. Now instead of having to go through every morning and open links in different tabs and then scan each site individually looking over various news and blogs, this entire experience is now all contained and consolidated in the Google Reader experience. Before when I opened more than 20 sites at once the upstream data would cave by Verizon DSL session. Verizon must have put bandwidth filters in place to avoid customers always maxing out their data usage.
My migration to Google Reader was instigated by constantly reading about the efficiencies of the reader as well as hearing how much others who consume as much intel as myself enjoyed it.
At any rate, after spending a week consuming information through Google Reader I realized how much less time I spent combing for information around the edges and how much easier it has become to find information through the reader. The same thing applies with Facebook, after embedding and adopting key applications I no longer need to out to the edges and bring it to me, as it’s already there just one click away.
This is actually quite similar to the migration from appointment based television to on demand consumption brought on by the rise of DVRs. The implications for both are enormous.
Just a few things to consider are:
How will this play out with metrics with new measurement based on time spent vs. page views?
Will RSS pulls be viewed as page views or time spent?
Also, what implications will this have in terms of less random discovery of news and information?
I initially want to call readers in general disruptive but they actually have more of disintermediation effect than a complete distruction effect on the media consumption experience. Especially as a user, reader and consumer of media and information I love the overall efficiencies of mashup feeds. Some of my feeds are mashups of over 100 RSS feeds funneled into one feed, which is then put into Google Reader and embedded into Facebook.
Parsing information this way has been a real game changer from a GTD time perspective. The economies of this new world order are impressive.
So the winning proposition is aggregating the aggregators and delivering it in the most edible fashion.
Same as it ever was.
Posted by mark at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)
November 06, 2006
Terms of Engagement: Measuring the Active Consumer
Mark Ghuneim, with contributions from Seth Salomon and Mari Katsunuma
I. Introduction
II. What Engagement Means
III. How We Measure Engagement
IV. The Value of Understanding Engagement
V. Conclusion
VI. Next Steps
I. Introduction
For more than a decade, web users have actively bookmarked their favorite websites and forwarded interesting articles to their friends. These actions are a form of consumer engagement that has changed rapidly in scope, degree, and importance during the onset of Web 2.0. In the world of YouTube, MySpace, Second Life, and blogs, users are now more active and in-control than ever. Consumers can not only interact with brands, but also influence marketing strategies and performance. Users have been responsible for changing movies during production (Snakes on a Plane) as well as getting bands signed through MySpace engagement (Shiny Toy Guns).
Marketers and advertisers have struggled to define this behavior of engagement as well as assign a value to the various user actions associated with it. The desire for clarity and understanding has created the need for a methodology that can measure connected engagement and the varying levels of associated attention and interaction.
II. What Engagement Means
In the traditional sense, engagement is the period between proposal and marriage. This definition can also apply to engagement in terms of marketing and advertising. In an initiative conducted by the Advertising Research Foundation, the need for a measurement of engagement is described as the "search for the 21st Century gross rating points." The ARF later refined their definition. "Engagement is turning on a prospect to a brand idea enhanced by the surrounding media context." I am more inclined to define engagement as, "a consumer based measurement that regards interaction with an aspect of a brand or media property."
Web 2.0 Engagement could include, but is not limited to:
* Publishing
* Creating and Publishing to a Group
* Posting
* Subscribing
* Favoriting
* Adding Friends
* Bookmarking
* Emailing
* Distributing
* Streaming
* Networking
* Creating Mash-up Content
When measuring engagement, the level of user interaction (i.e. 200 vs. 2,000,000 streams) is an obvious and important component. Yet engagement is complex in that it is not comprised solely by clicks, but also a range of involved user actions. The true measurement of this principle must factor in the saliency of each application in relation to other forms of engagement. For example, what is the importance of MySpace friend adds as opposed to YouTube views? Additionally, it must be noted that these metrics are goal-based in the sense that they will be of varying strengths and importance across different sectors (music, television, consumer products, etc.). This implies that in order to accurately derive a useful measure of engagement, one must not only possess the necessary Web 2.0 data, but also a unique understanding and perspective of each surveyed application by industry.
III. How We Measure Engagement
As we evolve our methodology and explore the determinants and ultimate value of Web2.0 engagement, we must look closer at the activities that help define engagement. We must also determine the level of attention and actionable experiences for each application once a user is engaged. These levels of engagement can be measured by the complexity and ultimate depth of user actions and the related amount of attention associated with each. This measurement also allows for the understanding of the time spent with the message or the causal action stemming from the attention. For example, a user might be engaged enough to read an article as well as related user comments following the text. But how is this situation different from a user that does the same, but also leaves a new comment of their own? The action of regarding content, followed by an action of engagement is the causal agent that defines this principal.
Also worth noting is that each user action can provide different levels of attention as well as influence further interactions. While the viewing of a video online is considered an impression, there are different and unique tiers of attention and engagement in each play such as the length of active viewing as well as subsequent sharing, rating, favoriting, forwarding, and adding which are all secondary interactions that form the engagement layer of behavior. These actions are also important as they involve users recommending and approving products which ultimately affects both their own reputations and levels of trust amongst peers.
This idea falls naturally into a formula of engagement being action over attention.
Measuring the levels of interaction surrounding the communication is one way to quantify this relationship.
Engagement = Interaction/Attention
This equation illustrates the combined activity of regarding; or paying attention to, and then acting on. While this is an important relationship to understand, one must remember the inherent limitation it presents in that each interaction is not as valuable as others.
IV. The Value of Understanding Engagement
Engagement is important as it can lead to web traffic, CRM, sales, and brand loyalty. These outcomes can be directly attributed to time spent and subsequent actions with a product's message, related media, and the Web 2.0 applications in which they are communicated. The ability of marketing to engage and endear consumers will ultimately determine whether a user digs deeper and/or engages friends.
In order to measure these factors, it might be beneficial to begin to with Web 2.0 services such as social networks and media sites. The functionality of these applications is ideal for generating data surrounding engagement activity. We can use benchmarking to create weights for each attention and interaction type. This is the trickiest piece of the equation as it requires both a strong understanding of Web 2.0 applications as well as all the industries in which a product lives. Yet when performed with precision, this method should allow for the understanding of online engagement value.
Engagement must be understood by type, and the value associated with each in terms of ultimate adoption, sales, and brand loyalty:
V. Conclusion
Once product owners understand the value of each type of engagement in their industries of play, they will know how to best market their products. By creating milestones and targets of user involvement in each application, performance can be measured actively and strategies can be altered during a campaign to meet ultimate goals. This creates the need for an owner to understand their marketplace and related Web 2.0 applications. Additionally, they must possess the capabilities to measure presence across related applications over time and the ability to enact marketing that will achieve desired results.
VI. Next Steps
* Top-20 engagement activities
* Further definition of engagement types
* Produce algorithm (compose related activity weights)
* Incorporate feedback/comments
Comments are welcomed and appreciated
Posted by wiredset at 12:15 PM | Comments (0)