Who Made the Biggest Media Moves in 2009?
My take on some of the biggest splashes made by media companies in 2009. Take fair warning, this list is completely subjective and purely my take on a vast landscape of evolving media. The list is also not a “who made the most money” but more of a “who made a big impact or a big move”.
Answer the poll in the sidebar to let me know what media company you think made the biggest splash in 2009.
Facebook triples in size from 125 million users to 350 million. They took major steps toward becoming more open and “twitter-like“. The status stream became the focus of the site. Real-time is a major focus. They purchased FriendFeed. They took several steps throughout the year to improve their search ability, open themselves up to Google and Bing for search, and to encourage users to open up their profiles to search. While Twitter is currently the home of real time and social search, Facebook has to potential to take over that title if as little as 10% of their user base opens up their profiles.
Twitter decuples in size (10X) growing from 4 million users to 40 million users in 2009. How many of those accounts are real people using the service is another conversation, but it is hard to deny that Twitter has seen extreme growth in 2009, with hordes of celebrities, famous athletes, and businesses all investing in the platform. CNN and Ashton Kutcher battled for 1 million followers. Oprah and Ellen got on board. Dell made some cash. Twitter has gone from unknown internet geek town to a pop culture haven and breaking news winner.
Google – Google continues to grow the passive social network of the web by emphasizing their profiles in search results and integrating profiles with other Google services. Google Wave launches to much fanfare. While Wave has not even begin to make a big splash outside of it’s initial buzz, the possibilities are very cool. Google also made big plays with the Android mobile phone operating system, Chrome browser, and the Chromium operating system. And they made a massive play in GPS turn by turn directions by offering a free alternative to premium turn by turn direction services. Maps are increasing becoming a media platform because of Google, and of course an advertising platform.
Comcast, which already serves a quarter of all U.S. households that pay for TV, would gain control of the NBC broadcast network, the Spanish-language Telemundo and about two dozen cable channels, including USA, Bravo and Syfy. It also would have regional sports networks, Universal Pictures and theme parks. They have already proven themselves as an innovator online with a strong social media presence and especially an early and consistent use of Twitter as a customer service tool. If Government allows things to move forward, the implications are interesting. Movies might move to cable, the internet, and cell phones more quickly.
Foursquare splashed onto the scene at SXSW as yet another of many location based social networks. Unless you were in one of the few cities Foursquare launched in, the buzz was pretty quiet for them until summer. A writeup about Why Yelp and All Retail Should Support Foursquare put the network on the map for many tech folks. Their funding round of $1.35 million dollars really allowed them to pick up the pace and they have since really streamlined the scaling process, growing from 10 cities in March to 100 cities today, and rumors that the next expansion could be everywhere. Reminds me of the early Facebook expansion. If nothing else, Foursquare feels like the first location based network with some real momentum.
Postrank (formerly AideRSS) refocused their company on their Postrank technology this year. For those that have not used is, Postrank, true to it’s name, measures a blog post’s social engagement, which includes blog comments and links, Internet bookmarks, clicks, page views, and activities from social network services such as Twitter, Digg, and FriendFeed. They assess all the activity around a blog and it’s individual posts, determining how much attention and interaction it generates. Later in the year they launched some pretty fancy analytics that is a pretty powerful tool set for anyone investing in blogging. Keep an eye on these guys.
Ning is one of the quieter social networks on the web since it is in fact a networks of smaller niche social networks. Wordpress is launching an open source solution to making your own social network, BuddyPress. But, Ning still remains the easiest, cheapest, and quickest way to launch a social network. This year they reached the milestone of 1 million social networks on the Ning platform and for good measure they also removed any “adult content” social networks. They remain a great resource, with a massive membership, and a built in monetization model of site upgrades and built in advertising.
Other notable media winners this year:
- Hulu – Became the second most popular video site, Added ABC, announced move to payment model
- Boxee – open source, Beta launch
- BreakingNews – becomes major breaking news source, sold to MSNBC
- CNN – buys @CNNbrk, Youtube debates, Holigrams, iReport
- Netflix – Integration into Xbox and Playstation, open API, moving toward online only distribution models
Who would you add to the list? What media companies impressed you in 2009?
Foursquare Goes to College
100 cities strong since their last roll out, Foursquare seems to be gaining some traction across the country. 
Everyone is making their predictions about whether Foursquare is the next Twitter [including me].
I have been using Foursquare for months now in other cities. When it hit my hometown of Charlotte a couple weeks back, I was surprised how many people jumped on. I had 150 friend requests the day after Charlotte was opened.
UNC Charlotte, my alma mater, only took about a week to see the potential of Foursquare on their campus. Last week they became the first University in the country to offer promotions through Foursquare across their campus.
Foursquare Goes to College
I interviewed Brian Baute, IT Director for Business Services at UNC Charlotte, about what their goals are for using Foursquare campus wide.
According to Foursquare, the only other campuses using their promotions are Columbia, who has one promotion running for their campus movie theater, and Harvard who is developing something campus wide.
College students are an interesting niche for testing Foursquare. While they love their smart phones and Facebook, they are not in tune with much else in the social space.
However, Foursquare is similar to Facebook in the fact that it let’s you see up to the second information about your friends. Foursquare is simple in that respect. I can see college students, who are always looking for the next party, latching on to the “where is everybody at” aspect of Foursquare pretty easily.
4 Reasons Foursquare Will Succeed
Foursquare is a location-based social network. Users “Check-in” at venues via mobile phone, find where friends check-in and are then awarded points and sometimes “badges.”
Dead Simple - There are no photos, videos, comments, or links. It is for you to find where your friends are and discover new places to check out. Those two activities are in high demand for most people. Foursquare is more like Facebook than Twitter in one major way, it focuses on your existing friends. It helps you see where they are right now. Or helps you let your friends know where you are. No more strangers passing in the night.
The Game is the Hook – Even though it is simple and offers value, some people just will write it off as one more of many location based social networks. The game helps get people over the hump of why to join. The game will not work for everyone and many lose interests in games over time. But it is a little bit of sugar on top that will entice many to try it. The information will keep them there.
Businesses Get to Play Right Away – Yes, there is great data being collected on Foursquare. And Yes, there will ultimately be ads I suspect for businesses to pay to play. But right now, any business can go in and watch the check-ins at their establishment. Offer promotions and discounts to anyone near their part of town. And interact with existing and potential customers in a new way. Some location based networks have been around for a year or two and still do not have these opportunities.
Made for Mobile – Foursquare is built from the ground up for smart phones. You do not have to go to their website. You can sign up incredibly easily and quickly. The user interface is very clean and intuitive. The locations can be created on the fly very easily. You can access phone numbers for locations and friends when needed. The platform works perfectly on the go, something that, ironically, many location based social networks have not perfected.
Why Do Conferences Suck?
I absolutely crave face to face time with people. I see offline relationships as the heart of marketing.
This is why I keep going to conferences despite the face that most conferences suck. I am in the heart of this world now since creating my own social media conference series, Social Fresh. Here are just a few of the things that encouraged me to find my own solution.
The Four Horsemen of the Conference Apocalypse
Too much hyperbole there?
- No Networking – Many conferences just cram as much content in as possible and lose track of encouraging conversations. Provide physical space that encourages connecting. Provide time in the day that allows connecting. Create reason for people to connect.
- Bad Speakers – Where to begin… Unreadable slides, reading from slides verbatim, simply boring, no examples, no case studies, and please, I do not need your life story as an intro. Cut to the meat.
- Too Big – Don’t get me wrong, I love SXSW and Blogworld, and Web 2.0 for the shear scale of what they do. And they fill a need. But at some point, finding good content, relevant connections, and just navigating these events successfully takes too much effort.
- Too Serious – Yes we are there to learn. No, I don’t need an all day happy hour. But, please lighten up a bit. Throw some spice into the recipe. People like getting away from their desks. Make the day a little more than just instruction. Make it an experience.
Complaints that don’t bother me so much
- No Wifi – I get it, we all want to tweet about an event. It is worth complaining about, but let’s face it, there are plenty of venues and cities that just have crappy cell and wifi capabilities. Wifi does not make an event. And I can attend a great event with no wifi and get just as much out of it.
- Bad Food – Again, I am not there for the food.
- Too Expensive – It is business. Charge what you want. I either think it is worth it or I don’t. Conferences can be expensive endeavors. This value equation is completely different for each person.
Over the last year I have shifted from spending most of my professional time on social media consulting to spending most of my time working on Social Fresh. It is much more rewarding. But it is also not for everyone.
Social Fresh is simple. It is specifically for marketers that want to see the full potential of social media. We bring big brands and smart people in the social media space to a city near you. Big event content, small event networking and discussion.
Jason Bourne vs. Jack Bauer
I asked Twitter the other day, “Who would win in a fight between Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer [link]” (because that is the kind of dorky stuff I like to do on Twitter).
The answer was obviously Chuck Norris (as pointed out by Michael Wouri).
The Chuck Norris facts are some of the funniest and longest running internet memes that I know of.
It got me thinking. Would you not love to be the 3rd answer in these conversations as a business?
Not the 3rd best, but the unique brand in your arena, the purple cow as Seth Godin would say. The brand that people bring up to break a mold, the trump a conversation, to make the conversation more interesting.
Beyond starting a 5 year long hilarious self-perpetuating internet meme, what are your options? Being sexy is not always the answer. Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer are well known badasses from their respective Hollywood domains. But Chuck, he has an empire of fans devoted to his remarkable nature. He is different. Remarkable.
Remarkable scales.
