What is cloud computing?

What is “cloud computing” well it is being able to pretty much do stuff like; word processing, photo editing, accounting, well nearly anything that you would usually need to install as a programme on your computer.

Except it works through a web page on the internet in servers (where the internet lives) and runs off the servers (data centers) and is presented to you in a browser! Think Gmail! Think Cloud computing – that is one of the best examples.

But this a ‘tech guy’ known as HighT3chDad has created a YouTube video which well is so much more fun to watch than read.

Also, great lesson in how to create Business to Business leads by using YouTube and home based video production with storyboards.

Check it out! <best viewed by click through to the article page here>

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJncFirhjPg]

Web 2.0 and the Network Effect.

The network effect is the value an exchange medium has (such as, Facebook) by supplying usage (your time) and your information to the service. You must of course, as a ‘user’ receive value from the usage of the service in return. Effectively, the more people who use the service such as; Facebook the more benefit the users will receive from the network. This can be with virtual groups, associations, friends and family. The difference here is again the WWW as you can now connect anywhere in the world with friends or virtual friends.

And wherever there are large numbers of users, business and marketers look to use the medium to engage and interact with the ‘users’ to sell their products and services.

With Facebook it was the simple and effective design of the site and features which colleague students in America started to use. So, with word of mouth and referral, “are you on Facebook?” a process began which was the Network Effect. This is an example of a Positive Network Effect, whereby the users found they had a way to keep in touch and share information with trusted groups or on campus more like trusted tribes!

Just as there are Positive Network Effects there are also Negative Network Effects, I will be a little cheeky here and suggest that the public transport in Melbourne (Trams and Trains) suffers from a serious Negative Network Effect when it rains as it cannot cope with the increased volume and long lines of grumpy wet passengers are the negative result. Not enough capacity = Negative Network Effect.

The classic Positive Network Effect which you will most probably have in your home or on you is the home phone or mobile. The more people connected (phone network) the more efficient and useful the telecommunications network became, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. Well, that was true until we had unsolicited telemarketing calls.

So, how do you harness these new forms of The Network Service for your business?

Well there are a couple of really important things you have to have first, and these are;

1. Permission to interact with your customers, preferably by email (for online marketing)

2. The correct strategy to leverage and build a community with these new Network Service Providers such as; Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace without naming all the other web 2.0 possibilities.

3. Customer data (no data – much harder to connect)

4. A strategy to use the networks with a consistent and relevant message for your business.

5. Fun, you have to want to use these to engage with your customers so they enjoy being connected to your business with the benefit that comes with the connection.

So there we go, a few lines on what is the Positive Network Effect. I hope this helps to further understand some of why Sean Parkers presentation from the post “Connect or Die: The Network Service and the future of your business!” is so important for all businesses.

It is in effect digital Word of Mouth or as Advertisers and Marketers like to abbreviate everything WoM! I will talk about Word of Mouth marketing and digital Word of Mouth Marketing in my next post.

Till next time, The Integrati team.

Connect or Die, what will your business choose?

Well, we have all seen the rise and rise of Google and the importance of being able to find ‘stuff’ on the world wide web. Many of you may not remember the WWW before Google when you had to go to portals and lists of links like boards to find ‘stuff’ you were interested in.

Today we search sites like Bing and Google and we use these site to serve up paid links/ads on these sites to drive targeted traffic to our own sites. This model is what has made Google billions of dollars. It works, I am not denying this at all and I happily use Adwords and love all the reporting which you receive as part of the service on the dashboard.

So, this is all known and works, so what is this new term The Network Service? Well, it is a new term coined by an analyst of web 2.0 Sean Parker. In many ways I think it actually sounds like an outdated ‘network’ term but what Sean is actually referring to is  Social Networking.

Web 2.0 logos

Sean Parker, has created a thesis that he believes that the power of search is limited in that:

1. Companies that Harness the power of networks will dominate the internet
2. Collecting data is less valuable than connecting people

Well, let’s have a look at point one, in effect what Sean is saying is that whilst being able to find stuff on the WWW is still important (and will remain so) what is really important is being able to be leverage your connections to find ‘stuff’ faster and well with Trust. I think that is something which people have left out of the argument. In essence you trust a search engine to search that is it. But with a social network, the power of the search is in the TRUSTED reference. In other words the people you link to on MySpace, Facebook and professionally on Linkedin. So these Social Networking companies are all in line for being more valuable than Google and Bing and even poor old Yahoo.

Because… well because as Sean has stated collecting, aggregating , filtering and presenting data to a single user via search will be less important than collecting people!

That is what Social Networking is all about, it is the ability to tap into your known networks of trusted groups and individuals. This is not new, in fact it has been around since humans have been, what is different is that on the WWW it is able to connect you anywhere, any time on a device of your choosing. The Anthropologists and Sociologists have studied this and it is a cause celeb for them, they call it Tribal!

Tribal networks are the ability to use your trusted network or tribe for reference, reassurance and acceptance, except this is different to the periods of mass consumerism to the late 1990′s. In that geographically you can be linked into a ‘tribe’ anywhere in the WWW and share the same values and traits.

Now, I know you are thinking, “yeah but I am a small business owner what has this got to do with my business?” Well in my opinion it is simple, the saying was “Change or Die” (in other words innovate your business before your competitors do) now I believe it is Connect or Die. And, this is where the small business has a massive opportunity, not only does your business have excellent customer service and great products but you KNOW the Customer!

In marketing one of the biggest advantages is knowing your ‘target market’ your customers, If you use Social Networking as a business tool now to connect and foster a ‘tribe’ of your customers you will be building a sustainable competitive advantage – You will sell more to your customers than ever before.

Now, I have written enough about Sean’s basic premise and I won’t make your eyes bleed with anymore discussion here, in fact I you can read Sean’s presentation here from Scribd.com or directly from the Integrati.com.au Public Dropbox here in MS PowerPoint.

Now, Sean also talk’s about the Network Effect, I will cover this off in my next post, I will be interested to hear your thoughts as well.

Till next time,

The Integrati team.