Blogging in San Francisco
After 21 hours traveling from Australia we have arrived in San Francisco with a two year old in tow (thank heavens for business class). We are staying in the Bay Area for three months…and blogging this in the passenger seat in our hire car. Pretty cool this verizon wireless broadband. We are slowly getting over jet lag. Will commence blogging soon…looking forward to catching up with the owners of some Family 2.0 sites and attending the Web 2.0 expo.
ineedBloghits – A new service for bloggers
Family 2.0 related (Blogging)
ineedbloghits – (I am an owner of ineedhits) has just launched a site just for bloggers. The new site has launched with a starter offering that pings 30+ blog engines for a small fee per month. I know there is Pingomatic, but I find that when I write a post I often want to make sure my post has been pinged (has notified) the necessary blog engines, such as Technorati. I also don’t have the time to find more important blog engines to notify of my latest post, and with Pingomatic the list has gotten shorter of blog engines that actually accept my blog post notification.
It’s ineedhits‘ first step into providing tools to enable content writers the ability to get their message out quickly and increase readership, without having to really change anything on your actual blog. So it’s great for bloggers who just want to make sure their content is reachable in real time.
Hopefully we will see other easy tools later on how to make your blog ’sexier’, but without the fuss.
ineedbloghits also provides a free tools resource area in one place…(check out what your blog is worth, blog position, who’s blogging near you, free stats, blog juice calculator, cools things to place into your blog).
Social networking sites that provide members with blogs, may find it useful for bloggers who are part of these networks, like Minti (of which I am a Co-founder of), to also think about outside visitors who are also looking for similar content. ineedbloghits, also provides a blog button to embed onto any site.
The more conversation around the topic the better the participants are for it, regardless of what social network you are or aren’t a part of. We have blog engines to thank for that. They let you see content by aggregating almost just as it’s written, from all over the blogging web. I think it would be good, say for example, for Minti to let it’s Minti bloggers know that they can increase their blogosphere readership and likewise find other parent bloggers in the blogosphere to share with by getting the word out with tools like ineedbloghits, I’m just saying that the value of the exchange is exponential. But there is alot of work involved in building a blogging presence.
I’ll elaborate, imagine being able to provide the means to ‘connect’ other mommy and daddy bloggers out in the blogosphere, already talking about parenting to bloggers in Minti who are passionately talking about the same subject? This long tail affect I can see provides benefits to a group of bloggers who I know sometimes get vilified for talking about their kids. I think tapping into the long tail may expand Minti’s niche offering yes, but more so in fostering an open door to parents who blog in the blogosphere and find other bloggers in one place who are just as passionate about what they write and I am sure would be just as passionate reading about what the blogosphere writes on parenting.
I think having a readership of ‘quality’ interaction, were people are reading exactly what they want to read is better than just writing into the universe hoping someone is listening enough to stop by. Hopefully, the more bloggers of the same subject know about each other the better opportunities to attract the right readership the content demands and more importantly find friends who can share feedback, and the love of the same topic… and not just focus on members connecting within their own social society, such as Minti, but using the network as a base to connect with the blogosphere and vice versa.
It’s food for thought…
Family 2.0 – Yahoo! OMD research
With permission from Yahoo! to blog about their research findings conducted with research company OMD, I have been able to view some interesting findings. Families are using technology everyday that is becoming more and more integrated into our routines. The research highlights ‘competing’ interest with managing their families, work life, their relationship with media and balancing all this into one healthly experience. Technology gadgets are become more of a ‘must have’ in the home. With more access/wireless points in the house to the internet, families globally are spending an average per day of 3.6 hours on the internet. With the US spending 7.8 hours per day with technology. Technology is making our lives more complicated and competing with our desires get to outside, but it is also allowing us to connect with families and share online more frequently and on a more connected level.
Globally Family 2.0 is driving interaction via many devices such as the Internet, Mobile, MP3 players. The family is also able to access a range of information via the internet as well as technology tools to help better run or share their lives. With 65% sharing photos online, 69% searching online daily and 61% of us searching for products online.
What I find is very interesting is that 2 in 10 people have either started a business online or use the internet to generate income. I do see that User generate content and social sharing allows for quality content and those contributing to sites becoming respected for what they share. Online sites are prepared to pay for this ‘quality’ content.
It is also exciting to highlight the openess of families to ‘get stuff done’ via tools online. With Gen Y using technology as a part of life, it is also noted that younger generation of men like to cook, organse travel and help with cleaning. On this topic, I have observed, and can also vouch from my own experience, it is becoming a more “shared” responsibility of the husband and wife in regards to more quality contribution to the family, rather than just the traditional view of the man going to work fulltime. I am seeing examples everyday were men want more in their life and want to being involved in the family. I myself can see that is quality time, that fathers are starting to value, rather than just work output, as their contribution to the family. With the internet enabling this ability, like being able to work remotely or from home or having more flexible hours is relieving a lot of stress in men’s lives and realizing like mothers they don’t have to be SuperHeros.
Family 2.0 is enabling more contribution from all family members that often had taken a back seat for what ever reason. Example: Some Family 2.0 sites allow parents to be more connected with the progress of their child’s education.
In a nutshell this research has found:
- Family 2.0 is evolving globally. With decision making being not about the demograhics in the family, but more on which family members have an interest in the decision and what type of family members are in the home. (Grandparents or families with adult children)
- Family Decision Making. There is a desire for open communication amongst family members. With each member having their own way of using technology to communicate with…ipods, playstations, computer, sms, mobile, online shopping etc. The kids are often a source of tech information and their input is valued.
- 40 hour days. We are busier than ever (I think we enjoy being busy). We engage with some form of media at least nine hours with Media and seven hours with other technology.
We are using technology more and more to keep in touch and connected to our family unit. In my opinion Social Media is creating a new way of life for the younger generation, who will grow up with Social Media all around them, rather than choosing to become an early adopter. I mean I was chatting to my other half the other day and we realized that our son will not know anything different and will assume that all kids households have home theatres. It’s now the home theatre screen that’s called the ‘big tv’ and the LCD’s on the wall the small TV’s. My goodness, a big TV in my household growing up was your standard TV set and we only had one in the house and only turned it on to watch Neighbours, Monkey Magic and Degrassi High. Now it’s Cars on DVD, The Wiggles DVD and Doddlebobs on tap on pay TV! Computer wise, okay my household is slightly skewed, as we are in tech, but I am reading more and more experiences of mothers having a wireless laptop on in the kitchen (I do) and other families having laptops for the children to use. With all family members having IM accounts and mobile phones.
Parents, I feel need to stay on top of what’s available for the family and hopefully Family 2.0 can fillfil that need.
Kinnection is live in alpha and is taking email address to be notified of it’s impending launch. Kinnection will be a private social networking site …”tailored to meet the specific needs of families by helping them share memories, stay connected, and preserve family history in a safe environment“
Meet the Founder of Kinnection…
Nikki Santoro – Founder & CEO
Nikki has ten years of experience at Microsoft designing and delivering large-scale, consumer software. During her career, she managed teams working on several highly successful communication and social networking services including MSN Messenger, MSN Spaces, Outlook Express, and NetMeeting.
It will be interesting how Private Social Networks gain traction without content sharing being accessible from all over the web, however, that big ‘ol company called AOL did something great with the model…
Will we see these private networks compete in an innovative way against Vocal Point (Procter and Gamble?). I can already see that they would provide a quality network and knowledge pool of families opinions, tastes and behaviors. As a close knit group you would be able to interact with members more intimately and gain an understanding of their specific advertising need. No doubt lucrative ‘bees nest’ for product companies and the like, salivating with eagerness at being able to gain intimate access to?
I do believe that social software gets better with the more members using it…I do think a site’s first 100,000 is crucial in gaining momentum and to get past the ‘chasm’ or ‘tipping point’. Whether this be buying members, establishing partnership with Web 1.0 sites or bricks n mortar companies…I do think our business minds can get past this barrier successfully, the challenge will be member stickiness (or rather addiction to stickiness conversions)…and sometimes it’s just time and organic growth (having fun).
Stay tuned on Kinnection
