Blogging Is Making A Comeback For Marketers

Fun report on Marketing Pilgrim, it turns out blogging isn't dead!

For those of you who don't know, being a nice and fun Community Manager on Facebook and Twitter doesn't always translate into a solid ROI. 

This is not to say it isn't necessary to manage such fun stuff. No matter what, you need a community and a platform to distribute your content on. Engagement is important! But if that engagement doesn't turn into quantifiable actions that is beneficial for you or your employer, wtf is the point?

Blogs are a necessary part of any meaningful social media strategy. If the person you hired to manage all this says otherwise, you should probably fire them. They have no idea what they are talking about.

And on that note, let the rainbow filled infographic and list posts rain in 2012!

Microsoft To Kill Xbox Points (Thank God)

Microsoft may be preparing to discontinue its virtual currency system by the end of the year. Inside Mobile Apps reports that the software giant will phase out Microsoft Points in favor of real money based on the local region of Xbox Live accounts. The move may sound surprising, but Microsoft has already started to introduce cash purchases for its full Xbox Live games instead of using the points system

 http://www.theverge.com/microsoft/2012/1/24/2729395/microsoft-points-rumor-discontinue-2012

Wavii Misleads About Early Access

TechCrunch recently covered Wavii, a news aggregator that has been getting a lot of hype because they stuck it to the man.

Being naturally curious, especially with my latest post about PandoTicker, I attempted to sign up for early access.

This is where things got weird.

Wavii stated on TechCrunch that the first 500 visitors to visit http://www.wavii.com/techcrunch500 would gain early access to the service. I did so, and ran into a curious roadblock.

I still had to ask my friends to sign up to get early access. 

Not feeling the urge or desire to invite more friends, I decided the experience was a fluke, and went on a search for a different invite link.

This brought me to the newly minted PandoDaily, where they covered the announcement via the PandoTicker. They also had an invite link that was advertised as a way for me to get into the service.

So I clicked the link, crossed my t's and dotted my i's, and ran into the same issue as before. I had to invite more friends before I could gain access, even though the page clearly states that I should be getting early access.

I even got an email with a nice link saying, "GET EARLY ACCESS" which only looped me back to inviting my friends.

Huh?

Am I Seeing Things?

It turns out I am not alone in feeling a little bit turned around. On Techmeme, much of the discussion is not revolving around the product, but of their misleading invite system. That can't feel good!

As a Community Manager though, I understand why Wavii did this. This is no doubt an effective way to get viral growth going. It's not like this sharing tactic to drive bigger numbers is particularly exceptional; but the mix up in communication between bloggers and Wavii was. 

There was no mention that if I gave up my email, I would have to invite MORE friends to get access. If this was made clear to me in the blog posts I read, I would've been more receptive to taking the time to bother my friends. Now I am just annoyed.

That said, I don't think Wavii did this with malintent, as some might suggest. Yet, I do believe their communication with bloggers was lackluster at best. This was not Wavii's only mishap of the day either. They also lost out on full coverage from PandoDaily due to an embargo issue.

This has to particulary sting Sarah Lacy since both Wavii and PandoDaily are backed by CrunchFund. 

Hopefully Wavii recovers from this small block in the road, and gives users early access as originally stated in the coverage today. 

PandoTicker, A Future Competitor to Techmeme?

Last night, I decided to check out Sarah Lacy's new venture and blog PandoDaily.

It is more or less what I expected from Sarah. PandoDaily features a simple blog design which emphasizes the excellent content, while bringing quality analysis and reality to tech blogging . While this is definitely welcome addition to tech blogging, it is not enough of a "power feature" to compete in an already crowded market.

I think Sarah knows this as well, which makes the prominently displayed "PandoTicker" and $2.5 million round of funding very interesting.

Currently, the PandoTicker is very simplistic. It is a list of links curated by Trevor Gilbert, with a short summary attached. All in all, it's still a glorified Twitter feed. I can't imagine that Sarah would give such a basic ticker so much real estate, and hire an editor for it, if her plans were simply to provide us with a glorified Twitter feed.

While the implementation is simplistic, all the pieces are in place for a serious Techmeme competitor. PandoDaily is supposed to be a representation of Silicon Valley, and becoming the industry standard aggregator would do nothing but further this position. 

There is no doubt that part of the future of blogging is aggregation, and connecting the dots of important content and conversations. Techmeme is at the very least a proof of concept that people want/need someone fill this ever growing gap. There's simply too much content being thrown at us. 

If PandoDaily can turn their ticker into a aggregator that matches or rivals Techmeme, I will be very excited for the aggregation space once again. It will be an essential feature for any blog planning on achieving commercial success. 

Think of this as well: Imagine if PandoDaily could make or break an article based on whether or not they throw up your blog post. 

TechCrunch 2.0. 

Android Fragmentation. It Only Hurts You.

We also talked about OEMs' perennial press to skin the operating system — a trend that looks poised to continue in Android 4.0 — which developed into a full-blown conversation about the conflict between the mythical "stock Android device" and the realities of business between manufacturers like Motorola and carriers. "Verizon and AT&T don't want seven stock ICS devices on their shelves," he said, insisting that he "has to make money" and that there simply isn't a way to profit on a device that isn't differentiated. "The vast majority of the changes we make to the OS are to meet the requirements that carriers have." - The Verge (emphasis mine)

This was a pretty stunning statement for Motorola's Sanjay Jha to make. What he is basically saying here is that if they don't appeal to the carriers then they don't get retail space. 

That's sort of a big deal.

This also simultaneously throws out all the talk that fragmentation is actually good for the consumer because it gives us "choice." 

If we come back to reality, this is simply business. Carriers want continued control of the consumer experience, and if carriers have it their way, Apple will be the only device maker that retains an exception to that rule.

Motorola needs to make money (as Sanjay noted), and they are willing to degrade their devices to meet carrier wishes in order to make quarterly profits.

The only person this negatively affects? You as a consumer. Funny how that works.