Ian@work

Broadband Adoption

From the Pew Internet & American Life Project:

Adoption of high-speed internet at home grew twice as fast in the year prior to March 2006 than in the same time frame from 2004 to 2005. Middle-income Americans accounted for much of the increase, along with African Americans and new internet users coming online with broadband at home. At the end of March 2006, 42% of Americans had high-speed at home, up from 30% in March 2005, or a 40% increase. And 48 million Americans -- mostly those with high-speed at home -- have posted content to the internet.

Technorati Tags: research, broadband

Coldhearted River

A while ago Murray and I drove our friends Kim and Randy to Harlan, KY, where we deposited them on the banks of the Cumberland River. After they canoed the length of the Cumberland Kim wrote a book about the experience: Coldhearted River : A Canoe Odyssey Down the Cumberland.

I just got my copy and was pleased to see that it included a couple of my photographs, including my shot of the most disturbing billboard you'll ever lay eyes on:

Added bonus: Chapter one's recounting of how Murray and I helped Kim and Randy mentally prepare for their adventure by cracking Deliverance jokes.

Technorati Tags: book, coldhearted+river, kim+trevathan

BREC Meeting Last Night

Last night in my presentation to members of the Blue Ridge Entrepreneurial Council I noted that they seem to be at the same stage that the Triad entrepreneurial community was seven years ago. Given where the nexus of activity in the western NC counties lies (Asheville, Boone, Blowing Rock) there's more of an emphasis on tourism and recreation-based businesses than there was in Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point. However, there are other new businesses engaged in technology and manufacturing.

Some thoughts:

• There was a lot of entrepreneurial energy in the room, and it will be interesting to see how the business and academic communities nurture it. I spoke with a number of creative folks who are starting or running businesses that span a broad range of industries, and their enthusiasm is infectious.
• The cost of living in Asheville, Boone and Blowing Rock is skyrocketing, and I wonder if or how this will be addressed since it clearly impacts ability to hire/retain workers. Yeah, the culture in each of those communities is attractive to the all-important young professionals, but they have to pay the rent, too.
• ASU's Walker College of Business has initiated an entrepreneurship program. It's in the early stages but seems to have a very practical focus on business creation.
• Jim Roberts, who I've known since his days running entrepreneurial support group Firstround, is the catalyst behind BREC. He has an uncommon talent for connecting people whose interests are aligned. I hope the entrepreneurial community takes advantage of this.

Technorati Tags: brec, advantage+west, entrepreneurship

Net Neutrality Debate

Mike "I'm not a techie" McCurry debates Craig "Craigslist" Newmark on the issue of net neutrality. Mike claims, bandwidthwise, the sky is falling. Or so his telcomm clients say.

In response, Newmark takes him to school.


Technorati Tags: network+neutrality

WOM Metrics

From Church of the Customer, interesting stats on Word of Mouth. A key figure:

92%: Percentage of word of mouth conversations that occur offline; 71% of those occur face-to-face, and 21% occur by phone.

Implication: Marketers should consider thinking of the Internet as a medium for seeding ideas, not necessarily spreading them (although it certainly can do that).


Technorati Tags: word+of+mouth, wom, research

RSS Matters

Have you heard of RSS but don't quite get why it matters? Read this.

(Via Micropersuasion)


Technorati Tags: rss, marketing

A Brush With the World of Online Media Buying

A client invited me to sit in on an online marketing presentation this morning. Lately I've been the presenter at these kinds of things, but this morning that honor went to the client's media agency. It was interesting to see the topic from another angle.

This is a rough approximation of how they allocated time among discussions of various online media:

It's a very different viewpoint from the one I've been preaching. There was a heavy emphasis on paid media, and little serious discussion of blogging, podcasting, and social networks. Imagine a traditional ad buying approach overlaid on interactive media - lots of talk about reach, impressions, and share of voice, and very little about the fundamental changes in buyer/seller relationships that are making the Internet such a compelling marketing channel.

This is how I might break down the same sort of online marketing discussion.


More about understanding what customers want, and not just where they are. More about making businesses visible, open and engaged. More about tapping into people and networks, and less about spending massive amounts of money on paid media.

More: Online advertising isn't necessarily a bad thing any more than a blog is necessarily good. But, the ad-centric view of online media seems to have some shortcomings, particularly an inordinate degree of focus on traditional ad metrics and reliance on big budgets to get a message across. Media buying seems ripe for disruption and it surprised me to see a traditional approach, albeit applied with some new tools to changing media.

Technorati Tags: online+media, social+networks, advertising, blogging, podcasting, search

The Antithesis of the 53,651

I spent much of last week talking to non-technical folks about blogging, podcasting, tagging, and other aspects of online social networking. Generally, these people aren't bloggers, don't use Flickr, and del.icio.us isn't on their radar. They're more concerned about getting things done than finding the latest, techiest idea. The discussions were eye-opening all the way around.

I value technology. I understand it's utility. I spend a lot of time counseling clients about how to incorporate it into problem solving. But the folks I really enjoy working with aren't the early adopters. Rather, they're people who are primarily focused on solving business problems. They don't see tech as the first resort, nor as the last. Rather, they need solutions that work, and if it involves trying something innovative - well, they do excited about it, but it's not driving them either.

They're the antithesis of the 53,651. And there's something vastly more exciting about drawing a connection between a client's pain and an elegant, appropriate tech solution than to simply point an already tech savvy buddy to the latest iteration of Web 2.0.


Technorati Tags: web2.0, 53651, tech

More Seminar Action

Yesterday it was the PRSA. Tonight, I'm leading a seminar for a local non-profit that wants to learn about online social networks. It's another step in the mass migration to the live Web.


Technorati Tags: prsa, prsa-tarheel, social, nonprofit, seminar

Squidon't?

Michael Arrington nails what's been bothering me about Squidoo, and why I'm skeptical about it's future. Even worse, Arrington thinks it might be a reputation killer.


Technorati Tags: squidoo, sethgodin, purplecow