Thursday, April 3, 2008

David Spark of Spark Media Solutions subs in for Alec today on the Squawk Box.

Today on the Squawk Box we had Sam Levin (http://www.samlevin.com) to join us on a discussion about offering coupons through Twitter and business social networking. Here are some issues that came up in our discussion.

- Will following a company on Twitter that’s constantly offering your coupons cause you to stop following them? Like with any editorial publication, what’s the breakdown of information and advertising? Sam’s launching coupons next week with Case Mate (http://www.case-mate.com/).

- If you’re going to offer Twitter-only coupons, they need to be special only via that avenue. The coupons available through Twitter can’t be found anywhere else. This is true with other new media coupons. For example, coupons through mobile devices have to be special only through that communications medium. You shouldn’t be able to see those same coupons in the Sunday circular.

- Where do you go to engage in business social networking? While we’re all aware of the big social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, you need to ask the people in your industry who are connected where they go to engage.

- GetSatisfaction.com (http://www.getsatisfaction.com/) is offering a platform for B2C companies to engage with their consumers. It seems to be an active environment. Is this the right answer? Can you drag people into a new social network like this and get them involved? If your product is viral enough or there’s a community around it where people get value out of the product learning from others, then yes, you can drag them. But you need to know your audience.

- Capable Networks (http://www.capablenetworks.com) is similar to GetSatisfaction, but geared more towards a B2B audience.

- And we all agreed that Robert Scoble is an anomaly (especially while at Microsoft) when it comes to leading voices at companies.

Listen to the whole show.

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Apple passes Walmart in music sales

by alec on April 3, 2008

Ars Technica is reporting that Apple is now the number 1 music retailer in the US, having surpassed Walmart.  No surprise, there!  iTunes is a good service.  Ars portrays this as a problem for the music industry saying:

For the music industry, there is a dark side to Apple's ascension to the top of the charts. Buying patterns for digital downloads are different, as customers are far more likely to cherry pick a favorite track or two from an album than purchase the whole thing. In contrast, brick-and-mortar sales are predominantly high-margin CDs.

What about the inventory savings, though?  Walmart only stocks the top 1,000 or so titles in stores, and sells those at a deep discount at that.  What about the millions of other CDs I might want to choose from?  If I want to buy, for example, Greg Brown's Poet Game my only real choice is to go to Amazon.  Who's holding the inventory of CD's that have been pressed so that Amazon has these for sale?  What's the cost of maintaining that inventory?

The real story here is the transformation of the music industry from a short tail phenomenon to a long tail phenomenen. The benefits to consumers are enormous! 

Digital music sales are not all "cloud".  There's a silver lining for those who care to look for it.   Just don't start by talking to an RIAA exec.

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Pingercast debuts. Connects fans with brands.

April 3, 2008

The folks at Pinger have created a tool they call Pingercast.  In their words, Pingercast "enables independent bands, bloggers, comedians and entertainers to connect directly with their audience by sending audio broadcasts directly to their fans’ mobile phones."   It's a way to engage fans with brands. The way it works is pretty simple.  Broadcasters place [...]

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