I really enjoyed the audience and found them incredibly receptive to my message about how social media (among other digital tools) is changing the way companies do business and the general business environment. This environment is great for startups and for accelerators such as the Founder Institute of which I am Director in Colombia. I call this whole phenomenon Digital Innovation and explained it at length during my presentation.

Today, I was gratified to read Diana Luque’s impressions of my speech and the message I was trying to get out there.  I also put my presentation slides on Slideshare and was amazed to see how popular the slide deck became.  It was great to see this because, as I wrote in a post on the day of the presentation, I had been working hard on that deck the night before and for the first time used my new corporate image and brand of TG Coach although the website is still under construction.  Among the points I made during the presentation, was the fact that the advertising agency industry is coming under attack as mentioned in an article yesterday in Adweek.  Finally, I was quite flabbergasted to get two separate emails from Slideshare informing me that my presentation was one of their hottest pieces of content on Twitter and Linkedin and am showing a shot of the homepage at that moment here.

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In terms of user interface design, I really like the whole simplified design (with larger search box) and instant results.  This is most definitely a win for the company in terms of maintaining its dominance of the search market. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to look at what they launch in the social networking/gaming space when they unveil the Google Me project.  Though search will continue to be important, social media continues to pick up steam and could conceivably be a more important part of the user equation.

Thomas and I will discuss this on our weekly show (in Spanish).

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Among the suggestions related to market education or evangelization is the need for more events or activities where potential customers can learn and appreciate real life success stories.  This was an excellent validation of an idea I’ve had for quite some time and that I’ve been discussing with the founder of Social Media Week in New York.  The potential for an event like this is huge (attendees, sponsors and industry players)!

That particular event is a perfect fit for Bogota (and really a number of cities in Colombia).  Aside from the excellent content, the format is extremely open and collaborative.  For instance, many of the conferences (speeches) can be held at venues which can be used in return for “in kind” sponsorships.  This provides a new and more connected experience for the attendee while maintaining costs in check.

The momentum that’s been building during just the last month is quite exciting.  Aside from how things have been coming together with the impressive group of online marketers and the event, I’ll soon have some exciting news to report on my role within the Colombian online marketing market.  There are some impressive and great people hear and I’m, first of all, grateful to have met them and, secondly, looking forward to working more closely with them.

We’re still ironing out some details, but I’m confident that Social Media Week will be held in Bogota (and hopefully in other Colombian cities through streaming) in September.  Tonight, at the Meetup, we’ll be talking with a core group of industry members and sharing with them some general news about the impressive lineup of speakers and potential sponsors that are on deck for this event.

In keeping with the theme of the online media and the event (it’s social), I’m sure we’ll get excellent feedback there and through the Linkedin group channel.  If we work together as an industry we can accelerate adoption of these tools (e.g., social media, etc.), which will have a domino effect on digital innovation, productivity, competitiveness, profitability and, ultimately, development of the country (in economic, social and quality of living terms) in general.

Well, time to run to one more meeting and then it’s off the the Meetup.  I’ll post some pictures and a video tomorrow with more news.

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Ironically, his ratings jumped substantially during the brouhaha as well as his online support.  Though NBC to some extent uses social media tools such as blogs and twitter, one wonders if the company could have employed such tools to engage more with audiences and come up with a different outcome?

One example of the online support that Conan garnered during the impasse is that created by designer Mike Mitchell.  Mr. Mitchell created the “I’m with Coco” image along with a campaign in support of the late night television star on a Facebook fan page that already boasts more than 300,000 members and has engendered a number of rallies in support of the late night star.

In contrast, Jay Leno’s Facebook fan page has less than 50,000 members and, incredibly, was hacked on Sunday evening to display an image of Conan. Finally, checking blog activity on Trendpedia shows a spike in activity for the keyword “Tonight Show,” among others during the last several days.

Would it have been possible for NBC to translate this Internet and social media interest into a more profitable business result for the network?  One thing is for certain, achieving such a result would have required more than simply using social media tools.  It would have required an organization willing to listen, react and respond relatively quickly to new and interesting options that pop up from such “digital” conversations.  It would have required a mindset where mistakes, such as this particular programming mishap, could be admitted and where fan criticism or suggestions would be encouraged and not lamented.

The actual form that such a strategy should take is debatable. Nevertheless, one company that seems to be embracing social media tools and, possibly, the ensuing organizational transformation that could result is MTV.  Recently, Carolyn Everson, EVP of strategy and operations for MTV Networks, stated that “digital learnings” are making their way into the linear business.  It’s interesting to note that within the list of Top Social Brands of 2009 recently released by Vitrue, MTV ranks as number 4 on the list while NBC is number 68 – CBS and ABC are at 32 and 33, respectively. This would seem to indicate that the network might have some work to do in terms of more fully embracing audience engagement through social media.

Ironically, Comcast, the company due to acquire NBC Universal shortly, has been cited as an example of a company that embraced the use of social media (e.g.,Twitter) as a catalyst to improving their customer service.  This fact notwithstanding, Comcast is probably at the beginning of any transformational process and is actually ranked #100 on Vitrue’s list of Top Social Brands of 2009.

Indeed, It’s possible that the current industry dynamics and prior decisions made by NBC Universal management have placed them in too difficult of a position regardless of their use of any social media tools.  As mentioned above, companies such asMTV proactively mines social media activity related to their brand and culls valuable insights that inform their business decisions.

Conan certainly enjoyed much support through the Internet even mentioning as much in his farewell address.  Nevertheless, the question still remains.  Could NBC have produced a more positive business result by making better use of the increased social media “conversations” around this story?

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Today, I had an interesting experience at two prospect meetings.  I was meeting with organizations who are just starting to employ digital innovation strategies in Colombia (one of them is farther along than the other one).  In general, I am truly amazed at the disconnect between the user population in these countries and the companies who actually leverage digital tools to join the conversation with their customers.

One of the most exciting recent developments within the Internet space has been the rapid uptake of social media tools and, even more interesting, the adoption of these tools on mobile platforms.  Just was with their record-breaking mobile adoption growth rates several years back, Latin Americans are also breaking records for adopting social networking platforms.  For instance, Colombia is number six in the world in terms of the total number of facebook users.

I just read a post by Shane Gibson, who is currently in Colombia talking precisely about social networks. Incredibly, companies in the region who take advantage of the fact that their customers and prospects are having conversations using these digital tools are few and far between.  What are they waiting for? Instead of spending beaucoup sums of money on traditional media spends, they could be “mixing it up” and including solidly planned online iniciatives to promote their brand, products, services, etc. through direct advertising, community building, word of mouth enabling or other strategies.  An added benefit is the fact that, by doing this in virgin territory, any well thought out strategy strongly executed will be seen as digital innovation by the market place.

Anyhow, this will all play out as it always does in the region.  The market will await some solid successes and then a mass of followers will dive in head first trying to imitate their models. When this will actually happen is the big question.

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According to Forrester, the market for Web Analytics is set to grow at a CAGR of 17% reaching almost $1B by 2014.  The company foresees a market where analytics and optimization solutions are embedded within marketing applications.  Apparently, Adobe believes this is the case and yesterday embarked on a road to make this vision a reality.

Adobe Plays Digital Innovation Chess

During the conference call that accompanied the announcement, both companies expressed optimism about the synergies they would be able to exploit.  One of these is the large installed base of Adobe customers that have a need for such tools, but are not yet Omniture customers. This is particularly true among Adobe’s customers for it’s Creative Suite product line.

In the end, such a pairing will only mean that analytics and optimization technologies will become more readily available and penetrate deeper into more digital marketing initiatives.  Adobe and its competitors will push continual innovations and as well as wider market adoption. Nevertheless, the need for experienced and knowledgeable Analytics professionals will only increase as customer seek assistance in making sense of increasing volumes of web data in order to make better decisions and achieve their marketing and business goals.

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It’s impossible to tell whether the aforementioned documents paint a picture of a rudderless management team grasping at “strategy” straws or of one that is sufficiently aware of the tremendous potential opportunity within their grasp and, consequently, are at ease, openly analyzing their options. Though I’d vote for the latter, after perusing this information, it seems to me to be even more instructive of the industry as a whole.

The first thing that stuck with me after reading some of these documents is how nontrivial it is for a company such as Twitter to define what it is they are or what it is they do.  It seems that opinions within the company’s ranks ranged from “an index to my friends [sic] thoughts” all the way to a “way to share what’s happening.”  Additionally, the conversation on defining Twitter’s value and differentiation in terms of it’s utility for discovery (as opposed to Google search) seems appropriate and relevant.

This last discussion is particularly intriguing and revealing as it provides context for any possible discussions with companies such as Google and Facebook.  It’s pretty clear that Twitter content would provide an excellent complement to Google’s search results.  Thus, one can certainly find justifications for Google to partner or even acquire Twitter and it’s obvious that a number of companies are courting the company for just that purpose.  Aside from leveraging the resources of a larger company and providing an exit to its investors, the justification for being acquired is less straightforward.

Finally, for the first time, we are getting a clearer picture of the company’s revenue objectives ($100M annual revenue in two years) and possible monetization plays.  Initial monetization discussions and possible acquisition candidates seem to be focused on some branding opportunities (CoTweet) and a possible future focus on interesting mobile initiatives (Tweetie).   Nevertheless, it’s obvious from said documents that management’s main concern is building an organization, improving the customer experience and positioning the Twitter brand.  Just as importantly, much mention is made of leveraging a newer API to accelerate the “Twitter everywhere” strategy.

Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with the apparent company direction exposed in these documents, the unexpected explosive success of Twitter has certainly made us rethink the social media space.  Perhaps a more appropriate question that we need to ask ourselves is not so much whether Twitter’s management team is getting it right, but whether we understand the true potential of all of these new social media tools as they continue to permeate our lives.

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The first article is really designed show how compelling web strategies can be by providing an example close to home of a group of people (Colombian politicians) that need to get something done (get people to vote for them now).  These people are looking for a tangible result and are basically voting with their pesos and choosing to invest heavily in the web for only one reason: they believe this channel is paramount for their getting elected.

It’s actually quite interesting to be in this type of emerging market (Colombia) where the Internet is just at the very early stages of being taken seriously.  It’s really like Internet circa 2002 in the states.  Online advertising is just over 1% (about USD $20 million) of the total advertising pie, but is expected to represent 8% of the pie by 2013.  That is explosive growth and it’s quite an interesting matter trying to get corporate executives and small and medium business owners to understand the power of marketing over the Internet (if done correctly).

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