My 2009 Predictions

I would be negligent as a person who consumes so much information and spends so much time engulfed in social media not to make my own predictions for 2009. So, here they are…

1. Distribution rules.
   - New media companies will establish distribution networks before they build a single destination for their content. Companies will understand the need to put their efforts to reaching an audience across the web, instead of driving them to a single destination. As I have noted in a previous post, TVLoop is a prime example of this. Instead of creating a site similar to Hulu, where all the content lives on a single destination, they first created a distribution network reaching an audience that already existed on social networking sites. Without sounding cliche, companies need to fish where the fish are instead of exerting their efforts luring them to a single trap. The most important thing is understanding how to monetize these distribution networks and create monetary value for the content. 

Vincent Dooly

Interesting viral campaign I came across for a independent movie release.

A friend of mine posted this video on my Facebook wall. He later told me he originally found it on  Digg.com. The film opens with “The Mother of Invention Documentary” and a prompt to follow Vincent Dooly on Twitter.

I thought the video was great, so I immediately emailed it to 4 friends who would probably agree with me. Next, I tried to find more videos of Vincent Dooly.  The most logical place to first look would be under the video in the response section. The video was a response to “Vincent and the Super Suit”. This is the video.

Twitter and Digg Intend to Make Money

The Silicon Valley Insider posted a couple of articles this week about what Twitter and Digg intend to do to make money. Here is what they found:

Digg:

• Ante says Digg will have to “dial back some of its expansion plans.” Says Adelson: “Now I am pressured to keep costs reasonable and focus more on the top-line revenue, which we really haven’t done ever.” After its last round of funding Digg said it would double headcount before December 2009. Maybe not now.
• Insert ads into its RSS feeds.
• Ante says Digg is “on the verge” of improving its search and sell ads against search results.
• Digg is “within a month of closing a deal with a mobile ad provider to sell more ads on cell phones,”says Ante.
  
• Buy Digg clones to expand internationally. “There are Digg clones around the world in every country,” says Adelson. “I could go into those markets and clean up those sites. If I needed more capital to do a deal, I could probably do it.”
• Add new features to make users click more.

Twitter:

• Revenue is coming Q1, Evan promises. “I don’t want to raise money in 2009.”
• Twitter is in talks with “large consumer packaged good companies.” But no word yet on just what that means.
• In the works: Grouping Twitter friends into cliques for easier following, a feature the microblogging service has been promising since at least June.
• Also being promised: Making Twitter easier to use for a general audience. Evan didn’t mince words here — “It’s amazing anyone uses Twitter today,” he said. “It’s hard.”