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My continuing coverage of monetization in the world of microblogging takes a different spin today. Up for review is QikCom, a service offering private group functionality.

In their own words:

“QikCom helps you connect and share with other employees within your company. Our core micro-messaging platform allows you to send short, quick messages to other employees. The messages are easily searched or accessed by other employees. We also built a business application marketplace called TabStore on top of the core micro-messaging platform. Any alerts from the apps/tabs integrate seamlessly with your micro-messaging feed.”

Details

• Revenue generated through the TabStore (where users can buy value-added features)
• Participants from any email address can be invited to join a network from any email address (not limited to a specific domain).
• Integration into the Twitter API

Thoughts

Private network microblogging sites see the value in a sustainable business model. Yammer, for example, charges networks a monthly fee per user for advanced features. QikCom offers free administration — directly targeting Yammer — and they provide a host of additional services including:

• Advanced Security Options
• Invite Non-Company Email
• Manage Company Users
• Upload Company Logo
• Discount TabStore Prices

So where does revenue come in? Through the TabStore. From QikCom:

“The TabStore is a place for you to purchase more cool business Apps/Tabs on top of the core micro-messaging service.”

It’s clear from the initial offerings (noted in the image on the right) that there is a lot of room to grow. This service establishes a critical change from past monetization strategies in the microblogging world (to go out on a limb, I would say “social media” in general). Rather than generate revenue from pageviews, QikCom seeks to promote the use of microblogging as a conversational platform. As I’ve blogged in both on TouchBase and Fluent Simplicity, the case for ROI isn’t always clear as social media is based on human capital. In order for an organization’s strategic goals to be supported, employees tasked with social media need tools and training to maximize their performance. In my opinion, service-oriented features, such as those (potentially) offered by the QikCom TabStore, meet this requirement. What does this mean for an organization? Greater alignment to strategic goals and an increased level of engagement with your community.

I had an opportunity to discuss the service with Travis VanderZanden, Founder & CEO of QikCom, Inc. Our dialogue follows:

JK: Will you open up the TabStore to outside developers? If so, will there be revenue sharing?
TV: Yes, absolutely. There will be rev sharing with the developers, somewhere close to 50/50.

JK: Any concepts or ideas you’re willing to share?
TV: We envision many useful business applications in the TabStore, but we’re really excited about letting the developer community innovate.

JK: I was intrigued by the “badges.” How do these work?
TV: Badges are composed of basic profile/company info such as your name, title, employee id number and company logo. Your badge can easily be shared on the web since it’s public info.

JK: Will there be detailed stats — or perhaps a custom integration with Google Analytics?
TV: Stay tuned…

JK: I see your platform is based on the Twitter API - what is the timing for this service?
TV: We have a Twitter-compatible API available today and point existing tools to https://www.qikcom.com/api

JK: Any thoughts you can share regarding your strategic vision for the space, current capitalization, or partnerships?
TV: Enterprise micro-messaging is a young market, but we’re excited about it’s potential and our current position within that market. We think the right strategy is to allow employees and admins to use the core micro-messaging service for free and then monetize on the additional value add business applications available in the TabStore. All tabs/apps in the TabStore will be able to integrate with the core micro-messaging feed to send alerts/messages. For example, if someone assigns a new ToDo item to you, it will notify you via your message feed.

Summary

QikCom’s approach to monetization is a refreshing change from the ad-driven status quo embraced by most of the industry. One serious question in my mind: are companies savvy enough to understand that microblogging is more than follower count and tweet frequency? Will tools, made available through the TabStore, offer enough value in exchange for the associated financial cost? Time will tell, but this is one organization to watch.

Jonathan Kash is Director of Web Services at a non-profit based in Washington, D.C., and writes the blog Fluent Simplicity. He also created the Social Media Brand Index (originally the Twitter Brand Index). Interests include brand identity, online reputation and strategy.

I admit that I’m a car guy; there’s nothing like a ride to help clear your mind and forget the drama of the workday. Several months ago I met Eric Miltsch, IT-Web Director for Auction Direct USA, a multi-state auto retailer focused on the used car segment. Eric was kind enough to share his thoughts and experience with micro blogging and how it’s helping to transform their engagement with customers.

Background

“Our unique selling proposition is communicated in a casual, yet professional way. We answer questions, share valuable information, and get instant consumer feedback about their experiences, habits and desires. Online car shoppers are looking for information without the fear of being aggressively sold something. They also have a powerful voice and aren’t afraid to use it when it comes to making a recommendation or comment.”

Twitter

JK: How did you get started with Twitter?
EM: Auction Direct USA discovered Twitter late in ‘07; however we didn’t start using it until early ‘08. Twitter needed to be tested to determine its worth. Our “A-ha” moment came once our follower base began to rapidly grow.  The positive feedback helped and the stats showed it was worth the effort.

JK: How are you using Twitter today?
EM: Twitter is one element within our unique online strategy. It lets us build depth to our social media reach by engaging new customer segments otherwise not tapped. We (try to) contribute valuable and relevant automotive items such as industry news, new blog articles and company specific updates. I feel it’s important to add the human element if we want to build any confidence - we’re not there to blindly sell product. The goal is to educate and inform the automotive consumer, while also getting their feedback. People are very willing to comment and review. I’ve asked for feedback on new design mock-ups and even conducted online polls.

I also use Twitter to share and contribute ideas. I’ve spoken with and met new people that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to otherwise.

Innovation in Micro sharing and Engagement: Tweet and Greet

What caught my eye about Auction Direct was something called Tweet and Greet. I love the concept and how it uses Twitter to generate a common community interest.
JK: What type of results have you seen?
EM: I’m asking 10 simple car-related questions to get to know our followers better. The answers, and their feedback, are incredible; there’s so much detail. You can really learn a lot about people when you ask them about the vehicles in their life. It began by inviting 20 early followers to share their answers. I hoped for one or two replies. Nineteen people responded, some within minutes. I kept asking and they kept coming in, so I put up TweetandGreet.com. Once published, the individual posts are tweeted. Many even link back from their sites. The traffic to our used car blog and our used cars website is tracked very closely with analytics. Not only have I learned who our followers are and developed many new relationships, I’ve also learned from our followers. Most notably, we recently had our 100^th interview completed.

Measurement

JK: How do you intend to measure Twitter’s impact on your business?
EM: This isn’t meant to be a sales channel, Twitter is another communication channel for us. I’m still measuring the traffic to our website, blog and other online properties. The key factors are obviously traffic and conversions. Our conversion rates confirm its success so far as our conversion rates fill within industry expectations. However, I consider the comments, feedback, and relationships to be the most important factor in all of our online efforts, and that’s where the real impact is realized.

Lessons Learned Along the Way

JK: What advice would you give other companies that are thinking of using Twitter or something similar?
EM: The best lesson is to get started. I’m very happy we started when we did. It gave us a nice jump on our competition. I’m sure our follower count would rapidly drop if the value of our core messages also dropped. I wear my common sense hat and simply “Think Before I Tweet.” [Having the right person to deliver valuable content ranks high as well. Shameless plug.]

Essential Tools

JK: How do you manage the time spent on maintaining the account?
EM: Good question. Without a plan, one could lose days watching the public’s tweets. My list of must-have tools are:

• TweetDeck: Neatly organizes messages & groups making it possible to see items quickly.
• TwitterFeed: Automatically distributes new blog content and new inventory updates for our “Cool Whip of the Day” tweets. (Corny - but very well received.)
• TweetLater: Every follower receives a welcome message (I send a personal note as well).
• TweetBeep: Alerts notify us when specific keywords are mentioned.
• TwitterTise: Message scheduler with built in stats.
• FriendOrFollow: Manager your network by seeing who follows who doesn’t,
• TwitGrid: Track multiple keywords within custom grid views.

JK: Most importantly: That’s an RS4 in your twitter background, right?
EM: Ohh, so close. That’s an R8.

Summary

Do’h, so maybe I don’t know cars as well as I thought. What I do know, however, is Auction Direct USA’s understanding of micro blogging extends beyond Twitter and provides an example for other organizations to follow. It’s about engaging the community and storytelling; and it’s about creating an opportunity for customers to share their stories and be heard. How do you find the right story? Look at your organization’s focus and objectives. The rest is easy.

Jonathan Kash is Director of Web Services at a non-profit based in Washington, D.C., and writes the blog Fluent Simplicity. He also created the Social Media Brand Index (originally the Twitter Brand Index). Interests include brand identity, online reputation and strategy.

Would you expect a 222 year-old company would be fully engaged in social media? Yes, if it’s Molson; this includes Twitter, blogging, vlogging, Flickr and more.  As this came to me as a surprise, I was eager to find out why a such well-established company would take an active role on the Web. Ferg Devins, VP Government and Public Affairs, Molson Canada, was gracious to speak to me this past Wednesday.

It turns out community engagement has been part of this family-run company (now in its 7th generation) since the beginning. Banking and transportation are but a few of the new technologies pushed by the Molson family since its founding. Why? Beer is a social commodity. Maintaining good relations with the community drives the business.

Several things became clear during the conversation:

1. Molson’s social media team not only gets social media, it really fires them up. The vibe and excitement was palpable. After I got off the phone, I wanted to jump up and down and fire up my colleagues (but that’s a different story).
2. Engagement is successful when aligned to corporate goals and culture.
3. Social engagement isn’t about directly impacting financial returns. It’s about relationships. This ties in to my take on ROI and the applicability of strategy maps to social media.

How has Molson used social media to engage community?

1. The launch of the new blog included a major fundraising effort that engaged 1100 Molson employees on a cold February morning. Wake people up at 6am to sell “Toques” in Toronto for Raising the Roof: Sure, why not? It resulted in a $125K being raised for the homeless, including an amazing $90K raised by Molson.
2. Brew 2.0. Seriously, need I say anything more?

The following are highlights from our conversation.

ROI
JK: Social media is a cost-center in most organizations. How do you report value?
Ferg: How does traditional media report value? Social media is a part of the communications mix, and as such, represents one channel to reach out to the public. Thanks to Google Analytics and other tracking measures, activity is easily quantifiable.

Scalability
JK: How will you scale if social media takes off?
Ferg: Give me that problem!

Twitter
JK: Who started tweeting at Molson?
Ferg: @toniahammer; she often is out shooting pictures and video for the company.
JK: How do you see brands providing value on Twitter?
Ferg: I’m still feeling out the sense of what people want to see “commercially” on the site. I get tremendous value from the learning that is shared through various links from folks.  When I look at Home Depot updates, I guess it’s useful information and thus I follow…like taking back lights last weekend. The flash updates from Globe and Mail and other news providers is of value to me.
JK: What challenges do you think companies face in using Twitter?
Ferg: The greatest challenge for me and my team will be how we want to integrate our brand communications into Twitter in a relevant and friendly way to beer drinkers.  The best way to do that might just be to start reaching out and asking them.

The Lawyers
JK: I have a lot of experience in the legal industry and was curious: have the lawyers jumped on your case?
Ferg: We’ve guided by a simple edict: use common sense. Not only are you representing yourself, you speak for the company. There are certain things, like politics, that should be avoided.

What’s the take-away from this conversation?
JK: If Twitter were to disappear, how would you engage your community?
Ferg: Evolution is key.

How is Twitter used at Molson?
Tonia Hammer of Molson’s PR Team provided great examples of their Twitter use:

• Direct traffic to our blog and Web sites: Twitter definitely helps drive traffic to the blog. For example:  In October, twitter was the 4th highest traffic source for the blog (7% traffic).  To put into perspective, we didn’t use twitter to communicate blog posts until March, and then, less than 1% of visits were directed from twitter.  It took communicating, building relationships and generating followers to eventually see the positive outcome of ‘twittering’ with respect to our blog traffic.
• Events: We use Twitter to live-tweet and monitor events. For our Brew 2.0 events in Toronto and Vancouver, we followed the tweets to get feedback and also to share thanks, photos and video.
• Soliciting Feedback: We ask questions about new websites, promotions, or what people would like to hear from Molson.
• Monitoring: The various Molson brands are monitored using tweetbeep.
• Promotions: We’ve done tweets with offers – discount code for ShopMolson.com, taxiguy discounts for the holidays

Learn more:
For a closer look at Molson’s foray into social media, check out the following:

• Molson in the Community blog

• Molson on Twitter: @MolsonFerg, @Moffat, @ToniaHammer

• Molson blog’s Flickr account

My thanks go out to the Molson social media team for sharing their experience and time for this post.

Jonathan Kash is Director of Web Services at a non-profit based in Washington, D.C., and writes the blog Fluent Simplicity. He also created the Social Media Brand Index (originally the Twitter Brand Index). Interests include brand identity, online reputation and strategy.

The Wall Street Journal ran a story on October 27th proclaiming “Twitter Goes Mainstream.” There’s no doubt Twitter has been growing strongly. The latest analysis from MediaPost indicates an almost fourfold from 533,000 to 2.4 million visitors on the microblogging site. What is driving Twitter’s growth? Simplicity.

The online service from Web start-up Twitter Inc. prompts users to do one thing: answer the question, “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less. People type these brief updates, known as “tweets,” into Twitter’s site or send them to Twitter as text messages. Friends and colleagues can then check the site to monitor each other’s updates.

The article does an excellent job of outlining concepts like “following” other Twitter users, using the service for business development and broadcasting information. As one would expect, there are the typical nods to Zappos and comcast.

Despite this great coverage, The WSJ missed several critical points:

Engagement

The biggest flaw with the WSJ article is the failure to point out the importance of engagement. The most I could find was:

Some companies are using the service as a way to reach out to customers.

Many companies and non-profit organizations are using twitter in a number of ways that go beyond the simple broadcast of information. Take any media outlet on Twitter. Most have few or no followers and simply repurpose information in 140 characters or less. Is this useful? Yes, to a certain extent, but it fails to use the resource to the fullest extent possible. If broadcasting a message - on an exclusive basis - is your goal, stick to email.

Why is engagement so important? It narrows the distance between you and your customers, it’s helps them identify with your brand (and your brand manager), both of which help to increase the value associated with “following” other users. Let’s also keep in mind engagement can be measured and tied to customer propositions, ultimately linked to corporate strategy and financial outcomes.

Monetization

Twitter is a business without a model. As Claire Cain Miller writes on nytimes.com:

“Twitter has absolutely no revenue — not even ads” and “grow first and monetize second.”

This serious issue is left out of the WSJ article, which mentioned a “premium service” monetization strategy.

“Looking at the value commercial entities are getting out of Twitter could help us build a sustainable company,” he says, noting that Twitter might charge for premium services in the future.

Yes, Web 2.0 has serious issues with monetization, but given the open-source alternatives, like identi.ca, is this even viable? As Simon Dumenco points out on AdAge.com:

“Oh, really, now? Cash-strapped companies are going to want to pay to annoy their customers? Customers are going to want to be monitored?”

Why should this be a concern for Twitter users? As the economy tanks, will want to invest our efforts in services that will be around in a year.

The Fail Whale

The service was plagued with a number of issues earlier this year. Flaws within the Twitter API prompted a number of failures.. replacing the service with the fail whale.

Twitter’s Mr. Stone says the company “has made great advances in reliability and performance” in recent months and will continue to improve. “We still have work to do,” he says.

These reassurances make for good PR, and the service has greatly improved it’s uptime. However, for organizations seeking to use Twitter as an engagement channel, service interruptions represent a risk.

The Future

What does the future hold for Twitter? Monetization and reliability represent significant problems, but the value offered to users is extremely important to capture.

The march towards profitability continues… up for review today is Twittertise. Dan Thorton of 140char.com wrote a good review of the service. My interest lies is how it might be used to indirectly monetize microblogging activities.

Background

Twittertise allows you to “advertise” on Twitter and track the success of branded communications with your customers.

Using Twittertise you can schedule your communications on Twitter and using URL tracking technology measure the effectiveness of your traffic driving techniques on the platform.

Details

• Approach: Click analysis
• Payment: None, tracking only.
• Use: Scheduled tweets with click-through tracking; graphs and other statistics available.

Thoughts

Twittertise is built off of the URL shortener bit.ly; its API provides information on total clicks and traffic sources. This information is presented visually (think Google Analytics) and provides both cumulative and detailed views. Easy tracking of URL’s in tweets is essential for anyone on-line, particularly business users, as it provides feedback on activity. Please note that URL tracking is also provided by:

• Directly through bit.ly - You can only check traffic on individual links (there are no accounts).
• Tweetburner (twurl.nl) - This service offers accounts, allowing users to track URLs from one location. A quick review on getsatisfaction.com indicates ongoing problems with tracking.
• zi.ma - Yes, another shortener, but this offers several interesting features, including password protection of URLs and bulk shortening along with statistics. The domain name causes me some concern about long-term branding (copyright infringement anyone?)

I would not go as far as other reviewers and tie these metrics to return on investment. ROI and other quantitative measures are effective when dealing with tangible assets. While scheduled tweets fall into this definition, the sum of the value of twitter is largely intangible. When examining activity reports, look for the alignment of tweets to the interests of followers (e.g. customers). It would be helpful to tie these measures into broader site traffic metrics. Here is where tracking could get interesting: if you could demonstrate that certain tweets resulted in activities, you can link twitter activity with measurable goals.

The notion of scheduling tweets and using the platform for advertising is something that might need further consideration. If I schedule a tweet, to what extent might someone pick up on the “canned” tone - either through language or interruption in flow - and intentionally not click on a link. Flights and campaigns may work for email, but microblogs provide a far more dynamic landscape. There are clear business needs to track clicks and align activity to strategic goals, but Twittertise does not go in the direction of a microblog management platform.

Summary

Twittertise provides business users with tools needed to link activity to value. In my opinion, tracking and metrics could be expanded to provide additional value and perhaps create a new class of metrics. Scheduling may be better suited for certain accounts or follower types. One important theme jumps out at me: a tracking service could help microblogging platforms with their own monetization issues. How long will it take for premium services to hit this space?

Jonathan Kash is Director of Web Services at a non-profit based in Washington, D.C., and writes the blog Fluent Simplicity. He also created the Social Media Brand Index (originally the Twitter Brand Index). Interests include brand identity, online reputation and strategy.

Social media platforms of all sizes suffer from a common problem: generating income. While venture capital continues to breathe life into twitter, as the U.S. economy tanks, it’s only a matter of time before developing a self-sustaining business model becomes critical.

One new entry into the monetization game, hailing from Sydney, Australia, is ut.ag. I was contacted by one of the founders earlier this week and quickly engaged in a discussion.

Background

uTag is a turnkey system that allows content producers (site owners, bloggers, twitterers, etc) to generate revenue and retain attention from every outbound link. It’s dead simple, quick and non-committal and can be implemented link by link or or a site-wide basis within a few minutes. uTag automatically generates contextual advertising for your outbound links using the major online advertising networks.

Details

Approach: Framed-ad delivery

Payment: via Paypal

Use: URL shortener and javascript widget that can be deployed in a blog/Web site. These are classified as vanilla and cherry flavors (or flavours).

Initial thoughts

To be fair to the guys at ut.ag, this is a beta and likely has more tweaks before it is publicly available. I tried the service with several URLs: a climate change practice at a large, international law firm, BMW USA and the home page of uber-foodie Andrew Zimmern. The results?

• Two of the three Web sites properly displayed in the delivery frame. BMW gave me a browser compatibility message, no doubt crafted by Web developers who don’t like such framing.
• All ads were delivered from Google, but the content was the same each time (all for Utah, go figure)

Summary

Given the (growing) level of noise online, will such a monetization approach pay off? One post by someone who viewed this service at a start-up workshop noted a range of responses. My exchange with ut.ag co-founder revealed a number of Tweets using the account: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=ut.ag. Users will ultimately decide if this service is worth its salt. I would personally improve ad-serving, determine how to support all sites (frames may not be a good approach) and make sure that the approach itself is legally permissible. At least in their own jurisdiction:-)