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Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category

Facebook to become World #1 brand name

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

Back in August I predicted Facebook will take #1 rank away from Google in traffic before the end of the year. December results are not out yet but there is a high probability I am right. As I was looking for data on the subject – a new question arise.

Is traffic a sign of popularity?

So I went on writing down numbers on a scrapbook. My primary goal was to search brand names and the number of search associated with that brand. To do so I used the Top 100 brand by Millward Brown [PDF].
Surprisingly Facebook, Twitter, iPhone, My Space are not listed by the research institute. Even in a brick and mortar world, Facebook should be in top 5 most known brands.

Below are results found using Google.com [US English page as of December 30, 2009].

Few basic observations: Google and Facebook together are more popular than Web. US takes the lead with over 23 billions search results. USA and War all together are less popular than Yahoo!

Behind those figures I see two conclusions. First, top brands -as described in the study published by Millward Brown- are yet far behind in terms of web image. Their online presence is a failure for 95% of them. This should give hope to all online viral social media jungle marketing agencies out there. The second conclusion is sadder: traffic doesn’t mean revenue. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, MySpace and Hotmail generating over 5.3 billion of search results have an estimated global revenue of $1.3 billion for 2009 representing 0,003% of Wal-Mart’s 2009 revenue.

It brings us back to valuation calculation- should we continue to use online popularity or traffic to rate online businesses?

What do you think?

Tags: analytics, brands, facebook, google, myspace, ranking, seo, Twitter, us, web traffic, windows
Posted in Apple, Content, Economy, Mac, Microsoft, Social Media, TechCrunch, Technology, Twitter, World, google, iPhone | No Comments »

2009 in images

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

tags: 200 days traveling, 95 flights, kids, family, work, hypertension, headaches, joy, tears, love, hypocrisy, memories.

2009 had many ups and many downs. Hoping 2010 will be more peaceful.

Tags: 2009, Family, flashback, joy, tears, travels, work
Posted in Family, Friends, London, Miami, New-York, Paris, Social Media, Twitter, Uncategorized, Video, World, kids | 3 Comments »

5 clichés I can’t stand listening to

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

We all have ours. Being French-Israeli residing in the US expose me to all sorts of comments I cannot stand anymore. Here are 5 annoying one:

- Oh you live in Miami? Spring break all year long isn’t it?

NO – people don’t party all year long in Miami, we WORK in South Florida. In fact there is a vivid economy for startups nicely represented during our tweetups, Mobile Mondays or Bar Camp.

- So you’re French – how is Carla?

How the heck would I know?? You don’t need an explanation for this one. Use your imagination J

- Isn’t it too hard in Israel with bombs falling everywhere?

Ok, that’s a legitimate question if you think of Israel as a war zone. Actually bombs are not falling anywhere. It’s one of the most FUN country to live in. Israelis work hard and party even harder. You need to visit and you will see what they don’t show you on TV.

- You fly so much, are you not afraid one day your plane might crash?

Duh. NO. Really – would you ask this question to a bus driver? Roads kill more every year. Statistics speak for themselves. Traveling by air is safe.

- Hmm you fly business, you must be rich or stupid!

This one stays on the tip of the tongue every time I meet someone in an airplane. So let me put it this way – not that I need to justify myself- I fly around a million miles per year, buy most of my tickets in a cheap fare class and use frequent flyer upgrades to have a decent flight. When I don’t get upgraded I usually smack the airline agent buy the business class fare earning twice as much miles to finance my upcoming trips. Flying business is not a luxury when you get a red eye from Miami to London, land at 7 and need to be operational for a meeting at 8:30.

What clichés don’t you want to hear anymore?

Tags: bombs, carla, clichés, first class, flying, frequent flyer, Israel, Miami
Posted in Funny, Israel, Miami, Social Media, Travel, Uncategorized, World | 3 Comments »

The Death Of Arrogance

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

I’d like to start this post with a statement: I’m not a journalist, I’m not a professional blogger, I don’t get paid – directly or indirectly – to write, I don’t have any ads on my Posterous or my blog. I’m just a nobody with a big mouth. Finally English is not my native language.

Yesterday a debate started on Twitter after I shared an article taken from Yahoo! Finance and posted in extenso on my Posterous page.

For those – like Charles Arthur- who do not know the way Posterous works, here is a small tutorial.

You surf the web – find an interesting post and want to SHARE it.

Then once you press the Share on Posterous button you have :

Et voila – content is shared and all credits are given to the original source here:

Basically Posterous sharing ie Digg, Techmeme, Google Reader is identical as a ReTweet of valuable content.

Now back to yesterday’s incident.

I shared the following: http://florianseroussi.posterous.com/ten-big-companies-that-are-veering-toward-ban reproducing EXACTLY what was posted on Yahoo! Finance page. Exactly. Giving credit to Yahoo! and Business Insider as per the original post.

You will note that Yahoo! has a generic link to Business Insider but not to the original BI article.

Charles Arthur then asked why didn’t I link the original Business Insider post. Tried to explain how I used Posterous add-on to share content but Charles didn’t know anything about Posterous.

Mike Butcher – Techcrunch UK editor- jumped on the bandwagon without checking the facts thinking I simply reproduced a paid content without giving any credits. Once Mike understood his mistake he blamed me for not finding the original post and manually adding a link to the Yahoo! re-post. It was simply a ridiculous claim but I searched the internet, found the link and added it to my shared content credit to appease boiling journo blood. As someone mentioned to me via DM – Mike Butcher was much more eloquent to defend the right to publish stolen documents on Techcrunch aka Twittergate. Journalist bullshit duty I guess.

Charles Arthur lost the plot, comparing cars, free content, source code and who knows what all together. Within hours- Charles tone went from arrogant to sarcastic to insulting.

Ilicco Elias tried to minimize the incident but Guardian editor was not ready to give up so easily.

My buddy Paul Walsh came to the rescue with a fair statement:

Charles still on a roll threatens to sue me and foresees a class action against Posterous starting soon (ahem)…

At last in a final act of bravery Arthur decided to block me and called me stupid after I mentioned The Guardian.co.uk had lost over £24M.

Mr Arthur – as the tech editor of The Guardian who do not have a clue what Posterous is – you should have a much more humble attitude.

Journalists – your current business model is SINKING. You are dying slowly with 20^th century principles. Wake up! Look around. You do not have the monopole of information and sharing. We – your readers- have the ability to share, produce and rate content the same way you do. The only value added you can provide is by doing a better job – not by shutting us down.

Note: I didn’t want to go on the legal approach of copyright et al on this post. I’m not an attorney and IP laws (international laws should I say) are too complicated for a blog post. Yahoo! quickly replied to my email and stated they are not involved as no logo or Yahoo! material has been shared.

Hopefully Charles Arthur will use last pence of The Guardian to start a worldwide class action against Google and Posterous to prove his point and whatever the outcome shall be – we will burn in golden letters on The Guardian’s headstone : The Death Of Arrogance.

UPDATE Sept 24 : After an email exchange with Charles Arthur I have modified the Posterous post to an excerpt only – adding another link to Business Insider [there are now 2 links, one on header and one on footer]. It would be interesting to know the conversation rate between hits on my Posterous to links onto BI but my guess is we will never know.

Tags: charles arthur, copyright, ilicco, journalism, mike butcher, paul walsh, posterous, TechCrunch, the guardian, twittergate
Posted in Content, Economy, Legal, London, Newspapers, Social Media, TechCrunch, Technology | 91 Comments »

Goodbye Web 2.0, Welcome back ROI

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

TechCrunch50 just ended last night in San Francisco. What is it all about? Mostly a good chance to monitor the industry pulse. To meet new people, to share experience and learn to listen.

First edition of TechCrunch50 (actually it was 40) gathered a lot of attention. Too much for an unprepared team of bloggers/entrepeneurs but certainly not event planner. We were all bitching about the lack of internet, mobile network, seats, drinks, audio, timing. Everything was bad or wrong, but the audience was there, internet rock stars came and talentuous Mike Arrington and Jason Calacanis saved the show. Most terrible choice was certainly on the selection of potential candidates to go on stage. Even though looking at it a couple of years later we see they didn’t miss by selecting Mint.com as the winner.

Second edition of the most hyped Web 2.0 event was better organized – not hard to do so- selection was obviously more professional and panelists still sharp on their analysis. We were at the early stage of the recession, full of hope but extremely careful on the outcome. I felt this second edition as a global euphoria in a great time of uncertainty. Last year winner was also a good but safe choice : yammer.com. Nothing could go wrong with a company surfing on Twitter vibes.

Last 2 days were definitely better than past editions. Lesson learned for Arrington and Calacanis. Everything was perfect. I must give them huge credit for providing top notch internet service, excellent real-time video streaming and perfect timing during the event. When food was insufficient Calacanis ordered 60 pizzas – I can only imagine the happiness of pizzaiolo receiving a 60 pizzas order…

I was first surprised by the low number of attendees. From a non scientific count my guess is 35% less then last year. But it was quality people. It made untouchable people reachable. I was able to chat with Marissa Mayer, Marc Andreessen, Ron Conway, Don Dodge and Reid Hoffman in a very open way. There was a true community around entrepreneurship with no voyeurs or curious peeps. Upsetting glitch when Paul Carr wrote a stupid post about the American flag being on stage. If you have no talent you must hide it with something. Carr found provocation to be the solution. Anyway too much ink on this low life douchbag journalist. Back to TechCrunch50 and the 2009 list of nominees. There was a shift from 2007 smoke and mirrors start-ups to 2009 small businesses with a valid model. All competitors had a plan to make money not just to bring traction and wait for a strategy. Economy is certainly the real reason behind the change of mentality. RedBeacon – the big winner- aims to help consumers find local service providers such as plumbers, bakers, and contractors. A basic service to fill basic needs. I want to give a thumb-up to Rackup launched by my friend Marc Rochman. Marc did a great job on stage. 5 min to describe 18 months of research and hard work is not an easy task. Kudos to the Rackup team.

Arrington called a surprise panelist to comment presentations – Chamillionaire. Not the everyday geek you see at tech conventions…but I must recognize the guy had a good analysis on most start-ups. For future editions Arrington should have more street-smart experts – it does make a difference.

In conclusion TechCrunch50 minus the hype and plus the maturity was a great show. Looking forward attending 2010 edition.

Tags: anyclip, arrington, calacanis, don dodge, marc andreessen, marissa mayer, rackup, redbeacon, reid hoffman, Ron conway, techcrunch50, web 2.0
Posted in Economy, Entrepreneur, Social Media, TechCrunch, Technology | 5 Comments »

Picture posting from Seesmic to Pikchur to Posterous

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

via Pikchur

Posted via web from [blog.florianseroussi.com]

Tags: images, Pikchur, posterous, posting, seesmic, sharing, Twitter
Posted in Geek, Photography, Pikchur, Social Media, Twitter | No Comments »

You are so predictable

Monday, August 10th, 2009

Few things continue to amaze me – or should I say amuse me when it comes down to human nature.
One of those things is predictability. Instinct takes over intelligence in most cases.
This is the difference between a chess player and a master. The ability to control emotion is often blurred by the need of vengeance. Action/reaction kind of theory.
I slap you – you strike back. Instantly. No second thoughts. Why?
Two reasons – 1st humiliation needs retaliation. NOW.
2nd your brain can’t think that fast.
Not so long ago I was engaged in a relationship where happy ending was not an option. Not only was it written danger all over it but blindness of the moment weakened my perception to the max.
Recovery is often judged by the capacity to think ahead in a cold-blooded manner.

Hopefully at 40+ I was able to resource myself surrounded by family and kids who cherish me with incredible passion [THANK YOU].

It didn’t take too long before I initiated a series of behavioral experiences based on the same items that caused my fall. In a sick threesome relationship I was able to seed info and collect data – thank you Twitter. It was almost incredible to monitor demeanor and emotion of anger. Blinded by strong emotion and compulsive obsession my wannabe partner developed a transparent pattern of actions.
Anger became a motive to hate and defamation. It doesn’t matter who is right or wrong. I believe post relationship crisis management reveals a person.
During the course of my –very unreliable- study I found out there is a strong relationship between obsession and addictive behaviors.
Addicts are obsessed by nature. They need to kill the obsession to move pass the addiction. There is no cure without containing the obsessive anger.
This post is not a personal note or subliminal message to re-engage into a conversation with past acquaintances. It’s a testimony on how changing my behavior and demeanor, really improved my relationships with others both professionally and personally.
You can go from predictable to changeable. Adding rationality to life is a great move.

Tags: addicition, behavior, ex-friends, Friends, Twitter
Posted in Friends, Social Media, Twitter | 2 Comments »

TwitterFame

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

You are now familiar with my regular cyber squatting on Pat’s blog.
Today 1 year after this post we are going to see if Twitter can be mainstream and still be interesting.
In last few weeks celebrities took over our favorite social medium. Not that it bothers me. Twitter is a democracy. My issue is mostly with the exchange everyone is asked to make in any society.
You cannot invite yourself to my table and not share or entertain conversation. Celebrities- as much as I hate the term- have massively polluted our tool engaging themselves in a race for followers.
Ashton Kutcher aka @aplusk is now self-declared King of Twitter. Oprah will rule on top of the pyramid in a couple of weeks and I’m an inch away to drop out. To better understand what is happening I have to throw some figures.
Boring – I know…but it makes my case.

@aplusk ‘friends’ grow at a rate of 770 followers per tweet

@oprah ‘friends’ add up at a rate of 33.000 followers per tweet. She has nearly half a million follower after 13 updates.

And we want to ignore something is broken?

I wanted to believe Twitter is all about CONVERSATION not COMPETITION. It survived spambots, porn, escorts, solicitation, gaming but not fame…if not stopped now the race will get nasty. @michaeljackson, @mariahcarey, @robertredford, @hannahmontana, who is next?
I couldn’t figure out numbers of tweets related to the stupid challenge @aplusk vs. @cnnbrk but I’m sure it captured over 50% of total stream.

There is a solution to avoid social hijacking. Very simple solution. Make stats private. No more public count of followers/following. It will make the Twitter community much ‘cleaner’ and bring everyone back to sharing.
Celebrities are welcome to bring good noise. They will certainly get a lot of attention but they will have to follow rules of social engagement.

Last night I threw the idea –I’m not claiming to be the 1st who thought about it btw- on Twitter thinking it will be ignored. To my surprise it has been massively re-tweetted.

Twitter: you need to listen – we do not want popularity, we want quality content.

Ironically Twitter founders have engaged themselves in a race against Facebook so I guess we have come full circle. After all they ‘only’ need 200 Ashton Kutcher to beat them.

Tags: aplusk, fame, oprah, pat phelan, retweet, Twitter
Posted in Social Media, Twitter | 1 Comment »