Jason Bedell - Interactive Marketing & Technology Blog

Radian6 and UGC Monitoring

While at AdTech in New York a few weeks ago I came across a very interesting technology from a startup company by the name of Radian6. Their UGC/Social Network monitoring solution immediately struck me as both visually compelling and highly intuitive.

What it is...

Radian6 is all about topics. You start by creating what they call a "Topic Profile". These can be thought of as containers, and become your conceptual view of the world. Radian6 is continuously scouring the blogosphere and specific social networks (YouTube and Flickr today). You setup your topic profile, or container, by telling Radian6 what topics to key in on and place in it. Once you have something in the container, you can ask it questions. What topics are peopling talking about surrounding my brand? Who are they most influential individuals, bloggers, or content generators with respect to my brand? Are people talking about my service offering in a positive or negative light?

Brands are no longer controlled by advertisers. The brand is what consumers and the community decide it is. This tool helps you find those discussions and engage the community.

OpenSocial and the impending War

You may have read about OpenSocial, Google’s latest API release positioned as a unifying interface to the rapidly expanding number of social networks out there. It is interesting but I wouldn't hold my breath. I have seen unifying "standard" API's many, many times before in attempts to bridge all kinds of proprietary technologies from accessing SIM cards on mobile phones, remote system calls (anyone remember CORBA), to Bluetooth access to home automation devices. What usually happens? Competing "standard" API's get created and you are right back where you started.

A look into my crystal ball reveals...

Watch for Facebook, through their recent partnership with Microsoft, to release their own "standard" API for social network access that will directly compete with Google's OpenSocial.

Think about it. Why else would Microsoft pay $240 Million for a measly 1.6 percent stake? That is not Microsoft style. What is there style is to orchestrate their own standard they can control and use the weight of Facebook to give it momentum. What they bought was Facebook's support.

First Blog Entry

This is my first blog entry. Just kicking the tires and learning more about typepad and the services they provide. Since this entry should really include at least a little something, here is a link to my del.icio.us page. Post your own del.icio.us page if you like and discuss.