Trumblog

In the last month I heard Evan Williams of Twitter speak at South by Southwest and Dennis Crowley of Foursquare speak at the Boston Ad Club.  I couldn’t help but notice that a topic that came up for each of them was that rather than focusing on the features or the interface of their applications they highlighted the importance of the network.

Evan Williams of Twitter discussed the ecosystem that has grown up around Twitter and felt that it was a positive thing and a sign of the network’s health, not a missed business opportunity because he is focused on the network not the application.  The Twitter network he stressed is not as a social network, but an information network with as many uses are there are needs and as much value as there is information within it.  It doesn’t matter whether you retweet one way or another, if you are a lurking follower of 3 accounts or have several thousand followers and constantly @ replying.  The network of people and information and the opportunities and possibilities are what matter.

Dennis Crowley talked about the value of the network in how the user experienced the second screen.  He was answering a question about competition from Gowalla, Loopt, etc, not to mention Facebook and Twitter that are adding a location component to their social networks.  He said that checking-in, or geolocation in and of itself was not so important.  What is important is what takes place on the next screen. It’s the value of the network in connecting us with nearby friends, providing us with useful tips about what to do at that venue or giving us a special price.  The check-in is valueless.  The interface is valueless.  It’s what gets delivered as a result of that check-in that is the value and the differentiator for those services.  In other words.  Bring on your check-ins.  Show me what YOU are going to do with them.

Too often I think we focus on getting status updates and check-ins and less on the value that we provide as a result of those actions. I think that we need less focus on the features and functionality for those actions and more on how, as marketers, we add value to those actions and thereby reap the rewards of the network.

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