Last night, we showed off a first look of the soon-to-be-released beta for Lil’Grams.  The crowd was packed at SF New Tech’s Spring Jubilee! event.  Special thanks to Myles Weissleder for the opportunity to demonstrate the results of our hard work for the past 2 years to an audience of friends and technophiles.

I’ve come to the conclusion that no demonstration is complete without at least on “Oh Crap!” moment.  During this presentation, that came when I completely lost track of time before even getting to show the newsletters and baby book that Lil’Grams produces.  I blame the clock for going to fast! (photo credit: Ken Yeung)

The first 5 minutes were spent demonstrating all the easy ways Lil’Grams lets you get photos and videos online (at the moment that includes web, email, twitter, and desktop). Fortunately, there were many inquisitive folks in the audience and they helped tease out some of the even cooler parts of the system.   It’s hard fitting 2+ years of thinking and development into 5 minutes - no matter how finely tuned your presentation.

We’re truly humbled by the wonderful feedback and comments we’ve received.  Here’s just a small sampling:

• khartline: Alright…I may just have to make a baby so I can try @lilgrams. Its pretty awesomesauce! #sfnewtech #justsayin
• nancycole: @gregarious has the audience clamoring to have a bunch of kids @ #sfnewtech w his lilgrams!
• dpmoore: #sfnewtech: http:/www.lilgrams.com. Easily organize/share milestones, pix, video about your kids. I could really use this to update family.
• nipj: Tip for all tweeple parents, from #sfnewtech, check out lilgrams.com . well thought out, elegantly designed memory sharing and mgmt srvc.
• quepol: checkin’ out @lilgrams. cuz it’s making @khartline wanna make babies. :) also, it does look pretty cool.
• rrwhite: So glad to see @lilgrams is finally launching. A pretty kickass app for families to share the latest info on their little ones

Very special thanks to the tireless Jolie O’Dell who made it up from Palo Alto to see the demo and capture some footage for StartupLucky.  Last night, I don’t know how she managed to write this up, but she did:

With great breadth, depth, and versatility (compatible with Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, etc., and with email, web, and desktop apps currently available and an iPhone app right around the corner), LilGrams is uniquely poised to take over the Gen Y parenting market.

Simply put, LilGrams allows parents to upload and share information and media of/about their infants (and soon, children) across many social platforms. Interested parties (friends, relatives, etc.) can opt-in to receiving updates, choosing the medium and frequency of these messages, including photo prints.

Source: Jolie O’Dell, “San Francisco New Tech: LilGrams Live Demo”

Thanks once again to you all for your continued support and affection.

I had the chance to sit in briefly on the “Why Social Media Marketing Fails” panel featuring Peter Kim, Charlene Li, and Jeremiah Owyang.  The discussion centered around the measurement of social media marketing efforts and the growing need for better accountability.

At one point, Charlene asked the audience to members to raise their hands if they were meaningfully measuring their social media efforts - a small sample went up.  The follow-up question, when asked how many were engaging in social media marketing in general, showed quite a bit more hands from the packed audience.  Her point was simple and spot on - start measuring your efforts or your budgets will be capped or cut.

Peter made an interesting point as well and brought back into focus the need to keep track of the bottom line. As he reminded us all, the marketing department has often escaped the traditional modes of accountability within the organization.  While there have been many successful measures taken to add structure to internal processes, the default position of marketing has been “we’ll make it up in brand equity” (love that one).

Jeremiah added some interesting insight into another aspect of failure - engagement.  He pointed to an example of a financial services client that they advised to not pursue a social media strategy.  The main reason behind the guidance was the internal protocols that prevented employees from actually engaging with customers via the social tools.  If there aren’t any real people at the helm, how social can it really be?

Jeremiah followed up with another take at the engagement model.  Citing Wells Fargo, he showed that engaging customers via their lifestyle or workstyle could actually be a very successful mode.  As he mentioned, Wells Fargo created their Guided By History blog which actually connected them with exactly the right kind of customer.

Tags: #w2e

For some time now, I’ve wanted to get closer to owning a domain that is more in line with my online identity.  As someone who’s taken to not carrying business cards as often as I should have, I find myself in need of a place to send people so they can grab my information and maybe find out a little more about me.

Recently, I’ve been telling people to simply search for “gregarious” since I’m the first, non-dictionary listing there.  Most of the time, I encounter someone on Twitter and I’ll simply tell them to “follow gregarious” but that doesn’t cover enough of the bases.

So today, I’m happy to put my new home online, in its infancy: http://gregario.us

For some time know, I have been looking at the shifts in social bonds as a result of social networks.  The outgrowth of Facebook, MySpace and a number of similar services has us re-evaluating things we traditionally understood without ambiguity - like friends, groups, interests, and status.

My good friend Brian Solis has an interesting post today that discusses some of the changes that are happening.  As Brian writes in “Micro Disruption Theory and The Social Effect“:

“Relationships are so much more than the mere act of following or friending someone on Twitter or any social network for that matter. It’s the balladry of transcending online connections into real world relationships. It’s the cadence of interaction and the poetry of conversations that empower the human network and the escalation of the Social Economy.

On Social Networks we’re bound by context and not necessarily by the relationships that link us in the real world.

Source: Brian Solis, “Micro Disruption Theory and The Social Effect“

I think it’s an interesting notion that we’re bound by context.  I think that this is true at the most basic level - there is a general sentiment about the venue through which we network.  Social networks are marketplaces of intention.  Daters flock to online dating sites in search of relationships, LinkedIn caters to the business professional, Facebook caters to, well that’s not that simple anymore to provide a single context - but friendship seems a suitable bucket.

I think, however, that we’re just scratching the surface.  Our networks are being bastardized in lots of ways.  We glom together everyone into one pool and then we’re overwhelmed with having to deal with it all at the same time.  In our real lives, we are capable of maintaining many granular networks of individuals.  We’ve moved past the differentiation of social networks (see Social Networking Differentiation 2.0, June 2006) but there’s still quite a bit left unsettled.

It seems we’re ready for the next phase of differentiation - where micro actions are aggregated back together to resemble real things.
I’ll use an analogy to better describe just what I think this looks like.  If we imagine our network of relationships as a home, the foundation is made up of those real, physical relationships that we have with others.  Right now, we’re on the ground floor - where we welcome new people at our virtual front doors.  With time, attention, and enthusiasm, those same guests on the ground floor are invited upstairs: they’re the friends that come to visit from out of town, that make your home their own home.

The second level of relationships I call Affinity Networks.  They are truly contextualized networks of friends and family and other individuals that you care about.  Brian nails it when he points out that “We listen to relevant keywords to learn from others who share our interests and passions.”  Truth is, however, that those are just directional pointers to the individuals that are seemingly important or relevant.  Beyond that initial interest, it takes a great deal of interaction and discovery to actually forge real relationships that last through time.

Affinity networks differ in that they don’t deal with the people connected but instead with the subject at the core.  That “subject” may be a person, place, or thing, but everyone gathered shares a bond to this central concept.  Affinity networks allow us to re-constitute all the micro actions and gestures and give us focus again on those trends, themes, and individuals that mean the most to us.

I’ve often noted that as much as technology provides us new ways to reach out to more and more people, further and further away, it’s our nature to seek out the solutions that mimic or engender closeness, touch.  Seems we’re ripe for something new.

Tonight, I am going to stop by New Work City to attend a talk, “Ready for Takeoff: Intro to Your Life as an Independent”.  As an entrepreneur who’s always paved my own way, I’m keen to hear some of the insights from the panelists.

My own experiences have taught me a number of lessons in this arena.  It will take a long time to organize those ideas, perhaps some day.  In the meantime, some of the highlights:

Always Be Networking

Last week, I attended a workshop with some stellar networkers.  The message was clear, but I’ll restate it in my own manner: it’s never too late to start networking.

The relationships you have in the world are very much like a garden.   While seeds are easy to plant, seeing those mature into something beautiful and nourishing takes care and attention.

Make Solutions, Not Problems

We all have a desire to be needed, personally and professionally.  As an independent, you have to see out ways to improve the circumstance for others.  Unfortunately, sometimes we may imply there are issues simply to open a door for ourselves.  It’s best to listen carefully to understand what the problems your potential customer is facing.

Specialize Or Die

It’s wise not to try and boil the ocean.  Figure out one specific area you want to focus on (that may be a subset of your skills, a geographic location, or a niche audience), and go at it full force.

By thinking smaller you’ll get further faster or at least learn that you are going in the wrong direction.

Be Confident, Not Cocky

We’d like to all believe we’re experts at the game.  Usually, though, it takes a lifetime of experience and a bit of reflection to really know what your real expertise is.

Don’t confuse skills with expertise.  All sorts of people have similar skills, but knowing how to ply them for others and the guide the forces at work is what sets the experts apart from the amateurs.I could do this all day, but thought I would get you thinking.
If you’re not sure just what you are an expert at, ask your network.

The battle between free and paid services continues to evolve in new and interesting directions.  Glenn Fleishman has an interesting article out that takes a look at some of the changing economics.

While there are some instances where the company/vendor have purely altruistic goals, the usual, underlying goal is that by offering something for free, some other monetizable action exists.  As a business offer free as a lead-generation tool, focus on filling this pipeline is critical to its success or failure.

Kodak Gallery, once know to us as OFoto, is carving out a new, rather interesting, pathway to revenue:

In the past, photos were stored by Kodak indefinitely at no charge. Now, Kodak has imposed the equivalent of a yearly service fee made through a purchase. Storage is free for 90 days after creation of an account. For accounts with less than 2 GB of stored photos, you must spend at least $4.99 over 12 months; more than 2 GB, $19.99.

Source: TidBITS, “Kodak Gallery Joins Parade of Free with Payment Services“

However, I disagree with Glenn that this is a step towards free.  This is really a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

If you think about the actual economics, what’s happening is we’re making a move towards paid services over free ones.  In this case, we saw a service that was free now having a cost - a declared cost. This differs from before where the photo hosting itself was the loss leader.

Every business that hopes to turn a profit has to recooperate the costs associated with providing its service.  This responsibility is three-fold, of course:

1. To Shareholders - every shareholder in the company has made an investment in the future of the company and cannot provide an infinitely supply of resources to that success
2. To Stakeholders - this includes the employees of the company and the universe of companies that supply services to the company
3. To Customers - most importantly, it’s our inherent responsibility to make sure we persist to continue service to the customer in the method they’re accustomed

Glenn continues on to point out an interesting fact about the economics:

As Web advertising dollars have shrunken from click fatigue and the declining economy, focusing more closely on the most loyal users may shed overhead while increasing ARPU (average revenue per user). A million ad impressions at $10 per thousand views ($10,000) doesn’t add up as fast or come as easily as 1,000 subscribers at $10 per month.

Source: TidBITS, “Kodak Gallery Joins Parade of Free with Payment Services“

Despite the continuing downward pricing trends for storage, cpu capacity, etc. these costs are still not zero and without alternative means to subsidize these sub-systems, growing these features “to scale” quickly becomes non-trivial.

One caveat here, though.  I don’t necessarily mean to equate loyalty with value.  I think that there are a number of different prisms through which we can look our customer-base.  While revenue is definitely a hard metric to avoid, many others come to mind as well.  Will explore those at a later date, though.
For a bit of history, I discussed this topic in September 2005, “The Fine Line Between Free and Profit“

Background

For the past two years, we’ve worked furiously here at Blue Whale Labs with a variety of clients on a variety of topics, from the mundane to the fascinating.  We’ve come to learn a lot about entrepreneurs, but more from interacting with them that by digging deep into the fuel that burns in our own bellies.

“There are no rational entrepreneurs”
David Rose, Angel Investor

Rational, definitely not.  Dreamy, passionate, aspirational, ambitious, insane, even delusional - for sure.  But there’s something special, sexy even, about this combination of traits that keeps your eyes fixated - are we waiting for the fireworks or trainwreck, I’m not sure.

If there’s one trait that can’t be denied, it’s impatience and the general sense of urgency.  This urgency stems from all sorts of places, but there’s at least 2 that prevail:

• Urgency to Survive - in this case, the entrepreneur finds themselves strapped for cash or the other resources to get the wind in their sales and they need to act FASTER
• Urgency to Thrive - in this case, the entrepreneur is aiming for a specific opportunity and time is the only real leverage they perceive

Enter Rapid

Urgency, I’ve found, is the number one reason that bad decisions are made.  Urgency, when pressed to the temples of already exhausted minds, leads to disaster.  Urgency, unfortunately, is not our best ally, but sometimes our best friends are our enemies.

Instead of Urgency, we need to seek out Rapidity.  We live in a world that moves faster and faster.  We have information at our fingertips and networks under our thumbs.  The most interesting personalities to watch today are those wielding the power of one or both.  We envy that focus and clarity, we desire the same in our own lives.

“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.”
Bruce Lee

I’m seeing a shift in my own thinking, especially as it concerns how I want to help and work with people going forward.  While in the past, we would toil for extended periods of time over the details of every interaction, I see tremendous merit in quick, swift guidance that cuts like a razor.

Thinking Rapid

There are countless talented individuals that are willing to commit limitless amounts of time to solving and evolving the answers to pressing problems.  We don’t want to be one of them.  We want to do more with less, tactics over strategy, solutions over options.  It’s what we expect from our own team, partners and vendors and the least we can do in return.You know you’re thinking rapid when you already know the problem and can count on your fingers the people who could give you the answers you need.  If your problem takes more than a day to solve, find a smaller problem.

Being Rapid

I’m currently looking for tactical experts - the kind of people that others “ooh and ahh” at when they think to themselves, “If I could just get you to work on this I know all my problems will be solved.”  It doesn’t matter the field, just that you’re expertise is solid, vetted, and available on-demand.

Tactical experts don’t need time to start up or shut down.  They hate working on documentation, avoid phone calls, and resent most face-to-face meetings, except when demanded by the situation.  Tactical experts have tidbits to share, not blogs to write.

If you are one of these people, send me an email at gregarious AT rapidstrategy DOT com.

Staying Rapid

I’m launching a new blog at rapidstrategy.com.  This will be most of our tidbits will get surfaced.  Of course, you might want to follow @rapidstrategy.

Web 2.0 San Francisco is just a few weeks away now and I’ve been spending some time looking at the schedule.  This year’s schedule is very interesting in that it has a lot of timely guidance (evidenced by topics that reflect the changing needs of a weakened economy) and sage advice (from those at the helm of some of the largest 2.0 efforts so far).

While I’m hoping to attend as many as possible, I’ve made a very short list of the ones that I am looking forward to.  But before you read that, I’d like to give you a chance to attend on your own.  I have two full-access passes ready to send off to the two best answers I receive.  Here’s the rules:

1. Visit the schedule listing at http://www.web2expo.com/webexsf2009/public/schedule/full
2. Choose your favorite session
3. Tell me why you want to attend that session - what you’re hoping to get out of it and how it will impact your own work - comments are under repair here so mail me gregarious AT bluewhalelabs DOT com

I will select two winners and re-publish their posts here.

Here’s a few of my top picks:

‘S’ Factor – why sales shouldn’t be a dirty word in Web 2.0

For many start-ups making money remains an afterthought. But developing a great application and building community around it is no longer sufficient. Both consumers and businesses are getting wiser about Web 2.0 tools, awarding their attention sparingly.

Good product is more than technology. In order to succeed it has to have the ‘S factor’ (‘S’ for sales) built into it from the very beginning. So why is ‘sales’ still a dirty word in Web 2.0?

My Take

As someone who’s launching one product and advising many others on their own strategies and futures, this is a topic that always comes up.  I do hold dear to my heart that we should build things that change peoples lives and in doing so, create enough value that they have no problem paying for that difference.

Can’t We Just All Get Along? Human-centered Design Meets Agile Development

How can designers and developers work together in a process that seems to be contradictory in nature — and how does visual design fit into the picture? How can we best create integration, collaboration and implementation around seemingly divergent methodologies and languages?

Human-centered design — basing its insights on thoughtful user research, iterating early through documentation, and beginning development much later in the process once the design has been fully fleshed out — has become the de-facto process and approach for the creation of useful and desirable products. At the same time, Agile Development — promoting developing early and often in short iteration cycles with tight feedback loops — has become the standard for developing useful software.

My Take

As an advocate of the “me-first” design philosophy, it’s clear to me that any design that does not sufficiently and effectively explore the users of an application, service, product or device have failed in their ultimate mission.

Finding Influence: Design Patterns for Smarter Crowds

Last night we presented lil’grams for the first time publicly at the Web Innovator’s Group sponsored by MSFT and VenRock Capital . The event is put on by VenRock’s David Beisel who invites three unfunded startups to present to a group of non-paying attendees as the “Main Dish” and several more as “Side Dish” presenters. We were fortunate to be selected as main presenters (posting here) along with a shopping cart solution and ad-content manager.

At the outset, we expected 200 or so folks, which would have been great. When we showed up, David said he expected 700-800, and when the crowd showed, it was standing room only and probably closer to 1000.

I gave the background and overview of the app, then jumped into posting from the web, email, and the new desktop application.  I quickly showed the Baby Book off and our e-mail templates.  There was one small “oh crap” moment - Gmail was bugging me for the password so my mail demo broke - oops :)

The reception was pretty solid, although we came in second in the crowd-vote for best presentation [some say it was rigged :) not us]. Ranvir and Adarsh manned the booth along with some of our friends and loved ones. We met a bunch of very cool people and got a lot of support from the Boston web community (Thanks to Beta House and WoodGroove)

Here’s a sample of the reaction tweets:

• josephflaherty: “Lil’grams was my fave at #webinno. Photo sharing targeted towards people with kids. No new tech, just a REALLY nice UI and service setup”
• MassHighTech: Dave Beisel on Lil’Grams: “That’s a slick interface’ … and the interface works on anything, not just baby photos.”
• jvyduna: “Love Lil’grams at #webinno - my favorite demo. Nice UI.”
• MassHighTech: “Standing room only at #webinno. Lil’Grams got hoots ‘n hollers. Online baby photo sharing service…Crowd fave among the parents here”

See them all here.

I’m happy to announce that I’ll be covering Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco this year as a blogger.  I’ll be attending the sessions and other activities and reporting back on my take away from those sessions.

My personal goal is to find the rapid strategies that can be implemented by anyone that’s willing to put in a little elbow grease to make their own startup or business succeed.

One of the nice perks for blogging at the event is that I can extend a special discount to you as well, as a loyal reader and Web 2 enthusiast.

To receive 30% off your registration package use this code (websf09tro28) and click on over to:

https://en.oreilly.com/webexsf2009/public/register