Zadi Diaz-SlaveSpotlight: Media Slave, Life in Permanent Beta

You are invited to visit Media-Slaves where the spoltlight is on Zadi Diaz, mistress of video. Zadi is interviewed by our mobile slave and blog designer, the lovely and talented, Debi "MOBILE" Jones. The Media Slaves, Slave Spotlight …one slave down and three slaves to go. 

Show notes

• In the beginning.
• From the frying pan into the fire or moving from NYC to LA.
• But it’s hard isn’t it?
• Tools - we got tools.
• Music in videos and the long arm of the law.
• Current practice, fair use, MySpace musicians.
• Meet Zadi at Vloggercon 2006.
• The party list.

Technorati Tags: media slaves, podcasting, social media, blogging, videoblogs, media, mobile, video, Blogher

Join Us For The Debut of Media Slaves Podcast…Life in Permanent Beta

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We are very excited to announce that the Media Slaves Podcast series is up and running! What is the topic for the first podcast?

Glad you asked! User Generated Content is a label that has been the subject of many blog posts…some of them even our own.

What’s in a name? Or label? How do the labels that we use or that are used by others impact mainstreaming of new media and perceptions of what blogs, podcasts, and video blogs/podcasts and other new media are about?

Speaking of names and not that they need an introduction, the other producers of Media Slaves are Zadi Diaz, the documentary filmaker, video blogger and editor who vlogs at Karmagirrrl; Debi Jones, mobile expert, blogosphere trend spotter, and designer of our wow, now, and its happening, baby! Media Slaves Blog who blogs at Mobile Jones; and Nicole Simon, European podcast expert who blogs and podcasts at Cruel to be Kind and Bloxpert. We are also the Blogging and Social Media Editors at Blogher.

So…join us at Media-Slaves at http://media-slaves@blogspot.com. We are there 24/7….

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Tags: podcasts, blogs, social media, media, Zadi Diaz, Mobile Jones, Marianne Richmond, Nicole Simon, blogher

Beta Marketing

The WSJ has an article today on technology companies use of beta tests as marketing tools. This is not really new news. TechNewsWorld titled an article "Software Firms Use Beta Tests to Build Buzz" several months ago and coined the term "beta mania" to describe the phenomenon.

What I think is noteworthy about the widespread use of beta introductions are two things. The Wall Street Journal article highlighted one, the public acceptance of a version of a product that by definition of the word, Beta, implies that it is unstable. It says,  "Few people would fly on an airline that advertised its planes had
untested engines, or swallow a pill from a drug company that admitted
the side effects were unknown. Yet when it comes to software, it seems
consumers are much more adventurous."

The WSJ then quotes Peter Sealey, a marketing professor, and formerly CMO of Coca Cola during the CAA days who aptly notes "I can’t come up with anything else in the entire marketing world where
marketers knowingly introduce a flawed or inadequate product [and] it
helps grow your user base."

When you think about this, it is amazing. Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo are the big Beta players but there are lots of baby Betas….the WSJ mentioned Esty.com; I am currently using TailRank, Measure Map, and Firefox 1.5 to name a few. Now I wouldn’t fly in a Beta plane or drive a Beta car so why do I use Beta software. It must satisfy some inner need to try something new, try something cool…give input into design without actually designing; there is no cost so the value outweighs the risk. So, what’s a little instability….we can have that from the software that we pay for and depend upon!

The other aspect of Beta marketing that I think is noteworthy is the invitation list…..Google has really fine tuned this with Gmail! What better way to create buzz than to be exclusive. And not only did the invitees get to be regarded as cool enough to get an invitation from Google for a Gmail account, they got to designate others cool enough to achieve Uber Geek status as they pass on invitations to others.

 

Technorati Tags: Google, Beta_tests, Measure_Map, TailRank, Buzz_Marketing

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