TechnoratiâShopping Is NOT Strategy

Joining the Mainstream Are We?

I’m starting to feel like I’m on Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live. As Sting would say Be still my beating heart. Another day, another 50 cents, and Peter Hirschberg is announcing another Technorati new deal. This time Technorati teams with Associated Press to connect you and me and 40 million bloggers to over 450 AP member websites. The new service began this morning. How will this help my life, my business, my brand? I just don’t see it.

Excuse me. Excuse me, please. Is this door number 3? Darn, I lose again. Yoohoo! I’m the little guy who uses your service.

How the AP Deal Works

Mr. Hirshberg explains it this way.

When readers visit an AP member website that uses AP Hosted Custom News, they will see a module featuring the “Top Five Most Blogged About” AP articles right next to the article text, dynamically powered by Technorati. Additionally, when readers click on an AP article, Technorati will deliver “WhoÃ¢â¬â¢s Blogging About” that article. Now, if you have commentary about an AP story, you can get mentioned in that module simply by linking to that AP news URL, akin to what you can do with Washington Post articles, Newsweek articles, Der Spiegel articles, and a host of other media partners that currently work with Technorati.

Translation: AP sites get traffic. Five bloggers get citations. The AP thing is great for the Technorati name. Every time I’ve tried to link with one of the current such partners the link connect has taken so long there has been no advantage to making the effort. The article is usually a day or two old by the time the link is posted there.

Strategy and Customer Needs

For as smart and as analytical as I know David Sifry to be, I’m disappointed by what has been announced over the past three days. I know quite bit about strategy and how to organically grow a company of that size through buying, partnering, and building — and have done just that over a very short time.

SHOPPING IS NOT STRATEGY. Strategy involves planting seeds and knowing what they will become and having some idea how they will work together. It’s about preparing your customers for their introduction before they happen, not after. So that it’s almost an automatic, “Oh yeah, that makes total sense to me.” reaction on the part of the core user base –building confidence, not fear that the core users will be left behind with less service.

Strategy is not just getting bigger or merely taking opportunities. It’s knowing every opportunity taken is one that you’re leaving behind. It’s about meeting the needs of core customers and making new ones who use your products.

Did folks ask for this? Did someone actually determine there was a need? This is one citizen journalist who’s been waiting for the ability to connect to the AP as much as Frazier’s dad has been waiting for Frazier to buy him a new chair. I bet more bloggers on the index are like me than are not. I’d be interested in the research behind the last three deals. What opportunities were passed by while this one and the two yesterday were being pursued and rolled out?

Making new products for new customers is the highest risk in two ways. It takes new marketing and new product both. I also takes time away from your core business. It’s the last choice of companies looking for stable organic growth. Even when choosing partnerships, it’s good strategy to stay either within your core customer group or one step alongside the products you already provide so that you can adequately support the new customers new products might bring.

Companies only fail for two reasons — they grow too slow, or they grow to fast.

Chartreuse Talk to Them

Chartreuse tell them please.

. . . getting traction is all about execution kids.
. . . you gotta bring your A game to play.
Now remember, your goal is not to please everybody. . . .
Your number one goal is to only please your core users.

You treat those core users to your site, those who make comments, those who send suggestions, those who drop you an email to say you suck, like they are freaking gods.
They can make you.
Or break you.
Which makes them pretty omnipotent.

MEANWHILE, My Blog is still stuck, bet yours is too.

It is — one move, three points in 4 weeks — still not indexing correctly.
Where is Technorati looking? It’s not looking at the folks who make the content it indexes. We’re the core customers at least I thought we were. What is an index without posts anyway?

Mr. Hirshberg, did customers really ask for these features? Did anyone even talk to a customer? Perhaps you could let us in on the big picture. That would be really cool. Thanks in advance. If you have the time, please, tell me why my blog has been broken for 7 months and so many others are broken too, yet new features are the always the topic of the technorati weblog?

–ME “Liz” Strauss