Linking Local, the wikiDOMO Blog

Who should control local business listings?

A great way to find local businesses online is through local business directories that provide listings with ratings and reviews. Ratings and reviews can help separate great businesses from those that are simply good or downright terrible. But, the key question that we all need to ask is, who controls the online profile in the directory?

 

Business, Customer, or the Community?

Most local directory sites ultimately cater to either the consumer or the business. But, if it’s the business that controls the content, how can customers trust the reviews? If everything is controlled by customers, how can businesses feel protected from spiteful customers and dishonest competitors?

At wikiDOMO, we make money from rendering services to businesses. Therefore, there’s a huge chance for perceived and real conflict of interest. But, our listings are not controlled by the businesses. We are a wiki. Therefore, like Wikipedia, the content is controlled by the community. Businesses and customers alike can contribute and help manage the business listings. 

Business Feedback: “I want that review removed”

We have done a number of test pilots and the outcome has been a little surprising. We had businesses call us to say; “I want that review removed.” - Our answer was always; “No, but feel free to engage your customer.” Now for the surprising responses: “But other sites let me delete the reviews that I don’t like.” wikiDOMO doesn’t and we think that makes a big difference.

Trust and Reputation

How important is this? At first, it doesn’t seem like a big deal. But, as more and more customers look to the internet for information about local businesses this will become critical. Trust and reputation have always been important. Moving forward these will be even more important. Now, just about anyone can voice their opinion about anything. These voices must be moderated, not just by one side or the other, but by the community at large.

If you already have a place (business) profile on wikiDOMO, be sure to help manage it. If you’re a customer of local businesses in your community, help contribute to their profiles and reputations. Everyone benefits and more importantly, everyone is providing a balanced measure of control.

Not only are the wikiDOMO business profiles controlled by the community, they’re also provided to the community for reuse through Creative Commons licensing. We’ll soon be announcing our API (currently in testing) that will provide free access to all of our business listings.

Let us know what you think. We would love to hear your thoughts about wikis, business listings and wikiDOMO.com.

The image above is of one of our place profile businesses: Kootenay Country Store Co-op and was taken by donkeycart. 

by Jose Leal

Welcome through Toronto's Open Doors

This weekend (May 23rd and 24th) is another Doors Open Toronto weekend. It happens only once per year, and it is free, free, free. So, come out and get to know about 175 buildings that have special significance to the city. You can find out more at the 2009 Doors Open Toronto website:http://www.toronto.ca/doorsopen

And, when you are done, come back to wikiDOMO and share your reviews. Don’t know where to start? Here are some suggestions: 

1 - Canadian Film Centre - Windfields Estate

2 - Allan Gardens Conservatory

3 - Albany Club

4 - Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - CBC

5 - Design Exchange

City's doors are open! Have a great time!

Cluetrainplus10 - Cluetrain Manifesto ten years later

I suspect the vast majority of media people have never heard of the Cluetrain Manifesto.  I think it should be mandatory reading for anyone working in a media or marketing organization.  I find it incredible that 10 years ago the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto had the foresight to envision the impact the Internet would have on the whole of society. 

To commemorate the 10^th anniversary, today as many as 95 individuals will be writing a blog post on one of the theses.  I chose to write on thesis #6:  The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media. 

This one thesis foretells of the massive changes that are now occurring in the media and marketing industries.  It recognizes that the Internet revolutionizes communications, making one-to-one and one-to-many conversations possible and therefore turning the unidirectional mass media into antiquated and ultimately irrelevant industries. 

Mass media has served two functions, the first being the delivery of news, information and entertainment to an audience. The second function is to aggregate that audience and sell advertising to marketers.  The Internet has caused both of these functions to become commoditized.  There is no longer the need to have a multimillion dollar printing press or broadcast license in order to serve either of these functions. 

Not only are the mediums themselves antiquated, the marketing models for the promoting of brands goods and services are now ineffective as well. To me, this thesis represents the single greatest impact on our society.  There is no question as to whether this thesis is right or wrong - the question is - how we deal with this new reality.

Congratulations Cluetrain Manifesto authors…ten years have only stood to validate many of your theses. 

By

Jose Leal

wikiDOMO Kicks Off Spring with 12 New Features

We are very happy to announce the launch of our Alpha 3 release. It is still very much work-in-progress, but we are happy to bring forward some important new features. 

Last few months have been really rewarding. We’ve seen amazing growth in users coming to wikiDOMO to find and promote local businesses and organizations. We have also talked to many of you about what you liked and what you still needed, so we are really excited and happy to bring you 12 new features. So what did we do?

We’ve made it easier to find the “best” Places and People. Listings are based on ratings, so you see the best-rated places first.   

We’ve enhanced the Place profiles so now you can:

1 – edit the “About” section

2 – edit the “Related Places” section and connect organizations through typical relationships 

3 – edit the “Hours” section

4 - edit the “Policies” section (must be logged-in)

5 – edit the “FAQ” section (must be logged-in)

6 - comment on Place reviews

7 – see the limited “Products” section (currently limited to alcoholic beverages)

We’re introducing very limited Product profiles (it's just a start) so now you can: 

8 – see limited Product descriptions and prices (currently limited to alcoholic beverages)

9 – rate available Products (still limited to alcoholic beverages)

This is our first - and small - step into what we hope will be a powerful product promotions tool. 

We're enhancing People profile functionality so now you can: 

10 - edit People information (must be logged-in)

11 – rate and review People

12 – comment on People reviews

We’ll be posting more detailed information on individual features in the coming blog posts (and will continue to make improvements to them). For now, just jump in, try out the features, and keep spreading the love about your favorite places. 

Oh, and drop by the wikiDOMO profile to leave us your feedback and thoughts!  

By: Dragan Stojanovic

wikiDOMO's Tastiest Awards

It's a tough job... 

... steak and lobster... coconut shrimp... best wines of the Niagara region...  mmmmmm!

We really wanted to recognize some of the best restaurants in the region, so what better place to do this than at the Food and Drink Fest... the Festival with Taste! The event took place this past weekend (March 27th to 29th) at the Hamilton Convention Centre! Our friends at Beau Monde Productions always put on a great show, and we all thought this show pushed the bar up even higher.

We sponsored awards in 3 categories: Tastiest Dish, Best Unique Dish, and Best Customer Service. 

As with all things wikiDOMO, everyone had a chance to vote and have their voice heard. Hundreds of happy show-goers stopped by the wikiDOMO booth to cast their ballots and chat about their favourites. So, you can understand, we had to try out the common favourites... so we can talk about them of course. I told you it was a tough job!

We presented the awards on Sunday. And the winners are... (drum-roll please):

Tastiest Dish:

1st place: SB Prime

2nd place: My-Thai Restaurant

3rd place: Sizzle Steakhouse

Best Unique Dish:

1st place: SB Prime

2nd place: My-Thai Restaurant

3rd place: Kookaburra Restaurant

Best Customer Service:

1st place: La Piazza

2nd place: Sizzle Steakhouse

3rd place: SB Prime

So, what do you think? Agree? Disagree? Got your other favourites? You can find them and rate them now. 

Personally, I'm not crazy about super spicy food, but Hot Mama's Foods got it going on! That's some great hot sauce! How about you? What are your favourites?

By: Dragan Stojanovic

Does a Horse and Buggy Work? That's The Question!

Chris Brogan posed the question “When Will the Volume Game Turn Down?” with his post and Sean Bohan followed-up with his post “It’s there because it works…”.

We're all having these conversations about traditional media working or not working and if the media companies will survive or not. I wonder if the farriers and coachbuilders of the 19th century had these same conversations about their industries?  If so, the questions might have been; does the horse and buggy still work? Will farriers survive? After all, that was a huge industry back them, every one-horse town had a farrier or a blacksmith.  Some of them must have used the argument that they had worked for hundreds of years and that in some instance only the horse works best.

Based on the numbers TV, Radio and Newspaper industries are certainly struggling, in part, because they are no longer as efficient.  Does mass media work?  To some degree it still does, but it won’t much longer.  The more digital we become, the more efficient it will be to reach us through digital media.

The digital medium will do to mass media exactly what cars did to the horse and buggy.  And yes, people still ride horses and we see the queen in her carriage every so often, but I wouldn’t call it mass transportation.

TV, Radio and Newspaper Revenues are Down, Down, Down

Television revenues a cliff-hanger

In both an Olympic and presidential election year, U.S. television revenues are still projected to drop 7% according to BIA Advisory Services.  This represents a loss of over $3 billion. Subtract the $1 billion that NBC generated with the Olympics and the more than $2 billion spent by the political parties on TV and it all adds up to a $6 billion (-14%) shortfall when compared to 2007 revenues. 2009 looks to be even worse – cliff-hanger indeed.

Radio revenues continue to skid

U.S. radio revenues have just experienced the largest year over year drop in one month. The Radio Advertising Bureau just released the November numbers and they’re down-right scary. A 22% drop in national and local ad revenues. When you look at November over two years (2008 vs. 2006), it’s a 29% drop. Radio has not had a year over year revenue increase since April 2007, and that was only 1%.

Newspapers not delivering

According to the NAA, U.S. newspapers lost $15 billion, in the first three quarters of 2008, compared to 2007. In the third quarter, they dropped over 19%. Classifieds continue to be the hardest hit with a nearly 31% drop. The category has been hit hard for years. In 2000 Classifieds accounted for over $5 billion in revenues, this year it will barely crack $2 billion.

It’s not just the economy stupid.

Mass media advertising is heading for a world of hurt. 

What will happen to the advertising industry? I have a few thoughts, but they will make for future posts. 

As I have written before, the newspaper industry is dead. If you didn’t think so then, how do you feel about it now that the second largest newspaper company, Tribune Company, has filed for chapter 11? Add to that the fact that the New York Times (the nation’s largest metro newspaper) has been forced to put its office tower up as collateral for a $225 million loan and we have the beginning of the end.

There is no doubt that 2009 will bring a lot of change to the advertising landscape.  

We live in interesting times…

Rate your fiance's cooking? Has wikiDOMO gone too far?

Ok, then how about rating the marriage proposal itself? Yes, on a scale of 1 to 10 – wikiDOMO style.

That’s exactly what we did this past weekend at the Hamilton-Halton Fall Wedding Show. Our friends at Beau Monde Productions put on a great show as record numbers turned out at the Hamilton Convention Centre for all things “wedding”.

It was all in good fun, as we put eight couples in front of hundreds of "fans" and through the “wikiDOMO Rating Challenge”. They showed off how well they really know each other – or not!

A highlight for me was a great couple where a man of wisdom rated his fiancé’s cooking as “8”. When poked further by our energetic host, he admitted that “her cooking is not good, but I didn’t want to hurt her feelings” (I’m paraphrasing here). If we all could, I think he deserved a “10” for that answer! Even better was the fact that his fiancé actually rated her own cooking at a … well, it was actually off the wikiDOMO scale… a zero! It’s a good thing that the prizes for our four winning couples included dinners at some great local restaurants, including Pastacino and La Piazza Allegra.

So, where is the feature to rate your spouse’s cooking on wikiDOMO? If you want to score brownie-points, or just make a point… we are going to stay out of that one for now! But, if your spouse is a chef or cooks as a business, then we’ll have some good news for both of you soon.

Congratulations and a lifetime of happiness to all our winning couples!

By: Dragan Stojanovic

Why I think newspapers will die: Part Six - The Reader

 

This is my last post in the series. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.  I want to wrap-up by looking at the newspaper industry from the perspective of the all important reader.  Most people I talk to about the state of newspapers have a clear opinion - the majority believe newspapers will survive this period of turmoil. Many of them tell me that the newspapers survived the impact of radio and television and they will survive the Internet. As you can tell by the title of this post I don’t agree. But, no matter what they say, or the reasons they give me, I can’t help but think, that most of us just can’t imagine a world without the comfort of a newspaper.

The Newspaper Reading Experience

Like many people, I enjoy while still in pjs sitting down on Saturday and/or Sunday mornings with a cup of coffee and one or even two newspapers. Some days it goes on for hours. Between breakfast and the paper(s), before you know it it’s almost lunch time. It’s an experience that can’t yet be beat.  There’s no arguing the numerous benefits of the print paper format - portability, archive-ability and so on. 

However, greater access to news has changed our need for the daily paper. With the Internet at home, at work and now on the road, we can get a quick hit of the news at any time. In addition, we lead busier lives and most of us can’t find the time to read the paper during the week. We’re spending more and more time traveling and working, and the weekend is the only time we have to even try to read the newspaper.

As a consequence, there’s no doubt in my mind that the weekday editions of most newspapers will not exists in 5 to 10 years.  As for the weekend editions, it will take longer for them to disappear.  Few people, if any under the age of 25 are reading the paper with the frequency or passion of those of my generation.  Once the baby boomers are gone, who will be left to enjoy the weekend paper reading experience?   

The Environment

Readers are not yet fully aware of the impact that newspapers have on the environment.  According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), pulp and paper mills are among the worst polluters of any industry in the country.  The impact is tremendous, from the billions of trees that are cut down each year, to the energy used to harvest and transport them to the mills. Compound that with the energy used to transport the paper to the presses and for the printing process; let’s not forget delivering it to your door or newspaper box. 

I know that many of the trees that are cut down for paper are grown in farms that are well managed. I also know each day more and more paper is being recycled. But, the reality is that though certain aspects of the industry are improving, the full ecological impact far outweighs the benefits when there are alternatives that generate far less impact.  At some point, the public will assess the environmental impact of the industry as irresponsible and act accordingly.

Reading Technology

I don’t think anyone disagrees with the fact that reading a print newspaper is much more convenient then reading on a computer.  But, what if E-Ink technology finally delivers?  And it soon will.  We’re not far from the day where we will have large screen format mobile reading devices.  They will allow us to read any web site via; Wi-Fi, WiMAX or high speed mobile telephone networks.

E-Ink readers are already here, but today’s devices like the Sony Reader and Amazon’s Kindle are targeted at the book reading market.  New devices, such as the ReadiUS pictured above, will be more general in function, have longer battery lives and will support multiple wireless formats.  As these devices are introduced they will quickly be adopted. Imagine reading anything, including the news, in your back yard on a bright sunny day for hours - how will print papers compete then?  They won’t.

The Most Important Newspaper Reader

In the end, I don’t think the fate of newspapers will be dependent solely on the reading experience, lack of time, the environment or technology. I think the survival of the newspapers rests primarily in the hands of its most important readers. Those readers are the shareholders – whose focus is on reading the annual report. They understandably want their newspapers to continue to generate profits. Unfortunately, that’s at the risk of everything else.

Nearly 7 years ago, when working for Canoe / Sun Media, I attended a newspaper conference and while walking through the exhibits, I noticed a very interesting hand written poster.  It went something like this…

“If the train companies of the early 20th century had understood that they were in the transportation business and not in the railway business they would have survived.”

That message stuck with me, and for years I worked to get the digital division and the print divisions to cooperate and realize they were in the same business – media – better yet, communications. Neither side would have anything to do with it. Each division had their own bottom line and that was paramount.

The reality is newspaper organizations don’t see themselves as media or communications companies. They are, and will remain newspaper companies until the last paper comes rolling off the press – and then just like the trains of old, we will fondly remember them and what they could have been, had they grasped an important but fundamental notion – change.

Why I think newspapers will die: Part Five - Distribution

As I mentioned in the previous post (Part Four), flyer distribution has taken on a large part of the retail advertising market and there’s no going back.  Today, major retailers all over North America use flyers as their primary means of marketing.  Flyer distribution has become a key part of the newspaper revenue mix, and without them, most community newspapers would not be profitable.

What’s a flyer? A flyer is sometimes referred to as a circular or insert.  They’re those wonderful standalone ads that bulk-up most newspapers in North America.  Things are a little different in each part of the continent, but here in Toronto our weekly newspaper is about 10% news and 90% ads – with the vast majority of that being flyers.

What follows is a brief look at flyers, what they mean to consumers and more importantly what they mean to the newspaper industry:

1 - Timeliness

The flyer distribution business is less about timeliness in the sense of speed and much more about reach and repeatability.  Getting flyers delivered every week to as many homes as possible is the key. It’s much harder than it looks and generally newspapers do it best.

Because newspapers have a regular delivery schedule they’re good at flyer distribution. Some of the best flyer delivery newspapers are the free community weeklies.  This is because they tend to be total market coverage products - meaning that they are delivered to most homes in a geographic area - this offers their customers the broadest reach.

Since many community weeklies are delivered once a week, they have built strong consumer expectations and reading habits.  That’s to say, many consumers now expect to see retail flyers delivered on a specific day of the week. This turns out to be both a blessing and a curse for the industry.  Though a number of papers have tried to add additional days (for a number of reasons - the biggest being to grow volume), both the readers and the advertisers’ have resisted these changes.  This makes the model limited by consumer/client habits, not to mention the physical limitations of the number of flyers a paper can hold.

As business requirements change and retailers need more flexibility the newspapers and their rigid flyer delivery model will become an increasing liability.

Do you think newspapers will be able to adjust their models in time?

2 - Efficiency

In the world of flyers, efficiency is measured by the percentage of the population you reach – and by that measurement newspaper flyers have been very efficient.  Though they’re good at delivering flyers, they do have limitations.  As most paid papers circulation declines, they’re reaching a smaller segment of the market, greatly diminishing their efficiency.

Even the free papers are running into reach issues because newspapers can’t easily deliver to apartment/condo buildings. As major metropolitan markets continue to increase residential densities the percentage of households that don’t receive free newspapers will grow.

As the newspaper industry has changed, so too has the demand on the distribution channel. In the past, if a community paper wasn’t delivered the only thing that a newspaper had to worry about was the call from an annoyed resident. Now that advertisers are paying for each thousand delivered, newspapers are being audited and penalized for papers/flyers that are not delivered.

Will advertisers be willing to absorb increased costs?

3 - Costs

The majority of flyers go unread. From an advertiser’s perspective that hasn’t been all bad since so many are still read. But that’s changing.  As newsprint costs continue to go up and delivery costs increase due to labour and fuel prices, advertisers are putting pressure on newspapers.

Newspapers are facing the daunting task of delivering more flyers to a decreasing readership for less. Sooner or later there will be a tipping point, the point at which paper, printing and distribution costs will outstrip the returns. That time is coming sooner than most retailers and newspapers realize.

When do you think we will reach the tipping point?

In Conclusion

Beyond the financial costs, though still most important today, society’s move to reduce waste and the impact on the environment will play an increasing role in the death of print flyers and the subsequent death of newspapers. The amount of waste the industry produces is astronomical. As with the move to reduce bulk mail (Canada, US), when consumers demand no delivery of vast amounts of paper, the flyer industry will be in crisis and a large number of papers will fail.

In my next post, the last in the series, we will look at the newspaper industry through the eyes of the reader.  Stay tuned for the last post:

Part Six – The Reader

By Jose Leal