SlideIn or ShareLink or what? Thoughts on LinkedIn’s acquisition of Slideshare

by sanjay on May 4, 2012

Yet another morning, and yet another piece of M&A news.

Twitter informed me early today morning, that professional networking platform, Linkedin had acquired the professional content sharing platform, Slideshare for a consideration of $119 million.

As two very critical platforms in the world of Social Media, this news was of a lot of interest to us.

While there is the world of Facebook and Twitter out there, especially for the consumer space, the names to reckon with in the professional or B2B space, clearly have been LinkedIn and Slideshare. When we talk to any of our B2B clients, these are almost certainly the first two platforms that come up in conversation. And in that respect, this union of sorts, is heartening in many ways.

Why did LinkedIn acquire Slideshare? What are the synergies now? How will it impact users? Some of my thoughts shared here:

1. Why did LinkedIn acquire Slideshare? Well, I think, because “it simply could“! Post IPO, LinkedIn has a warchest of cash and an appetite for acceleration. And from the point of adding more value to it’s large target group of professionals, the addition of Slideshare makes the most sense.

2. The other critical reason is the whole content play that Slideshare brings in. LinkedIn has been extremely strong on professional people data. It also has extensions of interest like Groups and Company Pages and Q&A sections, but all of these are either company promotional content (company pages) or short term, transactional content (Groups and Answers). What LinkedIn sorely lacked was a large pool of archival and valuable content. And Slideshare as a content sharing platform fills that void perfectly.

3. This content play enables LinkedIn to offer that much more to it’s users. How they will integrate Slideshare content inside the LinkedIn platform, whether they will or not, are all questions for the future. Just having that pool of content, that is of high value to the target audience of LinkedIn, is a big plus, from a point of view of providing that additional value.

4. Then, think of the advertising opportunities that content throws up. So far LinkedIn offers some fabulous advertising options for targeting individuals, based on their professional status. So, for example, one can target mid-level HR professionals in large India IT corporates, via targeted advertising on LinkedIn, if one wanted to. And this targeting was absolutely brilliant. But now there is an additional opportunity that LinkedIn can offer to the same advertiser. That of offering targeted advertising to “those who come and read HR related content on Slideshare”. This make the advertising reach just so much more powerful.

5. A closer integration of slideshare content on to LinkedIn and a deeper integration of LinkedIn on the Slideshare platform are no-brainers. This will help. There has always been a decent integration of Slideshare into LinkedIn. So one could integrate one’s slideshare decks, on one’s LinkedIn profile, for example. And some more. And now you could potentially integrate your LinkedIn profile access, or your LinkedIn company page link, next to your Slideshare deck, on Slideshare. So when someone sees and likes your content there, and wants to quickly contact you, or know more about your company, it is only a click away, right there. These moves will be interesting, quick to do, and should spell good value for both, Slideshare and LinkedIn users.

6. There will be some more benefits that I can see coming. A pro-account on LinkedIn or on Slideshare gave us some value so far. Now, there could be combination pro accounts that give you benefits across the two platforms together. Which again, is good stuff for the user.

These are some of the quick reactions I have, looking to a positive outcome, both for the two brands, as well as for the users of the two brands, going ahead.

What I HOPE is that they do not make it tougher for the user. Like an increase in pro-account fees or more expensive advertising packages, etc.

From my side, I can state that I love both of these brands, and I hope this union of the two will make them even dearer..

Cheers to the brilliant M&A move!!

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Nosedive or Second Coming of Films: A Social Media Phenomenon?

by sanjay on April 25, 2012

While speaking at the India Social Summit recently, on a power panel on Social Media and the Entertainment Business, I had briefly remarked on the concept of “Saturdays becoming the new Fridays” and ideas around “Dramatic Crashes” and “Late Revivals” of films, as a result of Social Media.

Here’s a video slice of my talk explaining this concept.

Here are the key thoughts in this context:

1. Since the multiplex culture hit few years back and films released large number of prints simultaneously, the fate of the film was decided largely, on the first weekend of the release.

2. The extent of expectation that was raised (aka pre-release hype), to that extent, the “initial” was commanded. Or in other words, the initial curiosity and intrigue that drove people into the cinema houses.

3. The first weekend was the biggest and depending on how big it went, it took a next few days or perhaps a couple of weeks of waning period of interest. The film made perhaps, 60-70% (sometimes even more) in that first weekend, and the rest, over the next several days.

4. So it was imperative for those film marketers who had the budgets, to generate maximum hype, and draw the largest initial, and then bank on the long tail of the waning period, to make their box office revenues.

All this was largely a pre-social media impact period.

To a fair extent, this behavior has been impacted by the advent of social media. And it has a HUGE say in a film’s fortunes.

The impact can be both, positive and negative, depending, as it should be, on the quality of the film, finally.

So I refer to these two potential consequences as The Nosedive and Late Revival (or Second Coming).

Let me explain The Nosedive:

1. From the earlier, above mentioned marketing method, a film tries and generates massive hype pre-release.

2. Manages to drive “some of the people” into the theatre on Friday.

3. They do not like the film at all. They come out and post on Facebook, tweet and generally, get word out that say, “stay away”.

4. And the rest of us folks “stay away”.

5. So what was supposed to be a big initial and then a useful waning period of box office earnings, actually turns out to be The Nosedive. Like a failed missile / rocket launch. A sad and early demise.

Huge case in point: Ra.One. More recent one: Agent Vinod.

So what then, is the Late Revival or the Second Coming:

1. This happens where the film, either on account of limited marketing budget, or on account of not having enough “draw power” (stars, etc.), has a relatively quiet release.

2. What that means is fewer cinemas, fewer shows, not a lot of publicity.

3. And yet, some of the keen diehards of cinema, discover the release, and manage to find their way into the cinema, over the first weekend, and the week after. A slow start for sure.

4. The rest of the mass audience do not even have the film in their horizon, or have any plans to see the movie.

5. But the film is actually good. And those initial viewers are happy. And perhaps surprised happy!

6. And due to this reason, they come out and enthusiastically write about the film. On Facebook, on Twitter and everywhere.

7. And some of us who had no plans to even consider the film, cannot ignore these posts creeping into our timelines and on our FB walls.

8. And then on the second weekend, or sometimes even after, many of us are now curious to get into the theatre, to catch the film.

And so happens the Late Revival or Second Coming.

Cases in point: Kahani and Paan Singh Tomar, in recent days.

While a lot of this thought process is empirical in nature, I would be very curious to see data of BO collections for films like Kahani and Paan Singh Tomar, especially comparing its first week vs its second and third ones. It may make for interesting reading!

I was prompted to write this seeing yet another Second Coming.

At this time, I am sensing Vicky Donor going through a Second Coming (pun totally unintended!!).

Have you sensed this kind of a development? My film buff friends, do you agree?

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Experiments with Social Media continue..

February 23, 2012

While the social media space has matured a lot in the last couple of years, we are far from claiming any kind of established norms or proven best practices in the use of social media. So the experiment continues. And some are getting it better than others. Let’s examine the fundamentals of social media ownership, [...]

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I Worry about Google! Search Business under threat?!

February 13, 2012

So you think Google Plus has it’s set of challenges, as it ambitiously takes on Facebook?? Well, I am not even talking about that. My worry is about Google’s core product and cash earner, Google Search! Let’s do a quick dipstick here: -       When you search on Google for information, how fast do you get [...]

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What’s the Fuss (WTF!) about Facebook’s Daily Active Users number anyway?!

February 8, 2012

A lot of people have been busy pouring over the documents filed by Facebook, for their IPO. Finally, it seems there is enlightenment about this magical land called Facebook! Amongst the various Facebook facets that people have commented upon then, is also this one take – that Facebook’s reported numbers of Daily Active Users, may [...]

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#McDStories to ‘Dear Shameful’: Social Media is NOT easy for brands!

January 30, 2012

It is often misunderstood that managing social media is easy for brands. I mean, we all do Facebook. So what can be the big deal about managing a brand presence on Social Media. Well, for one, going from a comfortable, many times edited broadcast mode communication, to a real time, interactive space, where responses go [...]

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Cut the crap, cut to the chase!

January 28, 2012

I have received more than my share of “critical feedback” suggesting that my blog posts are often a little too long. The feedback has come first, from my teenage daughters (I am glad for their candidness!). Unfortunately, there is a risk that this post may also not be “short”. But then, for this, I have [...]

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Some thoughts about where the Digital space in India, is going, in 2012

December 25, 2011

For some reason, December gets your mind working in this manner. Thinking about what went by, thinking about what’s coming up. Though this is something you can potentially do any time of the year, there are these December triggers. You’ll take this kind of a stock for yourself, and then perhaps larger issues, like the [...]

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Complacency Blinkers in the Advertising World?

August 7, 2011

What do you think? Are advertisers and ad agencies not “walking their talk”?? By the way, I refer to the following blog post that I had don earlier, on the subject of views of Nitin Paranajpe (CEO and MD of Hindustan Unilever Ltd): http://blog.socialwavelength.com/2011/07/thought-provoking-words-from-nitin-paranjpe-ceo-and-md-of-hindustan-unilever-ltd/

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GOOGLE+ vs FACEBOOK: IT’S ABOUT CONSUMER BEHAVIOR, NOT TECH!

August 3, 2011

The debate continues. Unabated. Nay, I should say, the cacophony. About whether Google+ is finally the one challenge for Facebook, in it’s dominating Social Networking presence. If you think the noise will die down, rest assured, it would not. At least not for a while.  And perhaps, this piece is only adding to the various [...]

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