Technology Innovation Case Study
Nov 14 2008Zannel won a Social Media Award for Technology Innovation
Division: Technology Innovation
Category: Blogger Relations
Company: Zannel
The use of micro-blogging sites like Twitter and live blogging from events have become increasingly integral for bloggers looking to spread news from anywhere, in real-time. However, bloggers have generally been confined to micro-blogging with short, text-only updates, or have to rush—drafting their blog posts on the spot and carrying around their laptops. The challenge is to introduce an effective and simple way for bloggers to communicate current happenings with their audience through a variety of mediums, including text, video and images, in real-time. Zannel (http://www.zannel.com) is offering a new way for bloggers to expand their reach through mobile phones, drive incremental traffic back to their blogs, and get on board with an innovative way to communicate.
Today nearly everyone has a camera phone, and many people also have videophones. According to analyst reports, only 2-3% of the photos people take with their phones end up ever leaving that phone. SMS texting, on the other hand, has become a very popular form of communication in the general population. As the old adage goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. There is a huge opportunity for people, especially bloggers, to take the capabilities of their phones such as SMS, photos and video, and utilize them to communicate in a more effective manner, rather than simply with words, and reach a large audience in real-time.
Currently, bloggers are utilizing Twitter while out on the road, and at events, etc., which only allows for text updates to their followers. If they wish to live-blog with more details and photos, they need to find a seat somewhere where they can have their laptop running and be ready to start typing. They may be able to add picture or video, but in the time it takes to snap a photo, upload it onto a laptop and feed it onto an online blog (all while typing away), that picture is old news. Of course, there’s always the issue of having a reliable Internet connection. Without one, live-blogging is just not possible.
Cell phones work almost everywhere, and with their ability to send SMS messages and snap photos and video, there is an opportunity to be able to communicate not just with short texts, but with images and video as well. If bloggers had the ability to live blog any content with nothing but a phone, a new mode of communication becomes available.
Zannel users are between the ages of 16-34 and are everyday consumers, as opposed to the highly tech/professional audience of Twitter. Zannel users are interested in politics, celebrities, bands, musicians, local news, brands and a variety of other consumer-oriented topics.
Zannel is targeting visual bloggers, consumers, talent such as bands, artists, entertainers, celebrities and politicians, and brand names. All of these categories are ultimately potential bloggers.
Zannel’s goal is to become the first large-scale mobile media network worldwide. Its roadmap includes expanding platform functionality, increasing US penetration, and deploying internationally. It is Zannel’s mission to make it simple and easy use for people, especially bloggers, to use their mobile phones to create content.
Zannel’s plan is a multi-prong approach. Zannel is currently reaching out to a number of high-profile bloggers to enlist them as “Zannel evangelists.” Zannel is also forming relationships with influential celebrities, organizations and companies to spread the word virally via Zannel livecasting. Verticals included in this group span politics, music, film, entertainment, lifestyle and other pop culture avenues.
To ensure that Zannel is accessible to as wide an audience as possible, the company will continue to unveil new technology partnerships with the most popular devices and services used today by the target demographic.
As with many start-ups, Zannel continues to forge new territory in recognition and awareness. It has had to overcome the challenge of being categorized as a mobile photo sharing and mobile networking solution. Although these are aspects of Zannel, there is much more. Zannel is a multimedia equivalent to Twitter, where users can go to get short updates, or “nano-blogs,” with text, images and videos, from bloggers around the globe.
Zannel’s tools include its mobile and web-based networks, widgets that can be placed on blogs, MySpace and other websites, a Facebook application, and live feeds that push content to Twitter and Flickr.
Zannel launched the mobile industry’s first Instant Media Messaging™ service, which allows users to instantly and visually communicate with their friends across mobile networks and the web, including all major social networks. Founded by the team that built the first large-scale mobile media storefronts in the US, Zannel combines the best of mobile messaging, media sharing, and social networking into an intuitive, compelling user experience. Zannel aims to become known as the multimedia alternative to Twitter, focusing on the consumer audience rather than the technology-focused audience of Twitter. A qualitative measurement of success will be the use of Zannel by musicians, entertainers, politicians and brands to ultimately use Zannel as an advertising channel for their music, message and product.
One example of this occurred at the recent Democratic National Convention (DNC), where thirteen grassroots bloggers broadcasted video, pictures and text updates straight from the floor of the convention using Zannel and their mobile phones. These bloggers represented every region of the United States of America, and are contributing to Zannel’s PoliticsBlue community channel (http://www.zannel.com/politicsblue) from the convention through Election Day. Representing North, South, East, West, and even registered Democrats living abroad, these bloggers broadcasted their journeys to this historic event, their observations, on-the-fly interviews, interactions with delegates, and authentic captured moments with political figures on the national scene. By leveraging Zannel’s award winning mobile platform, they were able to instantly share their convention coverage with their blog’s readers, the Zannel community, and to the blogging and social networks to which Zannel syndicates content. For instance, one blogger was riding in an elevator with Howard Dean, the chairman of the DNC, and interviewed him on video with his phone. It was sent instantly to Zannel for people to view. That behind-the-scenes view is not presented in any other way at the convention besides via Zannel (http://www.zannel.com/viewupdate.htm?id=BELCC64PP). In addition, the news that bloggers were using Zannel on the floor also became a news story on CNN (http://www.zannel.com/viewupdate.htm?id=X0G2GU7XS6).
The bloggers who used Zannel at the DNC were able to feed their audience real-time photos and video right from the show floor. The ability to get Howard Dean on tape in the elevator with a cell phone, and feed that directly to the Zannel community, is something not even the biggest news conglomerates were able to offer their audience. In addition, those who had the opportunity to see this near live coverage through Zannel were given a direct link back to the blogger’s personal blog, driving incremental traffic back and building visibility for the bloggers themselves. The DNC example shows that Zannel enables a real-time multimedia blogging experience for readers and followers, and benefits the bloggers themselves with the ability to upload meaningful content from anywhere, deliver it to their readers instantly and simultaneously drive traffic back to their site.
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