The Third Place

The Third Place and the Inversion of Web Marketing Will Price CEO [email_address]

Overview

Why are social communities growing?

What is the Third Place ? And, how can it help us understand the power of community and today’s web?

What if you are the 4 th place?

Community is the Killer App

Community enablers are dominant:

“ Twitter is one of the fastest growing phenomena on the Internet.” – NYTimes

“ Facebook community hits 150m.” – The Times Online

Facebook: Up 86% y-o-y

Twitter: Up 750% y-o-y

Why?

Why are these sites growing so quickly?

Is it a technology phenomena?

What core needs are these companies addressing that help to explain their success?

Who is this guy? How can he help? Ray Oldenburg, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Sociology at the University of West Florida in Pensacola. Best known for writing The Great Good Place and for the concept of the Third Place.

The 3 rd Place 1 st Place: Home 2 nd Place: Work 3 rd Place: Informal Gathering Places Ex. Cafe, pub, etc?

Why We Need Third Places Modern life (suburbia, highways, commuting) is privatizing life – i.e. limiting communal interactions. Making it hard, expensive, irregular, and painful to gather Vibrant communities are extraordinary By nature, humans are social creatures We need the means to gather easily, inexpensively, regularly, and pleasurably The loss of Third Places leads to a sense of isolation and a cycle of home to work and back again

For Many Today: Only Two Places 1 st Place: Home 2 nd Place: Work No Third Place

Characteristics of Third Places

Free or inexpensive

Highly accessible

Proximate

Involve regulars

Welcoming and comfortable

 ” Sometimes you want to go  Where everybody knows your name,  And they're always glad you came;  You want to be where you can see,  Our troubles are all the same;  You want to be where everybody knows your name.”  

Offline Companies That Understand the 3 rd Place

Technology Foundations = of Today’s

Facebook and Twitter: Villages in a Modern World Welcoming, Accessible, Free, Regulars…

Today’s Challenge: Brands and Media Houses are at best the 4 th Place

Audiences are reaggregating in 3 rd Places

4 th Places fighting a losing battle

Users want to consume content and applications independent of the content’s source

How do content creators discover and reach their audience in the era of the 3 rd Place?

Traditional Web Marketing Drive Users to Your Content

Marketing in the Third Place Age

Drive your content to users

Content + Syndication Platform = Content on 3 rd Places

Widgets: Social Syndication

More examples

Conclusion

Social communities are here to stay

Most media companies are 4 th Places….at best

Traditional web marketing needs to be inverted

Questions

How to best drive your content to your users?

How to move the definition of success from site traffic to content consumed independent of location?

About Widgetbox

#1 Web Widget Provider

First web widget company

74m uniques (Quantcast)

130,000 widgets

700m monthly widget impressions

Funded by Sequoia Capital and Hummer Winblad

For Publishers

Widgetize content, network content for traffic and distribution, and monetize

For Advertisers

Targeted reach, engaging in-widget ad solutions, and IAB standard ad units

Thank you Will Price CEO Widgetbox [email_address]

Growth Validates Premise Year Widgetviews Uniques (Wbx data) 12/06 6,304,014 675,558 12/07 273,883,577 25,267,336 12/08 629,744,837 72,533,559 06-08 Change 99.6x 107x 07-08 Change 2.3x 2.9x