Okay, I’m not suggesting that the buffet of free online services is going to disappear any time soon but there’s no doubt that being able charge people to use a service is becoming more of a necessary strategic issue for many companies.

Even Google – the King of Free – is starting to encourage people to pay $50 for Google Apps as opposed to two years ago when it declared the product was totally free.

Have the chickens finally home to roost? Has the Web 2.0 ecosystem finally realized that giving away your product for nothing makes little or no sense? It may have not come to that just yet but revenue – now know as the “R” word – is moving into the spotlight.

And we’re not talking about “freemium”; we’re talking about charging a price to use a service that’s useful.

2009 could go down as the year the Web got real when it came to embracing business models based in economic reality.

Technorati Tags: google, web 2.0

Chris Brogan recently wrote a post on whether social media could save a small business.

It was a post that rattled around in my head until earlier this week when I went to a small restaurant near my house called Vinny’s Panini. Vinny is a nice guy who probably makes the best – and biggest – veal sandwiches in Toronto. He’s a classic entrepreneur who works hard, knows his customer by their first names, and serves up great food.

That said, Vinny told me recently that business is soft. It could be the economy, it could be that the two nearby grocery stores are selling more prepared foods, or it could be that not enough people know about Vinny’s.

It got me thinking if there was some way I could help Vinny using social media. Given I just launched a consulting firm with social media as a pillar, giving Vinny a hand would be a good thing to do and be a social media experiment.

So, that’s what I’m going to do.

The first challenge is Vinny doesn’t have a Web site. If you do a Google search, there are lots of places that talk about Vinny’s but in an ideal world, Vinny’s own Web site would appear at the top of the list. It wouldn’t have to feature a lot of bells and whistles – just the menu, address and hours that it’s open.

So, job one is create a Web site for Vinny, probably using WordPress or Googles Sites. (Note: If you’re a Web site developer and a veal sandwich fan, feel free to chip in!)

After that, I’m going to go into my social media toolbox to see what else I can do to give Vinny’s an online jump-start.

If anything, this is going to be an interesting social media exercise. If it works, maybe Vinny will comp me a sandwich!

Technorati Tags: vinny’s panini, social media

Deloitte unveiled its technology, media and telecom predictions for 2009, and something that jumped out was how enterprise social networks (aka Facebook for the Fortune 500) are going to see more traction.

It’s an interesting proposition given how enthusiastically people have embraced social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, et al. The question is whether social networks have a place within the enterprise and whether they will have anywhere near the same kind of impact.

Deloitte is clearly bullish on the idea, suggesting that:

“Enterprises and governments are looking for cost-effective ways to distribute information throughout their networks. In 2009, this is likely to include more spending on internal social networks and the tools required to build and enable them. With the world’s highest penetration of consumer Facebook users, Canada is poised to be a global leader in transitioning this technology to the enterprise. Although social networks don’t cost much to deploy, the challenge is likely to be in measuring their return on investment.”

My take is Deloitte is being overly-optimistic. When it comes to adopting the “social” elements of the Web, the vast majority of companies are cautious and, frankly, scared to make a mistake. It has taken them years, for example, to climb on the blog bandwagon even though it’s a natural communications, marketing and sales tools.

So the idea that companies are going to enthusiastically embrace social networks is difficult to swallow.

This isn’t to suggest social networks don’t have a place within companies as valuable tools to collaborate, share information and network. But I think it requires a huge leap of faith for a CTO or CIO to implement social networks when other parts of the organization are conservatively approaching “low-hanging fruit” such as blogs.

Technorati Tags: facebook, deloitte, social networks

With the economic sputtering and everyone engaged in belt-tightening, it’s interesting to see a growing number of online giants start to purge their services portfolio.

Google kicked things off by turfing Dodgeball, Google Notes and Jaiku, while Lycos has announced it will close Tripod and Lycos Mail as it moves to “discontinue all unprofitable services”.

This is just the tip of the iceberg as economic pragmatism takes root within the Web 2.0 world. Services that aren’t showing enough growth or/or generating sufficient revenue and profits are going to be closely scrutinized rather than being allowed to stay on life support.

You can call it a purge or house-cleaning but it’s healthy move that will reduce some of the noise, provide surviving players with some much-needed room, and, hopefully, inspire of the employees being let go to reload and start their own start-ups.

It will be interesting to see what News Corp., Yahoo and AOL do over the coming months given their extensive online portfolios. Yahoo, in particular, could do some serious reloading by selling asset it sees as non-core (e.g. del.icio.us) and closing down units that are struggling to survive.

TechCrunch has more details on the Lycos decision.

Technorati Tags: lycos, tripod

A tool that’s all the rage these days within the social networking world is the friend recommendation widget.

Be it Facebook, LinkedIn and, most recently, Twitter, friend recommendation engines are front as centre as social networks try to get people entrenched by encouraging people to build larger personal networks. I guess the idea is the bigger network of friends you have on a particular service, the more useful it becomes and, as important, the more difficult it becomes to leave.

In theory, it’s a great concept. People who use these services get to expand their networks easier and quicker, while service providers get happier and more loyal customers.

The problem, unfortunately, is it’s becoming too easy to expand your network.

With friend recommendation engines becoming ubiquitous, expanding your network requires little work. It’s encouraged people to expand their networks with people with whom they have no or little connection.

As result, we’re in the midst of a friend tsunami. Many people who have been on social networks for awhile can probably attest to the fact they’re getting new friends and followers at a furious rate.

Case in point: While I love Twitter and the fact people find my messages useful, interesting and/or valuable, the number of people following me as taken a curious surge in recent weeks. What’s particularly interesting is they’re coming from around the world and from different sectors.

It’s a nice phenomena but I’m guess that it’s the power of Mr. Tweet’s recommendation engine rather than my Twitter appeal.

It’s not that I’m adverse to having lots of friends, it’s that the high number of new ones recently has is puzzling as much as it’s flattering.

Technorati Tags: facebook, linkedin, twitter

One lesson that I’ve learned from my brief, but exciting, career as a consultant is working from home is a myth.

Sure, there are times when can throw on some sweats and work from the comfort of your home office. But what I’ve discovered so far is that consulting involves a lot of face-to-face meetings. After all, if someone’s going to give you some business, it’s a good idea to get together to discuss what’s involved.

As a result, I’m out of the house on a regular basis, often doing several meetings a day. As a road warrior (actually, a public transportation warrior until it gets warm enough to ride my bike again), I find myself working everywhere and anywhere.

What’s become readily apparent is one of the best places to work is Starbucks. With stores pretty much everywhere and two hours of free Wi-Fi a day – provided you buy a Starbucks card – it has become the place to do some writing and check e-mail between meetings. It’s a comfortable atmosphere where you can work for an hour or so in relative calm.

Of course, my coffee consumption has probably climbed as a result but it’s a small price to pay when you’re on the road and looking for a place to temporarily hang your shingle.

Technorati Tags: mark evans, me consulting, starbucks