Full Disclosure Confession: I don't get the whole social networking phenomenon. Perhaps it is because I am a gentleman of a certain age. MySpace is mine and I have no real desire to share it with anyone beyond my other half... and my dog. I leave the Twittering to my parrot. I am not Facebooked as I have no overwhelming desire to make contact with my primary school cohorts. I am LinkedIn, but that's about that.
And I actually don't get it from a SEO/SEM perspective simply because there is far too much beyond my control which implicitly and necessarily implies I am a control freak. I am a control freak. And I like numbers that have relevance. Who. What. Where. When. Why.
Perhaps it is because I am a gentleman of that certain age. Perhaps it is because I cut my career teeth in marketing some two decades ago. Perhaps it is a pleasant mix of the two combined.
So why would I post about Social Networking today?
Two reasons: The first, I have found a social networking tool that provides some value. And the second is because that tool also has an inherent revenue stream associated with it and I'm a huge, huge proponent of monetizing that which we undertake to do every day.
Copyright: Jerry Maguire - TriStar Pictures 1996
Show Me The Money!
The product of which I speak is a simple two-way, Internet-connected GPS navigation system - Dash Express.
From it's own About Us...
Dash Navigation was founded by a Stanford professor stuck in Silicon Valley traffic who thought that there had to be a better way of knowing what was happening on the roads around him. Over time, we've expanded that vision to include the ability to easily search for and download information about destinations using the Internet. In that process, we've developed an architecture that fundamentally changes what you can do in your car.
Our first product, the Dash Express is the first GPS device designed from the ground up as a truly connected navigation experience. Unlike old school GPS devices, Dash isn't focused on giving you just a single route from A to B, but is instead driven to give you instant access to the most relevant information about everything in between and the best way to get there. Today that means offering you access to dynamic Web content and the most accurate and up to date traffic. Tomorrow, we believe the possibilities are endless.
In short, Dash Express is not only a GPS system, but based on the network of other systems (drivers) around it employing the same device, is capable of detailing good and bad traffic routes with the (hoped for) response of less time stuck in traffic and more drivetime.
Moreover, it's search system can tell you not only where the nearest gas stations are in the vicinity but orders them so that the lowest price is listed first.
Cool. Very cool.
And in true social networking style, it is dependent on scaling the masses to work at peak efficiency.
Smart. And there's a whole, real live business case attached to the proposition.
I'm seriously all atwitter.
Have a good one.
~The (SEP) Guy