By James Wanless
President & COO of Talkster

A lot is being written on the implications for advertising and marketing within the context of social media. I read an article written by Joe Marchese of socialvibe. We both share the view that social media can be leveraged for targeted advertising, but there is a difference between knowing something about you, the owner of the profile, and the people who visit your profile. I would say that this distinction goes further. The knowledge of you and what marketers should target to you is not only a function of your profile but of your entire social graph which includes your relationship to your friends.

In this example, knowing that Joe and his girlfriend are getting married, visitors to her profile should get wedding gift ads. This can be further refined based if something is known about the visitor to the page.

In short, this highlights not only how to use information in the individual but the combination of knowledge about two individuals and their relative positions in each others’ social graphs. Take it a step further. Knowing that other friends on the same proximity on the social graph had already clicked through on certain gift related ads, this could also be relevant to visitors to her profile.

The most complex part of the equation for marketers is how to use this information judiciously. If you know just enough, then the ads become relevant and of interest. If you know too much then they become “scarily relevant” and will turn your targeted consumer against you as they perceive that you are invading their privacy. A whole new industry will evolve around marketers looking to strategically use this wealth of information that previously they could only have dreamed about. Done right, it will positively change the face of marketing forever. Let’s hope that a few don’t abuse the privilege of accessing the information and negatively skew public perception.

By James Wanless
President & COO of Talkster

There is a paradigm shift happening in communications. The silos of old are crumbling and the way we communicate is forever going to be changed. The changes in communication that are coming is nothing short of revolutionary.

It was roughly a decade ago that people started using email, but now email has become ubiquitous and, for a great many, the primary form of communication. But since mass adoption of email began in the 1990s, a large number of new and different communications technology and habits has emerged. Today we email, text message, Facebook, tweet and still make phone calls but increasingly on VoIP phones running over Wi-Fi networks.

The evolution in communications is clear, but where is this revolution you may ask? Adding more and more little bits of communication on top of old methods is hardly revolutionary.

The revolution I speak of was incited by social networking. When I say social networking, you probably think MySpace and Facebook. These sites with their huge member lists are just the beginning. While social networking habits are engrained in teenagers using MySpace, the lure of social networking is attracting members far younger. Children as young as three are connecting with friends they know and are meeting new friends on social network sites made just for them. Sites like Club Penguin, ToonTown, Webkinz and My Scene are experiencing explosive popularity. Children I know will rush home from school to invite their classmates into their Club Penguin igloo instead of playing with these same friends on the playground. Too young for email, text messages and even phones, social networking is becoming part of their everyday communications, a habit they will carry with them as they go through school and into the workplace.

Today, the majority of us over 30 have two primary contact points. Our email address and our (mobile) phone number. I am not talking about the tech savvy early adopters, who are constantly IM’ing, twittering or “pinging,” but rather the masses. If someone absolutely has to communicate with us, these are the two places that they will try first.

Increasingly thirty-somethings are becoming less and less reliant on email as a standalone silo of communication and more and more, they are choosing to center their primary communications on their Facebook account and their mobile phone. When they are at their PC, Facebook messaging is the way they exchange messages. It used to be IM. Remember that ever present MSN sound you would hear each time a new message arrived? I would go crazy as my kids would have 20 simultaneous conversations and I would hear that sound every five seconds for hours at a time each evening. That sound is fading into memory. Hotmail and Gmail open on the desktop? No. More than likely it’s the Facebook home page.

With the major social networking players, including not only Facebook and MySpace, but also LinkedIn, Plaxo Pulse, Ning and others, each counting their members in the tens of millions, it’s surprising they haven’t caught on to their role as the central hub for all communications. The capabilities of the social network communications infrastructure remain rudimentary. There are many pieces of the puzzle that are still missing.

Realizing that instant access to information about one’s social network comes with desire for real time communication with the people in that network, some of these social networks are starting to roll out instant messaging. Some are doing a better job than others. Those I’ve seen follow a pattern of enabling communications as an application layered on top of the social network platform. I don’t think a standalone IM client like the MySpace/Skype messenger is the answer. Something that integrates with the core communications experience is.

This need is even more apparent when you extend social network communications to mobile devices. Until our university students and teenagers become the next league of desk jockeys, they still spend the majority of their time away from a PC. But they are never without their mobile phones. Despite the fact that more people are electing to use their mobile phone as their only phone service, the mobile landscape hasn’t changed that much. While some phones have the ability to surf the Net, IM and record video, the mobile phone experience is still centered on SMS and phone calls.

Most of these kids can’t afford to spend a lot, so they are economical with their mobile usage. Ad supported communications will change this reality as the mobile experience is subsidized with interactive advertising. This shift is the blue ocean for social networks and will be the focus of attention so that the core communications experience follows the user wherever they are. Social network-based communication needs to be usable wherever these kids are; getting an alert about a new communication and then having a limited ability to engage in the conversation is frustrating.

When you look at Facebook and the number of users with the mobile application installed (the application that allows Facebook users access via a browser page on their mobile devices) compared to the overall user base, mobile social networking is still in its infancy: only three million installs of the mobile application versus 70+ million users of Facebook overall (this number does not include BlackBerry users who had the application pushed out to their device automatically). There are no stats on how much either is actually used on a regular basis, but it is surely pretty small given the limited usability of these applications and, most importantly, the real time interaction that is missing. Real time is where it’s at.

Let’s take a leaf out of the RIM book of wisdom. Look at how addictive the real time push of email has become for business users. That instantaneous “call to action” that makes the BlackBerry addictive is the same as SMS. Facebook SMS alerts are simple and immediate. Instant messaging is similar but mobile IM, while popular, is still far away from the usage we see with SMS.

Once social networks can realize the value to their users of building consolidated, real time communications into their core platform, we will notice a sea change in communications on par with the invention of the telephone. Does that sound like hyperbole? Think about it for a moment. The phone was the first mass real time communications tool and its adoption was fast and widespread. Integrating real time text, voice and even video communications into a core social network platform will tear down the silos that are keeping each communications service separate and distinct. Once consolidated, the social network becomes the key to all our interpersonal communications, and we can access it as fully on the PC as we can on the mobile, making communications possible from any device we own.

Because communications are both multi-faceted and siloed, we are forced to maintain numerous accounts: email, phone, instant messaging, twitter, etc. Why should I have to maintain contacts in Outlook, my online email account and my mobile device? Why do my voicemails end up in three different places, my home, my office and my mobile phone? It’s all about the multiple contact points and not knowing how to consolidate these.

To be clear, I am not talking about “unified messaging” which is a top down approach (think of the bushy end of the tree). I am thinking about a single point of entry where everyone gets to reach me wherever I decide that they should reach me. I have friends and a whole lot of information about them. I don’t need a separate contact list also, or many separate contact lists. I have categories for my friends. Some of them are acquaintances on a “limited profile.” I want to use these same techniques to determine who reaches me where and when. When I want to call someone, let me click their picture and based on their preferences and our relationship, point me to the right place to reach them whether it be by voice or text (or even video).

Let’s not forget one other very important piece. With communications centralized through a social network, the social network can derive revenue streams from something as commonplace as a phone call. In fact, given the types of usage these networks see every day, the social networks are forsaking $millions in lost revenue every day because they haven’t integrating communications into their core platform and are not taking advantage of the revolution they themselves started!

It’s time to make change happen. The social networks are battling not just for market leadership, but to become the centre of our personal universes. It’s not a guarantee that the most popular networks today will be the winners of tomorrow. What could be more compelling than offering people a central hub through which all communications takes place? I predict that the first company that embeds the type of communication platform I’ve described above into their core offering will be a clear market winner.

By Maria Puccio
Marketing Manager at Talkster

It’s Valentine’s Day, a time when everyone’s thoughts turn to love, relationships, flowers and in my case – chocolate!

But here at Talkster, since communications are what we do, and most of our time is spent assuring that people can communicate easily and seamlessly, Valentine’s Day makes us reflect on our users (I like to call them “talksters”) and how they keep up with loved ones who are far away.

We’ve had lots of people write us to say that Talkster has helped them stay in touch with a long-distance loved one – be it a boyfriend, girlfriend, parent or sibling – by giving them the opportunity to call more often and feel closer to that person. We are always pleased to get those comments and notes because it shows us that people are using Talkster and liking it.

Patrick wrote to tell us that after having lived in Berlin for a over a year, he made lots of friends there, and now uses Talkster all the time to stay in touch now that he’s back in Australia.

But one of my favorite notes is from Catherine, who writes:

“I found this on Facebook, and honestly thought this was too good to be true… that there had to be some catch.

I looked into it as much as possible, read up on some reviews, and realized this might just be legit.

So someone extremely special to me lives in London, while I’m in the US. I haven’t heard his voice in over 3 months, and can’t see him for another 5. I prayed that this would work, because it would truly be a dream.

So I dialed, got the number to call….the phone is ringing…and he answers. My heart skipped a beat. We were able to talk for multiple hours.

I love this service, and thank you so much. You offer a truly amazing service that has given me the best Christmas present I could ever ask for. I got to hear the voice of the one I love again, thanks to Talkster.”

Since so many talksters are in long distance relationships, I was curious to know more about long distance relationships and communication. I did a bit of research to see what the experts say.

According to relationship expert Dr. Laura Berman, in her article, “Long-distance love: How to make it fly”, communication is essential.

Dr. Berman outlines how one of the problems long distance relationships face is not knowing where the person on the other end is, not being able to reach them and then worrying about what they’re up to. Dr. Berman’s solution to this is to always agree on a time when you are going to call each other.

“When your partner is miles away, it is easy to jump to conclusions when he doesn’t answer his phone….Even after you find out the truth (he was taking a nap and didn’t hear his phone), the stress and anxiety you created during those incommunicado hours have already taken their toll,” Berman says. “To avoid this problem in the future, agree on a time when you and your partner will call each other, no matter what comes up. Pick a time that is convenient for both of you, whether it is first thing in the morning or on your respective lunch breaks. Keep your phone date at all times, and if you must break it, be sure your partner knows ahead of time.”

Another problem Dr. Berman addresses that can arise in long distance relationships is loneliness. Dr. Berman’s solution is to “stay connected”. One way to do this is to find “a free online telephone service that lets you call land lines and cell phones all over the world”, Berman says.

And if you’re not in a relationship, Valentine’s Day is a great time to get in touch with friends or family and remind them that they’re important to you too. May from Toronto is planning a big Talkster conference call, where she can speak to family members in Vancouver, Hong Kong and mainland China all at once. Now that’s pretty sweet!

Wherever you are, and whomever you’re calling, Talkster wishes you a Happy Valentine’s Day! Stay in touch!

By James Wanless
COO of Talkster

An interesting post this week from our friend Luca Filigheddu comparing Talkster to a number of other (VoIP) services prompted me to put on my blogging hat. The services Luca compared were categorized as VoIP services but to a user of these services it’s not VoIP that makes it as interesting, rather it’s the cheap price.

Luca wrote a very good subjective piece that leads into a broader discussion about the cost of a call and the attempts to make it ever cheaper.

I have often heard it said that quality counts and at a certain point, trying to shave off a cent here and there on the cost of the call substantially reduces the quality. If you can’t shave the cost then how does a business create margin? If they give away calls between their users (calls that costs one of these businesses money) how do they in the long term make any money? We can all wait for the Skype/eBay acquisition fairy to come and visit us one night, but let’s face it, that’s not likely to happen.

In our experience (even long before starting Talkster) there’s nothing like free to acquire customers. Don’t get me wrong; you still have to give an acceptable level of quality, but free definitely “sells.” But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if something is free if its quality is sketchy.

Also, adding value (e.g. convenience, new features) to the call allows a voice service to differentiate its “free” service over the next company’s “more free” offer. Talkster has some things up our sleeve in this regard as well, but I am going to save that for another day.

I’ve written it many times here and discussed at length in interviews and at industry speaking opportunities - - Someone has to pay for free calls. Talkster believes that when we balance the issues of credit control (especially outside North America) with the minimal margins that cheap calls generate, our ad-supported model is the way forward for consumers. Advertisers pay for calls on the Talkster service. Because they pay for the call, we can ensure we are delivering the quality people expect when they place calls.

JaJah made an announcement about an ad-supported beta offering well after we launched our service at the CTIA show, and it certainly seems to be a bandwagon that a number of other companies are jumping on.

Advertising seems like an easy play but recognize that beyond the technical issues there are some fundamentals that need consideration. For example, advertising becomes annoying if it’s not relevant. Do I really want to listen to a commercial for discount car insurance for seniors if I am a 20 year old university student with nothing but a public transit pass? The answer is no.

If it’s targeted and relevant an ad becomes an offer. When an ad is regarded as an offer by the consumer on the receiving end, they no longer view it as obnoxious and are more likely to engage with it.

Equally, the advertisers need to reach the right audience in order to increase brand awareness, inquiries and ultimately sales of their products or services. Beyond targeting, to maximize the effectiveness of a campaign there can be “calls to action” within the advertising channel that allow callers to interact with an ad and bring immediacy to an offer.

At Talkster, our team has individuals with more than 30 years (yes, some of us – not me — are that old) of direct marketing experience and know how to make this work. Being able to effectively communicate the offer and deliver the mechanism to close the sale is at the core of what we have developed for advertisers.

For now we are satisfied to be recognized in the same pool as a number of VoIP players. But in the near future, we will be viewed in another light as we build on our Ad Supported Communications Platform and extend our reputation as more than just another cheap or free phone call.

It’s that time of year again where if you (like me and many others I know) have family spread around the globe you figure out how you can possibly get everyone together in one place at one time or else you spend the whole holiday season driving and flying from place to place to see them all. For the record, when I have grandchildren, I expect everyone to travel to me!

Joking aside, it’s tough to get one’s entire family in one place to catch-up on all that happens while we are apart. It doesn’t matter which time of the year it is, the family news gets passed from one person to another in a series of one-on-one conversations as the phone is passed around from person to person. This year will be different though. The Talkster family is very proud to play a part in connecting families this holiday season with our “Talkster Free World Dialing” service we launched this past October. With Talkster’s Free World Dialing friends and families can set up group calls with up to five other people from around the world.

It’s really easy to use and best of all the calls are free! All you do is go to the Talkster site from your PC or mobile phone, enter the names and numbers of the people that you want in the group call and each of them is assigned a local number to call to join the conversation.

When we built Talkster’s Free World Dialing we knew it had to be easy to use, even for people who don’t have a computer. This means when it’s time to make our family group conference call, I don’t have to rely on my old Uncle to remember what time the family call is going to start. All I do is dial the local number, record a short message telling my family to all to get on the line so we can chat and Talkster does the rest. Each of my family members gets a call from Talkster where they hear my short recorded message. They hang up the phone and dial in to their local Talkster number. Once they have connected, we are joined together. We all listen to a 10-second targeted audio ad that fully subsidizes the cost of our call, and then we can talk as long as we want.

It doesn’t matter if all of my family members don’t all call into our group call at exactly the same moment. They can join at any time the call is in progress. We can talk for as long as we like and people can come and go as they please.

This year there’s less traveling needed yet my family and yours can still share their news and good wishes together. I know nothing is as nice as being there, sitting around the table together with loved ones; but Talkster is a good alternative to keep families connected when you can’t all be in the same place at the same time.

Happy Holidays to you and yours from all of us in the Talkster family.

By James Wanless
COO of Talkster

Yes, I did write higher costs. While everyone was basking in the sunshine feeling happy about the EU’s recently enacted mandates to lower roaming charges that would let European vacationers call home from the beach in Spain for 49 Euro Cents and receive calls for 24 cents or less, there is one little detail that has been missed: for many operators the cost of a call within the country you are roaming has actually gone up! I have posted on this topic before, and this result is not entirely what I expected.

The EU mandate was to lower the cost of calling home and receiving calls while roaming. But the EU regulation left open a very large door into which many mobile operators have stepped – in country call rates. The unfortunate thing for people traveling in Europe is that your operator is not inclined to share these new rates with you. So in order to find the truth, I did some grassroots research on my own.

I did some digging with Belgian and UK Operators and here is what I found. With the Belgian Operator BASE, when you are roaming in the UK and want to make a call home to Belgium the old price of about 1 Euro has been changed to 49 cents. That’s great. But now, should you want to make a call in the UK (for example call a restaurant, hotel, local office, customers, etc .etc.) it used to cost you 28 cents a minute. But with the new EU roaming mandate, the cost is now 49 cents a minute – nearly double!

The other big money spinner is the cost of sending an SMS. 54 cents to send an SMS is a HUGE mark-up over the wholesale costs. And if you want to use the mobile internet or get your email? Euro 5.50 per megabyte.

There was a lot of talk about where the operators were going to make up the lost revenue from their roaming cash cow. I think that I have discovered some of them.

Here is a useful link to the official EU roaming site with further links to the individual operators (often outdated) sites on individual roaming costs http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/roaming/implementation/benchmark/index_en.htm

Talkster of course has been working to help people using mobile phones to keep their roaming and long distance costs in check. We are on the cusp of unveiling our new service that will mitigate a lot of these roaming costs. Stay tuned for our announcement this Fall when we take the wrapper off our new service. We now know that roaming Europeans will LOVE it!

By James Wanless
President and COO of Talkster

For a long time business users who travel frequently have been enduring the price of high roaming charges. A recent vote by the European parliament could finally mean this inflated pricing will come to an end. This week the parliament decided on roaming caps for both wholesale rates between operators (what the mobile carriers can charge each other for users who roam onto their networks) and retail caps (what those carriers can charge to their end customers).

The maximum wholesale rate will be €0.30 (approx $0.41). This rate will drop by 2 cents per year for 3 years.

The maximum retail rate will be €0.49 ($0.66) for calls made and €0.24 ($0.33) for calls received. These caps will fall too. Calls made will fall by 3 cents per year and incoming calls will fall by 2 cents after the first year and 3 cents after the second year.

To add a little intrigue to the whole process, consumers will not be automatically opted-in for these new rates for the first 3-months. After that 3-month period, they will automatically be switched over to the new tariffs whether they request it or not.

This makes absolutely no sense. Why would someone NOT want cheaper rates for the same phone calls? It seems that politics and lobbying play a role in all of these decisions.

For the operators it means that the all important summer holiday season in Europe will still offer one last chance to cream some profit before the caps come into effect.

Note that this vote is not yet legislation but it will be put in front of the EU parliament later this month for final approval and is expected to pass. Even after it passes, it will not likely be implemented until the end of the summer and even then there will be 3 more months before everyone gets the lower rates.

Seems clear? Not really. Tariffs will still exist where there will be a difference in the cost of calls made to various destinations. For example, if I am a UK user roaming in Spain, and I call back to the UK, will the cost be the same as if I make a call in Spain? The intention was that the cost of the call in Spain (the roaming country) would be cheaper than the cost of the call home. Unfortunately, we will have to wait to see the actual tariffs. I will be reporting back on that one when the operators have had a chance to craft their new plans based on these imposed caps.

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By James Wanless
President and COO of Talkster

Roaming rates are on their way down as I have posted before.

Today these efforts got a boost from the UK House of Lords. It seems like wholesale roaming rates between operators will be capped at 30 Euro cents. A retail price cap was not proposed at this time but it is obvious that this is (to use the British Navy term) a shot across the bows of the mobile operators. In other words - - Bring retail pricing into line, or else.

Jo Best at Silicon.com summed it up, well, Best!

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There was news from E-Tel this week from SIPPHONE and the Gizmo Project announcing that together they now make it possible to place a call from the Gizmo client on a PC to other PC-based Instant Messenger clients such as MSN, Google Talk and Yahoo. The announcement garnered coverage and comments from folks like Om, Rich and Tom.

Federating is where 2 or more networks make an agreement to allow users from one network to communicate with another. This is what Google has pioneered through the use of open standards and to a lesser extent what AOL and MSN did by creating a bridge between their closed networks. Federation between the major players like Yahoo and AOL for text instant messaging has been a slow process with no immediate prospect of inter-network voice connectivity. Without federation these VoIP (and VoIM) islands are getting bigger and yet no closer. Gizmo has taken a good step forward in bridging these islands from the desktop, similar to what Talkster is doing from the mobile phone, as we announced back in October of last year.

While Gizmo enables Gizmo users to call from the Gizmo client on a PC, Talkster has taken this capability and extended it out to the mobile handset in support of our belief that users should not have to be sitting in front of their computer to make VoIM calls. So for the last 6-months, Talkster users with an ordinary mobile phone (no PC or broadband required), have been able to call their Google Talk, Gizmo and MSN buddies from anywhere.

We at Talkster are acutely aware of this concept of communication islands. During our current beta phase we have shown our capability to connect to public voice over instant messenger networks. Much of this work involved codec transcoding and signalling. As we move forward to our end goal of a complete communications solution for the Enterprise, the VoIM "island mentality" becomes less significant. Connectivity to public IM networks will always play a role, but to us they serve as a proxy for how Enterprise users communicate. In the Enterprise world, standards based instant messaging (XMPP) and voice (SIP based IP PBX) communications are controlled through policy. The use of open standards removes the need for technical trickery and places the focus more on the appropriate permissions to allow communications between different networks.

These permissions exist on two levels. The first is within an organization and determines who is able to see the presence of whom and therefore, is able to place calls through the VOIP network. The second is peering. Will company “A” allow VOIP calls and IM traffic to flow directly to company “B” and vice versa? The management of policies to determine such permissions and the tools necessary to implement them are areas that consume Talkster’s focus.

The bottom line is that open standards are absolutely the way forward, and we applaud the Gizmo Projects’ success in adding the Yahoo component to its PC-based service. It’s been well proven with the PSTN and email paradigm. Let’s hope that island mentality doesn’t stifle the future of open communications.

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