HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - "Web 2.0" is a blanket term for new technologies that support a classic vision: making it easy to interact with people, content and companies online.
Chris Potoski and Jason Tucker of No Rivals Media explained Web 2.0 with no extra hype around the buzzword and spent two hours giving information about the benefits, challenges and applications of interactive technologies for adult businesses.
Personalize Me
"It's kind of terrifying, as we like to control our environments and how they're used," Potoski said. "But we have to allow the user to control the experience."
When users can arrange their own photo galleries and create video montages from your content and share the results with other users, who then rate the results, it helps retain members and give valuable insight into what your customers want and will continue to pay for, the panelists said.
"If a user-generated gallery gets a lot of hits, now you know you have a nice thumbnail gallery template you can pull out and use in other parts of the site," Tucker said.
The panelists recommended talking with your attorneys before stepping into user-generated content, since legal issues around copyrights and 2257 can stop you before you've even begun.
Set Content Free
Tucker advised content producers to allow some content to "escape" the site and be used in other ways. Provide some video clips for iPods and iPhones, provide free images for members to send to friends, and highlight user-generated content on the tour page, he said. Doing so channels traffic and gives members reasons to stay - or come back after they cancel, Tucker said.
He also reminded attendees to watermark their content; for material that stays on the site, he recommended a subtle watermark that won't annoy paid members.
Relationships Are Key
The latest Web technologies are all about relationships, and the customers of the future have grown up expecting interactivity, connection and customization wherever they go. Look to social-networking and adult-dating sites for examples of what users expect, the panelists said.
"It's time to get out of bed and go back to work," Tucker said.
Both panelists stressed the value of setting users free to do what they want - and then watching and responding to the results. They said it's key to notice what users gravitate toward when they arrive, then figure out whether it's because of the content or its positioning on the page.
Note what content users share with each other and what site areas users ignore, the panelists advised. Often, they said, members are delighted to be invited to critique new site developments in exchange for a few months of free membership. Tucker said he invites small groups by personal e-mail and receives thoughtful, detailed reviews from almost everyone he contacts.
User expectations are changing, the panelists said, and all you have to do is look at how today's 16- and 17-year-olds integrate technology into their lives to see how tomorrow's porn consumer will react to flat photo and video galleries.
"The porn surfer of tomorrow is going to school, texting like mad, chatting like mad, creating profiles all over the place, sharing information, music, news, sports - and they move together as a community," Tucker said. "When they become adult surfers wanting adult content, they are going to expect the same kind of functionality to be there for them. Otherwise, you're too damn boring."
