What your business can learn from the online porn business (#mesh11)

I’m at Mesh 2011, “Canada’s Web Conference” at The Allstream Centre in Toronto on Wednesday and Thursday May 25 and 26. I’ll be posting updates periodically over the course of the conference.

Regardless of how you feel about porn, the industry has long been at the leading edge of the technology curve. It was one of the first to ummm… embrace the VCR, it was one of the first to extensively use digital media.

Online porn pioneer Pink Visual’s Allison Vivas says, “most of us are looking at code and statistics and financial performance, not looking at the content.”

The adult industry is grappling with the impact of user generated content and piracy. Hard to convince people to pay for something they’re used to getting for free. Sound familiar? It does to every media company exec out there.

Ironically, they’re playing catchup with mainstream media when it comes to dealing with those challenges. Their main strategy — sue the infringers. Why not? That’s done wonders for the music industry.

That’s sarcasm, by the way.

But beyond that, Vivas’ company made their brand by being technologically ahead of their more powerful competitors. Now she makes sure that when new technologies come down the pipe, she’s there first. iPhone, iPad and Android mobile platforms? Vivas’ sites were ready the day they came out.

And she’s continuing to beat the big boys (business-wise that is).

The most interesting thing the industry is doing is using social media to build loyalty and community, says CIFARS’ Patchen Barrs.

The best advice around social media I ever heard was from the porn star, Stoya, says Pete Nowack, author of Sex, Bombs and Burgers. “She said if I engage with people one on one on Twitter they see me as a person and they’re less likely to steal my work,” Nowack relates.

And the industry is ahead of the curve on using free content to leverage conversions. Vivas’ company is working with one of the piracy-driven YouTube clones to distribute short versions of their scenes to drive traffic back to their sites.