ARTICLE FROM MARKETINGPROFS
With all of the discussion about social media, blogs, and communities, corporations and marketing agencies are actively putting into motion efforts at initiating and maintaining dialogue.
The ease with which corporate social media can be built may present a future nightmare for CMOs and IT departments of larger companies. Without a broad-based plan and governance policies, the following consequences could arise:
* Blogs and communities will be built based on organizational structure instead of the customer and the brand. Innovative groups in business units build communities to connect with customers. Without guidance, they build whatever suits the best interest of their product instead of the broader context. This fragments the customer relationship, customer attention... and the brand.
* Islands of communities will form. Just as many companies experienced islands of automation, the proliferation of blogs and communities created by multiple business units and employees will have different customer engagement and data collection techniques. Extracting data for useful decision support becomes cumbersome. One Fortune 500 company we interviewed had more than 75 customer databases, thus making predictive modeling an uphill battle. There is clearly an opportunity to learn from this in building communities.
* Customer confusion will abound. With different look and feel, different business unit approaches, different interaction points, and different messages customers will undoubtedly be confused. In our ADHD society, most customers will not take the time to figure it out.
* Ghost ships will appear. As corporations reorganize and employees change jobs, many blogs and communities will be abandoned as priorities shift. Valuable customers will be set adrift.
A Customer community master plan avoids pitfalls
Just as city planners utilize master plans to promote healthy growth, a "Customer Community Master Plan" enables executives to determine an overall customer interaction plan.
Based on our work with Global 1,000 clients, we have found that the following are among the elements of a strong plan:
What Is Our Community Strategy?
* Why are we building communities? What do we hope to achieve as a corporation?
o Advertising and awareness?
o New product development feedback?
o Revenue generation through extended relationships?
o Access to new markets?
* When do we want to build our own, and when do we want to leverage other communities such as Facebook, Linked-in, industry groups?
Showing posts with label SMO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SMO. Show all posts
Thursday, January 31, 2008
MediaTrust Podcast from the Red Carpet :Honoring Javier Bardem
Honoring Javier Bardem
Monday night was short and sweet on the red carpet. Although Woody Harrelson was scheduled to walk the red carpet, a miscalculation of traffic got him into Santa Barbara too late. Julie Ramos did manage to speak with honoree, Javier Bardem about his role in No Country for Old Men.
CLICK HERE FOR A HI-DEFINITION QUICKTIME VERSION
Host: Julie Ramos
Camera: Angelina Peterson
Editing: Scott Parent
Still Photography: Joseph Matheny
Sponsored By: MediaTrust
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Social Marketing in 2008: An Icarus Story?
Social networking platforms arguably beat out both search and video this year for the title of most-hyped marketing vehicle. The year was littered with major ad-related initiatives from dominant players MySpace and Facebook, mostly met with industry acclaim. Yet despite advances, most social marketing budgets going into 2008 remain small, and most campaigns small-minded.
During the year, alpha dog MySpace and Silicon Valley favorite Facebook separately introduced ad targeting based on users' profile data, marking the first major attempts by either firm to connect marketers to social network users based on volunteered interests.
In May, Facebook rocked the developer world with its open platform strategy, spawning an avalanche of branded apps and a fledgling app-based media market. Then in November it dropped another bomb in the form of two ad-driven initiatives. One of these, its Beacon behavioral tracking program, spurred a privacy outcry when users learned their sensitive transactional data could be broadcast to friends and "friends." As pressure mounted in the unlikely form of a MoveOn.org campaign, Facebook altered the program, making it opt-in.
A further social marketing trend has been the rise of so-called widget ads. Though they got their start well before this year, ad units with rich functionality and sharing functions gained momentum in 2007 with the launch of Google's gadget ads and similar offerings from EyeWonder and others.
Yet despite the palpable feeling that social networks represent -- or at least point to -- a seismic shift for marketing in general, advertisers and agencies have produced only a flurry of smash hits. Achieving mass reach for socially driven ad campaigns may simply never happen. In another strike against social marketing this year, many ads on Facebook and MySpace are highly untargeted and appeal only to the lowest common denominator.
"The majority of advertising within social networks is devoid of strategy," said Ian Schafer, CEO of Deep Focus. Schafer believes the problem is partly advertiser laziness and partly confusion about how to approach a channel that demands equal parts creative, media, and public relations savvy.
"Social media is a medium within a medium, and I don't think there's been enough cohesive thought into what a social media strategy is or should be," he said.
And budgets are still tentative. Even though MySpace's reach is now on par with the largest portals and ad networks, Jupiter Research analyst Emily Riley said social marketing campaigns generally spend under $25,000. "They're definitely still in the testing phase," she notes.
Both Riley and Chad Stoller, VP of emerging media for Organic, noted a major risk for social media heading into 2008 is the impact of clutter, including both ad clutter and app clutter. One Facebook group called simply "This has got to stop" has garnered nearly 500,000 members.
"I don't want to be a vampire. I don't want to be a pirate. Leave me alone," the group's page says. "Pointless applications are ruining Facebook."
Such an attitude could dampen the efforts of marketers who want to distribute their expensively produced branded apps to social networking users.
Privacy will also likely continue to dog future social marketing efforts.
"The biggest thing about the Beacon program is it pulled the curtain off of this thing called behavioral targeting," said Stoller. "Joe consumer has no idea about behavioral targeting...There's going to be a backlash."
During the year, alpha dog MySpace and Silicon Valley favorite Facebook separately introduced ad targeting based on users' profile data, marking the first major attempts by either firm to connect marketers to social network users based on volunteered interests.
In May, Facebook rocked the developer world with its open platform strategy, spawning an avalanche of branded apps and a fledgling app-based media market. Then in November it dropped another bomb in the form of two ad-driven initiatives. One of these, its Beacon behavioral tracking program, spurred a privacy outcry when users learned their sensitive transactional data could be broadcast to friends and "friends." As pressure mounted in the unlikely form of a MoveOn.org campaign, Facebook altered the program, making it opt-in.
A further social marketing trend has been the rise of so-called widget ads. Though they got their start well before this year, ad units with rich functionality and sharing functions gained momentum in 2007 with the launch of Google's gadget ads and similar offerings from EyeWonder and others.
Yet despite the palpable feeling that social networks represent -- or at least point to -- a seismic shift for marketing in general, advertisers and agencies have produced only a flurry of smash hits. Achieving mass reach for socially driven ad campaigns may simply never happen. In another strike against social marketing this year, many ads on Facebook and MySpace are highly untargeted and appeal only to the lowest common denominator.
"The majority of advertising within social networks is devoid of strategy," said Ian Schafer, CEO of Deep Focus. Schafer believes the problem is partly advertiser laziness and partly confusion about how to approach a channel that demands equal parts creative, media, and public relations savvy.
"Social media is a medium within a medium, and I don't think there's been enough cohesive thought into what a social media strategy is or should be," he said.
And budgets are still tentative. Even though MySpace's reach is now on par with the largest portals and ad networks, Jupiter Research analyst Emily Riley said social marketing campaigns generally spend under $25,000. "They're definitely still in the testing phase," she notes.
Both Riley and Chad Stoller, VP of emerging media for Organic, noted a major risk for social media heading into 2008 is the impact of clutter, including both ad clutter and app clutter. One Facebook group called simply "This has got to stop" has garnered nearly 500,000 members.
"I don't want to be a vampire. I don't want to be a pirate. Leave me alone," the group's page says. "Pointless applications are ruining Facebook."
Such an attitude could dampen the efforts of marketers who want to distribute their expensively produced branded apps to social networking users.
Privacy will also likely continue to dog future social marketing efforts.
"The biggest thing about the Beacon program is it pulled the curtain off of this thing called behavioral targeting," said Stoller. "Joe consumer has no idea about behavioral targeting...There's going to be a backlash."
Monday, January 28, 2008
Why Your Social Media Plan should have Success Metrics
So, you’re going to launch a social media campaign huh? You’ve got all the tools, resources, and processes together, but did you remember to set some goals?
I get to meet and talk to many companies that are adopting social media from a variety of levels of sophistication: unsure, scared, excited, embracing, overly ecstatic. One of the biggest challenges they have is forgetting to visualize what success looks like. In many cases, they are overly focused on fondling the hammer, that they forget about the overall goal.
Even if a company is doing a trial project (externally, internally, whatever) part of the expectations of the project should include a page, slide, or document that indicates what success will look like –even if they know that it may not be reached, here’s a few example to get you started:
A few examples of what success could look like for you:
We were able to learn something about customers we’ve never know before We were able to tell our story to customers and they shared it with others A blogging program where there are more customers talking back in comments than posts An online community where customers are self-supporting each other and costs are reduced We learn a lot from this experimental program, and pave the way for future projects, that could still be a success metric We gain experience with a new way of two-way communication We connect with a handful of customers like never before as they talk back and we listen We learned something from customers that we didn’t know before
As you prepare your plans (you’ve got one right?) to use social media, don’t forget to include a section on “what does success look like”, and visualize and aim for you goals. Oh, and guess what, your goals can change over time, and they should.
Experimentation with these are important, these are radically different ways for companies to communicate with customers, so be sure to indicate to your management how this is experiment, and you’ll need a bit of wiggle room and latitude for the unexpected. It’s their job to empower and trust you, knowing the risks that could happen as you learn to let go to gain more.
It’s important to setup expectations for yourself, your management, and your customers (feel free to let them know why you are doing this) in order to give yourself a purpose as you embark on connecting in new ways.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
The Problem with Podcasting Isn’t Downloads
The Problem with Podcasting Isn’t Downloads
January 10, 2008 — 11:01 AM PST — by — Share This
That Wizzard Media has hit a billion download requests in 2007 is the news on everyone’s lips these last couple of days. Indeed it is a milestone for Wizzard Media, and is probably worthy of note for those of us in the podcasting world to remember that people do indeed love to download podcasts, and that it is a sharply growing medium.
Unfortunately, the fact that people download podcasts isn’t, or at least shouldn’t be, ever in dispute. The problem that we cannot make reliable money from monetizing these downloads is the issue that keeps cropping up and preventing the rest of the world from taking it seriously. I primarily speak of audio podcasting, since thanks to the online video revolution, the video portion of podcasting has been swept up into respectability.
The last year I’ve spent in podcasting has been a cautionary tale on all the pitfalls there are in the business.
Personal Problems with Podcasting
My journey in podcasting, this time around, began with TalkShoe. My buddy and I revived our old politics and technology show, which gained traction quickly, and within a matter of months, we were accounting for around a third of all downloads to the system on TalkShoe.com. They paid respectably for a while, but ended up pulling a bait and switch on us, and wound up reducing our CPM
After a couple nasty issues of censorship of my wife’s podcast, Art and I moved on to Podango, and also struck up a partnership with RawVoice. The partnerships couldn’t have come at a better time, as Podango and the TechPodcast network both found us advertisers right as we were breaking major news on the hot story of the moment, the gPhone.
Our already high download numbers shot through the roof, blasting through the 30,000 downloads a day mark for several days.
Unfortunately, though, we found that Podango was unable to find further advertisers for our show after the contract with Overstock ended due to reorganization in their sales department, and RawVoice did not pay on the contract as agreed either. The contract with RawVoice ran twice as long as the contract Podango had arranged with Overstock, and had a slightly higher CPM, yet Todd Cochrane’s company saw fit to send us a payment for $176, whereas the check for a same pay period from Podango would have been over a thousand.
The reason cited for the discrepancy was that the statistics engine favored the advertiser, and not the podcaster.
Search for New Podcast Representation
Art and I since put our politics and tech podcast on hiatus. If we couldn’t make dime one
I set about creating some concepts for a couple of podcasts for Mashable, which frankly is the easy part. I spoke to Pete about them, and he gave them tentative approval, provided I could find sponsorship for the podcast at the onset. I gave everyone a call in the business I could think of to find a suitable sponsor.
Unfortunately, it was a pretty short list. Podango’s sales department was still in flux. Federated Media didn’t work with audio podcasts. TalkShoe’s monetization scheme was no longer suitable for podcasts that didn’t take live calls. RawVoice had shown they wouldn’t pay appropriately for downloads. I’d been signed up with PodTrac for around a year without a single advertising offer.
I gave Adam Curry’s folks over at PodShow a call, and at first they seemed fairly interested in helping us out, after I played phone tag with one of the ‘talent recruitment’ fellows for a week or two. We spoke for about 15 minutes or so, and things sounded interesting, but I’d have to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement to further talks with the company. The NDA never arrived, so after a week or so, I gave LibSyn a ring to see if they’d help us with finding some sponsors for the show.
I spoke to Jim Else, a Vice President at Wizzard Media, and described the situation to him to see if he could help us out. He at first attempted to give me a primer on the basics of podcasting as if I had no idea how the business operated. I stopped him and re-iterated that I was fairly experienced in the business, and described again that we were looking for sponsorship and advertising representation for some Mashable branded podcasts, and he told me that the business simply didn’t work like that, and I’d have to host the podcast with LibSyn for a substantial amount of time before finding any advertisers for us, and that they would more than likely be affiliate based ads as opposed to CPM ads.
You See My Dilemma
It’s clear that the world likes audio podcasts, despite the fact that the clients are often somewhat obtuse, and it isn’t the rich media technology with the lowest barrier to entry. The growth of the medium is going strong, and will probably continue to do so. The advertising world needs to catch up to this fact, and actually put some work into making money off it. I’m not the only one facing this problem, too. Of those I’m acquainted with in audio podcasting that are in it to make money, they’ve reported similar experiences.
Sure, it is exciting that another download milestone has been passed. Let’s work on getting some milestones in monetization passed, and then you’ll see me getting excited about podcasting again.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
How To: Effectively Talk to Execs and Clients about Social Media
How To: Effectively Talk to Execs and Clients about Social Media
I’ve heard a lot of people explain social media and most are doing it ineffectively.
As 2008 approaches many individuals are trying to involve social media in their plans for the coming year, in the exception of a few companies, this requires the buy-in from a person of power (and likely someone foreign to the movement) to approve. I know that many individuals within companies are running it up the flagpole, and many interactive firms, pr firms, and social media firms are gearing up for this upcoming year.
Background information
I hear a lot of pitches, and look at a lot of websites of vendors (in fact, I maintain massive lists tracking of the industry) and know what a good pitch is and what a bad one is. I also have had to lead social media within my previous company, the conservative Hitachi Data Systems. It was a good learning experience, then at PodTech (on the vendor side) I helped sales teams understand social media, and was on client calls and visits.
Know the differences between Technology, Features, Benefits, and Value
A balance is needed when introducing these concepts to new people, especially if they are foreign to them. The worse thing you could do is ramble off a bunch of technology buzz words, or on the flip side spill out marketing bull sh*t that has no structure or resemblance of sanity.
Find the right amount of balance to communicate what you’re trying to convey, without going exclusively to those edges by focusing on Benefits and Value. What are benefits? That’s the end result (nothing to do with technology) to the business or their customers. What is value? The net result to the business, subtracting the cost, incorporating opportunity cost a new program could bring to a business.
Weak: Focus on Technology
We need Web 2.0 tools like Ajaz, Blogs _____ (insert technology) to add to our website so we can socialize and aggregate. They are very popular right now.Average: Focus on Features
We can connect to customers using using blogs, social networks, and RSS
Strong: Needs Assessments with Benefits
You mentioned the need to increase focus in the SMB market, I’ve data to show that they are using social media to connect to each other directly, often without our involvement. I suggest we look at ways to be part of that dialog by using the same tools they are, would you like to hear how social media can be part of this solution and make you more effective?Stronger: Needs assessments with Value Statement
You mentioned the need to increase focus in the SMB market, I’ve data to show that they are using social media to connect to each other directly, often without our involvement. I’d like to get your opinion on a proposal to decrease our hard dollar marketing costs and increase our marketing reach/lead generation and customer retention by using social media tools to reach to new customers and embrace existing customers by creating a community.So instead of focusing on terms like “Web 2.0″ or “Ajax” focus on terms like customers, trust, community, and connections.
Look at other forces
Still have an unconvinced stakeholder? Consider showing screenshots what the customers are doing in this space, (Blogs or social networks) as well as competition. Focus on how customers have self-assembled in forums, social networks and are communicating to each other. Bring up the trust information (you’ve seen this on my decks) as a way to stimulate conversation.
The strongest force? Their kids. I’ve started a dialog with a CEO of a Fortune 5000 company by asking him how his kids communicate. He observed his kids were on IM, MySpace, watching TV, while doing homework and he wasn’t sure how they got any of them done. I asked him to look closer so we could discuss that in our next meeting. A month passed and he realized what was happening and how this next generation was going to enter the workplace, soon he adopted a few of these tools for his communication uses. This was my CEO at HDS. (careful when pulling this card, it could backfire, make sure you’ve already got a relationship of understanding with this executive before doing this)
Watch for indicators: verbal and physical
Reactions from the person you’re explaining it is key, facial expressions are usually key to this. If the conversation shifts to a tool discussion and spirals down the infinite number of risk variables you’ve headed the wrong way, quickly elevate and talk about customers. If this person asks about costs or risks, that’s a good sign but also shift back to values.
Rehearse
Rehearse having these conversations with others, if you’re on the career path I’m on, you’ll have to explain this movement to people that are not in it, or don’t get it (or worse, resist it) I’ve trained myself to have conversation with colleagues, executives, family, and my ‘good ol boy’ friends that don’t get this world at all. I’ve learned how to have an introductory conversation with them without discussing one tool or mentioning the term ‘web 2.0′. Instead, I prefer to focus on people, how they connect and how that changes things…mainly the shift in trust.
You’ll know you’re ready as you’ll be able to have a conversation about the impact of ’social media’, without ever mentioning that term.
If you’ve gotten this far, great news, as now you’re ready to deploy and tie it back to your business (watch for an upcoming post)
Friday, December 14, 2007
MediaTrust ALERT : Podcasts Bring New And Old Media Together
MediaTrust,
this is a great article written by our Scott Parent on Adotas. this is a very important read. it will explain the real value of SMO social media optimization
Was it on NBC? CBS? FOX? Or, maybe it was on Howard Stern’s radio show. Nope. It was all online through the growing reach of podcasting. That’s right - over a 10-day period and a handful of shows on the PodShow network we delivered 2.1 million impressions. Even better, we got to target our media buy to exactly the audience we wanted. No broadcast TV shots in the dark here. We knew this campaign would appeal to those familiar with the Hard Rock’s iconic brand of rock n’ roll, Hollywood, and travel. As a result PodShow helped us handpick a group of shows that hit the demographics that were most appropriate - for a fraction of what that reach would cost in traditional media.
The other thing that set this campaign apart from traditional radio and television campaigns was that we weren’t serving prepackaged 30-second spots. Let’s face it, in the era of DVRs and shortened attention spans we all usually tune that stuff out anyway. Instead, we developed a process where the hosts put their own spin on the campaign and talked freely as a host endorsement. We gave each show a set of talking points and goals and asked them to put their own unique flavor on it in a way that their audience would engage and react to. The result is the advertisement became part of their content. Hosts talked about their own memories from a trip to the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas, or about how they loved San Diego and were now planning to stay at the Hard Rock there. It made it personal and real. Additionally, the audience was incentivized by the potential of winning a trip to the Hard Rock’s grand opening. Further, bands were encouraged to submit their music with the hopes of playing with the Black Eyed Peas on opening weekend.
In the days that followed the campaign, I’ve been asked about the return on investment. How did we track the success? Since we are in the business of online marketing we live in a world of CPC, CPA, and CPM - and those sorts of metrics certainly play a large role in our industry. But, I challenge you to think outside the box a bit. Given the chance, how many of your clients would like to advertise on the NBC show “Heroes?” If cost wasn’t an issue, I bet all of them would. However, think about this - the numbers that networks use to gauge audience size are estimates taken from a small sample and are widely acknowledged as flawed. Online we’re able to deliver the power of a traditional media campaign and know exactly how many people downloaded that program.
There’s no doubt that advertising on network TV is sexy, but does it have any teeth? A significant percentage of viewers now use DVRs to skip through commercial blocks. On top of that, I would bet half the audience of a show like Heroes just doesn’t care about the Hard Rock Hotel. The problem is that you’re still paying NBC for that whole audience, whether they actually skip through your commercial, or maybe they just have no intention of flying to the newest Hard Rock property. Whatever the case, with our podcast ad buy, we integrated the pitch into the content so it was nearly impossible to skip over it. We also targeted shows that we knew the audience would have some interest in a campaign like this.
As an extra bonus, these host endorsements will live in perpetuity in these episodes as “back catalog”. Many of these shows report as much as 15% of their monthly audience come in the way of users downloading old shows after discovering the program.
In short, I believe we’re sitting on a great hybrid of old and new media. We have the rich content of television and radio married with the interaction, engagement, and tracking that the web provides us. We’re able to spend ad dollars where we know it will have an impact on brand awareness and consumer interaction.
The next time your client asks you about a unique way to approach a campaign, I challenge you to think out of the box of email marketing or Google AdWords and look to the immersive world of new media.
Friday, November 9, 2007
MediaTrust Creates Search and Social Media Optimization DivisionWeb Radio Pioneer Selected to Lead Team
NEW YORK – November 5, 2007 – Today at ad:tech 2007 (booth #830), MediaTrust, Inc. officially announced the creation of its Search and Social Media Optimization (SSMO) Division. Scott Parent, social media and technology expert, has been appointed vice president of the division.
Parent comes to MediaTrust with many years of success in audio and video production and media optimization. Parent created and popularized American Cliché, a weekly podcast that covers news outside of mainstream with a political twist. The podcast is featured on Adam Curry’s PodShow network and enjoyed a year-long run on Sirius satellite radio. In addition, Parent was a co-founder of 8BallRadio, a pioneer in the online radio movement.
Under Parent’s guidance, the SSMO Division will specialize in Social Media Optimization, Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing. The SSMO team will also offer various services to create and optimize social media including video and audio podcasts and blogs. MediaTrust’s team of SSMO experts create custom programs based on each client’s needs, and continuously monitor and optimize campaigns to ensure the highest possible returns and performance.
“Social networks, social media and search engines all provide a starting point for users to find and consume information on the Web,” said Parent. “With all the information on the Web, it is becoming increasingly important that companies use social media technologies to deliver content right to the user. By working with MediaTrust’s Search and Social Media Optimization Division, companies can access a broad range of tools that drive customers to their Web sites to engage with their brands.”
By leveraging MediaTrust’s SSMO expertise, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) became the first film festival in the world to podcast live events. Like most festivals, the SBIFF historically catered only to in-person attendees. However, with MediaTrust creating and managing all of SBIFF’s online activities including Web site, blog and audio and video podcasts -- the SBIFF was able to execute a social media campaign that broadened their audience to include any interested film fan with access to the Internet. As a result, in 2007, the SBIFF measured more than 700,000 podcast downloads.
“We needed a partner who we could trust to take the festival online with little supervision, always keeping our best interests in mind,” says Mary Lynn Harms, development manager for SBIFF. “MediaTrust’s Search and Social Media Optimization team did just that. They far exceeded our expectations.”
About MediaTrustMediaTrust (www.mediatrust.com) is an ecosystem of online media properties. MediaTrust combines innovative interactive media and advertising technology with human service and expertise. Companies that choose MediaTrust benefit from relevant and intelligent online campaigns that deliver higher ROI and greater success in acquiring customers, creating brand awareness, generating sales and driving traffic.
MediaTrust is comprised of Advaliant, a performance-based affiliate marketing network, Advario, a proprietary ad serving platform, leading-edge media technologies and the MediaTrust Integrated Solutions Group (ISG). The ISG is comprised of specialists that analyze customer needs and build custom performance-based campaigns that optimize returns for each advertiser and publisher.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
iCrossing Doubles Size With Proxicom Buy
iCrossing Doubles Size With Proxicom Buy
by Gavin O'Malley, Tuesday, Jul 31, 2007 6:00 AM ET
MORE THAN DOUBLING IN SIZE overnight, the search-centric iCrossing has acquired Web development agency Proxicom for an undisclosed sum. Growing from 200 to 550 employees, the merger is in line with iCrossing's grand designs to become a top full-service digital agency.
"If you're going to be optimizing pages, you might as well build them," reasoned iCrossing President Don Scales. The two companies had been in talks for about three months prior to Monday's announcement, he said.
Making the deal possible, iCrossing just received $62 million in funding from Goldman, Sachs and existing investors Oak Investment Partners, RRE Ventures and StarVest Partners L.P.
Proxicom gives iCrossing access to an entirely new roster of clients--as there is virtually no overlap between the two companies, according to Scales. Of particular note is Proxicom's automotive vertical, which includes Chevron and Toyota. Dupont is another key Proxicom client.
The acquisition marks one of several recent growth initiatives since the addition of Scales, former CEO of Omnicom's Agency.com.
by Gavin O'Malley, Tuesday, Jul 31, 2007 6:00 AM ET
MORE THAN DOUBLING IN SIZE overnight, the search-centric iCrossing has acquired Web development agency Proxicom for an undisclosed sum. Growing from 200 to 550 employees, the merger is in line with iCrossing's grand designs to become a top full-service digital agency.
"If you're going to be optimizing pages, you might as well build them," reasoned iCrossing President Don Scales. The two companies had been in talks for about three months prior to Monday's announcement, he said.
Making the deal possible, iCrossing just received $62 million in funding from Goldman, Sachs and existing investors Oak Investment Partners, RRE Ventures and StarVest Partners L.P.
Proxicom gives iCrossing access to an entirely new roster of clients--as there is virtually no overlap between the two companies, according to Scales. Of particular note is Proxicom's automotive vertical, which includes Chevron and Toyota. Dupont is another key Proxicom client.
The acquisition marks one of several recent growth initiatives since the addition of Scales, former CEO of Omnicom's Agency.com.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Microsoft Taps Interpublic's Reprise As Search Agency
by Tameka Kee, Monday, Jun 25, 2007 6:00 AM ET
MICROSOFT HAS TAPPED REPRISE MEDIA to manage search marketing across its product and brand portfolio, just two months after Reprise was acquired by the Interpublic Group.
Reprise will work in tandem with IPG sister agency McCann WorldGroup, Microsoft's global agency of record, to develop and execute search campaigns that are closely integrated with current online and offline marketing strategies.
"We'll be working with McCann to improve the execution of search," said Josh Stylman, managing partner, Reprise Media. "But also to ensure that it can be leveraged as the integration point between every other piece of marketing."
The firm has just begun to analyze and tweak the search efforts for both consumer and b2b products, like Office, Zune and Vista, and according to David Grubb, Microsoft's global media director, "they have had a visible impact on our efforts already, and we're just getting started."
Reprise's next steps for Microsoft include developing search efforts for public relations and contextual marketing campaigns, as well as executing strategies designed to ultimately increase search share for Windows Live.
Stylman would not comment on whether input from aQuantive (Microsoft's pending digital agency acquisition) will be a factor going forward. But the software giant currently uses aQuantive's ATLAS technology for search tracking, and there are no plans to change that.
"We knew that Microsoft was one of the biggest accounts we would be working on," said Anthony Iaffaldano, director of marketing, Reprise Media. "And we're striving to make sure that search never becomes an afterthought in their media plan."
MICROSOFT HAS TAPPED REPRISE MEDIA to manage search marketing across its product and brand portfolio, just two months after Reprise was acquired by the Interpublic Group.
Reprise will work in tandem with IPG sister agency McCann WorldGroup, Microsoft's global agency of record, to develop and execute search campaigns that are closely integrated with current online and offline marketing strategies.
"We'll be working with McCann to improve the execution of search," said Josh Stylman, managing partner, Reprise Media. "But also to ensure that it can be leveraged as the integration point between every other piece of marketing."
The firm has just begun to analyze and tweak the search efforts for both consumer and b2b products, like Office, Zune and Vista, and according to David Grubb, Microsoft's global media director, "they have had a visible impact on our efforts already, and we're just getting started."
Reprise's next steps for Microsoft include developing search efforts for public relations and contextual marketing campaigns, as well as executing strategies designed to ultimately increase search share for Windows Live.
Stylman would not comment on whether input from aQuantive (Microsoft's pending digital agency acquisition) will be a factor going forward. But the software giant currently uses aQuantive's ATLAS technology for search tracking, and there are no plans to change that.
"We knew that Microsoft was one of the biggest accounts we would be working on," said Anthony Iaffaldano, director of marketing, Reprise Media. "And we're striving to make sure that search never becomes an afterthought in their media plan."
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Search Marketers Seed Social Networks
MAY 18, 2007
Getting YouTube viewers to start searching.
Nearly half of search marketers placed content on social networking Web sites in February 2007, according to the "iProspect Search Marketer Social Networking Survey" sponsored by iProspect and conducted by JupiterResearch.
Respondents said they had "proactively placed content" on MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn and other social networking sites.
Marketers said they placed content on these sites to drive traffic, create brand awareness, sell directly and influence purchasing. Site placements were chosen to match marketing goals. For instance, MySpace and del.icio.us were used to drive traffic, while Amazon was used to sell goods directly.
Search marketers may be seeding content on social networks, but does that content generate product searches?
The common belief not so long ago was that social networking users would prefer to conduct searches from within social networking sites, rather than going to external search engines. That feeling was in part what spurred Google to commit to its $900 million deal with Fox Interactive Media last year.
Thus far, MySpace is meeting or exceeding all of the guarantees it made to Google, a MySpace spokesman told eMarketer in an interview for the Social Network Marketing: Where to Next? report. But some surveys are sending a somewhat less bullish message about the value of search advertising on social networks.
A January 2007 Jupiter/iProspect study asked whether people had used the search function on the sites: 77% of MySpace users and 78% of Facebook users had. The most common reason was to search for other people: Nearly half of Facebook users and 35% of MySpace users had done so. Entertainment was the second-most-common search topic among the choices offered, particularly for MySpace users. The percentages of respondents who used the sites to research or purchase a product or service were in the single digits.
The authors of the Jupiter/iProspect study noted, "Internet users who visit social networking sites do so for a variety of reasons (or intents) including: for entertainment, to connect or network with others, to research a product or service, to purchase a product or service, and 'other.' The vast majority does not go to these sites with the intent to research or purchase products/services."
"Social networking sites and search marketers need to understand the way people use search on social networks and make sure their expectations for ROI are in sync," says eMarketer Senior Analyst Debra Aho Williamson.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Social media only effective marketing channel if users trust: SES
Social media only effective marketing channel if users trust: SES
Reprints By Giselle Abramovich
April 13th, 2007
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW YORK – With the recent surge in popularity in social networking sites, marketers are presented with the challenge of reaching out to these communities and gaining their trust when it comes to their brands.
Panelists at the Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo’s “SMO: Social Media Optimization” session yesterday highlighted the importance of tapping into social media.
“Show the community that you are a participant,” said Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOmoz.org, Seattle. “Build traffic from alternate sources and influence traditional media.”
He also said marketers can control their brand and rule the search engine ranking pages.
“Gain link love,” Mr. Fishkin said.
Social communities view search engine optimization as spam, when in reality it helps the communities grow and spread by creating content and contributing it.
SEO must be mindful of the community and must respect the establishment, Mr. Fishkin said.
He also stressed the importance of creating a successful profile.
Neil Patel, co-founder of Advantage Consulting Services, said marketers should not self-promote, add biased information, pay for votes, break community rules or spam.
“Marketers need to add tons of friends, participate, use great titles and descriptions, become a top user and submit their content at the right time,” Mr. Patel said.
He told session attendees to “massage” their content.
Andy Hagans, strategist at Text Link Ads, uses social media to get trusted links for his clients.
“First it is important to know your client’s weaknesses and strengths,” Mr. Hagans said.
He said that titling is half the battle because most people vote or “bury” on dig, for example, without even reading the story.
“Just pretend they all have short attention spans,” Mr. Hagans joked.
Reprints By Giselle Abramovich
April 13th, 2007
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW YORK – With the recent surge in popularity in social networking sites, marketers are presented with the challenge of reaching out to these communities and gaining their trust when it comes to their brands.
Panelists at the Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo’s “SMO: Social Media Optimization” session yesterday highlighted the importance of tapping into social media.
“Show the community that you are a participant,” said Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOmoz.org, Seattle. “Build traffic from alternate sources and influence traditional media.”
He also said marketers can control their brand and rule the search engine ranking pages.
“Gain link love,” Mr. Fishkin said.
Social communities view search engine optimization as spam, when in reality it helps the communities grow and spread by creating content and contributing it.
SEO must be mindful of the community and must respect the establishment, Mr. Fishkin said.
He also stressed the importance of creating a successful profile.
Neil Patel, co-founder of Advantage Consulting Services, said marketers should not self-promote, add biased information, pay for votes, break community rules or spam.
“Marketers need to add tons of friends, participate, use great titles and descriptions, become a top user and submit their content at the right time,” Mr. Patel said.
He told session attendees to “massage” their content.
Andy Hagans, strategist at Text Link Ads, uses social media to get trusted links for his clients.
“First it is important to know your client’s weaknesses and strengths,” Mr. Hagans said.
He said that titling is half the battle because most people vote or “bury” on dig, for example, without even reading the story.
“Just pretend they all have short attention spans,” Mr. Hagans joked.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Social Media Marketing for Small Business
While some in the search marketing industry debate the linkability of even the most unsexy Web sites—and by "unsexy", they often mean "small business"—there's an important element missing from the discussion: return on investment.
The Investment: No one debates that an investment is required; viral marketing through social media demands a big chunk of your time, your money, or both. But we've already established, in What's So Different About Being Small?, that time and money are two things many small businesses have in short supply.
The Return: No one debates that there are legitimate returns from social media marketing. These returns often come in the form of a short burst of traffic and/or an increase in links. That can improve your search engine visibility, but small businesses, in particular, still have to ask: Is the return greater than the investment of time and money?
For what it's worth, I agree that nearly every business, big or small, unsexy or not, can come up with something that's unique and linkworthy—something that will play well on Digg, YouTube, or whichever social media site offers the best audience fit. I also think it's imperative that small businesses use social media marketing in order to decrease their reliance on traffic from one or two search engines; you have to diversify to survive.
With that in mind, here are seven ways small businesses can jump on the social marketing bandwagon with a moderate investment of time and/or money.
1a. Start a blog. Blogging is old news to many (Web 1.5, perhaps?), and it's certainly not as sexy as chasing a link from the front page of Digg. But it's still a great way to open up a dialogue with your customers, and that connection is the reason social marketing exists. WordPress is free, open source software—so the price is right. The time investment is completely up to you, but this truism applies: The more you put into it, the more you'll get out. Still, it's okay—and I'd even say it's recommended—to start slowly and increase your time investment as you get comfortable with using a blog.
1b. Comment on other blogs. You can't blog into a vacuum. Blogging is about creating and joining conversations, and that includes reading what others in your industry are saying and joining the discussion on other blogs. It's free, and again, the time investment is up to you. You'll be able to supply your name and URL when leaving a comment, and there's no debate that intelligent comments on other blogs helps build traffic to yours.
2. Get active at Yahoo Answers. If you're a service-based small business, you already know that your expertise is your No. 1 marketing tool. Yahoo Answers is a great way to share your knowledge with people who are looking for it—a direct connection with potential customers. I spend about 1-2 hours a week answering SEO and marketing questions there, and that small investment of time never fails to bring more traffic to my blog. Never. (It helps that I have a blog to refer people wanting more information, so don't skip #1 above.)
3. Make and share videos. Good video cameras are cheap these days, and a short video needs little editing/production. Even if you do decide to add some sizzle to a video, the required software won't break the bank. How-to videos are an obvious choice. "Tour" videos—tours of your business, restaurant, the homes you build or sell, etc. are also a good idea. In addition to using them on your own Web site or blog, YouTube is an obvious sharing destination. Local search is also embracing video: CitySearch recently announced that local video ads will be added to its listings, and YellowPages.com is also pursuing video opportunities.
4. Take and share photos. I'm a longtime believer in using Flickr as a marketing tool. The time and cost investment is minimal. And thanks to Flickr's incredibly active photo groups, you can share photos of your products with people who are interested. A pet store owner could share photos with the 2,000+ members of the pet parade group, which is one of dozens of animal-related groups. A company that makes iPod accessories could post nice product photos in the Apple group, with its ~2400 members. And a construction company that makes custom homes could post photos in the appropriate city group, like San Francisco or Chicago. For more on this, I invite you to read How to Market on Flickr on my blog.
5. Try StumbleUpon. Of all the discovery-type of social sites (Digg, Reddit, Netscape, etc.), I believe StumbleUpon requires the lowest time investment. Joining groups related to your industry and adding friends from those groups can be done quickly. Once you do that, as you add pages to StumbleUpon—including your own great content—other users will "stumble upon" what you've added. As those visitors give it the "thumbs up", your content is then shown to even more users. Unlike Digg or del.icio.us, you don't need to spend several months building up a great user profile. StumbleUpon was the No. 1 referrer to my blog in 2006, and that's without spending a lot of time working it. I should note that the main benefit of StumbleUpon will be traffic, more so than links, sales, etc. So rather than hope it becomes a direct source of revenue or higher rankings, you should hope that it increases awareness, blog readership, feed subscribers, and the like.
6. Join groups & mailing lists. Social marketing is about finding your customers where they are. There's a good chance at least some of your customers are using Yahoo Groups or Google Groups to share interests. Much like the Flickr examples above, there are probably groups/lists that are highly related to the products or services you offer. And much like the Yahoo Answers suggestion, being able to help others in this community setting can be a great marketing tool.
Every social marketing opportunity will have its own rules to follow, and you should make sure you know those rules. But here's one general rule for using these sites as marketing tools: Don't spam the system. Flickr doesn't want your entire product inventory posted, and they have rules against doing so. But a few high-quality photo submissions that add to the community are fine. Whatever social marketing you do, be an active contributor. Add to the signal, not the noise.
When you do that, you're on the road to social marketing success.
Matt McGee is the SEO Manager for Marchex, Inc., a search and media company offering search marketing services through its TrafficLeader subsidiary. The Small Is Beautiful column appears on Thursdays at Search Engine Land.
The Investment: No one debates that an investment is required; viral marketing through social media demands a big chunk of your time, your money, or both. But we've already established, in What's So Different About Being Small?, that time and money are two things many small businesses have in short supply.
The Return: No one debates that there are legitimate returns from social media marketing. These returns often come in the form of a short burst of traffic and/or an increase in links. That can improve your search engine visibility, but small businesses, in particular, still have to ask: Is the return greater than the investment of time and money?
For what it's worth, I agree that nearly every business, big or small, unsexy or not, can come up with something that's unique and linkworthy—something that will play well on Digg, YouTube, or whichever social media site offers the best audience fit. I also think it's imperative that small businesses use social media marketing in order to decrease their reliance on traffic from one or two search engines; you have to diversify to survive.
With that in mind, here are seven ways small businesses can jump on the social marketing bandwagon with a moderate investment of time and/or money.
1a. Start a blog. Blogging is old news to many (Web 1.5, perhaps?), and it's certainly not as sexy as chasing a link from the front page of Digg. But it's still a great way to open up a dialogue with your customers, and that connection is the reason social marketing exists. WordPress is free, open source software—so the price is right. The time investment is completely up to you, but this truism applies: The more you put into it, the more you'll get out. Still, it's okay—and I'd even say it's recommended—to start slowly and increase your time investment as you get comfortable with using a blog.
1b. Comment on other blogs. You can't blog into a vacuum. Blogging is about creating and joining conversations, and that includes reading what others in your industry are saying and joining the discussion on other blogs. It's free, and again, the time investment is up to you. You'll be able to supply your name and URL when leaving a comment, and there's no debate that intelligent comments on other blogs helps build traffic to yours.
2. Get active at Yahoo Answers. If you're a service-based small business, you already know that your expertise is your No. 1 marketing tool. Yahoo Answers is a great way to share your knowledge with people who are looking for it—a direct connection with potential customers. I spend about 1-2 hours a week answering SEO and marketing questions there, and that small investment of time never fails to bring more traffic to my blog. Never. (It helps that I have a blog to refer people wanting more information, so don't skip #1 above.)
3. Make and share videos. Good video cameras are cheap these days, and a short video needs little editing/production. Even if you do decide to add some sizzle to a video, the required software won't break the bank. How-to videos are an obvious choice. "Tour" videos—tours of your business, restaurant, the homes you build or sell, etc. are also a good idea. In addition to using them on your own Web site or blog, YouTube is an obvious sharing destination. Local search is also embracing video: CitySearch recently announced that local video ads will be added to its listings, and YellowPages.com is also pursuing video opportunities.
4. Take and share photos. I'm a longtime believer in using Flickr as a marketing tool. The time and cost investment is minimal. And thanks to Flickr's incredibly active photo groups, you can share photos of your products with people who are interested. A pet store owner could share photos with the 2,000+ members of the pet parade group, which is one of dozens of animal-related groups. A company that makes iPod accessories could post nice product photos in the Apple group, with its ~2400 members. And a construction company that makes custom homes could post photos in the appropriate city group, like San Francisco or Chicago. For more on this, I invite you to read How to Market on Flickr on my blog.
5. Try StumbleUpon. Of all the discovery-type of social sites (Digg, Reddit, Netscape, etc.), I believe StumbleUpon requires the lowest time investment. Joining groups related to your industry and adding friends from those groups can be done quickly. Once you do that, as you add pages to StumbleUpon—including your own great content—other users will "stumble upon" what you've added. As those visitors give it the "thumbs up", your content is then shown to even more users. Unlike Digg or del.icio.us, you don't need to spend several months building up a great user profile. StumbleUpon was the No. 1 referrer to my blog in 2006, and that's without spending a lot of time working it. I should note that the main benefit of StumbleUpon will be traffic, more so than links, sales, etc. So rather than hope it becomes a direct source of revenue or higher rankings, you should hope that it increases awareness, blog readership, feed subscribers, and the like.
6. Join groups & mailing lists. Social marketing is about finding your customers where they are. There's a good chance at least some of your customers are using Yahoo Groups or Google Groups to share interests. Much like the Flickr examples above, there are probably groups/lists that are highly related to the products or services you offer. And much like the Yahoo Answers suggestion, being able to help others in this community setting can be a great marketing tool.
Every social marketing opportunity will have its own rules to follow, and you should make sure you know those rules. But here's one general rule for using these sites as marketing tools: Don't spam the system. Flickr doesn't want your entire product inventory posted, and they have rules against doing so. But a few high-quality photo submissions that add to the community are fine. Whatever social marketing you do, be an active contributor. Add to the signal, not the noise.
When you do that, you're on the road to social marketing success.
Matt McGee is the SEO Manager for Marchex, Inc., a search and media company offering search marketing services through its TrafficLeader subsidiary. The Small Is Beautiful column appears on Thursdays at Search Engine Land.
Social Media: A Business Social Media: A Business
Marketer's Guide
Four questions a marketer should ask before determining if social media will improve performance.
To many business marketers, social media is a big question mark. Some are unsure if social media constitutes a new, largely untested advertising medium, or if it's simply a variation of traditional online advertising. Others question how a serious brand would work in the sometimes unpredictable environments of popularized consumer-oriented online communities. And some are uncertain about creating campaigns for social media, perhaps mistakenly believing that it requires a radical change from their current online advertising approach.
As a result, some marketers are not capitalizing on social media and the opportunities it provides for making high-quality connections with business consumers. Regardless, social media has a real impact on consumers' purchasing decisions. According to a recent report by market research firm Compete, Inc., more than 71 percent of consumers who use social media are more influenced by user-generated content when making purchasing decisions than by information from brand advertisers and marketers.
Join the conversation
Marketers can leverage the unique aspects of social media to achieve their goals by becoming part of the conversations taking place within online communities. This doesn't mean actively participating in the dialogue but engaging in the context of the community's interactions. At the same time, marketing messages must be highly relevant and placed so that they appear at the critical moment when community members are considering a purchase.
While some marketers have been experimenting with social media via MySpace and other online communities, business marketers are finding it more difficult to reach relevant audiences through these mass market environments. Enter professional or business-oriented communities such as ITtoolbox and LinkedIn. These communities provide marketers with the opportunity to reach consumers in the workplace as they seek experience-based peer advice to make important decisions and stay current. Users typically visit their professional community of choice several times a day to access knowledge and request feedback from other professionals. To them, the community is a utility; a desktop tool that is part of their daily workflow.
Four questions a marketer should ask before determining if social media will improve performance.
To many business marketers, social media is a big question mark. Some are unsure if social media constitutes a new, largely untested advertising medium, or if it's simply a variation of traditional online advertising. Others question how a serious brand would work in the sometimes unpredictable environments of popularized consumer-oriented online communities. And some are uncertain about creating campaigns for social media, perhaps mistakenly believing that it requires a radical change from their current online advertising approach.
As a result, some marketers are not capitalizing on social media and the opportunities it provides for making high-quality connections with business consumers. Regardless, social media has a real impact on consumers' purchasing decisions. According to a recent report by market research firm Compete, Inc., more than 71 percent of consumers who use social media are more influenced by user-generated content when making purchasing decisions than by information from brand advertisers and marketers.
Join the conversation
Marketers can leverage the unique aspects of social media to achieve their goals by becoming part of the conversations taking place within online communities. This doesn't mean actively participating in the dialogue but engaging in the context of the community's interactions. At the same time, marketing messages must be highly relevant and placed so that they appear at the critical moment when community members are considering a purchase.
While some marketers have been experimenting with social media via MySpace and other online communities, business marketers are finding it more difficult to reach relevant audiences through these mass market environments. Enter professional or business-oriented communities such as ITtoolbox and LinkedIn. These communities provide marketers with the opportunity to reach consumers in the workplace as they seek experience-based peer advice to make important decisions and stay current. Users typically visit their professional community of choice several times a day to access knowledge and request feedback from other professionals. To them, the community is a utility; a desktop tool that is part of their daily workflow.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Marketers Warm Up to Social Media
Marketers Warm Up to Social Media March 28, 2007 By Brian Morrissey
NEW YORK Advertisers are increasingly willing to try social marketing, with growing plans to tap user-generated content, blogs and social networks. Forrester Research, in a survey of over 90 marketers, found social media is gaining broader acceptance, though it still trails far behind Web mainstays like e-mails, search marketing and display ads.
Many marketers are waiting for concrete proof these channels work before diving into them, Forrester found. Of those not using social media channels, "proof of use" was the No. 1 factor that would encourage trial. "Consumers are moving so quickly into emerging media that marketers can't keep up," Forrester analyst Brian Haven concluded in the report. "We bet marketers calling for 'proof of use' really need to increase their own familiarity with the medium and its application for their customers." Despite the hesitancy from a sizeable percentage of marketers, the research firm reported a large increase in use and plans for emerging media compared to a year ago. For instance, 13 percent of respondents reported active blog programs in 2006, which rose to 34 percent this year. By the end of the year, over half of the marketers expect to have blog initiatives up and running. Social networks should see a larger jump. While just over 20 percent of marketers are using social networks now, nearly 60 plan to do so by the end of the year. In 2006, just 13 percent of respondents said they were using social networks. The user-generated story is similar. About 22 percent said they have initiatives in place, while over 65 percent plan to by the end of the year.Other emerging media tactics, like RSS and podcasts, are also expected to gain widespread adoption by the end of the year, with more than two out of three respondents planning to use them. Forrester found that not all emerging channels are catching on as quickly.Despite much hype, marketers are still wary to jump into mobile marketing and gaming. Just 13 percent reported using text messaging for marketing and 11 percent have mobile Web sites. Virtual worlds were used by just 7 percent of respondents, with about 25 percent expecting a presence in 2007.
NEW YORK Advertisers are increasingly willing to try social marketing, with growing plans to tap user-generated content, blogs and social networks. Forrester Research, in a survey of over 90 marketers, found social media is gaining broader acceptance, though it still trails far behind Web mainstays like e-mails, search marketing and display ads.
Many marketers are waiting for concrete proof these channels work before diving into them, Forrester found. Of those not using social media channels, "proof of use" was the No. 1 factor that would encourage trial. "Consumers are moving so quickly into emerging media that marketers can't keep up," Forrester analyst Brian Haven concluded in the report. "We bet marketers calling for 'proof of use' really need to increase their own familiarity with the medium and its application for their customers." Despite the hesitancy from a sizeable percentage of marketers, the research firm reported a large increase in use and plans for emerging media compared to a year ago. For instance, 13 percent of respondents reported active blog programs in 2006, which rose to 34 percent this year. By the end of the year, over half of the marketers expect to have blog initiatives up and running. Social networks should see a larger jump. While just over 20 percent of marketers are using social networks now, nearly 60 plan to do so by the end of the year. In 2006, just 13 percent of respondents said they were using social networks. The user-generated story is similar. About 22 percent said they have initiatives in place, while over 65 percent plan to by the end of the year.Other emerging media tactics, like RSS and podcasts, are also expected to gain widespread adoption by the end of the year, with more than two out of three respondents planning to use them. Forrester found that not all emerging channels are catching on as quickly.Despite much hype, marketers are still wary to jump into mobile marketing and gaming. Just 13 percent reported using text messaging for marketing and 11 percent have mobile Web sites. Virtual worlds were used by just 7 percent of respondents, with about 25 percent expecting a presence in 2007.
Monday, March 19, 2007
White Papers : Sales & MarketingMaking the Case for Social Media Strategy
BizReport : White Papers : Sales & Marketing
Making the Case for Social Media Strategy
There has been a revolutionary shift in the media world. Companies that listen directly to word-of-mouth (WOM) discussions will create compelling brands, products, and messages. This white paper will arm you with the information you need to convince your organization that they should begin to engage with consumers and provides answers to:
How widespread is the social media phenomenon? How will it evolve in the future?
How are consumers talking about brands in social media? How do these findings complement other sources of information about consumer attitudes and purchase intentions?
What new tools and techniques are there to effectively understand and measure how social media and WOM affect consumer behavior?
How are companies using social media successfully to strengthen their brands?
Click here to request your free White Paper!
Making the Case for Social Media Strategy
There has been a revolutionary shift in the media world. Companies that listen directly to word-of-mouth (WOM) discussions will create compelling brands, products, and messages. This white paper will arm you with the information you need to convince your organization that they should begin to engage with consumers and provides answers to:
How widespread is the social media phenomenon? How will it evolve in the future?
How are consumers talking about brands in social media? How do these findings complement other sources of information about consumer attitudes and purchase intentions?
What new tools and techniques are there to effectively understand and measure how social media and WOM affect consumer behavior?
How are companies using social media successfully to strengthen their brands?
Click here to request your free White Paper!
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Blog Reading
Blog Reading Is a Free-Floating AffairReaders mainly find out about blogs from other blogs. This may explain why blogs are still a blip on the screen for most marketers. Full Article
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
The Future Of Social Networks
byJoe Marchese
To answer the question "What is the future of social networks?" we first have to answer the question "What is a social network?" Brad Stone of The New York Times raises some very interesting points on both accounts in his article "Social Networking's Next Phase."
In reality, the Internet itself is THE social network, and what we call social networks today are simply a new interface for gathering and displaying social information; albeit incorporating various layers of additional functionality. These additional layers of functionality allow a critical mass of individuals to perform tasks previously reserved for those with programming capabilities. It is because of these layers that, beyond being an application for personal Web site publishing, today's social networks are also a Web- based application for networking, people searching, linking, personal content access control, content generation/personalization, and incorporation of advanced unique tools (aka wiki's). And all of these functions require very little, if any, technical expertise.
It is these additional layer of functionality, beyond static publishing of content, that defines Web 2.0 and sets today's social networks apart from yesterday's GeoCities. It is the simplicity of applying these tools that allows for a critical mass of users, combined with the utility that the application of these tools can provide, that in turn drives adoption. Without each of these components -- ease of use and utility -- provided, there would not be the critical adoption necessary to allow any of the so-called social networks to sustain a member base.
While the functionality, and therefore potential utility, of social networking applications have grown exponentially, adoption (outside of the younger demographics) and monetization has lagged. A major reason for this has been the utter lack of the ubiquity Stone's article so logically calls for. Stone makes a great comparison between today's big social networks and "walled-off destinations, similar to first-generation online services like America Online, CompuServe and Prodigy." We all know how much the Internet communities love walls.
Taking a deeper look at what makes up a social network, one will see that there are really two sides: the projection of social content (online personas), and the social home page (searching, organizing and monitoring other social content). Online personas, like our real-world personas, fall into three major categories: professional, social and family. There is an image we project to each of these major groupings and even various personas we may wish to project within each of these groupings based on the nature of specific relationships. Niche social networks are trying to address this need, in the end creating an individual social network for any and all ways we may be associated with people in real life. Imagine how this plays out; a social network for my sports groups, one for my current job, one for my alumni, one for my family, one for hobby one, another for hobby two, another for my New York friends...and on and on. I am not a fan of maintaining more than two email addresses, and I only have to check those. To maintain the integrity of a social network, the social content must not only be available -- but it must be maintained. I know that I will not be maintaining five or six different online personas.
This brings us to the other side of today's social networks: using them as a social content home page, a way to manage time and relationships as well as make new friends. This dashboard has evolved from a means to edit your own social content to an aggregator of the social content you wish to keep tabs on. When you combine aggregator functionality with the social networks' potential application for social, professional and family, it's easy to see a not too distant future where everyone has an account for online projection of self, a means by which to edit that projection and a dashboard for aggregating and organizing other social content.
Suspend all knowledge of current social networks for a minute. Now imagine what, given today's technologies, would be an ideal social network. There is no way that the first thought that comes to mind isn't more openness and interoperability. Everyone decides on the interface that he likes best, and uses that as his digital representation of self and social content home page. Users can than manage their digital representation and connections, as well as levels of access for various connections or connection types.
To answer the question "What is the future of social networks?" we first have to answer the question "What is a social network?" Brad Stone of The New York Times raises some very interesting points on both accounts in his article "Social Networking's Next Phase."
In reality, the Internet itself is THE social network, and what we call social networks today are simply a new interface for gathering and displaying social information; albeit incorporating various layers of additional functionality. These additional layers of functionality allow a critical mass of individuals to perform tasks previously reserved for those with programming capabilities. It is because of these layers that, beyond being an application for personal Web site publishing, today's social networks are also a Web- based application for networking, people searching, linking, personal content access control, content generation/personalization, and incorporation of advanced unique tools (aka wiki's). And all of these functions require very little, if any, technical expertise.
It is these additional layer of functionality, beyond static publishing of content, that defines Web 2.0 and sets today's social networks apart from yesterday's GeoCities. It is the simplicity of applying these tools that allows for a critical mass of users, combined with the utility that the application of these tools can provide, that in turn drives adoption. Without each of these components -- ease of use and utility -- provided, there would not be the critical adoption necessary to allow any of the so-called social networks to sustain a member base.
While the functionality, and therefore potential utility, of social networking applications have grown exponentially, adoption (outside of the younger demographics) and monetization has lagged. A major reason for this has been the utter lack of the ubiquity Stone's article so logically calls for. Stone makes a great comparison between today's big social networks and "walled-off destinations, similar to first-generation online services like America Online, CompuServe and Prodigy." We all know how much the Internet communities love walls.
Taking a deeper look at what makes up a social network, one will see that there are really two sides: the projection of social content (online personas), and the social home page (searching, organizing and monitoring other social content). Online personas, like our real-world personas, fall into three major categories: professional, social and family. There is an image we project to each of these major groupings and even various personas we may wish to project within each of these groupings based on the nature of specific relationships. Niche social networks are trying to address this need, in the end creating an individual social network for any and all ways we may be associated with people in real life. Imagine how this plays out; a social network for my sports groups, one for my current job, one for my alumni, one for my family, one for hobby one, another for hobby two, another for my New York friends...and on and on. I am not a fan of maintaining more than two email addresses, and I only have to check those. To maintain the integrity of a social network, the social content must not only be available -- but it must be maintained. I know that I will not be maintaining five or six different online personas.
This brings us to the other side of today's social networks: using them as a social content home page, a way to manage time and relationships as well as make new friends. This dashboard has evolved from a means to edit your own social content to an aggregator of the social content you wish to keep tabs on. When you combine aggregator functionality with the social networks' potential application for social, professional and family, it's easy to see a not too distant future where everyone has an account for online projection of self, a means by which to edit that projection and a dashboard for aggregating and organizing other social content.
Suspend all knowledge of current social networks for a minute. Now imagine what, given today's technologies, would be an ideal social network. There is no way that the first thought that comes to mind isn't more openness and interoperability. Everyone decides on the interface that he likes best, and uses that as his digital representation of self and social content home page. Users can than manage their digital representation and connections, as well as levels of access for various connections or connection types.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Social Media Marketing Works Better When it's Focused · MarketingVOX
Social Media Marketing Works Better When it's Focused · MarketingVOX: "Social Media Marketing Works Better When it's Focused
Cameron Olthuis, director of marketing and design for ACS, says that instead of targeting several social media sites at once, smart marketers are focusing on single sites that cater to specific groups.Olthuis suggests that marketers restrict their social media marketing efforts to sites that feature relevant content. Also, marketers need to consider the characteristics of each social media site. For example, a campaign that has a goal of generating incoming links, would work better on Digg than one on MySpace. But MySpace campaigns are more likely to garner mainstream attention, and generate new leads.
Another tip is to watch out for the 'trickle-down' affect. This is, having a campaign take off on one site, and then catch fire on another, such as a post becoming a hit on social news site Digg, then jumping over to "
Cameron Olthuis, director of marketing and design for ACS, says that instead of targeting several social media sites at once, smart marketers are focusing on single sites that cater to specific groups.Olthuis suggests that marketers restrict their social media marketing efforts to sites that feature relevant content. Also, marketers need to consider the characteristics of each social media site. For example, a campaign that has a goal of generating incoming links, would work better on Digg than one on MySpace. But MySpace campaigns are more likely to garner mainstream attention, and generate new leads.
Another tip is to watch out for the 'trickle-down' affect. This is, having a campaign take off on one site, and then catch fire on another, such as a post becoming a hit on social news site Digg, then jumping over to "
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
ROI Is Social Media's New ROI
By Joe Marchese
Looking for ROI on your online marketing campaign? There is a 50% chance you are looking for the wrong thing. That's because ROI is out -- the new thing for increasing sales and building brands in social media is ROI. What I am saying is that before you can really discern return on investment, you need to understand how you are going to achieve influence for investment and return on influence.
Social media is all about influence and, like it or not, everyone who participates is an influencer. Social media decides what's in and what's out. Social media allows brands to be amplified or destroyed in the blink of an eye. And social media is as fickle as a high school lunchroom. I am not just talking about MySpace and Facebook here -- although they do represent a sizable chunk of social media. Social media is all media developed by, incorporating or facilitating the formation of community for the purpose of self-actualization. This definition includes everything from major media's online video components to upstart video-sharing sites, from the MySpaces of the world to the fledging baby boomer social networks -- and everything in between. And what social media delivers for investment can't always be captured in clicks and actions. What social media delivers in return for investment is cultural and generational influence.
Positive return on investment is a great thing; however, just looking at traditional return on investment skips an important step. Advertisers and agencies need to be looking to maximize influence obtained through their investments, and return on that influence should be the end goal of the total investment. Important to remember is that investment to obtain influence can take a number of forms. The easiest way, obviously, is to look at dollars spent, but influence isn't always for sale (at least not in an efficient manner). The pivotal balance for maximizing influence obtained through investment is to balance investment in creative, which enhances the content in which it resides, with investment in purchasing distribution for said creative. There is any number of ways to optimize a particular combination of creative and distribution, once you find the right platforms. It's true that social media means more expense on the creative side, since it demands greater content pull, and explicit acceptance of messaging, than traditional media does. But social media does not eliminate the ability to purchase distribution, as there can be a number of advertisers able to produce creative relevant to a particular piece of social content.
The battle isn't over once social media decides to lend an advertiser its influence, since advertisers then need to capitalize on that influence. This means controlling the message, not to garner a single transaction, but rather to leverage the influence lent to the advertiser for its investment to build premium brands that command premium margins. I am still not sure why I buy Coke or Pepsi instead of the cheaper store brand, but I am pretty sure it has something to do with this factor. Maximizing return on influence is again a balance, a balance between investment in creative messaging (back to relevancy) and ensuring that online brand experience/messaging resolve in the real world. Making sure the experience resolves in the real world is 50% product quality and 50% product availability. Insuring premium product quality may be outside of marketing and advertising's control, but ensuring that the premium product is available (for its premium price) to social media influencers and those influenced (commonly one and the same in social media) is promotional marketing at its finest.
Return on influence takes into account the lifetime brand creation and/or lift delivered by brand advertising within social media. Now their devil is in the details; how do you calculate influence? How do you create an efficient market accessing influence? How do you measure the effectiveness of your social media campaign when the campaigns goals aren't to drive immediate actions (or if immediate actions only represent a portion of the total value)?
The takeaway is this: if all advertisers are looking at is immediate return on investment, there is a good chance they are missing the real potential for maximizing their investment in social media -- and probably spending way too much in the process. But it's not the advertiser's fault entirely; the platform hasn't been built that efficiently facilitates accessing the type of brand-building influence offered by social media ... yet.
Looking for ROI on your online marketing campaign? There is a 50% chance you are looking for the wrong thing. That's because ROI is out -- the new thing for increasing sales and building brands in social media is ROI. What I am saying is that before you can really discern return on investment, you need to understand how you are going to achieve influence for investment and return on influence.
Social media is all about influence and, like it or not, everyone who participates is an influencer. Social media decides what's in and what's out. Social media allows brands to be amplified or destroyed in the blink of an eye. And social media is as fickle as a high school lunchroom. I am not just talking about MySpace and Facebook here -- although they do represent a sizable chunk of social media. Social media is all media developed by, incorporating or facilitating the formation of community for the purpose of self-actualization. This definition includes everything from major media's online video components to upstart video-sharing sites, from the MySpaces of the world to the fledging baby boomer social networks -- and everything in between. And what social media delivers for investment can't always be captured in clicks and actions. What social media delivers in return for investment is cultural and generational influence.
Positive return on investment is a great thing; however, just looking at traditional return on investment skips an important step. Advertisers and agencies need to be looking to maximize influence obtained through their investments, and return on that influence should be the end goal of the total investment. Important to remember is that investment to obtain influence can take a number of forms. The easiest way, obviously, is to look at dollars spent, but influence isn't always for sale (at least not in an efficient manner). The pivotal balance for maximizing influence obtained through investment is to balance investment in creative, which enhances the content in which it resides, with investment in purchasing distribution for said creative. There is any number of ways to optimize a particular combination of creative and distribution, once you find the right platforms. It's true that social media means more expense on the creative side, since it demands greater content pull, and explicit acceptance of messaging, than traditional media does. But social media does not eliminate the ability to purchase distribution, as there can be a number of advertisers able to produce creative relevant to a particular piece of social content.
The battle isn't over once social media decides to lend an advertiser its influence, since advertisers then need to capitalize on that influence. This means controlling the message, not to garner a single transaction, but rather to leverage the influence lent to the advertiser for its investment to build premium brands that command premium margins. I am still not sure why I buy Coke or Pepsi instead of the cheaper store brand, but I am pretty sure it has something to do with this factor. Maximizing return on influence is again a balance, a balance between investment in creative messaging (back to relevancy) and ensuring that online brand experience/messaging resolve in the real world. Making sure the experience resolves in the real world is 50% product quality and 50% product availability. Insuring premium product quality may be outside of marketing and advertising's control, but ensuring that the premium product is available (for its premium price) to social media influencers and those influenced (commonly one and the same in social media) is promotional marketing at its finest.
Return on influence takes into account the lifetime brand creation and/or lift delivered by brand advertising within social media. Now their devil is in the details; how do you calculate influence? How do you create an efficient market accessing influence? How do you measure the effectiveness of your social media campaign when the campaigns goals aren't to drive immediate actions (or if immediate actions only represent a portion of the total value)?
The takeaway is this: if all advertisers are looking at is immediate return on investment, there is a good chance they are missing the real potential for maximizing their investment in social media -- and probably spending way too much in the process. But it's not the advertiser's fault entirely; the platform hasn't been built that efficiently facilitates accessing the type of brand-building influence offered by social media ... yet.
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