Twitter drives more traffic and generates more views for press releases than other major social media platforms, according to a new study conducted by PR Newswire and Crowd Factory.

PR Newswire, leading news and information distributor, collaborated with Crowd Factory, innovative social marketing platform, to analyze thousands of press releases for several months.

Together, they found significant trends and results on the distribution of press releases among the largest social media sites: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Although data found that press releases are shared more frequently on Facebook, Twitter drives more traffic to press releases and produces 30 percent more views.

When it comes down to it, Twitter is most effective in sharing news and information in the social media world for businesses and professional communicators alike.

Related articles

• Press Releases Shared More on Facebook, But Twitter Drives 30 Percent More Views (prnewswire.mediaroom.com)
• Amplifying Your Press Releases (coydavidson.wordpress.com)
• Research: Twitter Drives More Traffic to Press Releases Than Facebook (mediabistro.com)
• The Social Lives of Press Releases (prnewswire.com)
• Survey: News releases shared on Twitter spark most traffic, especially those with multimedia (prsa.org)

As digital engagement spreads from the web (Facebook, Twitter, websites) to smart phones and tablets, apps have become a critical factor to gain user attention by providing a function, service or information. It’s more than the icing on these devices that we buy and use. With the smartphone/tablet dimension, apps are embedded into the user experience landscape as serious, useful and fun additions to their device. Often the availability of the apps to improve the function of the devices from phones to tablets and the variety of apps available make the choice of host product purchase a real effort in research prior to purchase.
(Article first published in abbreviated presentation as Tech Talk: Create Your Own App in About 60 Minutes with Appsbar.com – for Free!! on Blogcritics.org)

There are a few key few issues concerning the app marketplace. First is the exclusivity of an app to a particular platform. Often your favorite iPhone app is not available on Android or Windows or tablet platforms. Cost is an issue. While there are a number of apps in the free to three dollar range, there are apps with premium prices ranging from five to twenty dollars. The third issue is that perhaps the app or function you want or need is not currently available or doesn’t function in the way you need. I heard of a woman who wanted a “mirror” app so that she could see what she looked like on the fly– but she couldn’t figure out where to find that app.

Should you be so entrepreneurial as to want to create an app, you have a few choices. If you were smart enough to get into IT when in college or are taking classes for that, you know where you can make extra bucks — creating apps on the side. If you are a “geek freak”, you could dig into this as a DIY project and buy the books to create an app yourself. Or if you are like the rest of us (especially moi), you could hire a programmer and find out what it will cost. The price tag– even on the bargain end can be about $3000. Most of the pro apps cost about $10,000 and can cost up to $100,000 or more depending on the sophistication of the app. The time frame for app development can range from six weeks to three months. Until now, these were the only options you had.

The apps paradigm has shifted courtesy of Appsbar.com, an open-to-all-ages website that offers members the ability to quickly and easily build an app for a specific platform with lots of bells and whistles in about 30-60 minutes– and it’s free! Plus once you create the app, it’s funneled to the Apple, Android or Windows markets for others to download. It’s a win-win proposition. In a little more than 2 weeks since the site launched, eleven thousand apps have been created.

Appsbar.com is a new website that allows anyone of almost any age to build their own app on a variety of platforms including iPhone, Android and Windows and also get them into their respective markets. The “digital engagement” that appsbar.com provides allows you — as the user– to create the app for anything or everything you want– depending on how much time and creativity you bring to the table. Generally speaking, if you are thinking about a relatively simple app to build, it could be done in about 30 minutes. The more complex you want to make it, the longer it will take– 60 minutes is about the baseline. However if you get really creative and want the veritable kitchen sink, it could take longer.

Here’s what the site (and their press release) says you can create on an appsbar app
•Event Notifier – which delivers real-time or scheduled notifications to app users.
•Menu – allows creating of catalog of products or services.
•Form Builder – which can be used for customer service surveys, a restaurant to-go order, or answers to questions asked through the app.
•Social Interaction – adds the ability to share content within an app across social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
•Soundboard – lets users create a unique “app ringtone” by uploading any sound which can play when a user shakes or taps their mobile device.
In addition, appsbar can also handle RSS, photos and videos like other similar services

This isn’t just for play boys and girls. This is serious business masquerading behind a fun game-like wizard that will be blowing away the competition in a very short time. As the community grows, watch what happens as the members connect, communicate and collaborate. It’s bound to create something exponentially better than anything out there. This isn’t just for consumers only– bloggers. brands, companies can create their own apps for micro-consumer engagement. There are a wealth of uses for this application wizard.

I was able to snag an interview with CEO/founder Scott Hirsch to talk about this new site and honestly- to ask a lot of questions because appsbar.com is as big a shift in paradigm in the app world as iPhone was to cell phones. Flat out truth, appsbar is on its’ way to changing the perspective of the marketplace and how apps are created and how much the public wants to be involved in the creation. So far there has been little public involvement until now because the public had no way to get involved in the interface of building an app. Hirsch and company have remedied that situation.

How?
1) it’s free
2) they created a very simple wizard to walk you through the building process so that anyone from 18 to 70+ can create their own app.
3) the collective imagination of the appsbar user community is creating new processes for and ways to create apps and the appsbar team is learning from that collective imagination just how to integrate or improve upon what the users have created or asked for to facilitate the building of the most customized app around at the phenomenal price of free plus your own time.

I had the opportunity to interview CEO Scott Hirsch about Appsbar.com and ask a slew of questions about the site– and app development; questions about funding, advertising and how long the site will remain free. The podcast provides answers to all these questions.

I tried the Appsbar.com wizard to create an Android app for my blog. The app creation wizard is easy to use and it’s a lot more fun than a Zynga game. Pick your platform and get started. Do realize that after you complete the first version of your app, you will want to upgrade it as you figure out all the options that you can add to the app and how to make sure that it integrates with your goal.

The community of members can share information and also ask for additional features (coupons, discounting capacity) and the Appsbar.com team will start working on it. While it’s taken me a little longer than the hour, it’s because I kept changing the visuals, the essential app is easily done in 60 minutes or less and I took longer because as I saw the options come up, I was playing with the integration of those options into the app. In other words, I was throwing the kitchen sink into the app and it was definitely fun. Check out the site www.appsbar.com

Thank you to Scott Hirsch of Appsbar.com and Joe McGurk/ Rubenstein PR for facilitating this interview which literally was done in 3 days.

Thanks to Chris Abraham & MarketingConversation.com too.

Stevie Wilson,
LA-Story.com

This is the way it’s done.  Or at least should be done.

And it’s due to a guy named Bear who’s changing the rules of marketing.

Santa-Clara Pizza-Party is a 47-year old pizza restaurant out of Santa Clara, CA.   In many ways, it’s probably like any other small privately owned pizza place.  You go in and there’s a grand list of the types of pizza they offer, you’ll smell the scent of melted cheese, you have have linoleum tables with napkin container and plastic condiment shakers.  But in one way, it’s very much different.

That’s because of Bear Silber, the 26 year old co-owner.  He’s taken the initiative to use social media marketing tactics simply because it makes COMMON SENSE.  And it works.

He uses the idea of connecting with people online to create a sense of community around Pizza Party.  From this, he’s developed a sense of trust from those he knows online – his followers and friends from Facebook and on Twitter.  This means he can use these networks as promotional vehicles – directly talking to the people who are likely to respond.  And because he’s built trust with them, the promotional aspect is fine – because it’s both low key and its for the benefit for the recipient.

I saw this story via a tweet and then hopped over to YouTube to watch this news report:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPv1vQcDymQ

The quote that I love best is “Immediately when I have an idea, I can (pause) tweet it.”

Yes, it’s that simple to reach the 1150 or so followers on Twitter. A free form of direct mail. From Bear’s idea packed brain to close to 1200 pizza loving fans who have declared that they want to be notified of quick promotional messages. I mean, why not do this?

They’ve got their own Facebook page right here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=1396592777&ref=ts in which the latest update is:

Come beat Bear at a handstand competition and receive a free mini pizza & soda! Good until 3pm only.

How cool is that?

I interviewed Bear via email – he quickly Googled my name and found me here on Marketing Conversation after I left a comment on the YouTube video. He tells me that, yes, he’s seen a “small tangible” increase in business since he’s started using social media marketing. He hasn’t givne up on the traditional stuff – a good idea in my opinion – as his immediate local neighborhood is families. But he doesn’t do it as much and likely saves on marketing expenses as a result.

Of course it helps that he’s near Apple, Google, Northrup Gruman, eBay, and Nividia. Fertile ground for tech savvy types.

Now Bear does have a background related to marketing – he and his brohter used to own a web design/marketing company. But what impresses me completely is his answer to my last question…Any more thoughts? His response:

Other thoughts….I think “marketing” is an interesting idea. If you relaly enjoy what you’re doing then you’re going to talk about it anyways. Honestly pizza is ALL I ever talk about and I get so enthusiastic about it. People call it marketing but really I’m just talking about what I want to and what interests me. If you love what you do it will come across and people will see the pride you take in what you do. They will be able to tell the sincerity of it and the will come across so much better than “advertising” or “marketing” a business or product.

Passion. This guy is so cool. He’s going places.

And, as a follow up, tonight I was in my local pizza joint. With the recession, business is down. I’m sending the manager this story via email and I’m going to help him get going on this. After all, it’s COMMON SENSE.

Audio discussion by Joni Wedderburn about the public relations industry’s slow acceptance of the new media phenomenon via the Internet Archive

Individual Files

With all the discussion on what social media is, what it’s future will be like, who will control it, I often feel we fail to see the forest for the trees.

I see it as too diverse of a phenomenon to pin down with one easy definition. Its applications go far beyond the neat capsules that can be used to pick a particular department or function that should “own” it. Social media is creating, empowering, and accompanying a paradigm shift in the way we use all media.

Are we fully there yet? Of course not. These are only the early stages, part of an evolutionary process that often comes step by step. But those steps are happening and happening and soon we’ll look back and be amazed how far we’ve traveled. Then before we know it again, we’ll be stepping again and look back again and we’ll be amazed how much we’ve come from that first time we looked back.

Yes, organizations are going to have to harness social media in ways that they can benefit from, to reach ROI. This means trying to create some sort of structure for it without “siloizing” it. Very difficult indeed.

I’ve tried to lay out what I see social media as. Not from a specific definitional standpoint, but from a several miles up point of view.

Interested in your feedback…

Social media can be a practice within itself

Social media’s possibilities extend beyond any traditional established practice (advertising, PR, sales, etc.) to the point that it can be a practice within itself. It can be spread across many departments and, thus, will often need practitioners who can implement coordinated efforts within an organization. The strategic methods used will often have enough attributes on a stand alone basis that it shouldn’t come underneath the heading of another specific department. I’d put social media on the same par as advertising and PR. Full service social media firms have sprouted up such as Abraham Harrison to meet today’s needs.

Social media can be a service

Because social media is still in its nascent stages, clients and potential clients don’t always need comprehensive solution packages. They may need to know how to set up a blog and how to get traffic for it. Simple as that. Helping a company to start a blog is a service. So is creating a podcast. Many clients look to cherry pick services to satisfy their needs. For some in social media, providing a non-coordinated menu of services is where it’s at. While social media agencies are an emerging industry, there’s not widespread demand quite yet, leaving many practitioners as service providers.

Social media is strategy based

A company decides to let go of some (but not all) control of its marketing communications message. It views its customers and users on a somewhat equal level and not as blocks of ears to be shouted at and throats to have messages shoved down.

Another company uses blogs to work with customers to improve products or come up with new ones.

These are strategic changes that are being implemented. Social media can change the nature of an organization because it changes the way an organization looks at itself and its relationships with its stakeholders.

Therefore the strategy behind social media empowers change like nothing else can.

Social media is tactically based

The many tools of social media can be designed to manage a problem or a series of problems. That’s not something that necessarily changes an organization. It’s can implemented based strictly upon need.

This can cause a lot of frustration amongst social media strategists as we see a lot of potential opportunities for business not being fulfilled. For others, applying tactics itself is an opportunity. A foot in the door.

Social media is technology based

Social media can involve a host of technologies that are often complicated to learn and understand. Setting up RSS feeds, monitoring online conversations, designing a blog for better SEM, putting together a widget. It takes technical know how to implement much of these. And that’s a reason why so many ad agencies and especially PR firms have been resistant in adopting social media.

But the technology is constantly changing, adapting, growing, as is the myriad of ways they can be used for clients. It often takes someone who is comfortable with technology to succeed.

Social Media is theory based

Authenticity. Transparency. Community. Engagement. Listening. Give up some of your control. All constantly espoused by social media strategists. These are theories that often go against the grain of traditional thought. More on engagement and less on contrived messaged, push on people. This blog post is theoretical. The theories formulate the methodologies that are behind the practices and the services.

These theories are why so many of us blog and offer our opinions and commentaries. It’s why we read one another’s blogs, friend one another on Facebook and follow one another on Twitter.

Social media is rule based

Aren’t authentic or transparent? Watch out! You’re gonna get nailed by someone in the blogosphere and it will cost you. An instant case study as to how NOT do something. The rules of the game were collectively created and enforced.

We’ve seen traditional agencies, large and small, ignore these rules and push ahead with fake blogs and such. Ask the folks at Edelman and Zipatoni.

Social media is anti-bureaucratic

This may be one of the most important points of all. Because its capabilities go beyond the silos of the current corporate communications, because the public arena can embrace it as their own, because it is always changing, and because it involves giving up a serious amount of self control, social media bucks the bureaucratic structure within organizations while it fundamentally changes the relationship between the organization and its stakeholders.

Online as a whole can shift between advertising and PR, causing disruption. Social media adds to this by bringing in customers, users, and in some cases, communities into the mix. It resists authority when the authority becomes too controlling. And authority usually wants control.

Organizational bureaucracies will be changing soon enough because of social media.

Social media can be vertical – part 1

Again, I see social media as being often a separate animal from traditional PR and advertising. For that matter, online advertising itself first created that difference. Social media extends that difference. It has its own methodologies that are totally separate from offline advertising. The divisions here may not be silo based; but often the pool of knowledge for success in the social media arena can’t be found in traditional types.

Simply sticking it under a particular division within an organization can cause stifled growth as it will be badly nurtured by people with a particular preconceived mindset.

Social media can be vertical – part 2

It’s vertical in another manner as well. And this is more of a prediction than a statement of the current conditions, but we will soon see more and more specialized firms pop up that will be geared toward certain segments of the population. Just as there are agencies that are geared toward the Latino market and PR firms that are geared toward the GLBT communities, we’ll see social media agencies that have developed the expertise in reaching out to certain segments of the population. All you have to do is listen to the many mommy bloggers that complain about their constantly getting hit by pitches from agencies that have no clue on what it’s like being a mom.

Social media can be horizontal – part 1

From what we all hear, social media will have implications in advertising, public relations, sales, customer service, human resources, investor relations etc. It will take an enterprise wide strategy to implement all of that. And it will take an actual social media strategist who understands all of those departments and who understands the technologies behind social media to devise a plan for that enterprise. He or she will have to be strong enough to lead the way and manage a lot of personalities, but gentle enough to let each department blossom.

Social media can be horizontal – part 2

Outside organizations, agencies such as Abraham Harrison and others will continue to emerge and become successful because they will stay on the forefront of all that is happening and how it should be applied. Companies won’t have the internal expertise nor will they have the time nor the personnel to implement cross functional social media strategies.

So, just as we see ad agencies and PR firms today, we’ll continue to see social media agencies. There will definitely be a need for them.

Social media is push

Yes, social media still allows you to deliver marketing messages. It can be the conversation starter. A blog can be push as can a podcast. Maybe this is obvious but I’ve heard so much talk about sitting back an listening I wanted to add this. Yes, social media can be overtly promotional. It just has to be done right.

Social media is pull

Yes, listening is important. Then engaging is important. Done right it creates trust. Trust is pull. Pull is good. Social media is good.

Social Media can be web presence centric and dispersed at the same time

No need to dis the hub of a website. Core elements of an organization’s social media efforts can emanate from but then be dispersed throughout blogs, Flickr, YouTube, etc.

Social media can be created from within

This is obvious.

Social media can be created and enhanced by others

The greatest threat. The biggest fear. The challenging factor that causes many an enterprise to resist, to delay implementations. But those on the outside aren’t waiting.

So to me, social media is so multi-dimensional that it can’t be easily defined in one definition, explained in a singular context, bottled up in a particular department.

I’m in the process of pitching a potential client. From what I see, if this works out, it will be an excellent opportunity. They’re a marketing service provider that offers the traditional services to their client base. The methods they use are still very much needed, they aren’t out of date, and they won’t be out of date any time soon. But in this era of digital marketing, those methodologies clearly aren’t enough. Not when the users of their clients products are more likely to look online for those very products.

That being said, there were several aspects of conversations I’ve had with potential clients that have showed me why online marketing has yet to receive the respect that it deserves. Budget allotments, questions about handling things internally, executive level buy-in, a determined need to find specific, immediate ROI.   While I realize that the whole concept of online is still emerging, I nevertheless find this somewhat amazing. Most people today have integrated the internet into their lives, and have done so for many years. In fact, most of us use it for communication, or entertainment for research. But, still, there’s that initial resistance in many people in business.  It’s not only a reluctance to not only endeavor into this no longer new arena, but to also to take the very steps to learn about it.

So I’ve put together a few reasons why I think this is the case. Each may serve as an “objection” that will need to be overcome. Whether on a one-to-one level upon pitching a potential client. Or on an industry-wide basis.

Lack of Vision

When companies can’t see beyond their basic core services, when they don’t understand – or worse, when they don’t take the time to understand industry trends, they show an alarming lack of vision. And it’s a lack of vision that could kill their business. It goes back to that “where should we be in five years?” question. They don’t understand that they have to answer it constantly.

I’ve seen decision makers in some fields effectively make choices to not learn anything new. And it’s not just because they lack an understanding that they need to change, but they never display the curiosity to learn. The very curiosity that acts as the impetus in creating a vision that will create change.

I’ve noticed this in the political arena. In between elections, I’d be attending conferences that would discuss the use of the internet in political campaigns. They’d be attended by mostly relatively young people, all of whom were politically sharp and internet savvy. Come election time, they wouldn’t get a seat at the table.  The more seasoned members would praise them as being “upcomers” and they’d describe themselves to being “out of the loop” when it comes to “all this technology stuff”, but they’d always make sure that these young people they’re supposedly impressed with be kept in the back room with a microscopic budget and no say in any formulation of strategy.

The Disconnect 

The mentality seems to be, at best, that the upcoming changes (if they’re aware of them) don’t apply to them. Somehow they feel as if they’re separate from the rest of the business world.

The mentality is “Sure I do the majority of my business correspondence via email, and I just bought a book on Amazon for my brother-in-law, and my co-worker’s now engaged to a guy she met on Match.com, and I’m planning a vacation by looking at Hotels.com, and I have to check my bank account status today online, and I’m gonna read that story in the Post that my friend forwarded to me, and I should donate online today to Obama/McCain, and ooh, here’s an Evite to go to thank event by the river, and I’ve got to update and add some photos to my Facebook page, and I should read that restaurant review online, and I’ll just go to the client website to get information, and that was an inspirations quote I was emailed today, and then there was that hilarious video on YouTube, and here at work, I need to place an order through that online catalog, and I want to check out the site for that vet that I need to take Scruffy to, and I should order a film from Netflix.”

Then they think, “But I don’t see how the internet affects my business.  It’s not tangible to what I do.”
Lack of Priority

If one thinks in terms of traditional methods, then one is going to make traditional decisions.  If online is the constant afterthought, the add-on at the end, the low priority, then it’s never going to move up.  Again, if decision makers don’t take a step back to learn and see the entire picture, then it will never happen.  Or when it finally does happen, we get…

We Can Do It Ourselves

There’s a trend in business to day to bring in every aspect of markeing communications in house. That’s quite common here in the DC area with all of the associations and tech companies. Many of these organizations turn to the “folks in IT” to create the new site that to replace the old one sorely needs an update. This is the extension of the trend of having one’s nephew create something on his spare time and then put it up on the web. The result is often marginal improvements that add nothing to the brand or user experience. And by not examining beyond the confines of the offiice walls, they never see “what’s out there”.

An extra degree of separation

I don’t know if that’s the right term for all of what I’ll explain, but I see a lot of the traditional ad agencies and PR firms – the ones that are the first ones many potential clients go to – know so little about the fundamentals of online marketing – let alone the specialty of social media – that they muck up many marketing efforts.  Flash on homepages of websites, making them slow to download and invisible to search engines.  Things like that.  Blogs that post puff pieces and reworked press releases.

The problem is that those ad agencies and PR firms have the ear of the client, first and foremost. The marketing company hasn’t taken the time to learn new strategies, technologies, and methodologie while the client doesn’t know enough about to tell the difference.  The marketing company blocks new concepts from being brought up out of their own ignorance and territorialism.  The client says, fine, you guys are the experts.

The online folks are often then one degree of separation beyond this.  All too often the ear we have is that of the marketing company who may see us as a threat.

Soon, I’ll talk about what many in the online arena do wrong.

Guess, I’m just frustrated.  In a bad mood.

It’s not happening fast enough. It’s happening at a rate that will only hurt the everyone. Social media should be fully integrated into the strategy of a marketer. It should be an automatic and active ingredient. No longer should it be viewed as an afterthought, a piece of add-on service designed to impress prospective clients that

Ad agencies and PR firms are twin towers of the marketing profession. Both seek to enhance a client’s brand through positioning a brand image and by increasing sales. Both create marketing messages and then submit them to the public in some manner to carry out this mission. Both rely on the public to respond positively to these marketing messages.

Ad people and PR people like to say that their respective industries are completely separate from one another. They’re wrong. Ad campaigns and PR campaigns feed off one another and use another’s tools. If they’re not well coordinated together, it will often lead to failure. I’m often dismayed when I hear a prospective partner on a project show absolute ignorance as to what their client’s dealings are with the client’s representative in the other industry. From what I’m seeing, that’s more often true than not

The lack of coordination wastes time, causes embarrassment,  creates conflicting marketing messages, creates conflict, creates turf wars.  It delays projects, makes them go over budget, wastes money, screws up priorities.  Yep, that’s what it does.

Now add the aspect of social media, a whole new category that takes in elements of both advertising and PR, plus adds in a slew of its own.

Agencies today see social media as an add-on service. Perhaps one to farm out. One to farm out and control. Or, quite often, an afterthought that could be included to appear more hip to certain types of clients.

As I’ve written before, there still is a significant amount of resistance in agency people to introduce the concept of social media into their clients’ campaigns. The ad exec or the PR rep who knows little about social media doesn’t understand and doesn’t want their client know this. The marketing executive at the client company is often equally as ignorant and looks to maintain some sort of status quo campaign.

The problem here is that social media is not waiting.  It’s not waiting for agencies to develop divisions for social media.  It’s happening RIGHT NOW – all around them.   While many (often including myself) are pushing to get a seat at the table, the concept of social media has not brought in their own table.  And the action there is often initiated by some of the millions out there having online conversations about products, services, and companies.

All that activity can’t be controlled, but it can be harnessed.  It can be added too.  And yes, it can be managed, however delicately, with openness and respect.

Time to combine tables.

Since we’ve been promoting Jerry White’s new book I Will Not Be Broken, I’ve been thinking of the opportunities that the book publishing industry is foregoing by not developing internet and social media marketing strategies.    This also means missing out on dollars.

The types of books I’m talking about are non-fiction, non-biographical books that cover political and social issues, business trends, diseases and medical conditions, personal triumphs and tragedies, and exposes.  The type of books whose subject matter is already being talked about at length online.

Authors should be encouraged to start their own blogs as they are writing the book.  Too much to handle?  No – they need not post every day.  Only when they see fit.  And they needed not rewrite their book on their blog.  All they have to do is write about their experiences in writing the book.

Chris Anderson, editor of Wired Magazine did this in writing The Long Tail.

But while I think that blogging during the pre-release period is vital, that’s more up to the blogger.  Publishing houses should be helping their clients develop blogging strategies, be the creation of a book blog or blogger outreach.

Pick a topic.  Global warming.  The U.S. Supreme Court.  Autism.  Steroids in sports.  Create Google alerts for certain terms.  Use Technorati to find blogs and bloggers that write on the same subjects. Publishing houses should have programs set up helping their clients get involved pre- and post-launch of a book.

This way the blogger will get to know the online communities that must be reached out to BEFORE a book is completed.  This was an author will not only familiarize themselves with the potentially hundreds of people out there that are the leading online voices…but those same voices will get to know the author as well.  And they will be all the more willing to receive a book to review.

Every day, post launch, an author should receive a synopsis of what is being said on the internet about the subject matter of their book – and the book itself.  The author can then engage bloggers in conversation and extend their influence.

I’ve recently talked to few publishing houses and authors.  Most publishers have no internet marketing budget.  No capability. No understanding of what to do.   Most authors have no clue on how an integrated online marketing plan can benefit them.  And if they do, they can’t find a publishing house that can help them.

Considering that Jeff Bezos was TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year back in 1999, that’s a shame.  And an opportunity.

Let’s take a look at the debate between Brian and Loic, point by point.

Point #1

Brian Solis: Understand You’re Not the Only Story in Town
Loic: Who cares about stories, you can get traction and users if you have a good product

Where do I start? First of all, Brian’s spot on in that many top executives in startups overvalue what the product or the service or whatever it is that they’re introducing. They don’t understand that the battleground for attention from key influencers and potential customers is filled with other players battling for attention as well. Sometimes it’s necessary to get someone to help craft a pathway through that battlefield, from someone one that understands which weapons and shields are needed. How to break through that clutter. Because on that very same battlefield are others looking for sweet victory as well. And that’s just the battle to get noticed.

Sometimes that’s having someone who can help craft and deliver a great story.

And, yes, sometimes, one of the best weapons is having established a blog and with that, a burgeoning community. Loic has done that and kudos to him for that. He is a great example of what he’s writing about.

Some of those competitors on the battlefield may not be direct competitors in business. No matter. They are still competing for mindshare of the audience a startup wants to reach.

CEOs need to understand this. They’ve worked their tails off for a significant period of time to produce something. That’s quite an accomplishment in itself. But many automatically think that whatever they’ve produce “sells itself” that it’s a “no-brainer” causing people to automatically understand why they should buy it. This is called hubris.

Hubris kills. For example, a trivia question. Guess who said this last fall:

“I’m in it for the long run. It’s not a very long run. It will be over by February 5.”*

History is filled with failed startups let by overconfident individuals that failed to realize they need some sort of marketing plan to get the word out, to position the product, to clarify key features and benefits. They decided to start companies and then implemented marketing as an afterthought. In other words, their companies have no stories.

While the atmosphere is much better today, I’ve seen decision makers that refuse to get this. It’s as if they seemingly believe that press rooms of major business publications had fax rooms where eager young interns hang out excitedly to retrieve their press releases and run to the editors with all of your important info. If you lack a story – and a decent product – it’s much more difficult to gain traction.

No, Loic, good stories are often needed. Stories can explain complex products. Stories can differentiate between competitors. Stories can offer insight that go beyond a series of sentences on a press release. Just as blog posts can. Blogging and trying to develop a community can work – but not really in time to help that start up. Unless they’re already a know quality like you. It also helps when you have a Web 2.0 type service that connects people such as Seesmic.

A second major point regarding Loic’s comments is that not all good products can get traction. Just as not every great guitarist gets that major record deal, just as not every great aspiring actress gets the big break, not every great product gets noticed. There are a bunch of factors that influence success. As Jim Kurkral commented on Loic’s post, “Even people with great products can still fail getting coverage.” Coverage in industry press, coverage in mainstream press, coverage in blogs. Nor will all creators of great bloggers be able to form online communities.

For that matter, not every product that meet with success is of top quality. Sometimes it’s luck. Previous reputation. Timing. Or a great story.

*Trivia answer: Hillary Clinton, (self)presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party in the U.S. Presidential race, describing how quickly she’ll win the nomination.

For the past two months I’ve been in a mental funk when it comes to blogging. Maybe it’s because I got caught up a bit too much following the political primary season and felt that I’d end up focusing too much on politics.

But now I have Brian Solis, Loic Le Meur, and Robert Scoble to thank for getting me back into the game.

Perhaps the one I should thank the most is Loic because I found much of what he wrote in response to Brian’s TechCrunch article to be misdirected toward his own experiences.

It started with Brian’s May 25 article in TechCrunch “PR Secrets for Startups”. Now that headline itself is a bit silly as it sounds as if it’s a headline used in an overhyped industry rag, but the meat of the artilce is pretty much straightforward. He doesn’t lay out secrets at all, just sound advice. And while I don’t agree with the fine line depicted between PR 1.0 and PR 2.0, but there is no question that all of strategic marketing communications is undergoing a transformation and that the internet – and social media in particular – are playing key roles in that.

In the article, Brian outlines a series of points that serve a great guideline for most younger startups. Loic tells us that Brian has many valid point in his post and that Brian knows what he’s talking about and that he really likes Brian and then he proceeds to write that what Brian is saying is bullshit.

Well, I like Loic and think he has many valid points and he knows what he’s talking about, but what Loic is saying is bullshit. Loic’s advice is correct for a finite amount of CEOs and a finite amount of startups from a finite amount of industries. It’s solid advice in certain circumstances.

I’ll start out with Loic’s major point:

Get a community and focus on your friends is the way to go.

Good grief.

It’s not that this is directly wrong, it’s that it’s ridiculous in that it’s a practically impossible to accomplish task to achieve in the amount of time needed to boost a start up. In fact, formulating one’s own community can be as difficult as successfully launching a start up in the first place. Establishing a community can take years – Loic himself talks of how it took him eight years – and there’s no guarantee that the community will stick.

Most prominent blogger don’t have communities. They may think they do, but they don’t. They have readers instead. Most companies don’t have communities. They have customers. Most products and services don’t have communities. They have users. Cultivating a community is similar to cultivating a loyal customer base…only more difficult. It takes time, it takes energy, it takes a special touch. More often than not, it’s an elusive accomplishment.

It’s not as if one can go down to the local K-Mart and buy a community – as if it comes in a box – one that’s on sale this week only for the low price of $79.95 – twenty dollars of the regular price of $99.95.

No, there’s no Easy Button to press in getting a community. As commenter Jeremy Toeman points out “Loic, I think your assessment is fairly biased to your personal experience. The truth is most companies and individuals aren’t nearly as well connected as you are, and to just dismiss PR by saying “just go build a community” is frankly, naive.” Which is soon followed by Vinh, “Where can i get a community? Is it expensive? What happens if I need audience now?” Bingo.

Loic himself proves the difficulty in establishing a community by writing “I took me 8 years since I started blogging in 2003 to have a community and it is no marketing.” First of all, he’s so exhausted from establishing that community that he’s added wrong. It’s either 5 years since 2003 or 8 years since 2000. Whether it’s 5 or 8 (and I believe it’s 8), that’s way to long of a time period for a CEO to wait to effectively kick in as he or she is launching a startup.

Allen Stern has two great comments regarding Loic’s claim…

First, he points out that it takes more than a desire to have a community to actually accomplish the huge task of establishing a community. “Loic – it’s important to remember that not everyone has the “instant-on” connections you do today. While I agree with what you are suggesting about a community completely – not everyone has “instant-on” that you do.” He follow this with a clear statement of total sense. “This is why I suggest you work on building your network while you build your startup. Don’t expect to finish your product and have a network ready to launch it for you.” Words of wisdom.

The reality is that the essence of community building is something that’s often elusive. One needs talent, time, luck, and a topic or series or topics that engender an interaction amongst readers. That’s rare indeed. Loic has been able to establish this over several years through hard work, a warm and colorul personality, and an effective writing style. He also benefits from the fact that he’s launched a company that, at its core, is at the heart of social media.

Community is one of the most dangerously overused terms in social media. It’s often bandied about by people who treat the subject matter as if communities already exist or are readily available. And this then underplays the importance – and the essence of community.

Next, I’ll look to take on the Brian vs. Loic debate point by point.

This morning, Norman Birnbach wrote an article wherein he suggests that I emphasize giving swag:

One of his tips is to “Give swag” — a point that Chris Abraham emphasized in a recent interview. The reason is that blogging is often a second career and there are few perks so swag can make a difference to get bloggers to respond.

He is not wrong, but I think I need to clarify my definition of “gift-giving.” I don’t emphasize giving away swag, necessarily — what I do emphasize is gifting — and giving ’til it hurts, “What a gift needs to be is super-valuable to the recipient — the value of a gift is based on perception.”

The following excerpt is from Be Generous, Not Stingy, When Engaging Bloggers (via Chris Abraham):

“Gifts don’t have to be free stuff — like books or iPods — gifts can be in the form of knowledge, intellectual property, insider access, or blogger exclusives; gifts can be informational, gifts can solve a community problem, or customer service issues.

What a gift needs to be is super-valuable to the recipient — the value of a gift is based on perception. You need to be willing to give the gift that the blogger wants and not the gift you are prepared or want to give.

What is not cool is half measures or crappy, throw-away gifts, the Internet version of key rings and a bowl of candy. Offering throttled, limited or restricted demos (without access to the full version when it is released); offering a single book chapter (without the whole book being an option); or granting “exclusive” access to something that is already released is just plain lame and will result in severe negative consequences.

It is pretty bad to not give a gift when you reach out to bloggers just because you feel entitled or represent a fancy client but it is worse to be stingy about the gift you do give. Make sure the gift is generous — give until it hurts.”

Andy Sernovitz’s blog’s name says it all, and definitely reflects my response to reading this: Damn, I Wish I’d Thought of That!, especially in his post Instant Word of Mouth for Restaurants. From our experience doing blogger outreach and blogger gift-giving, this is on-the-money advice you should all consider (Via Chris Abraham — Because the Medium is the Message):

Give every lunch customer 6 desserts to take back to the office.

Give them one desert and they will eat it.

Give them 6 and they will to announce to everyone that they just ate at your restaurant and you gave them snacks to share.

Lesson: One free sample is interesting. Lots of samples turn customers into evangelists.

Firstly, while we at Abraham Harrison do online publicity and blogger outreach exclusively, this advice rings true. First, let me define what we mean by “free samples” and “gifts” in our context.

Gifts don’t have to be free stuff — like books or iPods — gifts can be in the form of knowledge, intellectual property, insider access, or blogger exclusives; gifts can be informational, gifts can solve a community problem, or customer service issues.

What a gift needs to be is super-valuable to the recipient — the value of a gift is based on perception. You need to be willing to give the gift that the blogger wants and not the gift you are prepared or want to give.

What is not cool is half measures or crappy, throw-away gifts, the Internet version of key rings and a bowl of candy. Offering throttled, limited or restricted demos (without access to the full version when it is released); offering a single book chapter (without the whole book being an option); or granting “exclusive” access to something that is already released is just plain lame and will result in severe negative consequences.

It is pretty bad to not give a gift when you reach out to bloggers just because you feel entitled or represent a fancy client but it is worse to be stingy about the gift you do give. Make sure the gift is generous — give until it hurts.

For example, with Survivor Corps, not only did we make lots of full-chapters available for download and sharing, but we are making paper hardcover copies available to anyone and everyone who wants one — and the offer is transferable.

While the wide selection of chapters may be generous, offering only a partial book would easily be considered to be stingy and cheap if we were not willing and able to drop-ship complete copies of the book at a moment’s notice without ever demanding a quid pro quo.

Most of the bloggers might very readily blog about I Will Not Be Broken were I to only send a smattering of chapters; even so, the risk associated with not making copies freely available would be intense and is not worth it.

The cost of a hundred books sent to important niche online influencers who have promised to blog about Survivor Corps, whether they ever do is negligible compared to being pegged as cheap and ungrateful.

Even a blogger who has an advertising rate sheet and who would never consider doing a review without being sponsored or paid are often willing to blog on behalf of our clients – when we get the right balance between influencer-targeting, message-modeling, gift-giving, blogger activation, and following-up.

It works because this is relationship and conversation marketing. There are real people behind those blogs who are sick and tired of not being treated like people and if you can get the mixture right, magic happens.

When we do blogger public relations (often called blogger relations or BR), blogger messaging, or online outreach, it is essential to do everything possible to make sure that the blogger’s free spirit is appreciated and also realize that the blogger is under zero responsibility to blog about your client at all; and, for the same reason that bloggers are pursued by us PR and marketing professionals — their influence, platform, and voice — bloggers are fully capable of turning against you and your client.

Luckily, bloggers are people, marketers are people, even PR professionals are people; therefore, even if something goes wrong during an aggressive messaging and PR compaign, which they often do if you’re being aggressive and passionate, a human touch and human engagement usually does the trick to smooth feathers, clear the air, and make things nice.

Even when clearing the air isn’t possible, it is important to be brave and a little shameless: when you’re in this sort of business, 1% or more of all recipients will have a cow and there is nothing you can do about it, no matter how much attention, love, adoration, and mea culpas you’re willing or able to invest.

For the Survivor Corps campaign, we have been pretty aggressive. Even before we have delivered our first copy of I Will Not Be Broken to a single blogger, we have received almost 50 blog mentions and posts. Even if we had suffered a couple negative posts as a tithe for the 50 positive mentions, I believe it would still have been worth it.

If you need more proof you can read the mentions that bloggers have written so far about Jerry White’s book, I Will Not Be Broken, collected well before any actual books arrived via Fedex to the bloggers’ door, you will see that Blogger PR is well worth all of the time and trouble required to make it work right.

Let me know if you have any questions about what we do or how we do it. I would be very happy to tell you more if you contact me at Abraham Harrison.

AdAge is telling us that 2008 is not the year for mobile marketing and lays out five reasons why that is so.  It’s a good article as it helps cut into the hype while showing the there are solutions on the way.

One criticism I’ll make is that we all often too often make is that the progress of trends can be measured in calendar years.  While it’s true that corporate marketing budgets are measured in fiscal calendars, actual trends are more measured in technological advances and increases in adoption rates.

Here are the five reasons:

1. Limited reach (relative to the web)
2. Measurement hurdles
3. Complexity of running campaigns, especially ensuring they work on all platforms and devices
4. Mobile marketing being considered in a silo
5. Lack of a “hallelujah moment” for mobile

The first four make sense to me.  The last one doesn’t.  We rarely have a “hallelujah” moment for anything.  It’s more often the case that we look back and realize that we’re doing thing differently now than what we were three years ago.

David Berkowitz, over at Marketer’s Studio, lays it out by saying that 2008 – and every year beyond – will be “A” year for mobile, not “THE” year.

In my last post, I talked of the coming disruption of the three way relationship between marketer, agency, and media property. Essentially it centers on the idea that marketers (who are often behind themselves) are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the lack of digital savvy of their agencies and are now turning to media properties for strategic ideas and creative capabiliites. And these media properties are making themselves all the more ready, willing, and able to carry out the needs and wishes of the marketers.

I believe that that’s happening. But there’s still a big problem with that model. Consistent brand messaging

On a micro-level, this new way of doing things makes perfect sense. Crafting an marketing campaign tailored to the offerings of an online property could maximize the effectiveness of the campaign itself. For that media property.

But last I looked, most advertisers don’t use all their spend on one property. They’ll pick many properties in many channels. They’ll test here and there. They’ll sometimes concentrate on branding, sometimes concentrate on direct , sometimes (and the web makes this more possible, concentrate on both.

If the marketer – the company that is the end client – has to tailor each of its marketing messages to that of the publisher, chaos could result.

Publishers will need to realize this and further expand their services, sort of becoming almost full service for their advertisers. But still, this still could run into brand confusion as each publisher will owe it to their paying client to create the most effective campaign for their specific property or properties, leaving potentially different and confusing brand messages across several media properties.

Wise agencies should see this as the window of opportunity and work with publishers before they even get clients to formulate the framework for effective marketing campaigns that can perform very effectively over a cross section of properties and platforms.

I decided to put together a list of reasons why I think many marketing agencies “don’t get” social media. Some are legitimate reasons, most aren’t. Feel free to add some of your own.

1- Elitism

The marketing industries – advertising, PR – are considered to be ‘cool’ or chic. These industries (including social media by the way) are filled with people who are self-consciously aware of this. For years I’ve been on online forums filled with ad people trashing the industry, talking about the lack of creative talent the whole time positioning themselves as being above it all.

Enter social media and its marketing aspects and these self-important types have something else to look down upon. If that attitude is prevelant in an agency, then it means you’ve got an agency that’s closed off to innovation.

2- Lack of Vision

An agency gets an RFP for a major client. They have meetings to brainstorm. How to position the brand. What creative they should use. Where they should make placements. Do we look to bring in a spokesperson? What strategies, what tactics?

And the whole time, social media didn’t enter their mindset.

That may be because they’re too rushed to give their response to the RFP and, because they haven’t had the time to learn much about social media. When it comes crunch time, it never occurs to them to do something with social media.

3- Lack of Interest

A couple of years ago I contacted a mid-size ad agency to see if they were going to incorporate any type of online marketing capabiliites. They had no interest in it. It was more than a lack of vision. It was simply put, a fundamental lack of interest of what was happening around them

4- Unable to figure out the revenue model

This is an underrated and compelling reason. I don’t believe as some doom sayers do that advertising is on its way out. But it is changing and some of these new business models involve little revenue. If you’ve to a lot of overhead and a project comes in that could mean little revenue, you’re going to be flummoxed and scared shitless of this.

5- Terrified of Technology

Often, people in agencies play the “he’s a tech guy” routine. Cordoning off those who do online stuff as a whole as tech people. And tech people usually aren’t marketing types. So by placing that label on it, ad types both partially remove internet marketers from the decision making pro and set up a situation where they don’t have to deal with technology – and the unknown.

6- They undervalue what it takes to establish a capability

Other times I’ve talked to agencies that it seems they want to hire someone “young” and not pay them much and “teach” them about online marketing, even though those that teach no little of what they speak. Developing an online capability is viewed as a cost, not an opportunity and the idea then is to go as cheaply as possible.

7- Methodologies are still being developed

Yes, this is true. The field is very new and, while there have been many successes, the constantly changing nature of social media – blogs, social networks, microblogs, online video, is often in a flux. Methodologies have to play catch up.

8- Social media is largely unproven

No, this is not heresy. It’s the truth, plain and simple. It’s an emerging field and, while social media usage is growing phenomenally, it’s growing in many different directions. Each time it grow, new lessons have to be applied to new strategies.

9- Too much hype from social media strategists

“Engage or die”. “The customer is in control of the brand”. Overblown statements by ‘visionaries’ that usually aren’t true and turn off traditional marketers. Statements like that seem to be directed at other social media strategists where it becomes part of the echo chamber. Not everyone had to ‘engage’ and not everyone will die if they fail to do so.

I just asked a question via Twitter. And I’ll repeat it here.

Question for social media types…many complain about interference from legal dept. when it comes to social media, especially with UGC…so, are there any conferences, events, seminars, etc. that bring the two groups together to understand one another more?

Not to toot my own horn, but that’s a good question. And it’s one that needs to be answered.

Marketers are essentially in charge of defining, promoting, enhancing, and protecting the brand. Lawyers are essentially in charge of protecting the entity, the business, and, yes, the brand.

I got to thinking about this because social media strategists often, as part of their strategy, enlist, encourage, or allow a brands users to play a role in the branding. I got to thinking of a recent story involving a group of car enthusiasts putting together a picture calendar showing off their cars. They calendars were to be sold on CafePress. But there was some sort of communication screw up and it was halted I believe. Some social media strategists mistakenly blamed the car company.

But then I thought…wait…if the legal department did have reservations in this situation, is that necessarily a bad thing? Think about it….

What if one of the participants of an unsolicited consumer generated media effort has let’s say a problem. Like a police record. I mean, let’s say he’s the type of guy who could get nailed by Chris Hansen of Nightline. You know, a pedophile.

Ridiculous? If you think so, you’re missing the point. The point is that legal department and marketing departments are going to have to understand one another and work together to both reasonably promote and protect the brand through social media. Cutting edge vs. overly cautious won’t do. Lawyer potentially nixing or at least getting in the way of potentially effective programs or frustrated marketing types angrily rolling their eyes at the stupidity and interference of the legal department will only serve to stifle the brand, or, potentially worse, leave it unprotected.

I just received the below email in my Facebook Inbox because I am a member of the ooVoo Facebook Group. Well, I have been sitting on some cool news that I assume I can share now since it has been released into the wilderness. Lots of cool stuff: My ooVoo Day, a version of ooVoo for the Mac, and the ability to chat up some of the coolest new media, social media, new PR, new marketing, and rock star bloggers anywhere!

If you haven’t had a chance to try out ooVoo yet, there’s a great opportunity coming up in the week or so: My ooVoo Day With…You can download the software – including the MAC VERSION!!! – and sign up for a slot where you can talk to some other ooVooers in the blogosphere about a variety of topics at: http://www.myoovooday.com

If you don’t have a webcam yet, don’t worry – you can still participate on calls as an audio-only caller. You’ll still be able to see and hear the others and add your own voice to the mix. Just pick a good looking avatar to display. ;-)

That’s it. Get over to www.myoovooday.com to check out the details and do your thing.

Now back to your regularly scheduled email…

News Facts

• ooVoo, a video communication company, is sponsoring a first-of-its-kind web event called “My ooVoo Day With…” in which 23 bloggers and podcasters from a variety of different industries and interest groups will host their communities in multi-user online video chats.
• All sessions will take place between February 10th and February 21st.
• Hosts have set aside a number of time slots when they are available to meet and chat face-to-face with their readers via ooVoo; they’ll be able to host up to 5 guests via video conferencing per session.
• The confirmed hosts include iJustine, AdAge’s Bob Garfield, media pundit Jack Myers, business author Allan Cox, GeekEntertainment.tv’s Irina Slutsky, sci-fi/horror author Scott Sigler, BlogHer’s Queen of Spain, Eric Kotecki Vest and the voices behind AdRants, JaffeJuice, ReadWriteWeb, Six Pixels of Separation, Two Boobs and A Baby + and more.
• A complete host list is included below.
• Topics range from new media marketing, to building relationships, to book discussions, political issues and more.
• Participants can learn about My ooVoo Day With… and register for video chat sessions at www.myoovooday.com.
• To thank these busy individuals for hosting the chats, ooVoo is primarily supporting the Frozen Pea Fund, a fund established to support the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer campaign, in honor of blogger and cancer patient Susan Reynolds.

Screenshot of video chat

Screenshot of My ooVoo Day With site

Embeddable code for MoDW badge:

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Links

• My ooVoo Day With… site
• Download & install ooVoo (PC and Mac) on www.myoovooday.com
• ooVoo Group on Facebook

Hosts of My ooVoo Day:
Mitch Joel/Six Pixels of Separation
Steve Hall/AdRants
Bob Garfield/AdAge
Joseph Jaffe/JaffeJuice
John Wall & Christopher Penn/Marketing Over Coffee
Justine Ezarik/iJustine.tv and Tasty Blog Snack
Marshall Kirkpatrick/ReadWriteWeb
Irina Slutsky/GeekEntertainment.tv
Chris Thilk/Movie Marketing Madness
Karen Putz/A Deaf Mom Shares Her World
Erin Kotecki Vest/Queen of Spain
Dave Delaney/Two Boobs and a Baby +
Jack Myers & Friends/Media Village
David Meerman Scott/The New Rules of Marketing & PR
Geoff Livingston/Now Is Gone
Allan Cox/Your Inner CEO
George Parker/AdScam
Scott Sigler
Chris Brogan
C.C. Chapman
Susan Reynolds/Boobs on Ice
Laura “Pistachio” Fitton

About ooVoo

• ooVoo provides free real-time video communication technology that allows up to six people to connect simultaneously for video conversations online.
• ooVoo’s high-quality video and audio enables people to experience a face-to-face connection and share emotions over the Internet in a way that no other communication medium permits.
• All you need is a computer, broadband connection and a Web cam.
• ooVoo video conversations and video messages can be recorded for sharing and posting to social media sites.
• ooVoo’s newest version includes free VoIP to any mobile or landline in the US or Canada through March 1, 2008.

One of the clearest differences I see between newer social media marketing types and more traditional – yet digital savvy – advertising vets is the way they present themselves online.

Social media types will give you all of their contact info. Their emails, their places on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Pownce, LinkedIn, Jaiku, and Plaxo. They’ll tweet or twit or twitter (what is the right term anyway?) what they’re doing at that exact moment, regardless of how inane it is. Consider the following that I see on my computer screen:

“applebee’s it is. <sigh>”

“dogs heads out of car windows today in DC”

“You are stronger than a bagel”

Got that?  This is how some spend our weekend afternoons. Odd as these might seem, there’s nothing wrong with that. I guess. That’s part of the culture of social media types. Or anyone who’s likely to use Twitter extensively.

But then there’s the folks who have been in advertising a bit longer. They’re not digital dumb and they’re not skeptical of all of what social media people talk about. But they’ve been through a lot and they’ve got great insight and they have their finger on the pulse of how the ad industry is and how it’s changing. They usually understand the mentality of clients better than frustrated social media strategists who often rightfully complain that the traditional marketing types “don’t get it”, but mistakenly view established strategies and venues as being completely ineffective and obsolete.

The thing that most telling is that many of the traditional types that blog won’t reveal their true identity. They create certain personas in order to be able to write freely. I get the impression that they’re itching to tell it like it is, but don’t want to deal with all the blowback.

The ad industry is a tough industry. Can be harsh, cannibalistic. Filled with people who are convinced of their own creative talent yet think that the current state of the industry absolutely sucks. Yet for all this cynicism, it seems that if anyone sticks their neck out and challenges that mentality – or anything for that matter – could be asking to have their heads cut off and then attacked by a swarm of hornets.

So I admire these intrepid types. I learn from them. I love getting their insight and call out the haughtiness of both stick-in-the-mud uber traditionalists and some of the cocky younger colleagues who have decided that the entire marketing industry has officially changed because they say so.

So here are a few of my favorites

Tangerine Toad - Toad’s blog is actually The Toad Stool and it’s a must read for me. He’s a NY-based CD who is sharp enough to see both the pretentiousness and strengths of traditional advertising and both the promise and the hype of new media. And he’s created two great categories on his blog, Your Brand is Not My Friend and Not Everyone is a Upscale Urban 30Something White Male Hipster. I love them both because most people don’t want every brand they buy to be their friends. They just want to buy a product and be done with it. And so many ads out there seem to be designed to appeal to the same demographic that’s creating the ads, when most of us aren’t that demographic.

There’s new friend AdBroad who’s been in the business for over 30 years and has had to deal with sexism on one end, and now ageism on the other. Through it all, she’s learned way more than many of today’s young hotshots would want to admit.

AgencySpy’s got a great idea going on. He or she’s got a blog that allows ad agency types to send in the scoop as to what’s going on behind the scenes. Plus he or she has their own biting commentary.  And biting = humorous.

MultiCultClassics takes a look at the industry from a VERY underrepresented group in today’s advertising arena: African Americans. I have no idea who this guy is either. His blog was one of several I turned to when writing what has become the most viewed post here on Marketing Conversation.

And then there’s Where’s My Jetpack? who explains his blog by writing “Back when we were kids, the advertising people told us that “in the future” we’d all be free from disease and living in peace, flying around with our own jetpacks. The future is now…and we’re still waiting.” With that, I knew it would be great read.

So there’s a list of my anonymous All-Stars. Check ‘em out.

Me too.

You want to get back to the show, the game, the newscast. See the bad guy get his ass nailed, the final two minutes of the tight game, or news on the latest scoop on the election cycle. The last thing you want to see is a series of presentations about pills that can make you pee better, a car that supposedly makes you cool, and a law firm that chases ambulances.

Me too.

But every once and a while, you’ll watch something that will catch your eye. It will make you laugh. Chuckle inside. You’ll be able to relate to it. Or you’ll be impressed because it’s impressive, not because the commercial is trying to pretend that it’s impressive with itself. Or you’ll think, shit, how did they do that?

Me too.

If that’s what happens, then that’s a commercial that will likely end up on Firebrand.

Firebrand is a client of ours. We’re proud to have them. They’re a new media outlet – literally. We’re proud to have them. They’re a new media outlet – literally. They’re on the web at ‘re on the web at http://www.firebrand.com and on the ION network on cable in 95 million homes. They seek out and get the world’s best commercials and play them, MTV style. From the States, Britain, Malaysia, Canada, Australia, India.

Now, let’s talk football. Let’s talk the Super Bowl. I could go off on a tangent and first talk about the great commercials, but I’m a lifelong fanatical New England Patriots fan so to me, this Sunday means football. I had to get that in.Allright, so lets’s talk about those about great commercials that the Super Bowl is known for. They get plenty of press beforehand. People do stop and watch them and they then talk about them the next day. They remember them. And they wish that all TV ads were that good.

We’ll, this week Firebrand will be celebrating ads of Super Bowls past all week long. Then on Monday, February 4th, they’ll be hosting “Firebrand Monday”, showing all the ads from the previous day’s Big Game. Viewers will be treated to the likes of Terry Tate, Office Linebacker and Carmen Electra

Here’s the lineup for the week.

Monday January 28th: “BIG TIME ATHLETES” in classic Big Game commercials

Tuesday January 29th: “BIG BUDGET PRODUCTIONS” for classic Big Game commercials

Wed January 30th: “CHICKS IN CHARGE” in classic Big Game commercials

Thursday January 31st: “BIG TIME CELEBRITIES” in classic Big Game commercials

Friday February 1st: “BIG TIME BRANDS” in classic Big Game commercials

Monday February 4th: IT’S FIREBRAND MONDAY, THE DAY AFTER THE BIG GAME – CELEBRATE THE HOLIEST DAY IN ADVERTISING WITH THE OFFICE LINEBACKER, CARMEN ELEKTRA AND CLASSIC BIG GAME COMMERCIALS!

Apparently we digital marketing types have a good future. At least that’s what Accenture tells us via their recent survey of 70 advertising, technology, and media industry leaders. But more telling is their view of who is the most likely to suffer because of the evolution and integration of digital technologies into our lives: traditional ad agencies. Via Adverganza, ClickZ, Five Blogs Before Lunch, Pushing Envelope, Think Multicultural.

That’s right. Traditional ad agencies. Forty three percent of the respondents said that these entities would suffer as opposed to 33 for broadcasters.

This shouldn’t be, but it easily could end up being the case. I’ve seen many a mid-size agency here in the DC area treat anything related to the internet – besides building an occasional website – as something from another planet. It may be radioactive so we don’t want to touch it. If we ignore it, it will probably go away.

It isn’t.

You’d figure these agencies would get the drift and evolve. You’d figure that they’d be learning new media inside and out. But apparently, many of them aren’t.

The number one reason that traditioanl agencies are set to struggle is related to media usage. We’re no longer a mass audience. We use media differently. More personal. So the marketing is more personal. And sometimes creating it ourselves.

The two industries most likely to gain? Search marketers and digital ad specialists. Half of the respondents say this will happen within 5 years, 80 percent within ten.

The November 8^th edition of The Economist has an article that asks us “Will Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites transform advertising?”

In truth, the article is poorly written. It asks the wrong question, it’s lazily researched, and it provides little actual theory or empirical evidence to justify the premise they are trying to suppose. Perhaps the reason for this is that The Economist is a general news publication – one that I respect – and that the article was intended for a mainstream readership that’s likely mostly interested in reading about general trends and not deeper analysis. But nevertheless…

The question as to whether Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites will transform advertising is off. It I was asked this, I’d have to say no. Not really. (First of all, it’s more marketing than the subset of advertising.) To be sure, they’ll play a major role. But it isn’t the setting so much as it is the relationships that individuals will have with these very sites, with brands, and with one another. Facebook and MySpace may be great places to launch a brand or product page in an attempt to develop what many call a ‘community’. But then again, it may not. Perhaps a product oriented website equipped with social media tools will do.

The article rightfully calls this the fourth in a line of three proven online marketing categories. The first was banner and ad unit advertising. The second was online classifieds, and the third was search.

Yes, the advantage social networks have is that they’ve got millions of registered users, all of whom can tap into the social tools that the sites make available. And those tools include notification systems and the viral capabilities that are so essential to the expansion of a marketing message.

But the essence of all of this will be the interaction of the brand with individuals and the individuals with others of what the brand is hoping that it is creating…a burgeoning community. And that’s where it gets tough. That’s because many, if not most brands, don’t lend themselves to be naturally community building entities on social media sites.

It’s going to take real talent for brand managers, ad agencies, and social media strategist to create successful online marketing campaigns using the strategies we all talk and blog about. Too often I read the typical “you must engage your community’ talk, talk that presupposes that a community already exists. And no – a customer base, by itself, is not a community.

Take for instance a group on Facebook that I joined this morning as a result of reading the article. SpriteSips. Truth be told, I’m a Sprite lover. Always have been. But I joined not because of a lifelong affinity for the soft drink, but because I wanted to see how this online experiment will go. Seems I’m not alone…about half of the hundred or so ‘friends’ of SpriteSips were either from the Coca-Cola company, or from the interactive industry, or worked for Facebook. To be fair, SpriteSips has been up for only a little over a week (thus showing some laziness in research for the article – a more in-depth analysis of the MySpace effort for the movie “300”) and it’s too soon to make any judgments as to the effectiveness of the campaign. But Sprite really isn’t a lifestyle brand like Gatorade or Red Bull or Snapple. It’s going to be a challenge to get people to be continually pumped to come back to and “engage” with a soft drink that tastes good, but one that’s common enough that you can get at McDonalds, Burger King, and Subway. My guess is that it will be moderately successful and cost effective, but it isn’t something that will show how social media shines.

Tangerine Toad has a great series on this. He calls it “Your Brand is Not My Friend”, with the hypothesis being that I may like or even love your product, but don’t assume my affinity with it goes beyond simply using it for purpose that it’s made for.

To me, the article likely will make some social media marketing types all the more enthusiastic while making skeptics all the more skeptic.

I say all of this out of respect for all of us in the social media marketing field. As I mentioned, it’s going to take real talent to harness this new type of market and make it work. It’s going to take keen minds that know what makes different types of individuals out there want to be part of and then how to properly engage with them. It’s going to be a challenge – one that I love and I’m sure you do too.

Steve Rubel has been having some great posts lately. Here’s one that got me thinking about how we view online traffic.

Online publishers and online advertisers still seem to view traffic as the most important measure for media buying decisions. Often with good reason. The nature of today’s publishing models makes it that there is no alternative that could become the predominant metric for developing ad rates for publishers and selecting media buys for advertisers.

We’ve got news sites and blogs that people want to read. We’ve got social networks that involve people wanting to interact with one another. We’ve got ecommerce sites that people want to buy things from. We’ve got sites filled with CGM that people want to experience and share. And we’ve got search engines that have been primarily used for inquiries. There are other content models out there, each having their own unique relationship model with visitors.

Content models affect the purpose of the traffic and the purpose of the traffic affects user experience which in turn affect ad models. Or something like that. I’d also argue that, on many sites, content models bypass user experience and directly affect ad models. Think MySpace and all those ringtone ads. Ridiculous.

Each of these have an effect as to how an advertiser views the quality of the audience. Which means that there are many factors a media buyer must weigh before making a purchase. And those factors will of course vary from site to site.

Then when one takes into account HOW someone gets to a site and their actual point of entry, it becomes that much more of a mess to figure out.

I’d say that the importance of traffic is on a sliding scale, depending on all of the above factors and more.

This is why I think that the combination of behaviorial and contextual advertising is all the more important. That’s because, if you are an advertiser, you are buying something that is both topical (contextual) and reflective of a mindset and the actions that come from that mindset (behavioral). It makes sense both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Just like the alternative, search engine marketing.

This morning I read two important posts written by Greg Sterling on his blog Screenwerk. One is Nielsen – WebVisible Data on Local Search. The other is New Findings on SMBs and User Reviews. It left me more and more convinced how local businesses must view the internet as a marketing and business development source, and as a customer relations and reputation management tool.

Now I’m combining the results of two surveys both taken on line, so bear with me but Greg teamed with Opus Research and AllBusiness.com to put forward a survey that netted them 1200 respondents. AllBusiness.com’s users and members are SMBs (small & medium businesses). Of those 1200, 55% said that they had a website. That figure is smaller that I would expect – which is a good sign. That’s because it means that it probably wasn’t heavily populated by web savvy or tech oriented companies.

Now the Nielsen-WebVisible survey found that 86% said that they had used the Internet to find a local business to actually shop at. And as far as usage, 78% responded that they use the internet more today to find a local business than they had done two years previously and that an additional 20% use it the same amount. Combined, that’s 98%. Wow.

What we’re seeing is that a significantly large (and getting larger) percentage of people – people who are looking to conduct some sort of business- use the internet to locate businesses within the category of the product and/or service of what they need…on a local basis.

This obviously underscores the tremendous need today for SMBs to have websites. Not having one is ludicrous. But it also points to the fact that, in today’s arena, it PAYS to develop an online marketing plan for one’s SMB. It should include SEO and SEM for most. Banners at times. Email marketing to current customers. Each business will have different needs and all of these methods may not apply, but we also find out from the Nielsen-WebVisible survey that 52% use telephone directories less now than they did two years ago. Disclosure: I still use mine and have no plans to use it less.

Now there’s going to be a gap here. And the gap is that many smaller businesses mistakenly view advertising as an expense. And they’ll go for the tried and true. Yellow pages and flyers. Or they’ll rely on something that is very effective, but may not be enough: word of mouth.

To be sure, in Greg’s survey, 60% of the repondents said that more than 50% of their business comes from referrals. And 30% said that more than 75% come from that same source. You won’t find me dissing WOM…

…so I’ll say this. I think a lot of business owners put too much stock in their product and/or service and rely on word-of-mouth…which while being very effective can be very slow. Which is why I think they’ll need to invest in some online strategies.

But going back to WOM, we see the internet is increasingly playing a major role. Greg also found out that 64% or respondents knew of online review sites and that 30% regularly check these reviews. About one-quarter of them said that these reviews led to new business.

So people are searching for and finding local business via the internet. They are then reading (or writing) online reviews. More evidence that developing an online strategy is becoming ever more important.

Close to 60% of respondents felt that customer reviews are “a good thing and help us improve our business”. Improve means that a business sort of has a free focus group online. And then it adds their favorite marketing tool…word-of-mouth.

Now a lot of Greg’s respondents not only recognize the importance of these reviews, they apparently understand that it’s important to address – no, wait, I’ll say that word – ENGAGE – their customers/reviewers because over 50% had contacted unhappy customers to address complaints. That’s a very smart thing to do.

This brings me to a final point. Online reputation management. Still today, with 45% of the respondents here without website, it shows that many SMBs are very much behind the eight ball. Because a company doesn’t have a website, or they have one that one of the officer’s nephews built four years ago, doens’t mean that they’re not being talked about online. And, if you are a business owner, you want to be the most prominent, the most central web presence out there.

I see a tremendous opportunity for not only local search, but local marketing, bizdev, and customer/business relation management that’s going on RIGHT NOW.

Chris Cunningham of Freewebs has put forward a suggested metric for measuring the effectiveness of widgets as an advertising vehicle. In a MediaPost article, Widget Marketing Metrics That Matter, he outlines the three metrics that matter most: views, usage, and uploads/installs.

Uploads/installs are obviously the most important as it shows how many people have gone out of their way and chosen to bring a particular brand (or at least the brand’s widget) into their online presence for others to see and potentially interact with.

Usages play a key role because is involves a visitor who has chosen to embark on that interaction. To experience what the widge has to offer, so to speak.

And views are important because they likely go beyond spreading brand recognition. That’s because the view implicity knows that the person that downloaded the widget is giving that widget an endorsement of sorts. A de facto word of mouth.

So Chris came up with following formula to measure the effectiveness of widgets.

X Uploads = YX Usage = ZX Views = Z’X Banner Ad Impressions

OK. I’m trying to figure out what we’ve got here. This seems to be strictly a qualitative equation. It doesn’t seem to establish a relationship between Z and Y. I would think that would be key because it would draw a relationship between how often a widget was notice and how often someone chose to interact with it. And is YX the total amount of usages/ZX the total amount of views? Or are the measurements of the effectiveness of the usages and the views?

I’ve emailed Chris to learn more because I think that this is an interesting concept. And I agree with what Chris wrote around all of this equation.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had by butt in a math class. :)

Check out the article in last Thursday’s Times, Dealing With the Damage From Online Critics, that addresses how to handle consumers who develop a personal vendetta against your company. Well, you could send lawyers but legal cease-and-desists generally just make the customer madder than hell and it isn’t hard to just start yet another attack site.

I hate to say it, sucking less always helps. Start with treating your customers better. Also, be sure to register lots of domain names and work on your online reputation aggressively before it becomes a problem.

Online, the best defense is a good offense and an ounce of online promotion is worth a pound of cure. Here are some great commented-by-me excerpts from the article, Dealing With the Damage From Online Critics, so you can get a gist:

As the power of the Internet grows, businesses small and large find themselves confounded by disenchanted employees, suppliers and competitors who seek fertile ground to air grievances online.

Armed with little more than a Web connection and a keyboard, these detractors can do everything from irritate, via a scathing review, to causing serious business problems by using message boards to reveal company secrets or spread rumors of unethical behavior. They may also start a gripe site or register a Web address in their target’s name.

There is not a lot you can do here so the best way to make sure you’re safe online is by making sure there is a whole lot of conversation about you, your brand, and your company well before anyone says anything, and they will, eventually.

It’s from Stat 101: the more data points there are the less any particular one point will effect the total. If you’re nowhere online, then one attack can demolish you. If, however, you’re ubiquitous, then any negative ad will probably not even cross your first few pages on Google anyway.

And, if it does, an appeasement policy does work: this person is not Hitler, this person just feels like he’s not being heard. I mean, I have done this sort of thing myself with Media Temple.

Their Director of Customer Support called me but his appeasement sucked because his gift wasn’t what I wanted, it is what he was authorized to give. Not enough. I just wanted to be appeased and so he never got the posts off of my blog and never will. I ended up leaving MT and will never recommend them ever again.

In fact, I am adamant that people stay away from Media Temple because I think Media Temple sucks (see what I just did there?)

Remedies vary by case and by state, but lawyers, Internet specialists and others counsel that the best course with may be to ignore irritating posts because trying to squelch a malcontent can have unintended consequences.

Beware of the unintended consequence, something we call blowback in DC. Reacting, responding, or arguing in a comment thread is basically engaging with a Tar Baby. There is no way you’re ever going to come out alive unless you come in very open, very sorry, and have a legitimate solution. Otherwise, if you’re ornery, you’ll have your ass handed to you.

“Your reaction often, if you’re a small business, is to get angry and to fire off a letter,” said Barry Werbin, an intellectual property lawyer at Herrick, Feinstein in New York. “Some big companies do it. More often than not, the person who posts the gripe site can’t wait to get that letter and post it.”

Sometimes, Mr. Werbin added, “it can worsen the damage because it just fuels the fire.”

This is super important — the best reason to hire a company like Abraham Harrison is because we know when not to react. As I always say, don’t respond, reply, react: message and counter-message!However, it is always smart to ask web hosts, web companies, the blogger, etc, very nicely to remove the content, especially after the issue has been resolved by you. Don’t get angry, don’t get even, get your “the customer is always right” hat on and start solving problems.

That the the owner of the gym in the article wouldn’t refund the $100 to the lady-in-question was just a seriously self-destructive rule. Katie Lambert is a moron. Now, she is known as a moron in the New York Times as well because this article makes her seam petty and cheap, surely prissy and pretty bad at customer service, that’s for sure.

Shit, if you own the company, “the rules” can always be ignored — rules are for dumb employees who have no authority so that spineless customers who don’t know their rights can tell their spouses that they tried and there was “nothing I could do.”

“New consumer opinion gets posted about every five seconds,” said Rob Crumpler, chief executive of Buzz Logic, which helps businesses identify influential bloggers.

Samantha DiGennaro, who runs her own strategic communications consulting firm in New York, says many companies either run scared from electronic media or fail to realize how quickly negative comments can jet around the Internet.

“People think, ‘It’s only on the Web. It’s not that important.’ But it’s almost more important than a newspaper or something in print,” she said. “Things live in perpetuity on the Web.”

Spoken words and even IM is “ephemeral,” meaning it is said and dissipates. When you post a blog entry or write a review, it goes on a permanent record. Since most companies have have websites that are essential “brochure-ware,” if there are enough negative reviews, these reviews can even place higher on Google than the company itself!

And, this “blog effect” even works for people who don’t have the Super Ninja SEO skills that I have just because Google favors deep sites, sites with lots of inbound and outbound links, sites with keyword-rich textual links, sites that are easy to “recognize” because they use predictable architecture, and also sites that are updated frequently. Google favors frequently-updated content above any other because Google is always afraid of missing something. Google wants to be first so Google will always index something fast and often if it is a site that is being constantly-updated — like a blog, a message board, or a review site! Ha!

Some large marketers may blog or respond anonymously. Ms. DiGennaro said appropriate responses were not one size fits all and must be tailored to the particular case. If something merits being addressed, she said, it can better be done in the name of the company rather than hiding behind anonymous postings.

Good lord, do not astroturf — it might seem like a great idea but it will give you nothing but pain!

Finally, Defensive Search Engine Optimization (Defensive SEO) works! It works! And here’s how, in a nutshell:

On the technical front, a search engine optimization expert can tweak a site so that it moves a positive posting higher in an Internet search, tending to bury the negative one. Shailen Lodhia, vice president for sales at Submit Express, an optimization firm in Burbank, Calif., estimated results could take three months to a year, and monthly retainers could exceed $3,000.

The best defense is a good offense. Useful practices include registering personalized e-mail addresses as well as gripe domain names — not with the intention of using them but to prevent others doing so. Registering common misspellings as well as derogatory domain names is a good precaution and so is covering extensions like .biz and .org. Costs are minimal, some lower than $50 a year.

And here is the money-shot of the entire article: you will not only be judge on the dumb or good things you do, but people know that you can really judge a company during a fit of rage, so you will also be judged by how you respond!

“Some people, for whatever reason, aren’t going to like or appreciate what you’re selling,” she said. “Accept this as normal, and you won’t stay awake at night letting a disgruntled client or a negative person who decided not to use your services bring you down with what will be transparently obvious to most people as sour grapes feedback.”

Angie Hicks, founder of Angie’s List, a member-generated ratings service where users report their positive or negative experiences with local contractors, said every company gets complaints at some time, but the way it responds can be more telling than the complaint itself.

“You can really see how that company is going to stand by their work based on how they handle problems that come up,” she said.

Don’t even try to attack, to counter-attack, to start making excuses, or by insulting or defaming your attacker. Remember what I told you about the tar-baby? Well, waging war with online conversation is an insurgency and requires asynchronous warfare techniques… I like to call them asynchronous marketing and asynchronous PR — forget about it, I already locked down the domain names!

McKinsey posted a report on the results of a survey they recently took of marketing executives. It’s called How Companies are Marketing Online. The report may not have earth shattering findings, but it does offer some key insights into the future if you read between the lines.Three things stood out in my opinion.

One is that current levels of spending and implementation are quite low as compared to how marketers and other decision makers perceive the overall effectiveness of online marketing.  This will mean that future investment in online marketing is bright as the level of investment will catch up with this perception.

The second was the lack of understanding of various facets of online marketing and how these facets should be integrated, implemented, and measured.

Many marketers also felt that, while they themselves and their internal folks weren’t up to speed quite yet when it came to online marketing, the marketing agencies that they used weren’t as well.

And this was a contributing factor in the delay of implementing strategies.The third was that the majority of respondents felt that online marketing was more efficient than traditional marketing. This underscores the expectation of the growth in online spend.

And fortifying this was that marketing online was roughly equally as good for brand building and direct response.Early in the report, it mentions that respondents expect that the majority of their customers will discover new products or services while they are online. A full one third of them will purchase them there.

Also, 10 percent of sales will come from online channels, an increase of 100% of what it is today. These expectations are going to be the impetus behind the increased spending that we’ll see.I can’t help but see this as a continued strategy of seeking to get immediate ROI, a factor that may have limited growth at this point.

And I’ve always viewed that as a mistake. The reason I see it as a mistake is that companies need to invest in knowledge and experience to develop and implement the right strategies as opposed to wait a while and finally invest money in what they may view as only tactics. Indeed, the report mentions that 42% of the respondents felt a greater investment in the overall capabilities would have made their initial investments more effective.

That’s because the online arena is not going to be a place where you toss out a conglomeration of tactics and hope they stick. Together they formulate a strategy and a very important one at that.Significantly, many of the companies that advertise online see it as both a brand building and direct response vehicle.

And that includes search advertising. I see this making sense for several reasons. People, as a whole, whether they are acting as a consumer or a business purchaser, have taken in the internet deeper into their lives. It is no longer relatively new.

It is a necessary part of one’s life. With this, online experiences become richer. So people go online to learn and to get information. Ergo, effective online advertising helps build brands and increases direct sales.Finally, companies that have been making significant online investments are including collaborative tools for customer retention and brand building.

This is important because we in the so-called echo chamber have been saying that companies must ‘engage’ their customers online. Get in conversations. You know, a Marketing Conversation.

Google hates high-design websites. Google needs plaintext. People hate high-design websites after they get past the wow-factor because high-design websites tend to lead with form over function, confusing people with innovations in design rather than innovations in usability. Graphic designers might be the bane of my existence as a technology strategist and an expert in SEO. PR folks aren’t the only people who don’t get Web2.0.

I spend most of my time undoing all of the mistakes that graphic designer have saddled my clients with: gorgeous sites made entirely with Flash, Shockwave, Quicktime, GIFs, JPGs, and PNGs.

If you want to develop a modern, powerful, informative, and current web resource, you need to lead with innovation, technology, usability, accessibility, and content. If you lead with design, you’re probably building a beautifully pathetic Web 1.0 web site, maybe even Web 0.0.

Abraham Harrison LLC specializes search engine optimization, Internet strategy, new marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, grassroots outreach, and online reputation management. My personal expertise is in what is known as Web 2.0.

These high-design site made of “sliced images” or “Flash blogs” are shallow sites devoid of text, architecture, copy, permalinks, meta-data, tags, categories, site maps, keywords, descriptions, or anything else.

After 15-years of surfing the web, you would think that graphic designers would learn to stop trying to bring print design to the web. There are many offenses that place graphic designers squarely in the camp of web 0.0 but the worst of which is the lack of the permanent link-to, making it impossible for bloggers, social bookmarking sites, or social networks to link direction to explicit pages on a larger site.

Many “Flash blobs” — web sites that are basically a platform for gorgeous Macromedia Flash-based websites — don’t offer ways to bookmark particular content such as the Contact page, the Directions page, or the Services page.

Mediaweek reported last week that MSN is going to limit it’s veiwers pre-roll exposure to what it had currently been. I don’t think it goes far enough but it sure is a step in the right direction.

Until now, their system had been set up to feed you an ad that depended on the amount of seperate videos you had watched. That often resulted in seeing a :30 repurposed TV ad for a :18 news story. The new method will deliver those intrusive ads after a viewer has viewed three minutes of video.

The time proportion of new-to-commerical will surely be better. But what it is missing is context. At times, one most defiinitley doesn’t want their user experience to be conintually interrupted by and ad for some sort of headache pill or car. They’re clicking on to read about a natural disaster, a plane crash, or someting else vital.

MSN and others are going to have to come up with models that are more contextual, less intrusive, and frankly, less frequent. User experience online is different. And getting a new commercial every three minutes is still mind numbing.

I asked Kevin to write a blog post (which rocked) based on my assumption that the US is headed towards a recession based on the devaluation of the dollar, the housing market slump, and the war in Iraq. I believe that marketing and advertising online is recession-proof, especially as attention profiling and behavioral targeting strategies improve and ads become customized to each the unique hopes, dreams, needs, wants, and context of users online.

My premise, in short, is that folks will hunker down during this recession with only the “Internet” to keep them company, in the form of VOIP, IPTV, social media, MMORPGs, and networked video games.

Essentially, folks will spend all of their attention online so there will be more ad and marketing dollars spent online in order to reach them. During the upcoming recession, search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), new marketing, online outreach, online engagement, online advocacy, viral and word-of-mouth marketing, targeted direct marketing, and laser-targets online ad buys will thrive because they’re relatively cheap, focused, and where the people are, while print ads, commercials, and radio spots will plummet: too much buck for the bang.

We’re going to have a recession. let’s just make that assumption.

Usually, during a recession, ad revenues drop. My argument is that during a recession, people stay home more. Web surfing is cheap, amusing, plentiful, and also most amusing with broadband. While people may cut down cable, they will keep their Internet connection — and will hunker-down on the Internet while they’re low on personal spending money, on discretionary income.

My dad was an photographer and ad man in Hawaii during a recession in Japan that totally gutted the the Hawaiian economy. Traditionally, the first thing companies do when the shit hits the fan is pull ad dollars.

In that scenario, my dad’s company almost shuttered. What this shakedown did, however, was created stock photography and video, killing the bespoke day-rate on-site corporate photographer. Something always comes out in the end.

Downturns result in a need to make systems more efficient and more effective. It just wasn’t affordable for agencies to hire shooters to do shoots, bespoke. There were too many variables and all the risk was on the shoulders of the client. Stock photography changed all of that: cheaper and oftentimes better, since the shooter incurs the risk and the stock is “all the best of all time” and not the best that a particular day, week, or season had to offer.

How effective is plastering walls with bills or standing on a soap box when people are at home and online? How effective are commercials on cable channels people drop as a “luxury?” How worthwhile are those magazine ads when people drop their subscriptions to GQ and O?

The Internet is a commodity. Broadband is no longer a luxury — people are not willing to either go back to “rabbit ears” or to dial up. Folks will keep their basic cable, I am sure — it is a commodity — and they will keep their Internet, another commodity.

Is it very interesting time. I guess this is sort of a prediction. We’ll see if it all comes true. Check out that Canadian Loonie, eh?

Well, at the end of the day, I will always quote Kevin Donlan quoting someone else:

“When times are good, you should advertise. When times are bad, you must advertise.”

In today’s New York Times an interesting article graced the front page of the Business Day section. It seems that MySpace (more specifically Fox Interactive Media who owns the social network) is looking to boost revenues by tailoring its advertisements to particular users. As of now the “monetization technology group” at Fox Interactive Media has developed a program that scans for certain keywords/interests/likes in a users profile and targets the ads they will see directly to them.

This does not seem inherently wrong to me. Good for them trying to boost monthly revenue up to $70 million from the $40 million a month MySpace is currently generating. As far as I see there is not much difference in this and the way Yahoo, AOL, and Microsoft chart my daily internet traipses to try to figure out what ad to bombard me with next. I sometimes even appreciate an occasional hot tip on a new travel agency or what not (by sometimes I really mean almost never).

The problem with this new MySpace venture is that users are for the most part unaware of the tactics being used to target them for a certain advertisement. (Did I know what cookies were when they first started being used against me? Only that they were delicious.) In this world of consumerism though, I think even the tweens using MySpace to connect with other tweens around the nation can smell something fishy when after mentioning Brad Pitt three times they start seeing a lot more ads for his next movie. So hell, in that case, go get ‘em MySpace… buyer beware and what not.

However, I do have to stand on the side of the privacy advocates on one point. Arnie Gullov-Singh speaking on behalf of MySpace said, “We want them [advertisers] to leave knowing more about their audience then when they came into the door”(NYT and yes I see the typo they left in, it should read than not then). I understand that MySpace could really use advertisers’ attention what with Facebook becoming so hip these days – and experimenting with similar advertising services, but this is where I see a problem. Users of MySpace are already going to be attacked by these oh-so-enticing advertisements geared directly towards them and in addition to this MySpace is going to help the advertisers know MORE about their target audience. Social network users would surely not like to know that not only are they being monitored but that their “private” information is being sent out to corporations for the purpose of being able to sell them more things. I place “private” in quotation marks here since clearly everyone who is using a social network must be aware at this point that not only people they want to see their profiles are able to access them.

I guess in some ways it can’t be helped. A service that provides some good or entertainment will eventually be used to sell you something. Those price saving cards at the grocery stores sell your information to all kinds of interested corporations. When you pop on your favorite TV show “the man” has made sure he knows who will most likely be watching before deciding what ads to air.

There does seem to be some upside to this in that eventually MySpace is hoping to open up the service to smaller organizations, groups, corporations looking to draw audiences/clients with specific interests and or locations. I guess they won me over using the idea of a Seattle punk band that would be able to look for an audience for their upcoming show through this service. I have a soft spot for punk bands that lack audience members. (A nice idea, but I have a feeling like the big guns will be using this service for much more profit and for much longer than the little guns.)

You tell me. – Is it fair that MySpace accumulate information about its users and systematically sell it for profit? Is that a fair question since it seems almost everyone is doing this already?