You can buy attention (advertising)
You can beg for attention from the media (PR)
You can bug people one at a time to get attention (sales)
Or you can earn attention by creating something interesting and valuable and then publishing it online: a YouTube video, a blog, a research report, photos, a Twitter stream, an ebook, a Facebook page.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hat tip to Randy for opening my eyes to the simplicity of this as an explanation of social media marketing.
Mike Arrington over at TechCrunch wrote about Facebook’s recent valuation based on common stock purchase by DST. The original share buyback was oversubscribed at a $14.77 per share price (roughly $6.5 billion valuation). This most recent sales were done at $25/share, which values Facebook at roughly $11 billion.
What is interesting, other than the fact that we are again looking down the barrel of a dot com bubble, is that I was working on a social networking project a few years ago and our wildest dreams pegged the project at a billion dollar valuation.
At that time, MySpace had just sold to News Corp for about $5.8 million and a billion dollars seemed like the most logical – yet ambitious – price ceiling to break through.
Here we are, 5 years later, looking at an $11 billion dollar valuation of Facebook and they haven’t implemented the elements that made our product different. Are we sitting on the next $100 billion dollar social project?
Two years ago, when Facebook launched its advertising platform, it included a “pay per install” choice. Since then, millions of dollars have been spent on application install campaigns. Many application brands, however, are realizing the difficulty in getting users to return regularly – identifying a serious weekness in this type of advertising model.
Because of this, advertisers are turning to a “pay per fan” model which takes advantage of the greater number of people who remain fans long after they abandon the initial application. As far as I can tell, many brand networks trying this new pay per fan approach seem to like it.
Look forward to this tactic to be wide-spread as everyone searches for ways to remarketing to existing customers and fans.
Wednesday’s unveiling of Google Sidewiki did something pretty eye-opening. It forced every company in the world with a website to get hip to social media and do it now.
Essentially, anyone who downloads a browser toolbar for Firefox or Internet Explorer, with one for Google’s Chrome soon to come, can add comments and notes to a sidebar expansion of any website. Even yours. Without your permission or even knowledge.
And remember what Google does best … serves up relevant advertising in search results. I would expect your competitors will have the opportunity to place their ads on your Sidewiki soon, too. (Of course, you would be able to place yours on theirs, too.)
While Google is a technology company, not a social media company, what their latest technology does is force feed social media on the world. If you weren’t ready for conversations with customers this morning, you’d better get ready by tonight … or faster. People are probably commenting on your site as we speak.
Google’s promotional video (below) paints a pretty picture, asking the following:
What if you could easily contribute to any web page and help others?
What if you could learn from others who have visited a page before you?
It indicates the Sidewiki will lead to pages having:
Expert insights on important issues
Helpful tips as you browse
Background information for more history
Added perspective on new technology
Oh, what a wonderful world it would be? Unfortunately, that’s not the world we live in. What Google Sidewiki also allows for is insults, spam and other potentially damaging comments to be added to your website’s experience. Without your permission.
However, it should be noted that not everyone is going to download the browser toolbar and see the comments. Out of that subset of the population, fewer of them will actually place comments or participate in the discussions. Of that small set of the population, though, you’ll need more brand fans than brand detractors. Are you ready for that?
While it is true that brand conversations are happening all over the web and companies should listen and participate in order to both mitigate problems, but also embrace consumer feedback and interaction, this changes the game because the comments are attached to the website in question. They aren’t on a page on an unrelated or unattached blog, wiki or social network.
Some important points:
The content is technically on Google’s servers and fed into the sidebar of those who download it. It’s not actually on your website. What this means is that Google has turned the browser into a supplement of your website, however. Legally, you don’t own the browser and the user opts in to the Sidewiki by downloading it and agreeing to the terms of service. So if you’re considering a lawsuit, I’m afraid you don’t have much chance to fight it.
While users are free to leave whatever comment they want, they have to be logged in as a Google user. So, unlike the awful comments in most newspaper’s websites, there’s at least a shred of accountability for who leaves them. Anyone can sign up for a free account, though, so the turds will be turds.
Users have the option of rating a comment as useful and reporting abuse. Google is, thus, relying on the community to weed out the bad stuff. You can only add your vote, though, not control what’s said on your site.
While I’m excited about the technology and the positives of having both context and perspective from erstwhile website visitors to enhance the browsing experience, I’m bothered at the supposition that the world is ready for this. This software feature is the online equivalent of people suddenly being allowed to post graffiti, flyers and posters all over the front of your building.
Jeremiah Owyang has some great insights and implications you should consider as a marketer or executive of a company in light of this development. His advice is sound and worth following. But Jeremiah falls short of the reality of the situation: Few businesses in the world are plugged in to the social vibe or are Starbucks buddies with the Silicon Valley set. There are going to be a lot of companies upset about this. While I agree this is where the world is going and businesses need to move toward understanding and embracing both the technology and the communications implications of its implementation, just telling them they have to is short-sighted.
Still, go read his advice. It’s sound and no one is going to give you better. Just get a big glass of water before. That pill is going to be a bitter one to swallow for some.
As most sophisticated marketers know by now, performance advertising on Facebook is significantly different from search engine marketing. While SEM is fundamentally keyword-targeted, meaning advertisers bid on keywords, Facebook Ads is fundamentally profile-targeted, meaning advertisers bid on people. As a result, the ad copy, call to action, and graphics need to be rethought and re-designed for the “people-targeted” Facebook world – not just copied and pasted from your Google AdWords campaign.
Facebook ads allow for Location Targeting, Keyword Targeting, Connection & Group Targeting, Age and Gender Targeting, Birthday Targeting, Education Targeting, Workplace, and Language Targeting
CNET News reports that the economy is taking its toll on social-networking sites. eMarketer reduced its global forecast for advertising in the sector this year to $2.3 billion, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
Social networks, on a worldwide basis, are expected to post advertising growth of 17 percent this year, compared with eMarketer’s earlier projections of a 32 percent growth rate, the Journal noted.
The revised forecast follows a cut eMarketer made in December, when it reduced its U.S. projections for social-network advertising spending in 2009 to $1.3 billion.
That 2009 revision translated into a U.S. growth rate of 10.2 percent for social networks, compared with its earlier forecast of a 53 percent growth rate.
In some regards, the revised global forecast comes as no surprise, given that the United States accounts for a little more than half of the total advertising spending on social networks worldwide.
We ask the question, is social advertising even the way of the future? When we use social networking sites, we are socializing – not looking at ads.
In an interesting marketing “tactic”, Markus Frind – CEO of Plentyoffish.com, announced that he will be rolling out some changes to the historically free dating website.
Plentyoffish has not only caught our attention, but is also reportedly one of the highest trafficked online dating sites in North America. Why? Because of the stupid simple design and the cost: free.
Why then is Frind charging a membership fee that offers zero extra incentive? Frind says, “[t]here will be no addtional features and funcationality for users, this upgrade will be strictly to signal intent to the community.”
“Signal intent” of being a serious online dater. Interesting.
Account upgrades will be in 3, 6, and 12-month increments and will give “serious” members a gold star in their profile page to indicate their seriousness. According to Frind, typical paid dating sites monetize on impulse during the sign up process. Plentyoffish, on the other hand, will monetize on “user intent”, he says.
By: Plentyoffish.com
We will follow this and report as we know more, certainly an interesting tactic.
For those of you with Google AdSense on your websites, Google is asking/requiring/suggesting you update your site’s privacy policy by April 8th, 2009.
Google will now be collecting additional data on your visitors past history to gain “interest categories” to determine what your visitor may like to see ads for.
Here is what Google e-mailed to all AdSense publishers:
Interest-based advertising will allow advertisers to show ads based on a user’s previous interactions with them, such as visits to advertiser website and also to reach users based on their interests (e.g. “sports enthusiast”). To develop interest categories, we will recognize the types of web pages users visit throughout the Google content network. As an example, if they visit a number of sports pages, we will add them to the “sports enthusiast” interest category. To learn more about your associated account settings, please visit the AdSense Help Center at http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=20310.
As a result of this announcement, your privacy policy will now need to reflect the use of interest-based advertising. Please review the information at https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=100557 to ensure that your site’s privacy policies are up-to-date, and make any necessary changes by April 8, 2009. Because publisher sites and laws vary across countries, we’re unfortunately unable to suggest specific privacy policy language.
Micro-blogging is a form of multimedia blogging that allows users to send brief text updates (usually 140 characters or fewer) or micromedia such as photos or audio clips and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging,email, digital audio or the web.
The content of a micro-blog differs from a traditional blog in that it is typically more topical, smaller in aggregate file size (e.g. text, audio or video) but is the same in that people utilize it for both business and individual reasons. Many micro-blogs provide this short commentary on a person-to-person level, or share news about a company’s products and services.
If you use Facebook, you will soon notice a change in the layout of their pages. To say it is “Twitter inspired” would be an understatement, but that led us to ask: “Is there a difference?”
Facebook began rolling out its new Twitter-like home page today. (Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman / CNET Networks)
Twitter, the micro-blogging site, has taken off among the über need-to-be-connected crowd, and Facebook has recognized this phenomenon and realized that this is segment of users is within their business plan.
In terms of business owners, Twitter can be a bit much to wrap your head around. Because of this, we recommend using Facebook – especially as it continues to evolve and stay current to trends – for staying in touch with your customers and fans.
If you haven’t already, go set up a Facebook page for your business, target adding your Top 9% customers, and use your new online presence to communicate (positive and negative feedback) with your new “friends”. Use status updates to communicate specials, changes, and promotions and establish yourself as a company that is interested in partnering with your customers.
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Two years ago, when Facebook launched its advertising platform, it included a “pay per install” choice. Since then, millions of dollars have been spent on application install campaigns. Many application brands, however, are realizing the difficulty in getting users to return regularly – identifying a serious weekness in this type of advertising model.
As most sophisticated marketers know by now, performance advertising on Facebook is significantly different from search engine marketing. While SEM is fundamentally keyword-targeted, meaning advertisers bid on keywords, Facebook Ads is fundamentally profile-targeted, meaning advertisers bid on people. As a result, the ad copy, call to action, and graphics need to be rethought and re-designed for the “people-targeted” Facebook world – not just copied and pasted from your Google AdWords campaign.
Social networks, on a worldwide basis, are expected to post advertising growth of 17 percent this year, compared with eMarketer’s earlier projections of a 32 percent growth rate, the Journal noted.
