The Social Networking Paradox: Daily Relevance and Revenue

As companies struggle to enter the social space, significant investments are being made to both create a presence on and maintain a presence in social networks. The value of these networks is obvious: millions of engaged target audience members sharing information and communicating on a scale never before seen. But how can a brand understand the relative value and public perception of a social network without expending resources entering the space?

There exists a paradox in social networking that has big implications for brands. There appears to be an inverse relationship between the daily relevance a social network has to the public and the amount of revenue it generates. Attempts to monetize create a tailspin of waning interest that eventually results in the collapse or re-engineering of the network itself.

Understanding where a social network is in the cycle of popularity can mean the difference between starting a strategy that is doomed from inception or growing constructively with a network.

Twitter, for example, is currently exploring ways to generate revenue. Some believe Twitter is already peaking in daily relevance. My assertion, however, is Twitter will be relevant for some time to come.

Marketers would be well advised to partner with an agency or consultant that understands this relationship - both where a social network is positioned and how consumers perceive that network.

I'm still working out the details of this visual - your comments are welcome!

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Twitter Is Peaking, If It Hasn't Already - Steve Rubel at 140 Characters Conference

At the 140 Characters Conference Steve Rubel, SVP, Director of Insights for Edelman Digital, gave a quick talk on activating "social media rockstars" within your organization. This applies heavily to how I approach social media campaigns. Of note Mr. Rubel disucsses how Twitter is, "peaking, if it hasn't already".

When I design social strategies and operating models for our larger clients at Maddock Douglas, I always ask the question, "If _______ was gone tomorrow, would you be OK?" Mr. Rubel does an excellent job of illustrating this point. He goes on to say that no social network has stayed mainstream longer than five years.

Social business design should be about strategy and building core competencies into your organization. The new consumer is slightly evolved from ten years ago, but the consumer of the near future will require social data at every level of the purchase decision to feel confident. Be prepared, but don't put all your eggs in one basket.

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Social Business Design and The Future Of Advertising

The folks at Dachis are abuzz today with a more detailed series of articles on social business design:

David Armano
Peter Kim
Jevon MacDonald
Kate Niederhoffer

The gist of the content is a vision of transformation from the way we view business communications today to the not too distant future where everyone is connected at every level; be they client, vendor, or CEO.

An inspiring thought to be sure - but what does it mean for advertising and the way our industry has (d)evolved over the last ten years?

Social business design - the way Dachis presents it - is something that needs to be taken on at the CEO/Board of Directors level for any large company. They aren't talking about selling in to CMOs, marketing directors, and other interested parties. These products will undoubtedly be designed to change the fundamental operating function of any company choosing to engage it, and to me that means a big uphill battle for Dachis.

Can they do it? The talent is certainly A-list, and we have not heard about the details of their plan. Creating a game changing consultancy model is certainly ambitious - how do you think social business design will transform the next 10 years of advertising?

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> Everyone Hates Social Media

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Everyone Hates Social Media

The proliferation of pundits on social media and the social web, in the last six months, has increased exponentially.

In point of fact, the last week has seen an entire nation in turmoil thanks largely to a social experience the whole world can take part in.

And, like with all things mainstream, the early adopters - who originally embraced the medium and feel some level of ownership - are growing weary of the talk, the "experts", and the people who still don't get it. I too am guilty of losing patience.

Everyone Thinks He Can Be a Social-Media Marketer - B.L. Ochman on 06.16.09 AdAge

Why I Hate Social Media - Matt Jones on 06.17.09 Adage

The Only Social-Media Guru You'll Ever Need - Ken Wheaton on 06.17.09 AdAge

What's with all the negativity? Is it the fact that there are literally thousands of people creating white noise about social media in the communities we all call home (Twitter, Facebook, etc...)? Or is it coming to terms with the fact that social media, as an advertising format, costs about the same as anything else when done correctly and takes longer than traditional media - on average - to produce results?

As an agency representative, I still see a huge gap in big brands' understanding of the commitment required to launch and maintain a winning social strategy; and the cost - both today and over time - required to maintain and grow the social business model.

Are you experiencing the same frustrations displayed in AdAge and within the advertising community at large? Share your thoughts by logging into Facebook connect, Twitter, or DISQUS and leaving a comment below.

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Facebook Forces Millions To Consider Personal Branding

Whether you are a marketer or just a Facebook fanatic, the early morning hours of June 13th, 2009 forced you to seriously consider how you represent yourself online. Choosing a user name to replace the archaic and confusing identification URL is a one-shot opportunity - you can't make a change.


How did you choose your new Facebook URL? Did you find yourself considering how others will view your new identity? Perhaps you made some fundamental changes to your profile to be in line with your new URL. Share your story in the comments below using Twitter, Facebook, or standard DISQUS commenting. I will use some of the best comments in an upcoming article on how personal brands have jumped to the mainstream!

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The Great Facebook Race: What It Means For Your Brand

We now know the details of the Facebook user name implementation. Starting at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Saturday, June 13, you too can register a custom URL for your personal Facebook profile.

From the Facebook Blog:

From the beginning of Facebook, people have used their real names to share and connect with the people they know. This authenticity helps to create a trusted environment because you know the identity of the people and things on Facebook. The one place, though, where your identity wasn't reflected was in the Web address for your profile or the Facebook Pages you administer. The URL was just a randomly assigned number like "id=592952074." That soon will change. We're planning to offer Facebook usernames to make it easier for people to find and connect with you. When your friends, family members or co-workers visit your profile or Pages on Facebook, they will be able to enter your username as part of the URL in their browser. This way people will have an easy-to-remember way to find you. We expect to offer even more ways to use your Facebook username in the future.

We also now know the details of the Facebook Page custom naming implementation. I suggest reading the whole post linked below for the big picture.

From the Facebook Pages Notes:

I tried to secure a name for my Page but Facebook said the Page was not eligible. What are the requirements? Your Facebook Page must meet two requirements: it must be live on Facebook prior to the May 31, 2009 cut-off date and have a minimum 1,000 fans as of May 31, 2009.

The implication for your and your clients' brands is huge. Better organic search. Visibility and brand recall. The list of positives goes on and on...

Brand squatting, misrepresentation, and other schemes will undoubtedly plague companies for months to come. Facebook has tried to get ahead of this with several unnamed workarounds as well as the following form:

It would behoove agencies and brands to claim their intellectual property as soon as possible. Click here to access the form.

Does your agency have a contingency plan for your clients? Do you have a plan for your personal brand? I'm looking for some salient examples so please feel free to log in with Facebook, Twitter, or DISQUS below and leave a note.

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Chicago Media Marketing & Advertising June Meetup at Saper Law

The Chicago Media Marketing & Advertising group thanks Daliah Saper of Saper Law for her outstanding presentation covering the legal issues of personal branding, as well as the amazing venue!

Additional thanks to our sponsor BeFoundOnline.

Please look for a full video of Daliah's presentation to be released via ADMAVEN in the coming days.

CMM&A is growing - our monthly meetings are now known for great networking for marketing, advertising, media, and public relations professionals. Join the group today, and I look forward to seeing you at the July meeting!

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CosmeticsDesign.com - Unlocking The Potential Of Social Media In Cosmetics

Raphael Viton and Nick Kinports from Maddock Douglas spoke to Cosmetics Design to explore the potential of social media in cosmetics and explain its pitfalls.

Viton said social media marketing strategies work best for “high involvement” categories where information, feedback and testimonials from trusted sources play an important role in buying decisions. He said this being the case for beauty products makes social media “perfect for cosmetics”.

While many cosmetic companies have some presence in social media, Viton said very few are truly committed and many approach it in the wrong way.

“Only a few brands in this space (e.g. Clinique, Aveda) are generating decent rates of advocacy and outreach, most others are merely dabbling,” said Viton.

Some smaller brands are exploring social media more effectively than their bigger rivals.

Viton said: “The big beauty brands should be fearful of the "challenger" brands leveraging social media to get a significant foothold on market share.”

Kinports added that too many brands have an old fashioned mentality and are unwilling to use social media as a means of opening an honest and authentic dialogue with consumers.

Wading into social networking sites and posting fake product reviews is not the way forward. Kinports said this damages credibility and trust which are the values social media can help companies to foster.

>> Read the full article and audio podcast at CosmeticsDesign.com

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Decision Versus Search - Bing Challenges Google In Search Engine Duel

At the risk of sounding like Microsoft is now sponsoring ADMAVEN - I am going to write my third article in as many weeks covering Microsoft innovations. Bing is the new incarnation of Live Search, and comes with a host of advertisements in print, television, and online video touting the "decision engine" as the savior of modern search.

Let's examine - as objectively as possible - the differences between Google and Bing. I'll do a series of random searches and report top five non-sponsored results via image capture displayed below (click the images for larger versions, results links point to live searches). Let's get started!

If you want to do your own comparison, check out this tool to compare results for the same search live!

Search query: best new running shoes
Bing results:

Google results:
Although Bing provides some useful information, Google wins this particular search thanks to its propensity to point me toward running communities that offer a lot of easily accessible peer data on running shoes. The first Bing result sends me to an About.com page offering little more than a list of links to other reviews that may or may not be factual.

Search query: best hotels in Cancun
Bing results:Google results:The Cancun search seems to be a tie. Both search engines list Tripadvisor as the first result with a smattering of other sites below. Although Google includes deeper content links the parent link seems to be most relevant.

Search query: dog groomer in Elmhurst, IL
Bing results:

Google results:
Google flexes its local muscles and crushes Bing in our search for a dog groomer. Unfortunately the concept of a "decision engine" is put to rest by the fact that Bing provides little information in its results to actually help me make a decision. With Google I have a map, reviews, and contact information at my fingertips from the actual search page.

Clearly Microsoft has created a search engine that is effective at big picture searches but, for the moment, falls behind Google in helping people make informed decisions at the micro level. Due to the fact that most search is unique and very specific, Google remains the champions of the search engine market.

Do you have any stories of success with Bing when Google was unable to provide you with the information you needed? Share them by commenting below.

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Xbox Live Integrates Facebook and Twitter - Analysis and Implications For Advertisers

Yesterday, I criticized Microsoft for failing to describe a more robust integration platform for advertisers with elements of the social web at their Digital Showcase event. Subsequently Microsoft announced their planned integration of Twitter and Facebook into the Xbox Live service.

The implications for advertisers are enormous as an entire new demographic will be exposed to brand messaging and representatives.

I will say this - if you are in the business of creating content for a gaming platform your company needs to be adapting a social business model as quickly as possible.

Let's review the breakdown of planned features for the Xbox platform integration:

Facebook

1. Share pictures
2. Read your stream and those of your friends
   
3. Post text on friends walls
4. Incorporate in-game events into your stream
   

Twitter

1. Full functionality
2. Live-tweet in-game events
   

From what we can tell, a more complex solution was required for Microsoft to integrate Facebook. The Twitter component seems to be a simple API work-through with an Xbox branded wrapper.

I am somewhat curious to see how Xbox Live games push out content. One would hope Microsoft will understand the norms of the communities they are about to enter and realize that many people don't need to be informed about their connections' gaming accomplishments. At the same time the cohesion within the gaming community shows great promise.

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Microsoft Moves To Bridge Digital Divide Between Agencies, Clients, and Everyone Else

I recently attend Microsoft's Digital Showcase (May 28, 2009) at their Chicago office located in the AON Center. Walker Sands Communications, apparently handling PR for the event, reached out to me as a blogger and an agency representative.

The event was well executed and the message was clear: Microsoft is banking on digital and traditional campaign integration to drive the future of advertising, and they want to be the platform through which integration takes place.

My question, and the question I have asked myself over the past year, is Microsoft innovative enough to pull it off?

Let's examine the pitch:

Microsoft wants your clients to be on three screens: home television delivered via Xbox Live and traditional broadcast outlets, mobile platforms via WAP enabled websites, and - of course - the computer screen via web video, websites, and other interactive elements.

As an agency, you design and deliver the creative elements while Microsoft delivers the back end platform to drive your ads across the three screens.

I think this is a great approach, and I enjoyed seeing the "three screens" presentation play out in person, but was left wanting more. There was little talk of integrating platforms outside of the Microsoft realm, and the "three screens" approach still felt divided. The links between the platforms were not salient enough - how does the Xbox Live experience integrate with WAP, web, and broadcast? Not an easy question to answer, but the first space I look to when discussing digital innovation.

On the other hand, I'm glad to see Microsoft is taking a serious approach to innovation, and there is no question that substantial R&D budget has been allocated to developing these programs. Kudos to the team at MS for providing a well rounded presentation. I would have liked to have seen less discussion surrounding digital campaigns executed by push and more discussion around sticky pull campaigns leveraging the principles of social media/networking.

Microsoft Digital Showcase: Connect with Video
May 28, 2009 Chicago

Speakers:

Seth Dallaire, Senior Director, US Sales, Microsoft Advertising
Jay Sampson, Senior Director, Microsoft Advertising Emerging Media Sales
Mark Marvel, Senior Director of Video Monetization, MSNBC
John Staley, Director of Advertising Sales, Central Region, NBC Broadcast & Cable News
Laura Hagen, Senior Director of Integrated Sales, MSNBC.com
Don Reilley, National Sales Manager, Entertainment & Devices Division, Microsoft
Mike Siegenthaler, Director, US Branded Entertainment & Experiences Team, Microsoft

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Chicago Media Marketing & Advertising June Meetup

The Chicago Media Marketing & Advertising group offers a very special June meetup at the Saper Law Offices in downtown Chicago!

Personal Branding Wars: does your company already claim a stake in your personal Twitter, Facebook, or Blog?

CMM&A explores the legal relationships between companies and personal brands. We all spend time building our brands on and off company time, but who has the final word in what we say and who we communicate with? Daliah Saper, Principal Attorney at Saper Law, provides a legal perspective on intellectual property, personal branding, and ownership.

Enjoy a question and answer session with Daliah as well as networking opportunities on the beautiful roof deck of 500 North Dearborn. The event is BYOB. Small appetizers/beverages will be provided.

Please RSVP at Meetup.com and be at 500 North Dearborn by 6:30PM

We will ask for $3.00 at the door to cover base expenses.

Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 6:30PM

Saper Law, 500 North Dearborn, Suite 1200

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Social Media, Business Week, and Everything Else

The realities of working on the cutting edge of advertising, social consulting, and agency life are that - occasionally - you are unable to blog with as much frequency as you would like.

That being said, I am back on top of things today with a quote in Business Week:

Nicholas Kinports, our firm's digital integration manager, has a wonderful way of thinking about implementing your social media strategy.

"It isn't about making content go viral—though that would be a wonderful byproduct, should it happen—or creating the next great Facebook application," Kinports says.

"It's about structuring, and in some cases restructuring, how a business views and interacts with its customer base. The modern consumer is savvy, aware, and fully able to make informed decisions, thanks to a wealth of information freely available on the Internet. The consumer of the near future will make purchase decisions based on information gleaned from unbiased peers and influencers. Social media is the latest tool through which these interactions occur."

Read the full article, "The Smart Way to Tap Social Media" for more perspective on the subject.

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BusinessWeek: Dive into Social Media Now

Your competitors know that Twitter, Linkedin, and the rest of the social media gang are a communication channel between you and your consumers. Do you?

By G. Michael Maddock and Raphael Louis Vitón, Founder and President of Maddock Douglas

We believe this with all our heart: While social media are complex and often misunderstood, they have a value beyond traditional marketing campaigns. More specifically, we believe they can be used to help form your marketing strategy and be integrated into all your communications.

We have invested heavily in social media at our company. We believe in the power of online communities to help uncover insights; generate and validate new-product, service, and business-model concepts; and most important, create the necessary conversations that spark a new idea we can develop and introduce across the globe.

Everything it has done for us, we believe it can do for your organization as well. Our research shows that marketers intend to invest more in social media in the months ahead, but they have yet to allot substantial budgets for them. That isn't the way to go. And if you continue to fund social applications only as experiments, you're unlikely to be able to make an impact.

Ownership Is Fleeting

Our purpose here is twofold. First, we want to clarify exactly what we (and you) should be talking about when using the term "social media," and then we will address the three biggest worries about implementing it: the loss of control, the related concern that someone in your employ will make a mistake during real-time interactions with customers, and perhaps the biggest misconception of all, that there is no way to measure its impact.

Simple definition first: Social media are a technically enhanced—think Internet and mobile-based—way of discussing ideas with people in communities. (Twitter, blogs, niche communities, and giant communities like LinkedIn and Facebook are the sorts of things we are talking about here.) Social media use words, pictures, audio, and video to foster interaction.

It is that interaction that makes some business people nervous. We understand.

When you advertise in a publication or on radio or TV, you decide on the words, the imagery, and everything else. When you use social media to get that message out, that ownership is fleeting. While you maintain absolute control over the initial content, what happens afterward depends on the audience. Is there any way to alter that? No.

But instead of worrying about it, we think you should see it as an opportunity, one that you already have some (analogous) experience with.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT BUSINESSWEEK.COM

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If An @ Reply Is Tweeted and No One Is Following, Does It Make A Sound?

Funny meme, not so funny groundswell. As Twitter announced a change to the function of @ replies (I won't restate the change that has been detailed over and over again in the last 12 hours) the #fixreplies hashtag has exploded with negative outcries from Twitter users.

Once again a brand has failed to do a simple (and free) litmus test before implementing game-changing decisions. Understanding your target consumer audience requires data beyond metrics. From Twitter's official blog:

We've updated the Notices section of Settings to better reflect how folks are using Twitter regarding replies. Based on usage patterns and feedback, we've learned most people want to see when someone they follow replies to another person they follow—it's a good way to stay in the loop.

Regardless of the implications, Twitter failed to poll a significant number of users, and failed to take the simple step of asking its users, "How do you feel about this?". Note the fact that "usage patterns" are mentioned first - indicating traditional analytics was used as the prime decision tool.

The availability of free, easily accessible customer response data is essential to social business design, but none of that will do any good unless you actually use it.

I predict we will revert to the old @ replies format within 48 hours.

UPDATE 5/13/09 3:38PM CST

"We Learned A Lot"

Twitter has announced they will be bringing back some of the @ reply features, but not all of them. From the Twitter Blog:

This morning we received lots of great info about the replies setting we changed yesterday. Folks loved this feature because it allowed them to discover new people and participate serendipitously in various conversations. The problem with the setting was that it didn't scale and even if we rebuilt it, the feature was blunt. It was confusing and caused a sense of inconsistency. We felt we could do much better.

So here's what we're planning to do. First, we're making a change such that any updates beginning with @username (that are not explicitly created by clicking on the reply icon) will be seen by everyone following that account. This will bring back some serendipity and discovery and we can do this very soon.

Second, we've started designing a new feature which will give folks far more control over what they see from the accounts they follow. This will be a per-user setting and it will take a bit longer to put together but not too long and we're already working on it. Thanks for all the great feedback and thanks for helping us discover what's important!

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CMM&A Thanks Jaffer Ali and Daniel Arguello; Members for Another Great Event!

The Chicago Media Marketing & Advertising group was pleased to host Jaffer Ali, CEO of Vidsense, and Daniel Arguello, CEO of ExposeSEO. The panelists discussed online video, the present technologies available for video search optimization, and the future of the medium. Of particular interest were discussions surrounding revenue projections (or the lack thereof) for Hulu and YouTube.

Each month has shown improvement in turnout and networking, and we expect membership to continue to grow at a steady pace!

Join CMM&A at Meetup.com, with 300 members and growing.

Stay tuned to ADMAVEN for information on upcoming CMM&A events!

Have a suggestion or would like to be a speaker/sponsor? Contact me!

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CATFOA: David Armano's Presentation on The Future of The Advertising Business

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Facebook Opens Data To Developers

Rumors and ruminations surrounding a planned opening of Facebook to developers were given some credibility this morning as the Wall Street Journal reported an announcement would be made later today.

The crux of the anticipated announcement will be a Twitter-like opening of Facebook data to developers, allowing direct interfaces through third party websites, programs, and anything else that lives in the digital space. The move comes in lock-step with an announcement of the new Facebook Principles and Statement of Rights released last Friday, in which users were able to vote to enact the documents.

An unverified source tells us that no data will be shared without a user giving explicit permission, though the mechanism by which this permission is given has not been disclosed. One would expect an interface similar to Facebook Connect or Applications within the site itself.

Past Facebook attempts at opening user data have ended in privacy advocate outrage. Stay tuned for more coverage as the story unfolds.

UPDATED 11:37AM

Facebook has made the official announcement:

Using the Open Stream API:

The stream is the flow of information on Facebook, which manifests itself on a user's home page as the News Feed and on the user's profile as the Wall. It represents the content a user shares with friends in a real-time setting. Initially the stream content appeared only on Facebook, and now with the Open Stream API, developers can connect to their users' streams and let their users read their streams wherever they want. This means that for the first time, you can build new user interfaces for the stream everywhere including Web, mobile, and desktop applications.

The stream API allows for reading and creating content. Thus, your applications can get users' stories, comments, and likes, and incorporate this data into your user experience. In addition, your applications can create content directly in your users' streams, and allow for the posting of comments and likes. Think of the stream API as having your own Publisher embedded in your application.

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Opinion On Big Brands: The State of the Game

So far 2009 has seen a slew of brands (large and small) enter the social space. Some have stumbled in, others entered with confidence. The advertising community is inundated with talk of these brands - how they did it, who they worked with, and what will happen next.

Frankly, I'm getting a little tired of hearing about it...

Here's my opinion on brands entering the social space: do it right the first time. The best way to make sure that happens is through partnership with an agency that understands and embraces innovation. Clearly, most of us still don't get it.

Even the great successes of 2009 (Whopper Sacrifice, etc...) touted by the advertising community and social media evangelists were not that great in the end. Where is the integration, the holistic thinking, the restructuring of brand communications?

If brands think they can just walk out onto the street, grab a handful of tactics from any of the thousands of "social media expert uber-consultants" and tweet their way to success then there isn't really a need for agency partners. Communicating value by bringing more to the table than tips, tricks, and tactics is a must for the last half of 2009.

It's time to stop talking about "viral videos" (no such thing - stop trying to sell it) and start talking about integrated communications plans that incorporate print, television, interactive, and anything else you can get your arms around.

Don't get me wrong - there are a lot of intelligent agencies, consultants, marketers, and specialists out there doing great things. I'm just feeling like many of these individuals and companies are also short-sighted in their zeal to spread the social love. Maybe it's the fact that all I could find this morning in industry news was Pizza Hut's new "Twinternship" (cute). That's not entirely true. The other industry news I read was about more layoffs.

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Chicago Sketch Comedy Troupe Makes A Splash

On the cusp of one of the most unfortunate incidents of a video going viral, a local sketch comedy troupe reminds us all that humor is still one of the greatest calls to action for viral content distribution (many of these videos were released several months ago, but are recently trending on Twitter and other social media outlets).

Do you find these videos effective in delivering messaging, or does the humor eclipse the call to action?

Find more information on the videos here.

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