Web 2.0 in Full Bloom
Friday, July 27, 2007
This past Monday, history was made as CNN hosted the first ever presidential debate with questions posed by ordinary people via YouTube. The consensus on the debate's success was unanimous, leaving YouTubers along with the rest of us marveling at the prospect of us, the people, finally having direct conversations with our leaders. Declan McCullagh of CNET reflected, The video questions posed in Monday's Democratic debate were more personal and more direct than the circumlocutions that political journalists tend to prefer, which I admit may not be a compliment to our profession. Don't worry, Declan. Journalists still have an important role, but now we also have a voice. The complaint that our current technology is grossly underused in the realm of communicating meaningfully with our government has been around for years. Some might even say that low voter turnout amongst the younger generations reflects this disconnect. How refreshing to see that steps are being taken to reconnect. As I write this, however, I find news that a GOP version of the debate, slated for Sept. 17th, might not happen as Republican candidates are feeling squeamish. "The presidency ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman," said Rep. presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, referring to a question on global warming posed at the last debate by an animated snowman. I suppose this backlash is to be expected. Old habits die hard. But I am fairly confident that this is not the last debate of its kind. Web 2.0 is permeating into every crevice of our society, and this latest infiltration essentially cements the relevance of social networking. On another note, this Tuesday, the results of an analysis conducted by Neilson/NetRatings for the Newspaper Association of America came out indicating that online newspaper readership is up 7.7% from last year. So while print is on the decline, it seems that we still crave reliable news from familiar sources. When piecing together these two tidbits, we begin to foresee what lies ahead. Social networking creates new communication channels through which new influencers emerge. Yet, news from established authoritative voices for the masses remains significant. Labels: new media, Web 2.0, Youtube
posted by Gina Bolotinsky
0 comments
Is Any Press, Good Press?
Friday, July 20, 2007
Probably the most anticipated book in history is being released tonight and fans are actually avoiding the Internet and newspapers at all costs so as not to get wind of what happens to Harry, Ron and Hermione. J.K. Rowling’s books have achieved a level of fame so immense that it can be argued that the promotion is now counteracting sales efforts. How is this possible? An online retailer, DeepDiscount.com, sent copies of the preordered 7th and last installment of the Harry Potter series on Tuesday to buyers. Once Scholastic, the book’s publisher, got word, calls were made to the book buyers, requesting that they remain mum on the ending. Gift cards and Harry Potter t-shirts were offered as incentive. One of the early receivers was Baltimore Sun reporter, Mary Carole McCauley’s brother-in-law, who gave the book to Mary, who wrote a review, which was published on Thursday. The New York Times was also able to receive a copy pre-launch and published an early review. To add to the mayhem, several versions of an ending have been leaked on the Web causing an uproar among fans. I will admit that even I was cautious in reviewing articles on the topic as I plan on reading the book and don’t want the ending spoiled. It is without a doubt that Harry-obsessed devotees will be buying the book anyway, but what about those who have yet to be sucked in? If they know the ending to the entire series, why would they read it? These circumstances raise the question of whether it is really true: Is any press, bad or good, beneficial? From one perspective, it is; especially, if your company or product is not very well known. In our diverse world, there are bound to be people who will disagree with the negative coverage, gaining your company positive impressions. From another, however, bad press can cause serious damage. In the case of Harry Potter, there is probably no amount of bad press that can drive people away. The 5th movie, for instance, got mixed reviews, but it is still topping the box office. It has become almost cliché, but I have to say that Harry has cast a spell over us all. Labels: Marketing, media, Public Relations
posted by Gina Bolotinsky
0 comments
NY Resurgence? San Francisco's Half Recovery?
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Interesting article in the Economist this week with the subhead "the strange half-recovery of California's prettiest city." Since 2000, San Francisco has shed more jobs than Detroit. And it's not just tech. "The city's finance and insurance industry now employees fewer people than during the recession of the 1990s.
The city's population has become even older. The trend is people in their late 50s buying a pied-a-terre. The "younger workers have a detached relationship with the city. Google shuttles 1200 people a day to its headquarters in Mountain View." Yet, the housing market remains the fourth-least affordable in the America. The bottom line, talented people who not all necessarily rich, are moving to more affordable cities.
I flash back to the NY Tech Meetup last week. The sweltering Cooper Union was overflowing with people (600 they say), energy and fresh ideas. A kid whose college thesis was on better inventory management in parking lots, talks about his internet startup: ParkWhiz. Even the Amazon rep presents its new hosting platforms with the fervored intensity of an entrepreneur. The crowd screams and one gentleman offers his testimonial on how he wouldn't be in business without Amazon.
I wonder if this intensity and excitement exists in the Mission, Redwood Shores, Mountain View? Has New York has finally come of age in the technology startup world?Labels: Meetup, NY Tech, SF San Francisco
posted by Connie
0 comments
The Popularity of a Website
Friday, July 13, 2007
This week, Neilson/NetRatings announced that website hits will no longer count towards the popularity of a website. Instead, the amount of time spent on a site, termed “Total Minutes” and “Total Sessions”, will be analyzed to determine rank. Why the switch? Many sites now use technologies like online video and programming languages like Ajax, which require a visitor to spend more time on a site in order for their visit to count. Neilson is of course not the first to recognize time as a factor. Hitwise and comScore have long been measuring it along with page views and others. comScore spokesperson, Andrew Lipsman, explained, We have a host of metrics, and you can theoretically rank on any one of them. It’s just important to examine the space that you’re looking at and maybe determine what the most appropriate metric to use would be. That makes sense, and I am not the only one who seems to agree. Online advertising experts quoted in Louis Hau’s Forbes article voiced their concern about Neilson’s bold move citing that while more than just page views are relevant for Web 2.0, it is not to say that the measurement is all together irrelevant. Hau goes on to address the growth of the online advertising space (up 28% from last year), but reminds us that it is still just 6% of the entire industry. Not surprisingly, our eyes on the Internet are more easily monitored than for any other medium and it might take years to sort through all the available data and figure out what metrics are truly valid. In the midst of all this talk about advertising, PR is inadvertently part of the dialogue. We also need to know the popularity of a site, just as we need to know the circulation of a print publication. A distinct science for this is still clearly in the making. In the meantime, we are advancing in our knowledge of reaching an audience online. In our world, we would argue that page views, for example, still hold a lot of merit as reading a blog or a 500 word article can take no time at all. Labels: advertising, Internet, Marketing, pr, Public Relations, Web 2.0
posted by Gina Bolotinsky
0 comments
An Explosion of Faces
Friday, July 06, 2007
After allowing any type of email to be used for an account last Fall, Facebook was able to truly capitalize on the success of its industry. This week, news from comScore indicated an 89% growth in unique visits to the site from May 2006 to May 2007. The numbers get more interesting when examining the age range of the visitors, the majority of which falls outside of the 18-24 range. Underage teenage traffic rose by 149% and the 25-34 range by 181%. The most surprising is the jump for those older, which was tallied at 98%. So what does this mean? For starters, it’s fair to say that this phenomenon is no longer a trend. With the late adopters getting on board, social networks are being sown into the fabric of communications. Love it or hate it, if you’re not on the boat, you run the risk of losing touch. On the marketing side, it is still fuzzy how we can use Facebook. For example, promoting on MySpace is a no brainer with tons of its pages devoted to movies, characters and celebrities. Facebook, though, does not allow you to view a profile in the same way and all the poking and messaging makes it more difficult to draw people into a profile that is not for an actual long lost friend. The opportunity, I am sure, will present itself eventually and when it does, it can hold more potential due to the vast age range of people signing up for Facebook. Labels: Marketing, Myspace, Public Relations, Web 2.0
posted by Gina Bolotinsky
0 comments
 |
