Social Networking & Decision ’08 Take 2
Friday, November 30, 2007
This week, the Republican version of the YouTube debate aired on CNN. Compared to the Democratic debate, which aired several months ago, the conservative bunch did seem a bit more uncomfortable, which made it all the more interesting to watch.
If you recall, when the Democratic debate aired, there were rumors that the Republicans would not participate. I believe Mitt Romney said explicitly that he did not want to disgrace the sacredness that is political debate by allowing YouTube to lead it. Looks like technology won this round, and it is in the running for the next.
On Monday, news of Facebook and ABC’s partnership emerged, signaling another revolutionary step in our approach to elections and garnering news. ABC developed an application for Facebook called “US Politics,” which users can add to their profile. The application presents news on the election, and allows Facebookers to voice their opinions on certain topics, participate in polls and, most importantly, communicate directly with reporters!
How? The ABC reporters, whose articles are fed through the application, have Facebook profiles. As a Facebook user, you are invited to send them private questions and comments on their articles. Within this exchange, you can feel free to pose questions and issues that they can then raise with the candidates or investigate on their own.
Sure. This may not seem so profound to us, as in our profession, we engage the media on a regular basis. But the rest of the public does not. Actually, it is not far fetched to say that the majority of people are not even aware of how news comes about. Think about it…. How often have you been asked something as nonsensical as, “Can’t you just write a story and get it published?”
And while the ABC/Facebook partnership will be focusing on the presidential race, its success will determine how reporters interact with the general public in the future. Pretty soon, we might all find ourselves in the driver’s seat.Labels: media, new media, politics, Public Relations, Web 2.0, Youtube
Christmas before Thanksgiving
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
The holiday season is upon us, yet it seems that in recent years, Christmas is center stage before turkeys are even bought or stuffed for Thanksgiving.
If we lived in most any other part of the country, this would be most evident in the malls, where sometimes even before Halloween, Christmas trees, wreaths, elves and Santas mingle with crazed shoppers. But we live in New York City, where instead of malls, we find ourselves in a stampede on 34th Street with Salvation Army volunteers incessantly ringing their bells for people to throw pennies into their red buckets.
And it’s not just a result of getting older and time seeming to pass faster, it’s practically a scientific fact. Heather Dougherty from Hitwise points out in a Reuters piece about Cyber Monday that, "The holiday season is starting earlier and earlier every year, which is what consumers joke about, but it's honestly happening.”
So what happened to Thanksgiving? It’s a holiday after all, so why does it fall out of line with the “holiday season?” Once our jack-o-lanterns are extinguished, and sometimes before they are even lit, the holiday “spirit” in the form of growing anxiety about what to buy loved ones sneaks up on us. Couple that with story upon ad upon story about shopping this holiday season, and we are thoroughly inundated with one message: BUY BUY BUY!
Thanksgiving thus becomes irrelevant. As I was looking through the top dailies today, I was unable to find much on the actual holiday. Rather, articles on Black Friday and Cyber Monday were abundant.
But don’t get me wrong. I am not knocking consumerism or even the media’s approach to greeting the holiday season. Chances are that I too would be less inclined to read a story about how the pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving than I would about where to find the best sales on Friday.
Happy Thanksgiving… But more importantly, Happy Shopping! Labels: advertising, Marketing, media
More Ad Money Going Online
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Online advertising is a growing business. According to a report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, “U.S. Internet advertising revenue rose 25 percent in the third quarter to about $5.2 billion,” signaling a new record for the industry.
Why the jump? Gavin O’Malley from Online Media Daily explored the topic in an article posted on Tuesday. In it, he quoted Nick Brien, worldwide CEO of Universal McCann, as saying, “ ‘If this happens for another year, significant clients will want to walk,” because all of them are “just waiting to increase their online spending to 50% or 60% [of their total budgets]’"
McCann’s clients are not the only companies dissatisfied with traditional avenues for advertising. In fact, many are “discontent due to increasing viewer fragmentation, disruptive technologies, and the resulting decrease in ROI.”
The truth of the matter is that each year, more and more people find themselves increasing the time they spend online. This shift is only natural.
However, marketing execs might soon reach a different frustration with the fact that ads online do not seem to stick in the same way as TV or radio spots. Josh Quittner and Jessi Hempel of Fortune asked readers on Tuesday to name 3 memorable ads they saw online. I couldn’t do it and chances are, neither can you.
Their article went to point out that Google is one of the few companies that has succeeded in creating a thriving ad platform online. Facebook is trying to follow suit, but only time will tell whether their interesting idea of users sharing ads with one another will work.
The bottom line for us is that all things related to marketing (if not all things in general) are expanding their footprint online. Yet, it’s not as simple as regurgitating traditional media campaigns online. The Internet is a different medium, after all, and it demands a little ingenuity.Labels: advertising, Adwords, new media, Web 2.0
Google Phone
Friday, November 09, 2007
This week, Google revealed their plans for what they predict will be a revolution for mobile telecommunications. It’s called the Android and it’s about as sexy as you might expect an android to be.
Google, along with 33 telecommunication companies, has created the Open Handset Alliance. Their aim, according to the LA Times, is to “spur innovation by giving independent engineers the chance to write programs for phones, with no need for permission from mobile network operators or phone manufacturers.”
It’s a noble and hefty goal, especially when you take into consideration the current state of the mobile telecom industry in the States, which many deem to be a monopoly of sorts. The most recent news to hit this cord, of course, was that the iPhone can only be purchased if you have AT&T service. To put it lightly, we Verizon customers felt short changed.
The U.S. is one of the few, if not the only country to have this kind of set up. In other countries, cell phones are independent from service carriers and can be changed with a simple switch of a sim card.
Another issue Google aims to tackle through this endeavor is the inability for its ads to show up on many current smartphones. With Android, Google is creating a web browser for mobile phones that will show a website so that Google ads are visible and clickable. Google is then leaving it up to the companies in the Alliance to create the applications for their cell phones.
So, what can we, both the costumer and the marketer, expect? As a costumer, all phones with the Android technology will not look the same, so style and features will still highly depend on the manufacturer. However, we can all rest assured that surfing the web on the phone will become much easier and will resemble the experience we have on our computers much more.
As a marketer, it will mean the true beginning of mobile telecom marketing. Right now, we talk about it, but few truly consider it when developing a campaign. And for good reason, because for those of us without an iPhone, the Internet experience on a smartphone is frustrating, to say the least.
As the Android and its spawning cell phones develop, we marketers will be keeping a close watch. Overture (a former Connors client) and Yahoo may have brought us SEM, but it was Google that really made SEO popular. And now we also have Google to thank for the next step in MTM, mobile telecommunication marketing.Labels: Google, Marketing, new media
A Brief History of the Huffington Post
Friday, November 02, 2007
This past Monday, an interesting article by Fortune's Richard Siklos was published on CNNMoney about The Huffington Post. It caught my eye because we usually don't think of these Web 2.0 media outlets as businesses, but The Huffington Post turns out to be a high prized commodity for its founder Arriana Huffington.
Siklos' lengthy piece takes us to the very beginnings, when the Post was simply an idea, and a rocky one at best. "When the site first went live, the heavy betting was that it would quickly become a footnote in the sad annals of online ventures by celebrities -- anyone remember RodmanTV.com?"
I don't, but I guess that's the point.
The Huffington Post not only survived, but thrived in an environment that was not yet inundated with news social networks. In those days, Arriana started things off by hiring editors who would sift through the day's news and link to articles that they deemed interesting or worthy of a read. Original content was also provided by self-recruited team of volunteer bloggers.
These bloggers are perhaps the thing that sets the Huffington Post apart from most other sites of its kind. Arriana ran and still runs in celebrity circles. When she began her venture, she wanted to make sure to take advantage of her connections by asking some of these folks to write for her site. After all, whether we like to admit it or not, we all take interest in what celebrities think. She got a bunch of eager names in the beginning and now, most of her friends and acquaintances who are asked to contribute to The Huffington Post are honored.
The site now attracts over 90 million readers a month, which is approximately the amount of traffic the Philadelphia Inquirer site gets. Granted, the Huffington Post aims to reach a national audience, so the numbers are not staggering, but still significant enough.
The lesson learned here is that while there are no shortage of bloggers out there who serve a niche interest, even the ones that are trying to please the masses are having notable success. Labels: blog, new media, Public Relations, Web 2.0
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