Last night’s MITX (Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange; www.mitx.org ) titled, The 2008 Digital State - Social Media: the Opportunities and Implications for Marketers, was packed. This is not surprising given the incredible buzz that surrounds “social media”. The speaking panel included:

• Tom Arrix, Vice President of Sales, East, Facebook; www.facebook.com
• Pauline Ores, Senior Marketing Manager, Community & Collaboration, Global SMB Marketing, IBM Corporation; www.ibm.com
• Juan Fernando Santos, Chief Creative Officer, StudioCom;
• Suzanne Skop, Director of Sales, MySpace;
• Jeffrey C. Taylor, Chief Executive Officer, Eons

I enjoyed the panel and it was great to hear the enthusiasm although some of it should be taken with a grain of salt. It is always great to hear people passionate about what they do and what they sell, but that is one of the tenets of a good sales person. It they told you the challenges and the road blocks they faced, you might not be quite as impressed.

The most poignant question was brought up by the moderator, Larry Webber (W2 Group Inc., www.w2groupinc.com ), “What is the new ad model for these social networks?” I did not hear a straight answer. There were statistics on how many people are joining up, that they are connecting and creating content, and how display is the “old” model. There was, however, no real discussion of how to use these new contributors as effective marketing tools. So the question remains, what is the ad model for these networks? How marketers are are going to purchase and assess effectiveness of this new consortium of content contributors is the question we all want to know…

Labels: eons, facebook, ibm, larry webber, mitx, myspace, social media, studiocom

When thinking about the concept of Facebook and the overall ability it gives a user to put whatever details about the going-ons in their life right out there for everyone else on Facebook to see, one could convince that it might not be a big deal if recent online purchases began showing up in user profiles. After all, if Janie Teenager bought two tickets to see Fantastic Four with her main squeeze and wanted people to know about it, what harm could be done in Facebook displaying that Janie actually bought the tickets to said movie on Fandango, one of the participating companies in Facebook's Beacon program? In many cases users may see it as confirmation that another likes or uses certain products, however, after last weeks national news story about the intern-bust http://valleywag.com/tech/your-privacy-is-an-illusion/bank-intern-busted-by-facebook-321802.php users of Facebook and MySpace should think twice about what they put in their profiles as well as their privacy settings. Moreover, users need to be aware of what Facebook may slyly be placing on your profile.

Now this was not a case related to online purchases, but say that our friend Kevin here had purchased a plane ticket and 2 seats for a game at Madison Square Garden through Beacon participating companies on Facebook? While the fairy outfit scenario was likely far more amusing to his boss than the above would have been, there is something to be said for privacy and that goes for online purchases as well. Should this information be shared with other users of Facebook unless you were given a reasonable notice? Probably not. While Facebook's sneeky 20 second opt-out feature http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20071121/tc_nf/56860 is rather bogus, users should be aware of it and for goodness sake, if you're going to tell your employer or anyone else a white lie, don't post the truth for everyone to see!

Labels: facebook, online purchase, privacy

With all the buzz lately about Facebook’s new advertising platform, another social media ad platform may have been overlooked. While LinkedIn’s ad platform (http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=advertising_info) may not have all the bells and whistles of Facebook’s (http://www.facebook.com/ads), it does enable advertisers to reach a different audience.

LinkedIn, a social media site dedicated to helping professionals stay in touch with past colleagues and classmates, or explore new career opportunities, is a great way for advertisers to reach a more mature, professional audience. Advertisers have access to over 16 million professionals on LinkedIn, and can target them by industry, seniority, job function, company size, geography, number of connections, and gender. Banner and text links are available to display advertising messages.

LinkedIn is great option for advertisers in industries like finance, business technology, health, travel and more. For a financial company offering Rollover IRAs, the business professionals on LinkedIn might be a better audience than the demographic that uses Facebook. That’s not to say there isn’t an audience for Rollover IRA’s on Facebook. But with almost 21 million Facebook users ranging from high school students to retirees, versus the over 16 million professionals with an average of fifteen years business experience, you might get a better bang for your buck on LinkedIn!

Labels: display advertising, facebook, linkedin, social media

On Monday, CEO and Founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, unveiled their new ad platform. Essentially it will allow advertisers to create a corporate profile. Facebook users will be able to become "friends" with the company and share their experience with other friends within the social network. In addition, the Beacon Project will allow user's to share their purchase and interaction behavior outside of Facebook on participating sites through feeds. Advertisers can then in turn serve up ads to people that have showed an affinity to a certain brand. There is apparently some form of behavioral/demographic targeting as well because I was just served up an ad for "SYNC" and I don't use any Blue Tooth devices nor do I own an iPod. I do happen to be male, between the ages of 25 and 34, so I expect that is why I got that ad. Anyway, I digress.

As with anything related to social networking, there is a lot of buzz about how revolutionary this idea is and that it will change the way that people market. I agree, there are certainly some interesting aspects, such as the ability to target to people that have expressed interest in a particular brand, but is that really going to help people that don't have a well established brand? Let's be real, there are only a handful of brands that are both widely known and appeal to a large enough market to make marketing worth while. We are talking about the iPod's and PS3's of the world here. I just don't see this as a viable marketing channel for companies that don't have a well established brand, even if people are looking for an buying their products online. As a result, I expect that the majority of ad space will be filled with demographically target ads, making Facebook's new ad platform not really all that unique and revolutionary after all.

One thing that all marketers can enjoy about Facebook is the quality and accuracy of the demographic data on their users. Because supplying real information is the only real way to connect with your friends, I think that the data people enter in their Facebook profile is likely to be far more accurate then what they might enter when signing up for a Hotmail or Yahoo Mail account.

I guess only time and testing will tell, but I am excited to start testing.

Labels: beacon, facebook, online marketing

The new website, www.freerice.com, offers visitors the chance to donate 10 grains of rice by simply playing a multiple choice vocabulary game. That’s it, that’s all you have to do. According to my colleague, there are approximately 14,500 grains of rice in one cup - http://www.producersrice.com/rice/facts.html#A

All you need to do is answer 1,450 questions correctly and you can provide one cup of rice to a hungry and less fortunate individual somewhere on the globe!

The project was started on October 7th, 2007 and registered 830 grains of rice and yesterday, November 6th, 2007, the total had risen to 856,444,020. That’s over 59,000 cups of rice. Not bad for 30 days work.

The cause is good and it shows the power of a unique viral marketing program; There is even a freerice add on in Facebook. We will keep an eye on this one and see just how much rice the world can get… Give it a shot.

Labels: facebook, free rice, freerice, viral marketing, vocabulary

It is impossible to discuss social media these days without the mention of Facebook. And why not, given their recent deal with Microsoft that values them at over 15 billion, Facebook is worth talking about. I clearly see the excitement from a marketing perspective. Over 40 billion users that provide an estimated 15 billion page views a month is more than a popular site, it’s a cultural phenomenon.

I have a Facebook account and it seems that in the past 3 months I have received more “requests” from other Facebook users than I did in the 12 months prior. Is that because I have been spending more time trying to figure out what exactly Facebook is good for? Probably. I have requested connections with people I used to work with and went to college with and I have accepted them in return, but other than that, what have I really accomplished? Nothing as far as I can tell. Once I make the connection and we are “friends” again but other than that, not much else happens.

Don’t get me wrong, it is fun and it is a cool place to surf around, it has a nice interface (much nicer than MySpace), but I feel that in the long run, Facebook will prove to be more valuable as a testing ground for technologies that resonate with users and ones that don’t.

By no means have I given up on Facebook and I plan to keep using it, but I am still trying to figure out if I will ever use it if for more locating old friends and colleagues and becoming “friends” again.

Labels: facebook, microsoft, myspace, social media optimization, social networking

We all dream of having our servers crash because one of our articles made the front page of Digg (AKA the Digg Effect). Or launching the latest Facebook app that yields widespread acclaim and countless new friends for your profile. Unfortunately, not all businesses are in a field that Digg users care about or that would benefit from Facebook's user base. The truth is that most businesses probably fall into this category. Not to fear though, there are other options that may not be as well known, but that can be effective.

Propeller.com, Netscape's social content sharing service, offers a platform that is similar to Digg. Users can submit, vote and comment on articles. Propeller offers a wide range of categories and the users tend to be a bit more constructive than are the often harsh critics that populate the ranks of Digg. Most importantly, Propeller gets a significant amount of traffic and good content can reach the front page with less then 50-60 votes, as opposed to the hundreds and even thousands of votes required to reach the front page of Digg.

StumbleUpon also allows users to submit and comment on web content. Users can give the "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" for content that they come across using browser toolbar buttons. By voting for content, Stumble gets a sense of the type of content you like and dislike and will serve up popular pages that fit your profile. In addition, Stumble will suggest other users that appreciate similar content. Again, reaching the front page of StumbleUpon will not likely take down your webserver, but it will bring qualified customers to your site.

The two keys for an effective social media strategy are to provide good, unique content and to distribute it to people that will be interested by targeting the correct channels. These are just two, semi-mainstream options to consider. As new social media site continue to emerge, businesses must focus their efforts on their proven options while continuously testing new sites becasue you never know when you might just uncover the next Digg.

Labels: digg, facebook, propeller, smo, social media optimization, stumbleupon