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

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