Hello! It’s been a while since I wrote a Dr. WHAW (Shame on me), but that doesn’t mean I can’t get back into the groove. I think I’ve found some pretty interesting stuff around the web today, but by all means, judge for yourself:
How good are you at showing the real or perceived value of the products your are marketing? Love this challenge. I like this concept of an “I need this test.”
You have an extremely limited time to reach a consumer, whether you are interacting with them in a stream, on TV, or in a magazine your time to reach them is incredibly limited. You probably know this already, but this post and examples, are a good reminder to focus on both storytelling and addressing a customer need (whether real or created).
2) Your Brand is Not My Friend, by Adam Wolk
I’m a huge fan of slides 52-72 (if you have limited time), but the entire presentation is great. Love the Framework. Ok enough gushing, just view the Slideshow:
Great analysis of the ethical issues presented when the Pepsi refresh project gets enmeshed with the Public school system. Pepsi may be banned from cafeterias and vending machines on school property, but your child could be sitting in a “Pepsi” classroom, sponsored by money won through the Refresh Project.
I’m all for cause marketing (comment on that post), but it is interesting to think about the larger implications of some of these initiatives.
Ok! That’s enough for today, hope your Wednesday went well, and until next week I’m signing off. Also, a quick plug if you’re in Chicago, you should really come hang out with me and some other great people next Wednesday at Bottom Lounge. Free drinks, food, a photobooth, and a live band, on a sweet deck. You know you wanna.
This post was written by DR. WHAW? Contributor Danny Prager.
It was a beautiful sunny day in Chicago and I spent it on the internet. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Now, go ahead and judge me. The good news? I found some interesting articles for you all to read!
A HTML5 video solution is coming to firefox, and is supported by all Youtube videos. With the support of Google and other partners, an HTML5 standard for video is becoming a reality. For more on the project, check it out here . While I’m not a developer, understanding the HTML5 versus flash debate and the open web seems really important in terms of the future of digital marketing. Have any articles/posts that you think are relevant to communications professionals, in terms of understanding flash versus html5 and the large concept of the open or semantic web? Leave them in the comments!
In all the hubub about new tools and strategies in the digital world, traditional marketing principals are still relevant. Mitch Joel brings up a great point — Marketers need to respond to potential customers at their point of need. The technology for this type of response exists, especially with the mass adoption of location based tools like Foursquare.
What Mitch doesn’t touch on, is that using these location based services to reach customers at their point of need can come across as creepy and challenges social norms of privacy. How do marketers reach customers at their point of need without coming across as stalkers, or creeping out customers? And before you say that this kind of activity isn’t creepy, remember to think like an average user and not the digital media professional that you are.
The larger debate? How do cultivate a community built on “un-marketing” while still offering value to potential customers at their point of need? Can you have both flings and relationships in your online community? Here is a great post, and insightful comments, from BBH labs on the topic.
3) Youtube and the new creative class — Kevin Yen, the director of strategic partnerships for Youtube, talks about the rise of the online video site at its half decade mark. It’s a great read about kids you may have never heard of that get more views on their Youtube channels than syndicated network TV shows. But more than personalities filming themselves in their basement, these Youtube personalities are employing art directors, camera men, make up folks and building both creative empires and the economy.
On the flip side, Noah Brier highlights thoughts from I, Cringely that puts Youtube in perspective:
YouTube made two fascinating announcements recently: 1) viewers are now downloading an average of two billion videos per day on the service, and; 2) YouTube is almostshowing a profit for Google, its owner. Think about the glorious inefficiency embodied in that latter statement: two billion downloads per day just to break even. And this is supposed to be the future of television? Hardly.
So. These are some pretty large thoughts/problems for today. Love to hear your two cents!
This post was written by DR. WHAW? Contributor Danny Prager.
There was an absurd amount of great content passed around the interwebs today (as per usual), and now I’m going to share some highlights. Without futher ado —
DR. WHAW? – May 12, 2010
Let’s do a little point counterpoint/ roundup of the Facebook backlash:
Simon makes the interesting, and complex argument, that it is Facebook’s job to push the envelope of socially defined notions of privacy as that is necessary for innovation. That semantic and open web all those big time analysts, futurists, and thinkers are talking about ? It may be in direct opposition to our socially defined norms of privacy. Who will win?
“Facebook has confused sharing with publishing”. I think Jeff has hit the nail right on the head here. Social sharing has become ubiquitous. However, sharing is not the same as broadcasting or publishing. Sharing a hilarious video of kittens going down slides with your friends, is a different behavior, with different motivations, than creating that same video and publishing it.
What’s more? You may not want brands to assume that you have kittens and want discounts on cat food based on the fact that you shared that video.
What does all of this mean? Which side are you on? Has Facebook overstepped its bounds? Is it challenging societal norms of privacy too aggressively?
Personally, I love the idea of fighting for an open web, and viewing Facebook as pioneers in the struggle to redefine social norms of privacy. On the other hand, I realize that I am probably in the minority in that respect, and once the average Facebook user understands the privacy implications of these Facebook changes there will surely be serious backlash– Not just from early adopters, but from the Gen Xers and above who have recently joined the network in droves.
I want a personalized web experience where I am consistently given relevant content, even if it is in the form of advertisements and special offers from brands, but this thinking may not be true for everyone.
Enough about that, here are a couple of interesting articles, that are not focused on Facebook:
Good overview of why social shopping is on the rise, and how it could pose a challenge traditional ecommerce sites.
Look past the fact that the guy who wrote the article is a “social media optimization” specialist, instead focus on the video and think about the possibilites of social commerce.
In all of our focus on the next big thing and social media, we sometimes forget that we can innovate channels that already exist. Check out what Converse did with PPC ads to target teenagers. Talk about engagement:
When I saw this chart, and this post, I immediately thought of Rebecca and her work at Edelman. Good overview of how paid, earned, shared, and owned media work together on digital channels.
This post was written by DR. WHAW? Contributor Danny Prager.
It’s been a fascinating day in the digital world, with all the announcements from the Facebook F8 conference. Facebook has moved closer to creating a web that is entirely social– where likes and connections become more important than hyperlinks. Alright, enough with my excitement about the F8 conference, and on to the links.
If you didn’t have time to follow the conference live, or are looking to understand what all of the announcements mean, this is a great place to start. The Matrix format is really conducive to understanding complex concepts quickly and effectively. Thanks Jeremiah!
Have you heard about the PER statistic in Basketball? I hadn’t until I read this post yesterday. The PER statistic is an amalgamation of the most important individual metrics in each game as proven over the last 50 years of NBA basketball.
It is an amazing celebration of the power of statistics to understand the world around us. Okay, so what does the PER have to do with social media? You may have heard of the social media measurement company who argued that a Facebook fan was worth $3.60? This post argues that “judging fan value by how many free impressions they can create seems like judging an NBA player only by their free-throw shooting ability.”
In social media measurement we need to move beyond valuing fan relationships based on impressions.
Love this concept of “oneline”, and I think more and more people are beginning to meld their on and offline lives. As communications professionals, we need to think about ways to bridge that on and offline gap. We don’t separate our lives into print, online, and tv so why do our marketing/pr/ and ad campaigns?
“Lethal Generosity”, coined by Shel Israel in his book Twitterville, refers to the way a corporation can use their skills to advance social good while also increasing revenue. This post offers an interesting primer on “Lethal Generosity.”
This post was written by DR. WHAW? Contributor Danny Prager.
Some great reads were passed around today online. Let’s dive in:
DR. WHAW? – April 7, 2010
1) Clay Shirky on “Complexity and the Collapse of Business Models” Summary on PSFK
Thinking about the larger institutions and structures that drive both brands and agencies to act in specific ways is sometimes just as important as reading a fantastic case study or how to post. Sometimes we need a little perspective. Clay Shirky is one of the most celebrated and fascinating thinkers of our time, I always feel smarter after I read him, whether or not that’s actually true, is another story however.
2) What Will Social Media Look Like in 2012? Freddie Larker
Very interesting presentation from Freddie Larker about what the future of media holds. If you’re a futurist, or interested in social media, this is as can’t miss presentation.
Measuring sentiment effectively could open the doors for brands to improve their customer service, improve market research strategies, and streamline product development. As measurement technology and expertise improves, I think measuring sentiment will outweigh metrics such as hits, impressions, or conversation share for communications professionals working with social media. I’m excited to find out if I’m right.
4) What’s the Deal with Branded Social Gaming? Jackie Adkins
Social gaming is huge, and some major brands like Bravo TV are moving into the space. What are the advantages and disadvantages for a brand? Definitely something worth thinking about.
“The greatest thing the iPad did was help people imagine what the web should look like.” The best argument I’ve heard about the impact of the IPad yet. If the IPhone challenged our perception of what the web should look like on a mobile device, the IPad challenges the content industry in the same way. Not sure if I agree completely with this line of thinking, but it’s definitely a great argument.
This post was written by DR. WHAW? Contributor Danny Prager.
It broke 70 degrees in Chicago for the first time in a couple of months, and everyone is in a fantastic mood. I am too. Here are some great things I read today:
Listening in social media is of the utmost importance. Like every other piece of execution however, you need to make sure that you are listening strategically, and that those who are doing the act of listening understand the difference between pure brand monitoring and a kind of listening that many might call research. This article effectively explains the difference between the two.
You can now buy a domain name, set up a website and host it all through the Posterous site. It is amazing to think that creating a simple, usable, and connected website is as simple as logging on to Posterous.com . While there will always be a place for well designed custom sites, it has never been simpler to make an effective website.
Businesses get caught up in all the things that can go right with their latest plan or initiative but there’s a fine line between confidence and ignorance. Olivier sets them straight. Great impassioned writing. Now, I will be forever weary of the phrase, “we’ve got that under control”.
In our current obsession with real time feedback and response, sometimes we need a little perspective. Brands can be made and lost in a matter of days. We need to stop praising brands for short term successes and chiding them for quick implosions, instead, as communications professionals, we need to help them through the good and bad alike.
While Kim K may make a nice chunk of change using sponsored tweets. A new study from Yahoo found that Twitter influence is extremely unpredictable, and, at even the highest levels of sharing, a Tweet is only shared in the thousands, not in the millions. While celebrity is the best predictor of influence, we may need to re-think influence and focus on hyper-targeting combined with a mass media model:
Watts (the lead researcher) points out:
“Influencing one other person is clearly not what many people have been looking for [on Twitter.] But ordinary influencers are still influencers… Combined with mass media this could be very powerful.”
Hope you all had a fantastic day. Thanks for reading.
This post was written by new DR. WHAW? Contributor Danny Prager, check him out in the newly updated contributor page. I’m excited to have Danny (and Rachel!) joining the crew! Such great new insights and thoughts, please share what you think, too!
Hello! Really excited to contribute to Dr. Whaw. Hopefully I can share some articles that you wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Without further ado, here we go…
While you see many posts pontificating on the best way to pitch bloggers or influencers, it’s great when you hear it from the source. Tamar was able to get interviews with well respected bloggers, who told her what pitches work on them and why. More than anything else, this post reinforces that pitching bloggers is really about creating a relationship more than anything else, as each blogger is unique.
Vanessa Miemis writes posts that consistently challenge her readers. This post is no different. Love this idea of a collaborative tool to improve communication between both individuals and groups. If the power of networks lies in exchanging ideas, tools like Junto will take our interactions to a new level.
Love this title more than anything. While this post highlights the petition to get Betty White to host SNL, the recent Nestle versus Greenpeace Fiasco immediately came to mind. Most brands today see the power of Facebook as a community hub for current and potential customers, but thinking of Facebook as “the new petition” reinforces the potential for massive backlash from fans and critics alike.
As a psych major and social media lover, I was really excited to see the word Pavlov and Conditional and Foursquare in the title of this article. Foursquare is powerful because it changes behavior, and reinforces a conditional response, the “check-in”, any time you go somewhere. So the next time someone asks you why Foursquare is so addictive, or why they keep adding users, mention Pavlov and Operant Conditioning, everyone will think you’re smarter than you actually are. Trust me.
Yesterday, Umair Haque posted The Social Media Bubble over at The Harvard Business Review blog. First off, read both of these articles, right now. This is a great debate about the power of connections made via social networks. Are they overvalued? Something worth thinking about. Personally, I love Bud’s argument that social networks are good at “extracting value from thin relationships.” What do you think?
Alright, thanks so much for having me Rebecca. Until next week!
