So Long As I Blog I Shall Never Walk Alone



Those of us that blog on a regular basis know that blogging can change your life, it has changed mine.

What are my favorite things about blogging you ask:

  • Collaboration

    • Often times blog posts come as a result of something that I have read on another blog and I feel I need to add to the pool of knowledge

    • Often times I write a new post based on comments on an older post



  • New Industry Contacts

    • Conversation Agent recently made a list of notable agency blogs and I was left off (*sigh*).

    • I did not know David Berkowitz prior to blogging, but through much banter, conferences and jewhavioral targeting we are now friends (thanks for the shout on conversation agent)



  • New Friends



For those of you that are still on the sidelines, what are you waiting for, the water is fine.

Just remember:

  • As Jaffe says (and I quote without attribution :) ); Social Media Is A Commitment

    • I have been writing this blog a few times a week (at least) for the last three years and I am not on any top 25 lists.


    • NONE OF THAT IS THE POINT

    • I am committed to this blog and the longer I stick with it, the more prosperous it becomes (on many levels).

      • Imagine a brand that showed this type of commitment to it's consumers






Anyhow, for those of you that read this blog, thanks for sticking with me. I love and appreciate of all of you!

IBM's Social Media Press Release In The Clouds


Pretend for a moment you are a press agent for IBM and your boss comes in and says, "the company has decided to invest a significant amount of money in cloud computing. Make some noise for us".

Your options are:




  1. Compose a press release aimed at early adopters (geeks) who know and care about cloud computing

    • potential outcome: a minor ripple is made in the technocratic news pond



  2. Compose a grandiose press release aimed at the mainstream media discussing how IBM is investing in the future of computing

    • potential outcome: it could go many ways;

      • the press may pick it up and go digging to learn about cloud computing only to learn that this is something they have covered before

      • being a Friday in the middle of the summer the press may ride IBM's cloud to the beach

      • the press may call bullshit, feeling they have been duped with a grandiose headline that they do not feel is anything new





  3. Compose a well rounded Social Media Press Release packed with the following:

    • Links to definitions of more obscure tech terms

    • A cost effective video uploaded to YouTube (embedded in the release) that explains cloud computing and the reason that it is important for the future of computing

      • potential outcome:

        • Tech journalists/bloggers are interested because moves by IBM are significant no matter what they are.

          • The story is picked up



        • Non Tech journalists/bloggers are interested for the same reason

          • The story is picked up



        • The notion of cloud computing is introduced to a new constituent who may equate cloud computing with IBM

          • The story is potentially picked up, but more important, an important impression is made



        • Conclusions are drawn that IBM had not thought of, and the multimedia assets are spread across the web and the river of news flows into an ocean of buzz










Can Anyone Be A Social Media Marketer?

What is the required skill set to become a "social media marketer" (a title that I am not sold on, but will use for lack of a better one)?

This is not a new question. In fact, this questions has been asked more times over the past few years than I care to recount, but the fact of the matter is that the space is reaching an age of maturity whereby we need some standards.

Are these the standards;

  1. A Facebook account and a copy of The Cluetrain Manifesto
    The Cluetrain Manifesto

  2. Some SEO chops and access to PRWebPR Web

  3. Web design skills and the knowledge of what an API is      Not An API

  4. Over 5000 Twitter followers     

  5. A blog with a Technorati ranking above 200

  6. Spending a lot of time on Plurk talking about Twitter

  7. Have had dinner with Robert Scoble


While the answer to this question is still unclear, one thing I can say with 100% certainty is, the above criteria are not the standards.

I tend to be a purist. I think that if you are a modern marketer you should be, by default a "social media marketer". If you are not, you are simply a poor marketer!

If you were never a marketer to begin with and decided there was a tremendous opportunity (due to lack of knowledge) in the "social media marketing" arena and fulfilled the above criteria, can you then be considered a "social media marketer"?
At the end of the day it does not really matter how you got to become a "social media marketer". The only thing that matters is the quality of work you output.

Those who are passionate and diligent (and of course intelligent) should rise to the top of the stack, but in the interim the onslaught of those claiming to be "social media marketers" is potentially diluting the market and making it difficult for those individuals that are just good old savvy marketers who understand new media.

I would love to hear your thoughts on what makes a "social media marketer" (I know many of you out there have them)

Montenegro Truly Understands The Future Of Social Networking



The Montenegrin independence referendum was a refe­rendum on the independence of the Republic of Montenegro from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro that was held on 21 May 2006.

By June 3rd of that same year Montenegro was declared an independent state. Following their declaration of independence, .me became the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Montenegro.

Did Montenegro know of the symbolism behind the .me domain?

It has been a long time since I have heard someone refer to a web page as their Personal Home Page.

I remember the days of GeoCities when this notion was popular amongst early adopters of the Internet, but the personal hompage has since been displaced by social networks (at least for the masses).

Is it possible that we will return to the Personal Homepage for the masses as a reaction to the overwhelming sea of social networks?

Perhaps people will grow tired of having too many choices when it comes to social networking, or they will grow weary of oppresive terms of service imposed by instituationalized social networks.

Perhaps people will get sick of not owning their data, and want the ability to take their data with them.

Perhaps people will begin to use tools like Google Friend Connect and build their own Dot Me page.

What do you think? Is this in the cards for the near future?

From Media Planner To Experience Planner

A few days ago I posted about the notion that media planners need to begin to think of their jobs in a more creative light. Media planners also need to start thinking about their jobs as creating experiences.

I recently spoke about this topic at the iBreakfast in NYC. The great folks over at ContextWeb taped the event. I would love to get some feedback!

What Do You Think Of The Facebook Redesign?


I have been doing a lot of thinking about the new Facebook design. It looks a lot to me like FriendFeed (which I use and am a fan of) but I am not sure that this will be popular with the masses. As someone in the industry, I think I may have a different outlook and I wanted to see what the rest of the world is thinking. In an effort to do that, I created this poll.

I was asked some questions by Michael Estrin of iMedia the other day about the recent f8 announcements. Have a look at his article.

From Media Planner To Experience Planner

Those of you that have been following the blog for a while have seen me go through various periods where I have referred to The Experience Web.

  • As the web becomes more highly immersive (due to increasing broadband speeds and new technologies) point to point to point interactions are becoming more prevalent.

    • The web is becoming less of a platform for purely delivering information and more of a platform where ideas can be shared in real time.

      • The result is digitally mediated experiences that were never before possible in electric media





  • From Media Planner To Experience Planner

    • Media professionals need to adapt to the changing nature of the web

      • They need to look beyond the spreadsheet at times



    • By leveraging a variety of media flavors, highly engaging experiences can be created both online and off (the cross section of the two is potentially the most compelling)






Tomorrow morning I will be speaking at the iBreakfast in NYC about the need for media planners to begin to think of their jobs in a more creative manner; one that is capable of creating human experiences.

Hopefully you can join me. If so, please come and say hi afterwards.

Join The Podcamp Boston 3 Twitter Contest!

Go here to enter:

http://twitter.com/pcb3

Here are my entries:Oovoo: Good To The Last Drop
MarketWire: Not Your Fathers Press Wire
mDialog: Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t!
Utterz: The Other White Meat
Blubrry.com: There is no wrong way to eat one
MarketProfs: They’re Grrrrrreat!
CC Chapman: You Better Run For The Border
Blip.TV: They Love To See You Smile
Blue Sky Factory: See What Blue Can Do For You
mZinga: I’m Loving It
Oovoo: You Are Free To Move About The Country
Utterz: Beyond Petroleum
Mashable: We Bring Good Things To Life
MatchMine: Once You Pop The Fun Don’t Stop
Utterz: So easy a caveman can do it
C.C. Chapman: High Performance, Delivered
C.C. Chapman:World-Wide Partnerships. World-Class Solutions.
C.C. Chapman:Who are you?
C.C. Chapman:Your Source of Digital Inspiration.
C.C. Chapman:Your Potential. Our Passion. CC.
C.C. Chapman:Welcome to the Next Level.
C.C. Chapman:Imagination at Work.
C.C. Chapman:Touching is good
C.C. Chapman:Seamless mobility
C.C. Chapman:For a better world for you
C.C. Chapman:Hello Moto

Getting Lively At Podcamp Boston 3



I will be headed to Podcamp Boston 3 next week to speak with some real social media rockstars. I have to admit, I am pretty excited about sharing ideas with Doug Haslam, Philip Robertson and the Co-Founder of the Bald Marketing Rockstars (will this joke ever get old...or funny for that matter :) ) Sir Greg Verdino himself!

crayon, Greg's agency has put together a very cool program with oovoo that will help bring 20 students to Podcamp. Although vague, I do remember what money was like in college, so this program is very cool!

Finally, I am thinking of having a Lively meetup during Podcamp. Everyone is try to make sense of what Google is up to with Lively, and what better way to explore the platform than to have a little meetup within a meetup to play around with the platform and have a discussion about it.

What does everyone think; lunch, laptops and Lively?

Shoot me an email or comment here if you are interested. Even if you cannot be at Podcamp you can still take part, as it is a virtual world.

Open Virtual; A Google 20% Production

Thanks to Brad Berens for bringing this to my attention as I was ready to leave the office and get in an early night. Thanks for keeping me up all night Brad! :)

Anyhow, I was alerted to Lively by Brad via Read Write Web and had no choice but to jump right in. Rather than writing a lengthy analysis (you can go to RWW for that) I decided to document my initial travels through the virtual world as I attempt to set up shop for A Media Circus.

For now I am only going to make a few high level points, but you can be sure you will hear more about this from me in the future!

That is all of the commentary that I am offering right now. I hope that you enjoy my PPT and would love for everyone to stop by A Virtual Media Circus. Look over to you left in the sidebar, just click on it and you are in!





Breaking News: Emerging Platforms Becomes Old Hat

Is Mediapost kidding!

At around noon today I received one of Mediapost's "Breaking News" newsletters, the title of which made me cringe and let out a little yelp of pain/nausea that resounded softly throughout my office. The title of this newsletter is, "Interpublic: Social Is Fastest Growing Emerging Medium; Search Is Slowing".

Did my day really have to be interrupted by this nonsense?

Of course I felt compelled to comment on this after seeing it, as this is the type of headline that makes phones ring over here in agency land, and the questions are often as ridiculous as this headline.

It is not just the headline I take issue with, it is the content and projections as. Here is what I mean:

Statement

While growing of a much smaller base, Magna's Wieser said emerging media nonetheless appear to be slowing down, especially online search, which he projects will grow only 24.0% next year. While still healthy by traditional media ad growth standards, Wieser said it represents a slowdown from 26.5% growth in 2007 and 29.5% in 2006.

Reaction

How tragic, only 24% growth in search! I know the analyst is only doing his job but anyone who takes 24% growth as alarming (especially in the search space) as something negative probably needs to take a Quaalude!

...and another thing, if emerging platforms are seeing growth, when do they cease to be emerging? Where is the cut off line here?

Statement

The fastest growing of the emerging media platforms tracked by Magna, he said, is social media, which includes both social networks and applications like ad-supported widgets

Reaction

Does this mean that we can expect an onslaught of new, "me too" applications and widgets or does this mean that we will actually start seeing some integrated social strategies that involve true conversation and collaboration? Of course the answer is most likely the former, but are social networks, applications and widgets the beginning and end of social media?

Of course not!

...and one more thing, since when is being social an emergent behavior. I know I am being overly pedantic, but I just hate these stats :)

In the end, this type of thing should really not get me all riled up. After all, I still have my health!

Google Takes Cookies To The Dry Cleaner



As we all know, cookies have been an integral part of interactive marketing since it's inception. Privacy issue's surrounding cookies have been disputed for a long time, and Google has been very careful with it's use of cookies as well as other third party ad serving technologies.

Over the last few months Google has been making some exciting moves in the advertising space. Some of them had me wondering, "has hell frozen over?"

The first move by Google was their announcement that adsense publishers would be allowed to serve ads unsing third party ad servers; and when there are third party ad servers, there are third party cookies!

The other, more recent annoucement was Google's new media planning tool, Ad Planner. The tool leverages data from the Google toolbar (and other sources) in order to help media planners ad sites to their plans based on demographics, geographics and most interesting, co-visitation habits.

In light of all of these changes that are taking place inside the Googleplex, many are beginning to question Google's ability to remain "unevil". As a result Google has been spending some time educating consumers on their privacy policies (which are now on the Google homepage).

In light of all of this education about privacy, I thought it would be fitting to post a video created by Google in January about the use of cookies. I am sure most of you reading this are familiar with all this info, but I thought it would be fun to bring this video to the surface, given that Google is now operating more heavily in third party cookieland.

Why I Don’t Care That Googlebot Can Crawl Flash



While I do not claim to be an SEO guru, and am not a developer, I have been in this space long enough, and have enough web chops to know that the announcement made yesterday by Google and Adobe is not a step forward in the progression of the web. Here is why:

1. The "Because You Can" Syndrome Destroys Lives

a.       Why do brand marketers and advertisers create experiences online?

  1. Well, sometimes it is to do commerce.  Other times it is to create engaging platforms to immerse consumers, but neither of these reasons require a 5 minute flash intro to a brand site that has nothing to do with the core selling proposition for a given brand. All too often I run into people who do flashy things because they can- and not because they should.


b.      Brand Marketers and Advertisers- read your bounce rates as they are the voices of consumers!

  1. I am not saying that pure flash environments inherently provide a poor user experience. What I am saying is that many who use Flash tend to exploit it to the point where usability it sacrificed. This is however something good taste can rectify :)


2. Open Standards Make The Whole World Sing

a.       No one of us is as great as all of us (a good friend taught me that, you know who you are)!

  1. We have already seen what happens when standards are open. I hate anything that even remotely signifies a step away from open standards and the possibility for collaboration.


3. I Want To Keep The Dream Of The Semantic Web Alive

a.       I long for the day when the World Wide Web is the World Wide Social Web. When things such as XFN, FOAF and Microformats are common place. I long for a day when the way our data is enclosed has meaning in it (in addition to the data itself). It seems that pure flash environments bring us further away from that dream

Who Is Responsbile For Monitoring Contextual Advertising?

One of the major value propositions of advertising online is the ability to target users with relevant messages. The problem is, algorithms used to do such targeting are not humans. Therefore. there are often issues with algorithms being to literal.

I just returned from a behavioral targeting summit where I heard such comments as, "help, my computer thinks I am a 40 year old female" (from a 30 year old male of course).

So how far have we come in our quest to be hyper relevant marketers and advertisers?

It is my contention that we have come a long way, but when I see examples like the ones below, I realize that there is still a long way to go.



This morning I saw another example on CNN of contextaul gone wrong. The article spoke of how ads from John McCain appeared on sites that vilified Barack Obama.Needless to say this is less than political and the ads were pulled (I am sure the media buyers had a great night).

If you are a media buyer purchasing ads on networks to save time, you may want to rething your strategy!

Those of us in the business know there are efficiencies to be gained from networks, but I can tell you from personal experience that there is a lot of danger out there for advertisers.

As an agency executive, it is your job to protect your clients from such dangers!

Google Content Network; Recreating Mass Media Or Pimping The Advertising Ghetto

Family Guy Image Taken By Brian Hursey Long seen as the dregs of online advertising, Google Adsense is being infused with a taste of Hollywood.

According to the New York Times, Family Guy creator Seth Macfarlane will be creating video shorts that will run along content on Web sites as part of the Google Ad Sense network. These shorts will not be ads; they will be original content or webisodes (there will of course be pre-rolls or banners overlays on the videos).

The part of the New York Times article that I find most interesting (as well as comical and somewhat scary due to the fact that part of me thinks it could be true) is a statement by Kim Malone Scott, director of sales and operations for AdSense. Scotts boldly says;

“We feel that we have recreated the mass media,”

My initial reaction to this statement was one of disdain for Google's arrogance but then I got to thinking-Google does have one of the largest digital distribution networks in the world, and while the distribution network has traditionally been for advertising, there is no reason that it cannot be just as effective for content.

Some key thoughts on this whole thing:

  1. Google will still not admit they are a media company (click this link to read more about Google's stance on this issue today)

    • Eric Schmidt said in 2006

      • "It’s better to think of Google as a technology company. Google is run by three computer scientists, and Google is an innovator in technology in our space. We’re in the advertising business – 99% of our revenue is advertising-related. But that doesn’t make us a media company. We don’t do our own content. We get you to someone else’s content faster."

        • While Schmidt has technically not gone back on his word, there is no doubt- GOOGLE IS A MEDIA COMPANY







  2. Content is king, but distribution/syndication is the kingdom

    • Google holds the keys to the kingdom these days



  3. Mass media is not dead

    • Mass media is simply changed forever

      • Massively niche is the new mass media





  4. Google is making better marketers (and content creators) of us all

    • If Seth McFarlane can do it, why can brands with million dollars production budgets create content that people actually want to see.



  5. Traditional syndication is taking it's last gasps of fresh air


Will this be a tipping point for original online content?

I doubt it but I would love to hear your thoughts!

Social Media; A Commitment or a Campaign

Yesterday at OMMA Social I made a comment about how Morpheus Media would now be referring to social media initiatives as commitments, not campaigns.

In the heat of the conversation I did not realize that was I was actually doing was channeling one of my favorite figures in new media/marketing; Joseph Jaffe. While I stand by my commitment, I would like to publicly give credit to the man who coined the phrase, and acknowledge where the influence came from.

If you do a site search on Jaffe Juice for the word "commitment", Google returns 37 posts where Jaffe mentions the word "commitment". I imagine if Google were able to translate the Jaffe Juice podcast, the number of mentions would be a lot greater.

It is apparent that this is a notion that Jaffe is passionate about and his passion is infectious (but not Viral :) ...I don't want Verdino throwing up in his mouth)

Listening and reading Joe's work over the last few years has had a profound impact on my outlook. So much so that, in this instance I quoted him without even realizing it.

Joe, I hope you know I give props where they are due and would never try to steal your thunder. I will however pass the knowledge forward (and try to do it with attribution).

*Curious about Delta Skelter? Give it a click!

OMMA Social 2008: Tomorrow!


  • How for have we come when it comes to the integration of social media into our marketing efforts?

    • Whose responsibility is it to handle social media?



  • Does social media belong as a line item on a media plan, or should it be interwoven into an entire marketing effort?

  • How does an agency charge for social media?

  • What challenges do agencies face when dealing with social media?

  • Do we need a new type of agency to handle social media, or can our current agency structures suffice?

  • What are the unique benefits of social media for marketers?


These questions and many more will be answered tomorrow at the very first OMMA Social. I will be speaking with some old friends as well as some new ones and am very excited. I look forward to seeing all of you that can make it, and for those that cannot, I will do my best to bring you some of the goods. You can also follow the event on Twitter. You can also follow all the Tweets at Hashtags.org.

Here is my panel:

Media Plans: Additive or Core Ingredient? Putting Social Media in the Mix
For most marketers, social media represents the latest new ingredient to a marketing mix whose recipe gets more complicated all the time. While it’s all the rage, is social media a must-have for all marketers? If not, what categories and brands is it particularly appropriate for and how should they use it? Also discussed: using social media to listen to consumers.
Moderator: Joe Marchese, President, SocialVibe
Augustine Fou, SVP, Digital Strategist, MRM Worldwide
Greg Verdino, Chief Strategy Officer, Crayon
David Berkowitz, Director of Emerging Media & Client Strategy, 360i
Rich Gagnon, Chief Media Officer, DRAFT FCB
Adam J. Broitman, Director of Emerging and Creative Strategy, Morpheus Media

The Future Of The Blogosphere

Yesterday in a discussion about social media, one of my clients asked; what do you feel is the future of the blogosphere?

The question specifically referred to advertising models and how I felt that brands would be able to leverage the blogosphere to get their messages' across to consumers. A subsequent question was; do you feel that long tail will continue to grow, or do you feel most prominent bloggers will join some sort of media/ad network?

Interestingly, one of the first pieces of news that I read this morning was about the formation of the Technorati Media network. This got me thinking about yesterday's questions. Here are some of the thing I have been thinking about;

  • The Need For Personal Expression Will Never Cease

    • As long as people are compelled to express themselves they will take advantage of platforms that make it easiest for them to do so; blogging is such a platform



  • There Will Always Be A New Tail To Tell

    • Today's long tail may consolidate into something that we may refer to as the "fat body", but all the while a new long tail will grow and wag with great fervor



  • Humans Are Greedy By Nature

    • Okay, that is a bold statement but I was trying to be provocative. I do feel that all of us are subject to greed from time to time. No matter how hard people try to portray bloggers as honest, sentient beings, bloggers are humans and can be enticed by economic gain as easily as anyone else.



  • The Lines Between Pro, Consumer and Prosumer Will become More Clear

    • Advertising in blogs that are authored by full time professionals will mean something much different than advertising in blogs written by hobbyist's or part-timers like myself. I will not speculate which will be more effective, but I will say that the two need to be treated very different



  • The word "blog" will mean something entirely different in five years than what it means today

    • Again, I cannot really speculate here, but I know that the common perception about what a blog is will be very different in five years than what it is today.

      • One one hand, the concept of the blog may be relegated back to the place it was 6-7 years ago when blogging looked upon by many as a lesser form of journalism.

      • On the other hand, blogging may continue to invade the mainstream and become much more similar to what mainstream media is today.





        • Either way, it will be very different!








Anyhow, these are just some early morning thoughts. I have not thought all these through thoroughly, but I figured I would put them out there while they were still fresh in my mind. I would love to hear what all of you think!

Firefox 3 Day Is Here (for those not paying attention)!

Help create history today (sort of). While there appears to be no current record for the most software downloads in a single day, Mozilla is still aiming to garner 5MM downloads today.

Help support web standards and the forward movement of the Internet; an Internet that is open for all of us to mash and consume how, when and where we want it!

Download Day

Download Day - Italian

Download Day - Spanish

Download Day - Chinese