Monday, March 08, 2010

The Rich Are No Different Than You & Me

Well, except for that money thing. They want the pretty much want what we all want from social networks: to connect with people they know and trust, spend some time unwinding, and share content.

Reasons that US Affluent Consumers Use Social Networking Sites, January 2010 (% of respondents)

The key difference is this: affluents don't want to friend a brand on Facebook - they prefer to check out fan pages. [Then again, I feel the same way. Hmm. Maybe I qualify to be rich? I can haz affluence, plze?]

What they do prefer is a user experience on the company's website that addresses their needs. Easy navigation, helpful information, perhaps even the availability of a live chat to answer any questions that might not be apparent solely through the navigation. Ultimately, I think they value their time and don't want to waste it with updates that aren't central to what they need. They want content that is relevant to them at the right point in time.

For marketers, this means a solid user experience coupled with a true customer relationship management tool. We should be at the point where we can customize content based on the visitor. Or is that a little too invasive? What do you think?

From Unity Marketing's "How Affluent Luxury Consumers Use the Internet and Social Media"

Image courtesy of eMarketer.

Posted via web from The Full Monty

Labels: social networks, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 11:27 AM

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Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Social Media Marketing Spending Spirals Up

When you start hearing about social media taking up more budget rather than having to struggle for dollars and attention, it's clear that the practice is gaining in legitimacy.

Remember the days of having to gently introduce the concept, or of having to prove that in fact it's something that's a coming trend? We had to deal with skeptics - the same type of people, who maybe less than 10 years ago, doubted that the Internet was going to catch on. And we've had to deal with a struggling economy and limited funding.

Things are a little different now. In fact, you might say that things are actually looking up. I think part of it may be that the tough economy forced marketers to be more savvy and frugal about their efforts, and social media became a natural receptacle for the underfunded. As such, it's grown in stature and maturity, and with the rise of the awareness of social networks in the general public, it's only going to get larger.

Here are a couple of charts from "The CMO Survey" undertaken by the Duke University Fuqua School of Business and the American Marketing Association, as reported by eMarketer:

Social Media Marketing Spending by US B2B and B2C Marketers, August 2009 & February 2010 (% of total) Percent of Marketing Budget Spent on Social Media According to US Marketers, August 2009 & February 2010 (% of total)

When you compare the spending on social media marketing from August 2009 to February 2010, overall there's an increase of 60% in the budgets (from 3.5% to 5.6%). Similarly, the planning for the next one to five years shows a similar level of consideration as well: in August 2009, social media spending was thought to be 6.1% for the next year and 13.7% for the next five years; and now, it's more like 9.9% in the next year and 17.7% in the next five years.

And since this was a survey of CMOs, it's a good indication that these budget predictions may get some traction, rather than just being a fond wish of pundits. It's a relief to see something that doesn't resemble a death spiral in this economy.

Photo credit: emrank (Flickr)

Posted via web from The Full Monty

Labels: Marketing, social media, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 11:36 AM

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A rather unlikely suspect has been making the rounds lately. And while you may have come to know this blog for covering the cutting edge communications and marketing tools, it may seem odd that this suspect is rather old school.

That's right. Good old email is making a comeback. But it shouldn't be a total surprise - it's not like I didn't warn you.

Every indicator I've seen lately indicate that people still use email as a primary method of sharing interesting news, keeping in touch, and notification - not to mention that it's usually the price of entry for belonging to a social network. In short, for the masses, email still rules.

But aside from these observations, you probably would like some more empirical evidence (in addition to the ShareThis study referenced in the above link). Here are some of the recent developments that make me think that "Silent E" isn't going to be quite so silent any more.

Feel the love

Two weeks ago, eMarketer reported that Social Networkers Still Love Email. In fact as you can see, they love it more than non-social network users. It's partially because, according to the study by Merkle, they use the same email address to receive notifications from their social networks and opt-in email marketing campaigns. As Merkle stated in their press release: "we are seeing consistent social use of the email channel, as well as evidence to support the idea that social networking and email use are actually more related than previously thought."

That's good news: social network users' attention is on their inboxes at almost twice the rate of non-connected emailers.

Email Mash-up
But might there be too much of a good thing? Mashable recently let us know that Facebook is giving users the option get get app notifications in email. Facebook clearly wants to move away from an app-to-user arrangement to a direct-mail-to-user arrangement. On the one hand, users will have greater control over what they receive via email; but there's the potential of inbox overload. The good news is that the heavier users are probably well skilled in how to use a feature like Gmail filters.

Exactly what the doctor Co-ordered
The final bit of evidence in this trio of evidence toward email was the news today: CoTweet Acquired by ExactTarget. CoTweet, which describes itself as "how business does Twitter," (full disclosure: Ford Motor Company, my employer, uses CoTweet), has been making great strides in its service that allows companies to scale social media activities. And ExactTarget is a premier leader in email marketing, and their acquisition of CoTweet underscores how email and the social media space are converging. If ExactTarget is able to take its CRM capabilities and combine them with CoTweet's close relationship with the Twitter management, we could potentially see some wide-ranging implications for Twitter and email marketing alike.

And so we don't end on a completely heavy note, I'll leave you with this topical song by Tom Lehrer.

Photo credit: Leo Reynolds

Labels: CRM, email, social networks, trends, Twitter

Posted by Scott Monty at 12:37 AM

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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

What's in a Name?

The iPad. Unless you were in a coma, you probably heard about the launch of Apple's new tablet. A larger version of the iPhone, at 0.5 inches thick, 1.5 pounds, $499 (base model) + a $29.99 unlimited data plan, it's pretty impressive. You can read all about the reveal and product specs over on Engadget, who covered it live.

There's an interesting subplot going on here, though. The hype around the event was palpable - even the Wall Street Journal noted "Last time there was this much excitement about a tablet, it had some commandments written on it." Indeed, everyone was speculating about the name of the new netbook from Apple - from the iTablet to iSlate. When it was revealed, it looked like nothing more than an oversize iPhone, but as the presentation went on, the functionality became more apparent.

Without a doubt, the tech community - which always gets in a tizzy whenever Apple releases a new product (or if Steve Jobs sneezes) - was so prolific in its buzz that it locked up Twitter for a bit. There's really something to be said about the power of the geeky masses, as words related to the presentation (including Amazon's Kindle, which was mentioned in Job's announcement) accounted for 8 of the 10 trending topics on Twitter at one point.

You've got to wonder about the naming decision on this product. It's certainly in line with the "iP" naming convention of the other two wildly successful product lines, the iPod and iPhone. So from a brand extension, it makes sense. But my first inclination was that "iPad" was too close to "iPod." Surely iTablet or iSlate would have worked from a descriptive standpoint. It led me to wonder if there was something more going on here...

Look carefully at the trending topics for a clue - in addition to phrases like Apple, iBooks, Steve Jobs, Kindle, iPhone, iWork and iSlate, there was as single outlier: iTampon. Check that again - iPad doesn't even show up on the trending topics!

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet."

Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

Did Apple anticipate such a viral phenomenon that they intentionally named the product as they did? Or were they completely naive about the implications? Either way, it's lighting up the web as we speak. And it didn't take long for someone to photoshop it, either:

What do you think? Marketing savvy, stunt or stupidity?

UPDATE: @brennanMKE sent me this video - an old iPad commercial:

Photo credits: Engadget, @Katmanalac

Labels: Apple, trends, Twitter

Posted by Scott Monty at 3:34 PM

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Sunday, January 24, 2010

2010 Digital Marketing Outlook

The Society of Digital Agencies - a group that serves as a worldwide voice of digital marketing professionals with a mission to advance the industry through best practices, education, and advocacy - recently sent me the results of a large survey they conducted. SoDA solicited feedback from over 1,000 digital marketing executives from agency and client-side worldwide and captured some solid insights worth sharing here.

There is no question that digital marketing continues its upward trend. Certainly, when a company like Ford - from the historically lethargic automotive industry - spends 25% of our marketing budget on digital and social media, you know there's a significant movement afoot. And across all industries in 2009, budgets were impacted by the economy, forcing marketers to be more ruthless about seeking efficient results. It should be no surprise to anyone that the rise of digital is a sure thing.

The 2010 Digital Marketing Outlook contains some 70 pages of particularly poignant facts for the U.S. and abroad (Russia, South America and Mexico), emerging trends, changing platforms, social media and more. Here are some key takeaways worth calling out:

Online Marketing Spending

In 2010, two-thirds expect to spend the same or more than in 2009.
Approximately 70% plan to increase (1-30%) or significantly increase (30%+) their unpaid/earned/proprietary media.
The top priorities in 2010 will be social networks/applications and digital infrastructure.

Emerging Trends

Customer experience will be more important than ever.
Storytelling will evolve - location will become a key component; the speed at which stories are developed is crucial; and above all, emotional connections matter.
The beginning of the end of the banner ad.
Branded content syndication will replace some paid media.
40% of opportunity is mobile

Social Media

Social is becoming increasingly mobile.
Measurement will be more important than ever.
Real-time search is inextricably linked to the "statusphere."
Forms of content consumption will continue to be fractured; the nimble marketer will need to be in as many places as possible.

If you're a regular reader of this blog, I think you'll recognize a number of the themes mentioned in the report. But there's also much more - not to mention really smart - stuff in the entire report. Take a look for yourself.

Two Thousand and Ten Digital Marketing Outlook

Photo credit: Will Lion

Labels: Marketing, social media, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 11:22 AM

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Friday, January 22, 2010

Have You Got an App for That?

It seems that app development is where it's at in social. According to a recent eMarketer article, mobile apps for social networks - in addition to phones - are under consideration by more marketers than ever before. As you can see in the graphic below, the leading platform for an app (unsurprisingly) was Facebook, followed by the iPhone.

Fewer than half invested in mobile or social apps last year, but most plan to create one this year. Lest you think that this is simply marketers chasing the latest shiny object, or the boss claiming G.M.O.O.T. ("get me one of those!"), there's some solid reasoning behind the choice to move more resources to mobile.

The strategy: create more opportunity for engagement with customers. On social networks, we'll see a greater opportunity for reach, targeting and sharing, but with mobile there's more creative control and the ability to have a message stick with the recipient longer.

And let's face it: we are increasingly moving to a mobile society. As smartphones - the iPhone, Android, Nexus One and others - become more affordable and widely available, we'll see an explosion in mobile access of the web. And with that, customers will require more custom interaction with the sites and brands they're passionate about - in many cases having news and product information come to them directly.

Enter the app. Or, more appropriately, the hundreds of thousands of additional apps we're about to see.

Labels: mobile, social networks, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 12:21 AM

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Saturday, January 02, 2010

Social Media Predictions for 2010

I'm sure you've seen your fair share of social media predictions for 2010 by now. And while my posting is a little late, I hope I'm note treading too fine a line by waiting until 2010 hits before I make my predictions.

Before I get into what I think will be worth watching this year, let's see how well I fared with the results from the predictions I made for 2009. Those included:

Twitter will continue to achieve legitimacy. Check. There's no question that Twitter became mainstream in 2009. I won't rehash all of the examples, but suffice it to say that when your local news outlets are suggesting you follow them on Twitter, it's mainstream.
Online video will come into its own. Check. YouTube has started to show some signs of revenue generation, and Hulu was advertised during the Super Bowl. Video became more and more important in 2009.
Customers insist on custoMEr service. Check. More interaction on Facebook pages, Twitter, Get Satisfaction and similar sites has customers looking for solutions wherever they can find it, not just via 800 numbers.

Okay, so where does that leave us for 2010? What new trends or changes from last year can we expect?

There's Power in (Smaller) Numbers

Although this new technology has allowed us to connect more quickly and more transparently across the globe, the collective cacophony is simply too much. It's impossible to actively see what all of your followers are saying on Twitter after you've topped 300 or so.

In 2010, I believe we'll begin to see a contraction of networked relationships. We saw a forced version of this last year with Burger King's Whopper Sacrifice, but the proliferation of "friends" on various platforms will have people rethinking the true reason they're involved in these places to begin with. So as users reassess who and why they're connecting, what will hold the most interest for them?

People still trust people like themselves; but the ones they know best are the ones they're most likely to trust. Therefore, it will be the people in their close networks - particularly from a geographic perspective - that will remain the closest. Brands will also realize that they can't be all things to all people, and will focus on those influencers who are the best fit for them.

Note I didn't say "those influencers with the most followers or the highest readership." Long ago, I noted the difference between the theories of Malcolm Gladwell and Duncan Watts, the latter of whom notes that it's the network, not the individual influencer, that makes a difference in how ideas are spread. Expect to see a focus on fewer and stronger relationships in our own networks and in influencer/media relations.

All Social Media is Local
This next trend is one that is relative to the above. The former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill once famously said "All politics is local," meaning that ultimately, people care most about what's going on in communities around them. Social media is no different.

When you follow the recent rise of location-based services like Foursquare or Tripit, it's clear that people want to connect with others by location, as well as share experiences and seek recommendations by those who are well informed. And whether that means connecting in the communities in which they live or those to which they travel, people will begin to use more of these kinds of services. As an adjunct to location-based social networks, expect location-based search to blossom as well.

Related: see Matt Singley's post on Why Foursquare is the next Social Network.

Silent E
If you're of a certain generation in America, you may recall The Adventures of Letterman, a varsity-sweater wearing superhero who rescued victims of alphabet assault-and-battery by the Spellbinder. As Letterman appeared, the voice-over noted that he was "Stronger that a silent E..."

In this case, the E is for email. Yes, email, that seemingly forgotten poor stepchild of social media, that gateway to the online space, that workhorse of digital media. Email is alive and well and living in everyone's inbox. According to ShareThis, 46% of people share content by email - larger than any other social platform. And StrongMail's Social Influence Benchmark Report shows nearly 37% share by email, with 21% sharing by embedded badges.

When you add to this the fact that many in the mainstream still don't know what an RSS feed is or how to use an RSS reader (or that they simply don't use one), it's clear that email subscriptions still rule the roost. Not to mention that email is ubiquitous. It's just generally accepted that everyone has an email address. Despite the hype of social media and social networks as the latest way to connect, every single platform has a common denominator: you need an email address to register.

Expect to see a renewed effort on email marketing, with a nod toward integrating with social media applications and campaigns. With a good content strategy, email is simply the vehicle best suited to share the content.

Related: Users Still Sharing by E-Mail (eMarketer)

Other Trends
While I won't go into as much detail in these, keep your eyes on the mobile space, on fuller integration of PR and marketing, and more focus on quality content in 2010. Overall, the space will begin to show some signs of maturation, and will begin a future trend of being integrated as a part of day-to-day business in many organizations.

Oh, last year I also predicted that social media gurus would continue to self-promote. I see no need to change that this year. ;-)

How about you - any predictions or trends that you'd care to share? Drop a comment in below.

You might want to check out these related posts as well:
Brian Solis says that Mobile is the Next Frontier for Brand Engagement.
Pete Cashmore predicts 10 Web trends to watch in 2010.

eMarketer Weighs in on 2010 Trends and compiles a 2010 Roundup of Predictions
Chris Brogan looks notes that 2010 Will See Consolidations and Fold-ups
Forrester predicts 2010: The Year Marketing Dies
Read Write Web tell us about 10 Ways Social Media Will Change in 2010
MediaPost says that 2010 Is the Year Social Media Gets Serious

Photo credit: Stefan

Labels: social media, strategy, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 5:35 PM

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Monday, November 16, 2009

Enough Is Enough

The spam and other unsolicited DMs I've been getting on Twitter have finally gotten to me. And I'm going to be taking action.

A Bit of Background

You know the kind of direct messages I'm talking about, all with spammy links in them:

"Is this you on here?"

"I just gave you a High Five! Check it out"

"Hey, I got some free ringtones from here"

"Hey, can you take this quiz thingy?"

"I found out my IQ. You should too."

"I lost a bunch of weight doing this."

And many, many more.

Lots of the direct messages I get are of the automated sort when people first start following me. Having been someone who used to do that - mainly to let people know how I preferred to communicate - I can understand the need to do that. But what I've been seeing lately is out of control. It's gotten to the point where these disruptive DMs have crippled my ability to monitor and respond to legitimate direct messages. I'm spending more time deleting or ignoring messages, at the risk of missing messages from people I want to hear from.

Reciprocity

For a long time, I've believed that when someone follows me on Twitter, it's common courtesy to follow them back. What I have to say shouldn't be any more important than what anyone else has to say - that's one of the great features of social networks: true democracy at work. I realize that this isn't everyone's style, but it's been something I consciously chose to do.

A tool I've used pretty successfully to manage this (rather than eat up my time manually following people back) has been SocialOomph, which was previously known as TweetLater. It allows you to automatically follow (and unfollow) people back, among other nifty features.

But lately, my Twitter stream as well as my direct message inbox has been polluted with spammy posts. The recent addition of Twitter lists, which have allowed me to begin to categorize some of the people I follow, has been helpful - you can check mine out here - but I'm finding it's not enough.

No More

I've decided that from now on, I can no longer afford to follow people back automatically, so I'm suspending that feature from my SocialOomph account. If you wish to be followed by me, you'll have to request it and I'll have to ensure that what you're saying provides value to me.

In addition, I'm going to be unfollowing anyone who spams me with these Facebook-like apps that send automated direct messages or anyone who DMs or @s me their latest money-making schemes.

I haven't gotten to the point where I'm purging and rebuilding my Twitter followers, nor do I feel like I need to go that extreme thanks to the addition of lists, but if this level of spammy behavior keeps up, I may have to revisit that decision.

I suppose this is a natural extension of a service or platform going mainstream. But for those who use Twitter for more meaningful connections and communications, it's frustrating. I hope that Twitter management has a plan to try to minimize this.

Update: reader Andy Michaels notes that SocialOomph has an opt-out service that takes care of automated DMs.

Image credit: Chris Pirillo (Flickr)

Labels: news, trends, Twitter

Posted by Scott Monty at 9:07 AM

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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

When Worlds Collide

Well, it's finally here. Twitter and LinkedIn have decided to combine forces. This is pretty significant, and I know that it'll make it easier to share job opportunities and other more networking opportunities that are more professional in nature.

I won't bore you with all of the details, but you can now update your LinkedIn status via Twitter, and your Twitter status from LinkedIn. If you'd like to see how to go about it, check out the post on the LinkedIn blog.

One of the features I like best is how you can select which updates you want posted to LinkedIn - everything or just those posts tagged with #in.

In December of 2008, I predicted that Twitter would attain legitimacy in 2009. Aside from it being used by pretty much every major media outlet, not to mention a good number of celebrities, I think we're there. The fact that a site as grounded in the business world as LinkedIn would choose to align with Twitter is a huge nod to the 140 character service.

Of course, two things need to be considered as these seemingly different worlds come together:

1. If LinkedIn is the business meeting and Twitter is the cocktail party, we need to be very careful with the alcohol intake at work, so to speak. ;-)

2. Twitter has its own language - some of which can be very confusing to outsiders. As our updates cross into new territory, we need to be mindful of how our networks understand us. This tweet from Mandi Engram says it all:

So there you have it. Twitter. LinkedIn. Two great tastes that taste great together. Or something like that.

What do you think? Will you use this service?

Image credit: K e v i n (Flickr)

Labels: LinkedIn, news, social networks, trends, Twitter

Posted by Scott Monty at 11:04 PM

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Friday, October 02, 2009

Recent Facebook Demographics

If you get a chance, check out the latest statistics from InsideFacebook.com. Please keep in mind that these are only number for the United States. But there are some things that stand out:

Looking at percentages, the highest growth rate is coming from the over-45 demographic:

While the absolute number of members is smaller in that group, the growth rate is fascinating to watch. I would imagine this will eventually slow, as we've seen with the younger demographic, until it normalizes. In anecdotal conversations, I'm finding that many people from this demographic are using Facebook to connect with high school and college friends (especially as we move into reunion time), stay in touch with children and grandchildren, and even begin to use it for some business networking purposes.

Another worthwhile graph from the post breaks down current U.S. users by age:

If you bundle up the groups, you'll find that the 35 and older crowd makes up 38% of Facebook's population here in the U.S. Pretty cool when you consider that Facebook started about five years ago as a college-based tool.

And finally, looking at gender, we find that - in every single segment - there are more female users than male users of Facebook:

While we know that overall women use social networks more than men, I wonder how many of us are using that knowledge to effectively feed our marketing and communications programs? Seems like there's a good opportunity there.

Do any of these data strike you differently? Can you draw any conclusions or make inferences that I've missed? Let me know.

Chart credit: InsideFacebook.com

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Labels: facebook, news, social networks, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 11:56 AM

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Tuesday, August 04, 2009

You Want Me to WHAT?

If you were asked to give up your social networking activity, what would you rather give up?

It's an interesting scenario. Given a choice between social media activity and something else - and don't think that time isn't coming - what do you think you would give up before you left your favorite social network?

That's the very question that was put to 711 female internet users in the U.S. and Canada by ShesConnected Multimedia. What do you think they said? Have you selected your priorities yet? I'll give you a moment before launching into the survey results.

Ready? Good. Here's what the online cohort said:

More than one-third (36%, to be exact) would sooner give up chocolate, their Pradas, or their mothers-in-law before they gave up social networking.
But only half would be willing to pay a subscription fee for those site.

It's amazing to think the limits we'll go to for social networking. Pradas are expensive, I

get that. Mothers-in-law are...well, that's personal, isn't it? But giving up chocolate? C'mon, people!

As to the fee, it seems that most women - 92%, in fact - would be comfortable with an ad-supported model on the socnets. But only 22% would be approve of their data being sold to advertisers, and just 28% are okay with a subscription-based model.

Chart courtesy of MarketingCharts.com

The post popular activities in which they partake online are:

Viewing video
Reading blogs
Posting photos
Writing in blogs
Posting comments

And some interesting additional data points about the respondents:

More than two-thirds (67%) of survey respondents belong to three social networks, while 48% belong to four or more.
The adoption of social networks by older women is especially strong. Women ages 50+ comprised the largest age group in the core user survey.
More than one-third report they are in business for themselves
Respondents spend a significant amount of time online each day, with 49% reporting they spend 1 - 2 hours per day for personal use and 48% reporting they spend five or more hours per day online for work.
83% of respondents have 50 or more connections or friends.
56% have started at least one group and have joined an average of two to five groups. Nearly one in three (29%) belong to 10 or more groups.

Pay attention to these ladies. There's clearly a lot of potential here.

That is, unless you take away their chocolate.

BTW, at Ford we recently asked women what they wanted in their cars. You'd be surprised at their reactions, which you can see by clicking here.

Photo credit: Wiedmaier

Labels: social networks, study, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 5:18 PM

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Friday, July 10, 2009

Facebook Age Demographics

"Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale / Her infinite variety"

- Antony & Cleopatra, Act II, Scene 2.

It's pretty easy to fall into the trap of assuming that Facebook is a young person's game; after all, it was created by a college student and was only available to individuals with .edu email addresses originally. But ever since it opened to the general public in late 2006, the age demographic has been expanding.

According to a report in March of 2009, Inside Facebook noted that there were more Facebook users 26-44 than 18-25 today. And in a separate report, they also noted that Facebook is seeing massive increases in adoption among users 35-65. In fact, the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is still women over 55.

Fast forward to today - looking at the 70 million-plus users from the U.S. on Facebook - and you've got a remarkable statistic: over one-third of Facebook's users are over the age of 35. And about half of that group is in the 45+ age range.

Personally, I can attest to the number of people who are using it for reconnecting with old high school and college friends. I've heard from my fair share of people from times long past. [Side note: it's kind of ironic that Facebook is somewhat returning to its college roots.]

I would imagine that the older demographic is also using it somewhat for work purposes; I'd be interested in seeing a breakdown of data on how each age group uses the tool - what percent for work, what percent for personal, and which use it for both. I have a strong suspicion that there'd be a spike in the third category.

Of the recent growth, some of it is attributable to more activity from parents, relatively speaking, since the kids are home from college. It will be interesting to see if that level of activity is just a summer anamoly or if it continues.

What do you think of these numbers? Any surprises here for you?

Labels: facebook, news, social networks, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 5:49 PM

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Monday, June 29, 2009

Are Your Priorities Screwed Up?

The recent news of Michael Jackson's death has a lot of people rattled. When an icon of that stature passes, it's natural for a whole generation of people to reflect on nostalgic times, pine for what could have been, and think about lessons for our own lives.

In this case, I couldn't help but be struck by a similarity between Michael Jackson's status and that of some so-called social media "rock stars."

I've always been a little hesitant to anyone self assigning expert or "rock star" status. To me, experts are deemed so by others, after an individual has put in plenty of hard work and dedication. And the whole "rock star" thing boggles my mind. There seems to be a cult of weblebrities - people who are Internet famous - where social media types celebrate each other with more and more fervor. My question is: why?

The reason I tied it in with Michael Jackson is because I read a recent column written by the Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who was MJ's spiritual advisor for a time. He makes a very profound yet simple observation about what fueled Jackson's passion for fame:

"He needed the throngs, he thrived on the adulation of the crowds...In many ways his tragedy was to mistake attention for love...Money [or fame] is not a currency by which we can purchase self-esteem and being recognized on the streets will never replace being loved unconditionally by family and true friends."

The strange thing is, I see a lot of this behavior in some social media types. And it's kind of sad, really. It's like they're busily trying to replace something that's missing in real life. To understand the absurdity of it, I'll give you an example of an exchange I witnessed:

Person 1: "You've never heard of [insert name of social media "rock star" of your choice here]??" (I'm leaving the name out to protect the innocent)

Person 2: "When my mother has heard of him, then you know he's famous."

But let's not kid ourselves. Using social media as part of your marketing mix is far more than recruiting some uber-connected individual who can bring attention to your brand. It starts with crafting a strategy and understanding what your business objectives are. And it means never, ever taking your eye off the customer and doing what matters - providing value to them. After all, isn't that what you're in business for?

A poignant reminder from Seth Godin (as interviewed by Debbie Weil) on that very topic here:

(Facebook readers, click through for the video)

Photo source: ovaratli (Flickr)

Labels: customer relations, social media, social media takeaways, strategy, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 9:35 AM

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Friday, January 09, 2009

Tactically Speaking

While I like to spend a lot of time reinforcing the importance of strategy, at some point, it gets down to tactics. In other words, how are you actually going to put those great ideas to work?

A recent headline from eMarketer trumpeted Marketers Eye Online Video in 2009. While that shouldn't be a surprise (I think we can all agree that this particular visual medium is advancing and will be a more important part of our ADD-affected lives on a regular basis), as usual, it's some of the associated details that interest me.

As you can see, video gets the attention of about two-thirds of marketers. Pretty significant. But more than 4 out of 10 are also eyeing social media. Not bad for a niche channel that seemed to be fighting for attention over the past couple of years.

I'm happy to see that podcasts are part of more mainstream thinking, and that marketers haven't forgotten about that bellweather, search. I'd be interested to see what the plans are with a tried-but-true methodology: email marketing.

Have you got any unusual - or perhaps even back-to-basics - plans for 2009? I'd love to hear about them.

Photo credit: dbking

Labels: Advertising, Marketing, social media, trends, Video

Posted by Scott Monty at 9:54 AM

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Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Taking the "Me" Out of Social Media

If you've spent any time reading marketing & social media blogs, you may have noticed a common trait that each of the authors share: we love to talk about ourselves. I don't know if it's because I read a lot of material in this space, or if it's just because I'm too close to these people, but it's gotten to the point where it's bordering on egotism, hubris and narcissism.

It's an ugly accusation, but not one that I make lightly. But I'm tired of seeing social media bloggers focusing inward. Whether it's a laundry list of the latest appearances, self-referential links to previous entries in the blog, or thought leadership that feeds an overinflated ego, their sites become a great monument to...themselves.

I'm not going to name names (because I don't want to embarrass anyone, and partially because I'm probably just as guilty as the next guy), but I do want to raise an important point about social media - a point we try to make clear to companies all the time. No one cares how many followers we have on Twitter, they're not interested in our blog statistics, and they probably don't like gratiuitous name-dropping.

News flash: social media is less about you than it is about the other guy.

Listen up
The first rule that social media consultants/experts/gurus/whatever-you-want-to-call-them will tell companies is that they need to listen. "Understand the communities you wish to be a part of," we tell them, "and then you'll be able to participate with credibility." Old school marketers wonder about their message, and how it'll be conveyed, essentially asking, "What about me?"

Perhaps some will even spout that you can't spell social media without "me." Maybe so. But then again, you can't spell customer without "u."

Karma works
Recently, David Armano (a fellow blogger whom I've admired since the early days of my own blog) wrote about karmic marketing. The essence was that if you truly want peoples' attention, you need to give before you get.

Building a relationship with your customers really isn't that much different than having a relationship with another person in real life - the best ones are based on each party giving to the other. When you feel like you're not getting something in return from your partner, you're more likely to withdraw; but when you sense that your partner is giving freely of themselves, you'll reciprocate.

I'm reminded of a cranky old couple from my childhood days. My grandparents always had a variety of friends at their house, whether it was for coffee, chats in the shaded driveway in the summer, or at parties. There was this one couple that never seemed to be happy, and I'll never forget what the wife said: "We have the perfect give-and-take relationship. I give, and he takes."

Learn from the best
I've already mentioned Dave's article. But there are many more people who go out of their way to be generous with praise for others, keeping the main focus off of themselves. These are people who share links in their blogs or are active on Twitter, suggesting great sources of information that we can all learn from, and they do it in such a way that you can tell it's part of their DNA. Here are some examples:

Aaron Strout (@astrout on Twitter) recently announced that he was leaving Mzinga - and this is a guy who was so prominent and active in the social networking space that he was Mzinga - and he made a great list of suggestions, including one where he made it a point to encourage people to spend time on other blogs and to get beyond themselves.

C.C. Chapman has a larger than life personality; he's impossible not to like. I think one of the biggest reasons is because of his natural curiosity and his gregariousness. Together, they result in someone who is always learning and always sharing, and as a result, is always admired.

Chris Brogan's star has risen fast, and it's for a number of reasons: (1) he churns out content at an amazing rate; (2) he's everywhere, attending more conferences than you knew any single person could attend; (3) he is extremely generous with his time, his advice, his praise, and his discoveries. When you add to that a self-effacing and affable personality, what's not to like?

Becky McCray may live in a small town in the Oklahoma panhandle and write about small business, but her ideas are as big as her heart. She instituted a regular feature on her blog that proves it. Each Friday, she creates a post called the Brag Basket where she encourages anyone to share something they're proud of, whether it's their own accomplishment or something that a friend did.

Mack Collier is a blogging consultant who knows his stuff. And in addition to reviewing corporate blogs, he performs a service by listing the Top 25 Marketing & Social Media blogs, and he calls out some of the people he sees as up & comers.

As I said, these are just a few examples off the top of my head. But it's clear that each of of them, by ensuring that they heap praise on others in addition to sharing their own knowledge, are providing more value in the long run. I hope I can reach their level of selflessness as I continue to develop this blog.

I've been long overdue in this matter, but in some future posts, I'll be sharing some interviews of some of my Twitter community that showcase them. There are some really cool & interesting people out there that I think you should know. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, do you know any bloggers who go out of their way to praise and highlight the work of others? Drop a note here an let us all know.

Photo credits: Harpersbizarre and David Armano.

Labels: life, social media, strategy, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 8:05 PM

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Tuesday, October 14, 2008

What's Greater Than Sex?

Well, if you're a male between the ages of 18 and 34, it should be obvious: nothing. But the Internet sure comes close.

In a recent study from Break Media and Hall and Partners (which came to me via Marketing Charts), they surveyed over 500 men from 18-34 years of age, and made some interesting discoveries - not the least of which was that 69% say they can’t live without the Internet, versus just 31% for television.

That's more than a 2:1 margin of the Web over TV. Are you listening, traditional marketers? I'd suggest it's time to look at how you're spreading your media buys.

These aren't total geeks, though: 79% would rather meet a woman out on the town than online, 71% prefer "a date with a hot girl to a poker game with the boys" and - here's the definitive number - 74% would rather have sex than surf the web.

Well, okay. Maybe they are geeks - these stats merely noted what they'd prefer not what they do. And when given the choice of "sex" or "web," I wonder how many chose both? ;-)

In addition, here are some salient facts about this demographic:

63% have a smart phone and one in four use their mobile device to connect to the Web
40% use the Internet for more than 22 hours a week
36% say they can’t live without the Internet for socializing
33% say they can’t live without online entertainment
59% notice online ads
35% like ads that allow them to play a game
34% like online ads that allow them to participate in a contest

Hmm...digital marketing is looking a little more attractive now, isn't it?

And for those of you marketers looking for personality attributes that may tie to your brands, you might consider:

Conformist: Only 26% think they are trendsetters.
Responsible: Only 18% agree that having fun is more important than being responsible.
Green: 53% say they care about the environment.
Social: 49% claim to have no trouble meeting new people; 51% like to spend as much time hanging out with friends as possible; only 20% said they valued appearance over personality when it comes to attraction.
Adventuresome: 68% enjoy traveling to new places; 61% enjoy spending time outdoors.
Laid back: Only 38% say they live a fast-paced life.
Not wellness-centric: 38% claim to lead a healthy lifestyle; however 45% say their appearance is very important to them.

If you don't care as much about targeting your media spend and you want to apply the mass marketing approach and go for the majority, here's your ideal target: an outdoorsy non-chalant traveling tree hugger who doesn't care how he or his date look, as evidenced by his flabby gut.

Or, you could follow the indicators and create some engaging and shareable digital interactions that get results.

Is there anything about the above statistics that surprises you?

Photo credit: thepollen

Labels: Advertising, Marketing, television, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 11:54 PM

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Monday, June 02, 2008

Streaming Media East Footage

As you may know, I was on a panel at Streaming Media East a couple of weeks ago. The panel, which had a few last minute changes in personnel, was well received and well attended.

In case you'd like to see what Jose Castillo, Steve Garfield, Sarah Austin and Sarig Reichert and I had to say, here's the session. And if you don't have an hour to kill, just fast-forward to the 57:00 mark to hear our closing remarks. It's well worth it!

If you'd like to see all of the videos from the show, you can check them out here.

Do you have any thoughts on the future of lifestreaming? Please share them here.

Labels: speaking, trends, Video

Posted by Scott Monty at 3:39 PM

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Saturday, March 22, 2008

Typing Personalities: How Do You Stack Up?

Sometimes I have a tendency to be competitive. Not in a malicious, destructive way. But I like to know how I'm doing with respect to the competition. But most of the time, I'm curious. I'm genuinely interested in what other people think, what makes them tick, and what they're up to. I like to ask questions and get facts, opinions and answers.

In this case, it's a bit of a combination of the two.

I remember being in high school and taking a typing class - from the very same old-school, hair-in-a-bun teacher that my father had a generation before. We learned all of the basics on the old IBM Selectric and I remember driving Mrs. Christian crazy by rrrrriping the paper out of the feed roller. But most of all, I remember her drilling into us how to learn to type with 10 fingers, without looking at the keys.

But these days, I wonder how the digital natives are learning proper keyboard technique. The Blackberry crowd is all about using their opposable thumbs, and the untrained typically use the hunt and peck method. How well will the next generation fare without training?

So my competitive nature challenges you to take the Speedtest to see how fast you can type and let me know.

85 words

Speed test

But the curious side of me wonders: how did you learn to type? And more importantly, how do you see the next generation faring - not only in the absence of typing training, but in other once-necessary skills that may still be relevant today?

Oh, and by the way: I must drink too much coffee.

Thanks to Gavin Heaton for suggesting this site.

Labels: conversation, Gavin Heaton, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 6:54 AM

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Thursday, March 13, 2008

Using New Media to Respond to Customer Feedback

Here's a video that captures the essence of why companies should be thinking about social media with regard to customer issues. And it's from no less an old media bastion than the Wall Street Journal.

Interestingly, they advocate for blogging to come from all levels of the organization, citing the oft-quoted fact that people like to hear "from people like them." So, it's not just for the CEO to blog anymore. And it doesn't just end with customer relations, it's also can help with employee relations.

For the full scoop, click on the video:

Via Shel Holtz.

Labels: corporate blogging, customer relations, New Media, social media, trends, Video

Posted by Scott Monty at 10:14 PM

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Thursday, February 28, 2008

Social Media Jobs Are Hot

I'm pleased to report that the job market for social media is taking off. A post in VisInsights indicated that more companies are starting to put together job description for social media types.

It's encouraging to see that organizations are not only taking social media seriously by apportioning budgets for programs, but they're also staffing against them. Here's some visual evidence:

"social networking", "social media", blogs, "web 2.0" Job Trends graph

One of the classic knee-jerk responses to instituting a social media program is "my staff is already swamped with work, they can't take on something else." It looks like that complaint has been met with the retort courteous, "Then hire someone new."

What should be particularly interesting is to see how many of these jobs end up being cross-functional. That is, to date, it's been impossible to compartmentalize social media: it seems to have parts of PR, advertising, brand management, customer service, employee communications and product development, to name a few. If I had an option, I'd go for the job that allowed social media to seep into / tap into all of those areas.

Every week Jeremiah Owyang has a feature on new jobs and new hires in social media. It's worth checking out his site as a resource, as well as:

Jake McKee’s community portal for jobs
Chris Heuer’s Social Media Jobs
socialmediajobs.com
My own Jobamatic link here or over in the sidebar

If you'd ever like to chat about getting started in the social media field, I'm more than happy to speak with you.

Labels: employment, social media, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 6:00 PM

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Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Generation Y and Your Business

Call them "Gen Y," "Millennials," "Echo Boomers," or whatever you want - just be sure you call them, because they've got something to say.

I was listening to episode 79 of HBR Ideacast, Managing Generation Y, in which Tammy Erickson, who writes the Across the Ages column for the Harvard Business Review, was interviewed. As I was listening, I realized that in addition to the baby boomers, this is a generation that is potentially going to change the way you're doing business - or at least thinking about doing business. There are implications to marketing, internal communications, social media, and organizational behavior here.

In the podcast, they referred to the "self-assured, overly emotive, text messaging" generation who are "happy to tackle the big jobs, and they'll do it with confidence." This should be welcome news to any manager's ears, but I think this should be tempered with an acute awareness of the idiosyncratic traits that this generation brings with them. Let's look at them one by one:

Impatience/Immediacy
I've often said that this is the generation that wants to be an intern on Monday and the CEO by Friday. I admire that kind of drive, but I also wrinkle my nose at the hubris that accompanies it; there seems to be a lack of willingness to put in the time and gain the experience necessary for such a role.

According to the Erickson, this is deeper than just youthful impatience; she says they're likely be impatient for their entire lives. She posits that during their formative years, Gen Y has been bombarded with inexplicable, sudden and tragic events such as 9/11, Columbine and Virginia Tech - and that they've decided that they need to live life now.

I think it goes a little deeper than that (perhaps she was limited in time on the show). Look at the way the cable news networks have evolved over the last 10-15 years. Whether it's padding their daytime programming with Iraq war I or II, the O.J. Simpson chase & trial, or the latest celebrity overdose, all of the news outlets are catering to a need (?) for more information, now. When you take this institutionalized view of news, information and service, it's not too much of a stretch to think that Gen Y is going to expect fast results in the workplace.

But at the same time, I think we need to keep in mind that this desire for results and action may come at a price: the inability to think strategically. Granted, there are very few (if any) strategic planners who are 20-somethings. But if they have this nurtured aversion to longer-term thinking, there may be trouble ahead.

Lesson: harness the impatience and drive and turn it into an opportunity to let loose their unbridled energy on training in strategic marketing.

Let Me Tell You What I Think
By and large, this generation has grown up in a peer to peer world, where they're used to openly sharing ideas and not being shy about saying what they think. Odds are that in the workplace, if they have an idea that will benefit you, they'll share it - with managers, directors, and even CEOs.

Lesson: tap into this reservoir of creativity and fresh perspective and get their input on as many facets of your business as possible.

Technology
This is the generation that€ was raised on text messaging. They look up on email as an outmoded style of communication. To them text messaging is personal, immediate, and it gets results. They can't understand why it takes us
16 emails deep in a chain to come up with a time to schedule a
conference call. To them, it's a no-brainer: text, boom, done.

In addition, TiVo, Facebook and other technologies lead them to doing things on their own time. We've been used to structure & scheduling, while they do things when time allows them to do so. Asynchronous behavior may become more prevalent.

Lesson: be open to trying out IM or presence applications in
our day-to-day lives, with internal communications, and possibly with
marketing.

Parents' Roles
Gen Y likes their parents; not surprising when these "helicopter parents" are involved in many aspects of their children's lives. While this can be incredibly annoying (and these kinds of parents should ease off, lest they tarnish their kids' reputations in the workforce), it does have one positive side effect: Gen Y has great working relationships with Boomers in the workplace.

Lesson: use this natural attraction to create strong mentoring programs between Boomers & Gen Y-ers, to share knowledge.

There is no doubt that this generation will have a huge impact on the world. They're certainly ready for us. But are we ready for them?

What do you think? How have you experienced Gen Y in the workplace, either as a Boomer, a Gen X-er, or a Gen Y-er yourself? And what do you think the answers are?

Labels: Generation Y, Marketing, strategy, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 12:28 AM

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Friday, January 25, 2008

Keep the Tip(ping Point)

It's funny. Just yesterday, I got notified by two separate people - one of whom is my colleague Greg Verdino - about an article that criticizes the theory behind Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point. One directed me to the Wall Street Journal's The Informed Reader post called "The Cast Against Marketing to 'Influencers'" while the other referred to the recent Fast Company article Is The Tipping Point Toast?

Gladwell's theory (echoed by Ed Kelly and Jon Berry in The Influentials) held that trends are influenced by a select few; word of mouth marketing efforts typically focus on those. But the articles mention that social networks are too complex to function like that, and that the influencer theory is kaput.

The reason it caught my attention is because both articles cite the research of Columbia University research scientist Duncan Watts. This is the same research I actually wrote about 8 months ago, in post called The Accidental Influentials. The concept was that ideas or trends can spread like a forest fire, and that it doesn't matter who applies the match - it's the conditions of the forest that make a difference.

There are two points I'll raise in connection with this.

In Social Media, Timing Is Everything
The first thing that struck me is that I hit upon this back in May of 2007. But the mainstream media is only getting to it now. Why? The topic is clearly in a field I'm interested in, so that might be one factor as to why I covered it early. The other is that I had initially heard about the study on a podcast. Given that new media is still struggling for recognition as a legitimate and viable channel, I'm not surprised it didn't make headlines then.

Watts is Wrong
As someone who works in the field of conversational/word-of-mouth/social media marketing, it should come as no surprise that I think Watts isn't quite correct when he claims that influentials aren't necessarily influential. I think that his research was flawed in that it only focused on email and a virtual setting, whereas now we have a variety of communications methodologies that account for the rapid spread of ideas: IM, video chat, and social networks of all kinds, to name a few. I won't go so far as to say he's 100% wrong - but then again, I don't think that Gladwell was 100% right either.

At crayon, we consult and advise on a variety of conversational marketing strategies that incorporate an element of influencer outreach (or "blogger outreach," as many call it). With the proper amount of time and attention dedicated to research, and using tools like Technorati and Alexa, it's fairly easy to determine who the major influencers are in any given segment. Where it gets difficult is figuring out how to interact with them. You need to know how each one communicates, in which social networks they participate, and on and on.

My Alternate Theory - The Boy Scout Analogy
I propose that a hybrid theory - Watts' and Gladwell's theories combined - makes more sense. We can agree that there will always be influencers, whether you call them A-listers, celebrities, or whatever. People will always look to these leaders and high profile individuals for cues.

At the same time, I think Watts is onto something when he uses the forest fire analogy. Yes, the conditions have to be right for an idea to spread. But he claims "any old match will do" to get it started. I don't think so. Someone might have wet matches or might not know how to strike one properly. It's the combination of finding the right conditions (social networks, communities, etc.) and applying the match (friends, members, followers, commenters, in those socnets & communities).

Once you've got the proper combination of communities and influencers and you understand the intricacies and nuances of how they work together, then you'll have the recipe for success.

As part of their training, the Boy Scouts have to learn how to make fires how to adhere to fire safety. Their official motto is "be prepared." I think the same should be said for marketers consider conversational marketing.

Labels: conversation, crayon, social media, strategy, study, trends, WOM

Posted by Scott Monty at 8:32 AM

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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

The Future of Business Planning

There's no doubt that newspapers are in a fight for their lives. What will the newspaper industry look like 5 or even 10 years from now? It's tough to say for certain, but it will almost definitely involve less paper and more online presence.

The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) just released a set of 66 predictions from newspaper executives that pertain to the future of their businesses. Here are just a few examples:

Infotainment, with games, DVDs, tickets, samples and other non-traditional products becoming an increasingly important component of the media offering.
Changing demographics, with more single households, older people and non-traditional families.
Growing choice, with an infinite number of options making it hard to decide what products and services to buy.
User-generated content that provides opportunities for self-expression and social interaction.
Consumer power, where the customer is taking control over brands and information flows on the internet.
Mobile devices becoming faster, smaller and user-friendly.
The growing importance of social networks.
Multi-channel strategies and the diminishing differences between types of news media.

If you'd like to download the full report, it's available here.

What stood out to me is that a number of these trends are not relegated solely to the newspaper industry. I think much of what they've mentioned is also relevant to marketing executives across many sectors of the business world.

Information continues to explode and hyper-disperse at an alarming pace. Just last night, a client was opining that he just doesn't have the resources to put staff in every channel of communication that his customers use; it's too fractured.

Certainly the ultimate challenge for every marketing executive will not be how to participate in the myriad of new media channels (although that will be one ongoing concern), but rather which ones are the best to deploy resources against.

It would be foolhardy of me to make any channel predictions at this point, so I'll keep my judgment to trends that transcend any fads or sites that are currently in favor.

Be flexible; people are becoming used to consuming information and entertainment when and where they like. The more options you provide, the more likely you'll be able to keep their attention.
Be unique; even if you're only serving a small audience or customer base, you'll have a dedicated following that can grow into a cadre of brand ambassadors.
Provide value beyond your own offering to promote loyalty. If you don't happen to have that truly unique product, consumers can get information or a me-too product from the next guy. Take a risk. Offer something that perhaps doesn't promote your product or service directly, but gives an unexpected additional value to your customer.

Do you have other lessons or trends to share? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Image credit: Despair.com

Labels: strategy, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 8:38 AM

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Tuesday, December 04, 2007

I Didn't Start the Fire

There's a great debate raging in the blogosphere right now. Actually, it originated up north in Canada (I guess they need the heat up there this time of year) between a couple of great bloggers.

This is a natural extension of a post that I wrote back in October trying to gauge your opinion of my del.icio.us links appearing in my RSS feed. Your opinion was split, as it appears to be between Mark Goren and Mitch Joel, in their respective posts.

You'll also notice a good deal of chatter in the comments sections of each of their posts - please be sure to read those, as that's where you get to see a variety of opinions, counterpoints and rationales.

For what it's worth, I left the following comment on Mark's blog (you'll have to click through to see what he responded with):

Mark: great points here. Mitch certainly raised some valid points & counterpoints on his own blog and here, but I have to side with you. I actually put this question to my readers a couple of months ago, and opinions were split (of those who chose to comment).

Bottom line: social media, if nothing else, is about choices. Never before has it been so easy to give your audience a variety of ways to consume content. Mitch or you are I are not so omniscient that we can presume how every reader prefers to consume content. So why not give them everything and let them choose?

Blog posts, del.icio.us links, Google Reader shared item, Twitter streams - it’s all fair game!

What do you think?

Labels: blogging, del.icio.us, Mark Goren, Mitch Joel, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 10:40 PM

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Friday, November 30, 2007

Facebook's Beacon Gets a Little Brighter

Modest doubt is call’d
The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches
To the bottom of the worst.
- William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act ii Sc. 2

If you've missed the whole Facebook Beacon dustup, here's a quick recap of what went wrong. Boiled down, it goes like this: the new program Facebook is running shows the details in your news stream of your purchases with any of the 22 or so Facebook partners who are part of the Beacon program (Overstock.com, Fandango, Zappos, etc.), so your Facebook network knows what you've been doing.

Kind of creepy, right? Well, the public first reacted with modest doubt, then became vehement over what can only be described as a huge lapse in judgment by Facebook. At first, Facebook gave only passing mention that your details would be shown, then the gradually released more information - but the problem was, there was no way to opt out (or in, for that matter).

To their credit, Facebook has listened.

The New York Times did a great job illustrating the Evolution of Facebook's Beacon. Visually, the evolution looks like this:

The latest update is that the two-day deadline on replying is gone. Now, if you don't respond, you're assumed to have opted out. But this is not a blanket opt-out, just an opt out on a particular transaction.

Update: Facebook has changed the requirements so that you can opt in or out of each partner program. Hat-tip to Jeremiah for that one.

Is this enough? Has Facebook saved itself with this evolution, or do they need to go further? I'd argue that they at least need to do a little more research or bring someone on board who understands the user experience when designing notifications. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

Labels: facebook, news, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 10:03 AM

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