Scott Monty

You Know Social Media Is Serious When...

An interesting piece this morning on <a href="http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=47533&Nid=22947&p=313502">MediaPost</a>: it seems that YouTube has scooped all of the major media outlets with <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd3VV8Za04g">a 10-minute video</a> about Lockheed Martin shafting the Coast Guard with some security-lax patrol boats. 
 
Evidently, the Lockheed employee went to the mainstream media - 75 reporters at different newspapers - and none of them was interested in the story. So he went to YouTube and uploaded the video on August 3; it has been viewed nearly 70,000 times as of this time. 
 
Consequently, the Washington Post and NPR picked up the story. This is a great example of how the Web - the blogosphere and vlogosphere - are driving traditional media. Even ABC acknowledged the power of this medium, noting that this is "further evidence that the Internet has given the average person a way to be heard."

You Know Social Media Is Serious When...

An interesting piece this morning on MediaPost : it seems that YouTube has scooped all of the major media outlets with a 10-minute video a...

The Blitz is On

I just finished participating in a hosted conference call with Phil Hollows, CEO of <a href="http://www.feedblitz.com/">FeedBlitz</a>. I've been using <a href="http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=94054">FeedBlitz</a> on my blogs since April 2006 and have had remarkable success. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/4564/341154559726763/1600/feedblitz_logo.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/4564/341154559726763/320/feedblitz_logo.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" /></a>FeedBlitz is an email-based system that notifies subscribers that your blog has been updated. Blogging makes it easy to build a dynamic presence on the Web and email is a natural way to get the word out. Not everyone knows or wants to know RSS - figuring it out, downloading/choosing a reader and setting it up and be time consuming and complicated. But people understand newsletters and email. The major benefit of FeedBlitz is that it's easy to understand - it's an email-based blog update tool. On these pages, I've mentioned that the Achilles heel of "new marketing" is RSS. It's just not that easy to use. <a href="http://www.feedburner.com/">Feedburner</a> has made it easier with their interface by instituting SmartFeed (go ahead, try <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SocialMediaMarketing">subscribing to my RSS feed</a> with the big orange button and see what happens). Now try it with <a href="http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=94054">FeedBlitz</a>. But the bottom line is that email is ubiquitous and universal. It's how you reach customers. And offering them a daily (or however frequently you update your blog) newsletter is extremely valuable. In fact, blog subscriptions grow 20% more with an email notification option over an RSS feed alone. In just over a year of operation, <a href="http://www.feedblitz.com/">FeedBlitz </a>already has over 70,000 publications (blogs, news feeds, Web sites, etc.) on its roster, with a collective 800,000 readers. And <a href="http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=94054">FeedBlitz</a> is known for its tremendous customer service; Hollows said that as first-time CEO, his first hire was a customer service veteran. Here's a preview of some of the improvements on the burner at <a href="http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=94054">FeedBlitz</a>: <ul><li>Will make the site/tool easier to use</li><li>Will work cooperatively with other vendors and blog-based professions (such as allowing your feed to work with ad networks of your blog)</li><li>Will continually add services to premium users and will filter down to free users</li><li>Will gear service toward larger businesses in addition to small businesses that FeedBlitz serves today</li><li>FeedBlitz "2.0" ready toward the end of September 2006</li></ul>During Q&A time, I asked Hollows "if I decide to leave <a href="http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=94054">FeedBlitz</a>, who owns the email addresses, me or <a href="http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=94054">FeedBlitz</a>?" To his credit, Hollows said that your subscribers are yours. You can download their information at any time and can manage them online at all times. And if you walk away, they're yours to keep. The reason: <a href="http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=94054">FeedBlitz</a> believes that open data and open standards will result in building better service. Here's a Web 2.0 company worth keeping your eye on. Bonus: Check out <a href="http://www.toprankblog.com/2006/07/interview-with-phil-hollows-founder-of-feedblitz/">an interview with Phil Hollows at Online Marketing</a>.

The Blitz is On

I just finished participating in a hosted conference call with Phil Hollows, CEO of FeedBlitz . I've been using FeedBlitz on my blogs ...

Discomfort Zone

Over at <a href="http://blog.experiencecurve.com/">ExperienceCurve</a>, Karl Long blogs about <a href="http://blog.experiencecurve.com/archives/three-rules-for-managing-viral-marketing-what-every-cmo-needs-to-know">3 rules for managing viral marketing</a>. He states "If you are responsible for the creative output of a marketing department or an agency, then this post is for you." As the viral craze continues at...well...a viral pace, Long outlines the following in the lead-up to the rules: <ul><li>Success bares no relation to investment - In traditional marketing there was generally a relationship between how much you spent and how many people saw your message, there is no such relationship in Viral Marketing</li><li>Viral Marketing does not have a timeline - Traditional marketing calendars, and even the traditional marketing plan is irrelevant when executing and responding to viral marketing efforts. Viral marketing is just not that predictable, which calls for a different kind of planning</li><li>Number of views bare little relation to reach or impact of Viral Marketing - As viral is something that is shared from person to person, you can be sure that many more people hear about it than view it (a little esoteric I know, but I talk about the Subservient Chicken constantly, and yet have only been to the site once)</li></ul> The three rules are boiled down to this: Experiment, Monitor, Respond.

Discomfort Zone

Over at ExperienceCurve , Karl Long blogs about 3 rules for managing viral marketing . He states "If you are responsible for the creat...

The ReSultS Are In

As part of its article last week Marketing Reality Check: Blogs, Podcasts and RSS , Advertising Age surveyed readers on their thoughts on ti...

Anti-Social Media Marketing

Well, that didn't take long. I just blogged on advertising in social networking sites last week, saying that any marketing in sites li...

RSS Feed Button Tool

One of the most prevalent tools at the disposal of marketers today is also one of the most poorly understood. The RS in RSS supposedly stands for "really simple" but in reality, it's anything but simple. RSS can greatly improve the return traffic on your site, but can be a little daunting to implement and to use. 
 
<a href="http://socialmediamarketing.blogspot.com/rss.xml" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/4564/341154559726763/200/rss.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" /></a> 
That innocuous little orange button seems inviting enough. But in most cases, clicking on it will yield a rather unintelligible result like this: 
 
<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/4564/341154559726763/1600/RSS_screenshot.0.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/4564/341154559726763/320/RSS_screenshot.0.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" /></a> 
Most people will look at this, scratch their heads and say, "Huh?" The more experienced RSS users will recognize that you have to copy the URL and paste it into your preferred feedreader. If the feed's owner is using <a href="http://www.feedburner.com/">Feedburner </a>- a user-friendly feed creation site that gives you real-world options on how to follow an RSS feed. 
 
In the absence of a Feedburner feed, <a href="http://www.toprankblog.com/2005/11/rss-feed-button-tool/">here's a quick tool</a> to assist you or your clients in selecting the most appropriate RSS feed.

RSS Feed Button Tool

One of the most prevalent tools at the disposal of marketers today is also one of the most poorly understood. The RS in RSS supposedly sta...

Nomenclature

As the development of marketing technology continues at a breakneck pace, it's helpful for the industry to maintain consistency in terms...

Friday Fun Video

Every good blog needs a 'regular feature' that its readers can anticipate. We're going to post a humorous video clip every Friday (that's not to say there won't be others throughout the week, but you can count on a Friday appearance). 
 
This week, the angry observational comic <a href="http://www.onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2006/08/back_in_black_2.html">Lewis Black takes a look at advertising</a> - specifically what HP, USAirways and CBS are doing to build brand loyalty. 
 
<center>
<div style="background-color: black; width: 520px;">
<div style="padding: 4px;">
<iframe frameborder="0" height="288" src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:arc:video:comedycentral.com:b0ad81be-ed00-11e0-aca6-0026b9414f30" width="512"></iframe></div>
</div>
</center>
 
 
To read a little bit about the background, check out the USAirways story <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13931680">here</a> and the CBS story <a href="http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/dont_mess_with_taxes/2006/07/cbs_cooking_up_.html">here</a>.

Friday Fun Video

Every good blog needs a 'regular feature' that its readers can anticipate. We're going to post a humorous video clip every Frid...

When We Quit, We Quit Silently

AdWeek reports that Agency.com removed themselves from the Subway pitch, supposedly because they " reached the finals of a pitch for ...

What Not to Create

WillVideoForFood has done a quick manifesto on their site: The Seven Deadly Sins of Viral Video No mention of Agency.com, but the Smirnoff...

Podcasting - Why Are You Waiting?

In his posting, The Real Reason to Podcast on the MarketingProfs blog, John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing notes that in the small busines...

PR or Advertising?

Social media is necessarily amorphous - some of its principles fall under the subject of public relations, while others fit within advertising. As the ways in which companies communicate with customers continue to proliferate, social media is a key part of the conversation in both camps. 
 
Blogs, podcasts, wikis, RSS feeds, del.icio.us, Technorati, Digg - whether used by PR or advertising professionals - are all social media tools. We define social media tools as anything that enables conversations to spread more easily and to be tracked. Customers are already talking about you. How do you make it easier for them to do so? 
 
On the PR side of the house, our colleagues at SHIFT Communications have developed a <a href="http://www.shiftcomm.com/downloads/pr2essentials.pdf" style="font-weight: bold;">Social Media Essentials Guide</a> in PDF format. This is a great basic guide to social media, in addition to SHIFT's work on a <a href="http://www.pr-squared.com/2006/05/the_social_media_press_release.html" style="font-weight: bold;">social media press release</a> and a <a href="http://del.icio.us/SHIFT.Communications.Novell.SUSELinuxEnterprise10" style="font-weight: bold;">purpose-built del.icio.us page</a> specifically for the Novell Linux campaign. 
 
[Disclaimer: Novell is a client of PJA]

PR or Advertising?

Social media is necessarily amorphous - some of its principles fall under the subject of public relations, while others fit within advertisi...

The New Influencers

Topaz Partners note that there's big money in social media . With MySpace getting half a billion dollars, Facebook holding out for more,...

The Me2 Revolution

Richard Edelman <a href="http://www.edelman.com/speak_up/blog/archives/2006/01/the_mea_revolut.html" style="font-weight: bold;">comments on some excerpts</a> from his an excellent piece for the annual Edelman Trust Barometer brochure. 
 
In it he notes the movement away from the pyramid approach of the highly scripted message starting with the CEO and moving to investors, then on to other mass audiences. The future is in adding peer spokespeople to that model: 
<blockquote style="font-style: italic;">
Smart companies must reinvent their communications thinking, moving away from a sole reliance on top-down messages delivered through mass advertising. This is the Me2 Revolution.</blockquote>
Edelman tracks the sphere of influence in the recent past: 
<blockquote style="font-style: italic;">
In the US, for example, the "person like yourself or your peer" was only trusted by 22% of respondents as recently as 2003, while in this year's study, 68% of respondents said they trusted a peer.</blockquote>
How to take advantage of this? 
<blockquote style="font-style: italic;">
How can companies embrace this future of empowered stakeholders? Speak from the inside out, telling your employees and customers what is happening so they can spread the word for you. Be transparent, revealing what you know when you know it while committing to updating as you learn more. Be willing to yield control of the message in favor of a rich dialogue, in which you learn by listening. Recognize the importance of repetition of the story in multiple venues, because nobody believes something he or she hears or sees for the first time. Embrace new technologies, from employee blogs to podcasts, because audiences are becoming ever more segmented.</blockquote>

The Me2 Revolution

Richard Edelman comments on some excerpts from his an excellent piece for the annual Edelman Trust Barometer brochure. In it he notes the...

RSS - A Remarkably Similar Situation

As social media continues its march toward mainstream, one of the biggest problems is that we continue to be awash in data, information and updates. Feedreaders were meant to solve this problem. But if you're anything like me, you've got a number of RSS feeds to track in your feedreader. 
 
<a href="http://www.toprankblog.com/2006/08/marketing-and-advertising-blog-network/" style="font-weight: bold;">Online Marketing</a> announced that there is a new <a href="http://www.marketing.fm/marketing-and-advertising-network/" style="font-weight: bold;">Marketing and Advertising Blog Network</a> with <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/MarketingAndAdvertising" style="font-weight: bold;">a single RSS feed</a>. That means you can go to one consolidated place to see updates from some of your must-read blogs. 
 
Similarly, del.icio.us has started experimenting with <a href="http://del.icio.us/help/bundles" style="font-weight: bold;">tag bundles</a> - a sensible way to group those tags that seem to be growing out of control. 
 
Strange, isn't it? At the point where we've moved to such customized, niche sites with specific information and micro audiences, we're realizing that the fragmentation might be too much for the human brain to handle. The needle seems to be moving - ever so slightly - in the direction of mass marketing. 
 
Now that online marketers are using the word "network," it seems that conversations about advertising are more appropriate than ever... 
 
Updated at 11:05 a.m.: <a href="https://www.feedburner.com/ads/add-campaign.do?n=7" style="font-weight: bold;">See? </a>It didn't take long.

RSS - A Remarkably Similar Situation

As social media continues its march toward mainstream, one of the biggest problems is that we continue to be awash in data, information and ...

Blogging: Everyone's Doing It - But Who's Doing It Well?

Great list of top blogs about marketing from <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?ident=28525">MarketingSherpa</a>. It seems that these days, it's becoming fairly ubiquitous. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/4564/341154559726763/1600/FamilyCircus.0.gif"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/4564/341154559726763/320/FamilyCircus.0.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a> Best Podcast on the topic of Marketing: <a href="http://www.acrossthesound.net/">Across the Sound</a> by Joseph Jaffe<a href="http://www.acrossthesound.net/"> </a> Best B-to-B Marketing Blog: <a href="http://blog.startwithalead.com/weblog/">B2B Lead Generation Blog</a> by Brian Carroll<a href="http://blog.startwithalead.com/weblog/"> </a> Best Blog on Email Marketing: <a href="http://exacttarget.typepad.com/chrisbaggott/">Chris Baggott’s Email Marketing Best Practices</a> by Chris Baggott<a href="http://exacttarget.typepad.com/chrisbaggott/"> </a> Best Blog on Search Marketing: <a href="http://www.seroundtable.com/">Search Engine Roundtable</a> Bloggers include: Barry Schwartz, Benjamin Pfeiffer, Chris Boggs, Kim Krause, Shawn Hogan, Ignacio Hernandez, Morgan Carey & Dan Thies<a href="http://www.seroundtable.com/"> </a> Best Blog on Advertising: <a href="http://www.adrants.com/">Adrants</a> by Steve Hall<a href="http://www.adrants.com/"> </a> Best Blog on Marketing to a Specific Consumer Demographic: <a href="http://andywibbels.com/">Andy Wibbels, the Original Blogging Evangelist</a> by Andy Wibbels<a href="http://andywibbels.com/"> </a> Best blog on Affiliate Marketing: <a href="http://www.revenews.com/">ReveNews</a> by multipleauthors Best Blog on the Topic of PR: <a href="http://podboy.typepad.com/techvoice/">Active Voice</a> by Matt "PodBoy"<a href="http://podboy.typepad.com/techvoice/"> </a> Best Blog on Small Business Marketing: <a href="http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/weblog.php">Duct Tape Marketing</a> by John Jantsch<a href="http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/weblog.php"> </a> Best Blog on General Marketing Topics: <a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/">Seth Godin’s Blog</a> by Seth Godin<a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/"> </a> I would also add one more: Best Blog on Social Media: <a href="http://micropersuasion.com/">Micropersuasion</a> by Steve Rubel Any others? Would you recommend any of these for the blogroll to the right? Commenting is turned on.

Blogging: Everyone's Doing It - But Who's Doing It Well?

Great list of top blogs about marketing from MarketingSherpa . It seems that these days, it's becoming fairly ubiquitous. Best Podcast...

Practical Podcasting Guide

MarketingSherpa provides some <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=29679">great insights and tips on podcasting</a>. At this point, this should be our bible. The link may not be permanent, so here are some of the findings, including three surprises, three mistakes to avoid and five rules of podcasting. <blockquote>Surprise #1: Total listenership As of June, 22% of people had even heard of "podcasting" but only 11% had ever listened to one. It seems these early adopters weren't all terribly impressed either. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, just 6.6% of the online population in July recently downloaded an audio podcast. That's about 9.2 million US adults.</blockquote>The good news is there's room to grow and an opportunity to prove yourself. <blockquote>Surprise #2. Specific demographics According to Arbitron, podcasting listenership is fairly even across the sexes with women at 48%. Plus, only 32% of listeners are aged 18-34. At 45%, the biggest demographic slice of listeners is 35 or older, with 17% in the 45-54 age group.</blockquote>This is great news again - podcasting has hit the mainstream rather than the young early-adopter segment. Especially significant in the B-to-B segment. <blockquote>Surprise #3. Listening platforms According to a May 2006 Podtrac survey, 56% of the audience listen via their computers instead of a portable device.</blockquote>Any creative approach to podcasts should be done for dual platforms. Specific tips on creating a podcast that works as a marketing tool Many of the most successful podcasts resemble a cross between a regularly published email newsletter with several interesting articles, a personal blog with a strong individual tone, and a radio talk show with must-meet guest stars. So the best qualities are: <ul><li>Strong Voice - not just the sound but the style </li><li>Steadiness of publication - not a one-off, but a continuing series</li><li>Variety - different guests-stars, different "articles"</li></ul> Some mistakes to avoid <blockquote></blockquote><blockquote>Mistake #1. Shovelware Don't just read your Web site content or email articles into a microphone. If your fans wanted that, they could go online to see it. Create fresh content that's interesting to listen to - guests, two-way conversations, rants, etc. </blockquote><blockquote>Mistake #2. Sales pitch You may get a few people to download a podcast that's a lightly disguised sales pitch once… but chances are none of them will bother to download or listen to the next installment. Just as with email newsletters, the best-loved podcasts offer content the listeners find valuable and/or highly entertaining. </blockquote><blockquote>Mistake #3. Testing just one to start As with email newsletters or drive-time radio shows, the most successful podcasts build brand impact from listener relationships over time. It's not a one-off medium. If you create only one, you may not ever get the audience or impact your podcast deserves. Or, if your single podcast defies the odds to become insanely successful, you may not be ready with a follow-up series in time to catch the wave. </blockquote> Five more content and production rules: <blockquote>Rule #1: Keep it short The ideal length of a podcast is 10 minutes to 20 minutes. “If you go more than 25 minutes, you’re outside the average commute,” says Walch. Or past the average treadmill workout. Rule #2. Don't drone from a script Although some corporate podcasts are scripted, just as with the blogworld, anything with too many corporate communications editors involved can turn the audience off. Rule #3. Copywrite your podcast title carefully If you're hoping for iTunes traffic to discover you, as well as users on other major podcasting directories, remember you're competing with tens of thousands of other podcasts. Pick a name for your podcast that matches your content topic. People are likely to search for a particular subject (rather than a brand name) when they visit iTunes. (Note: This is just like any other type of search marketing -- it’s all about keywords.) Rule #4. Schedule a calendar (ongoing or limited-series) Many podcasting experts say the best frequency is weekly. However, if you're not sure if you're up to the work, nor if the audience demand will be there, you probably should start with a slower calendar. Podcasting as with blogging and email newsletters can be exhausting for the long haul. Not sure if you're up to starting a podcast series that will go on until the end of time? It's a scary commitment. Our suggestion, try the waters first with a limited run podcast series. Just as with an emailed "e-course", a single-season TV series, or a novel with chapters, you'd have a story arc, and announce up front how long the entire podcast will be. Each episode would be developed to play in context of the rest, and the entire series would be as evergreen as possible so newbies can start with podcast #1 at any time and work their way through the series at their own pace. Rule #5. Best time of day may be nighttime Many podcasting enthusiasts dock their iPods overnight and then listen to whatever's new the next morning. </blockquote>

Practical Podcasting Guide

MarketingSherpa provides some great insights and tips on podcasting . At this point, this should be our bible. The link may not be permanen...

YouTube to Sell Advertising in Video Format

A little glimpse into how YouTube plans to make money... From the Wall Street Journal: <blockquote>YouTube Inc. is expanding the type of advertisements it sells to include videos on its home page and on special advertiser-created pages, shedding further light on how the hugely popular video-sharing site plans to make money. <a class="times" href="http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=wmg" onmouseover="window.status=(' Quotes & Research for WMG');return true" onmouseout="window.status=('');return true">Warner Music Group</a> Corp.'s Warner Bros. Records will be the first to roll out the special advertiser pages with a video promotion for hotel heiress Paris Hilton's music album to be released today. In a twist, Fox Broadcasting Co. -- a unit of Time Warner competitor <a class="times" href="http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=NWS" onmouseover="window.status=(' Quotes & Research for NWS');return true" onmouseout="window.status=('');return true">News Corp.</a> -- will pay to advertise its "Prison Break" TV series on the Paris Hilton advertising page, and YouTube will share that ad revenue with Warner Bros. YouTube, a closely held company in San Mateo, Calif., says its users watch videos more than 100 million times each day, making the site a leader in the fast-growing online-video arena. The year-and-a-half-old company has to date carried display and text advertisements it sold itself or brokered by third parties. But YouTube executives have said they aim to create a system that pioneers new ad formats and which could be extended to broker ads for other Web publishers, much as <a class="times" href="http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=goog" onmouseover="window.status=(' Quotes & Research for GOOG');return true" onmouseout="window.status=('');return true">Google</a> Inc. brokers ads that appear on other sites today. YouTube's strategy "revolves around the idea of having brand advertisers participate and become part of our community," says Chief Executive Chad Hurley. The site will now allow advertisers to pay to have their videos displayed prominently on YouTube's home page, charging based on the number of users regardless of whether the consumers actually watch the videos. A user needs to click on the advertising video before it plays. </blockquote>

YouTube to Sell Advertising in Video Format

A little glimpse into how YouTube plans to make money... From the Wall Street Journal : YouTube Inc. is expanding the type of advertisements...

Success in Social Media

Four things to remember about social media: Success in social media = engagement + authenticity x audience reach. Look for the riches in the...

Must See TV Must Be for Me

In a nod to the increasing personalization of - well, everything - NBC has filed a trademark for "TV for Me." While it remains to...

It's Official

According to <a href="http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">Influential Interactive Marketing</a>, as of Monday, August 21st, 2006, Social Media Optimization (SMO) is now a term in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Media_Optimization" title="Link outside of this blog" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">Wikipedia</a>. Here are a few indicators of the life that SMO is alive and well: <ol><li><a href="http://del.icio.us/url/d2d548b3153a5d65c86be8df8e689482" title="Link outside of this blog" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">53 tags on del.icio.us</a> (to the original post) </li><li><a href="http://digg.com/business_finance/5_Rules_of_Social_Media_Optimization" title="Link outside of this blog" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">8 diggs on Digg.com</a> (plus more for other posts on the subject)</li><li><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/%22social%20media%20optimization%22" title="Link outside of this blog" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">37 linked blog posts according to Technorati</a> (to the original post)</li><li><a href="http://newpr.crispynews.com/article/show/15161" title="Link outside of this blog" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">139 promotions on New PR</a> (to the original post)</li><li><a href="http://tech.netscape.com/story/2006/08/17/16-rules-for-social-media-optimization/" title="Link outside of this blog" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">18 votes on Netscape</a> (to 16 Rules post on toprank)</li><li><a href="http://www.marktd.com/?search=social+media" title="Link outside of this blog" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">6 marks on Marktd</a> (to 16 Rules post on toprank)</li><li><a href="http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php?pagename=SocialMediaOptimization.HomePage" title="Link outside of this blog" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">New page added to The New PR Wiki</a></li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Media_Optimization" title="Link outside of this blog" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">New Wikipedia article on "Social Media Optimization"</a></li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMO" title="Link outside of this blog" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">Corresponding update to Wikipedia page on "SMO"</a></li></ol>

It's Official

According to Influential Interactive Marketing , as of Monday, August 21st, 2006, S ocial Media Optimization (SMO) is now a term in Wikiped...

Yo, Yo, Yo - Tennis Anyone?

No doubt you agree that a rap song is probably the best musical accompaniment for a malt beverage commercial. But preppies? Smirnoff Raw Te...

What the #%^*! are Blogs, Pods and RSS?!?

Or so you may have heard a client utter. As an agency, we are expected to present a range of choices for our clients, giving them our expert advice on which channels will give them what they need. Into this mix we are increasingly seeing more opportunities for social media. 
 
Well, AdAge has done <a class="blines3" href="http://adage.com/article?article_id=111377" target="_blank" title="Link outside of this blog">a quick reality check</a> on blogs, podasts and RSS feeds with statistics that might not seem too encouraging in this area: 
<ul>
<li> 7% of American adults write blogs and 22% read them (Jupiter)</li>
<li> About 8% listen to podcasts and 5% use RSS feeds (Jupiter)</li>
<li> 88% of the at-work audience doesn't know what RSS is (WorkPlace Print Media)</li>
<li> 92% of brand conversations were taking place offline (Keller Fay)</li>
</ul>
 
Not to be totally sandbagged, Steve Rubel of Micropersuasion <a class="blines3" href="http://www.bloglines.com/preview?siteid=292115&itemid=112" target="_blank" title="Link outside of this blog">isn't worried.</a> While he acknowledges the hype, he advocates getting involved early in order to influence the <a class="blines3" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_tail" target="_blank" title="Link outside of this blog">Long Tail</a>. 
 
Bottom line: print and TV aren't going away any time soon. But the vast ways that the Internet allows us to communicate with each other are continuing to evolve. It's our duty as marketing consultants to be aware of everything and to develop customized marketing mixes for each client which will allow them to achieve their goals.

What the #%^*! are Blogs, Pods and RSS?!?

Or so you may have heard a client utter. As an agency, we are expected to present a range of choices for our clients, giving them our exper...

Advertising in Social Media

The ad:tech Chicago conference had a great session entitled <a class="blines3" href="http://www.toprankblog.com/2006/07/adtech-chicago-advertising-with-social-media/" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank" title="Link outside of this blog">Social Media: The Dynamics of the Genre and the Opportunities for Marketers</a>. 
 
It was presented as a Q&A, with the questions as follows: 
<ul>
<li> Is social networking something advertisers can ignore? </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li> Is social networking a fad or an enduring behavior? </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Are the social networks safe places for advertisers?</li>
<ul>
<li>The "secret sauce" in MySpace is the respect for users</li>
<li>The key to polite behavior is the balance between intimacy and intrusiveness.</li>
<li>Intrusiveness in the wrong context creates negative effect towards brand.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>How do advertisers deal with the social networking environment?</li>
</ul>
 Very carefully. 
 
Fact: This year, $280M will be spent on social networking sites, mostly creating profiles.

Advertising in Social Media

The ad:tech Chicago conference had a great session entitled Social Media: The Dynamics of the Genre and the Opportunities for Marketers . ...

Are You Ready for Failure?

As the old marketing models move aside, marketers need to increasingly put themselves at risk, on behalf of clients and on behalf of their agencies. In <a href="http://www.bloglines.com/preview?siteid=5267917&itemid=96" target="_blank" class="blines2" title="Link to another page in this blog">Online Spin</a>, Max Kalehoff makes a great point about the importance of embracing failure as well as success: <blockquote>From a marketing standpoint, winning increasingly requires experimentation, risk-taking, and frequent failure. Rigid organizations that don’t build higher levels of unpredictability and periodic loss into their models will lose in the long run. They simply will fail to adapt and build new competencies necessary to stay competitive.</blockquote> Being strategic sometimes means not being safe. A strategy can be desgined to embrace risk and the associated failures that may come. But through such risky ventures and ideas, better concepts and fresher approaches may be found. And when advermarketing is moving at the speed of light, last week's failure will lead to tomorrow's breakthrough idea.

Are You Ready for Failure?

As the old marketing models move aside, marketers need to increasingly put themselves at risk, on behalf of clients and on behalf of their a...

Social Media - Validated

You know that social media is an accepted marketing channel when there is talk of optimizing it - see the <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.pronetadvertising.com/articles/introduction-to-social-media-optimization.html" target="_blank" class="blines3" title="Link outside of this blog">Introduction to Social Media Optimization</a> (SMO). Some take-aways: <ul><li>It involves driving traffic to a website through new channels because search engines aren't the only sites that drive big traffic anymore. While it's not taking over SEO yet, it has the potential to someday soon.</li><li>Social media can be considered anything that can help build a community to rally around.</li><li>Buyer beware though, you can't force SMO.</li></ul>And here are what began as Rohit Bhargava's <a href="http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog/2006/08/5_rules_of_soci.html" target="_blank" class="blines3" title="Link outside of this blog">5 Rules of Social Media Optimization</a>, now up to a list of 16 rules; 6 & 7 courtesy of <a href="http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2006/08/13/rules-of-social-media-optimization/" target="_blank" class="blines3" title="Link outside of this blog">Jeremiah Owyang</a>, 8-11 from <a href="http://www.pronetadvertising.com/articles/introduction-to-social-media-optimization.html" target="_blank" class="blines3" title="Link outside of this blog">Cameron Olthius</a>, 12 & 13 courtesy of <a href="http://www.searchenginejournal.com/?p=3734" target="_blank" class="blines3" title="Link outside of this blog">Loren Baker</a>, and 14-16 from Lee Odden: <ol><li>Increase your linkability</li><li>Make tagging and bookmarking easy</li><li>Reward inbound links</li><li>Help your content travel</li><li>Encourage the mashup </li><li>Be a user resource, even if it doesn't help you</li><li>Reward helpful and valuable users</li><li>Participate</li><li>Know how to target your audience</li><li>Create content</li><li>Be real</li><li>Don't forget your roots, be humble</li><li>Don't be afraid to try new things, stay fresh</li><li>Develop an SMO strategy - define objectives and set goals</li><li>Choose your SMO tactics wisely</li><li>Make SMO part of your process and best practices</li></ol>

Social Media - Validated

You know that social media is an accepted marketing channel when there is talk of optimizing it - see the Introduction to Social Media Optim...

Scott Monty - Strategic Communications & Leadership Advisor

You Know Social Media Is Serious When...

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