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What We Learned from the Emmys

Monday, September 21st, 2009

Emmy Awards

The theme of this year’s Emmy Awards seemed to be: Internet Killed the Television Star. From the opening act to the acceptance speeches given by some of the night’s biggest winners, there was a definite negative vibe permeating the whole ceremony. This, it seemed, was a result of the television industry finally acknowledgingthe fact that more and more viewers are leaving their televisions behind in favor of more dynamic, online media. For anyone thinking about using television as a marketing medium, this year’s Emmys should give you serious reason to pause and reconsider your decision.

As reported by NPR:

“A year after its least-watched telecast ever, the Emmy Awards plaintively acknowledged TV’s changing role in the Internet age, bringing a collective sense of reckoning to the revamped show with everything from scripted jokes about the decline of networks to unemployed stars openly job-seeking.

And the gallows humor started from the top: Neil Patrick Harris opened Sunday’s ceremony with “Put Down the Remote,” in which the first-time host urged viewers “Don’t touch that dial/It’s been quite a while since the dial was in style, but you know what I mean … Don’t jump online/’cause this fine mug of mine needs a huge high-def screen.”

The article goes on to describe how Neil Patrick Harris, the host of the awards show, tries to make light of the fact that television is loosing so badly to the Internet…

“At one point, Harris took his own swipe at broadcast TV during a sketch in his alter ego as Dr. Horrible, the mad scientist of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog, an online musical comedy he did during the Writers Guild strike.

“Television is dead,” sneered Dr. Horrible. “The future of home entertainment is the Internet. Why watch something like this (he spread his arms grandly) when you can see it like this,” whereupon he snapped his fingers and the screen shrunk to postage-stamp size. (He also touted online entertainment’s lack of interruptions — the screen then hiccuped into “buffering” mode — and panicked when his computer battery began fading, ending the bit.)”

And the television industry has good reason to worry. Television ratings are down. Even the nights two biggest winners, and the industries two golden children, Mad Men and 30 Rock. These two shows, adored by critics and industry insiders, are mediocre at best in terms of television ratings. So if these critically acclaimed, award winning shows can’t capture and hold audience attention, what hope is there for the television industry? Not much.

And this is more than just a television or entertainment issue. This is also, very much so, a marketing issue. If more an more of television’s audience is moving online, shouldn’t it make sense for marketers to follow them? Advertising on television is expensive. And since the introduction of cable television, which provides viewers with hundreds of channels, the audience is increasingly segmented and scattered all over the place. Worse, DVR technologies (such as TIVO) make it easy for people to simply zip past the commercials that do make it in front of them. Simply put, advertising budgets are better spent online, for many reasons, than on television.

It’s one thing when an online marketing professional tells you to focus your marketing efforts online. However, it is quite another thing when television stars tell you the same thing. This year’s Emmy Awards Show made it quite clear that television insiders are terrified of the growing power and influence of the Internet. More and more of their audience is abandoning television and turning to the Internet for their entertainment needs. This is not a fad or something cyclical. Last night, television’s biggest stars all turned out to celebrate themselves and no one gave a damn. Keep that in mind when your considering spending (blowing?) your advertising budget on expensive, and increasingly ineffective television ads. And if you would like more information on what Online Marketing can do for your business, or how it can be used to grow and strengthen your brand, please don’t hesitate to contact use directly. The experts at Laser Burn Media can help.

-Dan Cheek
www.LaserBurnMedia.com
dan@laserburnmedia.com

Tags: Online Marketing, television advertising
Posted in Online Marketing | No Comments »

Big brands moving to social media

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

Many more companies are starting to get on the social media band wagon. It is a subtle way to sell things on a social media site. It is not your typical sales style that these companies are used to. Every company want to be advertising in these social media sites. It is really word of mouth marketing in the end. Someone is usually spreading the word about the company at all times of the day and in all the contries that your brand has a presence in.

Multinational corporations, such as Ford Motor Co. and Coca-Cola Co., are beginning to use social media to increase positive sentiment, build customer rapport and correct misinformation, says Adam Brown, Coca-Cola’s Atlanta-based director of social media.

“Having the world’s most-recognized brand, we feel like there’s an obligation or a responsibility when people are talking about us; we have a duty to respond,” Mr. Brown says.

Best Buy Co. Inc. riled up the social-media world earlier this summer with a job posting for a senior manager of emerging media marketing. One of the job requirements, as originally posted, called for applicants to have more than 250 followers on Twitter. (When that caused an online backlash, the electronics retailer opened the process of crafting a job description to the public.)

The larger companies are starting to catch on to this free advertising source. Why wouldn’t a company use social media? Social media is so important and moves at such a rapid pace that it can become overwhelming for one person to handle. Most of the complaints that people post on Twitter or Facebook want a fast response. So it is not just word of mouth marketing it is also part customer service.

The lightning-fast pace of social media, and Twitter in particular, has forced businesses to act in a whole new way, says Mr. Brown of Coca-Cola.

“If you don’t respond within three or four hours, you might as well not respond at all,” he says.

For example, a man on Twitter recently expressed annoyance at his difficulty in claiming an all-expenses-paid trip he’d won through the My Coke Rewards program. He Tweeted, “Coca-Cola, bring down your drawbridge,” Mr. Brown recalls. Within half an hour, Mr. Brown had engaged the customer on Twitter, got on the phone with him and resolved the problem.

Not long after, the man changed his Twitter avatar to a can of Coke Zero.

It is so important to have a one-to –one conversation with your followers even if the post is positive. Keep your followers engaged in the conversation public square that we call social media.

-John Botch
www.Laserburnmedia.com
john@laserburnmedia.com

Posted in Business Advice, Facebook, Ning, Online Marketing, Social Marketing Strategy, Social Media in Society, Twitter | No Comments »

Cup O’ Joe for a Joe

Monday, September 7th, 2009

Special Labor Day Edition.

Since this is a national holiday and some of our fellow American’s are not here to celebrate with us. I thought that I would take a look to see what things people are doing to thank the troops.

I saw this advertisement on facebook the last few days; it is called “Cup O’ Joe For A Joe”. So I decided to click on the advertisement to see what it is all about. A company called Green Beans Coffee has launched this campaign.

In our travels to see the Troops, many share with us their sense of loneliness, isolation and feelings of being forgotten. Their commanders tell us that some Soldiers never receive mail from home. In response, Green Beans Coffee has launched Cup of Joe For A Joe to let anyone, anywhere in the world, say thanks to our troops through the simple act of buying a cup of coffee and having it delivered along with their own personal note of encouragement into the hands of a deployed Soldier.

Please join Green Beans in honoring our Troops. It only takes a few moments plus the spare change in your pocket to say thanks. Simply choose a purchase of any amount and we’ll do the rest!

Here is how it works. First you choose your gift. Gifts range on the donation to the troops is $2- any amount that you want to donate. A $60 gift sponsors 30 soldiers. The second step you write a message. Yes that is right, You get to write a message to the troops that you are sending your gifts to. Then enter your payment information and then they will deliver your gift. The soldier also gets a chance to respond to your message. Click on the link to donate or see more of what the program is about. http://www.greenbeanscoffee.com/coj/index.php

While searching for another story I came across one called U.S. troops in Iraq to get cigar gifts. The owner of a Phoenix cigar distributor collected over 6,000 cigars all donated by people and businesses.

The owner said this:

David Haddad said he packed his collected cigars into a package for the overseas troops and is personally traveling to Iraq to present his gift as “a little bit of hospitality,” The Arizona Republic reported Wednesday.

“It’s an honor to the heroes … because they do what they do (in war) to make it possible so that I get to do what I do … My company offers … cigars to resorts all over the world,” Haddad said Wednesday. “It’s to bring a little bit of hospitality to the troops.”

Fumar Cigars Director of Operations Bradley Meduna said the cigar package has an estimated value of nearly $30,000.

The owner David actually got a chance to go to Iraq and have the biggest ever cigar party in a war zone. Many people are dong different things for the troops. I know that they appreciate every gift that they get.

John Botch

Laserburnmedia.com

john@laserburnmedia.com

Posted in Facebook, Online Marketing, Social Media in Society | No Comments »

AddATweet has a competitor

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

Kutano is the name of the new competitor of AddATweet. Kutano runs as a browser plug-in. The basic part of this plug in is that you can leave a comment on the website you are visiting. There is another tab to this plug-in that lets you talk to community members that are on the same site as you.

When AddATweet launched we were immediately intrigued by the idea of using a Twitter () app to create a web commenting system. The idea is certainly a sound one, which is why we’re not surprised to see a competitor already emerge on the scene.

Kutano, which launches today, is also a browser add-on for adding comments to web pages, but this one functions as a Twitter client, a là TwitterFox (), with an intelligent automatic link-aggregating component, and a way to add instant conversation threads and tweets to a web page. It’s a web browsing Twitter utility you never knew you wanted.

Kutano is pretty darn impressive. After installing the plug-in, and creating a Kutano account (a step AddATweet doesn’t require), the app loads in a left-hand frame within your browser. You can use it like any other basic Twitter app to keep up with your Twitter timeline, mentions, direct messages, and followers. But the beauty of the tool is that you can use it while you browse to create, or add to, a comment thread on a web page, view the tweets that link to a particular page, follow people from within the app, retweet, and tweet your replies and comments to Twitter.

For example, for any public page that you browse, you’ll notice two applicable Kutano tabs you can use to engage with page or website content. The first tab is like a conversation hub. Click the bubble icon to display page and site discussions created by other Kutano members. Click a conversation to view comments, add your own, reply to a user, follow a user, and optionally select to tweet your response or receive notifications of new activity for the discussion thread.

Should you want to start a new topic for discussion via Kutano, simply hit the plus sign at the top (in the discussion panel), name your discussion topic, and choose whether or not you want to tweet the topic.

The other tab with page related content offers up tweets penned by Twitterers related to site content, and it functions by pulling in tweets with the specific URLs from the page or website as shared on Twitter. Here you can view page or site-wide tweets, reply or retweet those tweets, click to follow the Twitterers in question, or add your own tweet.

This is the newest type of add on that lets you leave a comment to webpage and business owners. This concept is great on paper, but the question is will people take to Kutano like they have embraced Twitter? I think that Kutano will not have a problem with that at all.

John Botch

Laserburnmedia.com

john@laserburnmedia.com

Posted in Online Marketing, Social Marketing Strategy, Social Media in Society, Twitter | No Comments »

Are social media and social networks all about relationship media?

Friday, August 21st, 2009

This all goes back to the topic that has run through some of my previous blog posts. Word of mouth marketing runs throughout all types of marketing. Just think about how you use twitter and facebook. They both are relationship sites whether you like it or not.

Do Facebook & Twitter have any intrinsic value. Is it possible the value is between people and profiles and not the site? Take out the people, leave the content. Is there’s value and power to influence?

Twitter is a bit easier to look at this way. I tweet around 4 to 5 times a day on average. I probably read dozens of tweets a day. I rarely go to Twitter.com. My relationship with Twitter.com is nonexistent. For me, Twitter is actually more of a relationship API than a website.

Now this is something for marketers pause and consider. Twitter.com is as relevant as the concrete poured in the foundation of my neighbors house. The site is a construct where relationships happen but it does not create, foster or enable the relationships, therefore measuring the value of the concrete is erroneous.

Now can we take this even further and consider if ANY website holds value? Is it possible that nearly all traffic on the web is some form or relationship media, where the value and influence is between personas and not between the site and the visitor.

I recently tweeted on this and got a response claiming that even with social media, it is not always about relationships. The example given was a user recieved needed technical answers he was seeking from people he did not know, who had tweeted out into the ether.

From my perspective this person trusts the collective intelligence and personas of the Twitterverse. He is using the Twitter API as a channel to connect with people he doesn’t otherwise have access to. I believe that IS relationship media at work. He has definitely moved past finding value in a site or destination in exchange for connecting with expert personas.

Even beyond social interaction I think we can see the web has shifted primarily to relationship media. Consider the 90/9/1 rule where 90% of engagements on any social site are people consuming but not participating in the conversation. I see a relationship here. The 90% has a relationship with the 10% of content producers. And that relationship is often more sought after because it is deeper and more trusted than most institutional sources.

So for marketers what does this mean? I can’t help but wonder if we have moved to relationship media while not fully aware, and not comprehending what it means. Are we continuing to build sites while focused on the value of these destinations, meanwhile ignoring the value of personas & relationship fostering, that may truly be at the core to building relevance and influence on the web?

As long as you keep the conversation brand related when you find new customers, you should have success. It takes five minutes to set up both types of accounts. Twitter makes this next part easier. All you have to do is search for your brand, or you could search for people where you live. Most likely you know some of your customers by name already. You could also make a list of customer’s names or have a signup sheet or contest. If they want to sign up to become your friend on facebook or give you their twitter name so that you can follow them on twitter, and hope that they return the favor. This can all become time consuming especially if you have a store front with an online presence. Social media is relationship management for businesses. It allows businesses to protect their brand and gain new customers in the process.

John Botch

Laserburnmedia.com

john@laserburnmedia.com

Posted in Facebook, Ning, Online Marketing, Social Marketing Strategy, Social Media in Society, Twitter | No Comments »

Questions about the new Google Adwords Interface

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

For the last week Google had webinars on their new interface and how it works. Last week I blogged about the new quality score as one of the changes. People that have been attending these webinars seem to ask a lot of the same questions.

Today we held the last in the series of new interface webinars. Each week we get lots of great questions from attendees about the new interface. Today on New Interface Thursdays we’re going to highlight some of the top questions and answer them.

How do I delete keywords?
To delete a keyword, select the checkbox next to it and then click on the Change status menu at the top of the table. There, you’ll find the option to delete.

My ad is pending review. What does that mean?
An ad with a pending review status can run on Google search pages, but it won’t run on our search partners or on content network placements until we review and approve it. Every time you submit new ads or make changes to existing ads, they are automatically submitted for review. (We review ads in the order they’re submitted).

In the previous interface, ads were reviewed and approved in the same way, but this information wasn’t visible. With the new interface, we chose to start showing more detailed approval status information to give you a better of idea of where your ads are eligible to show.

Where do I find spreadsheet editing?
Spreadsheet editing is only available at the ad group level. To enter spreadsheet mode, navigate to the Keywords tab of any ad group, then select Spreadsheet edit under the More actions menu.

What is the difference between 1 per click and many per click conversions?
The metric formerly called conversions in the previous AdWords interface is now relabeled 1-per-click conversions in the new interface. This metric measures the number of unique clicks on your ads that lead to conversion events. For example, if you’re measuring sales and one ad click leads to three different transactions, only one 1-per-click conversion is counted.

In contrast, many-per-click conversions count each conversion that occurs after a click on your ad. So in the example above, since three different transactions occurred after the initial click on your ad, three many-per-click conversions are counted.

You can learn more about the difference between 1-per-click and many-per-click conversions here.

How do I view Destination URLs for keywords?
You can easily view the destination URLs for your keywords by customizing your columns. From the Keywords tab, click Filters and views and select Customize columns. From there you can turn on the column for Destination URL as well as other metrics for your keywords.

Where are settings for ad scheduling, frequency capping, ad rotations, etc?
On the Campaign Settings tab, there are a few sections labeled Advanced. For example, below your selected bid type and budget, you’ll find an advanced section for position preferences and delivery method. At the very bottom of the page, you’ll find some additional advanced settings like ad scheduling, ad rotation settings, and frequency capping. We organized the settings page in this way to make sure it was easy for you to scan through the fundamentals of your campaign while still giving you the option to explore more advanced configurations.

Those are the general questions that have been asked over the last week. I know that there are many more questions that people have. Some people might not like how the interface has changed. Everything changes and no one likes it but you have to get used to it. Different features will be changed and moved. Google is trying to make this system better and we just need to stay up with it and help them through their progress. They want to make it better for the Adwords specialist’s, and that is exactly what they are doing.

John Botch

Laserburnmedia.com

john@laserburnmedia.com

Posted in Google, Online Marketing, Search Engines | No Comments »

40% of tweets are pointless

Monday, August 17th, 2009

Pear analytics has done a study on Twitter. They found out that 40% of tweets on Twitter are useless babble.

Twitter followers are more likely to hear about what people are having for their lunch than read anything actually interesting or worthwhile, according to Pear Analytics.

Less than one in ten tweets have any real “pass-along value” and more than 40 percent of tweets are “pointless babble,” a study by the research firm showed.
The research carried out by Pear Analytics was designed to take a snapshot of what people actually used the booming social networking site for.
They delved into the endless steam of tweets every 30 minutes between 11 am and 5 pm Central Standard time on weekdays over two weeks to collect a total of 2,000 messages.
They then grouped the messages into one of six categories: news, spam, self-promotion, pointless babble, conversational and those with pass-along value.
Messages classed as babble included such gems as “I’m having a sandwich,” Pear Analytics said.
Only 8.7 percent of messages were found to have pass-along value. Pointless babble was the largest category with 40.5 percent. Conversational tweets were 37.5 percent, but self promotion and spam only grabbed 5.9 percent and 3.8 percent respectively.
Fears that the site was becoming overrun with spam and self-promotion from companies getting on the Twitter bandwagon were refuted by the findings, Pear Analytics said.
“With the new face of Twitter, it will be interesting to see if they take a heavier role in news, or continue to be a source for people to share their current activities that have little to do with everyone else,” Ryan Kelly, founder of Pear Analytics, said of the findings.

Most people are just using Twitter to post anything, even if it is pointless. I guess people like seeing their own posts on their Twitter page. Will this change in the coming years? I think that as more businesses join Twitter much more of the tweets will be self promotion or even spam. Twitter was meant to be there for people to tell their friends what they are doing. We have to also look at conversational tweets. These are the best tweets for businesses because word of mouth is still king.

John Botch

laserburnmedia.com

john@laserburnmedia.com

Posted in Online Marketing, Social Marketing Strategy, Social Media in Society, Twitter | No Comments »

Short url’s

Friday, August 14th, 2009

What is behind these short url’s that social media site Twitter is using? There is a new company out there now that specializes in URL mapping. They will redirect the short url to website that you post.

With a vested interest in making sure that people can use short URLs confidently, many of the leading short URL providers have signed up for 301works, an independent URL mapping directory service (you can think of it like archive.org but for URL mapping). The venture will be managed by GNIP, Inc. The announcement reads:

Leading Internet software companies have joined together to launch an independent URL mapping directory service. The new service will allow all participating short URL providers the ability to make their mappings available as regular updates or as a historical archive through the directory. The service is planned to launch in the next few weeks after participating companies individually inform their respective user communities of their planned participation. Once launched the service will be available at 301works.org and will be managed and run by Gnip, Inc. while the participating companies work to identify an appropriate non-profit organization to manage the directory long-term.

It is with these shared goals for improved permanence and transparency that Adjix, awe.sm, betaworks, bit.ly, Cligs, Gnip, URLizer, and urlShort have joined to launch this new organization.

In plain English: the URL shorteners want to establish some sense of permanence to the mappings they provide, making users more confident that their links won’t just break at some point in the future. It’s a good first step towards addressing concerns about the dangers of short URLs.

So if this non-profit that they want to come up with might give users more certainty that their short link will be redirected or even stolen. Twitter uses these short urls for their users. More companies are on board to use short url’s. It looks like short url’s will start becoming a thing of the future. The one thing that I really want to know is why Twitter uses these short url’s? Is it because they didn’t want people to keep on tweeting about their business? Is it because they want people to see as many tweets as they can fit on a page?

John Botch

Laserburnmedia.com

john@laserburnmedia.com

Posted in Facebook, Online Marketing, Search Engines, Social Marketing Strategy, Social Media in Society, Twitter | No Comments »

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