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Facebook Launches Live Stream Widget for All Website OwnersDo you remember CNN’s live stream of the inauguration, or when TNT did a live stream webcast of the NBA All-Star Game? If you did happen to catch both of those online events at the respective websites, you would have noticed that Facebook played a large part in those particular events.Each of these events integrated the Facebook Connect-enabled live stream widget. And now Facebook is making this available to all websites and developers who can now incorporate this technology on their sites. This event now allows brands to consider using this Live Stream ‘Chat’ Box on their websites or applications. However, it is not only built to function around live events, but could be used simply for any reason on a website – but that is the point of it. And another great aspect of this client comes right from Facebook who said “the Live Stream Box can handle a very substantial load, supporting millions of simultaneous users.”  The one downside of the Live Stream Box is that the content posted to it will not be archived or accessible for any APIs. This client is to be utilized as a one-use chat room that can be thrown away at a later point. However, the true benefit of this is the ability to increase the engagement level, and keep a user’s interest on your website, and increase the amount of time a user might engage on it. The process is quite simple in how this client functions – a user comes to your site, and if they are already signed in through Facebook, they will be able to start chatting right away (if they are not, they will be asked to sign-in before taking part in the chat client), and each ‘chat message’ a user submits is posted back to their Facebook profile with a link to the website they just came from (Your Website!!). This in turn shows up on their news’ feeds, and so on – the viral propagation has begun. Labels: Facebook, Social Media, Social Media Marketing 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Facebook Pages Move Closer to FriendsThe direction Facebook is moving in is a dream for social marketers since the lines between the functionality of Facebook Pages and Profiles is becoming continuously blurred. Constantly we struggle to create a personality and relationship through the Facebook Pages of our clients in the same way we manage our own profiles with Friends. The ability for a Page to act like a Profile however, has limited the opportunity for companies to build deeper relationships with fans and customers on Facebook.Today Facebook has announced that all users will see a change to their friend lists whereas “All Friends” will now be “All Connections”, and it will now be possible to add your favorite fan pages to these lists. To see what your new friend list looks, view your friends page. The possibilities for this functionality are endless. I’ve already started brainstorming creating a list of all my favorite bands with my core group of music-loving friends. Sorting this list in my news feed would allow me to stay on top of concerts, CD releases, and general music news. The best part is the mixture of bands and music lovers that would provide me with 360 degree view of the music industry. Recently, I just created a list encompassing the people and groups I turn to for online marketing resources. This includes both professionals like Harry Gold and a great social media resource page created by Dell Small Business.  As I continue to build out this list more to include pages like Mashable and AdAge, I will be able to sort my news feed in a way that only shows the updates relating to online marketing for the day. This is comparable to the way TweetDeck gives you the ability to organize the way you see incoming tweets with groups, and also gives Facebook a feeling of a personal RSS reader. I use Google Reader to watch all the most recent news come in from the blogs I am following, but Facebook is now giving me a way to see not only that information, but also how my friends are reacting and responding at the same time. As Pages continue to move more towards Profiles, the opportunity for online marketers is only going to grow. Social media has created this great potential for any size company to grow as close to their customers as a friend. This level of brand loyalty is priceless. Labels: Facebook, Industry, online marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Socially Enabled Ads: An UpdateMore online ads are becoming less about impressions and clicks and more about engagement, interaction, and sharing. All the ad units integrating social sharing functionality and content are taking this trend to the next level. Here's a quick list of just a few I compiled with the help of Bianca Garcia, one of our social media planners.Facebook's Engagement Ads By now, we all should know that Facebook's engagement ads are the socially engaging/interactive home page ads. But some people may not have noticed that Facebook now combines certain ad functionalities to give the user (and advertiser) more opportunities to engage and connect. For instance, these ads used to be just plain graphic plus text copy, or a single-focus ad: Give a Gift ad, Watch a Video, or Become a Fan. Now there are so many things we can do, all in one ad unit. For example, you can Watch a Video, RSVP to an Event, Take a Poll, and Become a Fan. Of course, the two best things about these ads remain: the viral component and the ability to custom target. Any of these social actions taken by the user shows up in his/her news feed, and is then seen by their friends, spawning basically free publicity and viral spread. Custom targeting still lets advertisers target their Facebook ads by demographics (age, gender, geographic location), keywords found in the user's profile, education, workplaces, relationships, and even languages. An example of this is the engagement ad for "Grey's Anatomy" season finale. Users can watch the video within the ad unit (it expands once the play button is hit) and RSVP to the event, virtually keeping the brand ("Grey's Anatomy") and the event (season ender episode) in their personal calendars. Read more... Labels: Advertising, ClickZ, Social Media Marketing 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Overdrive Launches Facebook Application for Boston.com Greetings Everyone, It is with much pride to announce that Overdrive's first Facebook application is ready for use. Built for Boston.com, the application showcases their Globe 10.0 daily video series and allows users to comment on the videos. Perfect for the New England Sports Nut in all of us! In addition to the comment system, users can also vote up or down good/bad comments a la Digg. At the end of the month, the user with the most positive votes will win a gift card to The Globe Store or other fabulous prizes. We've also included the sports feed from The Boston Globe which links to the day's sports headlines. To find the application, search "Globe 10.0" on Facebook or go to http://apps.facebook.com/boston-globe-ten Feel free to add the application to your profile, send it to friends, and join the conversation. Overdrive completely developed this application in-house, and it represents the first of what we hope to be many more Facebook/Social Media applications to come. If your company is interested in Overdrive building a world class application for your business, please contact us. 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Iran vs. Iran – A Revolution Captured by Social MediaIt’s difficult to understand sometimes why certain events take place. Why individuals might act in a certain manner and take action in ways another might think differently about. It’s relative in thought, but when that action is applied in a real-life situation, you awake for a moment, see something so unbelievable, it’s simply beyond comprehension.In Iran, we are witnessing that very moment – a revolution unplugged. In streets swept by defiant protestors for the past seven days – post-election of the incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; scenes of chaos have been described to us through singing gunshots, angry helicopters, and graphic images of wounded men, women and children being severely beaten, injured, and then carried off into another hospital bed.  The origin of this revolution comes at the barking of Mir Hossein Moussavi, who believes last week’s Iranian election was fixed – where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad received more than 24 million votes – nearly double the number Moussavi received. On Moussavi’s Facebook page, he asserts that through a massive manipulation of the vote, with Ahmadinejad receiving more than 11 million votes over Moussavi 13 million, the election must have been fixed. His supporters now dress in his signature "Green Revolution" colors that accompanied his campaign.  And as reality strikes us with each update, this particular revolution has strung a different chord in 2009, allowing social media to be the key component in allowing the world to see the unfettered truth, happening nearly every hour in Iran. The hash tag (#iranelection) has been in Twitter's top 10 trending topic since the election ended last week. And every 15 seconds, there are more than 100 updates on the hash tag, many live from ground zero – showing violence from the streets through uncensored images and videos. Iranians have taken up cameras, mobile phones and computers to send Twitter updates, YouTube videos, and Flickr photos of the country's riots. The number of Twitter posts with the hash tag #iranelection has risen in monumental fashion on Twitter since the riots have become more intense. On Saturday, June 20, 2009, there were close to 82,000 tweets in just one hour. The number of blog posts discussing Iran has been on the rise as well, there are nearly 86 million blog posts that discuss Iran in some manner, and on in the last 24 hours there has been over a million of newly published posts. According to reports Saturday night on CNN, one woman said that riot police pushed her and about 300 people back with batons and water hoses as they were trying to reach Tehran’s Revolution Square late Saturday afternoon. Another eyewitness said that he saw an old man who had been shot in the head. Another protestor said she saw two helicopters hover above a group, and then police broke up the group with tear gas, and those who ran away were hit badly with batons. All of this being caught through images or video of some type. The power of video has also been used to push an imaginable force of emotion on the public. A video was released of a woman named Neda (#Neda) who was injured during the riots and died in a matter of seconds, all caught on YouTube. I give you fair warning before clicking the following link to go watch that video – for that reason, I am not embedding it. The following video is extremely graphic and you should be prepared before watching it here. I am including this because we need to understand that social media is raw, and allows the public to see an uncensored version of the world or an event. And in the need of just simple understanding, the world must realize what is actually taking place in Iran. Many other videos have also been released on YouTube that show protestors and police, militia and individuals who have had no part in these riots - being punished. In one video, recorded June 19, 2009, a woman is filming from her rooftop and reciting a poem about the violence happening below her. And in those streets, you hear the shouting of hundreds of people, evoking such powerful emotion and thought about what is taking place in her country. In another video recorded by the BBC, the Basij Militia open up fire into the protesting crowds: Protests are also not only taking place in Iran, but all over the world, This video, very well-produced, comes from an election protest in Paris: And in Tehran, recorded Saturday, June 20, 2009, just the amount of people you see in the streets is something to stop and think about. And in some of the most graphic images to come out of the battle so far, a preganant woman was shot in the back earlier this week. Tehranian doctors removed the woman’s fetus and showed the graphic result of violence involved in these riots. The following image is extremely graphic - please be prepared before viewing the image here. And similar to emergencies in the U.S., Twitter has been used to help tell people where to go if they have been injured, and phone numbers to dial in order to help find anyone who might be missing. Twitter also has been a component to help protestors gather and recruit others to help promote tactics to keep the Iranian government off-guard. Twitter-ers from all around the world are also taking part, and are requesting others to change their local Twitter time in their settings to the Iranian time zone to keep the government from trying to shutdown any local tweeters. As of 10:16 pm EST on June 20, 2009, Tweeters were reporting that Iran’s oldest militia, the Basij, "were raiding people’s homes overnight and killing people in their homes." At 10:19 pm EST, Tweeters were offering guerrilla tactics if facing the Iranian government, “realitybias RT guerrilla tactic: If facing a tank, molotov cocktails drive people out of them. Aim for ventilation and entry port.#iranelection” These are just two of the thousands of tweets I reviewed during just an hours time. See what others are saying as well:    Conclusion. This display of escalating violence and mayhem unfortunately has only increased since this post was written. Iran is a nation caught in a web of chaos, and even though social media has allowed a colossal audience to see the destruction happening inside a country, it’s important to recognize what is taking place. And as we monitor this on a daily basis, and use social media as the favorable tool to do so, we must accept the reality described above, even as uncensored as it might be sometimes. But in return, the world is able to see what is happening inside Iran, and can react accordingly – keeping us informed and knowledgeable of the situation at hand. Labels: Facebook, Iran Election, Social Media, Twitter 1 comments. Click here to post comments. Social Media & Narcissism – Individuals and Brands: Remember to Love YourselfBecoming a star on the Internet these days does not seem as far fetched as it once might have been. Social networks have become a ubiquitous tactic in helping connect individuals with family, friends, and strangers alike. And over the past several years, a number of those random individuals have become overnight sensations – all thanks to the Internet.Do we all remember Tay Zonday? After his composition “Chocolate Rain” became an overnight Internet sensation in July 2007, garnering more than 40 million views to date, this Minneapolis grad student went from no one to someone, in mere seconds. He has appeared on the Opie & Anthony Show, G4TV’s Attack of the Show!, VH1’s Best Week Ever, Lily Allen and Friends, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Maury where he performed Chocolate Rain on national television just three months after posting his video to YouTube. He made the front page of Sunday’s Los Angeles Times, the Toronto Sun, Chicago Tribune, Star Tribune, People magazine, and even has appeared on CNN for a televised interview. He’s made appearances on Fox News, and even made it on to an episode of South Park. And that’s just the beginning of it! Singer John Mayer mimics Zonday’s keyboard riff with his guitar in concert regularly. Even Green Day drummer Tre Cool recorded a cover of Chocolate Rain, which he posted to YouTube. He’s even been mentioned in episodes of The Office, 30 Rock and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. And this is from a YouTube video, a YouTube video!? Think of it, one day a college student decided to sing some strange, yet catchy song, records it, and ends up becoming an overnight star. Comedy Central, Dr. Pepper, Intel, the rock band Weezer, NASA, Warner Brothers, and BBC have paid Zonday to appear in a variety of promotions. Zonday is just one of many YouTube celebrities who happen to have corporate sponsors, and are paid for product placement in their videos online. Some have even quit their day jobs or changed careers to accommodate their YouTube filming schedules. And a handful of individuals are also official “YouTube Partners,” meaning YouTube cuts them a share of ad revenue. Lonelygirl15, the Obama Girl, the Angry German Kid, Dancing Matt, Charlie bit me, the Boom goes the dynamite guy, the prison thriller, even the guy who screamed “Don’t Tase Me, Bro!”- all of these individuals went from having normal everyday lives to notable online prominence.  Some might think of this notion as absolutely foolish, some might think of it as a form of humble genius – nonetheless, they are stars, overnight sensations that have proven their worth in numerous inescapable maneuvers. Those mentioned above hold our deserved scrutiny, but they are from years past. Ergo, who shall we take notice of now in 2009? Who will be the next Tay Zonday to speak highly of? - Leaping on to the national stage and then slipping back into anonymity, this seamless performance seems to act as a contagious flu anyone might catch. And in 2009, only can a deceased cat, a 48-year-old Scottish woman and Dominos pizza employees have so much in common. For just a brief second, we read, watched and spoke about these individuals at some point - all thanks to the Internet, and the instant-celebrity, be it a person, video or website might deliver us. Drum Roll Please. Here are just a few of those viral sensations that have struck 2009 in more than just simple terms: (some personal grading was also applied here based on impact) Keyboard Cat This sensation began with a video clip of a decade old cat appearing to play the keyboard. Add in a video-savvy 22-year-old to the mix, and marry that clip with another of a person falling down an escalator – you have stardom my friends. This one video attracted the attention and interest of millions, including comedian Stephen Colbert. The AP reports Brad O’Farrell, syndication manager for MyDamnChannel.com in February 2009, put the keyboard cat into motion. Since that point in time, hundreds have taken the keyboard cat clip and combined it with a video clip of an embarrassing accident – the result is absolutely hysterical in some cases. The keyboard cat’s (aka Fasto, who’s said to be long dead) performance is meant to play the person “off the stage.” This is a great example of how users can take a moment someone creates, and ‘recycle’ the content on their own to produce user-generated content that allows users to decide the hilarity behind who the keyboard cat will “play off” next. Rating: A+ Susan Boyle If you have not heard of Susan Boyle, chances are you’ve lived in a cave for the past 6 months. Her melodramatic tale began as a 48-year-old reality show contestant for the U.K. reality TV show “Britain’s Got Talent.” When this very sweet, and very unassuming individual belted one of the finest versions of “I Dreamed a Dream” for what would eventually be the world, never did she see the stardom marching her way. Camera crews and interviews on several major news broadcasts, including the NBC Today Show – caught Boyle off-guard and soon she was thrown into a newly found fame courtesy of the Internet. And even though this unemployed Scottish church volunteer did eventually lose the contest, the online video of her debut performance was downloaded more than 200 million times, and had the paparazzi camped outside her home, and had Oprah and Larry King begging for interviews. Watch her video here Rating: B+ (Sorry, she lost…can’t give you points for that.) 25 Random Things About Me This 2009 e-mail chain-like fad fascinated Facebook users and took them to another level. Chances are if you are on Facebook, at some point you saw this pass into your inbox. And you either loved or despised the forwarded message, reluctantly giving in or galloped to quickly toss into your trash bin. The overall point of the fad was to share 25 random things about yourself, and then forward it to 25 other Facebook users. PC World Magazine estimated that more than 5 million motions of the chain letter forwards populated Facebook pages in just one week. The fad grew to such a massive following; a Facebook user spoofed it with a “25 Things I Hate About Facebook” video. Facebook quickly followed up with the user, Julian Smith, and worked with him on other videos. This 2009 sensation had a prolonged spike in mainstream media, and did help Facebook further its popularity. Rating: A Dominos Pizza Videos In May, videos of Dominos pizza employees violated public health laws when they decided to have ‘fun’ with people’s food while preparing it and recording the entire segment on video inside the Dominos pizza kitchen. Watch the video here Their antics, which eventually made it to YouTube, sparked a PR nightmare for Dominos pizza, where the company made a public apology from the CEO online via YouTube. This drew the eyes of several million people, damaging the brand greatly overnight. But, like any other Internet sensation, these moments are short-lived, and what was once a wildfire, seems almost like it never happened. In the end, an interesting study was done by MediaCurves.com, where they obtained American’s perceptions of the event’s apology, as it revealed that 65% of respondents who would previously visit or order Domino’s Pizza were less likely to do so after viewing a “prank” video. The results can be seen here Rating: B- Runners Up: The Obama Puppy: The moment President Obama promised his daughter’s a puppy, the world had no choice but to care. Bo, the Portuguese water dog eventually made his way to the White House and the ‘online’ world went into a frenzy. Online polls, kennel associations, blogs, and users across all social platforms scratched and clawed to want to help the Obamas pick the breed. Rating: B The AIG Bonuses: When the world found out that $165 million was paid out in bonuses by insurance giant AIG, the world fought back. Both the public and government officials were outraged by the event of a crumbling company to release bonuses of this size after receiving more than $170 billion in taxpayer funds to stay afloat. As in the case of the Dominos Pizza event, this saw a large spike, then quickly bottomed out and lost interest. Rating: B+ Conclusion. There is one interesting point about viral sensations that strikes me, the time involved. People seem to obsess for a short period of time, and then poof…it’s off to the next ‘hot’ thing. In this tiny village we all live in, there is nowhere to hide, nowhere to run, nowhere anyone won’t find you. The Internet, in an exceptional way, has transformed our lives into ‘live’ events. We can record, we can tape, we can see what others are doing and transmit that event quicker than ever before, to a stage where the entire world can view. Some might argue this and describe our ‘personal space’ as being lost and violated – It’s hard to disagree. But, in reality, it has been, and apparently we are OK with that. There is a reason we share our lives on the Internet with both friends and strangers, why each of us try and climb the plateau and look over to see who might be looking up at us on occasions. When taking this into perspective, it’s all relative, whether your Joe the Plumber or a big brand like Microsoft – there is point to all of this madness. You want to see me, and I want to see you. We might be trying to play those subtleties off on occasion, but in the end – why fight it? Enjoy the self-absorption, swagger with the best of them and remember, narcissism will always get you somewhere in this world. Labels: Brand Awareness, Facebook, Social Media, YouTube 0 comments. Click here to post comments. YouTube's New Social Sharing MechanismThe power of social sharing just got bigger. And in this case, easier.Last week, YouTube launched its new Auto-Share Your Uploads feature. According to YouTube account executive Ryan Stonehouse, "users can now easily send their YouTube uploads to Facebook, Twitter, or Google Reader. Once you link your accounts together, all of your uploads (whether they're uploaded on the web, via a phone, via the API, etc) are automatically posted as tweets, Facebook stories, or Reader shared items." With a single log-in, users can automatically share their YouTube videos with two of the most popular social media sites, Facebook and Twitter:  YouTube is just the latest site to integrate with Facebook Connect. This makes social sharing infinitely easier (and less manual and time-consuming) for Facebook users. According to the Facebook Developer Blog, as more sites and applications implement Facebook Connect, the power of the social graph is extending across the Web, to the iPhone, gaming consoles, and TV, changing the way we view gaming, videos, concerts, and even church. Many of these sites are benefiting from increased distribution and engagement, as they enhance the user experience by making it easy to share and connect with real world friends.And as for Twitter? No need anymore to manually feed video-related tweets to individual Twitter accounts (since admit it, most video uploads are from YouTube anyway; it's not the most popular video site for nothing). As MarketingVOX recently pointed out, YouTube users can directly syndicate recently-uploaded videos across social networks (or at least for now, across two of the biggest ones). This new social sharing mechanism benefits the users and makes the social web one smooth, easy, integrated piece. Consumers and businesses can now easily automate video-seeding across social networks, and this equates to having the ability to disseminate information (aka new videos) more quickly. All with one click of a button. Not only is that easy, it's great. Labels: Facebook, Industry, POV, Social Media, Twitter, YouTube 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Online Marketing Agency Overdrive Interactive Sweeps Interactive Categories at the 2009 New England Direct Marketing Association AwardsOnline marketing agency Overdrive Interactive dominated the interactive category at this year’s New England Direct Marketing Association (NEDMA) Awards. The online and social media marketing firm took top honors in a variety of interactive categories including SEM, SEO, online marketing and social media marketing. The NEDMA Awards show was held June 10, 2009 in downtown Boston where the organization recognized and commended leading online marketing agencies for their innovative campaigns and projects. Interactive awardees were chosen based on the strategic and virtual-cutting-edge tactics used to drive profit-turning results from online marketing efforts. Overdrive Interactive, creators of the Social Media Map and the Search Marketing Map, are the social media and search engine marketing masterminds behind online marketing projects for clients such as EMC Corp., Zipcar, LoJack and John Hancock, who all took home awards this year for categories including pay per click advertising, online marketing and SEM/SEO. “Our clients are truly visionaries when it comes understanding the importance and value of online marketing. It is their enthusiasm and willingness to embrace new and social media that allows us to create and execute ground-breaking online marketing campaigns,” said Harry Gold, social media expert and CEO, Overdrive Interactive. Gold also express his thanks to NEDMA for honoring the agency within the interactive category. Overdrive Interactive plans on celebrating the success of their nominations and wins with all their clients. Overdrive Interactive NEDMA Awards won included a sweep of the Pay Per Click Advertising category with Zipcar taking home the gold. There was also a sweep in both SEO categories (B-to-C and B-to-B). Silver was awarded for the CerconeBrown website in the B-to-B Website category and EMC’s Enterprise Content Management Widget won gold in the Other Interactive (B-to-B) category and silver for the Viral/Word of Mouth Buzz Campaign category. About Overdrive Interactive Overdrive Interactive is a full-service online marketing agency based in Boston that helps clients grow their business with engaging and measurable online media, social media and search engine marketing campaigns and services. The agency specializes in creating genuine consumer connections that help companies build their brands,generate leads and drive revenue. Overdrive serves organizations that are seeking a high level of accountability from their marketing firms and advertising investments. For more information, please visit http://www.overdriveinteractive.com/.  Labels: Awards, Overdrive News 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Facebook Set to Launch Vanity URLs - Time to Line Up!Ever since Facebook launched, people have always wanted to use their real names to connect with their friends and share information. If you are on Facebook and you look at your web address for your profile, the URL was just a randomly assigned number.Not Anymore! Facebook is now opening the door to allow people to find and connect with you easier. Now, when your friends, family, or possibly stalkers go to your profile or Pages on Facebook, they will be able to enter your username as part of the URL. This makes it much easier for people to find you on Facebook.  Facebook is even hinting that they expect to offer even more way to use your Facebook username in the future.  Starting at 12:01 EDT on Saturday, June 13, you will be able to choose your username on a first-come, first-serve basis for your profile and the Facebook pages that you administer by visiting www.facebook.com/username/ A notice will also appear on your profile page when you login starting at that time as well. Facebook will allow usernames in basic text forms, and you can only choose a single username for your profile and for each of the Pages that you administer. Your username must be at least five characters in length and only include alphanumeric characters (A-Z, 0-9), or a period. Be very careful about the username you decide to choose. Once it has been selected, you won’t be able to change or transfer it. And if you signed up for a Facebook Page after May 31 or a user profile after June 8 at 3 p.m. EDT, you won’t be able to sign for a username right away because of steps Facebook takes to prevent abuse or “squatting” on names. Let the countdown begin! Labels: Brand Awareness, Facebook, Social Media 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Ten Ways to Strengthen Relations With Your Media RepsEvery once in a while I like to remind myself, our industry, and of course my team how important it is to maintain strong relationships between media buyers and reps.Don't get me wrong, reps know my team drives a hard bargain. They understand that we, like all other agencies, represent the client and their interests. Yet they also know that my team appreciates the hard work they put into formulating programs that will work for our clients. When it comes down to it, reps will fight harder for deals for the buyers they like and respect. You need to acknowledge the work that a lot of people do to make your agency more successful. So this column is about things you can do to show gratitude to your reps for all the hard work they do for you. These tips are based on things I've heard reps talk about, things we try to do, and things we've discussed doing. Remember, you can attract more flies with honey. (If you are a rep and feel we aren't doing at least the basic things here for you, my apologies. Please let me know.) •Be polite. Return calls and e-mail, even if you aren't in buy mode. It only takes a couple moments. It will help reps do their job to connect with media buyers, acknowledge their effort to reach out to you, and give you both the opportunity to get into each other's contact list. •Acknowledge their value as educators. Sales reps are the continuing education professors for media buyers. They keep us in the know about all the new placements and technologies in the pipeline. Admit it, media buyers: How did we learn about all this stuff that we recommend to our clients? How did we amass much of the information that makes us experts in online media? We got it by letting the media reps give us their dog-and-pony shows. We got the information from the source, which is exactly where we should get it from. Read more... Labels: ClickZ, Online Media 0 comments. Click here to post comments. MarketingSherpa Webinar Addresses Evolving Social Media Landscape for Marketing Professionals MarketingSherpa, a leader in marketing research and education, has teamed up with social media marketing agency Overdrive Interactive to present “Social Media Is About Socializing” webinar. The session will take place Tuesday, June 23, at 2:00 PM EDT. The webinar will feature Jeanne Hopkins, MarketingSherpa’s CMO and Harry Gold, CEO of Overdrive Interactive.“MarketingSherpa is excited to be working with Overdrive because they have crafted successful online marketing campaigns using social media for clients such as Harley-Davidson, EMC and Cognos,” said Hopkins. “Research from the recently released MarketingSherpa Social Media & PR Benchmark Guide outlines the need for a well-thought out plan in both B2C and B2B markets.” “Social Media Is About Socializing” will address the necessity of a social media presence for today’s businesses and the numerous benefits of joining the virtual play space via Facebook, Twitter, blogging and more. Specifically, the webinar will focus on:
“The businesses that are growing in this financial climate are incorporating social media elements into their interactive marketing strategies,” says Gold. “If executed correctly, social media marketing can make both a measurable impact with leads and revenue as well as build brand loyalty over time.” Labels: Events, Overdrive News, Social Media 0 comments. Click here to post comments. What is this Bing thing? Bing is Microsoft’s newest search engine, which took the place of Live.com early Monday morning (Live.com now redirects to Bing). The video introducing Bing insists it is “not just a search engine. It’s a decision engine.” This rebranding positions it to snatch some of Google’s market share. Although it may be second nature for you to Google, here are some of the features that make Bing interesting.Video Previews The video search is one of Bing’s most impressive features. Google and other search engines have offered video search for years, but Bing has the unique functionality of in-page previews. If you were to mouse over any of the videos in the screenshot below, that video would play right in the thumbnail space. So it’s probably a good idea to make sure your brand’s videos are search engine optimized for these results.  Search Categories Broad search terms bring up category suggestions to try searching under. For example, searching for a movie like “Star Trek” brings up categories like Cast, DVD, and Images. Searching for a product like “laptops” brings up categories like Shopping, Brands, and Buying Guide. Only the broadest of searches will bring up these suggested categories, and some only result in one category suggestion. Still, this looks like a promising feature.  Shopping Bing’s shopping feature has merged Microsoft Live’s Shopping and Cashback sites. Its search results include filters (brand, category, price), keeping you on Bing as long as possible during your purchasing decision. The cashback feature gives you a percentage of the item price you buy, but only for certain items. Apply the cashback filter to see which items apply. You can also sort by the products’ popular features. For example, when searching for laptops, these include affordability, speed, and ease of use. Local Results Bing’s local listings let you filter by categories, so you wouldn’t even need to visit sites like Yelp. For example, when searching for “Italian restaurants in Boston,” you can sort by rating, price, cuisine, and even parking. Reviews are brought in from sites like Yelp and Citysearch. Individual restaurant pages include a restaurant scorecard, one-click directions, and reviews from the third-party sites.  Other Notable Features:
Labels: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 1 comments. Click here to post comments. Google AdWords Trademark Policy Change Goes Into Effect Next Week!If you’re an agency, you’re likely aware of the major Google AdWords trademark policy change that will be going into effect beginning June 4th-15th. This change will significantly impact the control we’re able to have over our client’s brand names within Google Paid Search.What you need to know: -Google will no longer investigate the use of trademarks as keywords in the US, UK and other countries as well. Anyone who wants to sponsor your brand name can, effective June 4th. -Previously, Google restricted the use of brand names in ad text and would take action to prevent such usage. Only authorized resellers were allowed to use you brand, which ensured that most were restricted. This policy is being lifted as of June 15th, so previously disapproved ad text may now be permitted to run in both Google and the Content Network. Google will judge whether the ads will be able to run, and the trademark owner will not be able to prevent people from using their trademark in ad text. It is likely however that Google will not allow direct competitors to include their competitor’s trademark within their ads. What you can do to protect your clients: 1. Ensure that their brand presence is strong- ensure you’re bidding on their branded terms, include their brand name within the ad copy, URL, etc. 2. Report display URL abuse to Google- if you find brand hijacking (causing traffic to be diverted to sites other than your client’s) Google will take action 3. Negotiate deals with competitors- agree to not bid on each others trademarked terms Clients frequently question the value of bidding on their branded terms, when they have natural search presence and often times are listed within first page results in Google. As search marketers we know that having our client’s brand name present in both natural search listings and paid search listings can result in a sort of ‘page domination’ and ensure that we stand out against competitors who’s ads are likely appearing under our branded terms when searched for. This recent trademark policy change stresses the importance of this ‘page domination’ now more than ever. For more on the Google AdWords Trademark policy changes, click here. Labels: Brand Awareness, Google, Paid Search, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Hip Hop …and Twitter?!?!? Not only have hordes of actors, news reporters and CEOs joined Twitter, but you’ll also find a number of hip hop stars participating. Sure, current big shots like @50cent and @ThisIsLilWayne are tweeting but quite a few other rappers sport an ever-growing following.
So if @souljaboytellem (with over 600,000 followers) gets a listen to a new guy’s track and tweets his legion - that type of simple promotion can move a no one into a someone overnight. 0 comments. Click here to post comments. A New Pricing System for OnlineThere are a few pricing models for online advertising and we all know them well: CPM (define), CPC (define), and CPA (define) being the major ones.But recently, Ari Rosenberg brought me a very novel and intriguing pricing model. It's so unique that he patented it and has some pretty major advertisers and publishers using it. It's called IPC, or impressions per connections pricing. Maybe we'll all be buying media with this new pricing structure some day. Here's what Ari had to say about it. Harry Gold: Ari, please tell me a bit about your background and how you came up with IPC pricing. Ari Rosenberg: I used to be sales manager at Snowball.com (we changed our name to IGN in 2001). We had three "hub sites" at the time, including IGN.com, Chickclick.com, and Powerstudents.com. While on our sites, I had noticed how often we were running ads that didn't seem to fit. Our sales folks were great at pumping in ads that made very little sense for the audience our brands attracted (Ameritrade running on Chickclick.com, for example). At the same time, I also learned firsthand what it was like to have a campaign I sold get canceled because the ads did not perform well. This was a strange feeling coming from traditional media sales and I was resentful that revenue I booked would cancel because "their" creative didn't work on my site. I knew there had to be a better way to formulate a deal structure where everyone could benefit and performance on all sides was incentives. Read more... Labels: Advertising, ClickZ, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Share Maps with Social Horizon's URL Shortener: http://amap.to/Check out the video to see it in action. You can also follow amapto on twitter at www.twitter.com/amapto.Labels: Facebook, Integration, LinkedIn, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, web 2.0 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Twitter is A-Buzz with Starbuck’s New CampaignStarbucks has launched a campaign with the hope to target a new generation of coffee drinkers. The goal? To get them to tweet about it, of course!Starbucks is putting up posters in six major cities, and has challenged people to post a picture on Twitter of one of the posters today. The first five to post are rewarded with a Starbucks Gold Card with $20 on it.  As one of the biggest marketing efforts Starbucks has had to date, the goal of this particular campaign is to tell the Starbucks story- about a company that truly values the quality of their coffee. This message is particularly important to those of the new generation who have grown up with Starbucks as a commodity. The ads themselves are a flashback to ads in the ‘60s and ‘70s, heavy on the copy- as Starbucks hopes to evoke the message that there’s a lot to say about coffee. Some worry this is not the approach to take with this generation- for which Starbucks may not be about the coffee for this generation, but rather is about the atmosphere and a place to hang out. Starbucks understands that Social Media Marketing is key for this campaign. Some of you might remember that on Election Day, Starbucks gave away free coffee to anyone who voted. What you may not know is how all the buzz about the giveaway started. Leading up to Election Day, Starbucks had a single 60-second TV commercial on SNL advertising the giveaway, and posted the video online. By the time Election Day came, this video was the 4th most viewed on YouTube- not to mention, Starbucks was being tweeted about every eight seconds. With 1.5 million fans on Facebook and 183,000 followers on Twitter, Starbucks hopes this campaign will create the buzz it’s looking for. For more on this new Starbuck's campaign, check out the NY Times Article. Labels: Advertising, Brand Awareness, Social Media Marketing, Twitter 1 comments. Click here to post comments. Spring Potluck 2009It was a bittersweet Potluck Lunch - last one at our Leo Birmingham Parkway location! Competition was fierce but thankfully everyone brought their A-game.Setting up...the anticipation is building!  Fruits of our labor! All our client names were listed on the flags...brilliant!  Meryl recreated the garage in our office - very impressive! Complete with Austin Powers, and all. Dig in!  And the awards go to... Dan/Shane - best last minute dish (delivery is the way to go sometimes...) David - best stomach satisfying dish (rum cake with homemade chocolate sauce) Meryl - best 46 Leo Birmingham Parkway theme (see picture above for full effect) Laura - best use of a condiment (chocolate frosting is considered a condiment around here) Ra - best presentation AND most nutritious dish (fruit salad - see above for full effect)  To see more pictures, view them on our Facebook Page at: www.overdriveinteractive.com/facebook. Labels: Campus Life 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Connecting the Dots - Building a Community Channel for Social Properties Within Your WebsiteWhen it comes to social media marketing, what isn't hot these days...Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace...the list keeps going. And when considering using these social branding channels, these aren't just another set of marketing toys to play with, remember, these are your brand's identity. And with hundreds of millions of people scouring these sites for information daily, your connection with a potential customer needs to be seamless.One aspect of any social media campaign that should be approached is to connect the dots within your marketing channel. There are a number of brands that dive into social media with a lack of experience in launching within the space. So, let's put on a little scenario. Brand A has product X and creates a Facebook, Twitter and YouTube page. They take the time to pamper the process and create lasting value behind these pages, through effective videos, messaging, images, and interactive content that brings value to the brand. Excellent! Now, next question: How are you sharing this content with your users?
But, what haven't you done yet? Connect the Dots. When building a social media strategy, it is crucial to connect a brand website with external social media properties. There are simple and advanced ways to do this: 1. Place simple calls-to-action on the homepage  This allows users to have a stronger connection to any social properties. A user's relationship with your product hinges on these particular moments. We are opening a door here by allowing users to quickly share and disseminate content across their own personal networks. Allowing this opportunity for a user sets a clear goal for them. First, they are not confused by the 'impostors' that may be lurking on the web. These are the unofficial channels of a product, many of which exist. These channels have unclear and more than often, incorrect information listed - which hurts the brand's reputation in the end. 2. Build an Online Community Channel Within a Channel  This is a bit more work, as it requires building a channel on your website that captures the true meaning of all your social networks. This could include a live twitter feed, a Flickr gallery, calls-to-action that connect your Facebook, MySpace, Blog, etc. This builds a user's confidence about the brand, and removes any falsehoods that might exist in the social space otherwise. By building in this access to the social properties for users, we build the relationship from a more personal connection. We've eliminated the falsehoods that might live within a user's mind, and connect users with accurate and efficient channel sharing capabilities. This stems from an idea called relationship management. Companies often think of how to effectively build awareness to their social channels, grow their fans, followers, friends, etc. This is often part of what is coined a Phase I build-out for any social media program. Included in a Phase I build-out is an integration strategy, and connecting the dots between social properties and a brand website, often done during this phase - is a must-do. I've seen the mistake more than often where brands build-out social channels, but fail to harness the conversation where they already receive the most traffic - their very own website. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about social media or just online marketing general. Labels: Facebook, relationship management, Reputation Management, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter 1 comments. Click here to post comments. EMC Announces 2nd Annual Content Management Writer's Summit: June 4 - 5 at the Hotel Gansevoort, NYC!For any writers/bloggers in the enterprise content management space interested in attending or participating... see the post on the EMC Documentum Community from Joyce Watts at EMC:EMC 2nd Annual Content Management Writer's Summit: June 4 - 5 at the Hotel Gansevoort, NYC! The Writer's Summit brings together dedicated writers, bloggers and industry experts in the world of content management and archiving/compliance. This year's theme is Innovation and Business Trends, and the impact it has on Enterprise Content Management, Archiving and Compliance – in 2009 and beyond. This highly-interactive event is hosted by the content management and archiving division of EMC and includes one-night hotel accommodation and meals during the event. Below is a list of topics to be discussed: - Content Analytics & Business Intelligence - Information Virtualization - Good Governance vs. Business Agility - Web 2.0 - And more! Please contact Joyce Watts at EMC for more information: watts_joyce@emc.com. Labels: ECM, EMC, enterprise content management 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Eight Things You Need to Manage Social Media"Who Owns Social Media Campaigns? written last week by ClickZ columnist Rebecca Lieb, explores who should manage social media for companies - public relations firms, search firms, or agencies.I'm grateful to Rebecca for getting me a gig at ClickZ as a columnist more than two years ago. This week, I'm appreciative because she gave me fodder for my column here. Below is a comment I posted last week in response to her column; I'd like to elaborate. Online Marketing firms who have search, online media, creative, development and tracking technology under one roof are the only entities really qualified to deploy and manage a robust social media channel alive with good content, creative and interactive applications. Agencies might be close but most PR firms are just not equipped to deploy creative and technology-infused online assets and blend them with high-octane online media programs. Certainly "search only" firms are not the right folks for this either - they don't have great creative or online media buyers. The one thing PR firms may have a leg up on is good blog-relations programs. Let me list skills and components that a company needs to manage a social media campaign in a comprehensive way and explain why online marketing firms are the right ones to make it happen. First, the lines between search, online media, online creative, and online technology are blurring and nowhere is that more true than with social media marketing. A social platform is a channel that will forever build your brand, encourage engagement, and drive site traffic, leads, and commerce. Only online marketing firms adept at maintaining, managing, tracking, and optimizing "always on" online channels and technologies should be in charge of managing these platforms. A robust social platform has tons of moving parts and technologies behind it. So in exploring what type of firm is best at managing a social platform consider the following. You wouldn't have your PR firm build and manage your Web site, right? You may have your branding agency do it but probably not. However, you would retain your pure-play online marketing firm that has all the creative, search engine optimization (SEO), and technical/Web development skills under one roof to build and manage your Web site right? Well a social media platform is like a huge Web site that not only integrates with your site but lives all over the Web. That's why a full-service online firm is they way to go. Read more... Labels: ClickZ, online marketing, Online Media, Social Media 0 comments. Click here to post comments. YouTube Masthead Goes UGThere have been a lot of buzz recently about Sprint’s user-generated “Human Clock” which will launch this week on YouTube. The ad, which supports Sprint’s “Now Network,” will feature videos of people holding up one number that will be strung together similar to a clock. “For example, at 12:09 the ad would display four people, each holding up one number to represent 1, 2, 0 and 9,” MediaPost writes. The images will change as the minutes and hours tick by. The ad will utilize YouTube’s masthead ad unit which works with other ad units on the homepage. This placement is great for advertisers who want to make a big splash. Zal Bilimoria, product manager for homepage at YouTube states, “On average, these rich media masthead units have 14% interaction rates, compared to the industry average noted by DoubleClick for similar-size units of just under 5%.” The ad unit will also be available as a widget at Sprint’s Now Network micro-site. The site also features interesting facts of things happening “Now,” such as the number of bicycles being produced worldwide, traffic updates in major cities, and even the number of people stuck in elevators. Overwhelming at first, the montage of stats is artfully displayed as a series of interesting stats happening around the world. I admit, I have been on the site for over 42 minutes and I haven’t even clicked on half of the stats. To find out more about the number of coffee cups being produced or the next bus arriving in Portland, visit the site at http://www.sprint.com/network For more information about this post please visit MediaPost's article, "Sprint Takes Over YouTube Home Page With UG Human Clock" Labels: Advertising, Online Media, Social Media Marketing, Video, YouTube 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Want to be on the Cover of Harley-Davidson's 2010 Catalog?Harley-Davidson has always been known as a brand who is more than just product - it's a culture and such a big part of people's everyday lives. Therefore, what better tribute to riders and fans then the opportunity to be immortalized on the cover of their 2010 Motorcycle Catalog and in their online photo mosaic.In order to create the image, people will need to submit their individual photos, which will be used to create one big mosaic. Photos could be of fans/riders, their bikes or a riding related experience. Help Harley-Davidson reach their goal of 10,000 photos by next Friday, 5/15!! Click here to get started: http://www.harley-davidson-mosaic.com/  Labels: Client News, online marketing 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Walk for Hunger 2009!On Sunday, 5/3, 44,000 people came to the Boston Common to raise millions for the hungry during Project Bread’s annual Walk for Hunger. The 20-mile pledge Walk attracted over 1,000 religious organizations, as well as 1,200 corporate teams, 1,200 schools, and 700 friends and family groups. These Walkers and their sponsors raised $3.8 million to provide food for 400 emergency food programs in 128 Massachusetts cities and towns. The funds will provide a hot meal or a bag of groceries for out-of-work families next winter.To learn more about the cause or to donate, please visit: http://tinyurl.com/dfhk3b  This year, five Overdrive team members joined the walk and raised $1,200 for the cause (of course we were decked out in our full OD gear!). It was the 2nd year in a row that Overdrive has been represented at the Walk for Hunger...and luckily, NO RAIN this year!Getting started - leaving the Commons full of energy:  Mile 10 - halfway there...  Once we saw the bridge, we knew we were in the home stretch! At last - happy faces after crossing the finish line!!  We'll be back again next year! Labels: Campus Life 0 comments. Click here to post comments. Overdrive Interactive is On The Move!Last week, it was announced to the Agency that we will be moving into a new building on June 15th!The announcement came as a suprise to most when Harry instructed employees during our weekly traffic meeting to line up with their cars and follow him!  Outside the new building, the announcement was made to all that this would be our new 'home' on 6/15. At the top of the stairs was Katie filming everyone's reaction. You can check it out on YouTube shortly...  Here's Patrick and Andrew checking out the buildout plans:  So much space...to GROW! More pics to come as we get closer to the move! Stay tuned... Labels: Campus Life 0 comments. Click here to post comments. |
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