Overdrive Online Marketing Blog

Overdrive Interactive Wants YOU...To Be an Intern!

noreply@blogger.com (Shaun Campos) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:56:00 +0000

School’s out. Time to put away textbooks, pack up your laptops, and stash away your flashcards. And although the idea of going to the beach every day is tempting (almost too tempting), we all know it’s important to find that perfect internship instead. So where do you begin? You know you need to find something that will enable you to gain valuable work experience in the marketing industry, while at the same time providing you with the opportunity to expand your skill set and knowledge base...This is where Overdrive Interactive comes in.

Enjoy photo copying large documents? Want to increase your experience in staple removal? If so, this is not the internship for you. An internship at Overdrive could be your foot in the door to a full time position. Our interns are not going on coffee runs and sorting folders. Our interns are getting real-life experience by working on projects and tasks that are integral pieces to our business. As an intern at Overdrive you are viewed as a valuable team member and asset to the business. From the first day on the job you will be given projects that will allow you to show off your leadership, management and creative skills. Beyond the real life experience, our internships train you to become fully equipped with an arsenal of tools that an interactive marketer needs to connect with consumers in the digital age.

Who are we looking for?
If you’re hard working, motivated and dedicated to learning about interactive marketing and positively impacting a company, apply. We are looking for current undergraduate seniors, graduating seniors or graduate students who demonstrate a passion for online marketing, social media and search marketing technologies.
Don’t worry; there is space in the interactive marketing world at Overdrive for your interests. We have internship positions available in the following departments.

Account Services
Interactive Design
Social Media Marketing
Search Engine Marketing
Online Media Planning and Buying
Online Marketing Analytics

So now what? If any of the internship positions above spark your interest and you want to get your foot in the door at dynamic online marketing agency, take your laptop back out and apply. For details and application instructions visit: http://www.ovrdrv.com/careers/internships.asp.

We look forward to hearing from you soon!

American Idol Consolidates Social Media Accounts of Top 24 Contestants

noreply@blogger.com (Melanie DAcchioli) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:45:00 +0000

The popular reality TV series American Idol made history this year by allowing the show's top 24 finalists to maintain individual Facebook and Twitter accounts... and then promptly took them away.

According to MTV.com, "For years, the show has put a virtual headlock on all non-"Idol"-sanctioned social media, declaring a blackout on any information or correspondence from contestants during their championship run on the show." However, this change was short-lived. After blogs and websites started declaring who was the most popular contestant, i.e. who was most likely to win based on Facebook or Twitter fan/follower counts, American Idol quickly squashed this initiative.

Last night, Twitter followers of each of the top 24 AI contestants were served this message: “Thanks so much for following me! All my updates from now on will be on our Official Ai9 Twitter Page, please follow me there @AI9Contestants.” Similar messages were posted to Facebook and MySpace as well, according to Mashable.

While American Idol is justified in its concern that social media could sway the results of a show whose results are entirely based on the public's votes, ultimately this move seems wrong. AI made a statement by allowing the top 24 contestants to create these individual social identities for the first time in history, and then immediately taking them away for fear of skewed results.

While American Idol is not fully taking away the individual identities of its contestants, whose tweets and Facebook/MySpace updates are still labeled by name on the new consolidated AI9 pages, the show is still robbing them of the ability to generate and grow fans through social media. The more a contestant puts into their pages, the better results they will show for it. The more engaging questions they ask fans, such as what song they should sing next week, helpful feedback/criticism, etc. the better results they should have to show for it. If AI had a problem with contestants gaining fans and helpful information from their fans using social media, why did they create the identities in the first place? And it's naive to assume that the show had no idea the media would jump on the opportunity to determine the projected winner based on fans and followers of each contestant before they even began the season.

If the contestants' activity on their individual social media platforms influences the show's results, this would only prove that social media marketing is a great tool for American Idol to use to reach its target audience and promote the show itself. But now the show's social media platform is tainted with this news, and its results will be shaky at best. Just like every other mindless reality TV show, AI season 9 is now left with one page on each of the social networks, where all fans can congregate and discuss the season (which has proven to be a disappointment thus far to most former American Idol enthusiasts). It almost seems that AI is opposing viewers establishing loyalty to any one contestant... just in case it actually means something in the end. Isn't this show supposed to be about what the audience thinks? Think again.

Overdrive Interactive Releases Social Media Marketing Whitepaper: "Chiclets: The Social Glue of the Web"

noreply@blogger.com (cifuentj) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:41:00 +0000

Agency helps marketers understand how to infuse campaigns and content with the viral marketing power of Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and other social properties.

Overdrive Interactive, an award-winning digital agency who specializes in search and social media marketing, has released a new whitepaper “Chiclets: The Social Glue of the Web.” The white paper is available for free at http://www.ovrdrv.com/chiclets or by contacting the agency directly.

The whitepaper was developed as part of Overdrive Interactive's commitment to educate all marketers on the power and measurability of social media and how to best apply it to their marketing objectives. Harry J. Gold, the agency’s CEO, said about the white paper, “We developed this paper because chiclets are truly the most powerful and most underutilized nuggets of free social media technology out there…they are literally marketing miracles.” He added, “Marketers need to be aware of the content distribution power of these colorful little icons and have a chiclet strategy for all their online marketing activities.”

The whitepaper covers chiclet strategy and tactics by answering a series of questions ranging from what a chiclet is to how they can enhance websites, banners and any online campaign with instant one click viral distribution. Readers will see real examples of exactly how chiclets actually work to easily get content posted in consumer’s Facebook profiles, blogs and Twitter micro-blogs.

Ty Velde, Overdrive Interactive’s EVP and Director of Client Services said, “We help companies add social octane to their websites, landing pages, emails, banners, basically everything they do online, with well thought out, measurable social media marketing and chiclet programs.” He went on to say, “Chiclets can turn just a few clicks into thousands of impressions that create lasting links and content placements all over the social web. The results are more traffic, more actions, more leads or revenue and more success for your online marketing programs.”

“Chiclets: The Social Glue of The Web,” is just another example of how Overdrive Interactive is demystifying social media and bringing effective, measurable and easy to understand social media marketing strategies and tactics to the marketplace.

###

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 social media marketing 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 Interactive serves organizations that are seeking a high level of accountability from their agencies with proprietary social media tracking and dashboard technologies that allow companies to track actual leads, revenue and ROI from their social programs. For more information, please visit www.OverdriveInteractive.com.

Is Chatroulette A Passing Fad or Potential Opportunity For Brands?

noreply@blogger.com (Shaun Campos) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:58:00 +0000

The big phenomenon currently making waves on the interwebs right now, Chatroulette, is like Skype on steroids. It’s the newest innovation in live video conferencing. With the recent buzz it’s generated on the USA Today and NYTimes , you may already be familiar with how Chatroulette works.

For those who are unaware of the crazed, addicting, and somewhat creepy nature of the technology, Chatroulette is a one-to-one webcam and chat service that connects you with anyone in the world (word of advice: Go on Chatroulette at home, it's NSFW). When I say anyone, I really mean anyone. A week ago, my roommates and I went on Chatroulette and had a 30 minute conversion with a couple of girls from Canada, and later in the night we talked about our love for crêpe’s with some people from Paris. Celebrities like Paris Hilton, Ashton Kutcher, and The Jonas Brothers have also been seen to be hopping aboard the Chatroulette bandwagon. It's an intriguing concept to say the least.

The traffic to Chatroulette.com has exploded in recent weeks. According to AdAge, traffic doubled in one week from 20,000 to 40,000. Copycats of the service such as Redditroulette and Tinychat are also cropping up. What is the obsession for people over this thing? It’s hard to say. However, if marketers can figure out what is driving people to flock to sites like Chatroulette, they may discover how to market to mass audiences through interactive video conferencing.
In his article on AdAge, Matthew Szymczyk says that Chatroulette might lay the groundwork for the future of live video conferencing and streaming. Here are some recent stats he presented that shows how the live conferencing site Ustream is benefiting celebrities, artists, and film studios:

Tiger Woods' live Ustream broadcast had 683,000 streams.
MySpace and Ustream's live premiere event for "Alice In Wonderland" had 400,000 streams.
YouTube's U2 concert drew over 10 million streams.

Chatroulette’s growing popularity, along with these numbers show that consumers are very interested in interacting live through video. Szymczyk also says there is innovation to be made in desk-top based video conferencing. ZugStar, for example, brings augmented reality into the world of online video streams.

It will be interesting to see if interactive video conferencing will ever become a part of a brands social media strategy. There seems to be some opportunity there.
Do you think the technology can help brands reach a mass audience like artists and celebrities do on sites like Ustream? Or do you see it a passing fad or an invasion of privacy?

How Lady Gaga Moves More than Just her Body

noreply@blogger.com (Barb) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:13:00 +0000

Pop sensation Lady Gaga has managed to sell 8 million albums since 2008, in a time when no one is buying CDs. How did she do it? By leveraging social media and developing creative partnerships to sell product, albums and singles.

She is the first artist to score four consecutive number one singles from a debut album and the video premiere of her “Bad Romance” video lead to a Universal Music server crash and over 110 million views on YouTube. Not only is Lady Gaga scoring in the singles and album sales department she is also reaping the benefits of creative partnerships. With the success of Lady Gaga’s career, big brands are reaching out to Lady Gaga for her help in selling their products. She has been named creative director for Polaroid in the hopes of reigniting the brand and the Estee Lauder Group is seeing record sales of Lady Gaga’s and Cyndi Lauper’s Mac Viva Glam lipstick.

Lady Gaga boosts 2.8 million Twitter followers and over 5.2 million Facebook fans that are more than eager to hear the latest Gaga news. This army of followers is gaga, well, over Gaga. In the February 22 Ad Age issue, Steve Berman, Universal Music’s president of sales and marketing states in the article “GAGA, OOH LA LA: Why The Lady is the Ultimate Social Climber”, “Gaga has worked tirelessly in keeping up daily if not hourly communications with her fans and growing fanbase through all the technology that exists.”

Her Facebook page features a merchandise store, events calendar, and gift shop of Lady Gaga images to send friends. Her Twitter page is filled with tweets which encourage users to watch videos and tweet with the singer. “Check me out on the Today Show with Cyndi” and “Any scousers gotta video if “the living dress” so happy I could die? Tweet me!” However, for someone not down with the lingo (as in me), more than 140 characters would help translate her tweets.

Foursquare: Marketers Start to Jump Aboard the Next Social Phenomenon

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Cifuentes) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:26:00 +0000

Foursquare – you’ve heard of it, probably even might be a member yourself. The quick-growing location-based social network is beginning to make reputable noise in the social space, and since August, traffic and user growth has soared for the new social noise maker.

According to co-founder Dennis Crowley, the platform is closing in on 500,000 individual users, with about 70% of the user base in the United States, and their international arm growing quickly – especially Tokyo, according to Crowley in an e-mail interview. These users are also checking in at an astonishing rate of 1.5 million check-ins a week.

If you are not familiar with Foursquare, the concept is simple – you sign up for an account and then you began the process of checking-in wherever you go; the majority of check-ins that are being done are through GPS-enabled mobile devices.

This social city-guide and game rewards you then for doing interesting things. The motive is to encourage people to discover new places and challenge you to explore your neighborhood in new ways. The rewards attached to this are tied to pseudo ‘badges’ a user is given for unlocking new places, times you check-in, how often, ultimately working your way to become the “Mayor” or “Deputy” of that locale.

In addition, the platform makes it very easy to connect your updates to your Twitter and Facebook profiles – seemingly synching your entire network with each update you post on Foursquare. Something that was not in place last year when Foursquare introduced themselves at the SXSW, but is working it’s way into a much more seamless process in 2010 and allows for a much higher engagement and viral distribution.

The concept is quite ingenious and despite it’s evolving stature; it is beginning to make quite the name for itself. Just in the past month, it’s been reported that Foursquare inked several major media partnership deals, including Bravo TV, Zagat, Warner Bros., HBO, the History Channel, ExploreChicago, and more.

These “branded” type of channels could be, if used and marketed properly, great engagement tools that focus around brand awareness, content sharing, and goes one step further and creates a physical presence with your brand using local stops where you instruct users to go. With the user taking part in the brand’s “game”, it allows the brand to create custom badges with Foursquare directly to keep user’s engaged and work toward further outreach goals.

Zagat @ Foursquare

Zagat’s official Foursquare page is calling the partnership “Foodie Love” and there is a custom badge to go along with taking part in the Zagat experience. The page offers people to follow Zagat and then take part and in various venues where Zagat wants users to check-in from, mainly a variety of restaurants throughout the country; check-in there, become a Zagat Foodie, and unlock the Zagat Foodie Badge. And through further engagement – Zagat is going to have a online video series on their website called “Meet the Mayor” where they will feature discussions with prominent Foursquare mayors.

Harvard @ Foursquare

The prestigious Harvard University has also partnered with Foursquare to create a channel where they list locations, experiences and ideas for students and visitors to go and check-in – taking part in the Harvard community; soon unlocking a custom Harvard Foursquare badge. Whether that helps with the admission process…I’m going to say doubtful – but hell of an engagement tool!

New York Times @ Foursquare

The NYT recently closed a deal with Foursquare and created a branded channel that is celebrating the 2010 Vancouver Olympics by sharing tips on what to see and where to go in Vancouver and Whistler. And if you check-in to two recommended venues you get to unlock the Olympics badge.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that Foursquare is growing quickly, with the focus mainly on gaining users, not revenue at the moment, according to Crowley; with now nearly 500,000 users, this number is likely to grow fast! After the Bravo TV deal was inked last month, a number of major brands, as shown above, came knocking at the door to work with Foursqaure, no doubt helping them earn some revenue. And with the ability for locales to offer up free food, drinks, discounts, coupons just for those who might become the “mayor” or “deputy” of their venue; being on Foursquare could soon become like being on Twitter…maybe? In addition, Crowley did confirm that Foursquare is working on creating actual incentives for users who garner specific badges and points in their account - not just pseudo "Mayoral" titles.

To that end, Foursquare is working on a set of services and tools, according to AdAge in early February, to begin offering paid services on a three tiers: one for small (local) businesses, one for retail chains, one for large marketers. Begin throwing these offers around, and soon Foursquare will move pass just the “engagement” level that these major brands are seeing above as far as click, follows and check-ins; and offer nailed-down analytics (impressions, clicks, friends, etc…) and deals could be sold against impressions such as web ads, clicks such as search ads, or even what Kunur Patel in AdAge said, “ a completely new model: cost per check-in.”

Foursquare TV Commercial

Update: A tweet today, February 24, from the Foursquare Twitter account said that there is a rumor that a Foursquare commercial could be running tonight on Bravo alongside the show Sheer Genius from 9 to 10 PM. The rumor quickly went to fact is going to be a 20 second spot that highlights Foursquare’s new partnership with Bravo TV. Watch the ad spot here (something I’m sure will garner a few more users…):

The New Vision of a Digital Future: Monetizing Mobility

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Cifuentes) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:25:00 +0000

The idea that there is an overabundance of content in today’s digital spectrum is no surprise. In earlier times, newspapers, magazines, and various publications alike made a push once the web turned circles in the early 2000’s and content distributors rushed to get their publications online. This rush has since grown, and seen an extreme swell of content on the web, much of it free, much of it paid – creating the big issue that stands in front of publishers today: how do I further monetize?

Digital media might be popular, but from a marketing standpoint, it has not been easy on publications. Ad rates on the web could not match what was being garnered in print, essentially endangering the publications lifespan because of a lack of monetization. What saving-grace could be sitting in the weeds waiting to peek it’s head over – mobile device, and by that, I mean devices that are MOBILE.

As mobile devices increase in use (seen in the eMarketer.com study above), publications are flocking to create applications that can live and function within this new space. Everything from portable phones, to the hot, soon-to-arrive e-readers, tablets and other wireless internet devices; content distributors are seeing these ‘apps’ as the opportunity to both expand their reach and monetize their content at the same time.

Mobility In Play

Conde’ Naste Publications were one of the first to deliver full magazine issues on apps, staring with GQ’s December issue. By mid-February, according to Advertising Age, it sold nearly 7,000 copies of the December issue app and more than 15,000 copies of the February issue app at $2.99 each. When comparing this to the magazine’s print publication, which averaged nearly 194,000 single-copy sales per issue over the second half of last year, it’s not anything mind-blowing – yet. Conde’ Nast refers to this as a start to something much larger, as they prepare to get in a position to make a major play on the iPad, which is opening many content distributor’s eyes. They have also planned to create digital editions of Wired, Vanity Fair and a number of other titles.

When considering the outcome, you have to imagine that a number of people who might download single issues of a publication, could, most likely be, already not a subscriber. And if you charge $3 for that one download, think of 100,00+ people taking that same idea and applying it to their app collection – that will all start to add up.

Also, Zinio, which has been selling digitized copies of its magazines for display on computer screens for years, recently created a free iPhone app that optimizes digital editions of its publications for the iPhone. Within the first few weeks of release and 20,000 downloads later, it surpassed the New York Times app as the No. 1 News application.

It’s also interesting to see how a number of publishers are not just “unlocking the safe” of web content to a mobile application, but actually releasing specialized apps that draw in related information, but still sell and monetize the brand at the same time. Rodale, best known for its Men’s Health and Women’s Health publications, offer apps that range from 99 cents for a Men’s Health Ultimate Fat Burning app to $4.99 for their Eat This, Not That! Diet app. All of this is not just timely craze being built in branded modules that will live for just a period of time. Advertiser’s see the potential behind these types of apps and the ability to reach more targeted users outside of something like a Facebook or Web widgets were every marketer’s obsession years ago.

E-readers & Tablets…And the iPad!

This isn’t just all hype – there is something very serious brewing behind the potential of advanced e-readers and tablets, most notably, and always setting off the first alarm when they announce anything new, Apple’s iPad and other similar devices, are going to be a new source of potential income for newspapers, magazines and other print publications looking to make a big push.

E-readers and tablets are going to become effective content distributors for content publishers, and in no doubt will grow in terms of advertising revenue and further branded distribution. According to a Mashable article from February 18, Director for Digital Publishing at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri, Roger Fidler, said major news companies such as the New York Times, USA Today, and The Washington Post will be focused on creating customized content standards for e-readers and tablets. He also predicted that within 10 years time, a majority of subscribers to newspapers and magazines will be reading digital editions delivered to mobile reading devices.

As of February 10, there were 99 newspapers from around the world already available on Amazon’s Kindle – and this current Kindle model is subscription-based without advertising. Newspapers get about 30% revenue from having their content on the Kindle, something likely to change because publishers have some leverage because e-reader vendors must have content to succeed and newspapers will have the ability to do more rich presentations – content will evolve in the end game.

With that being said, that rushes the issue of staying competitive and enters the first question – “who can hit the ball out of the park to start?,” so to speak. For example, the iPad’s rumored debut turned official last month when Apple announced a March launch date and featured a full-color device with touchscreen; something the Kindle falls well short of at the moment. However, it is being predicted that Amazon will introduce a similar color device before the end of 2010.

iPad Will Reign…for now

With the pending launch of Apple’s new device, Wired Magazine has been planning, for more than 6 months already, to launch an iPad-only edition of the publication this summer that includes rich media content. Wired’s Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson showcased a demo of the Wired Reader app at TED recently. The publisher of Wired, Conde Nast, also plans on launching iPad versions of GQ and Vanity Fair as well.

From a marketing and advertising standpoint, users that gravitate toward the e-reader subscriptions are looking for similar experiences they draw from the print publication. Those who will want to get even more out of that experience will be more attracted to the iPad. That being said, I see more of a harmonious relationship between the two, rather then one trumpeting over another – and this good news based on what experts reveal could be separate advertising models on each device.

New Medium = New Content

With the advancement of the iPad and many competitive devices, similar in functionality coming soon, media companies won’t simply be able to re-purpose content. According to Alan Mutter, an independent media analyst, who spoke to Mashable.com in a recent article, said content needs to be richer, offer more user control and interaction, and has to let the user manipulate it in a way that it becomes highly individualized.

Sport’s Illustrated recently created an iPad demo prototype on how that capability could be leveraged:

Mutter said that although he has reasons to be encouraged, it will take time before a mass amount of publishers go running to this new platform and spend a healthy investment to create these new formats. That will not happen until proof is made that they can generate significant revenue and ultimately become a clear marketing and advertising channel.

What is success here? Mutter said that when a number of around 100,000 subscribers are reached through e-readers and tablets alone per publication; then media companies will consider them successful tools to gain additional advertising revenue.

It’s All Dollars and Cents

In the end however, these are all cutting-edge devices that are clearly going to shake the content distribution channels at their very core. The hope is to generate not only additional advertising revenue, but also separate subscriptions, and potential syndication from other websites – all could be included in a new model of “charging for service.”

Mutter said, for example, CNN charges $3 for their iPhone app and the New York Times just gives it away for free.

A recent report from Gawker.com said that a New York Times source said that an iPad model of the NYT could run a user up to $20-$30 per month. Why such a high price…they are scared! Even more, they are worried that an advanced device like the iPad would have print subscribers cancelling pretty quickly, and running for the hills with their iPads in hand.

In the end however, it is about two pieces to this paradigm: The idea of having content optimized for the platform (whether it is an iPad, e-reader, tablet, iPhone, Android, other mobile device, even a gaming device), and then most importantly - coming up with the model that people will pay for.

I guess we’ll just close our eyes and see what happens in the next few months…

Why Aren’t Drugstores Blogging?

rain@overdriveinteractive.com (Russ Ain) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:02:00 +0000

You’re driving home from work with a pounding headache. It’s been bugging you all day. Pulse…pulse…pulse. Even worse, you know that your aspirin supply at home has dried up.

What is the first thought on your mind?
“Stop at a local drugstore and buy some.”

CVS, Walgreens, Rite-Aid. They're all at the forefront when all you need is a quick fix for a cold, headache, or stomach pain. They’re convenient, relatively small, and well laid out.

Since these are such staple retail stores, it begs the question: Where’s their presence in the blogosphere?

Right now, the answer is a resounding nada, zilch, zero.

Do they feel that they are too busy? Well, 79% of the Fortune 100 are finding time – why can’t these three?

Maybe they haven’t looked at the two big benefits of initiating a corporate blog.

Reputation Management – Every big, national brand has dissidents. When a minor problem isn’t resolved, complaints arise. And if these nit-pickers have a well-read blog or powerful message forum presence, it can snowball into more blog posts, tweets, and messages. Example? Kevin Smith vs. Southwest.

A corporate blog is a great forum for damage control by publicly responding to complaints that consumers may have or announcing new store features.
SEO – There is a great deal of competition for drug stores. Not only are the big three competing, but virtually every supermarket sells drugs and has a pharmacy. Not to mention online stalwarts like Drugstore.com.

Creating a blog provides unique content for search engines to crawl and for other bloggers to link to. The combination of the two further promotes the brand and overall organization.

To Walgreens, CVS, and Rite-Aid execs – please review the above and engage your online marketing staff to establish a stronger online presence. Your bottom line will thank you.

Social Media Privacy - Does it Really Exist?

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Cifuentes) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:21:00 +0000

I know where you are, I know where you could be, I know pretty much everything about you.

And I’m not even your friend – at least (REAL) friend. It’s no surprise that social networking allows me to know this about you. I can see what you just ate, because you tweeted it, what you just got for Christmas, because you put it on Facebook. And now I can even see where you are all the time, because you went ahead and checked-in on Foursquare, or you Google Buzz-ed a random thought, and oh yea, you forgot to shut off that geo-location feature that is set to be on automatically when you activate your Google Buzz account…doh!

Sure, these publicly announced check-ins, random personal thoughts, and location-sharing networks might get you a cool new pseudo badge and allow you to become the Mayor of your workplace or the supermarket next door, maybe even the Target down the street – but one key thought that revolves around all of this – I know what you are doing, I know where you are, I know pretty much everything about you.

Social Networks & Privacy?

Privacy seems to be the 800-pound gorilla in the room that everyone notices is a big problem, large enough to be spoken about daily, but we more or less undermine it and sweep it under the rug and think it will clean itself up later somehow – aka….someone else will deal with it… or even worse – maybe nobody cares?

In the past, we’ve gone through the trials and tribulations of privacy wars on Facebook, and after that battle, their new policy now allows for more individual control and openness at the same time. That battle has slowed, and has now turned into the discussions around the new dangers of location-sharing networks such as Foursquare, Google Buzz, Loopt, even Yelp’s new check-in feature, maybe even clever Twitter or Facebook searches will yield some good results as to where you might be. As each of us get caught up in the novelty and bonuses associated with our behavior – what dangerous doors are we opening by taking part in this?

This leads into a larger discussion around the privacy associated with social networks, but to be honest, if we are taking part in this phenomenon daily – do we care about privacy? Sure there are certain Facebook pictures you want to keep targeted to just a select group of friends, and on Twitter you want to grant permission to a select group of people to see your tweets; privacy exists – but what is privacy if we are taking part in social reality anyways?

The 24/7 personal openness we display as social media users ties to our inherent behavior to play to our strengths. Social media has changed the way we live on and offline and has us living in much more “open” environments, compared to our parents and other Generation X’ers who lived in “closed” worlds and had “separate” behaviors. Social reality now combines all of that for us!

All of this sharing allows people to play to their virtues, even more in a social media world. People find their triumphs in social media accomplishing and well deserved from a societal standpoint, as well as a boost in their own individual behavior (aka EGO). If I tweeted from the top of mountain and said “About to hang-glide from 4,000 feet in Peru, what a life!”, compared to “Watching ‘Charles in Charge’ reruns on Mondayz…”; clearly it’s cooler I am doing the first rather than latter, but social media, despite its privacy concerns, allows us to live that behavior and feel accomplished for letting the world know what WE are doing. Does it matter that it related to hang-gliding or watching mundane television – no… I am letting the world know because I feel that I need to, to maybe feel that accomplishment in society.

I am not going to break this down from a psychological level, but I am sure there is some reality to this opinion in how people perceive themselves and why they take part – not caring about the privacy concerns we always feel so bullied with. In a recent study from the Future of Privacy Forum, 42% of Internet users are concerned that websites are collecting too much information about them, but then again with Facebook recently overtaking Yahoo! for the #2 top spot on the entire Internet - I don't know if that reflects privacy as much of a concern anymore?

And as we go forward into the future, there is no doubt that Privacy will become more of an issue, especially as more and more individuals begin to feel violated, whether in an emotional online attack or a physical attacks, such as when video podcaster Israel Hyman was robbed after we tweeted that he was out of town, and the fact that studies have already been done to show how social networks are being used as tools to further provoke attacks on a person – in the next two years, privacy and further security will certainly come to a boiling point, it will be interesting to see what happens at that point.

What are your thoughts around privacy and social networking – does it really matter and is there anything we can do about it?

How news spreads online: 60 Minutes, Bloom Box Power

jselig@overdriveinteractive.com (Jeff Selig) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:42:00 +0000

Last Sunday night, 60 Minutes aired a special on a potentially new and improved energy source developed by a rocket scientist. The Bloom Box. Originally intended and designed to generate air for use on Mars, the NASA project was later engineered to use Oxygen to generate electricity here on Earth. Touted as a clean energy source and now trending in search.

Real time search

As you can see in the second screen shot from Google real time search, lots of folks are talking about the recently aired program on Twitter. In order for Google to pick up on social media sites buzz there needs to be enough volume to determine whether results show or not.

Trending topics

To trend in search is a metric of content success. In essence you can gauge the success and importance of an item/event/term based around the total amount of universal search options.

What would be interesting, is to do this search over time and see if you can match the curve to another popularity indication metric. If the curves match or least have relative slops and pivot points then universal search could be a cultural indicator. The hard part of doing this is finding and testing keyword variations. The interesting part here, is determining how google adds in universal search items.

Suggest data

It’s particularly impressive that Google incorporates the trend data into Suggest and “Did you mean” in such short order all steaming from ONE segment on 60 min. When you enter a query that's similar to a more common query, Google's algorithm will return the full results for partial data entered. Their web site is only 6 pages and only 2 pages have more than 100 characters of content. As the site has little content they clearly will be dependent on other content producers to drive “Buzz”.

Related searches

Three out of the eight related searches are related to the trending topic. These suggestions are available on the bottom of the search page to help you find what you're looking for more quickly if you didn't find what you needed in the default setting of 10 results to a page.

Organic search results

Its also very interesting that, despite all the links that the CBS and CNET articles must have received, http://www.bcnorthernlights.com/ is ranking #1 for the term in organic and has little to do with fuel cells.

Video search results

How does Google show the most relevant videos in your search queries and why does a trending topic come up in the universal search results?

"Google combines sophisticated text-matching techniques to find videos that are both important and relevant to your search. Their technology examines dozens of aspects of the video’s content (including number of hits and rating) to determine if it's a good match for your query."

Labels used in Bloom Box search results

In a tag query for Bloom Box most referred to the product, video and 60 minutes.

Tags used in Bloom Box search results

Tags: 60 minutes, Bloom Box, Bloom Box 60 Minutes, Bloom Box Charge, Bloom Box Cost, Bloom Box Energy, Bloom Box Photo, Bloom Box Pictures, Bloom Box Video, Bloom Box Website, bloom energy, Bloom Energy charge, bloom energy fuel cell, Bloom Energy Fuel Cell Video, Bloom Energy Stock, Bloom Energy Website, bloombox, bloombox energy, Bloombox Energy 60 Minutes, Bloombox Energy Video, Bloomenergy, www.bloomenergy.com, ZERO emissions Bloom Box

Thanks to Overdrive's John Liu, Stephen Konar, Russ Ain and Michael Orlinski for contributing to this post!

Social Networking Site Use Up 82% in December 2009

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:35:00 +0000

According to statistics just released by Nielsen, we are spending more time than ever on social media sites.

The average social-networking user increased their time on sites like Twitter and Facebook to five and half hours per month this past December. One year ago, the average time spent on social media sites was around three hours per month.

To no one's surprise, Facebook was the top social networking site with 67% of the social networking users throughout the world. Time spent on Facebook in the US increased by 200% over the same month in 2008 while Twitter posted a 368% increase for the same time period. But we weren't the only ones spending lots of time on social-networking sites - the Australians spent nearly seven hours per month on Twitter and Facebook during the same time period.

Overdrive Lunch n' Learn: Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Danielle Farber) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:36:00 +0000

Today’s lunch hour at Overdrive was one of learning, laughing and blogging. The employees at Overdrive gathered over sandwiches to talk about the importance of blogging, to share blogging tactics and concepts, as well as give encouragement to our peers that we all have something valuable to share through the Overdrive Blog.

The presentation included games and interactive presentations, as it was lunch hour after all. We gathered in groups of three to complete a madlibs hand out about our office cubicals (this included jogging our memories about the definition of adjectives and superlatives).

Not only did the activity elicit entertaining presentations, but it also got us thinking about content in a new light. We all read the same news every day, but we all have different opinions about what we read and what we take away from particular articles. This segued into our presentation of generating content and forming opinions about news articles relevant to the marketing industry.

Lunch n’ Learning wouldn’t be complete without a homework assignment. Employees left with a new topic for their next blog post, so stay tuned!

Happy Friday from Overdrive Interactive!

What's a Friend or Follower worth?

jselig@overdriveinteractive.com (Jeff Selig) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:24:00 +0000

Radio stations sell advertising time based on several components, time of day the ad runs, length of the ad in seconds etc... Sales dollars are also based on Area of Dominant Influence (ADI). Can a correlation between a Friends or Followers fan base give us insight into the formula used to calculate the influence a Twitter Re-tweet or Facebook wall post represents?

Old School

In the measurement of radio audience data, geographic area composed of all the counties influenced by originating stations in a particular radio station market. For example, the Massachusetts ADI is composed of all the counties in Massachusetts and New Hampshire where the Massachusetts
radio stations are listened too.

Market researchers also subdivide ratings demographically between different age groups, genders, and ethnic backgrounds; as well as psychographically between income levels and other non-physical factors. This information is used by advertisers to determine how to reach a specific audience.

ADI data lets agencies track the delivery of network ads in local markets to see where their schedules over- and under-deliver. ADI data facilitates the use of spot to compensate for network under-delivery. If the brand management could obtain, or estimate, sales by ADI, media planners could do A-to-S geographic planning, allocating advertising dollars by market sales.

New Skool

What is the value of a social media user pushing out your tweets or recommending your product on their Facebook wall? The simple answer is how wide is that users reach or how many people are Following/Friends of them. There are several services out there that try to qualify the value of a tweet. Ad.ly is one such service that looks at how many followers you have and although a user is allowed to set the price an advertiser may pay them there is certainly a scale in place where someone like Kim Kardashian with 2.6 mil followers gets $10,000 for a tweet, Guy Kawasaki with 200k followers earns $900 a tweet and someone like me with 2500 followers would be lucky to get $2. So how does Ad.ly work?

"Ad.ly automatically sends one tweet in your feed every day from advertisers that you approve. With Ad.ly, you approve every ad that is sent in your feed. You set the price per tweet that advertisers pay (don't worry, our system will suggest a price for your account)."

The theory is very similar to Radio's ADI, where online, if you were to drop a pebble in the water metaphorically a tweet, the following concentric rings visualized as ripples, would gently sweep outwards just as a users followers would read their tweet and re-tweet the post.

The concept that the entire country could be divided into marketing areas by radio station listening patterns is a modern media planning idea born in the 1960's.

In todays online market, specifically around social media, many are stumped by the problem of defining a common value in the market area, which would satisfy all of their marketing clients in a specific channel as it relates to a users activity with their brand and the relative ROI.

Strong correlation between the size of ads & click-through performance

jselig@overdriveinteractive.com (Jeff Selig) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:38:00 +0000

Is there a correlation between what Newspapers have known for years regarding ad size and placement as it relates to online advertising ad size and placement?

Old School

In a Cahners report they studied how to determine the average number of inquiries about products that were generated by various sized ads in their publications. Cahners Research looked at 86,002 ads in 34 of their publications. They analyzed almost nine million inquiries for more information as part of their study, a decent size sample set.

Cahners concluded the average number of responses increased as the size of the ad increased.

What ad sizes are the most effective?

Dynamic Logic did a study where they showed the image ad sizes of 234×60 (half banner) and 180×150 (small rectangle) are more effective than leaderboards and large rectangles.

"We continue to believe that creative quality is the most important factor driving the success of online advertising. However, it will be interesting to see how the new, larger ad formats that publishers are beginning to debut will rank next to the more traditional online ad formats. Based on the current data, bigger doesn't always mean better, but these new ad formats are quite unique and we look forward to testing them."

New Skool

The top three formats are the 336x280 followed by the 300x250 medium rectangle; and then the 160x600 wide skyscraper.

Google has stated in studies that there is a strong correlation between the size of ads and their click-through performance.

The OPA (Online Publisher’s Association) announced plans to introduce larger ad sizes last year. As the report reads, publishers like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal & ESPN have decided to publish three extra large ad sizes:

The fixed panel, a 336-by-860-pixel banner. Wider than standard skyscrapers, it follows users as they scroll down the page. The XXL, a 468-by-648-pixel box with an expandable video option

The pushdown, a 970-by-418-pixel unit that takes up over half of a page before rolling up.

Lets see how these new ad sizes perform as more sites adopt these standards and advertisers utilize the additional creative space.

CMO's here's a new social media metric for you

jselig@overdriveinteractive.com (Jeff Selig) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:17:00 +0000

I am still not sure how to react to the latest poll by eMarketer indicating Comparative Estimates: Leading Metric Used by Marketers to Measure Social Media Marketing Success, 2009.

Not a single mention of Social Media and tying results to ROI.

Stunned by the results of the survey is about all I can muster for a reaction. 76% polled, answered driving site traffic as their number one metric to gauge a successful social media campaign. Ouch!

Overdrive Interactive views social media as another channel and significant business unit that should be sharing in the responsibilities of ROI. I laugh too when people ask the ROI or value of putting your pants on, ok point taken. But surely at this stage of social marketing maturity we should be expecting more than just an increase in click through volume.

Google Buzz vs. Everything Else

noreply@blogger.com (Tenley Wilson) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:11:00 +0000

Yesterday, Jeremiah Owyang of Web Strategy published a blog post that weighed in on his opinion of the freshly released "Google Buzz."

So what is Google Buzz? Google's answer to social networks like Twitter and Facebook that attempts to incorporate and aggregate the chatter on all existing social networks. Many users have compared the feed that is aggregated and shared on Google Buzz similar to FriendFeed or the Facebook homepage feed. Google Buzz sits upon the email powerhouse of Gmail, not to mention the most popular website in the world, Google.

Owyang offers a detailed matrix that compares and contrasts Google Buzz, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Most notably, Owang points out that Google Buzz is late to the party, but has potential to integrate the entire internet, while Facebook has gained traction with Facebook connect. The clearcut competition in social networks seems like it may come down to a faceoff between Facebook and Buzz, since many have predicted Twitter to be a commodity that will be integrated into everything. The real competition will not exist until Buzz gets enough users to sign up and use the service. Facebook, which already has 400 million active users, is starting in the lead.

While Buzz was released to a public full of high expectations, users were fast to scrutinize the privacy flaws of the content aggregator. A Fox news article reported that Buzz users were automatically opted in to allow others to see who their email and chat contacts are. Google responded by making the opt out option for sharing contacts more clear, but many are still weary of the system's privacy.

The Future of Google Buzz is unclear, however Owywang suggests that Buzz is quick to integrate into Chrome and Search to leverage the information and consumers that Google already possesses. Facebook is urged to become more open and reward users for sharing public information. However, Facebook's so-called "Titan" email project could be a game changer...

Is Your Brand Resistant to Change?

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Cifuentes) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:30:00 +0000

In 2010, the exchange between consumers and brands will in no doubt increase among new media marketing channels. Just in the first couple of months of 2010, I have already seen countless posts outlining CRM models that are stressing the point to consume ROI for Social Media and take action to begin integrating this into your brand campaigns that live within on and offline social media channels.

With so much stress to one observation of social media marketing in 2010, it’s important to make light of another key observation in the Future of Social Media blog series: The Resistance to Change Ending.

It was Benjamin Franklin who said:

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

This quote, although philosophical in reasoning, is quite the pragmatic approach when applied to the idea of social media marketing. There have been countless charts and graphs that apply from reputable marketing research publications, such as eMarketer.com and 2010 Forrester Reports that point to all directions of brands shifting dollars into interactive marketing, with a focus in new (social) media – however, there is still hesitation among the masses when it comes to the decision of whether this type of marketing is a intelligent investment.

This drives me to think how and why a CMO would be hesitant to change their ways, and I believe between now and 2010 – this approach will change for the way brands who don’t consider social media or any type of new media an investment – to turn their eyes away from fear and begin shifting the paradigm. In light of this, I have come up with five reasons why it seems brands are resistant to change (this is an opinion – so I absolutely welcome comments)

Reason #1: The brand is, in general, negative or against all that is new or different.
Reason #2: The brand is not interested in change; they have other goals they want to pursue.
Reason #3: The brand does not understand the message and/or the consequences that the change will have.
Reason #4: The brand does not trust the person who communicates the initiative.
Reason #5: FEAR.

Although these reasons are somewhat built around generalities, it’s important to recognize a few practical truths. Brands have taken time to absorb social media marketing into their programs, and that will continue to be the case, however between 2008 and 2009, U.S. Marketers alone using Social Media within their programs nearly doubled in percentages – an increase likely to continue.

Just alone in ad spending within online social networks worldwide, between 2008 and what is expected by 2011; the same type of increase is likely to continue.

Just another hint to where things are headed…

In the end, a brand is afraid to change, and will never make this type of jump overnight. The five reasons above, I’m sure, point to a number of individuals you might know, or very well could be at your organization; it’s very likely. The resistance to change is led by a faithful bunch, your typical ‘old style’ leaders who oppose the new digital spectrum, but slowly are adopting to the early styles of interactive marketing, such as email marketing because he/she is forced to. They could also still rely on patchy TV & radio spots, and could be very excited buy out page five inside a dying magazine publication – this exists; it’s hard to think this is an actuality – but it truly is.

This AdWeek Media Poll shows that the 45-55+ demographic are much more in tune to purchasing newspaper/magazine ads as opposed to the younger demographic. Is this because of they are cheaper these days? Yes. Is this because they are unfamiliar and afraid to commit to the digital space, definitely YES.

I’m not saying age is the key indicator, but it certainly is a diving off point when making certain predictions that pertain to driving home this thought of resistance to change. In all reality, and I’m not screaming from the weeds here, it’s fear. In a time of economic recovery, such as what we are sifting through at the moment – FEAR; scream it from the top of your building, or as high as you could possibly reach – there is a resistance to change because of a FEAR of what might happen in changing the way your brand is marketed - I can’t be any more forthright.

Prediction: By 2012, if your brand has not already begun shifting the marketing channel to a more open, two-way communicative, “social” environment; you could very well be left in the dust, watching the grass grow over you.

What’s Your Social Media Engagement Strategy?

diana.freedman@yahoo.com (Diana Freedman) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:38:00 +0000

Best Practices of Social Media Engagement

Many companies are replacing traditional methods of direct marketing with social media. The companies with successful social media campaigns thus far have focused on designing the channels, monitoring the conversation, developing content, and measuring ROI. However, engagement with the audience is one of the most overlooked components of a social media strategy.

One key benefit of social media is the two-way conversation brands can have with their audiences. They mistake their “content strategy” as an “engagement strategy.” But developing content without an engagement strategy is like talking to your audience and completely ignoring what they say back to you.

What is an engagement strategy?

Simply stated an engagement strategy is all about communication and interaction. While a content strategy is based on what you’re going to say, an engagement strategy is based on how you’re going to say it, and how you respond to what your fans say. You company will need to develop a plan for actually interacting with your audience, not just throwing content at them and hoping they catch. This is the most challenging part of developing a social media campaign, and as such many companies of shied away from developing a concrete engagement strategy. Through this article, I will outline the following engagement fundamentals that you can in turn use do develop your own strategy:

Tone
Level of engagement
Voice
Posting frequency
What to post
Dealing with negativity

Every company will approach social media engagement differently based on the nature of the company. But there are some best practices that could be applied to the social media landscape, and then customized to your company’s goals.

Tone

Most people will come back to your fan page if they feel a sense of community, so it’s important to be open, friendly, inviting, and personable.

Have a conversational tone: Social media is casual by nature. Sites like Facebook and Twitter were developed so that people could connect with their friends. Although companies should maintain a professional presence online, it’s important to exude a personal, conversational tone on these sites.

Be open and friendly: Be fun, friendly, and enthusiastic about your product or service without being overly promotional or corporate-sounding.

Be unique: Avoid imitating the tone of your fans. Although you want to cater to your target audience, you do not need to force your tone to sound like your community. Be unique, so that your fans are interested enough to follow your presence online.

Level of Engagement

Encourage fan participation: The role of your company’s updates should be to encourage fan participation. Avoid posting only about what you want to promote, and take an interest in your audience’s opinion. Ask questions at the end of your status updates, or ask fans to upload their own content.

Maintain a dialogue: Don’t let your status updates be a monologue of self-promotion. Spark conversation by posing questions to the community and posting content that will encourage participation.

Share fan content: Share content that your fans have posted to your social channels by re-Sharing on Facebook or re-tweeting on Twitter; they’ll feel even more connected to your brand.

Voice

As a company, there are several options for what the voice of the brand should be. Remember, on Facebook all updates will be prefaced by the name of the fan page (in the examples below, “The Candy Company”):

First person singular – This POV provides fans a connection with an individual at the company. Example: “The Candy Company I love the new Tropical Sunshine lollipops.”
First person plural – This POV allows for a personal connection, while still hearing from the brand instead of just one individual controlling the social channels. Example: “The Candy Company We love the new Tropical Sunshine lollipops.”
Third person – This POV allows a feeling of direct communication with the brand itself. This is the more conservative, traditional approach for brands on Facebook. Example: “The Candy Company loves the new Tropical Sunshine lollipops.”

It’s generally a best practice to choose between first person plural (we love) and the third person (The Candy Company loves). Avoid the first person singular (I love) approach. Fans want to think that they are interacting with the brand, not just a single employee or representative. Also, the individual behind these updates would be vulnerable to liability or even personal attacks. The top brand pages on product do not use the first person singular approach.

Posting Frequency

There is a correlation between the frequency of posts and the number of fans or followers a brand has. There’s a fine balance though; you don’t want to overwhelm your fans. According to a recent study by Sysomos, 77% of Facebook fan pages have fewer than 1,000 fans, and fan pages tend to be updated only once every 16 days.

It’s a good practice to update your fan page at least once every day, at least Monday through Friday. This should yield comments and engagement with your brand each day, which will in turn lead to friends of your fans also discovering your page and becoming fans.

What to Post

Many brands on the social channels are purely self-promotional, only updating their social sites with updates on their own products, deals, discounts, or news. While it’s important to stay relevant to your brand, mix it up with different types of content. There are several different ways to post content on Facebook, including:

Status updates
Shared links
Photo updates
Video updates
Event updates

Here are some ideas for what you can post besides self-promotional updates, which can all be tweaked to fit the character limits on the various social channels:

Industry and related-industry news
Blog posts written by fans about your industry
Questions to fans asking for their opinions or favorites. This can be a standalone update, or you can pose questions to fans at the end of any other status update.
Interesting or funny photos relating to your brand or industry
YouTube videos relating to your brand or industry
Happy holiday/weekend/first day of spring/etc. updates
Encourage fans to upload content as photos or videos
Share or retweet fans’ content

Sharing or retweeting fan’s content is a great strategy to make your page feel like a real community. The Coca-Cola Facebook fan page is an excellent example of this. They often share photos their fans post to their walls using the Share button.

Dealing with Negativity

Although most people seeking out brands in social media are fans of the brand and are coming to show support, there will be individuals who come to complain. Comcast is a great example of a company who uses their social media presence primarily for customer support. But if this isn’t your company’s goal, how should you deal with the negative feedback?

Multiple Complaints: If many people are coming to your page to comment or complain about the same issue, it’s probably a larger issue that your company does need to address. A good strategy would be to post a video or comment from management with an explanation or solution. Be candid and open to feedback. This will show that your company really does value the opinions of its customers, and will make fans feel like valued members of your brand’s community.

Individual Solution-Seekers: If individuals are coming to your page to give feedback about issues that are unique to them, it could be difficult to reply to each and every one of them. If you can, that’s great. But if not, have a spreadsheet of appropriate responses ready for general situations. These messages should direct the fans to a customer service site, email address, or phone number, be apologetic, and always friendly. Try to mix up the responses in your spreadsheet so that it doesn’t sound like you’re literally copy/pasting you’re responses to each individual.

Complainers: There are some individuals who may come to your page just to complain, who aren’t seeking much of a solution but just want to get something off their chest. Your approach will vary by company and legal department. But a good rule of thumb is not to delete a comment unless the fan is exhibiting troll-like behavior (see the next section). Fans will notice when they are being unnecessarily censored, and this will make them angrier at the brand. It’s best to just ignore the comment, and leave it to the other fans to respond. Loyalists to your brand will likely jump in to offer advice.

Trolls: Internet trolls are individuals whose comments include inappropriate all-caps rants, profanity, and repetitive bashing of the brand. You’ll be able to tell when someone is being a troll on your page. In this case, it is best to delete their comments and block them from the page. On certain sites like Twitter, you cannot block someone from @replying to you, so just flag their accounts and then ignore them.

Solicitors: Delete comments that are promoting anything unrelated to your brand. This could include unrelated events, links to products on ebay or craigslist, invitations to join a 3rd party application game, spam links, and more.

Fan to fan interaction: If fans on your page are having a debate, there’s no reason to get involved unless you feel that someone is arguing over a blatantly inaccurate fact. Then it’s fine to jump in and clarify, then remove the brand from the discussion. Otherwise, it’s best to stay out of it. If fans start posting derogatory messages, you can delete the offensive messages and block fans when necessary.

Social Media Gives Your Brand Visibility

Compelling and active social channels should be an integral part of your online marketing campaign. These channels provide an exceptional opportunity for brand visibility, but you need to make sure that your fans will have content to comment on and engage with. The more comments you have, the more viral your campaign will become!

In the end, an engagement strategy will make your social media campaign a much more compelling and high-impact aspect of your overall marketing efforts and truly enable you to harness all that it has to offer. When you think about it, social media is all about socializing, and an engagement strategy will ensure that how you socialize with your fan base is not only strategically sound, but effective. Not only will this help you to leverage social media to build stronger customer relations, it will enable your organization to guide and actively participate in the growth of what is only going to be a more important marketing channel for years to come.

Foursquare: The Next Evolution in Social Media?

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Sidman) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:43:00 +0000

Location-sharing social networks have steadily been gaining traction in the social media world, and Foursquare is currently leading the way in overall popularity and name recognition due to its ease of use and slick integration. Mashable even wrote back in July that FourSquare could be the next Twitter.

The premise is quite simple. Install the application on your mobile phone (applications are now available for iPhones, Blackberries, and Android Phones) or browse to their mobile site and “check in” whenever you visit a new venue. Not only do you receive points and badges for checking in and reaching certain milestones (as well as blast a message on Facebook and Twitter alerting your friends and followers as to your whereabouts), but if you visit a particular location often enough, you could be crowned as Mayor.

Many bars, restaurants, and cafes have started to offer discounts and free offers to loyal patrons who prove their mayorship, including free appetizers or a drink on the house. This sort of friendly competition, while of course a lot of fun, can also be extremely beneficial for a business’s overall exposure.

Foursquare could potentially serve as a source of valuable traffic data for your business, as it logs not only how many times customers have visited your venue, but also the frequency of their visits. In addition, customers can leave comments or suggestions when they check in, allowing business owners access to invaluable feedback in much the same way Yelp does.

In the future, Foursquare intends on implementing a more detailed dashboard view for participating venues to make it easier to keep track of who’s visiting, how often, where they’re coming from, and where they’re going next.

Foursquare and other similar location-sharing services might just be the next evolutionary step for social media, and could completely redefine social media marketing.

Google Toolbar's Share Feature

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:46:00 +0000

Are you aware of the sharing feature on the Google Toolbar? Added in December 2009, this feature allows web surfers to share content on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Additionally, surfers can use the tool to share content on blogs and through e-mail.

After users select where they would like to share information, a pop-up enables them to post the selected content to a social networking site, blog or e-mail.

Here is an example of what the content looks like posted on a Facebook wall:

Lead scoring

jselig@overdriveinteractive.com (Jeff Selig) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:27:00 +0000

Get more qualified leads by using scoring and rank qualified leads according to their buying interest.

Lead scoring is the process in determining both the level of interest of a prospect, in its solution as the level of interest in a prospect. Qualifying and quantifying the prospect in the same breath.

Lead Scoring is useful because only a small percentage of leads are usually ready as immediate sale opportunities in B2B and slightly larger as a pool of opportunities in B2C. As a sales teams does not want to waste their valuable time (and you do not want to miss an opportunity) in a commercial data (lead) when not active in the buying cycle. By sending the lead to sales at an early stage of the buying cycle, this may hurt the relationship between marketing and sales if too many unqualified buying stage leads are passed on.

But there will also be data that will be "hot" (Hot leads) must be delivered to marketing and sales before a competitor can do so or the lead cools down. To detect these leads, it requires a process called (Lead Scoring).

Many queries that arise from actions of stimulus / response activities require nurturing (lead nurturing) before they become "ready" to make a purchase. Therefore marketing requires that you have the ability to decide when to send this lead to the next state of the application process and when to pass on to sales.

When using a process and a score (lead scoring), sales will receive fewer leads but sales of high quality. If executives do not waste time trading low-quality leads, they can concentrate on high quality and increase productivity. In fact, a only 10% increase in the quality of leads can generate a 40% increase in sales productivity.

If a company has a consultative sales force, it is likely that the individual cost is around 20% to 30% of the revenue that each generates. Therefore an improvement in the quality of leads has a strong impact on the final results (bottom line).

How to get to a specific model of qualification

The simplest way is to evaluate the factors involved in assigning the rating and score. To do that we must consider two kinds of criteria:

1) Explicit qualification.

2) Rating implied.

Explicit qualification.

Is based on specific information provided by the contact form through different means:

A form completed by WEB.

Telephone solicitations.

A completed form in an event.

Email marketing

Other channels.

Generally these data points include company name, name of person, role and position of the respondent, time horizon to make a purchase, indicating whether it needs to be covered by a product of the company performing the survey.

Ideally, these data points from the form complete provide a reference on what state the prospect is in the buying cycle.

However, if the prospect is looking for a solution, they are also probably talking with your competitors.

Some of the factors involved in the explicit qualification are:

Company information and contact: is a key factor to assign a score in the rating system. The ideal situation is to obtain as much information as possible. But to get everything you need to know it takes more than a prospecting form, therefore making it more difficult.

Function, duty or responsibility of Contact: is one of the most important scores. However it is sometimes difficult to obtain this information in a single interaction.

Purchase time frame: one of the most inaccurate data points in the system. For various reasons prospects are reluctant to provide specific information about time frames and decision dates. For example, if the decision is within 3 months if they complete a form indicating that the decision will be made within 6 months. The reliability of this data is accomplished with several interactions.

Specific needs of the prospectus: the data gives an idea of the state the lead is within the procurement process. If the prospect is researching specific solutions, they are very likely to be found talking to other competitors.

Rating implied.

The implied rating is based on the behavior of a prospect that could be observed.

Often the implied rating is more accurate than explicit. When evaluating the construction of an implicit qualification is necessary to consider at least three types of data.

Time of interaction: when the interaction takes place has consequences in connection with the prospect during follow-up processes. For example, if a Web site visitor downloads a document and also views an online demonstration, these signals indicate a strong opportunity to make the contact "live" at the prospect level.

Level of core activity: consists in assigning a score if you observe a certain number of actions in a defined time period. It is one of the most important indicators of the process. how many touch points does a prospect have within your site, how many pages viewed in a given session, how many times over how many days does a prospect visit your site.

Web site activity: the most common mistake is trying to measure and know everything that the prospect made on the website. Just concentrate on one or two high-value content and form interactions.

What actions should be performed once the marketing opportunities are rated

The most important advantage of having a rating system of opportunity is the ability to make tactical decisions regarding the prospect. For example, based on Lead Scoring, a typical action plan might be:

Opportunity Type

Actions

A) Send immediately to sales for follow up.

B) Send to sales. Low priority or assign tracking junior executive.

C) Send to a "breeding program" and monitor activity.

D) Leave the top of the funnel to continue to obtain information.

Lead scoring also has many forms as they relate to evaluating a prospect based on FICO scores provided by sources like TRW data and other sources of validating a leads form data. Targus recently wrote a paper on Advanced Segmentation to Optimize Media Purchases a great read. More to come on lead scoring and lead nurturing soon.

Yahoo! and Monster – Dismantling the Yahoo! Empire

noreply@blogger.com (Harry Gold) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:25:00 +0000

I got this interesting email from Monster today – another pillar being carved off and outsourced by Yahoo! First search goes to Bing, now Jobs to Monster. Check it out:

Monster To Acquire Yahoo!'s HotJobs

Dear Customer:

Today, we are excited to announce that Monster has entered into an agreement to acquire HotJobs that will provide you with unprecedented access to job seekers and make Monster the leading site for job seekers in the U.S.

Upon the close of the acquisition, Monster will also enter into a multi-year strategic agreement with Yahoo!, becoming the jobs and recruitment engine on Yahoo!'s homepage for both the U.S. and Canada.

HOW DOES THIS ACQUISITION AND MULTI-YEAR TRAFFIC AGREEMENT IMPACT YOU?
• Increased traffic to your jobs: Monster will become Yahoo!'s provider of career and job content on the Yahoo! homepage in the United States and Canada. This is not just a generic portal deal – people with a demonstrated interest in jobs and careers will be sent to Monster from Yahoo!. In fact, with an increase in qualified candidates, we expect that job response, our metric for apply per post, will increase significantly.
• Broader industry seeker mix: HotJobs brings new strengths to Monster in the form of healthcare, retail, finance and insurance seekers that complement Monster's traditional strengths. As a Monster customer, you will be able to put your message in front of Monster's and Yahoo!'s vast combined reach of career-minded candidates.
• Additional market presence: We will be able to leverage HotJobs's strong reach in markets such as Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, and Phoenix.
• Increased local presence: This acquisition expands our newspaper partnership network to approximately 1,000 weekly and daily newspapers, giving you local reach in all 50 states.

THE RIGHT RESUMES.
With Monster's larger and growing job seeker population, you will receive increased exposure for your jobs. Couple this with Monster's innovative patented 6Sense™ search technology and our Power Resume Search product and you'll receive precise, relevant resume results that match people with your opportunities faster and better than ever before.

WHAT'S NEXT?
In the immediate term and while we work to develop plans and programs that will deliver the value inherent in our new relationship, you can expect Monster and HotJobs to operate independently. Your Monster Account Manager will continue to provide world class support assisting you with all your recruitment needs. We will have much more to announce with respect to specifics after we conclude the regulatory process and close the transaction, which we currently expect to occur sometime in the third quarter of 2010. Until that time, if you have any questions, please reach out to your Monster Account Manager or call 1-800-MONSTER. In addition, you may read our press release or our frequently asked questions.

At Monster, you are one of our most valued customers and we wanted to share this exciting news with you. We are confident that today's agreements will bring together the complementary strengths of Monster and HotJobs, thereby offering far greater opportunities, convenience and results for both employers and job seekers than ever before.

Best regards,

Steve Cooker
Senior Vice President, U.S. Sales

Leaving Your Fate with Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Bianca Garcia) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:35:00 +0000

This Sunday, football fans will be glued to their TVs for the Superbowl, while we in the advertising industry will be glued to our TVs for the... Superbowl. Let's face it, some people watch the Superbowl just for the ads, and through the years I've seen some great TV spots debut on the big game day. This year, 30-second ad spots reportedly cost $2.5 million and up - that's A LOT of money so advertisers often spend months (even years) in advanced preparing for those Superbowl ads.

However, Budweiser - a huge Superbowl advertiser - decided to take a leap of faith on deciding which ad to play and leave its fate with Facebook. Yes, Facebook, particularly Budweiser Fans on Facebook. Budweiser proudly declares as its status:

Budweiser wants our fans to help us decide which commercial makes it to the Big Game. Click on the "Game Day Pick" tab for an exclusive preview of three new spots and vote for your favorite!

This "promo" first caught my eye when I saw a Facebook homepage engagement ad:

It was a basic "Become a Fan" ad unit and it actually made me wonder why Budweiser is targeting me - is it because of my age group/gender/location? Or is it because I have "advertising" in my profile? I'm not a big fan of beer but I am a big fan of (most) TV commercials so I still clicked the ad and became a fan.

I landed on the custom tab for "Game Day Pick:And proceeded to watch all three clips. My personal opinion: they were all... blah. I was not impressed by any but did end up voting for the "Payment" one (the only one that's slightly funny and more interesting than the others, I think).

But if I didn't like with the Budweiser ads, why am I using up precious blog space and brain energy to write about Budweiser on Facebook? Because while I wasn't impressed with the ads, I was impressed with their strategy.

This is one of the most well-known brands in the world, undoubtedly with millions of dollars invested in marketing and advertising, and it is wholly embracing the power of social media. I'm impressed that they are leveraging the power of Facebook to hype up their Superbowl ads, and are letting their fans become part of this big decision (what ad to run), encouraging user engagement and brand affinity. And I'm impressed that they got me - a non-beer drinker, non-Budweiser aficionado - to actually become a fan, and watch their ads, and vote!

And even more impressive? Budweiser is smart enough to encourage viral propagation not just by giving the user the option to post it on their feed:

But also asking them to comment on the "what do you think" area:

This is just basic social media strategy, but it is genius in its simplicity. The key here is user engagement and Budweiser is doing a really good job at it.

I'm definitely watching out for the Budweiser ad this Sunday to see if the one I voted for actually "won", and hey, I might even drink a bottle of Budweiser (just maybe)... Whether you're tuning in for the football or the ads, I hope you have a great time!

Social Media comes to the Age of Aquarius

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:09:00 +0000

Hair - "The American Tribal Love Rock Musical" - is going to try a new way of reaching out to its audience. Starting tomorrow, the show's finale number where the cast and audience mix and mingle and dance to "The Age of Aquarius" will be recorded in high definition video and posted to the show's web page. The camera, controlled from the show's light booth, will follow a pre-programmed path to pan across the stage and zoom in on cast and audience members. Anyone visiting the site can then download the video, post it to their Facebook page, or send out a tweet to all their friends.

Make no mistake - this is a first for the relatively stodgy Broadway theatre scene. Every new show these days has a web page, and some have videos of scenes or musical numbers from the show but Hair is about the only show where cast and audience actually interact during the show.

What's in it for Hair? The best possible publicity for a show heading into its second year on the great white way - favorable word of mouth. Being able to spread the word about the show through social networks will probably give the box office a significant boost and keep the show running (and profitable) for many months.

Here's link to a story in today's New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/theater/02hair.html?hpw

6 Free Social Media Metric Monitoring Tools

jselig@overdriveinteractive.com (Jeff Selig) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:37:00 +0000

Ever wonder what your social media presence looks like? Are you trying to

Listen / Monitor Activity
Find and Identify Influencer's
Competitive analysis
Market Research
Customer support
Engage with customers online
SEO and link building
Reputation Management

these 6 free services check and collect content from:

Blogs
Wikis (Such as Wikipedia)
Message boards/Forums
Video/photo sharing website (like Flickr and YouTube)
Mainstream media blogs (Wall Street Journal blogs)
Microblogs (like Twitter, Friendfeed and Plurk)
Social networks (like Facebook and MySpace)

Trendrr.com

To get data you can manually configure a Data Set or track sites like Google, Technorati, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, etc.. The results begin to appear within 24 hours.

Many graphics are for trends so it is also a resource you can use on your blog by embedding graphs into your posts.

Out of all the services reviewed here, Trendrr is the least favorite of mine for several reasons. Primarily focused on visualizing trends and not providing a snapshot of the overall social media landscape, there are too many pages of information to dig into and walk away with any solid learning's as a snapshot.

That said, Trendrr does have a really cool functionality where you can "drop" any set or combination of graphs and research data points on top of each other for a cumulative view and comparative analysis.

SamePoint.com

Samepoint, is an interesting Web 2.0 service that allows you to search chats from multiple sources and the comments of blogs and social media sites. Samepoint takes all these messages and organizes them in a layout similar to Google search [both paid and organic]. On the right in a 120x skyscraper are recent conversations, the main results feature a "social tone" bar , time posted, a text snippet and the originating social site source.

Very simple to use, comes with an intuitive interface and you can find any topic among millions of conversations by typing any word or site URL.

SocialMention.com

The clearest objective of having a social web presence is to have influence in a subject area under a group of followers to spread your message wherever they go. Social Mention provides some significant feedback on top keywords, sentiment, top users and sources. For a free too the insight is amazing and the speed with which the tool aggregates the data is speedy by other tool comparisons.

Live Dash

All I can say about this service is way cool! Tracking TV is something new and unique to the social sphere, that this is all bundled together is really quite amazing, that is if you are on TV or have a presence on TV. How they incorporate TV is via closed caption, they scrape the text and add it to their mix. Great idea and starts to close the gap and wrap the communications platforms together. Stay tuned for Google's new service called Listen. Under Labs right now, the service is able to search audio. Be prepared to have more media platforms and outlets converging.

HowSociable.com

Clean, simple and easy to understand, there are a lot of sites the service checks and allows you to reduce or add social sites. The scoring attributed to any sites in regards to scoring is a little lose for me as is the overall "score" you receive. If there was a benchmark to compare yourself either by industry or other sites I would like the service more.

AddictOMatic.com

Very similar to HowSociable but with a black background Addict-o-matic actually gives you details on what was found on any given social outlet. Again, as with HowSociable you have the option of adding or deleting services you want to ping. There is also a hot and trending section that lets you see what everyone is talking about on a given subject broken down by popular topics or news sectors.

Social Media and ROI

All these sites are great for getting a sense of your Social Presence but they all lack one thing in common. None of these social tools shown have the ability to show you the ROI, relative to your social efforts and definitively guide you towards a better strategy and tactics. Overdrive Interactive is one of the only companies I know of that has closed the loop on Social Media and ROI.

The Overdrive Social Media Dashboard is not a free product for public use. As an Enterprise level listening platform ,no less than 40 individual elements are examined and combined in such a way as to immediately give any C level executive, insight into their marketing efforts. Trending events, tabular control of channels and point to point insight of your PR efforts, seamlessly weaves the whole social strategy into a digestible story.