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What Will Marketers Do To Invest More In Social Media? As marketers continue to traverse into the ever evolving social marketing playground, many of them will begin to allocate their conventional direct marketing dollars to enhance their social media presence. This represents an ongoing evolution of “old school” direct marketing tactics like direct mail and telemarketing, towards the “new school” of direct marketing, which includes social media, pay per click (PPC) advertising, SEO, and blog development. In a report by Brand Republic, Alterian found that that at least 40% of marketers will reduce their DM budgets to make room for social media marketing. A March 2009 report by Forrester complements the research done by Alterian. They asked marketers which traditional marketing budgets they would be most likely to cut to increase funding of interactive marketing. Not surprisingly, 40% said direct mail and 7% answered telemarketing. The approaching death of classic direct marketing may come as a sigh of relief to many consumers, whose mailboxes have long been tormented by junk mail: direct marketing’s “evil” offspring. Receiving unsolicited mail is a sheer annoyance for many consumers, who typically end up placing that flyer or catalog in the trash or shredder. Although direct marketing is widely recognized as a declining medium, brands sometimes find ways to get creative with it. A 2008 DM campaign for Honda supported the brand’s “going green” initiative by mailing out a letter that contained seeds. When planted, the letter would grow into a beautiful flower, reminding you of Honda every time you watered your plants. In 2010, it is likely the world will not see very many creative applications of traditional direct marketing, because frankly, when you have a channel as powerful as social media, why bother? Classic direct marketing, such as direct mail, creates a direct connection between a brand and a consumer, but in a closed space. There is no room for interaction. Through the collective interaction that is inherent in the social media landscape, brands can still create a direct connection with consumers, but in an open space that can also be shared, tracked, measured, and analyzed. A consumer-driven world also partly defines the evolution of direct marketing. Consumers now find the brand themselves, and essentially become a living part of the brand’s essence. With traditional direct marketing, there was never any opportunity for consumers to actively participate with the brand, because the brand tried too hard to find them, often in intrusive and annoying ways. So when you think about it, marketers are not necessarily shifting their DM budgets to make room for social media, they are simply changing their strategies to reflect the changes in how consumers interact with brands directly each and every day. Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=full+mailbox&m=text Labels: online marketing, Paid Search, seo, Social Media Marketing Are YOU measuring Social Media ROI?The Alterian Integrated Marketing group recently released their 7th annual survey on social media and marketing adoption. Almost 1100 marketing professionals and executives participated worldwide, and the results paint a very interesting picture. Highlights include:
 With core metrics like unique visits and time spent on the biggest social networks continually ballooning upward, these figures come at no real surprise. But when the medium and large businesses making these big buys into social are consistently downsizing across nearly every industry, it's also easy to see where more than a few executives raise eyebrows over social's 'real' value. Where, how, or how much does social media marketing contribute to the bottom line?The social media Kool-Aid dictates that if you're not in it, you're outside of it. Now, it doesn't take money to register a Facebook page, but it certainly does take time and effort (and ultimately creative, development, and maintenance dollars) to impact the opinions and ideas gathered and exchanged in social media. And it takes alot of effort to do so in a positive, meaningful, and above all, sincere way. Brands are certainly counting how much they're spending on social. Shouldn't they be paying attention to what they're getting out of it? Almost 85% are in the dark.  Would you put a dollar in a vending machine without bothering to see what comes down the chute? Would you spend on an online media or branding campaign and not pay attention to the analytics? There's clearly a disconnect here.Social media spending is on the rise. That's a fact - money is going where the traffic is, makes sense. CMOs want measurable results, also makes sense. But most of them don't know where to start. MarketingProfs reports that 10% of marketing executives can't find measurable success in LinkedIn or Facebook, and 15% believe there is NO ROI associated with Twitter. Guess what, Dell made almost $7M off of Twitter last year. How'd they do it? With defined end goals. What are you end goals? Followers? Leads? Registrations? Links? Sales? Define these goals before you engage. Structure your campaigns and their success metrics around these goals. Listen to the conversation about your brand before you engage. Want to know Dell's other Twitter secret? Tracked clicks. Simple campaigns + measurable assets + a defined end goal = Social Media ROI. Are you measuring? Labels: Brand Awareness, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, social media roi Coupons Transition to the Interactive AgeAs a consumer for the past 20 years, I’ve always associated direct marketing with coupons. Since I was born and raised to save my pennies, I’m pretty much addicted to coupons. If I get a piece of direct mail that doesn't have a coupon, it immediately goes in the trash, but if it does I'm more inclined to pay attention. However, I’ve recently found myself paying less attention to coupons that come in the Sunday newspaper-- which I need to sort through to find the ones I want-- in favor of coupons that find ME. These include coupons that arrive in my email inbox, appear on my Facebook newsfeed, or that I get by playing an interactive game online. I receive these coupons because of brands that target me based on my interests and online activities, and send me coupons relevant to my interests. Valpak's AR campaign is part of a much larger new media initiative for the company, which also includes an iPhone application and social promotion of its coupons, in printable form, which users can share with their friends. Additionally, Valpak has established a partnership with Kudzu.com, which allows consumers who are looking for coupons on Valpak.com to view the coupons alongside customer ratings and reviews. *Image source: redhotfranchises.com Labels: Direct Mail, Direct Marketing, iPhone, Online Coupons, Social Media Marketing Twitter Now Tracking Local TrendsTwitter recently unveiled a new feature that allows users to view trending topics according to city or country. Prior to the update, Twitter users were only able to see major topics of discussion worldwide on Twitter. With more localized trending topics, users can track trends more relevant to themselves (for example, the Celtics, for Boston residents) as well as note the differences in how various areas of the world perceive a major event.    Currently, the feature is only available for major cities and countries, but Twitter is working on adding more locations.Source: Twitter Blog Labels: Social Media, Twitter, web 2.0 Digital Marketing; the Music Industry’s New HustleIn a time when cassettes and CDs are obsolete, the traditional methods of promotion and marketing in the music industry are close behind. The panelists at the “Music Artists go Entrepreneurial” Summit at Stanford; Chamillionaire (@chamillionaire), Hammer (@MCHammer), and Mistah Fab (all rappers), discuss how the internet has changed the music industry and how it has impacted their music careers. Chamillionaire said it best: “Digital is the [music industry’s] new hustle.” The days of street promotion and literally driving from city to city, store to store selling records are gone. The internet and social media have taken control, now serving as a convenient venue for promotion, marketing, and distribution; making it easier and quicker for artists to push out content and for fans to easily obtain it. Today, music fans (including myself) will have already heard an entire album and have tracks in rotation on their iPods before the album reaches stores. Thanks to YouTube, Twitter, MySpace, and Blogs, raising awareness for artists has become less manual and more digital. As Hammer explains, social media has replaced the middle man or “hype man” - the guy artists pay to promote them and their music; which may or may not actually translate into sales. Being able to apply and analyze their online marketing programs’ analytics allows artists to not only target exactly who their fans are behaviorally, demographically, and geographically; but also measure if it translates into record or concert ticket sales.  Technology and Social Media has rewritten the business model for the music industry. If artists aren’t incorporating Social Media into their current business models, they need to do so, immediately. As a music enthusiast and music blogger, I rely on other music blogs and artists’ Twitter accounts for valuable content; what’s new, what’s hot, and more importantly (stalking-ly) what artists are up to in their everyday lives. Whether they are tweeting/pushing content themselves or hiring a ghost tweeter, having this medium allows artists to control the content and information fans are getting, receive feedback on their work, and most importantly connect and build strong relationships with their fans, as we are ultimately consuming and purchasing their music. To view the entire discussion: http://alwayson.goingon.com/page/display/28097?param=session/343 Labels: Online Media, Social Media, twitter social media The Future of Social Media: A 2010 Blog SeriesAs we now have buried our eyes & minds into a very exciting 2010, the focus on social media marketing will be ever growing. In fact, from this point on, I believe we are going to see a number of changes in marketing strategies, on and offline.  If you think closely, the world’s operating system is morphing. In the past, you have had a number of “closed” model marketing systems that prevented the singular idea that social media describes: collective interaction. In past years, marketing strategies have lived within specific business models and relied on “closed” channels to disseminate the message. For example, a newspaper would advertise a static ad, a direct-mail message would take a matter of days to make even a single impression. Once that message was delivered, the channel relied on a number of “closed” systems to tie into the medium properly, and the need to pause and wait for participation was often days, weeks, even months depending on the type and length of the campaign. In today’s world, the operating system is being revamped, what took days, now takes seconds, and together this process of marketing evolution is pushing today’s marketing programs into an “open” system. This “open” system allows for instant connections with the customer, while the opportunity for response, collaboration, sharing, and growth increase tremendously. Fundamental Shift While this shift in marketing systems is underway, this “closed” to “open” environment is going to expand further beyond business into our everyday lives. Obviously, as marketers, we think of this in relevancy to the delivery of a message, in some manner. But, as time expands and social media begins to consume users’ lives online, the idea of an “open” system will fall into a number of funnels, including media and content, advertising, business solutions, education, legal environments, lifestyle, entertainment, love, religion, sex, etc... And as this shift into an “open” system expands, a number of brands and individuals will be wary of moving so quickly into such an environment. A system like this is cluttered with a number of worries, such as “out of control”, “chaotic”, “risky”, or “feeling of being unsafe”. This inescapable feeling of being in “risk” is common among brands, but learning to trust the system will be the hardest step to overcome starting in 2010 and moving beyond. If relating this change in marketing ethics to social media, the door must be swung open to attain any success. To what level you remain “open”, your business growth will be directly related. Social Media: 5 Years Into the Future 12-18 Months: Social Media is CRM As social media slowly becomes a part of everyone’s daily web interaction, this reality and change in systems means that YOU, your brand, must adjust and focus on agility instead of just optimization when it comes to integrating social media into your marketing programs. And as this becomes more of a reality, Social Media CRM systems are becoming a necessity, rather than option as more users begin to take part in social media and recognize your brand.  In the next 12-18 months, brands will work to close the gap on effectively managing dialogue with the market in terms of:
Social Media monitoring devices such as Radian6, Visible Technologies, Buzzlogic, TNS Cymfony, Trackur, and other social media monitoring tools allow you to keep a finger to the pulse of your brand and see real-time data as social media mentions take place. 12-18 Months: Digital Jet Lag Goes Into Red Alert As information already within social media is becoming clogged, expect a massive increase in the next 12-18 months with the uptick in both users and social media popularity. Because of this, expect filtering and curation to become a huge business. When it comes to finding methods to cull the information being pushed into the social networks and allow users to sort through it more efficiently, a step toward contextualizing and connecting with the ‘right’ information will step into the forefront with a number of new tools, platforms and systems to help control this excessive amount of content. To be continued... This post is part one of a continuous series that will be posted throughout the rest of January and February. Here is a sneak peek to some of the topics that I will be covering: • Resistance to Change Ends? • Privacy will become a MUST for Users • Real-time, Social Mobile: Feedback, Rating, Comments, Tagging • Uprising in Automated Social Agents • Socially Augmented Reality • FREE Access to a Global Network • Social “Books” • Smarter Social Advertising: Mobile, Online • The End of One-Way Communications • Social Advertising Budgets Explode • The Extreme Reputation Economy • The Importance of Social Capital • The Global Social Brain Labels: Brand Awareness, Social Media Marketing Interactive TV Ads: Real-Life ExamplesMy last column, "When TV and the Internet Converge," examined four points that marketers must understand about what's now happening with interactive television. In this column, let's review real-life examples of interactive television ads and explore where advertising will go from there. Interactive Television Ads: Real-Life Examples OK, let's look at some things that have been done that start to combine video and interactive TV with advertising, games, and even e-commerce. Budweiser: Branding Game and Contest  Budweiser ran an interactive TV ad that rewarded "interactors" with a game and chance to win a trip to the World Cup. According to a case study examining this campaign, around 890,000 people interacted with the ad by "pressing red" or select and 90 percent of the interactors played the "Heads Up" game to win World Cup tickets. Interactors reportedly spent an average of just over seven minutes interacting, but 38 percent thought they'd spent 10 minutes or more interacting! See a video of the Budweiser interactive TV ad here on YouTube. Axe Body Spray: Interactive Branding Game  For this interactive TV commercial, Axe created games where viewers controlled bikes and did a stunt using the arrow keys. Other options also brought up a slow-motion version of the stunt and information about Axe body spray. The ad was shown to 60 million homes that have either DirecTV or Dish Network. In just a few weeks, 3.5 million people watched the video and spent an average of five minutes playing with the ad. Charmin: Coupon Distribution  This Charmin toilet paper interactive ad was delivered to TiVo users. When the ad appears, a green thumb appears in the right corner of the screen that reads, "Apply now for a valuable coupon from Charmin." When viewers click the thumb using their remote control, the program they are watching pauses and they are taken to a coupon request screen. Using the remote, they can choose that option and the coupons are sent by mail. The program resumes once the viewer completes the interactive ad. Although this ad was done via TiVo, it could be done with any cable system. Domino's Pizza: Ordering Goods  OK, this was one of the first interactive TV promotions to really get some buzz. As described from the press release dated Nov. 17, 2008: "TiVo subscribers can seamlessly access their Domino's Pizza order from various advertising entry points on the TiVo user interface...by clicking on "Order Your Pizza"...they can log-in with a simple account number...build their pizza order right from the television set by selecting type of crust, toppings, and sauces, and get the pizza delivered by their local Domino's Pizza." This particular promotion was not e-commerce enabled, so you paid for your pizza when it arrived. But how hard would it be to add a pay feature now? Not too hard. Clickable Video: Imagine Where This Can Go Let's start to imagine where this can go. First, take a look at the images and videos below. They're examples of Web-based clickable video. Now, imagine that this Internet technology moves to television and the mouse-like remote control evolved to be a Wii-like remote control mouse where you can move a curser around a screen to play games and click on items in actual TV shows. Now, imagine watching your favorite shows and movies in catalog mode. Product placement will be huge and shows will generate click and commerce revenue from the highest bidders. It will be "The Truman Show" meets Google AdWords meets Amazon! There is no reason why this technology can't be applied to television now that the remote control, the Internet, and television video are fully merged and we can pause shows while people perform transactions. At the very least, we can tell people to click "OK" to see more info on a particular item. Then the DVR can pause the show and a consumer can view a pop-up Web page and make a transaction if she wants to. This could be done in millions of homes right now! To see the below videos live, visit VideoClix, choose a category, and choose a video. When watching these videos, roll your curser over the products and click on them. Vogue, 60 Seconds to Chic This video includes links for consumers to obtain additional information and to make a purchase.  Progresso: Start Cooking This is an example of a brand's informational video that could link to coupons.  Nike: Zappos Clickable Video Catalog I couldn't find this on Zappos, but you can see it on YouTube here. I like this example because it integrates everything and shows where you could end up making a transaction at the end.  Bring It All Together, Mash It Up, Make a Wish List So, here are a bunch of things I can imagine being done -- or are already being done -- with interactive TV. For the real-life examples, the items include links. What can you add to this list knowing what you know now?
In conclusion, the way to think about interactive TV is this: anything you can do on a Web site you will be able to do with interactive TV. Ads will become much more action oriented to encourage viewer/user behavior and shows will have new revenue opportunities with product placement and embedded calls to action (really saving them). Finally, tracking will be extended to television in a whole new way and will really raise the bar on marketing and advertising performance and accountability. So, what is the good news for online professionals? Online marketers already work under this kind of atmosphere! Labels: Advertising, ClickZ, Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing The ConversationalistsRecently released data from Forrester Research has coined the term "The Conversationalists" for people that post a status update on a social networking or microblogging website at least once a week. The Forrester data was analyzed and published in this article from ReadWriteWeb. So, who are the Conversationalists? More than half of The Conversationalists are female, and more than 70% are 30 years and older. This group of people contributes mainly to online discussions with their friends on social networking sites. This group of internet users is the fastest growing group of adults online, and based on their usage patterns, may be more focused on maintaining current relationships rather than developing new ones. Although The Conversationalists are rapidly increasing, the number of Creators (those who publish their own content) has remained quite steady. As the aforementioned ReadWriteWeb article proposed, this is most likely due to the fact that it is relatively easy to join a social network, but much more difficult to consistently create and maintain internet content.  Labels: Facebook, Forrester Report, Social Media, Twitter A Social Media Scorecard – 2010 US Senate Special Election in MA Click above image to enlarge The recent special election to fill the vacated US Senate seat of the late Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts was certainly one of the most highly charged and closely followed statewide elections in recent history, both on state and national level. Not only was the Democrats filibuster-proof 60 vote majority at stake, the fact that a Republican was threatening to take the seat, in what many consider the bluest of blue states, made this an election for the ages. Labels: Facebook, POV, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter, twitter social media, web 2.0, YouTube Five Elements of Leadership from Colin PowellWhile attending the CCA Global conference in DC about a week ago, I had the pleasure of seeing Colin Powell speak. While we may not be 100% politically aligned, I do think he is an admirable leader who has faithfully served our country and truly has an amazing amount of leadership and life experience wisdom to offer. He started the speech by saying, “One day you are at the top, #1! Kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers all want to see you, you’re flying around on your own jet and then...you ain’t!” I liked that he started out addressing that people can reach amazing heights in their lives and then in an instant things can change. This is especially poignant now when so many people find themselves being knocked off their high perches of success in their jobs and businesses. (His whole speech was peppered with a lot of humor and was quite entertaining.) Then he went on to tell us all the 5 Elements of Leadership and following is what I managed to write down: Inspire: Your role as a leader is to inspire, and your challenge is to get the most out of the talent in your team. Leadership says you are a person who can get 100% out of the people under your command and the key to this is to give them a purpose. Let them feel that what they are doing is beyond their individual roles and how it fits into the larger picture. He talked about how everyone at the State Department had an important role right down to the cleaning people who came in at night. The way he put it their mission was hyper-critical. The sheen and gleaming image of the State Department projected to the dignitaries that came to visit was not put there by him – it was put there by the largely unseen folks who came in every night to dust the woodwork and polish the floors. Theirs was a sacred mission, and he wanted them to understand the importance of what they did and take pride in what the jobs they performed. My comment: so for those of us in marketing, our roles are not just about building brands or driving leads – marketers drive the economy. Marketing helps companies grow, thrive and hire people! We also help people who need a product or solution find it! At its heart, marketing is more than advertising – it’s a significant engine of the economy that finds new ways to communicate, encourages desired behavior and helps companies become successful. Did I get it right Colin? Invest in the Troops: A leader takes care of his troops and makes sure he knows what they need to get the job done. He spoke about three major areas of investment:
Recognize Success: Be able to spot the leaders in your midst and reward with large and small gestures so they know you know the good job they are doing. Tactics he listed included promotions, bonuses and most important praise (public and private). Discipline: Accountability is critical and people knowing what they are responsible for is key. The troops must know that they will be rewarded for success and sanctioned for failure. Under-performance by one member of a team drags down the success of the whole team. My comment: we all have experienced this right? Everyone works hard to hit a deadline or make something great and one person fails in their part and the whole team (for that matter the whole company) is robbed of their success and resulting pride, glory and client gratitude. Trust: If people trust you they will follow you into battle. In life and the long term they will follow you even out of curiosity. They will think, “I am going to stick with this guy to see where he leads us.” But they need to know that you are not reckless and won’t lead them to a bad place. My comment: this is of course true of your team and clients. If your team thinks you are going to drive your department or company into the ground they are not likely to follow you in the long term – they need to know that the person leading the way will lead everyone to a fulfilling and secure place for all. For clients this is doubly true as, unlike employees, they are paying you and in a very real way their careers and success are in your hands. They need to know that you will run your business and their account in a wise and prudent way. That the risks you put forward, and even push the envelope on, have a balanced risk/benefit factor. In a very real sense leadership trust is the element in a team dynamic that binds everyone’s success together. You need to trust that your leaders a) know what they are doing b) have the mission’s success at heart and c) that success in the mission equals success for all the team members. So needless to say I was quite inspired by the speech and can only do my best to apply these principles to my life and company. The thing I loved best about what Colin said was the sheer pragmatism of his leadership philosophy. These were not lofty B-school management or psychological principals. This was advice that anyone could and should follow. These were principles that could be applied to a million army battle plan or a five-person team. Social Media Helps Drive Off Page SEO Blogs, social networks, video sharing platforms, audio, photos, podcasts, wikis, virtual worlds, forums, microblogging, social shopping ... The era of digital marketing is now part of our lives and social media offers an attractive landscape for brands [both b2b and b2c] who have adopted social media as a core objective. The goal, to exploit these connective advantages through the enormous power of the network, or what may be considered the same, the enormous power of the users. Social media is giving way to a new era where the concept of communication begins to be replaced by a dialogue, where before, companies had to create, listen and speak. Now, we see a new paradigm that consumers are not necessarily averse to advertising because they are the ones creating and developing content for the brands, enhancing the social product mentions and social placements. Do not be because they do [Yoda speak] The interesting investment in social media, however, was misinterpreted by many companies. In the beginning they understood that this method was simply to move the social tools that conveyed the same message through traditional media. They did not realize that it was in fact an entire philosophy of work whose mission was to place users as protagonists of their success by reorganizing the message to them and allowing the users to qualify, criticize or even reject their content. Social Media was a new concept of communication which was first kept in the background, enhancing the product development of useful information and providing value to the user. Social Media is not a set of mechanical actions Social Media social action is based on people, not machines or automated methods. The strategy therefore, not based on simply exposing a product to the greatest number of potential sites and social networks, but to define new communication activities where individuals are active partners in spreading the message and its importance. That the message is conveyed by the brand becomes less credible and more credible when transmitted by the users as an intrinsic act of endorsement. Communication but not much dialogue The concept of a traditional advertising campaign where the brand delivers a message to a user is not appropriate in the formula of social media. The role of the user is not meant to only receive information, but to disseminate the concept, culture and actions sought by the campaign. This old belief system fully cancels and lays null and void plans for interaction. Continuous messaging by brands and the need to share value with their audiences is actually how social media works. This is a communication process that requires listening to what the public thinks of you and your product on the network: this is not what you say to people, but what people say, do or how they interact with your product or services . Once we receive feedback from users, data mining is important for working on strategies that allow us to connect with our users the most effective way possible: there is no standard way of doing Social Media, each case can arise from very different circumstances related to the type of product, with its target goal, or the need to expand information about a particular product. What we must not ever forget in this type of communication is to plan long term strategies and move away from seeking immediate ROI. Social Media is about creating communities where you encourage and reward loyalty continuously to its most active users. Social media speaks of a discipline which also applies to both "off page" using third party tools, and "on page" strategies that allows you to use our own site as a forum for dialogue where we can incorporate other disciplines such as creativity, SEO, user experience etc.. The basic tenants of best practice SEO from 5 years ago still apply to today's best practice SEO with very little changing other than the availability of off page influence and search engine spiders ability to crawl a wider variety of files and formats. The Social Media mix now amplifies and extends the inbound traffic and profitability of a site via off page execution of social media strategies and campaigns. Labels: off pgae seo, seo, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, social media roi Potholes in Boston? There's an App for That. The City of Boston recently released a new iPhone application, "Citizens Connect" (iTunes link), that allows residents to report issues about the physical state of the city. The app is part of a bigger initiative to foster "Citizen-to-City" communications; all reports generated through the application are linked into Boston's Constituent Relationship Management System. The free application allows residents to relay a problem and location to City Hall thanks to the GPS functionality in the new model iPhones. When a complaint is issed, users will get a tracking number so they can follow up and track the progress of the response to the complaint or issue. So, if a user comes across a downed traffic light, or massive gaping pothole on Massachusetts Avenue, all they need to do is snap a picture, add comments, and submit the complaint to city hall. For anyone that drives in Boston, you know this is a good thing, as there are plenty of potholes to snap pictures of!  Learn more about Citizens Connect program and iPhone application at the City of Boston's Site. Labels: Application Development, iPhone, Mobile, Online Monitoring Real Time Search isn't Real No sooner had we gotten used to the idea of “Universal Search” and every detail needed to understand what would go into dominating the search engine results pages with images, videos and text, than Google releases “Real-time Search”. The question is how real time is the returns and how flawed are the results. The lack of Google’s ability to show real-time results was a weakness that many people felt hurt them in development. With the release of Universal Search so many interesting features were added to Google Suggest and Google Quick Scroll enabling Google’s search capabilities to save users time and enhance the user experience. Real-time Google Search is available in English only for some people, but Google believes that by the first quarter of 2010 could be implemented in other languages. Some of the pages that will work with this new system will be Facebook, Twitter and MySpace sites that are updated every minute. For now if you want to see Real Time in action, I recommend choosing any of the terms found in Google Trends. Only for some specific terms will you see results, massive searches at a given time, so if you want to see it in action, I recommend choosing any of the terms in Google Trends. Not Just Google but Bing too: Both Bing and Google have agreements with Twitter to take every tweet (post or message) and analyze each with its own technology to deliver relevant results to searchers. There were already some partial solutions like Twitter Search Results for Google via GreaseMonkey, but this new real-time is certainly a step beyond. We see that Bing has completely separated search Twitter, trying not to affect results pages (SERPs) for your main browser. While search engines can be added to Twitter as an input to the characterization of the sites that are part of their index, they do not plan to add sound to your results pages with tweets. Therefore we must see real-time searching as a new type of search, and existing (News, Blogs, images, etc), which is sorted by relevancy. Social information is important and needed for business and individuals alike. Google’s new interest in blended results beyond Universal search is problematic on several dimensions. The sleek and streamlined results, Google used to serve, now look like a hodge podge of information. Gone are their austere results views, no longer conforming to the most relevant and best results credo. Add sponsored results which are now even more wonky given the addition of images in paid search and the results pages looks terrible. My concern stems from sources of information used and information available for use. So much of what happens in this world takes place in extranets and behind forum walls that truly influence our everyday lives that search engines have no access or insight into. So how real is real time search? Labels: Bing, Google, real time search, search results, SERPs, Social Media, Twitter When TV and the Internet ConvergeOK, so 2009 was the year of social media and there's no reason to suspect that interest in social networks will slow down anytime soon. But what will be the next big thing that changes the way we, as consumers, consume media and how will marketers leverage that consumption? My prediction: the convergence of Web-based content, targeting, and functionality with cable television. Call it enhanced TV or interactive TV. Either way, cable, satellite, and fiber-based broadband penetration combined with targeting, interactivity, DVRs, and the cable company's and TiVo's knowledge of our e-mail addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, and even our credit card numbers will launch a new era in advertising and marketing. Old-school video creative, television networks, DRTV, and new-economy interactivity will come together. While this has been talked about for a long time -- kind of like the days when we would hear about the "information highway" -- the promise of this technology is now here. Comcast's planned acquisition of NBC Universal validates the value and potential of interactive television. The folks driving that deal understand where interactive television is headed and I'm sure they have an arsenal of advertising goodies that will rival, and even surpass, the targeting, interactivity, and tracking of anything the Web can deliver. Interactive television will save the medium we know as television and replenish budgets that pay for the star power, creativity, and shows we've all grown to love and expect from the networks. I'm looking forward to seeing some amazing things. If you're not 100 percent up on this stuff, let's first look at some of the interactive functionality offered by video, TiVo, satellite TV, and cable boxes. These features just scratch the surface of where things will go. In my next column, I'll look at real-life examples of interactive television ads and offer some predictions on where interactive television advertising is headed. Step 1: Understand the Term "Addressability" Wikipedia defines it as: "Addressability is the ability of a digital device to individually respond to a message sent to many similar devices. Examples include pagers, mobile phones, and set-top boxes for pay TV." So, how does addressability affect interactive TV? We can take the targeting and tracking we do online (the thing that marketers love) and combine it with a cable company's customer records and data about customer's viewing habits. Television ads will be able to be targeted and tracked with unrivaled accuracy. Here's the reality: cookies can be erased but a consumer's ID can't be erased from a set-top box. As Variety points out, some advertising executives consider addressable TV marketing a "holy grail." Step 2: Understand the Remote In the column, "Remote Control as Mouse: TV and Web Integration," I discussed how today's TV remote is becoming the mouse of the future. You can move a curser up and down and side to side, click "ok" or "select," access menus, guides, widgets, and enter numbers and/or characters like a cell phone keypad. Just look at the image of the Comcast remote below.  Kind of like a game mouse, joystick, and game controller all in one, right? Imagine the day when you are watching an Applebee's commercial and it will say, "To get an e-mail Buy-One-Meal-Get-One-Free coupon for your next visit to Applebee's, just hit OK now on your remote." Then, armed with your e-mail address, Comcast or Verizon will fulfill your request instantaneously. Or, to take it a step further, how about, "Order your Snuggie now by hitting OK on your remote and entering your PIN number." The cable company would then transmit your order to the vendor, process your payment, and even take a cut. Now one more thing, imagine crossing the remote with a Nintendo Wii joystick. Step 3: Understand the Guide When it comes to TV/Internet integration, the feature we use the most is the "guide." (See the red "guide" button on the left-hand side of the remote in the photo, above, and the screen capture of the FiOS guide, below.) The guide content, typically delivered via the Internet, is essentially a Web site accessed through a TiVo or cable box combined with functionality that enables a consumer to jump to channels, set shows to be recorded, and order on-demand content that may end up on the cable bill. Now, while millions of people use this functionality everyday, most people don't really understand the power of all these technologies combined at their fingertips. This guide is the Google of your televised world! How many hits a day does your guide get?  The guide can essentially be a portal into a whole universe of Web-based content, applications, and commerce. If you can do it online, you can do it via the guide. Now that we have the PC screen and the mobile screen, get ready to create Web pages and interfaces for the living room screen. Note: while there are no ads in the guide now, I have a feeling that will soon change. Step 4: Understand TV Widgets These are applications that draw content and functionality from the Internet right into your television, where consumers can access via a remote control mouse. A consumer can get the weather, sports scores, and even Facebook and Twitter. (See a screen capture of the Verizon FiOS Widget Bazaar and a video tour, below.) Just think of it as iPhone apps for your TV. Now, imagine brands advertising their widgets on television and letting people acquire them by hitting "select" on their remote control. Something like, "To get Domino's Pizza widget now, hit OK on your remote."  See a Verizon Widget Video Tour here on YouTube by one of Verizon's product managers. In my next column, we'll look at real-life examples of interactive television ads and I'll offer predictions on where things will go. Labels: Advertising, Application Development, ClickZ, Industry, Integration, TV |
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