Posted on Tue, Apr 20, 2010
I am here at Jeff Pulver's 140 Characters Conference, a two day action-packed gathering at the 92nd Street Y in Manahattan conference focused on all things Twitter. I just listened to Hank Wasiak, a true ad "mad man", having started at BBD&O in 1965. Hank has seen it all . . . and now sees an exciting future for the advertising business. I encourage you to watch the video of his talk here entitled Why Madison Avenue Should Love Social Media: The Thoughts of a Mad Man Turned Twitterholic [which should be up on the 140 Characters website in the next few days]. In the meantime, here are some of the highlights of Hank's talk.
Adding the Fifth P to the Classic Marketing Mix
Hank, who also teaches at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, brought a little professorial air to his talk [with a twist of George Carlin]. His marketing paradigm adds PEOPLE as a fifth P to the classic Four P's of Marketing - Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Sitting here at a Twitter conference, that fifth P seems so obvious. But why did it take the social web to make us all realize that?!
Wasiak's Six Ingredients of a New Madison Avenue Model (and an Exciting Future)
To be relevant in a 5 P marketing world, Hank argued that Madison Avenue has to change its business model. He offers six ingredients for making change happen:
- Recognize social media for the gift it is. It gets you back in touch with the customer, often in a one-on-one relationship
- Listen. Echoing his friend, Chris Brogan, he advises that agencies need to "grow bigger ears" and listen to the consumer.
- Start thinking like maestros. Agencies need to start thinking like maestros in every environment so that their work produces "music" that resonates.
- Adopt "collabetition". "Collabetition is Hank's own term. It combines collaboration with competition and acknowledges that there is no one best solution. Hank believes that making things work for clients and customers requires collaborating with like-minded competitors.
- Keep the eye on the prize. He advised that the advertising industry is a business of ideas. He also reminded us that research and metrics don't beget ideas. "Consumers will remember you for the impression you make and the number of impressions you generate." [I love that line.]
- Harvest fresh ideas daily. Technology allows agencies explore new directions. Hank cautioned that technology and technique have to be in the service of an idea. He quoted his pal Bill Bernback, "An idea can turn to dust or magic depending on the talent that rubs against it!"
Adding a Seventh Ingredient
I love Hank's list, but I would add a seventh one. Break down the silos inside the agency walls and created integrated media solutions. Many of the agency functions - television, radio, print, digital, public relations and now social media - are still isolated with integration the exception than the rule. Agency clients could be achieving so much more with integrated media solutions. Ironically, I am now listening to a Unilever executive talking about how they are retraining all their employees so they understand how to leverage social media tools along with traditional media. They understand that consumers are changing and that they must as well. Agencies have to start acting more like their clients . . . and we will begin to see the exciting future that Hank sees ahead.
What do you think? Do you think social media is the best thing to happen to social media? I look forward to your thoughts.
Posted on Tue, Mar 30, 2010
On March 25th,
Cali Yost, CEO and Founder of
Work + Life Fit, Inc. and I co-hosted a seminar on
Harnessing Social Media to Build Your Professional Brand for
Lone Wolves NYC, a networking group of independent professionals. It was our second pairing having done a
social media integration webinar for radio broadcasters over a month ago.
The gathering included more than 20 accomplished professionals, a number of whom recently held C-suite jobs in larger corporations. Since leaving Corporate America behind, many, like me, have launched their own businesses or are doing independent contract work. They were all there because they now understand that social media is not just an avenue to explore, but a necessity as they each build their own professional brand.
Why Is Social Media Now a Professional Necessity?
Social Media has become a professional necessity as prospective clients and/or employers are relying less on resumes and more on what is learned about you through Google search, including optimized LinkedIn profiles, blogs, articles and websites or social media search, including Twitter and Facebook.
In fact, many in the room commented that their LinkedIn profiles regularly trump Google search results for their blogs and/or businesses.
How To Manage the Social Media Landscape?
Today's social media landscape offers professionals many choices including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, Flickr, You Tube and many more. All in the room were using LinkedIn, but wanted to know how to better leverage it. At the same time, few were using Twitter, but most wanted to know how to get started.
Given the audience interests, my presentation concentrated on Twitter and LinkedIn. With Twitter, I talked about what I learned as I acclimated myself to the "Twitterverse" last year. My goal was to help them save time with their own acclimations, highlighting things it took me months to learn! With LinkedIn, my focus was on enhancing their current profiles and engagement with LinkedIn.
I have included a copy of the presentation that was given below.
Can Social Media Build Your Professional Brand?
Cali Yost's success harnessing social media provides an affirmative answer. Cali built her business Work + Life Fit, Inc. leveraging her company blog and Twitter Her business builds worlk life flexibility soltuions for employers and employees. Clients include Pepsico, Astra Zeneca, the United Nations, the U.S. Navy, amongst others. She also writes a blog for Fast Company and is regularly interviewed by major media outlets, including NPR and recently the New York Times.
Through her blog and Twitter, Cali has achieved increases in: 1) access to corporate influencers, 2) reach through media exposure and 3) most importantly, business.
When asked by the audience how often they should be tweeting, she quoted social media guru Gary Vaynerchuk, "Every @*# minute of every @* day." As for Cali, she divides her social media engagement into 20 minutes chunks during the day - in the morning, in the afternoon and the end of the day. Her social media time management made sense to this multi-tasking audience . . . and me as well!
Some Further Thoughts on Professional Social Media Integration . . .
As for my own answer to the question of social media building a professional brand, I am finding it a work-in-process. Social media is not something I check off on a list of things to do. Instead, it is a continous learning and a discovery adventure. The social media channels I engage in regularly, including Twtter, LinkedIn and this blog, have helped me become a better professinal, build new relationships, support other colleagues and unearth business opportunities. As a result, social media is now a rich part of my daily life.
I would love to hear how social media is playing a part in your professional life.
Posted on Mon, Mar 22, 2010
Will social media replace traditional advertising? Sequoia Capital venture capitalist Mark Kvamme thinks so. "If you can harness social-media marketing, you don't have to pay for advertising anymore," stated Kvamme in his keynote address last Wednesday, March 17th at OMMA's Global Media Conference in San Francisco.
Why does Mark think this is going to happen?
- Smart content can be produced cost effectively and spread virally through the social nets, including Facebook, Twitter, and You Tube
- Increasing smart phone ownership puts viral marketing in everyone's hands.
Mark backs up his statements with great examples of how companies [that Sequoia has or has had investments in] are makng that happen:
- Viral Content: Funny or Die, the comedy website funded by Sequoia, produced a custom online video for last summer's film release of The Goods. Viral distribution resulted in the movie becoming a trending topic on Twitter, ranking twice on the Digg front page, increased interaction on Facebook and a UStream chat with the film's director. Best of all, the efforts resulted in a 15 % lift in expected ticket sales.
- Mobile Ads: Wolfman, another movie, benefited from working with AdMob, a company that Sequoia recently sold to Google for $ 750 Million. With this movie, mobile ads allow users to get information on the movie, send it to a friend and even buy tickets.
Social Media Doesn't Replace Traditional Advertising, It Integrates with It
First of all, the social media campaign for The Goods is a fantastic social media case study. Yet its success was supported by traditional marketing awareness. With a $ 10 MM production budget, it is highly likely that Paramount, the film's distributor, spent at least $ 5 MM on marketing the movie, with much of it spent on traditional advertising.
Why? Well, Moviegoers 2010, a study conducted by Stradella Road, an entertainment marketing strategy company, found that while the internet supports movie marketing efforts, television advertising still ranks as the preeminent vehicle for first learning about movies.
So, my take-away: I appreciated and learned from the social media campaign examples that Mark Kvamme showed in his presentation. However, they worked because they were part of an integrated marketing campaign.
Analysis Shows Social Media Is Integrated With Broader Marketing
Overall, as marketers continue to adopt social media, more will integrate it with broader marketing efforts. eMarketer and Unica, the marketing management firm, have recently studied the State of Social Media Media Integration. Their survey shows that 41 % of the respondents are integrating social media as part of an overall campaign while 35 % are using it on a stand alone basis. This analysis shows a growing preference for integrated marketing solutions.
Integrating Social Media Into Tradition Media Efforts . . . Next Steps
There are no quick and easy answers as to how to integrate social media marketing into your overall marketing efforts. However, it does require:
- Knowing Where Your Audience Is: Understanding where your targeted audience is in the social universe is paramount. Integrating Twitter into your marketing efforts when your customers aren't using Twitter doesn't make any sense.
- Fighting the Urge to Use Social Media as Another Broadcast Platform: The Goods social media campaign didn't tell people to go see the movie. It provided incentives, such as free Funny or Die T-shirts for retweeting information about the movie and enabling people to engage with the film's director during the premiere through live video streaming [UStream] and Twitter.
- Creative Content: Social media integration isn't just recylcing commercials on YouTube. It is creating custom content as Funny or Die did for The Goods or expanding on the success of a television campaign as Old Spice has done with its Super Bowl commercial that featured the man on the white horse. Enjoy the video and don't forget to integrate!!!!
Posted on Fri, Mar 12, 2010
Last night, I attended Gotham Media's Digital Cocktails get-together on Measuring (and Improving) the Return on Social Investment. Gordon Platt, Founder of Gotham Media, assembled a stellar panel assembled for the evening, including Sandra Fathi, Founder and President. Affect Strategies, Matt Tepper, Director of Strategy and Analytics, Kirschenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners, Ian Zelesko, VP, Strategist, Publicis and Clay Parker Jones, Strategist, Undercurrent.
The panel was moderated by
Paul Kontonis, SVP of Branded Entertainment at MATTER and Co-Founder of For Your Imagination. All panelists have deep experience in building and developing social media campaigns. At the same time, as they all understand the integrated marketing eco-system, they did not discuss social media as "
the marketing solution". Their collective insights were based on real world challenges and what it takes to make social media work.
At the start, all the panelists mentioned that their focus is on helping clients craft social media solutions that translate to the bottom line. However, what their clients do and the social media measurement can be different depending on the client vantage point.
Big Brands
All the panelists liked
Foursquare, the location-based social networking platform, with Sandra Fathi calling
Foursquare the "merging of social networking and reality". Several pointed out that
Foursquare can be a very effective platform for marketers. However, with only 500,000+ users at this juncture,
Foursquare cannot compete against the reach of a 30-second television advertising spot for a company like
McDonald's.
Big brands do look at followers on
Twitter and fans on
Facebook, but the data they need to rely on most is
sentiment. Positive sentiment translates into sales. At the same time, measuring sentiment still has issues. Ian Zelsko from
Publicis pointed out that if a person writes that they love their iphone, but hate AT&T, social media monitoring services like
Radian 6 and
Social Radar cannot currently effectively qualify that sentiment. In order for sentiment to become a better gage of sales predictability, social media monitoring services need to become more sensitized. Of course, the panelists also acknowledged that some of the recent sensitizing developments bordered on the verge of
Minority Report, the 2002 science fiction movie directed by Steven Spielberg.
Business-to-Business Marketers
For other marketers, particularly business-to-business companies, lead generation trumps sentiment. Sandra Fahti discussed the current work of her firm,
Affect Strategies (a public relations, marketing and social media firm specializing in technology and business-to-business clients) with
Regus PLC, the global leader in workplace solutions. In concert with
Regus NYC, they launched a social media campaign [still running], including a
Twitter page, a
You Tube channel and
a contest for securing a year contract for free office. The campaign has resulted in a significant jump in leads as well as a seven-figure increase in contract signings.
And while
Regus NYC's Twitter count of 701 followers pales in comparison to the hundreds of thousands often following big brands, the campaign is already achieving its targeted goals. Sandra added that her firm is now working with
Regus in deploying comparable social media campaigns in other cities.
I found the contrast in social media approaches between large brands and business-to-business marketers very interesting. Yet, what I consider most important is the unifying success parameters for both b-2-b and b-2-c marketers. They both need to figure out:
- what their goals are in advance
- where their audience is, and
- the appropriate social media tactics to reach their targeted audience.
Panelist Matt Tepper mentioned at the beginning of the discussion that he equated measuring social media to measuring broadcast. While I am happy to debate the efficacy of broadcast measurement, advertisers are still investing $ 70 Billion a year in television advertising based on accepted measurement standards. In contrast,
eMarketer indicated that the 2009 investment in U.S. social network advertising was only $ 1.2 Billion. While social media advertising will increase in 2010, measurement still has a long way to go before social media catches up with traditional advertising. In the meantime, it is clear that marketers who know their goals and their audience have a lot to gain using social media.
Posted on Mon, Mar 08, 2010
The 82nd Annual Academy Awards, broadcast last night on ABC, enjoyed its largest audience in five years, totalling 41.3 million people. While this audience pales in comparison to the 106 Million watching last month's Super Bowl, the Academy Awards television broadcast still ranks as the second biggest audience of the year.
Given the size of the audience and the fact that much of the audience are women who actually buy products, television commercials during the Oscar-cast are sold at a premium with this year's slots going for $ 1.4 - 1.5 Million for a 30-second spot. In light of the significant investment that each of the advertisers were making, I thought I would reprise the Integrated Media Meter analysis that I put together for the Super Bowl. As I did with the Super Bowl Integrated Media meter, I did not focus on the television show promotions or the movie trailers. I focused on the level of digital integration in last night's commercials. See chart below.
Social media integration was a key component for two of these advertisers - Samsung and JC Penney with JC Penney focused on the days leading up to the Oscars. In the case of Samsung, they sponsored ABC.com's 'red carpet" with a facebook chat function built in. It was cool, but it took me almost an hour before I could even log on via Facebook Connect!
During the Oscarcast, three advertisers got this multichannel customer interested in checking out their unique URL's pased on the message of their campaingns:
- American Express inspired me to check out its Take Part initiative at www.takepart.com.
- Coca Cola's link to livepositively.com
had me wondering what that meant given the questionable health benefits of drinking sugar or diet soda! I also had to check out how I could "stay extraordinary" by drinking Diet Coke.
- Cottonelle actually got me to go online and vote at CottonelleRollpoll.com
Missed Opportunities?
I think that JC Penney
had the biggest missed opportunity of the night. They aired 7 commercials which must have cost them a minimum of $ 10 Million in advertising dollars. They flashed the JC Penney name throughout the ad, but only had a quick flash to its corporate URL at the end.
Couldn't they have:
- used the running text to promote more intereaction online?
- featured the commercials run on the home page of their corporate website?
- asked people to join their facebook community of 783,714 fans to engage with the ads online?
- set up a separate landing page on their website for the oscar commercials?
- provided replays of their commercials on Facebook after they aired during the Oscarcast?
I was also surprised by Bertolli's featuring their upcoming webisode series "Into the Heart of Italy" featuring Oscar winner Marissa Tomei, chef and restauranteur Rocco DiSpirito and game show host and actor Dan Cortese. There was no link provided for more information on the webisode series. When I searched for "Into the Heart of Italy", it was clear that Bertolli (owned by Unilever) hasn't yet gotten around to search engine marketing about the webisode series. Also searching for last night's promotion on You Tube took a lot of digging. In order to save you time, check out the preview below.
Integrated Media Meter Chart
| Advertiser | # of Spots | URL | Social Media |
| Hyundai | 8 | Company URL | No |
| JC Penney | 7 | Company URL | In Advance via Facebook |
| Coca Cola | 5 | Dietcoke.com Livingpositively.com | No |
| BMW | 3 | Campaign-related URL | Yes |
| Mercedes | 3 | Company URL | No |
| Samsung | 3 | No | Promoted Red Carpet Chat Via Facebook Before Oscarcast |
| Sprint | 3 | Campaign-related URL's | No |
| Cottonelle | 3 | Vote in CottonelleRollpolll.com | No |
| Intel | 2 | No | No |
| Sketchers | 2 | Product Related URL | No |
| American Express | 2 | Social Marketing URL: www.takepart.com | No |
| American Airlines | 1 | Service Related URL | No |
| Ameriprise | 1 | Company URL | No |
| AARP | 1 | Company URL | No |
| Lexus | 1 | Company URL | No |
| Zyrtec | 1 | No | No |
| Nissin Chow Mein | 1 | Product URL | No |
| Hershey | 1 | No | No |
| Estee Lauder | 1 | Company URL | No |
| Verizon Fios | 1 | Service URL | No |
| Yaz | 1 | Product URL and Phone Number | No |
| Microsoft | 1 | No | No |
| Oxyclean | 1 | Product URL and Phone Number | No |
| Bertolli | 1 | No | No |
| Poise | 1 | No | No |
| Dunkin Donuts | 1 | No | No |
Posted on Fri, Mar 05, 2010
Several weeks ago, my friend and colleague Jim Kerr, Vice President of Business Development for Triton Digital Media (a company where I am on the Board of Directors) asked me to be part of the first webinar that Triton Digital was hosting with All Access Music Group. Triton Digital and All Access have teamed up to do a weekly webinar series for radio broadcasters on how they can capitalize on new digital trends. The topic of the first webinar was Social Media 101. I asked colleagues David Parmet of Marketing Begins at Home, and Cali Yost of Work+Life+Fit to join as well and you can hear the full transcript of the webinar here.
The webinar was well attended with the participants having varying experience with and knowledge of social media. The mix of participants lead to a broad and interesting level of questions. Engaging with the questions, crystallized for me the numerous opportunities radio stations have for integrating social media into their broadcasts, including:
- Broadcasting participation in contests using the station's Facebook fan page or the station's website itself, including radio loyalty programs
- Expanding the practice of inviting listeners to call in by inviting them to tweet their comments
- Responding to listeners' tweets on air
- Inviting listeners to create content for broadcasts through participation on their Facebook or MySpace fan pages
- Syndicating broadcast content to Facebook or MySpace fan pages.
I became so excited about the possibilities that I created an expanded presentation of what I had quickly put together for discussion purposes during the webinar and have posted that presentation on Sideshare.
I also get very energized about the potential for radio stations to expand their advertiser programs by using on-air promotions to drive traffic to their radio websites and/or social media platforms. A number of radio stations are already doing this and I expect that the number and level of these programs will only continue to increase. What do you think?
Posted on Tue, Mar 02, 2010
In the last twelve months, several studies have come out demonstrating how much moms are using social media. Of course, everyone assumes that moms are social - especiallly the stay at home moms. In the media coverage of these studies, there is an element of surprise at how much moms are using social media platforms. Here are a list of some of the studies:
- The Power of Social Networking for Women from ShesConnected Multimedia. This study, released in the summer of 2009, received lots of hype because it found that more than 36 % of the online US and Canadian women would give up their chocolate, Prada's or mother-in-law before they gave up their social networks.
- BabyCenter, LLC released its 21st Century Mom Report in June of 2009 and found that social media usage by moms has increase at over 460 % since 2006.
- The Retail Advertsing and Marketing Association [RAMA] completed a study in September of 2009, where they concluded that retailers should be focusing on social media with mom consumers and using it to provide free items, promotions and discounts.
While some observers may be surprised by significant mom social media engagement, I hope that those investing a significant percentage of the annual $ 70 billion+ television advertising spend targeting moms are not surprised. With the right calls to action placed in television commercials, there are multiple opportunities for integrated media focusing on today's social media moms.
Smart multichannel programmers like Scripps Networks [owner of the Food Network and HGTV], with a significant mom audience, have partnered with advertisers on integrated media packages. A real success story for HGTV has been their relationship with Lumber Liquidators, traditionally a direct response marketer, who have increased consumer engagement and revenues through their on-air and on-line sponsorship of promotions surrounding the HGTV hit show, Dream Home.
It seems to me that local television stations that air syndicated daytime fare, also consumed by moms, should be looking at successful integrated media programs. Social media integration into local television advertising could drive revenues and loyalty for local advertisers. What do you think?
Posted on Mon, Feb 08, 2010
Sunday night's Super Bowl game was an exciting one that kept everyone on edge through the fourth quarter. In between quarters and time outs, I was metering digital integration in the "Super Bowl of Television Advertising".
Metering the commercials, I wondered if many advertisers would be looking to drive engagement as well as reach through digital integration in their television commercials. After all, I knew from Nielsen that last year 12 % of the SuperBowl audience was watching the Superbowl and engaging with the internet at the same time. I also figured this number would be up this year given that social media usage while watching TV has increased significantly. Plus, I knew that many of the commercials would enjoy lots of replay on Monday and throughout this week, compliments of You Tube's Ad Blitz channel and other social media sharing tools.
Here is a chart with my integrated media findings:
| Client | Brands | # of Spots
| Quarters
| URL
| Social Media
|
| Anhauser-Busch | Budweiser, Bud Light, Select 55, Michelob Ultra
| 8 | All | No | No |
| Audi of America | Audi A3 TDi
| 1 | 4 | No | No |
Boost Mobile
| Boost Mobile
| 1 | 1 | Super Bowl Ad Page URL | No |
| Bridgestone | Tires | 2
| 1,3 | Super Bowl Ad Page URL
| No |
| CareerBuilder.com | CareerBuilder.com | 1 | 2 | Company URL
| No |
| Cars.com | Cars.com | 1 | 2 | Company URL
| No |
| Chrysler | Dodge | 1 | 2 | Company URL
| No
|
Coca-Cola
| Coca-Cola | 2 | 3 | No | No |
| Denny's | Denny's | 3 | 3,4
| No | No |
Diamond
| PopSecret and Emerad Nuts | 1 | 4
| No | No
|
Levi Strauss & Co
| Dockers | 1 | 2 | Product Page URL
| No |
Dr. Pepper
| Dr. Pepper
| 1 | 2 | Product Page URL | No |
Electronic Arts
| Dante's Inferno
| 1 | 4 | Game URL
| No |
| E-Trade | E-Trade | 2 | 3,4 | Company URL
| No |
| Focus on the Family | Focus on the Family
| 1 | 1 | Organization URL
| No |
Frito Lay
| Doritos | 4 | 1,4 | Production Company URL
| No |
Go Daddy
| Go Daddy
| 2 | 1,3 | Company URL
| No |
| HomeAway | HomeAway | 1 | 3 | Company URL
| No |
| Honda | Honda
| 2
| 4 | Product Page | No |
| Hyundai | Hyundai | 2 | 1,2 | Company URL
| No |
| Intel | Core Processor
| 1 | 2 | No | No |
| KGB | KGB | 1 | 3 | No URL - Text Your Questions
| No |
| Kia | Sorrento | 1 | 3 | Company URL
| No
|
Mars
| Snickers
| 1
| 1
| No
| No
|
Monster.com
| Monster.com
| 1
| 1
| Company URL
| No
|
| Motorola | Motoblur | 1
| 3 | Company URL
| No |
Qualcomm
| FLO TV
| 2 | 1 | Product Page URL
| No
|
Sketchers
| My Shape Ups
| 2 | 1,4
| Product Page URL
| No |
Teleflora
| Teleflora | 1 | 2
| Company URL
| No |
truTV
| NFL's Full Contact | 1 | 2 | Channel URL
| No |
US Census Bureau
| US Census Bureau
| 1 | 3 | Organization URL
| No |
Unilver
| Dove Men Care
| 1 | 2
| Product Page URL
| No |
Vizio
| Vizio | 1 | 4 | Product Page URL
| No |
Volkswagen of America
| Volkswagen | 1 | 3 | Company URL | No |
Yum Yum Brands
| Taco Bell
| 1 | 4 | No | No |
As the above chart illustrates, none of the commercials integrated social media. However, many of those metered (not including movie trailers or CBS promotions) did include company or organization URLs, but few pointed viewers to product pages or Super Bowl ad pages. The most surprising number is that over 30 % had no URL links at all.
| Digital Integration Classification | # of Ads
| % of Total
|
| URL Link to Company or Organization Website | 18 | 32.7 %
|
URL Link to Product Page
| 12 | 21.8 %
|
URL Link to Production Company
| 4 | 7.3 %
|
URL Link to SuperBowl Ad Page
| 3 | 5.5 %
|
Text Message Call to Action
| 1 | 1.8 %
|
No URL Link
| 17 | 30.9 %
|
Total Commercials
| 55 | |
I think that lack of digital integration was a missed opportuity for many of these advertisers. What do you think?
Posted on Tue, Jan 05, 2010
Yesterday marked my return blog after my hip replacement convalescence. Now BizWorks360’s content management system is being transferred over to HubSpot. While the website will remain active, we will not be making any changes or additions to it until after the transfer is completed. My partner David Mozes and I are very excited about our new business relationship with HubSpot. We have gone through a free trial period with them and have also used some of their free software tools, like Website Grader with several of our clients. We also know that HubSpot will be a tremendous resource for us as we build and scale our business. In the meantime, in lieu of blogging, I will be stepping up my comments on blogs I follow and admire as well as developing posts for our blog when it returns in February.
Finally, in yesterday’s post, I did promise some insights on Pete Cashmore’s thoughts on the Top 10 Web Trends for 2010. Pete, in addition to being the Founder and CEO of Mashable, the world’s largest blog focused on Web 2.0 and Social Media, he also writes a weekly column for CNN.com on social networking and tech. Here are Pete’s top 10 web trends which suggest increased social media integration in 2010:
- Real Time Ramps Up. I agree with this given the growth of Twitter and Facebook’s News Feed as well as the increasing usage of smart phones which facilitate all forms of real time search. Cashmore also thinks that Google Wave will factor in over the coming 12 months. Of course, I am still trying to figure out how to work with it!
- Location, Location, Location. The GPS functionality in smart phones is sparking new location based services. With more and more friends and colleagues getting on the Foursquare bandwagon, I also agree that the local trend will only get bigger.
- Augmented Reality. This is a trend that will also be powered by GPS functionality in smart phones. Data about you and your location will be mapped together to simulate experiences on your smart phone. He didn’t mention any particular services as examples, so I am not sure on this one, but will be curious to see what happens.
- Content Curation. I am a big fan of this web trend – we need curation to make sense of all the data coming at us. Twitter lists are a start, but I am looking forward to professional curated services.
- Cloud Computing. This was definitely a buzz word of 2009. However, personally and professionally, we are all getting to used to having data in the “clouds”. Even Microsoft is getting on the bandwagon with “Office Apps”, free downloadable versions of Microsoft Office programs in conjunction with the release of Microsoft Office 2010.
- Internet TV Movies. From Boxee to Apple TV to Netflix’s Roku service, streaming movies into the home is getting more popular. I am setting it up myself at home.
- Convergence Conundrum. Smart phone GPS services are eliminating the need for services like Tom Tom and Garmin, while Smart Phones are just not big enough to replace the functionality of the Kindle. In the meantime, I am having a conundrum figuring out what this web trend fully means!
- Social Gaming. This was a big trend in 2009 as Farmville and Mafia Wars took off. I agree that this will continue to grow, but it is increasingly becoming a very hit driven buisness.
- Mobile Payments. Yes, it is what it means – paying bills using your mobile phone! I know it is inevitable, but I am not sure it will become the rage in 2010.
- Fame abundace, privacy scarcity. This has always been an issue for celebrities, but even more now in this increasingly networked world, as Tiger Woods’ infidelities were exposed in text message records! While many of us will never experience fame, we do need to be guarded about our privacy and what we do share online.
I look forward to returning to blogging soon . . . in the meantime, I hope that you are getting in the groove for 2010 and leveraging the trends!
Posted on Mon, Jan 04, 2010
This is my return blog post after my hip replacement in mid-December. At that point, from my hospital room at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, I wrote about Getting Into S”hip” Shape for 2010. Well 2010 is here, and like many, I am trying to figure out the trends for 2010, not to mention the coming decade. So, in order to begin to navigate the days and months ahead, I looked to the predictions from leaders in the digital media business. Today I focus on John Battelle’s Predictions 2010.
John Battelle, in addition to maintaining an incredibly thoughtful blog, is the Co-Founder of the Web 2.0 Summit with Tim O’Reilly, the Founder and CEO of Federated Media and an accomplished author. Since 2004, John Battelle has been using his blog to publish his predictions for the coming year in early January. In December, John then follows up with an assessment of how his predictions have fared. I started reading these posts back in 2007 and have been very impressed at his record. While he admittedly “whiffs” on a few each year, in general, he is pretty spot on. You can check out how he did with his 2009 predictions here.
So, in light of his track record, here are his top 12 web trends for this year and my thoughts [read his post for further elaboration of his points]:
- “2010 will mark the end of the US dominance on the web.” I spend too much time reading Fareed Zakaria and Thomas Friedman not to agree with that this will be inevitable in this new decade, but I am not sure that 2010 will be the cross-over year.
- “Google will make a corporate decision ot become seen as a software brand rather than as ‘just a search engine’.” With Google’s forays into Chrome OS, Android, Docs and January 5th’s pending announcement of Nexus One. John believes that Google is becoming “a newer, more open version of Microsoft”. I don’t disagree, but I also think Google is also very focused on Apple’s share of the smart phone market. What was most interesting though about this prediction was John’s view that Google will “begin to minimize its efforts in media, including social media, seeking to embrace and partner rather than compete.” While Google has not been very successful at social media to date, they also know that social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are becoming increasingly important for search.
- “2010 will see a major piracy brouhaha, not unlike the AOL search debacle but around social and/or advertising related data.” I couldn’t agree more given the battles amongst agencies, their clients and ad networks on data ownership and the various consumer interest groups lobbying Congress.
- “By the year’s end the web will have seen a significant new development in user interface design, one that will have gained rapid adoption amongst many ‘tier one’ sites, in particularly those which cover the industry.” This sounds interesting and I hope that it comes true. I just don’t know who will be the leader here.
- “Apple’s ‘iTablet’ will disappoint.” As a total Mac aficionado, I never like to short Apple products. Yet, when the word was out today about it costing between $ 900 and $ 1,000, the risk of it disappointing has gone up in my view. I don’t think I will be waiting on line at the Apple store the day it is released – at least not for this version!
- “2010 will see the rise of an open gaming platform, such as 2009 was the year of the open phone platform (Android).” This could be huge. In addition, having spent some time business-wise with game developers in 2009, this prediction seems to fit in with the zeitgeist of the industry right now.
- “Traditional search results will deteriorate to the point that folks begin to question search’s validity as a service.” People are looking for more customized service from search. Securing 10,000 results from a search query where the first four results appear to be relevant is not fully helping people in the way that they want. Services like Mahalo are picking up steam as people are looking for more from search.
- “Bing will move to a strong but distant second in search, eclipsing Yahoo in search.” Of course, they will as Microsoft now powers Yahoo Search! Plus Bing is a pretty nifty service.
- “Internet advertising will see a sharp in, and not just from increased research and social media platform [PPC/PPA] spending.” John believes that a lot of this spending will come from brands. All I know is that I am betting on this myself with my own business so he better be right!
- “The tech/internet industry will see a surge in quality IPO’s.” This sounds highly plausible as many internet companies are reaching break-even and profitability at historically fast rates. It will also be a boon to the economy.
- “We’ll see a major step forward in breaking the man/machine barrier.” He means the integration of “technology and biology.” As the recipient of a new hip in the last few weeks, I get this. Yet, John is also talking about the promise of greater things that are portrayed in movies like “Avatar” which I still have to see.
- “I’ll figure out what to do with my book SOGOTP so to speak” Well, now I know what “SOGOTP” means. Of course, I am feeling embarrassed for not knowing this! Regardless, I loved John’s first book The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Business and Transformed Our Culture and am very much opening he “GOTP” and writes another great book in 2010!
So what do you think will happen in the coming year? Tomorrow I will look at Mashable’s Pete Cashmore’s predictions from a recent article he wrote for CNN.com.