Capital Gains and Losses
Posted by goodmind on September 30th, 2008
Maybe there’s a silver lining to this whole bailout S.N.A.F.U. Maybe, just maybe, network executives have figured out that vast web exposure is well worth the “loss” in ad revenue.
Take CBS for example. David Letterman’s reaction to McCain’s decision to suspend his campaign (among other things) is available on the CBS website (edited and with ads), while pirated versions have also been posted on YouTube (full monologue, no ads). In total, the clip has about 3.5 million views. That’s 250,000 for CBS and 3.2 million for the pirates.
According to AdAge, CBS execs are well aware of the numbers, and the existence of pirated versions;
Like all TV networks, CBS routinely demands that YouTube take down unauthorized clips of shows. So why haven’t they taken down this one? They won’t say it, but it seems likely that the network has decided that the publicity the “Late Show” is receiving from the clip is far more valuable than the few ad dollars that advertising might generate.
How long do you think it will take for print newspapers to have a similar ad model epiphany? Let’s hope it happens before the industry needs a bailout.
Campaign Commentary
Posted by goodmind on September 23rd, 2008
Covering a political campaign on a blog is sooo 2004. For the 2008 presidential election, running your own version of the campaign is all the rage;
Game developer Stardock has released Political Machine Express, letting you live out your political fantasies and take Obama, Biden, Palin or McCain all the way to the White House…you have a scant 21 weeks to scramble for endorsements, launch attack ads and drum up support while outmaneuvering your political foes and crisscrossing the United States.
It’s like Fantasy Football for fans of the democratic political process, only you can play whenever you want since it seems like the campaign season never ends.
(via Wired)
Heading Back to Campus
Posted by goodmind on August 25th, 2008
Back-to-school season usual means big business and splashy marketing campaigns for office supply stored. The WSJ reports that;
Sony Pictures Television, which distributes “Seinfeld” in U.S. syndication, announced the “Seinfeld Campus Tour,” in which it’s sending a 60-foot “Seinfeld”-themed bus to U.S. colleges to drum up interest in “a new generation of viewers,”
It seems sort of cynical on Sony’s to try to manufacture nostalgia in this way, but we say it’s still a smart idea. Generations to come will associate the best years of their life with George Costanza. It’s going to make the inevitable romantic failures, unemployment, and male pattern baldness seem at least somewhat comical.
(via murketing)
Dialed In
Posted by goodmind on August 18th, 2008
“Deep Dialing” is a service that might be more significant than Deep Throat;
Toronto-based Fonolo works by using transcriptions of the phone menus of large companies so that users can navigate them visually. Users simply pick the company they need to call, scan through the company’s phone menu visually, then click the spot they need. Fonolo will automatically dial, navigate the menu and then dial the user’s phone. When the user answers, they will be connected to the right spot in the menu—hence the name, Deep Dialing. (via Springwise)
It will be interesting to see if customer service satisfaction ratings will improve as a result of the service, as one of the most common frustrations is time spent on hold.
Building an Offensive Reputation
Posted by goodmind on July 14th, 2008
We’re not quite sure what to make of this rising trend in internet reputation-management consultants. On the one hand, there’s certainly a demand for these folks, particularly as Google search results take the place of a more thorough background check.
On the other hand, the act of “managing” an online reputation seems so…slimy;
In addition to making positive references to their clients more Google-friendly, they can also create entirely new material, including blogs, Wikipedia entries, YouTube videos, and even entire websites sprinkled with key phrases.
If a client prefers a stealthier approach, reputation managers can look for content about a person or entity with a similar name to their client’s, then create links to those sites. That can push those to the top of search results, moving less flattering information well down the list. (via Portfolio.com)
Outside of the mafia, managing an offline reputation by paying people to say nice things about you, or, quite literally, “burying” the bad stuff is absurd. The reasonable approach would be to reach out and connect with other like minded individuals, and engagement of this sort is clearly the flavor of the month, if you read enough blogs.
Then why are online reputation management tactics so decidely defensive, rather than offensive? Sure, you can micro-manage your positive Google hits with SEO, and aptly timed press releases, but an online reputation isn’t the sum of it’s links; it’s about networking and momentum. There are actually platforms for doing this sort of thing. You might have heard of them.
FriendFeed, Twitter, Facebook, et al. provide an infrastructure for maintaining, and sustaining a reputation online, and in a sense, supply the people who will follow your reputation too. Unfortunately, it’s mighty difficult to mobilize an existing reputation unless you’re Steve Rubel, or Michael Arrington, or the fake Steve Jobs. A reputation needs momentum, and that’s what most social networks are missing.
For $10,000 a month, we’d expect our internet-reputation management consultant to manufacture momentum as service, and build us a network of followers, not fiddle around with our Google link juice.
Bloggers Move Up the Fast Food Chain
Posted by goodmind on June 18th, 2008
Stranger things have probably happened, but McDonald’s, of all corporate entities, has actually elevated the status of the blogger in the professional hierarchy. (In stark contrast to the AP’s best efforts to prevent bloggers from re-publishing excerpts from their articles).
While internal employee social network sites to promote “ownership” are nothing new, Station M made good on the promise, and held a contest where first prize was the prestigious position of official Station M blogger. The eventual winner, Rick, has been taken off fryer-duty to focus exclusively on his new role. And of course, his promotion is a great promotional angle for the world’s largest fast food chain.
He hasn’t posted anything yet, but when he does, we hope he doesn’t try to incorporate any AP sourced insight. Maybe it’s OK to blur the line between producer and consumer when you’re working the deep-fryer, but it’s apparently legitimate cause for legal action, when intellectual property is at stake.
Website Navigation Revisited
Posted by goodmind on May 20th, 2008
Modernista! has upped the ante of what it means for a company to embrace social media, and the transparency of the web. It’s so clever, we’re almost at a loss for words to describe it. Almost.
Basically, the Boston based advertising agency took their own medicine, and designed their website around Google search…but not in the way you and I optimize our content for search. The website is literally a Google page; ranked results and all.
Not only does the Wikipedia page clearly explain what the agency is about (far better than jargon laden website copy could), the Google algorithm guarantees that up to the minute puff pieces on Modernista! are front and center. It’s news generating move that measures and monitors said buzz, pretty effectively we might add.
We can see more companies taking a similar approach to web design, if only for the simple fact that most of us Google what we want to find, even when we know the full URL. Heck, we’ve Googled “Goodmind” just to get to our own website. Not only has Modernista! tapped into a new website format using Google search conventions, but also an additional application for the conventional Google search.
Is the search engine of the future a centralized navigational system? It wont work very well if the Microsoft-Yahoo-Facebook rumors are true…
It’s Easier Said Than Done
Posted by goodmind on May 13th, 2008
Emphasizing the centrality and importance of a well written press release in the field of Public Relations is not nostalgia for the 1990’s, it is, apparently, a fact of life even in the age of SEO and social media. Oddly enough, these all too familiar Web 2.0 realities aren’t a major threat to the newswire/press release method for disseminating information to the right people. In fact, most of these web-based applications create a greater need for a well written press release to get the ball rolling – something we’ve been suggesting for some time now.
PR Newswire (a client) is one of the examples cited in a recent TechCrunch post on the ongoing Evolution of the Press Release. Written by Brian Solis, author of the PR 2.0 blog, the post reinforces the importance of well written text for integration with SEO, as well as providing tips for how even the standard press release format/template can be easily calibrated for re-distrubution on news aggregators, and other social networking tools along the lines of Twitter, or Tumblr.
What is so particularly refreshing about this re-interpretation of PR’s relationship to media is that the “correct” use of social media (as in a killer YouTube video) isn’t treated as the definitive solution;
“…it’s not just about multimedia content, it’s about connecting information across social networks, the people looking for it, as well as the conversations that bind them together.”
The press release format doesn’t have to dramatically transform or evolve into some multi-media medusa of YouTube videos, audio clips, and interactive tools to be effective in reaching the correct audience. Text based releases can of course be supplemented and supported by embedded content, but the “correct” word choice will ultimately play a more decisive role in how a given release is distributed, discovered, and received.
Hopefully, this “news” will find its to the right people in a timely manner, and function as evidence that a well written nugget of information is more than enough momentum to stir the social media pot.
What Personality Type Are You?
Posted by goodmind on April 22nd, 2008
Can’t decide whether the glass is half full, or half empty? Then try a more conclusive test to see if you’re really an optimist, or a pessimist, particularly as it relates to your business pursuits, and brand identity. Determine whether the following statement is a pleasant, or an unpleasant truth;
“no matter what kind of company you are, your customers are having a conversation about your products and practices.” (Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com)
No matter which camp you fall in, it’s definitely an absolute truth, one that Salesforce.com has harnessed via their “Ideas” platform. (Making them realists, we suppose). Dell and Starbucks have already begun co-rendering the insights of customers, as brand notoriety is no longer a guaranteed glass half full scenario. In Dell’s case, it’s a box mostly empty.
Blog Id/Blog It
Posted by goodmind on April 17th, 2008
Web 2.0 has arguably made Renaissance men of us all, meaning your prototypical internet user can dabble in a variety of disciplines (writing a blog, producing short films, or microfinancing entrepreneurs), and belong to numerous social networks and that span several distinct niches. Perhaps most importantly, these same tools which enable such Jeffersonian range also enable us to “share” (shamelessly brag about) what we’re up to, in real time no less.
By the same token, time saving technologies/solutions for completing repetitive tasks faster, and more efficiently, generate expectations to match; the classic Catch-22 of most technological innovations. Less time means more volume, and this in turn has created a conundrum where not only the sheer amount, but also the vast distribution of our online activities and acquaintances is so far-reaching that it’s actually more time consuming (not to mention repetitive) to issue constant updates via Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.
This, no doubt, is why Six Apart has released Blog It, the first “cross-platform blogging application for Facebook,” which basically means it “helps you tell everyone you know across the web about what you’re creating, not just your Facebook friends”. We like it because it solves the immediate problem at hand, eliminating the repetitiveness of self-promotion, but are somewhat cautious when it comes to seeing what new devilry the personal PR management system will ultimately introduce into the equation.
Do we really need to see a rise in volume of unabashed online self-promotion? Rhetorical questions are not meant to be answered…
