MediaPost | Social Media Insider
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Last feed update: May 19 2012 05:12:23.
Is General Motors Pulling Out of Facebook Prematurely?
I knew some big advertiser was going to pull out of advertising on Facebook, as General Motors did earlier this week. It was predictable, as predictable as the fact that The Wall Street Journal would exhibit positively exquisite timing in breaking the story less than a week before the Facebook IPO. The details -- on the off-chance you missed them -- are that GM, which had been spending about $10 million on Facebook advertising, has decided not to anymore. (It will continue to market on the platform -- on its corporate and brand pages -- just not by buying ads.) Take that, reach generator!
Death To Internet Week
Happy Internet Week! Did you realize it was that time of year again? It's one of the holiest weeks on the digital media calendar, nestled between the first and second Social Media Weeks, and well ahead of Advertising Week and Social Week. Also, don't confuse it for Foursquare Day or Talk Like a Pirate Day, neither of which take place during Internet Week, but they keep the spirit alive year-round.
Would Advertisers Fail Zuckerberg's 'Marshmallow Test'?
With the Facebook IPO a little more than a week away, Facebook -- and, in particular Mark Zuckerberg -- is everywhere. Zuck is on the cover of New York magazine, and his every move is being watched, whether he is emerging from a black SUV to go to a roadshow presentation, or wearing his trademark hoodie to the roadshow, a fashion statement that one Wedbush Securities analyst called a "a mark of immaturity." Since this column is not devoted to fashion, I'll beg off any commentary on that one, except to say that the wearing of the possibly "immature" hoodie is perhaps the ultimate statement of how Facebook will run itself for the foreseeable future. How? Exactly how Mark Zuckerberg wants it to run.
Is Reality Broken?
Is reality broken? I've been grappling with the idea ever since reading "Reality is Broken" by Jane McGonigal, who argues that games provide a better, more motivating version of life than reality. Almost inherent in her description of gameplay is the social component, as the vast majority of her examples involve games people play together -- usually virtually.
How Not To Be A Marketing Clown In Online Techy Communities
When a big technology client asked me to be its eyes and ears in a big online technical community, my initial reaction was "Whom did I offend?" This 1.8 million-member online community of technology specialists thrives on topics like storage arrays and server scripting. Was I intimidated? You bet. During four months of trial and error, though, I learned how to appreciate and even enjoy the unique language and style of the uber-geek community. If you're a marketer trying to reach technical types through social media, here are some tips:
Our Devices, Ourselves -- Or, How My iPad Became A TV, And What That Means For Social
I'm hoping that even all of the techno-forward people who read this column still experience occasional moments of wonder at what all of these gadgets we own can do. I had two such moments this week:
A Glass Half Mindful, Half Social
What if you didn't need a mobile phone to share content? What if you could share your literal point of view? What if "always on" didn't just mean an Internet connection that was constantly active, but referred to a device you wore that was always on you, ready to share your thoughts practically as soon as they came to mind? That's the idea behind Project Glass, Google's latest foray into hardware.
Facebook's Sequential Revenue Decline -- Or, Taking The Sense Out Of Seasonality
Much has been said about the amendment to Facebook's S1 this week, but, for the Social Media Insider, it's still not enough. Something has been troubling me about the newly revealed numbers in the S1, and it has a name: seasonality.
10 Lessons From 'The Hunger Games'
When you read or watched "The Hunger Games," did you catch all the lessons for social media marketers? Any story about a post-apocalyptic society sacrificing 23 teenagers annually was clearly written with marketers in mind. Maybe that's not the case, but there's still plenty marketers can learn. Here are 10 lessons coming all the way from Panem, the nation featured in "The Hunger Games":
The Yin And Yang Of Facebook Ads
So, today I'm trying to figure out Facebook. Not about whether I should invest in it when it goes public (I won't have the money), but about what the numbers on whether to advertise on it -- or not -- really mean.
Entering the Era Of Social Ennui
As social media's popularity continues to reach new heights, with boys in short pants creating billion-dollar social businesses practically overnight, there seems to be a collective yearning to slow down the oversharing. Recent reports, blog posts, and editorials have expressed three general principles: we're sharing too much or too often; online relationships are not the same as relationships forged in person; and, there's a negative aspect to this that has either been documented or is theoretically worrisome.
To Catch (Or Report On) A Thief, Pick The Right Platforms
Believe it or not, here, in this week that Instagram was bought by Facebook for a mere $1 billion, I've been struggling with the issue of what to write about. Partly this is because, as it is now several days after the acquisition, it has been covered to death. I've nothing to add. So, as I was mulling what to write about early this afternoon, I procrastinated by posting a comment on my local Patch site about a story discussing what platforms local authorities should use to give residents emergency notifications.
Facebook Acquires Itself
There's no way you missed this week's tech news: Facebook spent $1 billion to acquire Instagram, the mobile photo-sharing application sensation. This may be a factually accurate description, but it misses the heart of the story. What happened was, Facebook spent $1 billion to acquire a piece of itself.
It's The Person, Not The Platform, Stupid
Over and over, we've seen stereotypes emerge about digital media, with people making sweeping judgments about a particular social publishing platform without taking into account that it's the individual that dictates what goes on the platform, not the platform itself.
The Good Book Of Temptations
The world is full of temptations. According to the Bible, that's how the world has been since week one. Today, temptation is more accessible than ever, so it's hardly surprising that some institutions are trying to regulate how their members use the Internet. Yet exceptions can be made, and in one prominent case, it was a brand that inspired a loophole.
Is Your Social Media Investment Going Down The Sh*tter?
Forgive me for thinking that maybe April Fool's Day came a week early, but, hey, when you wake up first thing in the morning and read that there's a startup called Sh*tter, that will print your tweets on a roll of toilet paper, it's to be understood.
Attack Of The Pinterest Clones
It happens while you sleep. One night, you're visiting your favorite website. Then, you wake up, visit it again, and you can't recognize it anymore. Did you enter the URL correctly? It's not your imagination: your favorite site has been turned into yet another Pinterest clone!
Once Upon A Time, There Was A Tongue Cleaner...
As faithful readers of this column know, lately I've been obsessed with stories, more specifically, whether some brands, in some categories, will actually have any to tell. If they don't, this will come as a huge disadvantage in a world in which brands, like people, have Timelines on Facebook. Seriously, though, can't you just picture a brand making a big deal on its Timeline about that new packaging or logo that no actual human in their right mind cares about? If telling stories is a problem for you, dear brand manager, the Social Media Insider is here to tell you there's hope, in the form of a tongue cleaner called Orabrush!
The Curse Of Meh
The app Oink just joined the great pigsty in the sky, or wherever apps go to die. While many apps deserve to be put out of their misery, oftentimes I don't have the heart to delete an app. The app may have something appealing about it, or it may be an early version that's likely to improve. Such apps have something in common: they're all "Meh."
In Facebook Patent Lawsuit, Yahoo Fails To See The Big Picture
Among the things I didn't do this week is avail myself of a homeless person 's hot spot. Primarily, this was because I didn't go to SXSWi, but it's also because the idea didn't exactly go viral, though chatter about it certainly did. I'm not quite sure what BBH intended to get out of that whole gambit, but I do know this: The agency wasn't expecting what it got. My ain't-going-nowhere state of affairs left me tethered to the Netgear router in my home office, with some quality time to ponder another bit of digital-era peculiarity: the decision by Yahoo to sue Facebook over a bunch of patents.
What SXSW Attendees Need The Most
As I'm starting to write this column at South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi), I'm wrapping up lunch with two marketers from a global brand. One is on her iPhone, and the other is on his BlackBerry. While we've sat here, I received a group text update on GroupMe from someone at this table. Something is very, very wrong in Austin. How did this become an acceptable approach to social interaction?
Facebook's Elusive ROI
There's more to Facebook than "likes," and there's more to the measurement of social media than fans. While expanding a social audience with fans and likes is important, it doesn't help marketers understand how engaged their social audience is. Who is engaging? Why are they engaging? What are they engaging with? To answer these essential questions, it's time to start examining new metrics that assess social media performance. You can do this by moving away from page-centric metrics that focus solely on the number of users toward metrics that provide more valuable insights regarding audience behavior. T
Once Upon A Time: Ready To Tell a Good Story About Your Brand?
Those of you who know the Cathy Taylor version of the Social Media Insider know all too well that, unlike my partner-in-crime David Berkowitz, I am mired in the past. Last week's column -- about Facebook's first-ever Marketing Conference -- telegraphed that loud and clear. Who else who wrote about it spent half a column talking about what AOL and MSN were doing in 2002? Get over it, Taylor. Or maybe I shouldn't. Because as I was listening last week to the Facebook-envisioned shift in the marketing business from mere ads to stories, it occurred to me that I'm not the only one mired in the past. In fact, on the continuum of people in marketing and where they are in their mindset timeline, I may even be ahead of the curve. Actually, the population that is often truly mired in the past -- and has to get over it -- are agencies and advertisers, many of whom have successfully maintained their obsession with ads instead of stories throughout the social media revolution.
Fave The Whale -- Or, a Trip Inside Facebook's New Advertising Products
For reasons both personal and not-so-personal, my voyage to yesterday's first fMC (Facebook Marketing Conference) at the American Museum of Natural History was both a trip into the wayback machine and a look at the future.
Social Media Silly Season, When Nothing Really Makes Much Sense
Here, during winter vacation, with hours to go before I head off with the kids for a few days, I find myself in the midst of what, I guess, is the obvious hangover to Social Media Week: Social Media Silly Season.
Your Brand Is Batman
"People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy... As a man, I'm flesh and blood. I can be ignored. I can be destroyed. But as a symbol, I can be incorruptible. I can be everlasting." - Bruce Wayne, "Batman Begins" Bruce Wayne understands brands better than anyone. A brand is different from the sum of the people working for a company. A brand, as Wayne noted, can be everlasting.
Thank You For Your Pinterest, But I Don't Know What To Post
This is an open letter to my 72 followers on Pinterest, including my friend, Sue, who stood next to me in line on the high school cheerleading squad; my sorority Big Sister; Mobile Marketing Association CEO Greg Stuart, fellow Social Media Insider David Berkowitz, and that guy I worked with way, way long ago at Ogilvy & Mather. Here's what I want to tell you: I'm sorry that my pinning is so sporadic, and so, well, lame. Three weeks in, I have no earthly idea what I should do with this thing, so I'm throwing it out to all of you. What should a personage like me pin?
52 Ways Social Media Week Is Every Week
A lot has changed since last year, when I wrote about why Social Media Week should be every week. That feels so quaint. By now, Social Media Week really is every week. In case you're not convinced, here are 52 reasons why:
The Most Important Social Media Story of the Week Was Not the Facebook IPO
If you look back on the past week, which was the more important social media story? 1) The filing of Facebook's IPO. 2) The social media firestorm resulting from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation's decision to defund Planned Parenthood's breast-cancer screening initiatives. (You must know by now that this decision was later rescinded.) OK. You probably know where I'm going with this, but to me, the answer is no. 2.
The Social Bowl That Wasn't
Super Bowl XLVI may be over, but as long as there are still drunk fans screaming at the bar Tonic in Manhattan's Murray Hill, the analysis will go on. It's not just the Patriots that should be hitting their heads over all the dropped balls. I'm wondering why so many marketers dropped the ball with social media this year.
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