This is a great list of the 10 Social Media Myths. Quite a few I have heard myself, too:
1. Great Content Always Goes Hot
2. There are No Rules
3. You Can’t Build Quality Relationships Online
4. The More Friends, the Better
5. Social Media Marketing is Easy
6. Social Media Won’t Last
7. Social Media will Replace Traditional Marketing
8. Social Media is a Cure-All
9. Social Media is for Kids
10. Digg is All that Matters
Go to the site and read it, it’s great stuff!
Advertisers don’t belong on Facebook, says Ted McConnell, Digital Guru at P&G.
Social networks may never find the ad dollars they’re hunting for because they don’t really have a right to them.
he continues. A provocative statement made to the Digital Non-Conference, a program by Cincinnati’s Digital Hub Initiative. His feeling is, that most social network activity is rather private in nature:
„I have a reaction to that as a consumer advocate and an advertiser,“ he said. „What in heaven’s name made you think you could monetize the real estate in which somebody is breaking up with their girlfriend?“
These private conversations are, well, private. But these ads are just as obtrusive as all the advertising in the pub your spending your time with your friends at. We’re used to having social interactions in surroundings covered with advertising. We just don’t want to be interrupted or bothered by it. Most facebook advertising isn’t interrupting. It’s small banner ads on the side of the screen, which I, quite frankly, rarely notice.
And while we talk about moving into places that are largely made up of consumer generated media, he states:
Consumers weren’t trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant. … We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it.“
True, but I guess most marketers don’t want to buy regular adspace for the very reason that most people will not notice (nor click) it. So, if they could find more interesting, more effective ways to leverage these communities – e.g. by providing something of more added value, they would happily try it. Like the little ad supported postcards you get in most german pubs. They are widely accepted and people look forward to looking at them every time they pass by the little postcard rack on their way to the rest rooms.
These added value things could be, for example, small applications that enrich your social network profile:
He cited Facebook applications as a potentially valuable vehicle for advertisers, one in which they can create an environment that’s favorable for their brands and consumers alike.
Facebook Apps are just one things. Groups, product profiles, etc. are other possibilities. Imagination and social skills are key to finding these new value adders for social networks…
Obama’s social and online media campaign were exemplary, indeed. Now we would obviously like to see the stats and results. Here is a short list of the first sites listing results or impressions of the Obama campaign:
Even more numbers on the online community of Obama.
A flickr photo set of various social media activity during the Obama campaign.
„Communities dominate Brands“ with an Obama Social Media Meltdown,
A simple Google count showing that Obama’s campaign achieved to a lot more Google links in the last few years, than George Bush in his 9 years of term.
Read/write web with a comparison of the activities of MacCain and Obama.
Latest links:
Doritos engages its target audience once again to produce TVCs for the superbowl. Their shoutout is „take down the ad pros“ / „take the top spot“.
Make it to one of the five finalists and winn $25,000. When voted as the favourite, your ad will get aired during the superbowl. An dif the ad gets to the top spot of the US Today Ad Meter, you win 1,000,000
You can think of any story you like, and should submit a video of not more than 30 secs. In the gallery, there are already 218 spots by now.
On the site, they even provide you with a library of Doritos material, such as product shots, music files and animated logo sequences usually used for the end of a spot by the ad pros. But the story items still need to be shot by the target audience.
While I always liked the idea of consumer generated content, it is stilla cheap means of cutting production costs – in this case to a possible max of $125kfor the finalists plus an undisclosed amount for whoever produced the site and manages the campaign. The 1 million will only be paid out if the spot makes it to number one of the US Today Ad Meter. I don’t know what the chances are in that, but I do know that advertisers can buy insurances for these kind of „risks“. So that the actual sum paid for the insurance premium that pays, in case the 1 million needs to be paid out, can by substantially lower.
YouTube still doesn’t seem to deliver sufficient revenue and the video ads on offer still haven’t been picked up by the ad community. In addition to the regular display ads, there are also overlay ads, which cover one third of the video. (Google says they will also be introducing pre- mid- and postroll ads, when they’re launching full length videos.)
However, the overlay ads have not yet been widely accepted, so Google has now undertaken a study:
Teaming up with the neuromarketing firm NeuroFocus and the branding consultancy MediaVest, Google conducted a study in which it measured people’s nervous-system responses – through brain-scanning skull sensors, eye tracking, pupil dilation, and galvanic skin response – as they watched YouTube ads.
There were only 40 participants, whose score for overlay ads was apparently above average:
Specifically, after fielding a study among 40 participants last May, InVideo ads scored above average on a scale of one to 10 for measures like “attention†(8.5), “emotional engagement†(7.3) and “effectiveness†(6.6). According to officials, a 6.6 score is considered strong. (Source)
Yet they worked best when in combination with banners:
The combination of overlays with companion banners also grabbed users‘ attention more than banner ads alone, scoring a 6.6 compared to a 6.3 for just banners. (Source)
I can see that getting in-video ads right will be a huge leverage for YouTube to achieve sufficient revenue. And it’s probably one of the best ways to quickly and substantially increase revenue options on the site.
Yet I would prefer more creative and user relevant options for displaying the messages of my clients…
Another interesting fact is the news about the advanced neuroscience approach Google has taken to evaluate their overlay ads. Only 40 participants, but probably much more data available than you would get from 100 traditional focus groups.
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