New Media Notes

Using Twitter as Your Focus Group

benasmith — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 04:06:00 +0000

Nice example of Twitter being used by an agency to research and react to consumer response to a clients products. Great results for the clients as a direct consequence.

http://tinyurl.com/9zytmh

Social Media Ad Spending

benasmith — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 05:18:00 +0000

Short but interesting blog from Razorfish reporting solid growth on social media ad spending in 2008. Combined spending on MySpace and Facebook was up 32% Q2 over Q1. Q3 was up an additional 22%.

http://tinyurl.com/47kzrj

Online Consumer Habits and Social Media Trends

benasmith — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 02:33:00 +0000

Just a quick link to the Razorfish 2008 Consumer Experience Report. This annual report is a wealth a valuable information on online consumer habits and social media trends and is absolutely a must read.

http://tinyurl.com/6dlmyu

Growing Significance of Social Networks

benasmith — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:10:00 +0000

Short but interesting article in the November 10 2008, Advertising Age giving some statistics on social media usage. Focus of the article is how social networks are impacting TV viewership, which of course has implications for advertising dollars.

According to research by Magid Advisors:

More than 38% of all 12 to 64 year olds online in the US indicate they regularly use social networks.

And it’s not just the younger population using them.

One third of women ages 35 to 44, for example, report they regularly use social networking sites.

With all the time spent on social networking sites, time spent on other activities is being reduced.

Over 25% of those using social networking sites stated specifically that it was their TV viewing habits that were being cannibalized.

This is another example of the growing impact of social networks and something the television networks, and all other “traditional” media, need to be very aware of. Ignore social media at your peril.

Twitter Traffic Explosion: Who’s behind it all?

benasmith — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:43:00 +0000

Some very interesting research on Twitter usage and user demographics. Twitter really has a powerful online presence and can’t be ignored by any of us in the news or media industry, or many other business categories.

http://tinyurl.com/6bborp

Don’t Count Out Big Media

benasmith — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:18:00 +0000

Another very positive blog on the future of news media. This time by Chris Brogan on his time spent at Gannett. Great to see yet more examples of innovation and forward thinking by a large, traditional, news organization. This time also with a real emphasis on “local”.

http://tinyurl.com/66yzft

The Future of Newspapers: Moving Beyond Dead Trees

benasmith — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:29:00 +0000

Great story in the Washington Post on Rupert Murdoch and how he sees the future of the newspaper business.

Great to see someone with such traditional roots having such a forward thinking and positive outlook.

Particularly appreciated his comments on newspapers having to evolve from the physical item to “news brands” that are delivered in a variety of ways and are flexible for readers.

http://tinyurl.com/5cskaw

Making Social Networks Profitable

benasmith — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:08:00 +0000

Interesting article in Business Week about a new patent-pending technology from Google for ranking the most influential people on social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook. If the technology works it could be a tremendous ad revenue opportunity for social networking sites, with entirely new opportunities for much more effective targetted ad campaigns…. at a sizeable premium of course.

http://tinyurl.com/3m4fsy

The Future of Direct Mail

benasmith — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:06:00 +0000

Many advertisers still consider direct mail a “premium” means of distributing information. Direct delivery to a consumers mailbox has an appeal, of course. But it’s time to move on. If an advertiser wants direct distribution to a targeted consumer why not look at one of the many opt-in email opportunities. “Opt-In” is the key phrase. So much quicker, cost effective, and targeted. Surely it makes more sense for an advertiser to reach 500 people that have requested to receive information about specific categories of products or services than even 5,000 that haven’t requested anything and likely don’t want junk clogging up their mailbox.

Interesting article in Newsweek: http://tinyurl.com/3nvee4

It’s amazing to read that direct mailings now constitute some 52% of mail volume, up from 38% in 1990. Yet at the same time the consumer polls referred to in the article state that some 89% of consumers say they would prefer not to receive direct mail and some 44% of direct mail is never even opened.

Working in the newspaper industry, I see this as a great opportunity for newspapers in particular. Despite trends in circulation decline, newspaper is still a highly effective media. Especially at a suburban / community level where newspapers provide unique hyper-local news and advertising, less so in metros where they traditionally provide information that’s now available on countless websites and cable TV. Where newspaper have traditionally lost a certain amount of advertising revenue to direct mail, it’s a great time to go after those advertisers. Use readers to build targeted email lists. Build lists that can be targeted by zip code, that have opt-ins for different categories of information. Seek email sign-ups at every opportunity. Run reader contests that prompt for email sign-up when they enter, make it part of the subscription or renewal process. Keep building the email lists and make sure when advertisers use them to send information they include decent offers, coupons or promotions. Make the emails something people want to receive – strong offers, limited to the categories of information they have requested and relevant to the local market. Don’t abuse their trust in your product by sending information they didn’t request. Soon people will want to be part of the list and sign-ups will keep growing. It’s a great opportunity for any newspaper and thanks to services such as Constant Contact it’s easy to deal with spam regulations and to send quality HTML email without any technical knowledge required.

LinkedIn Success Stories

benasmith — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:38:00 +0000

Two great success stories for LinkedIn. For all those doubters on the value of LinkedIn or other professional networking sites, these are great examples of effective use LinkedIn to generate business and create new sales. The results are directly attributable to the subscribers making good use of the resources the site offers.

First, a great example of a LinkedIn subscriber successfully launching a business and generating great sales entirely thanks to creative use of LinkedIn groups and the status update feature.

http://tinyurl.com/48dwzq

Second, a LinkedIn subscriber using the site to reconnect with an old client and convert that former client in to a new $1 millon contract.

http://tinyurl.com/5xaehn