The Power of Social Networks is Driving Today’s Hottest Internet Businesses!
30 Nov
What’s interesting about the title question from my prior post, is that the same question(s) were being asked and answered in this Michael Arrington (TechCrunch) video…16 months ago!
Added: August 10, 2006 | YouTube
Sphere: Related Content30 Nov
There’s been a rash of mainstream media articles this week about Web 2.0 and Social Networks. Maybe it’s partly because several mainstream media companies have growing vested interests in large popular Social Networks. Maybe it also because Facebook teamed up with ABC news this week to create “US Politics”, a Facebook application highlighting the 2008 Presidential race. Maybe it’s just because of the herd mentality that mainstream media is often accused of displaying.
This CNNMoney article focuses on the opinion of Jim Nail, the chief strategy and marketing officer of Cymfony, an online advertising analytics firm. It can summed up as this: “There are too many companies. So from that standpoint, there is a venture capital bubble in this area. There will have to be more consolidation,”
But what’s probably more substantive that the article itself, is the number and intensity of insightful responses to the article that provide better perspective on the key element that sustains virtually all social networks: advertising revenue. One such post signed by KickApps.com (a social media applications creator) CEO, Alex Blum, tell us that:
The ad revenue opportunity in social media is based on audience engagement (which is clearly there) but also relevance. This is where the general social networks fall short. For the most part they lack context in the same way a large shopping mall does when compared to a boutique store. The high value opportunity is around quality of audience, engagement and ultimately, brand affinity for marketers. So called niche communities offer this in ways that general communities don’t, but it’s important not to think of this as an either or proposition. Most people want both malls and boutiques in the lives.
With this opportunity, marketers need to think in terms of a marketing model that leverages context, relevance and participation. Three basics:
1) Targeted, relevant advertising. People accept unobtrusive messages that are relevant to their interest within the community but advertisers can’t assume that the same rules for advertising apply in a participatory environment. It’s a different environment and people are engaging in different ways. More importantly, there are tremendous opportunities to understand not only what people are topically interested in but also how they interact. The context is there and the data mining tools are available. This should all inform the message and delivery.
2) Branded programming. From a branding point of view, facilitating an activity on the social web can do as much if not more for a brand than banner ad. Check out what VIBE Magazine did with MySpace on www.vibeverses.com. MySpace reaps the benefits of partnering with a strong niche brand, VIBE benefits from the audience that MySpace aggregates, and advertisers wanting to reach urban teens and young adults have a platform to engage them through prizes, contests, etc. There are opportunities for both brand affinity and calls to action. [Disclaimer: VIBE is using KickApps to power the VIBE Verses contest.]
3) Commerce. People are engaged and are more inclined to buy. Think of being in a conversation about a sports team. You get all psyched about it and the team releases a special edition jersey. People engaged in that conversation are likely to make that purchase. Right place, right time, right product.
It’s not necessarily a quantity game anymore, rather, it’s quality. With quality comes a premium. That’s what will drive valuations.
Alex Blum
CEO, KickApps
Something approaching the value of a MBA in Social Media Advertising might well be contained in the above response…yet Mr. Blum gave it away for free. What a concept!
Sphere: Related Content28 Nov
The two have created an application called U.S. Politics — built by combining Facebook technology with editorial content from ABC News — to give Facebook users new ways to learn about and debate issues of importance in the upcoming primary and national elections, the two companies said.
Sphere: Related Content28 Nov
You don’t need to spend much time in Silicon Valley these days to see the symptoms of Internet Bubble 2.0. New start-ups are everywhere, most of them obscure variants on social networking or media-sharing, with even more obscure names and business plans that generally conclude: once we’re really big, somehow the money will roll in. (Or better, some big media company will buy us before we have to worry about making a profit.)Sphere: Related Content
It’s different than Bubble 1.0, however, in one important way…
28 Nov
Evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar is one of the more influential practitioners of evolutionary psychology. Here, he takes on why social networking is so popular now…describing how we are inherently social beings and how social networking fills in our natural desire to gossip.
Sphere: Related Content28 Nov
Last month, I (Erick Schonfeld/TechCrunch) asked comScore to run some numbers on traffic to social sites (comScore calls them social networking sites, but they are not all social networks). This month, I asked them to do the same run again. Here are the results.Sphere: Related Content
27 Nov
A listing of methods of promoting your Web site with an analysis of the cost of each. The bottom line: “There is no “magic bullet” (no matter what anybody claims). Most successful online businesses employ several of these strategies simultaneously to create a successful marketing ‘mix.’”
[Published since November 1995, Web Marketing Today is the largest circulation Internet marketing e-mail newsletter in continuous publication… free version to 107,000+ confirmed opt-in subscribers…]
Sphere: Related Content27 Nov
Widgets can help broaden your brand’s reach even in the midst of the ever-growing volume of advertising information flooding the online space and the gusher of personalized content created by individuals. Widgets are portable chunks of code that can be installed, by cutting and pasting, into the code of any Web page or even onto the desktop.
Sphere: Related Content21 Nov
Link baiting. You’ve heard of it, most likely, but maybe are at a loss as to how it works or how to make it work for you. In this article, we explore both the search and social aspects of link bait, what it is, and how it can be approached.
Sphere: Related Content21 Nov
[BREAKING@WebProNews] Michael Brito, Community Marketing Yahoo!, shares his sneak peek of IZEA’s http://www.SocialSpark.com/ as the launchpad for ROI-based social media marketing efforts — including face-based analytics, RealRank and new options for blog monetization.
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