Socially Adept

MTV Relying on CGM to Save Network

Last night's MTV Movie Awards was just another glimpse of how MTV has completely turned to Consumer Generated Media to help boost ratings.  After last years Music Awards where one "lucky" winner got to sing with Justin Timberlake, last nights Movie Awards showcased User Submitted Movie Spoofs, Vote on Lauren's outfit (from Laguna Beach Fame), and a few other features that received prominent exposure during the show.

Over the last few weeks (sorry for not posting during that time) we have been working diligently on producing some forthcoming videos for a new social media product (stay tuned) and also created one of the aforementioned video spoofs for the MTV Contest.  Unfortunately, we did not win a finalist spot and didn't attend the show.

The interesting thing about this contest was that some of these films looked like they spent a pretty penny on execution, and I am not the only one who thought so.  People were buzzing about how professional these spoofs looked and that they didn't really encapsulate Consumer Generated Media.  Sure, we are a Social Media Marketing and Advertising agency and we submitted our own spoof, but we shot ours for less than $200 in an effort to not discourage actual consumers from participating.  Who wants to go up against a Juggernaut that spent $20k on a movie spoof?

Anyway, MTV made it a point during the show last night to mention how much was spent on each spoof.  One of the finalists, a spoof on 300, featured a cast of 30-50 and was shot inside an airplane.  According to MTV, the person who submitted the film spent $600.  Is it possible?  absolutely.  Probable?  Not likely.  However, if you are passionate and know the right people, anything can be done for $600.

The question is, does the involvement of professionals in CGM contests defeat the purpose?  I don't necessarily think it does, but should advertisers and marketers tone down their talent to blend in, or use the full scale of their arsenal to attract eyeballs? 

To date, there has been some terrific viral videos for Sneaux Shoes and Ray Ban that have shown extreme talent, but not appeared over produced.  Maybe the appropriate question is, should professionals looking to submit video focus more on execution and script then visual effects?  Based on the success of YouTube, it would be hard to say otherwise.  After all, if a 16 year old girl talking to a camera can attract 10 million viewers, maybe content is King again...or there are more dirty old men out there than anyone ever imagined.

Spykes Pulled: Kids will have to carry flasks once again!

I saw this coming about two months ago.  Goodbye Spykes... we hardly knew ye!  Sorry kids... it's back to Boone's Farm and MadDog 20/20!  I think my first drink was Zima... my how things have changed.

Jet Blue Pushes out CEO and Blogger David Neeleman

This is interesting news from the number 8 US airline.  Jet Blue CEO has been removed from power and replaced today.  He will now serve as the organizations nonexecutive chairman (Is that a good job?).  Upon hearing the news, I immediately went to check out David Neeleman's "Flight Log" Blog. 

Unfortunately, there is no post up there about the change and I wonder if there ever will be.  Let me make one recommendation to JetBlue... Make sure Neeleman's replacement, David Barger picks up the reigns at the helm of the blog as well.  It would be foolish to lose all of that traffic and your established audience now.  I'm not exactly sure how you pull this off, but it might be nice to have Neeleman transition the responsibility to Barger.  We'll be watching!

Cultivating Bloggers - Is There a How To?

I've been an avid follower of Church of the Customer ever since I read Citizen Marketers a few months ago.  Today, Ben McConnell has a great post on The Myth of "Cultivating Bloggers."  I spend every day thinking about better ways to connect with Influencer's on behalf of my clients.  My goal is to lay the foundation for great relationships and hand them off to my clients to provide inside access to the blogger within the organization.  For anyone who thinks this is an easy task.... guess again.

Like Ben points out, sending traditional PR pitches is a waste of time and effort.  As many A-Lister bloggers will attest, they are already inundated with PR people sending out canned pitches that are irrelevant to their focus and audience.  For example, Joseph Jaffe recently posted about a good pitch he received and the approach that was used to get his attention.  The writing is on the wall, people!!!  They are telling you exactly what to do, which is something you won't find in other industries.

However, even though the writing is on the wall, effectively pitching an A-Lister takes time and effort.  I follow over 50 of the top bloggers to identify what they are talking about and what their specialty is.  Where do they work?  What do they do in their spare time?  What do we have in common?  My goal is not to have these individuals cover my clients (sure, it would be great if they did) but my goal is to learn from them and develop solid relationships.  Through them, I can help lead the agency I work for in effectively communicating with these valuable Influencer's, without interrupting them and wasting their time.

I agree with Ben's comments on helping clients "cultivate relationships with well connected customers" but would go a bit further in suggesting that your client won't always have this luxury.  At times, you will have to build relationships with Bloggers who aren't well connected because your brand is unknown.  You will have to pitch bloggers you don't know because of the current false expectations of the space.  Everyone is looking for numbers.  How many bloggers did you pitch?  How many covered the organization? What was our conversion rate?

Unfortunately, many brands are lumping Social Media in with either PR or Interactive Advertising and it is necessary that we begin to educate them on expectations and separate new media from old media.  The conversations on this have been started, but are they making their way beyond the blogosphere and into the boardroom?

For additional thoughts on this topic, check out BL Ochman's What's Next Blog here.

What Are Blog Links Worth? (Part 3) 6,750,000 Impressions on NYTimes.com

If it would take 6,750,000 impressions to return a click through rate of 4% that delivers 270,000 site visitors, it would cost $1,890,000 to run a leaderboard advertisement on NYTimes.com.

Remember... this is all just theory and there are several assumptions being made here, but it is interesting to note the difference.

The Currency of Blog Links - What Would You Pay? (Part 2)

Picking up where we left off yesterday, what is a link on an A-Listers blog worth to you?  I've spent a lot of time thinking about this and trying to come up with a method for understanding the value of being linked to by well established bloggers. 

In my previous post, I mentioned that Jaffe and Rubel average about 15,500 visitors a month between them (according to Compete... would love to know the real numbers if anyone has them).  For kicks, let's add some other MVB Contestants:

Mark Cuban: 18,000 visitors per month (remember...this is probably higher)

GapingVoid:34,000 visitors per month

So, the total visitors for just four of the 32 participating blogs is 67,500.  Not bad.  Now, if they are anywhere near as popular as Socially Adept (strong sarcasm there) then they probably see about a 50% rate of visitors clicking posted links.  Essentially, the winner of this contest would have 67,500 people see their name and 33,750 people actually click through to their site.  Remember, this is only 4 of the 32 contestants.

If we were to assume that all 32 contestants had relatively similar success, than the number may actually be around 270,000 people actually viewing your blog.  Here's the great part about this though... those 270,000 people actually are interested in your topic!  They aren't just being pushed an ad on a page where there is competing content.

What's the cost then?  In order to get a 270,000 click through rate on a banner ad (or similar) which normally receives about a 4% click through rate, you'd need to purchase 6,750,000 impressions.  Anyone want to take a guess at the cost?

Anyway, I won't get into too much detail and I am sure many people will point out the flaws in my concept, but it is interesting to think about.  Does anyone else have any ideas?  I'd love to hear additional thoughts about this process.  I'll follow up with more details on this in a Part 3.

The Currency of Blog Links - What Would You Pay?

In a client meeting last week, one of our astute colleagues began to discuss the theory of blog links as currency that bloggers are presently giving away.  This is not a new discussion, but it does deserve additional attention from time to time.  For instance, is linking to another blogger outside of your network a threat to your readership?  Can it be a mistake to have an A Lister link to you at the wrong time? 

An interesting item I noticed recently was the discussion of prizes for the Most Valuable Blog competition (MVB).  One of the potential prizes for the winner was an add to Jaffe's blogroll.  At first glance and for those not in the know, you might think "big deal."  However, I spent some time thinking about why this is extremely valuable and potentially, what it could mean for the winner.

Here are those thoughts:

1) As the conversation continues to evolve, more brands will start diving deeper into Social Media instead of just scratching the service.  Instead of drawing consumers in, brands will venture out to meet them on neutral ground.  How will they find like minded people???  Via blogrolls... follow the breadcrumbs!

2) Jaffe is ranked 2,846 according to Technorati and has been linked to by 766 people.  According to Compete (which is usually much lower than actuals) JaffeJuice averages about 3,000 visitors a month (this has to be higher).

3) In his blogroll (which is minimal compared to how many people are in his circle), he lists Micro Persuasion by Steve Rubel.  MP is ranked 106 on Technorati with 4,146 blogs linking to him.  According to Compete, MP averages about 12,300 visitors a month.

4) If the winner received recognition in a post from Jaffe, potentially, 3,000 people will view the bloggers name.  Rubel will clearly read the post and may share the winner in a post to his audience (12,300).

5) Considering the heavy weights in the competition (and the 33 bloggers who have mentioned the "Most Valuable Blog" competition) the audience for the winner, is potentially huge.  Of the 33 bloggers who mention the MVB, they average links from approximately 300 other bloggers.

So, what's the value of winning the MVB competition??? As all of the blogs contending are big players, the increase in audience may not be huge, but additional eyes are always a plus.  However, imagine if someone decided to run the "Most Valuable New Blog" contest!  What would that audience be worth.  Well, how much would you pay per click? 

To Be Continued...

What do you carry meme? (Apple Sells 100 Millionth iPod)

Apple announced today that it has sold it's 100 millionth iPod.  OK... so now what?  As a Nano owner, I may be one of the few who barely uses the thing; mainly because I can't hook it up to anything I have or want to buy (I probably could, but I've invested enough).  I also had an MP3 phone from LG and never listened to one song on it (I used it for something unusual... phone calls!)

As a social media advocate, one might think that I was all about this stuff, but I prefer other tactics for getting the media, music, video, etc. I need.  The last thing I need is something else to carry around with me.  Here is a list of the 10 things I would carry with me on a daily basis in regard to necessities and media if I had more pockets.

10) Wallet (Although, now that Coke will let me "pay at the pump" with my Mastercard, I may not need that anymore)

9) Keys (Have to get to work somehow)

8) Motorola Q (I love this thing! Easy to use and it looks so pretty)

7) Cigarettes and Lighter (yes... I am one of the "bad people" banished outside, puffing away)

6) Watch (Sure... everything else tells time, but fashion is fashion)

5) iPod (The nano is small so you think it would be fine... but it always falls out of my pocket - I hear Nike has a new clothing line to fix this, but I am not sure it is office approved)

4) Sirius Sportster (This thing pisses me off... it barely works when it's cold so I have to carry it in and out of the car.  With a 15 minute commute... it's no longer worth it and has been officially written off as a waste of money)

3) Laptop

2) Carmex (The winter killed me this year - They have a good site by the way...check it out and become a jar head)

1) Camcorder (There's a YouTube video out there waiting to happen)

So... you may have 10, you may have 5, but I am at the point where my pockets are over flowing and decisions have to be made.  As a result, the iPod, Sirius, and Camcorder get left behind.  It's all a shame. 

AB Spykes is sure to spruce up your Prom!

Anheuser Busch claims that Spykes will cater to the “contemporary adult consumers” who it says are “looking for innovative alcohol beverages to match their active lifestyles.”  Hmmm... interesting.  Why name it "Spykes" then?

To me, this product is just begging to be dumped into the punch bowl.  It's small and flavored with 12% alcohol...and conveniently fits in your pocket!  Then of course... the name pretty much tells you what to do with it... spike something.

However, I do like this little site!  It's a great way to mix some concoctions, but be sure not to listen to Max...he doesn't know what he is talking about!

I am a YouTube Subscriber

Over the past several months, I've become increasingly fascinated with online video.  Of course, I predict that we are only in the infancy of what is to come in the world of On Demand video, and the pending cross integration with traditional broadcasting methods and mobile will truly be the defining moment.  I am looking forward to the days of having a central command unit of sorts, in my home that controls all of my gadgets and syncs everything together.

With each passing day, I become more entrenched in YouTube and Revver (and I am looking forward to Veoh) but I often find myself thinking about where the industry will turn.  Right now, I am a big fan of abbegirl and joeyanddavid.  They put together some great stuff and really encapsulate what the space is capable of now.  But what happens to these folks 3 years from now?

Some questions to consider:

1) As regular people lead regular lives, creating new videos on a weekly basis is a challenge and results in infrequent content.  Considering this, how much audience does a personality lose when they take to long to create?

2) Without a consistent compensation or revenue system, how will these YouTubers continue to invest in their craft and keep viewers entertained?

3) With big brands becomeing more and more involved in the space, are we just setting up an additional venue for media giants?

4) Will the existing community embrace big brands based on their content and stop focusing on trying to prove that the content is not legit because it wasn't created by an attractive teenager in their parents living room?

5) Could the methods of advertising agencies change to focus beyond the thirty second spot and start producing shorts to replace the way commercials are delivered today?

These are just 5 of the laundry list of questions I am currently thinking about.  I'd be interested in hearing anyone's thoughts on these and plan to provide my own answers in the days to come.  What's next is a big question, but one we should all be thinking about.