social american

GenY is Turning Online for Their TV

posted by Laurenc on May 14th, 2009

New research from Parks Associates found that many Gen Y TV viewers are ready for a change when it comes to their television-watching experience. According to a recent report, over one-fourth of users ages 18-24 are interested in having more social media features integrated into their TV. This data should come as good news to companies like Verizon and Yahoo!, both of whom have been pushing their new social networking widgets. But it also has broader implications that go beyond kids just wanting Facebook on their TV. The study found that there’s a desire to use social networking as a platform to actually enhance the TV-watching experience through interactive chats with other viewers and to have the ability to recommend shows to friends.

The report, Social Media & User-Generated Content, found that the most desired social experience those in this age group were interested in was multiplayer games. Although you might not think of gaming as “social media,” it does fit the criteria – creating profiles (avatars), adding friends (online gaming buddies), and chatting during gameplay make gaming a very social activity. Recently, news about an upcoming service called OnLive was announced and this would fit right into this trend. OnLive aims to stream high-end video games to any PC, Mac, or TV with a broadband connection. Based on the Park Associates data, that service has a lot of potential to become a hit among this young demographic… assuming it actually works.

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Debt Collectors Using Cute Chicks On Facebook As Bait

posted by Laurenc on May 11th, 2009

Campaign Strategy: Debt Collectors Using Cute Chicks On Facebook As Bait

Debt collectors are using cute chicks as bait on Facebook to track down and keep track of debtors. For some reason, someone at CBV collections decided to publish the truth behind the facebook persona “Jenny Anderson,” alerting all of her 658 friends that she was the tool of professional skiptracers.

jennyanderson

Here is the story from Facebook user “Brian.”

snapshotAbout four months ago due to a forgotten bill I became a client of CBV Collections in Vancouver. I made my payments on time, and had no issues. A little bit afterward, “Jenny Anderson” added me as a friend on Facebook. As I did not want to be rude (and she was a cute girl), I accepted her as a friend. At the time no connection in my mind formed.

This morning, in my news feed, her status line was changed to:

“haha you guys i tricked you all my name is actually Emily and i work for cbv collections as a skip tracer i bet you guys got calls from them saying you owe money thats all my doing :) you want to call and bitch? i dare you to call me 604-[redacted]!!! I wait to hear from you :) ”

Judging by the amount of friends she has (over 600), it looks like her ruse worked. Just another example of how sneaky collection agencies can get to keep track of their debtors. I am curious to see how few friends she has over the next few days.

Beware of random people adding you on Facebook…. it might be people (or companies) up to no good trying to keep tabs on you, or collecting information about you. From now on I’ll be a lot more careful about whom I accept as friends.

I’m also curious to know why she decided to blow her cover, especially in such an unprofessional way. Was she drunk? Did she feel the urge to brag? Was it a friend or colleague blowing her cover for her?

To gain more information, Brian asked “Jenny” for an interview, she acepted, and here is what transpired:

1:55 Bryan: May I have your full name, please

1:55pm Jenny: why?

1:56pm Bryan: Because I am filing a formal complaint

1:56pm Jenny: :) :) ok emily scarfo enjoy

1:56pm Bryan: And you are a Skip Tracer with CBV collections?

1:56pm Jenny: supervisor

1:56pm Bryan: Supervisor, sorry.

1:56pm Jenny: Skip trace supervisor hey no worries

1:57pm Bryan: Can I also have the name and contact information of your immediate supervisor, just for my records

1:57pmJenny: hmm andrew conely his number i dont know just good cbv collections you’ll find the website

1:57pmBryan: Okay cool, thanks… I appreciate your help

1:57pmJenny: no worries

2:00pmBryan: So you say you got approval from your company to use Facebook to track down clients, correct?

2:03pmJenny: uh yah well from hr

2:03pmBryan: Did she give you permission to let people know who you are, and approve the wording in your status line?

2:03pmJenny: of coarse not

2:03pmJenny: you got a call from us didnt you :) :) lol im emilys little birdy

2:04pmBryan: Can you explain what that means?

2:05pmJenny: i just know alot about that company ok no worries

2:05pmBryan: What does that mean?

2:05pmJenny: i gtg now if you see me on again you can msg me

2:05pmBryan: Please, I have a few more questions

2:05pmJenny: lol if you havent figured it out, i am not emily i am just a ltitle birdy i got in to this account through my sources

2:06pmBryan: So you are denying that you are Emily Scarfo, Skip Trace Supervisor for CBV collections?

2:06pmJenny: but i know about this account of coarse why would emily in her righ tmind do this? but you did get a call from cbv and this is how she found you?

2:06pmJenny: but im bored of all this i am gonna go

2:07pmBryan: Are tactics like this common place in your company?

2:07pmJenny: its not my company

2:07pmBryan: Please, I only have a few more questions, Emily

2:07pmJenny: I AM NOT EMILY goly

2:07pmBryan: I should tell you that I am a reporter, and I am doing a story about this, Emily. I am legally bound to tell you this

2:08pmJenny: really

2:08pmJenny:ok well i am not emily

2:08pmBryan: If you like, we can speak about this on the telephone

2:08pmJenny: i dont know f i trust anyone online

2:08pmJenny: and who i f i may ask do you report for?

2:09pmBryan: I am a freelance reporter, who writes for various publications, mainly for [redacted]

2:09pmJenny: your a photographer, not a reporter

2:09pmJenny:see you lie

2:09pmJenny: oh nvm

2:09pmBryan: I am also a freelance reporter

2:10pmJenny: so this is in alberta?

2:10pmJenny: or nation wide?

2:10pmBryan: Take a look at my profile, You will see that I have several stories and photographs printed newspapers and magazines around the world

2:10pmJenny: hmm ok

2:10pmJenny: i am not emly

2:10pmJenny: so please dont refer to me as such

2:10pmBryan: Why did you tell me you were Emily Scarfo, Skip Trace
Supervisor as CBV Collections?

2:11pmJenny: i will help you but thats it

2:11pmJenny: because

2:11pmJenny: the person who made this account is emily scarfo

2:11pmJenny: well acctually

2:11pmBryan: Then who are you?

2:11pmJenny: she had someone do it for her

2:11pmBryan: And why are you impersonating Emily?

2:11pmJenny: but she is the one who uses it

2:11pmJenny: whyu is she impersonating jenny?

2:11pmBryan: That is between her and her company. The main concern of my article is the privacy concerns. I now have a list of over 600 people who are supposedly clients of a collection agency

2:13pmJenny: she is cruel i am sick of people getting tricked on this account

2:13pmJenny: no matter how much they owe

2:13pmJenny: no matter how much they owe

2:13pmJenny: my internet sucks though

2:13pmBryan: Okay, so who are you?

2:13pmBryan: Facebook chat is not the greatest

2:13pmJenny: so if ytou have no more questions

2:13pmJenny:i wont tell you who i am

2:13pmBryan: Oh, I have many questions

2:14pmJenny: i dont need to be famous

2:14pmBryan: So you are not Emily Scarfo, you are just someone who
hacked her account

2:14pmJenny: her fake account

2:14pmJenny: but yes

2:14pmJenny: dont worry i dont acctually know how to hack

2:14pmBryan: Are you an associate of hers? Do you work for CBV Collections?

2:14pmJenny: i just knew the password to the fake e-mail attached to
this account

2:14pmJenny: no

2:14pmJenny: hmm why does it matter who i am

2:15pmBryan: Are you a client of CBV?

2:15pmBryan:Because I am curious about why you did this

2:15pmBryan:About why you blew her cover

2:15pmJenny: the more i tell you the more she knows who i am

2:15pm Jenny: did you not get it

2:15pm Jenny: SHE IS TRICKING PEOPLE

2:16pm Bryan: And why you are suddenly claiming not to be Emily,
despite the fact a few moments ago you knew her Supervisor?

2:17pm Jenny is offline.

So despite the time spent by Brian, there is now actuall conclusion.  There seem to be two possible explanations:

  1. “Jenny” realized that Emily was working for a credit agency and decided to “out” her
  2. “Jenny” does not exist, and the answers in the interview were meant to try to throw the reporter, Brian, off track.

Either way you look at it it is a BAD situation.  Unfortunately, people throw all sorts of personal information up on Facebook that can be very useful if you’re trying to get in touch with them, or hunt them down. Phone numbers, email addresses, web pages, messages that mention your whereabouts, all of this is potentially useful to a professional skiptracer. The trick is that some people set their profile pages as private and you have to be their friend to see it. So, as a debt collection agency, just make a profile with a cute chick in it, put a plausible amount of real content in it, and have her friend the people you want to keep tabs on.

What a dissapointing way to see companies using social media.  Trickery will not work in this space – transparency is key and “fake” profiles can be easily seen through by users.  Unfortunately in this instance, no one caught on to the problem until it was too late.  600+ “friends” too late.

Do you have an example of brands using Social Media in the WRONG way?  I would love to hear it!  Leave me a comment with your story.

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Hard Metrics vs Soft Metrics

posted by Laurenc on May 7th, 2009

Business Metrics: Hard Metrics vs Soft Metrics

Marketing Prof’s recently posted an article from Ardath Albee discusses an ongoing debate between “Hard” and “Soft” marketing proponents on the best way to measure ROI.

The Hard Marketing Camp, she says, “wants to tie everything to sales metrics saying anything that doesn’t result in a revenue measurement doesn’t count.”
The Soft Marketing Camp, on the other hand, “is focused on initiatives that drive engagement, conversations, interactions, awareness and brand.”

Albee argues that you need both. “In [any sale] you can’t get to revenue without Soft Camp initiatives,” she says. “In fact, the more ’social’ marketing becomes, the higher a degree of Soft will be needed to generate Hard results.”

The trick is using hard evidence to demonstrate its importance. “With marketing measurement becoming more sophisticated,” she continues, “imagine the ability for marketers to know the factors that cause buyers in specific segments to become sales ready.” She envisions, for example, the ability to show that Persona A has a 70% probability of making a purchase if their history includes these actions:

  • Downloading a whitepaper.
  • Engaging in three personal interactions—for instance, a comment left at a blog or a Twitter exchange.
  • Opting into an email program, and having a click-through rate of 60% or more.
  • Viewing an on-demand video for their vertical.

“What [marketers] ultimately [need] are progressive metrics that help them prove Soft initiatives drive Hard results,” says Albee. “That’s what creates solid ROI.”

Source: Marketing Interactions. Click here for the full post.

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Why Your Market Research Budgets Should Increase, Not Decrease

posted by Laurenc on May 4th, 2009

Campaign Strategies: Why Your Market Research Budgets Should Increase, Not Decrease

In a recent article from eMarketer, the Association of National Advertisers reported a drop in spending for overall media and advertising budgets. The ANA survey indicates that 77% of US advertisers are cutting their media spending this year. For many, those cuts will lead to a commensurate drop in market research funding, since the two items are usually found together under the same umbrella marketing budget. Here are some highlights from the article.

“The reality today is that we are all driving in fog, and no one really knows if the fog will lift in one year, two years or more.”

—David Jones, global CEO, Euro RSCG, in Advertising Age, February 16, 2009

According to a global study conducted by AdMedia Partners, only 27% of marketers planned to increase their spending on market research this year, while an almost equal 23% said they were expecting a decrease.

Change in Online Marketing Spending in 2009 According to Senior Marketing Executives Worldwide (% of respondents)

With another 50% of respondents in the study planning to hold the line on spending, the net gain comes to a scant 4% of marketers.

Even those specifically responsible for buying market research are looking at cuts during this troubled year.

In the “2009 Annual Survey of Market Research Professionals,” from MarketResearchCareers.com, buyers expected their research budgets to be cut by an average of 9.5%, reversing a 20-year trend of spending increases. They anticipated use of syndicated research to fall from 81% in 2008 to 75% in 2009.

So the results, in terms of budgets, are somewhat mixed. Some organizations are seeing this time as an opportunity to increase spending, while others are looking to cut.

Here are three reasons why you might want to put yourself in the “increase” (or at least “maintain”) market research camp:

  1. With the economy clouding the future, why throw away your flashlight when it could shine on intriguing consumer insights, hot technology trends and market opportunities?The market is bleak out there, yet there are always opportunities lurking—if you have the tools to find them. Market research can often help you uncover little gems of insight that, when acted on, can connect you more closely with your customer or reveal new markets entirely.As cited in the March 23 issue of BusinessWeek, MasterCard learned from market research that certain consumer technology adoption trends were occurring in emerging countries, and these were creating new and exciting growth opportunities for the industry—and for MasterCard in particular.Other marketers, somewhat surprisingly, are choosing this year to aggressively boost their spending in social media marketing—because a wealth of research data from numerous sources is making a very compelling business argument for them to do so.Besides, when you have to watch every dollar you spend on marketing, don’t you want to be fully informed as to how best to spend that dollar?
  2. Market research can help you preserve budgets, projects and even people.One of our clients in the pharmaceutical industry shared with me a fascinating story. When she and her team were threatened with nasty budget cuts that would decimate their spending on new media campaigns, as well as eliminate some of her core staff, she went straight to work. Using her subscription access to eMarketer, she was able to build a solid, data-supported case for upper management that ultimately convinced them to restore her budgets, including her staff.In tough times, you need all the data artillery you can get your hands on, whether you get it from us or from one of the many other solid, dependable research sources out there. Market research data and insights—when used properly—can grease the wheels of corporate acceptance for proposals, presentations, recommendations, new business pitches and even entire marketing budgets.
  3. Prepare for better times ahead.You are not alone if your media and marketing budgets have been hacked into unrecognizable shapes. But why not use this temporary cutback as an opportunity to invest in the future? By immersing yourself and your team in market research data, focusing on up-and-coming trends and emerging consumer insights, you will be at the ready with “go-to-market” action plans when the budget ax is finally lifted.That time may be coming sooner than you expect.

Here at eMarketer, we practice what we preach. We are actively reading, absorbing and applying data insights from our market reports, articles, interviews and videos to constantly improve the content and service we provide for our clients.

“In these tough economic times, marketers need to wring every last dollar of efficiency and effectiveness out of their spending. That’s why market research is more important than ever.”

—Gian Fulgoni, Chairman, comScore

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“Dandy” Profile Management Tool

posted by Laurenc on May 1st, 2009

Campaign Strategy: “Dandy” New Profile Management Tool

This morning I would like to take the time to introduce you to a new profile management tool that has successfully cut down the amount of time I have to spend jumping from social networking profile to profile online.  It is an application called DandyID, and it has seriously helped me keep all of my social profiles organized and up to date. You can find my DandyID profile here.

DandyID is a service that allows users to collect, manage and share their online identities. DandyID provides a central access point for discovering and managing users’ identity data, and making it portable. Sara Czyzewicz co-founder of Olive Interactive LLC, the interactive group who developed DandyID, exponds “By identity data, we are referring to where else users exist online; we support 154 sites, and that number grows each month.  For example, if site A, B and C were synced with DandyID, and a user provides their identity data to site A, that data is automatically sent to site B and C. Users can manage which sites are “synced” or not as well – perhaps she doesn’t want site C to receive data updates.”

Another great feature of DandyID is that it provides developers and site owners with their own an API, or application programming interface, in order to  implement user data collection and syncing abilities with their data source. This video from DandyID explains their services further.

What excites me, however, is that this service provides complete organization of all of your social profiles, giving you ONE jumping off point to manage accounts.  It also provides a great way to promoting your profiles.  If you send people to your DandyID profile, they then have the ability to view all of your other profiles listed with DandyID.

DandyID currently supports over 250 services including:

  • 12seconds
  • ActiveRain
  • AIM
  • Amazon
  • Amazon Wish List
  • Bebo
  • Blip.fm
  • Blip.tv
  • Blogger
  • CafePress
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • Ebay
  • Etsy
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • FriendFeed
  • Friendster
  • Furl
  • Google Reader
  • Grabb.it
  • Groovr
  • Hulu
  • Humble Voice
  • identi.ca
  • Jaiku
  • last.fm
  • LinkedIn
  • LiveJournal
  • Ma.gnolia
  • My Mashable
  • Meetup
  • myOpenID
  • MySpace
  • Ning
  • Pownce
  • Propeller
  • Reddit
  • SlideShare
  • SocialURL
  • Squidoo
  • Stumbleupon
  • Technorati
  • TripAdvisor
  • Tripit
  • TV.com
  • Twitter
  • Ustream.tv
  • Wikipedia English
  • Wikipedia Spanish
  • WordPress.com
  • Xanga
  • Xbox LIVE
  • YouTube

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5 Reasons Why Companies Choose the Wrong Agency Partner

posted by Laurenc on April 29th, 2009

Ad Agencies: 5 Reasons Why Companies Choose the Wrong Agency Partner

A few weeks ago, MediaPost wrote an article on “10 Reasons Why Clients Don’t Pick the Right SEM Agencies.“  This post really got me thinking, and I wanted to make my own similar list on five common traps that marketers fall into that leads to choosing the wrong agency partner.  Picking the right partner for your business is critical to the success of your campaign.  The wrong partner will not understand your business, goals, or even your target market, which could result in campaign failure and thousands of dollars wasted away.

If you are an client looking for an agancy-partner, stay away from these common problems that can cause you to choose the wrong firm.

1. You don’t have a clearly defined scope of work. Many clients fail to do the requisite preliminary research before issuing an RFP, including taking a hard look in the mirror and being honest about your assets and liabilities and what type of outside firm is likely to complement these. If you’re not sure what you need, you can always send out an exploratory RFI (Request for Information) to get a feel for what’s out there and/or hire an experienced consultant to help you navigate the waters.

2. You have an unreasonably short RFP lead time. If you want a customized RFP response with deep insights that shows how the agency will drive your business forward, you have to give them more than a week or two to work on it. Besides, if you hire the agency that dropped everything to put all their greatest minds on creating your RFP response, imagine what they’ll do once you’re a client and the next RFP hits their inbox.

3.  You let work samples make the decision for you. Clients love flashy blinky things. And when the flashing and blinking comes with data, they light up as if they just hit the slot machine jackpot. Unfortunately, all too often clients see all the flash and forget to ask for the results.  The next time an agency shows you examples of work they have done, as for a detailed business case study to go along with it.

4. Your approval process to too strict. You won’t believe how many times I have seen clients choose an agency by following a by-the-book process, choosing the one that looks best on paper, and ignoring their gut-instincts.  In reality, there is no way to score intangibles like chemistry, vision, and how in-tune they are with your business. Choosing an agency firm this way is like marrying a person just because eHarmony’s 29 dimensions of compatibility say you’re a good match.

10. You don’t check references. It always amazes me how few clients actually check references. To continue the dating analogy, it’s like getting married without meeting any of your significant other’s friends or family. There’s no better way to determine how good an agency really is than by talking to their other clients.

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The Social Media Shift

posted by Laurenc on April 28th, 2009

Internet Marketing News: The Social Media Shift

Netpop Research, a full service internet research firm, has produced a new report on the growth of social media, titled  “Media Shifts to Social,” which found that the percent of time people spend communicating online has increased 18% since 2006, while time spent on entertainment has declined 29%.  So, what does this mean?  It means that online entertainment has been shifting from large media consumption (i.e. Television) to small, powerful social media contributors such as blogs micro-blogs, social media, video and photo sharing.

Netpop | Connect: Media Shifts to Social 2009 Preview

View more presentations from Netpop.

The report expounds, “stated simply, 7 million people in the U.S. are contributing content online through six or more activities (uploading photos, publishing blogs, posting ratings/reviews, etc.). These heavies are also connecting with 248 people in a typical week, on average.”  So 7 million people, each reaching 248 people per week???  You do the math!

  • Social networking has grown 93% since 2006
  • 105 million Americans contribute to social media
  • 7 million Americans are “heavy” social media contributors (6+ activities) who connect with 248 people on a ‘one to many’ basis in a typical week
  • 54% of micro-bloggers post or “tweet” daily
  • 72% of micro-bloggers under age 18 post or “tweet” daily

What does this mean for marketers?  Well as social media continues to increase in influence with consumers, marketers have to be increasingly aware of the conversations revolving around their company, brands and products/services, and in order to drive growth, companies must engage consumers on a one-to-one level, focusing on starting conversations and providing value to users online.

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Spending Increases for Online Video Production

posted by Laurenc on April 27th, 2009

Campaign Strategy: Spending Increases for Online Video Production

eMarketer recently released a study on online video spending, estimating that by 2012 the US audience alone will reach 190 million—88% of the Internet user population.

Here is an excerpt of the report:

Although online video ad spending has not grown as swiftly as originally predicted, looking beyond 2010 huge additional sums will be spent every year, reaching nearly $6 billion in 2013.

Two factors are driving the growth: more trusted video content to sustain advertising and more large advertisers (brand marketers, mainly) entering the market.

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XMarks the Spot: Bookmark-Powered Web Discovery

posted by Jeanannv on April 22nd, 2009

Recently, I noticed that I was seeing little blue squares with “i”s in them all over my search pages and in my browser bar. I had no idea what it was, nor what I had done to cause it to happen. Note: that happens frequently…as I tend to try new FireFox gadgets all of the time in my quest for the most efficient social media marketing tactics. Anyway, when I stopped to explore the little blue guy, I discovered it was a FireFox plugin called XMarks.

You likely know it better as Foxmarks, the web based bookmarking system that FireFox has had in place for a long time. But with this latest upgrade, they have catapulted XMarks into social search, something that Google has yet to truly effectively do. Let me tell you how it works…social media marketing

Once you have installed the Xmarks Plugin in your FireFox browser, simply go to a search engine (I tried it on Live, Google and Yahoo, worked on all three) and enter a search term. When you see this icon, click on the blue box. A pop up will appear with information about that link, how many times it has been bookmarked, topics or tags used, and an option to get more site info. If you click on the get more info button…

social media optimizationYou will be directed to a page that has the site title and summary and bookmark information.

If the user clicks the “more’ link, they are able to edit the title and the site description, as well as report any off topic or spammy, abusive use.

Below, there is a listing of similar sites, as well as a tab for site reviews. The reviews can also be edited by others.

There is no doubt that XMarks gives social search a run for the money, though they prefer to say they are “bookmark -powered web discovery”. And in terms of democratizing search content, at first glance, this seems like a great option. But as I explored the features a bit, the wiki-like ability to change site titles and descriptions, even change reviews, threw me for a loop. It seems like the potential for abuse is fairly high. I would love to use these features, as I often do quite a bit of web research, but if the system is junked up with a bunch of spammy stuff, it will quickly fall off my radar.

Will FireFox and XMarks be successful in their Social Bookmarking wiki adventures? We will have to stay tuned to find out.

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Social Media Etiquette: Use What Your Mama Taught Ya

posted by Jeanannv on April 21st, 2009

Warning: the following will contain episodic ranting and complaining about the poor manners of people communicating via social media.

Something has been nagging me, way at the back of my thoughts…sort of popping up every now and then. I usually brand positioningjust brush it off or push it back down and ignore it. But today, I am going to offer up a serving of Emily Post-style tsk-tsk ranting about poor social media manners. And while you may initially think this is insignificant, by the end, I hope to have convinced you that these types of actions are precisely what jeopardizes online brand positioning and believability.

Complaint #1: People who do not return emails, IM’s or even Twitter replies drive me nuts. Yes, there is a point to which this can become overkill…but when someone goes out of there way to contact you, the least you can do is acknowledge it. Hello? Customer service 101, people…

Complaint #2: People who ask for feedback or response or input of some type and don’t acknowledge reciept. Did they get your message, or is Twitter Fail Whaling again? Who knows??

Complaint #3: Dude, don’t act like a spammer and then complain when someone blocks, drops or otherwise unenrolls in your service. For that matter, even if you aren’t a spammer, people have the right to change the channel…let it go…

Complaint #4: No sneaky following…don’t misrepresent yourself as someone who has a lot in common with me, then send me information about male enhancements. Seriously, I don’t need them. No, really…

Complaint #5: Say thanks and make a public acknowledgement…it’s the quickest way to let people know you are a collaborator. Don’t post their work with your name pasted on it…this  really seems to bother people…

Complaint #6: Lighten up…relax, people, this is social media, not life and death…lately, it seems like this has become a game of he said she said. If we can all agree to use the manners our mama gave us, then I think we can make this thing work.

Finally, Complaint #7: Share the love…social media is not about being divisive, but about making connections, and building relationships. If this doesn’t appeal to you, you may be in the wrong place.

Failure to follow these basic principles can at best irritate people and at worst jeapardize your company and brand image. Invest the small amount of time necessary to connect with people in a way that would make Emily Post proud. Your readers and customers will be glad you did.

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