The Negatives of Social Networking Media

All the world is a Buzz about Facebook & Twitter these days. It’s almost like MySpace circa 2007, Google circa 2003 or Microsoft circa 1998. I don’t doubt the success, innovation or long-term viability of these social networking sites but I have seen that there are flaws in the system that mean that things won’t be perfect with the business along the way and we’re in for a bumpy road. Basically my point is that for all these sites give us in entertainment, social connections and opportunity they also have some negatives that are almost the equal and opposite pendulum action.

1. Time Suck – all social networking sites are using your time that you used to devote to other things. Maybe in some cases this is actually a better use of your time (instead of TV) but in most cases its time spent that you used to use for researching new information for work projects,  time actually spent talking with people in person (family/friends) or time spent doing things that really need to be done at work or home. Once the brain gets trained that you can go socialize instead of work at those times of day it’s a habit extremely hard to break. For all of us procrastinators looking for instant gratification its a real problem keeping up with work and affects the overall productivity of companies and the country as a whole. Internet access is much more prevalent and has far more users during the business day than it does at night, so there’s the proof. Unless your job is trolling these sites for sales prospects by “connecting” and making “relationships” with your customers, its a waste of time to spend more than 15 min a day.

2. Privacy – Of all the details analyzed about consumer privacy online (on Facebook) in the last few weeks the most suprising thing I’ve seen is that people really don’t care about their information online. Sure, nobody is going to post a ss number or cc number on their profile (duh) but they don’t really seem to realize the power of logging all their social interactions in one database and selling access to retailers and cpg companies who have even larger databases of information to analyze and strategize with. Is it really as fun when most of your friends are companies selling you things all the time? Twitter already has morphed into the largest opt in direct marketing platform I’ve ever seen. If people keep using it at this rate it will surpass email. The other obvious issues come with the work life balance thing and when people friend work makes and think nobody will see them rant about work or post drunk pictures on a sick day, but then again I’ve heard that its just people naturally selecting themselves out of the working pool.

3. Logic – the other issues I’ve seen coming for a while have to do with how everything that is built from large databases online with lots of consumer data seems to not work properly. There is always some algorithm developed by a science tech guy based on some theoretical calculus and it doesn’t provide relevant results. Which brings me to a repeating theme of data right now: we don’t really know what to do with it yet. Nobody knows enough real info about their customers to target them. (who has a budget for that?) And the database people just like to say they improved things a statistically insignificant amount with an algorithm tweak. The marketing strategy/process should always start with offline real life information about people and products and then develop an algorithm to show you information in that way. I don’t know why it’s always done backwards but it will keep our results irrelevant and marketing dollars wasted for a long time to come.

Why FriendFeed is no big deal

I am so lost on why so many people are gaga about friendfeed. Of all the web apps that have come out this one has the least technical savy and is not at all new in function. Is it useful? Yes, but has it been around somewhere else since 2002? YES!

I started using Livejournal in 2002 and one of the things that hooked me about it was that all my friend’s LJ blog feeds were listed in reverse cronological order on a friends page. This was great. I didn’t have to go to each blog individually to read them and I could scroll and scan through a day’s worth of posts in a few minutes. Later they added the ability to add other RSS feeds into LJ for reading as a friend. I added everything I was watching at that time. I fed everything from fickr feeds to blogs like Scoble into the mix. They even allowed you to categorize your friend feeds into different groups for more organized reading commenting was also possible direct from the feed although if it was not an LJ blog the comment would not be submitted back to the original site, just on LJ.

All this was great but almost too great. I stopped using RSS all the time in about 2006 because there were too many feeds to read and too much information to process. I couldn’t keep up. It was taking hours to get through everything even just scaning and skimming. I pretty much abandoned the feed page there even though I still post occasionally.

So, basically I am not excited about FriendFeed since it is just another incarnation of something I already have and there were limits to how much information and how many feeds and posts I could reasonably process a day. I have actually gone backwards in tech terms now and I use link buttons in my browser for the blogs or sites I read daily and I know that when that row across the top of the browser is full, one has to go if I add one. It’s is kind of a limit to how many I can monitor and keeps it under control. I also use the feedbliz email subscriptions a lot too. It creates a lot of extra email, but it is easy to scan and delete if it isn’t pertinent info and if there isn’t good info for a month I unsubscribe.

Anyway, maybe some day soon people will come to their senses and find a way to balance being aware and alert of what is happening on the net but not wasting an entire day following blog posts and feeds. It is a huge hit to productivity in America because the discovery process is buzzy and addictive when you find something huge and you always think it will be there and then your day is lost.

Engagement Marketing Metrics, ROI & Open ID

I have been reading a lot about how conversion tracking isn’t enough data to make the best decisions and engagement is the new black. It is frustrating because no one defines engagement in the same way and no one can really tell you what it is.

I do agree though that engagement is the next evolutionary step in tracking onlinemedia for ROI purposes. I think the trouble people will have will be in customizing it rather than standardizing it. I think the meaningful parts of the process will be totally different depending on the company, the media, the process and the product.

What I consider the next thing for my own tracking purposes is prior ad exposures. This is an engagement metric for the ads leading up to conversion rather than site visitors for our own site. I don’t work with analytics usually or determine how to get someone to engage with a process over and over again. I do try and figure out ways to advertise affordably and get people to complete the conversion process. This prior exposures report should provide more insight into how many, where, when and how people come to the conversion site. I am thinking it should provide us information we won’t anticipate as well as show some information we knew would be there.

I am also a bit pissed off with this stupid marketing sherpa execuitive summary report. Pretty much everything written in it is complete bunk since there are a ton of caveats to each graph and I would bet more is according to how people track and assess results than how the media actually performs. If people would track media post impression they would see the value of banners rather than just for clicks. This is so frustrating until you see the data. Then it just makes sense.

People are influenced by banners (branding) and that whole banner blindness thing had to do with the crap companies that were allowed to buy ads with spammy business practices and scams.  They are still out there and as long as they are allowed because of corporate greed, people will keep ignoring some of the good ads for things they really do want and need. Targeting is part of the equation, but as far as targeting goes, we are still in the dark ages.

This brings me to another beef I have with the online ad industry right now. Everyone LOVES behavioral targeting, even if they don’t know what that means. (It has nothing to do with your behavior most of the time by the way.) It is a tracking of people who have been selected as a target by their profile info (Yahoo) or by visiting your site before and the ads follow you around on the web. The latter is the better way to do this (indicating actual interest rather than categorical inclusion) although we don’t know nearly enough about our target customers to really be able to target them online.

I am always asked why someone targeted for one category converts in an opposite one. Why? I have no F-ing clue dude! People are multi-faceted. They can belong to more than one interest or category even if marketers feel it shouldn’t be allowed. People have many aspects to their life and interests and they will always be that way. We won’t know all that data about them or how to process it for a long long long time.

That is what this stupid open ID thing will eventually lead to. A one stop shop for all your profiles and data so marketers can target you on hundreds of variables like what you do for fun, what you do for work and where you shop and live. (they have to sell out sometime) It would take literally hundreds of actual customer profiles to understand the marketability of each of these demographics, and then targeted messages to serve specifically to each profile type. It will take a few years to get there but I think it will get there sooner than I am personally ready for. I don’t know how to collect, assess or value those metrics about customers nor do I really want them targeting me like that.

Oy! Anyway, I am most interested in the overlapping cloud of ads that all influence someone to buy or sign up for something rather than I am in trying to figure out how to track a million personal profiles and target them with individual ads. Also, contrary to that stupid exec summary, pop-ups and unders still suck ass and you know it.

Online Christmas Shopping Coupons

I have gotten most of my Christmas shopping done even though it is not even December yet. I was smart and got online and got things bought the easy way. (without standing in long lines and driving all over the place) I do like shopping online more that shopping in malls this time of year and it’s much more productive. Luckily there are also great sales online and coupon codes for even better deals. Coupon Chief has been a site I have used before that I like because it has coupon codes to stores I actually shop at. One I shop at for myself more than others is Old Navy. They have great deals to begin with and then with a discount it’s almost like you’re getting stuff for free. I also shop a lot at Target for gifts because they have something for everyone. I have been able to find sports stuff for my brother, small kitchen appliances for my mom and well my dad is impossible to shop for. Check them out if you are stuck for what to get your family and friends this Christmas. They might give you some good ideas.

Holiday Shopping Guide Online

This time of year everyone is looking for the best gifts to give and the best deals. It is hard to pick out stuff from crowded department stores and guess what people will like. There is a new blog I ran across called shoppingaddicted.com that reviews products and has some good suggestions for gifts this christmas. It would also be helpful for keeping up with what is new and hot in consumer electronics and some shopping web sites. It’s just gotten started so there isn’t a ton of information yet, but it looks promising. Check out the blog for more info.

New Travel Site Contest for Key West

There is a new travel web site called Trusted Tours and Attractions that is having a contest drawing for free tour tickets from all the people who sign up for it’s new e-newsletter. I thought I would mention it in case you wanted a chance to win 4 tickets for the tour of your choice in the city of your choice. It doesn’t cost anything to enter.

For example if I won I might go to Key West because it’s warmer than Chicago this time of year and I have never been there. I am a fan of white beaches and crystal blue water and it looks like they have plenty of that there. I am sure it would be great to get away from the oppressive cold here for a while, but if I left I probably wouldn’t want to come back until around April or May. In Key West the Tropical Bike Tour looks like fun. I have been bike riding around here a bit and it’s a nice way to see things slow enough to enjoy them and cover more ground than walking. The Glass Bottom Boat also looks interesting with it’s view of the coral reef and I am sure that the Butterfly Conservatory would be great for taking pictures. All in all it’s a better place to be than Chicago right now.

Online Dating Sites

I am not really a fan of dating sites online because people really don’t represent themselves as who they really are online. I have met some people that way and they are always different than their profile says. I guess it’s an imbellishment thing. There are other ways though to meet people online. MySpace, Facebook and forums that allow you to see who people are through what they write over time can all be alternatives to the match.coms of the world. You can communicate over time and get to know someone in a way that isn’t fake. It’s easy to fake a profile it’s hard to fake a conversation or many conversations over time.

Google offers new exclude features in adwords

Google has been innovating how yor ads get displayed and un in adwords for about 4 years now. They have given you control over the matching, the timing, the budgeting, the creative serving, the site targeting, excluding sites and now apparently excluding certain pages on sites.

What I want to know is how detailed are these adwords campaigns? How detailed of knowedge do you have to have about every media property these ads run on in the content network? Seriously, if you have a company or client that runs over 500K worth of these ads, there isn’t enough time in the day to spend targeting each keyword. It would take months to build.

I fret about the lackluster results of the campaigns I see here and worry that our lack of detail and optimization will come back to bite us at some point, (even though I don’t work on them myself) but I also know with this many clients and that many words to manage, we can’t possibly spend the detailed time that someone could if that were their job in house.

So, I guess the lesson here is that you keep the ad campaigns small and mainstream termed if you use and agency and if you want to chase the long tail and control your ad serving like a hawk, hire someone internally to manage it and give them all the tools they need to build out a detailed campaign and monitor and optimize it daily.

Fun Holiday Personality Test Quiz Game – Emo Emo Time

Hah, the holidays are here again, and here come the fun site games and quizzes to match! Maybe you’re Emo about the whole thing? (Emo means emotional for those of us over 30) How about the How Emo am I Test? I know I am more emo this time of year. It’s just frustrating that on top of all your other daily responsibilities with work and home and sometimes your friends expectations, you have to go be cheery at all these company parties and make like you have it all under control. You have to fake it that all the shopping done, money for all this crap isn’t an issue and that you love spending your evenings and weekends with your coworkers and boss socializing. Sure! It’s great! I’m EMO already!

American Gangster Film – Denzel Washington – Oscar Contender?

Everyone was in a buzz about the film American Gangster back in July and it wasn’t even ready for release yet. Now it is open this weekend with Russel Crowe and everyone is saying that it is a well done film that is worth watching and could go to the Oscars. I am always excited about breakout films and good quality entertainment in general because there is not enough of that out there these days. Anyway here is the trailer, I think I would see it if I had the time to go to the movies. Maybe next weekend.

MicroPlace.com Can you invest money to end poverty?

Ebay’s MicroPlace.com is a new site where you can invest small amounts of money (starting at $50.00 and $100.00 in some funds) in a 3rd world country and help individuals start their own businesses and help reduce the rate of poverty there. It’s free market profitable charity? If that makes sense. It is piggybacking on the consumer idea that started with a site called Prosper where individuals loan to other individuals at different levels of risk and get bigger returns than a bank would pay in interest on your money. This is profitable for Prosper because they take a cut of the profit first and then the loan gets its interest.  Even with the lender and Prosper’s cut, its still a lot less interest for someone to pay back than payday loans or other super high interest loans.

The idea that small loans (which make interest and are repaid on a regular schedule) to individuals in impoverished countries that allow them to start small businesses has been a popular idea of the past few years. The University of Chicago economist and author Jeffrey Sachs wrote about it in his book The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Timein 2005. It was a best seller and landed him on Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people list. Muhammad Yunus also got critical acclaim for his micro lending company Grameen Bank and the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

On MicroPlace.com anyone can try to end poverty. You can choose a region of the world and a country and research some statistics about the population there. Then look through an read up on the programs available to invest in. There are risks involved in these investments, like in all investments. These MicroPlace invetsments specifically have these risks you should be aware of before investing:

1. They are not FDIC insured

2. The interest rate is lower than you would get in a bank or an average index fund rate over time. (I saw 2% listed)
3. You can’t purchase these funds in Pennsylvania (it says so on the prospectus)
4. In the investment world the ones who loan the least get the smallest rewards, so $100.00 may do some good, but you won’t get rich from it.

I think these programs have succeeded in their limited trials so far because of a few reasons. They are starting small in areas where this has never been available before. The newness of the opportunity seems huge and people are so excited about repaying because they have never had an opportunity for a loan before. Over time this will wear off if they are available to everyone everywhere and the payback rates will drop. (look at home loan defaults right now in the U.S.) They also don’t have competition in a lot of the new businesses they start, so the success rate is high when no one else has a loan yet or a new business. I also think that Americans are very into the popularity of  charity and giving to help poverty right now, and are eager to donate and invest. (sometimes instead of investing in their own 401K plans, paying off credit card debt or donating to communities at home) Over time if rates of return don’t stay high, and change doesn’t happen the popularity will decline also. And lastly the idea that “free market capitalist economies can save the world” is very popular right now. As this expands and shows the pluses and minuses long term (America has a lot of poverty too you know, and no one seems interested in ending it here) may change our thinking. But for now it’s Laissez Faire for everyone.

I applaud Ebay for their efforts, because they are trying to do good while doing business. But, over the long term I think these programs should stay small and primarily offline with more involvement in the venture by the investors to help supply the knowledge needed to make these new businesses succeed. (because money alone can’t create a successful business) Commoditizing this process as an investment opportunity for all is probably going too big too soon and at an unmanageable level and will not return gains on investments or really help end poverty in the long term. (in my opinion)

Google Video Ads

I got an email this morning about the new Google Video Ads. I am not sure exactly how they work yet but they do say they you earn revenue for playing them on your site. I wonder if that means they auto play when someone loads the page or if someone has to click on them? I am curious about this because Google continues to innovate advertising in new ways and come up with groundbreaking ideas. Will this be as big as adsense and adwords? Will the content that is shown be shows and TV clips we would actually watch? or will it be ads? How will it be matched to your content on your page? I will see what I can find out but right now it’s all questions for me.

Update: I found out some things about these new ads from the Google blog. They are already enabled if you allow image ads to rotate with your text ads ina ll your ad slots. They also don’t activate unless they are clicked, so I am not sure how people would know its video content and not a video ad, so it may not be any better than a banner or text ad as far as CTR goes.

OMG! Puppy Cuteness!

A lot of my friends have dogs, and one just got a new Boston Terrier puppy and named him Gilbert. She is just thrilled with Gilbert and thinks he is the best dog in the world. She got him from a local breeder and all the puppes there were unbelievably cute. In her quest to show the world how cute Gilbert is, and how photogenic he is, she has posted a lot of pictures on the internet on photo sharing sites. One she likes for seeing other puppy pictures is BreederRetriever.com. All the photos there are organized by breed and are really cute. If you have an adorable puppy you should share your photo there too and meet other dog owners online. In the midwest we do love our pets and I don’t know anyone that doesn’t have a dog or a cat at home. We should share that online and meet other people who have similar interests. That is what the internet is all about.

SafeSax is what?

Hah! Safesax it’s a site that sells bags and accessories that promote the rules of Safe Sex. How interesting is that name for a site. What will I come across next? It is never moring scouring the internet… Check them out though for some entertaining stuff (made of condoms!!) and a wothwhile cause. As someone personally battling Cervical Cancer (early stages) I would recommend abstaining from Sex all together unless you have the HPV Vaccine already. Seriously! It isn’t preventable any other way and it can kill you with cancer. I think in the 1980′s people got used to the idea that condoms prevented AIDS and that was the only non-curable STD so if you use a condom you can fuck anything that moves. Well I didn’t do that, but I did have a healthy sex life in several relationships and even with the constant use of condoms, I have High Risk HPV and Early Stage Cervical Cancer. HPV is also thought to be a cause of colon, breast, head and neck, prostate and lung cancers. SO take this stuff seriously or it will come back to haunt you later in life when it isn’t cureable, and not in a good way.

Fight WalMart Killing America

I am pretty anti-walmart. I never shop there, and the few times I have been there I have been pretty dissapointed in the store. But what is more dissapointing is how they hurt the American Economy by putting small businesses out of business, killing the economy in small towns, underpaying and underinsuring their workers while over working them, and buying the vast majority of their goods from China. I realize now that this is not just a WalMart phenomenon. Even the well liked Target buys a lot from China. So does every store you can think of. If I tried to not buy anything from china, I wouldn’t have anything to buy. I have been looking at labels more and putting stuff back that has the made in China mark on it, but it is hard. Its cheap and affordable and WalMart knows that this is the drug that americans are addicted to; Cheap Stuff. So in favor of our own economy and job in the USA, we should try and buy less form China and reduce the urge to buy lots of stuff. And here is a good site about the walmart fight: http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/ Check it out and sign up on their email list for updates.