How to Build a Social Media Strategy: Ask the Right Questions

This is a simple idea generating tool for implementing Social Media in your company. It’s based on new idea generation techniques that I am using in my MBA thesis and its developed from those all important questions: What, Why and How? A lot of people are still scratching their heads about social media and tend to focus on the technology rather than the conversation and human elements of being social. I hope you find the Social Media Brainstroming tools and the explanations useful and best of luck on any future implementations.

Four Reasons Internet Content Syndication Is Poised to Thrive

Even though the recession has spread from the financial and housing industries to the economy at large, Internet content syndication is nevertheless in a good position to continue to grow. Here are four reasons our medium is poised to thrive in 2009:-

It aggregates audiences in an increasingly fragmented media environment.

Marketers are under pressure to demonstrate ROI to their senior management or investors. This means that they must reach their target audiences within an Internet environment that is becoming increasingly fragmented. There are now over 180 million Web sites — an increase of over 40 million (28 percent) in the past year.

On the one hand, fragmentation means that there are more Web sites with more specific audiences. But it also means that smaller and smaller audiences must be aggregated from a larger number of sites. That may require more resources than marketers can afford to devote to locating and evaluating the right Web sites for their messages.

With Internet content syndication, advertisers only need to evaluate one company’s capabilities of creating and syndicating content that is appropriate for their target audience. This simplified allocation of their resources will enable them to devote their energy to other tasks that will increase revenue.

It’s a proven system, not beholden to technology.

Of course, Internet content syndication is not the only way for advertisers to aggregate a large audience; ad networks have this capability as well. However, there are two points of differentiation that advertisers should consider when comparing ad networks to content syndication.

First, while many large ad networks can bring an enormous amount of reach to the table, this reach tends to come with a lack of editorial control. Some ad networks are so big — with 30,000 to 50,000 Web sites — that the sheer number of sites and placements is simply unmanageable, making it hard to meet the editorial guidelines of top marketers. Content syndication guarantees a high degree of editorial control independent of the reach, because the content is the same.

Second, many large ad networks also bring very sophisticated technology to the table, including behavioral targeting and retargeting, but this technology tends to rely on cookies, which, while efficient, can venture into murky privacy areas. For now, most folks don’t seem to mind their browser being tracked, but political climates can change in a heartbeat, not to mention cookie deletion applications. In contrast, content syndication follows the same mantra that worked the entire last century: create great content and put it where the people are.

It gives publishers access to affordable, high-quality content.

Along with advertisers, publishers are also feeling the squeeze of tightened economic conditions, and Internet content syndication offers a solution to them, too. While growth in the number of Web sites continues to accelerate, online advertising growth has started to moderate. Revenue is up a solid 16 percent from September 2007 to September 2008, but that is a slowdown from the 28 percent increase of the previous year, and recent quarterly growth has been lower still.

The increased competition makes it more important than ever for publishers to offer high-quality content that will enable them to attract and retain the audiences advertisers are seeking. Many publishers can create this content on their own. However, a content creator and syndicator, who earns revenue from content by placing it elsewhere, is a publisher’s best ally as a source for high-quality, low-cost content.

All the benefits are transferred down to the user.

The most important constituent of all is the Internet user, who will ultimately consume the content and determine whether or not it meets his informational requirements. Because of fragmentation, Internet users are the most heavily bombarded group of media consumers in history, and they employ their “back button” mercilessly in their never-ending quest for content. More than ever, high-quality content is crucial for publishers and advertisers to engage users.

By spreading the same content to multiple publishers and aggregating audiences in a controlled environment for advertisers, Internet content syndicators can deliver the high-quality content that users demand. This positions the syndicators for more growth, which will in turn deliver better content to users in the coming years, irrespective of the economic circumstances.

Get Smart – Turning Customer Pain into Competitive Gains

Customer experience is one of the most critical determinants of brand strength and business growth. Yet, most organizations suffer from major blind spots and gaps in the way they interact, handle and respond to customer issues or problems. Customer listening, learning and leveling are critical qualities that need to be part of company culture. The next big idea could be from one of our distributor clients or media partners! So, why is it that….

• Only 38% of companies gather customer insight from customer engagement situations.
• Just 32% look for ways to turn problems into new sales opportunities, and only 15% introduce new products or services to further monetize the relationship.
• Merely 17% use the opportunity to identify and cultivate potential customer champions and advocates.
• Over 84% said positive customer experiences and word of mouth have helped their brands and businesses grow.

To become a more sophisticated and committed to both leveraging customer experience as a key business metric and instituting company-wide processes that drive improvement, we are just about to conduct our first media surveys. It should be interesting to find out what people really think of us.

Get Smart Section – some 2009 predictions, what do you think? How can these predictions work for your online business????

Top 10 Media Predictions for 2009: The advertising outlook for 2009 remains relatively upbeat for certain types of online media and marketing – including search, video and multicultural initiatives – but traditional media and some social networks can expect to face serious difficulties going forward, according to eMarketer.

The Internet is a Buyers’ Market: Marketers will continue to stretch their budgets by making use of cost-efficient online ad placements. In addition to the internet’s accountability and targeting, which permit more-focused media buys, lower prices for most display ads and less competition for many search keywords will make online a buyers’ market.

Search Marketing Remains Recession-Resistant: While search marketing is not recession-proof, it is recession-resistant because it is a measurable, secure and effective marketing tool. Estimated spending growth in 2009 at 14.9%.

Video Ad Spending Will Run Counter to Economic Trends: Video ad spending growth will run counter to overall economic developments, rising by 45% in 2009 to reach $850 million. Supporting this trend are two key factors: First, the sharp escalation of professional video content on the web – coming mainly from TV networks – is creating a viable base for brand marketers. Second, even though most advertisers are increasingly cautious with their budgets, they still need to reach online audiences, and woo their shrinking wallets, with messages that reach their hearts and minds.

Social Network Shakeout: With ad revenue growth slowing, smaller and niche social networks will have a tough time gaining traction and several may close down or be acquired by larger players. In addition, marketers that have built standalone social networks tied to their brands will either shutter them or migrate them to existing social network platforms where they can reach a broader audience.

New Revenue Streams for Social Networks: E-commerce will be a growing revenue stream for social network sites. Expect both MySpace and Facebook to enhance their self-serve advertising systems to allow consumers and businesses to buy and sell real-world goods and services. Facebook, already a de facto business networking site because of the number of businesspeople who use it, will develop ad programs aimed at B2B companies. This will directly affect LinkedIn.

E-Commerce Sales Growth From Existing Online Buyers: Online retail sales (excluding travel) will grow by only 4% in 2009-the first full year to feel the impact of the economic crisis. Over the long term, online sales growth has been on a downward slope as the number of online buyers approaches saturation. So, the economy accentuates an existing trend. Most retail e-commerce sales growth in the future will come from increased spending by current online buyers.

Shift in TV Ad Sales: Like other traditional media, TV advertising was already suffering, and now the climate will be even tougher. Fragmentation on TV and declines in viewership have made it more difficult for advertisers to reach audiences. Broadcasters will be pressed to redefine their businesses in an increasingly digital world. They will focus on expanding programming to the online realm and will continue to test business models.

More Newspaper Companies to Become Casualties: Newspaper advertising will decline in 2009 more than any other medium. Industry-wide cutbacks will continue, and there will be some consolidation, while firms will be forced to undertake drastic measures to stay afloat. The industry was limping before the recession and the market can expect more newspaper companies to become casualties.

User-Generated Content Aggregation: With so much user-generated media populating the web and mobile channels, content aggregation will become more important than ever. In 2009, expect to see the emergence of real-time aggregation tools that combine algorithmic approaches with human input. These aggregation tools will develop from the ground up, much like the content itself.

13.5 billion online video views in October – check out Comscore

If anyone has any questions on the growing power of syndicated on line video then they should check out the Comscore press release. The results are quite eye opening. In October 2008:

• 77 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
• The average on-line video viewer watched 274 minutes of video.
• The average 18-34 year old (Preview target group) on-line video viewer watched 4.8 hours of video during the month.
• The duration of the average online video was 3.0 minutes.
• 13.5 billion on-line video views in October (in the US)…

For more info check out the article link

Preview Networks is joining the Brightcove Alliance

Preview Networks is joining the Brightcove Alliance as a content provider for Brightcove customers.