social media
"Old school" ad units are beating the @#$% out of Emerging Media
Let's face it: the Economy is getting its ass kicked. That ass kicking will inevitably bleed into other areas. Consumer spend, confidence and marketing/advertising spend are what we need to keep a close eye on.
Let's take a moment to stop and focus on marketing and advertising.
Social media (or Social Influence Marketing) is a ubiquitous and fragmented landscape that companies have struggled with in order to leverage digital media effectively.
Add onto that the fact that with social media spend it is very hard to measure return on investment (ROI).
We know that during economic (hiccups, jitters and dry heaving) -- that ROI will be watched like a hawk, resulting in only the most accountable and measurable advertising/marketing channels being targeted with spend. Traditional marketing channels will therefore remain somewhat safe from spending cuts in a recession.
Tameka Kee, from MediaPost, presented an article discussing "Old School" ad unit performance.
For more bang for your buck, the article argues, stick to 'old fashioned' text ads. Video units, and other rich media units should be put on hold.
"I think the biggest takeaway from the data is that the current ad formats aren't very effective," said Jonathan Levitt, iPerceptions' vice president of marketing. "Brands are going to have to start looking at things like direct content integration and product placement. There's still a place for things like banners and skyscrapers, but it's much more about brand awareness than inducing conversions."
I was personally amazed that a study by iPerceptions identified that user's will click Google AdWords ads 25% of the time (I'm shocked it is that high).
Other eye openers:
- Display ads were the second-most popular: banners on the right side of the page getting clicked 20% of the time.
- Banners at the top of the page did much worse, only claiming clicks about 12% of the time
- Video or rich media units, which were only likely to get clicked 11% and 7% of the time
So what do this all mean? Two things.
In my eyes it means that either a) video and rich media ad units are such that people are unwilling to engage with them, or b) we need to think hard about how we are actually building these units (i.e. Are we still lost in print type thinking?)
Secondly, it means that your money (or your clients money) is better spent in text links and banner ads on the right than video ad units and other rich media variations. For the moment.
Become an Enterprise 2.0 expert in 5 days or less
Enterprise 2.0 is getting a lot of buzz these days. The enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston was a huge success and there is lots of projected market growth and opportunity in the niche. Forrester research has reported that Enterprise 2.0 will become a $4.6 Billion Industry By 2013. It would be lovely to get a piece (or two) of that pie.
Enterprise 2.0 -- following the trend of sticking '2.0' on everything -- is really just about bringing in web 2.0 technologies and services into the enterprise. Enterprise is a fancy term that in laymans means 'Big Corporations'. So, think "Facebook for Fortune 500 or FTSE 100 corporations". Social media and technologies in the enterprise are important because there are many value drivers for large organizations to move in this direction: Innovation, knowledge management, the enabling of new business models, better customer relationships and involvement, mobile and nomadic work environments, increased speed and agility and overall better communication and engagement for employees.
This post summarizes reading that will give you a firm footing in everything enterprise 2.0 ( And in only 5 days -- Talk about value!!! )
Day 1 - 2
First, you'll need to understand what web 2.0 is and is not. Although wikipedia provides an excellent entry on web 2.0, you'll need to read more about web 2.0 as it relates to business, economics and social culture. The Bible on this topic is Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. I know you don't have the funds or the time to buy the book -- so I've tracked down a free summary on the web for you from Soundview summaries. That being said, you should purchase the book as it will change the way you think.
Following this summary, I suggest reading the Wikinomics Playbook (a free PDF download by the authors of Wikinomics) and read through the various case studies of businesses using collaboration technologies.
That was your Day 1-2. Pretty easy and interesting wasn't it? Let's move on to Day 3.
Day 3
First, read various definitions of enterprise 2.0 and watch a video of Vince Casarez, vice president of product management at Oracle, explains how Web 2.0 technologies, such as tags, wikis, and mash-ups, can be applied within an organization.
Next, read about the management challenges facing wide scale adoption of enterprise 2.0.
Last, get a boardroom perspective by reading CIO.com's article: Enterprise 2.0 - What is it good for? (A 12-step guide to getting the most out of Web 2.0 tools and making it safe-for-purpose).
Day 4
In order to catch up with the pulse of what is happening in enterprise 2.0, go through as much material as you can from the enterprise 2.0 conference.
David Spark has captured some great notes, as has
Also, watch the videos that have been made available from the enterprise 2.0 conference
Day 5
By Day 5, your mind should have digested a large amount of information about enterprise 2.0. Now, to bring it all together, use the
To understand the market completely, register (for free) and download the Enterprise Market Map 2007 (It's 2007, but it is still relevant). Study it and commit it to memory.
And there you have it. By Day 5 you should be well versed in Enterprise 2.0, and understand how it can be used to create value and decrease costs.
If anyone has any additional valuable 'starter' resources, or can recommend quality blogs to plug into -- please leave a comment.
