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Trends: Are Citizen Journalists Changing the Rules---And is That a Good Thing?

Sun, 06/08/2008 - 11:14 — admin

The New York Times notes that two of the hottest quotes in recent months---Bill Clinton’s tirade against a Vanity Fair article about his post-presidential life and Barack Obama’s comment about 'bitter' Pennsylvanians clinging to guns or religion---came from blogger Mayhill Fowler armed with a digital audio recorder. In neither instance---the conversation with Clinton, nor her attendance as a contributor at an Obama fundraiser closed to mainstream media—did Fowler identify herself as a blogger as a mainstream journalist would have been expected to do.

If she had, it’s unlikely she would have been privy to the unvarnished comments of Clinton and Obama. Is this a good thing? Will this lead to a relaxing of the rules for mainstream journalists? Will this promote transparency or will politicians simply (attempt to) exercise more control over their public utterances?  

Collective Intellect

Collective Intellect is a research company that provides tracking, filtering and ranking media research for the Fortune 500. The company uses a combination of algorithms and humans to identify emerging New Media and traditional media content across blogs, discussion boards and social networking websites. The company says their approach produces more comprehensive, timely and relevant results than traditional web search tools. Customers use Collective Intellect technology to:

  • track information related to stocks and investing
  • support public relations and investor relations activities
  • facilitate customer support outreach programs
  • create product management market research feedback programs
  • develop interactive forums where customer relationships can be nurtured

Source: Collective Intellect, via Techcrunch

Trends: Virtual Social Media

Thu, 04/24/2008 - 06:15 — admin

If the Internet is about facilitating connections, then anything that enriches those connections by making them more personal and multi-dimensional will be attractive to users.

Nothing can take the place of, say, my brother, my sisters or my parents, sitting across from me at my kitchen table, or being able to hold my youngest niece on my lap. But a web cam, for example, although imperfect, adds another dimension to the connection between us and makes it seem more ‘real’ that simply hearing their voices on a phone or reading text messages on a screen.

That’s why I find the emergence of companies like ExitReality exciting. According to their website they are “a new social media platform that aims to improve your online experience with an enhanced 3D, multi-user, immersive messaging environment..”

You can create virtual photo galleries for you and your guests to walk through and discuss, post video clips that “transform into 3D flat-screen TVs that you can enjoy watching with your friends,” and “see and interact” with your friends while chatting with them online.” How cool is that? 

I'm curious to see if it can be used to facilitate online meetings and conference calls - could be a great option if the software isn't time consuming to learn to use.

ExitReality works with leading global social media sites Facebook, MySpace, Fraudster, Hi5, Rout and Bebop and is currently taking beta applications. They plan to launch “soon.”

ExitReality, via Techcrunch

Absolut Vodka –Rise of the Anti-American Brand?

Mon, 04/07/2008 - 04:00 — admin

Last week an online brouhaha erupted as copies of a poster advertising campaign running across Mexico City last week for Swedish vodka company Absolut, surfaced on the internet. The ads depicted California, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and other U.S. states as part of Mexico, with the headline "In An Absolut World."

The posters created by TERAN\TBWA, the Mexican branch of global advertising agency TBWA, are part of Absolut’s long-running campaign depicting ‘perfect’ situations and positioning Absolut as the perfect vodka.

Many commenters at AdFreak, Absolutads, Mexico Reporter and MichelleMalkin deemed the ad offensive, swore at and off the brand, and variously blamed its creation on Americans Who Hate America, Mexicans Who Hate America, Swedes Who Hate America, Advertising Agencies Who Hate America, Clueless Marketers Who Also Hate America, People Who Are Totally Ignorant, and possibly even Finns Who Hate Sweden Masquerading As Swedes Working At Absolut Vodka.

Parodies of the ad have sprouted all over the Internet with a few suggesting Sweden should be under the control of a Nazi Germany, or at very least, Finland. And of course, the marketing team should be fired and flogged. Or, perhaps flogged first. Hmmm. I'll have to think about that, but in any case they should never have the right to work at anything but menial labor for the rest of their lives.

Yesterday, Absolut apologized for the ad and noted that it had been cancelled, saying “ In no way was the ad meant to offend or disparage, or advocate an altering of borders, lend support to any anti-American sentiment, or to reflect immigration issues….To ensure that we avoid future similar mistakes, we are adjusting our internal advertising approval process…” Blah, blah, blah.

But some pretty thorny issues for brand marketers remain.

How do marketers build brands in an increasingly global economy, particularly those that are controversial or edgy? Do you try to avoid offending anyone and risk turning the brand into milquetoast, or do you let the chips fall where they may?

Surely Absolut knew that the ad would be unappealing, if not offensive, to many Americans. But does a positive reaction from Mexican consumers make it worthwhile? (Sure would like to hear what Mexican consumers think about this ad.)

Does this foreshadow the rise of the anti-American brand?

I doubt this is Absolut’s strategy; after all they are one of the top vodka brands in the U.S., and the U.S. is the top vodka market in the world. But will brands with less market share forswear the U.S. market and leverage anti-American sentiment to grab market share in new global markets? And if so, how will that affect American brands?

And last, but certainly not least---how should Absolut respond to the conversations currently taking place regarding the Absolut brand? Is this cause for concern or great viral marketing? Is their apology statement enough? Was it necessary? (Sorry y'all, but I just can't whip myself into a frenzy over something that was clearly meant as a joke---it's an AD, people! You'd think that land had actually changed hands by the way some people are reacting, but that's the blogosphere forya...)

Currently online conversation is not only focusing on reaction to the ad, but suggesting actions, such as boycotts, complaining to Absolut’s corporate headquarters, and brands to substitute in place of Absolut. In the long run will this help, hurt or have no effect on their market share and positioning? And what can marketers learn from this controversy?

Photos from MexicoReporter Flickr  

Slide Gets Slapped: It’s Not Nice To Fool Internet Users

Mon, 04/07/2008 - 01:00 — admin

In the 70’s there was a great commercial featuring a sweet-tempered Mother Nature who becomes enraged when she discovers that what she thinks is butter is actually Chiffon margarine. If you’re old enough you might remember the tagline: “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.” (Watch the video of the spot in our left sidebar.)

It’s the same thing on the Internet. People don’t like it when companies pose as customers and write glowing reviews of their own products on blogs and review boards. But despite witnessing imposters getting called out time after time, some companies still think they can get away with it.

The latest company to get slapped down is Slide, a company that makes widgets to help people express themselves, says Techcrunch. Apparently company employees wrote a slew of fake reviews on the company’s own reviews board.

Presumably Slide never heard of Wal-Mart or any number of other brands that posted fake posts or comments and then spent lots of time and money trying to repair the damage to their brands.

Are you tempted to lob some false comments on a blog or forum to get some good buzz for your brand?  Just don’t do it---chances are you’ll get caught. And since actions speak louder than words, people will judge your brand by your company’s bad behavior.

Bazaarvoice

Bazaarvoice utilizes consumer-generated content to drive customer loyalty and multi-channel sales. Solutions include products to enable customers to rate and review products, ask and answer questions, and share personal experiences to build an online community, establish brand loyalty, and increase buyer confidence.

They also include solutions to enable brands to capture, publish and syndicate consumer-generated product reviews.

FriendFeed

FriendFeed enables users to keep up-to-date on and discuss the web pages, photos, videos and music that your friends and family are sharing.

Once users sign up for FriendFeed and invite some friends, they get a customized feed of the content shared by their friends---from news articles to family photos to interesting links and videos. For example, if your friend favorites a video on YouTube, you get a link and a thumbnail of the video in your feed. And if your friend likes a news story on Digg, you get a link in your feed.

You don't need to install anything to use FriendFeed; you cann add it to your Facebook account, view it in your Google home page or read it in a feed reader.  You can also make your feed publicly available by embedding your feed in your home page or blog.

Source: FriendFeed.com

Folksonomy

"Folksonomy (also known as collaborative tagging , social classification, social indexing, social tagging, and other names) is the practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize content. In contrast to traditional subject indexing, metadata is not only generated by experts but also by creators and consumers of the content. Usually, freely chosen keywords are used instead of a controlled vocabulary."

Source: Wikipedia

Switchpod - Got a Minute? Record a Podcast

Switchpod is a podcasting hosting service that provides both free and premium accounts to users. Users can create a podcast, upload it to Switchpod and be podcasting to the world in minutes.

Sugar Inc.

Sugar Inc. is an online media company of blogs and websites that seeks to be “the definitive online media company for trendsetting, passionate women ages 18-44. Sites and communities include Shopstyle and the Sugar Network which includes PopSugar, SugarLoving, BuzzSugar, BellaSugar, FabSugar, CasaSugar, YumSugar, FitSugar, GeekSugar, GiggleSugar and DearSugar.

via Techcrunch

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