Monthly Archives: April 2009

by Brian Solis

Twitter represents a technology platform, sustaining ecosystem, and evangelical community that facilitate not only a behavioral transformation in how we communicate and define online relationships, but also represents a fundamental shift in how we listen, share, participate, and learn. For many, Twitter is the catalyst that is inspiring individuals and organizations to discover and observe the real-time conversations and activity that affect perception and influence action. While Social Media has existed well before Twitter, its innovative, instantly gratifying, and seductive spirit is forcing the evolution of networks and applications across the Conversation Prism and the Social Web.

The lessons and experiences that transpire on Twitter humanizes our voice, transforms how we discover and share information, and connects us to an extensive and empowering contextual network that serves as the foundation for education and inspiration.

At the very least, we’re learning that cultivating and sustaining relationships on Twitter is defined less by our ability to merely participate in conversations through unstrung updates and public @’s and instead, prized by the personality, wisdom, and value we invest into each tweet as well as spotlighting notable insights of those we follow.

Our education spans a lifetime as long as we believe we have something to learn.

On June 16 & 17, I’m joining Jeff Pulver to organize and host the 140 Characters Conference (#140Conf) in New York. The conference will explore the effects of Twitter on communications, relationships, celebrity, media, advertising, politics, and social good.

The #140Conf will indeed feature a cast of 140 characters who will individually share their unique experiences, theories, discoveries, and creations in a motivating and rousing forum. We will leave informed, encouraged, and united as we focus on a greater mission of helping and guiding our respective communities to a higher state of social literacy through enriching and meaningful engagement.

This is an exciting time in which we live and we’re truly looking forward to seeing your avatar in real life IRL at the #140Conf.

Register here.

Exhibitors

Please fill out this online form if you are interested in showcasing your product or service at the conference.

Sponsors

There is a limited array of sponsorship opportunities to prominently showcase your brand at the event. Please contact me via email.

Media

We are offering press access to working members of the media. Please visit the press page for further details.

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Citizen journalism site Helium has struck a partnership with the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) in order to bring together the two aspects of media in this day and age. With the partnership, Helium members are invited to become among the ranks of professional journalists on SPJ. On the flip side, SPJ members are able to sell their work through Helium’s community and platform.

Helium is a marketplace of sorts, granting writers and citizen journalists a place to showcase their talent and gain recognition. From Helium, writers can also earn revenue from the content they create, while networking with others in their industry. So teaming up with a professional journalism network is not entirely surprising given the overall acceptance of citizen journalism we’ve experience in the past few years.

A partnership between traditional and new media is reflective of the changing attitudes towards citizen journalism these days, and while some feel such partnerships take away from the very essence of citizen journalism, others often try to leverage new media outlets to merely gain entry into traditional media sectors.

And Helium, which has been around for a while, is actually looking to revolutionize citizen journalism, in part by creating the marketplace that empowers the longtail of contributors out there. Does teaming up with traditional media enable Helium to achieve these goals?

For the time being, yes. And as with most other trends relating to traditional and new media, the two aspects of media are actually combining instead of overtaking one another. At this point, especially when it comes to journalism, the traditional and new media sectors need each other. SPJ needs channels such as Helium’s marketplace to reach more outlets and provide outlets to its members, and Helium needs the credibility and recources that a partnership with SPJ will allow.

The State of the Industry Panel at ad:tech San Francisco

L to R: Randall Rothenberg, Rishad Tobaccowala, Carol Kruse, Neil Ashe, Jeff Berman

ad:tech San Francisco drew over 12,000 attendees last week and had a well-documented events and party calendar on the ad:tech blog thanks to Steve Hall.

The State of the Industry Panel (presented by the IAB) was the best keynote of ad:tech San Francisco in my opinion:

It was informative, though-provoking, entertaining, and filled with quotable quotes. Most of all, the speakers were made comfortable by the personable moderator, Randall Rothenberg.

See below for highlights.

Moderated by:

• Randall Rothenberg, CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau

Panelists:

• Rishad Tobaccowala, CEO of Denuo Group and ad:tech Lifetime Achievement Award Winner
• Neil Ashe, President of CBS Interactive
• Carol Kruse, VP Global Interactive Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company
• Jeff Berman, President of Sales and Marketing, MySpace

The room started out empty. Within minutes, hundreds of attendees were seated.

Randall Rothenberg: Where are your companies investing in advertising?

Summarized answers from the panelists:

• Asia (Kruse)
• All digital properties (Ashe, Tobaccowala)
• All online media, especially search (testing brand vs. direct response)
• A focus on mobile
• We want to focus on understanding the whole person through using behavioral predictive analytics (Berman)

Rothenberg: What is the value and contribution of social media?  Is it  just PR hype or something else — a hybrid?

Summarized answers: Old models don’t make sense any more.  Social media is not campaign based, but requires ongoing communication.  The media objective of the past was about where to put advertising – now it’s find where the audience sticks.

Rothenberg: Can Social Media  be a part of a media plan – or is it rather “communications planning” or “influence planning”?

Summarized answers:  Social Media can’t be planned by campaign or by quarter.  It must be an ongoing plan. It has to be authentic, and it has to talk about what’s great, fresh, and trusted.  It’s not a media strategy – it’s a  service strategy, customer service, and product strategy;  it’s branding, not media.

Rothenberg: How does an agency incorporate Social Media then?

Summarized answers: You have to consider “non-working media” versus “working media”. What works and what doesn’t? Agencies have to start by being agnostic. They should have fewer campaigns, and reach more ecosytems. Take a “great creative idea” and take it across all media.  There is no way to coordinate accross multiple agencies.  The consumer is driving changes so fast that we’re all running to keep up.  The Chief Knowledge Officer will be sitting in the position of power.

Rothenberg: Have we boxed ourselves into direct response?  Or is there room for creativity or branding?

Summarized answers: Direct response metrics saddle us with a burden. One recurring theme heard often over the past day (at ad:tech) is that it’s all going to become one — both branding and direct response.  The focus on metrics was in order to get budgets approved. When it comes to building brand awareness, “nothing compares to television” for Coca-Cola.

Rothenberg: How much does creativity matter, compared to metrics?

Summarized answers: Creativity will matter even more. Creativity is not just pictures. Google search is getting more and more creative.  Has the definition of “the great idea” changed?  Or is the palette just larger now?  The end-user or consumer will make the great decision. They will have more decision making power. People choose with their hearts and use numbers to justify what they just did.

Rothenberg: Is content or channels more important?

Summarized answers: Tobaccowala said, “The hysteria of insecurity is now driving the industry.” The point is not which channels to use, but what content to put in the channels.

Conference Chair Drew Ianni wraps it up

ad:tech San Francisco also had great keynotes featuring:

• Jimmy Wales, CEO of Wikipedia
• Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu
• Steve Hayden, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy Worldwide
• Pete Blackshaw, Executive VP of Digital Strategic Services at Nielsen Online
• John Travis, VP of Branding, Adobe
• Eric Feng, SVP of Audience and CTO, Hulu
• Tina Sharkey, Chairman and Global President, BabyCenter
• Joel Rubinson, Chief Research Officer, The Advertising Research Foundation

Thank-you to all of the conference organizers, notably Don Knox, Drew Ianni, Jeff Valentine, and Warren Pickett.

Marissa is the CEO and Co-founder of AD-Village.

Marissa also blogs at marissalouie.com and the BusinessWeek blog “Young Female Entrepreneur“.

Find her on Twitter: @malouie

Contact her at (510) 375-1941 or Email her at marissa@ad-village.com.

by Brian Solis

Sharing your email address on the Web, Twitter, and Social Networks is a risky proposition. It’s almost guaranteed that spam bots will crawl the web and find it almost immediately – flooding your inbox and hampering productivity.

Scr.im is a new service that converts your email address into a short, safe, and customizable link to share anywhere on the Web.

Here’s mine: http://scr.im/solis

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by Brian Solis

Artists, musicians, and those representing them have access to an unprecedented infrastructure for communicating with influencers, fans, promoting and monetizing art, and also building communities – without the need for traditional labels and publishers.

While there’s much talk about Social Media, specifically Twitter, Ning, Facebook, and Myspace, consider the reality of the rapidly emerging landscape for mobile social networks and the overall platform supported by cell phone users worldwide. It’s only going to grow and eventually expand upwards right into the hot, ultra mobile computing category dominated by netbooks right now.

What’s the hottest phone +  mobile Web device right now? You guessed it, the iPhone.

With just over 1 billions apps downloaded, the iPhone represents a huge opportunity for artists to connect with fans while empowering them to act as ambassadors to those with whom the connect with IRL (in real life).

Good friend Paige Craig reached out to let me know about a company he recently invested in, Mobile Roadie. It is a platform for any band or musician to build and manage their own iPhone app, quickly and easily. In minutes, Mobile Roadie provides a powerful connection between artists and fans. The app provides a bridge to sell music, alert fans to about upcoming shows, and communicate directly with them. Plus, the app will help list the final product in Apple’s App Store for fans to download.

The app provides the ability to share music, pictures, videos, albums, and upcoming shows. Artists can stream music and link to iTunes. Fans can connect with each other with the integration of a fan wall.  Mobile Roadie also links outside profiles from within the custom application. It also provides stats to help analyze performance and opportunities to improve the design.

Building an app is usually expensive and arduous process. With Mobile Roadie, the distance between you and your iPhone-equipped iPhone brigade is only $399 to start and $29 per month thereafter. More details and answers are on the company’s FAQ page.

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