As we approach the Super Bowl this weekend, it is that time of year when we all gather around the television to watch our favorite event, not the game itself but the commercials that are aired during the game.  There have been parties centered solely around the advertisements, and they have sites dedicated to them, and those that have no idea what American football is that turn on their TV’s.

I was recently aware that Pepsi has decided to go in another direction for its advertising that normally takes place during the super bowl.  Many other companies are now getting online as well.  I think we are about to see this as a trend.  What is it that is capturing the hearts, minds, and most of all the attention of the public?  Facebook.

It used to be that the television was the pinnacle of the advertising world, and for the most part it still is, but that trend seems to be changing.  With Facebook now entering the hundreds of millions of users, brands are beginning to rethink their use of their advertising dollars.  In addition, the target is more precise and they are getting more conversions.  I have been try8ing to understand the metrics behind the idea of television advertising as well.  We used to hear of the millions of viewers that this show garnered, or the numbers of people watching each show, but there was never any real metrics to determine other than polls and ratings.  With Facebook and other applications, we can see the clicks, the landing pages, the exit pages etc.  It has a more precise feel to the campaign.

This is the way ot the future as it relates to advertising, and once the Facebook’s of the world can get millions of dollars to get your attention for 30 seconds, the next big thing will come along.

Sphere It

I have been writing this post in my head for a while after I was catching up on the drama that unfolded with Jason Calacanis and the people at Comscore.  If you have no idea what I might be talking about, you can read all about that flap on Jason’s Posterous blog, and certainly the echochamber that ensued following as compiled by Techmeme and listed out by Jason.

In the tech world online and in social media circles we have been trained that we can do a whole lot of things for very little, and in most cases, everything we want to do has a “Free” application associated with it.  Things like YouTube, Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and a plethora of other things we “sell” to clients and companies that come in our toolkit we obtained for free or for very little investment.  Our investment at this point has been the time it takes to understand and implement the use of such tools.  This has been a very lucrative part of being a social media consultant and I suppose why you cannot swing a dead cat in a room and not hit one or two of the “experts” in our business.  Free is always easy to sell.

I have talked before about “The Problems of Free“, and I also talked about how companies are using free as a business model. I want to turn back to the discussion or debate related to Comscore.  We have begun to expect companies to provide services online for free or for very little cost, and as I see it that proposes a problem somewhere in the chain.  Comscore cannot compete with Free.  Someone has to pay for free.

If you are providing a service online, or if you have the latest cool application and you offer it to your users for free, how do you make money?  I often ask many of the startups that come to me what their revenue model is and how they plan to make money.  This is usually followed of course with “How are you going to pay me?”  I am not yet providing “Free” for my own services.  Many companies have long drawn out plans with “ad revenue”, affiliate marketing”, or worse yet I get a blank stare of “we have not yet come to that part of the business plan.”

In the end, you have to pay for the service you provide, be it your time, servers, salaries, and long lunches at In-N-Out.  Comscore is having the problem explaining that they have to pay their bills.  We have to give our stockholders a piece of the pie and we have to pay our salaries and everything associated with the costs of giving you what you want.  They are not able to barter it all and they certainly cannot ask their employees to do it out of the goodness of their hearts, so they have to charge.  I am not sure whether Jason or anyone else has really come up with an alternative to charging for Comscore’s services, other than perhaps the aforementioned ad revenue or the like.  Someone has to pay for the free in the chain of the exchange.  The problem that I see is that Comscore is asking the customer to pay when others are offering it for “free”, but even in that instance, someone is paying for the free.

Photo via Photos8.com

Sphere It

I have been thinking about the previous year and the things that I did and accomplished and the clients I worked for and the partners I collaborated with in business.  Overall, it was an exciting year for me and a year that so some growth and a year for learning.  I had the opportunity to make many new friends and some of those friends came from Hawaii.  I spent a wonderful week in May and June in Hawaii on the So Much More Hawaii Tour, and then organized a conference called the Social Media Business Summit in conjunction with Blog World & New Media Expo where I spent most of the year as their Social Media Director and Conference Director.  One By One Media was a title sponsor of the Social Media Business Summit in Hawaii and we enjoyed the time there.  I am wanting to go back now, not working, and not blogging or being a part of something work related besides enjoying the beach, the beautiful blue water and the waves crashing on the sand.

I was great meeting new friends while in Hawaii, like, Chris, Christine, Bruce Fisher and his wife, Neenz and Noe and Melanie, Marijane, Mark, and Aric, and Leah and Sheila and well you get the idea, it was a year of gaining friends and experiencing life.  Most of all it was becoming a part of a new community.

jim turner on ‘[re]think:hawaii’ from aric s. queen on Vimeo.

I will be recapping much of 2009 and some of what we accomplished as a company and will cover some of the initiatives for clients and how we grew in the world of social media consulting and social media management.

We will be soon relaunching Social Mediasphere Radio, with some new friends, which will also be a part of SMTV.  We are also going to have a new site here soon and we will refocus our efforts to be a trailblazer in the world of social media.  I have some events I will be speaking at soon and I will do a list of those so we may perhaps be able to meet and I will get a chance to make friends in another community.

Sphere It

I just came from a meeting where I was subject to a few “WOW” moments.  There are a few times in my business where I get to see some cool technologies that revolutionize the way we communicate, or listen, or perhaps the way we drink our coffee.  All of it is related to entrepreneurs that are taking their ideas and making them work.

The same should be for businesses that are already established.  We have been told the quote “innovate or die.”  We heard it as recent as the opening keynote at CES.  That is a mantra that all businesses should be paying attention to in the future.  Innovation is key to keeping your product or service fresh.  People will want to continue to buy if it changes and is better or changes their lives for the better.  I think Ford is doing that with its own innovations in vehicles.

I hope that in the coming weeks, we will be creating some “wow” moments for our clients and business partners.  We can use the “Wow” we are seeing as innovations and implement them into our daily routines to help clients and others change and make their own “wow” or awesome sauce or whatever buzz phrase you choose.

Stay tuned for some magical moments here at One By One Media, as we start on a mission of creating “Wow” and innovating our services.  I challenge all of you to have your own mission of creating “Wow!!”

photo via puliarf

Sphere It

I woke up Thursday morning and had Haiti on my mind.  As I fed the kids their breakfast and started getting ready for my day, I saw on the news picture of children suffering in the damage of the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake.  My heart shattered and I wanted to do something.  I felt helpless watching as families were destroyed, mothers and fathers were dead and children and others had no homes, no food and no water.  I had to do something.  I couldn’t stand by and watch more of the devastation without a way I felt I could lend a hand.

I had no way to provide monetary support.  I am not Bill Gates and my meager bank account was not enough.  I needed a better way to help.  What did I have that would be valuable enough to help those victims I was seeing?  I could think of only one thing, the help of many.  I know social media is powerful and I have seen how it works with other causes.  Not to discount the other causes and their value, but this is going to be seen as the single most devastating tragedy of our time.  I need to make it count and I needed to do it soon.

I reached out to a few friends I knew would help me and people I knew could.  I talked first to Chris Noble of Cause Media Group and his latest project at WhatGives.com.  After I gave him my 3 minute pitch, he said, “I’m in Jim.”  I know I can count on him to give his all and it was no surprise at his reaction but nonetheless appreciated.

I next reached my new friend Chris Murch of WS Radio. I met Chris at BlogWorld & New media Expo and we launched Blog World Expo Radio in Vegas at that event.   I was not sure whether Chris would be comfortable with my idea, but he quickly laid that issue to rest when he said “We can make that happen.”

The result? Haitian Assistance Relief Telethon

I wanted to make an impact that meant more than my $5 donation or even a $500 amount.  I wanted to go big and prove what I already know, you get a community together behind something and good will come of it.

You can watch along with Ustream as well as listening to it live.  We are using the hashtag of #HART in all of our Tweets and you can follow along there as well.

I would love to ask you for your support as we try to make an impact of the lives of those suffering in Haiti. If I can only help one child it will be enough, but showing a impoverished nation of children that we care about their pain and hurt and we want to comfort them might make a difference.

Sphere It

Trust. The word is bantered around in many relationships and it has a home in business as well as that puppy love crush you had in the 4th grade. Business can thrive when people trust each other. Not only in the relationships between businesses and their customers, but in the relationships you also have with the people you work with behind the scenes. I make it a point not to do anything that will make me mistrusted by the people that deal with me.  Generally speaking, what you see is what you get.  I try to be Genuine as the moniker on my twitter account reveals.

Customers trust that their needs will be met and that what they have paid for in your product or services is what you are providing. There have been a number of times that I have reduced my fees based on poor performance. Something that was unforeseen or a part of what was promised occurred differently and we work with the client accordingly.  They trust us to get the work done.

You also have to trust the people that are in the trenches with you on a day-to-day basis. They are working hard to make you a success and in turn you have to earn their trust by making sure they have all they need to perform their jobs and they can trust you will hold your end of the relationship as well by paying them and keeping that part of the program stress free.  Trust is an issue that we all need to keep in mind when doing business.  When you say trust me, can we?

Sphere It

I was going through my feeds last night and funneling all of my reads as I tend to do in the evenings and sharing some of what I found to be interesting to my community through Twitter.  This is becoming more and more of a habit with me as I tend to pour through a lot of data.  What I think might be of interest to my followers I share.  I am generous that way.  Actually it is part of my overall plan to let the blogosphere and other platforms know that I exist—I network therefore I am.  I see a t-shirt in the makings here.

As I approached the 11:00 pm hour I noticed that my Tweetdeck was acting up.  I am the type that wants everything just to work.  I don’t care about the Internet service and other stuff I want it to work when I hit the power button.  The same thing goes for Twitter.  When I hit send and let everyone what is happening, I want it to work.  When it doesn’t I just chalk it up to another fail whale.  That is until today when I found out that Twitter was hacked.  Not  hacked by a 13 year old kid in his parents basement but by the “Iranian Cyber Army”.  Excuse me?  I was just watching a Leo Laporte show about Cyber Warefare and making fun of it actually on Twitter, but now I read that headline on TechCrunch.  You can see the rest of the coverage on Techmeme.

Twitter is starting to lose my trust.  Is this what we are going to expect out of Twitter’s future?  There has been numerous Phishing problems with Twitter and there are many other incidents just this year of them getting hacked and Google documents being obtained.  I am losing trust for Twitter quickly.  I hope they will learn from the recent attack and work on making adjustments.  Do you trust Twitter?  I’m not sure I would give them my user and password for…. Ooops!  [Runs to change password again]  I am clearly not trusting the Twitter world at present.

Sphere It

I think I have seen it all or in this case heard it all and then they come out with a Twitter song! This is awesome!

Sphere It

I have been keeping ahead of the game of new and shiny objects by trying out the latest and greatest in tools that can be used for social media programs at companies. I have always come back to the main point of view as it relates to tools that work.  I was reading a recent blog post by David Armano related to this very idea.  David states better than I can about dusting off some of the old tools before trying out new and shiny ones:

Your Blog(s): Your company is blogging. Congratulations. Is anyone listening? Blogging was the bright and shiny object of 2006-2008 and many companies found out just how hard it is to do well. Good blogging provides value. It is interesting and generates a healthy amount of comments and conversation which in turn generates a good dose of Google juice. It’s also terribly difficult to sustain. It requires cultural shifts within an organization, and has to be prioritized (read: made part of someone’s job). Frankly, I rarely see outstanding examples of a good company blog. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing (if it makes sense strategically), but doing it well is another story.

Many companies have still not taken on blogging as a tool that will work for them.  They have gone straight to Twitter or Facebook fan pages or none of the above as yet.  I am of the camp that blogs are a place to start, and a place to start a social media foundation.  I am dusting off the blog here and trying myself to get back into the swing of blogging for business.  This is the message I mention in most conversations.  Is you blog dusty?  Perhaps a little cleaning is in order and some attention given. Then you can go off to find a new and shiny tool.

Tags: Corporate Blogging, Professional Blogging, Bloggers For Hire, Social Media, Social Media Tools

Sphere It

I have been preaching about blogging for a long time.  I have been an evangelist and telling companies that they had to blog more they had to have a place for people to "join the conversation" and making it possible for them to connect with their customers.  Like some of the preachers of the past, I am my own worst sinner apparently.  I was reminded by people in my company that I am the worst person in the world to tell companies that they are not blogging enough or that they are not doing it right.

I am preaching from the pulpit so to speak and I am preaching to the choir perhaps, but I need to update more often here.  I am trying to get more and more content on here and those that are slinging arrows at me the most may be asked to also contribute now and then to what we are doing at One By One Media and Bloggers For Hire.  I am also on Twitter quite a bit, and I am trying out Posterous, and I am about to start Social Mediasphere TV again.  Of course, you can always come and hear what we are doing at our new radio show at Blog World Expo Radio.

Now that BlogWorld & New Media Expo is over for 2009 I have a few minutes I can breathe, and I will be using that time to try to be more involved here rather than out on the road or on the phone trying to convert the latest in small medium or large business to jumping into the social media pool.  I guess I am like that life guard that actually never swims!

Photo via LeMonde1

Tags: One By One Media, Bloggers For Hire, Twitter, Posterous, Social Mediasphere TV, Blog World Expo Radio, Blog World Expo, Business Blogging, Evangelism

Sphere It

I am behind the times on this one but I wanted to get it on my site to refer to it later.  This is a great video and worth the watch.

Some of the information in this video is already obsolete.  Social Media is moving at a rate that none of us can keep up with, and I for one sometimes must take a step back to look at the big picture to keep up with the rate of growth.

Sphere It

This is a great discussion on CNN about the outing of the blogger.  I may have to add to this discussion further.

Sphere It

I have been a follower of the sponsored conversations and sponsored tweets and the sponsored anything for a while now and I intend to keep on top of it because it does have somewhat of a effect on my business model although indirect. TechCrunch talks about banning sponsored status updates from their application.  This will take on quite a white hat look in many of the purists’ eyes, but in my eyes if seems to be a horse of a different color.  As a social media consultant I always talk about the metrics and ROI of using some of these tools, and the business model given today’s idea of return does not have much spark as it relates to sponsored status updates on Facebook. 

For the most part, sponsored conversations or updates or tweets or whatever the case is mostly about reach.  Part of that reach and probably what is most important to advertisers and brands is the amount of eyeballs.  Let’s face it, they are not banging my door down to put up banner ads here as I am not getting the reach they require, and that is exactly why Facebook’s idea of banning the practice of sponsored updates is sort of a moot point.

With the limits they have on "friends" there will never be the huge amount of eyeballs that brands and media buyers are looking for in a property.  My Facebook page will only ever have 5000 friends at the most.  That is not what they want.  They are looking for the biggest bang for their buck.  I do understand and argue that its not about the number of followers it is about the number of conversions, or how or who you influence, but that thinking has not reached the heads of the people that are signing the checks.  I think if I were to ask Ted Murphy the best way to sell the sponsored conversations it would be about your number of page views over the number of cool people you know. 

I think this has to do with a preemptive strike and more about what they have for plans down the road.  I do think however that with the addition of FriendFeed now in their crown jewels, it may also be a tell of what they have in store for a plan to for future looks of their new acquired service. As the FTC becomes involved and we see more and more of a crackdown these types of maneuvers will be quickly reversed or adopted but I applaud Facebook for taking a stand in this part of the controversy.

UPDATE:  I forgot to mention something I thought I should get into this post.  With the banning of sponsored conversations this also make it difficult to cross pollinate all of your networks with a sponsored post which in turn keeps the walled garden feel to Facebook which I think also helps their business plan.  Keeping third party applications from sending out a mass tweet/update/status message to all of your "friends" at once makes it also difficult.

Tags: Facebook, TechCrunch, Sponsored Status, Sponsored Conversations, Sponsored Tweets, ROI, Marketing, Social Media Advertising

Sphere It

I just read the news about Facebook acquiring FriendFeed.  Many are already shouting "game changer", but not really.  Facebook already has the huge networking, but it does make some ground on the folks at Twitter as a microblogging or communication tool.  I talked a while back about FriendFeed’s new look and feel making it seem much like the already popular Twitter. 

Now it has a war chest behind it to become bigger better and more usable I hope.  We are already hearing about the demise of blogs for Life Streaming, and this moves into that game as well.  I hope to get a better feel for the implications behind this.  Good luck to Facebook and congrats to the guys at FriendFeed.

We will see if this becomes a game changer, but for now I think that it strengthens rather than changes things.  To be sure, Facebook is becoming a player that now Google needs to be careful of in the long run.  Twitter needs to catch up if they want to keep up.

The press release from Facebook will be looked at quite a bit.

Tags: FriendFeed, Facebook, Social Networking, Social Media

Sphere It

I was just reading this morning on Techmeme the various sites that are discussing the closing down of the URL shortener service Tr.im.  I then came across a post written by Robert Scoble called, "Twitter’s platform shortcomings."  I have written a number of posts about Twitter here and we are seeing the company mature and grow before our eyes like a child.  Sometimes a child makes poor choices and sometimes they make us proud, but when I read things like the Twitter "blessing" and I have to cringe a little.  Blessing exerts some connotation of power, and with power comes great responsibility as we all know.  We see companies like Facebook with this same type of power and the same feeling of the hair standing on the back of my neck continues. I must echo Robert’s sentiment here when he states:

OK, most of you probably never have used tr.im to shorten your URLs so they fit into Twitter. But I did. I liked the URL better than bit.ly, which is the service that Twitter has “blessed.” Oh, how I hate Twitter’s “blessing.”

Pete Cashmore, of Mashable has another quote in his post that gives me the feeling all over again:

“…we just can’t justify further development since Twitter has all but annointed bit.ly the market winner.”

That from the Tr.im closing statement.  That is far too much power for one company, but I know that is part of doing business.  Google carries the same type of power and I have heard the likes of Michael Gray talk about the wielding of their power and how they can arbitrarily damn some sites and rise others to the heights of heaven.  I use that metaphor because that is nearly godlike in its functionality.  Google wants to be for good but not for evil and I suppose your definition of good and evil depend quite a bit on the way the ball bounces for you or against you.  In this case it seems that the ball has bounced against the folks at Tr.im.

We see applications come and go and in this particular instance it has implications that might hurt people in one camp over another.  To pick and choose who wins, who loses and how the game is played is far too much power in my opinion to give to companies.  The FTC is dabbling in the game with blogging and "sponsored conversations" and I would assume that some constituents will be contacting their authorities for some regulation of companies that have the power to bless.

Photo via polishamericancenter.org

Tags: Twitter, Techememe, Robert Scoble, Corporate Responsibility, Google

Sphere It