Online Maketing | Social Networking and New Markets

Another one bites..the paywall | Advantage social

April 10, 2011 1 Comment

Content on the web, led by business news and analysis suffered another depletion in its ranks with the NY Times hitting the paywall method to generate subscription revenue. While notable by its unpopularness and its capacity to remove creme de la creme brand loyalists and serious consumers off the sites like WSJ, FT and NYTimes, the method is the only source of revenue anyone in content has come up with. Most like the Kindle and iPad still rely on the free content from across the World Wide Web, as also yours truly to create and survive our own brand and content. End of the road for serious browsing? Well, most of the magazine content in all 3 cases is available thru Facebook, Twitter and Google so I don’t even now if they should have tried it. We are not trying the paywall as it still looks like a readymade failure to us.

But that does not mean we have found a way to fill the revenue gap, right! And a payment of just $180 million for Adriana Huffington’s effort..I know where this one is headed..

And by the way all known business and daily newspapers in the UK and the US behind a paywall… nary a subscriber run, just the same owner, mostly!! And print editions have already lost steam no end.

Image representing iPad as depicted in CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

Nook subscribers to the NY Times get past paywall (geek.com)
Huffington Post Fights Back Against NY Times Paywall (news.slashdot.org)
Telegraph’s “Project Plane” paywall could launch with three-tier payment option (thenextweb.com)
The New York Times Paywall – Have You Found It Yet? (lockergnome.com)
April Fools 2011: The Huffington Post Erects Paywall for NY Times Employees (blippitt.com)
What Impact Has The New York Times Paywall Had on Traffic? [STATS] (huguesrey.wordpress.com)
Mashable: What impact has the NY Times paywall had on traffic? (blogs.journalism.co.uk)

Thestreet.com’s take on the Paywall characterisation of readers and visitors seems most apt

Filed under Digital Media, Marketing, Online Maketing Tagged with Facebook, Free content, Google, iPad, New York Times, Paywall, The Wall Street Journal, Twitter, World Wide Web

More Digital shoppers, anyone? | Advantage social

July 12, 2010 Leave a comment

Well frankly, some brands do a great job of keeping themselves busy. P&G brands star amongst those for extending the attention span of the internet. However, they pale in comparison to AMAZON.

According to Warc

Amazon, the internet retailer, is set to challenge major grocery chains like Tesco in the UK, with the launch of an online store offering free delivery on over 20,000 food and beverage products

Also, Mobile advertising is up 60% in April-June over last year, so little wonder when P&G came forward with digital joyride budgets for each of its brands that targets ONE BILLION SHOPPERS AROUND THE WORLD using Digital Media

P&G is going with old friend and Amazon competitor Walmart to produce a movie and a ‘Future Friendly’ education drive that presumably coaches sustainability to the familiar brands of P&G last seen and heard loudly at Vancouver.

Of course mobile ads are a much different platform and more than half of those land in India or Indonesia, while P&G’s digital campaign is grounded in the US shores and Amazon, yet again, is branching out from the US, bringing groceries to UK in an effort to yet again woo the English customer. Amazon’s international footprint and that of local competitor Apple seems to have gone with the payment options on the shopping cart to the select countries that featre UK, Japan, Continental Europe and very few others.

Pepsi refresh seems to have set a measurable tone that is defining such priorities with brands eager to get the social association of good deeds, while the bigger force like Amazon still manages to go in with just a promise of quality and experience in every new market. Though the twains shall never meet, it may soon be an obvious contradiction in terms to be a social or in fact any digital brand without a social baggage of choice that defines the man. Thus of course, defining the customer experience as something bigger than buying soap or toothpaste or dinner when shopping digitally.

Filed under Digital Media, Lifestyle Brands, Online Maketing

TweetBeep – Reputation Management Twitters | Jesse

July 23, 2009 1 Comment

If your job has you tasked with monitoring your company’s online presence, you’re probably dealing with Twitter in some way. Running occasional manual searches for your company’s name is one way to go, but a better way would be to sign up with a service like TweetBeep.

TweetBeep is a free service that will email you as frequently as once per hour with any Twitter mentions of the search terms of your choice. The service is ad-supported, but if you find that you need it, TweetBeep also offers a premium option for $20US/month that allows you to receive updates as frequently as every 15 minutes, up to 200 different alert searches, and no advertising.

While TweetBeep allows you to set a number of criteria for your alerts, one of the most interesting is the ability to set an “Attitude” criteria. You can choose from three:

Positive attitude

Negative attitude

Asking a question

This appears to be a fantastic way to stay on top of how people are perceiving your company or brand, and gives you the ability to very quickly react to your customers or users. It can also be useful for heavy Twitter users to ensure they don’t miss any mentions. I should note that as of the time of this writing I had some difficulty with the email confirmation process – it took multiple requests and over an hour before my email confirmation arrived in my inbox.

[via Stay N' Alive]

Filed under Facebook, Online Maketing, Social Media, Twitter Tagged with Blogging, Infomediaries, Networking, Online Marketing, Reputation Management, Social Marketing, Social Media, Trust Agents, Twitter, Twitter tools, Twitter Valuation

Facebook vs Twitter series 13/800: What about Digital Books? Can Kindle be about social collaboration?

July 18, 2009 1 Comment

I know what you all are thinking. Why suddenly a Kindle in Facebook vs Twitter wars? What about the Friendfeed and the dozen social networks to be branded me too! Where do they come in? Well, to me Kindle comes first because Amazon is a phenomenon on my personal list of Enterprise greats and the other start ups have still got something to prove in terms of viability. Not that the risk is any lesser for a Myspace or a Kindle but My space going down would be a turning point people would remember like AOL, eBay and the others who have had a not so easy time since they set up on the web and who have never graduated to the real Web 2.0 or near real time social collaboration. Amazon and Kindle however have that potential ( may be they will also drop out later like Starbucks) and they can handle innovation and complex consumer minds with a relative ease that would be critical.

Long back, during the days of Patricia Seybold’s customers.com and Guy Hagel’s ‘Net Worth’ we saw an expostulation of the success determining parameters of the new invisible continent by Kenichi Ohmae ( let’s face it, the guy was an other world icon but still made it as a strategist on the new web). What the Invisible Continent described in great detail was an Infomediary – An organization or ‘Trust agent’ that would broker all business transactions on the web because they would be entrusted with the Customers foibles and deep seated choices that would make the best buying decision and robust sales. Amazon and Kindle are the perfect intermediaries for such digital transactions like iPhone and iPod have been for music albeit non collaboratively till now.

I think the new web needs Kindle and amazon to ramp up the offering in tune with customers, learning the nuances along with the customer as they go along this adventure. For amazon to continue with its 50% market share of the World’s Book Sales has been relatively easy when compared with the others and a vital part of that has been the enriched customer experience which is really beautifully collaborative and store front’ish at the same time. It also highlights the other essential for social collaboration which Facebook and Twitter seem to make light of, ad that is the reading habit. For any transaction on the new web, one has to be a voracious reader to navigate the choices, discuss with friends, colleagues and competitors online and make instant decisions that are almost always right.

Kindle could easily include Video, Audio and twitter / friendfeed messaging on the device along with maps and the books to replace other devices you need to carry arund today for a complete mobile experience. I think that’s the way it’s going to go too.

Filed under Facebook, Online Maketing, Social Media, Twitter Tagged with Amazon, Facebook valuation, FiLife, Kindle, Media, Online Advertising, Online Marketing, Social Marketing, Social Net, Social Networking, Twitter, Twitter Valuation

Facebook vs Twitter series 11/800 (Sun Valley Buzz)- Buy up Twitter | Dealbook

July 7, 2009 Leave a comment

Moguls and bankers are packing their bags to attend Allen & Company’s annual media conference, which starts Tuesday in Sun Valley, Idaho. The recession is bound to put a damper on this year’s schmoozefest, where the likes of Rupert Murdoch and Barry Diller regularly roam, as executives decide it is not the right time to fly off to a mountain resort.

Those who do attend will be debating the troubled state of traditional media companies and how they will fare in an increasingly digital environment.

“People in the traditional media world are terrified,” Ken Auletta, a New Yorker magazine media writer who will lead a panel on new media at this week’s conference, told Reuters.

“They’re in the analog world, and the world is becoming digital,” he said. “They’re insecure about what’s going to happen to their businesses.”

Young Web entrepreneurs have been adding new excitement to the Sun Valley conference, which has been the birthplace of some high-profile media deals. The founders of social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace and Internet video portals like YouTube and Joost drew large crowds in recent years.

This year, Evan Williams (above), the chief executive Twitter, will likely be in high demand as media moguls try to determine if the hugely popular microblogging service is a money-making opportunity or simply another Web 2.0 fad.

via Sun Valley Buzz: Tough Times and Twitter – DealBook Blog – NYTimes.com.

Filed under Facebook, IPL, IPOs, Online Maketing, Social Media, Twitter Tagged with Digital, Digital Media, Media Events, Social Media, Twitter

Jay Leno Wins Cybersquatting Case

July 3, 2009 Leave a comment

When Guadalupe Zambrano registered his Web site in 2004, he probably thought he’d struck digital ‘oil.’ The Texas real-estate agent found a domain name that would attract thousands and thousands of users — thejaylenoshow.com. Just one problem one problem: a certain large-chinned comedian now wants his name back, and it looks like he’ll get it, too.

According to Reuters, the World Intellectual Property Organization issued a ruling today that says Zambrano must turn the domain name over to former ‘Tonight Show’ host Jay Leno within 10 days. The ruling fell under the section of the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act that makes it illegal for someone to mislead, confuse and steer users to their site. Reuters reports that Leno’s 30-year career in entertainment gives him common law trademark rights to his name, and case arbitrator William Towns says Zambrano also registered the site in ‘bad faith.’

Things are looking up for Leno, who will host a new prime-time talk show on NBC this fall called ‘The Jay Leno Show.’

via Jay Leno Wins Cybersquatting Case.

Filed under Marketing, Online Maketing, Social Media, Uncategorized Tagged with Consumer Protection, Cybersquatting, Jay Leno, NBC, Zambrano

Online Ads | The Spending Blip in 2008 | Los Angeles Times

June 7, 2009 Leave a comment

Remember when Internet marketers said theyd be immune to the recession because online advertising is more accountable? Well, it hasnt quite worked out that way.

Internet advertising revenue was $5.5 billion for the first quarter of 2009, a 5% decline from the same period last year, according to a report released this morning from the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

The 10% decline from the fourth quarter, when revenue surpassed $6 billion for the first time, is the biggest decrease, percentage-wise, since at least 2001.

“The first quarter was really freak-out time this year,” said Jose Villa, founder of Sensis, a Los Angeles interactive ad agency. “Everybody just slammed on the brakes.”

Companies were deciding whether they should even advertise, he said, because they thought it might look bad to be spending on marketing in a tough economic climate.

“It was an unusual three-month period,” he said. “It wasn’t really rational, and it went across all media.”

via Technology | Does flirting with the Pre mean the romance with iPhone is over? | Los Angeles Times.

Filed under Online Maketing Tagged with Advertising, comScore, Online Advertising, Online Marketing, Trends