Cincinnati Internet Marketing Blog

Does MySpace Make Internet Marketers Look Bad?

MySpace made front-page news on Monday when they announced new safety measures intended to better protect children from sexual predators and bullies.  Here is an AP story about the safeguards.

With MySpace being such a popular web destination and receiving so much media scrutiny on privacy and security issues, clearly whenever MySpace makes this level of news (this was on the front page of USA Today and in the A section of many other papers), it has ramifications for the entire Internet marketing industry.   

There have been tons of segments on TV news shows the past few years about how MySpace is a haven for sexual predators and bullies or is simply a huge waste of time for people with nothing better to do.  It's also got tons of comment and message spam and that has turned off a lot of users and potential advertisers who would like to reach the millions of eyeballs MySpace has.

I'm not here to praise or denounce MySpace, just discuss the topic of their image and how it reflects upon our industry.  So I ask you - Does MySpace make us look bad?  If so - What do we do about it?  I'd like to hear your thoughts and will share mine next week. 

 

FTC Clears Google's Acquisition of DoubleClick

Google had a big win today when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) OK'd their planned acquisition of DoubleClick that was announced back in April.

Many privacy groups and advocates have spoken out against this with the argument that Google would have too much consumer information at their disposal.  This Business Week article quickly summaries today's developments and the background.  Here is Google's take on the news on the Official Google Blog: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/analysis-ftc-clears-our-acquisition-of.html

The European Union still has to approve the deal, so it's not done yet.  I really don't have a problem with this deal but would love to hear what you have to think, so post comments and let's talk about it!

Recent Developments At Facebook: A Summary

Facebook has been in the news a ton recently and it's no surprise given the: explosive growth they are experiencing, the growth of the social media sector as a whole and the innovation Facebook has ignited after opening up their platform for people to develop their own applications.

So it makes sense to quickly get up-to-speed on the "toplines" of what's new at Facebook, and that's the purpose of this post.  As always, please feel free to post comments & ask questions about what interests or confuses you you have a resource article or thought to add, and we'll go deeper into those topics in future posts.

Microsoft Investment: In October Microsoft paid $240 million for a 1.6% stake in Facebook.  You can read a quick summary of the ramifications of that in this New York Times article.

Software Platform: Facebook's announcement in May of this year they were allowing developers to create applications for Facebook and pocket the money from their efforts has spurred hundreds of applications.  Business 2.0 had a great article in their September issue on The Facebook Economy.

Advertising Platform: In November Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook Ads, "an ad system for businesses to connect with users and target advertising to the exact audiences they want".  This enables businesses to build pages on Facebook, users to spread viral brand messages through Facebook Social Ads and a way for marketers to gather data on people's activity.  For more details, check out the press release and the Facebook Ads page at Facebook.com/ads

Privacy Concerns: One of the drawbacks of adding applications or new advertising vehicles to a site like Facebook is that some of those apps or ad vehicles are bound to be controversial.  One of the biggest controversies lately has been around the Beacon widget, which shows a Facebook user's friends what they'd purchased online from a third party site. These  DM News & Business Week articles have the details and here is a press release from Facebook

 

Website Audio Issues & Trends

Hey there Cincinnati I-marketing Group blog readers!

As companies work on making their sites more compelling, podcasting and incorporating audio elements are hot topics these days, so I asked my friend Grant Cambridge (AKA "GrantBob") of Sound Images and ScreamingBob.com to describe for us some of the issues in adding audio to sites and here is Grant's summary:

One of the biggest obstacles, yet most promising trends in working with custom sound design, music, voices, etc, for websites these days is the available analytics and case studies of the effectiveness of such a tool. Because the world of Web 2.0 is very new and constantly evolving, few precedents exist that stretch far back in the past. In fact, just a mere two years ago, P&G came out with a study that showed the majority of the visits to their brand's websites were around 8:00-8:30am and 12:00pm, proving that people were visiting these sites while at work, during a break from the regular work day. As a result, anything perceived as "intrusive" during this time was shunned upon - sound being no exception.

However, as Web 2.0 continues to develop and as brands begin using their traditional broadcast advertising to direct people to their website for more custom, interactive experiences with the brand (think of any major car manufacturer), more and more emphasis and dollars are being invested in that online experience.

A major goal now is in trying to create an aura around a certain product that develops evangelists and communities related to the product. (Mentos being a perfect local case study!) Anyway, with this comes the development of interactive Flash games, movies, banner ads, videos, animation - all with the opportunity of being more dynamic with custom created sound. That is where ScreamingBob.com comes in.

Recently, a couple studies have been reported that are demonstrating the benefits of utilizing such a tool with one’s websites. Such studies include:

• A study by Martin Lindstrom and Millward Brown that demonstrates that the use of sound can influence the perception of a brand (whether good or bad) by up to 41% than without it. 
• Participating advertisers in a study performed by BabyCenter, LLC experienced a 15%-168% increase in ad awareness when incorporating audio into their message.   
• Ecommerce sites who integrate sound have experienced a boost in sales by as much as 33%.                                                                                                                                        
• 80% of all internet users have speakers hooked up to their computer while 96% of internet users have the Macromedia Flash plugin installed on their computers, creating a common deliverable format for rich media files. 

Those are a few examples of the studies that are emerging, demonstrating the direction and the opportunities that people can take advantage of in developing engaging, dynamic sites. It certainly is an exciting time to be in on what we feel is the “ground level” of this evolution and we’re excited that ScreamingBob.com is available and able to be a part of it.

GrantBob

[email protected]

513-241-7475

Google Ticks Off eBay - and finds out partnerships can be difficult

As detailed in this Clickz article Last week eBay pulled its advertising on Google Adwords and while their spokesperson claimed it was the result of eBay doing optimization testing and choosing to reallocate their marketing dollars, the blogosphere has another theory.

Google has been pushing it's Google Checkout payment service, which competes with eBay's PayPal.  Well eBay wants folks to of course, use PayPal, so they do not allow people to use Google Checkout on eBay.  So Google, posted an invitation on their Google Checkout Blog invited eBay sellers attending the eBay Live conference in Boston last week to a party with the theme "Let Freedom Ring" and described the party as a "celebration of user choice."

eBay was not happy about this and pulled all of its advertising on Google, which by some estimates is just under a cool million dollars a day.  Google cancelled the party but still has some fence mending to do.

I understand Google wants to promote Google Checkout, but ticking off such an important (and lucrative) partner and advertiser as eBay with such a blatant dig seems like a really bad idea to me.  Of course Google has been singularly independent and successful to this point, but as Google branches out its businesses and expands into so many other areas they better getting used to working and playing well with others. 

What do you think?  Was Google out of line?  Or, do you think Google was right to promote Google Checkout this way and eBay should chill out a bit?