Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Early Notes on Twitter

Some notes from about a month ago about my early use of Twitter:
Actually, I initially thought Twitter was noise. And it is. But noise that can be parsed. I first saw that CNN was taking "Tweets" (postings from twitterers) and scrolling them across the bottom of the screen relative to the topic at hand and then taking their quesitons from the tweets rather than phone, it was an aha moment. Then I realized that I could parse Twitter for what was being said about my clients, or our company, or even me if anybody would actually do that. So, I got on board and starting trying to add something to the noise that was meaningful. Although I must admit that I occaisionally have just typed in OTL. Or, it's Friday afternoon, the bar is open, come on over to Mediasmith for a beer. So far no takers. But I am getting a lot of folks that I am not linked to personally, through LinkedIn or Facebook that are worth following themselves like Guy Kawasaki and Shelly Palmer who are following ME. Then another moment in time when USA Today calls me about the Motrin crisis created weekend before last and wants my input about the mommy bloggers vs. J&J. Heady stuff. I continue to follow that but I disagree with where the famous bloggers and trade press are going with this. They say J&J got it together before the end of the weekend and gets let off the hook. Well, I and a lot of other people (due to twitter, sharing on social netowrks, and other slices which are easier to make every day with the web 2.0 tools available) have a lot of good observations about this. 
It is a 24/7 world. And if you are launching ANYTHING, a new product. an ad campaign, a new design, anything that people might actually NOTICE and not following it with the free or maybe even paid (depending on the scope of your effort and value of your product) real time tracking, you take the chance that a few days when you are at the beach can ruin your product, company and change your life. 
So I'll be writing about that for sure. But the other thing about Twitter is that off the wall people that you have never been within 3 or 4 degrees of start following you. And when you read their blurbs, you realize that some of these are people you would love to have a long conversation with over dinner and a few bottles of wine. Now, I am not suggesting a relationship. That comes with time or doesn't. These could be a series of great one night stands from an intellectual basis. But, you have to admit that when people post things like the items below, it can catch your attention. How do they find this stuff?
 
Wow. Terrorism in golf. Caller warns he buried mines at Casio World Open: http://tinyurl.com/6b3al8 
 
Favorite quote for today, "I meant to get to that, but then I just went on with life"
 
I'll be writing more about this, cause it is fascinating

Podcasting Killed The Satellite Star

Check out my new MediaPost Metrics Insider post. Music has become personal and the iPod/MP3 player availability everywhere has stopped the Satellite Radio momentum cold. 

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Fast Company Post About Twitter As News Vehicle

Just posted onto my Fast Company blog, Media Tech. My experience so far with Twitter is that "social journalism" has the potential to supplant or even replace the standard news outlets. Check it out... 

Friday, December 19, 2008

Yahoo Adventures

BtoB Magazine Online discusses the advertiser and agency viewpoints on Yahoo's sales position with the changes at the top. Dave talks about the hiring of Joanne Bradford who has the capability of turning things around for them.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Targeting

Just posted another Metrics Insider piece, this one on targeting. There are a lot of different ways to slice this with the web that go far beyond demographic or product usage that the advertiser is used to using for traditional media. Check out this article which outlines Contextual, Behavioral, Relevancy, Social and other types of targeting available on the web.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Al Gore-Ahead Of His Time Again

Check out the posting by Mediasmith's own Eliot Kent-Uritam on AdAge.com today on how Al Gore is ahead of the curve on the use of user generated advertising and content through Current, a peer-to-peer news and information network.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Still Growing!

Online advertising growth, while not what it once was, grew again in Q3. This while a lot of other media are dying on the vine. Is the bloom off the rose for web display? Maybe for a while due to big categories like finance and auto disappearing. But is online still the fastest growing? You bet. And categories like video, social and emerging media technologies will continue to outpace the market significantly in 2009. And search is healthy too.

Comments on Yahoo! Top Management Change

ClickZ likes to check in with me on industry changes. Here are my thoughts relative to their concern that Jerry Yang stepping down. They wondered if it would affect their agency relations. I pointed out that sales are now in the capable hands of Joanne Bradford and that Yang was really more involved in other things.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

USA Today Quote

Good news and bad news. Good news is this is my first ever quote in USA Today. The bad news, they asked me for some blog and Twitter critiques and among others I fed them the Seth Godin blog quote, paraphrasing for them but also providing them with the link to Seth's blog. They ran it as my critique. Sorry Seth!

I do believe that Motrin blew this. They introduced a campaign which clearly should have been better vetted. They did it on a Friday and did not track any noise about the campaign until some time late Sunday. The agency was clearly asleep as Twitter and the blogosphere were both slamming the campaign and the brand big time. Whether you agree or disagree with them, neither a brand or an agency can ever assume again that they can take the weekend off. Consumer communications are a 24 by 7 job. If you must launch on a Friday, watch to blogosphere and make sure that you are on top of any comments.

View Through Evidence from comScore

From MediaPost's Metrics Insider. Evidence we have been waiting for on View Through. Interesting that it was provided by comScore, not Atlas or Doubleclick. Thanks, comScore!

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Fast Company Blog: Mobile Millennium Traffic Pilot From UC Berkeley and Nokia

The Mobile Millennium Traffic application from UC Berkeley and Nokia has a lot of potential. It replicates what you could get with an expensive new GPS like the DASH on your GPS enabled cell phone. I've tried it and find it very useful. Check out my blog on Fast Company for more info.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

LinkedIn User Profiles

Just posted to my Fast Company blog about the AdAge article on LinkedIn users. Researchers are being permitted access to users for categorization and market research. Turns out they are a fresh and willing panel.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

MediaPost Media Insider Blog on Call For Single Pixel

Check out my latest post on MediaPost's Metrics Insider (you may need to register) on the need for a single tag solution for tracking Web success. And stay tuned for announcements of new technologies in this arena.

Google Books Announcement

Posted on my Fastcompany blog Media Tech re: Google announcement to put out of print books up and available online in an iTunes type environment. A victory for copyright owners, education and readers everywhere. Good going Google!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Widget Article

The latest Mediasmith Anvil has been posted. This is an article written largely by Elizabeth (Lizzie) Heldenbrand and up and comer at Mediasmith with some additions by myself and Eliot Kent-Uritam, AMD at Mediasmith. Check out the article.

We get a lot of great feedback on the value of the morsels within the Anvil and hope that the first morsel, on Advertising in a Down Market is especially useful.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

New Fast Company Post: Web Display Ads Alive and Well

Posted another entry to my Fast Company blog this morning. While some are saying doom and gloom for web display advertising and that search is the only thing that will grow, there is evidence to the contrary about the effectiveness of web display.

Friday, October 24, 2008

CPA: Trend or Permanent Move?

From Tuesday (10/21)
Wrote an article for MediaPost's Metrics Insider today about CPA vs. CPM deals for Web display advertising. http://www.mediapost.com/blogs/metrics_insider/?p=104
You may need to register to see this.

M3

From Tuesday (10/21)
Check out the announcement of our new service package from Mediasmith, M3 (Media to the third power or Media cubed). Represents the convergence of search, emerging media technologies and social media.
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/mediasmith-launches-m3-bank-digital/story.aspx?guid=%7BEBF9924A-D6EE-4145-9BE3-3749C899D581%7D&dist=hppr
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.san&s=93040&Nid=48535&p=16671

Media Tech Post #1

From Last Monday (10/20)

Posted my first blog on FastCompany.com today. I'll be adding more to Dave's sphere as I write. I'll also be adding archives from some of my previous writing along the way.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Dave's Sphere Startup

This is Dave Smith's (aka David L. Smith) professional blog. I also have a personal blog at Dave's Here