Social Media
Social Media: Is Facebook Tilting at Twitmills?
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Written By Noah Mallin | August 12, 2009 | Share This
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Facebook has moved forward on several fronts this week, from tweaking its search capabilities to include out-of-network user updates for a more “real-time” experience, to the purchase of FriendFeed and most recently the beta testing of a so-called stripped-down Facebook Lite. While there are separate logical reasons for each of these changes, many commentators have remarked that in total they suggest a renewed focus on Twitter.
But is Twitter really a competitor to Facebook? I say no.
Social Media: Don’t Forget the Non-Virtual World
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Written By Shreya Kushari | July 21, 2009 | Share This
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My colleague Noah Mallin once heard a panelist describe Second Life as “the Vietnam of online marketing.” A lot of marketing dollars, virtual blood and real-life treasure went in to snapping up virtual real estate and even billboards on Second Life. There was a buzz that in-person meetings were so 1990s and that instead, our avatars would meet virtually. The result, of course, is history.
Nobody talks about Second Life as a marketing venue anymore and contrary to predictions, we continue to have in-person meetings, sometimes traveling an entire day for a 45 minute face-to-face. Truth be told, clients appreciate the personal touch and knowing that they can drop by the office to talk about search and social media, their accounts, or even to play an impromptu game on the ol’ Wii.
Cultural fit continues to be an important sell in our pitches. Marketing execs wants to meet us and feel comfortable with us. So I was definitely amused as I read about MinneAdpolis.com. Ad agencies in the Minneapolis region have come together to create a virtual world of avatars to show clients and prospective employees how it is a cool place to be in and to promotes it as “the City of Advertising.”
This is clearly aimed at New York agencies – they don’t call the ad world “Madison Avenue” for nothing. Will ad agencies prosper in Minneapolis? Sure. Are they really a threat to New York agencies? Probably not. Still, there are enough businesses that need creative services in that region, who may very well prefer being in closer proximity to their agency. Will clients suddenly realize how cool Minneapolis ad agencies are because they have a virtual site with cool avatars? The answer is No.
Ironically, the drive to be cool and cutting edge undercuts the proximity advantage Minneapolis Agencies should be emphasizing. This speaks to a larger truth here – many companies and organizations want a presence in social media, cool widgets and what have you, but not enough of them take the time to ask how these map to a larger strategy.
Could this virtual world possibly take creative talent away from New York? I’m pretty doubtful. Like most New Yorkers, I have a love-hate relationship with the city. I love to complain about it – cramped quarters, overpriced everything, smelly subways, but it will take a lot more than a website to convince talent to give up the Big Apple and instead move to the “City of Advertising.” What attracts people to New York is the unique energy, the history and culture and diversity. This goes much deeper than the “The black shirt and skinny jeans” wearing the MinneAdpolis website touts. On the other hand, if you wear purple and ride a motorcycle Lake Minnetonka might just be for you.
Social Media: The Power of Compound Interest and the Law of Social Media Success
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Written By Noah Mallin | July 9, 2009 | Share This
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According to Wikipedia (and they are unfailingly accurate, right?), had the Native American tribe “…that accepted goods worth 60 guilders for the sale of Manhattan in 1626…invested the money in a Dutch bank at 6.5% interest, compounded annually, then in 2005 their investment would be worth over €700 billion (around USD1 trillion), more than the assessed value of the real estate in all five boroughs of New York City.”
Aside from being one of the only parts of the entry on “Compound Interest” I was able to comprehend, this illustration also finds a neat parallel in the world of social media engagement. How so?
Simply put, the more ongoing, successful activity you engage in within social media platforms, the more your success level grows. I like to call this The Law of Social Media Success.
5 Questions: Collecta CEO Gerry Campbell
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Written By Noah Mallin | June 29, 2009 | Share This
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Collecta, a new real-time search engine, went live in beta on June 18th.They intro themselves on their homepage by saying “The web is alive with real-time information. So why search a stale archive? Collecta monitors the update streams of news sites, popular blogs and social media, and Flickr, so we can show you results as they happen.” This is ambitious stuff at a time when real-time is the buzzword in both search and social media circles.
To find out more about Collecta I asked their CEO, Gerry Campbell, to answer our patented 5 Questions. Campbell has a great blog, LuckyRobot.com where he admits to getting “…fired up about making new things.” He’s had a rich and varied background across information media companies like Reuters and AOL and has also been an active investor and advisor to a range of startups.
So what does Gerry Campbell have to say about Collecta and real-time search? Read on…
OMMA Social New York: Twitter X 4
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Written By Noah Mallin | June 24, 2009 | Share This
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I spent most of yesterday at the OMMA Social conference here in New York with my colleague, Reprise Media Marketing Director Anthony Iaffaldano. We both came away impressed by the consistently interesting panels and the tasty almond crusted chicken for lunch. Rather than cycle through all the highlights (which you can see on my Twitter stream or at the #ommasocial stream) I wanted to focus specifically on a panel that touches on the ubiquity of the aforementioned social media platform.
Meet The Corporate Twitters, it must be said, was ingeniously designed to highlight actual Tweeters from 4 companies, each of whom take different approaches to the service based on the different goals they had in mind. Together they made a strong argument for Twitter as a jack of all trades, but be warned. Without a strategy or goal in mind, it’s hard to derive meaningful results from the Twitter experience.
Social Media and Publishing: Revolutions Online and Offline
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Written By Noah Mallin | June 15, 2009 | Share This
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When Iran had their most recent popular revolution in 1979, people around the world had no 24 hour news source to convey what was happening. CNN would be launched the following year by Ted Turner so coverage was limited to shows like ABC’s Nightline (which was created in response to the hostage crisis which grew out of the uprising) and the regularly scheduled network new programs, as well as the daily newspapers like The New York Times and newsweeklies like Time magazine. The Internet? A gleam in Al Gore’s eye.
Social Media: How Can I Infect You with My Virus if you’re Not Even Here?
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Written By Noah Mallin | June 10, 2009 | Share This
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Typhoid Mary (not to be confused with Mustang Sally) was a turn-of-the-century cook who managed to spread illness and death over a period of many years simply by making meals for lots of people. Oh yeah, and her aversion to hand-washing helped. So when clients ask about Viral Videos, it’s helpful to remember Typhoid Mary who, after all, was a very successful virus spreader. There were 3 conditions that allowed her to be so prolific:
1) Constant repeated contact with sizable groups of people
2) Her role as a food source for these people
3) The unhindered presence of the Typhus infection
In social media, there is a tendency to dwell on the food without paying attention to the infection or the people. Or, to put it another way, serving up a piping hot video won’t get you anywhere if there aren’t people there to watch it (waiting for the meal as it were) or the presence of that wonderful germ of an idea or a hook that makes them want to spread it around.
Social Media: Will Google’s Wave Drown Twitter?
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Written By Noah Mallin | June 1, 2009 | Share This
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There I was last week, on vacation in an undisclosed location deep in the Canadian Rockies when all the hubbub over Google’s Wave broke out. For those of you who missed it, Google announced that they will be launching a product called Google Wave later this year that combines some of the functionality of e-mail and IM to create a new open source communications platform.
Social Media: Leverage Social Media In Your Job Search
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Written By Miguel Cancino | May 28, 2009 | Share This
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Getting a job has never been easy, but in today’s economy it is worse than ever - even for highly qualified candidates. While many job seekers continue to rely on sites like Monster.com and Career Builder, there are a wide range of social media tools that can help you expand your search and increase your chances of landing a quality job.
Most people know that getting a referral from someone inside a company is usually your best shot at an interview. Social media offers today’s job seeker a faster, easier and more efficient way of making those critical personal connections that will lead to interviews.
However, leveraging social media in this way requires a thoughtful, focused approach to the way you build and work your network.
Social Media: 5 Questions with Seraj Bharwani of Visible Measures
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Written By Noah Mallin | May 18, 2009 | Share This
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There continues to be a myth propagated about social media, namely that outreach efforts aren’t measurable and accountable. Visible Measures has been at the forefront of measuring the success of Internet videos since 2005, providing metrics that include syndicated, social, and paid video placements.
Today, Reprise Media announced a partnership with Visible Measures that will help to deepen the ability to track and measure the success of video content. To add some context to this exciting partnership, we asked Seraj Bharwani, SVP of Business Development at Visible Measures, to answer our patented 5 Questions: