If the end of the last decade was all about the massive growth in the social Web, the beginning of this one will witness considerable emphasis on social Web analytics... the application of search, indexing, semantic analysis and business intelligence technologies to the task of identifying, tracking, listening to and participating in the distributed conversations about a particular brand, product or issue.
It's a busy market, but with Visible Technologies pinning down $22m in C series funding this week, things are starting to get serious.
Brian Solis discusses the social network advertising and marketing outlook for 2010 this week, and Michael Litman has been good enough to share a presentation by Charlene Li with us about the future of social networks. Unfortunately, Charlene's presentation stops short of discussing the need for consumer facing (high mention volume) brands to adopt analytics, although it does reference the associated redesign of organisational workflow that's demanded.
But let's stop for half a sec. Perhaps it's time to take stock before we plough headlong into what's possible, and invest a little time thinking about what's preferable. Fortunately, this doesn't have to start in the board room but with your own behaviour to your own benefit. And collectively, we can then move the zeitgeist towards enshrining aspects of personal privacy, counter to the ambitions of Facebook.
Let's talk about the Forget Web.
Let's develop the social Web this decade to better reflect the way we'd like to cohere as families, communities and societies. And whilst Charlene's presentation appears to envisage a future entirely dominated by centralised (albeit distributed) privately owned networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, the whole social Web can be as heterogenous and decentralised as blogging is today. Watch out for developments on this front from WordPress developers Automattic amongst many others... in fact, this is very much the territory of Google's open Wave protocol.
I'd love to know what you think about the ideas encompassed by the Forget Web.
Best regards, Philip.
Communicating the Essence of Your Brand
by Trevor Young PR Warrior of Parkyoung
Blogging guru Denise Wakeman loves the 'how to' part of author Gary Vaynerchuk's book CRUSH IT!In her post 'Are You Crushing It With a Blog?', Denise focuses on Vaynerchuk's reasoning for "why a blog".
But why do you need a blog? Why not a website?
As Vaynerchuk says:
"Think of it this way: your website is for communicating logistics and facilitating sales; your blog is for communicating the essence of your brand".
Like Denise, I dig the notion that a blog is for "communicating the essence of your brand". More...
Surely time for the PR v. advertising battle to end..?
by Mark Pinsent of Mark Pinsent
Reading Jackie Cooper's latest essay I agree with a huge amount of what she says. Almost everything in fact. And why not? Having worked for Edelman in both freelance and permanent roles, I've had a bit of contact with Jackie and have enormous respect for her. As you'd expect, as founder of Jackie Cooper PR she's a true doyenne of the consumer PR world. But the headline (and also the first line in fact) really jars: "Why It's Time for Ad Agencies to Admit Defeat". The PR industry has a real complex about the advertising industry – More...
2010: Social Network Advertising and Marketing Outlook
by Brian Solis of PR 2.0
In July 2009, experts predicted that advertising on Facebook would surpass MySpace by 2011. What represents a tectonic shift in social media spend is now anticipated in twenty-ten (2010).
A new report published by eMarketer, “Social Network Ad Spending: 2010 Outlook” documents the major shifts in social network advertising spending that emerged in 2009 and will ultimately unfold in 2010.
eMarketer observes that Facebook is becoming the premier destination for marketers in the U.S. as well as many worldwide markets. More...
Engagement – PR’s lost metric
by Andrew Smith of escherman
I was intrigued by a recent blog post from Tom Foremski where he “raised the possibility of PR agencies developing the ability to drive lots of traffic to specific news stories” and suggesting that this would constitute a PR firm’s “killer pitch”. I immediately thought of a superb piece by Ashley Friedlein at E-Consultancy (New metrics and business models for digital publishing – selling outcomes not inputs). He may have written it nearly a year ago, but it still makes good sense. More...
The Socialization of Small Business
by Brian Solis of PR 2.0
Social Media impacts every business, every brand, and in doing so, connects a network of distributed communities of influence, making the world a much smaller place in the process. Small businesses are in fact at an advantage in Social Media Marketing as they can focus on hyper-local activity that can offer immediate rewards or at the very least, the real-time feedback or lack thereof says everything about next steps.
A recent survey conducted by Citibank offers a contrary point of view, citing small business executives who believe social networks offer no benefit or promise to expanding their business. More...
The Future Of Social Networks by Charlene Li from Altimeter
by Michael Litman of Consolidated PR
via michaelbatistich.com More...
Why is Lack of Control Suddenly a Big Deal?
by Trevor Young PR Warrior of Parkyoung
A large part of what the public relations profession has done in the past - and continues to do today - is the generation of media publicity - editorial coverage in newspapers and magazines and on radio, television and the internet.
Good old column inches and airtime! Probably not as important or as effective as, say, five to 10 years ago, but certainly a critical part of the PR mix for many companies and organisations.
Despite what so-called 'spin doctors' like to think, PR people (and by extension, the brands they represent) generally have little control over what the media says. More...
The Economist positive on PR industry future
by Stephen Waddington of Speed Communications
There’s an article in this week’s The Economist (disclosure: Speed client) written out of New York that paints a rosy future for the PR industry. Growth is being driven by clients prioritising communication, particularly during the recession, and budgets being diverted from other marketing activities.
Edelman chief Richard Edelman is quoted as saying that PR is the “organising principle” behind many business decisions.
Clients, The Economist says, are putting their budgets behind larger, more established firms. Media fragmentation and social media are also cited as a shot-in-the-arm for the industry. More...
