Lawrence Gee | Marketing, Internet, Creativity, Strategy

This Blog Post Will Live In The Internet Forever

Society is in a transition stage when it comes to information.  Technology has enhanced not only the speed in which people access information but also the breadth of it.  This leads to less anonymity and cases like one that I came across about a Ryerson University freshman who is fighting 147 charges of academic misconduct because he was helping run a chemistry study group on Facebook. I’m not saying that the student wasn’t in the wrong here but he shouldn’t be at risk for expulsion either.  Comparing answers, discussing problems, and helping other students out is a part of academia and whether it was done in person or online shouldn’t matter.  In the end, it’s student education and the learning process that should be the focal point here.   

As part of the learning process, everyone, especially younger generations, needs to understand that anything that is posted on the web is probably able to be found with enough searching.  Again, it goes back to the breadth of information and speed to which you can access it.  There are many tools like Wink.com which can search social networks, blogs, websites, and more and give you back results based on search criteria such as last name, location, school, interests, etc. 

Students are not the only ones who are naive about the drunken photos they post on their social networks.  Last July, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey was discovered to have anonymously posted negative forum posts against his company’s competitor, Wild Oats Markets from 1999 to 2006. With so much data being stored and tracked, you can find out almost anything these days. 

Society needs to be more sensitive to these issues and should be conscious about what they do online.  I understand that my blog, my social networking profiles, pictures that I and other people post, etc. are all potentially accessible by anyone.  But, I’m also quite vigilant in monitoring what is out there and accessing the risk when I put content out there myself.

That being said, I’m sure that I’m in the minority of those who strongly considers how they interact with the Internet.  There are new rules of conduct that are taking shape in this digital world today and it’ll take time for the adjustments to take place.  I believe that society should be more forgiving towards conflicts that arise and issues like the one at Ryerson University. 

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A Look at Facebook Apps

I’m on Facebook much like many of my peers and former colleagues.  It offers all the benefits of a social network - the ability to post pictures, comment on each other’s profiles, and see who knows who.  It attracts plenty of traffic due to the interactive nature of the content.  As a marketer, I am instantly interested in it due to its captive audience, high level of interaction, frequency of user visits, and ability to potentially target specific segments. 

One element I don’t truly understand is if Facebook Applications or Widgets really hold any value for marketers.  For Fortune 500 companies, I see some obvious benefits including branding, increased touch points, and creating deeper interaction with consumers.  However, the challenge is creating applications that fit with your brand and are interesting enough for people to want to add the application.  A good example of this is TripAdvisor’s “Cities I’ve Visited” Application.  It fits well with the branding of TripAdvisor.com (that being offering travel advice, reviews, and forums) and it is interesting enough that people would add the application (always interesting to see where people have traveled to).  However the application has a bit under 54,000 daily active users as of today, which is only 1% of the Facebook population.

Most popular applications are not done by Fortune 500 companies but rather by small start-ups or individuals.  Some popular ones include SuperWall, Flixster, Slide, Scrabulous to name a few.  I can see a couple of potential revenue streams that many are utilizing today - online advertising (banner and text ads) and affiliate referral commissions.  I’ve also seen merchandise being sold based off application characters like (Fluff)Friends and can see the potential for using an application as a lead generation tool to other games/programs/services a developer might sell outside of Facebook. 

In my opinion, the problem with these applications are the stickiness and loyalty of its user base.  I feel that popular applications one month quickly fizzle out to the next application the next month.  It’s almost like what’s the current flavor of the month?  Amongst my friends alone, I’ve seen mass interest jump from Scrabulous to (Fluff )Friends to Who Has The Biggest Brain? over the past 2-3 months alone.  Looking at applications from the business side, I question how much money should be invested in creating these applications.  There’s definitely alot of buzz surrounding applications and widgets but I’m not totally convinced that the buzz is actionable.

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The Power of the Internet

It’s funny how the power of the Internet is still a mystery to some in the corporate world.  Yes, it’s new.  Yes, it’s a change from traditional media such as television, print, and radio.  Yes, it’s still not fully understood.  Yes, it changes faster than other channels.  It’s also something that needs to be embraced and not taken for granted.  It has the ability to raise voices when you least expect it.  It also has a life of its on that would be extremely difficult for a large corporation to counteract.

We’ve all heard past stories of companies blissfully ignoring what’s going on the Internet while forum posts, user comments, and blog posts are being written about them and their products.  These days we are being taught these cautionary tales.  Whether it be in your business, through school, or your peers - it’s important to monitor what is being said out on the Internet.  Sadly, not all companies take this to heart and some are slow to adapt.

I tell a story of a chain of events where the power of the Internet is clear and apparent. 

Last week, I received my weekly newsletter email from the WOMMA (Word Of Mouth Marketing Association) and a headline catches my attention.  It reads CNN Blogger Fired for Having A Blog.  I immediately open it since I do blog and I will be employed somewhere after I complete my MBA this May.  The WOMMA posting leads me next to a blog post by Matthew Ingram, a Technical Writer for the Globe in Toronto.  Matthew writes a clear and concise posting on some of the issues surrounding Chez Pazienza, the fired CNN producer.  He links to other prominent bloggers and their postings and their opinions about the subject.  He also links to the Chez Pazienza’s own blog and his posting recalling his termination.

In short, Chez seems to have been fired for having his own blog, not disclosing it to his superiors, and becoming popular enough to be picked up on other websites.  The conflict of interest obviously lies in distribution of content however where are the lines drawn from what you do on the job to what you do in your free time?  Chez’s blog is a non-commercial entity that was written outside of his CNN producer position.  Sure, CNN has the right to investigate whether or not it is a conflict of interest but how many employees know about what really is a conflict of interest or not?  Should there be more explicit guidelines outlining what is acceptable and what is not? 

With the rampant trend of blogs popping up left and right, should companies have the right to terminate someone for expressing their opinion outside of the workplace?  I’m not sure of the answer to this but what I do know is that if someone at CNN didn’t like the fact that Chez Pazienza was blogging, firing him probably was not the best course of action.  The voice of one can quickly move around the Internet.  As apparent in this case, the viral nature of how far this story has spread is dramatic.  The voice that was created from one firing is now a linked collection of many voices around the Internet.  For a company like CNN that wants to embrace technology and blogs, it’s very interesting that they did not foresee this one firing developing into a much larger discussion.

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And Then There Were Two? A Look at The Microyahoosoft

No, it will never really be called Microyahoosoft or Microsofthoo or even Yahoosoft but the proposed $44.6 billion bid by Microsoft for Yahoo! was definitely really big news last Friday.  It takes two huge Internet players and creates a beast of a company that just might have a chance at slowing down the Google machine.  So what’s the potential impact of such a merger?  Let’s take a look at some of the obvious and not so obvious synergies:

Search and Advertising Platforms

The most obvious outcome of the proposed merger would be to combine the #2 and #3 players in the U.S. Search Market.  According to a CNN article, Google holds approximately 58.4% of the U.S. search market, while Yahoo has 22.9% and Microsoft’s share is just 9.8%.  In terms of online display ads, combined Microsoft and Yahoo! would control around a 25% share.  This is big business especially since it’s projected that online advertising could reach $60 billion by 2010.  Both Microsoft and Yahoo! have been struggling to keep up with Google.  Both companies search marketing tools are inferior to Google’s on a variety of dimensions.  Combining forces could help both companies share existing research, development, and other resources. 

E-Mail and IM 

A Microsoft-Yahoo! marriage would combine to create a force in E-Mail and Instant Messaging.  Adding a strong Microsoft Hotmail to #1 Yahoo! Mail only creates an even more dominant player.  Combing both MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger would allow more users to connect to one another.

Social Media

E-Mail and Instant Messaging creates instant networks that Microsoft-Yahoo! could tap into to use use to their advantage in the larger social network context. Also, a Microsoft-Yahoo! would have a much richer portfolio of web properties.  Combined you would have an interest in Facebook (which Microsoft has invested heavily in) and Yahoo! owned del.icio.us and Flickr.  Couldn’t you imagine a larger social network being developed that gets integrated with these web properties and overlayed by these e-mail and instant messaging networks? 

Mac vs. PC ads 

Yes,PC isn’t as cool as Mac.  But perhaps the proposed merger could give PC a flashy purple suit just as a shot of Yahoo! culture might be beneficial to Microsoft. 

All in all, just some food for thought.  We still have a bit of time to consider more effects of the proposed merger — if it does move forward, it probably won’t be finalized until the end of 2008.

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CNN: Don’t be US Weekly

It a sad commentary on what we value in society when Britney Spears’ hospital stay is the front page story over a little thing like the INTERNET going down for part of the world…

Posted in daily life, internet | No Comments »