LeapCast - LFI University: 04.17.08 - The Social Media Landscape
Join Katina French and Scott Million as they discuss Social Media 101 and changes to the Social Media Landscape.
LeapCast - LFI University: 04.17.08 - The Social Media Landscape: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadIf Content is King, Does User Generated Content Create a Media Democracy?
In the 20th century, it was said that, “Content is king.” Consumers and marketing professionals alike have observed this after years and years of experience with traditional media outlets such as television and print. Marketing professionals know their message will reach wider, larger audiences when bundled with content that is in high demand by a large and varied group of consumers such as an episode of ABC’s Lost or an issue of the New York Times. Since there’s good marketing money to be made by producing content that reaches a wide audience, an impetus to increase the quality and value of content was placed on content producers. The result is (arguably) better television programming, better magazines, and better news papers. The consumer wins in this situation at the cost of seeing some marketing materials along the way. Thankfully, humanity didn’t forget who the King was when the 21st century dawned on mankind and ushered with it the internet as a ubiquitous part of our lives! Competition is so fierce for a consumer’s attention that quality content has become a baseline starting point, and not just something to separate the NBC’s from the CBS’s. The internet can be like a full cable package: 5,000,000,000,000 channels and nothing’s on.
The internet, in this author’s humble opinion, is probably the most level playing field humanity has ever seen. Individuals can now speak with the same authority as global corporations and reach audiences traditionally reserved for world leaders! This has been a very fortunate side-effect of the internet’s presence in our lives. Sites like Flickr, YouTube, and MySpace allow consumers to get their pictures, videos, and songs out to the masses. This also means that traditional media outlets now have millions of new competitors for consumer’s eyeballs…
So where does this leave everyone? Some advertisers have taken a hint from the sale of user generated content hubs like YouTube and MySpace and realized that the future may be in the melding of amateur content and advertising campaigns. We’ve seen a steady increase in the number of advertiser promotions over the years that allow consumers to submit their content whether it be recipes, photos, or full videos. This provides a brand a direct channel of interaction with consumers that are brand advocates, brand fans, and brand aware. The benefit to consumers is that they are given a chance to publicly attach their identity to a brand while also being given a chance to win something. Advertisers get an additional benefit, particularly in publicly judged contests, from their participants telling their friends/family/coworkers about their entry into a contest which drives more traffic to the brand’s site. Who doesn’t want their mom to see their video on Jeep.com? This trend is likely to continue strongly in to the future, and for now, shows no sign of slowing down…
tags:user generated content web 2.0 web2.0 word of mouth marketing youtube
5 “Next Big Things” That Weren’t That Big
When it comes to interactive marketing, where everyone is constantly scanning for the next big thing, there’s big potential everywhere, but in the words of Jerry Maguire, it’s like popcorn in the pan: some pop, some don’t. So lets take a look at some recent properties that had strong buzz in the last year, but didn’t quite hit those high expectations.
1. Second Life. Yes, you can argue that certain specific brands were able to effectively leverage a presence in Second Life for some significant ROI, but on the whole, the platform hasn’t yet lived up to the hype it received in its early days.
Why not? Because the vast majority of consumers are overtaxed trying to keep up with their first life, much less a digital second one.
2. Myspace. As with Second Life, some industries (the music industry in particular) have had great success with Myspace as a marketing platform. But other industries are rapidly losing interest in favor of its collegiate cousin, Facebook and its inviting open API.
Why not? Because most brands lack the understanding and willingness to commit time and resources to effective social network marketing. And it’s just not a great fit for every company.
3. Ask.com. This time last year, industry insider buzz was pointing to Ask.com as a hot contender to seriously challenge Google in search. A year later, Ask has yet to make a serious dent in Google’s search dominance.
Why not? It may be that Ask waited too long. Improved results and a snazzier algorithm isn’t enough to take on Google, now that their acquisitions take them far beyond search.
4. YouTube. When Google made its historic purchase of the video portal, speculation ran wild that online video was going to completely take over interactive marketing. While video continues to grow, the pace has been decidedly slower than some expected.
Why not? The head geeks at Google are still wrapping their prodigious minds around both the copyright implications of YouTube and developing a workable revenue model. YouTube will probably live up to the buzz eventually, but the industry may have expected too much, too soon.
5. Mobile. Technological innovations that enable marketers to advertise across networks has created tremendous interest in mobile and SMS marketing in the last year, but so far advertisers have been slow to test the waters.
Why not? Considering the wide penetration cell phones and other mobile devices have, this one is probably more a matter of time than anything else. Once an effective infrastructure is in place and some key industry leaders emerge, mobile truly could be the next big thing.