My new Connect post offers comment on the FTC’s proposed move to legislate against bloggers who fail to declare their commercial interests, against the best interests of their readers. My view, essentially, is it’s understandable and has its merits, but that the battle for popularity on the web is so powerfully democratic as to render it meaningless.
Full post here
Filed under: Online content, Publishing | Leave a Comment »
Realising that ‘extracts’ might fall foul of Google’s duplication rules, I’ll write a very short precis in future of posts I write elsewhere, so…
My new Connect post looks at new figures from the IPA Search Group that show Google’s move to allow competitors to bid on brand terms has delivered higher CPCs and lower click-through rates – just what Google was hoping for probably.
Full post here
Filed under: Search | Tagged: brand bidding, brand terms, Google AdWords, IPA Search Group | Leave a Comment »
Extract:
“Subscriptions and micropayments were always a lovely idea but the reason they didn’t work back at the start of the millennium were nothing to do with internet penetration or dial-up speeds – they were fundamentally to do with choice. Their content wasn’t better enough to choose over all the free stuff.
Now that Murdoch has put a stake in the ground, one has to reconsider but, bearing in mind that blogging (and now Twitter) has taken off since the last time we all had a bash, that choice (and the quality and accessibility of that choice) has risen even further.”
Full post here
Filed under: Publishing, Trends | Tagged: micropayments, News Corp, Rupert Murdoch | Leave a Comment »
Extract:
Agency folk were given the graveyard spots in the schedule – most spoke in the last or penultimate session of the day. And – save where they had Google, mobile or social media in the session title – they were the least well attended.
But, they were all worth waiting for and, for those less interested in the practicalities of running websites and online campaigns, by far the most inspirational. For strategic insight, these it seemed to me were still the people you’d need to see.
Full post here
Filed under: Agencies, Events, Trends | Leave a Comment »
Extract:
“Even on the surface, it’s not hard to see how most of these tips for customer service can be ploughed directly into fast advice for how brands should think when seeking to engage in social media. For example, iCrossing’s basic model (understand your networks, be live in your networks, be useful to your networks), is much simpler but outlines exactly the same approach and applies whether you’re after direct sales or something softer.”
Full post here
Filed under: Social media | Leave a Comment »
Extract:
“For those with smartphones, which – until recently – was most of the people using Twitter, this was no real issue. Users have switched to applications on their phones (particularly their iPhones) or simply the mobile web to Twitter while on the move. But, for those with more basic phones, this was not so feasible.
That includes teens who – lately – have been discovering Twitter for themselves along with the beginnnings of the mass market as the service goes past tipping point. It is hard not to imagine the service being absolutely massive for this group, particularly if they can use SMS to send AND receive tweets.”
Full post here
Filed under: Mobile, Social media | Leave a Comment »
Extract:
“No, what’s most interesting and the reason I think investors are going to get all of their money back and a whole lot more is the idea of e-commerce accounts. Twitter CEO Evan Williams told Techcrunch last Summer that charging e-commerce businesses per follower, per update or per sale [or per click?] was a possibility. In them there hills lie gold.
So, imagine Amazon. Book fans follow Amazon to learn about new books for sale and special offers – with links. Every time I click on one, Amazon pays Twitter a fee. The company would set up an account for each of its departments (clothes, houseware, games etc.) and sub-classifications (horror books, trainers, Xbox 360 games). Automated update systems – plugged into product inventories – will be built. Entire ‘update strategies’ will be conceived (when? how often? what copy?). And, of course, marketing strategy will begin to ask ‘how do we attract followers?’ rather than ‘how do we get to the top of search rankings?’.”
Full post here
Filed under: Online advertising, Retail, Social media, Trends, web 2.0 | Leave a Comment »
Extract:
“While budgets might be shrunk, the amount of headspace we have at our disposal remains the same. And a good proportion of that space should still be devoted to understanding the way mobile devices are being used by customers, then the value brands might deliver as they do it.”
Full post here
Filed under: Mobile, Trends | Leave a Comment »
Extract:
“If RyanAir and the NUJ don’t care what bloggers think, they might at least consider what Google thinks of bloggers, since that will hit them right where it hurts.
“Both organisations have been at the centre of blog-hosted rows in which representatives have attacked bloggers in particular and – worse – blogging in general. A RyanAir representative said: “Lunatic bloggers can have the blogosphere all to themselves.” And the chair of the NUJ’s training committee said: “Bloggers rejoice in having lower standards.”
“A blogger could just as easily be a very senior national newspaper journalist or a blue-chip CEO as an 11 year-old malcontent, so the very idea that ‘bloggers’ is in itself a category of people to be written off or otherwise is astonishing.”
Full post here
Filed under: Social media | Leave a Comment »
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