Healthy Blog Reviews

This week one of the richest and most influential men in business and the world, Larry Ellison, founder and CEO of Oracle Systems, gave his opinion on corporate blogging. Well, at least he gave his opinion on one attempt at corporate blogging and it strikes right at the core of some things that the social media and Internet marketing communities claim as near and dear to their heart. Ellison attacked what many have held up as one of the prime examples of a company creating content through executive blogs and more. In fact, he didn’t just attack it; he crushed it. The focus is on the Sun Microsystems purchase that was completed in January of this year. Sun’s former CEO Jonathan Schwartz, who resigned his post with a tweeted haiku in February of this year , has gotten a lot of attention for his CEO level outreach through blogs. I have even admired it. A quote from Ellison though, makes it clear what his stance is on the matter. This comes from InformationWeek . “The underlying engineering teams are so good, but the direction they got was so astonishingly bad that even they couldn’t succeed,” said Ellison. “Really great blogs do not take the place of great microprocessors. Great blogs do not replace great software. Lots and lots of blogs does not replace lots and lots of sales.” Sun became the poster child for content creation that came from all parts of the company. Trouble is the company lost $2.2 billion last year so Mr. Ellison may have a point here. It’s like writing a journal while the Titanic sank. If someone actually read it there may be value but the bigger issue of impending death outweighs it by far. I think Ellison views this corporate foray into blogging as if Schwartz is a modern day Nero. As Sun Microsystems crashed and burned around him he was blogging much like the Roman emperor played his lyre while Rome was being consumed by fire. I wonder how he feels about the efforts by Oracle execs to blog ? Is that adding to the bottom line of Oracle these days? So is this call for transparency and openness throughout companies really necessary if it doesn’t add to the bottom line? Or could it be argued that if there wasn’t the blogs that kept some Sun customers engaged that the company may have failed even more severely? Were there any metrics in place to see what effect the culture of blogging at Sun had on the bottom line? If not, was this just a spectacular PR play that got people to pay attention to Sun’s willingness to “communicate” rather than concentrate on keeping the business afloat? We would LOVE to hear from any current or former Sun bloggers or employees to get your take on this. There are more questions being posed here than answers so any help would be appreciated. Did this culture of blogging cover up a bad business plan that was doomed to fail despite some of the best engineering talent as Mr. Ellison claims or was it really just as exiting CEO Schwartz said in his farewell tweet. Financial crisis/Stalled too many customers/CEO no more I think if you asked Larry Ellison he’d tweet Wrote too many posts / While company crashed and burned / There’s the door use it So what’s your take and if you can give it in a 5/7/5 syllable format then you get extra points for having nothing better to do this fine day.

Tags: culture, internet, Internet Marketing, larry ellison, love, microsystems, opinion, oracle, oracle systems, Social, Social Media, year
Posted May 15, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

A few months ago I started following Mona on Twitter. The best way to describe Mona is quite simply, fun. She has a ton of fun with social media and always seems to be “on”. Because of which, it wasn’t a huge surprise that MySpace signed her this week as their newest full time social media marketer. Prior to her work at MySpace, Mona, was a project manger at Oracle, then went on to freelance consulting up until MySpace snagged her up! I asked Mona if she wouldn’t mind answering a few questions about her new job at MySpace. For our benefit she graciously agreed! Joe: So you are working at MySpace that’s awesome! What exactly do you do there? Mona: Supplementing existing marketing initiatives with social media magic! Joe: You mentioned in your recent blog post that you are in charge of MySpace’s Facebook fan page. Are you crazy? Do people at Facebook hate you? Have you been FacePunched? But seriously, how are you using Facebook to promote MySpace and do you see any conflicts with this strategy? Mona: Since I am a nutjob, I more than welcome crazy! But on a serious note, teenagers — the MySpace demo even on our Facebook fan page — are people too. Even if I am insulted by the community (unprovoked) on a daily basis, there has been more positive than negative reactions. I am pleasantly surprised — or more caught off guard. My goal with the Facebook fan page is to reinvigorate our brand and turn the fan page into a community. As much as I would like to achieve that with only MySpace content, I did not think it was a good idea. When Sean and I took over, the fan page was not curated and the tone not set. My gut told me the the community would not react well to MySpace (a brand) suddenly coming in and treating the page like a billboard. The Internet has always been a medium where interaction and engagement is necessary. By increasing our presence with sharing meme items while subtly mixing our native content, the reactions have been excellent, enthusiastic even. The community members are not as vile as outsiders (adults?) assume. This is still the beginning so I am looking forward to how this page will evolve. As for conflicts, I say there are none. Social media is the best thing to happen to brands. I think general consensus of the public is that they are tired of companies megaphoning one-way content.  We are in an age where the Internet is a part of the mass’ daily routines. Simply: brand presence across all platforms is pertinent, and Facebook is only one outlet we are utilizing to tap into the conversation. With the backing of extremely progressive marketing leadership, we are taking full advantage of this opportunity –even if we are a social company. I think the folks over at Facebook are amused. A Facebook engineer friend has even called my efforts… cute. haha Joe: You are helping to promote one of the most well-known brands on the Internet. How are you and your colleagues engaging users in an authentic way while continuing to maximize ROI? Mona: Our current focus is on product — we have a lot of exciting things in the pipeline I cannot wait to share. One recent example is the MySpace music blog that recently moved to WordPress  — which even surprised me. But I have to constantly remind myself MySpace is a platform built playing catch-up to its growth. Fortunately we have sharp, tech savvy folks working as fast as they can to rectify rudimentary aspects on up. We still have an enormous amount of traffic that is begging to be leveraged differently, and better than before. ROI maximization is in alignment with the product timeline. That said, we are currently doing what we can with the available resources to market our brand. Joe: Here at Marketing Pilgrim we talk a lot about promoting products and services. While some may argue that social networking is a service, it seems that you are promoting more of an “experience” than a product or service. Does this require a different type of strategy? Or can we apply the same marketing methods that we use for products? Mona: Our message is an experience with the product: “Discover and be discovered.” Emphasis on product will be made as features and functions are ready for use. But do not hold me to that — we are a technology company and things change on a daily basis! As for strategy, my colleagues who most (if not all) have strong entertainment backgrounds. I am fortunate to work with them as a team to learn together and find ways to best collaborate old and new media. So essentially, we are paving the path for a new model which combines product and a service. As I write that out, I think to myself: Wow, I am so lucky. Joe: I think many folks have mentioned that MySpace’s central demographic is younger than most of the other social media sites. Are young adults using social media differently? And if so are you and your colleagues putting more emphasis on any one area of socal media while you promote MySpace? (i.e. real time data, social engagement, location based networks, content distribution) Mona: This is my personal observation, but I believe so. Wait. Let me back up. In general, there are three types of Internet users. Loosely, those who: 1. creators (sharers, broadcasters, content providers) 2. commenters (taggers — those who like, comment, favorite etc.) and 3. viewers (lurkers — those who none of the above and simply consume) The past year or two have been fascinating to watch as someone who has been online since I could speak. The growth and explosion of the Internet and user generated content is astounding. Data and content is democratizing. Twitter and Facebook have made it so easy for people of all ages to do one or all of the above. Facebook, also took social networking to the next level by personalizing content. For example photo tagging, liking and commenting which are genius ways to re-connect and connect people, as well as expanding your social graph. Now that the shininess of personal social networking is dwindling we are seeing social gaming peaking, which enables users to socialize in a different way. For teenagers, it’s a little different. Think back to when you were in middle, even high school. I don’t know about you, but when I was in my teens I did not want people — especially my friends — to know and see every detail of my life. I was afraid my family would find out my daily activities (not that I was doing anything illegal DISCLAIMER) but I was more self conscious about what my peers thought and my reputation. MySpace, gives teens — well people of all ages for that matter, an outlet to express themselves differently. Whether it be with pop culture, music, media or by profile customization, they are not required to share their real selves. So to answer your question do youths use social media differently? Definitely yes but the fundamental actions are the same: 1. create and broadcast 2. simple interactions — comment and like or 3. only consume. It’s no secret MySpace needs a lot of help but that is slowly but surely changing. We are rolling out one and all of the features you mentioned (real time, sharing, liking, etc.) but in a way that best fits our brand. This is a huge step since folks from entertainment backgrounds normally do not advocate content sharing. Needless to say, MySpace is fortunate to have such progressive leadership — Angela Courtin, Jason Kirk and Sean Percival, particularly. Separately, I am a believer in community. I will do all and everything it takes to turn MySpace into a brand that is known to engage with its users… who are our customers. Joe: Is there any MySpace koolaid left? And if so where can we get some? Mona: I guzzled it all and chased it with the iPad KoolAid.

Tags: colleagues, daily, internet, marketing, MySpace, oracle, Social, social-networking
Posted April 17, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

Well, have you been able to gather yourself after the iPad finally launched this weekend? There was significant buzz around this event that appears to started out with 300,000 units sold (200,000 of those were pre-orders). Lines formed at all the Apple stores in the US but I found it rather funny that in an interview segment conducted by the Wall Street Journal featured a rather tired sounding mom getting 2 iPads for her kids and another guy who was there waiting in line because he Mom told him to get her one! Well, advertisers are hoping that the rest of these 298,998 users of the iPad are ready to accept some advertising. We have looked at this before at MP but now that the iPad is on the street we’ll take another peek. Clickz tells us a little more . Hoping to capitalize on the massive hype surrounding the launch of Apple’s iPad device, major advertisers have forked out substantial sums to align themselves with some of the dedicated applications now on offer. According to reports, and echoed by interactive agency sources in New York, advertisers are spending between $75,000 and $300,000 to secure sponsorships of applications at launch, typically for a period of one or two months. Some of these sponsorships are initially being sold at flat rates. What is probably most interesting is the initial 300,000 sold came in low from some estimates so those buying expecting more reach may have been a little disappointed. Many advertisers though figure that tying their brand to the initial frenzy that accompanies Apple launches like this one could be worth the risk. Jason Klein, co-president of interactive agency LBi U.S., said the high-profile sponsorships are just attempts to capitalize on the hype surrounding the device. “It’s not necessarily a matter of the immediate impression impact. Reach and frequency take a back seat to the novelty and PR impact of being associated with a launch like this.” he said. Some of the brands jumping on early include Chase Sapphire who sponsored the New York Times free application launch and intends to stick with this for a few months. Of course, the Wall Street Journal is sticking to its guns and going the paid app route with a variety of sponsorship partners. It is likely that the WSJ is putting a stake in the ground saying essentially that nothing is free anymore regardless of what people say. I actually think it is a smart move because if the New York Times ever wants to charge for anything regarding the iPad it will have to turn its free-appers (my term for freeloaders in an app driven world) into paid customers and that doesn’t usually work so well. The Wall Street Journal’s paid application launched last week with sponsorship from major global brands including Buick, Capital One, Coca-Cola, FedEx and Oracle, all of which will make use of full-screen interstitial ads which appear in between article and section pages as the user consumes content through the application. All in all it is just way too early to tell if there will be any true value to the iPad platform for advertisers. What will be telling for those interested in just how viable this new medium is for advertising efforts are the sales figures in the next month or two. With the economy still on the fritz there could be a sizable market sitting on the sidelines waiting for the reviews of the iPad to come in. Thus far the buzz has been much more positive than negative but the slower than expected first day sales usually is an indicator of a rough road ahead. If people are not willing to experiment right out of the gate they will come up with excuses to continue to sit on the sidelines. Product introductions like this depend on blockbuster initial day sales because it is the thing that tells everyone else who wants to play with the cool kids that it’s a good thing to do. OK, Mr. or Mrs. Advertiser, are you getting ready to jump in the iPad express or are you going to where more people are? Is this initial iPad crowd influential enough to make you think again about jumping in? So many questions and so few answers but considering this has only been around or 2 days maybe we should relax a little and let something actually happen.

Tags: Apple, cool, funny, initial, iPad, kids, Local/Mobile, oracle, sales, sidelines, street, street-journal, user
Posted April 5, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

With the introduction of the iPad to the marketplace on April 3rd there has been some strong activity from advertisers looking to get a spot on many publishers’ iPad apps. This kind of activity is a testament to the power of Apple and its ability to create a stir with its new products. The New York Times Reports : Getting ready for the April 3 iPad introduction, FedEx has bought advertising space on the iPad applications from Reuters, The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek. Chase Sapphire, a credit card for the high-end market, has bought out The New York Times’s iPad advertising units for 60 days after the introduction. These are strong indicators of interest early on but there are a few factors that may be attributing to the initial interest in ads. Not the least of which is that many savvy advertisers are seeing that while they are spending ad dollars on a pre-market product with a small advertising audience (about 200,000 pre-orders for the iPad at the moment), they could be getting a bigger bang for their buck. How? Their ad money will get them a seat on the “Apple Express” which will be the media hype and buzz about the product itself. Imagine the number of screenshots of various apps that will be used in blog posts etc to show the iPad to the world. The reach of that iPad app ad suddenly gets much bigger at least in the early stages. Big names in advertising are lining up for the start and it will likely make many stand up and take notice. Advertisers including Unilever, Toyota Motor, Korean Air and Fidelity have booked space on Time’s iPad application. In a draft press release, The Journal said a subscription to its app would cost $17.99 a month, and the first advertisers included Capital One, Buick, Oracle, iShares and FedEx. Of course this is a completely new venue for advertisers and many questions remain including just how will these ads look on the iPad. Also, since Flash is an Apple no-no many advertisers will need to re-jigger existing ads to fit the new platform. So will this initial buzz be long lasting? That is impossible to predict. Questions about pricing for the ads regarding whether they should be flat rate or per impression charge are things that will be hammered out over time. Some publishers are looking for higher rates than their print offerings. There are questions about success metrics for iPad ads. Honestly, they are all perfectly normal and valid business questions that are going to need time to see just what a good answer looks like. Maybe it was best said by Mark Ford, president of the Time Inc. News Group, which includes Time and Sports Illustrated Mr. Ford said that while advertiser interest had been intense, “we’re all learning.” “It’s a moving target,” he said. Hmmm. Taking time to learn and see just what will happen versus getting all antsy about what might happen. Mr. Ford, please stop making sense. On that very fair, reasonable and logical note I will wish you a fine weekend. Take care.

Tags: Apple, credit-card, flash, initial, introduction, iPad, journal, media, oracle, power, street, time
Posted March 26, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media