Charlene Li predicts that ‘Personal CPM’ innovations will figure in the social media/marketing front in 2009. Personal CPM is one of the more interesting outcomes of joining up social media with consumer marketing. The idea is to analyze social behavior to more accurately target consumers. In Charlene’s words, “Each person’s profile will command a different, personal CPM based on a … Read More
MrTweet mines influenceville
An application called MrTweet caught my attention over the weekend, mostly due to a discussion on influence initiated by its creator, Steve Ming Yeow Ng. Check out the discussion at the MrTweet blog. Two important points from the discussion: 1. Influence is in the eye of the audience. 2. No such thing as a universal grade for influence. These points … Read More
Blogs aren’t what they used to be
Duncan raises some good points about the evolution of blogs and microblogs (i.e. Twitter). Blogging is becoming the online publishing platform of choice in many industries, from politics to pharma. This has a couple of implications for influencer programs in 2009. Top of my list, is that 2009 should see the end of consternation over classifying influencers as “bloggers” or … Read More
Do we need new labels for PR, AR and corporate comms?
Many of us are thinking about how we weave influencer relations and social media into traditional marketing programs. Todd Defren, a popular blogger and principal at SHIFT Communications, spends a lot of time on this, and in particular on the intersection of PR and social media. He’s raised a valid question: is there a point where the label “PR agency” … Read More
Does influence equal online popularity?
Today I saw 2 more threads in the ongoing debate over whether social media popularity is a good way to measure influence. First, my colleague Duncan Brown writes that Google is launching an AdWords-style SEM program across big social networks. As an online publisher, I can see how this Google program makes perfect sense for media buyers. It will play … Read More
Social media driving competition for purchase influence
Tom Smith’s guest post at Mashable makes the point that we now trust the opinions of strangers as much as we trust our close friends, thanks to social media. He’s highlighting findings from the Universal McCann study, “When did we start trusting strangers”. Don’t let yourself get lulled into thinking this phenomenon is taking place only in consumer markets. Social … Read More
Oracle blends influencers into community
Vinnie Mirchandani is one the enterprise IT influencers not attending Oracle OpenWorld in the flesh this year. Instead, he’s plugging into event content and buzz through the new “Oracle OpenWorld 2008 Influencer Community.” Smart move by Oracle. Oracle invited media and bloggers alike to join this event-specific influencer community. That means bloggers don’t need to request access from different marketing … Read More
BuzzLogic converts influencer blogs into ad network
Voices arguing that blogger popularity does not equate to influence lost a little more ground this week. A new ad network promises to deliver influential blogs to media buyers. My reaction is a mix of cheering and concern. What’s up: San Francisco-based BuzzLogic has launched its BuzzLogic Ad Targeting service. Essentially, the service enables companies to identify and place ads … Read More
The rough cut: what is an analyst blog?
What is a blog? How would you define an industry analyst blog? What separates blogs from the other online destinations and channels published by the ICT analyst community? Is a blog still a blog without an RSS feed? comments? Is an analyst blog tied to his or her expertise? Yesterday, I asked ten or so analysts and consultants in the … Read More
Zen and the art of blog directory maintenance
The Tekrati directory of analyst blogs is easier to use, offers more information and is better integrated with its sister directories, on analysts and analyst firms. What’s more, we migrated the OPML to the latest rev and did an extensive housecleaning on the listings. Richard handled the programming effortlessly, as always. I, on the other hand, am still wrestling with … Read More