Facebook Pages in Google?
GigaOm has an important scoop…
Now I have some skinny on a recent development that could have long-term ramifications, among them Google sending more traffic to Facebook.com.
The company will soon announce that some application canvas pages (ones that don’t require a special login) will become publicly indexable by search engines like Google. So for instance, our GigaOM Question Of The Day app can be indexed and made available in some limited form to people not logged onto Facebook. Apps get a public-facing web presence of their own.
If this is the case, imagine the SEO’ers scratching their head as they try to optimize their FB pages. At any rate, this is as good a reason as any for your company to start taking social media seriously.
From a Direct Marketing Perspective, Facebook Beacon is a Terrible Idea
Facebook really is boring me with their marketing attempts. I’ve basically begun to snub my nose at it because, quite simply, what they’ve rolled out so far will never work or sustain any sort of revenue for advertisers (or marketers). There are already too many concerns over privacy, data ownership and FB’s long term sustainability as a platform to cause much skirt hiking.
Beacon is a horrible idea and has been sloppily executed. It reminds me of the toolbar apps from 2002.
I like (love?) Facebook as a social network, but as a marketing paradigm, it’s just not a good fit… at least for marketing in its current stage of evolution. Perhaps one day marketing will be able to find employment in social networks, but at this point we’re still too closely linked to offline models and metrics that break down when you try to translate them to the social networking world (or the web in general in my opinion).
Google owns advertising and will continue to do so (especially after they move into mobile and/or release their GDrive application and start paying users to host their data in exchange for ads to compete with Amazon who will do the same… yeah, you heard me).
Tony Hung has a good run down of possible futures for Facebook if Beacon crumbles.
StarWars Goes Web2.0 With Yahoo Deal
I just received an email detailing a new partnership between Lucas Film’s StarWars franchise and Yahoo to promote the StarWars brand via a web2.0 style social network…
Look Who’s Back: Local TV
CenterNetworks has news of a partnership between Google and Hearst-Argyle Television:
Hearst-Argyle Television (NYSE:HTV) and Google have entered a new strategic agreement today where Hearst-Argyle, operator of 29 TV stations and more than 30 Websites, will become an official reseller and will use its Web sales force to provide marketers in its 26 local markets access to Google AdWords.
What this means is that Hearst-Argyle will now sell more comprehensive advertising solutions to its clients. Instead of just print and television, now they can also leverage online - helping to increase control over a client’s advertising budget.
Hearst-Argyle isn’t your daddy’s TV conglomerate anymore. With web properties such as HighSchoolPlaybook, they are branching out into a collaborative media group that is leveraging the existing (and dedicated) viewership of local TV stations to do a combination of traditional media buys, cost per action advertising and now collaborative deals with players such as Google.
Couple these social web properties and the deal with Google with increased political spending in ‘08 and the upcoming Olympics (Hearst-Argyle owns NBC affiliate stations), and the picture is quite rosy for the company.
Don’t overlook companies such as Hearst when discussing the future of media or social media… they could be pointing to the future of media attention and spending.
Seesmic is The Next Big Thing (I Think)
MarketingProfs has a nice piece on the up and coming Seesmic video site. While it is easy to dismiss Seesmic as Yet Another Video Site, there is a good deal of market differentiation which sets Seesmic apart. Think Twitter with video and the ability to really scale once the kids start playing with it:
What do you get when you combine video, social networking, micromedia, and a very savvy French entrepreneur? You get Seesmic.
The site is a social network where the primary content is video. Users record video, post it to the site, and other users reply in video.
Seesmic is the brainchild of French blog star Loic Le Meur and aims to do to video conversations what Twitter did to text-based conversations.
And here’s a little video I just did:
Video as a Personal Communication Tool
Widgets Helping Small Web Companies Succeed
I talk alot about widgets here (for good reason), and it seems that 2007 has lived up to its name of “The Year of the Widget.”
Here’s an interesting piece on a small company that made it big with a little help from the widget:
SAN FRANCISCO — For nearly a decade, GarageBand.com was the quintessential struggling Web company, barely hanging on as it burned through $17 million.
Until widgets.
Since it developed a widget, one of the mini-Web applications now flourishing on Facebook and other social-networking sites, the company — renamed iLike — has become an overnight sensation.
USA TODAY - Widgets Make a Big Splash on the Net
Tiny Google URLs?
John Gruber tweeted a great and intriguing thought tonight…
Almost a year ago, I responded to a ZDNet post calling TinyURL the "next YouTube" (saying that was a ludicrous proposition):
I can’t speak for Doc, but I don’t think he would agree that TinyURL is a stealth intention engine. It’s a way to send links without taking up too much space. It’s not YouTube. It’s not an intention engine. It’s not an attention engine. Simply put, it’s a useful tool, but it’s one that is quickly becoming obselete as the intention architecture of the web as we know it continues to change.
After a year of using Twitter, I have to admit that I wish there was a URL shortening service that I knew would be around for years and years since my tweets are being indexed and I would love for the links there to continue to point to their intended targets for perpetuity. Using TinyURL or any of the other URL shortening services is putting a great deal of hope and faith in their longevity and good intentions.
So, while I still don’t think TinyURL is the next YouTube, I think John may be on to something… a URL shortening service from a major player would be more than welcome for those us confining our thoughts (and intentions) into 140 characters on an hourly basis.
Twitter / John Gruber: I wish Google offered a URL…
Don’t Have Time for RSS?
I use Google Reader to plow through about 500 feeds (mostly marketing or tech related) and publicly "share" items that I find particularly interesting throughout the day.
If you’d like to get into the whole RSS or syndication thing but don’t have time to read through a bunch of feeds, you can subscribe to (or just visit) my shared items page. Consider it a "best-of" the affiliate, search, performance and tech marketing universe.
samharrelson’s shared items
Google Reader -samharrelson’s shared items
Privacy and Permission
Earlier this week I was on a social media panel for the Triangle Interactive Marketing Association in Raleigh, NC with pr guru Peter Shankman.
We were speaking to a highly marketing literate crowd of about 100 or so offline and online companies interested in the social media space. The question of privacy came up, and Peter made the excellent point that:
"Privacy is currency."
This is an incredibly powerful statement for marketers to keep in mind as we explore and try to find the new metrics that will adequately measure the online space. I brought up the issue of "attention metrics" and "attention currency" when someone asked about how to monetize Twitter or Facebook. Looking back, I think Peter’s theory of privacy currency is even more compelling and takes things like attention into its fold.
Keep that in mind when deploying social media campaigns or when attempting to "monetize" Facebook et al.
In relation to Peter’s point, my closing statement went along the lines of "online privacy might be a tightly held currency and an illusion, but permission is not."
In other words, the marketing metrics of the 21st century (both online, offline and in the strange hybrid of relativist space that exists between them) will swing between the pendulums of privacy and permission.
Magnify.net’s New Video Blogging Platform
Magnify.net is one of the most interesting places on the web if you’re int video, aggregation or user generated content.
They’re announcing a new video blogging platform today to be led by a daily show from one of my favorite online people, Chris Brogan.
NEW YORK - November 16, 2007 — Video Blogging goes mainstream with a new free service. Magnify.net today announced that they will enable anyone who is interested in video blogging to jump in, without needing a video camera, a deck or even web design software.
Magnify.net is releasing to private beta, a new video blogger in a box toolset with an intuitive, plug-and-play Webcam capture tool that allows creators to build a Vlog page, put up all their own graphics and design elements. With just a webcam, their Vlog can go live. Magnify.net also offers stylish and slick templates to make the graphic design process drag-and-drop simple.
Podcamp co-founder and online media guru Chris Brogan will host a daily video blog called “Attention Upgrade” to showcase Magnify’s new platform during the private beta. Chris Brogan and Magnify.net are inviting others to request an invitation if they are interested in video blogging and providing feedback at privatebeta@magnify.net
