• http://www.theequitykicker.com/2010/03/10/most-platforms-start-as-applications/
• http://mashable.com/2010/02/17/salesforce-com-chatter-2/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%253A+Mashable+%2528Mashable%2529

I think we are at a very interesting point in time in terms of development of how we use the web to make our everyday lives easier. I’ver used Salesforce in a couple of places I’ve worked and do not necesarilly have a competitor to compare it to, but when I’ve used it it is incredibly powerful. I’ve also worked in places where they don’t have any form of CRM, which is a big mistake, whatever the size of the business.

Thinks there’s lot more innovation to come for the industry… Bring it on!!

Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

At the weekend I managed to brake and dislocated my little toe on my size 11 left foot….. By walking into a door frame…..

Very frustrating as cannot move, had to cancel all my meetings and had to endure a terrible experience at the Kings College Hospital A&E.

Anyway as a result I’ve been able to find a few interesting bits to share:

• ASOS’s progressive new approach to social media
• Discussion on local media models
• Archant online revenues up
• Buy.at gobbled up by Affiliate Window in the world of affiliate markting to create mamouth UK affiliate network

Since leaving affilinet I have been able to take some time out for reflection (which has been great!) and spend a bit more time looking at what others are doing in the online media world via blogs, publications and social media. At a party, I even got chatting to a good friend who work s in display/behavioral targeting who was preaching the that the future was Social Media!

What I have noticed is that everybody has gone social media mad!!! Whether it is about the benefits, measuring effectiveness or the development and size of the market everybody is talking about it.

The first thing I saw that made me sit up in my seat was the news via NetImperative about how Pepsi had traded TV for social media. They shifted a massive $20 million earmarked for the TV ads in the Superbowl coverage for a social media campaign leading up to, while in play and after the game.

Many people have said that social media is very expensive because of the work required to build a following and constantly engage people. I found this interesting presentation on how social media ROI works by Oliver Blanchard. To paraphrase he claims that many businesses look at social media in isolation in relation to the bottom line, rather than looking at it as part of the bigger picture.

The power of social media is incredible, lets take the example set by Tiffany Philippou who set up a Facebook group as part of a graduate project Secret London which has now, through the viral spread, created the opportunity to set up a business. Tiffany is planning a network of these groups, which can be seen here: http://secretcities.com/

Social media also has a roll to play in relation to SEO. Twitter is a great tool for providing Google and other search engines fresh content and lots of relevant backlinks. Several eccomerce businesses I have met (who wish to remain anonymous!) within the industry have told me how this has benefited their SEO rankings and helped them drive more sales.

Overall the role of social media has and will continue to increase in our lives. As a 28 year old I am part of the generation that didn’t know what life was like before telephones… How the hell did they organise stuff! As we move forward the children of the last ten to fifteen years will not know life without the internet, integrating their real world and our online lives even more so than today.

I’m having a break for a little bit then looking to get back into the work of paid employment in the summer. I’m particularly interested in local media (after my work with Kingsroad.co.uk),  mobile, video or social media. The last three are all greowth markets in online currently I am keen to expand my knowledge base.

If you think their are opportunties then feel free to get in touch: jack.rutter@yahoo.co.uk

Image: Tim Beach / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The idea for this blog post came from the reems and reems of online column inches i have come across recently covering hyperlocal. Having an interest in it myself via Cutmedia.com and the first flagship publication Kingsroad.co.uk, i thought i should give my thoughts and allow anybody that is interested to check out the stories I have come across recently.

Recently I went to an event held at Channel 4 by 4ip where they are very keen to try and help young start ups with funding on projects that will help to shape the media industry. Whilst working out if Cutmedia.com could benefit from a partnership with 4ip i met a lecturer from Goldsmiths University called Angela Phillips. She is currently looking for funding with one of her projects, which is also focussed on hyperlocal, although that is all she would tell me!

We discussed the opportunity of hyperlocal and after a while got on to the topic of journalists and how they need to be innovative and play a more proactive role on the business side of their media work. I certainly think they need to pay more attention to how money and profit is generated as part of their business.

Many people in and around journalism fall in love with the romantic idea of the discipline and fail to understand how money and their wages are paid, which i think is  very dangerous. For them journalism is firstly about holding people in power to account, getting a scoop before anybody else and producing killer articles that demostrate the written skills they were born with and secondly a business. I think that this is naive,  especially in the light of the redundancies that have happen across the industry over the last year or so.

There are many ways in which publishers can generate revenue for their businesses and i expect that they will keep evolving over time as the publishing industry reinvigorates itself. The main task publishers face is to create robust products that can pay for for editorial so journalists can go and hold people in power to account, get that scoop and show us all what great writers they are.

Content alone does not pay the wages and the quicker they learn that the better.

New business models for journalism is something that has been discussed in the following articles:

• http://www.buzzmachine.com/2009/11/01/the-future-of-journalism-is-entrepreneurial – Jeff jarvis
• http://www.unlimitedmagazine.com/blog/?p=1264 – Unlimitedmagazine.com
• http://www.groundreport.com/Media_and_Tech/The-Hyperlocal-News-Market-Key-Players-and-What-Th/2910236 – Rachel Stern

• George Monbiot: Local newspapers are dying – but are they worth saving? (blogs.journalism.co.uk)

Whilst it never quite descends into the levels of violence seen throughout Ennio Morricone’s film, using the term ‘lead generation’ today in front of advertisers, agency workers or even your average Joe on the street can lead to questioning looks.

How has this happened? Too many times lead generation campaigns have pushed a huge volume of leads of questionable quality, leaving a bad taste in advertisers’ mouths that is only recently beginning to be turned around. Campaigns were based around heavily incentivised creative and featured on poor quality sites resulting in data that bore little or no relevance to the target demographics of the advertiser.

However, as so often happens in online advertising, the landscape has changed. Publishers are placing the emphasis on quality leads, achieved through transparency, accountability and technological developments. Leads can be dependent upon the fulfilment upon a number of criteria, whittling down the number of accepted leads to include only those of real value for the advertiser. Remnant inventory is also leveraged to enable leads to be captured from IASH accredited websites that fit with the target demographic – any incentive to opt in purely for a prize or free offer is also removed. For a mobile phone operator, the content could sit on an established technical review site, with criteria as follows (criteria of up to 20 questions in length is not uncommon):

Are you currently nearing the end of your contract: Yes

Would you be willing to consider a shift to a different operator/network: Yes

Postal/ZIP codes and email addresses are verified, phone numbers qualified by number of digits and names scanned for a set list of false identities – Mickey Mouse etc. Only after these criteria have been met will the lead then by cross-checked against the advertiser’s database in real time to determine if that contact is already in their system. Once the lead is verified, most publishers will then send a solus email to the confirmed lead, instantly targeting them at their warmest. Companies with the capacity to do so can also feed these leads directly through to their call centres, vastly increasing conversion rates for products with a high order value or long-term commitment.

Through the development of tracking technologies, the value of leads can also be made highly accountable – in a world where ROI is pushed increasingly to the fore, this is invaluable. To give an automotive example, an individual lead’s journey can be tracked from its inception through to a test drive, and then through to final sale. A cruise brochure sent as PDF can be tracked back to the booking of the actual cruise. What this allows is for the advertiser to see the actual ROI of the leads that are being generated, based upon the price of the lead itself, any additional efforts needed to complete the process through to final sale, and the value of the sale.

As an affirmation of the work that has been carried out by publishers to rebuild the reputation of lead generation, these changes have been reiterated by guiding voices such as the IAB, who in November 2008 launched a lead generation taskforce to educate advertisers on the benefits of the channel. The recent result of this is a series of white papers aiming at illustrating its benefits to the very marketers who have been questioning its value until so recently.

Despite all of this, those involved in lead generation cannot afford to become complacent – even now, just by Googling the term ‘lead generation’ you are greeted with a sea of companies offering their services, not all of whom seem to be of a sufficient quality to aid in the channel’s renaissance. By adhering to the core values that have seen lead generation move from a misconceived specialism to a regular presence on media plans, we can continue the move from ‘The Good, The Bad And The Ugly’ and move towards another Spaghetti Western, where we can all clutch ‘A Fistfull Of Dollars’.

If you mention the words `mobile` and `TV` to the average person they`ll probably conjure up images of clunky old portable TVs with their massive aerials and access to just the basic analogue terrestrial channels. Mention these words to a slightly more tech-savvy person and they might point out that you can buy portable TVs with built in Freeview tuners that allow you to watch digital TV on the go. However, both of these formats are limited by the fact that they only function within certain areas, have inadequate reception capabilities so if you`re on the go you won`t always see a whole show, and are also trying to squeeze the widescreen world of modern television onto a smaller format. Basically, it`s just not the same and that`s why not many people have bought into the idea. However, there is a new mobile TV solution on the horizon which piggybacks on the popularity of mobile phones and particularly mobile internet in the UK. Mobile Internet TV is an exciting new wave of on demand video services crafted exclusively for a mobile format, and though the technology has had a rocky start, the future is looking bright.

Mobile Internet TV – Origins

When 3G, the third generation of mobile telecommunications networking technology, was rolled out a few years ago, mobile TV services was one of the key things it boasted thanks to the increased data transfer rates possible over 3G networks. In 2006 the UK was one of the first countries in the world to open up a mobile TV service, with BT at the forefront. However in just a year the service was shut down because of the lack of compatible devices and a slow consumer take up. Thankfully technology has moved on and now more and more manufacturers are gearing up their handsets with 3G connectivity and mobile internet TV compatibility for the future. Handsets like Nokia`s N96 is particularly ahead of the curve with compatibility with BBC`s iPlayer service and compatibility with the mobile internet broadcasting standard DVB-H.

Mobile Internet TV – Services and Future

Though it has taken a few years to convince the public to watch television services on their mobile devices the falling cost of using mobile internet services and the increasing amount of content produced exclusively for mobiles is changing that trend. Mobile networks like T-Mobile are offering customers on certain tariffs the chance to have unlimited access to mobile internet services via 3G which allow users to access mobile internet TV services. The BBC offers clips and updates from their News channel exclusively to mobile users, and services like ROK TV offer a subscription based mobile internet TV service for their users. This includes programs and channels covering sports, comedy, music, the arts and technology so you`ll be spoiled for choice. Aardman animation, the company behind Wallace and Gromit, have a mobile internet TV channel, as do National Geographic, and the Film 24 service offers great programmes for film buffs, all direct and exclusive to mobile internet TV viewers.

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• You: Mobile TV ‘very slow’ to take off (news.bbc.co.uk)
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After a very well run marketing campaign Affiliate Window have

told the world what their new Darwin products is. From early feedback I understand that they have tried to make their affiliate interface a bit more like a social network, meaning (in theory) that affiliates and advertisers can get in touch more effectively.

http://blog.affiliatewindow.com/?p=450

Feedback on the affiliates4u forum has been mixed so far, check it out:

http://www.affiliates4u.com/forums/affiliate-window/113387-darwin-5.html#post519259

I have been looking at Seth Godin’s blog entries from when I first discovered him. He is a very interesting character, and from a marketing perspective he has been pretty accurate with his projections on the world of online media and entrepreneurship.

Enjoy some of these posts that I have pulled out:

Sooner or later?

Three new jobs

The 90 / 10 rule of marketing (and everything else)

Be careful of who you work for

Leadership is the strongest marketing strategy

Good guys finish…

How to send a personal email

All the best,

Jack

Both voucher code sites and cashback sites can provide up to 50% plus of sales volume for many online retailers’ affiliate program. Although some affiliates will be hit by this news it creates an opportunity for them to make up the commission they would have got from John Lewis with other retailers.

Affiliate and online marketing consultant Peter Anderson did a study of voucher code sites and found there to be well over 100. This growth is down to consumer demand and the fact that in times of financial pressure people have been using the internet as a place where they can find bargains. in many cases this has been at the expense of the High Street.

Robin Goad of Hitwise showed the increased use of these sites in a Hitwise blog in December last last year.

“A whole online sector has emerged to feed British consumers’ hunger for discount vouchers for everything from supermarket shopping and pizzas to discounts at high end department stores. One in every 200 visits to an online retail website now comes from voucher sites such as Hot UK Deals or My Voucher Codes, while ‘consumer revenge’ website MoneySavingExpert has become the first port of call for many consumers before heading out to the high street or shopping centre.

(Between 2007 and 2008) UK Internet searches for discount vouchers have increased by 133 per cent over the last 12 months, while visits to voucher websites have gone up by 45 per cent.”

This growth in the voucher code sector has also lead to some of the industries leading figure evangalising on television, for example Duncan Jennings of eConversionss, owner of vouchercodes.co.uk was on the BBC’s Working Lunch recently.

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