Archive for the ‘Digital’ Category

Our CEO, Rick Milenthal, was on CNBC’s Power Lunch on Friday, talking about a new poll that finds American consumers are losing confidence in companies based on the East and West Coasts.  Rick shared the Engauge point of view that consumers are looking for brands and companies that are trying to fit in their lives rather break through and force their attention.

The poll shows that respondents feel that heartland companies understand them more than companies on the coasts.  CNBC dubbed it, “NYC & LA vs. the Heartland.”

If you have additional thoughts on this topic, let’s continue the conversation here…

“Where are all the women?”

Although this question may seem like something you’d hear at an unsuccessful frat party and not the inspiration of  one of the most influential online platforms today, it was this important media meme of the early ‘00s that led three women bloggers to start the now immensely popular BlogHer Conference in 2005. A year later, the conference’s primary success led Elisa Camahort Page, along with co-creators Jory Des Jardins and Lisa Stone, to expand by founding the BlogHer.com publishing network. Now credited with 76,000 registered users and 80 contributing editors, the community receives more than 21 million unique visitors each month and syndicates content across the web, from Yahoo! to BravoTV.com.

On Monday, Co-Creator Page sat down with SocialMediopolis’ hosts Michael Crosson and Chicke Fitzgerald on BlogTalkRadio to discuss some of the factors that make BlogHer so darn successful. Here’s a recap:

Funding:

After bootstrapping the growing community for 18 months, the “three girls with credit cards” decided it was time to seek outside funding. Instead of building the space and then trying to figure out how to pay for it, Page said, the blogging platform began with  a business plan that paid for itself. When securing funding, Page, Des Jardins and Stone were pitching more than just an idea; they had a plan that was working. Ultimately, BlogHer has raised $3.5 million from Venrock, the venture capital arm of the Rockefeller family, the Peacock Fund and Azure Capital Partners, and expects to be profitable for the first time this year.

Advertising:

With more than 21 million unique visitors each month, it is no wonder BlogHer is a hotbed for advertisers. Besides its sheer reach, Page added, BlogHer offers a unique, integrated value proposition to brands. Web 2.0 has changed customer expectations; we no longer passively consumer, but rather actively participate with brands. Through the online community, brands have the opportunity to have more intimate conversations with targeted users, while the live events (BlogHer Conference, BlogHer Food, etc) provide broad exposure that advertisers love so much.

Community:

Despite the desire to economically empower fellow women bloggers, one of their biggest concerns, said Page, was how to ensure the quality and credibility of the network as a legitimate source of information. BlogHer was created, in part, to foster civil debate among women, and users should feel safe engaging in a conversation about even the most controversial of topics. To achieve this, Page said the community guidelines were established from day one. Controversial subject matter, regardless of which end of the political/social spectrum it should fall, can be discussed freely, without the threat of epithets or hate speech.  Page noted that It is absolutely necessary to apply the community guidelines fairly and consistently to create the safe community space.

Another issue Page touched on was the recent FTC disclosure guidelines, adding that this recent policy change was the first step in recognizing blogging as a legitimate media channel. Reader expectations differ when consuming traditional media channels and blogs; there isn’t that automatic assumption that bloggers may be receiving “material endorsement” (as the literature specifies) for their posts. For this reason, Page said, disclosure is essential to maintain the authentic editorial stream the community expects.

Comscore released the January 2010 rankings for search engines in the U.S. last week (source). In the release comScore indicated that Google lost 0.3% share of core search in the US in January 2010 (see below). This is the first indication that Google may be struggling to pick up additional market share from rivals, but data for the remainder of Q1 2010 is required to determine if Google has truly reached a search saturation point. If it has, we can expect Google revenue to stabilize or potentially drop but so far they continue to grow a healthy pace.

The big news is that Microsoft’s search engine Bing picked up an additional 0.6% share of US core search in January 2010 from rivals Yahoo!, AOL and Ask.com. As can be seen below, Bing has experienced strong growth in the past two quarters, which are mostly attributed to new deals (source).

Based on trending analysis of the comScore data, it seems that Bing will eclipse Yahoo sometime between August 2010 and November 2010 (the latter point based on Bing growing while Yahoo remaining the same). While Yahoo has announced a $100 M global marketing campaign to promote its revamped web portal (source), it may be too late to save the Yahoo brand. After all, we know that:

• Microsoft has given no indication that they’re going to spend money on search, even if it is a losing proposition. In addition to committing $100 M to market the search engine (source), Microsoft made numerous attempts to showcase Bing at the expense of Google. These include a exclusive alliance with News Corporation’s websites, including the Wall Street Journal (source) and deals to become the default search engine on the iPhone (source). Microsoft recently announced the integration of Bing search with Facebook (source), which means that 400 M social users will now see Bing search. For Microsoft to catch up to Google, they must produce a better search solution but they must remind consumers that Bing is a good solution.
• Traffic to Yahoo’s portal has lost significant market share over the past year. Yahoo properties’s share went from 67.7% in December 2008 (source) to 56.8% in December 2009 (source). The loss of eyeballs at both Yahoo and MyYahoo portal is likely the culprit of declining search market share.

While something big can always happen, it seems that Yahoo’s decline is inevitable. RIP Yahoo.

Google made headlines today with their first foray into social activity streaming (source). The new feature is basically like a Twitter tweet or a Facebook wall post embedded into gmail (Google’s email service).

To test it out, I tried it both on my desktop and my mobile device (the iPhone). I posted a quick status update about a meeting that I had in the afternoon and then I used the GPS-enables search capability to search for buzz posts from friends and people that are nearby. And the verdict is?

While Google may have thought that it had a hit on their hands, it feels more like a buzz-kill to me. There are several issues with this new service:

1. It is force social networking in email. Google opted to directly introduce this feature instead of using the Gmail Labs capabilities to introduce this feature as an add-on (the way that Google normally introduces new features). Google also added a special icon to this feature to draw focus to this new feature, ensuring that gmail users pay attention to it.

2. Google didn’t make Buzz super-intuitive. As a Google Wave user, I’ve wanted to tie my Wave, which is collaborative message, to an email as a means of continuing the conversation. While I learned that Google Buzz has this feature, I didn’t pick up on it until I watched the video (source). I also had a co-worker asking me how they can tie Buzz to Twitter, which they didn’t think was very obvious.

3. People don’t seem to know how to to use Buzz. I must be a super early adopter because NO ONE (and I mean none of my technologically or marketing savvy friends) seemed to have used Buzz to post a single buzz. The worst part about this test is that I know that they checked their gmail account at least once today so I would have expected to see one buzz. I think that this is indicative that while Google may have a significant user base, the Google Buzz service in by itself is not enough to entice a user to post to an activity stream nor is it a good replacement of twitter.

For Google, Buzz is a necessary service. It helps Google:

• Generate more traffic/interest in Gmail. Gmail has less users than Hotmail and Yahoo so they need a service to increase subscribers.
• Google Buzz creates a solution to connects your email with Twitter. This feature is incredibly value to marketers who want to understand the consumers that interact with their brands. While DandyID offers a similar capability, Google already has a larger user base so it is game over for DandyID.
• Buzz establishes a new page view/instance to sell an add. Google isn’t doing this because they want to offer something cool/evolutionary — Google needs buzz to goose their ad revenue (even if they don’t roll this feature out immediately).

The one thing that I noted on the first evening of having access to Google Buzz is that interest was fading fast. While Google Buzz was ranked 4th in hot search topics in the USA, it dropped to the 10th spot within 20 minutes (see below).

Let’s hope that tomorrow’s a better day for this shinny new service.

According to a study by ForeSee Results, only 25% of the top 100 online retailers have a Facebook page and another 25% have less than 10,000 fans. These statistics are shocking, especially since the recent news that Facebook now has grown to over 400 million users. Where else do you have the opportunity to engage millions of potential customers?

In a related study, Razorfish surveyed visitors to some of the biggest US retail websites and found that majority of shoppers “friend,” “follow” or “subscribe” to a retailer on a social networking site like Facebook, Twitter, etc. For example, I’m a fan of Best Buy on Facebook and I follow them on Twitter. I read almost every update that Best Buy posts within Facebook and it’s driven me to their website on several occasions where I’ve made a few purchases. If they weren’t on Facebook I honestly don’t know if I would have ever made my way to their website as often.

Brands that haven’t established a significant presence in Facebook are truly missing out on the opportunity to serve their customers and to reach new ones. As Facebook continues to enhance Fan Pages, I would hope to see more retailers embracing social (particularly Facebook) and taking it to new levels.

[via MediaPost]