An Open Letter to Online Ad Networks

This article raises consumer awareness of how easily we as John Q. Public can be manipulated into thinking blogged articles are gospel and bloggers do not have hidden agendas. Bloggers do get paid and this could taint their opinions. So disclosure of financial incentives is good to be reported, but the industry should be self regulated. The government should not be involved. Ad networks can regulate itself as some industries already do. One example is a comparison shopping engine that let consumers post comments or rate a service or product like Ebay. In the end of the day, pay by credit card so you have recourse for a refund and always remember, “caveat emptor” — buyer beware! – WST

by Jonah Stein and Jonathan Hochman

The FTC recently announced guidelines for bloggers that requires that they disclose financial interests, freebies and paid reviews.  This decision is seen as a shot across the bow of pay per post networks and bloggers who are monetizing through affiliate programs.  The FTC has decided that compensation is the reason bloggers choose to write about a particular topic and that readers deserve to be informed about the financial relationship.    The FTC logic is simple, “As much as those bloggers who receive these gifts would like to claim this isn’t the case, freebies like free laptops, trips, or gift cards are likely to influence a writer’s opinion of a product.”

On its face, the policy is defensible. As crusaders against Virtual Blight, we applaud the intent of this decision.  Anything that raises the barrier to online scams, fraud and abuse even a little bit is a good thing. The FTC provides guidelines for responsible bloggers and theoretically eliminates a couple of the perks for bloggers, but it does virtually nothing to protect against fraud.

Going after bloggers’ compensation to fight online fraud is reminiscent of the RIAA attacks on individual file sharers and is just as likely to succeed. The absurdity of the power and inertia of a government bureaucracy combating individual bloggers is only matched by the ludicrous assumption the government could ever move fast enough to keep up with professional scammers who jump from domain to domain, host to host and country to country with a few mouse clicks.  Prosecution could only be effective against mainstream bloggers with an established brand that are stationary targets, but these bloggers are not the right target. Read more.

Source: http://www.seobook.com

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Filed under: Blogging, Web Success , Advertising, Blog, Blogged Articles, Bloggers, Branding and Marketing, FTC, Guidelines For Blogger, Online Ad Networks, Scammers, Web Success, Web Success Team

Advertising Will Change Forever

“I believe that digital advertising is just another tool in the general media world. The economic downturn and slashed budgets have increased the need to think out of the box. One the benefits of digital media is that you can measure analytics in real time.
I also believe that advertising will become more personalized as we delve into Social Media. But as the Internet world becomes saturated with constant messages, we will have to go back to the basics: Good creative!” – WST

Advertising Will Change Forever

By Josh Bernoff

Here’s one of the things we do at Forrester Research: we interview as many marketers as we can about their plans, identify trends and project future likely conditions, and then we put together some numbers to make a projection. If you’ve ever seen a Forrester projection, it comes from a process like this.

This means that inside every projection is an idea or ten about the future. Those ideas can be powerful, and they come from research with marketers and consumers.

My colleague at Forrester, Shar Van Boskirk, just published our five-year interactive marketing forecast. The idea inside it is the real kicker.

In this recession, marketers have learned that interactive marketing is more effective, and advertising less effective, per dollar spent. While budgets for online have decreased, they decreased less than other budgets. Six out of ten marketers we surveyed agreed with the statement “we will increase budget for interactive by shifting money away from traditional marketing.” Only 7% said “we have no plans to increase our marketing budget.”

Unlike the last recession, digital marketing is no longer experimental. Now it looks more like advertising is inefficient, relative to digital. More than half of the marketers we surveyed said that effectiveness of direct mail, TV, magazines, outdoor, newspapers, and radio would stay the same or decrease within three years. In contrast, well over 70% expected the effectiveness of channels like created social media, online video, and mobile marketing to increase. Read More.

Source: Advertising Will Change Forever

Filed under: Blogging, Facebook, Google, Online Advertising and Marketing, Online Branding, Online Marketing, SEO, SEM, Keywords, Direct Response W, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Profiling, Twitter, Video, Video Marketing, Web Analytics, Web Success , Advertising, Advertising Age, branding, Direct Response Marketing, Marketing with Twitter, Online Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, social networking, Web Success, Web Success Team

Web Success Team is looking for a Few Good Bloggers: Writer Alert!

The Web Success Team is looking for article submissions for our Marketing and Business Blogs. Your credited articles will be widely distributed throughout the Internet and through our social networking activities. This is a great opportunity for our contributors to gain more widespread distribution and to promote their talents.

Read more at: Web Success Team Marketing Info

Filed under: Blogging , Articles, Branding Strategies, Build Business Online, Business Blogs, Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, Online Business Strategies, seo, Social Media, Solopreneurs, Web Success, Web Success Team

Women & Our Online Behavior and Social Media Habits

Women have always been known to be community-oriented, which is why it’s no surprise that women more frequently use social networks. This study details how women use social media and what they look at and are looking for. Read on to find out how you can tune your marketing strategy to appeal to this niche. - WST

By: Julie Kent

SheSpeaks.com conducted a great survey of women’s online and computer habits, and published the results in a comprehensive 65-page document. It’s a fascinating study that looks mainly at women’s social habits online, and most definitely has implications for online marketing. Looking at the results of this study can help you tailor your marketing campaigns to effectively, rather than ineffectively, reach out to women.

Shopping & Social

Not surprisingly, the top activity for women online is shopping. The third most popular activity is social networking, which is also not a surprise given the stereotype that women just love to talk. The fact that both of these activities are very popular with women means that there is also some cross-over issues to consider. If women like to shop online, they’re likely to talk about that online and there are probably certain kinds of marketing tactics that will work better with them.

One of the first very obvious things that this study shows is that women of all ages are very active in social networks. Younger women are more active and have more contacts than older women, but a sizeable number of 40+ are taking advantage of social networking, and in some cases are more engaged than their younger peers.

Making up half the world’s population, “women” is a pretty large group. Within that group, then, you’d expect some different patterns of behavior to emerge. The biggest differences can be seen in different age groups – under 30’s and 40-somethings on up. With most 30 and unders having grown up with computers, it’s not surprising.

Key Findings of the Study

Here are some of the key findings for the two groups:

Younger women:

* Are more likely to say “connect with others” as top online activity (73%), compared to 40+ women (31%).
* Are more likey to look at consumer generated content (28%) than 40+ (10%).
* Are more likely to have profiles. 86% of 30 & under have profiles.
* Facebook and MySpace are most popular (78% and 79%)
* LinkedIn is more popular with high earners (41% for HHI $120K+ vs. 17% overall)

Older women are:

* 45% of 40+ have profiles.
* More active than younger women on Classmates (42% vs 19% for <30s).
* Facebook and MySpace are most popular (65% and 63%)
* LinkedIn is more popular with high earners (41% for HHI $120K+ vs. 17% overall)

None of those findings are really all that earth-shattering. Perhaps most surprising, however, is the high numbers of older women (40+) that are using social networks. It appears that while a majority of women join these networks to “connect” or “reconnect” (61% and 66%), there are also other factors at play. Younger women are most likely to join connect, reconnect, and share photos. A high proportion of older women, on the otherhand, join to keep an eye on their kids’ online activites, especially those with children ages 13 to 17.

Women aren’t just signing up and forgetting about their profiles and connections either. Half of all women log into social networks everyday. Two-thirds of under 30’s log-in daily, and 41% of 40+ log-in daily.

So what do Women do on Social Networks?

When you get a bunch of women together, who most enjoy shopping online and talking, what exactly do they talk about? 62% of all women talk about products, and 71% of those with children ages 13 to 17 talk about products. What kind of products do they talk about? The most talked about category of products on social networks by women is beauty products. After that food/restaurants and movies/entertainment were also popular, especially amongst younger women.

How do women feel about ads?

Women generally do not have good feelings about ads. 26% said they actively ignore ads, and another 20% said they are annoyed by ads. A few notice interesting ads once in awhile, but only about 2% ever actually click on an ad.

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Filed under: Facebook, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Profiling, Twitter, Web Success , how women use the web, Online Marketing, shespeaks.com, social media survey, social net, social networking, social networking and women, Web Success, Web Success Team, women, women bloggers, women on the web, women's online computer habits

Facebook or Just Face-Look? Are People 55 And Older Really Using Social Networking Websites?

It’s true, older generations are logging on to Facebook and signing up. Although, the 55 and over group isn’t  as active as the younger groups, they are starting to recognize the value of social media and marketing. When I first started online marketing, I was the old guy. Now I see my generation recognizing the value of the Internet and how effective it can be for driving traffic and sales to businesses. It starts with social media. – WST

By: Glenn Gabe

Facebook is estimated to have 70.2 million unique visitors per month in the United States according to comScore.  Social networking is booming, everyone is friending, following, tweeting, tagging, and grandma and grandpa are getting involved too.  Wait a minute, did I just say grandma and grandpa?  That’s what some recent Facebook research has shown.  It seems the fastest growing demographic on the social networking giant is women 55 and older.  That segment grew by 175% in February 2009, while men 55 and older grew by 137%.

I was definitely excited to see the data.  I’m a big believer in social networking and love to see people in that age group join a site like Facebook.  That said, reality set in a few days later.  I ended up speaking with someone 66 years old who needed my assistance with their email account.  Like many of you reading this post, I usually end up being the point person for technology-related questions for friends and family.  I had an interesting few minutes on a phone call with her.  Here’s a quick transcript:

Her: I can’t seem to find some emails I’ve written.
Me: Did you check your sent items?
Her: I’m in my email already. Where are my sent items?
Me: It’s the folder labeled “Sent Items” in Microsoft Outlook.
Her: I don’t think I’m using Outlook…
Me: What are you using to check your email?
Her: The e with a circle around it (AKA: Internet Explorer)
Me: OK, so it’s web-based mail.
Her: No, it’s on my computer.
Me: Yes, but you are accessing your email on the web.  I can help you.  What’s your email address so I can send you some instructions?
Her: I’m not sure, hold on.
Me: Jumping off roof now.

That conversation reminded me that not everyone is tech savvy.  We come with computer chips built into our brains.  Our kids instinctively know how to text and have built in wi-fi.  But, we also grew up using computers on a regular basis.  People that are 55 and older didn’t…  We were typically the ones introducing computers and explaining how to use them. Needless to say, there’s a big difference between the various age groups and how they utilize new technology.

My 3 Degrees of 55 and Older

After the phone call, I started thinking about people 55 and older and the data I saw about Facebook.  I’ll be honest, I started having doubts that many people 55 and older are jamming on Facebook, tagging photos, using apps, providing status updates, and grabbing their vanity URL’s.  So, why was I skeptical?  My parents are in that age group, and all of their friends.  My in-laws are in that age group, and all of their friends.  In addition, all of my friends’ parents are in that age group, so on and so forth.  So, I like to think I have a pretty good feel for that demographic, based on interactions I’ve had with them over the past few years.

They Are Signing Up, But Not Coming Back…

The initial data I read showed that people 55 and older was a fast growing segment for Facebook (with women over 55 being the fastest growing).  But, recent data revealed that although they were signing up, they were not returning to Facebook.  Unfortunately, that did make a lot of sense to me.  I can only imagine someone 65 years old hearing about Facebook from their children or grandchildren, signing up, and looking at their blank profile thinking, “What the heck is this??”

Getting My Own Data

Although reading all of this data about people 55 and older was great, it wasn’t sufficient for me.  I wanted to know more. So I decided to collect some of my own data!  I reached out to my network of friends and family with a quick Facebook questionnaire.  I came up with five simple questions to try and understand how people 55 and older were using Facebook.  I sent an email to my network and waited patiently for the data to come in.  It didn’t take long to start receiving responses.  Some of the emails cracked me up, others surprised me, and most reinforced what I thought.  Here are the five questions I sent out:

1. Are you currently on Facebook?
2. If yes, what do you use it for?
3. How often do you visit Facebook per day, week, and month?
4. Do you enjoy Facebook? Why or why not?
5. Do you plan to join other social networks like Facebook in the near future (over the next 6 months to year?)

I ended up receiving 57 responses from people 55 and older.

A quick disclaimer before I reveal the data. This is obviously not a scientific study, nor was it meant to be.  I just wanted to receive feedback from a trusted group of people that were 55 and older to see if and how they use Facebook.  Let’s see what they had to say.

Lots of No’s, But There is Hope

As I started receiving responses, I saw a quick trend.  NO.  That’s the overwhelming response I received to question one (Are you currently on Facebook?)  It ends up that 80% of the respondents were not on Facebook.  When someone did choose to elaborate, I received some funny responses.  For example, I found out about one man who isn’t on Facebook and also refuses to upgrade to broadband.  I think the exact quote was, “Dial-up is fast enough!”  I laughed out loud and couldn’t help but think that his response was something right out of an episode of Seinfeld.   Another comment that cracked me up was, “I think I was there once.”  Wow, Facebook made such a big impression on her that she didn’t even know if she was on the site!  Although I was hoping to see more people from this group on Facebook, I had a feeling this would be the case.  Then I opened a few emails that gave me hope…

Wait, Facebook Can Be Helpful!

Sprinkled in with the no’s were some great responses supporting Facebook.  These enthusiastic responses made me think there is hope.  The first one that struck me was from a friend’s mother-in-law.  Her enthusiasm about Facebook jumped off the page. Literally, if she could friend me, tag my photo, challenge me to a trivia game, and become a fan of my Facebook page, I think she would.   She explained how much she loves Facebook, how she keeps up with her children and grandchildren, and loves seeing everyone’s status updates, photos, video, etc.  She logs in a few times per day.  Yes, she was the exception, but she got it (big time).

After reading her story, I received a few more no’s and then another great response came in.  This time from a friend’s father, who logs in a few times per week to see what his kids are doing, he searches for people he went to college with, connected with some of them online and offline, etc.  It was another great example of someone using Facebook in smart ways.  He seemed to really like it.

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SPECIAL: Solopreneur Package – Jump Start Your Business
The Web Success Team’s Solopreneur Package includes a 5-page custom direct response website fully branded and optimized for Search Engines with 6-months of online marketing, social networking, blogging, article marketing and much more. Lock in your special pricing now before the rate goes up! Contact the Web Success Team at 818-222-5643 or email bob@websuccessteam.com. To your web success!

Filed under: Business Networking, Facebook, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Profiling , Facebook, Direct Response Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media, Social Marketing, Social Media Strategies, social networking, Solopreneur, social media marketing, social, 55 and over, facebook marketing