The Web Uncovered

Marshall Mcluhan often criticized poor media placement based on the effects of the medium upon the content which was being presented. He best defined these terms by separating media into categories of “hot” and “cool.” In short:

Hot Media is media that is ready-made, in that it requires very little participation from the media consumer. Action movies are hot media, as little is left to the imagination, and it has a beginning, middle, and end.

By contrast, Cold Media, requires a certain level of participation, whether it be imagination, input, a vote. Forcing interaction between the medium and consumer, it wears away the consumers’ ability to remained detached.

Is the internet hot or cold?
Neither is the best answer, both is another possible one. While video, radio, and other inherently hot media are available, they often times can have a cool aspect such as video responses, polls, blogging, and more. It becomes paradoxically both. Facebook is detached enough that you are safe in the confines of your own home, that is completely cool in that all of its content is user generated.

The Takeaway: When creating anything online, you want it be initially hot enough to attract your audience, but cool it down quick enough that your audience response in the way you want, whether it be to buy now, read more, or tell a friend.

While there are many aspects to running an effective online marketing campaign, including video is seen as imperative, especially if there is an intent for going viral. The billion dollar deal that brought Youtube into the Google fold only reiterates this fact. Before we can appropriately address how to approach the use of video in online marketing, we need to understand why it works with people.

Coming back to Marshall Mcluhan, media is either hot or cold, either interactive or ready-made. The internet transcends these boundaries. I won’t divulge too much here as this is a post of it’s own. However, beyond the fact that humans are visually-based, and that culturally we put a visual emphasis on everything (“’see’ what I mean?”), video has been and will likely be the quintessential example of hot media. Whether it is a cooking recipe, a guitar lesson, or your product commercial, people will choose a video over a typographical description 99 percent of the time.

Another reason for this is that Video is a mixed medium. It can be visual, audio, and typographical at the same time. This solidifies it as a hot medium.

The Takeaway: Taking this all into consideration, your target audience wants to come as close to experience your service, product, etc, as possible within the confines of technological ability. If you don’t have a video showcasing your value-added, your competition will, and likely already has. To have an online presence to be multisensorial in a mixed medium.

While Facebook once was reserved for college kids, its universal adoption has led many middle-aged subscribers to sign up and log on.  Facing the higher unemployment and tougher competition for the job market, employers and jobhunters alike have resorted to using social networks as a hiring aid.  This in result means that your profile will like become your digital first impression.  This has several rammifications, of which we will explore here.

Firstly, for those of you who are within the original Facebook users, who signed on while in college and have since entered the job market, this means you need to review your profile with a HR Manager’s eye.  Pictures of you doing kegstands at your best friend’s fraternity rush probably won’t create the impression that screams “management.”  Akin to this, you should review all your online content accordingly.  You do not necessarily need to delete your wall posts or take down pictures, but simply need to change your privacy settings so that your public profile is professional while you’re friends can still connect with you as they usually do.  The best starting point is to remove network access to your pictures and wall posts.  If a boss or someone you want to impress Facebooks you, you can also create custom settings to limit their ability to see anything other than your work history (for instance, once I got over the shock of being Facebooked by my mom, I changed the privacy settings so she couldn’t see the PG-13 wall posts between my girlfriend and I).  Facebook has created the technology to adapt your profile for all contexts, but you have to take the time to properly utilize them.

For you older and likely newer users of Facebook, the thing to remember is that Facebook is not LinkedIn.  Your potential employer has your resume and cover letter, so rather than making your profile an opportunity to reiterate your credentials, utilize the space to reveal dynamic qualities about yourself.  If you have a blackbelt, speak Italian, or volunteer with a community organization, this is a great space to showcase it.  However, remember that unless you change your privacy settings, such details as marital status, sexual orientation, age, and other information illegal for your potential employer to ask becomes readily available. 

The Takeaway:   Untag the pictures of yourself drinking to the brink of consciousness, add your work experience, and review your privacy settings.  While Facebook has been used by countless people to gain employment, I personally know of several people being rejected solely based on their Facebook profile’s content.  Similarly, for those of you employed, you may want to rethink your privacy settings as well.

For those looking to explore the possibilities on PPC advertising (that’s pay-per-click for you newbies), Facebook generates a strong appeal. No longer representing a slice segment of the market, Facebook has quickly become the standard social network, leaving Myspace and others in the dust.

Their advertising interface is extremely easy to use, and requires very little technology comprehension. This should be highly attractive to those looking to spread their wings in the world on PPC. Furthermore, their segmentation abilities are amazing; not only can you target based on age, location, and gender, but you target consumers based on religion, sexual orientation, and relationship status. Even more amazing is their ability to create search parameters within users profile to advertise (e.g. “target anyone who lists Tool as their favorite band and Watership Down as their favorite book”). If you choose a larger campaign, you create a plethora of ultra-targeted ads in a sort of micro-segmentation.

The Catch:
While these technologies are great, for those companies leading larger campaigns, Facebook’s cost per ad is much more expensive than most other PPC opportunities. For those selling a product rather than promoting a campaign, this will take a big bite out of your ROI (return on investment). This is a huge drawback for those on limited marketing budgets as well.

The Takeaway:
If you want to test content in a limited fashion, or have a high-end product that doesn’t require widespread response, the segmentation abilities of Facebook ads are great. This is especially true for those who are not technologically savvy. If you want to run a larger PPC campaign, many other opportunities exist that will give you better ROI. Remember, even if the segmentation ability isn’t there, if only interested people are clicking on your ads, you are still reaching your target audience.

For more specifics as to how to execute a Facebook PPC campaign, look at Facebook Ads 101.

What is viral Marketing?

So often times marketing managers talk of making sure their product goes “viral,” yet lack any real definition of what this means. Whether a digital flu or a communicable advertisement, viral marketing is seen as an ambiguous internet term at best. Rather than being a new technology to learn, viral marketing is much closer to traditional marketing than many assume.

Before the grand days of the internet, cellphones, telegraphs, or even written language, information was disseminated in one way. Whether news, service, or product information, it all came by word of mouth. The credibility of the source was directly tied to the one providing it (Mcluhan anyone? read the previous post). Today, it is very difficult to determine credibility of an online source, which complicates the message, especially in the presence of so much content and so much noise. Viral marketing is word of mouth in the digital age.

Takeaway:
If you want to have an online presence, you have to imagine what will get people talking. A Youtube video of you explaining why your real estate services are the best in your county is not exactly newsworthy. Instead, you need to generate content that makes the viewer laugh, cry, vomit, or most importantly inspire them to talk to their friends. This could happen in a traditional conversation, or come as an Facebook link, email, twitter update, or instant message. Once again, and I will repeat myself on this: The quality, targeting, and placement of your marketing content is now important as ever to producing results.

Act accordingly.

A few years back, Myspace was seen as the best marketing tool available on the internet.  Marking the early stages of the web 2.0 era, many successful campaigns were executed on Myspace, including that of bands, products, non-profits, and politicians.  Not so anymore.

Myspace has became increasingly worthless for generating meaningful traffic to target websites.  Formally ranked the website with the most traffic, Myspace is now #9 on Alexa Top 500 rankings.  This however isn’t the real reason for it’s increasing irrelevancy.  The lack of protective measures by Newscorp’s management of Myspace has made it increasingly impotent to hacking software that allows spammers to abuse Myspace.  This relative increase in noise has led many to flee Myspace for more secure and interactive social networks like Facebook or LinkedIn, where not only were prof

The take-away: Not only has Myspace began driving away valuable customers, but it has driven away marketeers as the remaining traffic on Myspace appears to be bots, software ran profiles used to promoting useless things like Multi-Layered Marketing programs and Pyramid schemes.  The one HUGE exception of this rule is in music, where music industry leaders may in fact look at the Myspace profile of a band before even looking at their website, as play count and traffic give good insight for a artist’s fanbase.  In short, if you’re not rocking it out in a band, get yourself to a new social network.