Word Marketing Blog

Social Media Rankings for January 2009

I studied social media long before I became affiliated and now, yes, I guess...I am officially addicted to it.

A couple of months ago our Marketing Director at Word Marketing told me that we now had a company Facebook page and all the employees would be getting pages also....including me. I'm like "ok...whatever"...I didn't do anything with it for a while...but people started contacting me through my Facebook site. So, now in a few weeks...I'm about to bust over the 100 friend mark. I've downloaded the iPhone Facebook interface application and feel like I need to update my status three times a day.

It's crazy. But.....fun.

So, I thought today I would write about market share among social media.

According to Hitwise...My Space still leads the pack in market share with almost 38% followed by Facebook at almost 21%...You Tube is a distant third.

I've included a chart for you. Don't forget to update your status or poke someone!

Mobile Internet is on the Rise

I went smart phone with Internet access about 18 months ago.

Last Christmas, Ann Marie surprised me (which is tough to do with a present) with an iPhone under the tree. I liked my Samsung Blackjack, but with the iPhone, there's no comparison. I know that all Apple users have a not so secret mission to convert all PC users! The iPhone may be the thing that pushed me over when it's time for a new laptop.

This blog entry is not about Mac vs PC, but the iPhone has solidified my mobile Internet usage. Getting and sending email from both business and personal accounts, checking on stocks, getting weather and surfing the net for whatever info I need makes "Internet on the go" all too valuable.

The Center for Media Research has just released some new information.

MEF recently released its Top Ten 2009 Mobile Entertainment trends including the ‘iPhone effect' and greater pricing transparency for consumers, but predicts that mobile advertising will not "take off." The report notes that, though the $25 billion global mobile entertainment industry has weathered and prospered through hard times as well as good, 2009 will be a year in which almost a decade of investments begin to deliver returns.

MEF has identified what members see as the biggest trends facing the mobile entertainment industry in 2009:

• The ‘iPhone effect' -Mobile applications have emerged as a new content category and the mobile internet will finally come of age
• Greater value and transparency for consumers will help sustain demand in 2009
• Some delay in the proliferation of mobile advertising
• Telcos begin to acts as enablers for the Entertainment industry with services such as billing, authentication and zero tariff data
• The emerging dominance of services that operate at a multi-platform level
• The rise of ring back tones
• Social networking becomes an important driver of mobile entertainment consumption
• 2009 will be the year that mobile video really takes off
• Emerging economies will become an increasingly important driver for mobile entertainment worldwide
• A proliferation of touch screen devices drives discoverability and content usage

More about mobile entertainment, from a Nielsen report summarized by Mediabuyerplanner,  shows that content from NBC and CBS is among the most popular with viewers of mobile video, with many tuning in to watch hour-long dramas, a format that was assumed unpopular with mobile viewers. NBC is drawing the largest audience to mobile, generating 1.8 million mobile video streams. Of those, 1.3 million were for full episodes of shows like Heroes and The Office.

Traditional shows are popular because they're familiar, says the report. Made-for-mobile shows, such as those CBS has had in development, are hard to find because mobile web users are less inclined to search aimlessly. Still, CBS is continuing to produce mobile series, and has scored with short Hollywood news segments.

Steve Andrade, general manager of NBC.com, says that "Long-form is doing better for us than short form and... we're surprised... "

Nielsen estimates that 10.3 million mobile phone subscribers, 5% of the cell phone population, access video via their phone each month. M:Metrics' most recent survey shows that just 7.5 million users watched video in a given month.

"As smart phones continue to drop in price, and new entrants impress consumers," says comScore, "mobile internet penetration and engagement will continue to soar..."

Forcing Change

Hey, this won't be a big news flash to you, but things are way different than they were a year ago.

This probably shouldn't shock you either, but, things will be way different a year from now, also.

Yep, the Dow is about half of what it was this time last year. When most of us had our investments experience a 50% more or less evaporation, it wasn't a matter of accepting a change, it was forced upon us. In the last two weeks, I've had at least three close friends experience the loss of their employment and only severance to the end of the month. It wasn't a matter of accepting change, it was forced upon them.

Here's a radical idea.

What if you stop being the en-forced and start being the en-forcer? Of change. You force some change instead of waiting for the changed to be forced on you.

So, think about it. During this cycle of current economics it's obviously not "business as usual". Rather than being surprised by change, why not initiate some? Be the one to throw a switch first, instead of waiting for the switch to be thrown?

Success in the current environment requires flexibility and adaptability on everyone's part.

New developments will require new behaviors.

One course of action would be status quo and brace yourself for change. Another would be to create some flow of your own.

Which do you think will work to your advantage best?

The only thing we have to fear....

Fear isn't just an emotion.

It actually carries some physical effects as well. Your brain is equipped to send signals in your body that actually release adrenalin into your system as sort of a self-defense mechanism. In more dangerous days when areas were not as civilized and self-preservation from wild beasts of all sorts was more prevalent this little aspect of your physical being came in pretty handy. Some people probably get that same sensation when they suddenly spot a snake that wasn't previously visible. I know that happens to me.

Those same physical sensations are the ones you feel when you are generally uncomfortable doing something new or something you've talked yourself into believing you are helpless in.

I guess what I'm saying is we sometimes have what I call "learned helplessness", the feeling you get when you feel you have no control over the situation. The by-product of it is what we generally call fear.

The danger of this is, there is a section of your brain also called the Reticular Activation System. It functions just like an Internet search engine, whatever you "program" into it, it goes to work in your daily life searching for those bits of information that your sub-conscious mind picks up on and then brings it to your attention in your conscious mind.

What you don't want to happen is to let those feelings of uncertainty turn into thoughts which turn into patterns, which turn into sub-programs in the RAS, and before you know it, you find yourself hearing all the things on the news, in conversations, and at social functions which totally support the way you think and feel. However, if you remain positive and fight off the feeling of out of control helplessness, the opposite effect will become a reality in your business or life.

I know it sounds out there, but I have spent countless hours reading scientific medical journals about this stuff, not some kookish crazy literature from the Supermarket aisle.

What removes fear? Courage. Developing courage removes helplessness.

Call a new prospect. Investigate a new product line. Call for another job interview. Speak in front of a group. Be a support to someone who you know is having it harder than you. Do something that gives you the little bit of uncomfortable feeling and then push on past it. Don't let the adrenalin rush of uncertainty hold you back. You did everything you've ever done the first time. It was uncomfortable. You pushed past the uncertainty. Some of that stuff wasn't good for you and you should have stopped, right?

Learn the difference. Is this really going to physically hurt me? Or are the fearful feelings I am feeling about to cost me a very valuable opportunity?

Push on. Be a help to yourself. 

 

Show Don't Tell

by Anna Lawrence:

I had an assignment this week for my writing class - to find some TV commercials I liked and thought were effective, and identify why. Although I won't get into the specifics of the ads I chose (you have your own), I will tell you this. As I sifted through "Award-Winning" spot after "Award-Winning" spot, there is one thing the majority of them had in common. They "said" very little.

That's right - the ads that made the biggest impact had some of the shortest verbal scripts. Instead of telling viewers about a product or service, they SHOWED it. They used actions. And don't those speak louder than words?

Good writing teachers will tell you the same: do not tell... show.

Think about the ads you like the most - the ones you find powerful and effective. Now think about your own ads. Are you guilty of trying to cram in as much information about your sale/location/years of experience/friendly service as possible?

Now think about what matters most about your business to your customer, and show them! 

Don't Waste Your Most Valuable Resource

I had lunch with a bank executive on Monday.

We talked about small business owners and managers. One thing is for sure, there's fear in the marketplace. Unpredictibility causes fear.

I use this analogy alot. If you grew up around downtown Kansas City (insert any major city here) and you had to drive downtown and find a new destination, you wouldn't have anywhere near the uncertainty you would had you never grown up near a major city and had to find a new destination. Uncertainty about the process and the outcome causes fear.

Because the economy in a down cycle now, there's a lot of uncertainty. How to alleviate it?

Use your most valuable resource, your time. Why is it your most valuable resource? Because you can't make more of it and once it's gone you can't get it back. You can make more money, but not more time. Wouldn't your time be more wisely invested doing things to reduce the uncertainty, and therefore remove some of the fear?

What activities are you doing that could be:

• simplified (there are a lot of these)
• delegated (there are some of these)
• eliminated (there are a few of these)
• given more attention to (there are a lot of these)

What percentage of your time is spent making your business better?
Are you investing some time in your brain? (no one can take that from you)

Invest a little time looking at what you are investing your time on? I recently made a list of all the things in my like that are important to me to grow and the daily activities it would take to move all of them forward each month. The list had 75 things on it. Then, I began to prioritize. I may not spend time on all of the 75 each day, but it does call my attention to things I have neglected for a few days if I haven't invested any time there.

Do your due diligence, take stock of your most valuable resource and see if you make any discoveries.

Social Networking

What kind of name is Facebook, anyway?

I have to be honest. I am just now being swayed into the world of social networking. For the longest time, I thought these were only for college and high school kids who were avoiding homework or trying to "hook up." Recently, I realized that having a Facebook/MySpace/LinkedIn/Etc. page today is much like having a website was five years ago.  If you don't, you just don't seem with it, big enough or in touch.

So over the last couple of weeks I have waded cautiously into the unknown waters of Facebook. I started by simply putting myself out there. Eventually I filled out some of my profile. This week I spent an hour or so looking around at "Friends" pages and exploring apps to see what all I could do. I even uploaded some photos.

When I went looking for people I might know, I was amazed at how many I found! People older... people I considered "less hip" and people I never figured cared to socialize at all were on top of this thing that's been a complete enigma to me. And they all had hundreds of friends with whom they were tagging, sharing photos and joining groups. I thought to myself, "How long have I been hiding from this?"

Over the next several months my goal is to learn the ins and outs and become somewhat proficient at using Facebook, socially and professionally. If you haven't started the exploration yet, I urge you to do so. Start slow and don't feel you have to master it all at once. Be conservative until you learn all the workings so you don't make yourself too vulnerable. But do learn how this "new" system is changing the way we connect, before you are completely disconnected.

Substance Beats Flair

I saw a really fun movie this weekend, and it got me thinking.

The movie was an animated 3-D flick, and sure, the effects were pretty neat. But what I liked best about the movie was that the creators didn't rest on the cool effects along but still treated all the other elements just as importantly. It should be the same with your advertising.

I've said it before, but it's worth repeating. Sometimes when a really neat idea comes about, we let the cool idea become the focus of the ad and the message gets left behind. Think Super Bowl ads that you thought were great, but you can't for the life of you remember the product. It's an utterly sickening common occurrence, especially with the investment involved.

Remember that your message should be first and foremost the focus of your ads. Make sure that the delivery vehicle is one that only enhances and never overshadows. And don't get so caught up in a clever idea that you forget to do so. You'll find that a strong effect without a good message may entertain, but a good message even all alone is what will affect your bottom line.