Much of the blogosphere I follow revolves around the ever changing practices and trends that are driving social marketing and word-of-mouth online.
And in such things, this week did anything but disappoint. The stories were varied but each showcased a different element of the same story; an indie musician getting national acclaim for his use of social networking tools, an experiment in social status via blogging, and a UK initiative to engage a particular community in a movie launch.
Case 1
Many thanks to Kate for her post on Jonathon Coulton and his write-up by eMarketer. At first glance, Jonathon's blog is not all that unusual for the genre. He's a musician with humorful and even geeky songs. His site and activities showcase a number of web 2.0 tools and traits.
- Fans are making "funny" videos about him
- You can purchase his music in MP3 format through his own jury-rigged system - a la carte or even by the album.
- You can buy a range of humorous t-shirts from cafepress
- Don't forget to make a donation!
- How about some Jonathon Coulton ring tones?
- Or my favorite, creating reverse demand via eventful (see linked graphic to the right).
None of these features, on their own, are all that unusual. And I'll admit that all together they amounted to a professional and effective utilization of social networking and web 2.0 services. But there was this nagging feeling. Why was the author so enamored by this particular artist? Wasn't it just a little over the top?
Perhaps. Or maybe this is just another sign that we are in a web 2.0 bubble. Are we seeing less than effective behavior being rewarded? Check. Are we seeing utopian claims? Again, yes. From heavy long-tails taking over the medium to corporations tearing down the membranes between customers and employees.
Not that both forces aren't at play. But the level of hype around them together with the latest acquisition of YouTube with the subsequent scramble for a business case leads me to believe we are indeed inside a web 2.0 bubble.
So the question in a bubble, as everyone scrambles to get a piece of the pie, is what is just hype and what will withstand the test of time. And in some cases, the answer doesn't matter as hype generates press and even big results (short term).
Source: David Armano
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Case 2
Now we travel over to Eric Kintz's blog regarding his experiments to better define the core practices and principles of blogging as measured by social status and traffic. The results of his ongoing experiments has led to a number of case studies each with some key learnings and potential rules.
- Blog post frequency is a myth. In fact, posting too often actually risks losing your subscribers.
- Content must be relevant and appropriate to niche/micro-community bloggers
- Viral Marketing does not spread well. Reaching the "Level 1 Influencers" is critical.
- Repeated exposure lowers the probability of viral infection.1
- Finally, localization (translation) matters as do vehicles that don't create trackable "links" such as newsletters
1[SH] Yahoo drop in ad revenues might be a case in point of this.
His articles go into a lot more depth with copious source links. Apologies to Eric for over-simplifying the issue. But what strikes me is the amount of effort required to "create value" as a blogger and to what end. I wouldn't lump blogging into a primal basic need of the human psyche (sleep, eat, shelter, etc.) So the reward for this effort likely comes down to social status or $$. Both of which bring whispers of sex, cars and rock & roll.
Even in the midst of the "hype" of todays web 2.0 bubble, most marketers and big brands are not going to invest the effort, time or corporate restructuring necessary to take advantage of the lessons learned above. Hugh Macleod correctly, in my mind, refers to blogging as a "disruption channel" in regard to business adoption. [my article on this]
So brands are not going to rush en-masse to integrate themselves into the blogosphere.
What brands and corporation WILL demand is the ability to exploit the current online hype. The smart/innovative ones will go beyond this and look to leverage the growing micro-communities online. So this takes us to Case 3.
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Case 3
Juzzie's latest case study on engagement marketing from his session at ad:tech London is concise, insightful and pertinent to this discussion.
"Around 40,000 people from the local market checked out the Lightening McQueen character’s home page on Bebo. Over 5,000 of these Beboers included the movie trailer on their home pages, which was subsequently seen over 35,000 times. Some 2,000 or so Beboers also linked to the Lightening McQueen Character as friends, creating over 700 profile comments"
-- juzzie @ ViralMeister
He goes on to make some great points. I'll attempt to summarize a few.
- Niche engagement marketing appears to be working
- Social networks offer us the ability to target local and relevant markets
- It avoids the hassle of targeted seeding and the challenge of breaking through the growing viral clutter.
- Like viral campaigns, there remains a challenge and inability to measure the ripple effect that occurs.
- The big players like myspace and bebo don't have to worry too much about justifying anything as everyone is attracted to them like "moths to a flame."
"So the demand is outstripping the social networks resource to cash in the advertising dollars, which is why Google has been able to wade in like a Knight in shining armour or at least offer wads of cash while they try and figure out their business models."
-- juzzie @ ViralMeister
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Perhaps Doc Searl nailed it with his concept of emerging "intention economies". The basic concept being that we inherently identify our intentions or interests when we visit a site on a regular basis or via our activities within a community. With the 3 million plus reach of the xspace launch, one can only wonder how much of Google's bid for YouTube had to do with the size and strength of the inherent intention economies within. And the corresponding engagement marketing and advertising opportunities.
Let's not forget the recent investment in b5media which will both reward and accelerate its growth into an even more influential community of niches. Another sign that the market may indeed value and reward engagement marketing opportunities.
The bubble will burst. What are you betting on to be the best path?
Think sex sells?
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