Butting Out - The Merits of Not Getting in the Way

Facebook is fast becoming as central to social networking as actual conversation once was. If you are feverishly checking your account every five minutes, then you know of what I speak. As our lives become more and more segmented, it’s good to know that at least you have pictures of that guy who ate paste in the back of class in grade 3, and are privy to his exact thoughts on his new Mitsubishi Gallant

How exactly does Facebook intend to make money off this type of information? Because apparently they intend to make a lot of money.

The recent Microsoft purchase of a 1.6% share of Facebook for $241 million, values the company at a whopping $15 billion!

Facebook has unveiled a new advertising system called Socialads. Facebook founder-cum-Harvard dropout, Mark Zuckerberg, says it will revolutionize advertising by “getting into the conversations” between people. Essentially, what Facebook has is an ever expanding list of potential consumers, and their specific interests, which is invaluable for advertisers.

Although the future of advertising seems to be veering towards social networking sites, media buyers are wary stating results showing that consumer behavior on a communication device is anathema to advertising. Look at the click through rates for the social networking sites. Facebook has a 0.04% click thru rate, that’s 400 hits for every million viewers. Myspace fares a little better at 0.10%, but the figures still seem pretty measly.

Their intention is to enact a word of mouth effect between people. (Often heralded as the Holy Grail of advertising). The problem is that any sort of intrusion into people’s conversation is just that, an intrusion into a conversation. Regard how well you’d receive advertising when you’re in a bar with your friends and a stranger comes up to you trying to sell you a new type of beer. “Hey friends don’t want to bother you but do you know that the beer you’re drinking is not as good as this one.”

A better and far less intrusive option for advertising your company is in the search engines. Search engines are used for everything from local sites to multinational conglomerates. By ranking prominently in the organic search engine results (requiring Search Engine Optimization aka SEO) and Pay Per Click advertising campaign services (Google Adwords etc.), the consumer is actively transported to your company. If one were to use the keywords “advertising advice Montreal”, why they’d be transported to the Starmedia blog in a timely fashion and end up reading this exact post.

Search engine advertising gives you visibility without the intrusion.

Madison Avenue, Portland?

Gone are the glory days of Madison Avenue. Ad men, as they called themselves, thought up catchy slogans between puffs of cigar smoke while enjoying a three martini lunch of porterhouse steak the size of a catcher’s mitt. Madison Avenue was a catchall phrase connoting North American advertising at large. Now when referring to advertising as a whole you could just as easily mention Portland or Boulder as locations where much of the best ad work is done. Those headier days of advertising were ushered out as the privately owned agencies went public and absorbed a lot of other agencies, turning into huge global conglomerates… And this was just the shift of modern mid century advertising to post modern late century advertising.

A new study by IBM Global Business Solutions states that the advertising world will see a more dramatic shift in the next five years than it has seen in the last 50. And these figures are conservative. The study claims that over the past two years online advertising has exceeded forecaster’s projections by 25-40%. The traditional forms of advertising; print and broadcast are losing their ability to reach the consumer because the consumer is tuning out, throwing out the magazines and powering up their laptops.

Recent research by MultiMedia Intelligence has identified the following:

Media companies face a strategic choice of control versus reach. Syndicated and viral distribution of content via the Internet, social networks and user generated sites provides the broadest reach and empowers consumers. Yet, this model strips the control of media distribution from content owners and disrupts existing business models.

There are new potential advertising and branding models leveraging platforms with hardwired branding all the way down to the semiconductor level. Few have even considered some of the potential models where electronic devices feature chips that are integrated with and owned by the “Brand,” with a product subsidy cascading the to the end consumer.

Comprising just under 4% of new media advertising revenue in 2007, the three new media video categories of Internet TV, IPTV and mobile TV will combine to make-up almost 20% of media advertising dollars in 2011. Clearly, even in new media, video will be king.

According to Rick Sizemore, Chief Strategy Officer for Multimedia Intelligence, “The traditional media industry is under assault from rapidly changing technology and user behavior, the digital video recorder has empowered consumers and is toppling traditional TV advertising models. The $185 billion dollar TV advertising industry is now in the cross-hairs of the technology industry. Technology not only puts consumers in control of what and how they consume content, but also integrates community, participation and interactivity into the media experience. New technology-driven advertising models are emerging on the Internet, on mobile devices, in video games, and on public displays. These are significant opportunities, but will be massively disruptive to the traditional advertising industry.”

The most used web browsers like Yahoo and Google stand to benefit the most in this shift. Ultimately the shift is veering towards consumer control of the advertising content. IBM states that "virtually any advertiser can reach any individual consumer across any advertising platform -- as long as the advertising is relevant and appealing."

An Evolving Media

In case you haven’t heard, the Internet has gone local. Local online search is now second only to email for the most common online activity. Unfortunately Mom and Pop seem woefully unprepared for this shift in marketing. Still hewing closely to the 20^th century marketing model, local businesses are investing primarily in print and broadcast marketing, allocating less than 5% in Internet marketing.

By 2017, forecasters predict that local businesses will be investing close to 25% in their Internet marketing campaigns. But, you don’t have to wait that long. All the resources and tools are out there to help you get started on your Internet campaigns. You don’t have to be a computer whiz, as long as you hire a forward thinking company that specializes in Internet marketing to enact your campaign for you.

One of the most important aspects of Internet marketing is the actual website design itself. Your website is the portal connecting potential customers to your product and company. On a local level this gives the customer all the information they need, to avail of your services.

Search engine optimization or SEO is the process of getting traffic to your website. Sadly, many people still think that simply putting a website on the web is enough. There is not much point in investing in the Internet as an advertising avenue if no one will ever see it. The whole process requires research, strategic campaign planning and a professional website design. You can save yourself a lot of time and money by hiring a professional.

So the writing is on the wall, with more people searching the Internet for their local business needs, an adjustment to the more traditional marketing model is needed. This does not mean that all business owners must learn how to create their own websites. A reputable advertising company, well versed in Internet marketing is the best bet so these forays into new advertising territories are executed properly and professionally. A good website and tactical SEO, while not just visually pleasing can give potential customers all the information that they need in order to find you and frequent your service.