News Update – Best of the Day

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According to a Microsoft research the time peole are online in Europe will be more than the length of time they spend watching TV – and this will already be the case in June 2010. The outlook of the software giant predicts that people will spend on average 14.2 hours a week online and 11.5 hours a week watching TV.

Although YouTube is ot the easiest site for Google to bring to advertisers minds, it still does some good results – and has increased ad selling from 6 to 9% – in terms of its video views. Nevertheless, revenues are still low – as for all competiors like Hulu or MySpace, said AdAge. Again it shows, content is king from revenue perspectives…

“The gain in YouTube’s U.S. business is the result of a number of factors, including more content agreements with partners such as CBS, MGM and, more recently, Disney, expanding YouTube’s partner program to thousands of indie and small producers and successfully guiding YouTube visitors to content it can sell to advertisers.”

Some fashion spots are just cool… and find a great ending.

Studie: Cloud Computing im Aufwind trotz Bedenken

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Cloud Computing spaltet die Gemeinde der IT- und Business Entscheider immernoch. Eine aktuelle Studie des IT-Beratungshauses Avanade zeigt, daß Cloud Computing zwar Punkte bei Wirtschaftsentscheidern sammelt, aber ebenso wie das Thema Social Media haben die meisten von ihnen laut der aktuellen Studie Sicherheitsbedenken und befürchten Kontrollverlust.

So wird der Umzug in die virtuellen Rechnerwolken wohl doch bei den meisten auf nicht absehbare Zeit verschoben. Die Studie von Avanade unter 500 befragten CIO’s und IT-Entscheider aus 17 Ländern besagt, daß für mehr als 50% der IT-Leiter Cloud Computing grundsätzliche eine nützliche Technologie-Option sei, der Zeitpunkt für den Unternehmenseinsatz aber aufgrund des Sicherheitsrisikos und der Zukunftsfähigigkeit des Konzeptes wohl noch nicht der richtige sei. 42% wollen sich demnentsprechend erst später dafür oder dagegen entscheiden.

Daß Cloud Computing das Kerngeschäft unterstützen kann, davon sind 60% der befragten Wirtschaftsentscheider überzeugt. Zudem gehen 55% davon aus, auf Bewegungen im Wettbewerbsmarkt und auf Businessveränderungen schneller reagieren zu können.

„Die globale Studie zeigt, daß Unternehmens- und IT-Manager die Vorteile von Cloud Computing bereits verstanden haben – sie wissen, dass die Systeme entscheidende Verbesserungen bedeuten können”, sagt der Avanade-Manager Tyson Hartman. „Unsere Branche steht nun vor der Herausforderung, mit diesen Bedenken aufzuräumen und handfeste Strategien und Wege aufzuzeigen. Cloud-basierte Services sollen schon heute implementiert und ein langfristiger Plan in die Wege geleitet werden, um einen wirtschaftlichen Nutzen für die Zukunft zu schaffen“, erklärt Hartmann.

Ein entscheidender Vorteil für Cloud Computing ist die Kosteneffizienz. Dies sehen auch 42% der weltweit befragten Studienteilnehmer, die zugeben, daß die aktuellen internen Systeme zu teuer seien. Dennoch ist das Verauen in die eigenen Systeme höher. 72% und 80% der befragten Entscheider in Deutschland trauen eher ihren eigenen Systemen. Da wird der Einsatz von Software und Hardware als Internetservice von Drittanbietern noch skeptisch beäugt. Der Grund sind Sicherheitsbedenken und Verlust über die Kontrolle von Daten und Systeme.

Parody: Is Twitter out and nanoblogging the next trend?

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If you are on Twitter there are three things we don’t like: people that talk to much, the speed of the service and the interruption time. Now, there could be a new alternative to Twitter called Flutter.

This nanoblogging service will restrict users to blogging in 26 characters or less. A new blogging trend? At least if you believe in the theory of Matt Ibsen, founder of Flutter…

The cool idea about Flutter would be that you can update your updates from other social media sites and Flutter will automatically cut them down to the 26 character limit. A brevity which all our followers and friends will appreciate…

Sure, this is a fictitious parody on the latest innovation drive in the ‘social media industry’ by the Slate Magazine. The world needed someone to make some fun out of the latest madness around Twitter.

Spot On!
Some questions we do not need to ask for evaluating Flutter: Did we all get the benefit of the business? What is their business model? If it is really a great concept… why do we see such a ‘poor’ delivery on the concept by the execs? Why don’t the execs explain the essence of their business model in 26 characters? This could be an interesting approach for Twitter’s 140 as well…

In some way this parody reminds me of…

Report: Marketers web-strategy not listening to SMB needs

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The latest report from Bredin Business Information (BBI) finds that SMB’s will not become customers with the common marketing strategies: Marketers are going online while small and medium-size companies are still living the offline world of direct mail and tradeshows.

The two surveys by BBI, conducted in late January and February, combine the findings of 50 leading marketers and 741 SMBs. While marketers were asked about their outreach and research efforts for 2009, the SMBs had to give some insight about their online and offline media preferences, top business issues and brand ratings. The findings show that both sides don’t go and-in-hand to reach their targets.

The marketers world
What marketers know…
SMBs rely less on traditional marketing tactics but that’s one of the top ways they like to receive product and service information.
What marketers do…
Marketers’ spending will increase spending on every online tactic (especially microsites and resource centers, social networking and webinars) but decrease budgets in direct mail, print advertising and trade shows – only PR and telemarketing will increase.

The SMB world
What SMBs rely on offline…
– 43,6% newspaper and magazine articles
– 43,5% direct mail (including letters, postcards and catalogs)
– 32% radio/TV ads
– 27,4% phone calls
What SMBs rely on online…
– 72% online referrals (friends and peers) most popular information source on products and services
– 57% search engine marketing
– 44,5% educational websites
What SMBs favorite in social media…
– 19.7% Facebook
– 15,6% LinkedIn
– 11,3% Twitter

“Marketers are clearly reacting to the difficult economy by using offline tactics much more selectively. They are also moving online aggressively, to reach SMBs efficiently and learn how to get the most from new media opportunities. (…) However, our survey of SMBs indicates that business owners are not nearly as enthusiastic about many online formats for business purposes – such as social networking – as marketers are.” said BBI CEO Stu Richards

Spot On!
The high percentage of marketers more focused on winning new customers than keeping current ones surprises… : 48% balancing their acquisition and retention efforts, 32% concentrating more on acquisition and 20% focusing more on retention. In my experience it is easier keeping clients and trying to meet their needs. Marketers should try to face the difference between customers who really ‘live and communicate the web’, and those that don’t. Going online will be the future, sure, but step-by-step with training the customers the benefits of receiving the information online. Today in some industry sectors, marketers can still put into question the high priority of moving online (3,5 on a scale of 5) and slowing down offline tactics (2,6 on a scale of 5) if the target group is not ready for listening online.

News Update – Best of the Day

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There is a lot of talk on the success of Twitter. Now, there is a psychological explanation by Kevin Maguire: From Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to ‘the hierarchy of tweets’. This is a must read…!

Although Twitter might be a web-based service, the offline-world does exist next to it… and the value in joining Tweet-ups, real face-to-face offline talks in your region, is big. Scot McKay connects the Twitter-world with the offline-world and finds some interesting strategies – some new, some old…

XING announces their new product development strategy on their blog. Jason Goldberg, the former socialmedian founder and new Chief Product Officer at XING, lays his cards open on the product development strategy 2.0 called ‘Ship It’.
1. We will launch new features on XING faster than ever before.
2. We will launch new features before they are finished. Our plan is to get new stuff out there on the site and learn from our users as to how to make them better. You tell us what you like, don’t like, and want to see improved – and then we’ll do our best to keep up with your input.
3. We will make XING more appealing and relevant to users around the world.
4. We will actively ask for your feedback and participate in a dialogue with you as to how we can improve and better meet your needs. Expect to see a whole new social-media approach to how we gather feedback. Expect to really get to know the people behind product development at XING. And, challenge us publicly to deliver what you need.

PS: Lee Byron created a map and network diagrams on the development of Facebook. Excellent work…

News Update – Best of the Day

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Twitter is hiring a VIP concierge. Not true… yes it is.

The internet is the world of freebies? Not anymore and there are good reasons for it. The Economist refocuses the old strategic approach on paid services on the internet which is a great wake-up call for the web world – and again reminds me of the Social Globe.

Ultimately, though, every business needs revenues—and advertising, it transpires, is not going to provide enough. Free content and services were a beguiling idea. But the lesson of two internet bubbles is that somebody somewhere is going to have to pick up the tab for lunch.

What is the future of PR? Will agencies look after communities or brands? Jeremiah Owyang thinks that communities will gain more and more power as are aggregating decision making, support each other and share lifestyle.

With communities in the driver seat over product, a shift will happen as communities can define the spec of future products and therefore multiple brands will bid for their business. As a result, we should expect the agency model to flip over, where PR agencies start to represent communities of customers –rather than brands.

Study: Agencies moving to slow for consumers?

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If we can believe in a recent study ‘Beyond advertising: Choosing a Strategic Path to the Digital Consumer‘ by IBM Institute for Business Value, then ad agencies are years behind in catching up to digitally savvy consumers – although consumers are moving their media consumption online more quickly than anybody could have expected.

Now, despite the difficult economic climate there are some good news for the digital industry: IBM’s study states that interactive, measurable formats will be expected to account for 20% of global ad spending by 2012. The interviewed CMOs said they will increase interactive and online marketing spending in 2009 while 63% while 65% will decrease on traditional advertising. Generally speaking, the same trend that we acknowledged from the latest CMO report.

So, what are further interesting findings? Between 2007 and 2008 the proportion of consumers answering they used social-networking tools went up to 60% (from 33%). It even doubled for for online and portable music services to 46% and almost tripled for mobile internet. And believe it or not, the access to mobile music and video quadrupled to 35%.

Seeing these numbers, it is surprising that 80% of the interviewed ad executives forecast the industry to be at least five years away from being able to deliver whatever might be necessary in terms of cross-platform advertising, encompassing sales, delivery, measurement and analysis.

The problem seems to be the agencies according to study co-author Saul Berman, IBM global leader, strategy and change consulting services. Agencies need to identify and keep pace with the value shift in order not to loose out the same way the music industry did, he summarizes.

“To succeed — especially in the current economic environment — media companies will need to develop a new set of capabilities to support the industry’s evolving demands which include micro targeting, real-time ROI measurement and cross-platform integration,” said Saul Berman, IBM Global Leader for Strategy and Change Consulting Services, and co-author of the new study. “Now is the time for companies to move quickly to become more effective with their assets and build for the future.”

Spot On!
Watching the last decade, companies and agencies followed their customer audience and pushed their budgets to more interactive, measurable formats such as the internet and mobile (gaining 20% of the overall spend). This is not surprising as digital advertising enables advertisers to measure more effectively campaign success to prove the value of their budgets.

In terms of platform owners it shows that these need to identify new opportunities to monetize new consumer experiences before it is too late like the music industry has shown. The options are obvious: value of content, visual goods sales, value-added services plus hardware or software offerings.

For this study IBM conducted 70 interview sessions with global industry execs and surveyed more than 2,800 consumers in Australia, Germany, India, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S.

News Update – Best of the Day

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There is a lot happening on Twitter and some companies might ask if their competitor already uses Twitter in the means of some corporate communication, service tool or some thing else. Andrew Kinnear created a wonderful list on ‘Consumer and Business Brands on Twitter‘. And if you are an exec and want to see some cases on how to engage as a top manager with your target audience on Twitter, just check out this new service called ‘exectweets‘.

This years Media Summit 2009 reveals some very interesting insight in the question ‘Can the Media Business Solve a Problem It Can’t Define?’

Budgets for recruitment low in recession times? Well, here is how some companies solve the issue by using Twitter at ‘Businesses Turn to Twitter to Cut Recruitment Costs‘. See some interesting aspects on the Pros and Cons on an still unproven option.

Will Facebook tackle Google? Doubt it…

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The investment bank RBC Capital Markets sees Facebook in three years leading the online market – and leaving Google behind. Their argument: traffic. When watching the Google traffic, it becomes obvious that almost 20% of the Google traffic comes from social networks, RBC thinks.

Facebook is growing and growing, in January Facebook had already 175 million users. In the last months the average increase was somewhere at 20 million users a month. Now, the investment bank’s outlook says that if the increase stays stable, Facebook could be facing more unique users than the online giant Google in 2012. At least Ross Sandler from RBC Capital Markets states that…

Isn’t this statement a bit overestimated?
So, is traffic the right argument? Which platforms really does drive traffic here? How does Facebook drive traffic to Google? Where are the Facebook links that push users to Google? The ‘back button’ cannot be so powerful, right?! Search? Ads? Back-links? What else? Sorry, I cannot find the point…

There is no Google search box on Facebook. Maybe it is the social graph that has it’s effect on targeting, personalization or the digital identity of users might influence the power of Facebook on Google in the future. But traffic sounds like an superficial invalid argument, don’t you think…

News Update – Best of the Day

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Excellent, the media meltdown by the American group blog Xark …

Great, funny ad by McDonalds…

Some viral campaigns can really deliver what they promise…