It's Now Or Never For MySpace

While it was one of the pioneers of what revolutionized at the Internet and how the world operates now as a whole, it is hard to say MySpace really does ANYTHING anymore.

Facebook and Twitter have been able to dig their feet in the sand and outlast what once was a giant, and now there are hundreds of other social networking sites that serve different functions.

FINALLY, MySpace is realizing that they are going to need to change what exactly they do. Before turning into the social network that it was--a playground, a nightclub, a social gathering--or whatever you though MySpace was, it was created to be a music portal (Independent musicians used MySpace as a platform to gain more exposure). Based on their new slogan, it sounds like they are going back toward something more like this (rather than trying to be something more like Facebook).

The attempt to re-brand the site, with the slogan "Discover and be Discovered" is definitely a step in the right direction. I mean, at this point, they had to do SOMETHING.

In principle, the main purpose of the site sounds to me kind of like an expanded version of Digg. According to TechCrunch, "The idea is to hit users over the head with new stuff when they come to MySpace. New people they should be meeting. Movie trailers they should watch. Games they may want to play (perhaps against other MySpace users), music they should listen to, articles they should read. Etc"

This seems like a good last-ditch effort. At the very least, they realized the current site isn't cutting it and are making a wise decision by making a complete overhaul of the site. They still have information about the users' tendancies from back when the users frequented the site that may prove to be invaluable to the way MySpace retains users from this point forward.

To be honest, I think it's just too late. While I think that the information they already have may prove to be useful, the entire MySpace brand has just collapsed in my mind. It would take the most brilliant marketing strategies, along with an overwhelmingly sticky site, to get it standing on its own two feet again.

Even with superstar executives from companies coming in (and leaving), I just don't see that happening. After all, I tend to believe that MySpace really only became popular on accident.

Read the TechCrunch article here!

Another Twist As The Online Movie Rental Business Continues To Unravel

Add another huge name to the list of companies involved in the distribution of movies...WALMART.

WOW!

According to this article on Mashable, the colossal everything-you-can-imagine chain store is taking its shot at the ever-shifting movie distribution world. They are likely to purchase the online movie service called Vudu, which works with Internet-enabled TV's.

Every company seems to want a piece of this evolving industry that really hasn't seemed to take a foothold, but for better or for worse, Walmart might have a serious role in its future. As the article points out, because Walmart is such a huge retailer of televisions, they can really streamline their effort to sell the two as a package.

Even though I'm not really a Walmart shopper or supporter, I think this was a brilliant move on their part. Since their TV prices are so low and sales are so high, Walmart will be able to make the Vudu a widespread service installed in most living rooms. They will likely be able to effectively use the synergy between the TV prices and the Vudu service, and out of nowhere, might be in the driver's seat in no time.

First Mom and Pop stores, now NETFLIX? Walmart, you do just take over the world. Just wait for Google to get more involved...then things will get really crazy.

Which Advertisers Are Marching Victoriously With The Saints?

It's become a well-known fact that the Super Bowl is the biggest day of the year for advertisements. With 30-second commercials costing companies up to 3 million dollars (just for the air time), it is important that they make a commercial that shows that this is a worthy investment.

Any experienced Super Bowl enthusiast knows that there are three or four hilarious advertisements from beer companies at the very least, a couple sex-driven GoDaddy.com commercials, of course Coke and Pepsi ads, and then there are always some clever surprises.

In the past, people waited until the day after the Super Bowl to hear evaluations from newspapers and other news sources to be told which advertisements were "the best." Who needs these guys nowadays...at this point, it's all about US.

According to this article on Mashable.com about which advertisements created the most buzz, it was all about the chatter of users on social networks.

The researchers looked at a variety of things as far as the activity online. They looked specifically at the sheer number of volume of mentions online, the highest social engagement index (the farthest reach), and the sentiment score.

Apparently, as in all things in this world, Google cleaned up. The article reports, "On Super Bowl Sunday, Google was the advertiser with the most mentions, highest Social Engagement Index, and the second-highest sentiment score (second only to Doritos) among all advertisers."

When looking specifically at Twitter, Doritos actually saw more volume than any other company, including Google. Contrastingly, Clint may be disappointed to hear that Teleflora came out at 37 out of a total of 39 brands represented on Super Bowl Sunday.

While these reports are of interest to me because I enjoy analyzing how consumers responded to each commercial, it is more interesting to know how the results for these reports are being gathered. It is no longer about what some "expert commercial analyst" thinks about what the impact of each commercial will have on consumers, but more about analyzing the feedback and actions of the consumers themselves...within a 24 hour period.

Because of the promptness of responses, these results are more accurate and provide more information than they ever have before. I anticipate companies taking these responses and determining, through social media, what specifically was "good" and "bad" about the given commercials based on what consumers are sharing with each other. As a result, this will help them tailor more effective commercials for next year's Super Bowl.

Don't be surprised if you see a lot of similar commercials next year as a result of these findings...

Be sure to check out Google's "successful" ad based on the responses on social media from yesterday's big game:

Check Out My Other Blog!

Last semester I kept a blog for one of my classes about exciting new tech gadgets, and my opinion on what effect they might have in their respective industry.

There is some relevant stuff to our APOC program in there so check it out:

http://bigtimechanges.blogspot.com/

A New Way To Look At A Social Network's Success

In any business, there are a variety of ways to quantify success. Different methods are used to streamline businesses in different ways. For example, in marketing the approach is to increase exposure, then awareness, then interest, convert that to a purchase, and have that lead to a recommendation. It is ONLY when the interest is converted to a purchase that a marketing method is considered a "success."

Not surprisingly, social media is coming up with a way of its own to measure success. According to this article on Mashable.com, social networks have started to figure out a "funnel" of their own to measure success.

According to the article, the, "'conversion rate' refers to the total number of visitors who came to a site, compared to the number of visitors who did a desired action (such as creating an account or purchasing an item)."


As we discussed in our Web Technologies class, it is fundamental to a website's success to see at what point a user stops "going down the funnel," and figuring out why. Adjusting to the changes that the user demands is what will improve a website and make it more suitable to it's user's needs.

Later in the article, the writer explains that the importance of the actions of the users, as opposed to the number of pageviews, has become increasingly relevant to a website. On the Internet today, and especially on social networks, the data collected about users and their activity is more important than anything.


Finally, the amount of returning visitors is discussed. The writer makes a good point when he discusses the fact that it isn't really a "community" if everyone is a newcomer. As such, he explains that "What we’re really measuring is the percentage of people who come back again and again. The most common way of approaching this is to look at a group of users from a single time period (a week, for example) and track their behavior over time."

The writer then discusses the fact that Twitter has a very low retention rate, which does not bode well for its future. This surprises me, as Twitter seems to be a site that almost seems like an addiction to a lot of users. If it's so addicting, why are retention rates so low?

I am intrigued at the fact that social media has become so established and so prominent that such in-depth analysis has been done. Online communities have literally revolutionized the world of business in a way that nobody could have anticipated 5 or 6 years ago.

As a young, entrepreneur type who happens to have a serious interest in this field, to say that I am "excited" about this industry would be like saying Kobe and Lebron are "good" at basketball.

Paying For Twitter Followers

According to a new report on TechCrunch, a new industry is being born because of the power of marketing through Twitter. There are hundreds of posts on Ebay that offer the service of providing up to 5,000 potential followers to their site.

What's the price of the average follower? Under half a cent. That might be a great deal...or it might not.

At this point it seems a little sketchy--the "5,000 followers" can easily be bots that actually aren't going to be useful in any way to the company.

To me, this sounds like a revolutionary concept. Considering the fortunes spent by companies on trying to acquire customers through a variety of expensive marketing methods, this seems like quite a deal. It makes me think even further though about the value these followers can bring to a company.

But if, for example, you sold "5,000 college-aged" followers who were active with Twitter and might even have an interest in the brand to companies interested in acquiring followers, you might have a booming business. Something tells me Bud Light might be interested in investing in adding these beer-guzzling fans to their Twitter feed.

Hmmmm, that actually sounds like a pretty good idea. Let's see where I can take it.

Read more here

The Gig Of A Lifetime

By now you probably have heard of Taylor Swift. You may have also heard of Stevie Nicks. If you were like me, you saw these two rock stars performing together last night on the Grammy's.

But who was that other guy performing with them on the banjo with the tattoos?

That was Butch Walker, a Youtube sensation. Apparently, Taylor Swift watched Butch Walker's cover of her hit song "You Belong With Me" and was blown away. That alone was enough for Taylor to offer Butch the gig of his lifetime--a performance with her and Stevie Nicks on the Grammy's.

Apparently Butch isn't a complete "nobody" in the music industry (with ties to Avril Lavigne, Pink, and Weezer), but a performance on the Grammy's must've been a dream come true for the aspiring musician.

Stories like these continue to blow my mind. It seems like this kind of thing--a "nobody" turning into a celebrity over night-- isn't even that rare anymore. The amount of mass communication that exists today is changing how everything works, sometimes making even the most absurd dreams materialize.

It's amazing to me that the connectivity of social networking sites and internet communities is so strong and makes the gaps between all humans so small that "anything" is more "possible" than it's ever been.

For more details and to see the video about the Taylor Swift/Butch Walker gig, check this article out