As you may have read in today’s Advertising Age, Deep Focus is the sole beta partner in MySpace’s new ’self-serve’ platform.

According to the article:

A few months after opening its platform to outside application developers, the company plans to announce today that it will let advertisers directly manage, through a self-service tool, their branded profiles on MySpace.

This is a vast change from the tightly controlled, often laborious process brands previously had to endure to have a presence on the social network. It’s also a reaction, MySpace said, to advertisers’ desire to use the community more as a standing customer-relationship tool rather than a three-months-and-split campaign tool.

The move “is a fundamental shift in the way we view this business,” said Bryce Emo, senior VP-head of sales at MySpace. “We want advertisers and clients to have control so they can have a more active relationship with clients.”

Here’s the part of the article that had me scratching my head, though:

When asked about the importance of such a move, several interactive-agency execs suggested it was a good one in theory but questioned MySpace’s relevance. The social network’s growth has started to flatline, and the buzz around social nets has migrated to Facebook and other properties and tools.

Questioning MySpace’s relevance? How can you question MySpace’s relevance right now? They got 73 million unique visitors in March (according to ComScore). I’d say that any property that gets 73 million users in a month is pretty darn relevant. This is a classic case of people starting to think about ‘what’s next’ before they’ve figured out ‘what’s now‘.

MySpace is very relevant. And I think this move is a great one in terms of improving their product — for advertisers at least. If you didn’t read my AdAge DigitalNext blog post about what social networks need to do to be more relevant for advertisers (written before Deep Focus’ participation in the beta, BTW), now would be a good time.

Deep Focus will be using this tool to enhance our position as the leader in using social networks to successfully help brands build relationships with their customers (and find and grow new ones). In order for these tools to be effective, you need to have agencies that know what they are doing using them. As the sole beta partner in this program, we’re acquiring all of our intelligence now, and helping to shape this product into what we feel is the best possible conversational marketing solution for brands that are (and have yet to be) managing communities on MySpace.

Historically, brands have been forced to run ‘campaigns’ on MySpace. With this tool, we’ll be able to build better relationships for those brands.

This is what I meant when I said we need need to move from “impressions to lasting impressions.”

Want to know more? Email me at ian(at)deep-focus(dot)net, or just ask in the comments below.

Share on Facebook

Kind of.

The IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) has made a document (PDF) available to help you help others understand the world of user-generated content and social media. It’s a basic primer that attempts to take someone from zero to dangerous in 17 pages.

According to the IAB:

“User-Generated Content and Social Media Advertising Overview, is a milestone document that helps marketers, agencies and publishers better understand how these platforms have fundamentally altered the digital experience for consumers and advertisers. The report defines UGC and social media, provides a detailed overview of the latest advertising opportunities, and details case studies of campaigns that have successfully utilized UGC and social media.”"

The document gives a very birds-eye view. What you can find in there will be within topics such as “What is User Generated Content?”, “What is Social Media?”, “Impact on the Advertising Landscape”, “Trends in UGC Advertising”, and “Challenges and Opportunities”.

If you’re new to interactive marketing, this PDF’s for you. It’s a 101 on opportunities out there.

I question many of the ‘case studies’ and examples used in the document, as they are not exemplary, nor are they even representative of the typical campaign. For example, why use “Fred Claus” as an example of a fan page on Facebook? Strange.

I can assure you that the content at the IAB Leadership Forum: User-Generated Content & Social Media
on June 2 in New York will have much more meat.

Share on Facebook

So the cat’s out of the bag — I’m going to be a frequent contributor to Advertising Age’s new collaborative blog, DigitalNext. Many of the blog posts will also be featured in the print edition of Advertising Age as well.

My co-contributors will be David Armano, Craig Daitch, Collen DeCourcy, Darren Herman, Reuben Steiger, Troy Young, and Mat Zucker. This is going to be a heckuva blog.

My first post is a doozy, and is meant to be incendiary. I want the conversation about the structure of advertising sales and offerings of all social networking websites to start now.

Here’s a brief excerpt:

Dear [insert social-network CEO name here],

I recently spoke to Silicon Alley Insider about why social-networking sites still haven’t begun to realize their revenue potential, and I said: What the social-networking properties should have is a relationship expert or a user advocate who would also work with the advertisers.

Banners alone aren’t going to cut it. Regardless of how much inventory you have, CPMs are going to continue to decrease because those banners lack effectiveness. And the advertisers that are willing to buy only that inventory are not going to be the brands you want to have long, big-revenue relationships with. Not that revenue from the same dating-site-shilling, mortgage-brokering, free-iPod-offering advertisers you’re getting (and consumers are ignoring) now is a bad thing, but it won’t be the difference in helping your property fulfill its true potential.

You need a new position: chief relationship officer. The fact that you’ve had chief revenue officers without this position is, frankly, disturbing. If you want major brands to commit to long-term relationships with you, you’re going to need to commit to long-term relationships with them — and help them create relationships with your users.

Now click here to go on and head over to read the full post. Let the conversation begin.

Share on Facebook

AgencySpy asked:

“Hey, Ian? What’s the mission statement for Deep Focus when approaching social media? The definition of social media and its associated technology is always being debated, so what are you defining that as? What are you offering clients and what are you working on right now?”

And I responded with a diatribe that started with:

“We believe that Social Media is actually a medium within a medium. Social Media is not search, nor is it direct response, nor is it ‘branding’ or ‘awareness’. This is a medium where most of, if not all content is created by the people that use it. It is involvement. Passion. Influence. Passive and active recommendations. Connectivity. Collaboration. Our simplest definition of Social Media is any area of a digital experience where a majority of the content is either created or influenced by users. There is a very different set of consumer behaviors that occur when reading, writing, or responding to a blog post, or sharing thoughts, actions, and experiences via social networks. Social media is dificult-to-control participatory media, which makes it an environment that makes advertisers uncomfortable.

And you know what? Good.

Uncomfortable situations have the potential to bring out the best in us. They can keep us on our toes. They can sharpen our communication skills. They can improve our relationships by understanding what got us into those awkward relationships to begin with. Advertisers that can accept that they are in an uncomfortable relationship with their customers (and want to improve those relationships) are the ones that are most ready for a foray into Social Media.”

Want a good look under the hood at Deep Focus? Read the rest by clicking here.

Share on Facebook

MySpace Apps launched on Thursday, and will be the largest social networking property to make use of Google’s OpenSocial.

A quick glance at the list shows that the most installed app has 5408 installs. Not very impressive — yet. What’s interesting, though, is the lack of Slide and RockYou apps there at launch. Surprising, given that they are responsible for most of the top apps on Facebook.

What are you waiting for, app developers? Here’s your second chance to build a new distribution platform…

Share on Facebook

It could happen.

Apparently, lost in all of this kerfuffle (72 pts., btw) about the Scrabulous app on Facebook, is that the NYT is reporting that RealNetworks and EA actually share digital rights for these games. Which means that it’s very possible that RealNetworks (a HUGE player in the casual games space) may scoop up the game and give it an ‘official’ branding, according to paidContent.

This would be represent RealNetworks’ first foray into gaming on Facebook, and probably not the last. As a matter of fact, it seems that gaming may very well help sustain (and maybe carry) the momentum social networking sites have been experiencing these last few years, according to Mashable.

Social networking websites connect people. When people play games with each other, they become connected via a shared experience. It’s a perfect fit, and yet another reason why social networking sites are not going anywhere. We’ve been playing games for thousands of years, and when something comes along to enhance that experience, its likely to have at least some staying power.

Share on Facebook

I recently read the book Breaking Open The Head by Daniel Pinchbeck on a recommendation and was very intrigued by the connection of the internet to shamanistic ideas.

One particular passage talks about the Burning Man festival which takes place in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada at the end of August.

“The rapid growth of the festival and it’s flawless self-organizing structure are direct products of the Internet. Among the attendants at Burning Man can be found a tremendous brain trust of scientists and technicians, Silicon Valley Engineers and CEOs… Briefly escaping corporate jobs or university labs, they find release in flaunting their tools before a live and jubilant audience. “Black Rock City shows it’s possible to create a society based on play,” said Russel Wilcox.

In reading that so many internet associated people attend such events, one can see how and why the idea of the online social network was born. The ideals of current online social networks are found and inspired through these real-world settings. Life imitating art imitating life to a point. Can the online space replace the human connection of a face-to-face conversation? Probably not. But that’s where the challenge lies in gaining a connection where LOL and emoticons truly emote.

As the real world and these events foster “mind altering” and “mind expanding” through a variety of methods and, yes, substances, the online space is a prime inducer of opening the mind. Granted, watching too many YouTube videos has the opposite effect, but as a whole the internet is many people’s drug of choice through its vast landscape of content. I doubt the military saw the internet having this effect to such a social level.

Social networking takes us to these alternate realities. It lets users take on any persona they wish. It let’s people connect with those familiar and close to them as well as complete strangers. It’s an out-of-body experience. These crossovers from the physical space into the online space is where Web 3.0 is being born. Content generation with social interaction that explore connections in an alternate plane.

Share on Facebook

MIT’s Technology Review just published it’s list of 10 Emerging Technologies for 2008. The one piece that resonated with me is Sandy Pentland’s exploration into Reality Mining especially in relation to social networking, new media and interactive.

Reality mining “is all about paying attention to patterns in life and using that information to help [with] things like setting privacy patterns, sharing things with people, notifying people–basically, to help you live your life.”

This becomes a hot topic for a few reasons. First and foremost is, once again, privacy issues. Data capture is part of our daily lives – credit card usage, cookies on sites, social network profiles, company swipe cards – and as technology continues to slowly infiltrate more of our lives, we become more tolerant and accepting of what information is divulged and distributed. Everyone has see the movies with the FBI trying to trace the criminals phone call with the criminal hanging up just before being caught. However, most people don’t think about that even with mobile phones being on all the time A simple Google search on his/her name would surprise a lot of people.

Reality Mining has been a reality for years. And as mobile phones become more prevalent with WI-FI, Bluetooth and GPS-type systems (ala iPhone,) in addition to the laptops we carry around and use, the continual social network is our daily life. And as mobile technology advances, our blip on the grid becomes more prominent. The Human Cyborg ideal continues to press forward. Professor Kevin Warwick first started research into this in 1998 by planting microchips in his arm for recognition of systems in his lab.

The major benefit of Reality Mining is from an anthropological standpoint. How people interact, where they are and when they are. Tying this information into disease outbreaks, advertising models (when a person sees an ad, what do they do right afterwards?) and general healthcare and “human maintenance.” Smartex in Italy is working on clothing that does just that.

It’s a bit of the God factor (being omnipotent and omniscient) that is also fascinating. Knowing where your friends are at any time, knowing what they’re doing, where to get the food your phone knows your craving. It’s bringing the idea of Facebook, Google Maps, Dodgeball and other sites into the physical space. The ultimate social network. Maybe even a step closer to SkyNet.

Real-time in real-time. Very meta.

Share on Facebook

Google’s announcement last Thursday about their venture into online personal health records is a mixed blessing, but one that has been much needed for the healthcare industry. It’s been a hot topic since the original announcement by Google in October. The biggest concern is that of privacy issues and, more so, data security. Microsoft and Google make assurances that data will be secure and privately controlled by individuals.

On the pro front, this announcement will open up the healthcare industry similar to how the iPhone has made carriers rethink their strategy of having strict control of what devices user get. Now patients should control where they take their ailments, rather than big healthcare saying what referrals you need and how to get care. Granted, this will take a while to see the full wave of this effect, but it’s finally happened where there is the challenge to bringing control to the masses. A big idea of web 3.0.

The cons? Well, for one, people will have to be the keepers of their medical history. A lot of people will, a lot of people won’t. Judging the way people can be cyberchondriacs with the likes of WebMD around, a social network space to post every symptom they may think they have would definitely need filtering and a professional opinion. But we’ve all been curious about what the doctor scribbles (yeah, they scribble) on that file. Just ask Elaine on a classic Seinfeld episode trying to see what’s in that file.

But imagine if that information does become publicly searchable (”OMG! She had WHAT when we were dating?”) or the movement into a medical social network (GooTube? Yuck.) It might lead to a new perspective on selective reproduction and a change in human evolution. Scientists are already theorizing on it. 

If the trial with the Cleveland Clinic is a success, we can see a big change in the way medicine and society interacts on that online space. I see it as a portal of innovation and communication – cancer survivors speaking about their therapies, treatments analyzed and discussed, ease of research and innovation – beyond their niche spaces on the web. The power of technology, the power of social media and the human element are enticing for this to work.

Share on Facebook

Are you amongst the over 3.6 million people that have seen this video, fronted by Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas?

I dare you to watch it and not think something is happening. I’m not divulging any political affiliation or allegiance, but damn if this video actually didn’t make me feel something. It’s just another example of how the internet’s ability to galvanize, energize, and mobilize has been used brilliantly by Obama and his supporters.

The power of the web, the power of social media to tap into emotions is something that we are finally understanding how to wield. While television has historically been a great way to do this en masse, the connection that is created through TV is between the image on the screen, and the person on the couch. It remains in the person’s brain until they encounter others. By the time that happens, the feeling may be gone. On the web, the opportunity to communicate with others is instantaneous, as is illustrated by the almost 27,000 responses to the video on YouTube.

The video has also generated 49 video responses as well. So people are not only communicating with others in a ‘traditional’ fashion (via comments), but are also creating content of their own in response.

Check out this spoof video inspired by Will.I.Am’s version.

Creativity inspires creativity. And creativity online inspires creativity in more people — or at least inspires more people to act — than any other medium.

It’s because of this that one of the great promises of social media is its ability to get people to do something. To donate, to vote, to gather, to organize. Facebook’s Causes (with over 100,000 active users) is an example of this propensity in action.

As a matter of fact, as I type this, the videos mentioned above are being discussed on ABC’s Nightline, and they have just asked the question, ‘do they actually get us to do something?’

Well, they get the top news show in its time slot to discuss it. They get millions of others to realize the content is important. They drive millions of others online to view, share, and discuss. And eventually, to create more content that inspires others to act. I bet they really will also get many people to vote that otherwise wouldn’t have.

For all the vampires, zombies, music trivia, board games, celebrity stalking, trolling and lurking that we spend so much time associating with social media, maybe it would do us all some good to spend a little time thinking about the socially responsible ways that social media can make a difference in our lives. Or get us to make a difference in others’.

Share on Facebook