IanSchafer.com

Want To Add Facebook Connect To Your Blog? Here's How.

If you want to add Facebook Connect to your blog, and you have access to your blogs HTML, here's a video from Facebook that will walk you through this process rather swiftly.

Add Facebook Connect to Your Blog in 8 Minutes from Dave Morin on Vimeo.

Here's a question, if Typepad (which hosts this blog) has their own 'connect' service, will they make it easy to add this functionality across their platform?

Come on, guys. You know you want to do it. Do it.

Social Media for Social Good at the Ad Council.

I spoke today at the Ad Council's Partner Conference, where many of the causes the Ad Council supports get together to discuss the burning issues around raising awareness of their very important initiatives.

At this event, the focus was squarely, 100% on social media, and understandably so.

In doing my part to set the table for the day's discussion, I gave the following presentation where I talked about some significant research findings, best practices, and case studies including our recent major effort with the Ad Council, SHARE YOUR VOICE.

Enjoy!

Social Media for Social Good

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: social media)

Deep Focus Partners with The Ad Council to Launch the Exponential Action Network.

What you see above is one of the first widgets deployed as part of the Exponential Action Network, a major social media initiative we created in partnership with the Ad Council.

When we were invited to work with the Ad Council we were flattered, and inspired.

We wanted to reimagine the Ad Council in today's era. For decades, the Ad Council worked because of donated media by cable and broadcast networks. But what if the Ad Council was rebooted today? We live in a world where people aren't just consuming media -- they are creating media. And if media were people-powered (like so much of the web is) we could create a whole new distribution and interaction mechanism for PSAs and their associated causes.

But wait, there's more. What if people that were donating their own media could actually see how much of an impact their advocacy had on others? And what if we got millions and millions of impressions donated by the likes of Facebook, MySpace, imeem, Netvibes, Clearspring and others to promote it?

Thus, the Exponential Action Network was born.

Check out the press release here -- it pretty much says it all.

We're proud to be doing good, and we're proud to be working with the Ad Council. Support a cause and share your voice today!

Watch My Panel on Branded Experiences in Social Networks.

From the Social Ad Summit last week in NYC, watch this fascinating (yes, 'twas) panel on Branded Experiences in Social Networks, featuring:

Me
Don Steele, MTVN
Scott Monty, Ford
Deborah Korb, JP Morgan

There's some great insight here into what brands think of branded experiences in a social networking environment, what they're spending, and how they're spending it -- now, and in the future.

Upcoming Events You Should Consider Attending.

The next two weeks are flush with events in NYC, orbiting around the sun of Advertising Week.

I'll be flush with events too, so here's a heads-up on how you can catch me...

Monday, September 15th

Social Ad Summit

Tribeca Rooftop, NYC

11:15am - 12:00pm

Branded Experiences on Social Networks

Large brands spend billions of dollars every year on advertising. Hear from a few of those large brands about how much they are allocating to social networks. Find out what has worked and what hasn’t as well as the hurdles for brands getting on social networks.

Thursday, September 18th

OMMA Global

Marriott Marquis, NYC

4:45pm - 5:30pm


Getting Social Sites to do your Work for You

Are you looking to precisely target based on demographics or activity? Targeted ad networks are showing promise for delivering more precise demographic segments for marketers than the big global networks. Could the same be true for vertical social networks? Social shopping, reviews, and more targeted groups can provide better engagement for those people you want to reach.


Moderator:

Brant Barton, Founder, Bazaarvoice


Speakers:

Adam Cahill, SVP, General Manager of Carat

Michael Carrier, CEO, StyleHive

John Riordan, Director-National Sales, Yelp.com

Ian Schafer, CEO, Deep Focus

Thursday, September 22nd

MIXX 2.8

Crowne Plaza Hotel, NYC

4:45pm - 5:30pm


The Self-Service Revolution


It sounds too good to be true: A completely automated process for setting up and executing highly-targeted ad campaigns. But how do we separate the hype from the reality? In this interactive session, you'll hear from marketers and platform-providers working together to define the automated future.

Moderator:

Michael Wolf, Partner, Farrallon Point, Inc.



Panelists:

Dan Ballister, Chief Operating Officer, TRAFFIQ

Aaron Finn, President & CEO, AdReady

Ian Schafer, CEO, Deep Focus

Jay Sears, EVP, Strategic Products & Business Development, ContextWeb

Tuesday, September 23rd

Advertising Week

Paley Center (formerly the Museum of TV and Radio), NYC

12:00pm - 1:00pm


Social Media: Giving Voice to Social Causes



The explosion of social media has created countless new ways for advertisers to engage consumers. It’s also created countless ways to promote social causes and increase civic engagement. Whether it’s social networks like MySpace and FaceBook or bloggers, widgets, twitter, or friend feed, these powerful tools can and are being used for the greater good. This panel brings together the best of the best to discuss where social networking meet social change.

Panel:

Moderator: Bob Greenberg, Vice President, Corporate Brand Marketing
Panasonic Corporation of North America

Douglas Atkin, Chief Community Officer, Meetup

Chris Colborn, Chief Experience Officer, R/GA

Lexi Reese, Head of Media Platforms, Google

Ian Schafer, Founder & CEO, Deep Focus

My First Webinar: A Blueprint For a Successful Social Media Website

I'll be co-hosting a Webinar with the fine folks at KickApps on July 23rd at 2PM ET/11AM PT. Here are the sordid details:

On July 23rd at 2PM ET/11AM PT, we’ll be hosting a webinar where we’ll share tips and best practices for creating and running a successful social media website. If you’re in the process of putting together your social media website or are looking for ideas to take your website to the ‘next level,’ this webinar is for you.

Topics we’ll be covering:
1.Designing your social media strategy and experience
2.Leading and managing your online community
3.Programming your website’s social media experience
4.Social marketing for growth

We’ll be joined by a couple of special guests who are leading minds in their respective fields:

Ian Schafer is the CEO of Deep Focus, one of most innovative marketers around whose award winning agency has developed numerous social media marketing campaigns for brands like HBO (Flight of the Conchords) and Vitamin Water. Ian will share some ideas and thoughts around putting together a social media strategy and marketing a social media website.

Stephen Merrill is the general manager of BudgetTravel.com. Stephen recently launched My Budget Travel, inspired by the magazine’s daring, user-generated June 2008 10th Anniversary issue that showcases a reader-submitted cover photograph, and feature-length articles written entirely by readers. The KickApps powered social media section of the website gives readers and travel enthusiasts the opportunity to share their fondest travel experiences and adventures, and discover new ones. Stephen will talk about how to integrate social media and user-generated content successfully with editorial programming.

Sign up for the webinar at: http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=49150.
Once you’ve registered, just click on the link above to attend the webinar. If you need to use another machine, just re-register. We’ll send you a reminder a day prior to the event.

If you've been thinking about whether or not to build a social media website (or a social network itself) rather than advertise within a MySpace, Facebook, or Bebo, this one's for you.

Twitter This: Me @ OMMA Social on Monday, June 23rd.

I'll be performing live at OMMA Social at 4:15pm on Monday, June 23rd at the Yale Club (getting back at them for not accepting my application), speaking on a panel devoted to social media metrics.

I've sat on the sidelines for this discussion way too long. Seen too many panels on social media metrics that didn't address them at all. I'm hoping to do all I can to change that with this panel.

Here are the lascivious details:

4:15pm: Valuable by Any Measure: Metrics that Mean Something in Social Media

A soft drink advertiser boasts about the brand’s thousands of Facebook fans; a car advertiser is thrilled that its new car model is the talk of the blogosphere. Certainly this interest in their brands is better than the alternative, but what does it all mean? The search for metrics that mean something in social media.


Moderator: Jodi McDermott, Director of Product Management for Widgets, Clearspring Technologies

Heidi Browning, SVP, Client Solutions, MySpace

Blake Cahill, SVP Marketing, Visible Technologies

Ian Schafer, CEO, Deep Focus

Adam Weinroth, Director of Product Marketing, Pluck Corp

Stephanie Pike, Strategic Program Manager for Digital Marketing, Circuitcity.com

Be there, and be part of the solution.

And take the discussion to Twitter, people.

An Apparently Too-Early Marketer ’ s Preview of the (Incomplete) Facebook Redesign.

It's been discussed quite frequently amongst the developer set, but the mass rollout of the Facebook redesign is almost upon us.

After playing around with what seems to be a not-yet-fully-functional version for a while (leave it to Facebook to let us play with things before they're either done, or fully thought-through -- and that's not a bad thing), I wanted to share my thoughts with you on what to expect, and how it might impact your advertising and marketing strategies on the 'book.

Here's what my profile looks like in the new redesign:

And here are my comments.

First of all, when I sign into Facebook, it seems that my 'home' page and my 'profile' page are the same thing. It's late, so I can't get immediate confirmation on whether or not there will be separate views (like what exists now), but I'll update this post if necessary.

Previously, Facebook went with a three-column format, but now there's only two. That means that the right-most column that was previously filled with new app messages and notifications is gone. Which means that profiles are lot cleaner -- and a lot more difficult to get your custom-app featured on.

Those apps that used to line the right column now live within the 'Boxes' tab (first I've ever heard that term used on Facebook). When clicked, that tab expands to reveal all your installed applications, but also keeps them out of plain sight. Again, nice and tidy for users, but troublesome for marketers.

There are no ads on the page - yet - although I'm sure they will be there soon.

The main navigation (seen on the upper left) doesn't scale appropriately to the browser width. That's just unacceptable. But I imagine that will be fixed as well.

The news feed is even more front-and-center, making it even more important of goal for marketers to get into. That news feed is one of those things that make the 'social graph' go 'round.

Interestingly enough, the only link that seems to be fully functional is the 'photos' link. And I can assure you that the photos section is much more intuitive.

My assessment of the whole redesign? This isn't the whole redesign. It's incomplete (I hope). And while I just as easily could have waited until the final launch, I couldn't hold it in. This is an unfinished work. I feel like a critic reviewing an unedited film. In a way it's not fair. But if I can somehow influence the outcome and make it even better, it's worth it.

The early verdict is that it's going to be increasingly difficult to brand effectively on Facebook. And it's going to be increasingly difficult to launch new applications. But once you can connect with a consumer, their news feed looks to be even more important, and more powerful.

There will DEFINITELY be a follow up post here, but sleep well knowing that if you stay tuned, you'll be among the first to get the marketing/advertising POV.

But I'm curious...what's YOUR initial reaction?

The New York Times API: Coming, But Is Revenue?

As ReadWriteWeb reports, the New York Times is working on an API that aims to make the entire newspaper 'programmable'.

From the post:

In addition to the API, New York Times CTO Marc Frons told mediabistro.com that internal developers at the paper will use the platform to organize structured data on the site. Following that, the paper plans to offer developer keys to the API allowing programmers to more easily mash up the paper's structured content -- reviews, event listings, recipes, etc. "The plan is definitely to open [the code] up," Frons said. "How far we don't know."

The effects that this might have could be far-reaching. The NYT is still a morning (and throughout-the-day) mainstay for millions of readers (and bloggers), and giving others the ability to use its content as they see fit may result in even more readership.

But access to content will no doubt be limited. What the NYT really wants is for people to visit its website. Not extract content from it. It's the great Newspaparodox. News has become a commodity. Blogs are beating newspapers to the punch, often because it doesn't have to deal with a bureaucratic fact-checking system (for better or worse). Analysis, features, and 'exclusives' are still the things that set the NYT apart.

The questions that still need to be asked are:

* Will opening up an API result in more readership?
* Can that increased readership be monetized?
* Can this be an additional/incremental revenue stream, or one that just aims to offset losses from the newspaper?

The Times' facebook application has only attracted 1,200 users, but then again, the successful facebook apps tend to skew heavily towards the silly.

'Opening up' is a trend, finally. But trends can become fads very quickly without a responsible business model. If you're a content publisher or media company, the least you should be doing is API-enabling your content. The next thing you should be doing is figuring out how to turn that openness into incremental revenue.

If you're an agency, you should be proactively bringing ideas to your clients that can take this API-mentality to its advertising and brand positioning. And if directly increasing revenue is not your goal, then you should be understanding and explaining how getting more open can yield positive results in other ways. But as in any case, to quote Glengarry Glen Ross, 'never open your mouth unless you know what the shot is.'

10 New Social Media/Advertising Buzzwords.

David Armano, of Critical Mass, recently posted a list of made-up words that inspired me to post a list of my own. I do this all day in meetings, and figured I'd share a few with you, loyal readers.

Crapplications: Annoying facebook applications. Usage: "No, I don't want to take your Dr. Phil test. What a crapplication."

Groupsydaisy: Accepting an invitation to join a Facebook group, only to realize it was for something completely different, then leaving immediately. Usage: "I just joined the 'I love animals group' on Facebook. Turns out it was for people that really 'love' animals. In that way. That was a heck of a groupsydaisy."

Feedbrag: Purposefully doing something on Facebook that you know will be posted to your newsfeed, thus letting everyone know about it. Usage: "John rented Fellini's '8 1/2' from Blockbuster just to make people think he's smart. That was such a feedbrag."

Viraelian: One who believes that every online video they post to YouTube will be seen by millions. Usage: "Just because he made a video that looks low-budget but has special effects doesn't mean people are all-of-a-sudden going to find them and email them to everyone they know. He's such a viraelian, and he's converted his entire department."

Flackipedias: Articles on wikipedia created by or contributed to by PR firms.

Twitzer: Using Twitter to attract women. Usage: "Man, he's totally sending out tweets that are designed to make him seem rich and single. What a Twitzer."

Memicide: To kill a meme through overusage. Usage: "It's becoming pretty apparent to me that coverage by mainstream media has killed RickRolling. A clear case of memicide." Or, my blatant copying of David Armano's blog post, is an official act of memicide.

Statustician: One who updates their Facebook and/or Twitter statuses habitually.

Twends: When something starts becoming oft-tweeted about in a short period of time. Usage: "I keep getting tweets pointing me to Brian Morrissey's twitter feed. This is a definite twend."

Invinsible: The feeling of setting your instant messaging application to "invisible". Usage: "Ain't no one going to bug me on IM today. I'm in control of who I chat with. I'm invinsible."

Bonus Words!!!

SMainstorm: The process an agency goes through when instructed by a client to deliver ideas for a Facebook/MySpace/Blog campaign. Usage: "Smainstorm! Conference Room A! 10 minutes!"