Media Week

While some companies are banning Facebook it is clear that a number of agencies are using the site in a progressive way.Duncan (below) has singled out a few agencies who are participating in Facebook. What's the best way for agencies to use Facebook going forward? For team building? Promoting expertise? Sharing ideas? How valuable is Facebook because it is so public, could that inhibit some people perhaps? How might clients and agencies work together on Facebook?

In the good old days, the ad agencies held the keys to the audience and news shows had all the news coverage. But that is all changing. Blogs are generating and creating their own audiences and social media sites are hosting their own video news coverage.

There used to be official reporters for newspapers and TV etc but now everyone can be a reporter. There has been a lot of controversy over the gang videos that have been running on YouTube and the question of editorial control has been raised.

The fact that people are publishing their own thoughts and ideas and news and rumours on blogs means that suddently we have information from so many different sources. Companies can work this to their advantage. Why take out an ad in a trade mag, if they can speak to thousands of people a day through a blog?

More interestingly people are starting to become their own reporters and generating news content by being on the site of events. What happens is that news organisations buy up this footage to supplement their own. But what if this was organised better. Citizen generated news reports for example. What would that look like? How could that evolve? Or maybe from an ad perspective you could have consumer generated ads. Let the consumer make the ads rather than traditional agencies and see how they work. Just some thoughts I had over the weekend.....

UK Employers are starting to ban access to social network sites like Facebook during work hours but are they missing a trick?

While it seems reasonable enough for employers to want to ensure their staff are as productive as possible banning Facebook might not be the answer. In fact Facebook and social media sites could be a way of staff making better use of their time.

More progressive companies are looking at the technologies behind social media sites, their features and applications and are considering what they can learn from them. Could social media applications be used for work projects; team building or as new platforms for talking with customers, partners and suppliers? They can. Anyone got any interesting examples or thoughts?

Just finished reading Wisdom of the Crowds by James Surowiecki which is really helpful and useful reading for anyone involved with online advertising and social media. The book provides a fascinating insight into the power of the bottom up approach rather than a top down approach. The sections on technology are really interesting when he explains how Google search is in effect a vote on what is the most useful and relevant information for you to see. Good decision making groups include a mixture of dissent, independent thinkers, and it is unwise to surround yourself with everyone who shares your views. Even 'amateurs' can offer valuable opinions, Surowiecki says. I think aboveall what I got from this book is the importance of polls, surveys, and listening to the opinions of others. The crowd is not always right but informed crowds with a diverse range of views usually are and their views are usually smarter than a few experts. This book has big implications for business.

A web site for stand up comedians has come up with a great way to ensure content is appealing to visitors

Constant Comedy (www.constantcomedy.com) runs videos of stand up comedians but the key appeal of the site is that users get to vote on whether or not they want to continue watching the comedian. If the users get fed up, the video skips to a diffeerent routine or if everyone says they are enjoying it, the comedy continues.

Surely this gives some ideas to ad agencies in terms of creating video content or content in general which appeals to social network sites and blogs. What could be better than having instant voting by your target audience?

Sky News is going to provide virtual reports on Second Life.

New research out from ComScore shows that Facebook, the social networking web site, is going to break into the UK's top 20 most popular online destinations. But advertisers don't seem to have noticed.

A report in the FT today points out that average rates for online banners on social network web sites in the UK are typically 30-50 per cent lower than on internet portals such as Yahoo or MSN. Why? If banner ads are not the best way to engage with social network users, what are? Are social network users more averse to hard sell perhaps? Anyone know of any innovative ad work which has been carried out on social network sites?

Are users taking notice of ads in video games?Gamers are usually too busy driving around tracks to notice any kind of advert they don't interact with. So how can advertisers reach gamers without taking them out of the game? There's an interesting piece in this month's edition of Wired by Frank Rose who suggests that advertisers need to embed ads in interactive objects like cars in a racing game. Probably the best bit of advice comes at the end of the article which recommends that advertisers aim to enhance the users experience. That sounds like a good principle for advertisers who want to embed ads in blogs and social media networks as well. Does the ad enhance the experience for users or not?

An interesting site www.shespeaks.com is encouraging women to take part in product testing before products go to market.

Interesting piece at web2watch.blogspot.com about  whether or not blogs are on the wane (see link below). The author argues that long ponderous blog posts are out and quality is in. Given all the quick ways through social media to text messages, blogs have to be interesting to gain readers.

http://web2watch.blogspot.com/2007/08/every-blog-has-its-day.html

Interesting to read about Vodafone and First Direct pulling adsfrom Facebook after they appeared next to a web page for the BNP. the ads were booked blink by OMD. Could this lead to a review of blind advertising on social media and blogs? I think there has to be much more thought on how you advertise on social media and blogs. It might be worth consulting with users of social media to find out how the brand could best support the site. There are so many risks to just simply slapping an ad on a blog or a social media site. Advertorials written by bloggers in house style on niche relevant blogs which are clearly credited as sponsored posts can work as can competitions. But the way forward probably has to be involving social media users more in the creation of campaigns.

CNN recently ran interviews with Democratic presidential hopefuls based on video questions from YouTube users. It was really interesting to read Jeff Jarvis (www.buzzmachine.com) on the event. He said it would have been better if CNN had let YouTube users vote on which video questions should have been put to the presidential hopefuls. I agree. It would have made the event much more interesting. Jarvis touches on the key point about social media and blogging. The fact that it is about crowd sourcing. Getting collective wisdom. Listening to people in the most authentic sense.

I was at an event this week when it was revealed that people like negative comments. When you buy a book from Amazon you almost always read the reviews. Well research indicates that negativity is good because it gives people a more balanced view about a product. If you just seem positive reviews it makes people sceptical.