Media Week

Radio 4 kicked off an interesting weekly programme last night called Power and the Web, presented by The Spectator's editor, Matthew d'Ancona.

He asked whether the web has the potential to reshape society, just as the printing press did more than five centuries ago.

The message from last night's show was that the web is no longer a tool but is an agent of transformation. Unlike the printing press, the web is moving very fast. Three years ago, You Tube did not exist and two years ago Facebook did not exist. D'Ancona argued that the fact that the web is free and unregulated means that it is a potent democratic force. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/schedule/2007/11/28/day/

The Guardian ran an interesting piece over the weekend about Facebook users complaining that their online shopping habits are being publicised without their permission.

According to the piece by Alexandra Topping and Bobbie Johnson, thousands of Facebook users are joining a group called 'Stop Invading my Privacy'. Complaints have been sparked by their friends being informed about their online purchases. Surely it won't be long before Facebook works something out with its users which respects their privacy and gives advertisers some interesting new options.

Ford Motor company has issued a social media release (see link below) for its 2008 Focus. This incorporates a You Tube video; photos on Flickr, a PDF fact sheet, tags and an RSS feed. An innovative step from such a large organisation

http://media.ford.com/products/focus08/index.html

A letter in the FT today (nov 15) - I do read other papers! - saying that new technologies are only transforming the rhetoric surrounding existing power relations in politics and business. The author Tim Pendry refers to the fact that 400,000 plus individuals on Facebook protested over the crushing of the Saffron revolt in Burma with no effect on the generals.I disagree totally. Social media tools are influencing US elections and US TV networks have held debates in conjunction with them. In terms of business and new technologies what about HSBC and Facebook and what about Dell? There are bound to be others. How long before another bank gets hit with a student protest? The internet is having an impact on countries who are not democracies take China for example. I think Tim is underestimating the power of the communications networks that the web is creating.

In today's FT (page 21) Michael Skapinker writes that he doesn't believe that PR has much of a role to play when it comes to internet advice and thinks that internet-backed consumer campaigns are paltry.He does mention many successful web-based consumer campaigns: the Wispa chocolate bar, HSBC and Facebook and Dell. You would think that those in themselves would be sufficient for any company to take blogging and the power of the internet seriously, wouldn't you? Companies who deal with customers well over the web ie Amazon, ie eBAy have grown companies from nothing in next to no time. It seems to make sense for more companies to improve in this area and to listen to what people are saying online. Or is Skapinker right? Is the power of the internet consumer being talked up? Clearly there are good and bad blogs and any streetwise company will want to know the influential ones.

So Facebook has launched some new ad formats. It's very interesting to see how they work and doubtless they are going to offer ad agencies some interesting new options. The worry is that they might be too intrusive and irritate facebook users if they start popping up in all sorts of unexpected places.

When you look at a typical Facebook page, the skyscraper ads seem to work well though especially when they are set on the side. After a while you get used to them and people are bound to read them.

Some of the most interesting work in my opinion on Facebook has been done by companies who actually become users and create their own pages. They don't always generate massive numbers but they can gain influence and more importantly they get first hand experience of being part of Facebook. Once you have that experience then it is easier to understand what will work best in marketing terms in this context. A lot of the people who talk about the risks and problems of social media never use it themselves and i think it is important to create an environment where marketeers and advertisers can experiment. Facebook's users will let them know pretty quickly I would imagine whether or not these new innovative ad formats are a long term runner or not.

There's an interesting piece in the current edition of Marketing about responding to blog postings by Robert Gray.

Tetra Pack responds to inaccurate postings on blogs. It seems a good idea. Too many companies are nervous about replying to blog posts in my experience. They worry that they will come across as too corporate and patronising or that they will provoke a storm of protests. But organisations have a fair right to reply and providing the replies respect the online environment and you are open about who you are, it's a good policy. Besides people tend to behave better when they know they are being watched.

Obviously it is useful to know which blogs are the most influential in your sector. Which carries the most weight. As the replies to those will go further.