Why Can’t I Choose?
July 10, 2008 by OA Group · Leave a Comment
I don’t think I will be able to hold my frustration if I hear about another company trying to monetize social networking traffic. Ad networks such as Social Media and VideoEgg have probably done the best job in the industry up to this point with running campaigns on Facebook and the other social networks out there. However this post’s focus is different.
Is there an easier way to make money for social networks?
Most ad networks try to differentiate themselves by building targeting mechanisms into their service. If you’re in the online marketing industry, you’ve heard terms such as:
- Behavioral targeting (Blue Lithium)
- Contextual targeting (Google)
- Rich Media (Tremor Media)
- Along with a slew of others.
And what is the goal of each of these technologies? Getting the right ad, in front of the right user, at the right time. And as great as each of these marketing tools are, I personally believe that none of them are right for social networks by themselves. And I know I’m right because no one has been able to successfully monetize a social networking portal. And so my question is this:
Why can’t I choose my ads as a user?!
I think it’s a fair question and I haven’t seen any large social network attempt this approach. Let’s walk through how this could work practically: As a user, Facebook brings up a page on the screen the next time you sign in. This page would say something to the effect of,
“We at Facebook want to make sure that you have a great experience every time you log in, and we don’t want you to have to see ads that are irrelevant or annoying to you.” You then choose 1 or 2 verticals that interest you from a list on that page, categories like: auto, faith, finance, gaming, health, technology, travel, et al.”
Now all ads shown on Facebook would be user initiated and would have a much higher level of engagement since the user actually CHOSE the ads they are being shown. These ad units would increase dramatically in value since vertically themed ad networks are generating incredibly higher advertising rates than the other forms of interactive ad units. So hopefully these social networks will wake up realize that giving more control to their users will actually generate much more revenue.
The Social Media Ego
July 1, 2008 by OA Group · Leave a Comment
I was considering what the writing options were for this first real blog post, and I decided I wanted to discuss what is the root motivation behind all of these social media mediums such as: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. And since I am a fan of each of these services I believe I am well suited to self analyze why these companies are capturing our minds and dominating our daily lives.
How Much Do You Love Your Online Voice?
This post is not going to discuss the technical specifications of any of these ‘Web 2.0′ services, there are literally thousands of blogs that have daily dialogue in regard to the social media world. However I have found very little discussion about ‘Why’ these online applications have captivated our collective psyches.
As our culture has become more and more introspective, simply put, I believe we have fallen in love with ourselves. I think that if we could run on a beach into our own arms we would do it! And with this new found love of self we have come to the, probably mistaken, notion that we are all geniuses. And we all feel that our ‘deep thoughts’ need to be shared with the world. It’s interesting to have observed the evolution of social media, see below for the time line:
1. Dating sites
We first began with ‘looking’ for other people to spend real world time with, these individuals should have common interests with us and the end goal was: physical, emotional, etc.
2. Myspace
We then moved to online social networking with Myspace (a former dating site). Myspace made it easy to make ‘online’ friends, 99.9% of whom you will never meet (hopefully).
3. Facebook
For as innovative as Mysapce was, it was mainly a static site that profiled the interests you typed into it on the day you signed up. Facebook introduced an entirely new world of connectivity when they launched the ‘News Feed’ service. The News Feed service allowed for people to track when you upload new photos, shared a link or video, and changed your ’status’.
4. Twitter/Friendfeed
Taking Facebook’s News Feed process, services like Twitter made it quick and easy to share literally every part of your online self. They allow for you to share links, blog posts, videos, bookmarks, and status updates - many times on a dynamic basis. The majority of users on these services don’t even pay attention to the other members of the community, each of these social media mechanisms are completely ’self-centric’.
So do you see the evolution? Starting with individuals searching for others online, we have migrated all the way to users being satisfied with being the talker in one sided conversations. Our inherent selfishness and narcissism, combined with technological advances, have led us down this path of egocentricity. So where are we going next? I don’t know, but I can promise you that there will be millions of opinions crossing the web, and all of them will be right (at least in one person’s mind).
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