Odza Consults - Internet Strategy, Practice and ROI

John Paton’s Dec. 2 Presentation at INMA Transformation of News Summit in Cambridge, Mass. « Digital First

2010-12-06T20:09:00.000-08:00

John Paton’s Dec. 2 Presentation at INMA Transformation of News Summit in Cambridge, Mass. « Digital First

This is a terrific case study of a business whose business model was undercut by the Internet -- yet by embracing the net, has stopped the losses and started making money.

Twitter, After Number of Users Surges, Turns to Ads - NYTimes.com

2010-10-13T13:22:00.000-07:00

I was in Italy during Ad Week this year, but it must have been a treat to see the new advertising man/CEO of Twitter on stage with Facebook and Google. The days of dismissing the web as a time-waster (banned from offices in the early 90s), Google as a "mere" utility, Facebook as a time-waster and now Twitter as the latest to disappoint naysayers, are gone. There will be stumbles no doubt, but it's time for marketers to accept that some fads fade, but others grow and take over.

Twitter, After Number of Users Surges, Turns to Ads - NYTimes.com

Does this mean bricks and clicks can NEVER be joined?

2010-09-19T11:15:00.000-07:00

Blockbuster, Barnes & Noble and other major retail "bricks" stores have tried repeatedly and as this NYT article reports, generally failed to beat their online-only rivals -- Netflix and Amazon, respectively.

Does this mean all bricks retailer efforts to build business online are doomed?

No, of course not, but...it does mean you have to commit to a host of changes in how you do business. All your business. What changes, exactly? I knew you were going to ask that! Good question! Next...

Okay, here are some starting points:
1. Accept that there is a new world. Begin to grapple with the implications: pricing, new definitions and ways of achieving trust, customer power, level of customer service, best practices defined not by your old competitors, but globally, online.
2. New business model, often not compatible with your well-established one.
3. Probability of losses or low profits for a while -- painful when you have an established, profitable business that you're cannibalizing...for this?
4. New metrics of success -- with the right ones hidden in a flood of new metrics, not all of them relevant.
5. Faster pace: products, customer service, changes to plan needed.

Other issues you see?

Advertising IS (local) news -- if done right

2010-09-18T13:09:00.000-07:00

Gordon Borrell, one of the wise men (I deliberately omit "old") of media new and old, points out that a century-old saying is just as, if not even truer in our mobile, drive-by news world. And wouldn't you know it, one of the supposed dying icons of print advertising, Yellowbook, is trying a quick follow of the leader Groupon, with weforia.com. Can't help myself: when do you think newspapers will figure out that this might work?

Borrell Associates, Inc: Local Interactive & Online Advertising Research and Consulting

What We Can Learn From Alien Hunters - Advertising Age - CMO Strategy

2010-06-10T09:17:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Salem Baskin makes a very good point: "Purpose, legitimacy and direction are core drivers of conversations, whatever the medium." Too many social media campaigns are merely clever, but not really rooted in a relationship to the product or service.

What We Can Learn From Alien Hunters - Advertising Age -

12 sites that "get" it -- good models

2010-06-09T11:23:00.000-07:00

Lori Luechtefeld at iMediaConnection explains what makes each of these sites so good at what they're trying to do. Levi's has gone so far as to remake its site using Facebook lingo, for example.

12 killer websites worth watching - iMediaConnection.com

Now that we're all on social media, which type of ads are most effective?

2010-03-30T06:21:00.000-07:00

A research firm with the great name Psychster has answered the question, at least for now. They tested seven different types, on their client's site allrecipes.com, and on Facebook: brand profile pages with fans and without, widgets you can give to your friends or get, banner ads, newsletters, and sponsored content.

Spoiler alert: ads that matched the site they were on performed best, regardless of type! And engagement, at least as measured as propensity to interact with the ad, seemed not as likely to generate buying intent.

MediaPost Publications What Type Of Social Media Ads Are The Most Effective? 03/30/2010

Superpages Offers Coupons to Small Businesses on Twitter | Response Magazine

2010-03-24T22:03:00.000-07:00

Another corner turned in the race-- which will make money (appropriate to the usage) first, Twitter or Facebook? And, more to the point, which will make itself more useful to small businesses first?

Superpages Offers Coupons to Small Businesses on Twitter | Response Magazine

Predicting lifespan of online communities

2010-03-17T10:57:00.000-07:00

Through Shaping Tomorrow I found this study of what factors influence the longevity of online communities. "Researchers have previously claimed that there are too many variables influencing the survival or demise of such channels and that there is therefore no way of testing it, and earlier studies have primarily focused on group size and activity."

Turns out the key factor is how quickly the membership turns over -- the more frequently, at least to a point, the better. Those old friends, your first members, loyal as they are, don't contribute much to the life of the network, it seems.

Sometimes Social Media Does Trump Email - MarketingVOX

2010-02-25T11:11:00.000-08:00

Sometimes Social Media Does Trump Email - MarketingVOX ...and sometimes it doesn't! As one of the surveys quoted points out, we need email addresses even to get on a social network -- and then the social network generates an awful lot of email notifications to us. I'm still of the opinion that in general (but not always) Facebook is best for issues that concern people in their daily, personal lives, mostly on the fun side of life: gossip, family, entertainment -- although other topics are certainly creeping in. If your product or service can connect to the conversations your target audience is having on Facebook in some subtle way, great. If not, listen more and push less. An example: a garden supply center realized that FB ads targeted to their local market were very cheap. But how many people are talking about their gardens on FB? If you look for groups, you'll find very few, with very low membership. Garden talk goes on, but not on FB. The campaign, cheap as it was, didn't work, and was soon pulled.

How NOT to use the web

2010-02-24T09:41:00.000-08:00

Top of an email I received today:

"Thank you for your request to ABC News.

To submit a story idea to one of the ABC News shows listed below, write a single page letter including your name, phone number, and address. Include photocopies of backup information. On the outside of the envelope, write "Story Idea." If a producer is interested in your story, he/she will contact you. Here are the show addresses:"

And you won't be surprised at this point to know that the addresses were all "bricks" -- no email, Twitter, chat, video... NBC (MSNBC.com), Foxnews.com and CBSNews.com also have the typical "contact us" link in the footer, but different things happen when you have the patience to scroll all the way down -- a very long way for Fox News. NBC and CBS give you the usual email form -- NBC devotes a whole page to the various shows, while CBS hides them in a dropdown list for the email form. But if you find and click the "contact us" link for Fox News, here's the nice welcome you get:

"We want YOUR input! Tell us what you love, tell us what you hate ... just don't keep it to yourself! As a FOX Fan, you'll have a unique opportunity to make your voice heard and affect change at FNC. Below, you'll find a few ways to contact us. BUT, if you're more of a phone person, you can call us at 1-888-369-4762."

If only they put that at the top of the home page, I'd be more inclined to believe them.

Finding the words Google will rank highest, on deadline

2010-01-30T17:09:00.000-08:00

Article kicks off with a good case study of the frenzy behind the scenes as savvy web editors at newspapers tried to figure out the words that would get their story above the others, when the Ft. Hood shootings were underway. Author Kim Krause Berg then takes us through some of the details of how to go about it.

The Algorithm Chasers

Smartphones plus new Google click-to-call mobile ads to make 2010 the year of mobile -- really!

2010-01-05T07:40:00.000-08:00

A new survey of what people do with their Android and iPhones, combined with Google's announcement means that mobile advertising, long-promised as the next big thing, should really truly happen in 2010. The AdWords email, time-stamped 1:23 am, begins:

"We’re pleased to announce that beginning in January, your location-specific business phone number will display alongside your destination url in ads that appear on high-end mobile devices. Users will be able to click-to-call your business just as easily as they click to visit your website. You'll be charged for clicks to call, same as you are for clicks to visit your website."

A new survey by Compete, just released, says shopping activities lead all other uses of smartphones. ReadWriteWeb reports:

"Smartphone users are becoming increasingly comfortable with using their phones to shop online. According to new data from Compete, about 37% of smartphone users have purchased something with their handset in the last six months. Among the most popular items that these users bought were music, books, DVDs, video games and movie tickets. At the same time, though, Compete also found that smartphone users are very likely to abandon shopping sites that haven't been optimized for mobile usage. Almost 8% of smartphone owners who tried to buy something from their phone were simply unable to do so...Researching products is still the most popular shopping-related activity on the smartphones. According to Compete's survey, 41% of iPhone users and 43% of Android owners check sale prices while they are shopping. Surely, the popularity of mobile apps like ShopSavvy andRedLaser - which make checking prices as easy as scanning a barcode - will only drive these numbers up in the coming months.
The second most popular shopping-related activity for smartphone owners is finding consumer reviews. 39% of iPhone users and 31% of Android users use their devices for this."

Take this trend and combine it with the ease of use and accountability of pay-per-call AdWords on the phones, and savvy businesses should do well this year.

Proud to be a community moderator for an award-winner!

2009-11-18T12:16:00.001-08:00

Over two years now. Internet Evolution's thinkernet.com site has scored several awards over the last few months:
"We're thrilled to inform you that Internet Evolution won the min's Editorial & Design award for Best Blogs, recognizing the site's renowned ThinkerNet blogosphere, which publishes exclusive content from the biggest names in the Internet industry.

Read more about the award here: http://metacast.agora.com/link.asp?m=60666&s=7205559&l=0

Internet Evolution was up against a number of industry leaders, including Entertainment Weekly, About.com, Harvard Business Publishing, Martha Stewart Living, Newsweek, Time, and Haymarket Media.

With regular content from more than 200 industry leaders like Vint Cerf, Lawrence G. Roberts, Craig Newmark, and Andrew Keen, the now-award-winning ThinkerNet blogosphere has become the go-to destination for analysis and discussion on the future of the Internet.

This latest honor is Internet Evolution's fifth award this year. The site was previously recognized by minOnline for Best B2B Video Show, Best B2B Community/Social Network, Best Customized Website/Microsite, and Digital Team of the Year, taking accolades in categories against leaders from Sports Illustrated, Conde Nast, The Atlantic, and Scholastic Inc., among others.

The site also received Honorable Mentions in other Editorial & Design categories, including Best Use of Social Media, Best Online Column, and Best Special Section/Microsite.

(Yet another) top 10 list of tools for small business social media success (but a good one)

2009-11-10T05:25:00.003-08:00

Okay, the title is a bit unwieldy -- my apologies. But it conveys my sense that we're being swamped with lists. TechCrunch even makes a list of its top ten lists. Magazines, of course, have long done this: 33 ways to drive your man crazy in bed; 27 new chicken dishes you can make in in under 60 seconds. However, I also have to admit that not only do lists serve to draw readers in, but they are easy to read, and therefore really can be useful.

So, clearly labeled as a sponsor list (but not a sponsor of this site, I'm sorry to say), her's the list of social media tools especially appropriate for small business...

But wait-- before I give you the link, let me say I have my own list within this list! Choose from the following list:
1. My shortened list of tools;
2. The original length-ten list of tools.

What do you mean, you're not measuring your social media ROI?

2009-10-27T11:49:00.001-07:00

Christina Warren refers to a study that says 84% of social media initiatives do not include any measurement! That was last month. Now she has a very complete guide.

A model of how to monetize the attention economy

2009-09-18T07:08:00.001-07:00

We've all been trying to calculate the value of advertising: views, clickthroughs, and lately, and vaguely, "engagement." But on social networks, ads don't seem to be working as well as they do on Google, where they're really part of the content, and relate directly to the user's intent. So along comes Adam Penenberg in his new book The Viral Loop, excerpted here in Fast Company, and modeled in an app for Facebook and iPhone. Estimate the value of each user to Facebook by how active they are, reveal that dollar figure so now I am motivated to try to raise it -- and then maybe together we can all pressure Facebook to share some of it back with us. Esther Dyson wrote about the attention economy a decade ago, and proposed that it should be worth it to companies to share it back with us, but I think this is the best attempt to do it in a long time, if ever. Check it out. My starting value on Facebook is $64.80. What's yours?

Does this list of hot startups inspire or depress you?

2009-09-02T14:00:00.001-07:00

Inspire, because if there are these many good ideas, there's got to be one more...Or depress, because it seems like someone, and probably a team with a connection to venture money, got there first.

I'm in the former camp. Besides, maybe some of them are hiring!

"Your blog is your mothership"

2009-08-23T08:34:00.001-07:00

By way of customizable news-gatherer socialmedian.com, from WebWorkerDaily.com comes this sage advice from yet another link (but you'll have to find it by going to the WWD link): Don't neglect your blog for lesser tools.

EU study: 20% might pay for content online

2009-08-14T08:09:00.001-07:00

George Gilder promised and heralded it; the authors of "Blown to Bits" and "The Innovators Dilemma" warned about it close to ten years ago now; Chris Anderson has explained it in "The Long Tail" and now in "Free:" When the cost of a product and service decline rapidly, a couple of things are pretty likely to happen: new players will enter the market, unburdened by legacy cost structures and business practices (including past success); prices will fall, incumbents will suffer, and new business models will emerge. Nowhere has this been more dramatic and public than in the media industries I've worked in and around for almost all of my careers: books, music and movie delivery (MTV, Showtime, Movie Channel); consumer electronics (remember the Sony Walkman?); subscription newsletter; newspapers... Two items today are only the most recent among many to address this: Jeremiah Owyang's commentary on the first Cisco Eos contract with the big Hollywood media brands: http://bit.ly/ynaV3 and the European Union's large survey and report that, among other things, notes that P2P technology is not the reason media companies have lost sales. As I tweeted a few minutes ago, it's the business model, stupid (thanks to James Carville for the appropriation).

Great market opportunity: Two-thirds of Young People in EC might pay...

2009-08-05T11:49:00.001-07:00

A new study has the wrong end of the stick as its headline: "Third of Young People Won't Pay for Online Content." More good news in the study, throughout, but remember, in this paidcontent summary, to take the other side of each statistic.

E-marketers confess they don't test email campaigns

2009-07-28T13:53:00.001-07:00

Very sad news, since it is easy to test, and you get results very quickly. It's a foundation of the innovator's best practice of "fail fast." From directmag: http://tr.im/utPh

The end of "command" for corporations

2009-07-28T13:38:00.001-07:00

CIOZone published a review of the state of social media, itself reviewed in corporateeye.com and linked to linkedin.com -- illustrating how things travel. Here's the key quote: “'Like the fall of the Berlin Wall, many observers say we are witnessing the collapse of the command-and-control power of corporate mass marketing.'"

"That’s a much bigger message than 'you can’t afford to ignore Twitter.' That’s the end of the world as we know it."

Patterns and depth of social media engagement correlate with financial success

2009-07-21T06:29:00.001-07:00

Of course, as ReadWriteWeb points out, correlation does not necessarily equal causation, but it is worth studying Charlene (Groundswell) Li's database and analysis of the top 100 brands and their social media activities at her new site, Engagementdb. Those companies that have focused and deepened their social engagement according to Li's analysis, have made the highest profits, while those least engaged have lost money over the last year or so.

Sobering security tale: 'Ecosystem' of web services makes breaches easy

2009-07-20T07:39:00.001-07:00

It's worth reading through the detail of this anatomy of the attack on Twitter staff to understand how our all-too-human laziness in the face of dozens of individual password plus secret question systems makes for an overall weak system. It's not just individuals that are "at fault" for not following the advice to make individual, hard-to-guess passwords unique to each site, but companies/websites that act as if they are your only service.

Can your business afford not to offer "free" as a price?

2009-07-06T13:01:00.001-07:00

Chris Anderson of Wired has long promoted this idea, and now his book is about to be published -- July 7th, at a price, and in the days following, to show his consistency and perhaps prove his point, free, in various forms. One example is in England, where an abridged version is available for free along side the hardbound unabridged edition. The paperback is sponsored by Adobe, which itself is a couple of years into its "freemium" business model: free, quite functional online versions of expensive software otherwise available for a price. Where might you apply it in your business?

Launch a Web Business for under $10k. Rinse and repeat.

2009-06-24T15:19:00.001-07:00

Everything you need to know...

B2B marketing is harder than B2C

2009-06-24T14:56:00.000-07:00

As Kyle Flaherty writes, that's because it's not actually businesses talking to each other, it's many specific people representing or working in businesses talking to each other, sometimes in serial fashion. Blog is engageinpr.com

Great case of web design vs. corporate culture (guess who wins)

2009-06-02T06:11:00.000-07:00

Discovered this in the Fastcompany.com email, but here's the direct link: http://dustincurtis.com/dear_american_airlines.html

Speaking of useful iPhone apps...want to try one?

2009-05-31T12:44:00.000-07:00

A management coach and I would like your input on a concept. Here's a scenario and suggested answers. Email your answer and I'll respond with the scoring. But also let me know what you think of the concept of learning about or assessing your mastery of workplace challenges in bite-size formats.

Scenario:
You take your coaching role very seriously and you have told your remote employees that your door is always open. Dawn has taken you up on that and is calling frequently complaining about her team mate Shirley. You try to help her to take appropriate actions. But the calls are becoming more frequent and the issues seem more and more petty. What do you do? Choose one option below:

a. Continue to listen and help her through each situation – both Dawn and Shirley are critical to the team.
b. Offer to mention something to Shirley next time you speak to her.
c. Tell Dawn that she has to stop calling you – that these calls are taking time away from getting the work done
d. When you see it’s her calling, let it go to voicemail.

Email your answer to modza [at] odzaconsults.com. Thanks! And good luck!

What if everyone created an iPhone app?

2009-05-20T11:07:00.000-07:00

What's that you say? They already have? No...there are only 35,000 (and counting) -- that's far from everyone...

Seriously, there are a lot, but the business section of the app store is less full, and since the iPhone has already made and is continuing serious inroads into the business world still (for the moment) dominated by Blackberry, now is a good time to get in. Read all about it:

Gizmodo app store chart: Compares the different app stores of the leading handhelds. A little out of date, since the Palm Pre store is not yet fully leaked, but useful nonetheless.

Flurry blog: iPhone analytics. Haven't used 'em yet, but seems essential, and the blog has some useful findings.

Forbes: Making Money from iPhone apps: This is where I read about Flurry!

Social media: If you measure it, does it work?

2009-05-06T22:06:00.001-07:00

Not more than a handful of years after social media started exploding, the advertising industry is trying to catch up (while the big, truly "social" but not specific networks themselves try to justify their high multiples). But measurement, and consistent measurement in particular, is a start:
IAB Doc Seeks to Nail Down Social Media's ROI - MarketingVOX

The key question that sparks innovation

2008-10-13T13:47:00.000-07:00

“In science, the most exciting expression isn’t ‘Eureka!’ It’s ‘Huh?’” said Michael Hawley. (From Slipstream in the New York Times: "Intuition + Money: An Aha Moment" By JOHN MARKOFF, Published: October 11, 2008 (Registration required)

Do you need to know the cause of your problem before you attempt to solve it?

2008-10-13T11:52:00.000-07:00

The presidential and vice-presidential debates to date have raised this issue (Palin on global warming; Obama vs. McCain on Iraq war, etc.), but I'm actually referring to the all-too-slowly improving web efforts of newspapers, in the face of their declining print circulation and advertising revenue.

Paul Farhi kicked off this round with a "Don't blame the journalism" piece in American Journalism Review, in which he blamed factors beyond the control of journalists, asserting that journalism is alive and well. Not quite, riposted Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine. In fact, "It is our fault", says Jeff.

So back to our original question: can newspapers (and journalists) realistically expect to fix their problems if they haven't acknowledged the cause?

Slightly off-topic, but a reminder: coffee is good for you!

2008-09-23T09:22:00.000-07:00

Look for a photo of my new (okay, "refreshed") superautomatic espresso machine later today or tomorrow, but in the mean time, read this NY Times roundup of the latest research showing the health benefits of coffee!

2008-08-01T08:01:00.000-07:00

My interests span: helping spread sustainability practices for profit using my interactive, social network, news, marketing and analytic abilities; editing/writing about science for the general public; statistical analysis, especially of intangibles such as quality of customer experience; evangelizing innovation approaches within companies; project management and 'getting things done.'

Goal-focused, with “peripheral vision”
Sponge for knowledge and trends, thought leader in online news and communication, revenue and business strategies
Rare balance of creative, analytic, strategic, sales, project management and presentation skills
Project management success across multiple departments
Consultative, ego-free approach to team or client management.
I’m passionate about technology, customers, reading and writing -- in all media -- and fighting global warming.

Specialties:

technology commercialization via patent licensing, spinoff company formation; public relations; online community/social network-building; online advertising strategy and sales; metrics analysis; survey design; customer soothing and service; disruptive innovation strategies; Excel spreadsheets, deep familiarity with value and constraints of Web tools: HTML, Photoshop, MySQL, PHP, JavaScript, content management and ad management systems.

Online strategy and execution for organizations: client needs analysis, core business analysis, shifting the core, customer base profile surveys and focus groups, directed brainstorming and 'Blue Ocean Strategy' development. Private-label social networks, advertising sales strategy, e-commerce, online marketing, cross-media integrated marketing and branding, survey design and interpretation, project management. Assessing profit opportunities in reducing carbon footprint and/or marketing products and services that combat global warming: