Some of us marketers are in the unique position of being both an avid user of social networks and marketers trying to tap into and leverage their communities for our own personal gain or that of our clients'. So while I understand and even support, as a marketer, efforts by social networks and third parties (advertisers) to monitor my activities and interests and market to them, the avid user in me can't help but feel a little uneasy at "Big Brother" looking over my shoulder.

As marketers, we sometimes forget the personal attachment people have to their profiles and how protective they can be of their online identities. Some live vicariously through them and others see them as an online representation or extension of themselves. I think social networks understood that, which is why they were so reluctant initially to monetize their sites. As a user, I appreciated that. As a marketer, I was of course endlessly frusterated. And yet even post monetization, I haven't experienced what I would consider to be an invasion of privacy or the sense that I was being exploited (I was excluded from Facebook's Beacon program, thankfully).

That's perhaps why I was so interested in the announcement by Seth Goldstein, founder of San Francisco-based SocialMedia Networks, of "social banners" or display ads that turn you or your close friends into the hook of marketing message. The patent-pending algorithm basically looks at how you interact with friends through social media applications and identifies those you are closest to and hopefully those you are most likely to listen to (advocates). It then finds a way to work those individuals into ads served to you. Borrowing heavily from Google, the algorithm is called "FriendRank" and Goldstein and company are betting wisely that it will increase the level of engagement with ads, namely click-through rates. According to some preliminary numbers and tests with Unilever and Universal Pictures, SocialMedia Network reports that people are 200 times more likely to respond to social ads than non-social ads. Those are some prettly startling numbers. The marketer in me is practically salvating. Have we come that much closer to finding the magic bullet in social media?!

The avid user in me though, feels uneasy. Are they exploiting my relationships and status as purveyor of all things cool for their own personal gain? Are they volunteering me as an advocate for a brand or product unknowingly and without my permission? And if so, do those recommendations I made unwillingly affect my status, especially if they prove wrong? Will I be deemed less relevant by my peers? The fact that Goldstein has said publically that programs like Beacon are the future of this type of conversational marketing doesn't exactly ease my fears. I agree with him, but perhaps Beacon isn't the best example. The company has stressed that they will be sensitive to people's privacy and will allow people to easily opt-out of the program if they have any concerns. Then again, Beacon allowed you to opt-out as well. The problem was, people were angry because they had never explicitly opted in.

I believe the key to this all though is striking a balance between the need for privacy for some and relevancy for all. If they can accomplish that, they will have something extraordinary. And if anyone can make this work, it's Goldstein in my opinion. The man's a genuis. Both the marketer and the user in me are anxious to see what unfolds.

                                                                                                                             

While we're on the subject of politics... Obama and his campaign have found yet another way to harness the power of the internet. PR-challenged companies take note! The campaign recently launched http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/, a site dedicated to dispelling untrue rumors circling him and his campaign that he feels could be damaging. Historically candidates have largely ignored rumors, hoping that they would eventually go away. For some (John Kerry anyone?) that proved to be especially costly.

And by creating a site, he's using the exact same method to dispel rumors as is often used to start and propagate them, the internet. Web 2.0, as outdated as the term already is, has created a world where even the smallest of rumors can quickly spread like wildfire and take on a life of their own. Look at the Jeremiah Wright scandal. What quietly started out as a few videos making the rounds on YouTube was quickly picked up by the major news stations only to become THE controversy of the Democratic Primary.

Here, Obama is hoping to prevent a swift-boating by attacking the rumors head on and in a public forum. A pretty shrewd move considering the fact that he's often considered stronger on the offensive than he is on the defensive AND that there are a number of rumors circulating on the internet that could prove to be damaging to his campaign.

Besides making a clear distinction between the lies and the truths, the site also gives you the ability to easily "spread the word" to friends. It even allows you to import contacts from your address book (you can choose from the following: yahoo.com, aol.com, hotmail.com, gmail.com, msn.com, lycos.com, mac.com, and fastmail.fm).

By highlighting the rumors, Obama does run the risk of perpetuating them and giving them credence, but assuming he does a good enough job on the site of dispelling them, the risk is marginal. The consequences of not are far more dire.

The question now is, can companies somehow leverage this approach to control their public image, and if so, how? And furthermore, can Obama succeed? Given his campaign's track record so far, I'd have to say, "Yes he can".

Visit Barack Obama’s home page this week and you’ll find respectful appeals to Hillary Clinton’s supporters, news, videos, inspirational quotes, and a variety of effective calls to action.  Take a look at John McCain’s homepage and you’ll see (amongst other things) a well-placed promotion for McCain golf gear.  Really.  

This kind of comparison should help explain why I predict that Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States. 

The Obama web team also does a great job of spreading the message all around the web. As the module on his blog page says, Obama is “Everywhere.”  There are readily accessible links to Obama connections and content on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, Digg, Twitter, Eventful, LinkedIn, Blackplanet, Faithbase, Eons, Glee, MiGente, MyBatanga, AsianAve, and DNC Partybuilder. At Johnmccain.com if you dig deep enough, you’ll find links associated with myspace, facebook, and youtube. 

Click through to McCain's Myspace page and you’ll find that he has a respectable count of 53, 218 friends.  Obama, on the other hand, has 391,834 – and his myspace page – typically some of the crappiest looking pages on the web, even looks well-designed and, dare I say, presidential.    (For a good laugh, take a look at some of the 62 "friends" on Bush's MySpace page.)

Kudos to the Obama team for recognizing how times have changed and for mastering the use of interactive channels for the good of their cause.

- Jon Fox

A new Gartner study called “Consumers' Value Perception of the Internet” surveyed 4,779 internet users in 18 countries and presents some significant, actionable, insights… Amongst other findings, it pretty much says that almost all people, across every demographic are using the internet to do the same the things:
 
1. Email
2. Search
3. Online Banking (somewhat surprising)
4. Sharing photos, videos, and files
5. Using geographic navigation services
6. Shopping
 
This behavior holds true for everyone except the 13 – 18 year-olds.  Their online activities are somewhat different…

Email is still #1 but music downloading is #2 (more bad news for the record industry, of course) and IM’ing, social networking, TV watching, blogs, chat rooms, dating, and message boards all follow closely behind.   For these young, early adopters, their internet activities (via computers or mobile devices) are a wholly acceptable companion/substitute/complement to their real-life activities.

Bearing that info in mind, it’s reasonable to presume that the overall evolution in digital applications will be moving in this direction in the years to come, as this demo matures.

Elroy Jopling, research director at Gartner and author of the study explains that “a new 'trickle down' phenomenon, where teenagers lead the evolution of consumer Internet applications, heralds a new era where Internet applications will mimic life -- communicating, entertaining, socializing, informing, transactional, either in a fixed location or on the move." 

You can purchase the whole Gartner report here: http://www.gartner.com/ or read more about it here: http://news.moneycentral.msn.com

- Jon Fox

BtoB Magazine just issued their special report on Top Agencies and we were pleased to see Flightpath was included on the list.  You can view the list on their website and/or download a PDF by clicking here.  We think this is a great distinction. 

We're not shilling for BtoB here, but a few weeks ago, we were also noted in their 2008 interactive marketing guide. This is a great resource that covers news and trends associated with web sites, email, online advertisign, search, social media, analytics, and more.  A great read for anyone interested in the current state of interactive communications and maketing.    You can download a pdf or the guide by clicking here.

 - Jon Fox

After managing a web site redesign project for one of our clients, Seventh Generation, I've jumped on the Going-Green bandwagon and made a resolution to "go green" for 2008. I wanted to share some tips for Going Green...

...at the Workplace

• Bring your own mug - you'll reduce waste since you won't be using disposable cups
• Only print if necessary
• If you must print, tweak your printer settings - Microsoft Word allows you to easily output two (or more) reduced-size pages on a single sheet of paper.
• Make a scrap paper pad
• Turn off your monitor if you're not using your computer for a long period of time

...with Marketing Strategies

• Send e-mail newsletters to communicate with customers. For example, e-commerce sites can drive traffic to their sites by sending a promotional e-mail newsletter to their subscribers.
• Create printer-friendly web pages/e-mails newsletters
• Web catalogs - instead of spending money on printing catalogs, put your catalog on the web.

Every little effort to saving the planet helps. Join the green revolution.

A colleague pointed out an article today presenting the results of a survey on why decision makers at leading brands choose one agency over another during a competitive pitch.   After presenting a prioritized list of 24 reasons, ranging from "Good chemistry with us" to "Will collaborate with my other agencies," they began to explore how and why agencies getting to the pitching stage in the first place and a primary answer was:

"Decision-makers want to be approached by agencies that have smart, well thought, sector-savvy understanding of their particular organization and role... unless an agency has something to say that's several levels more tailored and relevant than other agencies seeking their business, that agency is likely to fail." 

This seems like a very important learning to me.  You can find the whole article here.  Enjoy!

 - Jon Fox

At Flightpath, we've spent the last two years morphing from a web production company into a bona fide interactive communications agency.  Some people may rightfully ask "what does that really mean?" and I'd say that this new Flightpath web site is a key milestone in this transformation. 

Back in the day, our general modus operandi was to listen to a client or prospect's wishes and try and deliver a product that met their goals and expectations.  All well and good, but apart from delivering a good-looking, usable web site, we weren't necessarily adding a lot of value.

Nowadays, we try and approach our client engagements asking questions about how we can really provide value and drive business for our customers.  We do our best to use our seasoned,  strategic knowledge of best practices for web design and development to make client sites as successful as possible.  Hopefully, this site, will meet those same kinds of goals for us. 

They may sound like no-brainers in 2008, but this time around, we started with copy, site structure, meta data, and page titles that would be optimal for search.  We integrated Google Analytics for traffic metrics and routed our email sign-up form directly through to Exact Target (our email service provider) via their API.  We utilized open source software (like blogengine.net) to streamline our development process and deliver a best-of-breed feature set. We even shot some video on a shoestring to help get our points across.  Together, each of these steps should contribute to getting the Flightpath message out to the right people as effectively as possible.

I'd like to congratulate all the members of our staff that did such a great job contributing to this web site and welcome anyone who's reading this to Flightpath's new blog.  I hope you'll check back with us regularly and see what we're up to and what we're talking about.

- Jon Fox