Count me on the ever growing bandwagon called Twitter. It’s fantastic, informative and made sense to me from the get go vs other social sites. Now I will admit there is some stupid s*$#t on Twitter at times. But search some topics that apply to your job, life, and/or passion. Find a few tweets you think are interesting or you identify with, follow these Tweeters. If you’ve done it right you’ll find out all kinds of things you used to only hear about if you researched or sought out. There are also a few lists of does and don’t out there which I think are helpful to those starting your Twitter existence. I think the most important point made is to share stuff that benefits the community, including other Tweeters you found useful. This brings me to TFF or Twitter Friend Friday.
Twitter Friend Friday (TFF) is not my idea but unfortunately in the large amount of reading I have done I have lost the source. If you find the original ninja of TFF please tweet me. Until then this was my interpretation of TFF: On Friday’s, tweet three Tweeters you have found useful/funny/helpful/enlightening….. you get my point, that week. This gives others that follow you a chance to discover new Tweeters they can also follow. It’s also a nice way of recognizing those Tweeters that are giving useful information to the community. It what I like to call our own user driven Twit-dora (OK I know that was super cheese, could not resist).
So this next Friday put a reminder in your calendar to tweet those that made your Twitter week exceptional. (Hint: RT this ASAP)
TFF = Twitter Friend Friday
New Emerging Pricing Metric- PCPM
Today on Twitter @nelson_meg asked my thoughts on PCPM. For those not in the know, PCPM is a new term coined about this time last year which stands for Performance Cost Per Thousand. Loosely defined it is how one person’s social influence can affect 1,000 page views by that influencer’s followers. If this just flew over your head don’t feel bad, it’s kind of hard to wrap your mind around the first time out. Here is a simple example as it has been put to me: I like Band A and so I begin to talk about them on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and/or LinkedIn plus probably on my personal blog if I have one. The portion of my social sphere that identifies with my music tastes will take this in recommendation to the memory bank. Then as these followers are surfing the web they are served an ad of some sort for Band A and are more likely to click because of my past influence. Now those of you that know me in real life know that music discovery is not my strong suite but it’s an example I think we can all relate to (if you want a great music ear check out Ask the MD). What PCPM means to advertisers is that they would pay social influences for the direct impact their referrals bring the client, in other words virtual word of mouth that is compensated. Simply PCPM is the pricing metric that may someday replace CPM.
Meg’s next question was how do you calculate the price? Great question Meg, if I had this figured out I’d be rolling in my loot Indecent Proposal style. It’s going to be very interesting to see how this metric is developed over the next few years. I suspect that the influencer's will have to opt in for privacy reasons. Those that opt in will then be tracked to quantify their social influence ranking which would lead to some level of compensation. Additionally I think there are some further legal hurdles that need to be figured out. What if I refer a product that hurts and/or kills someone; can I be held liable for this? The platform will also have to be mammoth but in these tough times there might be the brains in a garage somewhere to figure out all the moving parts sooner than later.
I do agree that online marketing needs a new metric for pricing but until someone comes up with something better than CPM we’ll stick with it. CPA in my opinion is to far skewed to the advertiser and does not take into account the branding that is taking place as eyeballs consume a page. Additionally just selling a portion of inventory is toggled too far to the publisher and does not force them to continue to grow page views. CPM is the fairest way of selling online media currently and holds everyone accountable with the tools we currently have. If you want something to change, change the way you buy your online media. Stop buying on millions, start buying your core demo group on hyper local sites that have social aspects and high page per visit counts(in a way you are doing PCPM if you find fans mixed with new minds on these types of sites). Second, care about your creative; if your creative is free the results will probably be similarly cheap or non-effective. Pay for good creative, it’s essential and really does not cost that much. Finally localize the content, nothings worse than seeing an ad I’d see in TX here in Seattle. That’s what I’d change if I was buying media today and wait for a new metric to emerge for pricing in the future.
How Fast We Are Really Moving
Sorry that it has been so long since I posted a blog. I have a ton of topics and articles I hope to share with you this weekend. However I saw this the other day and was blown away. Think it is worth the watch for anyone in any field but especially those in the online media world. Enjoy!
SEO and Traditional Media Roundtable
Just wanted to announce that I will be hosting on behalf of Entercom Seattle our second monthly digital lunch. See the invite below and RSVP to me if you are interested in joining us.
Death to Display Ads… Not So Fast!
Sorry for the time off; work has been nuts but I’ve still been reading and archiving articles to talk about on the blog. Here goes some of my latest finds…..
In an earlier post I wrote about smaller sites getting better click thru rates (CTR’s) than the mass sites. The article link also talked about some pricing ideas. For the record I have been a big fan of CPM simply because it would finally give the online marketing industry a standard once and for all. However I’ve read some new stuff that is starting to change my mind. At the end of that same article it talks about some interesting ideas for pricing standards. I’ve seen Google keep growing revenue and think CPM might not bring out the competitor in people like bidding does. The author however references a pricing per action (CPC= cost per click/CPA= cost per action) model which is very interesting. If you follow the path it would force better display creative. As referenced in “Are Banner Ads Poised for Creative Renaissance?” good ad creative gets clicked especially when presented in a Takeover style. In order to make money you would have to create cool, engaging, and actionable creative to make money. Publishers would either be forced to grow internal creative teams that get results or be forced out of the display business altogether. This would in turn solve the abundant supply issue display faces today. It would also force content providers who value their skills in attracting the audience to relent website space to facilitate the takeovers. It cannot happen overnight but through conditioning a simple pricing change could create real display ad interactions that marketers seek and value. I would love to hear from others that see this “cause and effect” as different, if I don’t get any good arguments then you can count me as a new huge fan of CPC/CPA models.
File Sharing Sites: Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water
In recent weeks there has been a considerable movement to bash file sharing programs online. Whether it is the Pirate Bay Trial or NBC Nightly News tonight covering file sharing ID theft stories. While I fully agree that file sharing sites can be hazardous to your personal information and your computers long term health (have several friends that have ruined their machines with their excessive file sharing habits) it is important to note that file sharing is the root of the Internet we all love today. This past summer Vanity Fair printed one of the best historical pieces on the birth and evolution of the Internet that I have read from a laymen stand point. The article, Inventing the Internet, is a journalistic mash-up of interviews conducted with some of the foremost minds and agenda setters in the online world. I found the browser wars section very interesting. 
This weekend however I came across this video online that has actual video of some of the fore mentioned mover and shakers. It is really interesting to hear how they spoke about the future. Warning, this video is much more technical in nature.
Hope this clears up common misconceptions I often hear on the birth of the internet. It’s important to know where we came from before you can judge where we are going.