MySpace is in trouble. Membership is dropping and people are leaving in droves. Some people assert that the mass exodus started when News Corp bought the social network and others say it is simply a sign of how fast fashion changes online.
The real truth is that the owners of MySpace failed to clearly understand what they had acquired. They are used to managing newspapers and TV networks and the social media space has started to look more like a threat.
So here is a simple concept, explained in more familiar terms, that could help save MySpace and help start the next big jump in social networks.
The problem with MySpace, and many other social networks for that matter, is that they are built on two assumptions: 1) that fame alone will be motivation enough for users to create content; and 2) that this is sufficient to create a successful business. The millions of MySpace pages, YouTube videos and Flickr photos have proven that while this is true, it is not enough to keep quality content streaming in that will underpin a successful business model. Think of it this way: if MySpace was a TV network, it would be a free-to-air network with bad advertising and programs created by people who will never get paid for them. Doesn’t sound like anything most of us would want to invest in.
If you want a good TV station, you need to have quality programming with a good adverting strategy and the revenues must be shared among owners, programmers and content providers. Currently, MySpace is being treated more like a community notice board than a content network. For this to change, the people generating the content need to be able to share in the advertising revenue. The more popular their MySpace page, the more they earn. A simple pay-per-click model could work.
This idea will meet resistance. Why would they give away a percentage of the advertising revenue when it is already on the decline? But if they had invested in a TV channel that was failing, they would be implementing a turnaround plan to lift the quality of content and attract more, high-value advertising.
Currently the people doing the best out of MySpace are musicians. It helps them connect with their fan base, they can sell songs and mechanise directly – thereby cutting out the record label – and it is a wonderful promotion tool. But to be successful they need to keep generating quality content on a regular basis. The way they monetise this content is through the sale of merchandise and tickets. They use it as a springboard to larger mainstream fame.
Obviously, not all people are in bands. But there is a huge pool of global talent, in every field imaginable, that is yet to be successfully tapped into. This is why I’m suggesting sharing adverting revenue with these content creators. Anybody passionate and motivated enough can develop a niche market. And they should be able to get paid for it. The big idea here is that, with a simple change in policy and little additional investment, MySpace would no longer be the place where people simply try and get famous enough to make it to TV or newspapers. It could become the destination. Just give the MySpace users a model to work with.
For all of MySpace’s faults, it is well positioned to do this. There are things it needs to improve, like restricting its customisability to improve and standardise the user experience. But it is a very simple platform. It already has access to a large online population and it can leverage the video and image networks to reduce its server requirements. Why pay for the cost of hosting video when someone is willing to do that for you? Let other social networks connect in. Stop treating your content providers as free labour and realise everyone wants to get paid for their work. Allow interest groups to connect in a better way. Market to these groups. Let them come up with ways to market to each other that you may never think of. Get smarter.
It’s time for social networks to grow up. There is a lot of money to be made if everybody learns to share. Big business needs to get behind them and stop running scared.
If you want to monetise social networks successfully, then give the people creating the content the ability and the framework to do the same.

This article gives you insights into the current trends and explains how you can make the most of them.

Image is important:

Not so long ago marketing a medical practice was simply a matter of putting a sign up and choosing a nice font. Now your customers expect more. Today a website is an essential tool for strengthening current relationships and assisting potential patients learn about what you stand for and even connect with your practice. However, simply having “a website” is not enough. A poorly executed online presence can backfire, result in disappointed users and may even damage reputations. News spreads fast in the online world! On the other hand, a considered online marketing strategy and a well-designed website is your chance to appear inviting and professional.

Before you run off and build a new website make sure you have thought about the ‚Äòimage‚Äô you are have chosen to convey. Of course ‘trust’ is a given but there are other important decisions you will need to make about your chosen persona. For instance, do you want to be seen as friendly, professional, modern or traditional? Good web agencies will help you understand your options in regards to colours, layout and language and how these link to your personality.

What is important is finding the thing that makes you different. Ask some of your patients. They may have some valuable insights that you have failed to spot.

Help people find your site:

As anyone who has searched for a ‚Äòdoctor‚Äô on Google knows the web is a very big place. In fact Google has now indexed well over 1 trillion web pages. So having a website gives you no guarantee that anyone will see it. You need to think beyond “website” if you are to get results and ensure you do not waste your budget on a solution that will become obsolete or too expensive to maintain or expand.

Fortunately, a good online marketing strategy does not need to cost the earth – in sharp contrast to traditional channels such as newspaper, radio or TV. It takes some careful planning and a little bit of time but it will be very beneficial. Much of it comes down to choosing the right partner to supply you with sound advice and solutions.

Optimising for search engines:

Part of any build phase of a new website should be Search Engine Optimisation [SEO] which is the combination of a number of strategies employed to make your website easy to find. To some extent the ease with which potential customers can find you through search engines comes down to the way the site is built. So make sure your web agency has a good understanding of this. The words you opt to use on your site will also affect search efficiency.

Search engines rank sites on original content so avoid copying text from other sites. Make your text clear and easy to skim read and ask your web development company to give you a list of commonly used key words to include: The more you use the better your results from web search activity.

Creating well optimised website text is not rocket science. Just be sure you get professional guidance before you start.

Online advertising:

There are many types of online advertising available but the most common, and by far the most cost effective, is search engine advertising. You probably have seen this form of advertising when performing a Google search. They are called “sponsored links” which have been designed with smaller businesses in mind, and can be very effective. But don’t assume this is the right choice for you.

There are many ways to run a search engine marketing campaign and getting it right can save you a lot of money. Look to partner with a company that has experience in this field and work with them to set targets and budgets.

Directories:

Online directories are a simple way of raising your profile. There are many online directories available in Australia including Sensis, Yellow Pages, AMA and other official medical directories.

Some directories are free but many charge for a listing. Before you take the plunge and pay for a listing make sure you know the profile of the directory’s viewers. If the operator of a directory can’t provide that type of information it may be a sign that it‚Äôs unlikely to work for you.
Utilising social networks:
Social Networking seems to be the buzz word of 2009. In fact, online social networking has existed for a very long time. What’s new are services such as Twitter and Facebook having recently taken off. Networking sites may come and go but what won’t go away is the desire of your customers to connect and share thoughts and information. Developing a Social Networking strategy will be worth the effort.

Depending on how you want to approach the market you may want to make this a big part of your overall plan or just a small addition. Either way it is worth remembering you can’t do everything. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, article writing and participating in forums are all forms of social networking and it is easy to get caught up trying to influence all of them. A far better approach is to identify where the people you want to communicate are found and target a few areas that will help add to your reputation.

Understand the rules:

Doctors hold a special place in society so advertising can get tricky. The Medical Practices Act and State Medical boards will have information on rules and regulations around marketing your practice. Spending some time reading and understanding these documents will help you avoid any pitfalls.

Measuring success:

After doing your research, optimising your site and fine-tuning your online marketing strategy, you’ll want to know how successful it is. The obvious way is to look at your bottom line. But building a brand name takes time so getting some higher level data is necessary to check if you‚Äôre on the right track.

Make sure your website has an analytics device attached so you can see who visits your site and how long they spend there. This knowledge is essential in achieving success with your online efforts. Luckily Google offers site analytics for free. The information gathered will give you a greater understanding and assist in the allocation of your marketing budget to further strengthen your online marketing efforts.

Act now:

A wide range of new technologies are changing the way everyone is using the web. The global financial crisis has just added momentum to that trend as individuals and firms switch to more cost-effective and valuable ways of communicating and marketing. There is no better time to take advantage of this shift and build yourself a great online presence and strengthen your reputation.

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In my last article I suggested that Google is actually trying to create new markets for itself by utilising cloud computing. Dramatically reducing the barriers of entry for those people who do not currently have access to the internet will change the face of online information flow and marketing.

Google’s new operating system gives this concept even more credibility. Google has said that the operating system will be free and aimed at low cost computers like net-books. With this move it is easy to see a future not too far off where a few dollars will get anyone the technology to get onto the internet, create documents, share information, and participate in the world wide web.

The world is getting even more connected at an even greater rate thanks to Google. The next 20 years of web evolution (the world wide web is 20 this year) is going to be a very exciting time for us all, with huge culture shifts across the globe.

So what does this mean for me?

In short – “get moving”. The face of marketing is changing fast and the markets you can communicate with. Firms who move first will engage new potential customers, get early information on their preferences, and be able to tailor their offering to grab market share quickest. So get your web presence working for you, make social networking part of your plan and prepare to take on new markets like never before.

A recent Harvard Business Review article titled “The New Frontiers” referenced case studies from around the world where companies are using social networks and other web technologies to adjust their position in the value chain.

Many firms are already engaging new markets and customers. Don’t get left behind

FOCUSING ON FUTURE MARKETS.

The 28th of May this year may end up being one of the most influential 24 hours periods in web history. It was on this day that Google launched a new communications platform called Google Wave, and if Wave lives up to it’s promise it may change digital communication forever. But while the web elite are all a-buzz about the impact of this new platform on the way we communicate Google has quietly been releasing a steady stream of new products and further improvements to their core product, the Google search engine and it’s related advertising tools. Google is not going to give us a road-map for what this all means but it is possible to look at the patterns and take a long view.

THE SEARCH LANDSCAPE.

There has been a lot of talk about the new kids on the search block, Wolfram Alpha, Twitter search and Microsoft’s latest entry, Bing (which is an acronym for “But It’s Not Google”). Some commentators have been speculating that many of the additions to Google search pages, such as the new “options” area where there is real time search among other features, are Google’s answer to real time search on Twitter search, and the decision engine promised by Bing. And while competition has undoubtedly accelerated Google’s release of features it is a pretty safe bet to assume that Google is not simply being reactive.
The fact is the Google owns over 70% of the search market world wide. Wolfram Alpha is designed as a computational engine which, in plain English, means it is an attempt to create a type of artificial intelligence and tease data out of the internet in a different way. Not really a direct threat to Google – in fact it can be seen as a complementary feature. Twitter Search is a real time search engine based on the collective conversations of every Twitter user. Interesting but also not a huge threat to Google search. Bing, combined with Yahoo, is really the only direct threat to Google. And, while Microsoft and Yahoo are spending a lot of money on marketing, they have a long way to go.

GOOGLE PRODUCTS ARE EVERYWHERE.

Currently Google has something in the vicinity of 200 applications and services available (for a full list go here), most of which are free. New ones seem to be coming out on a weekly basis at the moment. A few weeks back we saw the release of Google Squared, a very interesting research tool with loads of potential. A visual search tool for news, Flipper, is expected shortly.
It is fairly common knowledge that any technology Google develops is directed at increasing the usage of the web as a whole, thereby increasing the value of it’s main revenue stream, AdWords, the advertising medium based on relevance and consumer intent.
Forget E-Bay, AdWords is the world’s biggest auction. Every single search that is performed on Google is automatically analysed so that the most relevant “sponsored link” is displayed on the page and, of course, paid for by the advertiser. When you look at the cost of an individual click the numbers are small. But when you analyse the volume of searches that are performed it really starts to get impressive. Enough to net Google $21 Billion USD in 2008.
The temptation is to draw the line there… “Google is trying to get us all to use the browser even more, so we can do more searches, so they can make more money”. This is true – but there’s more to it.

I’VE SEEN THE FUTURE AND IT IS THIN.

The big difference between using Google AdWords and say print advertising – apart from the huge difference in volume of data you can extract; is that it levels the playing field. You can be a multi-national corporation with tens of millions to spend but if the copy of your ad is less relevant to searcher’s intent than an ad by a one man shop you won’t get the top spot. It is this fact that has seen online advertising for the SME market skyrocket. Naturally, Google is well aware of this.
The world wide web has become almost as essential as electricity and water in most of the technologically advanced areas of the world. In these societies the middle class are the highest users. But Google has spotted that poorer, less advanced countries present a huge growth opportunity. The current barrier to entry for this demographic is the window into the net: the computer.
Much of the cost of a computer is tied up in the processor power and the disk space. What Google is doing by creating free ’software as a service’ applications (or ‘cloud computing’ as it is otherwise known) is removing much of the technology requirement and cost. If all the processing is done at Google’s end the client’s machine need not be the latest and greatest computer on the market. The dramatic uptake of the NetBook is a great example of this. And the sale on eBay of the first generation of NetBooks for a few bucks presages the opening up of entirely new markets.
This is all about taking everybody towards a ‘thin client model‘. In this case the ‘client’ is the web end point – your window in the web – be it a NetBook, a TV, a phone, or just a screen plugged into the wall. The ‘thin’ part is the technology. Keep it simple and keep it cheap. The idea of the thin client model has been around for a while but Google is doing the most to advance it for the general population.

HOLD ON. WE’RE ABOUT TO TAKE OFF.

When the technology gets cheap enough the new target market for search related products will be most of the world . Google knows this and is already investing a lot of time into removing another barrier – language. One of the plug ins showcased when they launched Google Wave was a language translator that works as you type. This enables you to have real time conversations with anyone in the world. Together these innovations will bring information, education, and wealth to the masses in entirely new geographies.
As marketers we shouldn’t underestimate the size of this opportunity. Sure, we will have to learn new technologies and customs but we will also be able to market to entirely new groups of people with a new range of needs and wants – a part of the world that will grow in power and influence.
If you thought the first 20 years of the world wide web brought a lot of change to the way we do things, you haven’t seen anything yet.

A recent Time magazine article:

“Microblogging platform Twitter has 32 million users, an increase from about 2 million a year ago, according to research mentioned in the Wall Street Journal. Some Internet measurement services show that figure increasing 50% to 100% month over month. While it is not clear that Twitter will become as large as social networks MySpace and Facebook or video-sharing site YouTube, the company could certainly have 50 million visitors by the end of the year.”

click here to read the full article

That social networks are useful tools for connecting to friends or people with the same interests is now widely understood. Many people, however, still have trouble understanding how they can be utilised effectively for distributing marketing messages. They see social networks and the Internet in general as “just another media channel”, behind the likes of newspapers and TV. In fact social networks are fundamentally impacting and reshaping the newspaper and TV industries worldwide. In an earlier article, “What the newspaper industry needs to do to survive”, I explained the changing dynamics of the newspaper industry. In this article I look at where TV is headed.

In this article I look at where TV is headed.

For a very long time TV has been the master of the house. If you wanted to watch your favourite program you had to be in front of the TV at the right time. VCRs and later hard disk recorders like Tivo, or Foxtel IQ here in Australia, changed that. Now you can record your programs and skip through the ads. End users love it but advertisers were obviously frustrated with this development. There has even been a movement in the US to make sure the logo can still be seen while fast forwarding ads on a Tivo.

Enter Hulu. If you haven’t heard of Hulu don‚Äôt worry. It‚Äôs not available outside of the US yet. But I guarantee that it will be. Hulu is a website that is free to join, provided you hand over a bit of background information about yourself. It has video content to an extent never seen before. Almost every show that airs on FOX and NBC is available to watch whenever you feel like it. And when I say every show I mean every show. Every episode of the Simpsons ever produced, feature films, documentaries, dramas – anything you can think of – is searchable and viewable a day or two after it is aired on the network itself. Recently the networks have started to restrict a bit of that content but regardless you don‚Äôt have to worry about recording anything again. Hulu stores everything for you. Available ‚Äúon demand‚Äù.

What is really interesting about Hulu is the business aspect of it. Each show still has commercial breaks but each break contains only one ad but a highly targeted one. Using the information you have provided about yourself,  advertisers can tailor a message specifically to you, or as a minimum, make sure it advertises a product you are interested in. In fact, advertisers can even put your name in it. It may still be considered interruption marketing, but at least there’s a good chance that you’ll find it relevant and interesting. And who can be bothered fast-forwarding when it’s just one 30 second TVC? Even if you could. We haven’t seen it yet but there is nothing stopping the advertisers making these ads fully interactive as well.

Sit down in front of your TV and watch anything you want, any time you want.

Early adopters have already worked out how to get Hulu onto media centres like Apple TVs or Xboxes and are able to view it on their main entertainment screen. They are not meant to be able to it but it works. Considering how popular this seems to be it can’t be long before there is a “plug and play” version. Just think about it for a minute. Sit down in front of your TV and watch anything you want, any time you want. It could be the ‘total control’ moment we’ve all been waiting for since the birth of the internet.

The social networking interaction is fairly simple at this stage. Topic controlled forums where users can comment and vote on a show allow viewers connect with each other. This information has the ability to be analysed to make the advertising even more targeted. So it is likely that the social media aspects are only going to get further developed over time.

Hulu is doing well and is being backed by a range of big players. This technology is going to get even more interesting when Google, the owners of YouTube, joins in. You can bet your bottom dollar that YouTube is going to provide premium content with targeted advertising in the not too distant future. After all Google is no longer just a search engine; it is the world largest media agency and they know how to spot an opportunity, and they desperately need to find a way to make money out of YouTube.

As with all ‘disruptive’ technology changes there is going to be resistance at first. Large corporations don’t particularly like changing their business models, but you can guarantee this is where the customers will go Рso the networks and advertisers will have to follow.

Television content providers need to be preparing for a time where this is common place. It’s what the customer wants and forcing your customers to put up with old models is a good way to lose them. Traditional broadcasting quickly became a platform for advertisers to speak to their customers. This new technology will be a similar platform but the conversation will be one to one. It’s measurable and testable. It’s direct marketing for TV.

Further reading:

How the economic downturn will mature internet marketing.

Hulu is Catching Up With YouTube – Fast

Free, Legal and Online: Why Hulu Is the New Way to Watch TV