famebook™

RESPONSE TO: US Weekly Selling Inventory on Its Facebook Page! Let's not get too excited! ;-)

ORIGINAL POST - Inside Facebook

Though FB provides a great platform for us to communicate within, it is still wholly founded on our data. To that end; whilst prepared to accept the irritation of advertising on my profile without being paid myself, and in lieu of that service; if I now receive increasing invitations to be a 'fan' of something I don't want, continued annoying application requests or even more intrusive advertising of any sort, I will quickly seek a new home.

The elegant advertising dollar relies on environments which can give advertisers originality, style and relevance. The Catch-22 for Facebook and indeed Twitter of course, is that they are trying to create that off the back of data which is not theirs, exists in a fast moving environment and is in reality pretty asinine in value. If I were a Celebrity or Brand, looking to maintain the cache I had worked so hard to achieve in tradtional media, then I'd also be dubious as to whether large numbers of so called 'fans' actually translated into sustainable eyeballs on an ongoing basis and wonder whether leading advertisers may actually feel their brands are compromised in such a viral and unsophisticated sea of opinion which is also awash with cheap unfettered advertising alongside which they will inevitably be compared.

Most successful businesses follow an 80/20 rule where 20% of the top Clients pay for the remaining 80% which earn very little. In Facebook and Twitter's case, (and largely because they, unlike Google, have possibly arrogantly tried to monetize after the fact), I believe secretly they've arrived at a place where that 20% revenue opportunity doesn't actually exist within their current platforms and never will because of the very nature of them.

That's just my opinion of course, but I fear that the excitement of seeing 200m people connecting in one place is clouding many smart people's subjective judgement. Sure the Ashton Kutcher race and Mark/ Evan wowing Oprah is all very fun, but who really cares. Certainly not those with the big cheque books who I think in my opinion would be wise to keep their distance for some time to come, just in case this is another 'emperor's new clothes' model we may come to refer to as sub-prime advertising one day!

For my part, I always want to build something I actually own & earn Bill Gates kind of money so I can give it all away again and shall therefore keep focusing on the 20% and leave the 80% to others.

I think these issues will be resolved of course but I predict some interesting and unexpected partnerships/ mergers/ takeovers pretty soon before the heavily commited VC's realise even hyped IPO's won't deliver much return; as well as knowing of course, some new pretenders will arrive & steal everyone's thunder again!

In Facebook's case their smartest move is in my view not even within their own platform, but more about that another time!

JS

Dear Eric Schmidt @ Google/ YouTube,

"How YouTube could turn your 'Achilles' Heel' into a positive and probably bridge your relationship with traditional media in the process!"  (and hurry because Twitter might beat you to it as well!)

(Based on my new suggested advertising model - 'SENSATION MEDIA' - as highlighted by Britain's Got Talent's Susan Boyle this weekend!)

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On the basis that I have a ring-fenced business model which we are developing, that I believe will in execution reward any objective insights I might have on subjects outside that scope, I feel compelled once again to profer an opinion on yet another seemingly obvious missed opportunity. I have geared this towards Google, because you are currently in the best place to make the changes and I suspect the timing could be most relevant.

To explain the thought process I have focused on one specific example as follows:

Like roughly 15 or 20 million other people in the UK this Saturday, I was watching Simon Cowell's 'Britain's Got Talent' with the family and though typically I usually also have half an eye on my Facebook, Outlook (sorry!) and the FT, I did catch the introduction of a woman called Susan Boyle, who at the age of 47 and looking like one of those pre-makeover disaster cases, seemed likely to fall pretty flat. The moment she sang however, the word 'sensation' sprung to mind and the panel confirmed it was one of the biggest surprises the show had yet produced! (VIDEO HERE!)

Later the next day, I duly updated my Twitter and FB status to a You Tube recording of her performance and at that stage she had already had 830,000 views. As at today that same version has had just shy of 5,500,000 views and probably 25,000,000 in all, taking into account other uploads!

I'd now like to point out that none of those 25,000,000 people, who were likely in a positive, happy and optimistic frame of mind, were shown an advert of any sort. Sure we'd all be irritated by anything that interrupted our pleasure directly, but I would have been very receptive to any brand association that was apparent within the window. Nokia's music phone, iPhone's, Android...whatever! But NOTHING? That just seems crazy to my unencumbered and objective mind!

In my humble opinion, your own Achille's Heal is your ability to own valuable quality relationships with the big chip advertisers/ brands who rely on style, elegance and exclusivity...and here it is staring you in the face! I call it 'Sensation Media' and you could so own it as a new genre of ad model. You have the mechanisms in place to react instantly if a video (or any media sensation) is taking off and if you do it right, you could also work with the networks and content providers, newspapers etc. to mutual advantage. If it were me, I'd do a deal with them to share ad revenues around particular examples like this one so as to encourage pre-airing (or pre-print in the case of a news item) notification to give you time to offer it out as a 'Sensation' opportunity to advertisers in advance. You could even sell the mutual opportunity jointly and turn your enemies into partners! All this also before you face increasing pressure from networks on copyright issues.

Susan Boyle will now inevitably be famous (and soon be profiled on www.famebook.com of course) and the moment of her discovery could be owned by one or a few brands, who would have paid handsomely to capture that privilege. The fact that you weren't 'on it' just seems like ripping up dollar bills to me, and in the face of claims that You Tube is a drain on your finances, this is surely just plain wrong! How many opportunities have gone the same way over the past couple of years? (I would strongly advise against adding them up, because you could have solved the world's economic crisis with the money lost, I suspect!)

It would cost you a tidy penny, but if you want me to come and sort this out, just let me know! I might even tell you some of the other ideas I've got!

Yours respectfully,

Jan

© 2009 Jan Simmonds

Response to THE WRAP article - Google Exec Has Formula for Online Newspapers!

ORIGINAL ARTICLE - by WRAP STAFF

My response:

In other words.... you need me to supply you with Google ads within your format in order to survive!

Reminds me of Vito Corleone assuring all the bosses he wouldn't be the one to break the peace before Michael then wipes them all out during the christening of his Godson.

As a 'customer', I still yearn for decent content and though I would like my 'news and sophisticated opinions' delivered to me in a much more portable way, I hope you don't take your pants down any further.

In my humble view you need to start selling your products as an elegant 'service' instead. Don't ruin the brand by allowing get rich ads on your business pages from any third party and by all means charge me a 'membership' for being allowed the benefit of commenting, downloading articles to readers, email etc. and then send me a nice monthly mag to cheer me up too. Maybe you could turn the tables and filter the noise from Twitter etc. too and just give me the best ones and comment with your experience over the top of the amateur sea of opinion. I'd pay more for all that than I currently do over the counter.

BUT asking me to 'subscribe' for just your news won't do it I'm afraid.... it needs to be a lot more sexy, and then you've got me!

Lastly, when you are in the depths of despair, just remember, if I own a wall and invite everyone and anyone to come and write graffiti on it, then what have I actually got? Initially I may have an interesting collage that everyone wants to look at, but at the end of the day, when people have moved on back to quality content, in reality I just have a messy wall. Who’d want to advertise next to that?

For more about this... MY RELATED ARTICLE HERE

RESPONSE - So Now Everything Is Google’s Fault - Michael Arrington's piece!

ORIGINAL ITEM - TECHCRUNCH ARTICLE!

It is clearly true that Google and YouTube have contributed towards the current demise of Print Media, TV Networks, Film Studios and of course the Music Industry, but as my Father has always said to me, and I now say to my young son; ‘don’t get mad, get even!’

The fact that the industry was beaten to this inevitable milestone of media progress by ‘outsiders’, is nobody’s fault but their own. It’s called complacency!

Instead of moaning about it, they need to prepare for the next milestone; which in my opinion is an eventual realisation that people don’t actually want to drown in a sea of abundant static or realtime c**p, and would happily pay for trusted environments and brands who can filter the best of the best on their behalf and to their specific tastes.

Richard Rosenblatt at Demand Media has seen that and so have a small handful of others like us.

Don’t forget, Google, You Tube and even Facebook are wholly founded on our content and don’t actually create any of their own. To that end what do they really own? Sure for the next few years, we are all still discovering where we want to go, but the day will come where we all know our destination and our friends, so search and random user-generated content, might just become redundant in the face of awesome content providers and amalgamators of the future! Sure, you may want to search for the occasional item that you can’t get referred from within your social network, but I personally believe that like the financial markets have proven, Google’s success like most others, is not immune to following a curve as opposed to a straight line.

Why do you think that Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL et al are piling so much money (badly at present IMHO) into content environments! Maybe it’s Google who are now currently being complacent, by not doing so? Sure they are expanding their front window ambitions with their product suites etc. but they are wholly relying on our continued reliance and interest in shallow content and perpetuation of that. When it visibly starts starving the consumer’s favourite traditional choices, they will surely respond and there will be new world’s to inhabit I suspect.

In any event, I’m not a fan of Billy Bragg per se, but for my part am confident that we will all want to invest in our stars of the future so feel secure in the knowledge that what goes around will come around…

Just remember, if I own a wall and invite everyone and anyone to come and write graffiti on it, then what have I actually got? Initially I may have an interesting collage that everyone wants to look at, but at the end of the day, when people have moved on, in reality I just have a messy wall. Who’d want to advertise next to that?

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