Arnold Schwartzenegger, Terry Sanford, John Ensign, what’s with all these guys? Don’t they know that in politics, you can’t get away with anything? But a significant question to ask is, “Does the Public Care?” I think we are going to find out, given the histories of many of the Republican candidates for president. Check out my appearance on CNN’s Piers Morgan discussing the implications of the recent scandals:.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l0T_XkWV9Q

 

 

The Google +1 strategy will make the search optimization maze even more complicated. The +1 will be integrated into everything today’s progressive marketer needs to drive brand recall and market leadership through integrated digital marketing and communications programs.

 

You may be aware of the Open Graph Protocol introduced by Facebook. With the Open Graph Protocol, all the content in the web, websites and the web pages are turned into the graph objects (if the concerned websites have decided to embrace Open Graph Protocol). What that means is that every time you go to a website or a web page and press the like button, you associate your profile with the graph object. The challenge with this approach for marketers is that it is creating a walled garden, which was one of AOL’s biggest downfalls.

 

Google’s open and transparent brand culture combined with the introduction of the +1 button will drive the kind of laser targeting marketers have been looking for with the Google platform beyond just targeting keywords.  Gmail combined with +1 creates a social graph that is a tidal wave of dream data for marketers.

 

With +1 the search optimization game will drastically change because a site, blog, video, landing page, etc. will have search ranking impacted by collected +1s. Integrating the +1 everywhere in a brand’s marketing, and developing campaigns to drive your targeted audiences to “just +1 it” will be critical for driving this preferred brand position.

 

Open your eyes marketers. It’s time for a website audit to see where your +1s should go to be fully integrated throughout your digital media strategy. Bluetext can help you make these critical integrated marketing and communications decisions. Give us a shout if you need any assistance.

Those of us still paying attention saw that the court overseeing the long-running legal battle between Google and authors and publishers ruled against the proposed agreement last week (“Judge Rejects Google’s Deal to Digitize Books,” New York Times). Good luck figuring out what it means, and more importantly, why anyone should care. But it is important, if for no other reason than it is the result of a massive collision between an industry– book publishing–and the realities of the Internet and digital access to information. If you think you’ve seen this movie before, it does look like the fights over Napster and Internet file sharing that has decimated the music industry. Only in this case, the major players are attempting to find a legal solution.

I’ve been following this since the American Association of Publishers, together with the Author’s Guild, sued Google in 2005 to stop it from copying every book known to man–allegedly in violation of copyright protections. Google’s ambitious project was greeted enthusiastically by researchers, journalists, historians, people who read– just about everybody except those whose intellectual property might be given away for free over the Internet (remember those old companies in the recording industry, and what happened to them after the Internet got popular?) [Full Disclosure– Both the AAP and Google have been clients of mine over the years.]

But it is interesting, if perhaps not quite so important for most of us, to understand at least a little of what this is all about. For Google, it was co-founder Larry Page’s effort to digitize books and make them widely available, at least to search snippets, for students, researchers, historians, and anyone else wanting to  experience the bulk of human knowledge leveraging the Internet. Sounds good enough, and that’s the easy part.

What gets complicated is sorting out the three broad categories of authors.  Actually, two are easy, and one is difficult. The first is the volume of works through history where their copyright protections no longer apply– think Shakespeare, the Bible, The Iliad and The Odyssey, etc. Google (and anyone else) is entitled to go for those. The second is the volume of works under copyright protection where the author and publisher are known and active. Think of all the popular authors you know and love, Anne Tyler, Bill Bryson, Sarah Palin, fiction, non-fiction, and everything in-between. This is, of course, a little more complicated, but those authors (and their publishers) can actively protect their intellectual property, and do so by cutting their own deals for licensing rights, directly with Google or via organizations such as the Copyright Clearance Center [another former client]. Or they can choose not to license their works for internet distribution at all.

That leaves the third category, and that’s what the fight now is really all about. This group includes all of the works where copyright still applies, but where the holder of that copyright– the author or publisher, her relatives, spouse or estate– cannot be found. In this category are (mostly) out-of-print books and other publications, known as “orphan” works, and these are what the judge decided that the settlement was not adequately protecting. The terms of the settlement– worked out between Google, the publishers, and the authors–according to the judge, “would have granted Google a “de facto monopoly” and the right to profit from books without the permission of copyright owners.” He called that “unfair.”

What the settlement would essentially do for orphan works is set up an “opt out” process, where copyright owners could come forward and decide not to participate in the settlement (keeping their works out of Google’s search engines). What he believed is appropriate is an “opt-in” process, where works of copyright owners could be included if the copyright owners come forward and gave permission. The problem with that, of course, is that by definition these people can’t be easily found. That’s the dilemma.

So why do we care? Most of us probably don’t. We are not hot in pursuit of out-of-print obscure books that have been long-forgotten. Unless you are a researcher, historian, journalist, academic, blogger, hobbyist, or anyone who likes to know what there is to know about a subject. Then being able to include these works in your scholarly pursuits can open up long-lost information, and maybe even a gold-mine of data. The courts will ultimately decide what’s fair, but it is a good example of how the Internet is challenging all of our assumptions– for better for for worse.

 

How do you define success with your federal government PR program? Are you still trying to count clips? Do you need to secure a set number of interviews to make your boss happy? Unless you have been living under a rock you know that the world of public relations has changed, the number of publications that will cover you has shrunk significantly, and unless you have a real game changing technology it is very difficult to get ink. But don’t despair…content is still king, and if you have a good strategy to deliver it via multiple channels to reach your customers wherever they may be, you can have a great PR program.

 

Last month Mark Amtower wrote a great column in Washington Technology (http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2011/02/24/amtower-column-march.aspx) that very much aligns with what we at Bluetext have been telling clients. That is why our tagline is “Any Challenge…Every Channel” and why we have built our company with experts that understand the power of different mediums for different messages. So the next time your technology lead clamors that they should be more coverage of your company in GCN or The Washington Post, grab your Flipcam and ask them to start talking – if the story is good there are ample avenues to deliver it.

A new energy policy bill was an early priority of President Obama, but it quickly fell by the wayside after the then-Democratic controlled House of Representatives passed a bill with cap-and-trade provisions that coal industry states despise. With free-market Republicans now in control of the House and the White House having put energy on the back burner, political pundits give the odds of passing energy legislation a very low probability. As a result, companies with alternative energy as their focus are sitting on the sidelines in Washington. An energy lobbyist friend this week lamented that he was struggling to convince his clients that this is actually a time of great opportunity here in D.C.

 

That’s a big mistake, in my opinion, for several reasons. First and foremost, Washington is driven by events more than political agendas. When lawmakers return to their districts during the Congressional recesses, they are going to hear loud and clear about the high prices at the pump that are inching towards $5 dollar-a-gallon gas, and the impact that is having on middle-class Americans, especially in the mid-west and other regions where distances are large and public transportation non-existent. Forget that the U.S. government and policy makers have little to do with oil supplies and gas prices in the short term. Taxpayers and voters are going to want action, and members of Congress may easily decide that an energy bill might be a good thing for their reelection prospects going into 2012. In that sense, it may be the high price of gas that actually forces Congress and the Administration to take a new look at a comprehensive energy bill.

 

Second, a time of no-action in Washington is exactly the right time to begin laying the groundwork for when legislation is back on track. This is the best time to lay the foundation for a communications campaign to supplement retail lobbying by companies and trade associations with a good story to tell on energy alternatives. Once the panic sets in and legislation starts moving quickly, it is often too late to get a seat at the table. Building the key relationships beforehand is much easier and more effective than hoping to cut through the clutter in the midst of the political battles.

 

There are a number of strategies that can be easily implemented without a large commitment of resources that can begin to position an organization as one worthy of government-backed incentives, so that when the issue does heat up again, they won’t be starting from scratch. These can include:

• A dedicated web portal that serves as a repository of information on the issue and a link to resources that members of Congress, their staff, and other policy makers can readily find and use;
• Video content of executives and industry experts describing and explaining the challenges and solutions they can offer;
• Traditional media outreach including op-eds discussing energy alternatives;
• Social media to identity and build an audience with policy makers and engage in a conversation about the solutions; and
• Thought leadership events that bring specialists together in front of opinion leaders and policy makers.

 

The most effective communications campaign is not one that looks like marketing, but rather one that truly does bring thought leadership and new ideas to the debate. This is the best time to take those steps, build those relationships, and engage members of Congress, their staff, and the Washington energy ecosystem before the train leaves the station.

But can it save the music industry? Doubtful…

 

For the first time in its 44-year history, Rolling Stone Magazine is giving its readers the final decision about what band to put on a forthcoming cover.

 

Sixteen unsigned rock bands will compete for an Atlantic Records recording contract and to be featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in collaboration with Atlantic Records and AOLMusic.com. Apparently, Rolling Stone has selected 16 of what it calls “undiscovered acts” to compete for the hearts and minds of its online audience…an obvious bid to stay more relevant in an industry that’s collapsing under its own weight.

 

http://www.rollingstone.com/choosethecover/blog/about-20110207

 

When Trevor Horn penned the lyrics to “Video Killed the Radio Star” which would be the first video ever to air on MTV more than 20 years ago at the same time as FM radio was becoming mainstream in cars, he could not possibly have imagined that the “new technology” he refers to would have had the profound effect it has today. The impact is not just in music, but in virtually every way we communicate, forcing traditional media to embrace the very technology that is killing it in return for a much slower and more painful death.

 

 

 

And as publishers like Rolling Stone are scrambling to figure out how they can compete against new and emerging platforms, more dynamic advertising has also emerged to help engage consumers in a way that traditional media simply cannot. After all, digital media IS media and it’s time for marketers to stop talking about ‘going digital’ and actually just start living it. In the interim, best to look for an agency that already has.

 

Smart digital media strategies depend on deep, accurate and relevant personas. Getting personas accurate and relevant in terms of website user experience, search media, and social media are critical. Mistakes in this persona development process lead to flawed content strategies, search in bound link targeting, and unusable web experiences. Correcting these personas after strategy deployment leads to budget over runs and dissatisfied brand embracers. Smart digital consultants use processes to reduce the risks inherent in persona development and the deliverables that are driven out from these personas.

Typical persona deliverables should include:

• Portraits of each persona delivered as compelling summary graphics and slides.
• A behavioral model of each persona, comprised of how the persona thinks and reacts to site concepts.

Conventional persona development begins with qualitative research usually through focus groups and interviews, both virtually and in person. The process begins with analytical research, based on a large enough sample of your actual site visitors. Depending on the business and industry the word “large” obviously means different things. Leveraging clickstream data and the associated demographics, attitudes, and visit metrics, you can validate what your personas dictate. We therefore know definitively:

• Web property visitors
• Motivators for why they come
• The various persona attitudes they arrive
• The linear tasks they hope and seek to accomplish
• How successful these experiences are (review abandon pathways, shopping carts, applications, etc)
• How they feel about your digital presence and your brand
• How the site experience influences their likelihood of doing business with your brand in the future

Because we identify the primary personas from this statistically robust sample of thousands of actual visitors, the likelihood of our missing a key persona or even a key attribute is far lower than would be the case with exercises that start with focus groups.

Only when we have a clear picture of current visitors do we move to focus groups and one-on-one interviews, where we dig into the needs and experiences that formed your visitors’ attitudes towards your space, your brand, your products or services, and your competitors. We know, for each persona, the underlying motivators that influence the way they see your site and what they need from it, both now and in the future.

Get in touch if you would like help building out your personas to inform a sound digital media strategy.

 

Facebook analytical insights introduced last year give brand marketers, agencies and communicators the ability to understand how their fan pages are performing. This performance should be aligned with the key performance indicators set forth in your master digital media strategy. Facebook shifted metrics to focus more on content sharing and fan behavior rather than the raw popularity of a page in its latest analytical updates.  In 2011 here are some focus areas for your Facebook campaigns.

 

Where are the ‘Likes’ coming from
Facebook provides analytics that show how fans arrive at pages, whether through search engines, social engagement, or organically through other visibility generated in an integrated campaign.  Understanding how your fans find you instantly gives you insight into how to reach them or expand your community for future outreach efforts.

 

Fan Page Demographics and User Behaviors
Demographic information about your fans includes gender, age, location (country and city) and language preferred. All data is anonymous, but this basic demographic information can help brands tailor and adjust their content to appeal to their true audience, and eliminate guesswork.  Third party platforms from companies like BuddyMedia enable global brand marketers to focus their resources for a multilingual social engagement strategy to provide experiences in the necessary languages per the data extracted from Facebook.

 

Tab Popularity
A great improvement from previous analytics, with the expansion of tab customization on pages has enabled the analytics to tell brand marketers which tabs are most popular and provided more granular data on tab usage. These analytics shape future content strategies and tactics throughout a brands entire digital media strategy.

 

Quality Matters and Facebook Has The Data To Prove It
Facebook now gives each post a rating or index to allow for comparison and easy measurement. This function allows you to truly understand what content really makes fans tick to shape your future content strategies.

 

 

Are you gleaning insights robustly through Facebook?  What are you finding out?

 

There has never been a more exciting time in the world of digital media and interactive marketing. To that end, I am going to develop a series of blog posts on the 10 most important emerging digital marketing trends. As I re-invigorate my blogging efforts I would love to hear from you. What do you agree with? What am I missing? How is your organization or agency pushing the envelope?

 

Trend #1 – Data Visualization Goes Mainstream

 

As more data becomes a common part of our lives, brands are using data visualization to make information easier to understand to draw powerful conclusions. Data plays a critical role in the decisions brands make everyday. Understanding complex data through engaging interactive graphical presentations offers audiences the opportunity to interpret that data, make business decisions on that data and share the experience. Additionally, it offers the opportunity for brands to fight content from growing stale and increases the shelf life and storyline of data as it grows and evolves.

 

(Client Example: A Data Visualization for Intel’s Federal division, entitled – DC Represents Security Tweets)

 

Defined by David McCandless as simply the act of making ephemeral data, ideas, or conceptual notions into an image in which anyone can see a more revealing pattern or a shape, using graphic design or sometimes using computational techniques.

 

I find these artistic renderings to be cool – it’s exciting to see them hit the mainstream in pop culture.

 

Below you will find what I have found online as some of the most engaging data visualizations.

 

 

Fedex – http://experience.fedex.com

 

 

http://www.informationarchitects.jp/en/wtm4