MarketerBlog

Blogs, Buzz and Real Marketing Dollars

The “mainstream media” are running to embrace the blogosphere.  Today’s Washington Post (registration required) has a front-page article on the growing importance of consumer generated media and the implications for marketers.  The article profiles ConAgra, and their use of blog mining and analysis as a new form of market research. 

“For companies like ConAgra, the individual opinions blasted out in cyberspace are becoming an increasingly powerful force. Together, they form the fabric of online word of mouth that can determine the hottest new product, make or break a TV show, or set off a customer revolt. Eager to tap into the buzz, a growing number of companies are turning to sophisticated new technologies that track what's said on Internet social networks, blogs, message boards, product review sites, "listservs" -- wherever people congregate publicly online.”

Ironically, this article is featured on the front of the very newspaper that shut down blog comments on its ombudsman site last month, after an erroneous statement resulted in an explosion of testy responses. 

Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP Group Plc., the No. 2 global advertising group, spoke about the fragmentation of media and the need to embrace alternative media formats at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit.

“The more media you have, the more complex the challenge.  The more fragmented, the more complex, the more challenging, the more difficult."

Faced with the realization that traditional methods of mass media advertising are no long effective, the industry is grappling with the proliferation of alternative media including cell phones, mobile music players and video games.  Several big agencies are even going as far as to establish new units dedicated to this task.   

But don’t get too excited.  These guys aren’t doing this out of the goodness of their hearts.  They’ve recognized that the game has changed and they’re following the money. Advertisers are reducing traditional media budgets and making major investments in alternative media.   Put another way, advertisers are actually starting to listen to consumers (versus just marketing at them).  Blogs and other forms of consumer generated media are evolving from buzz to real marketing money. 

Technorati Tags:

Advertising, Blogs, CGM, Denuo, Web2.0

Question Authority – At least the way Technorati measures it

In Part II of his recent State of the Blogosphere, David Sifry introduces a new Technorati feature, the “Authority” filter. The feature is really a construct for filtering blog search, which by default and despite the author’s protests, offers a mechanism for blog evaluation and ranking. Needless to say the blogosphere is buzzing with commentary about it, from the factual presentation on TechCrunch to Om Malik’s complaint that there’s so much chatter about it his mind hurts. Brother, I feel your pain. 

Steve Rubel astutely notes that this “filter by authority” mechanism is really a popularity filter, since it’s based solely on the number of inbound links. Despite ten-plus years and the work of some very smart people, web measurement is still stuck in the mindset of old, mass media metrics: eyeballs. All of the valuations from Google to MySpace are based on that same premise. And while it’s made a pile of money for certain folks, it genuinely misses the point. 

The concept of harnessing collective intelligence, one of the foundations of “Web 2.0” and arguably the driving force behind the blogosphere, is a much bigger idea. It has more in common with the idea of synthetic dialectic – of multiple opposing ideas coming together to form a greater one – than it does with a simple traffic count. 

In order for blog ranking to be meaningful it must in some way address the relevance and quality of content. If Technorati is correct, and there is a “Magic Middle” of 155,000 blogs who form the most influential and substantive work of the blogosphere, then that is where the measurement gurus should focus our attention. Sifry contends that this middle tier defines communities of interest. I think he’s right, and I hope that future Technorati reports offer a view into this rich network of conversations.

 
Technorati Tags:

 

Technorati, Blogs, authority, sotb2006, measurement, web 2.0