Connections, Followers and Friends... Oh My!

 

I’ve been studying and thinking about social media.  I began studying social media for purely business reasons in early 2008.  I was wondering how Facebook got its start, what Twitter can do to make money and why no one is using MySpace anymore.  I read several books, nosed around the net and jumped onto several sites.  Today, I use social media a lot and it has become woven into my everyday and workday life.   Essentially, there are three sites I use and each serves a different purpose. 

I’ve been on LinkedIn for several years and it has become the place for my “real world” work connections.  I have 427 connections and can honestly tell you I have personally met almost every single one.  I typically don’t accept requests from people don’t know.  It has been a valuable tool to connect others for business reasons.  I manage my network by trying to be helpful with networking requests and frequently contact people through LinkedIn.  I like it, for what it is.  Some of the recent app additions (Wordpress, TripIt, Amazon Reading List…) are quite useful.  LinkedIn succeeds because you can manage your network by both contributing to and benefitting from your connections.

I joined Facebook in early ’08 because it seemed to be the thing to do.  My daughters have been on it for years, along with MySpace.  As a parent, I have always disliked MySpace. It was way to easy to hack protected profiles and kids were prone to put stupid information (ie. home phone numbers) on the site.  While they have cleaned up their act from a security standpoint there is no doubt they are losing ground to Facebook. 

I was surprisingly impressed with the Facebook community and tools.  The first issue I had was who to be “friends” with.  My daughter initially wanted nothing to do with me in “her world”.  Most of my real friends my age could care less about Facebook.  I found a few and began connecting.  I now have 74 friends (including my daughter!).  These are all people I actually know and consider a real world friend.  I try and keep Facebook “friends” separate from LinkedIn “connections”.  I am much more transparent with Facebook friends and feel comfortable letting them into my world. When a business associate requests becoming my “friend” on Facebook, I connect with them on LinkedIn, thereby keeping my worlds from colliding! 

One other Facebook note, I have learned once you add someone as a “friend” on Facebook, this becomes an emotional attachment.  I once “defaced” someone from my list and inadvertently offended someone.  I invented a new term, “reface” and added her back.  I then sent this in to Urban Dictionary.  You might find it handy one day!  (WSJ article on this topic)

Twitter has become my favorite social media outlet over the past nine months.  I like Twitter because it is kind of a “stream of consciousness”.  I recently told someone I view it as a creative outlet, a place for me to make pithy, smart aleck comments!  I post about my travels, news items, random observations and relevant news for my industry.  I enjoy following people who post about news or interesting information and observations.  I have 289 “followers” and am following 288 (seems like a nice balance to me!).  I try and post a few times a day and recognize that everything I post will forever be archived by the search engines.  My Twitter feeds into my Facebook status updates, a feature I like.  While I certainly know many of my “followers”, there are many more I do not.  It has been a way to have brief conversations with others not usually accessible to me.  It’s funny, I feel a responsibility to my “followers” to entertain and inform!  One told me once, “Don’t let us down”… it is an overwhelming responsibility!

Overall, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are now part of my digital life.  Jump on in, the water is fine!  :)

Crocs: Fashion Disaster or Delight?

Ok so I broke down and bought a pair of Crocs two weeks ago.  I know, not my style and I probably look like an idiot.  But dang these shoes are comfortable!  I’m not really affected by trends and certainly not a fashion maven by any stretch.  But since I was going to spending a lot of time outdoors, last week I decided to give them a try.


They are awesome!  So far they have been durable in rough terrain, comfortable and lightweight.  Sure they look stupid but they are not any worse than Earth Shoes, Uggs or Birkenstocks!  Recently the Galveston, Texas paper ran an article titled, “Get rid of Crocs, other fashion disasters”.  (As you know, Galveston, Texas is the shoe fashion capital of the world and my fashion turns on whatever they say!)  The writer said, “Crocs are an unfortunate excuse for shoes that look like a combination of goulash and mule...”.  Thank you Galveston...

For those of you that would rather push the fashion envelope than keep up with the Galveston fashion experts, Zappos has a great selection of Crocs.  Eee-aww...

Tom

In Defense of the Brand

Advertiser brands are being used against them. 

Monday’s Wall St. Journal had an excellent article about “Piggybacking”.  (No they are not referring to throwing a kid on your back and jumping around the yard!)  This piggybacking is a form of brand infringement that is haunting thousands of advertisers.  It is the practice of buying a trademarked brand and profiting from it.  Google is guilty of facilitating this practice.

The Journal gave several exceptional examples of how brands including American Airlines and InterContinental are trying to fight back.  One example was the term, “Holiday Inn Orlando” which, when clicked, led consumers to www.LowFares.com.  This site is not authorized to use the Holiday Inn brand name.  To make matters worse, the site had Holiday Inn ads on the site.  Each time these ads were clicked Holiday Inn ends up paying both Google AND LowFares.com for the illicit click. 

Google, in a typical “do no evil” response, refers to their trademark policy.  Unfortunately, their policy is not carried out on their site.  This problem is similar to the geo-targeting issue.  When an advertiser tells Google they want their ads targeted to the US, they expect that this will occur.  We find that as much as 10% of the US targeted ads appear outside the US.

A high level of diligence is required to ensure advertiser brands are protected.  Time and time again Click Forensics finds violations for our clients and even our own brand.  These problems are generally fixed when we alert the search engine.  But without constant monitoring, the damage is done.

Who profits from this?  GOOG. 

Tom

“The Happiest Place on Earth”

The domain industry is fascinating.  I have enjoyed being involved in events that are both educational and productive for Click Forensics and me.  The latest event is the TRAFFIC conference held this week in “The Happiest Place on Earth”, Disneyworld of course!  Everyone seemed happy (even though there wasn’t a Starbucks anywhere to be found!).

The domain industry appears to me to be at a crossroads.  While the value of names continues to rise, the earnings from monetization programs are falling.  Domain owners and parking companies are struggling to gain more transparency from Google and Yahoo.  Today, there is essentially no transparency.  Traffic from domains is sent up to Google and some amount of money is paid for the traffic.  While agreements regarding revenue shares can be negotiated up front, without the ability to see inside the black box, the monetization metrics are a mystery.

One speaker at this conference has a deep understanding of this issue.  Michael Gilmour runs whizzbangsblog.com from his home in Australia.  I heard Michael’s presentation and had a chance to speak to him at an after party.

He spoke candidly about the risks that the industry faces from the search engines black box approach.  “The lack of transparency in the whole process means that they are accountable to no one.”Gilmour said.  He accurately pointed out that, “Google has been progressively reducing its network traffic margins from a high of 22.1% (Q1 ‘06) to low of 11.9% (Q1 '08).”

What this means is that parked domain companies and site owners are being squeezed.  This is a trend that will continue.  Advertisers are demanding higher quality traffic and Google has had a hard time delivering that from low quality traffic sites like MySpace.  Enter the parked domain channel.

Gilmour has written a series of blogs addressing this issue.  The eight part series can be found on his site at www.whizzbangsblog.com.  In it Gilmour says, “Google is able to launder a lot of bad traffic with good traffic and make it all pay the same while they themselves can discriminate on what they pay out.”

There is a lot of great quality traffic that comes from direct navigation domains.  This is an industry with lots of smart folks and great ideas to help advertisers sell more stuff.  It will take cooperation and transparency to build value in the domain space.  As Gilmour says, “Unless they (the parking companies) are able to audit Google then they can't ever be assured of their share of the revenue.”

Without cooperation, transparency and standards, future conferences may not be as happy as this one was.

Tom

The San Antonio Stonecutters

Love the Spurs or hate them, its hard to argue with four rings in nine years.  The Spurs represent all that is good in professional sports.  Teamwork, good citizenship and hard work.  They are a model team built on stability and consistency. 

Inside the organization people know the impact Popovich has had both on and off the bench.  It was Pop who had the Jacob Riis words translated and posted in the locker room, 

"When nothing seems to help, I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before."

Practice makes perfect and teamwork makes winners.  There are lessons to be learned in all aspects of life from these words.  So hammer away Spurs and thanks for being an inspiring group of winners.

Tom

 

Memorial Day 2008

I have a friend named Joe who passed away earlier this year at the age of 82.  Joe served in World War II.  Although I would often ask him about it, he would almost never discuss it.  Sherman had it right when he said “War is hell” and no one knows that more clearly than those who served our country by being in the middle of combat.

These days there is a great deal of discussion, debate and differing opinions around the current war.  While I respect all of those perspectives, none of them change the fact that we should pause to honor those who have served, and are serving our country.  Our country is what it is because of the brave men and women who have served.  

I hope you will take this opportunity to honor our heros.  A few years ago, I stood with my family in the middle of Arlington cemetery in Virginia.  It is an overwhelming experience.  The 360 degree view of tombstones is a visual reminder of the scale of the sacrifice.

Monday I will place a flag on my friend Joe’s grave.  My son and I will walk through the cemetery and talk about what it means to serve, honor and respect.  It is the least we can do.

Twitter Catches On

Twitter interests me.  No, I don’t know how they will make money, although I do have some ideas (think geo-location and advertising).  I only started “tweeting” in April.  As soon as I did a reporter from the Express-News connected with me.  Laura Lorek has covered Click Forensics for several years and I read her consistently.  She sent me a “tweet” asking for an interview about Twitter.  The result is a well written (and entertaining!) story.  Find it here.

Under the Iceberg

Over the past two years we have been trying to bring attention to the real danger of click fraud.  It is a real problem that is getting worse not better.  Since we began reporting our Click Fraud Index, the overall rate has climbed over 20%.  This problem has been highlighted in mainstream publications including Business Week, USA Today and the Wall St. Journal.  No one today denies that click fraud is a problem and that it is having a negative effect on the growth of the online industry.

What may be less obvious is that click fraud is only the tip of the iceberg.  The bigger issue for our industry is the overall decline of traffic quality.  Advertisers want to get what they pay for and know that the traffic they buy has value.  Problems including: the growth of botnets, out of country traffic and other low quality traffic sources like made-for-ad sites and parked domains are hurting ROI.  Advertisers know this and have been demanding action from ad providers.  One recent example is the poor quality traffic that comes from social network sites like MySpace.  Google surprised Wall St by missing Q4 earnings due, in part, to their inability to monetize MySapce traffic.  Social network sites are notorious for having very low SiteScore’s.

So what is happening?  Smart ad providers are taking matters into their own hands.  They can’t afford to lose business and they are listening to their customers.  By using real time tools to detect invalid traffic, publishers can block it, redirect it or re-price it.  This is the way the industry is moving and we are working hard to lead the way.  It is encouraging to see ad providers like Yahoo see the dangers ahead and help their clients steer clear.  On the other hand, it is concerning others are on a collision course. 

Why Yahoo! Matters

A couple of weeks ago at Search Engine Strategies in New York, Click Fraud made big news.  Yahoo announced a partnership with Click Forensics that changes the tone of the ongoing “Click Fraud Debate”.  Since late 2005 there has been denial, litigation, finger pointing, 17 page reports and lots and lots of media coverage around the topic of click fraud.  In March of 2006 I wrote that, “It will take a community approach to solve the problem”.  Since then the community of advertisers, agencies, third parties, publishers, ad networks, industry organizations and search providers has grown.  We have all been drawn closer together to help solve the problem; not deny its existence.  A visible result of that progress was the Yahoo announcement.

It was just over a year ago that I first met Reggie Davis.  Yahoo was the first search engine to name a Vice President over Marketplace Quality.  Reggie’s approach has been refreshing.  He listened carefully and took notes to what advertisers were saying.  He worked with his team to implement solutions that helped improve transparency.  And now, less than a year later, Yahoo is the first search engine to work with a third-party to fight click fraud.

This is real progress and a sign of things to come.  For quite some time we have been drawing the distinction between traditional media (TV and Radio) and online.  Advertisers are used to having standards, auditable invoices and notarized affidavit’s confirming they get what they paid for. It’s especially important because as pay-per-click industry expert, Dr. Tuzhilin, has noted: third-parties have access to data search engines don’t have. And that information is helpful for identifying quality issues such as click fraud. Yahoo! understands this and we’re now able to share this information to help Yahoo! help its advertisers.