The bad news for social media advertising and mobile advertising is that they are falling short of the desired results businesses had hoped to see. Continuing to use a blend of advertising appears to be the best way to hedge against uncertainty in the social media and mobile advertising markets. The report indicates a great deal of risk exists in utilizing these forms of digital advertising. However, it stops short of defining any reason why social media and mobile advertising are failing to deliver the results that other forms of digital ads are delivering.

It may well be the reason they are not performing as well, is due to a general lack of credibility; due to the fact that there really has been no formal regulation regarding claims and endorsements made about products, services and opportunities which are abundant in blogs and social media.

Social media spam may contribute to the lack of delivery for social media ads, as well. We have been dealing globally with email spam for about ten years. Some measures are in place to address this type of spam; not that they have actually eradicated spam from email marketing and advertising though. However, using reputable email marketing companies and utilizing opt in lists, has allowed email marketing to still deliver decent returns with targeted audiences. Blogs, and social media are still frontiers, without any consistent regulation. I wonder if the spam and abundance of non-regulated marketing could be a significant factor in the results found in the survey?

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Clamping down on blogs and bloggers who post tainted endorsements and who make incredible claims, will be quite a task, in and of itself. Enforcement should prove interesting, especially with many blogs being written by people not residing in the United States. Monitoring and addressing deceptive advertising in other forms of social media presents other interesting questions and dilemmas. For example, on Twitter, how can a twit make an incredible claim and disclaim it; plus add a clickable link; all in a 140 characters or less? That would be the challenge for tweets; should they fall under the new scrutiny of the FTC. Once the FTC identifies violators, then what will they do and how will they be able to eradicate the problems?

Although I am opposed to censoring personal expression, I am supportive of maintaining ethics in advertising of all types. To that extent, I believe claims and endorsements in blogs and tweets need to be truthful and forthright; no different than in traditional forms of advertising. If you make claims about your personal results, first and foremost, those claims need to be factual. If you say you are making $50,000 per day, you need to be able to prove you are consistently making $50,000 per day. If you say you have a system that will generate a gazillion users, followers, clicks, or whatever, then you need to be able to prove you have been able to consistently produce those results. If, however, that statement is not factual and provable and you benefited due to actions of others in reliance upon your claims; then you should be liable for all damages sustained by those who relied upon the deceptive statements. Second, in this same example, in the event you are actually realized the results claimed and this realization is not a typical result, then the typical results need to also be stated conspicuously. A simple disclaimer saying these results are not typical is not enough. Ideally, these two rules would be applied similarly to other endorsements and claims; whether they are for weight loss, improved health, or any other quantifiable results. Additional comments relative hereto were recently solicited by the FTC, as noted in the FTC Endorsement Guide

As a side note, although beyond the scope of the newly planned monitoring of blogs by the FTC, this author believes that equally important to consumers and taxpayers, are elections, ballot measures and political campaigns; some of the biggest violators of deception in advertising in this country. Truth in advertising, because of the gravity and magnitude of the potential damage in the election and campaign process, transcends civil damages. Deception at this level should be prosecuted criminally; as egregious felonies or acts of treason.

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Fail Whale says Twitter is Over Capacity

Notwithstanding there are some companies utilizing the social value of Twitter, one would have to question whether or not tweeting holds much value for smaller companies. The Harvard study seems to indicate that of all Twitter users they will tweet on average only once during their Twitter lifetime.

What do the ten percent that are responsible for 90% of the tweeting, tweet about? Although there are some tweets about news events, there are also some who simply troll for followers, by repeatedly tweeting a rotated set of keywords. However, the bulk of the tweets I have seen are MLM related, or attempting to sell their information or services. The same tweets are repeated over and over again; many of which, are too incredible to be true. Obviously, all of the people who say they are making twenty gazillion dollars per month; or who can show you how to get 50,000 followers in 90 days on autopilot, are not making the money they say, nor is it possible to build these empires on autopilot. It is, however, possible to send out thousands of tweets making these claims.

Twitter needs to figure out a way to minimize the SPAM that is flowing in the tweets; otherwise the value to businesses and to individuals will quickly diminish; and the only sustainability will be the smell of Hormel on Pareto;s plate.

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In this post I am simply providing you with a small handful of Useful Recommendation Engines that you and I both, can and should be taking advantage of:

Recommendation Engines

• 500+ Topic/Categories: Stumble Upon
• Media/Entertainment: MatchMine
• Applications: AppScout from NetFlix
• Movies/Film: Criticker
• What’s great and what’s not; in your area: Yelp
• Events Going On: Going

Note: Toms Skyline Design is not an affiliate of the above recommendation engines, nor does their listing here necessarily constitute an endorsement of their content, policies, practices or effectiveness. They are listed for information purposes only. Hopefully, the information can be helpful and valuable to the readers of this blog.

Coming Soon:

More Market Expansion Listings for

• Social Shopping Networks
• Horizontal Markets
• Virtual Worlds
• Photo Sharing & Video Sharing Networks
• Mobile Networks

Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog so you do not miss valuable information and important news.

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In this post I am simply providing you with a small handful of Excellent Social Bookmarking Sites that you and I both, can and should check out:

Social Bookmarking Sites

• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Danny Sullivan’s Sphinn
• reddit
• Propeller
• Shoutwire

Note: Toms Skyline Design is not an affiliate of the above social bookmarking sites, nor does their listing here necessarily constitute an endorsement of their content, policies, practices or effectiveness. They are listed for information purposes only. Hopefully, the information can be helpful and valuable to the readers of this blog.

Coming Soon:

More Market Expansion Listings for

• Recommendation Engines
• Social Shopping Networks
• Horizontal Markets
• Virtual Worlds
• Photo Sharing & Video Sharing Networks
• Mobile Networks

Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog so you do not miss valuable information and important news.

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In that prior post I mention engaging or employing vertical markets, social bookmarking sites, recommendation engines, social shopping networks, horizontal markets, virtual worlds, photo sharing and video sharing networks, mobile networks and if appropriate, international networks. Below, are a few different examples from each of these different categories of social networks.

Vertical Markets

• Physicians: Sermo
• Personal Finance: Wasabe (not wasabi)
• Shopping: ThisNext
• Health: CarePages
• Health: iMedix
• Health: PatientsLikeMe
• Health: RevolutionHealth
• Health: WellSphere
• Seniors: Elder Wisdom Circle
• Seniors: Grandparents
• Seniors: Multiply
• Seniors: TeeBeeDee
• Mothers: CafeMom
• Mothers: MomJunction
• Mothers: MothersClick
• Special Purpose: LiveVideo
• Special Purpose: DailyMotion (some content could be a bit racy …
  like TheOnion Channel on YouTube)

Note: Toms Skyline Design is not an affiliate of the above vertical markets, nor does their listing here constitute an endorsement of their content, policies, practices or effectiveness. They are listed for information purposes only. Hopefully, the information can be helpful and valuable to the readers of this blog.

Coming Soon:

More Market Expansion Listings for

• Social Bookmarking Sites
• Recommendation Engines
• Social Shopping Networks
• Horizontal Markets
• Virtual Worlds
• Photo Sharing & Video Sharing Networks
• Mobile Networks

Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog so you do not miss valuable information and important news.

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There are numerous social networks where your message(s) can be seen. Visibility is important; however, you want to be visible in the right marketplace. Rather than spending time blasting your message and ads to the wrong market, or to thousands of others whom you are competing with, try to locate social networks appropriate to your target audience. This methodology employs the same tactics as keyword usage and SEO/SEM. Broad based keywords will have the effect of generating more traffic than narrowly based keywords. However, narrowly defined keywords will generate higher conversion rates. Being more specific and less generalized in your targeting is an important factor to consider when preparing and delivering your message.

Types of Networks

In addition to the well-known multi-purpose networks like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter; depending on your product, service or niche, consider employing vertical markets, social bookmarking sites, recommendation engines, social shopping networks, horizontal markets, virtual worlds, photo sharing and video sharing networks, mobile networks and if appropriate, international networks.

Of the more hotly discussed social media networks, Twitter is so hot now due in part to the fact that it transcends the multi-purpose market and encompasses the mobile empowered network. Even though the majority of the social network options do not share this empowerment, they can nonetheless, be valuable to your campaign(s).

To keep this post short, I will list some of the many other social network options in a soon to follow post. Go ahead and subscribe to this blog so you do not miss out on valuable information and important news.

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They tell the potential buyer that with their traffic that the new owner should be able to bring in $10,000 a month, but rarely ever have to pay anything out to the publishers, due to the $20 threshold and the CPC rate of $.025 (50% split of the amount charged). So I clicked on the link to this Twitter Ads site; and it took me to a page with a couple of banner ads; giving another page to follow to. When I clicked on that link and went to the new site, I discovered that yes it was a Twitter Ad Broker Site and guess what? This site listed a $.04 CPC and had the $20 monthly threshold policy for publishers, too. It sounds like they are following the same pattern.

This is another program on Twitter to make money, but I have to ask myself, “Is is a good one?” One thing I have seen with these sites is that I may see advertiser testimonials, but do not see any publisher testimonials. You do the research and see what you think. Caveat Emptor seems to be appropriate here.

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Notwithstanding the huge dip by MySpace, let’s examine these numbers more closely to afford ourselves an opportunity to view a different perspective. The MySpace users clearly overshadowed the Twitter users time spent on each of their respective sites by over 1600%. One reason for this is that the Twitter population appears to be fairly transient, with many users giving it a try and then abandoning it after a month or so. Thus, they have been dubbed as “Twitter Quitters” This is not the case with Facebook and MySpace users. Statistics show they have a much higher loyalty rate.

A few others in the top ten included Blogger, at the number three slot, Tagged.com in fourth, and LinkedIn was in eighth spot. So, over the next year, it will be very interesting to see where the big dogs in social media stand.

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However, running the numbers makes the plan seem like many other network marketing plans; except this one targets only one niche … people on Twitter. Get 20,000 followers in 90 days and get 400 of them to respond to your ads every day. It’s all automated and you don’t even have to waste time socializing with these people … just use them. You make money selling the plan to other people, too. Of course, going outside of Twitter to advertise this program you are already competing with thirty pages or more of people on Google with every variation of Twitter Traffic Machine in their URL that you could imagine. Every ad I saw perpetuates the same story about the massive amount of followers you can develop and the corresponding amount of money you can make with this system. I would speculate no more that 1% are making any real money (just like most any MLM or network marketing program. The first ones in have a real shot, then it gets a lot harder to make it.) The fact is that if they were making the serious money off the four hundred people daily that were responding to their automated system–which they don’t have to spend time on–they wouldn’t bother with reselling it to others … unless of course, they feel that it is like a feeding frenzy in a pool of sharks; and if they don’t sell it to others, then those people will get their 20,000 followers. The marketing plan is not explained prior to forking over your $27 USD. However, as a sidenote, for those about to drop the money for the program, look around. I did see one guy selling the system for $15 USD. I suppose, if I took a closer look I might find it for $5 or $10.

Okay, so how long do you suppose that this type of growth will last? It lasted a long time for Amway. But, times have changed. Moreover, social networks that may be booming one day, are old news a year later, when the new kid on the block arrives. Take a look at these Google Trends for MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. So, you have to gamble that you can get in and make your mark with Twitter before the program destroys the credibility of the network. After all, with the exponential growth they are talking about, in a few months it is unlikely you would ever actually be communicating with real people; only with their automated bots. That’s pretty social, right? I think what you would see is that if all you are doing is hawking your program and have nothing real to say, people will put you on permanent block. So, that means you need another 20,000 followers; and the process continues to repeat itself. Where’s the free lunch?

To sum this up, all I can gather from the skirting is that it sounds like the program helps identify keywords to use in your tweets to target Twitter users to click on your links, hoping they will click through to one or more advertisers’ pages on your ClickBank account(s). Oh, the ClickBank part is speculation; but, if I am correct, that means you need to plunk down another $50 bucks or so for each ClickBank account you set up. Now, does their system automate the ClickBank process, or do you have to actually setup your links and change them out yourself? If it is a completely automated system, I guess the program handles that for you. However, that seems highly unlikely. If it is not ClickBank, then the same question would apply for whatever program you use. Bear in mind it has to be an affiliate ad program that anyone can get accepted into. Many of the best affiliate ad programs review your website first before accepting you. That’s not to take anything away from, or slight ClickBank. They have a good program, but I think anyone that plunks down the money for the account and agrees to their rules, can open an affiliate account. This traffic machine would need something similar… or maybe, everyone simply opens up an AdSense account instead. Who knows?

At any rate, as you can see I am a bit skeptical of this program. Your comments are welcome.

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Whether or not the pattern becomes a trend or not, I think there is a strong impetus to see this shift unfold in the upcoming months. For one, mobile advertising targets a subsection of the online market. People on the go, in a hurry, who are socially active and social media receptive, are a demographic that substantially represents this market. I recently read in Paul Gillin’s ‘Secrets of Social Media Marketing’ where he quoted Giovanni Gallucci, cofounder of Dexterity Media, stating “People on MySpace aren’t running away from pedophiles and stalkers. They’re running away from marketers and advertisers.”

I think most of us can relate to that. New social media marketing is about relationships and the perception of the relationship. A good example is visible on Twitter. People are on Twitter for different reasons. It is a popular and growing social media network. Some people are trying to figure out how to cash in on it. They are trying to use it as a conduit to fill the funnel. With Twitter, if you want to monetize the experience then bring value to those who follow you, be a real person and pitch yourself in a non-intrusive way. If every time you tweet, it’s an ad, people won’t bother to even look at it. In fact, they may put you on block. It’s no different than your cousin or neighbor who only calls you or drops by when they want to try selling you something. You probably will avoid them as much as possible. The same principle can be applied to mobile marketing.

From the standpoint of mobile device limitations, not everyone has a mobile device that is capable of displaying the banners and display ads. So, advertisers are missing that mix of the target audience if they are not using search advertising. For these reasons it would make sense that the pattern could become a trend.

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Personally, I think voting on ads is great; in the right context. In fact, I used to love to watch the ads on the now defunct firebrand.com site. People could vote on ads there, too. However, do you think that voting on an ads popularity should be the criteria for how much the advertiser pays for that ad? On the surface, it sounds like it might be great … if you think the same way as a specific group of like-minded people. I see a lot of room for abuse by large corporations and organizations that have the ability to pump up the vote and blow out the little guy who is trying to get started and does not have a base of followers to cosign his or her ads.

Content and relativity are fair and equitable ways to help gauge ad pricing, more so than popularity. If an ad gets thousands of votes, then most likely they are going to generate a lot more revenue. Should they pay less or pay more? In time there is the potential that everyone gets hurt, because the online markets would be dominated only by large groups that have huge fan bases; potentially curbing new ideas, products and innovations. If the small fry that is trying to compete with the mega-popular ads is charged a higher rate for his or her ads, then the likelihood is that they will look for other more effective ways to advertise; abandoning social networks and online marketing and potentially closing their doors. I believe a serious caveat of the vote pricing model is that it has the potential of driving away competition … and without competition you have huge monolithic organizations that control what you have access to and minimizing your choices.

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Looking at the silver lining in this story, total online marketing in the United States for all of 2002 was about $6 billion. The 1st Quarter of 2008 Internet ad sales were $5.77 billion; almost as much as the entire year’s receipts for 2002. Even with the decline of the 1st Quarter of this year, we still saw $5.48 billion spent in the United States for Internet advertising.

Major players in online advertising, retail stores, realtors, the auto industry and banks have spent less; contributing substantially to the overall decline in recent Internet marketing sales.

As a side note, property values have gone down, huge deals are available on new car purchases, some retail stores have dropped prices; and the greedy banks have went the other direction by throwing lavish parties, rewarding their top losers with bonuses and offsetting their extravagance by raising interest rates on their customers. To that I say, lay off the parties, bonuses, raised interest rates and increase your Internet marketing sales … and become more socially conscious.

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