Online advertising expected to take-up 18% of marketing budgets within 5 years.

Reaslitic or too optimistic? What do you think? Should we expect the same in Canada?

“NEW YORK — After years of interactive advertising being dominated by search and display advertising and e-mail programs, new outlets and more sophisticated marketers portend more diverse spending in years to come, according to a new study.

Forrester Research, like nearly all ad-spending forecasts, projects marketers will shift budgets online at a quick pace in the next five years. By 2012, it expects the market will hit $61.3 billion, up from $18.4 billion in 2007. In five years, Forrester expects interactive spending to account for 18% of marketing budgets.

Forrester sees much higher spending growth in newer areas. It expects buying in the “emerging channels” category (in-game advertising, social networks, mobile) to grow from $1 billion to $10.6 billion in 2012, when it will make up 17% of all spending. Online video is set to grow from $471 million in 2007 to $7.2 billion in 2012, accounting for 12% of online marketing spending.” - Brian Morrissey , Brandweek

You can read the full article here…

It’s kind of hard to believe, especially when my province (Ontario) just spent 6 million dollars on completely ineffective 30-second commercial spots for the provincial elections/referendum. When will the government learn to stop letting ad agencies decide which marketing communications activities they should be engaging in? Until the ad agency compensation structure is changed, every ad agency will convince you that you need a TV spot. I mean common! $6 million! for what? Just imagine what that kind of budget could have accomplished if it was put towards a social media strategy.

I am bold enough to say that for 1/100th of that budget given to me personally, I could have given Elections Ontario a significantly better result. Oh well, at least we can celebrate “Family Day” now…

Online content sharing - far from tipping point…

Once in a while, I still mange to across people that think the web is just a bunch of web sites like it was in the 90’s. When I show them effective use of a blog, RSS feed, or social media network of some sort, they gaze in disbelief and wonder where they’ve been the last few years. While these kind of occurrences rarely happen with people I interact with on a daily basis. It’s hard to be unbiased in my line of work and very easy to make false assumptions about what is prevalent out in society - what has and has not been fully adopted in terms of things we preach. This is why I rely so much on statistical analysis and marketing research.

Rather than preaching all the benefits of social media, I often indulge clients with the most recent stats - hard numbers and best practices they can show senior management.

I came across this study the other day, which deals with the issue of social media/content sharing adoption on the Internet. I’m curious to know, where do you fit in? Read below…

“Avenue A/Razorfish, a digital agency owned by Microsoft, surveyed 475 U.S. Internet users across all demographics in July. The study targeted “connected consumers,” those that have broadband access and spend over $200 on e-commerce purchases per year (such consumers represent about half of the overall population).

The study found that some of the most recent advances in content sharing have uneven adoption. For example, just 17 percent said they had shared bookmarks through services like the Yahoo!-owned Delicious. Even more mainstream activities such as photo sharing didn’t resonate: 59 percent said they never used sites like Flickr. A majority had never uploaded a video. About 65 percent said they never used tag clouds.

More mature Web 2.0 technologies have higher adoption: 85 percent used “most e-mailed/most popular stories” links, 60 percent personalized their home pages and nearly the same amount subscribed to RSS feeds. Blogs are regular fare: 61 percent read them on at least a weekly basis.” Read the full article here…

So there you have it, RSS and Blogs have fully hit the mainstream, while tag clouds, video content sharing, and certain aspects of social bookmarking are still far from being widely used. It makes me wonder however, whether terminology can skew the results. For example, I have many friends who have no idea what an RSS feed is, but use them all the time without knowing it (on their Google homepage for example). Others may claim to have never used a blog and yet they write on their Facebook wall everyday. Naturally the same applies for tag clouds and helping to build folksonomies. Are we getting too lost in the terminology? Personally, I think that many people couldn’t care less about the widget name or social implications of the technology they are using; they just do it.

The Canadian Government Awakens to social media - forget the buzzwords, it’s time for action!

What a week. I must say I haven’t been so excited and engulfed with new public sector social media developments in a while. First of all, I have noticed an influx of articles, reports and network formation in this field. It must have something to do with the “Fall” season and everyone getting back in their game in preparation for what looks to be a landmark year for government service-delivery in a Web 2.0 era.
Here are some things I learned this week:

1. The Federal government has created an official, inter-departmental, cross-functional team of consultants, managers and directors to come up with a Social Media government engagement strategy. While, to many this may sound like just another stagnant bureaucratic, process-focused team that will lead to nothing, I beg to differ.Why? let’s just say I met some of the team members at a presentation I was giving to the Public Service Commission this week and there is nothing stagnant about them. Many come from the private sector and they are interested in obtaining results, FAST. I’m looking forward to hearing and especially seeing more from them soon.
2. I think it’s safe to say that Web 2.0 has now officially passed the “buzz-word” stage in government communications and marketing departments. There are no more blank stares and/or surprised eyes when I mention things like Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogs, etc… during presentations. Most of our clients are aware of the rapidly evolving online landscape, if not through their own use, then through their kids use! It has finally come down to the “action” stage from more than just the early adopters. They want to act now and many are experimenting on their own. Try searching for “Canadian Government” in Facebook and see for yourself)
3. Blogging by program managers and directors working for the government will soon (i.e. 200 be very prevalent. This is not to be confused with the one-way PR “bullshit” that often comes out in press releases, or one-way static HTML senior executive web sites with the word “BLOG” written on them as a title and fake entries sounding like they came out of a constipated robot.
4. Monthly social media community gatherings are popping up in both large and small cities all over the world. For those interested, here in Ottawa we have a meetup group called “Third Tuesday“. The largest social media gathering is still PodCamp Boston (in it’s second year), which has spawned scaled down PodCamp’s all over the world. People are genuinely interested in sharing, collaborating and learning this evolving field together. My prediction is that these general social media conferences/meetings will soon branch off into industry specific groups with very specific shared goals.
5. Finally, interesting articles and reports are coming in from all angles. Here’s some that you can download from my FTP:

• Newsletter from Public Works and Government Service Canada (PWGSC) showing some interesting blog developments.
• For even more inspiration, read about some international government blogging developments as stated in this IBM Government Blogging Report.

Some humour to close off…

10 Tips for Blogging by Public Sector Executives

I was recently kindly provided with a great research report on Government Blogging authored by David C. Wyld, from the Department of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University.

After reading pretty much the entire 99 page document, I thought one of the most valuable take-aways it offered (in addition to the plethora of great diagrams and statistics) was the section providing the Top 10 tips for public sector executives wishing to start a Blog.

As a result I decided it would be a good idea to post this Top 10 list on my blog , since it is relevant to all of you that work in the Public Sector. While the majority of the report dealt with best practices in the U.S government blogosphere, naturally the same tips apply here in Canada. Again, I want to reiterate that these tips were taken from David C. Wyld’s report (I do not want to take credit for them):

Tip 1: Define yourself and your purpose. In 1992, Ross Perot’s running mate was vice Admiral James Stockdale, a vietnam War hero and former prisoner of war,. At the vice presidential debate, he infamously began with the rhetorical questions: “Who am I? Why am I here?” (Holmes, 2005). While these questions didn’t lead to victory for Stockdale, they can for you. You should, at least mentally but perhaps in your first post, state the reasons you are starting your blog, what you hope to do with it, who you hope will read it, and so on.

Tip 2: Do it yourself! Do not have someone else write your blog. While you may enlist assistance for any technical aspects that you feel uncomfortable with (and with the blogging tools available today, this really should not be an issue), you must be the author to make it authentic and interesting to your audience.

Tip 3: Make a time commitment. Before you begin your blog, know that you must make a personal commitment to have the time available to not only regularly post to your blog, but to read and respond to comments made on it. And if the comment section is managed, you or perhaps a subordinate must make decisions on which comments will be posted on the blog and which will not. You should work blog writing and reading time into your regular schedule, and if you know you will be unavailable for a period of time, invite a guest blogger(s) to fill your virtual shoes. remember, in the blogosphere, 10 days without posts could mean the death of your blog, as readers will be drawn elsewhere in virtual space.

Tip 4: Be regular. While related to the first two tips, the need to regularly post to your blog merits particular attention. In short, if you do not regularly post updated material to your blog—interesting material— whatever readership you have will quickly fade away.

Tip 5: Be generous. If your blog is nothing but an exercise in self-centeredness and self-congratulation (or links to organizations congratulating you), then your readership will tire of it. Use your blog as a platform for your jurisdiction, your staff, your family (to an extent), and so on. Take the opportunity to highlight special people in your district or community, and let your blog be a channel for spotlighting your area, not just yourself. Provide praise, applaud unsung heroes, and point out people in need of special help. In short, do good works with your words.

Tip 6: Have a “hard hide.” You cannot have a thin kin and engage in blogging. You will receive comments that range from the thoughtful and insightful o the unwarranted and the unprintable. You will also surely be praised by some tech-savvy constituents or using a new communications medium, while others will call your office or write a “snail mail” letter to ask what’s wrong with the more established forms of communication.

Tip 7: Spell-check. this almost goes without saying, but it is surprising how many blog posts have spelling and/or grammatical errors. When spotted, such mistakes can generate satirical comments, spawn bad publicity in traditional and non-traditional media, and detract from your message. As the saying goes, “that’s why God made a spell-checker!”

Tip 8: Don’t give too much information. While it is great to be honest and open in your blog, you can do it to the extreme. Let the blog be a window into your thoughts, your work, and your travels, but remember the blunt admonition of the anonymous (2003) author of The Blogger Manifesto, “nobody gives a [expletive] about what you had for breakfast” (n.p.).

Tip 9: Consider multimedia. While you must concentrate on providing timely updates to your blog, making them interesting and well written, having good content is not enough. It is crucial that you have an easy-to-navigate, visually appealing layout to your blog. In today’s environment, there is a ratcheting up of blog standards, and in a short time
it will be almost expected that video and audio elements be included on blogs. While you must learn to walk before your run, you should seek out links to audio/video sources to go multimedia at no cost, then you can begin to consider recording and producing our own audio/video content to offer as posts or podcasts on your blog.

Tip 10: Be a student of blogging. You should make it a regular habit to spend time each day being exposed to blogs other than your own. Find favorite blogs (political and non-political) and subscribe to them using a news reader or aggregator program (using RSS or Atom feeds). With these tools, you can view updates from your favorites in one place, without having to surf to multiple sites. Finally, check out the top-ranked blogs (according to Technorati or ComScore), and use this as an opportunity to benchmark the best of the best.

Feel free to comment and add your own tips!

In my next blog entry I will be rounding up examples of effective Public Sector Marketing Blogs in action. Send links my way if you know any good ones.

SEOmoz - The best one-stop-shop for all your SEO needs!

Over the last few years, the field of search engine optimization has come a very long way. While I do not specialize in the field of SEO, I feel that I have gained a strong knowledge of the subject matter through work on various online marketing strategies and personal interest. One thing I quickly realized, is that you have to be up-to-date and on the cutting-edge at all times due to the constant evolution of search engine algorithms, programming languages, CMS software, social media networks and a multitude of other factors. To stay ahead of the game I subscribe to numerous SEO feeds for the latest news, however I have always been a fan of one-stop-shops. That being said, I never really found an SEO software solution that I really liked, what I did find was SEOmoz.org.

This website could not be any easier to use. They offer a plethora of FREE tools for quick SEO audits, keyword research and web visibility analysis. While I realize they are not perfect and are a far cry from an in-depth SEO expert analysis, these tools are a great time-saving aid for beginners and experts alike. In fact, I gained so much time efficiencies using these tools that I decided to give their Premium Membership a test-run to gain access to some of their more advanced tools. I love them even more! Most of you however, will be perfectly content with the FREE tools offered to everyone. Try them out on your organization’s website to see how you rank and what areas you can improve on!

Why is this important to marketers?

I shouldn’t really have to answer this for you. No matter how good you are and what your reputation is offline, an online presence has become mandatory for success. It has become increasingly difficult to break out of the clutter, hence why SEO has become a standard practice for many organizations. For those of you that cannot afford an expert for whatever reason or simply have a small project of your own, I think SEOmoz is a great place to start.

Viral “Social Marketing” Online Games

Often, upon meeting clients trying to promote a particular social marketing cause, I am asked to provide specific examples of engaging “viral” online campaigns. The first thing that usually comes to my mind is the use of simple online games (usually created in Flash) such as the one used in the Darfur is Dying campaign. Put simply, this is a web-based, viral video game that provides a window into the experience of the 2.5 million refugees in the Darfur region of Sudan. It is designed to raise awareness of the genocide taking place in Darfur and empower college students (the target audience in this case) to help stop the crisis. Interestingly enough, this game has garnered the attention not only of students, but of older adults as well. Why? Because online “social marketing” games are designed to be simple, fun and ENGAGING. It’s that engagement that allows the message to really be heard. See for yourself.

There are numerous other examples of using online games for Social Marketing purposes that I can think of, here are a few off the top of my head:

• Homeless: It’s no game
• Planet Green Game
• The Redistricting Game
• Karma Tyoon
• PeaceMaker

Have fun and don’t forget to send them to your friends!

Canada and U.S seriously lagging in average broadband speed

This study was just released this week. Canada and the U.S are way behind the top dogs in terms of average broadband speed. To many individuals, this might come as a surprise and should act as a wake up call.

Consider this excerpt:

“In the first three years of the Bush administration, the United States dropped from 4th to 13th place in global rankings of broadband Internet usage. Today, most U.S. homes can access only “basic” broadband, among the slowest, most expensive, and least reliable in the developed world, and the United States has fallen even further behind in mobile-phone-based Internet access. The lag is arguably the result of the current administration’s failure to make a priority of developing these networks. In fact, the United States is the only industrialized state without an explicit national policy for promoting broadband. ” -ForeignAffairs.org

Here in Canada, (as you can see in the chart above), we’re not much better off at all. The West cannot afford to fall behind like this for much longer. Faster broadband leads not only to benefits for us marketers (i.e. a wider variety of information sharing possibilities and multi sensory media usage to get our messages across), but more importantly, towards a more educated and informed society as a whole.

So what’s stopping us? –>Lack of Fibre Optic cable infrastructure.

How did Japan do it in just 5 years? (note that in 2001, Japan was well behind the U.S and Canada). –>The government got the private sector involved, it gave subsidies and grants to telecom start-ups and most importantly, it saw the benefit and potential of ultra high-speed broadband.

So what do you think? Does the Canadian government dedicate enough resources towards broadband? Should our tax money be used? What would our society be like if everyone had fiber-optic ultra high-speed connections? When will we get there? I’m curious to hear your thoughts…

For more information on the e-Japan strategy and the incredible results, be sure to read this article.

The influence of Web 2.0 on American politics

I find it interesting that Social Media Networks show Barack Obama and Ron Paul as leaders for the Presidency (when using amount of “friends” as a popularity metric), whereas every traditional poll conducted recently shows Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani having commanding leads.

What are your thoughts on this?

Is it that the amount of people using online channels is far smaller and irrelevant? Does this prove that the amount of “friends” is meaningless? Maybe its the fact that Barack Obama and Ron Paul supporters are younger and/or have a more open attitude towards social media?

Personally, I think its a combination of factors. The main one being that Barack Obama and Ron Paul supporters have a particular radical attitude. They want change, they are influencers and trend setters in society, they are more liberal, they use new media channels, they want a new leader with the same mindset.

So why do traditional polls not show these candidates at the top while social media networks do? Simple: In terms of raw numbers across the nation, their supporters are still the minority even though they comprise the majority of actively engaged online users.

For more on this topic read this blog entry

The Facebook Economy Race for Riches…good or bad?

Be sure to read this CNN article on the The Facebook Economy . It offers great summaries at the end of all the latest applications created by users around the world ever since Facebook opened its floodgates to developers. That being said, the whole article revolves around how to make money off of this unique opportunity while it is free. I feel that this is short-minded thinking.

I realize that one can easily argue that if you develop an application you should be able to leverage its high usage to make money via ads.However, the downside is that we are being inundated with garbage applications from people looking to make a quick buck. Some of these applications die a quick natural death, others are added even though they are garbage and clutter people’s profiles. Facebook will likely soon go Public, and we will all lose out on this unique opportunity to create and reach “long-tail” audiences.

Before this happens, there is a tremendous opportunity for non-profits and the government to come in and make some truly community benefiting applications to help deliver on their programs and services. I have already seen a few such as RFP submission tools, bilingual polling tools, and recruitment tools used by agencies such as the CIA. Hopefully, with the whole slew of start-ups specializing solely in Facebook application development, we will be seeing some truly beneficial and unique uses of this platform before its too late. The race is on…

US launches ‘MySpace for spies’

“Spies and teenagers normally have little in common but that is about to change as America’s intelligence agencies prepare to launch “A-Space”, an internal communications tool modelled on the popular social networking sites, Facebook and MySpace.

The Director of National Intelligence will open the site to the entire intelligence community in December. The move is the latest part of an ongoing effort to transform the analytical business following the failure to detect the 9/11 terrorist attacks or find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”

Incredible! Kudos to the CIA for realizing the powerful potential of social media networks. Now if only the Canadian government could learn from our neighbours down south and follow suite to reduce the bureaucracy and lack of communication within and amongst departments. What are we doing instead? Banning Facebook. Go figure.

Read the full article here:FT.com / World - US launches ‘MySpace for spies’