Facebook has once again decided to update its News Feed with a new look and algorithm. This update is meant to give members more control of what they see on their own customized News Feeds. What this means for marketers is that there is a higher importance than ever in successfully engaging with consumers and providing useful, compelling information in order to maintain or increase their current level of visibility.

One of the major changes to the News Feed that will need to be addressed by digital marketers is the ability for users to filter the feed for media types such as images, music, videos, news, or apps. This makes it essential for a Facebook marketing strategy to focus on a range of media types. For example, If a brand is doing a great job regularly sharing status updates, that messaging will be missed by people who are filtering only for images.  By diversifying the types of content shared, a brand will be able to penetrate multiple filters and maximize their News Feed presence. Specifically for the image feed, Facebook will be displaying images from both Facebook and Instagram, so brands should be uploading photos to both.

The other expected major change is to Facebook advertising, as alluded to by Mark Zuckerberg himself. The revamped News Feed will allow advertisers to provide richer ads including larger images and videos, therefore opening greater potential for reaching and engaging with consumers through paid media. By including compelling rich media in paid Facebook ads, marketers can expect a much higher click through rate than they have seen in the past, opening up Facebook advertising as a larger piece of a digital strategy.

Whether or not these News Feed updates will stick will depend largely on the user response. As we have seen with other Facebook overhauls, such as with the timeline, it often takes members some time to warm up to major change. The potential, however, for these updates to provide a better user experience and open up new opportunities for brands should not be overlooked.

Are you looking forward to using the new Facebook News Feed for your business?

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One of the hottest trends in online marketing is native advertising. While not necessarily a new concept — the relatively old-school advertorial has been around for decades — it has seen a resurgence in the current content marketing era. Recent examples of native advertising can be seen with Google’s paid search results, YouTube’s sponsored videos and, to a lesser extent, trending topics on Twitter.

Content marketing has led to innovative forms of online advertising. With the online user experience key to a successful marketing campaign, this non-disruptive form of online advertising will continue to capture marketers’ addition — and advertising dollars — in 2013.

Native Advertising: The Basics

Native advertising is considered one of the newest forms of online marketing.

According to a September 2012 article in Mashable, the term didn’t take root until famed start-up investor Fred Wilson told an audience at OMMA Global in early 2012 about “native monetization” for Web properties, which he described as ads that were “unique and native to the experience” of a website.

Dan Greenberg, the CEO of Sharethrough, is credited with coining the actual term “native advertising.” Here’s Greenberg’s definition: “Native advertising is a form of media that’s built into the actual visual design and where the ads are part of the content.”

What separates native advertising from the equally hot trend of content marketing is a matter of debate. John LoGioco, SVP and general manager of content at Outbrain, recently told Mashable that the two are pretty much the same. “Native advertising seems to be the thing that most are able to hang on to and get it.”

What Makes for Great Native Ads

At its best, native advertising blends seamlessly with the editorial content of a website while providing content that is valuable to the target audience. Below is an example of native advertising on Twitter.

Not surprisingly social media juggernauts are publishing sponsored content, but now popular blogs and editorial websites are beginning to promote sponsored content as well. Buzzfeed is one major publisher that is posting sponsored content for its users. Articles on its main page blend in with the surrounding content. Below is an example of a sponsored article on Buzzfeed.com

In this native ad, Volkswagen provides a unique article for Buzzfeed readers. Instead of simply scrolling through the pictures and reading the article, Volkswagen asks users to listen to the popular song “Get Happy” while they read.

This type of interactive article is non-disruptive. It also provides an entertaining experience for the user. Volkswagen’s sponsored content partnership with Buzzfeed is a good example of a brand’s owned content mixed seamlessly with a publication’s editorial content while providing a valuable experience for the user.

Publisher, Advertiser or Consumer: Who Benefits?

Forbes has reported that consumers find native advertising to be “misleading”; however, reports such as this haven’t prevented marketers from focusing on native ads in 2013. Solve Media reported that 57% of media buyers plan to increase their investment in native advertising in 2013.

While publishers and brands can’t seem to get enough of native advertising, consumers aren’t yet sure of their benefit. For example, Volkswagen’s sponsored content in Buzzfeed blends in well and provides value to consumers, but does it connect to Volkswagen? The answer largely depends on a consumer’s affinity for Volkswagen and its products.

If you’re a fan of Volkswagen and its famous array of critically acclaimed advertisements, then the connection is obvious. However, if you don’t closely follow Volkswagen, or its various marketing campaigns, the business purpose of the brand’s “native ad” likely wasn’t clear.

That disconnect is what marketers still need to overcome when utilizing native ads and sponsored content. Blending their brand’s messaging and imagery with a publication’s editorial content is great, but if the business purpose between the article and the sponsor isn’t clear, the ad will do little to convert potential customers into actual buyers.

Publishers benefit from native ads that are relevant and valuable to their user base. As our SEO in 2013 infographic details, frequency of new content is essential for brands to reach their SEO goals. Most publishers have little issue with posting sponsored content on their sites, provided it offers a value to their readers and is differentiated from editorial content.

While native ads help publishers generate some much-needed online ad dollars, advertisers are left with campaigns that are often difficult to measure, particularly with respect to moving product and securing new customers. Until marketers can consistently produce results and generate leads, native advertising risks becoming another overhyped marketing trend.

In my next post I will discuss some of the best practices for native advertising.

Is native advertising something you and your company plan on investing in 2013? Tweet us at @MediaWhizInc to discuss.

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There is still time to register for the panel. Click here for details.

Steve Goldner, senior director of social media marketing at MediaWhiz and Ryan Partnership, sat down with me earlier this week to give a preview of the panel. Here’s what he had to say:

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Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt of an op-ed that was originally published in Advertising Age. 

In 1995, Gartner introduced its renowned hype cycle to show different stages of introduction of new technologies. Gartner’s hype cycle provides a research-backed antidote to what is often a searing level of hype surrounding many new technology and media products. The value for marketers is even clearer: The hype cycles serve as an objective guidebook for measuring the success (and inevitable downfall) of new-product launches.

One market that has yet to receive the hype cycle treatment is social media. What might that hype cycle look like if it examined one of the fastest growing marketing sectors in history?

It’s time to examine what I call the “Social Media Hype Cycle.” Doing so will help brands and marketers better understand the seesaw pattern of how social networks and platforms rise and fall in popularity and usage and how that affects companies’ advertising spend and online engagement strategies.

The Gartner Hype Cycle: Cliff Notes Version
Gartner has applied its unique hype-cycle research model to in more than 100 industries, technologies and services, including advertising, social software and what it calls “Web and User Interaction Technologies.”

The Gartner Hype Cycle examines five stages of a technology, starting with a “technology trigger” through to “peak of inflated expectations,” “trough of disillusionment,” “slope of enlightenment” and “plateau of productivity.” The degree of visibility and interest follow a curve as shown below.

According to Gartner’s Hype Cycle theory, every new technology experiences a period of continuous hype growth, followed immediately by a strong downward trend in the expectation and viability of that particular technology sector. Finally, there is a gradual increase toward productivity.

Read the full op-ed in Advertising Age. 

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Bing Offers Own Version of ‘Pepsi Challenge’ Against Google: ‘Bing It On’ | Search Engine Land

Bing is breaking out its own version of the infamous “soda wars” between Coca-Cola at Pepsi in the 1980s. This week, it launched an ad campaign called “Bing It On” in which it asks people on the street to compare search results between its Bing search engine and Google. According to Search Engine Land, Microsoft claim’s that “people prefer Bing by 2:1 over Google.” Unfortunately for Microsoft, the stats on consumer use of Bing don’t reflect that comparison. More than 65 percent of Americans use Google as their regular search engine, according to SmartInsights.com, while Bing comes in third, behind Yahoo! Search, at just under 14 percent.

The Social Media Hype Cycle: Can It Bring Us to Our Socially Happy Place? | MediaWhiz Blog

“Facebook has failed” screamed the headlines all summer long, as Facebook’s stock continued to tumble amid mounting analyst, investor and advertiser concerns over the efficacy of Facebook’s ad platform. For Facebook, the concern present a troubling reality: it must evolve or die. The trick to keeping Facebook relevant to users and brands, according to Ryan Partnership’s Michael Velasco, will be to not only enhance the feeling that users have of the social network being indispensable to their daily lives, to extend that feeling to new areas and features that users find appealing. 

[RELATED: Join MediaWhiz on Sept. 28 for a Social Media Week Chicago panel exploring the “Social Media Hype Cycle.” Register here.]

Twitter Helps Advertisers Home In | E-Commerce Times

Twitter is helping advertisers fine-tune their targeting, and it could be a win-win-win proposition. “I, as a consumer, should be able to indicate that I am interested in … digital photography, and that would open a gate for specific information coming to me from relevant brands,” said Steve Goldner of MediaWhiz. “That would be the most powerful accomplishment for social advertising to date.”

How To: Recognize the Power of Brand Advocates | iMedia Connection

For years, public relations professionals have known of the power of brand advocacy. But in the digital age brand advocacy is evolving into the realm and responsibility of nearly every type of digital marketer. Whether you’re working on a search marketing campaign or overseeing a client’s display strategy, every marketer needs to understand and believe in brand advocacy.

Big Data Be Damned, The Web Still Needs a Human Touch | Pando Daily

Everybody and their brother, it seems like, is obsessed over “big data” and its impact on business. As companies and consumers continue to shift their activities to online-only experiences, will the data that flows in from that overwhelm companies or empower them to become more responsive to customers’ needs. Pando Daily’s Erin Griffith writes that the “excitement over big data right now is often just that: excitement.” What is needed to truly harness the power of big data is framing it in a way that utilizes a human element to ensure that nuances and customer insights aren’t lost.

Want to suggest links for next week’s issue? Tweet @MediaWhizLLC with the hashtag #FridayFive, or email ktrivitt@mediawhiz.com. 

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Source: The Express Tribune

By Michael Velasco | @MichaelVelasco | Managing Director, Digital, Ryan Partnership

“Facebook has failed!” screamed the media, as Facebook’s stock price continued to tumble off its IPO price. Indeed, the headlines have been bleak. But Facebook is a microcosm of a macro phenomenon afflicting all of social media.

Facebook, the once great social network, is in danger from itself, and the promises either it made, or expectations heaped upon it by its users. It can either move on and evolve into something greater than itself, or suffer the fate of other great Internet companies before it, (GeoCities, Yahoo!, Netscape, MySpace … the list goes on and on), possibly dragging the rest of the social media industry down with it. 

And while I could chalk up the recent history of the Internet’s failed companies as a source of endless cautionary tales, two particularly valuable and relevant examples come to mind: Aol and Yahoo! 

Both were pioneers and innovators in their time and both are examples of what not to do when it comes to running an Internet business. What they lacked is the ability to move beyond the business model that made them great, and evolve into one that provided sustained growth and success.

Facebook finds itself in a similarly troubling situation — it must evolve or die.

Similar to Aol and Yahoo!, Facebook fans find it indispensable, or, at the very least, interwoven into their daily lives. The trick will be to not only enhance that feeling and its associated behaviors with users, but extend it into new areas, or drastically improve the experience of features and areas that its users find appealing. This requires making the features that its millions of users rely on even more indispensable, and dare I say, innovate exactly how people use Facebook or other social media. 

All of which begs the question: What is that one thing so closely related to our friends, word of mouth, communication, commerce and fun conversation that can bring us to the steady, social second wind that the social media industry needs?

This issue, and much more, will be examined during a Sept. 28 panel, titled, “What the ‘Social Media Hype Cycle’ Means for Brands” at Social Media Week in Chicago. Details and registration info can be found here.

Michael Velasco is managing director, digital, at MediaWhiz’s sister agency, Ryan Partnership. 

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Goldner’s comments focus on what Facebook should do to help marketers ensure their brands stand out on Facebook and receive more detailed information on the metrics of their Facebook marketing spend. A recap of those comments can be found below. eMarketer subscribers can view the full report here.

Comments of Steve Goldner, Senior Director of Social Media Marketing, MediaWhiz and Ryan Partnership

On whether brands that market on Facebook stand out from the competition …

“Marketers, advertisers and clients want something that stands out. The reality is it still is difficult to get a brand to stand out on Facebook.”

On how well Facebook listens to the concerns of marketers …

“The challenge is to get Facebook to listen to marketers. You have no chance of talking to an [Facebook] account rep unless you’re at a certain level of spend.”

On the level of user and ad data analysis that Facebook offers brands …

Ryan Partnership’s Goldner noted that brands and marketers want better analytics and the ability to connect Facebook marketing to sales. That will be one area that continues to develop as Facebook finds the right metrics and results to track on the site.

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How a Brick-Shaped Heineken Bottle Almost Changed the World 50 Years Ago | Adweek

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Why? Because Social Media Week is almost here! This year, MediaWhiz is partnering with its sister agency, Ryan Partnership, to host a Social Media Week panel in Chicago.

Titled, “What the ‘Social Media Hype Cycle’ Means for Brands,” MediaWhiz and Ryan Partnership’s Social Media Week session will explore how the social media hype cycle is impacting social media marketing, social commerce and social advertising. Panelists will use the hype cycle model to demystify social media marketing and explain what is needed to deliver measurable value to brands.

Following this lively session, you’ll walk away with a better understanding of how the hype surrounding social media impacts brand marketing and what you can do to generate measurable value from your social media marketing spend.

#SMWHYPE

What:             MediaWhiz and Ryan Partnership Present … What the ‘Social Media Hype Cycle’ Means for Brands

                        Moderator:

                        Steve Goldner (@SocialSteve), Senior Director, Social Media Marketing, MediaWhiz and Ryan Partnership

                        Panelists:

Michael Velasco (@MichaelVelasco), Managing Director, Digital, Ryan Partnership
Keith Trivitt (@KeithTrivitt), Director, Marketing and Communications, MediaWhiz

E.J. Schultz (@ejschultz3), Reporter, Advertising Age

Autumn McReynolds (@AutumnMcRey), Content Strategist and Community Manager, TalentMinded

When:             8–9:15 a.m. CDT, Friday, Sept. 28, 2012

Where:           Tribune Tower — Huron Room

                        435 N. Michigan Avenue

                        Chicago, IL 60611

If you have any questions, please contact Keith Trivitt, director of marketing and communications, MediaWhiz. 

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Editor’s note: The following post was originally published in iMedia Connection. 

Google has always been a search marketing dynamo. It has literally invented or made mainstream several well-known search functions, including autocomplete of search terms and the basic structure of search-based online advertising that is used today. So it should come as no surprise that in its seemingly never-ending race to one-up its competitors, it has recently introduced or improved two critical functions of its search business:

• Integrating personal Gmail results into search; and
• Adding 13 new languages to its voice search function.

The latter isn’t an earth-shattering announcement. Google launched voice search for both desktop and mobile platforms in 2011 and now serves dozens of languages. This latest update, according to Direct Marketing News, adds languages from various European markets, including Swedish, European Portuguese and Finnish, along with regional tongues such as Basque, Catalan, and Galician. The company said in a blog post that the addition of those newly added languages will add nearly 100 million people to its voice search function.

It’s the integration of Gmail into search results that has generated the most intrigue. Industry reaction to the announcement varied. Some said it wasn’t that big of a deal, while others called it “interesting and creepy.”

Setting aside the usual industry criticism, the bigger question remains: What is the benefit to the user? And will users be freaked out by privacy concerns or just accept the integration of personal Gmail results into search as a natural evolution of search?

On the surface, this appears to be a wise move by Google. As Bing makes greater inroads toward fully integrating social media and search, Google must be feeling the pressure to add more contextual value and relevance to users’ searches. There is no better way to do that than to integrate users’ personal Gmail results into search.

The benefit for consumers is fairly clear. Let’s say, for example, that a person searched for hotels in rural Pennsylvania and a friend emailed her two years ago about a great hotel she stayed at in the area. The ability to include highly relevant information from that person’s personal communications into her search query only makes sense. If it adds value to the users and saves her time, then it’s likely consumers will overlook some of the obvious privacy concerns.

But there is a caveat to all of this, and it is one that demands digital marketers’ attention: people don’t like to have what they consider “personal” communications (i.e., email) to be available publicly (in this case via search), even if those results are only viewable by that person.

Google has made strong inroads over the last year in integrating most of its services with its Google+ social network so that there is always a social tie-in to whatever a user does across the Google network. That’s fine if a user isn’t logged into their Google account. But as soon as they log in, and then forget they are logged in, problems can arise. It’s not a stretch to think of a situation in which someone logs into their Google account on a public computer, makes a search, has their personal Gmail results integrated into that search and then walks away from the computer without logging out.

There is no doubt that Google has made a bold move with its integration of personal Gmail results into search. It was a natural, and, some may say, necessary move for the company as it fends off rivals and seeks to keep its search marketing dominance.

But what price will it pay as the battle over online privacy continues to wage? Will users eventually balk at the idea of having so much personal information available when they are searching for seemingly innocuous information like how far it is to the next town over? Or will this type of integration seem natural and become part of an evolution that eventually sees consumers’ personal data and information integrated with brand promotions, offers and search results into a truly integrated search marketing experience?

The latter appears to be the path that search marketing is moving toward. It’s one that will surely cause consternation and hang-wringing among the pundits and online privacy advocates. But it may be an inevitable step toward the future of search and online marketing.

Google has shown us a peek into the new era of search marketing. If its latest move is any indication, it will likely be an era that the search giant continues to dominate.

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