INTERNET MARKETING

CNBC reported today that Facebook is planning to start a music platform on its site. There is a movement right now in which free social media sites are attempting to monetize their services by adding extra features. In some cases it makes perfect sense because the products that they are offering are related to the topic of the site (IMDB or Internet Movie Database now allows you to stream video from their site if you have a paid account). Other sites with broader topics (like Facebook) don’t really know where to focus their energies because people use their site for so many things so they end up creating a service that no one will use. Let’s take a look at one example of a company monetizing content that is relevant and…Facebook.

You Can Rent Movies on YouTube

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The NY Times reported today that CNN just purchased a company called Zite. Zite markets an iPad app that learns what you like and presents you with content relevant to you. CNN says that the move was spurred by the recent trend of personalized media. Recently online viewers have displayed a desire to save time and energy by only viewing (or listening) to content generated specifically for them. This trend is supported by the popularity of Pandora, BookLamp and other such online services.

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So the internet is buzzing with the news that a recent Columbia University (Center on Alcohol and Substance Abuse) study found  that teens who use Facebook are five times more likely to use tobacco, nearly three times more likely to use alcohol and nearly twice as likely to smoke marijuana than those who do not. This news has many people criticizing Facebook and other social media sites saying that they encourage this type of behavior in youths. While it is important to investigate this case further it has already been stated many times over that while these two behaviors (use of social media and drug/alcohol abuse) may be related one is not necessarily the cause of the other.

One of the researches sited the high-volume of pictures posted on Facebook that show teens participating in illegal activities related to alcohol and/or drugs. They stated that “more than 90 percent first saw such pictures when they were 15 or younger” and said that “these facts alone should strike Facebook fear into the hearts of parents of young children.” While these numbers are disturbing it is not just Facebook that is the source of these images.

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If you live on the East Coast (or read/watch the news at all) then you know that hurricane Irene is going to be making a visit to the East Coast of the United States this weekend. There are some obvious things to do to prepare for the storm (buy bottled water, non-perishable food have a first-aid kit handy) but there are some things that may not be readily apparent to people that could be a big help when Irene comes to call.

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Late yesterday Steve Jobs announced that he was leaving Apple. Jobs explained his decision stating in an interview that he had always said that when he felt that he could no longer perform as Apple’s CEO he would resign and that “Unfortunately that day has come”. This move comes shortly after Apple beat out Exxon Mobil (briefly) as the world’s most valuable company. Jobs’ struggle with cancer has been a public one and he has stepped down due to health reasons once before but this time it is for good. He has always had a strong hand in every aspect of the company including their product design and marketing efforts. I think that it would be fitting to look at some of the Apple’s revolutionary advertising campaigns.

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Mashable.com reported that the high-end clothing retailer Gilt is offering sales exclusively to Facebook fans. This is not in itself a new idea as brands are often encouraged by their marketers to offer incentives for customers to like their Facebook page like special deals or give-aways. However, Gilt has gone one step farther.

Gilt has incorporated ecommerce into their Facebook page. Now you don’t even need to leave their Facebook page to shop you can just use their app and shop within Facebook itself. There are also sales that are only accessible to Facebook fans which encourages customers to both like the page and stay there. There is a separate page for rewards members and they have access to even more features which encourages rewards members to become Facebook fans and vice versa expanding brand involvement on many different levels.

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By now pretty much everyone using social media (or the Internet for that matter) knows about the battle going on between Facebook and Google+. Google’s new social network was launched earlier this spring and what most excited users were the Google+ privacy features which far exceeded those of Facebook. With Google+ users can place the people they know into categories and choose to share information selectively. This means that if you didn’t want your colleagues to see a picture of you doing something embarrassing or inappropriate you could choose to only share that picture with your close friends. More importantly, the increased transparency of the Google+ system made it so that you could see what information you were sharing with the general online public. Recently, Facebook’s primary source of criticism from its users has been its privacy settings. People found out that they were sharing what they considered “personal” information with corporations and other third parties and they weren’t happy about it. Facebook continues to argue that sharing this information is all a part of creating a more integrated and relevant experience for people using the site. Others said that it was a way for Facebook to monetize its free service by selling demographic information from user profiles to corporations for marketing purposes.

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On Friday AdAge wrote about how in the U.K. Glamour magazine and Krispy Kreme donuts are joining forces for London fashion week. This move was inspired by the public’s belief that fashion magazines like Glamour promote an unhealthy body image through their advertising and coverage. While I could go on a rant about how encouraging people to eat donuts is not that much better than encouraging people to be rail thin and how the media should find a middle ground I instead wanted to examine some unlikely restaurant brand relationships.

McDonalds and the Olympics. The Olympics represents many things to the global public like athleticism, perseverance, and excellence. The athletes who participate in the Olympics need to be strong and exhibit total mastery of their chosen sport by eating McDonalds. What? Yeah. Considering that McDonalds is one of the biggest and best known brands in the world serving approximately 64 million customers daily I suppose they are a global brand but, to me at least, they do not represent excellence. They certainly do not encourage a healthy lifestyle like the kind that many Olympians lead.

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It was announced yesterday that Foursquare users would now be able to check into events. By partnering with ESPN, MovieTickets.com and SongKick Foursquare can now tell your social network what events will be occurring at the venue where your friend is. As of right now this feature is only available on the iPhone but developers say that it is going to be on Android and Blackberry soon.

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MTV just released a social media app with the aim of spurring online conversations among viewers about their original programming in real time. Now, this app is not only focused on MTV’s reality show offerings (they have recently come out with some new scripted television) but it made me think about how well suited reality TV and social media are to one another.

The first reason why these two belong together is because the people on the show are “real”. Now, in most cases the people on these shows are portrayed as caricatures of themselves in order to make the content more interesting for viewers. Still, Mike “The Situation” can still tweet as himself. Harry Potter or Spongebob don’t have this liberty because despite their immense popularity they do not exist. Even if someone were to have a social media account as a cartoon or television character there would always be the need for people to suspend their disbelief when reading their posts. Reality TV stars are in a unique position because they are famous for being themselves not for any exceptional ability. Most don’t have any particular talent besides doing or saying entertaining things and that is just why they are poised to be successful on social media.

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