Nick Cifuentes

Tips to Finding the RIGHT Job in Digital Media

In a perfect world, we all have the job of our dreams, working in digital media, with only the best brands and clients, great salary, what more would you want? Well, unfortunately, this is not a perfect world, and it doesn’t happen that easily. Whether you are currently looking for a job in social or new media, or you have one and might be looking for “something else” - these are just a few tips to stick in your back pocket while you consider your options.

Often, our call to action, when placed upon us, is quick, and often people searching for a job will take swift action and jump immediately at the first thing thrown at them. Others might ponder situations and maybe can afford to be patient while they look. Whatever your preference is, you never really know where you are going until you’re actually there. And sometimes what’s in the bright, shiny package may not be all it was really that cracked up to be. The following are a few steps and tips to take to heart while you consider a new opportunity.

Step 1: Do Your Homework

Depending on your situation, and everyone is unique - it’s important that you apply to or work somewhere you truly want to be; not just because they have an opening or it pays you a salary. (I say this delicately…) Over the past two years, there have been a number of jobs that have opened up in the digital marketing field, and every agency and their mother are trying to figure out social & new media and how to offer it as a service within their organization. However, common mistakes I have found within the market are that agencies may not be situated to handle social media because they lack the proper clientele.

You need a base to require a major departmental shift or need, and if you don’t have the right support systems in place, such as clients or prospects to sell social media as a proper service, you are going to have a hard time building a social media department in your organization. Be certain that the organization you go to has more than just one “in the box” client. Working in the agency world, everyone knows how client relationships can take drastic turns overnight, and an agency relying on one client to carry the load, or maybe your salary - spells a very dangerous ground to walk on. This is not always the case in such situations, but, I do say, tread lightly.

Step 2: Employees - Teach Them

As a prospective or current employee, it’s important to recognize that you are going to be your company’s greatest advocate when it comes to preaching and promoting social media within the organization. And, it’s event more important that this is established and setup before you are tasked with the job of selling it as a service (speaking to the agency crowd here). This form of marketing is becoming ubiquitous and everyone believes they are social media experts and understand it - but what makes your program stronger is how well your employees are versed.

And let’s say you don’t have the luxury of having some groundwork already laid, and you are starting from scratch. Think of who within your agency or place of work (brands) can spearhead your social media efforts, and possibly take the reigns. Then, as a leader, this person should be able to teach others about the space and how it reacts on a daily basis. Consider starting a type of tier-level education program for your employees. Build out a list of questions that would have them seek out correct answers and grant them awards or some kind of internal badge for passing each rank. And make it enjoyable, it’s important to keep your employees both happy and learning at the same time - don’t make it feel like it’s something they “have to do.”

Step 3: Not All Business Development is The Same

When starting a social media department or role, it’s important that you ensure that the business development department understands social media from both a tactical and sales standpoint. Developing sales presentations and price points are standard tools to integrate when starting your social media service offerings.

But, it is important to make sure that the business development leader is approaching the right type of clients. The last thing you want to happen is arriving in a place where your business development department focuses too much on specific client verticals that may not be exactly suitable for social media. We all know and say we can sell a program to a “blind man”, but this conversation is more focused around budgets and levels of brands you approach. For example, start-ups and companies still in “rounds of funding” are not going to bite the bullet on paying for social media programs. They might love what you have to say, however, realize they have tiny budgets, and despite the “millions in the bank,” it could be tough to get even a penny out of them for a marketing program if it’s not an EXACT fit.

Step 4: Agency Originality - Is It There?

Marketing agencies all offer a variety of services. Whether it’s specializing in Search, Media, Branding, PR, Creative, Development, each seems to be trying to maneuver social media as an integrated service along with their “sweet spot” offerings. So often, and it is becoming common, specialty shops believe they can do and offer everything under the sun. It maybe maneuvered by a solution of hiring one or two consultants or one main person to handle everything in that new speciality. This is quite the opposite train of thought.

I believe a number of agencies make a mistake when they think they can do everything out of the box, and just by “having it available” - it makes them the place to go. Often, this is where you run into internal disruption, and you lose focus on your over-arching vision and forget about your employees who you hired to perform and create the work for you.

If you expect one person to do the job, and they certainly might be able to - you need to be sure your internal systems are all on par. The last thing you want to do is ignore how social media interacts with all your agency offerings - thinking it does not overlap with specialties such as search, online media, branding, PR, web development, analytics, etc; these systems need to sync with your social media offering, and that will require two modes of thought skills that agencies lack: Time & Patience

Don’t expect instant synchronization, and make sure these departments begin to work together. Every agency has a different process in place, and these teams need to figure out how they can help each other, where offerings overlap, and how to sell each others services.

Step 5: Establish “Your” Idea

As a marketer and digital thinker, a social media or new media marketing expert needs to define an outlook in their space, and create innovation in their pitch. Much of what you see in the market right now is overlap, and although it’s not necessarily a bad thing, bringing “your idea” to the table is key for building a successful social media role / department. Whether you are “the guy/gal” or “one of the guy/gals”, it’s important you bring original thinking and creativity to your everyday practice.

You may not be defining the department or building it from scratch, but your input is valuable. I have always looked at social media marketing and building a department as a patient process. Interviewing and hiring the right minds that mesh with your process and way of thinking is key for turning the everyday in your work to success stories.

Conclusion

All of the above is an opinion - I need to stress that. Much of it is built from my own experiences from working in agencies, both large and small and being an entrepreneur as well. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I certainly have put myself in a position to succeed with new media marketing, and I do this everyday by learning and cultivating my experiences to present, write, research, teach, and most importantly - learn about digital media and all of its foundations.

What are your thoughts, any other tips you might add to the above?

Over the past year, social networks have the ruled the air when it comes to marketing in a digital world. Facebook & Twitter, as we have discussed before, are becoming the beacons for most marketing programs as they decide to push forward into the world of social media marketing.  However, many forget where this idea of Web 2.0 all started, before Facebook, MySpace, and the Twitter’s of the world became everyday expressions.

Blogs. Remember those? The blogosphere, it still boasts hundreds of millions of online journals and participants, but in recent years, it’s fallen on “tough times”, so to speak. Many marketers are using social networks and microblogs to help grow their brand’s perception online, and for certain brands, it makes sense.

But despite the slow erosion of blog integration within some social media programs, it still has the staying power in the corporate world. In a recent study done by eMarketer, it estimated that just over one in three companies have a public-facing blog used for marketing, and will be rising to nearly 43% by 2010.

Marketers are noticing that blogs have the highest value of any social media in driving site traffic, lead generations, brand awareness, sales, and also improving customer service. Another interesting survey from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research has found that there is a much lower usage in blogs among Fortune 500 companies and much higher adoption among the fastest-growing private companies on the Inc. 500 list.

This is an interesting statistic, as it mostly calls out to the idea of barriers that exist within large organizations. Fortune 500 companies are filled with obstacles such as legal and regulatory constraints that more than often exist in the environment. Smaller, private companies have less restraints and can better position themselves to exist in the embracing of blogging.

Where do you stand on the topic, to blog or not to blog?

The Pharma battle has been one of the more entertaining enigmas surrounding social media within the past several years, and without question, still very much unsolved. When carefully thought out - it’s one simple question - how should Pharma marketers approach social media?

Since the dawn of social media marketing (used loosely), Pharma brands have found social media - nerve-wracking - nervous to dive head-in to large social media programs.

Scenario: Imagine you created a drug that could cure the common cold. Then imagine it did just that. Then one day - it stopped working, and even worse - it ended up killing someone. (Dramatic I know, but bear with me). The press picks the story up, Twitter and Facebook explode in negative mentions, and blogs begin to slam the creator of the new drug, Izroda (company made up for literary purposes). Forum discussions pile up and viral videos mocking the drug surface, all while the the Pharma brand Izroda just stands there, helpless - shackled by the FDA’s guidelines.

This is what Pharma brands are worried about, the “adverse events” that can come from consumer discussions. Brands such as AstraZeneca, Novartis, Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Boehringer Ingelheim are all worried about the off-label uses, chances for incorrect information about drugs and drug marketers to end up on third party sites, this all increases the potential for negative fallout from social media activity.

However, these brands are not completely frightened of social media, some have been dipping their toes in social media for more than a year now, but treading very lightly. They have been experimenting with platforms like Twitter; in addition, some have been more involved using viral, crowdsourcing strategies to accomplish a variety of things. They are improving customer engagements with their brands, delivering important information, educating, tweaking brand perceptions, and have been monitoring and analyzing consumer-generated content.

“[Pharmaceutical marketers] need to ask whether their social media program is good for marketing and good for public health. If they can’t answer yes, then they shouldn’t be doing it.”

In a recent interview with eMarketer.com, Pitts helped clear up some lingering questions about the FDA’s expectations to issue guidance on the use of social media in 2010.

“There are a lot of ifs. The first if is, is this really a good thing? A lot of times when you ask for regulation and you get it, you may not be happy with it. If marketers are waiting for FDA guidance with the assumption that it’s going to make their jobs easier, that’s very much open to question.

When you look to a regulatory agency that is very strong on science but just mediocre on social science and you ask it to think about issues as complicated as social media, it’s a real crap shoot. Will the FDA actually choose to write guidance or will it be a draft guidance? And if so, what will it focus on? My best guess is that the guidance will deal with very low-hanging-fruit issues.”

And will Pharma marketers receive the guidance they need to feel more secure about participating in social media in 2010?

“If the industry thinks the FDA is going to come out wit

h thoughtful and complete guidance on how to use social media in 110 different circumstances, it’s going be very disappointed. The FDA is going to take baby steps to move forward. Those who think that they’re going to receive a document that answers all their questions simply do not understand the FDA process.

The most important thing to understand is that everybody, including the FDA, realizes that social media is where the people are. Drug companies want to engage with people on social media sites. But I think the key question is what is and what is not regulated speech. Regulated speech is generally a very specific thing. I don’t think anybody wants the FDA to say that all health-related communications on social media is regulated speech.

When it comes to guidance, the problem is that the FDA embraces ambiguity because ambiguity gives it tremendous power and elasticity to change its mind given the circumstance. What pharmaceutical marketers are doing is waiting to see what the FDA says and then they’ll act accordingly. However, if the guidance the FDA comes out with isn’t some King James version of the Bible that everybody’s hoping it’s going to be, and it

certainly will not, the question then becomes, which marketers will step forward and choose to be more aggressive than they previously have been?”

Pitts said his best guess is that the FDA will end up clarifying some things and “muddy others,” but not really give anyone a clear picture. In the end, it will be up to the drug companies to make the choice on whether they move ahead with social media. The big issue that remains foggy is what is regulated and what is not regulated.

“The key point is what is regulated vs. unregulated speech. If I am a patient with arthritis and I am speaking on a social media site to another patient who has arthritis, that is not regulated speech. If, however, I am talking to one patient who has arthritis and I have arthritis and we’re speaking on a site that is sponsored by a drug company, is that regulated speech? That’s very much up in the air.

If people talk to each other and there’s no money exchanging hands, that is not regulated speech. Whenever the FDA has been taken to court on First Amendment issues, it loses. So the FDA is being very cautious about avoiding what’s called “regulatory creep,” which is a way of trying to regulate things that it is not intended to regulate.”

One key outstanding issue that truly keeps Pharma brands from diving head into social media centers around drug companies correcting misinformation on internet properties they don’t own.

“Right now, a lot of companies feel that if they go onto a site to correct a mistake they will be seen as being responsible for everything else on that site. So, for example, a drug company goes on a website and says “Hello, my name is Tobi Elkin and I work for Pfizer. I saw something on your website that’s not correct.” You can offer the site a link that goes directly back to your website, which is vetted by your attorneys and completely appropriate. That’s what I would call a regulatory green zone-total transparency. I would like to see more of that.

Even something as simple as that is oftentimes seen as overly aggressive by a lot of companies. There are other companies who have as their official procedure that they will not monitor sites that they don’t control for fear of unearthing an adverse event. That may put them in compliance with the letter of the regulation, but if a reporter from The New York Times called and asked “Do you have a policy of not looking for adverse events on the internet?” and they said “Yes,” they would look pretty silly and it would sound even worse in front of a congressional subcommittee.

So the concept of being in compliance vs. doing the right thing for the public health cannot be contrary to each other and right now they are. The issue is to step up to the plate and do what’s right instead of what is legally conservative.”

Consumers can be a very impressionable bunch. And retailers often try and take advantage of that hiccup by testing the their power of promotional messages throughout online channels. And with social media beginning to play an active role in many approaches, retailers can get caught up in the viral hype of coupons via social and mobile platforms.

However, a new study said that email is still the more effective promotional channel for driving consumers. The survey analyzed shoppers in 10 states, where nearly 40% of this group preferred to receive promotional messages from retailers by email.

While email was the most popular communications channel, directly mail drew about a quarter of responses, and text message coming in third with 18%. And to slight surprise, just 9% of shoppers were interested in promotional messages received via social media.

These new findings are also supported in another recent study that found more than 90% of adult internet users in every age group subscribed to emails from brands, while just a small amount of users “liked” companies on Facebook or followed them on Twitter.

Thoughts…

This study does make sense, and being a strong advocate for social media, I’d sometimes try to defend ‘my team’ and make a case why a study like this is limiting in some respects. And to be honest, I can’t. Thinking of how the consumer takes action and what stimulates a buyer to take a coupon or some sort of savings and follow that path to an in-store location - first of all; your asking the user to do quite a bit of work.

Now, email, which is more regularly adopted among all age groups and was the first electronic communication channel since the internet rose to popularity - that is where you are going to strike the majority of users first. And, secondly the demographic of a person heading into a store to use a coupon is most likely in an older demographic who may not be as likely to hop on Facebook every morning before they get up.

And my mention above about limiting - I think even taking this study nationwide and spreading it over the country, we would most likely see a similar result in numbers.

It also calls to the idea of viral coupons, items that allow you to print out via your favorite social network, or walk-in to a store with a mobile coupon or code and use it instantly; they are out there - but the adoption rate still is in that early adopter, trendsetter crowd who use these tools everyday. I can tell you that my mom won’t at anytime soon run to her supermarket and whip out her mobile phone to flash a bar code to scan and save $1.50 on fig newtons. She would however receive her coupon via email and mail; two channels she regularly frequents, and bring those into the store to use.

When I first read this study, I instantly thought of the Bed Bath & Beyond 20% off coupons I receive in the mail every month; and at least a couple times a year, my girlfriend and I are making a trip to a location to figure out how to spend that savings.

In the end, retailers on social channels are going to drive more consumers using these platforms for awareness and allowing that user to take part in their community online. There will always be the occasional ‘coupon’ incentive where you complete a game, answer a question, and receive a coupon to use at a local retailer - but you are not going to draw the mass amount of users that check email or receive direct mail flyers - as of now, they are winning…clearly.

UPDATE: The activity around the campaign just keeps this train hauling down the road to becoming one of the best viral campaigns for 2010…recent stats updated @ 3p.m. PST.

Twitter: More than 47,000 total followers & counting… (averaging 3-6 new followers a second!!)
YouTube: Currently the #1 viewed YouTube channel so far today; & because they are a YouTube sponsor - they are currently #1 in the sponsored channel rankings for (month, week and today); see more stats below:

#4 - Most Subscribed (All-Time) - Sponsors
#1 - Most Viewed (Today)
#1 - Most Viewed (Today) - Sponsors
#35 - Most Viewed (This Week)
#31 - Most Viewed (This Month)
#1 - Most Viewed (This Month) - Sponsors
#3 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Sponsors

Social Media Mentions (Blogs, Micromedia, Facebook, Videos, Images, Forums)

As of last night, the total mentions were around 6,500 as of 5 p.m. PST - people went home, ate a little dinner and continued to watch as it totaled a number of nearly 10,500 mentions, which broken down ended up looking like this:

Tweets - 8,300+
Facebook - 1,300+ status update mentions
Blogs - 660+ blog articles (mentions)
*The other neighborhoods gathered data as well, but these were the valuable mentions Old Spice received via social media.

As for today, the volume is continuing, as it is getting an amount of mentions across the social sphere that brands normally pay top dollar for. And this is not to say that Old Spice did not, I am sure that two-full days of a crew filming, paying the Old Spice guy, editing videos, posting, responding and monitoring their profile activity continuously - yes, it takes dollars to do that; but the return in new social media relationships, brand awareness and the amount of advocates they have secured to work for them in just 36 hours by posting Old Spice mentions to their social media profiles & blogs - not to steal this from anyone we might know (clear the throat…) - Priceless!

Read the rest of this entry »

Look out, because here they come! Foursquare, the ever-growing location-based social network is quickly digging its clamps into the mainstream as CEO Dennis Crowley reveled that the community is adding about 15,000 users per day. The announcement was made at this Business Insider’s Startup 2010 event in New York City this morning.

Foursquare first made it’s major debut at the SXSW 2009 Music, Film & Interactive Festival last year in Austin, where it was dubbed “the next Twitter.” With such a gracious title, the location-based network has exploded, recently surpassing the one million user mark, and now adding a substantial amount of new users a day.

Addressing the crowd this morning, Crowley said he very excited to provide a violable platform that businesses can utilize, offering “Google Analytics but for local merchants.” For example, allowing a small cafe to see its demographics and identify its most influential customers. These are powerful statistics that businesses can leverage to turn visits into meaningful data, very useful for future business strategy, as well as gathering consumer insights.

Foursquare has struck a number of recent media partnerships that have helped propel the community into the limelight. It’s recently announced deal with Starbucks, where Mayors of each location will receive a $1.00 off a drink is just the tipping point of what they have achieved so far. Bravo, Zagat, MTV, The Wall Street Journal, History Channel, and a number of other deals have been struck that have sent this new type of community channel soaring above its competition.

It’s main competitor, Gowalla, has not seen the kind of numbers it thought it would when it had it’s showdown with Foursquare at SXSW this past March. Both spurred a major amount of buzz, however, Foursquare seems to the be the clear winner so far.

Compete.com reports that more than 2 million + unique visitors a month are now heading to Foursquare, as opposed to just a little more than 500,000 for Gowalla. And this doesn’t account for it’s sole use in the mobile space, imaginably much more active.

Foursquare vs. Gowalla

Despite Foursquare’s dominance, Crowley believes competition in the location space will expand, and for Foursquare to carve its niche, he said he needs to provide a unique experience, as opposed to what larger sites could end up doing.

Foursquare – you’ve heard of it, probably even might be a member yourself. The quick-growing location-based social network is beginning to make reputable noise in the social space, and since August, traffic and user growth has soared for the new social noise maker.

According to co-founder Dennis Crowley, the platform is closing in on 500,000 individual users, with about 70% of the user base in the United States, and their international arm growing quickly – especially Tokyo, according to Crowley in an e-mail interview. These users are also checking in at an astonishing rate of 1.5 million check-ins a week.

If you are not familiar with Foursquare, the concept is simple – you sign up for an account and then you began the process of checking-in wherever you go; the majority of check-ins that are being done are through GPS-enabled mobile devices.

This social city-guide and game rewards you then for doing interesting things. The motive is to encourage people to discover new places and challenge you to explore your neighborhood in new ways. The rewards attached to this are tied to pseudo ‘badges’ a user is given for unlocking new places, times you check-in, how often, ultimately working your way to become the “Mayor” or “Deputy” of that locale.

In addition, the platform makes it very easy to connect your updates to your Twitter and Facebook profiles – seemingly synching your entire network with each update you post on Foursquare. Something that was not in place last year when Foursquare introduced themselves at the SXSW, but is working it’s way into a much more seamless process in 2010 and allows for a much higher engagement and viral distribution.

The concept is quite ingenious and despite it’s evolving stature; it is beginning to make quite the name for itself. Just in the past month, it’s been reported that Foursquare inked several major media partnership deals, including Bravo TV, Zagat, Warner Bros., HBO, the History Channel, ExploreChicago, and more.

These “branded” type of channels could be, if used and marketed properly, great engagement tools that focus around brand awareness, content sharing, and goes one step further and creates a physical presence with your brand using local stops where you instruct users to go. With the user taking part in the brand’s “game”, it allows the brand to create custom badges with Foursquare directly to keep user’s engaged and work toward further outreach goals.

Zagat @ Foursquare

Zagat’s official Foursquare page is calling the partnership “Foodie Love” and there is a custom badge to go along with taking part in the Zagat experience. The page offers people to follow Zagat and then take part and in various venues where Zagat wants users to check-in from, mainly a variety of restaurants throughout the country; check-in there, become a Zagat Foodie, and unlock the Zagat Foodie Badge. And through further engagement – Zagat is going to have a online video series on their website called “Meet the Mayor” where they will feature discussions with prominent Foursquare mayors.

Harvard @ Foursquare

The prestigious Harvard University has also partnered with Foursquare to create a channel where they list locations, experiences and ideas for students and visitors to go and check-in – taking part in the Harvard community; soon unlocking a custom Harvard Foursquare badge. Whether that helps with the admission process…I’m going to say doubtful – but hell of an engagement tool!

New York Times @ Foursquare

The NYT recently closed a deal with Foursquare and created a branded channel that is celebrating the 2010 Vancouver Olympics by sharing tips on what to see and where to go in Vancouver and Whistler. And if you check-in to two recommended venues you get to unlock the Olympics badge.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that Foursquare is growing quickly, with the focus mainly on gaining users, not revenue at the moment, according to Crowley; with now nearly 500,000 users, this number is likely to grow fast! After the Bravo TV deal was inked last month, a number of major brands, as shown above, came knocking at the door to work with Foursqaure, no doubt helping them earn some revenue. And with the ability for locales to offer up free food, drinks, discounts, coupons just for those who might become the “mayor” or “deputy” of their venue; being on Foursquare could soon become like being on Twitter…maybe? In addition, Crowley did confirm that Foursquare is working on creating actual incentives for users who garner specific badges and points in their account - not just pseudo “Mayoral” titles.

To that end, Foursquare is working on a set of services and tools, according to AdAge in early February, to begin offering paid services on a three tiers: one for small (local) businesses, one for retail chains, one for large marketers. Begin throwing these offers around, and soon Foursquare will move pass just the “engagement” level that these major brands are seeing above as far as click, follows and check-ins; and offer nailed-down analytics (impressions, clicks, friends, etc…) and deals could be sold against impressions such as web ads, clicks such as search ads, or even what Kunur Patel in AdAge said, “ a completely new model: cost per check-in.”

In 2010, the exchange between consumers and brands will in no doubt increase among new media marketing channels. Just in the first couple of months of 2010, I have already seen countless posts outlining CRM models that are stressing the point to consume ROI for Social Media and take action to begin integrating this into your brand campaigns that live within on and offline social media channels.

With so much stress to one observation of social media marketing in 2010, it’s important to make light of another key observation in the Future of Social Media blog series: The Resistance to Change Ending.

It was Benjamin Franklin who said:

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

This quote, although philosophical in reasoning, is quite the pragmatic approach when applied to the idea of social media marketing. There have been countless charts and graphs that apply from reputable marketing research publications, such as eMarketer.com and 2010 Forrester Reports that point to all directions of brands shifting dollars into interactive marketing, with a focus in new (social) media – however, there is still hesitation among the masses when it comes to the decision of whether this type of marketing is a intelligent investment.

This drives me to think how and why a CMO would be hesitant to change their ways, and I believe between now and 2010 – this approach will change for the way brands who don’t consider social media or any type of new media an investment – to turn their eyes away from fear and begin shifting the paradigm. In light of this, I have come up with five reasons why it seems brands are resistant to change (this is an opinion – so I absolutely welcome comments)

• Reason #1: The brand is, in general, negative or against all that is new or different.
• Reason #2: The brand is not interested in change; they have other goals they want to pursue.
• Reason #3: The brand does not understand the message and/or the consequences that the change will have.
• Reason #4: The brand does not trust the person who communicates the initiative.
• Reason #5: FEAR.

Although these reasons are somewhat built around generalities, it’s important to recognize a few practical truths. Brands have taken time to absorb social media marketing into their programs, and that will continue to be the case, however between 2008 and 2009, U.S. Marketers alone using Social Media within their programs nearly doubled in percentages – an increase likely to continue.

Just alone in ad spending within online social networks worldwide, between 2008 and what is expected by 2011; the same type of increase is likely to continue.

Just another hint to where things are headed…

In the end, a brand is afraid to change, and will never make this type of jump overnight. The five reasons above, I’m sure, point to a number of individuals you might know, or very well could be at your organization; it’s very likely. The resistance to change is led by a faithful bunch, your typical ‘old style’ leaders who oppose the new digital spectrum, but slowly are adopting to the early styles of interactive marketing, such as email marketing because he/she is forced to. They could also still rely on patchy TV & radio spots, and could be very excited buy out page five inside a dying magazine publication – this exists; it’s hard to think this is an actuality – but it truly is.

This AdWeek Media Poll shows that the 45-55+ demographic are much more in tune to purchasing newspaper/magazine ads as opposed to the younger demographic. Is this because of they are cheaper these days? Yes. Is this because they are unfamiliar and afraid to commit to the digital space, definitely YES.

I’m not saying age is the key indicator, but it certainly is a diving off point when making certain predictions that pertain to driving home this thought of resistance to change. In all reality, and I’m not screaming from the weeds here, it’s fear. In a time of economic recovery, such as what we are sifting through at the moment – FEAR; scream it from the top of your building, or as high as you could possibly reach – there is a resistance to change because of a FEAR of what might happen in changing the way your brand is marketed - I can’t be any more forthright.

Prediction: By 2012, if your brand has not already begun shifting the marketing channel to a more open, two-way communicative, “social” environment; you could very well be left in the dust, watching the grass grow over you.

(This blog posts is also published on the Overdrive Marketing Blog)

Running contests or promotions on Facebook have become one of the most effective ways in building high-level engagement with your brand. Numerous companies have come up with a variety of strategies to link external social networks into their contest campaigns, and a large target in that funnel - FACEBOOK.

The new rules that Facebook released ealier this month have now set specific guidelines for any company or individual looking to run any kind of promotion or contest within Facebook. These new guidelines now require anyone to request permission from Facebook before being allowed to launch any Facebook related contest or sweepstakes. All promotions that run on Facebook must be fully located on either the canvas page of an application, or in an application box or tab on a Facebook Page.

Section 3. Administering a Promotion through the Facebook Platform

You may not administer any promotion through Facebook, except that you may administer a promotion through the Facebook Platform with our prior written approval. Such written approval may be obtained only through an account representative at Facebook. If you are already working with an account representative, please contact that representative to begin the approval process. If you do not work with an account representative, you can use this contact form to inquire about working with an account representative. If we provide you such approval, you agree to the following:

3.1 You will only administer the promotion through an application on the Facebook Platform, as directed by us.

3.2 You will only allow users to enter the promotion in the following locations on Facebook:

3.2.1 On the canvas Page of an application on the Facebook Platform.

3.2.2 On an application box in a tab on a Facebook Page.

3.3 You will include the following language in a clear and conspicuous manner adjacent to any promotion entry field: “This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. You understand that you are providing your information to [recipient(s) of information] and not to Facebook. The information you provide will only be used for [disclose any way that you plan to use the user's information].”

3.4 You will not mention “Facebook” in the promotion’s rules except in the following ways: (i) “You can enter the Promotion through the [application name] application on the Facebook Platform. You can also find the application on the [tab name] tab on the [Page name] Page on Facebook.”; (ii) to fulfill your obligations under Section 3.7.

3.5 You will designate an individual to act as a primary contact to address any communications from us with respect to the promotion.

3.6 You must submit materials for any promotion you plan on administering through the Facebook Platform to your account representative for our review and approval at least 7 days prior to the start date of such promotion. Promotions not approved in writing within such time period will be deemed unapproved.

3.7 You will include the following provisions within your official rules for the promotion:

3.7.1 Acknowledgement that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.

3.7.2 Complete release for us from each entrant or participant.

3.7.3 Any questions, comments or complaints regarding the promotion will be directed to you, not us.

Basically, these new rules will now clear out the ’spam’ like contest entries that you see float through your friend’s newsfeeds, often in status updates through Facebook.

To clear up any confusion, Facebook has given users a few examples of how to apply Section 3 of the Promotion Guidelines to actual situations:

You cannot: Condition entry in the promotion upon a user providing content on Facebook, such as making a post on a profile or Page, status comment or photo upload.

You can: Use a third party application to condition entry to the promotion upon a user providing content. For example, you may administer a photo contest whereby a user uploads a photo through a third-party application to enter the contest.

You cannot: Administer a promotion that users automatically enter by becoming a fan of your Page.

You can: Only allow fans of your Page to access the tab that contains the third-party application for the promotion.

You cannot: Notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles or Pages.

You can: Collect an address or email through the third-party application for the promotion in order to contact the winner by email or standard mail.

You cannot: Instruct people (in the rules or elsewhere) to sign up for a Facebook account before they enter the promotion.

You can: Instruct users to visit the third-party application to enter the promotion (as described in Section 3.4(i)). Since users must have a Facebook account in order to access an application on the Facebook Platform, if you give this instruction, they will be prompted to sign up for a Facebook account if they do not already have one.

(This post is also published on http://ovrdrv.com/blog)

Do you remember CNN’s live stream of the inauguration, or when TNT did a live stream webcast of the NBA All-Star Game? If you did happen to catch both of those online events at the respective websites, you would have noticed that Facebook played a large part in those particular events.

Each of these events integrated the Facebook Connect-enabled live stream widget. And now Facebook is making this available to all websites and developers who can now incorporate this technology on their sites.

This event now allows brands to consider using this Live Stream ‘Chat’ Box on their websites or applications. However, it is not only built to function around live events, but could be used simply for any reason on a website – but that is the point of it. And another great aspect of this client comes right from Facebook who said “the Live Stream Box can handle a very substantial load, supporting millions of simultaneous users.”

The one downside of the Live Stream Box is that the content posted to it will not be archived or accessible for any APIs. This client is to be utilized as a one-use chat room that can be thrown away at a later point.

However, the true benefit of this is the ability to increase the engagement level, and keep a user’s interest on your website, and increase the amount of time a user might engage on it.

The process is quite simple in how this client functions – a user comes to your site, and if they are already signed in through Facebook, they will be able to start chatting right away (if they are not, they will be asked to sign-in before taking part in the chat client), and each ‘chat message’ a user submits is posted back to their Facebook profile with a link to the website they just came from (Your Website!!). This in turn shows up on their news’ feeds, and so on – the viral propagation has begun.

This story was originally published by Nick Cifuentes on the Overdrive Interactive Marketing Blog