Entries Tagged 'Social Computing' ↓
July 29th, 2008 — Facebook, Privacy, Social Computing, Social Media Optimization
An article in Online Media Daily illustrates how privacy illiterate most people are. Most people are so privacy illiterate they don’t even know that they should care. In the article, author Nina Lentini discusses Facebook’s Social Ads and notes:
“Natural or not, finding oneself in an ad unexpectedly is a worrisome prospect. I enjoy Facebook and the fun my friends and I have therein. And I have been careful not to join a group that might come back to bite me. Still, I shouldn’t have to worry about my face–or rather the faces of my daughters–ending up in an ad.”
I don’t know how many people have come across these ads yet, but in effect they turn you, the Facebook user, into a product spokesperson. Ostensibly this happens with your permission, but most people really have no idea what they have agreed to.
Working in this industry and as focused on social media and emerging technologies as I am, the first reports about this issue with Facebook’s Social Ad platform really got my attention. When I discovered that making myself a “fan” of a company or brand gave them the right to use my face and name in their ads on Facebook - unless I expressly blocked them from doing so — kind of bothered me.
In Facebook’s defence, they have some pretty solid privacy controls for users. Most people just don’t even know they are there, which benefits Facebook’s advertisers. I have my privacy settings now to block anyone from using my name and face in their ads. This is why privacy literacy is so important. It’s really on the users to make sure they know what is going on, because it benefits companies like Facebook to not really tell you.
Here’s a few recent articles on Facebook’s ad programs and privacy concerns:
Technorati Tags: privacy, facebook, social ads
July 23rd, 2008 — Social Computing, What is it?
I think I’m officially in love with “Bonafide Marketing Genius.” No, it’s not just for dropping the f-bomb in this presentation. It’s for voicing what every client and have the people I work with ask me — and then giving a great, clear, concise explanation.
~ I tip my hat to, BMG!
Thanks to B.L. Ochman for pointing this out!
Technorati Tags: social media, plain english, presentation
July 18th, 2008 — Branding, Social Computing, Website
I scoffed at Brand Tags when it launched, but this article from Digital Influence Mapping has compelled me to check it out again. The battle of the brands was interesting, but what I’m really finding fascinating is the “guess the brands” section.
It took me all of 11 seconds of looking at the tags to determine Bose Audio and 21 seconds to figure out another tag cloud was Second Life. It took me about 10 seconds to guess Jif Peanut Butter, but I spelled it wrong, so they didn’t count it.
As the site points out: “the basic idea of this site is that a brand exists entirely in people’s heads. Therefore, whatever it is they say a brand is, is what it is.” This is a really interesting way to see what people think of well known brands. I’ve also found Amazon’s experiment with user tags to be a similiar, but real-world example of this same idea. Anyone can add a tag to a product. I’ve seen some really interesting tags that surprised me. For example, someone is clearly on a mission against homeopathic treatments because you’ll find many tags like “junk science” and “total crap” on those products. There’s a potentially serious brand management issues here.
We can add user tagging to the long list of UGC that companies need to get really smart about really fast. If nothing else, they should be listening.
Technorati Tags: brands, tagging, relationship marketing, brand tags
June 3rd, 2008 — Blogging, Marketing, Pharma, Social Computing, Social Media Optimization
Originally Posted by Carly & Art on Flickr
A lot of my clients at RTCRM are pharma companies, so I read quite a few Pharma blogs. They are constantly complaining about the lack of Web 2.0 and social Web elements in Pharma marketing. For example this article from World of DTC Marketing touches on many issues that I encounter when working with clients, but never gets to the true issues that we and our clients are dealing with.
Has this blogger and every other Pharma Marketing blogger never heard about FDA regulations? That’s why Pharma can’t move beyond Web 1.0 — they don’t have the technical & legal processes in place to deal with Adverse Event reporting. They are also extremely, and somewhat understandably, risk adverse. The major issue with Pharma marketing is that the lawyers run the show and too few organizations are educating them or working with them to craft processes to mitigate risk.
Another major issue is risk. Getting truly engaged in the social Web can help put a “human” face on a Pharma company if it’s done well, but it opens companies up to more risk and different kinds of risks than they may be used to dealing with. The other question is should they focus their social Web efforts on consumers or healthcare professionals? Direct to consumer (DTC) advertising is something that pharma companies debate the merits of and a lot of consumers think it’s a bad thing. Pharma is making some really interesting inroads to the social Web with healthcare professionals via sites like Sermo.
One last, very ignored issue, is patient privacy. There is a lot of question about how pharma companies getting involved in social media may be a conflict with HIPPA and other privacy regulations. Zack Rodman wrote two detailed posts about privacy issues on the RTCRM blog. These begin to detail how complicated an issue this can be for pharma companies and pharma marketers.
Believe me, I’d like to see more of my clients move incorporate social computing into their marketing plans, but I want them to do it the right way. Set some organizational foundations, test the waters, and determine if there’s a decent ROI before jumping in head first and having an expensive disaster to clean up.
Please, pharma bloggers, find a new drum beat. How about some constructive suggestions instead of just complaints?
Technorati Tags: pharma marketing, DTC marketing, social media marketing, social media, pharma
April 22nd, 2008 — Internet, Marketing, Social Computing, Word of Mouth
see more crazy cat pics
I love when a company actually takes the time to know its customers well enough that they would think of a promotion like this. Jones Soda is a quirky micro-brew soft drink company that makes bizarre soda flavors like Turkey & Gravy for Thanksgiving and Jelly Doughnut for Hannukah. To be fair, they also make more mainstream flavors like Rootbeer and Cola, but I think their limited editions are far more interesting.
But…I digress.
Recently Jones Soda launched a promotion with ICanHasCheezburger to create a new label for their sodas. Beyond this they’ve created the ultimate in Web mashup experience. You can order a 12-pack of Jones Soda with your own customized “LOLcat” label for your soda. Now if you’ve never heard of ICanHasCheezburber or LOL cats, you’ve missed out on one the Web latest and greatest time wasters. Heck, there’s even an LOL Cat translation of the bible now. By the way, LOL cat is a generic term. You can really use any animal for this, hence the Hippo shot above.
Jones Soda cements their “hipster” status by joining forces with the ican crew and clearly knows that this site and the LOLcat experience appeals to their customers. I’ll be really curious to see how they don on sales. Even I’m considering it buying my own custom 12-pack.
Technorati Tags: jones soda, lolcat, i can has cheezburger, internet, promotions, marketing
