David Henderson’s Blog

Gin, Television, and Social Surplus

This is something that people in the media world don’t understand. Media in the 20th century was run as a single race–consumption. How much can we produce? How much can you consume? Can we produce more and you’ll consume more? And the answer to that question has generally been yes. But media is actually a triathlon, it ’s three different events. People like to consume, but they also like to produce, and they like to share.

Although experiencing this via a liner video is somewhat ironic, you must stop what you’re doing right now and watch this video.

From now on, that’s what I’m going to tell them: We’re looking for the mouse. We’re going to look at every place that a reader or a listener or a viewer or a user has been locked out, has been served up passive or a fixed or a canned experience, and ask ourselves, “If we carve out a little bit of the cognitive surplus and deploy it here, could we make a good thing happen?” And I’m betting the answer is yes.

Wow, I’ve been writing about consumer attention scarcity up here the past few years. Clay talks about this concept of cognitive surplus which at the end of the day is reallocated attention from pure consumption to a consume, produce, and share model.

Just like in the Matrix where there is no spoon, in the mass media matrix there is no mouse.

Technorati Tags: Attention, Clay Shirky
Clay Shirky
Clay Shirky, cognitive surplus, Media 2.0, mouse, TV

Dude, I’m plugged into all my lifestreams.

Help!

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Alert Thingy, snitter, socialthing, twhirl, twitterlocal

Technorati Tags: targeting, Twitter, Twitterfiic

This is the new New Media… Social Media = Authentic Social Engagement = Authentic Influence.

Marketers and brands wanna market here? Well Advertising campaigns need to shift to Socializing campaigns. Advertising Agencies need to evolve to Socializing Agencies. Marketing mix needs to shift from content sponsored broadcast channels to implicit/ explicit social streams. Time with media has already shifted for 70 million Gen Yers. Billions of marking dollars will follow this behavioral shift over the next 10 years. We’ve seen this shift happen before!

Here’s where we’re heading…..

Sweet!

Technorati Tags: Authentic Influence, Community, Conversation, Social Media

I noticed Mike Arrington, one of my casual Facebook friends (I don’t know Mike that well), in my newsfeed today pitching Blockbuster subscriptions and the movie Cloverfield. Go figure.. I guess Mike needs some more revenue streams.

Clicks over to here - sign me up - is there a TechCrunch discount?

Looks like my privacy is well secured here, but what about about Mike’s? Does he even know he’s in this ad in my newsfeed and whoever else’s newsfeed? And…. what’s Mike’s cut $$$ if it’s his influence that influences me to signup for Blockbuster?

Wow great idea. Take one of the blogosphere’s most influentials, out of my friendslist, and use his reputation, influence, and celebrity status to get me to signup for Blockbuster.

Except Mike is the tech startup blogger extraordinaire. If he suggested to me to go check out this startup, I’d be there in a minute. I am there in a minute anyway because I read Techcrunch every day. But, what does any of that have to do with Blockbuster and movie rentals? Startups and movies?

So let me get this straight. Blockbuster pays Facebook for the ad placement, uses Mike’s photo and FB attentionstream to entice me to click on the ad, Mike doesn’t directly know his reputation and FB attentionstream are being used or how many times, and FB takes 100% revenue for this transaction be it click or action.

Do I have that right? Seems like FB should cut the influencer in on this transaction since they’re leveraging influencer data, influence and reputation. Then it would make more sense. SocialSense - there now you have the name. It would also create a definitive ad influence metric.

One more thing, shouldn’t the ad category match the influencer’s influence category?
Later……

Please follow me on twitter, my conversation has moved over there….

Technorati Tags: attentionstreams, Blockbuster, Cloverfield, Facebook, influence, Mike Arrington, SocialSense, SocialAds

Walt’s obstacles to Internet as replacement for TV

1> Doesn’t easily connect to the TV
2> Consumer resistance to ads
3> US is a 3rd World Broadband Nation

#1> My friend Scott Converse has an interesting solution for this one.

#2> Is not exclusive to TV. Pick a site any site and find me a relevant non-intrusive ad. The Internet has not solved this yet either. Ok maybe a google search ad - that is certainly as relevant as it gets.

#3> Is a huge problem with International competitive consequences. Are our MSOs and Carriers in a position to solve our International digital divide challenge?

Technorati Tags: TV, Walt Mossberg

What are these guys a thinking? A conversationless group?

Facebook (contact info indicates) creates a group to gain support for banning all app invites with absolutely no conversation features - no wall - no discussions. So what do these 1M members think about this issue? We’ll never know. I’m sure FB platform developers are thrilled with this!

Technorati Tags: Facebook Developers, Facebook Group, Facebook Platform

Facebook Users Revolt Against CBS Sports, It’s March Madness!:

………..Whatever the case, users are going mad about this application and the developers aren’t too happy. The argument is that if Facebook will provide premium spots for advertising certain applications, they should provide all applications with the same opportunity. Additionally, if media companies can pay for custom ad placement and application promotions this is in direct competition to application developers that already provide such services for clients. Where does Facebook draw the line when it comes to custom app promotions?

3/19/08 - I suspect this is only the beginning….?

More on this from TC…..
Is Facebook Playing Favorites With App Developers?

3/20/08 - Even more on this by Nick O’Neill….

CBS Sports Granted 100 Invites Per Day

A few days ago I posted about users revolting against CBS Sports and their March Madness application. Well today the controversy hit the fan. A post to the Facebook developers forum brought up a interesting thing that took place today. Suddenly, the CBS Sports bracket was granted 100 invites per day. This is at least 5 times the volume typically granted to the average application.

Technorati Tags: Facebook, March Madness

Think Different: Maybe the Web’s Not a Place to Stick Your Ads
Matthew Creamer Asks Whether We’re All Missing the Point When It Comes to the Internet

Maybe just maybe ads are dead. Like the mainframe, like radio, like TV, like web portals, like the typewriter, like Microsoft’s stranglehold on the desktop, like Google’s web 1.5 ad dominance, like big oil’s stranglehold on the american dream, like the final Bush administration, maybe ads are dead but they just haven’t died yet.

Maybe there’s more than one Web?

1.0 - The World Wide Web - without social context
- pages
- links
- impressions
- clicks
- pagerank
- CPMs
- CPCs

Ads make sense here same as they make sense on TV, Radio, Magazines, Newspapers, etc… When choice is scarce they have some value, when choice is abundant they have less value, when choice is infinite they approach valueless.

2.0 - The Social Web
- profiles
- friends
- social graphs
- reputation
- trust
- social good
- engagement
- influence
- viral
- community
- conversation
- newsfeeds

Is this a place for ads? Is this the place where a new generation (Gen Y) is forming their media habits that will take them through a life cycle of major purchases - home, car, education, financial services, fashion, etc….?

TBD!

A couple of quotes from this article:

Jakob Nielsen: ‘The basic point about the web is that it is not an advertising medium. The web is not a selling medium; it is a buying medium. It is user controlled, so the user controls, the user experiences.’

Yes the user is in control, but it’s not a buying medium, it’s a social engagement/ social influence medium. Marketers need tools and strategies to leverage these new social influence channels.

“There’s huge financial incentive to say advertising works,” Mr. Nielsen said. “To say that it doesn’t work — I don’t get anything out of that.”

Which is why ads will live on for quite some time!

Technorati Tags: ads, advertising, influence, Social Media

Frequently Asked Questions about the Improved Profile - Improved according to who?

Justin’s write-up here:
New Facebook Profile Page will mean big changes for apps - not good news for app developers.

Yo Mark,

I like my profile just the way it is with all my apps on it so my friends can see what apps I have installed. Be my guest and offer me a new “CHOICE” of profile layout. Please give me lot’s of choices! But don’t change my profile without asking dude - what’s that about?

Please remember rule #1 - user in control!

Best Regards,
DH

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Facebook Platform, User in Control