Just came across this interesting article on TechCrunch ( got it from Akshay's shared items on Google Reader) which quotes results from a survey from Abrams Research to show that over 200 social media leaders think that more businesses would pay for Twitter than for Facebook.
The rationale that some give for the importance of Twitter could be attributed to the fact that it is really fast for people to do viral campaigns there in some form or the other. What makes me wonder is that though the virality is higher on Twitter, the outreach is certainly very limited ( in the range of 1:50 , with Facebook having an upward of 80(?) million people visiting the website daily).
I think it is too early to be making any of those comparisons considering the fact that Twitter is yet to do any monetization of their real estate. Also i think it will be important to see how the form factor of tweets evolve to be able to help advertisers push their messages seamlessly.
What do you think ? Is Twitter really over Facebook in its potential to give advertisers and social media folks a greater bang for their buck ?
Micro-Payments: Saviour to an ailing Online News Industry ?
I have been observing a lot of recent discussions on whether or not micro-payments can help save the ailing online news industry from nemesis.
There been some very interesting blog posts that have detailed discussions on the pros and cons of the same ( interestingly the one by Scott dates back to 2003!!!).
Here are some of the hand picked conversations on will it work/ how things wont work :)
How to Save Your Newspaper - Time.com
Will Micropayments Save Newspapers -- Or, Should They be Saved? - Huffington Post
Can Micropayments Save Newspapers? - NY Times
Why Small Payments Won’t Save Publishers - Shirky.com
Misunderstanding Micro-payments - Scot ( published in late 2003 !!!)
Micropayments Won’t Save Newspapers
Do you think you paying 5 cents to read the article your friends just shared would help save the online newspapers industry ( more importantly would you like that as a end user behaviour) ?
There been some very interesting blog posts that have detailed discussions on the pros and cons of the same ( interestingly the one by Scott dates back to 2003!!!).
Here are some of the hand picked conversations on will it work/ how things wont work :)
How to Save Your Newspaper - Time.com
Will Micropayments Save Newspapers -- Or, Should They be Saved? - Huffington Post
Can Micropayments Save Newspapers? - NY Times
Why Small Payments Won’t Save Publishers - Shirky.com
Misunderstanding Micro-payments - Scot ( published in late 2003 !!!)
Micropayments Won’t Save Newspapers
Do you think you paying 5 cents to read the article your friends just shared would help save the online newspapers industry ( more importantly would you like that as a end user behaviour) ?
Is Social Media monetizable (yet) ?
Ever wondered why most of the social media properties aren't doing that great in terms of being able to monetize the ziliions of page views that they get each month ? Are the marketers/advertisers ready to include this huge portfolio into their marketing mix yet ?
This most recent report from the MarketingSherpa does provide an inkling on some factors that have had the most significant impact on Social Media adoption by advertisers.
As one can see in the chart above, the two most important factors being the dearth of knowledgeable people who understand social media and the lack of tools to measure ROI for such marketing spends.
What is interesting to note is that those advertisers who got themselves to experiment with social media earlier have a better understanding of social media and tools from those campaigns and are excited about increasing their social media spend, even with their overall budget remaining stagnant this year.
There are a series of developments happening across the social media space trying to standardize the way things are being done in order to create a mass market for the offering (the recent video monetization efforts) and the figuring out of various new engagement techniques that will pay more than the paltry 30-50 cents CPM rates ( Facebook experimenting with different engagement formats and an advertising platform which is going to be the primary source of revenue for the company going forward).
The current problem that i see with social media is that there are no(standard) ways to measure the ROI of such campaigns and i think this is something that makes a traditional marketer even more jitter about investing in this new medium.
I am sure with the emergence of some standard engagement metrics and tools to measure them effectively, we will see a lot more interest and participation from the advertising community in the near future.
I feel very strongly that there are multiple venues for brand engagement within niche social media destination and that they will be far more rewarding than monetizing through low paying CPM based adverts.
What do you think is going to be crucial for social media monetization in the years to come ?
This most recent report from the MarketingSherpa does provide an inkling on some factors that have had the most significant impact on Social Media adoption by advertisers.
As one can see in the chart above, the two most important factors being the dearth of knowledgeable people who understand social media and the lack of tools to measure ROI for such marketing spends.
What is interesting to note is that those advertisers who got themselves to experiment with social media earlier have a better understanding of social media and tools from those campaigns and are excited about increasing their social media spend, even with their overall budget remaining stagnant this year.
There are a series of developments happening across the social media space trying to standardize the way things are being done in order to create a mass market for the offering (the recent video monetization efforts) and the figuring out of various new engagement techniques that will pay more than the paltry 30-50 cents CPM rates ( Facebook experimenting with different engagement formats and an advertising platform which is going to be the primary source of revenue for the company going forward).
The current problem that i see with social media is that there are no(standard) ways to measure the ROI of such campaigns and i think this is something that makes a traditional marketer even more jitter about investing in this new medium.
I am sure with the emergence of some standard engagement metrics and tools to measure them effectively, we will see a lot more interest and participation from the advertising community in the near future.
I feel very strongly that there are multiple venues for brand engagement within niche social media destination and that they will be far more rewarding than monetizing through low paying CPM based adverts.
What do you think is going to be crucial for social media monetization in the years to come ?
TiE : Surviving and Winning in the Downturn
Last Friday i attended my first TiE event after having relocated to Gurgaon. The event organized by the Internet Special Interest Group(SIG) at TiE New Delhi was about how to survive and create winning strategies in this downturn.
The event comprised of two moderated panel discussions, both moderated by noted VC's Alok Mittal and Harish Gandhi from Cannan Partners and an opening talk from Jai Saxena,Ernst & Young on his perspective of the markets and the availability of funds in the near future. Mahendra Swarup, Chief Mentor Smile Interactive Group, was also there on the podium taking in questions after Jai's presentation.
Broad themes that emerged from the event(as summed up by Mr Sanjeev Bikhchandani(Founder and CEO Info Edge)
Panel 1 ( Moderated by Alok )
Panel Members
Dinesh Agarwal, Founder,IndiaMart.com
Hitesh Oberoi,COO,Info Edge (think naukri.com)
Sashi Reddi, Founder and Chairman of AppLabs
Alok Khejriwal,Founder and CEO, Contests2Win.com
Presentations from the panel
Panel 2 comprising of folks from the angel/vc community ( Moderated by Harish )
Panel Members
Siddharta Das,General Partner, VentureEast
Mahesh Murthy, Angel Investor (Founder Passion Fund,SeedFund and Pinsotrm,MTV India's ex-boss and more)
Bejul Somaia,Lighspeed Venture Partners
I shall be posting some highlights from the panel discussion soon as well.
The event comprised of two moderated panel discussions, both moderated by noted VC's Alok Mittal and Harish Gandhi from Cannan Partners and an opening talk from Jai Saxena,Ernst & Young on his perspective of the markets and the availability of funds in the near future. Mahendra Swarup, Chief Mentor Smile Interactive Group, was also there on the podium taking in questions after Jai's presentation.
Broad themes that emerged from the event(as summed up by Mr Sanjeev Bikhchandani(Founder and CEO Info Edge)
- Assume that there is no more VC money that you can seek in this environment.
- Be frugal. Spend every penny as if it were your last(unless you have been funded recently).
- Think about making money from DAY ONE and not about building valuations( users/page views etc).
- Think about cash flows. Get your customers to pay upfront. Renegotiate contracts with vendors and pay them as late as you possibly can.
- Times to invest in sales. If required shrink other departments like engineering.
- Lead from the front. Make sales calls yourself.
- Get Lucky !
- If things still do not work out, do not hesitate from shutting your shop and start looking for the next big idea :)
Panel 1 ( Moderated by Alok )
Panel Members
Dinesh Agarwal, Founder,IndiaMart.com
Hitesh Oberoi,COO,Info Edge (think naukri.com)
Sashi Reddi, Founder and Chairman of AppLabs
Alok Khejriwal,Founder and CEO, Contests2Win.com
Presentations from the panel
Panel 2 comprising of folks from the angel/vc community ( Moderated by Harish )
Panel Members
Siddharta Das,General Partner, VentureEast
Mahesh Murthy, Angel Investor (Founder Passion Fund,SeedFund and Pinsotrm,MTV India's ex-boss and more)
Bejul Somaia,Lighspeed Venture Partners
I shall be posting some highlights from the panel discussion soon as well.
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