Denk Space

Thoughts, Insights, Musings, and the Occasional Rant

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Social Media for the Social Bad

A few weeks ago, I attended a conference entitled “Social Media for the Social Good.” There, Andy Ridley from the WWF spoke about his work with Earth Hour and how Social Media has helped the event gain followers all over the world and grow from a few hundred people in 1 city to 5,200 cities and towns in 135 countries worldwide in just 5 years. Pretty impressive, no?

Using Social Media to engage followers is nothing new. Just think back to the Arab Spring, Japan Earthquake, Lady Gaga, or even Movember, where a campaign encouraging men to grow and show off their mustaches raised a whopping $14.5 million USD for Prostate Cancer Research in the US last year. The potential to ignite change through the use of Social Media is unbelievable. Pondering all the ways in which to engage the Social Media for the Social Good was inspiring, yet it also brought about a new question: can Social Media be used for the Social Bad?

The answer to my question came just a week later when the Kony 2012 video, aired by Invisible Children on March 5th, took the viral video world by storm. Today, less than 20 days later, the 30minute video has gained a viewership of over 85 million people! I give Invisible Children mad props for taking an important issue and producing a powerful video to help address the issue. Anyone who watched it will admit their cheeks were streaming with tears by the time the closing credits rolled around. 

I remain a little less happy, however, with the overall intent of the film. I get it: engage Social Media, get everyone talking about this video and the organization, and we’ll get this War Criminal out of Uganda taboot. A win-win really. Despite all the hoopla about this video, I remained skeptical. Less than a week after the video launched, the truth came out and the organization’s motives, sketchy funding, and leadership came under scrutiny. Oh yeah, and then this happened. 

No, I am not pro-war criminals, and yes, I have a soul. What I’m really on a quest for though is the truth. And the only way I can get that is by educating myself. It’s completely fine for someone to back a movement they care about greatly. However, you owe it to yourself and your cause to be an educated person and do the research to learn more about the issues and the organizations that address them. Only then can you be the change.

We innocent Social Media users often forget that gullible has three ‘L’s’ in it. That’s the way flashy Social Media has transformed our mindset. But how often are we going to let ourselves be manipulated by fabricated fairytales and cat videos? Isn’t it about time we learn more about the things we care about, demand transparency, and then actually do some Social Good? 

-C

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Rise of Demand-side Platforms in Asia

The year is 2012 and Ad networks are supposed to be on decline. Somehow they seem to be holding on, this is especially true in the Asia-Pacific markets. The traditional method of connecting advertisers to websites via ad networks is still the norm in Asia. Demand-side Platforms (DSPs) have started to penetrate the Asian market, yet they still have yet to hit the big-time like DSPs in the United State.

First off, what is a DSP? According to the February 2012 issue of Singapore Marketing Magazine, "Demand-side Platform: A system that allows advertisers to manage multiple ad exchanges through one interface." Great. Are you still confused? Well, when buying traditional online ad-space agencies usually offer a bulk of ads without being to guarantee when and where your ad will be displayed. DSPs offer more targeted adspace that can be bid on in real-time. DSPs often proclaim that they will eliminate wasteful ads, in turn saving your firm money. Your DSP bought ads might cost more, but DSPs claim that your ads will be more effective. DSP also allows firms to choose from a greater set of variables to eliminate or include a certain set of consumers. This is described on OneNet, "In a recent campaign by American Express , for example, the advertisers were able to set extremely precise targeting criteria, including the exclusion of users who had an internet history of visiting gambling websites. Not only did this eliminate advertising waste, it also allowed them to prescreen credit applications. 'What’s important for American Express,' says Mathew Turner, the head of digital acquisition, 'is that impressions reach an audience that is not just likely to convert, but that has the right level of income and a good enough credit rating to make it through the application process. The correct use of data is critical.'"

The efficiency and precision of this targeting could open open the door to a web-surfer that fits your consumer profile exactly. So why has this technology not caught fire in Asia? The fact that this technology was pioneered in the USA means that the data of web-user's histories or browsing habits is still very US-centric. The amount of time and money that it takes to compile and sort through user-traffic data is very large. This is something that a potential DSP client must take into account when buying DSP services. An increase in Asia-based DSP platforms will solve the pricing issue, but will also ensure that potential buyers are only paying for R&D that is associated with the Asia-Pacific region. These Asia DSPs must also be more transparent in their cost structure to allow clients to analyze the cost-effectiveness of their DSP ads.

DSPs will not only be constrained to the web or even the mobile web. Think of a world in the near future where a consumer has just scanned a QR code on their phone advertising a sale at a retail location. This consumer then physically went into the store, checked in via social media, but decided not to buy anything. The consumer then left the mall and is about to pass by an electronic billboard. This billboard is a DPS ad-space that will then recognize the consumer's cellphone via RFID and GPS technology, noting that it scanned the afore-mentioned QR code. The retailer who has bought DPS ad-space can then bid real-time on the electronic billboard to display an ad re-emphasizing the deal that the consumer decided to pass on. This type of pinpoint targeted advertising is not that far away.

Ad-networks still offer a wealth of advertising space and are often sold on the premise of a bulk number of ads will yield a bulk number of clicks. But the lack of knowledge of when and where the click happened decreases the quality of knowing your exact ROI. What DSPs must offer is a more targeted way to ensure that a client is getting a higher ROI per click. They can ensure this with demonstrating how the effectiveness of their timing and location of ads will lead to a more precise targeting of you desired consumer. This may seem hard to explain to an ad executive as the complexity and density of DSP algorithms can easily scare off the most experienced of marketers. Once Asian DSPs have their data and internet user habits in order, only then can they project a clear and concise picture of why DSP precision advertisement targeting is the way to go.

-B

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The Dreaded SMO

A few days ago, Scooter Macgruder, a meme artist, posted a Top 100 First World Problems video. While watching, I couldn’t help noticing how many of the problems he listed revolved around Social Media outlets. I counted at least 12 references to Social Media alone! Since the Internet tells the truth, I guess it’s official; complaining about Social Media Overload has become the status quo.

A while ago, the NYT discussed Social Media Overload as "digital fatigue" afflicting people with too many social media accounts. And, a recent study by the Altimeter Group revealed that corporations with 1,000 or more employees manage an average of 178 company-owned social media accounts each! With ever-growing professional Social Media demands, the burden keeps growing while the line between personal and professional obligations keeps blurring.  

Today, a person can actually be a Social Media butterfly suffering from Social Media Depression with a career as a Social Media Expert. This is mind boggling! Sometimes I yearn for simpler times, a mere 6 years ago, when my relationship with Social Media was new, exciting, and full of potential. Now, I often feel bogged down by both my personal and professional Social Media demands. Worse, I often catch myself thinking about new ideas for catchy posts and tweets rather paying attention to what I’m actually doing. Although I haven’t been clinically diagnosed with SMO yet, I fear a rapidly approaching downward spiral.

So, how does one cure SMO?

Well, it’s the year 2012, which may well be our last. So, why not make a last-minute resolution to channel all these developed world complaints into something productive? I mean, isn’t productivity the answer to everything? Thus, I plan on trying to implement the following method for finding my own Middle Path to overcoming SMO. By no means do I dub this as foolproof. But at this point, I’ll try anything once to avoid stepping over to the dark side, into the realm of Socialmedialites.

Cut the Clutter

We all have to clean our desks of junk, so why not clean up your company’s twitter account? Rather than going with the status quo and following, friending, hash tagging, trending, and retweeting everything in sight, why not take a few moments to really think about the types of things that will help you reach your Social Media goals? Decide which Social Media outlets are absolutely vital to you or your organization’s needs, then come up with a plan (ahem, Social Media Strategy) and stick to it.

Take a Break

It’s true, Social Media acts fast. However, since trends tend to happen throughout a day or a week, is it really the worst thing in the world to put down that Blackberry for an hour when you get home? It’s easy to fall victim to SMO so don't let yourself be that person. It’s okay to give yourself a break. Chances are your social existence as you know it won't crush before your eyes.

Adjust your Attitude

Social Media is here to stay, so rather than seeing it as a burden, refocus your negative energy into transforming the way you use it. Set your sights on new goals like friending only those you are friends with or only following and hash tagging things that are relevant. Then, maybe one day in the future, we'll all be able to get back to enjoying social interactions!

-C

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One Artist's Take on Advertising.

PSFK has recently published a brief article about a Scottish artist, Robert Montgomery, and his ideas about advertising. We are contstantly surrounded by advertising and marketing. From the moment you wake up in the morning you see the brand of your toothpaste and toothbrush. You drink X brand of milk. You spread Y brand of butter on your Z brand of toast. This is a process that is repeated all day.

When you go out of your home you are bombarded with eye-catching billboards, moving pictures on gorgeous gargantuan LED screens in the subway station. Advertising is everywhere. The internet is just the most recent casualty to the never-ending trend. I fear that one day we will live in a world that is so inundated with personally targeted marketing like presented in the movie "Minority Report." 

It is refreshing to have someone with the guts to call advertisers out on the excessive amount of information they expose us to. Robert Montgomery has also taken a page out of the Occupy Movement to express how so few people at the top control what so many people see at the "bottom." Using bold type and bolder words, Mr. Montgomery's art is certainly eye-catching.

-B