Being Peter Kim

Negative sentiment - the blogosphere's alternate take

About a year ago, Kevin Hillstrom of MineThatData analysed the sentiment of marketing bloggers, under the hypothesis that top bloggers overwhelmingly post negative sentiments.  Hillstrom concluded from a sample of posts that marketing bloggers were more positive than expected.

I think Ben Franklin would be pleased with the tonality of discussion in today's blogosphere - there's generally moderation between positive and negative.  My hypothesis:  if someone (like a brand monitoring firm) could aggregate and graph the sentiment of the past year in marketing blog posts, it would resemble a normal distribution, with the bulk of posts in the middle, and positive and negative bloggers in smaller quantity on the tail ends - but the middle would be slightly skewed to the  positive side, as Hillstrom's results suggest.

Why?  Straying towards either end - deviating from the mean - gets risky. Get too positive and people may start to wonder what ulterior motive exists, e.g. Is this person part of an outreach program? Kissing up to a client?  On the other hand, get too negative and there may be practical consequences, e.g. "we're not doing business with that company."

So in case you haven't been wandering far enough into the woods on your own, here are three alternative takes that regularly go out on a limb that you might want to explore:

- George Parker, AdScam
Look.  The title of his latest post is "F* Tom Cruise, I'm with mein Fuehrer!"  And he didn't use the asterisk.  There's good advice hiding in plain sight, if you can steer clear of the f-bombs.

- Amanda Chapel, Strumpette
I'll admit, I don't quite get the whole woman/man/archetype thing. Is Strumpette playing devil's advocate or just a devil? A social media skeptic using social media...intriguing.

- Steve Hall, Adrants
Look past all of the flesh and Adrants has an example every day of how not to launch a campaign.

Listening is key to learning and we all know there are [at least] two sides to every story.  If you want to elevate into Social Media 201, you must handle the difficult issues head on. Or maybe I'm totally wrong and these people aren't worth adding to your feed/following list.

What do you think?

links for 2008-05-13

• AdWeek: Hunter College Probe Slams Coach-Sponsored PR Class
  I thought the world was past flogs by now...
  (tags: blogging flog)

Marketing community on Alltop

Looking for some fresh marketing feeds? Then check out Marketing on Alltop, from Guy Kawasaki's Nononina.

Other great (but not as good looking) marketing blog collections are the [now defunct] M20, Mack Collier's Top 25, and the Ad Age Power 150.

Coincidentally, my better known colleagues Jeremiah Owyang, Charlene Li, and Josh Bernoff are also on Alltop - in the "Egos" section...!

Webcast with Visible Technologies and Microsoft

On Thursday May 22nd I'll be participating in a webcast with Blake Cahill from Visible Technologies and Marty Collins from Microsoft.  We'll be talking about "Unlocking Social Media’s ROI through Engagement & Participation."  Registration is free and we'll begin at 10 am Pacific/1 pm Eastern.

If you are on the fence about brand monitoring or just want to learn more about how it's being put to good use, this is your chance to ask questions.

links for 2008-04-27

• mocoNews.net: Trust In Ads Correlates To Control (Hence Mobile Banner Ads Not Trusted)
  Give consumers what they want - control. (not ads) Mobile marketing is much more than advertising.
  (tags: pressquote mobile)

links for 2008-04-26

• The New Yorker: Up and Then Down
  "Loading up an empty elevator car with discarded Christmas trees, pressing the button for the top floor, then throwing in a match, so that by the time the car reaches the top it is ablaze with heat so intense that the alloy (called “babbitt”) connecting the cables to the car melts, and the car, a fireball now, plunges into the pit: this practice, apparently popular in New York City housing projects, is inadvisable."

Searching blog trends

There's finally an alternative to Nielsen's Blogpulse.  Not that there's anything wrong with Blogpulse - it's a handy, free tool for searching trends in the blogosphere.  And there have always been other ways to get at the information (without paying for it) - Google blog search or Technorati in particular.  But Blogpulse delivers a simple results graphic with rudimentary tools for controlling date range and drilling down into results.

Now from Belgian brand monitoring firm Attentio comes Trendpedia - a tool to search blog trends with a bit of zeitgeist thrown in as well.  (Now available out of beta.)

I ran a quick search on the first topic that came to mind after a long three-day weekend (it was Patriots Day, for those of you not in MA, ME, or WI - commemorating the ride of Paul Revere in 1775).  The topic just happened to be the drama around the New York Yankees young pitching staff. 

The results from Blogpulse vs. Trendpedia:

(I admit that the first search I ran was for Joba, "Ian Hughes," and "Phil Kennedy."  Oops.)

From what I can tell, it looks like Blogpulse is on autopilot - a "2005 year in review" feature lives on,  the copyright at bottom is 2006, and latest news is from April 2007.  Maybe a tell-tale sign of the revenue generation potential from a free blog trend search engine...?

The Greening Of Direct Marketing

Close your eyes and think back to last Christmas.

Actually, open them again so you can read the rest of this post.

Do you remember the piles of catalogs you receive every holiday season?  For window treatments, electronic gadgets, preppy clothes?  Ever get the sense that all that mistargeted mail was bad for the environment?  Well, you're not alone - once again, consumers are ahead of brands, agencies, and institutions in thought and deed...

New research from my colleagues Dave Frankland and Sarah Glass illustrate the "green-ness" of today's direct marketing practices.  And the results aren't good news for the ozone layer.  Some marketers are taking steps in the right direction (see picture above) - but we've got a long way to go.

Forrester clients can access the entire "Direct Marketing Needs A Green Wake-Up Call" and everyone can read highlights and commentary in Ad Age.

Three key applications for brand monitoring

I just had another piece of Forrester research publish - this one on brand monitoring.  Lest you think I went on a Kerouac-ian benzedrine + caffeine writing tear...I didn't (but what's the frequency, Kenneth?).

As you may know, I've been following the brand monitoring market for a couple of years and since publishing the Q3 2006 Forrester Wave on the space, it's clear that the market has shifted.  That's why I plan on updating the Wave in Q3 2008.

In the meantime - it's clear that not all brand monitoring firms are created equally or should be used for the same purposes.  But marketers who don't work to understand the differences before sending out an RFP or running a pilot are in essence using Plinko as their selection process.

I believe that three primary applications of brand monitoring have started to surface, based on buyer goals, vendor capabilities and intent, and business needs.  Clients can read the full research, "New Uses For Brand Monitoring," which explains how and why the three applications matter.  The summary:

J.D. Power and Associates acquired brand monitoring firm Umbria, combining industry-focused consumer satisfaction and rankings with consumer-generated media (CGM) insights. The deal highlights the use of brand monitoring as a key input to formulating marketing, brand, and product strategy. Interactive marketers and social media strategists interested in using brand monitoring must choose a tool based on business objectives, recognizing that the market now addresses three distinct applications: 1) mining customer insight to formulate strategy; 2) quantifying social media to compare with other metrics; and 3) identifying influencers in order to participate in online conversations.

Much deeper analysis forthcoming later this year.  In the meantime, Forrester clients - feel free to set up an inquiry via your account manager to learn more.

P.S. I think our Forrester Marketing Blog Feedback Survey is still open...