Hello Signal readers, and forgive our hiatus. Last week’s CM Summit took a lot out of us, but we’re back, with a longer version of Signal today. Much to catch up on, including how ‘Mommy Bloggers’ earn influence; industries learn to balance expectations with privacy concerns that can threaten online business models; a look at how post-IPO culture challenges will effect the future of Facebook; why the golden age of Silicon Valley is (arguably) over; and, because we’re fresh off the 2012 Conversational Media Summit, a small taste of the press FM has received in the past few days.
To the links….
How Open Conversation Between Moms, Marketers Earns Influence (Forbes) “Moms who blog have become citizen journalists, and remarkably, the top 15 mom bloggers influence more people than the New York Times.” Exactly, and one knows this better than FM’s publishing partners — some of whom are featured in this piece: Cool Mom Picks, This Week for Dinner, Daily Buzz Moms, Sarah James, Doug French and John Pacini, and Helen Jane Hearn — and the driven folks who run our parenting vertical. Congratulations on a well-deserved focus to all the savvy individuals who contribute their talents and signature voices tirelessly to an incredibly powerful and influential media channel!
What FTC Privacy Scrutiny Means for Digital Media (Digiday) In this, the second article of its eight-part series, Digiday examines the issue of “Redefining Privacy” with Daren Orzechowski, a specialist in technology and data privacy and a partner at the international law firm White & Case.
Life after the Facebook IPO: What’s Next for Zuckerberg (Forbes) Elaine Pofeldt talks to Todd Vernon, CEO of FM’s Lijit Networks, about how FB’s Mark Zuckerberg will navigate some inherent challenges to the company culture after the excitement of an IPO.
‘The Golden Age of Silicon Valley Is Over, and We’re Dancing on its Grave’ (The Atlantic) Serial Silicon Valley entrepreneur Steve Blank believes that the Facebook IPO marks“the beginning of the end of the valley as we know it.” VC’s are dumping their life science divisions in favor of investing in social media, he notes. His is an interesting take on the demise of the Valley’s interest in solving the hard problems.
The endangered public company (The Economist) The number of public listings has fallen dramatically over the past decade—by 38% in America since 1997 and 48% in Britain — and Facebook’s stock market flotation shines a light on those numbers and the problem with going public these days.
Twitter breaks into social TV dollars with ESPN deal (LostRemote) A strategic relationship between ESPN and Twitter to co-produce unique social experiences around larger sports events will allow advertisers to buy into both ESPN’s properties and the Twitter components in a single integrated buy. Video is the key to advertisers’ pocketbooks, it seems.
On Developing and Operating Content Marketing Platforms (Clickz) Creating a compelling content experience efficiently and at scale is more challenging than ever. Here’s Our very own Matt Jessell on how to successfully execute content marketing strategies.
Zuckerberg Receives Hoodie, Says “Our Mission Isn’t To Be A Public Company” In Pre-IPO Remarks (TechCrunch) Well, Mark, it is now. And, as the writer of this piece points out, “It’s going to be hard to convince investors to wait around” if Zuckerberg keeps making statements like these.
Facebook vs. Twitter (NYTBlog) Sure, the big difference between the two companies is the way they treat their customers’ privacy, but there’s much more to it than that. Twitter is inherently a public service, after all.
Google+ a Ghost Town as Brands Decamp for Pinterest (AdAge) Google’s +1s are no match for Pinterest’s Pins. ComScore data shows that the average Google+ user spends three minutes on the platform every month; the average time spent by each Pinterest user per month is 50 minutes.
Confessions of a DSP Salesperson (Digiday) Hype versus reality of programmatic buying, as seen from the perspective of a demand-side platform sales person: “Anyone that has not worked at a DSP or a trading desk, consider yourself lucky. It is the cesspool of our industry, with the DSPs racing towards an acquisition or IPO and the trading desks trying to validate themselves as valuable within the holding companies.”
Silicon Valley Can Do Better Than Facebook (TechCrunch) Alexander Haislip, author of Essentials of Venture Capital, writes that Silicon Valley is at its best when it uses its unique combination of talent and capital to advance society, build better tools for creation, and unlock the potential of people across the globe.
Do You Want the Good News First? (NYTimes) It’s all about empowering the individual, according to Thomas L. Friedman. To grow as a country, we must preserve that trifecta of wisdom that’s come out of Silicon Valley and Seattle, the belief in that magic combination of cutting-edge higher education, government-funded research, and immigration of high-I.Q. risk-takers.
John Battelle — A Tech Zombie Interview (YouTube) John Battelle recently talked to students in the Social Media Optimization and the New Web class at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater about his vision of the future of social media, marketing a business online, Facebook “likes” vs. long-term engagement, and the importance of bringing value to an online audience.
Coverage and discussion associated with FMP’s CM Summit last week featured a wide number of leaders in the digital and tech space. Here are some of the highlights:
Coca-Cola’s New World of Marketing: Facebook + TV = Sales (Forbes)
Does digital advertising need its own operating system? (GigaOM)
Facebook IPO Colors Internet Week Diller down, ecosystem up on the stock (AdWeek)
Marketers Still Not ‘Jumping In’ to Digital (Internet Evolution)
Setting Down a Manifesto for Web Content (The Content Strategist)
Federated Media’s CM Summit 2012: ChasNote Round Up (ChasNote)
Conversational Marketing Summit 2012 (Slideshare)
Internet Week, Day 1 Live from CM Summit (ShareThis)
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