MySpace Safe Again..?
TheGlobe.com has
settled with MySpace, the largest social networking site, for $5.5 million dollars after spamming MySpacers through fake accounts about their GloPhone product (which is now
defunct). Other lawsuits filed by MySpace (thanks to
Mashable) include
TheDilly, a social network that picked up many users via MySpace messaging and Anthony Lineberry who ran MyFriendBot, an automated friend requester.
While TheDilly settled for $6000 and Lineberry, I believe, walked away unscathed, its a step in the right direction for MySpace to combat spam. The $5.5 million settlement with TheGlobe.com should deter spammers from trying to get back onto the MySpace system. However, the inherent problem seems to be the simplicity with which it is to create an account. Anyone can create an account without any verification. Should sites like MySpace and YouTube force users to enter credit card information (without any charges of course)?
MySpace has done a great job of spam and abuse reporting but could these efforts curtail any type of real marketing being done on the site? The great thing about MySpace is that its free. But if you are a small company or a non-Fox owned property you are going to have to pay for placement either on the front page of MySpace or some of the other costly real estate the site provides.
CPMs on MySpace are
significantly less than CPMs on Yahoo!, and its probably the supply and demand curve working its magic. Advertisers are still afraid of being put next to content that they have no control over and therefore associated with. Most of the ads that I see are pretty raunchy dating sites, Shave the Armpit and win an iPod sites, Hit the Monkey and win a shopping spree sites, Can you Tell this Celebrity sites...in other words content that is already so outrageous that it could hold its own against little Johnny's MySpace page.
So then how does a brand propogate on MySpace? I think its through good old fashioned word of mouth while utilizing smartly some of MySpace's tools. The most powerful tool of them all...the top 8. Yes, you may laugh, but being in the MySpace top 8 ensures that you're brand or product is being seen by others when they visit someone's page. Of course you can achieve the same effect by commenting, but Top 8's change less frequently than comments. For those of you not familiar with the Top 8 its a MySpacer's "top 8" friends. These friends appear on the person's page without any need to dig deeper into the profile. Users are always curious about other folks and will mostly likely click on some of your top 8 friends. How do you achieve a top 8 status? Some profiles like the Black Carpet Screenings for Borat made you print out your MySpace profile showing Black Carpet in your Top 8. Others want you to email them when they are in your top 8. Screen grabs, the list goes on and on. So there it is, spammers why bother? We already know all of your tricks and we quickly delete your messages and comments. Have a good profile, a good product and a reason for us to put you in our Top 8 and you'll spread like wildfire. Maybe Lineberry's next project will be to work on an automatic Top 8'er.
Labels: email blog spam rss, myspace, social network
Mobile and Gaming Lagging Search and E-mail
A recent Forrester research report as
reported by Adage notes that interactive budgets are skewed toward measurable means like email marketing and search marketing. The report notes that mobile and gaming are falling behind while social media advertising has risen 40%. Mobile is claimed to fall behind because of the lack of any proof of performance and gaming is skewed to younger sophisticated crowds.
It's so strange that the study notes that mobile is having a tough time growing roots. All around us are examples of successful mobile campaigns.
Text messaging your favorite Idol in,
guessing which briefcase has all of the Deal or No Deal money, and so on. The key with mobile is point of purchase. The phone is with you at ALL times, more so than even your wallet and/or keys. (And if you forget your wallet you can PAY with your phone via PayPal Mobile). So there it is marketers, your examples of successful campaigns. Then comes the second argument of cost. Well the great thing is that you don't need a graphic designer, a brand name director, or recognizable faces. It's TEXT! It's simple, it's cheap, it's 160 characters including spaces. Once you've decided what your campaign is, whether its polling, driving to web, or simple message push, you just need to rent space on a short code and there you have it - your own text messaging campaign.
Sure, you're going to need to promote it. After all how are people going to find out about your keyword and short code, but if you have a consumer facing brand you have tons of real estate to do so. I think that all marketers should be in the mobile space because its cheap, easy, and quick to roll out. You'll be able to collect the king of all data points, the cell phone number, the most sacred closely kept piece of information guarded by all consumers. (Maybe second to your credit card number, but definitely ahead of your social since you can find that online already).
Labels: email blog spam rss, mobile, SMS, text messaging, video games
E-mail marketing Becoming Less Effective?
I opened up my email box this morning and while my Bulk or Spam folder had the typical 100's of messages, ones that I empty out everyday, my inbox had a few messages from people that looked like my friends or colleagues. They had real names, some that I thought could even be familiar. They even had real subject lines, lines that I would use, some were replies, some were forwards, but they were REAL. Or so I thought. Upon opening them I noticed the hocking of the latest penny stock, a Nigerian refugee in need, pharmaceutical drugs that I could get for dirt cheap, or getting a free Ipod in exchange for answering a few surveys. The latest spammers have gotten good, they've mixed and matched my friend's first and last names (or real names that look like my friends), they've been able to come up with subject lines that are fairly common (like "Hey!"), and somehow they've been able to penetrate my inbox (I don't know if its that gibberish that combines Charles Dickens with Webster's Dictionary.)
I'd say that 8 out of every 10 messages I receive are spam. In fact spam takes up so much of my time, that newsletters I actually subscribe to have become victim to the spam attack. If the newsletter doesn't have a compelling subject line, I'll simply check it off with the rest of the spam and zap it as Spam. Now unfortunately, the spam comes back since they just create another meaningless email xjaljafado@akfklj.ru but the newsletter's legitimate email now gets filtered.
So, what does this mean? I think that there is so much content out there now that pushing content is tougher than ever. Sure, very few people unsubscribe, but then again, very few people check their spam folders. Pulling content however, could possibly be a better option. I think because of spam the newsletter is falling away
in favor of the blog. Readers are more forgiving if a few posts are not relevant to them because they can just skip over them, as opposed to being construed as intrusive in their email boxes. Unfortunately on my little Motorola non PDA phone, I can't pull up my RSS reader there, but then again, who wants to sort through Viagara, Nigerian, and Free MacBook Pro emails on your 3 inch cell phone screen?
Labels: email blog spam rss
