Only 30% of all advertisers have tried social media advertising...

So, media post's Erik Sass is citing that advertisers are failing at Social Media advertising. Actually "Half of Social Media Campaigns Fail to Achieve Goals"

The thing that really perplexes me is the lack of trial and sound measurement. It's absolutely insane. First of all, placing ads alongside social media content, specifically blog content isn't the big mystery. It's very similar to advertising in traditional media, but with some cautions and some perks.

Here at BuzzLogic, I suppose we really have a leg up on social media strategy, and measurement based on our analytics platform. We can really perform deep research, and then develop strategies to improve. That said, traditional measurements should always be applied and watched. Spotlight tags, post view & post click search and purchase behavior, brand studies, and other back end analytics can be used in social media as they are with "traditional online media'. It's still media ...

Based on today's media post:

ttp://www.mediapost.com/publications/fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=134198&nid=117809

Ad Verification

Great post by Steve O'Brien in today's MediaPost. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=129833&nid=115385

Ad verification is the wave of the future for display. It's becoming apparent that most any site or audience can be purchased from a variety of partners. Site Direct, DSP's, GCN, Mega Networks, and Niche Vertical Networks. In reality, you can probably buy any site from about 3-10 partners depending on what flavor, pricing, and overall value. Essentially, media networks are becoming more of a VAR (value added reseller) of inventory, rather than an access point.

I suppose, as a media buyer you should be asking which media company is providing you with the best services:

• Transparency
• Above the Fold Placements
• Audience Targeting (proprietary data, which 3rd party data, re-targeting, etc)
• Custom site integrations
• Creative services / custom ad banners
• More sophisticated ad placement software? Are they picking sites because these are the only sites they have access to, or are the sites first selected by how well they map to the campaign audience and content adjacency objectives?

2010 will be a year of change, and there could be a major transformation on how media is purchased and from whom. I believe the changes will favor networks and media companies who have invested into technology and systems to add significant value to the media buyer.... beyond just ad placement. It could be the year where we see 200-500 ad networks and media companies get squeezed out of the business as their services become disintermediated.

Always interested in seeing change in the business, as change offers opportunity.

BuzzRoll Ad Units - Hub and Spoke

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=126586

Cory Treffiletti nailed it on the point of social media marketing / advertising with this one!

Those who know me, know that I am a very strong advocate for the hub and spoke model for advertising programs in the blogosphere. I have been building this type of solution for top brands in Technology, Automotive, Communications, and CPG verticals. The real trick here is finding and encouraging the type of content which is relavent to the target audience and adjacent to the brand message. Also, partner selection is critical, and you're almost always better off partnering with "sites" who have a strong organic, endemic audience who is among your target audience. Content distribution widget ads are really taking off in social media. There are many flavors out there in the market. Technorati has a nice one, Federated has been using these for years, Six Apart has launched their version, and here @ BuzzLogic we invented probably the most powerful version. We call it BuzzRoll, it's an ad unit which carries content in many formats including blog posts, tweets, video, along with other custom utilities and API's.

Great stuff Cory!

Interesting info on CPM's

Today, Media Post published a great study from Adify on trends by content vertical for CPM banner pricing. Great information, and very interesting.

The pricing is a little low compared to what I see in the industry among premium content, so I would imagine this has a lot of reach & DR greatly impacting the CPM's. i.e. it's probably more of a fill rate on premium brand focused campaigns v.s. performance DR, than a true industry shift.

None the less it's great trend data! Check out the article on MediaPost:

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=129839&nid=115287