Are Facebook’s Mobile Ads a Fad or will Successful Monetization Stick?

Whoever coined the phrase “it’s lonely at the top” forgot to mention that that loneliness is often short-lived.

That’s because, at best, aggressive competition means an eventual sharing of the summit (think iOS and Android). At worst, it means a complete dethroning. Remember when AOL was the most popular Web portal?

For now Facebook, still the world’s dominant social media network, can bask in all the mountaintop sunlight it wants.

Not only has active membership continued to grow – it stands 1.2 billion or one-seventh of the world’s population – but desktop and mobile ad revenue is starting to add up. Fully 60% of the publicly-traded company’s third-quarter revenue came from advertising and nearly half of that ad revenue came from mobile devices.

This is especially impressive considering how fast Facebook’s mobile advertising ramp up has been, starting as recently as early 2012. In other words, Facebook has successfully monetized advertising in less than half the time it has taken digital media to achieve even modest advertising revenue results.

But how much longer will Facebook’s mobile advertising miracle continue? The company has already been extremely transparent regarding its own expectations. For starters, Facebook will not continue increasing the percentage of ads in users’ news feeds. With this growth capped, there’s only so many clever ways to incentivize higher click-through rates.

Then there’s the nagging concern that teens are beginning to tune Facebook out, switching to sites like Twitter or embracing a host of direct messaging apps. Some of the pullback is due to Facebook’s own success. What teen really wants to be “friends” with their parents on social media or have them or other authority figures poking around on what was once the equivalent of their digital bedrooms – places considered off limits? According to financial firm Piper Jaffray, only 23% of 8,650 recently surveyed teens preferred Facebook.

While the siphoning of younger support isn’t a big deal for Facebook yet, it underscores just how fleeting social media platform popularity can be and how ad revenues, like a seasonal stream, can dry up as fast as it floods. A decade ago Myspace was the leading social media network. Today, despite a flurry of recent positive news, the site has a very long way to go in its climb back toward greatness – if it ever gets there. Its base of 36 million users is similar in size to the population of the Greater Tokyo Area. One city.

How long Facebook remains on top is anyone’s guess. While I applaud the company’s mobile advertising monetization efforts and hope they continue, could it be a little too late as the next social media fad goes on the attack, chasing that summit?

Sonic Boom: Why Flying Just Got Really Ugly – And (Potentially) Loud

Sound the alarm! The in-flight cabin experience is about to get much louder – or so it would seem.  After months of debate and a government shutdown delay, the day many of us frequent travelers dreaded has arrived: the use of personal electronic devices (smartphones, laptops and tablets) is now allowed throughout the flight’s duration, including landing and takeoff.

While actual phone conversations and texting remain off limits, a new gadget acceptance precedent – one that could soon turn planes into flying commuter trains complete with loud and obnoxious cellphone chatterers – is taking shape.

Urgh. I can hear it now…

“Omigod, did you hear about Robbie’s party last week?! It was sick! Jacquie got plastered, made out with that guy from accounting and puked on her own dress. Total disaster!”

You don’t say. Do I really need to listen to this rubbish at 35,000 feet? No.

Fortunately, I won’t have to…yet. But, as I said, a change is already in the air and I don’t like it. Even with the provisos and caveats the FAA has included in the lifted ban – enhanced gadget use depends on the airline, the weather and the aircraft – the last vestiges of a place where books, magazines and some quiet contemplation don’t look antiquated are rapidly receding.

It’s ironic that a digital “last stand” is being fought onboard passenger planes that feature advanced avionics, Wi-Fi, flash food-prep technology and seatbacks capable of displaying live TV, movies and virtual shopping malls. Sometimes I feel like it’s a battle that should have been lost years ago. 

Only it hasn’t. The question is why?

I think it comes down to what air travel means to most passengers; whether powered by propeller or turbine, air travel has long evoked a sense of welcome disconnection. The fair-or-foul vagaries of weather strongly influence whether you travel at all. Once you’re in the air, pilots control your destiny. And if there’s a midair disaster, odds are you won’t survive. There’s a kind of peace in that morbid realization. Your life is in others’ hands. Cocooned by the whirr of powerful engines, millions of passengers take flight attendants’ advice to heart, literally sitting back and enjoying their flight – uninterrupted.

Even without nonstop texting and phone calls, some of that welcome quietude is about to be disrupted. Now your fellow passengers will board in zombie mode: plugged in to their private little worlds. Except, unlike with books and whispered conversations, smartphone and tablet games will inspire grunts, random screams, shouts of joy and spirited sibling rivalry. Changes like this will also inspire an uptick in Wi-Fi as passengers move – linked, synced and wired – from terminal to plane without worrying about having to power down.

Of course, it’s possible the coming volume invasion will be mitigated by more aggressive airline loyalty programs that section off “quiet” cabin areas and honor requests for hours of low-volume gadget tinkering.

One way or another, these changes are coming and it’s time we all face the music – shouts, screams, and any other cacophony that makes flying a louder, less enjoyable experience.

I must admit I’m dreading it.

Creativity: To Be or Not to Be?

Many of us in the marketing and PR worlds have fallen prey to second guessing our individual creative capacity.  Are we all inherently creative in some shape or form? Or are our creative genes shut down at an early age when a 5th grade art teacher sneers at a drawing or ‘artistic project’ we thought (and Mum and Dad told us!!) was a great piece of creative work?

Think about how you define yourself as the creative type before dismissing that ideal, picking something else to define you – like an analytical type, an Alpha type or even a diplomatic type and then moving on to fulfill that prophecy.

Our continual societal reinforcement that creativity is a special ‘gift’ that only some people are born with while others aren’t is what David Burkus, author of The Myths of Creativity says perpetuates these various myths.

“The truth is, we’re all born with the ability to think creatively,” says Burkus.

As we grow older, depending on our upbringing and experiences, we either go on to develop this ability or let it take a backseat.

My view on the “creativity myth” is this: Creativity is like a muscle that needs to be appropriately nourished, stimulated and exercised. In other words, creative people push past psychological barriers to act on their seemingly absurd ideas when noncreative people don’t.

Burkus shares the example of how Kodak invented the digital camera but rejected it because the executives didn’t think people would be willing to give up the quality produced by film pictures. Sony then went on to develop a different prototype and became the pioneers of digital photography… and the rest is history.

In disciplines like marketing, advertising and public relations, it’s very common to be pigeonholed into one of two broad categories, creative or noncreative. While a demarcation between the two categories is slowly becoming less rigid, it still exists.

Here’s another example that hits closer to home. Bill Bernbach, regarded as the father of the Creative Revolution (and Modern Advertising), was instrumental in transforming the advertising world with his campaigns for Volkswagen and Avis Car Rentals. He’s also credited with being the first to combine copywriters and art directors into two-person teams—they commonly had been in separate departments—a model that exists in advertising agencies today. In fact, that approach is now being applied across different types of business models, i.e., bringing design, marketing and engineering teams together (see this example in action at Electrolux).

What does all this mean for the enterprise of today? Can the knowledge that anyone is ‘creative’ change the way creativity is perceived and therefore cultivated? And how can this perpetuate the way ideas are accepted, critiqued and developed within these companies?

I’m constantly challenging my team to find solutions to any problems and challenges that we’re facing – and to think creatively about problem-solving.

What are some of the ways in which you apply creativity, beyond the obvious, to your business? Or are you still struggling with the “creativity myth” and putting people – and even your own creative capabilities – into a stifling box?

Ditch the Pitch says AdAge? In a Heartbeat says ThinkInk!

At ThinkInk, we often think that RFPs (requests for proposals) actually stand for Really Flawed Presentations.

That’s also the takeaway from a recent AdAge article which looks at how, as the economy has rebounded and revenue is again flowing (modestly, at least), agencies are being more selective with the RFPs they review and the pitches they accept – PR agencies included.

Desperate times may have called for desperate measures with agencies taking on any business just to survive. But the lessons learned are likely to be applied the next time the economy goes bust. And it will. 

For my non-PR readers, a word on RFPs. RFPs are supposed to be well thought out, clearly written documents that explain to an agency what the client does and how they envision the agency-client relationship evolving. Central to this professional worldview:

How can a communications company advance the client’s mission/messaging?

To what extent can they (the agency) deliver a concrete return on investment, realized in a timely and efficient manner?

Sounds simple, doesn’t it?  Well, it’s not.

Unlike architectural RFPs, chock full of data, building timelines, artist renderings and estimated costs, would be client-submitted RFPs are often vague, filled with unreasonable deadlines, unclear messaging and unrealistic (think: meager) budgets.

Granted, it’s a bit of a Catch-22. Prospective clients aren’t communications professionals. They seek our input in helping craft their messaging.

So rather than rejecting such flawed documents outright, perhaps we should instead put our proverbial foot down. Even before the RFP process gets underway PR agencies, proud of their own self worth – and recognition that they, too, are businesses which have to protect their bottom lines – must establish pre-RFP guidelines. The age of indiscriminate RFP acceptance is over. Potential clients should be given a dose of pre-relationship “tough love,” couched in the language that the more fine-tuned an RFP is prior to its submission to an agency, the greater the likelihood that agency will accept its terms.

In other words, potential clients need to do a little more homework if we are to take their communications strategy to the next level. Pushback and dialogue should be nothing to fear.

Sometimes an assertive ‘NO’ to a prospective client and its demands is as important as a hearty ‘YES.’   They may even respect you for it.

Maybe that’s what RFP should stand for… Respect For Professional

Dethroning King Content: Why Context Should Be Just as Important

“Content is King.”

It’s a phrase PR professionals, marketing gurus, journalists and editors hear every day.

Coined by Bill Gates in 1996 as part of his Internet worldview, it’s worth noting that even back in the 28.8k days of dial-up modems, “content is king” was not all the Microsoft Chairman stressed. Equally important was the context of the material published.

“To be successful online, a magazine, [for instance] can’t just take what it has in print and move it to the electronic realm,” Gates wrote. “There isn’t enough depth or interactivity in print content to overcome the drawbacks of the online medium.” 

Nearly two decades after Gates wrote those words and their meaning still resonates. Not only is context important between print and online, all the digital mediums such as email, social, mobile and so on require different methods of user engagement.

In other words, one size does not fit all.

One of the most obvious rules of thumb: lengthy copy should be presented on lengthy screens, tablet-sized or greater. Smartphones, even those with 6-inch screens are too small for maximum user enjoyment. Even the definition of “long copy” is relative to the medium. Chances are that anything over 500 words in mobile format pushes the limit.

But it’s more than that.

Ideally, PR teams should be large enough to include channel-specific content writers. Or at the very least, content writers should have the freedom to discuss with in-house or outsourced social media experts how their content could best be adapted to fit channel needs. Repackaging a 3,000-word whitepaper into 120, 140-character tweets might “get the job done” in the strictest sense, but it may miss the mark in terms of user engagement.

Successful tweets are not article or presentation bullet points. They’re conversation starters; unique insights or observations that spark genuine debate and feedback.

Maybe “dethroning King Content” is a little harsh. After all, establishing proper context would be impossible without the raw materials of content already laid out. But how those knowledge building blocks are assembled and presented to the right audience on the right channel is critical if PR executives (and any communications professionals) are to use the web and its many channels to their fullest extent.

“Shane” on You: A Perfect Example of Why the Media Continues its “Flack Attack”

There was I, excited to read another PR professional’s musings on why journalists give us a hard time when it comes to pitches, follow-up emails, do not call times and other various gripes. I was eager for the advice.

Instead I found myself agreeing with the so-called “other side” of  the communications industry. Written by Andy Shane, a PR professional whose resume and personal webpage feels a little light, his recent CommPRO.biz article violated several critical rules if our (PR) industry and our clients are to be taken seriously.

So move aside Andy Shane, here are mine:

Rule #1

Get to the point – fast. At nearly 800 words, Shane’s article does a lot of rambling, repeats a few points concerning the need for “compelling narrative” and offers little concrete advice or action steps. 

Rule #2

Limit clichés, use correct grammar and don’t make ‘Writing 101’ errors. This last point really bugs me and it’s a rule we all learned in…well…grammar school.

Shane writes: “We are using the media – and the inherit third party credibility – as a way of telling our story to our real audience.”

Correction, I think you meant “inherent,” as in “innate” or “inseparable element,” according to dictionary.com.

He goes on to write: “As pitches are being flushed out, consider.”

Strike two. Pitches are fleshed out, not flushed out – unless they’re really terrible.

I’d like to tell you mistakes like these are rare. But even as a PR professional, there’s no way to spin this. Mistakes like this do crop up all the time. Whatever value Shane’s article originally possessed is instantly cancelled out.

Great pitches are more than compelling narrative. They’re also about crisp, clean writing, free of embarrassingly sophomoric mistakes. Journalists like to say, “Let the copy sing.” Very often our industry’s jargon habit interferes with what could be a lovely client voice.

So “shane” on you, Andy. I know we can do a lot better in putting the “flack attack” to rest.

The Dangers of Only Looking Ahead

As an outdoors runner, I learned very quickly that it’s dangerous to only look ahead.  In the hour or so of my daily pavement bashing, I try to solve the world’s problems, plan out my day and tackle a few challenges looming at the office – all in my head.  In this state it’s easy to lose myself and only see what’s right in front of me. Doing that prevents me from seeing what’s coming up behind – or from the left or right. 

Simply put, if I don’t look around while I’m running, I could be dead.

Sadly, this form of myopia is something I’m seeing more and more. Today’s drivers, in their rush to get to work -or wherever else they’re going - no longer look around at a STOP sign. They might look one way or another. But rarely do they scan the entire road. Instead, motorists are distracted, on the phone and not paying attention. If it wasn’t for me paying attention to their driving, it’s very likely I’d be dead.

But you know, it’s not just on the roads that this is happening. I’m seeing the same tunnel vision in our PR profession where, if something isn’t obvious or right in front of someone’s nose, they don’t bother to look around for either a solution or come up with an answer by themselves. Fueled by a society where we’re plugged into dozens of alerts, multiple screens and a barrage of information being pushed and spoon fed to us every second, we’ve stopped seeing the big picture. We’re cherry picking our news, biting on teeny snippets of information that inform all our knowledge and only looking at what’s directly in front of us.

For more on Multitasking, social media, and distraction, check out  Journalist's Resource.

The danger of doing this is that we’re missing out on everything else. In the PR profession, not having a complete picture of what’s happening ‘all around’ a client’s business or their industry puts us at a significant disadvantage. We’re not able to make intelligent decisions because we simply don’t know what else is going on that could impact their business or our campaign.

So the next time you come to a STOP sign, don’t just look ahead. Take a moment to look all around.  Yes, it could add another 5 seconds to your commute, but you might see something you didn’t know was there. You could learn something new or revisit something you had forgotten, like what to do at traffic signs.

For more on traffic signs, especially for those friendly Florida drivers, refresh your memory here.

Or you could be encouraged by someone, like I was, to write about your experience.  We live in a distracted world that will only become more distracting. As PR professionals, our ability to have both a razor-sharp focus and see everything around us – not just what’s in front – will be the differentiator between great communicators and mediocre ones who stop short of true inspiration.