
In a stunning early finding of interviews with nearly a dozen social media agencies and software providers, I’m seeing a new trend: Social media agency of record (SMaoR) are now moving into advertising buying. I’ve just spent a week interviewing a number of social agencies here in Manhattan as well as taken briefings from around the globe (see below for source info)
Why this dramatic change from social media purists who once declared war on advertising?
The new advertising features from both Facebook and Twitter (Such as sponsored tweets and trends) encourage earned content to become advertising units and give an opportunity for social marketers to get into the advertising game. This also means the opportunity for ads to perform at a higher level because they’ve been ‘approved’ by the crowd is a unique opportunity afforded to the social media agencies vs the ‘carpet bomb’ approach of yesteryear. This results in three distinct impacts to the industry:
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Advertising is Limited to Social Networks: The advertising units that these agencies are purchasing are often limited to Facebook or Twitter –not broader banner and skyscraper ads across media and Google serp. In fact, in most cases they’re analyzing which earned content performs the best, then using the features like Twitter’s sponsored tweets to amplify this earned content to reach new audiences and drive attention or call to action.
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Social Media Agencies Don’t Have Solid Case Studies, Yet. Most of these pure play social media firms lack an advertising background and are staffed for engagement. They also tend to have a longer term approach for community building –not six week ad block flights. As a result, it doesn’t guarantee that they’ll be able to outperform traditional digital advertisers although most say they’re working on case studies to show higher engagement, and conversion.
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Expect a Battle Between Digital Agencies and Social Media Agencies. Now, there’s going to be a fight over advertising budget as social media agencies battle for small shares of advertising dollars. We’re also seeing digital agencies develop social competencies and battling the social pure plays. In the end, I believe we’ll get rid of the term ‘social’ or ‘digital’ as a prefix for any agency as they’ll all have the same competencies, esp after a mass M&A that biz dev execs are already starting to sniff.
Sources: As an Industry Analyst, I’m fortunate to speak to many in the industry for research purposes, In the past few weeks I’ve spoken to Adobe, Attention, Banyan Branch, Big Fuel, Buddy Media, Converseon, Deep Focus, Edelman, Google+, SocialFlow, VaynerMedia, We Are Social, and many others. Our analyst focused on agencies is Rebecca Lieb (Blog, Twitter), although we’re both talking to many-in-the-industry for our upcoming joint report on Paid Owned and Earned integration.
from Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang | Social Media, Web Marketing http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2012/04/14/trend-social-media-agencies-tur...
It's hard to think of an indie game that has had more prerelease buzz and attention than Fez. Polytron's Phil Fish has been working on the game for nearly five years now, teasing fans with trailers and small trade show demos as he constantly put off planned release dates to perfect it just a little more. The game that is finally seeing the light of day today shows the care that went into creating a world full of hidden depths, but some players might find those depths a little too well-hidden.

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from Ars Technica http://arstechnica.com/gaming/reviews/2012/04/review-fezs-world-spinning-puzz...

As traditional media revenues continue to fall off a cliff thanks to the precipitous decline in print advertising, there seems to be a desire on the part of media companies to somehow find a single solution that will magically cure this problem — hence the increasing popularity of paywalls. But as media industry analyst Ken Doctor points out in a recent post at the Nieman Lab, it is far more likely that success for media entities of all kinds will come by making smaller bets on a number of different things. The big problem for the industry’s traditional players is that they have spent decades getting good at doing one thing — but now not as many people want that thing, and experimentation and rapid innovation is not in their DNA.
Doctor says that after years of hoping that the rise of the web and digital media would not decimate the industry, followed closely by the hope that digital ad revenue would somehow arrive and close the gap, print executives are finally starting to understand that both of these hopes are futile:
Until recently, the holy grail was summed up in two words: replacement revenue. Now the jig’s up. No matter how fast you shovel digital dirt into the chasm of print loss, you can’t recreate the past; you can’t fill the hole.
Stack those digital dimes as fast as you can
John Paton, the CEO of Media News Group and a leading advocate of the “digital first” approach for newspapers, has said that the only possible response to the problem of digital dimes not making up for the loss of print dollars is to “stack those digital dimes” as fast as possible. In other words, accumulate as much as possible from as many sources as possible (while also reducing costs to try and stem the bleeding). In his Nieman post, Doctor notes that Meinolf Ellers, the managing director of German multimedia agency dpa-infocom, made a similar point at a recent conference of news executives:
What we all see — newspaper publisher or news agency — is that the bundle is eroding, losing its power. The more we see the bundle losing market share and reaching the end of its lifecycle, the more we have to work on smaller, fragmented products that, not each by each, but overall, can compensate. That’s the strategy.

This reminds me of a phrase that David Weinberger, a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for the Internet and Society and co-author of the book The Cluetrain Manifesto, came up with to describe how the web works: he called it “small pieces, loosely joined.” One of the things I took from this is the idea that the web allows for individuals and small groups or entities to have almost as much power as — and in some cases more power than — established players. The barriers to entry, and the barriers to discovery, are so much lower now thanks to the web’s “democratization of distribution”.
We have seen the impact of exactly that phenomenon in the media industry in spades over the past few years, with the rise of digital-first entities such as The Huffington Post, TMZ, Politico and others — as well as the rise of individual media sources, using social tools to become the equivalent of media entities in their own right, or hybrids such as Andy Carvin of NPR and his one-man Twitter newswire model.
What will readers pay for other than just a paywall?
In his discussion of what media outlets can do to make a number of smaller bets instead of one or two big ones, Doctor refers to a number of things, including “in-sourcing” — using printing presses and distribution chains to provide services to others who need those skills — as well as providing marketing services outside the traditional newsprint platform. These are also things that Paton has focused on while trying to remake the Journal-Register Co., a chain of papers he took over after it emerged from bankruptcy.
But the things that really interest me are the ones that fit the kind of “velvet rope” model I have argued for as an alternative to a hard paywall around content: the ones that encourage a kind of membership approach, where new features or ways of packaging content or experiences related to that content are offered to readers. So live events, for example, which both the Texas Tribune and The Atlantic have been using to their advantage — or e-books, which are different way of packaging content, and can be remarkably profitable even if that content has already appeared on the web for free.
Unfortunately, many traditional media companies simply don’t have the kind of culture that allows for random experimentation or rapid iteration and prototyping – in other words, a startup culture. Some papers such as the New York Times have a skunkworks or research lab, and others such as the Washington Post have experimented with new features such as the Trove recommendation engine or the Facebook social reader. But many of these still feel like afterthoughts or side projects, rather than a co-ordinated plan of attack on multiple fronts. The ones who are trying the hardest always seem to be the digital natives, or the ones with the gun to their heads.
Post and thumbnail images courtesy of Flickr user See-ming Lee
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from GigaOM http://gigaom.com/2012/04/13/the-future-of-media-many-small-pieces-loosely-jo...
At the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show, digital media professionals will present, educate and collaborate on the industry’s latest technology. The show takes place April 14-19 in Las Vegas, Nev.
Founded in 1923, NAB has certainly come a long way from its roots in film and radio advocacy. Now the show tackles new media and entertainment technology in the widest scope possible — from content creation all the way to content consumption, and every step in between.
“Our event is about bringing together the leaders, the folks who are really driving media, entertainment, content development and distribution,” says Chris Brown, EVP of conventions and business operations for NAB.
Some major players in the digital media space will be attending NAB to discuss current events and announcements. Ben Silverman, founder and CEO of entertainment studio Electus and producer of shows like The Office and Ugly Betty, will talk about how we can connect digital media titans and players with those who create content. Other speakers include Stephen Dubner, author of Freakanomics, and James Cameron and Vince Pace, who will provide updates about their company, the Cameron Pace Group, which fuses creative and tech. Last but not least, Hollywood sweetheart Betty White is a keynote speaker.
As you can imagine, the digital media landscape changes drastically from year to year. More and more the industry is being impacted by particular consumer preferences and buying habits.
“[The NAB Show] reflects a new reality today that’s being driven by consumer demand,” says Brown. “There’s more demand for content, and maybe more demand for a new kind of content.” And in fact, this year’s event theme is “The Great Content Shift: Defining Your Evolution.”
That’s where creative comes in. Brown explains that NAB is dedicated to fostering content creation that can not only reach a wide number of people, but tell a story across a variety of different platforms and devices. NAB calls it “disruptive media.”
And new creative means new business opportunities. “There’s both an operational challenge in figuring it out, but then there’s also a business model challenge in trying to understand how does that affect the way we make money?” says Brown.

NAB also features intricate technology that directly impacts content delivery and consumption — namely, connected TV systems, second screens, rich media streaming, next-generation 3D technology, and high-definition streaming in cloud-based platforms.
Content delivery platform Akamai specializes in making sure many of these technologies are accessible to the average viewer. The company will be attending the NAB Show, where it will demonstrate how it manages to deliver about 30% of the world’s Internet traffic — by hosting high-quality content at very high volumes.
In fact, Akamai plays a role in the content delivery of almost every major broadcaster, event and sporting league in the world, says SVP and general manager of Akamai’s media division, Bill Wheaton. The company has built the largest video delivery system over IP in the world.
“We’re basically looked at as the FedEx of the Internet. People outsource to us that large-scale delivery at very, very large volumes,” he says.
At NAB, Akamai will be announcing its work related to this year’s Olympics. Wheaton says 30-36 broadcasters are expected to participate in the 2012 games, the majority of which Akamai will be helping to deliver content. Just how much content? About 3,600 hours of footage over a 17-day period, all of which needs to be high-quality, adaptive bitrate streaming across a myriad of devices. Oh, and it has to be secure from potential cyber attacks. Akamai employs KONA Security Solutions to protect its customers’ content from these threats, of which it sees about 1,400 in a given 24-hour period.
“[Akamai security] allows high-profile sites and companies to work on the web very securely, and they don’t have to worry about potential attacks from groups like Anonymous,” says Wheaton.
Other attending companies are more involved in the search and discovery stage of digital content. For instance, Rovi’s discovery technologies and entertainment metadata help consumers who seek all kinds of content, from live broadcast, video on-demand, recorded, cloud-based or over-the-top entertainment.
Chief evangelist at Rovi, Richard Bullwinkle, explains the company’s role at the upcoming NAB Show. “For companies involved in the delivery of professional video, we will unveil new encoding solutions designed to streamline the preparation of video entertainment for digital distribution channels.”
Rovi will also be sharing an updated version of the MainConcept SDK, its video and audio codec library, which helps developers serve the broadcast, professional and consumer industries.
Interestingly, NAB isn’t just about serving strictly the new media and entertainment spaces. Traditional TV, radio and cable powerhouses, independent content creation agencies, special effects and computer animation houses also benefit. The event is also valuable for enterprise sectors, like health care, education, retail, government and even the military (at the show, an unmanned surveillance drone will circle overhead).
Where does your industry fall into the mix? Are you involved in any phase of content creation or distribution? Where do you see digital content and media technology going in the future?
Images courtesy of NAB Show
More About: content delivery, Entertainment, Events, NAB, new media, TV, Video For more Entertainment coverage: 
from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/04/13/nab-show-2012/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_mediu...
Glee returned Tuesday night after a six-week hiatus. But the FOX show’s struggling ratings didn’t keep devoted fans from making the “Big Brother” episode of Glee a smash on Twitter — the hashtag #gleeisback was trending.
Glee tantalized its audience with a cliffhanger right before its break in February. The show’s return answered the major question concerning one particular character’s fate. The episode also featured guest star Matt Bomer as Blaine Anderson’s (Darren Criss) brother.
Glee is a fan favorite on Tumblr, too, where it spawns a growing number of Glee-inspired blogs, memes and GIFs.
This infographic by Trendrr.TV analyzes Twitter’s response to key moments of Tuesday’s episode, “Big Brother.” Do you tweet while watching your favorite television show? Let us know in the comments.
BONUS: Ridiculous Glee Memes
Musically Oblivious 8th Grader
 quick meme Click here to view this gallery.
Infographic courtesy of Trendrr.tv Thumbnail courtesy of Flickr, jj_duncan80
More About: GLEE, memes, social tv, social tv charts, Trendrr, TV, Twitter For more Entertainment coverage: 
from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/04/11/glee-twitter-social-tv/?utm_source=feedburner&...
Video discovery app maker Fanhattan is getting a lot more social, integrating with Facebook’s Open Graph to allow its users to share what they’re watching with friends. It’s also quietly rolling out a Facebook app that will let its users search for and find web-based videos from directly within the social network.
Fanhattan had already begun work on making its mobile apps more social, by hooking up with Facebook Connect and allowing users to share what shows they had “liked” on the social network. But with the latest update to the Fanhattan iOS app, the startup is taking things a step further, connecting with Facebook’s Open Graph so that users can “seamlessly share” the TV shows and movies that they discover on the app to their timeline.
Users can set up the new app so that they automatically share what they’re watching just by going into their settings and choosing to share their activity. Or, if they’re a bit more finicky about letting everyone know they’re big Real Housewives fans, they can selectively toggle their social activity on or off — or even delete certain videos by removing it from their recent activity.
Fanhattan is pushing the Open Graph implementation as a way for users to show off their “video IQ,” and to gain the sort of social currency that comes with searching for and watching cool content. It’s also a way for them to keep track of what they’ve been watching.
The ancillary benefit to Fanhattan is that it could introduce a whole new method of content discovery through the social initiative. Fanhattan VP of Marketing and Product Chris Thun told me in a phone interview today that the company is working to enable three different types of content discovery — algorithmic, curated and social — and seeing what your friends are watching will help enable that last method.
In addition to integration with Open Graph, the startup is also using Facebook as a new place for users to search for and discover content, with the launch of a Facebook app that mirrors the mobile experience. Thun said Fanhattan wants to be available on all platforms and devices — whether they be iOS or Android phones or tablets, PCs through the web or connected TVs — and rolling out a Facebook app is one step in that direction.
Thun says the most recent update was simply a soft launch of new capabilities: Fanhattan is looking at this all as a first step toward building something bigger, and expects a more full-featured integration with Open Graph and an improved Facebook app over the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, it’s going to see what the response to the new features are and refine its apps — both mobile and on the web — to improve the user experience.
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from GigaOM http://gigaom.com/video/fanhattan-facebook-open-graph/?utm_source=feedburner&...
coondoggie writes "When it comes to stirring the brains of genius, a good competition can bring forward some really great ideas. That's the driving notion behind myriad public competitions, or challenges as they are often labeled, that will take place in the near future sponsored by your US government. The competitions are increasing by design as part of the $45 billion America Competes Act renewed by Congress last year that gave every federal department and agency the authority to conduct prize competitions, according to the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy." Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
from Slashdot http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/04/11/171249/expect-a-flood-of-competitions-...
Meteor, a new real-time JavaScript framework targeting web app developers, is causing quite a stir on Twitter and Hacker News.
The product will let developers keep working in “pure” JavaScript and use the same APIs on client and server devices, according to Meteor’s web site. The Meteor platform API works everywhere, but development happens on the local laptop with Meteor handling the data updates and synchronization to the server.
What seemed to wow developers was Meteor’s claim to perform “hot code pushes” which update the app while users are connected to it — without disrupting them. According to the web site: “when you push a new version, the code is seamlessly injected into each browser frame in which the app is open.”
That’s a big claim that some commenters want to hear more about. One Hacker News reader wrote: “I dread the tests that would be necessary to make sure that hot updates won’t break anything.”
The software — which the company says is open source — is still in early stages (preview version 0.3.2 to be exact.) Meteor’s FAQ:
Meteor is still under rapid development. Expect major API changes in each release. Everything that we release has passed our automated tests and also a manual QA process, but we don’t have 1.0-level test coverage, so a bug or two may sometimes slip through.
Meteor people include Geoff Schmidt, who co-founded of Miro, an Internet TV platform, and founder of MixApp, a realtime peer-to-peer music network. Two years ago he was employee #9 at Asana, where he worked on the Luna application platform.
What …. the …. meteor.com/screencast
Trying to wrap my head around this…. my guts scream: AWESOME … my head says: what?! #meteor— Simon (@zimmen) April 11, 2012
The discussion thread on Hacker News is lively with many commenters professing to be blown away at first glance, and then more than a little bit curious about the innards of the framework.
Wrote MichaelJansen:
My first impression of this: wow. If Meteor is all it appears to be, this is nothing short of revolutionary.
My second reaction: what happens when the magic ends? When I was new to Rails, I really loved how easy it was to get started with scaffolding, a nice DSL for specifying relations, nifty form helpers. However, the first time I veered a little off the golden path and wanted to do something a little more complicated (that was not supported by the form helpers at that time), I ran into a huge wall.
The San Francisco company has some pretty big fans. Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of Asana and Facebook blurbed the software on its Web site, as did Gary Tan, founder and designer of Posterous.
Given the hue and cry raised already, it looks like web developers will be kicking the tires on this one for some time.
Check out the video:
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from GigaOM http://gigaom.com/cloud/web-developers-watch-out-for-meteor/?utm_source=feedb...
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