Ad HustlerConfessions Of A Serial Internet Entrepreneur

As usual, there’s plenty of hype surrounding a new ad system that’s being released: The Twitter Ad System.  Considering Twitter is such a popular website you would think i’d probably be excited about it.  Quite honestly, I’m not.  I think it’s going to be a failboat for affiliates and i’m going to tell you why.

My buddy Jonathan Volk just wrote a post about Twitters Ad System so rather then rewording the details of the system i’m going to grab his breakdown and make some comments.  Read his post here.

“As we previously described, the new system serves up ads based on keywords in Twitter search queries.”

Fail #1: I’m sure people do use search.twitter.com.  I even use it on rare occasion if I want to see what random people are saying about something.  The KEY word in the previous sentence is RARE though.  99% of my twitter use is either tweeting or looking at my lists and seeing what my friends are saying.  Considering a very large percent of twitter use is mobile as well, what is the percentage of the overall Twitter Population that is going to use Twitter Search?  My guess is that it’s low and that’s a straight up fail.  If this is the only way the advertising system is going to serve ads it’s actually kind of a joke because companies like Sponsored Tweets & Ad.ly will still thrive and be a MORE effective advertising method then Twitters own system.  Why would you let a parasite service take your revenue?  Makes no sense.

Promoted Tweets will appear at the top of the search results page, with small text indicating they were sponsored. The Times piece notes that companies could use this to combat negative tweets (they can place a positive tweet at the top of the page)

OK, I would expect disclosure.  If a company thinks that an ad at the top of the search results is going to combat negative tweets, that’s a company that just doesn’t get social media.  The only way to combat negativity in social media is to FIX THE PROBLEM.  In addition, most people trust their peers so if a peer they are following tweets negatively about a company, they are going to see it in their stream.  This ad would never reach their stream because again they aren’t using search.twitter.com.

A Promoted Tweet isn’t guaranteed to stay afloat for a long time — if the tweet isn’t tracking well in terms of replies, clicks, and a number of other metrics Twitter is calling “resonance”, it will be pulled, and the advertiser won’t pay for it.

Quality Score?  Uggghhh.  Go ahead and piss off your advertisers before they even start advertising with you.

One ad will be shown at a time

Wowzerz…I’m impressed.

Initial ad partners include Best Buy, Virgin America, Starbucks, and Bravo

This doesn’t surprise me at all.  My guess is that they went after these types of advertisers because they don’t really care about ROI.  By taking on “branding” (ie: immeasurable) advertisers they could avoid negative reviews like this one for a while.

Advertisers will be paying on a CPM basis initially, with plans to adjust the model once Twitter can better gauge how people are engaging with Promoted Tweets

No real comment here but branding campaigns do normally run CPM.

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Facebook Ads were a huge win for affiliates and self serve advertisers.  We all know that although their ad approval team is recruited from the monkey cage at the San Diego Zoo, they do have an awesome advertising offering.  Let’s give some thought as to what makes it awesome.  It’s really a pretty simple answer: insane targeting.  You can target demographics, workplace as well as interests.  All of this targeting makes figuring out ways to appeal to these users gosh darn easy.  Facebook users SELF IDENTIFY themselves and that’s key.

This is the major problem with Twitter Ads.  Their is no self identification on Twitter.  This is what’s going to make it hard to ever have effective in-stream advertising run by Twitter.  You can argue that they will come up with some sophisticated algorithm that can detect themes in a persons overall tweets and serve ads to those themes but I don’t think it will work.  Let’s say I tweet 10 times and this is what I say.

1) I just started a new Facebook Campaign and all Ads were denied
2) I just took a massive dump and there was corn in it
3) The trees outside are blooming
4) My car smells like rotten milk
5) Check out this article http://www.link.com
6) Weekend is almost here
7) Jersey Shore was hilarious last night
8 ) Class is not determined by what you spend
9) Just went to Ikea
10) My foot just fell off

It’s going to be very hard to create a theme out of random tweets and plenty of Twitter users tweet randomly.

What are your thoughts?  Do you think the Twitter Ad System (as it stands) is going to be effective?  Let’s discuss!

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TattoMedia recently published a report with research related to the affiliate industry. One of the research pieces they did which I found interesting was the survey “Which Affiliate Industry Blogs Do You Read Most.” AdHustler.com ranked at a very respectable 5th most popular (considering the million friggen affiliate blogs nowadays). I am pretty proud of this and have each one of you readers to THANK for helping my voice be heard.

The top 5 most read blogs were:

#1 Shoemoney (of course)
#2 NickyCakes (always a solid source of info)
#3 Jonathan Volk (Good guy)
#4 PPC Coach (Huh? Does this guy even have a blog?)
#5 Ad Hustler

Below is the graphic showing all the rankings as well as other bloggers and how they ranked.

If you were Nick Throlson wouldn’t you just give up at this point?

There is a lot of other interesting information in this report so check it out here: Tatto Media 2010 Bi-Annual Affiliate Survey Report.

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This is a guest post written by Dina Riccobono

Let’s get this straight- I don’t claim to be an expert, I’m not some guru, and I won’t sell you a million dollar idea. I just have a decent knowledge of the social space and was asked to help clarify it a little for some of you…less savvy characters out there. Anyone who tells you they’re a social media expert is lying. The real experts HATE the term- because they know that the online world is always and forever evolving.

That being said, with some social media platforms, there are clear cut, black and white rights and wrongs. We’ll use Facebook fan pages in this particular situation. I’m a huge fan of using social media platforms for brand advocacy and customer service. Unfortunately, there are so many businesses and ‘experts’ out there throwing around useless Facebook fan pages, Twitter accounts, and fake Yelp reviews that I decided to take a public stand- hence my previous rant on Twitter and this guest post.

So how am I going to help you to social success? 5 easy steps and you’ll be well on your way. And if you’re not, you’re (still) doing it wrong!

Step One: Have a Goal.

A what?! Yup, imagine that. Every single thing you do in your business should have a purpose. Ideas aren’t spaghetti; you aren’t throwing a bunch of noodles at the wall to see what sticks. Sure, it could work some of the time. I bet there were a few billion dollar ideas birthed from shooting the s—. That, my friends, is typically called brainstorming- which has a purpose. A purpose = a goal. See? I bet this is less painful then you thought.

Since we’re specifically discussing Facebook fan pages today, what is the goal of creating the page in the first place? Decision time:

A) A place for your customers to go when they want to rant/ rave about your product.

B) A great way to build a new customer base through special promotions.

C) A blank page with hourly ‘I’m a fan’ invites to your friends, family, and anyone you’ve never met.

D) A place for you to build a sense of community with customers, old and new.

If you answered C, stop reading. You’re way beyond help. The major problem I have, though, is that a LOT of you answer C! Why C?! Why would you want to annoy potential customers, current brand advocates, and your family (don’t answer that last one) with a page without purpose?! Let’s pretend you passed the multiple choice test and move on…because clearly, you need some help.

Step Two: Who Are You?

You know how awkward blind dates can be? That’s exactly what you’re on with a new customer. They’ve maybe heard a bit about you, enough to at least convince them to spend this precious few hours sizing you up. Make one off-color comment to a conservative chick, or refuse a drink when you’re out with a hardcore partier, and you’re probably not making it to round two of this rose ceremony. It’s the same thing with businesses, personal brands, personalities. Decide who you are and stick to your guns- if you’re a people-pleasing brand who wants to turn haters to #1 fans, great! If you prefer to curse, kick, and scream right back at a customer with an issue, fantastic! Make a decision and share it with your fan-world in your bio- you’ll get that second date (or at least a fake number).

Part B of the ‘Who Are You’ phenomenon is if you want to be well-known, be well-known as you. If you mess up, piss someone off, or make a fool of yourself, do you really want your business to tank because of it? Separate yourself from your brand (unless it’s your personal one)- because trust me- eventually, you will mess up. It’s a part of life.

If you can’t handle parts a and b, hire someone to handle social media for you. Seriously- if you’re a CEO, you’ve got bigger things to worry about then what the optimal fan page post time is. Get a friendly, smart, sociable, savvy gal or guy, and let them take over. Seriously though- give them the social reigns once they get acclimated to the company. There’s nothing worse then a social media spokesperson talking out their you-know-what’s and sounding like the crisis PR team before there’s ever a crisis.

Step Three: Where Are You?

Don’t you hate when you call a customer service hotline and you press 0 incessantly, but STILL can’t get someone on the phone to save your life? Don’t be that guy!

People want to talk to people (even if they hate people, this is the exception)! For —-‘s sake, would you put contact info on your page?! On every page- EVERY. SOCIAL. MEDIA. PROFILE. Don’t make people search through 30,000 Google results before they can even find the name of someone who works at your company. BE THERE. BE AVAILABLE.

If you’re going to go through the trouble of creating the page and clicking on all the individual little pictures to invite people to know how awesome you are, take three seconds and add a photo and some relevant info. I shouldn’t have to tell you this. I kind of want to stop writing right here and now if you didn’t already do this- but you obviously didn’t which is why we’re both here in the first place.

Oh and also- answer the people. If they contact you on the phone, via email, if they tweet at you- comment on your (gasp) Facebook fan page- reply. They’re writing for a reason. Whether they want to just say thanks; are stark raving mad about their brand new product that broke; or have a question. Let your customers know you can hear them. You can’t resolve every problem, and you certainly can’t convert every enemy into an advocate, but you can listen. That’s the easy part.

Step Four: Do Something. (Almost) Anything!

If you’re going to create a fan page, and you want to have…you know, fans…make some! They don’t just appear out of thin air. They won’t love your product because once back in ’92, you saved a puppy from a burning building while selling girl scout cookies. You have to DO SOMETHING- and something good, at that! Fan pages are GREAT- but you have to utilize them properly.

What would I like to see as a fan?

-Tell me your story. Not the ‘HR-approved’ vague one-liner. Your actual STORY.

-Tell me about yoursel(ves). You want to build a community? Start with yours. Tell our people about your people. (This is a great approach if you’re in a business where someone has a dedicated sales person, marketing rep, or agent.) You can even throw in the line about the puppy and the girl scouts- but if I see it I’ll know you stole it. Let’s face it- it’s awkward communicating back and forth for a year and having a sales rep know enough about you to become you- and all you know is their email address.

-Tell me what moves you. Don’t make stuff up. This isn’t a dating profile so spare me the ‘long walks on the beach, candlelit dinners’ lines. Does your company participate in a 5k annually? Do you have a softball team? Do you volunteer on the weekends? I’d like to know you are an actual human being- not just a bot making your brand look better.

-Give me stuff! I saved this one for last because I know you’re hesitant. Times are tough, the economy is-or-isn’t in the tank, depending on who you ask- but did you know that giving something away for free…can actually make you money? Oh my Gawd, I know, totally crazy right? Wrong!

Motivate people to love you- and I don’t mean ‘fan my page I’ll give you an iPad.’ That defeats the whole purpose.

-Re: Free things: Get your brand advocates to tell you why they love your product- on video. Get new customers to give completely honest reviews of your service. Sure, you’ll get some bad ones- but you’re going to get those anyway. Learn about them before they become a problem. Win-win. Oh, and also, make the giveaway something good. I’m not going to give you my life documentary as directed by James Cameron and reenacted by Angelina Jolie for a plastic dinosaur, ok? Put some effort into it. It’s even better if you (shocking news coming here) giving away your product or service. Oh, wow! Then I’d like, totally have amazing things to say about it!

Step Five: Don’t be a WTF.

Seriously- do you really want to be one of ‘those’ people I’m writing this post about? The ones where every time the notification pops up on my page that says ‘1 new page suggestion’ I cringle, yell ‘What the F—‘ to my dogs and consider flinging my laptop off the balcony? No, you don’t. Well, maybe you do for me- but think of me as a generic here, not me specifically.

Do NOT- I repeat- DO NOT force people into fandom. You’ll actually force yourself into a far worse situation- brokedom. Maybe not today, maybe not next month, but really? If your marketing strategy is to annoy the crap out of your customer until they join your page-

#1- you haven’t sold anything yet and

#2- you aren’t going to. Which leaves you…in the poor house with two Facebook fans (your mom doesn’t count- no, really, she doesn’t)…make that one.

Dina Riccobono is the VP of Business Development for 1938 Business- a boutique video advertising agency. She is returning to the online TV space with a new show, 1938 Cares, launching on the 1938Media.com platform in April.

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