This Hitwise article about content aggregation vs. creation raises difficult questions about the role of content within lead generation websites.
“Aggregators are taking a larger piece of the pie but the size of the pie is growing with visits to content creators and all News and Media websites growing. The trouble is - creating all that content is expensive. It’s tough to justify the cost of content creation if those that sift and sort are gaining on those that create.”
Asks us a tough question about creating content vs. just aggregating it from different sources.Aggregation could be interesting to both increase page views and banner ads. However, content creation will need to find new revenue streams to stay afloat. Their seems to be an imbalance in this relationship that will need to be worked out.
There is no better way to use up a bunch of wilting basil than making up a quick pesto. You are than able to use your pesto to compliment pasta, vegetables, fish and even pizza. Follow these simple steps to a successful and easy pesto sauce.
Time: less than 10 minutes
Ingredients:
1 bunch of basil
handful pine nuts (walnuts or even almonds)
2 cloves of garlic
salt to taste
one tablespoons Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup water
Steps:
Wash basil and remove leaves from biggest stems.
Add all dry ingredients in a tall container or mortar.
Add olive oil and a couple tablespoons of water
Blend with immersion blender or pestle
Keep adding water until creamy consistency is attained.
Toss with pasta or spread on par baked pizza for great meal. Beware that over heating pesto will make it turn dark. If desired add 1 raw tomato, a 1/4 cup of sun dried tomatoes, or one can of anchovies. My favorite is with anchovies and plenty of nuts. If you decide to make your pesto with anchovies make sure that you run them under water for a minute to remove excess salt.
While still firmly in online marketing for the marine industry, I am taking a change of tactics and opening up the focus of my blog from exclusively the marine industry to a wider range of interests including food, luxury, fashion and travel as well as marketing for the marine industry. Tactics and strategies are applicable across several vertical markets. Additionally, I am changing the name of the blog from Online marine marketing to LaurentRains.com in an effort to build a greater personal brand and give people not necessarily interested in the marine industry to keep track of what I am up to and what I am working on.
I look forward to continuing to write, post and promoting brands, services and products that have passion, love and a determination to make to serve their customers.
This evening I was plowing through “Marketing to the Social Web” by Larry Weber and I came across the following reference to the Genmar Toughboats campaign regarding advertising as a conversation starter.
The “bubba tests” is one of the rare marketing campaigns from the marine industry that actually gets passed around the office via email and instant messenger. As soon as the campaign has a new installment it is immediately passed throughout the office. If asked even none boaters who have seen the advertisement will undoubtedly proclaim that Triumph boats are the toughest boats around.
So why exactly does this campaign stand out from the myriad of other Manufacturer advertisement that we so often see and forget in a never ending sea of boats. Larry Weber answers this question by quoting Triumph’s president,
“Why post the “bubba test” video online and seed it on boatrelated blogs and sites? “We can start a conversation with the consumer, and it’s measurable.”
This idea of starting a conversation with customers is the standout concept. These advertising messages are highly social engaging people with a simple message, “Triumph boats are tough” and providing people with the manner to spread that message, funny videos. However it took more than just posting the video and hoping for people to see it. This campaign actively seeded boating related blogs and other sites.
We must be active in seeking out these areas and transparent that we are engaging customers. They want us to show them our products and if we present a great product well are happy to evangelize to all of their friends. Get to the core of your product offering and engage your prospective and current customers about that core. If you want any hints check out www.toughboats.com.
AOL just acquired Bebo, a social networking site, for 850 million dollars. As this news has broken in blogs and is now hitting the business sections of newspapers around the world the trickle down effect is taking place and marketing managers are asking themselves several questions.
Many people, especially in the marine industry, are under the impression that the social web is limited to MySpace.com and FaceBook.com. This is a misconception.
The social web does not refer to the concept of one website or another. Rather it refers to the aggregate representation of our relationships. These relationships may be expressed exclusively in person at the yacht club bar, online on a forum or any combination along this spectrum. As marketers we are interested in this “Social Graph” because we know the incredible power of customer recommendations and other forms of word of mouth marketing.
As marine marketers this is especially interesting to us because we want to make sure to foster the ability of boaters to share the great experiences that they have had with our products and services.
Questions that you should be asking yourself:
Is my company actively engaging in a dialog with our customers?
Do we have a blog and newsletter strategy?
What do we do to identify mavens?
Are we letting and encouraging consumers to become fans of our products?
The question is how do we stir the passions of our consumers, engage them and increase sales?I see that we need to a focus on the consumer and engage them in a dialogue. Allow people to comment and give them a platform where they can see that their voice is being heard. Make sure that you are engaging them and responding to their comments. Do not be afraid of criticism.
A blog or forum can let you hear the engine of your product running.This allows you to get direct and immediate un mediated feedback regarding any changes that you may make, your existing product or any newly launched product.
While I am convinced that this level of openness is the best course of action, I am still having a hard time convincing senior level management.
I just returned from San Diego after attending Graphing Social Pattern West, a two day conference about online social networking with over 22 presentations and panel discusions.This conference was an invaluable opportunity to help me understand how WE (the marine industry) can take advantage of the Social Graph.
What do I mean by the Social Graph?
The social graph is the list of your friends and connections both in the physical world and on social websites that you use. This takes the network conceptually outside of the container of individual social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Linked In, Bebo amongst many others. With the concept of Social Graph we expand from the obvious social networking sites to the to including our email lists, forum aliases, junkmail safe lists, blogs, Instant Messenger buddy lists, CRM databases, Netflix accounts and the intersection of all of these lists that express our social relationships.
So why should the Marine Industry leverage this phenomenon?
Boaters are incredibly social people. We organize ourselves geographical specific groups, such as Yacht Clubs, raft ups, regattas, marina associations and even groups of friends. We also organize ourselves around enthusiast groups such as boat owner clubs, class associations (racing), fishing clubs, cruising clubs, international events and regattas. Adding social elements to marine related sites will add value for consumers and create a more meaningful user experience. The biggest challenge I see is keeping the interface for interaction simple enough for an older demographic.
Do you have any favorite sites, applications or functionalities that help you extend your social life online?
The Internet has dramatically changed the way that we must market our products and brand. As consumers are increasingly tuning out or turning off banner, commercials, and become immune traditional marketing messages on traditional marketing channels, consumers are increasingly relying on the old standbys of personal referrals and recommendations.
Social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and even Amazon.com have understood that the strongest marketing message that can be given is the referral of a trusted friend or a peer. Branding is based on results and on experience. Mindshare is not quantifiable, nor is it effective. Bringing consumers into a dialog with us and with each other about our businesses, products and services allows us to build true branding. We have seen the meteoric rise of a company named after an obscure mathematical symbol… Google, with no print advertisement and no television or radio spots.
Find mavens and get them excited about the product. Reach out to customers identify what they want and work with them to create and deliver a product or service that will excite them and make them passionate. Let your customers do the work for you.
Wow! Back in Seattle after my second Miami International Boat Show. At least this year we had decent weather and not the 45f of 2007. While last year I walked the docks at Collins Ave. and spoke with any broker that would give me the time of day, this year I spent most of my time organizing meetings, preparing for awards ceremonies my company was involved with, meeting the governor of Florida (really just saying hello at a reception), and speaking with as many companies creating great content online or exploring Web 2.0 as possible.
Due to the international nature of the Miami Boat Show it tends to be more of a OEM and Brokerage show than a dealer show. Many OEMs will invite their top performing dealers to attend the show and yacht brokers from up and down the East Coast and Gulf States bring their most beautiful listings to sell. The Miami Convention Center houses focuses on OEM boats under 50 feet and a diverse group of retailers selling marine related electronics, motors, and accessories. Along Collins Avenue is the in-water brokerage show with some OEMs of large yachts and many brokers. And throughout the whole show it was difficult to find a wifi hotspot.
It is always impressive to see how the marine industry lags a bit behind. of course it is difficult to give the sensation and feel of a boat of yacht via the internet, but there is no doubt that the Internet is now where the majority of people initiate their search for information. The boat show is a destination that will allow them to delve more in depth regarding their interests. There is a disconnect from the online experience to the boat show experience, the virtual to the live.
This show highlighted to me the limited tie in between manufacturer websites and the boat show experience. For example not only did Cigarette Racing not indicate where they would be at the show, but failed to indicate that they would be at the show at all. The last show they had listed on their website was the Fort Lauderdale show in 2007. The website needs to draw the audience to the show or dealer experience. Additionally their website does not reflect anything about their current ad campaign, which is great and could include a “to see the rest of this photo shoot go to www.cigaretteracing.com. While the team at Cigarette Racing have done a great job making a lifestyle campaign, they could easily strengthen their online marketing.
While Fountain Powerboats does not have a website that it as slick as Cigarette Racing, it packs a lot more information into its website than its competitor. Right on the homepage is a direct link to events and shows detailing their schedule with a calender and where they can be found at the boat show. Additionally, Fountain Powerboats has a uses its website to showcase its transparency allowing visitors to explore as deep as they would like regarding the company and the boats.
Developers and marketers are faced with a challenge regarding how to access user data to develop new applications or market to those groups. Social networks want to keep the relationship with their members and not lose them to other social networks or applications that better serve them. Competing social networks must compete both for active user base and the attention of third party developers who want to incorporate the data in their applications. Users will be able to take their archives and friends from one site to another.
Recently both Facebook and Google have agreed to adhere to the guidelines of DataPortability giving this standard a good chance of taking off. What remain to be seen is how this will manifest allow both of these sites to profit from the groups of users and relationships each organizes and stores.
The big question is how can the marine industry take advantage of this and how can we tap into this ever growing user base?
