Conversational Media Marketing

A lot of light is being shed on Facebook Beacon's privacy issues.  MoveOn.org, which started a Facebook group to protest Beacon, has served as a catalyst to draw enough attention to the issue that it's being reported Facebook is going to make changes. Here's some links to relevant posts:

• Facebook Beacon, the Pandora's Box of Marketing
• Facebook backs off tracking user purchases
• Facebook to Extinquish the Beacon

Not too many weeks ago I started getting invitations to connect at Plaxo. I didn't even know Plaxo offered connections. I thought it was just a way to keep my contact list updated. Little did I know they had completely rewritten the entire platform, and I find myself liking it.

This blog is not intended to be a "did you hear the latest" type site, though I found this hard to resist.

News Corp is making some badly needed changes to MySpace, according to MarketingVox, including a Facebook-like newsfeed and the creation of multiple profiles, so you can have one for personal use, one for work, and one for your alter-ego or whatever.

Just received this message from Facebook...

Announcing the premiere of Firebrand, the first multi-platform network for great commercials—on TV, web and mobile.

I've been wrestling with the best way to share links, whether using a , , , or directly within this blog itself. Haven't made up my mind just yet, but here are some links for today:

• Some Sanity Comes to the Hype Cycle - A further discussion of the amount of money being spent on WOM and social media marketing
• Why the Days of Targeting an Audience are Over - This is an interview done with me by a very nice European lady that stemmed from a conversation we had in Facebook
• Nescafe Brews Buzz Via Blogs - Just saw this and wanted to read it, but never got the chance

Also, here's more on the Pepperidge Farms connect via cookies debate:

• Pepperidge Farms the Cookie Trail Doesn't Lead to Social - an expertly crafted treatise from my friend and fellow marketing blogger Toby Bloomberg
• I'm not dating your cookie - Jeff Jarvis rips PF

Sometimes I look for topics about which to blog, and sometime topics look for me... or so it seems. This post fits the latter.

In doing my daily due diligence reading the 100+ RSS feeds to which I'm subscribed, not to mention the 1/2 dozen different daily email newsletters I receive, on three different occasions today I saw articles dealing with the concept of mixing editorial content and ads. In my book, that's an unpardonable sin.

Following the hubbub over Google's recent PageRank debacle, bloggers are now tossing the blaggard overboard.

For example, the EatonWeb blog directory, which SplashPress Media relaunched earlier this year, is devaluing PageRank in its metrics. The reason? Unreliability.

"[W]e no longer feel that it’s an accurate reflector of site value," said the EatonWeb blog.

What do you get when you mix a famous snack maker, a group of women, and a well-known spokesperson? The Art of the Cookie, a new social network sponsored by Pepperidge Farms designed to bring women together around a plate of cookies and a glass of milk.

A new blogger friend of mine forwarded this post, One Year of Social Media Spinning, written by MediaPost blogger Joe Marchese. The first paragraph contains the phrase "social media advertising." Excuse me, but isn't that an oxymoron?

I admit it. I'm a huge fan of Copyblogger Brian Clark. If he were in the music business, almost every post he writes would be a top 40 hit!

Which brings me to the topic of this post... Brian talks about the similarities between blogging and jazz. Being a musician myself, it's one I can truly appreciate.