LB's Rambles

Diamonds Are Forever, Parodists Not So Much

So the big diamond company (from mining to sales) De Beers is having a hissy fit because someone dared to parody them. As PC Magazine reports, they're trying to order the parody's host company to shut the parody down, threatening a trademark infringement lawsuit.

Note that this is in the course of a much larger (and funnier) parody of the New York Times - itself not always renowned for its sense of humor, but which has called the parody of itself "a grade-A caper."

I guess the kindest thing to say about De Beers is that, like too many other companies, they don't have a clue when it comes to social media. Or parody. Or the nature of the Internet. The parodists are receiving support from a number of worthwhile organizations - who point out, by the way, that De Beers' claim of trademark infringement is nonsense, unless perhaps the word "diamonds" is supposed to be a trademark. Online Media Daily has the latest.

So - in hopes of providing a clue - let's review:

1. Making a fuss and unleashing the lawyers draws attention to yourself and to the unwanted parody.

2. The focus of this parody was the New York Times, which seems to have survived somehow without losing its corporate temper.

3. Mounting this kind of attack on the parodists is merely going to make the company look bad and, most probably, represents a greater threat to the "brand" than a parody of very limited circulation.

The Electronic Freedom Foundation has rallied to the parodists' defense. They're quite capable. And they understand the Internet.

Confusing Blog Stats

How big is the blogosphere? How many people are blogging? How about readers? Advertisers?

It seems that the answer to these and many other questions are easy to find - too easy, because they vary so widely, depending on which set you're reading.

As an example, the Center for Media Research's Research Brief newsletter/blog has published a gathering of stats from a variety of sources - and found, I think, mostly confusion.  Some examples: comScore MediaMetrix says there were 77.1 million unique blog visitors in August, but eMarket found 94.1 million blog readers (not the same, I know, I know) in May. Universal McCann says 77% of active Internet users read blogs, but eMarketer says it's more like 50% in the United States. And so forth.

So what should I make of Technorati's findings - same report - that a majority of bloggers have ads on their blogs? That mean annual revenue, presumably from those ads, is around $6,000? I mean, obviously, don't give up the day job - but are there any more solid lessons to be drawn?

And - sometime, sometime soon, we really do need to set measurement standards and adhere to them. I'm not sure this free-for-all can or should last.

Twitbook? Facer?

No matter what you might have called it, it's worth noting the reports around this week that Twitter turned down a $500 million dollar takeover offer from Facebook. According to All Things Digital's Kara Swisher, the talks broke down for several reasons, including both price and a desire on the part of Twitter investors to build its own revenue streams. Over at the Silicon Alley Insider, Henry Blodget thinks a lot of it involved the over-valuation of Facebook stock.

Whatever the reason, I don't think we've heard the last of this. There's a fair amount of overlap in what the two services do, in terms of providing "status reports" on (and for) their users, and the overlap happens in ways that could make it easy and natural for users to get the best of both services. Both are looking for new revenue streams - hey, Twitter is looking for ANY revenue streams - so I suspect the talks will be resumed at some point. Stay tuned. But I wouldn't bet on "Twitbook" being the name...

Finding the Right Voice

Over at Ragan.com, Andrew Analore has a very interesting article today about Sony's blog, started by company officials to engage in the two-way communications at the heart of social media and so critical to today's customer relations.

What's most interesting to me is that Sony has chosen to let its SVP for Corporate Communications be the chief blogger. A lot of companies automatically figure, let's put the CEO online. Sony seems to have had sense enough to realize that doing so might not have been the best way to go.

When you choose somebody to engage with your customers, you need somebody willing - and with the time - to do just that. It's not necessarily the best job for the CEO. In Sony's case, according to the article, the company has itself a blogger who knows the company thoroughly, is known and respected throughout the corporation and is willing and eager to engage in a conversation. In other words, he's smart enough to know that advertising and press releases are one-way communications while a blog has the potential for two (or more) way interaction. It's a valuable lesson for companies that are ready to engage their customers in the blogosphere and want to find out the best way to do it.

Pure Self-Interest Note

If you are planning on doing any e-shopping this holiday season - particularly this Friday, so-called "Black Friday," the day after Thanksgiving - and are inclined to shop for bargains at Amazon, I'd really appreciate it if you could use this link: Les's Link to Amazon.com

By doing so:

1. You will make yourself happy by saving money.

2. I may actually earn a small amount on your transaction.

3. You will help Amazon keep its volume prices low.

And it costs you nothing extra while saving you the hassles of mall shopping. What a deal!

Thank you.

What Kind of Blogger Am I?

Cue the dramatic music. As we mentioned the other day, an automated on-line service tells me that there is a 73% chance this blog is written by a man. Right. Now, another automated site has analyzed my writing and discovered (drum roll, please) that I am what it calls a "Duty Fulfiller":

 The responsible and hardworking type. They are especially attuned to the details of life and are careful about getting the facts right. Conservative by nature they are often reluctant to take any risks whatsoever.

I don't think they really know me very well, do they...

Hat tip (again) to Don Surber, who clearly has far too much time on his hands.

"The Judas Window"

John Dickson Carr was the acknowledged master of the locked room/impossible crime mystery. As Carter Dickson, he wrote "The Judas Window," which is certainly one of the finest such stories ever written. It's the subject of this week's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast.

The central problem is this: a young man awakens after apparently having been drugged. He finds himself alone in a room with the murdered body of his fiancee's father - a man he had just met - apparently stabbed with an arrow that had been hanging on the wall. The room is locked and bolted on the inside, and the windows are shuttered, locked and inaccessible.

Police - and almost everyone else - assume that the young man must have murdered his father-in-law-to-be. But Sir Henry Merrivale agrees to defend the young man at trial: Sir Henry says he knows what really happened - the crime was committed through use of a Judas Window.

And what is that? Sir Henry says it's quite common - almost every room has one. The problem is so few people ever notice it.

Intrigued? This is an absolute must-read for any classic mystery lover. The solution is stunningly simple, brilliantly disguised - and completely fair. For more information (and reviews of other books), please visit www.classicmysteries.net .

Eulogy for the Long Tail?

Here's a gloomy thought to start off a Monday: is the Internet's "long tail" dead - at least as far as revenue is concerned? A lot of marketing people have touted the long tail as a way to keep audiences interested long after they might have dropped away from traditional media. The never-disappear quality of Internet posting means that six months, or a year or more, down the road, new people may see and act upon that Internet post.

Well, yes - but it appears that's not where the money is. I think this article by Andrew Orlowski at The Register gloats a bit much, but it outlines the situation. So does Chris Anderson's Wired blog post. Anderson quotes Google CEO Eric Schmidt, in an interview with McKinsey, as saying:

[A]lthough the tail is very interesting and we enable it, the vast majority of the revenue remains in the head. And this a lesson that businesses have to learn. While you can have a long tail strategy, you better have a head, because that’s where all the revenue is. 

But Schmidt does say that ideally you need both the head and tail - but the revenue is about 90/10.

On the other hand, I don't see where that addresses the validity of the PR argument that your news is going to continue getting attention through the long tail. But perhaps that's an argument for another day.

Hat tip: Sarah Weinman, via Twitter

Gender Bender Blogging?

Is your blog written by a man or a woman? I mean, you may know and your readers may know. But, via Don Surber, here's a website that takes the truly scientific interactive approach to find out.

For the record, the analyzer tells me there's a 73% chance this blog is written by a man. Just sayin', and my apologies to/for the other 27%.

Motrin's Mother of All Headaches

By now, quite probably you have heard of the trouble encountered by Johnson & Johnson, the makers of Motrin, over an advertising campaign they ran - for a relatively short period of time - on the Internet. The ad was aimed at mothers who carry their babies in slings - referred to in the ad as "baby-wearing," with the apparent implication that it is no more than a fashion statement.

Motrin ran afoul of some in the extremely large "mommy-blogging" community. If you're a mother, and you blog, you're part of that community. And a lot of women who carry their babies in slings, because it appears to have huge benefits for both baby and mother, found the ad offensive - and said so, creating a firestorm on Twitter and elsewhere over the past weekend. The result - also over the weekend: Motrin pulled the ad campaign, and Johnson & Johnson issued a full apology. The initial reaction from PR and ad industry observers was summed up pretty well in Peter Shankman's PR Differently blog.

But now the real question is, what next? I'm somewhat relieved to see that the answer, for the most part, seems to be a rational reaction on both sides. While I'm sure Motrin will continue to hear some complaints, others within (and outside) the blogosphere are pointing to the quick company reaction and saying, let's learn some lessons and continue. Johnson & Johnson may review some of the procedures they use for planning and testing online advertising. Catharine P. Taylor, on MediaPost's Social Media Insider blog, wonders if this kind of thing may kill online advertising creativity, but a lot of the commenters disagree with her, and I think they have a point.

So what should come next? Let me refer you to one more bit of reading, Jory Des Jardins of BlogHer.com, writing on JackMyers.com. She offers some simple, direct suggestions about how companies should be looking to interact with the blogosphere - supportive or critical - that may help to soothe feelings while encouraging creativity. There are going to be a lot more incidents like this - always have been, always will be. It's not the end of advertising as we know it, nor should it be, but it does underly the new, indispensible (and irreversible) role being played by social media.