I think I just figured out where the Future of Marketing is going - it hit me as I was watching this video from the Conversational Marketing Summit (CMSummit) video on A Conversation with Beth Comstock (view video); Beth Comstock is the Chief Marketing Officer, General Electric.

I’m not taking anything away from any CMO, I realize they have a tough job - but the problem, as I see it, is that CMO’s and their underlings, don’t think as Web Analysts - they plan things that usually, give to subordinates to execute and figure out how to measure - and often, belatedly.

What I think the path of some of the Web Analysts today - perhaps the CMO of today, needs be the the called the chief online marking Stratigist of tomarrow.

Why, because most of this stuff, that Beth talks about, that most CMO’s talk about - the results of it - are the massaged charts that their advetising agencies produces - metrics that are thrown in as part of the execution - but they’re not objective, and in many cases, the agency(s) called in to execute, aren’t able to plan and deploy campaigns that can be tracked all the way through.

So - the CMO … needs to become a Web Analyst … that’s right .. that’s the only way I can see, where your going to be able to coceive of and execute campaigns that can be measaured from the beginning - becuase every campaign that’s conceived, will have Analytics built into it, at the conception.

And that’s what’s actually missing today - the answer is not technology (there’ plenty of it around) - it’s people.

So far it’s a  quiet 4th of July here in NYC, I’m lounging around, and haven’t even gone out yet (or heard a Firecracker go of … how un-4th of July!).

And while my mind is tired, fatigured with all the information I consume - at the same time, I’m drawn to it (not much else going on to engage with right at the moment) so, in the spirit of that feeling - I’ve been posting on Webmetricsguru about Viacom Wins lawsuit - gets YouTube to pony up log data (which I put a few hours into, to research and compose) AND watching the videos just posted from the Conversational Summit that took place here in New York, less than a month ago (I didn’t really attend it - unless you count going by the hotel where it took place later on the first evening - but I didn’t run into anyone - I just sat, had a glass of red wine, and sketched - often, that’s how I think best - I use my abilities as an artist to put order into the world, and then use my abilities as a web analyst, to analyze the data I’m presented with).

Anyway, one of the videos posted from the conference I mentioned on Measuring Conversational Media brought up an interesting point by James M. Lamberti, Senior Vice President, Search and Technology, comScore.

Mr. Lamberti said that deciding the success or failure via online campaigns is really a dead measure, especially in light of a study that showed click rates from Rich Media and Flash going down AND that most of the clickthroughs (80%)that are happening are being produced by 16% of the online population, and most of those people, are charted at the LOWER INCOME.

Which mean, according to Lamberti, that when you optimize a campaign for click through, your could be shooting yourself in the foot, since who you might end up optimizing for, is the behavior of people who aren’t interested and probably would not buy your product/service, anyway!

The argument Mr Lamberti opens up to starts at 8 minutes into the video.

He also brings up that ComScore’s “People Meter” (I never heard of it) measured DayPart ratings of Internet TV vs Regular TV is higher during the day - and that viewership of Internet TV is driven by Conversational Media - Ha!

Mr Lamberti points out the value of a visitor is in the “View Through” not the “Click Through”.

What I’m hearing from the panel in the online video for  Measuring Conversational Media is that speakers are pushing the viewpoints around the products and studies they’ve done, and that’s certainly true of Steve Rubel, who pushes “Trust Metrics” because that’s what he’s concerned with - what he focus on - partly what Edelman does.

But Steve Rubel does bring up the Pink Elephant in the room, there’s no standards in Social Media (the WAA is working on that in our WAASOCIAMEDIAWIKI and Web 2.0 / Social Media Standards Subcommittee).

The other thing I get out of this is that I didn’t need to go to the Conversational Summit - if all I wanted to do is get the main ideas - since the Videos do a great job of delivering the content.

On the other hand, if I wanted to have meaningful conversations with some of the people at the conference, I’d need to attend - and that’s why I go to conferences - or else I can just as easily watch the videos online, as I am, right now (and maybe, watching some Fireworks, later).

Weird, but Welcome News from Eric T. Peterson’s Web Analytics Demystified blog that there’s no recession for Web Analytics, in a Guest Post: Web Analytics in a Recession?

However, the study, which hasn’t been published yet (details weren’t really given about the study in question) suggests there’s more activity in hiring consultants over perm positions - and that might be the only real discernable difference between July 2008 and July 2007, for example.

Darn, this is the book I wish I could write - I’ve been playing with Radian6, SM2 Techrigy and Blogpulse, but I don’t have the range of experience this new ebook, published July 1st 2008, has in it - and I just printed it up, which is what I suggest you do.

I also wrote about Social Web Analytics EBook - print it out and read it at Webmetricsguru and there’s an embeddable version of the ebook, as well.

I don’t have to write it all over again - go read my post over at Webmetricsguru Compete lauches new Search Analytics and wipes out every one’s credits

I don’t care about the credits but I think, if they’ve given people  credits or you have bought them - to erase them -  and then offer a product that doen’t look that different than what they had before, and charge 200 per month, minimum, to use it  - it just sucks.

I don’t care what their new product is anymore - even if it was the very best Search Analytics tool out there - I would not want to use a product launched the way just did.

And talking about the credits - I still had 527 credits left - I’m not sure how much that’s worth - probably at least, a month or two of their new offerings.   But I never got an offer to convert my credits - or try their new Search Analytics Platform, just launched today.

Big, Big Mistake.  Pissing off bloggers - I can’t think of a bigger mistake than that - especially technical bloggers, especially Web Analytics blogger.

What could have gotten into Compete.com’s head?

Well, everyone I knew (maybe, as far as I can tell, all the good people) left.  Maybe that’s what happened?

You tell me.

But think about it - even if Compete’s new platform is fantastic - why would they shoot themselves in the foot but wiping out credits -  certainly, they could have written ahead and said … look, we’re going to upgrade and we’ll allow you to transfer your credits to the new product - but they didn’t do that ….they didn’t even announce what they were working on or get any support from the Web Analytics Community - or the Search Community, as far as I can tell.

I’m certainly not going to bother using Compete’s new platform until they explain why they wiped out credits - personally, there may even be a legal liability there - but even if there isn’t a legal issue there - there’s a moral and public relations issue.

Getting on bloggers bad side - is just, bad policy … if they want to announce a new pricing policy - they need to do it well in advance and allow people, like me, who had credits (granted, they gave them to me, but they credits, none the less) to use them on the new product.

And you’d think they’d actually want to do that - especially with someone like me, that makes my living doing Web Analytics - would want me to look at their new offering - and test it out.

Weird….. well, good riddance

It’s kinda weird, but everything can be overdone and “corrupted” even when the attempt wasn’t for that to happen.  When Search Engines came on the scene about 11 years ago - they just helped people find stuff they were looking for but had a hard time locating, or even knowing about.

Then, as more people figured out how to manipulate the Search Algorithms, Search Engines made changes to discourage spammers and around that time, Paid Advertising came into being.

As more and more traffic came to websites from Search Engines, mostly Google, people started to write their copy to rank better - at first it was harmless and robotic - but at least, the content still, more or less, was what you intended to say.

Then … we end up with Toxic Shower Curtins - according to an article in the New York Times today - Need Press? Repeat: ‘Green,’ ‘Sex,’ ‘Cancer,’ ‘Secret,’ ‘Fat’ where the story of the Toxic Shower Curtain and what was behind it is reveled:

“…. But if the organization’s testing methodology drew skepticism, its P.R. methodology was spot on.

“Anytime you have ‘toxic’ next to an item everyone has in their house and has always been assumed to be the last thing that would harm them, you can be sure it will get picked up on the news, and the Web will spread it like wildfire,” said Allen P. Adamson, managing director of Landor, a corporate branding firm, and the author of “BrandSimple.””

“….“It’s a lot more scientific than it used to be,” Mr. Armon said, “because you’re not just trying to get media pickup, but to get search engine attention.””

Ha, Ha, Ha .. we come full circle - the search engines help you find stuff, so they write software to find and rank content that attempts to mimic the way humans process information.  But human’s adapted and now write for the Search Engines - which, in turn, are re-adapting to what people are doing.

And then we end up making a simple sheet of plastic  into a Toxic Shower Curtain to get Google’s attention, with PR Newswire’s help, of course.

“…To aid in this endeavor, PR Newswire offers its members a so-called keyword density tool. “It lets you know the words someone would have to type into a search engine for your particular press release to be found, and helps put your release at the top of the search engine,” Mr. Armon said.”

I suppose, the story doesn’t even matter anymore - just write for the Bot ….if that’ what it’s all about …

Obviously, I don’t agree with that - but writing a Press Release so it gets Google’s attention as much as your attention is problematic - and symptomatic of one of the problem of our age - and over dependence of a few sources of information, particularly Search Engines, to manage all our information.

There is a point where writing for Search Engines becomes an attention gimmick - and ultimately, it degrades not just the information, but the Search Engines, too - at least, that’s what I think.

I don’t know if there was a part 1 - but I used the Radian 6 New Topic Cloud Widget to find a way of finding keywords to run for Search Campaign and ended up with a lot more than that.

The New Topic Cloud Widget was set up to pick up keywords and conversations tied to the two major candidates for the 2008 Presidential Election and the outcome of it:

What I did was look at most of the “hotter” keywords and extract the key phrases and then the key arguments for all those in yellow, tan and red (those that are larger).

I got a lot more than I expected - pretty much a vision of the Election and the next 4 months and how the election will probably play out - see my outcome spreadsheet.

I’m a little nervous about “summarizing” the information - but I was surprised to see that much of the information pointing at Obama is questioning of him, both in experience and what he’ll do.  I expected to find more hard core online opinional support than I did, using the Radian6 Engagement weighting to rank the citations.

On the McCain side - there’s the sense that he’s going hit Obama hard, very hard, and some of the hits will come from events from the outside - possible attacks and another “October Surprise“. Gun Control and Immigration are also going to come up as issues.

I would say, given what we have seen in the last two Presidential Elections, I would be prepared for anything come October ….. if I were Obama, especially if the race is close - which it looks like it’s going to be.

Since the Economy is going in tailspin, it’s likely that both candidates will take running mates that are strong Economic Wizards and / or National Security Wizards .. who that’s likely to be yet, I’m not sure.

Really, it’s no surprise that a “Terrorist” attack on the eve of the election could change the outcome and in Rocking the 2008 Election Frank Rich voices what many are thinking, that the only way McCain can win is if another 9/11 happens, right before the election.

I would look for something confusing, but not clearly staged - similar to the Bin Laden tape that came out just before the 2004 election, it certainly helped Bush.

DON’T fault Charles Black, the John McCain adviser, for publicly stating his honest belief that a domestic terrorist attack would be “a big advantage” for their campaign and that Benazir Bhutto’s assassination had “helped” Mr. McCain win the New Hampshire primary. His real sin is that he didn’t come completely clean on his strategic thinking.

In private, he is surely gaming this out further, George Carlin-style. What would be the optimum timing, from the campaign’s perspective, for this terrorist attack — before or after the convention? Would the attack be most useful if it took place in a red state, blue state or swing state? How much would it “help” if the next assassinated foreign leader had a higher name recognition in American households than Benazir Bhutto?

As Rich points out - people are more intelligent, hopefully, this time, and won’t fall for the same tactics - or will they?

If the election is not close - forget it - but the election might be close call, as elections, lately, have been, and in a close call - as it’s suggested that Ohio will be -  with Obama Up Within Margin of Error in Latest Ohio Polling

the Real Clear Politics poll average puts Obama up 47.3 percent to 43.8 percent; and Five Thirty Eight projects a 4.4 percentage point victory for Obama in the state. In other words, the race in the state is tight — though Obama appears to have a narrow, though noticeable, edge currently.

What does the map look like if Obama is indeed able to pull off a victory in Ohio?

The path to victory for John McCain becomes significantly more tenuous. A win in Ohio brings 20 electoral votes, meaning that if Obama can carry the state in November and can keep the Kerry states in the Democratic column– and he now leads in each of them, according to averages of polling from the states — he would win the White House. Tack on states like Colorado, Iowa, New Mexico and Virginia — additional states that George W. Bush carried in 2004 that Pollster.com now shows Obama leading in — as well as the handful of other red states Obama is clearly competitive in, and all the sudden the map looks a lot less like a 50/50 split and a lot more like, well, something entirely different.

So … even if Republicans or Neocons that want to stay in power don’t play the Terror card, others who wanted some one like Bush to stay in power, could - meaning a lot of parties have an interest in Rocking the Election, one way or the other.

But we need to avoid falling into those traps - and I’m wondering if we’ll even be aware, till it’s too late - like 2004.

I was at a party the same night I went to the Radian6 Demo in Midtown - last Thursday - Radian6 Demostration in NYC, June 26th, 2008 - and forgot to put this footage up - here it is now - it also includes yesterday’s romp over at The Whitney Museum to see the Buckmaster Fuller show.

By the end of next year - http://www.scribd.com/doc/3680867/Heading-For-The-Exit-Lane

You wonder, isn’t the writing on the wall as far as the Economy goes?

Why do people keep thinking … we’ll maybe things will get better later this year - maybe it won’t be that bad.

Well, generally, I don’t drive - I live in NYC - but a lot of stuff gets affected by the oil prices which end up making food and rent cost more, electricity - even though it is not produced by Oil, seems to be indexed in price against the price of Oil (figure that one out!) and I think, we’re in for a severe recession, perhaps, even a Depression, by this time next year.

What would fix it - my guess is will have a Democratic President, Congress and Senate, and probably being doing the WPA all over again - more or less - even though we can’t any longer afford not to.

I do think there should be two or three additional Stimulus Packages, similar to what was put in effect this spring, started immediately - that would help some.

Extending Unemployment Insurance  indefinitely for those out of work now and in the next year or so would help and perhaps putting our huge national resources into finding alternative energy sources, would help.