Disqus - Latest Comments for cowanpkc

Re: 48 Hours In The Like-hole

Paul Cowan — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 09:04:12 -0000

So is the point that the FB algos work? You liked a series of articles and updates from brands and news sources and the feed changed to reflect those activities. Once you purge your feed of the people, brands and apps that you don't want - there is actually some decent utility to it.

Re: 25 Campaigns That Will Win Lions in Cannes

Paul Cowan — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 21:22:47 -0000

West Jet ripped off a SpanAir idea and just added some extra tech to it. https://www.youtube.com/wat... They executed it well, unfortunate when the strategy and tactics come from someone else's idea. But hey, not a ton of new ideas out there.

Re: The Circle of Junk: Traffic => Content => Advertising

Paul Cowan — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 16:42:47 -0000

But won't the vicious circle continue to perpetuate despite any efforts to improve content quality? Isn't the great democracy of the internet showing that the masses enjoy highly viral and constantly repurposed content? So shouldn't the solution be to provide more sites like The Daily Mail and BuzzFeed? I'm all for the upward march of humanity, maybe it's just that more elegant ad formats are required.

Re: Does Facebook Fan-Gating Hurt Facebook Engagement?

Paul Cowan — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 08:37:09 -0000

Hi Ben - Thanks for the Syncapse mention. The point of our study was that brands to indeed need to understand the value of each of their fans. Our study was the first to understand the business impact of fans, actually looking at business driver such as spend and loyalty. But we take it one step further with our clients to segment their user base and mine data at the individual level. This notion of "social CRM" is a loaded term, but the reality is that companies just need to treat social like they would any other relationship management program. Who cares if your engagement is lower if you are driving incremental spend and loyalty with a very high value customer.

Re: How Much Is a Tweet Worth? $500, Says Toyota

Paul Cowan — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 12:52:18 -0000

I'm looking forward to the follow up article on the actual amount of people who purchased and the 'velocity' this promo created. I'd also like to know what % of new car purchasers redeemed on this program to see if it had any direct impact on purchase decision. The value of a recommendation can be quite impactful, but tactically I don't see this as being very authentic in the actual purchase cycle.

Re: A Template To Help Start Your Social Media Policy

Paul Cowan — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 13:49:45 -0000

Policies are a great start, but compliance in a large organization is a challenge. Tools that manage workflow, inventory assets and establish benchmarks for success are the next step to deploying an enterprise wide strategy.

Re: Facebook Fan Value: The Definitive ROI Formula

Paul Cowan — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 08:35:29 -0000

I agree with your point that brands/agencies/marketers have to have a strategy in place to engage consumers - that is marketing 101.

But what is the point of doing this? To sell things. Communications people get so enraptured by the idea of engagement and brand that they lose sight of the fact that businesses are in business to make money. Understanding the link between marketing efforts and results is key to any organization.

The Syncapse value of a fan study was to demonstrate how fans are a more valuable segment and they need to be treated differently. The fact is marketers need to justify investment and positive 'experience' does not convince C-level executives that you are driving value for your company. Experiences matter, but you need to justify why these efforts are driving organizational value.

Re: How Insurance Companies Will Influence Rates Based On Your Tweets: Social Insurance Rates

Paul Cowan — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:08:49 -0000

Who is doing it right now? Unfortunately nobody. There is a big difference between social CRM and using social channels for surveillance. CRM is used to model an entire customer base and develop programs to change or encourage behaviors. Surveillance is used to mange individual cases. But Jeremiah does highlight the amazing potential that social information contains to understand people based on behaviors in the real world rather than with just your products. The challenges - getting them to link accounts (privacy issues, ability to match accounts) and then sorting them into valuable categories.

Here is a recent attempt to understand the value of a Facebook Fan - essentially to see the incremental value that a social membership base may have over non-fans - http://www.syncapse.com/med...

Re: Social Media: Measuring Your Company's ROI

Paul Cowan — Fri, 28 May 2010 09:57:43 -0000

So why is this a great article? Set objectives, target and optimize. Got it. That is what the marketing industry has (to one extent or another) been doing since the beginning of time. I think the point is really that social should not be any different from other channels and held to the same rigor just how you calculate the return is the tricky part. Link the strategies and tactics to a tangible business objective to understand the return. Whether that is leads, sales or customer churn/loyalty. This article is a good start, but we need to demonstrate how social activities drive consumer behaviours and the relative cost of these activities against other marketing efforts. Understanding the spend:return ratio against Paid, Owned and Earned channels is the key to measuring success.

Re: Old School Thinking Still Drives the Media World

Paul Cowan — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:57:31 -0000

Thanks. Its tougher to get time to write anything, but I'm forcing myself to put some time aside these days. Keep reading - and give me your perspective too, you are always very passionate about your ideas.

Re: No Fun League: The NFL Reveals Its Social Media Policy

Paul Cowan — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:57:31 -0000

The league is not prohibiting players and fans from interacting, they are just putting a few rules in place in the short term to protect agreed to licensing agreements. This may change in the future, but if the root of the issue is the ability for fans to interact with players then this already exists. Players have the full right to build their own personal brands and engagement strategies with fans - and to determine if the can/want to try to monetize these relationships. The real excitement with the game revolves around fan interaction anyway - so why don't we let players play and enjoy the game with our friends.

Plus, are there any other leagues where you can interact with players during the game? I'd like to see the great success stories there.

Re: Interactivity and Video - The Next Frontier.

Paul Cowan — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:19:58 -0000

TV is a funny medium. People love the fact it is passive - feed me the info - the ultimate place to tune out. Still, there is an amazing interactivity and socialization that comes with tv, specifically with respect to the gossip and critical commentary that goes along side trashy reality tv to hard hitting investigative reporting. This is where I think it will change. Bringing communities of people (or very small communities, ie your network of friends) to watch tv 'together' (although in different locations). I witnessed this last night in the season finale of the bachelorette as my wife and her friends were all on their blackberry's sending notes to each other.

Re: New Facebook Pages: A Guide for Social Media Marketers

Paul Cowan — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:05:51 -0000

Lots of services do this - I use ping.fm to update twitter, fb and linkedin (as well as many others).

Re: Shaping the Conversation

Paul Cowan — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:25:13 -0000

He has a better integrated media strategy than most brands out there. Appearing on Leno, youtube, twitter, fb, etc. He uses each media in a smart, strategic, and simple way. I'm just waiting until his approval ratings go down - then we may start seeing Obama apps appear on FB, begging you to install them and you can win a chance to have dinner with Obama at Denny's.

Re: I Know Times are Tough But...

Paul Cowan — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 10:22:02 -0000

The examples you provided = useless stunt.

Good idea to use different media to solicit jobs - but you have to ensure a certain level of professionalism and quality. The video was poorly written and produced and the other fellow's bristol board wasn't really holding up in the rain. Social platforms should be used as a way to distribute examples of your quality work and network with people in your industry. The amazing thing about finding jobs today is that many of the barriers to entry are gone - you can find out almost anything about prospective bosses and connect with them personally (via other people).

Re: Infomercials: Yes, they all suck.

Paul Cowan — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:05:53 -0000

Although 99.9% of infomercials suck, sometimes brilliance is struck. Vince, of ShamWow! fame is nothing short of of a E-List celebrity. His "fame" is being ported over to help sell the SlapChop https://www.slapchop.com/ - where he not only has wonderful one line zingers like "you're gonna love my nuts", but he also provides some light hearted social commentary on the problems with America.

I posted about one of my other favorites "Listen In" here - http://madcowan.blogspot.co...

Re: Making the Oscars golden again. 10 tips.

Paul Cowan — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:41:36 -0000

I love this post - absolutely brilliant. I have no idea when the entertainment industry is going to realize the power and potential of the content is controls. Albeit that I'm sure that there is not that many marketing genus' that work at the 'academy'. With respect to the Canadian scene - I recently posted about the CRTC and the potential to tax isp providers (http://madcowan.blogspot.co... - this is an industry that just doesn't take advantage of the power of alternative distribution and how they can monetize it. Instead, they seem to complain and complain that there missing out on being paid. I say we just let them keep their head in the sand to ride the GRP train all the way to Musicindustryville.

PS. The one issue with your post is that you requested they deposit the money to your PayPal account. I don't think they'd know what that is.