Digital Quarters - Latest Comments

Re: The New EPG: Every Media Company Must Master the Science of Programming

Ben Elowitz — Tue, 28 May 2013 10:58:58 -0000

The media's patterns around 'breaking news' have changed drastically due to cable and internet. While the term may to some still be restricted to "news that really matters," we've gone through a period where being first -- about anything -- has been found to be critical to draw audience. The result is that cable channels and internet publications treat dozens of stories a day with the banner that signifies top priority. Gene, your comment shows the commingling of the old and new ways of thinking about it. Just because news is breaking - no matter what the category - doesn't mean it's truly urgent. A programming strategy that delivers it to audience at the right time pays off better than the bombardment of "everything as soon as possible"; and that's backed by hard data. Ben

Re: The New EPG: Every Media Company Must Master the Science of Programming

gene — Mon, 27 May 2013 00:46:47 -0000

Ben,

I initially found the following passage confusing, but now I see merit in both you and your CBS friend's position vis-a-vis asynchronous delivery of entertainment news vs immediate release of breaking news.

---
“That may work in entertainment,” he [your friend from CBS] said. ”But it would never work in breaking news. In news, everything needs to go out immediately.”

So I did some research, and it turns out he’s wrong. When you look at what our editors consider breaking news within the entertainment category, the vast majority of stories — more than 75 percent — perform better when they’re packaged and presented at another time of day, and not when they first break.

----

You claim your friend is wrong, but he distinguised between "entertainment" and "breaking news." Your rebuttal is based on breaking "entertainment" news, but I think he was referring to breaking "hard" news. I agree with your position that the delivery of breaking entertainment news can be de-coupled from its real-time occurrence. But wouldn't you agree that breaking hard news is too important for people not to be informed as it's happening? Of course, your friend's next statement "In news, everything needs to go out immediately," is too all encompassing and does not square with his reference to breaking news, nor your research into breaking entertainment news. Perhaps that's the point: Breaking news is too high-priority not to be delivered ASAP. The rest of the news (including entertainment), can be asynchronously delivered according to the interests of specific targeted customers.

Re: The New EPG: Every Media Company Must Master the Science of Programming

benelowitz — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 20:30:37 -0000

All of them. There's a tremendous amount of data right in Facebook Insights and bit.ly (or whatever shortener you use) for example. And you can use that with your own Excel or Google Docs to set up, monitor, and assess your own tests. The most important thing is to be deliberate about what you are testing.

Re: The New EPG: Every Media Company Must Master the Science of Programming

matthughes — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:45:07 -0000

RE: "Test, test, test – for insights you can use."

What are the analytic tools that you recommend?

Re: The Nuclear Option: Google’s Tricky Maneuver to Force Brands to Use The Google+ Social Network

Ben Elowitz — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 20:31:06 -0000

Great observation … great analogy to using their windows dominance to sell office.

Re: The Nuclear Option: Google’s Tricky Maneuver to Force Brands to Use The Google+ Social Network

Ben Elowitz — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 13:42:39 -0000

And Facebook is using their platform to promote their own as well :)

Re: The Nuclear Option: Google’s Tricky Maneuver to Force Brands to Use The Google+ Social Network

Ben Elowitz — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 13:41:22 -0000

It works for some brands – it doesn't yet seem to work for all of them. I don't know how they choose .

Re: The Nuclear Option: Google’s Tricky Maneuver to Force Brands to Use The Google+ Social Network

Gabriele Bryant — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 02:43:09 -0000

Are you sure this is not some type of ad in connection with Google+? I can't replicate this with any other brand name of brands that are on Google+....

Re: The Nuclear Option: Google’s Tricky Maneuver to Force Brands to Use The Google+ Social Network

chromaniac — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:23:07 -0000

Well. Facebook is helping their cause by locking their own platform from proper indexing by Google and other search engines. They want you to spend more time on Facebook. Google is just using their own platform to promote their own services.

Re: The Nuclear Option: Google’s Tricky Maneuver to Force Brands to Use The Google+ Social Network

Erik B — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 10:53:28 -0000

Doesn't this just feel like something Microsoft would have done back in the day? I agree that it will probably get brands to send something to Google+ (maybe link their Tweets), but I don't see this helping make G+ successful.

Re: How Long Until Social Is A Bigger Traffic Source Than Search?

Ben Elowitz — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 22:44:33 -0000

Haven't looked at it lately, Craig.

Re: How Long Until Social Is A Bigger Traffic Source Than Search?

Craig Page — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 17:23:58 -0000

hi, this is really interesting. Do you have more up-to-date data on this?

Re: Our Secret Sauce Is Now Less Secret

Devin — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 19:29:14 -0000

Congrats Ben and team! Excited to see results with Burda as they happen.

Re: The 20X Difference Between Facebook and Twitter

Ben Elowitz — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:54:54 -0000

Great to hear it, Nathan.

Re: The 20X Difference Between Facebook and Twitter

Nathan Cyphert — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:35:43 -0000

Great insight! We've begun paying close attention to who some of our target influencers are retweeting, as well as the communities that unofficially support our target influencers. There is great opportunity there. It has lead to some great RTs for our content. Thanks!

Re: Facebook’s Reach Generator, Now on Sale for 100% Off!

Nathan Wolf — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 00:49:09 -0000

This is really interesting. Any insight into how you can build and grow your reach organically would be appreciated. Love reading your posts!

Re: Facebook’s Reach Generator, Now on Sale for 100% Off!

Ben Elowitz — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 23:54:46 -0000

They sure are always throttling up and down the various factors of edgerank. What’s helped so far is focusing on what the audience wants, rather than what Facebook wants. In the end, it seems like Facebook optimizes Edgerank to best serve the audience. Which seems reasonable.

Re: Facebook’s Reach Generator, Now on Sale for 100% Off!

Brandon Fritz — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 02:15:40 -0000

I love the point of buying fans and then having to pay again to ensure those fans even see your content.

Feels like this is Facebook's MO... The below example could be said for a lot of Facebook traffic generation releases I think (the like button, commenting, etc).
Facebook releases a new product, says to Webmasters "Do this and get traffic/results." Facebook newsfeeds become saturated by this product/feature. Facebook then throttles impressions/display of actions in newsfeeds. And if you're unhappy with the dip, just pay Facebook for more traffic (or figure something else out, which you've pointed out). Feels like "Trending Articles" or a similar implementation might soon show "sponsored content" to boost social reading content and incremental Facebook revenue.

Re: Look Out, Twitter: Pinterest on Your Tail

Jack Herrick — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 12:07:13 -0000

Pinterest passed Twitter as a source of referrals for wikiHow.com months ago. That said, wikiHow has never done great on Twitter.

Re: Why Google Needs a Buddy

Ben Elowitz — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 11:31:47 -0000

It’s safe to say we’re still in the early days of social – but there’s no question that Facebook’s had a continuing and almost unassailable rise so far.

Re: Why Google Needs a Buddy

Guest22 — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 10:16:44 -0000

Search is forever. "Social" (fauxial) is fleeting and fickle.

Google are much more like an Asian corporation who think in terms of Decades, rather than Quarter-to-Quarter. Facebook may be trying to buy their way into financial relevance (very expensive acquisitions; which makes me wonder what the Company itself is doing if it has to outsource innovation?), but, Facebook are operating from a position of fear, knowing they could vanish at the whim of the consumer (especially, the next generation of Teens; the lifeblood of Facebook).

Re: Top 10 Reasons The Apple iPad Will Put Amazon’s Kindle Out of Business

Soft development company — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 08:51:26 -0000

Amazon is becoming the best in the line, even better that google tablets.

Re: Why Google Needs a Buddy

frederick — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:02:42 -0000

I don't think that it's 100% sure that "social ads" will become bigger than search-based advertising. When people "search" they are most of the time actively looking for something, which makes relevant ads connected to the purpose whereas most people are not in a "buying mode/mood" when they're looking at their neighbours' pictures on Facebook. I think that social ads will have to reinvent themselves a lot to compete with the efficiency of search (& other techniques such as retargeting).

Re: Why Google Needs a Buddy

Ben Elowitz — Thu, 31 May 2012 11:28:33 -0000

That's especially important considering the exposure given the long regulatory review that a Google deal would likely require.

Re: Why Google Needs a Buddy

Ciaran — Thu, 31 May 2012 11:08:50 -0000

Surely Buddy were wary of being bought by Google and then locked out of Facebook.