Since the widespread adoption of the tablet as the content consumption platform of choice, the industry has been eagerly anticipating the rise of the Internet TV as the next disruptive platform to change the way we thing about digital content consumption.  Is it happening?  Sort of, but not as quickly or with as much innovation as we had hoped.  With the drop in price of the Logitech Google TV set-top box and the announcement by Viewsonic that it is deep-sixing its plans to build a Boxee powered TV, there is growing evidence that the marketing for this technology is softening.  Or is it just that the right forces have not yet come together to make this technology take off?  I once saw an attempt at creating a solid-body electric guitar that was build in the early 1930s.  That was the wrong time for that technology to take off.  Musical styles (content) had not evolved, manufacturing processes (technology) had not become cost efficient enough, and the demand was not there because people did not know what to do with it (user experience).  Internet TV is that same moment where the content, technology and user experience pieces have not yet come together in a moment that will drive consumer adoption.

Sure you can buy Internet TVs but as Van Baker, Vice President of research for Gartner recently observed, “In most cases consumers are buying a television with Internet connectivity as insurance. In other words, they are buying them just in case they need it in the future.”  There are also plenty of price-accessible ways to get a non-ethernet TV connected, not the least of which is my personal favorite the Sony PS3.  The problem is once you are connected, what can you do?  Or more appropriately what can your connected TV now do better than the myriad of other devices that surround us every day.  The answer is that beyond on-demand streaming the user experience is not yet fully developed.

Do consumers want to use browsers on a TV screen?  Despite the fact that the TV screen is large it does not offer a very conducive browsing experience.  But some things do work?  Have you seen the YouTube and Netflix apps designed specifically for the TV?  They have large buttons that are easy to navigate to and click.  They have a display that is almost devoid of text (hard to read on a TV) and heavy on seductive visuals (fun to look at on a big screen).  But until there are more apps and user experiences that are built specifically for the TV, the usefulness of it as digital device is somewhat limited.

However, the promise is still there.  As companies like Adobe help hash out digital rights access with its Adobe Pass offering and as more of these devices continue to end up in consumers’ homes, if for no other reason than the current crop of product is coming equipped with the technology whether consumers demand it or not, the groundwork is being laid for enterprising content providers to realize that there is a new opportunity to wrap bigger and bolder user experiences around their content and make it accessible in ways that best suit the TV as an interface.  I’m still bullish on the technology and anxious to see how this next wave of digital user experiences will evolve.  In fact, I think this is the time for publishers and media companies to take the lead and prove what this technology can be good for.

There are three areas to focus on when optimizing your email marketing campaigns:

• Deliverability
• Open rate
• Interaction

In upcoming posts we will discuss tactics that address all of these areas.  In this post we are focussing on one deliverability issue…the IP address from which you send.  First let’s review why this is important and how it can impact your campaign.  Then we will point you some websites you can use to see where your IP address ranks.

ISPs typically assign a rating of positive, neutral or negative to IP addresses and domains from which they receive a large volume of email. The best situation is for your IP address to be rated as positive.  This assures that there will be no spam filtering at the ISP level.  Of course this still does not tell you what happens when your email gets to its destination and encounters spam filters on the client side that have their own rules.  We’ll deal with them in another post.

A rating of neutral can oftentimes result from an ISP simply not having enought data on your domain or IP address because you do not send a large enough volume of email for it to have registered on their radar screen.  For smaller volume senders, this can be a strong argument in favor of using a quality email service provider so that you essentially “piggyback” on their reputation.

If you find that your IP address has a negative reputation this may not have to do with spam reports concerning your email marketing.  If you use an email service provider it could be that others of their clients are misusing their service and they need to do a better job of policing that.  In the meantime, you might want to switch providers.  If you send from your own domain it could mean that someone else in your organization may have sent out bulk email in a non-compliant way that resulted in spam complaints.  They may have done this unknowingly but it will impact not only your marketing emails but everything that comes from anyone in your domain.  Ick.

So what’s next?  Test you IP address using any of the tools listed below.  If you are neutral or negative, it’s time to take some steps to increase the percentage of your email that actuall reaches the mail servers of your intended recipients.

• BarracudaCentral
• Reputation Authority
• SenderBase

In our next piece we will discuss spam scoring and how you can use a knowledge of it to increase the deliverability of emails through your recipients’ filters.

And oh by the way, new stats have come out from the Pew Internet and Research Project that indicate that the percentage of people using mobile devices to access the web and email is rising rapidly.  I put a post up here. This has big implications when it comes to readability and accessibility of your html emails.  Just thought I’d sneak that little pill in there in case your hair does not hurt enough already.

Google is now spidering Tweets and pulling them into search engine result pages (SERPs).  This means that if you Tweet for a specifc business reason and are concerned about your online visibility you will want to take some steps to make sure that your Tweets are optimized for organic search.  Here some tips to help you get Twoogled  (I’m going to keep making up new Twitter words):

• Your account name should be in-line with how you intend to be found.  “BestWidgets” would be better than “okeydokey134″ if you are seeking the elusive widget shopper online.
• Consider the title of each tweet.  Use keywords that align with your objectives.
• Be consistent in your use keywords in tweets.  Multiple instances of the same terms will improve your visibility.
• Choose the first 40 or so characters wisely.  When you Tweet appears in Google, the title will include about the first 42 characters of your Tweet.  This is similar to the care with which you would write page titles for website SEO.
• Be interesting.  Providing links to useful content that gets you retweeted will give your tweets a boost in search visibility.
• Write your bio with care.  Your Twitter bio should also contain the terms that matter to your search visibility.

In the future Google may split the real-time content like Tweets from the rest of the SERP.  For now, your Tweets are out there being spidered so it pays to be conscious of how they can help you be found.

According to a study by Borrell Associates, Facebook will receive over $500 million this year in advertising revenue with over 74% of that revenue derived from local businesses using Facebook to target users geographically.  Click here for more information but Borrell is quick to note that despite the striking focus on local advertising on Facebook that the overall numbers still represent only a a tiny fraction of the overall dollars spent on local advertising.  However what interests me is not the overall percentage of local advertising budgets that is going to social networks but rather the speed with which any percentage at all has gone to them and the fact the Facebook is the preferred choice.

Facebook’s CPC ad network presents businesses with a relatively precise form of geo-targeting, a large enough audience to suggest a good opportunity scope, and an engaged audience.  For instance other forms of local online advertising might include:

• PPC search which is less precise in how it geo-targets and forces the advertiser to understand the complex arena of search keywords to play it right
• Local news sites which pull the local audience but in a less engaged way and often without the benefit of CPC models
• Other social networking sites like MySpace that may not generate a large enough or suitably engaged audience to make a difference

Granted Facebook’s click-through rates are  often lower than search because the ads are interruption ads as opposed to finding users when they are actively engageed in looking  for your service.  However, it is interesting to see how local advertisers have been willing to leap into this site whereas they typically would be much slower movers into other new areas of online marketing. Stay tuned.  Please share your facebook advertising stories, positive or otherwise.  It’s a new world and inquiring minds want to know.

For those who have not had a chance to read about it lately, here’s a link to an article about how Zappo’s put 104 ad agencies through the hoops in a botched RFP process.

This is my invitation to Zappos to participate in my RFP process:

I need shoes.  I am considering shoe vendors who would like to sell me shoes.  If you would like to participate in this RFP process please submit your completed materials to me within 48 hours of reading this.  All RFP responses must contain the following to be considered.

• Bios and background on the company owners as well as the key members of my shoe account team
• Relevant case studies of similar shoe vending experiences including results
• Explanation of key issues that you have identified in my shoe purchasing situation with specific explanations of how you would solve for these issues
• Physical examples of the shoes that you would recommend sent to me in multiple sizes for my review
• Costs broken down by materials, construction and delivery
• Any additional materials that will explain your qualifications or the shoe recommendations that you are making

Please note that no shoes sent to me as part of this process will be returned.  Only RFP responses that contain shoes will be considered.  I will notify the selected vendor at a point of my choosing.  All other vendors will hear nothing.  Any attempts to contact me will be met with white noise.

Thanks for your interest and we look forward to receiving your response shortly.

Ok I think we are all aware that MySpace, once the king of the social media landscape is falling back into something pretty close to irrelevance.  But that does not apply to entertainment traffic right? It’s still a big driver there isn’t it?  Not.

Check out these stats from HitWise that show that MySpace has been steadily declining in the amount of entertainment-related traffic that it drives:

The only solace here is that it seems like it may be bottoming out and beginning to turn a corner a bit.  The lesson to the rest of the social media landscape seems to be that you have to be very careful how you open up your services to advertisers.  MySpace became a promotional clutter,  Facebook provided a better experience, and users left MySpace in droves.

Thoughts anyone?

Inspired by the notion that many advertisers and marketers feel that they are held hostage by the constantly evolving paid and organic search landscape, an unnamed author has put forth the controversial idea the searh engines require government regulation. Before you whack me on the snout for suggesting such a thing, just give this a read. 
It makes interesting points, particularly about he lack of transparency in search engine algorithms.  Should the playing field be level and understood by all?  Not entirely a bad idea.
Click here to read the whole article