Blogbord

Shortbord extends our heartfelt thanks to the committee that selected us to present at the MIT Start-up Showcase on December 3.  It was a great honor, and we had a blast speaking with so many smart grad students, industry execs, and venture capitalists.  The feedback we received was terrific, and we’re glad that so many talented and experienced people believe that we are on to something big.

An even bigger honor than being selected from a pool of several hundred applicants to present at the Showcase was receiving enough votes from the crowd to be 1 of 3 companies selected to “pitch” the entire MIT VC conference yesterday.  We were given the chance to explain the business rationale behind Shortbord to an audience of investors and technologists – an intimidating forum for our first public appearance!

Our talk centered around aligning the incentives of the three members of the online advertising ecosystem – individuals, websites, and advertisers – to solve the two fundamental problems that the market faces: 1) advertisers are unable to “connect” with individuals when they are having a conversation on social websites, and 2) websites are unable to monetize despite massive amounts of users.  It seemed that people hearing our pitch at the conference yesterday understood that a systematic word-of-mouth advertising system would enable individuals to promote their favorite brands to friends, family and followers, thereby enabling advertisers to connect with individuals on a personal level and social websites to generate revenues from advertising.  The conversations we had with conference attendants after our pitch were very thoughtful, and we loved the enthusiasm about Shortbord’s value proposition to individuals.  We suspected it would be the case, and now we can say it with a high degree of confidence: people like getting paid for what they are already doing anyways.

Overall, the past two days at MIT were great fun and we look forward to continuing discussions with many of the people we met.  Thanks for voting for us, happy surfing.

• December 05, 2009, 2:48pm

Whether you loved him, hated him or were completely indifferent, there is no denying that Ted Kennedy left an indelible impression on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the United States of America at large. 

As a prominent figure in both the Senate and the Democratic party, Ted was a man that fought for the little people who have no voice.  He rallied against the haves and provided for the have-nots in a manner that defied his lot in life. He was passionate, stubborn and effective.

The race to find his replacement is underway and campaigning has entered the digital age. Based on the success stories of  Howard Dean and President Obama, strategists now realize that social media is the most effective way to build an online community of grass-roots supporters.  These sites give voters a place to hang out and be visible amongst one another – to feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves.  It is campaigning 101 in the digital age to stay connected with voters through Facebook and Twitter.

But what else are savvy strategists doing to gain an advantage over the other candidates, who are all utilizing Facebook and Twitter in the exact same way?  And what does having a presence on Facebook and Twitter really gain a candidate, when the people that “fan” them are clearly already in their camp?  How does it help win the crucial undecided vote? 

Shortbord enables candidates to mobilize their fans to “campaign” for them across all of the websites they surf.  Whether it’s in the sports section of boston.com when a supporter is commenting on the Patriots injury list, or on politico.com when a supporter is debating health care reform, they are prominently displaying their endorsement of their chosen candidate. 

Everywhere supporters go on the social web, Shortbord displays their candidate’s logo for all to see.  This is powerful, effective and innovative grass-roots campaigning (not to mention an empowering experience for voters!).

At Shortbord, we know it’s hard to keep pace with how the digital age changes the tools available to campaign strategists.  But to us, technology is simply a means to an end.  Instead of mobilizing your supporters to stand outside in the cold New England weather handing out signs and buttons, mobilize them digitally.  Your supporters will have far greater reach and influence over the outcome of the campaign through the millions of page views they generate from digital interactions than they will through yelling at passing cars and waving signs. 

Do the math and be green.  Instead of burning campaign donations to make thousands of signs and placards (like they did in the 50’s), look towards a cheaper and more effective future.  Less cost, infinitely more impact.  Mobilize your digital street teams to win this election.

• November 22, 2009, 12:26pm

Everyone knows what the oldest profession in the world is (ahem.. this is awkward). The question is, how did people know where to find it, what to do, how much to pay, etc? The answer is word-of-mouth advertising.

A quick look at the evolution of marketing shows that advertising has always been dependant on the technological advances that propel how people communicate and spread information. As “media” time evolved - from face-to-face conversations, to newspapers, magazines, radio and then to television - advertisers transitioned from direct dialogue with consumers to finding the content that target consumers would be interacting with and then plastering it with eye-catching ads. 

Advances in media enabled information to reach wider audiences across geographies, and marketers soon discovered highly scalable ways to broadcast their advertisements. The tradeoff for reaching more people with each ad meant that the 1:1 effectiveness of word-of-mouth became watered down and marketers became satisfied with lower and lower ad success (albeit at increasingly higher volumes).  Madison Avenue, complete with its 3 martini lunches, came into prominence during this information age to hone the brand messages broadcast to the masses and to help companies tell consumers exactly what to think / feel / say about their clients’ products.   

Enter the web era. In the early innings, advertisers used the web just like any other medium: to broadcast (spoonfeed?) a message to a massive audience by branding content that will hopefully get noticed and generate the almighty click-thru. Initially, people were simply reading articles or watching content, and the broadcasting methodology was moderately successful. But as savvy developers began to rapidly innovate with adding social features to web applications, web users realized that they had the tools to communicate 1:1 as well as to reach widespread audiences. The web democratized content dissemination, providing all publishers the ability to become media properties. This, in effect, is social media and is demonstrated in apps like social networks, blogs, microblogs, wikis, chat/forums, email, comment platforms, etc… - effectively all of the apps web users know and love.

So the web has become a decentralized platform enabling 1:1 and 1:many relationships in billions of different ways. Metcalfe’s Law holds increasingly true, and the value of the web has grown exponentially with each additional user.  The “richness” of relationships on the web, and the ability to influence friends, family and followers has cascaded from celebrities of the silver screen to your next door neighbor. The web provides the tools for everyone to be listened to, spoken with, and above all else, to express themselves.

This ability for everyone to be a web celebrity, or an Influential, is the essence of social media and advertisers have only marginally improved upon the techniques used to build brand loyalty or to drive sales on other mediums, nevermind trying a novel approach to crack the social media nut. People are using the web to have a conversation, but advertisers are still trying to broadcast a message and to tell consumers what to think. This harkens back to the Madison Ave glory days. Madison Avenue made advertising a big business in the 1920’s, with tremendous infrastructure and money at stake. The money has only gotten bigger, and the stakes are now even higher, so it is understandable why marketing departments have been averse to change. But..

People are spending more and more time in front of their computers, and it is clear that we will continue to do so at an increasing pace. New apps come out every day that make the web a better place to hang out. In fact, Internet media share is now comparable to TV at about 35% (Nielsen, several others) of all consumer media time. The web has ushered in an entirely new paradigm of communication, and Madison Ave needs to get on bord. No longer does it work to shout a message at consumers, nor is it effective to play it safe with branding professional content. Its a waste of money on the social web, as indicated by ever-falling CPMs/CPCs and increasingly fragmented audiences resulting in poor ROI.  

The next step function in advertising is starting in Boston with a little company called Shortbord. In the words of two very smart researchers at Forrester, “Your brand is no longer what you say it is, its what your consumers say it is.” Madison Ave mentality hangs over the web stifling innovation. Eighty years of marketing education has trained too many smart people to look backward and to try and replicate successful campaigns of yore. Years and years of “big business” infrastructure and resistance to change have overshadowed the most basic and primitive form of advertising: word-of-mouth. No advertisement will ever match the emotional power of a big brother endorsing Gatorade to a younger brother.

If we look at the ground we’ve covered, there are some interesting takeaways so far. The first takeaway is that people are using the web to have a conversation, and are making up their own minds (or listening to friends, or to Ashton Kutcher on Twitter), about what to think about brands. The second takeaway is that marketers are not prepared to join the conversation in a systematic way. The web is too decentralized, too fragmented, and consumers are too driven by self-interest to listen to anything that happens outside of their personal bubbles. This is a major problem for advertisers, especially considering the central goal of advertisers is to connect with their target consumers on a personal level.

So what’s a marketer to do? How can brands systematically join the conversation that is already happening on the web to build brand loyalty and awareness and to drive sales in-stores and online? The answer is Shortbord.

Shortbord knows that on the web, individuals are media properties (meaning they generate impressions and serve leads, just like a “traditional” media property). We call individuals Surfers because regardless of the many platforms they are using as their soapbox (Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress, etc), they are the same person. Individuals literally surf from app to app, cultivating massive followings, generating millions of impressions and serving thousands of leads. The really interesting thing about Surfers, in fact, is that they actually go to all of the content you used to target with ads, and many more places as well. If only there was a way to connect with your target consumers, endorse them, and let them show all of their friends, family and followers how much they love your products. Surely its not that easy…

Shortbord is a platform that lets Surfers sign up to get endorsed by the companies they love. Companies, which we call Sponsors, are able to target-in on their core demographics (the people they know buy their goods or the people they WANT to buy their goods - for example, males aged 18-30 who like sports and live within 200 miles of New York City). Sponsors then offer a price for endorsement for a fixed amount of money and finite period of time. That means $10 for 5 days, or $2 for 2 days, whatever feels right. Sponsors all know how much their customer acquisition costs are, so they are buying the right to have their target consumers promote their brand to everyone in their bubble. Behind the logo that gets displayed alongside all of the Surfer’s content is a landing page that hosts any ad creative the Sponsor wants - a link to a deal, a promo/coupon code, a timely offer - anything that entices a Surfer’s friends to get involved. Sponsors can leverage the Surfer’s “Influence,” but should work hard to entice the clicks by running great deals that resonate with people.

We get a kick out of the unbelievably advanced technology needed to essentially get back to basics. Billions of dollars after Madison Ave shook up the advertising industry and began manufacturing brands by telling people how to think about certain goods and services, we’re at a point where technology has caused the broadcast to fall on deaf ears. Marketing should probably be known as the second oldest profession in the world, and word-of-mouth its most useful tool.

Stay tuned to find out how social media apps can win the monetization struggle by letting Surfers follow their own self interests, express themselves and make the apps they use and love even more important to their daily lives.

• October 27, 2009, 12:01pm

Its an easy question to answer, but you have to know who your audience is. 

1. Are you a celebrity on the web? If so, then you are a Surfer. This means you use Facebook or Twitter, publish blogs, comment on websites and friends’ photos, write on their walls, email, chat, post status updates, etc… You do a lot of different things on a lot of different websites, but everywhere you go on the web, its always you.  You literally surf across web applications, cultivating massive followings of friends, family, coworkers and acquaintences (all of whom must think you’re pretty cool, or else why would they follow you?). Hundreds of companies want to pay you to promote their brands to your legions of fans. You already spend hundreds of hours each year using your favorite websites, isn’t it time you started getting paid for it?

2. Do you have a great web app that has lots of members / readers / followers? Does your app incorporate user-generated content? Do you want to monetize your traffic but don’t want to overload your users with ads? If yes, then you are a Partner.  Partners are the owners and operators of social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, etc…), blogs (Wordpress, Tumblr, Blogger), micoblogs (Twitter), comment platforms (Disqus, Cocomment, SezWho) and any other social media application that lets Surfers form connections with their peers and express themselves. You’ve been looking for a revenue model, and here’s how we can help: instead of selling ads AT your members, why don’t you try selling ads WITH your members? It sounds crazy, but by letting your members make money for themselves on your website, you will finally create a sustainable source of revenues for yourself. How does infinite return-on-investment sound? There is zero cost to Partners to join Shortbord, and zero risk of joining “too early.” Join the Shortbord network, let your members show you that they want to make money for using your service, and start earning a percentage of their revenues today.

3. Do you want to drive sales or increase your brand’s awareness? Are you watching people spend more and more time on the web, but haven’t figured out how to effectively advertise to them? Are you overwhelmed with staying up to date on the current “hot” platforms (Facebook and Twitter, anyone?) and don’t really know how to engage your target consumers when they’re on those platforms? Marketers know that social media is about having a conversation, but don’t know how to become a part of the conversation without seeming spammy or annoying. This sounds like most Sponsors we’ve talked to, and here’s how Shortbord can help: instead of sponsoring the websites that you think your target consumers will be using and hoping that they notice your ads, instead use Shortbord to directly connect with your target consumers and let them virally promote your brand to their hundreds or thousands of followers. There is no stronger (or older) form of advertising that word-of-mouth, and no advertising product is as effective. Endorse Surfers, become a part of the conversation regardless of the platform the Surfers are using, and create an army of brand advocates to drive sales on the web or in stores. Your main goal as an advertiser is to make direct connections with your target consumers; Shortbord is the best (and only) way to do this.

• October 26, 2009, 5:11pm

Blogs have to start somewhere, right? Welcome to Shortbord’s blog, the place to read about the method behind the start-up madness.  The belly of the beast.  The inner sanctum. The engine that powers the

You get the point. We’ll be keeping this site fresh and talking about all-things digital advertising. As always, please feel free to contact us or leave comments with any of your thoughts, questions or observations. We’re busy, but not too busy for you. 

• October 26, 2009, 2:40pm