BuzzMachine

Time heals nada

: Jupiter analyst/blogger David Card asks: “Is Henry Blodget still a moron?”

How do we measure up?

: Mayfield calls for new metrics for the measurement of the effectiveness of citizens’ media and I agree. Ross quotes Terry Heaton:

The broadcast metrics of reach and frequency are bound for the grave. A study released this week by InsightExpress finds that people (with DVRs) are most inclined to view ads they have not seen before, and consequently are most likely to zap ads they’ve already seen. Joe Mandese of MediaDailyNews wrote, “it suggests that the economics of a business based on serving redundant commercial impressions to a mass audience in order to reach an impressionable few will no longer work in the future.” This is the kind of thing Doc Searls prophesied over six years ago.

Ross says:

With Technorati’s new Ad Mission, you have to wonder if Cosmos’ substitute Reach and Authority replaces Frequency.

Tim Oren pipes in about the declining value of old media and adds:

…all exposure-based advertising models are under attack, both by direct competition and through the increasingly visible failure of exposure metrics to actually represent the value derived from advertising.

And I say in Ross’ comments:

You’re right: We need to define new metrics. This medium isn’t about impressions; it’s about relationships; it’s about conversations; it’s about influence; it’s about authority. We are starting to measure how many conversations a blog starts (or at least takes part in) with Technorati. But it’s just a beginning.

So how do we measure the authority and influence of this medium? That is its real value; that is what takes it up the value chain way above Google AdSense and web banners and print ads and TV impressions and billboard impressions and radio frequency and all that old stuff. This is about conversations. How do you measure that?

: Note this, too: I’ve been saying for sometime that paid search is only the latest fad and that it is low on the value chain. It’s not about relationships. It’s not about conversations. It’s not about authority. It’s about the coincidence of a word.

Now Yahoo admits that paid search advertising is falling flat:

Paid search, the engine that’s driving many Internet companies into profitability, is getting a dose of reality.

After surging at dizzying rates for the past two years, the paid search market this quarter showed signs of slowing down….

During a conference call Wednesday with analysts, Yahoo executives admitted that its paid search query volume and pricing were flat last quarter, causing a scare on Wall Street. Shares of Yahoo stock plummeted 12 percent in after-hours trading, but recovered a bit the following day.

[via Marketing Vox]