Many people cringe at the thought of a bank being on Facebook or some other social networking site — it's not for them and they just shouldn't be there. In many cases, they're right, generally because the financial institution in hand somehow manages to make a complete hash of it.

Yes, they're there, and yes, they have a presence on this "absolutely crucial social network", but somehow it's plain awkward, all out of place. The true inhabitants of the social network just read them like a book.

But in WaMu's case, as Jim Bruene of Netbanker blog points out, they manage to pull it off. And Jim's right — the WaMu facebook page (see below) isn't overcooked, it somehow just fits in. It's got some quirky video content, a cash-related crossword game, a fun interactive banner and a branch finder. Nothing major, but nothing OTT either.

Admittedly, people aren't going to be kicking down the doors to become friends of WaMu but when they do stumble across the page, and many will, they won't laugh out loud. Dare we say it, they may even stay around a while. That alone is invaluable.

Says Jim: "I realize that all banking pages in Facebook will appear lame to just about every 20-something that happens to stumble across them. But 20-somethings do still need checking accounts, debit/credit cards, vehicle loans, and so forth. So they will buy banking services. And what brand will they choose? The one that is at least making an effort to meet them on their turf."

It's always tough when someone asks you to describe Web 2.0. I tend to rattle off sentences containing words like 'engagement', 'two-way web', 'social internet', 'user-generated content' and 'consumer empowerment'. But God only knows what words I would blurt out if I was asked in front of a camera.

Well, that's what happened to a handful of people at the latest Web 2.0 Expo in San Fran — click here to see what they said. It's useful to see what people on the cutting edge of Web 2.0 are saying, especially when people are already talking Web 3.0.

Mike Butcher of tech blog, TechCrunch, breaks things down to the basics in his definition, saying the internet has gone through three stages ( the "Three Ps"):

1. Pages (”dumb” pages with no intelligence or data)
2. People (social networks producing richer data and, eventually, platforms for applications)
3. Power (all that data producing powerful intelligence about the things we really want to know, like ‘what’ or ‘who’ am I looking for etc).

It strikes me that the third stage, Power, which Mike says we're only really on the cusp of, is hugely relevant to marketers. In the video, Mike points out that the internet is effectively a grand amalgamation of preferences and recommendations, a powerful imprint of society as a whole — "people are putting their entire lives online".

The basic thrust here is that everything you need to know about people, as marketers, is effectively there before you, online — the radical transparency of the internet means there's no need to second guess consumer behaviour.

For marketers, then, the third stage — Power — is to learn how to unravel that information, ideally in real-time, and use it to their advantage.

Neat little post by Paul Dunay of Buzz Marketing for Technology. It's not revolutionary but reiterates well the need for companies to create pull content, not push content — to be what interests people rather than to interrupt what interests people.

Paul points out, and rightly so, that marketers will increasingly begin to rival traditional media in the content they generate. Greg The Architect by TIBCO, he says, is a case in point, albeit a b2b one — a superb differentiator within TIBCO's space.

Marketers, the message is, have to unlearn much of what they have learnt, to remove all 'roadblocks' and give people reasons to engage. Content, these days, is king.

It's hard enough getting your heads around the endlessly changing, massively fragmented world of Web 2.0 marketing and what it takes to meet the needs of the 'connected consumer' without having to manage and streamline what you're doing, co-ordinate and budget your activities, monitor the seemingly infinite number of new websites, blogs and social networks, and track performance — this really can be the last straw. There's just too much to do and it feels like the goalposts are always moving.

Thankfully, help may be at hand in the form of MRM (marketing resource management) software. Now, I'm not here (and not equipped) to tell you which of the products out there is best for you — that will come from trying them out and in-depth research — but I can point you to a short but informative article on www.emarketingandcommerce.com by Alan Bunce, a senior product manager at software vendor Unica.

I particularly liked the following two points on how MRM can help marketers:

• It lets marketers be more nimble in response to changing marketing landscapes. Marketing plans that incorporate Web 2.0 often need to change rapidly, because collectively online communities “never sleep” and yesterday's marketing plan can swiftly become obsolete. Capturing marketing plans and budgets in an MRM system puts the most up-to-date version just a click away from everyone's fingertips.
• It provides visibility into everything marketing is doing, and improves collaboration around planning and execution, helping to achieve the holy grail of integrated cross-channel communications — which today sometimes seems even more out of reach when blogs, Wikis, social networking, etc., are added to the marketing mix.

Here's another useful post by Paul Dunay, the brains behind the highly regarded Buzz Marketing For Technology blog. It covers pretty much the same ground, namely that as marketing becomes more 'distributed', marketers need to 'have a very solid base of measurement to draw from', such as the comprehensive MRM platforms of Eloqua, Aprimo and Unica. Dunay says:

"Why even do that, you ask? Well, I believe we’re being bigheaded if we think we can keep content on a site and expect people to come get it. Publishers are getting this point, big time, by syndicating out their content as much as they can. As marketers, we also need to think bigger about syndicating our content."

And if you syndicate content, which is the obvious way to build a web presence and send your product or service viral (through web apps, widgets, blogs, social networks, banners, videos, whatever), then you still need to measure the effect and impact of that syndication — somehow you need to make sense of all the madness and a decent MRM platform could be just the ticket.

Finally, you should check out this other little post by Paul in February. In it, he covers how marketers need to move beyong the concept of the marketing 'campaign' when approaching social media, as this suggests a beginning and an end (which is becoming less and less relevant in the always on, timeless digital era). In any case, it almost always takes time for social media messages, in whatever form (a podcast series, blog or new community) to filter through and be picked up. You don't bracket social media 'campaigns' into fixed time periods, you just roll with it.

Specialist pet retailer, PetSmart, is offering its customers a fun new way to earn rewards for themselves and their pets: it's allowing them to put an edge-to-edge picture of their little bundle of fluff, six foot snake (or whatever their pet may be!) on their PetPerks Visa card. Alternatively, they can choose from a library of predesigned 'pet-themed' card designs. In the words of PetSmart, people never have to leave home without their pet again.

The PetPerks Visa rewards card is issued by WAMU and (excuse the rather tired pun) is a natural home for the growing phenomenon of card customization. It's a no-annual fee card and comes with the following benefits:

• Earn three points for every dollar spent on purchases at PetSmart, PetSmart.com and Banfield, The Pet Hospital(R), and earn one point per dollar spent everywhere else Visa credit cards are accepted.
• Redeem points for rewards like PetSmart gift cards, donations to PetSmart Charities, travel rewards and statement credits, starting at just 2,000 points.
• Receive a $20 PetSmart gift card after using the card for the first time within one year.
• Online applicants will receive 0% introductory Annual Percentage Rate (APR) for the first six months on purchases and balance transfers requested at the time of application.

"The new PetSmart PetPerks Visa is a valuable extension of our PetPerks loyalty program, rewarding members every time they shop at PetSmart as well as other places," said Mary Miller, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, PetSmart, Inc. "In addition to offering great benefits, pet parents can proudly display a photo of their beloved pet on the card."

Discover Financial Services has launched two online financial tools that will help cardholders better manage their credit (and most of us, let's face it, need some help in that area): the Paydown Planner and Purchase Planner.

This is all about consumer empowerment, arming customers with data that can positively inform the way they spend, help them make smart financial decisions and prevent them getting into financial deep water. It's a great idea and a symbol of the way issuers are increasingly partnering with customers rather than just offering products to them. Best of all, both of these tools are pre-populated with the cardholder's own account information so it's 100% relevant to the individual.

First up, the Paydown Planner, which helps cardholders find a way to pay down their balances. With this tool, cardholders are presented with two ways that they could reach their pay-down goal: by tapping in a proposed monthly payment figure, and finding out how long it will take to pay down at that level, or by setting a target date and being told what they'll need to pay each month to reach that goal. This is sooooo handy, I need it now (who's doing it in the UK?).

The Purchase Planner, meanwhile, helps the cardholder understand how a payment (especially a bigger one) could affect their monthly payments, i.e. it's there to stop people going out and whacking something on their creddie that they really can't afford.

As with the Paydown Planner, again they have two options: either they can enter in the planned purchase price and get an approximate monthly payment amount that will be required to pay off their balance; or they can input their preferred monthly payment amount and find out how much they can spend on a new purchase without going beyond this.

"The planners are another example of how Discover is strongly committed to helping our cardmembers stay on top of their finances and reach their financial goals," said Mike Boush, vice president of marketing planning and new initiatives at Discover. "We encourage our cardmembers to use these free and practical tools to help them answer relevant questions and engage in good credit management."

A round of applause to Discover, I say.

The way that companies market their products and services will need to change radically if they are to remain relevant in the digital era, according to recent research published by Gartner. In an online world, says Gartner, traditional ways of selling to customers, based on demographic information, will become irrelevant.

Instead, companies will have to adapt to the needs of 'Generation Virtual', or 'Generation V'. Traditional segmentation strategies, namely age, gender, social demographic and geography, will become a thing of the past as our virtual personas take over and our behaviour, attitudes and interests 'blend togetether in an online environment' (some have predicted that 80% of us will have an online persona, or avatar by 2011).

"Conventional wisdom has focused on customer identification as the foundation for one-to-one marketing campaigns," said Adam Sarner, principal analyst at Gartner. "The reality of Generation V creating anonymous online personas, and the sheer power of their growing influence in an online environment, means companies must change their methods of acquisition and relationship building."

Sarner continued: "CRM-focused companies and particularly their marketing departments must take notice of this change and engage with online personas... Going forward, customers' true identities will have less importance, and instead companies will need to understand the role or persona that customers are playing at any given time and treat them accordingly."

Hmmm, not sure what to think of all this. To say that customers' true identities will be of less importance in the digital era is a statement of quite some sociological import — I'm just not sure that people's identities, as Gartner appears to be suggesting, will dilute and 'blend' quite so readily online. But it's useful to see how some see the future panning out — even if, at a deeper level, slightly unnerving....

What I do agree with, and this is something that's being written about quite a lot at the moment, is that companies can learn a lot more about what people think of their products and services by surveying them online — in their virtual or social networking worlds. Nobody likes to be cornered by someone in the street and asked to take part in a survey, and if they do take part then they're less likely to really speak their minds.

Of course, within your own social network or a virtual world, you're either anonymous or in an environment where you feel secure so you're much more likely to speak your mind — say it as it is. Maybe marketers need to go online to find those deeper insights into consumer behaviour, preferences and demands.
 

Last month, we covered research from Pew Internet & American Life Project showing how video sharing sites were becoming more and more popular. Well, the significant growth of online video usage — particularly in the youth market — has been confirmed by yet more research, this time from Leichtman Research.

Among other things, the research, based on 1250 US households and carried out in December and January, found that:

• Among all individuals ages 18-34, 42% report that they watch video online at home at least weekly – up from 28% last year
• Among all individuals ages 35 and above, 15% watch video online at home at least weekly – compared to 13% last year
• 9% of those who watch video online strongly agree that they now watch TV less often
• 52% of online video users typically spend ten minutes or less when they view online
• Among all people online, just 4% strongly agree that they would consider disconnecting their TV service to only watch video online
  

Commenting on the findings, Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst at Leichtman Research, said: “Online video is emerging as a medium unto itself – not necessarily a replication of, or an alternative to, traditional TV viewing. In analyzing the growth of online video, it is important to understand the characteristics of those who are most likely to view video online, and the types of content that are most appealing.”

Meanwhile, stats from global internet information provider, comScore, also published in February, revealed that US internet users watched more than 10 billion videos online during December 2007, the single heaviest month for online video consumption since comScore initiated its tracking service.

Of course, the reason for the increased popularity of online video is the mass penetration of broadband internet. On this front, according to the latest stats from market analyst, Nielsen Online, broadband penetration will break 90% among active internet users by May 2008 (having grown once again in January 2008 by 0.7% to 87.49%).

The use of online video as a way to market to and monetize eyeballs is only set to grow.

Three useful podcasts for you to listen to — as supplied by the Internet Advertising Bureau. The first focuses on the future of internet marketing and includes views from such luminaries as Randy Falco, Chairman and CEO of AOL.

The second talks about Web 2.0 — just what is it and exactly how do advertisers adapt their marketing strategies to monetize social networks? Jay Stevens, Vice President of Operations at MySpace, gives his cent's worth on this front.

The third podcast concentrates on the revolution in mobile marketing — just how can marketers translate their strategies onto the mobile handset? The potential is huge, there's no doubt about that, but Matthew Kirk, Director of Portals at Orange, says since mobiles are so private you need to get the messaging and tone just right. If not, you could risk seriously alienating the very audience you're targeting. Anyway, grab your headphones and listen up.

• 39% of online teens share their own artistic creations online, such as artwork, photos, stories or videos, up from 33% in 2004
• 33% create or work on webpages or blogs for others, including those for groups they belong to, friends or school assignments, unchanged from 2004 (32%)
  
• 28% have created their own online journal or blog, up from 19% in 2004
• 27% maintain their own personal webpage, up from 22% in 2004
• 26% remix content they find online into their own creations, up from 19% in 2004
• 55% have created a profile on a social networking site such as Facebook or MySpace
  

A significant 48% of American adults have visited video-sharing sites, according to research published in January by Pew Internet & American Life Project. What's more, the daily traffic to such sites on a typical day at the end of 2007 was nearly double what it was at the end of 2006. Basically, online video is booming.

The key findings of the survey were as follows:

• 48% of internet users said they had visited a video-sharing site such as YouTube. A year ago, in December 2006, 33% of internet users said they had visited such sites. That represents growth of more than 45% year-to-year. 
• 15% of respondents said they had used a video-sharing site "yesterday”. A year ago, 8% had visited such a site “yesterday". Thus, on an average day, the number of users of video sites nearly doubled from the end of 2006 to the end of 2007.
  

In an earlier post, we looked at two videos explaining the potential of video advertising, which was described as the "new commercial frontrunner". Well, these latest stats are confirmation that this may just be true.