Widgets, Buzz And Digital Engagement - Page 2

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Before The Buzz

Advertisers are also increasingly using Bluetooth text-messaging and RFID tags, according to Captivate Network's Flanigan.

One strategy unpopular with panelists was the use of popups. AOL's McIntyre cited a lack of value exchanged between marketer and user.

"Popups are not good for AOL," he said. "If you lose that sense of fair dialogue in that transition, you may have some success, but in the long run, you're going to fail."

VideoEgg's Sanchez agreed that this "disruptive advertising" doesn't work. "You want to invite the user into the experience" rather than turn them away.

Captivate omits audio from video advertising in elevators as a way to combat possible user frustration with distracting ads. "People don't want the audio," Flanigan said. Similarly, many video ads online have buttons to click to turn audio on or off.

Spreading the buzz

In the panel "Getting Buzzed: Smart Moves for Your Content and Brand in the Digital Eco-System," panelists stressed the need for online media sites to use social networking to get the word out about their content.

Richard Glosser, executive director for emerging media at CondeNet, recommended that media sites make heavy use of social networking buttons on their sites and to aggressively use link-sharing sites such as Digg and Yahoo Buzz to get the word out about content. "It's not gaming the system to put content there yourself," he said. "That's all fair game for this world we live in."

In another session called "It Takes an Online Village: Building and Maintaining Magazine Communities," Matt Mitovich, managing editor at TVGuide.com, said all editors on staff are required to have an account on Facebook.com to promote what they're covering. "Facebook and MySpace represent a gigantic opportunity," he said.

Once media sites get the buzz and experience an increase in traffic as the result of a major story -- say the Spitzer scandal -- sites sometimes struggle to take advantage of the spike in traffic.

Don Marzetta, marketing vice president for business brands at CNET Networks (NASDAQ: CNET), commented that though sites may not see immediate monetization from a spike in traffic, advertisers will notice.

Meanwhile, Adriana Bourgoin, chief Internet officer at Modern Luxury Media, warned that sites need to have the infrastructure to handle a sudden spike in traffic.

"A site failure is a terrible experience for your brand," Yahoo's Bhat said.