sxsw: 3.11.08 Peas in a Pod: Advertising, Monetization and Social Media

sxsw: 3.11.08 Peas in a Pod: Advertising, Monetization and Social Media

Bottom line words: advertising ROI, social media

Tim Kendall is a Product Manager at Facebook, where he oversees revenue-generating products and leads new monetization initiatives including the company's new advertising solution, Facebook Social Ad system. Prior to Facebook, Tim worked in Amazon.com's digital media group as a Product Manager.

Ellen McGirt is Senior Writer at Fast Company magazine. She covers a range of business topics, but never stops looking for the writer's holy grail: The business ideas - and people - who are changing the world. McGirt joined Fast Company in February 2007 from Fortune, where she was a senior writer.

Kent Nichols is a storyteller, technology geek, and goofball. In 2003 his film "Baggage" won the International 48 Hour Film Project and Scott Billups called him the future of the entertainment industry in his book, "Digital Moviemaking." In 2005 Nichols, along with writing partner Douglas Sarine, created the Internet sensation AskANinja.com, which has been viewed over 20 million times. In 2006 Sarine and Nichols created HopeIsEmo.com, one of the most viewed and discussed series on the web.

Seth Goldstein is co-founder and chairman of Attentiontrust.org, and strongly advocates for the rights of individuals to their own data. He is creating services for turning passive data into active expression through a group called AttentionLab. I was the founder of one of the first Internet advertising agencies, SiteSpecific, in 1995, and was entrepreneur-in-residence at Flatiron Partners.

As the social web commands increasing user attention across diverse demographics, social media has begun to see a new wave of online advertising. As all kinds of marketers embark on this new media frontier, it's critical that their plans provide value for users while also creating demonstrating positive ROI - either for brand or direct marketers.

Companies push and have opt-in actions but some you have to opt out without really realizing this – so Beacon takes data outside Facebook, so if you buy something at Zappos it can come into Facebook.

Info shared within Facebook is fair game for sharing – it is a social sharing environment. When you move data from Facebook outward it needs more controls.

Social advertising network discussion is underway, but this conversation by this group is very stream of consciousness and not easy to blog.

Going to close my blogging now for this conference and see what I can learn from this one!