RSS

A new report found that 54% of enterprises and more than 70% of companies with fewer than 500 employees are using blogs, RSS feeds, social marketing and online video to reach out to consumers. Nearly all enterprises said that all of their Web 2.0 efforts have been successful and 83% say there are no clear failures with these new measures.

The undercurrent of panic at big agencies is palpable, as is the hunger for fresh approaches. How Publicis is attacking this reality is a case study for the industry -- and a saga of unexpected self-discovery. The rising stars across Madison Avenue are the folks who can best target consumers, deliver tailored messages, and analyze performance. The joyless granularity that once made direct marketing, digital's forebear, the lowest caste in advertising, has come out on top.

In the past, RSS feeds typically were free of ads. With new specialized advertising networks focusing on RSS Advertising, webmasters have more avenues to earn revenue. Site Fever provides a brief list of advertising networks that provide you with ways to earn revenue from your RSS feeds.

Delivery of information when, where and how consumers want it is the new name of the game. An Atlas SVP explores the future possibilities this opens up to marketers. Writes Handly, "Because Web 2.0 has increased the importance of reach for both businesses and consumers, I would argue in the wake of the Google/DoubleClick and Microsoft/aQuantive deals that ad serving and management is the defining component of Web 2.0."

E-mail used to be a marketer's darling; then, spam killed the magic. Search marketing took its place -- and still remains the top online advertising medium in terms of spending, according to data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau. But RSS -- the awkwardly named and oft-misunderstood method for delivering content directly to readers -- could prove to be a better way to reach consumers.

According to a new McKinsey Quarterly study of over 300 marketing executives, 83 percent use email in their marketing efforts. Email is even older than banners, and not nearly so sexy as online video, but it remains a go-to staple in most marketers' toolkits. The second most popular online tactic is display advertising. Video came in a distant seventh with only one-third of the marketers employing it. But video's hard to do well -- maybe that's why some are so slow to give it a try.

COREMedia's Carl Langrock describes the maze that is online measurement. There are metrics aplenty, and isolating a single variable is not easy work. Some consumers see ads and click right away. Others think for five days, then search for the product in Google. The truth is, to measure what's working and what's not in your online campaign, you need to test, measure, study, and hypothesize. Then do it all over again.

If you can't beat the internet, you might as well embrace it. Or so seems the new strategy for Turner's TNT and TBS superstation. After they first air an episode from one of their original series, the shows will go online the following day on the stations' corresponding websites (TNT.tv and TBS.com). It's not the first of such announcements, and it certainly won't be the last. If you want a big on-air audience, online can help you to build and sustain it.

INSIGHT: Facebook grew to online prominence based in part on exclusivity. To join, you needed an institutional affiliation -- typically a high school or college. Recently, Facebook opened its doors to all, and as of this weekend, opened its interface to third-party companies. Already, said firms are rolling out widgets like crazy. Surprisingly, none of them automate blog entries about Facebook's Great Transformation. We're doing that on our own. At the rate of twenty an hour, it seems.

INSIGHT: It is frankly impossible for mere mortals to keep track of technology and internet startups. Many bet the bank on variations on familiar themes, and others take wild swings so crazy that they just might work. In February, the Business 2.0 staff profiled 25 new companies that look like they just might make it.