Marketing Pilgrim

In a young industry such as social media, defining talent and experience is a dicey proposition at best. The age of the space will vary greatly depending on who you speak with but the maturation has truly escalated in the past 5 years or so (feel free to debate that if you wish ).

So it’s little surprise that the rapid expansion of the space has created a need for talent and experience both of which can be seen as being in short supply. That is unless you really believe that everyone who calls themselves a social media / digital marketing expert, guru, maven or ninja or whatever actually is one.

The Society of Digital Agencies has outlined this need for talent in their report the 2011 Digital Marketing Outlook. Check out the chart below.

Malware has always been a real problem for the Internet space and now it is spreading further into the world on online advertising. For those keeping score, that’s a bad thing.

According to a post from ClickZ

More than 10 billion online ad impressions served up in 2010 carried malware, according to recent research from Online Trust Alliance. The organization, dedicated to establishing best practices for ensuring data privacy and security online, argues that delivery of ads transferring malicious code could be prevented if ad networks and other ad third parties took care to know their business partners.

Excuse me while I chuckle at that last sentence. In this go-go Internet space taking care to know your business partners can slow down ‘progress’. With many ad networks being sketchy from the get-go this is both a tall order and a bit too Utopian for this real world Internet. Money talks, so few people vet.

Hands-up if you’d like to sell your company for 100 times your projected earnings for 2011?

Sorry, it will…take a little…longer to…type this sentence…with just one hand.

On the back of a recent $200 million investment–and a reported $80m secondary market purchase–the Wall Street Journal is reporting that both Google and Facebook are sniffing around Twitter.

Both Google and Facebook have discussed buying Twitter in the past and have kept their lines of communication open, people familiar with the matter said. One of these people said companies including Facebook and Google have expressed “latent interest” in an acquisition.

When it raised the $200m in December, Twitter’s valuation was only $3.7 billion. Now it appears that Google and Facebook are kicking around valuations anywhere between $8 billion and $10 billion.

It’s time for the comScore, U.S. Digital Year in Review report 2010! I know you’ve been waiting breathlessly for this, preparing for the moment when you can put these marketing secrets into action and ramp up your sales 200%!

Well, here’s the real secret. There are no secrets. We’ve seen these trends coming right at us for the past year and then some. Still, a little validation is always helpful, so let’s see what made the list of the Top 10 Digital Media Trends of 2010.

E-commerce is back, but is morphing:

The report states that US e-commerce grew 10% to $142.5 billion. A big chunk of that went to online only sites such as Amazon, but many brick and mortar stores with an online component saw sales skyrocket this past holiday season.

The internet is all a twitter today about a brand new social media marketing push from toy manufacturer Mattel. The campaign is all about how Ken plans to woo Barbie back into his life by Valentine’s Day and it’s pretty brilliant.

The entire event revolves around a website where people can vote if Barbie should take Ken back. The simplistic website has huge buttons sending people to Ken and Barbies’ Facebook, Twitter or Foursquare page, there’s even a YouTube video where Ken uses Match.com to see if he and Barbie are compatible. Not enough? They’re also running a reality show on Hulu called The Genuine Ken and not coincidentally they’re about to release a new “Sweet Talking Ken Doll” who looks like a cross between Justin Bieber and the kids from Twilight.

2010 was a banner year for the Android OS for mobile devices. There is no denying that. We have already taken a look at one firm’s analysis of Q4 sales to establish that the Android platform is on a roll.

Today, Gartner released more data that shows just how big 2010 was for the Android OS. The report is for sale here (MP does not benefit from sale of Gartner reports).

The obvious question that many are considering is: Will the full roll out of the iPhone on Verizon set for tomorrow (February 10) signal the beginning of the end of Android’s rapid ascent? Will Verizon be enough to put a dent into this growth or will Apple need to have the iPhone available to all users at all wireless providers like Android devices currently are in order to compete?