Big question: When will Twitter start to generate revenue?  Answer: Soon.  The fastest growing social media site, Twitter, will finally start to generate ad dollars by teaming up with Federated Media. Twitter and Federated, a syndication network of blogs including Boing Boing, Digg, Dooce and others, plan to share revenue from programs involving Federated produced tweet pages.  Twitter has revenue sharing agreements in place with AT&T’s MarchTweetness and Microsoft’s ExecTweets. AT&T is trying to connect what happens on Twitter during TV events and prime-time shows where the viewing audience exchanges Tweets about the program.  The AT&T campaign is an experiment to see if basketball fans like the experience of Twitter and social networks.  Twitter also has plans to generate revenue through the establishment of an account structure that relies on paid services as an add-on to the site’s basic service. While many claim user generated content doesn’t work well for advertisers, this new Twitter model may change the minds of advertisers.  Full Article - Federated Media Creates Shared Revenue Programs for Twitter - Media Buyer Planner

 

by Leslie Laredo 
    

I hear many site reps refer to their role in sales as "pitching their site" to the buyers.  Their sales presentations start with metrics about their site, which usually include their page views (PVs), unique visitors (UVs), and various other details about hold time, page views per session, and so on.  This way of selling positions the site as just another commodity, based on "how big is the site and audience" and forces the buyer to evaluate their site based on quantity vs. quality.  By selling site metrics and not the value of the audience, many reps get feedback their site isn’t big enough to get the buyer’s attention, and just go away with their tail dragging.
 
Reps need to understand that by not focusing on the "commodity" aspects of their site, and instead focusing on their audience and editorial content, they will help buyers differentiate their site based on a much more unique audience value proposition.  
 
Media selling is about matching the buyer’s target customer with the seller’s audience, the efficiency of the match (the audience composition), the ability to deliver effective targeted reach (using different targeting criteria) and the talent or skill of the rep to understand how to translate creative and unique opportunities on their site into the media objectives of the buyer.  If sellers focus on non-commodity aspects, buyers will respond differently.  While media buyers want and demand efficient reach, they also value quality editorial brands and audiences, which are not defined by PVs and UVs.   
 
One sales organization that does this "selling of the audience" extremely effectively is WashingtonPost Digital, which received the IAB’s sales excellence award in February at the IAB’s annual conference.  The sales excellence award recognized WashingtonPost Digital for the best performance in delivering on promises and being responsive to client needs and interests as well as other criteria.  I recently spoke with Steve Stup, VP of Ad Sales for WashingtonPost Digital about winning this award.
 
Steve told me about their program called POST, which stands for Positively Outrageous Service and Treatment. This is an internal program involving the entire sales organization:  sales execs, sales management, account managers and ad operations.  Their common goal is to make sure their clients are "wowed" by the experience. 
 
As Steve pointed out, one key aspect of this customer support strategy "...is to instill it in our culture.  Every sales person is expected to live up to the expectation that servicing clients is the most important aspect of the job, and everyone has to deliver top level performance."  In addition, he credits the success of the POST program with how they hire and focus their reps on selling their audience values instead of their site stats.  "The sales people we hire must show us a sense of pride in the brand, and have to be the type of person who gets goose-bumps presenting our value to advertisers. They must take pride in what they sell.  Our clients will believe in what they say, because they say it with confidence, and clients see and hear that sincerity.  At high levels in the agency or at the clients, we always talk about the audience."
 
Steve spoke of one of the ways that they win business...being innovative. In fact, WashingtonPost Digital has an Ad Innovations group.  This group is responsible for coming up with ideas and making recommendations. Another feature of their success with clients is their ability to make smart or realistic estimates, instead of just giving any number to close a deal.  Steve says his "team has a smart dialog with the client and won’t make promises it can’t meet."  A major take-away from his comments is the importance of managing your clients expectations and not making guarantees you don’t know you can deliver, especially for new or custom programs.  Tie your success to developing passionate brand reps, who have in-depth knowledge of your audience and demonstrate personal commitment to improving their sales skills.

 

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The Digital Blur