In a typical session in my free time online I might post a few snapshots on Instagram, check out the latest viral YouTube video and update my Facebook page.  I might also research and buy a book for myself, or a gift—or I might price a couple of possibilities for my family’s summer vacation. But in my use of social media, many of these activities soon give way to new enthusiasms — #lancearmstrong already seems like yesterday’s news by #inaugurationday.

The point is that as more of us live more of our lives through our broadband connections, marketers have to search for ways to access and leverage the vast Social Data trail of our interests—some fleeting and some more abiding—that we create online.

And IAB’s Data Council just rolled out a new report—Social Data: Demystification & Best Practice—that can give companies and marketers a sturdier starting point for understanding and making better use of this growing mass of information and its power to positively influence millions of people through social amplification.

Social data that haven’t existed in traditional digital media analytic channels (Social Data: Demystification and Best Practice, IAB)

Social Data flows from a million directions. For example, many online marketers are using trackable URLs when posting to social media. These allow you to see exactly where your traffic and customers come from. Another popular social media tool allows you to add a share button wherever you need one on your website—a tool that creates data about who comes to your site, when and why. Of course social media sites themselves also generate masses of social data for you to use. All in all, just like other entities that are growing their online community, we at IAB use Social Data analysis tools, to see where our offerings are strong and to get feedback that helps us reach unexplored audiences.

Social Data: Demystification and Best Practice offers best practices and a common language to help analyze and discuss the data generated by these many layers of social media. Creating a common language is key, because after extracting Social Data, making useful sense of it is still often not easy—sometimes simply because people use the same terms for different phenomena. The report further explains what must go into meaningful data analytics—another critical hurdle we all must clear, as we move away from tracking mere page views in favor of deeper aspects of Social Data,  including propagation, amplification and sentiment.

What I think is really exciting here—to me, the basis for Social Data’s promise—is that it’s all about social media’s community of millions of people happily and openly coming together. But with the resulting pool of data so deep and varied, the new IAB report is like navigation software that can help you and your particular company or marketing campaign find the right direction through a real jungle of information to your specific goals.  You can download the report at http://iab.net/socialdata.

About the Author

Patrick Dolan

Patrick Dolan is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). Mr. Dolan is responsible for finance, operation, costs, compliance, and risk management. In addition, he works closely with the rest of the executive management team to supervise strategy and revenue optimization. He can be reached on Twitter at @patrickdolan.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is known for creating display, mobile and video guidelines for the advertising industry. In 2010, the IAB created its first ever Rising Stars initiative as a means to highlight successful user experience and brand equity in display, mobile and video advertising. Last week I had the opportunity to judge dozens of the digital video submissions from leading brands and media moguls like Microsoft, Google, YouTube and Hulu as part of the IAB Rising Stars digital video ad format competition. The goal of the competition is to work with brands to develop digital video advertising standards to capture innovation and creativity for the good of the industry.

In 2012 the digital advertising industry experienced an explosion of new advertising opportunities and with it, an increasingly complex landscape within which to develop powerful digital video advertising. My job, in collaboration with the other Rising Stars digital video judges, was to narrow down fifty-five final entries to six. Being part of the judging process with colleagues across digital, media and advertising agencies was an awe-inspiring experience. We focused on selecting new formats, which will allow creatives to develop rich brand experiences within video advertising.

The new digital video industry standards are currently being finalized and will be announced February 2013 at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting.

About the Author

Jeannie Fratoni

Jeannie Fratoni is Creative Director and Co-Founder at Red Door Interactive.

The Federal Trade Commission is undertaking a revision of their rules enforcing COPPA, the Federal law that protects families from the unwanted collection of personally identifiable information about their children. The interactive advertising industry supports COPPA and recognizes that a lot has changed in the 14 years since its passage, including the rise of the internet and, more recently, the growth of the mobile marketplace — but we must embrace innovation and the benefits they have brought to families. Recent proposals made by the FTC would conflate benign data transfers, which present no discernible threat to children’s online safety, with very real concerns about the unauthorized collection of information that might allow strangers to contact our children.

IAB hopes that the FTC will not undermine legitimate commercial practices that have revolutionized the way kids learn and play in the digital age. This holiday season let’s celebrate innovation and technology instead of playing scrooge to American families.

About the Author

Mike Zaneis

Mike Zaneis is SVP & General Counsel at the IAB.

Seeing Red?  Bleeding Blue?  Maybe you just feel a like little Abby, and are tired of Bronco Obama and Mitt Romeneney.  Fret not, because after Tuesday night, Americans will find respite from these words: “… and I approve this message.”  But until the airwaves are relinquished back to the likes of Nike and McDonalds, we bring you this IAB cheat sheet to get you through the night and make you sound like the next coming of Charlie Cook at the water cooler.  If you are looking to bone up, and become a bona fide Tech Policy Wonk, you may eat your veggies by reading Part 2 of this election blog series.

Current Snapshot - Congressional Scoreboard

If you were busy flirting with [insert: attractive popular student] during civics, here is a quick refresher.

The House of Representatives, 435 congressmen and women, proportionally represent the 50 states (fun fact: five delegates represent DC, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands; a resident commissioner represents Puerto Rico).  Representatives serve 2-year terms, and the entire House is up for election every even-numbered year.

The Senate, otherwise known as the Upper Chamber, is comprised of 50 senators - two from each state.  Senators serve six-year terms, and one-third of the Senate body is up for election every even-numbered year.  This year, 21 democratic-held seats, 10 republican-held seats, and 2 independent-held seats are up for election.  Of these 33 seats, 10 members retired, and 1 lost their primary, leaving 11 open seats without an incumbent running. *60 votes are needed in the Senate to proceed on legislation, and currently, Senate Independents caucus with the Democrats. 

Road to the White House - 270
Like it or not, to win the presidency, a candidate must win the Electoral College. The electoral college consists of 538 electors, a majority of which—270—is needed to win.  Each state sends the same number of electors as the state’s congressional delegation.  With an electorate increasingly 50/50 split down party lines, the elusive independent voter has enormous power.  Where independent voters are concentrated, that state is identified as a battleground, or swing state.  This year’s presidential is too close for the pundits to call, and in order for either campaign to win, they must do two things: turn out their base at the voting polls, and win as many swing states as possible.  This year, 7 states may very well decide the presidency; and, depending on the scenario, Ohio may be the big get, but ironically, small states Iowa and New Hampshire may have the final say.  Watch for every news network to bring out the giant, touch-screen maps, to start  breaking down 7-state fuzzy math.

7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
The Commonwealth Factor - Polls officially close in Virginia, one of several targeted battleground states, and could indicate the direction of the Presidential Election.  Historically, Virginia swings red, but the President took the state in 2008.  While the demographic landscape continues to trend blue, the state tops all others in defense spending, and proposed Pentagon cuts may move the state into the Romney column.

Buyer Beware… do not be fooled by early vote totals in Virginia.  Northern Virginia, which trends Democratic, will report earlier than rural portions of the state, which are traditionally Republican; late reporting could reveal a Romney Virginia victory.  Also, be on the lookout for two tight Senate races.  Former Democratic Governor Tim Kaine is in the fight of his life against former Republican Senator and Governor George Allen in the seat vacated by Democrat Jim Webb.  In Indiana, a surprising turn for Democratic candidate Joe Donnelly against Republican Richard Mourdock.  “Top of the Ballot” rules may not apply, as Romney may take Virginia and very likely Indiana, while Kaine and Donnelly pull out razor thin victories.

Battleground Florida also closes.  The night starts to get exciting. Not since 1960 has anyone won the presidency without two of the big three: Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida.

Other states closing at 7:00 PM - Kentucky, South Carolina, Vermont, and Georgia

7:30 PM EST / 4:30 PM PST
O’ Ohio - While polls officially close in battleground Ohio at 7:30 PM, if history has taught us anything, do not anticipate a final count until late into the evening.  If Ohio is called early for Obama, this does not bode well for Romney: a Republican has never won the Presidency without winning Ohio.

Obama has the state organizational advantage and Ohio unemployment numbers are in his favor, but Romney can still pull off a historic first pointing to an advantage in Florida and New Hampshire.

Other states closing at 7:30 PM - West Virginia and North Carolina

8:00 PM EST / 5:00 PM PST
Battleground America - Things get cooking in the fight for electoral votes.  A win in Pennsylvania could seal the deal for Obama, while a Romney victory ensures the fight goes on through the night.  New Hampshire will prove crucial for Romney, and the numbers are pointing in his direction.  Several tight Senate races close, including industry champions Democrat Claire McCaskill against Todd Akin in the ‘show me’ state Missouri, and Democrat Chris Murphy against WWE Proprietor Linda McMahon in Connecticut.  Another tight and bitter race, moderate Republican incumbent Scott Brown defends his Senate seat against democratic darling and Harvard Prof Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts.

Other states closing at 8:00 PM - Alabama, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oklahoma, DC, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, Texas and Tennessee.

9:00 PM EST / 6:00 PM PST
Rocky Mountain High - Colorado, formerly a Republican stronghold, swung Blue in ‘08 and has trended Democratic in recent weeks’ polling.  Site of the 2008 Democratic Convention, the state’s demographics have remained relatively unchanged, but expect high voter turnout from the 18-35 set for a ballot measure to legalize small amounts of marijuana.

Bellweather tolls — While the PX90 Pro Veep candidate Ryan may be Wisconsin’s favorite son, who wins the state’s 10 electoral votes may depend on the outcome of the Senate race between former republican Governor Tommy Thompson and democratic representative Tammy Baldwin.  Polls show a dead heat, and a tumultuous two years at the polls prove the Badger state is unpredictable.

Other states closing at 9:00 PM - Arizona, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, and Wyoming.

10:00 PM EST / 7:00 PM PST
Double Down - Nevada and Iowa will continue to keep the pundits talking.  Dubbed a must-win for Obama, three electoral votes from the state caucus that propelled Obama into 2008, Iowa, may be the difference again in 2012.  Polls show the President leading, but turnout will be the deciding factor.  Keep an eye on tight races from Senate republican incumbent Dean Heller and Democratic challenger Shelley Berkley, and former IA First Lady Christie Vilsack as she takes on long time House incumbent Steve King.

Lovin’ it — Always a tight race as the lone Democrat in Utah, Representative Jim Matheson may have finally met his match against Saratoga Springs Mayor, and 2012 Republican Convention celeb, Mia Love.

Other states closing at 10:00 PM - Idaho and Montana.

11:00 PM EST / 8:00 PM PST
Pacific Factor - The West Coast often misses out on the fun as pollsters favor calling races early on the East Coast, but watch out this year as every electoral vote matters.  Washington finds itself in another tight Governor’s race between former democratic Congressman Jay Inslee and Lt. Governor Rob McKenna. Hawaii is on the radar as well with an open Senate seat battle between former republican governor Linda Lingle and Congresswoman Mazie Hirono, though polls now show Hirono pulling away with a size able lead.

Other states closing at 11:00 PM - California and Oregon

12:00 AM EST / 9:00 PM PST
On the Red Eye - It goes without saying the republican stronghold in Alaska is likely to give its votes to Romney.  But, be forewarned, by the time Alaska closes, if it is still as tight as some predict we may still not know who the next President will be. 

Shake ups and predictions — As of Monday, it looks like Democrats will keep the Senate, and Republicans the House.  Nevertheless, a few shake ups are important to note for the industry.  In particular, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, important to the Interactive industry will see a minimum five new members, and the Senate Commerce Committee is likely to see some changes on the Republican side, particularly with Senior members Kay Bailey Hutchison and Olympia Snowe’s retirements.  

Want to know more?  Hunker down with a six-pack, your favorite news network, and your iPad, and check out these websites (but make sure to vote first!):

Real Clear Politics: http://realclearpolitics.com

FOX News - 2012 Elections: http://foxnews.com/politics/elections/index.html

POLITICO - 2012 Live: http://politico.com/2012-election

Rasmussen - 2012: http://rasmussenreports.com/public_content/election_2012

Gallup - Election 2012: http://gallup.com/poll/election.aspx

Bloomberg - Elections: http://bloomberg.com/politics/elections

ABC News - Election Central: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS

Associated Press (AP) - Politics: http://news.myway.com/index/id/politics%7Cap.html

CBS News - Politics: http://cbsnews.com/politics

CNN - Election Center: http://cnn.com/ELECTION/2012

National Journal - Election 2012: http://nationaljournal.com/2012-election

New York Times - Politics: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/politics/index.html

NBC News - Election Central: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3032553/ns/politics

Washington Post - Politics: http://washingtonpost.com/politics

Parties’ Platforms Tackle the Tech Sector, but Devil is in the Details

A lot will change after today, but for the industry, priority public policies remain the same. But what are the candidates’ priorities? Republicans and Democrats do not agree on much, but if there is one thing they do agree on, this country needs Innovation. A quick word count shows the Republicans used the word 27 times and Democrats used it 16 within each respective Platform document released at the National Conventions this past August and September.  But who’s counting anyway?

With Election Day upon us, the IAB is cracking open those Platform documents once again to take a look at what “Innovation, Internet Freedom, and a 21st Century Workforce” among other buzz words really means to the Democratic and Republican parties’ policy proposals. 

Why does this matter to you?  Whether you are a netizen, tech company, publisher, or just earning your Internet cred, these policies will shape our future, directly and indirectly impacting you personally and your business. Follow along at the links below.

“Moving America Forward: 2012 Democratic National Platform”

“We Believe in America: Republican National Platform”

Education and 21st Century Workforce
Music to any tech wonk’s ears is the increase in STEM education, (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).  The President hopes to double down, and increase investments in science two-fold to educate the next generation of scientists, facilitate private sector innovation, and prepare at least 100,000 new math and science teachers over the coming decade.  To supplement this investment, the President proposes “stapling a green card” to every advanced degree in STEM fields for foreign students to stay here in the U.S. and help create jobs.  The Governor would likewise utilize his red, swing-line stapler to foster job creation and keep STEM degrees in the U.S.  The Governor, however, focuses on increased STEM education through consumer choice in education, removing boundary barriers to school choice, and replacing teaching tenure systems with a merit-based approach to help attract the best and brightest talent in the classroom. 

“Do Not Track”
No, this IABer did not slip this paragraph in as a hoax, you read that right.  The words “Do Not Track” appear in the Democratic Platform.  Noting many regulations are outdated, unnecessary, or too costly, the Administration proposes a “simpler, smarter, cost-effective approach to regulation” emphasizing “common sense safeguards.”  The Administration underscored the launch of the Internet Privacy Bill of Rights and self-regulatory agreement for a “Do Not Track” option for consumers as a successful example of an efficient and effective approach to regulation. 

Internet Freedom
While the Democratic platform seeks to reform how government regulates, the Republican platform points to the removal of regulatory barriers.  Specifically, the Republican party’s Internet Freedom platform would seek to prevent legacy regulations from interfering with new, disruptive technologies, protect the current multi-stakeholder approach to Internet governance, and secure personal data from government overreach.  Even more, the Republican platform calls for a retreat from what it argues is the current Administration’s “Luddite” approach to technological progress (citing net neutrality), preferring instead a public-private partnership to build out America’s wireline and wireless broadband infrastructure.   The President has likewise opposed extension of intergovernmental controls over the Internet and supports the multi-stakeholder approach; however, Internet Freedom takes on a different meaning that points to human rights.  The Administration will continue to defend Internet Freedom for the freedom of expression, assembly, and association, and preserve the Internet platform for commerce, debate, learning, and innovation, identified in some circles as net neutrality.

Digital Infrastructure
The Governor’s proposals are very specific, albeit not identified as infrastructure in the document.  The Republican platform would reform communications laws, encourage public-private partnerships to build out rural broadband, and conduct an inventory of federal spectrum for private sector build out.  The President has committed to ensuring 98% of the country has access to high-speed wireless Internet access, including solutions to free up spectrum and build out a nationwide, interoperable public safety network, as well as building a smarter electrical grid and upgrading IT infrastructure for the health and education sectors. 

Taxation
To some the magic words are tax reform, still others may be happy to just see repatriation, but for everyone in the tech sector until reform comes to fruition (last in 1986), the Research and Development tax credit is always a top priority.  Both the President and the Governor would permanently extend the R&D credit for innovators.  That is where the similarities end.  Democrats support lowering the corporate tax rate in exchange for closing tax loopholes, and would lower rates even further for manufacturers who create jobs in the U.S.  The Governor would reduce the corporate tax rate, repeal the corporate alternative minimum tax, and create a territorial system of corporate taxation to allow for the repatriation of investments to the U.S.

And leaving little to distinguish the two parties…

Intellectual Property
At the heart of the tech sector is our nation’s knowledge assets - the creativity and ideas that anchor a successful business.  This is not lost on either party, as both seek to vigorously defend intellectual property here and abroad. 

Cybersecurity
Important both for our Nation’s security and a flourishing Internet economy, any cybersecurity policy will have a lasting effect on how companies function in the ecosystem.  Both parties seek a free flow of information between the government and the private sector, but neither spell out the path forward for secure communication channels or obligations. Following the release of the Platform document in Charlotte, the President has since released a draft executive order that tracks the Cyber Security Act of 2012 citing congressional inaction.

About the Author

Sarah Hudgins

Sarah Hudgins is Director, Public Policy, IAB. Follow her @SarahAHudgins.

As someone who’s been involved with web-based software development since before Netscape went public, I can confidently say that the use of cookies has gotten out of hand.

Originally designed for simple, temporary data storage, the cookie now forms a fundamental infrastructure of the Internet; it’s used for user profiling, segmentation and optimization, targeting and retargeting, mapping user IDs between platforms, buying and selling of data, end-user privacy controls, frequency capping of ads, web analytics, online advertising attribution and verification, session management, shopping cart management…and the list goes on.

The problem—speaking from a Product Manager perspective—is that the use cases and requirements for a persistent and anonymous online tracking mechanism have long surpassed the capabilities of the cookie. The square peg has been hammered into the round hole for too many years, evidenced by numerous issues experienced by online publishers, consumers, and the online ad industry as a whole.

For online publishers, the proliferation of 3^rd-party pixels has slowed page load times, increased discrepancy counts, and led to concerns of data leakage. It’s also encouraged a broken compensation model—publishers risk revenue loss if they don’t support 3^rd-party pixels, revenue loss from users who block or delete cookies, and a tilted playing field favoring large consumer website brands who can track users for longer periods of time. And publishers are certain to experience additional operational and privacy policy burdens as various initiatives such as Do Not Track, browser opt-in defaults, and regulatory measures gain traction.

For the ad industry as a whole, the reliance on cookies (and 3^rd-party pixels) combined with the magnitude of cookie deletion (churn) has resulted in a battle between a rapidly degrading economic model, and the costly, persistent, and high-volume deployment of cookies. Even though cookies are unreliable as a user tracking mechanism (especially across devices), the industry continues to deploy them at an escalating pace, causing excessive network traffic and related costs, “internet bloat,” regulatory threats, and anxiety among consumers and publishers alike.

But there is a future for the cookie and an opportunity to turn the industry’s most negative issue into a positive (or at least a neutral) one that will result in a win/win/win for publishers, consumers, and advertisers. Along with Philip Smolin (Turn), Susan Pierce (Google), Amy Kuznicki (Verizon Wireless) and Brian Murphy (AOL), I’m proud to be co-chairing an ambitious IAB Advertising Technology Council initiative called The Future of the Cookie along with the IAB’s Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence.

We’re recruiting leaders from the top companies in the digital advertising industry to join us in a mission to discuss and propose responsible solutions to the problems that exist today—and then execute a plan that leads us into the future of online user tracking, transparency, and control. So if you’re a technology-oriented thought leader, please consider participating! (If interested, please email committees@iab.net)

Recently there has been significant attention given to the growing importance of “visual content” as part of the paid, owned and earned media marketing mix. The headlines tell the story:

Beyond the obvious of visually enhancing your online content and helping to give your brand an identity, it is clear that images, whether they are photography, video or infographics, are playing an increasingly important strategic role on many fronts. From content sharing and user generated content, to driving referral traffic and impact on SEO ranking, the discussion about visual content creation is intensifying daily.

A recent and widely circulated infographic from M Booth well illustrates the growing importance of visual content in social media. We asked new IAB member Shareaholic, whose Traffic Sources data is featured in this infographic, to provide some perspective on their findings, and to share their thoughts on how visual content is impacting the paid, owned and earned media mix including what may be in store for the future.

“The data shown in the M Booth infographic is based on traffic trends to our publisher network websites, which show that Pinterest is now the fourth largest source of referral traffic, exceeding Twitter and Google referral traffic and, for the first time, exceeding Yahoo! Organic. It is interesting to note is that Pinterest isn’t even in our top 10 most popular social networks for social sharing - meaning that click-throughs on pins are driven by a smaller percentage of organic pins.”
— Janet Aronica, Head of Marketing, Shareaholic, @JanetAronica

“For brands who choose to invest time in Pinterest, we feel that optimizing owned media with images and Pinterest buttons is rather obvious advice. But most importantly, marketers should use content analytics tools like Shareaholic to learn how visitors discover their content and where their opportunities are. Part of this means re-thinking earned media. Pinterest boards are content, and pins are another form of earned media. Just like you build relationships with journalists, building relationships with the community members who pin your content and content similar to yours should be part of your POEM strategy. This is why we also offer Shareaholic Analytics, so publishers can actually see a breakdown of who the most influential sharers are, making those connections happen as efficiently as possible. Moving forward, it’s important to think about visual content for Pinterest as well as other social media sources. In August, nearly 33% of traffic to our publishers’ sites was referral traffic - those are your social media sources. It’s not just about Pinterest. It is important to include images for Pinterest, but it is also important to set featured images for content so that shares to platforms like Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn look as ‘appetizing’ as possible to entice click-throughs from the potential readers who see them.”

This blog series focuses on key areas of interest within the realm of paid, owned and earned media and taps into the expertise of IAB Social Media Committee members to share insights and best practices. What’s your take on the importance of visual content creation? Join in the conversation by commenting here or posting comments and/or questions using #IABPOEM.

About the Author

Susan Borst

Susan Borst is the Director, Industry Initiatives at the IAB focusing on Social Media, B2B, and Games. She can be reached on Twitter @susanborst.

Refuting the ‘Social Media Hangover’ at Political Conventions

Please excuse this IABer’s arrogance when she says: the experts got it wrong.

After Tampa and Charlotte, the reports came flooding in “social media revolution failed,” “Parties still need physical convention,” and “will social media ever live up to its promise?”

But if you know what I mean when I say #eastwooding, read no further, you probably already get everything I am about to highlight.

For some reason, just like novice mobile marketers, the pundits looked to social media to replace the political norms, and missed the true Holy Grail. Just as a successful cross platform marketing campaign reaches the consumer as they move throughout their day, in different contexts utilizing both old and new, social media supplements the convention and campaign platform, it is not there to replace it. Breaking down the walls did not simply mean to host a virtual convention, rather, it’s a tool to expand audience and break down access barriers.

Let’s be honest, while baby boomers and beyond are still happy to find a couch during prime time TV, up and coming generations are highly mobile (and I don’t mean by device), they are cord cutters, and they consume a lot of information and entertainment through multiple platforms and services, at the time convenient for them.

Social media is our Where Brother Art Thou’s tin can and soapbox. It’s retail politicking. How in a modern national campaign do you recreate the glad handing, baby kissing, and storytelling necessary for intimate, voter engagement?  Accessibility and communication.

Kal Penn’s call for #sexyface wasn’t just a funny gimmick; it created an opportunity for engagement.  Voters like to feel as though they are a part of the process and in on the secret. It took less than an hour for #sexyface to trend on Twitter.  While an unintended consequence, @InvisibleObama had tens of thousands of followers in the first hour, 40,000 by the next morning.

And this raises a separate question that has yet to truly unfold: measuring social media’s impact.  Some argue in order for social media to be successful, it must be organic. On this point, the two campaigns seem to be diverging, and we will be presented with two case studies by year’s end. Last week, the Romney campaign was the first political campaign to purchase a paid promotion on Twitter. Consider, the President clocks in over 19.6 million followers to the Governor’s 1.1 million.

Campaign strategies aside, the beauty of social media at the conventions this year was its seamless integration - it was universally present, yet invisible - like any great technology should be. From delegates swiping badges to update their Facebook timeline, Eventbrite check-ins, to the hottest ticket in town literally: lattes in the Google Media Lounge, to Convention real-time apps, and Tweet-ups. The experts failed to realize social media at the conventions wasn’t a replacement, but an enhancement.

The 2008 Presidential and 2010 Midterms were just the beginning.  We are only beginning to see the tipping point, and there will be mistakes, flaws, and downright failures as campaigns navigate the best way to put these tools to use.  I am often pointed to the Veep App as evidence social media and technology platforms don’t work for political.  The much-vaunted Veep App would be the first place for voters to find news on the Governor’s announcement for a VP candidate.  Unfortunately for the App, and the campaign, that news broke before the App could.  And it is true; campaigns must have controlled messaging, and esoterically will remain unchanged for the near future.  But don’t shoot the App, campaign leaks are tech-agnostic.

And we’re just scratching the surface. Be sure to join us this year at the IAB MIXX Conference & Expo as some of the smartest minds in media and political discuss the “Digital Election” and examine how the Internet will decide the Presidency this year. To find out more, please visit http://www.iab.net/mixx/agenda.

About the Author

Sarah Hudgins

Sarah Hudgins is Director, Public Policy, IAB. Follow her @SarahAHudgins.

Get out your buttons and your boaters… IAB is headed to the 2012 National Political Conventions. This year, Tampa has the privilege of hosting the Grand Old Party August 27 - 30, meanwhile the Queen City, Charlotte, NC will host the Democratic Party September 3 - 6.

While placards, straw boater hats, and political buttons remain delegate wardrobe de rigueur as much today as when we “Liked Ike,” this isn’t your grandma’s political convention. Like buttons have a whole new meaning Ike couldn’t begin to comprehend, and the conventions will no longer know the physical limitations of the past as attendance goes digital with Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and a host of new apps and services that enable social media hang outs, groups, and tweetups.

“Have Twitter, will travel?” Don’t fret, two years in the making, the Host cities, national political committees, and the networks all anticipated the importance of going mobile at the conventions and have been working tirelessly to build out the regions’ communications networks to ensure you don’t miss a minute due to lag time or poor connectivity. Earlier this month, the Democratic Party released its mobile app that will allow users to watch the convention through live stream, navigate the city with friends, share photos, and keep a digital scrapbook. The Republican Party also just released its mobile app a few days ago leading up to kickoff.

And with all this digital connectivity, comes opportunity. A large, captive audience of politically enthusiastic consumers with their eyeballs glued to smartphones and tablets; as POLITICO reported recently, Tampa and Charlotte will see unprecedented levels of mobile advertising by outside groups, issue advocacy organizations, and local retailers and restaurants.

Even more important than the digital political explosion we will witness in two shorts weeks, will be what the candidates and their campaign surrogates and keynote speakers have to say about their visions for the future of an economy dependent on innovation. A National Political Convention is about formally voting a candidate to be the party’s nominee for President - but in contemporary history, it is even more about setting the Party Platform, the principles that will define how the Party’s candidate will govern if elected.

Vital to our industry, and the broader Internet economy will be the elevation and recognition of our issues to the National Conventions’ platforms. How the future Administration intends to engage with Congress and global regulators on Internet policy like governance (ITU), privacy (at home and abroad), and infrastructure (broadband/wifi) is critical to the future health our industry and the broader marketplace to come.

Stay tuned for updates from Tampa and Charlotte…

About the Author

Sarah Hudgins

Sarah Hudgins is Director, Public Policy, IAB. Follow her @SarahAHudgins.

“Social Influence” is a hot topic. There is no shortage of opinions on what ‘influence’ actually means and no shortage of companies who seek to analyze influential prospects and customers for business gain. But one thing the industry does seem to agree on is that influencer monitoring and measuring is here to stay as a key component of the paid, owned and earned media equation.

Scott Milener, SVP Social Strategy from Kred, a social media analytics company created by PeopleBrowsr, recently spoke with the IAB Social Media Committee about this topic. “A social influencer is someone who inspires action from others in their community,” Milener said, adding “We’re accustomed to thinking of top influencers as being celebrities or media outlets. Social analytics gives us an opportunity to move beyond that group to find people that have high influence in small close networks connected by interests, passions and affiliations. These people are exponential in value to non-influencers and can have a profound impact on the opinions of their peers and followers.” A top goal is to “achieve virality by getting influencers to organically and virally spread messages or links.” Milener stressed the importance of valuing influencers by “rewarding, incentivizing and treating them as if they were top journalists.” This engagement with influencers drives brand-related conversations.

We followed up with three IAB member companies present at the meeting to see what role social influence plays in their business’ paid, owned and earned media equation, how it is measured and how they see this evolving in the future.

Raman Kia | Executive Director, Digital Strategy | Conde Nast Media Group | @Raman_Kia

Social Influence is the ability to activate participatory eagerness across one’s social and interest graphs. In the context of social media influence should not solely be defined in terms of conversations and community size, the core tenets of social media, but also in terms of interest based actions which fuel the interest graph. The interest graph is a more powerful mechanism than the social graph when it comes to driving social influence. The influence of the social butterfly is dying. This is because attention is about context. If you want attention you have to provide content that intersects your audience’s path to consumption. In the future, Social Influencers will have more powerful interest graphs than social graphs. Either way, measuring this type of influence in terms of business gain is straightforward, but in order to measure it successfully you must have pre-defined goals. In its most simplified form at Condé Nast, from an acquisition stand point, we are typically measuring referral traffic to our websites, which means Omniture and Google Analytics are predominantly used to measure the success of social influencer programs. In its broadest sense marketing programs have three main pillars: Acquisition, Engagement, and Conversion, and ultimately what to measure and how to measure it depends on your business goals.

Art Zeidman | President | UNRULY Media | @arthurzee

At Unruly, our core business is social video distribution and measurement of video sharing across the web. We define social influence not only by the size and precision of a particular influencers’ social graph, but also by the amount of sharing that they drive of our clients’ video content…and by the amount of meaningful conversation around that content that ensues. We also measure the quality of the engagement that these influencers can stimulate including video dwell time, play rates and the volume and tone of subsequent conversation. In Unruly’s view, these are all legitimate criteria for measuring influence. We measure the power of this influence for brands every day. In fact, we published a white paper earlier this year that demonstrates the exponential value of recommendation across social media and how that can translate into ROI for marketers. At Unruly, we see social influence growing in importance for brand marketers over the long haul. The real power of digital media is its ability to facilitate a feedback loop. As marketers grow more comfortable with having an ongoing conversation with their consumers, more and better influencers will emerge. The democratization of the web means that anyone can be a publisher…with the widening and deepening of social platforms, it’s a natural progression that anyone can become an influencer as well!

David Fleck | GM | Disqus | @davidericfleck

At Disqus, we strive to create engaging communities and to elevate the quality of discussions. In June we rebuilt our platform specifically to more fully capture and incorporate social influence signals from our large user base (800 million monthly uniques, 300 million monthly active users). For instance, Disqus displays the best comments at the top of the discussion thread based in large part on community voting and user reputation scores. Another example is the social discovery of content via our Discovery box whereby users receive personalized content recommendations based on what they (and users similar to them) have read and engaged with across Disqus-enabled sites. We are also excited about the monetization opportunities around social discovery because it allows advertisers to natively enter the conversation while also being complementary to the user experience. In the future, social influence will take an ever-expanding role in everything we do. Why? Because doing so drives tangible results. For example, traffic that is referred by Disqus social discovery performs much better than other referral sources…on average 2X the page views and 3X the time on site versus other referrers. Our success depends upon capitalizing on the richness of our data, a key component of which is social influence.

This blog series focuses on key areas of interest within the realm of paid, owned and earned media and taps into the expertise of IAB Social Media Committee members to share insights and best practices. What’s your take on social influence? Join in the conversation by commenting here or posting comments and/or questions using #IABPOEM.

About the Author

Susan Borst

Susan Borst is the Director, Industry Initiatives at the IAB focusing on Social Media, B2B and Games. She can be reached on Twitter @susanborst.