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Tag: syndication

  • Twitter’s Promoted Tweets Get Syndicated

    Twitter just announced Promoted Tweet syndication, which sees the company showing its ads outside of Twitter. This is starting with Flipboard and Yahoo Japan.

    There’s no question that Internet users experience Twitter in many places beyond Twitter itself, so it make sense that Twitter would try to apply that to Promoted Tweets.

    “What makes Twitter unique is that Tweets can flow from Twitter to other mediums seamlessly, like TV, websites, and mobile applications,” says Ameet Ranadive, Senior Director of Product. “In fact, in the third quarter of 2014 there were approximately 185 Billion Tweet impressions off of Twitter. For the thousands of brands already advertising on Twitter, these new partnerships open a significant opportunity to extend the reach of their message to a larger audience. Twitter syndicated ads will be seen by users within Twitter content sections on third-party properties, as well as within third-party content areas.”

    “For example, let’s say Nissan is running a Promoted Tweet campaign on Twitter, but also trying to reach similar audience on a mobile application like Flipboard,” Ranadive adds. “Through this new partnership, Nissan could run a Promoted Tweet campaign on Twitter, with specific creative and targeting, and simultaneously run the campaign off Twitter, with the same targeting and creative in the Flipboard app. Best of all, because Flipboard already integrates organic Tweets into the app, the Promoted Tweet will have the same look and feel that is native to the Flipboard experience.”

    Twitter says it sees the syndication as an opportunity for marketers to increase their capacity for large-scale ad campaigns on an “almost infinite” basis. The more syndication partners Twitter picks up, the more that will be true.

    Advertisers interested in taking advantage of syndicated Promoted Tweets are told to contact their account representative. Publishers interested in partnering can email the company at [email protected].

    Image via Twitter

  • Seinfeld on Netflix? Jerry Seinfeld Says ‘Conversations Are Presently Taking Place’

    Seinfeld on Netflix? Jerry Seinfeld Says ‘Conversations Are Presently Taking Place’

    Could you one day be able to stream every episode of the ‘show about nothing’ on Netflix?

    Probably not. Well, who knows? Maybe? Jerry Seinfeld says it’s at least a remote possibility.

    “Jerry, any word on Seinfeld coming to Netflix?” asked a redditor during a Thursday AMA session with Seinfeld.

    “You are a very smart and progressive person. These conversations are presently taking place,” he said.

    Of course, conversations are simply conversations. I had a conversation about running a couple miles yesterday. Let’s just say conversations have a mixed track record when it comes to turning into actions.

    Here’s what’s standing in the way of your Saturday Seinfeld binge session – syndication success. Not just regular old syndication success, but the more than $3 billion type. Reports indicate that both Seinfeld and Larry David have scooped up at least $400 million thanks to repeat fees since the show ended in 1998. You know how there’s always an episode of Seinfeld on – somewhere, somehow? That’s because there is, and people eat it up.

    It’s this syndication popularity (along with impressive DVD sales) that makes the parties involved reluctant to make deals with a streaming company like Netflix – or even sell episodes direct to viewers on iTunes.

    Other than network and cable TV, you can currently watch Seinfeld (legally) on Crackle. There, you can watch about a dozen or so free episodes at any given time, and they rotate in and out fairly consistently.

    Clearly not the best streaming setup.

    A Netflix deal would be the Seinfeld and future Seinfeld fan’s dream come true. For now, you’ll just have to settle for watching reruns on cable, buying the DVDs, or finding uh, less wallet-bashing means to get your Seinfeld fix – not that there’s anything wrong with that.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Pluck 5.1 Goes Live, Adds Pinterest Integration

    If you run a business or a successful brand, chances are you use social media to get the word out about newest products and offers. There are multiple services out there that help brands get the most out of social media. Facebook just recently announced its rebranded Preferred Marketing Developer program, but some brands may want help in marketing across all social networks. That’s where Pluck comes in.

    The Pluck team announced Thursday that version 5.1 is now available for developers and brands to get cracking on new marketing strategies. The most exciting new feature is of course native Pinterest integration. The social media site has proven to be extremely successful for businesses and now it’s time to take advantage.

    With that being said, Pluck’s integration with Pinterest isn’t anything major yet. There is now a “Pin It” button built into the Pluck photo and video widgets. If you want to see what it looks like, the Phoenix Suns have already built it into its fan page. There are other Pinterest integration plans in the pipeline for future updates.

    Pluck has also updated its social bridging capabilities with a new interface. They feel that users will find it easier to share content with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

    Brands can now identify those people who share the most pages and fan content. Brands should pay attention to this so they know the people who are driving their brand forward. As any company will tell you, a brand can not market itself anymore. It takes the word of mouth from various people on social networking sites. With this new tool, it might be nice to reward your most faithful customers who share the most stuff.

    Another new feature is the reputation engine. It adds gamification features to the social sharing aspect of Pluck’s tools. Users are now rewarded with points or badges depending on how many links they share or how often they engage your content.

    Pluck has also integrated new features into its social sign-on tool. This way people can still sign on via Facebook, but you can collect more data on your customers beyond what’s shared from their Facebook profile.

    As a side note to the updates, Pluck is continuing to make performance and adjustment improvements to its software. You should find the software to be faster and more stable than ever before.

    Pluck makes a note of the core features being added to this release. They primarily focused on gamification and social syndication. These are proving to be some of the most important features when it comes to actively engaging your audience on social networking sites. Pluck 5.1 seems to get this idea down to a science.

  • An “All Simpsons” Television Station?

    Would you welcome an “all The Simpsons, all the time” channel into your life? Whatever your reaction, it may be time to make room for such a venture, provided the guys at Fox can demonstrate how much extra revenue such a creation could generate.

    Because The Simpsons is the longest-running scripted sitcom, animated or otherwise, of all time, the possesses an huge library of content, and apparently, the desire of the Fox suits goes beyond simple syndication. Instead, when discussing ways to further monetize The Simpsons and its content, the idea of an “All Simpsons” channel began to take shape.

    Over at SlashFilm.com (via Slice of SciFi), the details of such a venture were discussed by Fox COO Chase Carey at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media Communications & Entertainment Conference (and that’s a mouthful), and while the idea is definitely in the gestation stage, there does appear to be some interest. Obviously, Fox’s interest comes from making more money off of their Simpsons content, and considering the show’s popularity, the idea should be at least intriguing for consumers, provided they want nothing but Homer choking Bart playing on their television screens on a continual loop.

    Of course, The Simpsons are much more than that, which is obvious by the amount of years it has been on the air. For those who may be unaware, when the Fall season kicks off on Fox, The Simpsons will be entering their 23rd year of original content.

    Like SlashFilm points out, apparently, there’s only so much money to be made off of syndication, DVD sales and Simpsons-related collectibles, and so, the idea for such an “all Simpsons” channel, especially when you have 22-plus years of content, does make sense, especially if there’s a demand for advertising slots. SlashFilm continues:

    If this does happen, however, it wouldn’t be for several years. First of all, the show is still on the air for Fox and doing well. Plus, it’s wrapped up in long term syndication deals. Fox would have to let all the show’s current contracts expire before they could go ahead and program an entire channel without huge legal ramifications.

    Which means, if the Simpsons channel did happen, all those syndicated showings would cease to exist. This indicates the syndication revenue is not as lucrative as Fox expected, or it means Fox realizes it could make more off of cable subscriptions and advertising on a channel dedicated to showing nothing but The Simpsons.

    With that in mind, is an “all Simpsons” channel something you would support, or is this just overkill by a company trying to ring every last dollar they can out of Homie and the gang? With all of this in mind, this seems like a perfect place to revisit the intro Banksy made for The Simpsons.


    The idea of an “all Simpsons” channel makes Banksy’s idea hit a little closer to home.

  • Demand Media Adds Blog Syndication to its Content Arsenal

    Here at BlogWorld, Demand Media launched the Demand Media Blog Network, to syndicate bloggers’ content across Demand’s own properties like eHow and Livestrong.com, as well as the company’s Content Channels partner sites.

    “This new offering on our studios platform expands our mission of publishing high quality content at scale," says Stewart Marlborough, GM of Demand Media Studios. "We are already a leader in publishing original, actionable, evergreen content. With the addition of the Demand Media Blog Network, we broaden our content offerings to include timely, topical and opinion-based content from the best of the blogospshere. Now highly-qualified bloggers will have the opportunity to extend their individual brands to the millions of people that visit Demand Media’s websites and those of our partners.”

    Demand Media pitches the Blog Distribution Network as a way to help boggers be more successful by giving them the tools and distribution they need to effectively expand their audience and build their brands. The flyer the company is handing out at their exhibit promises:

    – Have your blog featured on highly trafficked, high PageRank sites
    – Drive traffic and additional engagement on your blog
    – Grow your fan base and interact with new audiences
    – Interact with fellow bloggers through forums, meet ups and more
    – Leverage our revenue share program to earn additional income
    – Gain valuable insights through our Blogger Workdesk
     
    I have to give Demand Media credit for picking a good time to launch this product. BlogWorld is full of bloggers looking for many of these elements. Considering the keynote discussion among ProBlogger’s Darren Rowse and CopyBlogger’s Brian Clark and Sonia Simone about all of the harsh realities of making money blogging, Demand’s offering is apt to gain a great deal of attention from much of the audience of this year’s event. It probably also helped that they hosted a party at the event.

    Demand Media - Experts Wanted (Exhibit at BlogWorld)

    Also at the event, we spoke with John Hewitt, who ran a session on how-to articles (the premise of Demand’s eHow.com), about how the average blogger can compete with companies like Demand Media and Yahoo’s Associated Content (which is also represented here at the show). He simply said to make your content better, because frankly, the stuff that you’ll find on Demand’s properties isn’t always of the highest quality (not that this is the case with all of the their content). Demand has discussed its plans to make this better numerous times throughout the year, and the company appears to be taking the subject very seriously. 

    It will be interesting to see the kind of content that gets picked up through the Blog Distribution Network. I spoke with a couple reps at Demand’s booth, who told me that they’ll have editors going through all the content submissions and overseeing the approval process. They will not accept any obscene content, as they’re looking to keep it family friendly. They also told me they’re only interested in blogs that are updated regularly. 

    Some of the folks trying to learn about writing good how-to articles may actually find applying for this program to be a better alternative to trying to compete with eHow. 

    Either way, its clear that Demand Media is building an army of content producers. If you thought they were already doing this, you can only imagine how much this blog syndication will take things up a notch.

  • Major News Organizations Aim to Establish Syndication Guidelines

    Some major news organizations that make up the Internet Content Syndication Council are reportedly working on some guidelines for content syndication for their own collective membership, while providing an example for others to go by.

    The council includes the Associated Press, Reuters, CBS, The Tribune Company, and many others. Here’s the full list of companies represented:

    Internet Content Syncidation Council

    MediaWeek reports: "The guidelines are aimed at countering the effect that the group sees as a growing and dangerous trend on the Web—the rise of shoddy, poorly sourced and edited content, often produced solely with gaming search engines in mind. While not naming these companies directly, the ICSC’s push seems clearly aimed at companies such as Demand Media, Yahoo’s Associated Content and AOL’s Seed.com. Each churns out a large amount of enterprise or general interest service content—mostly produced by low paid freelancers."

    Internet Content Syndication CouncilAccording to the publication, the guidelines are aimed at informational content, as opposed to opinion or entertainment content. They reportedly suggest that online articles included a date stamp, clearly labeled corrections, and the authors’ credentials on display.

    The Council has been around since 2007. It launched with the goals of improving the understanding of content syndication, increasing awareness of it (in terms of revenue, marketing, and quality), establishing best practices, and providing an objective "third party" point of view on it.

    "Content farm" sites as they’re sometimes referred to, are on the rise (though reports indicate Demand Media has experienced a sudden drop in traffic), and it is hard to say if the Council’s efforts will have any bearing on their output. MediaWeek indicates, however, that  the council has been reaching out to them and search engines (including Google) alike.