Even if you don’t follow the mergers, acquisitions and capital raises each year, John’s round up of activity is a fascinating indicator of the health and trends in our industry.

Here’s an excerpt from my recent show with John where we discuss the Hot Sectors of 2009 and predictions for winning categories for 2010.

Susan Bratton & John Doyle, Peachtree Media Advisors at ad:tech NY09

A link to the whole episode and the full transcript are below.

Note: If you are a fan of DishyMix, please join my Facebook Fan Page. I give away great schwag to my fans and never spam you.

Download the full 2009 Report at Peachtree Media Advisors.

John Doyle: You asked which were the hot sectors last year? Definitely mobile, we analytics, ad serving, enabling technology sectors. So those categories, applications, those are of the hottest…

Susan Bratton: Well you predicted that last year on the show. When we did this show a year ago you said the hot categories are going to be web analytics, ad serving, behavioral targeting, anything that’s going to monetize the media that is getting placed. And sure enough, you see that now, huh?

John Doyle: Wow! Yeah.

Susan Bratton: Good for you John. You watched those numbers.

John Doyle: That’s great. Well it certainly was, those were the hot sectors. And we already discussed why mobile is the hot category with the Smart Phone penetration. And web analytics, enabling technology, ad serving applications, content delivery networks, those were hot. Any company that helped publishers optimize advertising or deliver content, that were advertising more efficiently or more effectively, they saw capital flow into their sectors and increase in M & A activity. And again, Adobe acquiring Omniture. But most of the transactions last year, in those categories were in the, they were smaller capital raises in the measurement analytics optimization sectors.

Susan Bratton: So what do you think the prediction is for 2010? Where do you see this all going?
John Doyle: I think that companies that are able to help publishers increase their revenue, monetize, figure out additional ways to monetize their traffic…

Susan Bratton: Like yield management companies, that’s a hot new category.

John Doyle: Yes, yes. Those are going to receive the bulk of the financing. In terms of traditional – I say traditional but I mean in terms of traditional consumer publishing digital media companies – it sounds like a bit of a oxymoron to say a traditional digital media company, but normal ad supported consumer companies, I think that they’ll start being acquired next year. Companies that are what I call in the report “meat and tatoes” – sorry, ‘meat and potatoes’ synergy, meaning someone like Baby Center being acquired by iVillage or where it makes sense, a logical, logical sense. I think that those companies will be acquired next year.

Susan Bratton: So if you are a CEO of some kind of an early stage company or an online entity with, you know, some reasonable traffic or whatever it might be, what should you be doing to position yourself this year? What kinds of things? Should you be out trying to get more capital? Should you be looking for buyers? Where’s the sweet spot in the opportunity?

John Doyle: Well I think that if you say everything goes in cycles, last year was survival and cutting costs. Well then this year and for the next few years it’ll be the scale ain’t up in a smart way. It’ll be understanding your market or your market share and trying to own it, whether it’s… If you’re a publisher, it’s trying to understand more of who your audience is and provide them with application, additional applications and tools to make them come to your site and provide you with more information about themselves and develop more of a one on one relationship with them. And clearly for social networks, I think it’s to get into a niche or a category, as opposed to trying to be a broad social networking company. And then if you’re a social network, I don’t think that the technology and platforms I think is good for moving over the enterprise side, meaning helping a business find knowledge bases or knowledge sources within their company. So if you have a huge company like GM or Craft or any of these large intel companies, if you, someone writes a report or does a white paper they can put it up on a social network and attach the person to it so that someone in, that’s at an office in San Francisco or Chicago or China can tap into that knowledge and recruit that person for a project or ask that person for insight. And so some of these enterprise social networks are the, are the next phase, and those, they’re not ad supported but they’re more subscription based or software as a service model.

Susan Bratton: It’s interesting that you say that. I had Ted Shelton on DishyMix a month or two ago. He’s with The Conversation Group, and he wrote a white paper called Open Management, which is all about enterprise leveraging social platforms to advance their business more strategically, both internal to their own organization, as well as with their partners and vendors.
Note: Get the Open Management white paper by Ted Shelton here. Listen to the DishyMix interview with Ted Shelton here.

John Doyle on Mergers, Acquisitions and Capital Raises in the 2009 Media Industry

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First Bob reviewed the 6 Universal Principles of Influence:

1) Reciprocation

2) Scarcity

3) Authority

4) Consistency

5) Consensus

6) Friendship/Liking

These are the things that must be in place in your copy to engender trust and move a person to action.

Let’s start with reciprocation. You cannot ask your prospect to do something first and then you’ll give them something. For example a buy one/get one may be marginally effective, but sampling a product first to your customer and then asking them to purchase after can be even more effective.

Take a small stand that is congruent with your business strategy — think about how you can do something first that is helpful rather that selfish. Give to a philanthropy that your target appreciates and then ask them to become your customer rather than telling them you’ll make a donation to a charity if they buy.

Another way to get a customer or prospect to commit to you is to ask them to make an active, public, voluntary commitment to something.

One simple strategy to leverage this active commitment is to ask a question of your prospect on a landing page and then have them check a box if they are in agreement. Once they’ve agreed that they are a certain way, or care about a certain subject, they will continue to justify in their mind this path to stay congruent with their own actions.

A tremendously important consideration in a down market is “loss aversion.”

Bob showed three iterations of a Bose Wave radio print ad. The first touted the “NEW” features. It didn’t pull as well as the second version, which included testimonials. And the best converting ad leveraged our natural fear of loss by saying, “Hear What You’ve Been Missing.” By focusing on something that the customer wasn’t getting, sales increased by 45%.

According to Bob, GAIN is for the “go go” times and in times of uncertainty, if you tell your customer what they will LOSE, your copy will be more effective.

Another strategy is providing information. Using what Bob calls the “bagel theory,” the information must be fresh and warm, not stale and cold. If you say, “here is NEW information,” people will lean in to your message.

He tells the story of a South American beef company. They were able to increase sales 6X over the prior year by providing exclusive information about weather issues in Australia that might effect the price of beef from that market. They were able to secure additional business away from the Aussies because of this “insider information.”

That reminds me of my interview with Bill McCloskey of Email Data Source who said that best practices for email marketing included offering customers who subscribed to a brand’s email program exclusive information and access not found elsewhere. Campaigns that focused on “insider information” did the best at signing up and keeping email customers in the database and converting them to buyers.

Ask yourself what insider information YOU can provide on your copy or in your sales and marketing that will cleave your customers more steadfastly to you.

In another tack at the “loss aversion” strategy best employed in a difficult economy, Dr. Cialdini said, “when people are uncertain, they follow the lead of genuine experts.”

Thus it’s important to establish credibility via an authority component as part of your marketing materials. And you will hear Bob say that testimonials are good, but testimonials where the person providing the endorsement is similar to your customer.

Note: Change the order of your testimonials on your page depending on who the target audience is or what the business circumstances are. This is where dynamic landing page technology works very well. Make the lead testimonial the most like your target.

Have you noticed the use lately of cartoons on diet and fitness product pages? Instead of hackneyed stock footage of perfect women, smart marketers are utilizing cartoon characters because prospects will be less turned off by them than the image of a real person to whom they cannot relate.

Imbuing your brand with knowledge and trustworthiness can be hastened by mentioning a weakness about your product early on in the copy, before you reveal the most powerful benefits of your offering. If you provide both pros and cons about your product, it increases the credibility and sell through. The right sequence for success is to present weaknesses early, then reveal the features.  Remember L’Oreal’s, “Expensive But You’re Worth It,” or Avis’ “We Try Harder?” These were very effective campaigns that employed the imperfection in their strategy.

The trick, says Robert Cialdini, is to use the word BUT. He calls it a “pivot word.” It’s expensive, BUT, you’re worth it. But means, “put away the thing I told you and now focus on this next important thing.” This study of “pivot words” comes from the psychology of language or psycholinguistics.

You know how I am always talking about various aspects of NLP, or neuro-linguistic programming? NLP is a sub-category of psycholinguistics.

If you’re interested in learning more about NLP, listen to my interviews with John James Santangelo where we discuss NLP as it applies to sales, leadership and goal achievement.

Back to the keynote with Dr. C.

Another key area of leverage in a negative market economy is “consensus.” It’s similar to testimonials, but goes further to a group of people who sanction your product or service. You need “multiple and comparable” cooperation from a group who will show their solidarity with your brand.

Asking, “be our partner,” or claiming, “you are our partner” will backfire. “Join us” is not sufficient. There’s no value exchange.

Instead, harness consensus by by a group of customers just like you. This is, according to Dr. Cialdini, the most primitive kind of consensus. (be just like the rest of us monkeys…) A majority action such as “join the other customers” is the most compelling call to action, expecially the more like your target prospect those “other customers” are.

Bob closed the keynote with a beautifully orchestrated demonstration of reciprocity.

First he said he’d email anyone who left their business card with his team in the back of the keynote hall a copy of a Harvard Business Review (credibility) report on Influence and Persuasion.

Then he whipped out a wallet card with his six “Principles of Ethical Influence” and offered it to anyone who would like one.

Notice how he had a quid pro quo first – I’ll give you if you give me – buttressed by a “here’s something free for you, no strings attached.”

I’ll bet Bob’s take rate on the business cards in the back of the room are 6X more just by giving away the wallet card in addition to his request, than if he hadn’t offered the wallet card immediately after offering the report in exchange for your business card.

Here’s the good news. You can listen to Bob’s DishyMix interview here. And I snagged 15 Principles of Ethical Influence cards for DishyMix listeners.

Want me to mail you one of Dr. Robert Cialdini’s Principles of Ethical Influence Wallet Cards?

Just fan me and post your desire at http://dishymixfan.com and I’ll mail one out to you while supplies last.

Oh, and for everyone who posts a request on the DishyMix fan page for a wallet card, I’ll also select three additional winners who will get bonus copies of books from recent DishyMix guests such as Bill Tancer, Bernie Borges and Pierre Khawand – three of my favorites. It’s a grab bag book abbandanza – see what you get – I know you’ll like it.

Dr. Robert Cialdini: Author and President, Influence at Work

DishyMix episode 132: Robert Cialdini on Persuasive Marketing in Times of Uncertainty and Amplifying and Activating Influence Strategies

John Santangelo: Founder, Maximum Success Empowerment

DishyMix episode 122: John Santangelo Teaches You How to Speak Up with Power and Influence to Get What You Want Part 2 of 2

DishyMix episode 121: Stress Reduction Guided Visualization and Hypnosis by John Santangelo

DishyMix episode 120: John Santangelo on Getting What You Want Anytime from Anyone Part 1 of 2

DishyMix episode 134: John Santangelo “Goal Setting Success Formula” Part 2 of 2

DishyMix episode 133: John Santangelo on Envisioning and Clarifying Your Personal Goals for 2010

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John Doyle is back on DishyMix again this year giving us the good, bad and ugly of the media and Internet business.

You can listen to the episode (links are below) or read this synopsis.

Download the full report here.

1. What happened in Digital Media M&A last year?

There were 755 transactions last year, which was a slight increase in deal volume (707 transactions in 2008).  However, total transaction value dropped ~10% from $16.9 billion in 2008 to $15.2 billion in 2009.  Clearly, most of the transactions occurred in the 2^nd half of the year and we’re heading into 2010 with a lot of deal momentum.  Many of the transactions were housecleaning or companies divesting of non-core assets, but some of the transactions were strategic.  For instance, Google’s acquisition of On2 and AdMob led the way for strategic acquisitions.  Once their stock price bounced back from a low around $250 to $400, their appetite for acquisitions started building momentum.

2. So, Google went Christmas shopping?

Yes, to say the least.  They probably made eight or nine acquisitions, the largest of which were On2 Technologies and AdMob.  On2 is a content delivery network or video compression company and AdMob is a mobile ad network.  But Google was definitely the company that started making strategic acquisitions as opposed to clean up transactions.

3. How did Social Media fare?

Unfortunately, social media did not do so well.  It saw the sharpest drop-off in transaction volume from 102 transactions in 2008 to 47 in 2009.  The amount of capital going to social networks pretty much dried up, primarily due to the fact that these were ad supported businesses in the middle of a recession.  Also, the experimental part of the ad budgets were cut from the marketing spend causing most investors to pull back on social media investments.  On the other hand, Facebook and Zinga were the big winners last year with big capital raises.  Facebook also acquired Friendfeed for around $40 million.

4. What were the remarkable deals of 2009?

I think Adobe’s acquisition of Omniture was a good one.  I think it was a great deal due to the fact that Web analytics and figuring out optimization strategies are going to be big business in the future.  I think it works well for Adobe in that most of their pdf’s are used for White Papers, which are the primary lead gen vehicles for businesses.  Getting the right people to those white papers or demand generation is the next phase of B2B interactive marketing services, at least as it relates to generating warmer leads for salespeople.

Amazon acquiring Zappos.com and GSI commerce acquiring Retail Convergence.  These are a testament to consumers increasingly more comfortable with making purchases online in addition to doing more purchase research online.

5. What were the hot sectors?

The Mobile, Web Analytics/ Ad serving and Enabling Technology categories were by far the hottest for both capital raised and M&A.  Driving mobile is the increase in the % of people using smartphones, where before they were only used by business professionals.  New applications and the ability to combine the Internet with GPS and ad serving make mobile a big growth opportunity in the future.  M&A activity with Web Analytics and companies that helped publishers optimize advertising or deliver content or advertising more efficiently saw an increase in both capital raised and M&A.  The largest of which was Adobe’s acquisition of Omniture.

6. Where there many traditional media companies buying digital media?

Actually, not very many traditional media companies made big acquisitions last year.  There were a few small tuck-in acquisitions, but none of the big splashy deals of 2008.

7. Last year, you said that you expected a turn around toward the end of 2009 or even the summer.  Do you believe the economy has turned the corner?

Yes, I believe the economy has turned the corner.  Credit has loosened up a bit, companies have better balance sheets.  With the exception of AOL, which just let go of a bunch of people, I think that people who have survived the recession are feeling a bit more comfortable with their jobs.  Stock market valuations are increasing as well.  Clearly not at the level before the recession, but psychologically we’re headed in the right direction.

8. What areas are hot for acquisition this year?

I would say Web analytics and mobile will be the hot areas for capital raises and acquisitions.  Social media was hit hard, but I am still a huge fan and think that there are still opportunities as long as companies become niche players.  I mean, it is clear that Facebook is going to be the dominant player.  But companies like Flixster and Yelp are solid companies that have decent followings.

9.  Now that companies have survived the storm, what can the do to better position themselves to raise money? get acquired?

It all goes in cycles, right?  If last year was survive and profitability, this year and the next year is scale or shall I say, smart scale.  I still believe that partnerships are the way to go.

10.  What are the big acquisitions that you see happening next year?

I can tell you who I think should be acquired, but I’m not going to make any predictions.  Yahoo should acquire Facebook or Yelp.   I don’t think FB is going to go public, because it will have to deal with the grind of forecasting numbers and performance.  If anything, Yahoo would acquire Facebook and then Microsoft would end up acquiring both of them.  I’m not sure, but I think someone will buy Netflix.

[Hopefully, someone buys Twitter and shuts it down.  I’m a bit of a cynic when it comes to Twitter.  I’d love for 2010 to be the last time I heard the word tweet.]

11. How about the small ones?

Look for greentech digital media companies to get picked up.  Look for AOL to buy a green lifestyle Web site.  I just had a baby girl, so look for BabyCenter.com to get picked up as a safer strategic play.

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Dr. Robert Cialdini, Bob, is a superhero to the throngs of copy writers, landing page tweakers, affiliate marketers and info product mavens worldwide.

His insights about human behavior with respect to persuasion and influence are renowned. He’s the kingpin of motivational strategy. If you haven’t yet read his two books, Influence: Science and Practice and YES!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive, they are must-reads. You’ll find yourself, highlighter and pen in hand, coming up with all kinds of nuances for your current web and email copy and ad strategies.

Bob is keynoting at Affiliate Summit, one of DishyMix’s sponsors, so I was perfectly aligned to book him as a guest. Here’s a brief excerpt from the audio interview. This is one of a series of pearls that are simple and powerful. I hope you’ll not only listen to the whole show, but you’ll pass it around to your team and marketing peers in other organizations.

As well, I’m almost as 1,000 DishyMix Fans on my Facebook page. If you are not yet a fan, will you please become one? I give away all kinds of great schwag to fans.

Here’s the excerpt about taking advantage of a critical moment of power in a business exchange:

Susan Bratton: How do you avoid bundling critical moments of power? There’s this moment of power and often we undermine ourselves, we’ve gotten people to a certain point and then we take a wrong action and blow up the ground we’ve taken.

Dr. Robert Cialdini: Right. I’ll give you an example that has to do with the rule for reciprocity for instance. There is a moment of power that we are afforded as soon as someone has said “Thank you.” What do you do with the moment after “Thank you”?

Susan Bratton: Well you don’t act like a sandbagger, I can tell you that from reading your work. You come in strong.

Dr. Robert Cialdini: That’s right. You don’t say, “Hey, and now you owe me one sister.” Right. What you say is “I was glad to do it because I know if the situation were ever reversed, you’d do the same for me.” You reach into the future…

Susan Bratton: Future pacing. Yeah, with that moment. You don’t try to develop the yes in that moment. You frame that moment so it empowers a future moment when you do need that persons help.

Susan Bratton: “Hey, it was my pleasure. Anytime, if it were me in the future and the tables were turned, I know you’d do the same for me.”
Dr. Robert Cialdini: Exactly. And there’s one other thing that you can say, and that is “Of course. It’s what partners do.”

Susan Bratton: Ah. So you’ve moved them into a new position with you of being a partner.

Dr. Robert Cialdini: And then add the addendum “for one another” – “It’s what partners do for one another” – so you’re not just characterizing yourself as a vessel of resources that you’re pouring into somebody else’s tank. No. “It’s what partners do for one another.”

Susan Bratton: Very nice! You’re setting up the inherent reciprocity.

Dr. Robert Cialdini: Exactly right.

Listen now via streaming or subscribe to iTunes or download the mp3 file to your portable device.

Robert Cialdini on Persuasive Marketing in Times of Uncertainty and Amplifying and Activating Influence Strategies

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For Immediate Release

Public Relations Leads Social Media Engagement at Most Organizations

Social Media Skills Now Required for Staffers, Study Shows

LOS ANGELES (Aug. 10, 2009) – Public relations professionals are taking the lead in managing the organization’s use of social media communications channels, and social media skills are nearly as important as traditional media relations skills when searching for and hiring public relations professionals, according to a new study.

The 2009 Digital Readiness Report, a study conducted by online newsroom provider iPressroom with support from Korn/Ferry International, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and Trendstream, also identifies which new media and social media communications skills are most important to today’s hiring decision makers.
“The most commonly asked question at my social media workshops is ‘Which new or social media communications channels are most important?’” says iPressroom founder Eric Schwartzman.  “With more organizations realizing that there are tangible benefits to be gained from this type of engagement with their audiences, the importance of hiring individuals with advanced new media and social communications skills is increasing.”
Among the key insights from the study are:

1. When searching for prospective new hires, social media communications skills are nearly as important as traditional media relations skills.
2. Public relations leads marketing in the management and oversight of all social media communications channels within organizations.
3. When searching for prospective new hires, social media communications skills are nearly as important as traditional media relations skills.
4. Public relations leads marketing in the management and oversight of all social media communications channels within organizations.
5. Marketing leads public relations in the management and oversight of bulk email communications and search engine optimization.
6. Social networking, blogging and micro-blogging skills are the three most important social media communications skills for job candidates to have, according to public relations and marketing hiring decision makers.
7. Most organizations are considering hiring social media specialists.

The 2009 Digital Readiness Report, “Essential Online Public Relations and Marketing Skills.” is available for download free at http://www.ipressroom.com/readiness (registration is required).

Social Media Skills Influence Hiring Decisions
Schwartzman says the survey data also suggest that public relations and marketing professionals without new media and social media communications skills cannot, and will not, satisfy the requirements of today’s hiring decision makers.  To help professionals master these skills, Schwartzman and PRSA will conduct Social Media PR Boot Camps in four additional markets in 2009: Los Angeles (Aug 26 – 27), San Francisco (Sept. 24 – 25), Chicago (Oct. XX-XX) and New York on (Dec. 3 – 4).

“To circumvent the risk of obsolescence, communications professionals are seeking out new media and social media training oppor¬tunities that allow them to rapidly update their traditional public relations and communications skills-sets,” he says. “The demand for this type of knowledge is huge.”

The research also suggest a potential gap in online communications strategy at most organizations, since the channels with the greatest reach and adoption levels — email and search engine optimization — do not appear to be the most important channels in practice.
In addition, organizations do not appear to be as intent on leveraging the trust advantage of their own websites over social networking services to promote their company line.  Instead, organizations say they’re more focused on getting the word out than on using new media and social media channels to attract visitors to their own, destination websites.

About iPressroom
Online newsroom software as a service (SaaS) provider iPressroom (http://www.ipressroom.com/) was founded by social media strategist Eric Schwartzman, who also produces the award-winning PR podcast On the Record…Online (http://www.ontherecordpodcast.com), about how technology is changing the way organizations communicate, and how people consume media and information.  Based in Los Angeles, the company supports the rapid deployment of online newsrooms for businesses, nonprofits and government agencies.

#   #   #
Media Contact:
Arthur Yann
Vice President, Public Relations
Public Relations Society of America
212.460.1452

We’ve just launched an information product marketing division at Personal Life Media. We now need an affiliate marketing expert to help us sign up and manage affiliates and JV’s. We have four products launched and another dozen in the pipeline. If you understand the affiliate and JV world and want to work for a great company that provides life-transforming products, check out this role.

The sky is the limit as to where this can lead, but to start, we need a detail-oriented, super-friendly sales person who loves to enroll people in great new ideas.

You get to work with me one-on-one, account by account and I will teach you all I know about sales, marketing and business development in addition to publishing and information product marketing while we co-create successful relationships with partners.

You can live anywhere in the world, but your English must be perfect, your grammar excellent, your writing skills warm and powerful and your commitment to your responsibilities resolute.

Team PLM!

Affiliate Marketing Manager : Full Time : Contract : Base + Commission

We are seeking a self starter with a demonstrated ability to run a successful affiliate marketing program. You must be able to identify, recruit, motivate and retain successful affiliates.

Duties

Create affiliate marketing materials for products including sample blog posts and sample emails for affiliates.

Create affiliate marketing campaigns and promotions to motivate affiliates.

Identify and recruit top affiliates for each product including JV partners and publishers.

Upload and manage banner ads and affiliate assets into our affiliate marketing network site, RevShareNow.com

Manage JV launches and ongoing affiliate relationships.

Communicate weekly with affiliates to keep them informed about new Personal Life Media products, new promotional tools, upcoming promotions, and recommended best practices for promoting the various Personal Life Media products.

Monitor affiliate activities and insure compliance with company policies. Verify affiliate payment amounts and approve affiliate payments.

Conduct surveys of customer prospects to understand buying behavior and make recommendations for improving conversion rates.

Manage auto-responders and track conversion statistics from email campaigns.

Create training materials such as tutorials, FAQs, and demo videos for affiliates.

Analyze metrics such as click through rates, conversion rates, commissions per sales, total cost of sales and commission per impression and make recommendations for improving ROI on program as well as products, landing pages, and affiliate promotional materials.

Requirements
3 – 5 years managing affiliate programs
Bachelor’s degree
Excellent communications skills, both written and verbal
Fluent in English
Very reliable broadband connection
Direct experience with affiliate software such as Post Affiliate Pro preferred.

About Personal Life Media
Personal Life Media (PersonalLifeMedia.com) is a multimedia lifestyle brand producing digitally downloadable content. The company publishes 40 weekly audio shows (podcasts) and companion blogs and is an eBook publisher of direct-to-consumer online information products targeted to consumers interested in personal and professional growth.
PLM provides a technology infrastructure of automated platforms for podcast and information product publishing to serve experts who deliver motivational programs, talk shows, virtual workshops, downloadable training systems and support programs via blogs, audio, video and eBooks.

The currently available titles include:
Talk Show Tips – 72 Show Host Secrets

Naturally Slender Quick Start – Hypnosis for Weight Loss

Speak Up With Power and Influence – Achieve More Confidence
Expand Her Orgasm Tonight – 21 day Program for Partners

Qualified individuals may send their resume to “jobs at personallifemedia dot com”.

Having known and worked with Susan Bratton for nearly ten years and I can not endorse her highly enough. Susan is incredibly bright and polished, but she’s also is fun to work with and always on the cutting edge of marketing and technology. Susan is and incredible mentor and partner. She fosters an amazing atmosphere that’s full of energy and creativity. I highly recommend working with Susan! – Heidi Kadison, former employee, Excite@Home

I wanted to write a quick note to let you know that it was a pleasure working for you while at Excite@Home.  You are one of the most strategic and eloquent leaders I have met and consider you to be my most influential mentor.  You can move mountains with your words and build powerful teams with your management acumen.  One of the most connected people in the industry, I welcome any opportunity to work with and/or for you in the future. — Brendan O’Brien, VP & GM, Digital Media Group, ISM Entertainment

Web aps and mobile had most significant growth. Social media had largest decline in M&A deals.

John Doyle II, Peachtree Media Advisors

Here is a 2009 Mid Year Digital Media M&A Report summarizing digital media transactions in the first half of 2009.

Click here to download.

According to John:

“Although the first half of the year was lackluster for digital media M&A when compared to the first half of 2008, keep in mind that interactive media deal-making did not fall off the proverbial cliff last year until Google missed their numbers in July 2008 and the infamous Sequoia presentation.  At that point, everyone in the digital media sector felt susceptible to the effects of the economic downturn (previously thinking it was a newspaper/television problem).”

“On a relative basis, we expect the extreme opposite case for deal-making in the 3rd and 4th Quarters of 2009 versus 2008 because of the heavy drop-off in the latter part of 2008.  Expect a significant increase in the next two quarters versus the same two quarters in 2008, which is a good thing.  Only note that the steep gains are due to the drastic fall off in the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2008 when the following headline appears “M&A Increases 400% in Q4 2009 versus Q4 2008!”

Listen to John on DishyMix.

John Doyle, Peachtree Media Advisors on Digital Media M&A, 2008 Capital Raises and Social Media Co’s Out of Biz

Similar to the concept of behavioral targeting, marketers and researchers believe that if they target the friends of an existing customer, they will find “birds of a feather” prospects for their goods.

There are a number of companies using social graph data including Lookery (my interview with Scott Rafer, CEO), Media6Degrees and UNBOUND Technologies . These data mining and ad targeting companies are leveraging your data: the things you “fan” on Facebook,  your personal profile information, your network of connected friends (and god knows what else!) to find new prospective consumers connected socially to you so they can market products to your friends if you are a customer.

UNBOUND Technolgies can take a marketer’s existing customer list, compare it to their database of all known LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter users and come up with a rank order list of who, among their existing customers, are the most influential. If a brand has a Facebook “Page” (Fan Page), they can map the most to least influential fans, based on number of social connections.

Here’s an article from Business Week that gives you some idea of how important this data mining of social graphs is to the social net companies and marketers.

Learning and Profiting from Online Friendships

These next two images are very telling. These are my Affiinty Map and my Influencer List from UNBOUND Technologies.

First you can see, of my 3,200 Facebook friends, what the top Celebrities/Public Figures, Brands, Bands, Services et cetera are of the people to whom I’m most connected.

If I were a brand (I’m certainly trying to be!) doing co-marketing promotions, it would be brilliant to partner with Guy or Seth or Arianna or the IAB or 212 in NY.  My friends and friendsters (virtual friends) would be more likely to pay attention to my messaging if I were to co-create something with other public figures, associations or brands about which they care most.

In this list from UNBOUND Technologies, you can see who in my network are the most influential. If Joe Jaffe, Charlene Li or Mike Webb were to promote DishyMix, for example, their followers would be most likely to be interested in my work and they have the biggest reach.

If I give Unbound Technologies my professional contact database, they can also match it up with the premier social networks to give me an even better rank order of those people I know who are most connected in the social sphere. Even if I’m not directly connected to them now, I’d know who I should approach to friend to continue to widen my network more proactively.

Just replace Susan Bratton with your brand and think of the efficiencies and implications. What comes to your mind?

And here is this week’s DishyMix. Perfectly timed to talk about Social Influence Marketing with Shiv Singh of Razorfish who has been thinking about social network theory since grad school at the London  School of Economics & Political Science.

Shiv Singh, Razorfish on the Social Influence Marketing, the Portable Social Graph and Friendsters

I’ll be in London/Cambridge as a “Traveling Geek” and we’re having a TweetUp, sponsored by The Conversation Group and NESTA.org, to which I’d like to invite you.
Here is the invitation:http://www.eventbrite.com/event/366118069

The half price “friend of geek” (that would be me) discount is good until the 26th June.

More here about the Traveling Geeks.
http://travelinggeeks.com

Please let me know if you are coming. I’d love to see you there!

Twitter bird photo credit- Creative Commons MatteoPenzo.

Bernie’s Show       Bernie’s Blog        Find and Convert in iTunes

He asked me a number of questions in advance of the interview and I thought I’d blog the answers here.

Who is Susan Bratton and what does she have her hands in now?

I’m a CEO, Publisher, Blogger, Podcaster, Speaker and Author.

DishyMix is my weekly podcast and companion blog. My coverages ranges from brain science to new gadgets to landing page conversion to the future of the social graph.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of Personal Life Media, an aspirational company and next-generation publisher focused on providing virtual, fully downloadable content experiences.

Our mantra is “frank talk and deep discussion for your personal life.”

We publish 40 podcasts, companion blogs and are launching 15 new information products I call “ebooks with benefits.”

Our first info products to market are, Talk Show Tips, Speak Up with Power and Influence, Masterful Techniques to Overcome Anxiety and Fear, Naturally Slender Quickstart and a 21 Day Lovemaking Program for Couples. We have another 10+ info products in production.

Top shows on Personal Life Media include:
DishyMix, Inside Out Weight Loss, Expanded Lovemaking, Buddhist Geeks, Living Dialogues, 3 Digital Photography Shows, The Diva Cast, The New Man, Just for Women, Philosopher’s Notes, Tantra & Kama Sutra and Sex, Love & Intimacy.

What is my high level view of social media marketing?

I view social media as being in three categories, Listening, Appvertising and Participation. Shiv Singh of Razorfish really helped me gel my concept of these buckets and his DishyMix interview is coming in June.

Listening is getting the most traction with Participation second and Appvertising third.

Listening: New companies like Unbound Technologies, a next generation Neilsen Buzz Metrics, is focused on opportunities around the social graph and social influence marketing. They create a list of the most influential individuals for any given brand and then provide an “affinity map” of the other most-influential people and brands related to that single, key influencer. This is fantastic for outreach, prioritization of influencers and joint promotions to important clustered audiences.

Taking behaviorial targeting to a new high with the inclusion of social graphing is Media6Degrees. They offer ad targeted based on social graphing. I also need an update on Lookery who is aggregating social media data across social networks to use for ad targeting. My interview with Scott Rafer of Lookery is here.

Appvertising is being well handled by ClearSpring, Gigya and RockYou! as well as SocialMedia.com and ContextOptional. Brands who create useful aps or sponsor useful aps for their target consumers are brilliant players at a high-level of sophistication in the social influence marketing sphere.

Participation is certainly evident in Facebook Pages. Here’s my DishyMix Fan Club where I give away all kinds of goodies to my listeners.  Also popular and smart are consumer generated content experiences like HP on YouTube described here in my interview with Daina Middleton and the darling of the moment, corporate Twitter accounts like this one.
What is the biggest difficulty in Social Media Marketing?

I believe in larger organizations, it is around internal ownership. Should social marketing be part of marketing, corp comm, where? In smaller organizations, I see the problem being one of overwhelming choice. Where do I start as a small business with limited resources?

Also, tracking and ROI still being figured out. Here is a great presentation on social media ROI.
http://www.slideshare.net/yongfook/social-media-roi

Lee Odden (the wonderful soul who connected Bernie and I in the first place through his superlative Top Rank Online Marketing Blog  and I talk about integration of web analytics and social media analytics in this interview I did with Lee at SXSW for the #Community Powered project. Emphasis on real time data. The data that you can collect through something like a social media monitoring tool, like Buzz Logic, Collective Intellect, Radian6, married with web analytics, like Google Analytics, Omniture, Web Trends.

Lee Odden and Susan Bratton on Web and Social Media Analytics

Podcasting? How did you get into it? What is the current state of podcasting and consulting your crystal ball on podcasting’s future.

Podcasting is still a nascent market.

The beauty of it is that anyone can create an audience of raving fans. (and in my ebook with benefits, called Talk Show Tips, I teach you how to empower your raving fans with the tools they need to help you grow your audience.)

If you are articulate and like to talk more than you like to write, audio may be better for you than blogging. And with transcripts, you can have the best of both worlds.

For video, the bar is very high on production quality. Make sure you are adequately resourced before pursuing.

Commercial podcasting is a very smart solution for brands who have deep knowledge to share with their customers and prospects.

The ADM (Association for Downloadable Media) is working on ad models, audience measurement and consumer attitudes toward sponsorships of podcasts.

It’s a greenfield opportunity for sponsors. Integrated social media programs are key. You must leverage the hosts’ social media influence.

There are two excellent video clips on Volomedia’s blog about Podcasting Metrics and Podcast Advertising and Sponsorship that Jeff Karnes and I just presented at the eMetrics Summit.

My presentation is at Slideshare.com about some of my best programs from TrustedID, Holosync’s MeditateFree.com, Better Sex Institute, Lensbaby, Accuquote and Audible.

http://www.volomedia.com/blog/2009/05/shows-on-the-go-with-jeff-karn.php

http://www.slideshare.net/SusanBratton/podcasting-metrics-and-sponsorship-ideas

Finally, Talk Show Tips: 72 Secret ‘Master Host’ Techniques will teach anyone how to land big name guests, prepare for their show, ask killer questions with my easy question-generator mini-course, create and manage a facile show flow, conduct professional in-interview techniques and learn a dozen ideas for using social media to radiate your show and help your fans promote your show for you.

What is your DishyMix podcast and blog business model?

I’m very fortunate to have sponsors who underwrite my show to reach my valuable, sophisticated audience of marketers, agency pros and digital media mavens. DishyMix is sponsored by Isobar US Carat, the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summits, adtech conferences, Trusted ID, Upstream Habitat and Audible.

Who are some of the most memorable guests on DishyMix?

I’ve created a blog post to wrap up my Top 10 Favorite DishyMix Guests.

DishyMix: Success Secrets from Famous Media and Internet Business Executives

And Coming Soon! Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock on his newest tome, Revolutionary Wealth and Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone on his newest angle, Who’s Got Your Back?