So that phone conversation we had the other day got me thinking. I don't really know anything about your job and some of this might not really apply but I kinda think it does because anything internet related these days relates to these fundamental aspects of the current state of social networking. Some of this stuff you've probably already thought about I'm sure, but I'm going to organize it and make it clear. It is why I'm considering tackling the issue of blogging as a documentary. but that's a seperate conversation.
Online
The way I see it, Online communication took an interesting turn when social networking suddenly became profitable. When Facebook (before they went public) suddenly became a sizable entity along side Apple and Google and the like, when Instagram as an app could sell for millions, when Pinterest and draw with friends could overnight explode as thriving businesses, and when bloggers suddenly became more valuable then print magazines, the world took a significant turn.
Media Impressions and Monopoly Banners
All online brands exist as entities that are valuable commodities for advertisers. Think of the internet as one big game of monopoly and starting a twitter account is like purchasing a square. Making Facebook go public is like putting 5 hotels on boardwalk or park place. Every time someone lands on your square they pay a fee. The user pays this fee as a "media impression". Advertisers pay for this media impression. Let's think about it like your blog is a tiny stand in Calcutta India that sells sarees. You sell a lot of sarees, so a guy who sells vases comes over and says "can I put a sign next to your stand that tells people they can get vases over at my stand?" Call it a banner or a billboard but the guy is asking for ad space. Every person that walks up to your store to check out your sarees simultaneously checks out the messaging about vases and PR people used to call this a media impression.
Phased Space, Warp Zones, and Meta-Hits
I was actually told that online people don't like to call them media impressions anymore when they refer to online stuff like twitter or instagram but I don't know what else to call it; because if a magazine calls one reader looking at a dress a celebrity is wearing in a magazine a media impression then why is a twitter-er looking at a tweet about a blog post that contains a photo from instagram any different? Well, that's probably exactly why they don't want to call it that. Because in online it's different. Landing on your twitter monopoly square means I also just landed on your instagram square, your facebook page, and your blog without even knowing that I was doing that. It is as though online locations are connected by some sort of sub-space wormhole that forces me as a user with a media impression to give, to simultaneously exist in a "Phased-space". In case you're not a Star Trek the Next generation nerd, It's kinda like a warp zone in Mario bros, only Mario gets to exist on level 2 and level 4 at the same time. Internet space is layered with the added dimensionality of being able to transition from location to location. WTF did I just say? It's like this, your user is Mario and if he looks at a tweet, he is existing on twitter and for the time being hanging out at your saree stand. He clicks on a photo of one of your sarees posted through instagram and by clicking, is warp zoned over to instagrams location on the internet. Only as far as advertisers are concerned, Mario is on twitter and instagram at the same time. They're both touting the media impression or "hit" as a reason for ad buyers to pay for ad space, aka banners about vases. If the internet was a physical space, then it's kind of folded so that at the point of your saree shop, twitter and instagram are layered over each other. Kinda like a wormhole only the "w"-axis means your not just jumping around points but you're actually simultaneously existing at those points. This is the added dimensionality that I speak of. It is a sort of phased existence in cyberspace. Where Internet 1.0 sold hits that crashed with the dot coms, Internet 2.0 sells multi-hits. I'm actually not sure what to call it because it's not really like they're hitting your location twice. They're hitting your location and existing in 2 places at once and 2 different locations are capitalizing on the sellable media impression. Call it phased space, call it layered, call it synergy, call it meta-present, call it warping, call it a multi-verse, call it whatever you want. For our purposes we're going to call it a "Meta-Hit". We're going to do that because the user technically isn't hitting instagram or twitter they're hitting your blog and their Meta-spacial position in cyber space is 3 places at once.
ONLINE TRAFFIC-ing
That being said, the goal of online traffic is to corral as many users into your saree stand as you can so that people want to hang banners on your store. Only, these days it's important to extend your branding into the multi-dimensional potentiality that the internet 2.0 holds. You put up a Saree stand every where you can. You have a twitter, you have a blog, you have an instagram, you have a pinterest, you have a youtube channel, and whatever else you can think of. Your blog might be in calcutta but your twitter is in LA, your instagram is in San Francisco, and your pinterest is in NY. Each of them is catching the interest of users who could potentially warp-zone over to your store in calcutta. and all of those properties are sellable spaces that your friend who sells vases might want to buy.
Meta-space gone Mobile
I'm not sure what the numbers are but Drawsomething makes scary dollars and it's just from mobile users. Nobody fucking plays Drawsomething anymore but the numbers they used to get are still worth some cash to buyers who can't afford TV. And that's the beauty of the world gone mobile. Thanks to Apple trumping blackberry with apps instead of shitty browsers, users are floating around meta-space all hours of the day. People used to only consume ads when they watched their black and white TV and when they read a magazine at the dentists office. Today, if they're awake, they're hopping around the internet making their traffic valuable to someone. Not only that but their telling their friends to meet up with them. Facebook as an app made it possible for users to share their internet travels with each other. From there the Insta-Pin-Twitter-Book-Tube-App potential means that the online-mobile-market is far more valuable than any ad on any magazine. If I buy an ad on your magazine, the user sees my vase and moves on. It's a billboard on La Cienega blvd that people ignore. Not only that but it costs a shit load of money. Mobile ads cost less and I can afford to buy more of them. Mobile Meta-space means consumers are seeing my vase while looking at your saree while sharing photos of food from some other dudes food truck that's geo-tagged next to someone else's dental practice that has a magazine sitting on the table that nobody looks at.
Conclusion
So, in regards to ways to "synergize" (I hate the word synergy) online presence. Expand your meta-hits into the w-axis. You should #hashtag everything. Go on other people's blogs and hashtag the shit out of em. Tweet at yourself. Tweet at celebrities so that their followers will look at who this funny person is and warp-zone over to your blog. Do DIY how-to-make-suspenders-out-of-old-Jeans because the girl who re-pins it will end up posting it on facebook and 2 of their friends might just click on your facebook page. All of it works together in that layered meta-space. You're just trying to drive that traffic to any one of your stores and hope they pay for parking. The rest is all up to your own creative fancy.
Conclusion
So, in regards to ways to "synergize" (I hate the word synergy) online presence. Expand your meta-hits into the w-axis. You should #hashtag everything. Go on other people's blogs and hashtag the shit out of em. Tweet at yourself. Tweet at celebrities so that their followers will look at who this funny person is and warp-zone over to your blog. Do DIY how-to-make-suspenders-out-of-old-Jeans because the girl who re-pins it will end up posting it on facebook and 2 of their friends might just click on your facebook page. All of it works together in that layered meta-space. You're just trying to drive that traffic to any one of your stores and hope they pay for parking. The rest is all up to your own creative fancy.
This is a crazy time. Tweet about your youtube channel, that is posted on your blog, next to instagram photos of the shoot, right below your DIY about making your own youtube episode, on your pinterest account, because if you are at all interesting to anyone on the internet someone will want to pay you to hang a banner of their vase next to you and someday you could be worth more than a magazine.
Insta-Pin-Twitter-Book-Tube-Apps,
-MM
(Technically my degree is not in Film studies. That was actually just a concentration. My degree is in Communication studies and my talent was always in explaining modern mass cultural behavioral models to my professors that were Thesis worthy only I was just makin' casual coffee talk. It's just the way I think. Point is, I'm not talking out of my ass, I know what I'm talking about, only I kind of am just talking out of my ass.)
