just tell me what to buy, part II

I was just reading some of last Sunday's Business section of the NYT out loud to my sister, trying to distract her from her nausea (she has a stomache virus). Have you ever read a newspaper out loud? It's weird. Sometimes things unintentionally (i can only hope) rhyme.

Anyway, there were two articles that got me thinking. One was about Facebook and social media advertising by the big guys, like P&G. Summarizing, it's totally not working. Everyone is an idiot. P&G has some sort of fan page for Crest Whitestrips that has 18,000 fans, and they had to do a massive amount of college promotion just to get that. As I'm sure you know, 18,000 is pathetic for something that's supposed to have as wide appeal as Crest Whitestrips.

The second article was about Jay Leno and his move to the 10 PM EST/9 PM CST hour. The author was in favor because he has a lot of trouble staying up late anyway. He said something about the midnight 6 minute commercial break, and I was totally confused. People still watch things real time? And are subjected to commercials! How novel. I DVR, download, or stream almost all of what I watch.

Here's something that I'm not sure I really believe: did TV advertising ever really work? Maybe it used to work, but does it still work? I really don't think seeing an ad for some GM car while watching Heroes makes me any more likely to buy that car. Does it work for anyone? It usually just makes me cranky. The thing I miss most from commercials (since I watch everything on DVR or online) is seeing what's happening on other shows, and what new things are going to be on. That's because, duh, I'm watching TV. I probably will watch more TV in the future, and showing me some new show is a well targeted placement.

That's one of the problems I've always had with social network advertising. The targeting is so crappy that the ads are just annoying, and people are never willing to shill out their friends (the NYTimes article had 3% responding to a survey saying they might do this). Showing an ad for Tide or Crest Whitestrips is a shot in the dark. Ads on search engines are so much better -- you actually know I'm looking for the thing and probably in a buying mood.

But I finally made a connection in my head (everyone else probably already knew this) -- social networks really could be awesome for recommendations. This relates to thoughts I've had recently on the fashion/style/beauty blogs I read, but I'll get to how in a second. First, the situation: I want a new pair of boots. My sister keeps raving about her Kenneth Cole Bard Tenders (I don't know what that name means either). I am probably going to buy a pair based solely on her recommendation. How powerful is that?

I posted on Friend Feed that I bought a pair of Steve Madden boots, and someone said that they're crappy quality. I got them, and lo and behold, they sucked. The recommendations from my social community can be really valuable, and I'm more likely to take them. Most of the people on Zappos said the boots were great. Of course, almost all the reviews for shoes on Zappos are positive. Clearly people who order from Zappos are crazy.

The problem is when you introduce compensation into this lovely circle of recommendations. I'm not going to trust people if they're getting paid (ugh. the Sugar blogs), but at the same time, shouldn't they get paid? My sister loves her shoes, and tells everyone about them. She's helping me and she's really helping Kenneth Cole.

I've found that I'm even willing to take recommendations from random blogs, if I like the authors enough and feel like we have similar tastes. I read the Daily Obsession, and I keep thinking I should unsubscribe because they keep recommending things that I have no need for at the time that I read the post. But then a post will come up for something lovely that I am interested in at that time. I absolutely hate that about blogs -- they broadcast information at you when you might not be ready to get it. How much has not been useful to me because I got it at the wrong time?

Social networks should do a better job of mining and relating my favorite brands and products, and making it accessible in a highly targeted, time-independent way. Maybe I can't make money from my purchases and findings about products because of a conflict of interest, but someone should.

ah, the stresses of life

This post [penelope trunk] made me want to hire an attorney just so I could yell at him when I get stressed. Can you really do that to attorneys? Can I yell at my CPA? I have one of those. Of course, I avoid him and leave his emails unread in my inbox because I still haven't filed my taxes for 2007.

screaming girls and their mothers

This is hilarious. I love it when the new york times is forced to report on stuff like Twilight and High School Musical. They get so confused.

Back on the stage at the King of Prussia Mall, Mr. Pattinson continued to stand awkwardly but, somehow, fantastically beautifully at the same time. A local radio D.J. fed him written questions from the audience, but his answers were buried by screaming.

“Do you guys care about the questions, or do you just want to talk about nothing?” Mr. Pattinson asked.

A young woman in a shirt emblazoned with the Cullen family crest spoke for many: “We just want to look at you.”

GOOP: My new favorite newsletter

Gwyneth Paltrow is starting to brand herself, and it's awesome, though strangely named: goop.com

I think this is quite brilliant. Who doesn't want to be Gwyneth Paltrow? I do. She's gorgeous and gets front row tickets and backstage passes to all the Coldplay concerts. She's also intriguingly weird (macrobiotic diet, no "white" foods).

There's a lot of fashion and beauty conscious denizens on the internet, people. And what do we want? Simple. TELL ME WHAT TO BUY. Tell me exactly what to do to look pretty and feel good. Tell me all the hair putties and buckled boots and straightening irons and weird cleanses you've tried, what worked, what didn't, what's the best value, etc. Seriously. I've said this many times: The internet is great if you want to buy a digital camera or HDTV, but horrible if you're trying to find not too tall gray suede boots that are comfortable to walk in and won't fall apart for a good price. Places like Zappos are getting there, but they need to be kicked into the 21st century of web browsing (filtering and searching on Zappos sucks). This is something I'd love to work on, actually -- what sorts of information do these people want? How do you keep the advice independent but still make money? When you recommend a product, should you get a cut? How do you handle the wide variety of body shapes, sizes, and tastes?

Any ideas, or awesome websites you like? i have a bunch of fashion blogs in my Google Reader (Omiru is definitely a favorite).

David Brooks on "The Behavioral Revolution"

David Brooks had this op-ed piece in the New York Times:   The Behavioral Revolution. I feel like the following quote (describing Nassim Taleb) sums up so much of why I have issues with purely market based solutions:

He subscribes to what he calls the tragic vision of humankind, which “believes in the existence of inherent limitations and flaws in the way we think and act and requires an acknowledgement of this fact as a basis for any individual and collective action.” If recent events don’t underline this worldview, nothing will.

There are fundamental flaws in our rationality (which David Brooks lists):  overweighting recent events against old ones, believing that good things are the result of action on our part while bad things are more likely to be bad luck, overrecognizing patterns that don't exist.  The brain is a massive pattern-recognizing machine!  We need to rethink our ideas on what it means to be a rational actor.