You like me, you really like me!

Hopefully, you get the Sally Field reference.

And here’s why: I attended a presentation by Pete Blackshaw of Nielsen Online yesterday (Friday, 3/21) and it was spot on. He was previewing his next book Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000: Running a Business in Today’s Consumer-Driven World (which can be preordered through Amazon).

As background, Pete is the guy who helped launch Planet Feedback, which was the first such Internet “buzz” marketing research firm - and it even predated blogs. That eventually was swallowed up by Nielsen Online, which has become the leader in the field.

Anyway, he is the one behind such terms as “consumer generated media.”

Couple of key points from his talk:

• “The Web is all about listening”: That’s his advice to companies and marketers, who think they can shout their message and have it heard. I agree entirely with Pete here - the Web has enabled discourse and conversation about EVERYTHING, but most companies are truly uncomfortable with what people might say about them, or too thin-skinned to take the heat.
• “In the age of consumer control, credibility is everything”: Getting back to the first point, of course. You can’t hope to completely control everything except your own behavior. He cited Patagonia and Wal-Mart as two examples of companies starting to get it. Another example is what came out this week thanks to the blogosphere. Turns out a guy with an Xbox 360 specially decorated and signed by the guys at Bungie who are behind the Halo series had it fry (as has mine). Despite Microsoft’s assurances, the company scrubbed all the decorations off. Apparently, Microsoft heard about it through the blogosphere and had the guy up to Seattle to meet with Bungie and gave him a bunch of other cool Halo swag. Again, you can only control your own credibility, and when you mess up, be ready to fix it.
• And his six drivers of brand credibility: Trust, Authenticity (used the Patagonia example here), Transparency, Affirmation, Listening (Starbucks actually is now actively elicting ideas from customers - got an e-mail the other day), and Responsiveness.

OK, now how does this play into what I write about? Well, given that many people are starting to use their cell phones to interact with each other over the Internet (mobile blogging, videoblogs, Twitter, Jott.com) it only makes sense. Cell users are only going to get more sophisticated about how they use their devices to give feedback and the like.

I even asked Pete what he thought about mobile advertising, especially since he cited a study saying that of all the advertisement sources, text messaging was listed last at less than 10 percent. He did say that it has to be “grounded in high levels of consumer permission. There is something about the phone when unwelcome messages come in.”

Agreed. But how to get people to give that permission? I think it is a combination of cool, relevant content and value-add premise, especially if you can hit the consumer when they are about to make that buying decision. 

So why the Sally Field Oscar speech quote? Pete cited my blog during his speech, saying I had really done well after being up for such a short period of time, and then afterward said my blog kicked butt.

Although maybe he was just being nice.

It might be too soon for “I told you so,” but …

I can’t believe I missed this in the shuffle last week, but here goes:

 Turns out that Nielsen has done another survey - this time on the efficacy of mobile advertisements.

According to the Reuters piece linked above, the number of cell phone users who saw an ad on their device rose 38 percent. A total of 58 million people saw ads (but it doesn’t say how many were distinctive users). Also no info on take rates or the like, but clearly, that is not a number to sneeze at.

But the story cites Nielsen as saying that a third of those with data services would be willing to get ads on their phones if it lowered their bills. Now couple that with cool content such as songs/ringtones/wallpapers/ringbacks - and you could have a content-for-ad swap dynamic.

In fact, the survey says that 13 percent of respondents would agree to ads if that improved the content on their phones.

To me, this is a clear indication that if the model is right, people won’t feel as if such ads are spam.

Speaking of content, link here to see about a cool new music service for the BlackBerry that is trying to rival the iPhone at the same time that Apple is trying to add more “businessman specials” to the iPhone’s application lineup with the beta release of its SDK earlier this week.

Is that your phone buzzing, or are you happy to see me?

Yahoo! is jumping into territory already being mined professionally by Nielsen Online (which includes the remnants of ancestors BuzzMetrics and Planet Feedback).

Yahoo’s approach is a bit different in that it puts the control of actual users who decides what is buzzworthy. Nielsen, on the other hand, goes out and uses both automated and anectotal data to look at so-called “consumer generated media.”

But here’s my question - how does the wireless Web play into all this? I know that a page view on a WAP enabled phone is just like one on a PC, but what about the media generated by phone?

Seems to me that there needs to be a measurement standard of wireless media viewership soon - maybe not now, but the tipping point is coming (see the Washington Post story from Sunday: astounding that there is one active cell phone for every two people on the planet).