As you know, here at Out-Smarts we are champions of Internet advertising: in the main because it is more effective at reaching a highly targeted audience, but from an audience perspective Internet Ads can miss the mark or have a counter effect.

Ads are popping up all over Facebook these days and I’ve been interested in getting people’s view on these. In general most people I’ve talked to don’t mind the ads too much, some don’t even seem to notice they are there. However there has been negative comments: one Facebook user told me that a flashing pink ad on the screen was so abusive that he got a cracking headache and had to go and do something else – not likely to click through on that is he? I myself was offended by a series of ads for weight loss products (just because its the New Year and I am woman does not mean I am obsessed by my weight).

So advertisers beware, when creating ads test and try them and think about who your audience truly is and what will appeal to them rather than offending them with nonsense and rather than spread your net as wide as you can, hone in on those who really consitute your niche that way your campaigns are much more likely to succeed after all, the technology is available to let you do this effectively.

Check out these ads from yesteryear compiled by Odee for a good laugh to end the week. Its funny to see just how much attitudes have changed. My favorite: for a better start in life start cola earlier!

If you have kids you’ve no doubt heard about the Webkinz craze that has been sweeping elementary schools. Webkinz are stuffed animals that come with a free one year subscription to the Webkinz web site where kids can play games and interact with their toy on-line. The offering has been hugely successful but Ganz may have overstepped the mark by announcing their intentions to use the site to as an advertising revenue stream.

An article in the New York times last week stirred up the controversy and The Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood quickly activated a viral machine that went into overdrive to ensure that schools were informed. At my children’s school alone every parent was e-mailed with a warning notifying them of Webkinz use of Ads and encouraging parents to “Tell Ganz: Stop Advertising on Webkinz”.

There’s an opportunity here in our Web 2.0 world for Ganz to respond to the criticism in a positive way by outlining the types of ads that will and will not be allowed for example but alas to date the parent’s section of the site still has no reference to the issues. From a parent’s perspective this lack of ownership is disgruntling especially given that many feel they have already been manipulated into buying the toys not to mention letting their kids use an ad free site site that decides to change course. I for one will be closely monitoring my childrens’ Webkinz forays and assessing whether the ads are appropriate. If they aren’t I can foresee a lot of sad faces around here….

Right now there’s so many exciting developments in new media, marketing and on the Internet in general, that its becoming quite a task to decide which makes me the most cheerful. November saw Google announce Open Social and Facebook enter the Internet advertising market with SocialAds, the XO was launched as was Kindle which lead me discover my first reason:

Askville by Amazon is a neat application, you can ask the community any question about any topic and with any luck the community comes up with satisfactory answers. I always have questions so I expect I’ll be using it a lot.

Docstoc – has a wide range of business templates and documents available to share. There’s some debate about the quality of some of the documents therein but the concept is great especially for small businesses.

Zoho – I Stumbled upon this on-line solution aimed at providing everything from word processing and spreadsheets to CRM and project management.

Kijiji- I like Craigslist and use it regularly to good effect so I was pleased to find this Canadian alternative.

I’ve been using Google Adwords for a while now for targeted online promotion of my business and so far so good, I’ve been relatively happy with the results. What I like best about AdWords is the fact that you can get going and test the waters really easily. For as little as $5 per month you can get started with campaigns and tweak to see what works and what doesn’t before expanding your promotions.

Enter Facebook and their business pages. Business pages are great – a free way to raise brand awareness amongst your network and their friends. However, their advertising component whilst being attractive (you can reach out and promote to a highly targeted demographic including age, location, sex, keywords, education, workplace, views and relationship status) isn’t great for those who want to test the waters. Unlike Google, Social Ads have a minimum daily investment of $5 for advertising. Really what you are paying for here is the targeting capabilities and the investment may be worth it. $5 is not a lot you may think but for small to medium sized companies already happy with Adwords it may be prohibitive (especially since the Facebook option is new and the effects of advertising in this forum are untested).

Has your organisation tried Social Ads yet? What response rate are you getting and how do the results compare to your experience with Google Adwords (if you’ve used that)?. Please let me know and so that we can feature your comments in a future Out-Smarts Internet Advertising blog post.

Out-Smarts has a business profile in Facebook and within a day of creating our page we have 7 fans! We’re testing the waters to see how we can use this profile to share our knowledge and expertise; to collaborate with interested parties and to assess if Social Ads is a viable Internet advertising tool. Become a fan and check up on our progress or submit to our discussions – the current one being innovative corporate blog uses.

When I meet with executives in the finance sector and talk about new media adoption I usually get the response that investors are typically old school and like to do business the “traditional” way. I always have to ask about the next generation of investors – those for whom new media adoption is the norm: have these financial organisations considered how they will attract these new investors in the future without using new media?

Steadyhand, a local financial organisation that provides mutual funds does just that. It bucks the trend both in terms of the mutual funds services it provides and its approach to new media adoption which is leading edge to say the least. The company has adopted a blogging policy that encourages all employees to contribute as well as Internet advertising and social marketing strategies that effectively reach and involve their target audience.

Traditional finance companies should take note – this is the way of the future.

This week the buzz in the social networking arena has surrounded Google’s OpenSocial announcement on Friday and the upcoming announcement expected from Facebook tomorrow. It seems that right now it pays to be social.

Google’s entry into the social networking arena with OpenSocial was fanfared on Friday. OpenSocial is a collaboration between Google and major SN players like LinkedIn, MySpace and Ning to facilitate building social networking apps and to encourage third party participation. The idea is that through application standardisation the development of social networking applications and add-ins will be easier and a shared API will lead to ease of deployment across different SN applications.

Facebook in turn is taking a run at Google on the Internet advertising front. With a big announcement expected from Facebook today rumours are circulating that the company intends to use data collected from user profiles to offer ads highly specific to interests and needs a la AdSense. Considering the personal data that Facebook has collected and the fact that Facebook is considered to be more authentic (profiles in Facebook are more true to real life than say MySpace), its really no surprise that the company is looking to harness this.

From a user perspective these developments can only be positive. The easier it is for companies to implement social networking technology, both on their web sites and Intranets, the better for enhanced communication, community and customer service. The integration of social networks will mean less time in the login and learning process for people like myself who use these networks as valuable business development tools. These, together with the ability to advertise to a highly targeted audience are all positive steps in the evolution of the social networking space.

Its easy to get started with Google AdWords. For a small monthly fee your company could take advantage of the Google search engine to advertise to your targeted audience. Perhaps the only challenging part of the set up is deciding which flavour of Google AdWords is right for you: Starter or Standard Edition.

Starter Edition – If you are an Internet advertising neophyte, Starter is the obvious choice and the one recommended by Google itself. It is aimed at companies with a single product line operating in a single geography. The service is simplified to let users easily set up a campaign and device appropriate keywords. Starter comes with analytics and reporting capabilities that are less complex: ideal for someone just getting up to speed.

Standard Edition – is the full blown all you can eat AdWords suite. It is definetely for the more seasoned Internet advertising professional advertising multiple products across many regions. It brings advanced planning tools that lets you put complex ad campaigns into effect and complex reporting functionality that lets you monitor the results. Standard provides a hole slew of other neat add-ons to let you assess keywords and come up with more effective ones.

Both services are simple to sign up for. If you’re not sure which one is best then go with Starter and work up to Standard once you have developed an understanding of the basic functionality.

GoogleAdWords is a great way to easily target your niche audience and promote your product to that audience. With hundreds of millions of Google searches performed every day it makes sense to tap into that huge potential market and thats just what GoogleAdwords lets you do.

When you next google something look at the right hand side and the top few searches of the page: these are ads (usually highlighted) placed and paid for by companies using the GoogleAdWords service.

The major benefits companies find in using this service (increased traffic notwithstanding) include:

• ability to get started on a minimum budget: as little as $5 per month;
• manage your budget effectively with monthly spend limits;
• test the waters, try different keywords and ad wording and make adjustments easily;
• you only pay for actual clicks (people who click through to visit your site);
• advertising with Google, unlike advertising in traditional media, is highly targeted by location and language;
• its relatively simple to get started
• and the service offers advanced reporting options if you are so inclined.

All in all, GoogleAdWords brings great bang for your advertising buck.