Inside the Marketers Studio - David Berkowitz's Marketing Blog

The Chutzpah of Facebook's Jewdar

I covered this on the blog yesterday, and there's more coverage from AdFreak (via David Griner) and WebMetricsGuru (Marshall Sponder's blog). Here's today's column on it in MediaPost in case you can't get enough of Facebook's run-in with the Catskills.

The Chutzpah of Facebook’s ‘Jewdar’

I swore I wasn’t going to write about Facebook again this week. Then a Facebook ad started up with the name-calling again. It wasn’t a bad name, or inaccurate, but such ads do have a knack for getting noticed.
From the responses to last week’s column, people really don’t like getting called fat on Facebook - or bald, lazy, or desperately single. Amanda P. commented on the post, “As a 22 year old female, I get really tired of seeing the engagement, ‘tired of being fat at 22,’ handbag and shoe advertisements.”

What makes Facebook so interesting is that while it can be used for large-scale campaigns to target millions of users, it’s also simple for any advertiser to create a targeted campaign for a few dollars. That can lead to some surprises, like what I encountered this week.

The ad’s subject called out, “Hey Jew.” I was caught off-guard by the supposition from this marketer, which was hawking “adventure travel that’s worth the schlep!” For self-service Facebook ads, most commonly used by smaller advertisers, you can’t target by religion (more targeting options are available when spending enough for full service), but you can include keywords that relate to it, as expressed by what users mention in their interests on their profiles. It’s a mixed bag of keyword targeting options for religion. You can target people who mention “Islam” but not “Muslim,” “Hindi” but not “Hindu,” and “Jesus” and “Buddha” but not “Muhammad.” A swath of keywords incorporating Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, and Judaism nets about 560,000 U.S. users, a small fraction of Facebook’s audience.

Yet I don’t mention anything about Judaism on my profile. There’s no sign of the words “Jew,” “Jewish,” or “Judaism” (which reach a combined 67,000 users) or even “Israel” (which would up the total to 139,000). My profile shares a ton of information, though I generally keep religion and politics off it. My name and picture are prominent; it’s not like I’m trying to hide my identity to get into a country club. But how did Facebook, or at least one marketer on Facebook, finger me? What kind of Jewdar was at work?

I started exploring the mystery on Twitter and then on my blog, which includes a snapshot of the ad. I wrote, “Some plausible theories are that the marketer used some combination of targeting around my city (New York), alma mater (Binghamton) and entertainment interests (’The Daily Show,’ ‘Seinfeld,’ ‘Everything Is Illuminated’).” I misspoke, as you can’t target by alma mater with self-service. Targeting my location and those combined interests would net 46,000 people — though most of course wouldn’t be Jewish.

I then thought out of the lox, I mean box, a little, positing theories about Jewhavioral targeting algorithms. Adam Broitman chimed in, “Definitely Jewhavioral… It actually uses macaroons instead of typical third party cookies.” Others wondered if Facebook allowed targeting by surname. Alex Sicre added, “I am listed as an Agnostic and have never seen any ‘Hey Non-believer’ ads.” My wife, a bit jealous that I was being profiled, told me, “I never got the ‘Hey Jew.’ Is it because I’m from Dallas?” She has a point — my grandmother doesn’t believe Cara’s Jewish, so why should Facebook?

The real answer behind all this is somewhat anti-climactic. It’s true that the advertiser, Katan Adventures, was using self-service ads to reach “Jews and friends of the Jew,” as it notes on its site. There was also some basic targeting, though the net was cast wider than I expected.

A Katan representative emailed me, “I assume you are from NY? In order to reach Jews who haven’t listed their religion on Facebook (which, by the way, is the vast majority) we run ads in metro areas with large Jewish populations and try to grab their attention with ridiculous lines such as ‘Hey Jew,’ but we obviously get a lot of wasted clicks with this strategy as well. And some angry emails. Seinfeld fans is a good idea though. And maybe Zabar’s fans, but I’m sure that is a small group.”

Most marketers aren’t going to follow Katan’s lead verbatim, though the traditional ad model is to knowingly waste the vast majority of impressions while trying to reach a very specific target. Katan’s experience also offers a few reminders when advertising on Facebook:

1) Self-service targeting options are limited to begin with. You can’t target by religion, or surname, or Upper West Side market preference.
2) Much of your target audience may be incognito. Sure, I’m a stereotype, a bookish New Yorker who likes Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, and Woody Allen (”Annie Hall” is listed as a favorite film), but I don’t use the J-word. You’re going to have to either live with that or make some sweeping assumptions, as Katan did.
3) Facebook may not be the most efficient marketing channel. It’s one thing to know your audience is on Facebook. It’s another to decide that’s where it’s best to reach them.

The most amazing thing about Facebook is that anyone with $5 can launch a campaign like this, democratizing media in a way that follows Google’s footsteps in empowering the long tail of advertisers. Clearly, sometimes that power goes to their heads.

Now, someone just needs to figure out how to target Pastafarians.

How Does Facebook Know I'm Jewish?

UPDATE: See below for Katan's answer

The ad nailed it.

"Hey Jew" it called out.

But how? How did it do it? I don't list my religion (or my politics) on my Facebook profile. I don't even have those Israeli flag Facebook apps.

Some plausible theories are that the marketer used some combination of targeting around my city (New York), alma mater (Binghamton) and entertainment interests (The Daily Show, Seinfeld, Everything Is Illuminated).

Some less plausible theories: top secret Jew-havioral targeting algorithms... perhaps that's what'll be unleashed at Facebook's F8 next week. Or it's just targeting people who look Jewish.

I tried calling and emailing Katan Adventures, which ran the ad. I'll let you know when I get to the bottom of this.

Still, it's better than Facebook calling people fat.

Update: Katan responded to me. I like the theories listed in the post and comments better, but at least we have an answer. I wrote:

Random question for you...

I just saw your Facebook ad where it says "Hey Jew" and it cracked me up.

I happen to cover online ad targeting on my blog and through the trade pub MediaPost, and I'm wondering how you targeted it, as I don't list my religion on my profile. Are you just targeting fans of Seinfeld or something?

Best,

David

Here's what Katan wrote back:

Hey David -

I assume you are from NY?  In order to reach Jews who haven't listed their religion on Facebook (which, by the way, is the vast majority) we run ads in metro areas with large Jewish populations and try to grab their attention with ridiculous lines such as "hey jew" but we obviously get a lot of wasted clicks with this strategy as well.   And some angry emails.

Seinfeld fans is a good idea though.  And maybe Zabar's fans, but I'm sure that is a small group.

Thanks for your interest and if you ever want to pass along any online marketing ideas, we'd love to hear them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Facebook Presentation I'm Not Giving Today

This is a little unorthodox for me. Tonight, I was supposed to be giving a keynote presentation at an event in NYC where Facebook developers and advertisers would get together. The event has been postponed until September, and I'm still going to be speaking there, but two months can be a long time in this business. The presentation will probably evolve a fair amount by then.

So what should I do with the presentation?

In case it's useful to anyone and perhaps remotely thought provoking, I'm posting it here, via Slideshare. I've added some annotations to make it a bit more coherent, although if it's really meant to accompany a talk rather than stand on its own.

I welcome your thoughts on what's here.

| View | Upload your own

Google's Video Speech Recognition Baby Steps

It's about time.

Google's finally starting to use speech recognition for video search. I still don't know why it hasn't just acquired Blinkx and owned the market. Compared to YouTube, Blinkx would be a bargain, and they could monetize it better.

Anyway, the rollout could hardly be more limited. It's only for political speeches, and worse yet, you have to add a Google Gadget to even use it. Find out more on the official Google blog. I've only tried it briefly and it works well enough, but it's hardly pioneering. For another good video search example, see what Reuters Labs is doing with Viewdle's face recognition technology, or check ClipBlast, VeoTag, or Pixsy.

Thanks to my colleague Izzy for the link, originally in the Atlantic Monthly.

A Better Way to Ask for LinkedIn Recommendations

Here are two ways you can go about getting LinkedIn recommendations on your profile:

1) Ask everyone you know (or a decent-sized subset of them) to write one for you.

2) Recommend select people you know.

I'm amazed that most people I've encountered personally take door number one. It's the easy route, it's lazy, and it's fishing for compliments. The requests are also almost always impersonal, even if they're personalized with one's name.

Yet with door number two, one comes off as generous, willing to take the time to do an unexpected favor for a connection. That connection won't always reciprocate, and LinkedIn would know the stats, but much of the time if the two people truly know each other, then the connection will return the favor.

Writing ten recommendations to get five or even three in return is a lot harder, but it's much better for relationship building.

Stop Calling Me Fat, Facebook

Here's today's MediaPost column. Thanks to everyone on Twitter who helped me out with this one.

Have you ever felt insulted by overzealous ad targeting?

I've been hearing this come up more in conversation lately, often with people who aren't in the advertising or technology industries. One example was first mentioned to me by a female friend who saw an ad on the left side of Facebook that mentioned her age and suggested she was overweight (for the record: she's not). She was insulted enough that she actually had to close out of Facebook to escape the ad for a bit. You can see an example of the ad, courtesy of Jennifer Marshall. There's also a male version on my Flickr page, with the ad's photo only slightly less scary than Lou Ferrigno shirtless in the "Hulk" TV series.

I'm seeing mentions of ad insults on Twitter too. MediaPost's Just an Online Minute writer Kelly Samardak recently tweeted, "Must find new social network that won't tell me I'm old and fat…" Several others responded to my Twitter post where I sought their feedback. Alan Wolk chimed in, "Well [Facebook's] always asking me if I'm fat or bald." Jeff Larche must have gotten the Ferrigno ad or something like it, as he noted, "There's my experience — a Facebook ad showing a washboard male stomach and chest. Headline: ‘Male, 49, out of shape' Yow!" John Morton tweeted, "I've been seeing ads that use my age data in them recently," and shared a link to a screenshot of an ad soliciting survey respondents.

All of this may simply indicate that these ads are working. At the very least, these ads are getting noticed. That should help Facebook with its monetization issues, right?

Yet for the average consumer, this becomes a turnoff. When ads start calling out to people, especially women, "You're 30 and overweight," it's hard not to take it personally. Meanwhile, the advertisers who are currently getting noticed for these ads aren't big brands or the kinds of marketers consumers sometimes wouldn't mind hearing from. The weight loss ad targeting me not only told me "Ab exercises won't get you a cut body" so that I should actually exercise less (which is almost impossible for me to do), but it promises, "Burn fat and increase energy with ultra green tea." I'm definitely drinking the wrong brand.

My friend who inspired this column said Facebook isn't the only site giving her the willies. She noted reading a certain blog where the ads called out to her by name, something which advertisers have been able to do for years but haven't used much. In a sense, consumers don't realize how fortunate they are that most advertisers are more conservative than they can be online.

The problem on Facebook is that the rules with its Social Ads allow some advertisers to extend into that "creepy" territory all too easily, bringing negative attention to its whole platform and ruining the party for everyone else who tries to just run a solid campaign.

One of the strange lines that's blurring is that it's getting harder to tell what content's from an advertiser and what's from a friend. Ads and people are merging. It's not a new concept; when you see someone wearing a Nike T-shirt, are they using Nike, or is Nike using them? (Yes, both are generally true.) Yet when the ads act like people, such as by including recommendations from friends or becoming so personal that they make it sound like they really know you, the ads should be treated like people.

On Facebook, people can be blocked, befriended, or removed as friends. I've counted over 40 privacy controls on Facebook's dashboard, which is one of the most granular I've seen anywhere. With the ads growing more personal, even more controls are needed. A simple "block this ad" link or icon will help give users more power over their environment — and with Facebook serving as a social dashboard for people to manage their connections, communications, events, photos, and other parts of their lives, those controls are essential.

What if this got out of hand and millions of Facebook users blocked every ad they saw? First of all, that should tell Facebook its ads aren't resonating. Meanwhile, Facebook already has a mechanism that can serve as a compromise. At the bottom of the News Feed, which serves as a registered user's homepage on Facebook, there's a link to "preferences" where you can choose to receive more or less information about select friends. I chose to get more information about my wife, and less about some people who are friends of sorts but with whom I share few common interests. You can only select 40 friends in each category. I don't know why that is; the limit hasn't changed since I first saw the feature some time ago, and yet active users like me keep increasing their friend totals, so the limit becomes continually more restrictive.

While I wish the feature would loosen up for controls for friends, the restriction could be perfect for advertisers: users would have a cap on how many advertisers they block. If too many users reached the limit, Facebook could then reevaluate its policies. Users would still complain, because people always complain even when they're generally happy; as Hobbes the tiger notes in the classic comic strip, "We're kind of stupid that way." Yet overall, for users who don't like what they see when they notice the ads, it will improve their experience, and it will help signal to advertisers when they're crossing the line. Then again, it could kindle a new debate: is it better to be blocked or ignored?

A Post for Aida, Linda, Dana, and Savvy Aunties everywhere.

I have a number of savvy aunties (here's a shout-out to you Aida and Linda!). And then there's my sister Dana, who's not just a savvy auntie, but a PANK, a Professional Aunt with No Kids. They'll all find a place to connect on SavvyAuntie.com, which launches today; "PANK" was coined by Melanie Notkin, SavvyAuntie.com's founder.

I haven't joined yet, though I'm tempted to incognito just to check it out. What can I say - I'm jealous, especially since there's no SavvyUncle.com.

Here's the gist of SavvyAuntie.com:

SavvyAuntie.com is the first resource and online community and destination for Aunts. With advice and expertise developed just for Aunts, along with activities and gift ideas for their nieces and nephews, Aunts can get what they need to live the Savvy Auntie lifestyle. Moreover, the Savvy Auntie Community enables Aunties to connect and share the best and most challenging parts of Aunt-hood with their Savvy Auntie friends. Dubbed “the first parenting site for non-parents,” SavvyAuntie.com empowers and engages aunts with expert information and a social network to learn, connect, share, celebrate and indulge in aunt-hood.

It's of course a challenge to launch a new network, and there are plenty of sites specifically focused around women from mainstays like iVillage to link voting sites such as Kirtsy. Will the PANKs and other savvy aunties out there come forward and connect?

We'll see. I look forward to the updates from Melanie. If you're in New York tomorrow night, you can meet her yourself at her laid back launch celebration. I'll be going over there to toast Aida, Linda, Dana, and of course Melanie.

Going to Any of These Events?

Here are some of the events I'll be attending and speaking at the next several weeks. It's an especially busy stretch event-wise, so I hope to catch you at one or more of these. Send a note (marketersstudio @ gmail . com), post a comment, or find me on Twitter ( @davidberkowitz ) if you're going.

July 10, 3pm:

• eComXpo (virtual)
  • Moderator: Giving Consumers a Voice on Your Site and Creating Relationships That Drive Long-Term Loyalty and Retention

July 16, 5:30-8:30pm:

• Facebook Developer Garage - New York, NY
  • Keynote address: Do Consumers Need Branded Apps?
    • I've been spending some time thinking about this one and hope it's an interesting conversation starter. Sign up for the free event through the link above. The event is for developers to meet advertisers and agencies, so it should be a good discussion.

July 20-22:

• Frost & Sullivan Marketing World 2008 - Boulder Creek, CO
  • Track Chair

July 23

• f8 08 - San Francisco, CA
  • Attending this landmark annual Facebook event - I'll be a bit late so I'll miss Zuckerberg's keynote, but I'll be around for a good chunk of it, if my flight gets in at a decent time

July 24-25

• SMX Local & Mobile - San Francisco, CA
  • Speaker: Mobile Advertising Opportunities and Tactics (7/25, 9am)

August 5

• Digital Hollywood's Building Blocks - San Jose, CA
  • Moderator -  Advertising in Social Media, Mobile, Search, P2P and other Web Based Services (5:30pm)
    

What Could Summize Do for Twitter?

The following post originally ran on 360i's Digital Connections blog, which just launched today. There will be some cross-posting; entries from here will periodically make their way there, and I may well post a few things there that don't make it here. There will also be others posting at 360i's blog. My weekly columns will run on both places.

There are rumors going around that Twitter’s going to acquire Summize, the leading Twitter search engine (leading in terms of functionality, if not usage). What’s this going to do for Twitter?

Historically, Twitter has allowed almost all of the most important features and functionality to be developed by others. Outside of its bare bones messaging platform, it has few features, and there’s no search functionality to speak of. Summize, meanwhile, has allowed people to keep track of Twitter conversations. If it’s brought in-house, it’ll be a huge asset for Twitter, especially if Twitter lets Summize continue to develop its pet projects such as those in Summize Labs.

Today’s Twitter users are generally fine with needing to go to different sources for Twitter features, including Summize for Search, Twhirl for a desktop application, TweetBeep for email alerts, and Twitterfox for a Firefox plug-in. But that’s not going to scale. Twitter needs to start providing some of the core features on its own. It should also use Firefox as a model, where Firefox offers the plug-in gallery that users can sort by downloads and ratings. Twitter can create its own gallery where it lists all the applications, sites, and services in one place, and users can rate their favorites. This will make it much easier for new Twitter users to easily access the most popular and useful Twitter tools, whether or not Twitter offers them.

 

The Post-4th Link Roundup: Law, Health, and Muppets

The first comes from a new source for this blog, the New Jersey Law Journal, courtesy of my friend Devin Cohen.

YOUR BILL OF RIGHTS, ON FILM
If you like to take your legal education with a bucket of popcorn, star power and crackling dialogue by the likes of David Mamet, then the people at Rotten Tomatoes have created the list for you. In honor of Independence Day (the holiday - not the movie), the film-review website chose an exemplary movie to illustrate each of the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Several of the amendments were easy calls - 12 Angry Men stands for the Sixth, and the Charles Bronson vigilante movie Death Wish for the Second. A few require both creativity and some wiggle room over what qualifies as an exemplary movie, for instance, the beer-running road movie Smokey and the Bandit to illustrate the states' rights legal quandaries raised by the Tenth. But who knew there even was a movie that dealt with the no-quartering-of-soldiers Third Amendment? To learn what it is, check out the whole list and accompanying commentary.

Next, we'll go to another unusual source for this blog: the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (full disclosure: a family member works there). They just launched a MySpace page to help teens with mental health issues. It's a compelling page, and it'll be interesting to see what kind of marketing push the city puts behind it. It's not one of those things that kids may generally friend (though geeks like me who served in high school clubs like Peer Advisors or whatever it was may want to promote it), but it could be something that some kids will take a look at. Also, among the page's top friends are links to other teen help profiles on MySpace, so it's great to see a community uniting to help the broader audience there.Read the press release here. An excerpt:

The Health Department today announced a new online campaign to engage teenagers grappling with depression, drugs, and violence, and to encourage them to seek help. NYC Teen Mindspace, posted on MySpace, is the agency’s first effort to promote health through Web-based social networking – a medium with great potential because of its popularity with young people. To see the campaign, visit http://www.myspace.com/nycteen_mindspace .

Lastly, since I found out yesterday my nephew missed this Muppets Fourth of July tribute, I figured maybe a few other people out there haven't seen this either. Enjoy.