Thanks Alok sir for the commendable idea to post this here and let members help us validate it.
The message is a bit elaborate, would request you all to spare your valuable time and glance through ,we will be grateful if you all can provide us with your valuable feedbacks/suggestions/comments ,no matter how negative or challenging .
Concept:
We are working on a start up (dotsfly.com, a web technology) that will facilitate people monetize their sharings( stories,video,games,music)on social networks(fb,g+, twitter ,linked-in)
,via emails, blogs and a few other platforms. It is as a conceptual advertising platform, where advertisers can create viral campaigns,(primary emphasis would be laid on the content,which indeed has to be useful to people) in diverse arena namely Social tech,sports,business,finance,humour,entertainment,environment,editions,featured articles etc..
This concept is based on the belief that Ads are not cool anymore & content is the king so why not direct advertisers money back to the people, providing them with an economical deal which in fact has immense value and is the most engaging one, thereby furnishing brands a buzz employing the art of story telling .This connects them directly with the people with utmost ease . This will help the advertisers to cut down their advertising cost which comprises of almost 60% to 80 % of their marketing cost that eventually is borne by the consumers.
Statistics elicited that 78% people trust peer to peer recommendation and only 14% that trust ads .Social sharing service reports that sharing has 50% higher user engagement than searching. 50% of the people re-share the news/story with someone else.
If celebrities can mint money by using their voice,(eg.Sponsored tweets) why not compensate people for sharing the relevant content that appeals and excites them the most, which in fact they do everyday.
Execution:
Advertisers would determine CPC( cost per click ,minimum of Rs1) they wish to offer the users, dotsfly would only entice a fee( 10% to 50% of the budget) depending on the campaign.( higher the traffic, more the server maintainance & other costs).He can opt for time frames & demographics i.e. his target market, however we would be able to apply these algorithms once we have acquired satisfactory number of users.(initially the news street of dotsfly would have both sponsored and un-sponsored stories)
We will be completely transparent in our dealings ,presenting statistics to the advertisers (complete click log, source of the click location,time and the duration for which the user was logged in on his website ,incase he use the script) and Users too ( click log & source). Only genuine and unique views would be paid click.(On the users wall, the image and 400 characters of the story would be displayed).with every click on the share ,the person would be redirected to the landing page of the advertiser, where the person would be able to read the entire story,thus engaging him. This will worthily help the advertisers in SEO and also the landing page can be effortlessly assembled with other forms of engagement.
Spamming Control:
We have designed complex tracking systems to control spamming using cookies, beacons & other algorithms however regrettably the distressing part is, people will spam, which would lead to the blocking of their accounts ,which would indeed agitate their anger thereby forcing them to tag it as a “SCAM”
Taking this behavior into consideration ,we have decided to limit the number of times a person can use one social platform in a day .This would also ensure that a particular social platform wouldn’t be overwhelmed with sponsored stories.
For instance One can use twitter only 3 times a day ,where he is free to either share the same story or different ones. The same principle implies to facebook & others networking sites as well. Blogs & other proprietory platforms will have different strategies,including verification of the blog content,but will have no limit. One would be compensated for only 10 genuine & unique clicks per story that he/she shares. This all would ascertain that the content is distributed on a large space.This will prevent people sitting and sharing all day just to get paid. Also there is a “self-policing” element to the system if you spam friends with messages, they can unfriend you , hence it is of utmost importance to share relevant content/story which would fetch you views.
This indeed isn’t a quick rich scheme , everything will be displayed in statistics.
To add to this there is a referral system , where one can refer and can earn 10% of the each successful referral for life time. This would indeed help one can scale up his earnings.
Other platforms policies:
We are using Facebook app, and permitting people having more than 100 fb friends to only enroll.(ensuring authenticity and validating it by profile verification). Facebook too could restrict the app for sign in, hence the limit of two to five messages per day/ per social network & channel is adopted.
We would be requesting to the user to remember his username & password , in case facebook connect doesn’t function effectively in near future . We have researched and concluded that if people did not tag it as a spam , there are high chances that facebook wouldn’t object or create any hindrances ( facebook’s mission is to help people to be open and connect) .
We are rest assured that Google, twitter will never have concerns, and we indisputably will maintain the quality of the content by Reviewing it before display. Google’s mission itself is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and functional.
Pain areas of advertiser:
1.There has been a striking rise in the no.of the websites,blogs and other web paltforms over a last few years. This has created a buzz of attracting more traffic and everbody is chasing it to an extent that businesses are even getting obsessed to buy fake likes and hits (5$ service etc..) and there is big black hat industry that is in effect with a million dollar valuation. Attracting consumer is everyone’s fundamental prerequisite.
2. Google’s average click cost is minimum $0.50 and as high as $80 depending on the keywords the advertiser wishes to target .This would consume a considerable amount of time expertise/experience and apparently capital. A few top rated keywords, insurance( 54.91$),Loan(44$), software and credit cost over $30. Also ,it’s not always the key words, its the quality score that matter as well .The presence of social media presence is undeniable . hence at times price does not fetch the expected worth .
3.General Motors have stopped buying all facebook ads and have shifted their focus on other marketing strategies on facebook .GM spends vaguely around $40 million annually and facebook get none of it in fact.This is a growing trend as traditional ads are ingnored by social network users.
Comscore released a report that facebook is a very effective marketing tool when used correctly and that not all facebook fans are of equivalent worth. They also found a big problem .Advertisers are treating facebook and other social media in the same fashion as their traditional media which typically counts clicks or actions to account for a campaign’s effectiveness. These are not the fans who in turn pass on their experience to their friend which is the massive drivers of sales and brand building( peer to peer recommendation).Successful brands focus on their top fans and influence them to endorse their product and recommend it to their friends and fans. Analyzing return on investment for social marketing is still quite tedious and can be unreliable. We still cannot overlook the cost to run ads on facebook.
There is lot that can be said in this context, but limiting here as this note is already too long.
We would reinstate that entry in every space is crucial ,therefore creating campaign on dotsfly can cover all these aspects and in addition also can boost advertisers fan pages & SEO, if they have their facebook fan page link on the landing page.
Scale up plans:
1.Designing more ways to help businesses connect directly to people.
2.Developing API’s for publishers( websites, games, apps) to provide wider range to advertisers.
3.Bidding and auctioning methodologies,where users can create useful content(art, news,video’s etc) and brands will bid & collaborate to make them go viral.
Questions :-
1. What you think would be the consumer response?
2. Can monetization change the face of media? As media still is not considered right space by investors to invest
3. What are the problems that we may face? How can we overcome them ?What are the integral steps?
4. Who should we connect to ? what are your hunches ,insights and opinion about this commerce?
Please provide us your valuable suggestions.
Regards,
Working Team