TIME Cover: GM Who? We Got Twitter

By Kyle Austin

Remember those pre-Beacon days (November 2007) when Facebook was the hottest thing since sliced bread (AKA Google), with a story fit for the movies? Feature, after cover story, after cover story (ok this one didn’t happen until 2009).

Well nearly two years later, the new it company is Twitter and in case you’ve been living under a rock, the media LOVE them.

They love them so much they can’t resist writing the story within Twitter (I mean look at the picture above and this picture – literally within Twitter). They’re tweeting about possible television series based on Twitter and I’m sure there are feature films in the works.

Less than a week after USA Today put Twitter and Del Jones’ Tweet on the cover of the money section, TIME has raised it another level by putting stevenbjohnson, his twitterforiphone, his iPhone and his Tweet  on the cover of America’s last-standing news weekly.

It does seem strange that Richard Stengal – Time’s managing editor who has professed a love - as great as Jon Meacham’s - for the Economist, would put Twitter on the cover of his magazine, especially the week that GM went bankrupt. He looks even more pedestrian going on “Morning Joe” talking about his Twitter cover a few weeks after Meacham was on Charlie Rose talking about the time he spent with Obama.

2 comments June 4th, 2009

Bing Begins Massive Marketing Campaign

By Ben Haber

While Microsoft announced the launch of Bing last week, the company should have  saved the news for when the site was actually live (June 1). After all, AdAge reported that the original announcement (and Steve Ballmer’s speech) generated about 1,500 news stories, or 1.7 percent of all Internet traffic two days before the launch, while news coverage on the day of the launch “only” produced 0.9 percent of all Internet traffic.

Of course when you’re Microsoft, you can afford to spend millions and millions of dollars on marketing instead of capitalizing on PR.  In fact, Microsoft has put aside approximately $100 million for Bing’s marketing efforts, which position the site as a decision engine.

Microsoft’s first advertisement is now on YouTube, and while it doesn’t mention Google by name, the ad resembles one of the Mac vs. PC ads in the way that it attacks Google. The video refers to Google as “search overload” and even ties the search engine to the economy’s collapse.  Wait – seriously?

Two exact lines from the advertisement are “While everyone was searching there were bailouts” and “While everyone was lost in the links there was collapse.” So everything you Google something Microsoft wants you to picture layoffs, GM and AIG so that you will go running to Bing where they will help you make decisions and simplify your life.

I’ve tested out Bing for the past few days and have found there is a lot to like about the search engine, such as the way the search results are organized and the quality of the results. I also found myself enjoying the Bing’s home page page, and check it out each morning to see which image they will have up. While I’m not a big fan of their image results, their video results are amazing and the site seems like a great tool for planning trips.

So while these factors will ultimately determine whether or not Bing will be a success, you can bet on Microsoft pouring millions of dollars into marketing to push it along.

Of course, Microsoft can afford the hefty budget since Bing is tied to the economic recovery and prosperity!

7 comments June 4th, 2009