If anything stands as a testament to the power of integrated multichannel marketing, one only need see the growth of Charlie Sheen‘s Twitter account in a matter of hours. Setting up the account on Tuesday afternoon, Sheen had reached close to 1,449,464 followers as of this post (http://twitter.com/#!/charliesheen). Of course, it doesn’t hurt to be in a vortex of media exposure, that confluence of attention and reportage that transpires whenever we’re all fixed on the erratic behavior of a celebrity.
20/20 promoted its special Tuesday episode aggressively over the weekend and that also propelled the Twitter numbers, no doubt. It may not be the moderated “bad-boy” image that CBS and his handlers aspired to achieve, which, in image management is ultimately the real problem. In presenting himself as raw, outspoken and in being such a loose cannon, he’s no longer complying to the public image of Charlie Sheen. There’s a difference between the sheepish, boyish antics of a man that is behaving like a teenager and the dangerous, unpredictable actions of a bipolar, addicted, ranting star that appears to be spiraling toward tragedy.
But as they say, there’s no such thing as bad PR (. . .a debatable notion). Sheen might want to consider a collaboration with Christina Aguilera, who was arrested on Tuesday — but not charged — for her own welfare after being an inebriated passenger in the car of a drunk driving friend. But even as Lindsey Lohan, or Aguilera, or Sheen swirl like insulated, delusional and tragic victims that they have become, there’s a consistent venue or channel for their expression — even when CBS is not carrying it. Twitter, YouTube and Facebook have emerged as the CBS, NBC and ABC of our time. And boy, are the investment houses flocking to those media properties faster than porn stars to Mr. Sheen.
Personally, I need to confess something. I’m not buying it. My understanding of business is that wise investments beget sustainable, enduring value. Think about it: Would you put a lot of hard work and personal assets into a mutual fund that began to lose value as soon as you stopped investing? Of course not. So why is it that these brokerage houses have determined that social media is the end-all, be-all of value in the evolution of communications?
Don’t get me wrong — there’s value in these companies to be certain. But I stopped posting on this Blog after my Sunday login. (Our company relocated this week.) That left this Blog unattended for a grand total of 4 days and guess what? The readership fell dramatically. I enjoy Blogging and it has been great for professional development; I’d strongly recommend it for many reasons. But without those multiple channels to constantly churn and propel the attention of a few million fans, it’s not sustainable. I track the Blog and at times I have had as many as 800-1,000 unique visitors in one day. That’s as long as I continue to feed the beast with content, and good solid content at that. But stop for a few days and the investment wanes in value with unnerving attrition.
So I ask everyone: Knowing that the smartest business investments are somewhat stable, and knowing that you’d never want to invest a lot of time into something that is as fleeting as a feather in the wind, how much is it all worth?
Well, take a look. Our friends in investment banking seem to think it’s all worth a great deal. The credit crisis looms larger than I would have ever imagined. Our own government has done nothing — nothing — for small business in this country. Yet I still read newspaper headlines about how the President, Mr. Geithner and others in this administration are baffled by the unemployment rate, stuck at 9.5%. Duh. Let me think. We bailed out auto; we shored up all the bankers. Maybe we should support the sector of our economy that is responsible for the largest workforce?
I recently had trouble renewing a modest credit line that was much less than I even need, so much so that it was inconsequential. It occurred to me that I might want to relaunch the company I’ve successfully run for 17 years and position it as a social media business. I’d have no revenues and no operating business model, but the banks would be beating down my doors. Here’s just a random sampling of deal news since Monday, February 28:
• After additional investment, the value of Facebook has increased to $65 Billion in the last 3 days.
• JP Morgan raised $1.2 Billion and has sought a stake in Twitter.
• Greylock Partners has doubled its main fund to $1 Billion and is looking to invest in “late-stage” start-ups like Groupon and Facebook.
• Demand Media has just acquired CoveritLive, an event interactive communications company.
Posted below are excerpts from various media outlets over the past 2-3 days, all with corresponding links. It’s a mesmerizing swirl of colors and lights for many investors and of course, our friends in the very ethical, grounded banks and private equity firms of New York are leading the way with their traditional selfless counsel.
. . . And on and on the bright, shiny horses go round. What a pretty, almost dizzying ride.
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Latest Facebook Investment Values Company at $65 Billion
General Atlantic, a $17 billion investment firm, will soon become the latest investor in Facebook, buying one tenth of one percent of the company in a deal that values the social networking giant at $65 billion, according to people with knowledge of the transaction.
While the deal between General Atlantic and selling shareholders has been agreed to, it’ll require the approval of Facebook and so has not yet been closed. The General Atlantic investment involved the purchase of a block of roughly 2.5 million shares of stock from former employees.
Greylock Expands Fund to $1 Billion
JPMorgan Raises $1.2 Billion for Social Media Fund
JPMorgan Fund Seeks Minority Stake in Twitter
Demand Media Acquires CoveritLive
Brands like ESPN, Ford, News Corp and BBC use CoveritLive to engage event audiences with real-time commentary, instant reader polling and question and answer capabilities. Events hosted on CoveritLive attract an audience of over 60 million people every month, 60% of which comes from outside the United States.
Twitter’s Stone: no IPO or funding talks
(Reuters) – Twitter has no plans to go public any time soon and does not need additional funds because it is making money, the co-founder of the popular microblogging site said. “We have so many other things before we even think about that,” Biz Stone told Reuters at a business forum in Seoul on Thursday when asked about the prospects of an IPO.
Stone also dismissed speculation that JPMorgan Chase & Co was in talks with Twitter to buy a 10 percent stake for $450 million, which would value the company at $4.5 billion.
