I’ve been thinking and writing about authenticity lately. There is a huge shift in how people respond to advertising and marketing messages.

Watch this video and then see my comments below.

Here’s what I observed.

1) They are relying on novelty to display their ad

This may gain some attention with magazine readers. But I’d guess that it’s getting more attention for ad agencies who are desperately trying to find ways to continue with their old school business model of interruption advertising.

2) There is no value being offered

Where is the value of this ad? If someone is reading a magazine – their mind is in a much different mode than when watching TV.  I would suggest that readers want to see value not novelty.

3) Are iPhone users even reading paper magazines?

This is a genuine question. I haven’t personally done the research – but I’d guess on a gut level that most iPhone users are NOT reading paper magazines and newspapers. They are most likely getting their information and content from the web or…dare I say the obvious…their iPhone.

So I’ll ask again. What are some things you observed?

How to stand out for real

Over at Copyblogger, Sonia Simone has a great article about how attention alone won’t make you rich. She’s right.

But it seems that ad agencies continue to push for the BIG attention getter type advertising.

Get attention. But do it so you can offer your prospects and customers VALUE

Get attention then provide value. Then deliver that value.

In the comments below – list 3 ways that you can grab attention without being novel. In other words – how can you capture attention while providing great value to your prospects?

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media. He is a producer, author, speaker and social media marketing coach who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter or Google Buzz.

In order to save you some time and effort today, here are some quick hits from around the world of social media…

Facebook has just announced that it will be rolling out a location-based feature called Places, which is similar to Foursquare and Gowalla.

Frank Ryan, former celebrity plastic surgeon, was tweeting from his cell phone when he accidentally ran his car over a cliff in Malibu, CA.

In an increasingly technological society, it’s important to make sure that your name is available when you need it.

An eMarketer project estimates that advertisers will spend over a billion dollars on social media advertising before the end of the year.

If you’re a social media manager, there are a few things that you should probably be eating for breakfast.

Sometimes businesses launch social media campaigns and need to make sure that everyone is on the same page.

The illusion that social media measurement is too “out there” is spreading like wildfire. Check out these three free tools to use.

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Eric Alpin is the Associate Editor of Folk Media and works for a telecommunications company in Baltimore, Md. He is a social media enthusiast, blogger, writer, and student with a passion for leadership and self-development strategies and techniques. Find out more about Eric on Twitter.

*Photo by Jan Willem Geertsma

One of the best ways to keep yourself afloat in the Web 2.0 ocean is through promotion…but it isn’t an easy thing to do.  In fact, it takes most people years to figure out the proper promotion strategies for their brand or business.  Well, you don’t have years.  You needed good promotion yesterday.

In today’s world, there are thousands of promotional opportunities out there that you and your business can try.  I’ve only listed 23 of them here but this list is only intended to get your brain moving in the right direction.  Don’t stop here.  Consider this list the first lap of the Daytona 500.  There are plenty of other opportunities out.

I urge you to try out a few of these methods, even the ones that scare you.  You never know, detailing your vehicle with your website and Twitter username might payoff in the long run.  See what works and what doesn’t work.  Eventually you’ll find the perfect marketing strategy for your business…

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Eric Alpin is the Associate Editor of Folk Media and works for a telecommunications company in Baltimore, Md. He is a social media enthusiast, blogger, writer, and student with a passion for leadership and self-development strategies and techniques. Find out more about Eric on Twitter.

*Photo by vikush