What’s been most interesting to watch is how & where advertisers are spending their budget online.

Traditional advertising is usually found in print, TV, radio or outdoor/environment. And advertisers have a pretty good understanding the scope & limitations of each medium. For example, print advertising is found in magazines, newspapers, posters, flyers, etc. But what about online advertising - what’s the scope of this medium?

Honestly, I don’t know if there’s a clear set of parameters of what’s considered online advertising. Sure, you can start with the basics, such as banner ads, text based ads, email campaigns…

With the invasion of social media & online viral marketing, it seems like anything goes. For example, a Japanese clothing retailer recently launched a viral video ad campaign – no glitz – no glam – no words. Just ordinary women wearing the retailer’s clothing. But here’s the catcher – the women were doing something very ordinary, but quirky at the same time.

Advertisers are constantly testing news ways to capture their audience online - Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr – just about any popular social site. But no one has found the magical mix.

Have you unlocked the magic?

Click to listen: “Bustin’ Yo Faces

It’s extremely frustrating to go head to head with a massive corporation with substantial resources. One person, one voice trying to gain traction and cut through the corporate “red tape”- it’s impossible, right? WRONG.

With the growing popularity of social media & the focus shifting from appealing to the masses to focusing on the “individual” - you and I now have a voice that can’t be stifled. It’s no longer about strength in numbers. It’s about empowering the individual & making authentic connections with others who have similar interests, values & beliefs. Social media has changed the rules of “engagement” and it’s forced a lot of bullies off their soapbox. Online reputation is critical. It can quickly leverage a brand’s image. Or it has the power to send it down in flames - all with a few blog posts, forum discussions & emails.

Use the power of social media (blogs, forums, online communities, bookmarking etc.) to your advantage & see what happens…

It can be a daunting task to keep track of all of your profiles and communities, so consolidation & efficiency makes sense. It keeps track of your online activity based on the services you use (ex: Facebook, del.icio.us, Flickr, YouTube, Digg, StumbleUpon, ect.).

Now let’s go to the dark side. Come on admit it damn it, there’s a bit of voyeurism in all of us. But FriendFeed takes tracking social media to a whole new level - stalker level. It tracks ALL of the web pages, videos, music, and photos you visit & makes it public in a single feed. It also allows you, along with every FriendFeed subscriber, to track the “activities” of other subscribers by simply subscribing to their RSS feed. “Our crawling technology automatically picks up all the stuff you do on the web sites you already use with no additional effort on your part.” Kinda creepy, huh?

What do you think? Is this taking efficiency too far?