Former Wal-Mart executive Julie Roehm goes behind the headlines to see how today's news impacts the industry's future in this Q&A.

Former Wal-Mart Stores SVP of marketing communications and current marketing consultant Julie Roehm shares her take on the headlines that matter most for marketers.

Julie Roehm is a marketing communications consultant.

iMedia: Social networks are getting a lot of attention these days, with most of the press going to Facebook and MySpace (in that order). But recent data from Nielsen Online for October found that LinkedIn grew the most year-over-year. Is the press missing some real gems in the space?

Roehm: Yes. The beauty of the internet is the strength of the long tail… the small guy who adds value to a niche audience. It's not to suggest that Facebook and MySpace are not the real deal, but we tend to get so focused on the few that we miss the opportunity in the abundant number of the small who add a great deal of value to smaller audiences, which in aggregate is a powerful entity.

iMedia: Hulu, the video joint venture between NBCU and News Corp. is working to become the go-to destination for TV content online. To that end, Hulu has included search results on its site for shows that air on rival networks. Is this a smart move?

Roehm: Yes. To the extent that Hulu becomes synonymous with the content I want, it's great. The fact is that many Americans don't know and don't care which channel or network brings them their content (outside of wanting to know so that they know which channel to turn to), they care about the content itself, the show. Providing a search experience that allows the customer to go to one place to type in any show without having to look up which network owns it could be a very big deal.

iMedia: By all predictions, online advertising is expected to see amazing growth in the next few years. But a recent New York Times story found that digital could be missing out on major ad dollars because of the lack of uniform metrics. Do you agree with that assessment, and how do you see questions of measurement shaping up in the future?

Roehm: I think that because the internet measurement rule development is in its infancy, it creates frustration among marketers. Nielsen for TV metrics, while frustrating and often less than adequate, are at least uniform. So while everyone complains, it's really the only game in town until someone can do better and get adoption. This too is coming.

iMedia: Yahoo! has said it is working on Inbox 2.0, a project that leverages email data into a social network. Google is rumored to be working on a similar project that takes advantage of what it already has on tap in Gmail. What will an email makeover mean for marketers?

Roehm: The issue with social networks in general is that it is a very sensitive environment where marketers have little experience. We tend to enter these new domains like bulls in a china shop. The key with any social network is to either be invited in by the society or offer some value to the society that they have created. This is a far cry from a 30-second spot or a banner ad. 

iMedia: It seems every week we hear about another major merger or acquisition, and venture capital seems to be flowing fast and easy. Are we in the middle of a bubble?

Roehm: Probably. The question is whether or not we can see it clearly enough to manage it, or get out of its way when it bursts.

iMedia: In the last presidential election, we saw the importance of blogs. This time around every candidate seems to have some sort of online presence. Will we see significant online ad buys from the major campaigns going into 2008?

Roehm: Absolutely. Even if the candidates themselves are not savvy, they have hordes of advisors who are, and if you have walked around D.C. lately, they are young and very capable of providing good advice, and much of it points to the web. 

iMedia: The threat of a potential economic slowdown and the sub-prime mortgage crisis have many traditional marketers worried. At the same time, predictions for online growth continue to be strong. Should online marketers be concerned about a potential economic slowdown?

Roehm: I think all marketers should be concerned about a slowdown. But marketers should always be thinking that a slowdown is possible as it makes them more diligent, and maybe it causes them to ask more questions. I am not a proponent of being more cautious, though. I am a proponent of calculated risks and anytime you do that, you better be prepared and have done the thorough due diligence. Times of slowdown can help us sharpen our skills (where in prosperity we may tend to be less concerned), and it can also be just the impetus we need to investigate new territory that could be more efficient and more effective.

Michael Estrin is associate editor at iMediaConnection. Read full bio.