contentdev Archives - DOUG SCHUMACHER

What’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:

Dilbert Takes on Social Media Marketing Managers [PIC]

This is funny, and probably painfully true for some.

Score a Celebrity Twitter Follower by Donating to Charity

I like this concept because it plays into the Twitter culture of “who’s following who” so well. And it’s simplicity. Just bid on a celeb (like Justin Bieber), and they’ll follow you, retweet you at least once, and will also send out a tweet including your @twitterhandle. It’s tough to tag this with a value, as the big unknown is how many of JB’s 5.2m followers will ever see either of the references to you. But it’s a fresh idea.

10 Facebook Tabs to Add

If Facebook’s recent elimination of boxes left you baffled, this won’t necessarily explain their reasoning, but will give you a sense of how to revise your page to get back the content that’s now missing. For brands, this is a good chance to see how an advanced user is making the transition from boxes to tabs.

Nau, inc.’s photosets on Flickr

Fashion brands would seem to be a natural for photo-based social media. Yet it seems like so few of them take advantage of the technologies. One that is is Nau, a personal favorite of mine. In particular, I like their user submission contest, in which each month they select the best shot submitted by users, and that person gets, what else, free Nau clothing. They’ve also integrated the photos and Flickr’s slideshow capabilities on their site very nicely.

Does Speed Trump Quality for Startup Iteration?

With the term ‘agile marketing’ popping up more and more frequently, it’s interesting to note other situations where the rapid deployment and iteration approach is working. Personally, I think there’s a lot of headroom in this direction for agencies, as there’s no question they need to get more done in less time. The real question is, How to do that without ending up a pile of debris.

7 Strategies I’m Pitching for Businesses to use Facebook Places | Stay N’ Alive

A good list of ideas that many businesses should be doing with Facebook. Much of this is going to become foundational, and will support numerous other online marketing initiatives that involve social media, so it makes a lot of sense to have these capabilities already in play and having a good understanding of how to use them.

A new way to measure word-of-mouth marketing – McKinsey Quarterly

Some interesting findings in this. For consumer purchase decision-making, word of mouth has greater influence in developing nations, yet they also rely more on advertising, even at late stages of the decision making process. That makes sense given that mature markets tend to be more cynical about advertising. But word of mouth will almost certainly increase more for mature markets in the future, due to advanced in technology.

Another interesting bit. Word of mouth can lift a company’s market share 10% over 2 years, but also drop it 20%. Obviously, there’s a huge need to generate positive word of mouth. Imagine what 10% market share is worth to most brands.

A Baby Photo Becomes an Internet Meme – NYTimes.com

An entertaining story about memes, in particular a Florida parent’s baby photo that went viral in Japan.

Social shopping app wins Facebook Hackathon

Another indicator of the social shopping trend. Right now the simple idea is to map products to ‘Likes’, usually weighted towards your circle of friends. Of course this all underscores the importance of friends in recommending products, the most reliable source of information.

Is the iPad Devouring the Notebook Market?

Steve Jobs predicted this, and it’s remarkable to see the iPad’s impact happening so quickly. Keep in mind it was just a couple of years ago that laptops surpassed desktop sales. The trend is certainly to light, portable, and easy to use. For marketers, the question is, How will this impact future computing? So what are the user traits for iPad? Less typing, a more graphic experience, instant access due to not having to ‘boot up’, and an app-like experience, even if over the long-term that becomes more perception than technical reality. Bottom line: The Web has become (or perhaps always has been) a confusing mess of information, and now that’s it’s entirely mainstream, there’s a lot of room for optimization. The iPhone and iPad have taken us back to a simpler, almost pre-Web era of siloed experiences that feel simpler because, like traditional, they have a more contained set of options once you’re inside the app. Choice is good until it’s overwhelming.

Virgin Gives Free Tickets to ‘Influencial’ Tweeters – MarketingVOX

If you’re into the numbers side of campaigns, this is a good read. Also a good back and forth on the value of social media as a demand creation tool. Nothing overly conclusive, but the varying points are worth reading. The end line really summarizes it well. No single tactic can do everything. It has to be a group effort.

Social Media Increases “Cuddle” Chemical Production in the Brain [STUDY]

So social media pushes the ‘cuddle’ button. That means it’s either jumped the shark or is so irreversibly embedded in our psyche’s that we’re never going back. Despite all the hype and it’s growth curve, I’d have to vote it’s the latter.

While at first glance this sounds a bit cooky, the three bullet points at the bottom reiterate things we’ve known about communication and writing for a long time. Write with verbs and not adjectives, sex sells, and use simple language for broader appeal. Signs that social media is a not-so-distant relative to traditional media.

Who Will Fall to Facebook Questions? – MarketingVOX

I recently covered Formspring as an example of answer sites that are producing remarkable traffic numbers. Granted, Formspring has a big sensationalistic slant to it. But the underlying growth is real, as this investment by Facebook clearly demonstrates. So bottom line is, despite all the content and site experiences already out there, people still have a lot of questions. Seems like an opportunity for a lot of brands.

Twitter Annotations Are Coming — What Do They Mean For Twitter and the Web?

A discussion on Twitter’s forthcoming Annotations, which get’s pretty technical fast. However, the first couple of paragraphs delve into what the real potential, and potential problems, of annotations is all about. And you can watch the video at the end of the article, if you don’t get shaky camera sickness.

Secrets to Revenue and Innovation in New Product Development | Nielsen Wire

A summary of some remarkable findings relative to product development. Keep upper management out of the early ideation stages. And off-site teams tend to produce better ideas than those on site. Bottom line is, companies need a fresh perspective, and driving innovation from within the status quo is apparently not getting the job done as effectively.

Social Media as Digital Plastic Surgery – Eric Wegerbauer

With social media continuing it’s surge to overtake seemingly every other site category out there, a lot of contrarians are beginning to predict it’s pending doom. Many take the boredom approach, but I don’t buy that. It will reinvent itself, much like gaming. Others speak to the loss of privacy. Like that’s stopped anyone or anything on the Net so far. But Eric’s point is interesting to me. That the use of social media monitoring of customers by brands like healthcare providers and insurance companies will force many people to craft their online persona’s, killing off a lot of the authenticity. A good point, and something that hits directly on social media’s strongest appeal.

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