experience designer + writer
I’ve started playing with the WordPress iPhone app. So far
I’m impressed. A simple interface with enough basic features for
adding images or video. The only glaring omission is a Facebook
cross-posting capability. Seems a little obvious so maybe it’s set
for an approaching update. At any rate, here’s a screen grab of the
posting interface.
UPDATE
Not sure why the app didn’t post the image. Something to add to the Todo list.
What’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:
Excellent animated video on where good ideas come from. A lot of this will ring true to the importance of conversation monitoring, which is really just a way of plugging yourself into the community, or conversation, that the author talks about in this video.
Most of the time it’s annoying when advertising creeps into every nook and cranny of daily life, but this idea comes off as clever, and really making a pretty drab event — entering CAPTCHA info — a bit more interesting. And for brands, getting viewers to actually type out their tagline or product features based on a paid impression is pretty remarkable. One of the more clever new ad units I’ve seen in a while. The only limit will be that there really aren’t that many times a user has to see CAPTCHA’s, assuming they have cookies turned on.
A couple of interesting things in this piece. For one, Google’s not happy with the way Apple’s YouTube app works, and are promoting the WAP version of YouTube mobile, instead. It offers a considerably better user experience, which shows that WAP has a lot to offer versus native app development. Secondly, Apple controls the YouTube app on iPhone, and if they can’t keep a major brand like Google up with the latest and greatest mobile experience, then it really underscores how much this brand really needs the larger development community on it’s side, and developing apps like mad for their platform.
I’m following SCVNGR closely, as they seem to be the most aggressive of the location-based apps at trying to figure out survival in a post-Facebook Places world. It’s also interesting, because they’re backed by $4m from Google Ventures. And Google would love to kill both the social and mobile birds with one stone. But I still feel like SCVNGR lacks the simplicity to really go mainstream. For one, it requires an app download, a big barrier, whereas Facebook’s mobile app already has 100m users. And then there’s that problem of less than 1% of all mobile phone users use a location-based app more than 1x per week. So driving consistent use is going to be a real challenge. But the logic behind SCVNGR’s actions are on target, as they get that it’s ultimately about making brands more dynamic on their Facebook properties.
Just ran across this list. What I find interesting is that most of them are from the past two years. I’d think having more time on to accrue views would help. My guess is that two factors contribute to the recency of the leaders. One is that companies are getting better at promoting their videos, versus just tossing them on YouTube and telling a couple of forums about it. And secondly, the metrics tracking these views are improving, as they’re extending the analysis beyond YouTube views alone.
Any involved in online marketing should be a fan of anything that dials up our broadband speeds here in the US. They’ve been rated as low as 25th in the world, or something abysmal like that. But this is great. Take some unused TV spectrum and allocate it to wireless broadband. And I like that they’re focusing on wireless. It may not have the topend speeds of cable now, but ultimately it will be the most cost effective solution to scale, and seems like the most probably path to blanket coverage.
Simply a smart way to differentiate yourself amid a battered travel industry. While it might not be enough to attract new customers, this will certainly make a strong impression on anyone who uses it (assuming no bugs, of course!). It also shows how companies need to focus on consumer touchpoints, and not media inventory, when looking at ways to make a real impression.
Etsy is an interesting company to watch, as they’re developing a reputation for interesting, community-centered marketing campaigns. Earlier, they had a UGC video contest (http://www.youtube.com/user/etsy), and now an open API contest, with cash prizes. A couple things are truly helping them in these efforts. One is having a product that naturally attracts a lot of creative, artistic people. The other is having VC Fred Wilson (www.avc.com) as one of your backers.
An overview of the post-Facebook Places location-based services landscape. As expected, this is quickly moving from fun and games to real functionality. And that’s the big opportunity for brands. Because you may need several million people to make a game fun, but good functionality can be delivered on a 1-1 basis.
What’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:
This is funny, and probably painfully true for some.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
An entertaining story about memes, in particular a Florida parent’s baby photo that went viral in Japan.
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.
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.
What’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:
The article attempts to downplay this rather remarkable stat. However, i think for many brand marketers, it’s all about quality time and experiences. When people are spending so much time on Facebook, it’s easier for a brand to forge a relationship because the users are in a more comfortable environment. Sure, there will always be value in meeting consumers who are just ready to buy, i.e. Google Search. But for brands who need to establish themselves earlier in the funnel, Facebook offers a better environment, and one that will ultimately offer more inventory because of the amount of time spent on the site.
A while back, Facebook surpassed Flickr as the number one site where photos are posted. Now they’ve moved upwards in terms of videos viewed. It demonstrates the power of a platform, and being the default place people go to share things. Remember that a big part of YouTube’s success was it’s capability for embedding videos into other sites, like MySpace. As more people opt to upload their videos directly to Facebook, where they’re already spending much of their online time, then YouTube could see the same attrition happen that photo sites did. When it comes to sharing, users will almost always opt for the simplest route.
Facebook is taking some bold steps forward recently with their Like button. Primary is the added flexibility of what Like can be tied to. A Web page, an app, or even a virtual goods. Perhaps of more immediate and tangible interest to marketers is the ability to identify where Like’s came from, and being able to reach out to anyone who’s Liked you or your content in the past.
This is refreshing, given my previous criticism of Apple’s decision to control how apps are developed for the iPhone and iPad. The biggest news nugget of this has to be the allowance of apps developed using Adobe’s “Packager for iPhone”, which was at the center of the recent Apple/Adobe flame war. At least for now, things seem back to normal, although I wish Apple’s decision was based more on keeping the platform open than the potential legal threat of non-competitive practices.
Given all the buzz around Google Instant this week, it makes sense to let Google’s search guru Matt Cutts give the main introduction. If you haven’t experienced Instant, just go to Google and start typing any search query. Not only will the suggested search topics change, but the surrounding page content. It’s basically a nice way to search multiple terms without having to click and view multiple pages.
Facebook is showing serious gains in advertising revenues. Not exactly Google spend levels, but there’s a big ‘Yet’ at the end of that line. This will get even more interesting as Facebook continues to figure out it’s social search product, a direct aim at Google’s big revenue generator.
These spend levels, while not even necessarily the top spenders on Google, are remarkable. Think about a brand spending $8m/mo on search. And that Google has to do very little to make that sale happen, or to maintain that customer relationship. It’s also interesting to see brands using SEM as a periodic strategy to address product launches, crises, and shifts in seasonal trends. Again, demonstrating the power and influence of search.
The first thing to note is, This is not your father’s microsite. There are hardly any links between it and the Flash-heavy, sound effects-drenched behemoths of the mid-2000s. Much more tactical from an SEO standpoint, the emphasis here is on making the content the experience. The benefits they list for this approach is a must-read.
When you consider that Pepsico and their agencies spent several months reviewing over 500 emerging tech and social media platforms and culled the list down to this 10, this is well worth a close look.
This story is remarkable if only for the mobile spending figures PayPal shares. They’ve seen mobile transactions go from $25m in 2008 to $141m in 2009, to a projected $500m in 2010. That’s staggering growth. And for just one mobile payment system. The article goes on to give suggestions around creating a good mobile shopping experience.
What’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:
Fantastic selection of work. This is a must see for anyone in marketing. (Thx to John Durham for the link.)
I don’t see any of these as having a real chance of unseating Facebook, but it’s a good read comparing their strategic approachs. Diaspora is the most interesting, as it’s open source. So many other platforms are moving towards open source, and as Facebook’s big strategy is to be a platform and not a destination, they could be vulnerable to an open source movement. Especially given the increasing amount of data they have on people (e.g., Places).
I really like the simplicity of this site. I don’t get how they’re comparing this site to a social network site, but it’s well-done none-the-less.
Like the Library of Congress putting a lot of the National Archives photos on Flickr before. While the pics have been available on the NASA site, it’s nice to see them moving to a common online photo site. As a Flickr user, I’m glad to be able to see these pics up in my rotation of photos by contacts.
The patent is for “ranking search results based on the frequency of clicks on the search results by members of a social network who are within a predetermined degree of separation”. Interesting that the patent was filed in 2004. They were focused on that very early on, and the vision is still holding strong.
I’m pretty underwhelmed. Of course, social media and open anything aren’t really Apple’s things. But really, there just isn’t any depth of content or relationship to the conversation or the connections.
Even if the ChatRoulette URL proves to be dead, the idea of randomly connecting with strangers via video will surely surface somewhere else, probably more closely aligned with a specific interest group.
Uncovered this article from earlier this year. If you’re not familiar with Jeremy Allaire, he’s had a great career charting technology trends and making products that address the changing needs. His take is that of a seasoned technologist who’s seen a lot of things come and go. Bottom line is, there’s still a lot of tumult in the industry (witness the h.264 pending usage royalties in 2014) and a clear vision of the future online content platform probably won’t emerge for at least a couple of years.
Given this works wtihin 50 meters of a business, that means a lot of potential checkins when people are just walking past. I can’t imagine how that’s good for Foursquare.
A good set of campaign metrics to follow that provide a well-rounded view of performance. This is a good read for people outside SEM who aren’t overly family with campaign analytics
What’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:
I really like this idea, and can imagine there’s a lot of room for liquor brands to get involved, and even other brands that don’t involve kids, autos, or operating heavy machinery. Being one who enjoys buying a friend of drink, I gave this a quick try with what I think was a free first $1. Very clean, simple interface. The only issue I saw was very limited bar selection. But if this builds any steam, that will be a temporary issue
Simply an absurdly funny commercial, from Japan.
One of the smoothest applications of new tech I’ve seen. Through the use of RFID bracelets, kids were able to post to Facebook by simply flashing a bracelet. For example, if a photo took their picture, they could flash the bracelet and it would auto-tag them in the pic. The real proof is that over the course of the day, there were 35,000 updates, although only 650 kids could be in the part at a time. Whatever the total visitors was, that’s a lot of checkins in a given day. And at that rate, Facebook user’s biggest problem will be sorting through their friend’s updates (which some would argue is already a problem
A good example of how a seemingly small emotional element can drastically change a message. We’ve all seen animal rescue ads. But this one goes a big step further, by both giving us a look at an endearing animal, and secondly, telling us that this dog will be put to sleep tomorrow if you don’t do anything. Hard hitting? Yes. Effective? I’d bet on it.
This type of things has been brewing for a while, but The North Face is doing a good job of adding relevance to the SMS notification system by factoring in user preferences. This also gives them additional data on their customers, which could be worth the cost of the program. A lot of companies have tried to nail SMS and failed, which has certainly tainted the industry. But the sensitivity TNF seems to be bringing to this could help shift things in another direction. Ultimately, brands will build or lose their reputations around how they handle situations like this, so it’s good to read the details of how they’ve structured this program. And all of that said, the experience seems to be down right now (that, or Mashable provided a bum link). This also points to another flaw in so many campaigns. Nowhere on their site or Facebook Page are they promoting this program. Again, could be due to technical issues, but if that was the case, they’d just offer an explanation instead of nothing
Maybe it’s naive, but i’ve been surprised it’s taken Apple so long to go wireless with iTunes synching. At any rate, if Apple takes music social, the potential is obviously enormous.
Funny that advertising how-to’s always emphasizes benefits and solutions. Of course, a little negativity also goes a long way. Just ask a politician.
As Gary Vee once said, the most interesting thing about Twitter is Advanced Search. This is like Twitter search, only with Google. Which IMO takes a large bite out of the value of Twitter search alone (unless, of course, your interest is limited to Twitter). Thinking about all the buzz around Twitter activity for timely events like the World Cup, it’s not surprising that there’s both interest in this type of search, and that Google will be putting a lot of effort behind it.
As online content explodes in quantity, a growing concern is how people will parse all the info. When the Web started, it was enough to have a simple directory (Yahoo). Then, we needed to find random information at a given moment (Google). Now, we need to figure out how to piece together and extract a story line out of the mad influx of information we get every day. Perhaps it’s not surprising that a mega-brand like Xerox is taking up this task. In particular, check out the Scamville example, and when on that TrailMeme, look at the “View map” button on the lower left. Of course, the ongoing challenge for brands will always be figuring out how to insert themselves into the content stream in a way that doesn’t detract from the user experience.
Ran across this old article. It’s a fascinating look at how Facebook adscams are going down. It also serves as a good dissection of key industry tactics and technologies.
What’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:
This is really well-done. I presume the prank is real, i.e., the people on the other end of ChatRoulette aren’t staged. For the record, this was done a few months ago, but this production is much better: Here’s the original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMG8FT1TKkw
Just about anyone can use a stock photo site with fresh content. (Where else can you find footage of Richard Nixon playing piano at the opening of the Grand Ol’ Opry in 1974.)
The headline is certainly a grabber. And music does seem to be MySpace’s only bullet left. But I think it’s because Facebook hasn’t spent real effort in the area. And they might not until MySpace or someone else demonstrates real opportunity. Then they’ll move in and do the same “Netscaping” that they’re taking to the location-based industry. Facebook has the user data — even their data on personal musical preferences surpasses MySpace. My guess is that if they rolled out a monetization model for music-related apps, they could sprint past MySpace in music pretty easily.
A good detail on the Facebook Places launch. Facebook is wisely taking the platform approach, vs product, emphasizing a partnership relationship with the current field of location-based services. The also provide a lucid example of what these location checkins can mean emotionally. Their example: Imagine your children visit a beach in 20 years, and find out that’s where you and your wife exchanged your first kiss. That should have brands like Hallmark licking their chops. This idea of driving routes and hiking trails becoming flush with new reference points and notations holds a lot of promise for brands to make rich contributions to people’s lives, if done correctly.
This is my screen grab after taking the poll (my answer was YES, given I’d already used it). I’m a little surprised it’s not higher, but am guessing there’s some blow-back from current fans and early adopters of other location-based services. And for people who say they see no value in it, I’d just give it time.
Interesting headline in the wake of the Facebook Places launch. However, the article pinpoints what has to be the real story here. That Foursquare is drafting a lot of the buzz the Places launch has generated, as it’s hard to find an article about Places that doesn’t also mention Foursquare. It certainly indicates the value of press, even if it hasn’t been favorable to Foursquare regarding the launch. As the saying goes, write whatever you want, just spell my name right.
Just a perspective on the launch of Facebook Places relative to the current crop of location-based services. Keep in mind that, as I reported last week, less than 1% of people use location based services more than once per week. Foursquare, the media darling of location-based services, has 3 million users. Facebook has 100m as of last Feb. Probably way more now, given the growth trajectory stated here. So for those asking how will Places impact the existing LBS companies? For future users who will be joining the LBS fun, Facebook offers a more familiar interface, an app they’ve probably already installed, and a place where most of their friends already are. Simplicity, familiarity, and mass penetration. I’d hate to be competing against that.
This challenge for brands using Foursquare is very real. The checkins can be easily gamed. And while that’s fine when friends are fighting over the mayorship of the local dive bar, when brands start to spend big money on coupon-driven campaigns, millions of dollars can be at stake. Shopkick is offering a tighter grip on the situation. The technology behind this is quite clever. The Shopkick app picks up an inaudible sound emitted from their in-store device which tells them the user is actually in the store.
If advertising is about understanding your customer, then every agency person should spend a lot of time studying CMOs. This is a good overview of the recent Accenture report on the challenges facing CMOs in the digital age. It also reflects the findings from the May 2010 article in BusinessWeek on what CEOs really want from their ranks: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/may2010/id20100517_190221.htm