DOUG SCHUMACHER

experience designer + writer

newspapers

Creativing :: Facebook is heroin, Farmville engagement is sliding, and the Twitter Times personalized newspaper

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

Tweet of the Week

“There was $250,000 lining the walls of that stand, how much clearer can I say it: “THERE IS ALWAYS MONEY IN THE BANANA STAND!” #ADquotes

Facebook is Social Media Heroin and that Puts It at Risk–Or Does It? | Forrester Blogs

Admittedly, the headline got me. But it’s an interesting case for why just because a social media experience is addictive doesn’t mean it isn’t in jeopardy of competition. Remember MySpace? Me either. But they were flying high when Facebook was just starting. And Facebook took over because of a better user experience. And that’s what people are complaining about Facebook now.

Bar codes get around town and get more useful – Yahoo! Finance

I’ve long felt that QR codes will have their day. As someone who’s found all sorts of convenient life hacks around mobile phones (taking a picture of my parking deck location is a fave), QR codes provide a convenient shortcut to entering text on a mobile phone. I really like how Google is distributing codes to their businesses. Think about walking along and seeing a store that you don’t have time to visit. Or it’s closed. You take a snapshot of the QR code on the window, and have their info logged for easy access later. That’s a very functional use, and I’m sure there are a lot of creative opportunities out there, as well.

The Twitter Tim.es – a personalized newspaper generated from your Twitter account

This is a great idea for people who find value in Twitter without having to constantly update the world on their last meal. It creates a magazine-style interface of all the links the people you follow are sending out. You can also filter it by lists or media sources. A much improved interface for consuming Twitter information than Twitter of any of the content generation-focused 3rd party apps.

Flipboard for iPad

Check out the demo video for a quick intro to the concept. This looks like it’s very well done, and like the Yahoo iPad app demonstration, makes a convincing case for why slates will dominate media consumption. Also, keep in mind we’re still in the very nascent stages of this type of content interface. The Flipboard branding is also nicely done.

Dribbble – What are you working on?

A fun site. Upload a snippet of a design. Limited to 400×300 pixels. So you’re not going to see the full page here. And that’s what I like about it. Interactive design is made up of so many micro-components, and sometimes simply a great button design or rollover effect can gain as much notice as a complete page. This site forces you to focus on the smaller aspects of design, and I found that a refreshing perspective.

Putting Facebook’s 500 million in perspective.: The Social Path

You may have heard about Facebook crossing the 500 million user mark. This is an amusing look at some other things that have hit 500 million, for better or worse.

Zynga’s Farmville Lost 4.4 Million Players Last Month

Ran across this older article on Farmville’s drop in traffic earlier this year. And it’s been a continuing slide. I think a lot of game-oriented systems are going to find people’s ever-changing interests a big help at launch, but a challenge for keeping long term activity. The article does a good job breaking down the information.

YouTube – Pug sings Batman theme

Randomness of the week. Thx to @gregtypes.

Twitter’s Noon Nadir – NYTimes.com

Can’t say I’m shocked that the ‘happiest’ day on twitter is a weekend, and the ‘saddest’ is a workday. The inforgraphics are interesting. The west coast lags the east coast a bit even when adjusted for time zones. Possibly because west coasters waking up later?

ToneCheck Checks Your Tone Like A Spell Checker Checks Your Spelling

I’ll be curious to see how well this works. Gauging sentiment is very difficult, and that’s really what this is doing. If they have a great algorithm, it could be the key to much more accurate assessment of online conversations.

Creativing :: Remarkable iPhone story from Haiti, Put yourself in a music video, and the future of mobile and social networks

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

Man Buried in Haiti Rubble Uses iPhone to Treat Wounds, Survive | Wired.com

Remarkable story about a documentary filmmaker caught in the Haiti earthquake and survived, in part due to a first aid app on his iPhone. Of course, this is as much about being prepared (he had previously downloaded the iPhone app, after all) and being resourceful (using your SLR camera as a flashlight), but it does show how technology makes it easier to have the right information and tools when you need them.

New NBC Logo Combines Fail Whale and Peacock [PIC]

Funny (unless you’re Conan) mashup of the Twitter fail whale and the NBC logo. Certainly fits based on what I’ve been reading about NBC lately

oneframeoffame

An interesting idea that reminds me of the $1,000,000 home page idea, in which they broke down a home page screen into something like 10000 small squares, and charged $100 to advertise in each square. This is a sort of user generated version of that, but instead of getting your logo on the page, you get your image, and maybe 1 second of fame, in the video. It looks like a Dutch group is behind this, and they have some other interesting projects on their site.

Create Your Own iPhone or Android App in Minutes With iSites

Count on me to be trying this out asap. Create your own iPhone app, for as little as $25. With nothing more than an RSS feed required. Sure, this will invite a wave of drivel, but in that pile will also be a couple of apps that might really stick. And that’s the multiple that emerging tech lives on.

Five Mobile Trends for 2010 – Advertising Age

Mobile’s making more sense by the day. iPhone apps keep getting cheaper, i.e., more abundant. Android takes off. Talk of a Facebook mobile phone. So prepare for change in this space. This is a good projection of what to expect from the mobile industry in 2010. If not the peak trends, these will all be areas to watch.

Bing to Become the iPhone’s Default Search Engine?

While this news doesn’t really shake any iPhone user’s tree very hard, it does underscore a new stage in the tech world battle of the super brands. The battle raging between Apple and Google. Two of my favorite companies. And in many ways, two of the most divergent businesses out there, philosophically. The end of the article speculates on Apple developing their own search engine … something I’ve not heard of before. The last line of the article is the best, though: “Apple and Google know the other is their primary enemy . . . Microsoft is now a pawn in that battle.”

CONFIRMED: New York Times to Start Charging for Website in 2011

Mashable has some good extended thinking on the issue. I generally agree that the value of gained subs will likely not outweigh the loss in readership. At least not for the long term. And while their announcement doesn’t seem like much, that’s clearly their strategy. Give their user base plenty of time to adjust — they can always retract — while they work out the details of something they feel is pretty inevitable.

With the NY Times subscription story hot, their announcement to drop the subscriber model in 2007 is a particularly relevant read. They state $10m in revenues from about 227k subs. I don’t know their revenues, but the NY Times company and it’s 24 papers made $2.9b in 2008. Whatever the NY Times portion was, it would seem to make $10 look pretty thin.

Opticana – the 500$ Campaign

This is a fun video on a campaign tactic from Israel that’s been employed here in the states for a while. I’m sure almost all alternate spellings of our top 10 web sites have been purchased years ago (many of them by the brands themselves). Still, this is a great reminder that the ever changing digital marketing landscape always contains unique surprises and workarounds for those coming at the problem from a slightly different direction.

The Future Of Social Networks

This is a nice read, partly because it’s very graphically easy to absorb. My favorite part is at the very end, where the writer reminds us that social media is an ongoing process, and that even large brands like Wal-Mart can fail numerous times before succeeding. Another interesting note on that is that Wal-Mart isn’t exactly a beloved American brand, but that didn’t stop them from using social media.

The Pros and Cons of Hiring Contract Workers

An article on outsourcing that I was interviewed for, with some good reference sites if you’re interested in outsourcing. I think this is unquestionably going to be a growing trend for agencies, both large and small. Every day, new developments in communications, from file sharing to video communications, are minimizing the border between remote and in-person.