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.