(* Source: Giles Fitzgerald *)

Dr. Dre does his very best to look like an old school Cylon in this latest promo for Hewlett Packard’s continuing collaboration with the producer. Either that or that’s a fairly heavy-duty cycling mask.

The ad sees Dre in a cybernetic music studio in the future embedding Beats technology chips into the very heart of HP’s products, while the track ‘Detox’ from the new Album by Dr Dre – which seems to be in perpetual sate of pre-release – runs in the background.

The commercial is part of an ongoing partnership between the musician and the technology company on the HP Envy Laptop – a device that HP refers to as the “first laptop made for music”.  HP’s sell here is that the added Beats enhancement will enable users to hear the music the way the artist intended. This is a clear swipe at Apple’s dominance of the music market and the increasing pressure the brand is putting on laptop manufacturers with the iPad.

In the age of MP3, where sound quality is already diminished, its questionable whether this will lure in the average consumer. However, the creative partnership is one that is at least pushing the accepted boundaries of quality when it comes to entertainment and what it means to endorse a product.

Posted by brian tiong at 08:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Ben Parr *)

His Majesty cannot be stopped, at least on Twitter. In just six hours, NBA superstar LeBron James’ Twitter account has surpassed 150,000 followers, outpacing the growth of other famous figures on Twitter, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

This morning, New Orleans Hornets’ point guard Chris Paul tweeted that James had joined Twitter under the username @KingJames. Since then, James has been amassing followers, and there have been countless stories and tweets about the arrival of the NBA’s biggest star to the Twitterverse.

James has been the center of the sports universe for the last week due to NBA free agency: any day now, he will decide where he will play next season. Some even speculated that he joined Twitter just so he could announce his decision through the microblogging network, but his publicist has shot down that possibility.

It took just eight hours for Bill Gates to reach 100,000 followers, but James has already blown past that mark. If his rapid rise on Twitter is any indication, LeBron James could soon become one of Twitter’s most popular users.

Posted by brian tiong at 05:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: PSFK *)

Posted by brian tiong at 09:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

PSFK says...

Converse continues to use music and the arts as an integral platform for the brand, partnering with musician Kid Cudi on a (very) short film that captures Cudi exploring his native Cleveland while reflecting on his artistic journey. The short film actually represents one third of a collaboration Converse facilitated with 3 artists – Kid Cudi, Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino, and Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij - to produce 1 song, which will be released on July 7th on the Converse Blog. Until that release, visitors to the site can view videos shot with each artist telling their story. It’s worth noting that, while the artists wear Converse throughout the video, it’s very subtle – and the brand is not significantly visible until it appears against a blank screen at the very conclusion of the video.

For a brand like Converse to partner with musicians and artists – arguably to cement their positioning and association as a consistently youthful and relevant lifestyle brand – is not necessarily insightful. But Converse seems to have a very tight understanding of the personality and tone that their customers have come to expect from them, and of the type of artists and musicians that they gravitate towards. Kid Cudi, Best Coast and Vampire Weekend are not little-known musicians, but they have a rather unique, independent style that aligns with Converse’s brand equity.

The Converse Blog also serves as a platform for visitors to add their own artistic work, with the brand selecting a few artists and musicians’ work to showcase regularly. The blog in essence serves as a brand-curated vehicle to publish and publicize musicians’ and artists’ work, and for Converse to strengthen its association to and support of (oftentimes independent) musicians and artists.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Chris Shunk *)

The resounding successes of the iPhone and iPad have Apple shareholders dancing in the streets, but one area in which Apple hasn't been as successful, however, has been business applications. In fact, until recently, Apple retail stores used Windows-based devices to ring up orders. Now, Mercedes-Benz aims to be among the first companies to change that paradigm by bringing the popular iPad tablet into its showrooms.

The program, called Mercedes-Benz Advantage, puts the iPad into the hands of the automaker's sales force. With the iPad and Mercedes' new sales tool app, associates will have lightning-fast access to the latest deals, while also providing a quicker turnaround time for customer credit application processes. Benz also says the iPad will help speed up the time it takes to turn-in a leased vehicle. Andreas Hinrichs, Vice President of Marketing for Mercedes-Benz Financial, contends the Apple tablet will "provide a competitive advantage to our dealers by increasing their service levels through a more flexible financing process."

We dig that Mercedes is thinking outside the box to deliver an expedited shopping experience, but even better, we love the fact that the Apple iPad might help customers avoid the dreaded trip to dealership's finance room. Hit the jump to read over the press release.

Posted by brian tiong at 06:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Susan Payton *)

She is the blogger behind The Marketing Eggspert. Download her free white paper, The Importance of Connecting Brands with Bloggers.

Susan says...

With so many different marketing, advertising and PR channels out there, it’s hard to be heard above the din. One relatively new approach is blogger outreach. The opinions of bloggers are heard and respected by thousands, but many companies still ignore their reach. It’s new, unknown, and they don’t understand how to track ROI. Essentially, it’s not like “old school” marketing, so they don’t like it.

That’s a shame, because while those companies are clinging to print ads and TV commercials, other brands like Cover Girl and UbiSoft are building lasting relationships with bloggers that are getting some serious attention.

By targeting and building relationships with bloggers that address your audience, you can garner effective, unbiased reviews of your products. Their readers will be introduced to your brand, get interested in it, visit your site, and hopefully buy.

Why Blogger Outreach?

If it’s not reason enough that your competitors are already doing it, here are some other benefits of blogger outreach:

• People trust consumers (i.e. bloggers) more than they trust advertising (Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey 2009).
• It’s cost effective.
• ROI is measurable if you know what to look for (more on this below).
• It has the potential to go viral. People tweet and share good blog posts, and may do that with a blog review of your brand.

The old methods of marketing simply aren’t cutting it anymore. The landscape is changing. With sharing, community and conversation being today’s keywords, shoving a television commercial down consumers’ throats isn’t the way to create brand evangelists anymore.

How it Works

There’s not a lot of instruction out there on how to do blogger outreach (we PR types like to closely guard our secrets), but Monica O’Brien notes that you should be looking for bloggers who reach the same audience you do with your products.

Start out by doing some research. Search Google (), check out Alltop, and browse blog directories. Search for keywords to find blogs that discuss the area you’re looking for. If you sell onesies, mom blogs (but only those with babies) are a good fit. If you have a social media book, look for marketing or entrepreneur bloggers who reach the readers you’re looking for.

Make a spreadsheet of all the blogs you find. I suggest having some criteria, such as a decent PageRank (I use three as my cutoff) or good web traffic. If they don’t make the grade, skip them. I also pay attention to whether a blogger has posted lately. If they haven’t posted in over a year, don’t waste your time reaching out. Also, be sure to actually read the blog. Doing so may reveal that the blogger isn’t a good fit at all.

Next, it’s important to make an initial connection on the blogger’s own turf. The more you can interact with the blog and blogger, the better your subsequent pitch will be received. Leave comments (relevant ones only) and connect with them on Facebook (), Twitter (), etc.

Once you have enough blogs on your list (I tend to do batches of 15 or 30 a month, depending on how many bloggers there are in a particular niche), move on to your pitch. I know to many, “pitch” is a bad word, but let’s be honest; that’s what it is.

Keep it short, sweet, and customized. You can include some of the basics (what your product/service is), but the rest should be tailored to the recipient. You want to show you’ve paid attention to their work. I like to refer back to a particular post that caught my eye. You need to explain why they and their readers will care about your brand. It’s the “what’s in it for me” thing. They will not waste their time writing a blog post about your brand unless they find it compelling.

If you can offer something, such as a sneak peek at a new product, or free membership, do so. The more exclusive the offer, the better. I was part of a group of mom bloggers in Orlando who were invited to go to Sea World and just experience the park. We were all so pleased to have been noticed, we wrote great reviews of our experience. Giving bloggers access to something they wouldn’t normally have is a great way to get them writing about your brand.

Do not:

• Copy and paste a press release with no intro or other customized information.
• Send a press release at all. You can offer that if they are interested or link to it.
• Send attachments. They won’t be opened.
• Address e-mail to “Dear blogger.” They hate that.
• Send without proofing or making sure you spelled the name and blog correctly.
• Demand or ask for only positive coverage.

Follow up a week later to make sure they got your e-mail and to see if they’re interested. I get far more replies to my second e-mail than my first. If they’re not interested, thank them for their time, and make a note in your spreadsheet of why they weren’t interested. They might be better for a different product down the road, or maybe they don’t want to be pitched at all.

What to Know

Product Types: I find that physical products do best with bloggers. They want something tangible they can touch and use. Services are a harder sell. But it really depends on the blogger and the niche — your mileage may vary.

Measuring ROI: People have been arguing for years that you simply can’t measure ROI on social media. I like Brian Solis’ idea that maybe we’re not looking for return on investment so much as return on engagement, attention, participation or involvement.  Here are a few tips in that department:

Before you begin contacting bloggers, decide what your goals are.

• How many blog posts are you aiming for?
• How many readers in total would you like to read these posts?
• How much interaction do you want (comments on blog, retweets, social bookmarking, etc.)?

On the other end, see where your results stand compared to your goals. If you had posts on 10 sites, with traffic totaling 70,000, that’s great. If you had posts on 100 smaller sites with the same traffic, that could be good too, depending on what your goals are. Many companies, like POM Wonderful for example, aim to develop close relationships with a few key bloggers at a time.

Tie it Together

Like all social media, blogger outreach can be interwoven with your wider marketing strategy. Any time you have a new post on someone’s blog, tweet it, put it on your Facebook Page, share it on bookmarking sites and link to it on your company blog.  That will solidify the relationship for further partnerships.

It may be a hard sell to your boss, but tell him that with 126 million blogs and growing, blogger outreach is something he simply can’t afford to ignore any longer.

Posted by brian tiong at 08:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Jennifer Van Grove *)

It has become standard practice for big brands and businesses to setup shop on Twitter and Facebook and use the social mediums to connect with customers.

That’s all yesterday’s news now. But the early adopter brands who paved the way for the rest to follow suit have become the success stories that the media, the public and the web companies in the limelight turn to first.

Zappos, Ford, Starbucks, Bravo, Tasti D-Lite and Best Buy are all names that come to mind. There’s no real secret to their success. Each did something innovative and identified a future trend just as the press cycle was heating up. Now they’re all riding the wave of rewards earned from their original risk.

In some ways, though, we’re still in the early days of understanding the relationship between businesses and social media. It’s now more crucial than ever to understand why it’s important to be an early adopter brand.

Good Press That Lasts

Early last year we profiled 40 of the best brands on Twitter and some of those brands have gone on to become media darlings continually featured in press coverage on the web/tech space. It was each company’s individual savvy or willingness to experiment that originally caught our eye, but it’s their ongoing tenacity that kept them front-and-center in the public’s mind.

Those brands with a genuine interest in customer engagement and a commitment to push beyond the expected have maintained a high profile social media presence that continually nets them advantages the rest don’t get.

One key advantage is that they’ve developed important media relationships. These relationships open doors for both parties. The press have immediate access to standby contacts anytime they need an extra quote or example for their upcoming piece. In return, the brands get an instant audience responsive to pitches on innovative social media use cases or quirky marketing campaigns. The cycle repeats itself until a particular story becomes saturated or eclipsed by a newer trend.

Right now there’s no brand mastering the press better than Starbucks. Their relationship with Twitter in the initial rollout of Promoted Tweets has ensured that Starbucks gets a major mention in every mainstream and new media article on Promoted Tweets. It is especially fortuitous for them that their sample Promoted Tweets screenshot served as the only visual representation of the official Twitter ad format when the news first broke. The company has managed to maintain this social media favor with the press for years now, also recently making a huge splash with their loyalty program partnership with Foursquare ().

Case Study Standbys

Ever sit through a conference session or keynote on social media where the presenter or panel did not use brand case studies to supplement their talk? Probably not.

The unwritten rule of public speaking is to always back up points with case studies as proof. For example, a few years ago Zappos’ approach to Twitter was so fresh that the company’s story became the case study on everybody lips. You may also recall that Ford’s social presence during the American car company’s financial struggles was also headliner material.

While Zappos and Ford are still no stranger to the social media limelight — their original successes will always guarantee consideration — the new names cropping up in case studies are the brands experimenting with trends happening right now. Take location-sharing services like Foursquare.

The fact of the matter is that Foursquare is still foreign to most, which means the Foursquare brand marketing from Starbucks, Lucky Magazine and the City of Chicago make for interesting material. Each case study can demonstrate the business potential of Foursquare’s experimental platform. It’s this cutting edge material that piques our curiosity and makes for a captive audience.

Now, should Travelocity find a way to translate their mascot’s Chatroulette activities into business sense, we could see a whole new crop of case-study worthy business uses emerge.

Favor From the Flavor of the Week

Brands open to social media innovation have found favor in the eyes of the most influential people on the web: The minds behind today’s hot startups.

Brand partnerships are crucial for these fledgling startups to maintain their edge over competitors, but it’s much safer for them to favor the friends they’ve made on their way up the ladder. Twitter (with Square by association), Facebook, Foursquare and even Chatroulette are all on fire right now. Each of them — with the exception of Chatroulette — have managed to find brand buddies they trust enough to include in their new feature testing phases. These brands get invited into a private fold that then translates into press coverage on launch and introductions to more people in the circle. Rinse, repeat.

Brands that are in Twitter’s good graces have been grandfathered in to Foursquare’s elite fold of trusted businesses. Just look at Starbucks, a Twitter-forward company now trying Foursquare, as a perfect an example. Another example is Bravo. The cable network has consistently taken an avant-garde approach to television and social media, but it wasn’t until their media deal with Foursquare that the network found its way into Twitter’s public graces. Now they’re a launch partner for Twitter’s long-anticipated ad platform.

This isn’t a coincidence or the result of one serendipitous moment. In fact, many of the top startups share the same investors, the same friends and the same brand relationships. Ultimately the inner circle at the top of the startup food chain has become a safe haven for sharing brands and ideas. Find yourself in this circle and you’ll find yourself amongst the elite of early adopter brands.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Barb Dybwad *)

Barb says...

In a session yesterday at Forrester’s Marketing Forum, Forrester analysts Josh Bernoff and Augie Ray presented research findings on peer influence and word of mouth marketing. Some of the statistics were surprising, and the presentation was rife with practical tips for marketers we thought worth sharing.

Influencers are Diverse

Ray said that when marketers think about targeting influencers, they tend to think of them “like a stew”: tasty, but undefined. He advises thinking about them instead as a “delicious 3-course meal” in which it’s important to savor the flavors of each. He outlined a Peer Influence Pyramid that breaks down influencers into three types: Social Broadcasters (at the top), Mass Influencers (middle), and Potential Influencers (bottom of the pyramid).

Social Broadcasters are few in number but great in scale — they are the top bloggers, most well-connected individuals, and have a lot of followers looking to them for news and advice on the latest and greatest. They have scale but lack trust, in the sense that their followers will click on the links and recommendations they share but still perform their own evaluation of the data — this makes Social Broadcasters better suited for awareness than preference.

At the bottom of the pyramid are the Potential Influencers — this is where the trust really is. These are the proverbial “average consumer” who have primarily networks of people they actually know in an offline context (friends, family, peers). These networks are rich with trust, and make up 84% of the total population of the pyramid.

In the middle are the Mass Influencers, who make up only 16% of the pyramid but account for 80% of the influence impressions about products and services. Ray says of this group, “you can’t ignore the minority that creates the majority of the influence.” You also need different strategies to reach the different types of influencers.

Tips for Reaching the 3 Types of Influencers

Social Broadcasters tend to hate traditional PR and press releases, so according to Ray the secret to dealing with them is to build relationships. This group doesn’t want to hear from you only when you need something, and they want to be respected for their audience. Develop customized offers for them that they can’t refuse, that reflect your understanding of their uniqueness and their point of view. In doing so you may cross over into the rules of endorsements, so be sure to be very familiar with the FTC guidelines regarding this.

To reach Potential Influencers, you need to make things drop-dead easy. This group is not as motivated nor is it as technically savvy as the people higher on the pyramid. Tell your marketing teams to come up with ideas that are so drop-dead great and so relevant to your defined audience that they can’t help but spread. You also want to keep people engaged over time by reaching out and addressing them between major campaigns.

Reaching Mass Influencers in the middle involves giving them something to talk about. Understand their characteristics and give them more content they can’t resist sharing. This part of the pyramid includes the people their friends and family turn to frequently before making important purchases, so don’t forget their significant offline influence and tailor your campaigns accordingly.

Influence Impression Data: 500 Billion Per Year

Bernoff presented a number of research findings around influence impressions, defining two key buckets where people are sharing information about products and services online:

1. Influence impressions: these happen on social media and networking sites: Twitter, Facebook, MySpace (), LinkedIn (), and others. The people who make them know generally who they’re connecting with and who will read them (people they know).
2. Influence posts: these are more permanent data points in blog posts, ratings and reviews sites, and in discussion forums. These tend to be less directed, in that when putting a post online it’s not usually known how many or who will be reading it.

In the first category, the research study found 256 billion influence impressions occurring per year. Influence posts were numbered at 1.64 billion per year, which accounted for generating another 250 billion impressions. In other words, people are making 500 billion influence impressions on one another about products and services every year.

The research also looked at where those influence impressions are happening. The following graph captures the results of where people are sharing influence online in both of the above categories:

Bernoff and Ray shared a case study of analyzing the three types of influencers in the consumer electronics sector and how to approach them, and stressed that it’s possible (and indeed, necessary) for marketers to be doing this type of analysis in any industry, any product category, and for any age or demographic.

In summary, Bernoff and Ray’s advice to marketers includes:

• Build a strategy for reaching all three types of influencers.
• Allocate your budget in light of a potential 500 billion impressions of peer influence.
• Analyze and reach out to your mass influencers specifically for maximum reach.

Posted by brian tiong at 07:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Tamar Weinberg *)

When we write about how companies or individuals are using social media in their marketing strategies, it’s usually in the context of a business to consumer relationship. However, business-to-business (B2B) marketing is really getting a boost from social media as well. According to a recent study, 60% of B2B marketers plan to increase social media marketing spending this year.

As we discussed earlier this week in the context of PR professionals and social media, even non-B2B-centric services like Twitter and Facebook can still offer great opportunities for B2B shops. Sometimes, the approach is the same as it would be in non-B2B marketing, sometimes it can be very different.

Figuring out how to best implement and harness social media in the course of B2B marketing can be difficult but we’ve put together ten tips to help get you on the right track!

1. Use Twitter Effectively

This may seem like a no-brainer, but plenty of businesses and even B2B marketers aren’t on Twitter. Get an account on Twitter and start engaging. While having profiles on other social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn can be equally important, Twitter remains one of the best ways to find and engage with others.

How do you do that? Start by searching for phrases relevant to your business and by monitoring those searches regularly. Look at what people are saying and join in the conversation. If people aren’t necessarily looking for your business offerings right away, start joining other conversations of interest. The more you build bridges, the more likely you are to be noticed.

Second, use hashtags. The #B2B hashtag, for example, will connect you with several other like-minded businesses who are also trying to leverage Twitter to build an online presence. Don’t overdo it, though. There are some people #who #tweet #like #this.

We’ll discuss this in the next point, but consider Twitter to be an informal medium. With social media, businesses can (and should) be human again. That’s why it’s safe to use Twitter not just for pure self promotion but to build a meaningful relationships with those who you are likely to do business with you in the future. If you feel comfortable using your business Twitter feed to talk about what makes you tick (versus purely promoting your business), you might be pleasantly surprised to see that your audience might very well be receptive to that messaging.

What’s great about Twitter, especially from a B2B perspective, is that you can follow just about everyone. Take advantage of the opportunity to follow your industry influencers, connect with potential customers, and keep a heads up on the competition.

A great example of Twitter usage from a B2B perspective is @salesforce. Salesforce has used its Twitter feed to share relevant news, to empower current customers, and to offer customer support.

2. Figure Out Your ‘Social Voice’

Social media works best when it is personal and authentic, and thus, it’s important to make sure that the way you communicate when using social media tools comes from a personal and authentic place.

Kevin Dugan, the Director of Social Marketing for Empower MediaMarketing recently wrote a blog post about finding your social voice. I spoke with Dugan about establishing a social voice, and he had this to say:

“It is critical that brands understand a social voice is different from brand voice. Social voice reinforces the brand voice indirectly. Social voice doesn’t follow communication guidelines or identity standards. That’s because a social voice equates to a person. A brand voice is anonymous while a social voice can be found on Google (). They must also have an understanding of the brand and a passion for it.”

Social networks are now helping to put the “human” back in businesses again. The traditional messaging of yore has been replaced by businesses who actually appear to show that they care about their customers. With a social voice, informal is perfectly acceptable. Having a social voice, as opposed to just a generic “brand voice,” is an important step when connecting with potential customers. Prospective customers want to connect with businesses who think just like them.

Just because your clients are other businesses doesn’t mean that the “social” aspect of social media needs to disappear.

3. Take Advantage of Opportunities on LinkedIn

LinkedIn () is continuing to get bigger and bigger — and it continues to be a great resource for businesses and employees to connect with one another.

One of the best things about LinkedIn is the Shared Connections feature. This feature makes it possible to find people — like potential clients — and then see what connections you have in common. Shared Connections then makes getting a virtual introduction that much easier.

Building up a strong LinkedIn network and being willing to introduce others (in good faith, of course — always use your best judgment) can also increase what opportunities you can get in the future.

B2B marketing is often built through trust and word of mouth. Having a shared connection is a great way to start establishing some of that trust from the very beginning.

LinkedIn also has a community of active participants. LinkedIn Answers serves as a knowledge base where business representatives can establish authority and expertise by participating in the ongoing discussions. LinkedIn Groups is an opportunity for business professionals to interact with other topics relevant to his/her interests. One business successfully used LinkedIn Groups as a way to build business leads. This business opted to engage in relevant industry discussion and offered business services when requests were made, thereby bringing in a highly targeted business lead. Actively participating in LinkedIn is often one of the best ways to not only help people out, but also to make a connection for your service and even generate leads.

Answering questions across LinkedIn Answers and LinkedIn Groups doesn’t mean to simply put out the marketing blurb, but to really engage and offer feedback and solutions. Again, social media is most effective when it is genuine.

4. Start a Blog

Social media provides the opportunity for companies to promote themselves but also to welcome commentary from a community of peers. By starting a blog, you give your readers an opportunity to see you with your social voice outside the typical corporate website’s newsroom. Blogs become platforms where you can announce new product releases, share personal company stories, answer any specific questions from your customers, and empower customers to achieve success with your products and service offerings. Blogging can also establish business professionals as thought leaders in their field, thereby aiding with client acquisition.

Blogs can build up qualified prospects through search engine rankings too. Be sure to update your blog regularly with valuable content and follow up with the comments written on each individual post.

5. Monitor Your Industry

Social media means that content is being posted everywhere, and businesses have a unique opportunity to gather intelligence to make well-educated and informed business decisions. Google Alerts is a great tool to keep up with what’s happening in relation to your company, your industry and your competitors. You can get updates via e-mail or in RSS (and even in real-time) about new search results or news stories for a certain query or topic.

Further, free tools like Social Mention and YackTrack will monitor the social sphere for other mentions of your business on social sites, especially. BackType will take that a step further and monitor phrases in comments on blog posts. All of these aforementioned services can be emailed to you in a daily digest format which your team can evaluate to find opportunities.

If you don’t already have alerts set up on these services for your company name, do it now. Also set up a more generic alert for your industry as a whole to see what people are talking about. If you want to see what your competition or other big industry players are doing, add those to the mix as well.

Monitoring can also be useful because you can then highlight the big stories on your own social media channels like Facebook (), Twitter (), Google Buzz (), etc.

6. Be Consistent and Don’t Be Afraid to Follow Up

While you don’t want to be creepy (see below), it’s important to not let potential opportunities slip by when using social media. If you’ve answered someone’s question on LinkedIn or on Twitter, don’t be afraid to reach back out to that person to ask if they have any follow-up questions or if you can send them more information. There’s an abundance of opportunity to strengthen a business relationship but it starts by initiating and then making sure that your business is fresh in your prospects’ minds.

Staying engaged and staying communicative is really important. Social media is not about setting it and forgetting it. It’s about being social, so don’t be afraid to reach out and check back in with potential leads you meet using social media. Similarly, don’t be afraid to direct message your followers on Twitter when an opportunity presents itself. They followed you because they want to hear from you. Use that opportunity to your advantage but don’t overdo it. Auto-DMs are a no-no.

If you’re going to blog, don’t leave that blog stagnant. Provide valuable content on a regular basis. Give employees of your company an opportunity to help build your brand. You can get a lot of great blog content by involving many company employees in the process. Similarly, get many employees of your company to utilize the social networks and to be continually responsive to customer inquiries. Remember, the more visible you are on the social networks, the more likely you are to be remembered when another business actually needs to utilize your services.

7. Leverage Your Analytics for Business Metric Measurement

After you’re involved enough in the social space, you’ll likely see tweets, retweets, traffic, and social network links that point to various parts of your company website. Take a look at your website analytics and start seeing where you’re making a difference, especially as it relates to ROI measurement. Don’t lose sight of your business metrics and start considering practical social media measurement to assess clickthroughs, popularity of links, and other important metrics.

As part of measurement, consider using URL shorteners. Not only do they make links more manageable (and limit the number of characters in a Tweet or Facebook message), they also can be a great way to track data as many URL shorteners provide valuable statistics about the performance of each individual shortened URL. Monitor this data throughout the process with your main website analytics package to see if your message attached to the shortened URL resulted in conversions.

When looking at conversion trends or successful tools in building leads with social media, reviewing analytics data is crucial. It gives you insight into content that performs very well in the social space but also through other marketing techniques, such as search engine optimization. Use the data as an opportunity to improve your content or your social media/search marketing efforts.

8. Find and Follow Industry Influencers

B2B social media marketing is often about connecting with the right people and about building relationships. Social media makes both of these actions simple and painless. Being aware of who the influencers in your industry are and then following them, whether it’s on Twitter, Facebook or their own blogs, is the first step to building a connection with those influencers. With a genuine relationship, these influencers may be able to help you make your mark in the social media marketplace. This is especially true of influencers who may already have your target audience at their disposal.

This doesn’t mean you need to retweet every tweet or share every blog post on Facebook, but it does mean that you should be aware of who the movers and shakers are. By following them and then reaching out when appropriate or just to get to know them further, you have a much better shot at getting some attention.

Even if you’re not necessarily connecting to influencers, social media affords the opportunity to connect with other people in your industry and your customers. Use the various social media platforms as an opportunity to connect with these industry colleagues and peers and build upon each other. Consider celebrating your colleagues’ or customers’ success. Make it known that you’re here to help them — not just yourself. Repeat this process with anyone of interest and you’re bound to attract eyeballs.

9. Use Social Media for Giveaways and Promotions

Sometimes, the hardest part of social media is sticking out from the sea of other users. Giveaways and promotions are a great way to help differentiate yourself and your business. Using Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, you can target your desired customer base and then let them know (if appropriate) about different promotions or giveaways related to your product. If you offer a service, consider giving a free year to a loyal customer. If you manufacture products, give some away.

Offer a coupon on your company’s Facebook Page and pair it with a lead-generation form for future contact. Let people know on Twitter about specials or contests that are going on and follow-up with those that show an interest. Perhaps you can have a retweet contest where you can monitor responses or host some trivia on your Facebook Page. You can also open an online survey to get feedback about your offerings and reward participants. The possibilities are endless. Creativity in this capacity breeds success.

Companies like Wildfire make it really easy to build these sorts of promotions directly inside your own social media channels.

10. Don’t Be Creepy

If you use social media like a keyword searching robot, you are going to come across as creepy and turn off potential clients. Don’t be creepy.

Use best judgment and common sense when approaching people using social networks. If you wouldn’t want to be approached the way you are approaching another user, don’t use that approach. It’s as simple as that. Social media etiquette isn’t much different than real life relationships, so what won’t work in “real life” probably won’t work online.

Respecting boundaries doesn’t mean you can’t still answer questions, engage and follow-up with potential leads, it just means that if it’s clear that the other party isn’t interested, or more importantly, if the context of their communication really doesn’t involve or seek out input from your company, don’t do it.

Context is really important in social media and it is something that is very, very easy to overlook. While we think that using keywords and Google Alerts are good methods for keeping atop of your field, that doesn’t mean you can automate your responses or just go into autopilot based on those alerts.

Posted by brian tiong at 01:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: three billion *)

Content is king. Actually, content is the king, queen and all the heirs apparent.

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(* Source: PSFK *)

Nike is giving us their taste in mobile marketing with True City, an iPhone app with the tagline ‘Making the hidden visible.’ It combines social elements with current mobile technologies to create a next-gen city and travel guide for six European cities.

With each city comes a host ‘tastemaker’ to guide users to lesser known community attractions. For Paris, it is BKRW founder Jay Smith. Of course Jay’s perspective alone is not enough, as an addition to each host there is a second tier of designated contributors and a third of so called ‘civilian’ contributors. Everyone is encouraged to add their own finds, geo-tagged, throughout a city. The best, or most popular, will have an opportunity to join the team of Nike insiders. It appears that Nike is reaching for an army of hyper-local, mobile-connected advocates.

Posted by brian tiong at 08:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: John Biggs *)

Jonh says...

What AppMakr lacks in vowels they make up for in coolness. AppMakr is a dead easy app design engine that allows you to enter a URL or search term, pick a few images, and publish an app to the App Store in a few minutes.

The service uses RSS feeds and searches to build a comprehensive feed of your website or “personal brand” that is updated automatically. You can then push the app live for $199 or download the app to your own machine for $499.

The pricing is a little weird. Here’s the official skinny:

$199 – The Easy Way: AppMakr Publishes Your App
Submit your app in minutes, with AppMakr as the publisher. Skip the difficult parts of making an iPhone app, like having to work with Xcode and figuring out the app certification and provisional process. You can even insert your own ads in the app. Apps built with this option will have a small AppMakr logo on the app splash screen.

$499 – You’re In Control: Publish Under Your Own Brand
Take control of the app building process by creating an Apple Developer Account and loading your certificates into AppMakr. We’ll take care of the rest, including the provisioning, building and management of your apps. You’ll also be able to test apps on your own phone with Ad Hoc builds.

#gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-1 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-1 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; }

You can also hire the company to help you for $120 an hour, although that’s not really necessary.

The process is simple. You first enter your URL or search terms. The system searches for feeds and media and then places it into a browser. You can also grab logos from your disk or a URL. The simulator demos your app as you build it.

You then ad various feeds including YouTube, Digg, and TweetMeme data. The main feed shows on the front page while subsidiary feeds appear when you tap buttons at the bottom.

The current templates do not allow for “static” pages – About pages, for example – but that is coming.

The company just launched last night and we saw it live at a CES event. It seems like a great way for personal micro-brand-aware individuals to monetize their current feed value through the use of highly targeted data chunklets in a mobile context. Ha! Just kidding. But if you have a blog, it’s worth looking into.

Posted by brian tiong at 08:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Leena Rao *)

Leena says...

Actress Kirstie Alley is venturing into the microblogging world with the bizarre launch of Phitter.com, a Twitter-like community site dedicated to helping consumers share tips on weight loss, dieting, fitness, exercise and living a healthy lifestyle. Alley has been publicly battling with personal weight gain over the past few years, and even sells her own branded weight loss products.

According to a release, Phitter.com is a “phitness phocused community that encourages members to talk, or Phit, about fitness, weight loss, working out, dieting, exercising, and healthy living while making new ‘Phriends’ and having ‘Phun’!” The site lets users write and post messages in 140 characters via the web or SMS. Similar to Twitter, you can send private messages to other users. And Phitter also integrated with Twitter to allow users to post directly to Twitter and to find Twitter friends who have already joined Phitter.

The site’s UI definitely needs some work, but the ambition of the site may resonate with folks who want to share the trials and tribulations of weight loss and fitness. Of course, there’s no shortage of social networks who are trying to serve the same purpose, including DailyBurn, WorkoutBOX, and ZodBod.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: MC Siegler *)

MC says...

Regular readers may know my affinity for Pearl Jam. The band, which released a new album, Backspacer, last year had a series of promotions with MySpace to promote the album. Now they’re turning to Twitter for some more.

The band has teamed up with the digital media house Culture Jam to launch a new site that easily allows you to tweet about about the Pearl Jam song “Just Breathe.” This site is actually a simple application that gets your Twitter credentials via OAuth. In exchange for the tweet, you’ll receive a code that will allow you to download the song on iTunes for free. Specifically, it’s a live version of the song that was recorded at Austin City Limits this year.

This free song isn’t without a slight catch. Not only will you obviously have to send the tweet, but in small print on the site, you’ll see that by tweeting the message you will also automatically follow the @pearljam account on Twitter. Of course, if you’re tweeting this, you’re probably into Pearl Jam, and won’t mind following the account.

On the site, there is also a way to buy a digital copy of the single and you can enter to win a limited run copy of the new album on White Vinyl LP (there are 15 of them available).

Culture Jam does these types of promotions for a number of musical acts. The use of Twitter in this regard is smart because there is a very low barrier to entry. As we discussed yesterday, a growing number of brands and venues are using Twitter to trade free goods and deals for promotion on the service.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: PSFK *)

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 (* Source: Erik Schonefeld *)

Erik says...

Now that the aughts are behind us, we can start the new decade with a bang. So many new technologies are ready to make a big impact this year. Some of them will be brand new, but many have been gestating and are now ready to hatch. If there is any theme here it is the mobile Web. As I think through the top ten technologies that will rock 2010, more than half of them are mobile. But those technologies are tied to advances in the overall Web as well.

Below is my list of the ten technologies that will leave the biggest marks on 2010:

1. The Tablet: It’s the most anticipated product of the year.  The mythical tablet computer (which everyone seems to be working on).  There are beautiful Android tablets, concept tablets, and, of course, the one tablet which could define the category, the Apple Tablet.  Or iSlate or whatever it’s called.  If Steve Jobs is not working on a tablet, he’d better come up with one because  anything else will be a huge disappointment.Why do we need yet another computer in between a laptop and an iPhone?  We won’t really know until we have it.  But the answer lies in the fact that increasingly the Web is all you need.  As all of our apps and data and social lives move to the Web, the Tablet is the incarnation of the Web in device form, stripped down to its essentials.  It will also be a superior e-reader for digital books, newspapers, and magazines, and a portable Web TV.
2. Geo: The combination of GPS chips in mobile phones, social networks, and increasingly innovative mobile apps means that geolocation is increasingly becoming a necessary feature for any killer app.  I’m not just talking about social broadcasting apps like Foursquare and Gowalla.  The advent of Geo APIs from Twitter , SimpleGeo, and hopefully Facebook will change the game by adding rich layers of geo-related data to all sorts of apps.  Twitter just recently launched its own Geo API for Twitter apps and acquired Mixer Labs, which created the GeoAPI.
3. Realtime Search: After licensing realtime data streams from Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and others, Google and Bing are quickly ramping up their realtime search.  But realtime search is still treated as a silo, and is not regularly surfaced in the main search results page.  In 2010, I expect that to change as the search engines learn for what types of searches it makes sense to show Tweets and other realtime updates.  In the meantime, a gaggle of realtime search startups such as Collecta, OneRiot, and Topsy will continue to push the ball forward on the realtime search experience.  Realtime search will also become a form of navigation, especially on Twitter and Facebook.  The key will be to combine realtime search with realtime filters so that people are delivered not only the most recent information but the most relevant and authoritative as well.
4. Chrome OS: In November, Google gave the world a sneak peek at its Chrome operating system, which is expected to be released later this year.  The Chrome OS is Google’s most direct attack on Windows with an OS built from the ground up to run Web apps fast and furious.  Already a Google is rumored to be working on a Chrome Netbook which will show the world what is possible with it a “Web OS.” It sounds like it would be perfect for Tablet computers also (see above).  Chrome is a risky bet for Google, but it is also potentially disruptive.
5. HTML5: The Web is built on HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and the next version which has been taking form for a while is HTML5.  Already browsers such as Firefox and Google’s Chrome (the browser, not the OS) are HTML5-friendly.  Once HTML5 becomes more widespread across the Web, it will reduce the need for Flash or Silverlight plug-ins to view videos, animations, or other rich applications.  They will all just be Web-native.  HTML5 also supports offline data storage, drag-and-drop, and other features which can make Web apps act more like desktop apps.  A lot of Websites will be putting HTML5 under the hood in 2010.
6. Mobile Video: With video cameras integrated into the latest iPhone 3GS and other Web phones, live video streaming apps are becoming more commonplace—both streaming from phones and to them.  As mobile data networks beef up their 3G bandwidth and even start to tiptoe into true broadband with 4G (which Verizon is heading towards with its next-gen LTE network), mobile video usage will take off.
7. Augmented Reality: One of the coolest ways to use the camera lens on a mobile phone is with the increasing array of augmented reality apps.  They add a layer of data to reality by placing everything from photos to Tweets to business listings directly on top of the live live image captured by the camera.  Tonchidot’s Sekai Camera, Layar, GraffitiGeo and even Yelp are examples of augmented reality apps.
8. Mobile Transactions: As mobile phones become full-fledged computers, they can be used for mobile commerce also.  One area poised to take off in 2010 are mobile payments and transactions.  Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s latest startup Square turns the iPhone into a credit card reader.  Verifone has its competing product, as does Mophie.  The idea is that any mobile phone can become a point of sale, and those mobile transactions can tie into back-end accounting, CRM, and other enterprise systems.
9. Android: Last year saw the launch of nearly two dozen Android-powered phones, including the Verizon Droid.  In a few days, Google’s Nexus One will launch as the first Android phone which can be unlocked from any given carrier (it is launching with T-Mobile). Android is Google’s answer to the iPhone, and as it reaches critical mass across multiple carriers and handsets it is becoming increasingly attractive to developers.  There are already more than 10,000 apps on Android, next year there will be even more.  And other devices running on the mobile OS are launching as well.
10. Social CRM: We’ve seen the rise of Twitter and Facebook as social communication tools.  This year, those modes of realtime communication will find their way deeper into the enterprise.  Salesforce.com is set to launch Chatter, it’s realtime stream of enterprise data which interfaces with Twitter and Facebook and turn them into business tools. Startups like Yammer and Bantam Live are also making business more social.

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(* Source: Frank Striefler *)

 A great presentation by Frank...

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(* Source: Alison Driscoll *)

Not even a year ago, Facebook was still being dismissed as a silly site intended to help college kids slack off. Indeed, that is what helped the social network take hold with a large number of users, but it has proven its worth in business and by now, nearly everyone is on board. Companies of all sizes are scrambling to get on the site and reach both new and current customers with a Facebook Page, the Facebook preferred method for user interaction with a brand, company or public figure.

An effective Facebook Page not only attracts fans, but is sticky so that fans keep coming back and may even share the content on the Page. To do that, you need a well thought out Page that has some great applications supported by good, relevant content. Here are eight essential apps for your brand’s Facebook page:

Applications

1. Facebook Notes

This app was originally a Facebook feature that they then converted into an application; as such, it is sponsored and maintained by Facebook and less likely to break or be abandoned. Set this application up to pull in the RSS feed from your blog or other content source and it will automatically bring everything into Facebook and show all of your friends that you’ve posted a new Note.

This notification system is important for staying on their radar and is more visible than an RSS Reader, or mini-blog as I like to call it, but lacks many formatting capabilities; it’s best to think of Notes and an RSS Reader as working hand in hand. Start here to get content coming into your Page, then move on to the RSS Reader.

2. Blog RSS Feed Reader

I may have jumped ahead a bit with the Notes recommendation, but I am assuming that most companies have, or could have, a blog. If you don’t, work on that before Facebook, for many more reasons than I could get into here. But if you already have a blog, good news: there are tons of blog and RSS apps out there, but I’ve done the leg work and I found this one offered more functionality, better customization (you can pick an image to make your Facebook mini-blog look more like your actual blog) and a greater sense of control. It can be a bit buggy, but it’s worth persisting for the level of customization, and therefore attention grabbing potential.

3. Twitter App

Again, this assumes that you have a Twitter () account, but if you’re reading this and working on a Facebook Page, my guess is you do. Or you at least know you should have one. If not, set one up before adding this application to your new Facebook Page. This will automatically pull your tweets into your Facebook status, and it puts a cute little Twitter-themed box on your profile, so everyone knows you’re cool enough to be on Twitter. It also saves you time in updating AND ensures profile activity to keep you relevant.

4. Static FBML

Neither Facebook Pages nor Profiles allow any type of HTML in the main content section, but you can add FBML and HTML applications to add more stylized elements to a Page, like clickable images, anchor text and interactive content. The Static FBML app allows you to add advanced functionality to a page by placing a customizable box in which you can render HTML or FBML (Facebook Markup Language), giving you free reign over the space to add images, video, stylized text and almost whatever else you want. This app was developed by Facebook, so it’s fully supported and not prone to the problems of some third party applications.

5. Extended Info

In the Extended Info box you can use HTML to customize any kind of content and create numerous fields beyond the standard Information categories; you can also name the box anything you want so it matches your page perfectly. This app works much like the Static FBML application but is slightly easier to use. Although not developed by Facebook, it is highly ranked and provides a nice alternative or second customizable box option on a page.

6. Flash Player

This Flash application, also developed by Facebook, will add a box to your Page in which you can upload your own Flash files to achieve advanced customization and play any kind of Flash video, widget or game. It can be renamed to maintain the integrity of the page and keep the look and feel consistent with your brand.

7. Posted Items Pro

With Posted Items Pro you can embed multiple YouTube (), Yahoo, and Google Videos, music mp3s, sites, files, and more onto your profile and Facebook pages. You can add any variety of these elements, making it great for a media center or press section.

8. Something Unique

If you have the resources, add some personality to your profile with a fun, irreverent application that you create just for your Page. This could be tied into your brand in multiple ways; try to think of something that people outside of Facebook would appreciate or enjoy that will remind them of who created it and keep them coming back, like a game or contest.

Brands that get it right

In order to stay relevant on Facebook, you need to continually update your Page and use the site. The more actions you take, the more you appear in a fan’s News Feed. This keeps you in their mind, and in their friend’s Feeds when they interact with you. But updating content will do more than keep you on the News Feed; it will also help make your Facebook Page sticky by offering fans an incentive to remain a supporter and come back more than once; one of the best way to do that is to provide some unique benefit to fans: exclusive content, secret contests or insider access to information before non-fans.

If you have a good brand, product or service with a strong website behind it, building a Facebook Page should be fairly easy. But if you need a few examples or inspiration, check out these Pages that definitely get it right:

VS Pink Victoria’s Secret

PINK collection is aimed at college girls, so Facebook is a natural fit, and this Page nails it. They are my most frequent example when explaining effective use of Facebook. This Page makes good use of HTML and FBML apps and provides lots of contests and exclusive stuff for Facebook fans.

Britney Spears

A childhood favorite of many avid Facebook users, Britney is taking Twitter by storm and her Facebook Page is not far behind. Britney sends out tons of Updates to fans and posts plenty of sneak peeks on Facebook.

Zappos

Lots of videos means plenty of opportunity for laughing and sharing. Zappos is almost always mentioned as a social media success story, and they’re working on making their Facebook Page meet the brand image.

Target

Target has managed to break free of the Wal-Mart stigma and position itself as a hip and budget conscious alternative to mall stores. They’ve chose to direct visitors to their “Vote” tab, where not only is Target donating to a good cause, it’s encouraging fans to participate and spread the word to their friends with interactive voting.

Posted by brian tiong at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Adam says...

The company has launched a Facebook app that brings together the biggest highlights from Jordan’s career, letting users vote for their favorite, which is then shared to their Wall. Each highlight includes commentary from a well-known sports journalist, and at the end of the competition, the highlight receiving the most votes will become a Gatorade label (the sports drink maker has already produced 6 commemorative MJ labels – this will be the 7th).

The app is part of Gatorade’s Facebook page, where the company has around a quarter million fans and shares lots of behind-the-scenes clips from its iconic commercials. Here, Gatorade shares the making of the commemorative bottles, shown in this 30-second spot:

Also worth checking out – the “Play” button on the main page for the Jordan app loads a spectacular visual display of Jordan’s career highlights. In all, a very cool promotion to celebrate the career of Number 23.

Posted by brian tiong at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Arun *)

* Advertisers, Consumers Disagree on Ad Effectiveness (MarketingCharts)
* MySpace Music Showing Strong Growth (Hypebot)
* Teen Spending Shifts To Value; Electronics Hold Firm (MarketingCharts)
* 22% - Latino Children in America (Pewresearch)
* How the Old, the Young and Everyone in Between Uses Social Networks (eMarketer)
* Digital Music Market Singing that Old Ad Song (eMarketer)
* Facebook Brands with Fans: Starbucks Tops Coke (MarketingCharts)
* 79% - Talkin’ ’bout my Generation (Pewresearch)
* Insurance Marketers Ignore Gen X, Gen Y (MarketingCharts)
* Twitter is for Losers (eMarketer)
* Word-of-Mouth Spending to Reach $3 Billion by 2013 (MarketingCharts)
* Parents Not Hip to Teen SocNet Secrets (MarketingCharts)
* What Women Want from Social Sites (eMarketer)
* 9 Of 10 In U.S. Don’t Listen To Music On Cell (Hypebot)

Posted by brian tiong at 09:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Mark Walsh *)

Mark says...

Giveaways pay on Facebook. Starbucks has surged past Coca-Cola to become the most popular corporate brand on the social network, powered by its recent free pastry promotion.

As of Thursday, Starbucks' Facebook page boasted 3.7 million fans compared to Coke's 3.5 million -- with their sites ranking 8th and 9th, respectively, among all pages, according to data compiled by Inside Facebook. (Fan pages for celebrities and prominent figures like Michael Jackson and Barack Obama generally top the list.)

A well-designed page, fun promotions and effective use of Engagement Ads on the Facebook home page have all helped Starbucks drive a large following on the social network, according to the Facebook-tracking blog. Promotions have played an especially big part lately.

Starbucks added 200,000 fans this week alone -- pushing it past Coke -- with its Free Pastry Day on July 21 allowing fans to print out coupons for complimentary pastries with any beverage purchase.

It's not the first giveaway campaign the coffee chain has run on Facebook. Earlier this month, it promoted the launch of branded ice cream by offering coupons for free pints through its Facebook application. Among other social media initiatives, Starbucks in May asked people to take photos of new outdoor advertising in several cities and post them on Twitter. And it used a YouTube video to promote its Election Day offer of free java to anyone who voted.

A report released earlier this week by social media platform Wetpaint and digital consulting firm Altimeter Group rated Starbucks the highest among the top 100 brands for its efforts in social media based on engagement across 10 categories including blogs, Facebook, Twitter and wikis.

"Free coupons can be a very viral way to do promotions on social networks, as long as it's a compelling offer," noted Justin Smith, editor of Inside Facebook. He pointed out that other companies such as Papa John's and Ben & Jerry's have also had success at making coupons available via Facebook.

What about erstwhile brand king Coke? The beverage giant's Facebook page, famously, wasn't created by the company but by a pair of Coke enthusiasts in Los Angeles. A case study of a brand "letting go." (Dusty Sorg and Michael Jedrzejewski have since been hired to co-manage the page with Coke's marketing team.)

The contrasting approaches of Starbucks and Coke to brand-building, however, suggest there's more than one way to bring consumers to a Facebook fan page. Then again, giving stuff away for free tends to draw a crowd anywhere. 

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(* Source: Giles Fitzgerald *)

“This is a great example of a label really nurturing a fan base and giving them genuine reasons to interact with each other and with the artist. In an age where the value of recorded music is hard to guarantee, a platform that rewards fans with richer content and money can’t buy rewards is bound to have cut through”

Dom Hodge

Island Records Group and Casablanca Records are teaming up on a unique reward based online venture in support of Mika’s upcoming album. Mika is launching a loyalty scheme via his website which will enable fans to earn points that can then be traded for rewards. Points are awarded for creating a profile, uploading content, adding comments and buying products. Points can be used to acquire free music, video downloads, screen-savers and even a private acoustic gig from the artist.

“For over 3 years Island have been developing innovative community solutions for our artist sites. Now we are taking it to the next level with the fantastic platform Push Entertainment has developed for Mika’s Magic Numbers,” said Glenn Cooper Head of Digital, Island Records Group. “We are rewarding Mika’s fans for interacting on all levels by bringing them closer to the artist.”

Points can be accrued via CD, DVD and iTunes music purchases, plus selected official merchandise and ticket purchases will contain a Magic Number which can be redeemed for points. In addition a selection of “special events” will randomly appear in the Mika calendar –such as ‘Double Points’ purchases and ‘Bonus Points’ activities.

Island highlights that the concept has been designed to integrate “seamlessly into external Brand Sponsorship deals” – which would imply that they are eager to find sponsors for the initiative.

Mika’s second album ‘We Are Golden’ is released on 21st September.

So what?: This campaign takes its cue from the loyalty card model as depicted by the Nectar reward card system – which recently launched the Nectar Music Store offering up free music downloads in return for acquiring points whilst shopping. It also served up exclusive competitions and content from the likes of Dido and Alesha Dixon. This campaign ticks many of those same boxes, but makes it artist specific. It’s good to see a label providing a strong incentivised platform for fans to interact with the artist. Rather than a short term hit of free content, or a one off gimmick gig, this campaign aims for the long-term, building momentum and requiring fans to return again and again in order to catch limited offers. It also builds on the notion of working to acquire music which activates ‘value’ receptors in consumer’s brains – something they are missing from a simple P2P music grab. Getting the best from this platform means putting effort in, and effort translates easily into engagement. Although less altruistic than say Orange’s Rock Corps campaign it harnesses the same principles of fan involvement. Furthermore it creates a platform that can easily be harnessed by brand sponsors with minimum effort, working across a variety of mediums – online, mobile and live.

www.mikasounds.com

Posted by brian tiong at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Chris Lynch *)

Chris says...

As Facebook expands its reach globally, international brands should appeal to local audiences with their public profile pages. At least, that’s the thinking of adidas, the German footwear maker, which launched a “Your Area” tab on its Facebook profile. It allows the 1.8 million fans of the adidas Facebook page to view content from their local countries where they buy sneakers and other products.

The page will target 13 countries with the Your Area tab, including the U.S, China, and several throughout Europe. While the features adidas packed into the new tab mirror that of normal profiles (such as “videos” and “news feed”), it makes the profile more interactive and engaging.

A list of the features include:

1. A News Feed with local content, featuring links, events and promotions.
2. A photo and video viewer, featuring adidas products (and the people who use them).
3. “adidas buzz,” a twitter feed about adidas products in your local area, including some promotions.
4. A link to the adidas store finder.

The page also helps local stores target their specific fans. Local adidas managers, for example, can feature products and post content to the page. They can also tag new products, and provide liks to the adidas e-store.

More here

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(* Source: PSFK *)

Rubbishcorp reports...

This is a very passionate video response by YouTube blogger Kristina Horner about communities working with brands.

‘Kristina is a 21 year old girl from Seattle who is currently studying at the University of Washington, but in her spare time you can find her making videos for YouTube, playing music, or writing. She’s in a band that plays music about Harry Potter and through that, has traveled all over the country (and sometimes further) playing shows and attending conferences. In the past year she’s also been to numerous YouTube related gatherings and events and loves meeting new people and seeing new sights. Kristina has a slight addiction to broadcasting her life and thoughts in various forms on the Internet.‘

Motivated by criticism of her partnership with Ford for the (pretty smart) FiestaMovement work. Kristina argues that for both bloggers and brands to be successful they need to accept the fact that traditional advertising is not-effective (and often rejected) in social spaces. But, brands and publishers like Kristina can easily find win-win situations when brands support their work without compromise. If you work in ‘advertising and or marketing’ and struggle to understand the social media space, have a butchers:

Kristina.

FiestaProject.

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(* Source: ThreeBillion *)

Janko Roettgers says...

Posted by brian tiong at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Michael Jackson has sold a record 2.6 million digital songs in one week, up from 48,000 a week ago, according to sales data compiled by SoundScan. The feat makes Jackson the first artist to sell over a million downloads in a single week.

The number includes both Jackson's solo work, and albums with the Jackson 5.

Jackson also holds a record 25 of the top 74 on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs chart.

The "Number Ones" album topped digital album sales over the past week, moving 108,000 units, while "The Essential Michael Jackson" sold 102,000, and "Thriller" sold 101,000. 

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 (* Source: Giles Fitzgerald *)

Interesting how social networks have taken the old MTV formula and run with it...

Giles says...

Bebo and Samsung are teaming up on a new online TV initiative in order to promote Samsungs new Beat DJ Handset. As with previous tried and tested Bebo webisode models – Kate Modern, Sofia’s Diary, and The Secret World of Sam King -  the Beat series will follow a fully interactive pathway. Viewers will be given the chance to interact through blogs, upload track reviews, share music news and also be offered the chance to appear in the show itself. In addition Samsung and Bebo will also be running a nationwide promotion to find a co-presenter for the show. The deal will see Samsung promoting its new live venture, Samsung Bebo Nights, with an inaugural performance by White Lies and The Maccabees on 1st June.

Samsung have a long history dabbling with music - traditionally working with artists to endorse and support new product launches. In the past year or so they have used Girls Aloud, The Presets, Ozzy and Gabriella Cilmi. Not to mention signing up Lebanese singer Elissa as a brand ambassador and Korean singer Rain as their Olympic ambassador in China.  This new approach to supporting a series of live music initiatives such as Samung Bebo Nights is the first time they’ve branched out into what could be described as a marketing platform.

 

“Our belief is that credibility through association is tough to achieve, brands need to do something genuinely useful and interesting for the audience or they risk joining a long list of brands trying to absorb some ‘cool’. This new activity is a great starting point for Samsung, with appropriate partnerships in place, relevant products and creation of content at the heart of it all. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds”

Jack Horner, Creative Director, FRUKT

Posted by brian tiong at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Robin Wauters *)

Here is another comparison between the war happening on the mobile content space.  The list of applications that are listed as popular are an interesting measure to what people look at in terms of content on their mobiles.

Robin says...

When Nokia launched its Ovi Store for mobile applications a month ago, it was clear that - despite its less than stellar launch - it would be a mistake to simply dismiss the Finnish mobile juggernaut’s efforts as meaningless. The company may be struggling to stay relevant on the software and services side, but with a reach like Nokia’s on the handset distribution level I think it goes without saying that a lot of eyes are firmly fixed on Nokia’s initiatives in the field.

There was some criticism about the lack of content on the Ovi Store at launch day, particularly because of the fact that a lot of big names were lacking, but I figured I should give it at least a month to see if and how many developers would flock to the platform. Now, I think it’s time to take a look at where they stand after that month, and I thought I’d start by comparing the content offering to that of Apple’s App Store, the central application marketplace for iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

This is evidently not really a fair comparison, since Apple’s App Store has been around for almost a year now, while Nokia is still getting started. Still, it’s worth noting that a lot of the big names on the Internet - whether we’re talking about social networks, search companies or game developers - are still missing on the Ovi Store.

A quick and dirty comparison (note that my top lists for the App Store may differ from yours depending on your location, mine being Belgium, Europe):

Social networks

Ten popular apps in the App Store (free and paid mixed together):

- Facebook
- Skype
- TweetDeck
- Nimbuzz
- fring
- LinkedIn
- Truphone
- AIM
- Tweetie
- BeejiveIM

Ten popular apps in the Ovi Store (free and paid mixed together):

- Gravity (a Twitter client)
- Insy
- Friendster
- ThumbDive
- Hi5
- GyPSii
- IM+ For Skype
- See-Fi
- Twittix (another Twitter client)
- Facebook for Nokia

News and information

Ten popular apps in the App Store (free and paid mixed together):

- BBC World News Live
- NY Times
- AP Mobile
- France24
- Thomson Reuters News Pro
- CNN
- Wall Street Journal
- L.A. Times
- The Telegraph
- USA Today

Ten popular apps in the Ovi Store (free and paid mixed together):

- Daily Star
- Daily Express UK
- France24
- AP News
- Reuters
- The Straits Times (daily newspaper, popular in Singapore)
- The Star (Malaysian newspaper)
- The Guardian
- CNBC
- Breaking News

Music

Ten popular apps in the App Store (free and paid mixed together):

- Sirius XM
- Pandora Radio
- Shazam
- Y! Music
- imeem Mobile
- PocketGuitar
- AOL Radio
- Last.fm
- KCRW Radio
- Ocarina

Ten popular apps in the Ovi Store (free and paid mixed together):

- Mundu Radio
- NME
- MusAic
- Midomi
- Nokia Internet Radio
- Tunerific
- Bandfan
- MixPack
- Mozart Killer
- MyRMX

I could go on with a number of other categories, but I think you’ll agree the trend is clear: Nokia so far hasn’t attracted many familiar names on the Internet to develop and/or submit applications to the Ovi Store.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: MG Siegler *)

 A smart piece of production using the community tweets as content... karaoke anyone?

Posted by brian tiong at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Paul Isakson *)

Resonance from Continuum on Vimeo.

"As important as understanding what to do next is having the confidence in being right to make it real."

As I was catching up on Design Sojourn the other day, I came across this great video on Continuum's approach to and beliefs about design strategy. It's a very worth-while watch - providing a lot of good things to think about.

When you step back, it's really about putting people at the center of the approach, rather than profit or your own desires as a company. Not only is this relevant to design, but it is also paramount to creating great advertising.

One of the things that could easily get lost in this, but I think is important to call out, is our role as creative thinkers and strategists - to find ways to surprise and delight people. When you think about what makes a great product or a great ad great, it's often that there is something, or multiple things, about it that surprise and delight people.

That's why having a smart insight is one thing, but bringing an idea to life that addresses it in an interesting and relevant way is much harder, often takes more time, and really is something that not everyone can do.

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(* Source: Seth Godin *)

Seth says...

Luxury goods are needlessly expensive. By needlessly, I mean that the price is not related to performance. The price is related to scarcity, brand and storytelling. Luxury goods are organized waste. They say, "I can afford to spend money without regard for intrinsic value."

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 (* Source: Alison Driscoll *)

Alison Driscoll is an interactive copywriter and social media consultant who specializes in Facebook. She authors a blog at alisondriscoll.com.

Not even a year ago, Facebook was still being dismissed as a silly site intended to help college kids slack off. Indeed, that is what helped the social network take hold with a large number of users, but it has proven its worth in business and by now, nearly everyone is on board. Companies of all sizes are scrambling to get on the site and reach both new and current customers with a Facebook Page, the Facebook preferred method for user interaction with a brand, company or public figure.

An effective Facebook Page not only attracts fans, but is sticky so that fans keep coming back and may even share the content on the Page. To do that, you need a well thought out Page that has some great applications supported by good, relevant content. Here are eight essential apps for your brand’s Facebook page:

Applications

1. Facebook Notes

This app was originally a Facebook feature that they then converted into an application; as such, it is sponsored and maintained by Facebook and less likely to break or be abandoned. Set this application up to pull in the RSS feed from your blog or other content source and it will automatically bring everything into Facebook and show all of your friends that you’ve posted a new Note.

This notification system is important for staying on their radar and is more visible than an RSS Reader, or mini-blog as I like to call it, but lacks many formatting capabilities; it’s best to think of Notes and an RSS Reader as working hand in hand. Start here to get content coming into your Page, then move on to the RSS Reader.

2. Blog RSS Feed Reader

I may have jumped ahead a bit with the Notes recommendation, but I am assuming that most companies have, or could have, a blog. If you don’t, work on that before Facebook, for many more reasons than I could get into here. But if you already have a blog, good news: there are tons of blog and RSS apps out there, but I’ve done the leg work and I found this one offered more functionality, better customization (you can pick an image to make your Facebook mini-blog look more like your actual blog) and a greater sense of control. It can be a bit buggy, but it’s worth persisting for the level of customization, and therefore attention grabbing potential.

3. Twitter App

Again, this assumes that you have a Twitter account, but if you’re reading this and working on a Facebook Page, my guess is you do. Or you at least know you should have one. If not, set one up before adding this application to your new Facebook Page. This will automatically pull your tweets into your Facebook status, and it puts a cute little Twitter-themed box on your profile, so everyone knows you’re cool enough to be on Twitter. It also saves you time in updating AND ensures profile activity to keep you relevant.

4. Static FBML

Neither Facebook Pages nor Profiles allow any type of HTML in the main content section, but you can add FBML and HTML applications to add more stylized elements to a Page, like clickable images, anchor text and interactive content. The Static FBML app allows you to add advanced functionality to a page by placing a customizable box in which you can render HTML or FBML (Facebook Markup Language), giving you free reign over the space to add images, video, stylized text and almost whatever else you want. This app was developed by Facebook, so it’s fully supported and not prone to the problems of some third party applications.

5. Extended Info

In the Extended Info box you can use HTML to customize any kind of content and create numerous fields beyond the standard Information categories; you can also name the box anything you want so it matches your page perfectly. This app works much like the Static FBML application but is slightly easier to use. Although not developed by Facebook, it is highly ranked and provides a nice alternative or second customizable box option on a page.

6. Flash Player

This Flash application, also developed by Facebook, will add a box to your Page in which you can upload your own Flash files to achieve advanced customization and play any kind of Flash video, widget or game. It can be renamed to maintain the integrity of the page and keep the look and feel consistent with your brand.

7. Posted Items Pro

With Posted Items Pro you can embed multiple YouTube, Yahoo, and Google Videos, music mp3s, sites, files, and more onto your profile and Facebook pages. You can add any variety of these elements, making it great for a media center or press section.

8. Something Unique

If you have the resources, add some personality to your profile with a fun, irreverent application that you create just for your Page. This could be tied into your brand in multiple ways; try to think of something that people outside of Facebook would appreciate or enjoy that will remind them of who created it and keep them coming back, like a game or contest.

Brands that get it right

In order to stay relevant on Facebook, you need to continually update your Page and use the site. The more actions you take, the more you appear in a fan’s News Feed. This keeps you in their mind, and in their friend’s Feeds when they interact with you. But updating content will do more than keep you on the News Feed; it will also help make your Facebook Page sticky by offering fans an incentive to remain a supporter and come back more than once; one of the best way to do that is to provide some unique benefit to fans: exclusive content, secret contests or insider access to information before non-fans.

If you have a good brand, product or service with a strong website behind it, building a Facebook Page should be fairly easy. But if you need a few examples or inspiration, check out these Pages that definitely get it right:

VS Pink Victoria’s Secret

PINK collection is aimed at college girls, so Facebook is a natural fit, and this Page nails it. They are my most frequent example when explaining effective use of Facebook. This Page makes good use of HTML and FBML apps and provides lots of contests and exclusive stuff for Facebook fans.

Britney Spears

A childhood favorite of many avid Facebook users, Britney is taking Twitter by storm and her Facebook Page is not far behind. Britney sends out tons of Updates to fans and posts plenty of sneak peeks on Facebook.

Zappos

Lots of videos means plenty of opportunity for laughing and sharing. Zappos is almost always mentioned as a social media success story, and they’re working on making their Facebook Page meet the brand image.

Target

Target has managed to break free of the Wal-Mart stigma and position itself as a hip and budget conscious alternative to mall stores. They’ve chose to direct visitors to their “Vote” tab, where not only is Target donating to a good cause, it’s encouraging fans to participate and spread the word to their friends with interactive voting.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Jason Kincaid *)

Jason says...

Earlier this year Pinch Media released a report on the state of the App Store, describing some of the trends it had seen as developers tried to monetize their apps. The verdict: advertising on free applications simply can’t match the payoff from even the least expensive ‘paid’ applications, and would require an unobtainable $8.75 CPM to reach the same income per install.

AdWhirl, the iPhone advertising platform formerly known as Adrollo, begs to differ. Since launching last month, the company has signed on over 10% of the top 50 applications in the App Store and is serving 250 million ad impressions per month. And their data tells a different tale.

According to co-founder Sam Yam, one of the fundamental flaws in the Pinch Media report is that it assumes that applications only show a single ad impression per user interaction (in other words, every time you open a free app, you only see one ad). Yam says that applications actually tend to serve 3-5 impressions each time a customer interacts with them, with even higher figures for some especially engaging applications. And when you divide that $8.75 CPM by 5, things become much more reasonable.

The AdWhirl report, embedded below, says that applications that crack the top 100 in the Free Apps list make $400-$5000 a day - a wide range to be sure, but even at the low end that works out to around $12,000 a month. Among these top apps, AdWhirl is reporting an impressive $1.90 eCPM and 2.6% CTR. And while applications that do reach the peak position in the App Store eventually lose steam, revenue tends to remain consistent over time after the initial dip (see the graph below). Of course, making it to the top of the Free Apps list is easier said than done, and most developers make far less than $400 a day. But the same is true of the vast majority of paid applications too - in fact, there’s actually less competition on the Free side of the store.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Kumegirl *)

Now, some time after The Cluetrain Manifesto came out with “Markets are conversations”, conversation is in danger of being an overused word. Mary Goodyear is an astonishing thinker, and she said nearly ten years ago that marketing evolution is the increasingly sophisticated dialogue between the marketer and the consumer. Yet examples of mass brands holding a good conversation is less abundant than mass monologue.

Cluetrainplus10 is a celebration of the Cluetrain Manifesto 10 years on. Bloggers have been invited to write about one of the 95 Cluetrain theses. From Dan Wilson;
“The internet should make businesses and corporations more open, more communicative and transparent. But in the 10 years of the Cluetrain Manifesto we haven’t seen a great transformation. Sure, we have business blogs opening the lid, Twitter gives us insight into what businesses are doing, but the vast majority of this communication is broadcast. Marketing messages, positive spin and highly-controlled outward bound marketing are the disappointing norm. There are some wonderful examples of where the conversation is real. But play? We’re no closer to play than ten years ago.”

n 2007, editors, Gavin Heaton and Drew McLellan challenged bloggers around the world to contribute one page — 400 words — on the topic of “conversation”. The resulting book, The Age of Conversation and in 2008 The Age of Conversation 2. Richard Huntington in his blog adliterate writes in defence of brand monologue. “The word monologue has acquired a rather pejorative meaning in the world of marketing. Monologue, where the brand addresses an audience and puts forward its point of view (as happens in traditional one to many advertising), is seen to be out of step with the idea that markets are conversations and depend on a dialogue of equals between brands and customers. More than that, brand monologues are assumed to narcissistic, self referential, and disrespectful of empowered consumers that don’t have to or want to take that kind of shit from anyone least of all businesses. Well I want to make a stand for brand monologues – right here and right now. Indeed I am going to insist that great dialogues start with a passionate monologue.”

In the following slide deck, David Alston refers to 10 conversations to watch out for in social media (which include the complaint, the compliment, the problem, the question etc).

What about Twitter and conversations? Can or should brands have conversations with consumers via Twitter. Conversation at brandchannel on this topic shows different viewpoints including:

“We feel that Twitter is essential to helping companies today provide a near real time conversation with their customers. We built Tweetbots (http://tweetbots.com/) and we are also involved in a number of projects that heavily leverage Twitter.To be honest, It’s hard for us to imagine starting something, and not registering the domain name as well as the name on Twitter. ”
Adam Stacoviak, Web Developer, Handcrafted, LLC - March 30, 2009

…”It means nothing to brands. In inserting a brand into my social networking is invasive, abusive and frankly spam. If I wanted to buy an item once, why do i need to hear about it every day? Explain to me why I care to “follow” a soft drink.. explain to me why it matters what’s on the scripted mind of a pro blogger hired by the manufacturers of over priced razors? Kill your idols and hold corporate america responsible for it’s attempt to tell you what to do and influence your decisions.. @run_rabbit_run”
- March 30, 2009

Jye Smith has a post about what inspires conversation

But qualitative researchers now face some a similar challenge. Running a successful community is not just asking a barrage of questions, but being able to start conversations (more in the style of a salon than a focus group). Plugged In talk about;

“One of the hardest things for me to learn initially was the idea of letting go of control of the conversation. As moderators we want to “ask, ask, ask,” but in communities it is really important to listen to the community and circle back on topics of interest. If there is a particularly interesting comment or user generated discussion, incorporating it into a future activity (and acknowledging the member that posted) reinforces the fact that you are listening to what the members are saying. Also, this approach is much more effective for “probes” and follow-up questions. Creating a new discussion and engaging the community as a whole is oftentimes more effective than trying to follow up inline with individual members, plus it opens up the opportunity to hear several opinions rather than one individual opinion. ”

And on the topic of jobs, Charlene Li has uploaded a deck on conversation in social media

How to Spark A Conversation Revolution - AND Keep Your Job

Posted by brian tiong at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Anjali Ramachandran *)

Anjali says on PSFK...

Record labels don’t always have a smooth relationship with music artists. If a band chooses to release their music using alternative means, one of the most common assumptions is a) that their music wasn’t good enough to get them signed by a label or b) that they were difficult for labels to get along with. For established 20-year music veterans De La Soul, neither was the case. Releasing on iTunes tomorrow, De La Soul has partnered with Nike to bring us the “Are You in?: Nike+ Original Run,” 44-minute workout LP. This marks the return of the hip-hop trio to the music scene after a break of 5 years.

The album, part of Nike’s SportMusic range of music, is yet another example of the brand’s complete dedication to constantly reinventing themselves. Marketers have ventured into branded music before, but the SportMusic albums are different because they sell for $9.99 each, making them a revenue stream of their own accord. De La Soul have admitted to being approached by other brands, but say they went with Nike because they shared a common approach to the project. The group especially appreciated the fact that they were able to get feedback from Nike Plus runners.

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 (* Source: Brian Solis *)

Mark Zuckerberg

Brian says...

Not to be outdone by the news of Twitter's astronomical growth, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg announced that the popular social network has hit a noteworthy milestone, the welcoming of their 200 millionth user.

To celebrate the moment, Zuckerberg commented, "When we built Facebook in 2004, our goal was to create a richer, faster way for people to share information about what was happening around them. We thought that giving people better tools to communicate would help them better understand the world, which would then give them even greater power to change the world."

Indeed, Facebook and other social mediums are empowering those who possess the ability to emerge and shepherd as true leaders at any level. Social Networks represent the larger impact beyond mere communication efficiency, they serve as a catalyst for organized connectivity, inspiration, and action, ultimately shifting our culture for how we consume and share information and potentially engender positive change.

To celebrate "change," Facebook is also creating a space in the network where people can share their stories about how Facebook has helped them make an give back. Facebook is also collaborating with 16 charitable and advocacy groups to create gifts that are available now in the gift shop.

General Statistics:

It took 20,000 years for the world population to reach 200 million people

It would take 46.5 years for 200 million babies to be born in the U.S.

200 million would be the world's 5th most populous country, bigger than Brazil, Japan, and Russia

Facebook Statistics:

General Growth
* More than 200 million active users
* More than 100 million users log on to Facebook at least once each day
* More than two-thirds of Facebook users are outside of college
* The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older

User Engagement
* Average user has 120 friends on the site
* More than 3.5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide)
* More than 20 million users update their statuses at least once each day
* More than 4 million users become fans of Pages each day

Applications
* More than 850 million photos uploaded to the site each month
* More than 8 million videos uploaded each month
* More than 1 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each week
* More than 2.5 million events created each month
* More than 25 million active user groups exist on the site

International Growth
* More than 40 translations available on the site, with more than 50 in development
* About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States

Platform
* More than 660,000 developers and entrepreneurs from more than 180 countries
* Every month, more than 70% of Facebook users engage with Platform applications
* More than 52,000 applications currently available in the Facebook Application Directory
* More than 5,000 applications have 10,000 or more monthly active users
* More than 8,000 websites have implemented Facebook Connect since its general availability in December 2008

Mobile
* More than 660,000 developers and entrepreneurs from more than 180 countries
* Every month, more than 70% of Facebook users engage with Platform applications
* More than 52,000 applications currently available in the Facebook Application Directory
* More than 5,000 applications have 10,000 or more monthly active users
* More than 8,000 websites have implemented Facebook Connect since its general availability in December 2008

Posted by brian tiong at 09:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: eMarketer *)

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(* Source: John Biggs *)

It’s hard to find a good stuff reader. Twhirl and Tweetdeck are good for Twitter and every other social networking whatever service has its own Air app, but there’s no one place you can put all your stuff in a readable and usable way. Enter Skimmer, a stuff reader by Fallon, an ad agency in Minneapolis. Presumably named after the great comedian and talk-show host Johnny Carson, Fallon has decided to brighten up its front walk with a unique Air application that brings Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Blogger, and Facebook to one place.

Why is an ad agency creating a Twitter app? Had you ever heard of Fallon before this? Didn’t think so. Moving on. [Folks have pointed out they did the BMW films and a few other campaigns. Feel free to ask some people on the street who they are, though, and I believe you'll be quite surprised.]

The folks at Fallon who showed me the service described it as a feed reader for designers. Fallon’s precious art department wanted to use the services we peons use every day but the application design was too muddled and messy. Their solution? Roll their own system using the latest in user interface design techniques taken from the catwalks of Paris.

The application, available on Fallon’s website, is still pretty wonky. It crashed a few times for me on OS X and there are still some issues in posting Tweets. The real differentiator, however, is the way Skimmer shows Flickr photos, videos, and avatars. The photos and videos appear in-line whenever your Flickr freunden post new pics or your YouTube favorites churn out another video. The system also allows you to add large, hi-resolution avatars to your account so other Skimmer users can see the true you and not some 50×50 pixel representation.

There are three screen modes - full, widget, and regular. The fullscreen mode is for crazy people who want their readers to take up the entire screen, the mid-sized is just about right, and the widget turns the reader into something more like Twhirl.

If I were a high school chemistry teacher I’d write “Good ideas but needs work” on the top of Skimmer and hand it back with a B-. The app needs some technical polish - in terms of usability it’s already pretty slick - but if you’re looking for something to bring a few of your services into one fairly attractive app then give Skimmer a try. It can only get better.

Posted by brian tiong at 05:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Lee Ryan *)

Lee says...

"It’s possibly even easier to ignore the digital world in parts of Asia, but all of us are researchers though for different companies or freelancing. I don’t think we can continue to research and advise clients on brand communications as if it was 1999. I also don’t think it’s good for our industry to be at the back of the queue when it comes to experimenting, trying new stuff, and being prepared to have a view. I don’t know what the future of advertising is going to be, but i’m certain that there is a significant shift going on"

 

 

Posted by brian tiong at 09:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Robin Wauters *)

Robin says...

I’m not going to discuss the economic meltdown and its devastating effect on technology companies and internet startups in this post, but rather something that crossed my mind earlier this morning: “Web 2.0″ seems to become more and more a void (and an avoided) term. Of course, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is definitely apparent.

So why do I say it’s fading? For one, because the number of startups that contact us and include the term Web 2.0 in the subject line or message is visibly dropping (and that’s a good thing), and I hardly ever see it mentioned anymore on other technology blogs and news sites either. That’s not really tangible, so I took a look at the number of mentions of the phrase across the web, and they seem to be decreasing significantly, reflecting my feeling on this.

Judging by Google Trends, which shows how often a particular search term is entered relative to the total search volume across various regions of the world (and in various languages), the term started being used at the end of 2004 when Tim O’Reilly organized the first edition of the Web 2.0 Conference. Search queries for the term started picking up in the middle of 2005, when TechCrunch was started - with the tagline “Tracking Web 2.0″ by the way - and the number kept increasing until the end of 2007. After that, the trend is clearly downwards, falling back to the level it reached in early 2006 today. If the trend continues, there should only be a handful of people left who scour search engines for “Web 2.0″ by 2011.

Also noteworthy: take a look at the geographic regions that have generated the highest volumes of worldwide search traffic for the term over the years - it’s Asia, with the top 5 regions being India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia (in that order). Furthermore, Google Trends pegs the number one language in which people search for stuff related to the topic of Web 2.0 to be Russian before English.

And just in case you’re curious: “Web 3.0″ doesn’t seem to picking up much.
Let’s all rejoice.

Google’s “Insights for Search”, a beta service that analyzes a portion of worldwide Google web searches from all Google domains to compute how many searches have been done for the terms you’ve entered - relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time - gives an even better overview:

Posted by brian tiong at 02:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: History repeats Digitally *)

David says...

This year will bring some rather exciting changes to the digital media landscape. In truth, all years have something new as the boundaries of technologies are being pushed, and as the result of the changing-behavior among users who are continue to embrace new services and what they have to offer. 2009 however, will be different in that consumption and the Internet usage is shifting as the result of the economic situation (at least here in North America).

This presentation hopes to shed light on some of what has happened in 2008, and what we can expect more of over the next 11 1/2 months.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Valeria Maltoni *)

Valeria says...

I have long believed that dialogue is the art of thinking together - talk changes our lives, it allows us to learn by listening. Customers and communities are changing the nature of marketing and communications through talk, but also through actions. If you're like me, you think that social media = tools and marketing = business.

Since we are in our own right working on changing not just the tactics for the channels but the nature itself of marketing (as currently done), I asked twelve great marketers from my network to share their thoughts on what we'll be working on in 2009.

More than predictions, which is hard to do, we focused on direction. This eBook is the result of our collective energy and execution experience. For a bite-size preview, here's what they say:

• "Basic metrics you can initially use to match up before, during and after sales deltas are frequency, reach, and yield" - Olivier Blanchard, The Brand Builder, @thebrandbuilder

• "There are three imperatives for execution programs in 2009 - start with measurement, create content for the open Web and for mobility" - Matt Dickman, Techno||Marketer, @MattDickman

• "The foundation and core of what social media is, consists of the five C's. Conversation, community, commenting, collaboration and contribution" - Mike Fruchter, My Thoughts on Social Media, @Fruchter
  

• "With social media as a platform for participation, people can behave the way they were hardwired to behave in the first place - humanly, tribally" - Francois Gossieaux, Emergence Marketing, @fgossieaux

• "Social media enhances marketing efforts as an additional indirect communication channel" - Beth Harte, The Harte of Marketing, @BethHarte

• "Companies with greater social intelligence have stronger bonds with employees and customers, and that translates into revenue" - Lois Kelly, Beeline Labs, @LoisKelly

• "Change ensures our own livelihoods - new opportunities and trends to capitalize upon, unique products and profit centers that merit development, robust innovation to leverage"- Christina Kerley, CK Epiphany, @ckepiphany

• "Social media interaction allows us to have… well, interaction with our customers. It lets us see them as people instead of statistics and it lets us hear their voices" - Jennifer Laycock, Search Engine Guide, @JenniferLaycock

• "Goals absolutely must be built on business objectives" - Amber Naslund, Altitude Branding, @AmberCadabra

• "A proper social media education is more than just learning new tools. The most important lesson we can impart is the necessity to think 'humans'"- Connie Reece, Every Dot Connects, @ConnieReece

• "Social media isn't causing problems, but it is revealing them. And the problems aren't new; they've been around for a while" - Mike Wagner, Own Your Brand!, @bigwags

• "The secret of success in social media is a product or a service that people actually like and use" - Alan Wolk, The Toad Stool, @awolk

I pulled together their ideas in this PDF - Marketing in 2009. We'd love to hear your reactions and examples.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Mike Arrington *)

Great article from Mike... with so many social networks out there today.  Keep up with all of them requires more people. Digital P.As anyone? 

Posted by brian tiong at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Matt O'Hern *)

You won't love the way they fly.

That's the point of an angry customer's rant about Delta.

A video by Phil Defranco, AKA, sxephil and phillyd, was one of the most popular on Youtube this week.  Defranco is a blogger and self-proclaimed former fan of Delta. He shared his nightmare story about the airline,and 313,000 people have viewed the video since Monday.

Among Phil's top complaints::

1. The flight was delayed four hours, because they had the WRONG plane, with too much fuel.
2. Delta ran out of food after they served just 10 people.
3. When his luggage arrived at baggage claim it was soaked, and the water ruined his MacBook.
4. Customer service's reply to his luggage complaint was: "Well sir, how do we know you didn't have a water bottle in your suitcase?"

My favorite quote::

I apparently paid them a $15 fee  to destroy my luggage.

Phil ends his rant by asking viewers to share their worst airplane story.

 If you search" Delta on Youtube, you'll find sxephil's video is in the top ten, followed by a video titled: Delta Flight 6499, SEVEN HOURS on the tarmac.After 313,000 people watch bad press about your company in a matter of days, you have a lot of PR work ahead.

British Airways' took a PR hit when a few disgrunitled employees vented their frustrations on Facebook.  Delta has learned the hard way that web-savvy customers have the power to become a corporations worst nightmare.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Alan H Gerson *)

Good summary from Alan on the elements that an advertising campaign needs in digital today.

Alan says...

The importance of sound creative executions and integrated strategies cannot be overemphasized in today's online ad market. Follow these steps to get on the right track.

1. Capture interest and attention
Advertising is, of course, a specific communication strategy designed to shape consumer action towards, or opinions about, particular products or services. Advertising, like every other communication strategy, will not and cannot work unless it finds an audience and actually delivers its message. We live in an increasingly crowded media environment. The average consumer is exposed to thousands of different advertising messages every week. Many of those messages are repeated with a frequency that deadens the senses. Even finding the right potential customer and placing the advertising message in front of him or her does not guarantee interest or focus on what the ad message is trying to communicate. 

The new media consumers have been taught that they are in charge of what, where, when, and why they will pay attention to an ad message. Nevertheless, capturing interest and focusing attention remains the prerequisite for a successful advertisement.  More

2. Extend engagement
Engagement is a new hot metric. In the battle for the attention of the consumer, "time spent" is a valuable indication of whether the advertising communication has been successful, and delivering an ad impression does not necessarily equate to consumer attention and interest. There are all levels of impressions, but do they communicate in a world where consumers have the ability to scan, fast forward, jump, and abandon content with the touch of a button on myriad of different devices?

Therefore, truly engaging and focusing a consumer on the advertising message is increasingly valuable and effective. Engagement for a significant period of time, especially if that engagement is interactive, clearly indicates that the message has been delivered to a consumer who has -- by the investment of their time and actions -- demonstrated interest and attentiveness.  More

3. Activate toward client goals
Today, even if branding is the main objective, some sort of measurable action by the consumer that can be translated into a concrete return on the advertising investment is almost always a parallel goal.

Every marketer of every brand, product, or service has a hierarchy of real-world results they would like to see from their advertising. This goes beyond metrics and measurement. Ultimately, they want to see sales increase, or product sampling, or store visits, or a consumer database developed from information requests, or promotional registrations. 

Advertising, even brand advertising, needs to be able to multi-task and create real-world results in terms of sales or the establishment of a relationship with/or communication path to a potential consumer. Digital media, messages, and promotions are increasingly being bundled into an integrated marketing, advertising, and promotional strategy that activates a consumer toward specific goals or creates a communication path to a potential consumer for just that reason. 

4. Branding and brand building
All advertising can and should reinforce brand values or brand positioning, even if its primary goal is more directly sales oriented. 

In the digital age, the ability to use websites, microsites, and online promotions -- not only to create sales but to convey information about the company behind the product or service -- makes this a required part of any advertising strategy.

Never before in history have marketers had the tools that can so readily facilitate the ability to provide information in various levels of detail to consumers about their products and services, what they stand for and what they mean for their customers. More

5. Reinforce recall and retention
The multiplicity of channels, messages, and media can make it harder to make advertising messages stand out enough to be remembered or acted upon. Nevertheless, fostering message recall and retention remains a central goal of any advertising campaign.

Digital media and certain technologies provide new and powerful ways to accomplish this goal through their ability to reach consumers where they are, on a variety of platforms, and with messages of different lengths and complexities. Flexibility of approach, use of integrated strategies -- which include traditional media as well as digital platforms -- and creation of different messages that may communicate different pieces of information can all enhance recall and retention. Whether the message is price, value, brand or feature-based, nothing is more important today than the power of communities and the impact of promotions. Today's consumer wants validation and reinforcement from other consumers, and the opinions and testimonials of their peers are more important and impactful than the same words from a company spokesperson or message. More

6. Promote intention to purchase
The marketing chain for most products and services today is complex and multi-channel. Products are offered for sale through retail stores, through networks of distributors, through online stores, and in a variety of both online and offline direct messaging to former or potential customers. Advertising messages, wherever and however they are made or delivered, need to support the communication of product benefits, features, advantages, and uses. Especially in today's economy, they need to support the communication of specific price and value messages and incentive offers. More

7. Build an opt-in and viral database
One key difference between traditional media and digital media is the ability of digital media to readily identify its audience members and establish a two-way communication with willing individuals in that audience. Building a customer database that has fully opted in creates a valuable resource for all companies that can and should be used to inform, reward, thank and re-sell customers, increasing the lifetime value of that customer. Permission-based marketing was one of the first breakthrough concepts in digital marketing, and it remains a very valuable goal of advertising today.

Not only can advertising be used to drive potential customers to registration pages connected to sweepstakes or contest entries or purchase opportunities, but it can also be used to incentivize those customers to "refer a friend," thus building and extending the potential list to persons who might not otherwise have seen or responded to the advertisement. More

8. Create differentiation in the marketplace
Ultimately, the last goal of advertising I want to discuss is differentiation in the marketplace, which is an umbrella principle closely related to No. 1: Capturing interest and attention. 

The importance of sound creative executions, different media channels, and integrated strategies that allow an advertising message or campaign to reach its target audience and capture interest and attention cannot be overemphasized. These elements should be coupled with integrated advertising and marketing approaches that include strong promotional elements and that powerfully position the features, advantages, benefits, and uses of the product or service being advertised.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Jim Nail *)

At the October 29 ARF Transforming Research conference, there was a strong theme that market researchers should weave interesting stories about how consumers interact with brands rather than present reams of data to induce a Powerpoint coma. But storytelling risks creating a fiction that loses touch with the carefully gathered facts in our research. Perhaps the better way to think about it is tailoring...

I've been meaning to write this entry for a while then this weekend a program on NPR's "Speaking of Faith", spurred me to do it. A cancer doctor spoke of her evolution from speaking with patients about the facts of their disease to listening to their life stories and how the cancer has affected them. She eventually followed this into a psychotherapy practice.

What does this have to do with the market research industry? One line in the interview really caught my ear when she said that the facts of the disease don't mean anything about the person and their struggle. Their stories held greater truth about the person than what stage the disease was at, how tumors grew or shrank, what the various tests tracked, etc

Isn't this the same with market research, especially when we are trying to understand concepts like brand engagement? The facts - the demos, market share, even time spent with a medium or a web site - don't really say anything about the nature of engagement. For that we need a different level of understanding, one that is more qualitative, one that looks not just at the interaction between the brand and the person, but broadens the view of that interaction in the context of the person's life.

That's the power of ethnography. And that is the kind of story that social media analysis at its best delivers.

The challenge for market researchers is to prevent the "story" from crossing the line into fiction. While stories need to put data in the background and bring the narrative to the fore, they must remain true to that data. To be storytellers, researchers must leave the safety and security of the survey tabulation and create a three dimensional being.

But perhaps storytelling isn't the right way to think about it. After all, Homer was free to create characters like Hector and Achilles, whether they existed or not because his concern was to communicate his ideals of courage, loyalty, patriotism, etc. He could shape his characters to make his point.

Researchers, on the other hand, must first draw the characters, then figure out the "point": the person's motivations, the relationship with the brand, the likely behavior.

So perhaps we should think of the evolution of research more like being a tailor. We have a set of measures -- waist, chest, sleeve length, inseam -- and we must now make a suit that fits the person. If we deviate too far from the measures, the suit won't fit. But if we stick to the measures and carefully stitch them together, the end result is something far more compelling than the numbers alone would suggest!

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(* Source: Robin Wauters *)

Robin says...

Sony is set to announce a re-launch of video entertainment network site Crackle today, with a roll-out of a number of new web shows including sketches by L.A. comedy troupe “The Groundlings”, a video game show called “The Jace Hall Show” and a five-minute talk show dubbed “Anytime with Bob Kushell” hosted by a Hollywood writer.

Sony’s media business, Sony Pictures Entertainment, will be using the types of production techniques that it puts into movies and TV to resemble other online programming by staying short, often no more than five minutes long, reports Reuters. Crackle’s season begins December 1.

Last August, Sony Pictures partnered up with Rocketboom, acquiring the worldwide distribution rights to Rocketboom.com in all media, putting the daily show on Crackle.com, presenting the show with a Crackle player on the Rocketboom.com website and distributing it over its syndication network. See RocketBoom founder Andrew Baron’s take on the upcoming announcement here.

Crackle used to be Grouper, before Sony bought the startup for a reported $65 million in the Summer of 2006. The Reuters report cites 2.4 million visitors in October, according to research firm The Nielsen Online Co., while Compete shows higher number and a nice growth pattern.

Posted by brian tiong at 01:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Jim Nail *)

Jim says...

An Ad Age story is headlined "Content Trumps Community" and notes that only 7.5% of consumer time online is spent in community sites like Facebook, MySpace, etc. True enough, but the stats say social networks have less of an issue with the number of users and page view consumption than with their users' fleeting attention.

First, kudos to the Online Publishers Association for recognizing that community is its own category. That alone is a statement about how far "social media" has come in the last couple of years.

I've followed the OPA's Internet Activity Index for several years and I often quote it to show how the Internet is different from other media: other media are 100% about content, but the Internet has always been a balance of content and communications (email and IM), with a healthy dollop of commerce thrown in.

While the Ad Age article implies that the focus and attention paid to social networks is overblown compared to the time spent, I beg to disagree with my friend Ms. Klaasen on these grounds:

• Time spent on social networks is 50% higher than search -- and we all know how big search is.
• Contrary to Ms. Klaassen's observation that social network time is coming primarily from communications, content's share of time dropped 6 percentage points from December to January, making up the bulk of community's 7.5 percentage points. With this drop, content's share of time is lower that it was in January 2007.
• Look also at page views per person: content dropped 225 pages, which suggests that in the reclassification, a number of sites formerly in the content group were moved to community. Communications, meanwhile, had 404 pages, the second highest number in the past 12 months.
• Another interesting angle is that content sites show 480 pages per month per user while community sites show 380 pages. In other words, community sites already have 80% as many places to put ads in front of each user as content sites.
• Only 59.5% of online users used community sites in January, while the other categories ranged from 78% - 93%. Given that these sites are only a couple of years old, that is a healthy number.
• Even more important, and not reflected in any of these numbers, is the degree of influence this time has on users' brand perceptions and purchasing decisions. Word-of-mouth continues to be the leading influence and roughly twice the influence of online ads, which would imply that this 7.5% of time is likely to have disproportionately higher impact than content pages.

I don't think social media's issue is with having sufficient space to sell -- the audience will continue to grow, and if the past is any indication of the future the number of pages per user will grow as well.

I wrote a while ago that social networks have a difficult tightrope to walk, between monetizing their user's attention and alienating those very users.

These numbers also imply that the users' attention is so fleeting (users are cramming 380 pages into about 1/4 the time they spend on content sites) that creating an effective marketing communication/ad format is the real challenge. Like email and IM before it, banners and other display ad formats are probably not the answer; unlike those communications media, word-of-mouth marketing techniques can be employed to involve brands in the conversations taking place.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: ThreeBillion *)

Paul says...

User generated content has been an amazing phenomenon and has changed the way people use and consume the internet. The shift towards the consumer being the publisher has had profound effects on the way we market to young people. Whether that be the platform, the idea or execution.

BUT has UGC really changed the Internet? Moreover, has it REALLY changed the way we connect to young people in our marketing? The answer is not really, but there could be much bigger things to come. Here is a little presentation from 180360720.no and it's worth 5 minutes of your time. 

Posted by brian tiong at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Paul Isakson *)

I'm been a big fan of Paul for a while now and here is another reason why.  Paul talks about modern brand building is this presentation.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Helge Tennø *)

Posted by brian tiong at 09:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Chris Anderson *)

Posted by brian tiong at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Tony Hung *)

Tony says...

At the most recent BlogExpo Twitter was a huge topic, and with good reason. Although it started more than a year ago with fairly geeky roots, it continues to grow at a breakneck pace. Has it crossed over to the mainstream, yet? I think we're on the cusp. I certainly think that when anchors on CNN start using Twitter to monitor conversations on live television -- it's probably time.

Like a few others, I happen to be quite bullish on the topic of Twitter, not just as a singular web application, but as a medium, and microblogging service. As Mike Arrington of TechCrunch believes, services like Twitter are becoming more and more like a utility, much like the telephone service.

But what about its application in branding? Specifically, its role in brand management?

1. Understanding twitter (AKA microblogging) in the ecosystem of conversation

Whether you Twitter, Plurk, Pownce, or Friendfeed (or all of them), the role of such services for the purposes of brand management is primarily to listen. When Twitter launched, there was some angst about how crushingly banal some of the conversations were. However, like blogging, Twitter had some maturing to do -- and we're maturing still. People still Twitter about what they ate for breakfast, what bus stop they're at and where they plan to have dinner, but its also used for communications of other sorts.

Questions about particular services. Opinions about particular brands. Blog alerts on postings. By average folks. By opinion leaders.

The wonderful thing is that, for the most part, these conversations are public, searchable, and trackable. With this emerging ecosystem of live conversation and thought, anyone with any particular interest can follow ideas, topics, names and places as they happen.

The role of Twitter in brand management first is to listen. Find people who are talking about products, services, and experiences with your brand. Then find their friends. Then find who is driving those conversations and who those opinion leaders are.

The best way to do this is probably starting with Twitter's own search function which was acquired via Summize a few months ago. Search for names of products, services, brand names, competitors and people. Then select the feed icon for that search and follow it actively throughout the day in your favorite feed reeder. Done.

2. Engaging in microconversations

Once you've found your conversations of interest, take a deep breath. Because these are live, unfilitered and unmetered opinion, some of it may also contain a lot of raw emotion. After all, when you only have 140 characters to express yourself, it doesn't lend itself to appropriate self-censoring all the time.

Then, reach out.

I presume you already know about your brand, what it stands for, and what your brand "ideal" experience ought to be. You're probably intimately familiar with tag lines, logos, and all of the literal and visual elements of the brand. Now, with all that in mind, it's time to try and sculpt the experiences of others ... but not in a cynical or sinister way.

I firmly believe that there is a lot of banal conversation on Twitter, but there is a lot of important stuff as well. People talk and reach out when emotions are at their peak, whether it be happy, sad, or frustrated. For many folks, they Twitter during these times not only let themselves be known, but to share in the emotion, to get a response, and for some, a hope for answers as well.

The great thing about reaching out on Twitter, much like the blogosphere in some ways through comments, is that the expectation is close to nil that brand representatives of any fashion are present. Furthermore, the expectation that anyone will actually listen, or even do anything supportive or rectifying is also, for many, close to nil.

If you're able to answer questions, respond to opinion, and engage in a real human way (such as the admission that you don't know the answer), you'll shock and pleasantly surprise most Twitterers.

If they've got issues, and you've been empowered to use Twitter in this way, take ownership of the problem. Point them in the direction of someone who can solve it, or work with it until you can.

Because the bar on Twitter is so low, the mere act of appearing on Twitter can be a powerful first step that gets people noticing. Listening is better. Fixing and solving is, of course, best, and can generate word of mouth traffic and notice that is difficult to put a number sign to.

3. Dealing with "thought leaders"

Of course you should try and engage each Twitterer you meet equally. It's critical to keep in mind, that someone who has 5 followers should, in all seriousness, be treated with an equal amount of respect. Every conversation is searchable, and for folks who looking for particular problems, they'll find the exchange just as easily as you could.

However, like in any democracy, there are some Twitters who are, in some ways, more equal than others. And the relative "importance" of these individuals is sometimes, but not always, easy to recognize in the number of followers they have. I say "not-always" because sometimes a person's relative worth or importance may not always be measured by such metrics. They might be well known off line, or be followed by a few popular Twitterers, for example.

For Twitterers who have followers in the hundreds or thousands, engagements *will* be noticed by their followers, and so be prepared to engage in a way that's relative to the audience. However, if you've gotten this far in the article, congratulations, because you've probably identified this as a great opportunity.

It's hard to get any opinion leader to talk about your product, service, or brand (ask any start up about TechCrunch, for example). True, it's never ideal when it's mentioned in a less than flattering light, however, Twitter provides a great way of turning this into a fantastic opportunity. Unlike blogs, where the author may or may not respond, and the author may or may not append their original blog post, on Twitter, especially if you respond in real time, you can literally change people's opinion on the spot.

A great example was with Mike Arrington himself, when he was bitterly complaining about the service he was getting with Comcast. Turns out Comcast was listening, and worked on things in an expeditious fashion. Problem was solved, and Arrington went on to blog about it.

It would be tough to measure how much that good publicity would have cost.

At the end of the day, every conversation about your name, service, products, or brand, should be treated as an opportunity to engage people -- in real time -- with their experiences, and no matter how good it is, try and make it better, in the way that the ideal brand experience ought to be.

Using Twitter this way is not for the lazy, uninterested, or the disempowered. It necessitates a melding of great customer service and the knowledge of what the brand is, how it ought to be, and the integrity to realize that there are always going to be shortcomings. As trite as it sounds, when you engage people in Twitter, you are live and you are searchable. And in many cases, you may not get a second chance if you flub the first.

But in a time when expectations are so low, it represents, in many cases, not just an opportunity, but an easy opportunity to engage in a way that's human, real, and in a way that proves that your brand is listening and willing to help.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Valera Maltoni *) 

Valera says... 

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(* Source: Dean McRobie *) 

Dean says... 

This is a fantastic example of some outside the box thinking on connecting the offline, mobile, and online experience with customized products. By now I am sure you are all familiar with the NIKEiD program. The next evolution is using MMS on your cell phone to help you pick and match your outfit. The technology behind this isn't too complicated, but the experience design is interesting: see something that catches your eye, snap a picture, Nike sends you the matching shoes overlaid on your picture, and of course linking over to ordering online too! This technology and experience could apply to all kinds of clothing and retail products with strong color choices and a relatively minimal infrastructure.

Masterminded by AKQA, London, NIKE PHOTOiD is a brand new mobile application which allows users to customize their own set of sneakers according to their physical surroundings. You simply take a picture of something on your camera phone (it could be anything from a piece of graffiti to an ice cream sundae) and then send this pic off to a shortcode via MMS. The NIKEiD website then picks out the two strongest colours from your image and uses them to colour your custom sneakers. Within a minute, you are sent a link with your design superimposed over the original source of pantone inspiration.

You can then save this image as wallpaper for your mobile, send it to a mate or, by entering the unique DESIGNiD at NIKEiD.com, link directly to your design to complete and actually purchase the sneakers. As one particularly over-excited sneaker-freak in our office inquired with a faint hint of dribble at the corner of his mouth: 'So I could take a picture of a grassy meadow and then it would text me a link to buy my very own Nike Grassy Meadows?' Yeap chap - that's about the long and short of it...

Posted by brian tiong at 03:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: John Biggs *) 

In the grand tradition of UPC codes and CueCat, ScanBuy/ScanLife is attempting to barcode the world. Their mission: to allow companies and individuals to place small barcodes on their publications that are readable by over 70 phone models including an upcoming application for the iPhone.

The 2d barcodes - meaning that unlike standard barcodes they are read in both the X and Y axis - can trigger menu events, download content, lead you to a website, or create a contact or calendar entry in your phone. They currently appear in outdoor ads, some magazines, as well as transit schedules in Europe. The program is actually compatible with multiple types of codes, ensuring international compatibility.

ScanLife wanted to offer TechCrunch users a chance to create their own EZCodes for placement on business cards, documents, and tattoos. You can download the application by texting SCAN to 43588 (U.S. only) or visiting www.getscanlife.com in your phone’s browser.

You can then get your own EZCode by visiting this link and typing in the invitation code techcrunch. One thousand invitations are available under this code.

The company, founded in 2000, is dedicated to making 2d barcodes a mainstay of the modern experience. Current ScanLife users can scan the barcode below to receive a special surprise.

Posted by brian tiong at 02:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Steve O'Hear *)

Steve says...

Location-based social networking could soon go mainstream with today’s news that Nokia, the world’s leading mobile cellphone manufacturer, has acquired Berlin-based Plazes.

Founded in 2005, Plazes lets “friends” update each other about what they are doing when and where, resulting in a Twitter-like activity stream but with integrated geo-tagging. Users can then subscribe to any of their friends’ activity streams or to groups of friends, as well as to specific locations known as “Plazes”. Updates can be done either on Plazes.com or by mobile phone (via text messaging) or using a number of third-party applications that utilize the Plazes’ publicly available API.

Now that Nokia has acquired the service, “if all goes well” we can expect Plazes to be “made available to millions of Nokia customers both online and on millions of mobile devices”, according to the official Plazes blog

A few key takeaways from the announcement…

• It’s more evidence that Nokia is moving away from being purely a hardware manufacturer into a fully-fledged Web service company, with it’s consumer-facing Ovi brand.
• Nokia is placing a massive bet on Location-based Services. The company now includes GPS functionality in almost all of its most recent handsets, and has been bundling its own mapping software (based on a previous acquisition of Gate5, another Berlin-based startup). Additionally, Nokia is in the process of acquiring NAVTEQ, the world’s largest data mapping company.
• Plazes is still on track to release a native iPhone client, suggesting that Nokia understands the importance of network effects over platform exclusivity. No location-based social network will be able to go mainstream if it is limited to friends who use a particular handset or platform.

Moving forward, it’s clear that mobile, combined with location, represent the next social networking frontier. As evidence, Google’s Android developer contest is littered with location-based social applications, and the official iPhone SDK has already given birth to a number of location-aware social networking apps. What’s not clear yet, however, is whether the eventual winners will be established social networking services such as Facebook or Twitter that add location-based functionality or newer or specialized entrants who build in location and mobile from the get-go.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Brad King via Marketing Shift *) 

Brad says... 

I was having a drink last week with a friend of mine who comes from a traditional marketing background and she was explaining how she'd come up with the marketing logo for her company.

She spent a great of time discussing what the image portrayed and why people would associate it with her company. It was quite compelling; however, I told her I disagreed. Her brand was her URL first and what people said about the functionality of the website second (they are Web company).

Now, there's lots of reasons why the icon is important (syndication, for instance), but ultimately, the success of her company is going to come down to two things: how easy is it for people to find you through Google and how are you going to communicate with those people in the blogosphere who are engaged in your product.

It's impossible for her -- or other companies -- to control the marketing message. The people will decide. The most important area she should focus on: tapping into the conversation and becoming a partner with her clients.

It's a never-ending job; however, the game industry has the right model. They hire community managers who attend to, seed, answer to and advocate for the people who are using their products. They are known entities, actual people speaking in plain language.

Of course, not every product will have a community, but that doesn't meant that you can't build communities around lifestyles associated with a product (although in her case, the community should form rather easily).

Posted by brian tiong at 09:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Mike Masnick *)

Mike reports... 

We wrote about Metallica's latest foray online, where it's attempting to build a community around its latest music. Given Metallica's history of attacking Napster all the way back in 2000, we expected there to be some pushback, but what was really stunning was how many of the comments were from people (many of whom had been big fans of the band) still pissed off about Metallica's actions, and refusing to have anything to do with the band. We weren't the only ones to notice. Wired had a story on Metallica's efforts and discovered exactly the same thing. The vast majority of the comments were vehemently negative. Clearly, Metallica really tarnished its reputation by its actions eight years ago, and it's still paying for it.

This brings up a good point, that we've mentioned in the past in the comments, but not so clearly in a post. A person, organization, band or company's reputation is an important "scarce" good -- and once damaged, it's quite difficult (though not impossible) to rebuild the shattered goodwill. When talking about what would happen in a world without copyright, for example, people often say "but in a world without copyright, couldn't someone just copy your own creation and pretend they were their own." The answer is yes, but they do so at the risk to their own reputation. If the news comes out that the person/organization/band/whatever was taking others' works and not giving credit where it was due, that would harm their reputation. And, as Metallica is learning, a tainted reputation can have serious long-term impact.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

 (* Source: Servant of Chaos *)

But while the consumer landscape has undergone a profound change, it is easy to see why business is slow to move -- for no matter how advanced we are in our "home life", evidence of a leakage from home to profession is minute. Take for example, the humble wiki. How many of you heard of a wiki? How many of you have you have used one? How many have set one up? Who has read something on Wikipedia?

Now I am guessing that many of my blog's readers would raise their hand at at least one of the previous questions. But now ask yourself, does this apply at work? Extend the same question to blogs. Does your company have a blog? Are you involved in it? If not, why not? What are the barriers preventing you?

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 09:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Financial Times *) 

Andrew says... 

Apple is in discussions with the big music companies about a radical new business model that would give customers free access to its entire iTunes music library in exchange for paying a premium for its iPod and iPhone devices.

The “all you can eat” model, a replica of Nokia’s “comes with music” deal with Universal Music last December, could provide the struggling recorded music industry with a much-needed fillip, and drive demand for a new generation of Apple’s hardware.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 09:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

 (* Source: Techcrunch *)

Michael says... 

Yahoo Buzz, a Digg-like service that launched on February 25, is now nearly three weeks old. We asked Yahoo to share some of the data from those first two weeks.

The big benefit for publishers is that top Buzz stories are linked from the Yahoo home page, which turns a firehose of traffic onto a story. When those stories hit the home page there’s a good chance that the linked site will have a record day in traffic. Yahoo says they’ve sent 16 million visitors to outside sites in those first two weeks, and they’ve gathered data from some of the linked partners:

• Salon got so excited about a February 28 link from the Yahoo home page to this story that they issued a press release - they had 1 million unique visitors that day, the most ever to the 12 year old site.
• US Magazine was linked from Yahoo on February 27, and had the second highest traffic day ever. 32% of visits that day came from the Yahoo home page.
• Huffington Post reported 800,000 unique visitors from a Yahoo-linked story
• Smoking Gun, Portfolio.com, Dallas Morning News and Imaginova all reported significant traffic increases after links from the Yahoo home page.
• Sugar, Inc. sites have had nearly 1.8 million unique visitors sent from five different Buzz stories on the Yahoo home page

More here 

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(* Source: Mike Jones *) 

Mike says...

People online are seeking new ways to connect and be social. To meet that growing need, a new wave of social media sites have germinated explicitly to provide tools and platforms that facilitate sharing in all its facets and forms. The recent popularity of online social networks gives testimony to our most primitive desire to belong, as we congregate around the things we are most passionate about.

Savvy marketers are beginning to see this evolution of Internet users, from passive consumers into brand influencers and ambassadors who are not to be underestimated.

Many brands are wary of exposing themselves on social media sites, but as anyone who's been involved in social media for more than five minutes knows, they're too late. Their brands are already exposed, and the community is talking about them, whether they choose to get involved or not. Rather than trying to avoid the conversation, brand marketers need to create a strategy to engage online influencers and social media users who have the power to make or break their brand.

Here are seven social marketing tactics to help your brand "get social" and join the conversation:

1. Boost the Fun Factor – Find out what social sites your customers and influencers frequent, and help them accomplish something new there. This does not mean inserting your brand as a social media billboard. It may mean offering an application that entertains or informs, or starting and growing a community based around your customers' areas of interest. Caveat: Start it, facilitate it, but don't try to control it.

2. See the Forest and the Trees – Pay attention to the smaller, niche social network sites, where people are gathering around their areas of interest and hobbies. Brand opportunities around these newer micro-social sites will increase as they begin competing and winning attention from the large, noisy social sites.

3. Widgets are Welcome – Incorporate a widget into your next online marketing program. Widgets are portable applets that appear on blogs, Web sites, and social networking sites. These self-contained applications allow page owners to personalize their sites quickly and easily. At the same time, widgets allow you to engage your audience with compelling content while also strategically and subtly branding your company or product.

4. Conversation is King – If you develop an application for use in social networks, or if you build a custom network, enable seamless conversations using the tools that users are familiar with. Promoting text conversation among participants is one thing, but also facilitating conversations using video and audio can help boost interactivity and brand resonance. Also give them a way to connect back to you by subscribing to a custom feed and giving them direct access to someone internally.

5. Engage – Find something that appeals to customers at an experiential level. Once upon a time, you built it and they came. Nowadays, they won't show up unless you effectively engage them. Show your customers that you thought about them at a human level and not as simply "users." This will impact every approach you take and will force the personalization for target demographics regardless of the tools you use to reach them.

6. Research and Listen – What is appealing to the people you want to reach? The only way to learn about their preferences and what they will or won't embrace is to monitor their activity, as well as the culture of the community you wish to reach and create. By observing, you'll uncover not only the ideas to build or deploy relevant tools, services or campaigns, but also the methods and strategies for creating genuine excitement and participation.

7. Don't Go It Alone – Making the wrong move in the social media space can do more damage than not participating at all. Look to technology, marketing, and strategic business partners to create an effective and appropriate presence on the social web.

Remember that your brand influencers are online to connect with people who care about the things they care about. They are there to make meaning, not to be broadcast to. They are there to participate and create, not to be advertised to. The more your brand can assist people in connecting with others online to create or share something new, the more favorably you will be received in these new and influential social circles.

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(* Source: Joshua Levine *) 

I'm been recently thinking about my past year in social media and realised that I've been pretty focused on the B2C part of social media related projects.  This week begins my quest in observing more about the B2B side of the equation.  Have a read on what Joshua has to say.

Joshua says... 

Wikis, blogs and social networking – once exclusively the Internet playground for techies, kids, and assorted enthusiasts – are being adopted by corporations at an explosive rate.

The race is on to embrace the power of the web to harness collective intelligence and sell products in new ways.

For anyone needing proof that Web 2.0 is big business, just look at Microsoft's battle with Google for an equity stake in Facebook, one of the leading social networking sites. Microsoft now owns 1.6% of Facebook after making a $240 million investment, marking a $15 billion valuation for the high-traffic website.

The Race Is On

ChangeWave Research recently completed a benchmark survey on Web 2.0, which confirms the explosion in Web 2.0 usage. Our survey of 2,081 companies shows a huge percentage not only believe in the benefits of collaborative Web 2.0 tools but are rapidly moving to implement them in a wide variety of ways.

Key findings include:

• One-in-four respondents (24%) say their company already uses Web 2.0 social software. Another 8% say they’ll begin using it in the next 12 months.

• Focusing on specific web technologies, we found that Wikis (20%), Blogs (18%), and Social Networking (15%) are attracting the most attention.

• Surprisingly, while current users find Wikis to be most beneficial to their company, future users think Blogs (26%) and Social Networks (21%) will be most beneficial.

All told, two-in-five respondents (39%) report their company is very or somewhat willing to use Web 2.0 social software for business purposes.

But why are companies so hot on using Web 2.0?

The top two reasons given by current users are both internally oriented:

• To improve internal employee collaboration
• To increase internal efficiency and productivity

However, a wholesale transformation is occurring between current and future corporate users in terms of why they’re making use of Web 2.0 software. While current users are more ‘internally oriented’ in their usage, future ones will be far more ‘externally oriented.’ Here are the top reasons given by future corporate Web 2.0 users:

• To improve internal employee collaboration
• To improve external customer service and support
• To increase external brand awareness and loyalty
• To increase external sales of products and services

Read more here 

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(* Source: Servant of Chaos *) 

I been recently thinking a little (maybe a lot) on the future of marketing and I guess, like Gavin been focus on the big picture.  Maybe a little micro focus will not hurt... read on, I suspect Gavin is thinking in the right direction and would love to hear his comments in the week coming on his new blog topic series -- entitled The Future of Your Brand Is ...

Gavin says...

At the end of 2007 and in the early part of 2008 I watched as a series of predictions hit the web. Some of these posts and articles predicted the end of this or that, or the beginning of something else. Some looked at trends, others at opportunities. Sometimes the focus was observational. And while I don't normally go in for trend analysis, I felt a strange sort of pressure to come up with my own list of predictions. I began stewing on it ... and it became worse with every new, additional post that I saw on trends. But then I realised that the only expectations were my own. I felt released. And now a good two months into the year, the focus on the future has been forgotten -- we are, everyday, seeking to define and create it with our words, actions and ideas. We are thinking on the fly, strategically doing and jumping in feet first. If anything, 2008 is more of the same ... more blogging, more social media, more connections and ideas, more conferences and meetups. I don't know if it IS faster that 2007, but it feels it.

I came to the realisation that when it came to insight I needed a little more focus, not less -- I needed to zero in, not fly at 10,000 feet.

Out of the haze I settled upon two meta-trends -- the trends of trends:

 

• Micro-transformations -- Micro-transformations refer to the miniaturising of consumer behaviours into ever smaller discrete steps. This fragmentation of direct experience is driving a range of sub-trends that are, in turn, being facilitated by economic, technical and social changes.

• Infatuations -- In a globalised world, our infatuations are taking on new dimensions. No longer is infatuation one-way, but it is bi-directional … what we love now returns that love in an equally idealised form.

 

More here 

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 (* Source: PSFK *) 

Christine Huang says... 

Nokia’s online music store was open for business in Germany, the second country to welcome the largest cellphone maker’s virtual media shop (the first was launched in the UK in November). Nokia plans on rolling out their iTunes competitor in nine more countries by mid-2008, charging 1 euro ($1.52) per song, rivaling iTunes .99 euro/track rate.

Along with Nokia’s Ovi internet services (which offer its mobile users access to SNSes like MySpace, Flickr, and Facebook as well as the Nokia Music Store, Nokia Maps, and N-Gage games) the music store is is the first large-scale move by a cellphone producer in the realm of online content offerings. Next on the list are France, Italy, Spain, as well as Singapore and Australia by third quarter 2008, with further expansions planned for Asia and Europe through the end of the year.

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(* Source: Mashables *) 

I got sent this by my friend Simon last week and thought nothing of it and sent it on to a couple fo friends (you know who you are little elfs).  It just shows that creative 'avatar yourself' content is still pretty compelling & viral in this web1.0 email space and with a little contribution from web2.0.  Wonder how it will be like next year when virtual worlds take more stage space.  Elf Youself 3.0? Can't wait... maybe.

 
OfficeMax got it right last year when they launched the Elf Yourself campaign during the holiday season. The site that lets you turn yourself into a dancing elf was a big hit, and OfficeMax has brought it back for an encore this year. Hitwise reports that Elf Yourself has become the top-ranked site in the Humor category, and has held its ranking for the last three weeks. An 89% increase in traffic took place for the week ending December 8, 2007, from the prior week.

What’s interesting is the demographic that’s found this site to be most amusing. Thanks to the viral nature of email, and office workers being the target demographic, 62% of the traffic to Elf Yourself for the week ending December 8 came from web-based email services and the majority of the site’s visitors were aged 55 and over.

Looks like plenty of employees are staying on task while working in the office this holiday season. If your employees are going to waste time on the web, wouldn’t you want it to be for a dancing elf? Get in the holiday spirit! Is this the ultimate viral marketing campaign? The quick (once you get past the initial load time) and easy custom options make for high user engagement, and you even get OfficeMax coupons and promos when you’re done.

So what’s with the viral essence of email marketing? It still works beautifully, when you’ve got a compelling piece of content. The easiest way to share things with friends (email) has tapped 62% of the incoming traffic for Elf Yourself, with 35% coming from Yahoo alone. 19% hails from Windows Live, while MySpace and Facebook lent 5% and 2% respectively. Is this promising for Yahoo or Google, considering their evolving hopes for Inbox 2.0? It sure doesn’t hurt.

But what about OfficeMax? Does this type of marketing convert into good customers? This is the second year that OfficeMax has rolled out the Elf Yourself campaign, so it must be doing some good. Others have taken to this concept for temporary promos as well–SimpsonizeMe, for instance. Even YouTube is hoping to get a viral boost out of the holiday season, with templated sending options for video clips. See here for more holiday fun.

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(* Source: Kristen Nicole *) 

We haven’t seen Nike get too heavily involved with online virtual “avatar hubs”, but its latest campaign gets pretty wrapped up in Zwinky, taking a few star athletes along for the ride. A new challenge launched by IAC’s Zwinky and Nike invites users to engage in the site in order to get their chance to meet a star athlete, a la Zwinky avatar.

The Field Reporter challenge requires the user to know a thing or two about a particular star athlete, which includes Maria Sharpova, Kobe Bryant, Serena Williams, LeBron James and Abbey Wambach. If you pass the first round of questions, then you’ll still need to solve the clues that will lead you to your star athlete. Find them, and then cart them off to a virtual press release in your stretch Hummer, where you’ll also get the opportunity to ask them a question. It looks like you only get one shot to ask something of your star athlete, so make it good. You’ll also get some Nike gear to take home.

Seeing virtual events or brand marketing inside virtual worlds is nothing new–the trend grew quite rampant earlier this year with th sudden growth of Second Life. What often differs in these smaller, temporary campaigns, is the level of integration for the users. Depending on the brand, the type of campaign, and the long-term goals for that brand, we’ll see different levels of integration into the virtual world. The Nike campaign doesn’t seem to be looking for a virtual way to market its products for long-term use on Zwinky, though this wouldn’t be a bad idea.

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(* Source: Kristen Nicole *) 

Coca Cola has apparently found it useful to market itself in virtual worlds. Having made its claim in Second Life through various promotions, the beverages company has moved on to There.com. CC Metro is the island Coke has created in this virtual world, where avatars can hang out. There’s a virtual movie theater for viewing short films (this seems to be very popular in virtual worlds), a diner, and shopping stores where you can use your Coke Rewards points to redeem items for your avatar to don on themselves or in their homes.

The island, shaped like a Coke bottle, is one example of a more integrated marketing solution for a brand within a virtual world. It also highlights the usability of other virtual worlds outside of the dominating Second Life. What stands out for this particular marketing campaign is the attempt at subtlety, which greatly differs from Coke’s Second Life promotion which invited users to design a vending machine. Cosmo is another brand that’s found There.com to be a viable virtual world for targeting teens.

But is there anything in particular that makes one virtual world better than another, and will these brands eventually launch larger campaigns that can reach across several virtual worlds at once? Cruxy has created one tool that will work in multiple virtual worlds, making it easier for distribution purposes to have an offering in more than one community.

And as I mentioned before, showing movies in virtual worlds is becoming more popular–this is a far easier format to offer across virtual worlds and Sony has even bought into it, as it’s invested in Gaia. It doesn’t seem like virtual worlds are dying off anytime soon, with Wells Fargo even launching its own, so we’re sure to see more creative implementations of advertising on this front.

[image via nytimes]

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(* Source: Mashable *) 

Kristen says... 

Molson

It’s a sadly funny situation, seeing a brewery try to get hip with an online photo contest on Facebook. I can only assume that Molson didn’t happen to notice that Facebook is a breeding ground for drunken party pictures pouring in from campuses across the world. Needless to say, the photo contest ended up looking more like a promotion for binge drinking, and the brewer pulled the plug on that one after being contacted by an Xavier University administrator. Surprise, surprise.

Lesson Learned for Molson

So what can we all take away from Molson’s mistakes?

Don’t hold a college party photo contest (especially on Facebook!) if you’re a brewery. Go sponsor a cab company instead.

Just because it’s a social network and your daughter spends too much time on it doesn’t mean it’s the best place for you to advertise. This leads us to the next takeaway…

Get an online marketing specialist. If you can afford one, then it’s likely you’re too far removed from social networking to understand it anyway. So just spend money to hire experts to do online marketing for you. It’s like a dog walker, only way better for you.

Don’t hold a college party photo contest if you’re a brewery!

Got any other takeaways from Molson’s mess up? Share some more “duh” moments in the comments. This is a layup for all you trollers out there.

[via globe and mail]

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(* Source: TechCrunch *)

The Singapore government in their attempts to be 'cool' has struck out again.  Who is responsible for this idea should be given a job in PR because it is just like a firecracker that just went off in yor hand. I could not watch the video... See if you can.

Michael Arrington says...

I couldn’t not post this. The Singapore Media Development Authority made this video to sex up the Singapore tech scene a little. I’d say they definitely succeeded - there’s nothing as cool as middle aged men in suits rapping. Dan, dude, you’ve got to get on this immediately and make it go viral.

I would have paid good money to have done a cameo in this video.

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(* Source: Jeremiah Owyang, insight from Charlene Li and Shar VanBoskirk *)

Executive Summary
Both Facebook and MySpace have launched profile and network targeted advertising and marketing products. As they both use member interests and the communities which they are part of, trust continues to become key in adoption as information is passed along the network. The sheer size of MySpace’s member base, as well as the thriving local business membership will lead to success. Facebook, which brings a unique solution evolves advertisements to endorsements and encourages members to subscribe to a brand in what we are calling “Fan-Sumers” (an evolution of the consumer). As consumers share their affinities, brands can advertise using trusted social relationships.

(Left Graph: Consumers trust their friends and acquaintances far more than any other sources –Report: Leveraging User-Generated Content, 2007)

Trust is and will continue to be one of the most important attributes in the decision making process.

Communities form online, trust develops
How we get information continues to evolve as communities form online organized by individuals with similar interests. Just like in real life, we identify our interests, and are often influenced by opinions and experiences of trusted peers in our communities. For many, social networking sites embody these relationships and influence how trusted decisions are made.

[Brands can now self-serve a targeted marketing and advertising campaign within the already thriving MySpace community]

Webmaster not needed: MySpace profile for businesses
Small businesses can continue to build their online profile on MySpace (many of them already have), but now, because of their familiarity with self-marketing (restaurant, nightclub, and other local businesses and their customers) on Myspace.

Self-service ads remove middle man
When friction is removed, efficiency is created. With MySpace’s “Self-Service” ad network small businesese can target ads across a variety of affinities (over 300) and deploy ads on users’ profile pages. These ads, which should (by theory) be relevant and contextual to a user who has self-populated their profile page will have these ads displayed.

Advertising balance required in already busy MySpace
With marketers already with a strong presence in MySpace this could continue to erode away at early adopter “cool kids” from embracing MySpace. But as cycles have shown, where communities form, marketers follow.

User experience continues to be free-form
These ads, which will conform to IAB advertising standards (sizes) will give advertisers the freedom to create the ads in the style accustomed to the network. Yes, expect more blinking text.

To watch: OpenSocial
As OpenSocial starts to be deployed across MySpace and other partners, expect profile ads to be tied to widgets and vice versa; a fabric of links. I’ve already outlined How to explain OpenSocial to your executives.

Inaccurate user profiles could result in mis-targeting of ads
We know that many members do not make their profiles accurate which could yield inconsistencies in how and where ads are displayed. While MySpace has assured they’re accounting for rogue outliers, expect some inefficiencies in advertisements.

Our Call: Sheer mass will yield success
We think this to be a win for MySpace, given their great reach, there are millions of users with active profiles, and there’s also plenty of inventory as many small and local businesses that are present will be comfortable deploying ads where their community already exists.

More here 

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(* Source: Jeremiah Owyang *)

Some insights and analysis from the Forrester team of Jeremiah, Charlene & Shar VanBoskirk.

Jeremiah says...

Going beyond just profile matching of advertisements, Facebook allows consumers to self-identify with brands and becoming fans. In turn, brands can use these “Fan-Sumers” as endorsers to their own trusted networks, resulting in trusted word-of-mouth. Brands can also self-manage their own campaigns, and there’s some unique opportunities for eCommerce widgets or applications to be part of this formula.

[Using Facebook, consumers will publicly endorse brands, resulting in the birth of the “Fan-Sumer”, causing efficient word-of-mouth marketing in their trusted network]

There are three major components to today’s announcement, they include the following:

1) Facebook Pages: Brands get their own profile
For the first time, businesses will legitimately be able to setup profile pages, much like MySpace’s business profiles feature. Next, Facebook members will add these brands as ‘fans’ (much like friends) and this will produce a connection between the parties. Members will self-identify with brands in what we are calling “Fan-Sumers”. Furthermore, this service, called “Beacon” gives third parties the ability to share information on the newsfeed and provides lots of unique opportunities. Sponsored groups will start to evolve into this new form brand profile as this system gets adopted.

2) SocialAds: Endorsements at the friend level lead to eCommerce
Once a member has indicated they are a fan of a brand, that brand can choose to purchase SocialAds (from Facebook Sales or via a self-service platform). A unique endorsement of a product or brand will now appear on that individuals news feed or banner or skyscraper ads. Advertisers can purchase social ads target by profile demographics and profiles, as well as by activities done in Facebook. Payment is an auction-based system available to marketers via both CPM and CPC pricing.

3) Use “Insight” for control and flexibility
This self-service dashboard called Insight gives the marketer detailed knowledge how their advertising campaign is working on Facebook. It’s expected that advertisers will have flexibility, control over the type of ads they deploy, in what quantity, and the demographics they want to target.

A likely scenario:
Shauna, who enjoys Revlon products, indicates she’s a fan of the brand and becomes a Fan-Sumer. Marketers at Revlon can then purchase SocialAds, which will then display on Shauna’s newsfeed or on ads on her profile. If Shauna purchases Revlon makeup from Amazon, her newsfeed could indicate an eCommerce links recommending it to her 100 trusted friends, resulting in further sales.

[The traditional marketing funnel as we know it is distorted; endorsements are now passed from trusted customers to prospects, not direct from the brands themselves]

Implications for Facebook:

Members have more control over ads
Facebook users can opt to turn off social ads, and friends of that user can ‘dial down’ endorsements they see using preferences. We believe that Facebook is attempting to respect the rights of users by giving control to members to ‘opt-in’ to become a Fan-Sumer.

Quest for Fans will cause brands to beg
Since social ads only work if a member has indicated they are a fan, brands will be working to earn and buy fans to accept them as members. Expect a lot of noise to be generated from this activity as brands run campaigns to encourage members to add them as fans through discussion boards, banner ads, and special offers.

Hard to qualify a “business”
Facebook is limiting these features to ‘real’ businesses and organizations. Expect an entire team to be crawling and dealing with this qualifying the issue. As recent member accounts have been disabled from Facebook, expect businesses and organizations to encounter same issues.

Limited ad supply to raise prices
Because Facebook members will see only two social ads per day, we expect the supply of ads to be in scarce supply and thus raising prices and not matching the value. This could shift ad buying to large brands who have experience buying and managing search and direct response ads.

Our Call: Brand affinity leads to community endorsements and more trusted marketing.
We see this as a win for Facebook, this highly targeted system isn’t just about web advertising but about brand affinity and hooks into what’s really important, trusted endorsements from people in a network. This truly is the next generation of advertising. Facebook tells us that the worst case it will be 2 times click through rate over the performance of (existing is 4-26%)

Experiment: Because of the control and flexibility, we recommend to brands that are currently on either of these social networks to experiment and test.

Learn how to efficiently manage your campaigns. There’s clearly a trend towards self-service, which provides efficiencies for both businesses and the platforms.

To know: Marketing has changed, advertising is no longer a sole-solution. Marketers must also learn how to be part of communities, engage with them, and be part of the conversation.

To know: Marketing is now distributed, brands must embrace communities where they currently exist, rather than solely driving them to their corporate website.

[While traditional search advertisers like Google and Yahoo match by keyword, My Space and Facebook match on something far more powerful: people and their relationships]

Posted by brian tiong at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source : David Radd

Hang out and rock out online

Harmonix and MTV Games today revealed the details for Rockband.com. The site will launch on November 20 simultaneously with the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game and will feature band pages, classifieds, leaderboards, blogs, forums and more. San Francisco-based Mekanism was tapped to build the social networking site.

"Rockband .com blurs the lines between fantasy and reality," said Melissa Macaulay, Producer of Rockband.com, Harmonix. "The site allows you to hype your in-game band's accomplishments, while providing a forum to meet other real-life people and potential band mates who share your musical tastes."

"We see Rockband.com as a true extension of the Rock Band world. It will be an awesome way to meet new people who have similar musical tastes," said Josh Randall, Creative Director for Harmonix. "With Rockband.com players will be able to come together and express themselves in a collaborative manner, which is what playing music is all about."

"We are designing Rockband.com as an online home for your band, and as a creative platform for living out your rock and roll fantasy," said Pete Caban, partner at SF-based digital studio Mekanism. "The b ands and rockers that you can create in Rock Band are insanely unique, and it's going to be fascinating to watch this community come to life."

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(* Source : Newsweek *)

Brian Braiker says :

Photo illustration: Newsweek.com; photos: istockphoto.com

 

Fighting for members, MySpace tries to outcool Facebook

Do you Facebook or MySpace? Increasingly, membership in one social network does not necessarily rule out the appeal of belonging to the other. Of course, each company wants you visit their site more often than the other (if not exclusively)—all the more reason to differentiate. To that end, MySpace, the 800-pound News Corp.—owned gorilla, made three major announcements this week—two of which served to underscore a deepening fundamental difference in philosophy from its closest rival, Facebook. "MySpace is Hollywood and Facebook is Silicon Valley," says David Card, a senior analyst for Jupiter Research. Or you could put it this way: MySpace is glam; Facebook is geek. Not that there's anything wrong with either.

MySpace announced Tuesday that it has forged a splashy licensing agreement with Sony BMG—the world's second largest label—for access to streaming videos, music and other content. The partnership calls for the social-networking giant and the music studio to share advertising revenue. And in a bid to conquer the social-networking world beyond U.S. borders, MySpace will soon be offering its 110 million active monthly users free voice chats via a new partnership with Skype (220 million strong, mostly outside of the States). In a new service called MySpace IM with Skype, the Internet phone company will enhance the MySpace instant messaging service with new free VoIP capabilities starting November. (The companies will split the revenue, but specifics of the arrangement were not disclosed.)

These moves stand in direct contrast to Facebook, which instead of teaming with major media players to build services for its network of 47 million active users, allows third-party developers to build applications. A staggering 6,000 applications have been built for Facebook just this year. "We are not a media company," Mark Zuckerberg, the wunderkind brains behind Facebook, announced at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco this week. Analysts are inclined to agree. "I think there's a core philosophical difference, but [it's] the same revenue engine at the end," says Jupiter's Card. That engine, of course, is advertising. But with its Skype and Sony BMG announcements, original programming and hosting concert tours, MySpace seems to be morphing into an entertainment portal where everyone is in your extended network (and a potential audience member).

More here 

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(* Source : Reuters *)

 Yinka Adegoke says :

NEW YORK (Reuters) - News Corp's MySpace has reached a licensing deal with Sony BMG Music Entertainment to stream music videos from its artists, who include Britney Spears, Beyonce Knowles and Bruce Springsteen.

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(* Source : NYTimes *)

Louise Story says :

Rob Bennett for The New York Times

Joggers in the Nike Running Club in Manhattan last month. Nike is spending more of its advertising dollars on services for consumers like workout advice, online communities and races.

Since April, Mr. Saenz, 53, has been running with a Nike+, a small sensor in his running shoes that tracks his progress on an Apple iPod he carries. After each run near his home in Louisville, Ky., he docks the iPod into his computer and posts details of his run on the Nike+ Web site. There, he has made friends with other runners around the world who post running routes, meet up in the real world and encourage one another on the site.

Nike’s famous swoosh is there all along. For Nike, this is advertising.

“It’s a very different way to connect with consumers,” says Trevor Edwards, Nike’s corporate vice president for global brand and category management. “People are coming into it on average three times a week. So we’re not having to go to them.”

The success of Nike+ is bad news for the traditional media companies that have long made money from Nike’s television commercials and glossy magazine ads.

Last year, Nike spent just 33 percent of its $678 million United States advertising budget on ads with television networks and other traditional media companies. That’s down from 55 percent 10 years ago, according to the trade publication Advertising Age.

“We’re not in the business of keeping the media companies alive,” Mr. Edwards says he tells many media executives. “We’re in the business of connecting with consumers.”

Mr. Edwards may be more blunt than most. But many large marketers are taking huge chunks of money out of their budgets for traditional media and using the funds to develop new, more direct interactions with consumers — not only on the Internet, but also through in-person events.

Adventurous companies like Nike have been experimenting with these alternatives since the 1990s. But now, even the most conventional marketers are making these alternatives a permanent — and ever bigger — part of their advertising budgets.

Last year, Johnson & Johnson decided to boycott the so-called upfronts, an annual event when advertisers get together with television executives to negotiate for commercial time. In August, General Motors said that 2008 would be the last year for its longtime sponsorship of the Olympics. In May, A. G. Lafley, the chief executive of Procter & Gamble, told financial analysts that the company would spend less on traditional media and more on its Web site, in-store advertising and promotional events.

“If you step back and look at our mix across most of the major brands,” Mr. Lafley said, “it is clearly shifting.”

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(* Source: Larry Gentille *)

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(* Source: online.wsj.com *)

Peter Sanders says :

For the first time, Bugs Bunny and dozens of his animated companions at Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. unit will be housed together on a single interactive Internet portal.

The new Web site, dubbed T-Works, for "Toon Works," is scheduled to go live in April. Warner Bros.' stable of animation divisions includes Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera and DC Comics. It will feature all the studio's key animated characters -- from the famous bunny, Sylvester the Cat, Scooby Doo and the Flintstones to comic-book heroes, such as Batman, from the DC Comics division.

It is the latest effort by a major Hollywood studio to control distribution of its content while simultaneously playing catch-up to established social-networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook and virtual worlds like Second Life.

"T-Works fits perfectly with our overall digital strategy of creating original content online, as well as developing compelling consumer destinations," Bruce Rosenblum, president of Warner Bros.' Television Group, said in a statement.

The ad-supported site will be free to consumers. Users will be able to watch classic cartoons and original animated programming designed specifically for distribution on the site; create virtual worlds using cartoon characters as their online identities, or avatars; and customize their online identities on their own computers and on social-networking sites. They can also digitally alter cartoon characters to their liking and play online games based on the animated characters.

The site is Warner Bros.' latest effort to put elements of its vast catalog of content onto the Web. Officials of the Burbank, Calif., studio say T-Works will compete directly with Walt Disney Co. and Club Penguin, a social-networking site aimed at children that Disney bought last month.

Last year, in partnership with sister Time Warner unit AOL, Warner Bros. provided classic TV shows on the new In2TV site. That site has since largely been eclipsed by the major television networks, which now offer newer programming through various online sites. Rival studio Sony Pictures Entertainment, a unit of Sony Corp., earlier this summer revamped Crackle, its video-sharing Web site.

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(* Source: Sonja Scharrer *)

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(* Source: Rey Peralta *)

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 (* Source: Robert Levine *)

EMusic, the nation’s second-largest online music seller after Apple’s iTunes, plans to announce a deal with AT&T today that will allow people to buy songs from independent labels through their cellphones, without the need to go through a personal computer.

Several services, including those run by Sprint and Verizon, let people buy songs directly over the air. But they focus on songs by mainstream performers like Prince, who has a deal with Verizon. EMusic sells music only from independent labels, a category that these days includes the new album from Paul McCartney as well as obscure punk bands. The arrangement with AT&T Mobile Music will make those songs available just as easily as the more conventional ones.

Nearly all of the 2.7 million tracks eMusic has the rights to sell will be available through the service, which will work on several handsets by Samsung and Nokia.

“We know that we have a lot of customers in the segment that eMusic is trying to reach,” said Mark Collins, vice president of consumer data services for AT&T’s wireless unit.

Record labels have long believed that selling songs in mobile phone-based music stores will encourage impulse purchases. EMusic will encourage consumers to browse, reading about bands and hearing snippets of songs to discover music they might like.

Tracks will cost more than they do over the Internet — $7.49 for five songs, as opposed to $9.99 for 30 at the online site — because of the expense of sending them over a mobile network to a user’s phone. For that price, however, users can also get another copy of the song, which they can download from the Internet as an MP3.

EMusic, which is owned by Dimensional Associates, the private equity arm of JDS Capital, currently has a marketing deal with AT&T to encourage consumers to “sideload” their phones with MP3s from its existing Internet store — meaning that they can plug their phones into their computers to transfer the music. But this will be its first time selling music on a mobile network.

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(* Source: Kris Graft *)

Microsoft-owned in-game ad firm Massive Inc. has inked a deal with Electronic Arts that will bring dynamic ads to five high-profile titles.

Madden NFL 08 (Xbox 360, PC), NASCAR 08 (Xbox 360), NHL 08 (Xbox 360), Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 (Xbox 360, PC) and Skate (Xbox 360) will all go live in the Massive Network this year.

Massive CEO Cory Van Arsdale added, “The addition of EA’s leading titles to our network represents a tremendous opportunity for brands targeting the youth demographic and sends a clear message that in-game advertising has arrived as a compelling medium for marketers.”

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(* Reuters *)

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(* Source: Reuters *)

  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Steve Jobs, the father of the iPod, was crowned on Tuesday as the undisputed king of the online music revolution by U.S. music magazine Blender, topping a list of the 25 most influential people in Web music.

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(* Source: IMedia Connection *)

The Little Deviant campaign uses an array of innovative elements to underscore the xD's non-conformist personality. These facets include a cinema spot that debuted in key markets on June 15, the Little Deviants interactive website that launched the same day, a pop-up spectacular print ad, a banner campaign and other guerilla activities that kicked off earlier this month.

In the storyline, the xD's virtual accomplices -- a number of uniquely monstrous little Deviant characters -- torment "Sheeple," the conformist clones who paint the world and its inhabitants a dull gray. The xD itself unleashes Deviants from underground, and through the campaign's website, visitors can join the mischievous gremlins in customization... all in the spirit of replacing dreary compliance with vibrant creativity.

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(* Source: Duncan Riley *)

Mattel’s virtual world Barbie Girls hit the 3million user mark in its first 60 days and is growing at the rate of 50,000 new users a day, according to a report from the Scientific American.

To put that in perspective, Second Life took 3 years to get to 1 million registered users. At its current growth rate, Barbie Girls should pass the number of Second Life registered users between November and January based on Second Life’s existing growth rate. Barbie Girls would also pass World of Warcraft around the same time as well*.

Barbie Girls allows users to customize Barbie dolls, dress them up, create virtual homes, adopt pets and chat with other users. The service is free to play with a revenue model focused on the purchase of virtual goods.

Saying this is a crowded space is probably now an understatement. Competitors include Cyworld, Zwinktopia, Stardoll, Haboo Hotel, Web Kinz, Club Penguin, Gaia Online, Neopets and others.

It would be easy to dismiss an offering like Barbie Girls (feminists are probably going to roll their eyes at the whole concept) and yet 3 million registered users in 60 days does say one very, very clear thing: virtual worlds are going mainstream and the user base is dramatically shifting from being predominantly male to majority female. That shift isn’t quite as important now as it will be in the next 5-10 years as those playing Barbie Girls grow into adults; simply the next generation of online gaming and virtual world users will not be dominated by men.

*WOW figures of 8.5million users are paying, regular users where as the Barbie Girls figure would be registered users as opposed to regular players. Barbie may have a much lower regular player figure as Second Life does.

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(* Source: Businesswire.com *)

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MySpace today announced that it is outperforming all other social networking sites according to multiple metrics. America’s leading and most trafficked website has crossed the 70 million active monthly unique user mark in the United States, meaning that nearly one in four Americans used MySpace last month, according to newly released data from comScore MediaMetrix.

comScore MediaMetrix’s new data shows that users are more engaged on MySpace than on any other social network; the site gained two billion page views from May to June. Total time spent on MySpace by users is three times its closest competitor and the site continues to lead in average minutes spent per person per month with more than 200 minutes on average, according to comScore. Additionally, among teen Internet users MySpace ranks as the brand with the highest overall Differentiation and Brand Stature, according to Young and Rubicam’s industry standard BrandAsset® Valuator.

A report issued yesterday by Forrester shows that nearly 80% of 12-17(a) year olds use MySpace at least weekly which is four times more than any other social network.(b)

“This is just the beginning of MySpace’s evolution and we’re excited to see the continued growth and engagement among our users,” said Chris DeWolfe, CEO and co-founder of MySpace.

“Whether uploading a video, registering to vote, or catching up with friends, MySpace continues to be a central part of people’s lives.”

“MySpace is clearly leading the social networking category with the largest, most engaged audience as compared to all other social networks,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. “Our data also shows that MySpace continues to grow at a strong pace.”

“MySpace is in a unique position as one of the strongest, most valued brands in the highly coveted teen audience,” said Ed Lebar, managing director of BAV Consulting. “Our BrandAsset® Valuator showed MySpace as outpacing all other social networks and portals in terms of brand Differentiation and Energy.”

comScore MediaMetrix Data Overview

The latest data from comScore MediaMetrix shows that across four different user engagement metrics users are more engaged on MySpace than on any other social network:

Average Visits per Visitor

• MySpace users visit the site 20% more often than the closet competitor in the social networking category

Average Minutes Per Visitor

• MySpace users spend about 10 minutes more each month on the site than the closest competitor in the social networking category

Total Monthly Minutes Spent

• MySpace has 3 times more minutes on the site than its closet competitor in the social networking category

Average Daily Visitors

• MySpace gets 3 times more visitors on the average day than its closet competitor in the category

In addition to domestic growth, MySpace is experiencing strong international growth and has plans to expand into 10 additional countries in the next year. MySpace currently has localized communities in 18 countries and 7 languages including France, Germany, Australia, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Switzerland, Austria, Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand, Japan, Sweden, Austria, Latin America and the United Kingdom. By visiting MySpace’s online global map, users are empowered to log on and view their profile through the lens of any of country or language http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=InternationalMap.

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