"Explore the world through someone else's eyes"... and no I'm not referring to a warg.

Last month I wrote a post about a few of Twitter's aggressive growth initiatives. Today, I share with you their newest one, Periscope.

Launched just two days ago, Periscope is Twitter's response to Meerkat, a live-streaming video app.  Although it is only available on iOS devices, the product has attracted the attention of many users and brands.

What is Periscope?  It is a platform for streaming live video from your iPhone from anywhere in the world (that has a connection). Just download the app from the Apple store, log in, enable the camera and become a broadcaster.  Not in the mood to be famous yet?  Well, you can always watch other peoples' videos instead.  The popularity of live-streaming videos is the idea of discovering the world through someone else's eyes.  As described by the creators of Periscope, " a picture may be worth a thousand words, but live video can take you someplace and show you around." As with Twitter, this app allows you to follow people and be alerted of their new broadcasts.  You also have the option to browse around for something that catches your eyes.  And if you don't have enough time to watch the entire video, you can always save it and watch it later.

And the most loved feature of Periscope... the hearts that you can give to the videos you like or love.  Similar to a "like" button, this feature lets you send a heart or even many hearts to the broadcaster of your choice and with enough hearts, this person can be featured as a "most loved".

The product has already gained some early adopters.  Adweek, shared information on how 4 brands are already using the Periscope app.

Spotify, a music-streaming service posted a behind-the-scenes video with Conor O'Brien from the band Villagers.

"During the live stream, 382 viewers tuned into the live stream, racking up 1,534 hearts—the equivalent of "liking" something on Facebook.  As of 6 p.m. last night, the video had been replayed 99 times and received 255 hearts."

 

The brand used the app to create a short video titled "Stop by to say what's up."

"The short clip showed a girl spelling out the word "Swag" on a chalkboard with a table full of branded T-shirts and hats in front of it."

 

Red Bull, known for their sense of adventure and risk, always open to trying new things, experimented with Periscope during Miami Music Week this weekend. 

"The brand will live stream events happening at its Red Bull Guest House. Social content will also be pushed out via Twitter and Snapchat."

And the fourth brand, DKNY, gave viewers a look into its fashion closet last week, shortly after announcing it had opened an account via Twitter.

"Fashion brands already regularly employ Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to give folks a peek into its world, so it's likely that fashion-minded marketers will embrace Periscope."

Are you willing to give Periscope a try?

Goodbye Gigaom

This past Monday, GigaOm announced that all operations have ceased.  A tech news powerhouse, GigaOm is a global voice on emerging technologies.  Founded in 2006 by tech blogger Om Malik, the company started out as a side project growing to a company valuation of $30 million in just six years and then shut down in the past two days.  Here's what they had to say to their readers:

What happened?  Was it because they decided to move to a subscription base revenue model in 2008, was it because other blogs like Reddit, Mashable, TechCrunch and Business Insider were ahead or was it because the company was mismanaged?  It could be for all, some or none of these reasons.  A lot of writers have shared their opinion, what's yours?

Tech Blog GigaOm Abruptly Shuts Down by NYTimes

GigaOm Was Universally Respected. Too Bad Respect Doesn’t Pay the Bills by Slate

Farewell, GigaOm: Tech news powerhouse shutting down by Mashable

GigaOm And The Death Of Editorial by Forbes

Pioneering tech blog Gigaom shuts down after running out of money by The Verge

And the last writer who shared his thoughts on the subject matter, founder Om Malik.  Although this blog post doesn't share any details on what he thinks caused this, it definitely demonstrates his passion and commitment to the company.

Saving Google+ one feature at a time

Google+ was first launched in June 2011 as a response to Facebook’s growing members.  On the surface, it seems exactly like Facebook: you can share updates with friends, receive and follow your friends’ activity feeds, chat and even group your friends based on your relationships with them.

After almost 4 years, Google+ has not been as successful as they had hoped.  Although Google claims that they have 300 million active users, most people I know don’t use the service and maybe even some who work at Google will confirm it is a “failed” product.  Is Google being truthful about their statistics or are they being sneaky about their criteria for a Google Plus user?

In a recent CNN article, Google’s product chief Sundar Pichai stated that Google+ will be re-branded.  Although the number of users is billions less than Facebook, the investment was too big for Google to dump (it's a sunk cost!) so they are going to leverage the successful features.

Google+ has had success with the “Hangout” and “Photo” features.  I have used Google Hangout and found it to be very useful for video conferencing for group projects and you can also have a lot of fun with the photo taking feature in Hangout.  These features will continue to exist as products,  just re-organized differently.  The social feed aspect will move into a new service called “streams” and allow users to post to Google+.

In addition to these changes, a recent Mashable article shares information about a new version of Google Contacts that aims to combine users' Gmail and Google+ connections in one place to create a more streamlined experience.  "The new Google Contacts comes with a fresh look and feel, and conveniently pools together all your contacts, circles, and the people you talk to most in Gmail," Google writes in a blog post.  "The new Contacts ensures that the info you see is still accurate and ready to use by blending your contact’s Google profile information with the stuff you already have."

Contacts will be rolling out to Gmail users "over the next few weeks."

Successful Strategies for Email Marketing

According to a Forrester Research report, 42% of US online adults delete most email advertising without reading it, down from 44% in 2012 and 59% in 2010. The percentage of consumers agreeing that they receive too many email offers and promotions fell by 1% from 2012 and down 10% from 2010.  What does this mean?  We are doing a better job at email marketing but we can do much better.

Email marketing is huge and will continue to be for many years to come so it needs to become smarter. Businesses need to become extremely clever about what types of email content they provide and how they promote it.  Businesses are realizing that the key is sending BETTER emails (not more emails) that create value.

Grow email list 

Your email list is one of your most valuable marketing resources.  If you want your list to have an even bigger impact, make it easy for people to sign up and give people a compelling reason to sign up.  Most major email service providers will have an app that allows you to collect emails right from within your Facebook page. As always, it’s a good idea to offer something of value here rather than just asking your fans to sign up for your list. 

With it getting harder and harder to reach fans on Facebook without using paid advertising, many are finding great success distributing free offers using Twitter.  There are tons of tweet schedulers out there like Hootsuite and SocialOomph which allows you to set the times, frequency and campaign duration as well as recycles the tweets for later use. 

 

Increase email open rates

Your open rate is one of the best metrics for measuring the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts.  The more people you get to open your emails, the more opportunities you’ll have to drive business results.  Focus on sending emails that your audience will thank you for.  Create the best email subject line that catches your reader’s attention and lets them know why they should click to open.

Average open rates vary from industry to industry. If you’re not sure how your open rate compares to other businesses, check out the Comparison by Industry Chart.

Enhance engagement

One of the best ways to measure engagement is to look at your click-through rates.  Click-through rates show you how many subscribers are engaging with your content and taking a desired action by clicking on links within your email.  Keep your message as focused as possible, with one clear call to action that you want them to take.

 

Compel the customer to act

Take some time to look through your reports to see which links are getting the most attention. This is a great way to see what your readers are most interested in. Create separate email lists for people who click on a particular link and follow up with a more targeted email.

Determine goals and boost results

The goal will be a direct response — to drive sales, generate reservations, or bring more people into your store or office. In other cases, the goal will be focused on the long-term — to generate awareness, improve loyalty, or increase referrals.

Measure results

Pay attention to how many of the people who redeemed the offer are existing customers, and which are new to your business.