CMP.LY Keeps Social Media Marketing Legal

Social media marketing has clearly become a top contender in receiving and utilizing digital marketing dollars from companies, however the legalities concerning its use have always been vague. Enter CMP.LY, a New York based startup that works with agencies to offer solutions to automate compliance and keep brands on the "right side of regulations". After two social media campaigns were stopped for violating FTC regulations (Ann Taylor blogger program and Legacy Learning Systems), although they weren’t severely punished, CMP.LY insists on the need to incorporate legal strategies in order to avoid such ramifications.

Since these regulations have thus far been largely ignored, the concept of CMP.LY remains uncertain and new. But is this firm the first of many similar companies to pop up and offer support and guidance to agencies that integrate social media campaigns? Will the FTC take more serious action against violators and inevitably begin a new era in social media regulation? How important is CMP.LY today? For years, the laws on social media and the digital marketing, in general have been vague (i.e can we use licensed music to promote a brand on youtube or on a website), but these questions may be far behind us.

I can’t help but wonder how the FTC will affect small firms or start ups that may not have the funds to work with companies like CMP.LY. Perhaps the laws and regulations will be more transparent and understandable to 'regular' business owners that need to learn the nuances of social media marketing from the start. We will need to learn new practices and legal solutions if our companies plan to work within the system. Perhaps companies like CMP.LY should develop software or teaching tools to sell to the mainstream market so smaller firms can take advantage of their services.

I believe this is only the beginning of the crackdown on social media marketing and we need to take action to protect ourselves.

PaidContent:The Atlantic Now Gets ‘More Than Half’ Of Its Ad Revenues From Digital

I thought this article was fascinating for two reasons. As we have discussed in class, generating revenue from online platforms has been tough for traditional print media (read NYT many failed attempts which perhaps will improve with the new online "group" plans)

I also found it interesting because the Atlantic Brand seems to have successful updated itself from an oldschool wonkish one to a much more newmedia news source similar to gothamist, and others with this new online strategy...which seems to be paying out in many ways.

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-the-atlantic-now-gets-more-than-half-of-its-ad-revenues-from-digital-/

TechCrunch: The Death of the Impulse Shopper

http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/20/the-death-of-the-impulse-shopper/

I thought this article was really interesting given our class discussion this week. As discussed, open access to information about product offerings is of use to the consumer beyond online shopping. As in the case of Best Buy, information from online is supplementing purchasing decisions for consumers and it is vital that brands think about online campaigns and promotions for their product, beyond information and well into online PR.

How Technology is Changing the Museum Experience

I think it’s safe to say that museums have the advantage over performing arts venues when it comes to integrating digital technology. The range of possibilities seems almost endless and some museums are really on the cutting edge of developing user-friendly mobile applications that truly enhance the museum-going experience.

This article in Mashable highlights the efforts of the Smithsonian in DC, The Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, and the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. Each museum has dedicated both monetary and staff resources to effectively incorporate mobile technology in an effort to add a deeper level of user engagement with museum visitors. The days of just holding up the telephone-like audio guide and punching in numbers of artworks while wandering through the galleries are coming to an end. Now, you don’t even have to be geographically near the museum to be able to experience its collections.

It will be interesting to assess the landscape in a few years and see if these new interactive technologies have resulted in an increase in museum visitors, or if the availability of all this information through mobile platforms will supplant the need to visit the physical site of the collection. I don’t think that the actual experience of being in a museum can ever be duplicated, but these new tools do provide a rich resource in terms of educational materials that can be shared in classrooms around the world that do not have the same access.

2 Points for Heinz

Heinz (as in the ketchup) recently launched a Facebook campaign for a new product available only on their Facebook page. The campaign failed the first day however, as the e-commerce application was faced with problems which prevented users from being able place orders. Heinz responded to the hundreds of comments on the Facebook site and shipped free bottles of ketchup to thousands of customers who had attempted to unsuccessfully place the orders.

Takeaways from this tidbit for any company to learn - aside from make your customers happy - are:

1) launching products on social media that are available only to social media users ~ great idea to make customers feel like they are a part of an exclusive experience and to drum up marketing buzz.

2) when faced with a glitch, apologize on the social media site - to each customer who leaves a comment if necessary; customers will be consoled, and other prospective unhappy customers will be pacified.

Good job, Heinz.

Engaging with Facebook

This week eMarketer published some research about what actions on Facebook get consumers to engage with brands. From previous articles and conferences I remember learning that a customer only has the capacity to truly follow up to 5 brands. So while you might follow say 20 brands on Facebook, its likely that you only actively follow a handful. Therefore it's really important for a brand to grab a customer's attention when they have the chance.

Over 1,500 facebook posts were analyzed and the results show that posts with photos resulted in the highest user engagement (.37%) followed closely by vide0 (.31%). In third place is text only posts (.27%). And, it is clear that links alone result in less than half the engagement of video (.15%).

So if a brand posts daily on Facebook how can they keep up? One way is to post original daily video content. It could be a 1 minute video by an expert/editor/chef etc. If your brand is food related it could be a quick video on "what to make for dinner tonight". You could encourage users to post their photos of their evening meal. Additionally, by allowing users to comment on the meal and the integration with your brand you create a dialogue about your product. This would in turn further create conversation amongst fellow fans as they share their recommendations for improving the recipe. By inducing dialogue, and developing strong user engagement your brand becomes more relevant to the consumer (and hopefully it results in higher sales).

Of course each brand needs to determine the right content for their users but it's promising to note that video and photos don't need to be elaborate -- just compelling enough to keep your consumers following and hopefully engaging more with your brand.

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008677

Balancing Speed with Accuracy

AP Reprimands Reporters

Social media platforms have made access to information easy and instantaneous. The shift away from traditional print journalism means that people aren’t turning to major newspapers to get their news. Breaking information is likely going to be discovered through social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter where the information can be delivered quickly and effectively to a large audience.

But what happens within a news organization when the actual reporters share breaking information on Twitter before it can be vetted by the editors? An incident just this week illustrates the fine line one must balance between the desire to communicate information quickly to a large audience and the need for accuracy of news reporting. Apparently, some journalists from the Associated Press down at Occupy Wall Street tweeted about some of their colleagues being arrested, sharing the news via Twitter instead of with the AP wire. This is in violation of the AP’s social media policy that news be first delivered to the AP and sent through the wires before being spread on social media platforms—another good reason why an organization needs a clearly worded social media policy.

Some counter that this is just an indication that the AP wires need to move faster to keep up with information. But how much faster can it really get without sacrificing fact checking, a basic staple of a journalist’s job? As the world of information moves at increasing speeds, we can strive to keep up, but there must be some limits imposed on those employees of trusted news organizations to maintain a certain standard of accuracy. There will always be somebody on the street with a smart phone that will tweet and update his or her status with the latest news before the news outlet gets to it. It should be the news organization’s job to ensure correct, accurate, factual information.

Tips for Making Your Press Release Twitter Friendly

Great list of tips to help make your tweets press release friendly.

Tips include

• Numbers & statistics - people are naturally drawn to statistics and using numbers can bring impact to your tweet.
• Hashtag properly - Make sure that your tweets are searchable
• Make quotes tweetable - Make quotes substantive, interesting or funny to encourage re-tweeting
• Include multi-media - Adding videos, pictures, audio and other media types adds values to press releases and further draws in your audience

http://www.mediabistro.com/prnewser/six-tips-for-making-your-press-release-twitter-friendly_b30368

Why this blog should be moved to Tumblr?

Given my horrible failure to keep up with this blog, I am going to do what humans always do - blame it on the tool. I suggest that this blog be moved to a more blog-friendly sites like Tumblr (check out personal blog here). I am personally biased towards Tumblr but let's just do a quick comparison on why it should be moved over:

a. Ease of creating a post: Basic user experience (UX) should reduce the barrier to create a post. Blogger does a decent job of creating a txt based blog post, but Tumblr takes the design to a whole new level. Form the dashboard you can create a post of any of the 7 different types and can quickly posts link to content on the other sites.

b. Encourage the people to create their own blogs: I am guessing the goal of the class is to get students to create blogs. With Tumblr, they can all create their own blogs and then follow the class blog that can aggregate their posts. That way, they can continue with their blog posts after the class is done.

c. Built a Klout and get Google cred: With cross posting and commenting on the blogs, Tumblr can help build a social profile but linking Twitter and Disqus adding to one's Klout score.

And on top of everything, Tumblr themes are just beautiful!

If I spend more time I am sure I can come with more but I think this serves the two purposes I wrote the post for.

Retailer Responses to Smartphone-equipped Customers

As Black Friday approaches, there is anxiety among some retailers about how the mobile phenomenon will impact their customers' buying habits. With many customers now shopping with their smartphones in hand, simply getting customers in the door is no longer enough.

According to the comScore Q2 2011 State of US Online Retail Economy, the percentage of people who now use their smartphones to comparison shop while in the store has reached 40%. And 14% have gone so far as to buy a product on a device from a competing retailer while in the store.

Some companies are working to get ahead of the trend. Best Buy has added QR codes to their product fact tags to dissuade customers from turning to Google. Walmart has launched a new iPhone app aimed at enhancing the mobile-enabled shopping experience, with features that help shoppers keep lists, know which products are in inventory, and navigate stores.

I have experimented a bit with making retail purchases on my phone and had a good experience so far. It's not hard to imagine trying on shoes in a Foot Locker and opening my Zappos app to grab a better price right there in the store.

Digital Marketing Crash Course for the Arts

This is Happening – Media and Arts Presentation

Although it’s probably no secret to anyone at this point, the arts world is scrambling to get up to date with digital technology and social media in an attempt to reach out to new, younger audiences and even to retain their current audiences. As the world has shifted online, the arts now have to follow.

Sydney Skybetter, Chairman of the Technology Committee for DanceUSA (the national dance service organization) posted the slides from a conference where he presented on the topic of why arts organizations can’t afford to wait any longer to get online. I recommend taking a couple minutes to click through the presentation.

First, a quick shout-out to the fact that Skybetter is using SlideShare to make his presentation slides available to the public, a great example of a potential use of this technology. The format seems fairly similar to Flickr, except that there are slides where the photos would be. You have the option to “follow” the person who posted the slides, and there is sidebar with ample suggestions for ways to share the presentation on your own social networks. In fact, the first ground rule he gives as part of his presentation is to “Tweet/Facebook/Blog the frack out of this.”

In Slide 14 he introduces Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s email strategy in a simple, easy-to-follow diagram that details how Ailey first responds to a new email subscriber and then how they follow-up with that person to build a relationship with Ailey before finally springing the “will you please donate” email on them a few months down the road. The next slide shows a flow chart of all the possible responses Ailey has based on whether or not you open their email and how to then direct you to online advertising to drive ticket sales. Such a laid-out strategy is crucial to executing any email or online advertising campaign. All eventualities have been accounted for and possible solutions arranged.

Finally, the presentation closes with some great, fun tips that all arts organizations should remember like “Facebook Intern ≠ online presence.”

When Keepin' It Real Goes Wrong...

I'm all for real time feedback, but sometimes it can definitely backfire on you.. Case in point. Facebook ran a survey on how many people would go see the film "Happy Feet 2"... The results were horrible with 41% of respondents saying the "Definitely Would Not" see the movie.. A question has arisen on the impact of these p0lls in influencing consumer opinions. There needs to be a filter to keep polls like this and their results from going public when the results are so bad. So, beware new brands looking feedback.. You may actually get what you're asking for!

http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/18/social-ads-backfire/

Startup Weekend - A must attend for anybody looking to start a company

Last weekend, I had the chance to attend startup weekend in Seattle. Startup Weekend is a phenomenon that has caught on around the world. Started by the Kauffman foundation, Startup Weekend brings together engineers, designers and business specialists to pitch ideas they might have and form teams and crack out a prototype in 54 hours.

The session I attended in Seattle was attended by 150 odd people, making 55 idea pitches and working on 18 final prototypes. Ideas that were generated included creating a new way of checking weather, crowd funding for small business, buying drinks for your friends as well as a brand new concept to plan for travel. Read more about it here

Startup weekend is held in multiple cities around the world if nothing else, one should stop by just to get the sense of enthusiasm in the room to start something from scratch.

Metrics-Driven Marketing Strategy by Dave McClure

Originally posted at here

Like this metric driven marketing strategy set of slides given by Dave McClure to the class at Stanford in 07.

Very applicable to all marketing folks, startup or established firms. One thing that is certain in business is that measurement drives improvements. And if your strategy cannot quantify the value of the actions, it make is harder to improve. Next thing you know, your customers are walking away disappointed even if you product is phenomenal. The presentation is available on the slide share.

Crowd-Funding

One of the most compelling ways to increase job growth in this country is to breakdown the barriers of access to capital. With banks not lending, many would-be entrepreneurs have to rely on friends and family, and many can't scrape enough funding to get their idea off the ground. With that said, there's a lot of cash on the sidelines and many investors have grown tired of anemic financial markets, and would love the opportunity to buy a piece of someone's start-up.

Just last week, HR 2930 passed in the House by 407-17, and the bill is supported by the white house. Still, the WSJ published in article today on the naysayers, claiming that investors run the risk of falling prey to scams. Certainly analyst coverage and registration with the SEC provides a false sense of comfort. Just ask anyone who owned shares in WorldCom, Tyco, and Enron.

Of course vetting fund raisers properly will be an important part of the process, and there are ways to leverage social networking platforms and the Wisdom of the Crowd to make educated investment decisions, not to mention third-party audited financial statements. Capping the amount that a single investor can contribute will also mitigate risk.

With an official jobless rate hovering over 9% (and an under-employed rate much higher), we need to consider innovative ways to jump-start our economy. Crowd funding has already proven its magic with art projects through Kickstarter. Now it's time to spread the model to the broader part of our economy.

E-Commerce in China

As an eCommerce business owner, I’ve frequently considered targeting the Chinese market. But how? I’ve traveled to China, and while a fascinating place, I left with my head spinning. How could I possibly tap into the 800 million people who will claim China’s middle class in the next 20 years? According to Acquity Group, this translates to a $2.7 trillion online market. While there is certainly a lot of poverty, the reality is that there are already more Chinese connected to the internet than people in the United States, so now might be the time to start making moves into the market. Fast Company recently published an article called, “New Study Offers Roadmap for E-Commerce In China”, but other then the connectedness cited, the roadmap kept me lost.

How does one go about setting up a site that caters to a foreign language? Bidu (China’s largest search engine) and Google work quite a bit differently, so how does that come into marketing decisions. Clearly, rank among a search engine is one of the best (and only) way for a new company to gain awareness, and this details wasn’t discussed. Stay tuned as I look for a better, more complete strategy for entering China’s market.

When Facebook doesn't Cooperate

Facebook always sounds like a great opportunity for brands to quickly and easily generate buzz and awareness. However, it is important to remember that this rapid effect can cause huge headaches if the technological and communication components are not fully aligned.

The most recent example is Heinz. The company pre-launched a balsamic vinegar version of their ketchup by selling it through their Facebook page. Heinz did a great job of promoting it, they had a huge onset of demand. However, their Facebook page was not prepared to handle it, and the site stopped working until late in the evening.

The result was a lot of unhappy Heinz fans. Heinz since has offered a free bottle of ketchup for anyone placing orders following the outage.

While this discontent most likely won't be financially detrimental, it creates mistrust in the social media element of their brand identity. True, most people frustrated by not being able to buy a bottle of kethcup online won't create massive boycotting or protest, but this target is a valuable one to Heinz and one that will need work to be repaired.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11319/1190071-100.stm

Benetton's Unhate Campaign

Benetton’s Unhate campaign, which launched yesterday, depicts photoshopped images of world leaders, from politicians to religious figures, kissing. The campaign started with the unveiling of several banners with this imagery, strategically placed in a few European cities. The youth-oriented Italian fashion label, which is certainly no stranger to launching polemical advertising campaigns, has setup a traditional offline campaign that incorporates some supporting online channels (YouTube video, website, Facebook page). However, one would guess that Benetton was very aware of the magnitude of social media and that they intended the campaign to play itself out online.

A quick review of the impact of the effect of the campaign in social media channels shows that the Unhate video is the most viewed video in Benetton’s YouTube channel, having been viewed approximately 171,000 times, substantially more than any of their other videos, which range from a few hundred to a few thousand views. Social Mention stats for the word Benetton show a reach of 46%, a 3:1 sentiment, 41% strength and an average mention every 22 seconds. The word unhate generates very similar statistics indicating that the company was at least successful in associating the campaign with their brand. The Vatican quickly complained about the photograph depicting Pope Benedict Sheik XVI and Sheik Ahmed el-Tayeb kissing, to which Benetton responded by removing it from the campaign and issuing a statement on their Facebook page.

It is interesting to note that the campaign has yet to run in any print publications but will do so later this month. Of course one has to wonder if anybody will care by the time the advertisements are published, making one question the relevancy of traditional print ads at this point in time, and reconsider the best use of these traditional platforms, particularly when combined with online channels.

Brain-Computer Interconnectivity

The Economist recently featured an article called “Mind-goggling” that described how far we’ve come in brain-computer interactivity over the last few years. The article cites a study by Bin He and his colleagues at the University of Minnesota created a system that enabled volunteers to successfully fly a virtual helicopter just by thinking about it. Indeed, signals from electrodes provided enough guidance for computers to work how the user intended.

What exactly does this mean for our increasing dependence on search and technology? While we’ve adapted our language to communicate with search engines, it seems that computers, mobile devices, and tablets have a good chance of reading our minds to complete tasks without the effort of typing. Could we fill out a calendar just by thinking about an event on a Saturday, and have Siri (or similar) remind us to go? Time will tell, but the future looks bright.

Yes to Anti-Piracy Legislation

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported that nine tech companies, including Google and eBay, sent a letter to congress protesting an antipiracy bill. Specifically, the bill would allow the US attorney general to force US internet sites and search engines to block sites with pirated material. Given the rampant spread of piracy (know and unknown) throughout the internet, this would place a significant burden on web-based companies, yet these measures would protect content creators and preserve one of the US’s strongest industries: entertainment.

In an era of outsourcing just about everything to low-cost labor countries, we have to protect the content creators in the US to ensure that we remain the entertainment capital of the world for movies and music. Both industries are reinventing their business models to adapt to a digital era, so it’s vital that we have a legal environment to protect the efforts that go into content creation.

Blackberry London - the new device for 2012

Yes, we all know that RIM has taken a lot of heat and negative press for lagging behind the market, consumer demand, and appearing to sit back and let Apple and other competitors surge into the top positions. And as mashable has noted a so-called 'leaked image' of the new Blackberry London (http://mashable.com/2011/11/15/blackberry-london-pic/#32089Porsche-Design-P9981-Email), with the first BBX OS expected to launch in mid-2012, it is too little too late. Critics like the design and the layout, but continue to bash RIM for poor user interface, unfriendly navigation (too many searches and clicks!), and some have called this the "last kick of a dying horse." Perhaps this is true. It is too soon to tell if RIM will be around for the long-term but in the near-term, RIM's trusted and deep customer based of Blackberry addicts probably won't want to switch too easily unless forced to do so, or if they receive an iPhone 4S as a gift, perhaps. We'll have to wait and see what transpires in the mobile phone / device market in 2012. Can RIM stay in business, and continue to grow? Hmmmmm.

The importance of managing your brand in social media

In the age of social media there is still much debate over the value of a Facebook fan or "like" for companies. Monetizing and quantifying Facebook and social media fan bases in a direct way has proven to be very difficult. That said, there is virtually no questioning the importance of managing your brand in social media, or of the ability to strengthen (or significantly damage) your brand without the appropriate social media strategy.

Companies with strong brands in social media have been able to increase customer captivity and loyalty, distribute coupons and promotions to their most loyal followers, engage consumers in conversations about their brands and products, and use "free" channels to enhance their profitability, albeit primarily in indirect ways.

Alternatively, above and beyond the multitude of companies who are either not using social media at all or using it in a poor and ineffective way, there are those companies who have actually damaged their brands by poor social media management, some of them rather famously.

The latest example of that is Bank of America: http://www.businessinsider.com/bank-of-america-google-plus-page-2011-11 and http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/11/bank-of-americas-google-plus-page-appears-brandjacked.php. Apparently, amidst their 30,000+ employee layoffs they seem to have lost their social media team or they were caught asleep at the wheel. Either way, there is no doubt that with active monitoring of their social media presence this "brandjacking" would have been caught immediately, certainly within a day if not within hours of posting, and the Bank could have avoided all the bad press it received. A quick search on Google News reveals 76 articles that featured this social media gaffe on the part of B of A.

Giving users options in their digital advertisements

140Fire (http://140fire.com/) a start-up founded in early 2010, is looking to improve video ads by asking a series of simple questions to users. Their platform aims to make video ads more effective by adding a layer of interactivity on top of a video ad. Typically these are questions or polls which engage the user, somewhat similar to when Hulu introduced the idea of having users choose which ad to watch. They claim that when their service is part of a video ad, advertisers see click-through rates that are as high as 2x the industry average and that 7-10% of consumers interact with the advertisement.

The underlying concept is that by engaging users with simple choices and interactivity, a, viewers of video ads are more likely to pay attention, b, they are more likely to be receptive to the ad content, and c, I would presume that 140Fire and similar services are looking to take the data gleaned from these questions and refine and better target these users in the future.

For more information on the service, view the Mashable post here: http://mashable.com/2011/11/15/140fire/.

Overall, the concept of engaging users with digital advertising content, particularly in video format, is right in line with goal of maximizing the potential of digital marketing over traditional media. Ultimately, I would imagine the end goal of services like 140Fire would be to create a highly refined cache of individual user information and preferences to present the most highly targeted advertisements possible, raising click thru and engagement rates and maximizing revenue per ad dollars spent for advertisers.

Google drops right hand side ads

Google is known for beta. Gmail was in beta for years before a full fledged launch, Google Hotelfinder is now in beta to test the popularity of Google in the travel search space. Google's philosophy is to be quick to market in a test and learn mode and to fully launch if successful. As such, Google is now testing a new paid search ad placement. Instead of the popular ads that have been appearing on the side of the page, for some search pages, ads will now appear at the bottom. The space on the side will be taken over by maps and local business locations.

What are the implications for advertisers? According to a few experts, they will now have to increase their CPCs in order to be placed at the top of the page. There will be more competition to appear on the top as the bottom placement may yield less efficiency than the side. Therefore, those who traditionally bid enough just to be on the side may now try to bid higher for the top placement, making those placements more expensive.

While revenue might not be the main motivation for this change, some argue that Google may be trying to standardize its mobile & tablet platforms which do not lend itself for a side bar. With this new change, user experience can be consistent. While Google claims that ads at the bottom (below the fold) will yield higher click-throughs than the side bar, that assertion has yet to be tested. It will be interesting to see how Google optimizes between user experience and advertisement effectiveness. Who knows? In the future, perhaps Google will even intersperse paid ads within its SEO placements.

For more information regarding this new ad placement change go here:

http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/8253-google-dropping-right-hand-side-ads

Germany unlikes the Facebook “Like” button. Btw, is there an Internet worldwide legislator?

Many people consider Internet as being a new (virtual) continent. Out of 7.0 billion people on the world, 2.1 billion are internet users. And if Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth largest country in the world! But since the Internet virtual continent is housed in real continents and countries, who is supposed to decide on the laws regulating this continent? This past summer in Germany, the state of Schleswig-Holstein's data protection commissioner ordered state institutions to shut down the fan pages on the social networking site and remove the "Like" button from their websites, saying it leads to profiling that violates German and European law. Technical analysis shows Facebook violated German and European data protection laws by passing content data to the social network's servers in the U.S. Facebook and Google - often with success. And last year Germany fight as well against Google Street View stating this mapping system is going against the privacy laws. These are interesting examples of a country which considers that some Internet tools and rules a going against its laws and the Europeans ones.

So should Internet adapt its tools and rules in any country? Or should any “real” country have to accept universal Internet laws? Can we imagine a kind of continental Internet government, defining the general Internet laws? And this federal Internet government would deal with its countries/ states governments (Google, Facebook…) who would have their laws too? On the paper this sounds like an idea but it would be more than difficult to implement - and even more difficult to update on daily basis. On the current times when Europe and the US try to streamline their administrations, this would go on the opposite direction. It would add a new level or regulations, be expensive, complicated to manage, need many resources, and the ‘real’ countries would not accept to lose part of their sovereignty. It would be a kind of worldwide cobweb. So let Germany unliking the Facebook “Like” button!

Create a successful campaign via QR code

While we keep debating whether QR code is a useless or an extremely powerful tool, these small little squares appear on the screens of our smart phones providing new offerings. What a marketer should do to improve usage of QR code? Is it generally useful at all and how to explain a consumer that you offer a really good deal?

Marketers summarized experience of recent QR code campaigns and delivered it to public. As it turned out there is no rocket science in creating QR campaign, however, one should be very clear and careful with it. There are 5 steps in a successful QR campaign generation.

First, try to articulate your purpose. If your campaign is related to video instructions for a product usage or  its goal is to provide a customer with a product catalog, this should be reflected in your QR campaign. If you want to accelerate loyalty program or you decided to go online this should also be clearly stated.

Second, tell your customer what he is going to expect scanning your code. Paragraph long messages are usually not a good idea. Try to catch attention with short screaming phrases. Words like 'lowest price', 'latest collection', 'last day sale' usually get rewards.

Third, make your QR code unique. Usually the added value of generating a new design for a bar code is much more rewarding than one can imagine. Try to put colors in your QR code instead of boring black-and-white palette. Try to even come up with a small picture instead of random pixels. Designed codes on average have a higher scan through rates and even provide a customer with an element of security because people feel that a brand they are scanning is unique. Do not send your customer to your screen server page website. First of all, it is useless and does not explain a person where to find a deal and, second, some websites are not designed for mobile devices and look pretty awkward on those screens.

Fourth, get customers engaged and calculate their engagement. Daily scan metrics is very useful as well as the length of stay on the page. Typically, spending 2-3 minutes on the page signals that campaign is successful. Marketers now try to shift from 'scanning through' to 'diving deep' in order to improve brand marketing activities. Another thing to keep in mind is to refresh content on the website constantly. If you see that right after your campaign with a huge daily click traffic and long time spent on your website is not interesting anymore, it is a high time to update deals and keep your customer excited.

Fifth, get involved in social media and be imaginative. While your campaign is running, track the number of followers on Twitter and fans on Facebook. This will give you a picture of customer loyalty and level of engagement. Finally, do not be afraid of experiments. Every ad you can see on the streets, in subway or indoors can pop up on your mobile device. Try to be creative and catch customer attention before he can recover from the latest success of you QR campaign.

We Wish You A Mobile Christmas

The red cups are back at Starbucks which officially signals the start of the holiday season, right?

In all seriousness, with Thanksgiving around the corner, holiday shopping will be in full force if it hasn't already started for some of the eager beavers. With the increases in online shopping, industry experts agree that this will be the year for mobile. TechCrunch ran an interesting story on what this will mean including specific mention of trends in mobile and tablets. The basic gist is that retailers' investments in apps and integration of PayPal onto their sites will address the pending increases in online shopping.

But what I found most interesting was the integration of mobile into brick and mortar shopping. People are using their phones more and more to do comparative shopping at stores and find the best deals with apps like eBay's RedLaser which allows shoppers to scan a barcode and find products across multiple online and local stores including prices. Another app, ShopKick, is taking this even further by awarding loyalty points and discounts to consumers for going into participating merchants and performing actions like scanning bar codes or trying something on. The points can be redeemed for gift cards at the same participating merchants. So instead of killing traditional shopping, mobile is actually making it more rewarding. Brilliant!

http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/13/how-google-ebay-and-paypal-are-gearing-up-for-a-very-mobile-holiday-shopping-season/

Changing the Way We Cook

NY Times recently posted an interesting article on the evolution of digital cookbooks. While the traditionalists still take pleasure in planning and cooking the traditional way, i.e. using cookbooks, preferably with “splatters and sticky notes that evoke holidays past” there is a new generation of cooks and chefs that prefers using cooking apps on their digital devices. Digital applications are also changing the way in which recipes are followed and instructed: they no longer exist as a string of words. With featured like embedded links, built-in times, graphics, and voice-prompts, some kitchen tools are actually no longer required. The popularity of such digital applications is the new possibilities to learn and create more accurate version of the actual recipe: swiping, tapping and zooming through information presented in multimedia is a good match for the experience of cooking, which involves all the senses and the brain, as well. And when those faculties fail, as often happens in high-stress kitchen scenarios like Thanksgiving, apps can come to the rescue with features like technique videos, embedded glossaries and social media links.

The article details apps such as CulinApp that allow the reader/cook to view the recipe in four different formats, best suited to that individual. These range from recipes for the novice cook—a step-by-step view presents each recipe step in full screen, or using CulinView, a nonverbal way for a more confident cook to follow a recipe. After ingredients are measured and the oven heated, the rest of the process is shown in a flow chart, illustrated with bright images of mixers, whisks, ovens and ingredients. With arrows and color-coding, it sketches out the process for the more confident cook who already knows how to cream butter and sugar, say, but needs to be reminded what to do with the chopped apple and grated fresh ginger. SpinView puts the whole recipe on one page, with the option of scrolling through the steps. Finally, for the traditionalists, there is the Cookbook view, formatted in the old-fashioned way.

Many developers say that recipe animation, either employing stop-frame photography, line drawings or infographics, is the future of digital cooking instruction. Video, on the other hand, while it can be valuable for bringing a personality into the kitchen, has several drawbacks. It is expensive to produce, and eats up precious memory. Cookbooks have long offered their own kind of enriched content, in the form of scribbles left in the margins by cooks who found they liked a little extra cinnamon, or a higher oven temperature but with the endless possibilities of the digital platform, there is an application for that as well.

The interesting nature of such digital apps is that established and somewhat traditional organizations like the Culinary Institute of America are also embracing this change by expecting incoming students to use their tablets and digital applications, instead of the traditional cook-books. However, I think it will still be some time before this market really takes off and books become completely obsolete.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/dining/are-apps-making-cookbooks-obsolete.html?ref=technology

"Smartphone Etiquette for the Classic Dinner Date"

Okay. So the subject of the article "Smartphone Etiquette for the Classic Dinner Date" is whimsical, if not a tacky cheap shot. That said, I think the topic of how smart phones and social media interact with regular-old human contact is a valuable one. Just this weekend I was at a conference where people I met only once in a business setting were sending me friend requests on facebook (isn't this why LinkedIn was created?). It got me thinking of important it is to both understand how/when to use digital communications versus old-fashioned phone calls, personal emails, and other similarly archaic forms of communication.

At the root of the question, I think is the level of formality required of the communications. Digital communications tip the scales in terms of convenience, but in some forms of business it actually says more when there is a bit of inconvenience. Considering these dinner date tips along the line of a sales call, a lot of the similar notions hold true -- you want the person you are with to feel respected, to feel that they have your complete attention, and to feel that you are worth a bit of inconvenience (ie, you'll come to my door rather than text that you're downstairs).

In relationships and business, I want people to work for the convenience of being able to text me or friend me or mass email me. Maybe I'm a bit old-fashioned and this is just a generational factor. Will digital communications ever be able to feel "formal" in the traditional sense that there is value in the time it took the person to craft the communication? Is that already starting when you consider paperless post vs. evite?

Facial Recognition Technology Helps Marketers Target Ads

Facial recognition technology is becoming the next big thing for personalized marketing and smart phones. An article in yesterday’s New York Times discussed the usage of this technology to do things like have your smart phone scout bar scenes with facial detection software that determines the average age of a crowd and ratio of men to women. From a marketing standpoint, this software will be incredibly powerful for marketers aiming to improve targeting and deliver personalized ads. One company is already taking advantage of this technology to do just that; Immersive Labs, a Manhattan company, has developed a software for digital billboards that uses cameras and facial detection software to determine the age, sex, and attention level of a person passing by. The billboard then displays ads based on this demographic information. These “smart signs” are scheduled to debut this month in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/business/face-recognition-moves-from-sci-fi-to-social-media.html?_r=1&ref=technology

Make $250K blogging online (Not a scam - I promise)

 For more information, you can check out the link but I will give you a real life story.   http://successfulworkathomecareer.com/766/make-money-writing-for-about-com/#

We receive these types of emails all the time, work from home (medical billing) and make millions.  Or my favorite, that with only $1,000 I can buy real estate and make millions.  The truth is that such a scenario exists and it exists in the digital media world we live in.  There is no doubt that the Internet is the first place that people go to get information, but who is writing the content and how much do they get paid?

As a financial advisor I met a client, we will call him Ryan, who had a very comfortable job working for Google making $150K a year.  Ryan is a single New Yorker originally from Texas, who has a passion for remote control cars.  He knows everything there is to know about remote control cars and many times contemplated quitting his job and opening a store selling remote cars and accessories.  His job at Google was never in jeopardy in fact he was due for a  big bonus at the end of this year.  What Ryan did next, with the recommendation of his financial advisor (me), was to quit his job 2 months before receiving his bonus and leaving behind a good salary with a Fortune 500 company.
Was Ryan crazy to do this, during one of the worst job markets in the past 50 years?  Or was his financial advisor looking to rollover his 401K?  

The fact is that Ryan has been blogging on "About.com" for the past 2 years on topics relating to remote control cars.  Instead of opening a store he decided it would be less costly and more enjoyable to write articles for people looking to get into the sport.  Because of sites like About.com and our need for information from experts in their respective field, Ryan is making $250K a year and working 5 hours a week.  Yes, he works 5 hours a week and making more than 50% of Columbia University graduates.  So what does Ryan do for the rest of week, how does it work and can I do that too? 

Ryan travels the world with his laptop and since he does not need an office to work from, he can be in Morocco (as he is this month) writing his blog from a huka bar while playing backgammon with strangers.  To me he sounds like the James Bond of the digital media world and he is writing about what he loves to do.  Steve Jobs would be proud and it is something we can all do with a little homework and a passion/knowledge for a subject matter others are interested in.

From the link above, you can inquire that About.com pays writers to blog on a range of topics from skin care to removing stains from carpets.  You first have to select a topic of interest in which you have a lot of experience in and pitch it to About.com.  Homework and research at this stage is very important, because they want to know if there is a client base that will read it and whether you are the right person to write about it.  If About.com feels it is a good topic, then the interview begin.  You might have brought the idea but they interview potential candidates to ensure they get the right balance of writing skills, personality and Internet appeal.  The Internet appeal is very important, as your picture is on all their sites and the image of the blogger must resemble the image of someone who would be involved in that topic.  Luckily for Ryan, he looks like you would expect someone would look playing in their basement with remote control cars. 

One you a selected for that blog, you negotiate the terms of compensation.  For example, how many cents per click, base salary, number of new posts, etc...  To put some numbers behind this story, Ryan makes .05cents for every click on his blog, $500 for every time her blog gets mentioned on another website and a base salary of $25K a year.  As you can see from the numbers, Ryan has over 1million clicks on his blog and has numerous appearances on remote control car websites and magazines.  This is not easy and Ryan will be the first to tell you that it took him a long time to figure out who to utilize the Internet to work for him. 

This is one story but I am sure there are others like this who have used digital media to make a living while following their passion.  It is possible and that is what makes "Digital Media" courses so valuable if leveraged just right. 

Miguel Gonzalez
EMBA 2012

Siri the Death of SEO?

A recent article in Inc. asserts that the new iPhone's Siri may spell the end of current SEO tactics by changing the way customers find businesses. The idea is that, when a user enlists Siri's help to find something such as the closest Italian restaurant, the result could likely be based on that person's current location and data from Yelp rather than search engine results.

Clearly, SEO is not going away anytime soon. And most likely, rather than disappear, it will simply change...like it always has. But SEO and PPC experts are paying notice to Siri. Smart phone "personal assistants" are likely to fuel the trend of more emphasis on local. And it's yet unclear what part PPC advertising might play with such a tool. Will it be possible someday to place bids to affect Siri's behavior? Or would that compromise the assistant's value? It will be interesting to see...

http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/siri-and-the-end-of-seo-as-we-know-it.html

Coca Cola's US QR Code Program

Coca Cola’s newly launched US campaign to preserve the Arctic (home of the polar bear : Coca Cola’s mascot), uses QR codes printed on cups, which enable customers to download an iOS game app, which in turn connects to Facebook, allowing the user to play against friends. http://mashable.com/2011/11/11/coca-cola-qr-code-program/
The campaign in partnership the World Wildlife Fund and 7-Eleven (distributors of the cups with the QR codes) is a clever integration of some of the most popular digital platforms currently in use. The game, (Snowball Effect by Coca Cola), which can also be downloaded directly from the App Store, is a simple snowball throwing game, in which you challenge your friends to earn points. Points are also earned by checking in to a 7-Eleven and from the QR codes. As points are earned larger snowballs are unlocked making it easier to play the game.
In order to start the playing the game one has to challenge a Facebook friend, which inevitably leads to a wall post, the idea being you help spread the word. To fully engage with the game, the app has to be given access to the user’s Facebook account, and the device must have location services enabled. Although the game itself is not very entertaining, the interaction among the different digital platforms is interesting in that it gives Coca Cola access to their customer’s social media personas under the guise of social responsibility. According to the article printing the QR codes on cups posed a series of difficulties, yet Coca Cola hopes that in the future they will be able to be printed on cans.

Email Best Practices

We all receive hundreds of emails a day. As marketers we are eager to grab the attention of consumer and get them to interact with our brand-- or even better purchase something!

I came across a recent article featuring some best practice that will increase your key metrics. Since we are all looking for ways to improve our marketing I thought it would be helpful to distill the finding!

#1-- Use the subject line to create a sense of urgency
To boost open rate by about 29% use words like “2 Days to Buy” or “Offer Ends Sunday”.

#2-- Create exclusivity in subject lines
Open rates will improve by about 24% when using “Private Event” or “For Subscribers Only” in the subject line

#3- Facebook Rules (as always!)
Using the “Favorites of Facebook Fans” in the subject line will boost rates by over 30%

#4-- Have one main purpose
May sure all links in an email (except opt-out, privacy information, etc) goes to the same landing page. Doing so reduces the risk that a consumer will be distracted and increase conversion rate by 48%

#5-- Keep images consistent
It's important that the email and the landing page uses the same image. The consistency in the image usage will result in a 19% higher response rate than one that doesn't use the same images.

Hopefully you find some of these ideas useful, I know I already have plans to test them out and see if my data shows the same great gains!

http://www.worldata.com/wdnet8/articles/exclusivityUrgencyEmail.htm

20 Most Innovative Facebook Marketing Campaigns

The following article talks about 20 Most Innovative Facebook Marketing Campaigns

I really like the Danon Activia campaign and Pringles marketing campaign

http://www.simplyzesty.com/facebook/need-facebook-marketing-inspiration-20-of-the-most-innovative-campaigns/

http://mediacompeople.typepad.com/pringles/2010/05/pringles-application.html

Thanks

Mo Khalid

Fortune 500 Companies and Social Media

I found This really interesting article about how Fortune 500 companies are using social media to reach out to customers.

http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/03/28/how-are-the-fortune-500-embracing-facebooktwitter-blogging/

Thanks Mo Khalid

Email Campaigns during the Holiday Shopping Season

Given the upcoming holidays, I was interested to read about online habits and how best to configure an online campaign to capture the target audience when they are most susceptible to messaging. I think that the Obama campaign's email strategy has always been interest -- engaging titles; short, easily digestible content; clear call to action; and a branded voice for a variety of senders.

As a nonprofit my biggest competition at this time of year for an email solicitation campaign is online shopping. I have yet to find research that highlights any association between online shopping and online donating. Nevertheless, I was interested to understand the prime days for online shopping. Experian recently released a report that looks at online activity in terms of research and transactions as well as the volume of email sent on these peak days. In addition to being valuable information, I find it to be tremendously interesting. Many of the top ten "transaction" days for online activity are not in the top ten for "volume of emails sent" on that day. Given these statistics, one would guess that online retailers should consider adding Thanksgiving or Black Friday emails to their roster.

The new Social Media workforce generation

With the rapid expansion of the social media world, recent college graduates are inquiring at job interviews about social media policies, work-from-home potential, and the ability to work-on-the-go. This is not much of a surprise as the Internet era, which began 10-15 years ago, has also connected the world in ways that allow people to be connected and communicate from a "virtual" office anywhere in the world. Whether at home, in the car, a hotel room, or a Starbucks, clients, colleagues, and additional workplace community members can still maintain the same level of communication and professionalism from the individual who is working virtually.

A recent study by Cisco has confirmed the desire by new college graduates to work remotely. In fact, workplace mobility and the flexibility to perform job functions outside of the physical confines of an office environment is such a priority that it surpasses salary (!) in some instances, as noted in Cisco's survey. For more details and findings from Cisco, please visit: http://mashable.com/2011/11/08/work-from-home-2/

Having managed teams in the US and China for multiple companies, I have grown to become a big fan of productivity over clocked hours. When an individual has an employment contract, in which performance is tied to and rewarded based on achieving goals and productivity, it does not matter to me where an employee is working. Of course, within reason. For me, 50% of time at the office, and 50% of time working remotely, is a schedule I grew comfortable with in China. Because for me, performance is measured by productivity. If an individual can work 4 - 5 hours from home and still achieve all objectives as required, I, as a manager, am OK with that. In this day of decreasing financial perks offered by companies due to the Great Recession, workplace flexibility is one of the non-financial perks companies can offer employees. Here's to hoping it takes a strong hold!

YouTube has changed Broadway - What's next?

In a recent article, Mashable explains how YouTube has changed Broadway. Traditionally, casting calls for live theater were "in-person only," even when the TV & film industry have been accepting casting tapes for over 20 years. However, recently, larger productions are incorporating online auditions via YouTube to fill their cast. In fact, just as companies are recruiting their candidates through LinkedIn and Facebook, Broadway productions are beginning to use YouTube for talent research. They have also found that both promoting and documenting their performances on YouTube has allowed for a wider audience. It is interesting that online media is beginning to transform an industry that traditionally has resisted such interference. What could be next?

PROskore thinks that they have found a niche market that will transform the way people do business with each other. Just as producers are starting to look for stars on YouTube, PROskore thinks small companies or professionals will look for each other through PROskore. The premise is to build a professional profile that draws everything into one place - all the information you want about yourself that is currently on the web and more. Then, they rank you based on your connection, reputation, and social influence, and they match you with other professionals looking for your skill set.

The online space is definitely becoming a vital part of society. From Facebook to Twitter to YouTube to LinkedIn, will PROskore be the next standard in social media? It offers a powerful value proposition but currently lacks scalability. If it achieves critical mass it could potentially transform the way we do business.

For more information on PROsckore - go here:

http://www.proskore.com/company_tour.cfm

Dropbox the next social media?

With the use of Dropbox continually growing, the company founders have future plans "to see little Dropbox buttons everywhere" in 18 months.
Purely from a technological product perspective, the utility of Dropbox' cloud storage capabilities is undeniably useful across any educational, professional, and personal capacity. But as with any technology product, will it have enough staying power to last 3, 5 or 10 years from now?
From a service perspective, the company has an edge that if managed correctly, could be grown into a powerful social media tool. Since files are shared with a distinct group of people, Dropbox has the ability to collect a specific set of information that is precisely relevant to that group of people.
Not knowing what the future may hold solely for cloud storage, there is no doubt that social networking and social media will continue to thrive in some form or another. Having effectively made its presence known and continuing to expand, Dropbox can leverage this market presence and its inherent networking capabilities to catapult it into the social space, and assure its staying power for the future.

Sponsored story ads on Facebook

Social media marketing has been extremely effective because of its ability to engage people. Facebook it pushing this element to another level by introducing sponsoring ads.

According to Wall Street Journal, Facebook tells advertisers that sponsoring a post increases the chance friends will notice it, since new postings in the news feed push others down and off the page.

Only 20% of free messages posted by companies to users ever actually get seen on the site, Facebook says. Buying sponsored stories is a way to dramatically increase the odds that a piece of content will get seen. Moreover, Facebook says that some of the early users of sponsored stories have found that users are more than twice as likely to click on sponsored stories than typical Facebook ads.

Not Using Social Media Properly

This week we talked about how companies should use social media properly. Ad Age recently commented on how Ford failed to properly leverage Facebook for its Ford Focus campaign.
(see article - http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/ford-blew-facebook/230815/)

From the onset it appears that Ford understood the value of using social media and drove nearly 10K likes to its fan page. After reaching those fans, Ford should have harnessed the power of their fan's social networks. The fans acquired were the perfect to aid Ford in spreading their message. Heck, they could have gotten 10K friends to be brand advocates and endorse their cars.

This misstep cost Ford in a more intangible way. They lost the opportunity to develop brand advocacy and loyalty. They also lost the opportunity to quickly and cheaply grow their fan base. If you assume that each fan has on average 140 friends, they could have broadcast an advertising message to 1,400,000 people (10K fans x 140 friends each). This word of mouth could have translated into an ever growing number of consumers becoming fans of the page. And, if Ford was a little more forward thinking they could have used this forum of fans to provide instant feedback on the car, have them vote on new commercials, provide special deals/offers for individuals looking for a car, etc.

From this example we should walk away remembering that Facebook offers brands an opportunity to not only reach a targeted audience but then tap into their large social networks and leverage the power of consumer word of mouth!

Facebook Stalking Goes Viral

Halloween is over, but Facebook privacy scares will go on. Director Jason Zada created eerie viral buzz this year with his "Take This Lollipop" video project (TakeThisLollipop.com) which puts Facebook privacy issues front and center.

The web page is very simple: a blue lollipop (a non-coincidentally Facebook blue) with a Facebook Connect button. Once you log in and give it permission to access your profile information, the ride begins. I don't want to be a spoiler, but suffice it to say that the video incorporates your photos and location information to take stalking to a new extreme.

The site was featured on The New York Times and Forbes.com. So far, over 8.5 million people have liked the page. Personally, I had fun recruiting friends for the experience and seeing their reactions. Ad Age reported that the piece was polarizing inside of the Facebook team, which is understandable. While it's extreme in its depiction of the dangers of Facebooking, the viral nature of the video is some indication that at it resonates with people at some level.

http://adage.com/article/digital/reach-beats-frequency-facebook-s-layout/230718/

Chapstick in a social media death spiral

Chapstick's first mistake was to post an offensively stupid picture on the internet. But what really got chapstick in trouble was the way they handled the backlash of comments. Chapstick had initially allowed for open comments on their facebook page, but when negative comments started coming in, instead of addressing the comments, Chapstick responded by simply deleting them. Posters got enraged that their comments were disappearing and in-turn posted more. The story got out that Chapstick was censoring comments and that drew in even more angry people Soon enough the censors at Chapstick were unable to keep up with all the deleting and the page deteriorated into a hate page. Chapstick finally got the clue, posted an apology and started addressing the comments with a bit of humor. This shows the importance of being able to address mistakes gracefully in a connected world where everyone has a voice. Companies need to understand that media-empowered customers do not respond favorably to censorship and if companies try and overpower the public, the public will always win.

http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/chapstick-gets-itself-social-media-death-spiral-136097

Google Ponders Pay-TV Business

Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that Google is considering a move to offer paid cable-TV services to consumers. These services are traditionally provided by companies such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, DirecTV, etc. through coaxial cables, fiber optic networks, or satellite. In order for Google to provide this service, they plan to use a high-speed internet service they are planning to build in Kansas City, MO and Kansas City, KS. Google has hired a former TV executive, Jeremy Stern, to lead the project and has had discussions with content providers Walt Disney, Time Warner, and Discovery; however, the discussions have been exploratory in nature and no decisions have been made.

Google has been considering a move into TV for years and has launched other efforts that threaten the traditional paid-TV business model such as Google TV, a software that can be installed on TVs and set-top boxes to find and watch content from the internet, and the recently announced deals with celebrities and production companies to create 100 free ad-supported channels on YouTube.

Google’s plans to expand this paid-TV offering beyond Kansas City are unclear, but if successful this could completely transform and undermine traditional TV as we consume it today.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204621904577016352676478994.html

Google Changes Search

We've been discussing in class the different factors that contribute to search and, interestingly, Google's dominate role in both the development of modern internet search, but also it's control over the industry. It's an issue clearly covered extensively in our reading by John Battelle and the lectures.

What we have not explored is how other mediums-- specifically social media-- are impacting the way Google develops search going forward. An interesting article ran in the New York Times this week about Google's revision on Thursday of it's search algorithm.

Recognizing the real time value of Twitter and Facebook feeds, Google is now trying to make search results more timely. It's reported this will impact 35% of all searches.

Any news junkie, or in my case journalist, will tell you the frustration they've often felt when searching for breaking news via Google. Heading to a site like Twitter will give you much faster real time information-- even more so than established news sources. Google, of course, is trying to capture a share of this market.

Google makes up to 500 algorithm tweaks each year. This one change, however, is significant in that it will impact a great number of users. It also acknowledges that when it comes to search, Google ain't the only game in town. Competition often breads greater efficiency.

New York Times:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/google-changes-search-algorithm-trying-to-make-results-more-timely/?ref=technology

Aurasma - Marketing in Augmented Reality

I went to the NY Tech meetup last month (awesome group of innovative, intelligent people that are doing incredible things in Tech... and Bloomburg stopped by!) and saw a really cool demo I wanted to share here: Aurasma.

Aurasma is "the world's first visual browser." I don't know what that means, but here's what happens. You open the app on your mobile device and point it at ANYTHING. Say you point it at a magazine ad for Revlon. The ad recognizes the magazine ad and overlays the ad with Revlon's latest TV spot (the video is literally playing in the shape and size of the magazine ad). On the backend, I think they're actually linking that image to the content manually, but once that becomes more automated (like AdWords), the possibilities are exciting. It would change the way we think about 360 marketing campaigns and branding.

It opens up a surreal world of curated, relevant and real-time content and in my opinion, blows QR codes out of the water.

Check it out (they could use a new name :) http://www.aurasma.com/what-is-it.jsp

Amazon Prime's Lending Library

Like the loyalty programs that airlines offer, it seems that Amazon is slowly moving towards a similar loyalty program. Amazon’s Prime members will have the benefit of subscribing to a new program that loans eligible customers a free e-book every month. The program, the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, is open to Kindle users who are also members of Amazon Prime, the $79-a-year fast shipping and video-streaming service. Customers can keep a selection for as long as they want but it will disappear if they choose another book the next month. This I suppose is a very basic and monitored format of the public library system—now digital.

On offer will be over a 100 current and former New York Times bestsellers, although the author states doing a background check and 20 of the top were not on the lending library. This new system is also causing an issue with publishers who obviously won’t make any royalties from the “free lending” system. Amazon was also rumored to be starting an “all-you-can-eat program” that would allow Prime subscribers an unlimited number of e-books for a set fee, but that seems delayed with the issues related to the publishers.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/for-amazon-prime-readers-a-lending-library/?src=me&ref=technology

Advertisers Follow Audiences into Games

As online gaming continues to gain popularity across multiple genres, advertising has found its place amongst the gaming clutter.

Roughly $1 billion will be spent this year on ads in games in the United States, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, and the figure is predicted to increase by a third in the next four years.Roughly $1 billion will be spent this year on ads in games in the United States, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, and the figure is predicted to increase by a third in the next four years.

The advertising is traditionally in the form of banner advertising but some advertisers are integrating the ads into games itself. The way that advertisements are shown is called "freemium" where gamers watch an ad instead of paying for a game upgrade.

Google has a product to meet this need - Google's AdSense for Games - which allows advertisers to display an ad before, during or after a game.

Just yet another form of advertising for brands to utilize for either brand awareness or driving purchasing behavior. Whether or not these are effective are yet to be determined.....


http://www.technologyreview.com/business/39004/?mod=chthumb

Secret and Not-so-Secret Sales Tricks on the Marketing of Apps

The term 'there's an app for that' clearly shows that we are inundated with smartphone applications for pretty much everything. Recently Jello-O launched a 'Jiggle It' app where one can see a Jell-O cube jiggle to your iTunes library.
While apps like these are entertaining, one question that I had is regarding how long these apps will last once the novelty wears off. One app creator has addressed this issue, discussing in detail the sales of his tennis game app, including drivers of app sales and rationale for sales declines.
Overall, reducing the price from $1.99 to $0.99 obviously drove sales. Another 'trick' called out was to push updates, which change the 'release date' to the updated date. This results in the app moving to the top of the iTunes list, which in turn drove sales.
Enjoy!
http://www.markj.net/iphone-hit-tennis-sales-stats-marketing/

Womply

Of late Groupon has received plenty of criticism from both customers and merchants; businesses indiscriminately give discounts, and users receive coupons of little interest to them. Essentially, Groupon’s business model appears to lack the value inherent in more granular targeting. Womply, a new start-up, which just recently launched in DC, has taken Groupon’s core premise, but tweaked the model so that both consumers and businesses can capture value from discount offers. http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/02/womplys-new-deals-startup-loads-local-offers-onto-your-credit-cards/

The system is linked both to Facebook and to different financial institutions, it works by tapping into a user’s Facebook profile data to offer discounts independent of crowd-sourcing. The customer then reserves the offer, goes to the merchant and pays full price, but is credited the discount within 2 days by the credit/debit card issuing company. It is not yet clear how efficient Womply is at targeting customers and ensuring that they receive offers that are of interest. However, with the amount of online data available they should have no problem creating a discount system that benefits both merchants and customers.

Shopping Just Got Speedier

Square, a virtual wallet app that allows customers to make purchases at certain merchants using only their name, went through a bit of an upgrade this week. The app has launched a new geotracking fipunctionality that allows customers to opt in for certain establishments so every time they are within a certain radius of that business they are on a sort of pre-qualified shopper list. So, there's no need to activate the app at point of sale to make a transaction. Customer profiles, which contain a photo for security purposes, will automatically populate on the merchant's app and the shopper can just give his/her name to make a purchase.

Despite some security concerns around fraud, this is further transforming the payments industry and could push payment providers (including my current employer!) into a serious share loss situation. Square, as well as a number of similar European players, are the ones to watch as we are further enveloped into a digital society.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/02/squares-card-case-ios-app-adds-support-for-geofencing-twitter-integration-for-merchants-and-more/

Hollywood Reporter: YouTube Channels No Threat?

I'll make a confession. I was actually in the middle of reading the Hollywood Reporter's "holier-than-thou" proclamation that YouTube poses no threat to the entertainment industry, when I got distracted by a video box on the side and instead stopped to watch Antoine Dodson sing "Chimney Intruder." I laughed so hard I watched it twice. And that, my friends, is why YouTube IS a threat to traditional entertainment companies.

On Friday, YouTube announced their plans to launch 100 channels with original programming. The idea is largely celebrity driven with content expected from stars such as Jay-Z and Madonna. It's true, online advertising makes up a $2 billion industry and though robust is still dwarfed by television sales. However, what the Hollywood Reporter fails to recognize is that online content will someday soon merge to simply be considered "content" as television sets become more and more absolete and people increasingly watch programming on mobile devices. The digital divide is nearing an end.

The Hollywood Reporter is, no doubt, part of the old guard of media elite. The short sightedness across the entire industry, however, is frightening. As Sun Tzu the great war strategist once wrote: "If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril." YouTube (and parent company Google) are hungry. They control the majority of online ad revenue. It is only a matter of time before they dictate content as well.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/youtube-channels-no-immediate-threat-255841

More transparency on Google

Google is making changes to its service to create more transparency for consumers using the ubiquitous search engine. Searchers will not be able to click on a link labeled "why these ads" next to ad results on their search pages. The information on this link will explain to them how they received the particular ads that they did, which are targeted and personalized based on their destination, amongst other factors.

For the first time, Google will also allow consumers to adjust which ads they receive by accessing a new "ads preferences manager" and selecting certain advertisers they would like to block. They will also be able to turn off ads personalization completely.

Google's goals with these new features, it seems are in line with its overarching goals with ads in general, namely that they should provide users with relevant and useful information. The more Google can personalize the ad results users receive, the more valuable they will be, the more clicks they will receive, and the more valuable those clicks will be, all resulting in greater revenue for Google and continued market dominance in search.

For consumers, the end result, in Google's ideal world, may be a set of search results where the ads are as attractive to the consumer as the organic results, as opposed to the current situation where roughly 15% of clicks are on sponsored results as opposed to organic results.

For more information on these new changes and a video from Google, click here:
http://mashable.com/2011/11/01/google-why-these-ads/
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/increasing-transparency-and-choice-with.html

iTunes mysteriously loses Amazon's Music App

Does it surprise anyone that the Amazon Cloud Player iPhone app has "somehow" disappeared from iTunes? Hardly.

Despite the recent news that this actually happened, and Apple has not yet admitted it and has blamed the glitch on transfer and communication issues, this is hardly a surprise. Microsoft and Apple have been playing these games with each other's devices and operating systems for years, and to this day, it remains difficult to view Adobe PDF files and related Adobe files on Apple products due to the challenge in a smooth deal between Apple and Adobe Systems. So while this news about Amazon's Cloud player has actually become "news" is not a shock and in fact, provides a bit of humor to my day. Another recent article discussed the potential that Jeff Bezos may be driving Amazon to be the next true innovator of ideas, gadgets, and future-focused technology since the unfortunate recent passing of Steve Jobs. Amazon is poised to become a bigger player in the space in the next 5-10 years, and while Jobs' corporate culture and legacy will remain at Apple for a long while, it remains to be seen if new Apple leadership can instill the same kind of focus on innovation in the corporate culture throughout the firm.

Social Media for Better Customer Service

Social Media is seen as the next phase of efficient marketing. From Facebook Ads to social targeting, companies are competing to capture share of voice in the viral space. Some companies develop interactive Facebook applications while others utilize sweepstakes and discount offers. Yet social media has proven to work effectively for another purpose - customer service.

Mandarin Oriental has a great success story in which a customer left a Facebook post on the Mandarin Oriental Miami wall saying he was looking forward to his visit. Mandarin Oriental looked him up, realized he had a high Klout score and responded with a personal forecast - knowing he was fleeing the freezing Boston weather. Mandarin Oriental also provided a special note and snack for the customer upon arrival. The result? A blog post from the customer about his wonderful personal customer experience.

A recent article published in Mashable reiterates the fact that social media is a great outlet for customer service. When done correctly, social media is a good way to defend your brand. One example includes KLM launching a 24/7 customer support on Twitter. Xbox justifies its Twitter service professionals through cost saves from call centers. Other companies can benefit from leveraging social media for customer care and incur re-engineering saves. When engaging customers online, the Mashable article gives some good advise. Respond with empathy, defend your brand, but don't feed the trolls. With a 140 character limit, remember to be engaging but continue to defend your brand. At the same time, ignore the trolls that are just looking to pick a fight. Who knows, Maybe social media customer servicing will become a norm of the future.

For more advice on customer servicing best practices in social media go here:

http://mashable.com/2011/10/28/social-customer-service-brands/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29