The social economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies

McKinsey Global Institute (MGI)’s report on how better to use social technologies to create more savings across the value chain. While 72 percent of companies use social technologies in some way, very few are anywhere near to achieving the full potential benefit. In fact, the most powerful applications of social technologies in the global economy are largely untapped. Companies will go on developing ways to reach consumers through social technologies and gathering insights for product development, marketing, and customer service. Yet the MGI finds that twice as much potential value lies in using social tools to enhance communications, knowledge sharing, and collaboration within and across enterprises. They estimated that between $900 billion and $1.3 trillion in value can be unlocked in the U.S. alone from these technologies:

• Social networks
• Blogs and micro-blogs
• Ratings and reviews
• Social commerce
• Wikis
• Discussion forums
• Co-created content
• Crowd-sourcing
• Media and file sharing
• Social gaming

Two-thirds of this potential value lies in improving collaboration and communication within and across enterprises. The average interaction worker spends an estimated 28 percent of the workweek managing e-mail and nearly 20 percent looking for internal information or tracking down colleagues who can help with specific tasks. But when companies use social media internally, messages become content; a searchable record of knowledge can reduce, by as much as 35 percent, the time employees spend searching for company information. Additional value can be realized through faster, more efficient, more effective collaboration, both within and between enterprises.

You can download the full report here:

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/mgi/research/technology_and_innovation/the_social_economy

Facebook Exchange Grows in EMEA and APAC Regions

Facebook Exchange (FBX) has expanded, allowing buyers to access audiences in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific regions.  Facebook shared the news at the AppNexus Summit in New York this week, and said FBX has seen strong results from the EU and APAC as it grows.

Facebook also discussed a couple interested case studies showcasing how companies are using FBX.  One of the companies profiled was Mercedes-Benz, which is not using FBX's retargeting capabilities.  Mercedes-Benz is using technology from Mediasynced which can trigger ad bids based on what's airing on television at the time, allowing Mercedes-Benz to extend its reach beyond its TV ads.

Two criticisms from users show that FBX has some room for improvement.  Sebastiaan Schepers, COO of BannerConnect (who worked on the Mercedes-Benz campaign), said that it was difficult to measure the effectiveness of the campaign because FBX does not allow for measurement of conversion rates.  Additionally, Jennifer Wehrmaker from eBay's social business unit said FBX's restrictions on creative upload requirements reduces the level of creative automation that was possible and desirable for eBay's ads.

However, Wehrmaker did say that a recent acquisition campaign achieved 23% greater reach and 56% better ROI than a standard display campaign, so it looks like despite a few drawbacks, FBX is seen as a success.

Facebook Exchange Grows in EMEA and APAC Regions

Instagram has recently launched a new look for its profiles.
In particular, the new look seems to enhance a more effective digital social media luxury brands experience. Indeed, as mentioned from the article linked at the end of the post, luxury marketers seems to be benefitting from this new profile layout by reaching a wider demographic of users.
According to Brittany Mills (director of client services at B Culture Media, Atlanta), “Instagram gives brands the opportunity to truly show their character and bring customers into their lifestyle”.
Even more impressive, according to Melissa Ptasienski (digital marketing manager at Acquity Group, Chicago) “[...] users are 40 percent more likely to engage with brands that post pictures over any other form of media”.
As a matter of fact, many luxury brands like Armani, Boucheron and Burberry have already adopted the new profile.
In my opinion, the killer characteristic of Instagram in driving larger user reach for luxury brands is the way it engages users: pictures. Brands can communicate their identity through them and speak to their audience in very direct and effective way, enhancing a very sensitive sharing of this identity.

Link: www.luxurydaily.com/instagrams-new-look-captivates-users-and-helps-brands/

YouTube Reinvesting in Only 40% of Original Content Channels

Only one year ago, YouTube announced its push towards original content channels.  It invested up to $5M in each of these channels.  It has announced today that it is going to cease funding for 60% of those channels, reinvesting in only the remaining 40%.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/12/one-year-later-youtube-pulling-the-plug-on-60-of-its-original-content-channels/

Compete.com Study on Search, Rankings, and where Consumers actually click

A new study reinforces much of what we've been discussing in class with up to date numbers. From focusing efforts on organic rather than paid search, to the importance of the top ranking organic search result, it turns out that everything we already knew to be important, is in fact more important than before. Of particular note is the screen comparison of where banner ads appear vs where consumers actually click - here it looks as though there is still room to improve site design to maximize consumer appeal and click through.

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2215868/53-of-Organic-Search-Clicks-Go-to-First-Link-Study?utm_source=twitterfeed

LinkedIn Swings to Profit

The recently profitable LinkedIn continues to enjoy huge revenue growth. What sets LinkedIn apart from some of its struggling internet counterparts is that most of its revenue comes from partnerships and subscriptions, as opposed to more traditional advertisements. The company has been innovative in its revenue sources, and I am looking forward to seeing how its new products, such as its Sales Navigator Tool, pan out. In the future, it will be interesting to see how other internet companies also shift their digital marketing campaigns away from banner ads toward other products.

Read the details in the Wall Street Journal!

The Problem With Measuring Digital Influence

These days, it's hard to talk about business without mentioning data. While data has some solid applications in areas like predicting sales or measuring user engagement, data analysis becomes a lot more complicated when trying to determine one's influence. Dr. Michael Wu discusses the flaws of influence ratings: "behaviors that game the system are typically a lot simpler than behaviors that are truly influential." That is, influence ratings are a reflection of behaviors that many influential people exhibit (such as tweeting several times a day), even though a non-influential person could just as easily exhibit those behaviors as well. This is a good reminder that even though we might be able to use all the data we want to measure the success of our marketing efforts, we have to be extremely careful about what we are actually measuring.

Read the full story on TechCrunch.

Social Television Experience

Microsoft is aiming to create a space where social media and TV meet to create a social television experience by infusing the MTV Europe Music Awards with its new Windows 8 operating system. Heidi Klum will host the awards show live on stage while MTV host Sway will be backstage with the Microsoft Windows 8-powered Video Wall Studio. Using the colorful tile interface, viewers will be able to track what happens backstage, social media updates, and viewer poll results.

The aim is for the audience to be watching the show on TV but also to be interacting through tablets and phones to see additional related content. Viewers of the MTV EMA's can download a mobile app to interact with the show and live stream the backstage show; thus enabling MTV to reach more music fans from around the world.



Article source: http://mashable.com/2012/11/11/mtv-ema-europe-music-awards

What Marketers Can Take From the Presidential Campaigns' Best Tactics

Given my background in politics, I found the Ad Age article "What Marketers Can Take From the Presidential Campaigns' Best Tactics" particularly interesting.  Many of the lessons noted by the author reflect the tactics we've discussed in class. I think this is a fun way to be reminded of what we've learned in class to date.
  
Here are the lessons in a nutshell:

1. Focus on your swing voters  - Focus ads on those undecided purchasers.

2. Remember your ground game - There is value in some traditional tactics, like promotions, in order to achieve a get-out-the-customer effort.



3. Video still works - Utilize YouTube and Hulu, but remember TV advertising is still powerful.


4. Hyper-local is the new black - Targeted ads designed for a specific subgroup of a demographic works.



5. Adaptive marketing is rising - The ability to quickly put together a display ad or video allows marketers to quickly respond to trends and convert customers.


6. Long-form content can persuade.  Longer video content can change opinions and help companies reinvent themselves.
 
7. Negative ads are a negative  - Negative ads turn people off whether its related to a candidate or a product!

    

Potential Pitfalls of Social Media for Businesses

A recent Forbes article highlighted the potential pitfalls of using social media in marketing campaigns for businesses. Jeff Wilson of Sensei Marketing blogged about social media creating "bad customers," a posting that sparked discussions among digital marketers. Wilson argued that companies must use carefully designed and targeted strategies when leveraging social media as part of a marketing campaign because of the unique risks inherent in social media. Specifically, Wilson says that social media provides users with the following factors that allow for potentially negative customer behavior against companies: (1) No Guilt (2) The Mob (3) Relative Anonymity and (4) No Accountability. One recent incident involving McDonalds' twitter hashtag #McDstories highlighted this issue as many customers used the hashtag to post about negative experiences as opposed to positive ones.

Other digital marketers suggested that the risk of not using social media is actually greater than the risk of using it, as brands would lose out on a significant amount of customer awareness. The key to managing social media is careful planning and awareness of one's brand perception. A "one size fits all" strategy will not be sufficient.

More information can be found at the below link:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/julietbarbara/2012/11/11/is-social-media-bad-for-business/

-Linda Lou

Holiday Season Boosts Digital Retail Sales

US retailers with online presence expect over half of their holiday sales to come in through digital channels this coming holiday season - with 51% coming from ecommerce and about 6% to come in through mcommerce (mobile commerce). In addition to being good for retailers, the holiday season also is great for ad networks because there is typically an increase in traffic and clickthrough rates. Jumptap, a mobile ad network, expects an 11% increase in traffic to mobile ads and a 3% increase in CTR versus off-season averages. Full article here: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1009474 - Vi Nguyen

The A-List Using theAudience to Grow Social Networks

Hollywood marketers and A-list celebrities themselves are paying close attention to the intersection between star power and social media. These two factors can mean more effective and less marketing spend by utilizing digital marketing tactics that cut through the excess to reach targeted consumers directly.

But in order to achieve this celebrities/key figures need the social capital otherwise known as an arsenal of Twitter "followers" and Facebook "fans" that will pay attention. Film and TV studios admit that social capital is increasingly becoming part of the conversation when making casting decisions. So instead of waiting until a single film is released or a celebrity endorsement is announced, many stars are hiring firms to bolster their online fan base.

Some of Hollywood's elite, Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Jack Black, Eddie Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Usher, Pitbull and LMFAO, just to name a few have enlisted a start-up social media company called The Audience to help them expand their social network. As a result, there's a stampede of start-up companies springing up all over the globe to offer their services.

Source

James Bond Joins the Digital Era

In the 50-year history of the 007 film franchise, the most recent installment Skyfall is the first James Bond film to rely on a heavy digital marketing campaign. For the film's global roll out over the past few weeks, marketers have launched multiple online promos and contest to generate buzz and box office sales from the U.K. to India.

Skyfall has also integrated digital marketing tactics with the film's promo partners. Just one example is promotional partner Heineken released a Facebook game app called "Crack the Case"that starred Daniel Craig and the newest Bond girl.

Social media marketing has been at the center of the campaign. The one & only James Bond has a Twitter page with 100k followers and a Facebook page with almost 14 million likes! With future installments no doubt in the works this is social marketing capital that can effectively be leveraged to keep consumer engagement going until the next film release. Very clever Mr. Bond...

Source

Q&A: What It Was Like Designing Banner Ads for Obama

Interesting interview on how Obama's banner ad designer went about creating more than 70 display ads for the 2012 campaign. Al Rotches talks about the shift in political campaigns budget towards digital, as well as what is like to work non stop during a campaign year and making Joe Biden look cooler.

For more follow the link:

http://adage.com/article/campaign-trail/q-a-designing-banner-ads-obama/238242/

Mobile ad’s success is not accidental

Compared to traditional online advertising, mobile ads are known to be much more successful with high Click-Through-Rate. The article below is interesting because it provides with statistics showing that part of this success is not based on people intentionally pressing on an ad but rather on clumsy fingers! This made me realize that indeed, we often click on a mobile ad by trying to close it, which rarely happens on a desktop.

However, this does not mean that mobile ads are not effective. Even when discounting the CTR to take out the impact of accidental clicking, you still come out with impressive CTR, much higher than online advertising. One last comment regards the metric itself. For mobile advertising, we might need to measure the impact of an ad campaign with different indicators that the traditional CTR. On example could be the number of seconds you spend on the landing page after clicking on an ad.

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1009470

Facebook SuperFans

I came across an interesting study that found that only 6% of fans engage with a brand's Facebook page. The study looked at 50 brand pages over the course of eight weeks and measured their engagement.  The study found that the most valuable fans are a small group of heavily engaged "superfans." "The study found that, on average, the engagement of each one of a brand’s 20 most engaged fans is equal to that of 75 average fans. Each month, the so-called superfan likes 10 posts, shares five pieces of content and comments once. What’s more, these fans tend to get significantly more likes and comments on their posts than average fans, which helps drive up engagement on the brand’s page even more."  Interestingly, the study found the more fans a brand has the less likely they are to be engaged. "Brands with between 900,000 to 1 million fans had 60% less engagement than brands with 500,000-600,000 fans." (I wonder how we can reconcile this with the importance of collecting large fan bases now before it becomes even more difficult to reach people with whom you don't have a connection). That aside, the bottom line is that it's important to start measuring how engaged your fan base is because a large and active "superfan" base will push your brand's messages into more newsfeeds widening the reach of your social media.

Mashable's full article: http://mashable.com/2012/10/18/facebook-fan-engagement-2/ 

Mary Meeker's mid-year internet trends update

KCPB partner and "Queen of the Net" Mary Meeker is known for her insightful annual Internet Trends report. According to a TechCrunch article, she gave a mid-year update in a KCPB event on Monday.
The biggest take-aways were:
- iPad adoption is ramping up five times faster than iPhone adoption
- Android phone adoption is ramping up six times faster than iPhone
- Android surpassed Windows as the #1 OS for Internet-enabled devices in Q1 2012
- By the end of Q2 2013, the global smartphone plus tablet install base will surpass the install base of the PC

As such mobile advertising is becoming increasingly relevant and it is one of the reasons why Apple got rid of Google Maps in iOS6 and Microsoft is still pushing the Windows Phone.

Click here for the original 2012 report and here for the TechCrunch article

Netflix Dominates Web Streaming During Prime Time

According to a report by Sandvine Inc., U.S. households have more than doubled their monthly internet use over phone and cable lines in the past year, consuming the equivalent of 81 hours of downloaded video. Netflix increased its dominance of the online viewing market by capturing 33% of prime-time web viewing based on internet traffic in September, beating Amazon.com, Hulu.com and HBO Go by a multiple of at least 18. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said on October 23 that despite more competition, many of his 30 million customers continue to watch more thanks to a mix of "better exclusive content, better member experience, and a clearer brand identity." It will be interesting to see if Netflix can keep this up!

Read more here: http://adage.com/article/digital/study-netflix-dominates-web-streaming-prime-time/238204/

Fat Fingers and Mobile Clicks

It is widely believed that many of the clicks on mobile ads are accidental.  eMarketer highlights a study by GoldSpot Media that puts some numbers behind this theory.  GoldSpot found that 38% of static banner clicks and 13% of rich media clicks on mobile devices are accidental.  They looked at ads they serve and assumed that if user engagement was less than 2 seconds, then the click was accidental.  Using this information to adjust clickthrough rates, static banner clickthroughs drop from 2.0% to 1.1%, and rich media banner clickthroughs drop from 4.0% to 3.1%.  As the article points out, a rate of over 1% is still 10x the average worldwide banner clickthrough rate, so mobile marketing still appears to be more effective than web ads for now.

Firefox turns 8!

As announced on Mashable, Firefox is celebrating its 8th birthday today.

I have to say that Firefox is still in my browser tool belt for one reason: Firebug


As a web development "tinkerer", I find Firebug to be the best and easiest tool out there.  Sure, it's true that other browsers have similar functionality, but it's just not the same.  The biggest reason I can even pinpoint seems trivial when I say it, but for some reason... it matters a lot.  What is it?  Well, while Chrome Inspector makes you double click to edit items, Firefox requires you click just once. 

Am I really complaining about the extra effort of a double click?  YES!!  I'm on laptop. Clicking twice is annoying.  It would be one thing if single click performed one function while double click performed another, but that's not what happens in this case.

Anyways, happy bday Firefox!  Maybe your the 3rd most popular browser in the world because of your browsing capabilities; but for me, you're #1 for HTML and CSS tinkering!

-- Interested in talking about videos?

Contact Michael at Melmed Media 

A timely article about the Obama Campaign's display ads during this election cycle.

http://adage.com/article/campaign-trail/q-a-designing-banner-ads-obama/238242/

An interesting quote from the head designer: "Over time, the call to actions are tested to a point where there's not much tweaking to do. And with a digital team for a presidential team when you get copy it's been tested. We know it works."

Since presidential campaigns do a lot of testing and polling, plus digital technology brings a lot of testing capability the campaign must have had fantastically efficient ads. With slightly higher CTR (click through rates) and likely consistent CTR across ads. Obama's ads during this campaign also took a bit more risks (with their digital ads) in venturing into the playful, more obvious "cool factor" and direct hits at Mitt Romney. As the interviewee alludes to in the article (and as we've discussed in class), there's more room to take risks in digital. It's not like a TV buy that is locked-in upfront or is immediately exposed to mass market criticism. Digital ads are more akin to cable TV...there's a license to get creative and target niche groups. 

Search optimization without really using SEO

This article discusses how some companies over-optimize their website with techniques such as adding too many backlinks or not diversifying the links enough.  Unbeknownst to the site owners, this can be more harmful rather than helpful.  Thus, the author recommends a few useful tips on how people can enhance their search results by focusing on strong content, social media channels, blog postings and more.

The advice given in the article may also be useful as we work with our respective companies for our final project.

Enjoy!

http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/224885?cam=Dev&ctp=PopRightMod&cdt=6&cdn=224885

Why Are Brands Still "Renting" Audiences?

The days of renting audiences from large media companies are coming to an end.  There have been two waves in digital marketing: the first where companies invested heavily in their websites and display ads; and the second where companies invested heavily in social media.  The third wave is approaching, where companies will build audiences by driving them to a central hub via content marketing.

http://www.hardknoxlife.com/2012/06/21/why-are-brands-still-renting-audiences/

RetailMeNot launches its app to leverage increasing mobile usage

At the beginning of semester, we briefly mentioned the website RetailMeNot which gives you coupon codes that can be used on retailers’ website when purchasing something online. Apparently, they noticed a growing number of people where connecting to their website through their mobile device which gave them the idea of launching their own app.

This app will be able to leverage your localization information and send you notifications for coupons when approaching a retailer’s store. This way, customers shopping in malls will have instant access to dozens of coupons that are relevant to the brands surrounding them and this is likely to increase their average shopping expenses.

Retailers just start thinking about how to leverage the incredible power of geo-localization through Mobile. I believe this is a powerful way to do it and this gives a real incentives to people for entering into a store.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/07/walk-in-a-mall-receive-a-mobile-coupon/

Customer Service Via Social Media is Growing, But Still Small

While many businesses have realized that social media is an important part of their customer service strategy, for most companies (41.2% of those surveyed), it constitutes only 5% of their customer service issues.  Facebook and Twitter are the major social media channels used by companies to meet customer expectations and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

When I read this article, I was surprised by the low percentage of customer service issues being solved via social media.  It seems that every company from Con Edison to airlines to the FDNY has a social presence, but that most people still prefer to pick up the phone and call a customer service number, even if that means getting stuck in an automated menu of choices.

In the end, I think people want to feel like they are being heard by a real person when they reach out to customer service, and they will tend to use whichever channel feels most personal for a particular company.  Companies have the chance to offer this personal touch very easily using social media (as compared to a call center), and I believe that the proportion of customer service issues being solved via social media will only increase.

Social Is Still a Small Part of Customer Service

Google's North American legal issues repeated internationally

Google's legal interactions with American newspapers are well documented; many newspaper believed that Google's link display with headlines and a short summary actually hurt them as people viewed Google's list of links as a summary of the news and deterred readers from actually clicking on the links to view the newspapers' content. Reality dissolved this legal battle, though, as American publishers realized that not being included in Google's outputs would actually be worse than any possible disincentive and thus the case was dropped. But the fight now continues internationally in Brazil, France and Germany (to the largest extent in Brazil, where ~150 newspapers there have pulled themselves from Google's newstream, including some of the largest papers in the market). The same arguments that American newspapers made -- that of "ancillary copyright infringement" through the headlines and summary sentences shown in the links -- are picking up new steam (they argue that google should pay to use titles/sentences from content). What would happen to Google in the US if courts in some of these international countries (who have stronger copyright protections than the US) actually made them pay for this content -- would fair use arguments in the US be revisited?

According to Google, its search engine delivers 4 billion clicks a month to news media outlets, 1 billion of which come from Google News -- this is an amazing amount of reader interaction and will remain the largest source of strength and leverage for Google in any market... Google's large influence remains its greatest source of comfort, but will also continue to keep it in the headlines and in the courtrooms for the foreseeable future, and make it an interesting storyline to monitor. 

Obama photo a social-media sensation

The power of social media was no exception in politics. According to Twitter, Wednesday's debate was the most tweeted event in U.S. political history. More than 11 million comments about the debate circulated the Twitterverse Wednesday night. 

Although election is over here's another great example of the power of social media. 
President Barack Obama's campaign posted a photograph of him embracing his wife, first lady Michelle Obama, to Facebook and Twitter late Tuesday, which caused a huge sensation on the SNS. By Thursday the photo had been retweeted more than 785,000 times, topping a previous tweet by pop star Justin Bieber. (by CNN)

Read the article about this!!
http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/07/tech/social-media/obama-photo-twitter-facebook/index.html

Amazon's New Monthly Plan

In a departure from its previous strategy of charging a yearly fee ($79.99), Amazon will now offer Amazon Prime (free shipping and some streaming content) at a monthly rate of $7.99.  Although the new option is potentially more expensive, it offers consumers greater choice and, as a behavioral economics play, may raise additional revenue as many customers are not sophisticated enough to closely monitor their memberships.  Additionally, the article mentions that this is an assault on Netflix, which offers similar content at a similar price, but does not have free shipping or other perks that Amazon offers.

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/11/07/the-truth-about-amazons-8-monthly-plan/?iid=SF_F_River

Does Mobile Display 2012 = Online Display 1999?

An interesting article about mobile display.  The author compares today's mobile display marketing strategy as similar to the online display strategy in 1999.  In essence, he describes how there was a huge campaign for display advertising in 1999 that was utterly ineffective.  Advertisers noticed that search resulted in conversions, which led to Google. Most consumers didn't click on display ads and when they did, it was accidental. Now, executives are pushing for mobile advertising strategy and using display banners again.  However, didn't they learn their lesson from the past? Do they think that the results will any different or better than online display in 1999?

http://allthingsd.com/20121106/does-mobile-display-2012-online-display-1999/?refcat=media

Nintendo uses social media for Wii U launch

This article talks about the upcoming Wii U launch and Nintendo's surprising strategy.  The company is focusing its efforts on social media marketing.  Currently, you can find the commercial on Facebook and YouTube. The ads haven't hit television yet, but they soon will.  It's interesting that Nintendo decided to use social media as its first channel to promote the Wii U.  I think it shows how integrated social media has become in the lives of consumers.

The article also talks about how Nintendo is hoping for some free press. The company assumes that consumers will take home videos, which may go viral similar to "Why every guy should buy their girlfriend Wii Fit". (I don't know how appropriate this video is so if you want to watch it, look on YouTube or use the link in the article)

http://allthingsd.com/20121102/ahead-of-wii-u-launch-nintendo-shows-how-u-will-play-next/

What's Holding Back Ad Growth on Facebook? Marketers.

As we start working with our start-ups to come up with a digital and social media plan, one of the questions to think about is whether Facebook is a good platform to advertise. The next articles explains the challenges that Facebook has posed to marketers (brand managers, agencies and media buyers) and gives 3 tips to create a successful FB strategy: agree on one technology for managing FB presence, create shared objectives and rethinking the definition of success (think engagement rather than plain ROI).

http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/holding-back-ad-growth-facebook-marketers/238120/

Will Passbook Transform E-Retail?

I haven't upgraded my iPhone to the new OS system so I haven't had a chance to try out the Passbook app. After reading this article on AdAge, I would be curious to know who has actually used this app! Just so that everyone is on the same page, Passbook is an app for receiving, managing and using offers, tickets and loyalty points. The benefit of Passbook is that this app addresses a real problem -- coupons just don't work very well. Now, brands have a direct to consumer channel to deliver offers right into customers' pockets so that there is no waste, no coupons forgotten at home, and no missed opportunities. Passbook apps give the brand a persistent presence on the most personal device in the consumer's life; in-app notifications of new offers have the ability to re-engage customers. Additionally, one fun fact I picked up from this article is that 34% of reward points go unredeemed and expire, accounting for $16 billion in point value. That means that more than a third of loyalty programs represents wasted effort by the brand and undelivered value for its customer. With Passbook, loyalty points are updated in real-time; customers can see immediately how many they have, and can redeem them as easily as swiping their phone.

Read more here: http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/forget-e-wallet-apple-s-passbook-transform-retail/237957/

Of the many articles and posts I read about how to approach the engagement of customers through mobile devises, this seems to me the smartest one as it summarizes in 4 simple and short points the killer drivers of engagement.
Of the 4 steps approach (which can be by itself improved) I particularly like the second step, as I consider it fundamental. Here it is.
"Develop and learn from prototypes 
Different messages will influence different audiences. Consider using focus groups, A-B testing and other methodologies to test and validate solution"
More than in other channels, given the peculiarity of the customer experience (being on the go, with a small screen, probably in a multi tasking mode, etc.), an effective mobile engagement strategy requires a trial and error approach, especially for those retailers who bet a lot the quality, aesthetics and emotional side of the product, which obviously can't be communicated easily through a mobile. The everlasting problem of on-line look&feel limits becomes even more urgent with mobiles.

Link:
http://www.luxurydaily.com/developing-a-mobile-customer-engagement-plan/

Tips for microblogging

I imagine many of us will recommend to our client's that they post on Facebook and Twitter, etc. But really, what makes these tactics effective? Simply being present doesn't mean that these vehicles are going to drive traffic or sales for you. This is a great short article on some tips for microblogging:
http://smartblogs.com/social-media/2012/10/29/getting-microblogging/
I think at least some of these are worth mentioning in any content strategy/digital strategy recommendation. A key one that many less tech-savvy people may not know is #6 Utilize link-shortening sites. Small tips like this can go a long way when you're only allowed to use a few characters. . .

Another Round: Amazon vs Brick & Mortars

It's well known and accepted that Amazon has changed the retailing world. Nowadays we can buy almost everything without leaving home. Or even worst for brick & mortars, we can go to their stores to use them as a "showroom" and then buy online. In the books' industry, we are having evidence of a new round between Amazon and the brick & mortars. After Amazon signed Ferriss, the writer of a new book called “The 4-Hour Chef", Barnes & Noble and the likes said that they won't have the book in stock, nor promote it. How will this story end? Or should we better wonder if it would end someday? The future of e-commerce (and of brick & mortars) is at stake.

Read the whole NY Times article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/technology/shunning-amazon-booksellers-resist-a-transformation.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&ref=technology

Living in Google’s World

There is an interesting article in today’s New York Times “Google Casts a Big Shadow on Smaller Websites.” The article explores how changes to Google’s algorithm affect smaller websites and whether or not this reflects antitrust violations as Google is moving into competitive areas such as online commerce and local reviews. The article profiles one company, Nextag (a shopping site), that unceremoniously dropped in the organic search results and saw their traffic from Google drop in half. As a result they had to increase their Adwords spend to stay in the customer’s consideration set. The article says that Nextag saw their traffic breakdown change from 60% free and 40% paid two years ago to 30% free and 70% paid today. They attribute this not only to the changes in the organic search algorithm but also to the way paid search and Google shopping results are moving the organic results further and further down the page. I think the article raises a lot of interesting questions about small businesses who are dependent on Google for traffic and are now competing with Google for the same customers. It will be interesting to see what the FTC decides to do and how that will change organic and paid search.

Retailers Market Storm Discounts Online

Some consumers were turned off by retailers offering shopping discounts online during Hurricane Sandy.  As the Huffington Post reports, stores including American Apparel, Gap, and Urban Outfitters offered storm promotions.  American Apparel asked shoppers to enter the promotional code “SANDYSALE” at checkout.  Maybe not surprisingly, some found this to be quite distasteful.  Forbes shows a tweet of one consumer who has vowed to never shop at the store again and encourages others to do the same.  The publication points out though that this increased exposure for the consistently controversial brand may not be such a bad thing.  For the others, the exposure may not be as beneficial.

Facebook's "Custom Audiences" feature is a boon for digital marketers

Facebook recently released its “Custom Audiences” feature, which allows digital markets to run advertising campaigns targeted specifically to certain customers and prospects.

Without the company getting access to all your Facebook data, and without Facebook getting access to the data that the company has about you, a link will be created between your identity with the company, and your identity on Facebook, which will allow the company to target you in Facebook ads tailored to what it knows about you and tailored to what Facebook knows about you.

They can upload a spreadsheet of customer email addresses or phone numbers and run campaigns that will only be viewed by these individuals. To ensure data security, Facebook hashes this information when matching against customer data and then discards your original upload list. It also
allows marketers to better target segments of existing customers.
An article on VentureBeat outlines 6 ways marketers can use these features.

- Target customers and prospects on Facebook according to how they interact with your brand outside of Facebook.
- Increase the effectiveness of your “customer nurture” programs.
- Target friends of customers

- Increase ROI from events

- Retarget

- Drive in-store purchases with mobile ads

For detailed examples on each bullet point, see the original article http://venturebeat.com/2012/10/27/facebook-custom-audiences/#OOMpuHtF6tqixJwQ.99

Whether your social circle is democratic or republican? There is app for it.

The election is only few days away. There has definitely been discussion heating up on both online and offline world.

Microstrategy has developed an app called Wisdom which drives the insights from the social graph and parses through the pages, posts. comments and determines whether your friend is democrat or republican.

They also developed an infographic by analyzing President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney's Facebook pages and were able to provide prediction of election results entirely based on their Facebook pages.

While reviewing these infographic, one important insight emerged that Romney has been ramping up his social media campaign. In past one week, he had posted good amount of contents compare to Obama had. Also the user engagement of Romney's page has been higher than Omaha's.

For video and more details on this topic, check out at http://mashable.com/2012/11/03/facebook-friends-politics

Social media, e-commerce, social commerce: key metrics

A recurrent topic for e-marketers is how to quantify the impact of marketing actions through social media. Of course, the number of comments shared by customers on a brand’s wall or the quantity of thumbs up are a good indicator of how good a brand is at engaging with customers. But this engagement does not necessarily translate into incremental sales.

Today, with the development of social sales and our better ability to track online sales originated by social media, it becomes possible to assess their real impact. And it is big! By 2015, 50% of e-commerce will occur through social media. The following infography provides interesting metrics about the use of Facebook by companies and how more likely their fans are to be regular customers and faithful brand’s supporters. It also gives a good idea of the huge potential that social commerce represents.

http://mashable.com/2012/11/01/facebook-sales/

The Strange Science Of Translating Sarcasm Online

This article discusses the challenges with successfully expressing and interpreting sarcasm online (eg, in emails, tweets, etc), since sarcasm is typically best communicated in person with a smile, a wink, or a nudge.  In the digital space, sarcasm is much more difficult to relay effectively, and the probability of a recipient misinterpreting the humor is much greater (vs. in person).  To begin conducting some research on how sarcasm is expressed online, some analysts looked at Twitter feeds that discussed the 2012 presidential election.  The goal of the research was to see if they could build a computer program that could accurately detect sarcasm in the tweets.  The researchers built a “natural-language processing program” that categorized tweets as positive or negative, as well as directed to label tweets as sarcastic/not sarcastic.  While the article does not explicitly discuss the outcome of this study, it is interesting to note that research is being done to examine how sarcasm can be detected online.

Another important item are some new symbols that people have developed to communicate sarcasm, since emoticons and other forms of punctuation are not always effective.  Some people have begun using “(*S)” in their Twitter feeds.  Doug Sak, an accountant in Washington Township, Mich., has developed the "SarcMark," an upside-down lowercase E with a dot in the center.  “He says he is approaching phone carriers to try to get them to include the symbol in their fonts.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203335504578088763796519732.html?mod=WSJ_PersonalTechnology_LEFTTop

MSNBC Prepares for Election Day

According to Sharon Otterman, the Chief Marketing Officer of MSNBC, "Social media is important to mobilize the nation, but it's still about one handshake, touching one person and going out to local markets." With that idea in mind, MSNBC plans to bring its MSNBC experience to New York City at the NBC Experience store in Rockefeller Center on Monday and Tuesday night. (If you are around NYC next week, you should check it out -- I think I will!) While social media has been an extremely significant marketing tool for news organizations, MSNBC believes that establishing a one-on-one relationship with viewers is critical to becoming a brand, not just a TV network. Previously MSNBC had set-up the MSNBC experience in Charlotte, NC where some viewers drove for more than 3 hours to interact with the brand.

Check out the full article here: http://adage.com/article/cmo-interviews/msnbc-readies-election-push/238060/