clipped from www.frederiksamuel.com
|
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Energizer battery ads: Disturbing but effective?
Posted by Justin 2 comments
Labels: Bad Ads
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Top 10 US Social-Network and Blog-Site Rankings
clipped from www.marketingcharts.com
|
Posted by Justin 1 comments
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
The 4 People Every Business Owner Needs
clipped from www.entrepreneur.com
Typically, there are four common types of supporters who serve as emotional backers and/or advisors. If you are fortunate enough to find all four, you may have your own little village to help you raise a business. "The Cheerleader" rally behind your ideas and believe in you as an entrepreneur "The Role Model" actively teaching or training "The Expert" more than willing to go the extra mile by providing their expertise in a specific area. "The Techie" someone with the ability to provide such technical help in today's business world can be a godsend. Some people are fortunate to have such supporters others may simply need to look closely |
Posted by Justin 1 comments
Monday, June 16, 2008
Social Media - Do people really use it?
clipped from blogs.forrester.com
|
Posted by Justin 0 comments
Friday, May 30, 2008
iPhone Obsolete: Google Unveils Mobile Phone Operating System Today
Google held a developers conference today and actually unveiled their mobile phone operating system: Android. It has some similarities to the iPhone but... believe it or not... BETTER!
Check out this video demonstration of the functionality! They start showing the phone system at 24 minutes. If you are pressed for time though... skip to the demonstration of streetview with "compass" at 31 minutes!! Unbelievable.
Posted by Justin 0 comments
Labels: technology
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
part 3: facebook. simplified.
I've received several emails over the past few weeks inquiring about my lack of blog postings. Some of the theories as to why I haven't been blogging:
A) I developed a severe case of carpal tunnel and can no longer type.
B) I'm pursuing my dream of hitchhiking across the country.
C) I joined a cult in Texas where social media is forbidden.
D) All of the above.
If you guessed C, then you are correct... However, it turns out that I can't live without the internet so I'm back and the blogging shall commence.
FACEBOOK. SIMPLIFIED.
As I began to think about how best to summarize what facebook is all about, I decided to do a YouTube.com search to see what videos are out there that may be able to explain it better using visuals and screen shots (read: less work on my part). Much to my surprise, I found a video that a couple girls did for a class project that highlights exactly why facebook is so popular... especially among the teen and college demographics... in just 55 seconds! (The side-bar commentary is somewhat annoying but further illustrates exactly what people are thinking when on facebook).
In other words, facebook is a way to:
- Connect with old friends
- Meet new friends
- Keep up-to-date on what your friends are doing
- Join in on fun events
- View and share pictures/videos
- and gossip about people!
I know that this post is the epitome of simplification regarding facebook but hearing two teenage/college girls explain the highlights in less than a minute is the best way to understand why it has become a pop culture phenomenon. If you want to know more about facebook, create a profile and find some people you know! Unless you are 75 years old, I guarantee you'll find an old friend.
And a note for all of you avid facebook users:
What if the interaction on facebook wasn't a website but actually how people interacted in daily life? I came across this video in my search and, though it is vulgar in some places, it points out some of the annoying things about facebook that people should be aware of before diving into any social networking platform.
NOTE: If you do not use facebook, do not watch this video. It will make absolutely NO sense to you.
Posted by Justin 4 comments
Labels: marketing trends, social media, technology
Sunday, April 27, 2008
part 2: social networks. simplified.
Social Networks are technology platforms that facilitate meaningful interaction among people. In other words, they make it easy to share with each other, to build upon that which is shared and to discover people, places and things. Social Networks, though a dominant force in the evolution of the internet, are just one part of a much larger movement referred to as Web 2.0. We’ll start there.
Web 2.0 is the “new” web that has changed from a “read-only web” where most users go online to read and review content to a “read and write web” where users go online to generate their own content.
This change in online behavior (Web 2.0) has been facilitated by the development of technology that allows non-tech-savvy internet users to publish content relatively easily (i.e. blogs, wikis, video/picture sharing sites). One of the most influential of these technologies is the social networking platform also referred to as the "architecture of participation."
These platforms (MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Orkut) allow users to create profiles and then connect their profiles to their friends’ profiles so they can keep tabs on each other and share content (videos, music, pictures, messages, events, notes, etc…). They also have powerful search features allowing users to locate lost friends and classmates and reconnect. Users can also see who their friends have listed as friends allowing them to grow their network through mutual connections.
MySpace was really the first very successful social network and most likely your first introduction to this phenomenon. MySpace allows users to easily create and control their own personalized “space” on the web. They can post pictures, pick their own background, stream their favorite music, rebel against convention, preach against rebellion, communicate with friends, find new friends and discover lost friends. In many ways, a MySpace page is as much a vehicle of self-expression as a teen’s bedroom.
Facebook is a more structured, formalized network that is less customizable and as a results, easier to use. Facebook seems to be emerging as the “mature” MySpace.
LinkedIn is really just a glorified address book that can be shared with people you know. The primary benefit is being able to search not only your professional network but anyone connected to people within your network. As an example, I have 124 contacts in my LinkedIn network giving me access to over 2.9 million people (friends of friends of friends).
It’s About People. Not Content.
In the early 90’s, there were websites that made it easy for users to create their own web pages (Tripod, Geocities). The difference between those sites and the social networks of today is that those early sites had no easy way for users to get their friends to the web page or to let them know that it had been updated. It was pretty boring to have a web page that nobody saw! Those sites didn’t survive but their demise demonstrated one very important point: Web 2.0 is not about user-generated content. It’s about user-generated content that is a result of social interaction. In other words, it starts with the people, and then comes the content. Therein lies the lesson for us marketers.
Brands are constantly trying to harness the power of social networking to build community around their products. Though sometimes an emphasis on really strong content (i.e. BeingGirl.com by P&G) is enough to draw like-minded people to a network, for small businesses without multi-million dollar budgets, it’s not likely to be successful.
The key to marketing via Social Networking is not to create your own branded network but to tap-in to the networks that already exist. People want to spend time where their friends spend time. If every company has their own social network, and consumers accept this and participate, they will never cross paths with friends again since everyone will be dividing their time across 20 different networks.
Widgets
There are many ways to take advantage of social networks as a business. In fact, there are hundreds of businesses that exist solely for this reason. One big business today is the development of “widgets.” Widgets are applications that can interact with social networks and operate within the network platform. You can create games, contests, etc…, all with a widget that users can add to their profile or use to interact on their friend’s profile. The main benefit of “widgets” is that they allow you to associate your brand with something fun that users enjoy and deliver a brand message at the same time. Widgets are also somewhat viral in that as one person adds the application to their profile, all of their friends are notified and are likely to add it as well. This pattern continues thereby increasing your exposure at little to no additional cost = viral.
SocialMedia.com is keeping a running tally of the "total number of apps (Widgets) installed" on Facebook: 12.8 million as of July, 2007. That refers not to the number of applications, but to the number of users who installed the widgets to run on their Facebook pages or blogs. I’m sure this number has more than doubled since.
Simple Marketing through Social Networks
According to eMarketer's, 38% of all Internet users, or 72 million people, used social networks at least once a month in 2007. Among 18-34 year olds, 25% visit social networks daily and among 9-17 year olds, 55% spent between 5 and 30 hours per week on social networking sites.*
If you are not ready for widgets, there are also more “traditional” ways to market via social networks.
Using Google Adwords as a campaign management tool, you can place ads (text, image or video ads) on many of the popular social networking sites including Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. Facebook recently launched its own campaign management tool making it easy to geographically target specific demographics with your ads.
Through the Google Adwords and Facebook campaign management tools, advertisers can place ads on a CPM (cost per thousands impressions) pricing model or a CPC (cost per click) pricing model. Which one you choose depends on your objective: brand awareness = CPM; lead/sales generation = CPC.
Basic ads on these networks driving traffic to your website is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to leveraging the power of social networks. Facebook allows you to create your own “group” that people can join to rally around your industry/product/service. It also allows businesses to create their own “page” that people can “fan” or “opt-in” to receive updates when new content is posted. I’ll explain these tactics in more detail next week.
There are many strategic, creative ways to harness the power of social networks. If you think your business could benefit from an updated internet marketing strategy leveraging social media, contact me and I’d be happy to help. jspring@prstore.com
*Dynamic Logic "Ad Reaction 2007," Grunwald Associates
Web 2.0 Chart by Social Computing Magazine
Posted by Justin 1 comments
Labels: marketing strategy, social media, technology