5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed 12-1-12

Marketing Technology 5

Marketing Technology 5

5 Marketing Technology Stories you might have missed

Well Movember is over, but it’s not too late to make a donation! If you’re interested and able you can donate here: http://MoBro.co/iamreff

MT5 Edition: #64

Stories This Week: Social doesn’t drive sales, Lanyrd steps in to fill a gap, growth in mobile, mobile SEO tips, Thunderclap

1. Twitter Generated Zero Percent of Black Friday Sales

[Mashable]

My Take: When you look at one part of the customer life cycle (acquisition) and expect every sales/marketing tactic to serve it…well that’s just silly.  This article admits social media was used to share experiences post purchase providing two potential benefits. First, it immediately drives word of mouth which leads to additional sales. Second, and depending on privacy settings, it provides the brand with an opportunity to interact with the new customer where they can thank them, offer additional tips or products and learn what the customer didn’t like about the process – all of these things should be quite valuable to the brand.

2. Lanyrd Jumps Into The Space Left By LinkedIn’s Events App Closure With New Features

[TechCrunch] This week LinkedIn shut down it’s Events service giving startups like Lanyrd a better path to customer acquisition.

My Take: I’ve only used Lanyrd for one event, this years SxSW. It seemed fairly well featured and well integrated with social yet in the case of SxSW it was a bit slow to update the content of the conference (as I recall). Then again, SxSW is massive so difficulty is kind of expected.

Growth of Avg Time Spent On Major Media

Growth of Avg Time Spent On Major Media

3. Trends for 2013: Making Mobile-First a Priority

[eMarketer] For years, marketers emphasized a build-for-the-desktop-first approach, with mobile serving as little more than a sideshow. However, rapid advances in smartphone and tablet ownership have changed that equation.
My Take: Call this the “Tablet Effect”.

What’s diminishing? Print magazines and newspapers

What’s growing? Online reading via smartphone and tablet

If you don’t have a “Mobile First” strategy now, why not?

4 Ways Mobile Impacts SEO

[ConvinceandConvert]  The dynamics of search are constantly changing.Take a look at what factors currently influence mobile SEO.

My Take: SEO is a highly technical skill and these are a few tips to consider when developing a mobile SEO strategy.

5. Be Heard For Saying Something Together

[Thunderclap]

Thunderclap allows a single message to be mass-shared, flash mob-style, that rises above the noise of your social networks. By boosting the signal at the same time, Thunderclap helps a single person create action and change like never before.

My Take: A little bit Kickstarter and a little bit Charity Water.  I heard about Thunderclap from CC Chapman’s “Amazing Things Will Happen” book campaign. You can check out Thunderclap by supporting his Thunderclap here (ends Dec 3rd). 

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5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed 11-24-12

 

Marketing Technology 5

Marketing Technology 5

5 Marketing Technology Stories you might have missed

I hate cancer. I bet you do to. This month I’m growing a moustache as part of Movember. If you can, please donate $10 to killing cancer here: http://MoBro.co/iamreff

MT5 Edition: #63

Stories This Week: what to do about Facebook, top content marketing challenges, Apple’s big problem, are tech titans ready for a fall? & last call for Movember

1. What’s Really Happening on Facebook (and What to Do About It)

[AdAge] Since Facebook made a change to its algorithm back in late September, the owners of many pages have seen a decrease in the reach of their content, specifically in organic impressions. Their complaints have been noted and shared by many industry websites and blogs, but there has been just as much confusion about what is really happening and what we can and should do as a result.

My Take: Read this article in full. As a commenter suggests, it’s time to rethink your reliance on Facebook. It’s quite obvious – the free ride on Facebook is over. You may want to orient Facebook traffic back to your owned media where you have greater control.

Content Marketing Challenges

Content Marketing Challenges

2. Originality Is Content Marketers’ Greatest Challenge

[eMarketer] A report by Curata found that 87% of US B2B marketers have used content marketing this year—the most popular tactic of any queried.

My Take: Ever notice that my stories tend to support my theories? Nah….me neither.

With so many Marketers focusing on content marketing what becomes increasingly clear is how difficult it is to create content worth viewing. This study shows that creating original, quality content is the biggest challenge to Marketers – no surprise.

3. Apple’s Big Problem: Google Is Getting Better At Design Faster Than Apple Is Getting Better At The Internet

[BusinessInsider] Google’s weakness has always been design. The general knock on Google and Android is that it’s made for robots more than humans. Apple, on the other hand, excels at design. It makes products for humans.
My Take: Apple stock slide last week is likely a referendum on product innovation and executive management. This article highlights just how bad Apple is at building web services (Google’s strength). Other competitors to watch? Amazon and Microsoft.

5. A Trillion-Dollar Transfer Of Wealth Is About To Hit Silicon Valley

[ReadWrite] if you add up the market valuation of the old-guard companies selling to the enterprise — Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, Cisco and so on — you’re looking at about $1 trillion in total. And those companies are about to get hit with a tsunami of competition as smaller, more nimble rivals rush into the market offering solutions that outperform the old guys at a fraction of the price.

My Take: This is a provocative OpEd piece. I agree that the pace of innovation is increasing and that some established companies may be slow to adapt. And in general, the longevity of large companies has shortened. Yet, expect these established companies to be well aware of the impact of “the cloud” and tech-consumerism. Established companies will be those buying the nimble companies that are held up to be the new conquers. Ultimately some titans will fall and many startups will wash out – I don’t see that as much of a change from the existing status quo.

5. Last call for Movember

I’m sneaking in one last call for Movember donations, if you’d like to donate you can do so here: http://MoBro.co/iamreff

And remember, Moustaches don’t make you creepy; being creepy makes you creepy.

 

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5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed 11-17-12

5 Marketing Technology Stories you might have missed

I hate cancer. I bet you do to. This month I’m growing a moustache as part of Movember. If you can, please donate $10 to killing cancer here: http://MoBro.co/iamreff

MT5 Edition: #62

Stories This Week: Texting declines, Agile Marketing, what Ads are effective?, mobile payments takes a step back, must have social tools

1. OMG! Text messaging in decline for the first time

[cNet] A wireless industry research report says both messaging revenue and total volume declined in the third quarter in the U.S., a first for both.

My Take: Apps like Apple’s iMessage and social networks (e.g. Facebook and Twitter) are stealing traffic from traditional SMS based communications. Thank gawd. Never a huge fan of texting.

2. 10 key principles of agile marketing management

[ChiefMarTec] In a nutshell, agile marketing adapts management methodologies from agile software development (and agile project management) and applies them to marketing teams.
My Take: I learned about Agile Marketing at the recent Inbound Marketing Summit where Scott Brinker and Frank Days were on a panel 
Agile Marketing

Agile Marketing

Old School Advertising Preferred

Old School Advertising Preferred

3. Consumers, Marketers Disagree on Effective Ads

[eMarketer] Internet users think TV ads are more effective than online placements
My Take: Trying to unpack this….a cynical view is internet don’t want ads polluting their playground. That makes sense especially when, until recently, online advertising has been so “ham handed”.  However, when viewing Ad viewing through the user experience the differences come to the surface.

  • Print magazines are a “lean back” activity. Consumers flip through them while killing time or relaxing in general.  People pick up a magazine when they have  a few minutes to themselves and while in “lean back” mode they are more open to an Advertising message.
  • Online is a “lean forward” activity – especially when considering mobile.  When online, people are in task mode. They are trying to get something done and online Ads interrupt their activity and potentially cause the user to lose their train of thought. Very frustrating.
These lines blur a bit when considering online digital magazines and in this case I feel the tactile experience of print wins over the screen experience.

4. Why plastic cards aren’t going away in mobile payment future

[GIGAOM] Google is reportedly poised to follow PayPal’s lead by introducing a plastic payment card. The moves show that payment systems can find value in plastic cards, which can be accepted everywhere and can get around hardware limitations that hold back some technologies like NFC.

My Take: At first this was a head scratcher – why are tech companies taking a step back to analog solutions instead of pressing digital?  David Talach, vice president of strategic partner development at point of sale equipment vendor VeriFone, says:

“This is about smart companies making smart moves to use what exists today, quickly leverage that and bridge to mobile and NFC tomorrow,” he said.

5. 24 Must-Have Social Media Marketing Tools

[SoMeExaminer] I like tools….you like tools. And this is a good, up to date list.

My Take: Pay attention to Pocket. Stephanie Simmons uses Pocket the way I do. It integrates well with Buffer.

 

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5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed 11-10-12

5 Marketing Technology Stories you might have missed

I hate cancer. I bet you do to. This month I’m growing a moustache as part of Movember. If you can, please donate $10 to killing cancer here: http://MoBro.co/iamreff

MT5 Edition: #61

Stories This Week: Most retweeted tweet ever, Google – beyond search, Mary Meeker on the US balance sheet, Nate Silver’s best week ever and Movember Games

1. Election coverage: most retweeted tweet ever?

[BBC] The words “four more years”, coupled with a photo of Barack and Michelle Obama embraced in a hug, have become the most retweeted Twitter post ever and is featured on the front cover of the Economist.

My Take: The best news source on Election night was Twitter who set up a dedicated page (no longer available) to cover the event. That feed was given to noted reporters and pollsters to provide up to the minute, trustworthy information.  They consistently broke accurate and insightful news well in advance of major networks.

Most Retweeted Tweet Gets Front Cover Treatment

Most Retweeted Tweet Gets Front Cover Treatment

2. Google ‘Now’ Moving Well Beyond “Search” With Mobile Assistant

[SearchEngineLand] Almost exactly three years ago when Google employee Marissa Mayer described “the perfect search engine”. She said it would be one “that could understand speech, questions, phrases, what entities you’re talking about, concepts. It would be able to search all of the world’s information, [find] different ideas and concepts, and bring them back to you in a presentation that was really informative and coherent.” Google Now provides a first glimpse into that future, it anticipates your needs based on past behaviors and activities.

My Take: Search won’t disappear but it will used less and less as augmented reality and platforms and apps begin to leverage the data we pour into them. Finally consumers will see tangible benefit from the data they give away so freely.

3. Meeker’s Address on the State of USA Inc.

[NYTimes] Ms. Meeker, a former Morgan Stanley star analyst turned venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, gained attention last year with a report on USA Inc., looking at the government as a corporation whose budget was sorely out of whack.

USA Short 102412

4. Nate Silver drives home a victory for data science

[VentureBeat] During Tuesday’s presidential election, one geek distinctly came to the forefront because he used “big data” to correctly predict all 50 states. His name is Nate Silver, and he’s so good with numbers he might be a witch.

My Take: Score this a win for science over art.  Nate Silver killed it by accurately predicting the presidential race as well as all 50 states.  Here’s Nate on the Colbert Report.

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Nate Silver
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

5. Google Brings you Movember Games

[Google]

Welcome to Movember Games! Four motion-sensing games designed
to get your Mo into shape for Movember. Choose a game and begin your journey towards moustache mastery.

Movember Games

Movember Games

 

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5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed 11-3-12

5 Marketing Technology Stories you might have missed

MT5 Edition: #60

Stories This Week: Apple’s e-wallet end around, Twitter’s election map, LinkedIn adds influencer discovery, 5 SEO tips and Summly keeps things short

1. Forget the E-Wallet — It’s Apple’s Passbook That Will Transform Retail

[AdAge] Although Apple is lagging in “Near Field Communications or NFC”, the technology that makes e-wallets possible, they are leap-frogging the competition with a software based solution that solves the underlying problems facing consumers and retailers.

My Take: Leave it to Apple to focus on Apps to solve the challenge. It’s perfect in it’s simplicity.  People know how to use apps and they are already comfortable with online payments. This is genius. Google, your technology-based solution just became irrelevant.

2. Twitter Launches Election Map to Track Candidates’ State-by-State Messaging

[Wired] Twitter launched a new interactive map on Thursday that measures the effectiveness of President Barack Obama’s and Governor Mitt Romney’s tweets on a state-by-state basis.

Twitter Election Map

Twitter Election Map

3. LinkedIn Adds Discovery Tools for Influencers Network

[Mashable] LinkedIn is rolling out a couple new tools to make it easier for users to find celebrities, business leaders and personalities to follow from the social network’s roster of about 150 “thought leaders.”

My Take: As we’ve seen with other LinkedIn features, they are trying this feature out with a limited set of accounts, but don’t be surprised when this feature becomes available to all.  Pair this with the recent release of “endorsing skills” and LinkedIn’s existing targeting system Voila! you’ve got yourself a influencer measurement system that is better than Klout.

4. 5 Steps for Building Links that Improve Search Results

[MarketingSherpa] Many marketers struggle to implement link building, especially with the myriad of consistently changing factors search engines use to rank pages. With the April launch of Google’s new Penguin update, new struggles and questions have emerged.

My Take: I selected this article because SEO optimization is a very technical topic and this is a nice primer on how to get starter. Yet I was left wanting more information about how to use your content to build links beyond the obvious options of your blog and social media outlets.

If you’re up for an hour of video watching…

5. Summly iOS App Delivers News in Screen-Sized Summaries

[Wired] Last year, then-16-year-old Nick D’Aloisio developed and released the app Summly to be a CliffsNotes for the web. Today the app grows up with an innovative redesign and a more focused set of summarizing skills.

My Take: I tested a beta version and here’s my take:

I like:

  • Putting the news in a “snackable” form is a novel idea. 
  • The sharing animations are attractive but not distracting
What I didn’t like:
  • My initial test was sharing the wrong URL 
  • I don’t find the swipe UI to be intuitive: Swipe up for more info. Swipe down to go to the main menu and side to side for more stories. I keep swiping up and down incorrectly.
Summly

Summly

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