5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed 8-18-12

Marketing Technology Stories you might have missed

Banging out this weekly wrap up while waiting for my appointment at the Genius bar.  This Macbook Air developed a bad case of OS corruption after a Mountain Lion upgrade. Tough to get work done when your tools are broken. I better finish this up before it freezes up! Oh, and I had an awesome time at the Girl Talk show last night. If you don’t know Girl Talk, Google that. Lastly, there was, quietly, tons of activity in Marketing Technology, it’s a real challenge to find the best of the best. In the end I had to share 8 stories, all for the price of free.

MT5 Edition: #50

Stories This Week: App.net, Medium, Facebook tests prominent Ad placement, JiWire provides targeted mobile Ads, Windows RT, rating TOS, social observing vs. sharing and Pinterest Apps.

1. What You Need To Know About App.net

[ThisGuy] Tired of Facebook ads? Want to have data portability? Willing to pay $50 annually for a finer social network? Read this article for the full scoop.

My Take: As Facebook, Twitter (and perhaps Google+) mature they are walling off access to take greater control of their user experience – so they can ensure users are seeing their ads. At its core App.net is centered around a different revenue model. Instead of being Advertising supported will be paid for by the users.  As this version of the internet matures I believe some users will pay for a better service. Yet I’m not certain enough users will pay to use App.net – not enough to have it reach critical mass.  App.net is borne from a frustration with existing solutions. It’s experience is evolutionary (not revolutionary) and I’m skeptical at the notion users will pay for what they get for free now.

2. Medium

[CNET] The collaborative publishing tool takes submitted content and groups it into related collections, allowing multiple people to view and add to it.

My Take: Leave it to the founders of Twitter to focus on creating platforms based around a simple activity. Twitter provided a platform for short/quick communication. Medium is focused on creating the best collaboration experience yet. I haven’t used Medium yet, but it seems like a mashup of Storify and Google Drive. More [About Medium]

3. Facebook to Test Promoting Brands’ Page Posts to Non-Fans’ News Feeds

[Adweek] Here it comes, the big Advertising push on Facebook. Facebook is testing pushing Ads on user walls.

My Take: Facebook stock continues to get pummeled on the stock market. Big ticket brands are holding back spending on Facebook because Facebook is unable to demonstrate the effectiveness of their Ad spend.  The user wall is the main way users experience Facebook and that’s where Facebook is going to put Ads.  Get ready for Ads to move from the sidebar to the center screen. What will happen? Users will grumble for a while, but they aren’t leaving Facebook over this.  Users still believe they have a positive value exchange. They are getting free access to friends and family and all they need to do is avoid looking/clicking on annoying Ads.

4. JiWIRE builds a location graph to make mobile ads relevant

[GIGAOM] Location-based ad provider JiWire is trying to capitalize on mobile advertising with the launch of a Location Graph that it says will help it deliver relevant ads based on what it can learn from the way people move around from place to place.

My Take: Repeat after me…”what overcomes creepiness?” RELEVANCY.  Done right, mobile ad targeting has the promise of providing relevant, valuable information (coupons, events, offers) to mobile users and shoppers based on their demographics and activity.

5. Windows RT bridges the gap between Tablets and Laptops

[VentureBeat] Long battery life, small size, and multitouch screens: That’s what Microsoft is promising its PC partners will soon deliver using a version of Windows 8 known as Windows RT. This week, the company delivered some specifics.

My Take: This is a really interesting form factor. Sometimes I want a laptop, sometimes I want a tablet. I never want to carry both. But can Microsoft and it’s hardware partners deliver a pleasant user experience? They never have before.

6. Putting An End To The Biggest Lie On The Internet

[TechCrunch] credit Eric Andersen for this story. Website Terms of Service are a joke. No one reads them and there are no accepted standards. TOS;DR provides a rating system along with some easy to understand tags that show what you’re signing up for.

Observing vs. Sharing on Social Networks

Observing vs. Sharing on Social Networks

7. Users of Smaller Social Sites Share, Consume More Content

[eMarketer] Facebook is still the most popular in terms of user numbers, other sites are more popular for sharing content—and others still for reading and viewing, without necessarily sharing.

My Take: I find niche social networks really interesting.  I’m watching this space to see if and how they grow in relation to the bigger networks.

8. Pinterest launches first apps for Android and iPad

[TheVerge] <– I don’t use Pinterest, but maybe you do.

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5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed 8-11-12

Marketing Technology Stories you might have missed

MT5 Edition: #49

Hope you had an awesome week. Things here have been busy. Still working on learning Ruby on Rails and sneaking in bike rides whenever I can.  So, on with the show…

Stories This Week: social innovation slows, the cloud gets hacked, Olympic visualizations, mobile-social growth and B2B marketing technology

1. Social Networks Are Maturing & Innovation Has Slowed

[MIT] Hundreds of thousands of developers know that building apps that rely on the Facebook or Twitter platforms comes at a risk—at any time, the companies can change their access rules or launch a competing feature.

My Take: It’s like Harvey Dent said, “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

2. The Cloud Gets Hacked

[Wired] A wired reporter was hacked – HARD. By taking advantage of poor security practices in Apple and Amazon customer support, the hacker was able to wipe the reporters laptop. And, because he wasn’t backing up, he lost everything.

My Take: Mashable published this guide on what to do to keep this from happening to you. This incident highlights the security problem associated with cloud based computing. Even Woz agrees.

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3. Olympic Visualizations

The New York Times created these great digital illustrations of three Olympic events. Check out these dynamic illustrations.

Men’s 100-Meter Sprint

Men’s Long Jump

Men’s 100-Meter Freestyle

4. Americans Get Social on Their Phones

US Mobile Social Network Growth

US Mobile Social Network Growth

[eMarketer] Social networking, aided by the widespread adoption of smartphones in the US, is quickly making the jump to mobile, according to eMarketer estimates.

My Take: Too often I forget that me and my friendly fishes are swimming in our little socia-mobile-local pond. I forget that the rest of the world is not wound up in this stuff.  They’re just, you know, living.  I expected these numbers to be higher. Almost everyone I know has a smartphone. The percentage of my friends that are social-mobile has to be above 85%.  My take on these numbers relates to the first story this week. The early and late adopters as well as early majority segments have been captured. The rest of the growth will be on attracting the late majority and laggards to the space and the features and apps that will attract them have already been developed.  

5. Concepts Every B2B SEO Needs To Know In Today’s Internet Marketing Environment

[SearchEngineLand] In response to the assertion that SEO dead, SE Land responded by pointing out that search engine marketing is more than a set of tricks to gain traffic, it’s an evolving marketing technology discipline.

My Take: Marketing is too often ruled by “rules of thumb”  and historical knowledge. Marketers are wise to add Conversion Rate Optimization, Lead Management, Lead Nuturing and Content Curation to their skill set.

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5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed 8-4-12

Marketing Technology 5

Marketing Technology Stories you might have missed

MT5 Edition: #48

Stories This Week: Augmented Reality (for real), Twitters growth or death plan, the future of apps, a flipping fantastic crowdsourcing model & the top 9 networks for business.

1. Augmented Reality Is Finally Getting Real

[MIT] As smartphones explode in popularity, augmented reality is starting to move from novelty to utility.

My Take: What will the killer AR app be? Or will there be just one.  Perhaps there will be hundreds of purpose built AR apps like these:

  • At Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum, visitors can use iPads at a dinosaur exhibit to see how the beasts would have looked in real life.
  • For NASCAR race in which fans, who can’t see the entire 2.5-mile track, can point their phones at distant turns and get photos and videos generated by others who were closer to the action.

2. Twitter’s Growth Plan Could Destroy It

[MassiveGreatness] In this OpEd piece, MG Siegler suggests that Twitter’s attempt to become profitable may ruin the service by going against it’s own DNA. Twitter is intended to be simple and short.  Moving into longer, richer formats may push it into crowded waters and destroy Twitters ethos.

My Take: I remember a stat that 12% of Americans use Twitter but 85% are influenced by it.  It seems Twitter needs to find a way to monetize the 85% without pissing off the 12% dedicated use base.  If it fails to do so Google+ and other social network services will step in to fill the void. 

3. Are Smartphone App Downloads Sustainable?

[eMarketer] Smartphone users download a high number of apps—especially free ones—but that download spree may not last forever.

My Take: There are two arguments going on here.

1st: Which mobile platform, HTML5 or native, will prevail. This is a pretty technical discussion that on the pros/cons of each and the right answer is dependent on your mobile app needs.

2nd: The second issue is a maturity question. At what point will users have all the apps they need? Feature-based apps will be M&A’d or copy-catted into broader apps. The app model will feel crowded. There will be less room for innovation.  While I don’t think we’re there yet, in last weeks video, Jeremiah Oywang suggested that if you haven’t built your app by now, you may have missed your window of opportunity.

4. The Crowdsourcing Business Model At Work

[VentureBeat] FlyingFlips – this flip flop manufacturing company is demonstrating the power of crowdsourcing.

My Take: This business model does so much for a company:

  • Reduces product risk by letting your customers decide which products should be manufactured
  • Reduces design costs by letting customers submit designs
  • Increases loyalty by involving customers in the process
  • The charitable giving angle gives the company a noble purpose that customers respond to
Every entrepreneur should be looking closely at this model.

5. The Top 9 Social Networks For Businesses

[B2B Marketer Insider] This article lists the search growth rates of the 9 major social networks that I think are most important to businesses and their social media marketing efforts.

My Take: Just click the link and study the results.

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5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed 7-28-12

Marketing Technology 5

Marketing Technology Stories you might have missed

MT5 Edition: #47

It was a slow week and I was a bit under the weather. I feared I wouldn’t have 5 stories, but no fear, the stories were there.

Stories This Week: Foursquare gets MORE pushy, curation = reporting?, the Future of the Internet, social media success secrets and Olympic apps.

1. Foursquare adds Promoted Updates, for on-demand geofenced advertising

[TheVerge] Last week Foursquare announced Local Updates, allowing businesses to send info to existing customers. This week they announced Promoted Updates as a way for businesses to reach potential new customers.

My Take: I worried about this announcement but in reading the details Foursquare is doing two things right:

  1. Keeping promotions relative to your (or your friends) interests.  
  2. Putting the promotions on the Explore tab. This makes sense because the Explore tab is used to discover new venues. If Foursquare pushed promotions to a more prominent, disruptive position such as the home screen, users would be more likely to revolt.

2. NBC Links Up With Storify For Real-Time Curated Olympics Coverage

[TechCrunch] NBC journalists will be mining content from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other social media sites, and putting into the Storify platform to create running narratives of the Olympic stories.

My Take: Remember reporting? Remember when reporters had to chase down stories? Increasingly established newsmakers are relying on your content to tell the story. Is that lazy or an attempt to remain relative?

3. Andrew Keen and Jeremiah Owyang on Future of Internet

[TechCrunch]

 

4. Five Secrets of USAA’s Success in Social Media

[Experience:TheBlog] Augie Ray, Executive Director of Community and Collaboration at USAA, provide’s five secrets for social success.

My Take: What makes Augie’s success so amazing is that he’s experienced such success despite executing social in the highly regulated financial services industry. If you’re a Forrester customer you can read their case study here.

5. 5 Essential Apps for Olympic Fanatics

[Mashable]

My Take: Since I’m writing this during the opening ceremonies I thought these apps were worth sharing.

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5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed 7-21-12

Marketing Technology 5

Marketing Technology Stories you might have missed

MT5 Edition: #46

Stories This Week: Foursquare gets pushy, Google+ usage and user satisfaction rises, Facebook ad rates jump, the Facebook Want button debate and social media spending.

1. Foursquare: Check In With Favorite Businesses, Even When You’re Checked Out

[FastCompany] The new feature let businesses push specials to you when you’re nearby without making you feel like you’re getting spammed.

My Take: The fine line between creepy and and charming is as grey as the hair on my head *sigh*.

But Foursquare is putting users in control by focusing on the brands/venues that users frequent. Ultimately this will work because Foursquare is providing a valuable service to users AND because they’re providing a social-based customer loyalty program for businesses.

Social Media Customer Satisfaction

Social Media Customer Satisfaction

2. Google+ Usage Jumps & People Like It Better Than Facebook

[TheVerge] Google+ reportedly saw 43 percent jump in US visitors during June

[cnet] Facebook users not as satisfied as Google+ users

My Take: Well, a big increase on a small number is still a small number. That said, Google+ has good features, a relatively good security/privacy model and they don’t push a ton of ads – why wouldn’t users enjoy the experience?

3. Facebook ad rates surge 58 percent, leaves Twitter in the dust

[cnet] Facebook’s average cost per thousand impressions has increased by 58 percent in the second quarter of 2012 compared with the year-ago period, meaning Facebook is earning more and more from its ads.

My Take: Amazing to see that Facebook’s mobile ads have a click through rate over 1%, over 4 times Twitters mobile ad click through rate. It shows how effective Facebooks targeting is and how important local, mobile search is to social network services.

In related news, Twitter announced targeted ads.

4. Facebook’s Want Button

A & G’s SchneiderMike & Charlie Hale review and debate Facebooks planned “Want” button.

http://youtu.be/sWw1xCXQmYQ

5. What Are Marketers Spending on Social Media?

[eMarketer] When it comes to how much money to spend on social media, most marketers have less than 20% of their marketing budget set aside for outreach on social sites—including advertising and maintaining a social media presence.

My Take: If you compare these numbers against the number of Marketers who measure return on their investment in social media you’ll see that many continue to invest in social media without tangible business results

 

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