Clickilicious – top clicks in April
My most clicked stories in April 2012
Storified by John Refford · Fri, Apr 27 2012 22:32:10
Feature photo credit: basketman
Storified by John Refford · Fri, Apr 27 2012 22:32:10
Feature photo credit: basketman
MT5 Edition: Â #35
Stories This Week: twitter is bigger than you think, changes in marketing/ad spending, data into dollars, Google Drive, Kickstarters Dark Side
[BrandSavant] While only 10% of Americans use Twitter, 44% HEAR ABOUT TWEETS EVERYDAY.
My Take: This supports the idea that while facebook is the key platform for reaching consumers, Â Twitter is a great place for reaching influencers.
[eMarketer]Â US marketing professionals are leveraging more tools as they embark on each new individual campaign or program, and social media is taking a larger role in terms of spending and usage.
My Take: These survey highlights the need for Marketers to continue to raise their digital IQ. Are you shifting your Marketing dollars from traditional to digital?
[Gigaom] Check out these five companies that are making money with consumer data.
My Take: I realize that on Facebook you are the product. Hey, it’s a free service and in return for the free service you are giving up your data (interests, behaviorial, purchasing intent). But explain to me why companies that sell services and products to consumers get to make extra revenue off of consumer data? Â Why doesn’t the consumer get a cut?!?
[Google]
My Take: Tell me if you’ve heard this one before…. a startup up launches and does something very well (dropbox, box.net) and then incumbents (Google Drive, Microsoft Skydrive) rush to copy the features?
[BostInno] Interesting story of how a $37K kickstart provided only $4K in funding.
My Take: This example highlights that many/most/some entrepreneurs don’t have a sufficient business background to estimate the costs associated with operating and marketing a new company.
–
–
[important]
Are you picking up what I’m laying down? Sign up to receive updates automatically:
[/important]
Presentation given to Bentley’s graduate eMarketing course.April 24, 2012. As with all my social content, it does not reflect the opinions of my employer.
MT5 Edition: Â #34
Stories This Week: mobile wallet adoption, klout brand pages, Instagram ushers in new era, the fifth screen, Path isn’t the next Instagram
[VentureBeat] There’s a lot of smart minds looking at how to facilitate purchases using a smart phone instead of a credit card.
My Take: If you click through and review the Pew study, you’ll see the factors believed to stall the adoption of the mobile wallet: device fragmentation, security concerns and industry adoption. Â Still, I think 8 years is a relatively long time in technology and I expect innovation will hasten the adoption. Â There’s too much value on both sides of the mobile transaction to slow down the trend. Â Customers will benefit from specials and coupons; brands will enjoy the ability to market to customers at the moment of purchase intent.
[BrandChannel]Â Brand Squad pages offer three benefits to marketers: the reveal of top influencers associated with a brand or topic; a showcase for content; and another burgeoning platform (beyond Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest) for brands to reward social media influencers with exclusive perks.
Example: Red Bull Brand Page
My Take: On the whole I think this is a positive development. There seems to be a good value exchange between the brand and the consumer. Â The brand page doesn’t currently provide for engagement between the brand and consumer, but perhaps it’s not intended to.
[TechCrunch] The author says some incredible stuff:
Web 2.0 is over. Instagram is the Netscape IP of the new era. Mobile or death.
My Take: For me, there’s still a lot of uncertainty going on: Are we in another tech bubble? Was Instagram a bargain? Did Facebook buy Instagram to keep it out of the hands of twitter?
[FastCompany]Â Smartwatches, AR goggles, and more: There’s a mighty scramble afoot for your last sliver of attention. Is the start of ad-mageddon?
My Take: I kickstarted Pebble and I’m looking forward to see what apps are developed for it. I’m less excited about Google’s Project Glass, those glasses look odd and I’m not sure I want to experience the internet that way.
[Gigom] The Instagram acquisition has pundits looking around for the next big startup that’s ripe for being gobbled up.  The post argues why Path will remain independent.
My Take: I know not everyone likes Path, but I like it. It’s got a great UI and it’s a more intimate network.  The author argues that Path doen’t have a distinctive feature that makes it stand out, and he’s right. What bugs me is the over-emphasis on feature-apps. I’ll have to write a separate post on this, but the gist is, well rounded apps are overlooked in favor of single function apps.
[important]
Are you picking up what I’m laying down? Sign up to receive updates automatically:
[/important]
Forrester Analyst Fatemeh Khatibloo wowed the audience by posting content that 3 attendees had posted to the internet. The information showed the attendees were interested in running, music, coffee and dogs. Â this display highlighted the challenges associated with protecting one’s data. Â In a super-classy move, Forrester made a donation in the honor of the three attendees to charities that support their interests.
Considering nearly all companies manage customer data, the question becomes ‘What can companies do to responsibly manage customer data?‘
Companies that ignore Personal Identity Data Management are likely to…
Melissa Boxer of Oracle demonstrated that customers’ are in control. They have:
Stephen Jalkut of Chartis, formerly known as AIG, provided an interesting data point:
Companies that have embraced Science have consistently outperformed the S&P
A session I looked forward to during the conference, Forrester Analyst Nate Elliott, challenged Marketers to connect their social media activities directly to your overall marketing plan.  Why? If you don’t even the best social media marketing campaigns fail to provide value to the business. Worse, if a business relies too much on social channels at the expensive of other marketing channels, marketing’s overall success will suffer greatly.
Want an example?
Why do social media marketing campaigns fail?
So what should a brand do?
Customers and prospects to through four stages in the ‘customer lifecycle’
Choose the right social strategies to support each stage:
Focus on which channels offer which benefits to your marketing plan.
Forrester Analyst Elizabeth Shaw provided a suite of examples from some of the best agency uses of interactive marketing.
Why? Technology has invaded our lives
Here are my three favorite examples:
A 5D platform connects digital devices such as kiosks, large-screen displays, tablets and personal smart phones to better attract consumers into the store, drive product engagement and arm store associates with ore contextualized digital tools
Razorfish Connected Retail Experience Platform (codename “5D”) from Razorfish – Emerging Experiences on Vimeo.
Software that can automatically determine: age, gender, attention time, and adapts content on digital sights automatically based on who is looking at the screen.
Immersive Labs – Adaptive Advertising Demo from Immersive Labs on Vimeo.
Brand Objectives:Â Generate consumer buzz and logins to the Olympus Camera website
A Demonstation of Olympus Pen Augmented Reality from edward boches on Vimeo.
[important]
Are you picking up what I’m laying down? Sign up to receive updates automatically:
[/important]