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

Marketing Technology 5

Marketing Technology Stories you might have missed

MT5 Edition:  #36

Stories This Week: Showrooming Wars, comparing cloud storage options, Who Googled you?, iPhone kicking Android ass, the Mobile-first imperative.

1. Target, Unhappy With Being an Amazon Showroom, Will Stop Selling Kindles

[NewYorkTimes] Target, signaling its growing irritation with its rival Amazon, announced on Wednesday that it would stop selling Amazon’s Kindle e-readers.

My Take: I touched on “Showrooming” back in January. We’re going to see more battles as bricks and mortar stores move online and online stores move into physical spaces.

2. Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive or…

[LifeHacker] With Google and Microsoft announcing their file sharing services to compete with Dropbox and Box.net, this comparison sheet should come in handy.

File Sync Comparison

File Sync Comparison

3. Who Googled You? This Website Knows

[Mashable] BrandYourself.com helps you manage your person SEO and yes, it can tell you who Googled you. BUT there are tradeoffs that can impact your personal branding.

My Take: BrandYourself.com has good SEO tips. I found useful advice on how to improve my personal SEO efforts; HOWEVER, I dislike how it suggests beefing up a profile page on BrandYourself as a positive measure. For me I’m more interested in focusing my SEO efforts to drive traffic to my owned properties, not their website.

If you want to know who is Googling you, you have to sign up for a premium service. And what they are really going to tell you is who visited your BrandYourself profile – which to me is a bit dodgy.

4. Android Is Either “Winning” Because Apple Is Letting It, Or Losing

[TechCrunch] This Op-Ed piece by MG Siegler revisits what’s happened since the iPhone became available on carriers not named AT&T.

My Take: Not everyone is into the mobile platform wars, but it has been interesting to see iPhone surging since it’s become more broadly available. Kudos to MG for taking the time to respond to so many angry comments on the post.

5. Why You Need A Mobile First Approach NOW

[LiesDamnedLies&Statistics] An agency makes the case that organizations need to think mobile first in order to stay ahead of the growth of mobile channels.

My Take: It’s amazing how fast Marketing is changing. So many companies are still learning to think digital first, will they adapt fast enough to remain relevant to their customers?

Mobile Growth

Mobile Growth

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Clickilicious – Top Clicks in April

Clickilicious – top clicks in April

My most clicked stories in April 2012

Storified by John Refford · Fri, Apr 27 2012 22:32:10

Funniest thing I saw all month
awesome AND informative –>Tracy Morgan Explains Twitter http://reff2.me/HOn9wnJohn Refford
…and why I’ve been at the same company forever
Girl On Girl Crime: When Being Too Pretty Costs You The Job – Forbes http://reff2.me/HX65T6John Refford
Top content from Forrester’s Marketing Forum
New post: Day 1 at Forresters Customer Intelligence Forum http://reff2.me/HUunjG #fmf12 #fcif12John Refford
More Marketing Technology lovefest
Here are my 5 take aways from Day 2 at #fmf12 #fcif12 http://reff2.me/IYAeVZJohn Refford
I’m giving myself +klout in Jeff Cutler.  (really, you guys like this share?)
.@jetblue, won’t you please make @JeffCutler’s bday wish come true? http://reff2.me/IeOlEQJohn Refford


Feature photo credit: basketman

5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed 4-28-12

Marketing Technology 5

Marketing Technology Stories you might have missed

MT5 Edition:  #35

Stories This Week: twitter is bigger than you think, changes in marketing/ad spending, data into dollars, Google Drive, Kickstarters Dark Side

1. Why Twitter Is Bigger Than You Think

[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,  Twitter is a great place for reaching influencers.

Change In Spending in Ad/Marketing

Change In Spending in Ad/Marketing

2. Marketers Leverage a Mix of Tools and Tactics

[eMarketer] 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?

3. Five Companies Turning Your Data Into Dollars

[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?  Why doesn’t the consumer get a cut?!?

4. Introducing Google Drive

[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?

 

The Dark Side

The Dark Side

5. Kickstarter’s Dark Side

[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.

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Regulated Social

Regulated Social

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.

Regulated Social  

Featured photo credit: Freedigitalphotos


5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed 4-21-12

Marketing Technology 5

Marketing Technology Stories you might have missed

MT5 Edition:  #34

Stories This Week: mobile wallet adoption, klout brand pages, Instagram ushers in new era, the fifth screen, Path isn’t the next Instagram

1. Pew: 65% of Experts Say Most People Will Adopt Mobile Payments By 2020

[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.  Still, I think 8 years is a relatively long time in technology and I expect innovation will hasten the adoption.  There’s too much value on both sides of the mobile transaction to slow down the trend.  Customers will benefit from specials and coupons; brands will enjoy the ability to market to customers at the moment of purchase intent.

2. Klout Launches Brand Pages To Help Companies Engage Influencers

[BrandChannel] 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.  The brand page doesn’t currently provide for engagement between the brand and consumer, but perhaps it’s not intended to.

Red Bull Klout Page

Red Bull Klout Page

 

3. It’s Not About Instagram — It’s About Mobile

[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?

4. The Fight For The Fifth Screen (Fifth Screen!?) In Your Life

[FastCompany] 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.

5. Cool App Update: Path 

Path

Path

[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.

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