5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed 4-14-12

Marketing Technology 5

Marketing Technology Stories you might have missed

MT5 Edition:  #33

Stories This Week: Measuring content marketing, lowered expectations for social media, a surprise about Instagram’s CEO, new LinkedIn features coming, new design for Google+.

1. How To Measure Content Marketing

[MarketingSherpa] A must read article. Yummy details inside.

  1. Set a goal for every project
  2. Track goals in three tiers: Creator, Manager, Director
  3. Measure large programs with an index
  4. Fill gaps and grab opportunities
  5. Invest in tracking and analysis

My Take: I love this. You always see information about the importance of content marketing, but rarely do you seen such concrete, practical advice on metrics and measurement associated with content marketing. I also love the idea of measuring ROI as “Return on Interesting.”

2. To Succeed In Social Media, Lower Your Expectations

[Forrester] The point Forrester analyst Nate Elliott is making is social media has to evolve beyond a shiny thing that you know you need to do, but you’re not sure why. Social media is most effective when used in conjunction with other digital marketing efforts along with traditional marketing tactics including Advertising, print and PR.

My Take: I’m lucky enough to be attending the Forrester Marketing Conference where I’ll get to hear Nate speak on the topic. If you’re attending, please say “hi”.  Follow Nate Elliott on twitter.

3. Instagram’s founder had no programming training. He’s a marketer who learned to code by night.

[TheNextWeb] Read the story of how Instagram’s CEO Kevin Systrom achieved such great success without ever receiving formal engineering training.

My Take: If you’re a marketer, follow Kevin’s lead. You don’t need a web developer to build the app or site of your dreams. Check out my coverage of the SxSWi panel for more tips on getting started: Learn To Code and Make the Software You Want.

4. LinkedIn Rolls Out New Targeted Follower Tools For Marketers

[BusinessInsider] LinkedIn will launch two new functions for companies who have followers on LinkedIn, both of which will be of interest to marketers and advertisers: “Targeted Updates” and “Follower Statistics.”

My Take: LinkedIn’s social capabilities have been so limited, it’s good to see investments in the social media marketing targeting and analytics.

5. Google+ Redesign: Here’s What’s New

[Mashable] Google’s social network got a redesign on Wednesday that makes it prettier and easier to navigate.

My Take: The new look is cleaner and more sophisticated. However, it’s for nothing. Until Google releases an API that developers can use that will allow users to share updates (Instagram photos, Foursquare checkins, etc.), Google+ isn’t going to take off. Once people can post from their favorite social management platform (Hootsuite, Tweetdeck), Google+ will be a true competitor to Twitter

Songza - music curated by experts

Songza - music curated by experts

Cool App/Site tip of the Week

Check out Songza.

 

 

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Pebble: E-Paper Watch for iPhone and Android

Pebble: E-Paper Watch for iPhone and Android

Today I backed my first kickstarter project. It wasn’t an altruistic investment, they are building an awesome device.

One of the things I’ve always wanted was the ability to manage my smartphone from my wrist. For the most part, previous computer wrist watches have been ugly monstrosities, with very little to offer (calculator anyone?).  The real computing power is in your smartphone and what you need on your wrist is a second screen to control your smartphone.

Take a look at the Pepple Kickstarter project. You’ll see the watch allows you the functions of a fancy sports watch with the ability to manage the apps on your smartphone. They’re also releasing a SDK (software development kit) that hopefully will generate new apps.  First signs look good because the developers package already sold out.

 

You can get your own Pebble at their Kickstarter page.

Update: They added support for ifttt, I’m over the moon!

 

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5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed 4-7-12

Marketing Technology 5

Marketing Technology Stories you might have missed

MT5 Edition:  #32

Stories This Week: B2B online communities, Tracy Morgan explains Twitter, the Innovator’s Dilemma, behavior on email vs social media and the Lumia 900

1. Building B2B Online Communities – Why, How & Where to Start

[TopRank] Benefits of online communities can include deepening customer relationships, building greater brand equity, providing better customer care, shortening product innovation cycles, extending and accelerating product and service delivery and delivering improved financial returns.

My Take: In my experiences as a user, online communities are difficult to pull off. It’s hard to get people to invest time in your community when there are so many other pressing demands on their time.  Here are a few things to help your community be a success. Add your thoughts in the comments.

Success Factors:

  1. Have a large community, but not too large.  40 is too few, 40,000 is too many. You have to get enough people in the community to have a conversation but not so many as to cause a riot.
  2. Have the community be opt-in. Otherwise the community members won’t be as interested in participating.
  3. Dedicate time to the community. Don’t expect the community to manage itself. You’re going to spend time each week moderating comments and driving discussion.

2. Tracy Morgan Explains Twitter [EXPLICIT]

Tracy Morgan Explains Twitter

Tracy Morgan Explains Twitter

 

3. Clay Christensen: How To Escape the Innovator’s Dilemma [VIDEO]

[TechCrunch] Clay’s identified why most good companies eventually fail. This video does a great job outlining his theories. It’s on the long side, but it’s a good investment of your time.

My Take: I think Clay’s book extends what Jim Collin’s did in Good To Great. Clay’s work shows that it’s not about culture, principles and process, it’s about the market and the need to continually innovate. Check out these books if you’re interested in this topic.

Change in Investing in Paid vs Earned/Owned Media

Change in Investing in Paid vs Earned/Owned Media

4. Digital Marketers Shuffle Budget to Boost Owned and Earned Media

[eMarketer] As marketers look to integrate their advertising efforts into a more cohesive strategy, many are eyeing digital media, specifically owned and earned media.

My Take: As if you needed it, this demonstrate the emphasis on Digital Marketing. Social media and new interactive channels continue to drive these spends.

5. Microsoft & Nokia Launch the Lumia 900

[WSJ] Walt Mossberg generally panned it, but that’s not surprising given he’s considered an Apple fan-boy by most.

The [Mashable] review was more positive but the phone isn’t on par with the iPhone or the best Android phones.

[TheVerge] review highlights the design but points to the lack of 3rd party development on the platform (the Verge is a newer tech blog and it is GORGEOUS).

My Take: This was an important launch for Microsoft & Nokia. Unfortunately, the lack of apps is going to hold back the success of this phone and mobile OS. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft and Nokia stick with it and release a better phone soon.

5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed 3-31-12

Marketing Technology 5

Marketing Technology Stories you might have missed

MT5 Edition:  #31

Stories This Week: SEO basics, social ad spending is growing, Microsoft will lose desktop space to Apple & Google, improving email deliverability, interview with a uber-Marketing Technologist and boosting CTR through personalized offers.

1. 24 Ways To Make Life Hard For Your SEO Team

[SearchEngineLand] While the industry is maturing, SEO still remains a largely misunderstood discipline. There are three main reasons for this:

  1. The search engines keep the details of their ranking algorithms private.
  2. There is a lot of bad information and misperceptions presented as SEO wisdom online.
  3. The algorithms search engines use are frequently changing.

My Take: SEO is a marketing discipline unlike no other. It requires expertise and experience and it’s one of the few places where I avoid learning by trial and error. If you aren’t investing in SEO or aren’t getting the results you expect, partner with someone who lives and breathes SEO.

Change In Online Ad Spending

Change In Online Ad Spending

2. Marketers Accelerate Social Display Ad Spending

[eMarketer] Marketers, agencies to spend more display ad budget on social networks than with publishers this year.

My Take: I’ve got to be honest with you. I don’t know what a demand-side platform is. Nor do I have the slightest idea where to find an Agency Trading desk at Ikea. However, it’s no surprise that Marketers are following the eyeballs and investing in social ad spending.

3. Windows PCs to decline as Android, Apple devices rise

[cNet] Windows will be eclipsed by Android in 2016, according to market researcher IDC. Expect Apple’s iOS to see an uptick too.

My Take: I’ve always viewed the world as Apple versus Microsoft, but as the device platforms change you really need to focus on manufacturers that have demonstrated strong mobile capabilities – enter Apple and Google.  For my money, Motorola is showing us the future of devices with their Altrix [link]

4. Six Tactics To Improve Email Deliverability

[MarketingSherpa] Read on for six tactics from two email deliverability experts. They cover tactics on reputation, testing, domain distribution reports, mediation and more.

My Take: Having spent years futzing with email deliverability, I know what a pain it is. I wish I had this article years ago! Throttling has always worked best for me in a B2B situation where the email volume is low.  My other tip is to work with your top recipient domains to get whitelisted in their spam filters. Doing so gives you a free pass through their filtering system.

5. Technology in Marketing, An Interview with Autodesk’s Jack Androvich

[ForresterBlog] Jack has made some revolutionary moves to empower Autodesk’s marketing through technology. Jack established a vision and built a framework for accomplishing his organizational goals.

My Take: Jack is an interesting guy. In addition to being a Marketing Technology visionary, he’s also very much into fine art photography. He’s got great stories and is a fantastic person to share a meal with.

[BONUS] Dynamic Email Marketing: How Savings.com boosted CTR 88% with offers chosen by data, not instinct

[MarketingSherpa] If you’re doing direct to consumer marketing, this case study shows you how you can get better response rates to your email/web campaigns. The bottom of the article has links to sample content Savings.com used.

My Take: I liked this quote on relevance:

Relevance: often sought, never attained

Relevance is a theory, not a location. You can’t “get there,” but you can run toward it. The team works to improve its algorithm to make better offers, but it will never be perfect.

5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed 3-24-12

Marketing Technology 5

Marketing Technology Stories you might have missed

MT5 Edition:  #30

Stories This Week: Understand Pinterest legal stuff, use magic to create a mobile app, CLV, the new Facebook admin panel and Tweetdeck gets an upgrade.

1. The Copyright Question: How to Protect Yourself on Pinterest

[Mashable] This article digs a bit deeper to help brands understand Pinterest’s Terms of Service regarding copyrights. Pinterest doesn’t own your posts, but you do grant broad licence to Pinterest for the content you post.

My Take: I was pleased to learn that “Cold Brew Labs” owns and operates Pinterest, I like it even more now.

2. Make An iPhone, Android App Without Knowing A Line Of Code

[FastCompany] AppBuilder allows you to build an app for iPhone or Android in minutes. It builds a native app, not an HTML5 website. It also gets around the process of submitting an official app to the App store. This is Apps 2.0.

My Take: THIS. IS. AWESOME. I can’t wait to play with this more.  It looks better than Conduit Mobile which I was working with previously.

3. Customer Lifetime Value: one of the keys to measuring long-term ROI, among other uses.

[TheBrandBuilder] This is a great infographic that provides specifics on creating a Customer Lifetime Value score. CLV seems like  great way to establish a foundation for a segmentation strategy.

My Take: The models provided work well for retail business, I’d like to see some examples of CLV for B2B. If you have any please hit me up in the comments.

4. How to Use the New Facebook Page Admin Panel

[MashableBusiness] The article provides a good primer for getting started on the new admin panel.

5. Tweetdeck update has better list management, editing retweets

[Tweetdeck]

My Take: I’m excited for this update on Mac. Tweetdeck was unusable because it wasn’t refreshing. It earned the low rating in the App Store. So I’m hoping the new version, which I just installed, will actually function – I’m not even focused on the new features yet.

 

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