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28
Jul 09

Link roundup: read & recommended between July 27th and July 28th

Added to my Delicious bookmarks between July 27th through July 28th:

  • Discovery Launches Facebook Connect Enabled Shark Week Promotion – Discovery is the latest company to launch a Facebook Connect enabled promotion that pulls in profile data into a custom generated video. This video is much more reminiscent of the Prototype game trailer that we previously wrote about. The promotion creatively depicts the viewers memories as they are being eaten by a shark. It also intelligently prompts a user to share the campaign after viewing the promotional video.
  • LinkedIn Gives You a Better Way to Brand Your Business – LinkedIn has just rolled out Custom Company Profiles to help you make your company profile shine bright and attract would be applicants with targeted content, better visibility, and more modules.
  • 7 Secrets to Tweeting Your Corporate Culture – Some people don’t like communicating with a company logo. But when a company offers a pleasant look and feel, and tweets out information of value to customers, then it is possible to connect with them. Here are 7 suggestions (along with some Twitter examples) for establishing a rock-solid corporate culture on Twitte
  • Red Cross Social Media Strategy Handbook – Handbook for Red Cross to familiarize stakeholders with the national social media philosophy, invite them to find, join, and participate in the national social media presence, and guide them in creating their own local social media presence.
  • Summer At MoMA – MoMa trip planning
  • Where in the world are those 18.6 million iPod touches? – Apple 2.0 – Fortune Brainstorm Tech – According to AdMob, Canadians have purchased more than 1.36 million iPod touches but only 805,594 iPhones.
  • How to Get In Tune with Your Readers Needs [and Produce Compelling Content] – For content to be compelling it needs to connect with needs of those consuming it.

    Whether those needs are for entertainment, news, inspiration, community, instruction, intellectual stimulation, a laugh/or a cry etc – if your content meets the need it goes a long long way to being compelling – after-all, who pays attention to something that has little relevance to them?

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24
Jul 09

Link roundup: read & recommended between July 23rd and July 24th

Added to my Delicious bookmarks between July 23rd through July 24th:

  • B2B Marketing On a Budget: Thought Leadership with John Watton of ShipServ – Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog – The next interview in the B2B Marketing thought leader interview series is with John Watton, VP Marketing at ShipServ, the leading e-marketplace for maritime shipping (and also a Marketo customer). Over the last two years, John has revolutionized the company's marketing strategy using Marketo Lead Management, introducing social media engagement, and leveraging the best practices he garnered over two decades of marketing at communications and high technology companies such as Cramer Systems (acquired by Amdocs), Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and Ariba. You can follow John on Twitter @jwatton.
  • Twitter 101 for Business — A Special Guide – Twitter launches new guide for business
  • Build a better bond with bloggers – iMediaConnection.com – Sponsoring bloggers and the conversations taking place online is big business these days. So big that businesses, according to an article in the June 21, 2009 PARADE Magazine, "spend about $1.6 billion a year on 'word-of-mouth' advertising, promoting their goods to bloggers and to people who use social-media websites like Facebook, according to the research firm PQ Media."
  • 10 Ways Universities Share Information Using Social Media – Universities are constantly exploring new ways to use social media to fulfill their missions of engaging and sharing knowledge with their constituents. Below are just 10 highlights of how universities are using social media for public affairs.
  • 10 Ways Universities Are Engaging Alumni Using Social Media – Universities across the country are beginning to use social media tools to engage alumni and build a network of graduates with a shared affinity for the institution.
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22
Jul 09

Bookmarks for July 22nd

Added to my Delicious bookmarks on July 22nd:

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21
Jul 09

Link roundup: read & recommended between July 16th and July 21st

Added to my Delicious bookmarks between July 16th through July 21st:

  • iPhone Games: Idea Attracts Coke, Audi, but not Many Others – Advertising Age – Digital – there are only a few handfuls of branded games in the App Store. Those include Coca-Cola's "Happiness Factory," released last month; Miller Lite's "Round Runner," launched in May; Ford Motor Co.'s "Flex Photo Lab," out last October; Audi "A4 Driving Challenge," released last August; and Pizza Hut's ordering and game app and Nissan's "Cube Party Roundup," both introduced last week.
  • Twitter leaps 1,989% YOY | MarketingCharts – Twitter.com was again the fastest growing site for the month, increasing 1,928% year-over-year, from one million unique visitors in June 2008 to 21 million unique visitors in June 2009. Facebook remains #1 for overall visitors as well as time on site.
  • New Study Finds Correlation Between Social Media and Financial Success – Those brands that were the most engaged saw their revenue grow over the past year by 18% while the least engaged brands saw losses of negative 6%.
  • SEOmoz | CAPTCHAs' Effect on Conversion Rates – With CAPTCHA on, there was an 88% reduction in SPAM but there were 159 failed conversions. Those failed conversions could be SPAM, but they could also be people who couldn’t figure out the CAPTCHA and finally just gave up. With CAPTCHA’s on, SPAM and failed conversions accounted for 7.3% of all the conversions for the 3 month period. With CAPTCHA’s off, SPAM conversions accounted for 4.1% of all the conversions for the 3 month period. That possibly means when CAPTCHA’s are on, the company could lose out on 3.2% of all their conversions!
  • 10 Rules For Advertising On Facebook – 'Rules' for Facebook have pretty good crossover for marketing/branding/advertising presence in other social media channels. Some really good advice here.
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16
Jul 09

Link roundup: read & recommended between July 11th and July 16th

Added to my Delicious bookmarks between July 11th through July 16th:

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11
Jul 09

Link roundup: read & recommended between July 8th and July 10th

Added to my Delicious bookmarks between July 8th through July 10th:

  • Tourism BC | Research – B.C. travel & tourism research
  • Global Advertising: Consumers Trust Real Friends and Virtual Strangers the Most | Nielsen Wire – Recommendations from personal acquaintances or opinions posted by consumers online are the most trusted forms of advertising, according to the latest Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey of over 25,000 Internet consumers from 50 countries.
  • Social Media: Anderson Analytics Reveals Users' Habits – Advertising Age – Digital – "Which social network you favor says a lot about you — and you might be surprised just what it says."
  • 39% of Moms Make 'Net Time Their Quiet Time – MarketingVOX – New behavioural research on digital habits of moms. "The number of moms who use social media regularly (e.g. Facebook, MySpace, BabyCenter Community) has significantly increased from 11% to 63% since 2006; a change of 462%."
  • Kids Flocking to the Web | Nielsen Online – "According to Nielsen, kids 2-11 spent nearly seven hours online per month five years ago, versus 11 hours a month in 2009, with boys spending slightly more time on average than girls (seven percent more this past May). That usage disparity is perhaps most evident in online video viewing, as boys accounted for 61 percent of video streams among kids on the Web and 57 percent of kids time spent viewing videos."
  • 5 outstanding corporate blogs | iMedia Connection – "Corporate blogging is a great marketing tool — but not one that should be launched lightly. Like other marketing initiatives, a company's blog is an investment that should produce a measurable return. Thus much thought should be given to ways in which companies can enhance the value of these programs for both their consumers and their own bottom lines."
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02
Jul 09

Link roundup: read & recommended between June 30th and July 2nd

Added to my Delicious bookmarks between June 30th through July 2nd:

  • Half of Twitter Registrants Have Never Tweeted – Despite significant growth in the number of Twitter accounts since last year, 53% of those who have registered with the much-publicized micro-blogging service have no followers, 56% are not following anyone, and 55% have never even tweeted, according to a report from HubSpot.
  • Facebook Connect Is A Huge Success — By The Numbers – Registration: sites that use Facebook Connect as an alternate to account registration have seen a 30-200% increase in registration on their sites.
    Engagement: sites with Facebook Connect see a 15-100% increase in reviews and other user generated content
    Traffic: For each story published in Facebook, we see roughly 3 clicks back to the site. Nearly half the stories in the Stream get clicked on. This creates opportunities for the site to encourage more user actions – knowing that each one may result in 3 new visits to their site. With other models like search, there’s nothing you can do to increase user traffic besides optimizing for keywords.
  • Strategic Blogging and Some Tactics to Nail It | chrisbrogan.com – Once you get past the “should my company be blogging” hurdle and into the “okay, so now what?” part of the race, the next question you might find yourself facing is, “What should I be doing to marry my blogging to my business goals?”
  • The sour Wikipedian | Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog – Forget altruism. Misanthropy and egotism are the fuel of online social production. That's the conclusion suggested by a new study of the character traits of the contributors to Wikipedia. A team of Israeli research psychologists gave personality tests to 69 Wikipedians and 70 non-Wikipedians. They discovered that, as New Scientist puts it, Wikipedians are generally "grumpy," "disagreeable," and "closed to new ideas."
  • YouTube CTA Overlay Lets You Drive Users Elsewhere – MarketingVOX – Today YouTube releases the Call-to-Action Overlay, a semi-transparent pop-up that enables advertisers to link viewers to any site they wish. For example, a company supporting a charity can send users watching a certain video to their charity subsite.
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30
Jun 09

Link roundup: read & recommended between June 29th and June 30th

Added to my Delicious bookmarks between June 29th through June 30th:

  • Teens More “Normal” Than You Think Regarding Media Usage | Nielsen Wire – "It might sound hip and trendy to suggest they’re too busy texting, Twittering or LOL-ing to be engaged with traditional media, but ultimately, the research proves otherwise."
  • HOW TO: Use Social Media for Enterprise Business – Don’t underestimate how much information is on the web. It’s stunning what you can learn just by reaching out. If you and your business have a strong social presence, it’s simply easier for potential partners, customers, employers, and businesses to find you. In enterprise, it’s about closing the deal and standing out; social media’s one of the easiest ways to achieve this goal.
  • BBQ Chain Smokey Bones Turns Staff Into Social Media Hosts – Advertising Age – Digital – “It's great for somebody to have a job as a tweeter. [It's] much better if tweeting, Facebook, blogging, etc. is part of lots of employees' jobs.” Case study of a small chain of restaurants that has created a 'social media army' of its employees to spread the word about the restaurant. Since the new website and associated features went live in February, web traffic is up 50% and the chain's e-mail list has increased 30%, "to the six-figure range," Mr. Unger said. Building the e-mail database was critical for the agency, which will rely heavily on e-mail blasts for future marketing efforts. Across the Facebook, MySpace and corporate pages, Mr. Unger said, the chain is adding about 2,200 followers each month. The web launch was accompanied by limited print and outdoor support.
  • Mobile Phones Beat PCs for Young Women – The “Women and Digital Life” study, revealed that more than 80% of US women now use a wireless device and 17% use using a smartphone, such as an iPhone, BlackBerry or models from HTC, Samsung, LG or similar. Among those in the 12-24 and 25-39 age groups, smartphone ownership is now 23%. In contrast 11% of women ages 40+ own a smartphone.
  • The 5 Phases Of The Facebook Sales Funnel – A useful 'Facebook Marketing 101' reference: "The Facebook sales process is an elongated one which entails engaging the user throughout the entire sales process (starting with their pre-purchase experience)."
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25
Jun 09

Link roundup: read & recommended between June 23rd and June 25th

Added to my Delicious bookmarks between June 23rd through June 25th:

  • Survey Says: Social Networks Should Push the Envelope With Ads – the majority (53%) of web users would view an advertiser favorably if ads were targeted to their interests. Moreover, only 5.6% of them said they’d view the advertiser unfavorably, with the rest falling in the “undecided” camp. Beyond that, most users also said they’d rather have ads targeted to their profile data versus having to pay for services with no ads.
  • What's the Last Innovation We've Seen Coming out from the Banks? Scenarios for Banks in 2020? – Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog – How can every customer be empowered with the knowledge and tools to take better control of their financial futures?
    How will banking interactions evolve as a customer’s physical and virtual worlds become completely intertwined?
    How will social networks and mobile platforms transform customers’ banking experiences, making it easier, more convenient, and better integrated with their daily lives?
  • Assessing the Power of Ads | AdWeek – You might think today's young adults, who grew up in a pop culture drenched in irony, would be less susceptible than their elders to the influence of advertising when they make major purchase decisions. Instead, the poll's 18-34-year-olds were the most likely to report that ads were at least somewhat influential in guiding their most recent big purchase, with 45 percent saying so — vs. 37 percent of the 35-44-year-olds, 28 percent of the 45-54s and 29 percent of those 55-plus. This pattern of response will not please people who think advertisers pay too little attention to older consumers, as it suggests the elders would be more resistant in any case, while young adults are still comparatively impressionable.
  • What’s Your Child Doing on Facebook? | Ipsos Reid – Over three-quarters (76%) of online Canadians teens aged 12-17 now have a social network profile, up from 50% in 2007. The rate of increase is higher than that reported for the online adult population, which increased from 39% to 56% over the same time period.

    Of note, many online teens have social network accounts at more than one site. Of the online Canadian teenagers with social networking profiles, almost all (93%) have a profile on Facebook. The next most popular social networking sites for these teens are Windows Live Space (29%), and MySpace (19%). Facebook is the only site to experience a significant increase in the last 18 months, increasing by 24 percentage points (up from 69%).

  • 6 Steps to Valuable Internet Content (unabridged) – Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog – "The web is not a place for a cut and paste from your Corporate paper brochures, there is no value for your visitors in doing that, and they won’t come back to your website if you do this."
Environment / marketing / research — 3 comments
22
Jun 09

Reusable packaging as product differentiator: A lesson from Kuhne mustard

It’s chic right now to talk about ‘green’ marketing. Some companies do it by creating alternative versions of their products that are less harmful to the environment, and some by ‘greenwashing‘ (i.e. trumpeting small environmental wins in the hopes that larger sins will go unnoticed). Others may be tapping into this trend unintentionally.

Take our favourite brand of mustard. Known in our family only as “Dangerous Mustard” (so dubbed by my then-seven-year-old stepson for its strong taste), Kuhne mustard won a recurring spot in our grocery list not only for its distinctive taste, but also for its unique packaging: glass jars with no threaded tops – perfect for reuse as tumblers.

Kuhne’s jars are an elegant shape and the perfect size to fit the hand. They are sturdy and simple. We have accumulated quite a collection, used daily as no-stem wine glasses and water glasses in our home. It’s not something Kuhne talks about in its marketing or trumpets on the label. I don’t even know if they’re thinking about the reusability as a selling point. Yet while we do love the taste of their mustard, what has kept us buying Kuhne (and thus not taste-testing other gourmet mustard brands) is this collectable packaging. As another Vancouver blogger, Technoracle, points out, Kuhne is one of only a few brands (Catelli being another) who uses fully reusable packaging for their products.

Alas, Kuhne appears to have been led astray. We were shocked to discover recently that Kuhne’s bell-shaped jars now have a screw top. The threaded mouth means it’s no longer suitable as a drinking glass, and this seemingly small change has had a big impact on our loyalty to the brand. Buying non-Kuhne mustard was once unthinkable, both because we liked the taste and because we knew we’d get some good mileage for our purchase through reuse of the glass jar. Now that the jar will be going in the recycling like any other mustard jar, Kuhne in my mind is now just one of many kinds of mustard.

So here’s where I bring it back to green marketing. I’d like to see more long-term thinking from companies in terms of product packaging. It’s nice that a ‘green’ version of your product isn’t quite as toxic as the regular version that gets the bulk of your TV ad dollars, but it would really be something for companies to make it easier for people to reduce and reuse, as well as recycle. By planning product design so that it can effortlessly have a second life as something else once your product is used up, companies make it vastly easier for consumers to reduce the amount of trash in the landfill.

Manufacturers can take their cues from existing behaviours and consumer hacks: whether you intended your mustard jars to be reused as glasses or not, it becomes a product differentiator if they are. Another example would be things like yogurt containers, which many people reuse as lunch & leftover containers even though the plastic isn’t rated for reuse. If that’s how people use your product, why not deliberately package for reuse?

Ipsos Reid recently asked people what actions they would be likely to take in the next six months to protect the environment. The most popular answer (depressingly, only selected by 51% of people ) was to reuse jars or containers. But another 50% said they would seek out products with recyclable packaging, and many of the other popular responses also indicated a desire to reduce extra packaging or choose reusable items over disposables.

It’s time companies took responsibility for what happens to their product and packaging once its original purpose is done. Thinking creatively about packaging items in the most efficient way possible should mean both reducing excess waste and planning for packaging that can easily be repurposed for new use.

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