Video Consumption in Social Channels

For Valentine’s Day, My Coke Rewards created a series of three posts that had pass along value that fans wanted to share with their own networks. The results were phenomenal, and insights on the post series showcased opportunities for leveraging multimedia (video and photo) posts in social media.

App #Geekout Trend: Real-time People Discovery Using Facebook Interests

I love following the startup scene in technology (specifically in social [especially using Facebook's Open Graph API], mobile and healthcare in particular). Drew Hawkins and I geeked out with a presentation on some of our favorite startups to emerge from TechCrunch Disrupt last fall internally at Engauge. My all-time, hands down favorite to emerge from the bunch was Wondershake, a location-based mobile app that connects individuals with like-minded people using their Facebook interests. This startup was included in all of the “remarkable” categories; however, it didn’t place because it was not available in the U.S.

Since then, I’ve seen no comparable players that align an app user’s interests to allow for real-time discovery of individuals around them. Until now.

Marketer-Speak in 2012 for Facebook Changes in 2011

2012 kicks off the year of the verb. Hot debates stemmed following the change in Edgerank, as part of comprehensive changes from F8, Facebook’s annual developer conference, in September of last year. Since then, subsequent changes affected Facebook applications, third party publishers, and Facebook analytics, to name a few. For those not as interested in keeping up with the day-to-day changes, below are three key summary strategies for adapting a Facebook page to optimize engagement with the changes and two key takeaways from the changes in 2011 moving forward.

Three key summary strategies for adapting a Facebook page to optimize engagement with 2011 Facebook changes:

1. Facebook decreases the value of a Page Like and of a Post Like.
2. For the social marketer: Comments four times more valuable in driving click-throughs than Likes.
3. Graphrank, a News Feed prioritization for Open Graph apps, comes to Facebook. 

Two key takeaways from 2011:

1. Facebook’s Champion in 2011? The developer,  the Hacker, and the Open Graph-speaking marketer.
2. Facebook applications will become the most valuable opportunity for brands to engage Facebook users.

Report: Importance of Mobile in Consumer Shopping Intentions

Think Insights with Google is one of my favorite new free reports on consumer behavior. I receive their newsletter every quarter, and the latest featured a report on gauge of consumer interest measured at the beginning of Q4 last year to predict shopping behavior this past holiday season. The overall takeaway is that it’s critical to be available to shoppers (on both smartphones and tablets) as they are making decisions. Below are four highlights:

Applications in Timeline: Critical Opportunity for Brands on Facebook

Many of the new updates released last week and as part of f8, including Timeline, News Ticker, and the new Open Graph functionality available for applications, do a fantastic job of working in conjunction to overturn pockets within Facebook that do not optimize social connectivity for users. By leveraging the new updates with technical advancements, brands have a unique opportunity to harness engagement with their most loyal constituents within their users’ base portal: the Timeline.

Meeting Users in Their Timeline

Marketers have a three-fold opportunity to provide a significantly enhanced social experience to reach their users in engagements not previously possible. The first issue that Facebook addressed is that users do not want to share their regular interaction with an online or application activity since the information is sent as a status message and is irrelevant to the majority of their network. The term “spamming friends” has become a casual saying when referring to a user’s disapproval of Facebook’s widespread sharing of personal status updates. One of the latest releases at f8, Ticker,  allows for the sharing through these apps to be shared in a secondary format than simply sharing to the News Feed.

Four Examples of Innovation in Loyalty Programs

I work on a team that is constantly socializing, modernizing and driving engagement for a well-known loyalty program. Following are some fascinating ideas and examples that may dictate the future of the loyalty program:

• Integration with Mobile
• Rewarding Influencers
• Encouraging Social Engagement
• Comprehensive App Integration

The Future of Screen Technology – Amazing Vid

We were blown away by this video, which opened last week’s Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association (AIMA) presentation on smartphones.

 

For more on the event, check out Drew Hawkins great post: Are Mobile Apps BS? (Thanks to Joe Koufman for posting video.)

AppSpotting: Onavo

Rene Smith, the DIG team’s resident foodie, explained to me the other day that the term “Foodspotting” meant finding (spotting) great food to try either in the future or to savor immediately.  (I just never thought about it.) Well, today, I’m app-spotting. Starting wth Onavo: the money-saving app solution for gadget-hungry hipsters and data geeks.

Mobile In Magazine Advertising. How Do We Adjust?

Magazine Readership Is Up

Magazine readership was expected to decrease.  However, this was not the case, and a recent advertising campaign was circulated to increase awareness of these stats despite the digital transition (see left).

Instead, magazines are creating relevant, time-sensitive content that is a relieving departure from the 140 character limit of Twitter. It is more important than ever for these magazines to have a voice and a quip that leverages its its differentiator, room to fill the white of the page.

In fact, readership in magazines continues to maintain its readership despite an ever-wafting digital divide. For example, iPad users are highly likely to read magazines they previous subscribed to in the traditional tree form on their tablets instead.

Yet, Magazine Ad Revenue Is Down

However, while readership has sustained, advertising revenue has decreased.  Specifically, “US print ad revenues for magazines fell to $14.7 billion in 2010, down 5% from $15.5 billion in 2009, according to eMarketer. Print ad revenues will sink another 5.6% this year, accounting for $13.9 billion by the end of 2011 (eMarketer Report – US Magazine Print Ad Revenues Fell 5% in 2010).

Google + #digday11 at Engauge

New Ice Cream Sandwich logo unveiled at Google I/O 2011

On the heels of the excitement of Google’s I/O conference today (as well as its ninja-like focus on mobile), I want to share some treats that Google brought to our humble abode (Engauge) last week at Dig Day 2011 by way of Google’s Head of Industry – Technology, Tom Lowry.

About Dig Day

Drew Hawkins, another member of the Digital Innovation Group, did a great job outlining key highlights of Dig Day.  We hosted panels and speakers on emerging technology, including (the future of) television, location-based services, micro-local couponing, Augmented Reality, and of course, mobile.  Check back for interviews with Dig Day guests on the DIGThis: Podcast.

Announcing Google’s Tom Lowry

Lowry dissects the current marketing approach from an ROI perspective.  He says that currently, ‘the “holy grail” metric is offline conversion.’ That is, online marketing results are quantified based on the extent that online actions motivate brick-and-mortar conversion, such as foot traffic or in-store sales as a result of an online coupon.

Instead, Lowry says that Google is working hard to ‘quantifying the online benefit’ of online marketing tactics.  Instead of quantifying the offline result, we need to take a reverse approach by framing results according to online actions (e.g. 1 sale online drives 5,10, or 15 sales offline).

He then transitioned into his best-developed argument: Mobile first.

“Marketers and developers first need to curate the user experience in mobile.  Only once the mobile experience is established, finessed, and refined should a brand then evaluate the user experience on a desktop.”