DIGITAL MARKETING AND DIGITAL MEDIA INDUSTRY NEWS AND EVENTS

Johns reaction: Love this guy, well worth a read...

INDUSTRY TALK The scale above shows the many stages one has to go through in order to become a bona fide self-righteous jerk in social media. Still, there are many people who aspire to reach this peak, but fall short in executing against it. Given this observation, I thought it would be worthwhile to piece together a few best practices which will ensure your status as a social media self-righteous jerk (or SMSRJ). In no particular order: 1. Join The Klout Gestapo 2. Unfollow Offensive Twitter Followers In Public 3. Target Social Media Gurus 4. Analyze Social Media Influencer Lists 5. Use The #Humblebrag Hash Tag At Will
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ADVERTISING & MARKETING  Now that Social media usage is main stream how will companies and brands differentiate themselves when it comes to their social media marketing programs in 2012? It is now no longer as simple as launching a Facebook twitter and YouTube channel or picking the top 10 influencers in a particular industry to engage with.
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INDUSTRY TALK  Facebook is to announce its IPO dates this week with an asking price of reportedly up to $50bil. They are selling the future promise as profits were $350M last year. Tipped to reach one billion active users in August 2012 (see graph) will Zuckerbergs juggernaut continue unabated, or is that the ceiling even the beginning of the end? My view is that we will not see 1.5Billion fb active users.
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TECHNOLOGY  Observing the world at the moment is like watching a multi-car motorway pile up. It all seems to happen so slowly, but it's inevitable that when the brakes are applied by some and directions changed by others that a big crash will happen.
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Davids reaction: its amazing how quickly this site is gaining traction online for retailers and small businesses alike watch this grow from strength to strength

ADVERTISING & MARKETING Pinterest, a two-year-old social bookmarking site that lets users collect and share things they like on the web, is driving increasingly significant amounts of traffic to retailers websites. The service enables users to create online bulletin boards, or pinboards, for popular categories such as home decor, food and wedding inspiration. Members can use Pinterest PinIt bookmarklet tool and iPhone app to save things they see online and offline, and explore and repin the images their friends collect via their personal newsfeeds. The website is especially popular among women, who account for 58% of Pinterests traffic, according to Experian Hitwise.
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Johns reaction: Another shadowy new anti-counterfeiting law about to be passed. Whats going on?

INDUSTRY TALK Last week, 3 million of us beat back America's attack on our Internet! --- but there is an even bigger threat out there, and our global movement for freedom online is perfectly poised to kill it for good. ACTA - a global treaty - could allow corporations to censor the Internet. Negotiated in secret by a small number of rich countries and corporate powers, it would set up a shadowy new anti-counterfeiting body to allow private interests to police everything that we do online and impose massive penalties -- even prison sentences -- against people they say have harmed their business. Europe is deciding right now whether to ratify ACTA -- and without them, this global attack on Internet freedom will collapse. We know they have opposed ACTA before, but some members of Parliament are wavering -- let's give them the push they need to reject the treaty. Sign the petition -- we'll do a spectacular delivery in Brussels when we reach 500,000 signatures!
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PEOPLE  Welcome to Digital People where we profile interesting people at the coal face of digital innovation and ask them what inspires them, whats hot now and future technology trends to watch out for. Today we have Howard Goldkrand, an all round interesting guy, digital nomad, artist that works across all media including digital and more. If you want a different perspective from the mundane, read on..
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START UPS  Welcome to the first entrepreneurs profile where we will look at those who have the gumption to get out there and create a digital marketing start-up. We will ask them what drives them as an entrepreneurs, how they keep motivated, handle stress and rejection and their plans for the future. First company is iPledge a crowd funding platform based in Oz started by Bryan Vadas & Andy Tompkins.
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ADVERTISING & MARKETING  Its happening in quick succession, McDonalds took a beating after its poorly thought out #McDstories attracted a group of people who havent had as much fun since the Super Size Me Film debate. Yesterday it was LA Fitness turn to commit Brand Tweticide. Have a quick read on what NOT to do.
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ADVERTISING & MARKETING  So here we are; the start of another year. Having settled back in to the swing of things after a much needed festive break, we've looked back on the events of 2011 to make our (slightly belated!) predictions for the key digital marketing and retail trends of 2012. So here goes...
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INDUSTRY TALK  I remember, back in 2008, preparing a presentation on social media and how it was starting to have a huge effect on customer services. My advice was unreservedly to get involved in the conversation asap. In the 3 years that have passed consumers have taken to the social channels like ducks to water but has the pendulum swung too far with extreme service requests and even brand bullying starting?
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Johns reaction: The six basic tendencies of human behavior that come into play in generating a positive response: reciprocation, consistency, social validation, liking, authority and scarcity.

INDUSTRY TALK Hello smart entrepreneur. I know you re a busy person, so I ll be brief. Read this post NOW, if your startup involves convincing someone to do something. Your friends and competitors are reading it already. Years of research into human behavior and influence went into these insights by Prof Robert Cialdini, so read actively, and try to apply these lessons on your business. In the process of acquiring new customers, startups need to persuade, convince or enchant the potential customer to sacrifice a resource, let it be time, money, access to their stream of information, in order to use the startup s product. The persuasion process is very subtle, and most likely takes place in a matter of seconds: the user gets to the landing page, the user sees your icon in the app store, the user thinks about registering for a free trial these seconds are going to determine the future of your business.
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Johns reaction: just another thing to worry about

ADVERTISING & MARKETING Do you shove lots of ads at the top of your web pages? Think again. Tired of doing a Google search and landing on these types of pages? Rejoice. Google has announced that it will penalize sites with pages that are top-heavy with ads. Top Heavy With Ads? Look Out! The change called the page layout algorithm takes direct aim at any site with pages where content is buried under tons of ads.
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SOCIAL MEDIA  As youngster I grew up idolising Shane Warne. To this two-bit spin bowler who batted at eleven and fielded at a very deep deep long on, Warne was sporting deity. The beer drinking, bake bean eating, smoking blonde could do things with a little red ball that would not be out of place in a Harry Potter movie.
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TECHNOLOGY  This was a concept that caught my eye at the CES 2012 in Las Vegas. It was a first look at the Transparent Samsung LCD smart window. This is a product looking for ideas especially from a media point of view so well worth a look.
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ADVERTISING & MARKETING  The merging of Digital and TV will mean that media planning will change. As part of the on-going series of articles on how Digital TV is will, and is already changing online media here are seven pointers for 2012 and onwards.
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Digitals reaction: this one is a bit obvious, ROI Is Still Huge, but interesting points.

ADVERTISING & MARKETING n 2011, social media had its share of growing pains. Large brands and corporations took to social media in force to try to find footing in this expanding medium. Some brands found success, while others found peril and new PR nightmares. One person who has helped brands navigate the proverbial social media minefield is Amy Jo Martin. She is the founder of Digital Royalty, a social media firm that has set itself apart by helping A-listers find their social media voice. Amy works with people like Dana White of the UFC, Dwayne The Rock Johnson of acting/WWE fame and brands like Nike and Fox Sports (and now Joel Stein). Her specialty is working with organizations or individuals and making them look good online. Since the online world is in perpetual flux, I wanted to get Amy s take on the social media landscape for 2012. Here were a few key trends Amy said we should look out for in 2012:
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TECHNOLOGY  Happy New Year. As 2012 starts to get into the swing on things and CES is upon us once again, I am looking forward to what will hopefully be a definitive year for IP and TV. First however, a quick review on how I did with my 2011 predications;
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ADVERTISING & MARKETING  Digital predictions for 2012 are a dime a dozen so I have taken a slightly different approach by detailing what I believe is most important for marketers to think about and focus on in the year ahead.
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Johns reaction: Facebook in a nutshell. cant help but feel its a frenzie

ADVERTISING & MARKETING Rumors are flying about Facebook Inc. going public this year. So, just how much money is the world s largest social network worth? Reports project that Facebook will go public some time between April and June. The company itself has remained hush-hush about the initial public offering. The infographic below shows how the company s projected valuation of $100 billion breaks down and which Facebook Friends will be getting a piece of the pie. Facebook s IPO will be the biggest of any tech company in history six times that of Google s, according to Accounting Degree Online.
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