Johns reaction: Has the fight back started?

While U.S. newspapers wage a long-standing fight for print advertising and subscribers, they managed a slight gain in circulation, fueled by increases in digital circ. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations latest twice-annual report on newspaper circulation, average daily circ for 618 measured newspapers rose 0.68 percent, with Sunday circulation for 532 papers rising 5 percent. The report compares the six months ended March 31, 2012, to the year-ago period. On average, digital circ accounted for 14.2 percent of newspapers' total circulation in the six-month period up from 8.7 percent a year earlier. Digital circulation could include tablet and smartphone apps, replica PDFs, e-reader editions and restricted-access websites.
Read on

Johns reaction: Couldn't agree more. Funnels are tools used by agencies to explain the complex process of flogging products and services. However the reality is like many things a matrix, check out the Paul Adams video in Articles.

The funnel is a lousy metaphor for measuring conversion. In real life, funnels let everything pass through a 100% conversion rate if you will. A better metaphor would be a sieve, or buckets with holes in them. But my problem with funnels isnt the metaphor. Its the mindset. The funnel ignores how the web works. It presumes that users are dropped into this vacuum from which we control their destiny. If a user didnt go from step 2 to step 3 then we need to tweak some copy or test new buttons. To paraphrase Billy Beane: were not solving the problem, were not even looking at the problem. Lets see where the funnel breaks...
Read on

Johns reaction: Great overview of two leading crowd sourcing products, ODesk and Mechanical Turk.

A question that I receive often is how to structure tasks on Mechanical Turk for which it is necessary for the workers to pass training before doing the task. My common answer to most such question is that Mechanical Turk is not the ideal environment for such tasks: When training and frequent interaction is required, an employer is typically better off by using a site such as oDesk to hire people for the long term to do the job.
Read on

Johns reaction: image is everything these days...

But as Bob Dylan famously said, the times they are a changin , and social media seems to be doing it more frequently than other marketing channels. The most recent trend to come to social media is the dominance of visual content. Facebook has turned its walls into timelines and Pinterest, the online photo scrapbooking site, is now the number three social network in the country for total visits, and videos and infographics are peppering blogs everywhere.
Read on

Lucios reaction: What's your opinion? Will it work?

Facebook has announced that its offers system has begun to roll out, having first been revealed at its marketing conference at the beginning of March. Offers are free for business pages to create and share but are only available to a small number of local business Pages (April/2012)
Read on

Johns reaction: Always interesting to see how the big boys are dealing with Social, here is Accentures take on the possibilities.

In an age of information overload and unlimited choices, any marketer worth their salt knows that brand engagement is driven by providing precisely relevant experiences that attract and hold the attention of each consumer. Consumer relevance cannot be episodic. Maintaining relevance continuously as consumers move seamlessly from one interaction point to the next is a new demand of the digital age. The imperative for consumer relevance requires a brand to harness deep contextual knowledge about each consumer and apply it intelligently to create persuasive experiences at every touchpoint. This ability to be relevant at scale , will determine which brands win and which brands get lost in the war for consumer attention. To deliver relevant experiences at scale companies need to be able to tap into the wealth of data sources that provide valuable signals on what can attract and hold consumer attention at any moment in time not just data about geo-location, gender and age, product preference or purchase, but also more importantly likes, interests and who they talk and listen to. With the explosive growth in the use of social media, social networks provide a richness of data that can help build more precise insights into consumer context and will allow companies to tailor brand experiences making them more compelling, more persuasive and more relevant.
Read on

Johns reaction: Apple and facebook not Greenpeace favz

When you use the internet have you thought just how much energy you're using, or the size of your carbon poke print This story may give you some idea of just how much energy the wired world sucks down.by Dan Ilic
Read on

Johns reaction: Always amazed at big consultancy firms like Accentures take on Social media. They seem somewhat behind the thinking but they do but a business spin on it that most media people cant.

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, instant messaging, video conferencing, web meetings: These and many other collaboration and social media platforms are now an everyday part of people s lives around the world. They are also finding their way into enterprise communications and management strategies. But are these social media applications and technologies ready for an even greater challenge helping companies and government agencies successfully navigate major business change programs
Read on

Johns reaction: interesting perspective, refreshing even...

I was invited to speak at the MonkiGras event this week where getting a little sweary and ranty is kind of encouraged (it goes well with the craft beer consumption that is an integral part of the conference mix). This was my contribution. When I checked the agenda to see what I was supposed to be talking about at Monkigras, I saw that I was down to talk for 15 mins about Crafting Good UX . Where to start.
Read on

Brads reaction: I think they have been vigilant with adhering to standards and the pages are just fast so why wouldn't Google rank them?

There was an interesting study published this week which looked at 1,000 search terms in Google and measured the rankings for Wikipedia.org, which posed the question does Google give too much prominence to Wikipedia? As a quick recap, Wikipedia ranked for a huge 99% of the terms (as selected with a random noun generator). While many people may consider this an unfair bias from Google towards Wikipedia, I'm not so sure...
Read on

Johns reaction: What will a low cost smart phone do for digital marketing? The democratisation of high end technology.

Will cheaper smartphones dominate the sector by 2016, and where does that leave feature phones? And will the ultra-low cost smartphone give operators better engagement with their customers? Guy Daniels reports. New research from Informa Telecoms & Media suggests that the smartphone market will see a significant shift over the next five years, moving from predominantly premium devices aimed at advanced users towards cheaper, mass-market devices. However, don t expect to see sub-$100 smartphones anytime soon at least not before 2013. Until then, $200 will be the target price. According to Malik Saadi, principal analyst at Informa, 81 per cent of all smartphones shipped in 2011 were sold at a wholesale price above $300. However, this proportion is expected to decline to below 50 per cent in 2016:
Read on

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

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.
Read on

Johns reaction: just another thing to worry about

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.
Read on

Digitals reaction: this one is a bit obvious, ROI Is Still Huge, but interesting points.

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:
Read on

Johns reaction: Facebook in a nutshell. cant help but feel its a frenzie

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.
Read on

Johns reaction: Keep up

Google s search results are undergoing their most radical transformation ever, as a new Search Plus Your World format begins rolling out today. It finds both content that s been shared with you privately along with matches from the public web, all mixed into a single set of listings. The change is live now, though not everyone will see it until it fully launches over the next few days. It s only for those signed-in to Google.com and searching in English. You ll know when it happens, because Google will alert you with a message like this above your search results:
Read on

Johns reaction: Too much hyperbole but an interesting history

Why do I hate Android? It s definitely one of the questions I get asked most often these days. And most of those that don t ask probably assume it s because I m an iPhone guy. People see negative take after negative take about the operating system and label me as unreasonable or biased or worse. I should probably explain. Believe it or not, I actually don t hate Android. That is to say, I don t hate the concept of Android in fact, at one point, I loved it. What I hate is what Android has become. And more specifically, what Google has done with Android.
Read on

Johns reaction: Where is your next idea coming from?

Most teenagers will find any reason under the sun not to do their homework. But 16-year-old South Londoner Nick D'Aloisio's excuse is better than most - he has been busy developing an app which has made international headlines and attracted a big investment from a Hong Kong-based billionaire. Summly is an iPhone app which summarises and simplifies the content of web pages and search results. Currently it can condense reference pages, news articles and reviews but has the potential to go a lot further.
Read on

Johns reaction: good advice

I just finished a two-year project looking at Michael Porter's most important insights for managers. Connecting the dots between his classic frameworks (the five forces, for example) and his latest thinking (the five tests of strategy) gave me a new understanding of the most common mistakes that can derail a company's strategy. In a previous post, I focused on the fallacy of competing to be the best. Here are five more traps I've seen managers fall into over and over again. Understanding Porter's strategy fundamentals will help you to avoid them.
Read on

Johns reaction: interesting that none of the trends are for private social networks

Each year at this time, I look forward and predict trends in social media for the coming year. But first, I look back at my predictions from last year. How'd I do? Not bad. Social media continues to move forward toward business integration, a trend that I identified last year. In a joint study from Booz Allen and social platform developer Buddy Media, 57 percent of businesses surveyed plan to increase social media spending, while 38 percent of CEO's label social as a high priority.
Read on