Why I have faved 18,456 Tweets (why Twitter is dominant in tech industry)

In just the past year I’ve clicked to fave 18,456 Tweets. It’s a stunning number, if you think about it, and I don’t know of any other tech blogger who has done more faves.

What am I learning? Well, for one, there’s important stuff that gets written that doesn’t get on Techmeme. Yes, the important stuff does, like when a blogger for Gizmodo gets his house broken into by the cops. That’s big time on Techmeme, but page through my faves and you’ll find lots of other stuff that Techmeme doesn’t touch.

: Image via CrunchBase

In just the past year I’ve clicked to fave 18,456 Tweets. It’s a stunning number, if you think about it, and I don’t know of any other tech blogger who has done more faves.

Even for things that get on Techmeme, I’ve seen that stories break first on Twitter. Gabe Rivera, the guy who runs Techmeme, told me he’s noticed that too and said he’s about to add some Tweets to Techmeme. It will be interesting to see what he does. Continuar leyendo «Why I have faved 18,456 Tweets (why Twitter is dominant in tech industry)»

An inch closer to the end of privacy (thanks Facebook!)

See, in the past three days since Facebook announced major new changes to its social contract with all of us, I’ve been able to study my friends’ personal musical tastes in a way I couldn’t just four days ago.

Here, come on over to the new Pandora on my screen. I click on “Friends’ Music” and now let’s look through what I can see.

: Image via CrunchBase

If the end of privacy is so evil, so awful, so unthinkable, then why am I liking the new Pandora so much?

Here, come on over to the new Pandora on my screen. I click on “Friends’ Music” and now let’s look through what I can see.

I see that Aaron Roe Fulkerson, MindTouch’s Inc founder and CEO, listened to Toad the Wet Sprocket. I bet he didn’t quite realize that I’d be able to see that a week ago.

I see that Adrian Otto, chief of research at the Rackspace Cloud (where I work at), listens to Kenny G. I bet he didn’t quite realize that I’d be able to see that a week ago. Aside: Kenny G, really dude? Heheh.

I see that Alan Cooper, father of Visual Basic, and head of a famous software design studio that bears his name, listens to the Barenaked Ladies. I bet he didn’t quite realize that I’d be able to see that a week ago.

Should I keep going? I have 1,300 friends over on Facebook and a lot of them use Pandora.

To me this is freaking awesome. I have found more music in the past week than I’ve found in the past year.

Oh, yeah, and you can see my own account and see how my musical tastes are changing thanks to this new feature.

But, on the other hand, this new feature has heralded a new age where we move closer to the end of privacy.

While listening to music that now is shared by all my friends I’ve been reading thousands of words about how Facebook screwed its contract with us to keep our stuff private. Continuar leyendo «An inch closer to the end of privacy (thanks Facebook!)»

Website Design: Ten Areas Where You Can Learn From User Behaviour

In this report you will find a list of some of the most typical user behaviours taking place while visiting a web site, and while many of these should come as no surprise to you, becoming aware of them may greatly help you to identify what items to give priority to when you have the extra time and resources to do some design and navigation improvements.

Effective and usable web navigation and design are some of the key crucial components of your website communication success. Build clear, easy-to-navigate web pages and people will be happy, click a lot and come back for more. In this report, you will learn about ten typical online user behaviors that can immediately help you understand how and where to improve your own website design, to keep your readers engaged and interested in your content.

Photo credit: Jesper Noer and mashed up by Robin Good

Whether you like it or not, other people don’t see your website the same way you do.

You might think that you have a perfectly-intelligible website design, whereas readers on your site struggle to find the information they look for.

The funny thing is that you and I are not different from the people that visit our websites. In fact, when you and I stroll around the web, we do exactly the same: we go straight to content, we want all the info right away, we often don’t care about reading all the extra stuff surrounding the article, and so on.

That is why you can learn so much from user behavior. It helps you realize what is wrong about your site that you normally cannot see by yourself. Continuar leyendo «Website Design: Ten Areas Where You Can Learn From User Behaviour»

Create Music Playlists, Compilations And Embeddable Music Mixtapes – Guide To Best Online Services

Music playlist creators are built around search engines that index music tracks which are publicly accessible on the web. You can search for any song you want, listen to it and then add it up to a music playlist, just like people used to do with cassette tapes back in the ’70s.

What makes these services very cool is that you can tap into an enormous collection of music and can create a playlist widget that you can publicly share on any website or blog for free.

Creating a music playlist is not only a nice way to take some time off your daily schedule and chill out a bit, but an embeddable music compilation widget may also be either a nice gift for your readers and a nice soundtrack for those that come for your site to read your latest post.

Do you want to create music playlists that you can embed on your web site or blog? There are quite a number of services that allow you to combine your favorite tracks into compilations and embeddable music mixtapes, without spending a dime. Did you think you were out of luck because Spotify was not yet available in your country? Then check out all the music playlist creators listed in this MasterNewMedia guide.

create-music-playlists-compilations-mixtapes-best-online-services-guide-size485.jpg
Photo credit: Robin Good

Music playlist creators are built around search engines that index music tracks which are publicly accessible on the web. You can search for any song you want, listen to it and then add it up to a music playlist, just like people used to do with cassette tapes back in the ’70s.

What makes these services very cool is that you can tap into an enormous collection of music and can create a playlist widget that you can publicly share on any website or blog for free.

Creating a music playlist is not only a nice way to take some time off your daily schedule and chill out a bit, but an embeddable music compilation widget may also be either a nice gift for your readers and a nice soundtrack for those that come for your site to read your latest post.

No matter which music playlist creator you choose, the approach to creating a playlist is pretty straightforward: Continuar leyendo «Create Music Playlists, Compilations And Embeddable Music Mixtapes – Guide To Best Online Services»

Students Addicted To Social Media Like Drugs

A new study by University of Maryland shows that students are addicted to social media and even likening the issue with drug and alcohol addictions. And if they do not receive their daily dosage of social media, students will start to show withdrawal symptoms such as cravings, anxiousness, extremely antsy, miserable, jitteriness and craziness.

A new study by University of Maryland shows that students are addicted to social media and even likening the issue with drug and alcohol addictions. And if they do not receive their daily dosage of social media, students will start to show withdrawal symptoms such as cravings, anxiousness, extremely antsy, miserable, jitteriness and craziness.

It was found that most college students are not just unwilling, but also unable to function without access to their media links to the world. This was a result of abstinence from their laptops, iPhones, Blackberry devices and related Internet connecting paraphernalia for 24 hours.

After the experiment, the 200 students involved in it were asked to blog on private class websites about their experiences; at the same time reporting their successes and failures. As a result, the 200 students wrote more than 110,000 words; about the same as a 400-page novel.

40.9% of the students who responded to the survey reported that they were first-year students, 40.9% reported that they were sophomores, 11% reported that they were juniors, and 7.1% reported that they were seniors or beyond. Most students reported their ages as between 18-21; the average class age was 19.5.

“The students did complain about how boring it was go anywhere and do anything without being plugged into music on their MP3 players,” said Moeller. “And many commented that it was almost impossible to avoid the TVs on in the background at all times in their friends’ rooms. But what they spoke about in the strongest terms was how their lack of access to text messaging, phone calling, instant messaging, email and Facebook, meant that they couldn’t connect with friends who lived close by, much less those far away.”

Susan D. Moeller, an associate journalism professor at the University of Maryland and the director of the International Center for Media and the Public Agenda, said researchers were surprised by the students’ feedbacks when they blogged about their experience after the period of abstinence from social media.

“Texting and IM-ing my friends gives me a constant feeling of comfort,” wrote one student. “When I did not have those two luxuries, I felt quite alone and secluded from my life. Although I go to a school with thousands of students, the fact that I was not able to communicate with anyone via technology was almost unbearable.”

From what we see here, the students’ lives are wired together in such ways that opting out of that communication pattern would be tantamount to renouncing a social life. Do you think that you can spend a day without connecting to any media platforms successfully? I know I can’t; and I’m a student too. Do share with us this mini-experiment with us!

The Net Generation Are Huge Fans Of Blogs

The millennials are young adults described as the first group to have come of age in a highly Internet-connected world. Also known as the Net Generation, their year of birth falls around 1985 to 1992, they are expected to be able to use the computer to access the Web and other technologies to communicate and learn.

A recent report done by BlogHer and iVillage, co-sponsored by Ketchum and Nielsen, shows that they millennials are the most likely group to take advantage of those abilities through blogging.

Through the research, it was found that millennials represents nearly half; about 40.4% of the Internet user bases, when it comes to writing blogs. On the other hand, the combination of Generation X and Y (26-42 years old) and Boomers (43-61 years old) only makes up 46.8% of the pie while Seniors (62-76 years old) making up the rest of the 12.8%. It was found that respondents between the age of 18 to 24 blogs about twice the rate of an average person.

However, the millennials are not that big on reading blogs though. The share of readership amongst Millennials only makes up about 30.3% while Generation X and Y coming close at 29.3%.

On top of that report, bloggers of all ages too were polled for the reason behind their blogs. An overwhelming 81.6% stated that it was for self-expression and 80.6% stated that it was for fun. One-half of bloggers wanted to give advice, and fewer than one-third hoped to earn money with their efforts.

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ReadWriteWeb / Latest news…

Ask.com Co-Founder Joins Allvoices

Written by Curt Hopkins

David Warthen, co-founder of search engine Ask.com (formerly Ask Jeeves) has joined citizen journalism site Allvoices as its Chief Technology Officer.

Warthen was co-founder, and CTO for, Ask Jeeves. As Ask.com it remains the fourth most consulted search engine. It was sold to Barry Diller’s InterActive Corp for $1,85 billion in 2005. After Jeeves, Warthen acted as CTO for Eye Games, «a pioneer of full-body motion interactive webcam video games that presaged the Nintendo Wii» and Answerbag, acquired by Demand Media in 2007.

Allvoices relies on a lot of technology to do what it does. In addition to the relatively simple parts, like allowing contributors to sign up and readers to read stories, the company uses a Digg-like reader ranking system to bring stories up in the mix. It uses a complex search algorithm to verify story submissions. They also use reputation ranking to decide which contributors are the most trustworthy and they have to communicate these dynamic algorithms to users in a way that makes them useful.

«Allvoices technology is in support of the human element – where global citizens are the creators and curators of the content – to make both the site and the business model scalable,» Warthen told us. «These human/algorithm hybrid systems have been at the core of most of the work I have done, where the people involved are considered part of the system and not «outside» of the system.» Continuar leyendo «ReadWriteWeb / Latest news…»

MarketingDirecto.com / Destacados

“Los creativos tienen un camino aún muy largo por recorrer en publicidad exterior”, A. Moreno (Outdoormediagroup)

Soportes digitales, segmentación, las restrictivas leyes, las dificultades de medición, son algunos de los retos a los que se enfrenta la publicidad exterior. Sobre todos ellos habló Ana Moreno, la directora de planificación y compra de Outdoormedia, en una entrevista exclusiva con MarketingDirecto.com. ¿Qué innovaciones podemos esperar en publicidad exterior para este año? En este año 2010 … Leer más

Google, la marca más valiosa del mundo, superando los 114.000 millones de dólares

La consultora Millward Brown ha presentado una nueva edición del ranking BrandZ de “Las 100 Marcas Más Valiosas del Mundo”. Este ranking es el único que tiene en cuenta la opinión y fidelidad de los consumidores sobre las marcas a nivel mundial. En plena era de las comunicaciones, un año más son las marcas tecnológicas … Leer más

Emocionar al consumidor a través del conocimiento de su cerebro

El marketing de buscadores debe considerar la categoría de pertenencia de la marca

Los adolescentes son más proactivos apoyando a las marcas a través de internet

http://www.marketingdirecto.com/

Brandlife latest news

El banner ‘social’ de lainformacion.com

Lainformacion.com estrena campaña 2.0, en la forma y en el fondo. El medio de comunicación online se ha convertido en el primer anunciante español que utiliza el social media banner. Frente a los banners convencionales, el de Lainformacion.com incluye dos botones con los iconos de Facebook y Twitter que redirigen al usuario a la red social que elija.

Los novedosos formatos, que el medio online insertará en Linkedin, Terra, MSN, Yahoo, HI-Media, AdConion, y Tuenti, forman parte de la campaña ‘Internet nos cambia, la forma de comunicarnos también’, orquestada por SomosR y basada en la interacción con los internautas, quienes a través de ella pueden ganar un iPad.
Lee el resto de la entrada »

Ikea muestra en un reality online la reforma de uno de sus clientes

Una cocina y un baño gratis y el papel protagonista en un reality show. Estos tres premios son los que recibirá por sorpresa un cliente de Ikea y todo gracias a la campaña ‘Féliz Cocina y Baño Nuevo’ que la cadena sueca acaba de poner en marcha en nuestro país.

Toda la acción se desarrolla a través del site www.ikea.es/felizcocinaybañonuevo donde un vídeo, en un formato casi televisivo con presentadora incluida, mostrará cómo el cliente premiado recibe la noticia de que Ikea le regala una cocina y un baño si supera el reto de diseñar, transportar y montar todos los muebles ese mismo día.
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Wonders convoca un concurso online de tortillas ‘de madres’

Hace unos meses, Wonders decidía apostar por el amor y la producción en territorio nacional como ejes de su nuevo posicionamiento. Ahora, con su nueva campaña ‘¡No te metas con la tortilla de mi madre!’, la firma de calzado alicantina refuerza ambos conceptos: el amor (maternal) y su ‘españolidad’ (con el plato ‘typical spanish’ por excelencia)

La campaña, puesta en marcha con motivo de la celebración del Día de la Madre y orquestada por Imaginarte, cuenta como principal acción con un concurso de tortillas online al que se puede acceder a través del site de la marca.
Lee el resto de la entrada »

Las once historias de Mahou Cinco Estrellas

Con once piezas, nada más y nada menos, ha estrenado Mahou Cinco Estrellas su nueva campaña en TV con la que comienza una nueva estrategia en este medio. Si hasta ahora Mahou lanzaba dos tipos de anuncio, unos para su campaña convencional y otros para mostrar su apoyo al mundo del fútbol, este año la compañía ha decidido unificar ambos mensajes en sus spots.

Bajo el eslogan ‘Si hay Mahou, la vida es Cinco Estrellas’, los once anuncios muestran cómo un grupo de españoles se arrepiente de haber cambiado su vida por la de varios habitantes de una isla del Pacífico al descubrir que en esta zona del mundo no hay Mahou, ni tampoco fútbol en la TV.
Lee el resto de la entrada »

27-04-2010 1

“Me gusta Brandlife”

by Acuam

En Acuam estamos muy ilusionados con WeSocialYou, nuestra herramienta de gestión y análisis del Branding 2.0 / Social Branding de marcas en redes sociales. Y para celebrar este lanzamiento hemos puesto en marcha la campaña ‘Me gusta’, con la que, además, demostramos que creemos y amamos este nuevo medio de comunicación y expresión tanto de marcas como de usuarios.

Posiblemente muchos de vosotros, los que recibís o tenéis acceso a la edición impresa de Brandlife, os habréis preguntado cómo es posible ‘gustear’ en un medio offline, qué hacen todos esos “Me gusta” apareciendo en artículos, fotos, noticias… Pues bien, he aquí la confesión: hemos sido nosotros.
Lee el resto de la entrada »

Heineken alarga su batalla de sexos

TBWA Neboko ataca de nuevo con otro spot para Heineken inspirado en la guerra de sexos que tan buenos resultados le dio con el famoso spot ‘Walk In Fridge’ y sus posteriores secuelas.

En esta ocasión, las diferencias entre ambos sexos surgen a causa de la TV y quedan patentes en las caras que se les queda a un grupo de mujeres al descubrir que su programa favorito es sustituido por otro en el que varios hombres muestran su talento para beber y llevar vasos cerveza, algo que, por supuesto, entusiasma a sus parejas.

Las amapolas de Kenzo perfuman la Feria del Libro Antiguo

Si el 23 de abril los españoles (sobre todo los residentes en Cataluña de donde procede la tradición) se regalaron rosas y libros, una semana más tarde Kenzo quiere repetir la experiencia, esta vez con amapolas. La marca hará suyo el binomio ‘flores y libros’ con la entrega de amapolas a los visitantes de las casetas de la Feria del Libro Antiguo y de Ocasión, que se inaugurará el mismo día 30 en el paseo de Recoletos de Madrid.

Cuando se cumple 10 años de la elección de la amapola para su perfume Flowerbykenzo, la marca vuelve a convertir a esta flor en protagonista de una nueva campaña cuyo propósito es ‘traer la naturaleza a la ciudad’. Una fórmula que Kenzo ha repetido en diversas partes del mundo.
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Los pequeños cines diversifican su oferta

Las cerca de 1.500 salas pequeñas y medianas de cine repartidas por el territorio español han encontrado en Versiondigital.es un nuevo aliado para sostener un negocio cada vez más complicado. De uso privado para exhibidores y actualmente en fase beta, el portal ha sido creado para facilitar contenidos digitales a las salas de cine que se hayan adaptado a este formato. De este modo, pueden ampliar una oferta mermada por el músculo de los grandes distribuidores que acaparan los estrenos más importantes.

La nueva herramienta, creada por la Sociedad de Empresarios de Cines de España (Secies) y la empresa Proyecson, tiene el aval del Ministerio de Industria a través del Plan Avanza2 y su objetivo es que a finales de este año unas 300 pantallas estén ofreciendo ya contenidos alternativos que incluirán retransmisiones en directo y diferido de deportes, conciertos y otros espectáculos, además de usos como conferencias y demostraciones en las que la pantalla se utilice como apoyo.
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Maradona, Pelé y Zidane, al estilo Louis Vuitton

A Louis Vuitton le gusta que los protagonistas de sus campañas sean personajes de lo más variopinto. Mijail Gorvachov, Catherine Deneuve, Keith Richards o Madonna son algunos de los nombres que componen la lista de celebrities que han prestado su imagen a la firma y a la que ahora se han unido el de Maradona, Pelé y Zidane.

Y es que los tres astros del fútbol protagonizan el anuncio que Louis Vuitton ha preparado con motivo del próximo Mundial de Fútbol de Sudáfrica. En el spot, rodado en el madrileño Café Maravillas, Maradona ejerce de árbitro en la partida de futbolín que disputan Pelé y Zidane y reta a los espectadores a elegir con sus votos a un ganador a través de la web de la campaña.

Lee el resto de la entrada »

Top 10 Negative Celebrity Role Models

by jeremywaite

According to a new Celbra (Celebrity + Brand) Survey by Millward Brown, these are the Top 10 Negative Celebrity Role Models .

Amy Winehouse
Katie Price
Paris Hilton
Russell Brand
John Terry
Tiger Woods
Peaches Geldof
Pixie Geldof
Jonathan Ross
Kate Moss

I wonder what Sir Bob Geldof makes of it? Especially as the current issue of Marketing Week also leads with the story, “Heroin turns Peaches from bad to rotten”. According to her employer, the story goes like this…

“We’ve given this a lot of thought, but there’s a point where a business must stick to its principles and as a brand that targets young women, we feel it is impossible for Peaches Geldof to continue to work with us as the face of Miss Ultimo lingerie.”

That was Michelle Mone, founder of the Miss Ultimo lingerie brand on Tuesday, as she explained the axing of Peaches Geldof as the brand’s first celebrity ambassador.

The parting of Miss Ultimo and Geldof will cost both parties considerable sums. But allegations of a wild night of sex and heroin abuse prompted, according to reports, 3,000 complaints from parents, concerned about Geldof’s association with their daughters’ favourite underwear brand. One emergency meeting later and the decision was made.

Miss Ultimo plans to replace Peaches with a new celebrity ambassador. The brand isn’t short of experience in picking famous faces to associate with New television adverts will star television presented Kelly Brook and in the past, Helena Christensen and Sarah Harding have been among the models and pop stars to promote the brand. Continuar leyendo «Top 10 Negative Celebrity Role Models»

¿Cuál es el momento correcto para buscar capital?

Hay una anécdota bastante famosa que se le atribuye (yo creo que erróneamente) a Bill Gates. La historia dice que alguien le preguntó sobre el momento ideal para comprar una computadora, dado el continuo descenso en los precios y el hecho de que siempre esperando un poquito más se puede comprar más barato o algo mejor al mismo precio. Pareciera que SIEMPRE es mejor esperar al mes siguiente. El problema con este razonamiento es que el mes siguiente también conviene seguir esperando y bajo esa lógica uno nunca termina comprándola. La supuesta contestación de Bill Gates: “El mejor momento para comprar una computadora es… cuando necesitás una!”.

Santiago Bilinkis | bilinkis.com

Hay una anécdota bastante famosa que se le atribuye (yo creo que erróneamente) a Bill Gates. La historia dice que alguien le preguntó sobre el momento ideal para comprar una computadora, dado el continuo descenso en los precios y el hecho de que siempre esperando un poquito más se puede comprar más barato o algo mejor al mismo precio. Pareciera que SIEMPRE es mejor esperar al mes siguiente. El problema con este razonamiento es que el mes siguiente también conviene seguir esperando y bajo esa lógica uno nunca termina comprándola. La supuesta contestación de Bill Gates: “El mejor momento para comprar una computadora es… cuando necesitás una!”.

Pasemos ahora al tema de la búsqueda de capital para un emprendimiento (Nota: lo que sigue también es aplicable a cualquier búsqueda de recursos, desde donaciones para un emprendimiento social, hasta el momento para ir a pedir un aumento de sueldo). Continuar leyendo «¿Cuál es el momento correcto para buscar capital?»

Meeting Survival 101

Today, several AgencyNetters are presenting our ideas to the leadership team for a large, well-known consumer product brand.

Two of those on the pitch team are designers from the creative department. For one, it is her first time at a large pitch. During our conversations leading up to her departure, I shared with her my Sketch Identity Management (SkIM) technique. I apologize in advance to my copywriter who hates when I acronym (yes it can be a verb too).
In short, the SkIM technique is a quick and easy way to catalog all of the individuals in the meeting by name, title and location in the room. The technique provides the user with a visual reference to “skim” whenever needed to easily remember who is speaking or whom to address. Obviously, the technique is meant to be used during meetings where there is a larger than normal group of people where most of them are comprised of people you may not know.

Here’s SkIM by the Numbers… Continuar leyendo «Meeting Survival 101»

Añadir el botón de “Me gusta” de Facebook en Blogger

Escrito por Álvaro Paricio el 28 de Abril de 2010

Ya os hablé hace bastante tiempo sobre cómo integrar nuestro blog de Blogger con Twitter, una de las redes sociales más de moda en estos momentos. Pero si hay una red social que realmente está triunfando en todo el mundo es Facebook, así que ¿sería una buena idea integrar nuestro blog con ella no?

Si usáis Facebook, y apuesto a que prácticamente todos vosotros lo haréis en mayor o menor medida, sabréis que cuando nos gusta algún enlace, foto o grupo hay una opción llamada “Me gusta” para dejar claro que compartimos esa opinión, nos hace gracia o que literalmente nos gusta eso.

Así que lo que lo que vamos a hacer en este artículo es añadir el botón de “Me gusta” debajo de cada artículo de nuestro blog, para que nuestros lectores más vagos que no suelen dejar comentarios al menos muestren su conformidad con el post y para que los que comentan también puedan dejar más claro aun que les ha gustado. Continuar leyendo «Añadir el botón de “Me gusta” de Facebook en Blogger»

Dell CMO on How Social Media Is Helping the Brand

Erin Nelson was named CMO of Dell in January 2009. Prior to her promotion, she served as vp of marketing for Dell in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Prior to joining Dell in 1999, Nelson worked in corporate strategy for Frito-Lay. She recently sat down with Adweek digital media editor Brian Morrissey to discuss the challenges the brand faces, what lessons it learned from Enfatico and how social media is playing a larger role for the company.

– Brian Morrissey, Adweek
Erin Nelson was named CMO of Dell in January 2009. Prior to her promotion, she served as vp of marketing for Dell in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Prior to joining Dell in 1999, Nelson worked in corporate strategy for Frito-Lay. She recently sat down with Adweek digital media editor Brian Morrissey to discuss the challenges the brand faces, what lessons it learned from Enfatico and how social media is playing a larger role for the company.

Adweek: What’s the big challenge for the Dell brand?
Erin Nelson: The last few months have been about discussing a lot of our strengths. The world has transformed a lot. Quite frankly I think we as brand have lost a lot of luster. We’ve been evaluating what for the last 25 years has made us great. Globally we have incredibly strong brand awareness. We’re known for value. In emerging economies like Brazil, China and Russia, we’re doing really well. But when we started looking at figuring where we need to go, we realized the brand needed to transform itself. We’re starting first from the inside. Our purpose is much broader than selling PCs. It’s about allowing people to unleash their potential. Our 95,000 employees need to understand our purpose first. It’s been primarily an internal marketing challenge. For us it was more important this not be just a campaign. It’s the transformation of the company.

AW: Does Apple‘s success make it harder to differentiate in the market with more than a value message?
EN: We think so. I commend Apple for having beautiful products. They definitely focus on part of the audience that focuses on beautiful design at a price point that’s fairly high. What we’re looking at is consumers that want not just that but someone to enable all their connectivity. I think about what a mom would need or an entire business would need. They need someone who can help them succeed with all different sorts of applications, not just one, someone focused on mobile and desktop computing. We’re focused to make sure we’re bringing all those pieces together. It’s not about how beautiful the design is. A mom isn’t only putting the focus on how beautiful the design is, but also «how do I manage the money in my life, how do I help with the kids’ homework?» She wants someone to be her advocate and enable her to do what she wants to do… Continuar leyendo «Dell CMO on How Social Media Is Helping the Brand»

Two Powerful Marketing Tips for Your Web Site or App

By Ryan Carson

Here at Carsonified HQ, we’re big Dropbox fans. They’ve implemented two really effective marketing tactics that I’d like to share with you.

#1 – Add Gaming Mechanics

Dropbox’s first marketing tactic is to add gaming behavior to the interface. The game is simple: complete five steps and you win 250MB extra storage space.

The reason why this is so powerful is because the game encourages you to use Dropbox and the more you use it, the more likely you are to become a paying customer.

Screengrab from DropBox.com showing the six steps required to get an extra 250 MB of storage Continuar leyendo «Two Powerful Marketing Tips for Your Web Site or App»

4 Email Newsletters Worthy of your Attention

By Keir Whitaker

Unlike some I am still a big fan of email newsletters. Whilst tools like Twitter are great for “of the moment” links I still appreciate a well crafted newsletter landing in my inbox.

Here are four newsletters I subscribe to and enjoy covering web design, creativity and business.

Links for Light Reading – Russ Weakley’s weekly roundup of interesting web related stories from around the web. It also includes a comprehensive list of upcoming web events and jobs.
Font Shop Newsletter – You don’t have to be a type nut to appreciate the Font Shop newsletter, it’s beautifully put together and a good read. It’s packed full of font news and typographic hints and tips. You need to register with Font Shop to receive it but in my opinion it’s well worth it.
Springwise New Business Ideas – I can’t remember how I came across this one but I have been enjoying it for a few years. Not strictly web related but a great weekly roundup of interesting business and entrepreneurial ideas from around the world as sourced by a network of over 8,000 “spotters”.
Jason Nation – An infrequent mailing (although as his baby is now sleeping through the night there is the promise of more frequent dispatches) by Jason Calcanis. Jason is the founder of Silicon Alley Reporter, Weblogs Inc, TechCrunch50.com, Open Angel Forum and Mahalo.co. Since “retiring from blogging” he has focused his attention on his mailing list subscribers. Recent topics have included loyalty in business, work ethics, investing as well as app and technology reviews. Continuar leyendo «4 Email Newsletters Worthy of your Attention»