No Bullshit Social Media

A few months ago I was lucky enough to attend a social media conference where Jason Falls spoke as the keynote speaker. Not only did he spread a little humor throughout the room, but he also shared some pretty intriguing thoughts about social media marketing today and why it should be part of your overall marketing strategy.

I spoke with Falls after the conference and it was clear he is passionate about the subject. He believes in the power of the discipline as a potential vehicle for business development, customer service and yes, driving sales. That’s right folks, social media marketing, referred to in the book No Bullshit Social Media, can be an invaluable tool for your company to use for research and development, customer relations and lead generation. All of this, my friends, can be your result if you have the proper strategy in place that suits your respective brand and business model.

So I give you my main takeaways from No Bullshit Social Media, as they will help further explain how to best integrate social media marketing into your overall business model.

Know the facts and how they relate to your brand

The fact of the matter is that social media is not going away. It’s here to stay, so the smart thing to do is to figure out how you can strategically integrate social into your marketing program. There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy or plan, so knowing what your business needs to accomplish ahead of time is crucial in determining how you willmeasure social media marketing for your brand. Only you can determine what success looks like for your business and set goals accordingly.
Social Media vs. Social Media Marketing:

We’re past the point of joining the conversation and engaging. If you’re ready for the big leagues, it’s time to start talking strategy and how you can affect your brand’s business with social media marketing. Falls and Deckers simply sum it up with “Social Media is for Hippies. Social Media Marketing is for Business.” Well-said.

Social media and public relations work together:

KATIE LEVIEN | http://theideabrand.com

I spoke with Falls after the conference and it was clear he is passionate about the subject. He believes in the power of the discipline as a potential vehicle for business development, customer service and yes, driving sales. That’s right folks, social media marketing, referred to in the book No Bullshit Social Media, can be an invaluable tool for your company to use for research and development, customer relations and lead generation. All of this, my friends, can be your result if you have the proper strategy in place that suits your respective brand and business model.

So I give you my main takeaways from No Bullshit Social Media, as they will help further explain how to best integrate social media marketing into your overall business model.

Know the facts and how they relate to your brand

Social Media vs. Social Media Marketing:

Social media and public relations work together: Continuar leyendo «No Bullshit Social Media»

Super Mario and Luigi Artworks Collection

Super Mario Brothers is undeniably one of the most popular platform video game developed by Nintendo, published for the Nintendo Entertainment System. This sequel to the 1983 game Mario Bros was met with great enthusiast by its world-wide fans. In the game, the player controls Mario (and in a two-player game, a second player controls Mario’s brother Luigi) as he travels through the Mushroom Kingdom in order to rescue Princess Toadstool from the antagonist Bowser. Its’ success was phenomenal that it had reigned the video gaming world for over 20 yrs and was considered to be the best-selling video game of all time.

As an inspiration and at the same a tribute to this phenomenal video game, we have collected Super Mario Artworks Collection for you. See how artists have interpreted the brothers, Mario and Luigi, through their masterpiece. Enjoy!!

http://naldzgraphics.net

Mario

Super Mario Bro

By: skottieyoung
Source

Super Mario World

By: supernitro
Source

Super Mario World

By: MikePMitchell
Source

Super Mario

By: D-MAC
Source

Continuar leyendo «Super Mario and Luigi Artworks Collection»

IAB Future Formats awards showcase new online creative canvases

UK – The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) held its inaugural Future Formats award on 29 February, recognising next-generation ad formats. UK-news publication The Telegraph won the top award for its new online advertising format, Cascade.

By Staff Reporters
The award is described as IAB’s response to the acceleration in brand-based online display advertising. The call for entries invited media owners and technology companies to showcase next-generation formats that could be adopted in 2012.
The judging panel comprised senior members of digital media and creative agencies, including Arabella Judd, integration director, ZenithOptimedia and Ben Lunt, head of multiplatform, Leo Burnett.

UK – The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) held its inaugural Future Formats award on 29 February, recognising next-generation ad formats. UK-news publication The Telegraph won the top award for its new online advertising format, Cascade.

The judging panel comprised senior members of digital media and creative agencies, including Arabella Judd, integration director, ZenithOptimedia and Ben Lunt, head of multiplatform, Leo Burnett.

Continuar leyendo «IAB Future Formats awards showcase new online creative canvases»

Associated Problems: Five Mistakes PR Professionals Make on Twitter

As public relations professionals, we all understand the need for brevity. We learn early on not to say “The person of the male sex strolled to the area that is not here but in another spot.” It’s better to say, “The man walked there.” Nice and easy to digest.

If clarity and simplicity are the pillars of PR, Twitter is the perfect challenge for us. Limiting ourselves to 140 characters is the ultimate test of our slicing and dicing abilities. This challenge is welcomed and, for once, we have a MAXIMUM limit. Well, other than those nine or so characters we keep for re-tweeting (please retweet, please.)

http://451heat.com/

What a perfect way for us to showcase our skills. No silly wording or need for fluff. It’s the Donner Party of characters per post… without the cannibalism.

However, many seem to think that with Twitter being a relatively new concept by limiting characters, requires an abandonment of Associate Press Style.

It doesn’t help that we have so much stacked against us.

The following is my little list of AP rules (or just general rules of thumb) we neglect on Twitter. Note: I am not using this information to go Emily Post-al on anyone. Use this list as a reminder to check your AP Style Book from time to time. We all commit these crimes of writing. I probably have broken countless rules in this article, and I have my style book right next to my computer…let’s see! Continuar leyendo «Associated Problems: Five Mistakes PR Professionals Make on Twitter»

How Responsive Design is Like Water

For the sake of the article, the matter state of liquid will now be referred to as water. Everyone in every part of the world can tell you what water looks like, but have you really noticed it? With all the discussion arising due to responsive design going mainstream, its troubling to see the original responsive design go unnoticed. Let’s take a look at a few examples, while also explaining how they relate to responsive design.
Example 1: Water has no True Form

As aforementioned the state of water is the only one to be fully visible, yet have no exact form. The loosely connected molecules of this state bond together to take the shape of whatever container they are in. In responsive design, the website is meant not to have any true form. Its form depends on the device it is being viewed on, or containing it.
Example 2: When Pressure is Added, Water can be Dangerous

The phrase speed over power never becomes clearer then when dealing with water. Normally, water is in a very nice refreshing state with no harm coming from touching it. However, that can easily change once the right level of pressure is added. Once the right pressure level has been reached, the safe water state quickly turns into a blade sharp enough to cut through almost anything.

In responsive design, the pressure level relates to the use of space on the viewing device . The higher level of space used then what would be considered acceptable, the higher chance the pressure to find the message in said viewing device grows.
Example 3: Water Easily Separates, Without Losing its Identity…

Written by: Jamal
http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/

There are three states of matter known to be found on Earth. These states of course being that of solid, liquid, and gas. Taking into account that these three states are distinctly different, it is easy to assume that they each have a unique form. Solids are rigid and tightly packed molecules , gases are hyperactive molecules that are always just bouncing around everywhere, and liquids are closely connected molecules that have no true form.

Before steering away from this post because of the brief refresher on some chemistry notes, which may or may not have triggered haunting blocked out memories, take some time to consider something. Why would any professional creative ever be daft enough to mention anything relating to science subjects like chemistry in a blog post? And how can knowing this honestly improve my responsive design skills?

Liquid: The Responsive State

*Image Credit: mloge

Example 1: Water has no True Form

Example 2: When Pressure is Added, Water can be Dangerous

Example 3: Water Easily Separates, Without Losing its Identity… Continuar leyendo «How Responsive Design is Like Water»

Facebook Underscores Earned + Paid Media Integration at fMC 2012 [REPORT]

At yesterday’s first annual fMC Conference, Facebook unveiled several platform updates that will soon impact all brands utilizing the world’s largest social network to connect with consumers. Beyond the tactical ramifications – which we outline in detail in our latest report – the core takeaway from fMC is thatFacebook has entered a new terrain where earned and paid media should operate as part of a real-time, coordinated front in order to maximize engagement.

by 360i

The joint introduction of Facebook Timeline for Pages as well as changes to the Facebook premium ad format reinforce the need for a unified, holistic approach to Facebook marketing that integrates community, content and media strategies.

Our belief is that earned and paid media will continue to converge, with each having a multiplying impact on the other. This creates a need for an integrated approach to managing and measuring social media across community, content and advertising…

As 360i President Sarah Hofstetter told the Wall Street Journal yesterday, the update will move brands to start thinking about paid advertising as part of their Facebook strategy. “It’s not just a Field of Dreams environment anymore on Facebook where ‘if you build it, they will come,’” she said.

360i POV: Facebook’s fMC 2012 Announcements

The Fluidity and Demands of Social Business Work

Part of the adaptation resistance we feel in businesses trying to become more social is that they’re taking an old model – the 5 day week fit into a daytime 40 hours – and desperately trying to fit it around the inconsistent and differing patterns that define a connected, networked and vastly more nimble global network. Strapping hours on your Twitter bio will not forever meet the needs of customers, employees, partners, supply chain, and the people who deliver on the work we’ve ultimately promised.

Here’s where I have some questions for you.

What do you think defines a professional commitment in today’s era? As a worker of any kind, what should you expect to commit? Is it different than it has been? If so, what will make that commitment worthwhile?
How can companies adapt an industrial-era mindset into a modern one while surmounting the challenges of sheer scale and cost of having a larger, more distributed and flexible workforce? Or are there savings in there instead of costs?
What does that mean for the education and induction that we’re giving to the next generation of workers, whether skilled or knowledge based or both?

http://www.brasstackthinking.com

Few of us work a 5-day, 40-hour week anymore.

So if that’s true, and we’ve largely accepted that, why are we still trying to force social business evolution into the bounds of those days and hours?

Fluidity is a continually emerging reality in business. I struggle mightily with this personally, because I don’t believe that even the most entrepreneurial of us are winning medals when we get out there and flaunt our exhaustive, 80-hour workweek and lack of weekends as some kind of masochistic badge of honor. In fact, it tells me that we simply aren’t being smart with how we work, not telling us that we should just keep working and working and working until we break.

Stack that, however, against the ever-present reality that the online world does not tick according to the industrial era clock. We had metered, 8-hour days for a reason. Assembly lines needed to meet quotas and factories needed to meet the demands of their customers but without endangering their workforces.

Yet, the web is a fluid thing that rarely collectively sleeps… Continuar leyendo «The Fluidity and Demands of Social Business Work»

Billionaire Rankings: Bloomberg Launches Daily List of the World’s Richest People

Most of the news this year, however, appears to be good for the world’s richest — perhaps a sign of a perkier global economy in 2012. Seventeen of the 20 billionaires on the list have added to their net worth year-to-date. The only three losers were Walmart heirs Christy, Jim and Samuel Robson Walton, likely reflecting the fact that Walmart stock has lost ground in 2012.

Charting the wealth of the world’s most outrageously wealthy used to be strictly the purview of Forbes magazine, whose own billionaires list is published each March and is due out later today Wednesday. But this year the magazine has been scooped by the upstart Bloomberg News organization, whose daily list attempts to make the Forbes version obsolete. According to the New York Post, however, Forbes will come out with its own daily rankings later this month.

Bloomberg fired the opening salvo in this war for wealth coverage last winter when it announced it would be producing its own global rich list and was hiring Forbes magazine veteran Matthew Miller to head up the project. Miller spent seven years at Forbes and was the editor of the America-focused Forbes 400, as well as the co-editor of the Forbes World’s Billionaires list.

(MORE: ‘Gordon Gekko’ Joins FBI Battle Against Wall Street Fraud)

One blind spot to Bloomberg’s coverage, however, will be the company’s majority owner and erstwhile CEO, and New York City’s mayor. According to Forbes, Michael Bloomberg is America’s 12th richest man and the world’s 30th. He won’t be appearing in any of Bloomberg News’ coverage, however, as it is the company’s editorial policy not to cover Bloomberg LP.

WALL STREET & MARKETS

By CHRISTOPHER MATTHEWS | http://business.time.com/

BLOOMBERG NEWS

From batting averages to polling numbers, we live in an age of real-time data. Now, thanks to Bloomberg News, you can add billionaires’ net worth to the list of statistics you can look up day to day. Bloomberg News launched its Bloomberg Billionaires Index yesterday, a daily ranking of the world’s 20 wealthiest people. The list will be updated daily based on “market and economic changes and Bloomberg News reporting.” It will also include a yearly and daily accounting of how much these tycoons’ holdings have fluctuated.

Let’s just say these numbers trump whatever you won or lost at the roulette table in Atlantic City, N.J., last weekend. On the day of its launch, the index estimated that the world’s wealthiest man, Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim Helú, lost nearly half a billion dollars in the previous 24 hours. The No. 2 richest man, Bill Gates, saw his net worth tumble by $102 million in the same time span. Continuar leyendo «Billionaire Rankings: Bloomberg Launches Daily List of the World’s Richest People»

Why You Need to Make Your Life More Automatic

How different would your life be, after all, if you could get yourself to sleep 8 hours at night, exercise every day, eat healthy foods in the right portions, take time for reflection and renewal, remain calm and positive under stress, focus without interruption for sustained periods of time, and prioritize the work that matters most?

Right now, the vast majority of what we do each day occurs automatically. We’re often triggered, as these authors make vividly clear, by subtle cues we’re not even aware of — a smell, a visual image, a familiar sight. These cues prompt us to move away from any potential pain and discomfort, no matter how minimal, and toward immediate reward and gratification, no matter how fleeting.

The primary role of our prefrontal cortex is to bias the brain towards doing the «harder» thing. Unfortunately, our rational capacity is often overwhelmed by the power of our own most visceral and primitive desires.

We’re often captive to our biochemistry. When the neurotransmitter dopamine is triggered, for example, what we feel is craving, not pleasure. This explains not just why we fall into a range of self-destructive addictions, but also why we don’t take better care of ourselves and make wiser choices day in and day out.

The solution is to learn how to co-opt the more primitive habit-forming regions of our brains, so that rather than reinforcing our negative impulses, they become the soil in which we build positive rituals that serve our long term interests.

TONY SCHWARTZ
http://blogs.hbr.org/

Tony Schwartz is the president and CEO of The Energy Project and the author of Be Excellent at Anything. Become a fan of The Energy Project on Facebook and connect with Tony at Twitter.com/TonySchwartz and Twitter.com/Energy_Project.

Why is it that three prominent books published just during the past several months focused on the subject of willpower?

The first answer is that neuroscience has finally begun to open a window into the complex way our brains respond to temptation and what it takes to successfully exercise choice.

Second, a raft of recent studies have shown that the capacity for self-control — even more than genetic endowment or material advantage — fuels a range of positive outcomes in life, including more stable relationships, higher paying and more satisfying work, more resilience in the face of setbacks, better health, and greater happiness.

Finally, these books — Willpower, The Willpower Instinct, andThe Power of Habit — are a response to an increasingly evident need. Demand in our lives is truly outpacing our capacity.

The sheer number of choices we must make each day — what foods to eat, what products to buy, what information merits our attention, what tasks to prioritize — can be overwhelming. As Roy Baumeister puts it in Willpower, «Self-regulation failure is the major social pathology of our time.» Continuar leyendo «Why You Need to Make Your Life More Automatic»

10 Herramientas para buscar personas en las Redes Sociales

1. Convoflow

Este es un buscador especializado en redes sociales, realiza búsquedas en redes como Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed, Identi.ca o Digg, con una gran funcionalidad y en tiempo real.

Una herramienta que te permite dar un recorrido por las conversaciones de las comunidades Web 2.0, de fácil uso y con magníficos resultados.

2. BuddyFetch

Una aplicación web especializada en búsquedas en redes sociales que será tu gran soporte, si de hallar amigos en la Web se trata. Este servicio web puede buscar en un ilimitado número de redes sociales, por rubros tales como edad, idioma, género o ubicación.

La herramienta trabaja -además de Messenger – con los perfiles de diversas redes socialescomo MySpace, Netlog, ICQ, Skype, Yahoo!, Windows Live Spaces, Hot or Not, Hi5, entre otros.

3. Wink People Search

Es una útil herramienta para buscar en redes sociales que te permite encontrar no sólo amigos, si no obtener su teléfono, dirección, sitios Web, fotos, trabajo; así como ubicar personas online.

4. Google Social Search

Google, consciente que el futuro está y estará aún más en las comunidades Web, ha desarrollado unaherramienta para buscar en redes sociales; sin duda, una valiosísima solución que ahorrará tiempo y aumentará la efectividad.

Google, ya venía ofreciendo búsquedas en tiempo real, en las actualizaciones de los usuarios de Twitter yFacebook; pero, actualmente permite colocar en la barra de búsqueda el nombre de tu contacto y te lista en instantes sus perfiles en las diferentes redes sociales,incluyendo Hi5, Netlog, MySpace y otras más.

by José Gregorio Aldana | http://clickefectivo.com

Conforme a los planteamientos que veníamos proponiendo, a partir de 2010, el mundo sucederá en las redes sociales, y la Web 2.0 cobrará un protagonismo inusitado, con mucha mayor presencia que en la actualidad. Las compañías han tomado muy en cuenta este presagio, diseñando herramientas de búsqueda en redes sociales, pues todo usuario deseará que se le simplifique encontrar a tal amigo o cual servicio, en su red social favorita.

Acá, un breve repaso por las 10 más relevantes… Continuar leyendo «10 Herramientas para buscar personas en las Redes Sociales»

12 tendencias de consumo para 2012

trendwatching.com es una ﬁrma de tendencias independiente y dogmática, que escanea el globo en busca de las tendencias de consumo, insights e ideas de negocio prácticas más prometedoras. Para lo último y mejor, conﬁamos en nuestra red de cientos de ojeadores
en más de 120 países mundialmente.

Para profundizar en estas tendencias, aconsejo la lectura de este Briefing de Trendwatching, es de lo más interesante sobre todo de cara a introducir nuevas ideas e innovaciones.

http://www.trendwatching.com/

Para profundizar en estas tendencias, aconsejo la lectura de este Briefing de Trendwatching, es de lo más interesante sobre todo de cara a introducir nuevas ideas e innovaciones.

Que es innovación o el arte de dejar de vender commodities. | POST DESTACADO

soluciones a problemas de nuestros clientes, soluciones que aporten valor a nuestra organización de forma sistemática.Esto es lo que todos conocemos por innovación. Muchos expertos hablan de la innovación a través de ejemplos, tal empresa o tal otra etc… pero son incapaces de saber como se produce. Ahora nos dicen: la experiencia mata la innovación, hay que ser creativos…la innovación mola.

No se trata de crear nuevos productos como muchas veces pensamos, sino de plantear soluciones a nuestros clientes. Personalmente creo que el gran fracaso en la innovación se produce por olvidarnos de cual es el objetivo de la misma: Crear soluciones nuevas y únicas para los problemas ya resueltos o para nuevos problemas. Este es el verdadero sentido de la innovación en todas sus facetas, plantear soluciones para nosotros mismos y nuestros clientes de forma rentable…
¿COMO PUEDO SABER QUE ES INNOVACION?

Responder a esta pregunta es mucho mas fácil de lo que pensamos. La clave esta en responder afirmativamente a estas cuestiones:

Se trata de un modelo de negocio nuevo en el sector
Estamos resolviendo un problema común a muchos clientes con una solución nueva y repetible
Estamos resolviendo un problema nuevo a muchos clientes con una nueva solución y repetible
Llegamos a nuevos clientes con soluciones mejoradas

PapelesdeInteligencia.com
un blog sobre como utilizar la Inteligencia Competitiva para ayudar a las empresas a aumentar sus ingresos.

Hace poco estuve en una charla sobre “Que es innovación” que me dejo francamente sorprendido, de una manera no muy positiva. En esta conferencia del profesor Stephen Shapiro, se afirmo que la experiencia es enemiga de la innovación. Lo cierto es que innovar, es resolver un problema a traves de una solución nueva o mucho más barata. Sin embargo creo que sin experiencia es imposible innovar.

La experiencia es la suma de conocimientos, tanto del formal como del informal, que una persona u organización poseen. Somos producto de nuestras experiencias vitales y de la observación y análisis de lo que vivimos. La experiencia es el conjunto de lo que una organizacion o persona sabe. Sin experiencia no hay inspiración, no hay contexto, ni orientación al mercado. La experiencia permite ver la realidad con otra perspectiva para relacionar los problemas de hoy con nuevos elementos para crear innovaciones.

¿QUE ES INNOVACION?

Es Dejar de vender commodities, es decidir diferenciarnos de los demás, ofreciendosoluciones únicas atraves de sistemas. Eso es soluciones a problemas de nuestros clientes, soluciones que aporten valor a nuestra organización de forma sistemática.Esto es lo que todos conocemos por innovación. Muchos expertos hablan de la innovación a través de ejemplos, tal empresa o tal otra etc… pero son incapaces de saber como se produce. Ahora nos dicen: la experiencia mata la innovación, hay que ser creativos…la innovación mola.

No se trata de crear nuevos productos como muchas veces pensamos, sino de plantear soluciones a nuestros clientes. Personalmente creo que el gran fracaso en la innovación se produce por olvidarnos de cual es el objetivo de la misma: Crear soluciones nuevas y únicas para los problemas ya resueltos o para nuevos problemas. Este es el verdadero sentido de la innovación en todas sus facetas, plantear soluciones para nosotros mismos y nuestros clientes de forma rentable… Continuar leyendo «Que es innovación o el arte de dejar de vender commodities. | ***POST DESTACADO***»

LivingSocial’s 5 Simple Tactics for Getting 30 Million Subscribers

When LivingSocial launched in 2007, the co-founders thought it would be interesting to match a user’s location with their interests. The model has evolved to selling vouchers to users for local experiences, and LivingSocial now serves daily deals to over 30 million subscribers. Want to know how they did it? Earlier this month, Andrew Warner of Mixergy.com interviewed LivingSocial co-founder Tim O’Shaughnessy. In the interview, Tim reflects on the early days and shares the strategies LivingSocial used to fuel its explosive growth. This post includes five of those strategies.
1. Build Connective Tissue

LivingSocial Email Tactic

Tim believes LivingSocial’s over 30 million customers are “establishing that connective tissue with us, where we send [them] a great thing to do every single day”. How can you reach as many people as LivingSocial does? Tim explains, “to do that, we have to know what your email is”, so “we just made it as blatant as we possibly could”.

By requiring first-time visitors to provide an email address, Tim says you help those people who “would want to subscribe and wouldn’t really know how to do it”. Don’t miss out on this opportunity, because as Tim points out, “email is one of those things that people keep open as a tab in their browser all day long. So if you have a compelling value proposition, then it can work”.

Take Away: Email is still a powerful way to directly communicate with your users and it can amplify the viral spread of your messages. In certain businesses it may be more effective than social media.

http://blog.kissmetrics.com/30-million-subscribers/

1. Build Connective Tissue

2. Help Your Customers Find Lunch

Have you ever thought “Hey, I’m going out with one of my coworkers, we’re going to grab something to eat, where should we go to lunch today?” Tim realized, “right now, there’s really no way for merchants to compete for your business or try to compel you to go there when you’re in the market”. So the LivingSocial team created Instant Deals, which Tim thinks, “is one of the big, new places that the space can go”.

Instant Deals work by providing real time offers with all sorts of different merchants. Tim describes Instant Deals as being “like an offline Google search. If you went to Google and typed in ‘nice blue handbag,’ they’d give you a great set of results. If you typed in ‘where should I go to lunch today,’ they don’t”. Tim says Instant Deals is “really providing the answer to that” and that “it’s a really compelling experience that we can bring to our members”.

Take Away: Ask yourself: What problem am I solving? Is there a demand for my solution? If you can confidently answer those two questions, then you might be on your way to something great!… Continuar leyendo «LivingSocial’s 5 Simple Tactics for Getting 30 Million Subscribers»

¿Cómo usan internet los ejecutivos de marketing?

Los ejecutivos de marketingmexicanos usan internet unas 4,6 horas al día, el 62% lee y responde correos electrónicos en las noches y durante el fin de semana y el 76% nunca apaga su teléfono móvil, según el reporte especial de IAB México y la consultora Millward Brown México sobre cómo usa internet este segmento de la población internauta. A primera vista, estas cifras generan la imagen de una persona entregada completamente al trabajo, sin embargo, el informe revela que con este medio también hacen otras actividades como socializar, hacer pagos y compras, aprovechar ofertas y divertirse.

Cómo y dónde se conectan
La oficina fue durante el 2010, el lugar donde más se conectaban los ejecutivos mexicanos a internet. Un año después el hogar está a la par, mientras que el café internet ha perdido su popularidad entre este segmento. Los lugares públicos con acceso a Internet son el tercer lugar donde más se conectan. La movilidad continúa ganando terreno. La conexión a internet desde un teléfono celular o smartphone aumentó significativamente en 2011 (en 2010 el 42% usaba Internet móvil, en 2011 lo hace el 64%). Además, ahora los ejecutivos tienen más teléfonos inteligentes (13% en 2010 y 37% en 2011), y menos celulares (92% en 2010 y 85% en 2011).

http://www.marketingdirecto.com

Los ejecutivos de marketingmexicanos usan internet unas 4,6 horas al día, el 62% lee y responde correos electrónicos en las noches y durante el fin de semana y el 76% nunca apaga su teléfono móvil, según el reporte especial de IAB México y la consultora Millward Brown México sobre cómo usa internet este segmento de la población internauta. A primera vista, estas cifras generan la imagen de una persona entregada completamente al trabajo, sin embargo, el informe revela que con este medio también hacen otras actividades como socializar, hacer pagos y compras, aprovechar ofertas y divertirse.

Cómo y dónde se conectan
La oficina fue durante el 2010, el lugar donde más se conectaban los ejecutivos mexicanos a internet. Un año después el hogar está a la par, mientras que el café internet ha perdido su popularidad entre este segmento. Los lugares públicos con acceso a Internet son el tercer lugar donde más se conectan. La movilidad continúa ganando terreno. La conexión a internet desde un teléfono celular o smartphone aumentó significativamente en 2011 (en 2010 el 42% usaba Internet móvil, en 2011 lo hace el 64%). Además, ahora los ejecutivos tienen más teléfonos inteligentes (13% en 2010 y 37% en 2011), y menos celulares (92% en 2010 y 85% en 2011). Continuar leyendo «¿Cómo usan internet los ejecutivos de marketing?»

FLUD: How Two Small Design Changes Tripled User Engagement

These two simple design changes boosted our engagement like crazy. The proof is in the chart above. Yes that’s the real chart with the real jump in engagement. It’s not brain surgery, but being smart with your design will determine if your app fails or succeeds.

So how can you make this happen? Start with data. Make sure you use established data and analytic tracking products like Apsolar or Flurry in your application. They’re very simple to implement and will make all the difference when trying to track your progress. Secondly, set benchmarks before hand. It’s OK to be aggressive. Choose numbers you’ll be ecstatic about. Don’t settle for something you know you’ll reach. Lastly, determine your key aspirations. What are goals? If you’re a travel app maybe you want to increase bookings so you make the “Book Now” bigger or change the color. If you’re a location-based restaurant app, maybe you want your users to run more searches, so look at things like how easy is it to find your search bar or how quickly can your user scan results in order to make a decision. If you’re a photo sharing app and you want more uploads, consider the steps it takes to find the share buttons. Are they hidden in a menu or do they automatically pop-up when a new picture is taken? Little things like these change your application drastically and help you reach your engagement goals. After all, that’s why you built the app, right?

Its too easy to second-guess many decisions you make when you design anything. Even the best designers in the world don’t get it right the first time, they rarely get it right the second time, and most need four or five iterations to hit the spot. Final note, as the wisest in our industry would agree – iterate quicker and fail faster.

By: Bobby Ghoshal
http://theindustry.cc

You built an app, it’s great, but still, there’s something missing. You’re not getting the user engagement you had hoped for. The good news is, you don’t need to spend a whole lot of time and money trying to boost your numbers, all you need to do is take your existing app and test out a few design changes. A lot of the time it’s small tweaks in design that can really transform your app and boost user engagement. Before you start overhauling the design and making plans to build the next big thing, remember to keep it simple. Don’t waste a lot of time tweaking too many pieces at once. Not only will it be a nightmare to measure which changes have proved successful, it will take too long — too long to design, too long to implement, and too long to test. Test quicker, faster, smaller things and you can make better design decisions.

Case in point, here’s what happened at Flud. When we launched Flud 2.0 in December 2011, everything seemed great from the outside. People were downloading the app, reading articles and adding sources, but we were expecting more in app engagement as well as more engagement with the Flud Stream and Flud 2.0’s most important social feature — the Activity Stream. Before our launch, we set a benchmark. We wanted x number of users to open the app y number of times, read z number of articles and influence i number of users. When we didn’t reach that benchmark we asked ourselves what was wrong — why weren’t we getting engagement we wanted? Continuar leyendo «FLUD: How Two Small Design Changes Tripled User Engagement»