Why do you like Twitter?

I first heard about Twitter in early 2008. I was aware of what it was and the basic mechanism of how it worked. The only people using this microblogging tool were some reporters at the newspaper I worked. It was not until early 2009 did I finally wake up, sign up and embrace the power of Twitter.

A report from emarketer talks about the huge increase of unique monthly visitors, its integration and adoption by the business and the wider audience in 2009. It also examines some of the challenges that Twitter has ahead. The most important challenge will be changing its focus from audience building to revenue generation. Twitter will be on target to attract 32 million unique visitors per month in 2011. Ben Parr of Mashable posted a story today of how Twitter has reached a market value of $4 billion.

I like Twitter because it is fast, easy to use and it is anything you want it to be. Any topic that you can think of can be searched. The true power of Twitter is how it is used for breaking news events. During the G20 meetings in Toronto last year, rioting broke out in the city. I was watching it on television [CP24] and following it on Twitter. In most cases, Twitter is on the scene before the police or first responders. It is truly a powerful tool for individuals, brands and companies.

Why do you use Twitter?...

Facebook, Amazon.com versus Google - Social Media Brands Get Ready To Rumble

Late last week all over the net there were news stories of how Facebook and Amazon.com were partnering for a showdown that has been brewing for sometime now. This showdown is with Google. These giant social media brands have been playing a fantastically complicated game of chess to see who will survive or get left behind.

Caroline McCarthy, of CNET.com put it this way,"Facebook dominates the social web, and Google dominates everything else. Google wants to wrest a bit of control of social media from Facebook." In the high stakes of social media, staying in control of your niche is crucial to you being top of mind. If you lose that edge and your brand awareness you lose everything. It doesn't get any more serious than this.

Google has been trying to grab a piece of the social networking space for many years, but last week they were arming themselves for a showdown. Google has released information about the acquisition of Slide. This company was started by PayPal veteran Max Levchin. What is so interesting about this is Max Levchin was responsible for designing some of the earliest breakout hits on the Facebook platform. This in its self would lead me to think that Google is getting ready to succeed this time with its movement into social networks. Their failures before have allowed them to learn and observe the strengths and weaknesses of Facebook.

At Facebook, it was reported by venturebeat.com , that Chief Executive, Mark Zuckerberg was in "Lockdown" preparing for battle with Google.



I personally, believe that products and industries change, modify and develop into new things. In social media and web 2.0, we have reached a point where the very large brands are changing and moving forward. This push by Google might be exactly what Facebook needs to become even better. Be careful what you wish for Google. You might not like what happens.

What do you think will happen next? Will Google succeed or Facebook?

Social Media sucesses with B2B Marketing

Recently social media has seen some success in being utilized in B2B Marketing. This is a distinct area within social media marketing. Unlike the consumer oriented social media marketing, business to business is different. It really comes down to the economics of social marketing. Did the campaign generate new and improved revenue streams, or increased return on investments? It success or failure really comes down to the numbers.

As social media marketing evolves and expands, so will the tools, the strategies and tactics involved. I believe that marketers will be successful in finding fantastic ways of generating new leads, increasing profits, branding and find a balance in ROI.

Social media marketing for B2B is still quite new and CEOs are still a little leary in investing their precious marketing dollars into something still developing. This area in the next year or so will move ahead and will slowly be adopted as a reliable method of doing business.

Why Social Media Makes Sense for B2B Marketers

M-Commerce: The New Frontier

The newest frontier that is catching the attention of many marketers and businesses is M-Commerce. Just like the Gold Rush of the 1800s in the Pacific Northwest, M-Commerce is starting to gain momentum.

A high percentage of mobile phone users are purchasing smart phones. Smart phones like the Blackberry or iPhone and their technology are being tested and in some cases being utilized in test programs for M-Commerce.

M-Commerce is really the next progression in allowing a transaction for a product or service to be completed with a mobile device. There is no need for a credit card in these transactions. Anything you can think of, such as buying groceries, getting a car wash and gas or going to a restaurant will be able to be purchased. The possibilities are endless and will be a huge change in how we purchase goods. Business will also have to change how it markets and advertises products and services.

Social Media marketing along with a new hybrid that incorporates super geo-targeted marketing and advertising will change how marketers contact their consumers. This new way of purchasing will be simple and user friendly, thus putting the power in the mobile device. M-Commerce will be coming and will be adopted slowly at first, but will totally change how we buy things.

Marketers Adapt and Overcome: Email Marketing

Marketing professionals generally are intelligent people. Most are quick and remain open to new approaches to targeting a specific audience. One area of interest is email marketing. It is still being utilized as a viable way to target specific demographics and groups.

The email marketer is being faced with a huge problem. In the Social Age, most people have 3 or 4 emails that they must check. Most people don't have a huge amount of time to respond to the endless amount of offers. This method of marketing a product or service is becoming redundant.

Taking these challenges in stride, the email marketer is trying to adapt and overcome. To cut through the natural level of static that bombards us everyday, they are utilizing tactics such as advanced segmentation, personalization and behavioral targeting to connect with their audience. I believe email will remain an important tool for communication and business, but the way the email marketer functions will change. Email marketing will play a more diminished role in the marketing plan as the social media rises to the top.


E-Mail Marketers Plan Advanced Campaigns - eMarketer

M-Commerce: The Next Big Thing

There seems to be a buzz in many blogs and New Media/Technology sites. This buzz is about the next big thing, M-Commerce. Simply put, mobile commerce is where you utilize your smart phone to pay for just about any product or service you can imagine.

I believe that this will be the next big advancement in digital commerce. Just the thought that you will be able to pay for a taxi or a pizza without having to use cash or a credit card is fantastic.

If you examine the infrastructure, with some small advances, the technology is really set to go to the next level. Many businesses could not believe how fast e-commerce became an integral part of the revenue stream. This is what is about to happen to many companies.

Many companies should be getting ready for this jump to the Mobi Age. Some marketing and advertising executives will start to see the possibilities within the next year. They will see that making a purchase with your mobile phone is very easy.

Keep your eyes on this buzz because it will get louder and louder.

Publishing and the New Media Shift - Paid Content vs. Free Content

This topic is one that hits close to home. I have worked in publishing for over 15 year with a major regional newspaper. This newspaper has been around for over 150 years reporting and running advertising. About 8 years ago there were rumblings that the website for this newspaper should be paid access, and so we through ourselves into the paid content area. This failed miserably and we actually had many complaints about access that should come free.

The power of the Internet is that it is a close representation of what the real world is. It has the good and the bad aspects, but there is another battle that continues to rage on. This battle is between free access to information and paid access. Most think that major media outlets should make news and other features free to all because the ads will pay for the access. On the flip side, the newspapers believe in paid access, after all most newspapers are use to having paid subscribers base for the printed product.

Several years after making the paid access fiasco the paper decided to allow access for all. It has taken several years of continuing this full access for the numbers to recover.

I believe newspapers cannot compete as they are in a fast paced digitally charged, everyone is a news reporter world. They have to change and if they don't they will be out of business. The current business model that newspapers have been operating on cannot carry them into the next decade of the 21st Century. Change is the only constant and newspapers have to adapt and overcome.

One area of publishing that may indeed be revitalized is the book publishing area. With the advent of electronic book readers, notebook computers and the ipad, this is seeing a increase in sales of paid access to e-books. We can learn quite a lot from the current business model of the Apple itunes franchise. You have paid access to great music, music videos and television shows to name a few. People get use to things that work, and itunes seems to really work well for most.

The sales of e-books has steadily increased since the year 2000. An article on www.emarketer.com talks about how sales for 2009 were totalled at over $169.5 million. The e-book sales grew 176% from 2008 sales numbers. That is truly fantastic growth. I would expect that in the next several years, after the ipad gets into the hands of many, the increase will be even more significant.

One very important lesson that we cannot forget when dealing with old print technology and the new media, is that the generations that grew up with digital products will not go backwards to the old technology. They will only embrace products that are digitally and techno based.


Will Paid Content Put Publishing Back in the Black? - eMarketer

Top 3 Reason Affluents Use Social Network Sites

The top 3 reasons why affluent individuals use social networking sites are not earth shattering. A marketing company performed a poll on affluent indivduals for emarketer.com. This poll highlighted several things that most marketers already realized.



55% of polled used social networking sites to hear what friends and family were doing.

53% polled wanted to reconnect with old friends and classmates.

47% polled wanted to share new with friends and family.



These results from the poll didn't really surprise me. Never forget the single most important thing when dealing with social network media sites. The power is with the people and without the people the networking sites are really nothing. Marketers and advertisers have to keep that in mind when targeting the type of social media for their products.



We are all very busy in are daily lives and our families are scattered all over geographically. Social media has allowed us to connect and reconnect, set up networks, social clubs and talk to people that 2o, 30 or 40 years ago just wouldn't have happened as easily.


Reaching Affluents on Social Nets - eMarketer

The Most Important Element of Social Media Marketing

The single most important element of Social Media Marketing is not the technology, it is not the marketing analytics, it is something that social media marketers often forget about and that is "people". We all have the need to want to belong. To make connections, to grow and learn new things. We cannot do this by ourselves.

An article from Jennifer Cohen of SocialMediaMarketing.com http://bit.ly/aUWNSx discusses how chatter and talk is truly what the social media is based around. Without the chatter, both positive and negative, there would be no opportunities for marketers and advertisers to connect and introduce products and services to the target channels.

Another area of the social media that is often overlooked is the world of blogs. Without the 1 million plus blogs registered adding content, opinion and information and facts, you would really be left with a boring mix of social network software. It is like any connection in the real world, the more you put in, the more you benefit.

B2B Online Marketers Focus on Lead Gen - eMarketer

Is B2B online channel lead gerneration the most important focus or is online customer rentention? 2010 will see a struggle for where and how the digital advertising and marketing dollars are divided up.

B2B Online Marketers Focus on Lead Gen - eMarketer

Boomers Slowly Warm to Mobile Web - eMarketer

With Boomers making up 30.6 % of the mobile phone business, will they take as long to adapt their habits to Smart phones? This article may explain some of the issues.

Boomers Slowly Warm to Mobile Web - eMarketer

The Impact of the "New Media" on the old marketing mix

The impact of the new media on marketing can be summed up as profound. The way products or services were brought to market has changed drastically.

The new media and digital technology has allow people to do things that would have taken a week or a month can now be done in 24 hours. It is this technology along with new social network media that have changed the way marketers look at things. This opportunity to utilize fantastic new gateways for connecting products and services to people is something that cannot be let go.

Twenty years ago in most major colleges or universities there may have been several students using laptop computers to take notes. Fast forward to 2010 and almost every student has a notebook computer on their desk. In this short period of time the way people interact, converse, and connect has completely changed. These changes have also been adopted by Marketers and Advertisers.

Even a decade ago, when a marketing or advertising plan was being put together you might have heard terms such as target market, penetration, exposure and many others. In 2010, you will hear terms such as unique visitors, page views, click thru and many new terms.

Along with the technology changes and adaptations by people, the true strength of the new media is the capacity for people to want to belong. That need to feel connected to communities and others is what is driving this. This want and need of people has been utilized by marketers and advertisers to seek opportunities to brand or place their products in front of targeted audiences.

The New Media has and will continue to develop and so to will marketing and advertising. The truth is we really don't know where or what the next change to new media will be, but you can be sure of one thing it will change the way marketing and advertising is done.