Firstly, good designers don't tend to think about consumers; they think about people and what they want and need. It's a subtle point, but thinking about people as consumers immediately dehumanizes them and makes it harder to empathize.
Secondly, good designers like observing — really looking at what people do rather than simply relying on what they say they do. As Paul Smith once explained, when asked where he got his ideas from: "You and I could walk down the street together and look at the same things, but I'd SEE ten times more than you would."
Thirdly, they bring expertise in other categories and industries to bear on problems in others. They pull together threads from different functions, disciplines, fields, and sectors, and integrate them into a new and (the dreaded word) "holistic" understanding.
Fourthly, good designers look at what might all change in the short, medium and long-term, by engaging with the best trends and forecasting intelligence. Unlike other crystal ball gazers they use this prescience to help them understand how they could bend the future, shape it to their vision.
And lastly, good designers pressure test their conclusions by consulting with other cultural 'interpreters' from a broad range of other disciplines.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
How Good Designers Think - Simon Rucker - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review
Thursday, April 28, 2011
#Facebook Tests Optional Broad Interest Category and Family Status #Targeting
Facebook has made several new self-serve ad targeting options available to a test group of users, including family status such as “Parents”, “Engaged (< 6 months)”, or “Newlywed (< 1 year)”, as well as “Has birthday in < 1 week”. Those in the test group have the option to target ads to broad categories of interests, such as musical genres, types of sports, activities such as photography, and professional categories such as real estate, in addition to traditional precise interest targeting.
If the tested targeting options were fully rolled out, they could give novice advertisers easier ways to target large relevant audiences, and make Facebook a more accurate advertising channel for brands and small businesses with customers in specific life phases.
#Groupon vs #Facebook #Deals vs #Google #Offers | #Social #Commerce Today
Whilst we wait for a new Amazon-Woot!-LivingSocial move, Facebook and Google – seeing the licence-to-print-money success of Groupon local advertising – have come out with there own Groupon-with-a-twist clones – and are beta-testing them now in a limited number of US cities.
Groupon
- 70 million members
- The Deal: 50%+ Off, Minimum Purchases Required
- Costs: 20%-50% commission
- Reasons to Choose: Market Leader, Core Business, Extensive Local Rep. Network
- Reasons to Avoid: Steep Discounts Required, Steep Commission
- Of Note: Self-serve option as well as full managed campaign
- Social: Group-Buy Mechanic, Referral Rewards, Social Network Sharing
- Go to Groupon
Facebook Deals
- 600 million members
- The Deal: No Minimum Off, No Minimum Purchases Required
- Costs: TBC (bundled with purchase of ad units?)
- Reasons to Choose: Platform Reach, Platform Integration, Deal Flexibility
- Reasons to Avoid: Lack of Experience, Unproven, Facebook ‘Hobby’ – not core business
- Of Note: Payment by Facebook Credits could reduce friction
- Social: ‘Social’ Focused Deals, Referral Rewards, Deep Integration with Facebook**
- Go to Facebook Deals
Google Offers
- 200 million members*
- The Deal: Minimum 50% off, No Minimum Purchases Required
- Costs: TBC
- Reasons to Choose: Leader in Online Ads, Integration with Search, Google checkout, Gmail and Place pages
- Reasons to Avoid: Unproven, Patchy track record in social/e-commerce
- Of Note: New twist on pitch – Get new customers who have paid upfront
- Social: None
- Go to Google Offers
* Gmail users (Google account necessary for deals)
** Facebook Deals are distributed in 8 ways on Facebook: Facebook Homepage, Facebook Deals Page, Sponsored Ad Units, Personal Messages and Wall Posts, News feed stories/updates, onsite notifications, deals tab, emails
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
The Right to Management Competence - Linda Hill & Kent Lineback - Harvard Business Review
What good management comprises — what bosses do to make their people productive — isn't really a mystery. We can argue about the exact wording, but the basic elements aren't in doubt. We've summarized them in what we call the "3 Imperatives": Manage yourself, manage your network, manage your team. In writing about these elements, we've described them in terms of what good managers do and what all managers should strive to do. But it's not hard to rephrase them from a direct report's point of view — in effect, a "Direct Reports' Bill of Rights" — as follows.
Every direct report should be able to expect that the boss will:
- Be Trustworthy. Trust is based on competence and character, and so people can expect the boss (a) will know what to do and how to do it, and (b) will possess fundamental values, standards, interpersonal skills, emotional maturity, and levels of caring that support the work and those doing it.
- Exercise influence beyond his or her group. Every group works in a web of interdependence within a broader organization and beyond. Success — through, for example, securing needed resources, attention, and cooperation — depends on the boss's ability to exercise influence in that broader context through a network of ongoing, mutually supportive relationships.
- Create a team of his or her group. A group is a collection of people who work together. A team is a group whose members are mutually committed to pursuit of a clear purpose and the achievement of goals based on that purpose. In a team there is a "we" separate from the individuals involved and the people in that "we" believe they will all succeed or fail together. Why is this important? Because members of a team are more engaged and committed and as a group are more innovative and productive. A competent manager knows how to transform a group into a team — by fostering a compelling purpose, worthwhile goals and clear plans, productive work processes, and a culture of "we."
- Recognize individuals and support their development. People want to belong and be recognized for themselves. Thus, an effective manager knows individual team members, works with them, supports their development, and recognizes their contributions — all within the context of the team.
If Cash is King, #Apple’s is an Emperor [Updated] | asymco
Apple’s cash for short-term and long-term marketable securities totaled $65.8 billion at the end of the March quarter. Cash increased by $6.1 billion.
The increase in cash is net of approximately $900 million for prepayments and capital expenditures related to the strategic supply agreements that Apple announced last quarter.
The following chart shows the historic cash, short-term and long-term liquid assets Apple holds.
The enormity of the overall size of this cash can be put into several perspectives:
- The funds are big enough to place Apple’s CFO office in the top 100 largest fund managers in the world and larger than any hedge fund manager.
- Cash growth in one quarter was higher than the market cap of many companies. For example, if pre-payments were added back, the cash increased by about the market cap of Motorola Mobility.
- Current cash is worth more than Nokia, RIM and Motorola Mobility’s market caps, put together.
- Apple’s cash is worth half of Google’s enterprise value.
- About two years ago, in January 2009 the stock traded at a price of $78 with at least one analyst placing a target of $70 on the stock. Today Apple’s cash is worth $
6770/share. - If you owned $100,000 of Apple stock, $19,000 of that would be cash and only about $80,000 would be “at risk” capital.
- If Apple had no revenues, the current cash would sustain operations (SG&A and R&D) for over 7 years or until the middle of 2018.
#Turkish Videos, Music, iPad, Connect and Affection on This Week’s Top 20 Growing #Facebook Apps by DAU
Sanal Video, a popular Turkish video application, was first on our list. The app added 1.2 million DAU — although it has had an odd number of drastic rises and falls lately, and it has reached this level of traffic before. Video Magic added 184,100 DAU, Süper Video ! grew by 129,500 and VidyoTV Video grew by 102,300 DAU. Overall, the apps do all the same things: allowing users to view, Like and share videos to the stream. The exception is VidyoTV Video, which posts a link to your Wall every time you watch a video.
Then there were the aforementioned “affection” apps. Another Turkish app, Send Gift, allows users to send heart-shaped virtual goods to friends’ Walls; the app grew by 354,400 DAU.
The secret source of better brand engagement - iMediaConnection.com
The problem with the broadcast model in online video
The problem with the broadcast model in online video is that, unlike other media, choice is available to consumers in online video. As we saw with the Egyptians, Romans, and American Idol, the broadcast model works in specific contexts, namely where choice isn't an option. But in online video, specifically social video, consumers can choose the ads they watch. Chief strategy and innovation officer of VivaKi, Rishad Tobaccowala, calls this availability of choice and the empowerment of consumers "the people's network."Social video advertising: The place for consumer choice
Audiences can choose to watch branded content across sites like YouTube, Metacafe, DailyMotion, Yahoo, MySpace, and hundreds of others. They can visit these sites across a number of devices, from their computer, to their smartphone, tablet, and set-top box. When audiences choose to watch content related to brands, they can copy, mix, mash, and repost these ads across the web. They can share them with their friends and family, and blast them across Facebook and Twitter. They can embed ads into their blogs and personal websites. They can comment and rate the ads as well. For the first time, a type of advertising has conversation and sharing built in.This social activity -- sharing with friends and family, embedding on personal blogs and social media, etc. -- creates earned media, or endorsed brand reach.
The combination of video ads and social activity has come to be known as social video advertising. Social video advertising is one of the fastest growing advertising segments today, if not the fastest: It grew more than 900 percent more than search and display advertising in 2010, and more than 2,000 percent more than television for Super Bowl 2011.
This rapid growth has created intense competition among social video advertisers. The Ad Age Viral Video Chart, powered by Visible Measures, features the most-viewed -- user-initiated (i.e., chosen) -- ads of the week. Since the chart's premier in March 2009, the threshold to make 10th place has increased more than 400 percent. Thresholds for the Variety Top 10 Online Film Trailers Choice, also powered by Visible Measures, have increased more than 110 percent since its inception.
The revolution of choice is now
Ironically, the emergence and rapid growth of social video advertising gives advertisers a choice. Do they continue with the broadcast model and continue pouring money into pre-roll and other forced formats? Or, do they shift gears and try to capture audience choice in social video advertising?Response from the industry seems to indicate that a shift is already underway. Just last month, TED announced the winners of its Ads Worth Spreading contest, a contest "seeking to reverse the trend of online ads being aggressively forced on users." In December, YouTube announced an ad format called TrueView Video Ads, which "gives viewers choice and control over which advertiser's message they want to see and when." Last year, VivaKi launched The Pool, which has sponsored an ad format that gives audiences the choice of which ad they want to watch before video content. And cost-per-view pricing has been submitted to the IAB for consideration as a standard option for pricing video advertising.
You can also do your own research: Google "how to make a viral video" to see how pervasive the idea of virality is today. What these seemingly endless articles and blog posts are talking about is how to capture audience choice for video. Or check out the Viral Ad Chart each week just to see how ubiquitous and innovative viral campaigns are becoming. In the end, "viral" is simply a manifestation of consumer choice.
Viewdle | Cross-platform Face Recognition | Tag Friends in Your Photos & Videos
Tag photos of friends with your phone
Want to tag photos from your phone? SocialCamera is the only way to tag the mobile photos that you want to send to friends. Download SocialCamera in the Android App market for free!
SocialCamera works with the Android camera, so you can take photos with built-in, instant tagging! It uses Viewdle’s advanced face recognition technology to identify the people you take photos of the most, and tag them for you.
Automatically share your photos
It only takes 1 click to share your tagged photos with friends. Share your mobile photos through Facebook, Flickr, MMS, or email.
As you take photos, SocialCamera will create a faceprint of your friends, so you can automatically match their social contact info to their picture – your camera will know who to send your photos to.
Sharing photos on Facebook will automatically add them to a new album for your friends to see instantly.
Checkout #Optimization: Are You #Testing The Wrong Thing? « Get Elastic #Ecommerce Blog
According to Forrester Research, only 11% of consumers report their last abandoned cart was due to a long or confusing checkout. Only 12% believed the site was asking too much information, only 14% were unwilling to register with a site.*
The most common reasons customers bailed boiled down to “sticker shock” (due to high shipping charges, taxes or other fees, or a high product price), the desire to comparison shop, and simply not being ready to check out at that moment. (Good ol’ FUDs).
No matter how pretty your cart button, how short your checkout process or how clear and usable your form fields, you can’t save these sales. But that doesn’t mean you can’t optimize your site for non-usability factors of shopping cart abandonment.
Let’s take a look at 5 top reasons why customers abandon, and how you can address each Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
NYTimes testing crazy data visualization tool: [nytlabs] Project Cascade
description
Cascade allows for precise analysis of the structures which underly sharing activity on the web.
This first-of-its-kind tool links browsing behavior on a site to sharing activity to construct a detailed picture of how information propagates through the social media space. While initially applied to New York Times stories and information, the tool and its underlying logic may be applied to any publisher or brand interested in understanding how its messages are shared.
Cascade was developed by R&D using open source tools including Processing and MongoDB.
A First Look at Facebook's New Deals
Tomorrow, Facebook’s new Deals feature will be launching in five cities around the U.S.; here’s a first glimpse of how those offers will look and function.
First, users who opt into Deals will get to see opportunities specific to their locations. Those offers will arrive via email or, in some cases, will appear in the user’s news feed on Facebook.
To be clear, these aren’t like the checkin-based deals for mobile users that Facebook launched for its nascent Places platform; while the initial mobile Deals product competed with Foursquare, the new product competes more with Groupon.
Each deal will have its own Facebook landing page, as shown below. Users can “Like” a deal, share it via several channels on the site, or opt to buy it right away. When purchasing the deal, users can pay with credit card or Facebook Credits.
It’s unknown whether Facebook will make more money from Credits purchases than from traditional ones. A rep said via email, “We’re not disclosing details about revenue splits, but paying with Credits will work the same way as paying with a credit card. It’s simply another way for people to pay for Deals. We think this just makes things easier for people using Facebook.”
Check out the gallery below for a walkthrough of signing up for, finding, buying and sharing the new Facebook Deals.
Why Users Click Right Call to Actions More Than Left - #UX Movement
There are many home page focal points that put their call to action buttons in the bottom left area. This is the weak fallow area that users pay the least attention to. Users may sweep their eyes across your call to action button, but they won’t fixate on it for long. When the user finishes viewing and ends at the terminal area, they have to move their eyes back to the weak fallow area to click the call to action button. This not only forces users to move their eyes more, but going back to the weak fallow area is an unnatural movement that goes against their viewing rhythm. Call to actions belong in the terminal area because they’re the last thing users need to see to take action.
The example below arranges the home page focal point elements perfectly. The headline, which users read first, is in the primary optical area where users first look. The supporting text, which users read after the headline, is in the strong fallow area, where users move their eyes to second. The product image, which users look at after they read, is in the weak fallow area. This is the best spot for the product image because images tend to get longer visual fixations. Placing it in the weak fallow area means that the image won’t get fixated on too long over other elements. Each element is efficiently placed so that it follows the user’s natural viewing pattern. A call to action in the terminal area makes it quick and easy for users to take action.
The difference between a left and right call to action may only seem like its placement. But when you look deeper, where you place your call to actions can affect whether users click them or not. Knowing this will allow you to promote and display your product in an efficient way that makes users act.
source: http://uxmovement.com/buttons/why-users-click-right-call-to-actions-more-than-left
Friday, April 22, 2011
Facebook Celebrates the Like Button’s 1st Birthday By Showing Off Its Footprint
One year ago today at the f8 conference, Facebook released the Like button, its Open Graph social plugin for showing affinity for content on third-party websites. The company has now tells us that the site, and most frequently the Like button, have been added to many of the world’s largest sites according to comScore Media. These include all of the top 10 sports properties, 9 of the top 10 news/information properties, 9 of the top 10 entertainment properties, and 18 of the top 25 Comscore U.S. retail sites.
Other stats about the button’s performance that Facebook has shared in the past include:
- 10,000 websites integrate with Facebook each day
- More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook (including over 80 of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and over half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites)
- Over half of the 25 fastest growing Comscore U.S. retail sites use Facebook
- Media sites that adopt the Like button average a greater than 300% increase in referral traffic from Facebook
The plugin’s widespread integration helps Facebook in many ways. The Like button helps users share their affinity for things in the most streamlined way possible. Rather than have to click through a third-party designed Facebook sharing panel, such as the popular Add This, and manually assemble a story to share, Facebook’s Like button lets users share with one-click. If they choose, they can add a comment afterwords for more context. This streamlined flow seems to have performed better than Facebook’s old Share button which did much of the same but slower, leading Facebook to phase out the Share button.
Most visibly, the Like button gets Facebook’s name and logo in front a huge audience, encouraging those without accounts to join. When clicked it produces content for the site and news feed, leading to increased engagement. The referral traffic generated by the buttons demonstrates the value of the site to brands, leading them to spend more to advertise their Pages.
The Like Box, which allows sites to display a Like button for their Facebook Page, creates more connections to Pages that advertisers can target. This granular interest targeting allows Facebook to charge more and draw more spend. The plugin also entrenches Facebook, putting up barriers to entry for other social networks. In an effort to gain some of same advantages, Google recently introduced its similar +1 button.
There’s also speculation about how the Like button is a beachhead that lays the groundwork for Facebook to one day launch an as-yet-unconfirmed Open Graph ad unit — one that would allow sites to target ads at their visitors the same way they can target users on Facebook.com. By priming sites for this Facebook ad network-style integration, it could ensure an explosive launch that could steal attention and business from Google’s AdSense. By indexing user preferences across the web, Facebook could also potentially use the button to power an expansion of its search capabilities.
Austin Haugen, a product manager for the Like button, tells us his team’s goal for the coming year is to continue experimenting with different designs of the buttons and the stories they publish to see which generate the most clicks and referral traffic. For example, earlier this month Facebook tested showing users previews of the stories a button would publish to increase transparency.
Few could have foreseen Facebook’s rapid colonization of the internet via the Like button, but now it seems hard to imagine a time before it. The Like button and Facebook’s other social plugins have forced websites to radically rethink their social strategy. If sites want access to Facebook’s enormous user base, they need to think of social as a key part of design and functionality, rather than something grafted onto a finished product.
For access to our series on how to best implement the Like button on your website or social game, including the full versions of our Like Button Style Guide, walk-through of Open Graph meta tags, and Like Button Placement Guide, visit the Facebook Marketing Bible, Inside Network’s industry leading resource for marketing and advertising on Facebook.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Now available on the iPhone: RockMelt social media browser
RockMelt is a cloud-based social media browser that’s been available for Mac and PC desktops since last November, but now it’s available for iPhone.
Take a look at the video above, and you’ll see that the iPhone version of RockMelt looks a lot different from theRockMelt desktop browser. Its mission is carried over nicely to the iPhone, though, where social media takes center stage, even requiring you to log into Facebook when you first launch the app.
Source: http://mashable.com/2011/04/21/rockmelt-social-browser-now-available-on-iphone-video/
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Bank Website Redesigns are Back: Salem Five Outdoes Itself (NetBanker)
One that I particularly liked (note 1) is Salem Five's new homepage (shown below). Not only is it gorgeous, the navigation is outstanding with a large box containing key info (see points A and B below) and drop-down mega-menus (second screenshot) for everything else.
A few highlights of the new design (letters correspond to those shown on the screenshot):
A. The small outlined box on the left contains important info including the online banking login and current rates for key products.
B. The bank makes it easy to find contact info by listing the toll-free number at the bottom of the box. The bank also features LivePerson-powered click-to-call, one of the recommendations from our most recent report (note 3).
C. Despite the minimalistic design, the bank still has four low-key text-based promos running across the screen.
D. Users can choose from 19 background themes to use as the backdrop (note 2).
Salem Five homepage with customizable backgrounds (18 April 2011)
Salem Five uses drop-down "mega menus" to help users navigate to the far corners of its website
10 presentations to help you become a digital planning genius | Econsultancy
Account Planning in Digital Age
What is media planning?
The brief in the post digital age
Why planners and creatives should become best friends
Planning Needs Some Planning
Seven Deadly Sins
AdAge Digital 2010 6 Foundations of Great Digital Creative
The Birth Of A Grand Strategist By Waqar Riaz
The future of advertising, a conversation
Digital Media Planning 2010
Facebook Adds Two Factor Authentication for Login and Redesigns Family Safety Center
This morning Facebook announced the release of several new tools to help users stay safe while using the site. Soon, users will be able to enable two factor authentication to add an additional layer of security to logins. HTTPS browsing has been improved, and the anti-bullying social reporting tool has been rolled out more areas of the site. Facebook has also redesigned the Family Safety Center to be more visually oriented and easy to navigate.
With such a large user base and open Platform, safety issues are inevitable, so Facebook is trying provide as many preventative tools and resources as possible.
In January, Facebook began allowing users to browse the site over a secure HTTPS connection. Facebook recently noted that 9.6 million users are now browsing with HTTPS. However, third-party applications must specify a secure canvas or tab URL, otherwise users are shown a roadblock indicating they’d have to be switched to an HTTP connection to use the app. If users accepted the switch then navigated away from the app, they would still be using HTTP. Now Facebook will automatically return users to HTTPS whenever they finish using an app that doesn’t support it.
Datawocky: Retail + Social + Mobile = @WalmartLabs
Quite a few of us at Kosmix have backgrounds in ecommerce, having worked at companies such as Amazon.com and eBay. As we worked on the Social Genome platform, it became apparent to us that this platform could transform ecommerce by providing an unprecedented level of understanding about customers and products, going well beyond purchase data. The Social Genome enables us to take search, personalization and recommendations to the next level.
That’s why we were so excited when Walmart invited us to share with them our vision for the future of retailing. Walmart is the world’s largest retailer, with 10.5 billion customer visits every year to their stores and 1.5 billion online – 1 in 10 customers around the world shop Walmart online, and that proportion is growing. More and more visitors to the retail stores are armed with powerful mobile phones, which they use both to discover products and to connect with their friends and with the world. It was very soon apparent that the Walmart leadership shared our vision and our enthusiasm. And so @WalmartLabs was born (official announcement here).
We are at an inflection point in the development of ecommerce. The first generation of ecommerce was about bringing the store to the web. The next generation will be about building integrated experiences that leverage the store, the web, and mobile, with social identity being the glue that binds the experience. Walmart’s enormous global reach and incredible scale of operations -- from the United States and Europe to growing markets like China and India -- is unprecedented. @WalmartLabs, which combines Walmart’s scale with Kosmix’s social genome platform, is in a unique position to invent and build this future.
Monday, April 18, 2011
#Mobile #Application #Development: Web vs. Native - ACM Queue
Looking to the Future
As much as native and Web are pitted against one another in this debate, the likely outcome is a hybrid solution. Perhaps we'll see computing as inherently networked and (this is my sincere hope) free for anyone to access. We already see signs of a native Web: WebGL recently proved that in-browser 3D gaming is possible, even running Quake III!
In the meantime, software makers must balance the Web-vs.-native debate based on an application's primary objectives, development and business realities, and the opportunities the Web will provide in the not-so-distant future. The good news is that until all of this technology makes it into the browser, hacks such as PhoneGap can help bridge the divide. I encourage developers not simply to identify software development trends but to implement them! If the Web doesn't fulfill a capability your particular application requires, you're presented with an exciting opportunity to contribute and close the Web/native chasm in the process.
This is just the last paragraph of a very comprehensive article.. Highly recommended reading..
The f-commerce #FAQ [#Download] All you ever wanted to know about #Facebook commerce but were afraid to ask | Social Commerce Today
Well, here it is, the downloadable f-commerce FAQ – all you wanted to know about using Facebook as a platform for facilitating and executing sales transactions.
We’ve distilled our analysis of f-commerce down into 15 key questions and answers, including 50 industry examples, proof-points, tips, and links. We hope you’ll find it useful. Let us know what you think!
Read the f-commerce FAQ here or you can download it as a PDF (click image or here).
#MUSTREAD
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Spanish city to lend #NFC phones to tourists • NFC World
DIGGI: Gamma's service will see tourists using NFC in Caceres, western Spain
Tourists visiting the Spanish Unesco World Heritage city of Caceres will be able to borrow an NFC-enabled phone free of charge, allowing them to get information on the city, pick up discount coupons and access museums during their stay.
Google Nexus S phones will be provided to any visitor to the western Spanish city who requests one at the tourist information centre. Future plans include extending the functionality throughout the city so that visitors can also use the phones to buy goods in shops.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
BlackBerry PlayBook review -- Engadget
It's something of a serious tablet when compared to the competition running software from Apple and Google and, while it certainly has games, its biggest strengths are rather more boring. It does a really great job at displaying PowerPoint presentations, for example, and has the security chops to keep last quarter's dismal sales figures from falling into the wrong hands. Exciting stuff? No, but useful features for sure, and regardless of whether you find those intriguing or boring this is RIM's seven-inch, Flash-having but 3G-lacking tablet clad in an unassuming but extremely sophisticated exterior. It's what's running behind the glass that disappoints.
Hardware
The black PlayBook, with its angular edges and dark styling, looks decidedly nondescript, more likely to open up a wormhole somewhere in orbit around Jupiter than leap into someone's hands at retail. Only the chrome logo 'round the back adds some flare, with the word "BlackBerry" subtly embossed below the display on the front. The chassis is cool metal, ever so slightly rubberized, the edges squared off, and there is absolutely no flex or give anywhere. It feels perfectly solid and doesn't yield to any attempted contortions, despite being just 0.4-inches thick -- less than a tenth thicker than an iPad 2. At 0.9 pounds, it's considerably lighter, but a bit heavier than the .83 pound Galaxy Tab.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
American Express Invests in PayFone, Powers Mobile Payments Plan | Fast Company
Amex suggests that with Serve and Payfone you'd be able to link your cell number to a variety of credit and debit card accounts, and then pay swiftly and securely at the checkout in stores.
If that sounds familiar, then it should--it's almost the exact same process needed for wireless NFC credit card payments, a system we expect to see exploding over cell phones and smartphones from about now onwards. And that reveals Amex's plans for all to see: This investment is a precursor to enabling NFC payments from phones in stores.
And since location data is securely included in Payfone's protocol, it could also enable a secure way for NFC phone owners to transfer money between themselves merely by putting their phones together--Payfone would do all the fund verification, work out the phones are co-located, and Amex's Serve would handle the transaction. More than this, the investment in Payfone has a slightly tactical flavor because Amex could have invested instead in technology that didn't use cell phone network infrastructure...and hence it's a sign Amex knows it needs the networks on its side if it's to be a player in the upcoming market.
2011: The Year the Check-in Died
Let's look at Foursquare and Facebook. First, there's no doubt Foursquare is throwing off some impressive numbers (e.g. the company's recent announcement of 6 million users). It typically announces total, rather than active, users and that number is roughly growing linearly at present. Total users, by definition, of course, only goes up - yet according to compete.com, Web traffic has declined for five consecutive months, amounting to a 50% reduction in traffic over that period. And while traffic isn't the best indicator of usage, Web visits should be just as likely now as five months ago, and it's certainly not a positive sign of rapid growth in usage.
More details at the source..
All you ever wanted to know about Group-Buy in 10 infographics | Social Commerce Today
The Visual Bible to Daily Deals Services: How Do Daily Deals Sites Work and How Do They Make Profit? by DailyBits
Check out the source for 9 more infographics..
Five Ways to Fail at Design - Sohrab Vossoughi - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review
The truth is there's only so much designers can do on their own to make a company successfully innovative. Companies that misalign their expectations — and many do ignore their own part in becoming more innovative — generally fail. They genuinely want good design, and they want it to impact their bottom line, but they want it to take place externally. Their vision of design as a purely third-party service is doomed.
This misalignment expresses itself in many forms. Here are five of the most common ways to fail at design:
- Refuse to change any other part of your business. Treating design as an add-on can work when a company commissions a "designer series" of products to briefly boost the brand's appeal, but this is hardly what we mean when we talk about innovation saving your business. The smartest companies foster an internal culture of innovation, which creative consultants can support, but only if other aspects of the business — management, development, manufacturing, marketing — are open to change. More immediately, requiring a design team to propose only solutions that can be realized with your current process ensures more of the same.
- Design outside of your innovation space. Designers don't implement solutions, companies do. For that reason, the most innovative solution on earth won't work if it's pursued by a company that can't properly execute it. At Ziba we call this capability the client's "innovation space" — the arena in which they've already proven themselves willing and able to lead the pack. Some companies are technology innovators, others are product innovators or experience innovators. Learning which you are in order to direct later efforts is a crucial first step that most companies skip.
- Try to design for everybody. Design works as a differentiator because it responds to human needs, both functional and emotional. Most of us agree that a Ferrari is beautifully designed, but nobody would say it's for everyone. The same could be true of a minivan. Each succeeds in its market because it delivers to a tightly defined group of users. In a landscape where consumers increasingly demand tailored experiences, failing to identify a clear strategic target is designing to fail. The most useful tool a client can give a consultancy is a well-considered, focused profile of who they're designing for. The least useful is a mandate to create something that appeals to everyone.
- Insist on replicating another company's success. "We want to be the Apple of [insert industry]" might be the single most common request clients make of creative consultancies, and it's certainly one of the most damaging. Good design does more than just serve the needs of its audience, it does so in a way that's true to the company's purpose and values. An Apple-like experience delivered by a company that isn't Apple can't be sustained, because it's not backed up by Apple's culture and resources. The result is an inconsistent experience that feels disingenuous to customers, and shatters their loyalty. This is why "me too" innovation almost never works. Not only does it make you look like a copycat, it shows you don't care about your own brand enough to express it in your user experience.
- Compartmentalize design into isolated tasks. It's tempting to treat design as a menu of services, applying it here and there on bits of a project that need sprucing up. To a skeptical client this can feel economical and controlled, but it cripples the design effort by fragmentation. The best user experiences are integrative; they make sure that every touch point is consistent and logical, building trust from the user, and reinforcing the brand's character. Piecemeal design work creates an incoherent experience that users will ultimately reject.
6 steps for boosting online marketing relevance - iMediaConnection.com
First determine the relevance factors to analyze. There are six key factors of message relevance you should examine closely, and I rank them in the following order: lifecycle management, segmentation, personalization, contact management, interactivity, and testing and measurement. Analyzing your relevance across these six factors can help you distinguish areas of strength and weakness so that you can develop an action plan to improve the overall performance of your marketing campaigns. Six relevance factors are a lot to take on, so I recommend taking one at a time, starting with lifecycle management.
Check out the details at the source..
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
eBay Acquires Turkish Marketplace GittiGidiyor
eBay is announcing the acquisition of Turkish auction marketplace GittiGidiyor. The deal follows eBay’s acquisition of a minority stake in the company in 2007. With the new investment, eBay now owns approximately 93% of the outstanding shares of GittiGidiyor. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Launched in, 2001, GittiGidiyor has more than 6.4 million registered users. GittoGidyor is essentially an eBay clone, but localized for the Turkish market. The business also includes a mandatory escrow service for payments between buyer and seller. GittiGidyor’s largest categories are Fashion and Consumer Electronics. In addition to eBay, the company previously raised capital from iLab Ventures, founded and led by Mustafa E. Say.
eBay also believes that traffic and usage of the marketplace will increase, as Turkey is the world’s 12th largest market for Internet usage, and has a penetration rate of 45%.
Monday, April 11, 2011
How Kids Consume Media
Some key points:
- Kids consume a heck of a lot of media--and more all the time. Basically, if kids are awake, they're consuming media. And, increasingly, they're consuming multiple forms of media at the same time.
- Kids' print media consumption is tiny and falling.
- Kids' digital media consumption is going through the roof.
No big surprise there. What is a surprise is how little parents seem to care about this. (Or, alternatively, how much parents encourage this media consumption by consuming a huge amount of media themselves.)
- In 2/3 of households, TVs are on during meals
- In 75% of households, TVs are on when no one is watching them.
- More than 70% of kids have TVs in their bedrooms
- Only 1/3 of households have media-consumption rules
No surprise, more media is consumed in households in which TVs are always on, where there are no media consumption rules, and where kids have TVs in their bedrooms.
And, no surprise, kids who consume the most media get the worst grades (but is this cause or effect?)
It's a long presentation, but it's awesome.
Flip through the presentation here >
Friday, April 8, 2011
#NFC in 2011: U.S. #Bank Testing NFC in 20 Different Markets
NFC-Enabled Mobile Banking Apps
Also involved in the pilot program is payments processing provider FIS and the payments specialist Monitise, which the bank credited with the development of the mobile banking application. Actually, there are two mobile apps involved - one written for BlackBerry smartphones, while the other is an iPhone app. Both offer similar functionality, Venturo says.
Using the apps, customers can perform balance inquiries, pay their bills, see their transaction history, and even switch on or off the NFC functionality. The balance inquiry, specifically, is updated in real-time, reflecting the transactions that were just made at checkout.
Ironically, the on/off switch is provided to address customers' fears regarding this new technology's security, despite the fact that NFC, in truth, provides more security than the mag stripe standard used on credit cards today. That feature may or may not arrive in the commercial product, if one is to launch.
Once enabled, these mobile phones can be used anywhere Visa has its contactless payment terminals in place. Merchants accepting these transactions exist in locations that range from pharmacies to fast food restaurants and even some convenience stores.
How the System Works
Customers participating in the pilot program receive the microSD card or iPhone case in the mail at the same time as their new credit card arrives. Included in the package are instructions as to how to insert the chip into the phone (or use the case), plus how to enable and use the mobile application.
At point-of-sale, customers can switch on the NFC functionality within the mobile application (if it was not on already), then simply wave their phone in front of the Visa payWave terminal in order to complete the transaction.
So far, the testers have found the process easy. "We're really happy with the pilot program's progress," Venturo told us in March, while noting that U.S. Bank continues to refine the overall experience.
Article: Sharing Content to Show Thought Leadership
The main objectives of content curation, according to the survey, were establishing thought leadership and improving brand buzz.
Earlier research conducted by Junta42and MarketingProfs in May 2010 found that brand awareness was the top goal of content marketing for business-to-business marketers in North America, cited by 78% of respondents.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Google's #Android 'to take half of smartphone market by end of 2012' | Technology | guardian.co.uk
Samsung's Nexus S smartphone using Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Photograph: Albert Gea/ReutersAbout half of the world's smartphones will be using Google's Android operating system by the end of 2012, according to the research firm Gartner.
Google will lead the race with Apple, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) and Microsoft by the end of this year and take 49.2% of the market in 2012, Gartner forecast on Thursday.
Nokia's tie-up with Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7 operating system would also be a success, Gartner predicted, with a 19.5% share of the smartphone market by 2015 – leapfrogging its rivals to the number two spot. That finding concurs with forecasts from analysts IDC and Ovum.
Worldwide smartphone sales are expected to reach 468m units in 2011 – a 57.7% increase on 2010. The explosive growth in affordable smartphones will see annual sales top 1.1bn by 2015, Gartner said. Sales of PCs, by comparison, will reach 387m this year, a 10.5% increase on 2010, the research firm predicted last month .
comScore Launches Online Video Measurement Service in Turkey - comScore, Inc
Facebook Most Popular Online Video Destination in Turkey
Social networking site Facebook is not only among the leading web destinations in Turkey, but it also ranked as the most popular destination for online video with 17 million viewers in February 2011. During the month, viewers watched nearly 792 million videos on Facebook, for an average of 46.6 videos per viewer in February 2011. Google Sites ranked second, largely driven by viewers of YouTube videos, with 15.4 million unique viewers and 690 million videos watched during the month. Dailymotion.com ranked third with nearly 14.9 million unique viewers, followed by the largest Turkish platform Nokta Medya. More than 7 million Turkish internet users watched a total of 43.6 million online videos from Nokta.com.
*Rankings based on video properties; excludes video server networks. Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.
Top 10 Turkish Online Video Properties*
by Total Unique Viewers (000)
February 2011
Total Turkey, Age 15+ – Home & Work Locations**
Source: comScore Video Metrix
Property Total Unique Viewers(000) Videos (000) Total Internet : Total Audience 20,203 2,909,891 Facebook.com 16,990 791,846 Google Sites 15,390 690,194 Dailymotion.com 14,883 167,312 Nokta.com Medya 7,088 43,595 Mynet A.S. 6,755 37,049 Vidivodo.com 4,775 17,146 Yahoo! Sites 4,165 14,416 Timsah.com 3,017 11,751 Zapkolik.com 2,925 9,129 Haber365.com 2,674 15,783
**Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs
“Online video viewing has become an essential part of the digital consumer experience in Turkey with 9 out of 10 internet users consuming video content every month,” said Mike Read, senior vice president and managing director, comScore Europe. “Despite its high user penetration, online video remains a relatively nascent industry with continued growth potential as consumers begin to shift from primarily short-form user generated content to long-form professionally-produced content.”
Young Audience Shows Highest Engagement with Online Video
In February 2011, 89 percent of the Turkish online population consumed online video and watched an average of 144 videos per person totaling 14.8 hours of viewing time during the month. Online video engagement, however, showed significant differences by age and gender. Males between the ages of 15-24 viewed 200 videos each, accounting for an average of 20.8 hours of online video viewing during the month, while females in this age group viewed just 12 hours and watched 122.5 videos on average. Online video appealed least to females over 55 years of age, who only spent 8.4 hours watching 91.1 videos per viewer during the month.
Demographic Profile of Online Video Viewers in Turkey
February 2011
Total Turkey, Age 15+ – Home & Work Locations
Source: comScore Video Metrix
Target Audience Total Internet Videos per Viewer Hours per Viewer Total Audience 144.0 14.8 All Males 164.0 17.1 All Females 114.1 11.3 Males - Age Male: 15-24 200.2 20.8 Males: 25-34 159.5 17.0 Males: 35-44 128.0 12.7 Male: 45-54 120.7 12.5 Male: 55+ 102.1 11.6 Females - Age Female: 15-24 122.5 12.0 Females: 25-34 105.1 11.0 Females: 35-44 113.9 10.9 Female: 45-54 110.1 10.3 Female: 55+ 91.1 8.4