If you haven’t seen the flurry of conversations the past two days, let me be the one to tell you that Forrester has just released a very insightful report on the use of Location-based Services (LBS). Specifically, the use of applications such as Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt as a means for companies to engage and interact with consumers. LBS applications, as an emerging technology, has a lot of consumers (of the people surveyed 84% had never even heard of Foursquare, Gowalla, or Loopt) and brands wondering if it is technology that is all hype — not surprising since any new technology has a period of adoption while users determine it’s stickiness.
The report contains a lot of insightful information regarding the current fragmentation of the LBS application market — currently, consumers are having to choose between Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt — where even someone like me, who considers herself a hard-core user of LBS applications has a hard time knowing what each application offers that’s unique from the other. And we haven’t even seen the impact that Google could / will have on LBS applications.
Tagged as:
foursquare,
location-based services,
newsweek,
paco underhill,
social influence,
social marketing
I have shoes… and LOTS of them. In fact, there’s probably only one thing I love more than social media and that’s high heels. When it comes to shoes, the higher, the better; the more colorful and unique… the more I have to have them. And if you looked inside of my closet, you would know this to be true. Shoes come in all shapes and sizes, colors and varieties, and it’s essential that you find the right fit. Kind of like social media — giving you a unique identity (think Carrie Bradshaw!), putting a little skip in your step, and adding a little swank to your swagger. And, when have found that combination that fits you perfectly, you will indeed drive conversation. In fact, I have found a lot of commonalities between slipping on a pair of high heels and stepping into social media. Here’s what I’ve found:
Tagged as:
personal branding,
social marketing,
social media
Tom Bacon, VP Marketing, VTech, Taddy Hall, COO, Meteor Solutions (@meteorsolutions), and Steve Fowler, VP Strategy and Client Service, Ayzenberg Group, presented four steps to successfully monetize your “Social Media Graph.” Tom Bacon at VTech also shared a case study of VTech’s social media campaign targeted at music aficionados and illustrated with real-world examples about how the right strategy, content, and tactics can make your next social media campaign a huge success.
Discover your “social media graph” by identifying the influential brand advocates generating the most site traffic, the engaging content elements fueling word-of-mouth referrals, and where and how the referrals and link sharing are occurring. Follow these four steps when monetizing your social media graph:
- Research: Determine who the influential enthusiasts are, what content is driving the viral activity, and where the sharing is occurring.
Tagged as:
ana,
meteor solutions,
social graph,
social marketing,
vortech
Social media is a hot topic right now, so much so that many companies have found themselves reacting to the social media wave rather than riding it at the forefront. So it’s exciting and interesting when I hear about companies who have had the reputation of being luddites when it comes to digital trends have actually embraced social media with open arms.. most notably, Kodak. Having been highly criticized for its failure to gracefuly transform with emerging technology (think Kodachrome), Kodak has, for many years, struggled with communicating to the world that they are, indeed, a digital company.
Enter Kodak’s new social marketing model which introduced social media as a means to enhance its communication with consumers and the imaging community in general. Since implementing this new model, it has generated great results for Kodak, including positive viral buzz, a loyal and growing readership, industry success and recognition, and robust employee participation.
Tagged as:
convergence,
corporate marketing,
kodak,
ripcurl,
social marketing
