Category Archives: Emerging Media
July 11, 2011
Google is My +1
After a few rounds of invite begging, invite suspension, resumed invite begging and finally invite reception, I have joined the excited wash of Google+ adoptees. I’m building circles and linking in my Picasa photos and other assorted Googleware like a good Google-ite should.
But once I got through with the initial stages of the experience –“It’s shiny! It’s new! Must. Click. Everything!” – the resounding feeling I was left with was mostly … now what?
Most of my “friends” (beyond the early adopters and the thinkgeek.com set) aren’t yet on Google+ so it’s hard to get a grasp on how rich the experience will be. It’s got a nice, clean look, and feels fairly intuitive, but will it really be able to unseat the mighty Zuckerberg?
Posted in Emerging Media
Tagged Facebook, Google, social networks
June 2, 2011
Mobile Marketing Is a Necessity, Especially for Luxury Brands
The penetration of smartphones and other mobile devices, such as tablets, into the affluent consumer market offers luxury brands ideal platforms to target, communicate and engage with customers and prospects. And with roughly 61 percent of the wealthiest Americans owning a smartphone (those making over $330,000 in annual household income), luxury brands who haven’t optimized their websites for mobile devices are sorely remiss. Mobile optimized websites should be the cost of entry for luxury brands, particularly retail brands. Amazingly, they are not, as Chanel, for example, is the only brand among Dior, Louis Vuitton, Hermes and Gucci to offer an optimized web presence as of early May).
Posted in Emerging Media
Tagged luxury brands, mobile applications, mobile devices, mobile marketing, smartphones
January 13, 2011
Social Media Helps Bargain Hunters Shop, Save and Share
In the coming year, I will have my eye on the evolution of the retail discount. The traditional coupon clip has been transformed by shopping apps and social media. As an admitted bargain hunter, I’m glad to see deal-seeking become posh again.
With the growing popularity of online social networks, where consumers “like” and follow brands as readily as they do friends and pop stars (see Media Logic’s 2010 Retail Marketing Report), the buying experience has become truly interactive and is likely to grow even more so.
October 14, 2010
Even the iSommelier Can’t Share… Yet
Innovative applications for Apple’s iPad have got us thinking about how to tap their social marketing potential.
September 16, 2010
Checking Out Why We Check-In
Location-based social networking has gotten a lot of buzz lately, particularly with the recent launch of Facebook Places. These services offer fun and entertainment to users. And with Foursquare alone reporting 2 million users, they offer a lot of potential for marketers…
August 16, 2010
Pimp My App…and Yourself?
Earlier this month, Fox announced the first-ever “Pimp My App” contest, challenging app developers to “the coolest, groundbreaking, mind-bending app for the Fox hit show “Fringe” and pocket a cool 10 large along the way”. While user-generated content (UGC) and consumer-generated advertising (CGA) is nothing new, application development is. It’s the first “you do it for us” application developer contest that pays above-and-beyond the exposure the end product may deliver and the only one to be promoted on a broad scale.
August 5, 2010
Video Review: The Amazing Flipboard Demonstrates the Power of Design as it Revolutionizes Social Media
Media Logic’s Ronald Ladouceur offers this review of Flipboard, the new iPad only app that (among many other really cool things) turns a common Twitter stream or list into a totally customizable, relevant and useful interactive magazine. Does Flipboard represent the next peak in the social media revolution? Maybe. It certainly confirms the power of design and layout to add value to content.
June 8, 2010
Social Media Training for…Kindergartners?
Togetherville is a new online social network aimed at kids aged 6 to 10. The basic premise is that kids, with their parents’ help, can set up their own online neighborhood with friends and relatives and develop “a whole new set of skills to become responsible digital citizens.” Kids can post their own status from a pre-approved list created by the makers of Togetherville, buy digital gifts for their friends at the kid-friendly price of 25-50 cents, and use various online apps to create art, play games, watch videos, and send messages to their friends. Mom and dad can see everything that happens, and as members of their child’s community even have the dubious pleasure of tapping into the Hanna Montana and Justin Beiber videos, movie clips and other sponsored video content found throughout the site.
It was the buzz in the agency last week, as various people weighed in on its value to parents, kids and marketers (eek!).
The big question was this: Do kids really need a training ground for social networking?
April 22, 2010
Celebrating the Power of Social Media at Foursquare Day
Back in January, I wrote my first App Spotlight blog post here on Logical Juice, about Foursquare. Since then it has become one of the most popular apps available across all mobile platforms, and is now only days away from hitting the 1 million registered users mark.
The popularity of the app gave rise to last week’s first annual Foursquare Day, the first globally recognized grass-roots celebration of the power of social media…
And I was lucky enough to have received an invitation to join in the festivities.
March 17, 2010
App Spotlight: Two Hundred Sides to Every Tweet
In our increasingly smartphone-entrenched world, the mobile application extensions of our social networking-entangled lives can make or break a user experience. Twitter as a network depends on the user development of mobile and desktop applications to keep participation thriving. In some cases, app developers attempt to provide a seamless brand experience between the desktop and mobile world, while often the very best apps focus primarily on the screen for which they are developed. For mobile Twitter users, custom design for ease of use is paramount. Beyond the individual, an organization’s conversation managers need to be properly equipped, connected and ready to go.
No matter the platform, there are literally dozens of apps to choose from, making it a painful finger stroll through any given app store. To make things a bit easier for you, we’ve compiled some of our thoughts on a few of the Twitter apps currently available.
Posted in Emerging Media, How to Go Social, Social Marketing
Tagged Android, HootSuite, iPhone, mobile applications, mobile apps, Seesmic, smartphones, social media, Twee, TweetDeck, Tweetie, Twitdroid, Twitter, Twitterrific, WebOS