Great article from Augie Ray from Forrester report. The article describes and shares recommendations about three types of online influencers: Social Broadcasters, Mass Influencers and Potential Influencers. Each of the three types of influencer is important to marketers, and each must be engaged in a different manner. Social Broadcasters are appealing because of their large followings, but they tend to assist more with awareness than with preference. Mass Influencers is a new category of influencer–28 million in number in the U.S. alone–created thanks to the scale afforded consumers by social media tools. Finally, the vast majority of social media participants are Potential Influencers, people who have modest networks rich with trust.
Google unveiled a marketplace of business software to help to spur the adoption of its own suite of productivity applications. The Google Apps Marketplace offers products and services designed for Google users, including installable apps that integrate directly with Google Apps. Installable apps are easy to use because they include single sign-on, Google’s universal navigation, and some even include features that integrate with your domain’s data.
As the world awaits the official unveiling of the highly anticipated iPhone 4G sometime later this year, talented photoshop artists are having a jolly good time dishing out concepts of what they think should the next generation iPhone should end up looking like.
While we pass on most of them with a sly grin, this particular version – a very detailed one designed by an Italian iPhone fan is a pure work of art. The concept and the detailing is sure to leave you mesmerized and for once, you might just wish Apple ends up with something like this when the new iPhone eventually arrives. (more…)
Individual stats like Facebook passing the 400 million user mark, Twitter hitting 50 million tweets per day, and YouTube viewers watching 1 billion videos per day are impressive on their own, but what if we looked at Internet-related stats collectively? Jesse Thomas did just that in his video State of the Internet.
The video — created and animated by Thomas with data from multiple sources — highlights some remarkable figures and visually depicts the Internet as we know it today. It’s a must-watch video for anyone trying to wrap their minds around just how immersed web technologies have become in our everyday lives.
Reading books has just got social. Social media that is. Having just done a search on social media books at Waterstones I found that they were 529 books with social media in the title. Examples include The social media bible and Social media goes corporate. If we take a moment and think about what the landscape was like a few years ago one could argue that most of the books would not have anything to do with social media.
However, in today’s ever changing world, business has now become social. The big boys are now playing with the street kids and the street kids being the people who are actually interacting on the ground level in terms of what’s going on in the market. And the big boys ie. the corporates are now having to get involved in the game and the only way to to keep up with what’s going on is to mix it up with the street kids whether they want to or not.
Want to keep thinking up great ideas? Research has found that by controlling factors in your life, living to 100 is actually much more possible than previously thought. In total, the US has the most centenarians with current estimates as high as 72,000, leading website The Centenarian states. In fact, if the population of centenarians continues to increase at its current rate of expansion, there could be close to one million people of 100 years of age or more by 2050 residing in the US. (more…)
The Pareto principle, more commonly known as the 80/20 rule, is the idea that roughly 80 percent of activity will be accounted for by 20 percent of the participants. Vilfredo Pareto’s initial observation at the start of the 20th century, that 80 percent of Italy’s land was owned by 20 percent of the population, has become a common rule of thumb in business, but does it hold up when tracking activity for the U.K.’s most popular social networks?
As we come to the end of our 2nd month of the new decade it will be interesting to look at which brands will stand out from the rest at the end of the year. When searching for great brands I came acrossadslogans who suggested that the following brands were good enough to enter the 2000 Advertising Slogan Hall of fame.
“We try Harder” – Avis”
“Go to work on an egg” Eggs marketing board
“Guinness is good for you.” Guinness
“Don’t be vague. Ask for Haig.” Haig Scotch Whisky
Brandalism is a Portmanteau and has many definitions. The Urban Dictionarydefines it as the creeping corporatisation of schools, libraries and other public buildings, which are gradually being daubed with company logos and slogans. Coined by graffiti artist Banksy, and expounded on in his book “Wall and Piece”
However there was an earlier citation by —Gareth Branwyn, “Jargon Watch, Wired, February 1999 who defines Brandalism as the increased “defacing” of schools, libraries, and other public spaces with logos, advertisements, and corporate slogans.
Interesting talk about how advertising adds value to a product by changing our perception, rather than the product itself. Rory Sutherland makes the daring assertion that a change in perceived value can be just as satisfying as what we consider real value — and his conclusion has interesting consequences for how we look at life.
If I sell you something, we exchange items of value. You give me money, I give you stuff, or a service. The deal is done. We’re even. Even steven, in fact.
That’s fine, but it doesn’t explain potlatch or the mystery of art or the power of a gift.
If I give you something, or way more than you paid for, an imbalance is created. That imbalance must be resolved.
Perhaps we resolve it, as the ancient Native Americans did, by acknowledging the power of the giver. In the Pacific Northwest a powerful chief would engage in potlatch, giving away everything he owned as a sign of his wealth and power. Since he had more to give away, and the power to get more, the gifts carried real power, and others had to accept his power in order to engage. (more…)
A new study has found that the phrase “bored to death” may be true for some people. A study of 7,000 government employees between the ages of 35 to 55 found that those who reported being chronically bored at work were more likely to die than those who were not always bored. But researchers say that boredom itself isn’t the problem. Instead, it seems bored people are more likely to engage in health-damaging behaviors such as alcohol, drug use, or overeating.
Chinese New Year or Spring Festival which is on February 14th is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in the Lunar Calendar. The origin of (more…)
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