Just came across this article on Mashable that should make all marketers excited for Christmas this year…

Hasbro has just released a new edition of the classic monopoly game all around social media!

To read more about the game (and add it to your wish list), check it out on Mashable here: http://mashable.com/2010/08/09/social-media-monopoly/.

Back in October 2009, developers and smartphone enthusiasts were both ready for the debate over Flash to come to a close. At the MAX Conference, keynote speakers showed off the new Flash Player 10.1 for smartphones and finally a clear picture of how smartphones were going to create a better interactive experience for consumers was painted. Blackberry was on board and so were Palm, Google Android, Windows Mobile, webOS and Symbian.

“Singular experience, multiple devices” is the motto behind the Open Screen Project led by Adobe and other industry leaders, and it made perfect sense (if everyone agreed on the definitely of “open” that is). This project, which goals were to create a consistent runtime environment that would eliminate the barriers to publish content across multiple platforms, had tremendous support. For developers, this meant you could create a rich-media application that you would only have to build once. For marketers, this project would enable cross-platforms campaigns to thrive with minimal work and maximum results. Imagine… an interactive game or contest platform that could perform seamlessly across desktops, mobile phones, televisions, and many other consumer electronics.

As a consumer and marketer who has watched and listened to the industry support behind the Open Screen Project, it seems like this initiative solves one problem and creates another. Without a unified platform for rich media applications, the power lies in the hands of smartphone companies to dictate the level of creativity both marketers and developers can have. By creating a unified platform using Adobe Flash & Adobe Air however, the shift in power is only transferred from smartphone companies to Adobe.

“With a consistent and broadly adopted runtime, stakeholders can focus more closely on developing the next-generation experiences that will differentiate their devices, software, and services. Consumers ultimately win with richer, more interactive, and universal user experiences across devices…. The Adobe® Flash® Platform will provide the consistent runtime environment envisioned by Open Screen Project partners. This technology was chosen because it has the widest reach in the world across operating systems and devices, a community of more than one million developers, and leading authoring tools”. – Open Screen Project

This is why I think Steve Jobs’ letter to Adobe today makes sense. By joining the bandwagon and supporting Flash with the other smartphone companies, Apple would be giving up its control over the user experience its consumers on all iPhones, iPads, & iPods have. Instead, Apple chose to ban Flash from all of their products and decided to focus on HTML5 and other open-source programming languages. Now, you must build iPhone apps using the approved programming languages or not be allowed into the App store.

So the war rages on…

“Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven – they say we want to protect our App Store – but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true.” – Steve Jobs

What I like about the letter is that it points out some very obvious facts that were overlooked in the excitement to create a cross-platform interactive experience. One is that, Flash products are solely sold through Adobe (which means they control everything from future advancements, to pricing and distribution). Believers in the advancements of the web as a whole, cringe at this thought. Adobe argues that Apple isn’t playing fair by creating a product that isn’t “open”, but I think they should rethink how they are defining it themselves.

By adopting HTML5, CSS & Javascript, Apple has reconnected with developers worldwide and given them the power to develop advanced graphics, typography, animations and transitions without relying on plug-ins. This is extremely valuable and supports the growth of the web in a light, but incredibly powerful way.

As an interactive marketer, the thought of having endless content on the web in Flash is also a scary thought. Search engines still have trouble interpreting flash which causes major complications for SEO and the overall vision of the semantic web. By replying on advancements of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript however, the web continues to grow in the direction of being more connected and understood, but still allows the addition interactivity that is so desirable with Flash.

“We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.” – Steve Jobs

In conclusion, I think Apple’s decision was bold but incredibly smart. They point out over and over again that Flash was created during the PC area and has many technical complications when implemented on a touch screen device like the iPhone. I don’t even think there is an argument anymore that Flash is necessary to create rich media interactions either. (Right now there are over 200,000 apps in the App Store that prove it).

Just like everyone joined the Open Screen Project bandwagon, I bet the same will happen in the footsteps of Apple because it just makes sense. I also believe marketers must stop and take a look at these changes especially. Interactive campaigns and applications are now going to be possible without expensive Flash capabilities.

I suggest Adobe rethink its definition of “open” and follow the direction of where the web is going. Steve Job’s couldn’t say it any better…

“New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.” –Steve Jobs

[note: this blog post has been co-written by the authors Alan Belniak and Laura Vecchio, and posted on each of their blogs - http://www.SubjectivelySpeaking.net and http://www.LauraVecchio.com]

We recently had the pleasure of co-authoring and co-presenting a topic for a New England Direct Marketing Association (NEDMA) event about social media marketing. We titled it, ‘Social Media: What’s in It for You?’. The title was a bit of a double-entendre, but it wasn’t really a question from us to the audience, but rather a question the audience members, as marketers, should be asking their customers and prospects.

The goal of this presentation was to teach you that you need to listen before you can engage; and to engage and sustain a community in social media, you must have a purpose or a theme. In this presentation we present you with a variety of valuable tools that give you the ability to begin listening to the conversations happening about your brand. To find what your purpose is however, you must answer the question to Step 1: “Why would anyone want to be your friend”?.

We’ve embedded the slide deck below. You can watch it in place, and then head on over to SlideShare to download it if you like. There are lots of extra click-able tidbits in the notes section of the PowerPoint slides that will also make this a nice handy bit of reference material. You won’t get the full story of the presentation because you’re missing the talk track, but feel free to ping either of us if you have any questions about some of the content. Speaking of questions, we selected a few from the session that came up and provided answers below (scroll past the embedded SlideShare viewer for the questions and answers).

The direction Facebook is moving in is a dream for social marketers since the lines between the functionality of Facebook Pages and Profiles is becoming continuously blurred. Constantly we struggle to create a personality and relationship through the Facebook Pages of our clients in the same way we manage our own profiles with Friends. The ability for a Page to act like a Profile however, has limited the opportunity for companies to build deeper relationships with fans and customers on Facebook.

Today Facebook has announced that all users will see a change to their friend lists whereas “All Friends” will now be “All Connections”, and it will now be possible to add your favorite fan pages to these lists. To see what your new friend list looks, view your friends page. The possibilities for this functionality are endless. I’ve already started brainstorming creating a list of all my favorite bands with my core group of music-loving friends. Sorting this list in my news feed would allow me to stay on top of concerts, CD releases, and general music news. The best part is the mixture of bands and music lovers that would provide me with 360 degree view of the music industry.

Recently, I just created a list encompassing the people and groups I turn to for online marketing resources. This includes both professionals like Harry Gold and a great social media resource page created by Dell Small Business.

As I continue to build out this list more to include pages like Mashable and AdAge, I will be able to sort my news feed in a way that only shows the updates relating to online marketing for the day. This is comparable to the way TweetDeck gives you the ability to organize the way you see incoming tweets with groups, and also gives Facebook a feeling of a personal RSS reader. I use Google Reader to watch all the most recent news come in from the blogs I am following, but Facebook is now giving me a way to see not only that information, but also how my friends are reacting and responding at the same time.

As Pages continue to move more towards Profiles, the opportunity for online marketers is only going to grow. Social media has created this great potential for any size company to grow as close to their customers as a friend. This level of brand loyalty is priceless.

This post is also published at www.ovrdrv.com/blog.

Yola is going to take web design to the next level for small businesses and personal brands. For people or businesses who can’t afford to spend thousands on a website, Yola has given them a free solution to establish a stylish presence online.

Using drag-and-drop technology, this tool makes Web site development quick and easy. Yola allows users to include many different widgets such as YouTube videos and PayPal Shopping Cart in one place. Users can easily create advanced Web pages without any coding or programming. With drag-and-drop features, Yola makes building a page simple. Users also have the options of using Yola’s advanced features. There are no banner ads or pop-ups and the best part — users can do this all for a very small amount of money.

Yola has about 1.5 million registered users and continues to grow at a rate over 6000 new users a day. Yola has published 570,000 Web sites and that number also continues to grow. High competition comes from companies such as Weebly, Webs.com, Microsoft Office Live and Google.

The application operates as a “resource aggregation platform”, pulling together a variety of widgets from many different sources. The Yola client is browser based and developed in AJAX, PHP & Java but it will be just as though one is using a desktop applications. Some of the benefits of using a browser based tool are:
- Never needs to be installed, each time users use Yola they are using the most recent version
- Lower cost
- Yola can be used on any PC anywhere at anytime
- User data is always kept safe with piracy-proof security

Yola has taken a big step towards changing the internet game… what can they do to take it to the next level?

During my senior year at Bentley University, I had the opportunity to try and build my first iPhone application using trial software from a company called Servoy. This is an overview of my experience during the development of the application, as well as a perspective from a marketer’s stand point.

Development Process

The development process of building an iPhone application with the Servoy software provided was quite lengthy and tedious. It was very draining as the builder of the application to have to download multiple files and applications before any sort of building could begin. Each program file that had to be downloaded was very large and took a long time to download onto the computer. Throughout the download process, I questioned whether all of this could be avoided if the software was built as a SaaS online. In this way, building and creating could be done right through a browser without wasting any memory space on your computer.

It took me about three hours of uninstalling and reinstalling software to finally get everything I needed set up. The most frustrating part of this process was that the database needed to build an iphone application wasn’t already installed in the Servoy system. Since I am familiar with Java and have worked on the Eclipse program before, I was about to get everything configured by playing around. After this problem was resolved, the rest of the steps actually building the application went by very quickly. The only drawback to the system in my eyes was that you weren’t able to edit the database of “employees” outside Servoy in order to customize it to yourself. I would have enjoyed downloaded the file it was pulling from into excel and uploading my own contacts. In this way, once the application was completed I would have been more likely to try and get it installed on my own personally iphone, or have it sent to a friends.

Marketer Perspective
From a marketer’s perspective iPhone applications can allow a company to brand itself while also establishing a way for a consumer to interact with that brand each and every day. Most applications that have become very popular through the iPhone store are the most basic applications that have met some type of need for the consumer. Even though I had slight frustrations building my first iPhone application, I am positive the development fees that go into creating one for a corporate brand are far outweighed by the amount of consumer interaction they establish after.

Unlike an advertisement that consumers walk by and quickly glance at, a branded iPhone application is something the user has sought out, downloaded, and interacts with on a regular basis. It serves as a platform for brands to mash together entertainment and their own personally message. Overall you want the application to serve some kind of need for the user, but be branded enough that they know who is providing the service to them. The problem for marketers however is how to make yourself stand out in the over-crowed application world right now. There are hundreds of new applications coming out each week, most of which are free; this makes it extremely difficult to get yours seen and used.

As a consumer engaging in the online community Facebook, the main need fulfilled by the network is a social connectivity one. This online meeting place allows users to access their friends instantly from anywhere in the world that has a computer and internet access. By becoming friends with people on Facebook you are slowly weaving together your own personal social web which defines who you are. This web has significant value since its easily accessible, breaks down geographic barriers, and connects people that wouldn’t normally be connected.

USER BENEFITS
In the past, before the internet and social networks, if you wanted to stay in contact with someone you were required to either make a phone call to them or set up a time and place to meet. This took substantial effort on the part of the people involved since it could take anywhere from five minutes to two hours out of their day. The people you took the time to do this for held a significant value in your life. With the advent of online social communities like Facebook, you have the ability to maintain those same relationships, but in a quicker and easier fashion. Instead of making a phone call to a friend, you can leave a message on their Facebook Wall or sending them a private message right through the Facebook platform. Since this is a one way interaction, that doesn’t require the user on the other line to pick up the phone, it can be done quick and easy while still fulfilling that need to connect with someone else. That person then has the option to continuing the communication through leaving a message on your Facebook Wall, etc.

This ease of communication allows you to stay connected with the people you would go out of your way for in the past, while also giving you the ability to connect with people couldn’t. Before the internet, most people had a select group of friends they had the time and ability to stay connected with after high school or college. Now, with all of these friends in one common space on Facebook, you are able to stay updated on what is occurring in the everyday lives of many more people.

This also fulfills another basic need for me as I was browsing and using Facebook; one of curiosity and entertainment. In an unspoken way, Facebook gives you the ability to watch a reality TV show of all your friends from the comfort of your own computer chair. You can sit back and watch as friends upload photos, leave messages on other friend’s walls, and even build their personality through adding fan pages and applications. Without ever having direct communication with one of your friends, you can still uncover every waking detail of their life. This was so satisfying for me because I did not have to spend time asking my friends what they were doing in the real world, I could watch the events play out and interpret them anyway I wanted to.

Another basic need Facebook fulfilled for me was a feeling of creating and building my personality. The social network gives you the ability to define yourself through pictures, friends, applications, and fan pages. No two Facebook profiles were alike. This was very important to me as I used the site because I was able to create the image I wanted online in the same way I would wear certain clothes or listen to certain music offline. The applications I added and the pictures I uploaded created “me” but also had a certain social element involved also. You had the able to share and connect with your friends with applications and photos also. For example, using the bumper stick application I was able to display certain images that were meaningful to me on my profile while also sending ones resembled a memory to my friends to display. This is where Facebook shows its most valuable asset to the consumer, its ability to create personality online while socially connecting and sharing in a simultaneous fashion.

MARKETING PERSPECTIVE

When I had the opportunity to be a part of the Facebook community as a marketer however, the entire experience had changed. As a marketer I felt like a sales person trying to set up an in-home demonstration of my product. I also felt like I was barging into a private college party or a family function that I was not invited to. It became very clear right from the start this wasn’t going to be like any other marketing campaign.

Unlike creating a TV ad or handing out flyers at a local town square, Facebook has created digital space that only the people you grant access to your social web are allowed. As a marketer roaming the spaces of consumers, you are met with all different types of privacy barriers that take away the traditional public freedom the advertising world is used to.

Instead the traditional vertical communication channel a marketing message used to travel to get to the consumer, in order to reach them on Facebook you must create a brand image the consumer desires to make a part of their digital personality. The vertical channel is broken and the power is now in the hands of the consumer to reach out towards the marketer instead. Just like a consumer purchases and wears brand name clothes they associate themselves with, on Facebook they have the option to become a Fan of specific brand pages. This action puts an icon and description of that Fan Page on the user’s profile page signifying another element of their personality while associating with a product or service.

Unlike in the past, consumers now can connect with companies and brands in the same way they socialize online with their friends. I can see why many marketers would be scared of this situation since they are no longer able to hide behind a company website or unanswered telephone lines to hear concerns and comments from their customers. You can now publically announce your problems with a product or service through Facebook in which it appears right on the company’s Fan Page. Transparency is now a reality for these brands and the ones not scared to communicate and engage will be successful in assimilated themselves as another “friend” to consumers on social networks.

Having your company or brand be considered as a friend to a consumer requires that brand to communicate on a much more personal level that an advertisement on a billboard couldn’t. As a marketer, you must now listen and sincerely care what is being written on your Facebook Wall before even considering asking the consumer to listen to you. These is now a two-way communication flow between the marketers of products and services in the consumers that buy them. This flow has an immeasurable value if handled with care. As long as the consumer feels a part of the brand and sees they are being listening to, a level of trust will continue to grow. If for any reason the brand abuses this friendship, all communication will be closed and the brand will lose that potential lifetime customer. Marketing is still a major business function, but now measurable and growth can be analyzed through the strength of relationships with the “friends” of the brand, not the number of people who see an ad.

Facebook is a powerful communication platform for both companies and consumers, but it is very clear Facebook’s strategy is to first satisfy the consumers. When I had the opportunity to manage a company fan page, I noticed how poorly Facebook supports these marketers. My biggest problem with the platform is the rule that a real “person” must create a company page. You are not allowed to have a company login, rather if you manage a company page like this you are doing it in the same space you communicate with the rest of your social web. I felt this was a major error on Facebook’s part since it made the company presence highly difficult to manage. When I was working in the space as an admin of the company page, I never knew if I was me or the company as I viewed pictures and made changes. Also, unless I was personally friends with all of the fans of the company page, I was not able to view their profile.

This is a major marketing disadvantage that I was solve by giving companies a separate login that would also allow them to carry the identity as a “company” while they networking and socialized on Facebook. If a consumer is going out of their way to reach out to the company to be one of its fans, the company should have the same ability to reach out to them as a way to show their gratitude. I would be more than thrilled if the company I am a fan of, Killington Mountain, saw my status that I was going skiing for the weekend and reached out to me with discounts, etc. This open communication would have to be agreed upon by the consumer, but if it is, I don’t see why it should not be allowed. Hopefully as social networks become more comfortable sources of communication between brands and consumers, networks like Facebook will put platforms and applications in place to help them succeed.

(This post was originally written while I was a student at Bentley University)

All marketers who advertise on Facebook breathed a sigh of relief when the social networking giant announced it has upgraded its analytics and reporting of ads on the site. To ensure you better understand how your ads are performing, Facebook announced three new Insights: Responder Demographics, Responder Profiles, and Advertising Performance. All three reports can be exported from Facebook into an Excel document or as Comma Separated Values.

The Responder Demographics report is a very valuable tool for marketers since it allows you to analyze exactly who is interacting with your ads. If a person clicks on your ad, you will be able to track their age, gender and geographic location. This knowledge could allow you to further target your ad to specific demographic groups that tend to be more interested in your product or service.

The Responder Profiles report extends the demographic analysis further by allowing marketers to gather common interests, favorite TV shows, movies, books and music of the users who clicked on their ad. This is a powerful marketing tool that will allow companies to strategically align traditional marketing efforts with consumers’ psychographic wants and needs. In the past, this information could only be obtained through surveys and/or focus groups. Now, with a single click, you will be inside the minds of your most loyal customers, at a fraction of the cost.

The Advertising Performance report is similar to the report that already exists in Facebook’s platform with a few additional upgrades. Previously, marketers were able to export and view common metrics such as impressions, clicks and click-through-rates for their ads, but now you will also be able to view performance data by unique user and performance data specific to your ads that contain social actions.

Hopefully news tools like this added by networking sites will ease the hesitation of companies to integrate Web 2.0 into their existing marketing campaign. Even though many companies are seeing the results gained by powerful social media campaigns, 80% of marketing executives are still behind the learning curve.