Tag Strategy

Entries 20 Total

The Real Cost of Social Media

May 23, ’11 6:44 PM

I am so glad the folks at Focus.com have aggregated some data and shed some light on the reality of social media marketing. While the benefits of social amplification can help catalyze your brand’s intentions, it’s hardly a build-it-and-they-will-come approach. The best social efforts include, well, effort — in often overlooked roles of strategy and community management.

The figures will vary from campaigns to platforms and clients but the principles presented here are key. Remember, ROI is return on investment and investing properly requires investing in the right things over the appropriate time period.

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Democratizing Innovation

Jan 23, ’11 11:37 PM

Whenever you hear or read about innovation, it usually refers to some technical development that results in a product that is usually cheaper, faster or better than the incumbent. Disruptive innovation occurs when something much cheaper and usually initially lower quality, comes into the low end of the market as an alternative to more capable, but more expensive options. When MP3s first hit the market, everyone scoffed because the sound quality was inferior to CDs. But over time, the advantages in portability, distribution, size and increases in quality have turned MP3 into the new standard for music. In a similar vein, digital photography was once the poor cousin to its analog predecessors, but within a few years, digital imaging progressed to a point where it is superior in every way that matters. So it’s clear how disruptive innovation works for products. But what about services?

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Open Your Business Model

Jan 22, ’11 9:48 PM

How valuable is an open business model, with an open API and an entrepreneurial mindset? Take a look at this Twitterverse graphic by Brian Solis. There are hundreds of companies that have built startups around Twitter, in 19 different categories spanning mobile applications to social CRM to search to geolocation. Suffice it to say, there is a significant halo around open products like Twitter and Facebook, growing the value of the service exponentially. This allows the core company to focus on platform, what it does best.

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The Netflix Trojan Horse

Jan 5, ’11 1:05 AM

It’s no secret that Netflix is moving up the value chain. Seeing the need to evolve away from a DVD-mail based business model, they’ve become the Apple of the streaming movie business, accounting for 20% of web traffic during prime time hours. They have quickly become the standard platform — and strong selling point – for any streaming media device, including AppleTV, Roku, Boxee and others. Netflix has also developed applications for nearly all mobile devices, so you can stream from device to device.

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Social Media for Social Change

Oct 29, ’10 9:33 AM

Social Media for Social Change

(Image: Fighting at the Hotel de Ville, 28th July 1830, 1833 (oil on canvas), Schnetz, Jean Victor)

It’s mid-term election season in the U.S. and there’s been a lot of talk lately about whether or not social media can lead to offline social change. Malcolm Gladwell began when he stirred things up claiming online connections were not a substitute for real life relationships and that significant social change could never be an outcome from online social interaction. He pointed to the mass influx of Tweets about the Iranian election protests and the relatively minimal impact they had in changing the situation. Taking a contrarian view, this generated an onslaught of rebuttals here, here, here and here. Suffice it to say, the issue isn’t cut and dry.

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