Tech and Social
Amazon keeps steamrolling ahead with the launch of Fire TV. As an Apple TV user, I’m really interested in the early reviews of Fire TV. It will also be interesting to see how quickly Amazon rolls out original programming. We know that’s happening, right? 20 million Prime members, TV that knows what you like and predicts things based on data. Oh, and Amazon having that data about you, coupled with what they already know based on your buying habits. Want to know more? This is a great read from ReadWrite, Amazon Fire: TV Meet Amazon’s Plan to Take Over Your Television.
It’s no secret that I’m a LinkedIn lover and Jamie Turner’s post on a new tool he’s discovered got my attention right away. Do yourself a favor and check out Grapevine6, and the full overview in Jamie’s post: The One Tool You Need to Make LinkedIn Work.
Twitter (finally) lets you search by date using Advanced Search. Seriously – why did this have to take so long?
I wrote about Facebook’s dwindling reach this week and there was some great discussion that happened as a result, both on LinkedIn and on Facebook, where I also shared it. Maybe you’ll enjoy the post as much as others did – and if you get a chance to read it, I’d love your thoughts. Facebook’s Dwinding Reach: Stop Whining, Think Differently
Speaking of Facebook, a snarky comment by Brandon McCormick, Facebook’s Director of Global Comms/Monetization has brands and marketers up in arms. In a nutshell, Brandon said that Facebook doesn’t care about your branded content, news and baby pictures are what the social network (and users) really care about. Kind of a dick move, which isn’t winning Facebook any friends among the ad community. Funny, you’d think the global director of monetization for a social network would realize that it’s often ad agencies and brands who are PAYING for advertising. You can read more about it at AdAge: Facebook Exec Snarkily Confirms Brands’ Big Fear: Their Content Isn’t Important.
full text via Digiday
Marketing
CMOs today are responsible for much more than just crafting marketing messages – now they’re responsible for driving revenue, too. No surprises here, but nice to see data backing this up. The job of a CMO has gotten increasingly complex and now the biggest challenge is not only staying current on all the things you need to know, connect and analyze, but also having the budget and the staff to make those things happen. MediaPost: Salesforce Study Says CMOs Are Driving Revenue.
Millennials and Loyalty? Millennials are definitely brand loyal. The question there is: what compels them to be loyal and how long can you count on that? Marketers need to rethink everything when it comes to loyalty and courting Millennials. Think: constantly moving target. A good read from MediaPost, citing Pew data.
Want people to believe your product or service is really awesome? Focus less on producing branded content (a/k/a marketing messages) and more on garnering third party (“expert”) content and reviews. This confirms the importance of PR, delivering great customer service and figuring out ways to convince customers to leave reviews. Digiday: The Truth About Branded Content’s Credibility.
A Deutsche Bank study finds that users barely even notice Twitter ads while research from Forrester (and a great post by Augie Ray) finds that customers don’t trust what brands share in the social media space. When you think about this, is this at all surprising? Not to me, given that what I see most brands doing in the social space is focusing on brand-centric messaging. How in the world would anyone ever expect people to trust that crap? Augie’s post is definitely worth a read: What if Everything You Know About Social Media Marketing is Wrong?
Random Interesting Stuff
Google’s updated privacy policy affects a ton of iPhone users – and allows Google access to TONS of data from those users. And Google is, most definitely, in the data business. Will anyone care? This will be interesting to watch, as ease of use and convenience for users butts up against privacy. Love this piece from Quartz: Google’s Sneaky New Privacy Change Affects 85% of iPhone Users But Most of Them Won’t Have Noticed.
Uber and Lyft: The battle between the two taxi alternatives predicted to be won by whomever develops the best algorithm. I’m still freaked out about safety issues posed for women riders based on some of the stories I’ve read, especially this one from The Daily Beast: Are You Safe in Your Uber? What’s your take on the future of opting out of traditional taxis and into these services?
Best Video on the Interwebs This Week
I find the most awesome content and I’m not really sure how. But this video, of a Speedo-wearing man participating in an exercise class, well, it won the Internet for me this week. Perhaps you’ll enjoy it as much as I did. I would so loved to have been in this class – but I’m pretty sure that if I had been, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything but just crack up and try not to pee my pants.
