The Future of Mobile

So I just found this interesting presentation on the Future of Mobile showing the current and expected growth of the smart phone & tablet market. It seems to me that while the tablet & smart phone segment was considered somewhat of a niche for many years, that the market has expanded significantly in recent years, to the point where any company looking to succeed in e-commerce should consider mobile devices.

This article further draws on examples of smart phone applications including “Angry Birds” and “Draw Something” which have gone viral.

This makes me wonder…

and further.  If so what have you purchased? What was the experience like? If not, what’s holding you back?

Kony 2012 Campaign Summary

We are connected to one another through our social networks. This is changing the world. “The Game has new rules”

Jacob is introduced as a child in Uganda who was impacted by the LRA. The LRA killed his brother.

Joseph Kony

Joseph Kony International Criminal

Joseph Kony, a war criminal, is the head of the LRA.

Jason made a promise to help Jacob that he would help stop the LRA & its leader, Joseph Kony. His mission in the video is to do so in 2012.

Gavin is Introduced to Jacob and Joseph Kony

The Kony2012 Campaign targets high profile influencers including US Policymakers and Culturemakers.

The Deadline for the Kony Campaign is December 31, 2012.

April 20, 2012 People will “Cover the Night”. Making Kony Famous.

Kony2012 Action Kits can be purchased.

Kony2012 Bracelets to Share

The Power of Social Media – Kony 2012

Kony 2012 is a 30 minute long film by Invisible Children designed to support the Charity’s ‘Stop Kony‘ movement. The film describes Joseph Kony who ordered the abduction of children to become child-sex slaves and an estimated 66,000 child soldiers. Kony was also responsible for the displacement of some 2 million Ugandans.  The video describes the experience of one such Ugandan who led the director, Jason Russell, to found Invisible Children, and ultimately articulate a plan to capture Kony.

The campaign seeks to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest. To do so it seeks to leverage the influence of 20 “celebrity culture makers” and  12 “policy makers” to achieve its two stated objectives.

1) That Joseph Kony is known as the World’s Worst War Criminal.

2) That U.S. and international efforts to stop Kony are bolstered with a more comprehensive strategy for disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR).

Users can conveniently tweet predefined twitter messages to culture/policy makers from the official Stop Kony website.

Twitter Messages Targeting Celebrity/Policy makers for Kony 2012

Kony 2012 Trailer

Full Length Kony 2012 Video

Here are just a few of the social media platforms used in the campaign.

Twitter Messages Targeting Celebrity/Policy makers for Kony 2012

Some of the criticism surrounding the Stop Kony video is that it draws attention away other needy causes. Many in Northern Uganda also reacted in anger against the video, accusing the film maker of arrogance and oversimplification.  While others claim it is self serving & opportunistic.

While I wouldn’t disagree with the criticism I would sooner look at it as an opportunity to learn what the campaign did so effectively to mobilize the masses. The campaign shows that to go viral it doesn’t need to cost a fortune or rely on expensive traditional media.

Users can watch the video on Youtube, Vimeo,  or the official website. The website itself was designed with the user experience in mind. It doesn’t require a lot of clicking to navigate through the website and has a clear call to action. The campaign then leverages multiple social media platforms to target key influencers who raise awareness of the campaign amongst their legions and drive traffic back to the video.

Joseph Kony 2012 film passes 100 million views making viral video history!

Kony 2012 by Invisible children

The Psychology of Social Commerce

I’ve recently read that Psychologists have identified six elements that influence social shoppers, these include;

1. Social proof (what are others doing?)
2. Authority (reviews and expertise)
3. Scarcity (less is more)
4. Like (emulate the people that you like)
5. Consistency (stick with brands you trust)
6. Reciprocity (pay it forward)

 

 

Twitter Hits 500 Million Users

While it’s still unconfirmed rumor has it that Twitter reached 500 million users last week.  With an annual revenue of around $140 million for 2011 some reports suggest that Twitter may grow beyond the billion dollar mark in the next five years.  With that being said any estimate on where a tech company will be in five years should be taken with a grain of salt.

This news makes me wonder how twitter will monetize & create new revenue streams beyond its current promoted tweets/trends/accounts. In doing so will it alienate its users and create an opportunity for a competitor?

 

Facebook seems to be willing to take multiple risks in changing the user interface to accommodate greater real estate dedicated to ad space. How can twitter innovate and increase its value proposition to offset any negatives that may be associated with monetizing?  Only time will tell…

Ottawa

Skating on the Rideau canal.

Target!

This is a great article on how Target is tracking & using data on its customers to make a more personalized sales experience. Even more interesting is how they balance random product offerings with highly targeted offerings to make it seem random.

Social Media Making Brands Accountable

The interactive nature of social media forces brand managers to take an active role in ensuring customer feedback is addressed quickly and damage to the brand is minimized should problems occur.

PR Nightmare

The E Commerce customer life cycle and measuring campaign effectiveness

The customer life cycle for an Ecommerce Operation

An effective integrated marketing communications campaign communicates the desired message with a single, unified, clear and compelling voice with the chosen marketing communication tools (Advertising, Sales Promotion, Public Relations,  Direct Marketing, Personal Selling).

One of the benefits of online advertising is the ability to measure and track the behavior of those exposed to the message. With the appropriate metrics one can track the effectiveness of the campaign, analyze the online customer life cycle,  and identify opportunities to make  improvements.

Once an online ad campaign has been established (see Google AdWords or Microsoft AdCenter) the advertiser can begin to track the behavior of potential customers as they relate to the customer life cycle.

The diagram above shows that reach is the number of exposures (impressions) your ad has.  This is often measured in cost per thousand, or cost per mille (CPM).   Once a potential customer has been exposed to your message they can proceed to the acquisition stage, taking action and clicking on your ad.  Acquisition is measured in cost per click (CPC).

Moving from an exposure (impression) to acquisition is somewhat of an art, perfected over time through trial and error.  A good call to action helps!  A strong call to Action might include;

• See More!
• Join Now!
• Free Shipping!

An advertiser should make a conscious effort to avoid unsavory terms with negative connotations like Cheap!

A successful AdWords  campaign will find niche long tail keywords ( “Jewelry” vs. “Silver Journey Pendant”)  which are often less popular and more affordable, often combined with deep seeding to customized highly targeted landing pages to get customers to the content they’re searching for in the fewest clicks possible.

Note: If you have a high bounce rate it means you’re doing something wrong (it’s called abandonment) because your would be customers are leaving you as soon as they land on your website. This is costing you money so you should fix it! Try better targeting or fix your landing pages.

Moving on we have conversion, if you got to this point it means you’ve done something right at least once, so congratulations! You’ve  elicited the desired behavior, whether it be downloading a White Paper, creating an account, or making a purchase.  This is measured in cost per acquisition (CPA).

If all goes according to plan you should work towards increasing the retention of your customers as it’s more cost-effective to maintain a customer than to pay to acquire new ones. If you fail, which you might, you’ll need to step up your marketing efforts to reactivate them. (consider promotions, newsletters, etc.).   Ultimately you are working towards is maximizing the number of loyal customers you have while reducing the churn (defecting customers).