Cross Pollination Media | Social Media Strategy | Social Media Marketing » Social Media News

Karen Wickre To Share Secrets about Blogging @ Google

Greg Jarboe — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:47:39 +0000

Karen Wickre, Senior Manager of Corporate Communications at Google will share secrets about Blogging @ Google today, July 29, 2010, at 1:00pm EDT / 10:00am PDT. There is still time to register for the free webcast and webinar, which is sponsored by Connected Marketing Week.

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Elixir Interactive Online Reputation Management Case Study

Greg Jarboe — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 01:03:46 +0000

Elixir Interactive has shared a very unusual online reputation management study. What is unusual is that the interactive marketing agency, which provides online reputation management and search engine optimization services, and it's well-respected CEO and President, Fionn Downhill, are the targets of a mean-spirited and scurrilous attack.

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Old Spice Commercial Increases Sales 107 Percent

Greg Jarboe — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:00:02 +0000

If you haven't seen him yet, check out the YouTube video of Isaiah Mustafa asking ladies, "Should your man smell like an Old Spice man?" As of today, the video has 11,740,466 views -- making it the most viewed video on YouTube during the past month.

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Facebook and Amazon take Social Commerce to the Next Level

Lisa Braziel — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:48:00 +0000

Amazon has always been a category leader in e-commerce for how helpful and personal its product recommendations have been. Now they are taking this to the next level by pulling in Facebook's social graph to aid them in their current product recommendations. Though this project is still currently in beta, it is a glimpse for marketers into how Facebook can be utilized, not only to create a more personal web experience, but also to help users make purchase decisions.

I've been a long-time user of the functionality within Amazon that allows me to keep and organize wish lists for others (and myself), so much so that I create my entire Christmas and birthday lists within Amazon so that I can remember gift whims I have for others and myself throughout the year.

Now it's not all up to me and my order history to figure out what present to buy. Amazon now allows users to connect their account with Faceook to utilize the data provided on friends' profiles. The following screenshot shows that after I've connected the two, I can be alerted on upcoming birthdays and get a snapshot of the types of products that are currently popular among my friends.

Since it is my brother's birthday today (Happy Birthday Ryan!), I went over to see what types of products recommended for him. As you can see from the screenshot below, I have a nice list of gift suggestions based on his profile.

Unfortunately, after asking him whether or not these suggestions are spot-on, he only sees a couple of items that strike his fancy, and even those are a little bit of a stretch. This is likely because the only items he currently has "liked" on his profile are his evergreen favorites. He is getting closer towards 30 (couldn't resist), so it has been a few years since he created his profile, back when adding likes and interests was more of a deliberate and well thought-out process. Unfortunately, because he isn't actively "liking" new content across the web, I can't tell how his tastes have changed or what he likes now.

On the flip side, one of my colleagues' 13 year old sister has "liked" more than 1,000 pieces of content across the web - most of which is not product related, and most she will likely regret liking after a year or two of maturity. The screenshot below shows how someone in this demographic isn't carefully considering what they "like" and has no idea how this could affect them in the future.

As you can tell from these two examples, for Amazon and other e-commerce retailers to take this to the next level - the "Like" button will not only need to be adopted, but consumers will need to understand what utilizing the "Like" button may mean for them. It also will require the e-commerce site to have some degree of intelligence to be able to translate the "Like" data correctly. For instance, if I "Like" something other than a book, movie, or music - how will that translate into product suggestions? If I were to "Like" something like LoL Cats, will it translate to a suggestion of cat calendars? Or if I were to "Like" content on People of Walmart, would that offer me a Walmart gift card? The next obvious question is the timing of the "Like". If I liked something 5 years ago will it still be relevant to Amazon? Maybe, maybe not.

As you can imagine - there is still a lot to work out on behalf of both Facebook and e-commerce sites like Amazon. However, the biggest takeaway for marketers at this point is that we are currently witnessing a stronger movement of e-commerce sites utilizing Facebook data to improve the product buying experience, rather than inserting the product purchase experience directly within Facebook. It also suggests that in the battle between Facebook and Google to be your default social profile, Facebook has yet another advantage. Therefore, if you aren't considering the impact of Facebook on e-commerce - you will need to start considering. As Amazon has proved to us before, relevant shopping is the best type of shopping.

comScore Finds Social Networking Sites Reach Higher Percentage of Women than Men

Greg Jarboe — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:05:50 +0000

According to comScore, social networking sites reach a higher percentage of women than men globally, with 75.8 percent of all women online visiting a social networking site in May 2010 versus 69.7 percent of men. This is just one of the highlights of a global report released today by comScore on women's online usage entitled, Women on the Web: How Women are Shaping the Internet.

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Econsultancy Finds Companies Are Increasing Investment in Site Search to Drive Sales

Greg Jarboe — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:09:15 +0000

According to new research from Econsultancy, companies worldwide are increasing their investment in site search because they want to improve the experience for website users and increase site usage and sales.

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News Picks: Ask.com, historious, Disney & Playdom, @Earlybird & Jet Blue… and more

Liva Judic — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:15:10 +0000

An overview of some of today's ad/tech news.

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The Casting Couch: Finding guest bloggers

Luis Oliveros — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:51:12 +0000

Image by elkit Two of the most important things to remember when blogging for a brand to keep social engagements aflame: be consistent with both the value of the content (the informative and engaging aspects) and diligently follow your set blogging schedule. Unfortunately, there are unforeseeable circumstances that’ll keep you away from blogging. Extensive failure to follow on [...]

Yahoo Japan Picks Google Search Over Bing

Frank Watson — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 03:27:25 +0000

Yahoo Japan -- an independent entity from Yahoo -- has decided to forgo the Bing transition and will be using Google search results, Reuters announced today.

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United States Copyright Office Declares YouTube Remixes Are Legal

Greg Jarboe — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:40:26 +0000

Most reporters are focused on the United States Copyright Office declaration that it is it legal to unlock or 'jailbreak' a mobile device from the manufacturer and network provider from which it was purchased from, which permits users to install unapproved software under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's (DMCA) fair use provisions. The request was made by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) particularly as it applies to AT&T and Apple's iPhone Software License agreement.

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