All the music headlines today seem to be about Spotify landing in the United States, Google Music finally launching, and Grooveshark defeating UMG, but there’s one new and unique service that you may not have tried yet.
I come from a family of professional photographers. My grandfather had his own photography business in the 1970s, and soon enough my mom was helping out at weddings and other events. My dad and sister are also avid photographers – my sister used to be the assistant photographer to the Supreme Court. Suffice to say, I have been surrounded by intimidating Nikons and Canons for as long as I can remember. Do I know how to shoot a striking photo? Not so much.
Comparing your brand’s Facebook page to the pages of competitors is a challenge, as you are not privy to several key data points that ultimately have significant influence on the level of success. If you’re analyzing your own page, the metrics to look at in general are monthly active users, post views (impressions) and engagement rate. These metrics provide a clear view of how many people are actively taking in your content and interacting with your brand. Since these metrics are inaccessible on competitors' pages — and the number of lifetime likes is not an effective measure of consumer engagement —how can one compare their page to the competition?
In late 2010, rumors started to emerge that popular ESPN.com sports columnist Bill Simmons was planning a “top secret editorial project.” The initiative, shrouded in secrecy, was limited to rumors for several months, until talented writers suddenly started disappearing from popular blogs and websites. Star writers at Vulture, Deadspin, and This Recording wrote goodbyes to their established readerships, claiming they were leaving to work for The Sports Guy. The sports and pop culture-focused site, to be named Grantland (after legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice), would be backed by ESPN, and attracted top sponsors in Subway, Lexus and Klondike. The site’s central concept would be to produce intelligent, entertaining takes on sports and pop-culture. It would do so by publishing almost exclusively long-form content, come to be known as “longreads.”
The NMS team has been on tour the past several weeks, visiting clients to brief them on spanking new social media developments – from the smallest emerging platforms to the elephants throwing their weight around. And while everyone is curious about what’s up with Google+, a multitude of movers and shakers warrant an update to our social media watch list.
NMS recently hosted a seminar for 19 precocious George Washington University interns spending the summer studying communications in DC. It was the perfect opportunity to demonstrate social media’s power to surprise and delight customers while solidifying brand loyalty. Turns out those of us who live and breathe marketing strategy were the ones who left a bit surprised. We began with a case study: Last fall, KLM Airlines rewarded its customers by delivering “small doses of happiness” in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. Over three weeks, KLM surprised 28 passengers with gifts based on preferences indicated in their social graphs, generating more than 1 million impressions in 88 countries on Twitter alone. The premise: “Creating a real smile on somebody’s face is much cooler than attaching a smiley face.”
Google’s long-rumored, awe-inspiring Facebook-killing social network behemoth was revealed on Tuesday: Google+. And it’s pretty OK. Good even. The suite of tools forms the building blocks by which Google hopes to stitch together a social graph to compete with Facebook’s. Google has managed expectations admirably, and Facebook still existed as of Friday afternoon. But Google+ is more than it seems. The foundation Google is laying has potential to merge the social and static web until they are practically synonymous.
Have you ever been so inspired that it's extremely difficult to articulate how you feel?
Well, I have that. Right now.
On behalf of New Media Strategies, I am assisting the social media efforts for Special Olympics International during the World Summer Games in Athens, Greece. I’m specifically covering the Games from a blog NMS created called Change Thru Sport. It is an amazing experience; my heart has been touched so many times it could last a lifetime. The inspiration these athletes provide and what you witness in how it improves their lives is immeasurable.