Social Commerce

Struggle and Contradiction in four different dimensions – that's how I summarize the trend in social media. Open Web vs. Walled Social Media Social Media Usage vs. Social Media ROI Adding Social Dimension to Search vs. Biasing the Search Result Media Convergence vs. Social Media Proliferation Having said that I need to admit that in another dimension there is no struggle, no contradiction – it is going up … up … up. Usage of Social Media Through Mobile Whichever statistics you look at – whatever prediction you see; more people are accessing social media sites through their smartphones and tablets. More social media applications are getting downloaded. This trend is not going to decelerate in the near future. The State of Media: The Social Media Report – Q3 2011 from Nielsen brings out these interesting facts: Close to 40% user access social media content from their m... (more)

Social Networks Going Visual

Social Networks are traditionally focused on sharing of status messages and links. The focus of these networks was about sharing of all kinds, but not as much as about the Visual aspects. This focus has been shifting recently to Visuals. This can be seen in the recent growth of the Visual Social Networks such as Instagram and Pinterest. These networks put the Visual aspects in front and center of the sharing. Some of the facts that support this observation: This week Facebook announced to buy Instagram for $1bn. (Instagram has just 13 employees but has about 50 million plus users.... (more)

Buyers Rule – Target These Three Areas to Get in Sync

Many providers are still relying on their company's viewpoint for their marketing. Since buyers can instantly share information in the 21st century, it is best to adjust heavily toward helping the buyer reach their goals. Buyers want information in specific ways at ideal times to accelerate and improve their decision-making. Unless providers start building their marketing from the buyer's perspective, they make everyone's job harder than it has to be. Target your audiences and markets. Has your company defined the best groups that would want to research what you offer? Defining ... (more)

My Thoughts on Ulitzer

Ok, so, here are my thoughts on Ulitzer... As a blogger, I focus on traffic and I spend quite a lot of time optimizing my SEO. Since the target audience of my articles is much greater than the reach of my blog, Ulitzer is actually helping me increase my content reach. Moreover, Ulitzer does it in a very fair way since links back to my posts or other locations are without the evil "nofollow" - providing a nice SEO boost. It also gives me some good metrics that are very useful data points on the effectiveness of my blog articles. And last but not least, it allows my article to appear... (more)

Startups: Making a Dent

It's not that I don't like business...I can't stand boring businesses that have no intention of making a dent in the world...or improving it.  They are just "getting in the way of the money" with the hope of being chosen.  Usually, it's a dearth of creativity/courage, either one - it's boring because there is no adventure to be found.  Just holiday parties where they slap each other on the back like something really happened. Startups have a responsibility to be different.  Not just because they're a startup, but there is a necessity to stand out for the buyer.  Make a dent or c... (more)