DigitalNow Blog

11 Mobile trends for 2011

2011-01-12T10:46:00.001-05:00

"Mobile will start to become part of every business' marketing and distribution strategy in 2011," said Kunal Gupta, CEO of Polar Mobile. "That's where we all spend our time and brands, marketers and publishers will want to capture that opportunity."

According to a report by Polar Mobile, they are 11 major mobile trends to watch out for in 2011:

"Your mobile strategy will go beyond the iPhone and iPad
Android fragmentation will be a major challenge
Tablets will appear in every home
Number of active users will become more important than number of downloads
Social will differentiate the mobile app experience
Mobile exclusive brands and content will have success
Paid content will have limited success due to infrastructure
Mobile apps and mobile web get hitched and play nice together
Apps leverage NFC to become mobile commerce tools
App security and threats will become important
Fragmentation across OS and device will grow exponentially"

How will these trends affect your association? Explore the questions, problems, issues, and solutions in an exclusive community of your peers at digitalNow 2011 - the premier summit for association leaders.

Save $100 when you register before January 31.

Save the Date for DigitalNow 2011 - THE summit for association leaders. April 6-9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. www.DigitalNowConference.com

Catching the Mobile (tidal) wave

2011-01-07T08:35:00.001-05:00

This video highlights some of the changes we saw last year related to mobile phones and computing. Just one statistic you may find interesting:

Mobile phone apps downloaded

2009: 300 million
2010: 5 billion

The question is... where is all of this taking us? Join us at digitalNow 2011 where we will explore "The Many Faces of Mobile," how the Mobile revoution is already changing your organization, and what you need to do to stay revelant and to take advantage of the countless opportunities it presents.

digitalNow 2011" April 6-9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa.

Save the Date for DigitalNow 2011 - THE summit for association leaders. April 6-9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. www.DigitalNowConference.com

Introducing... the digitalNow 2011 keynote team!

2010-12-06T10:06:00.001-05:00

If you've been waiting for our keynote announcement before registering for digitalNow 2011, wait no longer. (And we mean it - seats are going fast!)

This year's keynotes are:

Tomi Ahonen, a six-time bestselling author, independent consultant and motivational speaker in the converging areas of mobile telecoms, internet, media, advertising, credit and banking, social networking and virtual reality. Tomi will present and describe the nearly incomprehensible impact that Mobile has and will continue to have for associations, and will explore and examine the ways in which mobile technologies and Mobile culture are influencing business models up and down the people chain.
Dan Ariely, James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University and author of the New York Times Bestsellers Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions and The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home. Dan will help association leaders develop targeted strategies based on what motivates the behavior of their boards, volunteer leaders, and members in our ever-changing Mobile world.
Karen Cator, Director of the Office of Educational Technology, U.S. Department of Education. In her past work with Apple Inc., Karen directed leadership and advocacy in education, with a focus on the intersection of education policy, research, and emerging technologies. As part of her keynote presentation, Cator will update the association profession on her current work to develop a nationwide database of technologies that are influencing how we deliver education and training in a Mobile world. Her scope includes secondary education, vocational training, and adult training and education within the professional and non-profit sectors.
Dr. James Canton, renowned global futurist, social scientist, keynote presenter, author, and visionary business advisor. For over 30 years, he has been insightfully predicting the key trends that have shaped our world. He is a leading authority on future trends in innovation. Dr. Canton is noted for his fascinating, informative, dynamic and entertaining keynotes. He is also known for the depth of his knowledge of associations and the challenges they face.

Learn more about digitalNow 2011 speakers

View registration rates and deadlines,

or...

Save the Date for DigitalNow 2011 - THE summit for association leaders. April 6-9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. www.DigitalNowConference.com

Mobile phone learning

2010-11-22T12:20:00.001-05:00

Mobile Phone Learning is a course taught by Nabeel Ahmad and Dominic Mentor that explores how to use mobile phones for learning.

According to Mentor and Ahmad, the ways in which students from various disciplines learned to apply the information provided was a testament "to the rapidly increasing interest among students from different disciplines in using a ubiquitous technology for anything they can imagine."

The true value of incorporating mobile phones in a learning environment, as stated in the team's recent article at Educause, is that anyone can use the same device in a different way for educational benefit.

Read the article here and gain access to the syllalbus here.

How is mobile techology impacting associations and how can your association take advantage of this ubiquitous technology to advance education? These are just some of the questions we'll be discussing at digitalNow 2011, where experts in mobile, education, behavior economics and more will be providing you the tools and information you need to bring help your organization take advantage of the Mobile revolution.

Save the Date for DigitalNow 2011 - THE summit for association leaders. April 6-9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. www.DigitalNowConference.com

Assocation Leaders Called "Irrational"

2010-11-19T08:52:00.001-05:00

(Webster, NY - November 2010) You may think you act from a sense of common wisdom, but according to author Dan Ariely, your behavior is inspired by what he calls “predictable irrationality.” But don’t take it personally; he says that about everybody.

Using simple experiments Dan studies how people – including association leaders and their members - actually act in the marketplace, as opposed to how they should or would perform if they were completely rational. His interests span a wide range of daily behaviors such as buying (or not), saving (or not), ordering food in restaurants, pain management, procrastination, dishonesty, and decision making under different emotional states.

Dan is the author the New York Times Bestsellers Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions and The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home. Dan is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University, where he holds appointments at the Fuqua School of Business, the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, the School of Medicine, and the department of Economics. He is also a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight.

We Are Predictably Irrational –and why associations should care

Do you know why we so often promise ourselves to diet and exercise, only to have the thought vanish when the dessert cart rolls by?

Do you know why we sometimes find ourselves excitedly buying things we don’t really need? Or at prices that we would otherwise concede are beyond our budget?

Do you know why we still have a headache after taking a five-cent aspirin, but why that same headache vanishes when the aspirin costs 50 cents?

Do you know why people who have been asked to recall the Ten Commandments tend to be more honest (at least immediately afterward) than those who haven’t? Or why honor codes actually do reduce dishonesty in the workplace? Dan Ariely provides answers to these and many other questions that have implications for your personal life, for your business life, and for the way you look at the world.

For businesses, these irrationalities help unlock our understanding of common behaviors and choices in shopping, pricing, investing and saving, employee recruitment and selection, office politics and a myriad of other choices and interactions.

As a bonus you will also learn how much fun social science can be, and how to see more clearly the causes for our everyday behaviors, including the many cases in which we are predictably irrational. Dan’s research on human behavior has been published in leading psychology, economics, and marketing and management research journals, and he will be delivering a keynote presentation at digitalNow 2011, being held April 6 – 11 at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa.

digitalNow will be dedicated to helping association executives better understand how to be mobile, and how to take advantage of mobile technologies in order to add value and create emotional engagement with members in our ever-expanding Mobile universe. Based on solid research and designed in collaboration with Disney Institute and a distinguished Advisory Group leaders, DigitalNow has earned a reputation as the premier leadership summit for association executives.

Learn more about digitalNow rates and deadlines or...

Want to hear what association executives are saying about DigitalNow? Visit our Testimonials page.

DigitalNow 2011 Call for Papers now open!
Proposals are now being accepted for workshop presentations on April 7 and 8 at DigitalNow 2011.

If you are an expert with new proven research that can help members of the DigitalNow community understand and address these issues, you may be qualified.

Please visit the DigitalNow 2011 Call for Papers site for complete details and application guidelines.

Save the Date for DigitalNow 2011 - THE summit for association leaders. April 6-9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. www.DigitalNowConference.com

The (mobile) world as we will know it

2010-11-03T13:30:00.001-04:00

According to a report by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU):

"By the end of 2010, there will be an estimated 5.3 billion mobile cellular subscriptions worldwide, including 940 million subscriptions to 3G services.
Access to mobile networks is now available to 90% of the world population and 80% of the population living in rural areas.
People are moving rapidly from 2G to 3G platforms, in both developed and developing countries.
In 2010, 143 countries were off ering 3G services commercially, compared to 95 in 2007.
Towards 4G: a number of countries have started to off er services at even higher broadband speeds, moving to next generation wireless platforms – they include Sweden, Norway, Ukraine and the United States."

The full report is avaiable here.

Want to learn how the radical growth of mobile will affect you and your ability to deliver member value and maintain relevance? Then you don't want to miss digitalNow 2011 where we will be discussing "The Many Faces of Mobile." digitalNow 2011: April 6-9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. Registration now open - Early Bird rates in effect!

Save the Date for DigitalNow 2011 - THE summit for association leaders. April 6-9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. www.DigitalNowConference.com

The most powerful strategic tool (Hint: You already own one.)

2010-11-02T13:30:00.001-04:00

What if I told you that there was one tool that could help you manage your time, create powerful presentations, and effectively manage projects?

What if I told you that this same tool could also support strategic thinking and help you become a better leader? And by the way - it's free.

The tool? Mind maps. According to Wikipedia, "Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid to studying and organizing information, solving problems, making decisions, and writing."

It might not be high-tech, but you have to admit - a tool that can do all that is worth looking at.

In a recent article, author Frank Bradley shares his experience with Mind Maps and discusses eight ways he uses them in his professional and personal life.

digitalNow is also a powerful tool for generating ideas, solving problems, and studying information. Join us April 6-9, 2011 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. Registration is open and early bird rates are now in effect! http://www.digitalnowconference.com

Save the Date for DigitalNow 2011 - THE summit for association leaders. April 6-9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. www.DigitalNowConference.com

Mobile learning

2010-10-29T15:36:00.001-04:00

In a recent post, we shared statistics on the growth of mobile, provided by the International Telecommunicaitons Union (ITU).

With this massive proliferation of "anywhere" technology, it is imperative that we ask, "How will this affect the ways in which we learn?"

David J. Gagnon provides a thorough discussion, titled Mobile Learning Environments in a recent edition of Educause Quarterly.

"Key takeaways:

With one billion devices expected to have mobile broadband Internet connections, the impact of mobile communication cannot be underestimated.
With this growth in mobile devices, it seems appropriate to ask what completely new things might be afforded by mobile media for learning.
The discussion of learning environments and mobile media grants educators an opportunity to adopt methods of situated, contextual, just-in-time, participatory, and personalized learning.
Theory aside, it seems common sense that instruction should be performed in the most authentic context possible to practice and demonstrate useful learning, which mobile learning environments can facilitate."

"The Many Faces of Mobile" is the focus at digitalNow 2011. Hear from thought leaders, technology experts, and learn from the experiences of your peers to optimize your ability to thrive in a mobile world. digitalNow 2011: April 6-9 at Disney's Grand Floidian Resor & Spa. Registration now open; Early Bird rates in effect.

Save the Date for DigitalNow 2011 - THE summit for association leaders. April 6-9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. www.DigitalNowConference.com

Five innovators in mobile technology

2010-10-15T14:27:00.001-04:00

Just when you thought you had the fastest, smallest, coolest mobile device on the planet, someone comes along and introduces one that is faster and slicker, nudging you and your new toy to the edge of obsolescence.

Brace yourself, because it looks like that will be the name of the game for a while. More innovators continue to develop more ways to change the way we think about mobile. Christina Warren of Mashable/Mobile gives the low-down on five of these companies:

At DigitalNow 2011, we'll be presenting you with experts in mobile technology, and in the ways association business can be expect to be affected - and what you can do to position your organization for success in a Mobile world.

Learn more at the official DigitalNow web site.

Hear what your peers have to say about DigitalNow.

DigitalNow 2011: April 6-9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

Save the Date for DigitalNow 2011 - THE summit for association leaders. April 6-9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. www.DigitalNowConference.com

The holistic customer experience

2010-10-12T13:30:00.001-04:00

The idea of creating positive and delightful customer experiences has been around for almost two decades now. Are you doing it yet?

With social media at our fingertips and the surge of everything mobile, it's easy to think that just because you have a smart phone app or a Twitter account, you are providing the sort of experience your audience wants and needs to have. According to the Digital Buyer Persona, "Customer experience initiatives can no longer be static types of efforts."

Call it integrated, call it multimedia, call it interdisciplinary - but whatever you call it, "holistic" is the name of the customer experience game.

Learn more about how to design, create, structure, staff, and support the kind of experience you want your members to have. Join us at DigitalNow 2011 - THE summit for association leaders. Registration now open - Early Bird rates in effect!

Save the Date for DigitalNow 2011 - THE summit for association leaders. April 6-9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. www.DigitalNowConference.com

Mobile Mythbusters

2010-10-07T15:14:00.001-04:00

In the wake of any new trend rages a sea of misconception. Mobile technology is no exception. In this article, author Kathryn Koegel debunks the top four myths of mobile. According to Koegel:

It's not an all-Apple world ... and it never will be
Blackberry is not dead
Not all people do all things on all phones
Smartphones are not likely to ever penetrate the entire market

Get the latest and greatest information on mobile technologies, tools, processes, successes, and more. Hear from cutting edge speakers and from your peers. Join us at DigitalNow 2011 - THE summit for association leaders. Registration now open - Early bird rates in effect!

Save the Date for DigitalNow 2011 - THE summit for association leaders. April 6-9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. www.DigitalNowConference.com

DigitalNow 2011 - Registration now OPEN!

2010-09-23T10:52:00.001-04:00

We are thrilled to announce that registration for DigitalNow 2011 is now open!

Here's a sneak peek at what you and your colleagues are going to talking about at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, April 6-9 (that is, when you're not eating the fantastic food!):

The Many Faces of Mobile

When you hear the word “mobile,” you may think of technology, such as a cell phone, an iPad, or a GPS. Or you may think of “Mobile,” spelled with an uppercase “M”, a comprehensive label for the unique qualities of the world in which we live: It’s fast, it’s personal, it’s always on and everywhere, ‘round the clock and around the globe.

Mobile is both of those things, but it’s also more than that - It also signifies a quality that your association must develop in order to remain vital in today’s world. You must BE mobile, be capable of changing, adapting, and responding to our Mobile environment.

In order for your association to keep pace, there are some key issues you must understand and be equipped to act on.

Our Mobile environment demands that we change the way we do everything - to ensure that members become emotionaly engaged and receive the value they demand – and it supports the pressing imperative for ubiquitous communication, learning, innovation, and connectivity. It is the new air we breathe and it permeates all areas of modern-day life.
Some of the assumptions you hold and the practices in which your association engages support the Mobile paradigm, and some do not. Is your strategy for innovation in line with today's world, are traditional learning, revenue, membership, and non-dues revenue sources dried up? Knowing which to keep and which to let go of is critical. Only once you establish a strategy that is well-aligned with this new paradigm will you be positioned to deliver real value in your organization through education, advocacy, networking, partnerships, and governance.
Understanding the Mobile world and aligning your volunteer leadership, staff, and association processes is critical, but in order to sustain that position, and even more importantly to sustain your own mobility – your agility and responsiveness to what is sure to be an ever-evolving landscape - you must create a structure within your association that supports the new imperatives of today. That structure must also be capable of taking advantage of the next upcoming technology revolution that is being facilitated by the advance of a global wireless broadband infrastructure.

At DigitalNow 2011, we will help you better understand how to be mobile, and how to take advantage of mobile technologies in order to add value and create emotional engagement with your members in our ever-expanding Mobile universe.

See the summary of results from our 2010-2011 Association Executive trends and issues survey here.

Save the Date for DigitalNow 2011 - THE summit for association leaders. April 6-9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. www.DigitalNowConference.com

DigitalNow 2011 is on the Move!

2010-09-10T14:42:00.004-04:00

Proposals are now being accepted for DigitalNow 2011
workshop presentations on April 7 and 8 at

Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa.

Visit the DigitalNow Call for Papers site to:

View details

Submit your application

And the survey says...

According to a recent survey of association executives conducted by Fusion Productions:

76% said it was Extremely Important to them to learn how to engage members emotionally and create a sense of belonging

68% said it was Extremely Important to discover new ways to add value in an age of mobile 24x7 access and expectations

83% said it was either Extremely or Very important to them to understand how to create innovation in products or services when obsolescence is measured in months, rather than years

94% said it was either Extremely or Very Important to them to assess how to evolve new business models, not just those based on dues/non-dues revenue

65% said it was Extremely Important to them to create, develop, and sustain relevant, trusted content in a 24x7 world

68% said it was Extremely Important for them to communicate effectively with the next generation of members/stakeholders/workforce - and identify what new competencies will be required

If you are an expert with new proven research that can help members of the DigitalNow community understand and address these issues, you may be qualified to speak at DigitalNow 2011. Please visit the DigitalNow 2011 Call for Papers site for complete details and application guidelines.

And remember to save the date for DigitalNow 2011: April 6-9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. Registration opening soon! DigitalNow 2010 content is still available at: http://www.DigitalNowLive.com

DigitalNow 2011: April 6 - 9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa: Save the Date!

DigitalNow 2010 - a resounding success! Watch videos and download session content from DigitalNow 2010 at http://www.digitalnowlive.com

Follow DigitalNow on Twitter.Contribute to the DigitalNow blog. Suggest a blog topic, or reference an article or other item you think would be of interest to the DigitalNow community. Drop us a line at DigitalNow@fusionproductions.com

Closing the strategy-to-execution gap

2010-08-25T09:43:00.001-04:00

According to a survey conducted by OnPoint Consulting:

49% of leaders surveyed feel that a gap exists between the strategies they develop and their company's ability to execute on those strategies
64% say they don't have full confidence that the gap can be closed
75% believe that their companies have "clear and inspiring" visions

So, if it's not the vision that's the problem, and it's not the strategy that's the problem, why do so many leaders experience frustration with putting plans into action?

Skip Reardon, author of the Six Disciplines blog, identifies eight central factors that differentiate those who perceive a strategy-exection gap, from those who are confident about their abilties to execute. They include: excellence in change management from the top, down; well-coordinated decisions across levels of management; effective human resource systems to ensure proper placement and compensation of employees, and; a proper balance between centralized and decentralized responsibility.

Do you perceive a strategy-execution gap in your organization? If so, to what do you attribute that?

If not, what are the key competencies or factors in place in your organization that support effective execution?

Posted from the Fusion Productions InfoStream. To view the original post, click here.

DigitalNow 2010 - a res

Closing the strategy-to-execution gap

2010-08-25T09:40:00.001-04:00

According to a survey conducted by OnPoint Consulting:

49% of leaders surveyed feel that a gap exists between the strategies they develop and their company's ability to execute on those strategies
64% say they don't have full confidence that the gap can be closed
75% believe that their companies have "clear and inspiring" visions

So, if it's not the vision that's the problem, and it's not the strategy that's the problem, why do so many leaders experience frustration with putting plans into action?

Do you perceive a strategy-execution gap in your organization? If so, to what do you attribute that?

If not, what are the key competencies or factors in place in your organization that support effective execution?

Posted via email from DigitalNow Lifestream

Latest stats on social networking

2010-08-17T07:56:00.001-04:00

According to the latest study conducted by comScore, "social networking sites reach a higher percentage of women than men worldwide. Other key statistics:

Women spend 30% more time on social networking sites than men
75.8% of online women visited a social networking site in May 2010, compared with 69.7% of men
North American women lead the pack - 90.3% of them visited a social networking site in April 2010, followed by online women in Latin America (83.6%) and Europe (83.4%)
Social networking sites now capture the greatest share of all women's total time and attention online (16.3%)
45+ female segment is driving the greatest proportion of growth for the social networking category in both visits and time spent"

Visit MarketingProfs for an indepth discussion and to view charts and comparisons. (Free registration is required.)

Posted from the Fusion Productions InfoStream. To view the original post, click here.

DigitalNow 2010 - a res

Today's solutions for tomorrow's problems

2010-08-11T10:40:00.001-04:00

The Australian Commwealth Scientific and Industrial Reserach Organization (CSIRO) has recently published a report titled, Our Future World.

The report describes the outcomes from a CSRIO global foresight project and it presents "five global megatrends and global risks that may redefine how people live."

The five megatrends discussed are:

More from less. The world's depleted resources will demand innovations in efficiency.
A personal touch is about the growth of the services industry and innovations in targeted services.
Divergent demographics - some countries have an aging population that is suffereing from "lifestyle and diet related health problems" while others are experiencing population growth and food shortages.
On the move. People move more. They switch jobs. They move their families. They travel more.
iWorld. "Everything in the natural world will have a digital counterpart."

Read the report here.

Posted from the Fusion Productions InfoStream. To view the original post, click here.

DigitalNow 2010 - a res

Balancing your (community) hats

2010-07-14T14:51:00.001-04:00

Those of you who are, shall we say "seasoned," may remember watching Captain Kangaroo reading a book titled, "Hats for Sale," in which a hat salesman balanced his entire inventory on his head. Today's generation might retitle that book, "Communities to Manage."

Richard Millington, online community consultant to organizations such as United Nations and The Global Fund, says that an effective community manager must wear at least five hats:

"The friend engages people individually.
The recruiter persuades people to join the online community.
The enforcer keeps things clean.
The editor implements much of the community strategy.
The entrepreneur looks for opportunities to add value to the community."

Detailed descriptions of each of these roles can be found on Rich's blog.

Do you have a place to hang all of these hats in your organization? Are several different people working to execute these roles, or is one person doing the balancing act? Leave a comment and share your best practices.

Posted from the Fusion Productions InfoStream. To view the original post, click here.

DigitalNow 2010 - a res

Getting your app on

2010-07-13T13:30:00.001-04:00

According to Mary Meeker, Morgan Stanley analyst, in five years people will be using mobile technology to access the internet far more than they will be using any desktop devices. And, e-commerce spend seems to be rising in proportion to ease of connectivity. What does this mean to you? If you're not using mobile apps to reach out to your members/customers, now is the time.

MarketingProfs provides these quick get-started tips on how to build the mobile app of your dreams, including:

Create a 'lite' version of your app
Tune in to user behavior
Don't buy into the idea that app development is too much work

Does your organization have a mobile app available already? Do you have one in process? Leave a comment and share your best practices and lessons learned with the community.

Posted from the Fusion Productions InfoStream. To view the original post, click here.

DigitalNow 2010 - a res

Your next favorite book

2010-07-12T13:01:00.001-04:00

Whether your're intersted in your potential for creativity, in how to create and foster greater productivity, or in learning about the latest in leadership theory, the Harvard Business Review has a list of recommendations for books by today's hottest and most progressive authors, including:

Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age by Clay Shirky

Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead by Charlene Li

The Way We're Working Isn't Working: The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance byTony Schwartz, with Jean Gomes and Catherine McCarthy

The Why of Work: How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Winby Dave Ulrich and Wendy Ulrich

Reinventing Management: Smarter Choices for Getting Work Done by Julian Birkinshaw

See additional recommendations at Harvard Business Review.

Posted from the Fusion Productions InfoStream. To view the original post, click here.

DigitalNow 2010 - a res

Standardizing the creative process

2010-07-06T14:34:00.001-04:00

In 1981, Motorola developed its Six Sigma business management strategy. The objective of Six Sigma is to improve process quality by removing the causes of error and minimizing variability.

According to Advertising Age, "... marketing spend is the number 1 investment for most businesses - more even than IT or training." So why haven't agencies adopted the Six Sigma approach to standardize the development of marketing communications products and services? According to author Avi Dan, "Some people argue Six Sigma cannot work in an agency or any organization that depends on innovation. These people believe that creative organizations are often built on the principle of trial and error, and the rigorous confinement to the norm is too stifling. Yet others believe that a disciplined process is essential to optimize the client-agency relationship."

Avi suggests that Chief Marketing Officers should embrace the spirit and attitude of Six Sigma, but should apply it with a light hand. He offers these ten suggestions for applying intelligent discipline to the creative process.

Do you currently use a process to help ensure creative quality? Do you think it is advisable? Possible?

Posted from the Fusion Productions InfoStream. To view the original post, click here.

DigitalNow 2010 - a res

The Definitive Hamburger

2010-06-30T14:28:00.001-04:00

When McDonald's standardized their menu in the 1950s, they were demonstrating exploitation of a successful formula for the delivery of the definitive hamburger. This exploitation led them into unprecendented growth.

When McDonald's started serving salads in the 1980s, they were demonstrating the kind of exploration necessary when successful formulas no longer support a valid outcome.

In other words, when people wanted hamburgers, McDonalds perfected a method to meet that need better than anyone. And when some of those hamburger-lovers started wanting salad instead, McDonald's found a way to successfully deviate from the formula in order to develop innovations to support continued relevance.

According to LeadershipNow, exploitation and exploration must always occur concurrently; it's what is referred to as design thinking, and it's what helps prepare organizations to meet an unpredictable future.

Let's play 20 questions

2010-06-29T10:03:00.001-04:00

Whether you're a software developer working on the next big app, a service provider running a local boutique business, or an association executive providing education and information to a global membership, you are in business - and if you're going to be successful, you need to keep lots of proverbial balls in the air.

Forbes.com offers a review of The 20 Most Important Questions that you should be asking (and hopefully answering) about your business, including:

What differentiates your product from the competition?
How committed are you to making this happen?
How much power do your suppliers have?
What is your end game?

What business are you in, and what crucial questions you are currently working to answer?

Posted from the Fusion Productions InfoStream. To view the original post, click here.

DigitalNow 2010 - a res

Internet revolution has just begun

2010-06-24T08:56:00.001-04:00

Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations and the new book Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age says that we are seeing just the beginning of the cultural and creative opportunities afforded by our use of the Internet. It's key to note that Shirky doesn't credit the Internet; he credits the creativity and innovation of the people who use - the "souls of the machine."

As part of the senior-project presentations at New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program, Shirky "encouraged programmers and Web designers to build online systems that will get visitors talking, sharing, and creating, rather than passively reading and watching."

Perhaps his most provocative point was that in his estimation Americans now spend 200 billion hours each year passively watching televsion - "with 100 million hours of that squandered each weekend watching just advertisements."

Just imagine what we could so with all of that "cognitive surplus" if we learned to redirect it into making creative and innovative contributions online.

"What matters most now is our imaginations," he writes at the end of his new book. "The opportunity before us, individually and collectively, is enormous; what we do with it will be determined largely by how well we are able to imagine and reward public creativity, participation, and sharing."

Read Jeffrey R. Young's complete article at The Chronicle.

Posted from the Fusion Productions InfoStream. To view the original post, click here.

Cool new hashtag tool

2010-06-23T10:39:00.001-04:00

If you'd like to know who's using a particular hashtag, and even see a chart of its activity, then you'll want to visit http://www.hashtags.org.

For those of you who may not be familiar with proper use of hashtags, here's a quick overview:

A Twitter hashtag is a keyword that is appended to all of the posts or "Tweets" that are related to a common topic. This allows users to follow the posts about a topic, rather then being confined to reading the Tweets of people they are following. If you wanted to see who's talking about the World Cup, for example, you would simply perform a Twitter search for #worldcup. The resulting page would present all of the Tweets that have been tagged that way - even if posted by people you're not following.

Using a hashtag is a great way to ensure that you are an active participant in conversations about a specific topic or event. Searching by hashtag enables you to find others with interests common to yours, to do market research, or find a subject matter expert.

A couple key things to keep in mind:

Don't use a hashtag unless your post really does relate to the topic at hand. It clutters up the stream for everyone else
Don't create a new hashtag for a topic or event until you've determined whether one has already been put into practice
Pick one or two hashtags for each Tweet - don't crowd your post with so many tags that you have no characters left to say anything

For those of you who are want to be part of the MPI WEC 2010 conversation, the official hashtag is #wec10 - pass it on!!

Posted from the Fusion Productions InfoStream. To view the original post, click here.

Show us yours

2010-06-23T10:04:00.001-04:00

350 years ago, British scientist Robert Boyle composed a wish list of 25 problems for which he wanted scientists to find solutions. According to NewScientist.com, Boyle's documentation "predicts the inventions of GPS navigation, flight, organ transplants, commercial agriculture and hair dye..."

Boyle's wish list is on display as part of the exhibit The Royal Society: 350 years of science at the Royal Society in London, and has inspired many modern scientists to show their own wish lists for the future. Here's a sampling:

David Eagleman, neuroscientist and fiction writer: Determine how to get by on zero sleep
Steve Jones, geneticist: Understand the science of human emotions broadly enough to put an end to war
Sean Carroll, physicist: Understand consciousness and intelligence, so that we could mimic it in computers

So, show us yours - what issues or problems are on your wish list?

Posted from the Fusion Productions InfoStream. To view the original post, click here.

Location is where it's at

2010-06-22T08:34:00.001-04:00

A couple months ago, we posted an article that discussed foursquare -what it is, what it does, and why you want it (or not). But foursquare is just one application of its kind. In addition to applications that are dedicated to providing location-based services, applications such as Twitter and Facebook are adding in location-based features that provide the same functionality.

So why would you want everyone you know to know where you are at every moment of every day? (For most of us, where we are is simply just not that interesting, after all. "I'm at work. I'm home. I'm at the grocery store." Riveting stuff.) However, there is an entire generation for whom their friends and connections are among their greatest assets. They think of life in terms of networks and communities, and as they move through their days, they are ever aware of who is around them and how they can use those connections in work and play. For this group, staying on the grid is worth the breach in privacy.

But even beyond the personal and professional value, location-based applications present profound implications, according to David Carr of The New York Times. "Logic suggests that the advertising possibilities enabled by knowing where someone is or what they have been watching at a given moment are profound," writes Carr. "If the first movers gain users and the big boys come off the sidelines, what looks like a fetish object could end up being one more important tool in navigating physical and digital space."

Do you use location-based applications in your personal life or your work? If so, leave a comment and let us know how you're using it and what the benefits have been.

Posted from the Fusion Productions InfoStream. To view the original post, click here.

What's your (timeline) pleasure?

2010-06-17T13:37:00.001-04:00

Whether you're a project manager, a teacher, or leading a member value team or focus group, chances are that you have the opportunity to create timelines in your work. Even if you never use timelines, they can be valuable tools for a variety of planning activities.

At Techlearning.com, you can see a list of the Top 10 Sites for Creating Timelines. Some - like Time Rime and xTimeLine provide options for adding in audio and video, turning your timeline into a multimedia presentation. Others such as Read Write Think are text-only. No matter what your timeline pleasure, you'll find a tool that meets your specific needs.

Posted from the Fusion Productions InfoStream. To view the original post, click here.

Get more from your marketing in 2010

2010-06-14T10:08:00.001-04:00

If you want to soup up your marketing efforts this year, there are five key things you can and should be doing this year, according to Marketing Profs.

Invest in digital media that optimizes customer engagement. This includes experimenting with key words and phrases to boost SEO, designing a web site that is useful and engaging, and creating a "triangle offense" that includes email, mobile, and social media.
Adopt service as your main strategic objective. Understand your customers' needs, treat them with respect at every point of engagement, and provide them with tools and information that show you know what they need and you care about their success.
Explore ways to take social media communications and engagement to the next level, but do so intelligently. Give your customers easy and integrated ways to connect to your services and to each other. There is strength in community.
Protect your email reputation. Understand that your reputation suffers whenever you send out a boring or useless communication. And don't forget about spam compliance. Reacquaint yourself with your obligations.
Increase email performance by becoming a relentless tester. Compare messages through split testing. Look at everything you do though every possible browser and device. Slip into your cutomers' shoes and walk a mile.

From an article by Joel Book, director of eMarketing Education at ExactTarget (www.exacttarget.com) a global provider of on-demand email-marketing and one-to-one marketing solutions.

Save the date! DigitalNow 2011 is scheduled for April 6 - 9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa.

Posted from the Fusion Productions InfoStream. To view the original post, click here.

10 Web Content Myths

2010-06-11T09:43:00.001-04:00

How do you get your video content to go viral?

How can you ensure that anyone will watch your online video?

Does the Internet actually provide a level playing field?

How can you build personality into your web presence?

How many seconds you have to get their attention before they stop watching?

The Internet is full of opportunities - and of myths about the viability of those opportunities. At the recent Mashable Media Summit, College Humor’s CEO Ricky Van Veen shared his 10 Web Content Urban Legends. The list contains some surprising facts - such as videos that go viral present a hook within the first 20 seconds, as well as insights into the video strategies that College Humor employs.

Posted from the Fusion Productions InfoStream. To view the original post, click here.

Get ready for what's next in mobile

2010-06-10T09:26:00.001-04:00

Yes, mobile is hot, and no, it's not going to go away.

If you're not actively participating in mobile technology as part of the way you do business, now is the time to start paying serious attention.

Nick Jones, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner offers a list of 10 mobile technologies to watch in 2010 and 2011, including:

Bluetooth (3 and 4)
The Mobile Web
Mobile Widgets
Platform-Independent Mobile AD Tools
App Stores
Enhanced Location Awareness
Cellular Broadband
Touchscreens
M2M (Machine-to-Machine)
Device-Independent Security

For details on these technologies or to access the full report by Gartner, click here.

Open up to the possibilities with Fusion!
http://www.Big-Blue-Umbrella.com

Posted from the Fusion Productions InfoStream. To view the original post, click here.

Demystifying Cloud Computing

2010-06-09T11:06:00.001-04:00

Cloud computing. It sounds ethereal and a bit mystical, but what is it, exactly?

If you've heard this term batted around recently, but haven't yet wrapped your mind around it, here's a quick overview that we hope will clear up the, well, the cloud around it.

The traditional model for web site hosting requires that your web site and server-side applications be hosted on a physical server that sits at a physical location – either rented or at your offices. If your web site goes down or experiences slow-downs or outages, you or your service provider are responsible for tending to your server and getting things up and running as quickly as possible.

In this scenario, you are still responsible for making sure that you are aware of and able to report performance issues as they arise. You are also responsible for initiating and paying for the latest versions of any server-side applications you use such as Windows Server, Linux/UNIX, etc.

In a cloud infrastructure (also know as cloud computing), you don't actually own a physical server. Rather, you purchase an allocation of resources from a huge conglomeration of servers that are spread out all over the country and even around the world. This resource allocation is referred to as an "instance." If you require an instance that provides 3 gigabytes of storage, for example, then you would pay not for a server or part of a server that provides that, but rather for the resource itself. And because that service isn't tied directly to a single machine, but is shared by a powerful system of machines from a variety of geographical locations, you enjoy the benefits of universal physical redundancy, optimum performance, and inherent disaster recovery.

Additionally, your cloud provider is responsible for keeping your server-side applications up to date. That means you no longer have to keep track of or pay for the latest upgrades to your operating systems – as they are often included in the price of your instance.

To learn more about cloud computing (which we hope is not such a mystery anymore), read this article at Cnet News.

Posted from the Fusion Productions InfoStream. To view the original post, click here.

Social Media Mantra

2010-06-09T09:16:00.005-04:00

We've said it over and over again: It's not about the tools. And that applies whether you're talking about hammers and nails, scalpels and sutures, or Twitter and Facebook.

So, repeat after us: It's not about the tools. It's about the people who use them, what they use them for, and how successful those efforts actually are.

At www.relationship-economy.com you can find a series titled Social Pyramid which provides a comprehensive, strategic analysis of the value of social media tools within the broader context of content and communications. As the authors say, "You can not improve that which you do not understand." This series - which is also available as a white paper - will support your understanding of the relationship economy in general, and the role of communications and the tools that support it.

Author Jay Deragon states, "Social media cannot be efficiently used unless a strategy is aligned with intent. Intent are strategic issues that must be thought out thoroughly because strategy drives tactics, initiatives and ultimately results." (Thank you for saying that so clearly and succinctly, Jay!)

According to the authors, there are five strategic social media considerations that apply to any organization:

Cultural Strategy

Relationship Strategy

Content strategy

Distribution Strategy

Actions

Of course, we are struck by the alignment of these messages to the DigitalNow commitment to value, strategy, and structure. Learn more about how issues like social media, communications, and the relationship economy are affecting your association. Join us at DigitalNow 2011: April 6 - 9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa: Save the Date!

DigitalNow 2010 - a resounding success! Watch videos and download session content from DigitalNow 2010 at http://www.digitalnowlive.comFollow DigitalNow on Twitter.Contribute to the DigitalNow blog. Suggest a blog topic, or reference an article or other item you think would be of interest to the DigitalNow community. Drop us a line at DigitalNow@fusionproductions.com

Fail to prepare or prepare to fail

2010-06-08T09:11:00.005-04:00

Analytics. The mere mention of the word sends some people heading for cover. Numbers, charts, trends, hits, KPIs... it all seems so clinical. But according to Robert F. Hogeboom, principal and owner of BBP Marketing Group, you can't afford to hide your head in the sand when it comes to web analytics. You essentially have one of two choices, says Hogeboom: You can plan, or you can fail.

But take heart - in a recent article, Hogeboom recommends four key steps that will help you prepare your organization to take advantage of all that web analytics have to offer. They include:

Approach web analytics as an insight and optimization solution, not as a reporting solution

Develop a Web-measurement strategy

Develop a phased Web-analytics implementation approach

Be prepared for Web-analytics data not to be 100% accurate

If you missed DigitalNow 2010, you'll want to check out the presentation given by keynote Ian Ayres, author of SuperCrunchers: Why Thinking by the Numbers is the New Way to be Smart. Ian discusses the topic of statistical analysis with clarity and wit. Get ready to change your mind about the role of analytics in your organization. Watch Ian's session here, or simply click on the play window below. And don't miss DigitalNow 2011, April 6-9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa.

DigitalNow 2011: April 6 - 9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa: Save the Date!

Is travel in your future? Then mobile apps should be, too

2010-06-04T10:29:00.000-04:00

The New York Times recently listed a slew of smart phone apps that can help make your next trip smoother. From booking tickets, to getting directions, to receiving alerts on flight delays and finding the best restaurants, mobile apps are revolutionizing the way we travel. (Now if we can just find that app that gets us through airport security without stripping down to our socks...)

Read the article and then try out some of the apps mentioned on your next trip. Don't forget to come back and let us know how you fared.

And speaking of mobile apps, if you're not using them in your organization yet, now is the time to start thinking about how and when. Join us at DigitalNow 2011 where the strategic application of mobile apps is just one of topics we'll cover as we provide you with tools and information you need to lead in a digital age.

DigitalNow 2011: April 6 - 9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa: Save the Date!

Whose game is it, anyway?

2010-06-03T09:50:00.003-04:00

In the early days of the Internet, small businesses were energized and excited at the prospect of participating on a level playing field. The Internet promised global reach and a low cost of entry. However, it wasn't long before the "big guys" learned how to gain an advantage through slick and expensive user interface designs and applications. Small businesses were relegated to the bleachers.

According to Judy Shapiro, chief brand strategist at CloudLinux, small businesses are now getting their chance to get back in the game, thanks to a "... blossoming of new technology platforms and services that give smaller e-merchants many of the tools heretofore only available to big guys." Read all about them at Advertising Age.

Finding new tools is half the battle; understanding how to get value out of them is the other half. DigitalNow is dedicated to helping association executives understand the application of new tools to enable more robust member engagement, value, and loyalty.

DigitalNow 2011: April 6 - 9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa: Save the Date!

What's that buzzing sound?

2010-06-01T09:22:00.002-04:00

The sheer volume, speed, and types of data being uploaded to the Internet every day continues to grow exponentially. You can't hear it, but if you could, the sound might well be deafening.

According to The New York Times, Melissa Mayer, Google VP said, "... there were 5 exabytes of data online in 2002, which had risen to 281 exabytes in 2009. That's a growth rate of 56x over 7 years. Partly, she said, this has been the result of people uploading more data. Mayer said that the average person uploads 15 times more data today (in 2009) than they did just 3 years ago."

Author Richard MacManus writes of the coming data explosion, "We don't know yet which computing or Internet companies will be most successful over the next 5-10 years, but one thing is for sure. They'll have to know how to process and make sense of massive quantities of data flowing through the Web - and do it in real-time." Read the article.

DigitalNow 2011: April 6 - 9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa: Save the Date!

Adaptability as a revenue stream?

2010-05-27T13:54:00.005-04:00

In the last five years, CEO Alan Trefler has led Pegasystems to generate 250% growth, reaching $250 million in revenue in 2010 from around 100 million in 2005. In fact, during the recent recession, Pegasystems continued to grow. The secret? Adaptability, in both product and in process.

Trefler recognized an opportunity for innovation "through a dynamic software product that would be flexible and customizable to better adapt to clients’ changing business needs."

During a recent interview by blogger Kaihan Krippendorff, Trefler said, "If you don’t believe in the rhythm of change, if the rhythm of change is measured in years or quarters because you know that from writing a [technology request] document to the delivery of the result it’s going to take a year, then you become obsessed with putting everything into [that document]…[but] if you believe you can really iterate every week…then your whole view changes. This is an approach that enables continuous improvement."

Trefler's strategy depended on two important shifts:

Rapid iteration, and

A shift from an information-centered view to an interface view.

In practical terms, Trefler's approach was to build a flying horse when his competitors were building bridges.

To read more about how Trefler led success at Pegasystems, visit FastCompany.com.

DigitalNow 2011: April 6 - 9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa: Save the Date!

Death of the Open Web?

2010-05-25T09:27:00.005-04:00

The "open" Web has become saturated, overrun, and has even begun to fall into disuse, with an entire generation of sites being abandoned and virtually (virtually) useless. In a recent article, New York Times author Virginia Heffernan calls the simliarities between what happened in large cities like New York, Chicago, and Detroit and what is happening to the open Web "striking."

"Like the great modern American cities, the Web was founded on equal parts opportunism and idealism. Over the years, nerds, students, creeps, outlaws, rebels, moms, fans, church mice, good-time Charlies, middle managers, senior citizens, starlets, presidents and corporate predators all made their home on the Web... But a kind of virtual redlining is now under way. The Webtropolis is being stratified."

Heffernan says that with the purchase of an iPhone or an iPad, people can escape the riffraff of the Open Web in favor of, "... an orderly suburb... defined by apps from the glittering App Store. In the migration of dissenters from the 'open' Web to pricey and secluded apps, we’re witnessing urban decentralization, suburbanization and the online equivalent of white flight."

Are you headed out of the open Web in favor of paid sites and groups, and/or apps that keep you separate and away from the general Web population? What do you think the ramifications will be of this online stratification?

DigitalNow 2011: April 6 - 9 at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa: Save the Date!

Your most valuable asset? Creativity

2010-05-24T11:39:00.003-04:00

As we're coming off the worst economic conditions that many of us have ever witnessed first-hand, you would think CEOs would be focused on honing management disciplines or tightening operational efficiencies. But according to a new study conducted by IBM, "... 60% of CEOs polled cited creativity as the most important leadership quality compared with 52% for integrity and 35% for global thinking. Creative leaders are also more prepared to break with the status quo of industry, enterprise and revenue models, and they are 81% more likely to rate innovation as a 'crucial capability.'"

The study polled 1,500 corporate heads and public sector leaders across 60 nations and 33 industries.

For a detailed analysis of the study, visit FastCompany.com.

Do you regard creativity as your most important leadership quality? Leave a comment, and tell us what qualities you think are most valuable in a leader in today's climate, and why.

You Snooze, You Lose

2010-05-20T10:50:00.006-04:00

When bringing new products or services to the marketplace, speed is crucial. According to Gregg Gallagher of QuantumLeaders.com, specific payoffs from speed include:

"Speed yields higher profitability - by decreasing time to market, a firm realizes higher revenues from sales being attained earlier and longer within the overall product life cycle.

Speed means fewer surprises - by reducing the likelihood that market conditions will dramatically change during a protracted development period.

Speed yields competitive advantage - via the ability of the company to respond to customers’ needs faster than their competition."

"It takes as long as it takes," is no longer the name of the game. Being fast means developing the ability to shorten your development/launch/evaluation cycle. QuantumLeaders has developed a framework known as the Real Time Execution Wave™, which, "shortens the time between the decision-making elements of observation-decision-action-evaluation."

The Real Time Execution Wave™ is part of The Living Organization Model™. Learn more by downloading the white papers at QuantumLeaders.com (free registration required.)

Do you foursquare?

2010-05-19T09:42:00.006-04:00

Just when you got used the idea of using Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, along comes this strange new social media creature called "foursquare." What exactly is foursquare, and how the heck do you use it?

We were curious too, so we downloaded the app to our iPhone and checked it out. Here's how it works, in a nutshell: When you log in to foursquare, it uses GPS to determine your location. It then presents you with a list of places - businesses, etc. - that are located near you. For example, your office, the coffee shop next door, and the gas station across the street might all be listed. You then select your specific location and you "check in." That's your statement of where you're located at the moment. If your location isn't in the list, you can add it.

Once you are checked in at a location, you can leave tips about it - either on your smart phone, or via the web. If you check in at the coffee shop next door and they have a great breakfast burrito, you can leave a tip that says, "Best breakfast burrito in town!" Then, when future foursquare users check into that coffee shop, they can refer to their app for tips about what's good at that location. And, if they happen to check in there the same time as you, well, you just might make a new friend.

Becoming a foursquare mayor is an interesting feature. Every time you check in at a location, it is recorded. The person who checks in most is dubbed "mayor." Proprietors may offer discounts or freebies to foursquare mayors, which creates fun competition and can increase traffic to the venue as patrons vie to win the spot.

We were a little leery at first. After all, do you really want everyone to know where you are at all times? Well, fear not - foursquare allows you to log in and out at will, and also enables you to check in "off the grid" so others can't see where you are.

While foursquare is fun and can be useful to local retailers and their customers, the application to the association community may not be immediately evident. So tell us: Are you or is anyone in your organization using foursquare? If so, leave a comment and share your best practices and ideas - or share your concerns. With check-ins doubling over a month-long period to more than 40 million, foursquare may very well be the next big thing in social media.

If you build it...

2010-05-18T10:33:00.004-04:00

... will they come?

Yes. And no.

When it comes to building social media communities, valuable content is paramount, but the other half of the equation has to do with your virtual location. Before you set up shop on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, you must determine where your potential audience is most likely to be found.

According to OpenForum.com, people with graduate-level education are most likely found on LinkedIn, and Facebook tends to have a greater number of active females. For an analysis of the demographics by site, read the article here.

A foursquare Economy?

2010-05-13T10:30:00.001-04:00

According to Dan Robles, the next economic paradigm is on the horizon, and it looks bit like the social media site Foursquare. Some of the Foursquare features that Robles says are keys to this new financial system are:

Geolocation helps get people together in the same place at the same time.

Knowledge inventory provides a way for information to exist and be utilized within a community

Vetting mechanisms help to rate or assign value scores to information and its sources

Robles says that currency is the key feature missing from Foursquare, but it is the feature that will eventually make the social media world go 'round. However, "currency" in the context of social media is not what you may think.

"Innovation is a promise of future productivity," writes Robles. "Debt is also a promise of future productivity. It is only a matter of time that all of the activity in this new generation of social media applications will resolve to, and aggregate around, a new form of currency that will compete with the dollar itself."

Read more at www.relationship-economy.com.

Healthcare of the Future

2010-05-12T10:30:00.000-04:00

According to the Harvard Business Review, the field of medicine is ripe for innovation. The bad news is that the barriers to innovation in medicine can be formidable, including everything from resistant doctors to prohibitive costs. However if new ideas, tools, and practices can make it past those barriers and into the mainstream, the opportunity for transformation does exist. HBR's Top Ten Innovations to Transform Medicine include:

"Checklists

Behavioral Economics

Patient Portals

Payment Innovations

Evidence-Based Decision Making

Accountable Care Organizations

virtual Visits

Regenerative Medicine

Surgical Robots

Genetic Medicine"

Read the article at Harvard Business Review.

Social Media for Business: 21 Tips

2010-05-11T10:30:00.000-04:00

If you're one of those people who hasn't yet accepted social media as a valid business enabler, author Brian Solis just may change your mind.

Solis is the author of Engage, a guide for building, measuring and cultivating business success using "the new web."

At SocialMediaToday.com, Solis posts an excerpt, offering 21 tips to get you started - with suggestions for everything from fundraising to recruitment to event promotion.

Have you successfully used social media to achieve a business objective? Leave a comment and share your experience with the community.

Facebook: Don't get highjacked

2010-05-10T08:19:00.005-04:00

As Facebook has risen to the top of the social networking list, the site's privacy settings have been the topic of much discussion. To complicate matters, Facebook's default settings and privacy policies have changed in recent months, catching many users off guard. It is highly recommended that users who have not yet done so should visit the privacy settings on their accounts and make any necessary adjustments. But for some Facebook users, that's the least of their troubles.

The New York Times recently reported that, "bogus and stolen accounts on Facebook are now on sale in high volume on the black market." Highjacked accounts are then used to distribute malicious programs, spread spam, and run identity fraud.

Buzz Marketing Daily offers these five tips for things you can do to protect yourself:

"Don’t share your account password or login information.

Turn off saved passwords & auto-complete options on your browser.

Don’t accept friend requests from people you don’t know.

Don’t click or follow nondescript or otherwise suspicious links.

Remember: If you weren’t friends then, you probably still aren’t now."

Have you experienced any Facebook issues with regard to privacy or fraud? If so, how did you rectify that? Add a comment below and share your experience with the DigitalNow community.

5 Reasons Why the Time is Ripe for Mobile

2010-04-22T08:51:00.005-04:00

5.8 billion mobile subscribers worldwide. That's the forecast for 2013, just three years from now.

If you're not already using mobile in your marketing and/or service delivery, now is the time to take a closer look at how you can capitalize on this most intimate and ubiquitous form of personal technology that we've ever seen.

Author Christine Kerley of MarketingProfs.com offers these five reasons why now is the time to jump onto the mobile bandwagon:

Explosive adoption rates: Business markets have adopted mobile devices in droves—in fact, it's the one device that never leaves users' sides (or pockets)

Fulfilling business-centric needs: Business professionals engage with their mobile devices by virtue of necessity, and needs always trump wants

A uniquely "personal" channel: Mobile is the most personal communications channel and the closest you'll get to your business market, other than in-person interactions

New ways into their worlds: Business professionals will exchange their information, time, and attention in return for mobile benefits

The anytime/anywhere Web necessitates "more show, less tell": With larger amounts of information to manage on smaller screens, business audiences need content in "bite-sized chunks" and to be optimized to mobile environments via text, audio, or video

Read the article here. (Free registration required.)

Have you seen the DigitalNow iPhone app, developed by Fusion Productions for DigitalNow 2010? Check it out at the Apple Store or visit http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/digitalnow/id365837513?mt=8

DigitalNow 2010 - a resounding success!

Watch videos and download session content from DigitalNow 2010 at http://www.digitalnowlive.com

Follow DigitalNow on Twitter.

Contribute to the DigitalNow blog. Suggest a blog topic, or reference an article or other item you think would be of interest to the DigitalNow community. Drop us a line at DigitalNow@fusionproductions.com

Optimizing your network

2010-04-20T09:31:00.002-04:00

Networking expert Dr. Ivan Misner, PhD says that failure to keep both implicit and explicit promises can kill budding relationships that could prove valuable later on. Dr. Misner is chairman of global networking organization BNI International, and he also offers these additional tips on making the most of your people network:

Make people know you. Create an inviting image for yourself and engage people on a social level.

Share information. Follow up with a new contact by sending a marketing tip, photo, or other resource via email.

Think about how other people feel. Having a curiosity about human psychology can help you develop empathy, which can aid you in developing a networking strategy that is not only valuable to you, but is also considerate and helpful to your contacts.

Growing and maintaining a healthy network can enhance your quality of life and help build a brighter future. To view some networking case studies and to read Dr. Misner's list of networking dos and don'ts, check out the the article, How to Make your Network Work

DigitalNow 2010 - a resounding success! Watch videos and download session content from DigitalNow 2010 at http://www.digitalnowlive.com

Follow DigitalNow on Twitter.

Contribute to the DigitalNow blog. Suggest a blog topic, or reference an article or other item you think would be of interest to the DigitalNow community. Drop us a line at DigitalNow@fusionproductions.com

Calling All Bloggers!

2010-03-31T15:42:00.007-04:00

... and Tweeters, and 'Tubers, and... well, anyone who loves social media and wants to be part of the DigitalNow community.

DigitalNow 2010 is just around the corner, and we need you (and your laptop, cell phone, or mobile device!).

The DigitalNow online community is bigger and more vital than ever - due in large part to the valuable contributions of social media aficionados. So if you 're going to be in attendance at DigitalNow 2010, or if you can't be there in person but plan to join us online, we'd like to coordinate with you to optimize the DigitalNow online experience for all attendees everywhere.

Here's how you can help:

If you are joining us in Orlando, drop us a line at digitalnow@fusionproductions.com and let us know that you are willing to provide coverage via your blog, YouTube channel, or other social media site. We'll make sure to reserve you a front row seat, and will work with you to provide access to the people and places you need so you can do your thing.

If you are not joining us "in person" stay tuned to the DigitalNow blog, Twitter feed (#diginow), our DigitalNow Live site (http://www.digitalnowlive.com) and YouTube channel (http://www.FusionProductionsNetwork.com). You can help spread valuable content to your audiences by posting links and redistributing posts, slides, video, and other media the very minute it becomes available. Just let us know how we can help facilitate that process. Write to us at digitalnow@fusionproductions.com.

We look forward to working with you to grow the DigitalNow community in new and exciting ways!

The DigitalNow Team

Registration now open for DigitalNow 2010 - April 7-10 at Disney's Contemporary Resort.

Watch videos and download session content from DigitalNow 2009 at http://www.digitalnowlive.com

Follow DigitalNow on Twitter.

Contribute to the DigitalNow blog. Suggest a blog topic, or reference an article or other item you think would be of interest to the DigitalNow community. Drop us a line at DigitalNow@fusionproductions.com

Join this DigitalNow Workshop Discussion

2010-03-30T08:22:00.001-04:00

by Paul Pomerantz, CAE
Worldwide Executive Director
Drug Information Association

Paul will be moderating a panel discussion at DigitalNow 2010 titled, "You’re Global. Get Over It. Now How?"

These are indeed interesting times. One of the factors most influencing our world is globalization. We’ve developed this panel under the assumption that we are all, in fact, global associations. Much like most industries, the impact of global industries, professions and supply chains makes itself felt in every organization, from local to national to those that fully identify themselves as global. The question is not whether, but how, we have adopted our organizations.

Our panel represents a range of associations and stages of experience with globalization. For all of us, this is a work in progress; we are still learning how to do business in a connected, but rapidly changing world. We are planning for the panel to be very interactive, more of a series of conversations than presentations. We will each share our organizational experiences:

What we do globally and how we got there
The role of governance; How we have organized for globalization
Challenges and opportunities
What we are learning along the way

We hope you plan to be there. To help get things started, we would like to ask you to weigh in on a couple questions here on the Digital Now Blog:

Does your organization consider itself global?
What have been the major enablers or barriers to your development of a global vision or strategy?
Are there specific questions or issues you would like to see this session address?

We look forward to hearing from you here and to seeing you in Orlando!

Paul

Joining Paul for this intriguing discussion will be Gregory Balestrero, President and Chief Executive Officer, Project Management Institute and Ronald B. Kuppersmith, MD, President of the Board at American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery.

To learn more about this session, visit the official DigitalNow web site.

Registration now open for DigitalNow 2010 - April 7-10 at Disney's Contemporary Resort.

Watch videos and download session content from DigitalNow 2009 at http://www.digitalnowlive.com

Follow DigitalNow on Twitter. DigitalNow hashtag: #diginow

Contribute to the DigitalNow blog. Suggest a blog topic, or reference an article or other item you think would be of interest to the DigitalNow community. Drop us a line at DigitalNow@fusionproductions.com

You're Global. Get Over It. (Now How?)

2010-03-17T10:45:00.005-04:00

We are pleased to announce the following DigitalNow 2010 CEO Session:

You’re Global. Get Over It. Now How?

This session features a panel of esteemed industry leaders:

Gregory Balestrero, President and Chief Executive Officer, Project Management Institute

Ronald B. Kuppersmith, MD, President of the Board at American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery

Paul Pomerantz, CAE, Executive Director, Drug Information Association

Session description
The industrial revolution has been replaced by "access innovation." Your industry, your members and your profession are inhaling the fumes of a global economy. Whether your association consciously engages or recognizes your neighbors from southeast Asia or the Middle East, if the board room question is: "Should we go global?" then that is the wrong question. If you are implementing a deliberate global engagement strategy or preparing your members for the real economic and professional impact of global dis-intermediation, then you will want to join this executive and volunteer team as they consider the why, the how, top line issues, governance, culture/nationalism and business planning issues surrounding your global marketplace.

Learning Outcomes

How boards develop a strategy that represents a global framework
Understand how global impacts your state, affiliate, or local chapters beyond a Wall Street Journal article
Understand the key considerations in deployment of your association global network
Build chapters, partner with local NGOs, outsource… what works and doesn't work
Consider how culture or nationalization influence decisions
What governance models work and don't work

We welcome Gregory, Ronald, and Paul, and are excited about their contributions to the DigitalNow community on this critical issue.

Our panelists will be posting additional information and comments on this topic, so stay tuned to the DigitalNow blog - and we invite you to become part of the conversation by posting your comments and questions.

There's only one way to participate in this session: Join us at DigitalNow 2010!

You're only as good as your last decision

2010-03-12T09:37:00.005-05:00

What does your last decision say about you?

As a CEO, your ability to make decisions is key. So, thinking about your personal decision making style and skills is paramount to your success as a leader.

The last time you were faced with a decision, did you waffle, or procrastinate for fear of making the wrong one? Or, did you jump up and pound a stake in the ground prematurely, just for the sake of reaching a position?

According to author Mike Myatt, no matter how many great decisions you've made throughout your career, the truth of the matter is that you are judged on the quality of your last decision.

At Business-Strategy-Innovation.com,Myatt offers these Six Steps of CEO Decision Making, to help guide you on your next decision-making adventure:

Perform a Situation Analysis

Subject your Decision to Public Scrutiny

Conduct a Cost/Benefit Analysis

Assess the Risk/Reward Ratio

Assess Whether it is the Right Thing To Do

Make The Decision

Myatt says that finding the right action-to-analysis ratio is critical to developing a style that will result in consistently good decisions. Read the article here.

As you prepare your association for the future, you can expect not only to be faced with more crucial decisions in the coming months and years, but those decisions are likely to be more complex, as well. At DigitalNow 2010, we will provide you with the thought leadership, tools, and community expertise to help you make decisions for continued success. Learn more at www.DigitalNowConference.com

Leadership trends for 2010

2010-02-24T10:30:00.003-05:00

Bloomberg BusinessWeek.com and Hay Group conducted their Best Companies for Leadership survey, which revealed two key results:

"The Top 20 companies this year are significantly more likely to be primarily focused on 'positioning for the future' than other companies.The behavior of these companies indicates they believe the recession is over.

In last year's program, the quality that the Top 20 companies valued most in their leaders was execution—the ability of leaders to achieve results through others. This year, the most valued quality is strategic thinking."

Other trends for 2010 are around expanding roles for women and the advantages of social responsibility. Read the article here

Author Rick Lash states, "If your business isn't looking ahead, you're already behind."

Take a look at the association of the future as we inspect, innovate, and integrate great ideas and technologies at DigitalNow 2010.

Operational effectiveness is not a strategy

2010-02-23T10:30:00.000-05:00

2009 found all of us tightening our belts, "reallocating" resources, and finding inventive ways to do more with less. We had to; it was a matter of survival during a crisis. By now, you're probably operating pretty close to the bone, so if there's nothing left to cut, where do you go from here?

A recent article by Tim Laseter at Strategy-Business.com suggests that the answer is to shift focus from operational efficiencies to operational strategy.

Quoting author Michael Porter, Laseter offers this definition of strategy: Strategy is " 'the creation of a unique and valuable position, involving a different set of activities.' He also noted that 'strategy is making trade-offs in competing' — including 'choosing what not to do.' Finally, he emphasized the importance of fit among a company’s activities: 'The success of a strategy depends on doing many things well — not just a few — and integrating among them.' "

Laseter states that, "An operations strategy should guide the structural decisions and the evolution of operational capabilities needed to achieve the desired competitive position of the company as a whole" and in the article (free registration required for access) he goes on to list and discuss key structural decisions as well as operational capabilities.

Three key competencies for association leaders in today's marketplace include the ability to inspect, to innovate, and to integrate. Join us at DigitalNow as we present thought leaders and case studies to help you place these critical competencies into the framework of your association.

Ten management non-practices

2010-02-22T10:30:00.004-05:00

Liz Ryan is an expert on the new-millennium workplace and a former Fortune 500 HR executive. BusinessWeek.com recently published her Ten Management Practices to Axe. Among them is this antiquated social media policy point:

"Social Media Thought Police: It's reasonable to block Youtube (GOOG) in the office because of the bandwidth it consumes. The recent e-mail message I received from a worker who'd just been informed of her employer's 'no LinkedIn profiles permitted' policy sets a new low for organizational paranoia. Memo to your general counsel: Human beings work in your business, not robots or replicants. People have lives, brands, and connections beyond your walls, and those human entanglements are more likely to help your business than to hurt it. What to do instead: Treat people like babies only if you want them to act like babies. Let the rest of them update their LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter accounts appropriately, and if they're not getting their work done, deal with that problem on its own."

Read Ryan's other nine "brainless and injurious" management practices here.

How does our changing culture affect the way you manage? Join us at DigitalNow and participate in discussions initiated by keynote Emmanuel Gobillot, author of the book, Leadershift: Reinventing leadership for the age of mass collaboration.

Why innovate?

2010-02-18T10:30:00.003-05:00

Everyone's talking about innovation as a core competency for excellence in leadership. But why? It almost seems moot to ask, but have you asked yourself, "Why do I care about innovation?"

At Blogging Innovation, authors Robert F. Brands and Jeff Zbar make no bones about it: Successful innovation turns ideas into money.

Some ways in which innovation may add value include:

"Enhancing the business model;

Networking;

Enabling a new core process;

Creating a new channel, brand or customer experience delivery model;

Offering a new product system, boosting product performance, or providing a new service."

The key to successful innovation? Finding the "balance between cost, price, and return. Balance is found, in part, by seeking stakeholder input and customer feedback during development..." Read the article here.

At DigitalNow 2010, we are presenting speakers and workshops to help you identify your opportunities for innovation and develop processes for successful implementation.

DigitalNow 2010: Inspect, Innovate, Integrate. Are you IN³?

Keep it clean: Your reputation in 2010

2010-02-17T10:30:00.002-05:00

James O’Brien, director of marketing with e-mail compliance company LashBack, says that there will be several "hot-button" issues regarding e-mail reputation in 2010.

Here are four reputation-related issues you may need to address this year:

Your privacy policy: Making your policy available when people first subscribe to your emails may not be enough; you should also be notifying all subscribers whenever you implement a policy change.

The disposability of data: If your subscribers go for long periods of time without interacting with you, their data will quickly become obsolete. When it does, it will need to be purged. Continuing to send new messages to dormant or unwelcoming addresses can increase complaints, and impact performance data regarding bounce rates, unsubscribe requests, etc.

The increased importance of unsubscribes: Give subscribers the option of opting out by message type so they can choose to discontinue messages they don't want without completely severing ties.

The return of address book requests: Asking your subscribers to make sure that your domain is added to their safe list is an "oldie but a goody" when it comes to email marketing practices.

Learn more about keeping your email marketing reputation clean in 2010 by reading this article at BtoBonline.com.

Dot-to-dot thinking

2010-02-16T10:30:00.002-05:00

President Obama has commented that the "counterterrorism community" as a whole failed "to connect the dots of intelligence" that would have prevented Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from boarding a plane to Detroit on Christmas Day.

"Connecting the dots" may well become the newest catch phrase, right along with "design thinking."

SmartBrief recently conducted a poll, which asked, "In your organization, what prevents people from 'connecting the dots' with important information?

Here are the results and commentary from a research consultant:

Corporate silos blocking information flow 33.46%

Unwillingness to speak truth to power 25.24%

No direct responsibility/'not my problem' attitude 19.94%

Poor listening/unwillingness to hear bad news 11.28%

Political correctness 6.12%

Paucity of information 3.96%"

Join us at DigitalNow 2010 and learn to inspect, innovate, and integrate to connect the dots in your organization.

Latest statistics on Internet use from Pew Internet

2010-02-15T10:30:00.001-05:00

Here are some of the latest statistics on Internet use according to PewInternet.org:

94% of teens aged 12-17 go online

58% of 12-year-olds have a cell phone, up from 18% just five years ago

Of those teens who are online, 73% of them are engaged in social networking, compared to 18% three years ago

93% of 18-29-year-olds have a cell phone, and 93% go online

47% of adults use social media, up 10% from a year ago

All statistics are taken from the report, Social Media and Young Adults, conducted by Pew Internet and American Life Project.

At DigitalNow 2010, we'll be discussing trends in Internet behavior, and exploring how those trends inspire innovations in member and revenue models.

Do you have a social media policy?

2010-02-12T12:25:00.005-05:00

It's a fact of modern-day life: social media is all around and everywhere. The issue is not whether you will accept it, but rather how you will respond to it.

By now, most of you have likely heard some of the social media horror stories as well as the success stories. So how can you minimize the chance that you'll experience the former and maximize the chance that you'll experience the latter? One way is to develop and communicate a social media policy within your organization.

To help get you started Kodak, Intel, and Hewlett-Packard have gone public with their own policies. Read this article to find out how you can download those policies, and then use them to help guide you in your decisions regarding what will work best for your organization.

Discussion questions:

Do you currently have a social media policy?

What do you believe are the most critical issues that a written policy will aid in addressing?

Design Thinking as a Path to Innovation

2010-02-05T10:30:00.003-05:00

The term "design thinking" was coined by David Kelley of IDEO and it refers to a set of principles that can be applied to solve complex problems. According to the Stanford Social Innovation Review, "Design thinking relies on our ability to be intuitive, to recognize patterns, to construct ideas that have emotional meaning as well as being functional, and to express ourselves in media other than words or symbols."

Rather then a sequence of orderly steps, the design thinking process is a system of "spaces": Inspiration, ideation, and implementation. Read the article for an example of effective design thinking in action.

At DigitalNow 2010, our focus is on "Inspect, Innovate, Integrate," and we are presenting keynote speakers, panels, and educational sessions dedicated to providing you with the tools you need to solve the complex problems of your association.

Do you have "it"?

2010-01-26T10:30:00.000-05:00

Bob Nardelli delivered impressive operational results during his six-year tenure as CEO of Home Depot, but because he didn't have "it," there was "massive turnover among executives and unhappiness among shareholders," and he was eventually ousted.

Critics attribute the failure of Notre Dame's former football coach Charlie Weis to the fact that he didn't have "it" either.

What is it? The ability to listen.

In an article at Forbes.com, John Ryan writes that every CEO needs to be his or her own CLO (Chief Listening Officer).

Read more here.

Develop and apply your listening skills at DigitalNow, where cutting-edge keynotes and expert workshop presenters will share knowledge and experience to help you position your association for the future.

Innovation is smart business

2010-01-25T10:00:00.001-05:00

When the McKinsey consulting group asked executives where the government should direct the majority of its stimulus spending, "59 percent of respondents said 'on fostering innovation and potential new industries,' putting it in the top spot, even before potential solutions such as 'on helping workers who have been laid off' or 'on helping existing companies.'"

Companies across the board - from biotechnology to energy to the IPO market - are proving that innovation means not only new solutions to human problems, but it means money, too.

Read the article to see read more about how these companies are continuing to reinvent themselves, and how innovation may save the economy.

DigitalNow is all about helping associations develop and execute innovation. Join us in Orlando as we celebrate 10 years of DigitalNow innovation, knowledge sharing, and community.

10 "must read" books on social media

2010-01-22T08:42:00.005-05:00

If social media is a growth area for your organization, then this book list is made for you. Recommended by The New York Times, these titles are all available both as hard copy, and as ebooks. (Hint: If you have an iPhone, there is a free Kindle app. Download the app, download the Kindle version of any book, and take your reading list anywhere you take your phone.)

We hope you'll check these titles out, and if you do, please come back to The DigitalNow Blog and let us know what you think.

Amazon.com Widgets

For more great resources you don't want to miss, be sure to attend DigitalNow 2010 - celebrating 10 years of community, leadership, and innovation for association leaders.

Happy Anniversary to you!

2010-01-19T11:54:00.011-05:00

It’s 2010 and DigitalNow is 10 years old!

In celebration of this milestone, we want to commemorate all the ways in which the DigitalNow community has helped you grow and thrive. Our collective experience together with the latest and greatest in keynote speakers, technology innovation, and solid education, information, and networking has been the cornerstone of many significant association innvoations.

We want to hear from you about how being part of the DigitalNow community has been part of your journey.

Here to start us off is Thomas Nordby, CAE, Assistant Vice President, Business Operations, National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA). Listen as Thomas discusses how DigitalNow has helped him bring concrete, measurable value to his work with NDIA.

We want you to participate in the celebration by sharing your story of success with the community. So express yourself! Write a case study, create a video, or just drop us a note telling us:

Why you attend (or have attended DigitalNow)

How you have benefited from your participation

About valuable relationships you’ve forged as part of the DigitalNow community

Specific actions you have taken as the result of DigitalNow and what impact they have had on your organization

We will be featuring select submissions through our social media communications, and on site as part of the conference program.
Questions? Contact Julie McKown (jmckown@fusionproductions.com), (585)872-1900 x276.

Stay tuned for additional exciting DigitalNow program announcements.(coming soon!)

Is there a CEO gene?

2010-01-07T10:30:00.000-05:00

Are the most talented among us the ones who are destined for greatness? If so, where does that talent come from? Despite the fact that we live in the age of genomic research, no specific genes for what we call "talent" have been been identified. According to CNNMoney.com, even if we do find the talent gene, it is unlikely that it would provide the entire explanation for why some people achieve greatness.

What research has found, however, is that the key to greatness is something they call deliberate practice.

"Deliberate practice is a specific and unique kind of activity, neither work nor play. It's characterized by several elements that together form a powerful whole. The greatest performers have consistently combined these elements, sometimes just by luck."

The elements of deliberate practice are worth examining. They include:

Deliberate practice is designed specifically to improve performance.

Deliberate practice can be repeated a lot.

Feedback on results is continuously available.

It's highly demanding mentally.

It's hard.

It demands self-regulation
- Before the work
- During the work
- After the work

Read the article here.

Your second brain?

2010-01-06T10:30:00.000-05:00

At DigitalNow 2009, we presented Phil Libin, founder of Evernote, a revolutionary new tool that enables you to scan, copy, store, and share a variety of media through a variety of sources and then save it all in one centralized database. It's been said that Evernote is like having a second brain.

Evernote recently announced that it had raised $10 million from Morgenthaler Ventures and previous investors, from whom it had already raised $6.5 million. According to Libin, the money will be used to expand to more platforms and to move into Europe and Japan.

It seems that there are more than a few people who have need for the boost in brain power: Since being introduced in June 2008, Evernote has amassed more than 2 million users. Evernote works on the Web, with Windows and MACs, and can also be used with popular hand held devices. Learn more here.

Don't miss DigitalNow 2010 - where you can be sure to discover how the next big innovations in technology can add value to your organization.

What kind of a leader are you, anyway?

2010-01-04T15:24:00.007-05:00

Successful leadership isn't just a matter of style. Nor it is dependent solely on environment. In order to lead successfully, it is crucial to know which style to adopt to most effectively address current circumstances.

Paul Sloane lays out the characteristics of two extremes of leadership style: The "command and control" leader and the "innovative" leader.

According to Sloane, "command and control" leaders check and control while "innovative" leaders delegate and trust.

Read the article to see which direction your style tends toward, and to learn more about when your style is most effective.

Join us at DigitalNow to explore and discover how to make the right shifts in your leadership style to meet the challenges of today. DigitalNow is pleased to present keynote speaker Emmanuel Gobillot, author of "Leadershift: Reinventing leadership for the age of mass collaboration."

The future is about context

2010-01-04T15:10:00.006-05:00

The semantic web has been heralded as the wave of the future, but what unique value does it bring?

According to Alisa Leonard-Hansen, while it will take some time before the semantic web fulfills its potential, its value is based in its ability to enable a more meaningful and relevant individual web experience by layering that experience"with contextual social data based on my identity.

"Our online identity." writes Leonard-Hansen, "will increasingly be defined by three 'pillars': who I say I am, what I do and say, and who I connect to (and who connects to me).

To clarify, our online identities are comprised primarily of three specific kinds of data:

Explicit or prescriptive data (i.e. the data that I input about myself: name, age, occupation, etc.);

Activity or behavioral data (i.e. what I do and say online);

Relationship data (i.e. my social graph and what my connections say about me).

The ultimate benefit? "Greater access to information through discovery, communication and collaboration."

Read the article at ReadWriteWeb.com

2010 social media predictions

2009-12-30T10:30:00.002-05:00

Joel Postman of socialmediatoday.com has published his 2010 social media predictions, including:

Augemented reality applications will start to mainstream
Location-Based Applications Will Dissolve Into General Social Networks
Enterprise Social Software Applications Will Become Commonplace
More Social Media Regulation Will Follow the FTC’s October Endorsement Guides
Social Search Will Shake Out, and the Search Metaphor Will Change

To see the details, and to share your responses to them, visit Joel's blog at www.socialmediatoday.com

Case study in social media monitoring

2009-12-29T08:14:00.004-05:00

The question is not whether people are talking about you online. We know that they are. (In fact, if people are not talking about you online, you'd better get out there and get the conversation going.)

The question is, "What are you doing about the conversation?"

Tolerating the conversation isn't enough. In order to derive the greatest benefit from online engagement, you need to monitor the conversations that are already happening, and then respond when necessary.

Sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it? As AAA learned, the alternatives (such as a PR crises) don't leave progressive organizations with much choice.

The good news is that there are tools available to help take some of the guesswork out of who is talking and where they are.

The case study below from Marketing Profs provides insight to the challenges and solutions that AAA faced as they began to monitor their social media conversations.

by Erik Bratt

Company: American Automobile Association (AAA)

Contact: Janie Graziani, social media manager

Location: Heathrow, Fla.

Industry: Insurance, Travel Services

Annual revenue: Confidential

Number of employees: Confidential

Based in Heathrow, Fla., and founded in 1902, the American Automobile Association (AAA) is a not-for-profit insurance company known primarily for providing emergency roadside service, maps, and other travel services. It has more than 50 million members.

With an increasing number of its members starting to talk about AAA via social media, the company decided it needed to start listening and engaging.

Challenge

AAA noticed that an increasing number of members were voicing issues and complaints via social media instead of calling their local AAA office. AAA understood that it needed to be aware of these conversations, not only to be responsive as possible to customers but also to make sure member concerns do not snowball into PR crises.

AAA was challenged to better monitor and respond to customer issues being aired on the social Web.

Campaign

AAA already had been using a social media monitoring solution, but the company needed a more robust enterprise solution that could monitor a broader range of social media outlets and also provide CRM capabilities.

At a conference for the Society of New Communications Research (SNCR), Janie Graziani, AAA's social media manager, discovered Radian6. The company's solution was what AAA needed. Within a short time, the company began monitoring an average of about 8,500 AAA mentions per month using social media.

Because of her expertise, Graziani became the focal point for the company's customer service outreach on the social Web. Working through Graziani and using Radian6, the company began responding to everything from roadside assistance queries to website links that didn't work. In one instance, Graziani helped provide support to a woman whose college-age son was stuck in his car along the freeway in another state. Because his car had broken down in an area where AAA wasn't allowed to tow, the situation required special attention. Graziani first noticed the problem in a chat forum for the parents of college students.

Graziani sets up daily alerts for certain keywords, such as "AAA," and instant alerts for others, such as any mention of the company's president and CEO, Robert L. Darbelnet, which may require a PR response.

As social media hits the mainstream, more and more motorists are beginning to shout out on Twitter and other social media channels for help. AAA is certainly listening. (Please note: Graziani says the best way to get immediate help is still to call the AAA hotline.)

Results

AAA doesn't have enough data to quantify the specific impact of social media monitoring, but the company has increased the immediacy with which it responds to customer issues. Of the 8,500 social media mentions the company generates per month, AAA responds to between 100 and 200 of those, Graziani says. If she can't address the complaint or issue on her own, she will funnel it to the customer support team.

Social media monitoring has also been a boon to AAA's public relations because issues that have the potential to flare up on blogs and in chat rooms are addressed more quickly.

The company is also using social media for general customer communications, such as tweeting about the company's new iPhone application.

Though the company hears its fair share of complaints, most of the comments are positive. Graziani's favorite was one that appeared on Twitter recently: "Don't you think AAA service technicians should wear superhero costumes?"

Although Graziani is technically in public relations, her role in social media means she also has one foot in customer service—proof that social media continues to blur the lines between public relations, marketing, and customer service.

Lessons Learned

Consider incorporating your public relations staff into your customer service response process when it comes to social media. PR pros understand the medium.

Monitor other social media channels, such as chat forums, so you can catch important conversations.

Social media monitoring is helping AAA to achieve to important objectives, Graziani says: "We are finding out what people are saying about us … [and] helping us quickly respond when there are issues with our products or services. It's definitely helped improve our response times."

Check out Social Media ROI Success Stories, a MarketingProfs case study collection, to see how 11 companies are using social media to market to consumers and businesses in a new way, while measuring and monitoring the success of their social media campaigns.

Erik Bratt is president of Engage Social Media (www.engagesocialmedia.com), which provides PR and social media B2C and B2B consulting services. He is a former newspaper journalist turned PR and marketing professional with more than a decade of experience in online marketing. Follow him on Twitter @erikbratt.

Capitalizing on Twitter

2009-12-21T08:27:00.004-05:00

Now that the Twitter-mania has died down and we have settled comfortably into the adoption phase of this microblogging tool, it's time to step back and consider whether you are capitalizing on the potential that Twitter offers.

Michael Kahn at ChiefMarketer.com poses "Five Must Ask Twitter Questions" including:

Are we using Twitter to help boost our site traffic?

Are we using Twitter to improve our search rankings?

Are we tapping Twitter to sell seasonal merchandise and excess inventory?

Is Twitter helping our search and reputation management efforts?

Are we doing more than distributing static news and chatter?

If you can't answer "yes" to these questions, you are missing opportunities to take advantage of the power of the tool. Learn more here.

Affordable innovation

2009-12-17T08:26:00.003-05:00

Often when we think of innovation, we imagine investing (and risking) copious amounts of time, money, and energy. According to the MIT Sloan Management review, however, technology has "lowered the price of failure," making it possible to challenge the status quo, experiment, and develop innovation - all "on the cheap" and at warp speed.

"Technology is transforming innovation at its core, allowing companies to test new ideas at speeds—and prices—that were unimaginable even a decade ago... Where will all this lead? Experiments will become far more pervasive and persuasive as information technology improves and testing grows faster and cheaper."

Read the article here.

Leadership: Do you have the right stuff?

2009-12-03T07:51:00.007-05:00

Great leaders come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and styles. But according to Mike Myatt, top CEO Coach, author of "Leadership Matters...The CEO Survival Manual", and Managing Director of N2Growth, you can help ensure your success as a leader by focusing on key characteristics and competencies, including:

Integrity

Decision making skills

Focus

Commanding presence

Energy

Curiosity

People acumen

Organizational acumen

See Myatt's complete list of leadership traits at www.Business-Strategy-Innovation.com.

After you review the list, we invite you to comment below about which traits you think are most critical, which you find most challenging, and why.

Getting members addicted to your online community

2009-12-02T08:13:00.005-05:00

Getting members to register is the first step in building your online community - but it does no good to have hundreds or thousands of members if they are not participating in the community. At http://www.communityspark.com, Martin Reed shares his tips for getting members not only to join, but to become active contributors. His tips include:

Keep the community visible

Make registration links prominent

Make registration easy

Keep an eye on the activation process

Delegate community building tasks

Be contactable and approachable

Read the entire article and get involved in the lively conversation around it here.

Making better decisions

2009-11-20T10:30:00.000-05:00

As everyone diligently seeks ways to improve efficiencies to support the ever-increasing call to "do more for less," process re-engineering is a key activity. However, it is important to also look at the factors contributing to our current state, much of which is arguably due to collective poor decision-making.

Accordingly, this is a prime opportunity to take some time to look at the process through which we arrive at decisions. By looking critically at that process, we may better understand how decisions are made and how we can help ensure that they are made well.

In a recent edition of the Harvard Business Review, Thomas Davenport identified a framework for improving decisions which includes:

Identification: List your decisions and prioritize them

Inventory: List the factors that need to go into each decision

Intervention: Design roles, processes, and behaviors

Demystifying cloud computing

2009-11-19T10:30:00.003-05:00

Cloud computing. It sounds ethereal and a bit mystical, but what is it, exactly?

If you've heard this term batted around recently, but haven't yet wrapped your mind around it, here's a quick overview that we hope will clear up the, well, the cloud around it.

The traditional model for web site hosting requires that your web site and server-side applications be hosted on a physical server that sits at a physical location – either rented or at your offices. If your web site goes down or experiences slow-downs or outages, you or your service provider are responsible for tending to your server and getting things up and running as quickly as possible.

In this scenario, you are still responsible for making sure that you are aware of and able to report performance issues as they arise. You are also responsible for initiating and paying for the latest versions of any server-side applications you use such as Windows Server, Linux/UNIX, etc.

In a cloud infrastructure (also know as cloud computing), you don't actually own a physical server. Rather, you purchase an allocation of resources from a huge conglomeration of servers that are spread out all over the country and even around the world. This resource allocation is referred to as an "instance." If you require an instance that provides 3 gigabytes of storage, for example, then you would pay not for a server or part of a server that provides that, but rather for the resource itself. And because that service isn't tied directly to a single machine, but is shared by a powerful system of machines from a variety of geographical locations, you enjoy the benefits of universal physical redundancy, optimum performance, and inherent disaster recovery.

Additionally, your cloud provider is responsible for keeping your server-side applications up to date. That means you no longer have to keep track of or pay for the latest upgrades to your operating systems – as they are often included in the price of your instance.

To learn more about cloud computing (which we hope is not such a mystery anymore), read this article at Cnet News.

Successful leadership communications

2009-11-18T10:30:00.000-05:00

You need to make a phone call. No doubt, you've thought about who you want to talk to, what you want to say, how you want to say it, and finally, you usually know the best time to call and the right number.

The point is that when you need to make a phone call, you plan - you would never just turn on your phone, hit some keys and then start randomly speaking. However, that's what you are in effect doing if you fail to think critically about all the ways in which you communicate.

Whether you're conducting a face-to-face executive meeting, a town hall, or an email, it's important to ask: What do I hope to accomplish? Am I communicating with the right person? Is my call to action clear? Am I presenting the information in a way that is appealing and memorable?

Effective leaders communicate effectively, and Jacqueline Moore believes that good communicators can take a lesson from journalists. If you think you have room to grow as communicator, you may be interested to read these tips from The CEO Refresher.

Content: It's not someone else's problem

2009-11-17T10:19:00.002-05:00

Practically since the PC boom in the mid 1990s, individuals and organizations have been consumed - and even obsessed - with learning how to use available technology to deliver content.

But what about the content itself? Are we giving content the time and attention it deserves? After all, what good does it do to have a slick web site and to hold accounts on all the latest social media sites if no one cares about what you have to say?

The time and attention of members is at a premium, and as demands grow, time and attention will become more and more precious. If you want to add value and protect your relevance, getting in touch with members online is only part of the challenge - making sure you have something of value to offer is what will make them come back.

Good content that provides value in the right way to the right people at the right time doesn't just happen. It requires a solid content strategy. Kristina Halvorson is the founder and president of Brain Traffic, and she says that at its best, a content strategy defines:

key themes and messages,

recommended topics,

content purpose (i.e., how content will bridge the space between audience needs and business requirements),

content gap analysis,

metadata frameworks and related content attributes,

search engine optimization (SEO), and

implications of strategic recommendations on content creation, publication, and governance.aving a solid content strategy in place requires

Read her article at A List Apart.

Technology supported adaptive learning

2009-11-16T10:12:00.004-05:00

The key to technology supported education is effective engagement of the interest of the learner. You'll be interested to know... there's an app for that.

Smart.fm is an adpative learning application that helps people remember new information by presenting it at a frequency and schedule that is most likely to support learning.

According to TechnologyReview.com, Smart.fm's "algorithms determine how often to present a piece of information to the user and in what context. For example, a completely new word and its translation are shown frequently, and a user is asked relatively easy questions about them, designed to jog the memory. But once the user has demonstrated the ability to recall that word and its meaning, this information will appear less often.

'Efficiency is the main thing,' Lewis says. 'We want to optimize the sweet spot between the minimum number of times you have to see an item and the maximum effectiveness of that presentation.'"

Read the article here.

Lead with the brain in mind

2009-11-11T08:29:00.006-05:00

According to recent research at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), the social pain that people experience when they feel rejected causes a response in the brain similar to that of a physical blow. So when people say that it hurts to be left out or devalued, that's because the brain doesn't differentiate between physical and social suffering.

Researchers Naomi Eisenberger and Matthew Lieberman hypothesized that "human beings evolved this link between social connection and physical discomfort within the brain because, to a mammal, being socially connected to caregivers is necessary for survival."

Any number of situations may cause social pain - from being excluded from a discussion to getting reprimanded, to taking a pay cut. In some organizations, employees are expected to rationalize the way these events make them feel, but in the long run, it creates resentment and makes people reluctant to become engaged and committed in the workplace.

Leaders who want to create a collaborative environment that brings out the best in everyone and optimizes creativity and collaboration will do well to recognize this dynamic and take conscious steps to lead with the brain in mind.

Read more at Strategy+Business.

FEI Financial Reporting Blog: FEI Committee on Corporate Reporting (CCR), SEC Chairman, Others Write Congress On Standard-Setting

2009-11-10T21:49:00.000-05:00

FEI Financial Reporting Blog: FEI Committee on Corporate Reporting (CCR), SEC Chairman, Others Write Congress On Standard-Setting

Registration now open for DigitalNow 2010 - April 7-10 at Disney's Contemporary Resort.

Watch videos and download session content from DigitalNow 2009 at http://www.digitalnowlive.com/

Follow DigitalNow on Twitter.

Contribute to the DigitalNow blog. Suggest a blog topic, or reference an article or other item you think would be of interest to the DigitalNow community. Drop us a line at DigitalNow@fusionproductions.com

Four Styles of Leadership

2009-11-04T09:22:00.009-05:00

Rich Karlgaard, Publisher at Forbes.com, recently wrote about his experience of watching a panel at the recent Forbes Global CEO Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Karlgaard said that the panel discussion revealed four leadership styles:

Visionary: This includes leaders such as Steve Jobs of Apple and Whole Foods' John Mackey.

Empathetic: Leaders who fall under this style include Bill Hewlett, cofounder of Hewlett-Packard and Admiral Bill Owens.

The Humble Servitude leadership style is demonstrated by people like Wal-Mart Chairman S. Robson Walton.

Moral/Ethical leaders like Francis Yeoh, head of Malaysia's YTL Corp. are engaged in a powerful style, but one that is subject to human frailty.

Ultimately, states Karlgaard, the leadership style must fit both the leader and the organization. Read the entire article at Karlgaard's blog, DigitalRules.

Age of Social Entrepreneurship

2009-11-03T08:37:00.007-05:00

Social entrepreneurs are obsessed with solutions as much as they are with execution. They have the ideas and they are dedicated to implementing them. These are the people who change the world. The platform for social entrepreneurship is the not-for-profit corporation.

Renowned management expert Peter Drucker estimates that more than 800,000 not-for-profit organizations have been established over the past 30 years.

Bill Drayton, Founder of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public says, "We're in this wonderfully creative period where it is the time to build the intelligent institutions that will support a competitive social half of society. To my mind, the single major evolutionary task that our generation faces is developing the democratic revolution's institutions beyond business in the social arena. And people are getting the idea that they can have a career doing this."

Ashoka was founded in 1980 by Bill Drayton in Washington, DC. The organization started with an annual budget of $50,000, and by 2006, had grown to nearly $30 million. Ashoka has established programs in over 60 countries, employs 160 staff in 25 regional offices throughout Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.

Read about the journey of Bill Drayton and Ashoka at TheAtlantic.com

Millenial social media refusniks

2009-10-29T08:14:00.004-04:00

Contrary to what you may have heard, not all members of the "new school" generation have been eager to adopt social media. In fact, there are enough of them holding out to earn them their own name: refusniks.

Refusniks are the 18 - 29-year-olds who eschew the practice of connecting and communicating on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. Their reasons vary - some are fiercely protective of their privacy and others just simply hate typing.

Since Facebook just announced that it has 300 million members, it stands to reason that refusniks are coming under increasing pressure - and that they are bound to miss out on some important information along the way.

Read more at http://www.washingtonpost.com

Fish out of water

2009-10-27T10:30:00.000-04:00

If you're considering new revenue models, or new models of engagement, yet are concerned about being "a fish out of water," blogger Kaihan Krippendorff says you should remember that, "the fish out of water has no other fish to contend with."

In essence, if you discover a unique model that works, you won't have any competition - at least not until your competitors catch on and catch up.

Read this article to learn about how Rosetta Stone adopted an unorthodox approach to marketing their products, and what the results were.

Not sure how to uncover "fish out of water" opportunities? Krippendorff says to ask yourself the questions below:

What path are others fixated on because they assume it is the right one?

What ideas do I have to change that approach?

How can I make things better, faster and more efficient?

How can I research my ideas without spending a lot of money upfront?

Taking opportunity inventory

2009-10-22T09:01:00.005-04:00

While we're not out of the economic woods yet, the faint chatter of recovery can be heard in the distance. For most of us, day-to-day business is still about saving money, cutting costs, and increasing efficiencies.

The one thing we're all counting on, though, is that the economy will rebound and we will be able to switch our focus from a "do more with less" mentality to one of growth.

So how can we keep our eyes fixed firmly on the issues of the day and also look into the future? According to Rita McGrath, one way might be to create a special "growth group" within your organization. Growth groups take inventory of the opportunities for your organization, creating and managing a pipeline in support of the range of your functional or business lines.

In a recent article at Harvard Business Review, McGrath - author of, Discovery Driven Growth - discusses the purpose and characteristics of a growth group. Read the article here.

Content is still king

2009-10-20T22:30:00.002-04:00

Internet users are spending more time online with content than they are with communities or communications, according to the Online Publishers Association's (OPA)Internet Activity Index (IAI).

The IAI states that users spend the majority of their increasing time on content sites - up from 34% of total time spent in 2003 to 42% in 2009. According to the index, user time spent on content sites increased by 24% while the time they spent on communications and commerce decreased. The only area studied that enjoyed a greater increase was search, which accounted for 3% of users' time online in 2003, and 67% in 2009.

For a more through discussion, read this article at MarketingCharts.com

Can you trust the wisdom of the crowds?

2009-10-19T12:51:00.003-04:00

When you visit Amazon.com or IMDb.com and see a book or movie with a high customer review rating, it could mean that many people tried the product and voted on it, and that most of them gave their approval. Or, it could mean that a few zealous reviewers voted over and over again.

Niki Kittur is an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studies user collaboration on Wikipedia. he says, "There are both intentional and unintentional sources of bias. In the end, what we really need [are] tools and transparency."

Read this article at TechnologyReview.com to learn more.

How much weight do you give to customer reviews? Have you found them to be trustworthy?

How small businesses outperform the economy

2009-10-19T10:30:00.001-04:00

Being small sometimes has its advantages - especially when it comes to surviving this tough economy.

Jeffrey M. Stibel is an entrepreneur and brain scientist, and he says that small businesses are engaging in the following approaches as a means to outperform the economy:

Action

Planning is important

Innovative financing

Give the people what they want

Read Jeff's article at HarvardBusiness.org

Personal data as online currency

2009-10-16T11:17:00.003-04:00

Chances are that if you want to read a really great article from a reliable source, you'll be asked to provide some personal data in order to gain access. Perhaps a form will pop up, asking for your name and email address. Maybe you'll also be asked to select your gender, profession, or even income level from a series of drop-down boxes.

From the user side, how far people are willing to go depends on how much they value the information you're providing. From a marketer's perspective, then, it is important to map what you're asking people to provide to a benefit they'll receive.

Jim Sterne, founder and director of Target Marketing (and former DigitalNow speaker) offers five levels of "one-to-one mapping between the data we gather and the benefit we provide, which may ultimately be the key to increasing consumer trust:

Level One: No visitor data is gathered.

Benefit provided: The visitor is granted access to marketing materials and can wander throughout your public website .

Level Two: The visitor allows cookies and JavaScript tags.

Benefit provided: The visitor has access to whitepapers, blogs, use of shopping carts, etc.

Level Three: The visitor's email address is entered.

Benefit provided: The visitor receives your newsletter, special deals, webinar invitations, RSS feeds, and anything else that can be communicated via email.

Level Four: The visitor's postal address and preferences are collected.

Benefit provided: If you go so far as to ask a visitor for a postal address, you must reciprocate with a higher level of value, such as sales notifications to the visitor's friends and family, special event invitations, members-only webinars, shipping products, etc.

Level Five: The visitor supplies valuable information beyond a sign-up sheet, through participation in a survey or an advisory council.

Read Jim's entire article here. (Please note that you will be asked to provide your name and email address - but we think it's worth it.)

Are you drawing conclusions?

2009-10-14T14:02:00.011-04:00

The next time you need to collaborate on a problem, sell an idea, or understand a complicated issue, consider skipping the fancy tools and reach instead for a pen and a cocktail napkin.

According to Dan Roam, author of The Back of the Napkin, about 75% of the neurons in the brain are devoted to visual processing, "... so why not communicate in a way that uses all of it?"

Read this article to learn more about Roam's ideas on visual thinking and how you can incorporate this practice into your work and life.

To demonstrate the method and to show you that you don't have to be an artist to relay an idea through sketches, we had one of our "artistically challenged" team members give it try (below):

Classic CEO quotes

2009-10-02T10:30:00.000-04:00

As you head into the weekend, we'd like to offer you these classic CEO quotes - from executives who have faced some of the same issues members of the DigitalNow community are facing today.

"You have to pretend you’re 100 percent sure. You have to take action; you can’t hesitate or hedge your bets. Anything less will condemn your efforts to failure."

Andrew Grove, former CEO, Intel

"When you innovate, you’ve got to be prepared for everyone telling you you’re nuts."

Larry Ellison, CEO, Oracle

"A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets."

Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple

See Steve Tobak's list of 10 classic CEO quotes, along with his takeaway for applying them to today's economy.

2009-10-01T10:30:00.001-04:00

We all know that problem-solving is a key skill for effective leadership. But all too often, leaders aren't aware that something is a problem until after it causes damage to an organization, putting leaders and everyone else in reaction mode.

The best way to solve problems is to anticipate them, and diffuse them before they cause a crisis. Yet even though you may hold town meetings, listen to your staff, and reinforce an "open door" policy, chances are that you're still not close enough to the sources of potential problems to catch them in time.

Michael A. Roberto, Trustee Professor of Management at Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island has written the book, Know What you Don't Know: How Great Leaders Prevent Problems Before They Happen. Roberto says that the key is to hone your powers of observation. By engaging with people "on the front lines," observing customers directly, and getting their hands dirty, Roberto says that leaders will notice things that they simply could never see from the comfort of their offices.

To read a complete interview with Roberto, and to see his list of effective observations "dos and don'ts," visit Ivey Business Journal

Five strategies for building a successful app

2009-09-30T10:30:00.001-04:00

Seems like everyone is making an app - and it can be a powerful marketing and branding tool - but only if you do it right.

At DigitalNow, we've always stressed the value of taking the time to think about strategy before executing. Once you understand who you're reaching out to, what they need, and what you are offering, here are five directions to consider, according to Paul Sloan of http://www.bnet.com:

Make it super useful.

Make it interactive.

Make it entertaining.

Make it a mixture.

Make it free.

10 Successful Facebook business pages

2009-09-29T10:45:00.001-04:00

Earlier this year, Facebook launched its newly redesigned business pages. Businesses flocked to get in on the action - mostly with disastrous results. However, there were a handful that enjoyed great success on Facebook. They are:

Ben & Jerry's ice cream

Pizza Hut

Victoria's Secret

iTunes

Stabucks

Pringles

Red Bull

Coca-Cola

Facebook

For a summary of what makes each of these business sites successful, see this article at Penn-Olson.com

Reinventing print media

2009-09-28T10:12:00.009-04:00

Print media such as newspapers, consumer magazines, and business-to-business trade publications saw a dramatic decrease in print advertising - and in 2009, that trend is continuing.

Two major forces are contributing:

There is an ongoing shift in where marketers are spending. More is going into their own web sites, word-of-mouth campaigns, and other "below the line" marketing programs.

The rise of digital media has hit print profitability hardest, since print ad pages are more expensive than other types of advertising, and they don't offer the sound and movement that other forms do.

Print media companies have tried a couple approaches to expand their share of marketing budgets, including:

Charging for online content

Moving content entirely online and counting on online advertising to make up for the loss in print publication revenue

Neither of these approaches has proven successful, but there is hope.

According to an article at www.strategy-business.com, "A growing body of research — tracking media companies that are succeeding in the new marketing environment and leading marketers who have successfully pursued innovative new digital strategies — suggests that at least four strategies are available for the media company of the future."

They are:

Build Deeper Relationships

Tap New Revenue Streams

Reinvent the Content Model

Innovate with New Products and Pricing

"The goal in all four success strategies is to build stronger relationships with audiences around their most passionate interest areas. Through bolder innovation, media companies can build communities around these interests, serving up the right combination of content and applications to provide real utility to consumers."

Read the article here.

Registration now open for DigitalNow 2010 - April 7-10 at Disney's Contemporary Resort.

Watch videos and download session content from DigitalNow 2009 at http://www.digitalnowlive.com

Follow DigitalNow on Twitter.

Contribute to the DigitalNow blog. Suggest a blog topic, or reference an article or other item you think would be of interest to the DigitalNow community. Drop us a line at DigitalNow@fusionproductions.com

Revisiting sticky messages

2009-09-24T10:00:00.003-04:00

At DigitalNow 2008, Dan Heath, author of "Made to Stick", presented on the value of creating "sticky" messages - messages that people remember and act upon. Sticky messages meet these criteria:

Simple

Unexpected

Concrete

Credible

Stories

"Lines That Divide Us" teaches teens the destructive power of prejudice in a way that a classroom lecture never could. It is a shining example of a message that sticks.

DigitalNow 2009:
Another great success! Watch videos and download session content at http://www.digitalnowlive.com

Save the Date! DigitalNow 2010: April 7 - 10, 2010.

Follow DigitalNow on Twitter.

Contribute to the DigitalNow blog. Suggest a blog topic, or reference an article or other item you think would be of interest to the DigitalNow community. Drop us a line at DigitalNow@fusionproductions.com

The Rise of Sentiment Analysis

2009-09-23T10:00:00.000-04:00

If you could translate human emotion into hard data, what could that data tell you?

In the emerging field known as "sentiment analysis," many businesses are learning how to take online opinion and turn into virtual currency that can make or break a product in the marketplace.

By tapping into what's being said online - through monitoring social media sites - companies are able to identify trends in opinions on products, services, or topics in the news. One company - Jodange - is even working on "a new algorithm that could use opinion data to predict future developments, like forecasting the impact of newspaper editorials on a company’s stock price."

Read more about sentiment analysis at The New York Times.