Flipboard has undergone some major changes, making it a more social oriented app with much more marketing potential for businesses. These changes take Flipboard from a simple news service to a community-oriented tool that lets users add more content and communicate with others.
One of the biggest changes is the addition of user-created magazines. Before the update, users could flip through magazines that were made up of content about several different pre-set categories. Now, users can pull articles from anywhere on Flipboard or the Internet and create their own magazines to reference later or to share with friends. Flipboard has explained that user-created magazines can be private or shared with other Flipboard users.
The Marketing Opportunity
The new capability to curate and share content with other users is a huge opportunity for businesses. Flipboard has become a much more viable content marketing channel that your business can use to share your own, and related industry content, with your target market.
You could proactively make user-created magazines a part of your strategy by creating your own brand or industry magazines and sharing them with your publics, or passively by encouraging your audience to add your content to their own magazines.
Flipboard has also created a new Flip It bookmarklet that users can add to their browser’s bookmark bar, enabling them to add content to their Flipboard account from anywhere on the Internet. The bookmarklet can also be added to browsers on the iPad and iPhone. This added feature will enhance the magazine creating experience.
The Marketing Opportunity
The Flip It bookmarklet gives your readers one more option for sharing your content. Just like you encourage your audience to share your blog posts and other content through Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest, Tumblr, StumbleUpon or any other social media site, your brand will want to add Flip It to its list of places your content can be spread. Keep in mind that when users use the bookmarklet in conjunction with your content, they may be adding it to a private magazine or they may be sharing it with other Flipboard users.
Social media and content-sharing sites are important parts of any content marketing campaign. These sites make it possible for your content to spread across the Internet, possibly bringing more traffic to your site and raising brand awareness. But, there’s another reason these sites are so important. It’s a known fact that people trust their friends and family members, often times more than businesses. If your target market is exposed to your brand’s content through their friends’ social media accounts they may be more likely to become customers.
The recent updates to Flipboard make it a much better marketing tool, as users will be able to create personalized lists of content, collect content from across the Internet and share their findings with friends.
The best video marketing campaign of the week – Coke’s “Unlock the 007 in You” campaign, which featured commuters tackling a series of obstacles to win tickets to the latest Bond movie. No doubt they were actors, as getting people to take part without signing a legal waiver would be madness, but the campaign was still very entertaining.
Even after the many updates and improvements to the UI, many are still wondering how much clout Klout even has. That’s why two new start-ups are on the scene and promising to deliver the big data results that Klout can’t. We’ve already reported on one start-up to watch, Telagence, which promises to build a social graph of connections and communities, making it easier to see the links. We can also add Little Bird to the list, which promises to show you how to connect with the biggest influences on social media, and how to become one yourself. This article by Bloomsberg Business Week explains how the two could blow Klout out of the water.
We all anxiously waited for the iPad mini to be unveiled and see if Apple can still reign supreme in the tablet market as they compete directly with the low-priced Android Nexus 7. Already questions have been raised about the high pricing, and it has been revealed by Mashable that 45% of iPad owners are unhappy with the timing of this release, which is so close to the iPad 4. However, the iPad mini could also spark up some interesting advertising activity, as advertisers are forecasting a boom in mobile ads around the holiday season.
Facebook has started to show increases in mobile ad revenue, an area they were previously stumped by. But just as something good happens to them, they launched yet another unpopular feature. Personal users can now promote their posts, which will ensure their updates are seen by all of their friends…otherwise, around 80% of your friends list will miss out. Likewise for pages, you won’t see updates from all of the pages your like, unless you manually opt in by adding pages to your interest lists. If users can no longer use the network to reach their friends, this could spark the end of the growth of Facebook.
Is social media making us more whiney, or is it just giving us a better platform to voice our concerns? This article by the Financial Post suggests that social media is making companies handle complaints very differently. As customer grievances are very often played out in public view, companies are working harder than ever to ensure their customers are satisfied.
We’re forever warned about the dangers of posting too much information online; from the horror stories we hear about houses getting robbed after the owners share too much about their location and weekend plans, to terrible tales of prospective employers asking interviewees about the photos they posted from the weekend.
Even though the privacy settings have been simplified, and we’ve all been warned, many are still oblivious to the potential pitfalls of leaking too much personal information online. So maybe the launch of this new app will convince people to think twice about what they release into the social-media-sphere.
Lookup is a social media profile search app that is currently available for free in the Apple app store It’s essentially a people search engine, with social media profiles in the cross hairs. It was developed by the talent search engine TalentBin, which aims to find candidates for jobs by searching social media profiles. The premise is that it’s better to catch people doing what they do best in a candid setting, rather than on recruitment sites where everyone is one the best and most uniform behaviour.
In a press release, Pete Kazanjy, co-founder of TalentBin said the app aims to show you a persons personality, by piecing together their social media profiles and presenting a whole picture.
“Lookup brings all the layers together, providing a more genuine and comprehensive profile – spanning both business and personal interests.”
He cites uses such as: finding out more about the personalities of your co-workers; using it to find talking points before a business meeting; or to screen candidates before or after interviews.
How can you use this?
It’s a great way to keep an eye on your personal online reputation. Obviously, the first thing anyone will do when they download an app like this is search for their own name. I was pleased to see my profile at the top of my name search, but the information collected about me was woefully inaccurate and out of date. In terms of functionality, the app is great, but I have my doubts about its ability to present an accurate profile.
This may lead you to think further afield about your personal online reputation; and whether you want to boost or conceal it. There are so many great things you can do to keep an eye on your online presence, and if you’re regularly publishing content, you might want to check it’s being correctly attributed to you.
There are 2 steps you should take to monitor you online reputation:
Set up Google alerts for your name, your company, and any other uniquely identifying information. This will push notifications to you when your key word shows up on the search engines’s radar.
Use a reputation management service like Brand Yourself to keep track of what does and doesn’t show up. This site helps by making links between your online profiles, and by helping you to boost your personal keywords.
The big news this week was the grand revealing of the iPhone 5 – for those of you who were less than impressed with the new features on display, or for those who just aren’t taken in by all of the hype, this video from Jimmy Kimmel’s show is likely to be a huge hit.
In other Apple news, they’ve finally killed off Ping and warmly welcomed Facebook into the family. As of 30th Septemeber, Ping will no longer be available and they’ve stopped accepting new members. The network was intended to blend music with social chatter, but was ultimately unsuccessful. Not to worry though, as they’ve taken Facebook on board with the new iOS, which will see Facebook integrated deep within the operating system.
A survey by small business forum Manta revealed that Facebook is no longer exclusively for personal use. 90% of the 600 small businesses surveyed are now using Facebook for networking and building their reach.
Google has been making lots of additions and improvements to its search engine recently, but the one I’m most excited about is the addition of Bacon. Kevin Bacon that is. The Google engineers have now built 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon into Google search. To find out the Bacon number of an actor type: “Bacon number…” followed by the name of the actor. (My personal Bacon number is 3… YEAH!)
If you have a Pinterest account, you may want to be aware of a Spammer hack that is currently affecting the site. Spammers are using Pinterest as a back door into Facebook and Twitter. You’ll know if you’ve been hit because “omg this is so cool…” will suddenly be cropping up in your Twitter feed.
And now, for the best social media marketing news of the week:
Getting the best response out of your audience can feel like a delicate balance. This new infographic aims to make it less of a headache by telling you when and where to post. Amazing!
If you’ve ever been in a marketing strategy meeting and anyone has uttered the phrase “let’s make a viral video…!” then this article was written with you in mind. In this interview the senior VP of content strategy and partnerships discusses how and why you should be doing content marketing.
And finally, once you’ve produced that content, this article outlines how to command attention with it on Facebook. This one is worth bookmarking for reference.
I’m going to start this week’s news round-up with a cautionary tale about being careful about what you share with the world on Facebook. With Facebook privacy issues a current hot topic, you’d think that users would start to take note and be more cautionary about what they post. One young girl in Australia learnt this the hard way after she posted a photo on Facebook of the huge amount of cash she was helping her Grandmother count. This post eventually made it on to the radar of the wrong people as her mother’s house was attacked by armed robbers later that day, indicating that the girl had also listed her home address on the social network on another occasion. No one was injured and the robbers only got away with a small amount of money and some personal items.
Other notable gaffes this week include what I will be referring to as “the epic Mitt Romeny glairngly obvious iPhone app speeling disatser extravagnaza”. An iPhone app released lastweek encouraged voters to snap photos with their camera and then select one of 14 overlays which voiced their support for Romney. The only problem is that one overlay reads “A Better Amercia”.
Amercia.
A-M-E-R-C-I-A
Needless to say the hashtag #withmitt was incredibly popular as users uploaded their spoof shots.
Google has cracked down on scam ads, making the ad network a safer and more trust worthy place for everything. We reported on how they’re making huge advancements in ridding Google of scam ads.
Google’s notable doodle of the week celebrated Peter Carl Fabergé, a Russian jeweller, most famous for his Fabergé eggs. Of the 50 Imperial Fabergé eggs made, 47 remain and are valued at millions each.
Tim Cook has been dominating headlines recently as he outlines his plans for the future of Apple; next up, the possibility of killing off the Ping network, plans which he alluded to at the All Things D Conference last week.
“We tried Ping and I think the customer voted and said this isn’t something I want to put a lot of energy into.”
And finally, some of the best SEO advice articles of the week: “SEO Isn’t Magic – So Stop Doing SEO Tricks” by Ruth Burr over at SEOMoz. She offers up some practical tips with the empasis on hard work and dedication over quick tricks and short term results.
Another great whiteboard friday from SEOMoz; Comment marketing as an inbound tactic. All about ridding your campaign of black and grey hat comment marketing techniques and replacing them with influencer marketing and relationship building.
Search Engine watch offers up some tips for B2B marketers; specifically about buying versus building links.
The Farcebook fiasco has been dominating headlines over the past week – at the moment the stock price stands at 33.03 which is up 1.03 (3.22%) which shows an improvement over the drastic plummet we saw following the IPO. As more and more information seeps to the surface, the consequences for Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook, and the investment banks involved in the IPO are looking bleak as the case is now under scrutiny by Senate lawmakers. Some are predicting the slow decline of Facebook as ad revenue dwindles.
In a bizarre and unexpected move, Facebook released a camera app this week, leaving many wondering why they forked out all that money for Instagram. The app was developed independently of the Instagram team, leaving many questioning if they’re hoping to replace Instgram, or simply see what options are available for a Facebook integrated camera app.
Google has received an unprecedented number of requests to remove URL’s which contain material which infringes on copyright law. More requests were made last week than in the entirety of 2009. In Google’s Transparency Report, we can see that in the past month there have been over 1.2 million URLs requested to be removed from over 24,000 websites.
Stephen Fry used his Twitter superpowers for good (yet again!) yesterday as he helped to drive The Big Tweet for missing children or organised by @missingpeople This further highlights the way technology has changed the world around us, even down to the way search for missing people – gone are the days of faces on milk cartons (although, I don’t think we ever did this in the UK – but Mashable wrote a very good article about it, so I’m going to use the phrase.)
Weeks after the launch of Google Penguin, the Wall Street Journal is looking at the ways the changes to the search algorithm have hurt small businesses. Although not guilty of keyword stuffing, they’re not active in content generation, meaning being present is no longer enough, you have to speak up too.
And finally, were you getting tired of seeing Zooey Deschanel try to order tomato soup? Apple has released their latest Siri advert with the wonderful John Malkovich pondering the meaning of life. John and Siri – a perfect match, wouldn’t you say?
“The IPA is a new way to do patent assignment that keeps control in the hands of engineers and designers. It is a commitment from Twitter to our employees that patents can only be used for defensive purposes.”
Not content to only implement this for future patents, this new agreement will apply to everything; past, present and future. This is a significant step forward for developers and designers, who can now rest assured that their hard work will never become the source of bitter dispute.
Or will it? TechCrunch found a patent attorny, Leonid Kravets, to shed some light on the legal mumbo jumbo going on behind the scenes. Accorcing to him, this could be little more than a PR stunt as a reaction to the ex-Yahoo employer who found his patent at the heart of the Facebook Vs Yahoo debacle. Kravets suggests that the definition of ‘defensive’ is questionable, and could be entirely open to interpretation.
Similarly, he suggests that although the employee may have control over the patent, if that employee is still working for the original company then they may be swayed or influenced by their employer.
So, it’s an almost heart-warming piece of news which makes you want to quit your job and become a developer for Twitter; but it could also just be a PR stunt to gain a little exposure of the back of the current patent disputes. Either way, kudos Twitter!
(Story found via Wavii – I think this may be my new Pinterest)
The Oscars happened this week, which means the rest of the world ceased to exist for one whole night as we turned out attention to the more worthy beings on this planet. To keep you up to date and in coversation loops, I’ve trawled through over 2000 stories on my Google reader to bring you a round up of this week’s news.
Speaking of the Oscars- Poor Angie has been mocked in a most cruel fashion and has spawned a whole host of Internet meme’s. Her perfect pins have been talked about far and wide; from Mashable to Hellogiggles. We’re just jealous. Really.
Here’s what else you may have missed in the big old Internet world…
Mobify, a Candian company, has launched a tablet optimisation tool which aims to improve the user experience when your website is viewed on a tablet.
And this is a big deal, since the world is now eagerly anticipating the launch of the iPad 3, which is rumoured to be happening next wednesday. Invitations to journalists said: “We have something you really have to see. And touch.” Oooo-Eer!
Continuing with the fruity technology theme, from apples to… Raspberrys. The world’s cheapest computer has been launched at only £22. The Raspberry pi (pi, not pie) has been designed to get kids coding.
Windows has launched a public preview of Windows 8; it looks much like its smartphone equivalent and is clearly designed the tablet computing in mind.
Facebook launched Timeline for brands; Coca-cola, Ben & Jerry’s,Manchester United and Coldplay are amongst the early adopters. Readwriteweb have complied this article of company reactions to the changes.
Here’s another skill you SEO professionals might want to throw on your CV; App Store Optimisation (ASO). The art of making one app stand out amongst the 600,000 available on the Apple app store, and the 500,000 available for Android.
Don’t worry, you’re not alone in this quest; the lovely folks over at Apple HQ have come up with this nifty little tool for helping you track and improve your app store rankings.
Sign up and you’ll get a 30 day free trial, after that you can pay $14, $29 or $99 per month to monitor 1, 3 or 50 apps.
As the app store is relatively new, it’s still a very simple system and the only variable information you can give you app which matters is: the app name, the publisher name and the keywords. With only 100 characters to define your app in keywords, you’d better hope you’re picking the right ones; which is where ASO comes into play.
This ASO tool allows you to track your app store ranking over the past month, it will show you how your app’s ranking changes over time, and what the top 10 apps in your selected category are. These are your key competitors. Let the games begin.
Now you know who you’re competing with for those elusive top 10 spots, the ASO tool can tell you what search queries were used to find your app. This will put you well on your way to selecting the most relevant and successful keywords. Using the wrong keywords is a major pitfall of regular SEO too; ASO is no different.
It will also offer a comparison of your keywords with the keywords used for your competitors; perfect for finding out why the top 10 apps rank so high.
And finally, for the data obsessed and hyper competitive, it will also send daily updates so you can fret over your ranking over breakfast.
It might be worth getting in there soon with this app and gaining some ground with your ranking; it won’t be long before everyone is optimising. Get in there quick and you could use this valuable tool to gain popularity which might help keep you at the top of the listings.
If you’re an iPhone or iPad user, the recent revelations about Google tracking your Safari browser usage may leave you feeling a little violated.
Google is currently under scrutiny for ‘tricking’ the Safari browser into divulging your internet usage, which allows Google to target ads at your device; despite the browser’s default privacy settings.
This couldn’t have been revealed at a worse time for Google, as they are currently facing a widespread negative backlash over their new privacy policy which is set to come into play on 1st March. With the new privacy policy in place, Google will be allowed to share your user information across all of its services; which means your private e-mail account will be sharing information with your YouTube account.
4.3% of internet users use Safari as their default browser, and a huge portion of these users are iPhone and iPad users. With the world still enthralled with Apple’s technology, this number is only set to rise.
Safari Browser on iPhone
So how did Google respond to this?
It was an accident, of course. Rachel Whetstone, Google’s VP of communications and public policy said:
“The Journal mischaracterizes what happened and why. We used known Safari functionality to provide features that signed-in Google users had enabled. It’s important to stress that these advertising cookies do not collect personal information.”
Even if the cookies aren’t collecting personal information, there is still a huge violation of trust. If you’re using a browser which, by default, does not allow cookies from third party sites to track users, then that’s exactly what you expect to happen. Right?
How did this blunder happen?
Some cookies are allowed by Safari, and they mostly relate to social media sites. If you’ve ever visited a website using Safari and hit the ‘like’ button which links to Facebook, there’s a cookie involved which stores your Facebook information to make this action easier.
Google tried something similar, and added a temporary cookie to allow users to interact with the ‘+1’ button and link it with their Google+ account. In reality, this just acted as a backdoor for other tracking files to sneak through. The result? Ads targeted at users’ browser history, which is in violation of the Safari privacy policy.
Google has now started to remove these advertising cookies from Safari browsers and assured users that no personal information was stored.
How do you feel about this recent revelation?
And does it make you view the new Google Privacy Policy in a different light?
