Facebook is revising two key documents that govern the way it treats our data, part of a the court-ordered settlement of a two-year legal tussle. Having read through the proposed changes, let’s discuss some of the more controversial points of which to be aware. 

The two Facebook documents in question are the Data Use Policy (DUP) and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (SRR). Rather helpfully and to its credit somewhat, Facebook has made available versions of each document showing where the changes are being made – if you’re very concerned about your data privacy on Facebook, you can read announcement here, which has links to all the documents in question.

Many of the clarifications have been ordered as part of the court settlement, as a way to compel Facebook to clarify how it treats data from its one billion reported users. However, Facebook appears to have taken the opportunity to add in some new clauses that allow it do more with our data, especially when it comes to advertising.

Here are some of the key disclosures, and controversies, with extracts from the two documents:

• Facebook won’t give your data to paying advertisers without your consent, but it will display the data it has on you against their ads (without compensation). By using Facebook you consent to the following: “You give us permission to use your name, and profile picture, content, and information in connection with commercial, sponsored, or related that content (such as a brand you like) served or enhanced by us, subject to the limits you place. This means, for example, that you permit a business or other entity to pay us to display your name and/or profile picture with your content or information, without any compensation to you. If you have selected a specific audience for your content or information, we will respect your choice when we use it.” – SRR; section 10.1 

• Parental consent by default: “If you are under the age of eighteen, or under any other applicable age of majority, you represent that at least one of your parents or legal guardians has also agreed to the terms of this section (and the use of your name, profile picture, content, and information) on your behalf.” – SRR; section 10.1 

• Social advertising: “In addition to delivering relevant ads, Facebook sometimes pairs ads with social context, meaning stories about social actions that you or your friends have taken. For example, an ad for a sushi restaurant’s Facebook Page may be paired with a News Feed story that one of your friends likes that Page.” – DUP; section IV

Facebook also states that it will treat much of your information as if you’d released it into the public domain. This isn’t new, but is worth pointing out as many people still believe that all their data is private: “Your name, profile pictures, cover photos, gender, networks, username and User ID are treated just like information you choose to make public.” – DUP; section I.

The most significant changes are in the DUP, which, if the proposed changes go through in a week’s time, will have an entirely new section on advertising – we’ve already highlighted above one relevant paragraph.

Unfortunately, there is very little we can do about the advertising. The documents are worded such that by simply opening an account – or not closing them in the case of existing users – we give our consent for Facebook to do as it wishes with our data.

On the positive side, Facebook does state that it will not give your data to advertisers without your consent – see the extract below. Rather, the controversy that most critics are whipping up is to do with the clause that says Facebook can display your name and other information (deemed to be in the public domain anyway) against advertising, on behalf of the paying advertiser. 

“When we deliver ads, we do not share your information (information that personally identifies you, such as your name or contact information) with advertisers unless you give us permission. We may provide advertisers with information when we have removed your name or other personally identifying information from it, or combined it with other information so that it no longer personally identifies you. For example, we may tell an advertiser how its ads perform or how many people viewed or clicked on their ads or install an app after seeing an ad.” – DUP; section IV.

We are currently one day into a seven-day review period, during which time disgruntled users can comment and voice their objections – click here to visit the Facebook blog post if you want to have your say. In the day since it was published, the Facebook post has garnered 1,240 comments, mostly negative. Conversely, it has also been ‘liked’ by some 1,360 people – overall approval, perhaps?

Welcome back to another installment of "90 Seconds of Design with The Beard,” featuring me, Spencer P, Lead Graphic Designer at SyneCore. This week I wanted to talk about an issue that arose when a client wanted a website with a black background. The obvious question this raises is whether or not a dark background affects readability on a website. 

When it comes down to it, websites are affected by many factors other than the color of the background; whitespace, typography, and contrast are also essential design elements. Enough background...let's dig in!

Following on from our recent article What on Earth is Responsive Web Design, in which we shed light on a term being used a lot at the moment, let’s take things further by dispelling a few common misconceptions to do with mobile web design.

With internet-enabled phones and tablets taking over the world, seemingly, web designers are gearing themselves up for a mobile web revolution.

This has given rise to the term responsive web design, a principle by which web pages are coded in such a way that they adjust their layout and styling automatically, depending on the screen size of the device they’re viewed on. You can read more about it here. However, responsive shouldn't be confused with pure mobile web design and building apps.

Even though people are becoming more aware of the importance of mobile web design, few non-developers really know the differences between the various principles. This has led to many myths.

1. Apps are the same thing as the mobile internet, right?

Sorry, wrong. However, we all use apps so frequently for accessing internet-based services, like Facebook, that we can all be forgiven for the confusion. 

Mobile web design is not the same as building a smartphone app to perform a specialised function. Rather, it’s about developing a fully-fledged website that can adapt itself to a smartphone or tablet’s browser app, such as Safari on iOS and Chrome on Android.

2. Mobile websites should have less content

This is another common myth. Mobile visitors should have the same online experience as those who arrive to your main website. By reducing content, you risk hampering the value of your pages. Instead, focus on developing a mobile website that is responsive enough to rearrange and reorganise content so that it does not appear cramped.

3. Mobile websites should mirror your main site

This is where things get a little complicated. A responsive website is essentially your main website which has the ability to display itself differently – that is layout and styling – depending on the device it’s viewed on. Pure responsive design will result in a mobile website with the same functionality, just restructured for smooth viewing.

Many companies do have separate mobile websites that provide different functionality optimised for mobile users. For example, the Amazon.com mobile website is almost an app in that it provides mobile-optimised functionality, such as prominent buttons for creating and adding to wish lists. These lists can then be viewed more effectively on a full browser. 

To sum this all up, if you want a website that can adapt to any device, with all the same content and functionality, responsive is the way for you. If you want a specialised mobile portal that works in a smartphone or tablet browser and isn’t quite an app, speak to your developer about a separate mobile website.

4. Mobile websites need more graphics than text

Many people assume that since readability could be a problem on mobile devices, it is better to replace text with graphics. The idea isn’t bad, but it lacks value – users tend to trust text content more than graphics that are, on the most part, of purely aesthetic value. Also, text is far better for SEO. You can, however, shorten your content while retaining the meaning. 

5. Mobile websites are much easier (and less costly) to create than desktop websites

Web design is the same for desktop or mobile. Unfortunately, some people believe that creating an HTML document set to a narrow page width is all one must do to create a mobile website. If only it was that easy.

Mobile websites are as complex to create as desktop websites, and sometimes more so. They must not only be adaptable depending on the device, but also maintain the same user experience.

If you'd like to speak to Versio2 about your mobile website options, visit our contact page and get in touch. In the meantime, why not brush up on your internet marketing knowledge? Download our FREE Indispensible Guide to Inbound Marketing.

They say you need internships on your resume to get a job (i.e. you need experience to get experience). It’s a baffling, unfortunate paradox that motivated me to hunt down the all-important summer internship last spring. And I got it. So, this summer, when people asked me how my summer was going and I told them I was interning at SyneCore Tech, most responded with a variation of the phrase “Oh, that will look so good on a resume! What a great experience!”

And I can’t argue with them. Coming out of sophomore year and landing a full-time, paid internship in my desired field was pretty rad, and the resume building was a huge bonus.

On my first day, however, I realized how much more this summer was going to be than a “resume-builder.” Right away, I was doing real marketing work, not intern-y marketing work.

For example, instead of just making the coffee, I was Instagram-ing the coffee for our social channels –

(OK, I was still making the coffee, but our CEO does too, so it’s fine).

As summer has progressed, and I sit here in a self-indulgent pool of reflective musings, I’ve realized how much more I’ve gained than a few lines on a document to send to future employers. Here are a few of the big ones:

Take Initiative

While it’s something that I’ve heard industry leaders say time and time again, it’s hard to really understand the idea of “initiative” unless you just do it (props to Nike for pointing this out to all of us years ago).

Initiative doesn’t come from sitting inside your head all-day, thinking about how to be innovative and other sorts of awesome. Taking the initiative means realizing you have an idea and acting on it. Taking the initiative means seeing a potential efficiency and adding some insight to make it better, unconcerned with a false notion of hierarchy. Taking the initiative means spending some extra hours in the office to get another blog done.

I also learned that taking the initiative doesn’t mean that it’s natural for you to publicly voice your opinion. Taking the initiative means that you are motivated by solving problems and getting sh*t done. Moreover, there are no excuses for not taking initiative because you’re not a natural extrovert. Just ask Abe Lincoln.

Have a Voice

There are enough plain-Jane, cookie cutter writers out there, and not enough room for many more. What there is room for, however, are opinionated cheeky writers that aren’t afraid to be a little weird. Just because you might not write in the same style as everyone else doesn’t mean your style won’t resonate with an audience. If you need a little encouragement to let your quirkiness out, Seth Godin’s advice from his talk at #INBOUND13 pretty comforting:

“Now there’s more weird than there is normal. This is the new marketing.”

My inspiration? My colleague Chris Horton – the one who looks to Jedi Master Yoda for inbound marketing advice.

Don’t Over-think Yourself Into a Ball of Nerves

Ok, maybe this is just a personal problem or a problem limited to those over-analyzers, the slightly anxiety-ridden people out there, but it’s a lesson nonetheless. When I first started at SyneCore, I was pretty nervous. There was a lot to learn, as evidenced by some of my thoughts during the first week –

What the hell is inbound marketing?

So ToFu, MoFu, BoFu… those are, like, variations of Asian food, right?

Ahaha – you guys use Google+?

But, within that first week, I was engulfed into an entirely foreign world. I had taken a couple of advertising classes, but I soon realized how little my classroom material reflected the current state of marketing. I was motivated by a sink-or-swim mentality, curious to figure out this whole “integrated digital marketing” thing my colleagues were so jacked about.

That first month was overwhelming, and I spent many a Sunday nights trying to unravel the mystery of Google and outlining potential blogs. Three weeks in, I still found myself frozen every time I sat down to write.

I KNEW NOTHING, I had come to realize. The more I read, the more I realized I didn’t know.

Looking for inspiration, I turned to a quick note I jotted down in one of the many teaching sessions I had.

And then out came “From the Intern Desk: 4 Quick and Dirty Tips to Social Media,” a rather simple post that got some mildly good feedback. I had stopped overthinking everything, and in the process realized this career-changer:

It’s just marketing. We are not, in fact, saving lives.

You don’t have to be so serious all the time, constantly striving for perfection. There are times in the day for stuff like this:

Or this:

Oh, and this:

To many it may look like we’re avoiding “real work” or just messing around, but I learned this summer how important breaks like these are. They remind you to always volunteer to hold the baby visiting the office, eat cake whenever possible and to never fall into the trap of taking yourself too seriously. Ironically, it’s during times like these that we’ve come up with some of our most impactful marketing ideas.

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So I have a confession to make…a confession that up until this point has only been shared with a very select few. 

I’m in love with the CBS live reality show “Big Brother.” Like, really in love.

In fact, I sometimes dream about becoming the next BB contestant. Dream about having the opportunity to live with complete strangers, become isolated from the outside world, be continuously monitored by in-house television cameras and personal audio microphones for an entire summer while ruthlessly competing to stay in the game, and win it all.

It’s unhealthy, I know.   

But with that out of the way, we can now discuss how this particular show, and many others quite similar, have become so relevant in the world of social media marketing. 

According to early numbers from Nielsen,  the most recent episode of “Big Brother,” which was televised live,  drew 6.83 million viewers. Those numbers created a whopping 8% increase compared to the week prior.

With the modern technology of instant streaming thanks to YouTube, Netflix, and DVR, we can easily control what we want to see and when we want to see it. So how are live reality shows still getting such high ratings?

The answer: Live Tweeting!

To clarify, I’m not just talking about watching your Twitter feed become quickly populated with episode spoilers (aka The Red Wedding). I’m talking about watching a program live as you simultaneously watch highlighted tweets appear as a banner across the screen. This encourages all viewers to get in on the action, voice their opinion, and see what others think about how the show is unfolding…while the show is on! On top of that, viewers can also vote on certain events to happen throughout the season.

RT if u are watching #BB15 now 2 see which HG gets evicted! Tweet live w/us & join the convo on Big Brother Connect http://t.co/6J4T5kFp5S

— Big Brother on CBS! (@CBSBigBrother) August 23, 2013

This is becoming a quickly evolving and highly effective engagement technique amongst TV programs, and one that has been recently proven by Nielsen to be statistically accurate. 

Social Guide Intelligence provides a continuous ranking service of Twitter TV data analytics amongst major networks…and as of this week Big Brother is the only reality TV program to be sitting at a top spot throughout all network types.

With over 162,000 tweets during the show’s hour time slot and over 50,000 unique shares, the partnership between social media and TV programming is continuing to advance the user experience for viewers, while solidifying a cycle of high ratings = better twitter engagement /  high twitter engagement = better ratings.

Although some may believe that live TV is dead, with users instead going straight to the internet for content...these facts show that's quite the opposite! 

So why does it all matter in developing your social media strategy?

It all goes back to the ideas discussed in how to successfully run your social media marketing like a newsroom.  

There is A LOT of content exchange occurring during these times, and it's your job to make sure that your voice is heard! 

Quick Tips to #LiveTweets 

1. Absorb the Content - If you don't know what's going on, who will?
2. See What the Others are Saying - Always monitor all sides of the conversation...the good, the bad, & the ugly! 
3. Provide Your Insight - Share useful content, ideas, & don't forget to ###! 

No matter it be a royal baby or a reality show, content doesn’t necessarliy have to always pertain to your industry. When you make a note to become part of national and global content exchange you are playing part to a much larger conversation. A conversation that will only help to continue to build the success of your brand!

This week, Mark Zuckerberg announced his new initiative, Internet.org, a group of tech giants dedicated to bringing Internet to the world. The project is launching with the support of Facebook, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Ericsson, Qualcomm and Samsung and aims to narrow the digital divide by lowering the cost of data. The initiative could eventually bring internet to two-thirds of the world's population. However, the announcement has been met with some criticism from those realizing all companies involved will eventually profit from the addition of billions of new customers. This week, Jacey and Spencer discuss the project and how it could change the world.

If you find their insight useful, be sure to tune in to SyneCore’s YouTube channel every Friday for more discussion about the latest trends in the Marketing Technology industry.

Responsive Web Design - or as I like to call it, RWD - is absolutely THE trend in web design for 2013. As a web designer, it has become second nature for me to visit a website and pull the corner on my monitor to see how the page responds. Most of the time, I am quite pleased to see the content on screen shift and stack to reveal a new layout at every pixel size. But I am a rare breed in that I tend to visit a lot of other agency websites and designer portfolios to tap into the latest design concepts. Though it’s pretty unusual to see a “design-y” website like those ones not implementing responsive elements, there are still plenty of ecommerce, financial, government, etc. websites out there that have yet to utilize responsive web design for their business.

This blog is not about showcasing the flawless responsive web design skills of the trendiest designers, but rather a compilation of the other websites out there - the websites that are using RWD as a great tool to sell, inform, and educate their users about products, services, and brands regardless of device size. Feel free to click on the images to see the full sites in all their responsive glory (unless of course you're reading this on a phone or tablet, in which case just enjoy that each site works)!

NPR

NPR only just recently updated their homepage to reflect a mobile-friendly, responsive web design. Compared to the look of the old site, this new responsive homepage is incredibly open, inviting and easy to read. According to an article written by NPR about their new look, the redesign is one that aims to “think outside the box” of the traditional news website. It is clear to me that this new design will not only provide readers with a greater variety of content, but also a greater ability to consume that content through different devices.

AIDS.gov

AIDS.gov is certainly one of the more modern looking government websites I have ever come across. This is especially true because of the integration of  RWD. The navigation on this site has been designed particularly well compared to other government websites too. Where some .gov sites come across as bulky and difficult to maneuver, this website features large, easy-to-click navigation tabs and a smart approach to the mobile menu. Overall, the site is easy to use and attractive to look at, but these elements do not detract from the purpose of the organization.

Drexel University  

I just have to take the opportunity to stay that I truly believe every university should implement a responsive web design. Talk about reaching your target audience! There are actually schools out there aiming to put a tablet in the hands of every student, and if you don’t think those students are going to use that tablet to research schools or actually apply to the college of their dreams, then you are crazy. In this site, Drexel is able to clearly showcase their unique culture and innovative perspective. In a press release about their responsive site, Drexel said they used “responsive design to engage students, no matter their location or device.” I think they did just that.

Wendy’s

Seeing that Wendy’s has implemented a responsive web design gets me quite excited. I can only imagine what the competition will do next to make their fast-food chain the most tech-savvy (I’m talking to you McDonalds, Burger King and especially Taco Bell, with your already killer, millennial-targeted social media strategy). The responsive web design on this site features a very fresh and friendly look with big bold images and simple navigation. If I were an on-the-go consumer looking to compare two fast-food restaurants, an interactive, responsive website like this might just sway me to choose Wendy’s over the less mobile-friendly competition.

Indochino

Indochino’s responsive website is an absolutely beautiful mix of images and typography. The site really complements the high quality image of the brand. I am also a big fan of the way the minimalistic design works on the product pages. It would be incredibly easy to make a purchase from this site using a smartphone or other touch screen device. Too often, ecommerce websites try incorporate a responsive web design without giving thought to how the user experience will be impacted without the precision of a mouse. But the designers of this particular site have really taken the time to consider UX in both the shopping and purchasing processes.

Hubspot

Inbound marketing giant Hubspot shows us all how a responsive website can be attractive, informative and sales actionable. Large images and unique content presentations scale to any size, but the message is never compromised as the device width shrinks. Each call-to-action is presented as an integral element of the overall design. Hubspot’s site is also a good example of a web design that doesn’t fear “the fold.” Once upon a time, designers were afraid to make their users scroll to find content, but that’s no longer the case. As Hubspot proves, with the right responsive design, your web visitors won’t mind scrolling or swiping to keep reading.

The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh

This responsive web design is just perfect for the busy parent on the go. Bright colors, unfussy design, and just a touch of whimsy make this site inviting, while a simple navigation system and the integration of various multimedia elements make it very useable. If you happened to be a mom of three searching for parking or directions to this museum, the CMP website would make it extremely simple to do so. No need to download a separate mobile app or go hunting through endless navigation tabs, because the responsive site puts all the content you could need right at your fingertips.

Icehouse Restaurant Minneapolis 

I have a special appreciation for restaurants that use a responsive web design as opposed to a separate mobile website. Often, the mobile sites that restaurants offer provide limited actionability: they assume I am either searching for directions or need to call and make a reservation. But this approach really neglects those site visitors looking to see a menu or trying to find information about events and happy hours. Icehouse has a simple responsive site that doesn't hide content from someone to research a new restaurant on their phone. You get the exact same experience as if you were to visit from a desktop. 

Town & Country

It's a wonderful trend to see more and more print publications re-vamping their online presence by utilizing responsive web design. In the case of Town & Country, the design is quite faithful to the original print edition with beautiful visuals and elegant typography. A lot of news publications out there utilize a separate mobile site instead of a responsive design. The problem with this is that it creates extra work for publishers who then have to manage two separate sites. Responsive technology creates efficiency for both readers and the content creators.

Design Week Portland 

Another great application for responsive web design is in creating sites to promote business conferences. When attending industry events, people are often glued to their phones to stay in contact with the outside world. If I need to look up a room number or find a speaker schedule, it helps to have a website that makes those things easy to find from my mobile device. Design Week Portland has done an awesome job of putting such important content at the forefront of their solid responsive web design. 

Using responsive web design is a great way to ensure that your customers can interact with your brand anywere, anytime. Responsive design is a tool that can be used for more than just a design or agency portfolio. Almost any type of company can benefit from using a responsive design to educate, sell and inform customers, no matter where they are.   

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Ever wished you could change the content of your website depending on the person viewing it? Different text and images for different audiences – what kind of effect would that have on your conversions? Welcome to the new HubSpot Content Optimisation System (COS), a framework on which to build complete marketing-optimised websites. 

Unveiled earlier this week at Inbound2013, the annual HubSpot conference, the world of Inbound Marketing is abuzz with talk of this revolutionary new platform that blends together website creation, content management, a comprehensive blogging platform and landing page integration. 

As an Inbound Marketing agency and certified HubSpot partner, we’d like to give you an introduction to HubSpot COS by looking at some key features:

Responsive, mobile-optimised design as standard

With more than 60% of adults connecting to the internet on mobile devices, according to a recent survey from Pew, responsive design (click here to read more on the subject) has never been so important. Every aspect of COS has been designed with this in mind. The built-in Content Management System (CMS), blogging platform, landing page creator and email system all take into account responsive design straight out the box.

The COS built-in blog editor offers a mobile (responsive) preview.

Complete marketing integration

Every marketing tool contained within COS is linked either to the built-in contact list manager or a supported third-party Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application such as Salesforce. 

For example, if a new lead is captured whose email address corresponds to a LinkedIn profile, that will automatically show up in your contact database. The content they view and resources they download will also be logged against their name, allowing you to show them different content throughout your COS website the next time they visit.

Personalised, “smart” content

HubSpot introduced smart lists and smart Call-to-Actions (read What the Heck are Smart CTAs?) with the release of HubSpot 3, its flagship Inbound Marketing platform. In COS, the concept is further built upon.

Before, only CTAs and form fields could be cycled depending on the visitor and what they’d seen before. Now, personalisation is possible across web pages, landing pages and blogs.

Dynamic COS content is linked to the contact list or CRM application.

Fast load times and secure content delivery

All websites built on COS are hosted on HubSpot secure servers, ensuring fast load times and encrypted content delivery. A slow page load time can result in higher bounce rates (the time visitors spend on a website) and is even thought to affect search engine crawling and optimisation.

We’ll be covering more on website optimisation, including the impact COS will have on the industry and the services we offer, next week. Subscribe to email notifications (top right) or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ or Pinterest.

Welcome to the first installment of "90 Seconds of Design with The Beard,” a weekly video series featuring me, Spencer P, Lead Graphic Designer at SyneCore. These videos are meant to be short, sweet, and straight to the point. Let’s be serious here - providing value in 90 seconds is not the easiest thing to do. But, considering how busy people are with the world of technology, I'm dumbing life down to a quick minute-thirty for all of my soon-to-be viewers out there.

I'm kicking off this week with a few elements that I recently had to consider while designing a logo for a new client. Think reproducibility, simplicity, and choice of typeface.

An important component of Integrated Digital Marketing is building connections, yet we often think that only happens online. However, your marketing efforts can be energized by attending industry conferences - but only if you do them right. From pre-conference engagement to following up with new contacts, conferences are a strategic opportunity to network and build your brand. As Sean prepares for HubSpot's Inbound 2013, he and Spencer provide some insights to make your next conference a success. (Don't worry, you can have a little fun, too.)

If you find their insight useful, be sure to tune in to SyneCore’s YouTube channel every week for more discussion about the latest trends in the Marketing Technology industry.

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I spent a recent Saturday scouring the local thrift stores for some furnishings for my new apartment (“Help me, I’m poor” is indeed an accurate phrase to describe my current situation). After digging through the Goodwill down the street from my house, I was still looking for the perfect set of chairs to accent my latest Pinterest find, so I naturally, without a second’s thought, reached for my iPhone to search for other Goodwills in the area. 

I opened up my Google Search app and began typing “Goodw-“ and chose “Goodwill MN” from the suggested search queries. In less than a second I was presented with the three closest Goodwills, each location complete with an address, click-to-call phone number, directions and website. I tapped the “Directions” link of the nearest one and away I went (with the phone sitting safely out of my hands in the passenger seat, of course).

Although it really didn’t appear this way at the time, the experience was magical in a very fulfilling way. In less than two minutes – from the moment I grabbed my phone to the moment I put the car in drive – I was off to my next destination. So yes - #magical.

What it Means to Search on Mobile

While it may have been a magical experience, it was far from unique and uncommon; millions of people perform mobile search queries everyday. A recent Telmetrics study found that 60% of mobile consumers expect search results to generate businesses within walking or driving distance of their current location, and one-in-three smartphone users search specifically for contact info (like my Google search results for Goodwills). According to Google's Mobile Search Moments Study, 40% of mobile searches have local intent, while 45% of all mobile searches are goal-oriented with the intent to make a decision.

These stats reflect the greater underlying motivation of many a mobile search. When I search for something on my mobile device, I have a want or a need that I’m looking to fulfill. No matter my search query, I’m looking for relevancy, proximity and simplicity; three motivators that represent the very foundation of SoLoMo.

To be mobile, according to Merriam Webster, is to be “capable of moving or being moved.” By this definition, mobile search queries should provide actionable relevance by producing information that is unique to the user’s location and experience.

To return to my experience searching for Goodwills, I can categorize it by the following:

• I wanted only results for Goodwills (i.e. relevance)
• That were near my current location (i.e. proximity)
• And had all the necessary contact information clearly laid out (i.e. simplicity)

This mobile search query then lead me to take action – to another local Goodwill to find the perfect set of second-hand chairs to furnish my apartment (note: project still in progress).

Big tech responds

These fundamental principles of mobile search are not lost on the big tech companies. Google recently announced an update to its search engine that brings Google Now-like features to all devices, including voice activation that allows you to search your Google Drive, Google Calendar, Gmail and Google+ accounts. While at least one of the implications of this update extends far beyond the reach of mobile search, i.e. furthering the integration of our entire search experience with Google, it also speaks to the Chief Executive Larry Page’s ultimate vision: 

“The perfect search engine would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want.”

That sounds a lot like simplicity, relevance and proximity to me.

Apple’s iOS 7 has a similar feature to Google Now, although it is far less comprehensive. The feature, entitled Today, alerts the user of the current weather and traffic of places they may be heading, as well as events on their daily schedule. While it does not do nearly everything Google now does, the update points to Apple’s similar ambition “to anticipate information for iOS users before they need it,” according to Erica Ogg’s article in Gigaom.

While Apple may be chasing after Google’s innovation, both tech giants are essentially providing consumers with results that matter most to them – results that are relevant, proximate and simple – so as to offer a personalized integrated digital experience.

Looking ahead

The onslaught of mobile will breathe down your neck until you accept it as not just another device but as a new reality. According to Google’s Director of Mobile and Social, Ian Carrington, mobile search will surpass desktop search in the next couple of years. Analytics firm BIA/Kelsey has that date pegged at 2015. This seems to make sense as more and more users ditch their dumb phone for a smart one (good choice, kiddos). Gartner’s latest smartphone market report found that smartphones outsold feature phones globally for the first time in Q2 of 2013 (mark your calendars, folks – it’s now a holiday), with Android leading the pack enjoying a hefty 79% of the market share.

As you and your business prepare for the new mobile reality, optimizing for local search becomes imperative. Rebecca Churt, marketing manager at Hubspot, recently published a comprehensive guide that gives you everything you need to know to dominate local search. While it may seem like a daunting task, the core component is ensuring that your business is easily found by search engines, and that means making yourself visible online, especially with Google+, Yelp, user reviews, etc. – all things that search engines look for when judging relevancy for a user’s search query.

Ultimately, search engines (Google’s in particular) want to help users find the most relevant information, essentially asking “What’s the best match for this person at this moment?”

Given this, your primary question must be: “How do I make sure my business is the best match?”

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Completing our series on social media marketing updates for 2013, below you’ll find ten quick tips and tricks for that most visually appealing of social networks – Pinterest. From rich pins to influencers and infographics to ebooks, there’s something here for every content marketer.

1. Pinterest for Business | Create a Pinterest for Business account. You’ll have access to tools that make Pinterest all the more powerful for businesses, such as analytics and rich pins (new for 2013).
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2. Always use an image | Make sure content on your website or blog has an associated picture. This isn’t new for 2013, but is vital so bears repeating. No-one will be able to pin your content – including you – if Pinterest can’t find a picture. Don’t forget that it’s a platform geared toward sharing images.
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3. Use rich pins | New this year, these are pins but with additional rich content – pins of food pictures can have ingredients associated with them, and films can have showing times. Importantly, products and services can carry price tags. At the moment it’s slightly complicated to get rich pins working with your website, but it should be worthwhile if your Pinterest boards are getting some attention.
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4. Pin your ebooks | Create a board where you’ll post thumbnails of your ebooks and other downloadable resources. It’s up to you whether you post resources from other sources there too – we would recommend you do, keeping your own content to no more than 50% of all pins. Pinterest isn’t so much about self-promotion, and more about sharing among like-minded people. Don’t taut your own content too much – create a board with varied and interesting content that people will want to follow as a valuable resource in itself.
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5. Use product pins | There are actually three types of rich pin – product, recipe and movie pins. They differ somewhat in their enhancements. Perhaps the most interesting marketing-wise are product pins, which will automatically notify pinners when prices drop. In other words, when someone repins one of your product pins with a price tag, they will be notified of any pricing changes by Pinterest. A simple-but-powerful tool if used creatively.
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6. Keep an eye on Louise Myers | Follow designer and Pinterest enthusiast Louise Myers. She’s has some great boards which are very ‘now’, and really make full use of everything Pinterest has to offer. Pay attention to her Facebook, Twitter, blogging and of course, Pinterest marketing tips.
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7. Use the enhanced analytics | Pinterest recently increased the capabilities of its built-in analytics. Now you can see not only how many people are pinning your content, but also repins and popular pins. Here’s a good introductory video from Pinterest.
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8. Pin infographics | Taking further cues from Louise Myers (see Tip 5), pin infographics but keep them categorised within relevant boards. Pinterest and the infographic is a match made in marketing heaven.
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9. Check out some Pinterest case studies | To start you off, read up on some success stories direct from Pinterest. This list of Pinterest case studies should provide some inspiration for your own pin board efforts.
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10. Follow the Pinterest for Business blog | This is where Pinterest will make all the most relevant announcements for businesses, as well as regular tips and advice on how to make the most of the visual platform.
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Over the centuries, the Latin phrase caveat emptor, or “let the buyer beware,” has been spoken countless times; a pithy mantra uttered by would-be consumers the world over to ward off the rip-off, or to gently chastise those who’ve unwittingly received a raw deal from an unscrupulous vendor. However, as user generated reviews go mobile, technology is conspiring to turn the very notion of caveat emptor on its head. In an age of consumer-driven online consciousness, unwitting brands may find themselves uttering the phrase “caveat vendit,” or “let the seller beware.”

Imagine a world where millions upon millions of smartphone-clutching, social savvy consumers are able to record their interactions with businesses on the fly, sharing each experience on social sites like Yelp, Foursquare, Facebook, Google+, etc  in real time, just when these experiences are top of mind (and also able to be most accurately related). Sounds like a nightmare for businesses great and small, right?

Sorry, folks, it’s no nightmare. User-generated reviews are now mobile, and they are the new reality for business.

Before you dash off to craft a “no cellphones allowed” sign to hang on the door, user-generated reviews can actually be a good thing for your business. In fact, assuming you are running an upright operation (i.e. no backroom loan-sharking or illicit Bitcoining) and actually providing a product or service that people generally find valueable, you probably stand to cash in on a little online user love.

A quick caveat to remember, though...user-generated reviews are like viruses: while the good ones can make you healthier, the bad ones can kill you.

User Generated Reviews Go Mobile

Online site Yelp recently joined the ranks of Foursquare and other SoLoMo review sites by allowing mobile users to post reviews directly on its mobile app. The company is first rolling out the feature onto its iOS app, but plans on doing the same for Android “soon.”

Aside from trying to cash in on bigger ad revenues by giving users more reasons to stay on the app longer, Yelp’s new mobile reviews functionality will help it stay competitive in the increasingly crowded local information and discovery space, which currently houses uber-mobile luminaries Facebook and Foursquare along with a resurgent Groupon.

There is no doubt that mobile is an important element in Yelp’s business model. In its last quarterly earnings report, 59% of its search traffic came from mobile; nearly 10 million unique mobile devices visited Yelp each month during the same quarter. Based on some informal research, data from Yelp's main competitors seems to paint a similar picture of this overarching trend toward mobile dominance for SoLoMo review sites.

User Generated Reviews Hold Sway

Perhaps more significant than the way users leave reviews is the importance consumers place on the reviews themselves. In a 2012 Inc. magazine post written by Michael Fertik with the appropos title “How Online Reviews Make (or Break) Your Business, the author pulls no punches on the criticality of user-generated reviews for businesses. To bolster his point, Fertik cites two compelling statistics:

• 89% of consumers viewed online sources of product and service reviews as trustworthy--and another 80% have changed their minds about a purchase based solely on the negative reviews they read.
• In 2011, 85% of those surveyed said they’d be more likely to purchase if they could find additional recommendations online.

The potency of these numbers may be partially explained in the findings of a new study by researchers from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, MIT, and NYU, which clearly indicates that online group mentality, or “groupthink,” can actually sway individual opinion and action. As detailed in a great post published in Search Engine Watch by Jessica Lee, the study essentially found that, in the online world at least, popular opinion tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy, shaping individual opinion in a way reflective of the group.

User Generated Reviews Induce Groupthink

We’re all guilty of online groupthink, whether or not we do so consciously. I for one admit that I’m more likely to read a blog post if it has a large number of shares and/or likes, or to buy a product with the greatest number of positive reviews on Amazon. In much the same way, I’m probably more likely to visit a restaurant (and leave a positive comment about it, if you believe the study’s findings) if it has received a number of positive reviews on sites such as Yelp.

As humans, one could say that groupthink is part of our very DNA; we’ve been programmed to follow the herd, even though we hate to admit it.

On the negative side, the study’s findings also suggest that people are less likely to trash a brand they’ve had a poor experience with, especially if the majority of others are positively disposed toward it. As much as we like to elevate the persona of the contrarian in popular culture, it turns out that few of us have the stomach to be one - so much for rugged individualism.

User Generated Reviews Matter

Here’s the million dollar question: if you compare the above insights into online groupthink with the trend to mobile-driven, user-generated reviews, what do you get? In other words, as mobile reviews proliferate, will users go against the grain and say what they really think, or will they go along with the herd?

Moreover, what happens if brands pay people or companies (which many currently do) to generate positive reviews of their business? Will real consumers, now armed with the ability to leave reviews “in country” ignore the prevailing wisdom and be more critical and honest about their opinions and experiences? Are consumers more likely to be frank in the moment, perhaps when their anger is piqued in the midst of a bad experience, or will they simply forgo the opportunity and let life’s distractions wash away their actual opinions?

Finally, do we as good Netizens owe it to one another (or to the Internet gods) to be honest, even if such honesty is uncomfortable? If I am physically walking out of a store or a restaurant and see someone walking in, am I more likely to tell them not to bother? Am I in any way obligated to do so? In the case of user generated reviews, does the fact that I am telling them through an online intermediary somehow lessen this obligation?

Heady questions indeed. To me, this much is certain: as more users integrate the Internet, social, and mobile into their daily lives, they will do the same with user-generated reviews, first using them as a guide, and eventually contributing to them as a reviewer. This happened to me; I can only assume that it will happen to others.

Regardless, I think it would be a useful exercise for all you decision makers out there to meditate on the concept of user-generated reviews and their migration to mobile, specifically analyzing the extent to which this trend may affect your brand and what, if anything, you plan to do about it.

Follow @chrshorton

Follow @SyneCoreTech

Happy Friday and welcome to the latest #MarketingTechMin!

With over 100 YouTube videos being uploaded every minute, it's safe to say that video content is on fire and shows no sign of stopping. But have our favorite video apps finally met their match? 

Meet MixBit, the newest mobile video application from the co-founders of YouTube. Unlike Vine and Instagram, MixBit is developed for those who are interested in creating high-quality short films that can be up to 68 minutes long (256 clips with a max of 16 seconds each). With users also being able to easily pull clips from other videos, this opens a new door for the creation of collaberative content. Spencer and Deanna take a closer look at what this could mean for brands, and will this lead to the end of Vine and Instagram?  

If you find their insight useful, be sure to tune in to SyneCore’s YouTube channel every Friday for more discussion about the latest trends in the Marketing Technology industry.

Follow @deannabaisden

It’s a simple question, but one many companies fail to ask. All too many websites are simply online brochures, missing out on excellent sales and marketing opportunities. In this introduction to a series on website optimisation, we ask some simple questions to get the ball rolling, such as what areas to look at and why, and who to turn to for the right answers. 

We’ll be covering the “how” in an upcoming blog post. For now, the objective is to ask the right questions before we delve into the practical. Subscribe for email updates (top-right) or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with the latest Versio2 blog posts.

If you want your website to work for you, it needs to be more than just a place for displaying information. For many companies this is fine, but they can’t expect to see any sales or marketing objectives fulfilled or any sort of online ROI. 

Some examples of features that set hard-working, efficient websites apart from online brochures include e-commerce and product or service listings on the sales side; and landing pages, social integration and smart web forms for marketing optimisation.  

There are many more features that turn websites into effective sales and marketing machines, but the ones listed here are probably the most basic identifiers. As to who to ask about whether your company website has any of these features, a quick browse should provide you with your own answers. 

This is a question to pose to whoever heads your sales and marketing teams. Is there a clear journey from website visitor to lead, and from lead to sales conversion?

The answer should be easy to define if your website is correctly geared. For specific marketing campaigns, where will visitors arrive, what do you want them to do, where should they go next, and how will your sales team follow up with them? 

Was your website designed for e-commerce, or was this something that was added on? Modern e-commerce websites are fully integrated, meaning that every page is part of the sales system and can display popular products or services throughout. Older websites, where e-commerce was added as an after-thought, are often disjointed with no quick routes between informational pages and shopping carts. 

You should also think about the process of buying through your website – is it too complicated, thus putting off potential customers? This excellent post from our Inbound Marketing partner HubSpot discusses shopping cart best practices and ways to boost e-commerce conversions. 

For example, long load times can be very off-putting. Perhaps something you hadn’t thought about before, but how many of us have closed a website window or navigated away, simply because it took a second or two too long to load?

These are all questions to ask of your sales team first of all, because they really should understand how your website works as a sales tool. Think of your website as your greatest salespersons – if he or she isn’t performing, you would ask your head of sales, wouldn’t you? If they decide they need technical advice on the workings of your e-commerce platform, it’s time to contact your development team.

This is a broad question that can mean many things, making it one of the most important to answer.  

Firstly, is your website content appealing to your intended audience – on-page text, blog posts, ebooks, pictures and graphics should all be geared towards your target customer personas – click here to find out more about how to create audience personas and download free resources. 

Secondly, is your website linked to your list of contacts and leads, in other words, your CRM software? Websites that are true marketing machines not only work well to collect names and email addresses via landing page forms and offers, but feed those into CRMs like SalesForce or the HubSpot marketing platform’s built-in contact management feature.

Finally, how well integrated is your email marketing, if at all? This is where we enter the realm of lead nurturing – that is following up with people who have downloaded a resource or subscribed to one of your offers via a landing page form. Do you have automated email messages set up to send out to new CRM entries?

5. Is measurement and reporting fully integrated?

As a final thought to ponder in this introduction to website sales and marketing optimisation, no website would be truly complete without adequate measurement and reporting. Without these, you’ve no way of knowing how well your website is doing, and where the weak areas are.

Google Analytics is the very first thing you should have set up, to tell you where people land on your website, where they come from, how long they spend there, and which pages they look at, including the last one before exiting.

Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons and graphics should all be linked to reporting somehow. The most basic way to measure the performance of particular CTAs is to track their links – a URL shortening service like Bit.ly will give you basic tracking. Better still is a system like HubSpot, which can cycle CTAs on pages so you can A/B test their relative effectiveness – we’ve an entire post on A/B or split testing here. 

This last question is perhaps the hardest for companies to address. Full integration of measurement and reporting requires the use of a dedicated platform, such as the one from HubSpot.

We’ll be reporting later this month on an exciting new development not just for HubSpot, but for Versio2 as a partner agency as well, which we hope will help companies create websites truly geared toward sales and Inbound Marketing.

A Twitterv- a Twitter what? What the hell is that? Yes, my friends, that was the one and only Chris Horton’s response to a friendly invite for a #Twitterview from Juliane Pettorossi on behalf of Silverback Social last week. I assured him it was not a sinister plot to trap him in and inescapable social media blunder. No no, I explained, a #twitterview is completely harmless; really you should be flattered. With paranoia swirling in his head searching, I’m sure, for some association or reference to a similar conundrum in medieval history, he agreed to the arrangement - only on the condition that I attend for moral support.

I got your back, Horton.

#Twitterviews aren’t anything new. According to Wikipedia, the first twitterview came two years after the social channel’s inception in 2006 from a rather unexpected source. In December 2008, Alain Ochoa #twitterviewed blogger/entrepreneur Bertalan Meskó for Diariomedico.com, a Spanish healthcare news site. Pretty sweet, right?

#Twitterviews can be very strategic and tactical. In fact, they are a fantastic way to increase brand awareness on Twitter (take I Am Playr as an excellent example). However, this blog is from the perspective of an interviewee who was just having a whole bunch of fun – and got some great exposure in the process.

Use the #twitterview #hashtag (and others too).

Silverback Social has been using their #SStwitterview hashtag to track and categorize twitterview conversations (their #Twitterview with Horton was just one in a series). This was awesome for those of us following the conversation.

Yes, I know this is like a DUH moment. Y’all know about #hashtags and don’t need me telling you how freakin’ great they are. But it’s the basics, people. 

If you’re representing a brand, get them and their social platforms in on the action, too.

While Horton has a pretty established Twitter following, there was definitely an opportunity to amplify the reach of the #twitterview. So, we got Synecore Tech, our brand, into the convo as well. (And, really, Horton needed some moral support.)

Enter Deanna and myself.

Deanna had a hell of a lot of fun rockin’ out an Instagram video to capture this special moment in the Synecore Tech timeline, and she simultaneously got some crazy footage of Horton in action. 

I managed our (Synecore Tech’s) Twitter feed, starting off with a tweet advertising the #SStwitterview.

As the conversation progressed, I grabbed some of Horton’s tweets and RT-ed them via the Synecore Tech account.

Synecore Tech has a modest following of 2,470, but it definitely amplified the reach of the convo considerably. Yaa-whoo! 

Tag other people in your responses to get more people in on the conversation.

As Horton was answering Silverback Social’s #Twitterview questions (which were awesome, btw), he was tagging some of his favorite writers, brands, etc.

And what do you know - the guy got some responses:

Boom. Made new friends AND amplified reach. #doublewin

Don't be so serious and have an opinion.

This may be the most important lesson learned from this #Twitterview, and when it comes to these sorts of things (and do I dare say life in general?), this is a kick ass mantra to have. Be bold. Speak your mind. Just do you.

Some might not like it, but hey – some might throw some respect and kudos your way.

Still feeling all anxious and nervous about your #Twitterview. A final tip? A theme song helps too:

Thank you, so much, Silverback Social, for letting us party with you on the Twitterverse. Let’s do it again soon. #youdaabesst

Follow @alyssaceline33
Follow @SyneCoreTech

Still wondering if creating a YouTube channel is worth it for your brand? Well, I think you may be convinced by the time I get through with you (cue the evil laugh).

Woah. Ok, that was completely terrifying. Moving on -

Pixability has released a new report, Top 100 Global Brands: Key Lessons for Success on YouTube, that’s got some pretty tantalizing and alluring stats underscoring why you should set up a YouTube account, like, yesterday.

Well, let’s just start with a disclaimer. Taken straight from Pixability’s About Us page, the company is a...

“…YouTube-certified marketing and advertising company that works with brands, e-commerce firms, agencies, and innovative organizations to drive business and awareness with online video and YouTube. Using its powerful, proprietary, cloud-based video marketing software and online.” (Emphasis mine.)

Yes, there actually is a YouTube Certification Program, and by my reckoning, it looks like a pretty exclusive club.

Now before we all go for Pixability’s head with claims of “bias” and “arrogant self-promotion,” let’s remember that we are all arrogant self-promoters (i.e. marketers) and shouldn’t take ourselves so seriously. Besides, we all rely on these kinds of studies from the cool kids to add rhyme and reason (i.e. value) to our work. So let’s just try and keep a dash of rational perspective as I relay these pretty convincing numbers:

(One thing to note: Pixability used Interbrand’s Best Global 100 Brands for their study.) 

• Only 1 out of the Top 100 Global Brands does not have a YouTube channel (I'd hate to be that guy).
• 56 of the Top 100 have 10 or more YouTube channels.
• Since 2009, video publishing rates on YouTube by the Top 100 Global Brands have increased an average of 73% annually. By 2015, Pixability predicts they will likely create over one million new YouTube videos.
• In the past eight years, these brands’ have attracted 9.5 billion video views collectively.
• Over 30% of the total aggregate video views for these top brands occur 12 weeks after publication. That means these YouTube videos may have a longer lasting marketing impact than social media.

Also, while it may initially be appealing to create multiple YouTube channels to target different audience segments, first make sure you have the resources to manage all of the channels. This includes regularly posting fresh content that honors your brand’s unique voice. A good thing to remember: more content > more channels.

Like any other content, optimize your YouTube content for SEO.

After all, YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google, and video content is 53 times more likely to achieve first page ranking status over traditional content, according to Forrester Research. Ahahahaha Google owns YouTube, so yes, being a very irrational fan of conspiracy theory, I do indeed believe that Google is going to take over my life.

How do you optimize your video content? Integrate the keywords that you’re currently using in your content strategy into your meta tags, descriptions and video titles on your YouTube channel. Viola!

Good content is varied and doesn’t necessary mean overproduction.

As Pixability’s study highlights, your YouTube content may have room for commercial, professional-grade (i.e. Hollywood) standard video, but there may also be room for user-generated content and more personalized, event-focused video.

A great example of more event-focused video comes from Intel that highlights the Intel Ultrabook Project in London featuring will.i.am (yaaaaa-uuhhh.)

One thing to note in this example is that it is coming from Intel, a brand with a big budget. When it comes to producing videos for you and your brand, focus on the content over the fancy production.

Remember, your YouTube channel is just another part of your integrated marketing strategy and, as such, should be focused on the consumer journey. Therefore, there is opportunity for longer, richer content as well as shorter content as well.

The Takeaway

While I do not wish to exhaust you with a repetitive refrain of video, VIDEO, VIDEEEOOOO, I totally am. But it’s because I care. And you just can’t ignore the power of a great video. So there you be – some YouTube stats that you can hide from and ignorantly and, perhaps, blissfully ignore. Or, you can face them like a marketing industry superhero and make that YouTube channel your bi-

Well you know what I mean.

P.S. And seriously – can we all agree to just stop trying to make the next viral video? As Craig Key and I have said before and Pixability alludes to in their study, #viralsucks.

Please and thank you.

Follow @alyssaceline33
Follow @SyneCoreTech

Pretty soon you’d rather be seen dead than with a waffle iron that doesn’t have its own email account… When I read this line from a recent eConsultancy post on the Internet of Things (IOT) written by Ben Davis, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. After taking a moment to reflect on the seeming absurdity of the statement, I quickly realized his words pithily encapsulate the gravity of the paradigm shift we're about to go through with the Internet of Things, an uber-tech trend carrying deep implications for individuals and businesses alike.

On a commercial level, the world of connected devices represents a boon for companies far and wide. Marketers, if you think Web 2.0 technologies are making your life complicated, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Get ready for the prospect of having to create personalized web and social interactions not only for each segment of your target audience, but also for their bevy of smart devices. Such is but one small implication of the emerging world of IOT.

IOT

What is the Internet of Things, anyway? This definition from WhatIs.com sums up the idea nicely: IOT is a scenario in which objects, animals or people are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to automatically transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.

IOT is world where virtually every thing (humans included) is imbued with one or more tiny computers or smart sensors, all transmitting a flow of data onto the Internet (thus, the Internet of Things).

In the Internet of Things, any natural or human-made object that can be assigned an IP address and given the ability to transmit data via a network is eligible- your tires, coffee maker, liver, underwear- you name it. So far, the Internet of Things has been confined to Machine to Machine (M2M) communications in larger industries such as manufacturing and utilities.

That's only the beginning.

Get ready for terms like “active digital identity” and “digital identity management” to hit the mainstream in the coming months as companies such as Evrything bring IOT mainstream.

Evrything

If you’re still not clear on the whole IOT concept, here’s a great video intro from IOT startup Evrything with the snappy title, “All you need to know about EVRYTHNG in 77 seconds:”

EVRYTHNG in 77 seconds from EVRYTHNG on Vimeo.

There you have it. With billions of devices constantly streaming data onto the Internet, it looks like Big Data is about to get a whole lot bigger.

Companies like Evrything plan on using this surfeit of sensor data from the objects around us to provide value to both consumers and businesses.

For example, imagine you just purchased a shiny, new internet-connected bicycle. With the help of an IOT software provider like Evrything (the company has actually trademarked the term, “Web of Things”), you’ll be able to create a virtual avatar of your bike which will live in your social event streams. Your virtual bike would be dynamic, connected to whatever is going on with your bike in the real world; it might display the miles you travel or the route you take (or in my case, the number of dust-bunnies collecting on the bike).

Here’s the exciting part for brands. By creating a digital persona, the company that sold you the bike will be able to send you personalized content, apps, and services designed specifically for you and your bike. The presumption is that information about your bike would get ever more detailed and personalized over time, giving you a living, breathing history of your bike (and that business and others a ton of data about you for future use).

This of course would have various implications for any eventual sale of said bike, as prospective buyers could peruse its entire “social” history. Never mind turning that mileage counter back…

In this way, we may one day have a social graph for nearly every object on the planet- here, here!

In a 2011 interview with eConsultancy, Andy Hobsbawm, co-founder of Evrything, boiled down the value add of his company thusly:

Evrythng is a new service that creates active digital identities for products and other objects… Evrythng helps organise the world’s objects with an active digital identity for every thing.

Wearable Tech

Presumably, wearable tech is a part of that every thing. From Google Glass and Nike Fuel Band to smart diapers and talking dogs, wearable tech encompasses pretty much any smart, connected device you can wear. For example, Mashable recently featured a story about a new smart tooth sensor that knows when you've been eating or talking too much. Researchers at National Taiwan University in Taipei apparently have designed a tooth-sized "wearable oral sensory system" that can recognize when you're chewing, drinking, speaking and coughing. They’re getting decent results, too - the researchers’ data shows the system was accurate 93.8% of the time.

My wife would have a field day with this one.

Rage Against the Human

Call me paranoid, but my mind always tends to wander to the possible negative implications of any new technology. What could go wrong with a world of internet connected social devices?

Plenty. What if my IOT/wearable tech turns against me a la Maximum Overdrive? Think of the havoc a few surly lawn and garden implements could wreak on my well-manicured lawn. On a business level, think of the damage a rogue, socially connected IOT device could do to my online rep if it chose to (note to self: remove all online sensors from the liquor cabinet). What if all of these devices worked together to play a prank on me? I can only imagine everything in my now fully connected world instantly disconnected- no phone, no car, no waffle iron. Shudder the thought…

On a more serious note, the prospects of a world of IOT/wearable tech would surely be a hacker’s dream come true. Questions over the untimely death of “ethical” hacker Barnaby Jack, who was set to give a speech on the dangers of human hacking just before his mysterious death, have recently brought this issue to the fore.

It seems that in pursuing IOT, we humans have collectively resolved to crack open the Pandora’s Box that is Artificial Intelligence (AI) by degrees, incrementally rationalizing our irrevocable action by breathing awareness into the random assortment of dumb objects around us.

Rationalization is, after all, the key to mental health.

So is a smart waffle iron.

Follow @chrshorton

Follow @SyneCoreTech

2012 may have been the year of 'responsive' web design, but unless you’re directly involved in designing and building websites, you’d be forgiven for not knowing exactly what the term means. But with more people accessing websites on a range of devices, it will help you to understand why responsive is so important. Read our quick, no-jargon guide to this most modern of web design principles. 

Getting to grips with the basics

In its most basic form, responsive web design – or RWD, though you’ll rarely heard it referred to by its acronym – is an approach to building websites that takes into account different screen sizes. Coding has been developed to detect browsers and respond by altering the layout and styling of websites automatically, depending on whether you’re viewing them on a full-sized laptop or desktop, a tablet or a five-inch smartphone display. 

Images are automatically resized, as are fonts, but responsive websites also tend to change their layout completely to make better use of the display.

What’s the big idea? 

The leading principle behind responsive web design is to avoid creating different websites for different devices, hosted on multiple domains, and rather to have a single website that can adapt accordingly.

For example, the traditional solution was to have a standard website hosted on your main address (or domain), and another mobile-friendly one hosted on a ‘m’ address e.g. www.yourdomain.com and m.yourdomain.com. You can still see many examples of this today, and in most cases the transition between the two is automatic. 

However, for many companies this presents an obvious problem – two or more websites to update, maintain and spend money redesigning every few years.

Why is responsive so important?

The latest KPCB Internet Trends report tells us that of the 2.4 billion internet users worldwide today, 15% of all traffic comes from mobile devices. That’s up from just 0.8% in 2008, with exponential growth set to continue.

According to KPCB, by 2015 – just two years from now – ‘mobile’ will account for one third of all global internet traffic.

It’s not hard to see why. Smartphones are almost ubiquitous these days, whether iOS and Android-based, and tablets, such as the hugely popular Apple iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab ranges, count toward the proliferation of mobile internet usage. Add to this the success of sharing apps from Facebook, Instagram, Vine, not to mention all the emailing we do on the go, and a future where mobile dominates the internet is easy to imagine.

In fact, it’s not just a projection. In China and South Korea, mobile internet has surpassed desktop usage, and not even that recently – Q2 and Q4 last year, respectively, according to KPCB.

OK, but why should my business go responsive, marketing-wise?

Websites designed only for desktop browsers rarely look great on mobile devices, or at least they could look a lot better. The portrait orientation of most sites doesn’t translate well to small smartphone displays. Mobile-friendly websites, as well as responsive ones, tend to be landscape and easily scrollable, hence the importance of an adaptive layout.

From a internet marketing point of view, many people access social media and emails on smartphones as they check in on their friends, colleagues and read updates. This directly impacts two, if not more, of an internet marketer’s most important tools – social syndication and email marketing. 

Imagine reading opening a newsletter on your smartphone, clicking through on a news story and being taken to a mobile-unfriendly or non-responsive website; if the user experience isn’t ruined completely, it certainly isn’t helped. The same goes for updates sent via your companies Facebook or Twitter pages – many people will open these links on their mobile devices.

How can we go responsive?

It would be quite an undertaking to have a developer change your website coding to make it responsive. Rather, think about factoring it in as part of your next website redesign. Mobile isn’t dominant just yet, but it will be soon if the trends are correct.

All good web developers will offer responsive web design either as standard or as an added feature that isn’t going to break the bank. Also, many modern website templates, and even newsletter templates, are responsive, especially those from Wordpress and MailChimp respectively.

Next week we’ll talk more about responsive web design in the context of mobile, dispelling five myths and telling you how to prepare your online channels for the mobile revolution. All this is in anticipation of a big announcement in the world of not online web design, but of Inbound Marketing and Versio2.

It’s that time of week when I often like to post examples of my favorite pieces of branded content from the past seven days. However, today I would like to take slight diversion and instead take a look at exactly what it is that separates the truly “great” branded content from the stuff that is just “okay.” Is there a secret recipe for generating wonderful branded content? Can it really be as simple as two parts humor for every one part clever, throw in a dash of viral, and Voila! Yes actually, it can be! Despite what you may think, not every piece of branded content has to be as well thought out as a blog post or as well researched as an infographic. Here are four simple tips that will help propel your brand into the branded content hall of fame. 

1. Be Timely, Be Topical, and Newsjack! 

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to talk about time-sensitive branded content without bringing up Oreo and it’s Cannes Lion Award winning Super Bowl tweet. But that tweet was just so darn good! It’s a wonderful example of the type of content you can create when no review meetings or top-level approvals are required. News happens quickly these days, and those who are first to jump on it (particularly when using social media) are going to be the branded content kings. Oreo took advantage of a unique opportunity to be a part of a news story as it unfolded and it worked. 

More Recently the Royal Baby Boy birth announcement presented another unique opportunity to newsjack. Here at SyneCore, we had a taste of fame when we created an Instavid expressing our excitement about the little prince. Not to toot our own horn or anything, but our quick thinking just happened to land us in a video on the New York Times website.   

So the moral of the story is be relevant, keep an eye on the news, and take any opportunity you can to produce topical branded content.

2. Be Consistent 

It’s a fact that if Oreo posted tweets once a day or only had 25 followers, it’s quick thinking during the Super bowl probably wouldn’t have been quite as noteworthy. Building an online dialogue through your social media platforms is essential to the success of your branded content. Not only is it important for establishing your brand “voice,” but it keeps your customers engaged and coming back for more. Sometimes a great conversation via Facebook or Twitter can become branded content in itself. Take Taco Bell for example. The persons monitoring TB’s social media accounts are nothing short of PR and branding geniuses. Taco Bell is constantly in conversation with both customers and other brands. The ensuing banter is branded content at its finest.

3. Simplicity is Key

Sometimes a simple image, deployed to a simple platform at an opportune moment is all it takes to produce ground-breaking branded content. That’s pretty much what Oreo did right? The brand's social media team took instant action, seized a moment and saw results. They probably spent millions on their actual Super Bowl commercial, but seven months later that advertisement is long forgotten while the Tweet lives on. Don't over-complicate your content creation process. Focus on getting new quality content out there and try not to stress too much over what people will think. 

4. Have Fun! 

No matter what kind of industry you work in, I think it’s fair to say that we all want to work more efficiently and have fun doing it. We also want to work with people who are passionate about what they do, and we want to associate ourselves with brands that do the same. When you strip away the rules of old-school advertising, what’s left is the fun stuff.

Branded content is that fun stuff! Starting conversations with your customers, correlating your messaging with popular public events, and taking chances to be silly is way more fun than generic, shameless self-promotion. 

Now take all ingredients, combine, and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. 

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Watch out - Synecore Tech's Content Team has taken over this week's #MarketingTechMin! The Internet is in chaos - complete chaos. Not only is there a mind-boggling amount of data being created, but there is also an insane amount of content. So much content that it seems unmanageable. While you can't solve all of the world's content problems, you can manage your own. Chris and Alyssa are currently in the process of performing an audit on Synecore's own Marketing Technology for Growth blog, looking to re-organize and update the content. This week, the two outline three lessons they've learned so far to help you in your own content management.

If you find their insight useful, be sure to tune in to SyneCore’s YouTube channel every Friday for more discussion about the latest trends in the Marketing Technology industry.

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Search for ‘bulk email internet marketing’ in Wikipedia and you’ll be redirected to an article on email spam. Unfortunately, bulk email and spam are interchangeable terms these days, owing to methods which have annoyed and infuriated internet users for many years. However, new tools and techniques allow marketers to email en masse without fear of receiving accusations of spam, in return. 

A brief definition of spam

Let’s start off by defining spam, how it’s different from newsletter marketing and not always the same as bulk or mass mailing.

Spam is junk and always unsolicited (the magic word here). We define spam as unsolicited bulk email (UBE), commonly when the same message is sent to many hundreds or thousands of recipients without their permission. We liken this email to spam, a fairly disgusting luncheon meat known as being ever present, and hard to avoid, as depicted in a famous Monty Python sketch. 

Separating spam from mass emailing 

There’s nothing wrong with emailing a lot of people all at once, as long as they expect it. But if they don’t, you could be treading in hot legal water. This is why opt-in permission subscription is so important, where a person wishing to subscribe to communications not only provides their email address willingly, but also click ‘yes’ to a confirmation email (double opt-in).

Different countries define spam and the seeking of permission differently. For example, in Australia controls are tighter – people must give their express ‘opt-in’ permission for certain mailings. In Switzerland the lines are a little fuzzier – it’s possible to send a newsletter to someone who provided their email address for something else.

Surprisingly, in the US, spam is actually legal according to CAM-SPAM legislation, as long as it has a truthful subject line, no forged information and other stipulations.

In Europe, the rules concerning spam are contained within the Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications click here for bed time reading, the same set of laws that govern cookies and the treatment of traffic data. 

Is newsletter marketing spam? How can we avoid spamming people?

Again, not if you seek the correct level of permission. MailChimp offers excellent opt-in subscription features by default, giving you an iron clad defence against spam accusations. However, if you’re doing things right, you shouldn’t need to defend yourself. 

To avoid spamming people when bulk email internet marketing, follow these tips:

• Don’t buy your subscribers – it is possible to buy lists of email addresses, but this really defeats the point of modern online marketing, especially Inbound Marketing where we seek to provide value, build reputation and have followers spread our communications for us.

• Use a reputable email system – MailChimp is pretty hot on preventing spam, and will ask you each time you subscribe anyone manually whether or not you have permission to do so. We’ve known it to lock accounts when too many emails are added all at once, in too short a time. These features are designed to protect everyone from both sending inadvertently and receiving spam. If you do things correctly, you shouldn’t have to worry about being frozen out.

• Use double opt-in permission marketing – as mentioned above, this is an inherent feature of the more reputable email systems, and requires that the wannabe subscriber confirm their subscription by replying to an email.

• Be clear about what people are signing up to – if you have lead capture forms on your landing pages, clearly state that you may use contact details for other communications. Also make it clear that you’ll treat email addresses as confidential and not sell them off to third parties.

My mass emails are legitimate, but are being blocked. Why?

Many email clients sit behind effective spam filters, perhaps a little too effective. There are certain words, for example, that if found in your email subject line will result in it being sent to the junk folder. 

You can find a list of 100 such trigger words and phrases here on the Mannix Marketing blog, or you can read a MailChimp article on avoiding spam filters. MailChimp has a subject line tester that’s kept up-to-date and will inform you of any potential filtering problems, such as: 

• Using too many exclamation marks!!!!!!!
• WRITING EVERYTHING IN CAPS
• Bright red or green fonts
• Including the word ‘test’
• Sending to multiple people in the same company (i.e. with the same email domain) all at once

Is lead nurturing spam?

Lead nurturing – automated follow-up emails, triggered when someone signs-up for an offer or downloads something behind a form – is not spam, if you tell people to expect it and personalise as much as possible.

There will always be some people who receive such emails and think of complaining, which is why it is so important to refine your communications and target people with highly relevant information.

If someone downloaded an ebook on social media, your follow-up lead nurturing emails must refer to that and provide something useful – interesting blog articles, an ebook that accompanies the original, and so on. 

To wrap things up and answer our original question, bulk email is more than just spam, if you define it correctly, seek permission and provide value. To find out how you can incorporate mass email marketing into your next campaign, get in touch with Versio2 and we’ll be happy to tell you about the tools we use, including the HubSpot Inbound Marketing platform.

To celebrate Swiss National Day, let’s take a look at occurrences and events being held across the sphere of social media, from Facebook and Twitter to YouTube and Pinterest. Paper lanterns parades, red and white flags, fireworks and social media hashtag extravaganzas!

#SNDNYC

Yes, it’s the Swiss National Day New York City hashtag, currently doing the rounds on Facebook, Twitter and probably every other network that handles hashtags. 

As far as we can tell, the tag was started by the guys at SNDNYC.org (@sndnyc), who organise an annual Swiss-centric event at the Central Park Zoo. Knowing Americans and the safe assumption that there are many enthusiastic Swiss expats residing over in the Big Apple, it’s very likely to be a grand day out for all.

Social media coverage has been reasonably active, and while the SNDNYC Facebook and Twitter pages have relatively few followers, the hashtags on both show plenty of engagement around the subject. 

IWC Schaffhausen on YouTube

Swiss watchmaker IWC Schaffhausen has put together a great little video to celebrate Swiss National Day 2013. The short clip features a miniature orchestra, assembled by the skilled watchmakers of IWC Schaffhausen and conducted by Master Watchmaker Kurt Klaus, giving a rousing rendition of Schweizerpsalm.

Pinterest is a flurry of red and white

Pinterest being the highly visual medium it is, is of course awash with red and white and all things Swiss if you only know how to find it, giving us an excellent snapshot of some of the most creative expressions and celebrations of Swiss festivities both past and present: