Via today and tomorrow

Internet start-ups out to crack the problem of advertising on social networks are developing ad technology that can analyze which people are most influential to their friends on social networks so that they can target those people with pass-it-on messages about Apple’s latest iPhone or The Incredible Hulk movie.

I have meet with Seth from SocialMedia networks and their technology was pretty interesting. I needs to be applied in the correct way with due respect to the individual user, but I guess that’s the down to the skill of the dadvertiser.

SocialMedia to unveil ‘friendship ranks’ | News Blog – CNET News. Via Yasmin’s email.

While eating my breakfast this morning I clicked through on some links on QBN and onto this great article about Metallica’s new logo and corporate identity that was designed by the design firm Turner Duckworth. I think I spent as much time reading the comments as I did reading the article, so if you click through make sure you read the comments.

Read the article here.
Via QBN.

The Most Popular Social Bookmarking Services
Via funny enough this was via Zeus Jone’s Facebook feed.

This a little bit of shameless self promotion (I have always loved that category from threeminds.com).

For the past few months a small, dedicated team here at McCann San Francisco has been redesigning Microsoft’s Student Experience (their name not ours). http://www.microsoft.com/student.

We were originally briefed to make it a “cool” student portal; but we flipped that idea on its head as a result of an insight into how a brand like Microsoft can really help young people actualize their ambition and developed a solid strategy built around the positioning that “The Future Looks Different”.

That thought was brought to life by a developing a strong user experience platform, a visual interpretation of the Microsoft brand and a beautifully built CSS/HTML site.

Last week the site was picked up organically by some sites like ZDnet:

“The website now looks what it actually is, Microsoft’s central portal for students. Not only does it have tutorials in how to get things done (naturally with Microsoft’s products), it has a wide variety of content for all kinds of students, needing all kinds of things.

“It has input from students all over the world, studying at all kinds of universities, offering advice, thoughts, knowledge and stories on many-a-topic. The interesting thing, before when it was just a self-promotion, arrogant-almost website, this really is a valuable resource for students.”

It’s always nice to have your work noticed especially for the right reasons. I am also happy that we made it useful as opposed to a flashy hollow experience that some student sites seem to be.

Visit the site here.
Read the full ZDNet article here.

Needless to say I agree with nearly all of the points. I am particularly interested in #2 ‘pull tactics’, it’s something I have been writing about recently and should the first real article/opinion piece that I am going to post to MessageNotFound as soon as I finish it.

Sapient recently sponsored a national online digital marketing and interactive advertising survey to gain insight into what marketers want from their advertising and marketing agencies in the next 12 months. The survey polled more than 200 chief marketing officers (CMOs) and senior marketing professionals, all of whom are either directly or indirectly responsible for managing digital marketing budget allocation across multiple channels.

1. Greater knowledge of the digital space.
2. More use of “pull interactions.
3. Leverage virtual communities.
4. Agency executives using the technology they are recommending.
5. Chief Digital Officers make agencies more appealing.
6. Web 2.0 and social media savvy.
7. Agencies that understand consumer behavior.
8. Demonstrate strategic thinking.
9. Branding and creative capabilities.
10. Ability to measure success.

Read the full article here.
via Tim Brunelle’s Twitter Feed

What stands out about Dell is the investment it has made in its self-awareness. It has a squad of 42 employees who spend their workdays engaging with the communities on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. What is this Team Web 2.0 learning? One important nugget: that potential customers spend 99% of their time on the web doing research and just 1% actually buying. So the company has tried to dial down the hard sell and become – or at least appear to become – more helpful. The first step was to add blogs and message boards in the hope that irate customers will talk to the company rather than gripe to the whole Internet. “If we don’t do that at Dell.com, it’s going to be on CNET or somewhere,” Michael Dell says. “I’d rather have that conversation in my living room than in somebody else’s.”

Via Fortune Magazine. Read the full article here.