Technology
The future of User Interface (UI) Design: Part 1.
As one of the digital thought leaders at Brogan & Partners, I was excited to attend this year's SXSW conference and see where the future of digital design was heading. Often, I feel like the "usability police" and for years I have been making sure our web sites, rich media and social media designs where intuitive so the user knows where to click and what they'll get. But with Touch UI gaining momentum, it begs the question: Is Touch UI the Click UI killer? After all, video killed the radio star... During my week of Interactive sessions at SXSW, I realized that the focus of conventional Click UI was pretty much obsolete. If anything, it was only mentioned in passing. And I also didn't hear the word "usability" mentioned at all. It was all about the touch or gesture experience.
I joke that my kids don't know what a mouse is, but it's true. Their first experience and exposure to computers were a laptop, iPhone, and iPad. None of these devices uses a mouse or has to be clicked. We do have desktop computers around, but it's avoided because there's a feeling of entrapment compare to our mobile devices. Our expectations of how we experience the web has gone way beyond just the conventional and intuitive navigations.
Whether we believe conventional Click UI is a passing phase or not, it is paramount to consider the visual interface as part of the brand. As designers, we'll need to build an easy and memorable experience for our users. And to stay on top of our competitors, those experiences will need to be unique. This is what Nike Myers described in his "The Visual Interface Is Now Your Brand" session at SXSW. Where do you think the user interface is heading?
Here's a little taste of things to come when the visual is the interface.
SXSW for newbies: A day in the life of a SXSW virgin.
South by Southwest or better known as SXSW, is an interactive, music and film festival. A few of us, Broganites, set off on our travels to take part in the interactive portion of the festival. In particular, I was a SXSW virgin. However, I was excited to lose my v-card and participate in networking events, panel discussions and other social activities surrounding tech innovations.
My first thought was that it all was extremely overwhelming. There were probably over 50 events or sessions you could choose from per day. And there were always going to be 1 or 2 that you could tell would be a waste of time once you sat in them for the first 10 minutes. But overall, the tech leaders that made up the panel discussions and sessions were really insightful. They made you think. After a session you would feel more empowered, more knowledgeable and maybe even invincible. There was also the feeling of: When I get home I am going to be the first one in my office to know about the next great tech idea!
I had a few favorite sessions and here’s what I learned from them:
I Used Data Analytics to Game Online Dating – I was under the assumption that this solo speaker, Amy Webb, was using the title as a metaphor. I thought I was going to a session about social media analytics. Boy was I wrong! It really was about her dating life. This woman created an algorithm to find her husband on an online dating platform. It was even considered rated “R” according to the SXSW organizers – only because she used colorful, raunchy-ish language. Even though it wasn’t what I expected, I really found it very entertaining and humorous. And I may even buy Webb’s book, Data: A Love Story, once it is released in 2013.
What’s So [Bleeping] Hard About Social ROI? – There isn’t one! Or at least there isn’t a universal social media ROI. The panel from this session discussed that you shouldn’t use sales as a goal for social media. Social media is about building relationships directly with the consumer. For those folks who have created their own ROI for social – your formula should be used as a benchmark. However, it’s not an absolute science or equation. My favorite quote from this panel was “What’s the ROI in not doing social?” from Craig Daitch a Social Media Manager for Ford Motor Company.
Social Media Is a Bubble and SXSW Is a Fad – This panel of 5 had lots to say. It was a combination of humor and opinions. All but one of the panelists agreed that social media was a bubble. They were preaching that the social community should figure out how to manage the bubble once it bursts. How do we create value from the burst? I think the creative talent that comes out of this burst will need to be placed in new companies. However, this could be good because they will bring new and fresh ideas to wherever they land. This was by far my favorite, because these people who are looked at as social leaders were being realistic and having a real conversation about the social phenomenon. It is here to stay; the question is when will it become just another medium? After the bubble bursts?
So there you have it, those were my favorite sessions from SXSW. And I can now say…I am no longer a virgin, and it was mind blowing! If you were in Austin last week, what would you say was your favorite session? If you weren’t in Austin last week, does this sound like something you would want to be a part of next year?
Facebook fMC Conference – the new brand Pages.
Yesterday was Leap Day, but it will always be remembered as a revolutionary day in the world of social media. Facebook took a huge leap forward with the inaugural Facebook Marketing Conference. The six-hour, invitation-only event packed the American Museum of Natural History in New York, marking a day in history of its own. If you didn’t happen to make the conference, or your invitation somehow got lost in the mail, never fear. Here’s a recap of what you missed:
Mike Hoefflinger, Facebook’s Director of Marketing, announced some new features that are being incorporated with the introduction of timeline for brand Pages. (Side note for brand Pages: Timeline will launch for all brand Pages on March 30, 2012 but you can preview what your Page will look like before it launches and try the new features. We definitely suggest testing out all of the new features and familiarizing yourself with timeline before changing over your Page for good.)
Here are some key takeaways about the new brand Pages:
Cover Photo and Profile Picture – Your cover photo is your new visual status update. You should change this image as often as you’d like to set the tone for your Page. As for your profile picture: keep it simple and constant. Use your logo or and image that will be easily associated with your brand. Here’s a great example from Ben & Jerry’s, one of the brands that has been in beta for timeline.
Applications – These will now appear as rich applications just below and to the right of the cover photo. These applications will engage customers and encourage them to click more often. Starbucks has also been in beta for Timeline and has made great use of the new apps feature.
Pinned Posts, Starred Posts, Backdated Posts – You can “pin” posts (like Red Bull) that you’d like to feature as a “post of the week”. These will stay at the top of your timeline, appearing as the most recent post.
Star posts to make them double-wide on the timeline and/ or backdate posts to tell the story of how your brand evolved. Before launching your new brand Page, consider selecting 10 milestones to highlight on your Page timeline.
Friend Activity Filter – This appears at the top of the timeline on the brand Page. You can select this feature to see all of the stories about your friends that are connected to the brand (check-ins, likes, photos, etc.). You can also change the filter to see highlights, posts by the Page, or posts by others.
Admin Panel – There is a new admin panel front and center on the page. The admin panel will include notifications, insights, new Likes, page tips and messages. Now, admins will have the ability to reach out to people privately on behalf of the brand.
New Ads for Brand Pages:
Offers on Facebook-Now, brands can post offers on their pages that fans can click to immediately claim the deal. Once they click, the offer will be sent to the user’s email or to their mobile device and is immediately redeemable
Reach Generator – This feature will ensure that fans see your story, and it allows you to reach and engage 75% of fans with the content from your page. Basically, you post content on your page and then Facebook distributes it to your fans. Your sponsored post will appear on their homepage.
Premium on Facebook – This feature is the most impactful way to distribute content on Facebook. It begins similar to Reach Generator (posting to the brand page, where your post will be distributed to the right side of your fans’ homepages as sponsored stories). However, Premium on Facebook goes even further and makes your post eligible for distribution in the Facebook newsfeed (on both desktop and mobile). Premium will also give you the option for your story to appear in logout experience. This option, beginning in April, will be beneficial to brands that have a large reach campaign or an upcoming product launch.
Well, that’s the new timeline for brand Pages in a nutshell. So, what do you think? Are the new Pages going to be more beneficial to marketers?
Building brands with Google Plus: new social media essential or just another Facebook?
To be completely honest, my initial reaction to the Google Plus unveiling was less than enthusiastic. Sigh, yet another platform to tell the world I am “at Starbucks, getting a latte.” (I try to convince myself on a daily basis that this is relevant information). Trust me, I’m not complaining. I like having options. But keeping up with the social media rat race can be a little exhausting, regardless of how heavily it impacts our daily lives (or for some of us, our jobs).
Facebook, Twitter and the like are a huge part of what I do Brogan & Partners. I have seen up close and personal how social media can single handedly build a brand, generate buzz and make or break the success of a business. So this forces the question…will Google Plus become as natural as breathing like updating a status on Facebook?
Let’s take a look at the stats. Thus far, Google Plus has about 40 million users, a drop in the bucket compared to its Facebook counterpart of 800 million. This also means that due to Plus’s lack of maturity, it is too soon to say for sure how effective the network will be for marketing and building brands. In terms of cosmetics, both formats appear to be pretty similar at first glance, even though Facebook will be introducing Timeline, their new “Face lift”, in the near future (stay tuned for more on that).
All uncertainties aside, however, Google Plus might have its advantages. Unlike Facebook, Plus users will have the capability to link directly to YouTube while sharing videos without having to shorten URL’s or be shackled by character limits. It will also have the benefit of donning the name “Google” and, of course, in the ultimate form of nepotism, Google Plus brand pages will be promoted to the top of the search engine powerhouses’ results.
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Another benefit to using Google Plus is its current lack of saturation. You may have heard whispers when the new social network debuted that you needed an invitation to join (a great PR ruse used by Facebook when it appeared on the scene, too). It is now open to all users, but because you can customize the circles you share with and vice versa, you won’t get the same mess of information on your home page that you certainly get on Facebook. For now.
Only time will tell how big this social giant will grow. I, of course, jumped on the band wagon and signed Brogan up for a Plus profile. Want to know how to get your brand started on Google Plus?
- Sign in with your Google account, then go the Google Plus Business Page and click “Create your Google + Page.”
- Choose what category your brand falls under (most likely, it will be “Product or Brand”, or if you are unsure you can pick “Company, Institution or Organization)
- Now, enter your page name (your brand name) and your website.
- This next step is where you need to get a little creative. You have to describe your brand/company in 10 words or less. Try to stick to a description that includes buzz words about your business’s core competencies or where you fit in the marketplace. Here are a few things to think about: What makes you unique? What do you really do? If someone is on a search engine, what words would help them find you the fastest?
- Tell your circles. If you are new to Google Plus, then you most likely do not have circles to tell of your new presence. So you can skip this step. If you are a Google Plus vet, then you can share your page with your current Plus contacts.
- Congrats! You have a Google Plus page. Start looking up other brands and add them to your circles, post pictures and beef up the information to your profile page. The more info on your page and posts about your brand, the better.
Created a page already? I gave you my thoughts on Plus...I’d love to hear yours.
iPad. iPod. iWoman.
Like so many others around the world (literally), I was very saddened to learn about Steve Jobs’ death.
Unlike those who describe themselves as Mac lifers, I’m pretty new to all things Apple. I was steadfastly a PC, as the commercial says, until March, when I got an iPad 2 for my birthday. You can probably guess what I’m going to say next: How did I ever function without this thing? I’ve since added an iPhone to my tech collection and I’m similarly smitten with that. And it’s not just because I’ve become addicted to Facetime, Urban Spoon and camera+.
It’s also because, as a marketing professional with an eye on female consumers, I find Apple fascinating. The company has cracked the code for appealing with equal effectiveness to men and women.
In some cases, they do it by splitting the difference. Have you ever seen a guy with a white iPad? Me either.
But often, the same aspects of a Mac have a way of appealing to men and women’s different sensibilities. The design is both sleek and minimalist (masculine) but also beautiful (feminine).
The operating systems are so logical and intuitive; you can instantly acclimate to your iWhatever. This appeals to a woman’s sense of efficiency and resistance to change (at least in technological matters). And it’s gold to men who don’t like to stop and ask for directions.
But if you do need help? There is the Genius Bar, which is pretty much made for women. The Bar at my Apple Store even has a cluster of knee-high computer stations set up right nearby so kids can perch on mod poufs and play video games while they wait. The geniuses take appointments and can usually solve your problem, or ship your machine off for tinkering, within an easy half-hour. I haven’t been to the Bar yet, but I’ve heard that the geniuses, in their minimalist Apple T-shirts and confident computer geekery are as crushworthy as UPS guys.
Apple’s advertising pushes both male and female buttons, too. The TV commercials are clever, cute, and smart. They manage to avoid condescending to women or chest-bumping with guys. The print ads are utterly simple and elegant, i.e. universally appealing.
Not every company’s products lend themselves so easily to playing both sides of the gender fence. Still, Apple’s marketing approach is one we can learn from. Rather than always skewing our marketing toward men or women, when appropriate, we could hone in on those areas where the masculine and feminine meet.
Anybody else have examples of marketing that masterfully crosses the gender divide?
Social media: changing the way the world gives back one slice of bread at a time.
Social media is changing the world and it’s proving itself time and again that its powers can be used for more good than evil. Exhibit A: the Bread Art Project. It’s a really simple concept with hugely impactful results. With the help of Facebook, Twitter and the like, this project has gone from an unknown to a social media sensation.
The Grain Foods Foundation along with Food Network favorite Ted Allen (host of Chopped) are joining forces with Feeding America to provide a whopping one million pounds of food for those who need it the most. And the numbers are staggering. Hunger impacts 48 million Americans, 17 million of which are children. Most of us can’t imagine what it would be like to not be able to feed ourselves or our families.
And now, social media is being used to help feed the hungry, simply by making pieces of digital bread art. Never fancied yourself an artist? All you have to do is upload a picture of yourself, friends, pets, or any image that is important to you. If you’re a regular Picasso, you can even create your own design and the application will generate a personalized piece of bread art just for you. For every slice of bread art, the Grain Food Foundation will donate a $1 to Feeding America. They have already raised over $21,000 for the project and it continues to grow. Bet you never thought a digital piece of bread could be so much fun or could give back to such a great cause. What are some of your favorite causes social media has impacted?
I even tried out my art skills with a picture of me and some of my girls from Brogan & Partners. If I ever wondered what my face would look like toasted to a piece of bread…I just got my answer.
Why women are leading the social media bandwagon.
For generations there has been an endless debate of who rules the world, men or women. During the sixties, James Brown stated his opinion with “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World”. In Beyonce’s new song “Run the World” she sings, “Who run the world? Girls, girls”. The debate will continue. But in the world of social media, we have a definitive gender winner. It’s women who rule. Sure, men created most of our social platforms but it is women who are maintaining and growing them.
According to Read Write Web, a study done by an online company rapleaf.com revealed that on most social network platforms “women outnumber men by a considerable amount. On Facebook, the 18-24 age group is the largest, with 1,685,029 women in that age group compared to 977,753 men.”
Why are women the largest contributors to social media? According to Jessica Faye Carter, an award-winning author and owner of Nette Media, it is simply because as mothers, we like to share information, educate others as well as develop new trends.
As expert multi-taskers, women like how easily they can share information with family and hundreds of “friends” simply with a click of a button. And as the leading household purchasing decision-maker, they use social media to share information about products, services, time-saving tips and money-saving offers.
Men want to rule the world. Women want to save the world. So it’s no wonder so many women are using social media to make social change. Whether raising awareness for lead paint or money for the breast cancer 3-day, women are using these social tools to build a better world for all of us.
Who do you think will rule the social media world in the future?
Michigan Business Reboot Contest: And the winner is...
After receiving over 60 entries we have chosen the winner of the Michigan Business Reboot Contest. We were thrilled and overwhelmed with the amount of very deserving businesses that entered, which made our decision difficult. However, after carefully reviewing all the entries and interviewing finalists, the business we selected for the grand-prize of marketing and public relations services worth $75,000 is Mechanical Energy Systems (MES).
Mechanical Energy Systems has provided alternative energy solutions such as solar electric and water heating to homeowners and businesses. As pioneers in renewable energy products, the family-owned company is well-respected in the industry and is becoming one of the largest distributors and trainers of solar applications in Michigan. They were chosen based on their longstanding commitment to Michigan and dedication to innovation. We are excited to begin working with everyone at MES and look forward to helping them grow their business and their marketing initiatives.
Thank you to everyone who entered the Michigan Business Reboot Contest and helped make this a success.
Tips for optimizing your Facebook News Feed.
Is NFO the new SEO? According to Facebook, only 0.02% of news stories actually make it to someone’s News Feed. So, how can you get noticed when the social networks are constantly evolving? Optimize. Optimize. Optimize.
Facebook has done something Google has never done; they provided a mathematic formula behind News Feed Optimization, or NFO, which has become the equivalent of Search Engine Optimization. Based on this “Edge Rank” formula, a posts likelihood of appearing in a news feed is a function of these three elements: Affinity, Weight, and Time.
- Affinity is a measure of how often someone interacts with your posts on a regular basis. The more you interact with the same person’s posts, the more likely their posts will show up on your News Feed.
- Weight is the score assigned to each post and how much activity the post gets. The more comments and “likes” your post receives, the higher the weight will be.
- Time is the final factor of the Edge Rank formula. It’s the length of how long ago the interaction was created. The more recent the post, the higher it ranks.
Facebook also weighs the content of your post in a specific order.
- Uploading videos. Whether it’s through YouTube or your own video, it holds the top ranking and has the highest chance of getting seen in a person’s News Feed.
- Checking in. Using Facebook Places (which is similar to foursquare), you can “check in” at certain locations, and tag the friends that are with you. Just like foursquare, this is most commonly done through the mobile application, but more people will see your check in on Facebook than on foursquare.
- Uploading pictures. Tagging friends in the photos you upload tends to attract a lot of interaction, boosting the weight of the post even more.
- Sharing posts. When you see a friend’s post that you like, you can share it to post on your own profile. But make sure when you do this, you add your own comments to make it original.
- Posting links. Share a link from a website that interests you, or that interests your friends/fans, and add your own unique take on the topic.
- Updating status. It is more likely this could be lost in the clutter, but there is a chance your status could still have a heavy weight if it gains a lot of comments and “likes” as mentioned earlier.
With the rapid changes taking place in social media, marketers have to stay on our toes, and hopefully with these tips, you can rule the Facebook News Feed and stand out from the crowd. How do you plan on boosting your profile popularity?
From apples to new apples.
This past Monday Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, announced the new iPhone 4, which is said to be the “biggest leap forward” for the iPhone since 2007. After reading this statement I had to take another glance at the date. The iPhone was only released 3 years ago?!
With the release of the IOS4 there are a handful of new features to gawk at. For instance, real time chatting will allow you to no longer meet for client luncheons. You can bring the client with you in your pocket then set them in between your water glass and soup bowl to chat it up. One catch is that this feature is only available on Wi-Fi, and the presence of good Wi-Fi connection is slim, thus preventing our need to have actual human to human contact. On a positive note the introduction of multitasking now allows one to switch between apps, the internet, and music without any disconnect.
The IOS4 will also have the iAd mobile advertising platform which utilizes the multitasking feature. “The iAd system allows third party developers to include advertising in their apps to earn more money or subsidize free apps.” Apple will sell the advertising and supply the ads from their servers. The advantage to the iAd system is if the user clicks on an iAd banner, a full screen advertisement will appear within the application instead of being redirected to the Safari web browser. Apple will sell and host the ads, giving 60% revenue to the developers. According to Jobs, “People aren’t searching their phones. People are spending time in their apps.” Do you think that with the introduction of iAd there will be in an increase in mobile ad sales?
