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Playing it Safe: Conservative Web Site Design (Fast Company)
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Posted: 10/08/2009
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There is one critical factor to Web site design that cannot be ignored: the reader rules. Designing Web sites with a conservative approach first addresses readers’ expectations, with just the perfect dose of panache to make your site sizzle. The conservative rule of thumb? Organize your information in a way that flows effectively. Fast moving elements like flash should take center stage while slower moving elements like columns and news bites should flank the outer rails. Smashing Magazine sampled 50 top Web sites to pinpoint the definition of 'readability' and establish some basic guidelines for effective type layout, including font type, font size and link styling. So the next time you try to equate "conservative" with "boring" consider this: sometimes slow and steady really does win the race.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business
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Write It. Snap it. Post it. Done. Posterous Launches Mobile App PicPosterous (Fast Company)
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Posted: 09/25/2009
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Touted as the simplest blogging tool to date, Posterous makes it easier for bloggers to post content to multiple accounts with just one step: by emailing post@posterous.com. Anytime users send a document or upload a photo or link, Posterous autoposts the content to any other accounts users specify, including other administered blogs and emailing posts to subscribers. Add the photoblogging app PicPosterous to the mix for yet an even easier way to upload photos and video to your sites quickly. By replacing your built-in camera app and using Apple’s in-app emailing, you snap photos continuously and post them live instead of having to wait until the end of an event. With ease and speed at the forefront of this power-tool app, this may just be the app to woo even non-experts.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Peer Groups & Communities
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A Sweet Flight: Chocolate Takes to the Sky (Chief Marketer)
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Posted: 09/25/2009
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Sweetriot, a New-York based candy company, will take to the skies this spring to hawk their $3 chocolate bar on Virgin America. “It's a good way to get the chocolate bars into people's hands,” notes Sarah Endline, company mastermind and chief rioter. In addition to being available online at www.sweetriot.com, the new product also has limited distribution at retail stores like Whole Foods. The company participates in sampling events and is cultivating a sweet relationship with its vivacious, well-educated customer base via social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. Endline also contributes to the company’s blog, highlighting consumer events like the Fancy Food Show and engaging customers to vote on artwork that captures the best spirit for the company’s holiday tins.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
North America
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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Where Only the Strong Survive: Market Testing on the Social Scene (Chief Marketer)
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Posted: 09/25/2009
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Given the ongoing technology explosion, it’s no surprise that consumers’ collective (and opinionated) voice is growing louder and marketers’ ears bigger, or at least more attune to what they’re hearing via the social web. Tapping in to social networks allows marketers to listen to what consumers are saying to not only drive, but refine market testing and distill the ideas that most deeply resonate with their audiences. Marketers must harness the power of social media by immediately engaging as many consumers as they can from the start. By the time ideas and messaging run through various tiers of sub-panels, what’s left is a virtual survival-of-the-fittest where only the strongest ideas survive and “smartness” is ruled only by the human imagination.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Peer Groups & Communities
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EZ-Lube Plugs Into Mobile Campaign to Tune-Up Loyalty Program (PromoMagazine)
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Posted: 09/25/2009
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Oil Change specialists EZ-Lube took customer care and loyalty to new heights last spring with a mobile campaign to boost its customer base. With more than 80 stores, the Southern California auto lube chain partnered with mobile marketing and loyalty experts SmartReply to launch a campaign targeted at existing loyalty customers and others who opted in to receive special messaging. 500,000 text messages touting car-care value offers were sent over a six-week period. In addition to boosting its database by 1,700 opt-ins for future promotions and fortifying the company’s competitive advantage, the campaign also garnered a 5% redemption rate among general responders and 15% among the existing loyalty club members at a cost of less than $6 per opt-in.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
North America
Audience:
Business to Consumer
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Report Shows That B-to-B Marketers Harness the Power of Social Media (BtoB Online)
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Posted: 09/11/2009
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B-to-B marketers tend to dedicate a greater portion of their budgets to newer media platforms, so it’s no surprise that the report, “Harnessing the Power of Newer Media Platforms for More Effective Marketing,” shows a dramatic increase in social media among b-to-b marketers. The updated report from BtoB and the ANA (Association of National Advertisers)documents that 66% percent of marketers surveyed currently employ social media, up from 20% in 2007. An overwhelming 57% now target social media, a 42% increase over respondents two years ago. Blogging and mobile are the “newer media” tactics not currently being employed, but respondents claim they’ll begin using both in the next year. LinkedIn is chief among the social networks utilized by b-to-b marketers, while Facebook ranked highest overall. Viral video and podcasts are chalked up to be the next go-to b-to-b marketing tactic over the next year.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Peer Groups & Communities
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Figuring Out the Tools of the Social Trade: How Intuit Benefits from Social Media (BusinessWeek)
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Posted: 09/11/2009
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For many companies it may seem impossible to get measurable results from social media campaigns, but Intuit (INTU) appears to be profiting from its new social community, Quickbooks
Live Community. Intuit’s secret to success? The accounting software maker aggregates tried-and-true users into a live community where they can exchange meaningful information. For customers, that means quicker responses to troubleshooting while the company is relieved of providing more paid technicians. The live community is immediately accessible to users
opening QuickBooks 2009 on a PC or Mac. Since launching the new social element, the company has enjoyed multiple benefits from decreasing costs for tech support and enhancing customer service to tripling its channel traffic and increasing market share by 4 points, to 94%.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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Breaking Through the Barriers to Adopting Social Media in Email Marketing (New Media Knowledge)
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Posted: 09/11/2009
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A recent survey by email experts StrongMail cited that 62 percent of firms plan to increase social media spending while 66 percent plan to integrate social media into their email marketing campaigns. NMK sat down with Paul Bates, managing director of StrongMail, to get an insider’s
perspective for breaking through the barriers to effectively engage social media. Find out where your customers are hanging out online and observe their behavior there; engage competitive analysis across the social spectrum to find out where your competitors are lurking and determine whether they are or are not enjoying success. The conversation with Bates is packed
with stats, insights and tips for marketers to engage customers in meaningful conversation and begin to integrate social media into an email marketing strategy with enormous ROI on their marketing dollars.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Peer Groups & Communities
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Maximize your Web Site’s Mobilization with CSS (Practical eCommerce)
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Posted: 09/11/2009
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With mobile internet use and mobile-friendly browsing on the rise, expert Armando Roggio is
encouraging businesses to consider his “Web Design Tips” before redesigning their e-commerce sites to address their mobilization. Simple techniques such as adding a second style sheet or slightly revising a page’s HTML can enhance mobile shopping experiences
without wasting time to register new mobile domains or create mobile-specific styles. The best
solution? According to Roggio, it’s more efficient to redesign your current site to render well
across multiple platforms including mobile, desktop, RSS, and more, using CSS. To illustrate his advice, Roggio creates a home page for an e-commerce comic book store with an instructional video demonstrating how to create mobile-friendly background images.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Creative & Design,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer
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Is Real-time Internet Worth All the Buzz? (New Media Knowledge)
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Posted: 08/27/2009
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You may be wondering what’s behind all the real-time Internet buzz. Before you determine the real worth of real-time Internet, consider Dell’s success with their @DellOutlet platform on Twitter, the front-runner in the real-time game. The company has experienced real financial gain (to the Tweet of $3 million dollars in revenue) from real-time marketing, “Tweeting” followers a
mixture of exclusive content and time specific discount incentives. According to Joe Hughes of Yomego there are two key elements to real-time Internet: (1) practically no delay between composition and publishing and (2) the ability for users to discover content in real-time. With an estimated three to four hundred million people currently using some version of real-time Internet (across platforms like Facebook, Friendfeed, Yauba and jabber), the numbers are too large to ignore as merely a fad.
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Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
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We cut through the clutter of the web to highlight innovation and forward-thinking. The best stories from leading publications – hand selected and organized to provide you a single point of access.
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