“Frictionless Sharing”

This phrase is nothing new to the Facebook marketer. It was first mentioned by Mr. Zuckerberg himself at the September 2011 f8 conference. In his keynote address Mark mentioned a concept called “frictionless sharing” which is one of Facebook’s latest goals. To give you an idea of the concept, it is basically Facebook’s attempt to add even more status and stream updates to the news ticker. Authorize Facebook apps like Spotify or the Washington Post and sharing on your profile what you listen to or read will be effortless, seamless…frictionless.

“Mocial”

Most marketers working in mobile should be well aware of the term Mocial. Mocial is the coupling of two concepts (Mobile + Social Networking), but instead of just saying the two terms separately someone (probably a digital hipster) went all “Brangelina“ and converged the two. “Mocial” marketing, assuming this made up word is an adjective, ensures that any mobile marketing campaign will include some social sharing options to help amplify the message. For example, one could say that when Apple added deeper Twitter sharing integrations into their release of iOS5, they also deepened their “mocial” marketing capabilities.  Don’t know about you guys, but reading “mocial” too many times in a blog post gives me mocial sickness.

“Meme”

The oldest term on my digital hipster list, and probably the one most used by non-digital marketers like anthropologists and evolutionists, is meme. Traditionally, a meme is something that reflects a cultural norm and is repeated or passed through groups of people. Catch phrases like “Where’s the beef?” or “Whasssssup” are examples of societal memes from previous decades in the US.

But meme has gone mainstream with the internet. If you have seen anything related to planking or leisure diving, then you have seen an internet meme (and if you’re a digital hipster you’ve probably done it too). Personally, my favorite type of internet meme are the image memes that feature a witty caption, i.e. - Honey Badger Don’t Care. Popular hashtags like #tigerblood are also examples of internet memes.

Has a Digital Hipster dropped an F-bomb (frictionless sharing) on you recently or thrown out some other geeky term?  Please share it or your own personal favorite Digital Hipster terms in the comments below.

There is a whole world wide web for the taking and promoting of your business.  Why would you limit your online footprint to Facebook?  Don’t say you “can’t afford” a website or search engine marketing because there are a number of low cost web options available if you do a little digging.  While Facebook pages are super easy and cheap to set up, they should be used as a compliment to your online strategy not a substitute. Here are five reasons why Facebook should never be your only online presence.

1) You Don’t Control Facebook, Mr. Zuckerberg Does

Any digital marketer worth their salt is well aware that Facebook is constantly changing their platform. Mark has caused all sorts of headaches concerning privacy, FBML/iframes, and contest rules. What if one day he is bored with making billions of dollars and just shuts Facebook down? If you have only built your presence on Facebook, you would lose it all and there would be nothing you could do about it. While Facebook being shut down isn’t high on the list of probable things to happen, it is still something to consider.  Fundamental of Marketing: Control your brand. You don’t have full control of your brand or any say-so on the rules of Facebook.  You do have full control and mastery of your brand on an independent website.

2) Search Engines Won’t Catch All Your Promotions

Facebook and Google are both alpha dogs and don’t play well together. Google, which completes about 65% of all online searches, has partnered with just about every one of the major social networking services (Twitter, Blogger, Flickr, LinkedIn, etc.) through their Social Search. Facebook has refused to share their social data with Google and has more of a partnership with Bing, which conducts only about 14% of all searches. This does not mean that Google doesn’t index Facebook pages, but it definitely means that many of the interactions with your customers and promotions on Facebook are only visible within Facebook. It’s far more beneficial to cross promote on other social networks and/or showcase your business on an independent site or blog that can be indexed by search engines.

3) Facebook is not Universal, the Internet is

Believe it of not, there are many people who don’t actively use Facebook or even have a Facebook profile. There are over 312 million US citizens. Facebook has more than 750 million active users, but only about 30% of all these users (225 million) are within the United States.  That leaves roughly 87 million US citizens who are not using Facebook. While a reach of 225 million users is still very impressive, it cuts out over a quarter of the population. Facebook itself is accessed through the internet and the internet is universal.  You have a better chance of reaching the 87 million and all existing Facebook users with an independent website.

4) Not Every Business Does Well on Facebook

Dan Zarella from Hubspot did some great research into the Science of Facebook Marketing.  He found that there are some Facebook pages that are naturally more successful than others.  The most “Liked” pages of Facebook tend to be movies, TV shows, or those related to food.  The least “Liked” pages seemed to be “local” businesses (ironically the ones I am always searching for).  If you don’t have many followers, then you would be better served with an independent website for promotions with traffic driven to it organically by search engines.

5) Locating You Isn’t Foolproof

With every small business I speak to about digital marketing, I advise that their first step be to get registered with Google Places and the other major search engines.  It’s free and will help promote them through regular searches.  Plus, customers can leave reviews about their business that can influence other potential customers.  Positive reviews = good things for your business and revenues.  But, if you don’t register with search engines and your address is only on your Facebook info page, you are missing an opportunity to be found by searching customers online.

Additionally, the Facebook mobile mapping experience outside the native Facebook app leaves something to be desired.  For example, I wanted to find a place here that cuts kids hair.  I was on my iPhone and did a search for “kids haircuts Chattanooga.”  It pulled up a cute little kids haircut business website and their Facebook page in the top three results (they were not registered with Google Places).  I first navigated to their website which disappointingly did not list their address.  I then navigated back to their Facebook info page and clicked on their address which automatically uses Bing.  Clicking the address which clearly stated “Chattanooga” sent me to a map of Seattle, Washington??  I navigated back and instead clicked “Get Directions.”  Bing’s mapping app appeared but failed to actually map the address.  Let’s just say Bing’s mapping service does not give me warm fuzzies and I decided against bothering with this business.

If your business is exclusively using Facebook, then it’s time for an intervention.  I am aware that not all businesses can afford a custom designed and built website, but businesses should not let this be their barrier.   The cost to buy a domain can be as little as $10 (depending on the exact URL) and directing it to a simple site is fairly easy nowadays.  Setting up a simple site can be done by any novice using services such as Google sites, Weebly, Webs, etc.  Plus, there is no cost to register your business with Google Places and other search engines.  It’s time to get on internet bandwagon.

As a consumer, how do you feel about businesses who exclusively use Facebook to promote themselves online?  Does an actual website make a difference in your search and you deciding to buy something or patron a business? Please share in the comments section below. 

Smartphone

In 1993, the first smartphone was introduced  and since then our love affair with this device has increased significantly. A smartphone can be defined as a mobile device that runs a mobile operating system (OS) and offers advanced multitasking & computing capabilities.  Smartphones usually offer other functions/applications that allow the device to act as a media player, camera, GPS navigation, internet, etc.

Dumb Phone

The obvious opposite of the smartphone is the dumb phone.  This is actually an uncouth reference.  If you want to hang with the “cool kids” in the mobile world, you will instead say “feature phone.”  No one likes it when you refer to something they own as “dumb” even if it is their archaic mobile device.

Feature Phone

Feature phone is the proper way of referring to a phone that is not a Smartphone.  Usually these devices are used for completing singular, simple tasks such as phone calls or texting.  The main differentiating factor of a feature phone is that it does not have an internal operating system (OS) as found in smartphones.

Mobile OS

OS is short for operating system.  Mobile operating systems are what smartphones are built on and what makes them function.  Currently, the most popular OS’s are Android and iOS.   iPhones, iPads, and iPods run on an iOS.  Android is Google’s platform and its versions are named after various desserts such as Froyo, now Honeycomb, and soon to be Ice Cream Sandwich.  Other OS’s include RIM’s Blackberry OS, Windows, Symbian, Linux, and the old-school, Palm OS.

SMS Message

Short Message Service (SMS) is a standardized method of sending messages through mobile devices.  It is also what most of us call “text messaging.”  Text messaging can be completed on pretty much all mobile devices (feature and smartphones) and is great for marketing campaigns because it allows for the reach of most audiences regardless of their particular mobile device.

MMS Message

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is similar to SMS messaging but goes further than the short, text message to instead send a picture, a video clip, or an audio clip.  As mobile bandwidth has increased so has the usage of MMS.  Unlike SMS, MMS is not necessarily a universal option available to users on all mobile devices.

Short Codes

ETSMS = "Vanity" Short Code

Short codes are like telephone numbers, but shorter, easier to remember, and used mostly for commercial promotions.  There are two types of short codes: Common and Vanity. Common Short Codes (CSC) are numbers that you submit a message to in relation to a campaign (i.e. – “text COUPON to 55555 for extra savings at Widget World”). The 55555 is the CSC. A Vanity short code serves the same purpose as a CSC, but is usually branded (for additional fees) to spell out something familiar with the numbers.  Fees associated to receive SMS updates from short codes vary from provider to provider. Therefore, most marketers executing short code campaigns usually limit their communications to a few per month.

Autocorrect

www.damnyouautocorrect.com

Autocorrect can sometimes be considered a time saver or spellcheck for your phone.  It’s function is to replace text as you are typing with the “correct” word.  However, any veteran texter knows that the replaced word is not always the correct one (as demonstrated on DamnYouAutocorrect.com).  Autocorrect is a part of most phones and texting is one of the primary functions used by smartphone owners.  It is usually just a concern of the user, but I recently read an article that stated mobile marketers should pay more attention to autocorrect and how it can effect a mobile campaign.

2D & QR Codes

I see 2D and QR codes used interchangeably alot, and they are related, but they aren’t synonymous.  Two Dimensional (2D or matrix bar) codes are the next generation of codes after 1D, scannable, bar codes.  But instead of displaying only one line of data from varying degrees of straight lines, the matrix of squares and rectangles allow for multiple amounts of data in each code.   A QR (quick response) code is a form of a 2D code that can be scanned and deciphered by a smartphone, usually redirecting the scanner to a separate website, landing page, or video on the internet. To see a 2D code in action,  check out Ballantine Whisky’s “First Ever Animated Tattoo.”

Near Field Communication (NFC)

NFC is a communication software built inside a specialized chip.  Smartphones with these NFC chips can transmit data in relation to commerce payments or even keyless entry.  The data exchange is instant and can be done by simply swiping your phone across a NFC device.  Google (Google Wallet) is working to take advantage of this technology and includes the chip in some of their Android phones.  Apple has not included it in the iPhone, but it is rumored that it may be present in their iPhone 5.

Mobile web app

Amazon Mobile Website

A mobile web application helps a website display in a mobile friendly fashion when a user accesses it from their smartphone or mobile device.  A mobile friendly website is usually optimized for all mobile devices despite what OS they are running (Android, iOS, Windows, etc.).  Mobile websites often limit the amount of content delivered to the mobile phone user and have fewer images, iframes, and “moving parts.”  Mobile web apps maker for a better mobile experience and are usually easy to set up and cost effective to build.

Amazon Home Page - Notice Differences Between Home, Mobile, and Native App Layouts

Native app

Amazon iPhone App

A native app is a mobile application that lives within a smartphone.  A native app is built on one type of mobile OS and can only be accessed by smartphones that run that particular OS.  Native apps usually require a expert programmer or OS developer to create them.  Native apps tend to be more costly, but run faster and are perfectly tailored to the mobile device they run on.  Additionally, native apps usually take advantage of existing technology within the phone such as the camera, GPS, media player, etc.

What other mobile or smartphone terms would you add to this list?  Share them in the comments section below.

Below are a few truly innovative and interesting ideas I came across in research that will help make sure your QR campaigns go from lame to hall of fame!*

*Ok, that was pretty lame but nothing like a rhyme to set your point off

Please Play Nice with the Mobile Device

The biggest LAME mistake I see marketers and novices make is creating a QR code that when scanned on a mobile device, leads to a non-mobile friendly page or website.  Most people will be scanning your QR code from a smartphone.  While it is possible to navigate a non-mobile friendly website on your phone, it isn’t fun.  Links and text are tiny and “fat fingering” the wrong link happens entirely too often. Additionally, connection speeds may not always be best so all those images and iframes on your page = SLOW LOAD TIME! PC friendly sites are not mobile friendly sites and vice versa.  If you use QR, incorporate a mobile module into your CMS or direct your code to a separate mobile friendly landing page.

Target's Fat Finger Foe vs Fat Finger Friend

Have Some Fun While You Wait

Don’t just create a QR code that links to your website or Facebook page, that’s LAME.  Try to provide something useful to your scanners.  First Bank did a soft sell QR campaign on billboard in airports.  Instead of just promoting their products, they wanted to demonstrate their customer care by providing useful diversions for potential customers waiting for flights.  People who scanned the QR codes were directed to a mobile friendly page that allowed them to download a Sherlock Holmes book for reading or play puzzles.  Of course this landing page included some more self serving aspects such as buttons to find them on Facebook, contact customer services, and open their very own First Bank account (but that’s ok).  If only the DMV was as innovative.

First Bank QR's lead you to free books or sudoku puzzles

Before You Leave, Could You Tell Us More?

Survey or Contact Form QR

There is great potential for restaurants and hotels to use QR codes in their billing.  Add a QR code to your customer’s bill that directs them to a survey (SHORT SURVEY – remember mobile users are on-the-go) that allows them to give feedback while it’s still fresh in their mind.  It could also lead to a short Contact us or Sign-up form to receive email updates from the business.

Wufoo form’s aren’t 100% mobile friendly but I recommend them as a thrifty option for businesses to create quick and easy survey and sign-up forms.

Radisson Edwardian QR Menu

Restaurants who may not have menu real estate to showcase each of their entrees can use a tiny QR code by menu descriptions.  When scanned it could shows a picture or video of the food item.  The Radisson Edwardian Hotel put this QR practice in place on their menus and allowed patrons to see a video of the entree prepared by the Chef, all while sitting comfortably at their table.

Great For Print and Interns Too

AXA iAd - YouTube

I’ve seen QR codes in a number of print ads and on product labels, but most are pretty simple and more commonly they just direct the scanner back to their website or Facebook page, LAME!

AXA, a Belgium financial insurance company has been experimenting with mobile interactivity in TV and in print.  They used a QR code in a TV commercial, (Note: I haven’t seen much QR success with TV) and also created an iAd to be used in print.  While the example pictured to the left isn’t technically a QR example, it could just as easily have been a QR campaign with the same non-lame results. Watch the AXA YouTube Video for the full iAd effect.

QR CODE – Content-rich Resume from Victor petit

An intern in France, Victor Petit, used the same principles as AXA for his resume.  An HR rep turns to the back of his resume and they are greeted with his headshot and a QR code over his mouth.  Scan the code and place the phone on his face to get a real message from Mr. Petit himself.  Needless to say, he got hired quickly.

Business Cards for Personal or Professional Brand

Business cards are nothing new to QR, but how you use them is.  Most the time, QR codes on business cards simply link back to a personal/company website or just link to a mobile friendly page where you can see contact information.  But isn’t contact information already on the business card?  Duplication of efforts = LAME!

QR Business Card Page

Take your QR business card to the next level by incorporating some more interactive elements.  Don’t just include your contact information, create a mobile business card with links to your Twitter, Linkedin, even Newsletter sign up form.  Give scanners the option to download your contact information directly to their phone contacts.  There are a number of sites out there that help you generate a mobile business card and QR code easily.  Check out QRSocialze.me or LinkBlots.  Businesses may have more luck with Google Sites’ new and pre-made mobile templates to help them create nice mobile friendly landing pages for QR business cards.

Need some ideas for QR Business card designs?  See some great examples of QR business cards on Webdesigner Depot.

Sorry I Missed You, But Not Missing the Sale

Retail stores may find this trick helpful when they close or are away from their products AND have a mobile friendly ecommerce website (or Amazon, Etsy, eBay account).  Put a QR code on your closed sign to direct people to make purchases at your store online.

Also good for trade shows if you ever need to leave your booth.  Attendees will be able to scan any QR code you leave to learn more about your products.  A good example of this is in the video below (minus the kinda loopy guy).

Watch Brands Engaging With QR Codes In Retail (Spazio 24)

Let’s learn from our mistakes. What are some of the lame QR uses you have seen? Or what are some hall of fame worthy QR code campaigns?  Please share in the comments below.

I recently made an excursion was to Atlanta where I attended a monthly event hosted by the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association (AIMA).   The topic of the evening was smartphones, which have become one of the fastest growing mediums and one that could have the biggest impact on marketers in the next few years.

Their event “Half the U.S. Has a Smartphone: Now What?” not only gave a quick smartphone history lesson but also a few good real life mobile marketing tips.  Additionally, it affirmed my beliefs in mobile site vs mobile app development  and when each is the best solution for particular needs.  I also picked up a few new mobile industry terms, some I really hope to avoid – “Somoloco” (what?!).

See my Storify summary of the event below or view the story here.

LinkedIn can be a powerful tool for B2B organizations.  On top of that, the fact that 50% of their 100 million user profiles are the decision makers for their company, could also make it a profitable tool.*

I have removed the name of the company and any distinguishing details, but included the completed project for your viewing pleasure.

How have you used LinkedIn for lead generation or for marketing your B2B company?

*Source noted in document