Companies have a growing need to provide an engaging experience for their customers, and incorporating Gamification techniques is becoming an increasingly better way to do that. This concept has been buzzing around for some time now, but a deeper understanding is needed to effectively implement it into a real business; simply putting badges on your website and giving away mediocre prizes isn’t going to cut it.

There are two game mechanics concepts that game designers consider when building games that are also helpful when developing products, services, ideas or businesses. The first is understanding what players or customers crave above all else at the root level. The second is understanding what fundamentally motivates and drives consumers to act. At the end, we’ll tie it all together to show how these concepts need to be taken to the next level in the near future.

WHAT CUSTOMERS CRAVE ABOVE ALL ELSE
To start off, we’ll talk about what customers really want from your company. Gamification expert Gabe Zichermann explains that people want four different things: status, access, power, and stuff. Purposefully giving people these things will engage them far more in the short and long term.

These are ordered from most important to people to the least important to people. Luckily for marketers, they are also ordered from cheapest to implement to most expensive.

Status
People with status rank highly in the social hierarchy compared to others and this is very important to people. Depending on the person, status could look like getting a higher score than friends in a video game, being publicly recognized as being in an elite group such as a country club or airline frequent flier club. Airline frequent fliers track their miles like a gamer would track their high score because they are treated as more important than normal passengers when they reach the platinum level.

Access
Giving people access is all about giving people permission to be somewhere or do something that they couldn’t have done before. As usual, scarcity produces a higher demand. In a game, this is often implemented by giving bonus levels or some sort of special abilities. Businesses could give certain customers access to important people, places, tools, or technologies.

For example, a retailer giving top customers a shorter line to wait in when they check out is an example of giving them exclusive access to something. These types of promotions are very valuable to the consumer, but don’t usually cost very much to implement.

Power
Not surprisingly so, it turns out that people want power. Most often this looks like people having control over others or some sort of responsibility that gives them influence.

A great example could be making a top contributor on a company forum a moderator for the forum. They are then able to influence the content on the forum from a more official position. This influence is very valuable to people.

Stuff
Lastly, people still do want free stuff and businesses should continue to give them what they want. However, there are two downsides. The first is that it is usually relatively expensive. The second is that consumers value free stuff less.

People have a tendency to value the above intangible rewards such as a VIP express line more than they are actually worth because it appeals to what they really want. On the other hand, giving away a baseball hat that retails for $15 will never be worth more than that much money. It is much harder to assign a monetary value to something that isn’t normally sold.

Overall, consumers want status, access, power, and stuff and this is important to know when thinking about how to develop a product, promotion, business or idea. The second important component to consider is what motivates your customers to play a game or engage with your brand.

WHAT DRIVES CUSTOMERS TO ACT
Richard Bartel conducted research about how and why people play games and found some interesting results. He lays out four types of people that are motivated differently. Businesses need to design their products and services to specifically engage each of these types of users.

Achievers
The first is called the Achiever and they wake up every morning thinking about winning. These people are motivated by success and progress. The primary reason they play games or engage with a brand is to win. Brands can easily target and engage Achievers with contests and with auctions.

Social
The second type are the social players and the vast majority of the population fall into this category. They may play a game and even keep score, but the reason they play isn’t to get the highest score. The reason they play is to get the social interaction that playing with other people provides. Target this type of person by allowing them to interact with other people while interacting with your company

Killers
Thirdly, the Killers are similar to Achievers, but slightly different. They not only need to win, but they need for you to lose. In fact, the more people that publicly know they won, and you lost the better they feel. Give these customers an opportunity to compete directly and publicly against other people.

Explorers
The last type are the Explorers and they value the search, not necessarily the thing they are searching for. Target them by giving them an experience worth telling their friends about.

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER
Companies need to get to the point where they give incentives and rewards to get their customers to do what we want them to do. Hoping they do these things is not a very good strategy; we need to design for it. It doesn’t matter if your product, service, or business looks like a game as much as it works like a game.

We need to look at a store in the mall and recognize that shopping at the mall is where many people go not just to shop, but to socialize. Shopping is simply the medium to socialize and the mall is where that happens. Therefore, this is a game that isn’t as fun to play by yourself. It is better for the user to go with friends.

Understanding this helps this business in the mall to know to give incentives for people to come to their store together. So why not have a sale only available for people that come with 3 or more friends? This capitalizes on the social motivation of shopping while giving customers special access to something. This will appeal to what customers really want.

Specifically target all of the above customer wants and motivations like this to effectively implement game mechanics and game thinking into your initiative.

Mini Cooper created an excellent campaign that naturally drew in thousands of people to play a city wide game because it was designed to engage them. In short, Mini Cooper placed a virtual car in the middle of Stockholm and would give away an actual car to anyone who got within 50 meters of it at the end of the competition. Only iPhone users with the application could find the car or see where the other players were. The catch was that once someone claimed the car, anyone else that came within 50 meters of them could steal it so they had to stay on the move.

This campaign appealed to Achievers wanting to win, Social players wanting to play with and against their friends, Killers wanting to show how many people they beat, and Explorers wanting to tell the whole story to their friends. They also gave something away and made it only accessible by the iPhone community. Mini Cooper’s budget and team was no doubt bigger than most, but the concepts still apply.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Do you see a growing need to design business strategies around these gamification principals or do you think these principals are not relevant?

Since 2008, social media has expanded beyond the young user demographic and is continuing to enhance its personalization and interactivity. Which is why it turned the tables this presidential election, taking on a more proactive role by co-hosting debates, sponsoring town halls and creating new ways for voter/candidate communication. It’s awesome to see social media making a big impression that will forever change how future elections are ran. Thanks to their outreach, the 2012 elections are expected to be one of the highest voter turnout elections in U.S. history.

Just in case you missed it, here’s a quick recap of what social media has done for both candidates and tech-savvy constituents so far:

APRIL 20, 2011 – FACEBOOK TOWN HALL
Obama reconnected with the users responsible for his 2008 campaign success at Facebook’s headquarters. Moderated by Mark Zuckerberg himself, more than 1,700 questions to Obama were posted to the White House Facebook page and over 50,000 people watched the live-streamed event.

MAY 18, 2011 – YOUTUBE TOWN HALL
YouTube, owned by Google, created a channel for virtual debate. Users watch and decide which Congress members’ views they support before knowing which party the representative belongs to. The most supported videos are featured in the YouTube Town Hall Leaderboard. Congress members also respond to the top-voted user-submitted questions monthly.

JULY 6, 2011 – TWITTER TOWN HALL
Obama kicked off this event by making the first live presidential tweet in the White House. Twitter’s Executive Chairman, Jack Dorsey, then posed questions to Obama in real time that used the hashtag #AskObama. Radian6, Mass Relevance and curators monitored the tweets using Twitter’s search algorithms. Obama’s answers were condensed to 140 characters on @townhall and @whitehouse during the event.

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 – TWITTER’S POLITICAL PAID ADVERTISING
Twitter allows candidates to purchase political Promoted Tweets, Trends and Accounts. Tweets feature a purple promoted icon and display a discloser line when hovered over. Unless you follow the accounts, the ads only appear on the top right corner of the UI, in trending topics and when you search for related topics.

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011 – GOOGLE/FOX NEWS DEBATE
Prior to the debate, about 20,000 viewers submitted more than 18,000 questions and 100,000 votes via text and video to the Fox News YouTube channel. As Google presented its public data and search trends in conjunction with debate questions, viewers voted on real-time polling questions and submitted comments as they watched. To top it off, the filing room was branded with Google’s logo and colors right down to the drinks.

SEPTEMBER 26, 2011 – LINKEDIN TOWN HALL
What better topic to discuss in a town hall hosted by the world’s largest professional network than job creation and the American economy. Similar to the Facebook Town Hall, CEO Jeff Weiner asked Obama questions from the live audience at LinkedIn headquarters as well as from more than 4,000 users in a specially created LinkedIn Group.

OCTOBER 6, 2011 – YOUTUBE POLITICS CHANNEL
Curated by Storyful, YouTube launched a channel that serves as the hub for all political videos by candidates, users, news networks, etc. You can also compare each of the major candidate’s YouTube stats including views, subscribers, video shares and amount of searches. While user-generated videos generate the most views, no one has been able to produce the same virality as the “Obama Girl” music videos.

JANUARY 8, 2012 (TENTATIVE) – NBC NEWS/FACEBOOK GOP DEBATE
Facebook is scheduled to co-host a primary debate on NBC’s “Meet the Press” moderated by David Gregory. There’s not much information about the interactive elements, only that this first-of-its-kind debate will be an innovative, multi-platform forum that will make history. Meanwhile, users can go to the Meet The Press and US Politics Facebook pages to share questions for the debate and interact with others.

Although we’d like to think the social media giants are facilitating these events entirely out of the goodness of their hearts, “their proactivity is backed as they hire lobbyists, form political action committees and nurture their relationships with lawmakers whose policy decisions affect the companies’ bottom line.” In other words, social media is using its power to “friend” politicians and reinforce its privacy issues, algorithms, advertising, censorship, etc.

Regardless of its corporate motives, this just means we’ll have an even better social experience and more marketing opportunities as it attempts to get government “approval” to develop its technologies further. We applaud social media for pushing its innovation (and politician friending) to bring the outdated practices of campaigning to the 21st century. By taking initiative to generate political conversation in the digital landscape, its shown its capabilities and proven itself a necessity for more than just elections.

There has been lots of social media buzz lately, especially with the release of Google+ and Facebook’s redesigned layout announcement. But, let’s not forget about good old email. We’re sure a good number of you reading this blog post got here through our e-newsletter. Believe it or not, it’s still effective and your marketing efforts will be more well-rounded if you integrate it with social media.

In a survey from StrongMail, email and social media were the top two areas marketers planned to increase spending in 2011. This being their harmonious relationship of direct response and organic communities. Social media’s power lies in creating awareness and reaching out to new customers, while email strengthens those relationships giving that extra personal touch to drive a sale.

When consumers subscribe, they’ve given you permission to leverage them because they’re truly interested in your brand. In addition, email can hold more content and sits in the inbox. As opposed to social media, the posts are brief and a user’s newsfeed is constantly updated.

Another reason email is still cost-effective is because it has solid tracking metrics with great ROI when managed correctly. You can segment your email lists and see who’s opened your messages. Likewise, you can offer special discounts with trackable coupons that’ll easily increase revenue and website traffic.

When you add social media to the mix, it gets even better. Since 2010, email marketing providers have been working to integrate social media in their platforms and don’t plan to stop:

• Constant Contact and ExactTarget acquired NutshellMail and CoTweet to build more precise targeting based on social data.
• Vertical Response has a subscription widget that can be placed on your blog, while Constant Contact has an email sign-up Facebook app.
• MailChimp has the ability to add a “Like” button in emails, track the total number of “likes” related to email campaigns, track subscriptions from Facebook, retrieve subscriber social information, segment emails to subscribers on specific social networks and pull up profile information in emails.

In order to use these integrations effectively, here are some campaign tactics that can increase engagement in both:

• Include social share buttons in your email.
• Offer a promotion via email for “liking” or via Facebook for subscribing. Keep in mind that people will need an incentive to connect.
• Use Facebook as a landing page for a promotion linked from your email.
• Post teasers and links to your newsletters.
• Post content related to your latest newsletter.
• Have auto-tweets generated when an email campaign is sent out. Make sure to customize the tweet in the settings. Otherwise, it would tweet your email headline.

As you can see, email is another channel for more engagement, marketing and revenue. Social media enhances it by being an outlet for your audience to turn your brand message into conversational material. So you can use social media to gauge what your audience is talking about, then give them feedback through email. Remember, your email subscribers have allowed you to leverage them, that includes promoting your brand on social networks, gaining you more subscriptions and likes/followers in return. This is a cycle you should definitely take advantage of.

Facebook has grown to be the thousand pound gorilla in the social networking world with statistics to prove it, but even with that success they decided to make some big changes. These are the biggest changes they have made since their launch and there are big implications for businesses involved both in the short and long term.

Some claim that these new changes will transform social media forever. On the other side, PC Magazine reports that 86% of Facebook users don’t like the redesign. If Facebook’s new changes fail, it won’t be because of a lack of effort. Zuckerberg said in his keynote presentation at the F8 conference that they have been working on these new changes for the past year.

Summary of the Main Changes

There is already much discussion in the blogosphere detailing the specific features that have been changed. Below is a quick summary:

• A Subscribe button which allows you to follow people you aren’t friends with similar to how you would on Twitter. You can also set filters on what information you see from your friends.
• Easier ways to group people into lists with improved friends lists.
• A window with a constant flow of updates that floats on top of everything in the upper right corner called a News Ticker.
• Similar to a newspaper, you can filter the content on your homepage.
• Instantly and automatically share what you are reading, listening to, and watching.
• The Timeline has replaced the traditional profile. This video shows what Timeline will look like.
• A good general overview would be: Facebook Changes Again: Everything You Need to Know.

6 Takeaways: What it all Means for Your Brand

1. New Layout, New Opportunity
Zuckerberg described the advantages of the new design and layout solely from the user perspective and brushed aside any questions about how the changes would affect brand pages. From the Marketer perspective, every element that was implemented to help individuals express themselves will help brands do the same. For instance, the new large image at the top of each Timeline will speak volumes without a single word. Although brands haven’t actually implemented these changes, these mock ups show what will be possible. (Source: Skinnynyc.com)

2. The “Like” Taken Off The Pedestal
Many companies have invested in getting as many “Likes” on their pages as possible and now they are becoming less important. The original idea of the “Like” was for people to find, identify, and distribute good content. Many brands that were just trying to increase the number they had on their page and not produce quality content are going to have to change their approach or be forgotten.

3. Good Content or Die
The concept of producing quality content that people want rather than advertisements with hard sells has been around for some time, but it just got much more important. Sharing is becoming easier which means that there will be much more clutter to have to break through to be noticed and only the very best content will be able to do that. In addition, users will have much more control over their timelines by being able to select which content are the top stories. Facebook will learn over time individual preferences and automatically sort a user’s Timeline. Brands that are either boring or irrelevant won’t be selected and ranked much much lower or not at all.

4. Apps Take Center Stage
Apps are transitioning from being a tool to being a medium that people express themselves through. The emphasis has shifted from getting people to “Like” their brand to enabling the brand to become a part of the story of someone’s life. A runner may have “Liked” Nike’s brand page in the past, but now they will post that they just ran 3 miles using the Nike Plus app for all their friends to see. These apps will have a very visible presence in the Timeline. In short, there is a massive opportunity for brands to create apps that become an organic part of someone’s story.

5. Dare to Share? Automatic Sharing
Sharing aspects of your life has never been easier. Instead of deciding every time you want to share some piece of content, you can now decide to share a type of content once and then that type of content is posted automatically after that. For example, you can decide that you would like the music you listen to on the online music player, Spotify, to be posted and every song will be posted with the Spotify branded message to the Ticker automatically. Much of this will be facilitated through apps. This automatic sharing will cause there to be much more noise, but it is also an opportunity for brands. Creating an app that will enable people to share content like this will proliferate the amount of branded messages you have buzzing around on Facebook. Although we won’t know until everything has been rolled out and embraced, there will probably be far more of these automatic messages being posted than regular posts. This is one way to keep your brand in front of your customer.

6. Privacy: Facebook Knows A Lot More
Zuckerberg’s keynote announcement introduced all of these changes as benefits for the users, but they are even more beneficial for the advertisers. All of the additional user data is ideal to improve ad targeting. Some go as far as to say that the new changes were made primarily because of the advertising benefits and actually hinder the user experience while minimizing privacy.

The issue of privacy is a thorn that keeps causing problems for Facebook. It seems that privacy will become the user’s responsibility now even though Facebook’s CTO Bret Taylor said some new elements will actually give users more privacy control. Users have the opportunity to share much more content, but have to determine how much they feel comfortable sharing.

If you are a Facebook advertiser, the question you should be asking now is whether you want to adopt Facebook’s view on privacy and use all of the data they have available even if your customers may object to it.

With 2012 fast approaching, it’s time we took a look at where web design is headed for the coming year. In 2010, web design started to move towards minimalism and it’s being fully embraced in 2011. Minimalism is nothing new in graphic design, but when applied to websites, there’s more breathing room, a distinguished hierarchy and straightforward information. More importantly, the focus is on the content.

Minimalism shows no signs of stopping in 2012 as technology gets more immersive and users continue to demand instant gratification. The average attention span of web visitors is 8 to 10 seconds. In that short amount of time, we have to tell them they’re at the right place, then organically lure them in. While part of that is having a “cool” website, the minimalist concept of “less is more” needs to be applied where aesthetics marries function.

Based on popularity, visual appeal, effectiveness and awesomeness, we believe the following web design trends are here to stay.

HTML5 and CSS3
It’s no question that HTML5, CSS3, Javascript and jQuery are already becoming web design standards that can do pretty much everything Flash does, but better. HTML5 creates more readable code and builds layouts that help the structure mark-up. It features smarter forms, typography, social tools, drag and drop functionality and new APIs. CSS3 functions include rounded corners, drop down menus, animated buttons, multiple backgrounds, web applications and @font-face technology.

EXAMPLE: The Wilderness Downtown
An interactive film experience that turns your whole browser into a movie screen. PS. Hover your mouse over the birds.

Mobile Ready
With the number of mobile users increasing every year, having a website that is both mouse-friendly and touch-friendly is more of a necessity than a trend. But have no fear, CSS3 can accommodate mobile technology in web design. In fact, mobile sites play a major influence in the minimal web since it calls for simpler pages, faster loading times, interactivity and quicker messages. Omniture found that mobile-optimized experiences produced an average 75% higher rate of engagements per mobile visitor.

EXAMPLE: Mindgruve Mobile Site
When you type “mindgruve.com” on your mobile browser, you get directed to our mobile site where our portfolio is available at your fingertips. Also note how it’s consistent with our website.

Sliders
A large, interactive header with a slider makes a great first impression and inserting them has never been easier with jQuery plugins. Sliders reduce the need to go through the navbar by visually summarizing the entire site into a smaller space. Their interactivity and easy navigation also translates well onto the mobile web.

EXAMPLE: Visit Carlsbad
For one of our loyal clients, Visit Carlsbad, we used a slider at the top of their website to showcase all this city has to offer.

3D Effects
The web is also delving into the illusion of depth, sometimes to the point where websites are like a movie or game. We’re all for using layers, shadows, gradients, transparencies and textures to create dimension. Just make sure they don’t distract the reader. Subtlety can go a long way.

EXAMPLE: Nike History of Flight
Nike takes you on an interactive timeline of their relationship with Michael Jordan in the style of a pop-up book.

One-Page Websites
Since 80% of website visitors don’t navigate away from the homepage, fitting all the content onto one webpage can be efficient. To spice it up, HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript can make the page multi-faceted with tabs, animations and pop-ups.  On the other hand, it isn’t suitable for all websites. For instance, e-commerce sites wouldn’t do so well if they were one page. This trend is better for sites with less content such as events, personal sites, products and micro sites.

EXAMPLE: Interactive Day San Diego
We had a lot of fun creating this one-page site for San Diego’s most interactive conference event. The best part: No Flash!

Parallax Scrolling
Parallax scrolling is a technique that has been used in video games for years and web design is making brilliant use of it. It’s when the background and foreground images move or change at different speeds to create a sense of depth. All you need is jQuery, CSS3 and good imagery. To take it even further, elements can pop out or move as the user scrolls or moves the mouse around. The possibilities can make one-page websites creative and interesting.

EXAMPLE: Ben the Bodyguard
This one-page website for an iPhone app blurs the line between a game and a website.

Grid-Driven Layouts
Inspired by print, editorial web layouts are perfect for constantly updated content and SEO. They add structure and organize information so it’s easier to scan and comprehend. Big, link-filled headers and footers also make finding information a cinch. The 960 grid system is the most popular to use since it’s adaptable to all screens. It simply uses CSS to help streamline web development workflow based on a width of 960 pixels.

EXAMPLE: Good
This multimedia news source treats its website as an interactive print publication.

Typography
As more browsers support font-replacement methods, web designers can integrate custom fonts without having to make them image-based. That means we don’t have to stick to the overused Arial, Times and Century Gothic fonts all the time. We can use bolder, bigger and funner typography that’ll be crisp and indexed to grab the user’s attention. Typography has the power to make or break a design. So we advise to use 1 or 2 fonts that are legible on all devices, and to save the big typography for headers, sub-headers and the like.

EXAMPLE: Joel Andrew Glovier
This developer’s portfolio stands out with colorful and impactful typography that isn’t overbearing.

Large Backgrounds
With high definition cameras, better image optimization, smarter loading methods and faster internet connections, large photos and intricate illustrations are no longer taboo on the web. Having them as a background can draw in the user, set the mood and have a lasting impression. As long as it’s relevant and doesn’t compete with the content, the imagery can tell a story faster than a paragraph of content.

EXAMPLE: Mindgruve
Our website incorporates large photo backgrounds that reflect our content and company. PS. Watch for the trolley on the home page.

So there you have it, our top picks for web design trends. With the user in mind, they practice simple, intuitive and clever design with emphasis on content. However, everything needs a purpose for the message to be properly conveyed. Being too minimal and holding back information is just as bad as being cluttered. More importantly, if the technique doesn’t help your business goals, then there’s no point in using them either. With that said, as web design continues to explore new possibilities and break barriers (and us right there with it), we don’t see these design trends going anywhere for a while.

Amazon announced in late June 2011 that they will be jumping into the advertising industry, and you can be sure that other online retailers will follow. Amazon will expand from just selling targeted ads on their site to selling targeted ads on other websites too.

This is how the process works: Amazon mines through their data and creates buckets of potential marketing targets. With the help of the ad tech start up, Triggit, and the use of cookies, they then track where visitors to their site go after they leave. Amazon then purchases ad space those visitors are looking at, delivers a relevant ad, and then charges the advertiser for the impression.

So who wins in this system? It is actually a win for everyone because the consumer sees ads for products they want to buy, Amazon (or any other online retailer) makes money off of its own data, and the advertisers see their ad dollars become more effective. The numbers show that behaviorally targeted ads dramatically outperformed the entire display ad category in 2008 and 2009. These numbers attest to the opportunity this win-win-win scenario has for Amazon and anyone who follows them.

Out of the online retailers out there, Amazon is definitely going to make the biggest splash into the ad network space because of their extensive, 10 year storehouse of proprietary customer data. However, you can be sure that any other e-commerce business with customer psychographic lists will be soon getting into leveraging that data for advertising too. Every one of them has an opportunity to copy Amazon’s model now.

On the other hand, Amazon will undoubtedly have to jump through hoops to address privacy concerns because of the personal information involved in the targeting process. It is not yet clear to what extent these concerns will be brought up, but other online retailers will most likely be able to let Amazon work those out and easily fall in behind their precedent.

In short, behavior targeted advertising has been around for some time now, but this new development is improving the consumer targeting and widening the accessibility of this technology to advertisers who weren’t able to utilize it before.

What is the future of all this? It is projected that by 2014, about 1 out of every 5 display ad dollars spent on banners, rich media and video units will be tied to behavioral targeting.

What do you think? As an online retailer, advertiser or consumer, is this a positive step forward or not?

In June, Google’s navigation bar got a new look as part of the release of their own social network called Google+, which is supposed to be an extension of Google. Hence, the plus sign and why the navigation bar appears in some of their other products.

Many articles have dubbed it as, “Google’s answer to Facebook” or even a “Facebook Killer.” According to comScore, Google+ already hit 20 million visitors, while Facebook and Twitter took 2 years to reach 10 million. The reason Google+ was able to reach this number rapidly was because of the credibility behind its name, the substantial amount of Gmail users they reached out to, and not to mention all the work Facebook and Twitter did to introduce social networking.

At this point, it’s too early to make any predictions of Google+ overtaking Facebook. However, it does have a lot of potential to be an alternative based on its features and plans for growth. Most importantly, Google has taken initiative to capitalize on the effect social has on search, which is a good reason to keep an eye on it as it improves.

Google’s failed attempts at being social, Google Buzz and Google Wave were too different from the competition. This time around, they’ve decided to keep Google+ more familiar with subtle nuances by combining highlights of Facebook and Twitter, and making them better. This way, users are more prone to sign up and can learn how to use it quickly. Since it was designed by Andy Hertzfeld, one of Apple’s original GUI designers, it’s like the Mac version of Facebook. The interface is cleaner, simpler and flashier where things are done in less clicks.

The main benefit that Google has nailed for users is control of privacy. It puts friends, family and business together, but in separate rooms. This all falls under the bigger concept of sharing with their Circles feature. As the Huffington Post explained, “The Google+ network is designed around users’ social circles and lets users selectively share with specific groups within their personal network, rather than sharing with all their social connections at once.”

Now we’re not going to go into detail about the interface since there’s already a plethora of articles that provide in-depth guides and resources for Google+ such as Mashable. We’re just going to go over some key features briefly:

As for businesses, they are currently working on a separate business platform and will be implementing a test program for a few select brands and companies. For more updates on this, follow Google+ project manager, Christian Oestilien. So far, he states, “It’ll include things like rich analytics and the ability to connect that identity to other parts of Google that businesses might use on a daily basis like AdWords.” While waiting for their business platform, you should start exploring on a personal account to see how you can possibly incorporate circles, hangouts, sparks, huddles, etc. into your strategies.

Particularly, Circles could give consumers the ability to congregate brands and interact with them at their leisure. It’ll reduce clutter in the stream and make content more organized, personal and viable. This forces brands to provide more quality content for a more connected relationship. With plans to integrate Google+ into their search algorithm, conversations with and about brands could show up in search results to be shared exponentially. Even their Sparks feature has some possibility of using their search algorithm for interest-based ad targeting.

In fact, we’re already seeing innovation in Google search. On July 2, they did not renew their deal with Twitter for realtime search data. That is because Google+ author profile images and the +1 button now appear next to search results. Google is taking advantage of the notion that friends and acquaintances hold more influence than experts.  It won’t be long until the +1 button starts effecting search rankings and we see profile images of our connections also appearing in search results. Personalized search results will make Google more valuable and thus, call for a more relevant advertising interaction. All this sharing will also benefit SEO greatly since it’ll be a great source of links for spiders to follow.

This is only the beginning. Just think about all the services Google already owns such as Gmail, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Maps, Calendar, Analytics and Adwords just to name a few.  They plan on making their whole suite social by connecting all of their tools and applications through Google+. As they take their time to test and improve this social network in its beta phase, Google states that it is a “project”, not a “product”.

While it’s not quite a “Facebook Killer” yet, competing with it seems to be a secondary motive. Their primary motive is improving their search by integrating social, which is a great step forward in today’s social society. So producing a powerful advertising platform based on social and search data will be a major key to its success. However, the biggest challenge they face right now is convincing people to add another social network, let alone leave one in order to see these improvements in full effect. If it thrives as well as everyone hopes and predicts, then it’ll be an opportunity that both consumers and businesses should gear up for.

The battle between SEO and PR has been occurring for quite some time now and we’ve decided to see if we can bring some sense to this altercation. PR has been around longer, dominates the traditional realm and takes a proactive role in making the web a source for news and information. Alternatively, SEO is newer, but well-known to anyone with a website who is concerned with high search engine rankings, community-sites, widgets, virals, etc. With overlapping tactics and differing goals, it’s hard to tell which better handles the client’s online presence. SEO’s goal is to improve organic search rankings through relevant search terms, while PR’s is to develop relationships and positive brand image through relevant content. One’s priority is attracting the attention of robots and the other is of people.

An example of how the two can clash is SEOs see blogs as an opportunity for keywords and PR sees them as a place for meaningful articles and news. Another is SEOs use link building to obtain website links, while PR uses relationship building to get featured on websites.

Despite their differences, we have quickly learned that both are important for an online marketing strategy. Each just needs to be understood more in order to work together harmoniously. For smaller businesses that don’t have dedicated SEO and PR departments, it’s even more critical to have a strong understanding of both, and know that content isn’t just for ranking or for creating a press center.

A person coming from an SEO background has better leverage of social media, can write for search engines and ensures traffic and conversions are long term. On the flip side, a person with a PR background has better understanding of social media, knows that quality trumps quantity, and that awareness, influence and trust is imperative in creating a strong brand image. Both are valuable and can get you maximum results when used simultaneously.

Here is how SEO and PR can be approached for effective online marketing:

You should write authentic content without worrying about keywords and links first. Then, revise and sprinkle the keywords and links without altering the prose too much. For instance, changing “athletic footwear” to “athletic shoes” is fine. Changing it to “running shoes” may denote a different meaning.

From an SEO standpoint, online content spreads faster and usually stays online. Meaning, your page should be found quickly and be pertinent enough to be found later. From a PR standpoint, “all the keywords in the world can’t substitute for good content,” (that’s why “sprinkle” was emphasized).  PR builds reputation through positive coverage, which is good practice for effective link building. When people read your page, it should be engaging enough for them to share, getting you those reputable links. Remember that bloggers are also your online audience and consumers read their blogs, which can give you more links. But again, the content needs to be worthy of sharing to help you gain exposure.

So there is our ruling: Accommodate both nicely into your strategy. You need SEO to drive consumers to the website/profile/blog, and PR to drive the conversion. Whichever background you happen to have or believe is better, the main takeaway is that you should always optimize for people first, then search engines second.

If you’ve been following our Foursquare blog series, you may have read “What is Foursquare?” and “3 Big Brand Campaigns To Learn From On Foursquare”. This article will build on those and focus on how the local, non-chain or smaller chain businesses can utilize Foursquare effectively.

Types of Foursquare Specials
As of March 2011, there are now 7 types of specials a business can offer on Foursquare. Once a business claimed their venue, they would be able to find the window shown in the screenshot below where a business would choose which specials they would want to run.

The Strategy Behind Each Type of Foursquare Special

Swarm Special: A large group checking-into a venue together can take advantage of this deal. It works similarly to Groupon in that a critical mass must be reached before anyone gets the deal. This would be perfect for a local restaurant that would give $0.25 wings if a group of 30 showed up. This can draw more people and lots of business from things like office happy hours and sports related fan clubs looking for a place to all watch the game together.

Friends Special: A business can use this deal to get customers to bring their friends on their next visit. It gives a deal when checking-in with a certain number of friends and that number is determined by the business itself. This can be very useful for businesses where customers go to together naturally like a bar or restaurant as opposed to something like a hair salon which is typically an individual activity. This special helps attract new business and trials when those current customers who are familiar with the business bring their friends who don’t know about it yet.

Flash Special: The Flash Special is a deal for the first determined number of people who check-in; again, this number is determined by the business making the offer. This is really effective for getting customers to show up early. This is often used during happy hour periods which often get busier as the night goes on. It is also effective to start a line outside of a business. For example, a nightclub could give the first 25 people to check-in after 9pm a free drink to get customers to line up outside making the club appear more popular.

Newbie Special: Want to attract new customers? This deal is only unlocked when someone checks-in for the first time. This is great to attract new business and to boost the trials of a product or service. This can serve really well as an entrance into a long term customer funnel strategy.

A restaurant called Bice in downtown San Diego adjusted the deal to only be good on certain days and time periods. This feature can help drive foot traffic during slow periods much like a happy hour would.

Check-in Special: This deal is unlocked every time someone checks-in. For example, an Irish Pub called The Field in downtown San Diego gives 15% off the entire bill every time someone checks-in.

Loyalty Special: Rewarding your most loyal customers is often rewarding to the bottom line. This deal is unlocked after a determined number of check-ins from the same person. As the name suggests, this effectively boosts repeat visits and capitalizes on the 80/20 rule which states that 80 percent of business comes from 20 percent of the customers. Examples of restaurants using the Loyalty Special that are current as of this post’s publication include Currant, The Corner Restaurant & Bar and the Palm Restaurant which all give a free or big discount on a drink or appetizer after the third check-in.

Mayor Special: The Mayor special is probably the most well known and widely used deal. It is unlocked for the person who has checked-in to a specific location more times than anyone else. If the deal is good enough, customers will go out of their way to visit that store and the competition can be fierce. Starbucks’ Foursquare mayor offer did a great job with this and dramatically boosted visits to their coffee shops by 50%.

Overall Tips and Advice

• Develop a strategy funnel that will both attract new customers and retain current ones.
• Run multiple specials simultaneously to build a complete conversion tunnel.
• Don’t expect this to double your profits over night; it will take time.
• Be creative with how you use these offers. One small business gave a discount to customers who wore a certain Football jersey to their sports bar. Customers flocked there to watch all of the games not just because of the discount, but because it was advertising that it was a place where all of those fans would be watching the game together.

The location based social networking site Foursquare is a major player in the social media world today and doesn’t intend to lose that position. Foursquare has created a whole new social currency with their check-in system and are capitalizing on the rapidly growing trend to make social activity more of a game with their badges. We’ve found 3 big brands to learn from that are growing their businesses in this space and putting leagues between them and their competition.

The Mayor of the Mayor Offer

Foursquare allows businesses to give an exclusive deal for the mayor. Some examples  include Hot Dog on a Stick, Karl Strauss Brewery & Restaurant and the Cowboy Star Restaurant and Butcher Shop which at the time of this post all offer either a free drink, appetizer or discount. These offers have all been successful, but Starbucks has taken the mayorship, and did it better than anyone else for this offer category.

Starbucks was already the most checked in retailer on the Foursquare platform, but increased it’s check-ins by 50% by giving $1 off any size Frappuccino® for its’ mayors. The key success factor was that this offer was offering real value, and that also made the competition to claim the mayorship of the local Starbucks pretty fierce. This frenzy went viral on twitter which increased the effectiveness of this campaign.

Overall Foursquare Strategy Boosts Sales
Many brands tip toe into social media platforms and don’t see many results, but Radio Shack has fully jumped in and have really noticed a bottom line impact. In fact, the CMO Lee Applbaum released at the Ad Age Digital conference that Foursquare users spend 3.5X more than non-Foursquare users spend at their retail locations.

Radio Shack has been innovating in the space for some time now. They developed a holiday season campaign in 2010 in which they offered 10 percent off for every store check-in; 15 percent off for store ‘mayors;’ and 20 percent off for unlocking the customized Radio Shack “Holiday Heroes” badge.

As an ongoing campaign, they’ve offered a “Newbie Special” allowing customers checking-in for the first time to get 20 percent off qualifying purchases to boost trials. To build long term engagement, they’ve also offered non-newbies a “Check-In Special” of 10 percent off, and mayors 20 percent off. This strategy is effective because it brings in new customers and retains them. In this case, customers can taste how sweet it is to get 20% off right off the bat and allows them to get it again as long as they keep stopping by.

Create a Partnership and a Customized Badge

The 2011 Super Bowl became the first “global venue” ever and became the most checked into venue ever with 200,000 check-ins in only four hours. The official Foursquare blog states that “there were check-ins from Super Bowl parties in all 50 states, and 125 countries, including 13 check-ins from the Vatican.”

There was an opportunity to claim 3 special badges created just for the game; 1 for each team and then an additional one for those at the actual game in North Texas.

In addition to fans being able to shout their support of their team to their Foursquare community with these customized badges, a special promotional code was given to each who unlocked one of them. A 20% discount was given on select merchandise at NFLShop.com.

A limited number of brands are now able to “partner” with the Foursquare team and create a special badge for themselves. This could be a huge opportunity to boost the reach of brands in this space. Both companies and celebrities are able to submit a “Foursquare Partner Badge Inquiry” and be evaluated on a case by case basis.

Reader Feedback?
How is your business using Foursquare?

Interested in learning more about how local businesses effectively use Foursquare? Visit: Foursquare Specials: How Local, Small Businesses Can Use Them.

As the popularity of Foursquare grows, businesses interest in how the location-based application can help their business grows as well, which is why we’re taking this opportunity to help explain the basics.

What is Foursquare?
Foursquare is a social networking website that allows people to announce to their friends and the world where they are geographically. This service can be used by the infamous iPhone, the increasingly popular Android phones or any other mobile device with GPS or text messaging.

How Does Foursquare Work?
To illustrate, our good fictitious friend Bob is going to help us out. When Bob visits Starbucks, he can pull up the Foursquare mobile application on his phone and check-in. When he does that, it’s announced (similar to a Facebook status update) to his Foursquare friends that he is getting his caffeine fix. Bob can also identify in real time where his friends have checked-in and can even use Foursquare as a medium to find and meet up with them. These check-ins can also be pushed to a variety of other social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, and dramatically expand their audience.

Foursquare 101: How Businesses Use It

1. Businesses offering deals to Foursquare users incentivize them to check in and check-ins become effective advertisements to those users’ friends. So when Bob got $1 off his Frappuccino® because he checked-in at Starbucks, all of his friends could see that.
2. Customer check-ins make their nearby friends aware of where they are and increase the likelihood that their friends will join them at the business they are at. In our example, Bob’s friends might even stop by and catch up with him over a latte at Starbucks once they find out he is there, which in turn boosts traffic to this particular coffee shop.
3. Businesses near other businesses (at malls, for instance) can steal customer traffic and dollars from other stores by offering a deal that is visible when customers are checking-in nearby. For example, Bob might have been heading to another local coffee house and found out that it was his lucky day; the Starbucks just down the street had a deal and stopped by there instead.
4. Customers go out of their way to stop by and check into businesses to become and stay the mayor (the person with the most number of check-ins). This is especially fueled when businesses offer a special deal just for the Mayor. For example, Bob may even change his commute route to make sure he can keep getting his exclusive mayor discount which keeps him coming back for his venti cappuccino at that location much more frequently.
5. Boost check in frequency from the most loyal customers by offering a deal to be redeemed after every 3rd check-in. Bob loves this because he is rewarded for being a loyal customer and doesn’t have to carry around one of those paper “buy-10-drinks-and-get-1-free” cards.

Find out more about how to use specific Foursquare specials: Foursquare Specials: How Local, Small Businesses Can Use Them.

In our industry, we have the ability to reach consumers through a number of digital mediums on the internet – websites, photos, emails, mobile, etc. Blogging is one of the mediums that has become mainstream in recent years as there are currently 9 million blogs on the internet and 40,000 new ones popping up everyday. We recently watched a webinar called, “The State of Social Media” from Hubspot, and learned that 75% of businesses plan to increase blogging for 2011. You can definitely count us as part of that 75% because we like to think of a blog as another social outlet to reach consumers – minus the character limits. In other words, blogs are just as imperative as Facebook and Twitter when it comes to online marketing due to the extent of information you can provide readers.

If you want to start blogging or blog more, here are some tips that can help you get started:

Step 1: Find a place
For those who want to start a blog, you can either create your own web page from scratch; or use popular blog template sites which are customizable as well. You don’t need many resources to maintain a blog from a template site; Tumblr and WordPress have easy interfaces and plug-ins that make it almost effortless to customize and update without extensive coding knowledge. The best part: it’s all free! Alternatively, if maintaining a blog seems like too much time commitment, another option is to find and contribute to existing blogs that already have established readership and link back to your website.

Step 2: Have a business plan
Just like any marketing strategy, you need to define your audience, establish your message, research your competition and model after successful blogs in your industry. You will also need to develop a platform/theme that is relevant to your company where you can pose as an industry expert and resource. Basically, don’t just blog about anything.

Step 3: Make everything easy
To help reach more consumers and keep them, make everything easy. Easy to find, easy to navigate and easy to read. Link your blog from the company website as well as email signatures, business cards and social media. When they visit your blog, it should have a straight-forward, organized layout with categories and tags. Adding snippets of featured blogs on the home page helps entice people to read more. Lastly, make it easy for them to come back when you have new content through email subscriptions or RSS feeds.

Step 4: Update regularly
According to Pyra Labs Blogger, “A blog is a web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically – like a what’s new page or a journal.” This means that your blog needs to be updated regularly with quality content or else your readers won’t visit as frequently. At the same time, you don’t want to bombard them or they’ll stop reading altogether. Daily posts are more for hobbyists, while most businesses post on a weekly to monthly basis. So it is wise to brainstorm and write your posts ahead of time.

Step 5: Be patient
As with social media, gaining blog readers takes time. If you continually post content, it may take up to 6 months to a year to reach a significant amount of readers. One way to fasten the process on top of direct promotion, is using SEO within your titles and content. Bloggers aren’t going to be your only readers; the unique content, links and recency of your blog will boost its search rankings so others can find it.

Step 6: Be branded
Blogs were originally meant for personal expression, but from a business standpoint, you have to remember the integrity and branding of your company. This doesn’t mean you have to be entirely formal, just balance professionalism and personality. That being said, with great power, comes great responsibility. Blogs give you the freedom to pretty much say whatever you want which is great for personal use, but again, you have to be mindful of your brand and your community especially when it comes to controversial topics.

Step 7: Have a conversation
The number one mistake businesses make with blogging is treating their blog like a press center. “People read blogs because there is something in it for them and not as a marketing channel.” Blogs are a place to share your thoughts, insights, day-to-day work, tips and tricks, Q&A, reviews, case studies, etc. More so, a blog doesn’t have to be made up of words, throw some design in there along with videos, pictures, graphics, etc. for even more personality and variety. This is your chance to humanize your brand, engage, educate, entertain and inspire. Remember, your website is for the sale and therefore, should subtly tie into your blog content. Most importantly, encourage conversation with customers by responding to comments, posing questions and participating in other blogs to bring in new readers. You’d be amazed by the helpful feedback you can get.

And so concludes our blog about blogs. We hope to have given you some new insight on blogging and we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below (See what we just did there?). As a final word, if you’re unsure about starting a blog, or are having doubts about continuing your blog, you should think again because when used correctly, the power of blogging can ultimately help build your brand.

Welcome to the second half of our mobile advertising blog series! In part 1, we discussed how in-app ads are the future of mobile advertising and now, we’re shifting our focus to mobile sites and the important role they can play in advertising strategies. Currently, there are more than 72 million mobile web users and 69 million mobile app users, and both numbers are estimated to reach over 100 million by 2013. We’ve heard the debates regarding which is better (we’ve even had the debate a few times ourselves) and have concluded that both mobile app advertising and mobile web advertising are significant in today’s advertising efforts.

Apps (good ones) generally have easier navigation and interaction, use rich-media and phone functions (i.e. camera and GPS), and don’t necessarily need an internet connection. The rise of “bigger screen” tablets not only call for better apps, but also more mobile web browsing. An Adobe survey stated that 66% of mobile users prefer to retrieve information through mobile browsing instead of mobile apps. Even though apps can serve many purposes and have the advantage of being downloaded onto the desktop to develop long-term relationships, it can be tedious and overcrowding to download and install an app for every little thing you want to do – sometimes a simple mobile search will suffice. Furthermore, multiple versions of apps need to be developed for each smartphone platform and only 38% of the US own an app-compatible smartphone, as opposed to the universal mobile site. On top of that, app developers need to share revenue and get approval from the app store in order to be published or make any changes.

There is valid support for each side, but we say, why not use apps and sites simultaneously? Consider the option of building a mobile site first to establish consumer experience and trust. Then drive users to a more “hands-on” app that you’ve developed based on what you’ve learned from users of your mobile site. Another option is “appsites” which can be sites just for promoting your app, or a site linked within an app. For instance, NikeID’s mobile site features studio locations where you can receive personal one-on-one sessions, a video showcasing their immersive app and a link to download it. Likewise, Google offers specific apps that allow you to search via keyboard, voice or camera, but all drive you to their mobile site to find more information.

So, if you’re thinking about ramping up your mobile strategy, here are a few key things to include:

• Make your mobile site a mini-version of your website with touch-friendly features. Include larger and simpler graphics, easier navigation and plug-ins for faster loading and better user experience.
• Make your app have a frequent use to avoid sitting on the desktop. Offer more tailored features than your site and aim to be listed on top download listings which can be done through ratings.
• Use social media to promote and compliment the user experience. Brand all elements (social channels, app and/or mobile site) the same throughout with a simple logo/image, name, and/or tagline.
• Always upgrade based on trends, advances and consumer needs.

In the end, your mobile strategy ultimately depends on your business and consumer needs. Consider the context of your industry (ex. travel is location-based) and the strengths of each medium. Mobile sites tend to be better for commerce, while apps are better for games and entertainment. Nonetheless, both will evolve even more as mobile devices continue to advance. With the growing use of HTML5 and open standard APIs that enable developers to access phone functions, mobile sites are becoming very similar to in-app ads. Perhaps there will be a fine line between the two in the near future. But until that happens, including both mobile app and mobile web advertising can give you invaluable results for your mobile strategy.