The future of social communication is mobile, at least if you believe the latest round of evangelism coming from the technopunditry. I actually buy it, mostly, and I think the idea of being immersed in a web of background, insight and opinion at any given moment is kinda cool in a cyberpunk consensual hallucination sort of way.

Though, like William Gibson’s sci-fi, it’s the vision of a future that is probably a bit further away than most folks would like to admit. But the implications for brands and marketing are truly far-out.

The very nature of mobile is dependent on ‘right here, right now’ experiences; what you call up on your smartphone needs to matter at that moment, first and foremost (not to negate the likelihood of non-circumstantial browsing, but to put the activity and its product into context). That means the immediate future of mobile is price and location/availability. – Tell Me Something That Matters To Me by Jonathan Salem Baskin

Google’s Chief Economist Hal Varian coined the phrase “marketing is the new finance”.

Varian foresaw great advances in ways to satisfy people’s needs, better matches between buyers and sellers, and a more robust advertising environment due to the availability of vast quantifies of rich, real-time, highly available “big data.” His predictions today ring truer than ever.

Now, the information-rich environment enabled by the net is transforming marketing into something more. Specifically, marketing is becoming the new research and development (R&D).

Marketers now have immediate access to consumer behaviors and reactions across multiple channels and media. This empowers them to take a leadership role in determining consumer preferences, meeting customer needs, and helping match supply with demand. In other words, driving the business.

Access to consumer behavior across multiple channels and media

Five years later, the information-rich environment enabled by the net is transforming marketing into something more. Specifically, marketing is becoming the new research and development (R&D). – Marketing is becoming the new R&D by Julie Ginches

Blog posts, whitepapers and other shareable content rely on supporting data—not because people just love a good color-coded pie chart (though they are pretty), but because numbers give stories shape. They add scale. They provide perspective. They quantify that something meaningful is happening.

Think about it: which statement would you rather share?

• Teenagers are texting like crazy, more than ever.
• The average teen sends 60 texts per day, up from 50 in 2009 (Pew Research Center).

The second statement tells you that there’s a behavioral trend happening and that the trend has real implications for business, communications, and a number of other fields.

But you can’t just throw a bunch of stats into your content and expect instant gravitas. Finding and interpreting facts to support your argument takes thought, and they should add depth, not clutter, to your point. Here are the essentials you need to know to use data wisely and effectively. – How to Use Data to Enrich Your Content by Conor Powers-Smith

• How to Select the Perfect WordPress Theme for Your Blog (ProBlogger)
• How Do You Tailor Content to Different User Levels? (ProBlogger)
• 9 Steps to Take When You Loathe Your Own Blog (ProBlogger)
• 5 Ways Marketers Should be More Like Bob Marley (HubSpot)
• The Fallacy of Timing Blog Posts & Social Media Updates (Small Business Search Marketing)
• Twitter tiptoes further into the media business (GigaOM)
• Yahoo Launches Big Data Analytics Tool for Online Advertisers (CIO.com)
• Narrow Your Google Searches with a Custom Date Range (CIO.com)
• Social Mobile and Desktop Applications for the Digital Marketer (Socialnomics)
• Seven Principles of Content Marketing (PR Squared)
• Your data has a secret, but you — yes, you — can make it talk (GigaOM)
• Get Obsessed With Your Message (ProBlogger)
• To Tweet or Not To Tweet, Social Media: A Blessing and A Curse (Small Biz Trends)
• How Content Creators Can Think Like Fiction Writers (Spin Sucks)
• 10 Simply Awesome Examples of Email Marketing (HubSpot)
• Dave Kerpen Discusses How to Make Your Business “Likeable” With Social Media (Marketo)
• Marketing Metrics that Matter (Marketo)
• Is Eliminating the Bargaining Power of Customers More Important Than Working on the Customer Experience? (Future Lab)
• Introducing The Rebel’s Guide To Email Marketing (Social Media Explorer)
• 7 Enlightening Infographics About Email Deliverability (HubSpot)
• Social Media Bring Business, But Add Security Quagmire (CIO.com)
• What Blog Tasks Are You Embarrassed to Admit You’ve Overlooked? (ProBlogger)
• LinkedIn Vs Facebook: Who’s The Best At B2B (Simply Zesty)
• To Investigate Culture, Ask the Right Questions (Harvard Business Review)
• Facebook Timeline: 9 Best Practices for Brands (Mashable!)

Over the last few days we’ve been talking about taking your blog to the often-elusive “next level.”

We’ve seen tips for developing your voice and message, creating stronger calls to action, and increasing traffic.

If you’re already working on those aspects of your blog, and are happy with your approach, you’ll probably be hungry for other ideas, looking to the future, and trying to predict what will be most successful tactics for you.

I know I do this myself—I’ll get an idea like the QLD blogging challenge and throw myself into making it happen.

That’s great—one of the best things about blogging is that it lets us pursue our passions!—but I have noticed a tendency to let things drop off my To Do list as these new ideas pop up. An example was pointed out by Ed Boyhan on my Google + post. He wrote:

“Seems kinda odd: here you are providing some useful info on how some use G+, but nowhere on this page is there a “+1? button to let me share with a circle I have for future reference. Makes me doubt your involvement in the G+ community.”

This is a valuable comment for two reasons. First, it’s a reminder of something I need to do, which dropped off my list. Whoops! Second, it explains what the implications of that oversight are—how that looks to my readers, which gives me motivation not just to get that task back on the To Do list, but also to actually act upon it and make that change to my blog. – What Blog Tasks are You Embarrassed to Admit You’ve Overlooked? by Darren Rowse

With few questions asked, the bank gives you $10,000, but takes a $500 fee. With a smile, they tell you to be in touch whenever you’re on your feet and ready to get them that design work. That’s a pretty good deal, right?

In the past two years, Kickstarter.com has redefined the way that start-ups and small businesses raise capital. The online fundraising portal takes a 5 percent cut, which can be a sizeable chunk of change, but they also work with you to promote and market your campaign and make sure it’s successful. And once it’s funded, they’re out of the equation.

Just in case you’ve missed the phenomenon completely, here’s how it works: Businesses, bands, entrepreneurs, and people with good ideas create a video explaining what they want to do and how much money they need to do it. They then create a series of rewards for people that contribute at different levels. If you’re a band raising money to record a new album, $10 might get backers a copy of the CD when it’s done. $25 might buy a CD and poster, while $2,500 gets a house concert.

The Kickstarter team reviews the campaign before it launches and helps to ensure that it’s got a good chance of succeeding. Once it goes live, backers can pledge at whatever level they choose. Their credit cards and PayPal accounts are only charged if the project meets its pre-determined financial goal.

When the campaign ends, the project’s founder collects their money, pays Kickstarter 5 percent, and with their now fully-stocked bank account, gets to work on creating the rewards they’ve promised their backers.

Sound intriguing? Here are a few errors to avoid in making sure that your Kickstarter campaign doesn’t fall short of its goals:

Don’t Be a Panhandler

Kickstarter campaigns that fail to meet their goal often have a common theme: they don’t make financial sense for the backer. I’ve been sent links to several campaigns that offer next-to-nothing for as much as $20. Last week, I supported a friend’s project to film a documentary about the sport of kiteboarding (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1148654711/with-a-kite). I gave $25, which seemed very reasonable for a signed DVD once the project was completed. 56 people agreed with me and backed at that level. However, only three people gave the minimum $5 backing, which included only a “virtual fist bump.”

If you’re not a non-profit organization doing charity work, don’t seek out altruism. Give your backers a deal for paying up front for your work. When paying ahead-of-time saves money, people will do that, but if your prices are the same (or higher) than the finished product, you’ll be hard-pressed to find support.

Don’t Overlook the Video

A Kickstarter campaign is defined by its video. If you’re hawking a quality product or service, you want to present it at the highest possible level.

You don’t have to create a Super Bowl commercial — people are already at your page to learn about what you’re offering, so it’s not necessary to hook them in with dancing polar bears and talking babies.

In 2010, the LunaTik watch became one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns ever (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1104350651/tiktok-lunatik-multi-touch-watch-kits). After setting a goal of just $15,000, the company raised nearly a million dollars ($942,578), vastly surpassing their initial mark.

How did they do it? First of all, their video showed detailed images of the watch, which allows an iPod Nano to snap into it and work as a wristwatch. The four-and-a-half minute video leaves no questions about what the watch is and what it will do. Secondly, the rewards saved people money. 2,432 backers agreed to pre-order a watch for $25 that would later retail for $35. (Notice again that only 128 backers gave $1 just to support the product and receive nothing — why bother taking the time to type in credit card or PayPal info?)

Don’t Forget to Market

Yes, Kickstarter has a built in platform to get the word out about your venture. There are lots of people who browse the site, finding start-ups that they have no connection to and deciding to back them.

However, the great majority of backers will come via your own online networks. Most funding comes in the first day of a campaign. Launch with alerts on Facebook, Twitter, and every other platform you use, and implore your friends to spread the word.

First, get people to your Kickstarter page. Once they’re there, if you present a clean video and rewards that save them money for a product or service they’re intrigued by, you’ll find success. Skip any step in that process, however, and you’re likely to fail. Remember that with Kickstarter, you only get paid if your project meets its goal.

About Anita Brady

Industry veteran Anita Brady is the President of123Print.com, a leading provider of high quality customizable items like customizable business cards, letterhead and other materials for small businesses and solo practitioners.

Listening to the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson I am left with the impression that nothing was more important to Steve Jobs then using technology to produce great products that delivered a great user experience.  Good enough was good enough, even great, for many in the computer industry.  Only insanely great was good enough for Steve Jobs.  Anything less was simply not good enough, it was not ‘art’ and not ‘worthy of artists”; great artists don’t want to put their names on good enough art.

Given that Apple, Amazon, Zappos, USAA, SouthWest Airlines, Zanes Cycles, Richer Sounds, Salesforce.com, O2, American Express.. have shown what can be done by focussing on the customer, why aren’t companies focussing on the Customer Experience?  According to Mindshare the biggest issue with companies and executives is turning VoC into changes in the business such that a powerful impact is made on the Customer Experience.  Why is it an issue? Because of ‘Other Priorities’.  What can these other priorities be?

Clearly THE priority is the share price and the way to hit that is to focus in revenue generation and profitability.  How do you increase that?  The standard framework is that put forth by Michael Porter in the Five Forces model. – Is Eliminating the Bargaining Power of Customers More Important Than Working On the Customer Experience? by Maz Iqbal

Future of Publishing is sponsored by VigLink. If you enjoyed the show, be sure to Like Future of Publishing on Facebook!

Blog = up? Posts = rolling? It’s time to get obsessed with your message.

A quick dictionary moment, to differentiate between your voice, your topics and your message.

• Your voice is what makes your writing distinctive, compelling, unmistakably you. You’ll carry your voice from your blog, right into your book. Seamless, identifiable. Individual.
• Your topics are the categories or subjects you write about (Eco-luxe weddings on a shoestring budget! Savvy corporate management, with heart and soul! Thrifty vegan recipes!)
• Your message is your core teaching—the why behind your what. It’s the reason you write what your write. It drives your vocation. It’s the soapbox that you’re proud to stand on. If your blog had a “life purpose” or “calling”, this’d be it. (And it goes without saying, if you’re not obsessed with your message, nobody else will be, either.)

Putting it together

Your core message is the defining character of your brand, as a writer—and for maximum visibility, you’ll apply your message to specific subjects, reaching diverse and unexpected audiences, outside of your industry. – Get Obsessed with Your Message by Danielle LaPorte

Alerti social media monitoring chart about negative and positive conversations surrounding Facebook’s iPhone app UI change:

Now that we’ve all agreed that “Content is King (Again),” and Content Marketing is all the rage, maybe it is time to think about some easy-to-follow tenets.  Let’s keep this simple.

Follow a 70/30 Rule – 70% of content curated, 30% branded.  Why? Because the rest-of-the-world is at least 70% more interesting than your brand; and, promoting external content builds social capital, makes grateful fans of influencers.

All content should be SHAREWORTHY.  Don’t publish junk.  Better to be quiet than to queer the signal-to-noise ratio.

All content should benefit SEO.  Note that search engines increasingly favor Social Signals and Blended Results (multimedia).  Keyword optimize your content whenever possible and appropriate, across all channels. – Seven Principles of Content Marketing by Todd Defren

Today on ProBlogger, we’re publishing the first in a little two-part series of posts on WordPress themes. The first is on choosing a theme, and the second is on installing themes.

Now, some ProBlogger readers might wonder if professional bloggers need this kind of information. Of course there will always be pro bloggers who haven’t ever installed a theme, and the articles may be helpful to them. But is that our key target audience here?

Understanding reader segments

The census we conducted earlier this year revealed a lot about ProBlogger readers—enough that we could break you up into different categories or audience sub-segments.

This is a useful exercise for any established blog, as it allows you to get a clearer picture of the different user types your content attracts. It can also help you to identify content gaps that you need to fill.

That’s exactly what our census did—it showed us that although many of our readers were blogging happily, and making money from their efforts, many were apprehensive about technology. There was also a specific sub-segment of bloggers who weren’t pro bloggers, but wanted to become so, and couldn’t without developing their technical skills.

“Pro” doesn’t translate to readers having professional or high-level skills in every aspect of blogging. So we need to cater to a range of skills levels in every topic we cover. – How Do You Tailor Content to Different User Levels? by Darren Rowse

• 3 Common Small Business Pricing Mistakes (Small Biz Trends)
• Social Business: Where It’s Been & Where It’s Going (Logic + Emotion)
• Social Media – A Video Creator’s Checklist From YouTube (Marketing Profs)
• Blogging Success and the Law of Averages (ProBlogger)
• Pinterest is Still Valuable for Brands (Social Harbor)
• 4 Tips For Gamifying Your Marketing Plan (Mashable!)
• 8 Ways to Get More Out of Your Facebook Fan Page Today (ProBlogger)
• Google Analytics Adds Backlinks Tracking to Social Reports (Search Engine Watch)
• Social Proof Is Real, Robust and Reliable (Small Biz Trends)
• B2B Marketing & Pinterest: 5 Tips for Becoming the Ultimate Pinner (Marketo)
• Where Do Customer Focus, Customer Obsession, Customer Centricity Reside in Your Organisation? (Future Lab)
• Money Can Buy You (Facebook) Friends, But Can It Buy You Customers? (All Facebook)
• 20 Simple Ways to Boost Blog Subscribers (HubSpot)
• Hello Again Marketing (Search Engine Guide)
• 5 Unexpected Benefits of Adding Podcasts to Your Blog (ProBlogger)
• When to Post on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr for Maximum Effect (Search Engine Watch)
• How To Build A Real-Time Commenting System (Smashing Magazine)
• Brand Participation in Product Conversions (GrowMap)
• Three Backlinking Mistakes to Avoid (Search Engine Marketing)
• How to Improve Your Email Marketing With an Integrated Approach  (HubSpot)
• Facebook Launches App Center to Improve Social App Discovery (HubSpot)
• How to Create White Papers From Your Blog Posts and Use Them Effectively (ProBlogger)
• When Someone Asks You for a Favor (Harvard Business Review)
• Stop Wasting Time: These are the Social Networks You Should Really Be Using (Business Insider)
• 3 Ways Companies Can Leverage Social Reviews (Mashable!)

With the rise in inbound marketing, more and more blogs are using white papers to promote themselves effectively. Blogs can use white papers as part of their marketing campaigns to spread expertise, generate leads, get more subscribers, and to take advantage of many other benefits. If you’re keen on learning how to write effective white papers and then use them to promote your blog, then you have to read this post!

What is a white paper?

A white paper is a cross between a magazine article and a brochure. It possesses both the educational qualities of a magazine article and the persuasive qualities of a corporate brochure. This combination of education and persuasion makes it one of the most powerful marketing tools.

How do white papers differ from guides and reports?

Guides and reports are helpful documents that usually dwell into the solution right away. There’s a brief paragraph or two as to why the guide is helpful and why they need to read the guide, and then the helpful information starts. – How to Create White Papers From Your Blog Posts and Use Them Effectively by Mitt Ray

The great thing about Instagram is the fact that a user can utilize the tool just like anyone else. While some picture taking services and sites, such as Pinterest, are best used by advanced designers and are usually only looked upon by the average Joe, Instagram is easy to use for anyone who knows how to point and shoot. This tool also has what are called “filters,” which change the picture color and tone slightly and often add borders in order to change the look of the image.

Consider the following example:

As you can see, different filters give the “normal” photo a different look. This puts a little bit of editing power into the hands of non-editors. According to co-founder Kevin Systrom in an interview with TechCrunch, Instagram is really a “storytelling service. It’s the way you go out in the world and tell a story about your life.” Because Instagram users can connect with other Instagram users, it makes it more than just a picture taking tool. Naturally, this leads many to scratch their heads and wonder: So how can this be utilized for businesses again?

Top 5 Ways to Heed the Power of Instagram

Instagram can be utilized by any business in any industry, but I would be lying if I said that it would yield great results for every type of business. The truth is—B2C businesses that sell a concrete product, such as restaurants and clothing stores, as well as bands and those in the entertainment industry are much more likely to benefit from Instagram. Companies such as law firms or Internet marketing firms will have a much tougher time taking advantage of Instagram. Nonetheless, below lists a few ways that a business can utilize this tool and get in on the phenomenon while it’s hot:

1. Find Your Fans – Know who is mentioning your brand. Go to your Instagram account, hit the profile button, hit “search Instagram,” and then hit “tags.” Once you type in the name of your company, you will be able to see all of the people who have already been using Instagram to take photos of your products. This will help give you an audience and help you identify where your power with Instagram users lies.
2. Geo-Tag – Geo-tagging photos means adding a location to every photo before putting them onto your Instagram account. Many people from out-of-town are actually beginning to use Instagram as a way to see what cool things are in a given area (much like Foursquare). Make sure that your cool photos are uploaded with your location so that out-of-towners can get some awesome local food or funky foreign outfits.
3. Contests – This is probably the most popular way that brands are leveraging the tool. Hold a contest and ask fans to take pictures using your product or hanging out in your store. Levi’s even held an open casting call on Instagram for models, and Starbucks simply asked fans to use Instagram to answer a question (completely unrelated to coffee). Ultimately, it’s all about the interaction.
4. Event Markting – This is one way any type of business can take advantage of Instagram. If you hold a seminar or an office Christmas party, take a few photos and post them to your Instagram account. Ask those attending your event to also take photos using Instagram.
5. Social Media Sharing – You can post any photo you take onto social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. If you’re starting a business and feeling overwhelmed with social media, this makes it easy to hit all of the bases in one fell swoop. Many major brands have already started their Instagram story. These brands include fashion brands such as Puma, GAP, Gucci, and Nike, and restaurant brands such as RedBull, Ben and Jerry’s, and Starbucks. Music stars such as Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber also love Instagram, and sport teams like the Chicago Bulls and Philadelphia Eagles are taking advantage. To get a larger list of brands taking advantage, visit the Instagram Notable Users Directory.

Has your business started using Instagram? How do you leverage the tool, and have you had any success?

Photo Credit: phandroid.com

Amanda DiSilvestro is a writer on topics ranging from social media to phone systems. She writes for an online resource that gives advice on topics including business credit cards to small businesses and entrepreneurs for the leading business directory, Business.com.

The best time to post content with a link on Twitter is 1 to 3 p.m. EST Monday to Thursday. Over on Facebook, between 1 and 4 p.m. mid-week is the sweet spot, while Tumblr users are more likely to click after 4 p.m. and especially on Fridays. How can these networks be so different?

URL shortening service Bitly has released a series of graphs demonstrating the optimal time and day to post on each of these three social networks.

“By understanding the simple characteristics of each social network, you can publish your content at exactly the right time for it to reach the maximum number of people,” Bitly advises in their blog post announcing the data. – When to Post on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr for Maximum Effect by Miranda Miller

Alerti social media monitoring graph on social media chatter surrounding the Google Hangouts on Air release:

I put that question to Google today and I did not get an answer.  The closest I got was a checklist for a customer-centric business and a post on Amazon’s customer experience obsession.  Let’s take a look at both of these before whilst you consider the question that I have posed here.Checklist for a customer-centric business
According to the folks at YSatisfy you can determine the customer-centricity of your organisation by answering the following questions:

1.     Do your have a clear idea of  who your customers are and their needs?
2.     Do you know which of your customers are most valuable to you?
3.     Does your business strategy / mission mention anything about your customers?
4.     Do you hire / develop your staff with your customers in mind?
5.     Do you have a process by which customers and employees can give feedback and review / act on this within your business?
6.     Do you have a customer complaints process which enables quick resolution of customer problems?
7.     Are all your employees empowered to deal with customer complaints?
8.     Do you know how satisfied or loyal your customers actually are?
9.     Do you provide specific services or incentives for your most valued / loyal customers?

Do you deliver what you promise in your advertising / marketing to your customers?
This occurs to me as a list of features / characteristics as in what are the features/characteristics of a cat.   Yet, knowing the features of a cat (even if they are accurate) does not help me to locate the cat.  Where is the cat? – Where Do Customer Focus, Customer Obsession, Customer Centricity Reside in Your Organisation? by Maz Iqbal

The hype around gamification is fairly new, but the idea has been around for some time. In fact, badges and leader boards could be considered the new sweepstakes and loyalty rewards. And gamification is not just for major consumer brands and their tech-savvy 18-to-34-year-old demographic. There are examples where gamification in marketing has worked spectacularly for 50-year-old rural ranchers. In other words, any audience is up for grabs.

That said, marketers can’t just add a Groupon-style approach to something and think it’s gamified. If you’re thinking about giving gamification a test run, here are four steps to help you get it right with your next marketing campaign.

1. Decide on the Right Opacity

Do you want this to actually feel like a game for your customers or do you want game mechanics buried deep enough that your target may not realize why the experience is so compelling? Many game mechanics are those hidden hooks in video games that tap into psychological triggers that drive behavior. You can apply these same hooks to a marketing campaign for any audience, whether they are into traditional video games or not. If you’re still scratching your head, or if you work for an organization that doesn’t do change well, consider trying gamification lite. – 4 Tips For Gamifying Your Tired Marketing Plan by Darren Steele