CHICAGO (February 20, 2012)–The Design Center at the Merchandise Mart is the world’s largest resource for custom home furnishings and interior design.  Encompassing more than 1.5 million square feet on floors 6, 15, 16, 17 and 18 of downtown Chicago’s historic Merchandise Mart, the Design Center offers over 2,500 product lines and plays host to more than a dozen annual design events. The Design Center has contracted with HY Connect, an independent marketing and communications firm, to provide marketing services including creative concepts and development, digital media, account management and event support.

“We are excited to help the Design Center grow in ways that further imprint their reputation in the design world and as a Chicago institution,” said HY Connect President Dave Sheehan.

HY Connect brings to the Design Center significant experience and knowledge of the home products market including work for David Sutherland Furniture, as well as Merillat and Quality Cabinetry and Milgard Windows and Doors. HY Connect will be responsible for strategic account planning and creative services including interactive content development for the Design Center throughout 2012.

The Design Center has long been recognized for having the largest collection of high-end home furnishings and accessories, expert design services and an epicenter for designers and consumers to find inspiration. With the help of HY Connect, they will continue to grow its network of clients by supporting initiatives like Designer-on-Call, DreamHome, Design Chicago, Fine Design at NeoCon and the inaugural Chicago Interior Design Hall of Fame Awards.

HY Connect

HY Connect is a fully integrated independent marketing and communications agency that builds effective and meaningful connections between clients and their customers. HY Connect offers a full suite of marketing services such as advertising, interactive, mobile, earned media including social, as well as specialty services such as marketing to women. The agency has offices in Chicago and Milwaukee with $110 million in annualized billings. Visit hyc.com for more information or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter.

create: the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns to produce meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations

Do you work? Or do you create?

Before you check out because you may not sit in a creative department of your organization, please understand that what I’m saying is that regardless of your role or job description, most people work a lot, and with great effort. However, if all you do is work, then all you’re doing is just “getting it done”. Putting in the hours. Checking the box. You could be missing the big opportunity – to challenge convention, and yourself, in order to create something new and newly valuable.

In today’s ever-changing galaxy of innovation, technology, and invention, work is a commodity. And while hard work is of great value in it’s obvious way, everyone does it. It distinguishes no one. And more importantly, it distinguishes no product, brand or service.

Creativity in your thinking, your solutions, and your unique perspective of the tasks specific to your expertise is what sets you and the brands you serve apart. And that applies to every role from the front desk to the window offices. A willingness to create new solutions, and challenge the way things have always been done, can have a profound effect on your company and its culture.

In a world where your value to your clients, your company, and your career is dependent on your ability to create, it’s essential to practice inventive thinking as an organization. Develop the new. Innovate. Delight, entertain, and surprise.

Work is routine, it feels comfortable.

Creativity is a constant challenge to routine. It can make you feel a bit off balance. It keeps things interesting for everyone.

Work serves the expectations of others with no surprises.

Creativity breaks expectations. Creativity is all about surprises. Surprises change everything.

Work cultivates consensus.

Creativity cultivates a new and sometimes polarizing effect. Creativity cultivates passionate reactions.

Reactions reflect a consumer’s investment of time and interest. Reactions are the most valuable product a creative minded professional can hope to manufacture.

So. Are you going to work tomorrow? Or are you going to create?

A fast-moving target needs a smarter solution
We knew we had a challenge with our target audience – business-oriented, career-minded individuals. Always on the go with zero time or patience to type out a URL. But we also knew that they are big-time smartphone users.

Our solution: QR codes in our print ads and out-of-home transportation posters. We figured that the ease and speed of scanning the code with their smartphone would get interested individuals across the print/digital divide.

To make sure the codes got our target’s attention – and to create a greater link to the iconic Notre Dame brand – we used the blue and gold school colors and even incorporated the interlocking ND logo. After scanning, users were directed to Notre Dame’s mobile-enhanced Executive MBA microsite.

Thrilling results
This strategy was a slam dunk.

Over the 15 weeks of the campaign, over half of the visits to Notre Dame’s EMBA microsite came from a mobile device. Of those, 28% came through scanning the QR codes, and at one point over 60% of visits were coming through QR scans. Mobile visitors were the most qualified leads, too, as 37% of them reached our ultimate goal, the registration page.

Compare this to the latest research suggesting that only 6% of consumers are scanning QR codes. Even though industry averages and usage information for QR scans are hard to quantify, you can see that we didn’t just pass that number. We left it in our dust.

Not only did the ads perform well, they proved our theory going in: QR codes allow us to get the right information to the right audience at the right time. In other words, they make it easier to make a connection.

A large part of the answer is metrics. Too many companies today still see marketing as a cost center. They still measure its performance not based on goals or definable objectives, but rather on dollars spent year over year, using brute force methodologies like ad to sales ratio, total revenues and in some cases, headcount. The mentality of “hit your sales number at the lowest possible expense” is as far as it goes in many businesses. It is surprising in this day and age that while sales targets are provided to marketers, many of them do not have corresponding profitability and marketing ROI goals.

A marketer in today’s world needs to understand the underlying drivers of the business and how marketing activities affect them. Discerning and interacting with those drivers requires a whole arsenal of metric tools to be at the disposal of the marketing team. A few key metrics and goals that should be part of any marketing function are market share, customer acquisition, customer retention and brand value. Beneath each of those metrics are further refined measures that can allow a marketer to understand the dynamics of the business, formulate plans, fine tune those plans and set realistic expectations of marketing’s contribution to the business strategy and execution thereof.

And yet most marketers simply shrug their shoulders and say, “that’s great, but I’m measured on topline revenue and ad spend.” How can you as a marketer help change the game? Stop playing the victim and take control of the game.

A good place to start is during annual budgeting and goal setting. Don’t accept a topline revenue goal in and of itself; break the revenue goal into distinct driver components. For example, based on your current rates of acquisition and attrition, how much of a net increase in customers will you need to achieve to hit the revenue goal. How will you get to that net increase? By improving your rate of acquisition? Retaining more customers? Stating the baseline and what changes need to occur to make the revenue goal will allow for much more productive planning discussions with your staff and diagnostic measures during implementation.

As for the expense side of the equation, rather than submitting a budget based on last year’s budget, try to show how requested dollars are being applied against specific programs and drivers. An example: if you know your cost of acquiring a new customer and your revenue objective requires a 20% increase in new customers, there’s the justification for the expense, not the over/under on last year’s budget. The more granular you can be in goal setting and expense allocation, the more you’ll help your peers and superiors understand marketing’s role in driving growth versus contributing to overhead.

Being a creative agency with big healthcare clients and an eye towards the future of mobile there was plenty of delicious information for us to analyze and absorb.

Some highlights and quotes:

• 91M mobile consumers – 61M using it for healthcare
• People are using mobile for healthcare research anywhere. Including at home
• Consumers and Physicians tend to ‘snack’ on healthcare content on their mobile phone and use tablets for complex research
• Insight: 3 Clicks on Smartphones = Natural limit reached for physicians information gathering process on smartphones
• We haven’t seen an age bias in physician use of mobile
• 30% tablet penetration in Doctors now, 50% by 2013.
• 88% of teens using SMS. It’s their chosen communication platform. And those numbers are above 50% even for the older audiences
• Community = A place where people share information that is important and relevant to them. Not just a group of similar people
• Approach digital communities just like you would a traditional in-person community.
• Communities must be nurtured, tweaked & cultivated to be successful. Moderators must know audience, subject matter & constituents.
• If you want engagement you must simplify your process, be accessible on mobile, and keep your communication loop open with SMS.
• Lap-Band approached web presence “mobile first” and had 70% increase in registrations after redesign.
• According to Google in 2011 of the 26% of consumers who purchased on their mobile device, 68% did so after doing a search on their device triggered by traditional media.
• 82% of smartphone users use device for email. To keep email blasts valuable, keep your subject lines short.
• An app isn’t always the answer – mobile health users use WEB (61%) more than apps (32%)
• 74% of consumers of pharma use online sources – mobile web is low hanging fruit.
• Mobile phones, unlike pricier tech, is utilized across income levels.

Perhaps the two biggest takeaways:

• Mobile is about being accessible. Mobile Web and SMS are the best channels to look into because they are the most accessible.
• Mobile is now part of the consumer’s purchase and information gathering process. To be successful it has to be part of the mix. But all the other marketing channels help to funnel the customer and can not be ignored.

Now as tasty as that information is it’s not nearly as good as what can be done with it.

So, if you want a deeper dive – grab some coffee and settle in while we go through this cornucopia of mobile health insights and case studies:

Multi-Screen World
There are 91 million mobile consumers in the US. 61 million of them are using their mobile device in some way for healthcare. For some it’s just a simple information search and for others it’s their way to monitor and track their condition. in fact the list of health related activities happening in volume on mobile devices is extensive. News, meal planning, symptom research, locating doctors and clinics, researching and managing insurance, exercising and searches of all shapes sizes and complexity. And that’s just consumers.

The physician audience has truly embraced the idea of mobile and are ‘über’ users. They’re using devices for all the reasons consumers do but also for patient care, managing prescriptions, research, reference materials and accessing and updating health records. They’re even using tablets to help educate patients using photos and video when giving a prognosis.

However none of this is happening on a single type of device. Both consumers and physicians are using their phones for simple tasks and tablets for more complex activities. Tablets tend to be used more like a computer – browsing, researching, reading and writing. While smartphones use is leaning towards focused, goal and time oriented tasks. But regardless of which device they’re using both consumers and physicians are trying to get the same information and are spending time on both devices throughout the day.

81% of tablet owners have a smartphone. 93% of people who have a tablet OR a smartphone own a computer. The iPad has only been out for 2 years and already 25-30% of physicians have one and that number is expected to jump to 50% by the end of this year. Their multi device use is leading physicians to expect important information will be available cross device. 52% of doctors polled expected that the information they want and need would be available regardless of the device they use.

Mobile Options are Expansive – Focus for Success

In 2011 $3.3 billion was spent on mobile advertising and that number is expected to be $20.6 billion by 2015. The global mobile audience is 5.3 billion users and only 1 billion of those are mobile web users. Meaning that for the majority of those mobile users SMS is king. And the numbers say the same thing.

In 2011 8 Trillion text messages were sent. Which comes out to 60% more SMS traffic than voice traffic. SMS use is extremely high among teens and 20 something’s (88% are using it) but the number of people using SMS is over 50% even at the 45-55 demographic. The time to open on SMS is also substantially faster than email. With the average text message being read within 4 minutes of it being sent. While email’s average time to open is over 48 hours. But how you use that technology is what makes a difference.

This is well represented in two SMS based case studies that were presented: Mount Sinai Hospital’s Text in the City and Johnson & Johnson’s Text4Baby.

Text in the City is an SMS service provided by Mount Sinai in NYC that targets health information at the high risk teen audience. Mount Sinai knew that teens have different health questions than an older audience, things like sexual health, mental health, substance abuse and preventative care. They also knew that while teens have a high need for this health information they didn’t feel comfortable with or know about the information channels available to them. Their answer was to use modern communication channels like SMS, Twitter and blogs mixed with grassroots advertising efforts like flyers, handouts and word of mouth to get teens engaged. The core of their service was based on SMS, they provide teens with a number to anonymously send in their questions and concerns about a wide variety of topics and provided answers from real health professionals real-time via text message. They also gave teens the chance to sign up for birth control reminders.

Over their limited 6 month pilot with no traditional or wide reaching promotion they netted almost 300 users who engaged in almost 500 SMS chats. At the end of the 6 months over 70% said that they loved the service and wanted it expanded to cover more topics and add more functionality. Mount Sinai is now expanding the program. You can find out more about Text in the City on their blog (http://textinthecity.posterous.com/) or twitter feed (https://twitter.com/#!/textinthecityNY)

Text4Baby is a service offered by Johnson & Johnson that focuses on pre and post natal care. The service exists almost entirely via SMS. Expectant mothers join the service and provide their baby’s due date. Text4Baby then sends those mothers-to-be timely information about the needs of them and their babies up to a year after the baby is born. All the content is generated by trusted health partners and encompasses everything from tips to health related polls.

Since it’s inception over 270,000 people have signed up for the service with 45% of the sign ups happening in the 1st trimester, over 24 million messages have been sent and 96% of their users say they would refer it to their friends and family. Johnson & Johnson partnered with Edleman to create the service and got support from organizations like the US Dept of Health, White House office of Science and Technology and the CDC. In their metrics they’ve found that over 39% of users contacted a service or called a phone number that was provided in the text messages and that number jumped to 53% for users that are uninsured. You can find out more about text4baby on their website – http://text4baby.org/.

Both of these services show the power of the right information focused to the right channel and right audience. But focus isn’t limited to SMS.

A common theme of the presentations was the role the mobile channels and the mobile web plays in communications. Many of the presenters shared stories of how their brands found a significant business benefit to not only making information and functionality accessible to a mobile audience but using mobile as a blueprint for their overall customer experience. One in particular that showcases this rather well is Lap-Band.

Lap-Band is a stomach banding weight loss surgery. As with any device there are many objectives to communicate, information to provide and consumer needs to fulfill. To address these lap-Band initiated a 3 channel mobile strategy:

1. A LapBand app for people who are using or considering the procedure. This app allows users and potential users to get answers to their questions, track their progress and provides engaging extras like a “transform me” function to show what you might look like after the surgery. (App Information: http://www.lapband.com/en/learn_about_lapband/mobile_app/?scprop40=Jeff)
2. A mobile optimized website that “trimmed the fat” from their web experience. It focused on what people new to the brand would need to know first: attending a seminar, learning about the product, insurance/payment options and finding a surgeon. But then they took that one step further: Using their new mobile site as a template they rebuilt their main web presence after that model. Employing a truly “mobile first” approach to their web presence which netted them a 70% increase in seminar registrations. (Website: http://www.lapband.com/en/home/)
3. Once they had someone engaged in attending a seminar they used SMS to further strengthen the engagement by sending out reminders and micro-surveys both pre and post seminar. This kept the communication loop open so users didn’t forget about the date and could reschedule easily if need be. Which meant that more people attended the seminars. (Seminar Information: http://www.lapband.com/en/lapband_is_for_you/attend_a_seminar/)

By approaching the many channels within mobile with focused objectives Lap-Band was able to increase user engagement, brand awareness, customer leads and sales.

Thanks for reading this week’s Digital Download. As always – let us know if there are any topics you’d like to see covered or reach out with any questions/comments you may have.

Well, while you and your business continue to change that site is frozen in time. After a while that very expensive and well thought out website starts to seem dated and ineffective. Maybe the marketplace has changed. Maybe the business goals have shifted. Maybe technology has made users expect more. No matter the reason it’s apparent a change is needed. But the cost of recreating the site might seem too large to swallow. That’s where web optimization comes in. Optimization is like a tune-up for your site.

Web Optimization can fall loosely into 3 categories: Content, Structure and Iteration.

Content
Content optimization is the modification of content to appeal to a specific audience in line with business goals and objectives. The term “SEO” generally falls into this category but can also apply to structure as well. Depending on the condition and structure of a site content optimization can often be done without needing to rebuild or recreate the website.
Examples include: Technical content reformatted for a non-technical audience, Website copy written to focus on specific keywords or phrases for the intention of increasing search engine results, and rewriting or formatting existing content to improve readability and flow.

Structure
Structure optimization is the modification of the architecture, priority and organization of a site to increase conversion. Conversion can be defined as any metric that the site would like to affect. Such as increasing sales, getting more site subscribers or increasing visitors time on site. Structure can also apply to modifying the user path or flow through a site. This would include adding, changing or removing functionality. Because the process of optimizing the structure of a site is so dependent on how it’s built it often leads to the creation of a new version of the site. However, that is not always the case and is completely dependent on how extensive the changes are.
Examples include: Reorganizing content ‘buckets”, Changing the hierarchy of page layout, rearranging or organizing the site navigation, changing from static to database driven pages or modifying functionality.

A partial list of key identifiers that you might need to optimize content or structure:

• A site isn’t appearing in search engines or appears low on the results list
• Users find the content valuable but too complex
• You believe the content on the site is exactly what users need and have good site traffic but – aren’t getting the engagement you want or visitors have a short time on site
• Site visitors are failing to reach the target conversion page
• Metrics show a high bounce rate
• There is a problem with the usability or navigation of the site
• You would like a new feature added to the site
• Generally believe the site is ineffective.

Iteration
Iteration focuses on the ongoing optimization of a web presence for both content and structure. Of the three categories this one is the most involved and is a process of reviewing metrics, reacting to them and refining the site accordingly. The goal of iteration is to keep the site from becoming ineffective over time by regularly checking on the health of goals and objectives. This process is why the giants of the web are constantly changing how their sites work and what their sites offer. It’s why Facebook changes their site every 6-8 months, Google keeps adding new features and news sites regularly tweak their layouts.

Iteration can include all of the steps and deliverables of the previous two. In fact, in a well thought out process, iteration is the responsible the next step to either of the other two categories. It’s a site’s regularly scheduled maintenace.

So, how do you actually do this optimization thing?
For all of these categories the process is very similar. First, identify what metrics you want to change. Maybe it’s the number of email list signups or your rank in search results. Then review site analytics, user feedback, industry standards and competitor comparisons to decide what steps would be taken and what changes would need to be made. Once you have that list it’s a matter of weighing the effort of those changes against the effect it will have.

A warning in regards to optimization:
Now, a common approach to all of these categories is a “redesign”. Often that term is referring only to the look and feel of the site. And that, is the wrong way to optimize.

The “new coat of paint” approach is rarely effective on it’s own. There are very few sites that are in need of only a new look and feel. Usually the problems that are causing a site to be ineffective stem from the quality of the content, how it’s structure or how it functions. A fresh cosmetic appearance isn’t going to fix any of those. It’s like spending the money adding flame decals and ground effects to a car that has horrible gas mileage and bad brakes – Hardly a sound financial investment. While the visual representation of a site might be the easiest thing for us to gravitate to it matters less than how the site is structured, how it functions or how valuable the content is to the end user.

Also, it’s entirely possible that while going through the process of optimization it becomes apparent that the most effective course of action is to build a new site. But, in that case, at least you have the hard data to backup the decision. That data then becomes the solid foundation for all the choices you’ll make when you approach the process of building your new web presence. And this time – You won’t forget to take it in for it’s quarterly oil change, right?

If you have any other questions, concerns or thoughts on web optimization we’d love to hear them. Just use the contact form in the footer below!

On Demand Lifestyle
Consumers now live in an on demand world where every media you want to consume, good you want to buy, conversation you want to have or answer you need requires little more effort than a simple search. Those that control the information know this and are consistently introducing new ways to reach those users. As this shift occurs connecting with those consumers will take more effort and ingenuity. While 2011 didn’t see any huge advancements in this category it did have quite a few small transitions that will have lasting impacts to the future of digital behavior.

Video Content Delivery
Last year:
Netflix broke up their DVD and Streaming offerings, announced their own original programming and expanded their content by signing on Dreamworks. At the same time their streaming service has been made available on iOS and Android devices as well as being a staple in almost every web enabled TV, Video game system and BluRay player released.
Comcast changed their OnDemand programming to prohibit fast forwarding through commercials on some programming and adding same day as DVD and theatre content.
HBO launched HBO GO on iOS devices resulting in over 3 million downloads. HBO GO allows existing HBO subscribers to view HBO programming from their devices whenever and wherever they want.
Hulu averaged close to 30 million unique viewers a month in 2011 and their pay service Hulu Plus broke 1 million subscribers. They are the only online streaming service to carry in-season content from 5 out of 6 of the major broadcast networks and their service is available on most mobile devices, gaming systems, Tvs and BluRay players.
YouTube had over 151 million unique viewers in November alone and has dedicated $100 million in 2012 to creating original content.
Apple, Amazon and Facebook all expanded their video on demand services. Adding new content, new ways to subscribe and new ways to connect with other viewers.
Web TV devices like Apple TV, Google TV and Roku all made significant improvements to their devices and offerings. Adding support for YouTube, Vimeo, sports channels and video services like HBO Go, Netflix, Amazon VOD and Hulu.
According to Nielsen timeshifting in television has become a common occurrence with select shows seeing their audience double when adding in DVR and on demand views.

While none of this represents a huge shift in what users are doing it all builds a foundation for a substantial transition in how people absorb content. The more services that become available and the easier it becomes to get content delivered to you – the more people will adopt that practice.

Traditional Texts go Digital
2011 has also seen the growth of digital books, newspapers and magazines. Thanks to Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes and Noble’s Nook and the iPad for many buying and reading is now electronic.
Amazon sold over 1 million Kindle devices each week in December. Gifting of Kindle books was up 175% between Black Friday and Christmas Day compared to the same period last year. Kindles were the #1 selling item across all of amazon this holiday season. Christmas day was the biggest day ever for Kindle book downloads (They did not share exact numbers.)
Apple‘s Newsstand and iBooks apps have had significant effects on magazine subscription rates (PopSci’s digital sales jumped 13% after newsstand was released) and digital book sales (Penguin, Random House and other publishers have had ebooks sales double over the last year).
Boston Globe introduced a new responsive designed subscription site to connect with their mobile audience and the New York Times introduced a pay wall for it’s content with one very important caveat – if articles were shared in social networks anyone could see them. Both of these changes resulted in positive, but not groundbreaking movement for their subscription rates.

These numbers may not have the widespread impact of other digital trends, but they represent the start of a movement that once again reinforces the idea of “I can get it online when I want it”.

A good indicator of where advertising will go has always been to look at where people get the entertainment and information they want. The online, on demand shift in video and text content means more people are spending time with their devices and online. But it also means people are going to expect that they will find what they are looking for quickly and easily. This generation of web user doesn’t have time to hunt and has unlimited options on where to find what they’re looking for. In order to connect with that consumer it’s going to take great content organized into a well thought out experience.

Social

Social media has been a buzzword for quite sometime and while every company is clamoring to do something in that space most are using this new channel the same one dimensional way they use TV and Print. The power in social media lies with the people who are using it. What a brand or company can do there is far less interesting or impactful as what the users can accomplish. Social media is the most powerful when used for connecting with other people, sharing information and talking about shared experiences. Both major social networks know this and have found a way to help themselves while helping users and brands to connect.

Facebook went from “like” to “life”.
At the F8 conference in September Facebook introduced Open Graph. A shift in their user interaction platform that attempts to add more value and deeper meaning to the interaction users have on their network. The goal is that brands and app developers will build tools that let users share more than just “likes”.

From the September 30th Digital Download: Open Graph and Custom App Actions will work together to give greater context to a user’s actions. Instead of being limited to just “liking” something, apps can be built to let users show that they’re “reading”, “running”, “cooking”, “watching” or any other verb we can think of. Apps will also be able to have certain actions that post to a users’ feed without the user having to be on Facebook.

Since Open Graph was implemented we’ve seen the release of the Washington Post social reader (https://www.facebook.com/washingtonpost?sk=app_240513036001435). A Facebook app that will post to your wall for you whenever you read an article within the Washington Post site. We’ve also seen music service Spotify (https://www.facebook.com/Spotify?sk=app_111157228963798) shift from being an invite only web app to a Facebook enriched music streaming app. I’m sure by now almost all of use have seen our friends Spotify listening activity show up in our feeds. Thanks to this change brands can go from gathering “likes” to building experiences in Facebook that mirror what people do in real life.

This transition for Facebook is their attempt to breathe more life into their service. While they work to add more depth to user interactions we can reap the benefits of a more powerful platform on which to build our ideas and a more engaging experience for our users.

Twitter grew up.
For the past few years Twitter has been the little brother to Facebook in the social world. But in 2011 Twitter found it’s place in the world spotlight.

TV shows, news reports, magazines, presidential debates, revolutions and occupations are all using Twitter to communicate and share experiences. Most major news outlets and magazines regularly report on what is being said on Twitter. TV Shows share hashtags on screen during the show with the hopes that people will use them talk about their program. People across the country and the world use twitter to share their thoughts, ideas and opinions leading to robust conversation about politics and social economic issues. The Egyptian and Libyan revolutions owe a lot of their steam to Twitter and the entire Occupy movement has been organized and implemented thanks to it. Most of this activity is happening because of the universal conversation tools on Twitter – Hashtags and Trends. Both of these allow people to easily find those conversations and join in themselves.

In 2011 Twitter turned the power of these tools into a way to make money through the use of promoted trends, hashtags and tweets. Which just helps to reinforce the use of those techniques.

All of those examples highlight the power of that network – but how does this apply to us? It reinforces that social is the most powerful when used for connecting with other people, sharing information and talking about shared experiences. Most brands can not expect to gather a substantial or influential twitter following if they aren’t doing those things. Brands should be carefully considering three key aspects of their twitter strategy: Communication, Conversation and Expectation.
Communication: Talk about what your USERS want to hear about and pay attention to their preferences.
Conversation: Participate in your followers conversations and empower them to talk about you by providing value – not just promoting.
Expectation: Twitter is a two-way engagement channel, closer to a discussion board or customer hotline than a promotion/sales channel. Treat it accordingly.

Google+, Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest
2011 has also seen the rise and/or launch of many more “social” services. While none of those are quite ready to be as mainstream as Facebook and Twitter they all deserve a look. Because anyone of them may be the next service everyone is buzzing about. The best way to understand the appeal or value of any of them is to use them.

Google+: Google’s own version of Facebook. (http://plus.google.com)
Tumblr: Microblogging platform that feels like Twitter but looks like WordPress. (http://www.tumblr.com/about)
Instagram: iPhone + photos + retro filters + twitter-like feed. (http://instagr.am/)
Pinterest: Digital image boards with grouping, categorizing and user comments. (http://pinterest.com/)

Mobile
For years the promise of mobile greatly outweighed it’s actual ability. That is no longer the case. Today almost anything you can do with a web browser on your computer can be done with a mobile device and users now realize this.

In 2011 70% of US mobile subscribers used SMS, the US penetration of smartphones reached 45% and the tablet market exploded with over 73 million sold in 2011. Mobile web usage grew just as fast in 2011: 50% of local searches were mobile, 50% of traffic to Facebook and Twitter was from mobile devices and 87% of all smartphone users are using the web.

And people aren’t just using the mobile web when they are on the go. A study in Nov of 2011 by Google-Ipsos found that while 87% of users are using mobile we while on-the-go a whopping 93% are using it while at home. Along with 72% at work, 77% in store, 73% at a restaurant and 66% at social gatherings. On top of that 80% of smartphone users multitask while watching TV. Using their phone for communication (94%), searching (82%) and web browsing (60%). For 25% of US web users – mobile is their preferred browsing method.

All of this adds up to a huge shift in how people interact with the internet. Going forward mobile isn’t an option – it’s a necessity. In 2011 consumers have transitioned to a mobile friendly lifestyle and with it have an expectation that they can accomplish any task on their smartphone or tablet. For us this means that any idea that lives on the web needs to work regardless of screen size or device.

Here are some great articles that talk about this shift in a little more detail:
Mashable: Smartphone Multitasking – http://mashable.com/2011/11/10/smartphone-multi-tasking/
Adage: Value of Mobile Ad Placements – http://adage.com/article/digital/placing-ads-underestimate-mobile/230853/
SearchEngineLand: Smartphones over 50% – http://searchengineland.com/smartphones-now-over-50-percent-for-under-44-crowd-99803
PEW: 25% prefer smartphone for web access – http://searchengineland.com/pew-25-percent-prefer-smartphones-to-pc-for-internet-access-85125
LukeW Data Monday entries on Mobile: News on Mobile – http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1461, Holiday Shopping Mobile – http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1478, and Mobile Transition: http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1298

All in all 2011 wasn’t a year for huge leaps but rather – behaviour adjustments. People are still using the web just as much – if not a little more – than they were before. But how they’re using it is shifting their attitude and expectation. These adjustments that will have a profound affect on how we communicate with people in 2012 and beyond.

Over the past few years 100′s of new ways to browse the web have been released for desktop and mobile. Today’s modern browsers came in all different sizes, on different devices and each have their own abilities. The experience you have online today is heavily dependent on the vehicle you use to access the web. So how do you know what browser to choose? And what does that mean to our clients?

There are a handful that lead the pack. The major browsers are considered to be: Internet Explorer (IE), Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari.

The market share of each browser combined with it’s abilities should be our guiding light when it comes to choosing one not only for our own personal use – but when choosing which browsers we should support for our clients.

Abilities:
New technologies and web standards are adopted on a regular basis. Choosing a browser that keeps up with the changes means you’ll always have a chance to get the best and most secure experience the web has to offer. Things like location powered searches, auto updating web pages or videos and games without installing flash. (Just to name a few…)

Most of these new technologies revolve around the web standards of HTML 5 and CSS 3. I won’t go into the meaning or details of each of those, but I will say: choose a browser that supports them.

Market Share:
Market share in the browser world works the same way it does everywhere else: “How much of the market uses product x”. But since browsers are software and software changes rapidly the browser market share numbers can swing wildly from one month to the next.

Here is how market share breaks down as of November 2011 and some notes about what each one supports:

(image chart goes here)

Just two months ago Chrome was in 3rd place behind Firefox, now it’s the leading individual web browser. Of course, if you were to add up all the versions of IE and Firefox the leader board would look something like this:

(image chart)

But perhaps the most interesting statistic out of these new numbers is Mobile*. It’s market share is 6.95% and keeps growing every month. Mobile market share is bigger than Firefox 3.7 or Safari. More to the point: It is bigger than IE6 and IE7 COMBINED. Anyone here who has worked on an interactive project knows that one of our first questions to the client is: Will we be supporting IE6/IE7?

If we think that question is important enough to ask when those browsers only represent 6.49% of the market then shouldn’t we also be making a point to talk about mobile? I think the answer to that is obvious: Yes.

In Summary:
Choose a browser that supports web standards. (Chrome, Firefox, Safari or IE9) and don’t forget about mobile, it’s too big to be ignored.

Thanks for reading this week’s Digital Download. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for a future topic please let us know!

Take a look:

To her, the magazine is a broken iPad.

There’s a whole generation growing up in an integrated digital world. They never knew what it was like to have a phone with a cord or subscribe to a newspaper. They get their news on Twitter, shop from their phones and are connected 24/7. Right now, there are people talking about all of our clients and visiting all of their web properties from devices of all shapes and sizes. We have a responsibility to think about that and do something about it.

As marketers we regularly hear about the increasing use of technology and growth of digital. In fact, we hear it so often that it’s easy for us to become jaded. To start taking all this digital stuff for granted and lose touch with the reality of our audience’s experience. From time to time we need to be able to take a step back and consider the impact these advancements have on how content is consumed and interactions happen. It’s our job to be amazed. To really think about how the technology we hear about, read about and use everyday affects the way we communicate with people.

Now, to put some raw numbers to the thoughts described above.

Recently venture capitalist Mary Meeker gave a dazzling presentation on the state of tech industry. Business Insider has pulled out 10 slides from that presentation that they consider to be “can’t miss”. They cover everything from consumer confidence and ecommerce to mobile and technology. You should definitely check them out here: http://hy-c.me/ovlc5t

Thinking back over the last few years we can come up with quite a few of these buzzwords: Live Chat, File-Sharing, Flash Games, RFID, Mobile, Social, Facebook Games, QR Codes, Apps, etc… If we go back even further we find a few more like: Internet, World Wide Web, AOL and Email. Some of these terms became more successful than others and for every one there are countless more that never panned out.

All of these buzzwords have two things in common:

• For a while they were so hot that you couldn’t help but feel they were the “next big thing” and some marketers were rushing to jump on the bandwagon.
• Eventually the buzz faded. The real cost/benefit of each was realized and, good or bad, each earned it’s place in our list of tactics.

From time to time new buzzwords will start to gain some traction. In this week’s Digital Download we’ll take a look at one of these and sort out exactly what this term means and put some real facts against up against the coming buzz.

Augmented Reality (AR)

What is it?
An employee at Boeing first coined this term in 1990. In it’s simplest definition: AR is the addition of a digital layer to the physical world. Because the definition is so broad the term can be used to describe a wide variety of executions. For example, the yellow first down line shown on the field in NFL games, the heads up display in modern luxury cars and advanced smartphone apps like Layar can all be considered forms of augmented reality.

Why is it a big deal?
The reason AR is becoming more and more prevalent is because of it’s interactive and immersive possibilities. When you mix together a digital layer of information, user interaction, user generated content and devices that know where you are, what direction you’re facing and what you’re looking at, a whole new world of possibilities opens up.

Augmented Reality is meant to be experienced, so rather than read about a bunch of examples take a look at these videos showing different ways of using AR.

AR Explained by Common Craft: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-A1l4Jn6EY (Sorry they wouldn’t let us embed the video)

Layar Vision:

Android Version: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.layar

If not, you can try a different type of AR by checking out GE’s Innovation website. http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/augmented_reality

The Downside.
If AR looks and feels like the future and it’s already available, why isn’t everyone doing it? For one, the cost of engagement to the consumer is still a bit too high.

The Doritos and GE examples assume that your audience has a computer with a webcam and will take the time interact with it. For some audiences these requirements are a slam-dunk, for others the amount of guidance needed will outweigh the benefit of interacting. For examples like Layar or what’s covered in the video from Common Craft you’re still relying on a tech savvy audience that has the right device and either has or is willing to install the correct app.

Until it becomes a bit more commonplace for users to have an AR app installed using this tactic will remain a very cool but very limited proposition. But this day is coming; devices are more connected, more capable and more prevalent than ever before and people are getting more comfortable with how technology works. Within the next year we’ll start seeing hints of AR in more and more places, 2 years from now it may be as common as any other tactic.

Understanding the experience and limitations of AR means we’ll be better suited to respond when our clients inevitably bring this up and gives us a chance to come up with creative ways to use this tech before it becomes just another mainstream buzzword.

Thanks for reading this week’s Digital Download and as always; if you have questions or suggestions for topics feel free to let us know.