V/Speak

It’s no secret – 2010 is the year of the Mobile Phone – every analyst, journalist, and pundit are stating their case on why this is the year that mobile finally rings the proverbial bell of success.  As a marketer, I certainly see that it is very important to focus on this ’emerging’ platform – people are using their mobile devices in more robust ways than ever and, sometimes, even abandoning their computer all together and relying on their handheld as their only ‘connected’ device.  According to Mary Meeker’s Mobile Internet Report, the #1 driving force for the uptick in mobile is Social Networking (slide 30).  The number of people accessing their favorite social network or taking a social ‘action’ on their mobile device has sky rocketed over the last year.  Facebook is head and shoulders above the rest as she outlines.  If you want a more visual portrayal of how Mobile and Social are converging, Flowtown has put together (as usual) a very compelling infograph…teaser below, click on the image for the full version.

David Veneski Mobile Marketing, Social Media Mobile, Social Media

My top 10 reads for the week.   This is a SMALL sampling of what I come across in my weekly media consumption addiction.  If you’d like to be on my email list, please email me and I will add you.

Understanding the Participatory News Consumer – Pew Internet

An App for That, Too: How Mobile Is Changing Shopping – AdAge

The State of The Internet Video by Jess3

Getting the Most Out of Twitter – NYTimes

The Social Agency Of The Future – SocialMedia Insider

How Companies Are Using Your Social Media Data – Mashable

The Oscars Twitter Effect – Chicago Tribune

Facebook and Twitter Access via Mobile Browser Grows by Triple-Digits in the Past Year – comScore

The latest and greatest opportunities in mobile apps – iMedia

A Word From the Wise – Thomas Friedman on Intel –NYTimes

David Veneski Marketing, Social Media Weekly News

Jess3 (Jesse Thomas) strikes again, and creates a fantastic video that shows us the ‘latest’ state of the internet… Kudos on a really interesting look at the trends and factoids in the social graph.

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.

David Veneski Facebook, Online Video, Social Media Internet, Social Media

I consume a lot of content – a lot.  I don’t go to a single source for that content – rather choosing to bounce around my favorite sites to digest specific data tidbits.  Be it sports content (the usual suspects of ESPN, Yahoo Sports, Sports Blog Nation, and Bleacher Report) or current events, ie news (New York Times, Washington Post, CNN), or gossip (I won’t list all of those – I have a little addiction there).  However – what I have noticed over the last couple of years is that Social Media has been the single largest ‘engine’ for me when consuming, contributing and relaying content.  I am pretty selective whom I follow on Twitter and have found some very reliable outlets to funnel most of the news (all the above categories) that I am interested in.  In addition – I’ve also found that I spend a lot of time on aggregation sites – with Popurls being at the top of that list.

The net result of all of this is that I actually spend most of cycles on Twitter and Popurls for the bulk of my news – which is a trend not uncommon to the general population and shows the transition from traditional media to new media outlets.  Pew Internet released a report today that shows how Americans are receiving, consuming, and relaying news of interest to them. There are a few very interesting points that Pew makes in it’s report.  The first being that we no longer rely on just the newspaper or the nightly news to feed our media habit.  In fact, we leverage all the platforms available to us to keep current on a daily basis.

“46% of Americans say they get news from four to six media platforms on a typical day. Just 7% get their news from a single media platform on a typical day”

The second relevant point they make, in my opinion, shows how we are tailoring our media habits to fit our individual news – creating a personalized, portable, and participatory relationship with the information that we find important:

• Portable : 33% of cell phone owners now access news on their cell phones.
• Personalized : 28% of internet users have customized their home page to include news from sources and on topics that particularly interest them.
• Participatory : 37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.

Being in the profession that I am – this profile doesn’t surprise me in the least.  What it does show me, however, is that the advent of multi-platform, new media outlets has streamlined and customized people’s content consumption experience.  We have more control over what we consume, how and where we consume it, and whom we share interesting tidbits with. Personally, I can’t imagine going back to a world of passively pushed content – I want my content and I want it now…on any device I see fit to view it on.

David Veneski Community, Internet, Social Media News, Sharing, Social Web

My top 10 reads for the week.   This is a SMALL sampling of what I come across in my weekly media consumption addiction.  If you’d like to be on my email list, please email me and I will add you.

Twitter Ad Platform ‘Imminent’- MediaPost

The Truth about Mobile Application Stores – ReadWriteWeb

Mobile Phones Organize Lives – Research Brief

Choosing a Marketing Plan: Traditional or Social Media – NYTimes

Mobile Web: A Better Platform for Socializing? – ReadWriteWeb

Five Reasons Not To Get Swept Up In App Madness – ITinnovation

A 4 Stage Model for Member Engagement – Social Media Today

The Case for Handcrafted Social Media – FastCompany

For Chip Makers, the Next Battle Is in Smartphones – NYTimes

The 10 Social Media Metrics Your Company Should Monitor – Social Times

David Veneski Marketing, Social Media Weekly News

My top 10 reads for the week.   This is a SMALL sampling of what I come across in my weekly media consumption addiction.  If you’d like to be on my email list, please email me and I will add you.

Windows Phone 7 Series: Everything Is Different Now – Gizmodo

Local TV for Devices on the Move – NYTimes article

Facebook directs more online users than Google – SFChronicle

Google CEO Eric Schmidt at MWC Puts Mobile First – eWeek

Professional sports are ahead of the game in social media – SmartBlog

Marketers, Researchers, Lend Me Your Ears – BrandWeek

Will You Pay for Hulu on the iPad? It May Be Your Only Choice – All Things Digital

Fast Company’s Worlds Most Innovative Companies 2010: Intel #14 – FastCompany

Google Launches Powerful Mobile Shopping App for Android – Mashable

Yahoo! and Total Immersion Bring Augmented Reality to the Olympics – ReadWriteWeb

David Veneski Digital Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Social Media Weekly News

My top 10 reads for the week.   This is a SMALL sampling of what I come across in my weekly media consumption addiction.  If you’d like to be on my email list, please email me and I will add you.

Google Buzz Rolls Out Sharing Features To Gmail And Mobile Platforms – MediaPost

Detroit Red Wings Make Game Programs Interactive With QR Codes – Mashable

Social Media Top Online Priority in 2010 – MarketingProfs

The Man Who Looked Into Facebook’s Soul – NYTimes

Google Becomes an ISP: Plans to Deliver 1 Gigabit Connections to 50,000 Homes – ReadWriteWeb

HOW TO: Create and Distribute Effective Online Coupons – Mashable

A Guide To Following The 2010 Winter Olympics Online – TechCrunch

Web Strategy Matrix: Google Buzz vs Facebook vs MySpace vs Twitter – WebStrategist

Mobile World Congress: Don’t Call It a Phone Show – BusinessWeek

The 2009 U.S. Digital Year in Review: A Recap of the Year in Digital Marketing – All Things D

David Veneski Marketing, Social Media Weekly News

My top 10 reads for the week.   This is a SMALL sampling of what I come across in my weekly media consumption addiction.  If you’d like to be on my email list, please email me and I will add you.

5 Lessons Learned From The Front Line – MediaPost article

Don’t let Twitter, Facebook, Google be the only game in town – CNN article

29 Million Searches Per Minute: WW SEM Grew 46% in 2009 – ReadWriteWeb article

5 Ways Foursquare is Changing the World – Mashable article

Engagement on Social Networks Top Priority for Marketers – eMarketer article

Learning from Steve Jobs’s Success – Internet.com article

Get Ready for the Post-PC Era – ITBusinessEdge article

Is The IPad Publishing’s Savior? Pro And Con – AdAge article

How Facebook Can Become a Money Making Machine – Mashable article

Twitter Brings Its Trends Right to Your Neighborhood – FastCompany article

David Veneski Marketing, Social Media Weekly News

Social Networking is, as Charlene Li says ‘Like Air‘ – ubiquitous and everywhere.  We are in a culture where every demographic on the planet is involved in some capacity or another.  Some of the most visible?  Athletes – especially professional athletes.  Social Media is a way for the athlete to share a little bit of their ‘off court’ or ‘off field’ persona with those that support them most – their fans.  From a fan’s perspective, this is an amazing peek into the everyday lives of their sports heroes.  Is it always good for the athlete? No.

In many case – Lance Armstrong, Shaquille O’Neal, and Tony Hawk – their use of social media is positive and often used to make the world a little bit better (Lance promoting Cancer awareness and Shaq using his influence/large following to secure financial relief for disaster victims.  I have a lot of respect for these guys as athletes, and even more as humans… they use their widespread influence for good – how can you not be impressed?

Then, comes the flip side.  Using social media to make a complete mockery of themselves. Case in point… this week, Portland’s own Greg Oden.  There are multiple incidents that are embarrassing for athletes that have a very public persona – and some of the ramifications are career threatening, in the case of Gilbert Arenas.  In many cases, it is simply kids making a mistake that is extraordinarily public (Brandon Jennings on Twitter and Video). Remember, these athletes are often times not even of drinking age but making millions of dollars…with plenty of free time on their hands. You know what they say about idle hands…

From my perspective, the moral here for professional athletes to take care with their use of Social Media. You have an incredible opportunity to extend your influence for good and to give the people that ultimately pay your salary (the fans) the ability to take a peek into your ‘off field’ persona.  Be careful of what you ‘Tweet’ – it could come back to bite you…

David Veneski Social Media, Sports Athlete, Social Media, Sport

Every week, I send a growing list of internal and external customers a list of 10 compelling reads for the week.  This is a SMALL sampling of what I come across in my media consumption addiction, but that would be an overwhelming amount of content to share through this means.  Each Friday, I’ll post my summary out to a larger audience than my mailing list through this blog.  If you’d like to be on my mailing list, please email me and I will add you.  Here’s the list for this week:

Tech Boom: Intel’s Earnings Up an Astounding 875% — Mashable article

10 Tips for Becoming a Smarter, Social Business Person — GigaOm article

Facebook’s Zuckerberg Says The Age of Privacy is Over — ReadWriteWeb article

The 10 Stages of Social Media Business Integration — Mashable article

The Starbucks Formula for Social Media Success — The Next Web article

In-store facial recognition ads from Intel and Microsoft — Econsultancy article

The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s — NYTimes article

Is 2010 Your Year for a Mobile App? — ClickZ article

Nexus One and Android 2.1: Apple Better Watch Out — ReadWriteWeb article

Why Apple Bought Quattro Wireless And Is Getting Into Advertising — Silicon Alley Insider article

David Veneski Marketing, Social Media Weekly News