MobileandSocial

This article by Athony Carranza for examiner.com details a recently released study by the internet marketing Research Company, comScore, which reveal the extent to which social media usage has skyrocketed on mobile devices in 2011.

 

Here's what you need to know:

 

**72 million Americans accessed social networking sites and blogs on mobile devices with 37 percent upsurge in access..

 

**“Social media is one of the most popular and fastest growing mobile activities, reaching nearly one third of all U.S. mobile users,” said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president for mobile.

 

“This behavior is even more prevalent among smartphone owners with three in five accessing social media each month,

 

**highlighting the importance of apps and the enhanced functionality of smartphones to social media usage on mobile devices.”

 

Here's what caught my attention:

 

**Social media and mobility have paved the way for innovation and transformed communications like no other time in history.

 

**Businesses and marketers will have field day continuing to aim their services through these new channels and capitalize on understanding its audience behavior.

 

Curated by JanLGordon covering "The Explosion of the Mobile Web & Beyond"

 

http://www.examiner.com/

 

Via janlgordon

Lee Odden CEO at Toprankblog interviewed 10 thought leaders on content marketing and curation. They share their insights, questions and observations.

 

**One thing is for sure, 2012 is the year for content curation!

 

Intro:

 

Companies are realizing the value in brands as publishers and are making real commitments to the creation of content in their online marketing mix. Content curation is going to be an equally important element in their content strategy.

 

Here are just a few things that caught my attention:

 

Paul Gillin - @pgillin

Consultant, Author of "The New Influencers & Secrets of Social Media Marketing"

 

**Marketers can build trust with their constituencies by providing focused curation in areas that matter to their constituents.

 

**Original content will always have value, but curation is coming to have nearly equal value.

 

**The key is to stake out unique topic areas and to become the most trusted source in those areas.

 

**You don’t need a lot of money to do this. You just need to know the subject matter very well.

 

Erik Qualman @equalman

Author of Socialnomics:

 

**Today, everyone is a potential media outlet.

 

**A curator understands their audience and is able to package created content in a digestible manner for them.

 

**Creators need to view curators as distribution points for their content rather than as pirates.

 

**Content creators and curators that will thrive in this new world understand the importance of this symbiotic relationship. But is it symbiotic?

 

**In the end, almost every person is a little of both (creator & curator).

 

After all, there is no such thing as a new idea and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

 

**These clichés symbolize the irony of the topic being discussed.

 

Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Media and Beyond"

 

Read full article here: [http://bit.ly/szvsVQ]

Via janlgordon

Yesterday I selected a post by Elad Gil who talked about Pinterest being the next big shiney thing on the web. Today I have selected another article by Don Reisinger    for Cnet News - digital home, who has more to say about this.

 

I do admit I'm participating on many betas because I feel the need to stay informed. I'm not usually drawn to every new thing that comes along but somehow, Pinterest has caught my eye.

 

Let's take a look at why Pinterest is becoming one of the most popular social networks, what's really happening here?

 

Here's what caught my attention:

 

**Pinterest so far has been the only company to distinguish itself. Late last month, Experian Hitwise, a company that monitors consumer behavior on the Web, reported that Pinterest had 11 million visits during the week ended December 17, jumping 4,000 percent compared with six months earlier.

 

**The massive bump catapulted Pinterest to the 10th spot in Experian's listing of the most popular social networks, just behind Yelp. Experian also discovered that Pinterest has found a loyal following in women.

 

**In the past three months, women have accounted for 58 percent of its userbase, and nearly 60 percent of those women are between the ages of 25 and 44.

 

**Opinions are mixed over why Pinterest has been able to attract such a large audience.

 

**Is it the service's solid design? Is it the attention it has received from media outlets shocked by its growth?

 

**Is it, perhaps, the fact that it recently raised $26 million from venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, giving it bundles of cash to play with? It could be all that.

 

**But Gil thinks it might also have something to do with its ease-of-use.

 

**"Pinterest was one of the first sites to take push button content generation (via bookmarklets and 're-pinning') and structure it into sets of curated content called 'boards

 

**This allowed users to collect content from across the Web, as well as from other users on the site.

 

Reisinger ends his article with a word of caution:

 

**"Pinterest has yet to offer its service publicly. And once it finally moves beyond its invite-only phase, the company will be truly tested."

 

Followed by the question: 

 

**"will the mainstream Web user who typically joins the social game after early adopters pick up their invites, find value in it?"

 

** Chances are, we'll get the answers to those questions later this year.

 

Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Media and Beyond"

 

Read full article here [http://cnet.co/xilVUk]

Via janlgordon

"The traditional world of business we know is changing.

 

Well-known brands are struggling to get anywhere in the new economy precisely because they are not getting what it is they must do in order to talk to their customers.

 

A number of global brands, in 2011, suffered humiliating PR disasters because they failed to understand how to use social media.

 

The picture which is emerging is that transparency in communications with potential customers, responsiveness and the personal touch always win over corporate slickness."

 

These the critical priorities to attack: 

 

1. Make SEO part of your company’s DNA: It’s not enough to optimize part of your website or your products or your social media presence. You really need to have optimization as a standard stage of your everyday work. This means that it should be the responsibility of more than one person and everyone in your company should understand what it is they need to do.

 

2. Employ social media as a stimulus platform: Use social media to inexpensively help your company and brand become known. This means establishing a presence on social media platforms.

 

3. Make social media marketing part of your company’s work: Again, social media marketing cannot be the responsibility of just one person. They are never enough. It has to be the work of everybody which means that everyone needs to understand what it is they must do and why. This requires that you make social media marketing training part of your internal processes.

 

4. Create a conversation: Stop thinking about social media marketing as a new format of the traditional broadcast platform and see it for what it is, a stage whereupon you get the chance to foster lasting, relationships with your customers.

 

Read more: http://helpmyseo.com/seo-tips/571-how-search-is-changing-the-online-purchasing-process.html 

 

Find out more: http://www.zeromomentoftruth.com 

 

(curated by Robin Good)

Via Robin Good, janlgordon