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BREAKING: CDS Global's Jerad (J-Rad) Lally Pwns Google Birthday Doodle Opponents

CDS Global's Jerad Lally Scores 180 in Google Candy, Shames Top Birthday Doodle Competition

CDS Global's Jerad (J-Rad) Lally Pwns Google Birthday Doodle Opponents, Proving Once Again, When it Comes to Beating Out the Competition, CDS Global. Means. Business.

September 27, 2013 – CDS Global Director of Sales & Marketing Operations, Jerad (J-Rad) Lally, showed no mercy today, pwning would-be competitors. In celebration of Google's 15th birthday today, the search giant honored its faithful users with the release of a commemorative Google Doodle. The highly-addictive interactive piñata game sent players into a space bar frenzy, vying for digital candy and top scores.

Within minutes of the game's unveiling, the sweet-toothed time suck went viral, distracting millions and disrupting work agendas for hours.

Not all showed love for the Doodle. "It's just another example of how video games promote violence for candy," said Forbes contributing reporter Erik Kain. "And really, it's the children who are most impacted by these violent images. Soon we may have kids beating helpless piñatas at their own birthday parties."

Violence towards innocent paper mâché aside, CDS Global proves once again, that when it comes to beating out the competition – regardless of the arena – CDS Global. Means. Business.

*Disclaimer: No actual workplace productivity was harmed throughout the course of today's Google game playing. The assault on lunch breaks across offices and cubicles, however, is another matter.

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From Millennials to Legend, a Few Top #afpICON Highlights

This week I attended AFP’s International Conference on Fundraising (afpICON). Since it was my first time attending this event with our nonprofit team, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect – except to know that afpICON was perhaps the largest of all the annual nonprofit conferences. I have to say, this turned out to be a truly amazing conference. And thank you to all the amazing #AFPeeps who made me feel right at home! Making new friends is by far the best takeaway.

This year’s show, held April 7-9, boasted an all-star speaker lineup that included Grammy-award winning musician John Legend and New York Times bestselling author Marcus Buckingham. With 4,000 nonprofit professionals, experts and vendors in attendance, the conference was most certainly massive. An invigorating ambiance to boot, afpICON was held in San Diego’s gorgeous Gaslamp quarter, the historical heart of this bay-side city. Let’s just say I wasn't exactly dragged, kicking and screaming ;)

Favorite highlights? Too many to post! Here are just a few…

John Legend’s keynote and musical performance

Legend may be a world famous, award-winning musician, but he’s also well known for his passionate philanthropic activism. An active board member of both Teach for America and Stand for Children, Legend has demonstrated a proven commitment to educational reform. “Quality education continues to remain a gift for some, when it should be a right for all,” said Legend. He is the founder of the Show Me Campaign, a dynamic organization that fights for reform in the U.S., and actively builds programs for children in Tanzania.

Legend emphasized how critical education was in the battle to end poverty. Here in the U.S., a mere 10% of schools are responsible for a whopping 40% of dropouts. He reiterated the need to rally for elected officials committed to providing quality education for every child, regardless of zip code or tax bracket. Before saying goodbye, Legend treated the audience to a soulful musical set – which included a rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing in the Dark. I curated my favorite social shares here on Storify: John Legend Melts the Hearts of #afpICON

Derrick Feldmann on engaging Millennial donors

Derrick Feldmann is CEO of creative fundraising agency Achieve, and a leading expert on Millennial philanthropy. Feldmann heads the Millennial Impact initiatives, which include conferences, webinars and annual research reports. He's also the author of Cause for Change: The Why and How of Nonprofit Millennial Engagement. Based on key findings, Feldmann shared insights into how nonprofits must shift campaign strategies in order to reach this incoming generation of charitable givers.  

Session takeaways:

More than 75% of Millennials gave to charities in 2012.

Biggest Millennial pet peeve: not knowing the direct impact of their contribution.

Millennials judge nonprofits based on search engine and social network descriptions.

42% of Millennials donate impulsively.

67% of Millennial donors engage with nonprofits on Facebook.

64% of Millennials engage in event-style fundraising.

Millennials prefer involvement in “small group” nonprofit initiatives.

To reach hyper-connected, mobile-savvy Millennials, Nonprofit websites must prioritize the mobile experience by focusing on responsive design and UX.

Campaign for micro gifts. These smaller micro payments are adding up to significant Millennial giving.

Text-to-pledge mobile campaigns are proving effective. 19% of all Millennial donors engaged in mobile giving, which is expected to grow.

81% of Millennials prefer to learn about a nonprofit from trusted peers. When it comes to campaign emails, Millennials respond highest to those they receive from peers.

Focus on crafting great share-worthy content. Millennials are well-connected and willing to send content to peers. But they need nonprofits to design that content, optimizing it for social and digital channels.

Print is not dead among Millennials. Direct mail campaigns are working, but rather than responding with a paper check, Millennials opt to donate online.

Recommended Reading: Grouped: How small groups of friends are the key to influence on the social web (Voices That Matter) by Paul Adames

*Look for the release of the 2013 Millennial Impact Report this July.

Top post-afpICON resources

#afpICON hashtream (of course!)

Official afpICON session handouts.

Ten Tweets You Might Have Missed (and Need to Know)

Leah Eustace’s #afpICON Tweet archive and analytics via Tweet Archivist. Want a pdf of all the conference tweets? (Psst. If you DM @LeahEustace on Twitter and she’ll send it to you!)

  Hope to see you next year!!!

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#SXgood FTW: SXSWi 2013 Curmudgeons, Fails and Appetite

If you’re like me, and didn't stay for music (Interactive alone is more than I can handle. #lightweight), you’re heavily immersed in recovery, deconstruction and postmortem presentations.

This year I attended with a specific “social good” focus – and it rocked. True, as VolunteerMatch's Robert Rosenthal remarked, sessions have been drastically scaled back across the board, leaving less to choose from among philanthropy, nonprofits and social change – a definite drag. But what’s evident to me as a n00b in this SXgood scene is the overwhelming hunger for more. The SXgood community is obviously discontented – and this is a good thing. If the community was satisfied, or worse, indifferent – I’d be worried. If this appetite for change continues to grow, SXSWi 2014 and beyond is sure to be SXgood's oyster. Technology and social good go hand in hand, it's evolutionary, despite the distopian naysayers and doomsday folks. These rapid innovations we're witnessing are changing the world for the better, with no turning back. Here are my favorite highlights from SXSWi's social good scene. If I missed any epic wins (and I know I did), let me know!

Brian Reich, Rockstar Curmudgeon for Good

On March 10th, Brian Reich gave a surprise session in the Beacon Lounge. In true Southby fashion, the impromtu discussion was organized via Twitter, and prompted by Tumblr. Reich addressed questions and criticisms aimed at his May 9th post, What the f—k are we waiting for? Reich challenged the social good community, as well as SXSW organizers, to start impacting the world's issues in tangible, substantive ways. This massive, culturally diverse conference offers unlimited potential for real change. Instead, the outcome over the years has been a whole lot of not so much. So what does Reich suggest we need to do?

1. Stop preaching to the choir! With sessions led purely by – and solely attended by – social good types, we’re ultimately just talking among ourselves. This is anti-social, and fails to spread the message broadly among a potentially viral, hyper-connected audiences. Social good speakers must branch out to seek inclusion in broad panels and sessions across the gamut of SXSW's topics. Similarly, social good attendees must join diverse sessions outside their industry to gain well-rounded insights into current trends.

2. Focus on solving world issues, not on awareness and fundraising! Social good sessions often invite the best of the best among speakers in strategy, design, tactics – you name it. But those sessions notoriously focus on marketing or processes bent on furthering organizations' brand reach, rather than accomplishing organizational missions. Reich is concerned that much of this misalignment is being driven by money-makers in the social good space who use the social good environment for their own marketing ends. Coming from the vendor side myself, I disagree with Reich that this definitively amounts to a bad thing (surprise, surprise). Maybe where you stand does depend on where you sit, but I believe there are win-win outcomes to be had when nonprofits, vendors who sell to nonprofits and corporations/startups with internal social good programs can form an ecosystem that nurtures mutual success. I strongly agree with Reich that the social good focus must shift from generating brand awareness to directly benefiting the end goal. Cut straight to the social issue and use emerging innovations to find a solution. Collectively, today’s creative thinkers and tech communities can make these real-world changes happen, and SXSW is just the headquarters to launch these revolutions.

3. Push for social good keynotes at SXSWi 2014! Reich would love to see a high-profile keynote on the SXSW bill. Social good is an important topic among the individuals who make up the SXSW community. The vast majority of us care about what happens to our world and to humanity, and are likely involved in some kind of “social good” activity in our personal lives. It's up to the community to submit and vote for the panels we want to see.

Beth Kanter Panel Instructs on the Art of Failing and Change Management

Kanter’s Peer to Peer: Nonprofit Social Media Managers (#npsmpeer) session was my favorite overall at Southby. Panelists included NWF’s Danielle Bridiga, Upwell founder Rachel Weidinger, Hubspot’s Laura Fitton and rockstar curmudgeon Brian Reich. This nonstop, two and a half hour workshop gave the time needed to sink our teeth into our work culture pain points and take away helpful tactics for driving innovation. We even scored a certificate signed by SXSW co-founder Hugh Forrest (very cool of you Hugh!). Through zany physical exercises, break-out sessions, quiet reflections and 1:1 peer discussions, Kanter helped attendees realize actionable ways that:

1. Failure is an art to be cultivated. Failure can be identified and used as a healthy means to drive innovation. Accept failure as an inevitable factor for anyone innovative enough to take risks and think outside the box. Failure is an opportunity to do something better. Since innovators are bound to fail, do it fast and learn from it. Don’t get stuck in the negativity. Use failure to drive rapid improvements.

2. Buy-in from decision makers is critical for lasting change. Gain C-suite buy-in for new social initiatives by demonstrating how new tools can make their life easier and more productive. Present your own case studies to prove how the brand is winning relationships and advocacy through social engagement.

3. Grant peeps the permission to explore passions and tinker with possibilities! Empower peers and direct reports with the freedom to experiment and pursue their passions; your brand will benefit from it!   

SXSWi’s Hackathon for Social Good (#hack4good)

In the grand scheme of SXSWi things, Hackathon for Social Good was a modest event with incredibly noble efforts. Hacks are an ideal opportunity for techie social do-gooders to offer up the best of their creativity and skills to solve real problems. Experimentation is among the necessary associational thinking skills among innovators. With tinkering comes creative solutions. I’m hoping that a hack for social good becomes an annual activity at Southby. I have faith that this event has potential for exponential growth. Hack strong, and see you in 2014!

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Plan a Social Good SXSWi Experience: Top 5 for #SXGood at #SXSW

At the beginning of the year I was assigned an increased focus on our nonprofit solutions, an area we’ve been actively developing across the company. The nonprofit space plays an important part in our internal culture, and is particularly close to our CEO Malcolm Netburn’s heart. So this year I’m attending South By Southwest with social good specifically in mind – and I’m stoked!

SXSW has a ton of amazing social good and NP tech stuff going on. SXSW has had a soft spot for do-gooder geekery for a while now, and it’s only gaining in momentum with each passing year. And now, SXSWi 2013 is less than two weeks away!!!

So much to plan, pack and mentally prepare for! As I set out to design my social good SXSW experience, I crafted my top five need-to-know for social good at South By:

Top 5 for South By Social Good

1. Where to Hang: Beaconfire’s Beacon Lounge (with a Conscience). The central hub for connecting with all that’s social good-related at SXSWi. I have a feeling I’ll be camping out here quite a bit. Schedule

2. What to Follow: #SXGood. Of all the tons of hashtags to follow, #sxgood is this year’s must-follow stream for social good at SXSW.

3. What to Attend: Peer to Peer: Nonprofit Social Media Managers panel with Beth Kanter and friends. Of all the many amazing nonprofit-focused panels this year, this is the session I’m most looking forward to. Don’t let the title fool you – this session aims to strategize successful change management. We’re in a time when organizations must innovate quickly or perish. To survive, processes, people and technology must be agile, nimble and silo-free. This RSVP-onlysession digs in deep to help organizations build critical skills for shifting their internal culture.

4. What to Read: Philanthrotech: Making a Difference in a Digital World SXSWi blog series. Groupon Grassroots and The Beacon Lounge partner to bring relevant, timely info to SXSW’s #SXGood community. Contributing writers include NP Tech thought leaders Amy Sample Ward of NTEN, Robert Rosenthal of VolunteerMatch and Derrick Feldmannfrom The Millennial Impact Report.

5. Where to Build: SXSW Hackathon for Social Good. An all-day hack March 8th bringing web and mobile devs and designers together to build for social good solutions. Register for the waitlist if you haven’t already signed up for this RSVP-only event. This hack will be using hashtag #hack4good.

Looking for a no-hassle comprehensive list of sessions that appeal to the #SXgood peep?

  Searching for “social good” and “nonprofit” in the SX Schedule isn’t gonna cut it. I’ll save all you last minute planners from having to search through the 5,000+ events... Here’s a shareable schedule based on my suggestions for the South By Do-good-er:

CDS Global NP's Complete #SXgood Session Picks

See you in ATX!!!

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Desarae Veit (right) and I (left) geeking out to meet Highlight founder Paul Davison (center) at last year's SXSW.

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DoGoodBuyUs Tech Panel Advises Nonprofits Seek Data Measurement + Affordable Solutions

This week, DoGoodBuyUs hosted its Nonprofit + Technology panel at NYC’s Centre for Social Innovation’s Pop-Up Space, an emerging coworking and incubator organization. DoGoodBuyUs, a Silicon Alley-based marketplace for social good, brought in leading local experts in innovative social enterprise.

DoGoodBuyUs founder Zack Rosenberg moderated a panel consisting of Amy Sample Ward, Membership Director at NTEN; Arun Krishnan, CMO at Pontiflex; Paull Young, Director of Digital Engagement at Charity: Water and Adam Hirsch, SVP of Digital at Edelman and former CDO of Millennial social good organization DoSomething.org. Rosenberg led an enthusiastic discussion that dove quickly into nonprofits’ growing need for skilled in-house data scientists and how to adopt top tech solutions affordably.

Nonprofits and Data: More than Strategic, Mission Critical

Big data, BI and metrics are all buzzterms, but for good reason. Sure, nonprofits have always been tasked with proving the success of their efforts. But digital technology is becoming increasingly intelligent, setting the bar for granular, targeted reporting that delivers actionable insights. Moreover, today’s donors want meaningful, personalized engagement and expect quantifiable examples of their direct impacts. For nonprofits to stay relevant, they must analyze their data at all levels – from internal measurement of their websites and digital campaigns – to external reporting on mission progress for stakeholders.

According to Young, marketing fluff and manufactured guilt trips are outmoded. Nonprofits need to design innovative customer experiences that are strategically driven by data. Ward notes that donors want a seamless, holistic experience across their interactions with the organization. But seamless experiences depend on integrated data, as well as the breaking down of silos in order for technologies and people to develop clear communications, and when possible – in real time.

Hirsch is a strong advocate of hiring an in-house data scientist. In today’s world, nonprofits can't afford not to. Nonprofits' biggest data pain is the cost of BI and data management platforms. “They are all very expensive, and they’re not that good,” said Hirsch. So how do you get buy-in from decision makers? Ward suggests challenging executive leadership with the "5 layers of 'how'." Ask leadership a series of questions, such as "how do you know we are meeting our mission?" Answers will become increasingly vague and in obvious need of an empirical leg to stand on as you repeatedly reply "how?" Ward encourages leveraging NTEN's reports on the why's and how's of data to make your case. And come prepared with analytics to support your request. "Having the data to prove you need the data is the most critical element in gaining buy-in," says Young.

What’s the affordable alternative? Hirsch offered up the following tips:

Hire an in-house data scientist – someone with an SPSS background is preferable because analyzing survey-based data is relatively affordable and is effective.

Tableau – Access to analytics for as little as $1K. For about $2K, Tableau can integrate with your API.

‘R’ – This is an open-source data analytics and statistics language. It’s totally free and powerful to boot!

Optimizely – Very affordable and effective AB Testing

Google Analytics – Free website metrics offer in-depth traffic details that can be linked to email marketing, digital assets, social media campaigns and more. Understanding how to leverage GA is a must.

Technology-driven on a Shoestring

Securing a budget for leading technology solutions is a hefty challenge and deeply-felt pain point among many nonprofits. Building effective engagement strategies for digital, social – and now more-than-ever, mobile – is critical for nonprofits who wish to stay relevant, engage communities in real-time and prove the direct impacts of their individual supporters. And to be clear – the always on, connected way of life isn’t just pervasive among Millennials – but is quickly saturating all segments of society.

Where to start? Ward suggests checking with Nonprofit-focused tech resources such as TechSoup for the latest reviews and advice on budget-conscious solutions. “Technology is the really easy part,” Ward reminds the audience. “Knowing how to use technology efficiently and effectively is the biggest hurdle.” “Do it wrong quickly,” says Young, encouraging experimental, fast iterations over painstaking perfection. When it comes to spending wisely, Hirsch notes nonprofits must master the art of negotiating and discovering special discounts and perks. A growing number of leading services, such as Google, Hootsuite, Twitter and YouTube, have nonprofit programs and grants. When it comes to cutting costs by leveraging multiple API tweaks and platform integrations, Hirsch strongly advises nonprofits take extra care to factor in total cost of ownership (TCO). Knowing when to customize and when to partner with an end-to-end provider, such as Salesforce, is key.

Panelist Picks – Top Tech Programs for Nonprofits:

Google for Nonprofits: Programs include NP edition of AdWords, Google Apps and YouTube

JPMorgan’s Technology for Social Good: A variety of top-notch projects and programs worth investigating

Twitter for Nonprofits Program: Includes pro bono ad program, analytics and best use case blog Hope140

VerticalResponse for Nonprofits: Free access to their digital marketing suite, including email and social tools

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CDS Global Hosts Collaboration Kick-off 2013 with Hearst Magazines and Condé Nast

Last week, CDS Global hosted its second annual Collaboration Kick-off. The networking event held at 48 Lounge in New York City celebrated guests Hearst Magazines and Condé Nast on their continued Circules partnership. Hearst developed Circules in-house in 2006. The tool allows consumer marketing teams to easily manage and market online subscription sales. Users have creative content at their fingertips through a vast library of ready-made digital ads. 

Approximately 55 employees from CDS Global, Hearst Magazines and Condé Nast were in attendance. Notables included CDS Global’s Chief Operating Officer Debra Janssen and Chief Technology Officer Mike Nell, Hearst Magazine’s Executive Vice President John Loughlin and Condé Nast’s Chief Technology Officer Joe Simon and Executive Vice President of Consumer Marketing Monica Ray. Guests mixed and mingled, and discussed the future of paid media in an increasingly digital age.

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LinkedIn’s Dan Roth on Why Algorithms Aren’t Enough at FOLIO:’s mediaNEXT

FOLIO: hosted its annual mediaNEXT conference this week, bringing publishing execs, editorial professionals and digital vendors from across the country to Times Square for three days of keynotes, break-out sessions and demos.

One of the most provocative keynotes this year came from Dan Roth, executive editor at LinkedIn. Roth, a print industry veteran, discussed the evolving vision for the top business social network. LinkedIn has been actively rolling out updates for its share-savvy audience and influencers in recent months, to include streamlined profiles, better responsive design and its popular new Influencer Program. In the broader scheme of things, LinkedIn is transforming its business from being one of the largest social networks to becoming one of the top business news sites.

From LinkedIn’s launch in 2003 to 2010, Roth explained, the platform existed primarily to connect people to their professional contacts. But from 2010 on, LinkedIn has grown to not just connect people to people, but also to connect people with insights. However, LinkedIn is still different from social networks based on friendships and family. “We realize our audience is pressed for time,” said Roth. “We got into the content business not to get people trapped on the site all day.” Contrarily, explained Roth, the goal for LinkedIn is to be the busy professional’s go-to hub for quickly grabbing what's most relevant and valuable. The LinkedIn user checks in and then departs, equipped to go about the day with top industry developments.

When a Social Share is Worth A Thousand Words

According to Roth, 57% of LinkedIn visitors are looking for something to share – which says something about what motivates people’s online activity. Professionals, regardless of industry, are recognizing the importance of becoming expert curators. They are being driven to bring value to their unique social graphs. The motives are multifaceted, Roth noted. Having a great resume and a list of influential contacts in your pocket isn't enough to secure the growth of your career these days. It’s imperative that professionals be social savvy – they have to know how to skillfully build their personal online brand as an influencer among their niche social graphs. A large part of this task requires professionals to stay visibly on top of the most relevant trends, or risk losing relevance among peers and potential employers. “People choose stories to share based on its value upon their image,” said Roth. “What will make you seem smarter? Have particular leanings?”

But there’s a nuance to this reality. Roth has observed that people gravitate towards opinion-heavy content. Objective stories just don’t have the same engagement power among users. “They are hiding behind the point of view of the journalist instead of having their own opinion,” said Roth. Sharing opinionated stories conveys a deeper message from the users who spread them, Roth pointed out. It’s an outlet for users to express their sentiments and establish their own influence, without the risk of upsetting delicate politics among peers, or rocking their professional boat.

Social-savvy professionals also feel a sense of responsibility for making sure the most relevant, need-to-know content rises above the superfluous noise. Collectively, social professionals are making their industries better by separating the digital wheat from the chaff. The publishing world has a strong part to play in helping LinkedIn users do that.

Publishers Fuel Today's Social Business Professional

“What is it that people do every single day? They read news,” said Roth, citing a survey that demonstrated the trend among people to have news on or up at all times. People are opting to have news running constantly on their devices, or in the background, even if they’re not paying direct attention to it. People want the most real-time, important developments within reach and available – or should I say sharable – the very second they need it.

“The goal of media is to be a conversation starter,” said Roth. “We write icebreakers people can use to engage with people. A great headliner quote is a great excuse to create a conversation.” Roth notes that LinkedIn has a vision of becoming the driver of the professional world, making everyone smarter in the process. The publishing industry has a vital part to play as social networks become social news sites. Everyone, including traditional media, social networks, brands and individuals, is now a content creators. And to some extent, everyone must also be curators. There's a complex symbiotic relationship between news creators and their curators, and yet the lines between the two are blurred.

Roth discussed LinkedIn’s transition from being merely a social network. In 2011, LinkedIn launched LinkedIn Today, its social news aggregator. The aggregation site’s algorithms were used to power LinkedIn’s Home pages. This ensured that the updates most relevant to each specific user remained highly visible. What defines relevant, according to Roth? LinkedIn’s sophisticated algorithms become increasingly perceptive, growing in their ability to intuit individual relevance as LinkedIn monitors the sharing behaviors of users, both at the industry and individual levels.

A Human Touch

But it’s not just complex algorithms running the show. LinkedIn believes a strong human component is necessary to create the perfect formula for relevance and engagement. LinkedIn employs a solid team of editors in order to, as Roth says, “break the filter bubble and bring serendipity to the news.”

This past October, LinkedIn launched its Influencer Program, further demonstrating its belief in the human-algorithm combination for success. The program is also a testament to the growing importance of social capital in a digital world. The ability to quantify the popularity, persuasive reach and relevance of an online persona is leading to brands expertly leveraging online personalities that are dubbed influential. LinkedIn is enlisting top thought leaders in business, by invitation only, across broad industries, to create and share meaningful content with their extensive niche audiences.

LinkedIn users can opt to follow these influencers, rather than add them as personal connections, to receive the influencer’s updates in their home streams. Users will also see LinkedIn Today stories from the designated influencers they follow. The opportunity to write long-form posts for LinkedIn Today is one of the tools being given to official influencers in order to develop and spread engagement-worthy pieces.

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Points to keep in mind when producing your next infographic: David McCandless' TED Talk, "The Beauty of Data Visualization"

Infographics started gaining widespread popularity back in 2010, when 'content marketing' became buzzworthy. The medium, thanks to influential blogs and Pinterest, no doubt, has been on the rise ever since. Interactive components among savvier infographics are evolving in sophistication, adding to their value. But the infographic is often met with criticism, because so many, contented to look pretty, fail to deliver real relevance in context.

Data journalist David McCandless' talk, The Beauty of Data Visualization, wowed the TED crowds back in 2010, and is just as relevant two-and-a-half years later. This is a TED Talk worth watching, whether you're a marketer, designer or data geek. McCandless conveys the dynamic quality a data set takes on once it departs from simple percentages and text – and becomes visually relatable.

"Every day, all of us now, are being blasted by information design. It's being poured into our eyes through the web," says McCandless. "And we're all visualizers now, and we're all demanding of visual aspects to our information. And there's something almost quite magical about visual information – it's effortless, it literally pours in."

McCandless goes on to draw from Danish science writer Tor Norretranders' book, The User Illusion. Norretranders' research compares the human senses to varying computer bandwidths. He reveals that sight is by far the fastest processor among the senses and the absolute quickest means for relaying information. According to McCandless, this fact supports why data visualization is exceedingly more effective at communicating information than data in and of itself.

DavidMcCandless.com|informationisbeautiful.net|@mccandelish

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Newsweek's #LASTPRINTISSUE: A Final Farewell in Tweet

Newsweek’s last print issue hit newsstands this morning. First glimpses of the final edition came yesterday on Twitter via Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of The Newsweek Daily Beast Company.

Newsweek merged with Brown’s online publication The Daily Beast back in 2010 just after The Washington Post Co. sold the 80 year old publication for $1 after the print ad revenue crisis proved too great a struggle for the parent company to bear.

The magazine’s print edition was laid to rest bearing a glossy, full color hashtag – a “bittersweet” acknowledgment of Twitter’s leading role in both the changing face of journalism and Newsweek’s ongoing struggle to secure profitable ad revenues.

The cover’s headline simply reads #LASTPRINTISSUE. The bold sans serif is rendered entirely in white, save for the word “print,” in a poignantly contrasting bright red – proving a hashtag can be worth a thousand words. The hashtag overlays a vintage black and white valedictory shot of Newsweek’s old NYC office building.

The cover’s subtle, yet expressive message signifies the magazine’s enduring evolution – its fond farewell to the past and its courageous embrace of the digital future. In the words of Tina Brown, "we are transitioning Newsweek, not saying goodbye to it." 

Newsweek’s decision to go paperless was announced back in October. The magazine stated that, after the new year, it would be re-branded as Newsweek Global, a mobile-optimized, all-digital publication. Its strong focus on responsive design and its desire to reach a highly mobile, tech-savvy audience is being echoed by an increasing number of magazines. Brown points out that Newsweek’s decision is a preview of what lies ahead for the magazine industry in general, asserting that Newsweek is making a “momentous change, embracing a digital medium that all our competitors will one day need to embrace with the same fervor.”

The Daily Beast's touching video tribute highlights Newsweek through the decades.

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MPA Digital Shares the Best of Social among Magazine Media

Last Thursday, the Association of Magazine Media (MPA) hosted its MPA Digital: Social Media event. The intimate, half-day conference was well attended by key media execs and industry journalists. The event, hosted at NYC’s iconic Time-Life building, brought in leading experts in social from both the magazine and interactive marketing industries. Notable experts including Forrester analyst Nate Elliott, Esquire magazine’s EIC David Granger and Glamour magazine’s Digital Managing Director Mike Hofman, shared techniques for winning engagement, top recommendations for enterprise-level tools and personal forecasts for 2013.

No game-changing “eureka” moments for marketers as far as the fate of Google + (just a day later, Google announced 18 new G+ features, no doubt hoping to reassure skeptics of its commitment to the network), clear-cut monetization, or ROI (revenue focused) breakthroughs. Nevertheless, the panels and discussions covered many areas increasing in importance among social marketers and magazine professionals. Forrester’s Nate Elliott suggested brands adopt a “no conversation left behind” mentality in order to tap into the evolving consumer life cycle. Elliott encouraged brands to build structured word-of-mouth programs in order to foster brand loyalty, giving consumers content they can’t help but share. The unveiling of the all-digital Nomad magazine by CEO of SM Media Nick Huppert added to an overall sense that a growing number of publishers are prioritizing mobile and responsive design. Many timely discussions came out of last week's event; below are a few points of interest:

Pinterest

The praise continues. Thanks to the highly visual, shopper-friendly qualities intrinsic to the platform, Pinterest and consumer magazines are proving to be a match made in heaven. The photo-sharing social network continues to be all the rage among women, particularly fashionistas, foodies, DIY mavens and brides-to-be. Pinterest is currently the fastest-growing website, and is quickly proving to be an ecommerce goldmine (great Pinterest infographic from FastCompany). What’s more, the conference revealed that Pinterest is increasingly competing with Google for driving traffic. Self magazine’s social media editor Stephanie Miller reports that Pinterest has already surpassed Google as the leading source of website traffic. Kathleen Harris, Managing Editor for RealSimple.com, reports that Pinterest is ranked 2nd to Google for referring traffic back to the main site and outranks both Facebook and Twitter for generating engagement.

Print gets Social

Digital isn't the only medium prioritizing social engagement this year. Magazines are augmenting print experiences with digital technologies to drive social conversations. David Granger, Editor-in-Chief at Esquire magazine, showed off Esquire’s use of the augmented reality app Netpage. The app for iPhone turns print pages into highly interactive digital content. Scanned content can be saved, shared with friends on social networks, used to unlock multi-media experiences such as video, and increasingly, allow for mobile purchases straight from the print article.  

Ed Knudson, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Digimarc, discussed how Digimarc’s Discover solution for magazines allows readers to scan digitally watermarked pages to share print content with their social networks.

  Skeuomorphic UI

Popular Mechanics editor Jim Meigs, Code and Theory director and partner Steve Baer and Rodale interactive design director Sean Bumgarner debated, among other digital newsstand issues, the pros and cons of skeuomorphism. Digital Newstands have been criticized by some for mimicking real-life newsstands to the detriment of functionality, creating drawbacks such as hard-to-read covers and poor user experience. Many users enjoy the familiarity of digital experiences that imitate real life, newsstands being no exception. But coming generations have less and less connection to the real-life inspirations behind these skeuomorphised designs, and these generations will likely create better digital experience because of it.  

For more MPA Digital: Social Media highlights, catch the conversation on Twitter at hashtag #MPAdigital and read FOLIO: magazine’s official recap.

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From Millennials to Gen Z, Creatives are the New Economy

Beneath the surface, unnoticed by many, an even deeper force was at work – the rise of creativity as a fundamental economic driver, and the rise of a new social class, the Creative Class. – Richard Florida

As everyone knows, we now live in an information economy, typified by a rapid explosion in digital technologies, cloud computing, mobile devices and other major advancements. In 1959, Peter Drucker, management theory’s most celebrated savant, predicted that the emerging economy would be classified as a “knowledge economy,” in which industry would see a major shift from producing products to leveraging knowledge. How right he was. Software and mobile app developers, UX and UI designers, R&D and innovation strategists increasingly form the backbone of both startups and legacies. Similar types of creative and technology-savvy professionals will only increase as Millennials and Generation Z(aka iGeneration, Digital Natives, Plurals) enter the work force.

In The Rise of the Creative Class – Revisited: 10th Anniversary Edition – Revised and Expanded, author and award-winning journalist Richard Florida pushes the concept of the “knowledge worker” beyond the realm of theory and into the empirical. What has emerged out of the knowledge economy, Florida demonstrates, is a new and dominant – but  little understood – social class, the “Creative Class.”  

Through an extensive exploration of what Florida calls the 3 T’s of economic development – technology, talent and tolerance – The Rise of the Creative Class delivers cutting-edge sociographic research that illustrates what this unfolding Creative Class looks like, what the greater economic, societal and geo-political implications are, and how cities can best attract new creative talent in order to prosper. Hint: it’s not about communities hoping to manufacture the next Silicon Valley.

Gaining insight into this quickly growing creative class is energizing and inspirational, and, for researchers and analysts, often baffling. For instance, unlike past social groups, members of the Creative Class do not acknowledge that they are part of a coherent, unified segment of workers at all.

Throughout Florida’s book, readers are given detailed portraits into the characteristics of these soon-to-be heirs of the global economy.

Creative Class Values:

Meritocracy at work

Diversity in gender, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation

Tolerance for array of lifestyles

Environmental sustainability

Flexibility in work schedules, rules and dress code

Mobility in employment and residence

Social collaboration

The long-term success of the Creative Class’ burgeoning economy will be dependent on employers’ ability to nurture the unique talents and creativity of each individual worker, regardless of role, and balance that creativity with the structuring that organizations, at least at a bare minimum, require. If successful, a truly “Creative Society” will be born, marked by much greater innovation, equality, sustainability and prosperity than humanity has ever known.

Sound too utopian? Perhaps so, especially considering the increase in creative jobs is contributing to an increasingly divided social structure, and the further diminishing of the middle class. “The rise of a new economic and social order is a double-edged sword,” says Florida. “It unleashes incredible energies, pointing the way toward new paths for unprecedented growth and prosperity, but it also causes tremendous hardships and inequality along the way. We are in the midst of a painful and dangerous process.” In becoming cognizant of the tremendous difficulties that lie ahead, Florida hopes that society will accelerate this inevitable transformation, thereby easing the associated labor pains.

Richard Florida on the Creative Economy:

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What Magazines Can Learn from AMC 2012 and Newsweek: Audience-centric Product Design

Last week was quite an emotionally charged one for the magazine world. First we saw the outpouring of recaps of, and reactions to, the Association of Magazine Media’s (MPA) much-talked-about AMC 2012 conference. The magazine event hosted a full house of executives and industry leaders in San Francisco. Discussions centered on evolving social and digital strategies – while the ongoing debate over the future of print seemed to reach its day of reckoning, with many attendees reluctantly acknowledging that the print magazine is indeed fading away, perhaps more quickly than the media industry had predicted. “Face the reality that print will eventually go away," said tech entrepreneur and Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz. FOLIO: magazine sums up the conference’s prevailing attitude towards print in AMC Day 2: Reality Sets In Around Print Challenges.

Just a few days later, Newsweek announced that it will permanently cease its print edition at the end of the year. The 80-year-old magazine’s decision to go completely paperless shook the net, confirming forecasts expressed at AMC 2012. However, Newsweek’s inability to secure the amount of print advertising needed isn't indicative of the broader state of print magazines, some experts argue. Shortly after Newsweek’s announcement, the Huffington Post reported that titles comparable to Newsweek, such as The Economist and The Week, are demonstrating healthy growth rates in print. In short, the fact that a brand like Newsweek is going all digital shouldn't be interpreted as a death blow for the entire magazine industry. Rather, Newsweek made the best possible business decision for its particular brand in an increasingly digital environment.

Print aside, growing digital newsstand revenues and tablet and e-reader sales indicate that the sky won’t be falling for the magazine industry overall. The consumer landscape is continuing to evolve, and the definition of what it is to be a magazine must evolve right along with it.

According to media industry veteran Malcolm Netburn, CDS Global Chairman and CEO, the future of the magazine industry depends on its ability to augment product strategies by hyper-focusing on the needs of the emerging consumer. Netburn’s Audience-centric Publishing chart, his most recent Forward Report, depicts the new roadmap product strategy must follow in order to build for the emerging digital and social savvy consumer.

In the past, magazines were beholden to advertisers, since print advertising accounted for the majority of a publication’s revenues. Today, the decline in print ads and the trend in content marketing, which calls on brands to become their own publishers, have made magazine revenues more directly reliant on its readers.

But today’s readers are different from the readers of even just a few years ago. The emerging readers are among the new class of consumers, connected consumers, who gain brand and product knowledge from peers via digital platforms, and who convey their inquiries and sentiments directly to brands by way of social networks and blogs. These consumers don’t differentiate among a magazine’s touchpoints. They desire a seamless experience, and expect to access their content across all devices. What’s more, these consumers want more than just great content in a magazine. What they want overall is an amazing brand experience. For publishers who can lay their old definitions of a magazine aside and focus on delivering valuable, enriching consumer experiences, whether in digital or in print, the future is not only bright, but limited only by the creative imagination.

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AMC 2012’s Lunch with Twitter: Twitter and Wired Discuss Magazines' Evolving Engagement

This Monday, CDS Global hosted “Lunch with Twitter” at The Association of Magazine Media's (MPA) AMC 2012 conference in San Francisco – an apropos session for the magazine conference hosted in Silicon Valley, the home of social media’s heaviest hitters and savviest startups.

  CDS Global chairman and CEO Malcolm Netburn introduced the lunchtime talk, an interview between Twitter VP of global brand strategy Joel Lunenfeld and Wired magazine's senior editor Bill Wasik, representatives from two organizations Neburn says is shaping a culture of innovation around the globe.

  “Twitter has empowered content companies to develop deeper levels of engagement with their audiences,” said Netburn. “And reaching 14 million readers each month, Wired is a truly remarkable content organization that keeps their fingers on the pulse of change in our technology-driven world. Twitter and Wired has flipped our world through innovation.”

Wasik and Lunenfeld discussed how magazines and advertisers can make the most of 140 characters. With more than one-and-a-half million followers, Wired is no newcomer to Twitter engagement. The duo came together to demonstrate creative ways in which magazines should be using Twitter to distribute content, engage in real-time conversations and drive sales. Magazines are increasingly looking to Twitter as an in-house creative agency, as an advertising partner, and as one of the best platforms for telling brand stories, for fostering engagement and for addressing customer service inquires.

Lunenfeld cited an example between Marie Claire and Yoplait, where the partnering brands tweeted requests for hashtag-marked pictures that captured blueberry inspired fashion looks. Winners were featured in Marie Claire magazine. “Tweets are content. They're conversations,” said Lunenfeld. “To put advertisers in the middle of that is a huge challenge. The wrong way to use Twitter is to think of it as a one-way conversation.” The social media campaign drove high volumes of active conversations between participants and the two brands on Twitter, an engagement win for both Marie Claire and Yoplait.

Both Lunenfeld and Wasik reiterated the belief that organic, thoughtful engagement is key for brands wishing to leverage social. There are multiple necessary components magazines must keep in mind, such as producing consistent volumes of quality content with social optimization in the content’s design from the get-go, and freeing the brand voice up to enable real-time engagement through community managers and customer service contacts who will actively RT, reply and mention others within the Twitter community.

Although not a point of discussion at the AMA’s Lunch with Twitter, Twitter's recently announced changes to its API may go a long way towards encouraging organic, conversational engagement on the platform. I discuss why here in my recent post: Twitter’s API Restrictions: A Silver Lining for Syndication Haters

Follow the conference conversation on Twitter using hashtag #mpaAMC

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Citizen Hearst Documentary reflects on a Legacy’s Past, Inspiring Media’s Future

Earlier this week I was fortunate to attend the premiere of Citizen Hearst, the newest documentary by award-winning director Leslie Iwerks. The debut, hosted at Hearst Tower, celebrated Hearst’s 125 year legacy. The Hearst Tower’s Ice Fall turned a swanky gold for the occasion. Industry veterans, executives and friends visited while sipping champagne and snacking on a Hearst popcorn and licorice stick mix. Notable guests included Gillian and Emma Hearst, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Ralph Lauren, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and China Michado. A highlight of the evening was a celebratory performance by Jennifer Hudson, which included Leonard Cohen’s soulful “Hallelujah.”

William Randolph Hearst: Lover of democracy and splendor

Citizen Hearst chronicles the hard-working, yet glamorous life of William Randolph Hearst (1863 – 1951), and the enduring media legacy he founded. The film’s title plays off Orson Welles’ seminal satire Citizen Kane, whose lead figure was largely fashioned after W.R. Hearst. Citizen Hearst carries its audience back to the late 1800s, where W.R. Hearst, the son of a wealthy silver miner, Harvard graduate and staunch Democratic activist, cultivates his inherited entrepreneurial spirit through the acquisition and continuous innovation of daily newspapers such as The San Francisco Examiner and The New York Journal. Hearst’s formative dailies progressed past the sensationalized news stories of Yellow Journalism, the media wars with formidable competitor Joseph Pulitzer, through Hearst’s taboo love affair with Ziegfeld showgirl and actress Marion Davies, and through widespread socio-political tensions that sprang out of both world wars and the Great Depression. These trials and tribulations helped to develop the unshakeable foundation from which the global, socially impactful multi-media empire emerged.

Creativity and Innovation: Hearst’s Most Treasured Heirloom

Never confined by medium, W.R. Hearst was inspired by the concept of media in and of itself. Hearst continually looked past the traditional means of the day to consider how emerging technologies could be applied to mass communications. He was among the first to advocate the potential of the newspaper comic strip, and was among the first to promote the comic’s evolution to moving animation. Hearst was ahead of his time, conceiving film reels as headlines before broadcast news. Hearst’s knack for fearlessly pursuing the untried instilled a habit of innovation into his growing empire. Hearst Television is known for investing in cable and satellite experimentation at a time when both models were unthought-of concepts in media. The idea of an all-sports channel was berated, the concept bordering on ridiculous, in 1979 when Hearst Corporation launched ESPN. The network is the unparalleled global leader in sports media to this day. In this same vein of pushing past the implausible, Hearst Magazines sought to deconstruct restrictive social norms. In 1959, Harper’s Bazaar featured China Machado, becoming the first U.S. fashion magazine to publish photos of a woman of color. Helen Gurley Brown, Cosmopolitan’s iconic editor-in-chief, became one of the most prominent champions for women’s rights. Brown liberated women from the stifling societal expectations that sex must be confined to the marriage bed, and that getting married must take priority over career aspirations.

After watching Citizen Hearst, and listening to the night’s speakers, the Hearst message was clear. The Hearst Corporation is in the creativity and innovation business as much as it can be said to be in the media business. Looking towards the next 125 years, I’d say this innate creativity is pushing Hearst brands past the confines of pages, television screens and radio signals, and into the realm of delivering the holistic sensory experience.

The world premiere of Citizen Hearst will take place October 4-8 at the 2012 Hamptons International Film Festival. Find Citizen Hearst on Facebook, and join the conversation on Twitter at hashtag #CitizenHearst.

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Twitter’s API Restrictions: A Silver Lining for Syndication Haters

I recently came across Forrester analyst Zachary Reiss-Davis’ (@ZacharyRD on Twitter) insightful take on Twitter’s impending API changes. Reiss-Davis’ blog post, What Twitter's API Changes Mean For B2B Marketers And Vendors Of Social Marketing Tools, admits that these coming restrictions should worry social media marketers.  But he also offers  a much more constructive, “silver lining” perspective. Reiss-Davis concludes “Our [Forrester] research has shown that online communities, support forums, discussion groups, and LinkedIn are all significantly more influential to B2B buyers than Twitter.  Any shift in focus toward both listening and engaging on those platforms by social vendors will enhance their ability to help you be successful with your social marketing.”

Agreed, developers don’t build nearly as much for community or forum platforms when compared to Twitter, and without Twitter as an option, devs will be forced to shift their attention to freer, collaborative-friendly APIs. But forums and communities can be difficult and time-consuming to build, and just aren’t feasible for every B2B. These other channels also lack the assets that make Twitter so unique. These include the ability to create global real-time content and event coverage – conversations that are accessible to the network even in the absence of opt-ins such as a Facebook like, LinkedIn company follow or a branded community membership. When brands play their hashtags and keywords right, they open themselves up to their niche audiences across the Twittersphere at large, a network that boasts more than 100 million users.

Death to Syndication, a Silver Lining for True Engagement

I see my own silver lining for B2B marketers. Twitter’s API changes could result in a more organic, human ecosystem where brands are all-the-more encouraged to engage meaningfully with consumers. Let me explain. Twitter claims that its crackdown is aimed at “traditional Twitter clients” and “syndication” tools – not enterprise clients, social CRM, analytics tools or influence rankers (Twitter's announcement). I would take “syndication” to include services like Twitterfeed and Paper.li that support irresponsible, anti-social behavior that largely serves to undermine real engagement. Services like these are best kept out of the hands of brands that wish to leverage Twitter in the first place. For brands that aspire to truly connect with their audiences and influencers, these tools serve no substantive purpose. Here’s why:

Twitterfeed and similar services disallow engagement. These RSS feed services push out robotic tweets with headlines that cannot be optimized for 140 characters. What’s worse, they often end in ellipses rendering the headline unreadable, sometimes even cutting off the link (?!). Although Twitterfeed allows the inclusion of a hashtag at the beginning of the RSS feed being pushed to Twitter, it's the exact same hashtag for every post. No thought can be given to what's most appropriate per story. Mentions/handles aren't included in these automated RSS feeds, so pinging Tweeps relevant to the story is an impossibility.

Twitterfeed doesn’t give credit where credit is due – to original authors. When Twitterfeed users plug in a handful of RSS feeds from influential blogs unbeknownst to the blogger (an unforgivable faux pas among Tweeps), they are spewing out others’ content, not curating content. I'm guessing that Twitterfeed users who do this do so because they lack their own original content for spreading to social channels. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with curation – but giving props to content creators should be done whenever possible.

Twitterfeed and Paper.li robotically push content that the user is unlikely to ever read. This is potentially harmful to brands that use these services. The brand could be aggregating, essentially endorsing, stories that are completely out of line with the company’s policies or mission statement. The brand could be Tweeting a story that expresses negative sentiment about the brand itself and it wouldn’t even know.

I admit I’d be uber thrilled to see services like Twitterfeed, and even Paper.li die after Twitter’s API changes. Until then, B2B maketers: carefully consider how you implement automation tools and aggregators. It may leave your audiences frustrated, or worse, racing to ‘unfollow.’

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Twitter’s Antisocial API Crackdown: A #Fail for Social Biz?

This week saw the escalating number of blog posts and angry tweets (#occupytwitter) criticizing Twitter’s decision to severely narrow the gates of its API v1.1. Twitter’s API access changes were announced on the social network’s Developers Blog on August 16. The rather ambiguous statement, although widely expected, infuriated some and baffled many. Major tweaks to the API most directly restricted third party developers and software companies from building traditional Twitter clients and syndication tools, but the residual effects will impact thousands of brands and individual users who have come to depend on – even love – their Twitter client of choice. As Forrester Research stated last week, “Twitter’s API changes today should worry any social marketers who use tools and technologies that interact with Twitter.”

#OccupyTwitter Stream Expresses Community Sentiments

@Jack's Twitterverse Realized: For the Tweeple, by the Tweeple

Third party apps have been around almost since the get-go, and have significantly enhanced the Twitter ecosystem as a whole.  True, some apps have had a negative impact, such as those created to help users game the system with inorganic methods aimed at increasing followers, or Twitter clients that robotically spew the RSS feeds of others – often unreadable streams ending in linkless ellipses. Both instances are entirely antisocial and only serve to undermine Twitter’s core value as a conduit of real- time conversation.

But the good outweighed the bad. Countless third party innovations have been developed to help tweeps connect. These apps have, without question, strongly aided Twitter in becoming the unique, invaluable channel that exists today. From practical to just plain fun, hundreds of tools like Hootsuite, Hashtags.org, TwitPic, TweetChat and TwitterVision colored the Twitter experience for the better. But now developers feel reluctance to build for a platform that can all too easily shut them down. Tumblr and Instagram are two star examples of notable apps feeling the pinch – both have just recently had their friend-finding tools revoked, yet both are responsible for driving an immense number of tweets – something one would think Twitter would be grateful for.  As Ben Brooks has noted in his blog, The Brooks Review, “Twitter was built as a community with users trying to improve the service the best they could for everyone’s benefit – and that is now gone.”

Tweeting to a Different Tune

The Twitter “experience” is exactly what the network claims prompted its recent API barriers – specifically, concerns with providing a consistent experience. That many popular third party apps not only enrich the Twitter community, but also simultaneously compete with Twitter, may be at the heart of Twitter’s real issue.  Twitter has always been a step behind its user community and the devs that build for them, which has hurt Twitter’s revenues and its image at the same time. And as CNN Money said, “Twitter has been known to either downplay third-party apps or acquire them.” It’s no surprise, for example, that third party dashboard Hootsuite is preferred over Twitter’s Tweetdeck. Twitter just acquired Tweetdeck back in May of 2011, but as popular as the Adobe platform may be, it has always been seen as the dashboard stuck playing catch-up to Hootsuite, from evolving past its clunky downloads to scheduling posts.  And when it comes to mobile, compared to apps like Tweetcaster, Tweetbot and UberSocial (which Twitter suspended for dubious-seeming policy violations), Twitter’s app underperforms in areas like notification timing, photo editing and interface design. Attaching a video via smartphone? Twitter’s mobile app doesn’t even support this feature. And Quote Tweet? Who retweets this way? Surely not tweeps.

So where does this leave digital marketers who are looking forward to a future where business is social, collaborative and human? Discouraged and fumbling towards altruistic, paid communities like App.net? On the brand level, probably not for quite a while, and that’s if App.net will ever reach critical mass. For the time being, experts advise brands to look forward to developers shifting their focus to the other social networks on the block.

A Few of Twitter's API Changes Worth Noting:

Number of third party app users, aka “user tokens,” are capped at 100K to 200K depending. Are you a community manager who uses Hootsuite? You’re one of those tokens my friend.

Tweets cannot display among other social messaging. If this leaves you scratching your head, you’re not alone. Does this simply refer to platforms like Hootsuite that display Twitter streams alongside other social network streams? No one seems to know for sure. #TwitterAmbiguity

Twitter is encouraging the development of third party analytic services, influence rankers and social CRM services.

Twitter is discouraging the development of aggregators, syndicators and "traditional Twitter clients."

Want to dig deeper into this subject? These articles are highly recommended:

Twitter’s API Changes, The Brooks Review Twitter’s API Update Cuts Off Oxygen to Third-Party Clients, Mashable Interpreting some of Twitter’s API changes, Marco.org Twitter sets max user caps for 3rd party clients, tightens API rules to direct users to official apps, TNW

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Altimeter Reports on Converged Media: Place your Bets on Trifecta to Win this Digital Race

2012 has been called the year when convergence finally migrated from being a mere buzz term to reality. Single devices, such as televisions, mobile devices and gaming systems, have successfully incorporated multiple, formerly separate, technologies. Similarly, media is now witnessing its own true convergence: the convergence of content. Previously distinct forms of media – known as paid, earned and owned – are now fusing into one another to produce variant hybrids.

Remember the popular Brandsphere infographic by Brian Solis and Jess3?

Paid advertising, such as television commercials, frequently incorporates social conversation into its programming, or is re-housed on a brand’s owned channel, such as YouTube, for prolonged shelf life. Owned media, such as a brand’s blog post, is now fed through social networks, often generating earned, shared media in the form of engagement. This intertwining of paid, owned and earned (POE) media is now manifesting through endless permutations.

Brands, pull yourselves together!

The convergence of POE may have been a natural, and perhaps unavoidable, progression brought on by digital, but marketers are now challenged to swiftly harness the disruption this convergence has caused to their segmented workflow. Marketers that fail to take convergence into their own hands risk delivering inconsistent, poorly measured brand messaging to a growing number of empowered connected consumers. Trust me, no brand wants that.

Altimeter Group, an analyst firm specializing in disruptive technologies, published The Converged Media Imperative, its new report that takes an in-depth look into combined POE. The free research report – written by acclaimed social analyst Jeremiah Owyang and media analyst, SEO and content marketing expert Rebecca Lieb – helps brands, agencies and software vendors tackle the complications this convergence is causing in order to form a proactive converged media strategy. According to Altimeter, brands must leverage a well-rounded, interconnected POE “trifecta” in order to keep their branding strategy relevant. But to do so, Altimeter warns that “breaking down silos is essential,” both in terms of internal, departmental barriers and the external disconnect between brands and their agency and software partners.

Altimeter’s Converged Media Imperative report offers invaluable insight for planning your POE strategy:

  • Overview and forecast of converged media landscape

• Converged media strategy checklist for marketers

• Leading vendor comparisons

• Leveraging influencers throughout POE

• Converged media campaign case studies

But is there equality among these POE media types?

Although POE media formats are converging, they’re not necessarily becoming analogous, or even equal, anytime soon. It's true that when Altimeter asked which form of media had the greatest impact on business, marketers’ opinions were spread out evenly. However, from what I’ve observed, owned media in particular – at least for the time being – seems to stand ahead of the rest. Owned media has quickly emerged as the backbone of content. And for good reason. When traditional media dove sharply into decreased returns, the benefits of advertising and PR suffered a nosedive right along with it. Brands were quick to search for a viable solution. At first, marketers hastily adopted social media, touting it as the savior of brand awareness amid a growing economic crisis.

Luckily, brands are now realizing the dangers of treating social as an end in and of itself. But brands also admit that traditional PR and advertising have seen their heyday. Whether B2C or B2B, brands serving all spectrums of industries have now resolved to become publishers. They have become their own ad agencies and their own media outlets they once would have pitched. Today, brands are tasked with producing and distributing high quality, high volume content, including feature articles, sophisticated photo and graphic design campaigns and streaming programming.

Enter the content marketing blitz. Content marketing has been recognized as the strategy necessary for creating the diverse, sophisticated media that is initially hosted on owned channels. It delivers the very content that triggers earned, shared media, such as social conversations, and enhances and upholds a brand’s paid media by establishing the voice and prolonging its life. Without a strong strategy for owned media by way of content production, converged media strategy is left with just a couple of shaky legs to stand on.

Download and share Altimeter’s new report, and join Altimeter's conversation on Twitter using hashtag #POEmedia: