I doubt I was alone when I scoffed at the idea that Facebook's chat program would replace AOL's AIM as the king of online instant messaging, and almost everyone I know has agreed with me.
I thought it would be the same with email. I have my inbox, I check it constantly, and if you want to reach me, send the information there, not through a Facebook, MySpace or Twitter. Lately though, I'm noticing that some members of my generation aren't thinking the same way. Sean O'Neill recently posted about how 18- to 34-year-olds are more likely to make purchases based on ads they see in emails, as opposed to those they see on social networks. I couldn't agree more, but what's shocking to me is the number of my peers who are using social networks, specifically Facebook messages, to directly communicate.
A friend and I recently demanded a moratorium on Facebook messaging as a means of coordinating weekends plans because we were tired of receiving an email everytime someone responded to a thread. I've since turned those emails off, and our planning has switched to regular ol' email and, god forbid, telephone calls. But what amazed me was when five other friends from out of town... Read more
Archive for October, 2008
Will we let social networks replace email?
Tracking Mobile Users with Customized Regular Expressions in Google Analytics
Are you tracking mobile users to your website? If so, how do you know your data is accurate, and what should you be looking for?
Tracking mobile visitors with typical JavaScript based analytics is not an easy task for several reasons, and often involves a unique configuration. I’m going to share one of my secrets for doing so with Google Analytics. This method, which utilizes regular expressions, can be leveraged in any analytics solution that allows for custom filters.
The first problem with mobile analytics is that not all smart phones execute JavaScript (required by most web based analytics such as Google Analytics). While this problem is slowly going away as older phones are replaced by newer phones (phones that are about 2 years old or older might not execute JS, whereas new phones will), this must be taken into consideration when looking at absolute numbers of mobile visitors.
There are several ways to track mobile users with web analytics. The main analytics companies offer “default” tracking methods, such as simply identifying users by screen resolutions or browsers and operating systems.
However, these “out-of-the-box” methods involve some guesswork and leaps of faith. We found an easy way to deal with the problem... Read more
9 Questions for Carol Phillips, President of Brand Amplitude and Notre Dame Marketing Facultymember
Carol Phillips, President of Brand Amplitude, is one of the people I most admire in marketing. Her instincts for helping brands better define their audiences and craft powerful brands through insights-based research have helped countless brands win in their respective categories. She sees things in data and consumer feedback that other miss entirely. As we enter an era where marketing dollars may well be less abundant for a while, it's more important than ever that we unearth the facts and perceptions that will help our brands win. With that in mind, I asked Carol to give her thoughts on branding and segmentation in our dynamic digital marketing environment.
I have no business relationship with Brand Amplitude, nor does our company Catalyst:SF. I just love the things she says.
1. Can you tell us a little about your professional history?
Now that I am teaching college marketing, I realize how much of my career happened before time began. I started at Leo Burnett in the late 70's, before Millennials were even born.
So much has changed. What did we DO all day without a computer? (I am really not sure). I am very proud... Read more
How to grow your biz during this chaos, preamble.
I am writing a larger piece about the economy, Sequoia, the best thing about recessions etc.....I will post tomorrow. In the mean time Ben Reid posted a great article on Revenue Management that I think you will find very timely.. http://www.adotas.com/2008/10/revenue-management-how-publishers-can-weather-the-storm/
