Less than 72 hours ago, the Associated Press reported that doctors at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor used a 3D laser printer to create an airway splint that saved a baby boy who was having critical daily breathing problems.
The hospital used computer-guided lasers that stacked/fused plastic layers into more than a hundred tiny tubes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the hospital special permission to implant one of the tubes in the baby, who’s now doing just fine.
In addition to healthcare, 3D printing is fast making significant inroads in a wide variety of vertical markets.
“It’s the wave of the future,” said Dr. Robert Weatherly, a pediatric specialist at the University of Missouri in Kansas City.
Elizabeth Royte, writing in this month’s Smithsonian Magazine, reported that even the printing of organs – and cartilage and skin and tissue – “holds great promise for transforming healthcare and extending longevity. Transplanted organs from a patient’s own tissues won’t be rejected. Waiting times for kidneys and other donor organs will decrease, and organ traffickers could be put out of business.”
One of Royte’s sources, Anthony Atala, who heads up the... Read more
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3D Printing Poised to Be Next Business/Marketing Paradigm Shift
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Emerging Platforms, Opinions, Social Media, Targeting, Websites, Wireless, Word of Mouth | No Comments »
5 Buyer Behaviors Reshaping B2B Marketing
One thing we can count on is by the time you have finished reading this buying behavior may have been altered one again. Changes in buyer behaviors continue unabated. This is making it difficult for marketing and sales leaders to plan the right mix of strategies and tactics resulting in a winning formula.
5 Buyer Behaviors B2B Marketing Must Keep An Eye On
New buying behaviors means B2B marketers have to become more responsive today. Creating nimble organizations and improving knowledge in buyer understanding. Here are ways buyer behavior will continue to reshape marketing:
Buyers Embrace Collaboration
Social and digital technologies has allowed for progress in the area of collaboration. Meaning the sphere of influence and interaction not only has widened but increased. Old ideas about roles on buying teams are being shattered as we speak. The era of collaborative buyer networks has arrived. We now have to consider internal as well as external members of collaborative networks impacting decision-making.
Buyers Want Co-Creation
Collaborative networks are fostering a new environment for co-creating products, services, and for solving problems. This new development will put pressure on B2B organizations to get in line with flexible products and services which allow buyers to play an active role in co-creating. Buyers... Read more
Tags: b2b marketing, B2B Sales, Business-to-business, buyer persona, buyer personas, content marketing, content strategy, demand generation, lead generation, marketing, social marketing, social media marketing, Tony Zambito
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Email, Emerging Platforms, Opinions, Social Media, Targeting, Websites, Word of Mouth | No Comments »
1st Pinterest Partner Event Recap
I recently attended the first ever Pinterest Partner Marketing Summit in NYC. This invite only event unveiled their emphasis on developing a strong partner program and also served as an opportunity to introduce new staff to the Pinterest partner team, new resources for brands and agencies and best practices to maximize the platform.
There were five primary areas of focus for the event.
1) Why Pinterest
2) Pinterest Interest Graph
3) New product enhancements (Rich Pin & Mobile Pin It)
4) Analytics & Partner Tools
5) Partner case studies & Best Practices
WHY PINTEREST
Ben Silbermann, Pinterest Co-Founder & CEO started the day by telling the story of Pinterest. He discussed his love of collections when he was young… stamps, butterflies, baseball cards, etc… he saw an opportunity as there was not an elegant solution to organize collections online.
He had roots with Google and was enamored by how the search giant was able to so seamlessly focus on enabling search & retrieval across the web. If you know what you are looking for Google provides an ideal platform for search & retrieval.
He actually related Pinterest more to Google & search than to other social channels such as Facebook. With Pinterest people vs. bots are indexing the webs content... Read more
Tags: BlackFin360, Fanscape, Pinterest Partner Event, The Marketing Arm, TheBlackFin, Tom Edwards
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »
Do Blogger Outreach? 6 FTC Guidelines You Must Understand
The FTC released an update to their Endorsement Guidelines in March and while there have been a lot of open discussions about the FTC guidelines in the blogging community, there are far fewer within the marketing space. When the FTC has taken action it investigates brands and agencies, not bloggers. As a marketer this could not only cost you thousands in fines from the FTC, but would jeopardize your relationship with your client
This past weekend at BlogPaws (a social media conference for pet bloggers) an FTC rep was on hand to disseminate the information to publishers, but this information is extremely valuable to those of us in marketing who conduct blogger outreach.
Understanding FTC guidelines is essential to protecting your agency, your client and also the consumers who you are marketing to.
1. When does a blog post need to have a disclosure?
Whenever there is a material connection between the post’s author and the brand. If a blogger happens to purchase a product that they love and then write a post detailing the product’s virtues, there is no material connection between them and the brand.
A material connection is established when an agency or brand reaches out to a publisher and offers product, gift cards,... Read more
Tags: blogger outreach, FTC guidelines agencies, FTC guidelines bloggers, FTC guidelines brands, Social Media
Posted in Opinions, Social Media, Word of Mouth | 1 Comment »
Behavioral Storytelling: Social Media Content Strategy
The brand insight is where a lot of teams stop with social, handing writers and designers a gaping void within which to structure a social media presence.
What results often times is either: 1) shoving traditional campaign structures into social networks, or 2) a big bowl of tactics that are stand alone gimmicks, giving neither the creators or brand managers a fair way to evaluate whether integrated campaign tactics actually do integrate. And when they do integrate, how do you create consistency without droning sameness?
Tags: content marketing, content strategy, Facebook, Social Media, Strategy, twitter
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »
