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Google Glass: The Future Is Now

Posted by Tom Edwards on April 17th, 2013 at 10:34 am

Wearable technology, specifically head mounted displays have been a part of science fiction canon for a very long time. Fans of the 80's anime series Dragon Ball were accustomed to seeing characters with their own version of "Google Glass" interfaces. This preexisting association can be both a positive and a negative when it comes to the potential mass adoption of Google Glass.

The explosion of fitness related wearable technology like the Fit Bit, Nike Fuel Band & the recently launched Jawbone fitness band have led to a rise in mass appeal for wearable tech. The trend has been if the wearable technology provides relevance & utility as a natural extension of our daily lives we are willing to put our time & dollars towards supporting this type of product. For Google Glass, the goal is to further integrate the real world into the Google ecosystem thus creating a natural extension into your daily life, even if you look a bit like Geordi La Forge from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Google Glass has been the subject of a lot of hype over the past few months. From influencers wearing them at SXSW to recent sightings throughout NYC. What started as a project... Read more

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Posted in Emerging Platforms | No Comments »

12 Examples of Vine in Action

Posted by Tom Edwards on March 18th, 2013 at 10:41 pm

By now you have most likely heard through the grapevine (last "vine" pun I promise) about Twitter's new Vine app and it's many pros & cons. Many call Vine the Instagram of video as it goes beyond static images by allowing for 6 seconds of context tied to pictures, motion & sound in the form of looping videos optimized to be shared.

Twitter launched Vine on January 24th, 2013 and it has not left the top 20 in the app store since launch. Vine's six second video loops are quick, lightweight pieces of content that are ideal for social sharing. Initially launched via a mobile app for iOS (Android app in development) this high-level version of an animated gif is quick & easy to capture. Just point your device, touch the screen and the app records up to 6 seconds allowing for starts & stops.
According to Tech Crunch, Vine (2.8% penetration) has taken an early lead over the likes of Viddy (0.5) & Socialcam (0.2). There is significant opportunity tied to short form video assets & social sharing as the same article referenced that 98% of overly active users shared photos whereas only 4% shared video.
With the recent changes... Read more

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Posted in Emerging Platforms, Social Media | No Comments »

Big Changes to Facebook's News Feed What Brands & Agencies Need to Know

Posted by Tom Edwards on March 7th, 2013 at 9:09 pm

Today Facebook held an event to announce the first major change to the Facebook News Feed in six years. The theme reinforced by the Facebook team was reduction of clutter by providing more choice and control over the content and stories users will see in their feeds.

"From the beginning, our goal with News Feed was different from any other social service was trying to provide... You should be able to share any content that you want. Status updates, links, photos, etc... You should be able to share with any audience that you want, publicly, with the world, with just friends, or privately" - Mark Zuckerberg

Here are feature highlights from today's announcement:
The newly designed newsfeed will start rolling out in limited rollouts today with a focus on a "mobile first" design.

The new design is heavily reliant on the ability to segment content by feed type allowing for more control:

All Friends will showcase everything your friends are sharing. This feed will highlight friend content and add a "facepile" type of overlay to the side of the story to show who has shared the content. Social connectivity is highlighted as the intersection of timeline & the newsfeed becomes more pervasive with the inclusion... Read more

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Posted in Opinions, Social Media | 1 Comment »

Evolution of the Newsfeed

Posted by Tom Edwards on February 13th, 2013 at 6:29 am

Recently I met with one of my local Facebook team members as we were partnering on a client initiative and our conversation sparked an interesting thought about the future of newsfeed publishing and how brands should be thinking about maximizing their publishing strategies as Facebook's platform continues to evolve.
I have recently written a number of posts on the subject of Facebook publishing from the intersection of Paid & Owned, the importance of visual storytelling and best practices for optimizing content. All of these topics are relevant to this conversation and further frame the importance of the following statement:
"Everything happens in the newsfeed vs brand pages"

This was an incredibly simple statement that all of us who publish on behalf of brands sometimes take for granted. The numbers definitely back up the statement with 115 billion impressions served daily via desktop and 65 billion newsfeed impressions served daily via mobile.
Think about your own behavior when it comes to interacting with brand related content on Facebook. How often are you clicking through to a brands page to consume their content? This divide is even better visualized when it comes to users mobile interactions?
Where do you consume brand messages on the desktop?

This becomes even... Read more

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Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

Facebook & Interactive Images

Posted by Tom Edwards on January 30th, 2013 at 9:45 am

I have been following Stipple for a while now and with today's big announcement tied to Facebook support launched the platform to the forefront of my mind to support social content & publishing strategies. What is Stipple? If you have not heard about the service, Stipple allows you to embed interactive hotspots into an image to create additional connections directly within the image. Today's announcement is key for those who manage owned properties as now Stipple supports direct publishing support via Facebook a feature that has been missing to date.
Now it is possible to add a data driven overlay to an image that can create connections directly from the newsfeed that allow users to take action. Whether it is to drive to a branded destination such as the brands Facebook brand page or .com, create a quick path to purchase opportunity by linking the image to an e-commerce based product, embed a link to videos that relate to the image, or create additional connections as outlined below.

Today's announcement is a huge addition for those of us who manage Facebook brand properties. Combine this with my recent discussions associated with visual storytelling to drive engagement and you can create a rich... Read more

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Posted in Emerging Platforms, Social Media, Websites | 1 Comment »

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