With 2016 fast approaching, it’s time to start thinking of your PR strategy for the coming year.
42 of the Coolest Wearables…So Far
As the entire digital world salivates over the Apple Watch, it is worth noting that there are a number of other fun, creative and useful wearables out there already on the market. The wearables market is one that took off in 2015 and is poised to explode in 2016 with Apple leading the charge.
Here is a quick rundown of some of the coolest wearable gadgets I’ve seen out there so far.
4 Ways to Use Siri for Better iPhone Experiences
Siri; it’s a name you’ve probably heard before, even if you’re not an iPhone user.
The digitized voice that almost seems to live in modern-day iPhones, Siri is designed for the purpose of helping smartphone users with various tasks. Do you want to know where the nearest Chinese food place is? Siri will be able to locate it. Are you hazy on the exact day Halloween falls on? Siri has you covered. To say the least, she’s a capable feature that Apple has been able to integrate into its devices. Unfortunately, those who aren’t tech-savvy may find themselves struggling to utilize her services.
Is a Facebook Phone in the Works?
Business Insider recently posted an article that went into detail about how a Facebook phone may be created with the help of Samsung. The story said that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg met with the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, Lee Jay-yong. While reports like these do not necessarily confirm that Samsung will help Facebook create a phone of its own, the reports in question certainly do not make this story any less legitimate. If anything, this particular story might indicate positive news for not only Facebook but a strong portion of its user base as well.
3 Questions to Ask Before Buying a Smartphone
You may be in the market to purchase a new smartphone. Whether it’s the idea of being up-to-date or the concept of running apps more effectively, you’d like a new device to call your own. Before you put forth this investment, though, here are a few questions to ask.
Just How Bad is Your Mobile Phone Addiction for Your Health? (Infographic)
For many of us, our mobile phones have become an indispensable part of our daily routines. Often, our phones are the first thing we look at when we wake up, the last thing we look at before we go to sleep and our top go-to for entertainment whenever there we encounter the briefest of downtime during the course of the day. They are the ideal device for entertainment and productivity on the run, and it is amazing just how much we rely on a device that most of us didn’t think we needed 15 years ago.
Try leaving your phone at home when you go out and see how you feel. More than likely, you’ll have some degree of anxiety from being separated from it. According to the infographic below, 73% of us would panic in such a scenario. In fact, the condition is so prevalent these days, that the fear of being away from your mobile phone actually has its own name now: Nomophobia.
5 Guidelines to Keep in Mind for Apple App Store Inclusion
If you are an app developer, you’re going to want to make sure that everyone knows about your program. The best way to do this is to hit the marketplace and see about getting your app hosted on various locations. Perhaps the most popular – and I am sure that any Internet marketing company can agree – is the App Store, operated by Apple. The many different apps on this particular marketplace are evidence of that.
However, as someone who has not only made an app but possesses the desire to get it onto a broad marketplace, you’re going to want to make sure that it goes through the approval system beforehand. In order for this to be done, here is a list of 5 guidelines you should be aware of.
7 Must-See Mobile Infographics for Marketers
SMS marketing is still a bit of a mystery to many businesses. But the truth is, it’s super valuable and more users are demanding to communicate with businesses by text by the day.
Want proof that SMS marketing works? Here are seven SMS marketing infographics that can show you better than I ever could.
How App Development Has Taken a Parental Turn
Many of us are guilty of relying on our smartphones for just about everything. Sometimes they are needed, such as for those instances when you are lost and require directions in order to get back on the road; a favorite feature of mine, to put it mildly, as a driver with a poor sense of direction. However, there are many times when smartphones have become borderline addictive, as if we could not live without them. Since parents may be understandably concerned about how much their children are using their mobile devices, a mother from Houston, Texas took action.
Evaluating Yo’s Long-Term Potential
There are certain apps which push you to ask the question, “What’s the point?”
For many, this has been the case for a particular app called Yo. It’s not hard to see why, since it was originally declined from the App Store on Apple devices because of how it seemed to lack substance. In addition, it became a program that many people either criticized or made fun of; Stephen Colbert is an example of Yo being made light of.
No one can deny that Yo, in and of itself, is a very simple program. It’s functionality is as basic as messaging programs can get: all you can do is send the word, “Yo,” to friends on your mobile device. Life Before Us, the company behind Yo, stated that it could be used in order to address individuals in many situations. With App Store descriptions like, “It’s that simple. Yo,” it’s clear that the program doesn’t take itself too seriously. With only word that can be used, though, it’s apparent that many individuals have simply written off the app as nothing but a waste of space.
Is it possible that there is more potential to be had with Yo than what it’s been given credit for?
How To: Take the Perfect Selfie (Infographic)
Whether we like it or not selfies are still here and just as popular as ever. The media buzz about them may have been ratcheted down a notch or two, but people are still shaping pics of themselves and sharing their best shots with the world at a good clip.
While I don’t condone or encourage selfie-snapping, if you must do it, you might as well do it right. Our friends at Adorama and Nowsourcing recently released this fun infographic that lays out the basics of taking the perfect selfie.
4 Benefits of Podcasts as Media Platforms
As of late, I’ve started to get more and more into podcasts. Even though they have been around for quite a few years, it wasn’t until recently that I started to truly understand why so many people have invested time in them. For those who don’t know what podcasts entail, think talk shows that are focused on particular interests. What this means is that if you go online and perform a search, you can find shows focused on anything from sports to social media.
With such a tremendous amount of popularity attached to podcasts, it’s obvious as to why many an Internet marketing company supports podcasts as their own separate media platforms. While social media is a great way to raise awareness, methods focused on audio shouldn’t be ignored, either. However, for those who aren’t entirely sold on the matter, here are 4 of the greatest benefits to be attained from starting a podcast of your own.
3 Talking Points on the “Kim Kardashian Hollywood” App
Never would I have thought I’d say, “Kim Kardashian’s app is closing in on $200 million.”
It’s hard to say what helps to make a mobile app popular. Whether it’s through platforms associated with Apple, Google or what have you, it’s apparent that certain programs are able to attain success easier than others. It’s what separates the “Angry Birds” of the world from the latest uninspired match-three puzzle games. What is it that helped to propel “Kim Kardashian: Hollywood” to the top of the charts of iTunes? Why has it reached similar success on the Google Play store?
In order to better understand why “Kim Kardashian Hollywood” has made its way into several social existences, and gain the attention of many an Internet marketing company, a few talking points should be considered.
Building Bridges: Why Cross-Platform Optimization is Essential for Brand Success
Understanding how consumers interact with their chosen brands across the many platforms available to them today is fundamental to effective marketing and customer service. Cross-platform optimization essentially refers to harnessing this behavioural information to provide a unified brand experience over all digital channels, whether that’s web, mobile or social media.
In recent years, consumer technology has undergone some drastic advances. Whilst an initial technical revolution took place around the emergence of the internet itself, a second has been triggered by the recent progression in mobile technology. Christopher North, managing director of Amazon UK, commented, “I have never seen anything happen as fast as mobile.”
And as the devices we use change all the time to become more varied and sophisticated, so too does the way that we choose to interact with them.
Geeks On-The-Go: Wearables And Security Risks
Do you remember the movie Universal Soldier from 1992? In that movie, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren star specially designed soldiers from the future who are perfect for military operations and have no emotions whatsoever. What turned out to be a predicting trivia twenty years ahead of its time were the glasses that the universal soldiers wore on their heads. In the movie, their purpose was to receive orders from the base and scan the area and enemies.
Another similar movie example, but only more sophisticated, since it was hidden in the eye of the machine, is that of Terminator. These machines had the environment observing programme inside their eyeballs.
If in the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s these technological features were a mere science-fiction plot, the 2000s saw a different side of it. Today, we have numerous on-the-go gadgets that can be attached to humans body and perform computer-like operations. Although this sounds terrific and potentially life-altering, there is another point of view, according to which these new devices pose a great threat to our intimacy and privacy.
7 Ways to Ensure Your Mobile App is Downloaded
With apps flooding Google Play and Apple App Store, it turns challenging for apps to get visibility and downloads. You need to constantly look at several aspects to keep the app updated, appealing and worthy.
How Mobile Technology is Revolutionizing Travel Buying Behavior
The rise of mobile technology has made way for a more connected consumer and revolutionised the concept of shopping.
Exceptional mobile devices coupled with super-fast connectivity means that we can now browse and complete tasks anywhere, faster and more efficiently than ever before. And this is no different for the air travel industry. In fact, according to SITA’s annual IT Trends Survey, 70% of airline executives believe that mobile apps will be an equally dominant sales channel as more traditional methods by 2015.
For airline executives to get the most of this rapidly emerging technology, they must first understand about how buying behaviour can be influenced by it.
DMR Directory of Social Networks, Apps and Digital Services
This Directory of Social Networks, Apps and Digital Services is a helpful listing of social networks, apps, games, ecommerce and services that I come across along with helpful info and stats for each.
3 Ways the iPhone 6 Can Be Better
When discussing tech, in general, it’s easy to assume that the iPhone will be brought to the forefront. It is arguably the most notable smartphone in the world and its various features help to make it more akin to a handheld computer than a simple communications device. With this in mind, it’s likely that many people are going to clamor for the iPhone 6. Fortunately, for Apple enthusiasts, its release date may be sooner than most would think.
Extending the Life of Your Experiential Marketing Execution
Recently, I was at an event where I was totally pumped to see an experiential piece I’d only read about before – the “Hug Me” Coke machine. It’s pretty simple – you walk up and hug the Coke machine, and immediately it starts to click and whir. Seconds later, a Coke comes out. It’s perfect. As a colleague of mine put it, “I don’t like to hug, but that really just felt good.”
That visceral feeling is what Coke was looking for – associating their brand with a positive feeling.
3 Talking Points on SnapChat’s New Chat Feature
Well, it seems like Snapchat is no longer about sending temporary photos and videos to friends anymore.
Recently, Snapchat incorporated a new tool simply called “Chat” and it does exactly what the namesake lives up to. With Chat, Snapchat users can have text-based conversations with friends and even share live video feeds with the flip of a proverbial switch. Chat is an interesting addition that – more than anything else – adds another layer to an app that many smartphone users get lost in.
How Do You Use Your Mobile Devices? (Infographic)
How do you use your mobile device? Chances are, you have at least one phone or tablet playing a very prominent role in your life. For some of us, our mobile device is the first thing we look at in the morning and the last thing we glance at before bed. I even use mine as my alarm clock.
How Mobile Apps are Changing the Way We Communicate
The way we live and socially interact is now directed through a myriad of mobile applications that permits us connect and share astonishing amounts of info more rapidly and easily than ever. Social apps like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, Snapchat, etc have changed everything.
Tips to Engage Your Target Audience with Mobile Marketing
Mobile relationships are indeed de rigueur these days! Every business organization has to have a mobile marketing strategy in place in order to engage its target audience in an effective manner. Here are a few tips that will make you an interesting and relevant experience for your target audience.
The Benefits of SMS Marketing (Infographic)
Email and print can cover visual messages, however, they are not so good for impulsive, quick communication. SMS marketing can fill that gap, providing timely and direct information for customers, with a simple call to action.
WhatsApp Voice & the App’s Future
WhatsApp announced the incorporation of voice calls today. It’s been said that this service will make its way to WhatsApp during the second quarter of 2014, which should be intriguing for those that have commonly utilized this app.
How Addicted to Mobile Devices Are We? (Infographic)
Here is an infographic that offers up a few mobile statistics that you probably didn’t know. It is interesting to see just how addicted we are to these devices and how marketers are making the most of this opportunity.
Guest Post: How to Determine if Your Business Should Have a Mobile App
Here are a few things to consider when deciding whether your business needs a mobile app or not.
Guest Post: 2014 Predictions on Digital Marketing Trends
It’s that time of year again where when clients and fellow marketers alike want to know what’s going to be big and important in digital marketing in the New Year. Although it’s difficult to know for sure without the benefit of a crystal ball, the trends of 2013 are certainly telling where the future is concerned.
32 Great Mobile Apps to Help You Keep Your New Year Resolutions
There is nothing wrong with trying to keep a New Year resolution going for as long as possible and there are a number of mobile apps that will make your efforts a bit easier.
Guest Post: 5 Key Metrics for Mobile SMS Marketing (Infographic)
Much like any other marketing tool, however, we need to measure our results with SMS. This infographic outlines five key metrics for SMS marketing.
Guest Post: 2 Recommended Elements for a Successful Mobile Marketing Strategy
Mobile marketing has become one of the most powerful marketing strategies available today. If implemented correctly, the return on a mobile marketing campaign can be outstanding.
Guest Post: Accepting Mobile Payments for a Streamlined Buying Process
The internet played a big part in creating a more seamless purchasing process, however, mobile takes that a step further.
77 Mobile Marketing Stats You Need to Know (September 2013)
Guest Post: Why Your Website Should Be Mobile Friendly
Billions of people use smart phones and the number is on a staggering rise. This is one of the biggest reasons to outreach a bigger audience.
Guest Post: Mobile Marketing in Emerging Markets
In emerging markets, options for mobile marketing are cut out due to a lack of 3G connectivity. We need to be aware of this when planning mobile campaigns.
Guest Post: 5 Reasons to Use Bulk SMS in Your Marketing Campaigns
It’s very tempting to go all out with your mobile marketing, focusing on the latest technology available, creating stylish, impressive and cutting-edge marketing campaigns, but let’s not forget about SMS.
Guest Post: Why Online Integration Is The Future Of Retail
Rather than admit defeat though, retailers need to embrace the madness. They have to renew their marketing strategy to reflect the changing way we shop. Firstly, physical stores need to be fully integrated with websites and social media.
Guest Post: Mobile Marketing Options to Reach Consumers On-the-Go
These mobile marketing options can help you reach tech-savvy consumers on-the-go, whether they’re in your neighborhood or across the globe.
The Importance of Developing a Mobile Marketing Strategy in 2013
Small businesses are making increasing efforts to release more mobile marketing offerings for their clients; and this has turned out to be one of the most important marketing strategies for 2013. If your small business doesn’t go mobile in 2013, it will be way behind its competition. Start taking actions today and develop your mobile marketing strategy for 2013!
How Many of Us Consume Media on Multiple Screens? (Infographic)
It appears that multi-device media consumption is becoming more and more mainstream these days. Here is an interesting infographic that contains some staggering multi-screen adoption numbers.
How Many People Play Angry Birds? (Infographic)
Just how popular is Angry Birds and does the 3 year old franchise still have momentum on its side? According to this recent infographic from Angry Birds developer Rovio, it seems to be chugging along quite nicely.
How Much Time Do We Waste While at Work? (Infographic)
Here is an interesting infographic that breaks down just how much time is spent on non-work activity and what it is that is distracting us.
How Obsessed are We With Social Media and Mobile Devices? (Infographic)
According to this interesting infographic , social media and mobile devices have become a way of life for many of us. Status updates, emails, tweets and texts have all become about as natural as speaking (for some, more natural).
What is Digital Marketing? (Infographic)
The reality is that digital marketing encompasses a bunch of “stuff.” Where the field once dealt primarily with marketing that shows up on a computer monitor (websites, some SEO and email), we now need to worry about a bunch of different screens to send our message to…
Smartphones Through the Years (Infographic)
Clearly smartphones really took off with the launch of the iPhone, but HTC reminds us in this fun infographic that our pocket-friendly computers have been around much longer than Apple’s game-changing device.
How To: Translate an Instagram Username to a Twitter @mention
Instagram announced today that they have added a pretty useful feature. Now, when you @mention an Instagram user in a photo caption and the user has a different connected Twitter username, the Twitter name is used when the photo is tweeted out.
What is Augmented Reality? (Infographic)
Here is an interesting infographic that gives us a little of the past, present and future of augmented reality.
How To: Use Check-In Apps to Attract Customers (Infographic)
The usage numbers for these “check-in” app are certainly trending upward and businesses of all sizes are now trying to figure out how to work them into their marketing and sales plans.
How Do Consumers Use Social and Mobile to Make Shopping Decisions? (Infographic)
Here is an interesting infographic from consumer survey company Empathica. It explores how social media and mobile are used by consumers in shopping decisions.
Augmented Reality Finds its Way to Sesame Street
The app uses Sesame Street toys and a special playmat as AR markers and when they are hovered over with a device running the app, Bert and Ernie come to life and offer educational lessons.
LEGO Movie Maker App Brings Your Paysets to Life
Uber digitally savvy toy maker LEGO recently released a pretty cool iOS app.
The LEGO Super Hero Movie Maker app lets kids create stop-motion movies of they playsets and then post them to YouTube.
A Handy Instagram Android App Video Tutorial
With so many new Instagram Android users (1 million downloads in first 24 hours), I thought it would be good to share a “How To” video.
Augmented Reality: Bringing 3D Virtual Reality to Real World Marketing Campaigns
Over the past year, augmented reality has penetrated the mainstream marketing world- and in a big way. From online commerce to product packaging, augmented reality is being used to give the consumer a very unique and personal experience.
Here is a rundown of how some brands are using augmented reality in more traditional advertising campaigns..
Google Click-to-Call Mobile Advertising: The Modern-day Yellow Pages Advertising
Google, the undisputed king of search advertising, has a mobile advertising option, click-to-call, that should be a no-brainer for small-to-medium-sized businesses, but unfortunately many are unaware that this option even exists.
Marvel Brings Augmented Reality to Comic Books (video)
Marvel Comics announced this week that they will be including augmented reality markers in their comic books in the future to give additional, 3D content to readers.
LEGO Uses In-Store Augmented Reality to Show Off Star Wars Products
Here is the plan in action. Using augmented reality, this LEGO store in Ströget, Copenhagen, Denmark shows off your LEGO Star Wars product in animated 3D when you hold the box up to the kiosk.
Hasbro’s New Augmented Reality Lazer Tag Game
Hasbro has reinvented their Lazer Tag product and it the new and improved version is really, really cool.
5 Areas of Consideration in Creating a Mobile Email Marketing Campaign
The email marketing world isn’t what it used to be. With the explosion of smartphone usage, emails reach their recipients 24 hours a day. This presents digital marketers with great opportunity – providing, of course, mobile email is designed and sent correctly.
What is Second Screen Marketing and Why Should Brands Care About It?
The marriage of television and web is becoming closer and more integrated by the day. Second screen marketing is an excellent tool for anyone, network or brand, that wants to extend the life of their production and get a bit more bang for their investment. By bringing your viewers online, you open up all kinds of new avenues on which you can market to the viewer well after the event, show, video or ad is over.
If You Don’t Have a Mobile Web Strategy by Now, Your Business is Falling Behind
Mobile web has been around for quite some time now, but with the continued growth of Smartphone and tablet ownership, it saw a real explosion of popularity in 2011. We are now at a point where more Smartphones than PCs are purchased in the U.S. and mobile data traffic in 2011 was eight times greater than in 2010; not to mention that 63 million units of the mobile newcomer, the tablet, were shipped in 2011.
LEGO Uses Augmented Reality to Show Products in 3D [VIDEO]
LEGO has always been a leader among the major toy companies in using technology in their digital marketing efforts. Their most recent digital campaign is no different.
Calorie Counter: A Great App to Help You Eat Right and Lose Weight
For a majority of my life, I have been a workout freak, finding time to workout just about everyday. What I ate was never a concern of mine because, it would only be burned off as fast as it was consumed….
Now, not so much.
With a 4 month old and a 20-hour-a-day job, finding time to hit the gym has become more and more difficult. In an effort to control things as much as possible, I have turned to eating better. I’ve tried a number of apps to help me with this healthy eating initiative and finally found one that is awesome.
Calorie Counter, by Fat Secret, is a calorie tracker, exercise tracker and weight-loss coach.
Awesome Potential Uses of Augmented Reality in the Future [VIDEO]
I just stumbled on this awesome video by augmented reality developers, Hidden Creative, that shows us some of the potential uses of AR in the not-so-distant future.
Some of this stuff seems like they are straight out of a sci-fi movie, but if you think about what we currently have for technology, most of it isn’t very far off.
A Good List of Resolution-Keeping Apps
Earlier today, I posted about a Facebook app that help you make a New Years NON-resolution. I thought it important to focus a little on the more traditional practice of resolution-setting.
The App to End Drunken Social Networking?
Well, probably not, but it may save you an embarrassing online moment or two tonight.
The Holiday Party Sobriety Test app (from the makers of the Firefox plug-in social sobriety test), runs the user through a series of motor skill tests and then warns you if you are too drunk to be using social media.
Major Brands Embracing Augmented Reality in a Big Way
Over the past few months, augmented reality has penetrated the mainstream marketing world- and in a big way. From event marketing to product packaging, augmented reality is being used to give the consumer a very unique and personal experience.
Black Friday Digital Roundup- the Apps, the Deals, the Fun
I have been sifting through the thousands of recent articles on Black Friday digital tools to bring you the most useful ones in your quest for that perfect gift….
foursquare Check-Ins Enhanced on Twitter.com
If you are a loyal foursquare user, as I am, you may have seen something new on twitter.com.
New App Prevents You From Drinking and Texting
A few months ago, I told you about a Firefox plug-in that prevented you from drinking and Tweeting/Facebooking.
A new app now takes this type of morning-after embarrassment protection to another level by preventing drinking and texting.
The Onion Releases Fake News App
In what surely was no coincidence, The Onion, the very popular news parody site, released their official iPhone/iPad app on April Fools Day. The new app allows you to read the fake news reports and videos that you have come to know and love without leaving the app. There is also some handy share features […]
New App Helps You Find a Parking Spot
Now there is an app that tells you where the nearest parking garage is, its hours of operation, where its entrances are and how much it costs to park there. Parking in Motion operates on user-generated parking info, much along the lines of Gas Buddy, the app I told you about earlier that tells you […]
Mobile App Tells You Where the Cheapest Gas Near You Is
With gas prices skyrocketing these days, we all want to find the best deal to salvage what we can of our budget. So what do you do? Waste gas to try to find a cheaper station?
Mobile App Helps You Find Girl Scout Cookies
Ok, so for the 5 of you out there that haven’t already been hit up by a relative or co-worker to buy cases of the highly-nutritional Samoas or Tagalongs, fear not, you can still get your fix and your phone will help you. The Kellogg Company and the Girl Scouts have launched a mobile app […]
How To: Sync Internet Browsers On Your Android Phone and Desktop
Mozilla recently launched the beta version of their Firefox 4.0 browser which includes a number of new features and add-ons. One cool feature of the new version of the popular Internet browser is the sync option. Coupled with the new mobile Firefox browser (currently only available for Android and select Nokia models), the sync option […]