Tag Archives: Fortune

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Sunday Brunch Reads with Social Media ReInvention: Week of 09/22/14

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Sunday Brunch Menu LARGE

Share-worthy links Social Media ReInvention Community Members can enjoy during Sunday brunch:

1) MarketingLand: Up Close: Ello, The New Social Network That Is So Hot Right Now. I read / curated many articles on Silicon Valley's latest social networking sweetheart. Martin Beck's comprehensive review is a must-read:

  • Martin highlights important, missing features in the launch release (e.g., like/favorite/+1 type button, search ability to locate friends, etc.).
  • I'm working on securing an invite so I can test-drive Ello. Will keep you posted.

2) Fast Company: LOVE POST-IT NOTES? YOU'LL LOVE THIS NEW PRODUCTIVITY APP THAT DIGITIZES THEM. 3-M developed this brilliant iPhone app, Post-it(R) Plus. 

I'm a visual person. Post-It(R) Notes are my storyboarding savior (colleagues say I have an illness and should seek professional help). 

  • The app allows users to digitize their Post-It(R) Notes from brainstorming and storyboarding sessions. There's a 50 note limit for the image capture.
  • You can share, rearrange, categorize, and build additional storyboards with the app. Users can export the digital session into other tools (e.g., Evernote, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.).
  • This first version doesn't allow changing the names on the Post-its(R) once they're digitized (but future iterations will probably include this improvement).
  • The app requires updating to iOS 8. Yes, I endured a 2+ hour update session for my iPhone 5c so I could use Post-it(R) Plus tomorrow at work (which is why I require professional help).

3) TechCrunch: Closing The Gaps In Mobile Health. Dan Pelino's piece describes the IBM-Apple value proposition and long term implications of the Apple econsystem in a real-world example. Look out healthcare this strategic alliance wants to disrupt your industry. Their solutions will focus on physicians and patients.

  • (direct article quote) Many doctors already have smartphones with 68 percent using iPhones and 59 percent using iPads.

 And, speaking of IBM …

4) Fortune: IBM CEO Ginni Rometty Gets Past the Big Blues. IBM's first female CEO shares her thoughts on the Apple alliance and her strategic vision for Big Blue's latest transformation:

  • Focus on Three (3) Core Areas: Big Data, Cloud Computing, and Engagement (mobile and social technologies
  • Stick to Ginni's Rules: Don't Protect The Past. Never Be Defined by Your Product. Always Transform Yourself.
  • Continue Reinventing IBM: See bullet points (1) and (2).

 

5) Budweiser: Global Be(er) Responsible Day | “Friends Are Waiting” Campaign. The #FriendsAreWaiting spot to discourage drunk driving is storytelling brilliance in 60 seconds or less (almost). This video hits all the right notes: emotional, memorable, conflict, and resolution. Somewhere, Pixar creatives are smiling.

 

 

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If yes, please share it with your friends and subscribe to my blog. Many Thanks!

 

Tony Faustino is a marketing and corporate strategist.  He thinks and writes about how The Internet reinvents marketing strategy in his personal blog, Social Media ReInvention. Follow his tweets @tonyfaustino or circle him on Google+. 

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Sunday Brunch Reads with Social Media ReInvention: Week of 09/15/14

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Sunday Brunch Menu LARGE

Share-worthy links Social Media ReInvention Community Members can enjoy during Sunday brunch:

1) Bloomberg Businessweek: Tim Cook Interview: The iPhone 6, the Apple Watch, and Remaking a Company's Culture. Brad Stone shows how Tim Cook transformed a post-Steve Jobs Apple:

  • Collaboration inside Apple among hardware, software, and services. Departments worked in their own silos and defended turfs in the Steve Jobs era. Apple Watch marks the first product launch where multiple departments and large teams worked together. The renegade teams who broke off from the rest of the company and operated in secrecy are history.
  • The turning point – firing Scott Forstall. Forstall led software development for the iPad and iPhone under Steve Jobs. Cook broadened responsibilities among his top leaders. Jony Ive (Apple's Head of Design) assumed leadership of the look/feel of Apple iOS while Craig Federighi (Senior VP for Software Engineering) took mobile operating systems. Stone notes: "It was a plan designed to break down walls and extinguish infighting, executed with precision."
  • Financial discipline. Stone writes: "In meetings once devoted to the hallowed act of reviewing products, he (Tim Cook) asks managers pointed questions about spending and hiring projections, says a person involved. Staff from finance and operations now sit alongside engineers and designers in product road map sessions with key component partners."
  • Collaboration with external partners to penetrate untapped markets (aka the enterprise / large corporations). Anecdotes from IBM CEO, Ginni Rometty, and Cook's rationale for their partnership are gold.

 

2) Fortune: Peter Thiel Disagrees With You. Roger Parloff (Senior Editor of Legal Affairs,  Fortune Magazine) interviews Silicon Valley's Peter Thiel.  Parloff's article describes the philosophies and relationships influencing Thiel's business decisions: 

 

 

3) Fast Company: The $3.2 Billion Man: Can Google's Newest Star Outsmart Apple? Austin Carr's profile of Tony Fadell (Founder and CEO of Nest) details Fadell's decision to join Google, his relationship with Steve Jobs (his former mentor), and Fadell's pursuit of perfection with Nest products. The article concludes with Fadell's comments on Larry Page as his "next mentor."

  

 
4) eMarketer: Millennials Respond to Brand Transparency—for Health and Other Products. Erin Byrne (Chief Engagement Officer, Grey Healthcare Group) shares her thoughts on how pharmaceutical manufacturers and healthcare companies can earn the trust of millennials:

  • Give them information to make their own decisions. They trust their own research via an information journey. "You can't scare them into behavior."
  • Recongnize millennials are a "multi-screen generation." They consume information via their smartphones, tablets, laptops, and print magazines. Make sure your content "syncs up."
  • Be honest and transparent. Millennials trust social sources. Channel-optimize your message and explain the brand/service benefits. 


5) The Paley Center for Media: Jerry Seinfeld and David Letterman (Full Program). Mitch Joel published a blog post about the link between Seinfeld's ideas for Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and creating differentiating content:

  • Season One is ten (10) individual garage experiments. Seinfeld wanted to test his theories on attracting online audiences for a new show (e.g., movement of the guests, movement of the cars, etc.). He guessed on what might work (or might not). He wanted to learn from the experience.
  • The original episodes weren't written or optimized for smartphone viewing. Seinfeld produced the show for desktop viewing. Analytics proved people watched the show at work on their laptops/desktops via time of day viewing.
  • He pitched the show to Facebook, YouTube, and other Silicon Valley royalty. They passed. 
  • Four (4) people create, produce, and edit the show (Seinfeld included). Production costs are $100,000 per episode. The Internet allows Seinfeld creative freedom a cable network won't provide. That's why he enjoys doing the work.

 

 

Did you enjoy this post? If yes, please share it with your friends and subscribe to my blog. Many Thanks!

Tony Faustino is a marketing and corporate strategist.  He writes about how The Internet reinvents marketing strategy for organizations and individuals in his marketing strategy blog, Social Media ReInvention.  Follow his tweets @tonyfaustino or circle him on Google+. 

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Content Curation #6: Three Articles I Bookmarked in Evernote This Week

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Number 3

 

The Premise / Goal / Timing of This Weekly Feature

Premise.  If you like the content in this blog, maybe you'll also like the content I regularly read, study, and curate from the Web.

Goal.  On a weekly basis, I'm going to publish links to three (3) articles I find interesting.  I'll include a brief explanation why I decided to curate them.  

Timing.  I'll publish this content every Saturday.

 

The Three Articles I Bookmarked in Evernote 


1. Personal Cloud to Replace PC by 2014, Says Gartner (Wired).  In contrast to last week's curated content describing my skepticism that the concept of the PC is dead,  I do agree with Gartner's proposed personal computing model.  The article describes the personal cloud as "the hub" and the connected devices as "the spokes" (i.e., laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc.).

The article describes the trend to move manage, share, and secure more applications / conten within the cloud.

Five (5) Megatrends are driving this phenomenon:

  1. Consumerization — You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet
  2. Visualization — Changing How the Game is Played
  3. "App-ification" — Changing from Appications to Apps
  4. The Ever-Available Self-Service Cloud
  5. The Mobility Shift — Wherever and Whenever You Want


2. For Young Workers, the Future is Here Already (Fortune).  Today's young workers, "the digital natives," are driving the aforementioned consumerization megatrend.  This younger demographic communicates with multiple devices.  They're entering the workforce in droves so enterprises must deal with this demographic's communication needs to maximize their productivity.  

This development is driving the phenemomenon of "unified communications" (direct quote from the article):

"One area which enterprises have begun exploring in recent years is the concept of unified communications – the process of turning multiple channels of communication into a single, seamless conversation. Unified communications uses the concept of presence to help assess which way is best for one user to reach another. It then translates messages and directs them to whichever device the end user is most likely to be using at that time."

3. How Higher Education Helps the Economy (OnlineUniversities.com).  It's that time of year when high school seniors receive the results of the university application process (e.g., acceptance / rejection / wait listed).  Here's a cool infographic from the Staff Writers at OnlineUniversities.com on the ROI value proposition of a college education:

How Higher Education Helps the Economy
Via: Online Universities Resource 


Your Feedback Please!

I'd like to experiment with this type of post for the next two to three months.  Let me know what you think (especially if this idea sucks):

  • How can I improve the value of these weekly posts?
  • Is my initial timing choice for publication okay with you (e.g., middle of the week versus the end of it)?  If not, please tell me.
  • What content are you reading?  Please share your links with our community in the comments section!

 

Link to Photo Credit by Andreas Cappell via flickr

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29 Statistics From Fortune Magazine’s Facebook Versus Google Article

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Number 29

Miguel Helft and Jessi Hempel wrote a great Fortune Magazine article, Facebook Vs. Google: The Battle for the Future of the Web, in the November 2011 issue. It's an insightful article filled with many interesting facts / statistics describing each company's operations, financials, online performance, and rivalry:


Facebook Statistics 


1. 3,000 Employees.  Facebook's estimated number of employees in 2011.

2. $4.3 Billion.  Facebook's projected 2011 revenues.

3. 800 Million Users.  Facebook has 800 million users / members.

4. 81% Revenue Increase.  Facebook's display advertising revenue is expected to grow by 81% in 2011.

5. 50% Increase in 2011 Overall Revenue.  Facebook's overall revenue is smaller than Google's.  But, Facebook's overall 2011 revenue is expected to grow by 50%+ (compared to 2010's $2 billion overall revenue).

6. 30% of App Revenues.  Facebook takes 30% of the reveunes app developers (i.e., companies like Zynga) make on its online platform.

7. $80 Billion IPO Valuation.  Facebook is expected to top an $80 billion valuation at its much anticipated initial public offering (IPO).

8. 155 Million Monthly Unique Visitors.  Facebook's estimated number of U.S. monthly unique visitors.

9. 400+ Average Monthly Minutes.  Comscore says Facebook visitors spend an estimated 400+ average minutes on Facebook.com.

10. 27 Years Old.  The age of Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO.

11.  60 Days.  Mark Zuckerberg called on Facebook engineers to work nights and weekends for 60 days when word leaked in summer 2010 Google was developing a "Facebook Killer." 

12. Four (4) Facebook Executives.  Four (4) of Facebook's to 11 executives are ex-Google employees.


Google Statistics 


13. 31,353 Employees.  Google's estimated number of employees in 2011.

14. 2,600 Employees.  In third quarter 2011, Google added nearly 2,600 employees.  That's just 400 employees short of Facebook's entire workforce.

15. $38 Billion.  Google's projected 2011 revenues.

16. 41% of $31 Billion (or $12.7 Billion).  Google currently captures 41% of the $31 billion U.S. online advertising market.

17. 34% Revenue increase.  Google's display advertising revenue is expected to grow by 34% in 2011.

18. 30% Increase in 2011 Overall Revenue.  Google's 2011 overall revenue growth is predicted as 30% on $38 billion in forecasted overall revenue.

19. 180 Million Monthly Unique Visitors.  Google's estimated number of U.S. monthly unique visitors.

20. 250+ Average Monthly Minutes.  Comscore says Google visitors spend an estimated 250+ average minutes on Google's sites (e.g., Google.com, YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps, and other properties).

21. 40 Million Users.  As of the publication of this article, 40 million people signed up for Google+.

22. 4 Months.  Google+ acquired 40 million users during its current 4-month launch period.

23. 100 Features. Google has introduced 100+ new features since Google+'s June 2011 launch.

24. 598,000 Google+ Followers.  As of this article's publication, Mark Zuckerberg has 598,000 followers on Google+.  

25. Four (4) Previous Attempts.  Google made four (4) previous attempts to launch and establish a successful social network before succeeding with Google+ in June 2011.

  • Orkut (2004)
  • Open Social (2007)
  • Google Wave (2009)
  • Google Buzz (2010)

26.  5% of App Revenues.  Google takes 5% of the revenues app developers make on its online platform.

27. 38 Years Old.  The age of Larry Page, Google's CEO.

28. $10 Million in Equity and Cash.  Google offered its top engineers and executives $10 million in equity and cash to remain at Google.

29. 20 Years of Government Monitoring.  Google accepted 20 years of government monitoring after Google Buzz exposed Gmail users' contacts to others.  This public misstep triggered a Federal Trade Commission investigation forcing Google to revamp its privacy policies and accept the government monitoring.


Photo Credit by Alan Tippins via Flickr