soulati.com

Digital Marketing Strategy, PR and Messaging

Soulati-'TUDE!

Mobile Marketing And The Ubiquitous QR Code

By

03B33818It’s everywhere, right? The small, black, squiggly, nonsensical square that adorns objects all over, and it’s called a QR code. A few years back, these were all the rage; a trend that made first-mover marketers excited.

Today? Not so much, based on this personal mobile marketing story that happened this weekend.

I’m having shower woes; the master shower leaks, and I’m relegated to the extra basement shower which needs some TLC. At Lowes Saturday morning, I spied a really attractive end cap featuring four designs of Oxygenics shower heads.

The one I wanted had a QR code that when scanned promised:

1. See the Force (sic) spray settings in action
2. View a quick install video
3. And much more

Because the end cap wasn’t digital (the company should use Coloredge) and I couldn’t see a video in the display, I pointedly got out my QR code reader on my iPhone to immediately scan to help me make a purchase. [Read more…]

Clipsi: A New Social Collaboration Tool

By

clipsi-beta-logo.jpgClipsi is a new social collaboration tool currently in beta. I’ve been toying with it and am impressed in the earliest stages with what I see. As someone who makes a total mess of bookmarks (I do not organize), I can see how Clipsi will help me curate, collate, collaborate on a Pinterest-style or Storify-style board the content I want to reference and write about.

I’m excited for my colleague and friend, Neicole Crepeau, who is one of the founders of this awesome tool. Please ask for an invite to the beta in comments below…Neicole?

How would you describe Clipsi?

Clipsi is a collaboration tool designed for business users. It uses the Pinterest metaphor, putting extracts or clips from websites and documents onto an online bulletin board, where people can work with them and discuss them. We’re in the very early stages right now, but our product roadmap involves a slew of features to enable teams to use Clipsi boards as a tool for organizing and discussing content.

Right now, a lot of what I see on your blog is about using Clipsi for marketing. How does that fit with this collaboration idea?

We’re following the familiar model of releasing a free product to gain broad adoption, with a plan to add additional paid versions with richer features. Since user adoption is critical to a young startup with a new product, we built the free version with features that help marketers and content creators. When marketers and content creators use Clipsi to market their content, it increases awareness of Clipsi, too. So, we let people create great boards, clip from their ebooks and content, share the boards and clips broadly, and embed the boards on their own websites. We expect the free version of Clipsi will always be a useful content curation and marketing tool, while also being a useful social collaboration tool.

jon-buscall-clipsi.jpgHow can bloggers use Clipsi, then?

I think there a couple of ways. First, you can create boards for your econtent to give potential readers a “peek inside” of your book or PDF. As well as putting reviews and articles about it on the board. You can embed the boards on your book download page or in blog posts, and encourage reviewers to do the same.

Second, you can create boards to enhance a blog topic. Say you’re writing about PR versus Marketing. You could create a board with clips from PRSA documents and charters, articles on the difference, and forums where debates are happening. These days, we don’t want to make our posts too long, but a Clipsi board lets you provide information, right on your blog post, for people who want to dig deeper. And they can discuss and debate the topic more via the Clips. And, you can keep the board updated, adding new information from time to time, to keep the discussion fresh.

You have a Public Boards page and a Top Boards page. What is the difference and what is the plan for these pages?

Public boards at this point are any boards that are not private. In the free version of the product, you get one Private board (indicated by the lock icon) and that board can only be used and viewed by you. All other boards can be accessed by others and appear on the Public Boards site automatically. In the Pro version, we’ll be offering Private Team boards, where you can invite a group of users to work privately on a board.

Top Boards is a page we manually curate and that only contains boards that meet certain criteria, as outlined on this page: https://about.clipsi.com/how-to-get-on-our-top-boards-page/.

We will definitely be adding categories to both pages in the future, and you’ll be able to specify a category for your board when you create it.

Clipsi lets you curate by clipping sections of a source document or article. Doesn’t this promote more plagiarism?

We’re very concerned about plagiarism. This is fine line that any content sharing platform has to walk. Pinterest had the same challenges, Facebook, etc., which all post clips or excerpts. Like other platforms, our terms indicate that it is up to the user to be sure they are not violating a copyright.

They should ask permission if they are going to clip from a copy of someone else’s document that includes the full content, because it is viewable in our viewer. So, for example, in the case of your book, I had your permission and I removed all pages that I didn’t clip from so that your full book was not available via the viewer. Note that we also have a detailed take-down procedure. We abide by the DCMA policies and follow the procedures it outlines. Anyone who believes their copyright is being infringed can fill out our take-down request form at https://about.clipsi.com/copyright-complaint. We don’t want to encourage that.

Right now, you only allow clipping from documents in Dropbox. What if people don’t have Dropbox?

Dropbox is only the first cloud storage system for Clipsi. We picked it because it is the most widely used system. However, there are other common systems that we plan to integrate with. We have our eye on Box, for instance, as it is focused more on business users, which is our target market. But, we are a new product with a lot of features on our roadmap. So it’s one step at a time.

Embed code for your Verve board

Embed code for Social Media Marketing Data board

Enhanced by Zemanta

Fixing The Social Media Plateau

By

Pinterest featue in Metro - 27th February 2012

Pinterest featue in Metro - 27th February 2012 (Photo credit: Great British Chefs)

There’s a social cultural shift on the ‘sphere and the ‘webz; have you felt it? More’s the question…are you experiencing a social media sea change plateau yourself?

Many in my community have been on this social engagement and blogging journey for an average of 18 months. For me, it’s almost four years.

When you look at that timeframe doing almost the same thing day in and day out, it’s time to grow or die.

The signs below may be an indication it’s time to step up your game, take it to the next level, and grow or remain complacent. See if these strike a chord and whether you might add a few of your own:

10 Indications You’ve Hit a Social Media Plateau

1. Learning new things becomes more rare; another 20 ways to use Pinterest blog post isn’t providing new insight over what you know now.

2. Your favorite bloggers seem to be echoing the chamber more frequently, and there’s a reason you’re spotting that — you’re ready to grow because you know.

3. Posting wit and banter on the channels is more of a chore and you find yourself sharing posts without reading to keep your Klout score up.

4. Facebook’s continued alterations and altercations have you yawning as you realize other channels may be a better fit.

5. You read some of the posts and shake your head at the nonsense.

6. When you find a new blogger with some awesome content and you write a comment saying so and get crickets in response.

7. When you see a favorite blogger MIA or changing it up so drastically you can’t follow whose writing you’re reading.

8. When whining becomes more the rant and a feeling of morose amplifies emotions in posts.

9. When the Triberr stream is populated with content that boils down to limited scope, repetition and topics you’ve seen already a dozen times.

10. When the road ahead is a question mark.

How To Fix The Social Media Plateau

Not saying you need to feel all of these or any, but when you begin to question your purpose and experience a few of those listed above, consider these possible solutions to fix The  Social Media Plateau:

1. Take a hiatus and refocus on your core business. You’ll buy back tons of time; yet, your social brand will suffer.

2. Reduce the time spent on the channels that don’t return much to you. That way, you’re not spread as thin.

3. Guest post on national blogs or other more high-traffic blogs (only after you engage and make a connection with the bloggers’ community, of course).

4. Tackle a whole new area, which can be any or all of the following — web design, analytics/big data, content marketing and lead gen, podcasting, webinars, passive income, affiliate marketing, speaking, e-books/books, and, and, and…

OMYGOSH…look at #4 — there’s my laundry list to push the envelope and avoid a social media plateau! What about you? Did any of that tickle the pink?

 

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Has The Pinterest Bubble Burst?

By

Credit: Jayme Soulati

As soon as I heard about the copyright-pinning snafu from this highly popular new channel, I stopped pinning. As a professional who works with lawyers to protect intellectual property rights (which include all images), I have no desire to get caught up in a copyright mêlée.

I paid attention as the Pinterest founders hammered out their new strategy for pinners, and then yesterday, I just shook my head at the obvious lack of clarity about the entire platform.

The Wall Street Journal on March 27 ran a piece, “In Shift, Pinterest Says to Pin Your Own Stuff.” Indeed.

The beauty of Pinterest as a visually appealing channel has been the freedom to grab an image that resonates, create a board, and share with the world. And it cascades from there…I wonder if the pins I posted with bridges in the rain forest of Borneo came from National Geographic?

Could National Geographic file a lawsuit against every single pinner who posted an image without permission on their boards? Hmmm, I don’t think so, but, it’s not worth the aggravation.

So, in a nutshell, here’s the recap from yesterday’s story in the almighty Wall Street Journal:

  • Self-promotion is now the new normal on Pinterest. Do you recall at all when Pinterest informed companies they couldn’t promote themselves by pinning images of their own products? Guess that’s now a reversal, and companies are encouraged to pin away.

Outcome: Pinterest will become another advertising billboard and followers will likely yawn unless they’re already brand loyal.

  • The best way for us to avoid copyright conflict is to pin material we either create or have permission to use. Really? I don’t know about you, but I’m not sitting around all day creating cool photo-shopped images to share on my boards. Maybe the photos I took of my blooming spring flowers would make a nice Flowers In My Garden board, but who has the time to go to that trouble and for what gain? And, how does one go about getting permission to use an image…if you’ve ever attempted that, you know it’s a nightmare.

Outcome: Pinners’ excitement will wane with the new self-create images mantra and the necessity to get permission.

  • New “Pin Etiquette” rules and principles take effect April 6 and are designed to be simpler, encourage authenticity and invite long-term happiness at Pinterest.

Outcome: I am reasonably astute in legal matters as I manage all litigation for a client. That said, the new etiquette rules have been created to appease all legal teams and for Pinterest’s ultimate survival. What has in fact occurred is a dampening of enthusiasm for pinners to freely pin (with all due respect to the pin-ees) images that delight.

I don’t know about you, but I may withdraw completely from Pinterest to protect my intellectual property. And you?

 

 

 

 

Pinterest First Impression

By

I hem and haw all the way to a new channel; everyone knows that about me. I let the leaders be first movers, ahem, Gini, and I watch and read as they navigate uncharted waters and inform us all. Why not? They’re the leaders! Heh.

And, so, I asked for and received my Pinterest invitation, thank you, Gini, and hopped on. As with anything new, it takes a bit of concentration (no multi-tasking, Kaarina) to figure out. In fact, I read the help questions which I think are helpful (fancy that).

So, here’s the first impression, guys:

Run, do not pass go, do not collect $400 (inflation), and ask for your invite right now (ask me now) to jump onto Pinterest immediately. Can you say addiction? Can you say stairway to heaven? Oy;  we who are engaged are done; turn me over and bake the other side.

 

Why you ask?

>>Visual-ness — the most appealing sensory

>>Personalization with high-level creativity

>>Engagement less serious and more fun

>>Provokes thought and (did I already say this) creativity

From a business perspective:

>>A board (what you create to pin images on) can be about your clients. You can promote clients’ products and services with the images from their websites, etc.  (Companies have a harder time promoting themselves, as you’ve read, but an agency (hands down) will have no problem. I have not researched disclosure yet; Gini, do you know?

>>Blog fodder is amazing. If you want ideas for your features on your blog, have at it. Ubiquitous . Limitless.

>>Business development in a highly creative way. Let’s pick on the Gin Blossom once more here…if you read her profile on Pinterest, you’ll find she’s an avid biker and foodie. When you look at her boards, you see the foods she wants to make in the future. If I were a restaurant and she was a celebrity chef (she is , actually, just find her Tumblr blog), I’d invite her, via an agent of course, to make an appearance in my establishment and prepare a meal under the bright lights of cameras and video, etc. etc.

For me, I took some time understanding how people were using this. But, I won’t do that again, as there doesn’t seem to be a method. As soon as I pushed my first pin, someone I didn’t know re-pinned and another wrote a note. I had to determine access points to respond, and then I continued to complete my first board, “Gems, Gems and More Colored Gems.”  I bet no one knows I want to be a gemologist in the next iteration of moi. I feed my yearning with world travels to gem locales and wheel and deal for another to add to my collection (at least I used to prior to becoming a mom).  Pinterest allows people to see that very personal side of others based on the boards with pinned images. If someone is highly private, then stop on go. Pinterest is NOT for you.

So, ask me for an invite; you will not be disappointed.