Queen Rania of Jordan (Rania Al Abdullah) just announced a new Twitter-based contest to drive tourism to the country of Jordan. The contest actually targets both tourists and Jordanians, which is really interesting, and those who submit are vying for two seats in a tourist swap. Here’s the video call to action by Her Majesty:
I read a interesting post from Dan Schawbel today over at Social Media Today, and although I don’t 100% agree, he presents some compelling points. He says:
Every single day, the value of Twitter as a marketing platform will decrease because more and more people are following more and more people, so your message get’s lost. Let’s say you have one hundred thousand Twitter followers. If each of these followers now follows one thousand people, that means only a small percentage, who are logged in at that time, will actually see your tweet. Then, only a very small percentage will click a link from your tweet to the corresponding website.
The trickle down effect
- You tweet a message.
- Only users who are active on Twitter at that time CAN see the tweet.
- Only a small number of THOSE active followers will have it come up on their radar depending on how many people they are following.
- Only a small number of THOSE active followers who saw the tweet will engage with it, and possibly either retweet it or click a link.
The Facts about Twitter
- 106 million registered users (Chirp Conference)
- Growing by 300,000 new users per day (Smash Summit)
- 88% of marketers use Twitter (SocialMediaExaminer)
- 71% of Twitter users don’t want to see “promoted tweet” advertising (Twitter Sentiment Report)
- 88% of the connections on Twitter aren’t reciprocal (Korea’s Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
- 87% of all Americans are now aware of Twitter — up from 5% in 2008 — but only 7% of the population actually use it (Edison Research)
- 7% of people are active on Twitter (Edison Research)
Key Point: It’s not about your follower number, but everyone else’s follower number, when it comes to marketing on Twitter.
Although Dan highlights how Twitter is becoming increasingly diluted, I question his rationale about the effectiveness of Twitter solely being about the number of individuals reached. Ultimately, it’s a matter of WHO you reach. If a Twitter profile that I am managing for a client influences the story of a reporter at the New York Times, it become less about how many followers and more about how many readers/impressions.
Check out more here: R.I.P. Twitter as a Marketing Tool
This afternoon, Starbucks launched a new feature on its Facebook page that allows consumers to effectively access and manage their Starbucks cards straight through the interface. According to mashable, users can register (or unregister cards), check their balance, reload cards and edit profile information. The app also includes relevant rewards program information so frequent customers can check their status levels and benefits.
With more than seven million consumer connections with the Starbucks page, this new functionality will prove to be a major influence on future brand rewards programs and gift card incentives.
Here are some screenshots:
When the Omnipotent Steve Jobs announced the coming of his newest born son, the iPad, in January, I got excited – along with millions of others. And if I wasn’t completely broke at the time, I would have pre-ordered one as quickly as I could.
As the the hype grew, I began to save my extra cash, and now – with the wave of 3G iPads shipping this week, I have enough money to purchase one. I even I began to announce to a number of friends that I would purchase a 3G version as soon as it became available. A few friends were supportive. A few friends really didn’t care. And a few friends thought I was a moron for considering the purchase.
However, it was my good friend Steve who really provided me with the mental clarity to break my hypnosis and return me to sound mind. Here is an audio recording of what he told me (NSFW): Steve predicts the future of the iPad
On top of Steve’s advice, I’m really tired of hearing about the iPad, so I will not be purchasing one this year.
Mark Bittman’s kitchen tome, How To Cook Everything, was recently released as an app for the iPhone, and I downloaded it this afternoon. The app has the entire contents of the book: 2,000 recipes and 400 illustrations, plus a bunch of other stuff.
The app is incredible (iTunes). Although the database of recipes, tips, and articles robust, it’s the way in which the app walks you through every step (from buying groceries to cooking) that makes this app really conducive and helpful. The best part – however – was how easy it makes grocery shopping. Just select the recipe you want to cook, and it provides a comprehensive grocery list with check boxes and everything. I hate the grocery store (especially the one near my apartment – “D’Agostino’s“, which I appropriately call “G’AGostino’s” – but I digress); this app make it bearable. The grocery list feature is great.
Here are some screenshots:
The app costs $1.99, and it was well worth every cent.
It’s a very popular app; here are what some people are saying:
This may seem like a bargain not to believed — all of How to Cook Everything (and then some), for less than 10 percent of the price. Indeed, according to the App Store HQ, it’s a limited-time offer, so…don’t be late for dinner, folks. As of this morning, Bittman himself had not yet downloaded it. “I was just going to plug in my phone and get on that!” he laughed. “Listen, my real hope is that this app will attract hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of new people to cooking for themselves.” – Slashfood
Mark Bittman’s longtime kitchen favorite, “How To Cook Everything,” has just been released as an app for the iPhone and iTouch (and will run on the iPad too). The app has the entire contents of the print volume: 2,000 recipes and 400 illustrations, plus a bunch of other stuff. – Huffington Post
Read Bittman’s columns in The New York Times on your phone if you don’t want to spend $1.99. Or get a bungee cord for your book and try hauling it around. – LA Weekly: Squid Ink
It lacks a good conversion tool for weights and measures. There is neither a basic table for sorting out how many ounces are in a quart, nor more sophisticated functionality for converting measurements from volume to weight or the U.S. standard system to metric. In a subsequent conversation with Mark Douglas at the online food magazine Culinate (which collaborated on production of the app with Bittman and publisher John Wiley & Sons, I was informed that these will likely be added in future software update. Also coming up is interactive functionality that will allow app owners to upload their own food photos into the app and view images taken by others. – The Food Section
This is hard to pass up — the Mark Bittman ouvre, How to Cook Everything
, which is $21 and change over at Amazon, for the bargain basement price of $1.99 in an iPhone app — that is, if you’ve already spent hundreds on the iPhone itself. – Chew Wise
According this study by the mobile measurement firm Ground Truth, approximately 60% of the time spent on the mobile Internet is spent on social networking sites and apps. Here’s the breakout of the mobile Internet usage:
“While the popularity of mobile social networking is widely believed, this is the first time we have been able to truly quantify just how much the category is driving adoption of the Mobile Internet with actual usage metrics,” said Evan Neufeld, vice president of marketing, Ground Truth. “The disparity of time spent between social networking and the next category, portals, which account for 59.83 and13.65 percent of time spent respectively, is a vivid illustration of the impact social networking has on Mobile Internet traffic in a given week.”
More about this on Mashable
This video (The State of the Internets) by Jess3 has been circulating like crazy recently, and although many have seen it already, I think it warrants a few viewings. The metrics are immense and the reach of social media and the Internet is unarguable.