Perry

Hewitt

Tag: marketing

Friday 5 — 9.18.2015
1. A survey of >4,000 designers revealed the most commonly used design tools, from brainstorming to wireframing to project management. As a big user of different project management platforms, I found it interesting to see the fragmentation of the market.
2. In a similarly complicated arena, Growthverse is an interactive visualization of marketing technologies, a tool for marketers who have a need and want to browse solutions. A recent update makes the information easier to access, with direct links to categories like social content analytics or workflow collaboration.
3. Imagine the meanest email you ever wrote, searchable on the internet. Security expert Bruce Schneier paints a sobering picture of our vulnerability to organizational doxing in an era of cloud computing.
4. If you were hiding under a rock this week, you may have missed the Ahmed Mohamed, a 14 year old Muslim boy who was suspended for bringing a homemade clock to school in Texas. #IStandWithAhmed generated well over half a million tweets, serious invitations to the White House and to Facebook, along with the inevitable funny responses.
5. 18F launched Federalist, a platform for quick creation of static government websites. Web platform solutions for website or mobile apps are notoriously hard to propagate in a world where people gravitate toward the bespoke. Federalist is an excellent example of combining open source software, canny feature tradeoffs, and excellent design to deliver a platform users will adopt.
Don’t miss: HUBweek is a weeklong series of events celebrating the innovative work happening at the intersection of art, science, and technology in and around Greater Boston. Check out a masterclass in Fenway Park, flying robotics in Harvard Stadium, all the Harvard events, or the full listing. The week starts October 3: most events are free or low cost, and open to all.

Weekend fun: Worried about our robotic drone overlords? Consider befriending some professional ice hockey players.

Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.
September 18, 2015
Friday 5 — 7.10.2015
1. We all see (and rely on) many more visual representations of data these days — charts are everywhere in your social streams. Needless to say, how you set up your chart to reflect the numbers matters. Here’s a handy guide to spotting charts that lie. (Yes, Yankees fans, that chart is deceiving.)
2. Facebook is already a dominant platform for video reach — and they are getting more serious about how to measure your preferences and behaviors. Facebook will factor in engagement metrics beyond likes and shares, including whether a user chooses to take a video full screen or turn down the audio.
3. People throw around the term “uniques” as if we’re all certain we’re counting the same thing — but we’re not. The quantitatively-inclined folks over at FiveThirtyEight define “the cookie conundrum,” the impact of mobile, and the perils of relying of different companies’ proprietary models to explain why it’s so hard to measure web traffic in 2015.
4. What’s a common misstep for today’s data-driven marketer? On chiefmartec.com this week, Cesar Brea posits that it’s easy to get lost in the quest for the perfect KPI and squeaky clean data. Instead, marketers should focus their analytics efforts on getting to good-enough, and then continuously working to improve the results of the business.
5. Does it ever seem like every single person in your social network is doing the same thing? New research highlights how the majority illusion can skew perception in social networks. If the most popular nodes engage in a behavior, others overestimate how many engage in that behavior — perhaps contributing to the rise of FOMO. The challenge for marketers looking to spread behaviors is to reach those most popular nodes, the “influencerati.”
Weekend fun: Don’t miss @stephenathome’s view from the bunker on this week’s Apocalypse Dow. If you have 99 cents left after the collapse, you might just spend it on an app to troll your friends with Game of Thrones quotes.

Friday 5 is taking a break next week to enjoy the summer with family and friends, and do a little reading beyond 140 characters. (Here are some ideas for bringing books back to your daily routine.) See you back here on July 24 — in the meantime, email me the analytics approaches and text-trolling techniques I missed.

Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.
July 10, 2015
Friday 5 — 7.3.2015
1. What does the White House’s new photography policy tell us about the opportunity for brand building? Read my new piece over at Harvard Business Review on the visual web’s latest victory: the White House selfie.
2. How does do Americans’ internet access and usage correlate with age? Pew has released a new report on Americans’ internet access 2000-2015. Notable findings include that a clear majority of 58% seniors now use the internet — while the overall percentage is lower, it’s rising quickly (see also: Facebook). Class and educational attainment remain access factors but are shrinking.
3. The first few years of widespread access to MOOCs have created a data trove for researchers. Ed tech thinker Justin Reich launched a series of posts on seven observations based on research during his time at HarvardX. The first one: MOOC students are diverse, but trend toward autodidacts.
4. Google released a real-time trends feature to provide live data on the 100 billion searches conducted each month. Scroll down to see the curated data sets Google has made available, and the visualizations created from them.
5. What’s the digital talent gap in marketing today? This post outlines the in-demand skills for the hybrid marketer, which include social, mobile, and data/analytics skills along with a deep understanding the role of content. With all the channels and technologies now available to B2C and B2B marketers, there’s need for a broad skillset that reflects head and heart, quantitative and creative portfolios.
Weekend fun: Don’t feel like braving the traffic this 4th of July weekend? Google Earth just turned 10, and launched some new features to help you explore the world online. Don’t miss this stunning gallery for a great escape.

Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.
July 3, 2015
Friday 5 — 5.29.2015
1. It’s worth reading every one of Mary Meeker’s internet trends slides. I’m struck by the relative rapidity and impact of the trends in the American work environment, including what motivates the millennial workforce (hint: not money), the ways connectivity has changed the nature of work, and the rise of online platforms, marketplaces and their impact. The slide above continues her observations on reimagining business communications — with Slack as a well chosen example of a transformative technology.
2. The new Netflix redesign is visually pleasing, but more importantly, it’s based on a rigorous, data-driven approach. With more unbundled competition for video viewing, it makes sense for Netflix to invest heavily in gathering and driving decisions from their user data.
3. Journalist/social media editor Sarah Marshall compiled a list of 19 useful tips and tools for social sharing and searching, I particularly liked her ideas for attribution and correction, and a few new tools to check out.
4. For marketing analytics geeks, check out these 5 deadly myths, debunked. Some fall into the category of taking meaningful data and analytic advances to an illogical extreme, but many will ring familiar with those working at the intersection of marketing and tech in the enterprise.
5. Expect to see more about virtual reality implementation as competition increases and technology goes mainstream. This week, Oculus announced that a VR-ready PC and headset should run you about $1,500 when it launches in 2016. Based on the wide adoption of GoPro plus drone videos (fun Harvard example), GoPro announced it was working on a VR camera + quadcopter drone combination to launch later next year.
Weekend fun: Ever since I read the reviews for the Bic pen for women, I’ve wanted to find the female version of everyday products. Thank goodness for feminizeit! In other news, you can gauge how strong your 404 game is, or improve your web viewing with a Chrome extension that transforms references to millennials into “snake people“.

Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.
May 29, 2015
Friday 5 — 5.1.2015
1. Facebook is up to 4 billion daily video viewers, and some think it may unseat YouTube as the go-to video destination. Not much of a present for YouTube’s 10th birthday.
2. Instead of bucketing content referrals by each social network, BuzzFeed launched a new technology to track content shares across social networks. Dubbed Process for Optimizing and Understanding Network Diffusion (POUND), the system offers a realistic, more nuanced view of how stories spread. Buzzfeed’s own post buried the lead — the data show that sponsored content is shared just like editorial content.
3. Click wisely: Nearly 2% of Gmail messages are designed to trick users into giving up their passwords, and well-crafted phishing schemes are effective 45% of the time. Given those scary statistics, this week Google launched Password Alert to let you know when a password reset may be in order.
4. Why is Snapchat getting into the news business? With hundreds of millions of users, a valuation of $15 billion, Snapchat is becoming one of the fastest-growing media platforms in the world. With a critical new editorial hire, a built-in audience, and the pipes laid, deciding what to flow through seems to be a natural next step. The question is whether the Discover tab can serve as its own destination, or will remain a time-waster between user-generated snaps.
5. In my experience, there are few things more time-consuming or expensive than a free trial of new software. The Chief Marketing Technologist blog includes this advice among other useful suggestions in 8 useful tips for marketing tech companies on pitching CMOs.
Weekend fun: So much for “Canada nice” — the poop emoji is a big hit in Canada. Here’s how emoji usage by country breaks down. A little gross, sure, but a lot less creepy than the selfie arm.

Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.
May 1, 2015
Friday 5 — 2.27.2015
Weekend fun: Tinder for pets? Now there’s an app for that, called “Cute Or Not” — and it’s a shrewd move by Buzzfeed.

Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.
February 27, 2015
Friday 5 — 2.20.2015
1. Consumer feedback is crucial in building a successful product. Understanding how and when to solicit it can make all the difference. Read and learn from these 5 mistakes we all make with product feedback.
2. Marketing is now in the experience business. In a digital era, marketers need to invest in user experience as a critical competency, and embrace agile methodologies to compete. This interview explains why “Lean Product Design Is The New Marketing.”
3. How has the role of design evolved over time? Design agencies today have the opportunity to change not only customer behaviors, but the behaviors of the client companies. Read how one design firm develops a culture of collaboration that drives results.
4. Should scientists take an active role in public policy debates about issues related to science and technology? 87% of 3,748 scientists surveyed think so. New research from Pew reveals how this translates into increasingly social behavior.
5. Everyone is going mobile — The New York Times is changing its editorial processes to optimize for more than 50% mobile visitors, and others are even ditching their websites altogether. However, Flipboard is swimming against the tide by launching a full-featured website to better tie its web and mobile experiences.
Weekend fun: Gimmicky or apt? This week Modern Family chose to reflect the reality of contemporary familial communications with an episode called ‘Connection Lost.’ Related video: A Brief Look at Texting and the Internet in Film.

Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.
February 20, 2015
Friday 5 — 11.7.2014
1. This week Google Maps is rolling out a new redesign with improved ease of use. Beyond the clean look and brighter palette, note the increased surfacing of transactions through the map, like making a restaurant reservation through Open Table or booking a car through Uber.
2. Reddit’s Bit of News bot summarizes news that’s shared on Reddit as it reaches a certain click-popularity threshold, and then pushes those summaries to an app. It’s a great example of ideal human-algorithm partnership. The humans do the smart discernment, and the algorithm figures out when and how to share more broadly. Check out this good write-up about the Bit of News bot.
3. With Google Analytics, you can create so many custom reports that it’s hard to know where to start. This article compiles and reviews 12 useful, downloadable report templates created by GA experts. Hours and days and content efficiency reports are particularly useful for bloggers.
4. As we all store more documents far from our hard drives, there’s a greater need for seamless integration with daily office applications. This week Microsoft announced a new integration with Dropbox, just as Google launched a Chrome extension to let you access Drive files from apps.
5. Big Moose Is Watching You tells the fascinating story of LL Bean’s strategic use of customer data from the very beginning, when they targeted nonresident Maine hunting license holders with direct mail. Today, the company uses data to provide sophisticated “omnichannel” presentation, and takes an approach that favors highly relevant offers to customers over brand awareness.
Weekend fun: Geek out with Brian Cox in the world’s largest vacuum chamber, minus 800,000 cubic feet of air. Watch to the end for the full child-like glee when the predictable occurs.

Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.
November 7, 2014
Future M and Inbound

Last week, well over 10,000 digital marketers and technologists arrived in Boston for MITX’s Future M, and Hubspot’s Inbound.

For Future M, I was fortunate to participate in a fireside chat led by industry pro Sarah Fay on how to cultivate a digital team. Smart question from the audience: who are the three members I would bring to a desert island digital team? My answer: developer (always be building), storyteller (it’s vital to have a narrative, be it words and pictures), and strategist (define why are we doing what we’re doing — and what we’re NOT doing).

At Inbound, I presented the deck below on the Rise of the Chief Digital Officer. Not clear what the future is for that curious title, but the need for a digital competency that favors integration over education will certainly endure.

Thanks to all who attended and followed up later with great ideas and insights.

What do L’Oreal, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and McDonalds have in common? Like Harvard University, they all have CDOs. But what on earth does a CDO do in a world where almost everything is digital? A CDO is a means to catalyze change and to empower one person to accelerate digital capabilities across the enterprise. This session will focus on practical ways that CDOs, CMOs, and other enterprise leaders can create and innovate through digital strategy.

September 28, 2014
Friday 5 — 9.12.2014
1. When Spotify bought music intelligence platform Echo Nest, they gained access to a trove of data, and a smart team of people who could optimize curation. A new Spotify Insights blog focuses on telling scientifically-driven stories about music. This first post takes a look at how music migrates, and the varying musical influence of cities around the world.
2. The options for publishing your content online are myriad. When should you post to your “owned” properties, and when should you syndicate to communities like Medium or Rebelmouse? Ths KISSmetrics post has some useful rubrics for how to overcome the content distribution hurdle to help your content find its audience.
3. Digital disruption may have moved from buzzword to cliché, but the advent of agile marketing is a great example of this phenomenon. As technology has become both ubiquitous (so many options!) and pervasive (throughout the funnel), marketers must learn to manage for uncertainty and change. Make time for this terrific slide deck on Managing Marketing in High Gear by Scott Brinker.
4. I once read that algorithms are people’s opinions, mathematically expressed — and nowhere is that more evident than digital journalism. As news becomes more mobile, the experience of news consumption can be more tailored — and potentially more monitored. A new study sheds light on how engineers and designers think about their role in news delivery.
5. Twitter cards offer a way to create more visual tweets to drive engagement and spur specific actions. Here’s a comprehensive guide to types of Twitter cards and how to use them.
Weekend fun: Ever wonder what your favorite characters in videogames do when you wander away from the controller? Find out here — GIFS included.

Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up to get a weekly email.
September 12, 2014