Google the "Best" Content Marketing Platform?

“Google is quickly becoming the best platform for content marketers, argues Scott Maxwell, senior managing director and founder of OpenView Venture Partners.

Google Currents, for example, “pulls everything together for content marketers who want to easily distribute content to mobile,” he says. “Google Currents is a new application for Android devices, iPads and iPhones that lets users explore online magazines and other content with the swipe of a finger, and has launched with content from 150 publishing partners including CNET, AllThingsD, Forbes, Saveur, PBS, Huffington Post and Fast Company.

Content is optimized for smartphones and tablets, allowing users to intuitively navigate between words, pictures and video on large and small screens alike, even if you’re offline.

Users also can also add RSS feeds, video and photo feeds, public Google+ streams and Google Reader subscriptions already being followed. Uers also can use the trending tab to discover related content that matches their tastes.”

For content marketers, Google has added a self-service publishing platform that allows creators to pull content together and then to distribute it to Google Currents subscribers.

Not everybody will be convinced. “The average user is going to download the Currents app and, yup, write it off as a Flipboard clone (a content curation tool) ,” says Peter Smith at IT World. Flipboard clone?

“If you want a way to read RSS feeds, stick with what you've got,” he argues. “But if you're interested in a unique micro-publishing system (complete with Googly Analytics integration) and you're comfortable assuming your audience carries iOS or Android devices, then check out Currents.”

Verizon Wants to Compete With, or Buy Netflix

The reported Verizon Communications talks to create a new steaming media service in conjunction with movie-rental kiosk operator Redbox appear to be just one set of talks Verizon Communications is having with other potential partners. 


And though the Redbox talks obviously have been painted as a matter of Verizon "competing with Netflix, Verizon also appears to be talking to Netflix as well. On Dec. 12, 2011, there were rumors that Verizon was even thinking about buying Netflix. Verizon weighing Netflix Buy?

Verizon open to Netflix Most will not remember, but earlier in 2011 Verizon Communications had said it was open to featuring Netflix as a FiOS service. 


Most observers think the recent distribution deal with Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks is part of a wider effort by Verizon to get into the streaming video business in a bigger way, especially for mobile users and people who live outside the Verizon Communications fixed network regions. Verizon Communications 


Of course, getting into the online video business sets Verizon up in more direct competition not only with Netflix, but with Comcast, Time Warner and other cable and satellite video providers, to an extent. Verizon Redbox talks

Army Navy Game "Prisoner Exchange"

One of the traditions at the Army-Navy football game every year is the "prisoner exchange," where Army cadets studying at the Naval Academy, and midshipmen studying at West Point, walk on the field with their host academy, and then switch sides to go sit with their "home" academy. 


This year, my son Dylan was a "prisoner" at West Point and was exchanged for West Pointers studying at Naval Academy.

Tebow Time, Again

I don't think anybody knows how to explain it, but the Denver Broncos pulled another fourth quarter or overtime win in their latest game against the Chicago Bears. 


As has been the story for most of the last eight games, the Broncos were trailing, in this case by 10 points, until the last three minutes of regulation play. 


Then the team exploded, tying the game, before winning in overtime. 


The national story is Tim Tebow, Broncos quarterback, but that isn't really what's happening. The whole team seems to play better, when it counts. 


There is a concept known as "leadership," and a different concept called "management." 


We often speak of talented "managers" in business. But "leadership" is what happens with squads of soldiers on the battlefield. 


 Management is authority because of a role: somebody is your boss, your president, a uniformed police officer. They have "bureaucratic" authority, because of their role.


Leadership is different. People follow leaders because of some intangible charismatic quality "leaders" have. 


Tebow has that, take nothing away from him. But the team is winning, and playing so well when it counts, because of a non-objective, but very real confidence in their leadership. We need more leaders, arguably fewer "managers." 

Google Wallet Coming to the UK For 2012 Olympics

Google Wallet apparently will launch next in the United Kingdom, in time for the holding of the summer Olympics starting June 27, 2012, French newspaper Les Echos reports.


It is believed that Google Wallet could debut in the first quarter of 2012. That will require convincing at least some top banks to participate, as well as retailers and at least one mobile service provider.


Google Wallet Reportedly Coming to the UK For 2012 Olympics


It would of course be helpful to have one or more providers of "daily deals" and other promotions. It isn't so clear that paying using a mobile is so much better than using cash or a credit card that people will have incentives to use a mobile wallet service.


But what does provide value for end users are incentives, coupons, discounts and special offers tied with use of mobile wallets. 


For retailers, the ability to target incentives at potential customers when they are in proximity to a retail venue likewise offers clear value. 

Amazon Takes Social Shopping to a New Level

If you use Amazon’s “Price Check” mobile app on Saturday Dec. 10, 2011 to compare the price of an item in a brick-and-mortar store with what you can get it for at Amazon’s website, Amazon will give you a five percent break, up to $5,  if you buy that item from Amazon.com. 

What is interesting is that this is a new application of social shopping, where users contribute feedback, but where the social exchange is that users compare prices, let Amazon know, and then get value the form of discounts. In many other forms of social shopping, people post public reviews and information. 

In this case, Amazon essentially is having shoppers act as "mystery shoppers" to check out and report retail pricing at competitive outlets. Retailers do this all the time.


What is different here is the social angle, the value exchange and yet another use of mobile apps in mobile commerce.


Amazon is giving comparison shoppers a quick-and-easy way to earn up to $15 in discounts, but the promotion is making brick and mortar retailers are unhappy, of course.



The Price Check app is free and works on the iPhone and Android smartphones. To use it, you scan a product's bar code, take its picture or say or type its name. The app then gives you the Amazon price.



If you decide you'd rather buy the product from Amazon, you can put it in Amazon's online shopping cart where you'll get a discount if you complete the purchase within 24 hours.

The discount can be used on three items for a maximum of $5 off each. The deal good on electronics, toys, sports, music and DVDs sold directly by Amazon, not its third party suppliers. .

A product you're price checking also has to be an exact match to what Amazon is selling. Some might note that the promotion, though possibly enabling a shift of some sales to Amazon.com, has other value. It will feed Amazon current pricing on a wide range of products being offered by brick-and-mortar retailers all over the United States.



In fact, Amazon says on its website that the discount is “an introduction to sharing in-store advertised prices with us.”



In some cases, Amazon also will get location information as well. Qualifying products for the promotional period will have a yellow “Get deal” button next to the Amazon offer price. Amazon price check promo Dec. 10, 2011



Though it is understandable that brick and mortar retailers worry about sales volume shifting on one shopping day, they also are worried that Amazon will have a highly-efficient “mystery shopper” campaign running on Dec. 10, 2011 that no brick and mortar retailer can afford to support.



Also, some will argue, shoppers already are routinely comparing prices using their smart phones while shopping. This is just a fact of life these days, and illustrates one more way mobile commerce is being a material factor in the shopping process.

Media, Broadcast, Telco Regulatory Models Someday Will be Revisited

National Cable & Telecommunications Association president and former Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell says there will be fewer distinctions between what cable does and what the Web does, over time. What Powell clearly will not want to talk about is that the same is true of the "distinctions" between telcos and cable companies in voice services. Distinctions Disappearing Between Cable, Web

It hasn't been a "live" and relevant argument since the run-up to the 1996 Telecommunications Act, but the fact remains: the regulatory regimes governing the "cable TV" business and telecommunications are different and arguably unfair in light of the fact that services sold in both industries now are functionally identical.

So the big issue is whether telcos get more freedom, by movement to the "cable" model, which is less "free" than other media, but more free than telecom companies routinely deal with. Or, one might argue, should cable companies have less freedom by being brought under the same regulatory framework as telcos face.

In the U.S. regulatory environment, newspapers and magazines and web media are the most free of regulations. Broadcasters and cable are in a middle bucket, with more rules and restrictions than media face, while telecom companies are the most heavily regulated. As the walls between industries, functions, services, apps and revenue models continue to dissolve, though, you wind up with a regulatory mess, where like services receive distinctly unequal treatment.

The issue has never been fully addressed, and might not be substantially changed the next time the nation gets ready to revamp its communications or broadcasting rules. One has no immediate sense that this is on the agenda. But the problem will remain, if and when such discussions do move to a stage where action might be taken. Which existing models ought to be applied in a new context?

Should less-regulated industries get heavier regulation, and less freedom, or should more-regulated industries receive the same freedoms their competitors enjoy? In other words, we have environments that, on one hand, reflect the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. So media are "most free." On the other hand, we have "common carrier" regulation, representing the least freedom. Then we have broadcasters and cable in the middle. All that might have made sense when the three distinct types of functions and businesses were that, distinct. That increasingly is not true any longer, so the regulatory environment is out of step with "realities on the ground."

It might not be a "live" issue now, but it will be, at some point.

DirecTV an Immediate Loser From Verizon Deal with Cable Ops

Many of the ramifications of the recent purchase of mobile spectrum from cable operators by Verizon Wireless are yet to be seen. But one immediate consequence of an accompanying deal between Verizon Wireless, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks is that DirecTV will lose a potential partner.

DirecTV has been testing a method of modifying a standard DirecTV receiver so that it also can use Long Term Evolution networks operated by Verizon Wireless. With the recent deal between Verizon Wireless, Comcast, Time Warner and Bright House, it appears that future option, which would have allowed DirecTV to sell a dual-play package of broadband access and video, is now foreclosed.

Verizon began trialing LTE service with DirecTV in late 2010. But Verizon continues to resell DirecTV satellite video service in areas where it does not offer its own FiOS TV product.

On Dec. 2, Verizon Wireless agreed to buy 122 AWS wireless spectrum licenses covering 259 million people from SpectrumCo, a consortium of Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, for $3.6 billion. That deal also includes several agreements that will enable the parties to sell each other's products. By 2015, the cable companies will have the option to sell Verizon Wireless service on a wholesale basis. Verizon Will End LTE Trials With DirecTV

Social Media Value is Tough, Expensive, to Measure

Despite demand for accountability, it often remains difficult and expensive to measure the business value of social media and content marketing, such as changes in brand perception. Small businesses might simply argue they have to make wise decisions and plow ahead without clear evidence, as small businesses typically do in other parts of their operations. 


In fact, all the good advice in the world is not likely to convince many, if not most marketers at smaller organizations that it makes good sense to spend more on measurement than on the actual campaigns, you might reasonably argue. But that isn't easy even for the larger enterprises, either.


"Our philosophy is that we need to measure metrics that are related to business value," says Irfan Kamal, Senior Vice President, Digital/Social Strategy at Ogilvy & Mather. "Does social media change brand perception?"

"Does it increase consideration?" he asks. "Does it drive actual sales for the brand?"

What often gets measured instead are what what Kamal says are diagnostic or optimization metrics such as the number of Facebook fans, the Twitter follower base, the size of a group or a message board or a LinkedIn group. All the metrics that are easily visible are the ones that end up getting measured most often. Impact hard to measure


"The problem is that it’s unclear whether there is a direct relationship between these metrics and genuine business value," he says.


"What we are trying to do is go the next step and understand first, what is the relationship between the metrics we can measure and business value, and second, if we can find a good relationship, what are the metrics that we should be measuring for business value?"


The other problem, aside from the difficulty of measurement, is that social media measurement can be expensive, one might say.

"A big part of what we do is try to figure out the best way to measure within specific budgets, and not all programs allow for really expensive measurement tool integration," he says.

Existing tools such as TweetReach and Google Analytics offer ways to measure things like reach relatively well, he says. But he acknowledges the cost issues for more sophisticated measurements. 

"I do think that the more complex measurements, such as the impact on brand perception or sales that are indirectly driven by social media, are important to measure, but they are somewhat more expensive to measure," he says.

"It would be great if some of the social media companies realized the importance and made these measurement capabilities more accessible to a wide variety of companies, from small businesses through to the largest brands," says Kamal.

Google to Launch Mobile Reading App "Currents"

Google has launched a new social tablet and smart phone reading app, with 150 magazines contributing free subscriptions. 


Users also can  add RSS, video and photo feeds, public Google+ streams and Google Reader subscriptions they already are following. 


In addition, users can also use the trending tab to discover related content. Currents is highly social.

Google Currents is integrated with Google+ so users can share articles or videos twith their circles. Publishers can also associate their account with Google Analytics in order to increase their awareness of consumers’ content preferences, device use and geographic distribution.



“Currents”  is a mobile app available on both Android and iOS devices. You can download the app here for either Android or iPhone devices.



The app was developed to allow publishers to display content in a magazine-style format, on tablets and smart phones with HTML5 compatibility.



Google says it has worked with more than 150 publishing partners to offer full-length articles from more than 180 editions including CNET, AllThingsD, Forbes, Saveur, PBS, Huffington Post and Fast Company.


The content is optimized for smart phones and tablets, allowing users to intuitively navigate between words, pictures and video on large and small screens alike, even if when offline.



Currents also has launched a self-service platform that gives publishers the flexibility to design, brand and customize their web content. 


For example, if you’re a small regional news outlet, a non-profit organization without access to a mobile development team, or a national TV network with web content, you can effortlessly create hands-on digital publications for Google Currents, Google says.

Consumers want 'free stuff' from social, marketers think they 'want to be heard' | Econsultancy

A study from the Chief Marketing Officer Council and Lithium reveals a disconnect between what senior marketers think consumers want from social media, and what people actually want.

According to the 1,300-plus consumers surveyed online globally, there was an expectation that a brand follow, like, post or preference in a social media environment would enable a person to be eligible for exclusive offers (67 percent), have the opportunity to interact with other customers who share the same experiences (60 percent) and gain access to games or contests (65 percent).


In other words, consumers view a social media follow, like, +1 or other "vote" as part of a transaction. Users assent to public support for a brand, in return for value of some sort. 

When the same question was asked to over 120 CMOs, the results were very different. The CMOs saw social engagement is more of a by-product of quality content. They tended not to believe they needed to provide incentives to foster and maintain loyalty among their followers. 


According those surveyed, customers interact with brands because they; want to be heard (41 percent) or are looking for news or information about products (40 percent) Consumers want 'free stuff' from social


It appears consumers view social engagement in much the same way they see TV commercials, namely that it is an exchange of value. In exchange for ad exposure, viewers get free, no incremental cost or subsidized access to content.


Apparently, much the same sort of thinking is at work with social engagement mechanisms. Amazon recently took advantage of that sort of thinking, offering shoppers discounts of up to $5 for checking prices of products in retail outlets, and where Amazon sells the identical item, buying from Amazon, instead. Amazon "Price Check" promotion


That's a value exchange. The user checks a price, lets Amazon know, and then gets something in return if that item is purchased on Amazon. 

Mobile Commerce Provides Lots of Value, and Not Just Transaction Fees

You might think that mobile payments are significant because they represent a potential shift of transaction fee streams from one set of providers to another.


That's true.  AITE Group, for example, in January 2010, it estimated that mobile payments would reach $214 billion in 2015, up from $16 billion in 2010, a 68 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2010 and 2015. U.S. Mobile Payments


To the extent that all those payments will involve a transaction fee earned by some entity, you see the upside. But the value doesn't stop there. 

To give you some idea of what that can mean, eBay Chief Executive John Donahoe said otal payment volume transmitted by mobile devices through PayPal's system will be more than $3.5 billion in 2011. That helps PayPal.

But there are other ways value can be created. EBay, which owns PayPal, also uses smart phone apps like Red Laser, which lets shoppers scan bar codes to check prices online and at other retailers nearby. You might wonder what value that provides. For one thing, it allows eBay to do “comparison pricing” that retailers routinely conduct, but more efficiently, since eBay can rely on its users to do the work. PayPal mobile payments volume

Amazon.com is doing similar things, with a twist. On Dec. 10, 2011, Amazon will offer comparison shoppers a five percent discount, up to $5, on any item whose price is checked, in a retail store, using the Amazon “Price Check” app, and which is purchased on Amazon within 24 hours of the price check.

Though you might say this is a test of how much sales volume potentially can be shifted by offering such discounts, it also is a way for Amazon to gather quite a lot of infomation on retail pricing at brick and mortar locations selling the same merchandise that Amazon is selling.

Mobile Remittances: $55 Billion in 2016, or More?

Nearly $55 billion in international remittances will be sent using or received on mobile devices in 2016, up from less than $12 billion this year, Juniper Research now predicts.


Growth is currently being led by mobile remittances sent across established migration corridors such as the United States and Mexico, as well as intra-regional transfers across Africa and the Middle East, as migrant workers send money back home from foreign countries.

Mobile remittance forecast by Celent

However, substantial inter-regional and intra-regional activity from and within Western Europe will see this region account for the largest remittance volumes by the end of the forecast period. $55 billion in mobile remittances by 2016


In 2008, Celent estimated that remittances were sent by some 150 million people on a regular basis. By 2050, the number of immigrants worldwide is expected to increase to 280 million, leading to greater remittance volumes and transactions.

In 2006, formal and informal remittances were estimated to be around $450 billion, Celent estimated at the time. Big remittance market 

One of the big issues is how much share mobile remittances can take of the total remittance market. 

Retailers Embracing Mobile Commerce, Though Unevenly

A survey of 110 retailers conducted by Lauren Freedman and the  e-tailing group indicates that digital marketing spend will grow in 2012 across the board. But there are important changes brewing, the survey suggests.  In the coming year, retailers said they may shift those priorities to allocate more spending to search engine optimization, natural search, social strategies (blogs, social networks), email, and re-targeting or behavioral marketing.





Though it seems not to have been a specific question for this particular survey, use of mobile channels also is growing, virtually all studies suggest.  


 In the United States alone, 91 percent of the population owns a cell phone according to Cellular News. A  consumer survey by Sterling Commerce confirms retailer interest in unifying mobile and other channels.  


In spite of these staggering statistics, according to the e-tailing group’s 9^thAnnual Merchant Survey, 73 percent of those surveyed “are not engaging shoppers in mobile in any way.” Still, we seem to be very early in development of mobile channels. Were it comes to "digital" marketing, other channels still seem to be getting most of the attention, at the moment.


 


Regarding revenue generation, merchants surveyed said that they expect top-performing channels will be SEO (31 percent), mobile (m-commerce, iPads, mobile application 30 percent) email (22 percent), paid search (22 percent) and social media (14 percent). Retailer Digital Marketing Spend to Increase Across All Channels in 2012

Verizon Blocking of Google Wallet Likely About Control of Credentials Loading

The decision by Verizon Wireless not to support Google Wallet natively when Verizon begins selling the Galaxy Nexus smart phone in December 2011 illustrates in a couple of ways how decisions about "mere" technology choices can have important business implications.

Verizon Wireless, which owns a significant portion of Isis, a competing mobile wallet system, has clear enough reasons for not wanting to help a competitor gain an advantage, at a time when Isis is not yet been formally launched.

Verizon Wallet says Google Wallet, unlike most apps, "needs to be integrated into a new, secure and proprietary hardware element in our phones." That almost certainly means that Verizon Wireless, as do most mobile service providers who have thought about the matter, want to maintain control over the wallet credentials process by embedding the loading of user authentication information into the subscriber information module (SIM), that a mobile operator controls.

Handset suppliers would prefer an approach that puts the credentials loading process into a new, and separate, element that is not under the control of service providers, again with an eye to avoiding carrier control of the process. At least for the moment, it appears Verizon is going to get its way, at least in terms of maintaining wallet credentials loading through the SIM.

The Google Nexus that works on GSM networks has the NFC chip embedded in the battery, and Verizon might want to have the NFC chip in the SIM card. Others have argued for creating a new micro-SD card that would be the locus for credentials loading. 

Putting the credentials loading into the battery-based element means a user could switch carriers and retain the use of the app. So does the micro-SD approach. Where can the credentials loading occur? 

Since users must get new SIMs when they switch service providers, you can see why there is more potential leverage for a mobile service provider if the credentials management process is in an element controlled by the retail service provider. 

Obviously it should be possible to use the Android Market to allow users to download Google Wallet. One suspects that option will occur at some point, though one also suspects Verizon Wireless might try and extract some concessions from Google to support that capability. Whether payments by Google to use the features of the SIM could be among those business details is unknown.

But Verizon says it is "continuing our commercial discussions with Google on this issue. Verizon Blocks Google Wallet


How mobile payment and mobile wallet credentials get loaded onto a user's phone is way too much "in the weeds" for users to worry about. But the resolution of the question could have significant revenue implications for service providers and wallet providers alike.