After each new post on this site, there is a natural spike in traffic from those who have subscribed to this site via RSS. Traffic increases again significantly when I tag items for facebook newsfeeds. So much so, that it’s now part of my post-publish routine. Friends and colleagues more often refer to my “facebook feeds” than their own RSS feeds.

Call it the natural beacon effect?

Whatever you want to call it, as a blogger or marketer you need to incorporate a facebook strategy as part of your overall marcom plan. 

Blogger tip: Add social bookmarking to your blog template so that people can tag your article to their favorite tool. Also include a twitter push so that everytime an article is published you will automatically tweet your followers with link.

Join me on August 19th as I present “marketing through social networks” - or the impact social media is having on event planning and communications at IncentiveWorks - Canada’s biggest meetings & promotions show.

You can learn more about the show & register here. Ironically, much of their content is served up as PDFs. How web 1.0

Over the last 18 months I’ve given over 50 presentations / pitches and have been on the receiving end of many as well.

Most pitches suck. Mine usually don’t.

Here are some tips for those of you playing schedule battleship with me or another client for that pitch you need to sell to make those numbers in order to justify your job:

1. Confirm agenda / content before meeting. Before you spend all that time building the ultimate deck, presentation or pitch, make sure you are on the same page. There is nothing more irritating than having to sit through a presentation that is of no relevance
2. Confirm how much time you have - and stick to it. If you have an hour meeting, don’t use it all for your presentation. Allow for questions and interactions. Worse yet, don’t go over your alloted time. If the meeting is going really well and you are still running out of time, ask for a time check and confirm they can stay longer or suggest a follow-up time
3. Know your audience. A common mistake is to walk in to a room full of people and launch right into your pitch. Introduce yourself. Get to know the room - make a human connection first… and adjust your tone and approach accordingly
4. Read your audience. If they are checking their blackberries instead of making eye contact with you, chances are they are bored. Pick up the pace, ask a clarifying question, or just get to the point.
5. Practice. Practice. Practice. Your presentation should not be used as your presentation script. Practice at least 3 times before your presentation so that your comfort with the content and flow will be reflected in how it’s delivered
6. Bring your own projector - never expect your client to have one that is compatible with your computer… or assume that it will work
7. Bring your own internet connection. Most corporations are behind firewalls - so it’s silly to assume they’ll have open access for you. Get your own air card / toggle and be prepared if connecting to the net for a demo or whatever is required
8. Print a backup. Print may be dead - but it can save your presentation if you have technological issues
9. Bring your own power bar - it’s amazing how often the plug outlet is exactly 1 foot short of the table you are setting up on
10. Bring your own clicker - use a presentation clicker to advance the slides - this will free you from sitting / standing in one place

Thanks to Scott Ingram who found this gem of an article: 21st century Mobile Marketing: Global insights into the world’s most advanced mobile society: Japan by Christopher Billich from Infinita inc.

This six page PDF report is a must read for anybody wanting a preview into what the North American mobile market could look like in 5 years or less.

Although there are some variables unique to Japan, most of what they’ve accomplished is as a result of early adoption of high speed mobile networks (3G+), fixed data plans, and standards across all carriers for software adoption - all things that are just now falling into place for us in Canada.

There is also a 122 page detailed report available here for $3,000 for those with research budgets at their disposal!

itsmy.com - a popular mobile-only social network with over 1 million registered users announced today that they will be handing over control of ads to their users.

Users can now self-select from 15 categories what types of ads they’d like to receive. For example, there are fashion, sports, and entertainment categories. An initial test of 20,000 users saw 82% make their own ad selection. CTR response rates in the test group was 3%.

This whole strategy is interesting and worth following over the coming months as it’s essentially taking the exact opposite approach of behavioural targeting which has been working great in other online channels.

If they can combine user behavioural targeting with self-selection, my bet is that response rates would improve even more. I would even test a subscription model for self-selecting “no-ads”.

Having said that, many mobile devices do not support cookies or other user tracking mechanisms, so trying out a self-selection model makes sense… for now.

Here’s a re-post of a video demo of their platform from this year’s world mobile congress:

Finally the wait is over.

Your new iphone is coming July 11th and it’s twice as fast as the one you bought in Buffalo a year ago and half the price - making this a device made for the masses.

It’s also coming with pretty much everything we were hoping for. My predictions were mostly right - 7.5 out of 9. The .5 was for saying the new phone would look different… I guessed that the new battery for 3G would make it a thicker device and we now know it will be thinner!

Some are disappointed that the new iphone isn’t coming with a front facing camera (for video chat), or a flash - or even a better camera. Nokia has a 5 meg camera with the N95… couldn’t we at least have a 3 meg camera?

Mobileme is a new feature that looks really interesting. Similar to other services i’ve seen such as SugarSync, Mobile me essentially allows you to synchronize your email, contacts, calendar and documents across multiple computers and your iphone. It also comes with push email - so like the blackberry, you will be instantly notified when email comes in. You even get your own login at me.com (I wonder how much they paid for that domain!) where you can access all your info through a web interface - much like MS Exchange today if you are on a corporate infrastructure.

Besides the business / enterprise updates, there wasn’t much to get excited about on the software front - but that’s ok. The official and non-official developer communities will fill in any missing pieces like they did with the first generation phone.

Having said that, it’s very cool that loopt is now part of the iphone 2.0 platform. Loopt is a mobile social networking platform that incorporates location. I blogged about this months ago here when i said the future of social networking is creepy. At the time i was more jazzed about a similar product from Alcatel called geopepper.

What is interesting is that Steve Jobs used the Treo 750 and Nokia N95 as comparison devices for loading webpages. It’s interesting because he didn’t mention 2 new products that will challenge Apple for downloading speed; the new blackberry bold and thunder (expected to be out this fall) as well as the new Nokia N96 which is a faster & updated version of the N95.

The new iphone, or iphone 2.0 or 3G iphone is a huge leap forward from the first version released over a year ago, but it’s still not the mostly technically advanced or sophisticated when compared to devices that are already on the market.

Having said that, who cares.

It’s not about the technology, it’s about the experience. Like I’ve said before, a great user experience will trump great technology and Apple has improved on something that was already pretty super awesome.

Why is that good news for Marketers?

Consider this… 98 percent of iphone users are browsing online, 94 percent are using email and 90 percent are texting. Approximately 80 percent are using 10 or more of the phone’s features.

For marketers who think mobile marketing is only about text 2 win campaigns, the introduction of the iphone and other competing products this year will make the mobile device a rich environment to acquire, retain, or grow customers beyond the 100,000 or so iphones that already migrated here in the last year.

Today Steve Jobs is expected to announced the new iphone which is rumoured to be 3G based - meaning it can take advantage of high speed mobile networks.

The Rogers 3G network covers all the major city centres and / or about 60% of the country. It’s expected that the new iphone will be made available to 50 new markets this year - including Canada.

Back in April when Rogers announced that they had an exclusive to sell the iphones in Canada I made some predictions on what to expect.

Read those here and let’s compare notes in a few hours after the announcement!

I received an advance copy of a report being released today by Greystripe which has some interesting statistics for those of you interested in advertising on mobile gaming platforms.

The data is fresh - based on research from Feb 15 through May 15, 2008.

Here are 5 arbitrary highlights:

1. Average worldwide clickthrough rate for ads on the Greystripe mobile ad network is a remarkable 10.1%. This is around 6 times higher than average mobile banner ad programs
2. 47% of mobile gamers are between the age of 18-24. That number jumps to 75% when you look at 18-34
3. Men and women are pretty equally split in terms of usage (60/40)
4. 51% of gamers are the primary purchase decision makers in the household (although no word on whether living in your parents basement counts as a separate household or not)
5. Favorite types of mobile games (in order): Puzzles, Action, Arcade, Adventure, Mobile-Pets

Although no Canadian specific stats were made available in the detailed report, I’ve asked if any can be made available to be posted on this blog.

Marketers looking to reach the coveted 18-34 demographic should consider a test campaign using the mobile gaming channel.  With exponential growth in the console gaming advertising market over the last few years, mobile is a natural extension of that market.  

Greystripe is a leading ad-supported content distributor with over 65 million mobile game downloads to date. 

Click here to see my previous post on them from CTIA with a video demo of their product.

You can also request the full report by emailing insights @ greystripe dot com.

comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, announced last week the acquisition of M:Metrics, Inc., the recognized leader in mobile measurement.

As a combined company, comScore becomes the immediate leader in measuring the mobile channel.

Although data provided by M:Metrics has not traditionally included Canada, this move is part of a global initiative to be the leader in measuring mobile.

I met up with Bryan Segal, VP of Sales at comScore recently in Kelowna for a CMO conference on Social Media. When asked about measuring mobile, he was quick to say they are committed to providing mobile data in Canada. After the announcement came out last week, I asked him about his his thoughts on the new acquisition:

Yes we are very happy with this news, as our acquisition of M:Metrics makes comScore an immediate market leader in this space. As for Canada we are continually working to bring mobile measurement to the marketplace, and this acquisition of M:Metrics will hopefully facilitate and expedite this process.

This is good news for marketers who are looking for credible and deeper access to usage and experience data within the mobile channel. 

Having a global view of user behaviour across all digital channels will be incredibly useful as we continue to work mobile into our integrated marketing programs.

Here’s a real technology that looks like it’s from the Star Trek holodeck.

Musion has integrated their 3D holographic display technology with Cisco’s TelePrescence’s system to create the world’s first real time virtual presentaion.

You no longer need to travel across the globe to give that pitch to a client or provide a motivational speach to employees in a far away region or country or make that presentation at a conference your really didn’t want to go to anyway.

Click here to see the 11 minute video demonstration of this! You can also get more details on this technology from the Musion website.   

Thanks to Craig Ritchie who found & forwarded this link to me yesterday.