MonjesMedia

In today’s information saturated world, it is often challenging to distill truly useful information from all of the messages we are bombarded with on a daily basis. This is especially true when it comes to social media.

Organizations can benefit greatly from listening to various channels within the social media space. The question is, how can sifting through such vast amounts of information be done in an efficient manner and generate useful results at the same time?

Below is an interactive worksheet created by Chad Norman and Danielle Brigida, which provides a very useful framework to listen for keywords, create a social media dashboard, analyze tweets and develop a strategic response plan.

May the feedback be with you!

As a fan of standup comedy, I’m fortunate enough to have two friends from way back when who make a living telling jokes across our great nation.

Below is a short clip of Andrew Norelli from his latest appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

If you like what you see here, you can catch this Friday and Saturday night at Laughs Comedy Spot in Kirkland, WA.  Enjoy!

In an epic display of soccer, Saturday evening, The United States national soccer team tied Argentina 1-1 in front of a capacity crowd at New Meadowlands Stadium, in New Jersey.

Both teams brought their full squads and displayed moments of brilliance. This is what world futbol is all about.

Enjoy highlights from the beautiful game, below:

As a student of Communication, my interest in all things digital spurs my passion for social media. In his new book, Paul Levinson provides a rocket paced overview of the newest of new media tools penetrating our society.
Follow Paul Levinson on Twitter >
Add Paul Levinson as a friend on Facebook >

web design for ROI

As we all know, the Web serves many purposes to millions of users all around the world on a daily basis. From school children doing research in Senegal, to the youth chatting away in cybercafés in countries throughout Asia, each user has a specific goal he or she wishes to accomplish online.

Among the most popular uses of the Internet, lies one which many can not ignore – eCommerce. According for Forrester Research, “US online retail reached $175 billion in 2007 and is projected to grow to $335 billion by 2012.” It goes without saying that with such a steep growth curve, it is within an organization’s best interest to invest in online commerce in an effort to create the best user experience possible.

My latest read, Web Design for ROI, addresses design issues unique to eCommerce sites. Authors, Lance Loveday and Sandra Niehaus have divided the material into 10 easily digestible chapters which provide specific design guidelines for landing pages, home pages, category pages, detail pages, forms and the checkout process. Along with UI design issues, the authors include key metrics to look out for and provide resources for further reading.

Although I am only seven chapters into the book, I already feel like I’ve gotten my money’s worth from the purchase. It’s reference material like this that keeps designers at the top of their game and users whipping out their credit cards (even during a recession).

Two great reads on Email and Social Media Marketing

In today’s media saturated market, connecting with your audience has become more challenging than ever before. It is estimated that we are exposed to as many as 3000 marketing messages per day. I don’t know about you, but I can’t possibly wrap my head around that much information in a week, let alone one single day. My latest reads, “Email Marketing – An Hour a Day” and “Social Media Marketing – An Hour a Day” offer outstanding overviews of email and social media marketing, how they can proliferate your message and how they can be implemented within any organization.

Written by, Jeanniey Mullen and David Daniels, “Email Marketing – An Hour a Day” has proven to be a fantastic introduction to the principles of email marketing.  Covering such concepts as email design, landing page design, segmentation, and trigger emails, Mullen and Daniels provide the reader with a solid roadmap to email marketing.  From compiling your email list to statistical tracking once your email has been sent, Mullen and Daniels cover all of the elements critical to developing  a top notch email campaign by anyone’s standards.

While email marketing may significantly increase revenues, the power and utility in social media marketing is not to be overlooked. Just three chapters into the book, I am now looking at Twitter, Facebook,  and YouTube from an entirely different perspective. “Social Media Marketing – An Hour a Day” begins with explaining the foundation of social media marketing, then goes into preparing for and executing your campaign across a variety of media channels. From defining the construct of social marketing to explaining the metrics and defining ROI, author, Dave Evans provides a comprehensive resource for launching your own successful social media marketing campaign.

Both books can be purchased on Amazon via the links below. Enjoy!

EMAIL MARKETING – AN HOUR A DAY
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING – AN HOUR A DAY

Photo courtesy of NPR

While taking in my daily dose of NPR stories this evening, I ran across a fantastic story on photographer, Julius Shulman. As a designer, I have a deep appreciation of photography and architecture.  Shulman, who masterfully brings architecture to life through his work, has been a long time favorite of mine.  Julius Shulman’s thoughtfully laid out images reflect his intimate relationship and understanding of the subject and world around him at the very least. Shulman has created a multitude of iconic images.  The photograph above is entitled, Case Study House #22

To learn more about Shulman’s work, give the story a listen (or a read) at NPR.org.

With all of the buzz surrounding Twitter and Facebook lately, I feel compelled to share a video I recently came across on YouTube, explaining what social media is, in layman’s terms. While watching the clip, please keep the following question in mind: What is social media?

Although you may think you know the answer to this question, you may only be partially correct. To most of us social media is a way to connect with friends and family. To organizations, however, it represents an entirely new way of communicating with potential customers in the marketplace.

A well run social media campaign can save an organization millions of ad dollars each year. Social media and eMarketing campaigns hold a tremendous advantage over traditional media channels; trackable metrics. With it’s ability to connect, along with it’s ability to be tracked, social media is an arena that your business can no longer afford to avoid.  Enjoy!

During the early AM hours last Sunday, inside a dimly lit server room somewhere in the ether, Skittles.com made the switch from a conventional candy retailers site to what can be described as a social networking hub.

Upon visiting Skittles.com, users are taken directly to the candy maker’s Twitter stream. In lieu of any conventional form of navigation, the user is instead greeted by a widget-like console which floats directly on top of the Twitter stream itself. Users can click on links reading: Home, Products, Media, Chatter, Friends and Contact; which in turn link to Skittles’ profile pages on Wikipedia, Flickr, YouTube, and Facebook.

In what is being viewed as an intelligent and innovative move within the social marketing and E-marketing communities,  Skittles is essentially speaking to its audience using the language of its audience.  While doing so, Skittles is aligning itself with some of the Web’s hottest and best known brands. Through simple brand associations, Skittles is letting the public know that they not only get them, and feel them, but also that they are one of them.

While the concept is very good, the execution leaves a bit to be desired. From a Web usability standpoint, the widget-like navigation is a little obtrusive. While users can minmize the component, there is no way to recloate it to a different part of the screen. On most sites, this covers up the top left quadrant of the page, which usability studies show, is one hot piece of web real estate and often where very important information can be found on sites across the Internet. Please, Skittles, add “drag and drop” functionality to the component and you’ll improve what is already a very strong social makeover.

Although I personally don’t believe Skittle’s latest campaign reflects a website architecture  that will be widely adopted by other organizations, I do believe it recognizes the importance of connecting with members of the community, on a never before seen level. Skittles definitely gets it. Kudos to you!