It should come as no surprise that companies are using blogs. A lot. In fact, blogs fill a specific niche that other forms of social media do not. It is estimated that this year just over one in three companies have a public-facing blog used for marketing (which is expected to rise to 43% by 2012). Studies have come to show that marketers perceive blogs to have the highest value in driving site traffic, brand awareness, lead generation and sales.

Facebook has recently acquired a $40 million set of patents on social networking that cover social app functions (ranging from friend lists to the news feed) from Friendster. Friendster has been awarded a wide array of social networking patents over the last decade and, according to VentureBeat, there are 18 patents in all. These patents are overly obvious, in the sense that they are very broad. One patent, for example, covers “a system, method, and apparatus for connecting users in an online computer system based on the relationship within social networks.”

On July 6, 2010, Fast Company Magazine unveiled The Influence Project to determine who the most influential online people are right now. Participants will have their picture featured in the November issue of the magazine as part of a photo spread, with bigger pictures for those who demonstrate the most influence.

The magazine describes influence as not only having the most friends of followers, but about being able to affect the behavior of those you interact with (to get others in your social network to act on a suggestion or recommendation). A prime example would be posting a link or recommending a site: how many people would bother to check it out? How many would forward it on? Exactly how far does your influence spread?

In order to determine influence (which, in turn, determines the size of your picture), Fast Company follows two measures:

1. The number of people who directly click on your unique URL link. This indicates the primary measure of your influence.

2. Partial “credit” is issued for subsequent clicks generated by those who sign-up as a result of your URL (anyone who comes to the site through your link and signs up for their own account is spreading your influence while also spreading their own). Fractional credits—such as 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, etc.—are given for clicks generated up to six degrees away from your original link.

The end result is Fast Company’s “most influential person”, who demonstrates the greatest overall influence by the deadline of August 15, 2010.

Fast Company is a business magazine that produces 10 issues per year, reporting on such topics as digital media, technology, change management, design and social responsibility.

Facebook and Twitter: everyone’s favorite guilty pleasure. The brand new iPad: an immediate favorite among Apple lovers. Combine the three and the result is an enhanced, mobile means of checking statuses and posting Tweets. As just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, it does. Flipboard, a start-up that will be releasing its iPad app on Wednesday, will declutter everything visually.

Typically, when visiting these two social networking sites, there is a long list of status updates (with thumbnail photos on Facebook and shortened links on Twitter) that aren’t particularly easy to navigate through. Twitter is the bigger of the two problems, with its founders discussing the need to make it more accessible and easier to navigate. Flipboard now makes all of this much easier.

The app builds a personalized magazine full of updates, photos and articles shared by a reader’s friends or friends that they choose to follow on Twitter and Facebook. Status updates are arranged to look like pull quotes with prominent photo displays. Rather than linking to an article, users are able to read the first few paragraphs and are able to comment (and if wanting to read more on links or user’s pages, it is easy to connect to that webpage). Data selections are made by a start up called Ellerdale that will analyze and filter real-time data streams.

In an effort to create more effective ads on web pages, Flipboard will feature advertisements that are reminiscent of print. Rather than viewing small advertisements (in which companies are competing for space), iPad users will see less intrusive full-page ones. The company plans to make money by offering content in exchange for payments or subscriptions and sharing revenue with the publisher.

iPods, cell phones, iPads: globally successful wireless technology that is continuing to take off. With the invention of applications (whether free or purchased), consumers have the ability to do, well, pretty much anything. Looking up movie times and purchasing tickets? Easy. Scanning a bar code to view nutrition facts? Done. Changing your voice via autotune? You’ve got it. The spectrum of applications ranges from strange to unbelievably convenient, and the number of available applications is growing with each passing day.

Six major apps are among the most successful: Pulse, Square, Layar, Zynga, Fring, and EA Mobile.
Pulse, created by Stanford Institute of Design’s grad students Akshay Kothari and Ankit Gupta, is a $3.99 iPad news reader with an upscale user interface. Apple’s CEO recently called Pulse “a wonderful RSS reader, one of the most creative iPad apps to date.”

Square, created by glass artist, Jim McKelvey, and Twitter creator, Jack Dorsey, is an app that allows any given merchant to swipe and process a credit card transaction from their phone (through a free add-on device). This innovative and convenient technology is available for Androids, iPones, iPads and iPod Touches. Square charges a processing fee of $.15 and 2.75% of the total transaction amount.

Layar, created by Dutch company SPRXmobile, works with augmented reality. Users who download this free app simply point the camera on their smartphone at their surroundings and Layar points out interesting points of reference (such as stores, restaurants, ATMS, etc.).

Zynga, made by the creators of Farmville, makes money by charging users for virtual goods that they use
in online games. Consumers pay for items such as animals, fuel and tractors that are used for games like Farmville, Zynga Poker, and Mafia Wars.

Fring is a program used for free mobile calls, live chat, and video chat among users. This app offers what the iPhone 4 doesn’t: convenient chatting amongst Android, Symbian OS, and iOS-loaded cellular devices.

EA Mobile offers interactive games such as Scrabble for iPad, Madden NFL, and Need for Speed. Users can play games by moving their mobile device around or even flicking their wrist.

As long as demand increases and ideas keep flowing, there’s no limit to the possibility of mobile device applications.

If you’ve ever wondered what all the buzz over the new iPhone was about, head over to apple.com to check out the features. With new features like FaceTime, it’s no wonder why so many are talking about it. The iPhone 4 lets you make video conferencing calls on a mobile phone, something that was only an idea a few years ago. But then again, the idea of accessing the internet through a mobile phone was once only an idea as well.

Don’t want to lug your camera, camcorder, and phone all over the place when you’re on vacation? No worries. The new iPhone includes a 5mp camera and is able to record and edit movies in 720p high definition. All in a package that is 9.3mm thin, right there in your pocket.

If you’re worried about your phone breaking if you drop it, worry no longer. The new phone comes with strengthened glass that is more scratch resistant, and a stainless steel band to secure the phone’s parts which also serves as the phone’s antenna.

Problems with multitasking or running multiple apps with your old iPhone? Problem solved. Apple has answered this with the Apple A4 mobile processor. The new processor is designed to answer many of the previous iPhone’s problems, all while claiming not to reduce battery life. The new operating system lets you run, say, a GPS app while listening to music or running other apps, all without reducing the phone’s performance. A more powerful phone with a more power efficient processor is what iPhone patrons asked for, and it’s exactly what they got.

Need some information? Need some help managing your money, or anything else during your day? There’s an app for that. Literally. With over 200,000 at Apple’s app store, you shouldn’t have trouble finding what you need. Some of which are even free. The phone also includes a program called Genius, which suggests apps to you based on the ones that you already have.

Those aren’t the only features that made the phone a hit. With the web and unparalleled video & audio connectivity and your fingertips, Apple’s improvement to a proven product is sure to be a hit with consumers.

What does this mean for marketing your products and services? With more and more people accessing the web by mobile phone, the greater the shift of the venue where people will get their information. The Web is a growing opportunity and vast information source. How will your business be found on the Web? Contact Interactivity Marketing and let us help you create your opportunity today.

Apple’s battle with Adobe over its Flash software jumped to a new level this week with the publishing of a more than 1600 word essay from Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc.  In the essay Job’s claims “Flash was created during the PC era- for PC’s and mice.  The mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open Web standards- all areas where Flash falls short.”

Flash, the most popular video format on the web and is also used for animation and advertising, has been banned from iPhones, iPods, and iPads.

Frustration has been expressed by media and advertising companies about Apple’s stance on Flash because many of their online video and other content use flash.

Apple’s anti-flash policy is not new, but gained notoriety in January when the iPad was first demonstrated publicly.  When using small devices like the iPhone consumers except a smaller Website, but on the much larger iPad consumers thought they would be able to watch videos on the product’s large browser.

Another key to the battle is the new version of Adobe’s Creative Suite software, which includes tools for using the Flash component to build iPhone apps.  Right before the new version was formally unveiled Apple changed its App Store’s terms of use to not allow the apps written with the new software.

The ban has left many developers in caught in the middle.  With Apple’s ban on Flash a divide has been created in the media and technology industries.  Adobe supports have created an “Im with Adobe” page on Facebook that has grown to 11,000 members.

For any questions on website or phone application design or development contact Interactivity Marketing.

Thursday Apple announced the features and proposed launching of the iPhone OS 4 software for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. For  Appple product users and fans the announcement was much anticipated.  OS 4.0 software will be available this summer for the iPhone and iPod touch, but will not be available for the iPad until the fall.  Not all iPhones and iPod touches will be able to download the new software.  The iPhone 3G and 3GS and the iPod Touch 32GB and 64GB will be eligible to download OS 4.0.

Over a 100 new features will be added with OS 4.0.  New features that were released in the announcement include multitasking, game center, folders, ibooks, and better mail.  Multitasking will allow users to text and browse the internet while still listening to their favorite song.  Game center is a new social gaming network Apple is starting.  The new folder system will let users organize apps into folders for quicker and easier access to apps with the ability to manage up to 2160 apps.  IBooks is an app currently available on the iPad and features a bookshelf that allows readers to download books, many free, to the bookshelf and read them at their own pace.  Email updates will include the ability to view all email accounts in one inbox.

Love it or hate it, the iPad is the topic of conversation the web is buzzing about. Yesterday Trendrr revealed that there were 177,000 tweets alone in the first hour after the announcement. But what was the sentiment behind those tweets? Now we know. Read More

Out of all the social media tools out there, the one that people go to in order to figure out what’s hot on the web has to be Twitter. With millions of tweets crossing its servers and constantly updated trending topics, it’s easy to find out what’s happening right now.

We’re taking it a step further with a new series, Top Twitter Topics, a weekly recap of what people were buzzing about in the Twitterverse. Thanks to What The Trend, we know what events captured… Continue Reading