Before starting, let me share a personal note.

I’m sharing this case study for 2 reasons:

1. Many of you might find it interesting.
2. I’d like to submit it to the attention of Christopher Penn and John Wall for their annual MOC Awards.

This is a case study that my team and I over at itive.net would have released at the beginning of next year once we reopened the doors of our website, which is currently under re-design, but since the deadline for MOC submissions is in December we thought to send this out a bit earlier.

The reason why I thought to submit this case study instead of others is because I noticed that QR codes are a reoccurring topic that keep being discussed at MOC, so I hope that John, Chris and the MOC community will find it interesting.

I’ve been a long time faithful MOC listener, but without much time to contribute due to my busy schedule. So beyond everything, I just hope this project will give something back to the amazing work that John & Chris are doing and indeed to the great MOC community.

Andrea

Logistia Technology Center (Finland)

Description

The Logistia Technology Center is the #1 Science Park in Finland.

Companies based at the Logistia Technology Center don’t always have personel 24/7 at their offices. Some of them have headquarters outside the Technology Center and use the office at Logistia only to receive prospects, leads and customers during certain hours or days per week. Generally, the large majority of the offices are unattended during lunch breaks, holidays or closing days.

Objectives

The aim of this project was to:

• Enable visitors to get in touch with companies when their representatives are not there to receive them.
• Help the companies generate and nurture leads by offering an engaging experience to visitors.

The Context

The initial analysis that we conducted in the beginning of 2011 during the planning phase of this project highlighted two very interesting factors:

• Finland has a mobile penetration rate of more than 150%, which is really high compared to the rest of Western Europe. We decided to go mobile.
• QR Codes are among the new emerging technologies that are starting to be utilized to link people to context-sensitive digital content. The pilot tests that we ran at itive confirmed QR Codes as the tactical tech to be adopted for this project.

The Idea

We created a “Digital Assistant” that can be activated by the Logistia Technology Center’s visitors by scanning a QR code when company representatives are out of the office at the time a visitor comes by to see them. Focus: help companies “fill the gap” and keep generating & nurturing target audiences while away from the office.

How does it work?

When scanned, the QR Digital Assistant displays a mobile “touch-and-connect” interface that enables prospects, leads and customers to contact the company representatives with a simple touch from their mobile devices via phone, Skype call, email or Twitter.

In addition to that, depending on the needs of each company, the QR Digital Assistant provides information about hours of operation, special promotions/offers or other informational material about the company that can be downloaded with a simple touch in PDF format directly to the visitor’s mobile device thanks to the free Wifi offered by the Logistia Technology Center.

Results

In the respect of the confidentiality expressed by some of the companies that adopted the QR Digital Assistant, the following stats represent the average of the data collected and analyzed during the first 9 months of the project. We are currently monitoring traffic and usage of the QR Digital Assistants and we’ll keep updating this page with new stats as soon as they’re available.

• 52% adoption rate among the companies with offices located at the Logistia Technology Center.
• The connection rate was a stunning 98% – this means that out of the 52% of the companies that chose to use the QR Digital Assistant, 98% got “scanned-through” and successfully connected with their target prospects, leads or existing customers.
• On the other hand, the frequency rate with which the codes were scanned is less impressive and varied between 1 to 7 times per month.
• The companies that received the highest scan-through frequency were those that operate in IT/Web Services, Logistics and Regional Development offices. The ones that received the lowest frequency were Consulting Firms.

Interesting findings!

As we analyzed the data, we noticed that some of the incoming traffic wasn’t just coming from Finland, but from other countries as well. What we discovered was that some of the visitors who scanned the QR codes sent them via email to foreign contacts or team members who eventually utilized the codes from abroad.

This was most likely the case of teams/delegations that were visiting the Logistia Technology Center, but are actually based outside of Finland. This was an unexpected result and a metric that we didn’t think of including in the initial measurement plan. We were happy to find this in our analysis. Thanks to this metric we will be able to keep understanding which “countries” are visiting the Technology Center, and consequentially help Logistia’s companies to better engage foreign target audiences, as well.

Closing note: As I mentioned at the beginning of this post itive.net is currently under re-design. If you are interested in more case studies like this one I would suggest signing up for our newsletter at itive.net. You’ll be the first to know when the site is back up along with interesting tips & insights from our team. Andrea

Photo: QR Digital Assistants installed at the Logistia Technology Center

This infographic was designed by Patrick Moberg. I had a look at his work over at patrickmoberg.com and liked it very much. I actually found out about his work last year and decided to save the infographic in my online life set on flickr together with other interesting images I’ve collected around the web.

Long story short, the infographic that I shared on Flickr received over 500,000 views, has an average trend of +1,000 views a day and this week even broke the wall of 11,000 views in 24 hours. So I thought that if my network loved it on Flickr, you, my faithful subscribers and companions of digital adventures might find it interesting as well.

This is why I decided to also share it here introducing Patrick to you and giving him the credit he deserves for his terrific work. Those of you who have been reading this blog over the years know that I keep a close eye on talented artists that step smartly into this digital world.

If you or your company need some stylish infographics, now you have another name to add to your list!

Andrea

UPDATE:

Big thank you to @vascellari for a great presentation on current, new and emerging technology. A+++. Visit itive.net.

— Ad Club of Toledo (@adclubtoledo) November 16, 2011

The Advertising Club of Toledo recently invited me as the guest speaker for their monthly luncheon program held at the Toledo Club in – you guessed it – Toledo, Ohio.

My presentation focused on strategic online advertising and marketing, but in order to make sure I addressed the interests and questions of people who would be attending the luncheon, I created a survey that people could fill out and submit beforehand so I could tailor a few points to their input.
It was very exciting to see how many people filled out the surveys and just how active AdClub members are. Needless to say, it made my experience that much more enjoyable knowing how interested the audience was in the industry!

My talk is broken down into 4 main points:

• You – refers specifically to those who filled out the online survey, interesting numbers even if you’re not an AdClub member
• Context – why branding is the core element of marketing & advertising
• Branding in the Digital Age – defining the role of branding in the “attention era”
• Social Media Implementation – how to strategically use social media at different stages

You can view the slides from my talk below or click through to my SlideShare page where you’ll find this presentation + more:

Again, I’d like to thank the AdClub of Toledo for having me as their guest speaker and a very special thanks to Joe, Nick and their team at UP Design Group for sponsoring my presentation. As always, I invite you to send me your feedback by either commenting here on my blog or by visiting my profile on LinkedIn and leaving a recommendation there. You can also feel free to follow me on Twitter and I encourage you to subscribe to the itive newsletter for more tips and upcoming industry related updates.

Andrea

On November 16th, I’ll be speaking at the Advertising Club of Toledo‘s monthly luncheon program in Toledo, Ohio (U.S.A.). The general theme of my talk will be about strategic online advertising and marketing.

As I finish to prepare my presentation, I would like to know what AdClub members are most interested in learning about, their professional background, and their level of experience in the “digital space”, so that I can tailor a few points of my presentation to their interests and experiences.

For example, would AdClub members like to know more about how to use social media within their advertising/marketing strategies? About the importance of creating relevant content as part of a digital strategy? Or perhaps about any campaigns with a positive ROI where new tactics made the difference?

Those are just a couple of examples to get the juices flowing, but please go ahead and fill out the following form and I will incorporate your interests into my final presentation.

You can also feel free to email me at andrea@itive.net or @/DM me on Twitter - @vascellari

And just a friendly remember that registration for the luncheon must be made by Monday, November 14th.

Thanks for your input and I look forward to meeting and speaking with you on November 16th!
I’d like to thank Joe & Nick from UlrichPinciotti Design Group for sponsoring my presentation.

Andrea

Almost there! My team and I have been busy putting our blood, sweat and tears into the restructuring and upcoming launch of our new “digital brain” at itive.net. We’re almost ready to go, but have a few more details to wrap up. In the meantime, I encourage you to head over to the site and take a sneak peek at our new look. While you’re there:

• you can check out our latest video
• and sign up for our newsletter

so you’ll be in the loop when the site is back up and running 100% . Of course, I always appreciate your feedback so if you’d like, go ahead and let me know what you think of the new style!

Andrea

Our economic system is collapsing. This “recession” is just a joke. A recession? A recession from what? From this purposeless system we created?

This is just the tip of the iceberg and things are about to get worse.

Admit it, ignore it. We are all well aware of how much we pushed the boundaries and how much this going to cost us.
You can argue about a whole lot of things, but there’s just one and only truth. Balance.

You can try to change, move and push every single law that governs the natural world we are living in as much as you want, but guess what…it will all go back to a perfect point of balance.

We pushed. We pushed too much and even worse we “created” on top of these absurd and unsustainable abstract systems that we think “can” live in fictional bubbles. One of the many examples? This senseless monetary system.

Where are we going people? This, all this, is just ri-di-cu-lous.
Am I against money? Well… a currency system can be a good thing if it’s managed the right way, if you know what I mean.

You might think that I’m crazy, but actually I believe that I’ve never been more concrete in my entire life and the more time goes by the more I feel like we all just missed the damn point.

It’s not about the money, it’s about us. Us.

Anyway, if this rings any bells or moves something inside of you, drop a comment and I’ll be happy to talk more about this in future posts…this indeed if you are not trapped in a pointless “social-freaking-media” bubble that stops you or makes you lazy enough to not comment on this. Nothing against social media…I like it, but way too many people are missing the point on that, too.

I will just reply to comments here on my blog.

Andrea

Kristi Hines (@kikolani) published a nice list of “The 20 most influential people in social media” and Simon Kemp (@eskimon) did a good job in this thread reminding us all that since more than 80% of the world’s social media users live outside of the US it would be a good idea to add some other influential names beyond America’s shores to the list.

Brava Kristi and bravo Simon. So far so good.

Krishna De is an outstanding communicator and a long time digital-friend. She suggested that I could be considered as an influencer in Finland. First of all, I’d like to thank Krishna for mentioning me as an influencer. I tend to work with my “head down”, putting all the passion and commitment I have into everything I do in this industry. Ultimately, my greatest reward is to see a satisfied smile on the face of whoever I’m working with because what we did together meant something to them and made a difference. So, when someone points me out for any reason related to what I do, I feel honored.

Secondly, though, after reading the following comment I felt that I should probably clarify my position a bit and give out a little bit more information about what I do since I have been – and still am – very involved in the Finnish social media and technology space…

If you can’t see/load the picture above:

Jaana Nyström - +Krishna De New York in Finland now?  +Andrea Vascellari has nothing to do with Finland, I think? Must be an error this…

Not wanting to promote myself but I’m the “Google+ envoy in Finland”, according to the local Google Industry Manager… At least I’m diligent!

For those of you who have been connected with me for a while now, you are probably aware that my company and I work on international projects, but for the sake of this thread on G+, here’s my reply which just focuses on some of the ways I’ve been “influential” in Finland.

Hi Everyone,

Hi Jaana,

Jaana I’ve been living and working in Finland since 2005 and I’ve been researching and studying the Finnish information society cluster since 2002.

In Finland, I’m currently running several projects for national and local governments, regional development, B2B, B2C, pharma and education. If you have a look at the people/connections we commonly share here on Google+ you’ll notice that I’m well-networked with the Finnish social media sphere

I’m often a contributor to various international podcasts sharing my point of view from the Finnish perspective (but not only, since I have Italian-Canadian roots) specifically in the fields of PR, marketing and communications. In addition to that, since public speaking is part of what I do, I’ve been invited to speak at some of the largest conferences in Finland i.e. Mindtrek, ITK, etc. If you quickly browse through my Linkedin profile you’ll notice that I’ve been invited as an official blogger to many industry conferences, such as the LeWeb, Web 2.0 Expo, etc. and I’ve also represented Finland at two editions of the Bloggers World Forum respectively in Bucharest and Vienna. So these are most likely some of the reasons why you’ll find a fairly large group of people worldwide referring to me when they think of Finland – it’s the same for me when I think of Ireland and 2 names immediately come to mind Krishna De (@krishnade) and Bernie Goldbach (@topgold).

On the other hand, leading an international digital strategy agency requires me to travel quite often, but my home is currently in Finland. My team and I work across 4 continents and we recently opened a new office in New York (NYC) so the information you see on my Twitter profile refers to that. I hope this explains and clarifies everything.

Andrea @vascellari

- Good to meet you, Jaana. Andrea

“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t so you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.” -Unknown

A nice shot I took this summer in Venice (Italy)

Good question. A lot of people have been asking, so I thought to share an open, global answer to give all of you an update.

Besides the fact that I recently got married in the beautiful country of Italy I just came back to Finland where my executive team and I started to work on the new master plan for our company‘s next evolution stage. Our industry, technology, people… so much is changing and I believe it’s time for us to change gears in order to stay on top of the game and keep supporting our clients at best.

I’m very excited about the projects we are working on and I’m absolutely thrilled to put our new plan into action.

I’ll probably share more info about this here on my blog along the way, so stay tuned!

Talk to you soon,

Andrea

@Leah: I felt the same way the first time I met you… <3

Project after project, I realize that it is a small (too small) number of people who actually put their heart & soul into what they do.
The large majority doesn’t care. They do something because they have to or because they kind of like it enough to keep doing it until they get bored and drop it.

The only truth is that many people are not 100% in love with what they do.

So my suggestion is: Quit right now and do something you love more than anything else, otherwise your lack of commitment will just keep causing never ending problems for the people who work with you. Period.

Do you have any thoughts to share? As usual, you are more than welcome.

Andrea

I’m sure you noticed how handy it is to manage friends on Facebook listing them under specific groups/lists. The problem is that the process to group the friends is pretty painful. Circlehack solves this problem turning this into a flawless experience with a simple click & drag interface – see screenshot above.

Hat tip to Leah D’Emilio for the great suggestion.

Andrea

Do you know what’s missing here? Me, the real me.

Sounds crazy I know, but it’s true.
I spent the last few years sharing tons of valuable stuff that can help you to succeed online. I did it because I believed in it, because I wanted to help people and because the time was right. Now all the late comers joined the party and it seems to me that there’s nothing else to read online. “How to do this, what to to do to get the best out of that, or 1,000 tips to kick ass on this other thing…”

What’s missing is the personal perspective on things.

So, I think it’s time for me to change gears and share my experience from a different perspective.
Because when you need to find out ‘what’ or ‘how’ in order to do this or that, what do you do? You search on Google and you find all the answers.

From now on, you won’t find the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ here, I’ll leave that to Google. On my blog, you’ll find the ‘why’.

And you’ll find an absolutely unique ‘why’ because it’s going to always be from my experience, which is something that no one else will be able to tell you. That’s the new value that I’ll offer and share with you.

At times you might actually end up disagreeing with me, but hey…isn’t learning from each other the best part of a sincere discussion? It will be great to do this on a new and different level.

Every now and then, I might share an interesting post on what and how you should keep your eyes on things, but I’ll focus more on this new direction.

Love it? Hate it? Questions?

This is my digital living room and you are welcome here. Grab a drink and let’s talk.

Andrea

P.S. If you like the new vibe, here’s my RSS feed and this is my newsletter. Let’s stay tuned.

Google? Search.

Facebook? Social.

AOL? Media.

Twitter? Conversation.

Amazon? Commerce.

…

Yahoo? …Hmmmm?

Every single web company makes me think of at least one clear keyword that defines them, but Yahoo? For me it used to be “news”. Sure, there were other things related to it – email, search, etc – but that’s what it meant to me back in the day. What is Yahoo? Yahoo. Hmm. It doesn’t ring a bell. Or actually I should say it rings too many bells resulting in a chaotic sound instead of the one clear one Yahoo used to have. I thought about it again today when I read this post on Mashable. In fact, I was thinking about Yahoo’s future one year ago after I watched  this video on Techcrunch (above). Now, I’m left wondering what I’ll be thinking about Yahoo next year and where Yahoo will be next year…

Your take?

Andrea

photo credit: bass_nroll

Speed of Innovation? It’s fast, fast, fast and in case you didn’t get it, it’s faster than ever before.

New fields are emerging and with no surprise we have a huge number of new jobs emerging.
The crazy growth of some of these fields forces anyone who wants to stay on top to invest not just a couple of hours a week but to focus full time on it.

Organizations that pretend to achieve objectives in these new emerging fields only by stretching internal resources, aka overcharging existing staff with even more work, are not going to go anywhere. The only thing they will achieve is stressing people out and lowering the overall level of performance.
You must invest in new internal or external resources.

Organizations must foster innovation, and not suppress it under fake illusions just to convince themselves that they are moving in the ‘right’ direction.

Andrea

I mean, what are you going to do if you are no longer connected on Facebook?
Andrea

Backlinks are good because they prove the usefulness of your site i.e. I write a good post and people link back to it sharing or giving credit to me on their blogs, etc.

‘Pathetic’ is the only word that, in my opinion, can describe the latest series of attempts of certain individuals to get backlinks.

They write you an email in which there’s no link to their personal sites/blogs or sites of organizations they work for, etc. (first red flag) At times they even write you claiming that they previously wrote you even if they never did (second red flag)…(yes, there are other red flags, but I think you get the picture).

The message they send you is basically a condensed mix of useless compliments with the only aim of praising you to get in return a post with a link to their/the content that they are trying to build authority for.

Over time I received several of these requests, but today I’m sharing this one from Mxxx Txxxxxxxx. He didn’t just do a great job in bothering me, polluting my email inbox and wasting my time, but apparently something also went wrong with the research he did on me (that I’m sure he did before contacting me, right Mxxx?) …because I don’t have a daughter (at least not yet)!

You’ll find the message below.

This is hilarious and sad at the same time. I’m sharing this to remind you to take distance from people like this who want to offer you similar services or shady guest posts. And yes, please make sure to do some good research before you try to get in touch with me. If you don’t know where to start, here’s an entire post that includes valuable tips on how to reach out to someone.

Andrea

On Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 4:38 PM, Mxxx Txxxxxxxx wrote:

Dear Andrea,

This is Mxxx Txxxxxxxx, writer and website usability consultant – hope this e-mail finds you (and your daughter) well! I would like to begin by saying that I appreciate how unusual most of your posts are; your blog actually does seem to be different, and not another one of those websites that constantly speak about “7 Tools For Facebook.” If you know what I mean.
I’m getting in touch because I wanted to submit to you an article that I have recently written and which, in my opinion, will fit your readers very well. The piece was written entirely based on my own professional experience, and I would love to see it posted on your blog (at no costs to you.) I only ask that you allow me to include one in-content link from within the article, pointing to a very relevant website that I’m currently working on.

Title: How SEO Has Changed The Online World For The Worse
People are constantly speaking about the positive sides of SEO and how important it is for “MY” business, but not many people choose to address the negative influence it has had on the internet as a whole.

Length: close to 650 words .

Form: HTML file with necessary HTML tags.

Copyrights: 100% original and not published anywhere else.
I hope you like the idea Andrea? If so, please let me know and I will forward the article for your review. If you would like me to write on a different subject then that’s just as fine.
What do you think?
Talk to you soon,

Mxxx

Due to the increasing number of bad pitches that I keep receiving everyday, I decided to share a list of tips that you might want to keep in mind when you are getting in touch with me or any other blogger/influencer. Andrea

1. When you are trying to pitch someone, please have a look if they have a page in which they provide information related to advertisement on their site. (Rates, policy, requirements, etc.).
2. Check if the blog/site has the audience that you are really looking for (pitching a blogger without even paying attention to his/her audience is not a good move).
3. Provide proper contact information about you, your company, the client you are representing (not just your website…).
4. What are the benefits? (Simple… Make it clear).
5. Keep it short and on topic. (Skip irrelevant details. People are spending their time reading your message).
6. Don’t beg for backlinks.
7. Don’t use pathetic tricks like “Just wanted to follow up on my last e-mail…” if you actually never wrote ‘that last e-mail’…
8. If you are trying to reach people in the social media space it would be a good idea to at least have a social media presence. (Having a channel where people can join the conversation with you is a plus and an advantage for both. And I mean something more than a simple contact form on your site).
9. Research before pitching. (Search on the blog/site for any post that might contain information about advertising/guest posting etc.).
10. Personalize your message and be genuine (Nobody likes to receive an automated, cliche, cold message that you are probably sending out to hundreds of bloggers/influencers).
11. Be polite (I don’t think I have to add anything to this… right?).
12. Show that you know the person you are trying to reach. (Show that you’ve dug a bit deeper than finding the email address on their contact page).

Do you have additional tips that other people might find useful? Feel free to share them in the comments or tweet them @vascellari. Andrea

First – Make sure to read the tips I shared on how to increase online visibility.

Second – Keep in mind it all takes time.

Yes…the most important thing is to remember that nothing happens overnight.

How does this work?

People search on Google solutions for their problem and they find your content. If it helps them in satisfying their needs, people will then happily share your content by either blogging about it or recommending it to friends in their social networks. This will increase your authority and the authority of your content so you will show up higher in the search results that Google will offer to those who are searching for solutions. But this will only happen in the long run. To prove it I conducted a test here on my blog.

One year ago I wrote a very informative post on how to use Google Calendar as a project management tool. Here’s what happened:

After the first spike related to the launch of the post, the traffic decreased to then constantly increased in the long run. These are some numbers that will help you to get a better idea:

Conclusion: Google will trust you as more people trust you and to reward you it will give you, and obviously your content, a higher authority. So follow these tips and be patient. It will payoff in the long run.

Andrea

What are some of the first steps a business owner should take when creating his or her digital strategy? I shared 4 tips to better reach your target audience during an interview with Andrea Genovese of Wind Business Factor. The video is in Italian, but the original transcript has been translated into English below by my team at itive.net. Enjoy!
Andrea

The Experience of a Business Owner

When a business owner is going to use the web for the first time he or she should keep a few important things in mind. First and foremost, a business owner should no longer think of the web or “digital world” as something disconnected from the real one.

Today, the web is constantly evolving. And a consumer and a business owner can do business exactly as they would if they were downtown “IRL” (in real life).

First, the most important thing to understand is where you are as a business and where you would like to go. Therefore, at this initial starting point there is a need to create a digital strategy that will allow you to reach your goals.

Second, you should analyze the tactics that will be utilized to achieve your objectives and reach the finish line. After that, you could reach out for support from somebody who has experience in this arena. It could be a web agency like us at itive.net, it could be an external consultant, an online communicator who in a certain sense could help you move through these “first steps” of the digital world.

Before you start to do any of this, though, be silent and use these, one of the most important organs we have, your ears. You have to listen carefully in order to learn about what is happening in your niche market. You have to be attentive listeners and figure out the dynamics that are in your market, as well as to identify the needs of your consumers. Once you understand the current situation within your market, you should contribute to the conversation and become an active member who interacts with the digital communication dynamics that are already taking place in your field.

In summary, the 4 tips for creating digital strategy are:

• Listen to what is happening within your niche market
• Analyze the market dynamics
• Evaluate the needs of your consumers
• Contribute to the conversation and to the digital dynamics

If you’re interested in creating your digital strategy with us, feel free to contact us or go ahead and click here to fill out a “get started” form and we’ll help you get there!

How do I increase visibility online? This a question that people and organizations ask me quite often, so here’s a list of basic tips that will set you on the right path to increase your visibility online:

1. Create good quality content (detailed, informative, slim, no jargon, etc.)
2. The content must be relevant for your target audience.
3. Optimize the content syntax.
4. Tag the content properly.
5. Promote the content in the right digital venues (social networks where your target audience lives, etc…).
6. Tailor the content promotion for the digital venue in which you are sharing it (links for twitter, photos/videos on Facebook, etc…).
7. Share it at the right time (during the day, on specific weekdays, before/after a product launch etc…).
8. Nothing will happen overnight. To get Google’s “soul” to trust you as a relevant source on information you need to be patient. Results will come in the long run.

There are also more advanced SEO tactics that my team and I utilize – they change according to the nature & objectives of the projects we are working on. So go ahead and have fun testing out the tips I shared, then if you need some help or if you have more specific needs feel free to get in touch with us. We’ll be happy to help

Andrea

Here’s how you can upload, not just files, but an entire folder from your computer to the cloud using Google Docs.

I can’t tell you how happy I am about this new feature! I’ve been waiting ages for this. It’s handy to upload data to the cloud but when you deal with a huge number of files you need a way to transfer offline archives to the cloud without then spending extra time in reordering everything once everything is online. This new Google Docs feature solves the problem.

Google Docs is an essential tool that I use on a daily basis with my team and clients. If you are not familiar with Google Docs I encourage you to have a look at it, I’m sure it will come in handy.

Andrea

Surprise! Delicious has been acquired by Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, the founders of YouTube, and it will become part of their new Internet company, AVOS. The screenshot below shows what I found today when I tried to login my Delicious account. Here you find a list of Q&A from Delicious that explains everything you need to know about the transaction (i.e. what’s going on, how to export/move your bookmarks etc.).

Good luck!

Andrea

Do you want to get these report-updates in real time? Subscribe to the live-report RSS feed! This feed includes only report related items. It’s not a substitute but a complement to my main RSS feed which still remains the official one that brings you all my blog posts.

• Metrics & ROI – 2011 Trends: Turning Data Into Action; Mobile; Social Marketing – Most marketers understand the value of good customer data, but they still struggle to organize and use it effectively: 62% cite “turning data into action” as their top marketing issue in 2011, according to a report by Unica.
• Companies increase outsourcing for SEO, PPC and social media: survey – The report is based on a survey which polled 900 client-side advertisers and agencies. It found that the number of companies handling SEO exclusively in-house fell from 51% in 2010 to 44% in 2011, and the number handling paid search in a similar fashion dropped from 47% to 38% over the same time period.
• 25 reasons why you should be blogging – The main benefit of a blog in terms of search engine optimisation (SEO) is that it builds backlinks to your pages. If your content is good then people will discuss and share it, creating links to your pages on their websites, their own blogs and through social platforms like Twitter.
• TEDxEdges – Ricardo Sousa on Teen Entrepreneurship – @ricardojrsousa – Wow!
• Free and Easy Email Reminders with FollowUpThen – Handy tool.
• 6 Smart and Effective Email Marketing Tactics – Here are several simple, emerging email marketing methods with which brands are seeing success.
• IAB: Internet Advertising Reached $26 Billion In 2010, Display Grew Twice As Fast As Search – Compared to other forms of advertising, Internet advertising surpassed newspaper ads in the U.S. last year ($22.8 billion) and is now second only to TV ($28.6 billion).
• Google’s collateral damage after algorithm changes, illustrated – TNW Google – SEOBook has created an interesting infographic that details the effects that changes to Google’s algorithms have had on the web.
• Search Marketing To Grow 16% This Year [REPORT] – Search marketing will grow 16% this year to $19.3 billion and 74% of North American ad agencies say their clients use Facebook, according to a study released Wednesday.
• Cost of Facebook Ads Jumped 40% This Year [REPORT] – Search engine marketing grew 17% year-over-year primarily because of increases in the retail and finance categories. Display advertising showed a 300% jump in exchange ad inventory and a 30% cost-per-thousand (CPM) decline, which Efficient Frontier attributes to “greater gains in reach and efficiency within the ad exchanges.”
• Google Research Shows How Online Ads Drive Offline Sales – The relationship between online search advertising and online sales can be easily quantified, and that’s part of what makes Web advertising so powerful compared to its print and broadcast counterparts.
• HOW TO: Improve Engagement on Your Brand’s Facebook Page [STATS] – Here findings along with tips about when and how to make the most of a Facebook post.
• 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report – A significant 3300 social media marketers provided valuable insight.
• Moblie Marketing & Tagging Infographic – Infographic.
• 7 tips for a killer Facebook landing page – A great Facebook landing page should turn visitors into subscribers, engage people, and encourage them to explore your products and services further.

Are you interested in having your ads on Twitter? Yes? Ok, that’ll be at least $5000.
Looking at the ‘natural influence’ of big brands that probably have no need for ads on Twitter vs the 5k minimum budget for smaller businesses and other players that want to make their voices heard it’s certainly something that makes me think.
Beth Harte recently grabbed my attention on this topic with a Facebook update, I’m interested to hear your thoughts on this ‘barrier’ at the entrance that Twitter has set.
Andrea

Do you need an infographic? You might want to talk to these guys.
These are some nice graphical summaries that Daniel, Carla and Bauke created during my talk last week at the Switch Conference in Porto (Portugal). Their contact info is below, enjoy!
Andrea

Daniel, Carla, Bauke and me in Porto

This weekend I’ll be speaking at the 2011 edition of the Switch Conference in Porto (Portugal).

“Switch is a two-day event that gathers people with different background experiences to discuss technology, science, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation in a network-friendly environment.”

My presentation will focus on ‘Digital Evolution’. I will talk about why the need to constantly evolve in the digital space has become something that isn’t just important but necessary for anyone who wants to succeed. I’ll explain why we have to re-think of websites as ‘digital brains’ instead of a simple ‘online presence’ and I’ll give 5 practical tips on how to prevent and eventually overcome 5 of the most frequent causes of digital extinction that brands, organizations and at times also individuals are facing today.

I hope to see you there!

Andrea

UPDATE: These are the slides of my presentation. Enjoy!

Nothing and nobody are perfect.

You can aim at perfection, but what you have to keep in mind is that in the end you, your ideas, your creations will be born, live, change shape, form, and die in an imperfect world. There’s nothing you or anyone else can do about it.

Like many people, I spent most of my life aiming for the top, trying to reduce the number of mistakes, risks, or problems I would have to deal with. I devoted hours, days, and, in the end, years of my life to achieve goals according to certain standards.

Then, one day I came to a point where I realized that those thresholds are just simply irrelevant and actually counter productive. Sure, you could argue against this statement, but in my opinion those “certain standards” of achieving one’s goals actually reduce overall progress and flatten the wonderful nature of things which is dominated by an uncontrollable imperfection, which ultimately takes everything back to a flawless equilibrium.

Look at where you started from and think of the path you still have ahead. The fact that you are not there yet doesn’t mean you haven’t succeeded. If you slow down for a second, you’ll realize that success lies in each and every single step you take to move forward, in every time you fall, in every time you stand up again and keep moving forward.

I believe that success is itself a paradox because it restricts potential to the sole achievement of certain goals which, especially in today’s dynamic, ever-changing fast-paced environment, are nothing more than mere moments in time that neither belong to what has passed nor to what will be.

“But we need to measure something to know we are on the right path, correct?” Sure. Nothing wrong with that, but just don’t get stuck in measuring and end up forgetting the big picture. Temporary or mid-term achievements and even unsuccessful moments are all small pieces of the big vision.

You must look at the flow. We are all part of a unique, imperfect flow in which what’s official, determined and fixed it’s already dead and gone, old, far and surpassed. Nothing is perfect and nothing ever will be perfect. Perfection exists in being able to read through the imperfections and smartly move in synergy with the rhythm that moves the natural course of life. As a brand, an organization, and as an individual, think of how much you are in synergy with this flow. Stop for a second and switch off from the craziness that is imposed by the controlled standards we are often forced to embrace. You’ll be surprised at how much you are missing and by how much more you could achieve.

Andrea

In the style of a movie trailer parody, the following video is the full version of an informative series about the emerging technology of QR Codes that my team at itive.net and I created.

QR Codes are one of the latest emerging technologies in digital marketing and communications. Users may discover QR Codes in their environment or on their favorite products and then scan them with their phones to be taken to additional information online. The creative and strategic uses of QR Codes are being seen world wide as more and more organizations, as well as individuals, are implementing them into their marketing and advertising campaigns. From jewelry and t-shirts, to cupcakes and temporary tattoos, who knows where you will find the next QR Code…and where it will take you.

Did you like this video? You can check out Parts 1, 2 and 3 by clicking on the following links: What Are QR Codes? (Part 1), How To Use QR Codes (Part 2), andHow To Create QR Codes (Part 3). Enjoy!

How can QR Codes help you? If you have any questions or are interested in learning more about how you and/or your organization can benefit from using QR Codes, please feel free to contact us

Do you want to get these report-updates in real time? Subscribe to the live-report RSS feed! This feed includes only report related items. It’s not a substitute but a complement to my main RSS feed which still remains the official one that brings you all my blog posts.

• Data: How the Advanced Corporations Spend on Social Business – A glimpse into the future.
• Top 25 Best Practices for Drafting Policies and Guidelines – The rules of social media engagement.
• Pepsi Innovates with Social Media Metrics – Shiv Singh, Head of Digital PepsiCo Beverages America, talked to eMarketer writer/analyst Kimberly Maul about how PepsiCo measures social media and the role Facebook plays in its social media outreach.
• The PR Influencer Index: Let Your Peers Rate You – Here is the Lose Weight Exercise for you to share with your peers…
• [video] My Blackberry is not working – Fun!
• Twitter isn’t very social: study – A whopping 50% of all content consumed on Twitter is generated by only 20,000 users.
• Mobile internet stats round up – 84% use mobile search to look for information on local retailers, such as opening hours, address and contact details. 82% look for online retailers, 73% find a specific product or manufacturer website.
• Google Page Speed Now Available as Chrome Plugin – Google has finally released an experimental Chrome extension for its popular Page Speed service. Page Speed, which is already available for Firefox, analyzes Web pages and gives developers suggestions for improving performance.
• Mobile commerce: ten reasons to choose the web over apps – This doesn’t mean that apps don’t have their place, but retailers should look to mobile commerce sites before they create an app.
• Mobile commerce: 25 essential tips – Mobile commerce is continuing to grow, and there are now plenty of compelling reasons why retailers should sell via mobile.
• e-book sales exploded by 116% this January, totaling $69.9 million in the U.S. – Paperbacks were down 30.9% from the reporting companies, falling to $39.0 million, $30 million below the sales of e-books. Hardcover sales fell 11.3% in January.
• How to Activate Facebook Insights for Your Website – Handy!
• New Rules for the New Internet Bubble – We’re now in the second Internet bubble.
• US Social Network Usage: 2011 Demographic and Behavioral Trends – In 2011, 63.7% of US internet users will use social networks on a regular basis, amounting to nearly 148 million people. Although the pace of growth will be less dramatic in the next few years than it was in 2009 and 2010, usage will remain strong and shows no sign of declining.
• Advertising – B2B Brands Undervalue Online Display Marketing – Only 13% of B2B interactive marketers say they have increased online display budgets in 2011 relative to 2010 levels, in large part due to perceptions of ineffectiveness, according to a new report from Forrester.