Links pointing to the future of marketing, from the co-founder of Facebook content strategy tool Zuum.

Tumblr hires a dedicated team to write about…Tumblr

Tumblr demonstrating they understand the value of content marketing.

Via @jodiontheweb

Social business: Social media integration

A nice data visualization from a survey on how companies are integrating social media, and what their expectations are. One stat that really stands out to me is, 52% of the respondents said their most important social media metric is leads generated. All roads lead back to ROI.

Via @wearesocial

Is Social Media Killing the Website?

I think a lot of people are asking this question. I agree with the author, that while a Facebook page seems a must for many businesses, it’s not time to mothball the website yet.

Via @Robert_Rose and @MeganLeap

Ten Things To Think About When Designing Your iPad App

If you think you’ll ever sit down to create an iPad app, bookmark this link.

Via @DesignerDepot

Mapping Facebook’s growth – Decoder (1:10)

You’ve seen a lot of charts on Facebook’s growth, but this short video is still stunning. Especially how the growth has continued through recent years.

Via @AntDeRosa

Five books you should be reading.

A short list from David Armano, EVP, strategist at Edelman.

Via @maddiegrant

What brands register with a five-year-old?

This is both funny and insightful. Some interesting insights, such as the Apple logo standing for ‘the Apple store’. That was one of Jobs’ reasons for wanting to launch the store — the brand recognition.

Via @johnboese

How Brands Can Manage Facebook Comment Overload

A fire drill that anyone managing a Facebook page should go through.

Via @jasonkeath

Why Reddit Rules in the Social Media Age

Sometimes success isn’t due to unique features, but rather having just the right balance of familiar features.

5 tips to increase engagement on your Facebook Page

A good overview and a quick read.

Articles that point towards the future of marketing:

Social Media, Where Art Thou?

Great POV on how SOPA is about more than just piracy.

Via @BeverlyMacy

The Pinterest Debate Between Two Friends

If you’re on Pinterest, you probably don’t need a Compete.com chart to let you know their traffic has been explosive lately. This is a nice debate that’s really more about the long term business model than short term marketing potential. Like Foursquare, I think there will be a lot of brands who can leverage this for some good press with innovative promotions. But per their business model description — to connect people all over the world based on shared tastes and interests — I think Facebook is already doing that very well.

Via @JayBaer

Don’t Kill Your Business With Social Media Distraction

A good reality check for anyone deeply immersed in social media.

Via @KevinJDean

Facebook Plugins Keep People On Websites 50% Longer

What I find remarkable here is that logging in to a site with the standard login, versus Facebook, would seem to imply a tighter connection to the brand, as you’ve taken the time to actually register with the site. Yet the data says those logged in via Facebook are the more engaged visitors.

Via @MariSmith

Facebook Users Spend 27% Of Their Time In The Newsfeed

A lot of data coming out recently on how powerful the Newsfeed is relative to other Facebook features. This is particularly true of brands, because this is the best way they can most organically reach their fans.

Via @JasonKeath

Facebook’s ‘Like’ button gets new friends: ‘LOVE!’ ‘BOO!’ ‘OMG!’ and many more

I could see this getting out of control, but it’s also going to generate a lot of near term interest and activity.

Via @katewalling

Inside Forbes: Our Content Strategy, Brand Power and the Path Forward

If you’re following content marketing trends, this is a great overview of how a major publisher became an online content generator. They have an insightful flow chart on their content process.

Via @lewisdvorkin

10 links that point to the future of marketing:

Apple announces free iBooks Author OS X app for publishing books to the App Store

Amazon certainly has a sizable lead in the personal publishing space, but I’ve been more than a little surprised that they haven’t moved faster towards making it much, much easier to create Kindle books. Apple has already proven their ability to take simple UX to large audiences, from musicians using GarageBand to mass consumers purchasing through the iTunes store. If Apple can own the best creative process, they could end up with the best content.

Via @briansolis

Social As We See It: Digital Trends for 2012

A good outline of some top line trends and the apps that are helping make it happen.

Via @postadvertising

55% of Brand Ambassadors Prefer Facebook

Not much info in support of the research methodology, but overall this doesn’t surprise me. In fact, I’d have thought it would be higher.

Via @Britopian

Disruptions: Design Sets the Tone at a New Start-Up

An good example of branding that goes straight to the core of a company. It’s brand building by demonstration.

Via @kdoohan

Twitter Calls on Former Apple Exec for Marketing Help

Per the article, I’m not sure Twitter’s problem is people’s understanding of the service, but it will be interesting to see what issues they address in their move to push media.

Via @Aerocles

Three Men And A Basement: How Carrot Creative Grew

Inspiring story about three guys building a social media agency

Via @socialfresh

IBM’s 5 in 5 – a list of innovations which predicts future technology trends and applications.

Some interesting concepts presented in a branded content video from IBM.

Via @CraigDaitch

Marketers Still Struggling With Social

There’s an interesting thing happening in social media. While marketers are increasing their spending, they’re also admitting they aren’t entirely on top of how to manage the potential of social media. And like it’s always been in marketing, those with the best knowledge will be in a highly-advantageous position.

Via @hicais

Social Networking Stats: Facebook To Reach One Billion Users By August, #RLTM Scoreboard

Some very simple, clear data on why Facebook is driving the boat for most company’s social media efforts.

Via @tamarabarber

Forbes.com seeing strong traffic growth

Forbes went through a big redesign recently, and it’s great to see that as well as their content marketing efforts paying off.

Via @steverubel

10 links that point to the future of interactive marketing:

 ‘People Talking About This’ defined

Like a lot of things on Facebook, it’s not entirely transparent, but the short answer is, it’s a look at the unique number of people who’ve referenced your page in some way over the past week.

Via @JayBaer

Is email going out with 2011?

This is an interesting POV on what’s been an ongoing debate. I’d say Yes, social media is replacing email, but of course, the more you connect with people via social media, the more email you’re likely to get. It’s written by the Craig in Craigslist, who’s always a good read.

Via @MariSmith

5 Tips for Making Your Brand More Social

It’s good to see more emphasis being placed on How we communicate, and not just what to do when. That’s the real differentiator.

Via @Mike_Stelzner @PhillipDavis

OpenSocial and the Future of Social Business

Perhaps the most likely Facebook competitor at this point could be a combination of all other social networks working together fluidly. A good overview of Open Social.

Via @Britopian

Six Important Shifts for Social Media In 2012

Really like this post, especially the part about Strategic Content Planning. Companies of all size and shape are going to start paying a lot more attention to what they’re posting, and how it both relates to their business and drives engagement.

Via @Britopian

7 Silly Mistakes to Stop Making in Your PR Pitches

Given that content marketing and PR are so closely connected, people accustomed to pushing messages should find this a helpful read. A lot of these are simply about taking the time to do your homework.

Via @PublicityGuru

Tech Tuesday: How The Web Works (Overview)

I’ve always been a fan of understanding how things work, even if you’ll never really have to work at a technical level. This is an easy-to-follow explanation of how all this stuff ends up on your computer screen.

Via @fredwilson

Look At The Shocking Difference Between Fast Food Ads And Real Menu Items

Of course anyone who’s ever been on a photo shoot knows the drill, here. The point is, not too long ago no major publication would have published this, and smaller publications wouldn’t have gotten distribution. The combination of blogs and social media networks changes that. The result is a new forced transparency.

Via @johnboese

Again, another article emphasizing the nature of the content. Quote: “E-Commerce has given us so much extra information,” says Neukomm, “but the social channel and emotional engagement may be the most important.”

Via @haydn1701

Facebook Comments go mobile

Given the increasing confluence of social and mobile, this is not a small step.

Via @MariSmith

10 links that point to the future of marketing:

Facebook Users With High Self-Esteem Prefer Targeted Ads @PSFK

So would ads that try to create a need by making the viewer feel lacking or inadequate be better off on a friend’s page? Interesting psychology going on here.
From @johnboese

Of Rogues and Gentlemen — New blog from Brooks Brothers

In the world of content marketing, blogs could be making a comeback. Especially for retail companies that need to push new products and promotions heavily on their website.
From @mrstephenbeck

This is What Happens When You Give Thousands of Stickers to Thousands of Kids | …

Love this installation art piece. Great way for a museum to connect with kids.
From felipe.bascope

Model Stars As Alexander Olch In Necktie Tutorial | NewMediaRockstars

I like this simple piece of content. It’s both fun and informative, in a pretty fluid way. The model is certainly going to add to the budget, but she also sets them up for a good amount of buzz, as well.

When the Car Radio Was Introduced, People Freaked Out – Mental Floss

Interesting story about the onset of car radios and the danger they seemed to impose. I’m not advocating texting-while-driving, but this simply shows how technologies, and our facility with them, both improve over time to change the situation.

What Are The Core Principles of Collaboration?

Good example of what really drives social behavior. Success to those who play the game well.
From @Britopian

Analyst Chetan Sharma Lays the Roadmap For Mobile In 2012

A survey on mobile trends from one of the industry’s best analysts, only this time he’s turned and surveyed those he most respects. Most surprising? That mobile advertising won’t be as hot as many might think.

Report Shows Social and Mobile Converging | Business 2 Community

According to this, social media is the #2 mobile activity. That’s partly the result of vast improvements in social media wap sites and apps.
From @mariapoveromo

Data: Composition of a Corporate Social Media Team « Web Strategy by Jeremiah Ow…

As more business units want to own parts of the social media program (just like home page real estate), the key division in this org chart is the split between community and business unit managers.

Writers Block? Try this Quick Tip

This is pretty clever, and while it’s aimed for bloggers, I think it applies to the content generation space in general.
From @socialfresh

10 links that point towards the future of marketing:

The Importance of Being Awesome

It’s been said before, but knowing what type of content works, or is awesome, has to be a major strategic and communication goal for brands.

Streamglider Takes On Flipboard And Pulse With Sleek Social Interest

Given how new iPad publishing is, there’s going to be a lot of room for improvement. This is one iPad app for social news that I’ll be checking out over the holidays.

Social networking booming in Egypt, Russia, survey finds – CNN.com

Reading this only confirms the sense that there’s still a big gap in the social scene for a much simpler (read: text-like) social format that appeals to the smartphone-less set, a far larger group than those who own smartphones.

Five Social Media Books you Should Read

Some books to read while you’re digesting the turkey.

Will Mobile Rule the World in 2012? via @PostAdvertising

Some good examples of peak developments on the mobile front.

NASA’s Virtual Snow Globe Looks at 10 Years of the White Stuff

An interesting composite of NASA video. This feels like something a a moving infographic and time lapse cinematography.

How to design your presentations for social sharing

The idea of making any form of content primed for social sharing should be a standard approach to any brand’s message development.

What You Need to Know About YouTube’s New Analytics Program

I really like the Audience Retention data — showing you where viewers drop off in a video. I’m surprised YouTube didn’t roll that out years ago.

Your Twitter Stream Is Boring Me To Tears. Stop It.

Agreed.

Google+ Brand Pages Begin Showing Up in Primary Search Results

While Facebook currently seems to own the future of social search, Google has been far more innovative in pushing search ahead. Facebook might be well off to hire a few Googlers to help push their search innovation.

10 links that point to the future of marketing:

Introducing Timeline

Timeline looks great so far, and this video is a great start to understanding it. It’s really about making your life look like a great adventure, and it’s a far more emotional view of someone’s life than we’ve seen in the past with things like the Info tab. Visuals really dominate the timeline, both in terms of real estate and interest. It will be interesting to watch how Facebook tweaks the relationship between the various Timeline elements going forward.

Facebook Launches Timeline Profiles Today [UPDATED]

Some more good tips on Timeline and how to dive in.

The future of shopping is social | Feature | .net magazine

I’m convinced Facebook commerce (or Fcommerce) is going to be big. This is a very thorough and insightful analysis of where the industry is currently. The big takeaway is, there are a lot of different Fcommerce features, and no single setup is going to be right for every industry or community. As always, it’s going to come down to how well you know your customer.

Inside Facebook · Facebook Testing New Coupon Posts and Ads

These coupons are closely tied to other Fcommerce efforts on the rise. All of this is going to add new emphasis on evaluating the real value of a Facebook community. It’s also going to provide a lot of access to data that will help answer that question.

Forget Content Curation, Focus on Original Content in 2012

In total agreement with this. Sure, curation’s great, but everywhere I go I see brands and people curating content. What really makes an impression is original content. It’s harder to do well, and that’s why it works better.

The 50 Funniest Tweets Of 2011 | Happy Place

Great content is even better when it’s really, really short. As in 140 characters.

Here’s What People Look at on Facebook Brand Pages

The Wall is where people are looking, and in the Wall, images perform the best. No major surprises, but it does underscore that people come to a brand’s page to see what’s going on. It’s the brand’s job to make their page as dynamic as possible.

U.S. Teens Triple Data Usage | TechCrunch

An average of 3,417 text messages per teen in Q3 2011. As the author states, “Um, WOW!”

No Timeline Pages for Brands Yet, Facebook Says

“Yet” is the operative word here. The timeline creates a far more emotionally powerful presentation of whom or whatever it’s for. What marketer wouldn’t want that for their brand. And of course, Facebook is wanting to gunning for their IPO, and appealing to brands is a big part of that story.

Digiday – Why Agency Creatives Have Fallen Hard for Tumblr

Tumblr has consistently crept up to be the 5th largest social media network, according to the latest comScore data. There’s a reason. It fills a great niche that the real content creators like — an easy way to post rich content and attract a large audience.

10 links that point to the future of digital marketing:

Walmart Launches Shopycat, A Social Gift Finder Built On Top Of Facebook | TechCrunch

This is really smart on several levels. For one, Walmart has taken a more open approach to their gift finder, integrating product recommendations from competing stores, thereby increasing the validity and accuracy of their app. At first glance, I found this to be very helpful simply in terms of quickly gauging what people’s interests are.

I also like how Walmart is setting themselves up for Facebook ecommerce down the road. Some interesting things from a giant not known for cutting edge marketing innovation.

50% Of Ecommerce Site Visitors Are Logged In To Facebook | TechCrunch

This is big. Many brands are still treating their website and social media properties as separate entities. Sure, they might cross-link, but the bigger opportunity is in integrating things like Facebook Connect. When you consider how much money some brands spend driving traffic to their website, and then consider what a great CRM tool Facebook is, it really makes sense to integrate the two as tightly as possible.

Global vs. local social media strategies / We Are Social

The question of whether or not to have multiple Facebook pages is a big one for many brands. This is some good direction for answering that for your brand.

Body of Research « Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang

This is a great list of resources, and if you’re familiar with Jeremiah’s contribution to the collective thought pool on social media, you’ll probably bookmark this immediately.

The Top 10 Marketing Infographics of 2011

It’s time for those year-end lists, and perhaps the most appropriate one for digital marketers is the year’s top infographics.

Seed Views vs. Viral Views: A Social Media Sharing Case Study

A simple but very strong case study for the power of social media sharing.

Facebook Will Help Writers Get Subscribers Via Their Own Sites – Liz Gannes – Social – AllThingsD

This should be a big boost to content publishers who want to quickly build their subscriber list, as it basically eliminates the need for someone on their site or blog to go over to Facebook to subscribe to their feed. It will also allow them to more persuasively customize how they entice their readers to subscribe.

A Tiny Pacific Island Is Now Powered By Coconuts | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation

Not exactly new media marketing, but I love the idea of using coconuts to recharge my iPhone.

Social Marketing Optimization (SMO) | Social Media Today

An outline for how to approach strategic planning for your brand’s social media activities.

Condom Ad Disguised as Facebook Friend Request From Your Future Son

Agencies are always willing to bend a few rules to create some recognition. Sure, this violates the user terms, but it’s also a very clever stunt and one that’s sure to garner both the agency and the cause a lot of great PR. And if you take the poll, you’ll see that (as of this writing) 74% of people find the ad clever or funny. Pretty remarkable given the public’s general sentiment towards advertising.

10 links that point to the future of digital marketing:

Separating You and Me? 4.74 Degrees – NYTimes.com

This really demonstrates how quickly any brand-related message could peel through the Internet, eventually hitting a large percent of the FB user group, while also likely generating multiple impressions for many people.

How to Turn Your Instagram Photos Into Wall Art

This is a nice partnership deal between the fast-growing Instagram and a photo printing service. Both should benefit from this ‘clicks-and-mortar’ combo. Companies without a natural online-offline relationship should consider such partnerships to expand their touchpoints.

Facebook Tests More Variations On Sponsored Stories

If there’s one ad format I’m most curious about, it’s sponsored stories. This is the leading edge of content marketing, and while the creatives are less than dynamic, they’re bringing together interesting elements: The story, the people related to it, and even what they’re saying about it.

Steve Jobs Was Right: Google IS Turning Into Microsoft

If you follow the tech battle among the 800 lb gorillas, this is a good read.

Here’s How People Look at Your Facebook Profile — Literally

This really replicates much of what’s been known about website page viewing (e.g., content at the top gets viewed the most), but it’s a quick read and is certainly worth the separate social media analysis.

Can Gamifying a Restaurant Get You Better Service?

Gamification has garnered a lot of buzz, and many of the projected use cases proposed have been pretty obvious. What I like about this is, it’s employee focused instead of customer. That may sound backwards, but employees are far more likely to use it when they’re the ones getting the potential bonus.

Is Content Marketing an Asset or an Expense?

A very simple premise — is content an expense or an asset. I really like the way this post frames content as an asset. While I’m not a CPA, it continues providing value long after it’s posted, which seems to be the trait of an asset.

A Note to Our Readers About Comments – NYTimes.com

Henry Ford said something to the effect of “If we’d have listened to our customers, we’d have designed faster horses”. Steve Jobs was known for paying very little attention to what his customers said. A quick read of the comments shows how resistant people are to change. Comment threading has been widely practiced on numerous leading online publications, and from experience, I’d say to good effect.

Daily Wrap: Path is Awesome and More

Path is an app with a very fluid timeline presentation. I think the UX definitely needs some attention (but then what startup’s UX doesn’t).

‘We Are the 99 Percent’ Joins the Cultural and Political Lexicon – NYTimes.com

A fresh look at the 99% meme, which is as close as the OWS movement came to a clear position.

10 links that point to the future of marketing:

Facebook Sponsored Stories Triples App Installs: Study

Given that so many CMOs have interest in content marketing, it only makes sense that there’s going to be a lot of interest around the merger of content and paid media. One way is to drive your paid media to content. More interesting is dynamically placing your content into paid media. This also provides an opportunity for online advertising to greatly differentiate itself from offline media.

Picking Brand Names in China Is a Business Itself – NYTimes.com

The Latin American launch of the Nova car is legendary, and we’re seeing a similar issue taking place in China. Some amusing examples.

Whisperings of the Future Surround Us | John Battelle’s Search Blog

There’s certainly no shortage of data these days. But most of it looks at what’s happened, and stops there. This tool is an attempt to project those trend lines into the future. Something a lot of trendcasters could find useful.

Facebook Is Taking Business From LinkedIn: Jobvite

Facebook is again showing it’s 800lb gorilla nature, as it shows progress in areas seemingly owned by other social networks. As books like ‘Outliers’ have pointed out, though, the network with the most value business-wise may lie outside our traditional business boundaries.

Facebook Adds Maps To Event Pages

I still think Events are vastly underused on Facebook. They have a semi-permanent placement within a Facebook users page, they enable a pre and post event approach to distributing promotional messages and then collecting event assets like photos and videos, and lastly, they’re a great way to encourage networking among the attendees of an event.

45 Carriers Endorse NFC as Mobile Payment Standard

One of the more interesting battles in the mobile space is going to be around mobile payment platforms. Looks like a lot of manufacturers are joining forces to take on Apple. Of course, collaboration among manufacturers has never been their strength. Perhaps Google’s interest in NFC can be the connective tissue.

Why Second Life Failed

While focusing on what problem does a new idea solve isn’t really ground-breaking, the writer’s post examples, both good and bad, of companies that tried to predict the future. Also note the Second Life enthusiasts (employees?) posting in support of SL in the comments.

26 Promising Social Media Stats for Small Businesses | Social Media Examiner

Some fantastic stats in this. One in great support of building Facebook communities and posting regularly is the comScore stat that brands who post daily will reach 22% of their fan base in a given week. And for brands who can generate higher than average engagement, those numbers will be even better.

Facebook Likes Infographic: Facebook Brand Pages Lag Behind In ‘Likes’ | Crowd Science Blog

What’s most interesting here is that about a year ago, surveys were stating that the reason people “Like” a brand’s Facebook page was to get information on special products and pricing. What this is indicating is that the reasons are moving towards more emotionally-focused issues, including simply support for the brand. If this tracks, it certainly indicates not only an opportunity, but a requirement for brands to truly engage and inspire their Facebook communities.