DigiThoughts

Social Media: The Path to Product Innovation

 February 29, 2012 by Stephanie Shkolnik
Social Media Product Innovation

Digitally connecting with consumers is not just for basic customer service like responding to Tweets and Facebook comments and generating fans -- it is critical to your business. Social media can help a company get ahead by building a better product. True and honest feedback online enables product innovation.

A digital platform or social network, combined with compelling and meaningful content and hands-on community management, facilitates relevant conversations from your core audience with a point of view. This feedback, far too often overlooked, serves as a digital focus group. Whether positive or negative, truthful statements that carry meaningful information about brands and products are made in the comment field of your blog, Tumblr post, Facebook status or Twitter mention. These valuable comments provide data that can and should inform your product innovation department. What do people really need? What do they really want? Social enables you to learn about these things.

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Stephanie Shkolnik Social Media Strategist

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DAYTONA 500 - Rain, Tweets, and Fire

 February 28, 2012 by Brent Summers

The Daytona 500 -- AKA, The Great American Race -- was postponed for the first time in its 54 year history last weekend.  The event finally started Monday night at 7 p.m. ET and didn't finish until almost 1 a.m.  In the end Matt Kenseth came out on top, winning his first full-length #DAYTONA500.

Daytona always provides plenty of action off and on the track. You might remember the infamous fistfight of '79 or the Pothole 500 in 2009, when the race surface has to be repaired - twice.  Curious what they used to patch it? Bondo!

Last night was a firestorm of action. With less than 40 laps to go and while the race was under caution Juan Pablo Montoya tangled with a jet dryer in Turn Three (the same dangerous turn where Dale Earnhardt died in 2001). Montoya's crash spilled 200 gallons of jet fuel on to the race surface, stalling the action for over two hours while safety crews tended to the roaring flames and the drivers of the dryer and the stock car.

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Brent Summers Senior Producer

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Why you want a quad-core phone like a fat kid wants cake

 February 27, 2012 by Bryan Paijit
Quad-Core Processor Phones

The other day, my girlfriend asked why we didn’t get the Galaxy Nexus to replace our ODs (Original Droids).  I said it was because we need to wait for the quad-core phones to come out.  She then asked “Do we really need four processors?”... and I almost broke up with her right there!  

Then, I realized that despite her ridiculously high (and quite humbling) intelligence, she might not know how mobile applications work.  And let’s face it, beautiful people (like most people) don’t need to understand multi-threaded design patterns. So I decided that it would be easier to enlighten her rather than find a new roommate off craigslist.

Most mobile applications need to pull data from various sources: Facebook streams, tweets, your current GPS location, etc. These are all processes (aka threads) that need to be processed by a processor. The more processors you have, the more processes you can process in a shorter amount of time. Think of it like a line at the grocery store.

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Bryan Paijit Senior Software Engineer

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Get on Board with Pinterest

 February 24, 2012 by Cristina Quitania

“Hi, my name’s Cristina. I’m a Pinterest Addict.”

Late last year, there was an intern at Digitaria. A design student. I admired her uniqueness, her perspective on life, her energy.  When I asked this aspiring designer where she found inspiration, she directed me to a growing social sharing website that fueled her curiosity. That’s how I learned about Pinterest.

Now, only a few months later, Pinterest is the latest social craze. The site invites users to create pin boards, then encourages them to catalog and share cool things found online, organized by interest. You can gather anything, whether you find it online or upload your own content. It’s most effective for cultivating interaction, self-expression and for curating social content.

I am absolutely hooked on Pinterest. Searching, pinning, browsing, liking, commenting, uploading. As a pinning fiend, I get excited just thinking about finding new pins. It has literally altered my reality. The other day, a friend asked me if I’d ever seen a miniature Husky. I quickly replied yes, quite sure of myself; later, while browsing Pinterest, I realized I legitimately didn’t know if I’d actually seen this dog or just pinned a cute picture of one. I was confusing real life with Pinterest. It was consuming my life. I knew then I was a Pinterest addict. And I didn’t mind.

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Cristina Quitania Account Associate

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Digi@themovies: Act of Valor, Wanderlust

 February 24, 2012 by Digitaria Staff

Eleven years after 9-11, America remains edgy and sensitive regarding jihad and the war on terror.  For that reason alone Act of Valor will probably make money. But this old-fashioned action-packed hero flick doesn’t star Chuck Norris or Sylvester Stallone… it stars real-life Navy SEALs.  The guys in this movie aren’t actors -- they are truly some of America’s elite fighting force. Other supporting characters include CIA Agents, a weapons-smuggling Jew, a Ukranian Jihadist, and thousands -- if not millions -- of live rounds of ammunition.

The storyline is believable, even eerily plausible. No spoilers, but if I ever see an ice cream truck near a US Embassy you can bet I’ll get my Nutty Buddy elsewhere.  And, living in San Diego I’m all too familiar with the on-going battle of the Mexican drug cartel.  At least I can count on the Frogmen of North Island to help keep me safe.

I think all red-blooded Americans love a good fight scene. But it’s the lead-in to the big fights that separate Act of Valor from similar flicks. When these clandestine soldiers are creeping behind enemy lines carrying 40-plus pounds of gear they’re so stealthy that you can hear the crickets chirping. I was on the edge of my seat as they executed their battle plan, and modified it on the fly as needed.

This film isn’t all about heroes being heroes. There are wives, children, and beers on the beach involved too. The picture tries to help the audience soak in the utter torment that these families go through when the men are called to duty. That sentiment is carried through into the credits as the names of fallen soldiers scroll past, before the cast and crew.

Act of Valor pays homage to our boys.  These real-life GI Joes may not have Tom Cruise’s hair or Vin Diesel’s swagger.  Instead, they offer something better – authenticity and grit.  If you don’t enjoy this film, you’re likely to be one of damn few. (***) – Brent Summers

The loose, terrific cast is the best reason to see the raunchy, zany, mostly stupid, sorta romantic comedy Wanderlust. The latest crude product of dumbed-down diminishing returns from Judd Apatow’s waning comic empire (produced by Apatow; directed and co-written by David Wain, best-known for the cult comedy “Wet Hot American Summer”), has its share of good laughs but most of them come early and the film quickly becomes a narrative mess and just another lowest common denominator mess.

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Digitaria Staff Co-authored Post

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Ask the Analyst: Talking the talk

 February 23, 2012 by Alex White
Ask the analyst

[Editor’s Note: Google may not have an analytics help desk, but as a Google Analytics Certified Partner in the GACP Directory, Digitaria is certified to answer your Google Analytics questions. “Ask the Analyst” is a new DigiThoughts segment that deals with real analytics questions submitted to the Digitaria Web Analytics team. Submit your analytics questions to ask-the-analyst@digitaria.com]

Today’s question comes from a caller seeking clarity on four terms used in Google Analytics: New Visitor, Unique Visitor, Absolute Unique Visitor, and New Visits.

As the analytics team newbie, I’ve quickly come to realize that in order to succeed in the analytics world, you need to have a blend of dedication, perseverance, bravery, and curiosity. If you have ever seen a raw data dump, you know exactly how intimidating the mountain of numbers, metrics, and analytics lingo can be. Web analysts are essentially translators, tasked with wading through the raw (and sometimes ugly) information in order to process and deliver valuable recommendations to improve a client’s performance. The analytics department is often looked at as being the Rosetta Stone of data for each client.
In order to walk the walk, you have to talk (or at least understand) the talk. Here are four key Google Analytics metrics defined:

New Visitor:
    •    This metric determines if a visitor has been to your page before or not. If Google Analytics detects a cookie that was placed in a previous visit, it will recognize the visitor as a Returning Visitor. If the cookie was deleted, or never set in the first place, Google Analytics will record this visitor as a New Visitor (and place a new cookie).

Unique Visitor:
    •    This metric indicates the number of unique individuals (actual people) that came to your website, often during a certain period or within specific parameters on a report. This metric is tracked via cookies, and will change as you adjust the date range or limitations of the report. For example, you website may have gotten 1,000 unique visitors during the month of January, but only 100 of them were new visitors. The number of unique visitors should always be lower than page views or visits (if not, you may have a problem), as visitors can view multiple pages in a sitting or visit the page multiple times. One should note that it will never be 100% perfect because of limitations in technology. For instance, visitors may delete cookies or block JavaScript, which prevents Google Analytics from effectively tracking those visitors.

 

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Alex White Digital Analyst Associate

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Digi@themovies: This Means War, Ghost Rider, The Secret of Arrietty

 February 17, 2012 by Digitaria Staff

There’s a lot to be said about movie star power, and This Means War has it to spare. I should probably start by saying I LOVE REESE WITHERSPOON movies.  I have seen and own most of them, and they never let me down when I’m in need of a good chick flick.  So, while the other people at Digitaria who’ve been reviewing movies have been making fun of me, I’m going to stick by my guns: This Means War not only met, it exceeded my high chick flick expectations. The entire preview screening audience (including my not-so-chick-flick-loving boyfriend) laughed a lot and loudly. The plot – two top CIA agents are involved in a romantic triangle with my gal Reese – is cute, the action scenes are cheeky but exciting, and everybody – Reese and her hunks Chris Pine and Tom Hardy – look fabulous.  I think the movie will appeal to both gals and guys, and it will ultimately join my Reese Witherspoon DVD collection. Thanks, Reese! You never let me down! (***) – Emily Potthoff
 
The most-likely #1 release this weekend is Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, the Nick Cage sequel to the rotten blockbuster Marvel comic book adaptation from five years ago, about a stunt motorcycle driver who’s deal with the devil goes awry; I caught it on cable a while later and was horrified, but not in the way intended.  It was another depressing case of great special effects (that fiery skull head and demonically powered motorcycle were undeniably cool), wasted in a stupid story and lame dialogue. Sometimes these things get better with the follow-up, but very rarely.

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Digitaria Staff Co-authored Post

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Social Media for Social Good

 February 16, 2012 by Kristina Eastham
Social Media Week JWT

So far this week at Social Media Week New York, the Advertising & Content Marketing Hub at JWT has hosted many brilliant marketers and advertising gurus who understand ways to use social media to connect brands with people and ultimately sell products. But can that same social network that offers you discount codes, influencer status and clout promote a cause and change the world for the better?

Speakers on Tuesday's "Social Media for Social Good" panel believe it can. Panelists Dan Savage of the "It Gets Better" project (and presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s bete noir); Carmel Hagen, CMO of Common and a developer of occupationalist.org (a social aggregator site for the Occupy Movement); Erin Hersey, Director of Operations at the Design for Social Innovation at the School of Visual Arts; and Digitaria President and COO Doug Hecht, speaking on behalf of Invisible Children and the LRA Crisis Tracker project; all touted the empowerment that social media has brought to the vox populi.

Each panelist is part of a movement tackling very different issues. Child Soldiers in Africa. Closeted and bullied gay youth around the world. Training activists to make a bigger impact via social strategy. This diversity brought he panel depth, and helped reveal some greater truths about social cause marketing. The panel began with a discussion of how social media has added a new level of transparency to brands, governments and causes, as well as a method of delivering that message to the masses. But raising awareness can only do so much for an issue. How do you get from awareness to action?

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Kristina Eastham Communications Coordinator

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Ok, Ok Cupid

 February 14, 2012 by Travis Schlueter-Beckner

This year I’ll be spending Valentine’s Day -- that infamous Hallmark holiday -- with the same girlfriend for the second year in a row. Unusual, given my storied dating history.  How did this happen? Most of the time, I feel like I’m just an awkward geek. And then it hit me. The quest to find love is going digital.  And not just for awkward geeks like me.  There’s a dating site for everyone: Christian sites, lunch date sites for busy professionals, even Cupidtino, a dating site for Mac enthusiasts.

Not wanting to rule out any worthy PC-using women, I tried OkCupid, a dating site that is growing in popularity among my generation, the Millennials.  The site was co-founded by a guy who has a degree in mathematics and you can tell: its page explaining match percentage algorithms actually makes sense. But not to be too dry, the OkCupid blog regularly mines its rich user data (anonymously of course) to create humorous and through-provoking posts and infographics on dating and sex.

What makes OkCupid so popular among my crowd is that it’s built with the web generation in mind.  It’s fast, has a gorgeous UI, and -- perhaps most importantly -- is free to use.  Profile creation can take as little as five minutes: carve out your space with a user name, a few brief biography lines, your interests, then top it off with a few of your most photogenic pics.

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Travis Schlueter-Beckner Quality Assurance Specialist

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Alternative Press Can’t Think So Traditionally When It Comes to Advertising

 February 10, 2012 by Sarah Kotlova
Alternative Media Advertising

Recently Centro’s Ben Pashman (@benpashman) and I were invited to the Association of Alternative Media’s Web and Mobile conference (#AANWeb) in San Francisco, to speak on Trends in Digital Ads.  

We ducked out for a coffee beforehand to get our story straight and prepare for any lobbed tomatoes. Centro, of course, is a powerhouse purchaser of local digital media. But we wondered how popular we were going to be with the crowd. Many alt-weeklies have had a slow and difficult transition to the online world, caught between a technology investment rock and a Craigslist hard place. As the personals declined and local advertisers discovered social media and localized Google search results, attracting advertisers to online properties rose in priority for many alt-weeklies. Paychecks have to come from somewhere.

To make things harder, as the publications struggled to create a value proposition online, ad buying strategies are adjusting, as is ad delivery technology itself. Rich media, video pre-roll and other higher-engagement advertising now command premium space and dollars. Some Alt Weeklies are barely delivering on standard digital ad spaces. Effective website redevelopment requires funds, time and know-how (to say nothing of SEO). Strong web- and mobile-based resources for many local-need pillars had emerged fast: peer-based and/or curated reviews and recommendations for restaurants, entertainment, movies, events.

For the most part, the Alt Weeklies neither beat nor joined.  Print publications remained their darling.

And now, Ben and I were here to discuss why they aren’t making enough money from their digital properties.

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Sarah Kotlova Account Director

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