Archive for the 'Flipboard' Category

07
Dec
11

Facebook Revolutionizes Profiles with Timeline

By Mark Plumb Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, Facebook, Flipboard, Marketing, Social Media and Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

One of the often-overlooked parts of Facebook has been the profile, with a combination of privacy concerns as well as Facebook automatic like and app postings apps to the profile.  However, prior to the 2012 IPO Facebook keeps rolling out improvements as well as value added applications to the service. The latest in beta testing is called Timeline. Timing of full release is unknown to due a legal dispute with timelines.com.

This redefining of the personal profile is a significant change. Facebook knows a lot about us. It knows about the crazy party, the time we went on vacation and when we met specific friends. This is the primary source of Facebook power; it is the online service with the most personal data about our lives. Timeline is the vehicle where a user can harness that power.

In another Facebook surprise, Timeline allows users to control what is displayed. (Three cheers for user control over Facebook content!)

  • Certain stories can be promoted, they will grab more real estate on the profile. You are not tied to chronological order.
  • Stories and posts can easily be deleted from the Timeline.
  • If anything is missing, it is easy to add ‘life events’ to the Timeline. The more info you put into the Timeline, the more robust it becomes.
  • It is easy to selectively edit the postings that will shape the view of people going forward.

In the past, I’ve written about my favorite iPad app, Flipboard. It appears that the Facebook team has taken the best of Flipboard to create Timeline. Instead of a random scrapbook, Timeline presents our online life as a high-end photo album.

Tell us what you think of Facebook grouping information to tell the story of our lives. Is Timeline a new, exciting way to detail history or is it a creepy way to reveal everything you’ve done in a potentially unnerving way? One thing for sure, anytime Facebook makes a change there will be a cry over privacy concerns.

Share your thoughts here or on Facebook at Weise Communications and follow us on Twitter at @Weise_Ideas.

06
May
11

New York Times backed News.me looks to flip Flipboard users

By Mark Plumb 1 Comment
Categories: Advertising, Apps, Flipboard, iPad, Marketing, New York Times, Social Media, Tablet and Twitter
Tags: , , , , , ,

A competitor to the news aggregator application Flipboard launched last month. The New York Times partnered with the creators of bit.ly to find links that are being widely circulated and have aggregated the news in their new service called News.me.

I adopted Flipboard the same week I got my iPad (Side Note: You’ll Flip for Flipboard) and it is one of my daily stops. I love the layout, the vast array of news sources and access to Twitter content from newsmakers and reporters.  Best of all, it’s free! This brings me to my biggest complaint with News.me, they are charging 99 cents per week for free Twitter content.  Also, News.me only allows me to follow the Twitter stream of other News.me users. Flipboard allows me to follow those same Twitter streams for free.

It appears that the biggest advantage to News.me is that you can read full articles from The New York Times without advertising. Although, I found it funny that one of the bit.ly links I found today on News.me (during my free trial week) announced the two Webby and two People’s Voice Awards won by Flipboard http://bit.ly/k4Nkee.

So, I don’t expect News.me to survive in its current form, there are three things News.me can do to encourage me to give it a second chance.

  • Timely news – The majority of Flipboard is relying on sources I’ve selected to update news. So, my news feed is as timely as my friends speed to post news.
  • Diverse sources – I follow BBC News, CNN (love that app too!), USA Today and the The Denver Post. If News.me will provide information from these sources and more instead of the Twitter feed of other News.me users, my interest would be piqued.
  • Prioritize my news feed – News.me needs to develop an algorithm that will give me the most relevant news first instead of whatever was the most recent post.

I don’t know if I would pay 99 cents per week for these improvements, but I know as my free trial ends today, it’s so long, farewell, goodbye to News.me.

Tell us if your keeping News.me and please tell us why. Share your thoughts with us on Facebook at Weise Communications and follow us for free on Twitter at @Weise_Ideas.

11
Mar
11

LinkedIn Today: Too Little, Too Late

By Mark Plumb Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, Facebook, Flipboard, Linked In, LinkedIn, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter and Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , ,

LinkedIn is finally trying to capitalize on the positioning of social networking for business by releasing LinkedIn Today. LinkedIn Today is a news service designed to pick out the most relevant stories for business users. LinkedIn hopes the service will turn its site into a daily destination.

Unfortunately for LinkedIn, this service is coming along far too late to encourage people to change behaviors. Historically, LinkedIn didn’t offer enough information to warrant a daily check-in. The search isn’t as powerful at Twitter and the overwhelming majority of information updates are about new connections to others in your network. With products like Flipboard, there is already a personalized social magazine that incorporates the power of Twitter search, delivers industry news that your connections are recommending, tweeting or posting on Facebook.

Currently, LinkedIn Today only offers 22 industry news feeds. Eventually it will expand to include 115 LinkedIn industries, if new content merits expansion. For example, “The agriculture industry is not sharing enough content to build a compelling product, but we hope over time it will,” explains Liz Walker, product manager of LinkedIn Today.

However, LinkedIn Today may have a couple of advantages for marketers even if I don’t think I’ll personally use it.

  • LinkedIn Today is free to advertisers
  • The service has also launched a LinkedIn Today share button. Having this button on your content makes it much more convenient to share content with their LinkedIn network.
  • Can’t be on the sidelines. Now that news and blogs can more conveniently reach another social network, there is even more reason to be active on LinkedIn.

Tell us if you think LinkedIn Today will be successful or if it’s just another news aggregator – and you already have your favorites. Share your ideas with us on Facebook at Weise Communications and follow @Weise_Ideas on Twitter.

 

 

11
Jan
11

You’ll Flip for Flipboard

By Mark Plumb 1 Comment
Categories: Advertising, Business Strategies, Communications, Facebook, Flipboard, Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter and Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Any list of the best apps for the iPad must begin with Flipboard. If you’re unaware, California-based Flipboard takes your social network, primarily Twitter & Facebook, and turns the content into a social ‘magazine.’ There are other news and RSS feeds that can also be a part of your magazine, but the appeal of content delivered in a familiar format from trusted sources is VERY appealing.  Additionally, as you can tell from the screen shot on the right, it is crazy attractive!

Instead of a text feed, Flipboard provides content in a sleek, magazine-style format. Flipboard turns tweets and status updates into bold headlines with bylines, packaged in a column layout complete with images. Go to the next story by flipping pages, tapping stories expands them; it is exactly how I want to view my social network.

Not to say it is perfect, one limitation is that the feed is chronological, so a relatively mundane story can become a headline while something important can be suppressed. Also, Flipboard made the decision to skip repeated tweets, a great idea. However, since all the responses are not on the first tweet, it makes have a conversation disjointed at best.

For marketers, this bears watching. If Flipboard takes off, how long until we see websites optimize their content for Flipboard.  If you have the CNN app, you’ll notice it looks like Flipboard. With investors including Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and Actor/ Twitter enthusiast Ashton Kutcher, Flipboard has a fighting chance as it raised $10.5 million in the first round of venture capital funding.

In case you haven’t seen Flipboard in action, here is the introductory video.

Let us know if you will use an app like this to browse your social media feeds. Share your thoughts with us on Facebook at Weise Communications and follow @Weise_Ideas on Twitter.

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