Data Visualization Project for Case Western Reserve University

Data Visualization at the Kelvin Smith library at Case Western Reserve University. A case study and video documentary explaining how Optiem helped Case Western Reserve University implement a data visualization strategy for the Kelvin Smith Library.

Making the Invisible Library Visible from Optiem LLC on Vimeo.

Social Sharing on Twitter and Facebook

Including social media integration in websites has become common place. Often we work with clients to either include their Twitter or Facebook feeds or at least link to their social media accounts.

Yet it would be short sighted to only provide the one-way connection in your website. The social sharing sites "Add This" and "Share This" offer a simple alternative but the implementations for both can be bulky and overwhelming offering every... possible... social network... plus email.

Instead it's better to focus on providing the most relevant or at least the most common channels to your users. This simplifies the interaction and makes it much more likely that your visitors will actually tweet your page or post it to Facebook.

In my recent post highlighting the Social Profiles tool we built for Exact Target, I attempted to showcase something that was both interesting and useful and had integrated sharing capabilities.

Because the tool was dome completely in Flash and we had a short time line, we opted to use a pre-configured link (example) to allow people to tweet the Social Profile that most closely matched them. This made the interaction very simple.

In an email I wrote promoting the tool I encouraged people to "...Tweet it, post it and send this out to whomever might find it useful or informative." Because it was email, I could not include JavaScript as I would on a website or blog post. "Add This" wouldn't work, neither would a Wordpress Plugin. Instead I used the built in capability of Facebook and Twitter to take information passed in with he link.

Twitter recently began offering the Tweet Button. What makes this nice is that it customizes the tweet text, URL, and target language. Even better, it allows you to recommend up to two Twitter accounts after someone posts their tweet.

However, one of the best things about this technology is that it's functionality can be achieved using simple HTML. The advantage is that you can give people the option of sharing your content not just on your website or blog, but in places that don't allow JavaScript, such as some web enabled phones and your email newsletter. More info is available on the Tweet Button page of Twitter's developer section.

Regardless of what social media channels you use, always consider how you are enabling people to share your content in their social circles and be sure the technology you use is compatible with your messaging platform.

Social Profiles Interactive Tool

Optiem worked closely with our partner, Exact Target, to develop a new interactive tool for visualizing how people participate in content consumption and creation. The research report developed by Exact Target covers 12 distinct social personas, each with specific traits, behaviors, and tendencies. This in-depth market research paints a broad picture that helps marketers understand how different channels are used and what activities people engage in.

Coupled with age and gender demographics, the tool allows marketers to dive deep into a specific demographic for any person to see channel use in email, Facebook, and Twitter as well as participation in 21 creation, consumption, and contribution activities.

Powered by Exact Target’s excellent data and analysis, Optiem integrated this information with a rich Flash UI that contains more than 7.5K data points. The plot chart shows where each persona falls on the axes of consumption and contribution. Clicking on a persona reveals a deeper look at how the persona uses social and email channels and participates in online activities.

Check out the tool below and sign up to receive the report. Pass the word to anyone you know who might benefit from this amazing tool!

To learn more about Social Media Marketing visit ExactTarget.com/SFF

Uppercut Motion + Sound | Construction Update

We're pleased to announce that the construction of our new studio space is moving along quite nicely! We will post more updates in the near future, however, here's a tease to peak your interest:

We look forward to the completion of our space come early fall.

Whose is using iPhones and smart phones?

The way users connect to the internet is changing radically over time. Not only do more people have smart phones, but added tools for feature phones are starting to blur the difference between the categories. According to a recent study by Pew on mobile access, 40% of adults now access the internet using cell phones - an increase from 32% in April 2009.

So people are using phones more to access the internet, and smart phone users are leading the way.

In the 'smart' phone camp, there are a few platforms to track including iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Palm and Windows Mobile. The interesting thing is that Pew research points out the demographic differences between these platform users. Why is that important? If you are going to develop a mobile app, it allows you to target demographic groups based on platform.

Here is the breakdown as provided by a Media Post report:

Phone	Male	Female	Age	Income	Ethnicity
iPhone	60.5%	39.5%	25-34 (34.3%)	$100K+ (47.1%)	White (74.4%)
BlackBery	58.2%	41.9%	25-34 (26.1%)	$100K+ (42.7%)	White (74.4%)
Android	57.5%	42.5%	25-34 (29%)	$100K+ (35.1%)	White (75.4%)
Windows Mobile	64.8%	35.2%	25-34 (26.8%)	$100K+ (35.6%)	White (77.5%)
Palm (WebOS)	57.2%	42.8%	25-34 (29.6%)	$100K+ (33.4%)	White (77.1%)

The report also details the types of activities and the frequency in which they are done by each demographic group. Although the phone ownership is dominated by whites, minority cell owners are significantly more likely than whites to use most non-voice data applications on their mobile devices. They also take advantage of a wider range of mobile phone features compared with whites.

When it comes to accessing the internet via a cell phone the breakdown is 33% (white, non-Hispanics), 46% (black, non-Hispanics) and 51% (English-speaking Hispanics).

Vertically Integrated Marketing Stream Of Consciousness

Kendall Allen calls it “Ad Hoc Digital”.  Tom Schick calls it the “Duct Tape Approach.”  What ever you call it, the non-strategic, non-integrated and non-connected -together injection of tactically employed digital “media” into an overall marketing strategy continues to stunt the growth of many marketers.

Personally, I like the concept of vertical integration as a metaphor for building effective marketing integration: In classic vertical integration in manufacturing, there is upstream vertical integration (like Ford owning steel and rubber companies).  There is downstream vertical integration (like American Apparel owning its own retail outlets), and balanced (both upstream and downstream) vertical integration where the company owns or controls the whole process, from raw material to final distribution.

For my metaphor, think about your owned content as your upstream vertical integration, and your owned or borrowed channels as your downstream vertical integration.

Unlike classic vertical integration, which can be visualized as a linear path with a beginning and an end (the one way stream), great integrated marketing now should be seen as a never-ending circular whirlpool-like stream with analytics and ROI measurement built in along the stream to allow for flexibility, speed, scalability and precise addition and subtraction of tactics throughout the continual process.

Like classic vertical integration, this approach is a strategic initiative with a lot of moving parts that requires a strong partner and organizational commitment and resources.

If you are currently doing the “Ad Hoc” or “Duct Tape” toe in the water approach, it’s time to jump into the stream.

Mobile Marketing and Commerce HOT Amongst eRetailers

We recently came back from the annual Internet Retailer Conference and Expo in Chicago. This is a conference created to bring together the Top 500 Internet Retailers and the brightest technology vendors in an attempt to provide a learning/networking event that everyone can benefit from. I walked away with oodles of PowerPoint slides all chock full of great data. This post discusses one of the hottest topics at this years show - mobile. Below are some data charts and graphs that illustrate the adoption of mobile marketing and commerce platforms amongst retailers and consumers. Click on the images to enhance the size for a better view. This chart illustrates the growth, in terms of dollars that online retail has experienced over the last 9 years. The growth is incremental year-over-year yet sustainable and not to mention this was in a poor economy.

This chart illustrates the percentage of growth that Internet Retailers have experienced year-over-year since 2001. Hard to believe it has only been 10 years for this industry.

There was a lot of focus placed on mobile marketing and commerce at this years event. Seems like mobile has been hot for a few years now. Back in 2005 I worked on the PayPal Text-to-Buy product launch and we thought that 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 would all be the year that mobile would take off. The reality was that the devices just were not there yet. Mobile browsing was cumbersome and slow at best. With modern smart phones like the iPhone, BlackBerry and the latest, KIN by Microsoft, it seems that this may be the year for mobile. So even with the expensive price tags, consumers continue to buy and use smart phones more than ever. In fact, a recent statistic from Forrester points out that "88% of US smart phone owners were satisfied with their most recent purchase via their phone".

Mobile coupons were by far the hottest mobile topic as retailers lined-up to hear several technology vendors share tips for mobile marketing best practices. I look forward to seeing how retailers adopt mobile heading into the 3rd quarter of the year.

If you are a brand I am interested in getting your comments and thoughts regarding your interest in mobile. Is it something you have on the agenda to implement in 2010? 2011? If you are a consumer do you see yourself using your mobile device more for retail purposes these days? How many of us have used our mobile phone to send a text to someone for purchasing advice or even to buy a product?