Alan Siegel: Put It In Simple English

Douglas Rushkoff: Don't Be a Digital Sheep in the Digital Age

In About-Face, Marines Embrace Web 2.0

Danger Room reports: Last summer, the U.S. Marine Corps took a draconian approach to Web 2.0, issuing a sweeping ban on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other social media sites from its networks.

In an order issued yesterday, the service changed course, issuing guidelines to encourage “responsible and effective use” of social networking technology. “The Marine Corps embraces and strives to leverage the advances of internet-based capabilities,” the directive states. “Effective immediately, internet-based capabilities will be made available to all MCEN [Marine Corps Enterprise Network] users.”

In addition to opening up YouTube and Google tools, it encourages Marine organizations to create a better online presence. Marine recruiters already use Facebook; Marine Corps public affairs uses Twitter. This new guidance gives the green light for other units to use the same tools.

Loic LeMeur: Role of Social Media in Marketing

Social Media Bootcamp + Presentation

Frocomm Social Media Bootcamp 2009 Ogilvy 360 DI

View more presentations from Frocomm Australia.

Study: Internet More Essential Than TV

IWantMedia reports: More people would give up television than the Internet if they had to choose, according to a new survey by Arbitron and Edison Research. The Internet has become the 'most essential' medium. For persons under age 45, 'the gap towards eliminating TV is much greater.'"

After a Sour Start in Social Media, Skittles Gets Sweet Results

ClickZ reports: Skittles has been anything but skittish toward social media marketing over the last year. The 35-year-old confectionary brand has been building its Facebook presence dramatically, exceeding 4 million "fans" earlier this month. That's good for third place among all U.S. consumer brands, trailing only Starbucks' 6 million and Coca Cola's 5 million.

Just last year, Skittles made headlines for its plunge into social media on Twitter. In March 2009, the brand began using an unfiltered Twitter search as its homepage - abandoning its existing Web site - to appeal to young, social-media-minded consumers. Many in the industry characterized the move as either daring or intriguing, while others lamented that it was copying a similar ploy by ad agency Modernista.

At the time, offensive comments littered the Twitter feed, prompting Skittles to move its homepage over to Facebook. That location didn't last long either, as the brand - owned by McLean, VA-based Mars Inc. - subsequently moved its homepage to other social sites.

The erratic activity actually helped build an ongoing buzz last year that surfaced on Facebook more than anywhere else. The brand increased its presence on the social site from around 600,000 fans, pre-Twitter-experiment, to 3.5 million by 2009's end.

How Google plays the angles in Washington

CNNMoney reports: Google is barnstorming the nation's capital. Five years after it opened its Washington office, the tech giant is playing an increasingly powerful role in public policy debates over everything from patent reform to foreign policy.

Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) lobbied 13 government agencies last year, spending just under $6 million in the process. That places the search company right behind Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500), IBM (IBM, Fortune 500) and Oracle (ORCL, Fortune 500) among the biggest tech lobbies in Washington.

The company employs 30 staffers in Washington and turns to some of the biggest names in lobbying, including the Podesta Group, Dutko Worldwide and McBee Strategic Consulting, for outside help.

Last year, among the 16 bills that Google lobbied Congress on were a proposal to create an investment fund for clean energy and another to publicly detail who is using radio spectrum. Google also advocated for the Federal Communications Commission to support "Net neutrality" -- an unfiltered, and equally accessed Internet.

Wanted: A multitalented social game - USATODAY.com

USAT reports: Social games on Facebook are hot. But developers in that fast-growing market want more. They're in search of the Holy Grail, a killer social game that can be used interchangeably on smartphones, Facebook and big-screen TVs.

"There is no question we'll see a game that can be played during the commute from your phone, on a bigger (PC screen) at work, and on a bigger (TV) screen at home," says Randy Breen, CEO of Social Gaming Network. "They exist to a limited extent, but the experience is not uniform."

Early bets are on a title from a big brand name that capitalizes on a major sporting event — be it March Madness or World Cup, with the potential to reach 100 million users a month.

Who leaves Politico for Yahoo?!?

BI's The Wire reports: Politico media blogger Michael Calderone is leaving the site for Yahoo.

According to sources, he is expected to leave Politico within a matter of weeks to join Yahoo News' original content project, overseen by blogging editor Andrew Golis. Chris Lehmann and "Cajun Boy" Brett Michael Dykes also recently joined the project.

BlogTalkRadio secures more money

TechCrunch reports: Popular podcasting site BlogTalkRadio has raised $1.9 million in Series B funding from the Kraft Group,Howard Lindzon, Roger Ehrenberg and founder Alan Levy. BlogTalkRadio, which was founded in 2006 and allows anyone can set up a podcast or “radio talkshow” over the web using phone calls, had previously raised $4.6 million in Series A funding in 2008 led by the Kraft Group."

Presentation: Social Campaigning + Online Fundraising

Online Fundraising

View more presentations from Marc Ross.

How to Build Engaging One-of-Kind Facebook Fan Pages

Don’t let anyone tell you it is easy to create a successfully engaging Facebook Fan Page. It is not.

It’s not an insurmountable task either. But it requires planning, time, some kind of HTML knowledge, design skill, and imagination. Originality doesn’t hurt either.

Read the article @ TechCrunch.

MTV Developing 'Co-Viewing' Apps for iPad

AdAge reports: MTV Networks is developing a co-browsing app meant to be used while watching live television. MTV is focusing on two approaches: co-viewing apps that capture the social-media chatter around TV and apps for video on the go. Apps for several MTV shows are due in April.

Mobile App Contest Launched For Ben's Chili Bowl

Potomac TechWire reports: Ben's Chili Bowl, the venerable hot dog and chili emporium on U Street, has announced a new contest to develop a mobile app for the restaurant. The "Apps for Ben's" contest was Inspired by iStrategyLabs' Apps for Democracy contest that produced dozens of apps for the District of Columbia government. Submissions from developers are due in May, with the contest culminating at Digital Capital Week in June. The winner's photo will grace the walls of the restaurant, alongside famous patrons like President Obama and Bill Cosby. Ben's plans to announce complete details of the contest at the premier of its monthly Tech Tasters event on April 5.

More information here: http://apps4bens.com/

FinReg provisions would raise the costs of angel investments in startup ventures

Tucked away in a few pages in the comprehensive financial reform bill outlined by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Senator Dodd (D-Conn.) are provisions that would raise the costs of angel investments in startup ventures. These provisions are both unnecessary and unhelpful at a time when policymakers should be looking for ways to make it easier to finance new businesses, especially the potentially high-growth, job-creating companies capable of attracting outside investors.

Under existing law, startup companies can raise money easily and quickly from "accredited investors" -- individuals with substantial wealth or income. There is no need for the companies or the investors to gain approval from any state or regulatory official.

All of this would change if Section 926 of the Dodd bill is included in any final reform legislation. That section would require, for the first time, companies seeking angel investment to make a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which would have 120 days to review it. This would both raise the cost of seeking angels and delay the ability of companies to benefit from their funding.

The negative impact of the SEC filing requirement would be aggravated by the proposed doubling of the net worth or income thresholds required for investors to be "accredited."

If you care about startups and making sure they have access to capital, please sign this petition and also feel free to email / blog / tweet this forward.
http://gopetition.com/online/32354/signatures.html

Here's a deeper take on the issue from the HuffingtonPost.

WSJ iPad Edition to Cost $17.99 a Month

Bloomberg reports: WSJ plans to charge $17.99 a month for its edition on Apple's iPad. The Journal has sold four-month ad packages to Coca-Cola and FedEx for $400,000. Also, Time magazine has signed up several major advertisers for single ad spots costing $200,000"

BTW - WSJ Kindle edition is priced at $14.99 a month. Does that mean the iPad edition is 20% better?

AOL Launches Patch.org to Fund Local News

WebProNews reports: AOL is launching Patch.org, a charitable foundation to support access to local news in underserved communities. Patch.org will partner with community foundations and other groups to launch sites and bring local news to communities that lack adequate news media."

Amanpour to Make $2M at 'This Week'

NYP reports: The hiring of Christiane Amanpour as the new host of ABC's 'This Week' is said to be hitting staff morale, as the network news division reduces its payroll by 400 jobs. Amanpour, who had been at CNN for 26 years, will make a rumored $2 million a year in her new post."

1938media answers, "what is the internet?"

100 Ways to Measure Social Media

100 Ways to Measure Social Media - Promotion Marketing Association 2010

View more presentations from David Berkowitz.

At stake for Google in China: Smart phone empire

As the company tangles with the Chinese government, it puts in jeopardy its tentative grip on the cellphone market in a nation where staggering growth in mobile search is expected.

In its public wrangling with the Chinese government, Google Inc. not only risks losing access to millions of personal computers in China but also its toehold in the world's largest cellphone market.

The U.S. technology giant has been providing Chinese handset manufacturers its Android operating system for free in hopes of penetrating a country where, soon, more people are expected to access the Internet on mobile phones than on desktop computers.

Although it is a distant second on computer searches, Google is nearly tied for first with China's Baidu Inc. for market share in China's nascent mobile-search sector.

Many Chinese are increasingly relying on smart phones for both telephone and computer services, including surfing and searching the Web.

LAT article - click here.

Taking the Tablet and Developing Mag+

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

Swedish mag publisher Bonnier‘s R&D team enlisted celebrated London design house BERG to re-imagine not just one of its magazines, but the magazine as a form.

The result: Mag+, an iPad lookalike whose on-board titles eschew page-turning mimickry (it “doesn’t feel very believable and isn’t very honest to the screen”) for web-style scrollable columns.

Neither BERG nor Bonnier will realise the device (they aren’t hardware makers), but the reusable software concept presents several interesting methods for navigating articles that are clearly borrowed from iPodville.

foursquare to Integrate with MTV, VH1

mediabistro.com reports: Cable networks MTV and VH1 will integrate location-based social-gaming app foursquare into its television, online, and mobile content, and the two MTV Networks channels will be the first media brands to launch foursquare's new Celebrity Mode tool, which allows users to friend celebrities.

The initial MTV shows to incorporate foursquare will be The Hills, The City, the upcoming Real World: New Orleans, and Jersey Shore, while VH1 series getting involved are The T.O. Show, Fantasia for Real, and the upcoming What Chilli Wants.

Marketing becoming more immediate, social

CNET News reports: This year will be a transitional year for marketing as we move toward an era that is "more immediate, more personal, more social, and more engaging," according to recently released survey data from marketing software developer Unica.

Really what this means is that marketers have to be much more vigilant about managing their various presences, online and off, in order to stay on top of their brand.

Key points from the survey report:

73 percent of companies surveyed are leveraging customer initiated interactions to serve marketing messages and offers

Organizational and financial concerns, rather than technical barriers, are slowing the adoption of centralized decisioning

Many marketers use both aggregate Web data and offline data when making decisions about marketing offers. E-mail is the channel where both online and offline data are most likely to be used in decision

Contact optimization and social-media monitoring will be the fastest growing marketing technologies, while marketing resource management will continue to lag

Mobile, rich media, and social-media marketing are all being adopted with enthusiasm by marketers

A third of marketers surveyed already conduct some type of mobile marketing

Social-media marketing is widely embraced, but marketers need to think more about integrating social media with other marketing tactics

Anyone reading this with questions or concerns - email me at marc@2ndsix.com!

Google Wave is turning out to be more of a ripple

From Guardian Tech Blog: Statistics from Hitwise suggest that the collaboration tool made a big splash... and then vanished

10 Ideas for the New Decade

Edelman assembles 10 essays on trends written by some of the smartest thinkers in digital marketing.

Click here to access the report.

An e-model for journalism in Seattle

After 146-year-old Post-Intelligencer folded last year, the LAT reports how (and why) 20 of 160 employees were retained to produce an online product.

Click here to access the article.

11 Essential Resources You May Have Missed

From in-depth how-tos, to app lists, to valuable business guides, browse below for a veritable smorgasbord of value you may have passed over - Mashable has created a quick guide. Click here to access the article.

Subject: How can Facebook be bigger than Google?

That was the subject line from a friend's email earlier this week in reponse to an FT article (Facebook becomes bigger hit than Google) announcing that last week Facebook enjoyed their first weekly lead over Google for US internet visits.

True, this measurement only considered google.com and not the fleet of other Google sites like Gmail, YouTube and Google Maps; but this activity clearly shows that web use is becoming more sociable and less searchable.

I think there are two simple reasons for this development:

1) News Editors: More of us like to have information, news, entertainment, photos, games and videos brought to us – think of it as “friends as editors” handling news and information management.

My friends know what I like and don’t like so they will (and should) share appropriate material and information I care about. If not, I will defriend them and seek out other friends and like minded groups on Facebook that can provide me the data I want – massive network effort.

Google is great – but you need to search and ask a question to make it work. If you don’t know what to ask - you won’t know what to search for. Facebook simplifies this problem and delivers to us what we care about.

Most news and information has always been delivered by influential editors over the centuries – be it by pulpit, town caller, news editor or nightly news anchorman . This is still true today and many of the elements listed above still exist - but most of these past efforts have been simplified, shifted to digital platforms and are now controlled by people we trust, interact with offline and know personally.

2)Changing Computer Use: There are massive groups of individuals and demos who don’t send email and don’t use a desktop computer. They are mobile, use smart phones and Facebook is their primary communication tool.

Simply put - more social media and more mobile equals less email (using outlook for example) in the traditional sense and less asking (typing) questions via search.

More internet users are in a mobile state and can easily be active and connected with Facebook. Today on any smartphone or advanced mobile device, anyone can plan a party, play a game, receive news and be entertained. A huge amount of time is being spent on Facebook that is pure entertainment with photos, videos and games being shared and/or developed by our friends.

There are no games on Google. It is a grad school environment where you need to type with multiple fingers and hands - an incredibly challenging thing to on a small mobile device. It is much easier to push, check-in and slide than it is to type.

What is wrong with this new development? Who among us doesn't want to play more and type less?

As last week's web traffic shows - it is the modern internet thing to do.

Advocacy 2.0 Asks @cityshopgirl

.com Policy Forum Photos

Social networkers swayed by online branding, buying from the brands they follow

The Independent reports: Following a brand on Twitter or Facebook will make you more likely to buy a product from that company, says a new report published by market research firm Chadwik Martin Bailey.

The study, which was released on March 16, showed that consumers were up to 67 percent more likely to recommend or buy products from a brand after following them on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Consumers said that their number-one reason for becoming a fan of a brand on social networking sites was to receive discounts from the companies. Other reasons for following a brand included previously purchasing a product from the company, wanting to show others they supported the brand or to gain access to exclusive content.

Facebook users were more likely to show their support for a company they liked by becoming a fan of the brand on the social network while Twitter users were more likely to follow a brand to receive real-time information and exclusive offers.

The survey was based on the responses of 1,504 adults living in the US between February 8 and 9, 2010.

37 Things I learned yesterday at the 25th Anniversary of .com’s Policy Forum

I was very fortunate to attend the 25^th Anniversary of .com's Policy Forum yesterday in DC. Not only was the event a great reminder of where we started, but the event also provided insights into where we are (possibly) going with .com for the next 25 years.

The intention of yesterday's 25th anniversary of .com event was to provide an opportunity to explore the relationship between public policy and commerce on the Web – which often times can be clumsy and burdensome – almost a DC is from Mars and Silicon Valley is from Venus situation. Nonetheless, the event brought together a unique collection of technology influencers, businesspeople and senior government officials – namely President Clinton. As a side note, if you haven't seen him in person in years, make time to do so. Not only was he informed, timely and global, but he continues to be charming and engaging.

It was a really great event – one of the best policy forums I have been into years. It was sort of a homecoming for me since I have been in CA for a number of years and have just recently returned to DC. My world was coming full circle by way of .com.

I have experienced .com in a number of ways. From working on the massive Microsoft antitrust case to witnessing firsthand how the internet can shape elections and influence legislation. As well as working at an angel funded internet startup to entertaining myself for hours with creative user generated content. The .com world has been a great experience for me and I truly can't wait to see what happens next.

Here are 37 things I learned yesterday:

1. Even the great futurist Alvin Toffler couldn't full predict what would happen when .com came to market.
   
2. Kevin Maney – author of one of my favorite business books of all time (Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On, and Other Don't)- was the moderator of the first panel. It was too bad he wasn't able to present his thoughts more and was placed in the moderator role.
   
3. Reed Hundt (former FCC Chairman during Clinton Administration) stated that 25% of all jobs (5m jobs) created in the 90s were .com related.
   
4. Mobile is huge and will be huge – namely due to bottom of the pyramid consumers who have skipped copper wires and desktops and gone wireless and mobile.
   
5. Rod Beckstrom – author of The Starfish and Spider and ICANN's current President and CEO was there – amazing insights. It was great to see him in person – his book has moved up on my reading list.
   
6. Should the Internet be a human right? Is it more important than electrify?
   
7. Cyber security is a threat and a serious matter – but any commercial enterprise has theft and criminal issues – should we ban the automobile to stop bank robbers from using them as get-away cars?
   
8. Consider how ING uses .com to create a virtual bank and is not encumbered by building brick and mortar facilities. Therefore, ING has the means to provide a higher interest rate on deposits.
   
9. Nobody blamed books for creating "isolation" and "self involvement."
   
10. "Creative Destruction" is important for a growing economy.
    
11. I learned what "Wild Carding" and "Parking Spaces" mean for technologists.
    
12. Presently there are 270 top level domain names in use = 20 are generic domain names (.com, .biz, .org, .info, .net, etc.) and 230 are county codes (.cn, .fr, .de, .ca, etc.)
    
13. Clinton Foundation has 1,100 staff/ volunteers and is active in 40 countries.
    
14. Bill Clinton stated, "Biggest challenge for poor nations is capacity."
    
15. Clinton stressed that the Internet needs to be an instrument of expression and not repression.
    
16. 50% of NGO donations now happen online.
    
17. Clinton's favorite websites are news based – he named Politico, Huffington Post, Fire Dog Lake and Daily Beast.
    
18. Clinton uses an iPhone but doesn't own a Kindle. He tries to maintain a healthy balance of not being online too much – feels it can stifle productivity especially as he often needs to meet and speak with people in person.
    
19. If you don't follow (or even know) Kara Swisher and Fred Wilson – you must start at once. You can find them @ AllThingsDigital and A VC respectively.
    
20. Swisher was handed a copy of the FCC's new broadband plan "on paper." She couldn't believe that they document wasn't in a digital format and that it was printed "on paper." She had tourists pose with the voluminous binder around DC as if it were Flat Stanley. Mind you this happened in real-time and in front of Aneesh Chopra - America's CTO. A very real SV vs. DC infliction point. She called the binder "ridiculous."
    
21. "Bending the Cost Curve" was repeated by every politician on stage throughout the day on how the Internet can lower the costs of energy, healthcare, travel, commerce – basically everything we presently spend money on.
    
22. Fred Wilson stated, "stop thinking about cable, wire and copper – we need to go wireless." He went onto to say America needs more spectrum space available for the common good of the country – presently too much private control.
    
23. Aneesh Chopra is an amazing politician – every answer was diplomatic and text book.
    
24. Broadband today is considered anything above 256Kbs.
    
25. Huffington Post tells others what you are reading unless you opt-in and turn on the stealth mode. I promptly did this today. Huff Post - I want to share not notify and be in control. Sites shouldn't assume I want to share everything.
    
26. Arianna Huffington is in the market for a product/device that helps connect you to a disconnected state – stressed importance of sleep and engaging offline. Basically she wants a tool to digitally monitor one's state of being.
    
27. Fred Wilson stated, "Facebook has pulled off the greatest privacy heist ever," and "it is ridiculous" that Facebook was able to launch a private network but is now, more and more, a public network.
    
28. Permission systems are the future – giving users the right to control how sees and accesses all types of information.
    
29. Swisher predicted Google will stay in China – not on .cn but through .com.
    
30. Wilson on China stated, "Citizens can't have access to games and not the rest of the have Internet of the modern world."
    
31. America = There is an app for that
    
32. DC = There is a form for that
    
33. Fareed Zakaria on why he is optimistic about the future: 1) world is enjoying political stability with none of the major word powers (top seven nations) at war, 2) economic stability is global – we have seen the end of communism and inflation, 3) power of connectivity due to the Internet.
    
34. Finance as a way of making money will shrink and "selling a home" is not the most productive means of generating wealth.
    
35. Zakaria, "we need to make stuff," and "we have five to six years to figure this out."
    
36. DC = an imperial city with imperial thinking leaders whereas America's body politic = isolationist.
    
37. Zakaria worrys about too much "transparency and accountability" in the US government and stated the best functioning parts are working opposite popular Gov 2.0 ideals – think Pentagon, Federal Reserve and Supreme Court.
    

With Twitter as the Messenger, Brisk Sales for Conan O’Brien Tour - Media Decoder Blog - NYTimes.com

Media Decoder Blog reports: Conan O'Brien has all but sold out his national tour, with no publicity other than a couple of tweets to his 600,000 followers. A Twitter announcement steered fans to O'Brien's tour Web site and to a Ticketmaster page, and most shows sold out in a matter of hours. "It was expertly done," said Geof Wills, president of Live Nation Comedy. "Does this take your traditional advertiser campaign and knock it on its ear? It's going to be a case study."

Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of .com

I am attending a forum in DC today discussing the policy and communications impact of .com.

Should be an interesting day with presentations and remarks from President Clinton and the cool kids of technology, Kara Swisher and Fred Wilson, as well as pop culture analysis from Mo Rocca and Arianna Huffington.

Look for a full report later today.

For more information -Home | Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of .com click here.

Media Content Dollars Shifting to Access

CNBC reports: U.S. consumers are shifting their media dollars. Instead of buying physical objects -- DVDs, books and magazines -- they're spending on access -- cable and Internet. The average American household now spends $98 monthly on media, and 77% of that goes to access.

A Cheat Sheet to Help You Conquer Social Media

Fast Company reports: Marketers who are still a little unsure about charting their path through the choppy waters of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn could do worse than check out this handy little guide to making social media work for them. The CMO's guide to the social landscape, created for CMO.com by client 97th Floor, takes all the major social media sites in the U.S. and analyzes their capabilities in four sectors: customer communication, brand exposure, driving traffic to your site, and SEOs. (For the full-sized version, click here.)

One on One: Andrey Ternovskiy, Creator of Chatroulette

The excited and eager Russian high school student who launched a Web site that allowed random video chats with strangers speaks toBits Blog @ NYT.

Media: Old Way vs. New Way

Media: Old Way vs. New Way

View more presentations from Marc Ross.

Nagourney Going Hollywood and will Leave Political Beat

Politico reports: Adam Nagourney, chief political correspondent for the New York Times, is expected to leave the politics beat to become the paper's next Los Angeles bureau chief, according to sources. Nagourney, who joined the Times in 1996, has been in his current role since 2002.

Social Campaigning ROI

ROI for a campaign or call to action can be condensed into a four-step process called

DIDM:

D = Define your GOALS
I = Identify the METRICS that represent those goals
D = Determine the TOOLS and methodology for measuring your metrics
M = MEASURE

Since social campaigning is largely about connecting with and interacting with people, there is a large amount of “qualitative ROI” or “social value”.

Think about this. How can the ROI of friends be measured? Not an easy task right? The same is true for social campaigning; it’s not always possible to put a value on a conversation or the number of conversations in which you engage. Regardless, social campaigning will become ubiquitous as a campaign standard.

Here are some simple measurements to get you started.

Social Campaigning Qualitative Metrics

1. Campaign engagement and participation in relevant discussions
2. Quality of the discussions that you engage in
3. The loyalty of voters/supporters as a result of social campaigning engagement
4. The reputation the campaign has as a result of social campaigning
5. The amount and quality of the interactions that voters/supporters have with your campaign
6. Information your users give you for gotv, fundraising or campaign marketing purposes

Social Campaigning Quantitative Metrics

1. Number of visitors or amount of traffic to a particular page/site
2. Conversion rates, or actions that you want your audience to take when they visit the site – create an account, join email list, register to vote, join text messaging list, etc.
4. The amount of time that people are spending on your site
5. Increase in fundraising contributions
6. The various parts of the state/district your users are coming from
7. Keywords people are using to find your site
8. The sites that are referring the most amount of traffic for you
9. The most popular pages/content on your site
10. The number of incoming links you have to your site and where those links are coming from
11. The number of volunteer leads or the amount of money made from direct contributions
12. The number of RSS and/or email subscribers

What do you measure?
What do you care about?
What measurements are you experimenting with?

CNN Developing New Morning-Show Pilot

The Wrap reports: CNN,which has been shuffling its weekend and evening lineups of late, is developing a new morning show pilot, with a format closer to MSNBC's Morning Joe and Fox & Friends than anything it has done. A source says CNN is testing a concept that would include personalities with dueling political ideologies and opinions.

McKinsey: China's Internet obsession

Full article: https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/PDFDownload.aspx?ar=2546

Quick Points:

1. People in the China’s 60 largest cities spend 70 percent of their leisure time online.

2. By the end of 2009, the number of Internet users in China had touched 384 million, more than the entire population of the United States.

3. The PC is fast replacing the TV set as an entertainment hub.

4. People in China use the Internet more for entertainment—playing online games, messaging, downloading music and movies, and shopping—than for work.

5. Online advertising has been growing at between 20 and 30 percent a year—twice the print media’s growth rate—and the market was around $3 billion (20 billion renminbi) in size last year.

Micro-Targeting: It’s Not Just for Niche Brands Anymore

Nielsen Wire reports: The rise of new technologies and increased channel fragmentation makes reaching consumer targets more challenging than ever. More and more consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers are finding that micro-targeting strategies—traditionally employed by specialized business—are unleashing new, deeper insights into their customer targets enabling them to grow brands in creative and profitable ways.

Full article here: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/micro-targeting-it%E2%80%99s-not-just-for-niche-brands-anymore

THE NEW DORK - Entrepreneur State of Mind (Jay-Z ft Alicia Keys Spoof)

Win Oscar - Check | Promote Cause - Check

Ric O'Barry, right after The Cove won an oscar, during the Academy Awards.

Never - ever miss a chance to advocate - democracy doesn't rest.

Fuze Box Touts Twitter Fan Pages

MediaPost reports: Facebook fan pages have become a key part of many brands' social media marketing strategy, with some 20 million created to date. But what about Twitter fan pages? That's the concept behind a new Twitter application Web conferencing service Fuze Box is offering that allows users to create branded Twitter pages for posting a range of content and promotions.

Fuze Box's Tweetshare app allows people to sign up as a fan of a brand's Twitter page and automatically publishes comments posted on the page into the public Twitter stream to help virally spread content. Likewise, responses posted on the microblogging site will appear on the fan page to show the full range of conversation around a topic.

Users will be able to log into Tweetshare using their existing Twitter account information, uploading content to their page and tweeting it out to the Twitter community.

"Tweetshare integrates brands' content directly into the Twitter stream, adding a viral element to the conversation and providing an aggregated, interactive channel other than a company's blog or Web site, to connect with current and potential customers," said Patrick Moran, chief strategy officer at Fuze Box, which competes with companies like Cisco's WebEx and GoToMeeting.

It also provides another option besides linking tweets to Facebook fan pages. Moran said Tweetshare provide a more tightly integrated alternative to Facebook for marketers seeking to engage Twitter users more deeply in branded content or campaigns. That might include everything from polling tools to customized landing pages to hosting online media rooms with video, slide presentations and PDFs.

Whether companies really want to add another social media outpost on top of Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, blogs and other online outlets remains to be seen.

What's more, many other Twitter clients already offer content-sharing, and others such as Seesmic provide conversation threading as well. "The critical question is 'why would a user or a brand visit and care about this aggregated page versus their main twitter page using the client of their choice?'" said Shiv Singh, global social media lead at Razorfish. Moran indicated that various popular Twitter apps focus on one key function, like Twitpic for photo-sharing or TwitVid for video-sharing. Tweetshare aims to provide more of a one-stop-shop for uploading and accessing different types of content "in one nice easy package."

Tweetshare fan pages also come with analytics tools and dashboard reporting metrics such as total views, replies received and discussions started. Fuze Box is also simultaneously launching a version of the app for the iPhone, and plans to release one for Android phones as well as the forthcoming iPad. Moran said the company will also publish an API for Tweetshare allowing potential integration with Twitter management apps like TweetDeck.

How will the company make money from the Twitter app? While Tweetshare is launching as a free service, Fuze Box may eventually add premium services such as the ability to repost comments to Facebook accounts or the option of adding more extensive branding to a Twitter fan page.

To help get the buzz going about the new app itself, Fuze Box will be demo Tweetshare at the SXSW conference later this week by working with video bloggers who will post live content from the interactive, video and music events.

Foursquare Offers Analytics to Businesses, Enables Easy Customer Stalking (Which is a Good Thing)

Fast Company reports: Wondering how that barista knew your name before asking you? Check-in-based social networking game Foursquare has taken another step toward relevancy by adding analytics tools for businesses that participate. The new dashboard feature, still in alpha testing, gives data such as total number of check-ins, unique visitors, gender comparisons, and breakdowns by time. It also shows how people are sharing (over Twitter, for instance) and can differentiate between customers and staff members.

And this is just the beginning, according to the company. Tristan Walker, director of Foursquare business development, tells Mashable that big innovations like weather tracking could allows business owners to offer specials based on real-time events. Imagine "It's snowing, so come into Joe's for a free small coffee with purchase!" popping up on your iPhone when you're outside freezing and just a block or two away. Hello Joe.

A new staff page feature also allows venue staffers to see who is currently visiting and communicate with customers. Notice a regular hasn't been in your store in a while? Tweet them about a cool new shirt that just came in to entice them back.

The data available is great for small, local businesses, and will allow them to engage with customers in an ultra-targeted way. But imagine, too, when it's scaled up to the Walmarts and McDonalds of the world. Voluntary real-time tracking of this nature is unprecedented. (Foursquare users will have the ability to opt out of business analytics, but isn't sharing sort of the point in the first place?)

The dashboard has been in testing with 30 businesses and venues for the last week and will soon be rolled out to the other 900+ businesses that currently run coupon specials on the app. But with priceless data like this, it's easy to imagine a blow-up in participating venues coming soon. More businesses means more users, more users means more businesses, and suddenly Foursquare is the Facebook of check-ins.

Web + Social Media Infographics

Web & Social Media Infographics

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What the Alzheimer's Association Gets and 100 other Organizations Don't

I just flipped through today's Politico hard copy - actually it was the digital online version of the hard copy which is wonderful - it even makes the "turning the page" sound - anyway, the only ad that contained social media icons was the one presented by the Alzheimer's Association.

Well done - somebody at the Alzheimer's Association is paying attention and understands the new communications and advocacy environment.

To fully appreciate this monumental development - consider this: the concept of social campaigning and digital advocacy resonated with none of the other advertisers today. Amazing.

And the paid advertisers in today's Politico are no slouches - they are some of the world's biggest companies and leading national pressure groups.

Here is the list of the other advertisers who paid to broadcast a one-way message to the mass and didn't find it compelling to invite supporters or opponents to engage in a two-way conversation:

AM General
AWEA
APIA
Visa
EADS
Premier
Planned Parenthood
JP Morgan Chanse
API
Pfizer
CCA
Boeing
AT&T
AFSCME
Goldman Sachs
and the 84 members of the US Climate Action Partnership (USCAP)

Amazing - lots of work still needs to be done in the nation's capital.

Barack Obama exploited the internet but will it be key to the UK election?

Guardian OrganGrinder Blog has guest commentary from Micah Sifry - he states Party and voter-generated online content played a big part in the election of Barack Obama, but Britain is likely to see something different.

Don’t be the next Toyota – how you can use social media to make a difference in a crisis

Over the last few weeks, I have been monitoring the Toyota recall and subsequent Congressional hearings as well as reading some commentary and articles on the subject. It is all very interesting to me for a number of reasons. Not only did I grow up in Motor City with family members working in all aspects of the auto industry, but I also directed the grassroots and public affairs efforts for the American International Automobile Dealers Association for a few years and we have a Lexus RX in the household fleet. I feel close to this situation and know firsthand how this crisis is creating a serious economic and confidence challenge to Toyota's numerous stakeholders.

This case will certainly be discussed and analyzed for years to come by MBA professors and communications professionals – but here is my quick take on the crisis from a social media and digital advocacy perspective:

I think one of the biggest problems that Toyota believed was social doesn't matter – which is beyond foolish. Just from a listening and monitoring situations, social media is an unprecedented tool. Twitter alone is unparalleled and provides real time search – check out www.search.twitter.com and type in any word or public policy debate right now and you can see what people are thinking – amazing – an instant focus group at your desk.

Second, Toyota seemed not to engage their most loyal fans and supporters until they needed them. From what I have read it appears social wasn't a major priority until it was a priority. This is short sighted and doesn't appreciate the necessary care and feeding to keep a band of loyalists engaged. A quick look on Facebook reveals that Toyota USA has 83,000 followers and doesn't appear to have been updated once today. Toyota has nothing to say? No updates? Question for Team Toyota PR: wasn't CNBC broadcasting live from your Torrance, CA headquarters today? Wouldn't you want to share this with a quick text update and post video from the tv segment? Just one idea.

Third, across the world, organizations of all sizes are experiencing a shift from mass broadcasts to many to conversations with a few, from customer relations to customer relationships, and from corporate lingo and burdensome paperwork to simplicity and authenticity. It is essential for any serious organization to understand and appreciate how new social media and digital advocacy tools are making this new environment happen. This is fact and needs to be appreciated. Consider that the director of digital media for Obama's campaign reported directly to the campaign manager – who does the social media director report to at Toyota? Who does the social media/new media/digital advocacy person in your organization report to?

Fourth, in today's segmented communications environment that is increasingly being influenced by social media and digital engagements, much of any organization's best planned communication efforts are simply out of their control. Today the message is not coming from you, but is coming from what your target audience is saying about your organization. I believe what really matters for an organization's brand today is not what you, the official voice of the organization says, but what your target audience is saying about your organization to their friends, colleagues, business network and social media connections. Consider that Toyota was a punch line to a joke last night in the Oscar telecast – what is Toyota doing to overcome their current joke status? Certainly social media, being accessible and communicating directly to key stakeholders will be essential to overcome this status – but so will being opportunistic of major cultural American inflection points.

The company missed a major opportunity last night. Toyota not only should have ran an ad during the Oscar telecast (TheWrap.com reports that Sunday's Oscar telecast attracted 41.3 million viewers, the best since 2005 and a roughly 15% gain from 2009's show) with a call to action directed back to a social media platform but should have posted pictures of celebrities driving their products to the event.

Fifth, today's communications environment is a place where brands and causes cannot simply push messages anymore. Brands and causes must do and act. They must engage, connect and interact with their target audience across every platform, channel and device. As brands and causes seek to do and not just push, the end users and message recipients should not be able to differentiate between online and offline activity – this is the place your client's need to be. See examples above.

Finally, Toyota didn't start off strong and didn't have the most robust social presence – it is clear that social media was not a serious tool for Toyota in any fashion (sales, marketing, advertising, public relations and public affairs) until they had a problem - but I will give the company one solid grade to show where it has responded quickly by engaging their most loyal supporters as well as seeking new ways to communicate directly with the public by using Digg. A month ago, Jim Lentz, Toyota's President and Chief Operating Officer of Toyota Motor Sales, USA answered questions about the Toyota recall in a live forum. Using Digg was ingenious and spectacular and should be commended.

However, as you can see, there is more for Toyota to do. I know that engineering is not simple and that there are on average 14,000 working parts that make a car work; and certainly how a driver operates a vehicle in various weather conditions is important. But, Toyota is in a fight for their life. I drive one of their products and haven't been engaged once from the company – not by mail, email, phone or social and that is a mistake. Secondly, Toyota needs to communicate, communicate and communicate again – not having even one post on their Facebook fan page today is inexcusable.

Social media is a measurable and real-time activity that clearly shows if you care, if you are listening and if you are engaged – Toyota would be well served to remember this concept on an hourly, daily, weekly and monthly basis. Social media is the new customer relations scoreboard that is on display to everyone.

Social CRM: The New Rules of Relationship Management

Social CRM: The New Rules of Relationship Management

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Foursquare + SPIN Magazine Turn SXSW Into Musical Scavenger Hunt

Mashable reports: Popular music magazine SPIN is going geeky for South by Southwest’s music festival, integrating custom Foursquare badges into its event presence and rewarding the most adventurous users of the location-based game with free tickets to their annual music showcase at Stubb’s.

Festival goers who check-in at music venues can earn points and collect the four custom SPIN badges. Each badge — should you attempt to unlock it — offers a unique experience of the festival and turns the SXSW music experience into a complex scavenger hunt.

Don’t expect these badges to come easy. To earn the SPINsider badge, users will need to check out three bands that SPIN editors recommend. For the Trailblazer badge, users are tasked to see three shows outside of downtown Austin. As for the Animal Collector badge, that requires seeing three bands with an animal in their name, while the Bands on the Run challenges the most diehard of fans to see seven bands in one day.

Of course those that make the effort to unlock the badges could be gifted with a handsome reward — two free tickets to SPIN’s annual showcase SPIN@STUBB’s, which features both up-and-coming artists and more recognizable names like Hole. Unlock the badges and be one of the first ten people to present them at the SPIN loft and the tickets are yours.

SPIN’s Foursquare badge challenge is quite remarkable. From our perspective we see this partnership as a sign that Foursquare’s service transcends the techset, appeals to mainstream audiences, and can apply to any vertical.

Cashmore: Why I'm banking on Facebook

Cashmore on CNN.com As you will see, this new tool will have definite implications for micro donations to nonprofits and political campaigns. I have first hand experience in the rush to capture wallet and loyalty data coupled with finding new and easy ways to raise funds for various projects - and this technology is a game changer.

Here is the full article: We already connect with friends on Facebook to share photos, videos, text updates and Web links, but might we also use the service to exchange money?

I'm willing to bet we will.

Buxter, a Facebook application that launched this week, tries to make that logical leap: Users add the app to their Facebook pages to send U.S. dollars or euros to friends.

The app, created by London-based payments provider ClickandBuy, enables payments of up to 50 euros, or $68. Sending and receiving money is free, but ClickandBuy charges a 1.9 percent withdrawal fee, with a minimum withdrawal of 2 euros, or $3.

Buxter is unlikely to take Facebook by storm: While handy for settling a dinner or drinks bill between friends, it would prove truly useful only if all of your Facebook connections were to join.

You're prompted to install the application when receiving a payment -- a strong incentive, for sure -- but building trust and a user base for a new payments application may prove an uphill struggle.

"Facebook Credits" can be bought with a credit card and are used to purchase virtual items within games like FarmVille. They can also be used to buy virtual gifts for friends.

The scheme had been characterized as a potential "PayPal killer," but last month the two companies announced a partnership that allows users to add to a Facebook Credits balance using a PayPal account.

Facebook Credits, unlike Buxter, will have no trouble becoming ubiquitous: FarmVille, one of the leading Facebook games, recently surpassed 80 million active players.

Facebook is taking Credits seriously. Last week, the company penned a blog post titled "Expanding Our Commitment to Facebook Credits," hinting at a wider rollout of the service.

A full launch of Facebook Credits could come in April at Facebook's F8 conference, reports CNET.

If you imagine friends settling the dinner bill using Facebook credits the next morning, you're perhaps missing another major social networking trend: mobile.

ComScore reported this week that access to Facebook's mobile site increased 112 percent from January 2009 to January 2010. Given the near-ubiquity of Facebook, it can't be long until such small payments are made in real time on your phone.

Of course, we'll have many options for exchanging small sums of money over the Web -- we already do -- but Facebook holds a unique promise. The social network is a platform for sharing between friends, from Web links to photos, videos and even exchanging virtual gifts.

It's only logical that a venue for exchanging social currency will one day become a place to transfer real money, too.

"You came in with dreams, and now you stand with spreadsheets."

In Rishad Tobaccowala's address, during Monday's AAAA's Transformation Conference, he told attendees the advertising industry needs builders, people with the audacity to "remake industries." He also gave a slap to industry bigwigs when he said, "You came in with dreams, and now you stand with spreadsheets."

Facebook And Twitter See Big Mobile Gains

WebProNews reports: Facebook and Twitter access via mobile browsers has grown by triple-digits in the past year, according to the latest research from comScore. More than a quarter (30.8%) of smartphone users accessed social networking sites via their mobile browser in January, up 8.3 points from 22.5 percent one year ago.

Ogilvy On: Social Media for B2B Companies

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Bloggers Now Eligible For Press Passes In NYC

MediaPost reports: In a nod to the growing influence of online journalists, New York City said Tuesday that bloggers and others who publish on the Web will now be eligible for press credentials.

The move comes as a result of a lawsuit filed in 2008 by three Web journalists who were denied press passes. In New York, journalists with press passes are typically allowed to cross police barricades at public events.

Under the new proposed policy, the New York Police Department would be able to issue press passes good for two years to any journalist who has personally attended and reported on at least six qualified events in the city in the preceding two years, regardless of whether the reports were published online, in print newspapers, magazines, books or other media. Events that will qualify include city-sponsored activity -- like a press conference or parade -- as well as emergencies where the city has set up do-not-cross lines. The proposal also allows inexperienced journalists to obtain single-use press passes.

Digital Capital Week - June 11- 20, 2010

Digital Capital Week is a 10 day festival in Washington DC focused on technology, innovation and all things digital in our nation’s capital.

Modeled after Internet Week NY, Social Media Week, FotoWeek DC, Fringe Festival, etc. — DCWEEK will consist of a series of distributed events produced and hosted by individuals, organizations and community groups.

For more information visit www.digitalcapitalweek.org or @dcweek

Wired’s Chris Anderson: The iPad Will Solve All Magazine Publishers’ Woes

Mediaite reports from the American Association of Advertising Agencies‘ Transformation Conference in San Francisco yesterday, Wired Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson addressed the crowd and waxed lyrically about the possibilities for the currently troubled magazine industry via Apple’s iPad (and other tablet platforms.)

Mediaweek's Jim Cooper went on to report: Presently, online versions of magazines lose “the coherence and majesty of the [printed] medium,” said Anderson. Tablets, on the other hand, offer impressive functionality, such as 360-degree views and iPhone-like screen sliding, plus collapsing and layering — all of which make the user experience vastly more compelling than the Web, he said.

Additionally, the success of the iPhone, Kindle and the emergence of cloud computing have paved the way for devices that are less powerful and lighter with a longer battery life than standard laptops, Anderson said. The iPad is just such a device, and it will sell millions of units in its first month and tens of millions in the following months and years, he predicted.

“It will take less than 10 years for it to become mainstream,” he said.

Amtrak Launches Wi-Fi Service Along Northeast Corridor

Potomac Tech Wire reports: In a major win for Northeast rail commuters, DC-based Amtrak said that it has launched Wi-Fi Internet service aboard all 20 of its high-speed Acela Express trains, as well as at six major stations from DC to Boston and in ClubAcela lounges.

The company said that its AmtrakConnect service initially will be free to all passengers during an introductory period, with fees possibly being implemented at a later date.

"This is only the first step for our AmtrakConnect program," said Lenetta McCampbell, Amtrak's senior director for on-board systems. "Amtrak will continually improve the service as Wi-Fi technology evolves, and we are evaluating opportunities to expand AmtrakConnect to additional routes and stations throughout the country." The system was deployed by Virginia Beach-based GBS Group and partner Nomad Digital.

Social Campaigning: Tips + Ideas for Twitter

Here are some tips and ideas for campaigns or causes that will help keep you out of trouble and help you maximize your Twitter usage:

Tools of the trade

1. Use a Twitter client like TweetDeck to manage and send tweets
2. Employ a URL shortening tool like bit.ly or tiny.url to save precious characters
3. Visit sites that monitor Twitter trends like Twist or twit(url)y to monitor buzz
4. Know where you stand by using Twitter personal statistic sites likes TweetStats or TwitterCounter
5. Employ TwitterBerry or Twinkle to access and use Twitter on mobile devices
6. Use TwitPic to post photos easily from the campaign trail to your Tweeter feed

Tips + Ideas

Add a profile photo and make background convey a campaign message and other contact and website information.

Find people you think are interesting and initiate conversations with them, using @replies.

Don’t focus on how many followers you have; quality not quantity is the metric for you to look at and maintain.

Use Twitter as a search and listening tool

Use Twitter to maximize blog posts, press releases, videos, tv and radio ads

Try to keep a balanced mix between persona, news, commentary and campaign tweets; don’t always talk about the campaign and don’t always talk about your favorite movies.

Put a link to your Twitter profile in your campaign marketing material; business cards, email signatures, website, direct mail, campaign posters, stickers, etc.

Get the word out that you are on Twitter and encourage people to follow you.

Engage in conversations that mention something positive and relevant to your campaign and legislative priorities.

Cut through the clutter by making such digital influence are seeing and hearing what your causes is saying - for example: media, party leaders, donors, volunteers, etc.

Use # (Hashtag) to define campaign messages (#education, #books, #pro-teacher), define geography/race (#cagov, #nysen, #VA02, #cagop, #DCCC), campaign events (#OHDebate, #OHConvention) and employ bumper sticker messaging (#41stVote, #Linda2010, #GoMeg, #Yeson3, #GOTVOH)- also this technique allows people to easily follow all tweets with a # without following everyone who is interested in that subject, campaign and/or topic.

Posting photos in real-time couldn't be easier - now you have the ability to show candid and behind the scene photos from the campaign trail.

Survey: More Americans Now Get News from Internet Than Newspapers

As reported in the Potomac Tech Wire: The Internet now has surpassed newspapers and radio to become the third most popular news platform in the U.S., according to a new survey by the DC-based Pew Research Center.

The web (61%) now trails only local (78%) and national (73%) television news, with six in 10 Americans getting their news from a combination of online and offline sources on a typical day. By comparison, just half said that they rely on newspapers.

In addition, more than one quarter of those surveyed said they now access some form of news through their cell phones. And with so many Americans using social technology sites, much of that news is going viral. Among those who get news online, 75% get news forwarded through email or posts on social networking sites, and 52% share links to news with others.

The complete report is available here:
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Online-News.aspx

What’s social campaigning got to do with it?

A column which looks at how the leading Election 2010 US Senate races are using social media and new advocacy communication tools to reach voters and engage supporters.

Brandon Macsata - the managing partner of the Macsata-Kornegay Group, Inc. – provides compelling analysis of these high profile races and I provide some insights on how candidates can fully employ social campaigning concepts as November 2, 2010 approaches.

Click here to read the full column on The Daily Caller

10 Social Media Metrics Your Company Should Monitor

Social Times reports: a list of ten tools to measure your social media efforts.

1. Social media leads. Track web traffic breakdowns from all social media sources, and chart the top few sources over time. If members of your social media networks are sending referrals, consider measuring this data as well.

2. Engagement duration. For some companies, engagement duration is more important than page views. For example, if you have a Facebook application, how much time are social network members spending using it? Is per-member usage increasing over time? Alternately, if people visit your your company websites from SM (Social Media) sites, how long are they spending? (Also consider tracking which pages they visit.)

3. Bounce rate. Are visitors coming to your site from SM sites but quickly leaving? Maybe your landing page needs better, more relevant copy. Maybe the information they’re seeking isn’t easily found.

4. Membership increase and active network size. This is the portion of your company’s social networks (e.g., Twitter, Facebook) that actively engages with your social media content (e.g., Twitter, Facebook Pages, etc.) Is your collective members, followers, fans network growing, and is there interaction with your content?

5. Activity ratio. How active is your company’s collective social network? Compare the ratio of active members vs total members, and chart this over time. There’ll always be some social network members who are inactive, but if you initiate a campaign to increase interaction, you should also measure the resulting data. Activity can be measured in a variety of ways, including usage of social applications.

6. Conversions. You want social network members to convert: into subscriptions, sales (direct or through affiliates), Facebook application use, or whatever other offerings you have in your overall sales funnel and that can somehow be directly or indirectly monetized. (E.g., subscription to a weekly e-newsletter can be monetized by giving other companies access to your list in the form of advertising.) Measure all types of conversions and chart them over time.

7. Brand mentions in social media. So, you have a highly active social network and members are talking about your company or the company’s brands. Measure and track both positive and negative mentions, and their quantities.

8. Loyalty. Are social members interacting in the network repeatedly, sharing content and links, mentioning your brands, evangelizing? How many members reshare? How often do they reshare?

9. Virality. Social members might be sharing Twitter tweets and Facebook updates relevant to your company, but is this info being reshared by their networks? How soon afterwards are they resharing? How many FoaFs (Friends of Friends) are resharing your links and content?

10. Blog interaction. This is actually more than one metric lumped together. Blogs ARE part of an SMM (Social Media Marketing) toolkit, but only if you allow comments and interact with readers by responding. If you’re doing this, encourage responses either directly in the comments section of blog posts, or via Twitter. (Use a blog widget that allows this.) If your blog’s content is suitable for social voting (Digg, Propeller, Mixx, etc.) or social bookmarking (Delicious, Stumbleupon) sites, install a blog plugin that displays the necessary sharing “buttons”, then track referrals back from those sites.

Tories launch election iPhone app

Brand Republic reports: The app offers news from the Conservative campaign, a guide to all the party’s key policies, and a mechanism to make party donations.

Users of the app will also be able to canvas their friends on their voting intentions and report back to the party.

Tory leader David Cameron’s webcam videos are available, as well as Twitter updates and a virtual swingometer, which will show seats won and lost as the election results come in.

Jeremy Hunt, shadow culture secretary and spokesman for online campaigning, said: "This iPhone app will help both existing supporters and floating voters learn more about our policies, connect with us on social networks and share political news with their friends."

Condé Nast Preparing iPad Versions of Some of Its Top Magazines

NYT reports: Condé Nast's plans for the iPad tablet computer from Apple are getting firmer. The first magazines for which it will create iPad versions are Wired, GQ, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Glamour, the company plans to announce in an internal memorandum today.