Spotify launches MP3 download service
Spotify, the joyous music app, has launched an updated download service, seemingly in a bid to generate additional revenue.
The move comes a month or so after Spotify enabled offline access for both the deskptop and iPhone app. It makes it much easier to purchase songs, by promoting the download service via highly visible icons. Previously you had to jump through hoops if you wanted to buy music via Spotify.
Songs cost 79p and full albums are available for £7.99, though not every song or album can currently be purchased. Downloads can be added to Spotify playlists in the usual way.
What’s on your Google wishlist?
Google remains synonymous with search, but we all know that there’s so much more to it than that.
Most internet professionals use Google’s apps and services to help power their businesses. It’s pretty much unheard of for a website owner to be unfamiliar with Google Adwords, Gmail, Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, much less to avoid using any of these products.
The trouble is, as good as they are, there is always scope for improvement. So here are my five wishes for improvements to Google’s existing product set. Admittedly they are not the most ambitious of requests: they’re simply tweaks that I think Google can introduce quickly, perhaps with the exception of the first one…
20 tweets that show how travel firms use Twitter
I recently tried to answer the 'but what can we tweet about?' question for an online retailer by way of a list, entitled 'The 27 varieties of tweet used by online retailers'.
A quick scan across the Twitter feeds managed by retailers proved that there's more to tweeting than simply pushing out deals and special offers. Examples of tweets included communicating website downtime, driving in-store visits, casting calls for TV ads as well as the more obvious coupons and time-limited offers.
So what would the average travel company tweet about? Again, there's huge scope for airlines, hotels and travel operators to use Twitter in a variety of ways, to boost engagement, satisfaction and sales. Let's now look at some examples...
Social media turns toxic avenger for The Guardian (#trafigura)
I read an article in today’s Guardian about a gagging order imposed on it. In short, the newspaper has been legally prevented from reporting about the alleged dumping of toxic waste by a firm called Trafigura (it couldn’t even name the company).
The Guardian has been ordered to avoid reporting parliamentary proceedings about the matter. The newspaper’s David Leigh explains:
Today's published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found.
The Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented – for the first time in memory – from reporting parliament. Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret.
The only fact the Guardian can report is that the case involves the London solicitors Carter-Ruck, who specialise in suing the media for clients, who include individuals or global corporations.
Naturally I was interested to find out what this was all about. It turns out that many others were too, and the newspaper’s strong social media presence has allowed readers to fill in the gaps.
The New Statesman vs The Guardian - spot the difference
Redesigning websites is always a challenge. On the one hand you want to improve things and innovate. But on the other it’s a case of ‘why reinvent the wheel?’.
Why indeed? But even wheels should have their own identity. In some cases the idea of doing what works best isn’t executed with distinction.
Mirroring usability and functionality is one thing, but copying the look and feel from another website is not particularly big or clever. Especially when that website is one of the world’s larger media sites.
You be the judge...
The 10 commandments of social optimisation (#SOCOP)
What is social optimisation? For me, it’s about how you structure your business in a way that increases engagement and participation.
Social optimisation (‘SOCOP’) is broader than social ‘media’ optimisation (optimising your presence on third party sites) and bigger than social ‘search’ optimisation (boosting your universal search results). I think of it as an umbrella term that combines both of the above strategies, and then some. It covers the wider businesses issues like customer service, usability and organisational structure.
While there remains a lot of hype in the social space we are starting to hear about some excellent results from companies that have embraced their communities, wherever they choose to hang out. We believe that a user-centric, community-focused business is one that will go a long way, assuming that a few other basics are put in place (such as competitive pricing and amazing service).
So to help you to see the light, I have defined 10 commandments that should help you to plan and structure your business for a more sociable future...
14 reasons why you should launch a pop-up store
A growing trend in the past few years has been that of the pop-up store. They often appear out of nowhere on our high streets and in shopping malls before vanishing into the ether.
Pop-up stores are popular with artists and designers, who create temporary boutiques and galleries, but they’ve also been used by big name brands such as Levis, Adidas and Nike, as well as retailers like Target, JC Penney, and Gap.
Pop-ups have also been set up by various online pureplays, such as lastminute.com and The Foundry. For these companies it is about experiential marketing, as much as anything, but they can also be used as sales channels.
Q&A: Shilen Patel on 'Festival Annual' and social media
Shilen Patel is founder of Independents United, a London-based firm that has just published ‘Festival Annual’.
Shilen says this is “the world’s first user-generated book” so I thought I’d interview him to find out more about it, and how social media sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter are being used to coordinate and promote the project.
Q&A: Barry Fenning - a Twitter case study for SMEs
LCN marketing director Barry Fenning last month started a couple of Twitter accounts for his company, to see if it could help boost sales at the 29-person strong business.
I talked to him to find out how social media can help make a difference to small businesses.
10 badass social media visualisations
When it comes to social media you might be busy trying to separate the opportunity from the bullshit, such are the interstellar levels of hype and associated jargon that are plaguing this space.
Nevertheless, I for one believe that a solid social media strategy can make a real difference to your business, helping you to drive engagement in order to boost customer satisfaction, retention, and profits. But that's not to say it will be easy: there's a lot to figure out and each company has different needs (and challenges to overcome).
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I thought I'd aggregate a few of the social media visualisations I've spotted in the past few weeks to help you make some mental leaps of faith, or use in your internal pitches, or otherwise determine that it's all a bunch of hot air, as you see fit.
Caveat: some of these are more badass than others!
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
