One of the benefits of no longer having a two-hour-round-trip-commute is that I now have much more time to read. While I initially thought this to be a luxury, I’ve found that it has become a critical part of my business. I’m able to keep up with the newest developments in the marketing field and in the quickly evolving digital world. I also found myself forwarding articles to friends, colleagues and clients with greater frequency. So, I’ve decided to post interesting articles in a weekly digest on this blog. Some of the articles will be useful for marketers, but some will also just be for fun. I’ll typically post each Friday, but here are a few items to give you a hint of what to expect.
Where Americans are moving.
This map from Forbes shows how people are moving across the country (in 2008). I’ve selected my home base of Tulsa, OK. You can click on any market, and the map will personalize inward and outward movement from the county you selected. I see this as a very helpful tool for marketers in a number of areas such as hospitality and real estate, but also for those marketers who simply want to understand any market a bit better. (via brandflakesforbreakfast.com)
What’s a Facebook fan really worth?
This article in Ad Age provides two very different approaches to answering the “$64,000 question”. Neither is perfect and both require some leaps of faith. As a direct marketer by origin, I am happy to see more and more companies attempting to apply some mathematical rigor to the ROI challenge. However, I am firmly in agreement with David Armano, senior VP, Edelman Digital, quoted in the article, “we would do well to think of Facebook as part of a larger marketing ‘ecosystem’ [emphasis added] where there are practical and actionable set of measures like customer lifetime value, acquisition costs and sales.”
Ad Age Article (including formulas!) here
New AARP Survey shows increase.
A new survey from AARP shows that social media and internet usage is increasing dramatically among the 50+ demographic. The days of saying, “the Seniors market is not online” are quickly fading.
Startup to Watch.
I’m an avid music lover (some, including my spouse, might think “junkie” is more appropriate), so I found this startup featured in Mashable’s Spark of Genius series to be quite intriguing. The site, tastebuds.fm, is a dating site that matches potential mates based on musical tastes. While the database of users is still small, this will be an interesting concept to watch.
Mashable Spark of Genius Article here
Words to live by.