On Strategy and Google
I am not an expert strategist, but I’ve picked up a few tidbits over time. In school I learned that strategy leaves a trail - You can divine a company’s strategy by the products it launches, partnerships it forms, and companies it acquires. When I moved on to Booz-Allen, I learned that when you are [...]
Top 10 Facebook Feature Wishlist
After using Facebook, attending a developer conference and speaking to advertisers, I’ve built a Facebook roadmap. Not an application, widget or API wishlist, it’s a wishlist for Facebook platform functionality. To be sure, Facebook has initiatives focused on growing site and “ecosystem” functionality. They encourage app development through the fbFund. They encourage partner interfaces through [...]
Selected Stories, 8-Nov
The Playmaker's Tools - Competitve Market Communications
The Playmaker’s Table – Students of competitive strategy will appreciate this “periodic table” of communications strategies. Used in conjunction w/ The Playmaker’s Process (http://snurl.com/58nwy), it presents cogent tools for formulating communications strategies in competitive markets. Originally developed in Washington D.C., the table and process are increasingly relevant to PR-heavy, [...]
Select Stories, 5-Nov
The Economy, Online Markets & Web 2.0 - Mary Meeker
Great analysis. Takes user from macro-economic trends (which aren't good) through technology diffusion trends (including mobile penetration) to online trends (including shopping and social networks) down to online advertising trends (including offline spend comparisons). While valuable from a pitch-building perspective, the underlying trends are well known [...]
Applications on LinkedIn, Niiice
On October 28th, 2008 LinkedIn took a big step forward by announcing the launch of “Applications on LinkedIn” (or InApps) and officially joining MySpace, Facebook, Google and Apple’s iPhone in the “platform” business. However, unlike other open platforms, LinkedIn Co-Founder Reid Hoffman focused attention on ten applications by eight companies. It appears LinkedIn is going [...]
Select Stories, 29-Oct
Right Music For Your Viral Ad - SharpNine
Tom Belton of SharpNine Music overviews considerations for use of music in your next YouTube viral advertising video. While some concepts are familiar ground for TV and radio advertisers, many of the points are not intuitive to the online-only advertisers. Tom uses a three-part framework of Entertainment, Structure [...]
Top Stories, 25-Oct
Wassup 2008 - Charles Stone III
W/ tongue placed firmly in cheek, this ad makes visual the top stories of the day and links them directly to the fundamental message of change put forth by the Obama campaign. Like or dislike Obama, director Charles Stone has created a visual, concise and emotive political ad that will [...]
Top Stories, 22-Oct
John Battelle - TweetSense
Musings by industry leader John Battelle re: potential search-based business model at Twitter. John suggests that search may be used as a proxy for data and pattern recognition. Bit out there if you're not an algorithm buff, but some of the comments that follow are insightful.
(tags: battelle search_advertising twitter)
Let's Be Serious: Online [...]
All Social Media Is Local 2008 - Edelman
All Social Media Is Local 2008
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: edelman social)
Edelman takes us on a walk around the social networking world:
Asia: Bulletin boards & forums drive social media. China 120M board users of 250M internet users. Language (2200 languages) + Relevance (gossipy nature) requires in-depth local knowledge.
Russia: adoption is slow due [...]
About
Tweets (@MichaelDowns)
- Bill Gross' "Ring of Fire" was my favorite investment article last week. Debt, deficits and 2010 investment - http://bit.ly/8OBTjT
- Brand New's "Most Relevant Identity Work of the Decade" is a thoughtful collection of what works - http://bit.ly/4Y9l8K
- I supported Gwendolyn Strong Foundation by voting for them to win $1m with #chasegiving - http://bit.ly/4ILNPV