Last night we covered mobile SEO. Luckily, most of the students were familiar with SEO so it was much less of a conceptual hurdle. To ensure everyone was on the same page, we outlined the basics and then moved on the differences for mobile SEO. Conversions are hard to track because mobile searches end up with in-store purchases more than standard web searches. When you look at analytics for...
Tonight we covered mobile usability and the impact it has on business. For me, usability is marketing. I define marketing as a mutually beneficial relationship between a business and its customers With this definition, it’s easy to see that usability is marketing and branding AND could be considered a cost reduction for operations. We reviewed the concept of progressive disclosure and then...
Tonight we reviewed a great white paper by the founders of the now defunct Photokast. The white paper reviews the pitfalls around creating applications. There are numerous lessons learned but my favorite is the advice of Northwest Venture Partner’s @timechange (warning; he doesn’t tweet much) to focus on the 7 deadly sins in regards to creating an application. Lust – Dating...
Tonight we covered gamification and I used the book Gamification by Design by @gzicherm to structure the class. (It’s funny. As you read this book, you find yourself continuously equating game theory to marketing strategies.) In a nutshell, gamification is about baking human nature into digital interactions with your customers. The book is definitely worth reading. We discussed player...
Tonight was the first night of my mobile marketing class. I’ve got 14 students and many of them are VERY sharp. Before class even began I heard students discussing Flipboard and Instagram. A very good sign indeed! This is the first time mobile marketing class offered by Daniels and I feel honored to be teaching it. If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know that...
Tonight was the last class with our final group presentation. We had a group of students present their pizza delivery business model and it was great combination of tech; online, applications to SOLAR! They utilized most of the technologies we discussed in class it was good to see a traditionally low-tech business model empowered with technology. I also liked the fact that they targeted foodies...
At the beginning of this class I handed out NDAs, which as you may have guessed means that I have a group of students with, what I believe to be an excellent idea utilizing augmented reality. So . . . that’s all I’m going to say. I will be working with them to refine the business model and help them get introduced to those that can get them funded. Should be great! The second group...
Tonight we had two final presentations. The first was a review of Noodle’s & Company social media strategy and then recommendations for future strategies. The presentation is below and my students nailed it. Overall Noodles does an excellent job given the resources they have to work with. (They sorely need to redesign their site. Looks like the Ugly Dolls site; which I love because...
Last night we had the final review of the book The World is Flat. This book by Thomas Friedman outlines how globalization is allowing for new and flexible business models. This book can be a blueprint of sorts for online businesses and the overriding message is to operate with as much expertise as you can afford yet remaining as lite as possible. The net impact of all of this is that your...
Last Monday we had students present the following readings; Wikinomics, The Cluetrain Manifesto and Getting Real. It’s amazing to me how well Cluetrain has held up after being in print for 10+ years. Wikinomics was written in 2006 and Getting Real was written a while ago. One of the students commented on how long ago Wikinomics had been written and I definitely loathed the experience of...