Marketing 2.0

RIM facing tough choices

What to do if you are a strategist over at Research in Motion? The company is in a death spiral and recently hired two consulting firms to help it pursue its strategic options. The article from Fortune documents the company's spectacular rise and current decline.

There are three main options apparenty under consideration:

* Sell the entire company

* Form a strategic partnership with another company

* Transition to a software business licensing Blackberry OS to mobile device manufacturers

While the company does have some valuable assets such as patents, a loyal customer base in corporate IT, and a relatively good network, it's devices are hopelessly behind the iPhone and the Android offerings. What would you do?

RIM: What the hell happened? - Big Tech - Fortune Tech.

How to persuade your boss to say 'yes' to social media

Here's a good post from Ragan.com on how to persuade your boss to let you try a social media program. These are some good strategies in my view, especially trying a pilot program and focusing on ROI.

6 ways to persuade your boss to say 'yes' to social media | Articles.

Pinterest Etiquette

Sticking with our Pinterest theme, the folks over at Flowtown have posted some useful etiquette rules for using Pinterest.

8 Rules of Pinterest Etiquette.

The Next Big Social Networking App

Wired has a list of seven social networking sites likely to make it really big in the wake of Facebook's IPO. See anything on this list that you are currently using? I'm signed up for Google + but haven't done much with it. One site that didn't make the list is Pinterest. I have posted quite a bit of content there although I don't do much networking. Many sites get really hot and then quickly fade. It's hard to pick a winner but I'd invest in Pinterest if I had a chance.

7 Social Networking Apps for When Facebook Jumps the Shark | Gadget Lab | Wired.com.

Infographic Animated GIF Explains Everything About Instagram

Check out this nice summary of Instagram presented as an animated GIF. There are some incredible stats. The one that blows me away is they have 13 employees and were just acquired by Google for $1B. That works out to $77 million per employee. Wow!

Infographic That's An Animated GIF Explains Everything About Instagram | Co.Design: business + innovation + design.

Facebook acquires Instagram for $1 billion

In case you weren't convinced of the economic value of marketing free mobile apps, take note of this. The popular mobile photography app, Instagram, has just been acquired by Facebook. The price? A cool $1 billion. Let me get busy building an application!

Facebook acquires Instagram for $1 billion - Apr. 9, 2012.

List of Taglines

One of my go-to websites for branding is Strategic Name Development. They offer this excellent compendium of famous taglines. If you love writing taglines as much as I do, you'll enjoy reading through this big list.

List of Taglines and Slogans | Alphabetical List of Taglines and Slogans| Strategic Name Development.

Internet accounts for 4.7% of U.S. economy

Sometimes it feels like the Internet is dominating both our personal and business lives. It's useful to put the Internet into perspective as this study from the Boston Consulting Group does. It represents about 5% of our economy.

Internet accounts for 4.7% of U.S. economy - Mar. 19, 2012.

Some key metrics on Dollar Shave Club

Want to know why social media is central to most marketing campaigns? Read this analysis of Dollar Shave Club. Here are some key metrics to note:

• Video was produced for $4,500
• Achieved 3 million viewings in first week
• Sold 12,000 subscriptions in a week

Dollar Shave Club: Can the Web Sensation Become a Viable Business? | Daily Ticker - Yahoo! Finance.

Are you ready for Google Glasses?

By the end of the year, augmented reality will become more than a science project when Google Glasses become available. Are you ready for this type of experience?

How Google Glasses Could Revolutionize Virtual Advertising - Forbes.