8-Bit Hooligans
Probably the most fun I’ve had building an email.
Also, check out the game we’re talking about: bit.ly/SMODE2
Made for a gaming YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/node
Yeah, there’s an app for that.
My favorite author, John Dufresne, is doing it right with his latest series of short stories. In what is essentially flash fiction, Dufresne is harnessing the power of the e-reader and Kindle store to get his newest pieces out in the open. Of the latest, my favorite, Iffy, is a swift 16 pages and a skimpy $3 to read.
Some will say that 19-cents a page might be a premium price, that would put the first Game of Thrones book in at around $170 depending on which version you have. But, price ain’t the point, it’s the direction they are moving in.
If I were an author writing today, my focus would be on flash fiction to the fans and occasional longer novels to the stores for sale at a “normal” book price, with discounts to serious fans. I’d set this up as an app service, free to download with in-app purchases.
With the app users can read my blog, notes on stories/novels, and connect socially for free. Then on a consistent basis I’d release short fiction and charge 99-cents, what it is, etc. You can read the stories right inside the app, or download it into your Nook, Kindle, or Zune.
Then, I’d use push notifications to alert users when I’ll be in their area for a reading (this would coincide with an email marketing plan), when the newest novel is on sale, or when I just want to tell them I love them.
App users would receive a discount code when the novel drops to purchase through Amazon.
Boom.
Yeah, kinda like that.
Here is a pretty good list of people you should be following on Twitter if you are a marketer.
Also, we just say Marketer now, the digital is implied.
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Hey Girl, #Catwang with me!
**This is a repost of my most liked article from last summer, enjoy!**
What Does a 99-cent App Have to Do With Social Media and Marketing?
So, first things first, What is #Catwang? According to the iTunes Appstore description page it’s the app that everyone is meowin’ about. And yeah, it’s huge. So far more than 94,000 pics have been tagged with #catwang since the apps debut a few months ago. To compare, Pepsi has just over 110,000 and NASCAR is sitting low at 39,360 – but #beach hits more than eight million. For a brand/app, #catwang is doing really well, it even spent some time trending on Twitter – but what does that have to do with social media, branding and marketing?
That’s some bad #catwang.
The concept is quite simple. A company called 99centbrains crafted an iPhone app that let you snap a pic and drop an image of a cat’s face pretty much anywhere. And, since the internet is obsessed with cats, the app blew up faster than a 16-year old cooking his own meth. Within a month instagram feeds were flooded with cat-laced images – specifically 94,000 of them.
But, it’s not the fact that some dude threw together a fun app that means anything because there are a bajillion apps around that can do much cooler things than sticker cat faces on people. The really cool thing about #catwang is the idea and the implications that it has for social media.
That’s some good #catwang.
Try New Things
If you’re in charge of a brand or running their social media, you have to be willing to try new things or you might as well just call it a day like GM did with Facebook advertising because they weren’t willing to give up the idea that the world has changed and banner ads aren’t as effective as they used to be.
Most brands have less social media presence than the average 16-year-old girl.
Hey girl, #catwang with me.
Be creative and be willing to try new things. Every day there is a new app or site barking for attention and looking for users. Sites like RebelMouse, tools like visual.ly and sites like TradePal are all trying really hard to disrupt the basic flow of the flotsam and jetsam that is social media, and as a marketer it’s important to know when these new tools are developed and how you can use them to your advantage. Don’t wind up talking solely to your 5,000 facebook fans about the next product release, even fans will eventually move on.
What IS Your #catwang Strategy?
Ok, what the hell do you do with an app that meowifies someone or something? You take a chance. Very few, if any, companies will have the gumption to take their mascot, slap a silly catface on it and post it to their instagram account – if they even have one – and then tag it #catwang. Most companies spend so much time protecting their brand and fearing the corruption of their message that they are unwilling to take a chance and make fun of themselves.
And, this is the problem, without the willingness to take chances, move fast and engage fans in what they find fun, you might as well take out an ad in a daily paper and call it a wrap.
Six years ago …
So, I used to have a moderately well read blog about South Florida, and on this day, back in 2006, I started the blog with this picture, which I took one day while biking through Seminole Indian territory in South Florida … enjoy?
