Seesmic, TweetDeck, and Hootsuite are fantastic API platforms to monitor the cyberworlds’ endless action.  Today, however, the refresh button is broken.  I am creating this piece on a personal computer with the wizardry of Microsoft Windows’ business platform.  My office wireless network router is disabled through the MacBook Pro.  The office tech specialist is unavailable. Therefore, the transition to a different device was made.

Creative energy runs across forces which limit the expansion of that boom. Since our experience is bounded by finite physical properties, we must step back at times.  Once we do this, then reflection enters our consciousness. We can assess the value of media content in our lives.  We can measure the emotions building in our thoughts. We can appreciate our digital connections to followers seen and unseen.  We process the chips that generate electric streams in our hardware. Who knows? We may untangle the cords blocking our surge protector.

Then we look at our stack of books, newspapers, and magazines. We tap the dry canvases, paintbrushes, and acrylics in the studio. We flick on the desk lamp and turn open our journals and sketchbooks.  We pull out the manual lenses from our old Minolta.  We dust off the lens with a silk cloth.  We tune our guitars, drums, microphones, and speakers. We turn on the mixing dashboard.  Then it’s time to work for art.

Doubts are surfacing whether Etsy can sustain itself without a traditional business structure. Online advertising would pay tremendous dividends if Kalin aligns the company with appropriate partners.  Listing fees would enable the site to build a proper set of meta tags to climb the search engine rankings. You would also take care of the vendors that he claims to fight for every day.  Proper SEO methodology would put sellers in front of consumers who want to buy products from more credible sources.  It would also build communities that can collaborate on geolocal advertising campaigns to raise traffic, not to mention revenue.  Keyword lists can be tailored to the needs of vendors to reach premium eyes.  As mobile marketing ventures into tablets that can load pictures with rich pixellation capability, Kalin must investigate for the benefit of his sellers.  Crafts need to been seen, not heard.

Kalin, as the Inc.com article mentions, is a liberal arts guru by education.  He now trades as a businessman.  The goal of any business is to maximize profit for the benefit of your vendors.  Even Fugazi understood this at the end of the day, creating incendiary music to accredit their business model.  Mavericks have come in and out of time to provide goods and services while remaining true to themselves.  The online marketplace is waiting for someone to challenge eBay. Is Kalin ready for it?

Mobile technology is one way to do it.  According to this article from Mobile Marketer, PepsiCo has created a new application for the iPhone called Possibilities.  The purpose, like any application, is to inform and entertain with a strong message.  This one has a forum for live conversation between prospective candidates themselves along with direct interface of management.  You could parallel it with a long screening phase on a virtual level.

The social media features include a link to the job Twitter account (@PepsiCoJobs), online video discussions, and blog pieces. The strategy is an excellent method for applicants to get an approximation of culture in their job research.  I found this last part interesting in which a geolocator can automatically find jobs near the user’s location.  Some could worry about a breach of security firewalls, but toggling is available. Readers who happen to test the application, leave feedback on your thoughts. I’m a Blackberry user, so an application is not yet available. I leave you with a clip to the Pepsi Jobs channel. Flip the tab.

1.  iPhone Arrives on Verizon Network

We have heard the rumors for quite some time now, and they are now fact.  iPhone is coming to the Verizon network on February 10th, meaning that some of the complaints about AT&T’s crowded network feed.  The interesting caveat is that Apple designed their Verizon phones with the CDMA network rather than the new 4G one.  Could this be a bad precedent for a phone which demands a lot of data services due to its endless application menu? We all know about the value it has brought for web developers, but what about the consumer? Time will tell if Verizon can make the call.

2.  Groupon Prepares For IPO

Groupon is looking to go public in the spring time.  Sometimes the opportunity you do not take is the best move.   If the startup is able to follow through, this bodes well for venture capitalism.  It also bodes well for the economic prognostications of a rebound this year.  When venture capitalists gain credibility with investment firms, it is a beautiful thing.  It also shows that interactive marketing is gaining respect as a sector, with local online communities generating quantifiable value for their services.  Stay tuned to this story.  It could be a huge breakthrough.

3.  Tunisian Revolution Is Hashtagged

This short piece on Tech Crunch is an ironic twist of social media’s ability to cover world trends in real time.   Despite the advent of  broken coverage on world epidemics and their maintenance of fundraising campaigns, social media is still far from the last word in journalism. MSNBC and The New York Times offered scant coverage, despite their users having accounts for both social media firms.   Tunisia has a stronger presence in the Mediterranean region due to its long relationship with its colonial father, France, and is an emerging IT ecosystem.  The late coverage screams with bigger irony than ever.  For more details on this emerging tale, click the headline.

4.  IBM’s Watson Beats Jennings At Jeopardy!

This has circulated the blogosphere all day, and was in the morning papers.  Stanley Kubrick was correct over thirty years ago with his opus 2001: A Space Odyssey.  With birds and fish dying all over the place, this is the cherry on top of your ice cream. IBM’s new data system defeated Jeopardy legend Ken Jennings in a practice match. The contest took place in IBM’s research lab in the Hudson Valley.  As the headline from Reuters mentions, IBM looks to remain at the forefront as a brand that pioneers technological development.  It is unclear which marketing direction the venerable firm will use for Watson, but IBM will let you know soon. They’ll take Watson for it all.

5.  PepsiCo Fills Your Super Bowl Cup For Advertising

Pepsi is ready to stock your table during the Super Bowl with food, snacks, and advertising.  The firm plans to release seven spots with a mix of their brands. As the headline article mentions, the list is not yet confirmed.  Lipton’s Brisk Tea, however, looks like a contender.  The brand has generated strong growth in its partnership with Pepsi as consumers tastes’ have gradually shifted from carbonated beverages into alternatives like water, juice, and of course, iced tea.  They started rolling out a new claymation campaign, which harkens back to the ’90s. Click on new claymation to view it, and look out for Ozzy Osbourne, the Ironman, in the near future.

That’s the Blue news this week. Have a good holiday weekend.

The studio is working with SpyderLink to produce SnapTags.  SnapTags are composed of corporate logos representing a point for mobile action.  The consumer can take photos of the logo with their smartphone, then e-mail or text it back to the preferred address. As the story mentions, the SnapTags will be applied to every piece, including the Facebook Fan page.   Depending on the campaign’s success, it could represent a model for studios looking to get accurate scale on the effectiveness of virals.

Many executives are perplexed at the moment on how to distribute fresh content and maintain consumer interest in the traditional viewing experience. Inception may let them dream a little dream. Here’s a video featuring the concept of SnapTags.

The statistics coming into the press say that e-commerce sales totalled over $1 billion.  Coupling this fact, EBay, Inc. saw a spurt of 146% in mobile commerce sales from this point last year to this past weekend. The majority of transactions were cars and trucks.  The easiest observation is that e-commerce is a diversified strategy whose potential has yet to be explored.  The difficult observation is projecting whether that potential will be maximized.  Mobile commerce continues to circulate traffic between parent e-commerce sites and smartphones with an uptick in spending rates.  Stores, as to be expected, are still the reliable segment of sales transactions. E-commerce sales check in at 8-10% of U.S. retail spending.

The moniker of Black Friday has taken negative connotations over time with assaults and deaths.  You still have those who cannot live without a bargain and camp out in front of Lowe’s overnight. You get enough rest to fend off elbows and rubber from shopping carts.  Some consider this the ultimate shopping experience while others think it’s the ultimate fighting championship and look elsewhere for a strike.

Consumers with limited budgets can find a bargain anywhere. First, they need the tools to put in research.  The global economy recovers slowly, but citizens are still unemployed at high metrics.  Luxuries had to be let go for self-preservation, including your iPhone 4.

Those with access have search engines galore. They are optimized to pull up the rarest gifts for your friends and family’s fickle tastes.  Those savvy shoppers will use their smartphones and tablets while in the store to gage inventory.  Then you can confer with the sales representative to settle your list.  Your elbows are not sore and the skin feels good.  We all know that urban camping is an inherent contradiction. Why shiver when you can click? Target the bullseye for more hits this holiday season.

Unfortunately, the studio business model is not yet equipped to scale the value of their content for online consumption through various channels.  This would help marketers create interactive experiences based on new technology such as the iAd’s interactive integration for Nissan Leaf.  Film executives would have to understand that the public is starting to view digital content as an entity to be shared.  The industry has always relied on creating majestic experiences that overwhelm the senses. Rather than allow those emotions to surface naturally through the movie’s quality, Hollywood is draping every single one in 3-D pixellation. Not everyone is playing the fool this time.  People now have the choice to see the product in their personal setting. We are just more saturated than ever, and the cinema pricing turns people off when a cheaper, more convenient option is available.  Hollywood has an opportunity to control video piracy once they take some initiative.

On YouTube’s end, it would also represent an opportunity to control some of the file content sharing through casual search.  As the WSJ wire says, older movies may be available free with an appropriate online advertising model. Enjoy the show anyway.

As a writer with SEO methodology in mind, it has trained me to zone in on a concept for a piece.  Highly ranked keywords are an outline for that process, and arguably allow the writer greater creative latitude when discussing market strategy amongst other internet strategies. Some have declared that SEO is dead and gone with the rise of social search.  Others like myself scoff at this idea. The truth is a mystery.  

One must be careful to not allow the necessity of climbing an index to get in the way of a written concept.  SEO writing is a technical process.  Ideas may not link immediately to your noted keywords, which frustrates many traditional writers of journalism and literature.  If your concept is lacking a unified insight that differentiates itself from the blogosphere, then the goal is not achieved. Your company not only loses the visibility in search indexes, but also in your industry. It’s difficult to close a transaction if you don’t exist.

The value of SEO is promoting your services online at a uniformed scale in the highest level.  Web browsers have an endless array of options to find content that fits their personal tastes and preferences. Blog content must contain a wicked stew of insight, knowledge, and searchable phrases that siphon into the nerves of a search engine.  Social media‘s rise as an online universe demands this level of fluency to share and debate until the wee hours.  I am still learning how to execute the concept flawlessly.  Nevertheless, I am writing under the influence and focused daily.  Copyblogger draws even greater insight into the science of web copywriting.  Click here to see their take.

The marketers at Foursquare are placing classic bets on consumer behavior when doling out reward incentives.  For example, if you purchase groceries in the morning on a consistent basis, PepsiCo will offer Tropicana grapefruit juice specials.  Quaker Oats will also be in play.  Customers develop affection for particular brands through their life experiences.  A visit to the grocery store showcases that love through consistent purchasing of certain goods.   Although the project is less direct than Gap’s fixed denim giveaway, it has potential to reap greater dividends.  Inside of the root piece from Fast Company, the platform will be more scalable.  A retailer can observe patterns and provide incentive to change habits towards a healthier diet.  Foursquare may have found a niche for their services. Mobile advertisers step in with a PPC scale, and we are in business.

The experiment is a worthy cause to understand how location influences our purchasing decisions and observe the nature of our consumption habits.  One person may find this surveillance frightening, while the other is ready to load up a grocery list for Vons.  Who said that loyalty is overrated?