Drool
The idea of a white boardroom with a Lego table is perhaps a bit geeky, but totally rad all the same.
Recyled kids toys
We’re almost sure that if we gather a collection of our own discarded bricks, we’d have our very own Cherryflava version of this one. The table consists of 22,742 pieces clicked together with traditional lego construction techniques.
New from old
More here
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Spotify’s latest update to its iPhone app has just hit the iTunes store. The popular music streaming service has added several new features to the app but is still likely to frustrate many Premium users.
Spotify launched an iPhone app ahead of those for other leading smartphone platforms during 2009, after establishing itself across Europe initially as a free web-based ad-funded music streaming service.
After adding a Premium, paid-for service Spotify launched the iPhone app to enable Premium users to access their Spotify playlists via the iPhone.
Users and industry commentators were initally surprised to see the app gain approval from Apple as it appeared to compete directly with iTunes. However, the app went live and has proved popular, boosting Premium subscriptions for the service.
The first release of the app did, however, frustrate some subscribers as it used different navigation to the iPhone’s native music player (a track progress bar where the volume slider should be), failed to allow last.fm scrobbling unlike the browser-based app and allowed no sorting of playlists, forcing the user to scroll up and down and ever lengthening list of unordered lists.
The Spotify app did, however, introduce offline playlists so users could download tracks to the iPhone so that they could listen without streaming, although this feature’s usefulness was diminished on the iPhone due the the phone’s restriction on multitasking, thus preventing users from doing anything else whilst listening to Spotify.
The organisation has attempted to address some of these issues in its latest release – in the App Store today – but the latest changes may still frustrate fans of the service. On the upside, last.fm scrobbling is at last enabled, plus there’s the ability to click on Facebook 0r browser links to Spotify tracks and automatically open the app.
However, there is still no method of searching for an album and adding it as a playlist in its own right – instead you must add it to an already existing playlist, meaning that users must constantly revisit the web-based app to tidy up playlist names.
Spotify has also added a social element to the app by enabling you to share details of your current track via Twitter. Unfortunately, this is done by closing Spotify, stopping the music and opening up Safari where you must log in to Twitter before it presents you with a lengthy Spotify URL.
There are one or two further tweaks to the app including being able to access your iPod tracks from within the app so, on the whole, it’s worth grabbing the upgrade, but it does feel a little ‘two steps forward, one step back’.
Original title and link for this post: Spotify’s Latest iPhone App Adds New Features But Still Frustrates
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Twitter remains blocked in China, but that has not stopped Twitter-like activity.
Similar to other foreign Web 2.0 services that the government keeps out, China’s vibrant web sector has created domestic alternatives.
This graph from CIC Data shows that almost 40% of the online buzz they found around the Toyota recall on the day that Toyota president Akio Toyoda spoke in China about the issue came from Sina’s micro-blog.
Note that this is a measure of volume, not impact. A well considered posting on a particular blog or forum may well have had more impact. But it does show that micro-blogs are growing in importance in China for breaking news events.
As I blogged earlier, the Chinese-language is in some ways better suited to Twitter than English: Twitter in Chinese actually means “Blog”. If you INSIST on looking at Twitter usage in China, here’s a posting I did about the demographics of Twitter users in China.
(Disclosure: I run Ogilvy’s Social Media practice for APAC and in that role have often partnered with CIC on projects.)
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China’s Social Gaming Landscape: What’s Coming Next
It’s no longer a secret that China’s online gaming industry is booming, and growth is set to continue with companies such as Shanda Games , Netease and The9 leading the way. In 2009, China’s online gaming industry earned nearly $4 billion, growing 39.5% from 2008 . tweetmeme_url = ‘http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/china_social_gaming_landscape_whats_coming_next.php …
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Chinese migrants face hard reality in New Zealand
WELLINGTON, March 24 — Chinese migrants find the reality of living in New Zealand much harder than they expected, Xinhua news agency cited a latest study, released today. Recent migrants working in Auckland’s food and retail sector as either employers or employees found their life harder than what they have left behind in China, the researchers from Massey and Auckland Universities found. The …
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Over the past few months, I have found myself speaking more frequently with marketers within hotels about the use of Social Media within their organizations. I guess this is a reflection of the profile this channel is receiving in the marketing trade magazines and the increased use of social media by the marketers themselves in their personal time. It is also a tacit acknowledgment that simply relying on coupons and discounts to keep guests coming is not getting the traction it once did.
So, with the trend towards this online channel, I thought it maybe timely to share some best practices for the hotel marketer. Here are some suggestions about what you can do at the hotel level in engaging and building connections online.
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The market research agency InSites Consulting has posted a terrific report about the global use of social networks. InSites surveyed 2,884 internet users in 14 countries and the report is a gold mine of interesting statistics. I have chosen to post two of the slides that I think are especially noteworthy.
The first is a slide that shows professional vs personal use of different social networks. It is a clear difference in use of sites like Xing and LinkedIn on the one hand, and Facebook and MySpace on the other.
It seems that internet users have more trust in professional social networks than in ones used for personal purposes, with the exception of the Dutch site Hyves.nl, in which users also have a lot of trust. That might possibly be due to the fact that it is a local social network, but that is a guess on my part.
Here is the entire presentation and I encourage you to check it out.
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Product Description
Practical applications for using social media to boost your business
Even today’s most successful businesses are seeing shrinking returns on their advertising and marketing dollars. The Digital Handshake explains why advertising and marketing are losing their effectiveness and how to solve the problem using social media to corral elusive consumers. It explains the best practical business applications in current use and how you can use them to ramp up your business.
Using case studies gleaned from real businesses, author Paul Chaney shows you how companies both large and small that can tap social media to mitigate market changes and reap valuable business benefit in the real world.
Today’s technology can either undermine your marketing efforts or enhance them. The Digital Handshake helps you make sure the Internet grows your business for the long run.
The Digital Handshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media
But I’m hit by way too many email marketing campaigns that must assume that I’m exceptionally gullible. Perhaps I’m the only person that hates this stuff, but I’m going to share the agonizingly long text of an intelligence-insulting promotional email so you can judge for yourself.
Several normal emails kicked off the campaign promoting an online workshop. That was fine. I’m interested in the topic and am ok getting marketing missives. But, then came the first ‘oops’ email follow up with a lame ‘I goofed’ message. And then the pathetic ‘boo boo mistake’ attempt that you see below in appropriate scarlet letters sneaked into my in box. Does this woman really think I will fall for this?
Please marketers. I’m begging you. Write great copy. Be persuasive. Show me value. Share your wisdom. Ask for the order. All that is fine. Just don’t take me for an idiot with this kind of tripe which they must teach in ‘Take Your Customers for Chumps Online Marketing School’:
Hi Newt,
I made a big boo boo mistake this afternoon.
Just as my team and I were getting ready to close down
registration for the Website Creation Workshop, I
accidentally sent an email out to the wrong list.
Now let me explain….
I got started a bit late in the promotion cycle with one
of my partners and we didn’t do our preview
interview call until just yesterday.
Since the call that was to introduce me to her readers was
only a day before the registration deadline, we talked and
we both agreed, that extending the deadline by a couple of
days was the right thing to do.
I really would rather have not done this, but its my own
fault for scheduling a teleseminar the day before the deadline.
Because as I said in a post on the blog earlier today,
[Link removed to protect the innocent]
I need to finish getting the Workshop ready. And in particular
my team needs time to get the remaining Student Project
websites setup.
So today as I was sending out the email to the sublist
of people who were “Friends of Lynn” only, I
accidentally included a whole bunch of other email
sublists that I actually wanted to *exclude*. Aaggh!
Now a whole bunch of people got this “deadline extended”
email that probably didn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Here is what I am doing then. I am extending the deadline
for you too until 11:00am Eastern Time, Saturday morning,
March 25th.
[Link removed to protect the innocent]
I really do need the time to finish getting ready for the
Workshop, but I feel it is only fair that you get this
extension now too. I and some of my staff will just have to
work more this weekend.
We’ll get over it though. And after you register we will
have your Student Website ready as soon as we can.
Here is the link for you to register…
[Link removed to protect the innocent]
I guess this must work often enough to keep annoying me with it. On the other hand, it might explain why email marketing too often deserves a dubious reputation.
View full post on Content Marketing Today
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At 3am Beijing time this morning, Google announced the end of Google.cn: the search engine will cease censoring Google.cn, and redirect search traffic to their Hong Kong website at Google.com.hk.
Below are links to some of the better reports and commentary about the case.
This article is from Danwei.org.
Mainland accessible mirror on Danwei.TV
Jobs in China: danweijobs.com
View full post on Danwei – Media, Advertising, and Urban Life in China
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Product Description
Whether challenged with taking on a startup, turning a business around, or inheriting a high-performing unit, a new leader’s success or failure is determined within the first 90 days on the job.
In this hands-on guide, Michael Watkins, a noted expert on leadership transitions, offers proven strategies for moving successfully into a new role at any point in one’s career. The First 90 Days provides a framework for transition acceleration that will help leaders diagnose their situations, craft winning transition strategies, and take charge quickly.
Practical examples illustrate how to learn about new organizations, build teams, create coalitions, secure early wins, and lay the foundation for longer-term success. In addition, Watkins provides strategies for avoiding the most common pitfalls new leaders encounter, and shows how individuals can protect themselves-emotionally as well as professionally-during what is often an intense and vulnerable period.
Concise and actionable, this is the survival guide no new leader should be without.
“Few companies develop a systematic ‘on-boarding’ process for their new leaders, even though this is a critical function with major organizational implications. Michael Watkins’s The First 90 Days provides a powerful framework and strategies that will enable new leaders to take charge quickly. It is an invaluable tool for that most vulnerable time-the transition.”
-Goli Darabi, Senior Vice President, Corporate Leadership & Succession Management, Fidelity Investments
“Every job-private- or public-sector, civilian or military-has its breakeven point, and everyone can accelerate their learning. Read this book at least twice: once before your next transition-before getting caught up in the whirl and blur of new faces, names, acronyms, and issues; then read it again after you’ve settled in, and consider how to accelerate transitions for your next new boss and for those who come to work for you.”
-Colonel Eli Alford, U.S. Army
“Watkins provides an excellent road map, telling us what all new leaders need to know and do to accelerate their learning and success in a new role. The First 90 Days should be incorporated into every company’s leadership development strategy, so that anyone making a transition in an organization can get up to speed quicker and smarter.”
-Suzanne M. Danielle, Director of Global Leadership Development, Aventis
“Michael Watkins has nailed a huge corporate problem and provided the solution in one fell swoop. The pressure on new leaders to hit the ground running has never been greater, and the likelihood and cost of failure is escalating. Watkins’s timing with The First 90 Days is impeccable.”
-Gordon Curtis, Principal, Curtis Consulting
“The First 90 Days is a must-read for entrepreneurs. Anyone who’s been the CEO of a start-up or early-stage company knows that you go through many 90-day leadership transitions in the course of a company’s formative years. In this groundbreaking book, Michael Watkins provides crucial insights, as well as a toolkit of techniques, to enable you to accelerate through these transitions successfully.”
-Mike Kinkead, President and CEO, timeBLASTER Corporation, serial entrepreneur, and Cofounder and Trustee, Massachusetts Software Council
The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels
