Mad 4 Blog

The latest in the line of one of the world’s most popular smartphones, the iPhone 5, is set to launch on Sept. 12. One of the selling features is that the phone is actually bigger than its predecessors.

Yes: Bigger.

For the most part, technology aims to get smaller and sleeker as it evolves. But today, technology users are learning to embrace slightly bigger devices for better functionality — as long as they’re able to trade it for something else.

In this case, a bigger phone means lugging around a tablet a lot less and using a desktop or laptop computer even more infrequently. For many, this is a fair trade. The smartphone continues its march to overtake larger and staler computer technology, but only by becoming bigger itself.

And of course marketers — both from and outside of Apple — love this feature as well. That means they’re able to assess the new phone’s size as a means to create and integrate even bigger mobile ads and media-rich units.

iAds started in 2010 as an Apple-unique platform for digital and mobile advertising. It syncs with devices such as iPods, iPhones and iPads and targets Mac consumers by embedding marketing messages directly into its applications.

The iPhone 5 is considered the next and greatest upgrade in the line, although the last device in the sequence was actually the iPhone 4S, the first phone upgrade since the loss of Apple’s founder, Steve Jobs. The iPhone 4S saw preorders of approximately 1 million in the first day alone, but the iPhone 5 is projected to see as many as 1.5 million in the same time span.

It seems like Apple is banking on that increase in consumer interest to translate to mobile marketing power as well.

The iPhone 5 is slated to hit markets in the U.S. starting Sept. 21.

Some things are better off private. And advertising may be one of those things.

Lately, cities throughout the U.S. have been considering selling space in public areas to corporations looking to advertise to a wider audience in new out-of-home venues. The purpose is to raise additional funds that will go directly to cities that are in or heading toward debt.For example, Boston has considered selling the names of its subway stations to the highest bidder (after all, it works with arena names). But residents are worried that such blatant consumerism will tarnish the tone of the rustic, classy city. They’re also concerned about names changing whenever contracts expire, causing confusion about how they — not to mention tourists — will successfully navigate the city.

New York already initiated a policy of selling ads on public transportation cards (the ones most residents swipe to get to and from work everyday), which wasn’t met with much rebuke. But the city now wants to begin placing advertisements in public parks. Those who love to visit the city’s famed parks go to get away from buildings, signs and chatter — they want to stay immersed in nature. And is it just a matter of time before even city parks begin to look like Times Square?

Locally, Florida’s facing a smaller fight: There’s a continuous battle statewide about whether private citizens or companies can post excessive signage on their lawns and in the grass (such as medians and curbs around town), which is illegal for anyone to do but the state itself. Is a sign advertising fast cash for gold OK? Is a sign for a missing puppy a travesty?

These conflicts raise numerous questions about how an infiltration of advertising can actually harm communities, and what the sanctity of public spaces is — especially in cash-strapped cities looking to use the funds raised to repairs roads, infrastructures and community programs.

How is advertising on public transit different than selling the names of public spaces? How is a charitable sponsorship or a commemorative namesake different than a sale? How is giant OOH signage, like a billboard along the road, different than posting signs in a park?

These aren’t questions that everyone shares an opinion on — but we’d love to hear yours. And most importantly, are you willing to pay more taxes to keep more advertising out of sight?

Last week we discussed what it means to be a leader or a follower in the social media landscape. This week, we wanted to offer you some suggestions for how to keep your followers engaged and enthusiastic if you’re trying to stay on top. A few basic rules are:

• Don’t post too much. This mostly goes for Facebook status updates and tweets. You don’t want to flood someone’s stream with commentary. Give them time to miss you and look forward to your next post. Research the best times of day and days of the week to post, so that when you do reach out you’ll get the greatest possible impact.
• Don’t post too little. This mostly goes for blogs. You want to post regularly, no less than once per week. You need to remind your followers that you’re there.
• Don’t bore your audience. Only post relevant and interesting updates and information. They don’t need to know tiny details, nor do they need your opinions on sporting events just because it’s a hot topic of the day — unless, of course, your business has to do with sports.
• Don’t tell them what to do. Treat readers like your friends, not your employees. Social media is probably where you want to use the most subtle calls to action, or people will feel like they’re being used. Directional posts like ‘Read this!‘ ‘Subscribe here’ ‘Click like!’ and similar phrases are sure to get your audience to tune out. If you do a good job with your content, people will do those things just because they like you, not because they were told to do it.
• Post what you would like to read. We all have those feeds coming to us from various channels where we signed up as a show of support or interest, but day after day we realize we don’t actually care about most of what’s being shown to us and quickly hide the feed or hit unsubscribe. You don’t want to be that guy; before you hit ‘send’ or ‘post’ make sure that everything you’re typing is funny, relevant, interesting or some combination. Remember your audience! You’re looking for that sweet combination of information and entertainment.
• Show your appreciation. Remember that your readers are real, actual people — and possibly clients or customers — and they don’t have to pay any extra attention to you via social media. Acknowledge them, thank them, give them content that will make them think or smile — and, if it’s relevant, you can even give them games, giveaways or contests every now and then as a sign of recognition and gratitude.

Do you have any social media horror stories? How about posting trends that have really impressed you? Share them with us!

Follow. Like. Friend. Subscribe. Social media cleverly breaks its users down into two categories: leaders and followers. But which category do you fall into, and which one is best? The answer may not be as clear as you’d at first think.

Obviously you want to be a leader in your field, and you want to gain a large audience. But do you know what it takes to stay at the front of the pack when it comes to the crowded social media space? Do you know how to keep your readers interested so that they don’t un-follow you as easily as they followed? You have to continue to earn their engagement consistently, which can be a hard task. Many people think that all of the hard work ends as soon as you have a mass of followers, when in reality that’s when your hard work really begins. We all know how to solicit ‘likes’ — but keeping them requires creativity, thoughtfulness and attention to detail.

It’s also important to differentiate yourself from the competition. For example, if you’re an ice cream store and your audience loves ice cream, they might be following five or more ice cream stores through their personal feed. How can yours stand out from the crowd? (And check back next week for even more specific tips on this topic.)

Leadership is important in social media. But you’re also defined by who you follow. Your Facebook page and Tumblr, for example, show what pages you like, comment on and visit. Replying to and communicating with popular and vocal venues can bring attention back to your own website. Blogs offer a list of links that relate to their own interests and themes. You can add a roster of the websites or blogs you support in your sidebar. Who you follow can put you in good esteem with some readers, who are looking for references to sites with similar themes. In fact, they may already be fans of the same websites you promote. It’s also a good idea to see if those sites will link back to your blog, as well. These may be industry leaders, your colleagues or even inspirational sources. It’s just important that they stay on topic — for example, the cat blog you read every day may be the funniest thing on the Web, but it doesn’t belong on your follow list.

You also want to follow the example of other leaders, both in your field and outside of it. What are they doing online that catches your eye? It helps to immerse yourself in social media and follow the latest developments and trends. Of course, you also want to keep an eye on what the competition’s doing. Becoming a good follower means borrowing strategies you see that touch a chord in you and figuring out how that, in turn, will also make you a good leader.