Agora Media Group Innovation Blog

Clear image which shows the elements of the Social Periphery and Mobile Social Networks, the Content and Context which are given the appropriate importance and define the mobile convergence.
Relevant content based on Location and Action is what makes this extension of the human more and more important. Think of the numerous social mobile-, Augmented Reality- and local applications -to name a few- which will find their way to the mainstream public.

I do find the reference to “Brands as the filter and the enabler. Ideas must be good enough to share.” an interesting one, brands will have an extra/complementary way to have their awareness and get their brand association in relation to the location and content, a kind of super-proximity marketing potential fueled by key-enthausiasts/target groups who will engage and spread their word of mouth if ideas are indeed good enough to share.

A last important addition to this excellent graph is the mentioning of relationships as intelligence, not only the interaction is relevant and of importance, the relationship between those who interact related to the location/context is an enhancement or extension of the quality and opportunities!

Taken from davidjcarr.wordpress.com

An interesting remark / point of perspective came up in one of the other Waves, where was debated that Internet cannot be a strategy because it should support the marketing strategy.

“In my opinion there is the marketing strategy, as defined by the classics like brand positioning, target segments, benefits of offer and experience. Internet consists of a series of touch points that should support that.
Some could be critical touch points that support the unique benefit, or just be touch points amongst the path that just need not to oppose the benefit. Customer needs comes first, then the positioning/ benefit, then the touch point analysis, that decides on the internet approach.”

I do find this an interesting theorem/point of perspective, what do you think?
Can the Internet be strategized or do you concur with the abovementioned?

Do discuss in Google Wave as well, below.

We got questions after the Agora Media’s own Social Media case -> 16000% growth post, on how we did achieve this growth.
Social Media is very specific for each company and related to their target groups, objectives, proposition and so on.

What I can set forth is the kind of framework we use to mould our social activities.

The three parts are:
* Content
* Context
* Social Media Intelligence

Content & Context
I already have extensively written about content and context in one of my previous posts The Content – Context Diarchy where I explained that content is important to have a quality threshold, but that the quality of the content is not valued or not fully valued when the context is not of equal quality.

The content is the information (in its broadest meaning of the word) itself and the context are the networks/sites where we share, interact and retrieve information.

Social Media Intelligence
Social Media Intelligence provides the relevancy we need in relation to the context, to be at the right place, at the right time with quality content (which is also based on what is happening in the market).
We achieve this overview of the Internet landscape by creating all kinds of radars that will notify us when an activity is happening online which might be of use or importance to us.

Social Media Intelligence is a constant two-folded enhancing process which upgrades our content and context, we learn where our target audience is and where relevant information can be found, and our content is influenced by that what is said, wanted and needed in the market and makes our content more time- and place-relevant.

Not only does it take time and efforts to write good content, find the networks which are beneficial for the content and brand, but Social Media Intelligence the transparent framework from which we build upon and deserves time investment and attention to create a valuable information infrastructure.

Content * Context * Social Media Intelligence = Powerful Social Media

Social Media works, we’ve been deploying the Social Strategy for our own blog and content to prove and demonstrate its potential and effect on the company.

We have initiated the Agora Media Group blog at the end of August, two and a half months later, we have achieved a staggering growth in brand visibility and reach by the content we’ve written and our social media efforts to expose our content on relevant networks, social bookmarking sites, many articles have been picked up by other sites which further increases our brand portability.

I can assure you, we have not spend a single dime on paid advertising to get our word/thought-leadership out, we have invested heavily in our social media (architecture), even experiments with Google Wave are having effect on our brand and the way it’s perceived.

This has resulted in the following two figures which have been achieved in the short period we are live:

Traffic impact

SEO impact

Social Media will change the way companies will conduct business, will reach out, will engage with their target groups, do invest and explore the opportunities which lie ahead.
The abovementioned figures do point out to only one of the many aspects which Social Media has effect on and other examples will follow in the future to show the power of it.

Following the remark of the editor-in-chief of Esquire with regard to their usage of Augmented Reality in their upcoming cover:

“I got so sick of people talking about old media versus new media. I wanted to prove that print is still kind of cool. I think of it as kind of our job to show people the strength of our medium.”

Do you think Print Media still has a place within the marketing strategy? Are they desperate attempts or can it revive in a more innovative cross-channel manner?

Junaio, the 3D Mobile Augmented Reality platform by Metaio will be launched next week!
Eager to see its capabilities by my own, for now check out their video:

As a user you will be able to augment your world around you with 3D objects. When altered reality the way you desire you can share this information with your friends across social networks, these sort of technologies will ensure that Augmented Reality will be adopted by more and more users.
It’s a playful way to get acquainted with the technology and its possibilities. Aside the 3D capabilities, junaio also offers the ‘standard’ Augmented Reality browsing tools to scan and learn your surroundings.

Will junaio be real competition to Layar’s 3D platform? I do hope so, competition is good for creativeness, let’s see what both companies will bring forth in the near future.

More news during the coming week when junaio will be launched!

I came across this announcement by Esquire, november the 9th they will be featuring an Augmented Reality page which can be viewed by webcam.

The announcement and the frontcover:

It’s good to see that Esquire, GE and others are experimenting with the AR technology in order to bridge offline and online content, in order to create cross-channel campaigns which will trigger people to consume both offline print and online -complementary- content which put together creates an integral package of information.

Cross-channeling through QR codes happens already extensively in Asia, where people can access information with a QR code which is being displayed on billboards, print media, cards and so on.

Not only is Augmented Reality ‘science fictional’ and innovative, it can also attract people to stay longer and explore other content on a particular website, where offline/print-media was the initiator of the act.
As long as Augmented Reality is not mass adopted, companies should experiment with (mobile) Augmented Reality and QR codes and learn how they can benefit in the long run from it, when it’s widely used, the short term advantages would be that a company will be perceived as creative and willing to entertain their customer base in a different way.
More and more Augmented Reality platforms are being developed which means in time prices will decrease, when Augmented Reality could be relevant to your business, start you research today.

What other applications do you see for Augmented Reality in relation to print media?