The CMO Site's Tumbleblog

“But Google knows it needs to make Google Plus a regular habit once the new car smell wears off.”

Facebook users still aren’t paying attention to Google+, according to a third-party study. Good news for Facebook.

The Atlantic’s Nigel Hollis:

Apple advertising stands in direct contrast to many of its competitors. BlackBerry, Samsung or Nokia ads are often laden with so much information that the recipient is left in a blaze of numbers and claims. Instead of focusing on how people interact with technology, those companies focus on features and specifications. More features are better, and more power is better. This more-is-better philosophy carries through to the brand’s instruction manual, packaging and advertising.

Now think about the Apple iPad. The first ads for the iPad did not focus on the product features, like memory, or speed, or slimness. Instead they portrayed someone relaxing on their sofa using the product. The ads didn’t tell us what the product was. They told us how we would use it, accessing news and entertainment whenever and wherever we want.

The experiment also proves my theory that any research that claims to be “inspired by a 1987 episode of Perfect Strangers” is important.

Ravelry’s success is evidence in favor of an argument that you often hear from Facebook’s critics: A single giant social network is no fun. Social sites work better when they’re smaller and bespoke, created to cater to a specific group. What makes Ravelry work so well is that, in addition to being a place to catch up with friends, it is also a boon to its users’ favorite hobby—it helps people catalog their yarn, their favorite patterns, and the stuff they’ve made or plan on making. In other words, there is something to do there. And having something to do turns out to make an enormous difference in the way people interact with one another on the Web.

A lesson for marketers.

Gizmodo hired the firm Social Intelligence to conduct a social media background check, which is becoming more commonplace for employers, on its editors. Five passed.

I flunked hard. When that happens, Social Intelligence creates a report, which it would then send to an employer. And if you don’t get a job because of your social media report, you can request a copy. Mine’s filled with delightful details, like “subject admits to use of cocaine as well as LSD,” and “subject references use of Ketamine.”

The Dept. of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics has released its final report on airline customer complaints for the month of May and it isn’t pretty.