Digital Connections – 360i Blog, Digital Marketing Agency

This March, 360i is in like a lion — and out like a lion, too.

On the heels of CEO Bryan Wiener’s presentation at the 2009 AAAA Media Conference & Tradeshow last week, 360i will spend the latter half of the month participating in some of this spring’s top industry events. Here’s the rundown:

March 12 – Social Media Buyers Guide Podcast & DigiDay Mobile/Social

David Berkowitz, Director of Emerging Media & Client Strategy at 360i, will be a featured guest on the Social Media Buyers Guide “Insights from Service Providers” podcast at 2:00 p.m. EST. Please note this event has been rescheduled from its earlier date.

David will also attend DigiDay Mobile/Social in New York. (more…)

Twitter today is selectively rolling out a few redesign tweaks (why should Facebook Pages get all the redesign buzz?). There are a few changes that any Twitter user will love, but nothing that will impact marketers…yet. The full post with more pictures is over at Ad Age’s Digital Next blog. Read the full article

This week, Facebook has started rolling out its redesigned Pages, and this will affect every single marketer that has a Page on the social network. The redesign makes Pages resemble profiles, so they’re designed to be updated frequently with updates and content that fans will find of interest. We offer detailed perspectives on what marketers should do about the redesign in 360′s latest POV, following our recent contribution to Ad Age on the subject. You can see the new design live if you’re a fan of 360i on Facebook. Marketers can start adjusting Pages now, and all changes will likely go live for everyone next week.

POVs are delivered regularly to 360i’s clients. If you’re interested in viewing this or other reports, or for more information, please contact us at editor@360i.com.

Paying the hand that blogs (hpebley3via Flickr).

Forrester Research published a report discussing the value in paying bloggers to talk about your brand. According to the story, the time to use “sponsored conversations” is when the brand can’t interest bloggers without additional incentive. Marketers considering this approach may want to ask themselves: Would the blogger inherently write about it editorially because it provides value to the readership? If you can’t get your product on the radar with bloggers, it might be worthwhile to rethink your product strategy and pitch when approaching the blogger. Why should they discuss your brand and product? What would be of interest to their readers? Read the full article

When I was six years old, I wrote my first letter to a company when a box of Rice Krispies didn’t contain a pack of Rain-Blo bubble gum as advertised (I received a letter back, with two packs of gum). Many more letters followed over the years, from when I discovered the Magnetic Doodle Balls game had only 91 balls instead of the promised “over 100,” to when, at age 16, I noticed a version of Broderbund’s Print Shop software only represented African Americans as jazz musicians and tribal warriors. It’s a hobby I still revive on occasion, while sometimes adapting it to new communication channels — as with my recent PowerPoint photo essay on a horrible Las Vegas hotel experience. Read the full article

Call it the behavioral bright spot.

A refreshing getaway from negative chatter surrounding the recession, this year’s OMMA Behavioral conference took an optimistic dive into the growing sector of digital advertising via behavioral targeting. Chris Hansen, 360i’s VP of Performance Marketing, participated on two panels at the event, heading up a panel on audience modeling and participating in a session on agencies’ adoption of behavioral targeting practices. Read the full article

Even the Boss will have to make some adjustments to his Facebook fan page. Image by matthewsim via Flickr.

Are you ready for the Facebook facelift?

David Berkowitz, Director of Emerging Media & Client Strategy at 360i, shares some important advice for marketers on AdAge’s Digital Next blog. Here’s an excerpt:

Facebook is planning to redesign its advertiser “Pages,” according to reports. And while the social network has yet to announce the changes publicly, many of the leaked changes will affect top page holders such as Barack Obama, Coca-Cola, Mr. Bean and any marketer with a Facebook page. Here are three of the biggest changes coming:

Pages will soon have tabs, making them resemble Facebook profiles.

What to do about it: Update the page’s main image with any key branding and messaging, adapt applications to fit the front of the page and upload multimedia content more often.

Information shared by pages will show up in Facebook users’ news feeds more often, presenting expanded opportunities to attract new fans.

What to do about it: Update the page regularly and keep pages fresh.

Since there will be multiple tabs, Facebook ads can set any tab as a landing page.

What to do about it: Set your landing page to the tab with the richest content. Test several pages to see which ads perform better.

Read the complete article here.