Image via Businessweek.com

A quick glance at John Battelle’s resume is evidence enough that the founder & chairman of Federated Media Publishing is somewhat of a modern-day renaissance man. In addition to leading FM – the publishing company behind many of the most prominent blogs, sites, social networks and brands – he’s also a respected businessman, journalist, author, professor, blogger and conference programmer.

John’s diverse repertoire of expertise allows him to provide valuable insights about emerging trends in the digital space. He regularly addresses a number of hot-button topics on his blog, Searchblog, which covers the fusion of search, technology and media.

At 360i, we’re interested in those same topics as they pertain to the work we do on behalf of our clients in all areas of digital marketing and advertising – and we are always looking for ways to share thought leadership and continue the conversations that will ultimately propel our industry forward in new and exciting directions. I spoke with John about a few of the most “now” trends in digital, as well some things to look out for in 2010. The interview follows below:

[David Berkowitz]: Social search has been a hot topic for years, but now Google is experimenting with integrating results from one’s social graph into search results. Do you expect this kind of social search to now go mainstream?

[John Battelle]: Absolutely. “Social” is now mainstream, and search cannot but reflect the habits and usage patterns of the mainstream. Recent announcements of the integration of Twitter and Facebook into Bing and Google are harbingers of this. The real question is whether we’ll even need search “portals” anymore as our habits shift to a more mobile, social and less destination-driven interface for search.

Read the full interview »

360i Social Marketing Playbook

Click here to download the Social Marketing Playbook»

Marketing used to be different – a lot different. Today, brands are faced with a myriad of opportunities for reaching customers online; and, while the social landscape can be daunting, it holds a world of opportunities for connecting with consumers in deeper and more meaningful ways.

To help guide marketers during this exciting time of transition, we’ve published the Social Marketing Playbook. Our comprehensive strategic report aims to help marketers evaluate the opportunities available, determine which ones are best for their brands and develop a strategy following best practices for achieving success in social media.

The goals of the Playbook are to:

• Provide a framework for establishing a set of clear objectives and strategy when approaching social marketing
• Move beyond the checklist approach and offer a filter for evaluating the myriad opportunities and platforms
• Encourage thinking of social marketing as an opportunity to have a continuous, valuable exchange with customers
• Advance discussions on amplifying marketing results through the integration of social marketing and offline campaigns

In addition to leveraging the insights from contributors to this blog such as David Berkowitz, Sienna Farris, Shankar Gupta, Lara Hejtmanek, Katie Perry and Orli Sharaby, the Playbook also includes guest commentary by industry luminaries Randall Rothenberg (CEO of the IAB), Pete Cashmore (CEO of Mashable.com), Jeremiah Owyang (Blogger at Web-Strategist.com), Jeff Pulver, (Founder of Pulver.com and Producer of The 140 Character Conference) and Greg Galant (CEO of Sawhorse Media and Creator of the Shorty Awards).

In vein with the interactive nature of social marketing, we invite you to leave questions, comments and other feedback right here on our blog, or leave us a note @360i or on Facebook.

CONTEST: 360i is giving away 10 hard-bound copies of the Social Marketing Playbook during the month of July. To enter the drawing, take our quiz and enter your email into the “Your Name” field at the beginning of the quiz (your email will only be used to contact you if you win). Good luck!

Dunkin Donuts delivers a location-based ad through digital map provider NAVTEQ (via Flickr).

This week, 360i welcomed a panel of guest speakers as part of its Innovation Learning Academy, a series of lectures and training sessions that help educate employees about emerging trends in digital marketing space. David Berkowitz, Director of Emerging Media & Client Strategy, moderated a discussion on location-based advertising – an area that’s poised to be “the next big advertising trend,” according to Mediaweek.

Guest speakers included:

• Scott Dunlap, CEO of NearbyNow
• Shafiq Sharrif, Director of Advertising Products at Whrrl
• Danny Reinert, Director of Interactive Advertising Sales at NAVTEQ
• Mike Burke, Emerging Business Group at Google

Read the full article »

Each year, ad:tech San Francisco draws thousands of attendees seeking valuable strategic advice from some of the industry’s foremost digital marketing experts. Large-scale industry events like this often serve as compasses that point toward emerging topics and trends in the online arena. From the keynote speeches to the conversations that emanate in post-session breakouts, the chatter that takes place during ad:tech is often a key indicator as to what’s on the horizon for digital media.

Last week, 360i’s Customer Insights group monitored online conversations taking place during the three-day conference. By nature, the event drew an enthusiastic crowd of social media aficionados who took to Twitter and other social platforms to communicate with others in attendance – as well as those not in attendance, who were following the activity at ad:tech from home.

Read the full article »

Widget or Facebook app? That’s been the question facing many marketers when trying to determine the best platform for syndicating their content. To be clear, a widget is truly portable across any HTML-based page. Facebook apps are sharable, though not generally portable.

Marketers often only want to devote resources to creating one widget or application. Ideally, they want to utilize this one application and repurpose it across whatever online platforms they deem appropriate for reaching their customers. However, it’s difficult to develop applications that are portable across multiple networks and so marketers usually end up only designing applications for their Facebook page. The true goal is to create branded experiences that work within Facebook, as well as other viable platforms like MySpace or personal blogs.

Read the full article

Click to view our POV on Social Marketing Strategies for Travel.

We’ve now published our POV on Social Marketing Strategies for Travel, previously available only to 360i clients. The report offers valuable advice for all marketers (not only those in the travel industry), as customers increasingly base their decisions more on price points and deals and less on brand loyalty. Web-savvy and driven by value, they are also relying less on official sources for information and more on the advice of their peers.

Read the full article