su.pr is the new URL Shortening and Social Sharing service from the creators of StumbleUpon. I love it already.

The service does a few things that I find useful, and without the bells and whistles that I don't need. First, it's accessed via a javascript bookmarklet, so in modern browsers, I can simply hit a button and pop-down a utility bar. From this utility bar, I can shorten the URL of the page (if I choose) and I can also update either my Twitter Status, my Facebook Status, or BOTH. I can also choose to schedule the updates for later.

What I also find very useful, and plan to use more and more moving forward, is the insights available from su.pr. I can tell things like what are the most popular links I'm posting or re-posting, and get analytics like CTR for those links, and even time of day data so I can pot at the right time (if I cared about that).

Also, because it's tied to both my Twitter and Facebook accounts, if I were in need of a social promotion, this mechanism would both facilitate and deliver measurable results. It's almost as though it was built with marketing in mind.
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Official Google Blog: Introducing the Google Chrome OS

How will Google monetize this operating system? Will I eventually have advertising sculpted to my every variable appearing on my desktop? Will my documents show ads that are contextual even though I'm creating the context?

This could be very interesting, and I can't wait. After reading Jeff Jarvis' 'WWGD?' and getting a taste for how the OS could be reinvented, I actually am fairly confident that I'll like what they come up with.

I guess we'll see? [Windows Killer?]
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Gift Cards, that is, store-specific declining-balance electronic-payment cards have features that make them both attractive to the consumer and attractive to the retailer, but like a casino where the house always wins-- so too do the retailers ultimately win when you go and buy a gift card.

Did you know that approximately 12% of Gift Card value is never redeemed? In North America, on Gift Card sales of over $60bn, that equates to pure bottom line profit of over $6 Billion. --For what?

So that you can tell your brother or mother or daughter where to spend your money. If you just gave them CA$H, they could go and spend it however they like, but with a gift card you don't give them the thought of picking a book they like-- only the directive that they must buy a book.

So what about things like home improvement or grocery where, in all likelihood, they were going to spend cash anyway? You've now gone ahead and created a situation for the retailer where they can guarantee that income, recognize it in many tricky accounting and tax ways, and possibly even make more than your Gift Card recipient wanted to spend. (in the case of breakage)

Why are Gift Cards great for the retailer?

Breakage (Money that doesn't get spent)- You get a gift card from someone for $50 and go to the retailer and spend $47.50. They simply deduct it from your card and now you have a piece of plastic you have to carry around worth $2.50. You put it in a drawer, forget about it, lose it, whatever--- and now that $2.50 never gets spent. The retailer already has that whole $50. They've had it since the day the card was purchased, so they just have to stop recognizing $50 in liability, and recognize the sale you made. They know that there will be a certain industry standard for breakage, so they can even recognize that. As a consumer, the GC buyer is out $50, you only got $47.50 worth of 'value', and the store is laughing. But wait-- there's more:

Float (Time that they have the money)- So someone buys you a $100 GC in late November, as your Christmas present. The retailer now has their $100 in the bank, and they've got a piece plastic they're going to give you at xmas. You get it, and put it with all the others in your xmas pile and don't actually get around to spending it until March. So now the retailer has to give you some merchandise with face value of $100 in March. [in a roundabout way] They got to use your money to make money for four months-- and then they got to 'make' money (from the margin of the product you chose to redeem your GC for) on top of it. Imagine adding all that up and instead of $100, it's a few million. This retailer, even if it was just sitting in a savings account, got to make money off YOUR money, for four months, conceivably tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

BONUS- Non-dollar currency Gift Cards (Air Miles, Aeroplan Miles, Petro Points, Optimum Points, etc) What about if someone buys you a gift card in a non-dollar currency? There are many examples, and I've just named a few. Well now, there is the opportunity for yet another middle-man to slice off a piece. There is MARGIN built into any rewards currency, so in addition to breakage and float, think of it like an exchange rate. Imagine buying a US Gift Card in Canadian dollars--- everything is the same as before, except now you also get to pay a little exchange rate on the dollar. That's what happens with rewards currencies. A worst case scenario is someone buying you a gift card of a rewards currency (which has it's own breakage and float calculations) which you then redeem for -- a Gift Card to a retailer--- (again, with the same breakage and float mentioned above)---and then you spend that Gift Card on a high-margin item at that retailer.

Why not give Cash? Or even better-- ask them for a list of things in your price range, and purchase online, get free shipping, the best possible deal, and earn YOUR OWN rewards currency on the purchase (via a site like AirMilesShops.CA). This way, they get a present they want, you pay the absolute minimum, the retailer only gets what they deserve, and you get a treat on top. Also-- do all this shopping throughout the year, as not to overload your budget.

My next rant will be about the greeting card industry... $7 for a piece of paper and an envelope?


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Yay! http://www.facebook.com/kinnear
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First Question: Does this apply to you? If you have a Facebook Fan Page with over 1000 fans (as of the end of May) , you can now get a username that will make it a little easier to find your page. If you are the trademark owner for the term you want to get, for example facebook.com/wholefoods, then you have nothing to worry about. Trademark owners don't have to worry about squatters, as there is a process in place to prevent this anyway.
But what if you're a Wedding Photographer in a medium-size city, and your business is called BeautifulWeddings.com? Your business name is pretty generic, and you probably don't have over 1000 fans. You can cross your fingers and hope that you get to 1000 before someone else in the wedding industry reserves that username, or you can pick something else.Facebook has done a pretty good job of thinking this through to prevent squatters, and protect trademarks, but for the small business person, looking to maximize their search engine optimization, and google-juice by having a great username, this may be a hairy situation.

For those concerned about personal profiles, just be first. There are lots of Andrew Kinnears out there, but I plan on doing my best to be first. If your name is common, you may want to set your alarm... Midnight on Friday night EDT (12:01 Saturday June 13th, 2009 EDT) the Facebook servers are going to get absolutely HAMMERED with traffic, so be patient, have a strategy, and be patient.
I have a few pages that I manage, including some pages for work, but it's pretty simple to figure out. The work stuff, though under 1000, are protected by trademark. --Everything else is either under 1000 and doesn't qualify or over 1000 fans, and I'll need to make sure I get it. There isn't any sneaky-thinking going on here: You can't squat, you can't protect multiple names, you pick a winner and go for it.

Question #2: Does this matter for regular users? No. Short Answer. Google can find you right now, even with the big number in your URL, so it will just be easier. It won't violate your privacy, as you will still have all the same controls.

Question #3: Will this be like MySpace.com where everyone has a stupid username? Yes and No. Anyone with a brain will attempt to get their name, and barring that should give up. Usernames are FOREVER. If you can't get your name, but you decide to register PhoenixCoyotesFan2009 as your username--- you'll feel pretty stupid when the team moves to Hamilton. I recommend trying to get your name, and if you can't-- STOP. Facebook is a social network, designed to connect the REAL you to your REAL friends. That's why it doesn't suck. That's why it has far surpassed the success of MySpace. Sure there are spammers, but they are on the periphery.

Question #4: If I'm a regular person, not a marketing guru, not a brand, should I bother? Again-- why not? Try to get your name, and if you can't--- oh well! It's not like you won't be found by the people who want to find you. Google and Facebook know more about you and your Socialgraph than any two other organizations on earth. I would say brush up on your awareness of your privacy settings, what's being published to whom, and wait to see what's next. What would you rather have facebook.com/andrewkinnear or facebook.com/andrewdk2009 ? The answer is either A) the winner or B) Google me. Why add to the complexity of your online digital brand when you can simplify and harmonize.














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Recently while browsing some Facebook Fan pages I stumbled across the Official page for Kings of Leon. I saw them play the MTV Movie Awards last weekend and they did a great job and even played a song I had heard before. Good for them.

The reason that I think this band, and I'm sure many others like it, have an issue is that they are being controlled by their label or producers so much that even the cool social media integration like their Facebook Fan Page is not being integrated properly with their Youtube presence. They took the time and energy to add special apps to FB to allow the presentation of videos from Youtube, but then set the YouTube videos to non-embeddable, thus limiting the viral distribution (and possible infringing use) but also killing the FB integration that they had so thoughtfully created.

I'm not meaning to pick on the Kings of Leon, because I'm sure they're not doing this all themselves, and have many marketing and production and artistic people helping in many stages of the development.

How can we solve this problem? It's easy enough, right? Either turn off the restriction in YouTube and keep everything else the same OR use a different player, re-encode your media, host it somewhere else, and put it in a Static FMBL Box on Facebook however you want (making sure to take design into the equation) OR just put a big link to your MySpace page where you've probably already solved these problems because this is where bands Should be.

Now that being said, I opt for selection (A) as the simplest thing to do. You want people to listen to your music, wath your videos, and ultimately to buy the songs! Make it easy for them and you may actually succeed!

The other option is to not try to do everything. YouTube is a great site. Keep your videos there, and on your Facebook page (which is great at so many other things) just put a link to YouTube. Interconnect everything in such a way as to maximize exposure of your music (in this case), and minimize the negative user experience for your listener/fan/shopper/etc

Also, since we're on the topic of music: My friends in the Midway State have been nominated for 3 MMVAs this year. Go check them out, Vote, and check out their website too: TheMidwayState.com



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From a Motorola Phone to an Avaya Business System to a line of paint from Benjamin Moore to a car from Saturn to a new condo under development in Toronto. The name Aura is both trademarked AND over-used. Are brand agencies so desperate for cool words that they need to use (and fight for recognition for) such a term.
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Although the web search results are very consistent between the two engines, Microsoft's new search engine BING has some work to do as far as image search.

Here's my two examples:













Oh, and also--- what is this guy doing on my search results page? He's from Australia, so not much of a confusion issue, just weird. Believe me, you don't want to see me with my shirt off.

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I read a great e-book a while back by David Meerman Scott. Finally got around to putting a link up and sharing with my readers. It's interesting for marketing peeps, but probably not to the average consumer.

Lose Control of your Marketing by David Meerman Scott (PDF)

Let me know what you think with a comment, or write David some comments on his Blog
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