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How to Manage a Rebrand


This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

So, you’ve launched a company, but you want to go in a different direction regarding the logo, name and maybe even some product features. A full relaunch is not easy, but it could be the “X factor” that drives your startup to success. Mashable spoke with Cassie Lancellotti-Young, VP of marketing at Savored — a restaurant reservation site that launched in 2010 as VillageVines — and Luke Brassinga, a principal at social media marketing firm Likeable Brands.


What Necessitates a Rebrand?


First off, let’s explain one thing: A rebrand isn’t just a name change. “True rebranding involves updating a company’s goals, message and culture,” Brassinga says. There are several good reasons for a rebrand — a merger, an acquisition, a diversified product line, an outdated company, an unsuccessful brand or a split company (think Netflix and Qwikster, prior to the reversion) can all merit a relaunch.

Brassinga says there are also times when you should not perform a rebrand. A rebrand is a tough move to pull off, so if your company has significant brand equity, you could very well end up losing customers if the process isn’t done well (again, look at Netflix and Qwikster). A rebrand is better suited for a startup or small business that experiences a profound shift in identity.

Savored, which used to be VillageVines, is one such small business that benefitted from a rebrand. The site, which offers reservations at top restaurants for a $10 fee in exchange for 30% your total bill, underwent a name change in June, less than a year after the site’s initial launch. VillageVines was live in five cities, but by its name alone, you might not know what it offers. But “Savored” connotes delicious food and is a much more direct word, ultimately making it a better name for the company. It was a well executed rebrand that was done with good reason.


How Do I Change My Vanity URLs on Social Sites?


When you come up with a new name, you should make sure you can get not only your .com domain name, but also the handles on various social sites so your communities have a new place to congregate around your brand.

Facebook: Just like you can’t change your personal Facebook vanity URL, you can’t change a Facebook Page URL once you have more than 100 fans. (This seems unnecessary, but makes sense when you think about people selling their fans.) But the Savored team was undeterred. “Once we found an appropriate contact at Facebook to approach about our situation, we found the team there to be extremely accommodating, and they actually did allow us to simply switch our page name to Savored in light of the circumstances,” says Lancellotti-Young. We’re not sure how successful that would be for a business that doesn’t have millions of dollars of funding, so if the aforementioned trick doesn’t work, you may have to create a new Facebook Page and encourage your fans to migrate to the new Page.

Twitter: You can easily change your Twitter handle, as long as the desired username is available. If your ideal handle is taken but inactive (and you have trademark and copyright information), then explaining your case to the Twitter team could nab you that handle. On the contrary, you could just start a new handle and have your fans follow you there. Lancellotti-Young says Savored opted to start a new handle instead of migrating its fans because “we realized that by simply killing @VillageVines and making it @Savored, we’d lose a lot of our important tweeting history from the VillageVines brand,” Lancellotti-Young says. This tweeting history was important to the Savored story and indicated that VillageVines had developed a solid product and fan base long before Savored launched. So the team took over the @Savored handle and started from scratch, keeping @VillageVines as an “archive” and as a way to direct fans to @Savored (see above).

If you decide to keep your old brand handle, be sure you check in for direct messages and @replies so you can offer the same level of customer service and guide that tweeter toward the brand’s new social profiles.

YouTube: You can’t change the user name on a YouTube account, but you can create a vanity URL that directs to your old page — this video clip explains the process. In short, if there had been youtube.com/villagevines, the company could have set up a vanity URL (youtube.com/savored) for the rebrand. The Savored URL would redirect to the old VillageVines channel page, but the Savored URL would show in the address bar. This prevents users from having to re-upload videos and losing all the comments and subscriptions. Doing this basically puts a “mask” of the new brand on the old YouTube page.

And of course, you should keep your old website URL and have it redirect to the new website — this makes it easier for customers to find the new site without jumping through hoops to reestablish connections (like if they have it bookmarked).


How Do I Announce the New Brand?


So you’ve changed your name — now how do you let the world know? Here are some tips for getting the word out and explaining the rebrand and what it means to users.

A Personal Note: Your CEO should send an honest, heartfelt message to your customers/users/subscribers explaining the rebrand, why it came about, what this means for the company and what it means for the consumers. Promise (and mean it) that there will be no adverse effects on customer service or product quality and reiterate how important your extant fans are. Be responsive and receptive to complaints and feedback that come your way — your customers come first and need to be treated well in order to adapt to the rebrand.

Press Outreach: Try not to have just the rebrand be the story — “Hey, we have a new name” doesn’t add any value and merit a blog post or newsletter blast. But if you rebrand and add new features or bells and whistles, your customers will have more incentive to stick with you through the change. That also gives the press more reason to cover the rebrand — there’s real news the audience should know about. Make it clear to the press that it’s just a rebrand and not a new product. “We bundled news about our new website (including our new content from Zagat), new name and (five) new markets as one bigger tale to better convey the fact that we’d been around a while,” says Lancellotti-Young. This move gave the brand street cred and created much more of a story for bloggers and news sites to pick up.

Google AdWords: AdWords are a great and effective way to get the word out about your new brand, but there are ways to maximize AdWords’ effectiveness. Because VillageVines already had a Google AdWords campaign running and had built up an edge on Google, they used AdWords to beef up Savored’s SEO by piggybacking off of VillagesVines’ success. Lancellotti-Young says that buying keywords for VillageVines and redirecting them to Savored would be “a nightmare” for SEO rankings, so the company went with ads like, “VillageVines is now Savored.”

When you’re setting up AdWords for the new brand, be aware that Google requires your new site to be live in order to approve the ads that direct there.

SEO: You’ve probably received a good amount of press for your “old” name — how do you parlay that SEO advantage to your new brand? Reach out to the press that’s already covered you to let them know of the change (they may make updates, and the rebrand announcement may merit an additional blog post). Savored also used a “commenting strategy,” whereby the team commented on old press posts (see above) with information about Savored and the five new cities it had expanded to.

Consistency Across the Web: Be sure your brand pages and team’s individual social profiles (LinkedIn, Google+, etc.) are all updated to reflect the change. The Savored team started making a list of everything that needed to be updated to “Savored” about a month before launch so that when the rebrand was about to go live, the team could divide and conquer to ensure a seamless transition.

Partnerships: Make sure any partners are abreast of the rebrand and have the proper logos and information in place so they can update things on their end. Savored notified partners 7 to 10 days in advance to make sure resources could be allocated to make the change in time for the launch, and Lancellotti-Young recommends giving ample lead time.

Has your business been through a rebrand? Have more tips? Let us know in the comments below.

More About: branding, features, mashable, open forum, rebrand, Small Business Resources, trending

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from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2011/11/09/how-to-manage-a-rebrand/?utm_source=feedburner...

Boxee Box may integrate live TV via USB dongle, push the definition of 'awesome' to a new level

Google tried it. Countless others did, too. It's largely believed that the single reason Apple hasn't offered up a true television is the impossible nature of dealing with pay-TV providers, and in reality, trying to merge online programming and traditional cable / satellite is a chore that no one seems to be capable of completing. Based on a leaked software build (v1.5) obtained by GigaOM, Boxee is apparently toying with the idea of integrating live TV (as in, "broadcast TV stations") within the Boxee Box's interface; all you'll eventually need is a USB dongle. We're told that an EyeTV One USB TV tuner wasn't recognized -- even in the new software -- and while it was obviously nonfunctional as it stands, the verbiage is quite clear about what's in the pipeline. Unencrypted broadcast signals built neatly within Boxee's heralded, socially-adept interface? Bring it on.

Boxee Box may integrate live TV via USB dongle, push the definition of 'awesome' to a new level originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/09/boxee-box-may-integrate-live-tv-via-usb-do...

80% of Smartphone Users Multitask While Watching TV [STATS]

smartphone multi-tasking


It’s been said that multitasking makes you less productive, yet that hasn’t stopped the majority of U.S. smartphone users from juggling multiple devices. As many as 80% of people multitask on a mobile device while watching TV, finds a new study.

Using a laptop in front of the TV is no new behavior, yet few TV spots capitalize on the fact many consumers hold an Internet-enabled device in their hands as commercials air. The DVR presented hurdles for advertisers a decade ago as viewers were able to fast forward through ads. Today, tablets and smartphones introduce a new challenge: A more engaged yet distracted consumer. Apps and tools, such as Shazam, might offer one way for marketers to get viewers interacting with ads.

Yahoo Mobile and Razorfish polled 2,000 U.S. adults on their mobile habits and device preferences, to help marketers better understand consumer behavior.

We pulled out 7 intriguing stats on consumer multitasking patterns.

  • 38% of respondents say browsing the web enhances their TV viewing experience, while another 38% say it makes them more distracted.
  • 70% of respondents multitask at least once a week; 49% do so daily.
  • 15% are on their phones for programs’ entire durations.
  • The top 5 programming genres attracting multitaskers are reality, news, comedy, sports and food.
  • 94% of reported multitaskers engage in some form of mobile communication while watching TV, such as exchanging email, sending IMs, texting, talking or social networking.
  • 60% browse the mobile web, of which 44% search for unrelated content and 38% search for related content.
  • Mobile traffic spikes during halftime shows of sporting events; Yahoo Sports saw a 305% increase during the last Super Bowl halftime show.

What do you think marketers can learn from these patters?

Image courtesy of Flickr, JayB.Stevens2010

More About: multitasking, smartphone, study, trending

from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2011/11/10/smartphone-multi-tasking/?utm_source=feedburne...

Twitter Rules the Photo-Sharing Roost … on Twitter [STATS]


New stats show that Twitter has taken over the picture-sharing market from third-party apps such as TwitPic and Yfrog. Third-party apps used to be the only way users could share images through the social network, however, Twitter jumped into the arena late this summer with its own uploader baked into the standard tweet box.

The official Twitter app has quickly climbed to the top. According to Skylines, a social image search site, 36.1% of photos shared on Twitter come through the official image uploader. TwitPic is in second place with 30.3% and Yfrog is in third with 21.1%. Instagram is in fourth place with just 12.5%. Its low ranking is both surprising and impressive. Instagram has quickly shot up in popularity as a premiere photo app for iOS devices. This means that while 12.5% may seem low, it’s coming only from people using iPhones or iPads. Not bad considering the three leaders work with web images and most major mobile carriers.

The stats are bad news for TwitPic, which previously held 45.7% of the picture-sharing market just five months previous. While some sites are already ringing the death knell for third-party photo apps, the stats shows that TwitPic and Yfrog are hanging in there. It is clear, however, that these apps will need to do something to differentiate their services from Twitter’s uploader if they want to survive.

Twitter’s photo-sharing win brings up the question of whether official apps and services risk killing competition and third-party innovation. This is becoming ever-more clear as Twitter ramps up its features such as URL shortening.

twitter chart image


BONUS: Meet the Top 15 Photographers on Instagram


@mikekus: Photographer's Choice


Who: Mike Kus. A graphic designer, web designer and illustrator living in Bath.

Followers: 82,085

Photos: 451

Favorite Filter: Earlybird

How he's using Instagram: "I try to use Instagram to document my daily life and to photograph what surrounds me. I live in Bath, U.K.; so most of my pictures [are] places and people around Bath."

Inspired by: "I carry my iPhone everywhere and when I see something that interests me I take a shot. There's nothing I particularly set out to do. I like photographing architecture and people, mainly."

Click here to view this gallery.

Image courtesy of Flickr, netzkobold

More About: isntagram, photo sharing, Social Media, twitpic, Twitter, yfrog

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from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2011/11/10/twitter-stats-photo-sharing/?utm_source=feedbu...

8 Digital Trends Shaping the Future of Media [VIDEO]

At the Mashable Media Summit last Friday, Pete Cashmore provided a broad overview of media’s trajectory. He covered the rapidly advancing mobile industry, the relationship between tablet technology and the current media climate, and social interaction around TV and music.

Cashmore touched on Facebook‘s frictionless sharing capabilities. “Any action on the web can be automatically shared to your Facebook profile,” he explained. The audience (and the #MediaSummit chatter) especially buzzed when Cashmore talked about flexible displays and bendable device screens, one of several items on his own personal wishlist.

Tune in to Pete Cashmore’s Media Summit speech for a comprehensive overview, and let us know which technology-fueled media changes you’re looking forward to.


The Mashable Media Summit in Pictures



Media Summit 2011



The Mashable Media Summit on Nov. 4 at the Times Center in New York City attracted professionals in digital, tech, advertising, sales, marketing, mobile and publishing from all over the world.

Click here to view this gallery.


Presenting Sponsor: AT&T


More About: features, mashable media summit, media summit, Social Media, Video

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from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2011/11/09/future-media-video/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_...

Fox News Invites Audience to Speak With GOP Candidates on Google+ Hangouts


Fox News’s Special Report with Bret Baier will be hosting a series of Google+ Hangouts with GOP presidential candidates leading up to the election, the program announced via Google+ this week. The first will be held with Governor Mitt Romney on Nov. 15.

The show is also inviting three members of the public to join the discussion. Google+ allows up to 10 people to participate in a Hangout; many more can tune in as spectators. Those who would like to actively participate in the Hangout are asked to leave a comment on this Google+ thread explaining why they should be selected. Others are welcome to leave questions they’d like Romney to answer.

This is the second GOP presidential debate hosted jointly by Google and Fox News. The first, held with nine candidates in late September, drew more than 6.1 million viewers according to Nielsen — the largest audience of any GOP presidential debate so far this year. More than 18,000 questions and 100,000 votes were sent in via text and videos on YouTube. Google+ Hangouts will allow audience members to get even more directly involved — or a select few of them, anyway.

More About: fox news, Google, Google Hangouts, gop debate, Media, special report

from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2011/11/09/fox-news-gop-debate-google-plus-hangouts/?utm_...

Umami for iPad: The Ultimate TV Companion Knows What You’re Watching


Umami is a new iPad app that aims to bring an enhanced, second-screen experience to broadcast and cable TV programming.

Second screen apps are becoming standard fare for networks. Using audio fingerprinting technology, these apps can tell what you’re watching — and provide an updated, customized experience based on the show.

At the Mashable Media Summit last week, second screen experiences were highlighted as one of the major media trends of 2012. Until now, however, most of these experiences have been crafted specifically around one show or network.

This requires users to download individual apps for the shows or networks they frequently watch. Umami aims to work with a large cross-section of programs and networks, both broadcast and cable-based. The app offers quick access to cast and crew listings, descriptions of other recent episodes, quick links to official social media accounts and related tweets from across the web.


How it Works


After downloading Umami for the iPad [iTunes link], users just need to start the app. It will listen to the audio coming from a TV or computer and use audio fingerprinting to identify the show.

The basic information Umami offers is surprisingly solid. Even for a program like Scrubs, which no longer has new episodes but is frequently seen in syndication, the app offers up quick access to Wikipedia information, episode summaries and cast members’ IMDb links.

For current shows like Two and a Half Men, the app can go a step further and offer links to official Facebook and Twitter accounts for the show and its stars.


Deeper Potential


Networks or television shows that join Umami’s publishing platform, naturally, have more potential. The app has signed on a number of launch partners — including the National Geographic Channel — and select programs will take advantage of more enhanced features, such as additional information about a topic discussed in a show and links to photos.


A Solid Start


In a demo that the Umami team showed me earlier this fall, I got a glimpse at some of the integration potential for news programming. I like Umami’s user interface, and appreciate the broad approach the company is taking to the second screen.

While it’s clear that partnerships using its publishing platform will yield the best results, even the more basic integration offers up a kind of TV Guide on steroids. I love having quick access to links related to what I’m watching.

It would be great to see Umami evolve into partnering or linking with some of the existing social checkin platforms, such as GetGlue. Part of Umami’s value play is that it is one app, rather than a collection of separate apps. In that vein, embracing other types of checkin services would give it even more value for end-users.

Umami is free and available now. Let us know what you think about second-screen apps and TV personalization in the comments.

More About: ipad apps, second screen apps, social tv, umami

from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2011/11/08/umami-ipad-app/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medi...

6 Best Practices for Modern SEO


Erin Everhart is the director of web and social media marketing at the digital marketing and web design company, 352 Media Group. Connect with her on Twitter @erinever.

Google’s search results aren’t what they used to be. Need proof? Just look at its results page. No longer solely comprised of traditional, organic site matches, Google now lists local maps, images, videos and social cues as well — and it’s affecting more than just what you see.

If you rely heavily on search engines for pageviews and sales, as many businesses do, Google search results will drastically affect how your customers find you. If your business needs to be seen and clicked, take into account the following six search engine tips.


1. Local SEO Is Taking Over


There’s a good probability that a large chunk of the Google searches you perform will display Google Places listings – and consumers are taking notice. SEO software firm SEOmoz did some eye-tracking case studies on Google’s SERP (search engine results page). The results show that users heavily gravitate toward any of Places’ listings, whether they’re mixed into organic lists, concentrated in a group of seven or even listed in the middle of the results page. The heat map above shows the activity around a Google search for “pizza.”

If your business relies on local listings, concentrate on scoring a seat at Google Places. You can do this by using:

  • Citations: Ensure that your correct business information is listed in as many (reputable) sources as possible around the Internet. As always, consistency is king. If you write “Blvd.” instead of Boulevard on your Google Places page, make sure your other listings reflect the same.
  • Google Places page optimization: Just like your website, make sure your Places page is properly optimized. Include categories that match exactly, and point your Places page back to a city-specific landing page if applicable.
  • Reviews: Google will only display reviews from Google, but getting reviews from aggregators like Yelp, Superpages or Trip Advisor will help increase your presence.

2. You Can’t Have Search Without Social


The separation of search and social has officially ended. Social cues such as Twitter shares, Facebook likes and social bookmarking heavily influence search rankings. Essentially, search results are personalized for each person. With any SEO campaign you put into motion, include a social aspect to it to facilitate information sharing.


3. Think of People, not Robots, When Optimizing Keywords


People search in Google because they have a question. Anticipate those questions — whether about the best style of yoga pants or where to get the lowest mortgage rate. Your keywords and the content on your pages should reflect the answers to those questions. Keyword research is tedious, but it’s arguably the most important aspect of SEO. Transition away from thinking of keywords like data, and put more of an emphasis on the person who will be typing in that keyword.


4. Content Links Are King — Good Writers Are Sorcerers


Google is not stupid — it can spot paid and spam links. For the most effective long-term SEO strategy, move the focus back to great content, both on your website and across other sites. Guest blogging is great, for instance, but to get a leg up on your competition, target blogs that aren’t direct matches to your industry.

For example, a client of my company sells golf carts, so we wrote a blog post about the most tricked-out golf carts for tailgates, and the link we got back was one their competitors didn’t already have.


5. Check your Backend: Schema.org, Microformats and Rich Snippets


The Big Three (Google, Yahoo and Bing) have worked together to develop Schema.org, a set of website standards that will tell search engines what your site is about, making it easier for those engines to read the site’s data and index accordingly.

By using rich snippets, for example, you’re able to tell Google what information to feature in SERPs: product reviews and prices, upcoming events, recipe cooking times, etc. The added data will increase your click-through rate because users are able to preview more about the link before they commit to the click.


6. It Doesn’t Mean Anything Without Data


Whether you’re a one-man SEO show for your company or working in an agency with several clients, your site needs to see results. While ranking reports of keywords is still a great indicator of progress, personalized searches make it difficult to get the most accurate readings. Plus, when Google defaulted to private searches for users signed into their Google accounts, the company made it harder to track how people arrive at your site.

Start relying more on simple key performance indicators (KPIs) to show results, for instance, the number of landing pages you have, the bounce rate of those pages, and the number of keywords driving traffic to each of those landing pages. Google Analytics displays all of this data.

What are some other things you see that are affecting searches, and what are you doing to improve your rankings in these areas?

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, hillaryfox

More About: contributor, features, Google, search engine optimization, SEO


from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2011/11/08/seo-best-practices/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_...

Apple releases iAd Producer 2.0

Apple has released version 2 of iAd Producer, a piece of software that helps advertisers put together iAds, which are then sent out to be shown in iOS apps across the platform. The latest version offers up many improvements, including project validation and a new feature called the "Object List." Project validation will make sure any material uploaded to the project is typed, sized, and configured correctly, and it will even help iAd creators fix performance problems and other errors.

The Object List provides quick access to all of the objects in an ad throughout production. Sounds handy -- maybe these better tools will help Apple get more big brands in the somewhat underwhelming iAd program.

[via MacStories]

Apple releases iAd Producer 2.0 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 08 Nov 2011 21:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog http://www.tuaw.com/2011/11/08/apple-releases-iad-producer-2-0/