It was back to Times Square today for the DigiDay Social event and thanks to some video being available it will be able to bring you some information.

In a session “Publishing for Social Media” Jim Bankoff, Chairman & CEO of SB Nation, discussed using social media to drive traffic to generate revenue. It could have been 2005 at AOL where Jim’s content team passed that same message to those of us on the search team. The goal then was to use search to drive traffic to higher CPM pages. Now just change “search” to “mobile” and the story is the same

The first of the two videos is from Rishad Tobaccowala, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, VivaKi. He spoke about The People Network and the top piece of advice from him when it comes to working with new technologies is to use them.

The other video is along the same path — it’s not a case study, but it goes more to approach. This is from Adam Kmiec, Director of Social Media at Walgreen’s. He discusses choosing partnerships, asking your agency “explain”, and look for a wow factor that can separate your program from your competitors. He cited Walgreen’s program to donate a flu shot for every Foursquare check-in and how that beat CVS to the punch.




Video:
Rishad Tobaccowala, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer at VivaKi
Adam Kmiec, Director of Social Media at Walgreens

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This is a big week since I attended the DigiDay Mobile event earlier today, and tomorrow I will be attending the DigiDay Social event.  Both are being held at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square.

Today’s Mobile event was split into two sections.  The morning focused more on using mobile as a platform to build brand and the afternoon’s program was called “Mobile Apps.”  It focused more on the business of building apps and using them in your online model.

The one lesson that came out of the afternoon apps session is that the most important thing an app developer can do to get in the top 10 is to be in the top 10.  Because Apple promotes the top 10 in each category the most important move to make is to get into the top 10 because it is so difficult to dislodge an app from the list.

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• Mobile Apps Economy [Infographic] (trak.in)

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It was a great, eye-opening, day at the Silicon Alley Talent Fair.  My orginal list of companies printed from the event’s website on Tuesday had about 125 company names listed.  In itself that would be impressive, but the reality was that there were at least 150 after you included late additions and sponsors.  It was a great representation of the start-up activity happening in the NYC area.

Even with some major heat inside the 69th Regiment Armory, the event seemed like a big success.  I was lucky to meet with some good people from groups like Proclivity Systems, Figment.com, 33across, and EveryDay Health, and hope to have some future follow-up.

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This weekend we headed down to NoVA — Northern Virginia for those of you not from NoVA — to celebrate the little one’s third birthday.

So far we have taken the opportunity to go somewhere unique for each birthday. Her first birthday was at the top of the Empire State Building.  Birthday #2 was at Niagara Falls (mom’s choice) and the Anchor Bar (dad’s choice), so she could say that her first ever chicken wing was at the Anchor Bar. I know that should have been enough for Father of the Year, but that greatness doesn’t hit until she goes on her first business trip and needs to make idle table chatter over appetizers.

The catch on this trip was that we weren’t sure the National Zoo would be open when we got there because of the failure up to that point to agree to a national budget.  Fortunately, by midnight Friday, a baby-steps version of a budget was agreed to so we could go to the zoo — and save us from having to tell a three year old why some people she never met were keeping her from hearing a lion roar.

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NASCAR has started and I’m watching the Daytona 500 with the nearly 3-year-old -
“Daddy, Cheerios!
Look it’s, Target!
Hey, M & M’s!
Home Depot! Can we go Home Depot?”

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I had a conversation today with a local CEO that runs a media buying agency that only deals with user acquisition campaigns for their clients.  First it was great for me to have a conversation that included the phrases CPM and click-thru, but it was even better to hear a person talk about setting his own schedule and having the opportunity to choose his clients.

Think about this idea of choosing your clients.  So many of us are in the constant state of trying to acquire new clients that it never seems possible that you can have all you can handle or, more importantly, all you want.  The best part is that he can use Binghamton as his base and its easy access to NYC and Boston for working with clients.   Ahh, just sayin’.

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I feel like I’m a one-man directory for Foursquare in the Binghamton area — sort of a modern day Lewis without Clark.  It seems like everywhere I go requires that I enter the name and address.  This doesn’t mean that I’m the only local user, far from it. It means I’m the only local user with a kid. While the others are fighting over mayorships at the bars on State Street, I’m commenting on the blueberry cheesecake at Apple Hills and holupki’s at the St. John’s Festival.  That was just yesterday.

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My tickets for the Red Sox / Yankees on Oct 2 at Fenway came in the mail today — only 161 games away.  The key to getting these was that they were single seats, but directly behind each other in rows 12&13 behind home plate.  Which is cool.  The thing is that the game time is TBD, so I have to hope it is a day game, so we can take the Little Monster to see the Green Monster, though that probably means that it isn’t a big game.  Again just 6 1/2 months away.

The real downside to this is that there is no way I can keep Colleen a Mets fan considering that the first game she went to was a Mets/Nationals battle for last place last September. Now it the Yankees/Red Sox, and I can only dream that it is a battle for last.

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It has been far too long since my last entry, but the reason is good — we were on the move again. At the end of September, I started a new job in Binghamton, NY. Probably the last place on earth I ever thought that we would be moving.

For the first few months, I drove back-and-forth between Weschester and Binghamton, but we made the move to temporary residence at my parents, and then finally into our own apartment this week. No hurry right now to buy a house, but that will happen soon enough.

I’ve been doing all the moving myself while the rest of the family spent Christmas plus a couple more weeks in Florida. So I’m off to unpack up some more boxes and settle in. Good to be back.

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A busy day around FIT for the the NY Tech Meetup scene thanks to New York Internet Week. Late in the afternoon the FIT Great Hall hosted 60 NY start-ups and at least 500 people (my estimate) for a showcase event. Attendees had free access to visit all the start-up tables for demos and questions.

From there the action moved into the Auditorium for the monthly Meetup gathering where the program was the standard 5 minutes to demo your product. It was a great a night for the demo teams. I can honestly say that I will try out each of these products, with the exception of the MakerBot. However, it was cool enough that I’ll share it with a brother-in-law who likes these robotic thingies.

Here are some links that you should check out:

– UpNext – If you are in the NYC area or a frequent visitor, you will want this great iPhone app that features a 3-D vision of the city, subway maps, and built in directory all by simple tapping on the map.
– Centrl – Another map-type app for iPhone and BB, but it focuses more on the social networking that pulls in feeds from all the major social platforms.
– Livestream / Procaster — High-quality live video from your lap-top is possible with these simple tools.
– Aviary – Think online Photoshop.
– MakerBot – It was hard for some of us to grasp what was being discussed here, but think of it as a desktop robot builder that grinds out mini objects. Check out the web site and you’ll see.
– NYSenate.gov – The new web site that will bring transparency to NY government. Cool I guess.
– Mahalo 2.0!
— Jason Calacanis showcased the new Mahalo and their plans for sharing the revenues with page owners.

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