Simply put -- gamification involves applying game design thinking to non-game applications to make them more fun and engaging.

Gamification encourages people to perform certain actions that they ordinarily consider boring. Tied to compelling content and within a relevant digital channel, gamified websites, applications or processes can increase user engagement, ROI, data quality, timeliness or even learning.

Some common techniques applied to gamification projects include:

• achievements / badges
• levels
• leader boards
• progress bars
• activity feeds
• avatars
• real-time feedback
• virtual currency
• gifting
• challenges and quests
• trophy case
• embedding small mini games within other activities                               [Image courtesy of http://www.thepixelreport.org]

To learn more about gamification and to determine if this type of strategy is good for your business, read or download the following resources:

Demystifying Enterprise Gamification for Business by Ray Wang of Constellation
http://www.constellationrg.com/research/2011/12/demystifying-enterprise-gamification-business

Is Gamification Right for Your Business? 7 Things to Consider by Erica Swallow of Mashable
http://mashable.com/2011/12/24/gamification-for-business/

The CEO Guide to Business Gamification from Business Week Special Reports Gallery
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/special_reports/20110404ceo_guide_gamification.htm

Gaming Business Review
http://www.gamingbusinessreview.com/

Gamification
http://www.gamification.org/

Gamification 101
www.bunchball.com/gamification/gamification101.pdf

Gamification applications and providers:
http://www.badgeville.com/
http://www.gigya.com/
http://www.bunchball.com/

Best,

Denice MacDonald

I have several hundred true blog followers to my website and they have been thirsty for knowledge on social media, search engine optimization and anything metrics – 30,000 page views to be exact.  

Therefore, I feel it necessary to provide the following links that represent the most clicked, viewed and downloaded blogs from my website for 2010 – just in case anyone needs these resources again. 

Top 2010 Blogs (ranked in order by page views) 

Staying Nimble: Social Media 2010 - According to several leading experts, social media has been the number one priority in 2010. Social media will be used by organizations to lift their brand, stay connected to customers while using networks to grow their lead-gen pipelines. To learn how your organization can capitalize on what others are doing, check out these ‘top’ resources, articles and blogs from leading subject matter experts.  

Don’t Miss This One: Connecting Social Media and Email - I find it interesting that most organizations don’t realize that e-mail marketing is the original ‘backbone’ of social interaction and should always be part of the social mix.  Simply adding some ‘integrated’ content will aid in elevating your brand – not to mention ROI for your social campaigns. 

Get it here: Search Engine Optimization Blogs - Great post by Hubspot on a few dozen SEO blogs everyone should read or minimally have in your arsenal.

Social Media Resources You Can’t Live Without - Whether it’s starting a social media campaign, integrating social media into your advertising or simply setting up a Facebook fan page, it is always wise to seek out experts who have proven experience (and metrics) to help guide you in your social media initiatives. 

Social Analytics: The Next Frontier - Let’s face it folks, social analytics is a new frontier – not anything like the analytics and metrics tracking we’ve used for advertising, direct mail or other one-way channel marketing.

Get It Right The First Time: Web Metrics - Many organizations are obsessed with volume – measuring their web metrics strategy by how many web pages that were viewed or by how many people that have visited. In many cases, this type of information is meaningless as it is not directly linked to a web plan or strategy.  

Writing for Social Media - If you want consistent social media success, you have to understand what social media users crave. For social media content, that means understanding the type of content social media users want.

Your Entire Organization Benefits From Web Analytics - You finally launched a much-anticipated Web 2.0+ web site and you can’t wait to hunker down and review your analytics. How do you gauge if your analytics for your site are appropriate, measurable and definable? And most importantly, who in your organization would benefit?    

As we move forward in 2011, it will be fun to watch the exploding world of social media and how it will affect all channels in the marketing mix.  

Happy New Year to all my blog fans and a hearty welcome to all new visitors. 

Best

Denice MacDonald

My favorite web resource, Website Magazine, has just posted the top 20 books for web pro’s for 2011. With a mix of social media, SEO and metrics, the list is quite rich with resources for everyone -- including programmers and web designers. 

A special thank you to Website Magazine for this list and all the other knowledge they share throughout the year! 

Website Magazine's list of 2010's Top 20 Tomes for Web Pro's

Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics (2nd Edition) - Brian Clifton
Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint for Effective Internet Marketing - Kristopher B. Jones
Marketing in the Age of Google: Your Online Strategy IS Your Business Strategy - Vanessa Fox
Ultimate Guide to Pay-Per-Click Advertising - Rich Stokes
The Zen of Social Media Marketing - Shama Kabani
The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success - Lon Safko
Advanced Google AdWords - Brad Geddes
Conversion Optimization: The Art and Science of Converting Prospects to Customers - Khalid Saleh
Content Rules - Ann Handley, C.C. Chapman, David Meerman Scott
Data-Driven Marketing: The 15 Metrics Everyone in Marketing Should Know - Mark Jeffery
Social Media Marketing: Strategies for Engaging in Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media - Liana Evans
Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movements - Robbin Phillips, Greg Cordell, Geno Church, Spike Jones
The Web Designer's Idea Book, Vol. 2: -  Patrick McNeil
White Space is Not Your Enemy - Kim Golombisky and Rebecca Hagen
Professional Web Design: Techniques and Templates - Clint Eccher
Dreamweaver CS5: The Missing Manual - David Sawyer McFarland
Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design (Voices That Matter) - Giles Colborne
Undercover User Experience Design (Voices That Matter) - Cennyd Bowles and James Box
Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content (Voices That Matter) - Colleen Jones
Mobile Marketing: Finding Your Customers No Matter Where They Are - Cindy Krum 

Of course, do remember that the best way to improve your chances of success (this holiday season and beyond) is to request a PRO-level subscription to Website Magazine.  

For a limited time, they're offering a 25% discount on subscriptions (that's 60% off the newsstand price).

Learn more about Website Magazine's Holiday Promotion here.

Best to you this holiday season!
Denice MacDonald

With iPhones flying off shelves around the globe, can you afford to not have your site optimized? Check out Intersquash.com.

Enter your website's RSS feed, name it and click a button. That's it. You can also add a 57x57 thumbnail image - good if your website visitors want to add your site to their iPhone home screen.

The results are effective, but not elegant. It seems that this is best suited for those sites with frequently updated content.

If your site is fairly static, or changes or new blog posts are written only periodically, this may not be for you. The fact is, the iPhone is pretty good at rendering just about any website in its entirety.

The problem for users is the need to zoom in and scroll when there is a lot of content - which Intersquash helps solve. Check out Intersquash.com for more info and a brief demo.

(Source/Credit: Michael Phillips, Website Magazine)

.   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .    .   .   .  

Additional Resources:

Creating iPhone Microsites

Embracing Mobile Technology

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Are you gearing up for your first mobile advertising initiative? Don’t be too concerned - mobile is simply another medium to add to your arsenal to target the right audience. 

In basic terms, it’s about finding the right places to connect your client with the right audience to deliver the right message.  

To help us get it right, Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has created a detailed Mobile Buyers Guide to help us plan and gather basic information that is vital to any successful advertising campaign.  

Since mobile is a distinctive platform, this step can be overlooked due to the misconception that the basic rules of advertising do not apply. 

The Guide will give you the necessary background information as well as provide an overview of the marketplace, definitions as well as practical examples to gain a greater understanding of mobile as an advertising platform.  

According to the Guide: “The best campaigns keep the user experience in mind. For consumers, mobile offers convenient information, entertainment, and exclusivity. Tailoring campaigns that deliver marketing messages that are also convenient, entertaining and offer exclusive content or discounts is the key to success.” 

The Power of Mobile: 

Gartner: Mobile Advertising To Grow 74% In 2009 by MediaPost

Report: Mobile Users Responding to Mobile Advertising by Wireless Week

Mobile Advertising – The Next Big Thing by The Economist

Best

Denice MacDonald

fring is a free mobile application that lets users communicate with friends on popular networks over their mobile phone's internet connection.

fring users make free mobile calls, video calls, live chat & more, from their mobile phone with all their friends on fring & other internet services like Skype®, MSN Messenger®, GoogleTalk™, AIM®, ICQ® , Facebook® and Twitter, all through one central, integrated phone book. 

           See the full feature list here.

fring is completely free. It's free to download and free to use to make calls, video calls, instant messages and more, all via your mobile phone's internet connection (over 'IP').

fring has millions of users on 1000s of supported mobile devices across approximately 200 countries, and is growing exponentially – adding more than half a million new users every month. Start fringing today!

Download fring free now.

Best,

Denice MacDonald

According to several leading experts, social media has been the number one priority in 2010. Social media will be used by organizations to lift their brand, stay connected to customers while using networks to grow their lead-gen pipelines. To learn how your organization can capitalize on what others are doing, check out these ‘top’ resources, articles and blogs from leading subject matter experts.   

Social media on marketers' menu for 2010 by Helen Leggatt, Biz Report   

"It looks like social media is on the menu for most marketers this year. A survey of almost 2,000 MediaPost subscribers found that over half plan to have "a presence on social networks" as part of their marketing mix in 2010..."  

10 Ways Social Media Will Change In 2010 by Ravit Lichtenberg from Ustrategy.com

"It is impossible to separate social media from the online world. Facebook reached 350 million users last month -- 70% of whom are outside the US -- and it accounts for 25% of the Web's traffic, according to Pew nearly one in five people on the web use Twitter or some other service to check status messages, and 94% of enterprises plan to maintain or increase their investment in enterprise social media tools. The social media conversation is no longer considered a Web 2.0 fad -- it is taking place in homes, small businesses and corporate boardrooms, and extending its reach into the nonprofit, education and health sectors. From feeling excitement, novelty, bewilderment, and overwhelmed, a growing number of people now speak of social media as simply another channel or tactic..."

Why You Need A Social Media Policy in 2010 by Vanessa DiMauro, Customer Think   

"Policies are dull. No one wants to create them, no one likes to read them and certainly, few desire the job of enforcing them.  But they can play an important role in outlining the rules of engagement around a particular set of online behaviors and have a strong role to play in the face of new situations where the there are no standards.  This is especially true with the wild west world of social media in business..."  

Six Social Media Trends for 2010 by David Armano, Harvard Business Review   

"In 2009, we saw exponential growth of social media. According to Nielsen Online, Twitter alone grew 1,382% year-over-year in February, registering a total of just more than 7 million unique visitors in the US for the month. Meanwhile, Facebook continued to outpace MySpace. In 2010, social media will get even more popular, more mobile, and more exclusive — at least, that's my guess. What are the near-term trends we could see as soon as next year..."

Best,  

Denice MacDonald 

Because of its portability, mobile phones are now the personal connection to a rapidly transitioning digital world. 

Mobile technology has become ‘front and center’ relative to advertising, brand messaging and raw effectiveness in campaigns and initiatives. To get our arms around this growing technology, let’s review some of the features and great resources: 

Messaging (SMS, MMS) – often referred to as ‘short messaging’ is just what it is - short text messages to a recipients mobile phone.  Similar to text e-mails, SMS allows businesses to alert, inform or engage mobile users.  Text messaging is permission-granted and therefore is communication that mobile users want/expect. For more insight into SMS gateway/provider services, consult MobileCrunch.   

WAP (Web Sites, Search and Banner Ads) – also known as wireless application protocol is technology designed to format and filter content for use in mobile devices. Basically, WAP technology brings the Internet to mobile users.  Users can search, browse and access mobile web sites and view creative advertising. For great examples, view the Top Ten Mobile Websites for 2010. 

Downloadable Applications (Games, Video, Music) – mobile technology allows you to download all types of applications including games, video, music and podcasts.  Mobile technology now combines voice, data and entertainment into one device.

Check out this great web site for game downloads or Google/YouTube to access millions of videos.

More Resources:

Mobile Technology Weblog – convergence of gadgets, trends, communities and mobile services.

Mobile Magazine – covering news and reviews on the latest mobile technology.

TechWeb – mobile and wireless resources, white papers and articles.

MobileCrunch – a companion site to TechCrunch dedicated to Mobile Technology.

Best,

Denice MacDonald

With the latest entre of Google’s Nexus One and Droid by Motorola, there’s been a lot of buzz around the next generation of smartphones powered by Android technology herein referred to as superphones. 

Open Source Operating System and Software Platform - Why the hoopla? The Android was developed with one simple idea: Open up mobile devices to enable greater innovation that will benefit users everywhere – through open source collaboration. 

Technical Attributes - Android is a mobile operating system running on the Linux kernel. It was initially developed by Android Inc., a firm later purchased by Google, and lately by the Open Handset Alliance.  It allows developers to write managed code in the Java language, controlling the device via Google-developed Java libraries. 

Market Share Predictions - In the Fall of 2009, Gartner Inc. predicted that by 2012, Android would become the world's second most popular smartphone platform, behind only the Symbian OS which powers Nokia phones. Also predicted: BlackBerry will fall from 2nd to 5th place, iPhone would remain in 3rd place, and Microsoft's Windows Mobile would remain in 4th place¹. 

View this YouTube video to get a full grasp of Android capabilities.

Best

Denice MacDonald

[¹Source: Android to grab No. 2 spot by 2012, says Gartner from ComputerWorld October, 2009]

Twitter creator Jack Dorsey recently gave the first public demonstration of his hotly-anticipated latest venture “Square” – a device that allows its users to make credit card payments through their cell phones.

Square is a card reader about one inch in length that attaches to the headphone socket of most cell phones. 

The device contains a magnetic strip reader that allows a user to swipe a card, which will then coordinate online with card issuers and banks through a mobile application on the user’s cell phone. 

Basically, the Square works very similarly to card swipers that you see in most retail stores.

The device is scheduled to be available for iPods and iPhones in March 2010. 

View the latest "Square" YouTube video from TechCrunch    

Sources: 

After Twitter, Comes Square - By Richard Neil Ilagan, The News Chronicle

Creator Reveals Square Mobile-pay Device - By Barry Neild, CNN

Best

Denice MacDonald

Grooveshark is the most inclusive and fully-featured on-demand music service on the Web. With an unmatched catalog of music, millions of users flock to the site to listen to their favorite artists as well as discover music and share tracks with friends.

Listening to any song instantly, creating playlists to return to later, or simply accessing a quick favorite song are the fundamentals of Grooveshark's offering.

How are they capturing marketshare?

Grooveshark delivers the world's music to the world more easily than any other site online and receives its support from advertising as well as a premium VIP subscription service. In fact, visitors and subscribers can opt out of advertising for $3 per month. 

Also, the much anticipated Grooveshark Mobile applications will further monetize the service and Grooveshark's unique and innovative platform for breaking artists keeps it one step ahead in being a competitive, sustainable and profitable business.

Bottomline, these guys are awesome and you need to check them out! 

Features – see how unique and differentiated Grooveshark is relative to other music on-demand sites 

Free Stuff – all types of wallpaper from Abstract to Shark wallpaper free for download

Join Now – fast, easy and worth it!

Best,

Denice MacDonald 

[Source info and company background taken directly from Grooveshark]  

There’s been quite a bit written about the transformation of the telecommunications industry -- bringing the continued existence of the fixed-landline phone usage into question -- not to mention those costly web conferencing solutions.

Consider Skype as a viable alternative for both.

Skype is software that enables the world’s conversations. Millions of individuals and businesses use Skype to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other Skype users. The big advantage – it’s free to download.

As a business consultant who routinely runs projects virtually, it is rare that I have a chance to make a face-to-face with a colleague or client. Now, with Skype, I have an opportunity to truly be ‘in the room’ without worrying about time or cost. 

Skype Links: 

1. Features
2. Mobile
3. What’s Free!
4. Skype for Businesses 

 [Credit: Skype for content, graphics and links] 

Best

Denice MacDonald

Google Voice gives you a single phone number that rings all your phones, saves your voicemail online, and transcribes your voicemail to text.  

Other cool features include the ability to listen in on messages while they are being left and the ability to make low cost international calls.   

Your Google Voice number is tied to you rather than a device or a location – so it stays with you as you move, change jobs or switch phone companies. Your forwarding phones may change but your Google number remains the same, so you don’t need to send out updates all the time about numbers to reach you at.  

The best part? You can record custom greetings for your favorite callers or block annoying callers by marking them as SPAM. 

Google Voice is Free - GET AN INVITE NOW! 

To learn more, watch this great overview on how it works or access the Google Voice Blog 

Best

Denice MacDonald

Google Maps is Google’s free web-based mapping application. Google Maps includes photos, videos, and user-created maps along with location searches. Today, Google Maps continues to add functionality at a rapid pace – making it one of the fasting growing online applications worth reviewing.  Here are a few features worth noting: 

MyMaps:  Google has added features to Google Maps that let you save, annotate, and share directions using MyMaps. Users can save driving directions by simply clicking the "save to my maps" link below the directions. 

Your Latest Twitter Status on Google Maps:  The latest Google Maps Mashup takes your latest Twitter Status Update along with your profile location and displays it on Google Maps. The more detailed your profile location is, the higher the zoom level. So if you have a iPhone generated profile location (which is in the form of latitude, longitude) you will get the highest zoom level. Here's the url: (replace mibazaar at the end of the url with your twitter user id) http://www.mibazaar.com/twitstat.php?uid=mibazaar

Mobile: Google Maps is available on mobile devices. The feature is experimental and limits participation to American owners of the 8110, 8120, and 8130 BlackBerry Pearl models.  If you use one of these models, you only need to press "0" to center your map view and then hold the left-side key while you say the name or type of business you're looking for to get some results, according to a post on the Google Mobile Blog. 

Additional Routes: Under the “Suggested Routes” heading, you will now be able to access other routes to the same destination. This is a feature that GPS systems in car, like a Garmin device, have been offering for quite some time so it makes sense that Google would want to catch up. Google says that they choose alternative routes bases on many factors, including distance, travel time, and number of turns. Google Maps boils this data down to what is the lowest “cost” and ranks the routes based upon the “cost.” 

Just for Fun! Google have released a Google Earth plug-in game that lets you drive a Lunar Rover on the moon. The game allows you to drive around the various Apollo moon landing sites. The Apollo 11 site is a good place to start because it also contains a model of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module. Get it here: Google Geo Developers Blog: Moon in the Google Earth Plug-in!

Great Resource:

Google Maps Mania (Blog)

TechCrunch (Various search results on Google Maps)

Best

Denice MacDonald

TweetMic is a simple and intuitive Twitter client app for the iPhone that allows you to make high-quality audio recordings or "Tweetcasts" and publish them directly to Twitter.

There is no limit to how much you can record and you don't need to sign up for any additional service to start using TweetMic.

More information here!

For more expanded information on Twitter in general, consider Mashable - The Social Media Guide:

- 6 Twitter Search Services Compared
- 6 Unique Twitter Visualizations
- 20+ Great Twitter Tools for Firefox
- 20 Twitter Badges to Show Off Your Tweets

Happy 4th of July to all you!

Best

Denice MacDonald

If you’re a busy web professional like me, you don’t have time to participate in every event, tradeshow or user group.  Moreover, if you don’t care for daily extensive reading and prefer some face time, a video blog may be your answer. 

WebProNews Blog Videos is your home for ebusiness, tech and search video content. They provide exclusive coverage of conferences, compelling interviews with top names in the industry, practical tips, and online news that matters.

You can watch the blog version with actual clips at events with subject matter experts like Bruce Clay, or you can read the blog.

Either way, you will be able to find current information that would take hours to filter through via daily searches or bookmarking. WebProNews provides RSS feeds and archived blogs.

Here are a couple of interesting, if not edgy, posts:

Bruce Clay - SES NY 2009 - Mike McDonald sat down with Bruce Clay for an interview at Search Engine Strategies, NY on a follow-up to ranking being dead, and changes to search results based on behavioral and intent-based data.

SES NY - Twitter Exclusively as a Marketing Tool? - Discussion on Guy Kawasaki's presentation at the Search Engine Strategies, NY.

Best

Denice MacDonald

The following is a YouTube link to a fantastic video on the progression of information technology, researched by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Bronman.  

I wouldn’t even attempt to write a summation of the video – you will need to view it firsthand. Trust me -- it is worth five minutes of your time!

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Clients were the driver for most of the blog content written in 2008 for MacDonald Consulting. The blogs ran the gamut from brand awareness, product review, transitioning web technology and metrics reporting. Because of their key ranking (and as evidenced by subscriber page views), the following "Top 5 Blogs" are a reflection of issues facing B2B and B2C marketers. 

McDonalds Marketing Strategy - This blog elevated MacDonald Consulting Services to a top organic spot on Google. The purpose of the blog was to show clients how easy it is to elevate listings by concentrating on keywords that are both related and non-related relative to SEO efforts.  

Creating iPhone Microsites - With iPhones flying off the shelf, online marketers and advertisers are working diligently to get portions of their web site to emulate via mobile technology. This particular blog focused on a short-term solution to 'right size' a web site for a B2B client.

Kindle: Amazon's Reading Device - Amazon's top selling reading device for e-books was the topic for a client seeking a hand-held device for leisure reading as well as periodicals. As a product review blog, the topic was the center of conversation with team members who were reluctant to use advanced technology.

Content is King! Evaluating Content Management Systems - This particular blog was used in numerous instances for clients moving from static to dynamic web sites. Inundated with numerous choices, clients were happy to learn that there was a process of evaluating the right content management system - one that meets their demands today but agile enough to manage long-term needs.

The Key to Great Tradeshow Exhibiting is Marketing - Although online marketing continues to take a large portion of marketing dollars, it's interesting that many clients still use tradeshows as a major marketing initiative for lead generation and overall visibility. I found that most clients had a fragmented approach to tradeshow exhibiting. This particular blog is a response to a client frustrated with tradeshow results and was looking for some insight on the effectiveness of an integrated online/offline tradeshow campaign.

Next Top 5:

• Learning from the Best: Blogging Gurus
• Social Networking Can Boost Your Business
• What Makes a Great Blog?
• Business Bonding on Social Networks
• When is it Time to Dump a Client?

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Here's a number worth putting in your cell phone, or your home phone speed dial: 1-800-goog411. This is an awesome service from Google, and it's free -- great when you are on the road. 

Don't waste your money on information calls and don't waste your time manually dialing the number. For example: I am driving along in my car and I need to call the golf course and I don't know the number. I hit the speed dial for information that I have programmed. The voice at the other end says, 'City & State.'  I say, 'Garland, Texas.'

He says, 'Business, Name or Type of Service.' I say, Firewheel Golf Course.  He says, 'Connecting' and Firewheel answers the phone.                                   

How great is that? This is nationwide and it is absolutely free!  1-800-goog411 (1-800-466-4411)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Best,

Denice MacDonald                                                

Website Magazine is the one magazine that focuses exclusively on the business of running a website: tips for successful websites, solutions for enhancing website traffic, the latest Internet industry trends and statistics, as well as news analysis on the Internet industry.

By providing a broad scope of useful articles and tapping premier talent in the industry, Website Magazine covers all the elements that together make websites successful: search engine optimization and marketing, website design, content management, blogging, E-commerce, online advertising, email marketing, analytics, web software and applications, customer service/customer relationship management, web hosting, mobile web and more. 

I highly recommend that anyone who is involved with web site development, strategy or execution (including internet marketing) subscribe to this publication. Website Magazine has also developed additional content exclusive to their digital edition which is available only to subscribers.

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Lastly, you can join Website Magazine's online community and get a free listing!

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Enjoy!

Denice MacDonald