Situated Research's Blog

How has business been this year? Are you aware of how the various sectors of your organization did this year, and would you like for them to do better next year? If so, then it is time to perform a year-end business review. Read more »

I joined YouTube in 2005, back when it was cool and you could actually find interesting content. At the time, I was most interested in indie-acoustic guitar covers and performances of aspiring artists.

Now YouTube is clearly aimed at and for professionals and it’s dominated by major brands and labels. This is problematic for the average person or professional starting to build a fresh audience and competing with people who manage their channels full-time and have a staffs seems imposing to say the least. Read more »

In the spring of 2011, Latitude Research launched a study to understand the recent explosion in gaming, driven in part by the popularity of mobile phones and tablets. Specifically, the study sought to uncover how the profile of the stereotypical gamer has changed, various motivations for gaming, and the evolving role of games in moving traditionally online experiences into the “offline” world—suggesting new opportunities for game and technology developers, educators, and social innovators. Read more »

Companies engaging in B2B marketing and sales are starting to recognize that the way people buy has changed dramatically over the years, with the continued development of Internet search and the emergence of B2B social media. What many of these companies haven’t yet realized, however, is that they may need to respond by changing the way they sell.

The maxim that “people buy from people” remains true, but how the selling is done needs to change rapidly. Continuous face-to-face selling can become very expensive where the buying cycle has changed dramatically from how it has been in the past. Unnecessary travel to prospects who are not ready to buy will have a huge impact on your sales effectiveness. Read more »

Few Web professionals should be surprised by the 2011 forecast in SEMPO’s recently released State of Search Marketing Report. If the words “social” and “mobile” are at the top of your business plan, pay close attention to the following.

If they are not, drop what you’re doing and pay even closer attention. Read more »

It may be an unfortunate commentary on society that including words like “moron” and “idiot” in the title of a post garner considerably more traffic than words like “success” and “charity” but it is a fact. Read more »

You don’t have to look very far to realize that technology is becoming more natural and intuitive. In a typical day, many people use touch or speech to interact with technology on their phones, at the ATM, at the grocery store and in their cars. The learning curve for working with computers is becoming less and less of a barrier thanks to more natural ways to interact. Read more »

Why would you want to convert your website to run on a popular blogging platform?

WordPress, one of the most successful open-source blogging platforms, has become a powerful tool for integrating Web 2.0 features on your website. Besides an excellent Content Management System (CMS), WordPress offers thousands of free plugins (created by a community of developers) that can add a variety of features and functionality to a website.

Even if you’re not ready to host a blog on your website, your website’s theme can be converted to WordPress to maintain your current look-and-feel while adding useful features such as social media integration and search engine optimization (SEO), which could otherwise be expensive to implement.
Read more »

With the former glory of old, linear media fading, Melody Ayres-Griffiths examines just what the new media artform known as ‘transmedia’ is, and how it will engage an increasingly discerning yet time-starved populace in an immersive and interactive way. Read more »

As social media keeps providing new marketing opportunities, in addition to a way for online users to simply pass the time, the need for social analytics is becoming more pressing.

Utilizing reporting tools that are available online today can help Internet marketers continue to shape their social media strategy and overall online interaction methods.

Some of the most important metrics to track when it comes to social media include the ROI – how time spent marketing on sites like Facebook and Twitter translates into revenue for the company – and the growth and interaction factors surrounding a company’s online profiles and communities.

Any metric can be broken down into granular parts for a closer look or to add quantitative micro-metrics to an overarching qualitative metric. For example, the number of links acquired on shared or viral content pages via social media is a key factor for the SEO-minded. Read more »

We hate math.

Our abhorrence for calculation enables us to mutually agree on statistically dubious metrics with nary a shrug or arched eyebrow. Consider Nielsen ratings, which are used to determine the popularity of all TV shows and, consequently, how the dozens of billions of dollars in TV advertising is apportioned. Read more »

Plenty has been written about Facebook and Twitter, and how those sites can help you make more money online. Yet, LinkedIn – a very powerful tool to target business professionals – remains under the radar.

If you are looking to get your products and services in front of the general mass audience, then Facebook and Twitter are good solutions. But if you want to attract wealthy, influential professionals then you need a LinkedIn presence. Read more »

As I sat last night debating between writing this blog post for Birgit and hand addressing my corporate holiday cards, I could not help but be struck by the irony of my situation. You see, it is important for your business to take note of your clients and customers, especially at this time of year, and a hand written message gets noticed in this age of electronic communication. The irony however was, that had I thought through my holiday plan carefully, I could have been writing this post while Birgit addressed all of my cards and notes. In other words, I could have been attending to my business and new opportunities while Birgit handled the important but more routine task.

Fear not, it is not too late to get organized to maximize this holiday season and its marketing opportunities, positioning yourself top of mind with your customers for next year. With a list (see below), and help from Birgit, and me, if you don’t yet have all of the components that you need, you can still turn this holiday season into a marketing bonanza for your business. Read more »

Two weeks ago I spoke at the Immersive Technology Summit in Los Angeles, an event put together by the non-profit ImTech, which is supporting the development and adoption of immersive technologies. The one-day summit, emceed by Ken Rutowski of KenRadio, drew hundreds of participants from around the world with tens of thousands more watching the live streams. The summit took place at Los Angeles Center Studios in the heart of Hollywood and created a hot tub atmosphere that brought together luminaries from technology and the arts to discuss, debate, and promote how immersive technologies from telepresence to augmented reality would shape entertainment, communications, and media in the coming years, On the same day I addressed the SYNNEX FOCUS conference in San Francisco via a DVE Telepresence Podium and got to “Punch Bob”. Get the scoop on what was new and cool in Immersive Technologies. Read more »

The purpose of our blog is simple: provide useful information and content that would help our subscribers on certain subject matters. We spend days searching for the best posts to place on our blog. Some we write on our own, while others we redistribute from what we consider as professional and reliable sources.

As authors, we understand that plagiarism and content theft is wrong and unprofessional. It disrespects the original author and in some cases hurts their reputation when used in an unprofessional manner. When we find an article to share with our subscribers, we first try to contact the author in order to obtain permission to redistribute their content on our blog. If we cannot obtain written approval, we always look for a privacy policy statement or the phrase “All Rights Reserved” within the source of the article. Information on this subject matter may be found in any law book about ethics and blogging.

Sharing others’ work (and giving credit) helps authors reach a wider audience. Social media is about gathering and sharing information with others. When you visit a blog, you usually see Tweet, Digg, Facebook and other social media buttons in order to make sharing with a wider audience possible. Read more »