AI, MSNBC Redesign, Why Consumers Follow Brands, and Facebook

by Jeff Foster

You’ve heard of Smart Cars. Believe us, they get smarter. No, we’re not talking about Kit, the wryly soft-spoken roadster from the ’80s TV show Knight Rider. Fully sentient robots like Kit are still a ways off, but computer programmers are starting to make serious progress in the horrendously complex art of artificial intelligence. View the story on Forbes.com

On Monday (June 28) the news site will roll out a sweeping redesign that encapsulates what publisher and general manager Charlie Tillinghast called “a major rethinking of what a news site is.” At the heart of that redesign is a philosophy that Web pages needn’t be text centric, and that Web ads should be large and not relegated to the periphery. “We don’t start with the premise that this is a newspaper online,” said Tillinghast. “In the past we’ve bolted on video and photos and commentary to text pages. Now all of those elements are equal.”View story.

Several studies, including ones from MarketingSherpa and Razorfish, have indicated that finding deals is the main reason consumers follow brands on microblogging sites. But US moms—normally considered big fans of coupons and money-saving tips—told lucid marketing that content was No. 1. View story and study.

Fully 100% of college students in the US have a mobile phone, and they use them constantly to communicate and connect. As such, mobile marketing becomes more difficult among this group because they see the devices as so personal. View mobile marketing overview.

We also put together the top 10 Facebook Questions:

  1. What is the best way to drive interactions on your Facebook page?
  2. Facebook etiquette: how often should we be replying to fans?
  3. Does using images prove to be more effective than just words on Facebook pages?
  4. How often should you post your website content on your Facebook page?
  5. Is there any value to creating and using Facebook groups?
  6. What examples of company Facebook pages do you consider to be effective?
  7. Are B2B companies more difficult to promote?
  8. How can Facebook ads be used in a campaign? What makes them effective?
  9. What do you think about sending people to Facebook instead of sending them to your site?
  10. Should a brand’s Facebook presence be a communal thing or an individual effort?