Should Social Media Be Taught in High School
Teens are using social media almost universally, and aren’t as careful as they should be about their data and identities. Should social media be a mandatory class in U.S. high schools?
Is Email a More Reliable Marketing Mechanism Than Social Media
In this edition of The Baer Facts, I’m joined by Kyle Lacy of ExactTarget to wish Happy Birthday to Facebook and talk about the changing face of email. 10 Years? Feels Like 30 On one hand, it’s hard to believe Facebook is 10 years old. On the other hand, Facebook has become so entwined in our personal and professional lives, […]
Why Apps May Become More Important Than Your Website
In this “Polar Vortex” edition of The Baer Facts, I talk with Kyle Lacy of ExactTarget about this transitive postulate: We are spending more time online than with any other media We are spending much of that digital time in mobile devices Most of that mobile time is spent in apps Therefore, apps are becoming the dominant form of […]
7 Questions About Facebook’s New Star Ratings System
In this “let’s get physical” edition of The Baer Facts, I talk with Kyle Lacy of ExactTarget about Facebook’s new system of applying star ratings to Pages, and the merits of kettlebell as a workout option. Timely note: This episode features a guest appearance by my quasi-celebrity personal trainer, Lindsay Forster. In addition to whipping me into shape (her […]
If You Can’t Afford It Apple Doesn’t Want You
In this live-from-an-abandoned-warehouse edition of The Baer Facts, I talk with Kyle Lacy of ExactTarget about Apple’s new iPad announcements, and the fact that they really don’t care whether the masses buy their gear. Apple Sauced I was neither overwhelmed nor underwhelmed by the new versions of the iPad. I was just whelmed. The big feature of the newly […]
2 Twitter Changes Making Life Easier for Big Brands
In this bandwidth-challenged-from-a-hotel edition of The Baer Facts, I talk with Kyle Lacy of ExactTarget about Twitter’s new move to enable direct messages to be sent and received even if both parties are not following one another. This has always been one of the quirks of Twitter, that you had to “follow back” to exchange DMs. In some ways, […]
Is Facebook All Wrong About Our Sharing Psychology
In this edition of The Baer Facts, I am indeed wearing an Evel Knieval robe, and I talk with Kyle Lacy of ExactTarget about SnapChat stories, the new wrinkle from SnapChat that enables users to compile a daily stack of short clips. This is an important and bold move (the technology not the robe), because as you are probably aware, […]
I’ll Never Buy a Smartwatch and Neither Will You
In this edition of The Baer Facts, I talk with Kyle Lacy of ExactTarget about the new Samsung Galaxy Gear, a smartwatch that hopes to popularize a new consumer device category in the way the iPad did a few years ago. Wrist Factors I’m not a fan of this technology, as it is the answer to a question that […]
Facebook is Getting More Two-Faced By the Day
In this edition of The Baer Facts, I talk with Kyle Lacy of ExactTarget about two new announcements from Facebook that appear to come from opposite ends of the philosophical spectrum. Maybe. Or Maybe Not. Within 96 hours, Facebook made two pronouncements (I like to imagine them being made via scrolls read in a town square, preceded by trumpeter […]
New Research Shows Twitter Boosts TV Ratings (sometimes)
In another bandwidth-deficient edition of The Baer Facts, I talk with Kyle Lacy of ExactTarget about new research from Nielsen that shows tweets causing actual increases in television ratings. Is Social TV Overrated? I’ve been a skeptic of the relationship between Twitter chatter and TV ratings for a long time. To me, the people tweeting about a show are […]
4 Plausible Reasons Bezos Bought Washington Post
In this weirdly bandwidth-deficient edition of The Baer Facts, I talk with Kyle Lacy of ExactTarget about Jeff Bezos (of Amazon.com) purchasing the Washington Post for $250 million, and what the possible motivations for such a seemingly counter-intuitive purchase might be. Note that he bought the company personally, not through Amazon.com. The Purpose of the Post? I see four […]
What To Do About Gmail Tabs
In this edition of The Baer Facts, I talk with Kyle Lacy of ExactTarget about the new tabbed folders in Gmail, and whether marketers should panic or largely ignore this major interface change. Death by Tabs? If you’ve somehow missed this story, which has created much gnashing of teeth among online marketers recently, here’s the summary: Gmail, when viewed […]
Can Ads Actually Make Foursquare Better
In this edition of The Baer Facts, I talk with Kyle Lacy of ExactTarget about the newly launched Foursquare ads, and whether they are a viable option for marketers, an annoyance for users, both or neither. Whither the Check-In? In April, Bloomberg cited Foursquare data showing 6 million daily check-ins in January 2013 versus 4 million per day in January 2012. […]
Are Twitter Lead Generation Cards the Email Marketers’ New Best Friend?
In this edition of The Baer Facts, I talk with Kyle Lacy of ExactTarget about Twitter’s new, direct response program.Twitter has displayed “cards” for quite some time. They are the expandable tweets that typically are used to hold photos or Vine videos, like this one from Lowe’s (read more about Lowe’s excellent new Youtility marketing […]
When is Social Media Experimentation a Waste of Company Resources
In this edition of The Baer Facts, I talk with Kyle Lacy of ExactTarget about whether brands should be taking the plunge into other emerging platforms, specifically SnapChat. As an author, it scares the bejesus out of me, but it appears kids really don’t want to read. And as a parent, it spooks me, but […]
Google Reader’s Demise is Irrelevant for Blogs
In this edition of The Baer Facts, I talk with Kyle Lacy of ExactTarget about the demise of Google Reader and how it’s overblown. Back From Australia Yes, we’re returning to a weekly schedule of Baer Facts videos. I had to miss a couple weeks while doing a series of speaking engagements in Sydney that […]