Lessons the publishing industry can learn from Google, the Aalsmeer Flower Show, and Seth Godin.
Seth Godin and the Flower Clock
By Andrew Davis | Published August 24th, 2010Learning To Speak Media-eses in 5 Easy Stepses
By Josh Cole | Published July 9th, 2010Recently, we’ve been exploring the notion of Media Modality — the idea that different media entail different ways of reading and processing information. Any reader or processor of information is going to approach various media with different expectations. They will also think differently about the information they process.
In order to market in a medium you need to speak its lingo. Below, I’ve broken learning the lingo down into 5 easy-to-follow steps.
Social Media’s Impact on Journalism
By Tyler Magnin | Published June 7th, 2010Social Media has changed the game of Journalism for good. The impact of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have allowed several important changes to the way articles are written, displayed, and shared today. Tippingpoint Labs sat down with social media journalist and trainer Jeff Cutler to elaborate on these adaptions.
The Birth of the Branded Media Agency
By Jim Cosco | Published May 25th, 2010The recent merger between Tippingpoint Labs and Beehive Media has well positioned us to become a new media agency that helps clients and brands fill their desire for content about their products and verticals by creating it and distributing it themselves.
The explosive growth of social media networks and the paradigm shift in consumer consumption habits have fueled the need for companies to create meaningful branded stories. TPL transforms and grows businesses by developing valuable and complex content-centric relationships that drive revenue or reduce costs.
Twitter Alone is Not a Social Media Support Channel
By Andrew Davis | Published May 12th, 2010How do you create the right portfolio of support channels and platforms to create an transparent and honest approach to solving consumer challenges in a rapid and scalable way without ignoring social media channels? Here’s our take on delivering a content-based online support system…
Building Relationships Informed by the Influence Pyramid
By Andrew Davis | Published May 11th, 2010The Influence Pyramid is designed to show how any brand should start dissecting and defining their online universe. Last night, I had a wonderful conversation with Dan Blank about the Influence Pyramid. Dan, and others, have pointed out that the pyramid doesn’t account for the two-way nature of today’s online universe and they are absolutely right.
The Influence Pyramid: Understanding and Dissecting Communities
By Andrew Davis | Published May 10th, 2010A good social media strategy and a great content strategy both hinge on really understanding the community or communities in which you wish to play. In order to do this you must define a methodology and an architecture in which you can refer to and target your content and social media efforts. After more than two years of working towards a method in which to refer to any online (or even off line) community it’s with great pride that we reveal The Influence Pyramid.
Elevating Boston as Business Innovators Through Content
By Bill Shander | Published May 6th, 2010There is an overriding lack of confidence in Boston about its place in the world of innovation and business. Why is this? What is the solution for it? Is this a real issue or just a perception? Should it matter? I would argue that this is purely perception and that, therefore, Boston has a content problem.
We Have a History of Innovation…
Boston has an undeniable history of innovation dating back to colonial times. This city (well, let’s talk about Massachusetts more broadly) is responsible for Thanksgiving, the American Revolution, the typewriter, sewing machines, frozen food, Fig Newtons, microwave ovens, mutual funds, email and thousands of other innovations that affect everyone’s daily life. Some even claim Yoga was invented here (though not clearly an April Fools’ joke, we couldn’t find much evidence to support this one.)
…And We’re Disgruntled
Despite this irrefutable tradition of changing history, innovating in technology, medicine, education, religion and probably every other discipline, Boston seems to have a perpetual chip on its shoulder. This stems from a variety contributing factors, of which here are a few:
* Boston lost its position as the hub for business in America (to New York) by the 19th century
* The near endless dominance of the New York Yankees over the Red Sox since a fateful trade in 1918 until 2004
* Boston led (or tied for the lead) the world in technology and then lost that position to Silicon Valley
Boston spent a long time wondering “What happened?” In fact, we spent 86 years annually fretting about our Red Sox until one fine October when we were finally able to imagine a new story. Maybe that’s the spark we needed to start thinking that we’re worthy of excelling in other areas again too? It’s high time we allowed ourselves to be convinced that we are as capable of leading innovation, building great companies, and driving the future as we have historically been able to be. What we need is to elevate Boston – both to the world, as well as to ourselves.
I recently attended one of many conferences where a key topic of conversation on panels as well as during networking breaks centered around the questions:
1. “How can we make Boston a great center of entrepreneurship again?”
2. “How can we build and keep innovative companies in Boston?”
3. “How can we compete with Silicon Vallley?”
That last question is sometimes unstated but it’s always right beneath the surface, even when it’s not said out loud.
Why Magento should be your eCommerce Platform
By Sean Boice | Published March 27th, 2010I’m here to tell you that Magento ROCKS! I’ve been in the ecommerce trenches for many years and have had the opportunity to explore many open and closed source ecommerce platforms. Here at Tippingpoint Labs we highly recommend Magento for all your ecommerce needs and here’s why:
Using Scrum Company-wide
By Sean Boice | Published March 24th, 2010I’ve been an advocate of Agile Development and SCRUM for a long time. SCRUM is all about iterative development and maintaining forward momentum. I’ve also found that it keeps everyone involved, and on the same-page in the least intrusive way possible.
Here at Tippingpoint Labs, we’ve embraced SCRUM for both engineering and non-engineering projects alike. We are working on a hybrid model that best matches our abilities and resource while doing our best not to get bogged down with process issues.
Catalogs, Context and Media Modality
By Andrew Davis | Published March 13th, 2010After speaking at the New England Mail Order Association Spring Conference and having conversations over lunch and dinner with talented marketers from brands like Sony, Hyatt, Gardeners Supply, Home Shopping Network Interactive, Stony Creek and L.L. Bean, I pondered the future of the printed catalog. Print catalogs will not die, but they must evolve.
Media Modality
We’ve been working on a concept called ‘media modality.’ Our hypothesis is basically this: people consume content in a variety of modes often defined by the medium used to deliver the media. So, if you use the right medium with the right kind of content you’ll capture the consumer (audience.)
Your Site is a Startup
By Eric Sagalyn | Published March 1st, 2010The first step in product-tizing your website is a site audit. Ask yourself what you want your users to do. Do you want them to come away with a feel for your corporate culture? Do you want them to buy something? Do you want them to create content? Boil it down to one sentence, then ask yourself if your site accommodates that now. If not, it’s time for a re-do.
2010: The Year of Common Sense User Experience
By Eric Sagalyn | Published February 23rd, 2010Nothing like a good dose of history repeating itself, because it’s nothing new. Before there was the AJAX libraries of Web 2.0, there was Flash sliding interfaces, pop-up dialogues and multiple clicks. Seems like we’ve landed right back on the same old Flash paradigms of the turn-of-the-century. No need to have history repeat itself, let’s make 2010 the year of common sense user experience.
