"What you see depends on your vantage point: Visual Data."
Courtesy Tijmen van Dobbenburgh, Photographer. copy&; February 15, 2006 Stock.xchng

Once upon a time, a man known as ET created several masterpiece books on the visual display of data. His name is Edward Tufte and he is a statistician and a professor emeritus from Yale University. Tufte taught statistics, political science, and computer science -- but I choose to call him the father of information design. (If you have another favorite mother or father of information design, please share it with us.) At first blush, it seems a bit oxymoronic that a mathematician (nay, a statistician) can think visually to the extent that he greatly simplifies complex or unstructured data, and converts it into visual representations that make it not only more interpretable, but deeply understandable.

Certainly, Tufte's work on visual data is a valuable field trip for any market researcher. Read More...

"What's in your pocket?"
MorgueFile.

You know you are not supposed to interrupt. Well, neither is your marketing. Scott Stratten wrote the book on Un-Marketing. A social media and social media research expert, Scott says to focus on getting customers to know you, trust you, and engage with you. Then your customers are likely to buy from you.

In 2010, a video of a guy walking across America went viral. It was a truly well-made video and we could learn all about how it was made by watching a companion video -- a look at the shoots and the editing. The behind-the-scenes video really ratcheted up appreciation for this skilled team.

The guy who walked across America video ended neatly, with the guy putting a travel / adventure to-do list in his back pocket...which just turned out to be a Levis jeans back pocket. This is some of the best product placement I've seen. I watched the entire video and kept asking myself who could have sponsored such an expensive film. Did I feel betrayed at the end? Not at all. I had to applaud Levis' cleverness. After the video went viral, when viewers figured out who had sponsored the filming, some folks were not happy. Apparently, they wanted in on the secret from the start.

Did Levis' approach create distrust of the brand? Were customers less likely to buy a pair of Levis after watching the video, or more likely? What do you think about un-sponsored video marketing? What do you think about product placement?

The third annual Social Media Success Summit 2011 is scheduled for May 3 through May 26. You CAN get there - it is all online.

Do you want a chance to win free tickets to the Summit? There are two easy ways. You can Twitter an entry. Go to the Web site and click the button and tweet the line that is displayed. Tweets must contain #SSMSS11. You can tweet twice a day. But hurry! The deadline is April 15th.

You can submit a written entry. Write about "your biggest social media challenge" and then link back to the Web page OR just submit your entry as a comment on the Web page. The winner of the written entry gets two tickets and will be mentioned in the Social Media Examiner, which has a circulation of 65,000+. Write your entry today - the deadline for the free Summit tickets contest is tomorrow!

"Social Media: Art or Craft?"
Courtesy Julie Freeman-Woolpert, Photographer. Stock.xchng Copyright July 29, 2007.

A Social Media Success Summit 2011 is being held - completely online - from May 3 through May 26. You'll want to check this out right away because the 50% off sale ends Thursday, April 14th

On the Web site, it says that 96% of the people who attended the Social Media Success Summit 2010 would recommend it to a friend -- and attend again. Let's take a look at why that might be.

Having the conference spread out over two weeks means that you can sit down and focus on a session when it fits with your schedule. Remember, this conference is all online. That makes sense -- I mean, with social media being digital.

Twenty-four social media experts will offer presentations during this conference. Most have written books, and all are active social media pros. There will be a large corporate B2B and B2C presence as well -- you'll hear from Cisco, Intel, Boeing, Verizon, and Timex (The same Timex that has kept on ticking, like forever?). During the conference, you can communicate live with presenters -- the Summit is not using chat boxes.

A private, exclusive LinkedIn group will be formed of conference attendees. Following the 2010 Summit, about 1600 LinkedIn members who had attended the conference joined the Summit's LinkedIn group.

Here are two conference objectives you might be interested in. Learn how to track and measure your social media research ROI. Explore how to create a successful social media initiative from experts who take you through the steps of successful campaigns.

If you sign up to receive email information about the Social Media Success Summit, you can receive a FREE session from last year's summit. But there's more. Your free sample includes a nifty PowerPoint of the session presentation, the transcript from the session, and a video used in the session. If this is an example of how this group performs, I'm impressed. Thorough. Interesting. Timely.