Privacy lovers on Facebook (or those of you that are left) rejoice! There’s a brand new alternative to Facebook on the social media scene, and it’s gorgeous.

Path (version 2), used to be a photo-sharing service, but dynamically changed into a personal journal/social network in late November. While it may not have been around very long, it’s made a huge impact on the niche social media community.

The following are key principles that Path uses in its philosophy:

Simple - Path should provide you with the simple way to keep a journal, or “Path”, of your life on the go.

Personal - Path should help you authentically express yourself and share your personal life with loved ones.

Quality - Path should provide you with a quality network, superior experience, and the fastest performance.

Joy - Path should delight you through design, information, and communication.

Smart - Path should learn about you as time goes on. It should help you see interesting patterns in your life, and the lives of your loved ones. It should learn to write itself, and require less effort from you over time.

Private - Path should be private by default. Forever. You should always be in control of your information and experience.

Following the preceding key principles, Path works to keep your closest friends connected to you through what can only be described as a photo-centric hyper-sharing network.

Path is meant to act as a personal journal (aka the “path of your life heh…), and something that you share with people who you’re close to. With this in mind, Path works as equal parts introspective journal and social platform.

But with an eye towards keeping things private, Path manages to keep your inner-most sharing private. In addition to having the ability to make posts private, you can also see who views each of your individual posts! So while John may LOVE when I post pictures of my dog, Sam only views my sleeping patterns (yes, you can log when you wake up/go to bed). 

So the next time you’re overly concerned about the new “big brother” (Facebook), just go try out its much less-threatening cousin, Path. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

Michael Haas

Social Media Strategist, Epic Web Studios

With the holiday season in full swing, I am constantly being reminded that I only have 12 days, 12 hours, 2 minutes and 36…35…34 seconds; okay you get the point, to find awesome gifts for friends and family. Ever since I saw the disappointment on my little sister’s face as she opened her birthday gift in August, back to school clothes- (lame, I know), I have been on the hunt for a redemption gift.  I’m going tech this year, with the hopes that dissatisfaction won’t be on her face as she unwraps the Kid-Tough See Yourself Digital Camera from Fisher Price.

This kid-friendly camera allows the preschool photographer to create self portraits with ease by using a rotating lens that swivels 180 degrees from front to back.  Users can switch from still shots to video with the click of a button and can also add stampers and special effects.  With the ability to store 1,000 photos on the camera and expand the memory with an SD card, I was impressed by Fischer Price for including these features on a kid’s camera.  One downfall about the camera is the editing software. It’s not compatible with Macs, but the camera can still be connected to a Mac to transfer images.

Cool gift for the 5-year- old sister? Check and mark. Now, what do I get for the soccer mom who created said child? Every soccer mom, and dad for that matter, is rocking the DSLR camera these days. I’m not going to get into the debate on which camera is better, Canon or Nikon, because they are both great and have several useful features- it depends on what the consumer is looking for.  With Black Friday behind us, many shoppers assume that the best deals are over, especially on electronics.  (This isn’t always the case, as most stores will continue to cut prices to move the shipment out of their stores before the holiday to bring in new merchandise for the New Year.)  Almost all stores have a bundle package where the buyer can get the body, lenses, and accessories at a reasonable price.

To get your dad’s nose off of the TV and into a book, set him up with Amazon’s Kindle Fire. This 7-inch tablet links to the noteworthy collection of Amazon’s digital music, video, magazine, and book services in one easy-to-use package.

Who is the most difficult person to buy a tech gift for? The gadget gurus themselves.  You wouldn’t take someone born and raised in Italy to the Olive Garden and compare it to their grandmother’s Italian cooking, would you? I didn’t think so. In the same case you wouldn’t buy an iPod touch for the tech geek, self included, who has everything. I would suggest that you really think outside of the box on this one. Take an inventory on what they already own and what they still have on their wish list. Who knows, it might not even be a gadget that they want for Christmas, it could be a puppy (take note to anyone who still hasn’t bought me a present yet).

If you’re still stumped about what to get the guru, then look no further than techcessories.  These fun accessories are perfect for anyone who enjoys cool gadgets, but also loves to show them off for the ‘ooh and ahh’ effect. If your brother just got the new iPhone 4s then buy him a winter hat with earbuds embedded in it to listen to his music.

My friends and I love texting- just not while driving-but with the subzero temperatures that we have in Erie, Pa., it’s not ideal to text without gloves on. If you have a touch screen it’s inevitable that mittens and big, bulky gloves won’t cut it. Buy a pair of texting gloves for you and your friends to use as stocking stuffers. They’re inexpensive, so you won’t go over your budget, and still thoughtful.

Now that you have an arsenal of ideas, get to it! You only have 12 days, 11 hours, 57 minutes and 15…14…13 seconds left before time runs out.

Angela Kelly

Epic WebStudios

Project Manager/Content Developer

 by Tomer Tishgarten 

Tomer Tishgarten is vice president of technology at Engauge, one of the nation’s largest independent advertising agencies. Follow him @tomerific.

If you’re among the many marketers trying to grasp the game-changing impact of Xbox’s motion-controlled add-on Kinect, you’re not alone. Even Microsoft didn’t realize what it had on its hands. When launching in November, Microsoft predicted sales of 3 million units by the end of 2010. Instead, the company sold 8 million in two months and recently entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest-selling consumer electronics product in history. For brands, the excitement is just beginning — and so are the challenges.

In addition to sensing motion, Microsoft’s newest periphery for the Xbox 360 recognizes voices, captures facial expressions in real time, and can even tell players apart. It’s arguably the biggest advance in mainstream digital interface design since the widespread adoption of the computer mouse in the ’80s.

Kinect and its underlying PrimeSense technology promise to open new doors and could explode our conceptions of what’s possible online. Today’s online world remains governed by the conventions of preset hyperlinks and point-and-click devices, but over time, those constraints will be shattered. The popularity of touchscreens on smartphones and tablets suggest we were already headed in this direction. Marketers may play an important role in determining how quickly Kinect technology crosses the chasm from hardcore gamers to mainstream adoption.

The Engagement Potential for Brands

Big brands, including Burger King and Samsung, jumped in first with Kinect gaming promotions. But the marketing potential of Kinect extends far beyond video games. In the near term, marketers could leverage Kinect technology to create eye-opening trade show displays and in-store promotions. Freed from the gaming console, the technology can draw people into an immersive, interactive experience.

Innovative web-based applications will also be worth considering as the technology reaches a critical mass of 15% of households or users, a point at which adoption rates tend to accelerate.

With Avatar Kinect, Microsoft will soon move into augmented social media. Microsoft’s plans for the new technology clearly go beyond gaming. And Kinect’s controller-free environment should appeal to casual gamers, not just the hardcore console jocks, which will heighten appeal for mass marketers. Indeed, the pitch to advertisers from Microsoft is that women, younger children and tweens are “joining in the fun” with Kinect. Most importantly, perhaps, the price is relatively inexpensive; approximately $150.

In the future, it’s conceivable that consumers scanned into the system could theoretically interact with three-dimensional models of products. Why couldn’t Ford, which recently launched an exclusive Xbox campaign for its C-MAX, put consumers behind the wheel and let them take the newest model for a spin?

For catalog clothing brands, the ecommerce implications are immense. Why couldn’t Eddie Bauer let consumers try on clothes virtually? In the travel industry, the applications are even more numerous — a walking tour of the cabanas at Club Med, anyone? And with the capacity to scan an entire room, why couldn’t The Home Depot let customers design the layout of new kitchen cabinets or Ikea showcase sofas within digital models of consumers’ living rooms?

Peak Expectations Meet Practical Challenges

Marketers have tremendous opportunities to differentiate themselves from their competitors in this new environment. Yet they also face the challenge of developing those experiences without instructions or precedents.

Before agencies and developers can create the architecture of this new world — and customized applications for brands — they must first study what makes the new technology tick, which is why developers have been so busy “hacking” Kinect.

The development tools for Kinect are still fairly immature at this stage, but they do provide enough capabilities to build some interesting applications. As more work is done to support these tools by Microsoft and the larger development community, the possibilities for Kinect will grow exponentially.

—

Thank you to Tomer Tishgarten! This article was originally posted on mashable.com & can be found here: http://mashable.com/2011/03/23/kinect-marketing-strategy :) 

This is good stuff… though, it is a little dated because it does not include information on timeline + other recent developments. Still good though… 

See below the graphic for more… 

Facebook’s New Advertising Strategy Is Brilliant and Unexpected

October 03, 2011 by Todd Wasserman 

Facebook and Google get compared a lot these days, but with its new advertising strategy, Facebook is adapting Google’s ad strategy to its social media.

Improving advertising on the popular social network is not a new or particularly innovative idea. Still the transition from advertising as a message-delivering medium to a platform for social sharing is a radical departure for Facebook. It could be the Facebook advertising solution that turns advertising partners (brands) into better social media communicators and gets Facebook members to start recommending and sharing advertisers as much as they do they latest cat video.

As for the Google comparison. Recall that in the early days, Google had a choice: Take money from advertisers for higher search rankings or ignore such offers and focus on making its search engine the best it could be.

Google at first didn’t know how it would make money. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin figured that if they built a better mousetrap, the money would eventually flow. And it did.

Like Google, Facebook didn’t invent a category, it refined it. Friendster and MySpace predated Facebook just like Yahoo and Alta Vista came before Google. Like Google, Facebook figured that if it got enough people on board and continually improved its social network, eventually it would figure out a way to make money.

Facebook’s overtures at first were clumsy. Beacon, the advertising platform Facebook introduced in 2007, informed all your friends when you made potentially embarrassing purchases or rentals on Blockbuster and other retail partners — and was eventually shuttered. Since then, Facebook seems content cashing in on its huge user base via display advertising.

SEE INFOGRAPHIC ABOVE

Now, however, Facebook’s ad strategy is becoming clear. And it’s not only brilliant, it’s unexpected. Facebook’s strategy, like Google’s, is to not only improve its network and experience, but improve the advertising as well. Now, that’s not so clever, admittedly. The really interesting part is the way Facebook plans to improve it: by making brand Pages better.

Why? Facebook doesn’t make a dime on any of the Pages set up by advertisers. As a marketer, you could do quite well for yourself by running a brand Page and never buying a single ad. But you could only do so well. The reason you will have to buy ads on Facebook goes to the heart of why you need to advertise in the first place.

A few years ago, I wrote a story about the marketing for Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith the last movie (by release date, not chronologically) in the Star Wars franchise. I was genuinely baffled as to why Lucasfilm was putting such a heavy advertising push behind the movie. I mean, after all, didn’t everyone who cared already know that the movie was coming out?

Jim Ward, Lucasfilm’s vice president of marketing at the time, though, told me the stakes were huge for that movie. If the studio did absolutely no advertising, it would likely lose $110 million or so in box office returns. “What we need to do is go beyond the core audience, not only from a box office perspective but from a brand-management perspective,” he told me at the time.

In other words: You don’t need to let Star Wars fans know that a Star Wars movie is coming out, but you do need to target all those millions of people who are on the fence about Star Wars or are too young to remember it.

The same is true for any brand that really wants to grow. You will get only so far keeping your base happy. What you need to do is reach beyond them.

It turns out that approaching friends of that base may be the best way to do this. Why? Think back to the last time a friend convinced you to take a flyer on a new product or maybe made you think of an old brand in a new way. For instance, I have a friend who is a total Mac-head who surprised me last year when he said that Windows 7 was as good as the Mac OS. Movies are another good example. Have you ever written off a new movie only to be completely turned around when a friend told you it was actually really good? (Of course, this cuts the other way, too.)

That’s the thinking behind two new announcements Facebook is making this week. One is a new ad unit. The other is a set of metrics that will help administrators create better brand Pages.

The combination of the two reveals where Facebook’s thinking is going. Facebook is putting pressure on advertisers to create better content for their brand Pages. If they do, those brands will have a better chance of winning over friends of fans either by advertising or by creating something viral. It’s a cycle that has the potential to redefine the way we interact with brands. From now on, brands will be friends or friends of friends rather than spammers trying to bombard your consciousness.

Social media is still new, but so was search once. While figuring out how to make money off of search seems obvious in retrospect, it clearly wasn’t at the time. In the same way, someday we’ll look back at how Facebook invented social media advertising and wonder why no one thought of it sooner.