Two weeks ago Google put out their long awaited Gmail app for the iOS. Well, let’s just say it didn’t go well. Google’s Gmail blog gives a rather clinical assessment of the mess that was the Gmail iOS app v.1

Two weeks ago, we introduced our Gmail app for iOS. Unfortunately it contained a bug which broke notifications and displayed an error message, so we removed it from the App Store. We’ve fixed the bug and notifications are now working, and the app is back in the App Store.

In the short time the app was public we received a lot of helpful feedback and feature requests. This included requests for everything from bigger features like multiple account support to customizations like improved notifications and mobile specific signatures.

Well, don’t worry. The new one is in the App Store and it might even work! Let us know what you think.

Hey, if at first you don’t succeed, right?

Google continues to refine its search function. This time it feels like they are almost going back in time by allowing users to get search results based on what they actually type: verbatim.

When you go click on more search tools at Google.com you can choose “verbatim search” and the following typical algorithm assists are NOT used according to the Inside Search blog.

making automatic spelling corrections personalizing your search by using information such as sites you’ve visited before including synonyms of your search terms (matching “car” when you search [automotive]) finding results that match similar terms to those in your query (finding results related to “floral delivery” when you search [flower shops] searching for words with the same stem like “running” when you’ve typed [run] making some of your terms optional, like “circa” in [the scarecrow circa 1963] So in other words, on those occasions when you are looking for that perfect misspelled search you can have it so Google won’t go in and do the thinking for you. I’ll be honest, I am not sure when this would be used but Google has to keep making “improvements” to search to look like they are concerned about competition.

So here is a glimpse at the 404 pages of those wanting to get into office. First, out of respect for the office we’ll share President Obama’s 404 page which opts for the informative route and does a nice job of providing options for the wayward site user to check out. Pretty much what one would expect from an online savvy group like the Obama camp.

Now for the Republican side of the ledger and it looks like the front runners are playing hardball.

Herman Cain’s 404 page.

Mitt Romney’s 404 page

Now for the rest of the field which looks to be an indication that we may not expect too much from these folks in the way of online irreverence or pizzazz.

Michelle Bachmann’s page does give at least some options and good information.

The rest of the pack though? Plain vanilla and done pretty poorly at that. If their 404 efforts are any indication of their ability to help people navigate from a bad place then these are not your guys.

Newt Gingrich

Rick Perry

Ron Paul

In the end this may not seem like much but it’s this kind of attention to detail in today’s political environment can score big points with voters or cost you votes as well. While we will have to suffer through endless TV ads that are design to denigrate and humiliate an opponent that is no longer the only way to get information about politics……thank God.

What are you looking for from the next year of campaigning that we will all need to suffer through for the next year? WIll it be another Democratic online runaway or do you think the Republicans grasp the importance of this part of their efforts to get to the White House?

Here at Marketing Pilgrim we like to give our readers some exposure to unconventional uses of social media. Let’s face it, there are so many things that can be done with social media but we often get caught up in what is considered normal. Here’s a look a something different.

John Deere is one of the most iconic American brands there is. The green and yellow logo is known by most whether you grew up in the country or the city. It’s just one of those brands that gets noticed and remembered. Of course, in the Silicon Valleyized world of social media it’s hard to imagine that a company more known for its reputation with farmers is taking advantage of the online space.

The company is relatively new to the social media realm but they have come up with a unique way to promote their brand, do something very different and, ultimately feed people who are struggling. It’s called Project Can Do and the company will be constructing a model of a John Deere combine using canned food. While that is certainly different, the end game is that about 300,000 cans of food which will then be used to help stock the River Bend Foodbank in Moline, IL.

We conducted an e-mail interview with Nicole Schneider, project manager, communications for John Deere Agriculture & Turf, and Richard Williamson, project manager, art director, John Deere Agriculture & Turf. They are the Project “CAN DO” leaders.

How long has this idea been in planning?

The idea was generated through a brainstorm around the launch of the new John Deere S-Series Combines in earlier 2011. Coming out of ideation, we realized that this was an opportunity to do much more than promote new equipment; it was a chance to celebrate the important role of the farmer to help meet global food demands and to give back to the community. Celebrating the relationship between us, the farmer, the land, and the community.

What people in the organizations are responsible for various aspects of the project?

We have the responsibility and are supported by many internal and external champions – including more than 450 volunteers – all helping to make this full-sized combine structure come to life.

How are you measuring success from the business side of this?

The primary goal of John Deere Project “CAN DO”is to raise awareness for the essential role farmers and ranchers play in producing safe, healthy and abundant food for a growing world population. It’s also a way to generate awareness around hunger and the need to support food banks especially during the holiday season. User engagement is a big part of the campaign. We want fans to create a virtual can and help John Deere donate over 300,000 cans of food to a local food bank. We designed the tab to allow fans to engage in multiple ways. In additon to the “design a can app”, fans can watch live video feeds of the build, view photos, learn about the farmer, get to know the combine, share posts and tweet about all of it. We’re encouraged by the conversations and support we’re seeing surrounding this campaign – it’s become the new coffee shop.

Of course, we’re also excited to break a Guinness World Record for “the world’s largest canned food sculpture.”

Are John Deere dealers involved in the promotion of this and if so, how?

John Deere dealers are encouraged to show their support for Project “CAN DO” through involvement in their own communities and through the John Deere Facebook page, but are not directly involved with the program.

How long has John Deere been utilizing social media for brand activities like this?

John Deere as an enterprise has had an active social media presence for more than a year. This is the first campaign of its kind for Deere.

Based on your target market which social media tools works the best and why?

Our agriculture users are very active on Facebook and we are always looking at reaching and engaging our customers in new ways.

Marketing Pilgrim’s Social Channel is proudly sponsored by Full Sail University, where you can earn your Masters of Science Degree in Internet Marketing in less than 2 years. Visit FullSail.edu for more information.  

Are there other projects like this set for the future?

We will be evaluating all social mediums for future campaigns.

Are there other corporate partners that are involved?

We are more than grateful for the support and enthusiasm we’ve received from the architectural firm RTKL Associates, HyVee and Canstruction throughout this project.

How is the town of Moline responding?

We’re anticipating a growing excitement and buzz as the sculpture is built this week and revealed on November 17. You can check out the build on our live steaming video.

Thank you to the folks of John Deere for sharing their social media efforts with is. You can participate in the the project by going to the John Deere Facebook page and creating your own can. Your few minutes of time will help feed those in need. Not a bad way to start the week huh?

You’re winding down another work week. Maybe your job isn’t what was promised or what you might have hoped it would be.

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These are just a few of the many jobs available today. Find your new job now! Advertise for that new employee today!

Hey, it’s Friday 11-11-11, after all. Live a little!

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz spoke up for self-regulation of targeted advertising during a presentation at ad:tech New York on Tuesday.

He stated that consumers must be given a choice as to how much of their personal data is tracked, but it’s up to the ad industry, not the government, to make it so.

“We at the FTC have no interest in shutting down the Internet party,” he said. “Our only concern is that, if guests understand there could be a cover charge to the party [in the form of giving up some privacy], they should be able to make meaningful choices about how much they’ll pay.”

This comes just as the Digital Advertising Alliance released an up-dated set of principles regarding online data collection.

The new rules prohibit the use of online data as a means of determining medical care eligibility, credit or insurance eligibility or any employment-related decisions.  It also requires sites to adhere to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act rules when collecting data on children under 13 and it requires explicit permission to collect medical or pharmaceutical data.

As much as this is a step in the right direction, privacy advocates fear it’s not enough mostly because Alliance membership is voluntary. If an ad network has no intention of following the rules, they don’t have to join the Alliance. And it’s not like consumers are going to limit their web surfing to sites that use only compliant networks.

Networks that do agree to the rules then break them, could be subject to fines and further investigation by the FTC. The Accountability Program recently released their findings on their first cases. They say all six companies responded in a timely manner, changing their data collection policies within weeks of being notified of a problem.

Liebowitz says that as long as the FTC sees the industry working together to prevent misuse of online data collection, they’ll stay on the sidelines. But if we can’t all play nice, then the government is ready to step in with new rules and laws that will apply to everyone, like it or not.

This whole Google+ brand page “event” puts firmly on display something that plagues the Internet space. It is the rush to claim expertise, claiming to have everything all figured out and, of course, the whining.

While it’s no surprise it didn’t take the Google+ resident know-it-all Robert Scoble long to jump into the fray, he did so with mixed results.

OK, you all know I’m Google+’s biggest fan, right? For the past five months I’ve poured almost all my time into my Google+ account, which has paid off with a fun community and a lot of followers.

But yesterday Google+ rolled out brand pages. Here’s all the relevant news about that on Techmeme.

I wish I had never heard of them.

Why not?

Feel free to read the litany of issues Mr. Scoble rattles off.

Admittedly, Google often appears to do things that show how distant they can be from their end user. They do things that make engineers need a cold shower but often miss the mark on end user experience. It is likely that there are issues with Google+ brand pages.

But let’s get real here. They are barely 24 hours in the wild and not everyone can get one yet. But you would think that they had been around for months with all the criticism, expertise claims, ebooks being pushed and more. It’s like calling a baby ugly as soon as it’s been born without giving the poor kid a chance to clean up a bit.

Marketing Pilgrim’s Social Channel is proudly sponsored by Full Sail University, where you can earn your Masters of Science Degree in Internet Marketing in less than 2 years. Visit FullSail.edu for more information.  

I get this desire to be first but shouldn’t the desire to be right trump that? Just because someone is upset at how these pages work in their particular environment doesn’t mean it’s dead wrong for everyone. And it takes some time to see how these things develop over a period of time to make real assessments of value etc.

The Internet industry as a whole needs to step back and stop trying to figure everything else without any real evidence other than overly emotional personal observation. The reason Scoble is so upset is that he got caught in a shortcoming of the service regarding having only one admin per page. Only fools rush in?

Yesterday, we posted a great take on Twitter from Louis C.K.. We are posting it again and ask that you go to the 45 second mark where he comments on our current culture’s need to do without thinking. It’s funny but sad all at once.

http://i.cdn.turner.com/v5cache/TBS/cvp/teamcoco_drupal_embed.swf?context=teamcoco_embed_offsite&videoId=19309

Google+ brand pages are going to change. Maybe we should remember that only the tech crowd is on Google+ at the moment anyway and rushing to get a Google+ brand page in place as a business may not make sense at all if none of our audience is there yet.

Slow down folks. It’ll be OK.

Remember being a kid and hearing the words “We’re having leftovers for dinner tonight.”? There was that sinking feeling that comes with the “Ok, I am not getting the best of the best here” realization.

Now take that mindset over to advertising. When a sales rep is trying to sell their leftovers it implies that what he or she is pushing has been passed over by those who are picky about their ad placements. As a result, there are inventory gaps that occur and you get to choose from the crumbs leftover on the display table.

Not very appealing, huh? Well, now imagine that Microsoft, Aol, and Yahoo have announced that they are looking to empty their ad refrigerators, if you will, as a team effort. It’s kind of like a garage sale for leftover display ad space. Let’s just say that the response is not exactly overwhelming.

The LA Times reports

In a deal announced Tuesday, the three tech giants said they would pool their resources to sell leftover ad space beginning in January.

“While this collaboration could drive some incremental yield improvements for the portals’ unsold display inventory, we believe it is unlikely that the combination of inventory can spur significant increases in overall display ad revenue given market share challenges,” J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth said in a research note. “We believe this agreement comes more from a position of weakness as all three players attempt to create a compelling alternative to Google for marketers and agencies.”

Wow, tell it like it is, Doug. Facebook and Google are gobbling up a lot of the online ad budgets these days and it will be critical for these remaining players to figure out just how they can compete. Can they do it?

Image Credit: Joe Belanger / Shutterstock

Twitter is slowly rising in the ranks as a means of communication between consumers and the brands they love. According to a study from Constant Contact and Chadwick Martin Bailey, one-third of brand followers said they were interacting more with brands than ever before.

The most surprising fact to come out of this study is that 75% of consumers have never “un-followed” a brand on Twitter. That’s either a testament to relevancy of the brands that use the social service or a side effect of the quick post turnover. I’m going with the second option.

Various studies have put the lifespan of a Tweet at under an hour. Klout recently ran up some numbers that showed a longer life for those with more Klout. Of course, all of this is dependent on retweets. If you don’t have them, your message will fall off the grid within minutes.

The good news is that brand followers are a loyal bunch. 60% said they would recommend a followed brand to a friend and 50% said they were more likely to buy from a brand they follow.

The study also found that folks under 35 are more likely to follow brands, more than half of those surveyed follow less than 4 brands and 79% follow less than 10 brands.

Marketing Pilgrim’s Social Channel is proudly sponsored by Full Sail University, where you can earn your Masters of Science Degree in Internet Marketing in less than 2 years. Visit FullSail.edu for more information.  

One interesting side note: 50% of consumers on Twitter go online more than once an hour, so you have even better chance of your message being seen before it slides away into the great social media pit.

How’s Twitter working out for your business? A bust? A boon? Or something in between?

With nearly 2,000 attendees and a reputation that is growing each year, the Internet Summit in Raleigh, NC on November 15-16 promises to the best summit yet.

Where else can you get the following for two days of speakers and sessions for just $295 if you register before November 14th?

Keynote Speaker, November 16 – Gary Vaynerchuk Co-founder VaynerMedia, Dailygrape.com

Speakers from the following companies will be part of the over 80 sessions and panel discussions available to attendees.

TheLadders.com
Gannett
Twitpic
TRUSTe
Google
Formspring
ESPN
Discovery
POLITICO
StumbleUpon
IBM
and MANY MORE!

What will be covered? Glad you asked.

Social media
Mobile applications
E-commerce
SEO/paid search
Internet usability
Analytics & measurement
Streaming/interactive video
Cloud computing/virtualization
Online advertising/branding
AND MORE!

There are only a few spots available for this great event so register today!