Chris Brogan is best known as an expert marketing consultant, a reputation he earned after writing a book on trust agents entitled Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust. But he also consults major corporations on video production work and has a few tips for content creators. Check out this interview host Murray Newlands and Chris Brogan did at BlogWorld 2011.

Future of Publishing is sponsored by VigLink. If you enjoyed the show, be sure to Like Future of Publishing on Facebook!

Visual content has become increasingly important in the mobile marketing space. Facebook recognized this and now displays pictures and videos much bigger in the Facebook iPhone app. This gives visual companies like Viddy and SocialCam, visual apps both dependent on Facebook integration, a much better opportunity to penetrate with a Facebook audience. In this Future of Engagement episode, host Murray Newlands analyzes Facebook’s changes and how it will affect companies like SocialCam and Viddy. Watch below:

Alerti social media monitoring chart about negative and positive conversations surrounding Facebook’s iPhone app UI change:

Visual branding has always been important, but now even more. Facebook is updating its mobile app to make photos bigger on their mobile app, and in the past month Facebook acquired Instagram and Glancee, both indications that the social media giant is looking to improve its mobile visual appeal.

Could video be next? A May 10 article in Mashable starts off with, “Haven’t you heard? Photos are so 2011.” The emergence of social video sharing apps like SocialCam and Viddy as easy mobile, social sharing integrations to Facebook means video is making a run at relevance in a whole new way.

Today’s episode looks at how these updates to photo and video sharing in the mobile space affect what brands and small businesses need to think about and do in their visual branding efforts. Are you prepared?

Highlights:

• Social Video: People love it or hate it, but they care intensely
• You need to care about your visuals. They are not an extra.
• Mobile is growing fast. Now, it’s an extra. Tomorrow, it’s a must. Prepare now.

Try Alerti for free for 90 days. Go to Alerti.com & use the bonus code “alertivideo” when you register.

I have only recently gotten into Pinterest. It isn’t because I didn’t find the concept interesting, or even that I didn’t see some of the benefits of a sharing site dedicated to images. After all, photos are some of the easiest content to go viral, thanks to the ease of passing it across the web.

Once I finally requested my invite and started using the site, I became immediately addicted. It is impossible for me to get online without checking the latest pins I have subscribed to. Whenever I see an image I even vaguely like, I am pinning it for all to see. Which seems to be the usual story, or so all of my friends claim.

Kotex

Feminine hygiene company Kotex had an interesting idea. For their “Inspiration Day” campaign, they chose fifty female bloggers that were popular on Pinterest. The company put together a “digital gift” and sent it to each woman. The idea was that they would repin it and get a real one in the mail.

The real gift was a collection of Kotex items and versions of things that they had pinned on their account. Both the digital and the real gifts ended up being massive hits, generating a ton of exposure for the company.

It was a cool idea that shows the way personalized marketing can be utilized to great effect on the latest social networking website. You are also able to clearly see how content can be more than just a status message.

Why It Was Creative: The use of both a digital and real life item changed the way marketing is approached online.

Sephora

With so many images dedicated to cosmetics and beauty on Pinterest, it wasn’t a surprise when a company dealing with the industry got involved. Sephora was the first to come up with a marketing campaign aimed around winning cosmetic products.

The idea was to get their pictures shared with both the friends of participants, and on the main Hair and Beauty category page. They accomplished this by having each participating user create a separate Sephora board. They then pinned five pictures of their products, as well as the contest page to that board.

Winners were given a $250 Sephora gift card.

Why It Was Creative: It was ridiculously simple. Not only did it create a great deal of visibility, but it was an affordable way of doing so.

British Midland International

BMI created an interesting version of the marketing campaign that took the form of a lottery. They encouraged Pinterest users to pin six pictures from a list of numbered photos on their main board that showed dozens of travel destinations covered in packages from the company. They had an overwhelming response, with thousands of submissions.

At the end of the submission period, BMI picked six random images in a specific order. Anyone who had the combination of six images in the right order won a paid vacation.

Why It Was Creative: It played off of an old concept to create something new. It generated enough interest that word of the lottery was shared all over the web, as well. As you can see by this article, it is still being talked about today.

Conclusion

Pinterest is an excellent way of getting a message across and establishing brand loyalty. It’s the tool each online marketing company should embrace. While the site is still gaining a following, there is no denying that people are more willing to share an image than a word of mouth recommendation.

What campaigns have you been impressed by lately on Pinterest? Let us know in the comments.

Google Hangout (it sounds a lot like Disney on Ice, but it’s not a Disney play about Google) is one of Google Plus’s features designed to break people away from Facebook. It tries to do this by making video calls easy and enabling you to easily chat with multiple people at once. Recently, Google removed the number of users cap from its potentially killer app, so you can now use Google Plus as more of a broadcast and less of a social medium to reach out to your audience. In this Future of Engagement episode, I look at Google Hangouts on Air and what companies might use them for.

Future of Engagement is sponsored by Alerti social media monitoring tool.

Affiliate marketing has grown from a means of establishing a side income to a multi-million dollar business over the past decade, creating a massive industry in itself with millions of professionals profiting from it every year.

Whether you’re an established affiliate marketer looking to hone your skills in the interest of increased profits or an utter newbie looking to get informed before taking the plunge, the many conferences and live events centered around this niche offer a fantastic means of getting and staying in the loop! Here are six of the best affiliate marketing events to visit in 2012:

1. Affiliate Summit East 2012

The luxurious Hilton New York City will play host this August to the Affiliate Summit East 2012 conference, a three day gathering of affiliate sales and marketing professionals offering numerous workshops and seminars, educational sessions and more! Affiliates looking to expand their horizons with new products and services will find this event particularly useful with its side-running vendor show and meet and greet.

The city: The official NYC city guide

2. Affiliate Management Days – East Coast Edition

Coming this fall, Affiliate Management Days focuses on managers of affiliate programs and the task of continuously growing a professional affiliate marketing effort. With keynote addresses expected from representatives of many major retail firms who have had success with affiliate sales, managers of all types of affiliate programs, along with their marketing counterparts, stand to improve their skills and unveil new opportunities for their own businesses.

Topics covered will include affiliate recruitment, the importance of analytics, conversion optimization, types and value of affiliates and much more!

The city: East Coast

3. PubCon Las Vegas 2012

Organized and sponsored by popular web development resource website WebmasterWorld.com, PubCon is a long-running and hugely popular event for those interested in expanding their affiliate sales efforts by improving skills in internet and social media marketing, search engine optimization and general advertising. Set to be held in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada, PubCon 2012 will offer a full week of conferences, networking opportunities and other events with more than 200 speakers taking part in more than 100 individual sessions, each aimed at helping you to be a better affiliate marketer.

The city: Las Vegas City Guide

4. Share A Sale Think Tank 2012

Aimed specifically at affiliate marketers involved with the Share-a-Sale network but offering valuable resources for anyone with an interest in the industry in general, Think Tank 2012 will provide side-by-side events aimed at both affiliates and merchants, bringing the two together in an effort to help foster new relationships and new revenue streams. The event’s schedule of workshops is kept intentionally loose in an effort to promote a more free-flowing environment, making this one of the best networking opportunities for affiliate marketers in 2012!

The city: The events take place around the US. The upcomins ones include Austine (see Austin Itinerary Ideas) and San Diego (bookmark attractions in San Diego)

5. Symposium New York City 2012

Formally known as Symposium East, the newly-minted Symposium New York is planned for this coming June at the iconic Waldorf Astoria Hotel, hosted by LinkShare and bringing a wealth of information to affiliate marketers small and large. Featuring two full days of forums, speeches and workshops, the busy schedule culminates in a relaxed breakfast intended to help affiliate marketers and managers come together, forging new relationships and expanding business efforts in an environment that demands exactly that!

6. a4u Expo 2012

A trip to Barcelona this summer could offer not only the beautiful sights of Spain but a solid course on the inner workings of European affiliation programs as well! Whether you’re seeking new vendors to work with or simply want to keep your finger on the pulse of affiliate sales around the world, a4u’s bringing together of more than 900 representatives from the global pool of both marketers and managers make this one event that no truly passionate affiliate marketer should miss out on.

The city: Barcelona tourism guide

Are you visiting any of them?

In 1998, Ramon De Leon of Domino’s Pizza started using an early social tool, AOL Instant Messenger, to connect with Domino’s customers. Even before social media became popular, he created social content that is designed to go viral. Today, his engagement techniques are used by Domino’s across the country and they continue to be developed as technology and social networking evolve. In this Future of Publishing episode, Murray Newlands interviews Ramon De Leon about social content creation and how Domino’s used it to increase customer satisfaction and gain a competitive edge on its competitors.

Highlights

• Make content that’s designed to go viral
• Truly engage with your customers and readers
• Measure the ROI on your social media investments

Future of Publishing is sponsored by VigLink. If you enjoyed the show, be sure to Like Future of Publishing on Facebook!

Social media monitoring tools are of great aid to online marketing campaigns, especially in today’s social-dominated market. However, many older tools are hard to use and don’t come with tutorials, so I hope I can give you one in plain English that will help you better use these tools to improve your marketing campaign. Watch my quick social media monitoring tutorial for Future of Engagement below:

Highlights:

• SMM tools can be used to know what your niche audience likes…
• By hearing what they say on social media.
• You can then write content that appeals to them based on this knowledge.

This is the third and final part of the affiliate marketing series within the larger Future of Engagement TV show. In this episode, Oliver Roup and his panel of experts drill down on affiliate fraud: How to catch it, how to stop it, and what to do about it. Find out more:

Highlights:

• Fraudulent leadsdo not reflect real-life statistics…
• They’re frequently from new publishers who produce more leads than a publisher of their quality should be producing…
• But auto-banning publishers with “explosions” of registrations can also nab some of your best publishers.

Future of Publishing is sponsored by VigLink. If you enjoyed the show, be sure to Like Future of Publishing on Facebook!