The Curator's News Feed: Feb. 10, 2012
What's hitting the Curator team's RSS feed this week? Pinterest and more Pinterest, plus how to reinvent your personal brand and the top 10 fashion tech startups to watch. Happy reading. Pearls Before Breakfast, The Washington Post: What happens when you plop an internationally acclaimed classical musician in the middle of a busy metro station? This experiment offers an interesting metaphor for those of us in communications. Be mindful to deliver your message to the right audience in the right place at the right time, or risk having it completely disappear into thin air (from 2007, but still relevant.) - Ann Marie
Samsung's Thing Called Love Ad: The Anti-Apple? Mashable: The Samsung Galaxy Super Bowl ad was sure to inspire a little feel-good freedom from the doldrums of the “i” world - at least, that’s what they were hoping. The trouble with anti-Apple advertising is that the product has to actually deliver. There is a reason people stand in line for days to get their hands on Apple’s latest offering, and it will take more than a stylus to inspire them to break into song and dance. Do you think the 90-second (read $10+ million) spot intrigued Apple fan boys/girls? - Matthew
What You Need to Know About Pinterest, Time Techland: Pinterest, as you know, has been getting a lot of coverage lately. This one’s worth a read for anyone thinking about setting up an account. - Dan
Pinterest Partner: Yes, They're Making Money from Pins, Mashable: Pinterest is already generating revenue, something that other social media sites took a long time to figure out how to do (or still haven’t, for that matter). I think that Pinterest has a unique opportunity here because they are able to track pins and essentially get a kick-back when a user makes a purchase from one of the links that was pinned. No other social media platform has this opportunity, or at least hasn’t found a way to capitalize on it yet, so I think Pinterest is way ahead of the game. - Megan
Reinventing Personal Brand – Building By Learning from the Masters, Forbes: This highlights the history of personal brand-building, digital media and traditional media, and how Forbes is mapping its strategy. What’s interesting in reading the article, is that the idea of social media and self-branding is nothing new – it’s essentially allowing more people to become content creators under one unifying company (or, social platform). Similar to how news outlets have allowed contributing authors to write about their opinions under an existing business umbrella – a continuing practice of Forbes. - Annie
10 Fashion Tech Startups to Watch, Fashionista: I love watching the collision of fashion and technology! There are some clever ideas in there, and with both industries being at the forefront of our cultural evolution, it’s so interesting to see how they adapt and shift together. - Julia
Amazon in Process of Launching a Retail Store, Good E Reader: The ultimate online retailer is going brick-and-mortar? This report claims they're planning a Seattle "boutique" that will sell Kindles, e-reader accessories and (gasp!) actual books. Now that Amazon has its own publishing division, they need a place to sell 'em! I'm picturing the Amazon boutique as comparable to an Apple or Microsoft store, with sleek design, committed customer service and high-margin items galore. Will it work? I'm betting the opportunity to get tactile with a new Kindle Fire will draw in consumers, but not sure straying from their online bread-and-butter is the best strategy long-term.