Facebook emoticons saw a wide rollout this month, but why should brands care? New approaches to EdgeRank may be why.

Because there’s always better, more comprehensive ways to “like” something, Facebook this month rolled out what’s being called “visual sharing” - and emoticons - directly into status updates.

The shortlist for what Zuckerberg’s crew thinks users may be doing includes drinking and eating; reading, listening or watching; and feeling. This, naturally, could lead to increased shares of brand Facebook pages. And, to most online/social marketers, that should be good enough bait to herald this new development. 

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I’m passionate about two things in my life: the future and fish. To start with the future, I think we’re heading into the most exciting 50 years in human history. Things like 3D printing (buildings, CPG, body parts), recreational space travel and driverless cars are among the short list of innovations that will become ubiquitous in my lifetime and are so insanely science fiction that the effects will be nothing short of life-changing for all of us. I’ve been incredibly excited about the future for a long time, so much so that as a fifth grader I gave my Jr. Toastmaster speech on how the computer was going to change the world. These are not the kinds of speeches that attract female fifth graders… but I persisted.

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I was brushing my teeth the other night before bed and all of a sudden I heard loud unexpected explosions from the Westside Highway near Hell’s Kitchen; some sort of attack raced through my mind.

Reassuring myself that was unlikely, I brushed away, but the explosions kept coming, and coming, and coming.

Not native to these shores, my imagination got the better of me so I dropped my toothbrush and ran through to my living room (which is also my kitchen, hall and dining room, etc. – its NYC!) and looked out the windows – nothing.

With no identification of the source, I took to search to find answers.

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Looking to impact your healthcare professional audience more effectively?  Or maybe you’re simply trying to get their attention and differentiate yourself from the sea of emails, healthcare apps, detail aids, and other educational materials and tools that already exist.  In either case, there are a few basic tenants to follow when it comes to digital marketing to HCPs.

Get To the Point.  It’s no secret that HCPs are short on time.  Increasing bureaucratic and administrative demands and decreasing reimbursements have reduced the time of a typical office visit with a primary care provider to less than 15 minutes.  Physicians are loathe to spend valuable time out of their day having lengthy chats with sales reps and pouring through complicated detail aids and other materials.  Many of those carefully crafted lengthy e-newsletters (often times with valuable content) get deleted before they ever get opened.  In a time-crunched environment of information overload, it’s best to quickly get to the point.  Think of the 2-3 bullet points that you want your customer to remember, and get to those points as quickly as possible.   

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Raw. Transparent. Insightful. Just some of the adjectives that come to mind after reading the @kobebryant post-injury rant on his Facebook page last weekend. A must read if you haven’t done so yet, the post offers a rare peak-behind-the-curtain inside the mind of one of the greatest active basketball players to ever play the game on the heels of learning that he suffered a season ending torn Achilles.

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