SEO Werkt!

“So easy even a caveman could do it.” 

“Where’s the beef?”

“Eat Mor Chikin!”

What is it about these phrases and accompanying images from classic Geico, Wendy’s and Chick-Fil-A commercials that made them so memorable? And, for many of us, make them unforgettable today.

In the classic  2007 best-seller, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Chip and Dan Heath explain brilliantly why such “sticky” ideas escape the dustbin of history and provide a framework that enables us to communicate more effectively.

The classic two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese (..) sandwich isn’t that hard to recreate at home (in fact, we’ve got two DIY recipes for you to choose from), but there’s no more authoritative source than McDonald’s own executive chef. More »

If you’re hosting a barbecue this summer, the last thing you may be thinking about is how healthy the food you’re cooking up will be, but good news: if you’re buying the ground beef for your burgers yourself, forming your own patties, and grilling them yourself, you’re already doing your health—and your guests’ health—a favor. Here’s why. More »

Canadians are asking questions of McDonald’s.

“Does your Egg McMuffin use real eggs?”

“How is it that Burger King has a veggie burger and McDonald’s doesn’t?”

“Is there beef in your fries?”

“We know that there are questions out there, and that there are myths out there,” McDonald’s Canada chief marketing officer Joel Yashinsky said to The Globe and Mail. “We need to have a conversation with our customers, and social media allows us to do that.”

Of course, there’s transparency and then there’s radical transparency. In this next video, we go behind the scenes to see what’s inside a Chicken McNugget, which pushes the envelope a bit further than the advertising-related question-and-answer video above.

I like this campaign, but I can’t help but wondering how far the brand will go with it, and more importantly, what they may learn in the process. For instance, will McDonald’s Canada entertain this question: “Why do you support factory farms?”

A conversational campaign is a start, a show of good faith, but will McDonald’s Canada ever be able to see themselves as an active driver of a larger environmental and health problem, and then act to modify their practices and run the company in more sustainable ways? I would ask that of the entire corporation, but let’s see if the Canadians can alter not just perception, but reality. Then we can see how that’s playing in Oak Brook.

All businesses love to boast about how many “likes” they have on Facebook. For example, Arby’s—the fast food chain known for its roast beef sandwich and curly fries—recently celebrated its one million “likes” on Facebook. Arby’s fans will even receive a free t-shirt in appreciation.

The number of “likes” for Arby’s is impressive, especially considering new data shows that the switch to Facebook’s Timeline has slightly slowed down the number of “likes” for big-name organizations. But while the figures give the chain restaurant some bragging rights, do all those “likes” mean that Arby’s sales are booming?

Not necessarily.

A new study shows that “likes” may not even mean anything at all in the offline world, especially with Millennials (people born in 1980 onward) who have more than $170 billion in annual purchasing power.

According to a team of researchers from Appalachian State University in North Carolina, marketers need to stop focusing on gathering “likes” and really start focusing on engaging and interacting with their fans. Just acquiring “likes” doesn’t do much.

For the study, more than 400 Millennials were asked about their interaction with Facebook Fan Pages. Though the study revealed that a whopping 75% of test subjects “liked” a business or organization at one point, 69% admitted that once “liked” they rarely or never returned to the Fan Page. “Millennials reported that not as much thought goes into liking as brands probably want,” says lead researcher Tina McCorkindale on her blog. “Few actively sought organizations online to like.”

Returning to a Fan Page played a much more important role if the test subject felt a closer connection to the organization or brand offline already, such as “liking” one’s alma mater. But most surveyed Millenials said they weren’t invested in most of the organizations or brands that they “liked.” However, “liking” a page does give marketers the opportunity to appear on a user’s Facebook feed. That’s where businesses get a chance to say, “Hey! Remember me? Come check out my Page.”

Calling attention to yourself is tricky, though. You have to seize the opportunity correctly. How to go about this? It’s up to you and your marketing team to come up with a plausible strategy. The study does give some insight to what not to do. For example, the study revealed that if a brand or organization got “too annoying”—meaning excessive updates or bombarding with too many “coupons” or even mostly just sold products—a user was more likely to leave or “unlike” a Fan Page. But offering incentives ever so often, such as contests with award prizes, were favored.

Angelita Williams, who writes on the topics of online courses. You can contact her at angelita.williams7@gmail.com.

Photo courtesy of Bigstock: Facebook Like Dislike)

If you want the juiciest, most flavorful steak you can cook, look for plenty of fat throughout the meat. Serious Eats’ guide to grilling steak says marbling is a more important quality to look for than just the grade of the beef (Prime, Choice, or Select). More »

Funzio is three for three on the iPhone. The social-mobile game maker’s latest release, Kingdom Age, had more than 1 million downloads in its first five days on the Apple iTunes App Store.

Kingdom Age is a “high fantasy” title where you can battle monsters and beef up your skills in a single-player mode. Or, you can compete against your friends in multiplayer combat.

Since the game launched on April 19, players have trained more than 5 million troops. And players have fought more than 20 million battles, said Jamil Moledina, vice president of business development at the San Francisco, Calif.-based Funzio.

“In five days, more than 93 years of total time was spent playing the game,” Moledina said.”The amount of time people spend in the game is much higher than our previous games.”

Modern War, for instance, had 50 years of game play in its first five days. Funzio’s Crime City game also hit the top ranks of the App Store. And right now, all three of Funzio’s games were ranked in the top 25 grossing apps on the App Store during the past weekend.

“We can’t recall another example of this happening,” Moledina said.

It is exceedingly hard to do, considering that mobile games have to spread either via word of mouth or relatively expensive advertising.

This is one reason why Funzio may be raising a lot of money right now, possibly raising $50 million at a $350 million valuation.

Moledina said the mobile game market is starting to mature, and ad costs are going up.

“To play by the rules, you have to spend money on advertising,” he said. “You also have to make a game that is really fun to play. That’s a key part of how our games have wide appeal.”

Moledina said all three of the games are rated at least 4.5 out of 5 stars. And each game has also had good promotion. Apple featured Kingdom Age as “new and noteworthy” and on the “hot” section. While the first two were definitely male-oriented hardcore games, Kingdom Age has wider demographic appeal, Moledina said.

Filed under: games, gbunfiltered, mobile, VentureBeat

The Spectrum has been a busy little diva the last few days, strutting in and out of our NYC studio like she belongs there. So much in fact, that I’ve given her a gender and started to refer to her in gender-specific pronouns. A scary thought, to say the least.

Matt seems less perturbed by her presence, though I was (and still am) more than willing to duke it out with him over the value of this here phone.

Here’s the deal: The LG Spectrum has solid specs — 4G LTE, 4.5-inch 720p TrueHD display, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, and a solid little 8-megapixel camera all at a reasonable $200 price (on contract, of course). It also happens to look and feel cheap. This is my main beef with the phone, and to me it was a deal-breaker.

Matt, on the other hand, sees potential in the Spectrum, viewing the price-point and the specs as a winning combo (despite the fact that it’s likely to be the ugliest phone in the store). But is that enough to stake his word on it and give it a Fly?

Meat, especially steaks, can be expensive budget busters. To save money, buy cheaper larger beef portions such as a boneless chuck roast and ask the butcher to slice the roast into steaks. The most tender part of the boneless chuck roast is the chuck eye steak, which normally sells for double the cost per pound than just a boneless chuck roast. More »

By now you may have heard of a problem where beef waste products—lovingly called “pink slime”—are being processed and, according to ABC News, sold as actual actual meat in most supermarkets. If this sounds gross and you don’t want it in your meat, here’s how you can avoid it. More »