The recent manufactured need for companies to hire “social media gurus” skillfully debunked by Matt Haughey in this post:
So maybe instead of getting your company on twitter, paying marketers to mention you are on twitter, and paying people to blog about your company, forget all that and just make awesome stuff that gets people excited about your products, hire people that represent the company well, and when your stuff is so awesome that friends share it with other friends, you may not even need “social media marketing” after all.
(via A Whole Lotta Nothing: This is how Social Media really works)
I was excited to try out the freshly announced Google Voice, open initially only to GrandCentral users. Since the company was acquired so long ago, I couldn’t remember if I had, in fact, actually signed up for Grand Central. this morning, when I tried to log in with my Google account, I was greeted with this screen above.
My takeaway: I guess I’m not a GrandCentral subscriber and Google really dropped the ball on an opportunity to educate and excite potential future users of their new service.
Update: Google fixed the landing page for Google users that aren’t yet able to use the service. Well played, GOOG, well played…
This is a sign from the window of a local shop in Park Slope, Goldy and Mac. I love seeing local businesses pushing people online in an effort to get more of them into the store.
Years ago, we spec’ed out some stuff to be built on the dodgeball platform that would empower local businesses to build what were essentially local + mobile loyalty programs: your pub is empty at 5pm on a Sunday? Quickly send out a text message to all your fans (“Come by before 7pm tonight and get half priced drinks!”) It looks like Goldy + Mac has found another way to approach this. Tying this to real-time mobile alerts is just a short step away. Good stuff.
I recently ordered a new over-the-shouler bag called, ahem, the “Blogger” (nevermind my friends, the name makes me want to make fun of myself) from Timbuk2. The bag looks like this:
…and while this isn’t meant to be a bag review, let me say that this is one of the better bags I’ve owned (and I’ve owned quite a few, sister!).
Quick lightning review of the things I like:
- portrait-style orientation makes for a much more nimble profile, particularly in crowded subways.
- lots of pockets for digicams, wires and such.
- side pouches for water bottles, etc.
- luxurious corduroy-lined pocket for my laptop separate from main compartment.
- ruggedized bottom that can withstand the muck I encounter on a day to day basis.
- not going to lie: I love the herringbone.
All in all, I highly recommend this bag. That concludes our digression. Now back to the original purpose of this post…
Timbuk2 ships their bags in these plastic pouches with a map of San Francisco on it:
Always a lover of maps I thought it was a nice touch to have a custom bag for their merchandise. Upon closer inspection I saw that it was in fact a bike map of San Francisco (that happens to be waterproof thanks to the material it’s printed on) so not only did they create something visually appealing, very much on-brand for a company founded in San Francisco in 1989, and environmentally conscious, it’s also useful (for those that live in San Francisco).
Check out a closeup of the message. Note how the tone and copy (“…stop kicking mother nature in the nads…” – ha!) are spot on for the brand.
My friend Ali, who writes for the excellent Next Great Thing blog covering mobile trends, recently posted this screenshot to flickr:
It’s great to see a restaurant (the delicious Cube 63) proactively using text messaging to streamline (and improve) the customer’s reservation process.
Social sites almost always face the familiar (and intimidating) cold-start problem. Essentially it boils down to a chicken and egg problem – how are you supposed to find clever ways to bring people together when you initially know almost nothing about them. People have grown weary of filling out the tired “My Favorite Book/Movie/Sandwich is…” lists so it’s interesting to see other ways companies go about getting information from people in order to better match them up with others.
Trusted Places , a social cityguide in the U.K., takes a more visual/tactile approach, letting users drag and drop different foods (Yay! Peking Duck!… Boo! London Broil!) in order to quickly build up a profile of tastes. While not perfect, I appreciate the attempt to make this somewhat mundane problem a little more playful.
Try it out here.
Imagine all the cool apps you could build on top of this.
Judging by the upcoming potential budget cuts and slashed lines, I don’t see something like this in our MTA’s future. Sniffle.
… basically this is the type of data that drives the signs you see on the L train ("Next Train: 25 minutes"). Now imagine building this into an iPhone app or something so whenever you are standing over a subway station (GPS!) the phone can tel you whether it’s worth going in and paying the $2 (vs. you sitting around waiting 45 mins for the next train)…. or your phone buzzing with an SMS before you leave your apt for work / airport/ night out letting you know the F train is on fire / delayed 20 minutes / etc
Read more over at Dennis’.
Disclaimer: While I am an Obama supporter and really appreciate that his campaign is the one that’s finding new ways to leverage technology (and in turn engage new groups of voters), the features that make this app is so great are smart in and of themselves.
Back to the app!
I can’t say enough about how impressed I am with the Obama ’08 iPhone app (iTunes link) that was released yesterday. The thoroughness and the polish really shows how a political process so often stuck in the past can really be revolutionized in 4 short years.
My favorite things about the app:
- Sorting your contacts by battleground states first and noting whether or not I’ve called them yet
- Leveraging location to help you find local events, debate watching parties, etc.
- Well-organized display of where BO stands on all the major issues making it dead simple for people to educate themselves (and in turn, educate others)
- Persistent, easy (almost too easy) way to donate
- Easy access to national, state, and local news regarding the campaign
There are, of course, other features that you’d expect: sign up for alerts + watch videos (I’d like tighter integration with the video player a la MLB At Bat).
Anyway, I highly recommend you check it out to get a glimpse at how politics (and political movements) are changing in a way that, I imagine, no generation before us has witnessed.
Read more about it here.
Now I’m going to go back to my side of the aisle real quick…
I tweeted about this yesterday but I enjoy imagining what features a quickly hacked together McCain/Palin iPhone app might have: A random newspaper name generator? “Places one can drill” game? 101 ways to work the word “maverick” into a sentence? What else?
(courtesy of the always great Pasta&Vinegar)
One of the most interesting service you find on the street in Peru (and I am sure you can also get it in other countries) is the “llamadas”. It’s generally women or teenagers with a bundle of mobile phones and a stop-watch who act as pay phones. They wear colorful clothes with mobile carriers brands and the “llamadas” logo (that they also shout when you pass by).
Very cool.
Read the rest here.
Carlo Longino of MobHappy has a quick post about a grill he saw at Lowe’s that came emblazoned with a 1-800 number providing the customer with a feature-by-feature voice walkthrough of the grill in question.
While not the sexiest application of mobile technology, it’s nice to see companies getting hip to using the mobile phone as a tool rather than merely a communication device.