Space Agency Notes

Mobile Monday - What is Mobile Good For?

2012-01-23T05:23:00.000-08:00

On Friday I presented the Un-Mobile Edition discussing the limitations of mobile now that I have had to use it for work while I sit like a rotting egg on a hot summer pavement for Square Trade to even update me on my warranty (I don't think I am going with them next time I get a computer and will gladly pay a premium for quicker support).

Now that I got that dig in....

What do I use Mobile for?

I read a ton of news and there is some great APPs from many news sources that are free:

Huffington Post, McClatchy, NY Daily News (for my NY Sports coverage), Bloomberg (but that black background and white text can be painful), Washington Post, BBC News, ESPN Score Center (also has great sports news), and New Scientist all are great.

As a dig to all the Social media wonks Bloomberg and BBC do not have social sharing functions which is something I find interesting because these media outlets are not making money on ads for the most part. I mean they serve them but they are never relevant (will discuss next post). You would think they would want you linking stories on their website so that it will drive traffic there where ads are more premium (though still mostly unrelevent!).

I use Soundcloud and Double Twist for music and now this has replaced my IPod. Soundcloud excels for Electronica and quite a few bands allow you to stream their music. If you prefer underground music like I do there is tons of stuff including a lot you can download for free. Even the Foo Fighters jumped on board releasing their last album on the platform.

I don't really shop. When my laptop went down I decided to use Amazon to look for a replacement. Web shopping sucks. It is very time consuming because you have to shop page by agonizing page, vs say going to a store and seeing everything at once. Mobile is even more painful. So while I am totally bullish on Amazon's Price Checker App for when I am in a store, shopping is not going Mobile for me in it's current format.

Research/Resources. Movie Times/Listings. Trivia needs (ever get into a dumb argument over something with a friend?) IMDB and Wikipedia. Finding a restaurant and calling them (Yelp! is pretty good). Sports Scores.

Social Media I use Hootsuite for my @SkyPulseMedia and running a client's Twitter program. And I use the Google Plus App which is pretty slick.

I take a lot of photos and often email them to friends or upload to Twitter or G+ depending on the content. Personal stuff I share via email (and text) more general stuff I will share with my networks. I never used Facebook mobile in fear they will know my cell number and sell it to marketers.

I don't do much web surfing because the screen is too small and I hate zooming in and out. But I have been reading some blogs and even used Livefyre when it is working on them for commenting. I do not watch much video. But find myself doing more of this. Ironically the YouTube App is struggling on my Android. If anything that should never occur considering they are Google Products. But although more and more video is watched on Mobile devices, we all know we prefer big screens to small for this.

Other APPs I use:

Google Goggles for QR Codes, Flash Light (indispensable), Evernote for Tasks and Reminders, the Calendar which is connected with my Gmail account, Gmail, GPS (Google Navigation is awesome), Google Earth/Sky, and Voice Search (Google get's it right 90% of the time), Calculator, and lastly Cardio Trainer which is an awesome program for running, hiking, biking.

Lastly yes I make phone calls and SMS Text. In fact most of my mobile communication is private vs public/social. I am sure the same is for you as well.

As you can see I use my Android Phone for a lot of tasks and uses. This does not mean it is easy for a Brand or Marketer to reach me. But they can and next post will discuss some ways to do so.

How do you use your Mobile Device?

Mobile Friday - the Un-Mobile Edition

2012-01-20T06:49:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the black out here. No this was not SOPA related even though we are against SOPA and PIPA.

This was computer related. The laptop died. It was warrantied through Square Trade. Which btw if you can go 2-3 weeks without your computer they are a good deal, but I have buyers remorse since using my computer for business it is critical to my livelihood. Sometimes those expensive repair shops can be worth it!

Secondly been using Mac's from my partner and family. And I am not a convert. I long for Windows everyday and I am not a Microsoft guy. I don't even use any of their software besides Windows!

So since I have a mobile marketing focus here, but not mobile technology I decided to see how much I can do on my phone for work. And guess what? Not much.

Screen is too small for web work. My Droid 2 has a nice sized screen but most web sites are not mobile formatted. And that Apple commercial showing the easy zoom in zoom out? Biggest crock of shit ever. I DON'T WANT TO ZOOM IN OR OUT!

What about productivity APPs? I have some but I am not a tech whiz who has integrated my work with my mobile. Really don't want too. I like a big screen and happy with my Laptop for work.

I do use a Calendar for appointments and meetings. I use Evernote for notes and my To Do list.

Skype Mobile kind of sucks. I tried adding a third party to a call and it failed.

Facebook was a big failure. I run a client's page and couldn't through the Mobile Web nor the Facebook APP.

I don't have my work email on my Droid. Already pay way too much for phone, sms, and data. Adding another $20 for that with Verizon and I am approaching a car payment per month.

Blog reading and Livefyre commenting worked pretty well. I participate in many communities and was able to keep up.

I use Opera Web Browser. Pretty happy with it overall. But some websites with lots of bells and whistles appeared messed up. Though very easy to share links.

Hootsuite for my professional and client tweeting is excellent.

Biggest failure? I wanted to blog. I like to add photos or other content. Very hard on a phone to surf the web for a media item then add it to a blog post. Never mind how unwieldy it is on the mobile web.

Verdict? Mobile will never replace a Laptop for work. Tablet's have potential though I like a keyboard. If voice recognition allows me to speak vs type then maybe I can make the switch. And that could be the solution for mobile one day as well.

Monday I will post what I think mobile is great for and the areas of shortcomings with a consumer use focus.

The Limited Super Powers of Social Media

2012-01-09T12:21:00.000-08:00

Social Media is so powerful it can leap buildings in a single bound. It can topple Governments, start revolutions, cook you dinner. Uhm yeah right.

I like the real world. You know that world that Klout doesn't measure. In the past I have tried using my extensive Twitter network (professional network that now has people I call real friends) and Facebook network (real friends...like friends pre-Facebook....ones I am close with off line) to help with everything from choosing cell phones to recipes. In my network I will get maybe a response or two.

My client Chunk-n-Chip has given me free reign to try everything I want for their marketing. It is from running their Facebook page and seeing 80% of Fans with 100% private profiles that I investigated just how much of Facebook is private thus negating the 'Privacy is Dead' mantra from idiots like Pete Cashmore.

Well my client makes one of the best gourmet ice cream sandwiches on Earth. They are based in Los Angeles/Orange County. Most of my friends are in Los Angeles. Do you know how many out of 300 are Fans on Facebook? 8. Do you know how many I have contacted to give away free BOO-Yahs!! who then don't take me up on it? A lot. My client has a rabid customer base. People drive 30 mins or more through Los Angeles Traffic to find them. Yet on Twitter I rarely get more than 3 or 4 out 4700 Followers playing a game to give them away.

Now comes this Eat St contest. We created this video hoping to win a segment on the Food Network Show. The requirement to vote is to register. People can vote once per day. We have about 18 employees. I told them all to register, to tell their friends and family, to post on Facebook to help us win! Vote everyday! We have 23 votes since January 5th! If you click the link and see votes vs views for all the submissions you will be amazed. If you don't think every one of these businesses hasn't told friends and family to help vote. To all share with their networks, why such a poor vote turn out?

Power of social media? KLOUT? People will do easy things. But make them take effort is hard. Social Media does nopt fix the need for a carrot. A BIG CARROT! Unless they are pissed they are passive users when it comes to Brands. Chat someone up about football people jump in. Mention a Brand and echos. I see this on major Brand Facebook pages when on average less than 0.01% of Fans participate.

And thus is the big lie. The Power of Social Media happens only when people are pissed or bribed. Rarely does it just work because 'People want and love to share or participate'. You need to give them a reason and often this is a bribe. And bribes aren't always the best way to incentivize customers. In fact it could erode your Brand Image or your Pricing Power and Margins. But you need to give Fans a reason to take Action. This is the hardest part of Social Media. Things don't happen by magic and they aren't easy.

BTW prove me wrong. Register on Eat St and help my client win by voting. I bet you won't. Your lazy and are thinking 'What is in it for me?' just like everyone else.

Google Plus is a Conversational Game Changer

2012-01-05T16:33:00.000-08:00

For anyone who has been playing on Google Plus the one thing everyone including myself has said is that it allows better conversations than Facebook or Twitter. Lengthy ones too. The format for this is almost as good as Livefyre for blogs. The difference is Livefyre allows you to bring in people from Twitter very easily.

So why do I say this is a game changer? For anyone who watches the Daily Show like I do and laughs as Jon Stewart slaughters Fox News almost every night for fibbing, being hypocritical, and sometimes blatant lies you feel Jon is responding for you. We can not respond directly to Fox News. Yes we can tweet. But who will see. Yes they have a Facebook page but it is all short form.

But on Google Plus even though they have the Mastheads of their Talking Heads. Their posts are very...well...Newsy. They don't really talk opinionated Politics. Why? Because people are talking back. When they first started their Google Plus page they had hundreds of people commenting when they went political. Mostly negative. And guess what? You can't turn it off like you can on Facebook!

So they are actually the News Organization they claim to be on TV but generally aren't in my opinion. There is no crazy Hannity attacks or weird hypocrisy from Fox and Friends. It is just News. And that is because for the first time...people can talk back to them vs just Jon Stewart. And they can not stop this.

So warning to Brands who venture into the Google Plus space. Maybe being a good citizen, or giving good customer service should be a focus for you. Because if you have a Google Plus Brand page, while people can't wall post, they sure can comment and you can not stop them.

First Post of 2012

2012-01-03T07:10:00.000-08:00

Well here is to a great year for everyone. Alien's are an optimistic bunch so let's focus on a good year with lot's of growth for business, personally and having fun while at it. Now that the Space Daiquiri hangover is gone let's get down to business.

First off we will be blogging more often again and most likely moving the blog to a different platform in the next 3 months. Being bullish on Google as possibly taking over the net if they can integrate everything, who is to say Blogger can't be something beyond a simple blog one day? The G+ integration with other Google properties has slowly begun.

If you have not visited our Brand Page on Google Plus please do. We will be sharing our posts from here, news articles of note, and other stellar blog posts relative to advertising, marketing, business, mobile and social.

Sky Pulse Media on Google Plus

Next there was this great article written by Henry Blodget of Business Insider that discusses the misleading view that Facebook is beating Google. What Henry uses so incredibly is the data that us Alien's you always see crunching over and over to prove our points. The fact is currently Facebook in bringing in about $5 in GROSS REVENUE if that per user per year. That comes out to less than $0.50 per month. I don't know if Google has 800 million users like Facebook does. But say they did. They make over $10 in NET PROFITS per user per year and $50 per user in GROSS REVENUE.

The one thing Henry Blodget as all the Media refuse to cover is the fact that on a per person basis use of Facebook has been falling quite rapidly. It is unknown if the new timeline etc will change that. Back in April 2010 I wrote this analysis of the numbers taken directly from the Facebook Statistics Page. Since then all those stats have disappeared from the page. Why? Obviously they look unflattering. The last one to leave was time spent. It used to say 55 mins per person per day. Then 700 Billion minutes per month. Now it is gone. Because usage has dropped to below 30 mins per day per person. And that doesn't help support the IPO.

One thing Henry might agree on is my view that Facebook is really a massive pump and dump scheme by some big investors hoping to leave main street with the wreckage. Remember the Web is littered with companies that ruled the Web and were called invincible: Netscape. Yahoo. AOL. AOL Time Warner. Myspace. EBay. Priceline. Etc Etc. And Facebook will be one too.

Facebook has a nice business. But who says a better communication platform won't have people leaving in droves. They did this to Myspace. They will do it to Facebook if the offer is good enough. And technically facebook has had nothing but massive failures outside of photo sharing. Open Graph, Places, Commerce, Brand Pages. Nothing has been a huge success for participation. Because as Henry points out, we want to be social on Facebook vs hang with Brands.

Fact is...No one watches Ads on YouTube....

2011-12-27T08:50:00.000-08:00

I love the end of year Best of Series that comes out for advertising.

Ad Week has the Top 10 watched Ads for 2011 on YouTube

Now before you click remember the following:

There are 250mil consumers age 14 and above in the US.
Views are not Uniques. The are total views.
A major national brand will pay millions if not billions to reach 100 million plus people more than once.
A Superbowl Ad runs $3 million+ for a 30 sec spot to hopefully reach 60 million or more people at one shot.
Major Brand Advertising Budgets run from $25million to over $1 Billion per year.
There are hundreds and hundreds of ads created each year and put on TV and YouTube.
Often in my opinion up to 50% of the YouTube views for advertising spots are by people in the Advertising/Marketing/Media Business.
Views are accumulative. Meaning over the course of 1 year (or less) so most of these were not viral.
Lastly views are world wide. Not US. So now think 2 billion consumers.

With all this information now when you see that the number 1 ad which was the VW 'Force' ad which was cute, entertaining, 'DOESN'T SELL THE CAR!', but also a Super Bowl ad that cost $3mil+ to air, reaching 45 million views should be easy. In fact in my view it underperformed.

Many of the other spots were more organic in their boost but they all aired on TV.

The number 10 spot for Adidas if you click has 4 million views. So in 1 full year they accumulated that number of views. So if this spot aired 7 weeks into 2011 it only had 88,888 views per week which is almost zero divided by 250mil or 2bil.

Summing this up since YouTube is world wide, and we have no idea about unique views, the FACT is:

NO ONE WATCHES ADVERTISING ON YOUTUBE

What is Wrong with Advertising Trade Publications?

2011-12-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

Continuing my What isWrong series....I came across this today in Ad Age:

WhatHave Chevy, Pepsi, Sony and Verizon Gotten Out of 'X Factor'? A Lookat Their Social-Media Lift

NowI have been having fun watching TomMoradpour and ShivSigh on the Twitter live Tweeting during X Factor the last 2months when my Twitter time coincides with the show. I joke with Tomabout being a good company man and asked if his bonus is tied to hisTweeting, which made him laugh.

Nowit seems the sponsorship has garnered Pepsi a bump in Social MediaChatter. Being a Pepsi fan I am happy about this. But the reportingproves why Advertising/Marketers have such a hard time proving themoney invested shows a direct pay off. There is no mention if Pepsisales are up due to the extra chatter from the X Factor. I am notsaying there isn't. But why doesn't Ad Age ask this question?

Iam used to sites like Mashable being softies and side stepping thenit and grit of business.Just like People Magazine side steps thesame tough questions when they cover Celebrities. But no one takesMashable seriously. Atleast none of the smart people. But Ad Age is the premierAdvertising Trade Publication for Print and Online. The only other Trade Publication I have full respect for is Media Post. The rest have very shoddy reporting standards.

Andit does a disservice to the industry to not hold us accountable forgrowing sales or at least showing some sort of correlation with whatwe do. When Pepsi came out with the Refresh Project and bowed out ofthe Superbowl someone who I will not name who works at their Agencyof Record told me the purpose of the Super Bowl spots is to havepeople talk about your brand. I called Bullshit on that and still do.The purpose is to sell and if you refuse to sell don't take thebusiness. So last year after the spots with people assaultedby Pepsi cans I called for Pepsi (and still do) to find a newcreative shop because they are being hurt by their current one (sorryand I respect the incumbent but they are failing their client in my view).

Sowho pushed for the X Factor sponsorship and is this turning intosales? That is the important missing link for this campaign and for the reporting by Ad Age.

What is Wrong with Social Media

2011-12-01T06:12:00.001-08:00

I am writing this because there was a nice opportunity for Facebook to show that Viral is real and that people Share. But they blew it. And I wonder if the reason is because the reality would tarnish the view of Social prior to their coming IPO.

Yahoo News had this article:

40 Most Shared Stories on Facebook for 2011

They gave a few numbers. The top two were shared almost 600,000 times. Not bad. But I bet there were 79million stories (articles) in 2011 and with 800 million users 600k as number one was shared by 0.075% of their user base.

And when I look at Shares on Social this is incremental views for media. Meaning the majority of their readers will not come from Social and a prime website for news needs a few million readers per day. So this proves that from Facebook at least a prime news property will maybe get a boost of thousands of readers. Not enough to move any advertising dollar needles. In fact whenever I look at the LIKE button shares for major news sites rarely does that number exceed a few thousand and normally is in the hundreds.

What is worse is Facebook published this list and gave NO SHARE COUNTS! Why is that Facebook?

The Clutter that is Facebook

2011-11-29T09:08:00.001-08:00

As I peruse offers by businesses seeking help in Social Media I still see a Mad Rush into Facebook. Everyone wants Fans and their Pages to Sales Drivers.

What does this make Facebook? Like the Internet. Can you imagine trying to reach people on Facebook when they all have Liked 200+ Fan pages and have 200+ friends all vying for their place in the news feed with their posts? Facebook likes this problem. Their solution buy Facebook Ads.

Facebook is a black box. No one knows what really is going on. The new Insights show a client of mine with 2600 Fans reaching 900,000 people via the page. Uhm..right.

As more and more businesses try their own pages, vying for the same finite pool of people hoping they can reach them the odds are against you. Which brings us back to Search. And your own website. And your great product at the perfect price point matched with exemplary customer service. You will be surprised how this strategy will trounce anything you can ever do on Facebook. Assuming you can even get through to people on Facebook.

Social Media – Observing vs Participating

2011-11-14T05:10:00.001-08:00

I findit ironical that an industry like Advertising and Marketing whichloves to segment everything, then segment it again has not done thiswith Social Media. Social Media technically covers many communicationplatforms and technologies.

For aBrand to truly have a relevant strategy they need to understand therereally is just two key components for them, and then the platformsand technologies used are determined by their needs, goals, andbudgets.

Observing

EveryBrand needs to Observe. This has to be mandatory. There is so muchdata being generated that is publicly accessible in the Media,Twitter, Blogs, etc why not use it to your advantage.

1] Setup Google Alerts for you, your industry, your competitors.

2]Using various platforms you can collect data from the Twitter

3]Using high end platforms like Radian 6 or Vocus you can collect fromall online media.

Thisenables you to keep up on industry developments, what yourcompetitors are doing, and what your customers and potentialcustomers are saying.

REACTREACT REACT!

Don'tsit on this stuff. You can respond to quality issues, gleanpriorities for product improvements or even expanding into newmarkets (existing markets you are not in or creating new ones!).

The only issue is you need to be adept at understanding the data and what it means. I hate sentiment. I feel our current tools do a poor job of deciding what is positive, neutral, or negative. But you should be able to see patterns in the data.

Participation

Notevery Brand has to participate via Social Media. Facebook BrandPages, Twitter Accounts, Blogs etc are only of value if you commit tothem. You can't just set them up and let them run. You have to go allin and dedicate resources and time to engaging with your customersand people interested in your Brand or Products.

Pros:

Youcan talk directly on these platforms with your customers.
Youcan build brand loyalty.
Youcan field simple customer service issues.
Youhave easily reached touch points.
Youcan publicly react when things go wrong quickly.
Youcan have content and information spread on the web.

Ihate the word Viral. Nothing goes Viral. But even if your Fan andFollower base help expand your reach and awareness by 1% this wayisn't it worth it?

Cons:

Youare easily reachable and accessible.

Thisis a double edged sword especially for Facebook and now G+

Upsetcustomers can air their dirty laundry they have with you at lengthand in public on YOUR page. If Johnny blogs about your poor qualitywho will see it? Almost no one. But he comes to your page and thentells all your fans? Be prepared. Or like the new Fox News G+ pagethat got bombed by hundreds of people slamming them at once.

Noticethe Pro's outweigh the Con's here. But the Con is a big one. Manylarge companies prefer people call for customer service or email justso that each person does not have a public platform like they do on aFacebook or G+ page. If you are a best in class Brand you can handlethe random pissed person. But what if you are chronicallyexperiencing problems with many upset people? Here is where my peerswill disagree with me. You can spend money on employees to react viaSocial Media...or you can spend the money fixing your product orservice quality problem. You be the judge.

Why Klout is only Klout

2011-10-27T04:10:00.000-07:00

There is a lot of discussions on Klout and Social Influence lately.

Some folks like Danny Brown are upset they can not leave Klout and that they measure him against his will. You should check the lively discussion because as a champion of Opt-in I agree with Danny.

A Letter to Joe Fernandez of Klout

This blog has brought up the silliness of measuring. As well as questioning the validity of it's data measuring. I will talk about influence in general in another post. I want to break down Klout and discuss should you use it? Is the information valid?

Klout measures your reach and if your web presence is such can you be influential with the spreading of links, tweets, data etc.

The very smart Tom Moradpour who is the International Marketing Director for Pepsi says:

"Klout measures Klout"

Meaning you must decide if the definition of what Klout says it is measuring and what you feel it is, is of value.

Currently some Brands and Businesses are reaching out to people with high scores and having them test products hoping for cheap exposure. But is this smart? Are these people really influential?

Guess what? No way to ever tell. I have in the past brought up the dark underbelly of the Twitter. There are hashtags that are sexual, offensive, etc. Go to the #TCOT hashtag and you will find people calling Obama bad names, that he is communist, that he is an N word (not all but they are there). Go to the Liberal equivalent #TCOL you will people who call Bush a Nazi.

Klout has no clue if the 'network' the person they are measuring is safe for your content. Would Gerber want to learn the folks high in Klout on Babies were networked with child abusers and have this come out? There is no way to determine who's network is safe, clean, acceptable for your brand.

Lastly Klout combs your Twitter feed and if you talk about a topic you are considered an expert. This has been really amusing. I am an expert on Rick Perry now. Why? Because I was on Twitter during the last debate and Bill Green and Ben Kunz were live tweeting and making fun of the lunacy. And many tweets had Rick Perry. And I responded and retweeted. Now I am an expert on him per Klout.

Many people have topics of expertise that are really funny. Danny Brown on Sheep for example. So we have no idea who is really influential, who is an expert, who has gamed the system or not. Because it can be gamed.

Klout is just a tool. You can take it seriously or not. I personally joke that I want my score falling because I am a rebel and seriously I don't care what my score is. But that doesn't mean you can't at least use the tool and decide what it means. You can check a person's credentials to see if they are what Klout says with a simple Google search. But then what value is a service you need to do so much extra work just to find if the data is real?

New Eye Tracking Technology for Digital Ads

2011-10-24T05:45:00.000-07:00

The Economist had this interesting article about new technology that can be used to track your eyes when surfing the web and decide if an ad is working or not in hopes to get you to take action. Kind of spooky and if it is not Opt In I see major privacy issues and lawsuits over it. I know I would make sure the WebCam lense is always covered. LOL

http://www.economist.com/node/21533362

One point they bring up is the 50% of Ad Spend that is wasted but no one knows which half. (Try 75% of Ad Spend is wasted is probably reality). Why I feel this will not improve things?

First of all it benefits Ad Agencies that half the spend is wasted and their clients don't know which half. Would you as an Agency reduce your billings 50% even if you knew how to fix this?

Secondly there is only a finite amount of time we all have. Now you could theory that the improvement of seeing the right ads will keep the ad spend equal. But I am not so sure that is true.

Third I use Firefox and block all digital ads except on some very specific sites like the Economist. Firefox is used by about 30% of the population and the Ad blocker Plus Ad On is downloaded about 50mil times a year if not more.

Lastly we don't like digital ads. The average click rate is 20 times for every 10,000 page views. I don't think new technology can fix this. The flaw in the advertising business is the ad people say 'It's the ads. If we just create better ads or better technology people will LOVE advertising'

It is the biggest crock of shit ever said yet they truly believe this. It is a crock because 1] they never ask consumers if this is true and 2] if they did and started ranking things in life for importance Ads will always come last.

For example how do you want to spend your time:
Exercising. Watching TV. Reading. Cooking. Travel. Eating. Sleeping. Sex. Sports. Outdoor Activities. Advertising. Shopping. Talking with friends via Social Media. Going out to bars or partying. Spending time with family or friends. Playing video games. Surfing the internet. Entertainment.

Now you go rank where Advertising is going to show up.

Yep. Last. But Ad people refuse to believe this. And it is why not only are they suckers. It is why Brands who hire Ad People for their marketing, waste half their Ad spend each year.

Social Tuesday - Big Business Social Media

2011-10-18T11:43:00.000-07:00

Today going to discuss Big Brands (Global, National, and Regional) and what I feel they should and shouldn't do via Social Media.

Big Brands need to reach millions and millions of people today. And again tomorrow. And next week. They need to show an immediate impact on their sales and revenue streams where the baseline is hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions. They often have thousands if not tens of thousands of customer calls a day. I proved last September how customers of big brands are not being reached via Social Media. None of this can be achieved completely via Social Media.

So what can they do via Social in order to impact their business?

1] Listening - all those Tweets for your brand and your competitors, all those Facebook posts give you insight for free (minus the cost of listening tools).

2] Customer Service - while you will never be able to handle all your customer service via Social Media you can handle some. And guess what? While 99.9999% never want to talk to your brand on social often if at all...we surely want you to have a Twitter Account or Facebook Page for quick complaints and you had better respond.

My friend Christopher Baccus at ATT says they handle about 2% of the volume for customer service via Facebook. You might feel this is insignificant but if you pay the same workers who handle inbound 800 calls this saves a ton of money on an 800 line!

3] Marketing - You will never be moving the sales needle via Social Media Marketing for a big company. Get over it. Anyone who says you will is a big fat liar. But you can add to your sales. Even if it winds up just 1/2 a percent for a billion dollar company that is $50mil dollars not bad?

It's fun to do some campaigns via Social but careful about this. Facebook owns all your data. Every page post, every bit of content you run on your page they own. Who says Facebook isn't selling the Pepsi Page insights to Coca Cola and vice versa? In fact don't you expect that considering their business model is exploitation? Your competitor with deep pockets can mine all this data just like you. What about hosting an E-Commerce Store? Again Facebook owns and sees all that data do you really want them sharing with your competitor who bought what? In fact the Miami Heat had such a store. It was not an E-Commerce play vs an Impulse play. Well they took it down. Wonder why. Lack of sales? Mistrust of the platform?

How do you market to people via Social Media yet keep your cherished customer data and conversations? Easy...use Social Media to funnel customers to your proprietary website. Instead of funneling people to Facebook for an APP that is hosted on Facebook....have the APP funnel people to your tricked out campaign website hosted by you the Brand. Buy Facebook ads that bring people to your website. Post the links on the Twitter.

View Facebook no differently than Yahoo for marketing. All it is, is a big display ad website of people spending time there. You want to reach a lot of people. You must use traditional and digital Advertising/Marketing in conjunction with Social Media to really make Social Media Marketing work for you.

The Sentiment and Context Quiz

2011-10-06T07:56:00.001-07:00

One of the biggest strengths andweaknesses about the Social Web is the ability to listen and tracksentiment across the social web. Last Super Bowl Mullen Agency andRadian 6 held the Brand Bowl 2011tracking the Tweets of the participants. If you Tweeted with the#BrandBowl during the superbowl to talk about the commercials, Radian6 analyzed the results to gauge sentiment and pick the winners of thecommercials.

The strength of Social Media is thetools enabling a business to basically have a personal web botcrawling around looking for everything that is said about you on theweb: Twitter. Some Facebook. You Tube. Blogs. Media. Etc. This ispowerful stuff for any business to have. I personally do not feel itshould replace what you are currently doing, but instead add to it.Social Web is a free large scale focus group even if a little wildand wooly.

The good part is people for the mostpart talk fairly freely. The bad part is this is still a very smallpart of the conversation. There are 182 SMS Text Messages sent forevery Facebook update. High School students average 3000 texts amonth so obviously that blows away their communication on Facebook.And even text is a small % of their communication. We text, email,phone, talk in person, sit watching TV/Movies, surfing the net. Thisone and two way communication is easily 98% of our totalcommunication during each day. Always keep that in mind. That 98% can kill your brand and you will never know it is coming. That 2% gives you a chance...just a chance to get out in front of a crisis or react to something positive like an unexpected demand surge.

But can we always trust the output of that 2%? Doesn'tthat depend on the input? If you asked people the day before theSuper Bowl their view of Chrysler and then asked only the people whosaw the commercial with M&M the day after what their view was Ibet there was no change at all for most people. My own were poor quality, poorlymanaged, placing the guy who almost destroyed Home Depot in 5 yearsin charge only to have him lead you into bankruptcy wasn't smart, boring lineup,tax payer bailout. Commercial was cool but a waste of money in my opinion.The Brand Bowl would not show this. It just showsthe reaction to the commercials vs the Brand itself. In which case the output was very positive for the commercial vs you can not extrapolate it to the view of the company/brand.

Now here is a short TwitterConversation between BillDorman , MargieClayman, and myself. (psst you should follow them on the Twitterif you do not, they are really smart, witty and kind people...#justsaying). What would you or a computer make of this?

From this what should Fig Newton takefrom this or what could they take from it? Anything? Would Kloutthink we are all Fig Newton experts? Would Fig Newtons think wereally like them? Would Radian 6 or similar view this as positive ornegative sentiment? Couldn't it be both? My comment could go bothways. What if Bill and Margie were being sarcastic like me? What ifonly one was and the other was pyscho for fig newtons they loved themthat much. How much of the social web out put is like this?

Will Radian 6 pick up from this blog all the Fig Newton mentions and how would they be counted?

Sentiment and Influence are tools. Youneed the human element to decipher reality. Sometimes that reality isthat you can not arrive at reality from your data. If the data is faulty, biased, corrupted etc, the output will be the same.

This is easy for a small business. Having to analyze real data that is manageable vs a mass of data can be done by a human. What about a Global Brand? They could easily have 500,000 or 1 million or more data entries to comb through each day depending on what is being monitored. If Bill. Margie and my conversation and this blog post was even part of 10,000 Fig Newton mentions today, do we trust the computer output knowing the other 9,997 could be just as flawed?

Why Facebook Tracking is Different from Google or Verizon

2011-09-28T07:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I announced I left Facebook over ethics, their push for forced sharing, and how they want so much of my personal information like my cell phone or credit card. I was really upset that they will be tracking every user even off Facebook without permission or alerting people. I don't care what the Engineer who responded to the Mashable Article said. He was bullshitting out his ass. You can not bullshit like that and be taken seriously. Facebook does nothing by accident.

Which brings me to why this is different. Google has been fighting censorship in China. They even shut down their site there for a long time moving it to Hong Kong. Most of the phone companies pushed back against the NSA wiretapping during the Bush years.

Facebook is not this type in my opinion. Their business model is exploitation, vs one that is user centric. Ever Brand makes money providing me a valuable service. Facebook makes money exploiting my content and life. They need the page views and sharing because they wake up with stained underwear from freaking out about 'What if we IPO at only $20bil and lose all that investor money'. If you don't think this isn't on Zuckerberg's mind 24/7 you are in denial. This is a huge weight. Now go to the Fortune 500 and look at the companies worth $20bil or more and ask yourself based on Facebook revenues and unknown profits would they be equal value. I bet 95% of the companies when analyzed are worth more than Facebook when using the fundamentals of sales, assets etc.

When I talk on the phone Verizon doesn't share with my friends the content of that conversation.

When I use Google and surf the web (which btw the average person spends over 90% of their web time NOT on Facebook) they do not share with my friends or my boss where I was and what I did.

My Internet Provider is also my Cable provider. Time Warner isn't telling my friends what show I am watching.

I am not having brands intrude on my life from these activities. I am not getting emails from Brands because they sold my Gmail address. I am not getting telemarketing or even direct mail from any of these providers.

But Facebook wants to do all this. And they are going to do this and make it hard to opt out of this sharing. They will allow your friends to go to your profile and see you are watching a show on Hulu unless you change the privacy settings. How many really want this?

THAT IS THE BIG DIFFERENCE!

Lastly Facebook still thinks we want this Brand Experience and yet the people have been rejecting this for years. Look at what the people are doing you numbskulls! People are engaging with brands as less than 1% of their Facebook activity. BUT guess what? They do engage with Brands every day online and off social! Every day. On their own terms. Not Facebook's. Not a brand page terms. If you ever look at the Open Graph LIKES on non-Facebook sites the participation is technically zero. If you have 500k Views of a page and you get even 1000 Likes that is 0.2% which is zero. I see lower participation rates.

And since it's value to me as a Comm Platform has diminished over the last 2+ years, and with the clutter from the network making it impossible to truly stay in touch with friends will I miss it? Not sure. But with the 40% drop in time spent per user per day since April 2010 I am not the only one who has seen the value proposition drop significantly. And while I am a proponent of Social Media we use it a lot less than the Social Media Experts, Mashables, and Networks want you to believe. A Lot Less!

Don't forget we live in a Marketing/Advertising/Media bubble and while you might think I am just a Facebook hater, I do use advise on it, but it is a small part of the marketing mix. And since my career won't be affected if Facebook succeeds or if it fails I have a pretty objective view vs many of my peers who are desperate for the success of Social Media because that is what they built their career around.

My career? I help brands sell product. That is what I do. And I am free to do it with the best tools and strategies out there. Direct Sales, Social Media, Marketing, Mobile, TV, Radio, even Print if it fits their needs.

Social Tuesday - Why the Chief Alien Left Facebook

2011-09-27T07:34:00.000-07:00

Recently there has been a lot of talk about the changes to Facebook. I have heard the Timeline is really slick. I wanted early access but the only two ways I could do this was by giving Facebook my cell phone number or a credit card. No way jose. I trust Facebook less than I trust Russia to have free and honest elections.

Recently I received from Spotify a bunch of invites that I could send to my Facebook Friends. Now really all they need is access to people in my network using Spotify. They don't need access to everything about me and my friends. But here is what the APP requested:

I mean really? Maybe Spotify should come into the shower with me, or my bed when I am with my girlfriend? All APPs ask this and you are crazy to allow it.

Then the changes came out for F8 and for once Mashable allowed an article damning of Facebook:

Facebook’s New Features Might Not Be as Private as You Think [UPDATED]

Which got me really aggro. Tomorrow I will blog about why this is different than Google or my ISP from seeing everything I do.

So to me this was the last straw. But I have two problems which make leaving Facebook harder than for most people. Most of my real life friends (meaning people I spent hours and days and weeks and months in person hanging out with) are in Los Angeles. They are not on the Twitter or Google Plus yet. I have a lot of them. About 200+ because I was part of the underground music and art scene. I risk losing touch with them.

Secondly is my career change to Marketing/Advertising. How can I consult on Social Media if I am not on Facebook, at least while they are still the prime network. I obviously have many blog posts analyzing the network's value, reach, success and failures. I even run a client's Brand Page!

Big dilemma. But then I read these two Blog Posts and the Media Post article with reader comments:

Some thoughts on quitting Facebook

Those analogue days

What Do You Think of Facebook Timelines vs. Profiles?

And so I decided to go for it. I removed the cookies for Facebook from Firefox my prime web browser. No longer will I be freaked out by seeing my Facebook log in on non-Facebook websites. I created a dummy account to run my client's Brand page and I am using Chrome only for that purpose. And this is allowing me to still see what Brands are doing. My job is to help my clients sell. If that means using Facebook while the network is still alive I am ok with that. I also would be ok if Facebook turned off tomorrow. It will not hurt my client's businesses.

I also feel this is Facebook's Netflix moment. My feeling is forcing this over sharing is going to have people leaving. But will G+ or Diaspora or another network take advantage of this opening? I don't know. Meanwhile I am using Twitter, G+, Email, SMS Text, and the Phone.

But as I pondered this move I thought how much am I really using Facebook personally? Not a lot. I update my status 1-2x per month. Most people do once every 4 to 5 days. I comment on posts from friends. But only 2-6 a day. I LIKE a bunch of brand pages but even with only 300 friends and 150 Pages my feed is so cluttered I rarely see anything from Brands. In reality I am not benefiting much from Facebook. And what I found interesting was yesterday at the OMMA in New York one of the panels brought up the fact that teens and millennials actually choose private methods of communicating far more than anything. Specifically text messaging. There are 182 SMS texts per Facebook status update on average. For that age group it is double that. Which has me thinking for all the listening and engagement on Social Media it is what is said behind your brands back that will make or break your brand. Not what is said online publicly.

And thus today is my second day of my life after Facebook. When is yours?

My Mom is an Uber Influencer Klout will never find!

2011-09-08T08:16:00.000-07:00

My mom is funny. She joined Facebook specifically to keep up with friends and family. I think the only brand she has Liked is one of my clients. She doesn't use any Facebook features or games except for Instant Messaging.

One issue I have with the online influence businesses is the lack of connectivity to off line actions. They really just measure online and even at that in my opinion they pretty much all fail miserably because they don't know who people are. But since 99.9% of our daily communication takes place privately or in non-social networks: Email. In person. Surfing the internet. Phone. SMS Text. Media (watching TV is communication, viewing a Billboard is communication) I feel they miss so much to be effective. And I don't see this ever changing.

Kind of like telling someone to focus on reaching customers through Facebook when 9 in 10 US consumers are not reachable today via Facebook. Do you want to negate 90% of your market?

Which brings me to my loving mother. She logs into Facebook several times a day (see yesterday's 85/15 rule).She sees photos, updates, so much from people in our extended family, people we used to know back on Long Island (folks moved), and friends where they live now. She never shares this information online. But she TELLS EVERYONE in person and by phone. She is one of the 75% of people who log into Facebook and take no actions (This is a fact based on the activity numbers Facebook has published over the years) each day.

If you can reach my mom you can reach A LOT OF PEOPLE. But fact is she will never have a Klout score and no influence rating company will ever know that my mom has Uber Social Influence. Yet my mom shops til she drops. She is the exact demographic Brands need to reach. She shops online. She opens email advertisements. She reads circulars and loves sales. She even clicks digital ads regularly, gasp I know rare breed but they exist! Yet you will never find her via Klout or Peer Index or Social Media. She tells people what she bought all the time. She watches a ton of TV and goes to the movies. She is one of the most social people I have ever known. She shares all of this. But off line! She can't be reached on the Twitter or a Blog or Facebook.

Dear Brands you can reach my mom. Many brands do. But they do it the old fashioned way. And they reap the rewards. How are you going to reach my mom?

Social Tuesday - Are We Really That Social?

2011-09-06T06:57:00.000-07:00

I don't think so. In fact I think we are incredibly less Social than Facebook, Twitter, Mashable, the VC's, and everyone else who is involved in Social Media, Social Media Marketing etc will have you believe.

I like to do real world investigations. Like being at a party with 50 people and being the only person using Twitter. And NO ONE was using Facebook Mobile. Or Checking in at a Minor League Baseball Game with 5000 in attendance to find only 11 people checked in total between Foursquare and Gowalla. Or checking out Places on Facebook and finding so few check ins.

And how come we only watch 0.5 Videos per month on Facebook? How come when you look at retweets and shares the volume is so low compared to the number of...ahem...supposed participants. It is a hard fact. For every 2 log ins to Facebook today there will be only 1 action (Status Update, Link Share, Comment, or Like). ONE ACTION per two people! That is not very social to me. And if one person takes 2 actions then 3 people took NO ACTION.

I truly believe in the 85/15 rule. This is not something I crafted but it is true 85% of all Digital Advertising Clicks are done by 15% of the online population. I feel the same holds true for Social Media. 85% of all Activity is done by 15% of all users. And the activity is so huge from this 15% that the numbers look AMAZING!

I have sliced and diced the numbers over and over here. This blog is littered with proof of my hypothesis. Actually it is more a fact than a hypothesis now.

Twitter and Facebook are nice and give you a forum to engage when customers want that. But you will never engage with 99% of your customers via Social Media. At least not today. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not ever. Get over it. The faster you stop lying to yourself (Thank you John Falchetto very timely) about the power of social media to be harnessed for your business the better. It helps your business. But it will never drive your business. The success stories for Social Media for Brands and Businesses are so few and far between they are the exception vs the norm. And yes everyone is going to tout the exception as proof it works. Happens every time I bring this up.

So what does this mean for your business? The nuts and bolts to me for a small business marketing plan will be focus on PR, local print/online media, and community outreach efforts. Yes this includes PAID ADVERTISING! Make sure your website is nice and that the SEO is in place. Look for places to list your business that make sense like Yelp! or Professional Directories. And yes integrate Social Media Tools where it makes sense. But don't lose focus on what really drives your business. Great product. Great service. Right price.

And most important...treat every customer like they are gold.

The Size Phallacy

2011-08-29T07:53:00.000-07:00

Yes. Phallic. It is the perfect intro to this post. There is this hypnotic haze that clouds people's minds and you can lift that haze with pure logic.

We have this view that huge, mega, market leader, invincible in one niche or market as a guarantee of success in other markets or niches. Why do we assume Google or Apple should be able to succeed with Social? Or Microsoft with so many Windows machines and war chest own the mobile screen too? Or Facebook will succeed with Deals or Location Based Services or Commerce?

Take a company and peel back their skin what is their core product/niche they own. Very few own more than one. Almost none own more than 2. In fact it would be an incredibly rare success for a company to pull off more than 2 massive successes. So the chances of what everyone assumes, such as with 700mil accounts Facebook has to succeed in monetizing this group, even in the face of all their failures. Look at Google's failures. Wave. G Phone.etc. Or the fact Microsoft got into mobile years and years ago seeing the future and yet failed to achieve their goals. Apple tried social.

Get that Phallic Mindset out of your head!

It is rare a Company actually can say 'I am so big I can crush you' see Microsoft IE vs Netscape case study. Notice Microsoft can't do that with Mobile. Get out of that mindset. Look for what is BEST IN CLASS and not what is BIGGEST IN CLASS. It is more likely Facebook will never succeed with Deals, Places, better Digital Ad Targeting, Monetization etc. They excel at growing their user base that likes to share some photos and stay in touch with little snippets of worthless information. They rock at that! But what else do they rock at? Not much.

And we all know that it is rare to have a massive dominator (Google Search v Bing) vs many competitors. But even with search Google sees cracks in their dominance. Microsoft's browser dominance is over. And Facebook is experiencing this too now. Life Cycle is short in Social.

And that is good and ok. If you put all your eggs in Facebook you need to move some out. Look at the big picture. Continuously seek better ways to market, platforms that work, technologies that look promising that will help you achieve your goals.

Social Tuesday - Why does everyone use the Facebook 750Mil user number?

2011-08-16T06:08:00.000-07:00

This is the biggest load of horse shit ever. They never say how many people you can reach today on Facebook. They say there is 750mil users. Well considering in the US the average user logs in 23 times a month. And of course many people log in more than once. So there are many heavy users. And many more casual users. You can't reach casual users. There are maybe 25 million active US users on Facebook today doing something. 1 in 10 US Consumers.

SO YOU CAN"T REACH 750 MILLION PEOPLE ON FACEBOOK!

or 200 MILLION ON THE TWITTER!

What is your business? Unless you are a media company most of the users are never ever going to be customers. If you are a small business, say a restaurant in Albany, NY or Des Moines, IA what does 750 million users mean to you? It means less than Diddly Squat!

As a small business, the type of business will determine the radius for potential customers. And the number of Facebook users in that radius is all that matters. And guess what? That data DOES NOT EXIST! Well I bet Facebook will give you some data if you want to buy Facebook Ads. But they will not give you that data if your strategy is a Brand Page. How do you know how many people you can possibly connect with on Facebook that can be customers? For MOST Businesses your street sign and store front will always out perform anything you do on Facebook. ALWAYS!

If I see another presentation or media material from a Social Media Agency, Guru, Mashable, etc saying 'With 750 Million Users.....' I am going postal and showing up at their offices and throwing dog poop on their desk because that is what they are dog poop for lying. Because I hear small business owners throwing these numbers around casually like they actually mean something to them.

Do you ship to Pakistan? Mongolia? No? Then why do you want to reach those users in those countries? And the only way you can reach people on Facebook really is with Facebook ads which are more expensive and perform 50% less successfully than traditional digital ads. And guess what? The average Facebook user spends only 31 minutes a day on the site. Down from 55 mins in April 2010. Why is that important? A digital ad network can reach people online during the 87.5% of their 4 hours online or on Mobile. While Facebook can only reach people on Facebook.

Think about it!

BTW Dear Bob Hoffman the Ad Contrarian. I am sorry. I can not believe I just supported Digital Advertising but over Facebook and Facebook Ads....it kicks ass!

Time is the Bane of all Marketers and Brands

2011-08-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

You are not that important. Get over it. Really. Get over it. The quicker you deflate your Brand Ego the quicker you can really focus on making sales. I wrote about this in December. Time to revisit. LINK

The fact is we have 24 Hours in a day. In that day we will with work, sleep, eating, socializing, etc. All sorts of activities. As a Brand whether online or off line you are competing for people's attentions. Yes much of marketing forces their way into your face. TV Commercials. Bill Boards. Direct Mail (even if you don't open the mail you see who sent it to you).

Meanwhile you have businesses like Facebook, Vitrue / Likeable, Social Media Agencies, Social Media Guru's who tell you where people are spending their time and that you can reach them there. This is a flat out lie obviously. You can't reach people on Facebook. You can reach a small number on the Twitter. People don't want to see you. They don't want to talk about your coffee or your car on your terms. They want it on their terms. End of story.

It is really hard when companies like Facebook and Mashable bullshit people out their ass with crooked numbers. 700 million users on Facebook? That is the biggest crock of shit since crocks of shits came into existence. To be included in that number you need to log in 1 time for less than 1 minute during a 30 day period. Facebook refuses to say how many only log in once. Or twice. How much time most people spend. Because it hurts their brand and their IPO efforts. I have deducted by number crunching that less than 20% of all Facebook users are responsible for 85% of all time spent and content sharing. In fact for every 2 people who log in today there will only be one action taken (Status Update, Like, Comment). So obviously if one person takes two actions, 3 people then take no action.

In June I covered this using the numbers from Compete: Why Math Really Hurts Facebook

I like to tell clients to do two easy things to bring them back down to earth. To prove we don't give a flying shit about 99% of Brands on Social Media (unless we are pissed and need to call them out).

1] Spend the day noting all the brands in your life that day. I bet it is way over 100. From your clothes, to food, to businesses you patronize, TV/Entertainment you consume, Websites you visit, News Outlets, etc etc etc.

They all want to talk to you right now. How many do you want to talk to today or this week? 1? 4? 8? I bet I just maxed you out. So what makes you so special that out of 100+ brands in someone's day that you are so special? There is a reason the average person only engages actively with 4 Brands via Social Media in their life.

2] Secondly and even more important. Go through your day today and observe all your activities then start ranking them in importance. Then figure out where 'Engaging with Brands via Social Media' is going to fall. Guess what? Possibly Dead last. Right above sweeping out the garage but right below scratching that itch on your ankle.

Let's make a list:

Sleep. Work. Eating. Reading News. Watching TV/Movies. Playing Video Games. Going to the Gym. Chatting with friends or family on the phone, text or email. Shopping. Chatting with friends and family via Social Media. Sports/Hiking etc. Cooking. Reading a Book. Sex. Partying. Travel. Listening to Music. Showering. Brushing my teeth. Getting dressed.

All of this takes priority in my life over 'Engaging with Brands via Social Media'. You will never capture but a small % of your customers and potential customers. This does not mean ignore them or don't use the platforms. This means you need a reality check and figure out the real value and how to use these platforms. They work. But not in the way Facebook, Mashable, the Vitrue's and Likeable's, the VC's and the Social Media Guru's are telling you they will.

Don't believe me still. Spend your day asking everyone you meet how many brands they engaged with today via social media. I bet most say 1 or less.

We just don't have the time for your Brand on Social Media. We will buy your product. We will go to your website and shop or browse. We will go to your store and shop or browse. We will watch/consume marketing that is forced on us (or at least zone out like during boring commercials). But we don't have time for you on Social Media. THIS WILL NOT CHANGE! So get over it.

Focus on having a great product, service, quality etc at the right price point, delivering something people need or want.

Where Klout Fails

2011-08-11T07:22:00.000-07:00

Obviously Klout has done a superb job of being the defacto measurement for online influence. But often I think they miss out on a lot of reality because they are only measuring such a teeny fraction of online behavior.

But recently when comparing my 50 Klout score to three Klout rock stars with 75, 77, and 82 respectively I found something very interesting. If you look at gross numbers they have far superior numbers to me. But as if you take mentions, retweeters, and retweets as a percentage of followers I have better numbers.

Meaning a higher percentage of my network is doing something in reaction to my tweets and participation with them than some Uuber Klout people. So while my network is smaller. I have much more significant Influence on my network than they have on theirs.

75 Klout

This network has 13.8x more followers than me

77 Klout

This network has 5.3x more followers than me

82 Klout

This network has 15.4x more followers.

Just take my numbers and multiply it by these numbers and you will see

my influence on my network in general is greater than their influence on theirs.

The point of this exercise is to have you think deeper about what is influence and just maybe the higher the score does not mean higher the influence.

Mobile Monday - For APPS - Design Design Design!

2011-08-08T05:30:00.000-07:00

I really hate blogging out of frustration.

I recently had my Droid2 die of electrical failure. While it was only 11 months old Verizon is fighting the warranty, which is really a Motorola issue. Previously I had brought it in to Verizon because it was buggy and they had me reboot. That kind of worked. And I was amazed all my APPs reloaded on their own. WTG Verizon.

The real issue with the Droid2 is Apps run without your permission and you can not turn them off. Sucks battery power and memory. Well I learned that for a new phone your APPs do not all auto download. Good news is you can purge the dead unused APPs and start fresh. I love News APPs. I use BBC and Huffington Post all the time. They are solid APPs.

So I found two new ones I wish to use as examples of what not to do. The LA Times APP and the Guardian UK APP.

The LA Times:

Really nice APP. In general it formats to the screen nicely and even has a setting to increase the font size. But it fails in the most important of all the functions for a News APP. The sharing feature. I say this because the APP is Free. I can read all the LA Times for free. Yes they have an AdMob banner ad and right now I see it is for Chase but that is not the same as Print. Not the same for the Web Version (though on the Web Firefox users can block all Ads). The trick with News APPs is sharing. If I share the article and it pops up a link anyone who clicks get's taken to the LA Times Website. This gives them a chance as display revenue and possibly convert new readers to come back.

Here is the failure:

First it does not include the LA Times Twitter Handle in the Tweet automatically. This is a big fail and they are missing an easy way to earn new followers. Secondly is if I want to type anything added to the tweet when I open my keyboard it does not rotate to match horizontal. Seriously, it stays fixed so you are typing on one plane and the box is vertical. Lastly there is no send button. I have to do it from the keyboard. All that money spent and they have a huge fail in my view.

Next is the Guardian UK:

Their APP geez where do I start. First off it requires downloading. Why? I have no idea. No other news APP requires me to download the issue. The are all cloud based. This is very bizarre and shame on the 3rd Party Designer or Agency. But now it get's even more bizarre. It loads articles for the Web not Mobile. So when fit to the screen the font is so small you can not read it! Yes a News APP that you can't read! So what is their solution? You get to open it in the Browser which then it is formatted perfectly. Which brings me to my next question. Why not have the articles automatically open in the browser then? And why do you not have a settings option for this?

On a positive note the Guardian does have an excellent Share Feature which it uses the Droid Software for. But if I can't read an article how do I know I should share it?

So basically two very good news companies are hamstringing themselves with their mobile APP. If an APP is hard to use or frustrating you will not use it.

What APPs are you frustrated with or have major design flaws?

Social Tuesday - Death to Marketers! Long Live Marketers!

2011-07-26T07:58:00.000-07:00

I am writing this post out of anger, and angst. I know. Best frame of mind to be in right?

I love Marketing. It is my second career after B2B Sales/Business Development. It fascinates me to no end. In some ways in large scale it is more complex than say the Missile Defense Program. Imagine having to come up with the Marketing Strategy and Buy for a blockbuster film with a massive budget. Having to figure out not only the content but the platforms and where those will be. How can someone in an office in NY or LA know when they buy placement on 1000 billboards nationwide where they all are located? Or all the Bus Stops and Bus Wraps etc etc. You also have to get everything set including any cross promotions all to run at the right time to maximize excitement to see a film in the movies and if you fail your client could lose millions. No pressure right?

And we all would agree we are consumers and like learning about new products, services, brands etc locally and nationally. Even if Brands are not the focus of our lives like Marketers want to believe they are, I am ok with this disconnect because we are performing a service. In fact I wrote about this not long ago:

I just don't care about your Brand, your Company, or your Product

But with the emergence of G+ I get angry at what I have seen all along. This view by Marketers that they have an inalienable right to market to us anywhere our eyes go. I mean there is marketing being sold on the plastic deodorizers that sit at the bottom of men's urinal's at bars!

Currently Twitter and Facebook enable us to market in some way shape or form based on the current platform format. Twitter because it is public. Facebook while Brand Pages, Places, Open Graph, etc have failed miserably to drive sales or awareness beyond a very small percent of the Fan base, you can buy Ads on the network. You can't reach me because I block almost all digital ads except from some very specific websites I care about and wish to help them with revenue like the Economist. But I never click on Ads. And anyone who knows me, knows I hate Facebook for being Hucksters, Exploiters, Shysters, and Slimeballs. So I surely am not reachable on Facebook by Marketers.

But now G+ is coming out and Marketers are insisting they have a place there. And that is BULLSHIT! Buy a Digital Ad if you want in. But I am not bringing them into my world there. I can already find them when I want how I want 24/7. Just like Telemarketers crying over the Do Not Call Registery like they have a right to call me at dinner time there is a lot of Social Media Marketers, Agencies, and Talking Heads scared shitless if they are locked out their Fraudulent Gravy Train is gone. No more books and speaking engagements shoveling shit for money are gullible business owners. No more fame and fortune. No it will be back to reality!

Two great posts on the G+ Marketing Fraudsters including some of the biggest names in social being taken down and exposed come from:

Gini Dietrich on Spin Sucks - Beware the Google+ Experts

and

Danny Brown + Geoff Livingston on Danny's Blog - Advisory: Google Begins Booting Brands

Fact is Social Media is a Revolution of Interpersonal Communication Technologies. It brings together people and is great for networking and socializing. It is not great for marketing! Youtube videos, Fan Pages, Twitter Accounts, nothing has scale. You can't reach people like you can with TV or Billboards via Social Networks. And we do not have an INALIENABLE RIGHT to Market via these platforms!

Mobile Monday - Check Ins are Dead. Next idea please.

2011-07-25T06:24:00.000-07:00

Location Based Services:

The Check In is Dead. There I said it. End of story. Nobody check's in on Gowalla, Foursquare, or Places. They just don't. The value proposition is not there yet. No matter what anyone or Mashable says.

Great example. This Cheese Cake Factory on Long Island always has an hour plus wait. You are looking at hundreds of customers per day every day. I estimate 150,000-200,000 customers per year. And they have 46 Check-ins?

Let's visit Foursquare:

The Colonie Center is one of two regional Malls. It has Macy's, LL Bean, Barnes and Noble, Sears, Cheese Cake Factory, a Movie Theater w/ IMAX. On one average day this mall easily has as many people as the total check-ins for Foursquare. The Cheese Cake Factory is always packed just like the one on Long Island. If the 1348 check ins was just for one year nevermind the 2+ I am sure it was listed then they get less than 5 Check-ins per day out of the 400-500+ people they serve every day.

I recently was at an Tri-City Valley Cats game which is the Class A Houston Astro's minor league farm club. They have a gorgeous stadium. Seats 4500 people and has standing room to allow 7000. I have been there twice. Both times seating was sold out. Both times less than 20 people checked in on both Foursquare and Gowalla Combined.

Initially it was a novelty. Well as we all can say we have observed Check-in's uploaded to Twitter are down dramatically. I have always felt for LBS to work Brands/Businesses need to have a platform that allows me to come to the store (or just outside), Check-in via 3G not satellite and have a discussion on why I should come in. Send the circular to my phone. If I can have a unique identifier that connects me with past sales history for a customized special deal. But just to say I am here? Not happening.

Obviously if we knew about a deal that required a Check-in we would check in. Why are brands not offering deals? Because they don't have too! Business is just fine without them. And what would have to be offered to get us to pick one place over another? A bribe that is probably bigger than what the business wants to offer. If Foursquare or Gowalla or Facebook really wanted this technology to take off they should be the ones offering loyalty programs that connect my visits and what I buy to some reward. This way it isn't a one off give away and makes me earn a good reward that gets me excited.

It was nice getting free Chips and Salsa at Chili's back when they ran that special for checking in on Foursquare. But really Chips and Salsa? Something I can get free at a Mexican Restaurant?

The point is, read the news. The news says almost 50% of people now have some sort of Smart Phone. So why is no one checking in? Would you tell a client they must be using these technologies? When they aren't working yet? Observe reality, Then decide whether what is being shoveled your way is the truth, a fib, or just some stinky cow poopy.

Social Tuesday - Thought Leader Round Up!

2011-07-19T06:09:00.000-07:00

This has been quite a week. The discussions around Google + have migrated from Google + itself to carpet bagging, gurus, and love.

Gini Dietrich had her blog on fire yesterday when she took a stand against people claiming to be Google + experts after just 24 days of public beta release of the platform and charging for seminars, webinars etc.

Beware the Google + Experts

On Danny Brown's Blog there is a great guest post by Olivier Blanchard:

Social Media Gurus, Real Work and Diversity

Today Shanan Sorochynski on Waxing Unlyrical shares how the new G+ network has evolved so far in her personal and work life.

Google v Facebook: The Battle for our Love

Geoff Livingston who has been beating the Facebook death chant now which is refreshing since he is brilliant wrote a great piece:

Why the Facebook Feature Frenzy will Fail

And last but never least Mr. Ben Kunz who is often the smartest man in any room once again wrote a killer piece:

Facebook Should of Seen it Coming

All great and thought provoking reads. What should be taken from all this is several things. There will always be people seeking to make bucks even if at the expense of others. There will always be new social networks coming into play and we had better get used to it. And no social network is too big to fail, or so smart they can't.

Social Tuesday - Bad News for Facebook, and it isn't Google +

2011-07-12T06:31:00.000-07:00

This Center for Media Research article on Media Post highlights some really bad numbers for Facebook and maybe debunks how social we really are on Social. I am always surprised the industry media's never catch this stuff or connect. With all the press and valuations about Facebook. 142 million US consumers visited Facebook in the Month of May per Compete.

I was shocked when I saw a stat that for every Facebook Status Update there is 128 SMS Text Messages sent. And the Average US High School Student sends 3300 per month! They are not updating their Facebook status this often. They surely have access to Facebook. It is not a true real time Communication Platform like Text or Twitter.

The stat everyone will cherry pick because they like to lie is that 92% of the Social Network Users are on Facebook. Without asking how many are active on Facebook.

So here is the numbers for the Average US Consumer who is on Facebook.

Only 51% log into Facebook every day.

The rest are much more random. It is my view anyone who logs in every other day is going to be REALLY hard to reach for marketing unless you send private emails. When the user logs in if they have 200+ friends they will have 300+ status updates and I doubt even half will get read.

31% are highly active which says that 45 million in the US are on it everyday being active. 29 million log in for a visit. But this also says of the remaining 70+ million barely use the network.

In an average day on Facebook:

15% of Facebook users update their own status.

Only once every 6.67 days. Obviously we aren't telling much about our day to our network.

22% comment on another's post or status.

Only once every 5ish days we will comment on a post on Facebook.

20% comment on another user's photos.

Once every 5 Days we will comment on a Photo

26% "Like" another user's content.

We only Click Like ONCE EVERY FOUR DAYS! Is this not proof Facebook isn't viral? Or that we are not active. You have to tell me in a network filled with real friends as well as semi-real we only see one post or item to Like every 4 days? Not even sympathy LIKES?!!!!

10% send another user a private message.

We obviously aren't using Facebook for email since we send a message once every ten days!

Towards the end they show that most Facebook connections (vs say Twitter) are real life connections. So you would think since you know 90% of your network personally on average you would Like more content and be more active on the network. But obviously the reverse is true.

So you think you can reach people on Facebook for your business. Good freaking luck! Better chances of picking the Tri-Fecta at Belmont. I am not saying don't have a Brand Page or have one on Google + if they allow them. But be realistic about things. Your customer is not on Facebook. You have some customers there but not most. And you want to reach most, not just some right?

Still value the traditional and proven Media Channels. They work. Social hasn't changed anything when it comes to marketing yet. You still have to work to reach your target customers.

Social Tuesday - LBS Check Ins, Miami vs Orlando, Ignoring Social

2011-07-05T06:50:00.000-07:00

Going to start this off really slowly since everyone was getting rowdy yesterday for the 4th of July except for my friend Gini Dietrich who said she was staying in to respond to all my comments about Google + on her blog yesterday.

LBS Check In Fails:

There was a time when I thought services like Gowalla and Foursquare would never catch on because they seemed really a means to tell people you aren't home so please rob me, or for stalkers, etc. I seriously was expecting the first serious news events with people being robbed, murdered, or possibly hounded for autographs. But this was before I got my Android Phone back in August 2010.

But then I got my Droid2 and started the 'I will check in everywhere and post to Twitter' part of my life that everyone hates so much. Which then led to me getting my first reward last October at Chili's...Free Chips and Salsa. And then no others. I stopped sharing on Twitter except for very unique instances. And I stopped adding any friends on either network whom I did not already know. But I still check in. Not everywhere. But I do. But guess what. You are not. No one is.

Go to any establishment with high traffic. Your mall. Your favorite restaurant. And look at the check in volume on Foursquare, Gowalla, and Facebook Places. It is really zero. So the fad is over. And unless I start seeing value these businesses will go under. It's not that I do not see a use for them if they offer proper incentives. And I have seen some when I look at what is nearby. But they obviously aren't prevalent enough with critical volume of participants to really motivate anyone right now. And to me like the years 2000-2009 were a lost decade for America since in that time span the US worker was making less than when they started the decade (after inflation), it was a lost year for LBS where they could of showed us enough value to catch on like crazy.

Miami v Orlando

Miami decided to open a storefront on Facebook. While someone like Aaron Strout, with all the rational reasoning says this is a good move, eyeballs are there and why not sell some stuff if you can. I question whether the Heat are moving product on their page.

http://apps.facebook.com/heatfanstore/

If you check out what is offered vs their own private store that gives zero money to facebook and can be tricked out in impressive ways who would prefer shopping on the Facebook Page?

Miami Heat Store

In fact if you look at their wall, they get about 1,000 to 5,000 clicks of Engagement per wall post. They have 3.3Mil fans. That is a whopping 0.03% to 0.15% Engagement. That is not moving product. Of those 5,000 who click LIKE how many never leave their own Facebook Page? Most. And since the company who created the store front Milyoni doesn't share sales data we have zero proof anything was sold. Am I against extra sales this way? No, not at all. But it will never be a big driver of revenue since the store is so limited and so few come to the Fan Page directly.

Now Orlando is smart!

http://www.facebook.com/OrlandoMagic

If you click the little shop button it takes you to.....drum roll please

http://www.orlandomagicshop.com/

The Lie about Social Product Research:

Lastly let us get over the bullshit being slung by Facebook, Social Media Agencies, Mashable and the Social Media Talking Heads. We are not going to our social networks first for product research. I have tried crowd sourcing and it fails. Almost always. I rarely get feedback on Twitter or Facebook when I ask questions about products. It is because I am not asking my network. I am asking the small percent of my network that sees my inquiry. So of my 1300 Twitter followers if I am lucky on a good day 100 will see my tweet. Then of course of that 100 how many will actually have an answer for me? Nevermind respond.

And the latest study confirms we go to our Social Network last: LINK

I bet when you look over that list you will agree it most likely mimics your own behavior.

In Fact Media Post published yesterday a study (totally mis-titled!) that only 25% of Consumers go to Facebook Brand Pages at least once in a month to keep up with sales and promotions. If you go to 1 Brand Page in 1 Month for this purpose that is equal to ZERO people. Good luck getting your promotion seen on Facebook. People just don't care when it comes to social networks about your Brand. Sorry. It is a flawed article. Considering we each have hundreds of brands that want us to fan them, if only 20% of consumers Like 5 or more pages this proves they are a failure. If 75% of consumers never go to the pages after all this time touting them, they are a failure. And if you think your brand is different I have proof it is not.

And I know someone will now show me the Exception like Tony Hawk on Twitter. Exceptions are great. But they are called an Exception for a reason!

The true title of the article: People don't care and don't visit Brand Pages on Facebook!

Just maybe we are too busy chatting with friends and family? Just maybe we rarely see posts from Fan Pages? Just maybe we just don't care about Brands the way Marketers say we do? Just maybe....

The Power of Social Media - Google goes Apple with + Project

2011-06-29T08:43:00.000-07:00

Today Google released it's + Project

The Alien's at Sky Pulse Media are very excited because while we will advise people and brands on Facebook we view it as a massive marketing failure for Brands in general, big and small. Just peruse this blog! But we are very bullish on the Power of Social Media. And while we just debunked Viral and Influence yesterday, meaning how Individual Pieces of Content rarely go Viral. Topics go viral.

The number of Tweets and Blogs today about the Google + Project is overwhelming. This is classic APPLE. Apple doesn't do the Twitter/Facebook game. When Apple has an announcement and army of bloggers and tweeters and even big news sites all talk about APPLE. And today GOOGLE went APPLE!

By Friday everyone will know about this project and start looking at it to see if it can really compete against Facebook. And once the first stream of testers start telling us their experience this will either explode or die a quick death. Time will tell.

Some great discussions of Google + Project:

SpinSucks by Gini Dietrich

Barataria by Erik Hare

We Are Social by Robin Gant

I am sure Mashable has a write up but who reads Mashable? Not serious Marketers or Thought Leaders.

Just check Twitter check the Blogosphere the world is on Fire over this. And that is the power of social media. It is PEOPLE POWER. Not BRAND POWER. When Google launched Wave it had an hour long presentation explaining it. No one cared. When Apple launched Ping. No one cared. But if you give the people reason to get excited. They will do the heavy lifting for you. If they yawn. Good luck. You can always convince us with 30 sec spots on TV!

Chief Alien Note: We changed the background for the posts to make them more readable even if they take away from the Space Theme.

Social Tuesday - Torching Social Influence for Marketing and just a bit of Facebook love

2011-06-28T01:18:00.000-07:00

First off I need to state Ben Kunz has been killing it. Not sure if he is the smartest person on the Twitter or possibly Gunther Sonnefeld but they are neck and neck. Ben has been blogging using math lately over at Thought Gadgets. His latest post is brilliant.For the most part Twitter and Facebook are not Viral Platforms. In fact they are almost just plain NOT VIRAL. There are trending topics but rarely a trending piece of content. And it's the content, not a topic that is what viral is all about in Marketing.

A Deeper Essay into Viral Success

I can say a You Tube video that is viewed 1 million times in 1 month is Viral correct? But that comes down to just 33,333 per day. Considering how many people are on the Web world wide that is almost zero.

Next some observations I wish to share as proof Twitter is really not a Viral Platform for Content:

This really dings Klout too and Social Influence. Notice Mari was tweeting about a FREE Webinar. In 90 minutes she got only 3 Retweets from her 100,000 plus followers. I don't know who Guy Kawasaki is, and maybe the problem is no one else does either and thus they didn't retweet it. But only 3? Wouldn't Mari have at least 100 friends out of 100,000 followers who would retweet just because it is her tweet? Obviously her 78 Klout does not include influence when it comes to Webinars or Guy Kawasaki.

Notice Mashable (I hate that mug shot serious who could ever follow on Twitter that mug shot! lol) has 2.3 million followers and got a whopping 17 and 40 retweets. The 17 was in 2.5 hours and the 40 was in 3.45 hours. Obviously Mashable has zero influence on the topics of HTC, Social Media, Tech and Mobile because otherwise wouldn't the 88 Klout score earn a ton more Retweets?

As we know the longer time lapses the less likely a Tweet was seen so I doubt it will bring up more. Caveat is if this is only recording Hootsuite Retweets (anyone who can clarify please share). To me this torches Viral and Influence (Klout)

Next Facebook:

Really what does gaming the system get you? I have proven no one will see your Brand Page Posts like a gazillion times.

First the positive for Facebook as promised. Cross posting photos for my client to Twitter that reside on Facebook has greatly increased traffic to the Brand Page. But the impressions are so wrong it isn't funny. Facebook is adding the network numbers of the 2 LIKES to the total. I mean seriously with 1800 Fans who wouldn't at least LIKE this delicious gourmet ice cream sandwich?!! No we got two because so few saw the post. Bad platform for marketing simple as that.

Lastly I won an award I am very proud of!

THE CHIEF ALIEN HAS BEEN BANNED BY MASHABLE FROM COMMENTING!

They got tired of me exposing their Fan Boy Journalism and shoddy reporting. I never once used bad language on their site or said anything anyone would be offended by. But the truth hurts. This hasn't stopped me from commenting. But I can not comment with my Sky Pulse Media Twitter Account. Which BTW get's me back to these STUPID commenting systems based on Facebook and Twitter!

If you require me to log in with Facebook to comment.....NO COMMENT

photo: ben andrus

Mobile Monday - LBS needs the Network and a Mobile Success

2011-06-27T06:46:00.000-07:00

Satellite needs the ground Network:

Anyone who uses Android Navigation in their car will know that unless you have the ground network the 'Route' information does not work. Vermont which has very poor Verizon coverage will allow me to have the Map with my Location but unless I am in the 3G coverage area to set the Route Info, it doesn't work. Once the Route is set I can leave the 3G coverage and it will still give directions and the mileage left etc.

Without the Ground Network you also can not check in using any of the LBS services such as Foursquare or Gowalla, or even pull up Yelp! listings. They can find your location but the Apps will not work without the network.

Mobile Success Story:

Normally I am exposing frauds and holes in things in an effort to show clients and readers not to take things on Face Value. I had a discussion this weekend with Simon Salt (aka @incslinger ) about the lack of Social Media success for Marketing for big Brands. Tomorrow's post is going to freak you out when I debunk 'Viral' with some very powerful proof (though I actually have something nice to say about Facebook for once).

Simon showed me the Airwalk Pop Up Store campaign which I found very clever. Airwalk started as a Skateboarder shoe and then stumbled in the mass market a few years back. They have survived but aren't quite the same cache as say Vans, DC or Fallen shoes have today. The problem when you are leader in a niche is to keep the core supporters when you attempt going to the mass market. Many brands in Skate and Surf and extreme sports have died because of this effort. There is a huge disconnect I will share with the video narrator, the campaign, and reality which I will share later.

LINK

Video LINK

While this campaign is unique and was very successful, it obviously is not scalable for the mass market. But the important thing this does showcase, is how we can integrate technologies in such a way that helps leverage small budgets. It also shows why going to an IDEAS Agency can have a big impact on your marketing efforts. It allows an Agency to use various technologies that best fit your Brand's needs vs trying to force fit you into whatever technology 'We Have'. And this is a powerful statement on why this is all TECHNOLOGY vs MEDIA. Y&R pulled in technology from all over to make this happen.

I am very skeptical about the $5 Million in Earned Media they claim, since they give zero proof or support of this, just a number. But even if it was just $1million or $500,000, if they sold 600 high end shoes and got that earned media with a small budget it is a win. In fact remember this statement:

Unless a Marketer gives you supporting data to prove a claim, don't believe it. Ever.

Now I get to be a snob. It is my blog right?

I spent 17 years living in Southern California at the beach in Hermosa, Redondo, Huntington, and Venice and have had many Skate Punks as my friends, starting at Arizona State in 1985-87, even separating my shoulder on a Quarter Pipe there, I can state this campaign was not aimed at the Airwalk hardcore Skateboarder but in reality the more affluent people. Trust me 12 to 21 year old Skaters are not reading Blogs. They aren't even on Facebook unless they are Pro and need a Fan Page. They are Skate Punks. They don't care about you and your Facebook or Blog. Though they will upload videos of themselves skating to You Tube. But in reality they are out Skating. I have spent so much time in Southern California watching the Skateboarders (I gave it up after getting hurt), they are not sitting around using IPhones and reading blogs. They are Skating.

This goes to the heart of marketing. Reaching your desired audience. I stand by my assertion that the only people who watched the Old Spice Twitter/YouTube campaign were people in Marketing, Advertising, and Media. Trust me, Old Spice wants to compete with Axe yet that demographic surely wasn't watching that campaign. Clever idea. Bad product. Poorly targeted. Over all a failure in my view.

SKATE OR DIE PUNK!

Social Tuesday - Feeding the Fire under Facebook

2011-06-21T04:46:00.000-07:00

Another few rowdy links to read to stir the pot. But I want to preface something so my readers understand my stance on things. 2 - 2.5 yrs ago Facebook was a people to people communication platform. A platform people might of paid a fee to be a member on. They weren't doing crazy things to exploit their users until the failed Beacon Project. Beacon technically has been revived in various ways and was definitely a precursor of their mindset. Exploitation of it's users. There was a time that I uploaded photos to Facebook and actually participated with friends non-stop. That ended 2+ years ago. I do communicate some on the site. I have added a few connections here and there. But not like I was 2+ years ago.

I run a Brand Page for a Client but Twitter is much more successful a platform for us. I do communicate with friends and a few Brands but usually when I log in I have 300+ updates waiting and if your update is not on the first page it will never be seen by me. For a site that has a business model telling Brands they can reach me this is 100% a lie. Brands have a CHANCE to reach me. That is all. And not a high chance at that. I estimate a robust 3% chance I see their posts. In fact I only go to one Brand page on my own that is Chobani Yogurt.

So here are a few great links for your reading enjoyment:

Ben Kunz is back! Here is Math of 1 out of 6,250 Fan Pages
btw follow Ben he is one of the smartest people on the Twitter!
Read his blog Thought Gadgets!

Mashable and Likeable - One the worst articles on Facebook ever possibly I guess it is all about fans huh? I mean really? May 2011 and you still write articles about Fan accumulation being the measure of success? I can't believe any CMO would hire Likeable and not fear for their job. No data on what these Facebook Pages did after they garnered fans. How many see the posts. How many participate and engage. Did it increase sales or revenues. Upcoming blog post will go deep into the numbers for you.

Lastly the MOST DAMNING ARTICLE EVER WRITTEN ABOUT FACEBOOK on the Huffington Post.

This wasn't meant to be. Read it. You will say Chief Alien what you smoking? Can I have some? Read it. Facebook is built on display ads. It is most of it's revenue if not all it's revenue right now. There have been recent studies showing click rates are half the rate for traditional digital. Now granted clients only pay for clicks. But the premise is since Facebook has so much personal data (they actually don't they only have demographic data and they only see a fraction of what we do online and in real life) they can laser target who to serve ads too.

So in this study they served 74 million ads aimed at people who stated they are Republican. The same group of people that over 50% think Obama is not a US Citizen and almost the same number think he is Muslim! If you were an investor and a Stock Broker said Facebook is worth 50bil or 100bil based on pure Display Ad revenue what are your thoughts when the people who should be going rabid with clicks did not click.

"While SocialCode purchased over 74 million advertising impressions for this project, those display ads were clicked on less than 16,638 times and liked just over 5,192 times. That means that just 0.02 percent of the ads were clicked on at all and only 0.007 percent received a "like."

I think Swifty has a much brighter future than Facebook does.....

Mobile Monday - Pros and Cons of LBS Auto Check In

2011-06-20T05:58:00.000-07:00

On the last week's Beancast Marketing Podcast which I highly recommend you subscribe to and listen to every Monday there was a great discussion about location based services (LBS) and checking in as a barrier to stores communicating with people who are inside or nearby. My friend Aaron Strout who was a panelist and writing LBS for Dummies discussed why he felt the 'Passive Check In' is the future which is when we don't check in, the system knows we are there and checks us in. He gives a really good example of WiFi and how we set up our devices to access WiFi just by walking into our home or work. BUT this is Opt In up front and the passive after set up.

Friday night I went to the minor league Class A baseball game where 4500 tickets were sold (It was sold out). The game was at 7pm. At 6:49pm I parked and checked in on both Foursquare and Gowalla. The total check ins combined was 11 (including my two). Based on the numbers of Smart Phone penetration at least 500 people had smart phones there taking into account many kids were there. Obviously almost everyone (Divide 10/500 see simple Math. Then Divide 10 by 4500!) found zero value in checking in even for fun like I did.

I have very strong feelings Pro and Con and since Sky Pulse Media's mission is to help Brands break through clutter I see this eventually being like email in one of two ways. If we are allowed to Opt In we will slowly accumulate so many that they all become white noise. If the system exposes us to all stores it is even worse. Imagine driving down a service road and every business contacting your phone.

I put this in a letter to him and thought it would be great for a Mobile Monday Blogpost:

Pros:

1] Obviously no need to check in. Won't forget to check in. (but satellite is still gameable)

2] Should be consumer based not network based. Meaning I don't want a network seeing where I am and allowing any stores to contact me that I did not opt in for. But if there is a great interface allowing me to opt in and control I am all for it.

3] System should be covert. Meaning an App or something on my phone I can access on my own to view the contact from the stores I want to see specials or anything. I don't want clutter.

4] If this can be connected with a history of my purchases through an identifier for customized deals that would be huge.

5] If this can be connected with a loyalty program this could be huge.

Cons:

1] Satellite Based: my opinion this all fails because of the issues with being indoors. But this really applies just to Malls. THOUGH if I am not inside I could get checked in falsely to a store. I prefer network based vs satellite.

2] Any alerts that buzz or make a noise I do not want. Flashing light is ok. Shopkick I disabled because it buzzed me. I can see a mild manner Dad going bonkers from his phone buzzing and going postal and blowing up his local Hallmark Store.

3] Without connection to unique store purchasing behavior by me it becomes a drone no different from Sunday circulars. Why have this if you aren't custom tailoring this to me.

4] The more stores I sign up for the more this becomes clutter. How do brands stand out. For example Macy's: wouldn't Macy's and every brand they sell want to know I am in the store? If I go to the Mall and only want Macy's deals and 30 stores are on the list and I have to go access that list is this much different than going to Macy's and checking in?

5] Is this any different than email except for mobile? I have used email as an example since I switched to a new gmail account 18 months ago and signed up for opt in contact from sites and brands and now I mass delete 99% of it every time I log in. I see this having similar potential. Even if I sign up for one at a time. I could be in REI and say hey I love REI I will sign up. etc etc. But once I get to say 20 or 40 stores....

6] As with email if I already get sales fliers and other advertising via email, TV and print if it is the same stuff the value is reduced so brands have to be canny. But if they all are canny does that then dilute everything. Could this become a huge margin reducer for many businesses if done wrong.

7] Can this network be hijacked in anyway stealing information? Security is important.

8] What if there are many competing networks? I already have some competers as Apps like ShopKick. Obviously it will be similar to FourSquare and Gowalla. There will not be just one network or technology. People will have choice and Brands must then set this up across all options.

9] What if it exposes me to a broader network? It should not be tied in with anything Social ever. If a message pops up asking me if I want to share that is fine. But as we all now don't trust Apple for mapping IPhone users movements, do we want just anyone seeing where we are at all times without our consent?

I think as long as people find value it can work. I stopped using Foursquare much because I never see deals where I check in. Gowalla I use a bit more because no one who is not a friend is in my network.

But it needs to be 100% Opt In for each store, it must be respectful, it must bring me value, and it must be different than other forms of contact I am already getting from the Brands I love. Otherwise I do not want passive check in.

Fun Friday - Chobani Rocks the Yogurt World

2011-06-17T01:01:00.000-07:00

This post is the first of a series on Chobani Yogurt that will continue next week. Those that know me know I am a big fan of the Brand and the Product.

Announcement in Yahoo Finance April 20, 2011

In April of this year Chobani became the number one yogurt in the US. This is not a social media story. This is a product and timing story. They have the finest yogurt (in my opinion) which justifies their premium pricing. Their tag line Nothing But Good is not a load of bull. Read the label. It truly is Nothing But Good. All natural. No chemicals or preservatives. Even the milk is hormone and chemical free. All ingredients are premium high grade stuff. People know this. If you haven't been aware there has been a shortage of product because they can not keep up with demand. Show me a Consumer Food Product that has a shortage? I have never seen this.

Chobani has 60,000 Facebook Fans. Two months ago it was 40,000. So this is a product story not a social media story. I will go into the details next week on what they have done right in their marketing. But I have said over and over no marketing or advertising can make up for a bad product or poor customer service.

This is a fun brand. They have passionate fans and customers including me. If you follow me on Twitter or see my Facebook posts I am very active in supporting them. But this goes deeper. They have created this passion in me beyond the product. Yes I have received free yogurt from participating on Twitter and Facebook in coupons and twice a whole case of 12 sent to me. They give away a lot of Yogurt! They encourage people to engage across many platforms. They support bloggers, chefs/cooking and fitness/nutrition. Their staff is as passionate as their customers. They care about their fans and do many things right.

Look at these fans. These are photos from their Facebook Page

I recommend you follow @Chobani which the very personable Emily Schildt who is Chobani's Communications Manager and thus Community Manager. As well as @ChobaniNicki which is Nicki Briggs MS RD who is their staff nutritionist. Ask her a question she will help you.

And if you want to see their CEO Hamdi Ulukaya interviewed on Bloomberg in April with his truly immigrant to America success story adding to 400 years of such history which is why people outside of America view us so differently here you go:

Social Tuesday - Finally the Facebook is Dying Wake Up Call

2011-06-14T07:14:00.000-07:00

This blog is littered with proof Facebook is dying. The reason most Media Publications are silent is if it dies they have less news to write. Mashable has their whole business at risk. VC's will flee Social Technology Companies if this happens. Workers, Entrepreneurs and I.P. will run to where the highest potential for gain is. This wouldn't be the case if the hype machine had not started. If people who are smart cunning self promoters but only average marketers in real life, hadn't jumped in early with books, and twitter followings, and Brands and Agencies getting suckered into thinking Social Media Marketing was ever going to be bigger than TV or even Digital.

Would you read a book (never mind buy) by Brian Solis or Chris Brogan focusing on the next big wave in Marketing if they do so just 2 years from now knowing Facebook is flailing and Brands have decided there was no home run, that it was just ancillary sales being added and that all the hype for Brand Pages and Communities just didn't pan out? Would you hire them as a CMO even? Probably not.

What if the Social Influence companies like Klout or Edelman also don't deliver. Klout goes away. Does this impact Edelman's non-social line of business if their clients feel they were mis-led in a major way (not on purpose btw). How would you feel about the quality of their advice? This is no different than the stock market people. When a brokerage house bets wrong and their client's lose money, investors flee to who got it right vs saying 'Well next time you will get it right'.

Three key articles here are worth reading:

First is by the wicked smart Ben Kunz (@benkunz) of Media Associates on his blog Thought Gadgets: LINK

He discusses why Facebook will die using history of networks dying for his thesis.

Next is Business Insider who shows a loss of users in key markets like the US as a sign of something is wrong. LINK (thank you Chris Baccus for this article)

You should compare that to my last blog post. LINK

Lastly is Media Post also bringing up a flagging network. LINK

In April I proved the network had seen over a 30% drop in use per person per day. I also guest posted on Waxing Unlyrical showing how anyone can use math to figure this stuff out: LINK

As a Brand what do you do. Do you blindly trust the Social Agencies, Social Media Talking Heads, Mashables, VC's and Goldman Sachs that Facebook will be supreme in commerce and marketing to make you money when really the goal is for them to make money, when they don't give a flying shit about you? Or do you believe the smart people who show you over and over that this is not happening now nor will it happen in the future.

Remember once again Class Repeat after Me:

Social Media is not Media nor Marketing! It is a Revolution in Interpersonal Communication Technologies. Ad Support will fail Marketing will fail! Proof is your cell phone! Do your calls get interrupted by a word from your sponsor? NO! You pay through the nose for the service because the value is communication! And that is where these networks should focus. On bring value to consumers and showing they need a service and will pay for the service vs gimmicks, smoke and mirrors, and cutesy games.

Yes I can be smug. I have been screaming about this for over a year. So dear clients of the Agencies like Virtue and Likeable Media I am available for hire. I will not steer you wrong.

As you all know I hate Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg. I find them slimy unethical weasels who would rather exploit people over and over in chasing a buck than care about their users whom without they have no network! Es Stupido!

Why Math and Reality Hurts Facebook

2011-06-08T05:24:00.000-07:00

Every so often I go to the Facebook Stats Page to number crunch and see what is really going on. This blog and my previous one are littered with proof Facebook's hype is way beyond reality from the 33% drop in use per person per day since April 2010 to the fact that for every 2 Unique Active Users that log in each month only 1 will take an action (Status Update, Comment, Like). I see this lack of activity when I run a client's Brand Page. This client makes the most delicious gourmet ice cream sammies on earth and yet when I try to give them away to our 1700 Fans they aren't paying attention. If FREE Gourmet Ice Cream Sammies that people pay $5 each for and they buy a lot of them, can't get someone's attention what hope does a major brand selling something boring like Mac and Cheese or Chips have?

So I am interested here is the two key metrics Compete shows. Unique Monthly Visitors and Visits. Monthly visitors is not accounts. Per the Compete notes if I click on a link and it takes me to Facebook to view a photo or anything on their network I am considered a visitor. A visit is being active on the site not a log in. If I leave the site and I am inactive for 30 minutes they end my visit. And if I come back an hour later it is a new visit.

First I will say to get over half of the 250 Million US consumers over the age of 13 to visit your site once per month is very freaking impressive. But as Compete notes Facebook could buy a ton of digital ads that get people to click and this take them to Facebook to kind of game this system if they wanted. I am going to say they do not do this nor have too.

But the increase from 125mil to 137mil unique visitors is technically flat over the last year rising less than 1% per month. Definitely not a juggernaut in the US anymore and has probably peaked. And the 18% drop in visits in April from March? Curious about that.

But if I take the number of total visits last month and divide by unique visitors I get 23 per month per unique visitor. Which means on average each person visits 3 out of 4 days a month. That assumes one visit. This is something important people! Your visit ends if you are inactive for 30 minutes! So if I visit for 10 minutes and leave that is not a lot of time spent on Facebook. The average time per active account is down to 35 minutes per day from 55 minutes in April 2010 (from Facebook stats page).

What if one person visits four times a day = 120 in a month? That erases 5.2 two people!!!!!! If 22 Million people in the US got to Facebook 4 times a day for a whole month. Then that leaves ZERO visits for the other 115 million unique visitors.

My point being the number of people on Facebook each day is being grossly overstated by the Media, Social Media Agencies, and Social Media Guru's. This is possible because Facebook is coy and only now gives gross numbers like number of accounts vs real activity numbers. Whenever they give activity numbers it always is embarrassing so they try not too. Like each active user watching 0.5 Videos on Facebook per month is a huge failure even if 300 million videos viewed seems a lot. This allows the people looking to snow companies into thinking they can reach more people with Facebook than they really can. And reinforces why when I post a chance to win a FREE Ice Cream Sammie only 6 people participate out of 1700. The 1700 are real people and real accounts but they aren't on Facebook very much nor spending much time on the network. And that my friends is 100% factual.

Editors Note: Obviously with visits down 18% there were more visits per Unique Visitor per month in March 2011. It doesn't change the thesis here. What would be great to see is if May had a drop in uniques too. Then Goldman Sach's will buy Compete just to shut them down to protect their Facebook Investment!

Social Tuesday - Is Livefyre a Threat to Klout and maybe Radian6's?

2011-06-07T06:55:00.000-07:00

Just some food for thought. I read a lot of blogs. I comment on a lot of blogs. Comments are public but the more we comment on blogs less time is spent talking on Twitter and Facebook. But do the Klout's and the Radian 6's also filter through comments posted via Disqus and Livefyre?

What happens to Klout and all influence companies if more and more communication they can't see. What about listening tools like Radian 6? The more communication that is private the less available of the communication pool is there to determine influence and sentiment. I have already shown how Facebook use is in steep decline. LINK btw it is now up to a 33% decline per user per day from 22% in November. Twitter use is growing albeit at a slower rate but that is at least all public.

But I see the Conversation Engines of Livefyre and Disqus growing fast. And Klout and Peer Index sees none of this. And thus so much is being missed. I already proved that most world wide communication occurs not on social networks. Not just most. ALMOST ALL! If only 2-3% if via Social the pool of data is small. And in private we are much more free with what we say and share. LINK

So my take is as more platforms take us off the main Social Networks and into new playgrounds that some of these listening and measuring companies can't gather data from, their business models could be at risk. I am not worried about Radian 6 because even if they wind up with just Blogs and Traditional Digital Media that is a massive trove of data. But if Klout can not see what we are talking about to each other, their doors will be closed fast.

Fun Friday - Ad Week Allows False InfoGraphics!

2011-06-03T07:40:00.000-07:00

Next week I will upload some of the Mobile Technology Ads that Ad Week took the money from who are bullshitting more than Social Media Agencies!! But now to the Infographics. They had two Inforgraphics in their Issue and I am going to crack your silly asses up ripping the numbers apart considering they refuse to support the info. This comes from the May 23rd Print Issue!

Let's run through the falsehoods since they give no proof of anything!

A: They fail to define what Socializing is since most people do not own smart phones still this number seems extreme. Is this texting that they mean? It surely isn't the time spent on Twitter and Facebook. Even a heavy user like me who runs a client Twitter feed on my Android doesn't spend this amount of time socializing via Social Media on my phone.

B: Twitter has 165 Million Accounts! THAT IS NOT THE NUMBER OF USERS! Why do Advertisers and Marketers use these gross numbers vs real numbers. They are so misleading! There are only 30million users world wide using Twitter actively today! And sending 1 Tweet a day is NOT USING TWITTER!

C: I know the number looks big. But $4.2 Billion spent on Apps is less than $1 per year per cell phone that has a subscription service. Even $29.5 billion is small. McDonald's gets more money per customer in one visit.

D: IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR 85% OF CHILDREN TO OWN A PHONE! Unless you count Fisher Price! And is this in the US or World Wide? It is a blatant lie and needs to be shot in the head and buried! If you consider children age 15 and under 33% will be age 5 and under! How many 5 year olds own a phone?

Now for this doozy!

A + B: First of all I can not believe 5 in 7 people in the planet are subscribers. This is FALSE. Considering that we have 2 billion Children (or more!). So every adult in the world is a subscriber? No they are counting every subscription including when you have a personal phone and a work phone. In fact ALL BUSINESS ACCOUNTS ARE INCLUDED!

Secondly if 1 in 10 have a secret phone immediately 500 Million of these lines are not UNIQUES!

C: This number looks daunting but comes down to just a few texts per hour per teen. That is not surprising. If I say 3000 texts a month you go WHOA! If I say well they are up for 15 hours a day and divide 100 per day by 15 and you get 6.67 per hour you think YAWN.

BTW Remember none of this communication can be seen by anyone. Not Facebook, Twitter, Google Alerts, Radian 6, Klout, NO ONE! Good luck figuring out teens folks by monitoring Twitter, Facebook (oops 70% of Facebook Accounts are 100% private). This proves almost all personal communication is not public.

D: This number I am not shocked at. Because I often use my laptop or check my phone when watching TV. The key here is what does this include? Texting? Surfing the web? Checking Twitter once? That is very important because if I watch 5 hrs of TV and check Twitter a few times that doesn't really mean I am using my mobile phone while watching TV.

E: Lastly this is another example of aggregation of numbers that drives me crazy. 200 million You Tube videos is not a lot per day. In fact it on a worldwide basis it comes out to less than 1 video per mobile subscriber per who has the capability to even watch a video (I low balled 400million have phones that can do this). Like when Facebook announced 250mil videos watched per month which was less than 1/2 a video per Account per month. Not impressive. In fact it's a big failure that more video is not watched on mobile or Facebook.

Chief Alien's Note: We shred all Inforgraphics. The default setting everyone should use for Infographics is False until proven Truthful. Not the other way around.

Wednesay Marketing Extravaganza

2011-06-01T06:54:00.000-07:00

First: Apple possibly has peaked? At least by stock price. And this point is from Investor Viewpoint more than anything else.

Finally Malware Attacks Mac OS - LINK

This was something I heard all the time from Mac users about why Window's sucks.

Android Makers could Torch IPhone - LINK

I think the IPhone will be the same as Mac. 10% of the Market more upscale but never growing beyond that.

The IPad. It's part phone (uses Apps and part PC surfs web). The IPad is NOT revolutionizing Marketing. As much as the Media Industry hopes and prays. It will not trump phones for LBS and it will not replace a juiced of laptop yet. And when low cost Tablets become mainstream...oh no!

And Trust! Own an IPhone or IPad? Apple is following you without permission. They make Mark Zuckerturd the Weasel seem like an Ethical operator on privacy in my opinion. At least Facebook only tracks you on Facebook (unless you do dumb stuff such as clicking Like on the Open Graph (it opt in at least for the suckas). Apple has opted you in with no way to opt out. They follow you everywhere your phone is! Think of what that would show.

Lastly Apple used to be 'Renegade' now they are mainstream (aside from invading your privacy!). They used to be like the Ramone's but now they are like Maroon 5 (in my opinion). So all of this to me says Apple is ripe for a flattening in growth with trust possibly declining.

Me? I am a full on renegade. I play Vinyl Records and sticking with my Commodore 64. What are your thoughts?

Next: I told Edward Boches who shared this link on Twitter People should be customizing the web for themselves. The web should not be customizing the web for us.

Read this shocking article from the NY Times: LINK

Seems Google's and Bing's etc are feeding you back what THEY THINK YOU WANT TO SEE, not what should be returned to you from your search results objectively!

Lastly: Proof the Social Media Agency is going to be dead! I read this on the Huffington Post written by the CEO of Likeable Media. Doesn't anyone in advertising or media use critical thinking? The article basically says that because Stephen Colbert Tweets his brand is more social than Jon Stewart. There is ZERO analysis of Facebook or Twitter tweet volumes, engagement etc.

And just because Vin Diesel has 21 million Fans on Facebook are they really Fans? How many ever click Like or Comment on his page? Not 21 million. How many pages are you a fan of that you never go to, see a post from, or participate on? Like MOST you have clicked Like on? So when will Social Media Marketers stop shoveling the horse shit? Yes I know Marketers working for Brands are gullible. But come on. You can't be that gullible!

And thus this proves agencies like this will be exposed for not returning value to their clients.

Social Tuesday - LinkedIn did what?

2011-05-24T07:23:00.000-07:00

Facebook Delivers the Ads - Media Post

This is not the same ads. You can not compare a Facebook Ad with a Banner Ad for form fit and function.

LNKD goes Public. Wall Street fleeces LinkedIn and Main Street. Nice to have things back to normal.

They IPOed at $45 but quickly peaked at $122 on the market. Just think LinkedIn could of gotten easily double what they got. Who got the rest? Wall street. They bought the shares bid them up sold to the public high. So many of the 'Gold Rushers' who thought this was money in the bank bought no matter the price. Someone bought at $122 share! It's $89 today. 25% loss for whoever bought at the peak.

Remember 9 out of 10 IPO's end their first year at a lower share price than their issue price.

Fun fact: You can buy $1 of LinkedIn's Revenues for the same price you can buy $1 of Apple's PROFITS! In fact it costs $18 to buy $1 of Apple profits today. It costs $1,312 to buy $1 of LinkedIn's profits.

Yes Social Media has gone Traditional Media with ReTweet This!

Why I Hate Info Graphics - They are Deceptive

2011-05-23T09:53:00.000-07:00

So to be kind since I could just go whirlwind through Mashable and the Blogosphere on this I will use a recent Huffington Post Article on how Bush's tax cuts for the rich are our biggest deficit problem. While I am sure we can prove using MATH that this is a major factor, the infographic is disingenuous because it leaves out any money we will owe for Medicare, Social Security, the new Healthcare Law because I am very positive the debt wouldn't be coming down (noted as Debt Without Those Factors) without changes to those massive programs.

Social Tuesday - Facebook $100B Follies + Top 50 Twitter Women

2011-05-10T06:08:00.000-07:00

Just going to cover two topics. I figure you can enjoy a more leisurely day than most Tuesdays.

First off Congrats to this great list of Women on Twitter! I know there are many such lists but just to be named in any list is an honor. As you know us Space Aliens are all for equality and a huge supporter of the Ladies. This comes from the wonderful Cheryl Burgess of Blue Focus Marketing and Tom Pick of Webbiquity. Not sure when a Top 50 Space Alien's on Twitter list is coming but it had better be soon!

NIFTY 50 TOP WOMEN OF TWITTER

Next topic which is like the weight around your ankles as you are tossed into the ocean by the mafia for not paying your gambling debts. Our Chief Alien has proved over and over that Facebook is dying just waiting for a better network to pop up and poof we all migrate. Yet more and more idiots keep claiming higher valuations. I have told everyone to sell the IPO short. It is the biggest pump and dump scheme in history and will make Bernie Madoff seem like peanuts when this is done. Please if you have a pension or 401k beg the administrators not to buy their stock when they IPO and that you value your retirement.

This article from Media Post covers not only a ridiculously rosie Social Media display ad forecast but notes the Wall Street Journal (whom this Finance Grad doesn't read anymore as a trusted business news source) is claiming a $100bil value next year. Go to the NYSE and NASDAQ. Look at all the companies that have a $100bil value. Look at their revenues. Their profits. Look at what they MAKE AND SELL. And you get my drift.

LINK

The problem I have with the display ad forecast is once Brands realize they aren't getting clicks on Facebook and the Facebook ads are pitiful vs real Display won't prices slump and what Social Media Properties are going to pick up the slack?

Mobile Monday - We Need to Separate the L, the B, and the S

2011-05-09T07:31:00.000-07:00

LBS is no different than Social Media. It covers a wide array of technologies thus confusing everyone except the people who might make money off the confusion. Different Businesses and Platforms have different goals.

L is for Location:

Do we need a Satellite Linkup? Yes and No.

Yes if you want to be found. I use FourSquare, Gowalla, and Yelp! when in an unknown place to see what is around. What restaurants and stores are nearby.

But does a store I am going to visit need a satellite to engage with me? No. I can do that via my mobile device in person via 3G 4G or whatever G network I am using with a simple scan of QR code placed inside the store. This will prove no fake check ins. Even better instead of looking for a deal and blowing you off maybe I come in don't see a deal yet see something and buy it.

The problem with the Satellite is immense. Doesn't work indoors most of the time so if I am at the mall I have to go back outside to check in if I see a store I am curious if they have a deal. Doesn't work in the Upper East Side of NYC because of the tall buildings. It allows false check ins.

B is for Buying:

The goal is to get me to buy something correct? I was up in Vermont last week and checked Foursquare and saw some deals but none that was enough for me to come in and try a restaurant. To get a half price small plate isn't enough. But it's great if I am going anyway and know I can get that. But does that help or hurt your margins?

For a Store whether it is piggy backed on a Service like Gowalla or Shop Kick or a Proprietary App if I had a unique customer identifier that knows it is me with full purchase history would that create the basis for the most robust margin building, revenue growing platform ever? You can pull up the Chief Alien's history and custom craft the hooks possible to maximize a sale, move older inventory, or customize my experience just like if I had my own personal shopping minion.

S is for Social:

Does Location Based Services need a Social Element?

But if people want to share you better sure enable that activity. I myself am sharing my check ins less and less with Twitter. I surely won't be sharing purchases etc. I definitely will never check in to a Place on Facebook. But that is me. If you want to go ahead. It benefits the Store or Business you are patronizing. Maybe there should be an added incentive to share kind of like what Lockerz is trying to do.

For a Customer to Store connection if I check in and share with Twitter I get 1% off. If I share my purchase activity on Facebook I get another 1% off. If it takes place on a larger platform maybe I can accumulate points for a reward down the road.

Mobile Monday - On Tuesday!

2011-05-03T02:41:00.000-07:00

I know everything got kind of wacky with Bin Laden having to die and go mess up my normal order of blog posts.

I am going to start a new format or test it for all 5 of my readers 8). First will be some observations as I use my Droid2 and followed by news and worth blogposts.

Part Uno:

So I was jogging and there was a link posted on Twitter for a You Tube Video. Which I clicked on. My Droid asked me do I wish to play in the Browser (generic), Skyfire, or Firefox. Yet I have a You Tube App which is owned by Google. Why doesn't it just launch in the YouTube App? This might be a Motorola or Twitter App issue. But if I was Google I would fix this flaw right away.

Mobile browsing kind of sucks. I hesitate to use my Droid2 for Mobile Browsing because the experience isn't that great no matter what Browser I use. And why when I use the Generic Browser does it ask permission every time it needs to go to a new page? I already chose it for that action show some balls! Own it!

I learned I was allowing Apps to search for updates non-stop. It was freezing the phone. I recommend manually looking for updates.

When I brought the phone in to be swapped by Verizon whom suggest I wipe the phone out and start clean I asked why do the Apps I kill start up again. I was told I can manually fix that in the application settings. Big Phat Wrong. Can't fix the problem at least so far can't find a setting to only run Apps when I let them run.

Kudos to Verizon Wireless. While I was very miffed they didn't swap my phone and instead wiped it clean and started over the process was amazing. All my Apps reloaded on their own. I was blown away. Same with my contacts etc. The only issue I had was Apps needing a login like FourSquare or Gowalla. I had forgotten them and had to get them when at home.

Lastly still to date Gowalla and Foursquare have rewarded me only once and that was back in October when I got free Chips and Salsa at Chilis. The special offers still suck. Mostly Radio Shacks. I really just check in for fun especially when traveling to show where I am but not very often to Twitter. Just in-network. They are handy like Yelp! to see what is locally around for eats, drinks etc.

Part Dos:

Edward Boches covers Rudeless a new IPhone App

Fred Wilson covers Apps that know where you are and set your phone accordingly.

Social Tuesday - On Monday - Who Cares about Real Time Web?

2011-05-02T07:29:00.000-07:00

I feel like a pinata when something happens and I have to react with a blogpost. Saturday was case in point when while the premise of Huffington Post and Fred Wilson's article about would we pay for Facebook was true today, it made me respond. Because I wouldn't pay for Facebook now because it sucks as a network, but there was a time before all the Brand and Marketing pollution when I would of. When many of us would have. LINK

Now Osama Bin Laden. Last night there was the announcement that President Obama had a press conference scheduled. I learned during the Mets vs Philly's baseball game on TV. I then went to Huffington Post and saw Bin Laden is Dead but no story. I then went to Twitter and saw the chatter.

Someone who is very well known in Social Media sent a Tweet stating Twitter trounced for the story. Then he posted a blog post about it. I got pissed because of many reasons.

1] He didn't know this or could prove it. Not at that time. Maybe never. And how many knew who had to sit on it because they wanted to know it was true vs Twitter where we libel all the time with lies, rumors, hate, etc (just check the hashtag #TCOT)

2] I learned from TV first

3] 96.7% of the US was not on Twitter yesterday. How many were on at 10pm EST? I had Twitter in a Tab on FireFox but was viewing something else.

4] During the Philly game the crowd found out before any announcement and started chanting USA USA! Yes Philly fans are dumb. They acted like that kid you beat up every day for 10 years who then you wipe out on your bike and they come running over to taunt you saying they won. I mean your bragging after this guy took down the Twin Freaking Towers! He humiliated us for ten years and suckered this country into bankruptcy and some heinous behaviors in wartime and the destruction of the fabric of American cohesiveness. I think not only does Osama Bin Laden win. He should be buried with Ali's Boxing Belts. Hell throw in Fraziers and Tysons as well.

But I want to focus on the crowd. Because Gini Dietrich posted a well crafted blogpost that Social Media was definitely a news facilitator and I agree. It only took a few people in the Philly crowd to see a Tweet, a Facebook update, get an SMS Text or Phone Call to have the whole crowd know really quickly. But I will bet the bank 95% of the fans learned by verbal communication from their neighbors in the stands. No different than how things spread in Egypt or Tunisia. It only takes a few well located people with access to others to get a message moving. Even if very few are using Social Media or Mobile Technologies.

Interestingly enough as proof of Social Media and Technologies lack of reach. The announcers kept mentioning the Phillies in the doug out were clueless about why the chants for USA were going on. And not just for a minute. For a whole half an inning! None of those people have phones? There wasn't one support person in the clubhouse watching TV? No coach in a booth watching the TV feed for coaching purposes?

So since not just most I bet 80-90% of the US learned about Osama Bin Laden outside of Social Media. And some people knew before others. And all these people are pushing real time web like it matters like the person who got me riled up last night.

WHO CARES?

Why do so many Social Media people need validation of the importance of Social Media even when it's not that important? They rubber stamp events without critical research or proof. And often over stuff that doesn't matter.

WHO CARES?

This was not life and death. This proves the fallacy of the REAL TIME WEB being worthless most of the time. If I learned 10 minutes later than you WHO CARES? Are you that much of a stuck up whiny geek that you want to brag you knew before me? I have found VERY FEW examples of where REAL TIME WEB is more important than ALMOST REAL TIME WEB. And they are so few and so rare.....WHO CARES? The ones I have found are important ones like if I was trading stocks. But most people will never benefit in almost all instances.

Why Fred Wilson and the Huffington Post Poll is wrong about Facebook

2011-04-30T15:30:00.000-07:00

First off I LOVE Fred Wilson. His Blog www.avc.com has been listed on my blog forever. Even my old blog. He is genuine and he cares about Entreprenuers succeeding. If you visit his blog you know. He seriously responds to so many comments and his MBA Mondays is incredible for anyone without a Business Degree who wants to get into Business it is a must read. He will even respond to your emails directly very kind man.

Last year I wrote him this was Pre-Facebook Places, Deals, Open Graph but during the heyday of Facebook is not trustworthy and the start of polluting our network feeds and the mission to exploit us. But I wrote him because I love Twitter and I think we should pay for it. And he said Ad Support is the only way. I have a Finance Degree and 17 years of Business experience of all sorts. I realized based on comments Eric Schmidt made * when Google purchased Ad Mob and Fred's response to my email that having managerial experience and investing experience does not mean you definitely know business models, markets or human beings. You just know how to manage a business, pay for stuff, finance stuff etc.Fred is a visionary for investing. But it doesn't mean all his investments will be winners or last the test of time.

*please note the post on Ad Mob and Twitter trying to expose our location did not come to fruition. Twitter allowed me to turn it off and Ad Mob has never served me a relevant ad since getting my Droid2 last August.

So today Huffington Post asks would we pay to use Facebook. Well guess what over 95% said no. But why did they say no? Because we don't see value in Facebook anymore. It's why network usage per person per day is down over 30%. It is a dying network. But we have no replacement yet so it is hanging on.

I wrote how these networks are platforms/operating systems not media: LINK

I wrote that in OCTOBER! Now lets look at this argument about paying for Facebook. Today's Facebook SUCKS! It has a horrible user interface. It's clunky and they diluted what we liked it for. We just want to keep in touch with friends and family and do some networking. We do not want brands, places, open graph, deals etc. We just want a simple technology to communicate. But now we have so much clutter in the feed we see so few posts that the value has diminished.

It's why only 20-30mil US users do anything on the network each day. Most people passively just look for posts from Friends/Family check out photos and nothing else. It is why we upload so few photos per person per month (less than 10), share less than 2 items per day, and watch less than 1 video each per month. (From Facebook's stats!)

So let me ask to be logical here. In exchange for letting Brands and Advertisers invade our personal space does:

Microsoft give us Windows for Free?

Does Verizon give me free Cell and Text?

Does Time Warner give me free Cable and High Speed Internet?

Does Apple give me a Free IPhone?

NO NO NO and again NO! So why is Facebook or Twitter choosing a different business model? Is the technology not good enough maybe? And if it isn't good enough to me that smells trouble and the end is coming. If we aren't willing to pay we sure are willing to leave right?

We would pay for a bitchin communication platform! Remember kids Social Media Networks are not Media:

They are a REVOLUTION IN INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES!

There is no Brands, Advertising or Marketing in that statement! And we pay for all the other forms of Technology that allow us to communicate. Here is my post from LAST MAY about Facebook charging. Why am I always so far ahead of everyone? LOL LINK

So imagine if Facebook when they had 400million users had charged $3/month. And just 200mil signed up. They would vault to number 314 in the Fortune 500 with 7.2bil in revenue yes they would of increased their revenue 600%! And they could made the network 100% private. Kicked out all brands all marketing all exploitation. They could of reinvested in the USER EXPERIENCE vs the BRAND EXPLOITATION EXPERIENCE! They could of been a threat to ATT, Verizon, even the Internet! But instead they got poor managerial and venture capital advice and here we are with a network no one would pay for!

We pay for great technology all the time why wouldn't we pay if it was GREAT TECHNOLOGY?

Lastly Fred Wilson has invested in some great companies. Tumblr. FourSquare. Twitter. Soundcloud. Disqus + More. And I am not stating every web property or network we would pay for. But I do feel we would pay for Facebook or Twitter or similar network if the value was such that we really want to use it.

Social Tuesday - Lockerz - Social Bribing

2011-04-26T05:28:00.000-07:00

If anyone isn't aware Plixi is now Lockerz - LINK

Watch the video. It is going to try to make up for Facebook's failings. The Chief Alien has always felt Facebook made a fatal error courting Brands and Marketing instead of building the best Person to Person communication platform out there. Something we would pay a monthly fee for. We have railed against all the failures that Facebook has had to date: Open Graph, Brand Pages, Facebook Ads, Places, Deals. We have also destroyed with their own stats how little sharing goes on the network, how few people actually do anything on the network, and how the live feed is so cluttered with white noise it is almost useless.

There is a big reason usage per person per day is down over 30% in the last year from 55 mins a day to 38 mins a day. We posit using Facebook stats that there are only between 20million and 30million US consumers active on the network on any given day out of 250 million Americans 14 and over. Not a bad pool but you can see why activity is so low.

Today as a Marketer 8 of 9 US consumers are unreachable via Facebook.

But Facebook never tried Bribery! Maybe that is all we needed to share more. Would we share more if we earned points like we do Airline Miles. Would be stay with a network that we invested time and effort and have something! We have NOTHING with Facebook. Remember all the Myspace Pages we tricked out and put blood and sweat into then left? We we have put in even less into Facebook.

Lockerz is interesting that for activities you earn points that can be converted into deals. When I watch the video some things I can get with. Others I am not so sure because of human behavior will play out. They give an example of sharing the Camera I bought with friends and getting points. Then if someone buys it I get uuber points. But would a friend want that exact Camera? What if I said 'It's great but wish it had this feature'. Would maybe it being Brand Specific vs Model Specific be best?

And how much do we want to share. Based on the fact the average Facebook user shares only 1.7 items a day out of the hundreds we see or can...the answer is not much. We didn't want Beacon. And there is a level of sharing we want ie "Cherry Picked Good Stuff...Gems...Steals etc' but we do not want to know everything everyone is buying, watching seeing. That becomes massive spam. Imagine if our Facebook feed was loaded with just 20 things each 'friend' did today. We would leave the network.

But what if the bribe was so incredible we put up with it? Would we just share without participation just for the points. It could be a gold mine of data for someone but maybe not quite the network they envision.

Fun Friday - The Do Lab!

2011-04-22T07:34:00.000-07:00

If there ever was an Art Collective you might not know of...but probably know it's The Do Lab. From creating ridiculously crazy art cars for Burningman to their Sea of Dreams New Years Spectaculars to Lucent L'amour Valentines to Lightning in a Bottle to hauling their Alice in Wonderland Stages to festivals around the world such as Coachella Music Festival how can you not enjoy their creativity and vibe.

I first met them in 2005 at Burningman when they had this crazy Flower moving around the Playa and they have been part of my LA/West Coast Social Network since then. Some of my really good friends are part of the Collective as Resident DJ's to helping create and build their elaborate fantasy events and worlds.

Here is an incredible video from Lightning in a Bottle 2010. BTW ask @the_swedishfish how it was. He was there 8) Oh and the music is by The Glitch Mob who will be in a future fun friday. Buy Drink the Sea on Amazon today! Drink the Sea MP3 and don't miss their summer tour! TOUR DATES

The LA Weekly just did an awesome coverage of their Stage and DJs from Coachella and while I might ridicule Coachella for having lame headliners (my view) the fact they have the Do Lab create a stage and bring underground music to the masses keeps them in my semi-good graces. There is also free music in the following article.

LINK

And here is my friend Patricio's amazing live set also downloadable for free on Soundcloud:

Patricio Coachella2011 by PATRICIO_LA

In fact if you go through the Coachella 09 video and search Soundcloud for those DJ's they all have free music you can get turned onto and just maybe you will find yourself at some rave party at 4am dancing wondering just how you got there 8)

You just need to do a search on You Tube or check out their site www.thedolab.com or fan them on Facebook or Twitter You just much catch one of their events or find out where they are bringing their stage to various festivals. Great people and amazing art!

All Points West 2009 New Jersey Patricio + Jupit3r

View from behind the DJ Set Up (Chief Alien's always have all access passes!)

Albany Times Union Doesn't Get Mobile!

2011-04-21T06:55:00.000-07:00

Every year as do so many other city newspapers around the country there is a Best of Contest where local denizens and citizens vote on the best of everything. So I was very excited to see the Albany NY Times Union go Mobile! It sounded so exciting and so 2011. In fact made me feel like maybe where I live isn't as small town rural as the area really is. Until I read the instructions! DOH!

LINK

"We're also going MoBO this year -- and giving you another chance to win fabulous prizes -- in our Let's Go MoBO Photo Contest.

Here's what to do: Get out and explore the Capital Region. Take a photo of whatever you think is the best thing in the Capital Region. Then submit your required information, your photo in one of five categories -- People, Places, Events, Things and MoBO -- and a caption of no more than 140 characters (including spaces)"

Sounds great huh? 140 Characters sounds so Twitter-ish! This is really freaking cool! I am on it!

"Entries may be submitted in one of three ways:

-- Via email to bestof@timesunion.com. (Note: All MoBO entries must be sent via email.)

-- Via postal mail to Times Union, Let's Go MoBO Photo Contest, Box 15000, News Plaza, Albany, NY 12212.

-- Via hand-delivery to the Times Union lobby during regular business hours at 645 Albany Shaker Road in Colonie."

YOU ARE %^#&# KIDDING ME!

So I am just curious how does the Times-Union expect to be able to tell if someone took a photo with a Mobile App, Mobile Phone Camera, or Standard Camera if we have to email or print the damn entry????? Does this not negate the Mobile Aspect 100% because it's not truly all mobile and game-able?

Two hints here. Just call it a PHOTO CONTEST. Which it is and that is just fine instead of trying to hijack the term Mobile for Pizzazz purposes. Or let me submit via Twitter or your Facebook wall or anything that is truly mobile. Yes it could be still gamed on a desktop but at least people have a 100% full Mobile Option.

Dear Times-Union

I am available for hire. You need an Alien like myself to help you with Mobile and Strategy and I will gladly take on the challenge.

Sincerely Yours,

Chief Alien

Fun Friday - Applebee's Get's Toddler Loaded!

2011-04-15T05:39:00.000-07:00

My friend and Superstar Rock Star on tour in Europe Dan Coyle

linked this amazing story of idiot process design by a Management dead set on shaving nickels of productivity.

LINK from http://www.alexgpr.com/

It seems a toddler was served a Margarita by accident instead of Apple Juice. I know you think wait...this story is for Fun Friday?! Yes! Because it is so dumb it is hilarious. Not only is the incident completely stupid the response is even more stupid! So glad Applebee's doesn't build cars or airplanes.

So with my 9 years of restaurant experience I have to assume this was the problem:

Combined with this:

So the Waiter goes and gets an Apple Juice. The button is next to the Margarita button and they press the wrong one. They are in the weeds which means very busy and stressed running around. The parents can't see it is a Margarita. The kid get's loaded. The response by Applebee's is training vs maybe their process. Just maybe they shouldn't be serving pre-made crap Margaritas from a hose that has a button next to juices kids request. Just maybe they should have a second freaking hose for anything with alcohol to prevent this. But instead it's a training issue?

I wish to say I do not find Applebee's a place with good food. I try to avoid it. I remember ordering an Asian Chicken Salad that came with only Ice Berg Lettuce, Peanuts, Chow Mein Noodles and Ginger Dressing. How much bigger of a Fail can that be?

So while Mr. Coyle and the Article discuss the PR Implications. Lets make it easy:

Applebee's Press Release:

In an effort to reduce costs and quality of product and service we the Management were so dumb and stupid to choose to serve our customers Margaritas pre-mixed at a factory served in a Keg and Dispensed through a Beverage Gun where the button was right next to the Apple Juice Button. We apologize for getting a 15 month old torched. But it does prove that the crappy Margaritas do indeed have some alcohol in them. At least enough so that a 15 lb toddler can't drive home. Please forgive us.

Applebee's

Mobile Monday - Is it Android or is it Motorola?

2011-04-11T06:07:00.000-07:00

I got a Droid2 in August. I love it. I hate it. Sometimes I am so happy to have it. Sometimes I want to run it over with a steam roller. Not sure what are Android Issues and what are Motorola Issues. This discussion is the phone not Apps.

What I like:

Gorilla Glass Screen - unbreakable unscratchable

Slide out keyboard - very easy to use once you get the hang of it

Google Maps/GPS/Navigation - it is awesome. Though the Speak your destination feature can use improvement.

Wi-Fi Connection

There are a ton of great Apps.

Easy to share content socially from Apps.

When I run now I can take pictures, upload to twitter, etc. I can do Twitter for a client from the gym.

What can improve:

Web Surfing still kind of sucks. Nothing beats the laptop. Most sites still not formatted for mobile and type and video is still small for the ones that are.

Google Maps GPS - great when driving. Not so great when walking around.

Not so easy to share websites from the browsers via Social.

What I hate:

Battery Life sucks. I shouldn't need to tote 2 spares with me for a night out. It gets about 2-3 hrs of battery life if you use apps/data/satellite/GPS constantly. I also sometimes bring the charging cord.

It freezes up A LOT! Often several times a day requiring a ReBoot.

Have not found a away to share a contact via text messaging or email yet. Requires memorizing or writing down info then entering it separately into the text or email. Big fail here.

Software to transfer photos to laptop sucks horribly. It seriously is pretty much the worst I have ever used.

Comes loaded with Motorola Software I have no use for and can not remove.

Apps run on their own for no rhyme or reason sucking up RAM. I use an App called Advanced Task Killer which shuts down these Apps. Problem is they start on their own automatically! Why should I have to battle with this stuff?

Things I don't use my smart phone for:

Buying things. Not talking about my Latte at Starbucks. I am talking about E-Commerce stuff. Not really a good platform for it. Screen to small for really browsing. Hell a Laptop Screen is still too small for shopping in a productive fashion. But I do use it when at stores to pull info up via barcodes and in some cases compare prices.

Watching Video - I do but the screen is small. There is a reason we have big HDTV's at home and not a bunch of mobile video handsets.

MS Office Type Work - not a big enough screen for me to find value in Word Processing and Spreadsheets etc.

Mobile Search. Search SUCKS. Browsers suck. The Verizon network is slow as nails and to go to the browser and search and then pull up a website takes days! So I use Apps like Yelp! and Gowalla.

I heard many of the smart phones have similar issues and challenges including the IPhone. What do you have for a phone and what do you like or not like?

Why Did Saks Fifth Avenue Pay Twitter to Show me this Ad?

2011-04-06T06:15:00.000-07:00

Advertising and Marketing is complicated. The whole chain of important activities to sell something can be blown if just one key part fails.

1] We need a product people want or will want if they know about it.

2] The Brand needs to make something that meets the value expectation otherwise all marketing efforts go down the tube with no repeat business.

3] The Advertising and Marketing must be crafted in a way that achieves the goals of awareness, enticement, emotional connection whatever it takes to get someone to try something new or improved, or remember they miss/liked something they have tried and forgotten about.

4] The Advertising must bee seen by people who will most likely buy the Brand's product or service. The less likely I am to buy the more it costs the Brand per contact. For example I can show an Ad to 100 people who will have a 70% likelihood of buying. Say that is a finite number. Now the next hundred whom I pay the same $$ to reach have a 50% likelihood of buying. It just cost me more per sale for my Advertising/Marketing expense.

Last Friday I saw this ad as a sponsored Tweet in my Twitter Feed:

I didn't see it once. I saw it ALL FREAKING DAY!

So I clicked to see what the link brought me too. Drum Roll Please!

As Kyle's Mom on South Park would say....What What What??!!!

So who's fault is it? Twitter's? The Media Planner? The Ad Serving Platform? Is Twitter not sophisticated enough a platform to identify women? What is worse is whomever is giving a report back to Sak's is counting my views as success. And counting my click as a success. Which is why people do not trust Marketers, Advertisers, Nielsen, etc. Anyone who makes money based on gross views or clicks without identifying how many of the true target saw something or took action is technically stealing money from their clients.

Social Tuesday - Brands Must Read! Social Media Hypsters Shoo Go Away!

2011-04-05T05:54:00.000-07:00

I recently wrote a rebuttal to Mr. Bob Hoffman the Ad Contrarian one of my favorite Bloggers and Observant Minds about why I felt we are measuring Digital Advertising wrongly. I was shocked because I almost never disagree with him. LINK

But now he just rocked the latest Beancast which is Bob Knorrp's most excellent podcast for Marketing, where the discussion was Digital Marketing and he Owned his adversary in the discussion. You really should subscribe on ITunes and listen every Monday. Forget #FF for Twitter. Just follow like pretty much everyone he has on

LINK to Listen

Now back to Mr. Hoffman. Bob has been on the attack using Pepsi Refresh as a glaring failure for Social Media. Anyone who reads my blog knows I slam Facebook, Mashable, and the Rock Star Social Media Talking Heads all the time for fraud, deception, over hype, under delivering for Brands and Marketing. That is 100% Fact. No needles are being moved using Social Media for Major Brands. As I have stated Starbucks with 18 million fans getting even 2,000 to post on their wall everyday is zero (they average 200-400). Seriously. Divide 2,000 by 18,000,000 it is zero. Divide 2,000 by their 200 million customers in the world. Now we are negative infinity.

You must read these two very important blog posts from last Friday and Yesterday:

Friday

Monday

Then you must read this article which Bob linked yesterday that was in Ad Age in late March by Johnathon Salem Baskin.

LINK

Bob also had a few more worth links in yesterdays post. I think it is all 100% the truth. It is basically stuff I have been yapping about on Twitter and blogging about for 2 years now. As a Defender of Brands they need to know this stuff. I am not a Defender of my Industry or Agencies. Agencies that push horse shit to make money or Social Media Talking Heads that give speeches and write books that only help their bank account can jump off the Brooklyn Bridge because while I am not good at using the word SUCK like Joey Strawn is. They SUCK.

BTW if you want to really know how not to suck or use the word perfectly read his blog: http://joeystrawn.com

Plus he is an amazing and funny ass cartoonist!

Mobile Monday - Assorted Mobs

2011-04-04T07:29:00.000-07:00

We often talk about the consumer side of things here at Space Agency Notes. But sometimes we come across developments that enable businesses to evolve and this trend is something we like very much. One thing our Alien's love to death is summer/fall festival season here in the north east. Filled with events celebrating food, crafts, farming, wine etc. And often many small businesses have to take cash or checks still.

But Square offers an easy way to accept credit cards with your smart phone:

Square Up

They aren't the only service out there. But now it is much simpler to accept payments for small businesses.

I have also been crafting a blog review of the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Motorola Droid2 that I have been kicking around. It is definitely a love hate relationship. My sister now has a Galaxy S Android and it seems a higher quality phone.

Lastly I wanted to discuss the news that Color received $41 Million in VC Funding. LINK

This was discussed on last weeks Quick-n-Dirty Podcast with @AaronStrout and @KyleFlaherty as a sure sign of an LBS/VC Bubble. But I want to give you a take from someone who has used LBS and why LBS sucks.

LBS has really only benefited me when looking for something nearby. Meaning I go onto Gowala or Yelp and let it show me restaurants in the area. Or using the Google Maps Navigator/Locator. It has been a massive failure to me where there is check ins involved. Anyone who knows our Chief Alien, knows he is against Auto-Check Ins for Privacy and Respect issues of many sorts. We are also against the Satellite for Check Ins. They are a big failure. They do not work indoors or in some parts of cities with tall buildings.

Now lets look at Color. Color is an App that will let me go to say a concert, check in there and my pictures will get uploaded to the cloud and mixed with everyone else's pictures. So when I go home or from my phone I can see other view points. It is supposed to be anonymous. Ruh-Roh! I can see an LBS Chat Roulette coming here from participants as my first concern. You don't think some drunk dude in the men's bathroom stall isn't going to take a photo of his junk and upload? Now let's get to the Satellite issue. I have to remember to check in outside. I have to remember to check out too. What if there are two clubs next to each other? And say one is a strip club?

I just see so many opportunities for slick technology to be perverted in ways that people decide to shun it. Not saying it can not be over come. But $41 million is a lot of VC money for an APP.

Now click to Colors Landing Page: www.color.com You don't see Photo Roulette staring you in the face?

Garbage in Garbage Out. Why Research Sucks Part 2

2011-04-01T08:15:00.000-07:00

Back in November I discussed how I felt Research is Shoddy at best. LINK

But what I did not cover was the Human Side. We are eternal optimists in a general sense. We also can be vicious and vengeful and biased and deceitful. I have been part of the You Gov Poll now for a long time. They have a lot of polls about Brands, the Economy, and our own Personal Economic situation.

Typical Questions:

They show a Grid with Consumer Brands and ask which we view positively and which negatively.

They show a Grid asking which Brands you would be proud to work for and which embarrassed.

They show a Grid asking which Brands we have heard positive news in the last 2 weeks and which negative news.

They ask purchasing questions. Last 12 months. Last 30 days. Next 30 days. Next 6 months.

They have lists of restaurants and ask which we have been too in the same time frames.

They ask if we feel the Economy is getting better or worse.

They ask if our own economic situation is getting better or worse.

Now think of the things I said in the beginning and how this will affect the research/polling.

A Brand I hate or had a bad experience with I will go out of my may to say bad things, true or untrue. Vice Versa as well!
I will always feel I will be making more money.
I will often choose to answer about the Economy based on if my Political Alignment is in Power or not.
They fail to ask proper questions. I might be embarrassed to work for the Dollar Store. But not if I was CEO.
It is very hard to know how much I will spend going forward. Today they asked how much I spent at Target last 30 days and what about next 30 days. My needs will change. That is more spontaneous. How the hell can I estimate this?!!!
I hate Walmart. I said Sams Club sucks today. Horrible place. Service deteriorating. Guess what? I have never been in a Sam's Club! But I will always say this. Sorry. Treat your employees like chattel, the environment like crap, small towns like shit, keep poor people poor so they will stay your customers, pawn healthcare on the Fed and State Government and buy products from sweat shops in China. Sorry. BTW I would love to say what I think of the Owners the Walton Family but let's just say they are very immoral for people who Bible thump. I will always say negative things about anything Walmart. My own personal view btw. Nothing you can do to change it. I am not ashamed to be biased in this way. Shop there. I don't care.

But guess what people? This is HUMAN NATURE! We are not in nice little boxes. We are Random. We are Unpredictable. We are Emotional. Good luck with your research.

Mobile Monday - the Future of Mobile

2011-03-28T06:07:00.000-07:00

We have a coming divergence in Mobile. Not today. But in 3-5 years. We will all have two screens. And no the second screen will not be an IPad. It will be a Tablet. I see really dumb articles discussing if anyone can catch the IPad. If you have a college degree the answer is 100% yes. I don't view the IPad like the IPod because we won't need an ITunes for Tablets. They will be full web devices. So I look at the segment more like Laptops today. Many options with high to low end choices.

A year before the IPad was even whispered about I was discussing Tablets as the future. With screens about 6"-10". Cheap. $200 or under. Almost disposable. That we can throw in a backpack or our handbag. Rugged. Lots of memory. Connected to the Internets.

The difference will be the Tablet will be an extension of the web while your phone will not. The uses of the devices will split. You can't put a Tablet in your pocket. So think of the Phone being what you use when you can't have the tablet with you.

Think of the Tablet being used for what you want a bigger screen for:

Web surfing. Games. Video. Shopping. Possibly Work.

The Phone for Talking, Texting and Twitter type communication, Payments, Navigation, Photos, Music, checking Movie listings, finding Restaurants etc. It will still have everything else but it will not be the default choice and only for when we don't have a Tablet with us.

Both devices will be capable of doing everything but look for the experience on each device to be different for each task. I feel both will have video calling.

The reason I thought of tablets was video. In 2009 the Trade Pubs were talking about mobile video and how much people were watching on their phones. What they failed to state was this was the only choice. If we were out and about and had 15 minutes to kill and wanted to watch the Daily Show we could. But is a 2.5" to 3.5" screen what we want or prefer? Alien's are logical. The answer is no. Because at home everyone has and prefers big screens.

The biggest obstacles are price and bandwidth. But those will be over come from various sources. 4G. Moore's Law etc. So we will have tablets thrown in our car glove box (does anyone really put gloves in this box anymore?). Or under our seat. In our beach bag etc.

What does this mean for developers? Does the IPad need Apps if it was a full computer? If that is the case why aren't we buying Apps for our Laptops? Or is the trend the reverse? Will all software for us become Apps? And we migrate to only Apps formatted to different screen sizes?

UPDATE>>>> Staples now has a Tablet Center: LINK

In a future post I will discuss the future death of MP3's due to Moore's Law. Yes it's coming and it is going to be the best thing that has happened to music.

Do You Use the Facebook Commenting Plugin? NO COMMENT!

2011-03-24T06:07:00.000-07:00

I go to the Yahoo front page a few times a day. I go there because they are my main source of Sports Scores, Game Schedules, etc And right on the bottom of the news box there are buttons for each sport. So much more clean than ESPN which has horrible navigation issues.

But Yahoo also plugs into local news. Usually nothing there to pique my curiosity but sometimes there is. WRGB which is the CBS TV Affiliate here uses the Facebook Commenting Plug In. You have no idea how much it freaks me out and sends me aggro when I go to a Non-Facebook site and see this:

I am technically logged into WRGB.COM because I am logged into Facebook 24/7 due to running a Clients Brand Page for the time being. First of all I will never ever comment on your site if you use this plug in. You can be offering me $500 and I will say no. I would rather drive to you, beat you over the head and take the $500 by force than use this commenting system.

But here is the kicker. If you are not logged into Facebook this is what you see:

You have no idea that you can even comment! That blank space to the left is where where that box you see above with my logged in info and the comment box? Missing! So by using this system you only are giving people currently logged into Facebook the chance to comment!

Now you can say that the box shows to log in to see your friend's recommendations. Right. Great. Uhm. But it still says nothing about me being able to comment on this site! And a MEDIA BRAND that has a ton of content, that wants me reading article after article, the box highlights two articles.

Since April 2010 per person usage of Facebook is down 31% from 55mins to 38mins per day. As a Brand with a Web Presence , especially a MEDIA BRAND, do you really feel it is of strategic importance to help Facebook reverse this trend by forcing your readers who are on your site directly to use Facebook more? Wouldn't having a box showcasing most read articles by readers be better for your business? Vs trying to help Facebook who's real intention is not to help you, but take readers off your site and onto Facebook?

Shouldn't Facebook be PAYING YOU for this? And if they aren't why are you doing it?

The Big Marketing Fail

2011-03-23T06:57:00.000-07:00

I spent the first 40 years of my life as a consumer. I either made decisions on purchases or I consumed things others decided for me. Like those crappy tasting pureed carrots from Gerber when I was 9 months old. I had jobs that paid well. I traveled for work. I consumed everything out there in some way or another. I am now 43. Most people in Marketing/Advertising who had a career in Marketing/Advertising who are 43 could easily have spent more than half their life either in School or working in the Industry.

As an outsider my view of Advertising/Marketing is much different than Sales which I have 14 years of work experience in, Advertising is very limited in it's scope/role but the Industry feels differently. They have spent decades convincing Brands how important they are in the role of the purchasing decisions. By doing this they over sell and under deliver. They also set themselves up for failure.

Advertising can make people aware of a product or service. Once someone tries the product, that is it. Job done. If the product sucks or perceived value is not there, no advertising can change that. The Brand can. They can reach out, give great customer service, fix quality issues. But Advertising can not fix that. The Vaunted Chrysler Superbowl Commercial did not change in my view that Chrysler cars fall apart and have horrible quality. It will take years of JD Powers rankings to fix this.

So my observations are that Advertising fails to ask people why and how they use devices and whether Advertising fits the way Consumers want to use devices vs how Advertisers believe the use them. Advertising likes to force their way in whether we like it or not.

1] People do not want ads online. They use the net to consume content/entertain, utility and work. They do not come online to consume Advertising. Trust me. I can find your brand online. I don't need your help. Caveat I do open some email fliers like Staples. But I personally block most digital ad server ads because they do not bring me value.

2] People do not care about Brands via Social Media. We don't. Get over it. We use Social Media to connect with things we are passionate about. If we are passionate about a Brand off line we will engage via Social Online. But if we are not passionate about your Brand, Product, etc offline we don't give a flying pigs ass about you online. I have been bribed to Like a Brand on Facebook and after Payout Unliked.

I have said this many times. I need to Trade Mark this statement: Social Media is a Revolution of Interpersonal Communication Technology. Note Marketing is absent from that statement.

You want to get a big bang for Social Media in your company? Use it to improve your operations and communications. But if your view is to sell. You are choosing the lowest ROI Choice.

3] More Advertising more places is not the answer. That just enriches Media Buyers, Media Channels, and Ad Agencies. Stop invading everywhere my eyes look.

4] People do not want push advertising on their phones. They don't. It is an invasion of our privacy. We will consider value proposition call to actions where WE INITIATE CONTACT. But stay off my phone.

Social Tuesday - Ad Contrarian Right Message, Wrong Case Study - Pepsi

2011-03-22T06:55:00.000-07:00

This week Bob Hoffman one of my favorite bloggers took shots at Social Media and specifically Pepsi as his case study. I am ok with his bashing Social Media. My view of business is from the CEO/CFO standpoint. Not marketing. Marketers are suckers. They snow each other all the time. It drives me crazy. Social Media Marketers tend to be the worst over all. It is very hard weeding through the Bull Shit. You want to know why I am such a dick sometimes by bashing my industry. Because I am CEO not CMO not someone making a cool commercial that is nifty.

SELL SELL SELL!

It is why I refuse to read Mashable. It's like reading Fox News but for Social Media. It is why I don't read Chris Brogan, Brian Solis as much as they are nice guys. Their views help small businesses. But not Big Business move their stock price. It's why I laugh at Klout and the Edelman Trust Barometer. Big Picture people! What will move stock prices of a Fortune 2000 Company? Not a Facebook page. Not Fan Engagement on Twitter. Not identifying key online influencers.

http://adcontrarian.blogspot.com/

Read Bob's Pepsi Posts. Also read his Febreeze Post. Because for Febreeze he is dead on. And his Pepsi's posts are not off mark, except for using Pepsi as a case study.

Social Media is not moving sales for big companies. But I will not be baited into saying it has no value. I have a Finance Degree. I put a value on EVERYTHING and everything has a value. Starbucks with 18 million Fans on Facebook, the value isn't 18 million fans. It's not even the number that they engage. The value is how many Fans because they engage with Starbucks on Facebook buy more Starbucks, or at least shift their purchasing to increase Starbucks market share of their total purchasing. And how many get friends, family etc to buy more Starbucks or increase Starbucks market share in their life So using this formula I bet it's safe to say Facebook has zero value to Starbucks at this time. Look at their page. They get about 200 to 400 people posting to their wall saying they love Starbucks. Divide even 1000 by 18,000,000. It comes out to almost zero. And we have no clue about sales.

Now let me look at Pepsi.

1] I have no idea their total Ad Budget for 2010. But safe to say $20mil for Pepsi Refresh or the Superbowl is less than 1% of spend. Why bash them for giving back to the community. Bob's taunt on this is almost saying Sales trumps doing good. And trust me. He is not that type! And I doubt Facebook Fans were the goal here vs having Communities look at Pepsi as a Do Gooder Company.

2] Pepsi has 19 Divisions that each bring in $1bil. So they are a much more complex company than Coca Cola.

3] Maybe their Creative Agency is doing poor work? Maybe Pepsi should put their Advertising Account under review that currently is with TWBA/Chiat/Day? This would be one place I would look hard. At their 'Traditional Marketing'. I see Pepsi Out of Home but don't watch much TV so not sure what the Commercials are like today. (Please note I like TWBA and it grieves me to write this)

4] Maybe Coke is discounting more at point of purchase. I got a TON of Coke Coupons Superbowl week at my store. Zero from Pepsi. For every person who will not substitute I bet 100 will. I don't care what surveys say. So if my Supermarket has Club Card Specials more often for Coke vs Pepsi then yes Coke will see a sales uptick.

5] Maybe Coke drinkers are less healthy and are more obese and willing to suck pure sugar into them diabetes be damned and all these years Pepsi drinkers were more likely to switch to water? Granted Diet Coke has done well.

6] Maybe the Media Buying Agency for Pepsi is sucking. Maybe they have been blowing it big time on the Ad Spend and wasting their money? I see Pepsi still everywhere Out of Home. This would be the second place I would look hard.

7] Maybe operationally Coke is doing better from Supply Chain Management to their Direct Sales group?

My point is this is a very complex situation and you can not point the finger to Social Media for the Pepsi situation. Point all you want at Social Media. Social Media deserves the scrutiny. But you can not simplify a very complex situation like this by blaming Social Media or Digital Strategies.

Mobile Monday - Shopping Anyone?

2011-03-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

I had to run out for ear plugs Thursday night. The birds are back. Spring is almost here. I get woken up at dawn by as many as hundreds occasionally thousands of birds. Crows. Black Birds. Doves. Wild Turkeys. Grackles. Starlings. Cardinals. Blue Birds. Robins. Kill Deer (the worst). Blue Jays. Woodpeckers. Finches. All come to the bird feeders and the fields outside. Plus now all the Geese are flying over head coming back from Miami Beach. Yes it is crazy. Louder than Manhattan during rush hour.

So I went to Rite Aide because it is much closer than the Super Market. And I am pretty sure at Price Chopper the foam Ear Plugs were $3. Rite Aid was $4.99. But I wasn't sure. I have a Droid2. Sad I could not check using my phone. In fact why can't I load into an App or Web easily everything I normally buy and allow instant price checks and comparisons so that I can buy items at each place that had the best price? We aren't there yet. But we will be eventually.

I can already compare big ticket items. anything I can Google and compare with the Shopping feature I can do on Mobile. My folks just bought a 42" Panasonic HDTV from Best Buy. After they set it up my mother found it for $150 less on Amazon. They do not have smart phones. I am curious if Best Buy would of cut the price to buy it right there. They should. And shouldn't we all be doing this now?

If anyone knows of such shopping list Apps in the works please share. I have used SpringPad which has a slick barcode reader to pull up product information. You can read the barcode, and add a note with a price and then go to another store and check prices but I don't know of anything that pulls in data from Supermarkets, Drug Stores etc.

BTW if you travel or live anywhere loud, these ear plugs are golden. They will make crying babies on planes almost bearable. You will never hear traffic or birds. Yet...you will hear your morning alarm! They also are great at concerts!

Google Circles, Social 2.0 and Choice is Coming

2011-03-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

Great article on Read Write Web about the rumor of a new Google Social Network called possibly Circles. LINK

I have written before that Social Media and Marketers via Social are still at 1.0

We have Fan Pages and Twitter Accounts because those are the platforms that to date Marketers have been able to convert to Marketing Channels. Remember for MySpace it was just digital advertising that was the Channel. So you see lots of Social Media Agencies focusing on Facebook and Twitter Marketing.

But the chances of these still being the main platforms in 10 years is Zero. In 5 years? Not sure. People move fast. We are very public on twitter because Direct Messaging is one on one vs for groups right now. I run a Facebook Page for a client. Over 80% of all accounts that are Fans are private. This doesn't prove we want privacy. It proves we want choices. And without the choices our default is 100% private. And we are cautious what we share!

I only publicly check in on FourSquare with Twitter rarely now. Same with Gowalla. In fact for Gowalla I am very picky who I accepted as my friend because I want to keep it a circle of people I am ok seeing I checked in where ever I decided too.

Circles and possibly Diaspora could be offering us this choice. And it just takes enough of ones friends to start trying a platform to get us all to move. This is a BIG threat to Marketers but not Brands. Brands do not bet the house on one Marketing Channel. They use them all and allocate resources where needed. But there are a lot of Agencies and Freelancers betting the house that Social Media will always be a public forum to reach people for marketing. There are add on technologies doing the same like Klout who if everyone goes private they can not measure Social Influence!

Stay tuned for the next chapter and Social 2.0 because it is coming and while I do not see it disruptive for Brands, I see it very disruptive for Marketing/Advertising/PR. Remember the people only care about having a great communication platform for Friends and Family. They do not care about talking to Brands via Social. That is not why we are using Twitter and Facebook. I bet 99.9999% of Communication on those two platforms is between people not people-Brands.

Social Tuesday - Mash Mish

2011-03-15T06:34:00.000-07:00

Just a few thoughts:

ARBYS

I clicked on their Sponsored Tweet

It took me to their Facebook Page which is a BIG NO NO!

So I tweeted them telling them they failed and now I won't use the coupon. Surprise they responded and fast:

Kind of a gnarly new sandwich which is not something I would eat once I viewed it. But I do like their food so anyone who wants the coupon here is the LINK. I was very impressed with their response time and the fact that in discussion they were not using Twitter to funnel to a Facebook Page. If I follow you on Twitter that is where I want to engage. If I wanted to engage on Facebook I would be doing that. In fact the quickest way for me to un-follow on Twitter is when I follow getting a Direct Message saying to Like a Facebook Page.

GOOGLE CIRCLES

Please Oh Lord or Goddess under heaven and above the stars. Please make this real. Please make it worthy of canceling my Facebook account!

From Read Write Web LINK

This proves why speed is important. What if this is the bee's knees and Diaspora comes out later? What if Diaspora is good enough to draw millions from Facebook, but Google beats them?

FACEBOOK MARKETING

Marketing Profs has a great article with 6 reasons to be very careful about Facebook: LINK

HEAL LA

Social Giving!

Lastly we just went live yesterday for a client choosing Heal LA instead of Groupon. LINK

Why? The only thing Groupon has right now is reach. But Heal LA blows it's socks off in every other aspect:

1] Your donation goes directly to charity. 100%

2] You pay for the deal at the Brand. Meaning you get a coupon you take to the place that made the offer and use it. This gives the Brand the money right away. There is ZERO commission. ZERO money in escrow.

3] It's FREE. They do everything from the graphics to the copy.

Mobile Monday - Mish Mash

2011-03-14T06:59:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the almost 2 week hiatus. The Chief Alien was sick for almost a week and a bit of writer's block. What can I say? It happens. Just because I am a significantly advanced life form does not mean I can not have writer's block!

First the MISH

In January I covered why you need to format for Mobile: LINK

The wonderful Shelly Kramer (@shellykramer) on her own did a reprise on why you need to format for mobile web: LINK

If you will not listen to me...listen to Shelly. Plus she has a higher Klout than me so she must be important.

I have a client who was involved with a festival done at Santa Anita Rack Track in Los Angeles and when at the Albany Devil's Hockey Game yesterday the Director of Sales Chris Quinn sent a Tweet about a promotion there. I truly was floored and impressed at the mobile website. Pull it up in your phone browser www.santaanitapark.com (@santaanitapark) If there was ever reinforcement on why. They prove it.

If you have a Word Press Blog there is a simple plug in for Mobile Formatting. In fact Shonali Burke (@Shonali) just formatted Waxing Unlyrical which is a PR-Social Media Blog you should be reading.

Lastly the MASH. BTW never ever assume that because the MASH comes last that it is less important than the MISH.

Shiv Singh (@ShivSingh) of Pepsi shared a presentation that was give by Matt Murphy and Mary Meeker of KCPB one of the big Venture Funds. Mary btw I still have issues with. She was along with Henry Blodget accused of lying/misleading investors and pumping up Dot.Com stocks while privately in emails saying the companies were crap. While Henry was banned from working in the stock markets for life Mary somehow escaped. While I have had discussions with many people including Fortune and the Economist on them, who say everyone deserves a second chance (YES!) but lying to me is the worst of all offenses are completely destroys my trust. So when reading this presentation which has some really good stuff remember it is from a VC. They have inherent bias to have the companies they invest in win, even if they don't have the best product, service or solution. In fact the NY Observer questions whether Mary is possibly a sign of a BOOM or a Bubble LINK

Slide Share: LINK

To be fair I say the same thing about Facebook/Zuckerberg and the Social Media Talking Heads like the Brogan's and Solis' who need Social Media to be bigger than it really is in the scheme of things because it benefits them specifically. I also often attack the Ad Industry for over selling to Brands. Always look at a company or person's angle in business. Whether you are being pitched by a vendor or brand or trying to learn things to improve your business. That is why often this blog brings up bias and hypocrisy or blatant lies and deceit often. Because I hope to give you balanced insight as best as possible. And yes I have bias too. I want more clients!

There were 11 fights yesterday between the Albany Devils (NJ Devils farm team) and Syracuse Crunch (Anaheim Ducks) including helmets flying, two players got bloody faces and were taken into the locker room, and they had one play stoppage to clean up a pool of blood on the ice. I was very impressed!

Social Tuesday - Pop Goes Zuckerberg the Weasel...Again!

2011-03-01T06:54:00.000-08:00

Listen we get it Mark. You are in Panic Mode...say it! PANIC MODE! None of your initiatives have been a winner. You have failed to give any details on the success of Places, Deals, Open Graph because you lack the convincing data to show us. So what do you do? You are going to try forcing the Like Button issue at the same time you are going to scare people into not using the Like Button.

Your changes will facilitate, when someone Like's content off site, that it shows on the Facebook user's wall and hopefully spam their friends and family. You never did this with your users in mind. This is pure exploitation. But since it hasn't been working you are trying to change it! LINK And one of the commentators on the article did a test showing how the Like Button is not Viral: LINK

The interesting omission from the first link from Inside Facebook is the lack of data. How many Likes were clicked last year? Per Week? Facebook won't share that because it's doesn't look good! But now to compound the problem, I am starting to see articles informing people that Facebook is now sharing Cell Numbers and Home Addresses with 3rd Party Developers. So anyone using the Mobile Facebook App or who entered their info in their Facebook Profile are going to exposed to even more exploitation. LINK

So basically Facebook's Strategy is Full Exposure and Exploitation of their User Base. Whom if they had no Users their business is worth Zero Dollars. I had exposed the fact that Facebook's network usage per user per day is dropping fast. Will such moves as these stop the slide? Or accelerate it? I think acceleration. If our update feeds start getting more spammy we will eventually leave. As it is we see such a low percentage of posts from our network, the answer is not more posts, it's less posts, or better organized UI. Spam was a huge problem for Myspace and obviously Facebook has short term memory loss.

Mobile Monday - Travel Notes - Mobile - LBS still 1.0

2011-02-28T07:23:00.000-08:00

On Saturday I went to Brooklyn, NY for an art show opening that I knew some of the artists and their group of friends. During my visit I used a number of Apps on my Droid2. Here is the high and the low.

Usual Suspects Opening Night - WIlliamsburg, Brooklyn

Good:

Google Maps - with the GPS function enabled it shows your position on the map. If you entered an address it brings you there.

Google GPS - the voice search feature is great. It also has at least an 80% success rate.

Droid2 - I don't take my Digital Camera out any longer and use my Droid2. Eliminated 1 device to take out!

Yelp! - allows me with GPS enabled to pull up bars and eateries nearby, often many with pictures. Also allows me to check in similar to FourSquare and Gowalla. I can even write a review while at the place and upload photos.

NYC Mate- On the Subway, which I meant to get a photo of they signs say the MTA as a strategic decision did not create any Apps for Trains, Bus, or Ferry Service. Instead they allowed private developers to create Apps incorporating the MTA info. So I use this simple App that has the subway lines and stops.

Twitter - Twitter for Android and Hootsuite make keeping in touch on Twitter very easily as well as the ability to run a clients Twitter while out of the Office.

The Bad:

Yelp! - I can pull up restaurants but not by cuisine on their App and it loads just 10 places per page. In NYC you easily would have 100 in close range in some areas. Won't allow me to complete my review until I am at home logged into Yelp! on my laptop.

LBS - FourSquare and Gowalla - bad news for your form of LBS. Yes I like telling SOME friends where I am, and sometimes the Twitter. Your services do not work in buildings. I was at the Spike Hill Tavern in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and I wasn't getting up and walking outside to check in. I also aside from one night at Chili's in October I have never seen any deals from the places I check into being offered.

Artwork by Keely

LBS Part 2- Shopkick - I have played with this App before. They do have some national my chain discounts. I never set up the settings and when I was walking from Penn Station to Herald Square because they moved the E train to the F train line. On my walk where seriously with 100 yards could easily have 100-200 Stores. My phone started buzzing like crazy. I was in a rush and wasn't in town to shop. I finally figured out at least one store was buzzing a deal and I decided I did not like that at all. I want to be there to shop and pull up the App and look for deals. I do not want Deal Alerts to my phone that buzz, or beep, or shock, or play a song.

Social -

I uninstalled my Droid Facebook App not that long ago. It works great but when I read Facebook wanted to sell phone numbers and contact info to Brands I decided I don't need contact by any push advertising from Brands that buy my info from Facebook. So went 24 hours without Facebook and I did not miss it.

Twitter - Twitter for Droid and Hootsuite - I like Hootsuite because it is better for managing my own account, and a client's. I like uploading photos when I travel to twitter. Hootsuite works better and faster, BUT the Ow.ly photo host doesn't show how many views, while TwitPic does. I like Twitter's new name completion and auto-shortening of links feature since the upgrade. I do not like that they don't have a 'Send' box for viewing. Hootsuite has this but it doesn't work most of the time. I really wish one App did all.

Hootsuite - it is a small box to see which account a Tweet Stream will launch into. So my joke photo of the Playgirl Van which was meant as an inside joke with @DarrylOhrt and @KDel713 about the next Humongo Nation tour vehicle via @skypulsemedia , it actually was sent into @ChunknChip 's Twitter Stream. DOH!

News Reading - I have several Apps I use to read news. Other times I like to pull off Twitter. Often if the Web Browser was asked to open the resulting content was not formatted for mobile sadly.

The Ugly:

Admob Banner Ads - I know I highlighted last week a success story. But seriously all I normally see are ads to find singles in my area and how to extend my battery life.

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Motorola Droid2 Battery Life - I had to bring 3 charged batteries and my damn charger. Luckily Amtrak and the Art Opening they had a plug for me. Yes 3 batteries was not enough to last from 12pm Saturday to 11am Sunday.

Twitter for Android/Verizon - really very slow to up load 1mb photos. In fact sometimes it is excruciatingly painful.

Subways - No connectivity under ground. No 3G. No Wi-Fi. No GPS. No nothing!

This Advertising Works!

In wrap up, while my phone was very invaluable in many ways, there were plenty of frustrations where things didn't work perfectly, were too slow, or froze up the phone! To me it feels like we are just out of the gate and the race is just starting for mobile technologies of a wide variety.

Fun Friday - Strongbad and Joe Cartoon

2011-02-25T05:53:00.000-08:00

I found Joe Cartoon and Strongbad a few years back via ITunes. They were available as free podcast subscriptions. They have to be the funniest video shorts ever. Though warning there is foul language and sometimes brutal bloody happenings to gerbils and flies. Joe Cartoon had his own website then moved to Atom Films and now not sure but a lot reside on this You Tube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/joecartoondotcom

Strongbad has his own site with a very hilarious cast of characters. By far the Cheat which I think is his pet is the funniest. Strongbad is a young kid who dresses like a Mexican 1950's Wrestler and he likes to take Email Questions. As technology has improved Strongbad has upgraded his computer from one with a floppy drive to a more modern one. Also at the end of each cartoon if you move your mouse around the screen there are secret places to click to watch small clips.

http://www.homestarrunner.com

Joe Cartoon has this mid-western family called the Greenfields who are just like your Grandparents. Except they are pot farmers.

Strongbad tends to get quite rageful when his ISP is slow. In this episode Homestar Runner is manning the Internets.

One thing hilarious about Joe Cartoon is his Gerbil Fetish:

Homestar Runner who is Strongbad's sidekick broke up with his girlfriend Marzipan and goes on a video dating service....while getting drunk.....

I suggest, no. I command you to book market the two sites and when your boss or a client or just life in general is pissing you off. Go watch an episode of three.

Social Media Still Has No Scale for Big Business

2011-02-24T06:42:00.000-08:00

I blogged about this in October LINK and related this to why Social Media is not in the C Suite for big brands either LINK

This hasn't changed. I see improvements on Facebook Pages in terms of how they are organized and used for customer service or to engage with customers. I see more use of Twitter by Brands. But the reach is small compared to what Brand Websites, Store Fronts, Customer Service Phone Banks can offer. I have no problem helping a small slice of customers this way, especially if it saves money. Toll Free phone lines cost money. But does paying someone to monitor Facebook or Twitter cost more than someone answering phones? My guess is maybe today. Maybe not tomorrow. It is possible to one day outsource Social Media Customer Service to a low labor cost English speaking country with proper training.

Recently Fortune Magazine did a really nice covert test to see if they could get help via Twitter, and compared the results to Phone and Website. Interestingly enough the Phone worked best for Zappos. Here is the study, all tests were with big businesses asking for help with common tasks for customer service

LINK

I think the big key is sometimes we need people and we need timely response. If we get someone on the phone it is immediate and timely. Even if we are on hold 20 mins. If something can be automated via a Website to where we have control that works best in my opinion all around. But not all customer service needs can be solved that way. I just can't imagine helping 20,000 people a day on a Facebook Page or via Twitter, though maybe one day Technology will get creative and allow those or similar networks to be a Portal vs the host location, and then channel the persons needs electronically via proprietary networks to the right person.

I think Banksy foresaw the death of telephone customer service just a bit prematurely!