Social Tuesday - Lockerz - Social Bribing

 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!

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!

 

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