Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

image credit:MariSheibley [Flickr]

It's been a great year for Foursquare, the location-based social network / real world game for your mobile. They are celebrating their first birthday this week, a year after they announced their existence at SXSW, with some fairly impressive stats for a start-up:

* Over 500,000 users
* Over 1,000,000 badges have been awarded
* Over 1.4 million venues with 1200 offering specials
* Over 15.5 million checkins (shattering a record this week)

They have also announced some impressive partnerships, including a Starbucks loyalty program, a charity venture with Paypal and Microsoft, and a long overdue Google Maps mashup.

But the biggest news this week is the launch of an analytics dashboard for participating businesses. The tool shows them in real-time who checked in, when they arrived, male-to-female ratio, and what times are peak hours to offer promotions. They are also offering a Staff page that allows employees to interact directly with customers, something that has been surprisingly lacking in the tool...

"Right now, there is not a lot of active interaction between people on Foursquare, let alone between businesses and people. It will be interesting to see if Foursquare starts to offer a deeper social CRM solution in the future. The next logical step after allowing business to see the data is to assist them in acting on it." - Russ Hopkinson

While businesses are sure to benefit, it leaves me wondering: will the "techno-stalking" create the usual privacy issues with Foursquare's user base? Will they rally for privacy over happy hour specials?

"Too often we look at things from the what's-been-taken-away-from-me angle and forget what-I-got-out-of-it. Tax is one and user data collection is another. We've been benefited from data collection and analysis in many applications that are not apparent." - Fang-Yu Lin

Fang points out an article put out by the Economist that describes how Google accomplished perhaps the world's best spellchecker for free, while Microsoft spent millions of dollars. If consumers were just aware of HOW these companies were using their data, they might be less reluctant to relinquish it.

For Foursquare, who's audience is still skewed towards early adopters and big city gourmands, I don't see a huge backlash eminent. When the rewards are drink and food specials, badges and recognition, special events... it's a lot easier a sell than seemingly more accurate delivery of online ads.

Thanks to Craig Ritchie for the link.

Marta Strickland

A few years ago, my father passed away.  Soon after, my mother became chronically ill.  As an only child, I was suddenly faced with having to gather information on a variety of health related topics I knew nothing about:  the symptoms of a stroke, Medicare, guardianships/conservatorships, traveling with a loved one in a wheelchair,  selecting a nursing home and assisted living facility, cleaning out and selling a home.... The list goes on and on.

For some time, my job here at Organic seemed far removed from the responsibilities that I faced outside of work.  By day I specialized in digital research and by night I was a caregiver.
To share information with other caregivers, a former coworker and I started a blog: www.SeniorHelpForum.com.    

In the recent past; however, I have seen the lines between my work life and that of a blogging caregiver grow closer and closer together. In the short amount of time that our blog has been live (a little over a year), I have seen incredible advancements in the tools that the healthcare industry is developing and offering to the general public. They are even embracing social media and mobile technology.

Three of my favorites are:
1.   The American Heart Association's iPhone Application:  This iPhone App provides users with illustrations, videos, information storage, recent information updates and American Heart Association guidelines.  Topics include: choking, CPR, bites, bruises, burns, seizures, diabetic emergencies.

The information is stored on your iPhone or iPod touch so that you will have access to the information even when you are out of cell phone range. During the recent earthquake in Haiti, a gentleman managed to save his own life with the use of this app. See a February 2, 2010, post on Senior Help Forum for links to articles about this heartwarming story.

2.   Tweeting in the Operating Room: In January of 2009, Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan became the first hospital to tweet a live surgery (@HenryFordNews).  
The lead surgeon, Dr. Craig Rogers, and his chief resident, Dr. Raj Laungani tweeted  updates throughout the surgery (CNN.com, February 17, 2009).  According to CNN.com, "at the end, Rogers had the last tweet. 'The robotic partial nephrectomy was a success. 'Thank you for joining us today.'" The entire Twitter stream was then uploaded to YouTube.  
(By the time I wrote this post, it was no longer available on YouTube.)

Throughout 2009, several other hospitals around the country embraced Twitter and began tweeting, as well.  On November 23, 2009, I followed a Hip resurfacing surgery on The Detroit Medical Center's Twitter and Facebook feeds. It was fascinating!   

3.   Care Pages:   I first heard about CarePages.com when a family friend became ill in September of 2009. This website allowed me to: log-in and leave the patient a message, see updates on her progress, invite others to visit her page(s), etc.  

The site's capabilities are much more robust than what I experienced. The site describes itself as, "an online community of millions of people coming together to share the challenges, hopes and triumphs of anyone facing a life changing health event. Through personalized websites, members relate their stories, post photos and update friends and family instantly. In turn, people who care send messages of love and encouragement. CarePages.com also offers a variety of resources and support tools for living a more compassionate life.  These include blogs, discussion forums and the ability for users to find others in similar situations. The mission is simple: to ensure that no one goes through a health challenge alone."

As digital marketers, we should be both thrilled and incredibly proud of the remarkable advancements our industry is tackling in the area of health and eldercare. What are your favorites?

Laura McGowan

Top Five Things I Wish Of My Kindle

When I got my first iPod six years ago, it completely changed the way I purchased and listened to music. So, naturally, I had the same hopes for my recently acquired Kindle reader and how I would soon be consuming books. Unfortunately, the Kindle has fallen short of my expectations. Here's a list of the things I find myself wishing for:

1.  A back light. Seems absurd I have to use an attached itty, bitty book light to read from my "electronic wireless reading device". I probably spend half of my time reading in the dark - on the plane or before dozing off to sleep. Which means, half the time I use my Kindle, I have a book light appendage hanging off it. So much for sleek design.

2.  Color.  I hate the fact that many books I order on Kindle don't show the original hard-copy version of the cover art. And those that do, show it in shades of gray. I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but - well, I do. I miss seeing the cover art of a book and its back cover or inside sleeve reviews. Couldn't Kindle follow iPod's lead? At least they display CD cover art.

3.  A touch screen.  After using an iPhone, it took me weeks to stop myself from touching the screen of my Kindle to order a book or select something new to read. Keying in words on the tiny, tiny keyboard and using the microscopic joy stick feel so 2006.

4.  The ability to do a crossword puzzle.  One of my favorite print-medium past times is doing The New Yorker crossword puzzles. Too bad there wasn't a way to do this on my Kindle. (If there is, please tell me how.) This is another place where that touch screen -- with interfacing keyboard -- would come in handy.

5.  The social part of reading.  Sure, reading probably seems like a solitary hobby. But, when I finish a good book, the first thing I want to do is tell my friends. It would be great if, upon reading the last sentence of a book, Kindle offered the option to write a review and the ability to post it to my Facebook wall. This seems like a lost opportunity for both Kindle and Amazon to create viral advocacy not only for the Kindle -- but the books people are buying on it. I did find a Kindle fan page on Facebook -- but it only had 14 fans! And, at this writing, there are no Kindle apps available on Facebook. However, just yesterday, Amazon announced a SDK (Software Development Kit) which will allow software developers to build and upload applications. Plans are to have an app store up and running by end of year. But could it be too little too late? Until Kindle introduces new social apps, I'll tell my friends about favorite books the old fashioned way: from my iPhone Facebook app.

On the eve of Apple's rumored announcement of their new tablet (iPad? Or islate? They haven't named it yet.) coupled with a possible Barnes & Noble partnership and access to 1 million books (in comparison to Kindle's 400k titles), Kindle's limitations have me worrying about major buyer's remorse. However, the rumored price-point of Apple's tablet at $7-1000 may make me feel a little better.

Are you a satisfied Kindle user? Or are you holding out for Apple's tablet or another e-reader technology?
 
Traci Armstrong
@tannarmstrong

Google recently released Goggles which is arguably the broadest reaching AR program available to date. If you are not familiar, it allows you to do two things:

1. Snap a photo of anything and automatically search for results based on images and text within the photo
2. See location and direction specific google maps results by pointing your camera in any direction

The potential of this tool is that of most augmented reality: quick, easy and highly relevant information. This is also another avenue (along with voice recognition software) for mobile devices without a keypad to access search functionality. To see Google's description of benefits check out the video here.

From my tests the text processing works well so things like book covers, business card, and anything with a URL on it return useful results. Goggles was able to identify flat logos but had much more trouble with 3D object logos, for example it immediately identified a Dodge logo on a sticker, but was not able to identify the Dodge logo on the grill of a Nitro.

While many augmented reality apps have been released recently, Goggles is the strongest indication that augmented reality is coming to the masses quickly. If using the camera on you mobile device to gather information and navigate on foot becomes a commonly adopted behavior this has significant implications to marketers.

How Google Goggles Could Impact Marketing
Many things can be done (or not done) with regard to products and storefronts to provide more value to customers and make shopping easier. An analogy is the way natural search, paid search, and search engine optimization work in concert. Users will see naturally occurring results regardless of where they are.

At some point in the future those results could have paid listing next to them or could be enhanced in some way. For example if a person is walking down the street looking for a place to get a coffee they see a Starbucks .25 miles away and next to that appears an ad for Mom and Pop Coffee Shop .5 miles away. So the person is made aware of a local option just a little further away.

Finally products and store fronts will be able to be optimized to better market themselves. For example logos could be optimized to be easily photographable (make them 2D not 3D). Search results could be specific to a model number to provide end users the most important information. For example if I were in market for a new car and saw one that I liked on the street photographing the trim level/logo could return results of fast it accelerates, the mpg and the cost if search results were properly optimized.

My guess is that Layers on Google maps will offer a lot of opportunities for augmented reality marketing through Goggles. Definitely a product to watch over the next year.

Russ Hopkinson
@rhops

Many smartphones have for years featured front-facing VGA quality cameras, in addition to the better back-facing cams for snapping (more or less) better photos. However, there aren't very many places in the world where video calls between mobiles have really taken off, and bridging video calls between phones and computers has been virtually impossible.

Fring is one of the pioneers of VoIP on mobile, and first launched its app for the Nokia, Samsung and SonyEricsson supported Symbian S60 OS in 2007. Over the years they have extended the app's functionality by adding support for Windows Mobile, the iPhone, and earlier this month for Android, and for several PC VoIP applications including Skype. So far, however, there has been no support for Skype video calls either in Fring or in the native Skype app available for the iPhone, Android, and a few other devices.

The latest version of Fring for Symbian S60 changes that. By offering full video support for Skype, it has the opportunity to leverage the global, widespread userbase of Skype and finally make front-facing cameras useful, particularly to those on networks like AT&T and T-Mobile that don't offer video calling themselves. Fring works on both 3G for, depending on your data plan, inexpensive calls, and WiFi for virtually free video time. Is this what will finally make mobile video calls popular?

Update: And it didn't take Fring long to add video calling to the iPhone app as well. Because of the lack of a front facing camera, it's 1-way only.

Demo: Video calls on Fring for Symbian devices (YouTube)

Karri Ojanen

Audi Car Configurator on Surface @ IAA 2009 from Neue Digitale / Razorfish on Vimeo.

Interaction on a touch screen has come a bit closer to the mainstream with iPhone interaction and news casters using them for presentations. The Audi configurator for Microsoft surface is an interesting next step for automotive configuration.

The Audi surface demo has some strong features, it allows you to view the vehicle at any angle in different colors, wheels and accessories and in different backgrounds. This allows the user to get a very good feel of the vehicle.

The best use of this would appear to be in a dealership setting as a tool for ordering and walking through features by someone who is experienced with surface interaction. The surface demo shows potential for an experienced surface user.

Still there are more touchscreen features I would have like to seen. For one, it might be interesting to have an exploded view of things like the safety cage or all wheel dive and engine -- the ability to get under the skin of the vehicle. If it was done well, users could learn everything about the vehicle while configuring it.

What would you like to see?

Scott Brennen

It seems as though iPhone junkies and coffee junkies are a match made in heaven. Starbucks recently launched two new applications for the iPhone that make it easy for customers to user their mobile to get their daily coffee fix.

The first application, myStarbucks, makes it possible allows customers to remember their friend's favorite drink, locate nearby Starbucks locations, as well as other fun features. But the bigger development is an application that turns your Starbucks card into a bar code on your phone's screen that allows you to pay for your coffee by scanning your phone.

Digital bar codes and digital couponing is a trend we've been following closely hear at Organic. And so I am curious to see how well this new mobile application works for Starbucks.

"Digital coupons apparently have a higher redemption rate due to the discreteness (still looking cool while saving) and convenience." Sarah Jo Sautter

This isn't the first time Starbucks has made a move to support the mobile superuser crowd. In 2008, Starbucks shifted their wifi support from T-Mobile to AT&T, offering their Starbucks card holders two free hours of wifi access per day and completely free access for any AT&T broadband subscribers.

Thanks to Lisa Yamamura for the link.

Marta Strickland

Watch out! You may be outted on Facebook.  MIT students claim that they can tell which guys are gay by checking out their friends on Facebook.
 
Students created an algorithm that first analyzed networks of people who publicized their sexual orientation on Facebook.  Then they looked at men who did not state their sexual orientation on Facebook, but looked at their network of  friends.  Guess what? Gay men have more gay friends than straight men.  Someone had to create a program to figure this out?
 
Popsci.com reports:

"Their computer program was able to correctly identify 10 men whom the students personally knew to be gay in the real world but who hadn't shared that fact on Facebook. (The algorithm didn't work as well with women or with bisexual Facebookers.)"

 
What I find the funniest is that the students completed the project for a class on ethics and the Internet.  Didn't anybody ask whether it was ethical to pry into somebody else's private life when they obviously don't want to state their sexual orientation?
 
Kari Girarde 

In a great example of actually thinking through the experience of reading news, Google has again made a revolutionary new interface (read more at Google Labs or the NY Times). Basically, the site rasterizes the news into low rez and high rez images and allows you to use the now endemic "swipe" gestures and "pinch and stretch" gestures to interact with the images. You can then select to go to the full article in Safari or the high rez image.

What I love about this idea is that they are using the mobile browser to achieve this. Which means this product will likely work across platforms much easier than a single iPhone application. Thereby short cutting the whole cumbersome Apple store approval process.

I think there is something we can learn from this. Thinking beyond "it's just a browser" to "it's an app platform" will be the secret to unlocking mobile web browsing. The evolution of mobile browsers is paralleling the development of desktop web browsers but at close to light speed. Months not years between new capabilities.

Check out http://fastflip.googlelabs.com/ on your mobile phone. Which platforms does it work on? Looks good on an iPhone, does it work for your Pre? How about your MyTouch? Or that Crackberry of yours?

Dean McRobie

What fun is building a following on Twitter if you can't parlay it into a high-stakes game of chance? Such us the premise of betyourfollowers.com, a mashup app/social experiment by a small SF-based collective. The idea is simple: you pick five of your Twitter followers and gamble them in a head-to-head battle with someone you follow. You win, you pick up five new followers. You lose, your friend picks up five new followers. (There's even talk of a "Bet Them All" option - which could mark the end for more addictive personalities such as mine.)

"Isn't this a violation of Twitter's Terms of Service or API usage guidelines?" you may ask. To head off such debate, BYF launched in mid-August with an open letter to Twitter:

"We realize that Bet Your Followers isn't your typical Twitter app. We created it to examine new behaviors and explore the value of Twitter relationships. The reason we made an app that lets people risk their followers was to pose the question: If a mass of Twitter followers constitutes social currency, can it be gambled and exchanged like real currency?

We've been enthusiastic Twitter users since the early days and we genuinely value Twitter as a social service (not to mention as a lovely API -- thank you!). Our own followers are dearly important to us. But as Twitter grows, we've watched the race to accrue followers become a strange obsession. Whenever a sizeable group believes something to be sacred, it historically falls to artists, scientists, and hackers to question and play with that assumption. It is with this curious spirit that we created Bet Your Followers. It was also a lot of fun to make.

We realize our efforts could be construed as a violation of your API Terms of Service but we hope you see the value in our exploration of these issues. We'd love it if you sent us a d-message before giving us the boot, if you're even thinking of that -- of course, we would never risk unfollowing you :-)"

As Twitter becomes an arms race of "Who's got the most followers?" and spammers pollute the social airwaves, Bet Your Followers hopes to tap a nerve. BYF could be indicative of a trend in social downsizing. Or it could just be good for a laugh...only time will tell.

But it does revel in one universal Twitter truth: everyone's got followers to spare. We just didn't have anything to do with them prior to now. Will you be partaking in this kind of social downsizing?

Sam Cannon