Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

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

"Turn left at the house with the green shutters then right at CVS..." This is how I find my way around when driving.

Google has integrated human-like directions into Google Maps India. From Google's blog:

"Have you ever been lost? Perhaps you missed a turn because a street sign was poorly labeled, hard to see in the dark, or just not where it should have been? These are problems we've all faced, but they're especially complicated in India, where street names are not commonly known and the typical wayfinding strategy is to ask someone on the street. Without road names, it's difficult to produce a set of directions that makes sense."

The visual landmarks to confirm you're on the right track definitely feel more human than just "go right" and "go left." Most of us are visual by nature and have a hard time remembering names, but not faces, and the landmark approach works in the same manner.

What Else We'd Like To See
• It integrated with your in-car navigation
• The ability to set your iPhone to speak the landmarks to you while showing you a street view pic at the same time
• Applied to sight-seeing landmarks as well. It could be a mash up of navigation and the headsets you get in museums on tours.
• Added crowdsourced directions
• The ability to share your map/landmark view while you are driving or walking so you can get audio confirmation from a friend. This would be especially helpful if you're looking for a tiny detail that would otherwise not show up or be obvious on a map - like a specific area in a park or a section in a department store.

Google Isn't Alone
The New Zealand-based company Navman has been trying to introduce this idea to the masses with their NavPix concept for quite a while, bringing not only the names of landmarks into the directions, but with visuals. Check out the geotagged photos of landmarks from the users.

Also, Garmin, together with Google Panoramio, is trying to do the same.

How soon before Google rolls out the U.S. version? What would you like to see?

Sandy Marsh
Casey Riggleman
Craig Ritchie
Karri Ojanen

With its continued Cluetrain-driven brand strategy, Lego continues to expand its product offering. Potentially its most audacious offering yet, Lego Universe looks like... it looks like... well, just look. They're building something big.

Lego Click is an engaging space that allows inventors, fans, anyone to share ideas -- specifically intended for new products. To facilitate creative LEGO-like thinking, the company also created a free iPhone app called LEGO Photo that turns your photos into LEGO works of art. Fans can also connect via Facebook and Twitter, where a Tweets using #legoclick are displayed on the community site. @legoclick currently only has just under 400 followers, but the hashtag is getting more use with rave reviews of the new site. LEGO might see more fans and followers if it uses its Facebook and Twitter accounts to post the most interesting Lego Click submissions daily as well as give users creative assignments.

Casey Riggleman agrees with LEGO's latest offering. "Once again LEGO is genius! My son (who is 6) and I (who is 36) find great delight in building Lego creations. It has always amazed me that this simple block can inspire people across a wide age group so much. 

LEGO has done really well with it's Star Wars and Indiana Jones games (we own all of them). So it's great to see LEGO actually creating an MMOG. Makes sense to me considering that the majority of the past games under the LEGO umbrella have a World feel to begin with. Plus I have always felt LEGO's are social (look what I built!). They already have LOTS of buckets (Atlantis, City, Power Miners, etc.) to pull from to make it interesting too."

The key will be seeing if and when LEGO actually uses any ideas from the community in future products. But for now, LEGO's already giving fans and creators what they desire -- the tools to build their imagination. Are you inspired?

Craig Ritchie
@craigritchie
Sarah Jo Sautter
@pedalprincess

The Digital Campaign of the Decade isn't an ad campaign - it's a self-sustaining platform - and that's what's so great about it. As a runner, and a former Nike Plus user myself, I must say, however, that there is so much more they could do with it.

1. Use it to fuel offline campaigns. Contests, more events... Bring the people, the real Nike+ users, from the online service to the print and TV: pose them as the real Nike Just Do Its in select campaigns, and show total stats (total miles run, total calories burned, total energy saved, etc) in the ads. It's authentic content that's coming in from the users, for free, without Nike having to write it. Now use it!

2. Connect to social. They were incredibly slow in adding social connectivity to Nike+, even just in the form of simple sharing to Twitter and Facebook. It's been up there now for a little while, but services like dailymile.com beat them to it.
  
3. Implement SMS notifications. many bigger running events across NA offer participants the chance to sign up for an SMS service that sends messages to up to five friends' phones when ever the runner passes an official timing spot, e.g. time for 10k, 20k, etc at marathon events. Now that Nike+ works with the iPhone, it shouldn't be hard to add this same functionality to the Nike+ app, allowing people to send running stats to their friends not just from official events but when they're jogging around the park. Friends could also reply to the messages.

4. Besides running stats, track photos, video along the course. The Nokia Sportstracker allows people to also take photos and video on the run and put them on the map (it's GPS-based). I don't see a reason why similar functionality couldn't be added to Nike+ on the iPhone, allowing runners to share photos from their runs, even though it's not GPS-based and thus the photos couldn't be automatically placed on the map.
  
5. Host offline events. The Human Race is great, but again, like with social connections, I wonder why they didn't start it sooner. Connect the online to the offline more, not just with big coordinated events, but local groups, local "activists"/ambassadors, etc.

6. Offer better hardware. One of the greatest things about the Nike+ for the average runner is its simplicity: its based on RFID and a small accelerometer. That makes it cheap to buy. But the flipside of that is that it's unreliable. The battery runs out eventually, and it can't be easily replaced by the consumer, and the stats aren't accurate. Because of the inaccuracy, I switched my Nike+ to a way more accurate GPS-based system a while ago. Nike could solve this by beginning to offer different versions of the hardware for different types of runners: the current, simple and affordable solution for more casual runners, and a more accurate, robust GPS-based solution for the more serious.

If you've used NIke+, what did you think of it? How would you like to see Nike extend this platform?

Karri Ojanen

Jyri Engeström, Product Manager at Google who found his way there by co-developing the microblogging service Jaiku and selling it to the search engine giant in 2007, says that without a hands on approach to its business on all levels of management, the company will lose its touch with the reality.

Sounds rather obvious, doesn't it? But Engeström claims [in Finnish] that the world's biggest cell phone maker Nokia may have lost the crucial connection between what happens in the field and what happens in the managers' world. Where at Google, says Engeström, even the most top level managers are still contributing to the code themselves and monitoring the development of their products first hand, at Nokia the bosses are lost in their own chambers. At Google, the founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have even given up their personal assistants because they didn't want to get estranged from their workers and the people who use their products.

A recent post in the Harvard Business Blog talks about the change we're witnessing in the organizations around us due to the development of networking tools such as Twitter. The writer, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, recalls how America in the 20th century was called a "society of organizations." Formal hierarchies with clear reporting relationships gave people their position and their power.

In the 21st century, however, the world is rapidly becoming a society of networks, even within companies and other organizations. People with power and influence derive that power from their centrality within self-organizing networks that might or might not correspond to any plan on the part of designated leaders. Fewer people act as power-holders monopolizing information or decision-making, and more people serve as integrators using relationships and persuasion to get things done.

I bet that Nokia isn't alone with its problem. In fact, I think that most companies around the world that were born in the industrial era are struggling to change to become more like Google, a company mostly developed in the networking era of the 21st century, where a less hierarchical model of connecting and sharing ideas comes more natural.

In the advertising world, there is the debate about traditional vs. digital, and how to combine the things we have learned from both thus far to drive the future. The world we work in, in (digital) advertising, is going through constant change at a seemingly increasing speed with every new tool, piece of code, site and platform that becomes somehow meaningful.

Maintaining a good connection to what happens on the ground is a challenge, but it's easier for those who actively network and participate in the discussion, and who are willing to let go of the old hierarchical model of management. It doesn't mean that everybody needs to be a coder, a director, a designer and a hyperactive, visionary Twitter user all at the same time, but it helps to have done a bit of it all to have experienced it first hand, and maintain that connection to the ground through all the cycles of change.

As you grow, how do you maintain a good understanding of where you've been and how that may have changed?

Karri Ojanen

I am currently singing the praises of the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen. It ranks right up there with my iPhone, mino HD Flip videocamera, and TechSmith's Morae software .... in making my life simpler; yet, significantly more productive. If you aren't familiar with it, you can see a full demo of its capabilities at www.livescribe.com.

Key features of the pen include but are not limited to the following:
- Capturing what is written in a Livescribe specific journal via an infrared camera
- Capturing audio via a speaker
- Allowing users to upload their notes to a desktop application via a usb cradle
- Giving users the ability to review their notes and the corresponding audio post-session
- Providing users with a friendly approach to sharing session notes (pdf) and/or the corresponding audio publicly or privately
- Providing uploading capabilities for users to share their session with their Facebook friends

How Is It Making Life Easier?
1. Brainstorming Sessions. This allows me to capture team meetings and then share the notes + audio immediately after the session (vs. our current approach of taking a picture with a smart phone, typing up the notes and then emailing them).

2. Usability Testing. It allows me to take notes while moderating usability tests and then share them with team members immediately after each interview. It also makes it easy to search my notes for specific consumer quotations.

3. Doctors' Appointments. It allows me, with the preapproval of my Mom's physicians, to record appointments with specialists that my mother sees for some chronic health issues. As her caretaker and legal guardian, these visits can be stressful and prior to now I was always worried that we might not have caught everything the doctor had to say - compromising her care in some way. On my personal blog, I give some additional tips on how the pen can be used by caregivers.

4. Radio Programs. At lunch today, I heard a great program on Sirius radio about happiness. I took notes in my Livescribe notebook and was then able to load the audio onto my computer when I returned to the office so that I can hear the program again.

I can't wait to see what they come up with for future versions. I recently allowed Russ Hopkinson to play with it. He commented on how nice it would be if there were whiteboards with the same functionality? Think it's in the works....?

So far, my only regret is that I didn't purchase the 4GB version!!

Laura McGowan

Notes: I would like to send a special "thanks" to David Berney who familiarized me with the Smartpen at Forrester's Consumer Forum. You can follow him on Twitter @dberney.

A few cities have turned to digital tools to help them manage infrastructure or customer service. Now, more cities are seeing the benefits and following suit.

In June, we told you about how San Francisco is using Twitter to help solve city complaints faster. They're currently up to 4,600 followers.

The mayor of Chicago recently unveiled his plans to use GPS sensors and surveillance cameras to help manage snowy streets this season. His goal is to cut down on the number of supervisors working at once and control how much salt is being used. Ultimately, he's looking at cost and efficiency improvements.

The upstart costs might be hard to swallow, but the long-term benefits are tremendous.

I can think of tons of ways cities could be using digital technology to be more efficient and help its residents. Here are just a few:

1. Email water bills and allow residents to pay online.
2. Bill taxes electronically and allow online payments.
3. Allow people to sign up for alerts when there will be snow removal, leaf removal or anything else that might affect street parking.
4. Cameras installed in parks to monitor and deter kidnapping, loitering, vandalism, unauthorized use or any other criminal or shady behavior
5. Allow residents to take photos of unkept yards with their camera phones and email them to the city manager
6. Implement a version of Google Maps to alert the city of potholes and other needed repairs

And some cities are already doing some of these. My Toronto colleague can pay his city utility bills online and set up automatic withdrawal for his property taxes.

Here's what would be nice to see on every city website:

1. Park facilities including photographs
2. Park and any other facility rentals, prices and calendar showing existing reservations so you can see availability and book online
3. City ordinance searchable database. Can my neighbor really install that on his front lawn?
4. School performance data
5. Recycling, yard waste and trash how-tos, restrictions and pick up days
6. Submit request and payment for building permit electronically
7. List of recommended builders, landscapers and contractors
8. Agenda and minutes of city council meetings and any other city business

These are not only helpful to current residents but might help lure prospective residents. What are some other ways cities should be adopting the digital mentality?

Thanks to Bridget McKinley, Elliot Smith and Fang-Yu Lin for their ideas on this topic.

Sarah Jo Sautter

Last week was a pretty big week for gamers. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 had record opening sales. It made $310 million in one day. I'll repeat that. It made $310 million in one day. Activision, the maker of Call of Duty franchise, attributes the success to the CoD brands uniquely engaging experience-a combination of compelling story line and rich cinematic feel.

That was the second time last week that I heard "cinematic" being used to reference a video game. The other being PS3s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. I've been hearing a lot about this game over the past few months. It's won 15 gaming awards. IGN.com rated Uncharted 2 at 9.5 (it's also an editors choice). And I also read one article where the writer bought a new TV just so he could enjoy the full visual splendor that Uncharted 2 unleashes.

So how amazing is Uncharted 2? Well, after playing for two hours and switching back to television (in HD no less) I thought my cable was broke because the picture looked so bad. Now, I'm not trying to compare the look of Uncharted 2 to Iron Chef, that's not fair to the production team behind kitchen stadium. I guess I'm just saying Uncharted 2 is gorgeous and one of the best looking video games I've ever seen. Oh, and it's fun as hell to play too.

image credit: jc5083

6 Ways Employee Social Media Freedom Benefits An Employer

The Social Media Revolution is seeping into the workplace and employers are nervous. According to social web blogger David Armano, approximately 70% of organizations ban social networks devices. USA Today reports a lower amount but still: an October 22nd, 2009 survey shows 54% of businesses are banning social media from the workplace. Fears and worry about decreased productivity and/or risk exposure seem to be resulting in microcosms of censorship within workplaces.  We all know how well that turned out for East Germany.  

Unless companies are trying to create a Dilbert-like workplace environment of mistrust and oppression, banning social media is simply not a good idea. In fact, allowing employees to access social media could actually result in many benefits for the employer.  Here's how:

Team Building and Camaraderie
US employers spend billions on employee team building activities like picnics, holiday parties and team building exercises. Allowing employees to participate in the virtual water-cooler dialogue of social media - gives them a chance to bond and find subjects they can relate to - free of cost to the employer. Studies show the main reason employees stay in jobs (or leave jobs) is due to their level of satisfaction with co-worker relationships. Social media allows employees to find a common bond and enhance the relationships with those they work.

Productivity Benefits from Brain Breaks
A Discovery magazine article reports that neuroscientists at MIT have confirmed: taking breaks helps us learn and be more productive. A 2006 study observed rats pausing after exploring an unfamiliar maze. The neuroscientists theorize the rats are using the break to re-trace their steps in the maze for memory purposes - thus leading to better productivity during the next maze run. Another example: educators can confirm first-hand the benefits of sending students to recess - and the chaotic results if kids don't get their downtime.

Social media is the equivalent of workplace recess. Mind breaks lead to employee satisfaction and better productivity. This results in increased morale, reduced employee stress, low absenteeism and more engaged, healthier employees.  All of these employee traits help the company bottom line.

On-the-Job Training
Social media can serve as a virtual think tank.  If an employee is embarking upon a new project and needs advice from her peers, it's as easy as posting a question to their social networks. Many professional groups are established on LinkedIn or Facebook and offer a venue for discussion and the opportunity to post specific questions. Polls and surveys enable virtual focus groups. Employees can easily follow subject matter experts on a site like Twitter for a RSS-like feed of relevant content. While many companies offer organized mentoring programs, with social media, employees can choose their own on-line advisor for guidance and knowledge share.

Trust and Transparency
If Facebook were a country, it would be the 4th largest. In September 2009, Facebook reached over 300 million active users. Gen Yer's continue to rely less on email and more on social media to communicate. Banning employees from this widespread communication tool is akin to telling your employees they can't use the phone for personal calls or e-mail friends and family.  It's a signal your company is oppressive and in the dark ages. With the sale of smart-phones on the rise, it's likely that employees would access their social media sites on their mobile anyway - creating an environment of concealment and mistrust.  

Allowing employees to access social media communicates: "We trust you're mature and know when enough is enough."  For employees that do abuse their time on social media, managers and HR departments should address the issue on an individual level - similar to any other performance problem like absenteeism, low productivity or work quality.

Listening / Monitoring
Much like many brands are monitoring customers to address satisfaction issues, employers can apply the same model.  If employees are complaining about their employer on social media, it might hurt a corporate brand - but it at least allows the employer a chance to address complaints or dissatisfaction.  

Many companies conduct internal employee surveys to evaluate morale and employee satisfaction. As an alternative, HR or Marketing staff could consider following and creating user lists / groups of employees on social sites to easily monitor conversation. Or, using a monitoring tool like Seesmic or Tweetdeck on Twitter allows an employer to continuously monitor keywords - like your company name - and immediately address unfavorable messaging. Caution: if your workplace doesn't offer a culture of transparency and openness, employees could misconstrue this as employer stalking.  

Brand Evangelists
Just like unhappy employees complain about their jobs, happy employees love to share their positive workplace experience. And, 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations over a brand's marketing efforts. That holds true for the workplace as well: happy, well-performing employees will attract similar employees - a huge recruiting benefit.

The key for happy tweeps and happy tweets is creating a culture and environment that an employee feels like they can contribute and express themselves. A satisfied employee will be an advocate for your company, might share job openings with their friends and boast about the latest accomplishments. You can't buy that kind of press. Employers that embrace social media and provide employees with a simple policy, best practices, legal no-no's and basic usage / etiquette training will create an environment of openness with lower risk to the employer.  

The fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago is a poignant analogy of how closing off people to outside connection ultimately fails.  And it's begging the question: How permanent are your social media firewalls?

Traci Armstrong, Director, Talent Acquisition
@tannarmstrong

Editor's Note: A version of this post originally appeared in Advertising Age November 16, 2009.