Mar 18 2010

Social Media May Be The Media Darling, But E-mail Is Here To Stay

March 18, 2010 – 6:50 am

By Jenn Riggle

Photo courtesy of Poldavo (Alex)

We’re seeing the U.S. Postal Service reeling from the impact of social media. Whether it’s the popularity of online bill payments or the movement away from letter writing, “snail mail” just isn’t what it used to be – especially if it means the end of Saturday mail deliveries.

You have to wonder whether we’re going to see the same thing happen with e-mail. While social media may be sexy and have lots of new features and functionalities, e-mail continues to be the workhorse that drives businesses. In fact, many businesses (and hospitals) block their employees from accessing social networks at work.

It’s interesting to note that social media users are also some of the biggest e-mail users. The SherpaBlog looked at study conducted by Merkle, the customer relationship marketing agency, which showed that 75 percent of daily social media users said e-mail is the best way for companies to communicate with them. In addition, people who use social media check their e-mail more four times a day or more vs. 27 percent who don’t use social media. It’s clear that social media users aren’t turning their back on e-mail — in fact they just use it as another mode of communication.

The Economist cited a Robert Half Technology survey of 1,400 chief information officers that showed that only one-tenth of them gave employees full access to social networks during the day. The rest blocked or gave their employees limited access to social media. Of course, employees can always access social networks via their smartphones, even if they can’t access them via their computer. In fact, comScore reported that 30.8 percent of smartphone users accessed social networking sites in January 2010.

Not only does e-mail own the desktop, it’s the primary reason why people purchase the most popular smartphone – the Blackberry. According to comScore, Research in Motion’s Blackberry has 43 percent of the smartphone market, while Apple’s iPhone ranks second with 25.1 percent. A recent Advertising Age article described Blackberry as being primarily business users who want to access their e-mail – again proof that people are tied to their e-mail (whether they like it or not).

So maybe now isn’t time to put e-mail out to pasture:

  • “E-mail is the First and Largest Social Network:” Facebook prides itself as being the largest social network with 400 million users, worldwide. However, according to Jeremiah Owyang from the Altimeter Group, e-mail is still the first and largest social network, with 1.4 billion e-mail users, worldwide in 2009.
  • E-mail Owns the Corporate Desktop: There’s no disputing the fact that e-mail is a fixture of the business world and Gmail has become ubiquitous (kind of like AOL was in the 1990s). Corporate America runs on Microsoft Windows, so it’s hard to believe that it’s going away anytime soon.
  • E-mail Makes It Easy to Share Information: While social media provides a great way to share information to a targeted audience quickly, it does so in a public forum. For sharing sensitive information, e-mail provides the ability do so privately.

Is e-mail overused? Definitely. We talk a lot about the plague of “management by e-mail,” where bosses feel the need to send an endless string of e-mails to their subordinates rather than pick up the phone. This behavior adds to the greater problem of overflowing Inboxes and lost and overlooked e-mails. It also adds to the consternation of your organization’s IT director, who has to back-up all of these e-mails.

Probably the greatest opportunity for social media is to help cut through this information overload and streamline communications. Twitter’s Direct Message (DM) function provides a great alternative to e-mail because it’s private and forces communications to be quick and to the point. The only caveat is that you and the person you DM need to be following each other.

We need to recognize that a lot of social media users are business users. And as long as businesses are still using e-mail, people are going to need to find a way to move within the social media and Windows worlds. It’s not a matter of using e-mail or social media – but finding a way to leverage them for what they do best.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Jenn Riggle | Posted in Social Networks, social media | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)
Mar 15 2010

PR has Social Media “Buffet” Problem

March 15, 2010 – 9:06 am

I heard a great analogy this weekend in a discussion about the online theft of music versus the continuing propensity of Boomers and Gen-Xers (almost alone in this) to still pay for their music in the form of CDs or iTunes purchases. The remark went something like this: “Just because you’re able to observe my behavior at an ‘all-you-can-eat’ buffet, your so-called research has no value in predicting my order in a fine dining restaurant.” People will sample a lot, but they won’t always buy what they sample.

Buffet or Fine Dining?

It go me to thinking about the value of virality. To extend the music metaphor, I want fans, but I really, really want supporters, frequent attendees at my concerts and, even better, evangelists. My client, for instance, may be enthusiastic about my ability to get folks to take a look at YouTube, but how do I make sure we both keep our eyes on the prize – conversion of samplers to proselytizers.

We eat a lot. I was not surprised, for instance, to read recently that each of us is consuming information at a clip of almost 12 hours per day on average and collectively we got in about 10,500 trillion words. Seems that the all-you-can-eat information buffett is just getting bigger, with each American consumer getting over 100,000 words per day on average, according to the 2009 “How Much Information?” report of the Global Industry Information Center of the University of California, San Diego.

Combine that impact on each of our diets with recent insight from Barrucuda Labs about who is really using Twitter, for instance, and we might take away some important cautions for our colleagues who have fallen in love with social media. Percent of Twitter users with 10 followers or more by December 2009? 26. Percent of Twitter users following less than five people? 51. Those power users who are eating in the Twitterverse buffet are really chowing down! Are they your best engagement partners, proselytizers or customers?

The report also estimates that 34% of Twitter never have posted, and a huge 73% of Twitter’s users tweeted less than 10 times. So, nearly all of the tweets result from about 25% of Twitter doing all the writing.

Looking across social media, the same patterns are likely to hold to a great or lesser degree. And it’s also true that those who play the numbers game in social media can still point to the millions who came and fed at their particular buffett, thus potentially pleasing management or client. We should all be alert to two key points often stressed on The Buzz Bin.

First, the numbers don’t mean a thing unless you have a plan to affect the attitudes about your organization or client and, more importantly, create the behaviors critical to success. Views without  further engagement are only worth what they bring to your awareness, and don’t necessarily have an effect on the success of your new marketing efforts.

Second. and probably more interesting to me, is this notion of the difference between eating at the buffet and eating at a fine restaurant. In which place are you more likely to stop and really taste the food?

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Michael Whitlow | Posted in Internet Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (3)

SxSW Vibe: Enough Social, What’s Next?

March 15, 2010 – 4:29 am
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by Geoff Livingston

This year’s SxSW had an interesting flavor to it (image by marcatsworld). You get the strong feeling that conversations and panels about social media have hit the wall. There’s an air of autumn to the conversations, and a consistent undercurrent revolving around what’s next.

Everyone knows that organizations are still rapidly moving towards adoption and there are still, MANY, MANY best practices to be adopted. Yet, there’s no longer a newness to the dance; rather an acceptance that it must be learned or a conversation about continuing to refine skills. From MysPace and Digg to Facebook and Twitter conversations, social media fatigue reigns in Austin.

The vibrant SxSW conversations focused on new technologies or new applications. From new contests and social good to GPS based activity and mapping, people were focused on what’s next. And for the heart of the interactive community, the early adopter community, this makes sense.

What does this mean for the average communicator? We are in a phase where it’s no longer hip to announce your new social capabilities. You either do it, or you need to quietly learn, adapt and get it. Further, it needs to be integrated within the larger offering.

At the same time, I sense we have a big mouthful to chew with social. Verticalization and specialization within social will be a huge factor. While mobility continues to be a big factor (FourSquare vs. Gowalla, for example) and is getting wrapped into the social conversation, there’s an unease as we seek what’s next. Maybe we already have what’s next, but there sure seem to be a lot of icebergs looming in the dark…

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Internet Marketing | Comments (3)
Mar 11 2010

Seven Ways Hospitals Can Address Facebook Criticism

March 11, 2010 – 7:00 am

By Jenn Riggle

Photo courtesy of Stacy Bass

Honesty may be the best policy – but sometimes it can hurt.

While social media allows organizations to engage in honest conversations with their customers, it can also provide a forum for angry customers to voice their concerns. How you respond to these comments says a lot about you and your organization.

Online comments don’t just impact organizations – newspapers are learning how to handle them as well. The Washington Post recently wrote a story about how people are hesitant to be quoted in articles because they’re afraid of negative online comments. And to be honest, I don’t blame them.

Corporate brands like Gatorade and Dominos have seen first-hand how people can hijack their Facebook pages to air their grievances. But rather than respond, they just turned the other cheek.

Facebook has the potential to be an even bigger issue for hospitals. Some are worried about Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) violations, while others, like the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, are blocking social media sites like Facebook because they’re concerned their employees spend too much time online.

But isn’t this throwing the baby out with the bathwater? Rather than blocking social media sites, hospitals need to have a social media policy that outlines when it’s appropriate to use social media while also allaying lawyers’ concerns about HIPAA and patient privacy.

And while it’s always good policy to wear the “white hat,” that doesn’t mean you can’t take steps to defend yourself. There are some simple things hospitals can do to address Facebook criticism. These include:

Being Transparent: Social media values honesty and transparency, so if you’re going to delete comments from your Facebook page, you should post a disclaimer that says you reserve the right to edit or delete offensive comments. You may also want to explain why you removed a comment, particularly if it violated patient confidentiality. Of course, if someone is talking about their own patient experience, this doesn’t apply.

Posting a Disclaimer Policy: Even though more than 300 hospitals have established Facebook pages, few have a Facebook disclaimer policy. It may seem like overkill, but in the spirit of being open and honest, a disclaimer policy states that the views expressed on the Facebook page are not the views of your hospital and that you reserve the right to edit or delete any inappropriate comments. Both Allina Hospitals & Clinics and Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital (part of Spectrum Health) have good examples of Facebook disclaimers.

Monitoring What People Are Saying: It’s not enough to just create a Facebook page and update the content, you need to monitor the conversation on a regular basis so you can address negative comments before they become major issues. This is especially important since patients in your Emergency Department are posting updates to their Facebook or Twitter accounts from their smart phones. And according to Not Nurse Ratched, even though the employees at her hospital aren’t allowed to use Facebook at work, it’s become an integral part of their lives. People come into the ED all of the time, asking hospital staff to take photos of their injuries so they can post them on their Facebook pages.   

Being Quick and Concise: By responding quickly to negative comments, you have a chance to rectify the situation before it spins out of control. And remember, if you’re going to answer a comment, don’t respond in anger or frustration. Instead, put on your customer service hat and see what you can do to fix the problem.

Deleting Inappropriate Comments: Once you have posted a disclaimer, you have told your fans you reserve the right to remove offensive comments. SpiderWriters wisely recommends you think carefully before removing comments because you don’t want to look like you’re only allowing comments that paint your hospital in a positive light. Another good resource is Facebook’s Statement of Rights & Responsibilities. But ultimately, you need to follow your heart and do what you think is right.

Making It a Teaching Moment: You can’t just ignore a negative comment, especially if it brings up a valid concern. By addressing the issue publicly, you show fans that you’re listening and willing to engage in a two-way conversation, even if it might be uncomfortable. It also allows you to re-frame the conversation and tell your side of the story.

Not Airing Your Dirty Laundry In Public: If someone continues to post negative comments, try to guide them to an online forum or move the conversation to phone or e-mail. This way both sides can speak more freely and it won’t interfere with other people’s comments.

And while no one likes to read negative things about themselves, it’s important to consider these comments as constructive criticism. If you handle them correctly, you have a chance to turn a negative experience into a positive one.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Jenn Riggle | Posted in Social Networks, social media | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)
Mar 8 2010

Is Trust In Twitter Misplaced?

March 8, 2010 – 6:53 am
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Now that Twitter hype is starting to cool off a bit, marketers need to take the time to evaluate the real value of this social network. First of all, Twitter offers a great place to talk with technologists, marketers, journalists, select stars and cause-activists. However, it’s not that great of a social network to reach buyers (h/t Valeria Maltoni).

Delving deeper, social media whiz Jeremiah Owyang recently compared Google Buzz, MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. His analysis compared the networks from a perspective on where customers already are. His one liner on Twitter, “Has opportunity to become utility-like infrastructure, but not a destination.”

John Bell recently wrote that Twitter is a great communal location. It’s also not that great of a place for much more beyond great mass public events a la Mumbai, Iran, etc., and micro community chat center.

Now, we have well discussed the growth of mobile media and its importance to the future. Here, Twitter shows more promise. Recent ComScore usage reveals 4.7 million mobile “Tweeple,” but Facebook still rules with 25 million mobile users.

All in all, Twitter has solidified its place in the social network world. At the same time that place seems to be one of public chatter and quick timely movements. If your community is out there, this is a great place to be.

It’s also definitely not the only social network to maintain a presence on. Now more than ever, communicators need to be in touch with their communities of interest and be present where they are. Not where the hype engine tells you to be…

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Social Networks, social media | Tagged , , , | Comments (6)
Mar 5 2010

The Trust Veneer Problem in Social Media

March 5, 2010 – 1:32 pm

Yet another trip. Yet another lost bag.

Finding Trust Amid the Crowd

I am increasingly aware of the challenges businesses face in earning real trust, and this week I was left (without a change of clothes) to ponder yet again just what is going wrong in this regard. My airline can’t get me and my luggage to the same place at the same time. My car has a mind of its own about braking and acceleration. My bank sees the issuance of credit cards as an opportunity to get in my pocket for more fees. Can the fall of capitalism be far behind?

I used to feed empowered by Tweeting about such things or writing a letter to the president of the offending company, but I’m just getting weary and resigned to a more old-Soviet-style capitalism (or is that socialism?). You know: learn your bag isn’t where you are; go find ”the line;” trudge up to a counter to be confronted by a disinterested clerk…things we used to poke fun at Eastern Bloc countries about.

So, in a triumph of form over substance via technology, I can now be told that my bag is resting comfortably in a plane’s belly in Chicago (when I am in Phoenix) and that the fix for my accelerator can be made in two months, but I’ll have to make a separate appointment for the fuel line problem that could cause a fire to occur at any time. And wait… the good news is that I can make the appointments online!

Trust is getting lost the deeper we move into the ersatz “connectedness” of the social media world. The importance of the things that can’t be seen from the ticket line when we are conducting our transactions — the intangibles – are even more key to differentiating these days, but peace of mind and confidence and trust and seem to slip farther away for many companies, even as they increase attempts to connect to their audiences.

Edelman’s research for the Trust Barometer seems to disagree with this on the surface, but amidst what the research touted as an increase in trust recently (who could forget 2009?), there was this killer point: 70 percent say that businesses will revert to old, bad habits once the crisis is over.  As my grandfather used to say of a neighbor who betrayed trust between outpourings of neighborliness, “I trust that man about as far as I can throw him.”

Here’s the plea (and I’m looking in the mirror on this one). Let’s all of us who are involved in marketing soon get over the shiny object of social media. We have created a way to hear customer feedback, and we have used it to solve problems. We have created communities around products and services. These are only good things if they contribute to genuine, solid change instead of the veneer of change.

The trust veneer has developed some significant dings. People are thinking that we can’t solve the issues we face. They are marching in the streets to protest programs that deliver healthcare to uninsured fellow citizens. They are saying that government should take control of executive salaries. They are worried that their financial advisors are getting rich at their expense. Whether we work for Obama or for Ms. Smith on Main Street, the importance of building and maintaining trust has never been greater.

Matthew May, author of In Pursuit of Elegance – Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing,  wrote a good post on the subject recently, offering a roadmap for moving from the rational to the emotional in people with whom we are trying to engage beyond the veneer. He suggests zeroing in on several questions: “Will this waste my money?” (economic); “Will this work reliably well?” (functional); “What will others think of me?” (social); “Will this somehow be painful?” (physical), and ”Will I think poorly of myself?” (emotional).

Putting yourself into the minds of others with these questions (and keeping them in mind for yourself) will go a long way toward improving real trust by true engagement. These are the heartfelt questions not often articulated, but always in mind as people relate to one another.  Make it your business to answer them for your customers and others with whom you want trusting relationships.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Michael Whitlow | Posted in Internet Marketing | Tagged , , | Comments (0)
Mar 4 2010

Singing the Praises of the Twitter Hashtag

March 4, 2010 – 8:35 am

Photo courtesy of Gidzy

By Jenn Riggle

In order to effectively use Twitter, you need the right tools. And for me, it’s TweetDeck and hashtags. 

You’ve probably heard your friends or colleagues complain that Twitter can be such a time drain. But as we all know, there’s No Pain, No Gain, and you need to invest time and energy in order to be good at anything (let alone social media). The good news is that using hashtags can make Twitter more manageable so you can spend your time more efficiently and ultimately, reach the people you want to reach.

Here’s what you need to know: A hashtag is any word in Twitter that is immediately preceded by the ‘#’ symbol (a.k.a the hash). While seemingly a simple thing, hashtags can transform your Twitter experience by allowing you to separate the wheat from the chaff so you can focus on the information that’s important to you.

There are four basic reasons why people should use Twitter hashtags. These include:

  • Finding a virtual community – Whether you’re a hospital trying to find a way to connect to your community or young mom trying to find other parents on Twitter, hashtags can help. Most cities or regions have their own hashtag (for examples #RVA is the hashtag for Richmond, Va.). By using this hashtag, hospitals can mark their tweets as being relevant to Richmond residents. By the same token, a young mom can conduct a search for #parenting to find out what other parents are saying on Twitter. If you’re using TweetDeck, you simply create a column and type in the hashtag of your choice. This will allow you to track, in real time, what people are tweeting with this hashtag, making it easier for you to join the conversation.
  • Reaching your audience – Hashtags are like zip codes – they help make sure your tweets go to the right people. With the constant flow of tweets being sent out every day, it’s easy for your tweet to get lost. By attaching a hashtag to your tweet, you increase the chance that the right people will find your post, which will help you attract new followers and foster dialogue.
  • Locating information – Hashtags are an easy way to search Twitter by topic. By saving a hashtag search in a column on TweetDeck, it makes it easier to track what’s being said about a certain subject. To be included in this group, simply include the same hashtag in your tweets. Geekpreneur has some great tips on how to use Twitter hashtags to tweet more effectively.
  • Promoting an event – It’s common practice for event organizers to create a hashtag so people can live-tweet what they learn during the conference. Not only does this help event organizers promote their event, it allows people who aren’t able to attend to keep track of news from the conference. In a lot of ways, it’s more effective than Second Life as a way to virtually attend a conference.

So how do you pick a hashtag? Probably the easiest thing to do is go to Hashtags.org or Twubs to discover which hashtags are being used, which ones are most popular and whether people have posted recent tweets with these hashtags. This information will help you determine whether you want your post associated with a particular hashtag. I think you’ll eventually find a couple of key hashtags that you’ll use on a regular basis and these will become the ones you follow.

Another question you should ask yourself is whether you should create your own hashtag or use an existing one. If you’re planning to create your own, remember to keep it short since you only have 140 characters per tweet. However, I’m a big believer in using existing hashtag if it already has a following. 

Words of Wisdom

It’s important to note that you can have too much of a good thing. If you use hashtags in all of your tweets or use multiple hashtags in one post, you can look like a spammer. It’s better to use them sparingly and only when you want to mark you tweet as having information that will interest a specific audience. According to Persistence Marketing, you should never include a hashtag that isn’t related to the content of your tweet.

There’s also a relatively new phenomenon called hashtag hijacking, where people “crash the party” by posting disgruntled tweets using an event’s hashtag. While this doesn’t have direct impact for most people, it’s definitely should be on the radar screen of event organizers.

Remember: Twitter is like a marathon, you have to be in it for the long haul. So take it one tweet at a time.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Jenn Riggle | Posted in Social Networks, social media | Tagged , , , | Comments (6)
Mar 1 2010

You Can’t Run From Problems

March 1, 2010 – 12:50 am

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In the new world of communications, everything’s public and conversations happen with or without your organization (image by Martino). We know this. Yet some companies (and people) seem to hide from their very public problems, perhaps a condition of 20th century PR techniques.

You can’t run from the mirror. If anything online media shows us, somewhere down the virtual path you will find a community pond that will shine that crystal clear reflection of you. Just like private life.

That’s why smart companies acknowledge and engage stakeholders about their problems. They note where they think they are wrong, acknowledge larger implications, factually address the matters, and correct matters. In some cases, companies/brands cease operations until they can address perceived wrongs.

There was no better case of this than SeaWorld’s comprehensive crisis PR last week. The company engaged first and foremost (see Scott Monty’s analysis). But more than that, SeaWorld did not run from the accidental death. It quickly brought in outside experts to ensure trainer safety, and won’t continue full shows until a complete evaluation was performed.

This is straight forward engagement. What a refreshing difference when compared to Toyota, who tried to ignore its problems.

Others try to wash away their problems by “cause-washing” them, or simply brushing them off as business (the personal equivalent is “I’m just human”). When problems aren’t acknowledged and followed by a sincere attempt to address the wrongs, trust erodes. And in the 21st century trust increasingly drives brand value.

The networked economy caused by peer-to-peer media means problems won’t go away. The only question remains will executives corporate communicators change general practices, and start addressing their problems head on.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in communications | Comments (1)
Feb 25 2010

Sitting on the Fence: Twitter or Facebook

February 25, 2010 – 6:00 am
Photo courtesty of Dawn - Pink Chick

Photo courtesty of Dawn - Pink Chick

By Jenn Riggle

I have a confession to make – I’m not a huge Facebook fan.

Now don’t get me wrong, I have lots of friends who love Facebook. They’re always telling me how it’s changed their lives, making it easier to keep up with high school and college friends. By the same token, organizations have done a great job to use their Facebook pages to create virtual communities and develop closer relationships with consumers.

And Facebook has definitely established critical mass. According to a Slate posting, “Facebook has crossed a threshold—it’s now so widely trafficked that it’s fast becoming a routine aid to social interaction, like e-mail and antiperspirant.” Yet for some reason, it just doesn’t speak to me.

So I thought I’d take a critical look at the two social networks and try to iron out my feelings:

With 150 million users, if Facebook were a country, it would be the eighth most populated in the world, just ahead of Japan, Russia and Nigeria. It continues to grow in popularity, with the fastest-growing groups are Gen Xers nearing age 40 and Baby Boomers – the latter seeming to join as a way to see photos of their grandkids. Most use Facebook to share real-life experiences, whether it’s photos or videos or updates on what they’re doing. It also offers a variety of features and functionalities, including games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars, applications and quizzes. And the majority of Facebook relationships seem to be formed in the real-world, whether they’re friends from high school or college, family members, colleagues or neighbors.

However, for organizations/businesses, Facebook is a strategic tool, allowing them to create fan pages and online communities where it can communicate directly with consumers. In addition, Facebook ads provide an inexpensive and targeted way for organizations to reach people online.

While I’m not a Facebook fan, I see its value for others – like eating Brussels sprouts.

Twitter, however, seems to appeal to a different group of people. It’s popular with adults the ages 35 to 49 years, 62 percent who use Twitter at work (and 35 percent from home). While Facebook users seem to be people who want to re-connect with old friends, Twitter users seem people who want to share information and ideas. Most (but not all) of these relationships are formed online by people deciding who they want to follow or by developing lists. Essentially, people can use Twitter to “create” their own communities.

Twitter is built for speed and unlike Facebook, doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles (it’s hard to include those in 140 characters). According to Brian Solis, Twitter usage peaks on Mondays and Fridays (although there’s solid usage on Saturdays), again hinting at the high number of business users. And according to a new study conducted by the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR), Twitter is the fastest growing social media channel among the Fortune 500 companies.

So What Does This Mean?
I came upon an interesting theory about how people “self-herd” in social media. Web 2.0 is based on “human 1.0 characteristics” because people look for people like themselves in social media. We can do this by becoming an organization’s fan, “friending” people or by creating virtual communities.

I’ve read posts from Tired or Inspired and Language and ICT that compare Facebook and Twitter, and they unanimously, chose Facebook over Twitter because it offers a richer online experience. I agree with them, Facebook has interactive features that people and organizations want. It also makes it easier to create regional initiatives and communities. However, there are others, like ProBlogger, who are de-friending people from their Facebook accounts to help create a barrier between their personal and professional lives.

But being realistic, there are only so many hours in the day and you have to choose how you’re going to your time. After all, you can’t be everyone at once – although with social media, it sometimes feels that way.

Like Robert Frost, I choose the road less traveled. As a news junkie, I love the fact that Twitter helps me find people who share similar interests and who can point me to information I would never find otherwise.

However, I’ll continue to persevere with Facebook and hope that someday I’ll have a change of heart. Although, I’m afraid I’d bore my friends with talk about my travails balancing work, swim schedules and endless repairs on my old home.

Are you a die-hard Facebook fan? I’d love to hear how you’re using it. Maybe it will help me change my mind.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Jenn Riggle | Posted in Social Networks, social media | Tagged , , , , | Comments (1)
Feb 22 2010

60,000 Droids a Day Keep the Apple Away

February 22, 2010 – 6:10 am
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Right now it seems every company wants to build an iPhone app. Yet given that 60,000 Android phones ship every day, one has to wonder how much longer Apple will have a lock on shiny object syndrome du jour (image by Andrew Mason).

That’s roughly 5.4 million a quarter, and the numbers continue accelerating to rivalingl iPhone shipments. Android shipments will only continue increasing as we see more devices hit the market. Further, globally carriers have now come to recognize Google Android’s presence as a tour de force.

Rather than open up it’s operating system, or allow manufacturers to license the Apple OS, or even releasing a new phone, Apple seems to be relying on reactive techniques. The word Android has been banned from applications being developed for the iTunes store.

Whether or not a mobile application fits into your strategy is one thing. A second evaluation critique for communicators now must include platform.

Unless Apple does something drastic quickly, it’s likely to find itself second in smartphone OS shipments by year end. That means Android applications will become the hot platform. Given the saturation of applications (more than 100,000) that are already in the Apple store, Android may be a quick way to generate mobile traction by being first. At least in the near term.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in mobile | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (17)