For many of us, the idea mobile marketing creates a cringe-enducing association with mobile spam. Images of random text messages waking you up in the middle of the night race through your head. You begin to shiver with thoughts of your cell phone rattling in the middle of a presentation letting you know about “Free Pix”. Well I’m here to tell you – It doesn’t have to be that way.

Utilizing advanced network capacities, refined measurement/tracking capabilities, and a solid strategy, marketers can safely enter the mobile universe with little fear of turning off their valued consumers. The key to connecting with your audience through mobile is to provide valuable and timely content on an opt-in/opt-out basis. If people are asking for you to communicate with them, you have a perfect opportunity to provide an engaging brand touchpoint.

Here are a few tips for entering the mobile space for your company:

Continue reading "Mobile - The Final Frontier"

It's going to be the next little made up word to change our culture, you know, like blog and wiki. "Knol", as defined by Google, is a unit of knowledge (shouldn't it be "knowl"?)

Google has entered the Wiki space, launching the beta of it's own user-contributed knowledge base. The key differentiator from Wikipedia is that entries identify the contributor -- and even pay them a percentage of ad revenue generated by their page. New model, more transparency, part of Google -- probably has a good chance of succeeding.

Like my colleague Eddy Perez mentioned in a previous post, Apple’s new AppStore is the hot new thing. The iPhone’s future success relies on the AppStore's sale of third party applications. It’s also getting hot for another reason, and Apple had nothing to do with it.

Continue reading "Intruder Alert!"

A friend recently sent me a link to a funny clip you probably have already heard of, or even viewed: "Where The Hell Is Matt?” This four and a half minute video montage introduces Matt Harding, your average Joe, as he dances his way through 42 different countries, vigorously flailing his arms and kicking out his feet in what is now his signature jig. There isn’t too much more to say about the video – it’s simple and surprisingly endearing.

I had read about the viral phenomenon a few weeks back, but at the time, didn’t think it was compelling enough to YouTube. A random guy who’s hit fame doing something wacky? Eh, I’ve heard enough of those Jared the Subway Guy-esque stories. But after my friend emailed me the direct link, I had no excuse not to click on it. So click I did.

Continue reading "A Dancing Gnome"

Have you seen the "street view" feature in Google Maps? It's astounding, really. You enter an address just like normal on any mapping software, and then click on the Street View button and a picture of your destination -- or any step in your route from point A to point B -- appears. Not the angle you're looking for? Just click and drag the image to change your perspective or position on the map.

My wife is not great at directions (I can say that because she doesn't read this blog). She relies on landmarks to find her way, so this feature has been great for her. You can click on any point on the route, then back up a hundred feet or so and see what landmark there might be.

How do they do it? Popular Mechanics shared some info on it. Basically, they've got an 11 lens camera and they shoot lots of video as they drive through the streets. Hugely labor intensive, so they must only do big cities, right? Clearly, they'd start with the most populous areas, but they've managed to make their way to the small town in KY where my mother lives -- that's her house in the picture.

We live in a marvelous time in history!

One of the most fascinating programs that my wife and I watched this year was an episode of PBS's Frontline called "Growing Up Online." We don't have kids yet, but it's in our future, and eventually our kids will be teenagers. I graduated from High School only 13 years ago, and the experience of being a teenager has completely changed. This new generation doesn’t know what life was like before the web.

Continue reading "Growing Up Online"

For my first 360 blog I thought I’d take the opportunity to talk about a few of the web services I use every day and why I think they’re important. Web 2.0 (I guess we should stop calling it that pretty soon: it’s just the Web now, eh), has given birth to an explosion in interesting and innovative interactive services. The three I’ve highlighted below are all a little older in Web terms, each having been around for a few years and each having been acquired by a larger more established corporation, but all three are widely adopted and among the best services out there.

Continue reading "Killer Web Services"