Greg Verdino

Facebook mobile OS released (dispatch from 2009)

Guest Blogger: Matt Dickman

Matt offers up a press release from the near future...

San Francisco, CA - Earlier today Facebook released their much anticipated new mobile operating system (OS). The OS will run on any phone from the major US carriers including handsets currently running Palm and Windows.

The difference with this OS is that the entire phone works as part of the Facebook network. The connectivity options of the device (WiFi, GPS, 3G) all connect it to the platform and to other Facebook-enabled devices. Here is a rundown of how this works.

• Centralized contacts - One of the biggest challenges for years has been keeping contacts updated and centralized. Facebook mobile allows users to pull in multiple contact sources from different social networks and applications. Users can upload files from Outlook or sync with LinkedIn. Each application that follows leverages this repository for contact data.
• WiFi/3G - The device is “always on” and automatically toggles between WiFi and 3G networks to offer the quickest, most stable connection. The connectivity allows for messaging, web browsing, GPS tracking and supports connectivity to Facebook’s main platform.
• GPS - The phone’s GPS receiver connects to Facebook and allows users to find friends when they are nearby. Users can set up proximity alerts and be notified when a friend is close by. Location is automatically fed into search and mapping systems as a shorcut to make things local. The GPS unit also allows for voice-guided turn-by-turn directions when in the car. On the marketing side, GPS allows for targeted advertising to be directed to users on an opt-in only basis.
• Camera - the camera in the device is automatically synchronized with Facebook’s photo sharing account, which allows publishing to other photo systems like Flickr. As soon as an image is taken, tagged and approved it is uploaded to the site along with geo location data from the GPS unit.
• Video - Video, like photos, is synchronized to Facebook and then published to other video sharing sites as defined by the user. Once video is captured it is tagged and edited then uploaded to the site along with geo location data.
• Photo/Video alerts - photos and videos from friends are automatically downloaded to the user’s device once published. Downloads happen in the background when the device is inactive. Users can reply to videos with videos of their own.
• Video conferencing - All users with video cameras can initiate video conferencing with one or more parties. Audio-only users can be dialed in to participate in the absence of video.
• Instant messenger - Facebook mobile supports all popular IM clients including Jabber, MSN, ICQ, AOL and Facebook’s own client. Users cross network seamlessly and can share files and initiate voice and video conferencing from the IM client itself.
• Email - The Facebook mobile email client integrated with all popular POP services (AOL, Yahoo, MSN, GMail, etc.) as well as with IM. Users who are active on the IM client are highlighted in email to enable real-time chats. Voice and video messaging can be initialized from email with one click.
• Presence applications - On top of Facebook’s own status updates, this mobile OS supports Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku and other presence apps are coming on line soon. These tie together into one interface with video, photos and copy.
• SMS - SMS is supported, but most users have moved to IM for real-time chatting. SMS is used for alerting and other one-time contact options.
• Browsing - The web browser in Facebook mobile is powered by Firefox’s mini browser. After years on the sideline, Firefox has come up with a small, quick browser that syncs with its desktop partner to transfer bookmarks, RSS feeds, passwords and browsing history.

This revolutionary platform embodies the true mobile, social web. Developers can easily leverage the assets (GPS, 3G, IM, etc.) to build powerful applications that move with the user and connect them to their contacts when on the go.

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So this is what I hope will happen with the mobile social web. It has potential. I already see some companies moving their devices in this direction, but only a truly integrated system will provide the best benefit to the users. Mobile in the US is clunky and slow compared to the rest of the world, but that’s changing. Once technology companies understand that the value of mobile is the content that’s created by the people that use the devices we’ll see more changes like the iPhone.

The Elizabethan internet

Guest Blogger: Jonathan Salem Baskin

Endless arguments.  False identities.  Hidden agendas.  Regulators chasing after the latest innovation.  People thrown together in explosively novel, sometimes threatening ways, in a place where the rules of normal society don't seem to apply.

Welcome to an early 17th Century English marketplace.  Replace the corsets with computers, and throw in somewhat more regular bathing, and you have our experience of the Internet. 

It turns out that this kind of change happens fairly often. 

Society was forcibly thrust into the future after various plagues erased everything in the 14th Century.  The telegraph reconstituted institutions and habits in the mid-1800s.  Generations of people have experienced unprecedented changes in how they saw themselves, and interacted with one another. 

In fact, every generation thinks it lives on the cusp of a future that's exceptionally unique.  I grew up expecting to fly a PanAm space shuttle, and sit on Scandinavian art chairs at the orbital Hilton. 

But then the future(s) get experienced and become history.  Patterns emerge.  So do truths, usually guided by the accrued history of human behavior.  Time and place change, but what we homo sapiens try to do tends in many ways to stay the same.

So replace our chat rooms and virtual avatars with Victorian stock quotes and love-letters in Morse Code, and there appear behaviors that turn out to be consistent, irrespective of how technological or other circumstances may vary. 

Maybe we can learn something about social media, gaming, and online commerce if we look at the the history of the last half-dozen times those underlying behaviors have been enabled? 

Here are three thought-starters: 

• Communities become meaningful, or they disappear.  Guilds were partially an organizational substitute for communities that had once been feudally defined and controlled.  Same goes for the trades during the Renaissance, or unions during the Industrial Revolution.  All of these groupings got ever-harder to join, and required things of its membership in exchange for real benefits.  How might this color how we understand MySpace, Facebook, or any customer loyalty program? 
• Mobs don't rule forever.  The idea of self-regulating commerce (or conversation) has fascinated theorists forever (Ben Jonson's play Bartholomew Fair toyed with the issue in 1614).  Yet each time a free-for-all marketplace has emerged, people have developed objective authorities to manage it, my affection for "Anarchy in the UK" aside.  At what point(s) does this suggest limits to current concepts, like crowd-sourcing or vertical search?  How does this intersect with the further development of communities?
• Reality matters.  We've craved communal experience ever since the first caveman oog'd through a hunting story by firelight.  And while people have been inspired (or addicted) to "live" completely in, say, the hubbub of a medieval marketplace, the miracle of Shakespeare performed live at the Globe, or the buzz of telegraph operators playing dot-and-dash games with one another, the inevitability of a return and connectivity to geophysical reality has inevitably factored into the experience.  Can anybody say Second Life? 

It would be interesting to get some medievalists and art historians blogging on this subject.  A deeper analysis of medieval markets, the telegraph, and guilds/unions might reveal some really interesting results, relevant to marketers, regulators, and the inquiring minds of We of the Blogosphere. 

Lots of what we otherwise observe isn't really new, as much as it is new to us.  So when we try to understand the function and implications of online communication, we risk missing deeper truths -- and actionable observations -- because weÕre enamored with the uniqueness of our own experience.

Some kid wearing ruffles and an uncomfortable codpiece once saw a new, unprecedented future filled with change emerging from the chaos of an open-air marketplace that today is paved over by a parking lot.  He just didn't have a blog to narrate it. 

We're not the first ones to wonder.

Today's special: humble pie

Guest Blogger: Ryan Karpeles

Technology is worthless without values.  All the widgets, platforms and social networking can't save your business if your heart is in the wrong place.

It might seem obvious, but amidst this revolutionary shift in media lies a fundamental and revealing truth.  People don't care about your company.  They care about what your company can do for them.

This is the value that trumps all others.  Humility.  Putting others before yourself.  Without it, you're destined for failure.  It's that simple, and it's that difficult.

As we wade through this sea of technological innovation, we have to understand that the tables have been turned.  Thirty years ago, consumers were the cogs in the company's wheels.  Today it's the opposite.  People are the wheels.  Companies are the cogs.  We exist to move them forward – not the other way around.   

You can't start with tactics and work your way back to values.  Blogs, RSS feeds, Facebook or whatever else are simply ways to exemplify what your company stands for.   Whether it's compassion, leadership, humility or humor, you have to be grounded in something stronger than technology. 

Your values are the compass that points you in the right direction.  Web 2.0 applications are merely the paths that allow you to reach your destination.  Don't confuse the paths with the compass.  And most importantly, be sure your compass is pointing in the right direction before setting out on your journey.

Be a narrow-minded marketer

Guest Blogger: Doug Meacham

First off, I’d like to thank Greg for inviting me to post on his blog while he is visiting the House of the Mouse.  Given the reason for Greg’s absence, I considered recycling some of my recent posts regarding the Disney Experience.  Then I thought about the great opportunity Greg was giving me to make connections with a new group of readers. Bloggers try to share other engaging content through their blogrolls, but my observation is that most blogs tend to be “niche” media offering unique content to a relatively small set of regular readers.  With that thought in mind, I though I would share some thoughts on Niche Marketing.

A June 2007 article in Advertising Age suggested that the maturing marketplace, combined with the hyper-connected, in-control consumer “has created a seismic shift from one-size-fits-all mass markets to millions of markets of self interest.” That assessment carries huge implications for retailers who are trying to move product that was once a specialty, but is now a commodity. Strategy consultants Booz Allen Hamilton explain it this way:

“As every market matures, choice increases. Then competition drives up quality and convenience to the point at which offerings become commoditized. The only businesses that then thrive are those that move beyond “me-too” or incremental offerings to marketing more-relevant and more-differentiated products and services. The only way to accomplish this is to focus on a narrower target.”

Technology and the Long Tail

Technology has played a major role in facilitating this shift. Marketers are now able to micro-target specific groups, engage customers with more frequency and intimacy, and customize to consumer specs. Moreover, technology has enabled consumers with the tools to seek out suppliers that offer just the thing they want.

Think about it. If you are a retailer focused on selling lots of stuff to lots of very different people, you are probably fighting a loosing war of diminishing margins, market share and profitability. On the other hand, brands and marketers that have figured out how to excel at attracting and keeping loyal a narrowly focused niche will probably continue to do well. And why is that? Once you, the customer, have experienced having your ever-increasing levels of self-interests met by a niche provider, you have a hard time going back. For example, if I am an amateur chef (I’m not), I would not bother shopping a mass merchant or local super market chain for those hard to find, must have items that I know I can get at a specialty cooking store or a local butcher.

That’s not to say that the mass merchants don’t see this trend.  As even a senior Wal-Mart official recently said,

“no customer today will stand to be treated as part of a mass market anymore.” 

This is a major disruption and marketers who fail to respond to it quickly will suffer. According to Advertising Age, the value propositions of those who ignore niche marketing…

“…will be less relevant than those of competitors. For those slow to adopt niche marketing, the future also is bleak. Attempts to recoup share will be difficult because competitors will have preemptively established closer customer relationships."

A number of brands and marketers have embraced niche marketing. Names like Target, Sur la Table, Red Bull and American Girl. They all have the same objectives as any other marketer, but they have sensed the disruption and have responded by finding a new way of going to market.

Narrow, Not Small

The other thing that has changed is what niche marketing really means in today’s environment. It still means targeting a more narrowly defined customer group seeking a distinctive mix of benefits, but niche markets are not the “marginal opportunity” that they were once viewed to be. Today, niches are viewed much more positively.

In today’s marketplace, niches are flourishing. Some niche brands are generating hundreds of millions in sales. Sometimes, narrow niches, fueled by mavens and connectors, become the next big, disruptive thing. The point is that niches should not be equated with small. Instead, think narrow. Then target very specific groups who will relate to and find differentiation in your offering. At this point, you are no longer a commodity and you can increase your margins by charging a premium. Do this over and over with different products and services, and you can generate volume and growth that makes up for your narrow targets.

Smaller Targets, Larger Focus
Marketing is a highly dynamic and fluid thing.  It has to be because the marketplace is constantly changing.  Empowered by technology, today’s consumers are very different from what they were just ten years ago.  Successful brands and marketers have recognized this shift and have adapted their strategies and tactics in response.  Focusing on the 4P’s — product, pricing, place, promotion no longer works.  Other recent marketing tactics such as customer-relationship marketing and digital marketing have been applied, but absent any real strategic purpose, they too can be ineffective.

So what’s really new about the new niche marketing? Advertising Age says “it’s realizing that while our targets have to narrow, our definition of marketing communications has to broaden. Today, everything communicates what a brand stands for, all the time.”

The Advertising Age article listed 10 principles to harness the power of niche marketing which are worth repeating:

1. Position your brand as narrowly as is economically possible.
2. Become the specialist that anticipates the needs of your target.
3. Rapidly work with the target niche to co-innovate.
4. Set as your goal such consumer centricity that the target niche will want to co-brand their identity with yours.
5. Live by a higher standard of ethics.
6. Embrace a business model and metrics that grow the most valuable assets of the new niched economy.
7. Reap first-mover advantage by learning how to identify a niche of opportunity.
8. Re-imagine your role as that of entrepreneurial founder of a special interest group.
9. Forget push marketing; excel at pull marketing.
10. Realize your brand is now “media” competing against all other media

What do you think? Does this make sense to you? Can you think of companies that could immediately benefit from leveraging niche marketing?  If you are a retailer, are you losing customers to niche marketers?  If so, what are you doing about it?

Read my guests

Mickey, Doug, Ryan, Jonathan and Matt.  But, for the first time since I launched this blog, no Greg.

"No Greg" is the easy part -- I'm with the family at Disney World this week (which covers off on Mickey as well) and rather than having my blog go dark for a week or spending my "time off" online (my usual vacation routine,) I've lined up a rogue's gallery of blogfriends to contribute come pretty interesting posts during the course of the week (one per day, Mon-Thurs.) 

In fact, when I got a load of the quality and diversity of the posts that these guys had written, I grew concerned that I may have made myself obsolete at my very own blog! 

You'll learn why you need to think narrow and why all the technology in the world won't help if you're using it for the wrong reasons. You'll take a trip into the past (complete with codpieces!) and get a glimpse of the future.  And who are the fine bloggers that will serve as your guides?

Let's meet Doug, Ryan, Jonathan and Matt...

When I first met Doug Meacham, he worked at Circuit City and was involved with, among other things, the electronic retailer's first foray into Second Life.  Today (well, starting Monday actually,) Doug is a managing consultant with IBM, where he specializes in multi-channel integration for retail environments.  He blogs about consumer technology, user experience and social media trends at NextUp.  Congrats on your new gig, Doug!

I'm not actually sure where Ryan Karpeles works - in fact, until last week I thought he lived in Australia!  Turns out Ryan is based in Chicago.  Go figure.  What I do know about Ryan is that he writes an uncommonly high number of posts that make me think, "man, I wish I'd written that one."  If you haven't met Ryan yet, be sure to check out Living Light Bulbs.

Jonathan Salem Baskin found me, and mistook me for a marketing expert, while he was doing research for his book - Branding Only Works on Cattle -- coming out in September 2008.  By day, JSB runs Baskin Associates Inc, a marketing consultancy built around the notion that Brand Is Behavior (which is certainly more actionable than my notion that Branding Is Bullshit.)  His blog, Dim Bulb, is loaded with smart, quirky posts and is well worth the read.

And finally, Matt Dickman, the Techno//Marketer himself... Matt works at Digiknow and is a marketing/technology/strategy/social media rennaissance man.  His video tours of new media properties, his weekly "buzz" reports and, most recently, his whiteboard videos that explain new technologies in terms that even the newest of noobs can understand combine to make him a blogger to watch (erm, pun intended...)   

So, thanks to the guys (and yes, they're all guys - not sure how that happened since I know so many great women bloggers) and I hope everyone enjoys the week.  Check out their posts throughout the week and don't forget to chime in with comments.