Archive for March, 2010

Marching Together: Recap of Mobile March

By lulugrimm, 29 March, 2010, View Comments

My passion for the convergence of technology and the communication disciplines placed me at the first ever Mobile March over the weekend, a mobile event focused on the intersection of mobile technology and trends, and the multitude of ways mobile development is affecting business. Mobile March is the offspring of Mobile Twin Cities, an event held monthly that focuses on trends and software development on all mobile platforms, founded and led by Justin Grammens.

The day-long event brought together mobile enthusiasts from all walks — software developers, communicators, marketers and advertisers — to learn about and openly discuss the topic of mobile technology; where we are, where it’s headed and what it all means – so far as we can tell at the moment. The event was formatted as a dual track series, allowing attendees to mix and match business and mobile development tracks or just stick to either track all day. There was something for everyone.

Mobile March: What and Why with Founder, Justin Grammens

The event had many highlights, and of course not all can be covered here, but the one theme that stood out to me was “Marching Together.” Evolving technologies and the integration of them into existing business practice is not monopolized by any one person or company. It is, and will remain a learning curve for all of us. As the day progressed, it held that Mobile March was merely an educational forum intended for people to productively collaborate and walk away with better information to more effectively implement appropriate mobile elements into business strategy. Here are a few event highlights. Hope you find useful.

IT’S A GREAT TIME TO BE PART OF MOBILE

Keynote, Mark Mosiniak, director of business development for Best Buy Mobile, gave a well-rounded presentation that spoke to the rapid evolution of mobile (see below) and how Best Buy is making modifications to fit in this space to proficiently help the consumer make the best buying decisions for their mobile needs. “What today is all about is getting us together to share ideas. Not just in our ecosystem, but ultimately to make mobile easier for the customer and consumer,” said Mosiniak. Best Buy’s initiatives include education and digital support for customers to make purchasing a new, or even foreign or updated mobile device, more manageable and helpful for the buyer. Key points us marketer/communication folk (or other) can take away:

Mobile technology is advancing quickly…

  • 10 years ago 3G licenses were signed, the first pocket PC devices were introduced, the first mobile game was introduced (remember snake?) and the first Bluetooth enabled phone hit the market.
  • Three years ago RIM owned the marketing in email centric devices, Internet browsing was possible but not engaging, 3G products hit the market in force, and Apple announced the iPhone.
  • In the past year the first Android phone was released, 2,500 apps in the Android marketplace, there were 20,000 apps on iTunes and 8 million downloads.
  • Today, Android is fastest growing platform with 30,000 apps, 4G products are on the market, 150,000 iPhone apps are on iTunes with more than 3 billion downloads, there are 4 billion mobile users worldwide, people are transferring what they do on their PCs to their phone, and people want their mobile experiences to be fast, simple and solve immediate needs. There are so many platforms — Windows, Palm, Symbian OS, iPhone, RIM, Android —We need to think beyond iPhone and Blackberry. There is a lot of opportunity here!!!

The majority of people DO NOT have Android or Smartphones… they have TEXT!!! We are the uber geeks, not consumers! The point here being that, thinking from a tech savvy box isn’t always a good thing, as the majority of the population runs on less sophisticated technology, but uses it well and via SMS. We should focus marketing efforts here. “Consumers want that brand, color or price point, not complicated application arrangements that require vast amounts of knowledge they don’t have to operate. Developing apps that actually relate to the consumer market would be a much better spend in developer time. We don’t need yet another Twitter app. The creativity comes in how you’re building the relationship with the customer, not the creativity in the app!!!

Mark’s 5 Ideas for Mobile (notes)…

  • Single Sign On – Different sign ins are inefficient and so difficult from a usability standpoint. Users should have a universal sign in for all of their accounts.
  • Blur the lines between customer service and marketing – At Best Buy, they use ‘Tips and Tricks’ video that train and teach users how to operate their technology better. This could be applied to almost anything. It’s no different than it’s always been, but now we have the ability to provide help digitally. Make use of it!!!
  • Online to Offline – Barcodes for customers via SMS, i.e. text this number to get customer reviews from the Web interface or Web site on your mobile, 2D barcodes, etc.
  • My phone is my wallet – Create the ability for mobile checkout, i.e. Best Buy’s Rewards Zone tap and go and pay pass
  • Small Business need apps too!!! – Obviously, small business rarely has the resources a larger organization may have to there are certain similar traits that can transfer from biz-to-biz,

Where is the $ in apps?

  • The purchase point (people purchasing the actually app)
  • In the life enhancing ability of the app to the consumer
  • Marketing of the applications

Mark’s slide deck can be found here.

HOW TO SET STRATEGY IN MOBILE

This panel discussion was solely dedicated to mobile strategy (although people so badly want to focus on tactics – always makes me chuckle). Panelists were Damon Allison of Vision Information Services, Robert Shidla of Verizon Wireless, Scott Thomsen of Launch Media and Doug Rozen of Carlson Marketing.

Immediacy and snackability are two of mobile’s distribution channel perks; they allow users to get a taste of something very quickly.

What are key considerations if you’re thinking about mobile strategy? (notes)

People get blinded by the shininess of mobile. This is marketing; you need to have a codified vision of success. Walk, run, leap begins with the foundation of thinking and planning. At the end of the day these are marketing programs. We are talking to the consumers – start thinking about what the challenge is you’re trying to solve. With a plan, be willing to adapt. This ecosystem is moving at a rapid pace. What you have today will be different in 18 months. KPIs and ROI should remain consistent. What are you trying to achieve? What’s the delivery mechanism or carrier mechanism? If you don’t have in house capabilities to determine your mobile strategy, find a partner (agency/mobile development company) that thinks about who the customer is, what the customer is thinking and possesses the knowledge of what technologies your audience uses in order to determine what to do next.

Three Mobile Marketing Strategy Recommendations

There was far more to the events of Mobile March. A lot on the development side and more on the business side. Here’s a broader recap from the Minnov8 gang.  If you know of other recaps, feel free to share links in comments. I look forward to the next Mobile March and how much will have changed by then, from both a mobile development standpoint and how we’ll see mobile marketing transform. Looking at the current chronology, I can only imagine how things could change in the next six months to a year. Thanks to the event organizers Phil Wilson, Linda Cummings and Justin Grammens for putting this together!

The Beauty of Technology: Recap of SMBSXSW from Afar

By lulugrimm, 15 March, 2010, View Comments

There are so many opportunities to be educated about new trends, tools, technology and what it all means for the bigger picture. Often, we pay a fee (sometimes hefty) to sit in rooms with folks and hear the brilliance, perspective and idea sessions that explore the next big thing. But what about all the people who can’t attend these events…  due to finances, their employer arguing that the investment is unworthy, family responsibilities and other circumstances?

Resourcefulness is something I’ve learned a lot about this past year (more on that lesson in a future post). I’ve had the luxury of attending quite a few amazing events in recent months, but there are certainly a few that I’ve been sad to miss. So, what do I do when I can’t physically be somewhere but want the knowledge? I seek out the information and find that I can get pretty darn close to an event without actually having to be there. Case in point:

I was unable to make it to South by Southwest Interactive (SxSW) this year. While sad, the greatest thing about events like this is that technology transcends geography. With the help of a nifty little service called USTREAM, I was able to watch the entire Social Media Breakfast SXSW via livestream from my bed on Sunday morning. It was fantastic.  I took in presentations by thought leaders Becky McCray, Tac Anderson and Rick Mahn with appearances by awesome Social Media Breakfast Founder, Brian Person and event moderator, Albert Maruggi.

Thanks to technology, the following is what I learned from my bed on Sunday morning…

The Missing Ingredient in Social Media Strategy is… the strategy! – Tac Anderson

With all the talk about social media strategy nowadays, it’s funny that the one thing missing from most social media strategies is often just that, the actual strategy. Shannon Paul hit this topic astonishingly well a few weeks ago, with great commentary from Tac and others – and its reference was the starting point of his discussion. I highly recommend you read Shannon’s post: “The Mising Ingredient in Most Social Media Strategies.”

Tac defined strategy as: Creating operational alignment between all functions and activities of a business.

Current research on publicly traded companies says: Return on assets has gone down and is on a downward trajectory. By 2025 the net worth of all publicly traded companies will be zero (research attributed to John Hagel).

Problem: This means that the way we run our businesses today isn’t working. In order to achieve scale (way back when), we had to give up intimacy. In order to achieve scale, we put processes in place. We removed people from the company.

Solution: With Internet and social media, we can achieve intimacy and scale. We can connect people inside the company with people outside the company. Quoting Lane Becker (who quoted someone else): “Businesses thrive on the network when they adapt to the network, not the other way around.”

Three ways to create/adopt a SM strategy:

  • The Bolt On strategy (not a strategy): Let’s start a blog or a Twitter account. Someone will blog/tweet and everything else will stay exactly the same inside the company. Social Media is NOT a bolt on component.
  • The I’m going to force social media to comply with existing code of conduct (not a strategy). It sucks the life out of SM.
  • Making your company optimized for social media. What would it look like if every part of your company were built to maximize the benefits of social media? This is the ideal and highly underdeveloped point at which most organizations find themselves currently.

Back to both John Hagel and Lane Becker to summarize our discussion: Socil Media as part of the operational alignment is about creating edges and flows inside your company. Innovation happens on the edges where you get creative friction and where things and things can even be a little messy. What SM can do if you optimize the right way is create those edges and knowledge flows… can start happening inside your company.

Tac Anderson is Digital Consulting Director at Waggener Edstrom, blogs over at New Comm Biz and is all around awesome (from what I read and see – we have not met). Tac rocks and you should read his stuff.

How Technology is Changing Small Town America – Becky McCray

“I was just chatting with some people at my table and what I find to be true is that everyone has a small town connections,” said Becky as she grabbed the mic from Albert to begin her talk. She finds it amusing that people continue to ask her, “How did you ever get interested in technology in such a small town?”  To which she politely says, “There is electricity in small towns. “

Becky owns a liquor store and a cattle ranch in small Oklahoma town. She started out as a small town entrepreneur and is an eternal geek. This intersection of passion has landed her in a position to help rural communities really ‘get connected,’ said moderator Albert Maruggi. The opportunity to connect more people through technology specifically as it pertains to small and rural business is her aim and sweet spot.

Becky talked about a few trends happening in small town America that are transforming small town communities and business.

Convergence - Techies are invading rural communities and effecting change. She illustrates with the example of Aliza Sherman. Sherman lives in Alaska in a 300-person town and her five-person company Conversify has grown far past its borders.

Rural is getting more and more wired. Rural communities are progressively experiencing broadband connectivity. Jay Pinkert (may have slaughtered that name) in Wisconsin has worked to wire a whole section of the state for broadband in order allow people to connect and develop through technology.

“We are at a moment where everything is going to change, said Becky. “My anti-tech mother is on Facebook poking her grandson.”

Folks in small towns are at an advantage. Because of the scale, the education process is a bit different. Teaching the skills and tools is easy. Then you can teach the commandments:

  • Be helpful
  • Build Community
  • Reputation is forever

I look forward to learning more about Becky by checking out her blog.

How to Start a Social Media Breakfast – Rick Mahn

Rick’s road to founding SMBMSP was born out of a strong desire to bring the conversations he was having online and in other small communities to his back yard a.k.a. the Twin Cities. Upon observing a little gathering happening in Boston beginning in 2007 called Social Media Breakfast, Rick began a conversation with Brian Person, founder of the Social Media Breakfast concept and it was suggested that he start a breakfast in Minneapolis.

A little more than two years later, SMBMSP has 1,874 members and averages a 300-person event each month. There are often people dissatisfied because they don’t get a ticket. A problem Rick is looking to solve as best he can.

Some of Rick’s thoughts…

Community: SMBMSP opens up opportunities for the community itself. It’s a catalyst for the people ‘doing it’ to come forward and help the rest of the community.

Recruiting help for events: In terms of seeking out help for the events, Rick looks to the people who are really passionate about SMB, topics, issues, etc. (which sometimes takes a while) and enrolls them in the events.

Large group discussion: When small, the breakfast is a great place to have dynamic discussions about how social media is transforming industries. As the breakfast has grown to large numbers, the format has been modified to panel discussions with a moderator instead of a speaker model. Panels are more productive, as they offer many perspectives instead of just one. Ample Q & A is built in to encourage strong audience dialogue.

Sponsorship: In the beginning it’s hard, unless you have really good fundraising skills. Rick admits that he did not:-) “I’m an IT guy,” he said. “Not an events guy.” Looking for mutually beneficial partnership/sponsorship venues is key.

Of course, there is more, but I’m signing off here.  SMBSXSW can be viewed in its entirety here.

A few other quick tips for following events you cannot attend:

  • Hashtag: Find out before the event kicks off what hashtag has been designated so you can follow the conversation on Twitter. If you’re not on Twitter, you can still perform Twitter searches via search.twitter.com, and you’ll be able to obtain information, links, photos and video from anyone who uses the event hashtag.
  • Google: A simple Google search can be so effective. Just search for the event name and you’ll likely get a long list of blogger who are live-blogging the event. These posts are often better than being there because the information has already been synthesized for you. A great example of a wonderful blogger covering SXSW is Greg Swan. I’ve been following his daily recaps over on Social Studies.

Have anything to add? I love it when you do.

Couples and Money and Communication, oh my!

By lulugrimm, 1 March, 2010, View Comments

In the spirit of talking about things other people don’t talk about openly, but at times desperately want to or should, I’d like to share a little something about an exercise my husband and I are doing to be better communicators and build a stronger marriage, specifically as it pertains to MONEY.

My hubs and I, a.k.a. Chad, have been married for a little more than one year and have been together for almost seven (wow). We communicate beautifully in most areas, but like many couples out there money is not our simplest issue to explore. We have different experiences with money (as everyone does). These experiences helped to develop our value systems and behavior patterns with money, which inevitably are also different. Sound familiar? Well, it’s usually the reality of most couples and people out there in some regard.

We’ve had our fair share of money arguments along the way, but managed to come to a decent understanding before we were married. We knew we had further work to do, but hadn’t found the magic potion on our own just yet. We interviewed other couples, our parents, chatted about it during premarital couples counseling and talked about possible money management methods and systems in private at home. Despite all of these efforts, the doing something piece, the taking ACTION piece wasn’t falling into place.

So… for Christmas we decided the best gift to give each other was a money class we’d both heard amazing things about over the years called ‘Couples and Money,’ taught by nationally known financial educator, expert and author Ruth Hayden.

We went to our first of five classes last Monday and I gotta say I’m really looking forward to the next four.  The following are my takeaways so far:

  • One of the first things mentioned in class was: It is socially and politically incorrect to talk about money. In our culture. In our relationships. And consequently in our families. Well, no wonder money is hard to discuss!!! It’s kind of a no brainer and really a huge relief when you think about it this way. Our societal and cultural framework doesn’t have the ‘let’s talk about money like sane, rational and open adults’ built into it in a healthy way. In essence, it’s embedded as a natural dysfunction in our cultural and relational fabric.
  • The purpose of this class is to make us a better management team; It’s about learning and being in partnership with money. It was explained that there are two parts to money: Counting and Managing. Counting is ability to know how much you make, how much you need, budgeting, etc. The management piece includes how you make it work, how you make decisions, how you and money coexist, etc. (after you’ve counted the money). Many couples think that if they count it and the numbers ad up that that’s most of the battle. There is much more.

  • Class is about DIALOGUE and INTROSPECTION. I find personal reflection to be one of life’s most important, and often most difficult things. I’m a big advocate for Emotional Intelligence and its importance in the bigger picture. It is my experience that when I take inventory of my stuff, my interactions with the rest of the world are far simpler. This class is no different. This class will challenge both of us to take a hard look at our part in how we view and interact with money — and then we will come together to discuss it. When thought about in this way it makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it? I know that in past discussions about money I walk in thinking I’m right, which sets the discussion up to fail because I haven’t really dug deeper. I hope that makes sense.

  • People don’t change unless they have to. Then they change just enough to get out of crisis. Love this because of the truth in it. Won’t get into it too much, but obviously the goal of this class is to change the necessary behaviors around money so we can be in better partnership with it and our mates.

I look forward to sharing more about what we learn and how it helps us navigate through developing better communication and a  strong financial partnership for a successful future! As always, I love to hear your experience or thoughts if applicable:-).