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Matching entries from B.L. Ochman's blog
The implications of Facebook Places - for business and for you + how to opt out and in
There will be consequences if you don't understand the rules and the stakes of Facebook Places. Love it or hate it, you'll need to understand it. So listen up. Individuals have to jump through hoops to opt out of Facebook's new Places feature, and companies better follow the complex rules to opt in. Places is NOT like Foursqare or other GPS services Sounds a lot like Foursqare, Gowalla, Yelp and Booyah - until you consider that Facebook user's typically provide far more personal details, including photos, videos, relationships, employment and educational data. Using Facebook Places requires an iPhone. If you don't have an iPhone, you'll have to use the Facebook touch mobile site on a browser that supports both HTML 5 and geolocation. The company does plan to roll out Android (Android) and BlackBerry versions of Places, but they haven't released any specific dates for those releases yet. Individuals: Newly launched Facebook Places - which will allow users to check-in to Places (created by both people and businesses) via the web or through mobile apps - automatically opted every user into the new service. Unlike other location services, Facebook Places also will allow friends to check you in to places....
Top 7 Reasons Why Blendtec's "Will It Blend?" is one of the all-time great viral campaigns. And yes, iPhone 4 blends.
Now in its fourth year, Blendtec's brilliant "WIll it blend?" campaign reaches new heights - of both hilarity and production value - when CEO Tom Dickson blends a "lost" iPhone 4 and launches the new "Blend my phone" contest. Don't miss part one. Top Seven Reasons Why Will It Blend works Now in its fourth year, Will it Blend is one of the all-time great viral marketing campaigns. Here are the top 7 reasons why it is such a great campaign. 1- Will it Blend humanizes the company. Dickson is engaging and funny and gives the corporation a human voice. 2- It's fun - appealing to the kid with a science kit in all of us. 3- It's real - those are real iPhones, golf balls, laser pointers, apple pies, and dozens more things your mother wouldn't let you put in the blender. 4- It's interactive. You can suggest things for Dickson to blend. He listens. They engage with followers on Twitter, Facebook and their blog. They sound like people, not freaking marketers. 5- It's integrated into all of Blendtec's marketing. Will it Blend is on Twitter, Facebook, a microsite, the company's homepage, and the company blog. 6- That's...
David Pogue's iPhone Song
All true! But i got me an iPhone and I love it. As many times as I've heard Pogue do this song, it never gets old. Most recently, he sang it at Ragan Communications' Social Media for Communicators conference in Atlanta, Ga. And hey, who knew Pogue could sing?!! He sang it first on The New York Times website in 2007....
B.L. Ochman's 2010 Online Marketing Predictions: Blog ads, mobile, & solopreneurs
I wasn't going to do this post this year. But I can't help myself. I'm stuffed with opinions, and I want to share them with you. These are my 2010 predictions for online marketing, FWIW. 1- Big agencies will keep snapping up consultants with social media experience. Big ad and PR agencies are realizing that they can't compete without hiring consultants who've been on the front lines of the new media revolution for the past several years. My friends are dropping like flies. :>) David Armano joined Edelman, and Neville Hobson recently became Head of Social Media Europe at WeissComm Group, London. Who's next? 2- Customer will begin to be granted the respect they deserve. Because nothing else matters if your customer service sucks. 3- Blog and other social media advertising will become the hot ad medium of the year and ad agencies will screw up big-time as they learn the ropes. I've been saying this since 2005, but it takes a while for agencies to get the picture. They haven't wanted to touch the small budgets needed for blog and other social media advertising. After all, the average 30-second TV ad costs $500K. But a highly targeted blog ad...
SNL iPhone Joke Takes Pot Shot at AT&T Network Woes
SNL Iphone Joke sound bite Saturday Night Live sound bites Quote "It was reported this week that Google would soon launch its own cellphone as a challenge to the iPhone. Also a challenge to the iPhone? Making phone calls." A Google Blog search this morning showed 17000 queries about the 15-second SNL News Update pot shot at AT&T's notoriously awful iPhone reception....
Augmented Reality Meets Social Media at Meijer Halloween Site. Will it Blend?
Companies from GE to Popular Science to Doritos have begun incorporating augmented reality (AR) into their marketing, and iPhone and Google Android have begun proliferating. A simple definition: Augmented reality integrates objects in the real world with computer generated images. Augmented reality is the technology buzzword of the moment with interest burgeoning over the past 12 months. And now my client, Meijer, the 190-store mid-western retail chain, is mixing augmented reality with social media in their Halloween Transform Yourself in 3D site. Will it blend? We'll soon see. AR is fun, it's interesting, and it's still also just a little clunky. While mobile phones rely on their built-in cameras; on a computer, you need a webcam, a microphone, and some type of plug-in to allow AR to be seen in 3D. You can read about the variety of augmented reality apps vying for market domination in this Digital Beat article. The article cites Total Immersion as a Tier One utility, and that's the plug-in that Springthrough, the firm that developed Meijer's Transform Yourself in 3-D Halloween experience chose. On the Meijer Halloween micro-site, augmented reality tracks your eyes as you look at a webcam, and you can make a...
AMC's "Mad Men" Social Media Use Sure to Become Legendary. Will It Produce Eyeballs as Well as Buzz? Stay Tuned!
By B.L. Ochman A year ago, AMC was a bumbling cable network sending cease and desist letters to fans of Mad Men who lovingly Tweeted in the names of the show's characters. They demanded the accounts be suspended until someone apparently pointed out that all this adoration of the show was - doh! - good for the show. As season three approaches, (launching August 16th) they've more than wised up; they've embraced social media and its evangelistic ability to create buzz. Will that buzz bring create new Mad Men fans, or just excite the show's existing base? Stay tuned. Last week AMC hit a viral jackpot on Twitter with a new micro-site called Mad Men Yourself, created created by New York digital shop Deep Focus. In the spirit of Office Max's "Elf Yourself," the site lets fans create stylized versions of themselves as the characters on the show. Brilliantly, people can then use their customized avatar as their Twitter, Facebook, or iPhone profile picture. (That's my Twitter Mad Men avatar on the left) "Which Mad Man Are You?" a trivia game, and "Mad Men eCards," will launch next week. AMC hopes the cards, featuring "Mad Men" characters and messages...
ExecTweets: Business Model for Twitter?
"Twitter's great, but it has no business model" is the near-constant refrain that seeks to downplay the sea change in communication the fast-growing microblogging service has brought about, reaching 7 million unique visitors in February 2009. Today, Twitter announced ExecTweets, created by the Federated Media ad network and backed by Microsoft. ExecTweets basically aggregates tweets from business executives. Big deal? Maybe, maybe not. The positives: ExecTweets combines some of the best features of other social media tools, including DIGG, Facebook, and Google. The replies are threaded, making conversations easier to follow; you nominate and recommend new execs to follow; and vote interesting tweets and users up the page; search through a tag cloud, and follow @exectweets RSS feed. You'll also see receive the re-tweets that the community found interesting enough to point out. And an iPhone is expected to be available in mid-April. By creating an exec-only platform, Twitter gains credibility among CEOs, who like to talk to other CEOs and ignore the riff raff. Of course that's the same trait that led to the online revolution to begin with! Yet, now that exclusive club atmosphere may embue Twitter with credibility in corporate eyes, and that's important for advertising and...
B.L. Ochman's 2009 Online Marketing Predictions: Mobile, Better Lighting, Subscriptions Rule
By B.L. Ochman With timerity, I offer my Internet marketing predictions for 2009. They are in no particular order. I think the words of the year will be mobile, subscriptions, lighting, and blog advertising. 2009 is going to be a roller-coaster ride, but we'll be fine in the end. I wish you all a year of peace, good health, prosperity, love, and growth. Thank you so much for reading What's Next Blog for all these years. You rock! 1. iPhone will finally allow a BlueTooth keyboard to be attached so you can actually type instead of using iPhone's stupid excuse for a keyboard. Other manufacturers will follow and phones will eclipse laptops. No matter how light the laptop, those mothers are heavy and cumbersome with battery, adapter, case, etc. that you have to schlep with you. 2. Correct lighting for video cameras and vlog broadcasts will be the must-have product of the moment. That's because nobody likes looking at dark videos and ghoulish-looking people. 3. Podcasts will either adopt better production values or die. Dunno about you, but I can’t listen to rambling podcasts. Brevity is a virtue. 4. Google stock will hit $1000 a share and split. The founders...
Groundbreaking Twitter Vote Report to Tackle Election Day Voting Problems
Sadly, in recent American elections, many people arrived at the polls to find broken machines, outrageously long lines, incorrect records, even dress codes that kept them from voting. This Election Day, we'll know about voter suppression in real time, while something can still be done about it. On November 4th, the Twitter social network and a small army of citizens and activist organizations will join a coalition of organizations in a citizen-driven, groundbreaking real-time watchdog called Twitter Vote Report. It will allow tens of thousands of citizens to identify issues as they happen, 140 characters at a time, map them, and call for immediate action. A National Crowdsourcing Effort Rather than leaving voter protection to lawyers, or worse yet, political operatives, Twitter Vote Report will let thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of citizens really rock the vote, by reporting in real time, on their experiences at the polls. The Twitter Vote Report coalition will then identify and call for solutions to voting problems in real time. How long is the wait in Cleveland, Ohio? Are the new optical scan machines staying up and running in Palm Beach County, Florida? Is failure to bring ID to the polls thwarting first-time...
Apple Silence on iPhone Issues Likely to Bite Its Ass
Analysts predict nearly 5 million iPhone sales this quarter, and the Wall St Journal reports that the iPhone Apps Store averages a million dollars a day in sales. But the damn things don't seem to be working for a lot of people, droves of whom as reporting iPhone 3G connectivity problems, dropped calls, and blue screens of death (hey, i thought that was a WIndows thing?) For example: Twitter Google Trends Google News Chris Pirillo and others on YouTube And what has Apple said to its customers? Nothing. Nada. Silence is deafening. That's long been Apple's way of responding to information requests, and this time, I think it's going to bite them. Steve Jobs doesn't do interviews, neither do his lieutenants, much to the consternation of just about every tech writer on the planet. Apple products are generally great, but silence when a product isn't great has cost other companies dearly in the past and Apple is not exempt. Ask Dell. Ask Kryptonite. Even giants of American industry have been humbled by the power of customer-driven media. Yet Apple has always gotten a pass. It's always been because the products are great. But teaming up with AT&T may have been...
Online Trend Demands: Say More With Less - Or Else
By B.L. Ochman Information overload, data deluge, inbox overflow, the attention crash: call it what you like, we are all drowning in inputs. The answer? A rising tide says learn to say it in less words -- a lot less words -- or lose your place on stage. Stowe Boyd wrote last week that from now on twitter is the sole medium for companies to pitch him and Drue Kataoka at ValleyZen discusses the merits of expressing ideas in 10 words or less. Can it be done? You bet. Part of my fascination with Twitter, besides the sheer delight in hanging out with a few thousand of the smartest people in the world, is that complex ideas are expressed in 140 characters or less, or they're not published. Here are just a few examples: @AdamBoettiger ARTICLE: "How to turn your iPod Touch into an iPhone and make voip calls from it" @CathleenRitt Who wants to call my father to tell him I'm leaving my job because a. it no longer exists, b. to pursue entrepreneurial projects? Not me! Jim Long @AnnBernard CEO of http://whygosolo.com/ gives us an important entrepreneurial gut-check this morning @Pistachio social media is not just a layer...
Nice to Know I'm Not the Only One Who's Washed Her Phone By Accident
This wasn't my day. Well, ok, it wasn't my week. Between my dad having surgery (thankfully completely successful), paying taxes, shelling out $300 for orthotics, blah blah, it was rough. So it seems a fitting end that I accidentally washed my cell phone in my jeans pocket while doing laundry this morning. (Blush) I got great advice from friends, including Andres Bianciotto, who wisely advised taking out the battery and putting it and the phone in two pounds of raw rice. That made it dry enough to start, but it no workee no more. A hair dryer didn't get it going either. I took Benny to the Verizon store tonight, where I had to tell a little white lie and say he was a service dog so he could come in, and got a new phone. Plastic; it feels like a toy; but it has a camera and so on, and it's red. Hey, it was free since my phone was two+ years-old, and they transferred all my data. Despite iPhone lust, I won't switch to AT&T. I'm holding out for the Google phone or an iPod Touch with 80GB memory. But it's nice to know, via my Twitter buds,...
GeekyBeek PuckerUps and Other Great Geek Valentine Gifts
Ah, Valentine's Day, that bittersweet holiday that was created to sell greeting cards, but often defines, or even ends relationships, whether or not we like to admit that. Valentine's Day is around the corner, and, if you have a honey, or you just want to console your single friends who don't, I'm 100% sure you want to send something more imaginative than soon wilted roses or same-old chocolates. So here's the first-ever What's Next Blog geek Valentine gift list: o Because romance requires a sense of humor, GeekyBeek PuckerUps (from a friend and client of mine) are by far my favorite geek Valentine gift. Not boring like flowers, no calories, no "You must think I'm really fat if you bought that size for me!" conversations. GeekyBeeks are silly, funny, oddly romantic, and just as cool for your favorite geek girl or boy as they are for your mom. They're hand-cast, and each has a unique hand-painted (silly) face. There are six different GeekyBeek Valentine Gift packages to choose from. Buy one, or get the flock out. I made a little GeekyBeeks video, and they have their own Flickr group with photos sent in by customers who can't bear to leave...
Move Over iPhone - Sumsing Turbo Xi3000 is Here
iPhone has nothing on the new SamsungSumsing Turbo Xi 3000, according to the Groen Brothers. It even has a built in toaster. And you can take your temperature with it too....
B.L. Ochman's 2008 Online Marketing Predictions: Mobile, Subscriptions, Collaboration Rule
By B.L. Ochman Intrepidly, I offer my predictions for online marketing in 2008, in no particular order. I think the words of the year will be subscriptions, mobile, and collaboration. 2008 is going to be an exciting year, and I wish all of you joy, health, prosperity and love every day in 2008. Peas on earth. 1. Subscriptions will become the revenue models for social networks. The fees will be small, but they will replace conventional advertising as a revenue model. Whaddya think? Feedback is what makes this fun. What trends do you foresee? Twitter and Skype will add subscription charges for enhanced features like groups and the two will compete for top social network status as the useless applications, intrusive advertising and annoying emails from Facebook et al increasingly turn off users. 2. Social networks will be the key driver of brand success as consumers increasingly trust each other’s opinions and distrust advertising and corporate crap. Dear CMOs and CFOs, The Cluetrain is not science fiction. 3. 2008 will be the year of collaboration and intellectual partnership, internally and externally. I predicted this too soon last year, but I still think it’s coming on strong over the next 12...
Mossberg: U.S. Restrictions on Cellphone Technology Are Intolerable
Wall St Journal technology columnist ">Walter Mossberg rails against the "backward, stifling system" cellphone users in the U.S. are forced to endure. Noting that once landlines faced the same ridiculous sorts of restrictions, Mossberg says:"A shortsighted and often just plain stupid federal government has allowed itself to be bullied and fooled by a handful of big wireless phone operators for decades now. And the result has been a mobile phone system that is the direct opposite of the PC model. It severely limits consumer choice, stifles innovation, crushes entrepreneurship, and has made the U.S. the laughingstock of the mobile-technology world, just as the cellphone is morphing into a powerful hand-held computer."...
Microsoft Surface: New Territory or a Giant iPhone Touch Screen?
Besides saying that they now see Google as their chief competitor, Microsoft announced that they will soon launch Surface, kind of a table-sized iPhone touch screen with e-commerce capabilities, according to the Surface demo. Hugh Macleod had live coverage of the conference, and Steve Ballmer's (god I love that vdeo!) speech on Twitter. Surface looks very cool, and is set to launch at hotels and businesses, with a home model not far behind. Gizmodo says Microsoft Surface's final price is still undecided, "but it looks like somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000 will get you one of these to use in your business." Microsoft has always lacked Apple's coolness factor and marketing acumen. And without that, it remains to be seen whether businesses will be ready to shell out tens of thousands of dollars for something gimmicky that could be old hat before you can say "Apple innovation."...
iPhone: From Love Letters to Hate Mail in a Few Dumb Moves
A mere few weeks ago, customers wrote love songs and made videos about why they loved their iPhones. All was well in Apple-land. But that all went to hell in a hand-basket when Steve Jobs declared war on customers. In case you haven't heard by now, a lot of Apple customers are none too happy with Jobs right now. First Apple drops the price of the iPhone by $200 just weeks after devoted geeks waited in line for days to pay $600 (go figure) and be the first to own the new iPhone, which only works with AT&T. Now Apple's at war with hackers, who've already got a crack for the iPhone update issued a few days ago. So who wins? Probably Nokia. They've already got posters all over town noting that there are no limits on Nokia phones. ( Not that their phones aren't outrageously expensive, but that's not the point. Screw "stylish radiance." Just give me a great phone at a great price.) Apple's software update 1.1.1 added some new features, but it's much more notable for turning unlocked iPhones into expensive paperweights, rendering them useless. OK, you bought an iPhone you agreed to use AT&T, so I...
It's Steve Jobs Bashing Time - But Don't Sell Your Apple Stock
David Pogue issued a dire warning for Steve Jobs. AT&T issues are mammoth. Early adopters were in a lather about Apple's way-too-soon iPhone price cut. Bloggers went to town with Jobs bashing. Get over it! Apple marketing might have hicupped, but what Apple does better than any other American company is innovate. And as long as they keep making great products, they'll still be in their own category - Number One. In fact, they just sold their millionth iPhone....
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