Harmonic Aftershock

Cyberstalking made easy: Datecheck by Intelius

Several years ago, I became quite familiar with Intelius after taking matters into my own hands upon having my debit card stolen and used. I was floored at how much information I could get through this aggregation service of billions of public records by just entering a phone number or name.

What I love about Intelius' Datecheck which was just launced at DEMOfall 09 is that the iPhone app simply packages the data Intelius already aggregates into a very “consumer friendly” brand and user experience – and one that clearly targets women. 

Key features include:

• Sleaze Dectector: Searches criminal records (DUI, theft, drug possession, etc.)
• Networth: Reviews asset information (property ownership, sq footage, and assessed value)
• Living situation: Assesses who and in what capacity you live with
• Interests: Pulls in public profile information from social network sites
• Compatibility: Uses date-of-birth to serve up astrological records (horoscopes)

While still a bit freaky (and somewhat shallow), this is phenomenally smart marketing as I suspect it was based on consumer insights as to how people have been using the Intelius service for years – let’s face it, we’ve all been known to look people up - Intelius attracts over 1 million visotors per day. And by leveraging the iPhone app craze, the company has managed to make themselves “portable”.

So when you’re out tonight and think you’ve met that special someone, you now have on-the-spot guidance in determining your next move.

Six Pixels of Separation: Mitch Joel’s book…finally

It was October 27th 2007 when I became a Mitch Joel fan after hearing him speak at PodCamp Boston 2. I remember writing the guy’s name down on my event program so that I could appropriately “permission-based stalk” him to learn more about this particular digital marketing thought leader who really struck a chord with me. In addition to subscribing to his blog, I downloaded as many back episodes as I could of his podcast through iTunes – And for a couple of months, Mitch and Six Pixels of Separation were a daily part of my life during gym workouts and office/client commutes until I finally caught up to his weekly production schedule.

I relate to Mitch not only for the fact that he’s a fellow Canuck but because of his passion for digital marketing, contagious work ethic, entrepreneurial mind, and that he’s a constant student of leadership. It’s been a joy over the past two years following and being inspired by Mitch’s career growth as he expanded his business to Toronto, secured a column in the Montreal Gazette, and now (finally) released his first book, appropriately named after his blog and podcast: “Six Pixels of Separation”.

I anxiously picked up my copy last week at Boston’s Barnes & Nobel in the Pru and it was the last one on the shelf (see photo above). And I can understand why as the book is filled with rich (and timely) case studies and is positioned as the “prequel” to Mitch’s blog. The book is ripe for those who are just getting started understanding how social media has fundamentally impacted business, marketing, and personal branding as well as those of us within the industry that are always looking for more fodder for our clients and projects.

A few select sound bites from Six Pixels of Separation that jumped out at me – the book is filled with many more great one-liners as well as contextual and thought provoking anecdotes:

• Embrace your community as the new currency.
• Trust is earned by an overall great experience with a foundation of authenticity.
• Digital marketing is not a one night stand…tangible results take time.
• Instead of asking “what” [the channels/tactics], please ask “Why” [the strategy].
• Ripples grow wider and bigger until they become waves. Waves never stop.
• The new business game is not about control. It’s about the volume of voices.
• Google is like an elephant: it never forgets.
• Branding is not the logo… Branding is the heart and soul of a business.
• You can’t fake passion.
• Great content = great word of mouth.
• Transparency is easy. Credibility is hard…credibility is everything.
• We’re seeing a new era in which everyone has become a citizen journalist.
• Take time to develop your own niche. Be the Cirque du Soleil of your industry.
• Remember, I’m Googling you just like you’re Googling me.
• Your business life just became a high-speed game of virtual paintball.
• Content is media…all content will become more and more portable.
• Mobile goes where other media cannot.
• Think in terms of tribes, not mass.
• A new business model does not have to be complex.

I had recommended Six Pixels of Separation to clients when it was on pre-order and will continue to help evangelize Mitch Joel’s debut into book publishing – I not only believe in him and his credibility but have personally benefitted by Mitch openly sharing his experiences and thought leadership over the years. I already can’t wait for his next book. 
 

Bringing the dead back to life…sorta

For those of you who follow this blog, you know that my passion is in seeing how advances in technology harmonically enable “mediums” with interactivity. The latest episode of Marketing Over Coffee pointed me to how tombstones in Japan are leveraging 2-D barcode technology for mobile tagging. Go up to any equipped tombstone, snap a picture of the barcode with your mobile phone and get photos, videos, info about the respective deceased delivered to you on your phone.

Imagine if this technology had been around for hundreds of years – a walk through a cemetery would be like travelling through time.  While some might find this a bit morbid or even strange, I think it’s a great way that leverages technology to help us remember our loved ones for the life that they lived beyond the short, engraved message on their tombstone.

And if that’s not enough, check out Jeremiah Owyang’s latest post about the potential of your refrigerator (and other appliances/objects) alerting/tweeting :-) Talk about convergence.

How Teens Use Media (Nielsen Study)

There’s a lot of talk about an impending death of “traditional media” but The Nielsen Company just released a report that shows otherwise. In order to predict the future, Nielsen looked at those who are our future adults: Teenagers.  And in addition to finding that Teens are watching more TV than ever before, their use of the web is not what we, as marketers, might have suspected.

Because of the fact that Teens spend most of their days in the classroom, extracurricular activities, weekend sports, etc., they are simply not in front of computers like adults in their offices – So their time spent surfing the web is actually considerably less than adults (about 50% less).

The gem in the report is the affirmation that one of the best ways for marketers to reach the teen demographic is through mobile/portable content. Some interesting insights:

• 77% of teens directly own a mobile phone
• Teen texting over the past 2 years increased 566%.
• 66% of teens prefer texting over talking on their phone
• Teens send/receive an average of 2899 texts/month
• Teens ARE they early adopters of all mobile media
• Teens watch more mobile video than the average user
• #1 source of video content is music-related

I’ll often quote digital marketer Mitch Joel when he talks about the choice of new/emerging media versus traditional media in that “it’s not either/or, it’s in addition to.” And Nielson clearly agrees, “Teens embrace new media not at the cost of traditional media, but in supplement to it.”

I continue to believe when looking at the future of media, that it’s not so much whether certain kinds of media are dying off but how they’re evolving/adapting given the fundamental changes and options for distribution. And it’s no secret that I very much see a “media converged” future where Web and TV are one in the same and our “mobile device” will harmoniously extend our content consumption/interaction in a portable format – and in the end, content is content regardless of what mechanism we use to consume it.

Is the web/mobile bringing back the music video?

As a young teenager in the in the mid-80s, I am a product of the music video generation. MTV and VH1 were built around music video content and it seemed that everyone dreamed about being an MTV “VJ”.  And then something happened over the years. The “Music” part of  “Music Television” started to dwindle.  This past November we said good-bye to Total Request Live and with it, pretty much any formal music video programming on TV.

[But are music videos dead or are we simply consuming them through different distribution channels?]

We all know that online video consumption continues to increase across the world as this eMarketer report shows.

And in looking at the all time most popular online video’s on YouTube, 12 of the top 20 are music videos. iTunes continues increase its music video content as fast as smartphones and iPods support it. And we see sharing of links to videos all the time in social networks like Facebook and Twiiter plus musical artisit pages that  help distribute their music videos.

There was a time in the late nineties and early two-thousands that I would have said music videos were dying. But the convergence of media and technology has once again proven otherwise and continues to give rise to new possibilities to content distribution and consumption in this world of on-demand portability.

New Hampshire’s being all “Twittery”

Not only did the “granite state” get over 10,000 fans on Facebook (in just about a month) but now New Hampshire’s made its mark on Twitter thanks to Public Service of New Hampshire (PSNH).

Last week’s ice storm crippled the state leaving hundreds of thousands without power and phones. A week later many (including my mom) are still left in the dark and dozens of schools are still closed.  Since those of PSNH’s customers without power can’t access real-time traditional media (TV, Radio, and let’s throw in the web as “traditional” at this point),  PSNH took to alerting those through mobile via Twitter.

I learned of this not via my mom (who still has and uses a rotary phone) but by CustomScoop’s report on the FIR Podcast.  Kudos to PSNH for leveraging non-traditional media channels to reach people and congrats to my home state for making its mark in the Web 2.0 world.

The future is mobile?

Had a great conversation with a colleague today. Working at a large marketing agency, we get to talk with lots of vendors, many of whom are mobile marketing-centric.

There’s a lot of discussion around the role that mobile will play in all of our futures – there are many who’ll make sweeping comments like, “The future is all about mobile” or  “First it was TV, then computers, now mobile”. While I don’t disagree (as evidence from a blog post I wrote when I was at Digital Influence Group) that mobile is rapidly integrating into our daily lives, the real conversation should be about content portability and interactivity.

Regardless of the device that presents it, accessibility to content when one wants and needs it, in a format that is contextually digestible is what’s important. So if I’m in front of my computer with a widescreen HD monitor, I’m going to (and will continue to want to) consume and experience content in a certain kind of way. I may want access to some of that content through portable devicies (i.e. mobile, iPod, etc.) and enjoy consuming it while I’m on the go, but it’ll never replace the large screen experience with a full-sized keyboard.

Similarly, when I’m “on the go” and need quick and instant access to information, I have expectations about getting that information in a very fast and lightweight sort-of-way. My mobile phone acts as an enabler for me to get on the spot answers “remotely”.

In the age of ever-increasing rich media/online-video, mobile simply can not be where it’s ALL at. I’m not going to want to lay on the couch after a long day and watch an episode of Heroes on a 4” screen. Yet it’s a very different story if I’m on a train to NYC on the treadmill at the gym.