A deep dive into digital marketing

Digital Ethnography - a reminder

Posted by Chris under CNMS08, Community, Research, Social Networking, trends

I’m pretty sure you’ve seen these video already, which are from, Dr. Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Digital Ethnography at Kansas State University.

The below video was played at CNMS08 as part of a presentation from Constance M. Yowell, of the
John D. & Katherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which reminded me, maybe some people haven’t seen it.

The video  summarizes in a great video form what students face, do, act, etc.

You can follow his blog here and YouTube channel here. He’s got a lot of great content on both but check out his YouTube channel for some of the student videos as well, good insight on today’s Millenials

His Master’s Voice

Posted by Chris under CNMS08, Google, Mobile, Technology, trends

Remember the days of calling 411 and hearing, “hello Operator” and before calling 411 cost from $1.25 and upwards? What about what I used to do in the early 90’s, calling the Chicago Public Library’s reference desk to answer questions that are now a click away on Google? Sure, I could have gone over there and done the research, but the librarians on the other end of the line were too happy to do it for me.

Well, there are a couple of newish tools and websites that  allow you to have much of the same functionality all at your voice or if needed, fingertips, all of which are free. Why are these important to look at? Well, just as I described a few weeks back how the iPhone is more computer then phone, services like these make any phone more computer-like.

There are three services that I’ve been using for a while, all of which allow you to use your voice for tasks. First is 1-800-GOOG-411, Google’s answer to 411. A simple call and I get not only the number I’m looking for, but I also get connected or can get a text message with the number and address. GOOG-411 has been a around for a bit, so chances are you have used it already; if not, however, give it a go.

I find that while I’m driving is when ideas, to-do’s or follow-up’s come to mind, but I can’t very well stop or keep driving safely and write them down. So that’s where Jott comes in. Just out of beta, Jott is still free for the ad-supported version and low cost for the pro version. What is Jott? Well, think voice-to-text but with actions associated with it.

After an initial set-up through the Jott website, and a confirmation text with your phone, you’re ready to go. A simple call to (866) JOTT-123 / (866) 568-8123 and you can record to-do lists, send emails or texts, add an appointment in outlook, post to twitter or your blog, and even get Amazon prices/results back. This list keeps growing each day.

And while Jott works with any phone, there are applications for the iPhone and Blackberry. With Jott’s iphone application, a tap to the screen and you can record a message and use a second tap to stop. These Jotts are transcribed to text notes and become available on-line or on the phone itself as part of the notes.

Next up is ChaCha, which for the back-to-school crowd is like a cheat sheet on your phone. By either texting CHACHA (242242), calling 1.800.2CHA.CHA or twitter @chacha any question you have, you’ll get an answer back from one of their guides. Yes, a human at the other end. Now some questions like weather or stock are automated when you text message, but I find that I use ChaCha when I’m in a hands-free situation for anything I might have looked up on Google.

And ChaCha is also the ultimate bar/party bet decider, as we found out one night at a ping pong night over at CrowdSPRING. Questions like “how long is the conveyor belt at at Wal-Mart distribution center” or “what’s the largest public building” were handled with ease by the ChaCha guides. -note I mention CrowdSPRING because as a reader of this blog and TalentZoo, they are worth checking out, and most recently presented at DEMO and CNMS08, but I’ll cover them in a future post.

From my usage, these three apps are harbingers of another form of change in how we access and use data. For example, with GOOG-411, why would I pay for a call to 411 or if GOOG-411 isn’t finding my info, why not try ChaCha? And if I can’t or shouldn’t (walking, driving) use my phone’s keyboard, why not let my voice do the work with Jott or ChaCha?

I think these three tools are just the start; there are others as well but it’s the tip of the iceberg in how we now and will access data and information. Call it part convergence or part device specialty–either way, jump in and try them out, because there will be more to come.

Are you in the Tribe

Posted by Chris under Advertising, I wish I'd thought of that, Social Networking, Technology, trends

Call it smart marketing or eating your own dog food but Seth Godin is pushing his new book building community in a pretty interesting new way. First you have to buy pre-order his book then you may be admitted into his”tribe for marketers” after you jump through a few small hoops.

An invitation only, spots are limited, membership has it’s privileges kind of site which I of course could not resist signing up for.

Are you in the tribe?

As a note I got my auto response back, I like that they are using Ning for the community, that’s really eating your own dog food!

note per Seth’s request I took the email down, I’d posted the email response I’d gotten from them. (you’ll see his reply below) Happy to do so!

Free Book: The 6 Laws Of Customer Experience

Posted by Chris under Research, Social Networking, trends

Bruce Temkin’s is a fantastic Forrester Research analyst (he’s actually a Vice President and Principal Analyst) who focuses on customer experience. A few weeks ago he started posting his 6 laws of customer experience and wrote posts for each of his six laws. Today he put them together in a pdf - mini book: “The 6 Laws Of Customer Experience: The Fundamental Truths That Define How Organizations Treat Customers.” And as he says “since it’s not really a novel (only 11 pages), I’m giving it away for free.”

I recommend a read.

Worth it’s Weight in well… awesome

Posted by Chris under Fashion, Mobile, Social Networking, Technology, trends

A big shout out for Oliver Tse, planner/cultural anthropologist/cool hunter at Element 79. His Blog Worth it’s Weight in Awesome or know around the office as WiWiA, is a great collection of as he says “Awesome things happening now”

I’d recommend putting it in your bookmarks.

Look out hitwise

Posted by Chris under Google, Research, Search Engines, trends

Google Trends does a flip. Sure you’ve been able to use Google Trends to see what the world is searching for but not you can also see/get insights on the traffic and geographic visitation patterns of other websites.

Simply enter the address of a website into the search box and Google Trends for Websites will show you a graph reflecting the number of daily unique visitors to that website. For even more data, sign into your Google Account to see a list of regions where visitors originated from, other websites that they have also visited, and terms they have also searched for.

Of interest are searches for Google.com and Yahoo.com in which you note that NO results show for Google. You’ll also note that when I’m logged in I see the #’s in the graph for Yahoo.

Yahoo.com, not logged in and logged in

A search for Google.com ? Come on and share.

It’s just a start but interesting none-the-less. We saw what Google’s done with Google Analytics, so watch this space

For more details please refer to their official Blog post