The MoPR Blog

#Vanish

“I’m driving East out of San Francisco on I-80, fleeing my life under the cover of dusk. Having come to the interstate by a circuitous route, full of quick turns and double backs, I’m reasonably sure that no one is following me.” So begins “Wired” magazine’s fascinating article, “Writer Evan Ratliff Tried to Vanish: Here’s What Happened,” an article by writer Evan Ratliff.

Ratliff details how difficult it is for a person to disappear off the grid, as he tried to do for a “Wired” magazine experiment/contest in which readers were offered a $5000 bounty to find the writer during a month long period in which he worked very hard not to be found. How hard is it for a person to completely disappear during the age of social communication, picture phones and GPS? Find out in this very compelling article which reads more like a classic whodunit than a technology exposé.

http://www.wired.com/vanish/2009/11/ff_vanish2/

For extra detail, read the now defunct Twitter stream from the account Ratliff created during this adventure: http://twitter.com/evan_ratliff.

Beware Social Media Snake Oil

As you are probably aware, BusinessWeek has become part of the Bloomberg family, leading to many changes to their newsroom. We at MoPR were sad to learn that one of our favorite tech writers, Stephen Baker, was leaving. His last story was filed today, separating the hype from the potential among the onslaught of new social media tools, trends and advice. Per his M.O., Baker, gives us an insightful examinations of the facts, mini case studies and even a good measure of intrigue. Baker cites an exchange between a “little-known” social media player and one of its “towering chieftains,” Chris Brogan. Brogan is quoted saying of social media marketing and the ability to measure its results, “Is it an exacting marketing science? Not at all.” To what, exactly, was Brogan referring? You’ll have to read the article to find out.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_50/b4159048693735.htm

A Painful Social Media Foray for Seattle Journalists

It was stunning news here in the Pacific Northwest: four police officers murdered in a Tacoma, Wash.-area coffee shop. When news this big breaks, local media rush to cover it. Who would have thought that a tragic event such as this could form the foundation for an excellent case study in the use of social media. “TechNewsWorld” writer Renay San Miguel walks us through the role social media played in getting up-to-the-minute and accurate news out to the public.

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/68805.html

In Case You Missed It: Black Friday

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the name given to the first “official” in-store shopping day of the Holiday season. Black Friday, unlike other “Black” days, does not signify a crash or some terrible cataclism. Probably named by retail salespeople who must work extra early, extra late and extra hard, Black Friday is the day when hoards of people rush into stores to take advantage of seasonal offers, sales and specials. But as Jonathan Spalter (of Mobile Future) writes in “The Huffington Post,” Black Friday was also a mobile milestone.

As Spalter notes, shoppers armed with smartphones (and some phones that are not so smart) were searching, paying and even receiving coupons. PayPal noted mobile online payments surged 650 percent, and mobile searches grew to 200,000 this year from 5,000 on the same day in 2008. Is Spalter correct, will 2009 be regarded the “tipping point for the mobile web”? Read his article and see if you agree.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-spalter/black-fridays-mobile-mile_b_377309.html

As always, we invite you to share your comments.

Another blow against email. The use of online social networking, text messaging and cell phones is diminishing the effectiveness of email marketing, especially among consumers who say promotional messages inspire their purchases, according to a report from JupiterResearch.

More than one-fifth (22 percent) of email users said they use social networking sites instead of email, with higher numbers indicating they have used instant messaging (IM), text messaging, and cell phones instead of email, Jupiter said.

“People receive such a high volume of email that they are unable to pay attention to every message. It is so important for marketers to be relevant and succinct when they send messages to consumers’ inboxes,” says David Daniels, VP, research director and lead analyst of the report for JupiterResearch.

When was the last time you made a purchasing decision based on an email you received?

Beyond the clip: Another case for mobile coupons. According to Mobile Marketer magazine, Visa and Chase are partnering to test the viability of mobile coupons. According to the piece, Chase cardholders will get special discounts based on personal interests – and have the ad message delivered via SMS, redeemable at point of sale.

This strategy jibes with a recent report from ABI Research that claims that while most consumers’ initial reactions to marketing and advertising messages on their mobile phone can often be negative, their level of responsiveness can be improved through incentives.

In fact, approximately 37 percent of those who have received text message-based advertising have indicated they are more likely to respond to advertising in a text-based marketing message if they are offered an incentive such as a retail coupon or free song or ringtone, compared with only 11 percent who indicated that such incentives would not have any impact.

Incentives that received the most positive response were real-world discounts and coupons for retail storefronts. Over 60 percent of those who were either neutral or open to potential text message marketing nominated a discount coupon at a local retailer as the incentive they would most likely respond to. The next most popular incentives were free ringtones and songs.

Are you readdddy for some foooo….text messaging? Did we mention that we’re huge fans of the National Football League and religiously watch Monday Night Football? Add text messaging to the mix and you’ve got an interesting plan from the Baltimore Ravens to control rowdy behavior. According to the Baltimore Business Journal, the Baltimore Ravens will be employing Houston-based Qtags’ GuestAssist to alert security about potential problems in the stands, via text messaging on their phones. Fans will get a text message code via stadium signage and public service announcements during the game to use if they have a problem. According to the article, stadium security can then “dispatch security, medical or guest services staff to the appropriate location of the stadium where fans have concerns.”  We have an important message for stadium security: “Pls snd beer and 2 dogs, row 15, aisle 10.”

An apple a day. According to BusinessWeek’s Olga Kharif, Abilene Christian University is giving away Apple’s iPhone 3G to two-thirds of this year’s entering class of 950 freshmen. The article says that students will be “expected to use the devices to brainstorm ideas and get virtual handouts and podcasts during class. Instructors will use them for such tasks as monitoring attendance.”

Google looks over shoulder after Nokia Symbian buyout. Big news this week with Nokia taking control of Symbian. Nokia is riding on the hopes of increasing the sales of mobile phones while boosting revenues from its wireless web services.  According to InfoWorld Daily’s Tom Sullivan, the move could damper Google’s Android. Still wondering what this means to the industry? Read “Seven things you need to know about Nokia-Symbian deal.”

If you think your broadband is slow, you’re probably right. Enter InternetforEveryone.org led by the FCC [?!] that wants universal access to high-speed, broadband Internet throughout the US. Thirty-five percent of homes with less than $50,000 in annual income have a high-speed Internet connection in the U.S. Moreover, nearly 20 million Americans live in areas that are not served by a single broadband provider; tens of millions more live in places where there is just a single choice for high-speed Internet service.

We’re in Awe: 15-Year-Old Girl Sends 15,000 Text Messages A Month. According to WEWS in Cleveland, a 15-year-old Ohio girl discovered her true talent recently – the ability to crank out 15,000 text messages in a month and keep an 3.0 GPA- all under a 9:00 p.m. curfew. According to WEWS, she didn’t realize how many text messages she sent every month until she went to the cell phone store to get her phone fixed.

“I just don’t look. I guess I had the phone a long time and I just know where the buttons are and I just hit them,” said the speed texter.

Mobile coupons finally a reality? According to MediaPost, Yahoo! is teaming with Coupons Inc. to offer mobile coupons through its Yahoo! Mobile service. The initiative would “create a national platform for large brand advertisers to distribute mobile coupons, which so far have mostly been tested only in local markets or niche categories.”

Mobile coupons, says the article, will rely on solely electronic means, such as a secure bar code system allowing shoppers to swipe mobile devices at the point of sale to get discounts or special offers.
Distribution of the coupons would involve different methods, such as e-mail, banner ads, SMS text-messaging and apps on Yahoo!’s mobile portal.

McMobile McMarketing. The Mobile Marketing Association newsletter landed in our mailbox this week. A mix of industry news, trends and upcoming events, the newsletter is always an informative read. Our favorite section is successful case studies of mobile marketing in action, such as a recent story on McDonalds and its use of SMS in Germany.

Via the SMS Lounge, McDonald’s invited customers to text their information which then registered them at their local McDonald’s. In the following months, users received a mobile voucher directly from the restaurant onto their phone every two weeks. The coupons – embedded in code – could be redeemed by scanning them at the restaurant.

Since its launch in July 2007, more than 10,000 participants have used SMS service. This first of its kind mobile couponing pilot achieved response rates up to 29% throughout Germany according to the MMA. Using SMS and mobile technologies to extend and build your brand is something we can get behind!

Wind Charged Cell Phones. Folks toting mobile phones to this year’s Glastonbury Festival 2008 in the UK later this week will have a free and green way to recharge their phones thanks to a charging station being set up at the festival by Orange. Measuring more than 7 meters tall, the free-standing recharge pod is a self-sufficient unit that taps into a wind generator and solar panels to charge as many as 100 mobile phones per hour. It’s actually the next iteration of a portable wind charger Orange tested out at last year’s festival through a partnership with Gotwind and will serve as a trial for using renewable energy sources on a larger scale at future festivals. Orange expects the recharge pod will charge thousands of mobile phones over the course of the three-day festival. [See Grace's post for more on Gotwind.]