Enter Droid

The new Motorola Droid smartphone, running Google's Android 2.0 operating system, on the Verizon network hit the market today and by 10 a.m. Pacific time I had placed my order online. According to Verizon, I should have my new phone by November 9.

In his review for the LA Times, Mark Milian calls the new Droid "the best phone on Verizon." Milian praises the technological advances in the Droid, including a 5-megapixel camera with flash, a pleasantly loud speaker, and a touch screen that is not only "gorgeous" but larger than Apple's iPhone with more pixels per inch.

The Droid also has a slide out key pad that remarkably doesn't add any significant thickness to the phone compared to the iPhone.

And the Android Marketplace offers more than 10,000 apps for the Droid.

There are, however, some drawbacks according to Milian.

If you plan to use the Droid to listen to music, watch videos or play games, the iPhone is probably a better option than the Droid for now.

But don't forget, the iPhone uses the AT&T network exclusively, which is generally considered inferior to the coverage offered by Verizon. So if voice, text and Internet access is a priority, then the Droid will give the iPhone a run for the money.

And speaking of money, the Droid comes in at $149 if you can get the instant rebate and have good standing on your Verizon account; much less than a comparable iPhone. There is, however, a rumor that Apple will soon release a $99 3GS iPhone in response to Droid.

Once I get my new Droid and have some time to put it through its paces, I will post a review of my own.

New FTC Rules Aim to Keep Bloggers Honest

New FTC rules on social media content go into effect December 1. For the most part, the new rules are aimed at protecting the consumer from reading a blog, for example, about a product that presents itself as an editorial, when the "blogger" has been paid to promote the product and/or has been given the product for free.

That's a good thing, right? Yes, but it does create a few things every marketer must consider --whether they run a blog and/or promote their products on blogs or other social media sites (such as Twitter).

The main crux behind the new rule is this...when endorsing a product or service (in a blog, tweet, etc.), you must:

1. Disclose when you are being compensated--whether you are being paid for the endorsement and/or have been give free sample of the product (traditionally known as "not-for-resale" copies).

2. Be truthful in your statements, and make sure they can be substantiated.

3. Speak from actual experience -- meaning you can't just regurgitate the sponsor's marketing speak if it isn't an actual experience, opinion, or belief of your own.

And the fine for not doing so? 11,000 big ones, as in dollars.

Really, most legitimate marketers already follow #2 and #3, but they should now be much more diligent in making sure nothing slips through. The biggest change is the disclosure requirement -- so make sure your social media efforts now have these new rules on the operations checklist (whether you are the blogger or the product company promoting through 3rd party blogs). It's the law!

Do Companies Really Want to Hear from Customers?

In a recent post to PR 2.0, guest writer Becky Carroll concludes with this thought:

"One note of caution. Once you begin engaging with your customers in a collaborative way, the relationship changes. You are no longer customer vs. brand; you are working together for something new, something better for the future. As mentioned, this type of interaction creates strong customer advocacy and loyalty, and customers won’t react kindly to a termination of this unwritten contract. Be in it for the long haul."

In addition to being "in it for the haul," i.e., an ongoing, possibly never-ending conversation with customers, companies have something even more important to consider before jumping head first into social-media driven discussions with customers -- are they really willing to listen?

Remember, conversations with customers will not be about the weather conditions at corporate headquarters or how the CEO's daughter did at her soccer game. No, conversations with customers are about real business issues, tough issues. And you know what? Customers want companies to not only hear their input but to act on it as well.

Is your company prepared to make changes to your distribution channels because of customer input? Is your company ready to scrap the new feature that product development has been working on because customers now want another feature instead? Are you ready to lower the price of your product or change the way you package it?

How a company decides what customer input to act on and that input that can be ignored is critical to the customer/brand relationship Carroll speaks of. So a couple of things to consider.

Who in your company is having these conversations with customers? Is it your sales department through customer service channels? Is it marketing? Or is it your outside PR agency? Most likely, many people within your company will be having conversations with customers via social media.

So the next question is this: Are you sure they're all saying the same thing? Does your mid-level marketing person really understand your company's brand essence? Are you confident that the intern at your PR agency is sticking to your company's marketing messages?

That's why before a company decides to embrace social media as a means to communicate directly with customers, it should be able to answer a core set of questions:

Community

• What segments of your customer base are you trying to reach?
• How do they live, work and play?
• What do they expect from you?

Content

• What is the lexicon of different customers?
• What information are customers looking for?
• What formats must you develop to reach them?

Communications

• Where do your target customers look for information?
• What do they respond to?
• What does it take to get them to participate?

And once you answer all of these questions, there's one final question you must ask yourself: Are you willing to do something in response to your customer's input?

AMD Once More the Aggressor

Roughly four years ago, AMD took out full page newspaper ads challenging Intel to a dual-core server duel. Intel declined the offer. CNET, however, decided to hold a shoot-out between the two leading microprocessors to see which chip performed better.

CNET put the chips through a series of seven tests, and the results showed the AMD Athlon a clear winner over the Intel Pentium Dual Core processor.

That’s the good news for AMD. Unfortunately, as of 2008, AMD still held only 13 percent of the microprocessor market compared to Intel’s 80 percent market share. AMD was able, however, to chip (pun intended) away at Intel’s lead.

Now AMD has its sights set on another market leader, this time in the market for graphics chips for PCs – nVidia. With its introduction of the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series of graphics chips, AMD claims it now has the fastest graphics processor ever created, and they’re shipping in PCs today.

It will be interesting to see how nVidia responds. It will also be interesting to see if AMD’s newest entry begins to win it additional share in the graphics chip market. Currently both nVidia (with 29 percent market share) and AMD (18 percent market share) both lag considerably behind market segment leader Intel (which boasts 51 percent market share).

But AMD aims to make it a three-horse race.

Too Old to Change?

I am a product of the Baby Boom -- a member of the generation born in the euphoric decades immediately after World War II. I take pride in my generational badge. We are acknowledged as the generation of change -- not just technological change, but massive, scaleable social change that has impacted race, war and peace, politics, philosophy, education, investment, art, music, fashion, transportation and so many other aspects of our nation's collective DNA. However, I now wonder if our last great social contribution to the world may have been the democratization of information via personal computing and the Internet. Not a bad track record, but having brought that double-edged sword to global prominence and daily addiction, we now seem to be sitting on our hands ready to enjoy the fruits of our past labors but hesitant to embrace what might be the greatest social change agent in the history of man taking place right before our eyes. Rather than jumping in and mixing up, we are starting to sound like our parents did when they heard our music and intuitively understood that crossing the gap from what Frank Sinatra sang about to what Neil Young rebelled against was probably a bridge that was culturally too far to cross.

I'm speaking of social media. Daily, I encounter conversations with affluent, avidly online Boomers astute in technology who rail dismissively against social media. Their description of the value of Twitter, Facebook and other means of enabling global conversation is a consistent scornful drumbeat that often sounds like my parents did when I tried to let my hair grow long. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'd rather be forced to listen to the Carpenters Greatest Hits than read minute-by-minute reports from someone at a conference -- regardless of the subject matter. But to view social media in that narrow window of understanding is akin to interpreting the Internet as only a vehicle for pornography. And yet, that seems to be how my "demographic" looks at it. A recent study by Burst Media found that only 8 percent of Baby Boomers feel social networks are focused on them. Put another way, 92% of the most affluent demographic -- one that makes up more than 25 percent of all U.S. online traffic -- feels disconnected from social media. This includes people who engage in social networking. The chart below shows the key findings of the Burst Media study.

Source: Burst Media

One of the questions this raises is whether we, as a generation, have become disconnected, irrelevant or just curmudgeonly. Clearly something is missing. Either the network providers don't value the generation enough to figure out how to appeal to them (which I consider unlikely given that most social media is based around highly customizable platforms) or the generation doesn't value social media. More likely, we simply don't understand how to engage. As one boomer explained to me, "it feels like jumping on a moving train and it just isn't important enough to me." Thus, a generation known for progressive change has become too tired or too comfortable to participate in a disruptive technology that has played a major role in electing a President, stimulated massive protests to combat tyranny in Iran and serves as a tool to continue building awareness of key ideas and issues around an ever shrinking globe. Boomers can not be disenfranchised from this phenomenon. We need to stop thinking Bee Gees and start thinking John Lennon again.

Social Media Policies

Establishing policies to govern social media is a significant challenge in many organizations on many levels. Nowhere is this more complex than at large, diverse organizations. We have seen this kind of issue often over the years. Yet it is even more complex today. Within minutes of any discussion of social media, complicated debates arise over areas such as security, use of customer information and references, privacy, regulatory issues and the sheer determination of who in the organization manages social conversations for which part of the organization. Those debates are usually accompanied by a fundamental ROI question: how does the company create a meaningful set of metrics to make stakeholders accountable for performance of social media and social application investments.

Sometimes the best starting point is looking at what other organizations have developed. Chris Boudreaux is a consultant who is writing a book on this topic. He has developed a database of examples from more than 80 organizations, ranging from local government to media and large corporations in several different companies. It is one of the more comprehensive lists we've seen. You can order a preview of the book, access his database with links to the actual policies or contribute your own or your client policies at:

http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.

New HP Printer Leaves the PC Behind, Almost

This week HP's new Photosmart Premium TouchSmart Web All-in-One printer (whew, that's a mouth full) becomes available, representing the first printer that can print directly from the web without being tethered to a PC.

But before you send your faithful PC to the recycling center you might want to take a closer look at the new printer. There is no actual browser capability available on the TouchSmart, rather users tap on widgets from about a dozen of HP's partners.

Users will be able to print out movie tickets from Fandango, maps and calendars from Google, coupons from Coupons.com and even select articles from USA Today. Not all capabilities are available immediately on the TouchSmart, however, so users will have to wait until later this month to print tickets from Fandango and even longer to print driving directions from Google Maps.

Still, this is an important step forward in the world of printing. It wasn't that long ago when printers weren't capable of true photo-quality images and all-in-one devices were clunky and slow. Today, we take those capabilities for granted in our printers.

Within a short time, HP and other digital imaging manufacturers will provide printers that enable us to connect, view and print directly from the web. Video on your printer screen is not that far off. These products will not only change the way we print, but will change the way we interact with our computers.

But for now, hang on to your PC.

Asia Social Media Evolution

The social media phenomenon is very much global with populations worldwide using technology to communicate and build communities. Marketers are faced with evolving variances from market to market as audiences gravitate to media channels most effective at providing the content they need and want. The challenge to marketers is determining the best communications channel to reach any particular audience to ensure the message is accessible and in the best context. Nowhere is this more so than Asia, with its vast variety of peoples, languages and cultures and a dynamic social media scene.To provide those interested in Asia a guide to the current state of digital marketing, the Asia Digital Marketing Association offers a free 2009 Yearbook , providing an indispensable resource in understanding the regions emerging social media scene.For marketers trying to grasp the regional differences in the use of digital marketing techniques, the 80-page Yearbook is full of facts and figures such as these summarized by ADMA Chairman, David Ketchum, whose day job is as CEO of leading regional consultancy UpstreamAsia.“Facebook, Twitter, Friendster, Bebo, MySpace and LinkedIn have built large-scale user bases in Asia Pacific but these global players don't dominate in every market. New patterns of usage and local behavior are emerging across the region, with clear distinctions from country to country where consumers spend time online, and how they behave.”China is number one in search, with 12.8 million searches performed in a month by nearly 150,000 searchers - that's 85 searches per searcher. Japan is the second largest search market, with 5.9 million searchers. However, Korea's searchers are most prolific, with 109 searches per searcher, Singapore not far behind with 106. Mobile continues to gain, both as a text messaging and voice call channel, but also for Internet access. Asia Pacific (ex Japan) has 97.6 million mobile online gamers, and 50% of them are in in China. There is 60% mobile phone penetration in the Philippines. Filipinos send the highest number of SMS messages per subscriber in the world. Mobile site page views grew 1120% YOY. 2008 Asia Pacificwide mobile data revenues topped US$65 billion, and an estimated 473 million handsets were sold.”Clearly 2009 presents an opportunity for marketers to explore and create new methods of interacting with their customers globally, along with the challenge of navigating the local dynamics of each individual market. By doing their homework and utilizing these evolving methods, marketers have the opportunity to deliver well thought out messages in ways that resonate most with their customers. The ADMA 2009 Yearbook is a great place to start.

What Really Matters in Business

Sep/21/09 08:50 While the promise of social media continues to create a frenzy, a growing number of industry thought leaders are sorting out the proper place in the marketing food chain for this exciting new form of communications. There is no doubt social media represents new and varied opportunities for brands to engage their customers. Those among us with a bit of gray in our hair recall that it isn’t the media itself that makes the story. Our friend Ted Simon posits that this discussion is too tactical in nature as media, social or traditional, are merely channels, and that the real discussion and value is in defining the message or story and ensuring it drives business objectives. Communications is best when it tells a story and that story reflects a brand’s true attributes and supports its business objectives as opposed to frivolous, ad hoc messages haphazardly distributed with the hope that they reach a friendly ear. The executive suite still assesses business not by the number of followers the company has, but by valuation, sales, revenue and operating income. It is crucial that communications support these metrics. Measuring by followers, media clips, impressions and press releases falls far short since they are all calculations of activity not bottom line impact. It is important to take an agnostic approach to media, evaluating the merits of all media channels and tools based on their ability to deliver the right message to the right audiences in the right context to achieve business goals. Social and traditional media intersect and interact, each contributing to the other. Marketers are wise to recognize this interdependence and embrace both, evaluating the efficacy of specific channels of communication as it relates to the business needs of the brand.

Will New XBox Increase Twitter Use?

According to a recent Harvard Business School study, more than half of all Twitter users "tweet" only once every 74 days. That suggests that the social networking site might not yet be ready for prime time as a reliable medium to reach consumers on a regular basis. Maybe that will change when Microsoft's new XBox Live Service, which integrates a Twitter interface, becomes available later this year.

Tweets will be staggered on screen and users will be able to start a new tweet by pushing the X button on the XBox 360 game controller. The hope is that with access to Twitter on the XBox, the number number of tweets per user will increase significantly. If that happens, then maybe Twitter will become a more effective marketing tool for companies trying to reach consumers via social media.