Will the Nokia and Microsoft Mobile Alliance Move the Needle for Windows Phone?and Marketing Pilgrim Published: “Cup of Joe: How To Pick Up Chicks” plus 3 more

Cup of Joe: How To Pick Up Chicks Posted: 11 Feb 2011 09:05 PM PST Don’t tell Andy and Frank, but my secret goal with this weekly column is to meet cute girls on the internet. OK, maybe not really. But, I do want to talk about successful ways to pick up chicks. So, I know what you are thinking, pick up chicks? What the heck does that have to do with marketing? Whether you like it or not, breaking the ice with that special someone is a talent that every marketer needs to have, especially, in social media. Take for example high level influencers that can spread your message across the web with one tweet. Getting on their good side is key to successful engagement. So to get you ready for Valentine’s Day, and your next social media marketing campaign, here are a few solid tips to engaging that special someone. Don’t be captain obvious. When I want to start a conversation with a cute girl, or a high level blogger, I stay away from making obvious statements. For example I am not going to say, “Hey I see you like coffee, so do I!” Why is this a complete fail? Because all this tells the other person is that you aren’t blind. In social media I see this all the time. Folks will go to a blogger’s “About Page” read the first few lines and then regurgitate it verbatim in a tweet. That’s not engagement, that’s copy and paste. Stick to what you know. One of the best places to meet that special someone is in a book store. Book stores are great because they are organized by topic, which means you can scope out the areas that you are interested in or know a lot about. Take for example, I see a cute girl in the “gardening” section and I see another one looking through the “tech” magazines. Can you guess which I am going to approach? Yeah I am going to be talking up the techy about AJAX and AI, because that’s what I know about. It seems like every day I see some clown talking in social media about something that have no idea about. If you are trying to engage with high level influencers and you clearly have no idea what you are saying, then you are wasting your time. Don’t pick fights. So hopefully this sounds obvious to most of you. But some just don’t get it. Maybe it’s low self esteem, or just a complete lack of confidence. But I regularly see folks be abrasive and confrontational with people they are either attracted to or want to engage. Maybe, it has something to do with never maturing past middle school, but the bottom line is, it doesn’t work. Picking fights is counterproductive and childish. And, while you maybe “engaging” the furthest you are going to get is a cocktail thrown in your face or being blocked on Twitter. Trust me, I have seen both. Be yourself. You know that cute girl or guy that works at your local coffee shop? Did you know that they have something in common with social media influencers? That’s right, they can both smell a rat. They both have heard all the same lines, and they know all the tricks. Which means if you want to successfully engage them you are going to need to be original. And the best way to be original, is to be yourself. Because let;s face it, there isn’t anyone else out there like you. You are unique and being authentic is the best way to show that. Now, that girl at the coffee shop might not be impressed with your uniqueness when you explain why the Ewoks ruined Return of the Jedi (don’t get me started), but she will respect you more for being yourself. Which means that you are more likely welcome to come back and try again another time. So there you have it! Get out there and start engaging with that special someone. Whether you are looking for someone to spend Valentine’s Day with or for a retweet of your client’s site, the tips above should help you no matter what. [photo credit] Cup of Joe: How To Pick Up Chicks More Men Than Women Use Location-Based Services Facebook Pages Upgrade is a Boon for Marketers Will the Nokia and Microsoft Mobile Alliance Move the Needle for Windows Phone?

More Men Than Women Use Location-Based Services Posted: 11 Feb 2011 05:31 PM PST In a short period of time, location-based applications have become common place to the point where most of us don’t even think about it when a search engine suggests a store in your neighborhood when all you typed was pizza. Location sharing sites such as Foursquare and Gowalla, however, still make some of us think twice. Some of us being, those who have been known to wear a skirt. According to a study reported on by eMarketer, 77% of women said that when it came to using location-based services, they were concerned about stalking. Surprisingly 60% of the men shared their fear but it didn’t stop them being the most active location-based service users. As you can see from the chart, 70% of the men 18-34 use a location-based service compared to 64% of the women. But could the difference in the usage be something more than privacy concerns? According to a survey by Telenav, more men than women have used a GPS while driving. (Though oddly, only 9% of men said they had no confidence in their own sense of direction.) This suggests to me, that women simply aren’t as quick to jump on new technology as their male counterparts. One thing the survey did make clear is that people still have privacy concerns and there’s no easy answer to that. When a service asks us to send our current address out into the world over invisible airwaves, how can we not worry about how that information will be used and by whom. There’s no question that personalization based on location is a helpful tool for both the consumers and marketers. But location-sharing services offer little more than entertainment, a chance to one-up your friends and maybe grab a coupon. Pew’s study from this past November says that only 4% of Americans use location-sharing programs. Will we ever get to the point where the majority of mobile users share their location on a daily basis? I doubt it. The risk to reward ratio just seems to great for everyone involved.

Facebook Pages Upgrade is a Boon for Marketers Posted: 11 Feb 2011 01:07 PM PST Facebook is making a big push over the next few weeks to get all fan pages over to their new layout. You can choose to do it now or wait for it to be forced upon you in March, but don’t wait. This upgrade is huge for marketers. Here’s why. Many businesses have Facebook Fan Pages which is great if you have lots of followers coming to you. But when you went outside of your page and left comments on others, those comments linked up to your profile not your page. Until now. The new page update has a very powerful toggle in the right sidebar that allows you to surf Facebook as your personal profile or as your page.  That means that, like blog commenting, you can now leave comments all over Facebook that lead back to your business (page) instead of back to you. Conversely, you can switch from page persona to personal and respond to comments on your page as yourself and not as the admin. That means you can put a human face on a business which is always a good thing. This is also helpful if you have multiple people monitoring a page as it allows each one to comment personally instead of having it all lumped under one icon as it was before. Other components of the upgrade include the removal of tabs. Now the navigation is in the left sidebar where you expect it to be and the overall design is more modern. The one downside to the upgrade is the line of photos that now take up the top of a page. While photos may be the bread and butter of a personal profile, they’re less important on business pages but you’re stuck with them (or does someone know a way to turn them off.) They do give the pages a more colorful, dynamic look, but they pull from the wall posts as well as the photo albums so careful moderation is in order. Individual photos can be removed by clicking the x when you roll over them. Overall, this is an excellent update for marketers and long over due. The ability to be able to move around Facebook with your page as your persona is big for everyone but especially for those who handle a variety of pages on behalf of clients. One word of warning. Make sure you pay attention to which logon you’re using (personal or page) before you post to avoid any embarrassing mix-ups. Have you converted? What do you think of the new Facebook page upgrade?

Will the Nokia and Microsoft Mobile Alliance Move the Needle for Windows Phone? Posted: 11 Feb 2011 09:40 AM PST The mobile space has taken on a slightly different look today as the result of the announcement that Nokia and Microsoft are going to work together in the mobile space. The talk had been that Nokia was speaking with Microsoft and Google about strategies that could halt the free fall that Nokia was seeing happen to their market share and the reputation of the mobile phone market leader. Many thought that Nokia would be smart to play both sides of the fence and strike deals to produce smart phones for both operating systems. Apparently, they decided that the Microsoft side of the fence was just fine. Now the analysis of this decision begins. On the surface, I think this looks like a bad move for Nokia because rather than jump on the Android bandwagon that has all the momentum it has decided to hitch its wagon to a platform, Windows Phone, that is yet to be a blip on the competitive radar to Apple and Android devices. That was until I read the following paragraph from the Wall Street Journal that says more about this decision than anything else. It's about Nokia's CEO, Stephen Elop. Mr. Elop, a Canadian recruited from Microsoft last autumn, in an internal memo earlier this week compared Nokia to a man standing on a burning oil platform who jumps into icy waters to escape the flames. The memo called for dramatic action to turn the company around. OK, now I get it. This whole decision may be based more on the familiarity (however that is defined in this case) of the leadership of each player rather than any real facts about the mobile market place. If it were about jumping into the fray and competing with a leader then going with Android would have been the obvious choice. Now, you have an interesting marriage of two companies that are coming at this from the position of near desperation rather than strength. Nokia has fallen behind and simply fallen from grace. In the US they are a non-issue today. Do you know anyone with a Nokia smartphone? Could you even name one? Motorola has its Droids, HTC has the Evo and the Incredible, Apple has the iPhone. What does Nokia have? You take that current lack of strength and combine that Microsoft's Windows Phone platform. Reviews by many have been quite positive but it has not translated into market share. Heck, even the name Windows Phone is antiquated. Being a phone is less the focus of the latest devices. It's about computing power and Internet accessibility. Making a phone call is just a standard feature that everyone just assumes. These newest devices are less phones and more small computers that you can talk through. Now these two mobile underdogs have a new alliance and with it some bravado that, quite honestly, sounds hokey coming from the likes of Microsoft who just has not been able to translate its desktop success to the Internet be it mobile or not. Here is a quote from the open letter crafted to announce this deal which is from the Nokia blog Today, the battle is moving from one of mobile devices to one of mobile ecosystems, and our strengths here are complementary. Ecosystems thrive when they reach scale, when they are fueled by energy and innovation and when they provide benefits and value to each person or company who participates. This is what we are creating; this is our vision; this is the work we are driving from this day forward. There are other mobile ecosystems. We will disrupt them. There will be challenges. We will overcome them. Success requires speed. We will be swift. Together, we see the opportunity, and we have the will, the resources and the drive to succeed. It would be great if that were going to happen but there is little evidence that Microsoft can disrupt a space like this and do it swiftly. You can't change a leopard's spots or a zebra's stripes even if there is a lot of cash available to make it work. If you look at the history between the leadership of these two companies this looks like more of an arranged marriage vs. one that is built on what is best for both parties. Of course, as with everything time will tell but it's hard to see beyond where these two big companies stand in a space that isn't as wide open as it might have been before the success of Android. Couple that with the fact that Google would love to see Microsoft fall flat on its face with this one and I don't see this ending well for Microsoft or Nokia. What about you?