Marketing Pilgrim Published: “Those Crazy Kids and Their Mobile Devices” plus 3 more |  |
- Those Crazy Kids and Their Mobile Devices
- Bing’s Search for Market Share
- Mall of America Runs a Twitter “Parking?” Party
- Too Much Talk Leads to a Few Less Followers
| Those Crazy Kids and Their Mobile Devices Posted: 16 Dec 2010 06:02 AM PST Nielsen has just finished a study that looks at the youth of the world and their relationships with their cellphones and smartphones. It makes for interesting reading for sure and it is a way to measure just how cultural differences will shape how the mobile world shapes up moving forward. First, here is the scoop on who chooses the devices for the younger crowd. Most pick the device themselves.
I find the grouping of people aged 15-24 pretty interesting. Would be much more interesting if the segments were 15-18 (still at home presumably), 18-21 (college years or starting to work presumably) and 22-24 (out of college and starting to be completely independent presumably). As for the drivers for what to purchase? It varies by country but not surprisingly, price always plays some role.
Lastly, is the role that gender has in the US with regard to having a smartphone.
Looks like the ladies in the US are flexing their financial and social muscles since it is the only place where the balance of smartphone power favors females. Overall, no real surprises when it comes to the youth of the world and their cellphones. All one has to do is walk down Main Street in any town in any country and see just how pervasive these devices are among younger users. My question is "What exactly are they doing on the phones?". That question comes as both a marketer and a parent with each role having an entirely different set of standards. The issues facing marketers due to the technological capabilities of their audience are going to be much harder to address than it was for the advent of radio and television. There it was everyone using the same device but watching different things. Here there will be some who can use a device while others will never touch it. As a result marketing efforts have to be as diverse as the technology that exists which drives up marketing costs and can create difficulties. As a marketer what does the extensive use of mobile devices mean for your business today? As this group gets older and the generations that follow will likely be even more savvy, at what point do your efforts become more skewed toward this up and coming crowd vs. the massive groups that are older, probably less technologically sophisticated and going to be around for a while? Where will your marketing dollars go as the Internet Age moves forward at ever increasing speed?
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| Bing’s Search for Market Share Posted: 16 Dec 2010 04:05 AM PST
To summarize, Bing made changes in virtually all aspects of its search experience ranging from further integration of Facebook (which is leading to these social signals getting play in the algorithmic determination of relevance of results at some point), changes to how maps are presented, the ability to make reservations from inside Bing via OpenTable, more details about events and venues, mobile improvements and more. The list is long and from a sheer volume standpoint it is very impressive. There has been quite a bit of coverage of the details and I will let the good folks at Search Engine Land, eWeek, TechCrunch and MediaPost give you that rundown. SO WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? As I always do, I like to look at these changes less from a technical wizardry point of view and more from a practical "So what?" point of view. Honestly, this one creates some real mixed reactions. The Good First, on the plus side. I think it is real good that Microsoft is taking a run at Google. Google needs it and the rest of the world needs it as well. Giving Google the search crown all of these years has not been the best for Google because the only competitive push they seem to get is from the inside and that's not always positive. It's also good for Bing (BTW – Is it supposed to be capitalized? If so why is your freakin' logo in lower case?!) to do these things with little or no mention of the Yahoo deal. While Bing powers Yahoo search it needs to keep its distance from that train wreck because, well, it seems to be just a mess. The Rest Now for the flip side. While Bing is flexing its muscles, it is trying to do it in 'bodybuilder on steroids' kind of way. They are trying to do so much and look so cool that in the end it's unclear whether the general public notices or cares. Bodybuilders are freaks, They are not the norm. Why act like a freak when everyone deals in normal for about 99.9 percent of their day? We know the tech community cares but I like to remind people that the VAST majority of people who use search engines A. Don't have a clue about the depth of the services they offer (be it Bing, Google or any other engine) Having said all of this I'm glad to hear that at least one person in the tech press is thinking along these same lines. It's not because I need company. No it’s because we all need to cool our gadget crazed jets and look at the basics here. I'll give you an example that will make the SEO crowd chuckle but, as I pointed out earlier, no one else because the average person would just scratch their head and grunt, "Huh?". This example goes to the notion of basics and how Bing is getting so far ahead of itself that they aren't even minding their own shop well (let’s call it the cobbler's kids shoes effect). On the Microsoft blog post announcing all of these whiz bang thingys the title tag reads (as of 6:30 AM EST on December 16, 2010)
Bing Bing? Yup, Bing Bing. It's obviously something that comes from a templated approach to a basic SEO / search principle in understanding what a web page is about. I actually think this title tag is a microcosm of the problem that Bing has. It is saying and doing so much but not saying or doing anything as a result. It’s ignoring the basics (get people to use the regular search engine!) and going right to the trickery. So while I would love to see Bing truly give Google run for their money, and Lord knows they advertise enough to try to get that to happen (just play the ad drenched free Android version of Angry Birds to see what I mean!), they are playing the wrong game. They are trying to 'out-Google' Google on what they think is a level playing field. Meanwhile, when it comes to the end of the day and the search market share results come in, it still looks like an average high school football team playing the New England Patriots and thinking they have a chance because they have the most technologically advanced helmets and coolest uniforms. It doesn't matter what happens in a situation like that to cover up the inequalities. When they play the game someone on the other team will get hurt real bad. The Patriots could win a game like that without even wearing helmets just like Google can win this game even with all the mistakes it is making as of late. To sum up this semi-rant, I just want to say to the folks at Bing that I desperately want you to succeed. Success, however, is not in courting the young tech crowd only. Sure, they are the future and they will do these things like second nature for their lives (which I doubt in all honesty but that's for another post) but to survive and compete today you need to do the basics right and stop trying to impress the smallest market segment at the expense of winning over the bigger ones. Doing more technologically advanced stuff is real nice but it's just window dressing. If you want to win you may actually have to do less rather than more. Your thoughts?
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| Mall of America Runs a Twitter “Parking?” Party Posted: 15 Dec 2010 06:14 PM PST
Everyone knows the horror of holiday parking at the local mall, but imagine the nightmare at the biggest mall in the US! It’s enough to make even the jolliest person turn into the Grinch. So this year, for the first time ever, Mall of America will be rewarding their loyal Twitter followers with a VIP ticket to the best parking around. The event is being run through EventBrite where batches of tickets are being released twice a day for a total of 96 spaces. To claim a ticket, a person must follow the mall on Twitter and provide their Twitter name. There are also very specific times for arrival and a print out of the registration is required. Said David Haselman, executive vice president of operations at Mall of America.
The Mall of America is also offering a $25 gift card to the first five people who check-in per day on Foursquare between Dec. 20 through Dec. 23. And on Facebook Places, the Mall of America Youth Foundation will donate $1 each, up to $500 per organization, to VEAP and One Heartland now through Dec. 24. This idea is a great example of how you can use online in order to increase off line sales. It’s all about offering something of value and at this time of year, there’s nothing more valuable than a no-hassle parking spot at the mall. Want to claim your spot? Follow the #bspp hashtag @MallofAmerica.
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| Too Much Talk Leads to a Few Less Followers Posted: 15 Dec 2010 04:25 PM PST
The majority of the people (44%) said they unfollow because they’re overwhelmed by too many updates. Along a similar line, 36.79% said they unfollow if the postings don’t add any value to their day. Good information, if only we knew how to quantify it. For example, how many updates is “too many?” Certainly a Tweet an hour qualifies, but what about twice a day? I suspect that the ratio of allowable updates is directly proportionate to the value. If you want to offer me three different coupons in one day, then you’re not over Tweeting. Same if your posts are funny or informative. Where things get tricky is in the use of random posts. We’ve seen evidence that random works, particularly on Facebook. But does that mean that six random questions a day is better than one? I doubt it. Let’s look at a couple of more stats from the poll. Less than 10% of the people polled said they would unfollow someone who only talked about himself or acted irresponsibly. 5% packed their bags if the business wasn’t open to feedback and a measly 3.30% said they’d leave if there was no activity for weeks at a time. Clearly, under-communicating isn’t an issue. What I wonder about is the psychology of “unfollowing.” Think about it. Clicking to disengage yourself from another person is an overt act, much more than following. It implies that you’re unhappy with the other person and most of us aren’t in to negative feedback. Given that, I’d say that for every unhappy person who actually clicks “unfollow” there are probably a dozen more who are sticking around to be polite. (Yes, there are manners in social media.) This means that you should be aware of your unfollows. Don’t just look at the number of people who joined up this week. Look at how many left. If a large number left in the same day, you can probably track it back to a particular spate of activity. Too much? Too random? Did you insult someone by accident? Is this a lot more thought than you wanted to put in to your social media accounts? If so, stop Tweeting. Don’t waste your time tossing seeds into the wind. Social media marketing needs to be taken as seriously as any other aspect of your business because it has the power to bring you new customers but it also has the power to send them running to your competition, instead. How many people unfollowed you this week?
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