Remember all that hype around the iPhone 4? Biggest product launch ever, Apple and AT&T websites being crushed by demand, long lines at the store? Well, in the world of social media, a similar thing happened last week- the launch of FlipBoard, the “world’s first social magazine”.
The hype has died down a bit, and I’ve had a chance to download this application and play with it. Here is a review, followed by a quick video.
The Basics
Flipboard is a new, free app available exclusively on the iPad (for now). The Flipboard app essentially turns your time on facebook or twitter into a dynamic and visually stunning experience. The application turns all of those tweets, updates, photos and links from your social circle into an intuitive, easy-to-read format. Flipboard also has “channels” for lots of other content, like technology, tech influencers, food, sports, etc. These channels, like the Facebook and Twitter channels are vetted and shared by chosen “experts” and influencers in the space. If you’re confused, don’t worry, that’s what the video is for. Take a look.
(Before we evaluate Flipboard, it should be noted that Flipboard doesn’t seem like a one hit wonder. Take a quick look at their investors, and they are a legitimate offering. The co-founders of Facebook, Twitter, Ashton Kutcher and Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. Pretty impressive bunch.)
The Pros
- Intuitive and very easy to use. It is the perfect app for consuming media. It fits right into the Ipad’s goal of being the “couch technology”. Something to do in your leisure time (if you have any left). On the couch, waiting to board a plane, at doctor’s office, before you go to bed, etc. I think it’s ideal for those 15-30 minute stretches of time between activities.
- Personalized for you. As mentioned before, it’s an experience for YOU. Its’ your social sphere and all of it’s related content delivered directly to you- when and where you want it.
- Advertising opportunities for “visual” brands. If you are Hermes, the Gap, a luxury safari company, or a gourmet food company, it’s hard to tell your story in 140 characters, blog posts or status updates. You need a visually stunning way to present your brand, and here is a perfect opportunity to do that. With the format of Flipboard, it allows big space for imagery (advertisements!) to tell a company story.
The Cons
I’ll call this “opportunities for improvement” :-)
- Content needs to be fresher. It seems as if Flipboard only refreshes your Facebook/Twitter feed once or twice a day. According to their Twitter stream- they’re working on this
- Why isn’t Linkedin involved? They should be. Maybe because of the investors? ;-)
- Is this legal? For the other “sections” Flipboard essentially scrapes the web for good content. If you are reading a NYTimes article on Flipboard and click on an a Flipboard-sponsored ad, why should Flipboard get the money? Its not their content to begin with, right?. For more on this read Joel Johnson’s excellent article.
- Other Sections need some work. When you first set up Flipboard, you can add 7 other “sections” of content. Food, NYT, TED, sports. etc. For now, avoid the Flipboard-branded channels.
For example, the sports channel I chose kept feeding me stories about tennis. Not that I don’t like tennis, but 7 tennis stories in a row, and I was immediately turned off.
- Limited interaction possibilities. It must be pointed out again that this application is for consumption, not interaction. If you want to add a new tweet, make a status update on facebook, you can’t.
What’s Next?
I think this is a watershed moment for publishers, and they should take note. Flipboard makes consuming media personal and tailored to you, which is the holy grail of publishing. If you could wake up every morning and go to ONE place for all of your personal and professional content, wouldn’t you? This is like what iGoogle and MyYahoo was ten years ago, only much much better. It’s new content delivered to you that’s always fresh, delivered in a refreshing, “consumable” way, and now, it’s mobile.
What do you think? Is this Flipboard thing here to stay?
2010 is the year of geo-location, and now the name “foursquare” (the business leader in this space) is creeping across the desks of CMO’s and marketing types around the world. They’re now asking themselves the question, “Should my business be on foursquare?”
Well, maybe. So read on..
Argument for foursquare
- 1.8 million users to date, one of the fastest growing social media technologies out there
- Big brands are doing it, (Starbucks, NYTimes, Zagat, CNN, WSJ) we should follow along.
- We’re a retail establishment. We have a local presence in XYZ city and should engage with customers
Argument against foursquare
- We’re NOT a retail establishment (duh)
- It’s just another flashy social media play, we don’t have time for yet another social media thing
- How do we know it’s worth it? Are people actually “checking in” to (insert name of your business here)?
We could spend days debating the pros and cons here, so let’s not debate. Let’s educate ourselves and try and answer the last two points above. To help, I’ve just tried out Awareness’, “foursquare Perspectives” a brand new tool that helps enterprise marketers:
a. take inventory of their existing (customer-generated) presence on foursquare
b: deliver comprehensive reports to uncover trends across multiple foursquare venues.
Testing out foursquare Perspectives
So, let’s pretend that I’m a marketing person at Massachusetts General Hospital here in Boston. I chose MGH because, well, they aren’t necessarily a “retail” establishment per se, but they do have a physical presence, and actually, multiple locations, right? I tested it out by doing a quick search here for Massachusetts General Hospital. Here are some screen shots of what came up.
Quick Reactions:
Well, if I’m a marketing person at MGH, I have just learned the following things…
-There are three MGH “campuses” that my customers are checking in to on foursquare. Should I, as an administrator/marketer set up other official MGH sites for the many campuses/offices I have?
-The main campus is the most popular one by far, I should focus all of my effort on marketing there…
-Looks like my “customers” -patients, employees and volunteers, are checking in pretty regularly (repeats ratio of 3.6) how could/should I engage them?
-I have roughly 300 customers that I can engage with using foursquare. What should I/could I do. (interesting conundrum here…as a hospital, do you want regular “customers” – i.e. patients checking in often??!)
Next Steps for You as a Marketer
- By using this tool, you’ve just tapped into the magic of foursquare and been given a quick, visible snapshot of the value of foursquare to share with your team. Maybe you’ll act on it right away, or maybe you’ll wait and see, but at least you have a snapshot in time for where your company stands
- Spend some more time on foursquare. See if you can identify, interact with, or somehow connect with your “mayor”. What works, what doesn’t?
- Take a look at Awareness’s new Social Marketing Hub. This answers your question of the “I don’t have time to do all of this social media work” If you’re convinced of the power of social media, and want to be publish, manage, measure and engage with your customers across all the major social platforms, maybe this is for you?
We’ve all been there. That Trade Show, team meeting or company meeting where someone drones on giving another boring powerpoint presentation.
Well, thankfully at last week’s Social Media Breakfast #18 (hosted by Bob Collins and Communispace- thank you!) we were treated to three clever presentations by Robert Davis of PJA, Pawan Deshpande of HiveFire, Inc. and Andrew Davis of Tippingpoint Labs.
My favorite presentation was by Andrew Davis. He took a subject as simple, likeable, and “relate-able” like meatloaf (?!) and gave us a crash course in “Content Creation in the New Age of Search and Engagement”.
Don’t take my word for it- take a look at his presentation below (click on arrow) and tell us what you think. If you want to bring it to life, click on the a quick one-minute video (he gets the crowd roaring at around 20 seconds) to get a feel for it…
Food for Thought
So, while we’re talking about meatloaf or “Meat Loaf”, here’s what I’m taking away from his presentation…
- Don’t just use Powerpoint. His presentation was put together by Prezi, a new platform I’ll probably use for my next talk at the Apple Store. It’s interactive, fun, and is designed in a way to give the audience context and a framework for whatever subject you’re talking about. Think about it, without even being in the room, you get a pretty good feel about what he said and how he said it.
- Poke fun at yourself. If you can’t laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at? You’ll notice the Jim Henson/Muppets reference early in the presentation. He does a terrific Grover impression which loosened up the audience. (NOTE: if you’re not good at impressions, don’t even thinking about trying to pull off what he did)
- Tell a story. This is the cardinal rule of giving presentations, but many people STILL forget to do this. Choose a topic or concept (who can’t relate to meatloaf?!) that your audience understands
Any other thoughts? how do YOU Jazz up your Presentation?
