The Tale of Apple's Next iPhone
We've taken a close look at Apple's next iPhone and it's been quite a ride. Here's all you need to know:
How Apple Lost and Got The iPhone Back
- How Apple lost the next iPhone
- How Apple missed chances to get the device back
- How Apple asked to get their phone back
The Hardware of the iPhone 4
Conspiracy Theories and an Investigation
What a story… - this will write PR history, thanks GIZMODO !
Presseinformation
Der kaufDA Navigator - mobiler Einkaufsberater für iPhone und iPad
Wegweiser zu den nächstgelegenen Geschäften und den besten Angeboten in direkter Umgebung jetzt kostenlos in Apples App Store erhältlich – lokale Infos zu rund 100.000 Geschäften in Deutschland inklusive Öffnungszeiten und täglich kommen neue hinzu
Berlin, 20. April 2010 – Das deutsche Verbraucherinformations-Portal kaufDA.de stellt allen iPhone-Nutzern ab sofort eine innovative kostenlose App zur Verfügung: Mit dem „kaufDA Navigator“ können sie sich jederzeit bequem über aktuelle Angebote und Ladenöffnungszeiten in ihrer unmittelbaren Umgebung informieren, Waren vergleichen und direkt auf alle für sie persönlich interessanten Artikel zugreifen. Dafür stellt die Anwendung auf Wunsch fest, an welchem Ort sich der Nutzer gerade befindet und zeigt die nächstgelegenen Ladengeschäfte mit allen relevanten Informationen auf einer Umgebungskarte an. Damit haben die Anwender sofortigen Zugriff auf Prospekte von rund 100.000 Einzelhandelsgeschäften wie zum Beispiel Kaufhof oder OBI direkt in ihrer unmittelbaren Umgebung – und das auch von unterwegs.
Zusätzlich ist für den „kaufDA Navigator“ eine intelligente Benachrichtigungsfunktion in Entwicklung, mit der man sich über persönliche Wunsch-Einkaufsartikel gleich nach deren Erscheinen im Prospekt informieren lassen kann. Diese Zusatz-Funktion stellt kaufDA als Option schon in wenigen Wochen zur Verfügung.
„Der kaufDA Navigator ist die perfekte iPhone-Anwendung für alle Verbraucher, um die Vorteile der neuen Technologien beim Einkaufen in ihrer jeweiligen Lebensregion maximal auszuschöpfen ohne dabei auf die gewohnten Vorzüge der Prospekt-Ansicht zu verzichten“, freut sich Christian Gaiser, geschäftsführender Gesellschafter des bereits mehrfach ausgezeichneten Unternehmens kaufDA. „Millionen Menschen, die täglich einkaufen gehen, ermöglicht der kaufDA Navigator, jederzeit einfach und schnell über aktuelle Angebote und Ladenöffnungszeiten in ihrer Nähe informiert zu sein, Produkte zu vergleichen und direkt auf passende Artikel zuzugreifen.“
Die kostenlose iPhone-Software kaufDA Navigator steht ab sofort hier zum Herunterladen bereit:
http://itunes.apple.com/de/app/kaufda-navigator/id365527345
(Die iPad-Version des kaufDA Navigators wird zum offiziellen Deutschland-Start von Apples iPad erhältlich sein.)
Die wesentlichen Funktionen des neuen Services: Komfortable Such- und Navigationsmöglichkeiten sowie übersichtliche Darstellung aller Prospekte und Ladenöffnungszeiten von Einzelhändlern, die sich in der Nähe der jeweiligen iPhone-Nutzer befinden – vorbereitet für individuelle, lokale Wunsch-Artikel-Erinnerungen.
Hinweis für Journalisten: Pressefotos zum neuen Angebot von kaufDA.de finden Sie als Download unter folgendem Link: http://medien.kaufda.com/navigator/
Über kaufDA.de
kaufDA.de, das deutsche Verbraucherinformations-Portal, informiert seine Nutzer bequem und tagesaktuell rund ums lokale Einkaufen: Die Anwender bekommen Produktangebote und Aktionen verschiedenster Einzelhändler aus ihrer Stadt mit einem Klick aufgezeigt und können dabei eine Vielzahl von lokalen Prospekten online durchsuchen und vergleichen.
Gleichzeitig bietet kaufDA.de Einzelhändlern erstmals die Möglichkeit, Verbraucher über das Internet auf die Region bezogen zu erreichen und so den Filialumsatz zu steigern. Darüber hinaus bindet kaufDA.de die Angebotsinhalte der Händler auf großen Partnerseiten wie dastelefonbuch.de, meinestadt.de, immobilienscout24.de und suchen.de ein und vervielfacht so deren Reichweite.
kaufDA.de hat bereits zahlreiche Auszeichnungen erhalten: Das Handelsblatt verlieh dem Start-Up den „Weconomy Award 2009“, das Fachmagazin Gründerszene wählte das Unternehmen zum „Start-Up des Jahres 2009″, die Financial Times Deutschland prämierte kaufDA.de zum „Start-Up des Monats“, Bloombergs BusinessWeek zählt kaufDA.de zu „Germany's Star Companies“ und das international führende Experten-Blog techcrunch.com bezeichnet kaufDa als „one of Germany’s leading promotion search sites“.
Gegründet wurde kaufDA.de von Thomas Frieling, Christian Gaiser und Tim Marbach, die ihre Geschäftsidee zu kaufDA.de 2008 im Silicon Valley entwickelten.
Hinter kaufDA.de steht die Deutsche Telekom mit ihrem VC-Fond T-Venture sowie eVenture Capital Partners mit dem zweitgrößten eCommerce-Händler der Welt, der Otto Group als Ankerinvestor und weitere deutsche Kapitalgeber wie Dr. Stefan Glänzer, Stephan Schubert und Michael Brehm.
Pressebild (Kay Herschelmann):
Auch Oma Kaiser freut sich: Jetzt geht's los - der kaufDA Navigator für's iPhone ist da, Prospekte und Öffnungszeiten in Deiner Nähe immer dabei.
Hier kostenlos downloaden: http://itunes.apple.com/de/app/kaufda-navigator/id365527345
Joachim M. Guentert steigt als Leiter Unternehmenskommunikation bei kaufDA.de ein
Ehemaliger eBay-Kommunikationschef für Deutschland, Österreich und die Schweiz treibt zukünftigen Markenaufbau beim „Start-Up des Jahres 2009“ voran
Berlin, 16. März 2010 – Joachim M. Guentert übernimmt die Leitung der Unternehmenskommunikation des deutschen Start-Ups kaufDA.de . In der neu geschaffenen Position wird der ehemalige deutsche eBay- Kommunikationschef ab April 2010 die internationale Kommunikationsstrategie von kaufDA.de verantworten. Das bereits mehrfach ausgezeichnete Unternehmen informiert Verbraucher auf dem Portal kaufDA.de regelmäßig und tagesaktuell über lokale Produktangebote und Aktionen verschiedenster Einzelhändler. Die Nutzer können dabei eine Vielzahl von lokalen Prospekten online durchsuchen und vergleichen. Gleichzeitig bietet kaufDA Einzelhändlern erstmals die Möglichkeit, Verbraucher über das Internet regional zu erreichen, um so ihren Filialumsatz effektiv zu steigern. Darüber hinaus bindet kaufDA.de die Angebotsinhalte der Händler auf großen Partnerseiten wie t-online.de, meinestadt.de, immobilienscout24.de und suchen.de ein.
„kaufDA.de hat ein herausragendes Geschäftsmodell mit gewaltigem Potenzial für die Zukunft“, so Joachim M. Guentert. „Ich habe mich nach meiner Aufbauzeit bei eBay und als Kommunikationschef für die DACH-Region lange nach einem neuem Start-Up umgeschaut. KaufDA.de ist ein unheimlich spannendes Unternehmen mit einem professionellen Team und einer echten Chance, sich bei den Konsumenten als Marke zu etablieren. So wie eBay in Deutschland für Online-Auktionen steht, wird kaufDA.de in Zukunft für regionale Shopping-Information stehen.”
Christian Gaiser, geschäftsführender Gesellschafter von kaufDA.de: „Joachim M. Guentert ist einer der erfahrensten Kommunikationsexperten im deutschsprachigen Internet. Ich freue mich, dass wir ihn für unser erfolgreiches Online-Unternehmen kaufDA.de aus der Schweiz nach Berlin holen konnten. Zusammen mit der Geschäftsleitung wird er die marktführende Stellung von kaufDA.de weiter ausbauen. Gleichzeitig leitet das Unternehmen mit diesem Neuzugang eine neue Phase seiner Entwicklung ein, die sowohl für Innovation als auch weiteres rasantes Wachstum steht.“
Joachim M. Guentert (46) war sieben Jahre bei eBay als Leiter Unternehmenskommunikation in drei Ländern tätig. In den Jahren 2000 bis 2004 steuerte er die Kommunikation von eBay Deutschland in Berlin und begleitete eBay als Teil des Management-Teams auf dem Weg vom Kreuzberger Start-Up zur populärsten Marke Deutschlands in 2003 mit über 17 Millionen Besuchern pro Monat. 2005 führte er eBay Österreich in Wien mitverantwortlich zur Marktführerschaft. Bis 2007 verantwortete er schließlich die Kommunikationsstrategie von eBay in der Schweiz in der Europazentrale der eBay International AG in Bern. Seither arbeitet Guentert von der Schweiz aus international als Berater und Investor für zahlreiche Start-Ups.
Über kaufDA.de
kaufDA.de informiert Verbraucher bequem und tagesaktuell rund ums lokale Einkaufen: Die Nutzer bekommen Produktangebote und Aktionen verschiedenster Einzelhändler aus ihrer Stadt mit einem Klick aufgezeigt und können dabei eine Vielzahl von lokalen Prospekten online durchsuchen und vergleichen.
Gleichzeitig bietet kaufDA.de Einzelhändlern erstmals die Möglichkeit, Verbraucher über das Internet auf die Region bezogen zu erreichen und so den Filialumsatz zu steigern. Darüber hinaus bindet kaufDA.de die Angebotsinhalte der Händler auf großen Partnerseiten wie t-online.de, meinestadt.de, immobilienscout24.de und suchen.de ein.
kaufDA.de hat bereits zahlreiche Auszeichnungen erhalten: Das Handelsblatt verlieh dem Start-Up den „Weconomy Award 2009“, das Fachmagazin Gründerszene wählte das Unternehmen zum „Start-Up des Jahres 2009″, die Financial Times Deutschland prämierte kaufDA.de zum „Start-Up des Monats“, Bloombergs BusinessWeek zählt kaufDA.de zu „Germany's Star Companies“ und das international führende Experten-Blog techcrunch.com bezeichnet kaufDa als „one of Germany’s leading promotion search sites“.
Gegründet wurde kaufDA.de von den jungen Unternehmern Cihan Aksakal, Thomas Frieling, Christian Gaiser und Tim Marbach, die ihre Geschäftsidee zu kaufDA.de 2008 im Silicon Valley entwickelten.
Hinter kaufDA.de steht die Deutsche Telekom mit ihrem VC-Fond T-Venture sowie eVenture Capital Partners mit dem zweitgrößten eCommerce-Händler der Welt, der Otto Group als Ankerinvestor und weitere namhafte deutsche Kapitalgeber.
Hinweis für Journalisten: Pressefotos von Joachim M. Guentert und Christian Gaiser finden Sie als Download unter folgendem Link: http://downloads.faktor3server.de/pr/Guentert_Gaiser.zip
Peinliche Panne für Xing und die Agentur Deepblue Networks. HORIZONT-Kolumnist Spießer Alfons enttarnt die angeblichen Kunden in der Testimonial-Kampagne „Und es hat Xing gemacht“ als Mitarbeiter des Business-Netzwerkes.
„Xing tritt hier mit einer ungeheuerlichen Chuzpe vor das breite Publikum: Die zufriedenen Damen und Herren in der Xing-Werbung sind nämlich allesamt … angestellte Mitarbeiter des sozialen Netzwerkes“, schreibt Spießer Alfons im HORIZONT-Blog Off-the-Record.de. In der Kampagne treten die Testimonials als Hazel A. oder Florian S. an. Ein wenig Recherche bei Xing genügt aber, um sie als Mitarbeiter des Netzwerkes zu identifizieren.
„Da werden Personen im Foto mit abgekürztem Namen und Berufsangabe gezeigt, die alle von positiven Erfahrungen mit Xing berichten. Sie, die bei Xing angestellt sind! Das ist so, als würden zufriedene Edeka-Kunden den Supermarkt in der Werbung loben, bei welchen es sich um Verkäufer/innen aus den Märkten handelt, ohne dass der Betrachter das erkennen kann!“ moniert Spießer Alfons.
Die Leser im Blog schwanken in ihren Reaktionen zwischen Empörung und Schadenfreude. Beinahe schon sachlich neutral ein Statement zu Xing in den Kommentaren: „Erstes Semester Marketing. Setzen. Sechs.“
Steve Jobs was reportedly wearing a top hat when he visited New York publishers last week. It’s a fitting lid for the Apple CEO, who can be as tricky as a magician.
Jobs has a knack for throwing off Apple watchers with his masterful misdirections. Ever wonder why analysts and journalists grossly overestimated the price of the Apple tablet prior to its official announcement? Part of the reason is that Jobs had said during a 2008 earnings call that Apple could not make a $500 computer that was not a “piece of junk.” That assertion lent credence to rumors that the tablet would cost $1,000.
Oops. The entry-level iPad announced in January will cost: $500, at least at the low end of scale. Presumably Jobs doesn’t consider it a piece of junk.
Nice one, Steve. You got us there. Actually, you’ve fooled us not once or twice, but at least six times, by our count. What follows is a list of five more famously misleading quotes that Jobs pulled from his bag of tricks.
No Plans to Make a Tablet
There were plenty of naysayers who, for the longest time, thought the Apple tablet was a pure myth. Jobs did, after all, tell Walt Mossberg during a 2003 All Things Digital conference that Apple was not working on a tablet — because the keyboardless form factor was a recipe for failure, according to a second-hand account.
“There are no plans to make a tablet,” Jobs was quoted saying to Mossberg. “It turns out people want keyboards…. We look at the tablet, and we think it is going to fail.”
That was seven years ago. And a lot can change in seven years. But there’s plenty of evidence Apple has been mulling over tablets for a while. The New York Times’ Nick Bilton reported the Apple tablet was in development for at least five years, and that it was actually a precursor to the keyboardless iPhone. And Apple filed a patent for a touch tablet device in 2004. To rewind even further, Apple was working with Frog Design on tablet prototypes as early as 1983. Those ancient tablets included keyboards, but Jobs has clearly had tablets on his mind for a very long time.
Not Interested in the Cellphone Business
In that same interview with Mossberg, Jobs said he didn’t feel Apple would fare well in the cellphone business.
“I get a lot of pressure to do a PDA. What people really seem to want to do with these is get the data out. We believe cellphones are going to carry this information. We didn’t think we’d do well in the cellphone business. What we’ve done instead is we’ve written what we think is some of the best software in the world to start syncing information between devices. We believe that mode is what cellphones need to get to. We chose to do the iPod instead of a PDA.”
Of course, in hindsight that quote served as a clue that Apple wasn’t making a traditional cellphone, but rather a brand new device that fused the characteristics of an iPod, a PDA and a cellphone into one. The result was the iPhone. Still, a tricky statement nonetheless.
People Don’t Read Any More
Jobs made a rather provocative statement in 2008 when he told The New York Times that the Kindle would go nowhere:
“It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read any more.”
Of course, the CEO backpedaled on his Kindle-dissing during his iPad keynote when he was introducing the iPad’s very own e-book reader and store, iBooks.
“Amazon’s done a great job at pioneering this functionality with their Kindle, and we’re going to stand on their shoulders and go a bit further,” he said during his Jan. 27 keynote this year.
No Movies on a Tiny Little Screen
When Mossberg in 2003 asked Jobs whether he planned to put video in an iPod, the CEO said he was turned off by the idea.
“I’m not convinced people want to watch movies on a tiny little screen,” Jobs said. “To paraphrase Bill Clinton, ‘It’s the music, stupid, it’s the music!’ Music’s been around for a long time, will continue to be, it’s huge.”
Then two years later, in 2005, Apple released the fifth-generation iPod whose tiny, 2.7-inch screen played video. And then in 2007 Apple released the third-generation iPod Nano with video — with an even littler 2-inch screen. But hey, people’s minds change, and clearly so does Jobs’.
We Don’t Need to Add New Stuff
In a September 2009 interview with Jobs, New York Times columnist David Pogue asked the CEO why Apple crammed a camera into the puny iPod Nano and not the new iPod Touch. Jobs explained the lack of a camera was to keep the price down, so Apple could market the Touch as an inexpensive gaming device.
“So what we were focused on is just reducing the price to $199,” Jobs said. “We don’t need to add new stuff. We need to get the price down where everyone can afford it.”
But later, teardown company iFixit ripped apart the iPod Touch and found a gap that would fit a camera. And on top of that, AppleInsider received a tip that cameras were planned for the iPod Touch, but ultimately delayed due to technical problems. We’ve yet to see if Apple does indeed add a camera to the iPod Touch, but we suspect that’s likely to happen eventually.
Via Gadget Lab - Wired.com
Der einst erfolgreichste Autokonzern der Welt zerlegt sich derzeit in atemberaubendem Tempo. Von Toyota kann jedes Unternehmen etwas lernen - es ist ein Lehrbuchfall misslungener Krisenkommunikation. Thomas Hillenbrand erklärt, wie auch Sie Ihre Marke binnen kürzester Zeit abwracken.
Every day almost one million people worldwide log onto their computers and share their views and thoughts with the world in a blog. Most bloggers are independent and do not seek any financial return for their views, but when it emerges four out of five post brand or product reviews, with 37 per cent posting them frequently, it becomes clear that this is a powerful voice. The big issue, however, is about listening.
'Previously companies have largely been forced to communicate to their audience through a megaphone approach - send their message out broadly and hope their audiences hear it,' says Karla Wachter, senior vice president, product development, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide. 'Social media has changed this one-way dynamic into a two-way conversation by creating a pipeline that allows companies to build and nurture personal connections.'
'More chief executives are blogging and many brands are directly engaging with consumers on social networks. We're seeing an age of transparency emerge where people want to connect with brands on a personal level,' adds Stephanie Agresta, global director, digital strategy and social media, at Porter Novelli. Making a success of that kind of conversation, though, requires an understanding of the power of influence, argues Wachter. 'Influence is about reaching the right people, with an engagement that delivers value, offering a company's audience a meaningful connection to their brand,' she says. Achieving this also means knowing what conversations are going on, and which of the many thousands are relevant and require responses. As Wachter says, it's the ability to 'collect data that helps [companies] discover the who, what, why, when, where and how of influence'. It all starts with a social media monitoring strategy.
The problem with monitoring
Despite the business potential, it seems that many companies currently underestimate the importance of such monitoring activity. 'Some organisations believe that [online] conversations about them just do not exist,' says Michelle Goodall, social media marketing consultant at Econsultancy. 'But monitoring is not just about focusing on your organisation, it's also about direct and indirect competitors. It can help you gain an understanding of competitor customer service or product issues, to analyse gaps for potential products or services or to help understand why their communications campaigns did or didn't work.'
She also thinks that some organisations discount monitoring activities because they do not believe their key audiences are involved in social media. 'Your audiences don't have to be active participants in social media to see a bad product review or a customer service complaint visible in Google when they search for your organisation, products or services. Monitoring is not a nicety but a necessity for all organisations,' she says.
The delay in companies actively monitoring social media may also lie in some confusion over the tools available, and how monitoring can be resourced effectively. 'Brands and communicators are having problems deciding upon the metrics, what the technology is and how they can bring realistic goals and objectives to the activity or campaigns they wish to create,' says Tim Gibbon, director at media consultancy Elemental. 'More importantly, brands and communicators are unclear what channels are available, and how to work with them to connect with audiences, and subsequently what methods should be employed to measure activity.'
The problem is compounded by the amount of material circulating online. Ploughing through millions of conversations to find the few that will be relevant to a brand is likely beyond the resources of most companies. 'There are so many blogs out there that you quickly ascertain that a lot of blogs don't get read. There's a huge number of people writing and posting blogs with no-one paying attention,' says Marcus Gault, managing director at media intelligence company Precise.
Technology to the rescue?
Myriad tools have emerged promising to help organisations in tracking these innumerable online conversations, including free tools such as Addictomatic, Google Alerts, Technorati, Surchur and Socialmention; social bookmarking tools, such as Delicious; RSS readers that group and collate data feeds, such as Google Reader; as well as more costly but sophisticated enterprise-level tools and technologies such as Radian6, Crimson Hexagon, Alterian/Techrigy SM2, Brandwatch and Buzzlogic.
Technology may have its limitations, though. 'Whilst the technology used to locate environments and the conversations within them is now a science, social media monitoring remains more of an art. This is because regardless of how great the functionality of the technologies that are available, it is the simple, yet complex conversation and dialogue that is exchanged that holds the real crux of useful information that communicators and brands can benefit from,' says Gibbon.
Goodall agrees, arguing that even the best tools require an element of human analysis and interpretation of data to factor 'influence' and 'sentiment' into the source of the conversations. This requires time and training, resources for which may be in scant supply, especially in these recessionary times. Goodall also thinks that experience of free tools may have put off some companies from monitoring activities altogether. 'Many people are using free tools such as Google Alerts but they are getting frustrated at the amount of noise, irrelevant information and results that are thrown up, so assume that effective monitoring will be time intensive and resource heavy.'
To resolve these issues, companies are working hard to develop monitoring products that go beyond merely collating data. Waggener Edstrom, for example, has devised monitoring tools such as 'twendz', a data-mining application, and 'WExPulse', a multi-channel monitoring solution that enables agency account teams and clients to better track news and conversations from a variety of global channels. Twendz was devised by Waggener Edstrom's software engineer Tim Sears as a way to track emotion in Twitter posts. 'Twendz utilises the power of Twitter Search, highlighting conversation themes and emotion of the tweets that talk about topics you are interested in,' explains Wachter. As the conversations on Twitter change, so does twendz by evaluating up to 70 tweets at a time. The aim, Wachter says, is to provide organisations with a glimpse into what's on people's minds and their emotional reaction. Meaningful words in each tweet are compared against a 'dictionary' containing thousands of words that are associated with positive or negative sentiment; each word receives a score that, when combined with the other scored words, allows twendz to make an educated guess at the overall tone of a tweet. 'Twendz provides a number of ways for communications and marketing professionals to see influence in action on Twitter,' says Wachter. 'You can see brewing trends, conversations and determine key actions you should take.'
Porter Novelli has been working in partnership with Crimson Hexagon, which creates custom analytics reports about online conversations. 'In addition to measuring the volume of mentions on platforms like Twitter and blogs, they can also measure the sentiment of the conversation,' says Agresta. 'We add a layer of value to the tool through interpretation of this data and knowledge of the influencer base.'
The human equation
While the tools are becoming more sophisticated, this human dimension will likely be forever essential in effectively monitoring social media. Wachter admits, for example, that while products such as twendz can provide the user with the 'auto sentiment' needed to monitor emotion, the real power of these tools comes through coupling them with personalised consulting. 'While tools such as twendz can prove powerful if used as an early warning system, it is important to remember that it requires human interaction to have a two-way dialogue,' she says.
With this in mind, Precise has spent the past few months devising a social media monitoring service that works on a distinctly human level. Rather than fruitlessly attempting to search every blog and online conversation, Gault and his team narrow down the most relevant sites for each particular client and work from there. 'We look at the people that engage in a blog, the credibility of the blog and list a few thousand blogs that matter. And then we monitor those for our client. We track it all the time and send alerts when something comes up,' he says.
In addition, the firm looks at the social media scene more broadly, before boiling it down into three or four-page reports of trends relevant to each client. 'This saves clients from having to search thousands of posts that are just not relevant. For example, we've just produced a report for one of the large banks. In 30 days there were over 25,000 blogs and tweets about their organisation. No one [at the client company] is going to have the inclination to plough through all that. We can pull out the relevant posts - which might boil down to just a handful - and then summarise what's going on that really matters,' he says.
A strategic approach
Nicholas Scibetta, partner at Ketchum Pleon, has a similarly strategic business-focused outlook on the monitoring process. While he agrees that tools play an important role in a monitoring strategy, he says that relying on tools alone is a one-dimensional approach that overlooks the all important strategic rationale for engaging with social media. 'At first, there was a real frenzy in the social media trend - with lots of companies wanting to get involved just because others were,' he says. 'But you have to start with the strategy: what are you trying to achieve? And what would success look like? You have to set your benchmarks before you start listening and engaging.'
Such a strategic approach aligns with the step-by-step advice of Mike Manuel, general manager at Voce Connect, a division of Voce Communications, who advocates tempering any monitoring activities with the realities of business resources and objectives.
He recommends dealing with the 'paralysing volume of online conversations' by taking a slice of the conversational web - perhaps Twitter, Facebook or forums - and then focusing on monitoring and successfully engaging in these places first, before broadening those efforts. 'This is also a helpful way to control the time and budget investments in these programmes, because it lessens the man hours spent monitoring and responding to things each day, and it counters the temptation to over-invest in monitoring technology until the organisation has proven it's capable of acting successfully on opportunities found,' he says.
Manuel thinks that companies have been paying far more attention to what people are saying online, compared to just two years ago when 'far fewer communications teams understood the value of online listening'. But he also argues that there remain difficult questions to answer in getting a social media strategy right. 'I think that companies are beginning to make larger investments in organisational teams and tools that can help make sense of the social web,' he says. 'A lot of companies are trying to figure out three things:
- What can they do with all of this new insight they're collecting;
- How can they smartly (and quickly) act on conversations as they surface on the web; and
- How can they measure or otherwise calculate the value and return of their listening and engagement efforts.'
People technology = success?
There seems to be agreement that monitoring is just one step of what should be a much broader social media strategy, which focuses from beginning to end on turning research into action. As Wachter says, getting the right data from the right places may be important, but gleaning actionable insight from that data is imperative. It is this latter task may well be the most difficult task facing companies today. 'To ensure you overcome these challenges, we believe that any social media programme should consist of credible tools like twendz, combined with highly skilled influence analysts that can provide the who, what, why, where and how behind that data, that allows you to drive action,' she concludes.
The term 'social media monitoring' implies a fairly straightforward process that merely extends the mainstream media monitoring that firms have long conducted. But tap beneath the surface and the nature of social media makes the process more of a minefield than it might at first appear. The breadth of conversations now conducted online requires a well-thought-out and targeted monitoring programme, but one that is based on a deeper strategic rationale that looks to the business benefits of engaging with an online and interactive audience. In recessionary times, resources to conduct such activity might be in short supply and there may be some dispute as to which in-house team would be best suited to take on the activity - for example, communications or marketing? With more effective tools and skilled third parties hitting the market with more effective solutions and services, however, the monitoring process is likely to become an ever-more prevalent and essential component of an organisation's online communication strategy.
Global faces and networked places:
A Neilson Report on Social Networking's New Global Footprint
- Two-thirds of the world's Internet population visits a social network or blogging site, and the sector now accounts for almost ten per cent of all Internet time.
- 'Member Communities' have overtaken personal email to become the world's fourth most popular online sector after search, portals and PC software applications.
- Time spent on social networks and blogging sites is growing at over three times the rate of overall Internet growth.
- The total amount spent online globally increased by 18 per cent between December 2007 and December 2008.
- In the same period, the amount of time spent on 'Member Community' sites rose by 63 per cent to 45 billion minutes; and on Facebook by 566 per cent - from 3.1 billion minutes to 20.5 billion.
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Caroline Poynton examines the challenge of listening to online conversations without interrupting their flow.
Google's first Super Bowl TV ad is a brilliant example of how to load up technology with emotions:
"Amid dozens of ads focused on cars, beer, and busty women, the Google spot definitely took a different approach: it tells a love story through a series of search queries. The tale begins with a query for “study abroad paris france”, moves on to “impress a french girl” and eventually makes it all the way to “how to assemble a crib”, showcasing Google’s technology in a way that pretty much everyone can relate to."
Source: http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/07/google-super-bowl-ad/
6:00 am, February 3rd, 2010, Carmine Gallo
Steve Jobs doesn’t follow a presentation template but as outlined in my new book, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, he does consistently follow the same principles that have turned Apple product launches into an art form. The iPad announcement on Wednesday, January 27th was no exception: classic Steve Jobs.
Jobs always frames a new product for the benefit of the press and his customers. These headlines are descriptive, tangible and short, fitting well within a 140-character Twitter post. What’s an iPod? “1,000 songs in your pocket.” On January 27, Jobs created a 92-character Twitter friendly headline for iPad: Our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price. On cue, the Apple web site posted images of the iPad on the home page alongside the same headline that Jobs had revealed minutes earlier. The headline is consistent across all marketing channels including the presentation, press releases, Web site and advertisements.
Every Steve Jobs presentation has a hero and a villain. In the iPad presentation, Netbooks played the role of the villain—a problem in need of a solution. Jobs showed a slide with an iPhone on one side and a MacBook on the other. A question mark appeared in the middle. He asked rhetorically whether there was room for a third category of device. “These devices would have to be far better at doing some key tasks,” he said. “Some people think it’s a Netbook. The problem is Netbooks aren’t better at anything. They have slow, low quality displays and clunky old PC software,” he said. Only after he had set up the problem did Jobs introduce the hero: “We have something better. We call it iPad.”
Neuroscientists have found that humans can only consume three or four chunks of information in short term memory. It’s uncanny but Jobs divides products, ideas and messages into three parts and he does so in every presentation. Here are some examples from the iPad presentation:
Apple gets its revenue from three product lines; iPhones, iPods and Macs.
Apple has three competitors in the mobile devices category: Nokia, Samsung and Sony.
Netbooks have three problems: Slow, low-quality displays, and run clunky PC software.
There are no bullet points in a Steve Jobs presentation. Most of his slides are highly visual— photographs and images. This is called picture superiority; we retain information better when it is presented as text and pictures instead of text alone. Look at some of the slides from the iPad announcement. Each feature is represented visually—one feature, one idea per slide.
Steve Jobs uses descriptive, emotive language that appeals to your right brain. Some critics say it borders on hyperbole, but better to use emotion to convey excitement than stale, jargon-laden buzzwords that rarely, if ever, creep into a Jobs presentation. Here are some examples from the iPad launch:
“It’s so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a SmartPhone.”
“It’s the best browsing experience you’ve ever had.”
“It’s a dream to type on.”
“It’s that simple.”
“It’s a screamer” (describing the A4, Apple designed chip)
Steve Jobs rehearses his presentations for many hours over many weeks to get everything just right. He carefully reviews every slide and knows exactly what he’s going to say and how he’s going to say it. The result is a presentation like the iPad which looks effortless. It looks easy but the polish only comes after weeks of grueling practice. Even the set for the iPad launch was simply created to reinforce the message. A leather chair and a small circular table were the only props, reflecting the “intimacy” of the product.
For more than twenty-five years since the 1984 Macintosh launch, Steve Jobs has proven himself to be one of the greatest corporate storytellers on the world stage. It’s good to see that even after a serious illness in 2008, he hasn’t lost a step, continuing to raise the bar for communicators in every industry.
Carmine Gallo is a communications coach and author, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs; How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience. Visit him online at CarmineGallo.com.
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