Unicast

OK, got my morning beverage, time to get to work. Oh wait, first I’m going to throw on some Pandora. Hmm, says something about Facebook…eh, I’ve got a ton of email to read, figure that out later. Oh good, the Killers. Love this song.

Whoa.

Apparently Greg likes this song too. How does Pandora know that Greg and I are connected? Hmm, and what information about what me is going to show up when Greg goes to Pandora?

OK, starting to get a little creeped out, internet.

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This was my actual reaction upon my first foray into Facebook’s Open Graph. Working where I do, I like to keep my finger on the pulse of what’s going on out there on the internet, so I had heard a bit about Open Graph. But even after hearing about it, I was not prepared for how unnerving it would be to simply open up Pandora. I love Pandora, but that morning made me wonder if I should even be using it. And if I decide later not to have Pandora connected to Facebook, where do I go about undoing that? And why didn’t anyone ask me if I wanted this to happen in the first place?

Not being asked what I do and don’t want has been a common theme lately. Recently, I ordered some Mother’s Day flowers from a typical website. I SCOURED every page during the process looking for the automatically checked checkbox that says “please bombard me with email every two days about special offers until I am so sick of you I can hardly stand it” (OK, it doesn’t say that, but that is what I see). There was no checkbox. There was no option for it at all. OK cool, maybe I’m lucky and these guys get it and aren’t going to automatically opt me into a bunch of email that I don’t want.

Cue the emails.

Great, now I have to scroll to the very bottom of the page. Click Unsubscribe. Yes, attachments and links are OK, blah blah blah… Click Unsubscribe again on the landing page.

I’ll have to keep this in mind for next Mother’s Day.

Now on the one hand, if I had opted in to the email list and got one at, say Thanksgiving, I might think, “Ooh, since I’m not going to see my grandmother for Thanksgiving, I should maybe send her a bouquet to let her know I’m thinking about her,” then boom, very effective use of email. But sending me stuff two days later? With no new holidays in sight? I smell a lack of restraint, so I better unsubscribe now.

Finally, I went to buy a Camelbak this weekend at a retail store. The store had one of those sign up to get a discount card deals where you get to carry around a plastic card with all of the other discount cards that all of the OTHER stores make you carry around, not to mention the little plastic keychain thingies, and now you can’t even close your wallet or get it back into your purse and at every single store you go to you have to remember if you have the card or not and then try to figure out where in the heck you put it and WHY CAN’T YOU JUST GIVE ME THE $1.62 DISCOUNT???? And sure, you can say no, I don’t want the card. But they never just drop it on the first try. And the next time you walk in here, they’re going to do the hard sell on the card AGAIN so don’t think for a minute that this matter is settled by you already having decided that you don’t want one!

OK, sorry, that was a bit of a rant. But my point is this: I am much more likely to come back to your store if I don’t get asked about the card every time. I’ll even tell my friends about it if I just automatically get the savings without having to submit to junk mail and email and little plastic cards.

And I’d be more likely to sign up for floral updates if I know you’re reminding me about something useful instead of burying me in spam. Do you think I purchase flowers weekly? Then why would I need to hear from you that often?

And I’m a lot more inclined to remember the time you creeped me out on Pandora and completely rewrote my profile without asking me if I was OK with either, Facebook. And no, most people aren’t quitting yet. But we remember all the times you screwed up. We remember every time someone passes along a message urging you to go to your Privacy Settings and turn something off that you never turned on in the first place. We remember every instance of it, we store that away, and one day we’re going to be spending more time figuring out how to turn off things in your application that we don’t like than enjoying the things we do like, and that’s when we leave; is that what you want?

Consider your audience. Put yourself in their shoes. You know how busy you are and how much you wish everything could just be easier and less cluttered? Keep that in mind next time you come up with the next bright idea, and make sure your users have the OPTION to decide what they want from you, and then follow it up by respecting that.

Every few months a new app appears on the market, word spreads and before you know it, everyone is on the buzz. "Topsee" is one such app. A fun and simple way to find “a mixture of things to eat, drink, see, do and buy in central London”. Lastminute.com (the engineers behind "Topsee") has decided to eliminate the idea of "user search"… That’s right, no more searching!! They have released an iPhone app which shows the user all bars, clubs, restaurant within close proximity without the user having to search for them. As the online world is driven by this function, this is a remarkable turnaround on the concept. Users no longer decide what to look for but instead are given a selection.

We all rely on trawling through the pages of our preferred search engines to show us the freshest, newest and best places to go to, eat and explore, but now we can have others do this for us: Introducing the world of “no user search”.

So, the search options have been scrapped; does eliminating search really work??

For me the idea works as it provides places to go to almost instantly, eliminating the issue of finding and choosing new places on the fly which is great. The user interface helps push the concept further; rather than numerous lists, there are simple graphical images that show the user the distance from their current location to the specifically chosen venue. At any given time, there are only ever 9 images of possible options – chosen by top bloggers in and around central London. Thus, the user will not be overwhelmed with choices and an alternative selection to choose from can be bought up by simply shaking your handset. It is also proven “the more options available, the less chance of a user choosing” this app reduces the risk of the user becoming fed-up and giving up on finding a place, but enthuses the user with immediate options.

The engineers have not only thought about the single user, but have considered the media crazy society we live in. With mobile and social networking being the most popular tools for communication the creators of “Topsee” have incorporated this factor with communicative sharing tools for twitter, facebook & email users.

I am certain, if this app proves to be a success advertisers will begin to pay a fee in order for their venue to be on the top of the list of the first options users see, as they do on Google in the online world. However, I do believe expert bloggers will still have a major input as this is the integral concept of the app.

We've all been in the situation of last minute client visits or over running meetings that calls for post drinks or dinner and this app is great for looking savvy with the best places at the touch of a button.

Learn More about the Topsee App: http://www.lastminute.com/site/labs/topsee.html

As soon as the string of earthquakes hit Haiti, I ran to my computer to learn more about how I could help and where I should go to donate money, food or clothing. To my surprise, googling was not getting me very far. My search results were full of sketchy websites that I wasn’t comfortable with plugging my credit card information into. In addition, I tried donating money through the American Red Cross website and the pages were not loading correctly or storing my information. As a typical Generation Y’er I immediately became frustrated. After all, I was at work with a million things to do and had already wasted twenty minutes of my morning. I desperately wanted to help but I needed a way that was quick, easy and seemed relatively safe. This is when a colleague of mine told me about Wyclef Jean’s Yele foundation which had set up a text messaging service for the earthquake relief effort. It allows people to donate $5.00 by simply texting the word “Yele” to the number 501501. I did it immediately and ten seconds later I received a notification confirming my donation. Shortly after, I learned I could donate $10 to the American Red Cross by texting "HAITI" to 90999. I was delighted and donated to the Red Cross as well. It took me less than a minute to make a difference! I immediately went on facebook to update my status with my recent discovery to encourage all of my friends, networks and colleagues to donate and it worked. My friends were ecstatic to learn there was such a quick and easy way to help.

As part of generation Y this is how I live, work and communicate. Texting and facebook have become the easiest and fastest way to share things with my friends without pausing my day for more than 15 to 30 seconds. On the other hand, as a marketing professional I can’t help but to look at the world around me in awe. I’m amazed by the way we have all united and taken advantage of the technologies at our disposal to help Haiti during such a difficult time. According to “Mobile Ad Campaigns Unite for Haiti Relief” written by Mark Walsh, the American Red Cross has raised about 30 million dollars through their text messaging campaign. Through a similar initiative the Yele foundation was able to raise close to two million dollars in a matter of two days. It is inevitable to recognize the power of marketing via these mediums but only if it is done right.

Mobile and Social Network Marketing are powerful but only if the users want to share the information that is being placed in their hands. This is important for all marketers to keep in mind. Your campaign must connect with the user in some way. Your brands logo and slogan are not enought to make the cut. The message must touch the user in a way that they will feel compelled to act or share content - and what does generation Y want to share? We want to share things that make us laugh, help make our lives easier, allow us to voice our opinions and enable us to help anyone around the world without a lot of fuss. Most importantly, it has to be quick and easy because our time is precious and wasting it is not an option.