Marketing, Communications and Technology

It’s no secret that the iphone is one of the best tech toys out there, but to me it’s a life changer.  Its a revolution in function and where it goes from here could change everything.

The word phone is actually a misnomer.  It would be more accurate to label it a handheld computer that can make phone calls.  Never has there been so much function in such a compact, easy to use format.

Although it is easy to make hardware comparisons and compose bullet lists versus other smart phones, the ace in the hole for Apple is the App Store.  In the same way that video game consoles live and die by the success of software (games), so will smart phones.  Except that the iPhone already has a long line of developers clamoring at making applications and the hardware itself is so hot that it often sells for double or triple depending on what part of the world you live in.

The iPhone, like a computer with only an operating system, is a blank canvas.  Yet it holds many advantages over even the best laptop.  Microphone, Speakers, Camera, GPS, Accelerometer (tilt sensing) Wifi, and 3G (Fast data) all in the palm of your hand and all with Apple’s trademark easy to use interface.

There is so much to talk about that new websites spring up everyday concerning this device.  A podcast called iPhone Alley is dedicated to iphone news only and then there is the legions of hackers “jail breaking” (allowing them to use unlicensed software) their phones because they can’t wait for official applications but I could be here forever if we travel down that rabbit hole.

Lets get to my favorite applications so far:

Productivity

Evernote is an online repository for notes. You can take them in any fashion: photos, recordings, writing.  They are stored and archived for you in a an online repository for future use. It even has the ability to take handwritten notes and recognize the text. The iphone application lest you do all this from your phone with ease.

Weatherbug: If your business is outside, then knowing what is going on with the weather is very important.  There are many ways to get this information but with the built GPS and a real-time radar, it doesn’t get much easier to tell of that rain is coming your way.

Microsoft Exchange email support works flawlessly and was easy as pie to setup. Typing on the screen became second nature to me after a couple of days.  The trick is just to trust the phone, it will auto-correct spelling in most every case.  I can now type pretty fast on it and do not miss my berry one bit.

Kyte.com lets you broadcast live photos and video via a website and the iphone application only supports photos at the moment but is expected to support live video.

The Fun Stuff

Facebook: This one is both fun and productive as many organizations use a facebook account to keep in touch with customers/students/alumni.  You can post images directly, post new messages and chat.

Twinkle: This is a twitter application which amazingly takes your current location and shows you what other people are talking about. You can post a photo direct, respond to messages and make your own posts.

More Cowbell: There are so many novelty applications on the App Store,  I thought I would include just one of my favorites.  Some of you may remember the Christopher Walken skit from SNL. Essentially this turns your iphone into a Cowbell.  Best part is it works with music.  So if you are using your ipod to play music, you can run this app and add cowbell to any song. LOL

The Future

I only scratched the surface here, the killer app is the App Store itself, it represents the life changing possibilities I alluded to.  The list of problems that can be solved is endless: pull up medical literature on a drug, read a CT scan, measure how many calories you burned (based on movement of phone), buy anything, read a book, control your computer, access a server, get directions, find out who is around you, get all your news, watch anything, talk to anyone in the world via wifi, turn photos of text into text, etc etc etc.

All these things were already here or on the way on multiple portable devices. However, no device (other than the iPhone) so far brings them all together and makes them easier to accomplish at the same time.

Oh alright, there must be some cons right?  Battery life is rough, although I heard it was the same or better than most 3G devices.  Video is not there yet but I think this will be a software upgrade.  Maybe this was a battery life decision.  I know its capable, here is a clip of it being used.  As far as cut and paste and MMS messages, I do not really care.

Needless to say, I highly recommend it to everyone. You will wonder how you functioned without it.  Sliced bread’s got nothing on the Apple iPhone 3G.

I’m going to confess, I am very green on the subject of social media, to the point that I only started reading the Cluetrain Manifesto this year. By internet standards I’m a total newb. However, most of my circle of friends and colleagues are by far even more naive to the end of business as usual.

Image Credit: Scobleizer

My first real experience with the concepts of this life changing phenomenon occurred at a Higher Education E- Marketing conference hosted by Stamats last year in Chicago. I have to credit Thomas Frey of the DaVicni Institute with his presentation on ” the future of education”. He ingrained in my mind a sense wonder and a thirst for knowledge. Other presentations at the event went on to discuss how universities were using social networks and I returned to my own institution, energized and full of ideas.

But the concepts transcended my work in marketing. They pointed to what is so eloquently written in books like Cluetrain or Groundswell. Everyone knows that the only constant is change but the majority of people still do not realize just what an incredible revolution the web has made possible and how it will continue to change our culture, our habits, our lives.

So should you care as a marketer? Damn straight you should care. How much? That is dictated by your customers and the product or service you are selling. In higher ed, its a no-brainer.

Here are a few links I found very informative:

How To: Effectively Talk to Execs and Clients about Social Media - This one is of great importance to me since many times, talking to folks that do not use social media is a real challenge.

Is Social Media Marketing Right For You? - A good recent post on the subject.

The Press Release is Dead: How Web 2.0 Could Save PR and Marketing - and of course there is the social media press release developed by shift communications.

Challenge: Get our print magazine online fast without sacrificing the quality of the design and making sure that the articles are searchable and available to blogs and other social media as soon as the print version hits subscribers.

Solution: Using wordpress and issuu.com, we have developed a work flow that allows us to get our print publication online as fast as possible with the least amount of manual input and errors, requiring a much shorter approval process.

We had gone through many different iterations of the magazine online, very evident when you look at the archives. The problem was always that each one was created as a mini-site and the text was taken from the PDF file, requiring massive amount of re-editing and formatting to get into html. This in turn created a lengthy approval process with the editor and designer, making the entire production last well over 3-4 weeks, start to finish. By then the articles were stale and no one cared, in fact a few magazines never made it online.

We are now creating 2 versions of the magazine online in a matter of 2-3 days. Issuu.com hosts the flash version (simply upload a PDF) and the wordpress driven site is used to post the articles. The posted articles allow search engines to hit our stories and the flash version allows users the option to view them as they were originally designed. Bonus: Issuu.com is also becoming a a popular destination and by virtue of our magazine being there it is also getting increased exposure at no cost. The articles are also searchable on issuu.com’s search function.

Here is a bit more detail on the workflow:

Using Issuu.com to host a flash version

1. Designer exports to PDF (version 1.5)
2. Upload PDF to issuu.com account and check for errors
3. Make note of pages with errors and pull the PDF down again, to avoid it being bookmarked or viewed with errors (you may also create a separate account for this). Note: you will not be able to see the errors in the PDF, it is in the conversion to flash that they show up.
4. Open pages with problems in photoshop and make a PDF of the page with problem alone, essentially making the page an image. (there may be a better way to fix the errors but we have not found it)
5. Insert these pages back into your original PDF, replacing the pages which contained the errors. (there may be a better way to fix the errors but we have not found it)

Using WordPress software to post articles

1. Designer exports publication document (we are suing In Design), creating “rtf” files. (Note: if the design file is tagged correctly there will be less files and less confusion when opening these.)
2. These files can then be easily copied into the wordpress system (using the “paste from word” options with little to no formatting needed. It is best to have someone work on this with hard copy as a guide.
3. For feature articles, we include a direct link to the flash version of the page with the feature. (but users can view the whole magazine in that format as well).

Alternates:

We were not the first to use issuu in this manner. Red Country magazine embeds the issuu reader right into their page. I like this presentation and we may incorporate this in the next update. Just FYI, I do not read Red Country, it was sent to me as an example by issuu.

I was asked to write a very concise intro to blogging and social media for our executive leadership, to act as a preamble for a new blog project. I would love to hear your thoughts as this is a very real challenge as marketers in this new media world.

What is Social Media? (reference: wikipedia)

Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, message boards, blogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and video. It defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio on the internet.

What is Blogging?

Blogs are frequently updated web pages on which authors post short comments about news items, interesting websites, their thoughts and more. Blogs are part of a revolution that allows individuals to express themselves to the world. Blogs are easy to create, easy to maintain and fun to read.

How can a university or company enter this new media space successfully?

It’s important to note that even prominent ad agencies do not understand how to fully leverage social media. (An article published in ADWEEK early this year reports on a survey which yielded essentially that “agencies don’t get it“)

This new media is about conversations. They are happening about your institution every day, online. We can either be part of the conversation or ignore it. If we chose to be a part of it then paramount to our success are the following:

• change in voice: authoritative => community based, personal
• change in speed: approval process => empowerment of individuals
• change in tolerance: strict censored content => loose content management

Without embracing these concepts any attempt at entering the social media space would fail because the audiences/participants would immediately sense the lack of authenticity and ignore the blog, comment, website, etc.

What drives these conversations are real people. Canned responses and marketing speak will do more harm than good in the realm of social media.

Credit to collegewebeditor.com for bringing this to my attention. It appears US News has stepped into the Facebook application space. Their gradzilla app seems to be a search engine for their best grad schools data. Once you find a school, you can check a box to say how you feel about it or what you have experienced. If this becomes a highly used app on facebook, it will be yet another reason to make sure your data is accurate and up to date with US News.