How Facebook Places Will Own The Mobile Market
Today, Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook team announced their plans to gradually release Facebook Places tonight in the United States for the iPhone and touch.Facebook with a full release expected in the following days. Although Facebook Places is still in its infantile stages, it has all the makings to further Facebook’s growth in the mobile market. Taking into account the partners that Facebook introduced at the event along with their existing assets, Facebook Places threatens to not only take over the mobile space, but change the way we do business. (more…)
Help! Technology Stole My Childhood
Whether it’s texting a friend or downloading the newest song off iTunes, being a kid has changed drastically. Gone are the days of waking up for Saturday morning cartoons and in are chatrooms and spending hours watching YouTube. It can be argued that technology has made our lives easier and enables us to accomplish more, but to say that technology has improved life all around is far fetched.
Do you remember when you would wake up Saturday mornings and watch The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or go over to your friends house for a sleep over and get excited when you could stay up past your bedtime? You may not remember all the details, but you do remember how much fun it was to be a kid. As a kid you worried about when you would lose your next tooth and whether you would get the ‘nice’ teacher at school. Nowadays, kids have different priorities and different agendas.
To give you an idea of what kids know and do now, I asked some 11 year olds the other day if they knew what “Monopoly” and “Jenga” was to which they responded no. When asked if he knew who Britney Spears and 50 Cent were, they knew immediately. 11 year olds don’t know popular board games, but do know pop sex idol, Britney Spears, and rapper 50 Cent. Do you see something wrong here? Kids are growing up too fast and technology has a huge part in this.
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LA Goes Wireless, So Should Companies
Los Angeles has always been known for being a hot spot for social trends and cultural change, and recently I noticed something that I hadn’t really taken the time to notice before. Driving down Melrose and La Brea, I noticed just how few payphones their were. In fact, I was unable to see one for almost 3 blocks.
Not only was it just in this vicinity that I was unable to find a payphone, but in other surrounding areas as well. This lack of payphones leads me to believe that LA has gone wireless. Today, cellphones have replaced the need to carry around quarters except to pay for the parking meter. Cellphones are no longer for the rich and powerful as they once were back in the early 90’s, but are now common ‘toys’ for teens and necessary tools for students and professionals.
LA’s new direction in regards to communication is something that businesses should be aware of as well. Consumers can now get the weather, find out what’s for dinner, look up directions, and update there Facebook all from there cellphone. Businesses should take advantage of this and find new ways to target consumers. While payphones do exist in remote locations, such as near the bathrooms at shopping malls, LA for the most part has made the transition from landlines to wireless.
With the addition of Wi-Fi, 3G networks and reasonable wireless service plans, a cellphone has become standard for most. When email became preferable to ’snail mail,’ companies jumped onboard, trying to tag every page with there advertisements. Now that cellphones have become the new ‘communication’ tools, companies should recognize this and latch on to it. Whether it is through text advertisements, which many companies have already been utilizing, or through cellphone apps, ‘wireless advertisements’ will be the new way to advertise and the new way to communicate with this new generation.
The Hour The [Social] World Stood Still
For some, in a matter of moments, the words plastered across the screen as shown above meant the world was at a stand still. For the hundreds and thousands of Facebook ‘followers’ and ’stalkers,’ site maintenance of the Facebook site means trying to find something else to do while tirelessly refreshing the Facebook page in hopes that Facebook is able to finish fixing there site after only 2 minutes.
Today after speaking to a some friends, I realized just how attached some people are to Facebook. Facebook has become not only a social phenomenon, but also a cultural one.
For college students, Facebook has become a class in itself. Spending countless hours looking at friends photos and there updates has become a daily activity. Finding out something about that girl in your Chemistry class that you’ve been dying to talk to has never been easier. When asking my friends what they are doing, “facebooking” is a common response.
It is easy to see why when Facebook closes its site for maintenance, users all around the world feel lost for the few hours it is down. When you look at what Facebook has done, they have assimilated themselves into peoples lives by making life easier.
How is life easier?
No, Facebook cannot do your dishes or clean your room, but Facebook can help you stay connected with friends, co-workers, and help you network. Facebook can notify you of events, sell or buy items from the “Facebook marketplace” and even help you remember your friend’s birthday.
The social world is dominated by sites just like Facebook. The melding of these social ‘tools’ into people’s everyday lives has not only made using these sites daily tasks but in some extreme cases, necessary.
Dear Blog, Please Get Me A Job
As I was flipping through various news articles on the web, I came across an interesting article written by Adam Nichols of the New York Post. The article, entitled “Better Sign of Times“, was about a banker who was recently put out of a job due to the economic situation. For many of us, ’standard protocol’ when looking for job involves:
1. Looking for job openings
2. Submitting our resume
3. Waiting for an employer to ask us to interview with them
Joshua Persky, the un-employed banker from the article, thought of a different way to look for a job. Using his creativity, Joshua Persky used a sandwich board sign saying he was looking for a job and wore it around Park Avenue. Not only did Persky attract plenty of attention from New Yorker’s, but Persky also attracted many job offers. So popular was Persky’s approach to finding a job that he created a blog where he documented his experiences.
Eventually, Persky got a full time offer from Manhattan firm Weiser LLP. When looking back at his experience Persky states in the article that
“Obviously, I had vigorous interviews, but I think it was [the blog] which sealed the deal,”
A blog.
Not his resume, not his interview, and not his sandwich board, but his blog. That is what sealed the deal.
As college students and young professionals prepare to apply for jobs, one advice that I would like to give is this. Company’s that are looking for someone to fill the position that they have an opening for get hundreds and hundreds of applications. Just like when you apply to get into a college, you have to write a personal essay, in essence, a personal blog can serve just the same purpose. A personal blog gives the interviewer a chance to look at many different aspects of you that a resume would never be able to show. From your writing style and use of logic, to what you are interested in and motivated at; your blog is an extension of yourself and everyone should have one.
It is not hard to find two applicants that have great GPA and great community involvement and drive, but what is the key determinant in deciding who gets the position is who is able to leave that lasting impression. In the case of the sandwich board banker, Persky was able to differentiate himself from the rest of the field by not only having a creative way of ‘applying’ for a job, but by having a personal blog that tells ‘his story’ and builds his personal brand.
Whether you write about fashion, music, what your favorite cartoon is, or even what you think the government should do with the economy, always remember that a personal blog is a tool that tells people who you are, where you’ve been and most importantly, where you want to go.
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Article: Better Sign of Times, Adam Nichols
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly: LA Auto Show
With unpredictable gas prices, economic hardships, and falling sales, the Los Angeles Auto Show is an important event not only for automakers, but for consumers as well. This years LA Auto Show, taking place at the Los Angeles Convention Center, will answer consumers questions, unveil new cars, and also could be the last time we see all of the Big 3 automakers under one roof.I myself am in the market for a car so I decided that the LA Auto Show would be a great place to get an idea of what new models would be coming out.
The most notable thing that I noticed while in attendance was the trend in the consumers interests. For the most part, automakers like Toyota, Honda, Lexus, Nissan, and Mini-Cooper had by far the largest number of visitors to there exhibits. The main reason behind this can be attributed to there focus on both gas efficiency as well as there focus on reliability. Toyota for example, featured a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)-powered version of the Camry Hybrid which caught the eye of many consumers. Honda and Mini-Cooper also went along the same path as Toyota by choosing to focus there exhibit areas around there ‘eco-friendly’ as well as ‘pocket-friendly’ vehicles.
Lexus and Nissan were definite winners of the auto show as crowds came away excited for there upcoming 2009/2019 vehicles. Most notable of which were the Lexus IS250C, the convertible version of the already popular Lexus IS250, and also the quirky Nissan Cube.
As a consumer, when I looked at the way that Toyota, Honda, Lexus, Nissan, and Mini-Cooper marketed there vehicles and exhibits, there was one key characteristic that all of them shared. It was a very plain and simple element which I believe most of the other carmakers failed to get. That was the concept of “How can we help you.” When I visited other carmakers exhibits I wasn’t asked what kind of car we we’re looking for or even when we we’re looking to buy, but rather we were told why we need this car and how we should take a test drive. Among those that used the latter approach was the big 3 automakers (Ford, GM, Chrysler). Not only were they insensitive to the consumers feelings or desires, but just by looking at the cars they had on display, I can see why they are struggling. The big 3 focused on making cars that they thought consumers wanted, when they really should have been asking us what we wanted.
The LA Auto Show is not only an event for the public to see the new cars, but it also a chance for automakers to show the direction they are going. We all know Mercedes makes luxury cars, but we want to know that they will continue to push the limits on luxury. We know that Ford is struggling to sell cars; we want to know that they are making the appropriate changes to bounce back. At the end of the day I walked out of the convention center with three thoughts in mind:
1. The LA Convention Center is huge
2. “Green” is the new direction of carmakers
3. I love free stuff
The iPhone Killer?
In what many consider to be there most ‘idolized’ consumer product and ‘must-have’, the Apple iPhone has established itself as the leader in the smartphone market. From its stylish design, to its practicality, many competitors have tried to compete, but to no avail. Still, just 24 hours away, we have the newest competitor to the iPhone. The Blackberry Storm.
Some have already begun calling it the iPhone Killer. With its well established reputation of being a leader in personal organization and networking, RIM (Research in Motion) is about to challenge the Apple iPhone head on. The Storm is scheduled to hit stores November 21st and has consumers on the edge of there wallets ready to shell out for what some analyst’s say will be the holiday’s biggest hit. The question though is not whether or not the Storm will sell well, but if it can possibly match up to the already dominating Apple iPhone.
What’s to Come
Upon closer review of the Blackberry Storm, RIM has gone far and beyond the normal ’standards’ of smartphone’s today. The most anticipated feature is the innovative “SurePress” feature. Not only is it the first Blackberry touchscreen in the world, but users can actually feel the keys being pressed when they are texting or dialing a number. RIM feels that this will revolutionize the smartphone market in that users have long complained that it is hard to use touchscreens because the keys are unresponsive or hard to use.
Aside from the SurePress technology, the Storm advertises its use as a social tool. Citing sites such as Facebook and Flickr as being part of the networking capabilities, Blackberry is clearly trying to establish the Storm as a multi-task tool. The storm also has turn by turn navigation, email capabilities, a full HTML browser as well as 3.2 megapixel camera that can take photos and record.
Can you afford it?
With the features to compete with the Apple iPhone, RIM has priced the Storm at almost the same price of the iPhone at $199.99 (with 2 year contract and $50.00 rebate). This competitive price will challenge the iPhone during this holiday season in making the consumer think twice on what to buy.
While the Blackberry has yet to hit stores here in the US, the Blackberry has already been released in Europe and is already a big hit. This is partly due to the fact that Vodafone has been giving them away for free with a phone contract. If only they could that here.
I myself have been anticipating the release of the Storm and am looking forward to trying it out. With the strategy that Blackberry has taken into marketing the new Storm, it is hard to see how this product can fail. Taking into account the innovative features, the reasonable pricing, and Blackberry’s reputation for its strong network and email capabilities, the Storm may not only ‘beat’ the iPhone in sales, it may just steal the market away from them.
