Where is Social Media going?
I’m curious about where everything is headed. Recently, I was involved in an online discussion about companies using social media: where it’s headed, what it’s all about and the fact that many firms are feeling pressure to get involved without knowing how to use it to their benefit, some even causing real harm to their brand.
I believe that now that we have been introduced to it, social media has begun to fulfill a sociological need for many people, which means that they are relying on these tools to manage their friendships and have the same interactions, affirmation and sense of belonging. And, according to a recent study by Pew Research Center, especially for teens ages 12-17 and young adults ages 18-29, 72% of whom participate in online social media, this means huge changes for the way this generation will interact in society and how they will react to marketing throughout their lifetime. And as advertising revenues grow to become more consummate with the volume of the member base, will users tune it out or accept it?
Take MySpace for example – its highly customizable platform used the be the leading social community, before its advertising content caught up with its user base. Now, it’s user base is flattening, while Facebook has taken the lead and continues to grow because of its clean design and little advertising clutter. Today, users are able to select what brands they allow into their Facebook community, but I’m not sure that it will continue to always be this way. With 400 million active users, 50% of whom log on to Facebook pretty regularly, it would be far too lucrative for Facebook to ignore the upside of allowing advertisers to communicate and connect with users more readily. Neilsen’s research stats shows the percentage of consumers who consider advertising on social network sites “intrusive” is increasing. As advertising revenue catches up with the size of the community, hopefully Facebook will continue its opt-in features or I believe we’ll see a drop off in membership. I think it’s a balance of trust. The customer will respond favorably if he or she doesn’t feel threatened or bombarded, if the corporate communication they receive is relevant and useful.
Some top brands such as Apple are opting out of social media completely. Their brand is so strong that all they have to do is make a great product and rely on word-of-mouth. I’m not sure that this the answer for every brand, but certainly quality speaks louder than a Facebook fan page.
Biodegradable garbage bags
Did you know that plastic was designed literally to last forever? I’ve read that normal plastic pretty much never biodegrades because naturally occurring microbes cannot break it down.
The other day I was watching t.v. and saw a commercial for Sun Chips letting everyone know that they will soon be using biodegradable food-based bags for their chips. It was unclear whether or not they had actually implemented this change, and should I be buying Sun Chips now? I went online and found out that as of 2010 the new bags are made of a plastic made from renewable, plant based materials (PLA) polyastic acid, which is from lactic acid derived from starch that has been fermented. Too biotech? Well, at least it’s good to know that we’re headed in the right direction.
Read the rest of this article on my blog Natural Consumer...
Growing Rabbits
The other day I came across an article in the NYTimes about a group that gathered on a Saturday morning in an empty lot in the Bronx to learn how to kill rabbits. This sounds horrifying at first glance because rabbits are bunnies, after all, and bunnies are soft and white and cuddly cute. However, the purpose of the gathering was not to viciously kill bunnies with no cause or concern, but rather to help prepare potential rabbit growers for the necessary task that all farmers eventually must make peace with. I suppose it was also to help “weed out” all the over zealous yuppies that were soooo looking forward to raising organic hare in their upper east side gardens! So, you want to grow rabbits? Well why don’t you try killing one first!
Read the rest of my thoughts on my blog Natural Consumer….
Digital Piano Music
As a sight reading pianist, for many years I have hoisted my laptop precariously on top of the piano so that I could read music and play at the same time. So, I was curious if there was something on the market designed specifically for pianists who wanted to do the same. I envisioned this technology storing music digitally as well – a wonderful invention indeed! I might pay, oh, maybe, $300 or $400 for something like this.
However, after some light research, I discovered that musicians seemed to be fond of using “tablets” for this purpose; they were setting them up against the music stand and hooking them up to their computer via USB cable, which I assume was sitting on the floor beneath the piano. This isn’t quite what I had in mind, although my idea must remain under wraps for a time ( future patent protection…:)). I’m documenting this in my blog to see what others have been doing to solve this problem.
chickens in ybor city
Recently got the old green girl fixed up at the Flying Fish Bike Shop. Took her out for a spin in Tampa.
I knew that the place to ride was on Bayshore, but I thought that a little exploring was in order first. I made my way east toward Ybor City, and came across a lovely bunch of run down houses with chickens running all over the yard. I spotted a guy making his way towards one of the hens, and they were tame!
I called out to him, “Are those your chickens?”
He seemed startled, and looked up at me and put his arms down to his sides. “No…they’re not”
I had been sincere in asking, but then realized that he was trying to steal a chicken!! I had just put a stop to a chicken murder!
television changes
If you’ve ever gone to a tech tradeshow, you know that there are hundreds of products that have yet to reach consumers. It’s maddening to see all the really cool gadgets and programs and devices that aren’t available for sale, perhaps not even for several years! And it never fails that once you finally spend the money on latest and greatest, something else comes out in a few weeks. I’m not really a techie, but it’s really all very calculated.
For innovative companies, it’s a matter of timing revenue streams. If companies released all of their new technologies as soon as they were created and tested, it would eat into the potential profits they would receive from late adopters who would be buying the existing products on the market. So it’s in the best interests of the firm to wait until the product’s life cycle is complete before releasing the next new idea. This is so they can squeeze all the profits out before giving the masses the next great thing.
But being first-to-market is also important. It’s a balancing act with tech firms to make sure they extract all profits from existing products, but making sure that their competition isn’t going to release the latest and greatest before they do.
Of course, times have changed. Nowadays there are even partnerships amongst firms that rely on one another for sales. The cable/telecom industry is on the verge of a total makeover. As for the companies that produce the gadgets, it can be tough if they don’t have a winning product. And considering the price of a television set, not everyone can change out their tv set every few months.
I’m really looking forward to seeing tech companies work with communications companies to integrate internet with cable. I know I’ve had plenty of years paying for a cable subscription for shows I never watch. I’d love to see a custom cable program where certain shows could be paid for or even certain channels.
For several years, I hooked up my laptop to the big screen monitor and did wireless basic computing from my sofa. It wasn’t very streamlined and had a few wires involved, but it worked. Now integrated versions are available. l may even be putting my “old” 42″ LCD television on eBay once they come out with something that I’m in love with. Check out this article about Sony’s integration of internet with television and touch screen. Sony introduced a 24″ version that has basic computing capabilities, Blu-Ray player and cable. I think that most people will not utilize the touch screen capability as much as it’s being touted, we’ll have to wean ourselves off of the remote control.
Should I wait for 4-dimensional touch screen version? I bet it’s been developed. I wonder how soon this will be available?
Definition of Print
This is my first posting on a topic that I feel very passionate about. I am concerned about what is happening within the news industry and the decline of the newspaper and have sought to think of an innovative solution to this problem.
Due to consumers’ adoption of technology and the paradigm shift that has been occurring within the media, fewer people are watching the news and even fewer are reading the paper to get their information. Newspaper companies have gone online to save their readership base and have formulated various alternative means of revenue streams, including advertising and annual membership access to news articles. Print has hung on, however, but as internet use continues to grow and fewer people are willing pay for a paper, the very existance of the newspaper is in danger.
To those who love and cherish the time spent reading the paper, its potential decline causes them much conflict, but especially since they too enjoy getting the news online: It’s free, it’s convenient, and it’s really quick. Article headlines can be skimmed through in a matter of minutes and one can feel like they get a glimpse of what’s going on in the world without having to leave their desk. And yet, there’s something wrong with this. I only know this because the articles that I remember are the ones that I read on Sundays.
Although I wholely embrace online media and keep abreast of what is going on in the digital world, I like to spend my Sundays reading the New York Times. Every Sunday, I usually manage to get through half of the paper in a couple of hours and I find it a meditative practice. It takes a longer time to get through the articles, but I usually find myself better informed and feeling better after having taken the time to flip through the pages. There is a rhythm that is designed into the pages, and after I’m through, the coffee ring stains show that it was loved.
I feel that the majority of my generation would balk at reading an actual newspaper, and forget about asking them to pay for a yearly subscription…the paper would likely pile up in its plastic bag on the edge of the driveway until it was cancelled a few months into the plan.
So I found myself wondering, what if the things that we love about reading the newspaper could be assimilated with those that we love about online news? What we love about reading the paper is the page turning, the physcial presence of the articles, the layouts. The online version is great for its convenience, easy access, the non-commitment and, for most journals, the fact that it is free. Of course, more and more journals are requiring a subscription in order to read the entire article, so the final attribute may soon see its end. But since the definition of print has traditionally been “ink on paper”, what if we began to think of it simply as “static content”?
Technology has changed the face of the industry, and when this happens companies are forced to either adopt or innovate; most news companies have already adopted an online model. Yet, if newspapers feel that they need to serve a substantial segment of their marketplace that desires static content news, they may need to innovate. Combining the two attributes of both models might look like a newspaper that was “wired”, with slim LCD panels for pages and a subscription that provides updated content, daily static content, every morning. Consumers would buy the “online paper” from the newspaper companies and pay for an annual subscription. It would be akin to Amazon’s Kindle, yet with a much larger surface area and potential layout space for graphics and articles.
The LCD panels are in production. Just last week they released the thinnest LCD panels ever made, as thin as a magazine page. It’s called e-paper. I witnessed Fortune’s application of similar video media on the cover of its magazine about a year ago, although it was battery operated and on a loop. Consumers would select the sections of the paper that they typically read most often and pay for a subscription to these sections, as one might for a certain number of preferred cable channels. Then, each morning, the newspaper would update its content with news articles. The consumer could elect to ‘refresh’ the content to get the latest breaking news, and the ads would, of course, be tailored to the consumer…which would be of great interest to potential advertisers.
This innovation may be well into the future, perhaps too expensive and maybe long after newspaper companies have been abandoned their presses. A good solution for those die-hards who love the New York Times, without the coffee stains, and who may just be willing to may a little more for the experience that the newspaper is.
