Just wanted to let you know that Google Fiber is working with SMCKC (Social Media Club of Kansas City). SMCKC will be posting the latest updates/news to our Google Fiber blog (http://gigabitcity.smckc.com/).
There’s no doubt Summit and our clients can benefit from this technology when it comes to KC … the question is how? Stay in the know and keep those creative wheels turning.
Happy brainstorming!
Here’s the blog link, one more time: http://gigabitcity.smckc.com/
Someone is missing the point of Foursquare and I don’t think it’s me. (I don’t mean to brag, but I am the Mayor of three places, including Summit Marketing, St. Louis.) Please correct me if I’ve got it all wrong. If I haven’t been using the app properly then, by all means, let me know so that others can learn from my silly mistakes.
Before you read any more, I must disclose something that you may find hard to believe. I am not a socialite. I don’t hit all the trendy spots in town and ‘Check In’ to announce my presence to all my online friends. I don’t use Foursquare as a tool to find out where all my friends are hanging. I have one friend on Foursquare and she’s my wife. (Gotta keep tabs on her somehow :>)
So maybe that’s why I’m not seeing any benefit to Foursquare. Does the number of friends you have influence how many or what kind of offers you get? Nope. At least I didn’t find any mention of that when I read about using specials within Foursquare’s merchant section. http://support.foursquare.com/entries/481480-what-are-foursquare-specials
So unless I’m missing something, the businesses around here are definitely missing something. They’re missing out on my loyalty.
For the past two months I’ve been using Foursquare to check in at the different businesses I visit. I have yet to receive or unlock a special that has benefited me. Not even a Newbie special or a special when I became Mayor.
I visit some places, like grocery stores, 1-3 times a week. (Don’t I live an exciting life?) I think grocery stores provide a great example for our discussion here. A couple miles from my home, two competing grocery stores (Dierberg’s and Schnuck’s) are located across the street from each other. I drive past them every day so they’re both equally convenient. Here’s the thing…I’m not loyal to either store. Some days I go to Schnuck’s, some days I go to Dierberg’s. I don’t have any rhyme or reason for that. Over the past two months I’ve checked in at Schnuck’s 9 times and Dierberg’s 7 times. And I have absolutely nothing to show for it. OK, every once in a while I get a nifty little badge icon and a congratulatory message on my phone from the nice folks at Foursquare, but not one thing from the actual store where I’m checking in.
All it would take is for one of the stores to give me a valuable special and they would get the lion’s share of my business. Now I don’t expect them to turn my visit into that awesome old game show, Supermarket Sweep, but $5 off a purchase of $50 would be cool.
Giving me a simple offer like that would engage me and allow me to interact with their brand on my phone. More important, it would make me want to continue to check in at their store to see what other specials I could unlock. The more specials I would unlock, the more connected to the brand I would become.
In a way, a check in is like a consumer asking a business for some love. When check in after check in gets ignored, it’s like the business’ way of rejecting their customers. One can only take so much rejection before moving on.
I can see the potential value Foursquare offers to businesses and consumers. But until businesses “get it”, I don’t see how Foursquare will survive. The potential will go unfulfilled. If there’s nothing in it for me, then why should I care?
So do I have this all wrong or do you agree with me? What are your experiences with Foursquare? Let me know in the comments below.
Thanks for reading.
-Kevin
If your typical day is anything like mine, you typically search Google several times a day looking for information that helps you with your work load. This article I read has some excellent quick tips on how you can improve your search results, i.e. locate the most relevant information efficiently.
Some of this was news to me, like the ~ symbol (yes, I had to search my keyboard for it) would mean synonym in a Google search. Plus I had no idea that Google can work as a calculator – by simply typing in a formula. Interesting stuff and I hope you find this useful!
Example: “internet marketing”
Example Search: internet marketing -advertising
Example: “internet marketing” site:www.smallbusinesshub.com
Example: “internet marketing” ~professional
Example: “internet marketing” filetype:ppt
Example: internet marketing OR advertising
Example: phonebook:617-555-1212 (note: the provided number does not work – you’ll have to use a real number to get any results).
Example: 617
Example: president 1940..1950
Example: GOOG
Example: 48512 * 1.02
Example: define:plethora
PALO ALTO – Facebook said Tuesday it would roll out new controls for sharing personal information on the social network later this week, giving its more than 750 million users new tools to manage who can see information about them.
On Thursday, the company plans to move a number of privacy controls — which previously required navigating to a separate settings page — to users’ homes pages and profile pages, next to where they view and post content.
Facebook and other social networks have at times been criticized for designs that lead users to inadvertently share information with a wider audience than they intended. Many Facebook users have hundreds or thousands of friends, and some have urged the company to make it easier to target smaller groups when posting information.
Google did just that with its competing Google+ offering, which was introduced in June and had amassed 29 million worldwide unique visitors in July, according to research firm comScore Inc. Google+ allows users to build so-called “circles” of audiences for their content, and promises to let users “share just the right things with just the right people.”
Chris Cox, Facebook’s vice president for products, said his company had been working on the changes for the last six months based on longstanding user requests. “It is all about making it easier to share with exactly who you want and never be surprised about who sees something,” he said. Users should “never be surprised about who sees something.”
Cox said making privacy controls easier is “absolutely critical” to Facebook’s future success, but added the changes were not made in response to Google. “We are launching this now because it is ready,” he said.
A Google spokeswoman said in a statement, “We welcome Facebook’s efforts to give users more control over their privacy because it helps to improve the overall web experience. With Google+ we’re creating a new and different approach to make sharing on the Web more like sharing in the real world.”
Facebook is trying to make it easier for businesses to market themselves. Facebook For Business breaks down the tremendous marketing opportunities that are available within the site.
Since Summit Marketing just launched our Facebook page, I thought this news might be of interest to you (especially if you’re on the social media committee). Check it out!
http://www.facebook.com/business
At first I wasn’t too keen on Google+. I didn’t want to learn another social network. Twitter and Facebook are my besties and I had no interest in playing with the new kid. I was a brat.
Alas, I can’t deny it any longer. Google+ is will be better than Facebook. There it is, I said it.
It is ONE social network that can be used professionally and personally — very personally, as there are some things I wish only to share with my family — so it eliminates the need for LinkedIn and Facebook. It means that not only can I filter who can and cannot read the content I post, but I can filter content I read. If I only want to see what my friends from college have to say today, I can. Or, if I only want to see what Summiteers are posting, I can. Cool, huh?
The only issue is that not everyone is on Google+. Yet. It will no doubt take some time for Facebook fiends to make the switch. But I really think they will. So many people already use Google for email, photos, YouTube, search, Google Reader … the list goes on and on. It just makes sense to aggregate even more of your life on Google.
Yes, perhaps Google is taking over the world. Even more so than McDonald’s. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, we can’t live without ‘em.
As for our clients, Google+ is still in its early stages and it’s difficult to say what its value will be for businesses. I think Google is waiting to see how people use this new platform before creating special services for businesses — which is smart. Like Facebook, I’m sure Google+ will evolve organically.
If you don’t know much about Google+, here’s a good, short video that describes the difference between Google+ and Facebook:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC_M6PzXS9g]
Enjoy! And if you’re on Google+, look me up!
I saw this article on the Twittersphere and thought it was very cool news. If we weren’t buried in Thanksgiving in copywriting, I’d share some thought-provoking ideas. Instead, I’ll just share the link with you.
http://www.dmnews.com/cablevision-debuts-on-screen-email-opt-in/article/205315/
I once heard someone say, “creativity doesn’t come from thinking outside the box, but rather real creativity comes from thinking inside the box, but that doesn’t mean you can’t tip the box over.”
This idea got me to thinking, about QR codes. You know, those labyrinth-like boxes that that are popping up everywhere these days. They seem to be the hottest things in marketing since celebrity perfume — seriously Khloe and Lamar’s Unbreakable.
Most of the time, QR codes just take you to the website of the company using them. But recently I have seen some very creative uses:
Let’s hear your ideas for working inside these little boxes. How can we use QR codes to help our clients and ourselves?
STILL DON’T KNOW WHAT A QR CODE IS?
QR stands for “Quick Response.” These codes were developed in Japan back in 1994 and have been popular there, as well as South Korea, ever since. These boxes are two-dimensional codes very similar to standard bar codes used as pricing identifiers on retail products.
QR Codes are scanned with smartphone cameras that work with already installed apps. When a QR Code is recognized by the smartphone it can drive the user to a number of different places, anything from loading a specific phone number to placing a call to opening a specific web landing page.
I realize all of us are professional marketers that respect copyright laws, however I thought you should be aware that soon posting videos with copyright information may be a felony. Here’s the article – yes too log for a blog, but I feel worthy of the space.
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
June 2, 2011
TechDirt reports that Senate bill 978 – a bill to amend the criminal penalty provision for criminal infringement of a copyright, and for other purposes – may be used to prosecute people for embedding YouTube videos.
According to Mark Masnick, if a website embeds a YouTube video that is determined to have infringed on copyright and more than 10 people view it on that website, the owner or others associated with the website could face up to five years in prison.
Read Masnick’s article here. He explains how the new law would expand copyright violations from reproducing and distributing to performing – including streaming video over the internet.
As readers of Infowars.com know, many videos are removed from YouTube after copyright owners complain about infringement. This happens with thousands of news clips every year. Most people are familiar with the now common black box replacing a video that says the video has been removed for copyright reasons.
If enacted, this law will go one step further and turn people who embed a copyrighted video into criminals. It will also set the stage to criminalize linking to copyrighted information — like corporate media news sources — and shut down the alternative media.
It will also make people think twice about putting up all kinds of videos, from news reports to clips from documentaries and other educational material.
It does not take a vivid imagination to realize the political implications of this legislation.
Here is the full text of the bill.
It should be noted that outlawing certain activities on the internet is instrumental to the Obama administration’s copyright policy.
In March, the White House’s Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, Victoria Espinel, provided Congress with a White Paper (available for download here), outlining a series of the Obama Administration’s recommended legislative changes to combat online piracy and counterfeiting.
“Significantly, the recommendations include making it a felony offense to stream infringing content and giving Federal agencies wiretapping authority to obtain evidence of criminal copyright and trademark offenses,” David Makarewicz wrote for Infowars.com on March 17.
Obama’s emerging policy on streaming media dovetails with his administration’s effort to seize web domains. The Department of Homeland Security now arrests web site operators under its “In Our Sites” program.
“On the pretext of protecting intellectual property from infringement and counterfeiters, it’s about fast-tracking Internet distribution and information technology rules to subvert Net Neutrality, privacy, and personal freedoms – global rules for unrestricted free trade, undermining universal, affordable free access, civil liberties, legitimate commerce, and the right of sovereign nations to go their own way,” writes Steve Lendman.
In addition to outlawing video streaming, new legislation “would impose a strong, top-down enforcement regime, with new cooperation requirements upon (ISPs), including perfunctionary disclosure of customer information. The proposal [the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement] also bans ‘anti-circumvention measures which may affect online anonymity systems and would likely outlaw multi-region CD/DVD players. The proposal also specifies a plan to encourage developing nations to accept the legal regime,” imposing consequences for opting out,” a Wikileaks document disclosed in May of 2008.
So-called “secondary copyright liability” will be used to criminalize what is now routine behavior on the internet. It will also be used by the political establishment to eliminate the internet activity – primarily in the form of alternative media – of those who oppose what is shaping up to be a totalitarian state.
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