Would open networking be a benefit?

As someone who has incorporated social networking into how I build relationships, I understand the limits associated with privatizing my contacts and personal information.  I receive invitations to social networks and support networks almost weekly and the task of replicating my information and sharing contacts is beyond tedium. 

There is good news on the horizon.  Companies like Plaxo, MySpace, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft along with others are building their platforms based on open information interchange (Open IDs).

What does that mean to an online networker?  It allows us to take our information and contacts along with us to a new network.  Here’s an example.  Some of my contacts on one are also my contacts on LinkedIn, Facebook, DIGG, Plaxo, or UNYK.  Each time I am invited to a new network I have to enter all of my personal information again on that network.  I then have to invite everyone from my networks to join me on that service.  In an open environment all I would have to do is import my date through my Open ID.  Everyone in my network could also easily add themselves on the new network.

Information and status changes happen automatically across networks.  Even a post like this which I have to copy and paste four times to share with all of my networks can be completed as one post on my open network. 

For more information on this listen to the Connection show podcast featuring John McCrea who is Vice President at Plaxo: http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/wiresandlights/index.php/australian-it/comments/johnmccrea/

What do you think?  Would Open IDs be a help?

Digital Books – Worthy or worthless?

Mobile technology is springing up everywhere and these new devices are allowing us to take our entertainment where ever we go. Many of these new devices are a real benefit to our life while others simply appear to be a last ditch effort to keep an industry from changing. I see the new digital book devices as one of these efforts to cling to the past.

Just last week my son and I were disagreeing on the value of this type of technology for the newspaper industry. Surprisingly he was in favor of a digital newspaper while I failed to see the value. I felt the local newspapers were missing the point that paper print was dying and they needed to adjust their subscriptions to allow customers to receive their local news online from devices they already had right in their homes. While he felt it would be better to keep the news in the same format it is today just deliver it on an electronic handheld device that is refreshed everyday.

Why would we purchase one of these $400 devices?

Verizon Storm Launch – Brilliant or botched

Regardless what actually happened Verizon and Vodafone are still reeling from the launch of the new Storm and there is a lesson for all of us on prelaunch marketing.

The long awaited launch of the new Blackberry Storm happened on November 21, 2008 to lines of people, even an altercation. Demand for the product actually crashed the website and order systems for several hours. There are a dozen different stories regarding what happened and all Verizon can tell their customers is “sorry.”

I have been following the marketing campaign for several months. Verizon used traditional advertising to market the product along with a unique marketing approach which was to tie all of their advertising to a website with a picture of the back of a product. There were no listed features or benefits. Almost no information was shared about the product outside of rumors until two weeks before the launch.

There was two solid months of curiosity and anticipation before the actual launch of a product that only a few saw, touched, or knew much about. That campaign was based on a website, a few emails, and online videos where you heard great things and only saw the back of the product.

What can we take away from this?
- Curiosity is a very strong emotion and curiosity satisfied is opportunity lost. Using a campaign about the next generation of phone and keeping the details secret for months created pent up curiosity for thousands.
- Telling everyone you have plenty of stock when you are not sure of demand is not a good idea. This is what sparked the altercation outside one store when they announced after just one hour that they were out of stock to a hundred people that waited overnight for a phone.
- Lastly, use of the internet, opt-in lists, short videos are all very affective tools to promote a product and keep your prospective customer engaged.

Any thoughts?

What happened to fast food?

This is a little off topic for my blog but reflects the current level of customer service in the US. I went to one of the world famous fast food places today. I am not going to mention any names but it is the one with the yellow M looking logo.

It all started this morning when I ran out of the house to a board meeting forgot my work keys and my healthy choice lunch. So in true American fashion I ran out and grabbed the next best replacement meal which is a fast food double burger, fries and a soda.

Well if you have been to one of these fast food places lately they have become anything but fast. Stopping at 1:30 PM I figured the lunch wave was just about over. Wrong, I think people were still there from the 12:00 rush. There was a line at the drive-thru so I went in and there was a line at the counter.

Immediately I knew this was going to be a problem. Standing there waiting to place my order I was watching the production line, or should I say bottle neck behind the counter. There were plenty of people standing around waiting to distribute food. Two people taking orders and ringing two people waiting to distribute food and one person grabbing drinks. In addition there were the regular people who were there in employee outfits but doing nothing more than walking back and forth. Back behind line of waiting people there was one person assembling sandwiches to order. Hmmm, could that be the issue?

I am no mathematician but if you have one person filling orders for two lines of customers and everything is made to order it stands to reason there may be a delay built in somewhere in that process. As I watch my order being prepared, a milk shake, I ordered for a business associate, was already sitting on the counter melting because the person getting drinks for the front had plenty of time to prepare. My fries which were already placed in the bag were getting cold and the entire process was at a stand still waiting for the one poor sole in the process with the biggest job.

During this whole process there was a win for the company, the gentlemen behind me only ordered a small coffee so he was able to get served and be on his way because the drink person had literally nothing to do anyway with both lines halted.

During this ordeal I was trying to come up with a reason why this company who built its reputation on delivering fast hot food moved away from that model to now deliver slow cold food.

I thought it could be because they were making your food to order and could be more flexible and fresher, but that made no sense because they precook everything and place the food in steam trays so it isn’t fresher and their menu really does not provide for flexibility when you order number 1 through 6. It would make more sense to let the odd person who wanted to vary the burger wait for a few minutes and get everyone else out fast with hot food.

Then I thought it could reduce waste, but when you have lines of people waiting to purchase, at lunch and dinner time how much could be sitting around and need to be thrown away. Again 1 – 6, not a wide range of choices here.

My last thought was to save money – cutting back on preparation staff is a cost savings, but then I saw that mass of people in front of the counter holding food that was either getting cold or melting waiting for the only person in the place actually working hard and I was thinking there goes quality and with it customer so that doesn’t make sense.

I finally figured it out – Corporate thinking. Then it all made sense. There were a bunch of leaders all running around trying to find things to keep the worker-bee busy which creates a bottle neck. So then the leaders have to come up with different ways to resolve the bottle neck. This in turn keeps all of the leader’s busy and employed running in circles trying to make the one worker more productive. After a while they decide that they need to outsource the job and get it done for less because their one worker can’t keep up with demand.

So watch for the next improvement where by your finished meal is shipped in from a country where the pay is significantly less and the employees do not speak our language. Your #1 may end up being #2 and your containers may be painted with lead because it is cheaper and shinier. But hay that is progress…

Is social networking having an impact?

Over the last few months I have been doing hands on research to see what affect social networking can have on a candidate running for election.

I approached a friend, who decided to run for office for the first time and offered to manage her website and establish social networking sites.

Some positives for the experiment and negatives for the candidate:

• She was relatively unknown in city, small business women who had a few book keeping accounts and worked part time.
• She had never run for office before.
• She was running against another first timer, but his family was well known in the city.
• She was running as a Republican in what was predicted to be an election which would be dominated by the Democratic Party.

The results are now history…

• She already had a website so I updated the format and added widgets to make it sticky (provide a reason for people to return)
• Added a poll to involve guests
• We placed recent updates on the main page to alert visitors of changes
• Included pictures of events

I also created a social networking site on Facebook and created a Twitter Account. The sites were updated at least three times a week to keep them fresh and current.

The results were amazing. Although she lost as a result of the state wide democratic sweep her district had one of the closest races for state representative. All three republican candidates lost the election to their democratic competition in her city. Here is how the results played out: District 22: 30 point spread, District 77: 11 point spread, District 79: 49 point spread. Yes you guessed it my candidate was in district 77 and the only candidate with a website and incorporating social networking tools.

My experiment demonstrated that when you add social networking tools to what you are doing there will be an impact on the results. It is easier for people to find, research, and stay connected with you.