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Mar 17 2010

Dell Blows Hot Air Up Twitter's Skirt: Claims for Twitter 4 Business Soar (Dell-On-Twitter)

Category: social media, tech opinion — jmacofearth @ 3:26 pm

While the Dell Factory Outlet is still held up as the poster child for making money on Twitter, the reality is that making money using 140 character updates is not an easy task. Story goes that as Twitter was rolling out in 2006, a couple people from Dell saw the dollar signs possible if they used Twitter to coupon folks with Dell Factory Outlet products. Was it a revolutionary use of the new status-broadcasting service? NO. Was it another way to get people to use online coupon codes to buy refurbished and used computers and components online? YES.

Very quickly after Dell began blasting coupon codes down the Twitter stream, they also began claiming wildly varying levels of success. First it was $500k in the first six months. Now I am hearing $4 million since inception. Of course Dell doesn't reveal the numbers actually associated with the Twitter coupon codes, nor to do they necessarily want to boost Twitter's potency. But if you've seen online coupons, you know people will go out of their way to share them. Entire sites and mailing lists have grown up around things like Ben's Bargins. And not to be fooled, these things do actually generate millions in revenue for the coupon-driven economy. And geeks looking for deals are a perfect target for coupons.

So, if you think turning Twitter into a unique RSS feed filled with daily coupon codes is a revolutionary concept, and a concept that your business can follow into profitability… Well, that's where more of the reality of making real money on Twitter actually comes into play. It's easy to start a Twitter account or a Facebook FAN page. Oh, sure the Dell Factory Outlet has one of those as well.

Yes, there is money to be made on Twitter and Facebook. And yes, you may be able to unlock the code that kicks your business into gear using social media. Setting up some accounts and blasting coupons may be easy for Dell Factory Outlet, but not so easy for everyone else. It takes a coordinated strategy, a team of people willing to spend time creating tweets or Facebook updates. It is true that Dell has been very successful with the coupon factory for refurbished computers. But many more Dell-on-Social-Media projects have launched and failed. And this is due to the fact that people ARE online looking for deals on computers and electronics. People may not be online looking for your product or service.

@jmacofearth (former Dell Global Online employee, did not work on the Dell-On-Twitter projects)
permalink: http://bit.ly/dell-on-twitter

Apple iPad – "This Changes Everything" – The iPad Arrives April 3 (3-17-10 update v8)

Category: iPad-iWay!, social media, speed the web, tech opinion, tech reviews — jmacofearth @ 12:40 pm

UPDATE 3-17-10: Got this little note from Apple today. Have you gotten yours yet?

And don't try to pick mine up. They'll be checking IDs. (clap)

UPDATE 3-15-10: Did you pre-order your iPad on Friday? I did. I'm going to pick it up on April 3, at the nearby Apple store. I have until 3pm to grab it, or they will give it to someone else. They've even got their distribution system worked out, having dealt with the iPhone releases. I can't wait.

What's the first thing you are going to do on you iPad? I'll probably play DoodleJump.

+++

UPDATE 3-10-10: Starting March 12, pre-order from the Apple Online Store or reserve for pickup at an Apple Retail Store. First available April 3, 2010. Get ready, cause here we go!

Here's the latest post on the iPad and a link to the first iPad commercial that launched during the Oscars.

[When I pick mine up on April 3 I will be forever rebranded as iDad!]

+++

image: visualizing Apple's new iSlate tablet computer

visualizing Apple's new iPad computer - on sale April 3, 2010

I still can't pre-order my iPad, but I can tell you a few more tidbits about it.

1. It will NOT, nor will it EVER have FLASH. (FastCompany)

2. It's gonna be bigger than the iPhone. (and I mean market share rather than just screen size.)

3. Like the early iPhone days Apple will have a hard time keeping up with the demand.

So imagine, you are about to release a product and your biggest worries is inventory! What a problem to have. Not will it sell, but how can we increase the numbers we can manufacture so we can sell MORE.

+++

I hope you weren't holding on to a lot of Apple stock hoping the doubling was going to continue unabated. It turns out that "leading up to" and Apple big event is the best time to grow Apple stock value. And since we've all be working so hard to figure out what Apple was about to release, the "after party" is usually a bit more glum.

It's nothing to worry about. I guess if you are a speculator you'd sell all of your apple stock the day before the big party. And then buy again sometime in the following weeks as the public perception comes back to earth and Apple's business model shows it's basis is revenue and not trying to do magic tricks.

Everyone at the iPad announcement wanted a magic trick. We'd see the vizualizations (like the one here to the right). We'd see videos of what these devices would look like. There was very little that Steve Jobs could pull rabbit-like out of his hat. His two major bombs: $500 starting price (a virtual gasp in the audience, as most were guessing in the $700 – $999 range the day before the show. And ship date: 60 Days.

I'd have mine or order if there were a place to pre-order them. Amazon has a series of hilarious screens if you go to their site to order your iPad. And believe me Amazon the store wants to be in line for the gravy train of sales that are going to come out of this device. (I am putting my images into a new post that will be up shortly.)

UPDATE 1-27-10: Welcome to the real world folks. Imagine this, take your MacBookPro, break it in half and hold the screen-only half in your hand. Apple's iPad! Any questions?

UPDATE 12-26-09: So even if they are calling it the iSlate iPad, the new tablet Mac is coming in January. If we are lucky it will be on sale as early as Feb. Wow!
Apple’s New Tablet To Be Baptized iSlate? Let’s Dig A Little Deeper from TechCrunch
Here’s what I think happened, based on the evidence presented above: Apple decided on the name iSlate for a new product it was working on, whether it will ultimately turn out to be for their new tablet computer or not, in November 2006. That same month, they moved to file for a trademark for the name in the United States and Europe under disguise, setting up and using Slate Computing LLC as a shell company, and securing a couple of available domain names through Mark Monitor (islate.co.uk, islate.biz and islate.info).But getting back into the swing of it. ;-)
+++

Say what you will about the Kindle, and I certainly do, but Apple's entry into the netbook market is going to hurt a lot of the other players.

Kindle/Amazon (although they can sell the books to iPhones already, so the book sales are safe), Dell/HP/Acer/ARM/Asius.

Even if this visualization is not real, you know it will be here soon enough. We waited for the iPhone to finally appear for over 2 years. And look what that has done to the market. Now come the apologists for the other manufacturers who will say, "Apple is late to the netbook game, Apple will not be a factor… " And all I can say is goodnight and good riddance to a category that needed to be put to sleep.

How about this reversal, "Apple's new Netbook Killer!" Or "Apple Knocks Out the Kindle for Good!"

And to all of you who have ARM-powered netbook/laptop-wannabies, I'm sorry about that. Perhaps it's not to late to take/send it back. "Don't let your friends to netbooks."

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/apple-ipad

The latest: iPad from Apple, Coming April 3, 2010 – You Will Never Be the Same!

The entire Uber.la Apple iPad coverage can be seen via the iPad-iWay tag.

Here's the scoop from SlashGear: Apple Media Pad tipped for Holiday launch with Verizon data subsidy
FastCompany: The iPad-Adobe Flash Argument Concluded, Completely
FastCompany: Apple iPad Launch by the Numbers
Wired: Hands-on with the Apple iPad

Tags: anti-netbook, apple, apple 2010 announcement, apple iDad, apple ipad, apple iSlate, Apple Knocks Out the Kindle for Good!, apple tablet, apple's iDad, apple's ipad, Apple's new Netbook Killer!, dell, dell slate, dell tablet, FastCompany, fastcompany.com, hp, hp slate, HP tablet, iDad, inote, ipad-iway, iphone, islate, islate domain, january 2010, kindle, netbook killer, netbook reviews, netbooks, netbooks die, pre-order ipad, pre-order iPad from Apple, pre-order march 12, tablet computing, techcrunch, the iPad, visualising the ipad, visualizing ipad, visualizing the apple ipad, visualizing the iSlate

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Mar 16 2010

SXSW Wrap Up for 2010: Pumpin the High 5s and Droppin the Lows #sxsw final update

Category: community building, lifestreaming, social media, sxsw, tech opinion — jmacofearth @ 7:50 pm

That's a wrap folks. The interactive festival in ATX, SXSW 2010, is done. Bring on the rockers and mods and let us geeks be awed by the sheer volume and volume of the partying that is about to kick off with the coming of the MUSIC FESTIVAL. Cause that's how it all started. Music baby, music.

#brucesterling "The first thing we should have open-sourced is food and shelter."

Well, the weather has returned for the ATX rockers, I'm remoting in from my back porch today. Life is good!

But before we roll along, let's compare notes and see if what you got is close to what I got.

#1 Observation: Batteries suck. They suck the most on iPhones.

#1 Lesson: Draw everything. If you don't think you can draw, get Ed Emberly's book and do it. Communication with pictures, or visual communication is the way to win in communications.

#1 Fail: Even if you are the CEO of Twitter or a contributor the Havard Business Review, "READ YOUR FRAKIN AUDIENCE." And if you are losing them, change course.

#1 Social Technology: Eye contact.

#1 Most Annoying Technology: Geo-Location games and apps.

#2 Most Annoying Technology: Everybody, and I mean everybody checking-in with geo-location apps above.

#3 Most Annoying Technology: Over tweeting. (Yes, I am pointing the finger at myself too.)

#1 Bad unSXSW Event: Reverse VC Pitch Party put on by Larry Chiang.
Most of the people in the room PAID to be there. The idea according to the Event Bright posting: "VCs are here to charm you. Normally, you pitch VCs. Well at this event the VCs will be pitching you.?" That would've been a great idea had it been true. (additional notes here)

#1 Most Amazing Offsite Chill Pad: Social Media Club House 3.
I'm not exactly sure what happened SUN – TUES at "the house" cause it was kinda locked out, but while I was "on the bus" or "in da house" I can only say WOW! Well done on both counts. (additional notes here)

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/2010-wrap

All the Uber.la SXSW 2010 posts in one place:

And some of the other wraps:

Tags: #1 fail, #viznotes, batteries suck, chill pad, evan williams, eye contact, iphone, iPhone battery, larry chiang, over-sharing, over-tweeting, remote office, remoting, social media club, social media club house, sxsw, sxsw 2010, sxsw highlights, sxsw interactive, sxsw keynote, sxsw wrap-up, visual communiction

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Mar 16 2010

Twitter Keynote Trends Badly, It Wasn't All Umair Haque's Fault #sxsw #twitter

Category: community building, lifestreaming, social media, speed the web, tech opinion, tech reviews — jmacofearth @ 1:32 pm

Even if you are CEO of Twitter you need to inspire! And @ev blows it. All by himself, Evan Williams could've made a difference, but he followed a clueless Haaaavard guide. Oops!

Umair Haque's Harvard Business Review Bio and links to posts. I can't wait to see his next post. I think this might have been where he was coming from during the "interview" 21st Century Strategy in Four Words, Tuesday December 15, 2009. The words seem to echo much of what was said, "minimize evil, maximize good." Is THAT what @ev kept referring to in his dazed platitudes?

And it wasn't just me that picked up on the lack of spirit in the Twitter Keynote by Evan Williams. While the main ballroom was full and the overflow room was also full, the lack of inspiration, or anything beyond a soft-ball interviewer and an executive having a chat, started clearing the room at about 3o minutes in. It became a parody of an interview. I wonder if @ev was afraid to take Q and A for fear of being hammered on Fail Whale plans, or "revenue model" questions that the inept interviewer even said he wasn't going to ask. UH! Why not?

I can tell you @anywhere is not going to bring Twitter out of the huge-loss mode. @ev jokes about how Twitter is a company "without a revenue model," but it's not funny. And when the Fail Whale blows repeatedly throughout the SXSW conference, I believe many of us would welcome a new platform that could suck in our Twitter Friends and Follows and give us a stable platform.

Well, it ain't BUZZ, but I'm saying that Twitter.com's days are numbered. Have they got a killer iPad strategy in the wings for two weeks when Apple opens the tablet flood gates?

PCWorld covered the unKEYNOTE like this: "During and after the speech, Twitter was jammed with tweets about how boring the whole thing was. Like this one: / LaurieManny: Audience walks out on Twitter CEOKeynote…line to get out of room… / A line to get out of the room! Before the speech, a long, long, long line waited to get in to see whatwas bar far the highest-profile session of the conference. —PCWorld: SXSW-Twitter Announcement a Real Yawner

AdWeek's coverage: SXSW: Twitter's Ad Platform That Isn't

HuffPo uses @anywhere to blast @ev and pseudo interviewer: Umair Haque's Moderation At SXSW 2010 Keynote Criticized By Interview Attendees

And while I'm certain I don't understand even a 10th of the goodness that is going to be the @anywhere platform, the ability to post from a 3rd party website like Huffington Post is OKAY, but I prefer Friendfeed and Delicious and StumbleOn, and guess what. They're free.

Wired tones it down a bit with tepid: Twitter CEO Launches @anywhere to Tepid Audience Reaction

Photos: Jim Merithew, Wired.com

This was in the room that was standing room only. Hey, is that a seat there, next to that woman… DANG! Problem was the crowds were streaming out about 30 minutes into the lackluster chat.

Business Insider: Here's What Twitter's CEO Was Trying To Tell You About @Anywhere When Umair Haque Wrecked His SXSW Keynote

TechCrunch: Uh Oh. Not Another “Don’t Be Evil” Company

So regardless if Umair Haque was hand-picked by Twitter to softball Evan Williams and not ask the hard "revenue" questions, at some point the casual CEO should've figured things were going badly, like maybe when the crowds were mobbing the exits. It wasn't because they were trying to get out and blog about the ho-hum platform he had just revealed. It was because the metaphors and soliloquies coming out of Evan Williams mouth were the same kind of nonsense you her at presentations where the leader is completely out of their element. I wonder if pharma had anything to do with @ev taking the digression of the interview with little to no resistance.

So there was plenty blame to go around, but more importantly the two people in charge of the tone and pacing and content of the discussion just sailed along. The last thing you do with a restless crowd is ignore them, or try to continue without making any adjustments.

He spoke of open windows as opposed to open doors. He talked a lot about "without a revenue model" even if Mr. Haque wouldn't ask the question. But the oddest thing about the whole presentation was how little Haque seemed to be getting about what @ev was saying. While he was very vocal with his "uh hun, yes, okay's" his follow up questions often were about Haque himself. He kept referring to his 5 points. And he would use them to loft another non-sequitur into the lap of Mr. Williams to little or no effect.

I kept thinking we were getting @ev the bored white executive, now so big he can't even take TWEETS for questions. Wouldn't that have made more sense? You've got a room full of evangelists and questioners. Ask them, let them ask. Rather, Mr. Haque skipped along on his own agenda and his own story about his experience at a gas station or hotel or something else, check the notes. He was not even in the room with us.

So as things began to go badly in a presentation you stop and take a breath. You pause and decide which way to go next. But Mr. Williams and blind-executioner Mr Haque stumbled, bumbled and continued into some sort of trance. People were actually getting mad in the overflow room, where I was. "This is bullshit." was murmered more than once, and probably tweeted.

So as the "platform" of the future continued to show #fail and the fail whale itself continued to blow his spermy spume, Evan Williams waxed poetic and Umair Haque told his own stories and followed his incoherent 5-point strategy. I'm still not sure if UH was talking about a "strategy" to get the most out of the Evan Williams interview, or something from his new book about his 5-points of light.

What I did know, was it sucked. Big time! And the crowd was literally streaming out of the overflow room. Perhaps is was not as bad in the room where the zoned speakers were. But the cracking and closing of the door in the overflow room was deafening. And then I left too.

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/twitter-fails

All the Uber.la SXSW 2010 posts in one place:

Geo-This Geo-That: Gowalla Wins ATX Social Media Darlings Award at #SXSW; Exclamations of "So What!"

Category: community building, connections, lifestreaming, social media, sxsw, tech opinion, tech reviews — jmacofearth @ 8:16 pm

One thing you really ought to know about these days is Twitter. Now, it's not because Twitter is good for you, or makes you smarter or can accelerate your business growth. And it's not that Twitter is new or revolutionary. But you "ought" to know about Twitter because everyone's doing it, and you'd better start doing it at some point or be left behind. Or… On second thought, perhaps it's really okay if you don't know about Twitter at all. Don't care about it? Fine.

So now that we've established that Twitter is optional, here's something you ought to know about Twitter.

Twitter is about REAL TIME with REAL PEOPLE. So let's get GEO.

The New York Times has a piece on SXSW today: South by Southwest’s Location-Based Allure and another one: Telling Friends Where You Are (or Not)

And last night the local paper AAS gave their 2nd annual Texas Social Media Award to local geo-darling Gowalla. Even though Foursquare appears to be kicking Gowalla to the curb according to the GEOWARS page setup by SXSWTWITS. No matter.

So what's wrong with geo-locating apps? Nothing. In theory, our GPS-aware phones can do miraculous things. The phone knows where we are at all times. And unfortunately for my iPhone-weary friends, that GPS locating takes a significant amount of battery life. But, aside from that, the geo in geo-location apps is not really a big issue.

What IS a big issue is how the geo-location apps are set up as default to self-promote their services everytime one of their followers "checks in." And here's a sample of the *joy* you can have when your friends begin using gowalla or 4sq.

I'm at Vespaio (1610 S Congress Ave, W Milton St, Austin) w/ 3 others. http://4sq.com/52WjZs
I'm at Middle Earth (302 – 310 Water St, Cambie, Vancouver). http://4sq.com/9XMGz9
I just unlocked the "Porky" badge on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/aGnj1N
I'm at Morishita Station in Tokyo http://gowal.la/s/4BZg
I'm at Frost Bank Tower in Austin, TX http://gowal.la/s/3K5

So I suppose if you are trying to find the *action* this might be one way of doing it. Or if you are social famous and trying to create a FLASH MOB, these tools might be good. But what they do it create oh so many updates that contain nothing of value to anyone not associate with said tweeters. I mean, can I filter OUT all the 4sq or gowal.la updates completely? (Not yet? Well, someone get to work on that would ya? Jeeze!)

So in geo-locating yourself the idea is you are calling in your peeps to join you. But as events go, or SATURDAY nights for that matter, I would guess the information is not that interesting to people who are over a hundred miles from your geo-ass. It's the equivalent of the earliest days of twitter in 2006 when we were all tweeting things like, "We're going to get coffee after pizza at Angie's. Meet us there!" But it's the same logic. It's a stream of data, or lifestream, that has no REAL in it. Sure, it's WHERE YOU ARE AT, but that's only marginally important to the rest of the world. Unless you think it's more important, let me know. (And I know some of you will, and that's cool, I'm asking for it.)

So if you are looking to geo-locate yourself at SXSW this year, may I suggest my favorite SITBY.US. What's different about this service is it uses Twitter without any additional registrations. It is focused on the event and timing of the events within the event. And it actually helps you find friends you know in real time or want to meet from virtual relationships, and it locates them inside a single narrow slice of time and allows them to not only sign-in to the room, but also show where in the room they are sitting. Thus allowing people to sit together in real time, using a virtual tool in the virtual world. (Oh hell, I forgot to sign out of the Visual Note Taking Panel… just a sec.)

T the little square icon before my name shows you exactly where I am sitting. I did go ahead and check out. And here's what the screen looks like when you "check-in."

So if you are looking for me tomorrow, the last day of SXSW Interactive, don't bother with my Plancast profile or the my.sxsw.com page. Cause I don't use them. The interface and simplicity of Sitby.us has captured my event check-in space. And I am telling you, I don't "check-in" in the Gowalla sense.

To me, Geo-Locating apps are like tellin you what I'm "fixin to do," rather than doin it and lettin you know what I'm doin. And yes I will admit to saying YES and MAYBE on a lot of Facebook events, cause I don't want to deny anything I might go to. Even if I'm not in the same country. But that's Facebook. Whatever!

So somehow Mr. Gowalla himself won the Texas Social Media Awards. And I'm sure he checked-in and checked-out for that event last night. But I hope he kept the "I am at…" tweet to himself.

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/go-geo

SXSW 2010 posts from earlier:

Here's the latest TwitterVenn diagram:

Click here to run it yourself with up-to-the-second Twitter data.

Tags: foursquare, geo-hell, geo-location, geo-location fun, geo-location hell, geo-location now, geowars, gowalla, gps-enabled, I am at, interactive, interactive conference, must be more positive, my.sxsw.com, real people, real time, sitby.us, social media, sorry facebook sucks, south by southwest, sxsw, sxsw 2009, sxsw 2010, sxswi, Texas Social Media Awards, where in the geo are you, why your UX sucks, your geo-ass

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∴ The Lifetime Value of a "Connection" - Business is One Thing, Deep Friendship Another Thing Entirely
∴ Dell's Amazing Twitter Success: Were We Pawned Into An Illusion of the Commercial Potential of Twitter?
∴ "We Googled You" : What You'd Better Know About Your SERP on Google

Contact John McElhenney - All content ©2006-2010 - Theme by Tommaso Baldovino - Mod by Rick B | my flavors connector

uber.la

Dell Blows Hot Air Up Twitter's Skirt: Claims for Twitter 4 Business Soar (Dell-On-Twitter)

Apple iPad – "This Changes Everything" – The iPad Arrives April 3 (3-17-10 update v8)

SXSW Wrap Up for 2010: Pumpin the High 5s and Droppin the Lows #sxsw final update

Twitter Keynote Trends Badly, It Wasn't All Umair Haque's Fault #sxsw #twitter

Geo-This Geo-That: Gowalla Wins ATX Social Media Darlings Award at #SXSW; Exclamations of "So What!"

∴ The Lifetime Value of a "Connection" - Business is One Thing, Deep Friendship Another Thing Entirely ∴ Dell's Amazing Twitter Success: Were We Pawned Into An Illusion of the Commercial Potential of Twitter? ∴ "We Googled You" : What You'd Better Know About Your SERP on Google

Contact John McElhenney - All content ©2006-2010 - Theme by Tommaso Baldovino - Mod by Rick B | my flavors connector

∴ The Lifetime Value of a "Connection" - Business is One Thing, Deep Friendship Another Thing Entirely
∴ Dell's Amazing Twitter Success: Were We Pawned Into An Illusion of the Commercial Potential of Twitter?
∴ "We Googled You" : What You'd Better Know About Your SERP on Google