delicious.com is delicious!

Social bookmarking...how nifty, how easy, where was this when I had to do group research projects????

Ikea for rent

So I was browsing Ikea's website the other day and came across a YouTube video of Mark Malkov, a comedian/filmmaker whose apartment was being fumigated and needed a place to live. Apartment from my amazement over the negotiation skills this man must have, I was impressed that Ikea recognized what a great marketing tool this would be for them and also that this marketing was done essentially by Mark through his videoblogs and SNSs.

I checked out Mark's video diary of his experience and (thanks to this class) wasn't surprised to see that his video's were hosted by YouTube and he had both his MySpace and Facebook links so we could add ourselves as his friends and recommend his site to our friends.

Mark's video project, and the interest and attention he (and Ikea) received because of it (the webpage received over a million hits) illustrates how effective and how powerful social networking sites and viral marketing are in today's society. Businesses and organizations who haven't explored or considered them as powerful tools would be wise to look at what Ikea and Mark did in one week and capitalize on the evolution of the customer/business experience.

Much easier than the vulcan mind meld...

You wake up one day and realize you need a new job. The classified don't have any promising leads and recruiters aren't beating down your door. So what do you do?

You log into LinkedIn or any other business networking site and put your contact list to work. Don't worry, this is easier than the vulcan mind meld (and far more profitable if you've been selective and consistent with adding your most trusted colleagues to your contact list).

What I find most intriguing about LinkedIn and other business and professional social networking sites is that its most effective when you focus on quality and not quantity (somewhat the opposite of sites like Myspace and Facebook). Don't connect with individuals you don't know or can't share a cup of virtual java with while you discuss a business problem or strategy. Think of it as your reference list, you wouldn't add the postman down the street just because you wave to one another every day would you?

Get a life, no get a Second Life!

When I was a kid I remember people yelling at one another to get a life. I'm an adult now and people are still ranting about getting a life, only this time its "Get a Second Life!" I barely have time for one life let alone two so I'm impressed by the stories of individuals who have not only lived out a fantasy lifestyle, they've actually made money doing it! Talk about innovative entrepreneurship.




Admittedly I had no idea what Second Life was until last week and after watching this video I feel as though I'm about to star in my own cartoon. Better yet, I feel like I've chosen the red pill (or was it the blue) and stayed in the Matrix. Who shall I be? What shall I do? What should my avatar wear? Why am I worrying about any of this???? It's a fantasy space, a realm outside of my real life, so why do people still need jobs, houses, cars, in short why do they pay their hard-earned money in real life to buy things in their second life that only exist there? Are we so unhappy in our real lives that we'll pay or do anything to escape from them? What would Freud say if he saw these stats listed in The San Francisco Chronicle:

Estimates vary on how popular the virtual worlds will become. Technology research firm Gartner forecast this year that by 2011, 80 percent of active Internet users will have a "second life" in some sort of virtual world. Another research company, eMarketer, predicted last month that more than half of U.S. children and teens who use the Internet - about 20 million people - will visit virtual worlds by 2011.

About 8.2 million young Internet users, or 24 percent, already are checking out a virtual world once a month, eMarketer estimated.

In the past year, investors have put $1 billion in 35 virtual-world companies, according to a report advancing the Virtual Worlds Conference, being held Wednesday and Thursday in San Jose.

I guess the reality of fantasy is that people are still functioning in much the same way as they do in real life (though the results of these initial studies are still examining this). This means that we are customers in Second Life in the same way we are customers in our first life. The smart businesses and innovative entrepreneurs have already started to realize this and use it to their advantage (check out the Relay for Life island and see how much they were able to raise in Second Life). The reality of having a Second Life is that businesses and entrepreneurs have a second chance at generating awareness or gaining new customers. The only difference here is that they are restricted more by the limits of their imagination and innovativeness rather than location, demographic market, marketing funding, etc. So perhaps the questions Freud would raise are intriguing but not the question you should be asking yourself. Perhaps the better question is: What's your "Second Life" business plan?

Web 2.0: Members only please.

Technology has improved our lives. Technological advances spawned the Industrial Revolution, sped up the assembly line, allowed us to heat up our food in less than a minute and now, now its democratizing our communication. Or so some say.

Apparently this democratization is only happening if you weren't already on the Who's Who among the Intellectually elite (so sayeth Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing). If you are not among the intellectual elite, or if you haven't risen through the ranks of the traditional mass media,why then you are one of "those people" the kind who...well quite frankly one of those people for whom those tags on pillows can't be removed and for whom hairdryers come with special instructions to not use around water. You, dear reader, are uneducated and your mediocre user generated content apparently does nothing more than spread your mediocrity (if I understand the message correctly), and you are using the Internet to spread this, effectively ruining the years of hard work the intellectually elite leaders in our society have invested in improving their minds so they can improve ours.

How dare you spread your dumbness around to others (and by you I mean myself as well). How dare you assume to democratize intellectual authority through such sites as Wikipedia and worse of all, how dare you use Web 2.0 to publish your unrecognized and unsupported and unsubstantiated ideas out there for others to evaluate and dare I say learn from. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Just because you have the right to bare arms doesn't mean you should. Just because you have the right and the technology (Web 2.0, social media, etc) to exercise speech and thought doesn't mean you should muck up the current establishment with thoughts and ideas you've developed after browsing through the thoughts and ideas of others like yourself. Shame on you for acquiring and distributing ideas that some misinterpret as knowledge (and for free no less!).

Just Design It!

So you've been roaming up and down aisles for three hours searching for the perfect shoe and haven't found it yet. This could be so much easier if you could just design it yourself, you think. Oh wait...you can!

Yes thanks to innovative use of technology, marketing and outside-the-box retail strategy, Nike (along with others) have figured out how to use technology to continue the new wave of product customization that's sweeping the nation. Their product, your way equals the ultimate in customer satisfaction.

So what will this do for us as customer's? Will we settle for products manufacturers and retailers ship to us or will we be increasing drawn to those businesses who allow us make their products our own before we buy?

Do these jeans make me look fat?

Ahh...the age old question that strikes fear in the hearts of men everywhere and one of the many reasons for the lack of co-ed shopping teams. So what's a girl to do when she needs an immediate response to her outfit of choice? Why throw it on her avatar and ask 647 of her closest IM friends for their opinions.

Welcome to social retailing ladies! Can't get everyone together for that oh-so-exciting shopping trip this weekend? No problem. With state of the art technology available at Bloomingdales, for example,

"customers can connect live with their online friends while they shop. An interactive mirror transmits high-bandwidth video to friends who comment back via instant message (IM) and who send their own suggestions from an online catalogue."

So why throw technology in the age-old pass-time of retail therapy? Wouldn't that be like adding a Dollar Menu machine at the 20 yard line? How convenient would it be get a side of fries from the redzone but honestly who would really do it? Well according to the powers that be at Bloomingdales,

"today’s young tech-savvy shopper expects to be connected 24/7 w ith her friends even while she shops. Social RetailingSM enhances that ability to connect and I expect will draw new, younger shoppers to our stores."

Fun, novel, worth trying every now and then? Yes but I can't see the Red Hat society logging on to check out their chapter president in this season's stock of red and purple regalia anymore than I can see hordes of teenagers forgoing the weekly mall night to stay at home in front of the computer while one of them shows off the latest fashion craze. Bloomingdales and other stores who use technology to enhance the shopping experience in this way shouldn't bet the farm on it as a major sales mechanism. The whole point of "feedback" shopping is the social experience together, in person. A few of the excessively narcissistic elite out there may find this to be the ultimate shopping experience but word of warning...the camera usually adds 10 pounds :-).