A few weeks ago, I was visiting St. Paul with some friends, and we were looking for a new dining experience. I had recently downloaded the Yelp application on my BlackBerry and thought we should give it a try. After going through the broad list of restaurants and reviews, we came across the perfect place with around 30 reviews – a trendy, Asian fusion eatery called Señor Wongs.
The food and overall experience was rather incredible, and I believe that can largely be attributed to Yelp. But, this accolade leads to a larger discussion – is there value in consumer review sites and applications, such as Yelp and Urbanspoon?
These utilities are undoubtedly valuable to restaurants for a number of reasons. First, it gives restaurant operators a way to gauge the popularity and overall quality of a restaurant experience for patrons. If a restaurant is doing a satisfactory job, it will be reflected in their ratings.
Second, restaurant owners and managers receive feedback they might not otherwise get. And with that feedback, they have the ability to respond to both positive and negative reviews, publically or privately.
The majority of the reviews and ratings are favorable towards the restaurant, but pleasing everyone all the time is virtually impossible. Negative reviews happen, but following up on the business end can truly turn a reviewer’s poor experience into a modified rating or even a second chance. And if a restaurant falls short, there is an opportunity to remedy the flaw and improve operations.
If I had I not utilized the Yelp application, we probably would have eaten at a predictable, standard chain restaurant. Restaurant review sites allow smaller, hidden treasures to be discovered.
For the individual chain or franchise restaurants, Yelp and Urbanspoon help them to stand out and differentiate themselves from the overall chain image by highlighting their exceptional service, atmosphere or local specialties.
I strongly urge consumers and restaurants to start searching, reviewing and responding on these sites and applications. Using these tools can transform an average dinner from mediocre to amazing in minutes.
Consumers are constantly connected – being plugged in online and tuned into the television, myself included. It is not enough to just watch television or only surf the web, as most viewers are now consuming both simultaneously.
A new study by Nielsen uncovers that three out of four Americans use TV and the web at the same, with about half of those doing so daily. So, if you are not one of the dual users, you are surprisingly in the minority.
Interestingly, women tend to multitask more often than men, with 77 percent utilizing both TV and web versus men at 73 percent. On average, about 2.5 hours a week are spent consuming the two mediums together.
Many television shows and commercials encourage viewers to go online and access additional content, whether it’s extra footage, background information, games, etc., but only about 7 percent are using the web for that purpose. Most Americans using both are checking email or Facebook, rather than content related to their television viewing.
Primetime shows are not the ones taking the biggest hit, as viewers tend to stick to just television during original programming. News and sports shows are the common television programming being viewed while using the Internet as well.
And these stats are probably even greater if you were to take smartphone usage into account. My usual television watching routine is often riddled with web-surfing and BlackBerry checking. Mobile marketing is also being thrown into the mix and gaining momentum, making marketing channels farther reaching and more accessible.
For marketers, this may be viewed as an added opportunity. The concurrent consumption is a true testament to the fact that marketers should not rely on or limit themselves to just one medium.
The opportunities to get messaging to consumers are only going to continue to evolve and grow. Staying on the cusp of those opportunities is what will set marketers apart from the rest in this ever-changing world.
Let’s face it – money is being watched with a much more vigilant eye these days. And with the hectic lives we lead, it can often be stressful and tedious to be as heedful as we should be. However, with the technologies available today, there are no excuses.
Online banking is great, simply put. With many online services, consumers can set up automatic, recurring payments, so a payment should never be late or missed. Some online banking services allow users to set up email and text alerts to inform when balances are dipping, so the dreadful overdraft can be easily avoided. And just the simple ability to watch account activity is a great tool in itself.
The ability to do your banking via a mobile device is another revolutionary tool that should certainly aid in the fight to be more financially attentive. The on-the-go convenience comes in quite handy when you are on the road or remember you need to pay a bill while sitting through a four-hour meeting.
Budgeting is yet another area that has taken a turn for the better. With free online services such as Mint, you have the ability to track and record expenses and payments right at your fingertips. Knowing where you are spending and the frequency of those expenditures can really open up your eyes, allowing you to use your resources wisely.
And lastly, my new favorite service, BillMonk, masks the slight awkwardness of having to ask friends and roommates for money they owe. This free online service allows users to track, calculate and split expenses for a recent trip or monthly living. It also lets you keep track of non-monetary items, such as books and clothing you have loaned out. Furthermore, BillMonk also ties into Obopay, which is a mobile payment service that allows you to settle payments with friends via cellular devices for a small fee.
Online and mobile banking, email and text message alerts, budgeting tools and payment services are drastically improving our financial capabilities. Excuses are becoming harder to come by for missing a payment or losing track of expenses as services continue to evolve. With these services, our wallets should be getting a little heftier every day.
As frightening and painful as it may seem, there once was a time before smartphones and high tech digital devices. With the advancements and benefits these products have provided so far, it is often hard to imagine life without them.
Today, there are many phone applications and texting services designed to influence behavior and improve health. And with smartphones essentially becoming an extension to our limbs, this could not be a better combination.
Upon searching the terms “health” and “exercise” within BlackBerry App World, a number of applications appeared, encompassing various facets of the term. Exercise regimens, calorie counters, the ability to connect to friends working out, weight loss programs, statistics trackers and general healthy living practices are all options we can access via our mobile device.
When these offerings are right at our fingertips, it is hard to come up with excuses not to participate. Our health can be greatly changed by something as simple as downloading an application and following the often basic, straightforward procedure.
The smartest designed and most successful apps keep things basic and do not require too much thought. When there are just a few clicks or buttons to push, users are likely to use it; however, if the app requires several steps, people are more likely to get discouraged.
Health Txts is a text service that allows consumers to choose relevant health related messaging and have it sent to their mobile device. The service is free for three months, but must be reactivated at that time. Standard text messaging rates do apply.
FitBit is a digital device that tracks exercise activity, sleep patterns and calorie consumption and burning. The device can be synced with computers, where the data may be uploaded, viewed and shared with friends, family and coworkers. Additionally, users can collaborate and set goals with their connections. The FitBit runs at about $99 and can be purchased directly from the website.
The path to a healthier and fit lifestyle gets easier every day. And the future will only bring about more evolution in this mobile health arena.
As I look at my “mom schedule” this week and see two more nights of baseball practice and practice every single night next week, I am going to have to get creative with dinner plans. In the on-the-go world that we live in, racing from work to pick up the kids and then on to the ball fields and trying to fit dinner in along the way, it seems natural for us to try to order up takeout from our mobile phones.
We’re not talking about the old-school method of finding the phone number in the mobile yellow pages and calling them up. We want simple – we want online ordering. Until now, we’ve been able to access restaurant reviews and view menus from mobile apps like Yelp or Urbanspoon.
Today, I read about a new mobile app called Snapfinger. This application allows for advanced ordering, so your meal will be ready for you when you arrive at the restaurant for pick up. Snapfinger is currently tied into chains like California Pizza Kitchen, Outback Steakhouse and Subway, offering menus from 28,000 restaurants in 1,600 cities nationwide. Snapfinger is tied directly into the restaurant’s point of sale system to ensure accurate pricing, daily specials and restaurant hours.
With the soaring popularity of mobile EVERYTHING, we often recommend the use of Foursquare to our travel clients. It’s an engaging way for people to track the places they go and the things they do (or want to do).
But like many other social media avenues, Foursquare is built on a foundation of consumer, not marketer, activity and interaction. So it gets a bit fuzzy. How exactly do you encourage consumers to promote your business within a platform built by the people, for the people?
Well, there are several ways. First of all, Foursquare offers some simple things businesses can do to get in on the action. First of all, get listed as a location. Do a search for your business – if nobody has added it yet, there will be a link to add a vendor. Once you’ve created a profile for your business, you can create specials that Foursquare users can unlock based on their activities. For example, if a visitor checks in at your restaurant, they might get a free appetizer with the purchase of an entrée.
Tourism groups throughout the country are also using Foursquare as part of larger digital marketing efforts. The Pennsylvania tourism board recently rolled out a summer campaign called “The Fantastic Roadtrip-a-Matic”. The effort includes tips placed at 100 locations throughout the state, which visitors can unlock by checking in at these locations on Foursquare. Visitors can also earn Pennsylvania-themed badges based on their activities. A “PA 4 Score and 7” badge is earned by three visits to PA historical sites, for instance.
Currently the restrictions in Foursquare are minimal – anybody can enter a new vendor. There also aren’t a lot of restrictions on how organizations are designated – Pennsylvania, Chicago tourism, and other CVBs are set up as “people,” not vendors. As Foursquare grows in popularity, it will likely go the way of Facebook, where organizations now must be specifically designated as clubs, cities, pages, etc. Businesses would be wise to get in on the Foursquare action while it’s easy to do.
A variety of companies — from the likes of Google and Microsoft to hospitals and doctors’ organizations — have stepped up efforts to promote electronic medical records (EMR). EMRs allow health systems, like Sanford Health, to create a single storage point for a patient’s personal health information and the elimination of redundant questions and additional paperwork.
Despite the movement to streamline the volumes of manila folders holding patient records, adoption of EMR technology is primarily dependent upon the medical professionals, namely the physician. While doctors and medical personnel understand and value the importance and efficiency of EMRs, studies cite cost, reimbursement, and privacy issues as challenges to overcome.
“Patient Keeper“, a recently enhanced mobile application, “automates a physician’s duties such as viewing patient data from electronic records systems, ordering prescriptions or lab tests, and recording charges for services.” These are all tasks they might otherwise do manually or on another computer, so the firm’s software gives doctors the chance to do their work from virtually anywhere.
Over 23,000 clinics, including Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids, IA, use the software on a variety of mobile devices such as the BlackBerry, laptops, PCs and now the iPad.
If there ever was a site that should have a mobile app, it’s TripAdvisor. Well, now they do. The enormously-popular travel ratings site boasts over 35 million comments and travel reviews. The new TripAdvisor mobile app was announced this week, and with it, users can browse reviews, find flights, get GPS directions and more via their mobile phones. So far, there are versions for iPhone and Palm Pre, and Android is coming soon.
For users without app-friendly phones, there was also a mobile site launched in March. Mobile visitors to www.tripadvisor.com are automatically re-routed to the mobile version of the site.
Now if they could just make and app that does my laundry, I would be sold. But this is a good start. Happy travel-apping!
The usage of smartphones is increasing at a brisk pace, and so is mobile banking. A recent study by Mercatus shows that banks that offer mobile banking services can increase new customer acquisitions by nearly 60 percent. But why exactly is that?
Today’s society is fast-paced, convenience driven and desires to do everything on the go. So it only makes sense that banks offering convenient services such as mobile banking are reaping the rewards. Having the ability to access personal financial information via mobile devices allows for great flexibility and expediency. Consumers who opt in to this service no longer have to worry about being able to transfer funds or make a payment – they can now do it anywhere, at anytime, via their mobile device.
This study also shows that when choosing a bank, consumers prioritize mobile banking over the availability of online banking, easy access to ATMs and nearby branches. Consumers would rather have the option to bank from their mobile phone than have a bank branch or an affiliated ATM near them.
The fact that having mobile banking options plays such a large role in choosing a banking institution speaks largely to the reality that businesses need to stay fresh and on the cusp of digital and mobile offerings for consumers.
Other fascinating findings from this study include:
Costs of acquiring customers decreases by as much as 20 percent based on the efficacy of mobile banking related marketing.
Mobile users can be serviced at a 20 percent lower cost than a traditional bank patron.
Mobile banking consumers tend to fall in the 18-39 year old range, as well as a higher income bracket.
So, not only can mobile banking be a rather lucrative offering for banking customers, but it can also lower costs associated with those customers. Mobile banking is the way to go – have you joined the revolution?
Just the facts – A great post from our often quoted friends at the Center for Media Research, facts you can use during your reports, speeches and water-cooler arguments during 2010. Ah, we love stats.
Mobile Phones
U.S. mobile phone users 13+: 223M
Number of mobile Web users: 60.7M (up 33% from 2008)
Percentage of mobile devices that are smartphones: 18% (up from 13% in 2008)
Percentage of mobile device owners that streamed audio: 8%
Percentage of mobile device owners that viewed video via their mobile phone: 7%
Percentage of mobile devices sold in Q3 2009 that were smartphones: 25% (estimated 40%-50 in 2010)
Source: The Nielsen Company, November 2009
Looking Ahead To Mid-2011
Estimated smartphone user base: 150M
Estimated mobile subscribers: 300M+
Estimated users of mobile web: 120M
Estimated users watching mobile video: 90M
Source: The Nielsen Company, November 2009
Growth of cellphone only homes in the U.S.
2009… 21%
2008… 18%
2007… 15%
Top 5 Smartphones (% Ownership)
Blackberry 8300 Curve: 17%
Apple iPhone 3G: 15%
Apple iPhone 3G S: 12%
Blackberry 9530 Storm: 6%
Blackberry 8100 Pearl: 5%
Source: The Nielsen Company, November 2009
Top 5 Mobile Web Sites
Google Search
Yahoo! Mail
Gmail
Weather Channel
Facebook
Top Social Networks on Mobile Phones
Facebook
MySpace
Twitter
Top 5 Mobile Video Channels
YouTube
Fox Interactive Media
Weather Channel
Comedy Central
CBS
Internet
195M Active U.S. Internet users
160.3M People who accessed the Internet via a broadband connection: (93.3%… up 16% from 2008)
138.4M Unique viewers of video (up 11.4% from 2008)
11.2B Total online video streams viewed monthly (up 17% from 2008)
200.1 minutes Average time spent viewing online video per viewer monthly (up 12.5% from 2008)
Social Networking
Facebook reaches 56% of the active U.S. Internet universe with an average usage of 6 hrs a month per user
Facebook is the #3 site visited by users 65 and older
Twitter grew 500% year-over-year
Time spent on social networking sites in the U.S. increased 277%
The average U.S. worker spends 5 hrs a month visiting social networks at the office
32% of all mobile web users visited a social network
As the number of cell phones capable of surfing the Internet grows, so does the need to deliver content that is optimized for mobile devices.
What does it take to develop a site that plays nice with mobile web? What should it include and what are some of the obstacles you make encounter along the way?
Social media expert, Jeremiah Owyang, provides a glimpse into his Forrester Research study on the Future of the Social Web. He interviewed 24 of the top social media application experts across the nation - leaders from Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Looking at the next 4 years, Jeremiah presents five eras of the social web:
Social Relationships (fairly mature) – connect with others online and share information – MySpace, Facebook, Twitter
Social Functionality (current) - social networks become like operating systems allowing you to add applications to social networks and perform activities beyond sharing static information. Multimedia / Multi-platform collaboration. Example: Facebook and LinkedIn. This era is not at all mature, much growth ahead.
Social Colonization – wherever you go online or with your mobile device, your friends can go with you. You can make decisions based on this peer review wherever you go. Also, you’re constantly connected to people.
Social Context – now that we have portable identities in our devices or online, you can exchange parts of your identity for more relevant content. Personalized content, even to the extent of personalized television and multimedia content. Demographic, psychographic, preferences, previous buying behavior and social context (people you know) will affect the kind of content you will have access to. Because you control your identity, registration pages will go away. Lead tracking will be reinvented.
Social Commerce – Communities will work together to define the products/services that they will buy. Product feedback will become part of the product development process. Again, a new level of customization. Brands will bid for their information. Community buying.
Great perspective – watch the video to hear Jeremiah firsthand.
With the recent rise of text messaging and other cell phone technology, most are quick to point out its drawbacks. But the South Dakota Office of Highway Safety and L&S are using it in a whole new way that could save lives.
The Office of Highway Safety’s new “Act Civilized” campaign discourages drunk driving in South Dakota and promotes the use of designated drivers to get home safe. To support this effort, the state and L&S have launched a text messaging program that alerts users of sobriety checkpoints coming to their county. In select cities, users can also text in for the numbers of local cab companies.
Not only is the technology resonating with the campaign’s main target audience (males 21-35), but it’s setting a national example for other states. The campaign was recently featured in USA Today for what appears to be a first in discouraging drunk driving. Jonathan Adkins, a spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association, says he’s surveyed all 50 states’ highway safety agencies, and none reported having a program quite like South Dakota’s.
This text messaging campaign is not only a relevant application of modern technology to help with an old problem, but also a big win for every motorist on the road. Read the entire USA Today article here.
You can also sign up for text messages in South Dakota on the “Act Civilized” website.
As I dig out, literally and figuratively, from the big snow storm that hit western South Dakota and Wyoming earlier this week, I reflect on how technology has enabled us to become extremely efficient and information-centric, yet when the lights go out and weather blocks our doors, our technically-savvy culture is literally halted.
This storm blew in earlier than predicted which caught me stuck out of town due to the Interstate 90 closure. I spent the snowstorm with a couple of friends with drifts surrounding the house ranging from 4-6 feet in the open areas with higher drifts against the buildings.
Many people would’ve just relaxed and enjoyed the snow days, but my workaholic nature made me crazy trying to find a way to get some work done. I had my laptop, but no power cord (not that it would’ve helped when the power was out). My friend had a computer, but no Internet so I couldn’t access our network files. I was reliant solely on my Blackberry. Its amazing how much we really can accomplish from the palm of our hand, but I was unable to access many of our campaign-related, web-based applications due to Blackberry browser issues and cell service was very spotty so I found myself using the Verizon tagline, “can you hear me now,” all too often. At several points, I cracked out the old pen and paper to sketch some things out, which was actually quite refreshing.
The snow won’t catch me unwired next time. My technology survival kit/checklist is in place:
1.Power cord ALWAYS – this was my dumb mistake – I may need to ditch the small, stylish laptop bag, for a larger one to fit all of the essentials
2.Blackberry with tweening cord to use as a modem for my laptop when necessary
3.Car adaptor, in case there’s no power
4.Blackberry attachment software in place to handle all normal file types
5.Road report and weather bookmarks in my Blackberry browser
6.Text message road alert service activated
All’s well now… I’ve been back in the office all day and have a new appreciation for my laptop and Internet connection. It was a good reality check as to how reliant I am on technology. Are you winter storm survival ready, technically speaking?
Dinner conversation has really changed. A few days ago a group of friends and co-workers sat down for a nice meal after a long day’s work. As soon as the beverages were ordered, most of us (myself included) had our phones out… checking basketball scores, Facebook and Twitter.
Our mothers would not approve.
We are not, however, alone. comScore recently released research showing the number of people daily surfing the web on their cellphones has doubled since January 2008. All together daily mobile web users now total 22.4 million!
Top categories include:
News, weather, maps & other information = up 107%
Social networking site or blog = up 427%
Financial accounts = up 188%
Movie information = up 185%
Business directories = up 161%
And it isn’t just high-end iPhones and Blackberries. According to comScore, 70 percent of the people accessing mobile web are doing so on lower cost feature phones (any phone that isn’t a smartphone or PDA phone).
My question to marketers is, what information on your website might people want or need to access while on the go? Is it available in a mobile-friendly format? If not, what are you waiting for?
I’m a Machead. I’ll admit it. I grew up on PCs, which might be WHY I became a Machead. Since my first “stick of gum” iPod shuffle to our household iMac, my wife and I have come to embrace and relish the iLove.
That’s why I spent half my day refreshing the Apple homepage. I had heard, just in time, that Apple was announcing iPhone 3.0 software. When I realized the video of the keynote wouldn’t be out until afternoon, I sad mac’d the browser window and went about my day.
How often do you leave the house without your phone/mobile deivce? My bet is never, at least not intentionally. It goes everywhere you go; to the office, the grocery store, the kids’ football games, even on vacation. Your mobile phone is likely the most personal, and most depended-on, object you own.
In a recent study conducted by the L&S research team, adults between the ages of 18 and 34 said they would rather have a cell phone than cable television or health insurance. In 2008, the United States passed a critical mass when there were more cell phone lines than land lines in the country.
I just read a study on the effects that mobile advertising has on brand advertising (not to be confused with direct response). The impact is impressive… almost a 24% lift in brand awareness and 12% lift in message association. Part of the reason for the high impact is simply the newness of the medium; people are paying attention because they are not bombarded with messaging. But I also think it goes beyond novelty. 97% of adults carry a cell phone. More than half of all new phones sold have online capabilities (although only 26% claim they have used their phone to go online). Almost 60% of phone users have sent and received text messages.
Look at your brand and your current messaging; are you missing a golden opportunity to increase awareness and drive sales? It could be as simple as making sure your web site is WAP compatible or as complicated as a CRM campaign targeted to mobile devices. There are possibilities to market through phones that will fit into every budget, every market, and every campaign.
But make sure you proceed with caution. Mobile messaging is very personal and marketers have to be careful not to invade. Users are open to messaging that is relevant and timely. By “spamming” your messages often to broad audiences, your message will backfire creating a negative brand association. Use caution, find the right message for your audience, and work with a reputable agency and distributer.
