Hazel Walker
Referral Institute, llc
BNI
hazel@bni.com

It’s official. Mobile apps are taking over the world. We no longer live in a world where the internet is the go-to pastime. Now, it’s all about those apps and having social networks at your fingertips whenever and wherever you may be. In a report released by Mary Meeker, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, these statistics were categorized into the top 10 influential trends happening in today’s rapidly changing technological world.

1. Tablets taking over

The iPad has far surpassed the iPhone and iPod in popularity. The iPhone only shipped a little under 4,000 units it’s third quarter after launching, compared to the iPad which released over 14,000 by its third quarter. While both the iPhone and iPad have revolutionized the use of apps, the iPad is clearly leading the way in mobile internet use now. About 150,000 desktop computers are estimated to sell by the end of 2011, under 400,000 laptops, and over 400,000 smartphones. These are some big numbers, but tablets are estimated to sell close to 500,000, leaving computers in the dust.

2. Mobile is Global

Only five countries make up 46% of the entire world’s internet use. China is the leading force with 384 million people, compared to the US with 240 million users. The other countries are Brazil, India, and Russia.

3. Social Networking to Blame

Facebook is (not surprisingly) the leading social network with 662 million users and 550,000 apps. Google is the leading search engine with 972 million users. Apple takes the cake for leading mobile sales with 130 million users and 350,000 apps (but can you believe…over 10 billion downloads). Twitter was the most popular tool for information sharing with 253 million users.

4. Time with Mobile internet

Facebook is used two times more on smartphones than on a desktop, and half of twitter users are doing so on their smartphones. Desktops should really start worrying. 60% of time spent on smartphones was “new activity for mobile users.” 12% of that 60 was spent on mobile apps, 32% was spent on the phone, Skype, or messaging, 9% was spent on email apps, and 47% was spent on “other,” which includes games, maps, social networking, and more. Angry Birds, anyone?

5. Mobile Advertising

This is one of the few areas in the mobile world that are currently failing. For whatever reason, advertising hasn’t been able to hold consistent revenue. This is odd because mobile ads reach 100% of their audience but only engages 70%, whereas TV reaches 50% and engages 90%.

6. M-Commerce Changing Shopping Forever

Mobile shopping apps are allowing for impulsive, instantly-gratifying purchases and are driving revenue and ROI for retail stores. John Donahoe, President and CEO of eBay has personally seen these changes with his company, stating “Mobile is clearly becoming a new way people shop…[eBay has] nearly tripled gross merchandise value year-over-year to nearly $2 billion, which strong holiday shopping momentum in Q4. In 2011 we expect Mobile GMV to double to $4 billion.” WOW.

Now, don’t believe for a second that these trends aren’t going to be replaced with new ones soon. We can expect to see faster networks, ubiquitous computing with real-time connection 24/7, even better apps and more money for the companies making them, increased foot traffic for stores, and more affordable smartphones and data plans for everyone.

What trends do you hope to see in the next few years? How do you think mobile apps will continue to change the way we do things?

kyle lacy, ceo
brandswag corp
(blog) www.kylelacy.com
(web) www.getbrandswag.com
(join) www.smallerindiana.com
(tweet) kyleplacy

The media world has been ablaze with the word Quora since the site announced its official launch at the end of 2010. Some of you may have heard and I imagine that many of you have not. Here is the basic breakdown of Quora put simply by the website’s About Us section:

Quora is a continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it. The most important thing is to have each question page become the best possible resource for someone who wants to know about the question.

To make a long story short, Quora exists to create a system where the community polices, creates, and builds content around questions. The very existence of Quora can be traced back to Wikipedia. We can see many similarities between the two sites. Wikipedia is content created by individuals and Quora is questions answered by individuals. There are plenty of other differences but we will leave that to another article.

There have been plenty of suggestions in the world wide web on reasons to use Quora. In their quest for online knowledge domination people have been building content portals for years! Quora is just another in a long line of data development sites. However, all kidding aside there are some good reasons to use Quora in the world of digital communication.

1. Content is Community Organized and Edited. The site allows for people to vote on answers to questions which ranks the question as an “upvote” or “downvote.” This can help you (the reader) sort through answers to find the right one for you.

2. Quality Comes with Voting. Something is to be said that there is more a chance for quality content when users can rank answers. Also, Quora recruited experts in their fields in order to provide quality answers to questions asked by the community.

There is the community and networking element of Quora that is also important but the true value lies in the content being created by the individuals on the site. So how do you get started in this world of questions, answers, networking, and trending? Let’s take a look.

Quora Features

After you have created your account on Quora it is important to understand some basic features that will help you when using the site. You have to first start by setting up a good feed.

Your Activity Feed. The activity feed has recent activity about the content that interests you as an individual. Your feed is displayed on your home page and helps with organization of content. The health of your feed is dependent on the amount of topics you follow or search. We will explain more about following and searching below. There are two important things to follow in the world of Quora: topic and people. When you follow a topic, questions and answers tagged with that topic will appear in your feed. When you follow people, you will see the same displayed in your feed.

Following Topics. Quora has developed the same type of Twitter functionality that allows you to follow people on the micro-blogging site. In Quora, you have the ability to follow topics. When you sign into your Quora account you will have the ability to browse for topics of interest in the database. When you find a question you like you have the ability to follow that topic to receive updates on answers to the question. See Figure 1.1 for an example of a question, answers, and the green follow button (remind you of another site?).

Notice on the right hand side of the page is a Related Questions section where new questions are waiting that are related to the topical question to the right. This features gives you multiple options to explore while using Quora.

Add Answers to Questions. If you scroll to the bottom of the question base you will see an “Add Answer” box at the bottom of the site. This gives you the ability to add an answer to the question and the community development of the specific content. Remember, use the “Save Draft” button if something comes up that needs immediate attention. This button will save your answer for editing and adding later on in the day or evening.

Sharing a Question and Answer. Quora also gives you the ability to share your question or answer to your social media community. If you want your network to build the answer to a specific question it is easy to “ask for an answer” via Facebook or Email.

The Quora Inbox. The Quora Inbox is a list of messages from individuals who are now following your progress in Quora. If an individual would like for you to contribute an answer to a specific question an invite can be sent and will show up in your Inbox. You can either choose to ignore the question or provide an answer.
Your Quora Profile. The profile is your personal portal to everything Quora. You have the ability to upload your picture and friend/follow other users on the site. Remember to fill out the information needed to complete your profile. Also remember to add your headline to your profile. Your headline is like a Twitter or LinkedIn short bio. A headline can read something like this:

Principal at MindFrame, Author of Twitter Marketing for Dummies and Branding Yourself, Speaker

You also have the ability to add a detailed description about you under your picture within your profile. This gives users more an idea of who you are rather than your short headline description.

Your Quora Home. The Home page on Quora gives you an update of the top answered (and ranked) questions while you are browsing the site. It also gives you a list of people you may know in order to start following and building more of a group.

When you first start using the site Quora can be pretty intimidating. There are thousands upon thousands of pieces of content being generated. This includes answers to questions, editing of content, and the building of questions around certain topics. Quora is building a community of thought leaders in industries spanning from technology to biology and everywhere in between.

Want to start small? Create your profile and follow a few topics. It may be a good idea to answer a few questions as well. Start small and grow big. If you find Quora to be a waste of time, remember, it is okay to step away and look for something else that helps in the long run.

kyle lacy, ceo
brandswag corp
(blog) www.kylelacy.com
(web) www.getbrandswag.com
(join) www.smallerindiana.com
(tweet) kyleplacy

Last night, I was sitting and watching television with my girlfriend and an odd thought struck me.  Let me paint a picture…

A couple is walking around looking for a certain product…The couple is cute, middle-aged, and probably has a dog and one child. They are the stereotypical American family. The couple finds the product… there is a punch line…. everyone laughs. The couple buys the product. They both smile and their entire life is complete.

Let me paint another masterpiece…

I am driving down the freeway and look up to see a billboard with a smiling face. The face is handsome, even stoic. However, the picture is clearly stock photography. The man looks like a doctor but I can’t figure out if that is truth… or maybe he is a model that failed medical school. The billboard says… We are COMMITTED to our community. I smile because… hell… he looks like someone that I would trust with my health (I think) and he must be committed to me.

And the thought hits me again…

Brian Lauterbach (founder and one of my partners at MindFrame) and I were speaking to a group of nonprofits in northern Indiana last week. Brian was discussing concepts of marketing the mission of your organization and he said something that really stuck with me. While holding a year end gift letter and a post card from a national organization he said:

We are becoming lazy. We are becoming lazy in how we communicate! We are marketing to people who are extremely passionate about a cause… our cause! We are disgracing them by becoming lazy in the way we tell our story! If you are not passionate in developing marketing and the story of your organization… HOW.. are you suppose to convince people to give or become advocates?

And now we come full circle…

What Brian said is not only applicable to nonprofits. The message clearly applies to every communication strategy… from your local pet supplier to a national brand.

What happened to caring more about the product you sell? When did we (as marketers) become lazy? What the hell is wrong with us? And the worst part of all this is not the stock photography or models…

We are not measuring anything but that is for a different post.

This is my official call to all marketers…. all C-level executives… all business owners… to anyone involved in leading the communications strategy for a company or organization.

And ESPECIALLY to all advertising and marketing firms.

We have become lazy. We are using communication strategies that haven’t changed for forty-five years.

The world is changing.

Technology is changing.

People are changing.

Preferences are changing.

And we sit back… stupefied… because our “brand awareness” and “sales” are dropping in a region where we put even more money in marketing the “brand.”

Let the customers tell the story and become more loyal to THEM… not the other way around.