STOP PRESS!!!
Since I wrote this blog, my frustration and objections are now resolved, you CAN now hear what I really thought about location based services on video...
ORIGINAL POST....
Location based services. Buzz words. You hear them a lot right now. But what do they mean?
Simply put then, if I know where you are, can I offer you something that uses that knowledge in real-time?
If your mobile phone tells me your location co-ordinates...
- if I am Google I can show you a map of where you are and what is nearby
- if I am a restaurant booking app on your iPhone (e.g. bookatable) I can show you restaurants nearby
- if I am Foursquare I can present local restaurants and bars that you can "check-in" to and see who else of your friends are there
Three very simple examples then. But what of the future?
What are the implications for consumers and for marketeers?
At a recent plustechnology event run by London lawyers, Olswang, I committed my comments on this topic to video.
A company called Knowledge Peers were videoing peoples thoughts. Today I received an email with a link to a short video on my observations that targeted marketing can be welcomed by consumers rather than seen as obtrusive, and that location-based technologies help with accurate targeting.
Can I share it? No!
I really don't get it. I mean, I REALLY don't get it. What the? Uh?
Knowledge Peers is a members only site. I tried to send a share this link to a friend, they first had to sign in to Knowledge Peers. Fail. They STILL couldn't view the video. Doh - that sign up was for standard membership. Apparently I have full membership and that's why I can view it. Double Fail.
Look, if you want to build a community site, it needs to be viral, self-sustaining. You need to drive USAGE first, then monetise when you actually HAVE a community.
It's all upside down. I should be able to embed the video in this blog post, email it to friends. If they get value from the content, maybe they will sign up and subscribe.
The content on Knowledge Peers is pretty good. I mean, it's like a YouTube for business. But walling it in is route to oblivion.
So much for trying to share my thoughts on location based services with you. Sorry!
Showing posts with label content. Show all posts
Showing posts with label content. Show all posts
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Saturday, 10 November 2007
The User-Centred World
I predict a move from user-centred design to a user-centred web, and eventually to a user-centred world.
Imagine a world where all of your relationships, communication, interests and interactions are wrapped into a single digital communication portal. This portal would save all of your contact details, conversations & messages, whether these be phone calls, instant messages, emails photos, videos, music & other media.
Importantly, this portal would transcend any one device and any one software or hardware provider. It would not be just on your PC. It would not just be on your mobile phone. It would not be just through your TV. It would not just be through Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! or Facebook. This portal would sync with any device that you use, at any time, for any reason.
Imagine also that this portal could interact with you in your real world as well as your virtual world. It would track your position through GPS on your mobile phone (say) and give you directions to reach your friends in the vicinity. Maybe you would exchange contact details with new contacts just by bluetooth, and this would automatically sync with your online services such as your email, blog or birthday reminders list.
Why would we want this?
Why not? The digital era is getting ever so complicated. I've lost count of how many logins I have for different sites and services. Even keeping my contact lists up to date gets a little crazy... Mobile phone (personal, work), Outlook (personal, work), social networking site A, social networking site b, webmail a, webmail b, webmail c, address book at home.
Why should I have to keep of these devices in sync? As a human being my life is being carved up arbitrarily by the fact that different companies supply me with different devices, software and services. Do I care? My friends are my friends. My family is my family, and my work colleagues are my work colleagues. Real life is not divided into mobile phone, email, IM and social networking providers.
I want to interact with the real world as easily as possible. I want to have everything in one place. That one place is ME!
YOU are the centre of your universe and I am the centre of mine. (OK, some wouldn't agree, so don't get all philosophical on me now - let's keep this simple shall we!?)
I want to interact with people I like, need or can help. I don't want to interact with the rest of the world - life is too short!
I want to interact with companies that offer me things that I am interested in. I don't want to interact with companies that are polluting my life and time with things that I don't care about.
(Don't try and sell me a bed shorter than 2 metres in length (I won't fit in it). Don't try and sell me a steak (I'm vegetarian). Don't try and sell me shoes unless you stock size 12 - you're wasting my time. However, if you offer me a DVD subscription service better and cheaper than the one I have now, I might just be interested).
Anyway - if I could interact with all these people and companies through one profile, in any place, on any device, in a way that suits me, well that would be the user-centred world.
User-centred design can deliver commercial success. I predict though that the user-centred world will be absolutely more commercially successful than our current world. It's the ultimate "long-tail" in action.
This is already happening and I believe it will accelerate over the next few years. What example trends are there in this direction?
Users requesting information (pull, not push)
Google's iGoogle (personalised homepages)
RSS feeds
Customisation of desktops in Windows Vista
Tivo TV / Sky Plus
Podcasts
Contact across multiple devices
IM on mobile phones and PC
Email on a Blackberry
Mapping relationships and sharing interests
Social bookmarking (e.g. del.icio.us, Reddit)
Social networking (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and others)
Business networking tools (Plaxo / Linkedin)
Infrastructure
Open-source software (e.g. Linux, Android)
Open source knowledge bases (e.g. Wikipedia)
Web enabled phones
GPS
Fingerprint based payment systems
Retina scanning security systems
Wi-Fi
10 steps to the user-centred world
1. User interests will be saved against user profiles and will be updated in real time in response to user activity
2. User relationships will be saved, categorised and constantly modified
3. There will be eventually a single user profile for each user
4. User locations will be tracked in the real world as they move about
5. Profiles in the digital world will transition to real world
6. All communication devices will centre on the same user profile
7. Content will be delivered to the user at the user's request
8. Advertising will be requested by the consumer, (pull not push)
9. "Popularity" will become increasingly more important in driving brands
10. Globalisation will allow faster networking of individuals and companies in a single digital reality that is entwined with the real world
Consumer demand for simplicity and convenience will ultimately take us down this path.
Remind me to read this post in 15 years time to see if we've done it.
Imagine a world where all of your relationships, communication, interests and interactions are wrapped into a single digital communication portal. This portal would save all of your contact details, conversations & messages, whether these be phone calls, instant messages, emails photos, videos, music & other media.
Importantly, this portal would transcend any one device and any one software or hardware provider. It would not be just on your PC. It would not just be on your mobile phone. It would not be just through your TV. It would not just be through Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! or Facebook. This portal would sync with any device that you use, at any time, for any reason.
Imagine also that this portal could interact with you in your real world as well as your virtual world. It would track your position through GPS on your mobile phone (say) and give you directions to reach your friends in the vicinity. Maybe you would exchange contact details with new contacts just by bluetooth, and this would automatically sync with your online services such as your email, blog or birthday reminders list.
Why would we want this?
Why not? The digital era is getting ever so complicated. I've lost count of how many logins I have for different sites and services. Even keeping my contact lists up to date gets a little crazy... Mobile phone (personal, work), Outlook (personal, work), social networking site A, social networking site b, webmail a, webmail b, webmail c, address book at home.
Why should I have to keep of these devices in sync? As a human being my life is being carved up arbitrarily by the fact that different companies supply me with different devices, software and services. Do I care? My friends are my friends. My family is my family, and my work colleagues are my work colleagues. Real life is not divided into mobile phone, email, IM and social networking providers.
I want to interact with the real world as easily as possible. I want to have everything in one place. That one place is ME!
YOU are the centre of your universe and I am the centre of mine. (OK, some wouldn't agree, so don't get all philosophical on me now - let's keep this simple shall we!?)
I want to interact with people I like, need or can help. I don't want to interact with the rest of the world - life is too short!
I want to interact with companies that offer me things that I am interested in. I don't want to interact with companies that are polluting my life and time with things that I don't care about.
(Don't try and sell me a bed shorter than 2 metres in length (I won't fit in it). Don't try and sell me a steak (I'm vegetarian). Don't try and sell me shoes unless you stock size 12 - you're wasting my time. However, if you offer me a DVD subscription service better and cheaper than the one I have now, I might just be interested).
Anyway - if I could interact with all these people and companies through one profile, in any place, on any device, in a way that suits me, well that would be the user-centred world.
User-centred design can deliver commercial success. I predict though that the user-centred world will be absolutely more commercially successful than our current world. It's the ultimate "long-tail" in action.
This is already happening and I believe it will accelerate over the next few years. What example trends are there in this direction?
Users requesting information (pull, not push)
Google's iGoogle (personalised homepages)
RSS feeds
Customisation of desktops in Windows Vista
Tivo TV / Sky Plus
Podcasts
Contact across multiple devices
IM on mobile phones and PC
Email on a Blackberry
Mapping relationships and sharing interests
Social bookmarking (e.g. del.icio.us, Reddit)
Social networking (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and others)
Business networking tools (Plaxo / Linkedin)
Infrastructure
Open-source software (e.g. Linux, Android)
Open source knowledge bases (e.g. Wikipedia)
Web enabled phones
GPS
Fingerprint based payment systems
Retina scanning security systems
Wi-Fi
10 steps to the user-centred world
1. User interests will be saved against user profiles and will be updated in real time in response to user activity
2. User relationships will be saved, categorised and constantly modified
3. There will be eventually a single user profile for each user
4. User locations will be tracked in the real world as they move about
5. Profiles in the digital world will transition to real world
6. All communication devices will centre on the same user profile
7. Content will be delivered to the user at the user's request
8. Advertising will be requested by the consumer, (pull not push)
9. "Popularity" will become increasingly more important in driving brands
10. Globalisation will allow faster networking of individuals and companies in a single digital reality that is entwined with the real world
Consumer demand for simplicity and convenience will ultimately take us down this path.
Remind me to read this post in 15 years time to see if we've done it.
Wednesday, 7 November 2007
Web 2.1 - Reviews From People Like Me
The surge in user generated content, and specifically "user reviews" has been the backbone of many sites such as Tripadvisor and Amazon.
Why are user reviews so important? How do they need to evolve?
The importance of user reviews centres around the power of peer approval. Put simply, if other people rate something, it must be good - right? This concept is one of the 7 key methods of influence discussed by Robert Cialdini in his book "Influence".
(See my essential reading post for further information).
Peer approval has been a mainstay of marketing techniques since time began. However, it doesn't work for everyone. Some buyers couldn't give a monkeys about what other folks think. Jupiter Research found however that about 50% of users found them helpful.
(See Greg Howlett' summary at Marketing Pilgrim: Five More Important Facts About User Reviews in E-tail).
The other 50%? At the point of purchase on the web, other methods of influence are also in play. These are discussed by Bryan Eisenberg in "Call to Action". One example would be the person who is persuaded by the emotional longing created by enticing copy and lovely pictures. "Imagine yourself here / doing this / owning this" - this does it for them. Some others are influenced by the technical ctiteria of the product. In the case of a computer this might be the hard drive capacity, screen resolution, memory etc. In the case of a hotel maybe it would be the detail on the amenties, location and facilities. For others however, the price really really matters.
The important thing to realise therefore is that for a truly compelling product offering needs to relate to and pursuade on all of these fronts. You need good copy (inspirational, not just factual), great photos, lots of facts & specifications, and you also certainly need user reviews. User reviews therefore are an important part of the equation, but they're not the be all and end all.
Let's not forget though how powerful they are. They give a certain transparency to the product which gives the buyer a level of confidence that they would not get otherwise. They provide unique content (good for SEO). They give users a sense that the retailer has a wide and satisfied customer base. They also show a range of opinions.
User opinions do need to evolve though. We are only now at a very basic level of using them effectively. What does the future look like?
Let's take the example of purchasing a day trip, say a tour of New York City. It might include visits to several key sites and have a tour guide. The website would include perhaps user reviews of customers who have previously been on the trip.
Let's take 3 different prospects:
- John and Mary from Los Angeles, in the early seventies
- The Schmidt family from Berlin, with 3 children aged 2, 3 and 5
- Trixie and Noah, a young couple from London, backpacking around the world
Do these people have different needs? Of course. Would they rate their experience based on different measures? Definitely.
Consider each of the parties against each of these criteria...
The pace of the tour
The accent of the tour guide
The comfort of the transport
The cultural commentary
Highchairs and baby-changing facilities
The amount of commentary at each stop
The range of attractions
What could have been a wonderful tour for John and Mary could be a nightmare for Trixie and Noah. What could have been a fun experience for Trixie and Noah could have been hard work for the Schmidt parents. On every level each customer would view their experience with different rating scales on different criteria.
User reviews need to evolve to enable customers to filter reviews so that they can see reviews just from "people like me".
This is particularly important in the case of experiences. Experiences include things like destinations, hotels, restaurants, theatre, travel and other services. The use of a tangible product (e.g. hairdryer, camera) is less affected by personal preferences. With experiences, preferences do count. Peer reviews can actually be misleading rather than assisting.
The challenge in filtering peer review for experience-type products is three fold:
1. Identify the customer as they arrive on-site
2. Gathering customer profile information to store against the review
3. Filtering the display of reviews so that they match a customer
Imagine how powerful this could be.
- I want summer holiday recommendations, but only from vegetarians travelling with children under 2
- I want restaurant reviews, but only from business users
- I want ski resort reviews, but only from people that enjoy skiing off-piste
If you can deliver this content at the right time, you can provide real relevancy. It does however require some clever customer segmentation and profiling to get right.
Retailing is often cited as providing the right deal to the right person at the right time. I would argue that for online retailing of services, it also involves giving the right information to the right person for the right product.
That means giving the customer reviews "from people like me".
This is where the future of user generated content lies. It's a massive challenge and I look forward to seeing who can get it right and how they do it.
It would be web 2.1.
Why are user reviews so important? How do they need to evolve?
The importance of user reviews centres around the power of peer approval. Put simply, if other people rate something, it must be good - right? This concept is one of the 7 key methods of influence discussed by Robert Cialdini in his book "Influence".
(See my essential reading post for further information).
Peer approval has been a mainstay of marketing techniques since time began. However, it doesn't work for everyone. Some buyers couldn't give a monkeys about what other folks think. Jupiter Research found however that about 50% of users found them helpful.
(See Greg Howlett' summary at Marketing Pilgrim: Five More Important Facts About User Reviews in E-tail).
The other 50%? At the point of purchase on the web, other methods of influence are also in play. These are discussed by Bryan Eisenberg in "Call to Action". One example would be the person who is persuaded by the emotional longing created by enticing copy and lovely pictures. "Imagine yourself here / doing this / owning this" - this does it for them. Some others are influenced by the technical ctiteria of the product. In the case of a computer this might be the hard drive capacity, screen resolution, memory etc. In the case of a hotel maybe it would be the detail on the amenties, location and facilities. For others however, the price really really matters.
The important thing to realise therefore is that for a truly compelling product offering needs to relate to and pursuade on all of these fronts. You need good copy (inspirational, not just factual), great photos, lots of facts & specifications, and you also certainly need user reviews. User reviews therefore are an important part of the equation, but they're not the be all and end all.
Let's not forget though how powerful they are. They give a certain transparency to the product which gives the buyer a level of confidence that they would not get otherwise. They provide unique content (good for SEO). They give users a sense that the retailer has a wide and satisfied customer base. They also show a range of opinions.
User opinions do need to evolve though. We are only now at a very basic level of using them effectively. What does the future look like?
Let's take the example of purchasing a day trip, say a tour of New York City. It might include visits to several key sites and have a tour guide. The website would include perhaps user reviews of customers who have previously been on the trip.
Let's take 3 different prospects:
- John and Mary from Los Angeles, in the early seventies
- The Schmidt family from Berlin, with 3 children aged 2, 3 and 5
- Trixie and Noah, a young couple from London, backpacking around the world
Do these people have different needs? Of course. Would they rate their experience based on different measures? Definitely.
Consider each of the parties against each of these criteria...
The pace of the tour
The accent of the tour guide
The comfort of the transport
The cultural commentary
Highchairs and baby-changing facilities
The amount of commentary at each stop
The range of attractions
What could have been a wonderful tour for John and Mary could be a nightmare for Trixie and Noah. What could have been a fun experience for Trixie and Noah could have been hard work for the Schmidt parents. On every level each customer would view their experience with different rating scales on different criteria.
User reviews need to evolve to enable customers to filter reviews so that they can see reviews just from "people like me".
This is particularly important in the case of experiences. Experiences include things like destinations, hotels, restaurants, theatre, travel and other services. The use of a tangible product (e.g. hairdryer, camera) is less affected by personal preferences. With experiences, preferences do count. Peer reviews can actually be misleading rather than assisting.
The challenge in filtering peer review for experience-type products is three fold:
1. Identify the customer as they arrive on-site
2. Gathering customer profile information to store against the review
3. Filtering the display of reviews so that they match a customer
Imagine how powerful this could be.
- I want summer holiday recommendations, but only from vegetarians travelling with children under 2
- I want restaurant reviews, but only from business users
- I want ski resort reviews, but only from people that enjoy skiing off-piste
If you can deliver this content at the right time, you can provide real relevancy. It does however require some clever customer segmentation and profiling to get right.
Retailing is often cited as providing the right deal to the right person at the right time. I would argue that for online retailing of services, it also involves giving the right information to the right person for the right product.
That means giving the customer reviews "from people like me".
This is where the future of user generated content lies. It's a massive challenge and I look forward to seeing who can get it right and how they do it.
It would be web 2.1.
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