The Cat’s Out of the Bag on Geolocation
June 7, 2010 by Charles Wasilewski · Leave a Comment
OK, let me start this blog post by saying I’m not a cat person. Not even a pet person, really, although I had a childhood pet that was half-German Shepherd, half-Samoyed. But I digress.
The latest mini-rage in social networking seems to be geolocation.
So here’s the cat’s pajamas in geolocation: Scientists (social and technical) have come up with a cat-Tweeting system, based on a cat’s movements and actions.
I love the name … Cat@Log: A Human-Pet Interaction Platform.
Basically, this new prototype cat-tracking-and-communicating system involves a camera, Bluetooth wireless technology, and a GPS (global positioning system) attached to the cat. Then it posts images and location information as automatically-programmed Tweets, which are mini-messages posted to the microblog site Twitter.
Enough about the cats (and the puns).
What’ s interesting is the potential uses of automated uploading of data (regardless of whether Twitter is involved). How about for safety — a mini-bracelet around a kid’s wrist could track for his parents where he or she is? Or a delivery person could track productivity. Or a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan on a sensitive mission could automatically transmit data back to a base. Some of these things likely already exist, in some fashion.
But here’s the big news: This whole thing was developed by Sony, in conjunction with the University of Tokyo. Yes, that’s the same company that came up with the Walkman, which went it was introduced in 1979 revolutionized the mobile use of audio, music, books on cassette, and so on.
Here’s the article: Sony Develops Tweeting Cat Collar in MediaPost.
Here’s a video of the cat thing in action:
cat@log: human animal interaction platform from rkmtlab on Vimeo.
In Your Face, Facebook! And Out of Mine
May 19, 2010 by Charles Wasilewski · 3 Comments
OK, it’s been building for a while.
But when two of the most powerful women in the media both dissed Facebook (in the same week), I knew something was up. And down.
What’s up is media scrutiny of Facebook about privacy. What’s down is public perception of Facebook (if negative or questioning media coverage can be a proxy for negative public perception).
First of the powerful (in my media world) was Laura Mazzuca Toops, she of the insurance trade publication American Agent and Broker. Her blog post of May 6 2010 headlined “Are we due for a social media backlash?” charged: “Facebook alone is single-handedly doing a lot of harm to the concept of social media. On top of infuriating users by changing its ‘fan’ settings to ‘like’ and generating lawsuits by changing privacy settings, just this week there was another ‘security flaw’ that allowed users to view other people’s private live chats and friends requests.”
But if that wasn’t enough, here came Betty White on NBC’s culturally iconic “Saturday Night Live” on May 8 2010. The self-professed 88.5-year-old, in her opening monologue, credited Facebook for creating a groundswell of consumer sentiment for her to host the show. Then she said in her amusing way: “I didn’t know what Facebook was, and now that I do know what it is, I have to say, it sounds like a huge waste of time. I would never say the people on it are losers, but that’s only because I’m polite. People say ‘But Betty, Facebook is a great way to connect with old friends.’ Well at my age, if I wanna connect with old friends, I need a Ouija Board …. we didn’t have Facebook when I was growing up. We had phonebook, but you wouldn’t waste an afternoon with it.”
Then another: “In my way, seeing pictures of people’s vacations was considered a punishment.”
Zing.
Pretty funny of Betty White, but is she (and our lesser-known insurance trade editor) on to something?
Yes and no.
Ever since Facebook announced “Open Graph” (which allows it to share your Facebook profile across a wide range of other Web sites), it’s been privacy enemy #1. (It was pretty high on the list before that, too.) Noted columnist Chris O’Brien of SiliconValley.com, the Web portal of the San Jose Mercury-News: The latest changes have “sparked an intense backlash among some leading figures in the technology community over the privacy implications this sharing raises, although it’s unclear how widespread the discontent is.”
danah boyd (yes, no capital letters in her names) of the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society and the author of a Ph.D. dissertation “Taken Out of Context: American Teen Sociality in Networked Publics” was more blunt about Facebook’s latest moves: “People are being duped, tricked, coerced, and confused into doing things where they don’t understand the consequences.”
I happen to think that nature will find an equilibrium. In the meantime, lessons learned: Check your Facebook privacy settings (here’s a video showing how). And remember that the companies fueling social networking are for-profit businesses fueled by venture capital funding.
Meanwhile, Facebook is on the verge of reaching 500 million members, up from 120 million users in December 2008.
Re: Creative
May 14, 2010 by Charles Wasilewski · Leave a Comment
I recently spent a morning doing something I’ve never done: Being a judge.
Several industry marketing and communications people got together at Swiss Re in New York City to grade entries for the Insurance Marketing Communications Association (IMCA) annual Showcase awards, which recognize business communications work in 35 categories ranging from “Creative Development on a Shoestring” to “Corporate Social Media.”
Judging criteria included:
- Effectiveness/Functionality — Potency of impact, prompts to action, professionalism in accomplishing its stated objective
- Audience/Focus — Reflects the interest, needs and language of the stated target audience, absence of conceptual dissonance
- Content — Well-written copy or script, use of compelling language, articulation of complex concepts
- Design/Presentation — Artistry, visual appeal and synergy, insight and uniqueness, enhances the communications objectives
Why In the World Does Social Media Matter To the Insurance Industry?
October 15, 2009 by Charles Wasilewski · 5 Comments
Charles Wasilewski
At 11 am on Wednesday, September 30, Aartrijk Brand Camp was officially over. I said “goodbye” and “thank you” to a few Campers in the lobby of the Hotel Sax, and headed out for a jog into the pleasant late-September day in downtown Chicago.
We, the Aartrijk team, had just finished a two-day conference, after about nine months of preparation. The 90-plus attendees at Brand Camp, it seemed, sought to understand the sociological, business, and brand impacts of social networking in the insurance world. I felt a buzz of awareness and learning going on throughout the Brand Camp sessions. The very idea of a first-ever conference about social networking in the insurance industry seemed to create a strong awareness that something worthwhile was happening. Mitch Dunford, CEO of Wells Publishing, commented in response to one of the sessions: “History will remember us as the people who made the change” to social networking.
It’s easy to overstate what a industry confab can do (especially the ones we work on ourselves). I’ve been to a bunch and I know that great ideas and good intentions can fade once I get back to the workaday world. As I jogged, I wondered if that would happen this time. I crossed Michigan Avenue and headed for Millenium Park and a glimpse of the awesome Lake Michigan.
Amidst the city sounds of traffic and people, hundreds of people were heading to and fro for lunch and the rest of their work day. But two people caught my notice as I crossed their path: a man using crutches and a woman limping with a cast on her foot. Customers, certainly, of some insurance carrier and broker who provided health insurance or resolved the accident claim.
It hit me: The insurance industry needs to use social media because there are millions of people who need the products and services that the insurance industry provides. They will only find out what the industry can do if insurance people are part of the social network conversations that are going on every minute of every day.
Many people I know in the insurance industry are passionate—they truly believe in, and want to spread the word about, the insurance products (whether property-casualty or life/health/benefits) they sell and service. I admire many for their skills in sales, leadership, analytics, branding, and other areas. They’ve put those skills to work to benefit individuals, families, and businesses.
But the industry needs social networking skills to help it tell the story about what insurance does. In a big, noisy world, social networking is an amazing phenomenon that lets people carry on quiet conversations about important things. That’s why social media matters to the insurance industry.
—Charles Wasilewski
Follow Aartrijk on Twitter: @Aartrijk. Follow Brand Camp conversation on Twitter using hashtag #ABC09.
“Can We Get to Business?!”
September 14, 2009 by Charles Wasilewski · 3 Comments
“Can we get to business?!”
That partly-excited, partly-frustrated-sounding question popped out at me from among several dozen when I was moderating a Webinar (“Social Media 101: Get Your Agency on Facebook and Twitter” presented by Insurance Journal) in early September.
The Webinar was presented by Nibby Priest of Vaughn Insurance Agency Co., who is among the most-active insurance producers I know in using social networking.
The question came while Nibby was showing how to get a personal Facebook page started. This is one of the most-popular things to do on the Internet. After all, Facebook has 200 million-plus members and is among the top 5 most-visited Web sites in the world.
When I read the question, I sensed that the agent asking the question was impatient with all the “personal” Facebook material, and wanted to get to the important stuff: how to use Facebook to market and sell.
I’ve felt the same frustration in the past — until I realized that the personal nature of Facebook is what makes it popular and captivating for millions. Facebook isn’t like advertising or direct mail or an e-mail newsletter or a Yellow Pages ad. It’s not really a marketing tool or tactic to be pulled out of the marketing plan and executed.
It’s something very different: It’s a technological way to carry out social relationships online.
Facebook is popular because it allows people to:
– connect person-to-person
– choose people, brands, organizations, causes, and advertisers they want to connect with online … and shun or ignore those they don’t
– easily search and find people from their past and present to build relationships going forward into the future
So, for me, a lesson of “Social Media 101: Get Your Agency on Facebook and Twitter” was a reminder that social networking is about talking with people, not merely sending out business messages via advertising or marketing. I’m as big a fan as anyone of advertising and marketing, but Facebook requires a different approach. It requires a commitment to joining a community, providing value, presenting information and perspective, and building relationships.
The great hope of social networking for marketers is that when members of the community are ready to buy, they will find you — even seek you out — because they know you and know what you know.
– Charles Wasilewski