An App for Social Superpowers – Banjo

I have always been a big fan of location based services and I have to admit that my iOS App folder “Geo Apps” is about to overflow. Making me really addictive to these kind of services or apps are three specific benefits I personally see:

1. Who is in my area
2. Where are these people and what are they doing
3. Derive from the first 2: what are the news in my hood (shops, bars, restaurants etc)

“You have got all that!” you now may say e.g. in foursquare or partly on Facebook. I’d agree so far, but these previous apps are a closed universes and coverage, in terms of users/location based postings, is limited to these individual apps. But I found a quite new App “Banjo” which is including almost all major Social Networks and foursquare – so one App for all. After having it in use now for a couple of days, I thought it would be worth to share it with you. It is available for iOS and Android.

How does Banjo work?

As you know with Facebook, Twitter or Instagram you have the option to add a location tag to your post or picture, which is key for Ban.jo. They have developed a patent pending system, which continuously screens several networks for location tagged postings and bring it together on one map. The good (or some will say bad) thing about Ban.jo is that you do not have to be connected to others users in order to see them on the map. Ban.jo is basically bringing ANY USER with a location tagged post from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Foursquare on this map. So there is quite some movement to be seen. GREAT! But keep in mind that your privacy setting in e.g. Facebook are more or less obsolete.

The process of including networks obviously is not over because Banjo is asking users to submit suggestions which network should be added. But all this only makes sense, if a network supports location tagged postings. But there are obviously some more than the ones already available.

For the ones of you, not willing to directly install it on your device, here are some screen shots and core functionalities of Banjo. Although the App directly takes you to the map I will quickly take you through the menu options. Just click on the images for a bigger preview.

Explore

The central element of this app is the map with zoom in/out function. Default it gives you an overview of 40km but not only of your current location. You also have the option to add favorites of your choice, which is a nice gimmick. What is your hometown, your prefered surf or kite spot, the city you love most – you can simply add it. Further more you will find updated “Popular” areas which reflect worldwide spots with the most check ins. Last but not least you have a third category “Trending” which speaks for itself.

On the map itself users from the community are posted with their profile picture and if too close by each other added up as a number. The friends you have (automatically) imported from other networks, once you have them connected, have a orange coloured frame, which makes it quite easy to identify them.

Updates

In this category you will find postings/updates of folks surrounding your current location. But the nice thing is that the list is split in “Friends” (which refers to the friends you have in another network) and “Community” (which is all others you are not linked to). As you can see from the screenshot it shows the distance to you current location and the referring post from Facebook, Twitter or what ever. A simple click on the post takes you your friend’s check in history. For the users you are not connected to, you can simply follow them on twitter or add them to your favorite Banjo users.

People

The People-Section is simply a collage of the users, shown on your Explore-Map. Also this area is not limited to your current location but includes the favorites from your explore-list as well. I have to admit this area reminds me of some Dating-Apps like Badoo because it is clearly focussing the people. But take it as you like it, it is nice for a quit flip through who is hanging out at a certain location.

Social

In this section you have the option to add social networks or suggest missing ones, as I described earlier. The really nice function here is that you can check in via Facebook, Foursquare or Twitter and cross share it to other networks.  It really feels like a remote control like you have with Path or others. You can add text and pictures or course, but focus remains the location.

Friend Alerts

When you would like to know who is closed to your location or checking in near by, this is the alarm setting menu for that. You can set distance or simply pause alerts. This list includes all of your friends from other networks but you have the option to disable alerts individually.

Inbox

What would be a social network without a mail system…

User

This is your setting area. I will not get into too many details here because there are simply too many, some useful some less. What I want to mention here is, that Banjo is offering an “iCloud Gallery”. Do not confuse this with Apple’s iCloud. Anyhow it is a really nice tool. From all the posts in your Banjo community, which is basically everyone are the world using location tagging or check ins, you can save pictures to this folder. Unfortunately, and I hope they will fix it soon, there is no save to camera roll function or a Pinit button for Pinterest.

All in all I can only recommend this app because it keeps me from checking several networks more or less individually. It has made check ins more public and visible for everyone. Try it ! I have not had a proper look at their terms of use or privacy policy, like I usually do, but I will find the time soon, I think, and post here if there is something worth mentioning.

Facebook – Where have all your posts gone and where will they go soon?

I do not know what your perception is, but has your Facebook news feed become a little bit flattened, too? I am watching this development now for several months and incited by that I googled a lot, what folks think about this. It is not a representative survey but in a nutshell: active users, who use to post or create a lot of content, are the ones who shift or try new platforms or social media tools first. By that, content is ‘shifted’ into alternative channels than Facebook. Passive users, who in first line watch the news feed and now and then comment or like posts, are somehow running out of new material. This may sound a little bit dramatic but it seems to be a confirmation of a development, which has been risen already since last year: in countries, where Facebook already has a higher penetration, it is more likely that users disappear and numeric growth is mainly contributed by emerging markets with lower penetration. But why this decline in saturated countries? Here some thoughts:

• Increasing mobile usage
  Although smartphones grant an “all-the-time” access to Facebook, I doubt the content relevance. Yes, you can do a check in, yes you can do a picture-post but the Facebook app is not comfortable when it comes to text/link posts. Primarily content is depending on a share-functionality of other sites provided on their mobile pages (only try to post a YouTube Video on an iOS device and try to set the audience to ‘public’ – it is not at all a quick posting).  Mobile access to Facebook is clearly reduced to a “Like” and a comment to a post. But “fresh” content is barely pushed via smartphones, compared to the amount posted via desktops. So the solely watching audience is becoming bigger.
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• Must-Manage Privacy Settings
  Did it happen to you that you limited your post to a friend-list which is too small or simply the wrong one? Have you tried to share an article from any site only with a selected audience? I think the achieved “control” over your posted content has become a downside. I find myself quite often sharing content quickly and then, later, find that I selected the wrong friend list, because I simply forgot about it.
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• Available online time
  Assuming you have your daily schedule filled with working-time, sport etc everyone has a certain chunk of time to be spent online. But when it comes to the “where” this time is spent, it often is forgotten, that the number of interesting pages is heavily increasing. This is the same for both online and mobile.
  Just think of Pinterest, Path and many other sites which have become frequently used in recent months. All this pages, primarily ambassadored by active users, tear away productive time from Facebook and other established pages.
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• Two trends: more public and more private
  Given the increasing numbers of social networks (Facebook, twitter, instagram, foursquare, etc) there are a lot of tools and apps available, striving to serve as an umbrella for all networks. A good and quite new case is Ban.jo (online and app) being nearly entirely public with all your check ins and posts and a clear step into offline communication. On the other hand you have networks like Path, limiting your friend list and being, if you want, entirely private. But without lacking access to Facebook, twitter or foursquare. I am not sure if it will help to check, watch or manage all single networks, but personally I am more than happy to see developments like OneID, theoretically enabling users to log in all networks with only one username and password. Anyway, these tools allow an advantage for users but at the same time have the downside that posting happens more and more on other but Facebook channels.
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It may sound more pessimistic than it actually is but I see a trend coming up which is creating new traffic hubs in the near future, like Pinterest has become within only a few months. And at the same time, traffic and attention will be scattered to several new platforms.  It is more to have a strategic state of readiness when it comes to brands and commercial usage of facebook and other channels. Change is coming and the users will decide until some miss the train.

Pinterest – Tricky Terms of Use

It wasn’t meant that way, to publish some kind of a Pinterest Blog Series, but I received some questions regarding Pinterest’s Terms of Use. So here’s a third post about Pinterest.

As you may have seen in my first post, I catered the copyright risk surrounding Pinterest. Users keep posting material, in this case pictures they do not own or do not hold (legally) demanded copyrights. Lately, to counteract this opportunity, Pinterest launched a script, enabling site operators to enable the function of pinning pictures to a Pinterest Board. Seems to be more a half-hearted initiative because, again from a legal point of view, Pinterest is ‘clean’ when it comes to legal questions. And this has two reasons, which can be found in there terms of use. I think they are no surprise but have a potentially huge impact:

(i) you either are the sole and exclusive owner of all Member Content that you make available through the Site, Application and Services or you have all rights, licenses, consents and releases that are necessary to grant to Cold Brew Labs the rights in such Member Content, as contemplated under these Terms.

You, we, the users must have all the rights or simply own them.

(ii) neither the Member Content nor your posting, uploading, publication, submission or transmittal of the Member Content or Cold Brew Labs’ use of the Member Content (or any portion thereof) on, through or by means of the Site, Application and the Services will infringe, misappropriate or violate a third party’s patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, moral rights or other proprietary or intellectual property rights, or rights of publicity or privacy, or result in the violation of any applicable law or regulation.

You, we, the users do not break or abuse any law when using, pinning materials. Further more, in the section of “General Prohibitions“, users agree not to upload, use etc materials, they do not own or have appropriate rights to do so. But it gets a little bit more interesting because Pinterest is claiming the right to even sell the posted content.

By making available any Member Content through the Site, Application or Services, you hereby grant to Cold Brew Labs a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free license, with the right to sublicense, to use, copy, adapt, modify, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, stream, broadcast, access, view, and otherwise exploit such Member Content only on, through or by means of the Site, Application or Services.

In a nutshell: we provide content to Pinterest which is “legally pre-cleaned” and by the simple act of pinning it onto a board enable Pinterest to sell it.

Pinterest user demographics – A surprise !

Following recent discussions in the News and in several Blogs (and this includes my post as well), I felt there is a gap in both perception and usage of Pinterest in the US and in Europe, in particular in Germany. So, for the sake of a catching a glimpse, I used the Google Ad Planner to have a look at Pinterest’s users.

Pinterst is only an US Buzz
There is a total (worldwide) traffic reported of 73M visits in January, which by more than 90% is sourced from the US. Traffic coming from Germany is 470k, which represents only 0,6% of Pinterest’s traffic. Just for your reference, UK, as the strongest non-Americas market counts for 820k visits (1,1%). Canada, 2nd strongest source, counts for 2,1M visits. Looking at this numbers, it underlines our all impression, that Pinterest is merely an US phenomenon, at least when it comes to usage. Although all traffic lines are showing an upwards trend, there is nowhere a big jump to be found like in the US and Canada. These numbers, of course, do not include mobile traffic but given the relatively low penetration (e.g. in comparison with the UK), Germany’s traffic contribution will be relatively low.

Opposite worlds (Gender and Age)
Another proof for the US domestic importance can be seen by the users’ age, in comparison to german users. In the US 85% of the visitors are aged 18 – 54, so quite nicely spread. In Germany 66% are aged 25-34, with only minor usage amongst older age groups.

Pinterest User Age, US

Pinterest User Age, DE

But the bigger gap can be seen by the gender. 81% of users in US are female while in Germany (and most other countries) we find an entirely opposite picture, where 81% of the users are male.

Pinterest User Gender, US
Pinterest User Gender, DE

Content vs. Media Buzz
From my point of view, the biggest difference can be found with regard to the content. The US Pinterest traffic is driven by thematic relevant categories such as Fashion, Designers, Art and seasonal occurences like Valentine’s Day. But in Germany, and again this is referring to most of foreign markets, it is categories like Venture Capital, Blogging, Advertising & Marketing, SEO/SEM and Technology. Furthermore these categories have a much higher affinity-index. So as a baseline study it could be said that Pinterest is more a Media Buzz outside of the US.

Pinterest User Interests, US

Pinterest User Interests, DE

So, as I see it, the world outside of the US is not yet in Pinterest’s focus. They are more focused on the monetization of their business and on getting their legal framework properly set up. As I wrote in my first Pinterst post, a potential fight will be copyrights. Only some days ago Pinterest launched some scripts, which websites can include to avoid pin-ing pictures to Pinterest. But for global (commercial) success, it is still a long road but the potential is obvious.

Pinterest? What is Pinterest?

If TechCruch is appointing someone “The startup of the year 2011“, there must be something to it. Even if only, in online terms, a ‘few’ people are using it, more and more questions on Facebook and other places arise, what Pinterest is.

Just to give you an idea, which buzz this two-year old company with 16 employees creates, let’s have a look at their web traffic: having 1,68MM unique visitors in September 2011 the number jumped to 7MM unique visitors in December. ComScore rated Pinterest as the fastest growing website, by now driving more traffic to online retailers than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined.  So there must be some relevant content there and given the enormous traffic let to retailers gives an idea of the commercial relevance Pinterest possesses.

It is not easy getting access to Pinterest these days. Although you can simply sign in, you will be placed onto a waiting list and it can take several days to receive an invitation email. Additionally their servers seem to be overstrained.

But let’s take it slowly:

1. What can be done with Pinterest, what is the use

With Pinterest you can browse, view, organize and share pictures. Videos have not yet been included but will follow later. With a browser integrated “Pin it” button you can easily, during your browsing, add a picture to your Pinterest account. Of course you can add a short text to your pinned picture. In order to increase reach and usage in the web, Pinterest is heading to implement the “Pinit” Button, basically the same functionality like Facebook’s Like-Button. Websites have the option to include the button into their pages and by that enable visitors to add a picture to their Pinterest account. As a nice side-effect, the Pinit button generates some more traffic and awareness for Pinterest. AND, last but not least, it has a positive legal impact as we will see later.

It goes without saying that there are mobile apps available, enabling users to add pictures on the go.

Your pictures can be organised on boards of your choice, which can be labeled just as you want. Most people organize their pictures in a more ‘traditional’ way like fashion, beauty, sports, DIY etc.
What would be a social network without following and being followed. Of course you can add friends, celebrities or brands to your follow-list. Further more you can select a friend’s specific board  you want to follow, in order to increase the relevance for you.
All of your pictures and the ones of the friends you follow appear in a stream. From there you receive fresh materials and you can easily re-pin a picture into your own boards, again with the option of changing/adding text notes.

Attention – it is getting confusing now (kidding), but Pinterest has a like button as well. But it has nothing to do with the Facebook Like-Button. With the like button you just can say “Hey I like it” but without putting the picture (via pin) onto one of your boards.

That is basically it. So far, and this is more a personal impression but confirmed by some articles I have seen in recent weeks, mostly used by women.

2. Why is it Pinterest so increasingly popular

Initially I thought “Ok, this is nice but it will not keep me busy for longer than a week.” but I have to admit I was wrong. There is a certain beauty in finding and getting introduced to new products, new ideas, fun stuff etc. If you just moved into a new appartement, e.g. you will find tons of inspiration for interior decoration. Women collect material for their wedding. A new destination / lodge for your summer holidays? You will all find it there. In a nutshell a tremendous richness of information which can easily keep you busy for hours. In a blog someone commented Pinterest “It is not necessary anymore to use the scissors to ‘extract’ pictures from a magazine”. This is a quite good idea what Pinterest is about.

It is simply fun, integrated because you will find all content within that website, easy to use and flexible as you can adapt it to your needs. I think it will become a pool for product information and news as the number of users increases further on.

3. Business with and via Pinterest

Beside the fact of fun and entertainment, Pinterest is a completely new way of window-shopping. And to my understanding, the shortest way from “See it” to purchase was built. Like I said earlier, new products and inspiration will be found here. For brands and companies this might (very likely) become a source of business, since users out themselves as true likers of their products. And this goes far beyond Facebook’s Like Button.

E.g. users already started building boards like “My Birthday Presents”, “My must have” or “Our Wedding” which is self-speaking and offering commercial opportunities.

Beyond that, small companies like jewelers with their own designs, artists and others find a platform for initial awareness. There is no need anymore to create awareness, drive traffic to an online shop and then some when sell. Pinterest is some kind of a warm welcomed shortcut, since users/consumers are always keen on being ‘the first’ to have a new product, gimmick or what ever.

4. How does Pinterest generate revenue

So far Pinterest is not displaying ads on their site, but it was confirmed that they consider this option. And given the structured way, how users categorize their boards and content, it is an obvious option for targeted advertising. More interestingly, and this refers to my prior point of utilizing Pinterest as a business driver, they have tested skimlinks in recent days. (For those of you who do not know what skimlinks are, please refer to this video-link.) This move clearly underlines the described proximity of Pinterest to an online-shop. And given the wide range of products and services to be found on Pinterest, affiliate programs might be contributing a proper chunk of revenue in the future.

On the long run Pinterest will have to find a cash cow, especially to satisfy their venture capitalists. An option could also be the integration of (paid) brandshops, which would go in line with the window-shopping approach and enable direct on site purchases. Let’s see where they will take us.

5. Legal issues

What is a social network without followers and what is a social network without legal concerns. Not only since the early days of google we, as users, are faced with legal issues or uncertainties, when using a website. I will not get lost in a legal review now, but just want to highlight two aspects, Pinterest and its users are facing:

• Copyrights
  We all have heard cases that users were sued for the usage of pictures without having the copyrights. And this can happen more easily and quicker than we think by linking a picture into your blog or website or using a picture for your eBay sale. Let us be frank, pictures have somehow become a public good, at least in our perception. We just go on Google Picture Search and find billions of pictures – choice is free. But somehow the pictures we use ‘belongs’ to someone. This is basically the reason why I use pictures in my blog, let’s say ‘housewifely’. That is a sacrifice of beauty for the sake of certainty.
  And this is the point where it might get tricky for Pinterest as the ‘re-usage’ of pictures is their central business & functionality. Unfortunately us, the users, are the ones to ‘abuse’ the copyrights. Let’s hope we will not see a second Napster here. BUT, and I mentioned it earlier, Pinterest is offering the “Pin it” button to be integrated in a website. This might be the trick, that an operator of a website invites users actively to pin their pictures to their Pinterest board. Let’s see . . .
• Data Privacy
  As soon as you talk about online marketing, in a targeted way, in combination with a social network or a global ad marketing company like google, you end up at this point. Which data is kept, from which page we have visited, inside and outside of, in this case, Pinterest. Is my personal data (traces) given to a third party etc etc etc the list is sheer endless and we all know about the ongoing discussion with Facebook. This will, or increasingly might, become a topic for Pinterest as well. But recent articles have indicated that the guys from Pinterest strive to be more transparent than other social networks (you can read it here).
  But somehow it seems to me that users are becoming less and less interested, like the happenings surrounding Path have shown some days ago. I am quite shure, it will stay thrilling.

This article has become longer than I initially thought, but, if you have made it through to this line, I hope it was still an informative piece. Feedback is always very welcome!

Social Media Job Salaries

Onwardsearch.com has recently published a salary-guide for different social media jobs in the U.S.

Nice to read…

Law of masses

Yesterday it seems to have been a day of Facebook-documentaries, at least in German public TV. One is called “Billion Dollar Business ‘Friendship’ ” and another one “Media on Facebook: helper of data collectors“. As expected, both are dealing with the issue of data privacy on Facebook and approach this topic in a more or less ‘neutral’ way.

I think the majority of Facebook users are quite aware of the unclarities in data privacy and I appreciate that media has made this issue more and more public. But somehow I feel Facebook, just like google, is solely accused of being a sheer huge data collection unit. Well, with regard to Facebook’s and google’s business model this is true. Furthermore it is true, that the Like-Button, placed on an outside of Facebook site helps to generate additional data and it is true as well, that this network has widely expanded. But what I really miss in most of the documentaries, especially in the two I mentioned above, is the users’ point of view. Users of Facebook, and the same applies for google and a lot of other sites, are underestimated. They are more pictured like the everlasting victims, which is not true. Let me explain why:

1. It is assumed that all information is solely used for analytical reason
   Wrong! There are three categories of data collected: The first is socio demographic data (age, gender, occupation, marital status etc), the second is psychographic data (preferences in music, art, leisure, literature, media etc) and the third is content (pictures, videos, links and likes etc).
   From a media-planning point of view, and this somehow is Facebook’s revenue wheel, you only need the first two socio and psychographic data. These are the real anchors for targeting online ads. The third is, from a user point of view, the reason for being on Facebook: seeing what your friends like, product recommendations, news etc. If this content component would be missing no one would be using Facebook anymore. Of course insights can be derived from posts, links and especially likes, but once you have worked in data analysis or data mining, you know how difficult it is to gain additional information from such volatile data. And although having terra-tons of data, it does not help you anymore.
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2. It is assumed that by nature a “transparent user” is a bad thing
   Wrong! I made a deal with Facebook, the same I made some 15 years ago when I switched from AltaVista and Yahoo to google as my preferred search engine: I give them more of my personal information and in return, I receive better and more relevant results in search, news, products and advertisement – knowing that they will store my given data, but still having in hand which data I give them. Fair trade I think.
   Of course, I do not want my personal data to publicly circulate around the world, but within the limits I (!!!) set I am OK with it. As a result, I can now offer my friends to find product recommendations for me on amazon based on my profile (and I appreciate receiving presents I like), I like finding and receiving suggestions for the latest music, concerts and events fitting to my music preferences. So on and so forth.
   The web has brought almost complete transparency about product prices, news etc. But given the sheer richness of information, we need tools to extract the individually relevant content. Facebook, google and others are some of them.
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3. It is assumed that data collection (like Facebook and google do it) is something entirely new
   Wrong! Since the early days of mass media, marketeers have always strived for their right audience – to better allocate their marketing budgets, reaching the right person at the right moment, perhaps in the right context. Hundreds, maybe thousands of market research institutes have used questionnaires, several pages long, to obtain detailed information about customers, their preferences, their media usage behaviour etc. Standardized panels like Nielsen, GfK and many others or ad hoc surveys are conducted day by day. And in every questionnaire they include socio and psycho graphic data and even more. And yes, they merged and enriched their data by any means, drilling down to a single customer panel (tracking the buying and media behaviour of a single individual).
   By the time the web arose, transparency came along, online-surveys were possible, the sample-size increased they followed. Facebook and others have the same mechanisms sitting in their backend. The only two things that make them better are: they posses data derived from behaviour (and not from a static questionnaire) and they have it on an individual base (and not clustered in a bigger sample).
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4. It is assumed that users have no choice
   Wrong! It lies within users’ hand to “Like”, to agree that an app “will access my personal data”. It is users’ choice to un-limit or limit visibility of personal data and it is users’ choice to join or leave a website.
   Yes, the web has become ‘complicated’ and to a certain extent intransparent maybe dangerous. But at the same time and at the same speed the web and its enriching technology has evolved, data privacy laws have neglected to evolve as well. Originating from a time of paper and pencil, most data privacy laws got more and more fragmented and brought ourselves and new media companies to the obligation to have pages of law text, no one understands anymore. I think most of the companies and consultants working in the new media sector have all an advocate sitting next to them.

I think the new technology world is far more balanced than often specified, mainly because advantages and handy tools become so very often so very quickly a habit. Disputable circumstances and uncertainties have to be brought on the table, but at the same time benefits and achievements have to be valued, too. “Technology is our friend”, as my friend Evangelos named his blog and he nicely refers to a Deloitte study about the economic and impact of facebook.

Social networks are a big buzz these days and like with all big movements, there will be a counter movement some when. The masses, the users will decide.

[Quick look @] Lead Management in the automobile industry

In recent months I have spent a lot of time working on Lead Management Issues in the automobile industry. And I never ever thought I would be incited to write a post like this, but given the day-to-day issues and discussions I am involved in, here we go.

Even, or should I say especially, in ‚traditional‘ industries like automobile, the sales process is dramatically changing. Some 10 or 15 years ago it was a normal habit, if you were looking for a new car, to go and visit the dealership, since it was the major source of information. OK, there were a lot of magazines available you could refer to, but basically the shop was the place to go to. As we all know (and we actually behave accordingly), we just go online and check out manufacturers‘ websites, their car configurators etc. We, by nature, expect to find tools like this on a car website and we will find them. Only as a matter of fact this „pre-purchase information phase“ has become entirely detached from the dealership. So, over are the times, a sales-man could just wait for the prospect to show up in the room and go for them. According to Forrester Research, and this number is verified by several researches in various countries, 80% of all new-car purchasers complete their research online. The only ‚off-line‘ component in this process ist he mail out/receipt of a brochure.

So, in a nutshell, quite a challenge for a salesman, because a once upon a time physical prospect (called human being) has become a Lead, delivered in an electronic way into a computer system. Brave new world and for sure this is a downside of the web. BUT – there is a huge advantage, but if you do not accept that it is there, you will never get it.

Here is a short-list of three things you should always keep in mind or do:

• A lead will never find an end
  Only just because a delivered lead does not turn directly into a care sale, it is not automatically a ‚bad‘ lead or not worth keeping an eye on. If you have not closed the deal this time, your prospect will for sure buy a new car in the next years. Never delete a Lead data set!
• Collect and maintain all prospects‘ information you can get
  Why is Google so strong? Why is Facebook so strong? In advertising they have the huge advantage that they have (more or less) detailed user-information. They know when to offer what. Small-sized it is the same when you are trying to sell cars as a dealer. Know your prospect and customer to be enabled to offer the right car (model, options, accessories, finance etc) at the right time (e.g. 3 months prior tot he end oft he current leasing etc). Add information like: married, 3 kids, dog, commuter, 3 horses etc. They will enable you to make an attractive and relevant offer. Or would you like to get offers (being a couple with 3 kids) like a Toyota IQ?
• A Lead Management System on its own will not help you
  Many dealers are proud of their Lead Management System and in most cases they are right. Having tools at hand helping you to manage your leads is mega in many ways. But what most dealers forget is: a system itself is only as good as the data quality. So this obviously refers tot he 2nd point. The more relevant data/information you have, the better.

AppleTV on Best Buy survey is more than a news

Two days ago I was one of many who received via Twitter the message that BestBuy is including a potential AppleTV in their survey. For those of you, who have missed the news you can find it here. Besides the fact that it only ‘appears’ that Best Buy is sending out this survey, no one really knows if the given technical specs are correct.

Even three days later folks keep tweeting this news, which I personally appreciate. Of course there is a discussion arising, spreading into Facebook or blogs like mine, asking a lot of questions, rising assumptions and, last but not least, judgement. After a while, and this is a typical development, more and more posts and tweets appear, saying that this news is not really a news, only rumours and assumptions, maybe fake. At first sight this statement is correct, because like I said, there is no evidence of an AppleTV. There is no official statement, nothing. Some months ago, Apple officially even denied the plan to develop a TV device.

I think there is much more than meets the eye. Why should Apple do something like adding an AppleTV to a survey? Obviously in order to receive potential insights from it. An easy one and day-to-day business. But Apple is more than aware, that such a “sneak preview” of functional specs and a RSP of $1.499,- will somehow find their way into the media and consumer world. I am quite sure that this is the point, where the real in depth insight gain starts:

As we all can see, and this is not happening for the first time, Apple products generate a huge social media buzz. This buzz can easily be monitored and this is where th real insight gain starts. If you once have conducted a proper social media monitoring, you know that you can have daily results, even on an hourly base and you quickly get a good feeling if the tone of voice is better or worse. With the right tools, tested and robust mining algorithms, you have the power to know if, in the AppleTV-case, the product spec is more or less OK, if the pricing is OK, if the overall perception is OK and so on. With regard to the ‘sample-size’ you can easily see how wide the discussion spreads, how deeply involved consumers are. The list is sheer endlessly.

Apple’s brand power is so strong that they simply can do these kind of things – for simplicity reasons name it “product pre testing”. And to me it is shown once more, why Apple is such a dominating player in the market. They have a strategy, a good one, indeed. And they follow that strategy, not only with regard to product development but also in view of the tools and mechanics they are using, to ultimately shape their business.

So, there might be more than meets the eye in this AppleTV News, there might be not. I am quite convinced that Apple has given us all another ball to play with – just like they are doing with the iPhone, the iPad etc. And we all, not surprisingly, keep on giving feedback without being aware.