Tag Archives: technology

Four Areas that Digital Marketers Need to Continue to Focus On

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Should we be amazed anymore at how fast digital is moving? Honestly no. But what should we be thinking about as we watch it go by? When I was a kid and I would see a train go by, I always wanted to be on that train. I didn’t really care where it was going, I just wanted to be on it. With a little foresight and hindsight you can be on that train that we’re calling digital right now-and know where it came from and where it’s going. We sort of know where it came from, but here’s 4 stops on that journey.

  1. Figure out Big Data- Mark it down. Big data is going to be big business. It makes sense though, you have these large organizations collecting terabytes of customer data but not knowing how or what to do with it. Enter the age of Big Data and marketers finally doing something with that data.. IDC predicts that the market for Big Data technology and services will reach $16.9 billion by 2015 up from $3.2 billion in 2010.
  2. Focus on the Customer. If you think you’re doing enough with your customers, then chances are, you are not.  Some recent Accenture research reveals that retailers can respond with mobile capabilities designed to create value for both customers and themselves  if they understand who is shopping in their stores, how they shop, and how mobile influences their shopping behaviors.
  3. Go Get a Tablet– It’s hard to ignore the mobile and tablet markets. If you don’t own a tablet, you probably have it on your wish list of things to get. That’s a good decision. Why? It’s where your customers, clients and colleagues are going. Need the data to prove it?  After less than two years, U.S. mobile subscribers were using almost 40 million tablets, according to ComScore. In contrast, it took smartphones seven years to reach that level of adoption.
  4. Twitter ain’t going anywhere-From cars that tweet, to marketers figuring out newfound ways to leverage the power of microblogging and actually driving awareness and making money-Twitter is hitting some good times. Need more proof? Twitter didn’t buy Posterous just to spend money and collect a toy. They have plans. Big one’s.

We could have added more, but the point here is not to inundate you with all the things that occur every day in the tech world, it’s too much and can be overwhelming. The point is to help you focus on the areas that continue to mature and evolve-For marketers large and small, we need to learn how can we adapt and adopt to things that will be around in 6 months to a year. We have to get away from our fixation on the new and shiny and focus on the smart and profitable.

Web 3.0 infograph

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No matter how great a social network might be, bells, whistles and what not- It doesn’t happen without people. It lives and dies by what the users do with it. How many great start-ups and applications die on the vine because no one knew about them? Is it because of a lack of marketing?

19 things you should know about your world

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  1. Did you know that China has over 253,000,000 internet users which amounts to about 17% of the world’s users?
  2. Did you know that China will eventually become the #1 English speaking country in the world? Or that
  3. The 25% of the population in China with the highest IQ’s …is greater than the total population of North America.  In India, it’s the top 28%.  Translation for teachers:  they have more honors kids than we have kids. 
  4. There are over 2.7 billion searches performed on Google each month.  Which speaks to a post I did about tech trends.
  5. The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years.  For students starting a four-year technical or college degree, this means that…half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study.  It is predicted to double every 72 hours by 2010.
  6. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that today’s learner will have 10-14 jobs . . By the age of 38
  7. Predictions are that by 2013 a supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computation capability of the human brain.
  8. According to the U.S. Department of Labor . . .1 out of 4 workers today is working for a company they have been employed by for less than one year
  9. More than 1 out of 2 are working for a company they have worked for for less than five years.
  10. According to former Secretary of Education Richard Riley . . The top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004.
  11. We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist .
  12. The U.S. is 20th in the world in broadband Internet penetration.(Luxembourg just passed us.)
  13. 1 out of every 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met
  14. The average MySpace page is visited 30 times a day.
  15. The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the population of the planet
  16. More than 3,000 new books are published . .
  17. It’s estimated that 40 exabytes (that’s 4.0 x 1019) of unique new information will be generated worldwide this year
  18. The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years
  19. 47 million laptops were shipped worldwide last year

 

Many thanks to  Karl Fisch  and Scott Mcleod  who compiled alot of this data, which in the end, really gives you a sense of how very large this world is and how very small you are.  

 

 

 The only constant in life is change. Don’t be static.

Dumb People and Technology

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According to Wikipedia:

Dumb may refer to:

  • Stupidity, the state of
  • Dumbing down, a term referring to over-simplification

I recently wrote about the fact that sometimes technology and the use thereof, may be too complicated for some “slower” people to grasp, therefore what they might use their computer for, might not neccessarily be what others use it for. Is that ok?

In creating web apps and websites, we always try to dumb down what we are creating, in the hopes that its simplicity will push it over the top in terms of the broadest possible audience grasping what we are trying to convey. In lieu of words sometimes we create icons. Yet other large manufacturers choose to assume that people will “get it” and if they have problems just call the help desk. Can you say focus group? Or lack thereof?

Maybe Dumb people shouldn’t operate computers? Maybe we underestimate the dumb person; Or perhaps they use it to go to YouTube? Do dumb people use email? Has anyone or any company actually looked at that sector of the public to see, just what they use the computer for? Is it a group that we should market to? Are we missing out on this demographic? Or do we just assume that they will get it? Isn’t it the goal of all technology innovations that they are accessible to all? If so, doesn’t that mean regardless of your mental capacity, that that person will be able to grasp it? That you, the slow one, will get it?

Is technology biased towards people who are educated? If it is, do they leave the dumb people in their wake? What are dumb people supposed to do? Rely on smarter people? Or the Geek Squad? Do dumb people want a  crack at technology and what it has to offer?  Does technology provide a fair shake to people who want to learn but just are really really challenged?

A dumb person might have the grandest of intentions when buying a computer, but what are they to do when they have to install software, get an internet connection, download updates, install security software, burn a disc, download some music from itunes, buy some porn, etc etc etc…?

You see the world is moving more and more towards a paperless virtual high speed electronic environment. But it moves at a speed that not a lot of people are comfortable with. And you know what? Technology could not care less! Social networking sites are great but I’m willing to bet the affluency of the users is solid middle class and up. Educationally, we provide our 1st graders with a solid foundation for technology, but we’ve forgotten about the boomers and some gen X’ers even, and those who may have slipped through the cracks and those that it just passed right over. For whatever reason, those people are missing out on what technology can do for them. But now that I think about it, maybe they don’t care. Maybe to them, playing FreeCell, Bejeweled and watching Videos on YouTube, is just fine…

Technology. Is it making our lives easier? Or does it complicate them?

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While thinking of what to write about this morning I thought that some questions should be asked.

Does technology serve a broad audience?  Or a broad enough audience? In other words, are we serving enough people, with what technology brings to the table? What do people who happen to have a computer, who have no more than a high school education, and possibly less, use the computer for? Do they use it to look at porn? Do they use it to set up My Space? Is it for Flickr? Music? Email? Is the computer user friendly enough for people who might be learning challenged? If it’s not, then what do they do with it?

Who do we as marketers and web masters gear our websites to? What is the demographic? Do we even consider the number of people using a computer who don’t really fit the audience that we THINK we are attracting? Do we even TRY to speak to that segment?

Is the cell phone and it’s current capabilities the “dumb’ed  down” version of the PC? Is what is on the phone from a spec standpoint what all users en masse want? Or what we think will sell more phones? Do we not give the people that use any type of technology on a day to day basis, enough credit for what they want? and how they might want to utilize it?

When does any type of app, fly completely over someone’s head? What is the level, when someone just shuts it down and says,”this is too difficult”? Will all generations from here on out be so technically gifted, and knowledgable that nothing will be impossible for them to grasp? Regardless of educational levels?

What does user friendly really imply? Does everyone need a computer? If so why? If not, how come? Does anyone use a fax machine anymore?  Why is YouTube so popular? Why is MySpace the same? Does anyone care about social networking? DO I really want my friends to know what I’m doing at all times?  How can I find really cool web sites? Without having to put up with google ads?

And speaking of Google, should I care about what they do? and how they do it? Does Google make my life easier? Does Microsoft? Does technology make my life easier, or does it complicate it because of updates and licences and fees and subscriptions and user names and passwords and security threats and viruses and hackers and…..???

Do we know what we want? Do you know what we want? Do we know what you want?  We all think we do, but you know what? No you don’t, and neither do we..