Erik Qualman's Blog, page 676

Top 5 Mobile iPhone and Android Apps

[image error]I was recently in a bookstore and came across a couple books I was excited to check out right away. However, I didn't grab them and run to the register as I would have a couple years ago…instead I pulled out my evernote app on my iPhone jotted down the title and author. Then as I walked out, I pulled up Amazon and purchased them with 1-click for my Kindle app. Within approximately 90 seconds I had the books in my hand, and for cheaper than the bookstore price. Mobile apps…are my best friend for a person who's on the go constantly and wants everything easily accessible from a simple and easy to use device.

Nowadays the saying "there's an app for that" goes without saying. However, is the app really that great? Is it inexpensive? Quick to download? Easy to use? Have an intuitive interface? All these characteristics are essential to apps being successful in the mobile space. According to a few different lists (such as Time, PCMag and others) the following are known to be the top five iPhone and Android apps (respectively)…notice the difference…

iPhone Apps Kicking Butt and Taking Names

1. Games: Angry Birds

2. On-the-go: Kayak

3. Lifestyle: Amazon

4. Social: Facebook

5. Utility: Google

Android Apps Showing Them Who's Boss

1. Games: Angry Birds

2. On-the-go: Yelp

3. Lifestyle: ESPN Score Center

4. Social: Facebook

5. Utility: Beautiful Widgets

What do these apps have in common, despite some of their different categorical types, features, and uses? How and why are they in top lists by many magazines and experts? Easy…

A. User Interface: Keep it simple, easy to use, and most of all easy on the eyes…we can't all afford laser surgery just yet.

B.  Adapt to User's Needs and Wants: If you are focusing on a productivity app, make sure it's actually making the user's time more efficient. Make it easy to learn to use, intuitive in all senses, and something they'll use on a regular basis. If not, it's just as easy to hit delete and try another one that works better.

C. Understand the Market: It's key to understand if the market is ready for such an app. Does it exist? Does the market want something like this? Example – Spotify is a great example of an app that filled people wants/needs. People loved music but were tired of being interrupted by ads. This app allows music fansto stream music of their choice (a whole album if they want) without having incessant ads. Yes, they may have to pay more, but true music lovers will pay the price if the app is worth the money.

In the end there is no real magic potion to have a successful iPhone app…but there are qualities that go into it which people appreciate and notice. Maybe the next app will tell you if your app is awesome or if it sucks…?

Image credit: Techcrates, faceblogger
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Kindle Sales Increase 4X Over Last Year

With the help of the new Kindle Fire, Amazon had a record setting day on Black Friday. "This was a great Black Friday for Target and for Kindle Fire, which was the bestselling tablet in our stores on Black Friday," said Nik Nayar, vice president merchandising, Target. "We're excited so many guests chose Target as their destination for the new family of Kindle devices and we're sure Kindle Fire will continue to be at the top of wish lists this holiday season."

Kindle Fire is now the bestselling product across Amazon for 8 weeks running

"Even before the busy holiday shopping weekend, we'd already sold millions of the new Kindle family and Kindle Fire was the bestselling product across all of Amazon.com. Black Friday was the best ever for the Kindle family – customers purchased 4X as many Kindle devices as they did last Black Friday – and last year was a great year," said Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. "In addition, we're seeing a lot of customers buying multiple Kindles – one for themselves and others as gifts – we expect this trend to continue on Cyber Monday and through the holiday shopping season."

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Kindle Fire Sales helped increase overall Kindle sales by 4x this year

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–(NASDAQ: AMZN) Amazon.com, Inc. today announced that this Black Friday was the best ever for the Kindle family and the popular Kindle Fire remained the bestselling product across all of Amazon since its introduction 8 weeks ago. The bestselling Kindle family – the $79 Kindle, $99 Kindle Touch, $149 Kindle Touch 3G and the $199 Kindle Fire – are available now at www.amazon.com/kindle and at over 16,000 retail locations throughout the United States.

"We knew Kindle Fire and the new E Ink Kindles would be highly desirable gifts this holiday season," said Wendy Fritz, senior vice president of Computing, Tablets and e-Readers at Best Buy. "If this Black Friday was any indication, they are only getting hotter as we get into the shopping season."

Kindle Fire is the bestselling item on Amazon.com and offers more than 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, books, magazines, apps and games – such as Netflix, Hulu, Pandora and Angry Birds – as well as free storage of Amazon digital content in the Amazon Cloud, Whispersync for books and movies, a 14.6 ounce design that's easy to hold with one hand, a vibrant, color touch screen, a powerful dual-core processor and Amazon Silk – Amazon's new revolutionary web browser that accelerates the power of the mobile device by using the computing speed and power of the Amazon Web Services cloud – all for only $199.

The $79 latest generation Kindle is for readers around the world who want the lightest, most compact Kindle at an incredible price. Kindle is now small and light enough – at less than 6 ounces – to fit easily in your pocket and carry with you everywhere, yet it still features the same 6-inch, most advanced electronic ink display that reads like real paper, even in bright sunlight.

Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G feature an easy-to-use touch screen that makes it easier than ever to turn pages, search, shop, and take notes – still with all the benefits of the most advanced electronic ink display. Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G are also lighter, smaller, offer audio capabilities, such as text-to-speech and deep integration for audiobooks, extra-long battery life and hold thousands of books. Kindle Touch 3G offers the unparalleled added convenience of free 3G. Kindle's free 3G connection means you never have to hunt for or pay for a Wi-Fi hotspot – you simply download and read books anytime, anywhere in over 100 countries around the world. Amazon pays for the 3G connection so there's no monthly fee or annual contract. Both Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G include X-ray – a new feature invented by Amazon that lets customers explore the "bones of the book."

With an Amazon Prime membership, all of the new Kindles offer access to the new Kindle Owners' Lending Library. Kindle owners can now choose from thousands of books to borrow for free – including over 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers – as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates. No other e-reader or e-bookstore offers such a service.

Click here to view: Kindle Fire, Full Color 7″ Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi

 

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Social Media Black Friday (Video)

Where's Erik today as he discusses Black Friday and social media.

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

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Will Retailers be Social This Black Friday?

[image error]As the shopping mania that is Black Friday descends on the nation early this Friday, and in some cases the night of Thanksgiving, retailers who are effective in using social media are likely to be smiling much more when they ring up their cash registers at the end of the day.

According to a study from social media and digital analytics provider Socialbakers, as more consumers turn online for the best savings opportunities, Walmart is the retailer most likely to score big this coming holiday weekend, with the study claiming the shopping retailer offers the most engaged users throughout its social media platforms.

Socialbakers reports that Walmart offers the greatest number of fans heading up the list at more than 10 million fans, with more than 7,500 fan posts in October. The study goes on to note that Walmart has close to two times the number of fans who are actively posting.

According to Jan Rezab, CEO at Socialbakers, "Savvy retailers are combining traditional banner ads and web pages dedicated to Black Friday specials with Facebook posting and Tweets about deals, coupons, merchandise, and hot tips. This enables them to interact and respond to consumers instantaneously – offering them a massive competitive advantage that converts to increased sales and loyalty at Thanksgiving."

For those retailers with the greatest numbers of Facebook fans and Twitter followers, they already have a leg up on the competition by actively engaging consumers, allowing retailers to share details regarding sales, special offers, and early opening times.

"Big name retailers who desire to meet or beat their sales targets know that they need to aggressively compete for the consumer's dollar in this tough economy," Rezab went on to say. "Many retailers have tapped social media to close the gap between getting the consumer to browse to actually buy. Our social media analytics help marketers better understand and orchestrate their social media presence to get the results they need."

The results many retailers need this shopping season are massive amounts of expenditures by consumers.

Many of those expenditures are likely to be done over the Internet, as experts' claim a large number of people will shop and spend online this Black Friday, as well as the remaining month or so of the shopping season.

So, is Walmart actually missing out on a potential gold mine at the end of the day?

According to an earlier study from 24/7 Wall Street, despite its position as the number one retailer in the world, Walmart actually got one of the worst ranks among all the retailers analyzed.

While ranking as the second most visited e-commerce site on the 'Net, according to numbers from Hitwise, the amount of Walmart's sales that actually register from e-commerce are very small – less than 2 percent, or $6 billion, according to analysts at Wells Fargo Securities.

eMarketer recently reported that U.S. retail ecommerce holiday sales are expected to jump nearly 17 percent this year, making up more than 8 percent of total retail sales, growing only some 3 percent. Overall, e-commerce sales for all of 2011 are expected to grow close to 17 percent to $195 billion.

For those retailers who don't quite get it when it comes to how to use social media to propel more sales, here are some tips:

Utilize social media from start to finish – There are a variety of social networking sites out there for retailers along with Facebook and Twitter. Using social media is essentially free, minus the time and effort. Post not only specials that your business is offering, but links to valuable articles on industry trends etc. so your customers and potential customers have lots of information at their fingertips;
Interact in real-time with consumers – One of the advantages to having a social media presence is that you can interact on a real-time basis with both current and potential customers. Whether consumers respond with questions, concerns, complaints, etc. be sure you take the time to interact with individuals to maintain a dialogue;
Be mobile – With more and more consumers having and utilizing mobile phones, it is important to use this venue to reach out to them. Even though not all consumers will purchase an item at that time, offering them sales, deals, coupons etc. over their phones can help make up their decision for them;

At the end of the day, your retail business should utilize social media in all its shapes and forms to reach out to, influence and complete deals with consumers.

Despite all the crowds and hassle of the holiday shopping season, it behooves retails to be social.

Photo credit: csmonitor.com

 

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Domino's iPad App: Makes & Delivers Custom Pizza

Domino's is taking us one step closer to a world defined by customer customization. Domino's Pizza Hero App for iPad let's your make your own pizza and then have it delivered. The other item the App allows for is for you to compete against others on who can make pizza the fastest.

A rep for the ad agency behind the app, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, says that there are parameters regarding the type of pizza you can make. You can't, for instance, knead the dough into the shape of Florida or have a pizza that's got sauce only on one half.The below video showcases Domino's Pizza Hero App.

Pipa Middleton

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Discovering Your Social Media Voice

Our social media world is no stranger to mishaps. In an arena where our words travel in an instantaneous and viral manner we've amplified the meaning of "your word's will come back to bite you". We've seen employees fired, husbands divorced, and many a company's public relations divisions scrambling in the wake of social media faux pas. Still, done right, there is no question social media is redefining the precision and power of our words…maybe even so much that they outlast the impact of our spoken words. For myself, a recent opportunity to appear on Anderson Cooper's daytime talk show, Anderson, hit this home hard.

As a recent graduate from Penn State, where I was an athlete as well as active member in many other facets of the university, I was asked to come share my thoughts on the recent tragedy. Upon arriving at the show's New York City studio, I found myself inundated by two producers in an effort to pre-screen the words would use to voice my opinion. They poked and prodded to constantly remind me in a pushy fashion, "remember to show your emotion…hold nothing back…show how distraught you were by this…this is your school you're talking about…"

With complete disregard to any of the sensationalism they continued to impart on me I remained content with what I was going to say once I had the microphone in my hands. An hour or so later I took my predetermined seat in the audience and continued to let the words mill around in my head. Anderson Cooper took the stage shortly thereafter and the show began to unfold in an uncanny manner. Drama was the name of the game and Anderson was the referee making sure no one deviated. I watched as he coached participants into speaking the words he knew would draw the most controversy. His signature follow-up questions, which included one of either "well who are you really mad at? "or " who do you feel betrayed by?" forced many to simply blurt out something in the heat of the moment. Sometimes he even added the kicker, "Well who are you really mad at…Joe Paterno?" One instance had a student so flustered that he just spit out "the football team" before realizing what he had said and trying to recover. Anderson structured the discussion as if you could either condemn childhood sexual abuse or be Penn State proud. It would be far-fetched to think that someone could feel both. After fifteen minutes of watching these interactions I had decided that there was no way I was going to be speaking under these circumstances. The show concluded and I walked out disappointed in myself. I had missed a prime opportunity speak out on behalf of our tattered Penn State community. But did I?

–I'd now like to take this opportunity to express my grievances for all of the victims of this wicked tragedy. That is what we are all concerned about foremost. I personally will not direct my anger and shame towards any single person as Anderson wished, but I will say that those allegedly involved should have the onus to come forward and admit their wrongdoing. I would also like any outsiders to understand that we as the Penn State Community were just as blindsided by this tragedy as anyone else. Yes, we are still proud of our Alma mater, but this does not hinder our ability to understand and recognize the scope of this tragedy. And lastly I will say, despite all that's happened, let's remember Penn State is still just a university where students come to learn, grow and do great things. This will never change–

The previous is exactly what I wanted to say when called upon the other day. Yet, I can assure you these words would not have come out as precise and powerful with Anderson Cooper looming over me. Herein lies the discovery of my social media voice.

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Small Business Social Media Infographic

Are you a small business that is struggling with getting your arms around Social Media? A new study from my good friends at Office Arrow reveals that you may not be alone. The below infographic summarizes their findings for small business social media and it showcases many aren't properly tapping into the massive opportunities:

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A new business social network

What might happen if we took two parts Quora, one part Linkedin and blended thoroughly? Advicefile.

Advicefile has launched a new social network for the business community. The heart of the site is member generated questions and answers on any business related topic. It's a simple idea with a refreshingly easy to use interface and engaging interactions. Members post questions ranging from career management to business strategy and receive advice from other registered users.

Rather than seeking "one right answer" to a question, members can compare advice offered on any question and reach their own conclusions regarding the quality of the answers. They can also publicly recognize good advice, which is highlighted on the site both in the Q&A forum as well as at the member's profile. Questions aren't edited directly by members or Advicefile staff, but editing suggestions can be sent directly from one member to another.

Beyond the opportunity to trade information and ideas, members can follow other members in their news feed or make direct connections. Their individual profile highlights their background and promotes themselves and their business. A beta version of the service is now available to the general public.

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

 

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Businesses and the Social Media Challenge

Business promotion on social media channels is a bit like fitting a square peg into a round hole. The heart of the problem is that, almost without exception, the giants of social media only added the business promotion component as an afterthought.

What this translates into is frustration. Communication is harder than it should be, at every step you must employ creative hacks just to make sure that you send the right message.

The Exception to the Rule

In this entire field of mishaps, LinkedIn looks like a glowing exception. It was built to support a professional network after all. But the good news stops here. While LinkedIn does offer a great deal in terms of business connections and B2B promotion, its limited scope soon becomes apparent when you try to reach a broader public, like, let's say, Facebook offers.

It looks like a real problem without an easy way out. So businesses continue to hack their way through and try to reach their user base. Sometimes they get successful, other times they get banned (Google+ was the main culprit here) and most of the times they fall short of succeeding.

Problem? There's a Startup for That.

And so the story goes. Someone's problems quite often means someone else's opportunity. Enter ShoutOr, a small startup with some big ambitions.

Their take on the problem is to create a separate module for business tools, which include the general information, job postings and promotions. They also some very ambitious plans to blend in some localized search, Google Maps integration, possibility to accept feedback from customers and highly customizable access settings and it looks like a winner.

Well, it would be great if that would be the whole story.

Startup? There's a Problem with That

ShoutOr's biggest weakness is the fact that, well, they're just getting started. All these tools sound great on paper until you realize that you also need a serious user base to make them work. The tools themselves could also use some improvement especially in regards to usability.

The way ShoutOr is dealing with this dilemma is kind of ingenious though. They basically don't tie up the use of their tools to the use of their network. This means that businesses are allowed to generate all this neat content on ShoutOr and then use it somewhere else. For the tools where that's not really a possibility, like polls and customer feedback they adopted the tried and tested approach of 3rd party login.

Why You Should Give ShoutOr a Try

This little network could very well be the next big thing going or just as easy it could be another of those startups nobody will remember one year from now. Either way it just makes sense to get in early and establish a presence. This way, if it does become successful you will suddenly have a big advantage over your competition.

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Of Businesses and the Social Media Challenge

Business promotion on social media channels is a bit like fitting a square peg into a round hole. The heart of the problem is that, almost without exception, the giants of social media only added the business promotion component as an afterthought.

What this translates into is frustration. Communication is harder than it should be, at every step you must employ creative hacks just to make sure that you send the right message.

The Exception to the Rule

In this entire field of mishaps, LinkedIn looks like a glowing exception. It was built to support a professional network after all. But the good news stops here. While LinkedIn does offer a great deal in terms of business connections and B2B promotion, its limited scope soon becomes apparent when you try to reach a broader public, like, let's say, Facebook offers.

It looks like a real problem without an easy way out. So businesses continue to hack their way through and try to reach their user base. Sometimes they get successful, other times they get banned (Google+ was the main culprit here) and most of the times they fall short of succeeding.

Problem? There's a Startup for That.

And so the story goes. Someone's problems quite often means someone else's opportunity. Enter ShoutOr, a small startup with some big ambitions.

Their take on the problem is to create a separate module for business tools, which include the general information, job postings and promotions. They also some very ambitious plans to blend in some localized search, Google Maps integration, possibility to accept feedback from customers and highly customizable access settings and it looks like a winner.

Well, it would be great if that would be the whole story.

Startup? There's a Problem with That

ShoutOr's biggest weakness is the fact that, well, they're just getting started. All these tools sound great on paper until you realize that you also need a serious user base to make them work. The tools themselves could also use some improvement especially in regards to usability.

The way ShoutOr is dealing with this dilemma is kind of ingenious though. They basically don't tie up the use of their tools to the use of their network. This means that businesses are allowed to generate all this neat content on ShoutOr and then use it somewhere else. For the tools where that's not really a possibility, like polls and customer feedback they adopted the tried and tested approach of 3rd party login.

Why You Should Give ShoutOr a Try

This little network could very well be the next big thing going or just as easy it could be another of those startups nobody will remember one year from now. Either way it just makes sense to get in early and establish a presence. This way, if it does become successful you will suddenly have a big advantage over your competition.

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