Friday, Jun 12, 2009 by Sarah Worsham
As you may be aware – I hate loyalty cards. I think they’re a pain in the butt and offer way more reward to the company than to me. I don’t mind loyalty programs, but I want the burden to be on the company to keep track of what I’ve purchased and my rewards. This may be what led to the development of Tetherball, which is a service that connects mobile advertising & marketing directly with individual consumers via a small rfid chip on their mobile devices. Marketers and advertisers seem to be estatic about the possibilities, but to me, it sounds a thousand times worse than loyalty cards.
Security Issues
While it sounds convenient to have a sticker on your mobile device that can interact with devices at a store, there’s usually very little security in current rfid technology. This means that anyone with the proper device can read the information that’s stored on the rfid chip. There’s no way for the owner of the mobile phone to turn off the rfid or control what information is on it or who can access it. There’s also nothing to stop the store that gave you the chip from tracking you in places you may not know about.
Awareness Issues
I wonder just how much people who are using these rfid devices understand how the company is using their information. Are they aware of the possible security and privacy risks? Are the companies devulging any of these possible issues?
Scaling Issues
Even if you like the idea of a rfid chip for a loyalty program, how is it going to work when all the loyalty programs start doing it? Is your mobile device going to be covered in stickers? Just think about how many loyalty cards many people carry – watch the next lady with a big purse shuffle through a card deck looking for the proper card. Will the companies be able to access the information on the other chips?
Transferability Issues
What happens when you get a new mobile device? Will you be able to transfer the sticker to the new device? Probably not. So you’ll have to go through some sort of new sticker transfer process. What if you have multiple devices? Depending on how the technology is implemented, there may be issues with controlling who is actually using the loyalty chip.
Less Invasive Technology
It seems like there would be less invasive ways to use mobile technology for loyalty programs. Many new phones are smartphones – or Internet enabled, which means they’re able to connect to an Internet website. Many also have the ability to connect to wireless hotspots. As the price for these devices comes down, more people will have them. A company could use their wireless network in-store to easily create the same sort of loyalty programs without having the issues presented above in an rfid chip.
What Would You Do?
Is there a company you trust enough to put a rfid chip on your phone? Are you concerned about your privacy and security of your information? What do you think?
(photo by grey pumpkin @ Flickr CC)
Technorati tags: tetherball, loyalty programs, mobile, marketing, mobile advertising, business, reward programs
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Posted in Business, Internet Advertising, Marketing, News & Notes, Opinion, mobile | Tagged Business, loyalty progams, Marketing, mobile, mobile advertising, reward programs, tetherball | 1 Comment »
Thursday, Jun 11, 2009 by Sarah Worsham
For my monthly post over on Practical eCommerce, I wrote about Ping.fm, which allows you to post to multiple social networks at once – from various different posting methods (email, sms, web). The beauty of Ping.fm is it allows you to easily implement a social media strategy without having to devote hours and hours each day.
Let’s say you’re at an industry conference which is covering some great information that your customers might be interested in. Using Ping.fm, you can send short updates to Twitter and Facebook about what’s going on (live blogging). You can also send photos to Flickr and Facebook of new products and speakers. When you have time to write a longer, more in-depth post, you can use Ping.fm to email it to your blog at WordPress. All of this can be done without having to be at a computer and without having to post individually to every network. - Ping.fm Makes Social Media Strategy Easy – Sarah Worsham – Practical eCommerce
If you’re looking for a way to shorten the time you spend posting to multiple social networks, head on over to Practical eCommerce for the full article.
And, if you’re already using Ping.fm, I always enjoy hearing about your experiences…
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Posted in Business, Social Media, Social Networks | Leave a Comment »
Wednesday, Jun 10, 2009 by Sarah Worsham
There are a lot of free video services out there (although many don’t allow videos for commerical purposes if you read their TOS), but sometimes a business needs a very professional video solution with full control over the branding, content and advertising.
Viddler is an inexpensive way to create professional video content and advertising. Online video services including hosting, delivery and a customizable player start at $100/month plus a $150 one time training and integration fee. Viddler’s player can be customized with a color scheme, permalink and clickable logo, comments from viewers and publishers can maintain full control over their own advertising inventory. – Viddler for Full Control Over Online Video – Sarah Worsham – New Media Hub
If you’re looking for a video solution for your business with a bit more control, please head over to New Media Hub for the full review.
As always, if you’ve used Viddler, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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Posted in Business, Reviews | Leave a Comment »
Tuesday, Jun 9, 2009 by Sarah Worsham
Most of us who are practitioners of website usability know that a good deal of good design, and good usability, is just applying some common sense. Steve Krug’s book, Don’t Make Me Think, now in its 2nd edition, brings good web usability to the masses in a short format that can be read during a plane trip (which was one of Steve’s goals). Steve starts with the basics of web usability, what he terms “guiding principles”, and explains them in a way that will make sense even to CEOs. Once you understand these “guiding principles”, Steve uses them to illustrate general design principles that every website needs to get right. Each of the twelve chapters uses examples and big pictures (for the CEOS) to illustrate usability concepts, why they work and why they’re important.
Website usability is more important than ever with a large portion of business research conducted online. With the rise in popularity of smartphones and other mobile devices, having good usability on multiple platforms will be extremely important. The principles and examples used in Krug’s book will help any business understand the basics of getting their website into shape so that they can reach a much larger audience (and stop annoying their current customers).
Even web designers and usability “experts” will find something useful in Don’t Make Me Think, even if it’s just a great quote for a blog post on usability. I found some good quotes that you may see in future posts, but I also found some great new ways to illustrate usability principles that will help get the why across to businesspeople (which can be difficult, as we all are aware). Don’t Make Me Think was a quick and enjoyable read, even for someone very familiar (and passionate about) with web usability. I recommend giving it a read, no matter what your business role.
If you’ve read the book, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition
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Posted in Book Reviews, Business, Usability | Tagged book review, Business, Usability, web desgin, web usability | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, Jun 9, 2009 by Sarah Worsham
Posted in News & Notes | Comments Off
Monday, Jun 8, 2009 by Sarah Worsham
As business professionals sometimes we get caught up in blogging, twittering, facebooking and networking. It seems like we’re putting hours and hours into blogging and networking. We’ll ask for feedback at the end of blog posts, but no one usually replies. We’ll ask questions on Twitter but don’t get many responses. Is anyone listening? – Is Anyone Listening? – Sarah Worsham – Insights Group
If you feel like you’re putting in lots of effort in blogging and networking, but not seeing any return, I hope you’ll head over to my guest post over at Insights Group to get some tips on how to tell if anyone’s listening….
Posted in Business, News & Notes, Social Media, Social Networks | Comments Off
Monday, Jun 8, 2009 by Sarah Worsham
Posted in News & Notes | Comments Off
Friday, Jun 5, 2009 by Sarah Worsham
I have a lot of people ask me how I come up with ideas to blog about every day. It’s not that difficult – I just end up thinking quite a bit about various topics that can also be used for blog posts. Not all the time, mind you, but I do carry around various devices (iphone, pen & paper) to record ideas when they do hit. Here’s some ways to get ideas:
- Read – a lot – Other blogs, Twitter feeds, books. Anything related to your area of business (and some that aren’t) can spark a great blog post.
- Ask – your customers, your colleagues, your friends. What have they always wanted to know about (related to your business/industry)?
- Help – Provide helpful information, not only specific to your products and services, but related to your industry in general.
- Brainstorm – Sometimes just a regular old brainstorming session surfaces some great new post ideas.
- Spark – some controversy – Within reason, feel free to have and state an opinion related to your industry. Just do it in a friendly way, back up what you say and invite others to comment.
- Converse – with other bloggers. Post your thoughts on what others are blogging about.
- Share – links to other sources of information. Feel free to add your thoughts and comments.
- Review – products and services of interest to your readers. Skip your own (and probably those of your competitors).
- Support – take a look at questions your customers are frequently asking. If you have a FAQ (frequently asked questions), take the time to expand on them in various postings.
- Inform – Keep your readers aware of various events, industry happenings and news of interest.
- Create – If you’ve been able to gather some information or data that may be of interest to your readers/customers, create white papers and supporting blog posts to share your findings.
- Reuse – Take old posts and update them. If you do list posts like this one, take them and expand on the individual items in larger posts.
For tips on how to get started, check out today’s post over on Insights Group – Blogging, Are You?
How do you get ideas for business blogging?
(photo by apesara @ Flickr CC)
Technorati tags: content strategy, blogging strategy, blogging, content, strategy, business, marketing
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Posted in Business, Content, News & Notes | Tagged blogging, blogging strategy, Business, Content, content strategy, Marketing | 3 Comments »
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