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It’s a testament to the times that as a new burgeoning technology is hatched by an “army of geeks” in a caffeine drenched frenzy, I can have a conversation at a party with a lawyer from a completely different field and find that he already has a rudimentary grasp of that technology - Cloud Computing.

Even if I normalize for the natural demographic skew of my location (San Francisco), it is impressive to consider how quickly this phenomenon has progressed towards the mainstream.  Clearly, the message has a lot to do with the rate of transmission.  “Software-as-a-Service”, or worse “SaaS”, didn’t catch the imagination as well as Cloud has done.  Which is ironic, considering SaaS is actually what the consumer/user really touches, and what was originally represented by “The Cloud” - a metaphor for all of the networking, server hardware, storage, and software bits and bobs that no one really wants to know about.  As I said in a previous post, it really does matter what you call something.

So I looked around for some other indicators of “Cloud Computing” crossing the chasm from geekland to consumerland, and didn’t find very many.

• Cloud computing for business goes mainstream
• Los Angeles Moves To Gmail And ‘Cloud’ Computing

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Posted under cloud, marketing

This is really a break from the usual….

Not owning a TV “link” (cable or dish) we have the great fortune to miss all commercials (thanks Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Vimeo, and the good-ol’ web!).  The downside is, I miss some of the most intense distillations of creative genius…the commerical.

Fortunately, thanks to a friend of mine via one of my favorite social media channels, I’m able to catch up for a chance to chuckle, wonder, and be inspired.

A small collection by Michel Gondry.

Enjoy!

Leave your box to think outside of it.

- James

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Posted under Social Media Marketing

There was a time when everyone was hot about “Location-based Advertising”.  Well, everyone’s still trying to crack that chestnut, and maybe this is a way to do it - Location-based Micro-Blogging.  This is better known as an application called FourSquare, or its closest competitor Gowalla.

Think of FourSqaure as Twitter meets Google Maps with an added gaming concept that reminds me of the old treasure hunts I used to go on as a child with my parents…but without the clues.  Essentially, when you arrive at an establishment, or your home, or your office, or where ever, you use an app running on your smartphone to “check-in”.  That act of checking into that location is then published to the rest of your social network.  You also have the opportunity to receive some points and a virtual badge of honor.  Last, but not least, you can provide a Tip to visitors of the establishment (for more points), or simply post a status update.

Of course, the obvious question is, “Why?”.  But then again, why do we do anything?  Why do we Tweet?  Why do we post videos to YouTube?  Why am I writing this blog?

To be honest, that’s not a very pragmatic question (although it will lead to very deep understanding of what is driving Social CRM, or Social Customer Relationship Management).  Businesses today are trying to get their head around the “How?”, as in “How can I leverage this?”.

Before we delve into the depths of this topic, I think it fair to share some information about whether your business should care.  As usual, we’re at the very beginning of this new technology adoption curve and there’s a long way to go.  Here are some statistics put out recently by RJ Metrics.

As you will see, the numbers are not overwhelming compared to say Facebook, but my guess is that if you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, this form of market engagement could get very relevant relatively quickly.

Foursquare

• Number of users: 1.9 million
• Number of registered venues: 5.6 million
• Check-ins: 1/3 of venues only once or never
• Most popular venues: Home or fast food establishments

Posted under Social Media Marketing, marketing