How The Social Web is Sucking Us Dry: Pinterest, Words With Friends, Facebook, Oh My!

I remember when I first joined Facebook one of my new Facebook friends said to me “welcome to the ultimate time suck.”  He was right. I soon became fascinated with Facebook and all of the long lost friends and acquaintances I was reconnecting with every day. I felt the need and desire to check in and see what everyone else was up to on a regular basis.

I’ve managed to inflict some sense of self-control and am no longer obsessed with Facebook, but I admit I still check it quite frequently. 

Isn’t it funny how social networking has in some ways made it easier to connect with people but in other ways it has made it harder because we feel the need to update our friends with so many details of our daily life?

Pinterest just opened another forum for sharing and exchanging information among people with similar interests and it is exploding in popularity. I admit, I am curious about this new social network. I’ve read a lot about it, heard the buzz from my Facebook friends and have joined the group and started to dabble with it. However, I feel as though I don’t have time for another social network, much less one that is going to distract me with delicious recipes and crafty things a person like me was never meant to attempt to make.

Words with Friends is another example of what appears to be a fun social game, but will also bring out the obsessive compulsive person in you. I had lunch with a good friend the other day who couldn’t stop talking about Words with Friends. I again had heard the buzz but hadn’t taken the bait.  She said it was so much fun and that she would invite me to play with her.  I flat out refused. While it did look like a lot of fun, I told myself I cannot have one more thing distract me from my day to day activities.

As a public relations professional focused primarily in the high tech industry, I feel compelled to keep up with the latest technologies and play around with the newest social tools.  In fact, I use a lot of these tools like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn on a regular basis for my job.

However, with more personal social media tools, there is a line between exploring and jumping in feet first.  For now, I’ll continue to pick and choose where and how much time I spend on social networks and hope that I don’t miss out on a wonderful crème brulee or creating a fabulous new word with my remaining tiles.

Lessons in Leadership

I spent the last year serving as president of the Public Relations Society of America’s Colorado Chapter.  With nearly 500 members, PRSA Colorado is a strong organization focused on providing professional development and networking opportunities for the local public relations community. Leading this organization has been a great opportunity for me to grow both personally and professionally. 

On my desk right now I see at least three books with the word “leadership” in the title and while these have all been valuable resource for me, there is nothing like “on the job” training.  Here are some of my lessons learned from the past year:

Surround Yourself With Good People

There is no way to be a good leader all by your self. You need strong, smart, and reliable people to lead an organization.  I was fortunate to have a board of directors and committee chairs made up of top-notch PR professionals who were committed to making our organization the best it could be.

Delegate, Delegate, Delegate

It is too easy to fall into the trap of “it is quicker if I just do it myself.” You need to empower other people for their own benefit and so that you don’t get so bogged down that you can’t focus on being a good leader.

Be Passionate

Passion is a hard quality to fake. You must be passionate about being a leader and passionate about the organization you are leading. Without it, your role as a leader will feel like work and you will resent the time you devote to it.

Face Challenges Head On

No matter how much you plan ahead and manage deadlines there will be challenges. Don’t be afraid to stand up and take on a challenge. While it might not be fun, the quicker you step up and take control, the quicker you can move on.

Be Flexible

You may start out with a strategic plan outlining how you want the organization to operate and what you want to accomplish.  The reality is that things will never go according to plan. There will be challenges and opportunities that you did not plan for and you need to be flexible enough to change direction or reorient to keep everything moving smoothly.

The Rise and Fall of Netflix

I first heard of Netflix back in 2001 when a client of mine from Silicon Valley mentioned that his wife worked there. He explained to me that Netflix was a company that allowed consumers to order movies online and have them delivered right to their mailbox.  I was intrigued and shortly after that time, I became a member. For many years, I  have loved Netflix for its convenience and great customer service.

A few years ago we started using the company’s streaming service and began depending on that more than the mail for our movies and TV series. Being in the tech industry, I had heard about the trend towards streaming and IPTV for years and as a consumer was beginning to see this become a reality.

Netflix was one of those media darlings, rising up from the ranks of start-ups to become a publicly-traded company with millions in revenue. The company enjoyed great success and brand appeal until they made a classic communications mistake. They significantly underestimated their customers’ reaction to a price increase and division of the company into two entities.

Since making this announcement, Netflix has lost 800,000 customers and its stock price has taken a nose dive.  While Netflix has since reversed its decision to split the companies, only time will tell whether this company can rise above this and win back the hearts and trust of its customers.

So many companies fall into the trap of making business decisions without considering the implications on their brand or without caring about how they will affect their reputation.  Sure, they might be good for their bottom line in the short term, but over time this kind of backlash does far greater damage.

The Download: TechCrunch Disrupt Fall 2011

I’m always amazed to see all of the innovation and creativity abuzz at shows like TechCrunch Disrupt. I didn’t have a chance to view all of this year’s presentations online yet, but thought I would go ahead and share the highlights on a few of my favorites:

Farmigo

Farmigo has created an online community that connects farmers directly with consumers.  They describe their vision as “creating a more sustainable food chain.”

People can search and find farms in their local community where they can purchase fresh produce and bypass the wholesaler and supermarket.  It is kind of like shopping at the local farmer’s market without being limited to Sundays between 12:00 – 2:00 pm.

There is a huge movement for farm to table food and locally-grown produce, so Farmigo is smart to capitalize on this trend and make it easier for consumers. Food subscriptions and group buying help them offer lower prices on produce similar to what you would find at the grocery store.

Farmigo currently has over 1500 active locations in 20 different states. I was pleased to see several locations in my own community. I love that Farmigo is making it easier for consumers to buy locally and get fresh produce.  I am planning to try it myself.

Shaker

The founders of Shaker describe it as a platform for social experience or “hanging out online much like you do in real life.”  For the first few minutes of their demo, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much this reminded me of Second Life. (More on that in a minute.)

The founders emphasized how Shaker allows people to have more meaningful experiences online beyond posts and comments.

So here’s how it works.  You create a virtual room – the one in the demo was a bar. You interact with real people in real time. The “people” in the room are cartoon characters with a bubble above their heads that contains their photo. You can walk around the room and interact with different people, join conversations, etc. You can also buy someone a drink although it is really a virtual drink so not as much fun as the real thing.

One of the first questions from the judges was how this was different from SecondLife. They said it is similar except you are actually yourself. I never participated in SecondLife, but this seems like a more interactive version of it.  They are essentially trying to emulate the in-person experience online.

I like how Shaker takes social networks and online communication one step farther. It creates a new level of interaction that did not exist before.  It will never replace physically being there in person, but it is one step closer to the next best thing. 

Bitcasa

Bitcasa offers “infinite storage” for consumers giving them access to all of their data from anywhere and at anytime. You no longer need to store files on your desktop or copy files from one computer to another. 

With all of the videos, photos and other large data files, there has been a big surge in the consumer storage market. Bitcasa is obviously looking to fulfill this need.

It seems everything is moving to the cloud these days and cloud storage has been a big movement in the business world.  Yet security is the number one barrier when it comes to cloud storage adoption. 

So, naturally, I had an issue when the founder said it was 100 percent safe.  I am sure they’ve got the proper security infrastructure in place and back up data centers, redundant networks, etc. but I’ve been in the tech industry too long to believe this claim. There is no fail-safe when it comes to technology. 

That aside, I think Bitcasa is worth a try. The service costs $10 per month for infinite storage and there is also a “freemium” version available. However, right now, during their beta period, it is free to everyone. You can visit their website at www.bitcasa.com to sign up.

Cake Health

Any company with the word “cake” in its name is certain to grab my attention.  Unfortunately they haven’t invented a healthy cake, but their innovation is impressive nonetheless. 

Cake Health is aggregator of health information records. They describe themselves as “the best free way to manage all of your health care expenses.” I believe they are addressing a huge problem that many of us can relate to – making sense of your health care bills and records.

It is currently compatible with several top insurance companies allowing over 150 million people to utilize the service.  It helps consumers make sense of all of their health care paper work, such as explanation of benefits, bills and non-bills. You send them the paperwork and it automatically organizes, categorizes and prioritizes it.  It includes automatic reminders for prescriptions, benefits you may have forgotten about and information on preventative care.

Cake Health also has an iPhone app (doesn’t everyone these days?) and bill synchronization is included. 

While they did ensure that your private information was secure and would not be shared, I think a lot of consumers may be reluctant to use the service due to a fear of sharing their private health records.

Anything that simplifies the healthcare paper work is a winner in my mind. It makes the process a piece of cake, which I’m sure is where the name came from. (Now I’m hungry!)

TechCrunch Disrupt is one of my favorite demo competitions and I’m so glad they share the presentations via video for those of us who cannot attend in person.  It’s always fun to learn about new emerging technologies and follow their journey after the show.

Anyone else attend TechCrunch Disrupt this week either physically or virtually? Who are your favorites?

The Right Time and The Right Place

I was reading this Mashable article today, Top of the Flops: 10 Tech Products Ahead of Their Time, and found it fascinating how many products on the market today had promising predecessors that were just not ready for prime time.

It reminded me of a former prospective client I met several years ago.

In 2004, I was working at a local public relations firm in Denver and we had a new business prospect in our office. He was a successful entrepreneur who had this idea to make a mini computer – one that is small, lightweight and portable. He actually had a prototype that he showed us which measured about 6 inches x 10 inches in size.

Little did I know at the time that I was holding a piece of the future in my hands. The problem was that the market wasn’t ready for a product like this. 

Now remember this was before the explosion of smart phones and tablets and all of the wonderful applications that comes with them. You couldn’t connect to the Internet or download mobile applications on this mini computer. It was essentially an alternative to a laptop but with a lot less functionality.

So, my thought was, would I really buy one of these? Would anyone? What would be the purpose? I remember thinking that it was a cool product but it seemed like a solution waiting for a problem.  We didn’t end up taking them on as a client, but this was definitely a product ahead of its time.

Fast forward seven years and iPads, and a variety of other tablets, are flying off the shelves. The world has changed so much and we are now a more mobile society. We’ve gotten used to having information at our fingertips anytime, anyplace and the technology has evolved to the point that makes this all possible.

Having worked with so many brilliant entrepreneurs in my career, I’ve learned that the best ones are risk takers, those with visions way beyond most of our own short-sighted comprehension.  The man who came into our office that day knew his mini computer was the wave of the future, it just took the market a few years to catch up.

Mobile Payments on the Rise, But Growth is Slowing Down

What are the two things you never leave your house without days? Probably your smart phone and your wallet. Wouldn’t it be nice if the two were one and you could pay for all of your purchases from your mobile device?

That is certainly where the mobile payments industry is headed but a recent Gartner report indicates that despite the rise in mobile payments, growth has slowed.  According to the report, mobile payment users will hit 141.1 million in 2011, a 38.2% increase from 2010. 

New technologies such as near field communications (NFC) and quick response (QR) codes are promising to facilitate the adoption of mobile payments by making it easy for consumers to tap a terminal or scan a barcode to make a payment. Google is getting in on the game with its new mobile payment service, Google Wallet which is expected to launch later this summer.

Over the past several years, I’ve worked with clients that are developing new technologies in the mobile payments space. There is no lack of innovation in this market, but the lack of standardization is making it hard for any one solution to make it mainstream. In addition, security and privacy remain big barriers to adoption by many consumers. 

There are a lot of players in this market and it seems like more mobile payment startups are launching every week. There is no question that mobile payments are the way of the future. But, until all of the players in the mobile payment ecosystem can play nice and set up an infrastructure that guarantees the security and privacy of users, cash and credit will remain king.