Start Hunching!

Hunch.com is a website that I have been invited to by a genius friend, Volkan, from high school. I say genius, because he is really one (MIT Engineering, full scholarship) but maybe I should leave my praising of Volkan for another blog entry.

The email he sent looked like this: "What's Hunch? It's a new way to help you make decisions and solve problems. Because Hunch is powered by user input, it gets smarter each time someone contributes to it. But what decisions, what problems? You name it. Volkan Gurel thought you might be particularly be interested in: *Laptops. "So accepting my friend's personal invite (you can only log on with a personal invite from someone who is already registered and Volkan works for them), I actually went onto the website to try the test for laptops. It asked me a couple of questions, some are somehow related to laptops, some completely off. The final result it gave me was actually the laptop I had bought a year ago. I was pretty impressed!

However, I didn't restart thinking about this website till I was studying for the midterm and going over Web 2.0. The power of collaboration among people and high interactivity rates were the underlying roots of this website since it is designed to help you make decisions through asking you 10 questions or less powered by collective knowledge.

So what could be the implications for e-marketing? Could marketers utilize this service through asking you totally unrelated questions about a topic but still find out your views on it? It could be used for doing customer research on more sensitive topics that people be more reluctant to answer questions about. Limits on individual human intelligence may be traceable, but there are no boundaries for collective intelligence!

Capucine for Edurelief!

Yesterday, one of my friends forwarded me this video on Facebook:

It is one of the cutest videos I've seen. (Even guys I have seen it with have said: "Oh! She's too adorable!")  On top of that I realized that her mom is using views of this video to raise money for a Mongolian charity called the Edurelif. Wanting to see more of this cute girl's videos, I went on to the website where the mother uploads more videos of her daughter, Capucine and explains her motivation of increasing awareness for Edurelif. 

Capucine for Edurelief in Mongolia from Capucha on Vimeo.

This is another example how social media can be used for cause marketing. Her mother has taken a great idea and has launched something cute, exciting and motivating enough to initiate a viral buzz. Placing the video on Youtube has also definitely increased the number of hits it has received. 

Check out the other funny videos and spread the word yourself!

Effective Use of Web 2.0 Tools

As we go through hard times in the economy, some Web 2.0 tools can come handier than expected for creating growth in companies. Through the use of tools like Twitter and Facebook, some companies have been creating an online buzz and implementing online marketing campaigns. Zappos.com is one of these companies. The online shoe and clothing company tweets about what happens to them at the airport, what they ate "between phone calls and state of the economy", stressing on the fact that their product is less important: It's more about the business. 

However, not all companies can benefit from Twitter and Facebook as much as other companies. The usage really depends on the products and services they offer. Twitter and Facebook greatly differ among themselves too: Even though Twitter may have less users than Facebook, their users seem to be hyper connected and are very different from mainstream Facebook users.

An article I came across talks about some key steps to take before enjoying a Twitter presence:

1)Listen and learn about Twitter

2)Establish your objectives and metrics for success

3)Set up your company's Twitter profile

4)Mind your Twitter etiquette

What it could be seen is that using Twitter as a marketing tool requires steps that should be taken when implementing any kind of an online marketing plan and greatly ties in with the Forrester objectives that should be taken as guidelines. You need to listen to your customers, and talk to them in the proper way. Furthermore, your success on Twitter depends on how much you are able to energize your customers. 

An Unintended Viral Campaign: The Story of Cumbio from Argentina

Agustina Vivero, aka Cumbio, is a 17 year old teenager from Argentina, who became the nation's Internet and television celebrity through turning Argentina's most popular social networking site into a marketing medium. Cumbio's fotolog site is among the most viewed Internet sites in Argentina, tallying 36 million visits over the past year. 

But how did it all start? Last year, she started to invite some friends over to her family's house in the poorer part of the city. They hung out and took photos of themselves with their trademarks: big tousled hair, bright V-neck t-shirts and sneakers.

As numbers increased, they decided to move the meetings somewhere else. Local kids gathering outside got the attention of the media. She was the one to make the explanation for the new movement: "People don't understand what this is about. People are used to fame coming from television or from sports but not from the Internet, where people are posting photos and bringing together and having fun".

Floggers do not want to change the world, they want to survive and have the best possible time they can.

Cumbio was soon featured in Nike commercials, TV shows, has signed modeling contracts, and has even written a book about her life.

This is the power of online social media. This is something that shows how a blog that started through friends getting together and taking pictures can influence other people in so many other ways. Cumbio, who is openly gay and comfortable with not being model-thin is giving out a message that was only deliverable with the support of the online social media. 

Facebook ads: Marketer's paradise, user's hell?

Scanning through some articles about latest Facebook news, I came across something (yet again!) brand new. The recent news is that now Facebook can have ads that target you by language and location. According to the article I read on New York Times, ads targeting languages were not surprising now that Facebook can be used in many languages. However, targeting users with location-specific ads is the more interesting one among two of the updates. With this feature, the advertisers can tap into detailed demographics of the users (if they have provided them) and even have the possibility to introduce hyperlocal ads.  Wouldn't that be marketer's paradise? Would that also be user's paradise? Or not? 

It really depends on how much the user is willing to share. With these new features, it gets harder to maintain your privacy online. Even though there is still the option of opting out, some people will just not bother with it. The ultimate level of interactivity and individualization! Will that add to our Facebook experience as we warmly welcome ads about near-by restaurants, gyms, theaters or cause some people withdraw usage as these ads get too nosy about our lives? Some people really do not want to know or be known about...

There is no way of telling now since the feature can only work in the USA, the UK and Canada.  As Facebook exploits all interactive features of Web 2.0, we can only sit back and see what it will do next.

Interactive Fashion from StyleShake

StyleShake is one of a kind! It is a website that allows you to become your own fashion designer: In this website, you can design a dress, decide on the fabric, color, shape, tailor it to fit your body and get it shipped to your house in 10 business days. From the very start, they have been trying to provide the highest quality, in addition to selling the garment at an affordable price. 

Could this be the revolution that saves so much time for millions of women that spend days looking for their dream look? Trying on hundreds on dresses, and still not finding what they are looking for? Most likely yes! For those women that know what they want, but are not able to obtain it in the desired color, size, texture, price etc. this is the greatest opportunity! Letting their users interact online with ultimate customization has shown some impressive statistics: 95% of the visitors at StyleShake design their own dresses and spend an average of 14 minutes perusing the site. The website also has a blog that brings the fashionistas together to discuss topics such as star style Oscars, style makeovers, sales and designers. Through creating an online community and coupling it up with creativity, interaction and individualization around a common interest, this website has successfully created a girls only fashion club!

Even if you are somewhat like me, with no creative skills, and more likely to fall in love with that Alberta Ferretti dress, this site is still amazing for experimenting with new styles and for trying to animate that latent creativity in you! 

Facebook Complaints

Every morning, we wake up to some Facebook news or a change that has been implemented on the site. The recent talk was about the right of the company over the uploaded material on the site. Who does it belong to? To the user or Facebook? Protests have caused Mark Zuckerberg to invite users to share their opinions about the terms of use. As its creator, Zuckerberg is aware of the power that a social networking site can have over owners, because the users see themselves as the owners. I wonder if he's thinking: "Oh no, I've created a monster!"
The monster that emerges from unification of voices is in fact pretty strong. This monster usually complains of the changes, is hardly satisfied and always wants to go back to the 'old way of things'. I remember how everyone was protesting the news feed, the new layout. What happened? The users got used to the new features, and now use them very frequently. Of course, it is important for a social networking site to listen to its customers, but it is sometimes good to stick to your guns. Being afraid of change prevents you from experimenting. And without experimenting, there is no way to keep this monster coming back to check its inbox and wall every 10 minutes. The truth is no one really knows what a good networking site should have. So this is a thin line we are talking about here. Yes, the users should complain. The site should listen. But not always! So maybe knowing when to respond to the complaints is what has made Facebook successful so far.