Month: January 2011

The days when a friend was defined as a “person” that you know well and regard with affection and trust may be changing. Today, businesses use Social Media, such as Facebook Fan Pages to create a relationship that is almost if not equal to the past definition of a “friend.” When an individual starts to interact with a corporation’s fan page, that person is starting to form a relationship with that corporation. After having browsed through several of the most well known fan pages of different corporations (e.g. Coca-Cola, YouTube, Red bull, etc), it became quite obvious that consumers are beginning to communicate with corporations almost as if they are good acquaintances. In addition, corporations are attempting to do the same. For example on the Facebook Red Bull Fan Page, a thread on Shaun White, a fan favourite snowboarder, was started by Red Bull just before his attempt to get Gold at the 2011 Winter X Games. It’s as if the corporation itself is a fan of him. That thread has garnered over 283 comments from Red Bull fans that have their own opinions related to Shaun and the event; usually these kinds of discussions are done between friends or in sport forums. Often I get calls from friends asking, “hey, are you watching the hockey game?” This is not so different from what Red Bull has been doing with the use of their fan page.

While I as yet would do not feel that I am a “friend” of any particular corporation, I do however think that the lines where a “person” is used in the definition of a friend may soon change into a word more closely aligned with the meaning of “entity.” An article titled “What Makes Facebook Fan Pages Successful” states that “engagement, interest and constant connection keep fans coming back to a company’s Facebook fan page.” Disney has used Disney trivia and different promotions to engage its fans while Oreo has launched an interactive online game. Both these methods have greatly helped the two corporations skyrocket to close to the top of the list of Facebook pages with the most fans. In their own ways, these firms’ engagement, interest, and constant connection with consumers are no different than the expectations that one usually has of his/her friends. If a corporation is able to develop trust and affection from a consumer, then the concept of brand loyalty, with the help of Social Media, perhaps may reach new levels that were before never even thought possible.

Sources: www.facebook.com; www.emarketer.com

It is well known that the world is in a trend toward using mobile computing devices (smartphones and tablets). The big talk around of the expected success of a company that offers these devices is strongly based on the mobile applications (apps) available for these devices. For example, Research In Motion is a company that has constantly been scrutinized for its lack apps on its Blackberry devices. Apple, and Google’s Android have been gaining market share in the mobile device market, while RIM has been losing market share. The media has explained that this is due to Apple and Google’s Android mobile devices providing a much larger number and better variety of applications than available on RIM’s Blackberries. I have also read many articles pointing out that this is perhaps Blackberry’s biggest problem, and that RIM would continue to lose market share unless it changed its ways and offered more competent apps.

An article I found on www.emarketer.com titled “Mobile Users Prefer Browsers over Apps” states that “mobile users polled by Keynote Systems for Adobe reported a preference for mobile browsers to access virtually all mobile content. Games, music and social media were the only categories in which users would rather use a downloaded app than browse the mobile web.”

While games, music, and social media are a very big part of smartphones and tablets, the internet browser cannot be dismissed as a key requirement for any portable computing device. The figure to the left shows users prefer to use browsers over apps for video, news, sports, blog, and product review content. The question that now arises is:

If a mobile device can offer the best browsing experience, will it succeed?

The article “Mobile Users Prefer Browsers over Apps” further states that “[such mobile user] preferences may surprise mobile experts who consider apps to offer the best content and shopping experiences. And marketers may be frustrated as well; getting an app on a user’s home screen is a constant reminder of the brand, but it doesn’t make sense to offer an app users don’t want.”

I have experienced comparative browser qualities and capabilities on both of Apple and Android mobile devices, while RIM’s Blackberries have not been able to measure up to the competition. This may be another large factor of why RIM is losing market share against Apple and Android. I believe, however, that as computing becomes increasingly mobile, and with the trend toward cloud computing, perhaps current downloaded mobile apps are not quite as important as they are said to be, and that browser capabilities and usability might be the answer to RIM’s problems.

Currently, apps require storage space on devices, and yet it is known, that Microsoft and IBM have bet on cloud computing where information is stored in large dynamic data bases that browsers connect to rather than programs stored on individual computers.

If cloud computing is the way of the future, and it requires a browser, and users prefer browsers over apps, then does it not beg the consequence that mastering a user’s browser experience even perhaps through “webapps” would be the way of future success rather than apps that are downloaded?