Monthly Archives: January 2012

Botching & Sharpening Social Media

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Mashable Marketing Post As Referred: http://mashable.com/2012/01/17/business-social-media-progress/

Kill it, or be killed.

 

Some are addicted to drugs, some to alcohol, but for the most part, we’re all addicted to the internet.  As of December 22, 2011 – The Wall Street Journal published that on a global scale, 1 in every 5 minutes spent online is considered social media activity.  Many businesses quickly caught on and adopted a social media presence.

 

As a result, social media has become a vital component for all companies as it has grown into an upscale channel of communication from company to customer and contrariwise (including prospects).   What I am trying to stress is that, because the world interacts through social media channels every day at a growing rate, it’s imperative that companies implement their services into these channels.  Why?  Simply because social media is like a loaded gun just ready to shoot money into the company’s pocket.

 

Take for example Martell Home Builders, an Atlantic Canadian custom homebuilder company who in the past relied “heavily on realtors to keep their business moving forward.”  After embracing social media, the company “creat[ed] a direct-to-consumer model where they were no longer reliant on a middleman to bring them business” – this abolishment of dependence saves millions per annum.  Martel also allows their clients to literally stalk their contractors on the job through a GPS system supported by most social media platforms and furthermore giving clients “access to photos of their homes being built.”  All in all, by providing a real-time, socially connected customer service, Martel kept their clients both content and trusting in the company’s service.  This temporary happiness translates to long term trust in the company and satisfaction which leads to a guarantee for both future business and external recommendations.

 

Although for many companies social media seems to be the golden ticket, others are still battling the war in figuring out how to properly inject the gravy of social activity into their turkey.  Riley Gibson, CEO and co-founder of Napkin Labs, further mentions this war in his blog post “5 Ways Businesses Can Use Social Media as a Tool for Progress.”  The key problem that many companies impose on themselves is failing to ask for new ideas through social media.  All types of customers love the opportunity of influencing the direction of companies.  However, unless customers are prompted first, companies will not receive valuable ideas.  League of Legends is an online video game whose board of marketing has devoted a large pool of both money and time towards social media – in particular, developing engaging questions across social media feeds such as: what do you think of the newly released champions, and always updating the crowd with new information about the game.  Aside from keeping players involved and satisfied, social media also embodies raw advertising resulting in an influx of cash spent on in-game merchandise.  A subset problem is a lack of actual carrying out what customers recommend.  Usually those who monitor social media waterways within a company are not the same people who make bold decisions.  To get to the point, this means that the many golden ideas that appear on the company pan are left to sink in the river.  Communication is essential in order for feedback to actually cause change.

 

Social media is prime real estate for communicating with customers that has never been possible before.  Companies engaging in activity through social channels must be astute with how they interact and follow up with customers.  At the end of the day, money is the only thing that matters and companies choosing against the implementation of social media into their business will suffer lost revenue.

 

Wall Street Journal Reference – 1 in every 5 minutes spent online is a minute spent in social media: http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2011/12/22/social-networks-account-for-20-of-time-spent-online/

 

Social Media Online Statistics:
http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2011/12/22/social-networks-account-for-20-of-time-spent-online/

Intel’s Chipset On Steroids

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Computers are convoluted creatures with a million organs.  The core component in every system is arguably the CPU (central processing unit).  For those who don’t pay much attention to computers, the CPU to a computer is the brain to a human.

Intel has been making central processing chips for computer systems since 1971 when they introduced the first microprocessor.  I still remember when the single core was released, then the duo, along to the quad, which were then all replaced by the i3, i5 and i7.  All in all, Intel is becoming smarter in the chips that they release.

Although the core i7 is the most powerful calibre of chipsets, Intel is about to release a new mother chip that will render the i7 a mere runner-up.  Intel calls it the “Knights Ferry.”  While core i7 chip ran four cores that were all double threaded for a total of 8 cores, the Ferry will “scale to more than 50 processing cores.”  Now my question arises, why has Intel not began to build up the hype for this new outrageous chipset?

Intel has provided us with both television and internet commercials and even paper based advertisements for all previous CPUs, but why has the Knights Ferry passed entirely unnoticeable?  Even most computer users who demand the highest processing power have not yet heard about this new mother chipset.  Is there a reason why Intel has not virally spread this news across wide scale public marketing?

From a computer perspective, Intel knows that a machine as small as a laptop or even a desktop computer will not be able to support these new expensive chips.  Even if the average machine could support such power, the user in control would not need it.  As a result, the Knights Ferry will deliver the most impact and be mostly employed “in the hands of scientists, researchers, and engineers.”

Researchers in Geneva are smashing protons together at speeds faster than light in hopes of discovering the components of matter.  Aside from The Large Hadron Collider, the machine used to accelerate the particles, is the machine that captures and withholds the research data.  Such a machine would need to be able to record actions and frames at speeds beyond knowledge and for such, the deliverable processing power from the Knights Ferry is vital.

Wide scale public marketing will most likely not deploy as means of advertising this new breed of chips – simply because Intel will clearly target the realm of science and not the conventional computer user.  To answer my original question, (why is there no hype about this new chipset?) I respond on the contrary – the hype does exist and is shared among researchers, scientists and engineers from all over the globe.  Although we, as daily computer users cannot feel this hype, it is only because we are not the targeted market.

Architecture of Knights Ferry: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/many-integrated-core/intel-many-integrated-core-architecture.html

Geneva’s Large Hadron Collider: http://www.lhc.ac.uk/