Blogging Advice

How about this quote from Ernest Hemingway for anyone looking to write/blog:

In order to be a great writer a person must have a built-in, shockproof-crap detector.

That is my new advice to anyone who wants to start blogging.  Fantastic.

Facebook Prognostications

From Inc.com:

Facebook as political forecaster. Forget about who led the polls before Election Day. How about who had the most Facebook fans? Popularity on Facebook painted a surprisingly accurate portrait of yesterday’s midterm election results, Fast Company reports. Facebook’s political team says candidates who had more fans than their opponents won 74 percent of House races and 81 percent of Senate races. Upsets included Christine O’Donnell, Meg Whitman and Sharron Angle–all of whom beat out their opponents on Facebook, but still lost their elections. But Facebook is clearly the social voting platform to watch, with more than 12 million people clicking its "I Voted" button this year, up from 5.4 million in 2008.

Goodbye Old Friend

From Inc.com:

Sony says it is officially putting the cassette Sony Walkman out to pasture. In fact, the last batch was shipped out months ago. Once they sell out, it’s over.

Perhaps I am dating myself, but I remember what a revelation the Walkman was when it first hit the market.  Like the author, I was surprised to hear they were still making them.

4G and Hockey Pucks

Check this out from Fast Company:

This is the Rover Puck 4G mobile hotspot from Clearwire. If you’re wondering, a 4G connection is indeed on par with an average broadband connection. It will make you love the future.

…

The Puck connects eight devices via Wi-Fi for what the company claims is four hours, but in practice, it has seemed like less. The Puck will stop transmitting data and go into a kind of “sleep” mode if none of your devices talk to it for a while.

Awesome and ugly all at once.  I want one.

Connected

This Fast Company article is…well, disturbing:

Our undying love for the Internet has gone a bit too far, according to a recent study claiming that almost a quarter of U.S. residents think it’s acceptable to be online during sex.

Honestly, I don’t even know what more can be said.  Maybe this:

For example, a sense system embedded in a cell phone might know whether a user is running or walking, and whether they are outside or in a well-lit indoor area. Combined with inputted information (i.e. whether a user is free at a certain time), the phone could offer suggestions on what a cell phone user might want to do next.

I’m not going any further on this topic.

MRM

Yes, MRM – Mobile Relationship Marketing.  That is a new acronym for me, but an important one.  Here is a rather thoughtful summation from a press release I received recently:

“Mobile marketing, while still in its early stages, represents a powerful and rapidly evolving medium of customer engagement,” said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council.  “The mobile phone is now the single most pervasive channel of communications and targeted market interaction in the world.  Users are rapidly migrating to smarter devices and new mobile social applications that offer even greater opportunities for building and sustaining customer relationships.  Our partnership with Planet Oi’ offers the CMO Council and leading brands a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate and benchmark the power of Mobile Relationship Marketing in both developed and emerging markets.”

Here’s the thing, I work with teenagers in a volunteer role and it has been eye-opening for me.  These teens look at email – email – as antiquated.  If you don’t text, you are dismissed.  This fact has also taught me to learn a new language – text.  It is a communication platform unto itself.

The reason I bring this up is because these are the future consumers and employees.  Their cell phone is their electronic connection point.  Mobile marketing is certainly the next major shift in messaging that we will see.  In fact, it is underway now.