Mobile applications developed by companies who is ultimately responsible the customer or company?

The rapid growth of mobile technologies over the past few years has caused The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to take mobile under their wing in 2000.  The FTC has started to review privacy implications that have been raised by consumers over the past 13 years on items such as:

• Where is the data going?
• How is it being used?
• Where is the data being stored?
• What rights do I have as a consumer?
• Plus a lot more.

The FTC is developing guidelines and rules that companies that develop apps, platforms, third party ad networks, and social media companies that all deploy its software to smart phones. 

A recent report deployed by the FTC in February 2013 on “Mobile Privacy Disclosures, Building Trust Through Transparency” provided an few examples:

• “The Commission settled charges that a social networking service deceived consumers regarding the collection of their address book information through its mobile application, and illegally collected information from children under age 13 without providing notice and obtaining parental consent, in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
• In another action, the Commission brought charges against a peer-to-peer file-sharing application developer whose software likely would cause consumers to unwittingly expose sensitive personal files stored on their mobile devices.
• Further, in the Commission’s first Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) case involving a mobile app, an enterprise that compiled and sold criminal record reports settled charges that it operated as a consumer reporting agency without taking consumer protection measures required by law.” (FTC Staff Report, 2013.)

I believe these are a good start for companies that develop apps, platforms, etc for mobile devices. 

The one major piece that is missing is Consumer Awareness and Accountability on privacy with mobile devices.  Many app developers have developed disclosures that consumers must accept before downloading applications, but the responsibility falls onto the consumer.    If organizations are being regulated by the FTC or provided guidelines and are adhering to them, where does it become the consumer’s responsibility for their mobile device?   The customer needs to also take responsibility on their mobile device that they have purchased and items they are downloading to their phone.

Legal issues can arise with any technology, such as:

• COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act)
• FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act)
• GLBA (Gramm-Leach Act)
• Truth in Advertisement

However, if companies are compliant with rules and regulations that are provided by the FTC and disclose them to consumers then anything outside of this should come back to the accountability of the consumer.  An example of how the consumer can protect himself or herself is on by putting a lock on their mobile device such as Mobile Iron.  Ensure that they know what type of application they are downloading, accessing and make sure that they read the disclosures before they transmit any personal information across on their mobile device.

 What is the consumer’s accountability for their mobile device? 

References:

FTC Staff Report (February 2013.) Mobile Privacy Disclosure Building Trust through Transparency. Retrieved from http://www.ftc.gov/os/2013/02/130201mobileprivacyreport.pdf

 

 

Are emerging medias like online video games to blame from tragic incidents like Newtown, CT and Colorado shootings?

An article from Cnet News and the American Academy of Pediatrics indicated that “Video games can contribute to “physical and mental-health problems,” the American Academy of Pediatrics has warned.” (McCullagh. 2010.)  Now is it so farfetched when the NRA made a statement like this “NRA blames ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ ‘American Psycho,’ and music videos for gun violence.” (Robertson, 2012.)

 Overall these types of tragic incidents are not solely to blame on one thing, it is a combination of items that can contribute to this, and the one major piece that does contribute is online video games.  I am not opposed to video games that have guns or violence, but restrictions should be put on the age groups that can purchase and buy them.  I know that this will not prohibit children and teens from playing them, but if there were restrictions then marketers would have to consider how they market.  Parents who know nothing about online video games would have an idea as they would need to purchase this item for their children.  It will not solve all tragic shooting incidents, but it will help mitigate some of the problem.

 Amanda

 

References:

Robertson, Adi (December 21, 2012.) NRA blames “Grand Theft Auto,” “American Psycho.” And music videos for gun violence.  Retrieved by http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/21/3792216/nra-blames-gta-american-psycho-music-videos-gun-violence

McCaullagh, Declan (July 2 ,2010). Groups push feds for video games age restrictions.  Retrieved by http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20009511-38.html

 

Has Pope Francis taken emerging medias to a new level or is he communicating to his followers to drive reaction?

“My thoughts turn to all who are unemployed, often as a result of a self-centered mindset bent on profit at any cost.”  — Pope Francis (@Pontifex) May 2, 2013

 Has the new pope taken emerging medias to a new level or is he communicating to his followers to drive reaction?  In mid-December 2012, Pope Benedict XVI started using Twitter and only had 39 posts until March 1^st, when the pope retired.  On the afternoon that Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis he tweeted the Lord’s Prayer and a Hail Mary at the Vatican. Since that time Pope Francis has been using Twitter as part of his message, he has over 1.8 million followers and his tweets are re-tweeted up to 65,000 at a time. 

This made me wonder who has the most number of Twitter followers and what their messages are.  In a recent pull from Twitaholic.com, indicates that the top five are musicians with one politician. 

1. Justin Bieber at 3.8 Million followers
2. Lady Gaga  at 3.66 Million followers
3. Katy Perry at 3.61 Million followers
4. Barack Obama at .61 Million followers
5. Rihanna at 2.9 Million followers

I am curious on why people would want to follow musicians or movie stars; does it make individuals feel a personal connection to them when they receive a Tweet from them?  Is it the same thing when a politician or leader tweets something about it? 

I believe that in many cases people what to feel the connection to various stars at every level, and Twitter as an emerging media can offer that. 

Let me know what your thoughts are on this.

References:

Langfield, Amy (May 2, 2013). Pop Francis pulls no punches on Twitter. Retrieved from http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/02/18018846-pope-francis-pulls-no-punches-on-twitter?lite

Eversley, Melanie (March 14, 2013).  Pope Francis takes to Twitter right away.  Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/03/13/pope-francis-twitter/1986111/

Twitteraholic.com (n/d.) Retrieved from http://www.twitaholic.com/top100/followers/‎

 

How is the American Red Cross using emerging medias to connect with individuals?

As a board member for the American Red Cross – Twin Cities chapter the American Red Cross in every area in the world does things the same, but customizable to the specific area. 

Clara Barton and her acquaintances founded the American Red Cross on May 21, 2881 and the main mission at that time was to help the war-injured.  This started the disaster recovery efforts both domestically and internationally.  Over the years, the Red Cross expanded their services into first aid, water safety, nursing programs, veteran affairs and blood services.  To most of us the Red Cross logo shown below is what is recognizable to individuals, however internationally the Red Cross has many different logos that are recognizable. 

The Red Cross is the only organization in the world that can go into any country with permission to help wounded soldiers, as they do not have any political affiliation with any political party.  All of the funding for disaster recovery, blood, first aid, etc…is from people like you and me.  That is why when a disaster hits the Red Cross does an amazing job with all of the emerging Medias to obtain funding dollars. 

Red Cross Website

The American Red Cross website was originally a Web 2.0 design, but when further looking at it they have redesigned or upgraded it to be Web 3.0.  Look in the upper right hand corner of the website; it indicates a location finder driven by your IP address from your computer. 

The other major key items that are storefront and a 1-click to the next destination of what the American Red Cross would like customers to do

• Donate funds
• Give Blood
• Take a class
• Get Assistance
• CPR classes
• Shop
• Plus much, much more.

The website has a wealth of knowledge and call-to-actions for anyone who would like to be educated, volunteer, take a class, and much more.

Banner Ads, Pop-Under Ads

 The Red Cross also has a media resource center for other organizations or companies that would like to participate in donations the Red Cross has made it easy for outside companies to facilitate.   The Red Cross provides banner ads along with the HTML code that can be used at the back-end of other customers websites, so when a customer clicks on the banner ad they can be connected to the correct place. 

These banner ads are also done in an SEO environment as well, and with many bill pay companies, they develop these with Pop-Up Ads within the bill pay system when disasters hit.

Red Cross Mobile

When a disaster hits, such as Hurricane Sandy, Katrina or the Tsunami over in Japan, the Red Cross is one of the first to start promoting commercials, radio advertisement to text us at 90999 to give $10.

On the other hand, the Red Cross has joined efforts with UNICEF, CDC and WHO to reduce death from Measles and started promoting the text us at 90999 to donate for Reduce Death from Measles.

The Red Cross has not only developed the SMS texting, but has developed free mobile widgets, in Apps for the following:

• Tornados
• Hurricane
• Shelter Finder
• First Aid
• Earthquake
• Wildfire

Email Marketing

The Red Cross has developed email marketing and from Direct Marketing News indicated “ Nonprofit giant American Red Cross has seen a 20 percent increase in click-through rates since it began using e-mail marketing services firm Goodmail’s CertifiedEmail.” (Dilworth, 2007.)  The click through rate seems to be on average from our readings this week. 

Emerging Medias with the Red Cross

The Red Cross has made it ease for consumers to connect with them without having to visit their website.  The Red Cross is participating in many forms of emerging media besides website, SEO, email and mobile.  Forums such as:

• Red Cross Blog
• Chapter Blogs
• Youth Blogs
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google Plus
• YouTube
• Flickr
• LinkedIn
• Disaster online newsroom
• Pinterest

The Red Cross does a superb job with promoting its brand across all mediums.  The message is the same whether on the website, mobile, SEO, Internet ads, mobile or social media.  The story of the Red Cross focuses on what they do and how we can help with volunteering, donating or taking a class.  The messaging across all platforms or mediums remains the same “Donate”, “Educate” or “Volunteer”

The consistency across all platforms is that the Red Cross has a stable brand identity and they do not step outside the box, but only understand that the various mediums are way for consumer to engage with the Red Cross.  Every medium contains the Red Cross logo, colors and images that are compelling to the consumer on wanting to donate, educate or volunteer.

Can you think of other organizations that use Emerging Medias as well as the Red Cross?

References:

Dilworth, Dianna (May, 2007)Red Cross raises awareness with certified e-mail.  Retrieved from http://www.dmnews.com/red-cross-raises-awareness-with-certified-e-mail/article/95495/#

Red Cross (2013.) Retrieved from http://www.redcross.org/

Red Cross Youth (2013.) Retrieved from http://redcrossyouth.org/

Barnes, Joesph (2013.) Assignment 4: Web sites, Email, Search Engines, Internet Ads

Is Roman Polanski moving from traditional films to creating short films in emerging medias?

I started to wonder if other high fashion designers have started using short film media as a vehicle to promote their products.  In a blog post by Fashionista, indicates, “Prada debuts Short Film Directed Prada Debuts Short Film Directed by Roman Polanski and Starring Helena Bonham Carter and Ben Kingsley” (MAU, 2012.) 

Polanksi has created Cartier’s short films, and they are beautiful to watch.  It takes Cartier’s signature collection and brings them to life, such as their trinity rings, jaguar jewelry and much more.  The original that posted, was L’Odyssée de Cartier –

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaBNjTtCxd4 (YouTube, 2011.) which has over 16 million views thus far.  Cartier has expanded and created a few more such as

• Cartier Winter Tale http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RZPmKC2c2o (November 19, 2012)
• Cartier d’Art: Wood marquetry http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x2DFwMrpUQ (May 26, 2011)
• Cartier – Destinée http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toDuu5l5Y9w  (Jan. 8, 2013.)

Gucci, Givenchy and Burberry are another few that have started creating short films as their means of mediums to promote their products.  Do you see this to be an emerging trend for film makers and designers like this, to perhaps partner with a well-known filmmaker and create these films? 

References:

MAU, DHANI (May 22, 2012.) Prada debuts Short Film Directed Prada Debuts Short Film Directed by Roman Polanski and Starring Helena Bonham Carter and Ben Kingsley” Retrieved from “http://fashionista.com/2012/05/prada-debuts-short-film-directed-by-roman-polanski-and-starring-helena-bonham-carter-and-ben-kingsley/

YouTube (March 2, 2012) L’Odyssée de Cartier. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaBNjTtCxd4 (November 19, 2012)

YouTube (November 19, 2012.) Cartier Winter Tale  Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RZPmKC2c2o (November 19, 2012)

YouTube (May 26, 2011.) Cartier d’Art: Wood marquetry http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x2DFwMrpUQ (May 26, 2011)

YouTube (January 8, 2031.) Cartier – Destinée http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toDuu5l5Y9w

When does emerging medias become to sensationalized?

What is Twitter Vine?  Twitter Vine is quoted by Michael Sippy, VP of Product of Twitter “a mobile service that lets you capture and share short looping videos.  Like Tweets, the brevity of videos on Vine (6 seconds or less) inspires creativity. Now that you can easily capture motion and sound, we look forward to seeing what you create.”  (Sippey, 2013.)  This new emerging technology was released only 3 months ago and Fortune 500 companies have been joining the viral use this new technology.

Companies like GE using it to have a Pen animation of its logo or wishing Thomas Edison a Happy Birthday.

 

Nintendo and PlayStation were just quoted by Business Insider to have “The most Impressive Vine Brand Campaign We’ve Seen Yet.”  (Stampler, 2013.)  Their approach is to re-invent the old with the new with the use of baseball cards.  Individuals can re-tweet the baseball cards with growing popularity. 

Now for advertisers and companies this emerging media seems like a great opportunity to increase awareness and Twitter followers, but what about the mass population of using Vine.  The recent Boston bombing that happened on April 15, 2015 and individual posted via Vine his video a six-second video of the bombing to their Twitter account.  It now has gone viral, and an article by Yahoo quoted “The first explosion was captured on television news, and a widely circulated Vine recording of it condensed the carnage to a six-second loop.

It was horrible: A fireball.  The image freezing ever-so-briefly.  Flags from around the world — there to celebrate a spirit of international unity — blown over by the blast. And the worst of it, apparently, off to the right, striking those who came out to watch and cheer runners on.”  (Molloy, 2013.)

When does emerging medias become unethical and businesses and individuals don’t know the differences between right and wrong?  When news events or tragedies be understood that they should or should not be posted to emerging medias?  Is that our society has become too sensationalized and we as marketers have a part to play in this?  I believe that we has marketers need to help set the stage of the use of emerging medias.  Let me know what your thoughts are on this.

References:

Sippey, Michael (January 24, 2013.) Vine: A new way to share video.  Retrieved from http://blog.twitter.com/2013/01/vine-new-way-to-share-video.html

General Electric (@generalelectric) January 25, 2013

Stampler, Laura (2013.) This is the Most Impressive Vine Brand Campaign We’ve seen yet.  Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/vine-playstation-reinvent-baseball-card-2013-4

Malloy, Tim (April 16, 2013).  Boston Marathon Bombing: Twitter, Vine and Fast Terror.  Retrieved from http://movies.yahoo.com/news/boston-marathon-bombing-twitter-vine-faster-terror-232025799.html

 

Thrift Store vs. Gangnam Style vs. Harlem Shake – YouTube Phenomenon

This past weekend I was out bridesmaid shopping with one of my girlfriends and she brought up the Thrift Shop song and wouldn’t that be cool if we did that for the bridal party dance.  I actually had to ask her to bring it up on YouTube for me to see, and to my surprise it had 222 Million views and digging a bit further an article written about in Time Newsfeed indicated the following “Seattle rapper Macklemore’s song “Thrift Shop,” which celebrates snagging “awesome” bargains on second-hand clothes, has sold more than 4 million digital copies and become the first indie track in nearly 20 years to top the Billboard charts” (Nelson, 2013.)

It started me thinking about this phenomenon of artists obtaining more traction when their videos are posted to YouTube than traditional sources.  Take a look at PSY’s Gangnam Style that hit the scene in the summer of 2012 it now has more that 2.1billion views.  An artist that was minimally known to now performed at NY Times 2012 ball drop and now is a sponsor commercial for Pistachios. 

And then there was the Harlem Shake, that hit 1 billion views after 40days, which is half the time it took for Gangnam Style to hit 1 billion views.  “Unlike those videos, though “Harlem Shake” wasn’t a single execution. Visible Measures looked at 500 iterations of the dance video and aggregated them to get to 1 billion. While many of the videos have “just a few million views,” the top 10 versions got a total of 336 million views, according to the researcher” (Wasserman, 2013.)  The amazing thing about this videos is that many other videos with the song has been created with individuals own artistic flare.

It looks like this might be a win-win for Indie artists and existing artists to achieve more notability in emerging markets, however there can be downside.  An article posted by the Duluth News Tribute provided a different view point “But a couple of years ago, Rebecca Black gained a large amount of fame with her “Friday” music video. She had performed publicly and she joined a patriotic group called Celebration USA in 2008. Her experience on YouTube was not as positive as Psy’s. She received negative responses for her music video, including over 3,000,000 “dislikes” and many calling it the “worst song ever.” Black also received death threats shortly after uploading the video, and she withdrew from school because of bullying, but also to focus on making music. “Friday” accumulated around 167,000,000 views before it was removed and re-uploaded to her own channel. Rebecca Black also demonstrates the amount of fame a video could get, but the hateful criticism of “Friday” was very disturbing, especially considering she’s a 15 year old girl.” (Urena, 2012.)

Showing both sides of the coin and how emerging medias can be a huge positive or negative dependent on how individuals perceive your content, I believe that companies and individuals have to weigh the risks before they put something out on the various medias.  I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

References:

Nelson, Rebecca (March 8, 2013) People Listening to “Thrift Shop” Not Going to Actual Thit Shop.  Retrieved from http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/03/08/people-listening-to-thrift-shop-not-going-to-actual-thrift-shops/#ixzz2PoZ0YSb9

 Urena, Eddy (December 10, 2012.) The YouTube Phenomenon Retrieved from http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/252273/

Wasserman, Todd (2013.)  ‘Harlem Shake’ Hits 1 Billion Views in 40 Days.  Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2013/04/04/harlem-shake-hits-1-billion-views-in-40-days/

 

 

 

 

 

Rules and constraints for marketers with emerging medias

The rules, regulations and constraints of emerging medias can be detrimental to an organization.  As a marketer, we think of all the possibilities that we must have with the new ways to communicate and interact with customers with emerging Medias, but the one thing we don’t think about is all the stop gaps we may have to deal with using these medias. 

Last year I attended a Social Media Law Seminar, originally it sounded boring, however it was quite interesting and very eye-opening.  Why do I say that?  Every company that has more than 5 employees has some sort of Human Resources individual or designated individual, has to be due diligent about the do’s and don’ts of social media.  Companies need to have policies and procedures for their employees put in place to ensure employees are doing on work time and off work time in emerging medias.  

We may think, hey I am off work, I should be able to post anything I want on emerging medias.   The unfortunate thing is, at any job we are all being watched on what we do in off hours. I sound like big brother, but its true as I run up the online channel for our organization and have been around with other Fortune 500 companies who they are constantly streaming what employees are saying about work place.   We have to be cognizant of what we post in our free time. A prime example would be:

Yath v. Fairview Cedar Ridge Clinic Employee

Yath came into Fairview Clinic for testing, an employee saw her come in and checked her records of why she was there and found out they had been cheating on husband. Employee decided to post this information to MySpace after work hours. Yath tried to sue Fairview Cedar Ridge Clinic in regards to HIPPA and release of information. Yath lost the suit, as Fairview clinics had a social media policy in place for employees. The employee was terminated from the job.

The question is, is this right or wrong or this ethical or unethical? 

Personally, I think there should not be constraints, and I believe that in the 1^st amendment and freedom of speech. We as marketers should be able to communicate and use emerging Medias in any way that we want.  However, the business side of me realizes that we need these constraints to provide guidelines to employees to ensure the a company’s brand stays in tack.  Employees are an extension of the brand, and this needs to be monitored. 

I would love to hear what your thoughts are on this…

References:

Yath, Candace (2009.). State of Minnesota in Court of Appeals. Retrieved from http://privacyblog

Emerging media in our every day life

 Let’s think about what we do on an average day, when we wake up, most of us have our smart phone next to bedside, and we check our texts, email, Facebook, Twitter accounts, Stocks, received Groupons to our phone to purchase, etc… all at the touch of our fingertips.  We then begin by getting ready, either going to work or going to school, if at work we login to our computer and check our email, news, login to bank account via online banking, possible plug into Pandora…We then run to meetings or class, and what do we bring with us our tablets or smartphones to make sure we are keeping in touch with our friends via social media sites, email, etc…  We continue throughout the day like this with either using our computers, tablets or smartphones.   Any major news, we don’t have to wait to get home to see the news, we receive a text alert from CNN or Foxnews of what just transpired or we see a Tweet from one of our friends.  Now let’s finish the day, we are possibly reading with our tablet, checking our final emails for the day or we are saying goodnight to our social media friends.  In one day we have just touched many multiple touch points of emerging medias from our mobile device, social media, buying via mobile apps, text alerts from news papers, tablet viewing, reading books electronically and this is why emerging medias becomes such an interactive piece in our daily lives.  

Why does emerging media matter?  Let’s look at the untapped potential in emerging media is what organizations and companies need to be focusing for new growth potential, brand awareness and connectivity with customers.  A recent article from Peppers & Rogers Group states “Social Media activity is growing exponentially…young population communicate via social media, and companies, especially telecom and financial services, need to be prepared to meet their needs.” (Jabali, 2012.)   The article continues with “Customers nowadays are not only intelligent, but also becoming more and more demanding. It’s not about “I’ll take what you give” anymore. It’s about “provide what I need.” (Jabali, 2012.)  These comments need to be understood by companies to ensure that they are keeping abreast of new media’s and how they will interact with the company’s overall marketing strategy.  Emerging Medias for marketers have to realize that customers are the ones who are driving, and how we play with them in the market place. 

Can emerging markets influence political campaigns? Absolutely, let’s look at the 2012 political elections and how social media became such a huge driver for politicians, and an article from AdAge “Three-Ways Social Media Will Make or Break 2012 Election Campaigns” (Samit, 2011.) indicates that Audience, Influence and Money all a new for 2012 political campaign.  As we know that social media is on the rise for 50+ and over, and how do you target them in social media, how does a politician raise additional cash with a one-click from those social media sites.  We as marketers need to realize that emerging markets are here to stay and keeping abreast of them and how they will intertwine into various marketing plans is a piece of the puzzle.

References:

Jabali, Amine (October 12, 2102.) Social Media’s Untapped Potential in Emerging Markets.  Retrieved from http://www.peppersandrogersgroup.com/blog/2012/10/social-medias-untapped-potenti.html

Samit, Jay (June 23, 2011.) Three Ways Social Media Will Make or Break 2012 Election Campaigns.  Retrieved from http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/social-media-make-break-2012-election-campaigns/228367/

 

Online channel managers first blog….

How ironic that I have been managing various online channels for many organizations for the past years and I have never created a blog for myself.

it has been interesting trying to get this blog setup and I have to use multiple devices to do so, thank goodness for my iPad!

Let the adventure begin.