Apple IPhone 4.1 OS May Cause Mass Data Loss… Oops they did it again
First, before your yell at me for being hater of Apple, I own a MAC and an Iphone (several of them), but I just can’t take once more instance of my IPhone turning into an IBrick!
According to Apple’s website, the iOS 4.1 Software Update brings Game Center, new iTunes features, high dynamic range photography, and more to iPhone, what they don’t tell you is that it could also lead to the loss of your contacts!
Apple known for user intuitiveness has lost ground once again with its latest 4.1 OS upgrade of the Iphone / Ipad, which in many instances has overwritten / deleted the contact files of the iphone.
Moreover, it has been reported that then syncing the phone to your Mac or PC, will then overwrite your back up. Over one thousand consumer iPhone rants were found in the socialscape throughout North America, which the number of instances seems to be building momentum since the release date.
When Apple was asked to comment on the matter, they stated that “there does exist the possibility that if you don’t upgrade from your computer all your contacts are located could be lost!” Moreover, the Apple spokesperson began reflecting on how many times she lost data on the coveted Apple device. Geeze, do you think that should be a BIG RED FREAKEN WARNING SOMEPLACE!
My advice, WAIT BEFORE ANY MAJOR APPLE UPGRADE, until 4.1.1 comes out. Apple is aware of the oppsy, but in their attempts to gain ground prior to the Christmas season in the battle of the cell phones, they are throwing consumers under the bus, for the potential gain of mass profit. As a result, several active IPhone influencers & social evangelists are switching sides. Good for Google, bad for Apple, especially in this latest issue goes mainstream.
What happened to the Apple we once knew that created outstanding products without cutting corners?
Please leave a comment, subscribe, and syndicate – Cheers, John
PS – My blog is under construction… so please pardon this ugly mess… but I really wanted to get this out!
My B2B marketing event was barely saved by social media…. but I did learn a few things concerning last minute B2B social mobilization
Last night I hosted the “Atlanta Marketing Executives Forum” at the W Hotel. As a novel twist to a normally closed presentation, and to test the value of my own social network, I decided to only advertise the event electronically via Social Media. Ok, the truth be told, I had the wrong date in my head, I did not get physical invitations out in time, nor did we have time to run an outbound telemarketing campaign, and physically advertise within any traditional publication like the Atlanta Business Chronicle , etc., to insure butts in seats, so in essence I was screwed, not to mention the thoughts in my head of how to explain last minute equipment purchases, travel expenses, and 50 pounds of catered food to be found in the company refrigerator the next day, but you did not hear that from me.
So with 96 hours to do, and NO RSVPs, I was a little stressed, plus I already had a lot on my plate, so I embraced a rapid plan tap into my social network. So within a limited period of time, we placed event notices on over 20 different social networks, Tweeted to over 2,500 B2B friends, and emailed 8,000+ market makers and brand managers. I was actually amazed at what I discovered.
MeetUp converted by far as the best physical medium for mobilizing 12 attendees into a physical space. However, the qualifications of over 80% in attendance were suspect as potential clients of the agency, though I think we found a new employee. This medium also cost the most, given hard costs such as people, equipment, catering, room rental, etc.
My linked-In network of over 1,000 executives, delivered 1 person, which I thought would convert the best, yielded the best qualified lead, which actually drove an hour to attend the event.
My 1,957 Twitter friends, in conjunction with live conference streaming via UStream, yielded 21 live viewers that were engaged for 1 hour, moreover 10 viewers remained online listening to our side rants post conference, including a VP of MGM, a brand manger from Toyota, and one of my board members. There were also 9 questions that came to me through twitter concerning the subjects in the presentation.
Facebook was by far the largest disappointment, given that their event marketing got a lot of clicks, but 0 conversions.
Anyway the best lesson learned from last minute event marketing:
1) Though social media turned lemons into bitter-sweet lemonade, NEVER wait until the last minute to plan an event. It makes you look cheap, ill prepared, and rushed.
2) Social media plays its best role, when used in conjunction with other mediums to fill your venue.
3) Always broadcast the physical venue WITH a link to either download the presentation, or use GotoMeeting or like service, so people can follow along from the comfort of their own home, office, country, etc. J
4) Always give your virtual views a way to interact. May it be Twitter, SMS, IMs, Chat, emails, or even a multitude of options.
5) And as a golden rule, ALWAYS FOLLOW UP. Even if there were not a qualified lead, they did show up. In the world that is now socialized, you never know who they know, so never burn a bridge. Everyone who gives you their time deserves to be treated as a VIP, or at the very least, a thank you card.
I promise I will never to that again…. This year… LOL, Cheers, John
Socially Catering Airline Passengers and Brand Loyalty in the World of Social and Mobile Media
Missed Connection, Missed Opportunity to Positively Socially Connect with Airline Brand
Can this really be happening to you?! After you waited 45 minutes on the tarmac, just to be moved to another plane that did not have enough flight crew, which caused a you to have an overnight stay in a in a connecting city that you had no desire to stay in, without luggage, and no cell phone charger. To make matters worse, you now have to wait in line behind the other 80 people that missed their connection, with only two customer service agents that have no authority to do anything other than give you a card to call customer service (that happened to have closed 15 minutes prior to you calling). This makes you have to rearrange your other flight plans for the week, because you now have to re-schedule tomorrow’s $500,000+ client presentation (with one power bar left on my phone) which you will now have to fly to them as opposed to them meeting them at your office. This has probably put you in a very bad place… at least in mind and temperament. Ok, I could be projecting my most recent airline encounter.
Yet, I know I am not alone. With over 2 billion airline flights worldwide each year, it is estimated that 15-25% of flights are delayed, with 2.5% of airline flights canceled (Source AirlineComplaints.org & NY Daily Journal). In travel requiring multiple connections, an additional 2-6% of airline passenger flights are missed do to carrier connection delays in which the first carrier was late on arrival causing the air traveler to miss their connecting flight (U.S. Department of Transportation). Additionally, flights missed outside of the airports ability to control, 7% of consumer missed flights is self inflicted by the consumer not giving themselves enough time to arrive to the airport to handle all the eccentricities’ of travelling in a post 911 world.
For the airlines marketing brand, ironically, and to the airlines dismay, fault, in today’s socially interconnected world of Facebook, YouTube, UStream and the 250+ other social networking communities, is 90% of the time blamed on the airline (Adreka Social Analysis – Airline Industry). In 2010, within the social sphere, over 2.8 million blog entries depicting a strong dislike or bad airline experience has been reported since January of 2009 (Adreka Social Analytics). Given that the average social account averages 130 friends / syndicated connections, the net influence of an airlines brand name is potentially muddied in the eyes of 364 million future customers.
So what can the airlines do in the way of brand strategy to take the sting out of the consumer’s temperament and still maintain the bottom line?
The Reactive Airline Marketing Response
The frontline of an airlines brand defense is to know your customer! Give real time support, anywhere! Most customers just want access to quick information, to questions like where’s my gate, and is my flight on time. If a problem arises, over 90%+ of customers want to vent yell at someone. We want to feel that we are heard and understood. Given empathy and understanding is a majority of the battle. Peer to Peer (P2P) communication via teleconference is the easiest way to deploy massive, centralized, and real-time customer support over the footprint of X major airlines, servicing on average X hubs domestically, Y worldwide.
Create a positive outcome, syndicated brand strategy – Problems will always arise, you’re your organization handles crisis as it occurs will define your brand socially. Whether it be voice, video, or an online chat, record and socialized the consumers end result – they are already going to talk about it on their facebook page, beat them to the punch and turn a consumer question, or resolved issue into a marketing opportunity.
The Proactive Airline Marketing Response
Monitor and engage all social media. There are over 500K new blogs posts daily, with approximately 5% being travel related, allows ample opportunity for an airline to measure, monitor, engage and positively re-enforce brand daily.
Create Tools and Mediums to better foster proactive communication. P2P in customer service kiosks, Iphone / Ipad apps, 24/7 customer service lines, allow the customer to be engaged early, prior to their issue being turned into a negative experience and shared with prospective future customers through socialization.
Provide automated or real person follow up dependent upon the severity of the situation. Reaching out to your customers, post a rectified bad customer experience, adds an additional layer of we care.
Airlines that implement a portion of the strategy points above will have in essence an unfair competitive advantage over those that ignore the socialization of their consumers negative travel experiences. Not to mention, it any of the above airline brand strategy steps would have turned my negative experience into a positive story about an airline that had a unified brand and loyalty program. Because of my negative airline experience, I was able to create a real world case study with a simple solution that I will potentially save the airlines tens of millions of dollars in brand loyalty loss, and provide consumers everywhere with a better travel experience. I believe I just proved capitalism and karma can co-exist!
Happy travels to where ever your final destination may take you – John Cataldi – The Real Mad Man
Positive Online Popularity Grows for the King of Pop by 3000%
Singer-Songwriter, choreographer, producer, businessman and philanthropist, Michael Jackson was undoubtedly the “King of Pop”, with the height of his popularity spanning over 3 generations, and through social media, a fourth generation is now re-discovering this now resting entertainment giant.
Jackson’s mega-stardom that began from childhood was over shadowed by decades of mounting controversy that started in the 1980s. His flamboyant lifestyle, radical changes in physical appearance, allegations of sexual misconduct, questionable mental state, drug abuse, and deteriorating financial condition pushed Jackson into a self-imposed seclusion from the media.
From June 25th to July 11th 2009, upon the announcement Jackson’s death, a virtual “perfect storm” of social media may have forever changed the perception, attitude, and behavior of the masses. Within 48 hours of his death, social media proliferation through blogs, videos, friend feeds, online mainstream news, and discussion forums increased over its daily average by 3,000%, with a majority of the following from 16-26 years of age, according to John Cataldi, CEO of Adreka Advertising. On the day of his memorial service, global web traffic spiked 19% above normal usage, as reported by Akamai, with 30% of all social media postings on popular social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Friend Feeds contained keywords, “Michael Jackson”. Through social mobilization, flash mobs take to the streets in Stockholm, 300+ strong, dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”, with other cities expected to follow this viral dance party worldwide, according to Bounce.NU. To date, there are over 80 million social postings with mention of Michael Jackson, in which an estimated 20% are newly created entries in relation to Jackson’s passing.
According to Adreka’s social media analysis, the impact of social media in relation to the public perception of Michael Jackson’s life, increased in positive sentiment, with most negative aspects of past controversy showing up less than 20% in general search, and 12% in comments left in from friend feeds to forums. In parallel, upon monitoring social media’s affect on e-commerce, iTunes is reporting that 19 out of 100 top songs, and 13 out of top 100 albums download is Michael Jackson. Additionally, popular shopping engines, such as eBay, Amazon, and Craigslist, shows that Michael Jackson albums, books, and collectibles are seeing a dramatic increase, upwards of 115% due to the influential social media postings.
In the words of Michael, “While some have made deliberate attempts to hurt me, I take it in stride because I have a loving family, a strong faith and wonderful friends and fans who have, and continue, to support me.” Yet, seemly overnight, from the news of his death, an emotional outcry shown by MJ Fans and propagated by social networks, has possibly given this mega-entertainer what he could not achieve in life – absolution. Absolution from media criticism, rumors, innuendos, and financial troubles. Moreover, in his death, though tragic, has spawned a rebirth of the mega-star’s music, popularity, and reputation for generations to come.
Twittiquette, most get it, some don’t, this post may not save your life, but potentially your reputation. This is my personal RANT on Twitter Twittiquette, or the lack there of. Personally, first, I like to Tweet. For those less familiar with the medium, Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates known as Tweets. As a social media tool, Twitter adds additional depth to social suspect of interest, whether that be an individual, group, celebrity, sports team, political candidate, etc.
Recently, I heard Twitter dubbed as the “SMS” of the Internet. Just then it all became clear, SOME Twitterers treat their Tweets as if it was a personal journal of communication between friends, though what most fail to consider is unlike SMS which can selectively send to an individual or select group, Twitter is a broadcast medium. Based upon your user name, subject criteria, and freshness of tweets, you may attract the wrong type of follower.
Thus the Twitter Rant on the Subject of Twittiquette:
Twittiquette Rule #1: THINK SAFETY: Always put your safety first. NEVER give out personal information. June 24th 2009, Man tweeted that he was going on vacation, gave dates of his departure, even syndicated his post to his Face Book page, good post, right?! Well is may have been, but in the end his home got robbed, which was a likely result of Twitter’s ability to reach hundreds of thousands of people, by making his post searchable to everyone, including the thief.
Twittiquette Rule #2: DON’T TWEET ACTIVITIES YOU DON’T WANT TO TELL YOUR MOM: What goes on the Internet, stays on the Internet, especially when you may be syndicating your message to the dozens of search bots that will help add your posts in the form of search queries to leading search engines and social networks. Case in point, when I am looking to hire new talent or research a potential business relationship, I use social media as a research tool. For twitter, doing an advanced twitter search is easy http://search.twitter.com/advanced . A few weeks ago I was interviewing new candidate for a sales position. The young man that posted, “omg it was only 10 thirtay and im already drunk!!”, did not get the job.
Twittiquette Rule #3: I DON’T CARE IF YOUR BOWELS ARE REGULAR: Please be interesting, NOONE Cares that you clogged a toilet from your big dinner last night, and we certainly do not need a picture or GPS location of the offending download to the porcelain receptacle. Yes, share yourself, write about the interesting things that shape your life, random thoughts that make your laugh, the places your go , the people you meet, but for god sake, sometimes there is REALLY NO NEED TO SHARE!
Twittiquette Rule #4: FRIEND COLLECTORS BE GONE: Your no TOM, you don’t need to be everyone friend just for the sake of saying you have 100,000 friends, Really stop it.
Twittiquette Rule #5: DON’T BE A TWEET WHORE: There is no need to dominate a conversation, in person or on Twitter. If you send more than 2-3 tweets out at a time, you will come off as obnoxious, and I don’t think that is the look you were going for.
Twittiquette Rule #6: LESS SELF PROMOTION MR MARKET GURU: Twitter is a good way to promote your business. I have made both relationships and real dollars though the responsible use of social media. Tweeting gobs of self plugging is just wrong….. in Twitter terms… bird poop.
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