Mobile Is Dead, Long Live Mobile!

I've been involved with the Mobile Industry for a long time, and for more than 10 years there has been a "buzz" about the so-called "year of mobile."  Has it already passed?  Is it finally going to arrive? What do you think?

Last week I gave this presentation to the South Florida chapter of WITI (Women In Technology International).  I've given many presentations over the years, and I enjoyed giving this one.  Since I am working with cartoonist Hugh MacLeod (@gapingvoid) at Social Object Factory, I used a number of Hugh's insightful cartoons to illustrate my talk, which is called "Mobile Is Dead, Long Live Mobile."

There is no question that the smartphone has changed the face of mobile, but there are other forces at play as well.  As addicted as we may be to our smartphones, we are also now creatures of multiple devices - "Digital Omnivores" as comScore calls it.  Thanks to the prevalence of apps and the ubiquity of "the cloud" the idea of mobility goes way beyond our phones.  So, while an older vision of what mobile is may well be dead, our multi-device, cross-platform mobility is most certainly here to stay.  Long live mobile!

I'd love your feedback on this presentation.

Can't see the video? Click Here.

For more information about Jeff and to book him as a speaker, please visit http://about.me/sass or http://www.jeffreysass.com/speaking. Cartoons courtesy of @gapingvoid.

It's Valentine's Day! Here are 5 Ways Your Mobile Phone Can Make You A Better Lover!

5 Ways Your Mobile Phone Can Make You A Better Lover

February 12, 2011 Posted By: Jeffrey Sass

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, surely love is in the air and we are all getting in touch with our inner cupid.  While we may not be wandering around equipped with a sling full of heart tipped arrows, we do have another tool in hand that can be used to spread the love – our mobile phones! You may already think your smartphone is smart, but did you know it can work wonders on your relationship with that significant other?

Here are 5 Ways Your Mobile Phone Can Make You A Better Lover:

5. Text Sweet Nothings in His/Her Ear – Text messages are a great way to let your love know you are thinking of them, anytime, and by definition, an SMS message has to be short and sweet.  There are few easier ways to bring a smile to that someone special’s face than to send them an unexpected “I <3 U!” or “U R Beautiful” or a simple “Thinking of you… right now…”

4. Send A  Wallpaper or Ringtone – We love to personalize our phones with images and sounds that mean something special to us, so why not share the love by sending your sweetheart a Romantic Ringtone or Whimsical Wallpaper that will make them think of you every time they look at their phone or get a call or message.  Myxer makes it easy to find just the right mobile content and use “Send to Friend” to share it with the one(s) you love.

3. Use “Vibrate” For A Neck Massage – We all enjoy a good neck massage from our partner.  Next time you are offering up a bit of manual stress relief, surprise them with some added good vibrations from your phone.

2. Send A Video Or Image Of Yourself – Sometimes we forget that we are almost always walking around with a camera and camcorder in our pockets.  It takes just a moment to snap a picture or record a video message and send it to the object of your affection.  Be creative.  Hold up a piece of paper with a handwritten sign saying “I Love You.”  Sing a few bars of his/her favorite song in a video.  Send a picture of flowers, or a place you pass that means something special to you both.  (FRIENDLY WARNING: Don’t abuse the ease of sending images and video by sharing something inappropriate or that you will likely one day regret…)

1. And, of course, the number one way your mobile phone can make you a better lover…. TURN IT OFF when you are with your boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse and make them, not your phone, the object of both your attention and your affection!

Do you have more tips on how you use your phone for romance?  Please share them in the comments!  And with or without your phone, have a Happy Valentine’s Day!

And you can start using your phone to be a better lover by sending this to someone special:

Myxer: Privacy Policy | Terms – More from Party 365

via blog.myxer.com

I wrote this for The Official Myxer Blog, but given today is Valentine's Day, I thought I would re-post it here... Has your phone made you a better lover?

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iMedia Connection: Location ROI: The relevance of interruption

Location, location, location... 

William Shakespeare once said, "All the world's a stage, and we are merely players." That was then and this is now. Now all the world's a location waiting to be "checked in" at! Our modern lives are nothing more than a growing trail of digital breadcrumbs as we actively, and passively, broadcast our every move to friends and strangers alike. Despite the perceived perils of privacy (or the lack thereof), the liberation of our location is not necessarily the epitome of all evil. There can be benefits to location awareness, if we are just aware of them. 

You are here 

There is no question that we live in a mobile world. Numerous studies predict that there will soon be more mobile phones than there are people on the planet, and just as many studies state that in a matter of years more people will be accessing the internet from their mobile phones than from desktop and laptop PCs. Thanks to the proliferation of these mobile devices, and especially the growing popularity of high-end smart phones, complete with always-on connectivity and internal GPS functions, your very specific location can be made readily available if you so desire. To find someone today, you needn't hire a spy or P.I., or secretly stash a tracking chip in their pocket. More than likely you can find them through one of the many mobile apps, social networks, and location-based services that they have opted into that share their location from their mobile phone, actively or passively. 

Location changes everything 

For many of us, our mobile phone is the center of our daily universe. It is the focal point for our information, entertainment, and communications, and it has changed the way we look at advertising and commerce. As much as mobile changes everything, location changes mobile.
We have all heard that "content is king" but in an always-on, interactive, digital world, really it is "context" that is king. Context is especially important for advertisers and marketers who are reaching out to hyper-targeted consumers, leveraging the power of digital to narrowcast their offers and messaging to the audience they believe is most likely to respond. The person on a boat ride is not likely to be responsive to notice of an afternoon sale from a midtown retailer; however, the person across the street from the store is. If context is king, location creates context. 

Be relevant 

Location creates context and context creates relevance. In a mobile, location-aware world, everything should be relevant to your interests. The challenge for marketers is that most advertising is still an interruption. Worse, because the mobile phone is such a deeply personal device, and one we carry with us nearly 24/7, the potential of an ad being an interruption is amplified. The person relaxing on that boat does not want to be bothered by an ad on their phone for a sale occurring back on shore. For the person near the store, an ad about the afternoon sale is relevant, and thus to that person the ad is much less of an interruption. Hence, the Relevance of Interruption. Popular location services such as Foursquare and Gowalla are learning to leverage where someone "checks in" to deliver increasingly relevant offers. A check in at your office may present an offer for a discount at the Ben & Jerry's next door (which happened to me). If you believe that at some level all mobile ads are interruptions, the more relevant the ad is, the less of an interruption it will be. Successful mobile advertising can be gauged by this new ROI -- the relevance of interruption. And location can be a meaningful way to increase relevance and improve your standard ROI (return on investment). 

Content can be relevant too 

Location-created relevance is not limited to advertising. Mobile content can also be more relevant based on a person's location. We are just beginning to scratch the surface of what may be able to be done with "mobile aware" content that leverages a person's place as well as their interests. For example, my company has launched an Android app called GeoPix that lets you set different wallpaper images for an unlimited number of locations, based on your phone's GPS information. You can set a location zone of any size and then assign a unique wallpaper image to that zone. Then as you go about your daily routines, your phone's wallpaper image changes automatically as you enter one of your pre-set zones.  As another example, music video site Vevo has announced that its upcoming iPhone App will be location aware and will recommend local artists that might interest you based on your location. It is likely you will soon see many more examples of ways mobile content can be influenced by a person's location. Geo-based ringtones, music, and playlists are inevitable and will create more ways to make mobile a highly personal, highly relevant experience. 

In a mobile world, location creates context, relevance and opportunity.
What do you think? Should mobile marketers be considering location and the relevance of interruption? 

(This article is based on a presentation given at the 2010 SFIMA Summit. You can view the presentation slides here and the video here.)
Jeffrey W. Sass is VP of marketing and business development and chief evangelist at Myxer. 

On Twitter? Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.

via imediaconnection.com

Thanks to iMedia Connection for publishing this article I wrote, based on a presentation I gave at the 2010 SFIMA Summit...

Posted via email from Kiss My SASS!

The Geek Traveler: Staying Connected To Get Disconnected

(Pictured above: Shell Island, Panama City Beach, FL)

I haven't been on a "road trip" in a long time, and things have clearly changed A LOT since the days of my CB RADIO (if you can remember "Breaker 1-9" please raise your hand!) When we decided to drive the 600 miles from Miami to Panama City Beach for the long holiday weekend I made sure that our rental car had a good FM radio. Now, before you accuse me of being a ludicrous Luddite you need to understand why I was rabid for radio. I rely on FM radio to broadcast the signal from my awesome Motorola T505 Bluetooth Hands-free Speakerphone (Amazon affiliate link below). Clipped to the rental car's visor, the T505 pairs with my Palm Pre via Bluetooth, and then with the car's sound system via the best quality digital FM transmitter I have ever used. Instantly, I have all the whiz-bang wonders of my smartphone seamlessly integrated with my loaner Saturn Vue.

"Always On"... the road again...

Our journey was guided by turn by turn navigation from Sprint, clearly spoken through the car stereo. Our audio entertainment was provided by music and podcasts on my Pre, and even better, during long stretches of our drive, we were listening to my customized (and eclectic) favorite music courtesy of Pandora. Yes, I took geek pleasure in the knowledge that as I drove through the beautiful wooded barrens of North Central Florida I was using Sprint's network to stream music from the Internet to my phone, and then have that music go from my phone to the Motorola T505 via Bluetooth, and then from the T505 to the car's nice sounding stereo system via a short range FM transmission. Wireless wonders at their best! Of course if at any time someone called me on my mobile phone the music was automatically paused and the call came in loud and clear through the car stereo and the T505's built-in microphone. Ahhh, technology!

Good for the Geek, good for the Gander...

Lest you think I was the only connected traveler in the car, my "geekette in training" girlfriend was glued to her iPhone for most of the trip, researching things to do in Panama City, reading local restaurant reviews, finding us a hotel for a mid-trip layover, and using an iPhone app to track our location and alert us of nearby speed traps.

How connected are you when you hit the road?

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