The Portable Nevins

Random thoughts and observations about emerging media tech

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Archives for February 2011

Has AT&T just given in?

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I just had an occasion to contact AT&T regarding my mobile plan for iPhone.  Am I crazy to think it’s a bad move for AT&T to thank me repeatedly for being a “Valued iPhone Customer”?  Does this help retain customers?

It’s sort of like Time Warner Cable thanking me for being a Scientific Atlanta customer.  I’m kidding for effect, but the point is:  If it’s all about the phone, rather than the service, then AT&T has already given in to the fact they they are a pipe for data….If so, then emphasize the positive:  Your GSM network that allows for simultaneous use of voice and data.

I would think they’d be much better off reminding me that “While you are traveling abroad, Mr. Nevins, AT&T allows you to enjoy the comfort of knowing that you can make calls and use data services at the same time unlike some other carriers.”  Had I been planning to switch to Verizon, this would have stopped me dead in my tracks.

S.E.O., Social Media and the Critical Importance of Mobile Web

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Great piece in the New York Times today about Huffpo’s (and others’) approach to creating content that is optimized to be discovered via search.  I was interested to see that Huffpo gets 35% of their traffic from search engines, compared to 20% of traffic from search for CNN.  Clearly, there will be some eventual conflict between editorial and SEO….And there should be.

What I found even more important, is the quote down the page a bit about social media:

“Search is, in my mind, yesterday’s story,” said Lewis Dvorkin, chief product officer at Forbes, which recently redesigned its Web site to make it more social. “You’re finding that today’s audience is much more interested in the filter of their colleagues and friends who they trust than an algorithm produced by someone else.”

I agree with this point and see it as critical evidence of the importance of mobile web in the mobile product mix.  Social media has increasing importance in content discovery, purchase consideration and transactions.  We also see new data that shows that audience trends toward reading email and interacting with social media in the beginning of the day via mobile devices.  With these two points in mind, where does this leave a publisher?  How does one ensure that users can interact with their content and push to social media on their mobile devices?  Remember, given current technologies, he/she can’t click to launch your iphone app, or your android app or any app.  A user may click on a post in his Facebook mobile app, but hit a dead-end if there isn’t a mobile optimized website to click through to.

Is it reasonable to assume, that without a smooth mobile optimized experience, that users may begin to ignore your content on social media services?  Should one force the audience and potential audience to run a brand-specific app in order to interact with our brand or a single piece of content?

The trends are clear.  Ignore your audience’s viewing and consumption habits at your own risk.

GigaOm: Newscorp’s The Daily Is Interesting, But Is It the Future of Newspapers?

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An interesting review of The Daily, which has just launched on iPad.  The big question will be are they offering enough value and differentiation from other news products for users to pay for it.  We’ll see.  I’m a bit disappointed by some of this review, but I’m sure they are not done innovating.

One bright spot worth noting was their approach to social media sharing.  They are essentially allowing users to share bits of content with non-subscribers via a web interaction.  This is smart.

Mobile is increasingly the device of choice for email.  According to recent research, the ratio of mobile email activity spikes noticeably in the early-morning hours, between 5 and 8am, as mobile phone users are waking up and checking email before starting their day.  As I’ve pointed out in other posts, mobile applications stumble when it comes time to share content via social media, email or SMS.  Email newsletters are also problematic.  A user cannot “click into their app” from one of these other content types.  In this sense, the apps are closed off from any interaction via push from other channels.

Large media publishers have already bumped into this problem.  I can only suggest that neglecting a robust mobile web presence is a huge mistake.  It’s the (almost) ubiquitous connective tissue for mobile interactions.

Random thoughts and a few considered observations about emerging media tech

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