Kashif Zaman » Social Media

Open IDEO – A promising platform for crowdsourcing ideas

Kashif Zaman — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 03:44:29 +0000

I clicked on my first “banner ad” in the last 5 or so years when I saw IDEO and Jamie Oliver’s name together on a banner. I love IDEO for their method cards and I have read Tom Kelley’s book: The Art of Innovation (highly recommended, awesome, awesome book). I also love what Jamie Oliver is doing because I am a concerned parent and I see whats going on in America with all the packaged food full of sugar and corn syrup.

Now, this is sort of a crowd-sourcing event on IDEO’s platform. I am more interested in the platform itself and its concept. The navigation is simple and sequential. I had the rare “I get it” feeling within seconds and I love the concept.

We have to wait and see how it goes. I am sure IDEO will figure out a good outcome even if it does not yield any original creativity. Or may be it is designed as a PR stunt to “raise awareness.” It would be interesting to see if 584 inspirations and 194 concepts are any better than a few people brainstorming in a room.

I think the problem of bias of order is still there. Ideas are listed one after the other. The threads of conversation are not random. Or even if the exposure of ideas is randomized, pure serendipity is missing because I don’t think pure serendipity is random (different debate but you get the idea). Also, in live brainstorms, really bad ideas get killed right away, no matter how much you try to avoid it. (I think that is a good thing as it reduces clutter.)

What do you think? Here is the link:

http://openideo.com/open/how-might-we-give-children-the-knowledge-to-eat-better/evaluation/

Geo-location utilities have a $20 Billion Market Potential

Kashif Zaman — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 13:31:45 +0000

Next sustainable digital revolution: innovation that leads back to basic human intuition

Kashif Zaman — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:45:06 +0000

I am very impressed by the thought-process this MIT genius introduces with his SixthSense Technology. While tech cool hunters spam each other with augmented reality examples (that may or may not have any real application), this guy is for real. He is showing us a path that leads to basic human intuition. It makes me feel much better.

Very interesting that Apple iPad pitch is all about basic intuition uses lines like “holding internet in your hands” and “you don’t think about it, you just do!”. I think the next sustainable revolution is intuitive devices like these.

The right Social Community Manager for your brand

Kashif Zaman — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:13:48 +0000

While looking for someone to manage a social community for a brand, I have noticed that marketers tend to focus on experience. Does this person have experience with social networks? Which ones? Does he/she have a blog?

I find some bloggers to be somewhat introverted and that they use social media as a platform to express themselves. You probably want to avoid these guys on your brand. In general, I think some personality traits are more important than skills and experience.

In a community manager, I would look for conscientiousness, agreeableness and some level of extroversion as the desirable qualities. My most important question would be if their personality naturally fits my brand’s personality? Or even more importantly, do they talk the talk and walk the walk of my customers.

As far as experience and skills are concerned, they are really not as important. These things are extremely easy to learn and they will keep changing anyway. They probably have already changed since you started thinking about it.

One day Facebook will also be abandoned. Got any relocation plans?

Kashif Zaman — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 03:10:59 +0000

As you can see below, the inevitable decline is inevitable for every colorful logo on the PowerPoint slide you may have titled Social Networking. This curve was probably drawn back in 2007. By now, Facebook may be on the Plateau of Ubiquity on its way to decline at some point. They would have to play too many cards right in order to become another Ebay and Amazon of the Internet.

Source: The ebb and flow of Social Networking

I had the privilege to be in a brand strategy meeting where the goal was to decide which network is suitable as the hub for the brand. Demographics of different social networks were projected on the screen. Are demographics the right way to decide? Or is the choice of a hub even a valid consideration to begin with?

I think choosing the hub is a tactical/short-term decision. OK! I get it. Who cares if it is strategy or tactic? It’s a decision to be made and one aspect to be considered is the portability to the content and fans. We know the content is portable by nature but the user-generated dialog is not very portable. If the network is abandoned, how will the brand relocate to its new hub without loosing much momentum.

The ‘Fun’ Theory vs. The ‘Novelty’ Hypothesis

Kashif Zaman — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:07:29 +0000

VW recently launched a very successful viral site: TheFunTheory.com. Geart idea. Smart execution. The site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior for the better. Agreed. But I do think that the fun has to be sustainable. If all stairs were a live piano, I don’t think it would be fun anymore and 99% people will take the elevator.

For teens, communication is entertainment

Kashif Zaman — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:23:06 +0000

A great way to approach the teen “cool hunting” phenomena by Forrester’s David Card. It is important to point out that cross-category influencers are engaged in targeting.

Windy Indeed! trendsmap.com does not lie

Kashif Zaman — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 06:27:11 +0000

I zoomed in to Chicago area on Trendmap.com and it does show that windy is the word of the night. No surprise there. It is very windy.

Where to spend your social media $$$ first?

Kashif Zaman — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:42:00 +0000

It is interesting to see how as an industry matures, its pundits start to become more honest. At this year’s Ad Tech event in Chicago, my one takeaway from all social-media sessions was: “we really don’t know what we are doing“. Previously, there was a overwhelming excitement around the social band-wagon fueled by a handful of viral success stories by some popular CPG brands.

“It’s not for everyone“, one agency visionary said in a panel discussion. “You have to look at your demographics“, he said. I raised my hand during the question session and I think at one point the moderator noticed me but as you know, we all struggle with our attention-span in this age of information-overload.

I would argue that most well known brands already have plenty of consumer generated content (product reviews, rants/ raves) out there and most of it is inherently biased against them.

I think the best use of their social media dollars is to engage in the existing conversations and respond to negative content. This may serve better than taking chances with a viral campaign.

WHY? Because the viral campaigns are the top of the purchase funnel (consideration drivers at best, only if they work) while consumer opinions are consumed on demand, at the bottom of the funnel (preference validation).

EXAMPLE:
Let’s say you are a small electronics brand.

1. Consumer A is just about to click on BUY NOW and is having second thoughts. He/she googles the product reviews just before clicking on “buy now”.

2. At the same time, Consumer B (probably 14 years old and does not have a credit card) is trying to find skateboarding tricks on You Tube and is most probably never going to consider your product.

Where should you spend you money? It’s a no-brainer. Spend it on PR and opinion management. Do not consider anything else until you post video responses to all videos showing your product not working on You Tube. Odds are, your video responses will have a higher visibility than an expansive viral campaign. That is, without burning your budget on media buys.

For a Web 2.0 app, the “aha!” moment is everything

Kashif Zaman — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 01:58:11 +0000

Especially for business-to-business applications built on Web 2.0 principles, success is a function of time (in seconds) it takes for a user to sign up for a free trial and explore the application until they reach a milestone moment, I call it the “aha!” moment. It occurs when the potential customer realizes how “simple” it is to get started with this tool. Of course, I am going to stick with this one keyword “simple”.

And if it does not happen in the first visit, it ain’t happenin!

If you are the entrepreneur trying to make it work, focus on the getting down your one KPI – time to aha: start the stopwatch on click on the sign-up button and stop it as soon as the user realizes how simple this app is. That is, if the app is really “simple”.