I Said, OK

1. Gowalla (Gowalla has an Android app now! It’s pretty good but seems to be a few steps behind their iPhone app in features. Scratch that, it’s pretty damn good now.) 2. Amtrak 3. Smugmug 4. Flickr 5. NBC Local 6. Starwood 7. Delicious 8. Zipcar 9. Instapaper 10. Fandango (I’ve heard that this is on [...]

I said Goodbye to my AT&T iPhone the day the Droid was released. It’s not because I don’t like the iPhone or think that the Droid is a better device, it’s simply because AT&T’s service is unacceptably poor and I refuse to be an AT&T customer any longer.

I’ve been toying with sharing my thoughts on the Droid for awhile and have even drafted an extensive post about it, but I realized that there’s been so much written about it already that it likely doesn’t add much to the conversation. Instead, I’m going to share my favorite Android apps–it is after all what makes the device useful.

In an earlier post I talked about how there’s a huge opportunity for agencies and social media marketers with Tier 2 brands. I cited United and the Guitar-gate incident as an example and talked about why I don’t think it’s enough to move United into real action.

Illustrating my point, here’s a great example that I came across today of a Tier 2 brand, Southwest, that’s taking full advantage of the Social Web and coming at United competitively: SOUTHWEST LUVS GUITARS (AND CONTESTS)!

So, it appears that Seth, AT&T’s blogger guy, works for its PR agency Fleishman Hillard (sorry, but I think he comes off like a douche in the video). The question was posed on Twitter by Todd Defren about whether AT&T should have disclosed that Seth works for FH.

From a consumer’s point of view, that’s not really the point. For all intents and purposes Seth works for AT&T. By putting him out there as the mouth piece of AT&T, he is AT&T, so to speak. Sure, he’s a ‘blogger’ but do we expect anything impartial from he if he works for AT&T or its PR agency? I think Todd’s question in some ways has more to do with the flaws (and insecurities) of the PR industry more than what matters to customers

The more important point to me is that AT&T is still missing the real opportunity. All they’ve done is more of the same, just a different wrapper. A different channel for the same old message and business practices.

I just saw this video from AT&T that was posted on YouTube and is apparently making its rounds. The message from AT&T is:

“Listen, we know you think we suck but I we just want you to know that we’re spending all this money on our network and it’s really, really hard, OK? And we’re working really, really hard, OK? So maybe you should give us a break because we’re trying and you just don’t understand so let me try to explain it to you using social media so that you understand how much we’re really, really trying.”

Some brands suck and seem to get away with it.

These days, almost every marketer (particularly agencies and consultants) is trying to come up with Social Media strategies for you name it brand out there. It’s sometimes a game of who can scream the loudest when a big brand fucks up, about how social media could save it and it should turn to it right away.

I think this can be a waste of time from an agency’s perspective trying to win that type of business.

Creating and cultivating an online community of passionate fans and customers can deliver tremendous benefits for any brand–greater affinity and loyalty, direct marketing channel to your most passionate customers and deep insight into your customers’ likes and dislikes, to name a few. However, growing an online community is no easy task and it takes time, and more often than not, dedicated resources to make it successful.

Here are some useful resources and tips as you think about your community strategy.

I met Jennifer Jones last year when she invited me to be a guest on her Marketing Voices podcast to talk about KickApps and social media in marketing. She was kind enough to have me on again and she published the podcast today. We talked about Engagement Marketing and went over some interesting examples of how our clients are using social media and KickApps to engage with their customers. You can listen to the podcast below.

My transition to the cloud and being completely mobile for work and my digital life took a huge step forward when I signed up for SugarSync a few weeks ago. SugarSync is one of many cloud data storage and sync services that enables you to back up, sync, access and share your data over the internet.

What this means for me and the majority of its users is that you can upload the files on your computer(s) to their servers and the service keeps those files updated when you make changes locally on the computer you’re using. You can access all of your files from any computer that you own, assuming you download SugarSync’s software, or via a web browser.

A few months ago I upgraded my 2-year-old Verizon Wireless Broadband USB modem to the Verizon MiFi 2200 and I love it! I had read the usual product reviews and watched David Pogue’s video about it and decided to take the leap. My impression having put the MiFi through the paces for a couple of months of travel is that it’s very convenient to have wireless broadband access on multiple devices and Verizon’s network is good. However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing to get it up and running, so take note in the beginning.