a backpackers' guide to ecommerce

In other news of the obvious: people check their phones wherever they are…

The new Mobile Mindset study, conducted by Harris Interactive, has revealed a great deal of new information about the habits of mobile phone users. Nearly 60% of those surveyed said they don’t go more than an hour without checking their phone, while 73% said they felt a sense of panic if/when their device is lost. The most surprising statistic though, at least to us, were the primary reasons people fear losing their phones — only six percent of those surveyed said they were worried that valuable account information could be stolen, while 38% cited the cost and hassle of replacing the phone.

The social TV ecosystem is getting 1) crowded, 2) hyper-fragmented, 3) interesting, 4) all the above.

just had to reblog this - as my favorite show visited my favorite place on earth - it was a pretty big deal. :)

marksbirch:

“Weight of the Nation & Obesity Prevention” via Food + Tech

As Americans, we are under attack from our own eating and lifestyle habits.  If one statistic could explain succinctly what is at stake, it would be the following:

Obesity-related illness treatments cost an estimated $190.2 billion annually, which is 21% of annual medical spending in the US.

This number is predicted to increase, and not by a small amount.  We are literally eating ourselves into an early, and very financially bankrupt, death.

This Saturday, I am hosting a special NYC Chinatown Dumpling Tour through Gidsy to support Food Revolution Day.  This program led by Jamie Oliver hopes to change food culture and health attitudes by helping schools better educate youth.  Like the campaign against smoking, targeting the young is the best way to change the future health outcomes before it is too late.

How can you support this effort?  Sign up for my tour as the proceeds go towards those school programs.  Plus, you get to enjoy the best dumplings around, learn a bit about Chinatown, and have an invigorating walk through the neighborhood!

Social Media Demystified.  Interesting article from McKinsey on Social Commerce.  A good way to represent social commerce in a consulting sense.

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Marketing/Digital_Marketing/Demystifying_social_media_2958

Interesting InfoGraph from searchenginewatch (author: M. Miller) on the potential importance of F-commerce (Facebook commerce).

In the grand scheme of things the potential of this as a complete walled garden commerce environment extending to the offline world is indeed mindboggling…

However the reservations of the big brands at the moment is understandable. I wouldn’t however discount the Market Insights you can draw from a decently setup Social BI. I guess the big brands are missing out on this one, if they only focus on Awareness and Engagement. And speaking from personal experience, Social Analytics with the Big Guys is still a far cry from where it should be.

On another note, I wouldn’t be too surprised if the next bid from Facebook will go towards Square or one of its competitors. This would finally close the loop on the right side of the 2nd picture (F-Commerce)in Miranda Miller’s article.

This is a must-read article about Facebook and social commerce and the reasons behind the failure of many Facebook storefronts.  There is great thinking, good tips and interesting case studies/examples.  And we couldn’t agree more with this quote:

In time, I suspect that we will view social media in the same way, as a communication and engagement platform that needs to be integral to the rest of the business, rather than standalone. Social media will be key in shaping the brand experience, but will do so in conjunction with all the other channels and not as a channel in its own right.

Our only disagreement is that we think that it shouldn’t be “in time” but right now…