Monica Yoo

technology. science. marketing.

I’ve Got Social Media! How About You?

Got Social Media Badge

This past Thursday I attended the first Got Social Media conference and had a very refreshing experience. I was surrounded by tons of people who were enthusiastic, thirsty to learn and all of them with a streak of ambition.

Throughout the day, various subjects oriented around communications were discussed from a beginning to end kind of fashion; what communication is and the value and purpose it serves, the metrics involved in quanitfying the effectiveness of communications, the future direction of communicating and its experiential shift, tactical approaches to stir buzz marketing, a reality check about women and internet (which by the way makes up 52% of the entire web user population!) and the evolution of web technology.

There were some great presentations with valuable messages and I especially loved the ones that sparked curiosity. For me, those are the ones that usually stick. =)

A personal favorite from the event was the presentation by Stephen Anderson. His discussion tied in a number of different psychological/social behavioral elements and how in the future he believes the focus will shift towards the experience of browsing. In an “off-line” conversation I had with him, he talked about how it used to be the programmers and developers who ran websites, and now it’s the web designers and in the future it’ll be the psychologists and those involved in the social sciences. After thinking about for a bit, I think he’s right. As websites and internet users become more sophisticated, the development team will have to also. You can already see it on Nike.com and UnderArmour.com. It’s pretty clear that they’re selling emotion and experience, not just the shoes and tshirts.

With all that I’ve learned, I think that in the future, successful websites will be the ones that are able to replicate real in-person behaviors and tendencies in an online environment. In his presentation, Chris Bernard said that studies revealed that women shop for longer periods of time and spend more money when they shop with a friend or in a group. The question now is, how can you create an environment to simulate this kind of behavior on the internet? It’s something to think about.

Natuba: Relaunched!

Happy New Year! I’d like to introduce you the new and hip Natuba!

Taking into consideration that it’s 2008, most of us (if not all) have cell phones with cameras. Many of us (if not all) use our camera phones to take quick snap shots of food, people and unusual sightings. We love to sneak pictures of our new baby nephews, our first real attempt at cooking and the surprise candid moments of our friends. How can we not? Having a tiny camera inside of our phone has got to be one of the most entertaining aspects of owning one (unless you have internet access).

The unfortunate reality of all this is that the pictures we gleefully take rarely make it out of our square phones. Most often than not, the only instances that any picture will be shared is immediately after the picture is taken, when you’re with a posse of pals to recap the event or any other situation where your phone is within tangible reach. If you take an awesome picture, wouldn’t you want to share it with your friends (or even the world)?! It would be a waste to leave a picture like this on your phone:

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(in case you can’t read it, it says: 4N AFRS)

So what can you do? Natuba it! Natuba is the place to store all your cell phone stuff. With it, you can easily upload the pictures from your phone and send “shouts”- fleeting thoughts that you’d like to post up on the web aka text messsages. Once you create your account, you can share your personal link with your buddies so they can see all your exciting mobile pictures! *ta da*

Music Makes My World Go ‘Round…

Music plays a large role in my daily life. Therefore I want to share a few things that I’ve been fortunate to come across.

I present to you, 3 internet radio sites!

Pandora.com – This is a site I’m sure many of you already know about. It creates playlists based on similar musical characteristics of the song or artist you select. It’s nice because it’ll play songs from various artists – sometimes with new artists that you’ll probably end up having a growing interest for.

Last.fm – Similar, but different from Pandora, Last.fm allows the user to share and promote artists. Registered users can subscribe to other users to hear their taste in music. Fun way to explore new, different and upcoming musicians.

Musicovery.com – Of the three internet radio stations, this one has to be my favorite! This nifty application selects songs from a wide variety of genres (or the ones you specifically pick) based on a mood matrix. If you’re in the mood for something slow paced but with a positive melody, click in the positive and calm quadrant.

Give each of them a try! They’re all unique and come in handy in different situations.

Internet Access on Flights – It’s Almost Here!

Internet access on plane rides! Is anyone as excited about this as I am?

I have been patiently waiting for the time to come where I could look forward to opening up my laptop to do something productive on the plane (besides catching up on reading and naps). With the internet universally available while you’re on the ground through wi-fi, cell phones/smart phones and wireless cards for your laptop, it’s a huge takeaway when you board the plane and can’t compulsively check your email. Yes, it’s temporary, but an inconvenience when you want to catch up on some work or do something to entertain yourself while you sit in idle stillness. No readily available internet access is like stepping into the 1990s.

JetBlue Airways will be offering email and instant messaging on one of their planes next Tuesday – FOR FREE. They have acknowledged that the service is still in its testing phases, but it’s a great way to build awareness momentum. I, as well as the rest of the loyal internet-using population will be more inclined to purchase a JetBlue ticket over another just to try out the new service. Although I’m not entirely sure what JetBlue’s strategy is here, my gut feeling tells me that their intentions of providing these new features is to lure the young adult audience, as well as the tech-savvy. Email checking and instant messaging on an air flight? Those two features will provide more than enough entertainment and “productivity.” It’s genius. It’s important to note that JetBlue is not providing a full range of internet access, just email and instant messaging. Anything more would require much more bandwidth that they could handle for now.

However, the next wave of internet services on airplanes will be coming in the following months by American Airlines, Virgin America and Alaska Airlines. The downside to their internet options is that they will be charging the service at approximately $10 a flight. Not entirely that bad if you really need or want it – especially if you think of it as a convenience cost.

I’m curious to find out how each airline plans on promoting and representing each of their internet services in the future. I’ll definitely be keeping up with this.

Where’s YOUR Natuba?

It’s not uncommon for everyone to have their own blog, youtube, myspace, flickr and facebook accounts – if anything, it’s very normal. However, have you noticed that these different sites were created to help you and your friends keep track of each other,  but it’s gotten to a point where it’s nearly impossible to do so? Yeah – there are just too many online accounts! Let’s say the average internet user has 5 online accounts and you have 5 friends (although I’m sure you have significantly greater friend pool than that). That’s already 25 different pages you have to regularly check to see if any updates have been made. CRAZY! So, what’s the solution?

Natuba! It’s a website that will compile and aggregate all the updates from your myspace, flickr, rss feeds, youtube and other online accounts all onto one page. That way, rather than giving out 20 or so different URLs to your friends, you can give them one single link. Voila! Simple. Not only will this save you the hassle of typing each link out, it’ll also save you from that feeling of hesitation when you’re faced with the temptation of signing up for a new account. 🙂

I had a ton of invites to give away, but they’re updating the site and will reopen soon. Once I get a hold of more invites, I’ll be sure to write another updated post!

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