Neal's Notes

Market research firms sponsor literally hundreds, if not thousands of conferences around the globe. While one key objective, understandably, is to directly or subliminally promote the firm’s products/services, the topics will hopefully be both educational and informative and attract attendees, keynote speakers, and panel participants who are well regarded in their respective fields and bring added value.
A good example is the recently concluded Linley Tech Mobile Conference, held last week in Santa Clara, CA and organized by Mountain View, CA-based The Linley Group, a market research firm providing independent technology analyses of semiconductors for networking, communications, mobile, and wireless applications. The company also produces a trade publication, Microprocessor Report.

This was the fourth year the event was held; according to company founder and Principal Analyst Linley Gwennap, the conference attracted about 200 people, including those from mobile IP and chip companies, handset and other device vendors, carriers and software vendors, as well as the financial community and press. Attendees represented a broad range of companies, including Broadcom, China Mobile, Cisco, Dell, Ericsson, HP, Huawei, Imagination Technologies, Marvel, Samsung and Sony, as well as financial analysts from Bank of America, Credit Suisse, UBS, and Wells Fargo.

The conference focused on a wide array of topics; here’s a snapshot:
• Heterogeneous processing
• Licensable CPUs for mobile devices
• Licensable GPU and DSP cores
• Mobile semiconductors
• Mobile SoC design issues
• Mobile software trends
• Multicore application processors
• Other low-power IP cores

The presentations addressed design issues for mobile devices — tablet computers, smartphones, navigation devices, media players, handheld games, and e-book readers.

One of the conference highlights, noted Gwennap, was a panel on the growing China mobile market, featuring executives from China Mobile, Imagination Technologies, MediaTek and Spreadtrum. The panel addressed key challenges and opportunities for mobile products in China, the diverging demands of Chinese consumers and the different tiering in that enormous market. One interesting takeaway: the total available market for mobile handsets in China is larger than the entire population of the United States!

Another session on mobile CPUs talked about major issues for mobile product development. One of the panelists, Mark Throndson, serves as Director of Processor Technology Marketing for UK-based Imagination Technologies.

One of Throndson’s conclusions was that industry trends are forcing more efficiency in how companies build products, and to enable this, new technologies are abstracting software development away from the underlying hardware/instruction sets.

“At the end of the day, even though software is becoming less dependent on the hardware it runs on, good underlying architectures are still important as they affect the user experience through delivering high performance, longer battery life, and lower costs,” said Throndson.

Another interesting session focused on power-optimized design. This is an increasing challenge as today’s mobile devices integrate ever-more features and functionality, yet battery technology hasn’t kept pace. A couple of session participants proposed that the answer lies in adding a bit more complexity in hardware to handle power management. While this additional logic may consume some power, the end result, according to these panelists, is increased efficiency and longer battery life.

I’ve been to gobs of analyst-driven events that focused too much on promoting the market research firm and its offerings; the buzz on the Linley gathering from attendees is that it was two days well-spent.

With this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC) now behind us, what were some of the key takeaways?

One of the most interesting occurred before the exhibit halls opened — the first GDC State of the Industry survey that polled more than 2,500 attendees. The results revealed some intriguing trends in funding, platform preference and publishing models.

For starters, how are developers funding their projects? A few survey numbers:

• 72% are being funded by a company’s existing war chest or an individual’s personal funds

• 9% are from VCs

• 10% are publisher-funded

• 4% are crowdfunded – and 8% of the developers have worked on crowdfunded projects, with another 44% planning to go this route in the future

Indies Rising

The survey also found that 53% of respondents consider themselves ‘indie developers’; 46% are employed at companies of 10 people or less – and only 24% reported they worked with a publisher on their last game.

Platforms

According to survey results, more respondents are developing for smartphones and tablets than for any other platform – 38% released their last game for smartphones and tablets; 55% are making their current games there; 58% will release their next games on these platforms.

Cool Stuff

Survey results aside, there were some cool products to play with and even some significant Windows 8 stats rolled out by Microsoft as part of its full-court press to draw more games and developers to the platform.

Hands down, the most popular was Irvine, CA-based Oculus VR’s Rift, a virtual reality headset with stereoscopic 3-D, a 110-degree field of view and low-latency head tracking. Woe to anyone who strayed along the footpath leading up to their booth once the morning doors swung wide – they would have been trampled by the hordes who ran pell mell to line up and play ‘Hawken’, a first-person shooter game that situates players inside a levitating war machine.

Beyond, the hype, equally impressive was that the company raised $2.4 million from crowdfunding.

As reported by John Gaudiosi, editor of Gamerhub.tv, a video syndication network, Zombie Studios demonstrated Daylight, slated for release sometime this fall. It’s the first horror game for Sony’s new PlayStation 4. A team of six people, noted Gaudiosi, created the game and are self-publishing on PlayStation 4.

Daylight, said Gaudiosi, “traps players inside a haunted insane asylum. Armed only with the light and apps from your in-game smartphone, you must try to get out alive. There are no weapons other than your feet – which are best used to run.”

Gaudiosi added that the developer has written “a lot of back story about centuries of souls who were mistreated within the asylum’s walls.”

Lastly, Develop said that Microsoft is attracting a slew of developers to Windows 8, some of which include Disney, GameHouse and Glu. The publication added that “as for revenue share on the Windows Store and what benefits successful developers can receive on the platform, should an app pass $25,000 in sales, developers will start receiving an 80% share of all subsequent sales, instead of the usual 70/30 split.”

Look forward to seeing what will unfold during GDC 2014!

Brewski. Glass sandwich. Liquid bread. Aiming fluid (when playing darts). Barley pop. The slang words are endless. In plain English – beer.

The amber nectar has been around for thousands of years – ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians were probably the original craft brewers. In fact, In Mesopotamia, the oldest evidence of beer is a 6,000-year-old Sumerian tablet that shows people drinking through reed straws from a communal bowl. Party on!

Fast forward to the 21st Century. While enjoying a beer recently at a San Diego microbrewery, I began to ponder that with so many national and international brands available today, how do these smaller microbreweries rise above the advertising din of giants like Anheuser Busch and Coors and get noticed?

For the past several years — via social media. From Singapore to Delaware, numerous microbreweries have utilized a wide array of social media platforms, programs, tools, etc., to help with branding and marketing.

So while sitting at home this afternoon with a cold wobbly pop (yes, another beer slang term), I decided to roam around online and check out a few microbreweries that appear to be doing a bang up job at promoting their brands:

Brewerkz Singapore

Established in 1997, the Singapore-based microbrewery and restaurant features a number of signature beers, some of which include Golden Ale, Iguana Lager, Hopback Ale, India Pale Ale and Oatmeal Stout.

As reported by Tech in Asia, Brewerkz has been proactive from the gitgo in using social media to promote its products. One interesting promotion has been with BuUuk, a restaurant scouting mobile app with 50,000+ users in Singapore. The microbrewery recently ran a successful one-for-one beer pint promo with BuUuk.

Other social media platforms are constantly cross-linked – this example of a recent tweet offering giveaway tickets takes you to the Brewerkz Facebook page, which is chock full of photos, videos, news about contests and posts from fans:

We have a pack of 8 VIP Singapore Slingers tickets to give away this weekend Sunday, 24 Feb. 1600hrs Singapore… http://fb.me/ssJffgno

Tech in Asia indicated that Brewerkz is constantly measuring social media ROI too. Facebook Insights are used to measure post quality and interactions; Google Analytics is employed to find out how much traffic comes from Facebook.

SweetWater Brewing Company

The Atlanta-based microbrewery offers a variety of year-round brews – some of the more catchy brands include Georgia Brown: Smoother than a Bill Clinton Apology; Blue: Ain’t Just for Breakfast Anymore; and India Pale Ale: the Beer You’ve Been Training For.

SweetWater maintains a lively blog – The Fish Wrap, which also features links to Flickr (where the microbrewery posts photos on events, promotions, and more), a From the Tap section that links back to Facebook and Twitter, and a Twitter roll they call TweetWater. A SweetWater In the News section on the Fish Wrap page also provides updated information on key events/programs to be held at the microbrewery. One recent event was a fundraiser for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Dogfish Head

Located in Rehoboth Beach, DE, Dogfish Head has been churning out quality craft brewed ales since 1995. The company, reports Philly Beer Scene, has had a lot of success in promoting its brand via Twitter – as of today there were 115,449 followers.

Co-founder Mariah Calagione, noted Philly Beer Scene, mused about receiving a tweet once that read, “I’m at #Dogfish Brewpub and I haven’t seen my waiter in a while.” Calagione tweeted back asking what the customer was wearing, then immediately phoned the restaurant and had the waiter at the customer’s table in minutes. The customer soon posted another tweet praising the superb service.

Microbreweries like the aforementioned have also gotten a boost from companies like San Diego-based TapHunter. Founded by beer aficionados Melanie and Jeff Gordon, the husband and wife team launched TapHunter “to help bars, bottle shops and tasting rooms save time and increase sales by connecting to their most profitable customers with online and mobile solutions.”

TapHunter is both an app (see the graphic embedded in this post) and website that connects craft beer fans with beers, brewers and the locations that pour them. TapHunter started in San Diego and has since expanded services to more than a dozen U.S. cities and regions, some of which include Austin, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle.

Social media will continue to shape the beer universe. And that’s a good thing, I reckon. Philly Beer Scene’s Brittanie Sterner succinctly summed it up:

“If Twitter and Facebook can help weave the beer community into the world in positive ways, maybe it doesn’t matter beer drinkers might also use the platforms to broadcast puffed-up opinions. Critical consumer feedback can even serve as a gateway to brewers to tweak and tighten their methods, try new things, and ultimately take the craft industry farther. Maybe social media is just that kind of double-edged sword. At any rate, it’s making beer more popular. And isn’t that the idea – for everyone to drink good beer?”

I’ll raise a glass to that!

According to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the Arlington, VA-based trade association that owns and produces International CES, there were more than 156,000 attendees and 3,100 vendors at this year’s show. Depending on the time of day, most of them seemed to be waiting in line for a taxi or monorail. Or ordering a chai latte at Starbucks.

Despite the usual congestion and often daunting logistical challenges of getting from Point A to B at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) or nearby hotels where many companies had suites, there were quite a few interesting trends, along with a gazillion gadgets, gizmos and gewgaws. And in certain areas of the LVCC it seemed like every other booth, suite or kiosk was rolling out yet another line of iPhone/iPad covers and assorted accessories.

A number of companies that debuted on sites like Indiegogo or Kickstarter were showing their wares at CES. CNN reported that one of these interesting prototypes was the HAPIfork, produced by Hong Kong-based HAPILABS. The fork keeps track of how many bites of food you ingest – if you eat too fast, you’ll see indicator lights come on that remind you to stop emulating your dog. Eating information is also uploaded via USB to an online dashboard to track your progress.

According to HAPILABS, the fork also measures how long it took to eat your meal, amount of ‘fork servings’ per minute, and intervals between these servings. For those speed eaters, perhaps Version 2.0 might also feature a small electric shock to really get you to stop inhaling your food like a vacuum cleaner.

There were a lot of interesting apps and products aimed at senior citizens. Again, CNN reported that “new sensors can text family members or a doctor if something is amiss in the senior’s daily routine, such as not getting out of bed or skipping medication. If you’re concerned about an elderly relative’s safety, you can use smartphone apps to remotely control security systems, thermostats, and even kitchen electronics.”

In fact, one of these products, called Iris Care, was demonstrated by Lowe’s. Iris Care is a cloud-based home monitoring system; seniors can also carry a $30 pendant which can be used to reach emergency contacts. The system can even send an email to family members if an older relative doesn’t get out of bed at a normal time.

Next gen TV was also hot. LG showed off its CINEMA 3D Smart TV products that included PowerVR Series6 graphics from UK-based Imagination Technologies. Imagination’s VP-Marketing, Tony King-Smith, said that “the next step in TV smartness is to add features inspired by hand-held markets for engaging user interfaces, graphics-rich apps, Internet/cloud connectivity and more. TV is the largest physical display and the one that users spend the most time with. If the look, speed and responsiveness of the TV are not perfect, users will choose other products that do the job better.”

Another UK-based company, Civolution, showed off some innovative content recognition technology. As reported in the Guardian, the technology “can sync second screen experiences in both programs and ads. The company continually monitors around 2,000 TV channels, selling this real-time channel content data on to second screen companies, who can then launch apps fully synchronized with the TV.”

And market research firm CCS Insight said CES 2013 marked the coming of age of the Android platform. Android, noted the company, appeared at the show in cameras, media streamers, video monitors, and even an oven.

CCS Insight added that the smartphone is now a key ingredient in the multi-screen mix. The company estimates there were 1.25 billion smartphones in use last year; rising to 1.84 billion by the end of 2013:

“The smartphone is now assumed as one part of the larger story of the connected home, and just one screen among many, including smart TV’s and tablets…this theme raises big questions for phone manufacturers without a broader portfolio of consumer electronics products, such as HTC, Nokia and RIM.”

CCS Insight indicated that companies like these will need to present a clear message about the value they offer “by focusing on the smartphone as the most used connected device and about how their products are different from the devices offered by the larger consumer electronics providers.”

For the media, CES was the usual three-ring circus. But there were interesting advancements in fields ranging from telecommunications to mobility to healthcare.

Head-spinning, frenetic, noisy, long days/nights, but as always, never boring. Look forward to seeing what International CES 2014 will bring.

With 150,000 attendees and 3,000 vendors getting ready for the start of 2013 International CES, pundits near and far are popping up everywhere to shout out what they deem will be paradigm-bending ‘13 digital marketing and technology trends.

And there are quite a few of these that could impact both consumers and businesses.

But first, the numbers.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), an Arlington, VA-based trade association that owns/produces CES, recently reported that shipment revenues for smart phones will be about $37 billion next year, with almost 126 million units shipped to dealers, a 16 percent increase from this year. And tablet computers will continue to be immensely popular – unit sales will exceed 105 million (+ 54 percent from ‘12), translating to almost $36 billion in shipment revenue.

To further accentuate just how quickly the mobile connected universe is expanding, check out these numbers from a November ’12 Pew Internet and American Life project:

• 56 percent of all U.S. mobile phone owners access the Internet.
• 85 percent of all U.S. adults own a mobile phone.
• 53 percent of mobile phone owners have smart phones.
• 88 percent check email on their phones each day.

Forbes reported earlier this month that two areas we’ll see a lot of at CES are digital health and smart cars. The digital health market, encompassing telemedicine, mobile apps, medical records, fitness monitors, and more, is growing more than 40 percent a year.

“As the health industry meets the consumer electronics industry you’re seeing dozens of innovations from mobile personal emergency systems to glucose, blood, heart rate and other monitors that you’ll be able to use at home, to a remote session with your doctor. The tech industry knows how to market to consumers; the medical industry is looking to them for that expertise,” said Forbes.

A few years ago, for example, Nebraska-based telemedicine solution provider AET completed a first of its kind, real-time remote diagnosis of a newborn baby’s heart murmur between Faith Regional Health Services and Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in Norfolk and Omaha, NE, respectively. The diagnosis used advanced wireless video conferencing technology through a mobile camera device connected to an ultrasound machine.

Forbes added that smart cars and related technologies will also be a popular CES attraction – the Google car, for instance, will be on display featuring its LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging; an optical remote sensing technology) system. And smart transportation will continue to generate considerable interest, added Alexandru Voica and Simon Forrest of UK-based Imagination Technologies, which designs and licenses multimedia and communications semiconductor cores.

Writing in the September/October issue of Vision, CEA’s flagship publication, the co-authors said “solutions will appear to enable advanced servers to detect immediate dangers, automatically avoid traffic jams and closed roads and monitor surroundings. This will lead to a reduction in fuel consumption and carbon emissions, a decrease in traffic jams and an improvement in the efficiency of existing infrastructure.”

I reckon vehicles will become so intelligent that eventually they won’t need us.

Snarchasm aside, there are a number of other interesting mobile marketing/tech trends that will accelerate in popularity/growth. To wit, yesterday, Tom’s Hardware prognosticated that LTE will ‘build out and up’ in ’13.

Here’s a snapshot quote of where they think things are heading:

“Adoption of LTE is still in the initial stages but consumers will see widespread coverage in 2013. In North America, Verizon should finish its LTE rollout by June 2013, and the Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) forecasts that 209 networks will be commercially launched in 75 countries by the end of 2013. GSA also reports that over 500 LTE devices including tablets, femtocells, smart phones and routers have been introduced this year, a 164 percent increase compared to the number launched in 2011. LTE coverage is clearly seen as a competitive differentiator by carriers, and as network rollouts accelerate worldwide, manufacturers are responding with products for these markets.”

NFC

A wireless communication standard enabling data to be exchanged between devices over a distance of about four centimeters (two inches), NFC is inherently secure since devices must be placed close to each other – this contrasts with long-range protocols like Bluetooth or Wi-Fi which must select and connect with the correct device out of many that might be within range. NFC sets up connections faster than standard Bluetooth and its low-power variant, Bluetooth 3.0.

A mobile phone equipped with NFC technology can be used to carry a portable identity credential and then wirelessly present it to a reader – the phone is simply waved in front of the reader. One of the key features of NFC is the ability for NFC devices to operate in a passive, power-saving mode, while still being able to communicate with active NFC devices. An RF field is generated by the active device powering a passive target without an electricity source. Only one of the devices needs to be powered in order for the communication to occur.

Current uses are largely focused around contactless payments; but one emerging app is micro marketing using intelligent posters. Consumers can use their NFC phone to read a tag on the poster, which takes them to a special web page on their phone with more information.

“Ultimately, NFC smart phones will operate as smartcards in a peer-to-peer environment, taking advantage of the fact that the ‘card’ (smart phone) is actually a fast computer attached to a network in a cloud-computing environment,” said Tam Hulusi, Senior Vice President, HID Global, a security vendor.

Location based payments

Eoin Keenan posted on CustomerThink (a global online community of business leaders) last November that the GPS transmitter which is now standard in just about every device, can track where users are when they post online and willingly share their location. This opens up new horizons for marketers.

“You could create discounts in exchange for check-ins, literally drawing people to your location,” said Keenan. “It also allows for geo-fencing, where you target ads at users who enter specified locations based on a set radius. A real opportunity is a one-off, temporary offers or create really local ads. Finally, it allows you to develop profiles of users based on their travel and location patterns – people that regularly pass your store can be targeted as a potential customer.”

One company, Tabbedout, uses location-based technology to show available merchants in a given area. Users who have turned off their location capabilities are still able to search within the app for available locations by zip code. Tabbedout CEO Paul Fiore said the strength of the Tabbedout solution is found in the ability to transmit payments without being within a specific distance of a location, what he calls ‘Far Field Communication.’ It’s suited, he said, for the hospitality industry where customers may not be in proximity to card readers, scanners or a POS system. The restaurant chain T.G.I. Fridays signed on with Tabbedout in April, the company’s first national partner.

Mobile phones have developed light years since those bulky models of yesteryear – they’re now just about surgically attached to us 24/7 and smart marketers who realize this will benefit most going forward into 2013.

Mark Simmons, reporting in EContent, succinctly summed it up:

“As consumer behavior continues to shift from the web, mobile will no longer be an afterthought but the initial one. Brands will have to enhance the mobile experience whether it is about content, m-commerce or interactivity.”

In ancient China, soldiers along the Great Wall would use smoke signals conveyed from tower to tower to warn about a possible attack. The Roman Army established numerous forts and stations spread out along major road systems connecting the empire; relay points provided horses to dispatch soldiers and vehicles to quickly transmit messages. Those were rather rudimentary forms of social media but they successfully worked for centuries.

Fast forward a few thousand years. The relationship between the military and social media today has developed light years beyond what the ancients envisioned.

The most recent example is still playing out. While Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are poised for a possible ground invasion of Gaza, as extensively reported in the media, both the IDF and al-Qassam, Hamas’ military wing, have already been waging a war of words via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social media outlets.

Time, for instance, reported last week that the IDF has unveiled ‘game dynamics’ on its war blog.

“These ‘gamification’ features, normally the province of social networking services like Foursquare and Facebook, allow visitors to the IDF’s blog to rack up ‘points’ for repeat visits or numerous tweets, as the blog tracks the progress of Israel’s escalating conflict with al-Qassam,” stated Time.

The IDF, added The Verge, has also established an Interactive Media branch comprised of 30 soldiers that pen blog posts and status updates, headed up by Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich. One recent tweet generated by the branch was widely reprinted/broadcast by mainstream media in the U.S. and abroad:

“We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead.”

Meanwhile, noted Fast Company, an Israeli blog, Yid with Lid, reported that Israeli military contacts are asking Internet users not to post attack locations because Hamas and other organizations could use social media to triangulate rocket launches.

“Geotagging of posts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram makes metadata describing the exact location of a user publicly available,” said Fast Company. “GPS technology allows any outsider access to triangulation abilities that would have been a military secret even 10 years ago. For Hamas, the Israeli military and other players, access to real-time GPS information on the ground via social media is an increasing reality.”

Social media has also played an important role in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. As reported last July by Reuters, “foreign troops and insurgents have for years sparred on Twitter over the extent of victories against one another, while Afghan journalists are locked in a row with their government over press freedoms and new media laws.”

Ironically, the Taliban, which banned the Internet while they were in power, now frequently use social networking to communicate and promote their messages.

One bright spot that has emerged from the conflict in Iraq has been RallyPoint, a LinkedIn for the military. Founded by two veterans, Yinon Weiss and Aaron Kletzing, the online professional network enables U.S. service members to form career connections and alliances with potential employers and each other. The site is accessible only to verified military members.

According to Wired, RallyPoint “places active, reserve and transitioning veterans into contact with mentors, colleagues and civilian recruiters throughout the military and veteran communities.” Members can connect with units and other military professionals across the U.S. Armed Forces; they can also compare promotion/career progress to peers and mentors and learn from their decisions.

With respect to the Israel-Hamas conflict, hopefully diplomatic efforts will prevail and both parties will stand down. But social media’s role in escalating or mitigating conflicts around the globe will continue to be yet another factor that will have to be addressed.

Wouldn’t surprise me a bit then if someday – at least in the U.S. – we’ll also see a U.S. Secretary of Virtual Defense.

From companies in the renewable energy world to mainstream utilities, the push is on to utilize social media to build brand awareness, brand relationships, augment customer service, even create leads directly or through referrals. Companies are also using social media to help others go green and fight bad PR.

Most of the nation’s major electric utilities are active on Facebook and Twitter and are using social media to heighten the need for energy conservation. As reported in the New York Times, “while it seems counterintuitive for utilities to discourage use of their product, it makes financial sense as they face government mandates to encourage more energy conservation and deal with the rising cost and difficulty of building power plants and distribution systems.”

Duke Energy, for instance, the nation’s largest utility, promoted web videos last summer starring a fictitious girl named Shannon who appears with her family to advise viewers on how to save energy.

Mashable reported last June that Rockville, MD-based Clean Currents, which offers businesses/residents clean energy at prices equal to or below their utility company’s rates, has built a sizable social media following via a series of innovative campaigns.

One example, Green Passport DC, ran last April and May. According to Mashable, the program gave instant rewards for checking in at 45 businesses using Clean Currents.

“Once you checked in by scanning a QR code or visiting a URL, a Facebook app would reward you with a $2.50 cash credit, give you the option to share your check-in with your Facebook friends and display nearby businesses participating in the program.”

At last year’s Intersolar NA, one of the largest solar energy conferences, a popular draw was Centrosolario, a video game from Centrosolar that lets users navigate levels to install solar panels on rooftops. The game’s goal was to put together CentroPack, a turnkey solar system.

RenewableEnergyWorld.com reported that the friendly, but intense competition among attendees at the booth helped launch Centrosolar’s social media initiative. Not only could visitors play the game to win cash at the conference, they could also take a photo with the on-site character and post on Facebook.

“We’re trying to get our branding out there,” said Kelly Clonan, Centrosolar’s senior marketing manager. “Not just for installers, but for outside media and internal employees. We’re starting to get traction; people are starting to network on LinkedIn.”

The ubiquitous iPhone has also proven widely popular for energy-related apps. Unirac, an Albuquerque, NM-based provider of solar mounting structures for residential, commercial and utility solar power systems, has two interesting apps – a QR-Code Reader that helps reduce paper waste from brochures and unwieldy installation manuals, and a U-clinometer for installers that verifies a roof’s angle and pitch.

Lastly, is your energy company not happy with some recent editorial coverage? Letters to the editor? Op/ed pieces? Sooooo 20th Century.

As reported by Andrew Phelps for the Nieman Journalism Lab, last year Chesapeake Energy was rather piqued about a New York Times story on the natural gas industry. The story included quotes from company emails that suggested Chesapeake executives overstated productivity and profitability.

Chesapeake, noted Phelps, bought Promoted Tweets (per Twitter, ‘Tweets purchased by advertisers who want to reach a wider group of users or to spark engagement from their existing followers’) on search terms like #naturalgas and the primary account @nytimes. Searches for either term yielded a top tweet featuring a link with a rebuttal from Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon.

As with so many other industries, social media has become a game changer for energy-related businesses. Phelps summed it succinctly:

“Back in the day, a corporation stung by a newspaper story might try to buy a full-page ad in the paper. But that route was controlled by the very organization they were battling. Targeting PR ad dollars toward social media is another sign it isn’t just stories that can spread virally. It is also the conversations around those stories, pro or con.”

With so many geographic locales nationwide still suffering from housing woes, Realtors® are turning to social media in greater numbers to not only help generate sales, but for branding as well.

The National Association of Realtors® reports that almost half of its members are now using social media; an additional 9 percent plan to in the future. Mashable reports even higher figures – 84 percent of all real estate professionals are using social media (see graphic).

So what are some innovative sites, programs, tools that Realtors are finding useful?

There’s a gazillion examples; here are a few:

LinkedIn:

As reported by Power Up, a social media site providing a welter of real estate-related information and advice, here are five ways Realtors are using LinkedIn:

Company Homepage: Self-evident; testimonials can also be linked and a Realtor’s firm can be listed for employees to add to their LinkedIn profiles.

Data Mining: Use polls/surveys to better understand clients and what they’re looking for.

LinkedIn Ads: Can target advertising to those folks more apt to call an agent, e.g., people who have recently moved, higher income earners, etc.

LinkedIn Groups: Realtors can connect with clients, fellow Realtors – by participating in various forums, people get to know you and you may glean some valuable market intel/industry knowledge.

References: Testimonials help raise a Realtor’s profile.

Being on Facebook and Twitter is a given. With Facebook, many Realtors add their clients; they also communicate with them on their Wall. Twitter can be very time consuming; it can be beneficial if you concentrate on building a local following, e.g., if you live in San Diego, focus on local/regional real estate trends, issues, ideas, news, developments – going national probably won’t result in any new listings.

Key, of course, is don’t use either social media tool for a hard sell – postings/Tweets should be more educational and informative to further help with branding/positioning – ‘WIIFM’ (‘What’s In It For Me’, e.g., the client), is paramount.

Realtors are using YouTube frequently now to provide prospects with virtual tours of homes they’re listing. But many Realtors who may not want to spend a lot of time crafting their own videos are relying on various programs to do this for them.

One of these tools is Wellcome Mat. The company’s co-founder, Phil Thomas Di Giulio said the majority of videos being uploaded consist of property tours, neighborhood profiles, brokerage information/updates, or agency advertisements.

“The common identifier with each is engaging and capturing the imagination of the viewer online while delivering information about a property, place, person or town,” said Di Giulio.

While still relatively new, Pinterest is becoming another way for tech-savvy Realtors to showcase listings and indirectly, themselves and their agency. Many have created their own pin boards highlighting salient features of a particular property.

And two more tools are catching on – Google Analytics is being used by Realtors to send home sellers weekly reports so they can see how many viewers their property websites are getting; and quick-response (QR) codes are being employed on ‘For Sale’ signs so people can sidle up to a house, point their smart phone at the sign, and immediately download details.

Erica Swallow summed it succinctly:

“In the real estate world, listings, open houses and tours are the main stepping stones towards making the sale, and the digital world has made those steps much easier.”

The annual SIGGRAPH conference, which recently concluded in Los Angeles, always draws an eclectic bunch of developers, artists, filmmakers, scientists, academics and students from around the globe.

This year was no exception – SIGGRAPH reported that 21,212 attendees from 19 countries roamed the exhibit hall at the Los Angeles Convention Center. There were also more than 1,200 speakers/contributors who participated in an array of panels, screenings, tutorials and presentations.

One of the most interesting exhibits was a human-plant interaction that added capacitive touch to ordinary plants. As reported by engadget, Walt Disney’s development arm, Disney Research, unveiled a project called Botanicus Interacticus.

engadget said the project is centered on a custom-built capacitive sensor module, which pipes a low current through a plant, then senses when/where you touch (bit creepy).

“Assuming your body is grounded, the device uses more than 200 frequencies to determine exactly where you’ve grabbed hold of a stem, reported engadget. “Then, depending on how it may be programmed, the sensor can trigger any combination of feedback, ranging from a notification that your child is attempting to climb that massive oak in the yard again, to an interactive melody that varies based on where your hand falls along the plant.”

Besides new things to do with house plants, a section of the floor was devoted to – there were more than two dozen innovations submitted from the U.S., China, Hungary, Japan, Singapore, and other nations worldwide.

SIGGRAPH featured a number of them in pre-conference announcements. Three of these included:

TELESAR V – Created at Tokyo University, it enables users to bind with a dexterous robot and experience what it feels with its fingertips when manipulating/touching objects remotely.

MIT Media Lab – Demonstrated ‘Tensor Displays: Compressive Light-Field Synthesis Using Multilayer Displays with Directional Backlighting.’ In plain English, glasses-free 3D displays that are viewed from any angle. Very cool.

Gocen – From Tokyo Metropolitan University. It’s a small optical musical recognition device that detects musical notation from handwritten notes. When connected to a MIDI instrument (Musical Instrument Digital Interface; a communications protocol/hardware standard that enables electronic musical instruments and computers to communicate), it plays the notes as the Gocen sensor bar is traced over them.

Next year SIGGRAPH heads south to Anaheim. I’m thinking of bringing along some of my house plants so they can enjoy the show too.

Way back in the summer of 2000, I wrote a story for Digitrends, a now defunct tech publication, which focused on how the surf industry was utilizing the Internet for branding, marketing, and sales purposes.

Fast forward 12 years later to July 2012 – which probably equates to about 200 years in tech time — and not surprisingly, there’s been a sea change (pun intended) in the industry. SurferToday.com , an international surfing news center, estimates annual revenues – about $15 billion in 2000 – now top $20 billion.

Not surprisingly with that much ka-ching at stake, surf associations, non-profits, surf shops large and small – have not only embraced the Internet, but are using every available social media tool to create and generate both buzz and revenue.

Gnarly.

So how has the industry evolved and grown online in just over a decade? Last April, the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association (SIMA), which bills itself as ‘the official working trade association of more than 300 surf industry suppliers,’ held their annual Visual Merchandising and Retail Marketing Boot Camp in Dana Point, CA. Attendees and presenters talked about their digital experiences in surf retail shops.

A creative director for an interactive marketing company made a particularly cogent remark at the boot camp:

“The youth are consumers of tomorrow, not knowing a world without digital interaction.”

With this in mind, here are three brief examples of how some companies, to use some surfing slang, are ‘cranking and cooking’:

Green Lightning Surfboards

Mike Emery co-founded New Hampshire-based Green Lightning Surfboards . The company constructs boards only with recycled foam, bio-epoxy resin and hemp fabric to significantly reduce the use of fiberglass. Emery currently derives about 30% of his business from online sales.

Emery constantly scours the web for the latest in surfboard craftsmanship, and connects directly with shapers to glean the latest techniques.

“The comments and suggestions we get from some of the world’s best are right at our fingertips – it’s R&D gold,” said Emery.

Emery added that Green Lightning Surfboards regularly uses major social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to communicate with fans and followers.

“They provide us with a global reach to help prove that performance and sustainability are not mutually exclusive,” said Emery.

Wegener Surfboards

Jon Wegener, principal of Wegener Surfboards has been churning out surfboards in Southern California ‘for decades.’ He now regularly uses social media to get some traction on new projects and said about half of his sales are generated through people finding him and his company online via Facebook or his blog.

One example is his ‘greener product’ surfboards. To generate some buzz, Wegener constantly posted visuals and info about the new boards on his company’s site, emphasizing the environmentally-friendly materials used.

Most recently, the company has developed a paipo (a Hawaiian word designating a short or small board; in short, it’s a belly board). To help generate sales, one of Wegener’s friends launched a website, The Paipo Society. The site’s online mission statement reads: “We are a collective of waterborne individuals who enjoy riding finless, Hawaiian-style wood paipos. Our mission is to get every surfer to add a paipo to their quiver.”

Within a short time span the online chatter intensified and a ‘Paipo Stokefest’ is now slated for July 29 at the Scripps Pier in La Jolla, CA.

Ed Lewis Design

Ed Lewis and his partner, Kipp Denslow, are “a couple of Southern California guys who love surfing and making things.” In the past, noted Lewis, “we would never have had an audience as we lacked the budget for magazine ads and had no connections in the mainstream surf media.”

But armed with a blog, Enjoy Handplanes , the company built an audience and let the world discover what they were doing.

“Over a short time we built a business out of having fun in the garage and sharing with others online,” said Lewis.

Lewis also launched a surf blog aggregator called The Daily Shaka that puts all the people he follows into one space so others can discover and find them.

“It was really just for me so I could have a place to consolidate my favorite places, but now people worldwide use it to get stoked and the blogs on the site reap the benefits from the extra traffic – a win win,” he said.

Surprisingly, added Lewis, the bulk of his business still doesn’t come from online sales – the surf shop is the hub for closing the sale. But Lewis said their online presence helps drive customers to the shop.

Virtually every surf industry company has a website these days and most avail themselves of commonly available social media tools to augment their business.

But Lewis succinctly summed up what gets people amped (more surfer slang):

“If you can genuinely have fun at what you do, inspire the surf community with authentic material and share that through your online channels, you’ll get the most eyeballs, gather a following, and be successful.”

Cowabunga!