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Get Your Apps in Gear! A Smart Phone Application Review
Written by ray.silva on February 19, 2012
So you’ve had your smart phone for a while and now you’re thinking: “Where’d all the cool applications go?”. Perhaps you’re running a business and thinking “What’s next in mobile?”
Mobile is moving incredibly fast and with thousands of apps being created and discovered everyday it’s difficult to have any idea about what’s going on. That’s why we at Smartt wanted to make things a bit easier for you. It’s time to get your apps in gear and get up to speed with the latest and greatest applications in mobile.
Pinterest has to be the most popular, over-hyped, and shared picture-sharing network on the planet. As annoying as it is to constantly hear about it, Pinterest is actually a fun and easy-to-use platform with loads of opportunity for businesses. Pinterest works like a multi-faceted dream board. It allows users to extract, save, and categorize their favorite online pictures. The Pinterest mobile application even allows users to snap photos on the go. Businesses can tap into Pinterest’s high frequency of sharing to increase site traffic. It also allows businesses and users to add product details and links so that if you stumble across a gift you like, purchasing it is just a few clicks away.
Banjo ensures you’ll never miss a coincidental meeting ever again. By scraping all public geo-messages and check-ins Banjo will populate a Google map of all you near-by friends. If you’re particularly close to a friend you’ll even get a little notification to make sure you know there around the corner. The app also allows users to check-in using Foursquare and message to Facebook and Twitter. This makes sharing seamless. To some this, can seem like a stalker’s paradise while for others it’s fun and different. Users will be able to identify familiar faces in their area, or take advantage of local events they would have missed otherwise. It’s new, different, and definitely worth a download.
Zite takes the best of the best, of the absolute best online news and creates a customized digital-newspaper experience. Probably the best Flipboard alternative I’ve come across. Zite will actually learn your reading habits so that you don’t have to waste precious time sifting through countless irrelevant articles. Whether you’re into web design, technology, politics, art, or countless other categories, Zite has something for you. It’s really easy to use. To make things easier Zite has provided users with Twitter and Facebook sharing capability so users can continue to be social dynamos. If you’re anything like me do yourself a favor, download Zite and save your time.
TaxiNow makes grabbing a cab easier than easy. Say goodbye to being on hold and long, distorted elevator jazz music! Instead, say hello to just clicking a few buttons. It’s really that simple. TaxiNow will gather your geo-location, show you a map of all near-by cabs that are also using the app, and if you wish, alert them of a potential fare. If a cab accepts, the app will tell you how long you’ll wait, the phone number of the cab, and more. What I found best about this application is that it gives an idea of how many cabs are in the area and if there aren’t any will give you the phone numbers of popular cab companies. As a bonus, most cabbies using the application are interesting, tech-savvy gentlemen who can carry on a conversation about smart phones, apps, and tech. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have that than the awkward silent type. If you’re a frequent cab rider make sure to check this out – I promise it ‘ll be a breeze.
Finally, Path is a personal journal network that allows you to easily capture and share the best parts of your life. What I find most interesting is that Path identified a major problem with content capturing – it takes way too long! So they created a user interface that makes navigation fast and easy. To save even more time, it syncs with all the major social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc.) so that you only need to post in one place. You can capture and share locations, photos, notes, wake ups, good-nights, meetings, music with your closest friends. The problem I see with most networks is that they’re huge, cluttered and overwhelming behemoths. Path isn’t. It’s a small, mobile-only network that makes sharing with a group of friends much easier. Check it out, and start saving your time.
A/B Testing: Seeing the Forest
Written by Amy Gyoba on January 16, 2012
Have you ever heard the saying “not seeing the forest for the trees”? It means that someone doesn’t see the forest (the big picture) because they’re too busy looking at the trees (the details). We experienced this problem while performing A/B testing and want to share our lessons learned. In this case, it took some time to figure out why we weren’t getting conclusive results—we had been focusing too much on the small details.
Defining A/B Testing
A/B or split testing is exactly what it sounds like: testing one version of an ad or webpage against another one to see how a change to one component affects the conversion rate. Conversion, the desired user action, is defined before testing. It’s a key part of split testing because it determines which version is more successful.
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The Future of Advertising and NFC (PART 2 OF 2)
Written by ray.silva on December 2, 2011
What’s On the Horizon
Last month this blog gave an overview of near field communication (NFC) and how it can drive highly personalized marketing. This month we take a closer look at the benefits of NFC and how visionaries see it being deployed for marketing and advertising.
Earlier this year, Google quietly dropped QR codes in favour of NFC, launching Google Wallet, an Android app that allows smartphones to store credit cards, loyalty cards, and gift cards so that consumers can make mobile payments by phone. On October 5 Canadian mobile development company Gauge Mobile and media company NewAd teamed up to develop North America’s first Near-Field-Communication Ad Network starting with NFC-enabled advertising displays on college campuses. What next?
Let me be the first to say that slicker technology does not guarantee successful marketing campaigns. When campaigns fail, the problems are likely more to do with marketing strategy and execution than technology. NFC won’t solve such issues. However, given its many business benefits, I’m hopeful that companies will plan for NFC more carefully in order to deliver valuable information, maximize brand engagement, strengthen sales, and harvest deeper metrics.
Deliver information on-demand
Have you ever seen an advertisement and wanted to know more about the product or company? Then forgotten about it in the next moment? With NFC, users can tap/point their mobile device to an advertising display or product tag and receive information instantly. Not only could information include topics such as product benefits, ingredients, usage directions, and where to purchase, but users would be able to save the information for later action; or the retailer could include a ‘call to action’ such as a coupon or the opportunity to purchase online. NFC enabled media tells a brand’s story more effectively and captures the customer’s attention by providing valuable information when they need it most – at the point of impression.
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