The curious potential of Chatroulette

Despite all the waving body parts of Chatroulette, I keep thinking how unbelievably great this platform could be for fostering interesting interactions between strangers. Check out this video:

Edgier brands are already finding ways to market their brand on chatroulette.

I can see all sorts of ideas around games in chatroulette space, spreading the word on a cause one person at a time, brainstorming with like minded groups if you could just chat with people who are tagged with an interest, like "Dr Who" or "The Monster Raving Loony Party." Imagine chatting with people at a conference. Demo'ing products. Providing crowdsourced customer support. Think about Good Samaritans -- help strangers who are feeling down.

And want to get really scary? How about live TV that includes "let's hear what random people think about XYZ?" A whole new spin on reality TV. Could be ads you run with the results. How about customer surveys? "Hey, I'm with such and such brand, what do you think about ...?"

Interesting. Can't wait to see what happens.

The Secrets of Apple's Marketing

We can only all dream of being part of a marketing dream machine like Apple, Inc. Today, I was forwarded an interesting PDF written by Steve Chazin. You can find the PDF (and hire Steve!) yourself here: http://www.marketingapple.com.


Here's a summary of the secrets. But read it yourself too!

1. Don't sell products. People buy what other people have. Make it easy for people to sell your product for you. With Apple, it's a lifestyle not a product thing. You want to dance like someone with an iPod.

2. Never be the first to market. Make something good greater. Improve the world. Fix something that already exists on the shelf. Focus on the one thing you do better than anyone, and make that matter.

3. Empower early adopters. Encourage and share real user's unbiased, heartfelt reporting. Help them market for you.

4. Make your message memorable. Boil it down to its syrupy goodness. Think big. Write small. Work on a tight, memorable message.

5. Go one step further. Surprise and delight your customers. Focus on the feel. What's your equivalent to that beautiful Apple un-wrap experience?

My first weekend with the iPad

So naturally I was waiting in line for the Apple store in Palo Alto to open so I could get my Kindle immediately! Back in October, I was already planning this. The verdict? While I could live without one, I definitely don't want to. And certainly my family won't want to!

Sophie trying out the iPad in Starbucks It was a family affair: My kids downloaded Scrabble and various Tap Tap games. My husband played a good number of games of Solitaire. I read the New York times -- app isn't nearly deep or rich enough. Why cut out all that content? I watched movies on the fab Netflix app -- though the screen is so mirror like I kept seeing my face in it. Didn't like that -- and it's hard to watch with more than one person. I watched part of a TV show on the ABC Player. I downloaded one or two books, but I can't see doing a lot of reading on this. I accessed my Kindle library on the Kindle app. A definite improvement on the Kindle experience. But where is the ability to annotate?! My husband played with the Weather Channel map and talked endlessly about where the snow was falling (and therefore where he should be skiing.) I can really see this as a terrific travel device. It's so, so much easier than carting around a laptop. If you're not planning on a lot of work that involves typing, then it's just right. It's not a device for sharing with others, unless you're playing a game of some sort. Even then, it's crowded for two. Buy some really good screen cleaner and a soft cloth of some sort. Greasy finger marks show up easily.