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Does organizational structure prevent developments such as SoLoMo?

November 27, 2011 By 2 Comments

As a ‘digital’ blogger (though rarely active nowadays) I almost feel that I have to write something about SoLoMo, since it is the buzzword of the year. Yet, tweeting to get some good examples, there response was there aren’t any. (please, prove me wrong)

SoLoMo – if you missed it stands for Social, Local & Mobile.

Nevertheless the concept has got me contemplating about something bigger than the marketing term that it is. Namely, the organizational structure we have to day and how we will have trouble with SoLoMo as long as we keep it.

Organizations today, or in this case the organization of the individual employee goals, might not be ready for SoLoMo. Take sales divisions as an example, most businesses have sales personnel with have some kind of commission. This is commission can be based on many things and levels, ranging from products sold from an individual to total sales of a store, it depends of a persons role in the company.

If you would integrate SoLoMo in a business with this structure, depending on the implementation, it might cause a conflict of interest. Lets say that we put a qr code next to a product, the qr code let to a mobile webpage, where you could read more about the product, or post to your friends on facebook to hear their opinion about it, or even compare the price with other stores. Or perhaps the product was out of stock in the store so you could place the order online instead. Then who would get the commission for that sale, the staff responsible for the webshop or the store personnel?

This is only an example, and there are tons of solutions on how to solve it. The point I’m trying to make is, who will initiate SoLoMo solutions when everyone has different personal goals?

Filed Under: Business development, Social Media

Why do some companies succeed without a hint of customer care?

March 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I just read an article about a Facebook privacy, which was referring to a girl who found out that someone was impersonating her on Facebook. The girl reported it to Facebook in the way that they want you to report an impostor profile but that she never heard back from them.

I have also reported things to Facebook, smaller things, such as groups who are misleading, such as the fake Facebook pages I wrote about before. But I did not hear back from them either.

Now in my cases, I understand that they cannot report back to each individual, but when it comes to people being impersonated etc, I think they should. Sure they have to make judgments and possibly they get tons of reports daily. But for an individual this does not mater. They still feel mistreated.

However, big companies seem to be too untouchable. I’ve been planning to write share a friends experience with the Apple customer care. He tried to contact them about his account constantly resetting and got the same autoreply 3 times, which did not even relate to his question. But there was not much more he could to about it, and as far as I know the problems still exist.

What is it that makes some companies so untouchable? And what is it that make us want their products even though we know that if we have problems it is up to us?

We all want what we cannot have?

 

Filed Under: Business development Tagged With: , ,

Bring sales in to the phone with mobile webpages!

February 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Sweden, and many other parts of the world, seems to have caught app-fever a while back. When even the banks are competing about who’s application is most user-friendly, that says something. Though I love apps, and have got quite a few, I’m still a bit surprised by this, at least when I look at how many more have apps than a mobile page.

After all, mobile pages will bring more sales to new customers than mobile apps.

Why? It’s simple, when you are looking into buying something, you will Google to find the company website or a place to buy the product. You won’t go and download the app, to see if the app even offers a store only to see it’s not and then go to find the website. Maybe someone will, maybe in the future more of us will, but we are not there yet.

Then we find the company website in our phones, so we checking out, zooming in and out, scrolling around, waiting for the page to load, only to find out that no, I really do not want to buy anything in my cellphone on this page because there is to much of a hassle.

But once in a while, we find those mobile webpages, that sure has a link to the main page, but mostly are shaved down to the most necessary functionality to fit easy in the phone, and we get tempted into buying, right there, on the metro or where ever we might be.

The only problem is that most companies want us to buy with credit card instead of pay pal, and in Sweden this mean that most have to go through “verified by visa”, and when do we ever have that little extra thing for security banking in the bag. Never! Screwed again.
Companies are really making it difficult to bring sales into the cellphones, and it could be so easy!

  • A mobile page & a easy/portable pay option. (Maybe – book now, pay with your email confirmation)

Example; where would you prefer to buy?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Annelie's Musings, Business development Tagged With: , ,

Do you develop for what is today or what can be tomorrow?

December 8, 2010 By 1 Comment

Statistics are fantastic to have as support, but as a colleague to me said to day “statistics are like a bikini, you see everything but the exclusive parts which are hidden” (maybe a bad translation from Sweden). After discussing a bit about how to use statistics my head wondered off to how statistics often are used. We look at results and how we can develop and improve to follow those statistics. But when the statistics say one thing and the development possibilities are another, should we follow what is going on or try to change what can happen?

It is always easy to be the follower who does what others already have done. But when is it time to do what might happen? When can you afford to take a chance?

I will try to exemplify, Location based services are not as big in Sweden yet as they are in the US, but they are coming. But we can see a lot in the statistics on how it is used in the US and predict how they will be used in Sweden. Or can we? If I where to develop something now (which will take a few months to create), will that be what ‘sells’ in Sweden when the market is at the same stage. It is always about taking a chance.

But should I go for that because there might be a connection between he markets? Or should I try something else. Should I try to develop a service in Sweden now which I think not even the the US market is ready for now. It is a bigger risk, but I might also lead to a change to change the behavior in the Swedish market.

One could never be sure. But I would gamble a bit, I would develop for what can be not what already is. What would you do?

Filed Under: Business development Tagged With: , , ,