I was talking to a friend tonight who develops  mobile applications on the Android platform and came up with a sound generation program that works really neat – he showed it to me and said he learned to create some of the most interesting programs from totally undocumented features within the Android platform – like how it addresses sound chips and what you could do with that power.

So asked him …. are you telling me that you were “mucking around” and found stuff that hardly anyone knows how to do?

He replied, “Yes”.

Funny, that’s exactly what I end up doing with Social Monitoring platforms – playing with them and trying to make them do things they were not designed for -  I find things to do with various platforms I “play” with that are often more interesting than what the platform was developed for in the first place (one example).

Here’s another example using Sysomos to drive SEO Keyword Research – Sysomos was not really designed to do but lends itself well to.  How about Geo-Targeted Influential lists using FollowerWonk – again, not really what the tool was designed for – but it lends itself to find influentials.   Those were a couple of examples – but they came up because I was playing, testing out hunches, having questions.

Along the way I have had thoughts of what would improve programs and platforms that could be added – often by working through real life questions – things that can not be fully anticipated – you have to just try it and play, play, play.     Most businesses I have worked for don’t like to play, nope .. no one seems to want to pay anyone to play.

But that got us back to thinking Social Monitoring is “wide open” just as “Android” programming is – with rapidly evolving frameworks and hardware/firmware – no one “knows” how to do it right, 100% – the best of us are all “mucking around”.

That’s especially the case with Social Media.  I know people complain about Social Media Gurus, that everyone is calling themselves one – (well, not everyone) … but would they if anyone really knew how to do it well?   How many people do?

The same thing is true of Art and Artists … does anyone know how to “paint”?  A lot of people call themselves artists who play with art, but are they?   Well …… it depends.  But, if since no one knows that Art is …. actually, or what makes something special … anyone can call themselves an artist, and be correct about it.

And even if you knew it well … Social Media is changing so quickly that just keeping up with it .. the field could totally change every 6 months.  What worked today might not work in November – only constant play and experimentation will keep you ahead of the curve or current with it.

In fact, the best way to learn Android is to “play with it” – try stuff – see what happens, relax and observe – sometimes, you’ll see things at the most unexpected moments – when your not even looking.  That is true here too …. if your not allowed to play (and you should be payed for it … I believe – if it’s also something that is related to your job and your doing it on company premises) you will not get the best out of these platforms.   Of course, if your creative, you will create anyway – weather anyone pays you for it, or not.

But if the company pays for it … they own it – after all, isn’t that what Google did/does?   If the company won’t pay for …. they don’t own it (my view) (I guess, if your an entrepreneur – you want to own your ideas, so maybe that’s ok).

Only one company I know of is willing  to pay for play.. … Google.  I’m sure they are not the only company … just the only one that I know of.

Google pays people to play … 20% of their time is often spent “playing with a personal project” -  that way – Google gets the fruit of that labor and the employees feel more happy and fulfilled.

This is a good place to point out that many people exhibit creativity and creative solutions, on their own time and at work, but they may not be equipped or know how to do anything with those ideas.    In the current scheme of things – that creativity is often “wasted”.

A company like “Google” (who I often criticize, but for other things) might be much better at “harvesting creativity – taking ideas that would normally not make it outside of someone’s personal experiments , supporting the employee with resources and mentoring and helping, when they want to,  in to a product – because they are willing to let the employee create it on company time and pay them for it.

That is a insight that is often overlooked – harvesting Creativity might be Google’s real strength – more than anything else they do.

Could it be that Google’s secret isn’t all the other stuff – the simple design of it’s homepage or it’s focus on search? I think the main reason Google succeeds is they know how to play and pay and are better and more successful at it than anyone else, so far (yes there are some companies like 3M that had those policies for Researchers, etc).

Note: Success is relative – who knows – maybe 3M thinks they are more successful at letting employees play than Google.

As this study I cite points out – if you have a crucial task – your “play” time at Google will be scaled back – but afterwards, it is made up to the employee with extra time for their pet projects.

Certain types of work – client driven (PR and Advertising fall into that category -  so does Law),  operate in “Crisis” mode much of the time (often, due to poor communications and a lack of the right kind of planning)  but Play & Pay is a solution  even here (though I don’t have any case studies on hand to show how – so you’ll need to take my word).

Granted – when your working in a commodity type field or task – there is probably no room or reward for playing around creatively – competition for products and services will  reward the lowest price or fastest service (etc).    While we may complain as constrained employees but we are also consumers and like the best deal, too.

On the other hand …. it’s individuality and  “successful play” that is the most valued in this society, I think.

Even more than “hard work”.  We can work very hard, very earnestly, yet still not accomplish much.

Some of the most successful people in society might  be   “lazy” yet very smart, and managed to find an easier way to accomplish something that was really, really hard for them to do … via a creative solution (in order to make their life easier).

Almost  no one wants to pay for play.

But … I think, we probably can’t create anything of enduring good or of great worth without play.

It’s a paradox, and life is full of them.

It’s always busy when a show like Search Engine Strategies is in town thought it turned out I didn’t go to any of the sessions planned as the promised press pass never materialized (as it turned out, I was too busy to go to anything  this time – not having a press pass didn’t turn out to be a problem) and I got what I needed just talking to certain people at the exhibition hall (such as Eric from Compete.com and David Meerman Scott, Author of   World Wide Rave.

I got my free signed copy from David Meerman Scott, as I stumbled to the front of the line (without realizing it) and heard him mutter …. “I make 25,000 a day to give advice” …. and then I thought .. and said  aloud to him …. “Yah, and I wish I had that problem“.   Then again, maybe I don’t want that problem.

I heard his keynote was great but I missed it – so I looked at the book itself  World Wide Rave – while on my way to work and decided it was too much of a “feel good” / motivational message and I’m more of someone who likes to be shown details (he did show some) – but still, overall, the tone of the book didn’t really resound with me – so I decided to just put it on the shelf for now.

Yesterday I went back to SES to talk with Eric Austrew from Compete.com and got to see a preview of the new release that will be taking place on May 15th – I can’t talk much about it – he wanted to share what Compete was working on because the idea was originally mine (though I was not the only one who asked for this new feature – which will involve categorization).   I went out of my way to connect with Eric Austrew because i wanted to see what it was that he did with some of my ideas (we discussed the features that will be released in May over a year ago).

While there will be issues with categorization – Compete.com keeps getting better and better – and of course – I’m glad to help.

I also heard that some people wanted footage of my talk at Jeff Pulver’s 140 Meetup earlier this week (FourSquare was the featured speaker along with me) – I think it was recorded but I also had a friend shoot video which I’m thinking of  put up (though the sound is slightly out of sync with the video) and sharing here.

The main points I spoke about are below – besides agreeing with someone in the audience and Jeff Pulver that Social Media is boring and we need to  rename it.

I set up  Radian6 alerts set up on Havana Central that sends email status every 10 minutes  when anyone tweets or mentions the restaurant chain in any way.  Got and alert from a customer who was saying she was in the restaurant – via Twitter.  When I read my email alert from Radian6 I immediately realized the customer was in the restaurant at the very same moment we are.

The alert took place in real time – the customer and her friend were given free drinks and discounts – we used Social Media and Social Media Monitoring (via Radian6) to reward a customer who was having a great time – and we made that time better.

TWEET FROM: KIMBERLY819
Source: twitter.com, Posted on: Mar 01, 2010 9:36 PM by KIMBERLY819
Chillin with my girl Yesenia in the city!! Great restaurant Havana Central!! Great Live salsa band!! Oooooooowwwww!!!!
Following: 86 | Followers: 65 | Updates: 270 | Sentiment: Positive

TWEET FROM: KIMBERLY819 Name: KIMBERLY819 Posted on: Mar 1, 2010 1:07 AM Followers: 66 Following: 87 What a GREAT night at Havana Central!!!! My new favorite spot!!

Link http://twitter.com/KIMBERLY819/statuses/9811482654

We gave Kimberly and her friend a free drink immediately – thanks to Radian6 -that sends us alerts frequently (with a picture of the tweeter when it’s available from a profile) we had no trouble finding her – she was right around the corner from the receptionists table as you enter the 46th Street Havana Central entrance.

THAT gesture was worth it in my opinion … look what the customer tweeted after the evening was over …..

You want Social Media ROI – you got ROI – a new loyal customer – perhaps a loyal customer for life – and you know what that is worth – a lot of money.

Read more: http://www.webmetricsguru.com/page/3/#ixzz0ijDzkfdF
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

In fact, for tonight’s talk on the Analytics of Real Time Location data I decided to take a look at how often the Kimberly819 could happen and what it might mean to Havana Central if we could reward a customer when they are actually in the  restaurant and are either tweeting they are present or announcing to their friends on FourSquare they are in one of the 3 locations.

At least 20 times in the last month a customer tweeted they were in one of Havana Central’s locations:

For those customers who have linked their FourSquare accounts with Twitter and Facebook the numbers are even higher with about 5% of the total conversation recorded as having happened at one of the restaurants  – and I can swear the number is closer to 10% as we get 2 or 3 tweets a day from people who are announcing they are at one of Havana Central’s locations.

Suppose we go with the higher number (around 60 individuals a month say “I’m at Havana Central” in one slang way or another) and estimate the typical loyal customer will return a certain number of times and spend a certain amount in per visit – we can get a approximate ROI number.

I’m going to make an deduction the typical “rewarded customer” we find via Twitter, FourSquare and Facebook might spend $300-$500 a year at the restaurant in addition to anything else they might have spent there if they had not been rewarded.

That might end up meaning that reward customers with a drink or something could yield close to 30K a month in additional revenue – and over a year that could mean as much as 360K – just by making someone’s visit a little bit friendlier and better for them.

I believe  FourSquare is becoming a major factor in changing how business perceives  Social Media.  Recently FourSquare announced a new real time dashboard for business owners to interact with their customers in real time.  The New York Times had a few case studies it shared about FourSquare’s new dashboard and how it’s been used.

AJ Bombers, a burger bar in Milwaukee, tested the new statistics tool and plans to use it to choose specials and promote new menu items, said Joe Sorge, co-owner of the restaurant.

“If I’m in another location, I can actually sit and look at that screen and see who checked in last, and I can reach out via Twitter and say ‘Welcome. Have you been here before? What kind of food do you like?’” said Mr. Sorge. “It makes the experience more enjoyable for the customer.”

Shelley Bernstein, chief of technology at the Brooklyn Museum, sees promise in the Staff pages. “Basically, the new statistics tools give us the ability to promote a personal face for our staff so we’re not just seen as an institution,” she said. “We’re wrapping all of this into our Web site through Foursquare’s A.P.I.’s, and we allow people to interact with staff and have the opportunity to engage with them in new ways.”

Another test customer, P.C.C. Natural Markets, a Seattle-based organic foods company, saw a large number of new Foursquare users coming to its stores over the weekend and used the analytics tool to figure out where they were coming from.

“By using the Foursquare dashboard, we figured out that they were coming for a new organic doughnut that had been advertised on TV,” said Ricardo Rabago, social media specialist for the company.

Mr. Rabago hopes to use the new tool to figure out when people are coming for lunch and offer coupons and specials to entice them to return

Hoping to get access to the dashboard to use with Havana Central, shortly – in which case, I’ll write about it here.

Finally, last night I went to Converseon for a wine party that also included an announcement of Converseon’s new Chorus offering.

CHORUS combines, organizes and reports data gleaned via these two methodologies to create a set of unique actionable insights to improve media and message optimization and allocation. This includes:

• Social media and offline word of mouth value: How word of mouth and social media impact purchase behavior and interactions
• Relationship: How online conversation drives offline word of mouth, and vice versa.
• Sentiment drivers: The sentiment towards brands and campaigns, as well as the drivers by channel or topic
• Target reach and Influence: The social media venues that have the greatest impact on my audience
• Amplification: How online social media conversation amplifies and impacts offline sentiment
• Segment behavior: How online conversation impacts various segment activity and behavior offline
• Messaging optimization: The messages that resonate most with the audiences, and across which channels

According to Dr. Walter Carl, “With CHORUS, marketers can now understand which media fuels discussions and decisions. It’s more than a post-mortem reporting system. Brands will be able to optimize media mix and messaging based on social media and word-of-mouth purchase drivers.”

I spoke with Dr. Walter Carl for about 20 minutes to get the lowdown on how CHORUS works – which is a whole post in and of itself – clearly this is a solution for measurement that is customized for a brand that wants to measure the online and offline influence of it’s own product(s) against it’s competitors.

I was about to go home after the Converseon meeting but saw there was a Charity Party for Search Engine Strategies and decided to go – turns out hardly anyone else was there but for 10 people – but it made the conversation all the better.

Charity Party – 8:00-10:00pm
We Build Pages 2010 Charity Party to Help the Homeless

$30 entry fee covers beer, wine, soda and hors d’oeuvres. All proceeds go to commonground.org to help the homeless in NYC.
Location: Hurley’s, 232 W 48th Street – Upstairs

I was glad I went as I spent about 90 minutes talking with the We Build Pages people including Jim Boykin, who’s blog I read.

Link Building – Methods and Risks with Jim Boykin

This isn’t your grandma’s link building session. Jim has been an industry leader in the area of link building for over 10 years as the founder and CEO of We Build Pages (www.webuildpages.com). Jim also won the search engine journal’s “Best Link Building Blog” in 2006 and 2007 (Jim rarely blogs anymore). Jim has seen and done it all when it comes to link building, and he knows which links effect search engine rankings, and the types of risks involved in certain types of link building. If higher search engine rankings are a major focus of yours, this is a “must attend” session.

• Speaker:
  Jim Boykin, CEO and Link Building Ninja, We Build Pages Internet Marketing Services

Location: Sutton North

I heard a clamor (and I haven’t had a chance to analyze it yet) that we Can We Kick Our Keyboard Addiction by 2013 according to Google – and there’s a lot to say about that as mobile devices become more pervasive and powerful.

But one thing I don’t see people talking about is the increase in productivity that mobile devices bring us – has anyone actually measured that?    Today I can read all my RSS feeds, comment on them with notes and even blog about them while transversing my life – increasingly – we don’t need to be at our desks to be productive.

The offshoot of that is that we’re always working – and yet another offshoot – if we’re so much more productive now because we can take almost all our awake time and cram something useful (workwise) into it – how will that impact the employment sector (as one person becomes increasingly more productive).

If this is so, my take, does each person who is able to use mobile technology (or whatever we want to call it – ie: 4G Web) more powerful – more indispensable, or less  important?  What are the implications of being able to disperse with desktops – do we have more virtual companies?  Does the boundaries of work life and the rest of our lives vanish -  even more than they already have?

It’s something to think about, no doubt – and if anyone has ideas – and knows in more detail what Google is planning with the elimination of desktops by 2013 I’d like to hear back from you (as a comment on this post).