Apple's New and Fantastic Bed-Side-Fat-Boy-iPhone-Thingy

Hopefully people at Apple are using  Radian6 in order to hear what people are saying about their brand.

Last month Kerry Bridge gave a presentation outlining that Dell listen into what people are saying about their brand on social media sites.  The interesting news is that Dell have already implemented 400 customer suggestions within their product set - all inspired from listening and engaging with ordinary people who have mentioned the brand on their Blogs, Twitter or wherever.....

So back to Apple - I woke up this morning and realised I wanted to buy one of these (I've saved Jonathan Ive a couple of days and mocked it up on PowerPoint below):

No - this isn't a fat iPhone.  OK - it is. However, this is the alarm clock that I would like sat next to me on my bedside table.

Of course I need something functional to wake me up on a work day.  It would also be great if I could immediately hook in to my favourite apps and see what is happening.  I'd feel connected and up to speed with the world.

Why else do I need this new product? Every Saturday morning I get up early in order to make substitutions on my Fantasy Football team and then once I've done that, I spend ages looking at the news.  Given by this point I'm in a separate room to my wife, she gets the hump that I'm on the "computer again".  If I was in the same room all would be fine.

Of course I could do this all on an iPhone, but if my wife found me fiddling around squinting my eyes in the half-light on a mobile phone, she would rip the piss out of me for being a spotty nerd.  So that is not an option.

There is another surprise.  I could also see both my wife and son using (sharing) my bed-side-fat-boy-iPhone-thingy.  They are both Facebook fiends.  She also chats for hours on the phone to her friends from bed.  If she could chat to her friends from bed and also have Facebook available and laugh about some photos at the same time as well..........  it would cost me a fortune on the phone bill... but what the heck. * 

Anyway Apple, if you could build this, then it would bring harmony to my life because my wife wouldn't hate a gadget that she actually used herself and I wouldn't be sat in a different room on the weekend changing my virtual football team around.

* This reminds me of the phrase "Female Handbrake".  I first heard this phrase when listening to the strategy director from Sky.  They find it difficult to sell a lot of their TV packages, because women at home block the purchase decision because they want to keep the family together doing more social activities.  Sky, however, would prefer to sell a more expensive and comprehensive package where everyone is able to watch different Sky channels of their choice in separate rooms.

Social Media and Radian6: I Am The Case Study

I ran a Social Media race between Radian6 and Sysomos which Radian6 won hands down.

To be honest I didn't expect much in the way of results, but the outcome has genuinely surprised me.  Radian6 won the race.  They were listening*, they found me and then replied to me in only 13 minutes.  Nice trick?  Yes, but when I look at my experience the power of this tool is apparent.

Firstly the CTO from Radian6 commented on my blog and then within minutes the CEO was following me on Twitter, closely followed by their Community Co-Ordinator:

I have nothing against Sysomos, in fact I was going to wait a bit longer to see if they responded, but I realised that misses the point.  Firstly, Radian6 have shown that they practice what they preach, which is quite a powerful demonstration in it's own right.

Secondly my opinion of Radian6 is now sky high whereas Sysomos would have a lot of catching up to do - but only because I suddenly have a fair amount of brand loyalty to Radian6 which has been built from nothing in a matter of hours - and this is only because Radian6 have pro-actively engaged in conversation with me.

Think about your own businesses and the loyalty you could build with your customers?  As a customer, think about how your opinion would change if a brand manager interacted with you proactively and helpfully?

So congratulations to Radian6.  I count the experiement as a resounding success.  The race was fun too.

Night all.  Over and out.

*Listening:  During my excellent sales training all those years back, the one thing they drummed into me was what they called the salesman's most important skill.  Listening.

Sysomos Versus Radian6 Social Media Race

Radian6 and Sysomos both have tools that allow marketing people to listen to Social Media sites and this gives marketeers the opportunity to engage with people and maybe respond to comments concerning their brand.  The  benefit is the ability to manage brand territory across social media channels.

Which company is best, Radian6 or Sysomos?  Who knows.  So I thought I'd run a completely unscientific Top Gear style race and see which company picks up that I have mentioned their company first.  The winner, of my crass but fun race will be the company that writes a comment against this blog post first.

Race Notes: I have mentioned both companies here on Blogger and will also Tweet what I am up to.

"Start your engines gentlemen"