Terence Reis

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February 18, 11:49 AM
Meet the Social Media Expert
November 04, 11:13 PM
If context impacts your business, then you need mobile - updated

The title may seem obvious - as apparently everything needs mobile nowadays. But it's more important for what it's implicit - if context has little impact on how your customers relate to your brand and products, then you DON'T need mobile. I could have also titled it "if you're not considering context in your mobile strategy, you're not doing it right".

A tortuous logical road brought me here, let me share.

Recently I was invited to speak at a seminar about Social Networks. While I deem myself a knowledgeable guy on the subject of mobility, I am not so sure about my performance on the social networks theme. I mean, sociability is not natural on me, which means that I've always dwelt on social networks with a mix of curiosity, pragmatic need and aversion.

As the event line-up was filled with hotshots I was actually concerned about what I would speak (see, usually we can say pretty much anything as long as correctly delivered). I took some relief on the fact that the subject was mobile social networks. A greater relief came when I found out I didn't have to present anything - just answer questions. However I only knew that after I prepared my presentation. And what would I be presenting?

My initial problem was the idea of mobile social networks itself. It didn't feel right that everything that had mobile attached to it was thrown in the same terminological bucket. Are Facebook and Foursquare the same thing? I guess not.

My point is, there are social networks that have mobile extensions - are mobilized. And there are social networks that are mobile in the sense that the fact of mobility is the trigger towards networking.

Facebook is a good example of the former. It has a mobile access developed with a mind on enhancing the interaction of users with the site tools. Check the snapshot:


A news feed, events, photos, chat, notes - all these items can receive a boost from being mobile. And this is the iPhone app. When you look at the Blackberry, you cannot even navigate through the site - it's only a tool where you can basically update your status, upload pictures and comment on your friends' walls. Mobile is here to enrich the experience. And it works - Facebook Mobile has 65M users.

And then you have Foursquare (or any other location-based social network). How would you interact properly with Foursquare if not from your mobile? The whole idea is based on exploration, discovery and enhancing the mobile experience. Of course I can update it from my couch. But it's definitely not the same thing.

See the difference? There's mobile enriching the experience and there's enriching the mobile experience. My view is that a genuine mobile social network (opposed to a social network with mobile extensions) is built upon enhancing the experience of people when in movement.

Therefore building a business based on mobile social network should first consider how to contribute with this mobile experience. I would make a case for transaction costs as well, but this is another issue for a much later consideration.

This distinction can be productively applied to mobile development.

The effective consideration of context will happen only when I evaluate how mobile can be used to improve the consumer experience when in movement. The "mobilizing content" attitude will not necessarily create a better experience unless there are touch points with your consumer that are more valuable when accessed mobile.

Mobilizing the content per se does not generate value and it’s all too easy to do just that. If you're not creating value, you'll inevitably get the "why can't I do this at my laptop" look from your consumer. The whole talk in the end is about how you need to get context to work for you. 

Identify the points where your customer interacts with your brand and where there's an opportunity to enable a better relationship with you.

This one here is surely the best example. It's that simple. And no wonder apps are the talk of the town. They can be developed with an exclusive view on the interaction context.

What are you doing? Are you just mobilizing your content or are you actually taking into consideration context and delivering a better experience?

For all the talk and hype around mobile, there are actually sounding business reasons to invest. Oh, and if you know of any product where context doesn't play a role, please let me know.

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July 20, 11:16 PM
Advertising Will Change Forever - Advertising Age - DigitalNext

Digital, which will be about 12% of overall advertising spend in 2009, is likely to grow to about 21% in five years. Along the way overall advertising budgets won't grow much.

This is huge.

It means we are all digital marketers now, since digital is at the center of many campaigns anyway.

It means media is in trouble, or at least in the middle of a transformation.

via adage.com

Although mobile marketing is set to grow on a 27% annualized rate until 2014, looks like it's bound to remain a niche thing.

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July 19, 11:20 PM
The whole thing about apps, again.

At one point people thought this was a discussion already settled. Mobile apps wouldn't get the expected traction and web-based apps would be the 'de facto' standard for running services on mobile. Browsers getting improved, better bandwidth, were helping the case. And then came the iPhone with its App Store, and all of a sudden the case is now reversed.

Great graphics, better processing capabilities plus the sudden appeal of an "app store" have turned all heads to the application world. Nevermind that fragmentation is only increasing.

There could be lots of arguments on why is this so. And today I read a great insight on Twitter, from @falameufilho:

The tech blogs seem unaware of the contradiction in cheering "CLOUD CLOUD CLOUD" in the pc space and "APPS APPS APPS" in the mobile space.

Yes, on spot.

I still believe web-based apps will be the main applications for mobile. My point of view is that apps got a huge boost from an incredibly improved "findability". The App Store is becoming the point of entry for the mobile environment as much as Google is for the pc space. Develop a better search for mobile and you will release the forces of the mobile web.

 

 

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A bug in the head
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Posts

January 31, 12:50 PM

Mumford & Sons - After the Storm.

Acho gostar de alt-folk fácil. Gostar muito já é mais difícil.

Mumford & Sons é daqueles que a gente gosta muito, assim como Waterboys.

January 21, 04:27 PM

Joan Baez se apaixonou por Bob Dylan. E sofreu por isso.

E compôs Diamonds and Rust, linda, uma das mais belas melodias, tão bela quanto a primeira vez em que escutei - há quase 25 anos.

We both know what memories can bring.
They bring diamonds and rust 

July 02, 05:51 PM

Banda estupidamente subestimada no Brasil: Ocean Colour Scene, Better Day - rock tipicamente inglês, melodia com um quê de Elvis Costello.

June 08, 10:17 PM

Julian Cope - Reynard the Fox. Brilliant and underrated.

May 11, 12:30 PM

Sinner man, where you gonna run to?

The Lord said, go to the devil
He said, go to the devil
All on that day
So I ran to the devil, he was waitin’

March 23, 09:40 PM

These teenage years, no they don’t last. OH YEAH (The Subways)

February 18, 09:14 PM

Ver a Debbie Harry lânguida e cantando Rapture é demais para qualquer mortal.

Ah, a música foi uma das primeiras vezes em que o rap apareceu no mainstream.

February 09, 08:22 PM

One of the best songs from the best rock’n’roll record ever. The Clash, Rudie Can’t Fail (from London Calling).

February 01, 07:10 PM

This girl surely could rock. It could teach a lesson or two to the shitty rockers we have today.

Suzi Quatro, 1973 - Can the Can.

Watching her play might just be better than porn.

January 26, 09:30 PM

As she watched their bodies burn she whispered: I found you and I killed you.

Chad VanGaalen: “Molten Light”


January 08, 02:06 PM

Hello America.

Free Fallin’ - Tom Petty.

January 07, 02:30 PM

If I can’t go to heaven

Will they let me go to hell?

Stone Cold Crazy - Queen

- Hot Space do Queen foi o primeiro álbum que “adquiri”. Pouco após seu lançamento por aqui, isso era ‘82. Foi o suficiente para tornar o Queen a minha primeira experiência como fã. Um moleque roqueiro.

A energia continua a mesma. A maravilha da música é poder se transportar no tempo e sentir aquela mesma energia que sentiu há 20 e alguns anos toda vez que você coloca seu fone, aumenta o volume e se desliga do mundo.

I hope I die before I get old. Sério.

December 22, 02:13 PM

Best love song ever.

Die, die, die my darling
Don’t utter a single word
Die, die, die my darling
Just shut your pretty mouth

I’ll be seeing you again
I’ll be seeing you in Hell

The Misfits “Die, Die My Darling”

December 10, 01:56 AM

A classic, a moment of genius, many years ahead of its time.

CAN - OH YEAH

As your silver hair save that,

For you got to better not there.

I see your own cheeks, saves that,

It’s a time you’re my lasting sign.

They have got to sue the passing

As you do too everyday.

Still you point at them and then

Sometimes I’m the slave.

December 10, 01:38 AM

IMHO, Johnny Rotten has extended considerably his contribution with PIL.

Public Image Ltd - Rise

December 10, 01:18 AM

Black Francis for you, chaps

You Can’t Break A Heart and Have It

You can shoot the breeze

You can shoot your shit

You can shoot it up

You can shoot from the hip

You can break the rules

You can break your balls

You can break your neck

You can break your back

But you can’t break a heart and have it

December 09, 07:34 PM

“War! (What is it good for?)” Edwin Starr.

For making great movies, I guess. Anyway, great song, I wish I could’ve heard it back then.

November 27, 08:48 PM

“Music has charms to soothe a savage breast”

November 12, 04:08 AM

Bauhaus - Ziggy Stardust

Faithful to Bowie but better. This song is pure genius.

November 12, 04:06 AM

Love and Rockets - The Light

Please note that the Radiohead space doodles are all here.

These are my songs
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Terence Reis
Wireless | São Paulo Area, Brazil, BR

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I'm a nice chap.

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