The real world
Author: Katie
It's not one location anymore - it's everywhere.
Today at work we watched a webinar on mobile technology by Comcast (MMetrics) that got us all thinking about the future of mobile. As the adoption rate for smartphones accelerates, the need to adapt marketing strategies to mobile technology decreases because these phones will be able to access standard web pages. Interesting stuff.
And what about for social media? I read this great article by Om Malik on Facebook’s mobile future that @chrisbrogan twittered about. The integration of social media with your phone contacts will further integrate those networks into your “real” life. The mobility of using your cell phone to connect to your networks when you used to need a computer will make them an even bigger part of your daily life. This exponentially expands the reach of the network, advertising on the network and the depth at which the network, and the people in it, affect you and your decisions.
The blurring of lines between the “real” world and technology is dizzying. Just yesterday my coworker, Brandon, sent out an email about a new mobile technology that will allow your phone to interact, through mini projectors and image sensors (that’s about as technical as my understanding goes), with the world around you. At one point the article suggests you could meet someone at a party and the phone/device would project their social profile information onto their shirt so you could access the most important information about them immediately. Crazy.
To me this further creates the need for authenticity in our world and in our lives. The time of a “public” face and a “private” face is over. Your information is public, you are public. You have to be yourself because if you aren’t, people will know. They’ll easily see you don’t match up with how you describe yourself in this or that profile and vice versa.
This applies to brands as well. If you want a “family” business reputation, you have to act like it 24/7. If you want to be the “hip” new thing, you actually have to be hip. Branding as we know it will be forced to evolve. A “family” based ad campaign won’t give you a family image unless your company lives and breathes family and community service. Just putting a rap star in your shoes won’t make you “hip.” And it’s seeping into politics too. We can see what our House Reps and Senators are doing, and hear what they’re thinking straight from their own mouths.
What about you? Are you ready for the real world?
Posted in News & Curiousities, Opinion | 
Tags: mobile integration, mobile technology, real world, smartphones, social and mobile, social networks
This is a very interesting look into the future of both social networking and technology. The phone interaction technology is very intriguing! I can see many practical applications for it regarding information such as product recommendations and flight info (as seen is the video) but not so much other applications such as human interaction. Are we really so lazy that we need to have an individuals personal info pop up on their shirt right when we meet them? It’s concerning that some feel the need to get information about someone without actually talking or getting to know this person. Don’t get me wrong, the technology is absolutely amazing and mind boggling. However, it feels like a decline in the ability for people to socialize one on one without assistance.
There’s definitely a fundamental opposition within social media regarding whether it weakens or strengthens social interaction and experts have argued on both sides. I think it’s actually both. It strengthens my ability to socialize in certain situations, such as catching up with a good friend from high school. Since I’ve seen her Facebook updates I know that she got a new job so we can skip the mumbling “So…what’s new?” and go straight to “I saw that you got a new job! Congrats! How do you like it?” which allows us to get into a much deeper conversation right away. On the other hand, I agree with you that in a situation where you’re meeting someone for the first time, those introductory questions, like “What do you do?” “Where do you go to school?/What did you major in?” and “Where are you from?” are the gateways to help us get to know one another.
In addition, there are definitely privacy issues to address with technology like this before it’s ready for mass consumption. I think the key take away is the idea of authenticity – being transparent (real) about yourself and who you are, whether you are an individual person or a corporate brand.
My favorite Truth from your article is this:
To me this further creates the need for authenticity in our world and in our lives. The time of a “public” face and a “private” face is over. Your information is public, you are public. You have to be yourself because if you aren’t, people will know. They’ll easily see you don’t match up with how you describe yourself in this or that profile and vice versa.
That says it all. (Unfortunately it’s a bit long to print on a t-shirt.
Haha yea, that would probably be a pretty complicated tshirt. Maybe we could go with “Be yourself”?
It’s only cliche because it’s true…
Great post! It will be very interesting to see how the world evolves with this new influx of social agenda as a medium for communicating. Its a great time to be in this sphere because the world is evolving so quickly.
Thanks for your post!
-Elizabeth Hannan
http://www.jivefromthehive.com