Mobile Behavior: an Omnicom Group Company

To help users overcome information overload, Altoids has created Tune Out, a Facebook app available for Android, iPhone, and desktop computers.

According to Big Spaceship:

Using Tune Out, fans select their favorite friends they want to receive Facebook and Twitter updates from, opting out of updates from old high school classmates and the other contacts they’d rather not hear from on a daily basis. The functionality speaks to the conviction that defines Altoids mints. You know who your real friends are. Ignore the rest.

This reminds us of T-Mobile's myFaves (Fav 5) and is relevant to anyone trying to survive today's hyper-connected world. Increasingly, people are looking for ways to more efficiently consume information. Twine founder Nova Spivack recently stated that “with the real time web, the amount of information we have to handle is changing the Now... Now is becoming a lot denser. There is a lot more information in per unit of Now.” Because of this, we are learning to optimize intake through filters and lists, following only those that provide value. With Tune Out, Altoids hopes that users will "ignore the noise" using their branded utility.

Photo by Dean Isidro for The New York Times

In a recent New York Times piece, David Colman takes a look at the fine art of self-presentation. Once the realm of models, the proliferation of camera phones makes it a useful skill for the everyday person. Photography itself is changing.

“This really represents the shift of the photograph serving as a memorial function to a communication device,” said Geoffrey Batchen.

“The camera was used to record something that happened so it could be remembered. Now it’s used immediately. It’s uploaded to Facebook to say, ‘Here I am in Istanbul’ or whatever, so it also goes back and forth between personal and promotional use. It really represents the refashioning of the self for a semipublic view.”

The popularity of apps like CameraBag and Hipstamatic only go to validate the argument. So does the excitement over iPhone 4's front-facing camera. People care deeply about how they look to others and these tools give us control.

Ever feel strange about friending mom on Facebook? Having business contacts see your pool party photos? You're not alone. Paul Adams, Senior UX Researcher at Google, discusses these issues in a presentation called The Real Life Social Network. According to Paul, that awkwardness is a result of how we're organizing offline relationships into one big online friends bucket.

Facebook itself is not the problem here. The problem is that these are different parts of Debbie's [the woman above] life that never would have been exposed to each other offline were linked online.

The problem is that the social networks we're creating online don't match the social networks we already have offline. This creates many problems, and a few opportunities.

He goes on to discuss a shift towards a human-centric web and the implications for businesses. It's becoming increasingly important for brands to think about relationships and fostering communities (= forest), not click-throughs rates (= trees). This can be done by understanding socialization habits and how offline behavior is influencing online interactions (and vice versa). Indeed, social networking is just one way people interact; focusing on fundamental social behaviors, not the technology enabling them, is the best long term communications strategy.

See the rest of Paul's presentation here.

Intel is experimenting with a technology called SENS, or Socially ENabled Services. It takes the ambient awareness we experience through services like Twitter and Foursquare to the next level with the use of mobile sensors.

The technology, intended for cell phone use, fuses together sensors to detect what a person is doing in the physical world, what the environment around them is doing, and what is happening on their mobile device.

But instead of asking users to check in or post updates, SENS automatically detects--and depicts--if a friend is playing a video game, listening to music, or text messaging on their phone.

Privacy is a concern, as it has already been with Facebook. We doubt that Intel's current use case, SENS as social media, will be immediately successful on a mainstream level. That being said, there could be other applications, including healthcare and social research. Passive behavioral monitoring is something to watch out for.

[via fastcompany]

In speaking with users, the most common complaint we hear about Foursquare and similar "check-in" services is that people forget to use them. The act of checking-in upon arriving someplace needs to be prompted and conditioned before it becomes a reflex. To help solve this rather large problem, Foursquare has sent out window decals, or clings, to thousands of business owners that they can use to advertise the service and remind people to check in.

The clings — designed to stick to window storefronts to remind patrons to check in on Foursquare — are now arriving at stores everywhere, even big businesses like Whole Foods.

The grocery chain retailer has agreed to place the Foursquare clings in 30 of its stores’ windows, a gesture that serves as an important handshake with the location-sharing startup.

A Foursquare call-to-action is one example of how a business, large or small, can "socialize" their venue. Both Facebook and Google have sent out similar stickers, encouraging users to "like" and share places. These stickers help businesses use traditional POS marketing to promote their digital efforts, raising awareness and driving participation. This sort of cross-channel integration is key to the success of any digital strategy.

[via mashable]

QRcheck.in is a service that lets venue owners generate a barcode-based Foursquare call-to-action. With it, mobile users are able to scan a QR code to check-in, conveniently skipping a step in the process.

It reminds us of Google Favorite Places (also QR codes) and Facebook "Text-To-Like" decals. Apparently Foursquare check-in stickers are also on the way. These all provide small businesses with a simple way to promote and "socialize" their location. It's only a matter of time before this becomes commonplace.

[via everydayux]

Today at Cannes, Unilever revealed an ice cream vending machine for the digital age. Branded "Share Happy," it is able to sense when people are near. Using facial recognition technology, it can determine age, gender, and emotion. The machine uses an interactive "smile-o-meter" to rate smiles; those with a big enough smile are rewarded with free ice cream.

What is also worth noting is the ability for users to share pictures on Facebook via built-in 3G. In an age of social networking, brands providing new experiences also need to consider ways to promote the sharing of them. Diesel's social kiosk is a great example of this happening in the retail space. Mobile phones are an obvious and more affordable way to encourage this behavior.

See the vending machine demonstrated here:

[via every-ware]