Latitude for Business

Do you have a blackberry? Are you friends with people who have a blackberry? Would you want your friends to know where you are without having to tell them? Latitude is for you.

Different from many of the 'Check In' based apps out there like Gowalla and FourSquare, Google Latitude is much simpler, and (personally) more useful. Many have said that it's too big-brother to share real-time GPS location with their friends, but I have to say-- when you're trying to pull off the ultimate Romantic Weekend in Niagara Falls, and your friends are on their way down via car from Toronto, knowing where they are to time the surprise in the lobby is unbelievable. Just ask Danielle and Claire.

First, it's Google Maps. Amazing maps, overlay for satellite or traffic, plus streetview where available. This is ridiculous. Street view on a mobile device is the best thing to happen to "I can't find the place" since sliced bread. Since Google Latitude is a service that's fully integrated with Google Maps, there's no switching or closing, just turn it on, and your friends appear on the map. Assuming many of your friends are savvy and awesome like you, when you are in a part of town that you don't normally go to, you can see who's around and maybe who's already at the party, etc.  Great for meeting up, timing a rendezvous, or seeing where the action is.

Second, it's got individual privacy settings. Say you want your wife to know exactly where you are, but your out of town friends to just know that you're 'In Town' you can customize who sees what. You can even temporarily set a location if you're supposed to be at the dentist but you're at the ball game instead.

Third, the alibi generator.  Quietly and securely, Google is keeping track of all of the GPS data funneled through Latitude in a Location History page. I can view where I've been, what time, what route I took, etc.  I see this useful for two things: 1) Accused of a crime I didn't commit. 2) Business owner tracking all of their employees/fleet/deliveries, etc.   What a great tool to be able to see utilization of a team of couriers, or track the travel routes of the pizza guys to optimize delivery time.  Business can use this for Business reasons.  (Just tell your employees you're tracking them, for the love of god.)

What are some other ways that businesses (who spend all this money on Blackberrys just so that their employees can read email and make calls) can use apps like this to save or make money? How about insurance claims?  If you're already tracking GPS with a Time/Date stamp, you could have employees take a photo of an accident (or whatever incident would be relevant to your business) and email it.  Great. But what about something that benefits the customer?  Real time "Where is my Pizza?" maybe? UPS does it (sort of) with package tracking, but the next step in that evolution is a real-time GPS location on that package. Or Pizza.

The downfall for individuals, much like the other services I mentioned-- if your friends don't use it, what's the point. It's a very symmetrical social networking tool. It makes very little sense to share your exact location with strangers, so this type of networking is more akin to the privacy of Facebook or trusted-walled-garden of LinkedIn, vs. the openness and random sharing and asymmetry of Twitter and the like. It does work for business though.

Since those with a blackberry should be using Google Maps instead of Blackberry maps anyway, I recommend you test this out with a trusted friend. 

Street View in Whistler, BC

Google's Street View team strapped some equipment to a snowmobile (or SkiDoo if you're Canadian) and took a tour around Whistler, BC in all their beautiful pre-Olympic glory.  Here's the Link.  Google Street View at Whistler.

How to launch an apple

Ontario's newest, most famous apple is the Red Prince.  A variety of apples brought over from Europe and now grown locally in Ontario, the Red Prince is in the midst of a very public PR campaign, beginning on Friday with the distribution of 10,000 apples to the public, in the PATH in Toronto.

THE RED PRINCE CIVILITY EVENT - PHOTO OP AND FREE PUBLIC EVENT
What: The Red Prince Civility Event
When: Friday, February 5th from 11am until 2pm
Where: Toronto's underground PATH system at the Exchange Tower (130 King Street West, on the Concourse level in the main hallway) and First Canadian Place (100 King Street West, on the Concourse level near the waterfall)
Why: To celebrate the Red Prince apple and to reintroduce manners and etiquette to society
Who: Everyone

 I was lucky enough to get the Etiquette Pack from Faye Clack, the agency handling the account. What a delight!  I had already become a Fan of their Facebook Page, and followed the new Red Prince Twitter feed, and thought that the Etiquette Pack would be a PDF or some documentation about the history of the apple.  Nope.  I was sent 5 polished Red Prince Apples, one of which (above) you'll see came (like royalty) on a little red pillow.  Now that's classy!

Of course I did get the background, and the details of the launch, but more importantly, I got the product to taste.  Claire was reading the info pack with me, and said something like "what does it taste like?"-- so we tried them for dessert after tonight's Rigatoni and Meatballs.  They're great.  Crunchy, juicy, sweet but not too sweet, tart but not like a granny smith tart, firm but not hurt your gums firm, with a thin enough skin that you don't need to peel it.  (Side note:  I had a Granny Smith the other day and after the first piece, had to peel it, because it was like eating leather. Blechh.)

It's a great apple, but what better way to tell people about it then to give away 10,000 of them and get people talking about it themselves.  For more info about the apples, the launch, or the company, check out their website: Red Prince Apples

Finding Social Media Talent for your organization

Hugh Macleod said it pretty well with his cartoon (above).  There are a lot of experts out there, so how do you find the right person for your brand?  Do you even need someone internal to represent, or can your digital agency do the heavy lifting (or all the lifting for that matter).


David Armano , SVP at Edelman Digital, just wrote a great piece for the Harvard Business Review about ways to find talent for your company's social needs.  Tapping internal resources to re-train, recruit friends and contacts, and promote the brand are central to his thoughts and I tend to agree.  However, this is easier said than done.

In large orgs, even knowing who your employees are can be a challenge, let alone having them naturally promote your agenda in a specific social network.  The example I'll use: maybe a certain Vice President is a superb networker, and his or her contacts on LinkedIn are vast.  He's connected to all kinds of talent. He is. Does that mean that HR or others with a vested recruiting interest can tap that network?  Nope.  That's his.  Now does it benefit everyone (including this VP) to share certain specific things with his vast network, like new high-level job postings, etc.  Absolutely.  The VP gets the cache of being an influencer and connector within their network, and it works for everyone.

Part of the challenge is that HR or Talent recruiting or Employee Relations may not have the expertise or technology savvy (or even the tools available) to be able to identify this leader, and reach out to them.  Really, the education has to start with those in need.

This applies to marketers as well.  A brand marketer, though knowledgeable, may not be the best person to translate brand decisions or expectations into the language of the social web.  Sometimes you need expertise to manage the channel and educate the stakeholders, so that the stakeholders can concentrate "on driving the car" not on "how a car works".