March 20, 2009

SNS Traffic and Privacy in UK

I'd like just to feature this piece of news I found on Cnet.  Apparently keeping users' communication data for one year is not enough.  In future, be mindful of what you send and share with your British contacts on Facebook...  it might be relevant in a very distant future, still TBD.

March 4, 2009

Sex sells... it sells better if viral

I was on Youtube watching some random news about Berlusconi and Geddhafi playing best friends and at the end of the video I got prompted with a quite sticky advertisement by TripAdvisor.  The idea is cool for at least three reasons. 1) Sex sells.  2) The message is funny and ironic.  3) Everybody got a bad experience in some crappy hotel.
I think this is a good example of a viral marketing campaign.  In fact, the advertisement exactly captures the reasons why everybody will be likely to share this video with his friends, coworkers, etc....
The subject matter of the video (dirty stories in hotel rooms) is universal.  It catches everybody's curiosity.  Needless to say, the outfit of the actress is an essential component of the message itself.
The tone of the advertising is clever and ironic.  Just after 10 seconds you'll find out that "dirty" is used in its literal meaning, out of any metaphor and regardless of the nuances suggested by the dramatic look of the actress.
And eventually, the punch line/call to action:  check the list and send us your experience about dirty hotels.  Well, I am sure that anybody who recently had a bad experience will be happy to be vocal about his complaints.
Therefore, if many people are following the suggestion, this collection of complaints is more than entertaining: it is useful information.
Perhaps, this is a good example of conversational marketing. I find this is gonna be an interesting evolution of the traditional viral campaigns.  I believe that the main feature of this marketing strategy is to get the users to contribute directly to the message, acting as a "collective" testimonial.  I am sure we will have to speak again about conversational marketing...



March 2, 2009

TOS, in Beta

These last few weeks have been intense.  Among the others, I've been crafting the Terms Of Use and the Privacy Policies of Ukindi.com.  Of course I started looking at other websites' TOS and PP, as a I needed a good comparable. Not so much to use the actual language (which BTW is not copyrightable, as legal language...) but mostly to understand about best practices and market trends... Of course, I chose the best moment to take over this task - the following day I finished my first draft, Facebook took down its TOS... Now they say it is because FB is a democratic SNS.  I suppose it is sort of a revolution -- when did people start actually reading the TOS?


Anyway, I am preparing a second draft... and I start thinking that I will never be actually ready with a final, solid, definitive version of the TOS.  Both the features of the websites and the users' interaction will be constantly changing, and envisioning a thorough  regulatory framework is not easy.
Sometime I wish it would be possible to have legal conditions in BETA... which is basically what the following language is meant to be: "We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change, modify, add, or delete portions of these Terms of Use at any time without further notice, provided that the Company will post the changes to these Terms of Use on this page and will indicate at the top of this page the date these terms were last revised. Your continued use of the Site after any such changes constitutes your acceptance of the new Terms of Use."