The Dangers of 3rd Party Apps and Keyboards

Apple released a new capability in IOS 8 that allows the user to replace their phone's keyboard with an alternative provided by a third party.

Applications like these can also replace the calendar functions on a phone as well as its contact functions.

When these apps are installed, the user gives permission to third parties (the developer of the app) access to their device. If it's a keyboard, that developer can convievably see anything that you type (like passwords, account numbers, or confidential information); like your calendar (which you may presume is private); or your contact list (who may not appreciate you sharing their information).

If you are subject to federal or state restrictions over classified forms of information (like HIPAA, GLB, or transferring social security numbers or drivers licenses), it's absolutely vital that you do not install these kinds of applications on your mobile device when working with your business account for mail, contacts, calendar, or drive. Just don't do it.  Don't install these applications. There's no guarantee of privacy if there's a middle man between you and your data.

if you're at all concerned about privacy and security, just don't do it. Don't install these applications.

if you use your device to take credit cards for your business, please - for the love of everything holy - do not install these applications.

If you do use these applications, bear in mind that the licensing agreement for use may stipulate what those third parties do with their access to your data. You may want to read those end user license agreements, usually found within the app or on the developer's website.

And if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me. I may be able to help coach you through your options.  Thanks.

R

Our Attention is Very Tiny and Very Competitive

Oh ... just look at those adorable puppies!

Hey - welcome to the Attention Economy, and like all economies, our attention is extremely scarce, extremely competitive. It's very, very tiny. It's real tiny. It's wee-minuscule. Why?

Well, we're human beings. We're not always plugged in. Sometimes we're eating, sleeping, traveling - interacting with and being limited by the physical world and the requirements of our bodies - and that prevents us from consuming information.

Further, even when we are consuming, we can consume only so much information. Our tiny brains and sensory mechanisms only allow for this wacky analog input through our eyes. 

And when we're not consuming information, we may be out doing what humans enjoy doing like hiking, camping, water-skiing, or reenacting medieval army battles, whatever. We can actually choose not to be consuming information. Crazy, I know.

But the point is our attention is scarce. A great example of this is Twitter. There's a ton of noise in Twitter. A zillion people are saying a zillion things all at once. It's like a crowded square with wall-to-wall people armed with bullhorns, screaming into your face: we can only take in so much information at a time and we can only listen to one or two speakers at a time.

That sliver of time where you actually read one tweet for that one moment is our attention.  It is a small thing, a tremendously tiny thing, as compared to the vastness - the surplus - of information out there that's demanding it. Think of it: every second, on average, around 6,000 tweets are tweeted on Twitter which corresponds to over 350,000 tweets sent per minute or 500 million tweets per day. If every tweet was an inch, in just one day, your tweet would just ONE INCH in 7,891 MILES of crap. Seriously. That's a small, tiny, insignificant sliver of zilch. And THAT's just on Twitter. Now take into consideration Facebook, Pinterest, and every other place we might spend our online time.

If you're a small business and you're attempting to use social media as a medium for conducting guerrilla marketing, I want you to see what you're up against. It's a fun, rosy picture ("Oh, I'll just market myself on Facebook!") until you start looking at the reality. You're that fraction-of-an-angry-inch in nearly eight thousand miles of possibility every day. Wee tiny. Facebook - or any other social networking marketplace attempting to get you to spend your precious attention - isn't a good strategy. The odds are way against you. You've got to ask yourself: how will this ever work? How will you ever get the attention of your customers, or potential customers? How will you out compete others with larger staff and budget and attention-hogging techniques? How will you get past all of the filters people have put in place to block you? How will you connect with others?

Unless you're very good at creating noisy, distracting content that captures eyeballs, or spend money on relevance and advertising, it's not going to be a strategy that works for you. Yet on the off-chance that you do get somebody's attention online, you must get really good at converting online attention into offline conversation. In the real world, there are fewer distractions, less noise, greater rapport, and more direct, meaningful conversations. The electronic space is an opportunity to drive someone into the real world, to engage in a real conversation, to create a real relationship.

Want to think strategically about IT spending in the Attention Economy? Look closely at your website. Your Twitter profile. Your Facebook page. How does it immediately try to convert the electronic visitor into a real-world relationship? How does it foster or encourage real human connection? Or, how much is it just more, needless distraction? Like ... puppies?

R

Controlling Time

Time is scarce.

There's only so much of it and we're all (more or less) proportioned an equal amount of it. There's only 24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week, 8,760 hours in a year. That's pretty constant.

So there might be a couple of considerations about time when developing a technology plan:

1. How can you and your staff maximize the use of time (personal efficiency)? How can the technology solutions you implement allow you to do more, to be more productive, within an ever-smaller slice of time?

2. How can you reduce the TRANSFORMATION time of a business? Those who went to business school know what I'm talking about. Classic business model, right? We take inputs and transform that raw material into outputs. When investing in technology, how can it increase the speed of transforming raw material into finished goods? 

3. How can you minimize time for the consumer? How can you invest in technology to both reduce their time commitment to do business with you? Whether or not that's reducing the amount of time in a check-out line, forgoing a phone call to self-service their needs on a mobile app, texting instead of emailing, self-check-out, a mobile-aware website, paying by a mobile device rather than a credit card ... all of these things reduce the time invested in doing business with you. That effect on the consumer-end of things is a strategic advantage.

4. How can you change the experience of time? Time is finite, yes, but the way we individually experience time is quite difference. How can you use technology to transform the experience that a consumer has with your company so that the time spent feels unique and extraordinary? That could be anything from what Disney does at its theme parks to using technology to tailor an experience that's all about that customer. 

5. How is your control of time related to your brand promise? Does your brand speak about trust, commitment, service, quality? How does your use of technology leverage time to fulfill your promise?

Time Isn't Just Money

If you believe the old nugget that time is money, Technology planning and strategy attempts to look at how time can be controlled and manipulated to ensure certain financial outcomes - attempting to optimize the use of time for you and your customer is a laudable goal. That's certainly true and just one side of the problem.

However, I believe that there's another qualified dimension to this problem of time: the way we feel about it. The way we experience it. People have no problem dropping large sums of cash in your pocket if you're able to deliver a consistent, amazing experience. Consider how you'd feel if:

A hotel concierge referred to you immediately by name, knew your arrival time and your preferences (as you booked everything easily from an App on your smart phone), had entertainment and dinner reservations automatically lined-up for you, a courteous bell-hop ready to help with your bags, then prepared in-stay linen, beverages, consumables like toothpaste and toothbrushes, towels, climate control ... every detail, just the way you like it, and expedited the checkout process through automated system. The stay was comfortable, easy, frictionless, effortless. Time was perceived much more relaxing. Technology surrounded this service capability. That perception is what will keep them coming back.

Now compare that to:

You have to make a phone call because the website reservation system is broken; you arrive and nobody expected you or knows who you are, and they're not particularly aware of your needs - nothing you like or want is in the room and you must go in search of it, maybe even buy it from a local grocer; arrange entertainment and dinner on the fly; stay in a room that doesn't have the right temperature; nobody at the desk could be found after several phone calls; breakfast was indifferent; the check-out process actually required a visit back to the concierge desk.  Time would be perceived as taxing, tedious, complex, a challenge. There was little technology involved with this delivery, and that terrible perception of time and experience is what will drive the customer away.

Use Technology to Control Both the Efficiency and Experience of Time

I think it's important for business owners and managers to look for opportunities where "time is money" and it can be made more efficient for both them and the customer, obviously, yes. Still, I think it's equally important for business owners to consider how time is relatively perceived and how their technology investments could be used to alter or manipulate that perception to add not just an efficient dimension to time, but, a quality dimension to time.

R