Econsultancy Social Shorts – Food for Thought
by Jonathan Kay on Wednesday, 21st September, 2011
I was at an Econsultancy Social Short in Manchester today #econshorts and saw two great presentations (I’m sure all of the presentations were great but I could only make the afternoon session).
Social Media Influencers
@willfrancis of Harkable delivered a very humorous and informative session on how to understand and hopefully influence social media influencers.
Will reminded us that the book The Tipping Point is just as valid today as it was in 2000 and mentioned two great social media tracking products that are worth a look – Klout and PeerIndex.
Great content is key for influencers; in essence provide them with exclusive content, make them feel special, offer great incentives (not just financial) and be “nice”.
The Internet of Things
The second presentation was from Will Grant of Bitcala on “The Internet of Things” or using the internet to connect every object on the planet and to let them communicate.
Internet of Things
This was quite an eye opener because we’re used to the notion of Google and Facebook perhaps wanting to know everything about our online activity, but I’d never thought about this extending to objects.
And did you know that today the number of “things” already connected to the internet is greater than the number of people in the world!
Here’s how it could work …
… I’m watching a connected TV, an advert is shown, the TV knows who is near to it (ie that I am watching), within the ad it shows Likes / Google+ from people I know and as I drive past a store (probably Tesco) my smart phone informs me that I can get a discount code if I buy now and that the item is in stock and has already been reserved for me.
But, deep breath, do we want everything that can be connected to actually be connected? Who controls my / our devices if they’re hacked? We may think that privacy is dead now but will we have any hope of understanding who and what we have given our “privacy permissions” to? Do we really need or want this level of technology in our lives or is it already too late to stop the march of the machines?
But, and most importantly, could a connected kettle know it’s late, I’m still typing and that I need a cup of tea?
Really amazing! specially “The Internet of Things” I’ve never though how many things were already connected to Internet , it really surprised me. And I believe that yes, it’s too late to stop the march of the machines, but I’m sure that we as humanity will consider all concerns about privacy and possible bad impact of the technology, it’s like part of our evolution. As a web analyst I just think that there are many work to do and many opportunities will become.
Great write-up Jonathan, glad you took so much away from my talk and that I wasn’t just rambling about ‘the future’ like a nutcase!