Antony raised several points that really struck a chord, how our personal privacy settings online impact everyone; friends, family and colleagues. When was the last time somebody took a photo of you and asked instantly if it would be okay to publish it on Facebook? Surely these are issues we need to discuss with one and another?

Instead of just allowing the web to dictate how we are seen, why not invest a little time to be the main source of information that is published about us on the web? To find out more have a look at Antony’s top ten must have pieces of advice for looking after your web shadow.

Thanks Anthony for a great lunchtime discussion that left us all with a lot to think about.

We have included a video of a few questions Anthony answered for us.

Or to watch Antony present at TEDx.

According to BusinessWeek, Amazon Kindle sales rose each quarter through 2010 and exceeded estimates with a total volume of eight million devices shipped. The same story also reports that Amazon will have sold at least 60% more Kindles than predicted (five million) when the 2010 totals are finally totted up, representing a 233% increase on 2009 sales. Industry sources say that readers downloaded 15 million Kindle books, ten million of them paid, in the last week of 2010 alone. And Amazon.com itself has just announced a third author has joined the ‘Kindle Million Club’ – authors who have sold over a million Kindle books.

A major factor behind the Kindle’s success has been Amazon’s willingness to stay calm, analyse the market, listen to users and act accordingly. Instead of trying to compete for market share against numerous mobile devices – smartphones, tablets, media player – Amazon has actually developed a Kindle app that works on these other platforms and automatically syncs read pages, bookmarks, notes and highlights across devices (including the Kindle), so reading time can be shared across gadgets. Users and Kindle evangelists can even lend books once to one person for 14 days that can be read on a PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, BlackBerry or Android device.

But when it comes down to customer experience: what do Kindle users really want? Kelly Gallagher, vice president of Publishing Services at Bowker, said: “It appears that heavy to moderate book buyers want a dedicated device for reading that doesn’t have a lot of distractions bundled with it. However, we do see that iPad owners may influence overall sales by bringing new and light e-book buyers into the market.”

Size and weight clearly matters for anyone looking to carry a device around with them most of the time. Amazon’s Kindle is 8mm thick and weighs just 245 grammes, whereas the iPad is 12mm thick and at 680 grammes looks and feels like a brick by comparison. You only have to watch commuters reading on the iPad – they hold it on their knees, while e-book readers hold theirs just like a book.

Readability is also understandably pretty important. Avid readers who spend a long time looking at their screen love the Kindle’s E Ink, much easier on the eye that an LCD display. The iPad wins out for magazine and multimedia readers thanks to colour, graphics and video capabilities, while reading a novel on a smart phone soon gets tiring. Of course those screens also need powering, and while the iPhone does not even make it through the day and the iPad lasts about 10 hours without a charge, the Kindle lasts 10 days with Wi-Fi turned on and a full month with it turned off.

But perhaps the most important factor for anyone looking purely for a reading device is that of price. According to Digital Trends, the total price disparity after using a Kindle and an iPad for two years is approximately £600 once you take into account both the purchase prices (Kindles start at £109; iPads at £439) plus the data services necessary for the iPad.

So, it appears the Amazon Kindle has defied the nay-sayers and gone firmly mainstream, solidly establishing the e-Book market in the process. It only took a decade or so from the first e-readers emerging in 1998 and the Microsoft Cleartype in 2000, but actually that follows the timeline of the classic adoption cycle. These days if you live in a large city, e-reading commuters are a common sight.

So much for the iPad being a Kindle Killer. The Kindle was designed to do one thing and do it very well, and that is precisely what it does. There are always going to be tradeoffs in trying to be all things to all people, and that’s why I’ll read on Kindle over iPad any day.

My experience with Orange was, as usual, pretty terrible. Waiting on hold followed by repeatedly explaining my problems to various staff, all of whom stated strict instructions (that they had been given by Apple) which they had to complete before they could even consider giving me a replacement. Some of these were completely unfeasible. For example, they asked me to swap my SIM card with someone else with an iPhone4 for a whole weekend. Then, I had to swap my handset with someone for another full two days. How was I supposed to find someone that would be happy to live without their mobile phone for almost a week?! I was lucky and found a very kind and obliging friend but still think the request from Orange (or was it Apple?!) was ridiculous. Anyway, having completed the various tests, Orange finally passed me over to Apple who they said would deal with the replacement.

The dispatch of the new handset was efficiently arranged by Apple. Following a very simple telephone call with instructions on how to return my iPhone and how the replacement would be delivered, the shiny new iPhone arrived as promised, within 24 hours. A great delivery experience!

Although Apple get a gold star for this final end point with the delivery, I’m left feeling negative about both brands. If Apple really do give Orange such ridiculous guidelines to the mobile retailers then it’s partly their fault. However, Orange must have agreed to those guidelines when signing up to selling Apple goods and therefore need to improve the way that they deliver their customer service, so not to infuriate customers and by simply blaming Apple for setting the rules.

There’s no simple answer as to who is to blame. But, since it’s a co-brand experience, the experience delivered by either company, at all stages of the customer lifecycle, will impact customers’ perceptions of both brands regardless of which one they’re directly dealing with. This can be a positive thing for companies as it gives them multiple chances to shine. However, in the case of Apple and Orange it’s also very risky given that a brand can be tainted through association, even if it’s not directly involved in the negative customer contact. What is clear is that it’s essential for brands to agree upon a customer service strategy as part of their contract to sell each other’s goods, to ensure that any contact with either brand is positive and therefore only improves customers’ perception of both brands.

The uproar has been entertaining: one group created a “Crap logo” website (now taken down) where you could create a new Gap-logo using any other word instead of “Gap”. As had happened with BP earlier this year, a fake “Gap logo” Twitter account was created, with the bio as “I have feelings, too. Jerks.” This has been broadcasting tweets such as this:

“I’m not a size zero logo anymore. I can’t help it.”

“What we really need here is a social media strategist. No, an entire TEAM of social media strategists. For what? I have no idea.”

“Stare at the gradient long enough and it turns into a unicorn. Don’t see it yet? Keep staring. Seriously.”

“The square fades like our jeans! I kid, I kid. Cold water! Tumble dry! “

“If you people think I’m part of some sort of sanctioned, planned “social media strategy” I have some PREMIUM 1969 jeans to sell you.”

“Lego, the office pitbull, has been staring at the logo since yesterday afternoon. I think he’s finally seeing unicorns. Someone alert R&D.”

Gap has been active in Social Media, using Groupon and Foursquare this year, so it was inevitable that they show awareness of the conversations and engage. Their Facebook post reads “Thanks for everyone’s input on the new logo! (…) We know this logo created a lot of buzz and we’re thrilled to see passionate debates unfolding! So much so we’re asking you to share your designs. We love our version, but we’d like to … see other ideas. Stay tuned for details in the next few days on this crowd sourcing project.”

Some commentators have gone as far as suggesting The Gap released a “bad” logo on purpose (“The @GAP logo cost millions of dollars…? I thought it was a quick put-together for this controversy…?”) in order to a) create buzz and b) crowdsource a new logo. And actually, the new logo is currently not being used on the new European website, which undermines the idea of a global rebranding.

Others have suggested the crowdsourcing idea has been floated in response to a rebranding gone wrong. It is indeed unclear whether this is part of a well thought out social media strategy (“is @Gap new logo a PR #fail or pure genius?” posted one Twitterer), or whether it has been provoked by the negative sentiment expressed across the Social Media space (“More bland than a rice cake smeared with tofu” said one; “Releasing the worst logo design in recent history isn’t going to be fixed by a pathetic plea for free work via social media.” said another)

What is true, however, that in earlier times, it would have been much harder (and expensive) to gauge the reaction to a rebranding effort in such a short space of time (the logo was launched on October 4th). Moreover, the “buzz” has inspired some to post alternatives for the logos, such as here.

Whether or not it was all part of a plan, Gap has certainly managed to generate a lot of noise. Will it have a positive impact on its flagging sales? Only time will tell…

So, what are some of the new features of iPhone4 that are going to be so special? For me forward facing video calling, is going to be a really good feature (in the main). A number of my close friends live all around the UK so being able to actually see their faces when we chat will be a real bonus and make them feel much closer. This is great. But, I don’t want all my friends, family and colleagues to be able to utilise video calling. What about when I’m working from home in my PJs? Or not feeling I’m looking my best? What’s the etiquette with video calling  if someone asks you to video call, how can you decline without them thinking that you’re hiding something? It will be interesting to monitor social rules around this feature and how they unfold as it becomes more widely used.

Multi-tasking is an essential feature of any smart phone which was overlooked in the launch of the first iPhone. As the number of functions and apps on such a device is so high, the ability to simply switch between them becomes more and more essential and I have never found the Home button on the iPhone good enough to support this. Parallel to this is the new feature to be able to organise apps into folders. Again, given the huge number of apps that are available this is essential to provide come kind of organisation on the Home screens. Currently I see people swiping through pages and pages of vibrantly coloured icons, in the hope of finding the app they’re looking for. 

iBooks is one feature I won’t be utilising. The Apple advert for this app uses a Winnie the Pooh book as an example where there is just one sentence of text displayed on the screen below a large illustration. The advert looks great, displaying such a simple page of a children’s book, but I moved on from Winnie the Pooh a while ago and I can’t imagine the 3.5″ inch screen being a comfortable reading experience for longer books. I know some people have got into the e-reader craze, but these have much larger screens than the iPhone and I therefore don’t think this is one of the top features of the iPhone4.

There area number of other features of the iPhone4 including a 5m.pixel camera which although will be useful, it’s expected in a phone these days. The original camera on the iPhone was way behind, so Apple are only just keeping up with competitors by offering this and I don’t see it as a super-selling feature. Similar to this, they are promising an extended battery life on the iPhone4 which, as far as I’ve been told from friends was horrendous on the original iPhone. Again Apple are just correcting flaws of the older iPhone and these aren’t unique selling points. I did read today that Apple are patenting solar panels to be used in future iPhones to enable users to extend the power even further by simply using the sun. So do I continue my wait for the iPhone until it includes this feature too? I think not. Given UK summers the use of solar panels is probably pretty limited…

I hope to be the proud owner of an iPhone4 at the end of the month, so look out for my next blog reviewing my new toy.

Even if you’re not a Facebook addict or regular Twitter user, you’ll know how difficult it is to escape social media. Why? Because social media is revolutionising the way that people consume content.

Social media is opening new channels of communication between brands and customers and there is a lot of potential in the social web that marketers can tap into. For example, a study earlier in the year by Penn State University showed that 20% of all tweets mentioned a brand name. Sales and marketing professionals need to be aware of these significant media consumption trends so they can tailor and target their messages as effectively as possible across a changing landscape.

However, with all the hype around social media it can be difficult to understand where to start. So here is an outline plan of action to dip your toes into the world of social media:

• Set clear aims and objectives.
• Listen to the social world; understand what is going on out there and find out who your audience is.
• Use all the information you have at your fingertips to build up a picture of the social landscape.
• This information will show you how to work with your audience to achieve your goals.
• Then simply measure, refine, repeat.

More businesses should focus on developing social media campaigns relevant to their customers. The days of pure brand ‘broadcasting’ are long behind us. Successful campaigns are now being supported by an online social media component, or taking place exclusively in social media.

As you get to know more about your customers and their social media presence, you will develop a strategy that not only enables you to influence conversations about your brand and win more brand advocates, it will also recruit them as willing foot soldiers in your battle for brand supremacy.

Note: *A Report detailing this subject was written by Jonathan Culling and Billie Andersen for Evaluation Centre. To read this article please go to the crm software, contact centre software and marketing software section of the Evaluation Centre.

A new Apple product is always an exciting design moment. iMac, iPod (I have owned one since 2002), iPhone, iTouch …and now iPad. Of course when I saw the photos of this sleek, sexy machine, I wanted to get my hands on one. Now. Then the reviews started coming in, and I started reconsidering (there is also, alas, the small matter of budget…) In the end, reason won the day, with two sets of considerations which will help me hold on a little bit longer before I splurge…

Interactivity aspects: Several reviews mention the lack of some fundamental native apps. No alarm clock if you turn the device off, no calculator, no weather, no voice memos – all of which one has gotten used to with the iPhone/iTouch. The device also does not allow multitasking, which might be something of an issue, and one that might not get addressed in future versions. Much more problematic for the browsing experience, there is no support for Flash – yet over 95% of websites use it in some way or other, so that the browsing experience will inevitably suffer. Some sites will be entirely unusable, others will have black holes equivalent to broken links. Last but not least, the lack of USB or SD-card slot (though they can be bought as extras) is an issue for connecting all sorts of third party peripherals.

Physical ergonomic aspects: this tablet format is too heavy to hold and manipulate with one hand, unlike the iTouch or iPhone. So it is meant to be used either on a table, or on ones’ knees. But if I hold it flat on my knees I need to bend over to read it. If I hold it slanted with both hands, I will get tired quickly. If it is on a desk, the viewing angle also is not optimal – I will need a stand of some sort. Moreover, it would be a nice touch to provide tactile feedback for the keyboard, since this is a device on which users will be typing “properly” (unlike the iTouch or iPhone where one tends to do one-fingered or thumb-typing).

Apple has been known in the past to deliberately withhold features in the first release in order to spin out the lifecycle of its products. This allows the company to capitalise on the early adopters prepared to shell out for the “first”, and then come out with a “second”, often more fully featured (say, a camera? The latest version of mobile OS X?) and better priced (read “cheaper”) version for the mainstream users. So that’s where I’ll be this time round: when the iPad2 comes out possibly late this year or early next year, watch this space…

Johannes Leonardo has launched a mysterious and (potentially) engaging social advertising campaign around New York and it will be interesting to see how New Yorkers respond to it.

Fragments of an advertisement have been appearing all over the city, containing a Twitter hashtag. People can either search the city for the images or respond to clues provided via the company’s twitter account. The idea is then that people take a picture of the fragment and upload it to Twitter revealing the advert (a supposedly explicit image) and the brand behind it.

So will people join in the game? As an indication of popularity, from looking at Twitter people are definitely talking about the campaign, but it will be interesting to see how many people actually take part. While the vast majority of those following the campaign will probably take a passive interest, it will only take a small number of those engaged enough to participate for it to be a success (although with the amount it is being talked about it arguably already is). In any case, the campaign is truly social, requiring collaboration and clashing together the online and offline worlds.

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The golden age of the Web2.0 has seen an increasing number of customers complaining about bad online customer experiences. The online world is flawed with poorly designed websites delivering sought services in an undesirable fashion. But does that really put off customers provided that they get quality in what they pay for? What is it that we like so much about these Internet brands that don’t provide a good customer experience?

Let’s have a look at Amazon and Ryanair: frankly these sites will never figure on the hall of fame for the most smartly designed website. Amazon has a cluttered and messy layout all the way, whereas Ryanair looks cheap and is often mischievous in terms of pricing as the final price of a flight ticket rarely matches what’s advertised on the homepage.

But does that make customers stop consuming? Well not really, at least for the majority of them. And the reason is simple and well known in the marketing industry: most of the users are emotionally bonded to brands, even more when they are outstanding in some way. The Amazon site is a jungle (easy pun!) but it is also renowned worldwide for being the most popular and number one goods reseller website. The Ryanair site might be deceiving in terms of its flight fares, but it nonetheless remains one of the cheapest air carrier to fly with across Europe.

I think we all agree that “what it costs to us” is a key decision-making element when purchasing something. More generally, what matters is the end result and the quality we get for what we pay for. But is that enough to be used as an excuse for not delivering a good customer experience?

From a customer standpoint, it obviously isn’t enough as quality is expected throughout the process. From a brand perspective, the philosophy might be different. Executives may think that cheap experience is inline with the cheapness of the prices in place, or that money and effort not spent on the platform is spent on the quality of the actual service.

Whatever reason it is, those companies offering a poor online experience are playing with fire. Internet being generally their sole selling channel, they can hardly rely on other media to communicate their image and emotionally tie consumers. Should transactional processes, for example, be affected by design or conceptual shortcomings, customers could easily decide to move to new pastures. This is all the more valid in the current financial climate where comparison websites are flourishing, the competition (in prices and ideas) is becoming fiercer and customers are becoming increasingly demanding.

In conclusion, the emotional attachment to a brand plays a tremendous role in the overall brand experience, hence the emergence of new measurement techniques to assess emotional engagement such as the Emotional Engagement Measurement™ (EEM ™). However, I believe that companies only relying on brand perception might be digging their own grave by neglecting their customer experience.

This post was originally posted by Xavier Klingenfus