Can’t Get No Satisfaction: Apps Style

The battle of the app stores.

Apple currently has 350,000 different apps in its app store, with Android trailing behind at a steady 250,000.  The question is: will you ever be satisfied with your apps?

Jay Deragon, CEO of Social Flights, LLC recently published an article discussing the amount of satisfaction users gain from their use of social media.

Deragon divide’s users’ social media engagements into three categories, summarized as follows:

1. “Must be’s”: these are the apps and social media access that you have come to expect on a daily basis, strictly basic things like Facebook and Twitter.
2. “More is better”: a step above the basics, this is where things like yfrog.com come in.  You have Twitter, it works great, but you find that you like adding photos and videos to your posts.
3. “Delighters”: Nobody expected to be sucked into the world of social media, but now you can hardly leave your house without “checking in” to foursquare.  Maybe you even have a check-in at your house.  Stranger things have happened.

What does all this mean?

The average young adult will pick up a new Smartphone and update their Facebook status before they even leave the store.  Young adults these days have a good sense of what they expect out of Smartphones and the social media that comes with them – here are their “must be’s.”  This same age group will rapidly progress to Deragon’s second social media engagement of “more is better” with the greatest of ease, Tweeting pictures and uploading video streams.  Last but not least comes the “delighters.”  Whereas Facebook and Twitter were expected and yfrog.com was a seamless transition, the phenomenon that is social media takes its toll and people are “checking in” wherever they go.

Although not every app deals with social media it is easy to see that social media applications are the big ticket items.  Take Twitter for example: should you download Tweetdeck, or opt for Hootsuite?  People get all riled up about the best way to synchronize all of their accounts.  Upon entering the world of the almighty apps people may not expect to fall so far down the rabbit hole, but Jay Deragon’s research on the social media phenomenon breaks it down for consumers.

Whether or not users are satisfied with their social media outlets depends entirely on their expectations.  There is, therefore, a Catch-22: peoples’ expectations are continually rising.  Not very long ago camera phones were just gaining popularity, but now they are almost standard.  The thing about consumers is that they will never be fully satisfied if the bar keeps rising, and that lack of satisfaction keeps the social media engineers on their toes.

Have you visited your app store today?

References:

http://socialmediatoday.com/jderagon/277591/social-media-usage-satisfaction

http://www.businessinsider.com/charts-of-the-week-ipad-competition-is-toast-2011-3#google-is-closing-the-gap-on-apples-app-store-3

Keeping Up with The Facebookers: The New Social Caste Benchmark

“Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life.”  That’s the home page pitch that has convinced so many of us to sign-up for a personalized virtual neighborhood.

After agreeing to the homeowners’ contract, or the Terms and Conditions, we are welcomed with a newsletter, an event planning tool, a message board, and a neighborhood chat room. We even have the power to add new neighbors to our territory, and to delete neighbors at will.

When we first move-in, we feel as though we reside in a back-country home. There is no one in sight, except for the friends who convinced us to join the community. We wonder what the Facebook fuss is about.

Soon thereafter, word gets around about our vacant lot. Overnight, our mailbox becomes flooded with building requests, as friends seek to gain acceptance into our space. We gladly approve requests from close friends and family, and reluctantly accept those from enemies.

A few months later, corporations apply for approval to build. Companies such as Coca-Cola and Nike wonder whether we “like” their products. Before we know it, our quiet country home becomes a noisy city apartment.

It’s then when we start to wonder what our fellow tenants are up to.

We begin to pry open their photo albums and inspect notes written on their front door. We examine fellow occupants’ friends that we do not know, and also the friends of these unknown friends.

During these investigations, we pass judgments about inhabitant lifestyles. Conjuring up feelings from jealously to arrogance, we compare Facebook resident activity to activity of our own. And based on these comparisons, we filter our own profile to reflect, what we believe as, the “proper” way to live.

To neighbors, our profile image becomes an identity. To employers, this image epitomizes self-competence. To ourselves, this image embodies our social reputation, and even our social standing.

We remove tags, crop pictures, and censor content to promote our good name. When continually edited millions of times by millions of users, this filtered facade becomes the new social caste benchmark for the hundreds or thousands of residents in our personalized neighborhoods.

And as we strive to keep up with our neighbors’ standard of living, and edit our own standard to maintain our social standing, we generate a new, far more extensive method to “keep up with the Joneses.”

Cloud Computing Makes Sense

If you’ve checked the business forecast lately, you may have heard predictions about a fluffy phenomenon heading your way.  This misty marvel drifts into your browser with the potential to shield your business from the traditional, out-of-the-box software storm it may be caught in, and can drastically reduce cost, allow you to access information wherever an Internet connection can be found, and give your business the agility it needs to compete in today’s market.

What is this technological transformation tool you ask?  The lighter-than-air computer craze known as coud computing.

Over the past few years, cloud computing has accumulated major interest among businesses and Internet technology patrons alike.

What does cloud computing actually mean?

According to InfoWorld, the “cloud” in cloud computing essentially serves as a representation for the Internet.  The computing aspect of the puzzling phrase encompasses different areas which fall into a trio of service categories: Software as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Infrastructure as a Service.

Software as a Service, or SaaS, is an easily deployable software program offered over the Internet.  The SaaS model allows a business or a user to subscribe to cloud-based software and to work within the software while on the cloud.  SaaS eliminates the need to consistently update and maintain software, as well as provides rapid deployment and lower tech support costs.

Platform as a Service, or PaaS, is an extension of the SaaS model, and gives a business the means to customize multiple applications which drive a business.  Platform as a Service offers real-time collaboration, easy deployment, and customizable user-interfaces.

Last, but certainly not least, is the Infrastructure as a Service model of cloud computing, or IaaS for short.  Pushing software applications aside, IaaS service providers give businesses access to data centers, computer hardware, and server hosting capabilities.  By taking advantage of the IaaS model, start-up companies, as well as enterprises can keep their overhead costs to a minimum.

But will cloud computing continue to hover over our computer or begin to float on into the land of lost technology?

I believe cloud computing is here to stay.  Cloud computing is granting small to medium sized businesses access to the technological resources they need to compete with the big boys; therefore sparking some much needed innovation, likely making corporations sweat.

By having the same access to data centers, server farms, and software platforms, cloud computing is helping to create a fair playing field.

So be sure to check the forecast later in the year, because the phenomenon known as cloud computing is predicted to be hot, with a 100% chance of collaboration.