Your car is on Twitter?

In a recent article celebrating the 200th birthday of the tin can, the Washington Post pointed out that “Al the Can” has a Facebook and Twitter page to encourage recycling. This is surprisingly not the first time we have seen inanimate objects with Twitter handles.

Ford rigged up “AJ” (short for “American Journey”) the Fiesta to tweet updates automatically during its trek across America. The tweets reflect external cues the car could sense, like GPS location, weather, speed, traffic, hills, etc. Followers of @AJtheFiesta receive updates like, “It’s getting pretty dark; time to put the headlights on." or twitpics of test drivers taken by AJ's cockpit camera.

AJ the Tweeting Ford Fiesta (http://www.indiancarsbikes.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/wheels-Ford-Twitter-Fiesta-blogSpan.jpg)

Similarly, “Precious” the bicycle has been tweeting during its own American journey to raise money for LIVESTRONG. Precious tweets automatically by selecting from a pool of hundreds of pre-written tweets based on the external factors it senses like, GPS location, weather, road quality, and speed.

While Precious’s goal is to raise money for charity, Ford says that AJ is a first step toward enabling cars to communicate with their drivers. They envision a car that can alert the driver when it needs an oil change, when it is passing an interesting attraction, or perhaps when it is near a cheap gas station. Maybe some day in the future your car will collaborate with your To-Do List iPhone app to plan errand routes or send you reminders when you are near the bank or the dry cleaners.

Why stop with cars? Imagine having a refrigerator that sent you energy-saving tips or an oven that sent you recipes. What if the next generation of television sets sent you a message when your show was about to come on? Would life be simpler if your home alarm clock was synced with your work Outlook calendar so you never missed another early meeting? If we can make a car tweet, there is no end to the possibilities.

Check-Ins, Check-Ins, Check-Ins

A Forrester study released in July announced that a vast majority of online adults (84%) were not familiar with location-based check-in tools like Foursquare, Gowalla and SCVNGR. Only 1% of people reported using the tools more than once a week. Since the launch of Facebook Places, Foursquare has reported a significant spike in sign-ups, but their three million users are still mere peanuts compared to Facebook’s 500+ million users.

Stores partnered with these location-based services reward customers who frequently check in to their locations, yet the services still do not seem popular with the online world. Internet users may be comfortable posting videos of Fluffy in a paper bag or tweeting their thoughts about the summer heat, but they are still a bit wary of broadcasting their whereabouts to the online community. They may even be embarrassed about how often they go to Rainforest Café and want to keep it a secret.

This is where emerging check-in tools like GetGlue, Philo and Miso suffer no resistance. Customers can check in to Chipotle on Foursquare, but they can check in to Dancing with the Stars on GetGlue. These tools are not based on the user’s location; they are based on the entertainment the users are enjoying. Customers can “check-in” to share with their networks what TV shows, books, music, games, or movies they are engaging with in real time.

Dancing with the Stars finale with Kristi Yamaguchi in 2008
http://www.erati.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/kristy_yamaguchi2.jpg

Using entertainment-based services you run no risk of a creepy ex-boyfriend following you to the Starbucks you just checked into. He may find out that you just watched the entire Real Housewives of New Jersey marathon, however.

We have seen Glee as a trending topic on many Wednesday nights, a huge spike in conversation during last year’s VMAs, and social media pandemonium surrounding the World Cup. People like to talk about entertainment, so these entertainment-based services may soon explode in popularity.

Some TV shows are already banking on that possibility. ETV’s Bridezillas partnered with Miso to deliver exclusive photo and video content to fans that frequently check in to their show. In the future, TV shows hope to engage their fans with real-time scavenger hunts, trivia, or challenges while their shows are on air.

First there were location-based check-in services, now there are entertainment-based check-in services. What’s next in this check-in fever? Will we be checking in to the grilled cheese sandwich and diet coke we have for lunch? The H&M shirt and Levi’s we are wearing to dinner with friends? Only time will tell.

Social Media Users as Product Experts?

If you've seen the latest Tempur-Pedic "Ask Me About My Mattress" advertisement or commercial for the movie When in Rome, you may have noticed that companies are trusting social media users to provide recommendations for their products.  The Tempur-Pedic ad encourages audience members to ask their friends via Facebook and Twitter how they like their Tempur-Pedic mattress, and one of several When in Rome commercials mentions praise of the movie from Facebook and Twitter fans where movies usually use analysis from expert reviewers.

Word-of-mouth recommendations have been around for a long time, and savvy companies have used positive customer reviews to add legitimacy to their products for just as long.  The only difference now is that companies are using social media as a vehicle to deliver those recommendations.

I am clearly a fan of social media;  it enables the average person to share information and create relationships with the general public, but I do not think that recommendations-via-social media is a good next step.  While recommendations may be effective when delivered in person, when they are broadcast online some of their trustworthiness is lost.

People can (and do!) say whatever they want over the Internet without any accountability.  Because of this lack of consequences, the Web has a reputation for broadcasting bogus information.  Consumers would sooner trust an official movie reviewer or someone they know because people say crazy things online.  Particularly in the case of the When in Rome movie, viewers may be skeptical that the ad does not feature official reviews because the omission may be indicative of unfavorable reviews.

Giving Through Social Media

Less than 48 hours after a massive earthquake destroyed much of Haiti, the American Red Cross had already received $35 million dollars in donations to the relief effort (according to James Morgan's article for the BBC, Twitter and Facebook Users Respond to the Haiti Crisis).  $8 million of that was received directly through texts to the ARC donation line 90999.  Today the text donations have surpassed $22 million, according to the New York Times, and that amount is largely thanks to social media.

Without time for a traditional print, TV, or online messaging campaign, the ARC turned to social media to spread the word quickly about the 90999 donation line and the necessity of relief donations.   The ARC itself does not have many followers on Twitter, fans on Facebook, readers in the blogosphere, or viewers on YouTube, but they reached out to celebrities, athletes, and even the first lady who were able to make a huge impact in the social media world.  Following their example, everyday social media users started groups on Facebook, re-tweeted the ARC's message, blogged about the cause, and posted YouTube videos imploring people to donate.

http://www.r4mr0dinc.net/R4mr0dInc/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/redcross.jpg

This mobile donation campaign has had unprecedented success that could not have been possible without the vast numbers of people now connected through social media.  While traditional messaging campaigns are still quite powerful, this example shows how powerful messaging through social media can be as well.