a little blogging ecosystem

Wow...I can't believe that my experiment in blogging is coming to an end. Over the past 9 weeks, I have found starting and maintaining a blog to be like nurturing a fragile ecosystem. With an infinite number of interdependent parts, losing focus or paying too much attention to any one aspect of the blog jeopardized its growth. While best practices emerged, there was no singular formula for success or set of directions to follow. Instead the challenges of content, user experience and objective-integration, lead to a broadened perspective on the life of a blog. Perhaps the greatest lesson I learned was the need to develop/find a voice that is authentic and consistent. Without authenticity readers won't respond and without consistency the blog cannot transcend itself. 

GroupOn GroupingOn

 It looks like everyone loves a good deal, but especially those with a little more cash. Recent data released by GfkMRI shows that Groupon.com is used by all generations and more frequently by those with higher incomes. Among adults who visited Groupon.com in March, 38% were Millennials (born between 1977 and 1994), 29% were GenXers (1965 to 1976) and 29% were Baby Boomers (1946 to 1964). Additionally, Groupon.com users are more than twice as likely as non-Groupon.com users to live in households with annual incomes in excess of $100,000.  Further, Groupon.com users are 73% more likely to live in households whose net worth exceeds $1 million!

 

While the innovative couponing platform has motivated high income households to visit Groupon.com merchants, serious unintended consequences are surfacing.  Researchers from Boston University conducted a study which shows that while the number of reviews increases significantly due to daily deals, average rating scores from Yelp! reviewers who mention daily deals are about 10 percent lower than scores of their peers. As emerging media and commerce sites reach expanded audiences, it will be interesting to note resulting dissonance between intended and actual outcomes. 

Something new or just a better mousetrAPP?

I use to have a Polaroid camera. It was awesome. A chunky, but profoundly innovative photo making machine. Then, digital technology came along and this once mind blowing piece of technology found its permanent resting place in my basement. I had evolved and moved on.  Polaroid photos were a thing of the past. They were blurry, faded and impractically sized.

Recently, Facebook acquired photo-sharing app, Instagram, for $1 billion. Ironically, these digital pictures look an awful like Polaroids. The acquisition has made me wonder about the true nature of digital innovation. Sure photos can now be taken, shared and reproduced at an unprecedented rate, but is there really anything that different?

A report from Flurry Analytics shows that the fastest growing app categories are photo and video, music and productivity.  Are these category leaders surprising? Secretly disappointing? Would love to hear your thoughts…