PointAbout, in a partnership with FortiusOne, added a User Generated Content (UGC) component to its 2009 Inauguration Application called “Speak Your Mind” which lets users of the application answer a series of questions, and then view how their answers compare to the entire USA with FortiusOne’s visual analytics mapping tools.  

The stunning power of mobile User Generated Content (UGC):

We’ve just today made this system live at www.NavigatingWashington.com and it’s already starting to show some interesting results.  For example, in Louisiana, both respondents “strongly disagree” that Barak Obama will be able to get the US out of the recession, while in Washington, DC, all respondents “strongly agreed” that that was the case.  The geographic differences are just fascinating and this will just continue to grow as more and more users respond across the US by using our application.

This is a great example of the power of using a mobile device to create UGC and then using the PC to analyze and display  it.

Many businesses are very interested in mobilizing their brands, usually because they simply want more access to their user base, and they see a lot of potential in opening up a new channel of communication through a mobile device that the user is carrying around with them anyway (more often than even your wallet, after all, if you leave your wallet at home, you might not turn around because you can always borrow cash from a friend.  But if you leave your phone at home, most people would turn around to pick it up.)

But we’ve identified what we believe is an even more powerful argument for mobilizing your brand: the massively leveraging power of mobile content creation.

So what do we mean by this?   Let me start by asking you a question:  If only 2% to 5% of your user base is carrying around a smart-phone, does it make sense to put the thought, time & resources into creating a mobile version of your brand?

Your initial answer might be ‘no,’ but we have a strong argument as to why that answer is a resounding ‘yes’.  

Let’s start by analyzing a pattern of behavior on the Internet (and in other parts of life too):  Typically, most people “consume” content, and few people “create” content.  It’s like this with TV, and it’s like this on the Internet.  Many fewer people are out there creating the content than the size of the audience that’s consuming it.  Let’s call this the 90/10 rule, where 10% of the user base is creating the content, while 90% is consuming it.

Another interesting trend with smart phones is that people with these types of phones, which are basically mini-computers, are much more active on the Internet through their phones than the typical phone user.  In fact, even though a vast minority of users have an iPhone, they are big Internet users, because the iPhone has made it easy to browse web pages through the mobile device.  The ergonomics here become very important.

So then, these pieces come together.  You have very active mobile users within your user base that could be creating very rich, original content for the rest of the passive user base to consume.

And even though those users might be a minority of the entire user base, or might only be in certain geographic areas, the content they make can (and will) still be consumed by the entire audience, and your brand, and site, will be much richer because of it.

This is illustrated very clearly by a “Twitter Vote Report” app that NPR did for the elections (pictured at left, you can also find the link here courtesy of FortiusOne).  Although the actual amount of data produced was small – on the order of what appears to be several thousand submissions nationwide, the effect is stunning when viewed on the full desktop experience.  Andhere’s a link showing the twitter comments people were making about their wait times – again it’s as if these mobile users were all reporters, sending in “news from the front lines” that passive desktop users crave.

We encourage you to think about mobilizing your brand in this way:  You will get a new channel of localized communication between you and your user base by extending your brand to the mobile handset, and making it easy for current and future customers to interact with you from their phones.  But you will also have a tremendous opportunity to leverage the data from this small subset of your users over your entire userbase, so make sure you put some thought into how you can apply this for maximum effect.

The problem with a really, really great idea is that nobody quite knows quite what to do with it.

Take television, for example.  Here’s a quote from TIME Magazine, Feb 22, 1926:

“In London, a concern called Television Ltd. obtained licenses to retail the ‘televisor,’ a radio device invented by John L. Baird of Glasgow that permits ‘looking in’ as well as listening in. Broadcasting from a televisor station in London was to begin at once.“

The television.  The device so many of us can’t live without today.  The device many people spend hours in front of each day.  But when it was first invented, many people didn’t know what to make of it.  ”A radio with pictures?”  In fact, early television shows mainly consisted of a newscaster sitting in front of the camera, reading a script.  It was basically just that: Radio, with pictures.  Nobody had figured out how to take advantage of this new medium.

Contrast that with television today:

We’ve probably gone about 98% up on the value curve in terms of exploiting the television medium.  It’s doubtful we’ll see any major innovations until the technology changes again (3-D TV’s, etc).

PointAbout is in the same position as TV was in the 1930′s.

What we are enabling by mobilizing brands is an entirely new channel of communication between the user and the brand.

For the first time, a company’s website knows exactly who and where the user is the moment they go to the site.

That’s a really big deal.

For example, when you walk into a Walmart today, you don’t visit Walmart.com as you’re walking in – there’s no reason to do so.  It wouldn’t make sense.

But what if Walmart.com wasn’t the main corporate site, but instead it was a site that was personalized and individualized for YOU.  What if, when you were near or in the store, you could interact with your phone to find out whether Walmart had something in stock, or heck for that matter, what if Walmart could invite you to come into the store because Walmart knew you were nearby and knew that you needed to buy toothpaste.

What if, in fact, your phone reminded you that you needed to buy toothpaste.  What if you had forgotten, but Walmart was telling you because you were in the neighborhood?  ”Why not stop in while you’re nearby, after all, you’re right around the corner.”

These ideas are really just scratching the surface of what’s possible with PointAbout.  The web has been blind, but we give it vision.  So for the first time, the web can see you, and see where you are and interact with you on a very personalized level.  And I’m confident that we haven’t even started to figure out how to take advantage of it all.  But if there’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s that the PointAbout crew will be helping brands figure it out.

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Our goal is to get our users to the “How did I live without this?” moment.  But that can be hard to see before-hand.  For example, people lived just fine without cellphones, but can you imagine living without one these days?  Our goal is to accomplish the same thing by overlaying the virtual world over the physical world.  

This video will explain what we mean with a specific example.  Daniel Odio, one of our co-founders, had to get the oil changed in his car.  Now, the real question is, when you’re driving down the street, why don’t you have immediate access to know:

1. What oil change places are around you
2. What each one of them would charge you for an oil change, and
3. (most importantly) Which one of them wants your business the most?

Take a look at the video to see in more details how we’re planning on resolving this issue…