Text "Haiti" to 90999

A brief post on the power of mobile marketing and a reminder on the goodness of the human spirit. Over $1MM was rasied to aid in the crises in Haiti in 24 hours, $10 at a time via Text to Donate. Please join those who have given to help those in desperate need. Text "Haiti" to 90999 to help support The American Red Cross efforts. $10 will be added to your phone bill and the entire amount will go to The American Red Cross.

Thank you.

In App Ads Tipping Point?

Retail Giant, Walmart continuing to focus on reaching new targets is running in-app banner ads on iPhones. Walmart’s ads appear in the NBC Today Shows Recipe App.

Interestingly the Walmart call to action featured in the Today Show in-App Ad is to download Walmart’s own iPhone App, which is focused on helping shoppers find great deals.

In addition to Walmart, Microsoft, Unilever and others are testing In-App Ads which means many more retailers and manufacturers will likely soon follow.

Are “Social Norms” to Blame?

From being an exclusive “college” network to letting the whole world in, Facebook has evolved astronomically these last few years. I remember looking back on my own experience and thinking, “What’s gonna happen to my profile when I graduate?” Well, I now have my answer, obviously.

But in the midst of this grand evolution, there still has to be some element of privacy. (Facebook recently amended its privacy settings.) We all know that Facebook has made once private information available to the public in recent months. Is Mark Zuckerberg’s argument that the ever-changing “social norms” of society are to blame, convincing enough? The author of this article doesn’t seem to think so; in fact, he believes that Zuckerberg is deviating from his past beliefs:

“I don't buy Zuckerberg's argument that Facebook is now only reflecting the changes that society is undergoing… ‘Privacy control, he told me less than 2 years ago, is "the vector around which Facebook operates” .’

However, Zuckerberg makes a good point: “"We view it as our role in the system to constantly be innovating and be updating what our system is to reflect what the current social norms are.”

I personally think the term “social norms” is a bit dated for this argument, but that’s a whole other discussion.

I can see both sides of the story. But either way, just have common sense. Figure out Facebook’s privacy settings. Don’t post stuff you wouldn’t want your grandmother or her Bingo friends to see.