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Influencers Who Inspire: Interview with Jon Swartz of USA TODAY

Photo courtesy of USA Today

Photo courtesy of USA Today

In a special edition of our “Influencers Who Inspire” series, we’re chatting with award-winning technology journalist, author and avid San Francisco Giants fan, Jon Swartz. Jon shares his thoughts on smart phones and peer pressure, guerrilla marketing tactics that actually work and how reporting compares to baseball.

We read your article on BlackBerry’s Z10 launch and their plans for a comeback; so tell us, what is your ‘go to’ mobile device?

I used a BlackBerry up until two years ago when the trackball wasn’t working as well as it should. At the time, I faced some peer pressure from my colleagues in the Valley to get an iPhone. There used to be a lot of iPhone bias in Silicon Valley, but it has gone away now for the most part. More people are using Androids, and I would certainly consider a move to a BlackBerry or Android from the iPhone. I can live without the iPhone. I find the battery life is awful, and I have to have a charger with me at all times. As a result, more restaurants and bars have charging stations (at SXSW we saw this all over the place).

You know, BlackBerry CEO (Thorsten Heins) is right; he calls the iPhone passé and says they (BlackBerry) have the same problem that Apple did. “We need to earn our laurels back.” It’s true because in tech things become old fast; the shelf life of these things aren’t very long now. Apple has traditionally done a great job of that, making the old version obsolete as they quickly move on to the next thing. So it’s no surprise others are following suit here.

We know you are huge San Francisco Giants fan. How did your obsession with baseball begin?

When I was six I went to my first game. I also got to see Willie Mays play when I was a kid, so that got me hooked for life. I also loved playing the sport. You become infatuated with it, and it never loses you. Baseball also has a long season, and it takes a lot of patience. It’s a lot like reading a novel. It’s not like other sports where the season is more like a quick sprint. The upside is that you can go to a game and actually explain what’s happening. You can also count on always seeing something different. I have probably been to more than 1000 games, and there is always something new to explain or something you haven’t seen happen before.

Baseball is a half-year long, and it changes with the seasons. In spring there is so much optimism, and then comes the summer when things really heat up. In the fall when things wither away, it gets dark and cold and with it comes a sense of desperation when the season ends. That is the beauty of the game. It’s very logical to me and different to other sports in that you can’t run out the clock. You HAVE to finish the game. No matter how well you played and how many runs you are up by, you have to FINISH.

Are there any lessons from baseball that can be applied to business?

Yes, I would never assume anything about anything. Baseball teaches you that you can’t assume something is over until it’s over. Like in 2002 (World Series game) when the Giants had a five-run lead over the Angels with only eight outs left. They had to keep playing until the end and ended up losing the game.

It sounds a little corny but in baseball it’s a different sport. It’s hard to excel if you have to prove it every day. That’s the same as being a reporter; you have to prove yourself daily, but when it’s over it’s over. With so much content and so many articles, today the shelf life for stories is too short. You finish a great story and you are proud of it for about 20 minutes before you have to do something else. You have to move on.

We are all constantly inundated and bombarded with news from all different sources. So every day you have to reinvent yourself to always do more. It’s like Freddy Lynn (MVP and Rookie of the Year) – he came out of nowhere like a comet. But then pitchers found his weaknesses. Unless you can adapt and reinvent yourself every day, you will hit a rut. BlackBerry went through it, and Apple went through it, too. In tech it happens all the time.

Speaking of re-inventing, with the most powerful images getting clicks in social media today, do you find yourself framing your stories differently with visuals or video in mind now?

I do think more about storytelling and how to interest the reader, but rather than visuals, it’s more about the people and the stories. It is necessary to think that way, though, and I am trying to do more of it.

How has your job changed in the last six months?

It’s crazy. In addition to reporting, I oversee all tech coverage in the paper. So I edit and manage people, too. While I’m talking to you I’m editing a story. It’s actually a story on baseball, and it’s coming out next week. There is no shortage of data in baseball, but trying to figure out which data to use and how to use it is the challenge. Just like in reporting, in baseball they too are struggling with deciding how much time to give to data. I have ton of notes but the bigger problem is what parts to use in the story. People ask all the time, “Why you didn’t include us or mention us?” There is only so much you can do given bandwidth and the amount of content to sift through. I write for people who are on the go and always busy, and you have to find a way to keep your story succinct.

Would you tell a student today to go into journalism?

I would say if you are a good writer you can work anywhere, as everyone wants content today. It is so important to have good writers. Smart companies like Salesforce and Mark Benioff understand you need to tell stories to get your customers to want to buy your products.

Has working with PR people changed?

Not really; I have been working with the same people for the last 10 years or so, and pretty much the same good ones. I always work with a core group of 50 of them that I seem to always interact with. It is like cultivating any relationship you built it over time.

What kind of (PR) people do you like to work with?

They should know their company well. Most people I work with have been there a long time. I like working with internal people who can get you what you need faster. They are usually more responsive. I work with a lot of good people. People at Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple; they are all on top of things and respond. Apple is much more responsive, and Yahoo is getting that way, too. They don’t have a choice anymore. Everyone used to have to wait to go to Apple, but now they have to cooperate with us and be responsive.

What was the nicest/most memorable thing someone has done for you?

I have so many stories of people doing something for me in my personal life. But in work life, I would say the most memorable “nice” things people do for me and/or others are services like the airport limos at SXSW and the SXSW survival bag. There was a company called Tagged that provided airport limos to drive us from the airport to town at SXSW. That was nice, convenient and smart.

If you had to cook one meal what would it be?

Pasta. Everyone likes and agrees on it in our family. Jackie is Italian, and pasta is the one thing that I would get no argument on.

What do you do when you’re not working, or at a baseball game?

We have four kids ages 12-25, so it’s a full house, and we are always going from one event to another with them so that means not a lot of free time. We do like to travel a lot to different places and really enjoy our time away.

What’s your favorite part of your job?

Writing cover stories and features I can spend time on. It’s rewarding to do something that no one else is doing. Feature writing is a little different than what everyone else is doing. You always remember your great feature stories. They include more original thinking and have a long-term impact on things to come. They give you something to be proud of.

Blackberry Blackout—A PR Crisis

I have a Blackberry. And while most of my colleagues, friends, and family have abandoned their “CrackBerries” for the Apple’s iPhone or Motorola’s Droid, I have remained loyal. Maybe because I am in a contract with Verizon until October 2012 or maybe because I am simply attached– addicted to the tiny keys, BBM, and square pad; however after the recent infamous data black out, I am weighing my options. And I am not alone. According to a survey by shopping comparison website Kelkoo, one in five Blackberry users is considering switching to a different smart phone.

 

Research in Motion (RIM), the Canadian company who introduced the Blackberry ten years ago, is facing one of the biggest PR woes.  After the worst Blackberry outage ever– which lasted for four consecutive days, leaving tens of millions of frustrated Blackberry users on five continents without email, instant messaging and browsing— RIM is now trying to make amends by offering $100 worth of free apps, but is this a case of too little, too late?

The PR mishaps and failure to properly communicate along the way have aided in additional frustration and brand damage. During the outage, RIM offered only a few updates on what was happening while a growing number of Blackberry users turned to their social networks to express their increasing anger, using the tag #DearBlackberry. And while it took three days for a public statement to be made from co-CEO Mike Lazaridis– who publically apologized for the outage through a YouTube video— the PR damage was already done.

So what should have RIM done differently to manage this PR and social crisis?

  1. RIM’s CEO’s should have faced the issue from the beginning, issuing a statement right away. And the delayed YouTube video should have provided a clearer timeline for next steps and updates.
  2. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter should have been used to provide fast and helpful responses. RIM only posted 15 updates on Twitter over three days. If they set up their own hash tag, they could have better contributed to the conversation and engaged with their users.
  3. Be honest and clear. Technical terms like “switch failures” isn’t explaining the situation in simple language. Being more concise and truthful would have better resonated with consumers and gone much further in repairing any relationship damage.

It’s going to be a long road to rebuild Blackberry customer loyalty and the brands’ reputation, especially with the fierce competition of other, better-maneuvered and slicker smart phones. Technology isn’t perfect. There’s always the potential for an outage or breakdown, but it’s about how a brand chooses to deal with the crisis that is crucial to limiting long term reputational damage and lost customers. This PR disaster is a great reminder of how important communication truly is. Acting fast, telling the truth, and controlling the negative conversation are vital.

 

This a great lesson in bad PR crisis management, but I’d like to hear another recent (we know the Jet Blue story) about a company/brand who took all the right steps in managing a PR crisis. When facing adversity, what did the brand do right? Why was it effective? Please share your thoughts and top tweets of the year with us in the comments below.

 

 

Scan Me! QR codes–the Connection between Offline and Online Worlds

Quick Response codes (QR codes) are going mainstream and creating quite the buzz.  Similar to a barcode—QR codes are used by businesses to track inventory and price products at the point of sale; however, unlike one-dimensional barcodes, QR codes are two-dimensional and have the ability to hold more information, making them increasingly popular for retailers.

Home Depot and QR CodesA few weeks ago, I received a direct mail piece from Home Depot featuring a QR code. I immediately noticed it, whipped out my Blackberry and scanned away. I was directed to Home Depot’s mobile site, giving me access to product ratings, reviews, how-to guides and product-specific videos. The entire process was convenient, quick, and simply cool.  According to Tom Sweeney, Senior Director of Online Strategy at HomeDepot.com, “The main objective…is to further enhance the customer shopping experience by offering additional product and project know-how and increase customer conversion.”

A recent study called “The Naked Facts: Whiplash Edition” by Mobio Identity Systems, an international mobile payment and marketing company, shows an unbelievable 4549% increase in QR barcode scanning across the continent for the first 3 months of 2011. In terms of the type of media scanned, social media accounts for 70% of scans, TV 22%, offline four percent, online three percent, and print one percent. The report also highlights that Generation X and females continue to dominate the scanning world. And while some skeptics may think that consumers are just trying the QR code technology—the report points out that repeat scanners account for 62% of the market.

QR Code - Image from DaylifeQR codes also have the ability to become a powerful new method to reach target audiences with your public relations messaging and enhance communication strategies by offering more benefits. When executed correctly, consumers can see a QR code, scan it, and become instantly engaged in a brand’s message. Not only are QR codes a great way to understand the mobile audience, but they can be used in print media to connect a customer or prospect to additional content while offering a more interactive experience. It is apparent that this technology can be extremely powerful and an effective way to integrate media (print, web, multimedia) inside and outside a store for both consumers and businesses alike.

eBayOne company I came across that is taking QR scanning to the next level is the world’s leading e-commerce company, eBay.  In December 2010, eBay announced the integration of Milo— a localized shopping search engine that catalogs and categorizes real-time inventory at more than 50,000 stores– into its free barcode scanning app RedLaser. According to Steve Yankovich, Vice President of Mobile at eBay, Milo - Local Shopping“By including Milo shopping results in the RedLaser iPhone and Android apps, we are providing access to real-time, accurate local inventory and the power of offline and online comparison-pricing. This provides our RedLaser users even more choice and flexibility when they come to us first to comparison shop.”

This integration proves eBay’s e-commerce prowess is unshakeable—as it has resulted in new opportunities for eBay to connect with buyers and sellers globally while creating a bridge between traditional and online retail.  With over 9 million downloads, RedLaser has about 4,000 QR code scans per day. And this past month, RedLaser updated its app so that users can now create their own QR codes generated from contacts, URLs, or text.

Like most customers looking to save money and time, I am excited about the integration of Milo into RedLaser, and QR scanning. I like being in control of my shopping experience. It’s as if eBay, Milo, and RedLaser were all thinking about me when they integrated this app. While searching for a specific product, the results let me choose the best retailer for me based on price and location. I like that.

What do you think – are QR codes here to stay? Or are they overhyped marketing? When is the last time you scanned a QR code and what was was your experience like? If you haven’t tried them yet, why not? And if you’re a marketer, are you using them yet in your outreach strategies?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

3 Great Tools for Managing Information Overload and the Forgetful Mind

You are not alone.

It’s no secret that the daily ins and outs of being a web-worker are filled with steady streams of inbound information. Tweets, emails, instant messages, RSS feeds and your Facebook news stream are just some of the sources of links to all sorts of great blog posts and news articles that beg for your attention.

Saving it for later.

How many times have you clicked on a link to find an article that you’d love to read, but just don’t have the time to get to it right then and there? Instead, you leave the browser tab open with the intention of getting to it during lunch or later in the day. Sure, it’s convenient to have all those open tabs at the ready for when you have a free moment – but the tax for that type of convenience is an increasingly sluggish desktop and a “fun” romp through your browser’s history to find all those pages again after it decides to crash.

I’m also shocked at the number of web-workers who still use their web browser’s built-in bookmarking tool to save links for future reference. This method certainly provides easy access to the information while at that specific machine, but requires extra steps or plugins to sync the bookmarks to other machines. There’s also the unexpected machine meltdown that could take years worth of non-backed up bookmarks away to the great beyond.

And the password is…

Along with all the information and great links we like to save for future reference comes the need to create new user accounts on the numerous web-based applications that launch each year (or month!). Unfortunately, the majority of web-workers out there still lean towards using the same password across all their user accounts. While easy to remember, using a single password out in the wild is a recipe for disaster if one of those sites happens to have a security breach.

Imagine the task of trying to remember all the websites you’ve registered with over the past few years and changing their passwords to protect your personal information and identity. Oh, and while we’re at it, writing your passwords on post-it notes and placing them under your keyboard or mouse pad is not a recommended method of remembering them either. Come on, you know you’ve done that before.

Relief at last..

Fortunately, there are a number of great options for saving information for both short term consumption and long term reference. Being able to access stored nuggets of information from multiple platforms and devices is always near the top of my list when looking for software solutions to make my information processing easier to manage. And of course, finding apps that are free doesn’t hurt either!

Here are three of my favorite applications for keeping up with my daily flow of information and helping me remember things when I’m in the thick of it:

Instapaper

Instapaper

Instapaper has become an essential tool in my daily information processing workflow. It’s the perfect application for those who are constantly finding new online articles to read but don’t have the time to read them right then and there. With a simple click of a bookmarklet button, the text of the page your browser is on is sent to your Instapaper account for later consumption.

All your saved articles are then easily accessible from the Instapaper website or the official Instapaper iPhone or iPad app. Android users can currently access their accounts via a compatible web browser as well.

There are several additional options for saving information to your account, depending on where you are discovering the content you’d like to save. Each Instapaper account comes with a unique email address that can be used to forward links and email newsletters for future reading. Instapaper’s popularity has also caught the attention of many iPhone and iPad application developers and has resulted in over 130 apps that support sending pages directly to your account.

Instapaper accounts are free (ad-supported) to create and try and will support up to 10 saved articles. The Pro upgrade is just $4.99, allows up to 500 articles and offers a wide variety of other features, including iPad support.

This app definitely excels at “deferred reading” but is not a solution for long-term information storage. My next pick will fit your needs If you’re looking for something geared towards building a library of information to continually reference.

Evernote

Evernote

I was a huge fan of Microsoft’s Onenote prior to switching to the Mac. Its ability to act as a “digital notebook” to store text, images and webclips into definable sections made it an essential tool for creating a growing knowledge base. Since Onenote is not available on the Mac, I explored comparable solutions like Yojimbo to fill my needs.

Then came Evernote. Just as Instapaper became essential for my short-term information saving, Evernote has become the key to my long-term saving needs. Evernote allows you to store text, a web page, a photo, audio and other media. Everything you store is indexed and made searchable. You can also place your notes into different notebooks for further organization. This introductory video shows a few examples of how it can be used.

 

As shown in the video, Evernote is accessible everywhere via syncing. It supports a huge number of platforms including Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and the Web. Best of all its free. They do have Premium and Sponsored accounts for increased storage, but the average user will probably not come close to outgrowing the limits of the free version for quite some time.

1Password

!Password

1Password from Agile Web Solutions is the perfect application for anyone who has ever forgotten a password. My guess is that includes you. It permanently eliminates the need to use the same easily-guessable, weak passwords that you have become accustomed to using, by creating string unique passwords for you that can be easily recalled from your web browser by using a single rememberable password that you define.

1Password also allows you to store other vital information such as credit card numbers that can also be recalled with your “one password” and filled into the appropriate field during checkout time when shopping online. Other items like software license and custom secure notes can be stored in 1Password as well. All information placed in its database is encrypted using AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) and 128-bit keys which would take “millions of years” to be decrypted using a brute force attack.

The following video will give you a good idea of how it works:

 

1Password was initially developed for the Mac however, versions are now available for the iPhone, iPad and Windows. Free 30 day trials for Mac and Windows are available, and there are a variety of licensing options to choose from to unlock it beyond that.

All three of these applications have become an essential part of my daily workflow. Do you currently use any of them? How have they changed the way you manage your daily influx of information? If any of these are new to you, then I hope you’ll give them a try. Please let us know about your experiences or recomendations via the comments!

Persuasive Picks for the Week of 6/21/2010

Lacking a game plan when it comes to social marketing? You’re not alone. Social Marketing continues to perplex many marketers, according to eMarketer. In its article, “What Makes Up a Social Marketing Strategy,” the critical components of an effective strategy are reviewed, with some startling facts of how many marketers are still operating this element of their campaigns “without a game plan.”

Social media with a business twist. Tony Bradley of Network World writes about Salesforce.com’s unveiling of Chatter this week at Cloudforce 2010. “Chatter brings social networking to the enterprise in much the same way salesforce.com brought Web 2.0 to the enterprise–enabling the benefits of social networking to be utilized for new strategic advantages.”

Top 10 Most Tweeted Brands – if you’ve never checked out the weekly “10 Most Tweeted Brands of the Week Chart” by AdAge you might find it an interesting – or at least entertaining – bookmark. This week, Simon Dumenco outlines how the Twitterverse tells the media to “shut up” and why being a trending brand on Twitter is not necessarily a good thing, among other things.

Can you hear me now? Apple addresses iPhone 4 reception issues… or not. CBSNews Tech Talk discusses Apple’s lack of PR advice for Steve Jobs in dealing with the iPhone 4 antenna issue. “Allow me to make the official introductions: Steve Jobs, meet Apple’s PR department. Apple’s PR department, meet your boss.”

Twitter, PR and BP. TechCrunch takes a look at the lessons. TechCrunch”s post, “When Social Media Becomes The Message: The Gulf Oil Spill And @BPGlobalPR” takes a look at how BP is floundering from a PR perspective, and how social media can take over and shape your company’s message – whether you like it or not. “Someone on Twitter or elsewhere on the Web  will find ways to challenge the message, as @BPGlobalPR is doing.” The PR lesson here – credibility counts more than ever.

 

 

 

Mobile apps, free conference calls, online health, kids with cameras, free iPads and more – it’s a busy week!

It’s a big, busy week at PerkettPR and I’m acting as our own reporter because I’m so excited to share some client developments taking place. We’ve got product launches, mobile apps, a “kid’s cam” and more. Take a look and let us know what you think. Thanks for reading!

Powwownow – Europe’s largest free conference call provider launched today in the U.S. and unveiled its first iPhone app. You can download it for free here, or at the iPhone App Store or on iTunes. We’re at Think Mobile in New York City today and celebrating the launch with a fun contest where we’re giving away three iPads. Folks here are having fun with our “Powwownow app rap” video contest – check them out (including, embarrassingly, yours truly – although I can’t win!) and click here to learn how to enter for your own chance to win through April 23.

HealthLeap – a free and effortless way for patients to schedule health appointments (ex: doctors, dentists) and stay on top of their health. In turn, it also empowers doctors who want to increase their visibility and interactivity among a new breed of Internet-savvy patients in a measurable and effective way. The net net – HealthLeap makes  scheduling appointments a breeze for the patient, and helps doctors to showcase their practice, extend their brand awareness, fill available appointments and last minute cancellations, and more. Read the full news release for details.

Also today, client St. Louis Children’s Hospital launched their first “Kid Cam” production, where an eight-year-old brain tumor patient turns the tables on his caregivers and examines them to provide an inside look at the SLCH hospital experience. The goal of the video is to offer more personal insight into the hospital from a kid’s perspective so that others in the same situation understand they are not alone. The footage shows some of of the patient’s scarier moments – like accessing the port used to deliver chemotherapy medication – as well as lighter moments such as visits from the music therapist and the adorable therapy dogs. Watch now:

Our newest client, WaveMarket, launched their Veriplace Developer Community “LocationNation” last week, as well as a Developer Contest, awarding two cash prizes of $5,000 and iPads for all second place finishers. The contest encourages developers to create location-based services and applications that can be deployed across the Veriplace platform and remotely locate over 150 million phones in the U.S. Prizes will be awarded for Best location-aware Advertising or Marketing, Best Social app, Best Enterprise app and Most Innovative. The contest runs through July 1 and winners will be announced on July 26. Check out the contest site for details.

 

Persuasive Picks for the week of 01/25/10

foursquare_logo_girl6 marketing opportunities on Foursquare
Many are predicting that 2010 will be the year of mobile marketing. If thats the case, then iPhone and Blackberry app Foursquare is on its way to being a leading platform in that space. Tony Felice from iMediaConnection shares 6 ways marketers can take advantage of this increasingly popular mobile app.

Facebook Marketing Tips: Make the Most of Your Fan Page
Online Marketing Blog Copywriter, Michelle Bowles shares a few great tips on making the most of your Facebook Fan Page and provides examples of real pages that are inline with her advice.

Coca-Cola’s Super Bowl Ad Plans Include Social Media
Stuart Elliot from the WSJ’s Media Decoder blog provides a run-down of Coca-Cola’s Super Bowl campaign that includes a combination of traditional tv ads and online focused social media efforts

50% of Marketers Shifting Funds From Traditional to Online; Social “Top Priority”
Marketing Pilgrim’s Andy Beal shares the results from a recent report from the Society of Digital Agencies that indicates marketers are continuing to put more time and effort in the online social space.

Social Media As Customer Service
Lauren Fischer from SimplyZesty explores the trend of businesses adding social media platforms to their customer service workflows. A link to a Forrester presentation is also provided.

 

Writer Kristen Nicole — Quiet Rebel and Social Aficionado

Kristen NicoleIn this week’s installment of our journalist interview series, we catch up with Kristen Nicole, editor/writer at AllFacebook & The Social Times, and co-author of the Twitter Survival Guide. In addition to her passion for technology and writing, Kristen lets us in on how social media has changed her world, the importance of her family and friends, and her interest in quantum mechanics. A self-proclaimed quiet rebel, Kristen is a true renaissance woman who may have been a social revolutionary in a past life…

PPR: How did you get into writing?
KN: The story of how I got into writing is a little indirect, as I studied bio-psychology in undergrad at the University of Michigan. But let me tell you, there are a lot of papers you have to write when your studies revolve around research and the subsequent findings. After working in clinical research after college, I later found myself helping my friend Emile Cambry Jr. research features needed for his web-based startup Soceeo.com. Reading blogs like TechCrunch helped a great deal in my research, and I wanted to do something similar for the city of Chicago in regards to blogging about the local web-based startups in my own town. In my spare time I began blogging, and eventually started doing interviews with the CEOs of various web-based startups. From there I went on to contribute to larger online publications like CenterNetworks and Mashable. After Mashable founder Pete Cashmore offered me a full-time job, I officially transitioned into the writing profession.

PPR: In your current role as a contributing writer, what angles attract you the most?
KN: I’m actually contributing to AllFacebook and SocialTimes now. Taking that into consideration, anything Facebook-related is an attractive angle for AllFacebook. 🙂 All jokes aside, for AllFacebook we like to see stories that affect everyday users, brands leveraging Facebook’s Platform and Facebook Connect, and those turning to Facebook for organic social graph marketing. We’re also interested in the larger social and political implications that Facebook has on our online and offline culture.
For SocialTimes, we take a broader approach to our coverage, branching out to social networks and media spaces outside of Facebook.

PPR: What else do you like to write about besides technology?
KN: It’s hard to find time to write about things outside of technology, and when I do have a chance to “unplug” I’m often too tired to think about writing at all! But I very much enjoy writing about my own personal experiences, or writing letters to friends and family members, which can be a therapeutic and artistic form of communication in and of itself.

PPR: How do keep up with emerging trends and new technology?
KN: Stay online all the time! Even if I’m hanging out with friends, I’m constantly checking up on technology news via my mobile phone. Google Reader is a huge help, and having RSS delivery options through SMS also helps me stay updated to trends. I also attend as many conferences and events as possible, so I can see what the new companies and products are, as well as meet the people behind them. I find that personal relationships are the best way in which to stay abreast of trends and new technology, as immersing in conversation with others can be an enlightening experience.

PPR: What do you feel are the hottest trends in technology for 2009?
KN: I think mobile social networking is really starting to take off, because the applications we’re seeing on mobile devices like the iPhone are better designed for easy access and content delivery, without having to fully engage in a mobile web experience. I also think we’ll see a lot more for large social networks’ platforms creating an economy around their platforms for enabling direct transactions between end users, themselves and third parties. This could have large implications for social networks as they rely less on ad revenue, as they have been able to in the past. This also leads to another trend for 2009, which is more creative, engaging and integrated advertising in the online realm. I don’t think there will be any radical changes, but the bar has definitely been raised in terms of the necessity to find better ways in which to engage with consumers while still being budget-conscious. Much of this we’ll see from third party advertising and reporting companies, and I imagine as the economy stabilizes and the social networks themselves find better ways in which to create an industry around user data, we’ll see more robust (and expensive) options coming directly from these networks.

PPR: How has social media changed your world?
KN: Honestly the biggest way in which social media has changed my world is in enabling me to have a career that’s both different and fulfilling. For something that was a bit of a haven in high school, growing up in a rather protected environment where online social networks became a viable outlet for me, my early and ongoing interaction with online social networks has lent me first hand experience that translated quite well into becoming a social media expert. Social media has allowed me to publish myself in ways I never would have thought possible, providing a way to build my own credibility and become a participating member of the never-ending discussions that take place around the very social media industry I’m lucky enough to be member to.

PPR: What tech gadget could you not live without?
KN: My Nokia N95. It’s the coolest phone I’ve ever had. It lets me do just about anything I want in regards to media and media sharing. I love that I can stream video live to the web, add applications that make media sharing an automated service, and overall turning me into a distribution launch pad for anything I’d like to share on the web. It’s a mini computer, really. I love it.

PPR: What do you do for fun when you aren’t working?
KN: Is there such a thing? To be honest, I love watching old movies. I read books on quantum mechanics and peruse Google videos for BBC documentaries nearly every Saturday evening. I’m not a complete recluse, though! I love to go out to see indie films with my best friends, go to art shows, live performances and lounges as well.

PPR: What type of music do you listen to when you want to unwind?
KN: I’m still a big fan of neo-soul. Amel Larioux is one of my favorite artists. Stevie Wonder is my all time favorite, though he’s more rock. And I’m not sure what genre this would be, but I’ve really been into music from artists like Adele, Alice Smith and Santegold lately. Would that be considered rock of some sort? i wouldn’t even know.

PPR: Who has been the most influential person in your life and why?
KN: My parents. The two of them are so extreme in their personalities that I’ve been able to learn from the best of both their worlds and strive for a happy medium in terms of being career driven and remaining a genuine person. My business partner Emile Cambry is also one of the most influential people in my life, because he’s been a supportive and catalyzing factor in my career decisions. Working with someone like that can really keep me moving forward.

PPR: What did you do in a past life?
KN: Ha! I think I was a social revolutionary of some sort, even if I only influenced a handful of people. I tend to be a quiet rebel at times, and I suppose that comes from my revolutionary mentality from my past life. 🙂