DigitalAgency

If only o2's iPhone repair people were as good as their community managers.

I noticed a typo on a the o2 website.

(Sad I know but being married to an ex-typographer, and now design obsessed picture framer, you get like picture.)

So I did a screen grab, slotted it into twitpic and put out a tweet to o2 who I know monitor Twitter.

They picked it up, responded and fixed it.

Brilliant.

Top marks o2.

However, my enthusiasm for their rocking social media listening posts, is tempered somewhat by the quality of their repair service.

I'm still without my iPhone, after their service department messed up an ongoing repair.

(It developed a fault where I couldn't hear anyone when I made a call, they could hear me though. Seems like the iPhone thinks the headphone jack is in, when it isn't.)

It's been in the o2 repair shop almost 2 weeks already, when I checked with the o2shop they told me it was out of warranty and would cost £130 to fix.

I said forget it, send it back. When this was done and the repair had been cancelled, the guy in the O2 shop, (who was very good and terrifically helpful by the way), said the repair people were wrong, it was still in warranty and would  be repaired for free. Problem was I'd have to find my original invoice of last March, or get a new one from the original o2 shop I'd bought the phone at, located at the other end of town. (How come if their database said I was the owner, and it was in warranty, I had to get a paper receipt? huh? But I digress.)

So my guesstimate is it will be about a month that I have to go without my iPhone.

Not good.

I might as well as done nothing then got a upgrade for free when I'm eligible in April.

If only iPhone repair people were as good as their community managers.

And I wonder if their social monitoring this?

A review of the Vodafone Netbook:

A couple of months ago, I blogged about the vodafoneliveguy project created by Dare for (not unsurprisingly, er), vodafone.

If you don't know the back-story, vodafone demonstrated the go-anywhere, super-portable aspects of the Dell Mini 9 Netbook by sending a chap called 'vodafoneliveguy' out and about to 11 cities across the UK.

Anybody in these cities who sussed out where he was, deduced from clues left in real time online via Twitter, YouTube, his blog etc, could win a Netbook by tracking him down and challenging him f2f.

I was determined to be the first person in the UK to track him down, as he kicked off his nationwide tour in Edinburgh.

How did I get to him first?

I cheated of course.

Sending him a DM via Twitter inviting him for a coffee at Edinburgh's Social Media HQ; Centotre.

Incidentally, I also excluded myself from winning a Netbook, I hasten to add, as I wasn't playing by the rules. (Nothing new there then. Ed.)

He sportingly turned up for a chat, along with Alastair from Dare who was riding shotgun for vodafoneliveguy throughout the trip.

And what a good chat it was, I was particularly interested in the marketing strategy, the planning and creative that had gone into the project, how many in the team on the road and back at base, etc. (Full credits here.)

I also shared a few names of pals in other cities who might give them 'social support' in spreading the word, if needed. (Shout out here to @ewanmcintosh, @realfreshtv, @martinsfp, @JohnBradford.)

Once vflg had hit the road to other cities I tracked, searched, shared, blogged and tweeted the story; for a couple of reasons:

1. To support the cause, I really did buy into the idea. (Altruism.)
2: I thought at the end of it, there might be some recognition of my contribution from a brand to a blogger. (Self-Interest-ism.)

And guess what?

Over Christmas, I got a call from Dare asking me what my house address was.

They wanted to thank me for the support during the campaign and were sending me a Netbook.

"Wooooo, Flippin' Hooooo!"

(I know this is geekily sad in the extreme, but I couldn't resist doing a flickr unboxing set.)

Arriving all gleamy, shiny and new early in the New Year, I couldn't believe my luck, (or, if you will and that's the way your mind works; my Machiavellian genius.) .

Result.

(Incidentally, over the course of the campaign, I also got a massive spike in traffic to my blog, and more than a fair few new Twitter followers. = Result. + Result. Even had there been no Netbook swag in the pipeline.)

So what do I think about the Netbook, having given it a fairly rigorous work-out in the 10 days since first opening the lid?

(Full and frank disclosure: I am a Mac nut.)

Well, it it's small and hellish portable that's true. Very light, runs windows XP, has Bluetooth, wi-fi and of course the built-in vodafone mobile broadband.

How have I used it? Well, I've pretty much taken it everywhere, giving my MacBook Pro a rest for a while.

I was out shooting some digital stuff yesterday, hooking my camera up to the Netbook to get the shots online.

A few recent train journeys where considerably enhanced by having the NB to hand.

It even fits in the back of my cycle jersey to check Google maps, (and tweet of course), while out riding my bike. (Mainly there though for posing points/bragging rights with other roadies.)

It's dinky size is also a heck of a conversation starter in wi-fi spots.

And in some ways, it's a more practical alt to my iPhone, which is my usual mobile internet device du jour.

For my size hands and erratic typing style, I did/do make quite a few typos when using the keyboard, but as in many areas of my life I do need to s-l-o-w down, and I'm sure my accuracy will improve.

The only real bad news for and from me, (and something that has nothing to do with the Dell hardware or vodafone's connectivity), is that, of course, this little puppy runs on Microsoft Windows.

Just a personal thing, if you are cool with the Microsoft OS, and software, (as over 90% of the planet is, I hasten to add), no problem.

But me, I'm a Mac I'm afraid.

And find XP, er, wanting.

However even this is no biggie, as I tend to run most of my online life via the cloud, so once the browsers up and running, (I installed FireFox), I'm a happy bunny.

Then the only thing to remind me it's a windows bit of kit is that I keep forgetting where the @ symbol is on the keyboard.

So overall, does the Netbook float my boat: Definitely.

Would I pay my own money to have one: Very probably.

Did I actually pay for this one: No.

Fitting perfectly between my mobile phone, and 15" laptop, it's a heck of a handy addition to my Social Media armoury.

So thank you Vodafone. And thank you Dare.

I love Twitterfone:

I was lucky enough to get a beta test invite to user Twitterfone, and so far it's been tweetingly wonderful.

If you're not near a keyboard or don't want to noodle around typing a tweet on your mobile, just leave a voice tweet, and Twitterfone will transcribe it (accurately in my case, even allowing for my sometimes impenetrable Yorkshire accent.) and then load it up to Twitter.

A pal of mine wasn't overly impressed saying he preferred to type his tweets, which is fair enough. (Though I have challenged him to a shootout, keyboard vs voice. I tried it myself yesterday, typing a tweet in 20 seconds speaking same tweet in 14 seconds.)

Although to be honest, the typed tweet appears instantly, the transcription of voice obviously lags a bit before it loads. But how often do you need real-time to a few seconds accuracy when you tweet?

(Awful pun alert:) Changing gear somewhat, consider too the millions of people in cars with hands-free phones, all of a sudden twittering becomes an option to them does it not?

(The M5 already tweets, tailbacks, accidents , breakdowns, but hands-free twitterers on the motorway turn services like this into, er, two-way 'traffic'.)

I can see it being used to provide running commentaries from sports event too, ala BBC Five Live, from a your local surf contest/mountain bike/school egg & spoon race for example.

I also suspect that spoken tweets might have a different 'energy' or feel than written ones.

So well done Twitterfone hope you get the recognition you deserve.

Incidentally, my only hitch was a login problem at 0700 yesterday. I contacted Twitterfone tech support, and got an almost immediate response and fix. Thank you Adrienne, great service.

(The problem incidentally was er, 'user error', not a Twitterfone problem, - I was doing something stupid at login. Nothing new there then.)

You can also link through to the Tweetfone audio page to hear the tweet too, should you so wish.

Yesterday I was trying it out in Centotre, I was just about to leave a voice tweet when the waitress, (Hello Sabrina!), came to take my order. As I dithered, ummed and ah'd, I decide to concentrate on my coffee order not the tweet, but clever clogs Twitterfone, managed to understand and transcribe and post my mumbling incompetence for posterity:

Mobile, mobile, mobile:

I've just read what I think might just be the most important post of the year.

(Appropriately enough I read it via Newsgator mobile, on my iPhone, in a cafe.)

The post was by the hugely-informed; Tomi T. Ahonen, on his Communities Dominate Brands blog, and you can read it in it's entirety here.

It's no secret that Google think mobile is going to be a big deal, as do the phone operators and manufacturers themselves. And who knows? The penny might also drop soon enough for more ad and digital agencies to gear up appropriately.

So do yourself a favour and read Toni's vision of the not so distant future for all of us.

As an ad agency copywriter in a previous life, I related particularly to the authors reminder that mobile, permission-based advertising will have to entertain and please the recipient, (something the more enlightened ad agencies have appreciated for donkey's of course.)

And was both staggered and delighted to read the stat that 44% of Japanese mobile users click on links in mobile advertising. (Bet they weren't Proctor & Gamble ads.)

WooHoo, bring it on.

blogging from itouch

very cool

m.facebook.com

My mobile phone browser is playing up.

This is just a test to see if I can access my facebook account, via my mobile, via my blog.

Complicated I know, but as I say, it's just a test right now.

(No I can't but I can email myself a hyperlink to my phone and access that way.)

Problem with FaceBook, (for me anyway), is that everytime I want to check my FB home page via my mobile I have to log in with username and password, which is a hassle.)

March of the mobile:

Photo: Reuters

"Between 2000 and 2006, the proportion of Japanese 20-year-olds using home PCs to access the internet plummeted from 23.6 per cent to 11.9 per cent, according to figures released by Net Ratings and published in Facta online."

Full story here:

Original lead; Stan's beautifully formed DNA:

Plus this just in from BrandRepublic: