Archive for the ‘Social Networking’ Category

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Our goal is to make gift giving more fun for everyone.

In most cases, a major component of the giving process is the delivery of the gift. When distance is involved, the delivery must be turned over to someone else, like UPS. The sad truth is that this delivery process really isn’t very fun for ether you or your gift recipient.

I found it odd that an article in Associated Content listed some UPS 100-year facts as “Fun”.

It is interesting that what started in a garage in Seattle with $100 dollars has grown to be the world’s largest shipping company with over 500,000 employees… But not really that much fun.

Even though an average driver makes $75,000 a year to deliver your packages, you still don’t really get any more fun than you would from watching paint dry. It is hard to categorize the UPS delivery process as fun.

In fact package delivery can be somewhat of a hassle when you consider all of the preparation of the package. I quote Susan, a contributor to the All The Way DHL blog: “Shipping gifts or packages of any kind is just not that much fun. And you have to pay for the privilege”!

Maybe these packaging hassles are the reason that so many gifts are purchased and delivered from online retailers. E-Commerce does take away the hassle of self-packaging, leaving more time to find some fun, somewhere.

Vincent van Wylick with Tech IT likes the convenience of package delivery, but had a tirade on the time that he wastes waiting for the doorbell to ring from the UPS driver.

So if the packing of the box and the waiting for the delivery are low on fun, how can we associate package delivery with FUN? We suggest that it is so important that fun be a part of gift giving that we can’t allow the delivery process to be this dull…

We are a country of bright and creative people, so we mustn’t let gift delivery continue to this low on the fun meter.

What would you do to fix this problem?

While you are thinking about how to make gift delivery more fun, here is an interesting video on the UPS distribution process…

Thanks to Smiley Balloons for the great balloon picture!

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

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For so many years the board game was the activity of choice when a group gathered for some fun. And then we adapted party games for engaging members of a group during important life celebrations. These games where the activities that friends used to enjoy time and conversation when they got together.

It comes as little surprise that even today, games are played among friends. Yet we need a survey to discover the obvious. The report titled: Spending and Usage Patterns of the Social Gaming Audience, found that we still play with those we know.

Even though the internet has blessed us with casual games and social games and multi-player games of all types, we still like to play with our friends, co-workers and classmates.

With mass audience opportunities in every corner of the web, we still want to join our private group to enjoy time and conversation together as we play a game.

Maybe the future of gaming will come in the form of more private affairs, with the opportunity to share small portions of the activity with the broader internet.

Even with all of our advanced technology, we still look for solutions like the board game or party game to mimic what it was like to be in the family room with our friends buying hotels for Park Place.

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

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You would think that powerful social media leaders would endorse big group parties. After all, their perspective is based upon socializing with all of the world wide web.

But I found it interesting that one of the biggest names in social networking discussed his Facebook personal account, which he manages just for those he is closest too. I completely understand why Chris Brogan’s family runs on Facebook, in what could be considered a private party.

Chris has many friends within the internet social space, including Facebook. I am grateful for his connection with me in a few of these web networks and our brief discussions on family in the past. I know that he keeps his family close in both life and business.

Keeping our family close is why parties are so important to our culture of social support and love. Family parties are closed events; private and intimate expressions based upon personal deep-rooted connection.

The same individuals who attend a huge gala party at the civic center to improve their social status, crave the private party in the family room to celebrate the important life-events of those whom they love.

Facebook has become just one tool in providing families various levels of communication, from broad to intimate.

Our family has used these internet tools as a way to stay personally connected in a spirit of love and support, no matter the distance.

The massive world of the web has given us back our private party. What about you?

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

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There is a great deal of hoopla in small business marketing to attract and retain customers. One such trick is to convince prospects and customers that the spirit of Christmas springs up again magically in July, by using some Christmas in July promotions.

I am OK with this practice, because I realize that it is just another way to have a SALE. But July might also be a great time to have business owners begin thinking about gift giving.

I was reading a story in a lawn care site that was suggesting that Christmas in July would be a great way to promote landscaping services. But, the important take-away from this article was the suggestion that business gift giving might be very effective at times other than just the Holidays. Frances Cole Jones discusses this topic regularly in her blog and wrote about it in her book the WOW Factor.

Businesses use gift giving for various reasons, but most use the gesture as a way of saying “Thank You” for the positive relationship with customers. In fact an American Express 2009 survey found that 82% of gifts where for thank you, 38% just to celebrate the season and 25% used a gift to stand out from competitors.

The survey pegged the average gift-spend at $455 per business, with most companies budgeting to send the gifts out in the third quarter of the year.

A review of US census statistics shows that there are over 25 million small businesses operating in the US, and the Amex survey found that 47% of these business people will give gifts during the year. What this means is that over 11-million businesses will spend around $455 on customer gifts this year, or a total of $5.3 billion dollars!

When you consider the extra expenses incurred from personal deliveries or UPS shipments, there is some serious money changing hands, just to show appreciation to customers.

As you know, we focus on gift giving in our company and we are looking for ways to make the process more entertaining and engaging. We like party games, but there are probably many other ideas.

So if you are thinking of Christmas time this July, we suggest that it doesn’t take much extra effort to make your business gift giving a bit more fun and exciting this year. After all, we are all attempting to stand out from the crowd…

What are your gift giving plans for your company?

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

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Today was the end of canoeing adventure on the Southern Oregon coast.

Six Varsity and Venturing scouts and three leaders enjoyed a few days of water, sun, fun and WIND….

The objective was to allow these older boys (14-18) to immerse themselves in canoeing to strengthening their paddling skills.

And their skills were tested by wind every afternoon!

Our camp was on the outflow lagoon of Siltcoos Lake, which meanders calmly for 2-miles out to the ocean.

The sand dunes spill down and into the lagoon through the evergreens and sometimes topples a tree into the waterway, creating great obstacles for the canoe pilot.

The boys did a great job in the lagoon, but the lake was a different story all together.

By midday the ocean breeze had turned into a full-on wind that turned Siltcoos into an impossibly high chop. Canoes and wind don’t work so well together; and canoes, wind and waves result in wet boys and some water on the inside of the boats.

We adults where happy that a last minute decision to bring a small fishing boat had been agreed upon. The small engine powered boat towed canoes back to the safety of the lagoon several times, after failed attempts forced the boys to give up the afternoon quest to cross the lake.

It was an adventure… and I thank the boys for allowing me the opportunity to share in the experience.

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

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UPS delivers over 5 billion packages a year….FedEx adds a bit over a billion per year and the U.S. Postal Service employs almost as many people as WalMart, to deliver packages.

The actual number of packages moved by these parcel delivery giants and their smaller cousins is probably in the 6-Billion packages a year range.

Parcel delivery services have been the fastest-growing transportation segment in the United States over the past two decades. This market has more than doubled its share of the nation’s transportation budget since 1980 and now carries at least 10% of each day’s gross domestic product in the United States.

The package delivery business may be huge and growing, but it is still dull and unimaginative!

A recent paper distributed by the Association for Postal Commerce revealed that there are two main uses for package delivery in the US:

Business to Business and Business to Consumer.

From the APC study, we find that Business to Business (B2B) represents 83% of all Overnight Parcel Deliveries and 68% of all Ground Parcel Deliveries. It is OK for these deliveries to be dull, because efficient and speed trump emotion in this delivery category.

The Business to Consumer (B2C) numbers are a bit different, with Overnight at 17% and Ground at 32%. These packages move from a business that has a more consumer-centered mind-set. Emotion is the rule of the day in retail, and many of these deliveries were initiated by individuals to meet their personal needs, or as a gift for someone else. The B2C shipment involves people who are personally invested in a good delivery result. Good results are especially critical in the delivery of a gift.

To prove the personal emotional tie to the B2C delivery category… Just miss the delivery date of a customer’s gift for a grandson’s birthday, and then watch how the customer service line lights-up!

The B2C parcel delivery category represents what Amazon, Overstock or Target and WalMart do with their products when they ship. Before shipment, these retailers do everything possible to keep the customers engaged, so that they will return to purchase from them often.

So, if they are working very hard to keep each customer happily involved during most of the purchasing process, why do they allow the final part of the delivery process to be so uneventful? Answer: they haven’t thought imaginatively…

The solution to continued engagement during the shipping process is to provide memorable experiences ahead of the actual delivery at the doorstep. You know… Something fun between the time of purchase and the time that the UPS guy arrives.

EXAMPLE:
Let’s assume that Grandma purchased a Lego Batman set for her grandson, and that Amazon had a plan to keep everyone engaged beyond just the point of purchase.

Now let’s pretend that Amazon/Grandma sent a email note to the grandson, via his parents, suggesting that Batman was coming to visit his house very soon. Do you think that the grandson would become engaged in the process of delivery? Curiosity is a powerful emotion.

Then two days later, another email is sent to the parents, suggesting that they print off an attached note from “Batman” informing their son how special he is and how much his grandmother talks about him and loves him. The boy is engaged, the parents are participating, grandma is involved, and the delivery is anticipated. When the UPS guy arrives and the box is opened, all the memories of the experience flood in…

Imagine if Batman followed-up with a message a few days later saying: “I hope that you enjoy your new Lego set, Love Grandma and Batman”

Emotional ties and lasting memories among family and friends can be enhanced, even in a the middle of a process that is usually dull and unimaginative.

What would you do to make Business to Consumer parcel delivery more fun?

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

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When Facebook announced that they were closing down the virtual gift store I wasn’t surprised. I join with the Readwriteweb and boldly state: “good riddance to virtual junk”.

WHY…Real friends give real gifts.

I would never claim to know the business reasons for Facebook closing the virtual gift store, but they must have a good reason. From my perspective the virtual gift is such a shallow expression of friendship that I would be embarrassed to send my true friends chocolate they could never taste or a rose that they could never smell.

Even so, game developers are making bank on these virtual gifts, so there must be plenty of players who are willing to share these silly gifts online. It just seems like throwing good money after bad smoke and mirrors.

That being said, I am very happy to see the growth of gift giving in social networks; as it reinforces our business model of selling real gifts to social groups like families.

We continue to argue that real gift giving has a long history of success and is rooted in love and support, while virtual gift giving is a gimmick to make money for internet entrepreneurs.

Real gifts are sustainable…. Virtual gifts live in the world of the here and gone.

What do you think?

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

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You can’t have a great party unless there is some sort of group activity that breaks the ice and spools-up the fun. Usually these activity involve a game that gets everyone talking and escalates the engagement…

There is a growing number of thought leaders who are suggesting that fun and games will put a happy face on the world. Chris Brogan suggests that we take some time and watch a video presentation by Jane McGonigal, a game expert.

Ms McGonigal’s thoughts seem to endorse the work that we are doing to provide family and friends an opportunity to play games together and then share real gifts during important life events.

She shared some wonderful ideas on how to change the world by playing games. She suggests that we have a highly trained and skilled group of problem solvers, involved in game play. She claims that if we channel their efforts in one direction, we could see remarkable results for the people of the earth.

We are training ourselves to solve world problems with games…

The average 21 year-old will have spent 10,000 hours playing games, or about the same time they will have spent in their school studies. There are 500 million people on the planet that spend at least 1-hour per day in games. So the training system seem to be in place to fix many problems.

Here is a real world problem that affects millions of dispersed families: Gifts arrive by a delivery service in a rather dull manner and without any emotion…. just a delivery guy and a brown box…

What would a gamer suggest to solve this problem?

You are correct… A GAME!

The gamer solution would be to add in some fun memories that could be triggered when the box arrives at the door and find a way to bring back the excitement of sharing gifts into a virtual gift game.

The McGonigal video tells us that “games create a supportive structure that helps bring our best self forward” and supporting research suggests that “we like people better after we play a game with them… Even if they treat us badly.. it builds trust, bonds and cooperation”. Games within a close group of family or friends only increases the odds of a good result.

It makes perfect sense that we could cooperate and solve many pressing world issues, if we took a fun and games approach to these problems.

The gaming industry is a hot investment right now, with game developers receiving big investment deals, and major entertainment companies entering the gaming space. This should only add to the “game as a problem solver” opportunities on the internet.

The world of fun and games is expanding and we are thrilled to see this playing out in front of us every day…

Thanks to Kaleidoscopeylife for the image

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

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“…the future will be owned by those companies that harness technology to the make the consumer shopping experience easy, efficient and fun.”

These are the words of Todd Hale, senior vice president, Consumer & Shopper Insights, as he reported on the Nielsen Retail 2015 forecast.

The future looks very bright for any consumer retailing that is tied to technology,  and even better when the shopping experience becomes personally engaging.

The big winners in the next 5-years will be mass Supercenters and the E-Commerce providers.  Other retail sales channels will lose share because of the growing success of these two sources of consumer product distribution.

We like the word FUN discussed by Mr. Hale, especially when it is associated with E-Commerce.

The ease of shopping and the purchasing efficiency of online retailing creates many leadership opportunities.  Now, all that is missing is some FUN at your local Amazon.com or Overstock.com site…

How about a game?

Engaging game activities will enhance the future fortunes of gift retailers.  Games equal fun… they always have!

But why target gift retailing as the source of FUN-based selling?  Because gift giving is associated with  personal engagement between people, and so are games.  Gifts are outward expressions of an inner commitment to make someone else happy and games are happiness generators.

The  E-Commerce gift store that finds a way to efficiently market gifts, with a tie to something fun and supportive, will be a big winner in the race for the consumer pocketbook in the future.

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

We are in the middle of recruiting a co-founder/CTO for PartyWeDo LLC.
Finding the right person involves networking within web-based sites and at local tech meet-ups. In every case, we will use an elevator pitch to explain what the PartyWeDo business is all about.
This is a very important group of words that should tell our story and create interest in our project.

Here is the latest attempt at our elevator pitch, that we created using an internet tool called Buzzuka:

What if you could attend every party that you where invited to?

PartyWeDo is for people who share gifts from a distance and find that sending a gift by UPS or FedEx is dull and unimaginative. These online party activities let any group virtually share gifts before they are actually shipped to their doorsteps.

PartyWeDo is the first party game site that makes gift giving more engaging and memorable for everyone. This is a fun-filled way to distribute your gifts and enjoy the support of those you love, from any distance.

PartyWeDo is like adding a party hat to the UPS delivery!

Read the following slides for more details:

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists