Know Now, Know Later...justKnow

In the World of Perfect Matches…

Erin — Thu, 20 May 2010 19:11:07 +0000

We can’t think of a better match for justKnow than Yoshi’s in Oakland and San Francisco. Wouldn’t it be just smooooooth (and tasty) if we could send-to-phone+ the artists we’d love to see at Yoshi’s? They’d be on our mobile phones/smart phones, booked into our own personal calendars: yahoo, google, ical, or outlook … and never mind the timely wireless alerts for ticket sales and — oh…so many ways to have Yoshi’s stay top-of-mind. It’s a great way to make their calendar/Website sticky! Match made in heaven…a girl can dream of seeing justKnow icons sitting pretty and inviting in every day of their calendar…

2 Great Uses for a Mobile Phone for 1 Great Result

Erin — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:54:11 +0000

Having a mobile phone may actually save your life!

San Francisco Bay Area park officials are advocating the use of mobile phones for hikers. Packing a mobile phone on a hike saved the lives of two women who lost their way a few nights ago at Garin Regional Park in Hayward. They used their phone to 1.) dial for help, and then 2.) held up the lit phone as a beacon for the helicopter rescue crew as they neared.

A quote (by Lt. Dave Dubowy, a patrol watch commander of the East Bay Regional Park District) that we particularly love here at justKnow:

“Technology is wonderful now. The GPS capabilities make our jobs so much easier.”

We’re thinking these women won’t need a wireless reminder to take their phones with them on their next hike.

Texting in Moderation

Erin — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 23:47:03 +0000

Though justKnow loves technology and all things wireless and mobile, what we strive for most is truly connecting people to people, that is, in real life, not electronically. We believe information connects people, knowledge connects people and technology certainly connects people. All those things, however, may also have the deleterious effect on how people connect, and we’ve been pondering if wireless technology is one such culprit for people’s seeming inability (or discomfort?) to have face-to-face, in-person connections. Having a conversation in real life, with a person, in an actual phone conversation, or with a person sitting next to you, is quite different than staying connected with that same person via email, online chat, IM, or wireless text. You really have to emotionally engage, you know? If you’re not used to that, if you don’t have much experience with that, how do you learn to do so?

It stands to reason, then, that this article in the New York Times caught our attention. We’re happy to learn that the demographic (kids) that made texting so popular, are the very ones who took a step back and became, well, kids again. That’s how you learn — to emotionally engage, to be present with your feelings, to connect emotionally with another human being — you learn by doing. Rock on kids.

Would Wireless Reminders Help?

Erin — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:36:18 +0000

So, man, how embarrassing…almost a year since the last post? Some house-cleaning needs to get done around here at justKnow. Maybe if we use the Know Later feature on justKnow, it wouldn’t just remind us to post, but kick a little butt ’round these parts! That’d be some call-to-action! Excuse the pun!

Shifting a Mobile Mindset

Erin — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:35:10 +0000

Even though land-line home phone service and hi-speed internet are both fee-based, neither resource seems to be considered quite the asset requiring protection as the mobile phone. This mindset is most likely due to the fee structure for mobile phones, with a premium on minutes used; there is a sense that every second counts — and costs! Perhaps, too, this mindset might also be due to the mobile phone being so uniquely and highly personal (rarely shared). Time and again, I experience first hand how mobile phone numbers are fiercely guarded. I think this is why mobile marketing is proving to be a difficult medium in which to get a foothold (ease-of-use, opt-in/out issues notwithstanding).

Imagine, however, letting mobile users keep their privacy, respecting their mindset and yet still having an opportunity to show them relevant branding and ads. That’s the inherent beauty and empowering qualities of Self-Direct Marketing and justKnow.

I Don’t Get It: CTIA, Why Not Practice What You Preach?

Erin — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:21:41 +0000

I don’t get it…CTIA has nothing mobile on their site, even though they are ALL about wireless/mobile. Nothing on their contact us page, no way to put directions to their office on mobile phones, no way to put their event listing on mobile phones as bite-size SMS reminders, no convenient mobile links to their news or articles (unlike the New York Times), no send to phone capability on their event calendar, THE most obvious place to put justKnow and Send to Phone Plus to make that page STICKY…

Curious. justKnow could solve this utter lack of a mobile component (and then some!) in about…5 minutes flat. They could try it out for FREE, even, just like everyone else! I just don’t get it, but I hope CTIA justKnows.

Hey…NYT jumped on the Send-to-Phone Elite Bandwagon

Erin — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:04:53 +0000

Just noticed NYT has just added send-to-phone on all their articles. Too bad they didn’t get justKnow’s Send to Phone+. They could have added export to calendar, send to mobile and telephone, and send to email — for immediate (know now) and scheduled (know later) sends — all in one easy and inexpensive service.

NYT Bits Blog: The Sweet Sound of a Well-Targeted Ad

Erin — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:06:30 +0000

Just posted a comment on the Bits Blog:

I got on facebook primarily because a few friends were bugging me to get on it. I did it to appease them, but also to research it from a marketing and advertising perspective (admission, I’m in the industry). A few weeks into it, I decided to populate it with more info about myself since more friends were finding me. The moment I said I was “in a relationship”, up popped an ad for engagement rings. Targeted? Yup, I’d say. The better question is its relevance.

Truth is, though I’m in the ad and related industries, I’m not much of fan of how advertising works…in the traditional sense. In this still new world of ecommerce and ad-based internet business models, I’m not too impressed that people are still thinking inside the “old” ad box. There’s a completely new mechanism to have very precisely targeted and relevant ads through a service called justKnow, which, among many other things, tidily bridges internet and mobile through Self-Direct Marketing which is non-intrusive (http://justknow.com/media). Still, it’s up to people to think outside the box to feed it the information/ads that people want/might find useful and yes, relevant.

If I’m on a real estate site, looking for rentals or homes in any particular area, it’d be extremely useful and relevant to have ads from local merchants in that area…for me and for those merchants. As well, it would be relevant to see ads from moving companies that service that area or global relocation services. justKnow is the mechanism that lets you precisely target those kind of relevant ads, but again, it’s up to people to get out of the mindset of blanketing everyone with irrelevant, annoying ads. That kind of thinking is what I don’t like about my industry. Instead of pure numbers and ad sales, let’s make sure it benefits everyone, from the end user, to the merchant and to the community in which they both live and thrive.

SMS vs. Mobile Website

Erin — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:51:52 +0000

According to a recent article on iLoopMobile, about 15-18% of mobile phone users have phones that are capable of accessing the Web. About 5% of them actually do access mobile Websites. Compare that to about 99% of all mobile phones having SMS/text messaging capability, with 87% of those mobile phone owners having sent and/or received a text message. Talk about having a much broader reach! justKnow, which gives sites Send to Phone+ capability (in simplest terms, letting visitors send themselves site info to their mobiles via SMS), is faster, cheaper, easier and far more effective a foothold in mobile marketing than doing a mobile Website. Self-direct marketing is not instrusive and is totally spam-free. These factors are vitally important to mobile users who are extremely protective of sharing/giving out their mobile numbers.

iPhone to the Rescue

Erin — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:24:05 +0000

doApps.com mylighter flashlight iPhone app

Nevermind SMS, wow…iPhone Apps RAWK! We lost all power in our building the other day, which meant no elevators, because losing all power meant not even the backup emergency generators were working. Not good news being on the 22nd floor and needing to get out of the building to get on WiFi to work! iPhone to the rescue; downloaded this neat (and very funny) flashlight app, plunged ourselves into blackout conditions in the stairwell, and then descended 22 floors (note: we didn’t use this particular flashlight setting, but it gave us a good laugh) to daylight, coffee, and WiFi. Life is good. Life is funny! Yes, even when we had to CLIMB 22 flights of stairs several hours later…