» App http://www.brandsareopinions.com Mon, 19 Dec 2011 04:41:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 Facebook Privacy Settings Confusing You? There’s an App for That. http://www.brandsareopinions.com/facebook-privacy-settings-confusing-you-theres-an-app-for-that/ http://www.brandsareopinions.com/facebook-privacy-settings-confusing-you-theres-an-app-for-that/#comments Wed, 19 May 2010 11:41:01 +0000 Dennis Ryan http://www.brandsareopinions.com/?p=5436 Continue reading →]]> Of course there is.  There’s an app for damn near everything.  So given the rising chorus of complaints over Facebook changing it’s privacy settings with the onset of Open Graph, it’s only natural that someone would step into the breech with a digital solution.

That someone is ReclaimPrivacy.org, a shareware app written by a JavaScript developer who takes his own online privacy seriously, hiding his name and only offering that his full-time gig is running Olark: a lightweight app for websites that provides online chat capabilities.  On Reclaim Privacy’s simple page, they publish their full privacy policy:

“Our privacy policy is not long:

  • we never see your Facebook data
  • we never share your personal information”

Impressive.  Anyway, once you drag the app to your browser menubar, you open Facebook’s privacy settings then run the program.  Using a simple Red-Yellow-Green warning system, it suggests where you might want to change your settings.  The whole process is remarkably easy.  And reassuring, even if the cow is already out of the barn, so to speak.

Facebook has been under withering scrutiny lately as people rebel against founder Mark Zuckerberg’s silly statement that ‘privacy is no longer a social norm.’  He’s right, but he’s a fool for announcing that.

But 400 million Facebook members who don’t understand that nothing is free in this world and that hosting the world’s largest social party runs up enormous costs are being equally foolish, or at least willfully ignorant.  Facebook’s only asset is data, data we all agreed to sign over when we signed up.  For an insightful assessment of Facebook’s privacy follies, read this article B.L. Ochman wrote for Advertising Age.

If marketers learn anything from Zuckerberg’s troubles, it should be the singular value heavy web users place on transparency.  Because that can be so easily abused.

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Element 79

]]> http://www.brandsareopinions.com/facebook-privacy-settings-confusing-you-theres-an-app-for-that/feed/ 0 There’s An App for That, And This App Gives 20% Off http://www.brandsareopinions.com/theres-an-app-for-that-and-this-app-gives-20-off/ http://www.brandsareopinions.com/theres-an-app-for-that-and-this-app-gives-20-off/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:29:55 +0000 Dennis Ryan http://www.brandsareopinions.com/?p=3840 Continue reading →]]> Two separate news stories about the iPhone popped up last night.  The first from PC World announces that Apple’s App Store just posted the 100,000th app for the iPhone.  That’s a breathtaking amount of software options for a phone, though as the article is quick to point out, perhaps that number indicates they’ve taken this far beyond need.

Picture 1More informative however, was this second story about Pizza Hut’s iPhone app.  The headline is how that pizza chain generated over one million dollars in sales off of this app by making it easy to use, and offering 20% off every order coming through it.  This ongoing discount is a perfect example of a value add–why should I put your branded app on my phone?  Oh, because you give me real value for doing so.  Maybe that’s why their app has been downloaded over a million times.

In similar fashion, both Papa John’s and Domino’s are rolling out mobile ordering sites as well and claim large incremental boosts to their sales volume.  And really, doesn’t that make intuitive sense?  I won’t buy a car via mobile, but making pizza delivery simpler is a real benefit.

And doing it for 20% off is a positively killer app.

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Element 79

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