twitter’d

Think social media doesn’t affect you?

In NZ we’re finally seeing some traction on mobile network competition as the two main players start to quake at the thought of *gosh* a third player.

Mobile companies have been creaming it for years in NZ and they’ve basically admitted to the fat in the margins with the comment on TV last Sunday “regulation doesn’t set prices, competition does”. As a marketer I know full well what this means. Don’t take value out of the market if you don’t have to. They may as well as said “we have no incentive to drop our prices because there is bugger all competition”.

So with the advent of 2degrees we’re finally seeing things ‘heat up’ to slightly tepid on the price front. And it’s heating up the most around the iphone and playing out the most on twitter and googledocs.

Mobile companies have always played the price plan card to confuse customers into thinking they are getting the best deal. Over the last week tweeting combined with google docs have undone a very clever market offer from telecom with an interactive spreadsheet.

I love social media. Power to the people.

Wisdom of crowds or wondering’s by wannabes?

I’ve recently been watching piqqem.com wondering if it is worth doing this type of thing on our own website.

Piqqem gets people to vote on whether they think a companies shares will increase or decrease because they have better prospects. The belief is that the aggregate vote (the wisdom of the crowd) will show the probable direction of the shares.

Unfortunately, after about 6 months watching I can’t help but think the concept misses somewhat. Off the latest newsletter I tested the latest ‘wisdom’ against the movements of the share market.  FAIL.

The share market itself is the ultimate wisdom of the crowd (right or wrong). This is because you have to front up with the cash to participate. You put your money where your wisdom is.

Piqqem is a great idea with a poor result. I only hope we find a way of looking back in 2, 3 or 10 years time and find out the piqqem voters where right to see some value in it.  Because they definitely don’t reflect the current market sentiment. Which means they don’t participate in the real test of their wisdom. 

So this is another example of an internet capability that can be very misused. They’re just wondering’s by wannabe’s.