Reality mining - are you taking advantage of it in your blog?

Mar 12, 2008

Reality mining - are you taking advantage of it in your blog?

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Do you really know what’s reality and what’s not?

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. The future of marketing interactions will be increasingly focused upon mobile devices such as your phone, your PDA and similar beasties. After all, consider the following.

Most likely, your phone is always with you. Therefore, determining its location (via GPS) during particular times of the day is an excellent method of forecasting where you’ll be in the future (if you’re a creature of habit, as many people are).

What does this mean for marketers? Well, lessee….telemarketers would have a more accurate picture of when you’ll actually be at home. And this concept can be extended even further - let’s say that you’re a coffee marketer and know the approximate time of day when your phone (and hence, you) are in a Starbucks. Or a Dunkin Donuts. Or … you get the idea, right? The huge data available from Google Earth and other satellite mapping outlets would make figuring out your favorite haunts, their actual addresses, etc., relatively simple….and it would be only one more marketing step to "push" coffee-related technology to your PDA or phone.

The whole idea of reality mining came to me as I was reading Paul Barsch’s article "What’s next for Marketing? Reality Mining." It’s truly an eye-opening read - I highly recommend you hopping over there and checking it out.

Reality mining has been around for years and year. You can learn more at

Now, how can you take advantage of reality mining in your blog? A couple of ways come to mind - you can install the plugin Psychic Search (which shows you what people have been searching on within your site…ideally, you can then craft articles that satisfy their needs), you can monitor your logs, you can install Google Analytics and/or Feedburner and revel in all sorts of information about how visitors find your site, etc.

The challenge you as a blogger will have, however, is actually sifting through the data and then making use of it. If you discover that many folks are searching on

how do I build a blog

and you don’t have any specific page targeting that…will you have the discipline to crank one out? Or if you know that most of your visitors show up after work but before American Idol premieres on TV…would you have the urge to set up a marketing contest that takes place within that narrow time slot? In other words, would you modify your own behavior with your blog..if you knew it would better meet the needs of the visitors who find it?

Don’t be surprised if some people say, well gee, Barbara, I guess not - I have the desire but lack the energy. The bloggers who actually DO something with information gleaned from reality mining….I personally think those will be the bloggers with a hidden edge.

What do you think?

ThankYouVeryMuch!

Owlbert

#BEGIN highlights of this blog writing post:

Beginners blogging tips: You can sign up at Google Analytics or Feedburner to get ideas about your visitors.

Intermediate and/or Advanced blogging tips: You can tailor your future blog posts to what your audience is seeking but didn’t find.

#END highlights of this blog writing post

Speaking about reality, why not wear it?

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(By the way, if you have any questions about the topics in this posting "Reality mining - are you taking advantage of it in your blog?", do comment below - I'll try to clarify any issues).

Barbara Ling and Owlbert

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