Ping Me with iTunes

Sep 2

Posted by Andrew Machado in Technology

It’s no secret Apple launched Ping yesterday.  Ping in a nutshell is a social network built into iTunes to allow you to find new music, see what your friends like and follow your favorite artists.

Initial reaction seemed tepid.  I think a lot of people over looked the true reason Apple is doing this.  The reactions I saw seemed to think it will really hurt Myspace music and LastFM.

My opinion on Ping is its Apple’s first step in not only making music more social, but allowing them to encourage users to buy a lot more music.  Currently users have options they can stream music from Pandora (the most popular music app for the iPhone), GrooveShark, but the #1 music listening experience is iTunes with over 160 million accounts.  Apple needs these 160 million users to purchase more music and Ping is going to be the vehicle to do that.

A common example I use when describing how important social is for discovering things is Netflix.  I change the number of movies I receive at once probably 10 times a year simply because I have no idea what to rent.  Their recommendations system stinks and their integration with Facebook simply does not feel natural to me.  However, if they ever nailed it and I felt like the recommendations I was getting from friends were spot on I’d probably leave my plan alone and rent much more often.

Apple is going to tweak and tweak Ping until its essential in music discovery because they want you to buy.  You can already tell in the messaging throughout the service.

With the ability to preview all tracks in the social stream discoverability becomes instantaneous.  I’m excited about the service simply because I purchase a lot of music.  My current list of tracks purchased just crossed 2200 songs :)

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What happened to the MacBook Air?

Aug 31

Posted by Andrew Machado in Technology

It was January 15, 2008 when Steve Jobs unveiled the world’s thinnest notebook.

Since the MacBook Air’s launch its been plagued with issues around heat, price and design.
Overpriced and underperforming

Overpriced and underperforming

Heat
When they first launched the MacBook Air users complained of lockups centered around heat produced when the machine was working near 100% capacity.  This has since been fixed.
Price
When launched the MacBook Air was $2499 to start! Since its launch two revisions have followed and both showed a dramatically reduced price. Currently today if you went to buy a MacBook Air they start at $1499.
Design
Often praised for its unbelievable craftsmanship the Macbook Air was plauged with issues around only having one USB Port, a really crappy graphics card and a very underpowered Intel CPU.  Future revisions have remedied the graphics card issue, but the one USB port and slow processor still remain.
It’s been over a year since the MacBook Air was updated. In computer time this is an eternity.  So whats going on?  My hunch is Apple used this product as an experiment a few things:
1. Better manufacturing process’ (the unibody enclosure) now used on all MacBook Pro products.
2.  A high margin product that had just enough sex appeal to sell well enough to keep the lights on but not warrant any heavy R&D investment
3.  Better market research on true mobile computing. The MacBook Air is thin and light but nowhere near the iPad which is slowly becoming a dominant force in ultra portable computing.
My Prediction
One more revision before the holiday season before the MacBook Air is retired.  You can pick up a MacBook for $999 today thats much faster, a tad heavier, but if you need lightweight computing hello iPad + a MacBook for the same price :)

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5 Songs I’ve Been Listening to Lately

Aug 29

Posted by Andrew Machado in Personal

I get asked often what music am I listening to lately.  I’ve always found my taste’s to be pretty electic, so I’m going to try and share 5 songs including an oldie but goodie I’ve been listening to lately.

1.  Alex Gaudino’s “I’m In Love”

This song reminds me of Daft Punk’s “Around the World”.  A simple hook repeated for over 7 minutes, but the beat is transformative and really takes you on a journey.  Props to Garrett Scott for introducing me to this one.

2.  Linkin Park’s “The Catalyst”

I love the bridge in this song.  Linkin Park lately has been changing their sound and really growing up.  Minutes After Midnight sound wise was very different from previous efforts and I expect their new album to be even more of a drastic departure from the Linkin Park of old.

3.  Game’s “Blackout”

Game has been talking about releasing the R.E.D. album for nearly two years, but at least he’s still active on the mixtape circuit with his recent release Brake Lights.  The mixtape is awesome and Blackout has a solid chorus to even get the anti Game fans humming along.

4.  DJ Magnet “Party and Bullshit” (Miley Cyrus Notorious B.I.G Mashup)

I have no problem putting this on the list.  Say what you want about Miley, but this mashup is off the charts.  The only thing that would make it more epic is 16 bars from Ludacris (the new king of guest spots…move over Nate Dogg)

5.  Zero 7 “Destiny”

Destiny hit my iTunes on July 29th 2002 and is staple in chill out bad ass music.  If you don’t know Zero 7 pick up In The Waiting Line and enjoy.

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5 Commandments for Community Management

Aug 28

Posted by Andrew Machado in Personal, Technology

1. Be Fast
Google, Facebook and others often write about how important being fast is. Speed in any business is important. In community management responding to any support emails, questions or quickly letting the community know you are aware of the problem is imperative.  The reason speed is so important above everything else is my eyes is it leaves people with an impression about how serious you treat them.  Constantly I hear “Wow amazingly fast response!” or tweets like this.

2.  Know Your Product

This may  seem simple.  It isn’t.  When I say know your product, I mean know it better than anyone at the company.  In the case with Apture I pride myself on attempting to know more than @tristanharris (he has an insane ability to find things) when it comes down to bugs, general usage and workarounds to common problems.  The reason this is so important is it plays into commandment one, but it also frees up your engineers to keep working on larger problems.  When you know your product well a great majority of gripes users have can be solved without an engineer.  When you run a small shop engineering time is imperative, slowing them down should be avoided at all costs. One issue I’ve seen pop up since the launch of Apture Search is where users may install our javascript twice on a page.  When you know the entire installation process, how to read html, etc you can quickly walk the user through a solution to this problem quickly.  They’ll love you for this.

3.  Always Be Closing

As a Community Manager your job is to “manage the community” well a big part of this is growing the community.  You can only grow the community so much by being quick and knowing your product.  Start looking for potential new customers who you think would love it.  A quick tip for this is find a target on Twitter send them an @ message about how you have an awesome product for their site and you’d love to send them a demo.  They’ll usually reply. Who doesnt want to see a demo?  You can do contests and things to drive participation, but I’m a firm believer especially in new companies you need to use brute force to grow your business.

4.  Be Yourself

You probably spend a great majority of your day inside GetSatisfaction or inside your mail program replying to customers.  When communicating with people who are having problems be yourself, feel more like a real person than an automated reply.  If I’m talking with someone who runs a sports site, I’ll mention something about an article I read on their site or a player from a sports they like.  These types of things I believe break the ice with someone and give them comfort in knowing a capable person is on the other end, but they are also cool :)

5.  Connect on Twitter or Facebook with your customers

If someone has a great experience with getting help from you find them on Twitter or Facebook and connect with them.  You should not only build your community for your company, but increase your circle of connections.  Now when I go to SXSW or BWE I can say hi to Kate Buck Jr, simply because after talking with her a few times over Twitter about Apture we are now friends.  Relationships with people are not only beneficial personally, but if I need help promoting something for Apture I’m always going to reach out to her.  Just don’t post crazy pictures of yourself on Facebook or they may see them :)

I hope these tips help you become a better community manager.  If you have any questions or comments do not be afraid to reach out on Twitter or leave a note below.

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