The heat has been turned up here at the MOBIBO laboratories as we are trying to push the application into the spotlight locally here in Metro Detroit. We are working with a PR company to help expand our user base through conventional media avenues. The agency has sent out press releases to various organizations and news groups. The technology writer at the Detroit Free Press mentioned MOBIBO in an article about local mobile development as well as additional stories circulated to smaller scale local news outlets.
While the focus of my efforts has been on the social media front, the traditional media aspect of television broadcasts is able to reach a different segment of our demographic. Our main goal has been to build the MOBIBO brand through user downloads, new businesses signing on board for MOBIBO campaigns, and overall exposure to potential users in the Metropolitan Detroit area.
We have had local WJBK Fox 2 Detroit and WDIV Local 4 come into the studio over the past few weeks to conduct interviews and film news segments. The enthusiasm behind the newscasts was great and I think both were composed quite well but with different styles. The WDIV segment showcased the application in use in Royal Oak, as well as a coupon redemption at Tom’s Oyster Bar. WJBK utilized clips of our animated introduction video and gave the story a very fun, “Silicon Valley” sort of feel.
The effects of the exposure were felt immediately. Within an hour of the first newscast on television, MOBIBO enjoyed massive spikes in social media interactions and application downloads. The segments were aired multiple times throughout the week, and each instance generated community interest and positive feedback. Overall, I was impressed for how much attention we received for the relative small window of air time. I grabbed the videos of our coverage and uploaded them onto our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/paidasyougo
While I continue to expand on our social media efforts, we are always looking for an unexplored avenue into generating downloads and social buzz. Google, which has a service for just about everything, has a service called adMob that is specifically tailored to target banner advertisements towards mobile devices. Creating a quick link from impression – to touch – to download, allows for users to not have to transfer that “in-the-moment” motivation to download our application across platforms; opposed to hearing about the app from word of mouth or viewing a window cling at a local shop.
We have developed a new contest for our Facebook fans for the month of October. We went with a Halloween theme because it is fun and festive. This contest has substantial prizes in the form of Apple’s latest gadgets and we hope the user response is enthusiastic and viral! Check out all of the details on our page at: http://www.facebook.com/paidasyougo
Our national commercial has been filmed and is in the editing process. I can’t wait to see how well the commercial is received during our local television spots. Perhaps borrowing the ethos of the news media is of much higher relevance to some of our demographic. We have to diversify our outreach because the product is very universal; whether you are 16, 35, or 64 – everyone loves money. Especially no-strings-attached free money!
hgstudiointernproject 
You are very enthusiastic about this project, and I’m sure MOBIBO is grateful to have you as part of their team. It seems as though you have been given a wide range of opportunities to apply your skills and learn new ones. This experience will definitely boost your resume.
Borrowing the ethos of the news media is huge if you want to reach a diverse audience. YouTube, Facebook, and Google are great for promoting products and services, but there is a segment of the population that doesn’t understand or trust the internet. The news media is a useful way to promote MOBIBO because I’m sure some people believe it is too good to be true and must have some strings attached, but would trust that the news wouldn’t feature MOBIBO if it was a scam.
This sounds like a great opportunity for you and I wish you luck with the rest of the project.
Hey Bryce! It sounds like you’re having a lot of fun exploring social media’s relation to civic engagement–are you finding that anything we learned in Dr. Allan’s class is proving useful to you? (I don’t know how much theory you really need to jump into using Facebook, for example, but maybe knowing the theory could help to utilize the platforms.) I checked out MOBIBO’s Facebook page–and I’m super impressed by it. Are you the only person who updates it? If so, you’re doing an awesome job. I’m not signed up for MOBIBO, so I don’t know how it actually works, but it sounds really cool.
Hi Bryce,
Sounds great! I have a site visit scheduled with your supervisor tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to hearing more about the work your doing from him.
Dr. G