Posts Tagged money
Twitter economics
Posted by Bill McCollam in Economics, Marketing/Psychology, Potpourri on April 6th, 2009
Twitter is the latest big thing in social media and the digerati are all trying to figure out how to turn some of this popularity into money. Well - I can see the shape of it - if not the exact mechanics. But let’s level set first.
Twitter is a platform. It’s provides a way to transmit itty-bitty posts (<140 characters). That minimalist aspect is an important part of its character. But I think it’s the publish/subscribe model that’s really interesting. Basically you register, then tell them a bit about yourself. They you go looking for people that you care to follow. You can look for friends or you can look for people with interesting characteristics or common interests. You subscribe to (”follow”) them and maybe they follow you back. Then you er…. talk about stuff.
So far so good?
Okay. Now one more thing before we get to economics… All these ways of finding out who to follow and have them follow you - assume some kind of latent context. In other words - you have to know something about who you want to connect to before you connect to them. I can search for my pal Harry, or I can import all my contacts, or I can go looking for people that write about personal finance.
Now, here’s the good part. There’s also a convention called hashtags. This simply means ‘tagging’ your post with a code prefixed with a #. So I could create a tweet like, “brrr, sure is cold on this flight - wish the attendant would turn up the heat on flight #ac905″. Anyone can subscribe to a hashtag. So if, for instance, the flight crew were monitoring #ac905 - then they’d be able to fix the heat, or make an announcement, or ignore it. Here’s a whole database of tags.
So how to make money? I think of it as situational arbitrage. (Yeah, that’ll catch on…). Think of a situation where you want to exchange something of micro-value - but it’s just too inconvenient or socially awkward to actually do anything about it. I’ve talked about these situations before… you’re leaving a parking lot with 2 hours left on your ticket, or you’re getting tired at the driving range with half a jumbo bucket, or you’re at a supermarket with an unused coupon, or you want to get rid of an extra two tickets. What if everybody subscribed to twitter (and soon everyone will be walking around with devices able to), and there was a known convention around hashtags. So, when you go to the supermarket - you scan #Loblaw27 and see whose needs coupons, or #parkinglot3456 to see who needs an unexpired ticket.
There’s stuff to be filled in for sure…
- It’d be great if there was a micro-exchange function built into twitter so we could easily transfer a few bucks between tweeters.
- We need good way to make the context known. Short of just knowing that #flight number is the convention for airlines, how would we communicate that? I suppose the host location could put up big signs (This is #LOBLAW27 - but what’s in it for them?). What about a GPS mashup? What if we could simply open up a channel to anyone within a few hundred feet?
If you could figure these aspects out (and a way to skim a small value-add surcharge for the service) you’d have the thing licked.
I ain’t got no money, honey
Posted by Bill McCollam in Personal Finance on March 22nd, 2009
I’ve decided to stop using money.
On reflection it’s not that difficult. And there’s many, many reasons to prefer other forms of payment. Here’s my ranked order of how I prefer to pay for personal expenses;
- Credit cards
- Automated account withdrawals
- Debit cards
- Cheque
- Cash
Having credit as number one is easy. I can get 1 - 2% of the payment back with a reward program. In essence, if a merchant supports credit card payment - and you’re not using credit - then essentially you’re subsidizing those that are. Merchants pay the credit cards companies when customers use their cards (in Canada the average retail merchant discount rate is about 2% of price). So your first order of business should be to put as many of your regular expenses as you can on your credit card. Which card? Here’s a link to an excellent resource comparing and recommending Canadian credit card reward programs.
Besides the obvious (groceries, entertainment, meals, clothing, travel, gas, repairs), look into all your other expenses to see what can be put on the credit card (utilities, subscriptions, drugs, big ticket items - even some insurance premiums). According to a recent ScotiaBank poll only 24% Canadians are using credit cards for everyday purchases. This is a lost opportunity.
Besides rewards, another advantage of credit payment is, of course, credit. Given that you’re paying your balances off in full by the due date, you’ll get a month or two of float. Most cards will also provide you with extended warranties and purchase security (ie. a way to contest charges when purchases aren’t delivered whole).
Of course, you can’t put everything on a credit card. Taxes and investments for instance, and some other payments. Automated account withdrawals, debit cards and cheques are all really ways of paying cash - without the cash. The advantage of these methods over cash - include convenience and audit trails (and there some excellent resources available to help you analyse your expenses). I’ve used - Wasabe, Money and Intuit’s Quicken. Of course, you get these advantage with credit cards as well.
Finally cash. I started thinking about the instances that I actually use cash. And they’re almost all gone. My list of cash expenses is down to;
- Coffee shop,
- Cheap lunches at the food court, concession, or outside vendor,
- kid’s pocket money,
- Some gifts and gratuities,
- Very small store purchases,
- Foreign vacation spending (for a few reasons - cards aren’t always welcome and even if they are - you might be a little wary of identity theft).
As I thought about this - I’m fairly sure I could figure out ways to almost eliminate cash altogether. Some coffee shops have gift cards or coupons that I can buy on credit - and there are lunch counters that support debit or credit. My mission is to go 1 month and spend less than $20 cash. I’ll let you know how I do.