What next - will chirping take off?

Is the Chirp app the next big thing?


As social media has evolved and insinuated its presence into the b-2-b marketing space there cannot help but be a sneaky suspicion that there is a measure of uncertainty about the value to a business and therefore how much resource to invest. Behind this concern is the ephemeral nature of some of the delivery tools and how much they are dependent on the continued enthusiasm of the users. Remember the initial excitement that greeted Friends Reunited and discovering what old school chums were up to? In the main it was pretty mundane stuff they were doing and it reminded you of why you had not kept in touch with them after leaving school. Then there was MySpace and now the hot property is Facebook. Both Friends Reunited and MySpace soldier on and you wonder if the shine might also go off Facebook too. So what next? A flurry of exchanges on my local marketing network responded to the news that one agency's client was investing resource in Chirp.


According to News Scientist - "Chirp,launched today, is a new service that allows people to share digital content – web pages, pictures, video or pretty much anything that can be stored on an online server – by playing short tunes to each other." The BBC mentions potential marketing applications saying,"It can also work over public address systems or radio transmissions - potentially allowing broadcasters a way to send up-to-date pictures or links to background information: or an advertiser to send coupons or snippets of a song or promotional video." One big question is will people be bothered? Last year it was QR codes that were suddenly everywhere in a checkerboard black and white rash over display advertisements and posters. But what seemed like a great system for linking the printed page to the Internet requires the user to make an effort and that won't happen if the experience disappoints. 


b-2-b marketers need to be aware of the technical possibilities and allow some modest resource to test and evaluate but not lose sight of a crucial question - is this a place that your target audiences actually visit?