Instagram for Android: Little Photo.

February 19, 2012 2 Comments

Little Photo - Instagram for Android

Little Photo - Instagram for Android

You probably dropped across beautiful instagram pictures by now. Instagram is an app (or a way) to share your life with friends through pictures. The idea is fairly simple: snap a pic with your iPhone, apply a filter to transform the look&feel and share it to your social network.

I have to say, Instagram instantly turns people into wonderful photographers. As I’ve always dreamed of being a good photographer myself, I believed the tools to turn into a photographer were finally within my reach.
All I need to do is getting the Instagram app, right?

Wrong! Unfortunately I use an Android device and Instagram is an iOS application. So I’m unable to use Instagram without getting a stylish (over-priced) iPhone. It turns out however that I’m not the only Android user who wants to use Instagram – as Google search suggestions demonstrate.

Instagram is iPhone only

Instagram search suggestions - Instagram Android.

Instagram search suggestions - Instagram Android.

As mentioned before, you need an iPhone to run Instagram. The photographic talent amongst Android users remain untapped. And regardless of the rumours about Instagram coming to Android I believe and notice that people are looking for alternatives. The best alternative I encountered so far is the free app Little Photo.

Little Photo: Instagram Android

I’ve experimented with a lot of Android photography apps up until today. But I really like Little Photo. Here’s why.

When accessing the app, you can take a picture with your camera or start from an existing image. Once you’ve done that, just touch the pic to experiment with filters and effects. The application has a bunch of filters and effects and you can go easily through all filters and effects and see how it transforms your image and consequently decide whether you want to apply it or not. The app supports multiple filters applied to the same image.

Next to the brilliant filters, it’s possible to save your image without overwriting the original file. Little Photo automatically creates a separate directory on SD card.

Finally, the app allows to easily share to different social networks. And as far as I know, it doesn’t create an additional social network as is the fact with Instagram. This sounds like a plus to me as I don’t want to engage on yet another social platform.

Little Photo example

Little Photo - White Shine

Little Photo

The above Little Photo example started from an existing photo that I did not take myself. I received this image from @JuliaPentcheva. It depicts a scenic winter landscape near the small mountain village of Momchilovtsi in Bulgaria. As the village is known for its “magic” I tried to “LittlePhoto-ize” that magic into it. Below is the original picture.

Original image

Original image

What after the Instragram Android release?

I wonder when Instagram becomes available for Android devices. Does somebody knows the ETA?
The question however is whether I will feel like making the switch after falling in love with Little Photo before…

Filed under Software & Technology Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

Sports & Business. Not that stupid after all?

February 12, 2012 2 Comments

Tactics Board from sports apllied to the world of business

Tactics Board from sports apllied to the world of business

A category of this blog bears the label “sports”. The articles within this section always link sports with business.
The posts aim to simplify more complicated business stuff by giving examples from the world of sports. In addition it strives to learn lessons from sports and apply them in a business kind of sphere.

Up until now, the sports category has 6 posts. The reason for that is that I always wondered whether this specific endeavour made any sense at all. Or as my last post finished :

Can businesses learn something from sport? Or is sport just sport?

I believe we can transfer insights from one societal aspect to another. Below are two cases from other people that back up this point. The question remains ‘why’ however.

Sport is not just sport. Content Marketing Strategy is like football.

Below is a free translation of a sports analogy used by: @steven_insites in a Dutch Marketing Magazine so to explain content marketing.

It’s like Football.

Developing a content conversion strategy is similar to putting together a football team. And it’s all about scoring in football. But in order to score the team must get the ball to the striker. Some teams use long passes to get there, others carefully advance through short passes. But in the end the ball needs to cross the line.

The marketer is the coach, the team composer. It’s up to him to decide how to get the ball crossing the line. But anyway, don’t expect to win without a proper strategy.

Sport is not just sport. The Jeremy Lin example.

Learnings from Jeremy Lin

Learnings from Jeremy Lin

Another case demonstrating that learnings from sports can be transferred to business is the story of Jeremy Lin. This case deals with basketball, underdog positions and the power of social media.

During last week Jeremy Lin became a sensation. The New York Knicks guard became a sensation first on new media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook but soon enough captured the attention of traditional media as well.

The Knicks guard is in tremendous shape and does crazy stuff on the court. Even that crazy it led to the neologism “linsational” or “linsanity”. This remarkable story detailed in the N.Y. Times shows us the power of bottom-up marketing for underdog players.

In this particular case people were surprised because they didn’t know Jeremy before. There are not that many Harvard players, not that many Asian-Americans. He’s an underdog. But he works hard and it pays off today.

So where’s the lesson for business?
SMEs and underdog players can turn their position into an advantage by offering great products (Jeremy plays incredible) and let that spread from within the fan network (Twitter, Facebook) towards the public sphere (traditional media, such as N.Y. Times). And yes, this includes working really really hard.

Why can we learn something from a completely different sphere?

I believe it’s proven we can learn a thing from an entirely different phenomenon. But why?
Is it because all are just aspects of the same society?

Filed under Business, Marketing, Sports Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Daum fired at FC Bruges? On Strategy, Leadership and Branding.

January 24, 2012 1 Comment

Leadership Daum Style at FC Bruges

Leadership Daum Style at FC Bruges

I am sorry if I just tricked you into a fake news item. Cristoph Daum is still the coach of FC Bruges. The headline is reasonable though, looking at the latest results of historically one of Belgium’s best football clubs. Added to that is the “culture of coach swapping”. The logic it dictates is somewhat of the following: if we don’t perform well, fire the coach and bring in a new leader. And it’s exactly from that swop culture that we can learn a thing or two about strategy, leadership and branding. The main message for today:

FC Bruges’ Coach Swap Story demonstrates how Strategy and Leadership drastically impact Branding.

There are many ways to develop a strategy to obtain goals. Within this process, the vision of the leader is rather critical. After all, his or her vision guides the decision for a specific strategy.
I believe this choice instantly impacts the “style”, “soul”, “positioning” or “brand”.

Let’s try to make this more clear by visualizing the case of football.

Strategy, leadership and branding. Learnings from football

Strategy, leadership and branding. Learnings from football

FC Bruges Coach Swap Story

Looking at the above scheme, something is remarkably striking in the FC Bruges Story. Let me just do the telling, meanwhile you do the scheme-mapping exercise, ok?

Adrie Koster, formal coach of FC Bruges. Dutch guy.

Adrie Koster, formal coach of FC Bruges. Dutch guy.

As from 2009, the Dutchman Adrie Koster, coached the team. As a leader he defined the strategy to obtain goals from an “always win perspective”. As a result FC Bruges played attacking, creative football and scored a lot. Neutral spectators loved the team. It had style, soul. It was a good brand. But the team didn’t always win. And after four successive defeats, the club fired the coach. He did not reach the objectives. The “always win strategy” was left. It didn’t work. A new strategy and leader was sought for.

At the end of 2011 FC Bruges appointed a new leader: Cristoph Daum. A German coach with a solid track-record. His goals were the same as those from Koster. But in order to fulfill them, the leader envisioned another approach to realize the objectives. He took the “win more than others do perspective”. Consequently, the same group of people were no longer recognizable. The team played uninspired and relied on proven tactics like dropping high balls in the penalty zone, free kicks and corners. It resulted in a lot of “1-0 wins” for the team however. And in fact, 1-0 quickly got labeled a “Daum Score”. But the longer this leader is in charge and brings the strategy to live through not really sexy tactics, the less the team is liked be outsiders and fans because of its style. The brand isn’t perceived as something “good” anymore. The soul is gone. This story from the world of sports clearly shows that strategy and leadership influence branding.

What if Daum really got fired?

Well, let’s answer the question by applying the theoretical scheme applied above.

FC Bruges Coach Swap Story. On Strategy, Leadership and Branding.

FC Bruges Coach Swap Story. On Strategy, Leadership and Branding.

Can businesses learn something from this story on Strategy, Leadership and Branding?
Or is sports just sports?

Filed under Business, Marketing, Sports Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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