Launching new services is rarely a silky smooth process, especially for a large enterprise. Take for example my recent “experiment” with Fancast:

A few weeks ago, I tweeted about the streaming service from Comcast called Fancast. While other streaming services allow you to watch videos from the major networks, none give you streaming content from premium channels like HBO, Cinemax and Stars. So when my DVR started being flaky this past Saturday night, I decided to give it a try.

The log-in process was painless and the search functionality worked well. To watch premium content, the service required a special Adobe AIR player, which I promptly downloaded and installed. Everything was smooth sailing until up to the point when I tried to start Watchmen. For some reason, the service kept displaying a message that I was an HBO subscriber thought I was. After reading the FAQ’s, I confirmed that was I logging in with my primary Comcast.net account, which is a requirement, so I decided to call in to Comcast’s local customer service. After waiting on hold for a short while, the representative confirmed that all of my account settings were correct but indicated that another department would be better equipped to handle the issue. She tried to switch me to that department by I kept getting disconnected.

When I called in to customer service again, I spoke with another representative but the second one didn’t even know about Fancast. Yikes! Even though I explained to her how the service worked, she questioned me whether it was something that Comcast offered. My wife, who was sitting in the room, was rolling on the floor laughing as I attempted to convince the woman to help me. When the rep tried to switch, I was promptly disconnected again. So, I searched Fancast and (finally) found the toll-free number for support. When I called it, the Fancast rep informed me that my account was working correctly but error that I kept getting was due to an issue that Comcast/Fancast has been having for a week. And there’s no ETA for when it will be fixed. Now that’s a bummer!

While most would chalk this up to Comcast’s poor service, I think that the issue is actually a combination of poor user experience and internal communication/training. NOTE: I challenge you to name a cable television provider that you think is doing a great job these days! While the integration between Comcast and Fancast isn’t where it should be (and there’s a myriad behind the scenes reasons why that’s the case), I would have liked to see a simple error message that indicates that the service is currently down and that they’re working on it. Also, it would have been nice if the customer service reps at Comcast get training on Fancast so that customers like me don’t have to feel like I’ve just made a prank call. Lastly, both Fancast and Comcast should communicate on a regular basis about system status — it would have been much better if the Comcast rep told me that the service was down and to try again later instead of trying to fix my when in actuality it wasn’t the problem.

Comcast must be feeling the pressure to adapt to shifting consumer behavior and increasing pressure from competitors. According to eMarketer, nearly 25% of all TV content watched each day will be time-shifted, on-demand, on the Web or on a mobile device by 2012 (source). Viewers are abandoning television for the internet. Also, both Apple and Google are looking to challenge traditional video distribution channels by offering their own subscription services (source and source). While the service is still in Beta, it is just a shame that Comcast wasn’t able to deliver on the concept.

After spending more than an hour trying to use Fancast, I’ve decided that I need to give Comcast another few weeks to work out the bugs — eventually this service is going to be Comcastic.

About a month ago, Facebook changed their homepage design and it looks like they will be rolling out yet another homepage redesign. And this one looks like it will include some major changes. I’m sure it will be not well received by the masses and it looks like Facebook is trying to prepare for that with an open letter from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg that was posted to Facebook late yesterday on some upcoming privacy changes. Check out Mashable’s review of the redesign below and let me know what you think of the changes. Like them, hate them? Personally, I’m really excited to see the improvements to the search functionality.

5 Big Changes to Watch in Facebook’s Upcoming Redesign

1. All of the notifications have been moved to the top left. Notifications, requests, and inbox are prominently displayed next to the Facebook logo. Chat remains on the bottom, however.
2. Search is far more important in this redesign. As my fellow usability experts can attest, placing the search box in the middle of the page instead of the right hand side increases the number of searches users make. Facebook wants to focus on its real-time search engine as it prepares to compete with Twitter.

3. Your profile picture and status appears on the homepage. If you look on the current homepage design, you’ll find the updates of all of your friends, but yours isn’t constantly there, reminding you to update your old, outdated status.

This is a problem Facebook has needed to fix for a while. Now it’s addressed with a new section at the top left of the homepage with your face and your most recent status update, along with a prompt to update your status.

4. There’s a new border around the main content. It separates your left-hand navigation and notifications from your Facebook news feed.

5. The ability to see your inbox from the homepage. We want to stress how important this change is to the new Facebook design. It gives you direct access to your most recent messages without leaving the homepage, which should increase engagement.

via 5 Big Changes to Watch in Facebook’s Upcoming Redesign [Screenshots].

November’s AiMA event, “Mobile Marketing: How mobile is more than texting, tweeting, and talking,” was the first I’ve been able to attend. The event certainly was more than texting, tweeting, and talking (although there was a lot of texting and tweeting happening in the crowd); panelists encouraged incorporating mobile into marketing plans for 2010 and shared interesting facts regarding the growth of iPhone applications, the mobile web, and more.

The event was moderated by Michael Becker of iLoop Mobile, and there is no better way to describe him than with this tweet from the event:

@JermoH #aima – iLoop’s Michael Becker is like the Britannica of Mobile Marketing.

Becker opened the event by showing a commercial for a Motorola cell phone. From 1983. The advertisement stated that cell phones would completely change the way we communicate. Understatement of the century.

Given that the event was on mobile, it seems appropriate to sum up the key topics via what was tweeted live as each panelist spoke:

Mack McKelvey, VP of Marketing for Millenial Media.

• @briangupton: RT @ATLmobile: Mobile has lowest Cost Per Engaged User per @mellenialmedia #aima
• @JermoH: In Sept, there were 64million mobile users (1/3 size of Internet) #aima

Brian Seti, Division Manager and National Marketing Manager for Yamaha WaterCraft Group:

• @kristengreen: Yamaha no longer spends $ on traditional advertising. They focus on mobile & social and are able to deploy campaigns more efficiently. #AiMA

Derek Von Nostran, Director of Consumer Marketing & Analytics for The Weather Channel Interactive:

• @laurenmullins: Only 20% of iPhone apps downloaded are used the next day. – Derek Von Nostran, TWC #aima
• @JermoH Top phone for Hispanic market = iPhone, top phone for African American market = Razor. #aima

Von Nostran also discussed the popularity of TWC’s iPhone application. It’s the most popular weather application, and one of the top 10 applications (ranked just below Facebook). TWC launched a game as a follow-up, but the application met subpar success because of the target’s inclination to only utilize TWC for weather information.

To read more tweets from this AiMA event, search for #aima on Twitter. The November event was AiMA’s last big event for the year, but there is a web analytics lunch and a holiday party both scheduled for the first week in December.

Twitter as well as other Social platforms is beginning to suffer from the “campaign” marketing approach that often exists in brand marketing.  A recent story from AdAge rightly calls out that so many brands fail to realize the potential of Twitter.  This often holds true with Facebook, My Space and the like as well.  In general, brands plan out their year, it includes a series of campaign pushes, and the agencies that support them are forced to define how “social” should fit into the campaign.  In general, having social as a part of campaign planning that sits within a brand team or an interactive/media team presents an inherent flaw.  Social is all about ONGOING DIALOGUE.  It should be considered a part of the CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP (CRM) PLATFORM rather than just a communication channel.  As such, when planning for social and twitter, the first step is to consider what role it plays in a brand’s wholistic view of CRM and how the communication channels of email, fan pages, apps, Twitter, etc. all combine to deliver ongoing points of dialogue with the consumer.  THEN, the campaign pushes are simply experiences and offers that can help provide relevant outbound message content.  That said, campaigns often only refresh quarterly at most.  As such, a CRM strategy that includes social needs to have far more frequent dialogue.  This dialogue should be guided by what consumers are sharing and saying…not merely by what the brand wants to tell them.

So … to achieve all of this, it becomes a challenge when the budgets sit within a team that can only make campaign decisions or at most annual decisions.  So, where should the budget and subsequently management of an ongoing social interaction sit?  In the instance of the dialogue being marketing and experience driven, rather than PR driven, perhaps the budget sits with the CRM team.  Or, perhaps we revisit how budgets are set entirely and map out a multi-year budget commitment to social platforms that can ensure the funds are available throughout the year and across years to ensure that the commitment to not “going dark in social” can be achieved.

The article that I’m referencing can be found on AdAge at :

Brands on Twitter: 76% of Accounts Are Infrequent Users – Advertising Age – DigitalNext.

No surprise here – Apple is in the process of developing a new gadget, and Steve Jobs’ lips are sealed. But that has never stopped the rumors from flowing on tech sites across the web. This time, it’s for the supposed Apple Tablet.

Rumors about Apple possibly releasing a tablet computer (Apple’s response to the recent Netbook craze) have been circulating for months, but CNN Money recently published a report on the proposed device and some of it’s alleged features.

The tablet is quickly becoming referred to as the device to end all devices – it’s going to be part iPhone, part e-reader, and part Macbook. Really? Haven’t we heard this before? I recall an advertisement for the first generation iPhone that praised the iPhone for easing the load of gadgets one must carry around. The iPhone is here…no longer must you carry around that digital camera, old cell phone, and laptop! We’re all saved!

I’m not as cynical as I seem, guys. I’m an iPhone carrying, MacBook using, certified Apple dork. I have no doubts that the tablet will be revolutionary. For on-the-go computing, it will certainly out perform the iPhone and be more convenient than using a laptop. But is likely to be a supplement to these technologies for the technology-obsessed, and not a replacement.

What are your thoughts on the tablet? Estimating at between a $600-$1,000 price tag at launch, will it be the device to end all devices for you? Or will it just be too expensive?

And, if you feel like joining in on the rumor mill even more, Mashable has an excellent compilation of design prototypes.