ChaosScenario

Reason #21: Why I Love the iPhone

Bruce Tognazzini ("Ask Tog") of the Nielsen Norman Group said that the iPhone's 2G connection speed was similar to dial-up, but I'm happy to report that this is not the case -- it's much faster.

Stuck in the sticks without broadband Internet
About two weeks ago, my family had to drive out to east Texas to visit relatives. My wife's aunt (Sissy) is always a gracious hostess, and in return, I try to help out whenever I can. These days, my help comes in the form of giving computer advice and instruction (which, with Vista, is pretty tough for me, but I do my best).

One thing about Sissy is that she loves seeing pictures of the kids, but with today's technology, we record as much as we can to video and post it on YouTube. When we mentioned this to her, of course she wanted to see the videos, but trying to get a video to load on dial-up... well...

I had forgotten just how slow dial-up really is, or how much requirements have increased since I last ditched dial-up in 2002 or so.

I tried to pull a video up, but to no avail.

iPhone to the Rescue
Now, I don't have an iPhone, but my wife does. So while we were waiting on the main YouTube page to load over Sissy's computer with a dial-up connection, I pulled up the video of my daughter's first birthday party (Watch) on my wife's iPhone.

No problems. No worries. And we made Sissy incredibly happy.

Why I don't have an iPhone (and why I'll get one soon)
I really want a GPS, and I didn't want to fork over all that cash if it doesn't have what I want. iPhone has Google Maps, which is useful (I've tried it, and my wife has specifically gotten herself "unlost" by using it), but the iPhone doesn't have one.

I have a suspicion that on release in the future (perhaps generation-3) will have it, so I want to wait for it. That may be as much as 2 years away.

My wife, on the other hand, is committed to having the latest and greatest. So when Apple's releases its next iPhone (my prediction: with more memory, longer battery life, and 3G access), she will grab it, and by default I will get her old one.

I just wonder if I can wait that long. Especially since my wife just told me Apple just released a software update for the maps that can pinpoint where you are, similar to a GPS. - Cam Beck

Product placement inside an ad?

Going through my RSS reader, I noticed a post from John Winsor on this new ad for the movie Jumper AND HP. (RSS readers click here)

The first thing that comes to my mind is the scene at the agency that developed the ad. Everyone patting themselves on the back, pumping up their egos and telling each other how smart and creative they are. Oh, and it's not a thirty second spot, it's a minute and thirty second spot.

It does have a certain novelty factor. It's not something you expect and that alone causes you to pay attention maybe a little more than you normally would. It's pretty obvious, however, that these ads were produced separately and then put together. Having the jumper in the HP commercial isn't really innovative, it's annoying. If I were the client, I'd be upset. Seems to me there is very little thought put into the content of these two ads together. Outside of the jumper dropping in the HP commercial (probably green screened after the fact) and Williams saying "hey, get out of here", it's two very different creative concepts.

I'm looking forward to seeing Jumper but I gotta wonder why someone with this type of super hero like ability would want to be in a commercial anyways? If you like Willams so much, teleport to her tennis match! I know, I'm thinking too much about it.

Tell us what you think about this new combined spot.

- Paul Herring

$4,750,000

That's how much, in popcorn, the Boy Scouts of America donated to the U.S. Armed Services.

I was very happy to hear this. My son (The Popcorn Scholar) and I raised about $100 for that purpose, and our scout council (Circle 10) accounted for $271,175 of it, altogether.

Why am I telling you this?

Troop morale is something that is very near and dear to my heart. Although as a United States Marine, I very fortunately never had to serve in a combat zone, both as a Marine and a Marine brat, I know what it's like to miss the comforts of the familiar.

When I asked for your help, you responded, and I'm very grateful for that fact.

No one today, as far as I'm concerned, sacrifices as much as our men and women of the armed forces. It does us all credit if we can give a little something back that reminds them, during the stress and troubles of their present situation that is beyond their control, that we love and appreciate them.

But most importantly, it helps. It really helps.

Thank you for your efforts, and thank you for obliging me this small interlude to express my gratitude. - Cam Beck

Book Review: Letting Go of the Words

Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works
by Janice (Ginny) Redish
With foreword by Steve Krug
2007
Morgan Kaufmann Publishers
Buy from Amazon

Writing for the Web is not like writing a college term paper -- or even print ads. It takes understanding what your audience is seeking when they come to your website and presenting it in a manner that allows them to find it easily. Letting Go of the Words is a brilliant, easy-to-read book that explains how you can write usable copy for projects of any size.

Redish writes about the difference between the three major types of pages and what should be on them (and what shouldn't).

1. Home pages - Often, but not always, the front door for a company's website.
2. Pathway pages - Pages that are necessary, intermediate steps between where users are and what they're looking for.
3. Information pages - Where users find the information they need.

She also gives useful advice on

• Focusing on your essential message
• Making your design easy to use
• Using lists and tables
• Using headings and illustrations effectively
• Writing links that get clicked, and perhaps most importantly,
• Fitting this all into a process that allows you to set expectations and meet deadlines.

Anyone involved with building websites (or writing blogs) can find value in this book. I learned a lot from it, and I think you would, too. I strongly recommend it. - Cam Beck

Kiva -- Responsible giving

If you read this blog, you're rich. No, not because of the 'experience' but because you most likely make more money than the majority of the world's population. Most people don't have access to clean water, electricity and education, let alone the internet. Because of that, most of us are compelled to want to help out.

How do you know when you give money to organizations, it's going to where it needs to go? Cam pointed out the problems on a post I made a while ago. Aid given either through the government or even through charities can, at the very least be inefficiently distributed, and at the worst, stolen.

The right way is to give this aid to the people who need it directly, giving them ways to help themselves long term. Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank won a Nobel piece prize for coming up with the concept of micro-credit. Essentially, it's loaning small amounts of money to budding entrepreneurs in third world countries who pay back the loans as they build their businesses. What's even cooler about this concept is that sites like Kiva.org allow you to choose who you will give your money to.

   

The site has been so successful that, at one time late last year, it actually ran out of entrepreneurs to loan to! There field staff has been busy and you can see now there are more people to give to.

Life has a lot of downward spirals that people get trapped in either through their own actions or through their circumstances. You gotta love the upward spiral that this creates for people who need the help.

(Tip of the hat to PFSK) - Paul Herring

Search Widget is Too Lijit to Quit

You can install a lot of widgets on your blog, but if you could only install one, I recommend installing a search tool that works.

Sure, you could choose to monetize, instead. To that end, you have

• Amazon affiliate widget
• Google AdWords widget, and
• A tip jar

But those are more focused on your needs than the likely needs of your audience.

The need for search in content-rich environments is universal, but so few engines really perform it well.

If you haven't yet, you have to try this blog's search feature, which uses the Lijit engine. It's function is straightforward, and it has a few nifty add-ons that you have to experience to appreciate.

However, one of the most useful features is its ability to deliver useful statistics on how your site is being searched, not only within the tool, but also what brings people to your blog.

Take this example, which is available within my login on the site (I also get a summary once per week of some of the most useful stats).

Here's something I found particularly interesting. My post about John Edwards' economics "expertise" (John Edwards 2.0: Truth and Consequences) showed as high as #5 on a Google search for "The Truth About John Edwards" (See #21 in the above list).

I would have never even known to search for that without this kind of detailed analysis of my search data.

Why this is important to your marketing
You have to be prepared for the possibility that people are coming to your website through pages other than the home page. The search data gives you context that can help you determine if your content is meeting the needs of these visitors.

If it is, then you may pick up a few more subscribers. If it isn't, well... it might be for a variety of reasons, but one of them may be that your site is optimized for the wrong words.

If, for instance, I were getting 100 visits per week from people looking for information about "John Edwards," but only 1 per week on searches about "marketing" I could infer that

1. Lots of people were searching for information about John Edwards, and
2. My site is performing relatively poorly, in other areas most relevant to the purpose of the site.

How to improve your SEO

1. Visit the Search Engine Guide and subscribe. (You can thank me later)
2. Read Copyblogger for good writing techniques.
3. Install Lijit.
4. Learn from what you see.

In the end, you have to satisfy yourself, but if you're like me, you'll agree that the key to this is to help other people. To do that, you have to put your audience first. Good luck! - Cam Beck

Stop What You're Doing and Read This

Most display advertising on the Web doesn't work. With an average click-through rate (CTR) of 0.14% to 0.2%, I will consider this statement self-evident.

That's not to say that it isn't worth it, since cost-per-thousand (CPM) impressions is extremely low, and companies can make up the ineffectiveness by putting these ads in front of a lot of people.

The principle reason they don't work is because people are already in a different mindset when they come to the ad-supported site (like Yahoo or MSNBC). They're usually looking for something, and that task has their attention.

Even if you successfully get their attention with a display ad, you are asking for a HUGE commitment from them to interrupt whatever task they were doing and do what you want them to do, instead. That is very difficult, which is why, if your company is using display advertising, you should consider a way to stop using CTR as your primary success metric.

Take the Mac ads that recently appeared on the New York Times website. There are a few reasons this worked that I won't go into here (Here's one take), but let it suffice to say that CTR was not as relevant as interaction.

If they clicked over to apple.com, that's great! The Internet gives us that ability whereas traditional TV does not, but if they interact with the ad and don't click over, they were still exposed to Apple's brand message.

Sometimes we are too in love with our own terms. CTR is a measurement, so we think we need to measure it. However, in the end, we're still trying to sell something, and people aren't interested in buying clicks or CTRs. We hope they're interested in buying whatever it is we're selling, and the less we have to interfere with their purpose, the better.

Even more, proper targeting should put us in a position to complement their purpose. - Cam Beck

Update: adWonder author Ryan Manchee has an outstanding follow-up to this article that is a must-read if this article resonated with you at all. The author is correct in pointing out, "[D]isplay advertising can be used effectively for response driven campaigns." Check it out.

How to "Get" Social Networking

How many times have you heard "There's just so much information, I can't keep up with it all" or "Social networking doesn't really have any value outside of knowing mundane details about people's day-to-day lives"?

This is a common perception held by a fair number of people these days.  Susan at Bird's Eye View had an interesting post  on this just yesterday.  It centers around the fact that we are a "Me" society that looks out for numero uno and anything that directly affects us.   This comes into play especially when it comes to social networking.  People want to express themselves, they want to have a unique page, they want to have the most friends, they want to have the most interesting experiences to share with others. 

Let's face it, we're a merit badge society.  The baby boomers planted their merit in their children (the millennials) and we, ahem, I mean, the millennials, have then put their stock in personal experiences.  While there are millions of people that look out for others before themselves, there are far more people that could care less.  That's why social networking is a fascinating beast to follow.

If you go to Facebook, MySpace or Twitter with the intent to extract value from others, you will quickly find yourself severely disappointed. A couple of weeks ago, Mack nailed it on the head when he said:

"The end lesson for companies, and myself, is that if you want to get value from social media, you need to first create value for others.  Attempting to extract value without providing any is a recipe for frustration."

Social networking, like any relationship, is a two way street and until you learn that your participation is critical to your enjoyment you'll continue to miss the point.  This holds true for companies out there trying to come up with a perceived ROI number that they can extract out of using Facebook or MySpace.  You get what you put in.  If you invest in your customers, they will listen to you.  If you ignore them, they will return the favor. - John Herrington

Photo courtesty of Luc Legay

What's the Problem?

Any time I'm faced with a task, I find it useful to look at it in terms of problems, processes, and solutions. This applies to all aspects of life, but since this is a marketing blog, presume we're talking specifically about marketing.

Although looking at a situation might give you an initial gut feeling that turns out to be right, challenging your assumptions and working through the process to ensure you have identified the problem correctly is still an important exercise.

This doesn't have to be a long, drawn-out process if the problem and answer are obvious.

In fact, it is for that reason we're able to function every day without drawing all our thoughts on paper to ensure our logic is flawless before proceeding.

We do it on the fly, because it is in our capacity to do so, and we're right enough times in our day to keep the engine of our economy turning.

If logic, however, is not your strong suit, or you cannot conclude your assumptions with a reasonable degree of certainty, first, endeavor to improve.

Second, set up your systems so that you can fail, learn, and improve quickly.

This not only helps improve your ability to reason, but it also improves your instincts, which may help you identify your problems more accurately on your first try. - Cam Beck

P.S. Seth has a nice post about "Layering" that speaks to the ideal of a quick-learning system.

Are You a Marketer or a Snake-Oil Salesman?

As part of a drawing class I took years ago, I got to visit the Dallas Museum of Art, where I got my first real taste of how valuable and useless marketing could be at the same time. Reflecting on it recently, I realized that the line between marketers and snake-oil salesmen is in the intrinsic value of the item being sold, as far as objectively judging it is possible.

The museum in the example was featuring the work of a particular abstract artist. He must have been a pretty big deal. After all, his work had its own room and the artist had his own write-up. All of his work was painted on great big canvases (whereas mine had to fit on a sketchpad) and professional lighting (and mine was under whatever was available in the room).

I must admit that I didn't like his work. Every piece was a bunch of squiggly lines. The names of the paintings did have meanings, like "The Three Muses," but the names didn't seem to correspond with the work itself. It was as if he drew the names out of a hat.

I don't object to abstract art in principle. Sometimes it can be a lot of fun. I wanted to like this work and brag to all my friends about what an open mind I had (okay, I made that last part up).

But I did talk to my instructor about it, trying to probe her for anything that would give me an idea about what made it so remarkable to deserve such big canvases and its own room at a museum. At the very least, I hoped she could help me understand it.

After a few minutes of discussion, she helpfully concluded, "You don't have to like it. But do you know what skill of his you have to appreciate?"

"Marketing," she said.

The value of art is truly in the eye of the beholder, but the same can't be said for some of the stuff on the marketplace today.

Sometimes it seems we're so enthralled in the craft of marketing that we forget to take a peek at what we're selling, or if what we're saying squares with what the end user is likely to think we're saying. If we don't improve, our customers will punish us for it. - Cam Beck

Image by OO-RAH.com