Oklahoma Bricktown Land Run

By now, many people are familiar with Cybersquatting – a process whereby a person registers a domain name in bad faith with the intent of reselling it later for a profit.Recent legislation has made it easier for trademark holders and famous persons to obtain their domains from squatters, but the process is by no means full-proof (just ask Kevin Spacey and Bruce Springsteen).
However, this is just one layer of an increasingly complex wired world…

I Registered, Therefore I Am

All large and most small/medium/micro businesses (though still not enough) are finally coming to the realization that online invisibility is a tremendous liability.But what about your personal online visibility?Many people have registered their personal names as domain names.Indeed, most domain registrars beat you over the head with requests to do so.But this article is about far more than domain names – that ship pretty much sailed years ago along with Gmail and Hotmail addresses.This is about establishing your online homesteads to be prepared for the current and future waves of social networking.

“Do you have a flag?”

This is a brilliant and hilarious skit by comedian Eddie Izzard.He satirizes imperialistic England, who claimed ownership over indigenous civilizations “through the cunning use of flags.”And so it goes with the new wired world – possession, as they say, is nine tenths of the law.You need to claim as much territory as possible as soon as possible and all you need is a flag: your name.

More and more every day, web sites are becoming tools for learning more about individuals.Sites like LinkedIn and VisualCV are becoming de facto online résumés.Blogger and WordPress are windows into peoples’ expertise and opinions.Flickr, Delicious, and Netflix allow people to share their interests and experiences.Of course, there are the mothers of all personal identity sites; Facebook and MySpace.Finally, there are aggregators like FriendFeed and Plaxo that attempt to tie them all together.You may utilize few if any of these sites right now, but do you want to bet your online future on the fact that you never will?

He Who Hesitates Is Lost

I’m fortunate in the sense that my name is not all that common.My identity is pretty readily available on most platforms.However, I’m not leaving it to chance.I registered my domain name years ago and have been on a land-grabbing tear recently, snatching up my identity on any site with which I come into contact regardless of whether or not I think I will use it.It’s the sports equivalent of “the best offense is a good defense.”I firmly believe that more and more prospective employers and customers will be using online searches for individuals sooner rather than later.If nothing else, don’t let them find the other “Jane Smith” before you.

On Your Mark, Get Set, Register

If you’re new to social networking and/or personal branding you may have no idea where to begin and that’s understandable.In my opinion, these are the top priorities:

• General
  • Domain name (e.g. www.janesmith.com)
  • Email (e.g. jane.smith@gmail.com, jane.smith@hotmail.com)
  • Twitter (e.g. twitter.com/janesmith)
• Professional
  • LinkedIn (e.g. www.linkedin.com/in/janesmith)
  • Blogger (e.g. janesmith.blogger.com)
  • WordPress (e.g. janesmith.wordpress.com)
  • Technorati (e.g. www.technorati.com/people/tecnorati/janesmith)
• Personal
  • Facebook (e.g. www.facebook.com/people/JaneSmith)
  • YouTube (e.g. www.youtube.com/user/janesmith)
• Sharing and Aggregating
  • FriendFeed (e.g. friendfeed.com/JaneSmith)
  • Delicious (e.g. delicious.com/JaneSmith)
  • Digg (e.g. dig.com/users/JaneSmith)
  • Flickr (e.g. www.flickr.com/photos/janesmith)

Have I left anything out?

Photo credits:
‘Oklahoma Bricktown Land Run’ courtesy of Serge Melki from Flickr (creative commons)

#1 Own it

The most stunning aspect of this story to me was the shifting of blame from the agency’s failure to deliver a compelling message to the vendor’s laziness. The burden of communication falls on the author. Period. Whether you are crafting a proposal, writing an email, authoring a blog post or designing a presentation, you must take responsibility for crafting a message in such a way that it will engage the reader. Our information-overloaded society leaves precious little time for things that don’t add value. Be respectful of the reader and recognize that if only 20% of your proposal is read, then “It’s not you, it’s me.”

#2 Use catchy titles and subject lines

This may sound obvious but think for a moment about how much thought you really put into the subject line of an email or the title of a presentation. The first step in crafting an effective title or subject is to tell people what they will get out from reading your content. For example, instead of titling your proposal “New Conveyor System Proposal,” try something like “Improving Efficiency and Capacity With a New Conveying Approach.” The first title is pretty typical, but automatically puts your message at a disadvantage by sounding pedestrian at best and a little desperate at worst. The second title makes a promise right out of the gate and sets an expectation that the reader will have something to gain from reading the proposal.

The second step is to use strong, concise words. Try to use words that personalize subject matter, like “you” and “your.” Also think about trying to strike an emotional chord. These can include anger, sympathy, fear, etc… Words like “tips” and “hacks” are examples of words that are emotionally enticing by creating intrigue. Finally, (when applicable) consider the search engine implications of your titles by using keywords “early and often.” This means choosing relevant words that are used as search terms and placing them as early as possible in your title. Then, use them often in your post to reinforce the relevance of the keywords. Just keep in mind that this should not be done at the expense of the humans reading the title and content; keep it readable.

I know my idea is in there somewhere!

#3 Don’t bury the lead

I’ve read a number of articles that talk about the journalistic tactic of not burying the lead, which means make sure that the most interesting and/or important idea in an article appears early and isn’t “buried” within the story. However, one of the best I’ve read comes from Copyblogger and is titled “What a Bestselling Author Can Teach You About Hooking Your Readers.” This article describes Steven Pressfield’s the lesson of using an “inciting incident,” which he had learned from screenwriter Robert McKee.

Pressfield is quoted as follows:

McKee has given me (and thousands of others) so many valuable lessons, it’d be hard to pick one out, but here it is:

The ‘inciting incident.’ I had never heard this term or focused on this concept before taking his Story Structure class. I did it in my writing, but only on instinct; I had no idea what I was doing. Having that idea crystallized helped me tremendously.

I now ALWAYS ask myself, even in short blog posts, What is the inciting incident? What event or moment gets this story rolling? It’s been a huge help.

If you go back and read the first paragraph of this post, you can see that I used this technique by relating a short story and immediately presenting the central plot. If you’re still reading, I guess it worked!

Again, many of the examples and links I’ve provided address blogs, but the principles apply equally to any other content you’re generating – including (and perhaps especially) emails.

#4 Make it sticky

At the risk of appearing to be a shill for this book, I find myself repeating my recommendation to read the book “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Other Die.”  Assuming you’ve accomplished the first three steps, the final task is to make your idea(s) sticky, which is to say memorable.  ”Made to Stick” presents six principles that help make ideas stickier:

1. Simple (prioritized, not dumbed down)
2. Unexpected (violate a schema, then use curiosity gaps)
3. Concrete (use sensory language to hook into multiple types of memory)
4. Credible (from authorities and/or statistics and details)
5. Emotional (what’s in it for your or appeal to identity)
6. Stories (simulation and inspiration)

Being a successful communicator requires that you get readers interested, then hook them so they pay attention, and finally present a memorable message.  Have I missed anything?

Photo credits:
‘Crybaby’ courtesy of loneymops from Flickr (creative commons)
‘World’s Messiest Office Cubicle Discovered in Colorado’ courtesy of Jeffery Beall from Flickr (creative commons)

In terms of energy, blood flow, and time, reading is very slow, expensive, and inefficient.

I think this raises some interesting questions, such as:

• As an author,
  what is the return on brain-investment for reading my article, novel, or blog post?
• As a publisher,
  how do I convince the reader to invest in my product(s)?
• As a device manufacturer,
  how can I make the reading experience most brain-efficient and enjoyable?

Reading for Effect Versus Purpose

It seems to me that there are two reasons for reading; effect or purpose.  Reading for effect is essentially fulfilling some internal, emotional need like escapism, voyeurism, arousal, etc…  Put simply, it’s entertainment and entertainment plays by different rules than other products.  We are, generally speaking, much more willing to give up two hours of our lives to have a good cry or watch a bunch of explosions than to read chapter 12 of our favorite physics textbook.  Reading for enjoyment is an activity that not everyone enjoys, but those who do are willing to invest for the pleasure and emotional fulfillment it brings; they are not necessarily calculating an ROI.

Reading for purpose means doing so specifically for achieving some goal or outcome, or put another way, because one needs to and not necessarily because one wants to.  Reading for educational purposes, staying informed, or as part of one’s job are examples of reading for purpose.  This category is far more sensitive to the high cost of reading than the former.  For example, most people who read newspapers will skim the articles looking for interesting stories, and then skim the story to see if it is worth the investment.  One does not skim War and Peace, The Catcher in the Rye, or The Lord of the Rings.

Pacific Coast Highway (Creative Commons license via Frank Kehren's Flckr stream)

I would liken these to the difference between a pleasure ride down the Pacific Coast Highway and commuting to work.  You are performing the same task (driving), using the same tool (car), perhaps for the same amount of time, and maybe even with the same person(s).  Yet everything about the drive is different.  In the case of the former, it’s about enjoying the journey, whereas in the latter it is all about reaching your destination as quickly, efficiently, and painlessly as possible.

Implications

There are obvious implications to looking at reading in these two contexts.  Obviously, it behooves the content producers and consumers to understand whether their writing is intended to be a journey or a destination.  Once this is understood, certain strategies and tactics become clear.

For Authors

When writers intend to take their readers on a journey, the style and tempo must be a cognitive banquet.  The experience itself is the return on the reader’s investment.  Efficiency gives way to pace and style takes precedence over not burying the lead.  When writing for purpose, however, the author must understand that from the first word of the title onward, the reader is calculating the return on her investment and may cancel at any time it seems like the deal isn’t profitable enough.  As such, it is important to introduce the value proposition early on (i.e. don’t bury the lead) and get to the point quickly.  Of course, sprinkling in some color so that the reader enjoys the journey won’t hurt a bit either.

For Publishers

Nothing says "romance" like a black and white printout taped to a light pole (Creative Commons license via sixes & sevens Flickr stream)

Readers interested in going on a journey will evaluate content much like shopping for a vacation.  Cost is always a factor, but so is scenery, adventure, luxury, relaxation, romance, etc…  Therefore, packaging and marketing are going to mean a lot.  It must appeal to the prospective reader on an emotional level and promise to fulfill not only their needs, but desires as well.  Purpose readers, on the other hand, are hunters scrutinizing the landscape for prey.  They will be intent on getting to their destination as quickly and efficiently as possible; a pleasant journey is a fringe benefit and not a primary concern.

Newspapers are perched precariously between both of these paradigms, and so they have a tough job balancing them.  There are news reports, stock quotes, classified advertisements, and other assorted facts and items people want to quickly scan and read if they perceive some return on investment.  Other sections, like essays, travel, or editorials are much more about journey and need to be packaged and delivered differently.

Business to business publications are by and large firmly entrenched in the purpose-reading camp.  Their mission is to deliver industry-relevant information in a non-biased and convenient format.  They face issues of timeliness, relevancy, and ubiquity.  Timeliness is an issue in the age of real time search, self-publication, and social networking.  Answers are frequently a few mouse clicks and moments away, so a weekly or monthly publication is at a disadvantage.  Relevancy is an issue for similar reasons.  Readers are able to find very specific information on obscure subjects relatively easily, while publications are always trying to balance completeness against overload.  Ubiquity is a reference to the fact that publishers can’t always be in the right place at the right time.  Publish your information on your web site, and the reader may not have it available during that lunch meeting with a vendor.  Publish your information in print, and the reader no doubt will have thrown it out before realizing they needed it.  The challenge in B2B publishing is not as much marketing or style as it is timeliness, relevancy, and ubiquity.  They need to have the information the reader wants at the time he wants it, where he wants it.  But just as importantly, it must be in at an acceptable brain-cost.

For Device Manufacturers

I recently wrote that the iPad is heralding the age of content.  There has been much discussion about the impact it will have on print media and other existing content consumption devices.  If you accept the argument that reading for effect is much less sensitive to cost factors and substitute forms, then the likely conclusion is that the iPad (and subsequent tablet products) will have a different effect on different types of content.  If the key to reading for effect is the experience, then I submit that appliances like the iPad and other color readers deliver a superior experience to books.  Content of this type is also inoculated against infection from other forms of media like video.  When reading for purpose, however, it remains to be seen whether the efficiency and usability can be improved when compared to a computer.  But with the (assumed) increased availability of high quality video, which is a more efficient means for acquiring information, reading for purpose is going to be marginalized to some degree.  The key for the device manufacturers is to understand the features that will address each of these types of reading.

The Bottom Line

As Clay Shirky brilliantly observed, we don’t live in a world of information overload but a world with filter failure.  Part of the price of that failure is shorter attention spans and greater sensitivity to the expense of reading.  As more solutions evolve and improve our ability to filter, it would be easy to conclude that it will be more difficult for authors and publishers to get their content “through the walls” and to their audience.  But I rather believe that the filters won’t simply get stronger, they will get better.  This means that it will actually be easier for readers to find the content they are truly interested in and be more willing to pay the brain-price.  However, I think this also spells doom for purveyors of broad swaths of content like newspapers and magazines.  Once these filters get sophisticated enough, readers will be able to find the very best of the content they want with laser precision.  Rather than subscribing to a sports magazine like Sports Illustrated, readers can subscribe to “stories about the New England Patriots, Boston Red Sox, any player named Horatio, or cricket matches played in the southern hemisphere on a Monday.”  Publishers of “reading for purpose” content are going to have to find a way to deal with this paradigm.

Start thinking about a makeover for your online presence in 2010; You 2.0.

Have you Googled yourself lately?  If you haven’t done a Google search on your name in the past 30 days, do it right now (and be sure to put your name in quotation marks).

Go ahead, I’ll wait…

OK, what do the results look like?  Think about these questions:

1. Is your name at the top of the list? Second?
   Is it on the first page at least? Oh snap!
2. How many times does it appear on the first page?
3. Is your personal web site “above the fold?”
   You don’t have a personal web site?  Oh snap! More on that later.
4. Is your blog “above the fold?”
   Oh snap! You don’t have a blog? More on that later.
5. Is your LinkedIn profile “above the fold?”
   You don’t have a LinkedIn profile? Oh snap! More on that later.
6. Is there any negative stuff on the first five pages?

What’s the Point?

Managing your online presence is an important component of personal brand management.  Everyone knows how important online marketing is to companies and your career is no different.  It’s not enough anymore to make yourself visible and differentiate yourself online.  Since 45% of employers use social media sites to screen potential employees, you also need to make sure you keep negative information out of the search stream.

Bottom line: A strong online presence is clearly an advantage and can be a strong differentiator, but before long it will be as standard as handing over a resume before a job interview.  No online profile, no consideration.

[Update]
Sharon Reus (Insight Into Action) commented on this post and has a fantastic analogy. She calls this process “checking your digital reflection.”  That’s a perfect description, because we all know that reflections can be horribly distorted or even overly flattering – and everything in between.  The first order of business is to make sure you have any reflection at all.  If you have no reflection, I suppose that makes you a digital vampire!  Hmm, that would have been a great title.  But if you do have a reflection, it’s important to make sure that it looks well.

What’s Your URL?

I discussed the idea of owning your own name (i.e. www.jondipietro.com) in my blog post “The 21st Century Lang Grab.”  Time is rapidly running out on your ability to grab your own name, but I’m still amazed at how many successful people I meet who don’t own their name even though it’s available.  If your name is not available, you need to get something in place even if it’s just to claim it for the time being.  DO THIS TODAY!

Get Engaged

You don’t need to have your own web site and/or blog in order to have a positive online presence.  Social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Networked Blogs, and Ezine Articles are just a few of the great resources to build an online profile that gets you found and (hopefully) reflects well on you.  You can use LinkedIn to post an online resume, and there is absolutely no excuse for not having a thorough profile completed there.  Additionally, asking and answering questions is a good way to both build your online gravitas and expand your professional network.

Control Your Own Destiny

In the end, the best way to seize control of your online identity is to have your own website and/or blog.  Although they can be one in the same, I recommend using your personal web site to create a compelling online resume and having a separate blog that demonstrates your passion whether it’s personal or professional. If you’re a passionate wine maker, blogging about it demonstrates your creativity, writing skills, and even your personality.  It gives potential employers, customers, or business partners a level of comfort and familiarity they could never get through an interview alone.

My friend, Mike Walsh (see Mike’s LinkedIn profile or his @mike_walsh Twitter stream), has a series of really good posts on how he got started and what he learned along the way. If you are reluctant to start a blog, his posts may be the nudge you need to get started:

• Why Should I Blog?
• How Should I Blog?
• Blogging Tips Interview With Brent Ozar [video]

In additional to controlling your online persona, a personal website and blog give you a much greater opportunity to dominate the search results for your name and/or blog topic.  The more high quality content you can create, the more links and comments you’ll generate and the higher your online reputation will get.

“There are 1.5 million graduating college students for 2009 and employers are only hiring 1.3% more of them.  Differentiation through branding is imperative for success.”

Hartford Courant & WSJ (via Dan Schwabel)

This is your life and your career.  You deserve every advantage you can possibly get – and in this economic climate you’ll need it!

If you need help pulling this off, feel free to contact me.

from TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³'s photostream

The publishing industry has embarked on a quixotic journey.  A recent Adweek article announces that “Close to 100 titles are planning to sacrifice prominent placements in their issues for an industry campaign.”  Their tilted windmill is a sense that we have all simply forgotten how wonderful their product is, and that by running ads they can remind us.  I can’t help but picture a group of buggy whip salesmen on the side of the road laughing at a car with a flat tire, secure in the knowledge that a horse would never succumb to such embarassment.

From a pure strategic standpoint, this makes little sense.   It’s like a resort destination facing declining tourists putting up a billboard on their property saying, “We aren’t as bad as everything thinks we are!”   First, the only people who will read the billboard are the very people they don’t need to reach – they are already reading the publication.  Second, it’s a childish reaction that feels a bit like a spoiled brat throwing a tantrum in the middle of a store to protest the fact that reality is not aligned in the same direction they wish it to be.

Even more perplexing is the staggering self-delusion evident in their poor market perceptions.  I will demonstrate this using direct quotes from the article:

• “We are ferociously determined to correct the misconceptions that have been swirling around the advertising industry,” said Moore. (Ann Moore, chairman and CEO, Time Inc.)
  Rule #1 of marketing is that perception is reality.  The only way to change reality is to change perception, and telling your customers, shareholders, and advertisers that they have been duped into believing myths doesn’t seem like a particularly effective way to do that.
• “I believe magazines are the original mobile device,” she said.
  True, but immaterial.  One of the biggest mistakes the publishing industry is making right now is trying to force an old paradigm into a new technology.  What’s worse, this comment was directed at a supposed “myth” that kids aren’t reading magazines.  As the father of four daughters aged 4 through 15, I can see very clearly where the future of content consumption is going – and it will not involve paper.  These publishers are the modern day version of ice harvesters (see story from Guy Kawasaki below).
• “Magazines help us see beyond ourselves,” said Griffin. “They are voices of authority.”
  I have absolutely no idea what that means.  It smells a little bit like intellectual arrogance to me, but maybe that’s simply because I’m not smart enough for their sophisticated world.
• “These are not just magazines, they are brands,” Black said. “They deserve your renewed interest.”
  Deserve?  Deserve!?!?  As the American football coach Bill Pacells famously (well, famous in America at least) said, “You are what your record says you are.”  In this case, your brand is what your customers say it is.  To say that your own brand “deserves” anything is sad, pathetic, arrogant, and misguided – not to mention insulting to your customers.

Guy Kawasaki is Apple’s original brand evangelist and a renowned business strategist. He frequently uses the ice industry to talk about what he calls “curve jumping.”

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in life is to accept the known and resist the unknown. You should, in fact, do exactly the opposite: challenge the known and embrace the unknown.

Let me tell you a short story about ice. In the late 1800s there was a thriving ice industry in the Northeast. Companies would cut blocks of ice from frozen lakes and ponds and sell them around the world. The largest single shipment was 200 tons that was shipped to India. 100 tons got there unmelted, but this was enough to make a profit.

These ice harvesters, however, were put out of business by companies that invented mechanical ice makers. It was no longer necessary to cut and ship ice because companies could make it in any city during any season.

These ice makers, however, were put out of business by refrigerator companies. If it was convenient to make ice at a manufacturing plant, imagine how much better it was to make ice and create cold storage in everyone’s home.

You would think that the ice harvesters would see the advantages of ice making and adopt this technology. However, all they could think about was the known: better saws, better storage, better transportation.

Then you would think that the ice makers would see the advantages of refrigerators and adopt this technology. The truth is that the ice harvesters couldn’t embrace the unknown and jump their curve to the next curve.

Challenge the known and embrace the unknown, or you’ll be like the ice harvester and ice makers.

Then again, you could always just embark on a multi-million dollar advertising campaign to convince people about the myths of mechanically frozen ice and/or that lake ice deserves renewed interest.

Clifford Stoll displays the presentation notes scribbled on his hand.

I was watching a TED video of Clifford Stoll last week, during which he was asked to talk about the future.  He confessed that he didn’t think he was the best person to ask, saying “In fact, I think if you really want to know what the future’s going to be, don’t ask a scientist, a technologist, a physicist…  No, if you want to know what society’s going to be like in twenty years, ask a kindergarten teacher.”  I mention this because earlier that very same day, I was paying attention to my four daughters, all of whom were in the same room and all of whom were consuming one form of content or another in a different medium on a different device.  What was running through my mind was the fact that these kids are not only going to demand content delivered on their terms, they will demand it.

Throughout this post, I am refusing to discuss a certain gadget announced by a certain company named after a certain fruit that will be released amid much fanfare next month.  The first reason for this is that everyone is growing weary of such discussions.  The second is that this first product release is only the beginning and will be opening the door to a new class of products that will heavily influence expectations and demands from upcoming generations.

And So It Begins

I bought my daughter the movie “Sitck It!” on DVD for her eleventh birthday yesterday.  The cover proudly hailed, “DVD + Digital Content,” which I thought was strange because a DVD is digital content, but I was pretty sure a knew what they meant.  And what they meant was that it contained a second disc with a DRM-signed file in iTunes and Windows Media Player format.  My daughter was beside herself that she didn’t have to sit in front of the television to watch it.  Instead, she could load it on her iPod, take it with her, and watch it wherever and whenever she chose.During the time when I was helping her download the movie into iTunes on our family desktop PC, her older sister was on a laptop watching videos posted to Facebook by her friends, her seven year old sister was watching an iCarly television episode on her iPod and her four year old sister was interacting with friends from across town on the Club Penguin web site.  Not a single person sitting in front of the boob tube.  No two people consuming the same content at the same time.

New Rules

Taking Dr. Stoll’s advice, I have combined my own habits and preferences for content consumption with observations of my own household to form these five rules that I think will dictate content consumption patterns five to ten years from now.  Kids growing up in the digital age will expect and demand that content have the following qualities:

1. It must filterable.  They will not tolerate having to spend their time reading through ten articles they don’t care about to find one they do.  This is another way of saying that content distribution is going to flip from a push model to a pull model.  If your content doesn’t have handles, it won’t be going anywhere.
2. It must be asynchronous.  Again, I don’t think people appreciate the parallel universe our kids live in these days with DVRs and iTunes.  We all grew up in a world where our schedules had to wrap around broadcasts (think not just television, but library and store hours, magazine and newspaper deliveries, etc…).  This generation is entering a world where the broadcast schedule wraps around them.  Content is downloaded now and consumed later, at their convenience.
3. It must be portable.  This is a mega trend I see that, despite what many feel is a large amount of hype, is actually being underestimated.  Most people think of portable in terms of taking content on to a plane or in the waiting room at the doctor’s office.  I am talking about taking content into the other room or out on the porch – a few feet (meters if you prefer) away.  In a family with four children, I am watching the splintering of content consumption with great interest as, at any given time, you will see four or five family members reading, listening to, and/or watching different content at the same time in the same room.
4. It must be compelling.  Content production used to be expensive and time consuming.  Amateurs can now upload high definition video with integrated graphics and subtitles that exceed the quality of professional versions from just five years ago.  This can be uploaded to YouTube in seconds and viewed by hundreds or even millions in a matter of days.  All this for the cost of a $500 flip camera and an hour of time.  This democratization of content production and distribution means that, to a certain extent, all publishers are in the fashion business now.  It’s not enough to have technically sound content; it must be visually appealing and grab attention.
5. It must be interactive.  As a software developer, I know first hand how expensive a mouse click is.  It’s astonishing how rapidly human tolerances can recalibrate, and a few extra mouse clicks can literally destroy a product.  One inadvertent click might even cost you $150k.  This is all to say that people are having less and less tolerance for hunting for answers and it needs to be embedded, linked, or otherwise a single click away.  An article about cyber security, for example, may reference a particular news story.  Many people will inevitably want to pause reading the article to gain a deeper understanding of the incident by reading the full account of the incident.  Path of least resistance.  Instant gratification.  And so on.

Maybe publishers think I’m being an alarmist.  Somehow, though, I can’t resist a shameful attempt at borrowing from Dirty Harry: “I know what you’re thinking.  Will it take ten years or only five?  Well, to tell you the truth in all this excitement I don’t know what to think myself.  But being that this is the Internet, the most powerful change agent in the history of publication since the printing press, and can blow your publication clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky?”

Primer (I promise this won’t hurt)

Most of the statistical jargon we use (like averages, medians, and standard deviations) apply to data populations that follow a normal distribution, also popularly known as a “bell curve.”  This describes data that is more or less centered around an average (or “mean”) value.  The median is a line of demarcation, having half of the values above and below this number.  The general shape of this bell curve is defined by the standard deviation.  A high standard deviation results in a short, wide bell while a low standard deviation results in a tall, narrow bell.

Graph depicting a normal distribution and its mean.

The key to normal distributions is randomness.  Without a process that is truly random, you will not have a normal distribution and terms such as average and median can be thrown out the window.  This is a common pitfall in statistical process control, where processes controlled by machines are sometimes not as random as people think.  The caution here is that if you’re going to measure statistics like average, median, and standard deviation you must be sure that the data population forms a normal distribution.   Otherwise, the numbers will not mean what you think they mean.

Enter the power law distribution, also known as a Pareto distribution or the 80/20 rule.  Unlike a normal distribution, these values are not symmetrical, but highly weighted against one end of the graph.  This type of relationship typically represents social and economic data patterns, and is especially true in social media.

Graph of a power law (or Pareto) distribution and its mean

A power law distribution can represent participation rates in social media; for example, the number of contributions (Y axis) per participant (X axis).  It can also be used to describe a demand curve; for example, the price of a given product (Y axis) versus the demand for it (X axis).

What I Think It Means

This is very much a case of caveat emptor.  I’m not saying that the word “average” is meaningless in power law distributions, just that it has a very, very different meaning than most people understand it to have.  If you read, for example, an article that talks about the “average number of retweets/posts/likes” etc… then you must first determine whether or not the data population from which it was calculated is a normal distribution.  This can be done pretty easily through a mathematical calculation but many of the people touting these statistics don’t know how or even why they should.

So before you make any decisions based on what the “average” person does, make sure it means what you think it means.

Image via CrunchBase

Disclosure #1:
I am not an Apple fanboy – not even close.

Disclosure #2:
This is about what we can learn from the iPad, not so much about the iPad itself.

I finally carved out an hour and half of time to watch the iPad unveiling, conforming myself to the reclining love seat with my laptop.  It was perched atop a lap desk that affords a comfortable typing position but very awkward access to the external mouse that I much prefer over the touch pad.  My right arm was buttressed against a travel pillow that I use to provide support on that side.  As I watched Steve Jobs settle into a similar couch on stage and stroll through a demonstration of various types of content on the iPad, a frustrating irony became clear: he was more comfortable and at ease on a stage in front of hundreds of people than I was sitting at home in my living room.  For ninety minutes, I desperately wished I was watching the iPad keynote address on an iPad.  This is when it became clear to me that Apple’s decision to create the iPad is proof that we are living in the Age of Content.

It’s the Experience, Stupid

The iPad is getting quite a bit of extreme reaction on both ends of the spectrum.  From comparisons between the iPad and a rock, to declarations that it will single handedly save the newspaper industry, hyperbole is by no means in short supply.  However, they all seem to be focusing on the wrong things – the features.  The thing is, Apple doesn’t create new technology, they redefine user experiences.  Let’s take a look at their major product lines over the last thirty years.

• The original Apple and McIntosh computers didn’t invent the personal computer; they made them a user-friendly experience by implementing a beautiful, easy to use interface when compared to other machines at the time.
• The PowerBook was not the first portable computer, but it was the first true laptop that provided a color, TFT screen with a hand rest for more comfortable typing.
• The Apple Newton was a tablet PC that failed because it did not redefine the user experience.  Rather, it was focused on reinventing the personal computer platform and rewriting contemporary application programming.  It’s probably worth mentioning that this project occurred during the absence of Steve Jobs.
• The iPod changed the user experience for listening to and purchasing music. It was the fusion of these two experiences that set it apart from other means of consuming music.
• The iPhone didn’t reinvent the cellular telephone; it redefined the user experience for a mobile device.

The iPad is a content consuming device. That is its mission. Music, movies, books, web pages, games, etc…  Everything about the form and function of this device was conceived with the objective of making it the ultimate mobile content consuming experience.

What’s the Lesson?

I’m making the case that Steve Jobs, as the world’s leading authority on user experience and by deciding to create a mobile content consumption device, has provided prima facia evidence that we have entered the Age of Content.  The fact that so much squabbling has erupted over its lack of certain features only underscores the argument because it’s not a device that is focused on accomplishing tasks.  It is a device that is focused on an experience.  And Jobs has concluded that the availability, quality, and desirability of this content warrants an entirely new class of device.

As I sat uncomfortably on my couch watching his presentation, reading news articles, checking email, and interacting on Facebook, I knew exactly what kind of content consuming experience I didn’t want.  Once I have an iPad, I know I’ll become an even more voracious consumer of content than I already am.  I expect that will be the case with millions of others before all is said and done.

"For all your real estate needs" courtesy of SeanMcTx on Flickr (Creative Commons)

Everybody has heard the familiar axiom that “The three most important things in real estate are location, location, and location.”  The same is true for SEO (Search Engine Optimization), where your “location” is your domain name.  It’s one of the most important aspects of optimization and there are four common mistakes that hurt your website’s ranking.

Let’s use the real estate metaphor to describe them…

1) You’re a Squatter

In the real estate sense, squatting refers to setting up residence in a home you don’t own.  The Internet equivalent is setting up your website as a subdomain that belongs to someone else.  For example, jondipietro.wordpress.com.  There are a couple of reasons this is a bad idea.  First, you never build any search authority because it all belongs to the domain (wordpress.com) and not the subdomain.  In other words, there is very little difference between “jondipietro.wordpress.com” and “elmerjfudd.wordpress.com”.  Another reason this can be dangerous is that you could (theoretically) be evicted at any time.  While the risk may be low for a site like “wordpress.com”, just ask Ning users how that worked out for them.

Solution:  Find and buy a domain (but see below first).  You can purchase .com domains for about $11 per year and most hosting services (WordPress included) support using your own domain name on their platform.

2) You’re Subdividing

While this is usually a positive thing in real estate, it’s terrible for SEO.  This means having separate domains for your company and other related sites, which could include things like blogs, events, or products.  For example, let’s say I planned on launching a whole separate web site for “Inbound Marketing Workshops.”  I could host the site at “inboundmarketingworkshops.com” or use a subdomain like “workshops.domesticatingit.com”.  There are advantages to the first method – it is keyword rich, for one thing.  But there is a big problem too.  When I launch the site, it will have zero juice.  I would have to build it all from scratch because it is a brand new domain with no inbound links and no authority.  However, by making it a subdomain, I gain the benefits of two years of SEO from “domesticatingit.com”.  The converse is true as well: as the new site builds traffic and links, it will benefit the overall optimization of the domain.

Solution: Generally, though not exclusively, it’s a better idea to create a subdomain and point it at your new web site so that you can leverage any existing search quality and authority.

3) Your Sign Stinks

Let’s face it – registering a short, memorable, descriptive, keyword-rich domain name is difficult, if not impossible these days.  There are so many domains in existence, registering yours always involves trade-offs. So what constitutes a stinky sign?  Well, it could be confusing by including words that aren’t part of your optimization strategy.  For example, if you include the word “Boston” because that’s where your office is then you’re essentially telling search engines that you’re a local business; which may or may not be the case.  Another factor is getting the words in the best order.  Google gives less weight to every word in a URL or page title, so the further you go in a domain name, the less valuable the word is.

Solution: Leave out words that don’t target the search keywords for your business, and try to keep the most important words as close to the left as possible.

4) You’re Slumming

This last one’s a little controversial as the consensus is somewhat split in the SEO community.  The idea here is that if you set up shop in a run down part of town, people will tend to think less of your business.  The Internet equivalent here is having a “low rent” TLD (Top Level Domain) like .info.  At issue here is the fact that these TLDs are so cheap that they are frequently used by spammers, but it’s not entirely clear whether or how much that hurts SEO.

Solution: In my humble opinion, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Legendary Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas signs an autograph in 1964. (photo courtesy of mitch59 on Flickr)

Under the cover darkness on a snowy March evening in 1984, a fleet of moving trucks pulled into the headquarters of the Baltimore Colts and proceeded to load up everything from the tackling dummies to office chairs and move everything to Indianapolis.

While rumors had been running rampant for months, there had been no announcement from the team and the abruptness and deceptiveness of the move came as a shock to the fan base. “We drank a lot of beer and cried. I remember physically sitting in front of the TV weeping. I mean, they had taken something dear away from me,” recounts one member of the “Colts Corral” fan club.

The Baltimore Colts Marching Band had been playing for the team since 1947 and its members were particularly devastated. But as a small stroke of luck would have it, the band uniforms were at the cleaners when the move happened. When contacted by the band’s President, the owner said, “I can’t give you the uniforms, but maybe you should come by tonight and take the van for a walk.” Later that evening, some band members took the uniforms and, concerned that they would be sued if any of them kept the uniforms at their homes, stored them in a mausoleum. “Coming out of the mausoleum, it’s as if it was the band that wouldn’t die. We would keep going until there was a team back.” Bill Turcan, Band Vice President.

The band formed a non-profit organization and for the next 12 years, organized fundraisers to keep the band together. “Out of stubbornness, we were gonna stay. We were gonna bring the NFL back here.” John Zeimann, Band President.

Maryland State House (photo courtesy of Ion628 at en.wikipedia)

Several NFL expansions passed Baltimore by but the band persisted. Maryland Governor William Shaeffer was fighting for funding to build stadiums to keep their baseball team and attract a NFL franchise, but as the state’s budget meeting approached the opposition was firmly aligned against it.

“We got the idea – forget trying to convince them with logic. We gotta get to the heart.” As the legislators approached the state house for their evening session, the band had gathered on the steps handing out flyers and playing the Baltimore Colts fight song. In the first order of business that evening, the legislature passed a proclamation in favor of funding a stadium.

On November 6, 1995 the Cleveland Browns announced they were moving to Baltimore.

Emotion succeeded where logic failed.

How We Decide

Many people are aware that dopamine is the brain chemical responsible for triggering pleasure responses. But the fact is that it is dopamine regulates all of our emotional responses and plays a major role in how we learn. Experiments with rewards and punishments have shown that dopamine neurons are responsible for evaluating the difference between our predictions of outcomes versus actual outcomes. They predict future events.

When we’re right – which is to say our prediction was correct – then there is a dopamine response that gives us pleasure. However, says Jonah Lehrer, author of “How We Decide” (Amazon affiliate link), “while dopamine neurons get excited by predictable rewards… they get even more excited by surprising ones. The purpose of this dopamine response is to make the brain pay attention to new, and potentially important, stimuli.”

When our brain receives stimuli that invoke the basic emotional responses of fear or sexual arousal, our amygdale (or lizard brain) begins to secrete dopamine.  Therefore, these emotional reactions don’t simply get our attention – they actually alter our brain chemistry and create stronger memories than non-emotional experiences.

So whether you’re working on a sales pitch, writing a blog post, or composing a cover letter, tap into the emotions of your audience in order to make them more memorable.

The Band That Wouldn’t Die

The idea for this blog post occurred to me after watching Barry Levinson’s documentary featured on ESPN’s “30 for 30.” You can watch the trailer here.