Listen2Youth

Oh Yeah - You're Looking at a Retirement Savings Expert Right Here

2015-09-01T10:00:00.000-07:00

In the spring of 2012, I joined a rag tag group of people at Financial Engines to kick off their social media efforts.

Because it's heavily regulated - finance and investing - tackling social media was very different from my other clients. Everything we did had to be approved by compliance. Everything - including tweets and retweets. If someone liked out tweet or replied back to us, we couldn't respond because that would need to go through compliance. It was a tall order, but with baby steps, we managed to launch Twitter, LinkedIn and a blog.

Fast forward three years, and I'm still writing for the Financial Engines blog and helping with their social media. We've come a long way baby - we managed to add Facebook in January and we've even done Facebook tests to see if we could increase awareness of Financial Engines among their potential customers (the answer is yes we can!).

We still can't engage but we've managed to create some momentum.

One of the most exciting things that's happened is the Wall Street Journal picked up one of our surveys and reported on the results. Our survey asked people how they felt when they heard the word "retirement."

The results were kind of disturbing - but not surprising. It turns out retirement doesn't have a positive connotation. Mostly it makes people feel old. Good information if your marketing a product focused on retirement. Maybe using that word isn't the best idea. This study not only helped us internally, but the WSJ thought it was important to report on because it might be one more reason folks hesitate when it comes to saving for retirement.

I've written more than 175 blogs about retirement and consumer finance. The style is easy-to-read and hopefully informative. If you'd like to learn more about money and retirement savings, drop by and start reading. And while you can't comment there, you can certainly comment here. I'd love to hear from you.

How Turning Infographics into Real Time Dynamic Marketing Tools is a Win for Business

2014-12-01T17:03:00.000-08:00

As a content provider - I think I must spend at least thirty percent of my life creating content for clients - I have become pretty good at using content as a digital marketing tool. There are so many ways to tell stories these days and it doesn't have to be only via prose.

In fact, when my client at iPass wanted to convey how fast wi-fi is growing around the world, we knew we wanted to do it in a dynamic, exciting way. I believe the actual idea came from Kewal Varia - one of the best PR people I have ever worked with - who imagines this active infographic changing with time (and data).

I was responsible for taking the idea and turning it into something tangible. I called on the talented folks at WebEnertia (full disclosure, I've often teamed with them on web projects focusing on the front end content architecture). They immediately had ideas about how to bring the project to life.

The result: The Global Wi-Fi Growth Map showcasing how wi-fi is changing around the world in the next few years.

The map proved to be an incredibly valuable PR tool giving us an opportunity for many meetings to discuss the growth of wi-fi (which is tied to the value prop for iPass) and the design and implementation won a Gold Addy Award for WebEnertia.

The moral is: push your data and don't be afraid to visualize your story for visitors. It doesn't always have to be told with words. This map is likely to be a useful tool for iPass for the next few years.

Financial Engines Delivers a Social Security Planner Everyone Can Use

2014-06-18T16:35:00.000-07:00

I've been working with Financial Engines for a couple years now and one of the bigger projects has been their Social Security Planner. Typically their products are only available to employees whose employer buys the Financial Engines services. But today they launched a product that's available to anyone at no charge!

All you have to do is visit their website and click into the Planner (about halfway down).

You don't have to be retirement age - you can use it to forecast what you might get - and you can also send this to your parents or adults you care about who are closer to retirement age than you are.

The real intent is to help you figure out how much income you will have in retirement. For most people, delaying Social Security is the smartest thing to do financially. That's because you'll actually get more from Social Security in the long run. There are even more opportunities for people who are married.

I never thought I would know so much about Social Security and retirement but I do! I've been blogging about it for awhile now (for Financial Engines) and there's a lot you need to know if you are in the planning stages.

Be sure to check out the Financial Engines website and when you see the videos get excited because I did those (with SwitchVideo in Toronto)!

Hoover Institution Debuts New Website and It's Very Cool

2014-06-12T14:24:00.001-07:00

It's been a year since I've blogged which is a bad testament to a good year! It's been busy with lots of great projects that I have neglected to share and so it's time to catch-up. The first one is a biggie!

The Hoover Institution hired WebEnertia to re-do their website. As part of their team (I have worked with them for awhile now - great group), I was responsible for the overall web strategy.

It was a thrilling challenge: we needed to incorporate so much content with established brands and ideally give everyone a voice while making the user experience intuitive for whomever might drop in.

I think the result is amazing.
[This is the main site and here's the second project: Library and Archives.]

I can only take credit for a small part. The Hoover Institution Team was so flexible and savvy and the WebEnertia team was able to take a bunch of ideas and turn them into a rich, dynamic website.

If you'd like to know more about the project, please let me know. Otherwise, go explore the site. Regardless of your politics, it's a thing of beauty!

Funkafied Technology Or How the User Experience Dictates Function

2013-05-13T20:54:00.000-07:00

I realized the other day, I have no idea where our iPad is.

It’s first generation (damned early adopters) and when we got it, we could barely put it down. It was always on the coffee table ready for game playing, email checking or Googling some weird fact or question we had about something we saw on television.

And then it quietly kind of disappeared. At least that’s what I thought.

The truth is, it became my daughter’s television. Sure, there’s a rule in our house: no TVs in bedrooms. We have one television in the living room we still watch together (thank goodness since she’s almost 14 and I figured I would have lost this battle long ago). But the iPad snuck in and grabbed the role of bedroom TV because she could stream Netflix - and approved programming without advertising - and I didn’t have a fit. In fact, she would clean her room if she could watch the iPad.

The fact that I didn’t miss it made me think about all the devices we have adopted lately and how the individual user experience of each is really dictating the functionality of each item. Here’s a quick run down.

The aforementioned iPad.

Now a streaming TV that lives plugged into a speaker stand in the kid’s room. It doesn’t really do anything except stream video. Why not other things? Let’s face it, games are klunky on the iPad. It’s kind of big to hold and a little heavy and other than read a book on it (which I still kind of like but I started getting library books instead because, well, they are free), there’s not a lot to do on an iPad that you can’t do on an iPhone.

The iPhone.

It’s probably our go to device for both me and the kid. I play games on it, check email (must look present), my calendar, weather and text. But I hate texting. My most hated application of all time. Sure I do it, but I don’t like it. The teen, on the other hand, texts almost exclusively. I pointed out to her that a phone call would take one tenth the time of these persistent, evening-long texting sessions. She said she agreed, but calling was “too hard.” I can’t get her to use it for her calendar - I guess her life just hasn't gotten complicated enough - and she bites my head off for sending email. But every night I send her a text that say, “go to bed.” Ahh technology.

The Kindle.

I’m not sure I know where that is either. It was super awesome at first. My daughter loved it. She could carry three books to school on one device. But when the novelty wore off and she realized she had to “shop” for books to read (early on she had recommendations), she lost interest. Shopping online was too hard. It was easier to go to the library (see don’t read on iPad above). Funny how something so old school is such an easier user experience; there’s nothing better than picking up a book and reading the flap to see if it’s interesting. Now if they could just carry around instant star ratings so I know if you thought it was a good read.

The Chromebook.

This almost immediately replaced our MacBook Air for one simple reason: the glass on our first MacBook cracked for no apparent reason and when I bought a replacement, neither of us ever wanted to touch it for fear of breaking another expensive machine. Enter the Chromebook. At $249 this thing sizzles (can you tell, I am using it right now!). We have desktop computers for actual computing; but for writing, surfing, checking email and Facebook, the Chromebook is proving to be our go to device. In fact, we occasionally fight over it. The biggest constraint is access to wi-fi but after that, it’s so easy to use. I honestly hesitated to buy one and now I am considering a second.

For us, the user experience absolutely dictates the functionality of our devices. I’d love to hear if you have had similar experiences. What’s your iPad doing? Let me know!

Listen2Youth Brings Silicon Valley Social Media Tips to CALPA

2012-05-16T22:27:00.000-07:00

I am a huge fan of California’s state parks.

It’s like our parks are part of my DNA. My mom worked at Henry Cowell, I served on our local Friends of the Santa Cruz State Parks board.

More importantly, as a resident of Santa Cruz County, I have been spoiled by the accessibility of our state parks. Natural Bridges is probably my favorite because I love those Monarch butterflies. I am frequent visitor at Henry Cowell - we love splashing in the river during the summer and hunting for Banana Slugs in the winter. And Big Basin is one of our favorites places to camp. [Want to find a park near you? Oh yeah, there's an app for that!]

All of this is within 30 minutes of my home.

So when Juliann Klein, a local designer and dedicated Mountain Parks volunteer suggested I participate in this year’s CALPA Conference to speak about social media, I jumped at the chance. I spend my days working with Silicon Valley companies like Cisco, Animoto and Financial Engines, writing content and helping them with their social media. I spend a lot of my “extra time” doing work for non-profits including the Santa Cruz Human Race.

I can’t wait to share my experience with you - the amazing volunteers who are working hard to preserve our state parks through fundraising and other brilliant strategies to "monetize the user experience."

For CALPA Conference participants, I put together a Pinterest board with tips our panel will be discussing at the event. Joining me on the panel are: Debbie Petruzzelli, Public Relations Manager, Balboa Park Marketing, San Diego, Rich Cherry, former Director, Balboa Park Online Collaborative, San Diego and Alexis Stoxen, Communications Specialist, California State Parks Foundation.

There are also two special offers for CALPA participants:

Animoto is a online video tools that also has a iPhone app. It’s a great way to create short, compelling videos about parks, plants, animals, special events and much more that you can share on social media.

They have a special program for nonprofit organizations that offers an upgrade to their premium product when you complete an application. Learn more here.

Cisco WebExoffers online meetings which allow people to connect regardless of where they are. They too have a free mobile app for most Smartphones.

They are offering a free subscription to their beta product to conference attendees. It’s a great way to connect with volunteers who can’t always get together in the same place at the same time. It’s also a terrific tool for recording mini-events and sharing them via social media. Learn more here.

Thank you to all the folks who work so hard for our parks. My family and I are direct beneficiaries of your hard work.

CALPA Members kicking off this week's conference in San Diego.

Advocating for Human Rights In Your Own Backyard

2012-05-01T15:50:00.001-07:00

Heidi (left) with her two sons, her daughter and husband Ron.

Listen2Youth is pleased to support the 15th Annual Queer Youth Leadership Awards in Santa Cruz, California on May 12, 2012.

The Queer Youth Leadership Awards recognizes queer youth and allies across Santa Cruz County for being leaders within their community. Being a leader encompasses many attributes and spans across all disciplines and activities. I have the privilege of knowing one of this year’s nominees, Heidi Koronkowski.

Heidi is the mother of a 13-year-old transgender child. In the last few years, I have watched her morph from a private housewife with a rambunctious, sometimes challenging daughter, to an outspoken advocate for human rights as she supported her child’s transition to living as a male. Her unwavering support of her son has taken her down a path she never expected.

Heidi has suffered the loss of several of her friends from church as they concluded they understood God’s plan for her son better than God did. It tested her faith and her trust in what makes a good friendship. And while she and her husband (and amazingly supportive family) did what they needed to do to follow her son’s lead, she redefined her faith and ended up becoming an unassuming role model providing guidance and information for other parents of transgender kids.

I was a friend of Heidi’s when she had a daughter. I am Heidi’s friend now that she has a son (whom I care about very much). I am thrilled that she, and the Trans Family Support Group, have both been nominated for this year’s Queer Youth Leadership Award. I wish more people could be as open, understanding and adaptive as Heidi has been over the last five years. She’s incredibly down-to-earth and her openness makes her accessible. The fact she’s “regular folk” only adds to her appeal.

At Listen2Youth we have worked with teens of all kinds for years. In fact we named our company Listen2Youth because we were so impressed by their insights and perception. Today, our business has shifted to social media where we talk with our clients’ customers and listen to their insights. We believe everyone has a voice that needs to be heard. Sometimes it means speaking up and taking a stand in your own backyard.

UPDATE: Our dear friend Heid's group, Trans Family Support Group, has won the 2012 Award. Congratulations to all the winners, nominees and thank you to everyone supporting these amazing folks.

Get Technology Off My Back: Teenage POV on the Need for Tech Integration

2012-02-03T13:12:00.000-08:00

Tyler Headley is a sophomore attending high school in the Pacific Northwest. He writes for us about tech, the user experience and social media - and his ideas about making changes that match the lifestyle of today's youth. If you have questions for Ty, please leave a comment below.

When you walk into a high school, you may first think that you’ve walked into a retirement facility. Why? All the kids are hunched over, trying to evenly spread the heavy weight of their backpacks over their backs.

When people think of individuals who have a lot of equipment, they often think of soldiers. Soldiers have to carry a ton of equipment ranging from their guns, to their boots and trademark sunglasses, to their backpacks.

What if I told you that the average high school student has to carry even more tools?

While this may be a bit of an exaggeration, it’s not that far from the truth. On an average day, my school backpack exceeds 26 pounds! The two biggest culprits are the computer and the textbooks, both of which are necessary for school. My backpack is also home to my bulky calculator and cell phone - all four of which are necessities for modern life at a high school.

It may come as a shock to some, but the school library is almost never used (at least for research).

Since the invention of the personal computer, aka the laptop (yes, the thing you are probably using to read this article), libraries everywhere have been hit pretty hard. Now all the information a student might want is located right at their fingertips, eliminating the need to even look up the author's name to find the book they need.

The computer has also morphed into the center of more than one kid’s life. Why shouldn’t it? One study found that teens spend almost four hours on their computer per day because it is now essential for schoolwork. Computers have revolutionized the way we do schoolwork (I search for my homework, take timed tests online, set up meetings with teachers through email, etc.).

Because we use them so much we are often marketed to on our computers through spam or online ads. If you’re going to market to a teen, please don’t do it through spam. All students hate receiving spam emails and schools usually put incredibly good spam filters on their email servers.

High school. The land of the young hunchback.

The main source of the backbreaking weight is our textbooks. They are behemoth monsters with more than three hundred pages and thick covers. When you say textbook, I think pain. Most textbooks cost an outrageous amount of money, making them not only heavy and inefficient, but also expensive.

With modern technology, I would have expected the textbook to become obsolete by now, but amazingly they haven’t. Many people point to the iPad as the future of the textbook, but with the hefty price and the fact that not all textbooks are available online, the iPad isn’t the future…yet.

The third source of pain for the student is the calculator.

By high school, the calculator of choice (a big hunk of a TI-84) is not only large and hard to use, but it’s also very expensive. With a price tag hovering around $100, perhaps someone will (please) come up with an alternative sometime soon. Some people ask, why can’t you just use your computer? Well, you need to have the entire advanced feature set of a calculator (graphing, advanced functions, sometimes even finding ‘x’ through a matrix), and since time is of the essence on a test, it is much quicker when you have the designated buttons of a calculator rather than having to type the equation from your computer.

It's not just dial tone, its personal!

These three tools—computer, textbook, and calculator—all cause varying degrees of physical and fiscal pain for students. But what about the phone? Almost every student I know has a phone because it’s great for keeping in touch with friends, checking the latest Facebook post, and calling your parents when you need them to pick you up.

However, phones aren’t used for school work. This is because you can’t type up papers on your phone – it doesn't have a keyboard, and they’re too small to use for reading books. Can we use them for calculators? No, because either the phone’s calculator isn’t powerful enough or it doesn’t have the features we need (such as the graphing part of the graphing calculators we need for school).

Perhaps there is a way to combine the computer, textbooks, and calculator, but so far nothing does what I need.

The iPad comes close, but doesn’t quite hit the mark – it’s too expensive, doesn’t offer everything a student needs, and is actually a little too large. All of these tools are necessities for students and they all cost a fair amount of money, though are used frequently (and sometimes too much) by students. Students are large spenders, and these tools listed above are the best way to market. So when you visit the jungle of the hunchback (by which I mean a high school), keep in mind that there is no way for them to lose the weight, at least for now.

For the sake of my back, I hope someone can merge these vital resources soon.

My debut on KSCO radio! It was thrilling!

2011-12-29T17:04:00.000-08:00

MZ at the helm, making talk radio happen!

When KGO decided to crush it's listeners by firing their talent and moving from talk to all news, I was devastated. Until the change, I didn't realize how much the rhythms and sounds of the station were my queues for daily living. News on the hour helped me stay focused. Gil Gross' dulcet tones helped me write in the afternoon. Len Tillem meant Katie would soon be home from school.

And then it was gone: in an instant.

In the noise that ensued, a local station, KSCO here in Santa Cruz, made a move to grab listeners because it offers something we care about: talk. Listeners can call in and actually discuss issues with the radio hosts. Wonderful.

I noticed KSCO didn't appear to have a social media strategy and since that's what I do, I sent an email to Michael Zwerling (MZ to his fans), the station owner. I honestly didn't expect to get a response - the man was so busy with all chaos created by KGO. He was courting new talk show hosts, boosting his online streaming to extend his reach; he was busy. When he called me, I was surprised! We started a conversation that has been going on for a couple weeks now.

So yesterday, Michael invited me down to the station for a tour. I arrived at 11:58 and had no idea he was going on the air in two minutes. He ushered me and a nice guy named Glen into the studio. Glen had planned to be there and had no idea what I was doing there. I assured him I was only there for a tour. MZ had me sit down in a chair - in front of a microphone - and had me put on the headphones. And away we went!

I wasn't sure if I was supposed to talk. But I was invited into the conversation which was interesting, rangy and provocative. Since the subject was media and content, I actually had something to say and spoke to those topics. Glen was working hard to get the audience engaged and we ended up talking about sex, Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh - did I mention it was a rangy discussion?

I have to admit, I had a blast. I can cross that off my bucket list. It was fun! I loved hearing the callers from the "host" side of things and listening was a very different experience. KSCO's audience is very passionate and I can tell they love their station as much as we KGO fans loved ours.

I still need to nail MZ down on that social media strategy, but in the meantime, I am grateful for the very unique experience. What a great time I had talking, listening and participating in such an interesting form of communication. Wow!

New Client: Animoto Helps Us Promote Our Business

2011-12-16T07:57:00.000-08:00

We are thrilled to welcome a new client: Animoto! If you haven't played with Animoto yet, we invite you to give it a try! We did this little capabilites video for Listen2Youth with the Animoto Plus product (which is rather affordable and my daughter Katie already has her eye on it to make her next video!).

I also used Animoto to create this video of our middle school band's winter concert!

While it took us a little while to determine the content, making our capabilities video was easy and fun. We recommend it to any business who'd like to "show" instead of "tell" what you do!

2011 Roared By, 2012 Looking Good

2011-12-13T15:45:00.000-08:00

You know it was a busy year when you drop back into your company blog and find out you haven't posted in 12 months!

Lynn and I have been very busy this year working with Cisco and Logitech on some terrific projects. We have links to the social media activities over on the left. Along the way we also volunteered for our kids' schools and brought our "marketing expertise" to those teams working to help the schools excel.

We are tuning up for 2012 with some renewed energy as some new clients will be coming on board and new products will start rolling out. It's a very exciting time and we hope the movement we are seeing in Silicon Valley bodes well for the economy.

Happy holidays!

KissMetrics Offers Great Tips for Creating Your Social Media Profile

2010-12-09T13:08:00.000-08:00

The folks at KissMetrics write an excellent blog post on the 10 Elements of a Successful Social Media Profile. They make great points about consistency across profiles and authenticity in posting (like use a photo of yourself for your personal profiles, not an avatar or object).

Creating a successful social media profile for your company is as important as doing it for yourself. Using these points as a guideline for your company can help you create a clear, unified voice that customers will recognize no matter where they find your business - on Facebook, your website, on Twitter or LinkedIn.

We can help you create this identity. With our background in brand marketing and social media, we can help you define your company's personality and then establish a social media strategy for on-going engagement and listening. Let's us know how we can help.

Three (Social Media) Things You Can Do Right Now to Help Your Brand

2010-10-15T09:56:00.000-07:00

If social media scares you - and based on a new study this isn't a bad assumption - you don't have to jump in with both feet. In fact, there are three easy ways you can get your feet wet without making a huge commitment.

And you can help your brand.

This isn't size specific and these small things will help you stay on top of what's being said about your brand (or business - or you!) and that is the first step in getting involved with social media. These are easy, easy things. So there's no excuse for not getting started.

1. Set up Google Alerts.
Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. In this case, set one up for your brand - and don't forget to do one for your name! When you do, add quotes around the search to make sure you get a focused report (for example, for me I use "Jennifer Carole" as the search term).

2. Set up a Twitter Search.
You can do a simple search to find conversations surrounding your brand. You can make it even better by adding and advanced search to find comments that are local, timely or include sentiment.

3. Use your "brand" name whenever you post.
If you post to LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, or comment on a blog, be sure to work in your brand name as part of the post. These properties are indexed by Google and the better you are about promoting your brand, the better chance you have of improving your search results.

Do you have other "low hanging fruit" ideas to share? Let us know - add your comment to this blog! And don't ever forget the importance of promoting your personal brand (your name) along the way!

The Value of Youth as an Emerging Market: Key Requirements for Online Services

2010-10-05T15:30:00.000-07:00

We just wrapped a study with a proprietary panel looking at an online tool that would normally be considered a "business product" focusing on the user experience and new features. But we did something a little bit different. We threw our teen panel into the mix.

This younger audience really shifted the results.

As it turns out, the youngest person on the proprietary panel was 28 years old. The our teen panel members who participated were roughly 17 to 22. Almost a decade in age difference and if we looked at mean age, roughly a generation.

We called the teens the "emerging market."

What we found is this emerging market shared a few characteristics that may not surprise you - but could influence how you are developing products. Here's a quick list:

Make it social. No kidding. You might know that but you may not have embraced it. They want to share, share, share and anything you develop needs hooks into their social world from Facebook to YouTube.
Let them integrate SMS (texting) and IM. These are the tools they use to "spread the word" and take things viral. Include them in your specs.
They will put up with clunkyness. You don't have to get it perfectly perfect. Younger people have a much higher tolerance for clicking around to find what they need. That doesn't mean your service shouldn't work well, it should, but if you don't get the user experience right at first, they will help you figure out the right way to do it based on their user patterns.

Want to know more about what we can do for you? Let us know. We can set up a proprietary panel for you using your customers and/or you can tap our youth panel .

The Apple iPad: Quinn Provides a Teen's Point of View

2010-02-02T10:33:00.000-08:00

Guest Blog: Quinn is an avid Apple fan and an active member of our teen panel. When the news of Apple's iPad hit last week, she was all over it. Quinn lives in the Midwest and is 13 years old. As a teenager, she offers us a unique perspective on how young people received the product announcement.

***************************************

"iPad isn't just the best device of its kind. It's a whole new kind of device."
- Apple Computer

The new Apple iPad has now filled my dreams.

When I found out the rumors were true, after refreshing Twitter repeatedly while driving to get my hair cut, I almost died. I literally leaped through the car and bounced off the windows, I mean LITERALLY. It's as thin and light as a Vogue magazine!

Some people DOUBTED the power of the tablet. For example, the day BEFORE they released whether or not the tablet was real, US News and World Report published an article on: Five Reasons Why the Apple Tablet will Flop. Here is what they wrote, and how the Apple tablet beat them.

US News: "Too big. A tablet PC is meant by design to be portable."

Me: Ha ha, well you were wrong. The screen is 9.7 inches, measured diagonally. So overall, it's slightly smaller than a magazine. And at just 1.5 lbs and 0.5 inches thin.

US News: "E-mail is more efficient with a cheaper net book."

Me: You see, on this tablet, you have easy access to your email, just with a click of a button. Also, the internet is much faster, and it is just as easy to type with.

US News: Too hungry. Apple can work miracles with software, services, and marketing. But even CEO Steve Jobs can't change chemistry, which has kept battery life from meeting ever growing demands.

Me: It has up to 10 hours battery life. To maximize battery life, Apple engineers took the same lithium polymer battery technology they developed for our notebook computers and applied it to the iPad. As a result, you can use iPad for up to 10 hours while surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching videos, or listening to music.

US News: Too pricey. Reports have put the price between $500 and $1,000.

Me: It starts at $499 and yes, it DOES come with wireless; and for a higher price it comes with 3G! So yes, I must say normally Apple can get a little pricey but these prices are pretty amazing. Also, a not too high monthly fee. Not to bad I must say.

US News: Too clumsy. From all reports, the Apple tablet will not have a hardware keyboard and will depend on its touch-sensitive screen.

Me: Okay, so even the biggest fans were a little worried about that, I must admit. I was too. But no worries, because somehow Apple always makes it through!

There are lots of great accessories that have been specifically designed for iPad. The Keyboard Dock, for instance, is a dock with a full-size keyboard. There's also a standalone Dock. And because iPad has built-in Bluetooth 2.1, it'll work with an Apple Wireless Keyboard, too. Also it's on screen keyboard is almost as large as a regular keyboard. The keys are very wide too.

From my point of view, the new Apple iPad rocks!

Comments for Quinn? Leave them here!

Don't Let This Happen to You! Online Meeting Embarassing Moments

2010-01-13T12:20:00.000-08:00

Listen2Youth works with Cisco WebEx on social media and we just published a fun two-part blog on the unintended consequences of not paying attention during an online meeting.

We thought you might enjoy reading the articles! Part One is here and you can catch Part Two here. Let's us know what you think!

If you use WebEx, join them on Facebook - become a fan!

It's still all about the user experience: think shoes!

2010-01-06T10:01:00.000-08:00

When you think about it, nearly everything comes down to the user experience. Which phone you choose, which software packages you end up keeping, which car you drive - hmmm, maybe even which person you chose for your partner!?

How well something works for you really matters. If you still don't believe me, go look in your closet or your garage and I bet you will find a pile of things that you ditched because the user experience sucked (for women, it's often a pile of shoes!).

At Listen2Youth, we pay attention to the user experience. Our end user panels help us do that and help our clients make important changes to their services based on the feedback we get from those panels.

In these economic times, getting close to your customers makes more sense than ever. Panels are not very expensive and the value you get from hearing first hand what is and isn't working is nearly priceless. In addition to helping you influence your internal teams, it also provides valuable information for sales and marketing as they go out to attract and retain customers.

Give us a call or drop us a note if you are interested in learning more about using our teen panel or starting a proprietary panel for your company. We look forward to talking to you!

Day One at Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup a Success!

2009-06-02T07:03:00.000-07:00

It was hard to fall asleep last night. My head was reeling with ideas from the first day at Ypulse.

With a great turnout, hosting a variety of people from all over, we listened, talked and tweeted our way through a series of great presentations. I figured I would jump on the blog this morning and make a few notes about some of what I saw and heard:

1. Congrats to Mike Roberts - who won the Totally Wired Teacher Award.
He delivered a video acceptance speech showing just how he has adapted to the technologies kids are using and now incorporates that into his teaching methods. Bravo. We did a study on Tech and Education that was fascinating. If you are looking for more ways tech can be used to teach or help kids learn, check out this webcast and ping me if you want to know more.

2. Bill Carter from Fuse Marketing once again hit a home run.
His new study on teens and advertising highlighted some of the facts and fiction running amok in marketing departments worldwide. Most interesting - kids like print advertising! (If you lived at my house, you'd know that was true!) We recently did a study on tech devices and advertising for the Market Advantage Youth Lab - here's a quick synopsis if you want to see what we learned.

3. The Ypluse Advisory Board was a hoot!
Using a great format - commenting on the juxtaposition of competitors' ads (Pepsi vs Coke; Mac vs PC; and two public service ads). We get asked a lot if our teen panelists really tell us the "truth" when we ask them questions and we always say, "oh yeah - they don't hold back." That was true yesterday - the panelists did not hold back! Candid, funny and unedited, they easily commented on what did and didn't work in the ads. Our guest bloggers - teens from our panel - do the same. Want to see an honest point of view? Check out their blogs here.

Guess it's time to get dressed and get downstairs for another great day. You can follow the Tweets at #ypulse09 - check it out - we wish you were here!

Five Reasons Attending the Ypulse Mashup Will Help Your Business

2009-05-26T22:19:00.000-07:00

On Monday, June 1^st, another fantastic 2009 Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup will kick off in San Francisco. If you aren’t already reading the daily Ypulse newsletter, you should be. But more importantly, if you haven’t figured out the value of attending the Mashup, let me give you a few good business reasons why you should.

What today’s youth are doing now, will affect your business’ future.
From social networks to adapting technology, young people today aren’t afraid to try new things and then talk about it. At our company, it’s our motto – listen to youth to discover the future of your business.

Here’s one example: nearly every business is considering how to use social media to help promote their business. Twitter? Facebook? How about text messaging? By following what kids are doing, you can identify best practices to help guide your efforts.
Today’s youth are your future employees.
If you haven’t hired millennials, and I bet you have, you may not understand their different approach to the workplace. From flex time to creative problem-solving, our youthful new team members are having a tremendous impact on the work force.

While many seasoned professionals want to dismiss them for their “poor work habits”, there’s more to the story. Sure they need training – but didn’t we all? The tradeoff is exuberance, fresh ideas and a consumer approach that could breathe new life into whatever you are doing.
Get actionable advice from the presenters.
I have attended every Mashup – each one better than the year before – and I expect no less this year. Hearing a case study from Disney about how they leverage all their properties to launch a new music act or listening to Fuse talk about CEO predictions for mobile technology – the information runs the gamut.

But even if you aren’t marketing Miley Cyrus, the underlying principles the speakers share are bound to inspire and fuel your own business planning. I always leave fired up and ready to try way-too-many new things when I get home.
You will create some amazing business relationships.
Okay. I just went and counted. I have eight contacts on Facebook from last year’s Mashup and five from the year before. These aren’t the “professional acquaintance” type friends but rather people I have talked with for the last year about their businesses, their new ideas, supported their launches, and helped them with trials.

Ypulse attracts people from all industries with many interests and passions. Typically they are accessible, invested and willing to forge new relationships. It never fails that I end up brainstorming with someone about how we could work together or a way to extend our ideas.
It’s one hell of a club.
Yep. Ypulse is a bit of a club. Not exclusive, rather very inclusive. The Ypulse team wants you to succeed and my experience – throughout the year – is that they are there to make introductions, open doors, share information, salute your good ideas and much more.

I believe the brand is the extension of its founder, Anastasia Goodstein, who is a total content diva (amazing actually). She’s having a good time and she’s committed to making sure you have a good time too. Once you attend a Mashup, you will want to come back – to see friends, to learn more, to share what you have done, to refuel and get inspired.

So I hope to see you there next week. If you come, send me (@jcarole) a Tweet! or a text (831.239.6496) - you do know how to text don’t you?! I can’t wait to meet you and add you to my collection of Mashup Facebook friends!

Pass the Ball - Social Media Project is On!

2009-05-19T14:14:00.000-07:00

Listen2Youth has been working closely with the team at WebEx to create the new website - Passtheball.com.

The idea is simple - create a place where good things happen - donations for a wonderful cause (Teachers Without Borders) while individuals can share ideas and watch them grow. Along the way, increase brand awareness for the WebEx product and run the campaign across a variety of social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to take it viral.

You can read more about the campaign here or simply visit the site and share your idea! And let us know if Listen2Youth can help you with your social media marketing plans.

Meet Listen2Youth at Tech Titans SD Forum Event

2009-05-08T16:16:00.000-07:00

Join us on Wednesday, May 13 in Palo Alto to learn how today's teens are also today's entrepreneurs. SD Forum is hosting an event that looks really interesting if you are following the teen market.

"Teenagers are in constant contact through multiple means of technologies, including Facebook, Twitter, email, IM, MySpace and cell phones. We will be joined by corporate executives, not-for-profits, venture capitalists and teenage entrepreneurs in discussing how teens are using technology and encouraging them to undertake new projects and enterprises." - SD Forum

Jennifer Carole, from Listen2Youth, will be joining the 10:45 panel titled, "Understanding the Teen Market". If you are there, make sure to introduce yourself, she'd love to meet you. If you miss the event, Listen2Youth is always available to talk about teens and technology. We just wrapped a study on advertising and we are in the process of conducting some research on social media.

Video: It Does it All! The G1 Android Phone!

2009-04-20T21:57:00.001-07:00

One of our teen panel members has some fun imagining all the things his new Android phone can do. See if you agree with his vision of the future!

Millenials: The Apple Generation?

2009-04-03T14:14:00.001-07:00

Check out this great video - a winner in our youth panel video awards! Michele not only managed to lure her dad into making the video but found some great props as well. And the story -- you know how it turns out!

Leadership and the User Experience: Is there a relationship?

2009-02-17T10:41:00.000-08:00

With the changes at Apple – Steve Jobs stepping down for awhile, it has me thinking about the relationship between leadership and the user experience.

I have had the privilege of working for a number of great high tech companies in the last twenty years. I have been part of teams at Adobe, Cisco, Sun, Second Life, Borland, Alcatel-Lucent and more. At most of these companies, there was a specific focus on the user experience.

My Favorite “Apple” Story
I didn’t get to work at Apple in the heyday (just a little too young) but I have worked for a number of incredible people who were there in the early days and they tell some good stories. One always stands out in my mind: apparently early on Jobs was working on the Macintosh and wanted to see what end users thought of the design. He put 10 people in a room and they all said the on/off switch was in the wrong place. His lesson to his team: “people behave similarly. It doesn’t take a huge study to find that out.”

I have no idea if the story is true but is passes down as a folk tale with a good lesson. Jobs’ single-minded focus on the user experience set the pace for the company and his allowed them to deliver incredible products over the years including the rebirth of Apple with the iPod and iPhone.

Last One to Leave Lotus, Turn Out the Lights
When I joined Borland in the late 80s, we were a bunch of whippersnappers focused on knocking Lotus off the block. What was our competitive advantage? Our singular focus was user experience (and a killer direct marketing strategy). We all knew the only way to beat Lotus was to make our spreadsheet easier to use – intuitive – and it worked (and you could find bumper stickers sporting the headline above all over our building!).

We got so good at it that we then went after Ashton-Tate in the relational database space. Our leader, Philippe Kahn set out his clear vision and we all marched determined to free our end users from the constraints of the software giants and a miserable user experience.

Are PowerPoint Users Graphics Professionals?
At Adobe, the leadership there had a similar impact on the user experience but with different results. I arrived when Warnock and team were still highly focused on the graphics professional. It was his passion and the product reflected it. The user experience was based on creating digital replicas of the tools graphics experts used to use non-digitally. And Photoshop and Illustrator sold well as a result.

But things got tough when “management” decided we needed to reach new markets. We needed to “simply” our products to entice Microsoft users. Not a bad strategy to build market share but the in the transition, no one bothered to adapt the user experience to these new users.

Instead, the team decided to simplify existing products – think Photoshop Elements – but use the same graphic professional lingo and toolset. I have no idea how many units of Photoshop Elements the company sells, but I can tell you if they had adapted the product with features and language that match what business users are used to, they would sell more. In fact I wonder if it didn’t backfire and erode some of their Photoshop high-end market as graphics professionals figured out they could get 50% of the features at one-tenth the price.

Leadership Can Improve the User Experience
So what’s my point? I believe leadership is essential for creating a great user experience. With a clear commitment from the top – if not the vision, at least the drive – the rest of us know what to do. We understand who we are creating products for and how to set priorities and make decisions. The best feature in the world doesn’t matter if the user can’t find it.

Do you have a story from your experience? We would love to hear about it.

Top 10 Most Embarrassing Moments for Teens, Families and Tech

2009-01-19T14:39:00.000-08:00

In the process of talking with our panel members about how they have helped their families with technology, we discovered some great stories. So we couldn’t resist. Here are the Top 10 tales from our kids from around the world as they coach their families through the technology landscape!

10
“My parents were in the middle of telling me off for not keeping my room tidy, and then my phone ran out of battery leaving them unable to continue to tell me off.”
– Samuel, 18, Australia

9
“We were trying to set up a DVD player and we couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. We spent an hour working on it and we could see it was plugged in. However, we found out later, the outlet strip it was plugged into wasn't.”
– Mike, 16, United States

8
“My mother wanted to talk to my father on the phone, but she was driving so I had to call him. Turns out I actually called my tennis coach by mistake and the first thing she said was ‘Hello darling…’.”
– Ahmed, 16, England

7
“When I was helping my dad set up his home theater he got so mad because he couldn't hear the audio on the TV. He was ready to throw the system out the window. I passed by and asked him, ‘Are you sure you're not on mute?’ He checked and that wasn’t it. Then I saw the brand-new Bose home theater component and said ‘You sure you’re in the right audio channel?’ I was right and he was so embarrassed he didn’t want to admit it. He denied it. I picked up the remote, clicked a button and there was sound! He was so mad that I was right!! I just laughed.”
– Martha, 18, Mexico

6
“My brother spent a huge amount of time looking for the button to unlock his new iPhone. All he had to do was touch the screen!”
– Alexandra, 18, United States

5
“Once, my mother tried to use the remote control to call my grandfather!”
– Tobias, 18, Sweden

4
“I once accidentally called my mom instead of my friend and asked when and where I should meet for a party. Busted.”
– Ted, 20, France

3
“One time my phone got wet and I put it in the microwave to dry.”
– Kelly, 14, United States

2
“I left my Gmail account open when I went on vacation. While I was gone, my mother chatted with all of my friends.”
– Cameron, 18, United States

1
“Once I complained about my parents on my blog. The next day, I found out my parents had left comments on it.”
– Angela, 16, China

Do you have a great “embarrassing moment” based on tech and your family? Let us know!