manage to experience

Same As It Ever Was. Only Faster.

2009-10-29T08:45:21-04:00

To quote Yogi Berra, it's like deja-vu, all over again. These days I'm having the same conversations I had with clients nine years ago. Then, the subject was email. It seemed to be an ideal solution to the need to make communication with customers nimble, relevant and inexpensive. The majority of my conversations at the time seemed to revolve around helping marketers understand email and how to implement it as a marketing tool.

Today, those same conversations focus on social media: What it is. Who uses it. And how to implement it in their businesses.

A little bit of perspective
A smart advertising guy once said, "The real fact of the matter is that nobody reads ads. People read what interest them, and sometimes it's an ad." The same can be said of social media. People care about ideas, not that they read them on Twitter. So hopping on the social media bandwagon doesn't get you nearly as far as great ideas communicated in a creative, compelling way.

What has changed
Social media has changed one thing: Conversations between the people you care about happen faster, through multiple channels. And the pace is accelerating. Marketers can quickly find themselves playing a game of catch-up or they can devote resources to monitoring, then joining, social media conversations about their brands. Want to build credibility in the social media arena? The latter approach is far more effective.

The bottom line
1) The channels we use to communicate will continue to evolve. 2) Good ideas and creative communication are a constant. 3) The pace of communication will continue to accelerate. As marketers, we have to focus on numbers 2 & 3, while continuing to adapt to emerging media.

From August Insights, August Communication Consultants' newsletter for people interested in the intersection of marketing and technology. You can subscribe at www.augustcommunication.com.

More on manipulating the Long Tail

2009-10-06T14:47:00-04:00

Even if you don't subscribe to Netflix, I recommend reading Nicholas Carr's take on a recently released study (PDF) of the popular video rental service's distribution of demand. Carr points to conflicting interpretations of the study (the authors claim it refutes the idea of a Long Tail), but his most interesting point is that the data isn't an accurate reflection of consumer demand. Why? It's skewed by Netflix's recommendations, which seem to be designed to reduce demand for more costly titles:

"By manipulating the movies it suggests, and by restricting the number of copies of new and popular movies it offers, Netflix shifts demand away from current hits and down the long tail."

Carr's experience should be familiar to any Netflix subscriber. The Netflix Web site tends to highlight what I would call second tier movies, forcing a deeper dive into the site to find current hits.

A couple more thoughts about this:

The study's authors use the number of ratings as an indication of rental distribution. I have no idea of what percentage of subscribers participate in the rental review scheme, and how this affects the outcome. Anything I can offer on this front is a wild guess.

And, recent rating stats have to be influenced by subscribers who use Instant Streaming. I'm curious as to whether this skews the results, and am inclined to think that it has an influence similar to what Carr describes. Instant Streaming, of course, seems to be an even more unreliable indicator of consumer demand because of the spotty availability of current hits.

Money can sustain mediocrity

2009-09-18T09:00:59-04:00

Signal vs. Noise criticizes Mint's sale to Intuit. His gripe? The specter of investor pressure on emerging companies to sell, rather than change the marketplace. The Mint/Intuit deal means the loss of innovation, and allows a mediocre company to continue to plod along:

"As more great new companies are absorbed into big old companies, a whole new generation of change is lost. They can issue press releases saying how excited they are to be able to bring their product to a whole new world of customers, and how their new suitor will bring enormous resources to bear, but we know that’s usually not really what happens. Development slows, products stall, the staff that built the great stuff leaves, and mediocrity creeps in. Not always, but usually."

Yojimbo

2009-09-14T22:56:49-04:00

I'm a fan of Yojimbo. Not just the movie, but Bare Bones Software's elegant information manager. This does an excellent job of explaining its utility and appeal.

CP+B and VW, memories from the salad days

2009-08-18T13:42:17-04:00

VW has put its account up for review, but back in the day, current agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky did some nice work for them. Here's a taste:

The New Wave of Digital Publishing Platforms

2009-08-13T12:42:59-04:00

June's issue of August Insights asked, "Do web sites still matter?" and promised to take a look at how businesses can leverage the new wave of digital infrastructure and content management, and tap into the connectedness of social networks. So let's get to it.

Digital Infrastructure, from Old School to New

Once upon a time, building an online presence required an investment in infrastructure commensurate with the scale of that presence. That investment included dedicated or shared web servers connected to pipes leased from telcos. Content management systems – either modular or custom – facilitated control over web site content. Importing content or functionality from third parties often required programming services. Bottom line, building a company's digital presence required time, money, and specialized skills.

Fast forward to the present, and the landscape has changed. A lot.

It's still possible, and in some cases desirable, to own your digital presence's infrastructure. But businesses without a practical need for this kind of control have other options. And one of the most ubiquitous, as well as most flexible and effective, options is WordPress, which is known for hosting the work of more than 200,000 bloggers.

In reality, WordPress is a highly scalable, easily implemented publishing platform. It's a "freemium" service, meaning users can launch a simple blog or web site without paying start up or maintenance fees; as users' needs grow, they can pay for premium services, on an a la carte basis. So, a small business can pay a few dollars per year to attach their own domain name to their blog/site, a few dollars to customize the look and feel of that site, and a few more dollars to add storage as the site grows. The more a site has to do, the more it costs; fewer requirements reduces costs.

WordPress has the advantage of an active developer community that offers a wide range of add-ons. Design "themes" (that change the look and feel of the site) can be purchased at low cost. Plug-ins that extend sites' functionality are likewise available. Users have access to numerous free widgets that integrate third-party content and features into WordPress sites. And much of the work of building a site can be done without the help of programmers.

WordPress makes online publishing simple, but innovation is driving that simplicity to a whole new level. Which brings us to so-called middle blogging platforms like Posterous and Tumblr.

A Poster Child for Posterous

An admission: I love Posterous. And my first experiment with it explains why:

Time to set up Posterous account and blog: 3 minutes
Time to import data from existing blog site: 5 minutes
Time to attach custom domain name: 3 minutes
Time to set up Google Analytics: 2 minutes
Cost to do all of the above: $0

Posterous is fast, but that's only part of the charm. Users add content to Posterous sites through a web-based interface, or better yet, via emails sent to Posterous. Email subject lines becomes headlines; simple syntax allows users to define text formatting and content tags. Want to create a photo gallery? Send photos as email attachments, and Posterous resizes them, places each in the appropriate orientation, and creates thumbnail galleries.

Want to simultaneously publish content to other web sites? Posterous can do this automatically; alternately, users can define where to publish content by changing the posting email address. For example, content emailed to posterous+twitter@posterous.com will appear on the user's Posterous site and Twitter account.

Of course, there are compromises users have to accept. The look and feel of Posterous sites, while appealing, can't be customized. And, the implementation of third-party functionality is more limited than with some platforms.

Still, Posterous represents the next phase in online publishing. It removes obstacles to putting content online. As quickly as you identify the need, you can satisfy it.

Digital Connectedness

The new wave of publishing platforms are inherently social. Connectedness is part of the bargain. Want site visitors to see your Twitter feed? Widgets integrate that feed, without cost or delay. Need to share video across multiple sites? You can download functionality for free that you once had to buy. Want your audiences to be able to subscribe to content you provide? It's almost certain that this feature is built in.

Fast, Cheap and Out of Control? Maybe.

So the new wave of digital publishing platforms is simpler and less expensive. But what about control over ownership of one's digital presence? Are there risks?

Absolutely. Software as a service is only as good as providers' ability to stay in business. So, if you provide business critical functionality or content through a web site, you will naturally demand the most reliable platform you can afford. This doesn't rule out using software as a service, but it demands due diligence on your part. On the other hand, if the content and features you provide have a limited life span, and can easily be ported to other platforms, there may be an advantage to using a low-cost, simplified publishing platform.

What seems certain, however, is that digital publishing will continue to move towards a model that emphasizes speed, ease of implementation, and infrastructure scalability (along with scalable costs) over older models that focus on ownership of infrastructure and customization.

What's the future of marketing?

2009-08-06T16:50:33-04:00

If you think it's about branding, you're on the wrong track. Interesting insights about the value of listening, participating, and investing in things bigger than your "brand:"

What's Next In Marketing And Advertising (2009)

View more documents from Paul Isakson.

Netflix on corporate culture

2009-08-06T16:33:01-04:00

An interesting look at culture, and one that goes far deeper than talk of corporate values and empowering individuals.

Culture

View more presentations from reed2001.

Web turns marketing and communications on its head

2009-07-31T10:08:19-04:00

Traditional marketing and communication is about getting people to do things. Web marketing and communication is about helping people do things.

via newsweaver.ie

The limits of interaction

2009-07-28T13:52:35-04:00

A cogent point about human limits of processing information from social media:

"While technology has provided us scale, our human nature tries to scale back down using every opportunity and technology we have. We can’t cope with that much interaction, nor does it provide us enough value."