Moog's Viewpoints

My presentation for the New Options Project Summit on 11-4-10

2010-11-04T09:13:19-05:00

New Options Summit Presentation 11 4-10

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Great intro to the concept of Lean Startups by the man himself

2010-11-04T09:08:31-05:00

Eric Ries, Author/Speaker/Consultant, The Lean Startup

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The Science-ification of media

2010-10-29T15:26:49-05:00

One of the smartest bankers in digital media is Terry Kawaja at Luma Partners. He recently told me about this presentation. Great stuff. He is always provocative and prescient. Take some time to look through it.

The SCIENCE-ification of Media

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Five digital marketing tips for small businesses at the Crain's Small Business Forum

2009-09-15T06:32:30-05:00

This morning I am on a panel at the Crain's Small Business Forum in Chicago talking about how small businesses can use digital marketing generally and social media specifically to build their businesses. I thought it made sense to use this blog to help think through what I was going to say, write it down and be able to refer people to it in the future.

First, if you are like me and you always want to know more about the person providing the advice and what real experience they have, feel free to check out my Linked In profile. I have spent the last 15 years of my professional career building businesses that leveraged the power of the Internet. Three years ago we took CoolSavings private and I founded Viewpoints Network so I am speaking both as a provider of social technologies but more importantly as a business owner who uses all range of digital technologies.

So without further ado....

Five digital marketing tips for small businesses

Don't underestimate the power of e-mail. I suggest that you build a list of all the people that you want to know about your business and start to send an update to that list at least once a month. You can either do this using your personal e-mail account but if you want to get better tracking and opt out management then use a service like Constant Contact which is about $50 per month. Over the years I have collected about 5,000 business cards and e-mail addresses. 50% of these are no longer valid and I barely remember who half of the remaining 50% are. But that means I am left with 1,250 people who I have build relationships with over the years. I know these percentages are right because I took almost an entire day a few years ago to go through and code every record with a "level of familiarity"
Start a blog. Blogs are either free or really cheap. Don't be intimated thinking that you have to blog every day. We used blogs as a cheap and easy way to set up a web site that we could easily change and update. Check out http://onpoint.viewpoints.com/ This is our blog which also allows us to create "pages" which provide more information about Viewpoints. We use a service called TypePad which is $159 per year.
Open an account on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Depending on who your audience is, pick one to focus most of your time and energy on. Now you can start cross pollinating your e-mail, blog and social networking efforts by promoting your blog posts to your Twitter followers and encouraging your blog readers to sign up for your e-mail list or follow you on Twitter. You can find me at http://twitter.com/mattmoog (169 followers), http://www.facebook.com/mattmoog (534 friends), or http://www.linkedin.com/in/mattmoog (999 friends)
Learn about the importance of Search Engine Optimization. Search drives web behavior more than most people realize. The 120 million daily U.S. Internet users do about 2 searches a day. That means that that 6 billion times a month someone is using search to find something including either your business or something closely related to it. All of your blog posts should be designed to be found via search. If nothing else, try an experiment by picking an obscure word or phrase. Write a blog post about it and see if you get listed. You can use tools such as WordTracker or Google Trends to give you insight into what people are searching for.
Don't forget about lead generation and having great follow through. I use SalesForce.com religiously. It was the first tool I set up when we started Viewpoints. You should make it very easy for people to find you and request more information about what you are selling. Many of the services mentioned above can help you collect the right data from prospective customers so that you can follow up with them and develop and relationship with them until they are ready to buy.
And one more bonus tip. Take advantage of survey tools to find out more what your prospective customers are thinking. We use Zoomerang but you can also use tools such as Survey Monkey, Opinion Lab, Poll Daddy and others.

Viewpoints Update - February 2009

2009-02-04T13:25:29-06:00

Here we are again. February 4^th. Two days after Ground Hog Day, three days after the Superbowl, ten days until Valentine’s day, seventeen days until my birthday and only forty five days until the first day of spring. Can you believe it? Are you ready? Can we help you get ready?

This e-mail is ostensibly an update about the all the great stuff going on here at Viewpoints. (Did I tell you monthly traffic has more than tripled in the last year?) But rather than tell you about every new feature we released (did someone say iPhone app?), I personally think it is much more interesting to show you Viewpoints in action in a way that might even be helpful to you. In that spirit and in keeping with our mission to help consumers make smarter decisions, here is my personal list of Viewpoints inspired ideas to help you make it through the dog days of winter:

1. First, are you are feeling a bit of flat screen envy from your neighbors 46 inch flat screen monster that you watched the Superbowl on but having problems figuring out how you are going to stomach dropping $3,500+? Well then check out the Vizio - VW42L HDTV – one of our reviewers say “If this TV was a woman I’d marry her…” and only $850!

2. But perhaps your stomach is in knots over what to get your sweet heart for Valentine’s Day. For those of you on who like your sweets, may we suggest Lindt Lindor Truffles? Our reviewers say there is “heaven in every bite!”. Too decadent? Perhaps a good book? My wife and thirty of our reviewers loved Eat, Love Pray and Loving Frank. Not creative enough? Try out Nike ID, the service that lets you design your very own Nike shoes for your Valentine. Of course, you can hit the jewelry counter at Barney’s at the last minute but that will cost you a lot more!

3. Now my birthday. So you barely know me? Perhaps the I could give some advice for aonthera 39 year old laptop and e-mail obsessed entrepreneur in your life that could use a little diversion? My wife recently got me Marcus Sakey’s Good People and Ted Turner’s autobiography Call Me Ted. I highly recommend them both. If you are looking for something a bit more gadgety, I love my Bose In-ear Headphones and so do the 24 Viewpoints members who gave them a 4.88 rating.

4. And now for Spring. Have you seen the latest rage in barbeque grills? If you love the smoky flavor in your steaks, check out the Big Green Egg. Or if you are stuck with the spring cleaning, perhaps a new “Cyclonic Vacuum Cleaner” a category where Dyson takes the top honors. Planning your next big get away? We just had great luck with Vacation Rentals By Owner,(www.VRBO.com) to find vacation rentals. Lots of great deals in this economy!

And just for a bonus for any of you iPhone users out there here is a quick list of iPhone apps that I find myself using frequently these days: Pandora, iHandy Level, Twitterific, New York Times, tChessPro, PacMan, Black & White, Peg Jump, 15 Puzzle, and Labryrnith.

And last but not least, join me in welcoming Todd Koehler our new VP of Product Management and Katie Brauner our new marketing associate. Be sure to check out their profile pages on Viewpoints and say hello! Can you guess which one panned Twilight, loves Britney Spears and makes exotic bread with the Zojirushi Bread Machine, thinks the D-Link Router is not up to snuff and can’t get enough of Facebook?

As always, please keep Viewpoints in mind to reach in-market consumers who are actively researching purchases and social influencers who enjoy spreading the word about their experiences with products.

We are actively looking for advertisers and partnership opportunities.

Stay warm until winter is over and spring begins!

Regards,

Matt Moog

Founder/CEO

Viewpoints Network

312-447-6111

The largest Internet companies in Chicago

2009-01-09T12:16:52-06:00

I spend a few hours a week meeting with people who are either a) looking for a job at an Internet company or b) looking to start one. I always run through a list of both large and interesting (sometimes they are actually both!) Internet companies. My definition of an Internet company is a company delivers the majority of their service and product over the Internet. I will create a separate list of folks like United Airlines, Hyatt and Sears who are using the web in significant ways to drive sales. My bias with this particular list is toward the "consumer Internet" because I know less about the agency, consulting and b2b space, so please add some comments about who you would add.

The Biggest "Pureplay" Chicago Based Consumer Internet Companies (100+ employees)

The Mid Size (20-100 employees)

The Small (but mighty!) (1-20 employees)

The biggest B2B Chicago based Internet companies

Surepayroll
Comscore
Savo Group
Performics (now owned by Publicis)
Feedburner (now owned by Google)
LeapFrogOnline

Web Development Shops

Alpha Zeta
Design Kitchen
March First
VSA Design
Collosal Squid

Interactive Agencies

Pending

Viewpoints Update - December 2008

2008-12-16T13:24:00-06:00

As we speed into the final two weeks of December, I thought this would be a good time to give you a quick update on the latest at Viewpoints and maybe even give you a few gift ideas. I am pleased to report that last month we had 1.4 million unique users and we now have more than 150,000 registered members. I am starting to get used to 25%+ month over month growth!

As you know Viewpoints is social media company focused on helping consumers making smarter decisions. We are passionate (some might say obsessed) about finding ways to motivate consumers to tell us about their personal experiences with products, services and businesses so that we can in turn present all of this great insight back to the millions of in-market buyers who are using our site to make important decisions.

In this spirit of sharing personal experiences, I thought I would give you few of my own picks for the season that might help you sniff out a few great gifts for your friends and family (and maybe even you!).

· Dell XPS M1330 Laptop – I am personally a huge fan of this laptop. So much so that we have ordered six more of them for the other non Mac users here in the office. You can check out my review here.

· iPhone 3G - I don’t know what I would do without mine. Check out the 59 reviews of this product. One of my favorite reviews happens to be by our very own Vytas.

· Esperanza Resort – This little slice of heaven is in Cabos San Lucas Mexico. We are going back this year for our third consecutive year. The food, the weather, the pool, is all nearly perfect.

· My 2008 Movie Picks – Of the 18 movies I have reviewed over the last two years, I will have to say that Slumdog Millionaire, Milk and Frost are among the absolute best movies I have seen in quite some time. If you need a few great rentals, I would recommend Into the Wild and The Great Debaters.

· Dining Out? – My obsessions with restaurants is clearly become a problem. Check out this list of 60+ dining spots. I would highlight Kuma’s Corner and Hub 51 as two our favorite new spots. Unearth some real gems like the gourmet burgers at a metal bar (Kuma’s) and great tacos at an American style restaurant (Hub 51). And of course, Avec is basically the pinnacle of perfection in my book.

· Nintendo Wii – We got this last year and I will have to say other than throwing out my shoulder pitching in Wii Baseball, it has been a big hit.

In the gadget category we have been really happy with Canon Powershot G9 and The Flip Video Camera. The Canon is a nice high end compact digital camera but not as bulky as your typical SLR. The Flip Video Camera is a cheap ($130) and fun video camera that is small enough to slip in your pocket as you run out the door.

For any of you political junkie out there I strongly recommend Nine, a book by Jeffrey Toobin about the Supreme Court. A friend gave this to me as a gift this year and it was one of the best and most memorable reads of the year.

Anyone searching for the perfect bed? Read my review of the Westin Heavenly Mattress. Believe it or not, more than 17,000+ people have read this review since we started tracking review readership in April.

Any coffee lovers who are not quite coffee snobs? Check out my review of the single serving units the Keurig Coffee Maker and the Nespresso.

Who wouldn’t love a great bottle of wine or spirit? My favorite place to wander around and shop for wine is Sam’s Wine. If you are in Chicago, stop by. If not just order online.

Well, I guess for now that is it. I am starting to realize there are a whole slew of new things I need to review in time for the next update!

As far as Viewpoints, we are always looking for innovative marketers who are interested in finding new and effective ways to reach both in-market consumers and social influencers who love to spread the word about great products to their friends. Additionally, we are interested in syndication partnerships and we are now licensing our technology to help companies launch their own online communities. Check out Viewpoints and let us know if you like what you see!

Happy Holidays and a safe and healthy New Year!

Matt Moog

Founder & CEO

Viewpoints Network

312 447 6111

http://www.viewpoints.com/aboutme/Matt

Top Ten Most Commented on Reviews on Viewpoints

2008-10-28T10:13:48-05:00

I have to admit I love going to YouTube and browsing through the most popular videos. It really gives you a window into the service and tends to be very topical when you look at the most popular by different time frames. In that spirit, I had our tech team pull this list today. We are considering making this a full blown feature. What do you think?

Recent presentation from Charlene Li

2008-10-18T20:03:59-05:00

Social Media Marketing Summit Keynote, Oct. 1 2008

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: li charlene)

Viewpoints Update - October 2008

2008-10-08T13:23:00-05:00

(This was originally sent out as an e-mail and I later realized it should also be a blog post)

Two years ago the team here at Viewpoints set out to build a new platform for consumer reviews. We wanted to bring reviewers to life and give them an opportunity to write great reviews. At the end of the day our goal is to help consumers make smarter decisions in their everyday lives.

I am pleased to report that we have made fantastic progress toward our goals in this respect. In just one short year since our official launch, we have attracted more than 900,000 monthly users and have registered more than 125,000 members to join our growing community of reviewers.

Just this week we launched a major upgrade to our profile pages that give our members more ways to feature their great reviews and interact with fellow community members. Over the last year we have incorporated a long list of features such as message boards, blogs, photo galleries, private messaging, stats and advanced member profiling. Take a look at my profile page to see many of these features in action or read our recent blog post that provides a more detailed overview of the many great features in this release.

I am also pleased to report that it is not only our users but also advertisers who have seen the value in the Viewpoints solution. Leading advertisers such as Proctor & Gamble, Kenmore, Tivo, Panasonic, HP and partners such as Google and eBay have seen the benefit of running campaigns targeted at active "in-market buyers" and social influencers. Additionally we have also created co-brand versions of our site for several large clients who are interested in building an online community for their customers.

So that is the quick update, but we promise to be back more often than every two years to fill you in on all the exciting news here at Viewpoints!

Be sure to check out Viewpoints for all your holiday gift giving needs.

Warm Regards,

Matt Moog

Founder & CEO

312-447-6111

matt@viewpoints.com

http://www.viewpoints.com/aboutme/Matt