Montiero, author of Design is a Job and respected voice among the design community didn’t hold back when he found the article. In fact he expressed as much disappointment in HBR as he did at the author.

Hey @harvardbiz, you should be ashamed of yourselves for publishing this loathesome garbage: blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/04/sev…

— Mike Monteiro (@ Mike_FTW) April 7, 2013

I recommend reading the post to fully understand Montiero’s disgust, but here are a few of the highlights from the list:

1. Spoil them and let them fail: Like parents who celebrate their children’s mess…

2. Surround them by semi-boring people:

5. Pay them poorly Don’t overpay them: There is a longstanding debate about the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation… The moral of the story?

… the list goes on.

A Missed Opportunity for Healthy Discussion

I can see how the post may offend, but I also see the points that author Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic was trying to make. Unless his intent was to incite a flame war — in which case he probably exceeded all expectations — I’d argue that the post can teach us a lesson in the power of poorly communicated thoughts.

If you look beneath the surface of the author’s claims, he dances around some important and valid points concerning motivation, the creative thought process and managing teams.

I think the author erred in two simple ways:

1. He singled out and stereotyped “creatives” as some knowable “other” (read more: “Hellish Other People” by Cennydd Bowles).
2. He not only uses a demeaning voice in his post, he promotes demeaning management tactics.

Rather than harp on miscommunication, I’d like to divert attention to somebody who I’d say tells a similar story in a less confrontational way.

Dan Pink: The Puzzle of Motivation

If you line up the HBR post and Pink’s TED talk side-by-side, they actually touch on many of the same points. But Pink does two things differently:

1. He doesn’t single out people, he singles out types of tasks.
2. He doesn’t tell the audience how to interpret or employ the research, he simply makes a case and lets his audience apply the research to their team.

Please share other positive articles and videos relating to motivation, management and creativity in the comments below.

For a company like Stocktwits, a social media platform dedicated exclusively to investment communication, this could present interesting new opportunities in audience engagement. And as a web development agency, the way we help companies strategize conversations online just got a little bit more exciting.

For full details, view the full SEC announcement here.

Sometimes it’s a curator (or aggregator) vs. influencer discussion. Curators have tons of influence because they can take an idea and bring it to a wide audience, but they’re often not the authors of the idea. In fact, the authors of great ideas are often far too wrapped up in — wait for it — authoring great ideas to make a consistent effort in building “influence.” These authors, however, are often the folks we want to engage, listen to and share with.

Enter Little Bird.

Little Bird – “Like a robot librarian”

The Little Bird Website makes their purpose clear: “Use Little Bird to engage experts that other experts trust.”

It’s clear CEO Marshall Kirkpatrick (previously from ReadWriteWeb) gets story telling. All it takes is two sentences and a 70-second video on the homepage to make a compelling argument for the product. (I actually converted prior to watching the video).

First Look – Sample Reports

Little Bird gives a generic test account to people who signup for the beta, which is a brilliant way to avoid drop-off (whatever happened to unroll.me? I digress). You can sign up yourself to get the test account .

The test account is seeded with some sample reports, including one on data visualization which we’re keenly aware of since the ZingChart JavaScript charting library came out of our product development team. Here are a couple snapshots of what’s currently available:

The individuals that popped up in the dataviz report include many of the people our team has interacted with over the past couple of years (our product @ZingChart is also listed – w00t). As Marshall’s intro video states, it takes a long time to find the individuals and conversations relevant to any industry or business niche. Little Bird has seemed to bring all of these individuals into one place with its approach to influencer discovery. I’m excited to see what’s to come.

Robot Librarians, FTW.

  Supports many different social networks so you can see most of your content by logging into one website

  Provides feed views to see what is coming in from all your accounts across networks

  Allows you to respond to posts from within the app

  Offers a post scheduling tool so you can handle the bulk of your posting for the week in a single block of time

  Generates reports based on your activity so you can see what is most effective

An informal interview of PINT staff in our Pacific Beach office reveals that those who utilize social media management tools are most likely to use Tweetdeck. So let’s start by seeing what it’s best used for:

1. Tweetdeck

    
Overview: Tweetdeck’s interface has customizable columns that let you view updates, direct messages, and comments from Facebook and Twitter all on one screen. You can also compose and schedule messages for these platforms within the application.
Limitations: Tweetdeck recently reduced the number of platforms it works with, and now only supports Facebook and Twitter. It does not provide analytics data.
A good choice for: Tweet-aholics. Personal users.
Cost: Free.
Website: http://tweetdeck.com/

2. Hootsuite/Seesmic

        
Overview: This product seems to cover all the bases. Hootsuite works with eight social networks and has apps for adding content from dozens of other platforms, including international ones. It brings together analytics from five major platforms and lets you export the data to use how you please. Collaboration tools allow teams to work together on social efforts in a few different ways, too.
Limitations: The free version is limited to five social profiles and does not support teamwork.
A good choice for: The free version will work for individuals and small businesses with a limited number of accounts and contributors. The paid version is better for larger organizations with many dedicated staff and more social decisions to make.
Cost: Free for a single user with up to five social profiles, Pro version required for up to five users, Enterprise version required for Google+ analytics and organization management.
Website: http://hootsuite.com/

3. BufferApp

      
Overview: BufferApp’s main focus seems to be on sharing content. It has an appealing UI where you can see the posts you have buffered and ready to go. The “Buffer It” browser add-on helps for gathering content, which is posted on a pre-set schedule. If you use an app like SocialBro to determine prime tweeting time for your audience, this makes for little work with optimum results.
Limitations: BufferApp’s supported platforms are limited to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The free version has scheduling limitations and limits you to a single social profile.
A good choice for: Content curators, individuals, and small business owners.
Cost: Free for one social profile and one posting schedule, “Awesome Plan” required for up to 12 profiles and two managers.
Website: http://bufferapp.com/

4. Crowdbooster

    
Overview: Crowdbooster brings a different visualization of your social data to the table. The overview screen has bubbles for posts, which are colored and sized differently based on impressions and replies. Crowdbooster provides in-depth details on each message you post. It also collects your social data and makes recommendations on the best times to post based on your audience, as well as which followers are helping to spread the word.
Limitations: It only tracks Facebook and Twitter, and does not show you a feed of incoming posts for your accounts.
A good choice for: Small businesses and larger organizations interested in identifying patterns in their social posts.
Cost: Free for one Twitter account and one Facebook page. Upgrades for more accounts and support start at $39 per month.
Website: http://crowdbooster.com/

5. Sprout Social

        
Overview: Sprout Social has infographic-like visuals on the dashboard, content development tools, and scheduling analysis. They have an impressive list of corporate clients. It works with RSS readers and bookmarklets to help generate content.
Limitations: Sprout Social is one of the more expensive options for users with only one or two accounts to manage. It also requires that you have a Twitter account to get started.
A good choice for: Organizations with a LOT of followers, online marketers who know their KPI’s, social media managers who need to create reports.
Cost: Free 30-day trial, plans start at $39 per month.
Website: http://sproutsocial.com/

6. True Social Metrics

  
Overview: True Social Metrics has a plain interface, but it is quick to set up, and tracks data across eight platforms, including your blog. It also integrates Google Analytics conversions.
Limitations: True Social Metrics is mostly an analysis tool. But it would work well in conjunction with another app that provides scheduling and feed view features.
A good choice for: Individuals and small businesses who just want the numbers.
Cost: Free.
Website: http://truesocialmetrics.com

Other Social Media Management Considerations

Trying out different social media management tools is probably the best way to find the best choice for your organization. But in order to save some time linking your social credentials to every app under the sun, consider how an app might serve your organization’s needs. Factors that may narrow down your field of apps include:

• How many staff people will be working on social? You may only want to look into apps that support teamwork or multiple sets of profiles.
• Do you plan to join more social networks in the future? Getting settled into an app that only supports Facebook and Twitter may be a waste of time.
• Have you established specific social goals? Some apps may make tracking progress on specific goals easier than others.
• Are you using Customer Relationship Management or other business software? Some CRMs support plugins for social media management apps. For example, Salesforce has its own social tools, and also works with Sprout Social. And some email marketing services provide various social management add-ons, as well.

What the Experts Say

According to Marketing Strategist Olivier Blanchard, social media is most effective when managed closely by the business. That means social media management tools can be a good way to keep some activities in-house, rather than managed by an outside agency or consultant.

Social Networking Guru Clara Shih also recommends social media management tools. In particular, she uses them for monitoring and listening to customers online, in order to improve customer service.

You’ve Got Choices

If you really want to dive into social media management apps, there are plenty more than what we’ve reviewed here. The PINT team must be really focused on tweeting, because when we asked about which apps they use, they mentioned Flipboard, Plugg.io, and Socialbro in addition to Tweetdeck and the standard Twitter app. These offer some unique features specifically for Twitter, including follower suggestions, follower demographics, and custom content feeds.

Despite the many advantages to using a social media management app, it is important to follow some important warnings and never leave your social on auto-pilot. There have been some recent unfortunate examples of mismanagement of social accounts, which we would all like to avoid.

Add To Our List

Is your social media management tool of choice not on this list? Prefer logging in and doing things the old-fashioned way? Share your preferences with us.

User Accommodation

In designing a system or product, we want to make sure we’re creating a comfortable experience for the user. With the rapid release of new technologies and form factors around us today, people have arguably less time to become accustomed to each new thing. As Frank Skiller says in his paper on Emotions as a Cognitive Artifact and the Design Implications for Products that are Perceived as Pleasurable, “Users do not want to have to relearn the system”.

The human mind tends to gravitate towards familiarity, and so it is important in designing to give users a sense of control in the devices they use everyday. This is where the aforementioned heuristics, best practices and techniques come into play. They have proven over time to help the user navigate through and interact with systems. This method in user experience is a necessary one and should serve as the baseline to any design. But I believe that if we design solely with user accommodation in mind, it’s not enough. Which brings me to the next topic.

User Pleasure

Cognitive studies over time have revealed how emotions play a big role in judging and determining the quality and value of a product or system: “Emotions govern the quality of interaction with a product in the user’s environment and relate directly to appraisal of the user experience.” [Skiller, 2007]. Don Norman in his 2003 TED Talk discusses how much the sub-conscious mind gravitates towards “pleasing things”. It goes all the way back to how our distant primate relatives are attracted to bright colors and interesting shapes – such as fruits – it’s programmed in us as a form of survival.

Apple, for instance, has played a huge role in revolutionizing design and user pleasure, from the minimalistic aesthetic of the home button on the iPhone to the minute details such as watching a app whoosh away as you switch to another app. This kind of meticulous crafting of an attractive interface is what keeps people coming back – it’s a pleasure to use.

But it all comes back to balancing the two: user accommodation and user pleasure. At PINT, we have a saying:

“Don’t design just for design’s sake.”

Creating lots of cool effects or having a zingy design will have a limited affect without an underlying purpose. User experience really can’t just be just about one or the other. We need to create things that empower the user, and make it enjoyable to use in the process.

References:

Spillers, F. Emotion as a Cognitive Artifact and the Design Implications for Products that are Perceived as Pleasurable, Design and Pleasure, 2004

Don Norman. “3 ways good design makes you happy.” TED Talks, 2009. Feb 2003

A Little Background

Have you ever submitted a form only to find out after the fact that: a) you missed a required field, and b) the form has now erased some of the data you did actually include? Imagine that experience in “real life.”

Form validation is nothing new. Our CEO Thomas Powell wrote about it years ago. It really addresses a basic principle of “helping people not make mistakes.” As he put it:

“One of the easiest ways to do this is to check the contents of the forms before the user submits them. This is called form validation and can be performed both using a client-side technology like JavaScript or a server-side technology. While a server-side technology may not rely on any particular browser capability, designers should add client-side validation to pages, since they will appear more responsive to a user and avoid the round-trip time to the server and back.”

It no longer takes an early adopter to be influenced by form validation on a daily basis. Anybody who shops, banks, job hunts, or pays taxes online is likely exposed to both fantastic and disastrous forms, and those forms impact more than our ability to complete a task. They impact our view of the company who built them and indirectly either saved or wasted a whole bunch of our time.

Below I’ve shared a couple examples to illustrate who I think is setting a great example of form design and validation. [Note: we have no relationship to these companies.]

Who’s Doing it Right?

Great web experiences should feel like any other great customer service experience. The experience doesn’t have to be fancy, just fast, easy and pleasant. Some companies even take it a step further and end up creating experiences worth sharing.

Hubspot

I’ve witnessed Hubspot continually test and evolve their landing pages over time, and it shows on their latest pages.  If you take a moment to fill out the form you’ll notice a subtle and pleasant change in field state. Blue lets you know that the field is in process or OK. Red means incomplete, as you can see in the images below:

Fields in process “glow” in blue.

Fields with errors (or incomplete) glow red

Mint.com

Mint.com is another site that has continually evolved and iterated to end up with strong form validation. Their current sign-up process as shown below is simple visually, but very informative and smart in execution.

Mint validates fields as they are filled out and provides additional information/help during the process.

 Tumblr

Tumblr takes form validation a step further. Beyond simply validating (their form box shakes itself “no” if you make a mistake and throws an error box indicating why), Tumblr inserts some playful interactions into its sign-up process. See for yourself below or at https://www.tumblr.com/register:

In-field instructions change once the user starts typing.

The site makes filling out its form fun by adding “years old” to your age… but only if you’re below 30 (read on)..

For the over 30 crowd, tumblr changes “years old’ to “years young.”

The Tumblr example shows what can be done to inject your brand’s attitude into something as basic as a sign-up form. The playfulness works for Tumblr but there are surely other similar ideas that can go above and beyond validation to create a great experience, like adding extra security measures for financial-based forms or auto-filling information that individuals have entered in other stages of the process.

Open Floor

This post is not intended to preach a specific method or style of form design and validation. Instead, it intends to start a discussion centered around user-centric form design and happy users. Because after all, forms are only a necessary means to a desired end: a purchase, a sign-up, a sales inquiry or otherwise. And we all want more ends.

Have you experienced great form design out in the wild? Do share!

Before you go reaching for the “redesign” button, it’s important to take inventory of what issues you are facing and what is in need of improvement. Is your site slow? Not converting well? Not getting found in search engines?

We’ve put together a list of tasks, tests, and tools to help you assess and evaluate your web presence and plan for 2013.

Checking Your Web-Vitals

Quick, How Fast Does Your Site Load?

The time it takes foryour site to load is important. We all know that. But when was the last time you actually checked your load times and benchmarked your site? Some great tools for testing your site’s speed include GTmetrix, Pingdom, and webpagetest.org. Most of these tools provide feedback on your site’s performance and how to improve it.

Dust off Webmaster Tools

Remember Google Webmaster Tools? You know, that thing you used to submit your sitemap? With the number of advanced analytics tools out there it’s easy to forget about the simpler ones. If you haven’t taken the time to get into Webmaster Tools and take a look around recently, now would be a good time. Give your site a health check up and check errors, search queries, and the last time you submitted a sitemap.

Don’t Blow a Fuse with too Many Plugins

Plugins, whether of the jQuery or social variety, are popular around the web for their ease of use. The price to pay for taking the quick-and-easy road is that these plugins can slow down page load time. We recommend running through all the plugins your site uses and eliminating ones you don’t use or need. The performance tools above can help point out trouble areas.

Inventory Site Technologies

Sites can be worked on by a variety of people over an extended period of time. Sometimes the technologies used on a site aren’t always accounted for; this would be a good time to account for them. Not only is it a generally good thing to know, it’s helpful in case anything breaks, or to note that it’s time to upgrade technologies. Check the W3C site to see if your website uses current standards and technologies – don’t get stuck in the web Stone Age. Additionally, if parts of your site were originally written in PHP, but your company moved to JavaScript for new sections of the site, streamline it by translating everything into the same language.

Legal Affairs

Laws pertaining to the web are in constant flux and many come into effect early in the year. Make sure you’re aware of any new laws that may affect your site or business (such as new social media laws) and respond accordingly. Also, make sure to update your site’s copyright note in the footer.

QA Your Site (on a mobile device)

Over the past few years, the percentage share of mobile traffic visiting sites has increased worldwide from 3.81% in 2010 to 10.01% in 2012. This means sites are becoming more visible on mobile devices and, with mobile environments changing (there are versions of mobile Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer to consider now), there is a greater chance of issues arising. This would be a good time to test to make sure your site works the way it should on mobile devices, including all three major environments (iOS, Windows, and Android) and popular mobile browsers.

Schedule monthly calendar invite to check vitals (SEO, etc.)

Much like your physical vitals, you should check your web vitals on a regular basis. Scheduling a monthly check-in session can help you set aside a dedicated and recurring time to do so. Some things you should check up on are: your SERP rankings, analytics, ad spending and performance, conversion performance, and any other performance indicators you monitor.

Perform Security Check

Make sure you start 2013 off securely. For accounts linked to sensitive data, ensure you have strong passwords and change any weak passwords (if your password is “password” you should know right now: you have a problem). Systems containing sensitive data should also receive a penetration test from a certified tester.

Work Towards Data-Driven Engagement and Decisions

Don’t let ‘business as usual’ bring down your business

Goals are good, but metrics are better

With a full new year in front of you, now is a good time to map out some of the goals you’d like to achieve this year. Do you want to increase conversions (downloads, sales, inquiries)? Become more visible in search results? Increase customer satisfaction? Promote repeat visits and customers? Sometimes goals can be centered around gaining a better understanding of what is and isn’t working for your users and visitors.

Once your goals are set, it’s important to identify the key metrics that will help you quantify results and continually evolve. Just like offline Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), online metrics should be unique to your company, industry and website. Save time by designing and implementing your analytics to answer questions rather than waiting and trying to pull insights out of your analytics dashboard.

Run A/B tests

If your site isn’t meeting your conversion goals try A/B testing different elements. The beauty of A/B tetsing is that you don’t need to be right, you just need to have a theory and a tool to experiment based on that theory. Try some different call to actions, copy, and image options – or some other recommendations.

Set up custom analytics events

If you know the important actions you want users to take on your site, but don’t know when they’re taking them then you should set up custom analytic events. Google Analytics events can track things like clicking on a particular call to action, clicking on a particular product, or viewing a video.

Reload the toolbelt

We all use some set of tools in our day-to-day operations. If there are tools (SEO, social presence tools, etc.) that your organization uses that aren’t getting the job done (or aren’t being utilized enough to justify value), look for an alternative. Chances are that there have been changes in the competitors since you initially began using your tool of choice. For example, if you use HootSuite and aren’t pleased, try TweetDeck or search for an alternative that better suits your team’s needs.

Map out your online presence

The number of networks many of us participate in has grown exponentially in recent years. This has lead to a tangled mess of connectivity where there is sometimes a lack of direction or strategy, duplication of efforts, or unattended accounts. Mapping out your online presence can help clarify what networks you’re on and how they can mesh together for a stronger online presence. Determine what kinds of content you are distributing where, what accounts are linking together (do Facebook posts feed to Twitter?), and – really – which accounts are most important to use. It’s not about being everywhere; it’s about being where you bring a level of engagement and value to your target audiences.

Build a Content Strategy

Before you start developing content or writing your blog, come up with a strategy in line with your goals. It’s a good idea to build out an editorial calendar and map out when you’re going to publish what kinds of content. Establish the types of content you’ll publish and topics. Make sure to focus on subjects both inside and outside of your company, and provide information that will be helpful to your customers.

Develop an influencer list

You likely know some of the key people in your industry, but do you have a comprehensive go-to list you keep? If not, start building one. Find bloggers, authors, popular Tweeters, and organizations and compile their names, roles, companies, contact info, and social media accounts into a spreadsheet. (Read on: 5 Steps to Bootstrapping your PR efforts | SEOmoz)

Competitor Review

Your number one competitor just released an upgrade to their product that blows yours out of the water. If the previous sentence startled you in the slightest, it may be time to go check on the rivals.

Systems, Services, and Infrastructure

Unlock efficiencies behind the scenes

Consider Cloud Hosting

Moving from traditional local hosting solutions to cloud-based hosting offers some great potential benefits for your organization. Cloud hosting is more flexible, can scale better, and can be more reliable, which can lead to an overall reduction in hosting spend. Popular cloud hosting options to consider are Amazon, Rackspace, and Azure.

Move Mail to the Cloud

If you’re using local Exchange for your organization’s email service there may be some cloud options you want to consider. Email with Microsoft offers Office 365 will be familiar to Exchange users and provide a fairly linear transition. Google Apps for Business is another option that may be familiar from personal use. Google apps provide great collaborative document editors and a way to migrate from Exchange. IBM has also gotten into the cloud business-solutions game with its IBM Smart Cloud, which includes mail, a web meeting platform, and document editors.

Operations and DevOps

Development operations services are growing in popularity and there may be some that perfectly fit your organization’s needs. Monitoring services like New Relic that monitor your systems and site and alerts you when something breaks or slows down can be useful for high traffic commerce sites and apps. Outsourcing your DNS may be another consideration if you’re currently self-hosting and you have a web-property that requires 100% uptime. Bugtracking tools like FogBugz and Jira, version control tools like GitHub and Bitbucket, as well as project management tools like Basecamp and Trello are worth testing if your organization is looking for such tools.

Are your acronyms working together?

Customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) and content management systems (CMS) are critical pieces to your web infrastructure – and expensive, too. Most organizations have long-standing systems in place, but it helps to evaluate the cost-benefit periodically, and to understand what other options exist. Often times we realize that we’re overpaying for a tool our teams under utilize.

Alternate Analytics Platforms

While Google Analytics is hugely popular (and free), there are other analytics options worth considering, most of which go beyond Google’s reach. If you’re interested in uncovering something specific about how your site is used, there is likely an analytics platform that is suited just for your use case. Mixpanel is an event-based analytics platform that tracks specific events and ties them to a user. ClickTale records user activity on your site so you watch a video recording of site usage.

From 40,000 Feet

Continually evolving your web presence doesn’t mean making arbitrary changes based on a hunch. It involves information gathering, testing, and iterating so that – rather than re-building a site every two years – there is ongoing and measurable growth and improvement.

Take the opportunity to step back and look around at your website, systems and processes. Are there any immediately apparent holes or pain points? If not, digging deeper with the tips and tools above should help identify areas for growth and evolution.

Every Wednesday, three PINT team members take the lead on researching an interesting web or technology-related topic. They then organize a short 30-minute snack break for a casual presentation and discussion with the larger group.

This week Dave (Production), Bryant (Account Services), and Danielle (Project Management) gave a stimulating (and at some points painful!) presentation highlighting some of the biggest social media blunders made by big brands. The topic initiated discussion on how other companies can avoid similar missteps, or how they can rebound from a mistake in the event one occurs.

The presentation divides these Social Media failures into 4 categories:

Bad Timing and Social Media Etiquette

Brands that have used catastrophic events, such as natural disasters and extremely violent events, as a means to launch an advertising campaign. (ex.  Gap, American Apparel, NRA)

Personal Tweeting on Public Accounts

Brands that have sent out damaging tweets to their collective of followers that was meant for a personal account. (ex. Red Cross, Microsoft, StubHub)

Hashtag Etiquette

Brands that have offended or angered a consumer base, due to inappropriate, and often insensitive, use of hashtags and trending topics, usually as a result of a lack of research or knowledge on the trending topic (ex. Entenmanns, Progressive, Ashton Kutcher)

Customer-led Branding Campaigns

Social Media campaigns started positively by Brands, but led awry by customers.   (ex. McDonalds #McDStories Tag, Starbucks #SpreadTheCheer Campaign)

View the Presentation

Check out the presentation below for an in-depth look at some of the biggest social media failures made by big companies and how they handled them:

Social media faux pas from PINT, Inc.

How would you handle these situations if it was your brand and what can be done to help avoid these similar situations in the future?

Further Reading

Scott Stratten considers many of these blunders “hiring issues.” Rather than trying to control and enforce strict social media policies, he calls for focusing more energy on hiring people who embody your values. Watch one of his talks below (if you don’t have a full hour to spare, some great & relevant social media tips come in around 38:00)

This product just delivered one of the best purchase and “unboxing” experiences I’ve seen in a long time. No, not the iPhone5. A wrist strap.

The Little Things That Get You Noticed

A week or two ago our Creative Director Rob sent me a link to this iPhone wrist strap on photojojo.com. He knew I’d get a kick out of the “add to cart” interactivity and some of the other interaction on the site. It doesn’t take long to realize how much attention Photojojo gives to the little details. Browsing the site is actually a fun experience, not just a means to an end.

Here’s a quick video to highlight just a few of the fun interactions on the site (no audio):

Delivering a Consistent Brand Experience

Rob ordered the strap to be able to secure his phone during upcoming travels. What came in the mail was not just a phone strap. It was an experience, delivered from none other than “Photojojo <3s You” somewhere in South Dakota. It also echoed and maybe even one-upped the online experience to drive home the Photojojo personality. Check out some of the touches that make this experience unique:

Return address from “Photojojo <3s You!”

They included a toy dinosaur. They also added it to the invoice as “RAWRR!”

It’s “Just a Phone Strap!”

A phone strap. You can probably buy the same thing plenty of places online and off. The Photojojo strap may be a little bit better, or not quite as good as other products on the market, but trying to compete in the phone accessory market by being “better” is surely an uphill battle. That’s why Photojojo isn’t selling phone straps. They’re selling “The most marvelous stupendous outrageous fantabulous prodigious tremendous photography curiosities on earth.”

That’s why this blog post isn’t about selling products or services. It’s about selling experiences.

What experiences are you selling?