Socially Challenged

5 Tips For An Amazing Trade Show Video

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 10:00:00 +0000

Humans are internally wired to notice movement. In fact, vision is the most sophisticated of the human senses with 65% of us being visual learners. This is a compelling reason to use video at your next trade show to broadcast your message and grab the attention of potential buyers.

Because the trade show video is developed to cut through the clutter, it’s different from videos that are produced for corporate presentations or commercials. It calls for the creation of a concise message that’s delivered quickly while capturing the crowd’s attention and curiosity. Thinking about using a video for your next trade show? Here are five tips.

1. Be visually engaging. A well-designed trade show video has only seconds to grab the attention of passers-by. So make it heard against the noise of the crowd and the PA system, make it interesting enough to engage the prospect’s attention, and long enough to deliver your message.

2. Keep it simple. Use just music and visuals. That trade show din is why you don’t want a narrative. You just want music with lively graphics integrated into relevant content and text on-screen. This is not the place for how-to detail, which is best on a tablet with a salesperson. This is the place for a high-level introduction to your company’s solution.

3. Keep it short and snappy; repeat. Nobody is going to spend five minutes watching your video while standing in a crowd. So keep it short; one to two minutes’ tops. Also, remember that your audience doesn’t all arrive at the same start time, so the video should loop.

4. Make it viewable from a distance. Your monitors should be mounted above head height in your booth so that people standing in front don’t block the view for others. A winning scenario is a video on several monitors, attracting viewers into the booth, where your sales team can intercept them.

5. Use and reuse it. Maximize your investment of time and money to capture as many leads as possible by using your video before, during, and after the event.

Before the show, provide a link to it in your email invitations. Publish the show information on a landing page where customers can sign up for special offers or schedule a meeting with your sales team. Drive to this page from every one of your social channels like your LinkedIn company page, and pages on your website, for example. Obviously, your landing page should include your company name, the show’s name, and booth number which all helps with online search (SEO).
At the booth, the video is the draw. It intrigues your audience from a distance and up close delivers your company's main message. It's a conversation starter for your salespeople who can give your visitors a USB Memory Stick that includes the video with a complimentary white paper or special offer.
After the event, leave a smart impression. Create an email for your customers (versioned for those who attended and who didn’t), with links to the video on your company’s site. For prospects that missed your booth, you may want to send a letter or email that incorporates a message from a selected salesperson along with a special offer.

Video delivers information in a fascinating, eye-catching, and understandable form. At a trade show, a professional video can intrigue and prime your audience to discover more about your company and product. The effectiveness of video is determined by how it’s planned and used. When strategically designed and deployed, video can be an effective method to engage your prospects, drive sales and help ensure that you get the most return out of your trade show investment.

For some more tips check out this great article from Michael Brenner, Hey Event Organizers: Here are 30 Tips To Rock Your Next Event!

John Lennon's Lost Molar

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 15:13:00 +0000

A dentist bought a molar for over $30,000 at an auction in 2011. What’s so special about this particular molar is that it belonged to John Lennon and the dentist, Michael Zuk, has big plans for this bit of discolored ivory. He plans to extract DNA from the tooth. His objective is to clone the legendary musician, as reported in the Guardian.

The story behind this famous molar unfolds like a Gary Larson Far Side cartoon, when in the mid 1960’s, John Lennon reportedly gave the extracted tooth to his housekeeper. She in turn, gifted it to her daughter, a big Beatles’ fan. It stayed in the family until November 2011 when it was sold at auction.

At the time of the auction, the tooth was reportedly too fragile to be DNA tested to confirm that it actually belonged to Lennon. But as reported by Rolling Stone, the owner of the Omega Auction House which listed the item, verified that because it was coming from Dot Jarlett, Lennon’s housekeeper, there was no doubt about its authenticity. British housekeepers are evidently legendary for their honesty as well as making great crumpets.

This isn't the first time the dental industry has imposed itself on the affairs of the late Beatle. Paste Magazine reports, that it was George Harrison’s dentist who, perhaps like Quinn the Eskimo, first introduced the two Beatles, and their wives, to LSD when he added the drug into their coffee cups during a dinner party (Strawberry Fields Forever).

From Lennon’s Tooth to a Lennon

As far as the cloning is concerned, the question is, can it be done? The answer is yes. The procedure was first illustrated by a Brit, John Gurdon using frogs; just about the time the Beatles began their career. Later, in the 1990s, Ian Wilmut of Edinburgh used a similar technique to clone a sheep. So cloning technology is available and standardized. The clone of Lennon, produced today, would be genetically the same Beatle, John Lennon. Still the process is like walking on thin ice.

Setting aside the ethical controversy related to human cloning, there are some additional obstacles. First is the fact that John Lennon was more than a product of his parents. His experience, education, environment – these all influenced the development of his character, his talents and the legacy he left us.

Second, there are the tricky tasks in preparing for the actual cloning procedure, like harvesting DNA from the tooth, converting tissue cells into stem cells and then transforming those cells into a re-born Lennon.

In light of all of this you’d think the molar owner and dentist, Michael Zuk, would be dissuaded. But he remains fixed on his goal, saying that he hopes to “fully sequence” Lennon’s DNA. He’s seeking headlines by putting out a press release and launching a website revealing that this ambitious dream might just be one of the “best decisions of my (his) life.”

Making a Good Decision

Are you looking to make a good decision about marketing your business? Give me a call and let's discuss your current efforts and look for additional ways for you to break through the clutter and get noticed by the consumers you want. Contact me today (marion.guthrie@gmail.com).

This blog was originally written by me and published on AFPD Insurance for Professionals' site.

I checked for updates on the status of this cloning endeavor on 11/29/2016, but the most recent is simply a recap of this information by the Washington Times.

Lost Your Keys? 3-D Printing to the Rescue!

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 13:16:00 +0000

For those folks who habitually lose their keys, an insurance company and an advertising agency, both based in Belgium, have partnered to rollout a new service called Key Save. The brain child of DVV Insurance and its agency Happiness Brussels, Key Save makes good use of specially adapted 3D scanning procedures to capture your key’s image and store it for downloading when your key-loss-disaster strikes.

Like any good preventative measure, pre-planning or should we say, pre-scanning, is involved. Once you’ve signed up for the program, they give you of a date and place where you come with keys in hand. At the session, every pre-registered individual is provided with a certain number of scans.

The scans are stored in digital form (.stl) in a cloud-based “super secure server, where cyber ninja’s will protect them from any possible kind of theft”, according to the FAQ’s on the Keysave web site. Once the scan is stored, you can download it from your pc or mobile device using your special user name and password.

Key Save will roll out in September. Of course there are alternatives like keeping an extra set of keys at your Mom’s or hiding them in your garage in the tool box, but 3-D printing is such a cool method of being prepared.

keysave.be / Your keys are always here. from stuffcore on Vimeo.

Source: Advertising Age, Creativity-Online.com,

Marketing is Like Cooking?

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Fri, 31 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

In a cabin by a forest, cooking with quail eggs got me to thinking....

How is marketing like cooking? Well, are you preparing coq au vin or hot dogs? It depends, doesn't it, on who you're feeding and what's the occasion. Then sometimes you want to try something new, and other times you combine new elements with traditional ones. Regardless there's a lot of careful determination of past successes, evaluation of viable methods and ingredients, weighing of your audience's preferences, and the actual preparation which includes dicing and simmering (analytics with creative).

As often as you're hungry, you'll be conjuring a meal so you'll be cooking (or choosing a resource for the production of your next meal, a gourmet restaurant perhaps?) at least daily. This planning takes an enthusiastic attitude, which gets you through the tedious parts, like scrubbing data and waiting for results to boil while it drives inspired strategy. Of course, planning also involves research, evaluation, product selection, project timing, goal setting and schedules, especially if there are other cooks in the kitchen.

Don't forget, at the end to look around the table at your audience, examine their reactions and answer this; "Would you do it again and what would you do differently?" All these factors play into the execution of a memorable and actionable result. Marketing and cooking, done right, both are planned carefully, done daily and filled with measurement, artistry, and passion.

Viral Bait: Infographics

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Fri, 17 May 2013 05:00:00 +0000

Infographics are everywhere. You find them on blogs, websites, press releases, social networks, even the weather report. These colorfully illustrated charts break down data into simple pictures and turn complex information into easy-to-understand symbols. By making the difficult digestible (and sometimes fun), infographics catch the attention of your audience. Just as importantly, Google loves them and will reward their delivery with top search rankings.

Their story starts in late February 2011, when Google made a strategic change to their search algorithm in an attempt to stop the use of content farms from manipulating search results. The purpose of the algorithm, called Panda, was to ensure better rankings for high-quality websites that delivered original content, like in-depth research and data reporting. From this evolved the need for websites to improve content in order to deliver higher search rankings and the infographic was born.

Adding to the infographic’s growing popularity, the following year, in April 2012, Google’s Penguin algorithm was released. Penguin decreases the rankings of websites that buy links from link farms or directories, offer irrelevant content, or worst, employ black-hat SEO (deceptive SEO techniques like using hidden text).

How your website ranks in Google search results has a big impact on your bottom line. Smart marketers want their sites to perform well with the current Panda and Penguin search algorithms. How? Well, the saying “content is king” has never been truer. Google’s Panda algorithm must "believe" that you are adding valuable content to the web for your site to rank well. So you need to focus on creating good, unique content that viewers will want to share. One way is by using infographics.

Also something like 65% of us are visual learners and this visual attribute is the reason for their inherent viral potential. Even better than a picture, when you add an infographic to your content, especially one that contains interesting data or challenges your audience’s world view, it makes your topic more relevant and engaging, increasing the chance that your reader will share that graphic across the web.

Here are some examples from Creative Blog with a list of 60 Brilliant Infographics. Another fun example from Visual.ly provides you with a free tool on their website that takes your Twitter profile and turns it into an infographic in 30 seconds. Give it a try at http://visual.ly/twitter.

If you design and use an infographic, remember that its viral capacity may remove it from your website. This means that you’ll lose your branding. So expect that to happen and be prepared. Like a dog without a collar, you don’t want your infographic to get lost on the Internet with no one knowing it belongs to you.

Are there any infographics that you've seen recently that caught your eye? Share your thoughts in the comments. Here’s one that inspired this post. It’s from NowSourcing on The State of Infographics.

My post was originally published on Talent Zoo's Digital Pivot.

Stop Blogging, 5 Things Will Happened...

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:43:00 +0000

Outside of a few close friends and my daughters, no one has asked me why I stopped...blogging that is. But the truth is I wasn't sure that I had anything new to add until I discovered, unexpectedly, that over the past few years, I've assimilated a lot of viable information on marketing effectively in this technology enabled world.

The realization came one evening at a networking event when I was directed to be "sure to speak with the social guru" on deck. In the process of making his acquaintance, I understood not only what he was talking about but also what he was missing. In that moment I realized the value of my reading, experimentation and the IT classes I've been able to take at Penn State as well as the bonus I get from having a long, varied experience in direct (measurable) marketing.

But you didn't come here to read about my metamorphosis. You're curious about what happens when you stop blogging? Here's what I found, based on my data analytics.

Huge decrease in organic traffic from search engines
No links to RSS feed
Decreases in the number of repeat visitors
Almost no new visitors

No surprises here. With no new content, search engines and visitors have fewer reasons to visit. But, you say, I promised you 5 things and there are only 4 listed. What's up? Well, here's the fifth - I realized the benefit which is that knowledge and understanding come from reading, doing and sharing the topics that you love. Now go blog.

Updating Your Website? Think Mobile.

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Why? Because for most of us earthlings, there's just no other way to get to the Internet except via our mobile phones. In fact, "more than a third of the people in the US don't have Internet access at home, but nine out of ten have a mobile phone," Olof Schybergson writes in a recent Fortune article. And of those mobile owners, he estimates that about a third use their phones to access the Internet. If you need more proof, Hubspot sponsored (in September 2011 but hey the numbers are just bigger now) this great research collection, More than Talk: Action in Mobile Marketing.

If you're introducing a mobile strategy and thinking you can simply shrink down your desktop site, think again. Although for those of us who "grow our own" sites in Blogger and Wordpress, there are convenient adjustments that include recommendations as well as template suggestions. But the ability to view your PC Website with a mobile device with an HTML browser doesn't mean that the experience is fun or easy.

Mobithinking reminds us of some of these basics like the fact that viewing a PC Website on a mobile phone requires scrolling left and right, and up and down. That most web-enabled phones are not smartphones. Also that most mobile phones have small screens. No matter how good the mobile connection, large images will be slow to load. Many technologies, like Flash for example, commonly used on PC sites don't work well on many handsets. Yes, even Apple.

The conclusion is obvious. Mobile users have different requirements than desktop Web users and provide different opportunities for your business. Just re-sizing your web site for a target audience that's mobile first means that you're missing a chance, to offer your customers a mobile environment that is clean, simple and even intimate. Intimate, like the lady in my mobile navigation application or remember Hal in 2001: Space Odyssey?

Since it looks like the best advice is to tell you to get a reputable design agency to work with you to ensure your site and campaigns are both mobile and web friendly, I asked my friend, Skip Shuda, co-founder of Philly Marketing Labs, what he recommends. He confirmed that some clients are experiencing regular, monthly growth rates of nearly 10% in mobile traffic and suggested auditing mobile traffic as a first step.

That said, he had two key suggestions. First, your email marketing should be view-able in a mobile friendly format. In 2011, 27% of all email was read on a mobile device. Businesses need to make sure their emails can be ready and acted upon. Skip advises, "Check with your email service provider to make sure they are sending responsive email that adapts to the mobile device. Mailchimp does a great job with responsive email templates that are ready out of the box."

Second, make sure your landing pages are optimized for mobile. He said that, "Most people can fill out a form easily enough with their phones. However, if they have to scroll around to do so, the completion rate will plummet." Skip recommended Hubspot's landing page tool. "It lets you toggle between the mobile and web version of your page - so you can see both formats. That kind of tool is becoming critical to marketers."

Another trusted resource, Rick Simmons, president of Dinkum Interactive, pointed out that at the end of the day, " While many look at their site on a phone and say it looks fine, mobile requires a different experience for the user and you better be prepared to provide it. It is all about giving the users what they want when they want it and in most cases they are using the phone for different reasons than PC or a tablet.”

And Forrester's research agrees. The report entitled "The Future of Mobile Application Development" (with thanks to Mobile Marketer's, Lauren Johnson) found that marketers and developers need to have a grasp on a user's total mobile experience.

It's clear that gone are the days when talking to someone was the reason to use the phone. Emerging best practices indicate that if you want to build sales and retain customers, as you update your online dialog, you need to be including mobile in your repertoire. But take a look at your current customers first. They won't steer you wrong.

Be Mine, Zombie Teddy Bear!

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 12:10:00 +0000

As Valentine's Day approaches, an English artist, Phillip Blackman, can't make his zombie teddy bears fast enough. On a whim or perhaps after a disappointing day, he got the urge to tear out the guts of an old teddy bear and transform it into a zombie. It took him two days employing his special effects talents, but he ended up with a gore-soaked teddy holding it's bleeding heart, torn from it's own furry chest. (I know, it's sad.)

His bears, which he sells on line for between $70 and $140, have become increasingly popular. In fact CNN Money reported one being auctioned on eBay with bids reaching nearly $400. Zombie enthusiasts from across the globe are frantically requesting Blackman to make more. But he has a bit of a supply dilemma since he uses previously owned bears and wasn't really prepared for this instant success. He just can't keep up with demand.

These Zombie teddy bears are more than a cottage industry started by a smart English artist, they're another indicator of a growing consumer interest in all things Zombie, even in the toy business where earlier this month, the toy maker Mattel reported that its Monster High dolls drove sales up 57% in 2012. Zombie bears are also another good lesson in how a product becomes a brand overnight with the power of the Internet to drive consumer awareness and purchase. Nothing un-dead about that!

The Marketing Organization

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Most people believe that marketing is advertising. You take what the factory creates and sell it by screaming about it on TV or by emailing everyone. Frankly, many companies do just that. That's where they start, and that's unfortunately where they stay, right in the outer circle of this organizational chart. They guess at and implement these tactics and when their advertising doesn't work, they don't know why. But go in just one layer of this diagram and real marketing starts to happen.

This is where you realize that not everyone is a good fit for your product. You bring in researchers and strategic talent to define and find your users and followers. You start looking at your product through your customers' eyes. You and your team develop the product’s story. You examine and network into industries that would benefit from your product. You look at pricing. For example, maybe a subscription is better than a one-time purchase. You evaluate your ROI to determine which tactics result in profits and find out why. Most importantly, you take a hard look to see what the customer experience (with the product as well as the sales cycle) is all about. You understand it and you improve it.

Not surprisingly, the next layer in is about creating amazement; recognizing what your customers want before they know they want it. A great example of this type of product design in action is the intuitive features on a tablet; then, so is something as simple as a restaurant having clean silverware. Here’s where you use champions to focus on support and usability. These champions examine and measure customer relationships, and, based on data, improve the product. They create and implement collaborative sales methods that educate and engage your customers. These methods also recognize and exploit regional and culture-specific opportunities as the world becomes your marketplace.

At the center of it all is the Chief Marketing Officer. The CMO is responsible for the relationship between your customer and your product. This leader is the customer guardian and the product advocate. The CMO knows that for the product or service being sold to be remarkable, it has to have this organizational structure built in. When business practices are aligned with customer-centric research and focus, revenue opportunities are exposed and your team will change the marketing agenda.

Marketing becomes easier because it is based on facts. It is no longer a shouting match at the customer, but a dance with the prospective customer while existing customers become partners and even advocates. When you build your business from the inside out, starting with the CMO and moving out to staff implementing tactics, a significant transformation happens. Your marketing team sees your customers' expressed and unexpressed needs, and these are the opportunities that are satisfied by your product.

Inspired by a blog post by Seth Godin, The Circles of Marketing
Motivation from Jay Yarow's The Org charts Of All the Major Tech Companies (Humor)

Warm Bodies and the Rise of Zombie Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 12:48:00 +0000

The recently released film, Warm Bodies, is a romantic comedy told from the point of view of a zombie. It's a story of a unique friendship between Julie, a young woman, and "R", a zombie and we should add it to a growing list of TV Shows like The Walking Dead and celebrated movies like Dawn of the Dead and the cult classic Shaun of the Dead, that film makers have used to encourage our curiosity with Zombies. Whatever is at the root of our infatuation, by tapping into it, companies are using the undead to breath life into an existing brand.

For example, look in your local toy stores for Zombie themed products, from Legos (check out the LEGO Zombie Apocalypse page on Facebook) to dolls. The gaming sector is no exception. Resident Evil, Siren, House of the Dead and Dead Space among others have built their reputations upon some form of undead. Late last year, the US streetwear brand, Rocawear, got into the act by introducing tattooed model, Rick Genest, also know as 'Zombie Boy' as the look to star in the label's Spring/Summer 2013 campaign. His ghoulishly striking urban youth presence may challenge your personal perception of Zombies.

Then there is the story about a government agency that is a great resource on survival information during a catastrophe but no one was visiting its website. So the Center for Disease Control decided to take all of its information for surviving in a disaster and wrap it within the context of how to prepare for a zombie apocalypse. The approach helped the agency to resuscitate its message and tap their existing fans to improve their online visibility.

So Zombies are more than previously human, gory, stumbling, villager-chasing creatures; they're also part of a lucrative trend that over the past four years has generated $5.74 billion to the global economy. Check out the infographic below from Wish.co.uk to see just how much they're worth.

Courtesy of: Wish.co.uk

Americans Spend $8 Billion on Halloween!

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 00:58:00 +0000

That's right, Halloween retail shopping is expected to reach $8 billion this year. This discovery was a result of the annual survey from the National Retail Federation conducted by BIGinsight, A record 170 million people plan to celebrate, the most in NRF's 10-year survey history.

That 170 million translates into seven in 10 Americans who on average will spend $79.82 on the holiday with about a third, ($24.25 to be exact) being used to buy candy. Interestingly, on candy purchases, men will outspend ladies by an average of $4.58. Of course that doesn't mean the ladies won't be eating their share. Snickers and Reese's are the top rated candy favorites with the survey respondents exhibiting a great deal of psychological conflict over whether to actually give the candy to the treaters or eat it themselves. Can I get an "Amen!"

The survey also found that 45 percent of consumers plan to dress up. And the net average amount spent on costumes this year is up a few dollars from 2011 ($28.65 compared with $26.52). For costume inspiration, survey results revealed that while retail stores, online searches and ideas from family and friends are still king, social media sites such as Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter are gaining an edge.

Of the people celebrating Halloween, more than half (51.4%) will decorate their home or yard, up from 49.5 percent last year, More than one-third (36.2%) will throw or attend a party and 33.2 percent will take children trick-or-treating. Additionally, 15.1 percent will ensure their furry friends are part of the fun too, by dressing their pet in costume.

Pet owners are projected to get into the Halloween spirit in a big way, spending $370 million on animal costumes. That's a 19 percent increase from 2011. The top pet picks include a pumpkin, a devil and a hot dog. Even Martha Stewart is getting in on the action.

Despite record spending figures for this year’s Halloween holiday, one-fourth of U.S. consumers (25.9%) say the state of the economy will impact their Halloween plans. To compensate, most say they will spend less overall (83.5%), while others will make a costume instead of buying one (18.0%), and over one-third (36.1%) will buy less candy. Good luck with that.

Ever wondered how we got started with this holiday in the first place. Here's a fun and quick animated explanation.

Accidental Heroes

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 02:28:00 +0000

When it happens you're in a conversation with friends, or attending a seminar, or reading a random article. You're unexpectedly introduced to someone whose perspective changes yours. At that moment you know you won't be able to see the world in the same way again. I call these people Accidental Heroes or AH. Frankly AHA would be a better acronym since that's what you say when this hero brings you to an enlightened view point. You know, the natural reaction is to say "a ha!". You’ll see what I mean once I share a couple of personal examples.

On my top ten list is Wilbur Schramm. Often called the "father of communication studies," he continues to have a great influence on the development of communication research. His famous model of "shared fields of experience" rocked my grad student world because in examining human interaction he diagrammed what happens when two people are talking to each other.

I've recreated it here and it may not look world transforming to you, but for me it was confirmation that the important action I can take in understanding another person is to find where there are common experiences and build the dialog on those "shared experiences".

In fact, social networking services like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+, are based on this principal that shared experiences are necessary for understanding. (Where to you think the idea for those circles originated?) This is why it is so much easier to talk to a friend than with a stranger. Your common experiences make it possible to comprehend each other. The dialog with a stranger is more of an adventure as it starts with speaking the same language and then evolves as you discover you have similar interests, skills, or friends.

Another of my accidental heroes is Hugh MacLeod. He is a cartoonist, who succinctly reveals our true nature in an Occum's Razor kind of way. His value to me is his daily work, where he offers up insights into human behavior and the psychology of marketing like this one for example (used with permission -gapingvoid.com).

Good stuff, sometimes funny but always forcing me to take a look beyond my normal parameters. In both AH examples, Hugh and Wilbur, their discoveries become part of my journey as I strive to solve my favorite riddle, the buying behavior puzzle.

Last thought is that you just never know where or when new folks with new ideas will surface. You need to keep your eyes open, read things you don't agree with and look in places that challenge your comfort zone. Your Accidental Heroes are waiting, do me a favor and let them in,

https://youtu.be/zEGJLXxkds4.

So You’re Looking for Investors: The Why and How of AngelList

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 13:50:00 +0000

According to credible sources like Forbes, Mashable and TechCrunch, if you’re an entrepreneur or if you’re an angel investor and you haven’t heard of AngelList, it’s time to get a clue. It seems that AngelList has single handedly dragged the back-room world of venture capital screaming into the light since its 2010 launch.

At first, people wanted to dismiss the potential, saying that only loser companies would want to share data and broadcast fundraising plans so publicly. Then, some Venture Capitalists said they’d never invest in an opportunity that didn’t come through traditional channels. Other VCs swore they’d have exploratory dialogs privately or not at all. They’d never do something as prosaic as leaving comments on a company’s profile.

But AngelList trounced those objections and found traction in 2011, with 500 start-ups and 2,500 investors who joined the community, resulting in a total of 12,500 introductions and subsequent fundings. Trounced and then did the Happy Dance!

In fact, AngelList has proven to be a remarkably effective way for investors to connect with entrepreneurs. The hybrid social-network platform offers a greater degree of visibility to start-ups that might not otherwise have access to investors, and, on the flip side, has become an important resource for investors looking to boost deal flow and as well as connect with other investors.

After an afternoon of limiting my research to information published this year in order to stay current with upgrades to the platform, the definitive guide is Brendan Baker’s "How to Hustle with AngelList," updated this past April, 2012. This is a great article since in addition to the basics, it covers how to make it on to AngelList, how to set up profiles, and some proven tactics. If you have time to read only one article on AngelList, this is the one.

Two other essential articles are Raising Money On AngelList: 21 Tips From Two Active Angels by Dharmesh Shah of Hubspot creator fame and an article by a prolific angel investor, Joshua Bauer, co-founder of Otherinbox, entitled 9 Tips for Raising Startup Funds on AngelList.

This brings us to my laundry list of articles on different aspects of AngelList.

If you’re wondering which influential angel investors to target here’s a Forbes Article from May of this year on The Most Influential Angel Investors On AngelList

Does your pitch deck measure up? There is an explanation and links to winning a pitch deck in this article: “AngelList Takes A Shot At Standardizing The Startup Pitch Deck”

AngelList is unique because it attempts to level the playing field for start-ups. How to use AngelList to Raise Money has the start-up perspective.

Raise your spirits with a success story. It’s not every day that you get 200 emails in one hour offering you money: “Take That Crowdfunding Cynics! Rally Raises Largest AngelList Deal Ever”

Want to know more about the vetting process for AngelList? Check out the video in this article, AngelList Heats up as Angel Investing Sizzles (note date is February 2011)

Ongoing good advice for start-ups on these sites on OnStartups, Venture Hacks, AVC, Ask the VC, Both Sides of the Table

What I took away from doing this online secondary research, aside from being entertained on a rainy afternoon, was that AngelList has really brought another avenue to the way entrepreneurs can seek out funding. It can cut down on the amount of prospecting involved in raising funds and it’s an immediate confidence booster when potential investors see other prominent Angels/VCs investing in your company. AngelList takes the limited time an entrepreneur already has and optimizes it to seek out funding, and it’s a great digital tool that VCs use to scan through potential companies quickly.

Bottom line: It connects VCs and Angels and is an important method for showcasing your start-up company to investors. Also remember that my point of view is based on what I’ve read. I’m not an investor or launching a start-up (at least not yet). But if you are, share your perspective as the rest of us would love to know what you think.

Building a Marketing Plan? 10 Questions to Answer.

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 20:44:00 +0000

Building a marketing plan? Here are 10 questions to get you started.

Do you have a clear definition of your target market? Perhaps you're considering expanding your target market so you can close deals that otherwise would not have come your way. On the other hand, you might narrow your definition of a target, putting your focus on those prospects most likely to become customers, maybe in a specific niche where your company has good market share. Either way, your decision will drive your other marketing decisions.

Is your current marketing mix delivering results? Most companies measure results by the number of qualified leads generated and the amount of visibility gained for their company, brand, and products. For example, email or snail mail lists tend to score low on both lead generation and visibility because they push your message out at a single moment in time to people who may not be interested. Conversely, specialized search engines and banner ads on targeted websites provide consistent presence and engage interested prospects who are actively searching for products like yours.

How visible are you? While having a robust website is essential, it isn’t enough. Your audience uses multiple online resources to locate products and suppliers. Specialized search engines, online ads, presence on the right social channels, and email newsletters all are important considerations.

What are the benefits of your current media choices? By evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of your media choices, you’ll understand the true value of your marketing program. For example, trade shows help raise your brand’s visibility and generate press and leads. But the number of leads is limited and events can be expensive when you factor in registration, promotion, travel, and other expenses. The moral is: know the ROI of your programs.

Will you reach your target audience at the right time? Like selling umbrellas when it’s raining or bathing suits when it’s hot, you want to reach your target audience while they are motivated and actively searching. Develop a calendar for what content you’re pushing out, how, and when. It will be a huge help.

How will you maintain frequency? If you disappear off your customers’ radar screens for any length of time they will forget about you. So a consistent presence online and off is key to being their choice when they need you.

How will you measure lead quality? Not all marketing programs deliver quality leads. As any sales person will attest to, the quality of the sales and marketing opportunities generated by your marketing plan is a better indicator of potential sales than the quantity. Look for programs that provide leads in a timely manner with contact information and area of interest, helping set the stage for your response and follow-up.

How will you ensure brand exposure? The concept of branding is often pushed aside during weak economic times in favor of lead generation, but if you abandon it, you dig a hole for your sales team, forcing them to start from the beginning with every sale, introducing your company and explaining your value proposition. Many programs offer both lead generation and branding. Sponsorship of industry e-newsletters, online banner ads, and reward programs are some ways to build your brand and engage qualified leads.

How do you measure marketing success? Before you commit to any marketing programs, you should establish metrics to measure performance. Direct and online marketing programs deliver impressions, clicks, leads, sales and customers which make measuring which programs are working easier. Brand programs aren’t so easy to determine. But in all cases, you need to create the valuation method as well as set the performance metrics before you launch.

What can you expect from your media partners? With every marketing dollar precious, it’s essential that you establish a trusted relationship with media partners who understand your customers and know how to help you reach new ones. They should continuously introduce you to a targeted audience and recommend new channels to market your products as well as provide comprehensive reporting. That reporting should show the number of leads, demographic information, and be delivered as close to real time as possible so you can determine the best channels for the most leads.

If you’ve got these covered you’re in good shape to put together a viable and productive plan. In getting the best answers, don’t work in a silo. Make sure to involve your company’s key players. The benefits will be not only in a great plan, you’ll gain consensus, and enhance your own business credibility as well. Bet you’ve thought of other concerns. What are they? Share your thoughts here!

Build Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Remember Adrian Monk in his detective series? He was a tidy freak, but it was his obsessing over details that helped him solve those murder cases. Like Mr. Monk, I’m feeling persnickety, and just as Monk wisely points out that the dead guy in the dark room couldn’t have turned off the lights, it bugs me that people using LinkedIn don’t take advantage of the ability to have a personalized URL for their profile. To me it seems obvious and it’s so easy to get one!

When you sign on to LinkedIn, you get an elongated URL that’s automatically generated. You — yes, you — can customize this URL so it is simple to remember and supports your personal brand. In my opinion, claiming your name here is key, but my preference shouldn’t stop you from inventing something else. Like coming up with a personalized license plate, you just need to think it through. If you were a tattoo artist, you might use “inkbeneaththeskin” or if you were the CEO of a bakery chain, maybe you’re “dollars4donuts”.

For a straightforward solution, take my LinkedIn URL as an example. At the time I set up my account I was able to customize the last text to "marionguthrie", my name. If you have a common name like Tom Smith or Cathy Jones, you may need to add a middle initial or a code, or you may decide to go the customized route with a word that reflects on your competency. Then you can use your LinkedIn URL in your signature line or any place where you want to direct interested people to a summary of your professional accomplishments; i.e. your LinkedIn profile. It’s a value added!

While we’re talking about LinkedIn, another pet peeve of mine is this: please try to get at least three recommendations. Three is LinkedIn’s suggested minimum. Recommendations are your ad; your third-party endorsement. They humanize your profile and make you more appealing and credible. Superman’s list of jobs outlining him as a reporter and sometimes superhero become so much more colorful and engaging when there’s a recommendation that says, “He leaps tall buildings in a single bound.” Don’t you think?

Also be “in with the in-crowd” and take advantage of the three website links on your LinkedIn profile. Include links to your personal website as well as your company’s. Be creative. Since I haven’t finished my company website yet, one of my links provides a list of my Talent Zoo articles written to date, which gives me a chance to showcase some of my writing. If you’ve joined Tumblr or Gust or any other community, you can use that URL too. (With Facebook, use with caution; ask yourself, "What would Mary Poppins say?") These links help build up your persona as a business executive who is participating in the digital age, not just standing on the sidelines.

Last but not least, there is great value in generating content on LinkedIn that can also be published (if you check the birdie box) on Twitter. Why bother? Aside from the fact that you might learn something (oh, I sound like my Mom), the updates you write and post in that little LinkedIn box at the top of your profile are a great way to stay top of mind with your LinkedIn contacts and it helps build your credibility when you share interesting news stories or blogs or opinions. In addition, when you check that Twitter box, your LinkedIn update will post automatically to your Twitter. And voila, you’ve amplified your message’s reach.

It’s not like Facebook, Twitter, About.Me, or Google+ (although I’m not sure any one has figured out Google+ quite yet). LinkedIn is a distinctive social media tool and it’s all about business. So use it to find opinion leaders in your field, to locate your next speaker for that association meeting, or to uncover the heads of those companies you’re targeting for your next sales effort. Or use it to discover who to network with to find that next project or that next job. Just do me a favor and personalize your LinkedIn URL. When you attach that URL to your communications, you’re creating a link to your profile where folks can see just how good you really are.

As far as being a bit compulsive, it gives me solace that Mr. Monk was far worse. Here’s some proof!

Is Your Brand Like P&G or More Like Rubbermaid?

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Before you start building your marketing plan for 2013, have you decided whether your company's identity is more like Procter & Gamble or if it's more like Rubbermaid? It's an important distinction. You see, P&G's attention is on their products and they have developed unique brand identities for each of them. But Rubbermaid's brand approach defines all of their products as sturdy, durable, and the right solution for my storage problems. So what about your company?

Another way to think of it is, if Apple equals Innovation and Disney is Magic, what is your brand? Is it unique products, each with its own identity? Or is it one name and what that encompasses? Just like the guy in City Slickers, before you go running off deciding which social media campaigns to launch and whether or not you need a mobile app, you’ve got to decide on that “one thing", and that is the voice of your brand and the focus of your strategy across every network, and in every channel.

Now that I've got you thinking about your brand, check out this post by Greg Satell on The Brand’s New Open Architecture http://p.ost.im/p/dJB5pH

Mobile Phones - Salvation or Addiction?

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 00:41:00 +0000

Lost on a back road one evening in my 1997 Subaru, I turn on my smartphone’s navigation system to find my way home and realize that the lady in my phone, who politely tells me to turn left in 1000 feet, may (at that moment) be my best friend and that my phone is rapidly becoming my universal remote control to the world. When did this happen?

I’m a bit surprised, as I start a laundry list in my head, by the number of activities that my smartphone enables. It has become my digital corridor to access pretty much everything when I need it. In addition to alerting me to messages and giving me the time, if I’m out for a walk, I take pictures of plants and text them to my gardening buddy to identify or share pictures of my grandkids with my neighbors.

Of course, I have my online calendar synced and all my contacts integrated together so I can easily connect for that video conference call or find the phone number for my next appointment if I’m running late. In the evening when I’m watching TV, I keep my phone handy so that, during commercials, I can search for product information (you know, movies for my grandson and wrinkle cream) or check my emails.

I’ve recently added another activity to take advantage of the “sensing capability” of my smartphone. You know you can download apps onto your smartphone that recognize the media that you’re watching or listening to. These apps then broadcast related content directly to your phone’s small screen. There are a bunch of social TV companies producing these. Here are a couple of the more popular apps, just to give you an idea of how they work.

One is Viggle. It’s a loyalty program that gives people real rewards for checking into the television shows they’re watching. Viggle automatically identifies what television shows its users are watching and awards them points when they check in. Users can redeem their points in the app’s rewards catalogue for items such as movie tickets, music, and gift cards.

Another is GetGlue, a social network for sharing with friends what you’re watching, listening to, or reading. You check in to rate your favorite shows, movies, and music; you earn stickers, and GetGlue also recommends other media based on your preferences and what your friends like.

My favorite is Shazam, which started out by enabling users to recognize any song by simply turning on this musical app and directing it to the source of the melody. Shazam has evolved from a basic song identification service to a portal to second-screen experiences combining innovation and entertainment with some of the world’s biggest television shows — even the Super Bowl! Turns out, according to Mashable, there are plenty of benefits for advertisers and TV shows alike to interact with viewers through Shazam’s interface, and people are responding to the added value that “Shazaming” brings to ads and shows.

I know it sounds like I’ve just made watching “True Blood” or “Covert Affairs” more complicated, but if you dabble in some second screen usage, you may find it’s kind of fun. You’ll also find, as I have, that there’s a dialogue emerging, thanks to this “sensing capability” in our smartphones, between us and our appliances (TVs, refrigerators, our home, our cars…well, not my car, but you get the idea).

Using our phones to control our environment is an amazing trend. In fact, you’re carrying more computer processing capability in your phone than the Apollo program employed to put a man on the moon. Increasingly, we’re using this processing power as a “universal remote control for our environment,” as Greg Satell, in his article on Co-creation and The New Web of Things, points out. Imagine where this might lead us while you take a look at this video from IBM’s smarter planet initiative. It shows how “sensing” technology is giving the earth a “central nervous system.”

Mr. Rogers Goes Viral!

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 00:18:00 +0000

In the week since it was released, “The Garden of Your Mind” has clocked over four million views on PBS Digital Studios' YouTube channel. This instant viral video phenomenon features PBS’s own beloved Mr. Rogers in a skillfully edited collection of scenes from more than three decades of his popular children’s show, "Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood." While accurately capturing his kid-friendly focus, the remix advances viewers into the twenty-first century with an auto-tuned mash-up of the late Fred Rogers speak-singing about the power of curiosity, imagination, and discovery.

This unique mix was created through the artistry of musician and video producer, John D. Boswell, (aka melodysheep). Boswell is best known for his Symphony of Science project, which he describes on his About Me Page along with the source for his creative muse. “Inspiration from The Gregory Brothers and DJ Steve Porter, coupled with my experience with remixing, composition, and auto-tune, led to experiments with remixing scientists, culminating in Carl Sagan's "A Glorious Dawn" in Fall of 2009…with results that are inspiring, humbling, and of course humorous.”

Just to clarify, "auto-tune" refers to an audio processor that uses proprietary software to alter pitch in vocal and instrumental recording and performances. According to Wikipedia, Cher's "Believe", recorded in 1998, was the first commercial recording to use the software to produce this altered vocal effect. In 2009, auto-tune was popularized by Boswell’s muse, Brooklyn musician Michael Gregory, and The Gregory Brothers band.

It helps, of course, that Boswell is a Rogers’ fan and when PBS discovered his work, it was kismet. PBS explains, “When we discovered video mash-up artist John D. Boswell, aka melodysheep, on YouTube, we immediately wanted to work together. Turns out that he is a huge Mister Rogers' Neighborhood fan, and was thrilled at the chance to pay tribute to one of our heroes.”

On the results of this collaboration, Kevin Morrison, COO of Fred Rogers Company, said, as Mashable reports, “I think that the thing we like about the piece is how it celebrates — we’re all different in terms of what we’re good at, but we can all make a special contribution.”

As for the strategy for promoting the video, Kevin Dando, Director, Digital Marketing and Communications for PBS, reported to the L.A. Times that it was pretty basic. They teased the video on Twitter Wednesday night and then published it to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+ at about the same time. A few celebrities tweeted the video early on, including Neil Patrick Harris, Alyssa Milano, and Guy Kawasaki. Then the media took over. By Friday morning, it was on YouTube’s trending video list and on the front page of Reddit in addition to being shown on "Good Morning America" and the "Today Show."

"Garden in Your Mind" is the first video on the PBS Digital Studios channel on YouTube, and the first of many planned remix videos set to feature PBS icons. "There will be more, and there will be other kinds of videos," said Dando, although he didn’t say what was next. "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" aired from 1968 to 2001. Rogers passed away in February 2003.

Second Screen? Second Sight!

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 12:57:00 +0000

For some time, television researchers have been evangelizing that having a mobile device available enhances rather than detracts from the TV viewer’s, experience and a recent Nielsen report, State of the Media: Advertising & Audiences, agrees. In fact, almost 50 percent of TV viewers are using tablets and smartphones as a “second screen” while watching their TVs. Wow! That’s a majority of us! What are viewers doing on their second devices? Well, many use this additional screen to check their email, refresh sports scores, or seek out more information on a show or a commercial. Highlights are:

Men with tablets were more likely than women to look for information related to a TV program (39 percent vs. 34 percent)

Women were more likely than men to search for information related to a TV commercial (24 percent vs. 21 percent)

Teenagers were much more inclined to visit a social media site while watching TV than baby boomers and seniors (62 percent vs. 33 percent)

Adults age 25 to 54 seem to be very influenced by advertising; they are 23 percent more likely than the average US Internet user to follow a brand on social media and 29 percent more likely to purchase a product online that was featured on TV

And as a growing trend, it explains why we’re seeing the development of mobile device pure play second screen applications like Shazam, Miso, and Umami, which allow users to share entertainment content in some way. With the functionality residing on the second screen, that screen can then:

Supplement the experience without cluttering the main screen

Facilitate reading details not suitable on the big screen

Enable text messaging and other types of sharing

Allow for personalized interfaces

This second screening is more than simply having another screen present while watching television. It opens up a new era of interaction what’s being called the rise of “Social TV.” This Internet-TV convergence now taking place has implications for a range of industries, from broadcasting to content delivery to advertising. American advertisers and consumers’ appetite for television is apparent, as TV holds the lion’s share of ad dollars and consumers’ media time. That second screen is gearing up to play a significant role in the convergence of a technology that started with three channels in black and white. I wonder what it will look like in two or three years. What do you think?

This behavior is what happens, as iMedia’s Dean Donaldson describes, “When you are sitting in front of high value entertainment and something piques your interest when presented imaginatively, the passion spills over into intrigue and sharing.” With a majority of TV viewers holding and using a second device like a smartphone or a tablet to check email or talk on Facebook, that second screen is becoming a habit.

Also, if the communication between the devices is reciprocated, then the “big screen TV” can tell other devices what it’s currently playing and those devices can do useful things with that information. This could be as simple as enabling the user to say something about what they are watching using social media without having to look it up, or more complicated like automatically finding information about a specific program, or related programs.

Use Graffiti to Draft Your Marketing Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Tue, 29 May 2012 15:30:00 +0000

Whether I'm working with an individual client or a business team, I've always found that having an annual game plan — in my case, a marketing plan — is essential. With Memorial Day recently behind us, it means that in the corporate environment you have about three months before your plan is due (prior to fourth-quarter number crunching, you know). So now’s a great time to start strategizing.

Over the years, I've gotten into the habit of building these plans on a whiteboard or a bulletin board. Really, any place where I can step back to take a comprehensive look, and where my volunteers, clients, or co-workers can get a gander and give their input as well.

Here are six good reasons why you should build your brand’s annual plan on a wall, just like graffiti, where everyone can see it.

A strong marketing plan directs your focus and your team’s focus. It keeps you all on a clearly defined path that ensures that you make the most of the effort and the budget.
A strong marketing plan forces you to articulate concrete, measurable objectives so you and the decision makers who make staffing and budget decisions know what you are working towards and make the right decisions on how to get there.
A strong marketing plan provides a definitive means of tracking everyone’s progress against stated objectives.
A strong marketing plan is an all-organization responsibility, but to engage your colleagues and leaders, you need to be able to show them where you’re headed, what you’re doing, and why.
A strong marketing plan makes it easy to draft your day-by-day work plan. By breaking down the big ideas that comprise the master marketing plan into nitty-gritty execution, you clarify each element for the plan and define roles and responsibilities. As a result, you’re able to focus on priorities and capitalize on each member’s skill set.
The Graffiti aspect is fun and encourages even shy players to provide input. For that reason I like a large whiteboard with markers in a variety of colors.

Do yourself and your organization a favor. Take these simple measures to heart and make time to develop a marketing plan. As you're building it, post it on a wall (virtual or not). The input you receive from staff and leadership and the results ($) will be worth it!

What's In Your Mobile Wallet?

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Sun, 20 May 2012 13:00:00 +0000

I’ll admit it. I’m fascinated but anxious about using my smartphone as a wallet. Of course that hasn’t stopped me from checking my bank balance or looking for an ATM. I love the portability and the convenience but to go cashless, well — I’d need to be threatened with something like having my hair set on fire. Evidently I’m not alone. This month MasterCard WorldWide released a study that shows that the world’s consumers aren’t quite ready for mobile payments to become mainstream.

The study examines the adoption of mobile payments globally. It produces a formula that indexes the technology preparedness of the country with their population’s eagerness to use it. They call this index the Mobile Payments Readiness Index (MPRI). This clever MPRI runs on a scale of zero to 100, with 100 representing complete replacement of your favorite plastic cards with your mobile phone.

The research sets a Mobile Readiness score of 60 as the point at which mobile devices account for an appreciable share of the payment types defined in the study. Think of it as the “hot and ready to adopt” number. Of the 34 countries that were indexed, not one received even a score of 50. In fact, the average of all 34 scores was 33.2. So according to this data, our world is not yet ready for mobile wallet prime time. But there are some interesting takeaways.

In terms of consumer readiness, 9 of the top 10 top scoring countries are located in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, with Kenya the top scorer of all of the 34 countries evaluated. This is attributed to Kenyan consumers’ extremely high levels of familiarity with and frequent usage of mobile payments, a result of few physical banks and the success of M-Pesa.

Of the 34 countries, the United States received the highest score in the environment component. This component measures economic, technological, and demographic elements such as a market’s per capita income and consumer access to the internet. The high score was a result of the household expenditure per capita in this country of three times the index average ($33k vs. $11k). This translates into we-can-afford-it, I believe.

Singapore took the top ranking in the infrastructure (can you hear me now?) component, as 100% of the population is covered by a mobile network, compared to the overall 94% index average. Within Europe, UK consumers demonstrated the highest levels of familiarity with and willingness to use mobile payments.

Why should you care? The mobile wallet represents the first major change in how customers can pay at stores since the credit card was introduced in the 1960s, and this study by MasterCard helps define those countries with the most promise for rapid adoption. Someone is going to get rich. The proof is that participation in building this digital venue continues to gain momentum and the players are some of the biggest names in technology, finance, and retail, like MasterCard, Google, Wal-Mart, AT&T, Visa, and PayPal, to name just a few.

Smart businessmen will use this research to design solutions to make banking and the retail purchase process effortless in promising countries while creating profits for themselves and their companies. Success will be based on timing and innovation that addresses this MPRI, accurately gauging the consumers’ and their countries' readiness. So what will you and I do? Perhaps try to build on this lucrative technology while it is still evolving? Anyone besides me need the threat of a hairbrush and a match?

LinkedIn Saddles A Dark Horse

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Sat, 12 May 2012 12:55:00 +0000

A “dark horse” refers to a little-known person or thing that emerges to prominence, especially in a competition. This year’s Kentucky Derby winner, I’ll Have Another, is a perfect example. Sold for a paltry $11,000, ridden by a rookie jockey hardly anyone knew, and stuck in an outside post, this chestnut colt blazed past the favorite, Bodemeister, to win the Derby by 1 and 1/2 lengths. It seems last week was a week for dark horses, because in addition to the surprise Derby winner, LinkedIn announced plans to acquire SlideShare, sometimes known as the “dark horse of B2B marketing.”

Well, it does fit the definition. SlideShare lacks the size of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn, and its growth isn’t anything as remarkable as Pinterest. Certainly SlideShare’s typical content of corporate PowerPoint presentations isn’t capturing the imagination of the popular culture. So why has Mountain View, California-based business networking giant, LinkedIn, decided to shell out $118.8 million in a deal to buy this San Francisco-based company?

The answer, I think, lies in SlideShare’s unique attributes that make it so popular with B2B marketers. First, it’s the users. SlideShare users have uploaded more than nine million presentations since it was founded in 2006. According to comScore, in March, SlideShare had nearly 29 million unique visitors. But it isn’t the number of visitors that’s the real differentiator, it’s the type. SlideShare gets roughly three times the traffic from business owners as is received by other social media sites, and it gets about 40% more traffic from C-level executives than LinkedIn. This means that SlideShare is the most heavily trafficked site for professional content and enjoys a unique demographic compared to the rest of the social Web.

Then there’s the content. Moving away from boring slide decks, today’s presenters are influenced by their peers to prepare presentations that tell a story that educates and engages. As a result, this content-hosting platform, considered the world’s largest, is gaining credibility as a third-party provider of information. Here the opinion leader, like a journalist, for example, is willing to embed the SlideShare presentation into an article versus embedding the exact same presentation sourced from the business’s web address.

Perhaps the most significant attribute is SlideShare’s premium services. These provide B2B marketers with the ability to view analytics on their visitors while building an online presence. For example, premium users can embed lead capture forms with customized fields within their presentations and then import those leads directly into their own customer relationship management (CRM) systems. This includes integration with third-party marketing automation tools like Eloqua and Salesforce.com.

So we can see that as B2B’s dark horse, SlideShare is all about capturing a unique audience of users, specifically business owners and C-level executives. It offers the ability to upload and host video, customer design, and branding tools. It also facilitates lead capture, detailed analytics, and software integration, which means that SlideShare delivers one thing other social media sites struggle to provide — a solid return on investment. But how will LinkedIn utilize SlideShare to expand current capabilities? Will it transform or be transformed by this union? Do you love SlideShare or hate it? How do you use it? I’d love to hear what you think.

Is That Dick Tracy's Watch?

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 02:57:00 +0000

In a world where smartphones and even feature phones do everything from tell the time to the weather and your location, fewer and fewer people see the need for a watch. No surprise, then, that the global sale of watches has been steadily declining since 2005. But Eric Migicovsky and his team at Allerta may recently have changed all that. They’ve developed a watch reminiscent of Dick Tracy’s infamous two-way wrist radio that’s designed to be the best companion to your smartphone. It’s called the Pebble. You wear this attractive device just like a wristwatch and it connects by Bluetooth discreetly to your smartphone alerting you to incoming SMS, email, and phone alerts.

Other attempts at similar technologies in the past date back to 2004 when Microsoft introduced their Smart Watch, which retrieved weather, messages, reminders, and stock quotes. The watches transmitted over an unused portion of the FM radio band and users needed an MSN Direct subscription to download data. Well-known watch manufacturers Fossil, Tissot, and Swatch were involved in the production. The watches were discontinued in 2008.

More recently, other smart watches including the InPulse, the WiMM One, and I’m Watch have been reviewed, but as Chris Taylor explains in his recent Mashable article, “They were all powered by Android, or connected to Android smartphones only. iPhone owners were out of luck until …the Pebble. It’s the first smart watch that can form a meaningful, long-lasting relationship with your iOS device, as well as Android.”

Besides being unique among smart watches because of its compatibility with iPhone and Android, Pebble has other noteworthy features. If your smartphone is lost in the sofa cushions or hiding in a junk drawer, you can use your Pebble to locate it. For those of us who’ve struggled with screen glare on sunny days, Pebble hosts a high resolution e-paper display that is readable outdoors.

Pebble’s wrist-location makes it possible to glance at that text message or check to see who’s calling while still unpacking the groceries or holding onto your squirming toddler. It’s also water resistant. You can go swimming and run in the rain with it. And speaking of running, there are apps built in to the watch that allow you to track how many miles you’ve run (thanks to the built-in 3-axis accelerometer), control your phone’s music, and check the weather.

There’s also the Pebble watch app store, which will let you send watch-specific apps the company and third-party developers make to the watch. At its core, Pebble is a hands-free solution to determine why your pocket or purse is vibrating without having to dig out your phone. No wonder it’s become an overnight sensation.

Of course the development has been longer than just overnight. Before turning to Kickstarter for funding to provide the dollars they needed for manufacturing, the Allerta team of high-energy entrepreneurs spent four years working on iterations. In Kit Eaton’s Fast Company article, Migicovsky compliments his industrial designer, Steve Johns. “(Steve) spent a lot of time looking at what people wear on their wrists, and how we could make something that could be customizable and beautiful, small and sleek."

Here’s the Kickstarter video where Migicovsky succinctly explains the Pebble.

Next up on the horizon? People who choose not to go with the smart watch will soon have another option: a pair of Google-made glasses that will be able to stream information to the wearer’s eyeballs in real time. Stay tuned!

Here's some more information:
Pebble Kickstarter Watch at CES - press conference on January 9, 2013
Hands on With Pebble Smartwatch, the Most Successful Kickstarter Project Ever, Alexandra Chang, May 14, 2012

DRTV Gets Social

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:18:00 +0000

I’m sitting in my favorite chair in front of the best screen in my house watching a show. A commercial comes on. It's a preview for the movie “Chimpanzee.” I want to know more, so I grab my smartphone and I’m typing in the search, when, all of a sudden, it occurs to me that all TV ads now can be DRTV ads.

If you aren’t familiar, DRTV stands for direct response television and this is by no means a hot new marketing tool. This form of advertising has been around at least since the 1980s. There are two types. The short version, which is 30 seconds to two minutes, and a longer half-hour variety that you know as an infomercial. A DRTV commercial includes a bona-fide offer for a product or service and a method (like phone, text, or website) for the consumer to contact the advertiser directly. Advertising that satisfies these two criteria is defined as DRTV and also qualifies for a lower media rate.

Much like shopping at Nordstrom’s Rack, DRTV advertisers can purchase unsold advertising inventory from stations and networks at rates off rate-card prices. To be successful, you need some experience selecting the right mix of rate, schedule, and timing; depending on your strategy, you'll need a call center that’s open when the commercial is aired, and don’t forget about order fulfillment. Also, because the real value in DRTV is the ability to track responses, who’s buying from which spot and when, you’ll need math competency and a method for capturing these results.

This is why there are professional DRTV agencies like Hawthorne or Euro RSCG, and, perhaps you, who are rolling their eyes at my Eureka moment in front of the TV, but honestly, the technology surprised me and made me wonder if having another device handy has changed other consumers’ viewing behavior as well.

Luckily Nielsen has just published a survey of connected-device owners and discovered that watching TV while using a tablet or smartphone, to check email, or to look up program or product information, is fairly common. In the U.S., 41% of smartphone owners confessed to using their phone at least once a day while tuned in to their TV. Also, 45% of tablet owners admitted that they used that device while watching TV at least once a day.

It seems that there’s a growing trend of using a second screen. And although you may not want to craft a traditional DRTV spot, I think it may pay for us to keep some of those techniques in mind. After all, the consumer is sitting right there with a phone in their lap.

So here’s what I’m thinking for my next commercial:

Before the viewer is up and off for a snack, mention what I’m selling in the first 10 seconds or at least provide a search term or web address throughout the ad so it’s easy for the consumer to find the offer later and to share it.
Connect the commercial to a landing page. It should reinforce the offer and provide a familiar framework (experience recall) for the viewer.
Whether I’m using unique phone numbers and a call center or not, I want to track clicks to correlate viewers’ search activities on the website with the media schedule and combine with web analytics to get insights.
Use the other screen. Maximizing this effort and expense of production by repurposing the content in other channels is a way to gain more sales and should lower my cost per acquisition. Examples:
1. Run longer versions of the commercial on the website and YouTube;
2. Blog about the production around an embedded version, show outtakes, use production stills;
3. Share a video of an influencer speaking about the product's benefits;
4. Point to the content on other social sites (like Facebook and Twitter).

Before the advent of the second screen, DRTV marketers were attempting to compel you out of your chair to that phone hanging on your kitchen wall. Now that consumers are sitting with a phone in their pockets, they can engage when and where the buying urge hits them. So if they are intrigued by your offer on TV, be prepared to provide them with the answers they seek. Like me searching on my smartphone for #MeetOscar, we just need to put ourselves in our customers' places to uncover the opportunities. What’s up next with Social TV or Interactive TV? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Here are some additional insights:
How TV Will Change the Game for Digital Marketers, Dean Donaldson, March 16, 2012
The New Digital Battlefield, Greg Satell, March 14, 2012

5 Ways the New Facebook Builds Brands

noreply@blogger.com (Socially Challenged) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 01:55:00 +0000

On March 30 brand pages on Facebook that have not made the change to the new Timeline format will automatically be converted. This means that if you haven’t updated your company’s page by Friday, Facebook will do it for you. The impetus behind the new format is that Facebook wants businesses to act and interact like people. Steering away from a “buy now” approach, they’ve incorporated strong visuals, fan loyalty techniques, and storytelling to encourage brand interaction. They’re imposing some guidelines too.

Facebook’s design lead Sam Lessin explains: “The key with cover photos is storytelling and expression. We want to create a good experience for everyone, and we think these guidelines really help brands…They’re encouraging people to create engaging content that people want to come back to.”

When you start to examine the new format, you’ll quickly see that there are five major modifications in these Facebook brand pages. First, like a cover photo on a magazine, there’s a widescreen image at the top of the page. This is your brand’s first impression to attract your audience. And to ensure that you keep it inviting, Facebook has imposed image guidelines that exclude your using this space as a billboard for website addresses, contact information, or promotions.

Second, placed vertically on the right is the historical timeline. This is an opportunity to showcase your brand’s stories. Different from the old format, here companies are able to add past events that don’t necessarily tie into the date on which they joined Facebook, i.e. a company’s founding or other milestone. This is a great method for humanizing your brand and showcasing your credibility through strong engaging content.

Third, to help you drive traffic to key areas, Facebook has introduced the ability to make selected content "sticky" for seven days. The new Timeline format gives brands the option to "pin" key information to the top of the page so you can highlight important content like that hot promotional offer or the free white paper.

Fourth, there are also some handy new admin capabilities for page managers built into the Timeline so you’ll be able to view metrics about your page performance, edit content, and respond to messages from every day users. In addition, your consumers will be able to message your brand directly and you, in turn, will be able to provide tailored responses to specific questions or comments. Also, instead of deleting posts, you can curate your content, hiding comments that are out of date or inappropriate. Finally, in addition to these aesthetic and functional changes, this new format will be an impetus for brands to develop their own custom apps that build on Facebook’s new social applications. It will promote the development of "Open Graph" apps, which have their data tapped for ad targeting, an area of business focus for Facebook. Timeline is a sophisticated evolution of the Facebook experience; it's one that’s grown to gain a more comprehensive and detailed picture of the user’s interactions. It will influence the way companies deliver their Facebook strategies. These new capabilities will require more time and attention but are something your business will want to maximize. What are your thoughts on this new format? I’d love to read your comments.