The idea for the session stems from two rather obvious trends:

• Everyone’s a startup
  Thanks to the downturn, the streets are littered with talented but unemployed professionals. Some are using the occasion to go into business. Others are hanging out a shingle only until something steady comes along. And then there’s the rest of us who were already on the “eat-what-you-kill” diet.

  All of us are looking for ways to be more effective in how we conduct business, while keeping our costs down. Which leads to the next trend…

• Cheap biz tools are everywhere
  There have never been more cheap tools available to entrepreneurs for creating work product and managing and promoting their business. It seems to me that someone just getting into business could run their business using mostly Web-based freemium services — without compromising quality, and possibly with noticeable improvements in some areas.

What’s on your short list of must-have business tools for small business owners?
Let me see if I can identify some categories and give you my current picks… Perhaps you know of some cool services I’ve never heard of. My goal for the session at UnSummit is simply to gather everyone’s favorite tools in each category and find out how people are using these tools.

My favorite business tools

Info Architecture
OmniGraffle (not free, but it beats the pants off Visio)

Content creation
MS Word (I know. Not very free, nor very cool. But old habits die hard.)

Content collaboration
Google docs

Email client
We just switched from Entouage to Apple’s Mail app, running off a virtual Exchange server. Not crazy about Mail, but it’s only been a week.

Backup/storage space
Amazon S3

Recruiting (for freelancers, other help)
Twitter

Project collaboration
Basecamp

Conference calls
Freeconference.com

Webconferencing (screen sharing)
GotoMeeting.com

Web site/blogging
WordPress

Media relations
Pitchengine.com

Webinars
GotoWebinar.com

Business cards
Moo.com (looking for something new, though!)

Web analytics
Google Analytics

International calling
Skype

Social media monitoring
filterbox

Bookmarking
delicious

Image searches
Compfight.com (searches Flickr for Creative Commons photos)

Marketing (This category requires multiple entries, as I tend to use all these tools in tandem.)

• Twitter (current client: HootSuite)
• Delicious
• WordPress
• Pitchengine
• Flickr
• Slideshare
• Vimeo

Networking (this category also calls for  multiple entries)

• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Ning
• Foursquare

Hmm, have I missed anything? I’m mostly a strategy and content guy, so you coders and designers will probably have a bunch of resources that I’ve missed. I’m eager to hear (now or on the 10th) what tools work for you!

For most businesses, the question of what to play while customers are on hold is not critical. Important, but not vital to customer satisfaction.

What if most of your business is handled over the phone? If you’re the iconoclastic savings bank ING Direct, you help customers cope with waiting by playing messages that are witty, informative and, most importantly, respect your customers’ intelligence.

Check it out!  ING Direct: On Hold Messages

Below are a number of resource related to my talk, “Social Media: Friend or Foe?” given on July 28th, at the Farm Credit Services Learning Conference in Long Beach, Calif.

Slide presentation

Key points

What is social media?
Thousands of web sites that allow individual users to create, share, and rate content — and connect with others who share common interests.

Why should you care?
1.    Rapid growth in use & influence of social media sites.
2.    Resulting power shift: individuals exert more control than organizations over content & message.

Top social media sites/activity include:
•    Blogs (77% of active Internet users read them)
•    User-generated content (photos, video, reviews, documents)
•    Facebook (276MM per month)
•    Myspace (124MM per month)
•    Twitter (7MM users)

Social networking by age/gender
•    35% of U.S. adults
•    65% of U.S. teens
•    85% of Gen Y (2% increase since ‘08)
•    28% of Baby Boomers (59% increase since ‘08)
•    35% of men*
•    35% of women*

Farmers & social media
•    55% of farmers online
•    27% have high-speed
•    65% of farmers* use Internet “constantly or several times a day at work”

How can you put social media to work in your organization?
•    Customer service
•    Market research
•    Employee communications
•    Community outreach
•    Public relations
•    Marketing

How to adopt social media in 5 easy steps
1.    Listen to the conversations.
2.    Determine how you want to engage.
3.    Set boundaries.
4.    Rethink your content.
5.    Embrace R&D as a way of business.

Links and references

Ag and Social Media

• Twitter Blog: Twittering from the Tractor
• NPR: A Farmer, His ‘Tribe’ And The Web That Brings Them Together
• TWEET CORN? Nebraska farmers sharing their experiences via Twitter – Free-Press-Release.com
• Farmers embracing Twitter trend – 14 News, The Tri-State’s News and Weather Leader-
• Twittering from the tractor: smartphones sprout on the farm – CNN.com
• In the Field » Agriculture and social media: Q&A with Sue Colucci
• The Voice of Agriculture – American Farm Bureau
• THINKeEXTENSION » Blog Archive » Can Social Media and Web2.0 save Agriculture and Environment
• Farmers for the Future

Internal Use of Social Media

• Social Media Policies For Your Company: Internal Policies | davefleet.com
• Transparency Not Technology: Internal Use of Social Media

Banking & Social Media

• Banks & social media: shred your marketing beliefs
• The Community Banker’s Guide to Social Network Marketing
• Banks try social networking, jump on Twitter wagon – USATODAY.com

Social Media Trends, Statistics & Demographics

• Overview | Pew Internet & American Life Project
• Adults and Social Network Websites | Pew Internet & American Life Project
• Twitter and status updating | Pew Internet & American Life Project
• twitter.com – Quantcast Audience Profile
• Mindblowing #IranElection Stats: 221,744 Tweets Per Hour at Peak
• Social Media 2008 Statistics
• Growth of User Generated Content Contributors in USA : TechCrunchies – Internet Statistics and Numbers
• 82 Million User-Generated Content Creators and CountingBlogging grows by 68% « Mind Juice
• New Twitter Research: Men Follow Men and Nobody Tweets – Conversation Starter – HarvardBusiness.org
• Nielsen: Twitter Was Fastest Growing Community Last Month
  MySpace shrinks as Facebook, Twitter and Bebo grab its users | Technology | The Observer
  Domino’s Discovers Social Media – BusinessWeek
  Micro Persuasion: Social Networking Demographics: Boomers Jump In, Gen Y Plateaus

Photo of Long Beach Harbor by fontplaydotcom

“Over and over, I have seen how a UCD (User Centered Design) process will tend to emphasize certain benefits of an experience like ‘convenience’ over other, more meaningful sources of social value.”

From an article in core 77 by Robert Fabricant, creative director of frog design.

So, while we’re doing a great job getting recognition from Ad Age and NYT as  an advertising town, we’ll need to lay some groundwork if we’re ever to get our fair cities on the entrepreneurial map. No doubt, we’re fortunate to have MinneDemo, MinneBar, Social Media Breakfast, UnSummit and Minnov8, but more needs to happen before MSP can become a breeding ground for startups.

So, yesterday I was delighted to have someone bending my ear about some projects that seem to be aimed at helping creatives and geeks collaborate, innovate and launch new ventures. Below is a rundown of just some of the efforts that Jeff Pesek (@JeffPesek) shared with me.

Co-working (possibly) coming to Minnesota

For whatever reason, and despite a fair amount of interest,  co-working has never caught on here in the Twin Cities. But that might change in the coming months. Stephen Filing, of ClubTix fame, is closing in on a space in Minneapolis that will be converted into a co-working location, with multiple tiers of membership available. You can get more info at www.twincitiescoworking.org. A co-working interest group is meeting on Wednesdays in St. Paul to discuss. As I understand it, Stephen is pursuing this project as a for-profit venture (only noteworthy in light of the following item).

An incubator for social entrepreneurs

Meanwhile, Jacquie Berglund, co-founder and president of Finnegan’s (makers of Finnegan’s Irish Amber and arguably the tastiest non-profit in the state) is considering the potential of using unused space in her organization’s headquarters as a hub for social entrepreneurs. The space in question is a 5,000-square-foot mansion (map) at Portland and 10th in Minneapolis.

One of the ideas Jacquie and Jeff have discussed is whether part of the space could be turned into a co-working-location-slash-incubator that would be attractive to like-minded creatives, geeks and others. Interested? Contact Jeff, who says:

“We’re looking at filling this space with 7 to 10 technically oriented/creative people who would be interested in $100 month shared space (700 square feet) in a socially conscious environment.

Please note that Finnegan’s is only 6 blocks from the Metrodome light rail stop. No word yet on whether the watercoolers will be stocked with Irish Amber.

A new role for CentralStandardTech.com

Started in 2006 by Luke Francl, Central Standard Tech has been a hub for coders and technology entrepreneurs in Minnesota. The site’s stated purpose is:

“to get developers, designers, testers, recruiters, entrepreneurs, VCs, and other members of the tech community talking to each other.”

Luke is hanging in the Valley these days, but has agreed to let the community repurpose and re-energize the site in order to extend the site to non-geeks. Jeff Pesek and Toby Cryns (@TobyCryns) are heading up the effort and hope to redesign the site so that it becomes a one-stop repository for:

• Personal profiles (hmm, I wonder if a mashup with extendr.com would make sense here?)
• Project updates
• Gig postings
• Local events (with a calendar that aggregates events from tech and creative organizations)
• Blogs

Since the intention is for CST to be a community driven site, the list above is only speculative and may expand, contact or morph depending on who joins the project. Interested? Meet Jeff, Toby and me on Monday, July 20, 9 a.m. at Spyhouse Coffee.

MNtechstartups.org

Finally, Jeff told me about a site I’d never seen before: MNtechstartups.org. It’s a community hub that seems to be aiming to achieve much of what I described above. The site’s stated goal is to:

“…add value the Minnesota startup community by providing a comprehensive resource for local startups, one that serves the entrepreneurs who make it happen…”

But how is it different from CST? Are they competing sites? Should they be folded into one big mega community? Maybe Jeff can leave a comment and set us all straight.

Feel free to peruse the 50+ postings at johnryanblog.com. Or you can skip to the chase and simply click through to one of the highlighted posts below.

• “Bank mishap highlights importance of employee communications”
• “Going back to the neighborhood” (on hyperlocalized marketing)
• “Prompting interactivity”
• “Using Twitter and social media to fuel your offline marketing”
• “Using free online research to feed your offline marketing”
• “Small steps toward a better customer experience”
• “How to embrace the economic crisis”

HOW PEOPLE APPLY THE BASIC SOCIAL RULE OF POLITENESS TO COMPUTERS

There is a well-known documented fact about human behavior: People will tell you what they think you want to hear. For example, if a waiter asks how his service was, people are more likely to give him a positive response. If a 3rd party asks about the waiter’s service, people tend to give more negative responses. Why? Because, generally, people want to be liked. And people feel they are liked more when they are being polite. (Certainly there are a few exceptions to this rule). You probably don’t need to think too hard to relate to this, your parents taught you at an early age the importance of being polite.

But did you know that people apply that same social rule to computers. I’ll wait a second while that sinks in… Yes, people are polite to computers! Byron Reeves and Clifford Nass, while professors at Stanford University and Co-directors of the “Social Responses to Communication Technologies” project at the Center for the Study of Language and Information, conducted controlled experiments to get to the bottom of this seemingly illogical idea.

In this study, one of their many studies on the subject of people’s social response to computers, participants were split into two groups. They asked the first group to sit at Computer A and participate in answering questions about a series of facts. They were told that they would evaluate the computer’s performance at the end of the session. The computer would state a trivial fact and ask the participant if they know about it, giving them three choices: a lot, not much and none. Based on their answers, the computer would offer additional information about that fact. At the end, the computer would test the participants retained knowledge and let them know which questions they had gotten right. After each reviewed question, the computer would state that it had done a great job. At the end of the session, Computer A asked the participant to rate its performance.

The second group worked through the exact same process on Computer A as group one, answering the same questions about the same series of facts. At the end of the session, they moved to another identical computer (Computer B) where it asked the participants about Computer A’s performance. Hands down, group one had far more favorable responses towards Computer A than the second group.

Mind you, there were no graphics and everything on the screen was text-based (copy and standard UI buttons). During the exit interview, the participants were asked if they provided answers that were polite to the computer. All of them confidently dismissed that notion–they said that they were not being “polite” to the computer in the least [insert image of them rolling their eyes here]. So that means, consciously, that they considered the computer to be an inanimate object. However, their actions obviously tell a different story. You might be thinking that the participants were identifying with a “programmer” behind the computer. But even that theory had been ruled out through the experiment. There can only be one reason for their reaction: people subconsciously apply the social rule of politeness to computers.

Knowing that we treat computers as social actors, what could this mean for your organization and the connections you make with your customers, patients or students online?

1. First, know that feedback solicited on your site (like a survey) will be more positive towards you than if it is solicited through a 3rd party (like a review site). Those 3rd party evaluations will tend be more honest (or at least more balanced) than the feedback solicited on your site.
2. More importantly, turn the study around. Ask yourself if your web site is “polite” to your visitors. Is it nice and is it helpful? For example, when a visitor is presented with an error, does your site take responsibility (“Sorry, I can’t find what you’re looking for [insert helpful instructions here]) or does it make the visitor feel like a criminal ([ERROR: Access Denied! You have attempted to modify your access to the secure Web site. As a result, your session has been terminated. This attempt to falsify your credentials has been logged to our files.] This is an actual message given to a user after he forgot that his username was case sensitive).
   Too often, Web sites speak the language of the organization, or the programmer, which is almost always very different than the visitor’s. If a visitor doesn’t feel connected to your site, they won’t feel connect to your organization or it’s products and services. (This idea actually tips into the social rule of “likability” which I’ll write about in a future post.)
3. Taking it a step further, consider putting a polite human face (or voice) on your product or service. Make a human connection. Don’t speak about features, talk about how this will make their job, health, life better. A more human tone in your copy will increase the likelihood that users will have a more positive, more personal experience.

Mark Dunst, a partner of Polymer Studios, is a Web strategist, interaction and interface designer in Portland, OR.

For those of you who read about last summer’s visit to  Corazón de Ñaupas in Peru, I’m pleased to report that Polymer Studios is the proud sponsor of the town’s soccer club.

On my last night in the village, the club presented me with a formal request for sponsorship, typed up on the only typewriter for miles around, signed by the officers of the club and stamped by the local notary. Who could say no to such a proper business proposal? We’re contractually barred from disclosing the details of the sponsorship, but let me put it this way: in the past, the guys played in the clothes on their backs and the other teams made fun of them. Especially those jerks down in the rich city of Vinchos. Who’s laughing now, Vinchos?

We’re hoping to have a skybox installed in the coming year. Until then, our preferred seats at the home pitch are located on top of the big rock outcrop above the field. (No, not the one above the outhouse, but the other one near the cornfield.)

We wish the Ñaupitas the best of luck in the coming season, especially against those dirty dogs down in Vinchos.

It’s no secret that the advertising and marketing industry gets walloped quicker and harder than most any industry during a recession. At least that’s how it played out in the last dip and how it’s looking this time around.

If you look at some of the specific crises driving this recession you’ve got a perfect storm:

• The credit crunch caused by the mortgage crisis
• Disappointing 4th quarter retail sales
• The prospect of one or more U.S. automakers going under
• The very real threat to print media (see this and this)

It’s a domino effect goes something like this: Consumers can’t afford to buy > stores can’t sell > manufacturers don’t make > less money for ads > pink slips for creative types.

The headlines in the trade rags and elsewhere bear this out:

• Media agency forecasters pull no punches: Smith, Coen and King see little hope for economic recovery anytime soon (subscription required)
• Ads subtracting: Massive job cuts seen across Madison Avenue
• Magazine ads evaporated in 2008, faster as months went on (subscription required)
• Most media to suffer retrenchment in 2009 (extensive but free subscription required)

The predictions call for even more bloodletting over the coming months. Which is to say, we could be in for the worst of it.

So, what to do? If you’re an agency type, where will you hunt for sustenance? A recent article in AdAge points the way, citing several areas that might make for good hunting grounds. (Comments in parentheses are mine):

• Washington D.C. (new gov’t, new spending)
• Package goods
• DRTV
• Beer (couldn’t agree more!)
• Online video
• Hispanics (with 30+ Hispanic cousins, I can verify this one)
• E-books
• Public relations
• Cable TV
• Marketing consulting (it was true in the last downturn: companies shed FTEs then bring in consultants)
• Digital out of home (see previous post: The shopper marketing revolution)
• Mobile (I’m getting an iPhone this year, recession or no!)
• Pet care
• Marketing analytics (yet another nail in the coffin of print and broadcast, which is barely measurable compared to online)
• CBS (huh?)
• Luxury recycling (2nd-hand yachts for pennies on the dollar!)
• China
• Package and fast food (Can a boom in the weight-loss industry be far behind?)
• Online coupons
• Gun sales (that huge clicking noise was the sound of millions of NRA members locking and loading)

Photo credit: GlobalJet

• 70% of all purchase decisions are made in store.
• 68% of in-store purchases are impulse buys
• 68% of consumers are brand-switchers.
• Only 5% are loyal to one brand.

These numbers, which come out of a GMA/Deloitte research paper called “The Call for Shopper Marketing,” really bring into question how we’ve allocating our time and money in reaching out to consumers. All this advance effort to sell people on Brand X…and for what? They jump to Brand Z on a whim at the last second. I

I’m sure it still makes sense to prime the pump and create awareness about products via online, direct, broadcast, outdoor and print. But with so many decisions — correction — with so many impulsive decisions happening in the aisles, it seems that we are insane not to focus more on the so-called last mile.

Why isn’t there a stampede among creative agencies to develop expertise in this burgeoning field of “shopper marketing?”

Consider two additional statistics, also in the GMA/Deloitte paper:

• Each week, 127 million customers visit Wal-Mart
• Each week, 68 million people on average watch ABC, CBS or NBC evening news.

So, how is Wal-Mart trying to influence all these millions, perhaps billions, of weekly impulse decisions? Of course, there are the usual mainstays of retail merchandising, such as coupon dispensers, end-cap displays and product sampling. Experiential marketing is also getting more play.

But it’s well reported that Wal-Mart and many other retailers are putting their money on digital signage: intelligent networks of in-store flat-panel displays that can be managed to deliver infinitely localized and relevant messages, using variable data such as:

• Time of day
• Day of week
• Seasons an holidays
• Customer language preferences
• Store traffic patterns
• Weather
• Market and economic conditions
• Local news events
• Inventory levels
• Product sales velocity
• Sales goals vs. actuals
• Proximity sensors
• RFID readers
• User inputs (voice, touch, cell-phones, etc.)

For me, digital signage holds much of the promise that excited many of us marketers in the early days of online marketing, when we realized how we could use data to deliver ever more granular and relevant messages to prospects.

The difference is that digital signage all happens in the store. At the moment of truth, where, according to the research, our expensive ad campaigns and brand loyalty initatives come face to face with disloyal and easily distracted customers. Clearly, whoever has the ability to influence fickle consumers in the aisles has a tremendous advantage.

Photo credit: Phil Romans