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Apr 24

Why Everyone Should Have (and Spend Money on) a Strong Web Presence

April 24, 2009 • View Comments • Online Marketing

Sometimes I find that I get so involved in the online world and the people active in it, I lose touch with everyday people. When I try to explain why it is important that they spend money on a website and get involved with social networking online, I get frustrated that they don’t get it.

So to help, I’m going to put the pace of the internet in perspective. We take big companies like Google and Amazon for granted, but we fail to see that these companies are incredibly young compared to peers in other sectors. Google, Amazon, Facebook–they didn’t grow in the traditional way other companies did. They exploded. And those who decide to adopt too late will face a lot of competition who are more seasoned in the online space.

Think about it in historical terms:
-Google was launched as a privately held company in September of 1998. It is now a publicly traded company whose products are used all over the world. “Google” is a verb. You can use it on your desktop your laptop, and on your phone. There’s a good chance it’s your home page. Google is just over ten years old and has over 20,000 employees.

Just eleven years ago, if I told you to “Google” something, you’d probably think I was insulting you. You used the phone book. Remember those?

–Amazon.com launched in 1995. It started by selling books. Amazon now attracts 615 million viewers annually which is twice the traffic of walmart.com. It has websites in the UK, China, France, Germany, and Japan. They are now trying to take over the online book market with the Amazon Kindle.

People thought the founder Jeff Bezos was crazy. Just 15 years ago, you didn’t buy anything online, much less books. Think back on how many brick-and-mortar book stores have closed in just 15 years.

–Facebook launched at Harvard University in 2004. It was still “The Facebook” until 2005. Facebook started as a way for students to keep up with each other, but has since grown to do everything from connecting college buddies to event planning to playing Scrabble to raising $200,000 for Cambodians. Facebook now has over 200 million users in every country but Syria and Iran, where it is banned.

If I told you five years ago that I could use an interactive Rolodex to keep tabs of people all over the world for free, you’d think I was nuts.

Where did you buy music ten years ago? Best Buy? Where do you get it now? How many CD stores are now GONE in just ten years?

People think social media is a fad. Was Google a fad? How much more did early adopters make because they knew how to leverage search engines to be on the top of Google? How much more do established Amazon and eBay sellers make over those who jumped on late out of desperation? Being successful online takes money, work, or preferably both. But it’s not going away and the rates of growth are accelerating even more rapidly than they were before (see Twitter stats)

Whether you are a business owner thinking of improving (or adding) your online presence or a web professional who is selling it, it’s important that we understand the urgency of how the web affects our economy and how we can use it to beef up national GDP, employment and our way of life.

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Apr 22

If Your Customers Could Automatically Hear Your Product’s Story, What Would They Hear?

April 22, 2009 • View Comments • Social Media and Society

As cool as the concept is of new media, there are still some really great shows on old media. As of late, I have been fascinated by the NBC Show “Heroes”. A little late to the game I know, but hey, it’s better late than never.

On “Heroes”, there is a psychopathic killer named Sylar who kills other characters that have special abilities just so he can have them for himself. One of the abilities he acquired is the ability to sense an object or person’s history just by touching it.

Think about walking into a store and knowing where food was grown, where a garment was made, and who put it on the shelf. Think about your computers, cars, houses or antiques. Think about touching a person and knowing all the good and the bad he or she had ever done. If you could have this at your fingertips, would you even want it?

Every product and service has a story somewhere. As more and more information about these products and services comes out on the internet, you won’t have to be Sylar to figure out if it’s good or bad. You’ll know that your Puma shoes were made by young women working long hours for very little money. You’ll know that while the CMO of Unilever preaches about how marketers no longer own their brands, Unilever still produces “food” with trans-fat, which chemically isn’t a food at all and is a huge cause of cardiovascular disease. Whoops.

Some of these stories will be excessively harsh and sensationalistic. Some won’t be harsh enough. Eventually, there get to be enough stories to help you form a clearer idea of the truth. For in the words of Friedrich Nietzsche, “Perspectival seeing is the only kind of seeing there is, perspectival ‘knowing’ is the only kind of ‘knowing’, and the more feelings we get about a matter which we allow to come to expression, the more eyes, different eyes through which we are able to view the same matter, the more complete our ‘conception’ of it, our ‘objectivity’ will be.”

This isn’t speculation and is based on empirical evidence. Statistics show that there are more and more people participating on the web in every region and demographic. Internet and social media usage is going up in every single age demographic according to a Pew Research report. In just eight years, internet usage has increased over 1100 percent in Africa and 1296 percent in the Middle East. Twitter is a great way to find trends and opinions, and has gone from one million users to over ten million in one year.

Look around you. If you could hear the story of items around you by touching them or reading about them on the internet, would you like what you heard?

*P.S. Hopefully NBC won’t ask me to take this post down. Watch “Heroes” on Mondays at 9 PM EST/8 PM CST.

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Apr 20

Why I’m Supporting Brewster McCracken for Mayor of Austin

April 20, 2009 • View Comments • Politics and Current Events

I am backing Brewster McCracken for mayor because I feel he listens to small business leaders here in town. Local politics has always seemed like a drag-out fight between real estate moguls and total hippies, so I find refreshing that someone is willing to listen to a sector of people who positively affect both.

I’m not big into local politics, but I do believe that Austin can take two paths in this digital age. We can sit back and ride the tide, or we can do what we can to become leaders in this space. We need a leader who understands this though.

I’ve traveled in four countries in less than six months and have been to renown web conferences in Europe and in the U.S. We compare ourselves too often to the Valley. Here in Austin, I can get wifi at a Pita Pit or at a baseball game. In Paris or Toronto, I struggled to get internet anywhere and I often had to pay for it. People don’t value or understand “geeks” in most places around the world. As unexcited as people are about technology, they use it and will continue to use it though. Austin is in a good position but we need to advance that position if we want to grow. Software solves problems, and there are tons of problems out there. Most places didn’t advance during the tech boom like we did and aren’t equipped to emerge the way we can.

As quickly as this tech boom came to us, it can go away. The world is competitive and cruel. If you think Austin and Silicon Valley are the only places where software is being built, you are wrong. Places like Estonia, India, the Ukraine, all over the world, people are building software. While you are bootstrapping, networking, and patting yourselves on the back for being a “progressive”, these hungry communities are building applications that the world is using. You can build an application only to see it squashed by the same app that was architected by someone in the UK, constructed by someone in Latvia, and sold for half the price. Austin is progressive, but the world is big and doesn’t care about you. You are just another city that people often consider nice to visit.

This is harsh, but it just means we need a leader who actually listens to the tech community because although we often don’t realize it, our feedback is incredibly valuable and vital to the Austin economy. We need a leader who wants to expand other industries like the biotech, energy, and film sectors too, because a diversified economy is much more recession-proof. We depend on each other, believe it or not. Brewster McCracken is listening to the leaders in these communities and we need to make sure he’s elected.

Lee Leffingwell wants to focus on key city services like roads, police, etc. That’s great, but I’m sorry, the tech industry is getting more and more competitive each day. Do we want a leader who isn’t really paying attention to this stuff, or do we want someone who will actually foster relationships with business leaders to make Austin a global leader in technology, biotech, energy, music and film?

If you are with me, please consider the following actions:
1.) Remember to vote on May 9th.
2.) Express your ideas for Austin at www.ideasforaustin.com and encourage others to do the same.
3.) Consider volunteering for Brewster. You can keep up by subscribing to the email, Twitter, and Facebook updates available at Brewster’s website.

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Apr 17

Why Old Media IS NOT in the Grave

April 17, 2009 • View Comments • Social Media and Society

Yesterday I went to an Austin Social Media Club meeting entitled “Old Media Rises from the Grave”. While I must admit that the vast expense of print and TV production will inevitably push them to a web-based platform, this hasn’t happened yet. TV still pummels online content in terms of sheer influence. Don’t believe me? Here are stats:

1.) Often it feels like online time eats into our TV time. Not so. According to a Nielsen Research report, online consumption AND TV time have gone up. From Q3’07 to Q3’08, TV consumption went up 4.1% for TV and internet consumption went up 5.7%. Only among internet early adopters did TV consumption go down. At what expense? As sad as this is, it is at the expense of our families and our waistlines.

2.) In a McPheters and Company study, eye tracking studies showed that 63% of internet ads weren’t even seen by respondents. Magazines had ad recall almost three times that of Internet banner ads. To top it off, net recall of TV ads was almost twice that of magazine ads. So basically, although they are cheaper, internet ads are just about entirely forgotten by the majority of people.

3.) In terms of sheer volume, old media has new media beat. If I advertise on one episode of American Idol, my ad has the potential of going out to over 24,000,000 people. That’s 24 MILLION active viewers, and the chances of them actually retaining the benefits of my product are much higher. Consider shameless product placement like Ford and Coca-Cola, and the net exposure is even bigger.

If I ask Ashton Kutcher to plug my product in his million person Twitter feed, 1.) I’d probably have to pay him and 2.) those are subscribers, not active viewers. So I wouldn’t have to pay as much, but I wouldn’t get nearly the bang I would get from American Idol. Traditional media just has numbers on its side…for now.

Although new media allows for a much more personable approach to marketing, you have to consider the here and now. And the here and now is saying that people still like shows, news, and everything new media people say is “dead’. Good content drives traffic, no matter it’s source. Right now, the silent majority of people are still watching TV (including myself) and are still looking at passive forms of media. This means my CPM can be lower than it is with online media because although my costs are higher, my impressions are as well.

The two biggest questions marketers must ask are 1.) Where are the people who would benefit from my product and 2.) Where are the influencers that would help promote my product, whether professionally or as consumers? If I’m promoting software for developers, 99.9% of TV shows are stupid avenues. For the majority products however, it is naive and even dangerous to think that old media is completely “dead”. Just because you are an early adopter, it doesn’t mean that the people who pay your paycheck are as well.

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Apr 13

Why I Put So Much Faith in the Internet

April 13, 2009 • View Comments • Politics and Current Events

I absolutely love consuming something that I know is more substance than fluff. There is something to be said when someone pours their time and energy into creating something rather than telling you and everyone else they know about what they’ve created. It’s called craftsmanship, which is something we as Americans have not seen for a long time.

This country came to power under the Ford model. Create something cheaply and efficiently and market it to as many people as humanly possible. This is how the Model T took off. This is how Coca Cola and Nike became big. When you buy a Nike shoe, you spend $100 for a shoe that cost them $6 to produce. How much of that is marketing? How much realistically is R&D?

I spent half a day looking for tennis shoes that were not produced under sweatshop labor. I found out that New Balance has a decent track record. I don’t like New Balance shoes. They are heavy and do not fit my feet well. So I bought a pair of Nikes for just over $100.

$6 went to craftsmanship. I’d say at least another $40 went into marketing. Some went to facilities, distribution and some went to profit.

For $100, what kind of shoe could you produce? Could I have custom insoles? Could I have the lightest shoe possible with the most cushioning? Could I be assured someone didn’t have to work 80 hours a week to produce it? Can you make it last a long time? Can you make it in my favorite colors?

I put faith in the internet because we now have a distribution model that makes getting that shoe made to order much more realistic. Why? 1.) We don’t have to rely on huge, expensive distribution channels to get the word out. More channels equal more specialization. 2.) Our potential audience is much broader. A good website sells in your sleep and doesn’t restrict by geography unless you want it to. 3.) It’s easier to connect with the influencers who would actually be doing their audience a favor by showing them a product that is good. 4.) The competitive nature of the internet punishes products that are margin rich without providing value, as other competitors can offer the same for less.

This isn’t about shoes. This is about work. I don’t want to pay for flash. I am tired of knowing that the products I consume often exploit workers and consumers in order to appease shareholders. This is why although I hate being behind a computer, I put so much value in the work that web professionals do. We are building the model for the new age…

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Apr 07

Gratuitous “Life of Brian” Clip! Hurrah!

April 7, 2009 • View Comments • Social Media and Society

Are we trying too hard to put meaning behind our shoes or are we using them?

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Apr 04

How My Guernsey Cow Would Kick Seth Godin’s Purple Cow’s Ass

April 4, 2009 • View Comments • Online Marketing

“You’re either a Purple Cow or you’re not. You’re either remarkable or invisible. Make your choice.”

That’s Amazon’s description of “marketing guru” Seth Godin’s 2003 book Purple Cow. The description goes on to say “Cows, after you’ve seen one, or two, or ten, are boring. A Purple Cow, though…now that would be something. Purple Cow describes something phenomenal, something counterintuitive and exciting and flat out unbelievable. Every day, consumers come face to face with a lot of boring stuff-a lot of brown cows-but you can bet they won’t forget a Purple Cow. And it’s not a marketing function that you can slap on to your product or service. Purple Cow is inherent. It’s built right in, or it’s not there. Period.”

Guess what? I don’t need a purple cow. I won’t forget it, sure, but it serves no purpose to me. Marketing isn’t about trying to be exceptional–it is about showing your use to the right people. To the point where they look at your product and say, “Thank you for showing me that. That is exactly what I needed to see at this very moment.”

I used to read Seth Godin’s blog regularly but have since found it to be pretty much common sense. Don’t screw over people. Don’t lie. I’m in marketing, so therefore I’m a scumbag by default. OK, check. Got it. He now has a book called Tribes, which says we need good leaders. Got it. Thanks.

I just don’t get why I should be excited about any of this stuff. We are in a recession and as anyone who has seen the downsizes, people aren’t spending. It’s not because marketers aren’t trying to be exceptional. It’s partially because our culture is segmenting and ads aren’t considering audience and placement to adjust. It doesn’t matter what color your cow is. It matters how useful someone actually finds your cow.

How would my Guernsey cow kick Seth Godin’s purple cow’s ass? I’d make sure to feed it only the best food and I’d take very good care of it. Then I’d make some awesome cheese out of it’s milk. I’d then take my cheese and I’d give a little piece to top chefs and I’d pay them for their opinions. They’d give me feedback on how my cheese could make their food better. Eventually my cheese would be so good, they’d probably use it. Because these top chefs use it, the lesser chefs, wannabes, bloggers, talk shows, and magazines would pay attention. Now look at me. My cow isn’t purple. It’s a boring looking brown and white cow. And it’s kicking your purple cow’s ass because it is useful without being all that different, and it’s in front of the right people at the right time.

Marketing isn’t really about trying to be exceptional. It is about understanding how your product or service will improve someone else’s life experience. The exceptional part comes later. Is that crappy black umbrella you bought in the middle of a rain storm in New York City for $30 really that exceptional initially? No. It’s just what you needed when you needed it, so you paid way too much for it. If I sell incredibly sturdy and beautifully designed umbrellas and decide to sell them in Bibi, Arkanasas, I doubt I could get $30 for them despite their being exceptional.

Maybe this case is a matter of semantics, but hey, isn’t that what writing a book actually is?

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