Drew Rattray
| News and views on design vs. functionality balance across the communications and technology space.
March 2009
You are browsing the archive for March 2009.
The Brand Bubble
March 26, 2009Welcome to the last day of my adventure at SES 2009. I'm fairly exhausted, getting up at 5:30 AM to make the trains and going to bed at 2 AM because I'm trying not to get too far behind on my responsibilities at TMC. I'm looking forward to my nap on the train back home tonight.
This morning began with a keynote by John Gerzema, Chief Insights Officer, Young & Rubicam Group, and author of The Brand Bubble: The looming Crisis in Brand Value and How to Avoid It. Everyone who grabbed the bag of throwaways at registration also received this book on Tuesday morning. I wasn't lugging mine around all week, so I'll just have to deal without getting it signed.
To download the presentation, go to http://www.thebrandbubble.com/blog. It's actually very well put together and does a good job of displaying all of his points.
The beginning of the keynote really focused on driving the point home that we are in a recession. I could have done with out it. I read about it every day, I'm surrounded with it. In fact on the train this morning I'm pretty sure that I noticed the front page of the New York Times had a picture of the new Hoovervilles (Tent Cities) popping up in California. A lot of scary facts and graphs that all had downward trends, a video sob story about a janitor who can't find any other employment, but used to be an executive at a Fortune 500 company. Thanks, we all know we could be on the street tomorrow. There's no need to remind us.
The rest of his presentation really focused on how the consumer is getting back to the basics and is looking for brands that they can trust. By trust he means that these brands are transparent, have integrity, offer savings, and promote a long lasting product. Every purchase is becoming an investment for the long term. Prove that you're their man... I mean brand.
With the consumer going back to the basics, the brands need to follow suit. Every recession ends, and a great brand will come out of it greatly improved. Don't just search engine optimize. Brand optimize as well. Align your brand and business strategy. Provide value and values.
Oh and by the way, according to John's research, Coupon use is up 300%. You may want to start working them into your marketing call to actions.
Facebook Workshop: Harnessing the Social Graph
March 25, 2009This was actually one of the more disappointing tracks from this week at SES 2009 so far. I don't mean to complain about Facebook any more than I already have on my blog, but for a company that is being regarded as one of the hottest marketing tools today... this just felt unprofessional and for the most part worthless to anyone that was already familiar with the social platform.
Kasey Galang, Product Marketing Manager and Rebecca Sawyer, Online Sales Operations Manager at Facebook spent 30 minutes trying to guide us through the social graph and provide tips and tricks for leveraging and optimizing our advertising on Facebook.
Kasey isn't much of a public speaker, and the lack of fresh information coupled with her monotone and very unenthusiastic voice really got this track off to a slow start. Rebecca was a bit more captivating but she followed up with information that I felt was mostly common sense. The question and answer session was comical. After each question the two girls would whisper to each as if they were contestants preparing an answer for the old Double Dare show. After each little secret session, one of them (usually Kasey) would pop back up to the microphone with an answer that revolved around the phrase, "Nothing I can report on today".
Basically the presentation broke down into these few useful bits of information:
Basically, nothing new for me here, but maybe someone else out there will find some of this useful. Personally, I was very unimpressed by the presentation put on by the people at Facebook.
Discover the Power of Linking: Link Building Basics
March 25, 2009My first track of day 2 at SES 2009 NYC is another fundamentals session. These sessions may seem a little basic to developers, but they are some of the most valuable to attend if you aren't missing out on something else in the same time slot. As in anything in life, you can't be the best, or even succeed for that matter, if you can't execute the basics of your practice. This track was another reassurance that the strategies I have been using also work for the "experts" in the field (there's that word again). The art of SEO consists of a lot of trial and error, and it's nice to know people you respect in your field are using the same strategies.
The track was moderated by Chris Boggs, Director, SEO, Rosetta. The speaker panel consisted of Kristjan Mar Hauksson, Dir. Search & Online Comm./ Managing Partner, Nordic eMarketing; Debra Mastaler, President, Alliance-Link; Sharad Verma, Senior Product Manager, Yahoo! Search Technology; Sasi Parthasarathy, Program Manager, Live Search, Microsoft; Ankur Choksi, Director, Search Technology, Ask.com; Peter van der Graaf, Advanced Search Specialist, Netsociety.
It focused on how search
engines rely on link analysis as an important component for rank web pages and how to increase traffic to your site by building quality links in an
appropriate manner. The following is a
few choice nuggets of information I thought summed up the track and were
important enough to share:
Landing Page Testing and Tuning
March 24, 2009
This was another valuable track I had the pleasure of attending today at Search Engine Strategies Conference and Expo 2009 New York. It was a solo presentation by Tim Ash, President, SiteTuners, and author of Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing & Tuning for Conversions. Tim is an exceptional speaker, and kept the audience involved throughout the track. He even went to the lengths of handing out $20's for correct answers to questions he asked the audience (after the first $20 was handed out, everyone was very eager to stay involved). I also had the pleasure of speaking with Tim after the session at the Google booth and received a complimentary signed copy of his book.
Tim's introductory lesson in tuning your site is that your web visitiors should influence the design of your site. Not your ad agency, or your webmaster, or your marketing department, or your I.T. people, or even your boss. The people you make your money off of should be responsible for telling you how they want everything laid out to make their life easier.
Be careful when you try to cram multiple elements into your design as well. Each element in itself may look and work great, but if not put together in the proper context, you'll end up with a page that looks like frankestein. Basically, a lot of piecies sewn together that just don't fit right and don't belong togther. Usually makes for something pretty ugly.
Most importantly he listed his 7 deadly sins to landing page design:
Unclear call to action (CTA). Make whatever you want the user to do when navigating to your page VERY obvious. Small or unclear CTAs get lost in the mix.Too many visual distractions. Don't surprise people with pop ups or gimics. If the information is so valuable, work it into your design.Too much text. Human beings are not web spiders, they won't stay long enough to read more than 300 words.Lack of Upstream Continuity. You need to make sure links and indexing of your site match the intent of your site. Don't offer things like reviews and then link them to a subscribe page. Keep your promises. Give the review and then offer subscriptions as the main CTA on the review page.Long Forms. Remove all of your non required fields. If you don't require it, don't ask for it.Invisible risk reducers. Let users know they are safe on your site. Don't hide those messages in the footers.Lack of trust indicators. Drop names and well known logos into your pages to help your credibility and trust, even things as generic as "As seen on TV".Thanks for the book and the presentation Tim. Extremely valuable SEO information.
Tim's introductory lesson in tuning your site is that your web visitiors should influence the design of your site. Not your ad agency, or your webmaster, or your marketing department, or your I.T. people, or even your boss. The people you make your money off of should be responsible for telling you how they want everything laid out to make their life easier.
Be careful when you try to cram multiple elements into your design as well. Each element in itself may look and work great, but if not put together in the proper context, you'll end up with a page that looks like frankestein. Basically, a lot of piecies sewn together that just don't fit right and don't belong togther. Usually makes for something pretty ugly.
Most importantly he listed his 7 deadly sins to landing page design:
Unclear call to action (CTA). Make whatever you want the user to do when navigating to your page VERY obvious. Small or unclear CTAs get lost in the mix.Too many visual distractions. Don't surprise people with pop ups or gimics. If the information is so valuable, work it into your design.Too much text. Human beings are not web spiders, they won't stay long enough to read more than 300 words.Lack of Upstream Continuity. You need to make sure links and indexing of your site match the intent of your site. Don't offer things like reviews and then link them to a subscribe page. Keep your promises. Give the review and then offer subscriptions as the main CTA on the review page.Long Forms. Remove all of your non required fields. If you don't require it, don't ask for it.Invisible risk reducers. Let users know they are safe on your site. Don't hide those messages in the footers.Lack of trust indicators. Drop names and well known logos into your pages to help your credibility and trust, even things as generic as "As seen on TV".Thanks for the book and the presentation Tim. Extremely valuable SEO information.
SEO: Where to Next?
March 24, 2009
As I go through my 3 days at the Search Engine Strategies Conference and Expo 2009 New York, I figure I'll blog an in depth overview of a few of the tracks I attend. Again, if you want up-to-the-minute updates on everything I attend, follow my tweets.
"SEO: Where to Next?" was a great warm up track to get everything rolling for me at this conference. The track was a basic overview and panel discussion on where to get started with SEO, and the basics of what does and does not work. The discussion was moderated by Jeff Ferguson, SES Advisory Board, Director of Online Marketing, Napster. The speaker panel consisted of Cindy Krum, Founder and CEO, Rank-Mobile; Anne Kennedy, SES Advisory Board, Managing Partner and Founder, Beyond Ink; Seth Besmertnik, CEO & Co-Founder, Conductor, Inc.; and
Ray "Catfish" Comstock, Senior Search Strategist, BusinessOnLine.
I felt a lot of this was a reassurance for me that everything I've learned and all of my current practices in Search Engine Optimization also seem to work for the "experts" in the field, or at least the ones who get paid to speak at conferences. Guess that makes me an expert too, huh? In my experience with search engines, as soon as you think you have everything figured out... something goes very wrong and you start back at square one. Be very careful who you call an "expert".
Here are some key points I thought warranted mention from the track. Granted these are not direct quotes and I've reinterpreted and broken down a few:
SEO is not FREE. It's going to cost you if you want it done right. Work it into the budget.SEO is no longer a level playing field. Companies are spending 6 figures per year on these programs.Incompetent SEO needs to stop. People are paying millions on myths and strategies that don't work.Your developers need to know SEO. Too many developers are actually working against their own online marketing strategies.FLash, FLEX, and AJAX must be developed search friendly. If they aren't developed correctly, they can't be found by a search engine, which basically translates into that info not existing.Search engines tend to "judge a book by its cover". Your cover is your title tag, h1 tag, and first paragraph. Make sure they have content focused on your keyword objective.Become independent of Google, use the social networks.Don't buy links, buy entire sites. If you need to, create another site that talks about how great content in your main site is.Try not to make new links when updating your site. Instead, update the old links.Bulk SEO changes/fixes DO NOT WORK. Make minor adjustments and monitor changes.If you are in the top 30 of Google, try getting more links to increase ranking. If you are lower, add more related content to your site.If you are going to be the SEO for your company, know SEO, be a social media savant, understand business development, understand marketing, and be a web master at heart.Unique and quality content win the race.Great track, a little dull at times, but full of valuable information. Thank you to the speakers and moderator for a job well done.
"SEO: Where to Next?" was a great warm up track to get everything rolling for me at this conference. The track was a basic overview and panel discussion on where to get started with SEO, and the basics of what does and does not work. The discussion was moderated by Jeff Ferguson, SES Advisory Board, Director of Online Marketing, Napster. The speaker panel consisted of Cindy Krum, Founder and CEO, Rank-Mobile; Anne Kennedy, SES Advisory Board, Managing Partner and Founder, Beyond Ink; Seth Besmertnik, CEO & Co-Founder, Conductor, Inc.; and
Ray "Catfish" Comstock, Senior Search Strategist, BusinessOnLine.
I felt a lot of this was a reassurance for me that everything I've learned and all of my current practices in Search Engine Optimization also seem to work for the "experts" in the field, or at least the ones who get paid to speak at conferences. Guess that makes me an expert too, huh? In my experience with search engines, as soon as you think you have everything figured out... something goes very wrong and you start back at square one. Be very careful who you call an "expert".
Here are some key points I thought warranted mention from the track. Granted these are not direct quotes and I've reinterpreted and broken down a few:
SEO is not FREE. It's going to cost you if you want it done right. Work it into the budget.SEO is no longer a level playing field. Companies are spending 6 figures per year on these programs.Incompetent SEO needs to stop. People are paying millions on myths and strategies that don't work.Your developers need to know SEO. Too many developers are actually working against their own online marketing strategies.FLash, FLEX, and AJAX must be developed search friendly. If they aren't developed correctly, they can't be found by a search engine, which basically translates into that info not existing.Search engines tend to "judge a book by its cover". Your cover is your title tag, h1 tag, and first paragraph. Make sure they have content focused on your keyword objective.Become independent of Google, use the social networks.Don't buy links, buy entire sites. If you need to, create another site that talks about how great content in your main site is.Try not to make new links when updating your site. Instead, update the old links.Bulk SEO changes/fixes DO NOT WORK. Make minor adjustments and monitor changes.If you are in the top 30 of Google, try getting more links to increase ranking. If you are lower, add more related content to your site.If you are going to be the SEO for your company, know SEO, be a social media savant, understand business development, understand marketing, and be a web master at heart.Unique and quality content win the race.Great track, a little dull at times, but full of valuable information. Thank you to the speakers and moderator for a job well done.
Search Engine Strategies Conference and Expo 2009 New York kicks off with twitter
March 24, 2009
I've been so busy recently with the daily grind at TMC that I completely forgot to mention that I will be attending the Search Engine Strategies Conference and Expo 2009 in New York City Tuesday through Thursday this week. In preparation for the conference, I joined twitter yesterday to better understand their Tuesday Keynote by Guy Kawasaki, the author of Reality Check. As a secondary goal I was going to tweet during each track I attended so that my colleagues at TMC and the rest of the world could keep up with up-to-the-minute notes. Yeah I know... I recently complained about the people who update their facebook status every few minutes, and now I'm tweeting. I'm a sell out. Shoot me.
After an express train out of White Plains to Grand Central and a brisk 15 minute walk to the Hilton, I received a warm cup of coffee and an equally as warm welcome from the folks running this show. Registration was a little slow, and the lines were lengthy, but I was ushered through fast enough to get a good seat for Guy's presentation titled "Twitter as a Tool for Social Media". The session was captivating to say the least and it really helped me understand the power twitter has in delivering your message to the masses. Guy managed to convince me that twitter just may be "the most powerful marketing tool since television." The best news though is that it's free to everyone, unlike marketing on TV. Also the field is level and the rules are the same for everyone. If you are Britney Spears or a nobody, you all have 140 characters to get your message out.
I'm sold, and Guy provided me with a lot of hints and resources to work my own magic with twitter.
After an express train out of White Plains to Grand Central and a brisk 15 minute walk to the Hilton, I received a warm cup of coffee and an equally as warm welcome from the folks running this show. Registration was a little slow, and the lines were lengthy, but I was ushered through fast enough to get a good seat for Guy's presentation titled "Twitter as a Tool for Social Media". The session was captivating to say the least and it really helped me understand the power twitter has in delivering your message to the masses. Guy managed to convince me that twitter just may be "the most powerful marketing tool since television." The best news though is that it's free to everyone, unlike marketing on TV. Also the field is level and the rules are the same for everyone. If you are Britney Spears or a nobody, you all have 140 characters to get your message out.
I'm sold, and Guy provided me with a lot of hints and resources to work my own magic with twitter.
Pandora Available For BlackBerry, But Not The Storm
March 19, 2009
The charade continues...
Pandora has finally released an app for the BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Curve, and BlackBerry Pearl handsets... but of course nothing for the BlackBerry Storm.
Follow this link to find out if the application supports your handset model, and to obtain download information.
Meanwhile, I'll still be listening to Slacker Personal Radio.
Pandora has finally released an app for the BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Curve, and BlackBerry Pearl handsets... but of course nothing for the BlackBerry Storm.
Follow this link to find out if the application supports your handset model, and to obtain download information.
Meanwhile, I'll still be listening to Slacker Personal Radio.
New iPod Shuffle Might Just Be Too Small
March 13, 2009
Apple has been following a trend of going smaller and sleeker with their designs, and continue to push the envelope with the introduction of the new iPod Shuffle this week. Even though it now has 4GB of memory (1,000 songs), it's about half the volume of the last version...which was already just slightly bigger than a quarter. The unit now basically looks like a stick of Orbit gum in an aluminum wrapper with a headphone jack and a clip. It still has no screen. It also has no controls on the unit itself other than the on/off switch, there's no room. Instead, they moved them to the wire of the custom Apple headphones.
New features include something called VoiceOver, where for the first time on an iPod Shuffle you can identify what or who you are listening to from a soothing male voice that comes directly from the iPod.
Yes...your iPod can now talk to you.
Personally, I'm not sold on this feature. I make the playlists that load onto my old Shuffle, so I know it's music that I enjoy and can already identify on my own. The name of the iPod is the "Shuffle", so you can conclude pretty quickly that its entire purpose is to randomly shuffle through what you loaded into it. The whole thing just seems unnecessary. It's a weak attempt at trying to give some kind of playlist control, without a display, to a unit that really doesn't require it.
Anyways, I'm harping on a feature that in my eyes (or ears) doesn't really matter.
What's the biggest reason for me not upgrading my old iPod Shuffle? The controls being moved to the earbuds. Currently, in order for this new iPod to work, you MUST use the custom Apple earbuds for this iPod. It's the only way to get it to work, because they are the only ones with the controls. Apple has said it is working with headphone makers to develop compatible earphones for the shuffle, but nothing else is on the market so far. I don't know about most people, but Apple earbuds destroy my ears, and the quality isn't anything to brag about. I'm in pain by the 3rd or 4th song, and want them out immediately. I'm pretty particular about sound quality and comfort and have invested in Bose Tri-Port In-Ear Headphones for my mobile listening pleasure. CNET doesn't give them the greatest review, but I think the sound from them is amazing and they are probably the most comfortable headphones I have ever used.
I'm not very keen on the idea of replacing my favorite headphones (which cost more than the new $80 shuffle to begin with) with something sub-par just because Apple decided smaller is better.
New features include something called VoiceOver, where for the first time on an iPod Shuffle you can identify what or who you are listening to from a soothing male voice that comes directly from the iPod.
Yes...your iPod can now talk to you.
Personally, I'm not sold on this feature. I make the playlists that load onto my old Shuffle, so I know it's music that I enjoy and can already identify on my own. The name of the iPod is the "Shuffle", so you can conclude pretty quickly that its entire purpose is to randomly shuffle through what you loaded into it. The whole thing just seems unnecessary. It's a weak attempt at trying to give some kind of playlist control, without a display, to a unit that really doesn't require it.
Anyways, I'm harping on a feature that in my eyes (or ears) doesn't really matter.
What's the biggest reason for me not upgrading my old iPod Shuffle? The controls being moved to the earbuds. Currently, in order for this new iPod to work, you MUST use the custom Apple earbuds for this iPod. It's the only way to get it to work, because they are the only ones with the controls. Apple has said it is working with headphone makers to develop compatible earphones for the shuffle, but nothing else is on the market so far. I don't know about most people, but Apple earbuds destroy my ears, and the quality isn't anything to brag about. I'm in pain by the 3rd or 4th song, and want them out immediately. I'm pretty particular about sound quality and comfort and have invested in Bose Tri-Port In-Ear Headphones for my mobile listening pleasure. CNET doesn't give them the greatest review, but I think the sound from them is amazing and they are probably the most comfortable headphones I have ever used.
I'm not very keen on the idea of replacing my favorite headphones (which cost more than the new $80 shuffle to begin with) with something sub-par just because Apple decided smaller is better.
What Happens To My Facebook When I Die?
March 4, 2009
I've been pretty sick recently, and while thrashing in bed with fever, my mind tends to race across questions people normally don't ask. During one such evening this week, my thoughts touched on the fact that there must be a decent percentage of real estate on Facebook... that is dead. Come to think of it, that number is ever increasing.
I know Facebook is still young in the grand scheme of life, and right now the number of living users greatly outweighs the dead ones, but what about the future? What do you do with all of the dead accounts? Leave them as "Memorials" as Facebook policy suggests? Build a sister site like mydeathspace.com , to list out the profiles as obituaries? People like Stephanie Bemister don't think so.
More importantly, what do you do when someone dies that you are friends with? Do you un-friend them? Do you leave them a message, or comment on their wall? Send them a gift or... *gulp* poke them?
The functionality of Facebook has allowed people to document their daily rituals and their entire adult lives on Facebook. A perfect autobiography of sorts. Pictures, comments, reactions, friends, family, personality, random thoughts... etc. It seems a shame to get rid of it, but morbid to keep it.
I've actually been very confused as to what I would do. I'm not looking forward to the day I'm forced to figure it out either.
I know Facebook is still young in the grand scheme of life, and right now the number of living users greatly outweighs the dead ones, but what about the future? What do you do with all of the dead accounts? Leave them as "Memorials" as Facebook policy suggests? Build a sister site like mydeathspace.com , to list out the profiles as obituaries? People like Stephanie Bemister don't think so.
More importantly, what do you do when someone dies that you are friends with? Do you un-friend them? Do you leave them a message, or comment on their wall? Send them a gift or... *gulp* poke them?
The functionality of Facebook has allowed people to document their daily rituals and their entire adult lives on Facebook. A perfect autobiography of sorts. Pictures, comments, reactions, friends, family, personality, random thoughts... etc. It seems a shame to get rid of it, but morbid to keep it.
I've actually been very confused as to what I would do. I'm not looking forward to the day I'm forced to figure it out either.
