This is a pretty great tool.
12/02/2011
09/30/2010
What “Like” Buttons Mean for Web Traffic
Facebook relays messages from publishers saying that these users “are more engaged and stay longer when their real identity and real friends are driving the experience through social plugins.” As an example, NHL.com reported that pages per user was up by 92%, time on-site was up by 85%, video-viewing increased by 86% more videos and overall visits went up by 36%.
via mashable.com
07/13/2010
The real life social network
Bridging the gap between our online and offline social network
View more presentations from Paul Adams.
A long but good presentation from Paul Adams about the different types of networks people have and how today they're not well replicated online.
07/06/2010
10 Things Every CEO Needs to Know About Product Design
Jason's presentation was focused on the "10 Things Every CEO Needs to Know About Product Design and User Experience". The full presentation is available at the bottom of the post but here are the key highlights:
- Design can change businesses: little things can have a great impact. A simple example: the difference between "I am on Twitter" and "You should follow me on Twitter here" increased the registration rate by 173%!
- Design is more than pretty picture: it is all about the user experience and the brand you are trying to build
- Talk benefits not features: It is much better to write "Understand your money" than "20 colorful configurable charts and graphs". Another way to think about it is Microsoft vs. Apple packaging :+)
- Think in flows, not screens
- Do not make the user think: Make obvious what is clickable, minimize noise, omit needless words
- Start with a great story: Make the value obvious and present it first in the user flow
- User design as a lever: The best marketing tool you can have is a well designed application
- Get out of the office: Watch people experience your product or service
- Have your bible: Synthesize your design guidelines in a company style guide
- Repeat & refine: Allot product cycles to improvement
via cracking-the-code.blogspot.com
Nothing new there, but it's good to have all these things under one roof.
06/30/2010
This Woot video of their acquisition really cracks me up. The best part is at the end in the credits.
06/28/2010
7 harsh realities in social media
Bart De Waele with some excellent home truths for social media:
tagged: Bart De Waele, blogs, corporate blogs, Facebook, presentations, social media, Twitter, User-generated content
via wearesocial.net
Customers accessing an online store via a social media site are 10 times more likely to buy something than others
"Flitting from site to site, it takes a lot to entice today’s shoppers. Once they’ve arrived in an online store, they might sniff around and put a thing or two in the shopping cart – but even when they have typed in their credit card number, there is still no guarantee that the sale will be closed."
Black added: "The modern shopper often looks for reassurance from a positive review, a special offer to make it more affordable, inexpensive delivery options and a quick, easy and secure way to pay."
06/15/2010
It always come down to this: focus on excellence.
Unlisted videos can be a great way for giant brands like Nike to test out their viral endeavors before they officially launch them to the public. ‘Write The Future’ was able to spread via Twitter, Facebook and a multitude of blog posts before it even showed up in a YouTube search for Nike, FIFA, World Cup or other popular search terms. It will be interesting to see if they take the same approach to their viral campaigns in the future.
It doesn’t hurt that Nike is a huge international brand—of course word started to spread when people heard that there was a “leaked” unlisted Nike video on YouTube. However, if the content of that video had not been truly amazing there is no way it would have gotten the coverage that it did. The ‘Write The Future’ campaign is a great example of how a campaign will spread via world of mouth if it truly is remarkable. Do you think Nike and other brands will use unlisted videos to gauge their viral campaigns in the future?
Another good reminder that focusing on top quality is the key to generating some good user love. Steve Jobs knows that very well of course.
06/14/2010
Steve Blank on work/life balance
We would have a family dinner at home most nights of the week. Regardless of what I was doing I had to be home by 7pm. (My kids still remember mom secretly feeding them when they were hungry at 5pm, but eating again with dad at 7pm.) But we would use dinner time to talk about what they did at school, have family meetings etc. Put the kids to bed. Since I was already home for dinner it was fun to help give them their baths, read them stories and put them to bed. I never understood how important the continuity of time between dinner through bedtime was until my kids mentioned it as teenagers. Act and be engaged. My kids and wife had better antenna than I thought. If I was home but my head was elsewhere and not mentally engaged they would call me on it. So I figured out how to spit the flow of the day in half. I would work 10 hours a day in the office, come home and then… Back to work after the kids were in bed. What my kids never saw is that as soon as they were in bed I was back on the computer and back at work for another 4 or 5 hours until the wee hours of the morning. Weekends were with and for my kids. There was always some adventure on the weekends. I think we must have went to the zoo, beach, museum, picnic, amusement park, etc. a 100 times. Half a day work on Saturday. While weekends were for my kids I did go to work on Saturday morning. But my kids would come with me. This had two unexpected consequences; my kids still remember that work was very cool. They liked going in with me and they said it helped them understand what dad did at “work.” Second, it set a cultural norm at my startups, first at Supermac as the VP of Marketing, then at Rocket Science as the CEO and at E.piphany as President. (Most Silicon Valley startups have great policies for having your dog at work but not your kids.) Long vacations. We would take at least a 3-week vacation every summer. Since my wife and I liked to hike we’d explore national parks around the U.S. (Alaska, Wyoming, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Maine.) When the kids got older our adventures took us to Mexico, Ecuador, India, Africa and Europe. The trips gave them a sense that the rest of the country and the world was not Silicon Valley and that their lives were not the norm. Never miss an event. As my kids got older there were class plays, soccer games, piano and dance performances, birthdays, etc. I never missed one if I was in town, sometimes even if it was in the middle of the day. (And I made sure I was in town for the major events.) Engage your spouse. I asked my wife to read and critique every major presentation and document I wrote. Everything she touched was much better for it. What my investors never knew is that they were getting two of us for the price of one. (And one of us actually went to business school.) It helped her understand what
via steveblank.com
Very interesting read for all of us who tend to work a bit too much...
05/17/2010
"It’s as if the site is reading my mind—the pinnacle of a good user experience"
It’s as if the site is reading my mind—the pinnacle of a good user experience.
I’ve stayed at all three of these hotels and the room, food, customer service and amenities were all impeccable. I was already planning to go back to the Opposite House in May, but thanks to Jetsetter I got a great rate. As for The Somona Mission Inn and the Royal Palms, I had stayed at both in the last few years as part of speaking gigs where my rate was included in my fee. I never thought go back, even though I enjoyed the experience because the rates were out of my normal writer-salary price range. But the Sonoma Mission Inn for less than $200 a night is suddenly a do-able weekend getaway. What’s more: Because Jetsetter has picked three of the best hotels out of the 40 or so I’ve stayed at in the past few years, I just trust its recommendation on nearly any property they show me in a way that I don’t on any other site. Like a friend, I feel like we have the same taste.
via techcrunch.com
Very interesting analysis from @sarahlacy
Recent Comments