From Spoonfed Design:
1. Warm Up
2. Always Get Inspired
3. Move on to Something New
4. Work Somewhere Else
5. Get Outside
This is starting to sound like symptoms of adult ADD.
// you know you’re from wisconsin when you walk outside, it’s 29 degrees, and you tell those inside; “yeah, it’s a bit chilly this morning.”
I feel like such a lemming, but here’s my GPOYW (courtesy Adobe Illustrator Live Trace feature).
Clay Shirky: to see how tech can lead to social change, ask people who’ve done it what works and what doesn’t (via socialreporter). Long version.
“The way we hang on to important patterns of behaviour is through storytelling…” (from the video). That is so important. It reminds me of something I heard on this week’s episode of SOF:
Because that is the only way we can make sense out of life, is through the stories.
(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
// nothing better than a 2 mile hike in 20 degree weather to make me feel at home.
The (read) sky (between) is (the) falling (lines)
AdAge.com opens an article with these dismal facts:
Newspaper ad revenue fell almost $2 billion in the third quarter for a record 18.1% decline, according to new statistics from the Newspaper Association of America. What’s worse, newspapers’ online ad revenue fell for the second quarter in a row.
In another, companion article titled “Huffington Post More Valuable Than Some Newspaper Cos.,” AdAge.com offers this regarding blog value versus newspaper value:
The [$100 million] funding means Arianna Huffington’s news blog is now considered more valuable by its backers than quite a few publicly traded newspaper companies…
The irony is that The Huffington Post “rarely provide original content” (to quote myself) but “select and repackage… information.”
In a CJR piece by Robert Kuttner with an urgent deck that reads “Newspapers have a bright future as print-digital hybrids after all — but they’d better hurry,” he writes of an interview with a 21-year old colleague. In their conversation he attempts to establish an argument in defense of the printed newspaper. Mr. Kuttner writes:
By now I was feeling very last century. And then Ezra… handed me a trump. You have one thing right, he volunteered. The best material on the Internet consistently comes from Web sites run by print organizations.
My take away is this:
- Newspapers that don’t adapt to the print-digital hybrid should go the way of the buffalo.
- Newspapers that embrace the print-digital hybrid should do so quickly and reorganize as a news organization using the full depth of the new media platform. After all, newspapers are content providers who have been relying on a single (print) platform too long.
- The Huffington Post is funded. In a little known interview, the publisher of World magazine made the following statement:
As public companies that do most of the news-gathering cut back on their investments… We see an opportunity to increase news resources in the non-profit world. We may be looking at a paradigm shift in this industry from for-profit news-gathering to non-profit news-gathering.
http://blip.tv/play/gf432J1PhuYl
(via Rule 29) Link
“process, culture, and brand”
Now, consider Zappos #1 core value:
- Deliver WOW Through Service
(Source: http://blip.tv/)
“The average church in America has less than a 15% retention rate of first-time visitors. If I owned a pizza parlor and more than 85% of the people who ate there once decided to never come back, I would think a mailer might just kill the business.”
So let’s forget the “V” word [viral] for a moment and talk about the “C” word: community.
Excellent piece on brands/social networks/marketing/customer service from AdAge.com:
But brands need to know a few things before they head down the community path. The web is saturated with communities…. Brands do potentially have opportunities to act as what I’ll call “facilitators,” but they have to be willing to start with a bit if research and then ask themselves if they are really willing to do what it takes to start and maintain a community.
And now the four C’s:
Content
Quality content is a great way to attract the people who are needed to form the elusive community that your brand is hoping to help build…. [keep] the content itself fresh and relevant.Context
Context means understanding how to meet people where they are and serving them the right experience at the right time….Connectivity
Designing experiences that support thousands of micro-interactions means you are making a commitment vs. trying to produce a one-hit wonder. Communities can in theory be the new CRM (Customer Relationship Management), but require people to mind them….Continuity
Communities that thrive often evolve to meet the needs of users…. need to be flexible to evolve while still providing a valuable and consistent user experience which can be sustained.
And the take away:
…building a community looks less like marketing and more like customer relationship management….
// so many rss feeds. so little time to read them all. how many rss feeds is too much?
// so three guys were toking weed at the bus stop. they get on the bus giggling. i’m not sure if i prefer the drunks or the stoners.
// i just stumbled through a few mountains of self-published books. FURcryinoutLOUD! UG-lee. hire an editor and a graphic designer.
// strong brand = (consistent customer experience + satisfied customer experience)
// what a monday. glad it is over, but i must say it was a very good and productive day. now, tuesday, what do you have in store for me?
// yes. i’m videochatting right now (which means i’m green… but really i’m red… more google lingo).
scumblr: lickystickypicky:
When I get my first coffee I better not find one of these (although I do not agree that all 8 types on this list are annoying)
When I get my first coffee I better not find one of these (although I do not agree that all 8 types on this list are annoying)
Know your audience
From The Huffington Post:
Make no mistake, to the surprise of no one the news networks saw a decline in viewers, but at the end of the day Fox News weathered the post-election storm better then the competition.
Marketing take-away: Loyalty can not be bought with a well-designed brand or branding campaigns. In the case of Fox News, it is not the catchy phrase: ‘We report. You decide.’ Customer retention equals positive customer experience.
// the office water heater expired over the weekend. a dozen fans roar so loud i wonder if i work at an airport or just have a bad hangover.
// well, that’s a day. i’m leaving the office glow of the laptop screen and heading home to warm under the glow of a macbookpro screen.
Coffeehouse Junkie 