While flipping channels, I ran across an episode of City Confidential, a show that takes viewers on a trip to an American city while recounting a murder there. This particular episode involved two business partners - one was convicted of killing the other. The murder victim was apparently exceptionally hard working and capable, and was abandoning the shared business due to the poor performance and lack of effort on the part of the other owner. The slacker parter, seeing that the business was already in trouble and would certainly fail without the other’s contributions, was found to have killed him - apparently to take advantage of a hefty “key man” insurance policy that would have paid the firm’s debts and left the remaining partner well-capitalized and in full control. While few business partnerships will lead to murder, lots of them do generate hard feelings when the partners seem to have different expectations for their effort and performance. Nowhere is that more true than with Web businesses.
Got a brand new website you want to promote? Wondering how to get traffic and improve Google rankings? Google’s webmaster Svengali Matt Cutts clued us in at the recent Pubcon in Las Vegas: start a blog. (You were expecting, maybe, “buy a bunch of links?” ) Matt pointed out that Wordpress was mostly pre-optimized for search engines - the latest versions reduce duplicate content issues, page structure, titles, etc., fit Google’s recommendations, and keyword URLs are easy to generate. We’ve been blog advocates for years, but Matt’s blunt recommendations was still a bit of a surprise. Let’s look at why adding a blog to a new (or even old) site can be a good idea.
Tired of high tech designs that look hopelessly dated in just a few years? Longing for a more Victorian sensibility? You may need to get up to speed with steampunk, a design movement whose participants hack new tech devices (and more) into steam-era exteriors. The photo is a late-model Hewlett Packard computer repackaged by Richard Nagy into something that Arthur Conan Doyle might use to peck out Sherlock Holmes’ next adventure.
Verizon finally managed to push me into the arms of the competition. I was a fairly happy voice subscriber. I tested an XV6700 way back in March, and liked it. I decided to hold off, though, since the release of the XV6800 (pictured months earlier in various tech blogs), was supposed to be imminent. I was more than content to wait a few weeks for the superior hardware while still maintaining my Verizon relationship.
Today, I was driving in San Francisco with a couple of other SEO-types and we spotted a prominent billboard for Google’s 411 service. The sign wasn’t too specific, but it conveyed that it was a free directory information service of some type. So, being intrepid explorers, we gave it a whirl from the car. First, we spoke the city, “San Francisco.” Then, we were prompted for a business name or category. We thought residential lookup might have been an option, but on the spur of the moment, we gave it “restaurants”. We were then prompted for an address or an intersection, and it recognized “Market and Valencia” without a hitch. In each case, the speech recognition was correct on the first try and our input was repeated for confirmation. It then proceeded to list restaurants close to that location, offering to connect us with their phone number or text the info to our cell phone. Both features worked fine. Three jaded techies were impressed by the accuracy and overall functionality.
Apple’s not perfect - I just chronicled a couple of their miscues in Apple iPhone: Turning Off Fans. Despite that, Apple looks like a PR and branding genius compared to AT&T. Compare the introduction of Apple’s iPhone to the AT&T Tilt. Apple announced a launch date with lots of time for anticipation to build. AT&T delayed launching the Tilt past many rumored dates, and finally announced the official release date of October 5, 2007. That’s good, but AT&T waited until October 4 to make the announcement, leaving less than 24 hours for anticipation to build. Advantage: Apple.The iPhone got mostly good reviews, although reviewers pointed out some of its shortcomings, like the battery than must be factory-serviced. The reviews on the AT&T Tilt have been almost uniformly very positive, though perhaps expectations were somewhat different for the two models. Advantage: Draw.
Every community operator knows that it takes different kinds of participants to be successful. Some people come looking for answers, others come to help. Some like to expound at length, while others say little. Some are lurkers, others are prolific contributors. Researchers from Cornell and Microsoft have produced some interesting research that graphically represents different community roles.
No company in modern corporate history has developed a more cultlike, devoted customer base than Apple. I’ve often cited them as an example of what other firms strive for, or should strive for, in bonding with their customers. Now, Apple seems intent on turning the iPhone, which began as a public relations coup, into a PR disaster. Even worse, their corporate bullying isn’t targeting the competition, but rather their loyal customers. Apple has been cited as a shining star in just about every book on corporate branding; now they are rewriting branding strategy themselves. Here are the first two chapters in Apple’s guide on how to turn fans into sullen, disaffected owners:
“Release no smartphone before its time” seems to be the slogan of both AT&T and Verizon. My romance with HTC slide-style smartphones began all the way back in March of this year, when I tested the Verizon XV6700. I liked it a lot, but ultimately returned it after learning that the release of the newer, sleeker, and more powerful Verizon XV6800 was “imminent.” Weeks passed, then months, with no XV6800 in sight. Apple introduced its iPhone - I was sure this would spur Verizon into action, if only to piggyback on the iPhone hoopla. As the XV6800 release date receded into the ever-more-distant future, I transferred my affections to the AT&T Tilt, not so much because of the Tilt’s slanted display but because the projected release date was a month or two earlier than Verizon’s.
Online community builders love to toss around gross numbers - twenty thousand members, two million posts, and so on. Amid all the statistics, it’s important to recognize that all community members aren’t created equal - some are a lot more prolific. In Why Users Create Content, we cited a McKinsey research brief, How companies can make the most of user-generated content. In addition to offering reasons that explain why users post content, the report also included interesting data showing that a small number of users are responsible for creating the bulk of the content on most community sites.
) Matt pointed out that Wordpress was mostly pre-optimized for search engines - the latest versions reduce duplicate content issues, page structure, titles, etc., fit Google’s recommendations, and keyword URLs are easy to generate. We’ve been blog advocates for years, but Matt’s blunt recommendations was still a bit of a surprise. Let’s look at why adding a blog to a new (or even old) site can be a good idea.
Every community operator knows that it takes different kinds of participants to be successful. Some people come looking for answers, others come to help. Some like to expound at length, while others say little. Some are lurkers, others are prolific contributors. Researchers from Cornell and Microsoft have produced some interesting research that graphically represents different community roles.
Online community builders love to toss around gross numbers - twenty thousand members, two million posts, and so on. Amid all the statistics, it’s important to recognize that all community members aren’t created equal - some are a lot more prolific. In