Archive for January, 2007

I had fun with the animated avatar - it was like adding a little personality to the mybloglog gadgets, but today I saw the first signs of abuse - and it felt like a banner ad. So I’m back to my standard mug. And little kitten will have to dance here in my blog instead.

At least 10 times weekly I receive a reply to an email to an AOL user sent perhaps 10-12 days ago (around 1100 emails ago for me.) The reply will go something like this:

To: scott
Fr: johndoe@aol.com
Subject: RE: Website
————————
That will be fine!
thanks!

John

(end of message)

AGGGHHH!!!

AOL has now offloaded work to the recipient of the reply to go and figure what in the world the message is agreeing to. Not only does it cost time, but it further erodes the AOL reputation among those trying to use email for conversation.

Why AOL so intent on saving small amounts of bandwidth by killing previous reply information in emails? Okay, yes, I’m sure it adds up…but isn’t it time for AOL to change the “default” mode of reply to include previous messages? How about doing it by default for broadband connections at least?

Perhaps you could filter out those with words such as “Cute Video” and subjects like:
“RE:FWD:FWD:FWD:FWD:FWD:FWD:FWD:FWD:Cute Video!”

(AOL users who care: SHIFT + reply will keep the previous note, dial-up or broadband.)

Gmail users will no doubt refer to their superior method of thread based email display. I like it too, but it still takes more time.

You can now post your latest Flickr images on your MyBlogLog photos (but not your avatar, yet) - but at the same time, the service as creeped to a near halt. Growing pains?

This is not from a small-time shop, but from a prominent freelance service - and this is on the page where consumers will feel anxiety (money$$). Think nobody reads the title tags? Think again.

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s Center for Marketing Research conducted a phone survey with 121 of Inc. Magazine’s “Inc. 500” to see if there have been changes in the awareness and use of Social Media techniques (social networking, blogging, message boards, online video, wikis, and podcasting.) It doesn’t say which of the 121 were surveyed.

While previous findings that showed minimal participation, many found a suprisingly energetic adoption in this report

• 42% were very familiar with social networking
• 38% were very familar with message boards
• 36% were very familar with blogging
• 31% were very familiar with online video
• 30% were very familiar with podcasting
• and… amazingly to me, 16% were familiar with Wikis.

When asked how important social media was to this group:

• 26% said Very Important
• 40% said Somewhat Important
• 19% said Somewhat Unimportant
• 13% said Very Unimportant
• 2% didn’t respond

And finally, which social meddia methods do these companies use?

• 33% message boards
• 27% Social Networking
• 24% Online Video
• 19% Blogging
• 17% Wikis
• 11% Podcasting

The research results presented here are statistically valid at +/- 3%.

Conclusions? Well, clearly these companies tend to be entrepreneurial and nimble firms. They are out on the edge a bit - but if you look at the Inc 500, you’ll see a huge mix of companies, a good sign for those of us who believe in the power of Social Media to change the face of marketing.

My 3rd grade daughter offered some good advice the other day when I asked her about school.

She’s learning (mastered) to play the recorder in music class. I asked her what she found to be the hardest thing to play and she told me this advice:

“The hardest thing about playing the recorder in music class is knowing when not to play the recorder in music class”

We’d be well served to heed this in the web design industry. Sometimes less is better, and in an environment of restraint, the pure messages can be heard.