Independent Thinking » Google

Google, Doodles, and Showing You Care

Daria Steigman — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:02:41 +0000

The alt text said "Happy Birthday Daria"

This is what I found when I popped over to Google the other day.

Obviously not every company can customize its logo for its customers. But what about:

Sending a “happy birthday” postcard (as did one of my doctors)?
E-mailing a “happy birthday” greeting (race organization)?
Providing a free dessert (restaurant)?
Offering a birthday discount and free shipping on an order (retail store)?
Loading a “special surprise” onto a loyalty care (coffeehouse chain)?

What can you do for your customers that’s personal, keeps you top-of-mind, and shows you care?

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7 Digital Trends to Watch in 2012

Daria Steigman — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 06:01:14 +0000

From l-r: Steve Radick, Dan Horowitz, Daria Steigman, and Rick Dunham

Integration, mobile, and consolidation were all topics under discussion at the January 12 IABC/Washington panel on trends in digital communications.

Here are my top seven takeaways:

1. Silos will start to fall. According to Steve Radick of Booz Allen Hamilton’s Digital Strategy and Social Media Practice, government agencies will better integrate their social media initiatives. He noted, in particular, that people are starting to understand the disconnects that happen when customer service is not integrated.

2. Government social media will be in “wait and see” mode. Radick said not to expect a lot of big Government 2.0 initiatives. He suggested that most agencies will be in waiting mode during this election year.

3. Companies will start to clean up their act. Dan Horowitz of Fleishman-Hillard’s Digital Group and Social Media Practice pointed to a new Altimeter report that found that large companies have an average of 178 corporate-owned social media accounts. In 2012, he said, they will consolidate and coordinate better–which involves, of course, aggregating efforts via smart tools (e.g., Buddy Press).

4. Social media reaches maturation. Horowitz pointed to Forrester’s just-released research on social media adoption that found that 86 percent of adults who use the Internet use social media.

5. The press release is dead. Okay, Rick Dunham, Washington Bureau Chief of the Houston Chronicle and chief author of the Texas on the Potomac blog, didn’t really say this. But he did say that he’s relying more and more on Twitter search and other social media to discover trending stories and breaking news–and to get ideas for news stories–and not so much on press releases.

Plus two trends from my remarks:

6. Mobile has arrived. eMarketer estimates that there will be 113.9 million mobile Internet users in 2012–an increase of 17.1 percent from 2011. This includes 72.8 million mobile shoppers and 37.5 million mobile buyers. This means that every business–large and small–needs to have a mobile strategy.

7. “Find-ability” will be more important than ever. With Google rolling out “Search Plus Your World,” having a solid content marketing strategy (and quality content) will be more important than ever. Businesses that are still relying on static, corporate-brochure-type Web sites will be left in the dust.

Bonus Trend: Platforms. I just read Phil Simon’s The Age of the Platform (review coming soon), and I haven’t really had a chance to sit down and think through how small businesses will be able to take advantage of what he calls “extremely valuable and powerful ecosystems” (think Amazon or Apple) that allow you to scale, morph, and bring in partners, users, vendors, and so forth. While the business concept may not be new, technology has made doing this very different. I think Simon’s on to something. This is one emerging trend to watch.

Agree with these trends? Disagree? Think something’s being over-hyped? Please weigh in below.

Photo courtesy of Capitol Communicator.

Why Groupon’s Founders Are On the Way Out

Daria Steigman — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 09:04:39 +0000

Groupon went public on Friday, and it was reported to be the largest IPO since Google. I don’t get it.

The founders took $900 million in cash from the company before it went public. Which suggests they think the company is overvalued (and they want their money while it’s there) or they don’t plan to stick around to find out. Either way, it’s not a vote of confidence.

There was a long, fascinating article in Business Insider last week that looks at the history of Groupon. It’s a tale of start-up woes and poor management, a revolving door for top talent, out-of-control sales commissions, and spurning an offer from Google reportedly out of fears that the deal would be rejected by the SEC on anti-trust grounds.

Here’s a sample:

[CEO Andrew Mason] can’t hang on to a COO. The SEC is asking questions. Industry executives are calling him a ponzi schemer. Early employees are demanding six-figure pay for 9 to 5 hours. One even filed a lawsuit. Merchant customers are screaming. And Mason and his board, having helped themselves to $900 million of cash that could have gone to the company, are are now being blasted for incompetence and greed.

It’s a cautionary tale about rapid growth (and entrepreneurs reading their own press clips). Take a few minutes and dive in. Then I’d love to hear your takeaways.

Photo by Dan4th Nicholas (Flickr).

Is Groupon the Next Lycos?

Daria Steigman — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:10:22 +0000

Lycos used to be a big deal.

Lycos was one of the first ad-supported search engines. It completed one of the fastest IPOs in history. It was one of the first profitable Internet companies. And it barely exists today.

Look at the home page, and you see a flashback to the old Web.

Lycos developed a model, then other companies came into the space. They did it better. They saw opportunities. They innovated.

Which brings us to Groupon, which has been hemorrhaging for months.

Groupon’s founders never understood that the $6 billion offer from Google was never about Groupon’s business value. It was about buying an infrastructure that Google could build out.

Being the first on your block to do something doesn’t make you special. Or gifted. Or the best. It just makes you first.

What do you think: Is Groupon the next Lycos?

Photo by blathlean (Flickr).

What’s Wrong With Being Second?

Daria Steigman — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 10:05:44 +0000

What’s wrong with being second?

Americans (and probably others too) are obsessed with winning. As though being second, third, or fourth were unacceptable.

Two sports reporters were debating recently whether the USA women’s soccer team was a failure because it lost the World Cup final. Never mind that lots of teams would probably have been very happy to have played in the quarterfinals, let alone in the semis or the final.

Is Google a failure because Ask got into the search market first?
Is Avis a failure because Hertz is #1?
Is your business a failure if you’re not listed in the Dow Jones?
Should you shut down your blog because you don’t have 50+ comments per post or rank on the AdAge Power 150?

Of course not.

In sports, you have PRs.

You pesonal record is about being your best, not competing against Paula Radcliffe, Carl Lewis, or Michael Phelps.

Business is no different. You need to be #1 in your business—not against someone else’s yardstick.

Are you setting the right goals?

Photo by Pink Moose (Flickr).

Why Google+ Circles Matter

Daria Steigman — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 10:05:05 +0000

If you’re read anything about Google+, the company’s latest foray into the social realm, then you’ve probably heard about Circles. Here’s my early take, which I shared via a LinkedIn answer on the topic the other day:

From my initial view of Google+, Circles are what Facebook needs but doesn’t have: a way to share based on real life versus the digital world.

You can create as many circles as you want–and share information across Google+ in multiple ways (public, or with one or more circles). As a result, this is the first platform that starts out with the premise that all people aren’t equal. So, for example, you might want to share an article that’s about politics with your family, a not-suitable-for-work cartoon with friends, and a great article about finance with your colleagues. I have, for example, set up a couple of broad categories around business/small business and communications/marketing. I can see people setting up circles around friends, colleagues, intramural sports teammates, book club members, etc., over time.

As someone who thinks that the private realm doesn’t belong online, I’m unlikely to share ANYTHING that I’m not comfortable with everyone seeing. But I think Google has been thinking about how people share. If they have any ambition of being “the next Facebook” (note: I’m not sure Facebook is going anywhere soon), being able to easily create “share” categories is a good first step.

Personally, I think Circles is just one of the interesting elements of what Google is doing with Google+.

Have you set up Circles yet? What do you think?

I actually have 6 business reasons I think you should watch Google+.

Sign up for my latest newsletter (sign up form in sidebar–or click through here if you’re reading this in RSS) to read my 6 reasons to watch Google+. As a bonus, I have five beta invitations to Google+ to give away to the first five people who sign up for the newsletter and then e-mail me your Gmail address and tell me why you want to test out Google+. (You have to have a Gmail account to use Google+.)

Photo by J Ronald Lee (Flickr).

9 Steps To Your Social Media Check-up

Daria Steigman — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 19:40:58 +0000

Your work is all around you. The reality in this age of spidered content and 24/7 WiFi is that other people can find out a lot about you really fast. And this holds true whether you’re online a little–or a lot. Heck, I bet even people who live “off the grid” are finding themselves tagged in pictures on Facebook or otherwise showing up online. So doesn’t it make sense to know what’s there to be found when someone checks you out?

My latest Independent Thinking column provides guidance on where to look and what to look for when conducting your own social media check-up.

It also includes a book giveaway aimed at those of you new to social media. My friend and colleague Beth Schillaci has written Your Social Media Roadmap. It’s a workbook that takes you through the process of building a strategy and identifying what channels make sense for your business.

Book Contest Details

Want to win a free copy of Your Social Media Roadmap? Beth Schillaci has given me a signed copy of her book to give away here. Read the column, and then come back and leave a comment here on my blog about your social media goals for 2011 and what you hope to learn.

The best answer (judged by me) wins a copy of the book.

Photo by Ivan Walsh (Flickr).

Why Bing Will Always Be #2

Daria Steigman — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 10:44:19 +0000

If Bing‘s process for setting up a Bing Local Listing is any indication, Microsoft is in trouble.

It look me 7 weeks from start to end to do something that should have taken 7 minutes. (Okay, maybe 30 minutes.) Here are a few of the hoops I had to jump through:

I couldn’t use my browser, Chrome (a Google browser). Is that petty or what? I think it let me use Firefox to sign up, but it was so long ago I can’t remember for sure.
It took about 7 minutes to set up the basic information–but then Bing said they had to mail me a confirmation pin number. Yes, snail mail.
When the letter arrived, I signed back in. It asked me if I had any changes. I made some edits. Then Bing said they needed to mail me a confirmation pin number. (Sound familiar?)
The second letter finally arrived. But the system wouldn’t accept my password (yes, it was the right password), so I had to reset that.
This time I didn’t make any changes until after I figured out where the pin number went.

Oh, and Microsoft loaded WindowsLive software onto my system during the initial log-in process, which promptly caused Outlook to start freezing up intermittently. By the time I figured out that problem, I’d wasted a couple of hours uninstalling and re-installing my virus protection software.

As a business owner, I try to keep up with technology. Phil Simon has a whole book, The New Small (review coming shortly), that’s all about how small businesses are harnessing new technologies. Maybe Microsoft ought to read it. Because, for a technology company, it seems rather stuck in the 20th century.

Anyone else tried to claim a Bing Local listing? If so, what was your experience?

Photo by blakespot (Flickr).

Social Media Rules, Wrongs, and Beating Ourselves Up

Daria Steigman — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 12:13:26 +0000

We need to stop beating ourselves up.

There seem to be two big trends among social media proponents these days:

Beating up on people and companies alike for using social media “wrong.”
Beating up on ourselves.

This post deals with a little of both.

First, though, some great food for thought to set some context. Over on his blog, Stowe Boyd pointed to this amazing presentation by Google researcher Paul Adams that looks at people’s communities and the disconnects between our various networks and how online platforms have typically been designed. It’s really smart stuff, and worth going through.

The Real Life Social Network v2

This presentation is particularly relevant to our ongoing efforts to define the boundaries of our various networks. Who should I connect to on LinkedIn? Is it okay if I don’t friend you on Facebook? Will people think I am vouching for you just because we’re connected somewhere in cyberspace?

We’re trying to create ”rules” without having any rule book.

Ari Herzog wrote a very moving post about his struggle to set parameters. He said, in part:

I want to say I am sorry for reading your messages and requests to be my friend, for me to join your networks and for you to join mine. You wanted me to share myself with you on a deeper level outside of this blog and you invited me into your inner sanctum–and I said no.

That conversation continued here. It’s worth reading in full–including the comments–as it’s clear that this discussion is going to go on for a long time.

Here’s my bottom line: It doesn’t matter if your network is more (or less) exclusive than mine. There isn’t a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all community. I’ll hang out where it makes sense for me and evolve the parameters over time just as my business might shift strategies and add or subtract services as market conditions change.

So can we agree to stop beating ourselves up as we work on our rules?

What’s in Your Toolbox?

Daria Steigman — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:39:28 +0000

[Note: This post originally appeared on IABC's Communication World blog.]

I was checking my e-mail, tweeting with friends, and reading through a backlog of blog posts last Friday while soaring across the United States at 35,000 feet. It was a great way to feel connected after a week of airplanes, hotels, and day-long meetings. But then I came back, and my Internet service provider had a major outage—leaving me offline and disconnected for several hours on Monday.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t the tweets or my e-mail that I missed. It was Google. And Dictionary.com. I was working on a report for a client, and I’m so used to being able to fact check, decipher acronyms, and check for precise word usage that the productivity snag was making me really cranky, really fast.

That got me thinking about the tools I take for granted that help me as a multitasking communications pro, business owner, and blogger.

Here are seven programs and tools that help me to be productive every day:

Google has become my backup business hub. Plus I can sync my Droid so that I can access Gmail, my contacts, and my calendar on the go.
Google Reader is indispensible. Without a good aggregator, it would be impossible to keep up with 10-15 blogs, let alone the 100+ I read regularly.
Ever since I loaded that first beta version of Google Chrome, I’ve been hooked by the speed and simplicity of the browser. I’m particularly fond of the bookmark sync feature since I typically use two computers (one desktop, one netbook).
TweetDeck is my Twitter desktop client of choice. The Groups feature is invaluable; I also run Facebook and LinkedIn feeds. I typically monitor the notifications window at the bottom of my screen, and pop in periodically to chat during the day.
Evernote enables me to capture random ideas for blog posts and other notes and access them wherever and whenever I want.
Post-it Notes, Sticky Notes, and 1 dry erase board. I’m big on both to-do lists and capturing ideas and potential innovations. I use my dry erase board as a visual reminder of projects and deadlines and as a place to aggregate blog post ideas for Communication World, Workshifting, and this blog. I use the Sticky Notes program (which sits on my desktop) for nagging items. Post-it Notes is for one-off items, from checking on the status of an invoice to a phone call I need to return.
My Droid, with its crisp big screen and Android operating system, is rapidly becoming an invaluable business tool. Plus it has amazing turn-by-turn GPS navigation.

What’s in your toolbox?

Photo by Ali Edwards (Flickr).