Posts tagged as:

mobile

The Google Habit, Voice Search, and the Jetsons

by Daria Steigman on February 28, 2013

Cartoon Excerpt, "What Will They Think of Next." + Space Car.Vanessa Fox compared the Internet to the Jetsons. (I’ll come back to that in a minute.)

In remarks at xPotomac, Fox talked about voice search, habits, and what’s next, and keyed up several threads that would dominate the conversation all day long. Fox focused her attention on the holy grail of search–relevancy–and asked how the ways that we find information today might be different tomorrow.

A few takeaways:

  • Voice search isn’t a great leap forward, at least not yet. Fox pointed out that voice search today is really the next iteration of voice-to-text rather than a game changer.
  • Google is a habit, a way that many of us identify and interact with information. This has only intensified for me since I adopted Google apps for business a few weeks ago. I looked up yesterday morning and counted seven open browser windows–5 from Google alone (2 e-mail, a calendar, my Reader, and Google +). And my browser? Google Chrome. My phone: Google’s operating system.
  • The ad model has to change. As voice search improves (and Google’s version is already far better than Apple’s Siri), the visuals will disappear. That’s already happening as mobile (and smaller screens) proliferates. This offers new challenges–and opportunities–for marketers.

Our relationship to the Internet today is in many ways akin to the world of the Jetsons, a universe where everything you need is pretty much just “there.” We think less and less about how we access it (and, hence, the “habit”)–we just do it.

Your challenge: Disrupt the habit.

Fox threw out a challenge to xPotomac participants: what can you do to disrupt the Google habit and become the answer instead? Are you the app that pops up first? Can you create a new distribution channel?

No easy answers, but a lot of food for thought. 

Photo by Accretion Disc (Flickr). 

Have you grabbed a free copy of Your Social Media Checklist? Download it today to get 9 tips for being findable and attracting the right customers for your business.

Tagged as: , , , , , , , ,

{ 0 comments }

What Defines a Good Mobile Site?

by Daria Steigman on July 16, 2012

Bookshelves and Closed DoorI have a secret: I hate mobile sites.

Okay, not all of them. I love that Amazon lets me find and buy pretty much anything with one touch. (Which, by the way, is a pretty smart sales strategy too.) And StubHub’s screen navigation makes changing or updating listings very easy.

These are e-commerce sites. They do what they’re supposed to do really well.

However (you knew this was coming)…

Mostly I just want to read the text, see the pictures, follow the links, surf a site. And most mobile sites still suck at this. I never load MSNBC on anything mobile, including my 10-inch tablet, because it offers no way to access the full site. (Okay, not getting MSNBC might not be a loss–but their advertisers might disagree.)

What Makes a Mobile Page Shine?

At the recent Direct Marketing Association of Washington Social Summit, Jon Bailey defined four elements of a good mobile page:

  • It appears automatically.
  • It has thumb-proof navigation.
  • There are limited choices designed for mobile users.
  • It is fast loading.

Bailey added that mobile sites have to be “laser-focused on the user experience.”

That means (in my opinion) that if your users want full-site access, the option should be there.

Like, hate, or indifferent to the mobile experience? And what are the best examples you’ve seen lately?

Photo by Lachlan Hardy (Flickr).

Have you grabbed a free copy of Your Social Media Checklist? Download it today to get 9 tips for being findable and attracting the right customers for your business.

Tagged as: , , , , , ,

{ 2 comments }

Why Find-ability Is No Longer Enough

by Daria Steigman on July 3, 2012

The CEO's Panel: Robb Lee, Walter Lukens, and Daria Steigman at DMAW's Social Summit

Robb Lee, Walter Lukens, and me at DMAW's Social Summit. At right is moderator Simon Salt.

What do CEOs need to know about social media and the digital space?

I joined Walter Lukens and Robb Lee on a panel about social and the C-suite at the Direct Marketing Association of Washington’s 2012 Social Media Summit. Lukens talked about how his firm advises its clients on social media strategy. Lee described how AARP is wrestling with its social strategy: where to be (and where its members are), what content is appropriate for where, and how to effectively deploy limited resources.

No, you can’t do it all–especially not by yourself.

My remarks focused high-level on key trends, including big data, mobile, and platforms, that CEOs and other leaders within organizations need to be aware of. You don’t have to be able to do it all yourself, but you need to know what’s out there, what your competition is doing, and what’s possible so that you can effectively give guidance and/or direction to your team.

Two Trends to Watch: Find-ability and Social Business 

1. Contextual Find-ability. I’ve talked before about “find-ability” in a search-engine-driven world and the fact that businesses that are still relying on static, corporate-brochure-type Web sites will be left in the dust. But here’s what’s changed: search engines are becoming more sophisticated and the amount of searchable “stuff” is growing exponentially. As a result, find-ability alone isn’t enough anymore. You have to be find-able by the right audience.

Unless you’re going incognito, your search results will be based on your history, your search patterns, and–often–what your friends have searched for. Which makes content strategy more important than ever.

2.  Social Business. We’re finally seeing a trend away from standalone social media and back to integrated marketing communications. Which is very good news for businesses. Now people are looking at how to scale-up social, and how to do all the things Robb Lee and others are talking about as you get more data, the channels and platforms proliferate, and your communities grow and expect more and more from you.

Social business at its most basic level is about integrating social and leveraging its power across an organization. I’m going to be talking a lot more very soon about social business, why it matters, and why you have to know about it and pay attention, so stay tuned.

Photo by DMAW.

 

Have you grabbed a free copy of Your Social Media Checklist? Download it today to get 9 tips for being findable and attracting the right customers for your business.

Tagged as: , , , , , , , ,

{ 2 comments }

7 Digital Trends to Watch in 2012

by Daria Steigman on January 17, 2012

Daria Steigman & Dan Horowitz on IABC/Washington's Digital Trends 2012 Panel

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.

Have you grabbed a free copy of Your Social Media Checklist? Download it today to get 9 tips for being findable and attracting the right customers for your business.

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

{ 5 comments }

Is Groupon the Next Lycos?

by Daria Steigman on October 28, 2011

Groupon, Lycos, Mistaking First for Innovative, Independent ThinkingLycos 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).

Have you grabbed a free copy of Your Social Media Checklist? Download it today to get 9 tips for being findable and attracting the right customers for your business.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Tagged as: , , , , ,

{ 0 comments }

← Previous Entries