I know Facebook has reached the masses. My sister just asked me to be her friend. She has six kids in various high school, college, married states. I guess it’s rubbing off.
Now I guess I need to figure out how to throw something on her wall for fun.
(0) Comments Two very useful posts over at Blogging Straight Forward:
How to Add RSS Subscription Buttons to Your Blogger Blog
How to Add RSS Subscription Buttons to your Wordpress Blog
Step-by-Step instructions, code included. Fantastic.
(0) Comments I enjoyed the article over on MSN by PC World’s Dan Tynan called “The 16 Greatest Moments in Web History.” It was an educational and fun trip down memory lane (how amazing 1995 was…).
I disagreed with the 14th Moment - blogging Katrina. While no one would dispute the power of Michael Barnes’ account of Katrina as the disaster unfolded, I believe Evelyn Rodiriguez’ blog chronicling the terrifying tsunami that hit the south Pacific had an amazing global reach and impact. I met Evelyn a year later and she was still muscling international resources to support the restoration of the ravaged area.
Regardless of our personal favorite Greatest Moments, the ability to witness experiences through the blogosphere pulls the world together as never before.
(0) Comments I just read a fantastic article by Chad Stoller of the media shop Organic over on ClickZ called “Where Has All of the Innovation Gone?” In it he bemoans the lack of enthusiasm and excitement he’s starting to see in his (widget) development team. He fondly remembers the fire and spirit of the early days of the web, where people were afraid to sleep because they might miss something.
Now, I’m not going to go that far - I (and the people around me) desperately need my sleep. But the suggestions Chad made to reenergize the office were excellent. It was hard to pick a favorite, but here’s the most practical:
“The Pizza Principle John Manoogian III, a former Organic and long-time friend insists work can only get done in a small team. The more people you add, the greater your chances of distraction and project disruption. So, he insists that if you ever need to order more than two pizzas to feed your team, your team is too big. I agree. Smaller teams force greater responsibility and decision making onto fewer people. And those on a smaller team will be responsible for answering their own questions and avoid the lingering delays associated with, “I’m waiting for someone to call me back.”"
Check out the entire article for more inspiration - involving Etch-a-Sketches and “Working off Scraps.” I’ve just exposed a slice of the wisdom in the article.
The guy can write.
(0) Comments Who, tonight, is living in Southern California and paying no attention to the Santa Ana winds? Like wind moves fire; information moves people, prices and processes. And if you’re not paying attention and watching the information on and around your company flow, you’re being completely negligent and irresponsible.
Blowing bubbles into the wind…
The FUD around “Web 2.0″ is running higher than ever. Witness this article on the impending business bubble in the International Herald Tribune. And, speaking of bubbles, I’m starting to hear the Web 2.0 ROI argument bubbling up more and more.
Score! When the pundits and finance guys start discussing communications trends, I figure something is really taking off.
So let’s talk ROI. For companies who sell to consumers, we have Deloitte reporting that consumers are researching product reviews by their peers online like never before:
“To build their knowledge arsenals, consumers are turning to online reviews in large numbers – and those reviews are having a considerable impact on purchase decisions. According to a recent survey by Deloitte’s Consumer Products group, almost two-thirds (62 percent) of consumers read consumer-written product reviews on the Internet.
Of these, more than eight in 10 (82 percent) say their purchase decisions have been directly influenced by the reviews, either influencing them to buy a different product than the one they had originally been thinking about purchasing or confirming the original purchase intention.
Interestingly, while the percentages were slightly higher for the younger generations, all age groups are reading and acting on online reviews at significant rates. In addition, the reach of consumer reviews isn’t limited to the online world; seven in 10 (69 percent) consumers who read reviews share them with friends, family or colleagues, thus amplifying their impact.”
\my emphasis throughout - jlj
Harnessing the power of information…
How do you know how your product is being reviewed by your consumers? Have you set up persistent searches on your product and company names yet? You’re doing your company a disservice if you haven’t - with those kinds of influencers and that kind of power of persuasion online.
Free RSS tools are available to watch for your product mentions, and any enterprise IT organization worth keeping should be looking into enterprise RSS solutions - like those from Attensa - to feed search results into their communications departments.
How is the wind blowing for Enterprise 2.0?
Forrester offers a more clinical study of Web 2.0 technology ROI in the enterprise, having recently interviewed 275 IT decision makers:
“Forrester surveyed 275 IT pros on their firms’ Web 2.0 implementations and found that Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, was the highest value technology, with nearly one in four reporting “substantial value.” RSS was most frequently used for corporate communications or content aggregation, while one in three respondents said it was used for external marketing.”
It seems the IT departments are so busy, they’re reluctant to look at any Web 2.0 project without a strong business case.
“We’ve got so many things we are asked to deliver for the organization right now … if you can’t put together a good business case that has some cost benefit justification, it’s difficult to get those types of efforts launched.”
I’ve written about the power of collaboration technologies before, and I wonder how many of these busy executives will feel when - like people in southern California watching the Santa Ana winds - they powerlessly witness something so very much out of their control sweep through their carefully crafted structures.
Firewalls only stand so long - nature is a truly awesome force.
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