Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

I’m live tweeting searchfest 09 #sf09 over on Twitter. It’s a good conference so far… if you want to hear panel presentations, check it out: http://twitter.com/janetleejohnson…

I’ve always loved Twitter’s Advanced Search capabilities above all others. News is they’re about to open up a little window into trending topics to everyone when they elevate their search bar. (Right now it’s hidden in a bottom link on the page).

A few folks are able to preview it, including Read Write Web, which has a screen shot of the upcoming enhancement.

For now, I use TweetDeck’s tag cloud feature to see rising trends, and keep up with breaking news. This will open up that capability to everyone who uses Twitter.

Can’t wait!

I was pretty good at math in high school. But those were the days before classic HP-type calculators made it into the high school classroom. We used slide rule calculators back then. Mine looked a lot like this:

And my math prowess back then was a lot more about Geometry and Trigonometry than Algebra.

Or was it the other way around?

(It has been more than 30 years…)

Anyway, I have a new client, Infinity Softworks, and they’ve been writing calculation software for mobile devices for 12 years. Their PowerOne product was a staple on Palm devices, and Infinity has sold more than 15 million mobile and software calculators.

I believe, though, that things are just about to get interesting… They’ve just launched FastFigures Financial Calculator for the iPhone, available in the AppStore for less than my slide rule cost in 1974.

Mobile Rocks, Even in this Economy

I’m pretty sure it’s not news to many that the mobile space is booming. Even in today’s economic climate. I just ran across some research from Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS) in their 2009 Mid Term Forecast (are we there already?), that offered the following stats for advertising growth (yes, I actually said areas of ad growth) this year:

• The Pure-Play Internet & Mobile Services (not sure exactly what their definition of “Pure-Play” is, sorry) segment is still growing but at a slower pace. Previously expected to grow by 15.5% in 2009, VSS now projects an increase of only 9.1% for 2009, down from 11.6% in 2008

• Mobile content and video games will continue to be in demand and record double-digit growth (34.2% and 19.5% respectively), however at significantly lower percentages than originally predicted in their earlier estimate

Elia Freedman, founder of Infinity, is a tech geek and a math geek, and has told me (and blogged) that he feels as if his time has finally come.

He envisioned the mobile application boom years ago, muscled his way through the first few waves, and his new iPhone calculator is so trippy that it both makes me feel like kind of a math dolt, and makes me a little sad I didn’t keep up with more math.

For example - he kept telling me that FF shipped with both a standard calculator and an RPN calculator. I had to look up what RPN meant - Reverse Polish Notation. Cool, but when I tried to watch Elia show how to use FastFigures RPN calculator in the YouTube video he’s cooked up, my brain kind of shuddered.

I’ve got my copy, and while I’ll still use my head to calculate tips - even for odd numbered groups - to prevent Alzheimer’s, I’ll always have FastFigures Financial calculator on my iPhone that can handle Time Value of Money, Commercial and Residential Mortgage Payments, Area Conversions, Powers and Logs, Trig and Hyperbolics, Probabilities, Programmer Math, and more. All for $5.99. Oh my!

In today’s economic climate, it seems a good idea to have a calculator to add up a few taxes here, a bit more savings there… we all know it’s going to take a heck of a lot more than a slide rule calculator to keep up.

In a recent report, the Pew Internet Trust has given us a look at generational habits online, and they’re not strikingly different from each other. I’m not particularly surprised at the similarities, but was surprised at the sheer number of us looking for health information online.

From the report, written by Sydney Jones and Susannah Fox:

Generation X is the most likely group to bank, shop, and look for health information online. Boomers are just as likely as Generation Y to make travel reservations online. And even Silent Generation internet users are competitive when it comes to email (although teens might point out that this is proof that email is for old people).

First, today’s labels for your convenience:

(I’m happy to be a “younger boomer” and fascinated that they’ve finally split the boomers in two, noting there are enough differences between us “younger” and “older” boomers that it made sense to do so).

The report notes:

“Compared with teens and Generation Y, older generations use the internet less for socializing and entertainment and more as a tool for information searches, emailing, and buying products. In particular, older internet users are significantly more likely than younger generations to look online for health information.

Health questions drive internet users age 73 and older to the internet just as frequently as they drive Generation Y users, outpacing teens by a significant margin. Researching health information is the third most popular online activity with the most senior age group, after email and online search.”

Here’s how the breakout looks by generation where Gen X and older are more active than Gen Y:

Look at the correlation of % who go online with the % who look for health information. That’s pretty stunning. In the Gen X generation, it’s a 1:1 correlation. As I’ve said over and over again… the need for accurate, dependable health information online has never been more important.

And now, thanks again to the Pew Internet Trust, we can really see the demand is there.

In a very descriptive article (you might call it Rx for healthcare brands) over on the Back of the Book blog, Ellen Hoenig-Carlson writes a prescription for healthcare marketers that answers the question:

How to optimize our brands in the current environment?

To illustrate just one point in 10 in the Rigors of 2009, Ellen writes:

“Instill less fear; stimulate optimism, provide support and hope. Consumers feel burned from the economic crisis and are often highly frustrated with healthcare systems, but this goes for internal stakeholders as well. When employees are scared, they don’t speak up; they aren’t capable of new thinking or putting the customer first.  Fear will prevent the open and honest collaboration that builds critical relationships inside and outside organizations.”

The wise marketer, faced with penultimate challenges of economy, fear, shrinking budgets, etc. - even if you’re not in pharma marketing - will learn things from this article.