Micro Persuasion

What is the Future of Twitter? Only You Know

A larger, much more readable version of the above is here.

Yesterday during my keynote on the future of Twitter at the TWTRCON conference in San Francisco I decided to do something different. For one day, at least, I put away PowerPoint and fired up a mind mapping program (in my case I use Mind Node for the Mac).

I really enjoyed the experience and, anecdotally from what others told me, so did the audience. For one, It made the session more interactive. Second, because it was different, it seemed to capture people's attention more than a deck would have. (Hmm, is PowerPoint making us blind and deaf?) Still, since this was my first time out mind mapping with the audience I know much can be improved.

To build the mind map I started (conceptually) with a framework that built off of Brian Solis' great Twiiterverse diagram.

Then, I divided the map in half - Twitter as an OS (think "Twitter Inside") and Twitter and the Ecosystem (think Twitter and others). Then, for the next 25 minutes, I took the audience through my initial thinking but opened it up to more feedback and input so that we grow it. Now it's your turn.

I have published the mind map on Flickr. In addition, you can download it here in PDF and OPML format. The OPML file should open up in any mind mapping application like MindManager for Mac or Windows or Mindmeister (a web app).

Let's see if we can take this concept to the next level and perhaps use it to bring Twitter new ideas, which they seem quite open to - at least that's what they said during the session that preceded mine. Leave comments here or on Twitter with the hash #futureoftwitter and let's see where we can take this.

Technorati Tags:
Twitter, TWTRCON

The End of the Destination Web Era

Photo credit: Décoration du château de Versaille by Djof

For the last 15 years marketers lived like kings online. We built ornate palaces in homage to ourselves in the form of web sites and micro sites. Each acts as a destination that embodies our meticulous choice of aesthetics, content and activities.

We still put a lot of time, effort and money into erecting these palaces, much as Louis XIV did in planning Versailles. And, for the most part we have been rewarded handsomely for our efforts. For years consumers flocked to our sites, reveled in all we had to say, played with our toys and, sometimes, were motivated enough as a result to buy our stuff.

That's what life was like in the good old days. But now we're in the age of online enlightenment. People (rightfully) have reasoned that they too can be creators, not just consumers. Content choices became infinite and peers are trumping pros.

After years of erosion it now it appears the destination web era is drawing to a close. This a trend that digital thinkers like Om Malik have long noted. In fact, the numbers prove it.

In March the average American visited a mere 111 domains and 2,500 web pages, according to Nielsen Online. What's worse, our attention across these pages is highly fragmented. The average time spent per page is a mere 56 seconds. Portals and search engines dominate, capturing approximately 12 of the 75 hours spent online in March. However, people-powered sites like Wikipedia, Facebook and YouTube are not far behind, snagging nearly 4.5 hours of our monthly attention.

In the post-destination web era the secret to breaking through won't be advertising. A new study from ARAnet in conjunction with Opinion Research Corporation confirms what PR execs have known for years - we are far more likely to take action when reading online articles that include brand information (51%) compared to search engine advertising (39%) or banner ads (25%).

Unfortunately, digital marketing is still wired for the destination web era. To succeed going forward we have to change our thinking. "Earned media" through direct public engagement in the venues where our consumers spend time will become the only way to truly influence a behavior change. The greatest advantages will go to the first movers who embrace this shift. It's not too late.

Google's New "What's Popular" Feature Aims to Clone Digg

Google's personalized home page, iGoogle, added a new feature that basically clones the core features of Digg and StumbleUpon by embedding them into a gadget that is easily accessible from right within the web desktop.

The feature, which Google started highlighting in its directory this week, is called "What's Popular." Using the widget consumers can submit links either anonymously or publicly and rate whether they like or dislike other submissions.

According to Google's description, the What's Popular gadget "uses algorithms to find interesting content from a combination of your submissions and trends in aggregated user activity across a variety of Google services, like YouTube and Google Reader." 

That's just the half of it though. When you click on the maximize link the gadget expands into a canvas view that sorts submissions into different categories - e.g. stories, videos and images.

This won't be the last we see of Google adding social services to iGoogle. They are slowly adding such features to many of their products. Eventually I expect they will also follow Microsoft's lead in rolling up your friends' social content from around the web on Windows Live. (Microsoft is an Edelman client)

Five Digital Trends to Watch for 2009

This has also been cross-posted on the Edelman Digital blog.

In my role as Director of Insights for Edelman Digital I am writing monthly white papers for clients on key trends. Sometimes we will release these broadly. For the first one, I drew on members of the Edelman team, as well as third party research, to highlight five digital trends to watch for 2009. Each includes specific recommended actions.

Even though the economy is slowing, all signs show that audiences are still spending a lot more time on the web. Marketers need to invest to meet them there. However, what's changed today they are smarter about where they focus their time, dollars and energy. Experimentation is giving way to tactics that deliver ROI. These include public engagement, search and social networking — three themes that connect the major macro trends.

There are five trends covered in this white paper...

Satisfaction Guaranteed - Customer care and PR are blending as consumers use social media to demand service

Media Reforestation -  The media is in a constant state of reinvention as it transitions from atoms to bits

Less is the New More - Overload takes its toll. Gorging on media is out. Selective ignorance and friends as filters are in

Corporate All-Stars - Workers flock to social media to build their personal brands, yet offer employers an effective and credible way to market in the downturn

The Power of Pull -  Where push once ruled, it’s now equally important to create digital content that people discover through search

You can download the full paper here(PDF) or simply browse or read it below. I look forward to hearing your feedback.

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Research Business & Legal marketing media

Inside Obama's Social Media Toolkit

Edelman's Digital Public Affairs team in DC has authored an awesome white paper that takes you inside the Obama campaign. You can download it here (PDF). The white paper imparts several lessons: start early, build to scale, innovate where necessary and more. You can find other Edelman white papers on our site. This includes 9 on 9 - key consumer trends for 2009 (also in PDF format).

Bloodbath in the Clouds Continues as RSS Email Service Shutters

Every day it feels like I am hearing about another cloud computing service that is shutting down. This time it's RSS FWD, a neat tool that let you read RSS feeds in your email account. The site just rolled out an upgraded offering in September.

They won't be the last. Beware, there's a bloodbath in the clouds!

In the months ahead we're going to see a slew of web apps fold. Many won't be spared. I suspect the massacre will claim some high profile sites. This will include apps that are VC backed, ad-supported and/or available only via a paid subscription. The good news is that those that do survive will be players for the long haul.

Years ago I used an awesome time tracking app called Red Gorilla. It went belly up in 2000. Since then I have been very careful about where I keep data that I care about. I even scrutinize tools from big companies.

As we saw with Google this week, you always need to keep an eye on the ball. I feel confident that Gmail is going to be around so I am glad that I have adapted my workflow to make it fit. However, even Gmail is slowing the amount of storage they are adding to its free service. So you never know.

This is exactly why I won't invest time or energy in a lot cloud-based apps today like Remember the Milk or Evernote. Yes, both are awesome and they have income. Evernote got funded and has paying subscribers. Remember the Milk too charges for many of its best services (like its iPhone app). However, I suspect many stick with the free versions - especially nowadays. And that could be problematic in a year or two if things continue. The good news is that these sites make it easy to sync or export your data. 

I do think, however, that strong players like Salesforce.com and 37 Signals will be around. Basecamp, for example, has tons of paying customers. Time will tell if 37 Signals can keep some of its weaker services going.

Beyond the bigs, however, you can be sure that if a service is home-spun it will fold, just as co.mments and now RSS FWD did. The founders are wisely focusing on their careers and/or more viable opportunities.

My advice to everyone is look for high ground. Think hard about where you store data that you care about. If you don't care about the information, then you're fine.

What is it About TweetDeck, Web 2.0's Bloomberg Terminal?

If you spend any time on Twitter, it's highly likely that you've heard of Tweetdeck. The application, which brings tweets, alerts and more direct to your desktop, has a lot of nice features and a huge following. TweetDeck is basically the Web 2.0 equivalent of a stock trader's Bloomberg terminal. In my view, it's certainly awesome, but it's also a huge distraction - unless you really need to monitor Twitter in real-time for, say, customer service. 

To get a sense for just how popular TweetDeck is, I ran it through Google Trends. As you can see below, Google searches globally for Tweetdeck (blue) are stronger than the same for Friendfeed (red)! What's more, TweetDeck is really starting to see sharp growth since the beginning of the year. That's remarkable.

As a rule, I try not to run any applications that are a drag on my resources - either mental or technological. TweetDeck does both so it's a non-starter for me. However, I am by far in the minority. A distraction for me is divinity for others.

Still, I can't help be curious about it. Why is it that an application that snarfs down so much noise and probably hides news (or at least makes it difficult to find) such a hit? I would think that TweetDeck's utility decreases as Twitter becomes a vast sea of re-tweets. I know a lot of people who lead very busy lives who run the app all the time and swear by it. 

Right now I am using Friendfeed lists and it's "best of day" feature to keep tabs on the conversation.I buy into Leo Babauta's strategy of taking Twitter and Friendfeed baths, rather than keeping the water dousing me all the time. However, this is limiting since not everyone I follow on Twitter aggregates their tweets into Friendfeed.

So, TweetDeck evangelists, educate me. How can someone like me who reads 650 RSS feeds a day, deals with 150+ emails a day plus IMs and a busy schedule filled with meetings, deep thinking, consulting and writing use TweetDeck to filter out the news from the noise? I don't think it's worth it now but maybe I am blind.

Three Reasons the Internet is Eroding Apple's Mojo

"Rotten to the Core" by Pupski on Flickr.

I have been an Apple fan and a Mac user much of my adult life. I bought my first Mac in 1992 and have owned half a dozen since. I wrote for Mac magazines in the mid-1990s. I waited on line for many hours twice for the iPhone and I am writing this post on a MacBook Air that I bought sight unseen last year after the Jobsnote.

However, after yesterday's disappointing keynote, I am convinced the Internet is slowly eroding Apple's PR mojo. They are still having a good run, but the times are changing. Here are three reasons why Apple may not make the turn like it did before. There's a lot of lessons here for PR professionals.

1) Bloggers and Citizen Journalists

In the old days, Apple could keep a tight lip on the ship. Steve Jobs has built a no-leak culture since he arrived back in 1996. Today, however, with eyes everywhere and contract manufacturing in China, that's getting harder.

The bloggers are getting pretty good at least at directionally writing about what's coming. The professional journalist are feeding off of it and doing more fact checking of their own. By the time the press invitations are emailed, there's not a lot of oomph left - especially since the iPhone debuted. If you think about it, that was the last time Apple was able to shock and awe.

What does this mean? That expectations are high and Apple can't meet them since the launch of the iPhone.

2) The Rock-Star CEO Era is Over

For years we lived in an age where CEOs were like rock-stars. Edison, Henry Ford, Jack Welch, Sam Walton, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs - all are rock stars.

Today, however, employees and "a person like me" are far more trusted, according to data from the Edelman Trust Barometer. This isn't Apple's fault. It's just times are changing. Recent CEO scandals haven't helped. More importantly, Web 2.0 and social software is giving rise to individual voices and personal brands.

Apple is still living in age where its CEO or executive team are the only people who speak for the company. Compare that to Google, meanwhile, who have an army credible faces in the community like Matt Cutts. Got a Gmail security problem? Matt is on the case. Got a flaming Macbook? Email Steve and pray he isn't too obnoxious.

3) Cloud Computing and Netbooks Erode Apple's Edge

As an early adopter, I am a huge enthusiast of web-based applications. About 75-90% of my needs are handled in a browser. I do all my writing in Google Docs. I edit photos using Picnik or Photoshop.com. The only desktop apps besides a browser that I still use are Microsoft Entourage and PowerPoint. (Microsoft and Adobe are clients of my employer, Edelman.)

Now I am rare. A lot of you still love desktop apps but I think that's going to change. In the next few years you will do more of your computing online. And that means you will be able to be just fine using a netbook or even a phone. The category is still emerging and many are still 1.0 products. But I expect that to change and if the current economic climate continues, then it could erode Apple's notebook share.

"But Apple has web-apps," you say. "What about Mobile Me and the new iWork.com?" They're gorgeous, for sure. However, functionally, they don't hold a candle to Google or Adobe's web apps. And I think Microsoft's products here for sure will be strong. In three years iLife and iWork will have to be entirely cloud-based and the edge goes to the first movers.

That's one person's view of the situation. There are others. What's yours? (For more, see this thread on Friendfeed.)

WhosTalkin Launches Social Media Search Aggregator

One of my hopes for 2009 is that we'll see greater innovation in the social media search space - both free and premium. I have a bunch that I am trying out now: SM2, Zuula, Blogscope.net and Wikio and others. What follows is a first look at a new site called WhosTalkin that launched its public beta yesterday after seven months of development. (Hat tip to adthinktank.com)

WhosTalking is a metasearch engine that in one place aggregates results from the major free tools for scanning blogs and blog comments, news sites, social networks, video hubs, image, forum and tag sites. It rolls up results from over 60 sites, such as BackType, Technorati, IceRocket, Google Blog Search, Friendfeed, LinkedIn, Twitter, Board Reader and many more.

The site has a nice interface that displays results using frames. Just click on the navigational links on the left hand side and they show up on the right. The quality of the results, I find, is hit or miss depending on the source. For example, Bloglines and Backtype results feel very fresh. However, Twitter search results are lacking compared to what you get from search.twitter.com.

In addition, there are two other major limitations. First, you can't view all results in a single view, even by channel (e.g. blogs, social networks, etc.). The other is that you can't save searches or generate RSS feeds - at least yet. These and other services are forthcoming for paid subscribers. There is also a URL API for developers.

At first glance, I am excited about WhosTalkin. There was a ton of innovation in the social media search space in the middle part of the decade. Then it seems like a lot of people talk their eye off the ball once Google Blog Search launched and when Twitter bought Summize.

Given that WhosTalking is pulling results from other sites, I expect they can improve the quality of results rather quickly. Although you have to wonder how the other sites will feel about having their data scraped.

Still, given the way the landscape continues to expand, I think an aggregated approach like this one is the right way to go. And this is a good first effort. If WhosTalkin can improve the timeliness and relevance across all the engines they crawl, then it could become a serious player since they leverage everyone else's databases.

The Web 2.0 Blogs Will Be Fine in 09

Mark Evans is asking whether the big Web 2.0 blogs will face tough times next year...

One of the fundamental questions is whether there will be enough “juice” to support growth or, for that matter, the status quo. If advertising declines, particularly by attention-seeking startups, how will that impact TechCrunch, GigaOm, ReadWriteWeb, et al? And if the number of new start-ups shrinks, does that create less editorial fodder to attract readers?

Robert Scoble wrote in the comments that the action is moving out of blogs into social networks and that this will challenge the bigs.

I think the big Web 2.0 blog franchises will remain strong in 2009. I do expect their editorial slants to change with the times. Beyond that, here are three things to watch ...

• First, to Robert’s comments, blogs vs. social networks is not a zero sum game. Social networks and search will help all of us filter out the noise and hone in on the signal. Some of this signal will be blog content. Other times soc nets will serve as a lens onto traditional media.
• Second, expect to see these sites diversify their revenue streams beyond advertising and events. Research is a good area and one that probably leaves other, older companies exposed on price. GigaOm is already publishing solid white papers. Databases are another potential source of revenue. CrunchBase may have unlocked value.
• Finally could there be a demand for subscription blogs? In other words, maybe there’s a premium
  version of TechCrunch that is for VCs and reasonably priced.

Living without Email - One Man's Story. Are you Next?

One of my fondest memories of 2008 was meeting Luis Suarez from IBM. We both spoke at the Next08 conference together in Hamburg. (I will be returning to Germany in 2009 for the Next09 event.)

Luis' story is amazing. First, he lives in the Canary Islands and he's a social computing evangelist/knowledge management specialist for IBM. Until recently, he reported to managers in the Netherlands and the US. Now he is reporting locally to folks at IBM in Spain, but he still works at home.

What's notable here is that Luis during the year has been on a quest to eliminate all business email. According to his latest status report, he's down to about 20-40 a day. He wrote about his experience in the New York Times earlier this year. I also interviewed Luis on the subject last month via Skype as part of an Edelman Change event that we held for clients, which you can view below or here.

So how is Luis doing it? By pushing more of his communication into social networks and wikis - both internal and external and relying more on IM. Luis is an inspiration. So do you think this is part of a broader trend? Is your email down this year? I think mine is down slightly and I am wondering if we're all starting to live like Luis and what the broader ramifications might be for internal communications.

Popurls is My Pick for the Best Web Site of 2008

There were a lot of web sites I really used actively this year - the entire Google network, Techmeme, Friendfeed, Facebook and, of course, Twitter. There's one though that stood out: Popurls. It's a site that people don't talk about enough and that's a shame because there's so much to tout here. Popurls rocked this year and it's my pick for the the best web site of 2008. (Disclaimer: the Popurls page features a link to my most recent blog post but I am not compensated by them in any way nor does Edelman, my employer, represent or currently work with them.)

Popurls calls itself "the dashboard for the latest web-buzz, a single page that encapsulates up-to-the-minute headlines from the most popular sites on the Internet." The site was created by Thomas Marban. What it basiscally does is aggregate web sites all in one place - digg, delicious, news sites, Techmeme, key blogs, media sites (Flickr, YouTube, etc) and much more. The great thing about it is that you can easily personalize it to your tastes. As you use it, the site gets smarter and shows you recommendations. You can view stats for the web site here.

So why am I nuts about Popurls? There are many reasons...

• It's a digital curator that helps mitigate the Attention Crash


• It underscores that the world is flat (Thomas is from Austria)


• Popurls added a ton of features this year: you can sign in with Open ID or your Google Account, sharing, a live view and a cluster view, a deep archive, a zeitgeist and much more. He seems to be adding features as fast as Gmail and Friendfeed.


• They're also on Friendfeed, Twitter, Facebook, mobile devices, the iPhone and even the Wii.


• Popurls Live - track it in real-time like Twittervision.


• And finally, killer search - complete with search feeds.

However, there's an even bigger story here that everyone is missing. Thomas Marban is making money.

Popurls has sponsors. More importantly, the site is represented by Federated Media. Together they have come up with some very clever, deep brand integrations. For example, Populrs and Intel created Popurls Blue for IT managers. It also debuted a partnership with Epson.

It's too bad that Popurls doesn't get the props it deserves from the tech blogging community. It's an important site. They had a banner year and it's easily one of my favorites overall. Congrats to Thomas on a great 2008 and I look forward to seeing more innovation from him in 2009. A next logical step for them would be an API.

Wiki Indexes Social Media Marketing Cases

If you need inspiration for your next planning session, turn to Peter Kim and friends. They have created a terrific wiki of social media marketing case studies. I am sure I will be returning to this site over and again for ideas and to track the industry's progress overall. Kudos to the team that worked on this.

Google, You Open or Closed? Make Up Your Mind Then Call Us

You probably have read by now about Google SearchWIki, a new feature that lets registered users comment on search results and URLs for one's own use and more importantly to share them with the broader world. I am all for opening up the web to comments but this entire launch was botched not thought through. And now (as of this writing) it's gone. Already there are reports of vandalism and spam too. Did anyone not think this would be a PR nightmare?

Unlike Wikipedia, there's no way for users to edit each others comments. You can only vote them up or down. Google should take a page from the Wikipedia and Mahalo playbooks and build a community around the feature that would self police such an open wiki. Otherwise, of course people are going to run amok on the world's biggest online stage! That's like turning a kid with a massive sweet tooth loose in a giant candy store. It's going to be a haven for spam.

What's worse, Google once again is showing what a chaotic culture can engender. Rapid, massive innovation that delights users? For sure. But it also can create massive inconsistencies and PR nightmares. For example, why are Google News Comments vetted by humans at a snail's pace. Yet, SearchWiki is open to all with no mechanisms to prevent abuse. Or why does Google Knol encourage writers to verify their identity? Yet, with SearchWiki Google opens its marquis service to unfettered user editing. It makes no sense. Epic Fail.

Google, call me when you make up your mind.

LATER:: Marhsall Sponder points out that it's still available with sound in Google Labs.

EVEN LATER:: It's now back with no apparent changes. Too bad.

Making Gmail Your Gateway to the Web

Photo Credit: Adapted from Gateway Arch by docdevore

For the past five years my browser home page has been set to either Google.com or iGoogle. (I briefly flirted with the New York Times as my default but have integrated their feeds everywhere else.) This week I switched it to Gmail. With all of the features they have been adding lately, particularly through their Labs, Gmail is unquestionably my virtual Swiss Army Knife. It is not only my communications hub. It is my knowledge base and to some degree my feed reader. Some say it is becoming an enterprise dashboard - it is. It is my gateway to the web. (Note they added themes today!)

In this post I outline some recent ways I have tweaked my Gmail Personal Nerve Center by connecting Gmail with other web services. (Other posts on Gmail are here.)

Search the Web from Gmail

Gmail's search capabilities are top-notch. It's a big reason why I store tons of articles, factoids and even documents there. However, it's easy to miss the little button that says "Search the Web." These days I begin most of my web queries from Gmail. I even get a head start using their advanced keywords. (For example I type in new york weather when I want to know what the temperature is.) This will become even more useful once Gmail adds its SMS features later this month. Once that's back up you should be able to use it with Google SMS and get back search results via IM.

Update and Track Your Social Networks via IM

I am slowly in the process of trying to shift more of my communications out of email towards social software and IM. (More on this topic soon.) Still, I want an easily accessible record of all of these streams. So I am using Gmail much of the time to post to these services and also receive updates.

If you set up Ping.fm you can update all the major social networks via Gmail Chat. I post to Twitter via Ping.fm. I receive back replies by subscribing to a Twitter search feed for @steverubel via IM via notify.me. In addition, I receive Facebook alerts also by running my feed through notify.me. You can find your Facebook feed here. (You can also IM Friendfeed and Yammer directly and receive updates back from them too, which I do.)

Subscribe to High Priority Feeds and Alerts

I love Google Reader but I also like to be able to subscribe to some of my feeds via Gmail so that they are archived in a single place online and offline (via IMAP). However, I want to make this easily managed. So, I put all of my high priority feeds in Google Reader into a folder, make this folder public and then subscribe to the feed in Newsgator Online. Newsgator offers POP delivery so I have Gmail automatically fetch this account, scoop up the feeds, filter/archive them and tag them with the label "Feeds."

Track the Day's News with Gmail Clips

I am a news junkie and like to stay in the know. Gmail makes this a snap with Gmail Web Clips. I have pretty much standardized on the New York Times as my source of choice. In addition, I like to be able to track Techmeme too as well as all the news on the Presidential transition. So I have added a bunch of feeds to Clips including one from the awesome Times Topics site that stream into Gmail via a nice handy little news ticker.

Use Gmail as a Writing Tool

Sometimes writing can be intimidating, but it doesn't need to be. I like to start my writing in Gmail and then move it into other services where I can do more. For example, I wrote this blog post in Gmail and then sent it directly to TypePad. I also start documents here and then email them into Google Docs for additional tweaking (eg word counts, etc.). Finally I have a huge swipe file of articles and ideas stored in Gmail for inspiration and reference (for more on this concept see this great post from Write to Done). LifeClever offers some more thoughts here on using email for writing. See my other Gmail posts for how to use the service for storing ideas.

Build Links in Gmail to All Your Other Services

Finally, last but not least, when I do need to access other services they are all a click away in Gmail. I have added the Google Calendar and Google Docs gadgets to my sidebar. I store my To Do List in Google Docs so it's usually the top item in the gadget. In addition, I store my bookmarks in Gmail by exporting them to HTML and sending the page to myself using Ubiquity, which I pull up using Gmail Quick Links. Also, the links at the top of the page put me a click away to secure https versions of some of Google's other big services.

I keep adding to my system as Google rolls out features, but to me Gmail is my gateway to the web and the one web site I could never be without. Gmail turns five in the spring and I amazed how they continue to make it even more awesome once you start to really tweak it to your needs.

How to Ride the Recession the Steve Jobs Way

Steve Jobs for Fortune Magazine by Tsevis

Though he's got plenty of flaws, Steve Jobs is one of my heroes. How could you not admire someone who beat cancer, helped spawn the personal computer revolution, reinvent mobile phones, not to mention nursed Apple back to health?

With the iPhone red hot, Mac sales flush and corporate earnings strong, Apple is riding high right now. In this recessionary climate, there are lessons each of us can take away from Steve's svengali-like reign at Apple. If you're committed to succeeding, it doesn't matter if you're a start-up CEO or a PR account executive, here are three tips to help you ride the recession the Steve Jobs way.

• Soar with your Strengths - Question: What is your "core genius?" What product or service do you provide really well that others can't match? What as an individual or company do you do really well that adds value? What niche do you serve? Identify it then build on it. Figure out how to soar with your strengths.
  
  Apple makes high-quality, well-designed products that are sexy, perform well and are innovative. That's their core genius. They stick with it and continually delight customers. They're not efficiency champions like Dell or netbook enthusiasts like HP (an Edelman client). They leave those markets to others. They also catering to their core audience, recognizing there's room for everyone.
  
  If you're a media pitch maven, double down and learn how to become even better at it. If you're a startup like Twitter that provides a messaging platform, focus on making it even more essential to our lives. Soar with your strengths and try to eliminate anything that gets in the way. What are you known for? What can you be known for both inside your company and externally? Land on it and ride it to success.

• Simplify Everything - The world is complex. The web is a complicated landscape. Business is complicated. Life is complicated! Make it simpler for people. Find ways to eliminate complexity to streamline operations/costs and also drive the top-line.
  
  Steve Jobs is notorious for avoiding feature creep. He is equally proud of the products they did not launch (like PDAs) as the ones they did. Apple looks to simplify everything: from products, support to the entire customer experience. They're not always successful (e.g. MobileMe), but they are continually writing the book on simplicity.
  
  All of us in this climate are going to have to do more with less. As a minimalist, it excites me. I am looking forward to streamlining my life even more than I already have. If you're in PR, figure out how to provide greater value to clients via digital channels. If you're working for a startup, how can you make the user experience simpler and turn it into a competitive advantage? If you're a blogger how can you simplify your posts and make them more readable? People don't have time for complexity, especially now.

• Be a Premium Brand - Although everyone will be looking to streamline their costs in this environment, I believe that premium brands will only get stronger. A premium brand is a company that offers high-quality products, services or experiences that are worth paying a little more for. Think Starbucks Coffee (an Edelman client), Sub Zero, BMW, etc. How can you become a premium brand that's worth paying more for? This applies equally to individuals or teams.
  
  John Gruber summarized Apple's philosophy in quoting COO Tim Cook. He said "We don't compromise on quality." Darn straight. They would never ship something that does not live up to their exacting standards. Now, how can you live that way?
  
  Apply the same quality mantra in your career and you will go places. Sweat the small stuff. Never sacrifice quality in your product, service or in what you produce. Be a premium brand that people are just dying to either a) work with or b) buy from. This applies equally for individuals and brands. Do only your best work. Be a quality champion!

These are just three of the lessons I think all of us can take away from Steve Jobs.

All Your Sites Belong to Us

Three major web site redesigns in the last several weeks - Facebook, iGoogle and Yahoo - have sparked outrage from a small but influential group of users. ReadWriteWeb breaks each of these down. As I read their account it occurred to me that a dramatic shift has occurred. Companies don't really own their web sites anymore. We do.

Time Magazine with its Person of the Year cover story decried 2006 as the year of You, the empowered consumer. At the time they wrote...

And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you.

But just two years later, something exceptional has happened. We now "own" the web even more than we did back then when all we simply did was create viable homegrown alternatives to big media sites.

Nowadays, if there's an online experience we dislike, we either demand that it be changed, use Greasemonkey to fix things ourselves or just vote with our feet. That's a major shift from the level of empowerment that we thought was remarkable even just two years ago.

Since the dawn of the decade there have been several major breakdown in systems that we thought were a sure thing. First it was our national security (September 11), then major companies failed (Enron/Worldcom) and finally, more recently, our financial system tanked (Lehman Brothers). The result is our trust in institutions continues to erode. These events might seem detached from a silly web site design, but they're not. Each encouraged people to take greater control of all aspects their lives - and to live to the fullest, even online.

No matter the site, a lot of time and effort goes into building a solid user experience. There's always a chance you're going to alienate 50% of your audience when you go through the process. But in this age - more than ever - the best approach is to redesign web sites collaboratively with consumers and all out in the open so that we really feel like the changes are ours not just yours.

That's preciely what Dell did starting late last year - and it proved smart. Others should take note.

Recession Proof Your Job with Web Based Tools

The economy is the story of the year. And although Congress is poised to pass a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry, we're not out of the woods. Many feel that a deep global recession is imminent. This means there will be layoffs - perhaps lots of them. To protect your job, you need to ensure that you are personally accountable and adding value every day.

Social software and web applications, if applied correctly, are sharp arrows in your quiver. They can also become massive distractions. Here are three techniques using web tools that can help you become more personally accountable in your career.

Track Your Browser Time with PageAddict

Time and attention are finite resources that must be harnessed properly if you want to succeed. Nevertheless, this is not simple in the connected age. Given that many of us work in Internet-related fields, it's easy (and some would argue quite valuable) to spend the entire day in your email inbox or on Friendfeed or Twitter. Problem is, you may not accomplish a thing.

Like my friends Paul Stamatiou and Kevin C. Tofel I spend the vast majority of my computing time "in the cloud." This means my browser, Firefox, is used more than any other application. But recently I have started using PageAddict, a free Firefox extension, to collect data on my Internet usage and I have found it invaluable.

PageAddict monitors the sites you visit and logs your time. You can then tag them into categories. All the data is stored locally on your computer. A similar tool that people love is called RescueTime. However, given that I spend a ton of time in my browser I have found PageAddict more than adequate for my needs.

Above is a screenshot from PageAddict that shows where my time was spent over the last two weeks. Email includes my corporate web-mail and GMail. Soc Nets includes Facebook, Friendfeed and Twitter. While docs covers Google Docs, which I use to write, and Google Spreadsheets, which I use for GTD, goals, projects and ideas.

As you can see almost all of my time online is work related. Still I can see that I need to shrink my social network usage a little bit and increase my time with documents, web applications while also keeping RSS contained. I also need to go through the undefined section to see if there are big groups of sites that can be tagged.

Wrangle RSS

Many of us are RSS addicts. ReadWriteWeb recently did a great job showing how blog reading can help you grow in your career. This has certainly has been true for me and it's why I read 568 feeds, tag much of what I unearth there, file it in Gmail and share it liberally.

Still, as great as RSS is, it can eat your time. I have worked over the last couple of years to a) shift most of my reading to the early mornings or evenings when I have time to really ponder the content and b) use RSS as a knowledge management hub for information that others can use, including you, my colleagues and clients.

Google Reader Trends gives you the data you need to track this over time. You can see how many items you have read, what day/time you consume feeds as well as how many items you have shared. It also shows you the feeds you read the most, even via a mobile device - this is something even RescueTime or PageAddict can't track. Analyze the data and make sure it's aligned with your goals. Below is a screenshot from my reader.

Track All Your Time via a Web Calendar or Online Spreadsheet

In my field we all track our time. In some cases this is how we know what to bill clients for our time. In others, it's to ensure that we aren't over-servicing accounts. However, if you don't have to track your time I highly recommend it since it's a great way to ensure that you are focused and delivering value.

I have been using Google Calendar to track my time. I set up a calendar just for this purpose and use it to log when I start/completed a task. Then I transfer this data to our enterprise-wide time tracking tool. What I like about using GCal is that I can search my time or go back to a specific date to see what I did when. I also use bookmarklets to speed up the logging of my time.

As a next step I may move this to Google Spreadsheets or Zoho since I can generate charts to see where my time is being spent. I also want to think about how to synchronize my logs with PageAddict.

Bonus Tip: Create a Motivation Wall with Picasa or Flickr

This tip isn't really about measurement, but it's a little web app hack that I use to motivate myself. Using Picasa Web Albums I set up a private album called "The Motivation Wall." On the wall I collect images of people - some living, some dead - who achieved greatness. I try to hit this site every so often because I know it will inspire me to do the same.

In the screenshot above you will find some of my heroes - Michael Jordan taking the final shot to seal victory in the 1998 NBA Finals, Michael Phelps winning his seventh gold by a hundredth of a second and Ben Franklin (a tinkerer like me) discovering electricity.

Additional links of note...

23 Personal Tools to Learn More About Yourself

Bytes of Life : For Every Move, Mood and Bodily Function, There's a Web Site to Help You Keep Track

Cloud Computing's Impact on Digital Marketing - Trends to Watch

Photo credit: King Cloud by akakumo.

The following is my column in next week's AdAge...

One of the biggest trends shaping technology today is called "cloud computing." Consumers and business are moving more of their data off their computers and into rich Internet applications that are available everywhere - e.g. "the cloud." You can experience this for yourself on sites like Yahoo Mail, Google Docs, Salesforce.com and Mint.com.

While geeks have been gushing over web-based software for years now, the average consumer has been slower in adopting them. That said, given the already huge popularity of webmail services, it's only a matter of time before they do for more complex tasks.

Here are three things for marketers to watch...

LESS IS MORE: How much did you spend on your last computer? If you're like most you probably plunked down anywhere from $1,000 to $2,000. However, your next computer could be a sub-$500 netbook.

Netbooks are light, low-powered, cheap laptops with small screens. They rely on the Internet for most tasks and are growing in popularity. According to Google Trends, netbook searches are up 4x this year and IDC sees sales topping nine million in 2012.

As netbooks rise, thin will be in. Since these computers are underpowered by design, consumers who use these devices will eschew complicated, 3D or processor-intense experiences in favor of interfaces that are easy and formatted for a 10" screen.

WEB APP ADS: Many online applications like Google Reader are free. Others, like Mindmeister - a mind mapping tool - operate under a fremium model where the basics are free but advanced features carry a premium. To date most are devoid of ads.

Webmail has displayed ads since its earliest days. Others like Meebo, a universal IM service, or the online radio site Pandora are taking this a step further by creating immersive brand experiences. However this is just the beginning.

As web applications rise, it will unleash innovation. For example, online photo editors like Adobe Photoshop Express (note - Adobe is an Edelman client) or Picnik could serve ads for how-to photography books to consumers that spend an extensive amount of time tinkering.

MOBILE FIRST, NOT LAST: Too often today, mobile is an afterthought rather than the focal point when it comes to digital marketing.

Cloud computing is liberating people from their computers. Some executives I know leave their laptops at home when traveling on business since their smartphones carry the load. In 10 years time this will be the norm as mobile devices, powered by cloud computing, wirelessly connect to keyboards, mice and monitors and offer as rich experience as today's computers. This trend toward one device that does it all will be a catalyst for mobile marketing.

UPDATE:: One thing I did not cover in this column is reliability. Om's got a great post on this today.

The Risk in Using Twitter as a Public Utility

Despite all of its recent up-time troubles, Twitter's growth has been on a tear lately. According to Google Ad Planner data, time spent is off the charts at a staggering 550 seconds per user in the US and 560 seconds globally. Compare those figures to 480 seconds per user for CNN - a site that's at least 10 years older. In addition, as you can see from the chart below, daily unique users are skyrocketing as well.

As Twitter's audience grows more companies are starting using it to engage its user base. In essence this turns the site into a service and fosters innovation. For example, I love how the Los Angeles County Fire Department is using Twitter for news distribution.

Some have wisely suggested that utility computing is a potential business model for the micro-blogging service. This is already happening perhaps more than meets the eye. For example, Mindmeister, the online mindmapping tool, uses the Twitter API to power it's SMS alerting capabilities. Therein lies the issue. If Twitter makes a change to the API, which it did yesterday, then it impacts anyone who uses it. As a result, Mindmeister was forced to make changes to the way it handles notifications.

The takeaway here for me is that as fantastic as web services are, many of them are controlled by one party and are thus a single point of failure. If they go down or the particular site makes a change to the web service call, it can potentially ripple through the Internet economy if the API is popular.

So, mashup, develop and go nuts with APIs - but always proceed with caution becuase the rug can be pulled out from under you as it was for Mindmeister.