Is Your Business Set Up For Failure?

This topic can be talked about from now until eternity and it very well should be. As a business owner you have to make sure you try to plan for everything possible. Clients aren’t coming in anymore so how are you going to pay your vendors. You have a streaming revenue do you still wait to pay vendors and try to gain percentage on the revenue?

There are millions of questions but the one that always gets me is to why release a product – non beta – to the public and know its going to fail?

I love BETA – those four letters is the best way to release any type of product and acts as a sort of ‘disclaimer’ if you don’t mind.

Yet, when I read up on the new Blackberry Storm I couldn’t believe that RIM expects problems and knew they were coming:

RIM co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie said the companies made the crucial Black Friday deadline “by the skin of their teeth,” after missing a planned October debut. Mr. Balsillie said such scrambles — and the subsequent software glitches that need to be fixed — are part of the “new reality” of making complex cellphones in large volumes.

Who would’ve guessed it. One of thee top smartphone providers and to be quite honest a break through on BB technology (Touchscreen).

So, what can this example teach you for your business? Pretty simple in my book – test your product and if it’s not ready for launch – DON’T LAUNCH IT. If you feel the need to then make sure there are notices out there that say there are bugs and you have the fix’s or otherwise it could hurt your long tail.

What say you?

Do Super Bowl Ads Matter During Recession?

This weekend marks Super Bowl XLII and while my team (Cincinnati Bengals) isn’t in it I can’t help but root for the underdogs: Arizona Cardinals. As much as I love football I’m more of a NCAA fan than NFL. So, when the Bowl comes around I’m more interested in the ad’s then the game.

The past decade I knew it cost a ridiculous amount of money to advertise during Super Bowl’s. So much so that I quit paying attention at the exact cost. However, during the past few year’s recession I started to ponder just how it would effect one of the biggest spectacles of the world. I would ‘assume’ it would drop down specially with record reports of declines in sales.

I was wrong. Dead wrong.

Advertising Age just put out a story showing that advertisers are paying upwards to $100,00 per SECOND! I honestly could not believe it and after looking over the chart Ad Age had put together it still blows me away. Advertisers are paying MORE than they are just last year.

So, who is wrong – or is anyone?

Is NBC wrong to charge this much money or is the advertisers wrong for trying to pay these amounts when jobs are being cut just about daily?

Or, does it even matter and it’s just business?

You be the judge.

Reasons Why I Hate Digg

Digg can be a powerful tool if used correctly. It can send a site’s traffic into the stars and others be banned in a matter of weeks. The influence that is has in social media has become a stand-out and caused other sites to mimic its success.

However, after being fairly active in Digg I found that after awhile getting your own personal stories ‘dugg’ is harder than you think. I would digg stories I truly liked – I would have similar topic and ‘shout’ it to my ‘friends’ and get 5-10 diggs. Then…nothing.

Scrolling through my rss reader I saw a GREAT title that truly needs mentioned: The 7 Most Hated and Loved Sources for Digg.

It is pretty much spot-on. I would add a few more in-depth ‘reasons’ but I digress. When a cartoon (no matter how amusing it might be) makes the front page but one about the recent war in the middle east gets 5 diggs I can’t deal with it. Then there is your personal community, as I mentioned before. Constantly ‘shouting’ to you for diggs on their stories but fail to digg yours or the ones you recommend.

So, the question is – have you found Digg a good resource?

Positive Reviews Exposed pt 2

On Monday I posted about a story that was breaking about a Belkin representative paying for positive reviews on Amazon. Well, as it turns out there is now more to the story than meets the eye.

A Beklin Wi-Fi Router Product

As I was going through my Google Reader I came across the headline over at Corporate Eye: Exposed – Belkin Pays for Positive Consumer Reviews which goes into detail about the paid review story but even more in-depth. It looks like the company also went over to a few other popular sites to get some much need press:

As it turns out, Belkin has been soliciting positive reviews for awhile, and the company has also been paying people to write positive reviews on a variety of sites, including Buy.com and Newegg.  As you can imagine, once the cat was out of the bag and a screenshot of the actual task (see it here) began circulating across the Internet, the Belkin president, Mark Reynoso, had to respond and apologize (read his apology letter here).  However, the negative PR wouldn’t stop there.  Next, a Belkin employee spilled the beans to Gizmodo, telling them that Belkin has been soliciting and paying for positive consumer reviews for a very long time (read it here).

What’s even worse though is Mark Reynoso’s response where he stats:

We want to stress that this is an isolated incident and to re-instill trust with you, we have taken the following courses of action:

- We’ve acted swiftly to remove all associated postings from the Mechanical Turk system.
- We’re working closely with our online channel partners to ensure that any reviews that may have been placed due to these postings have been removed.

While it was a great attempt it is hard to believe that this was a one time incident as seen over at Gizmodo. Again, as I mentioned before this is going to hurt them over all and in today’s economy it’ll be hard to get back the trust.

The Way To Get Users Involved via Survey

If you are reading this in Internet Explorer – STOP. Go get FireFox (Mozilla) and start using new (and improved) technology to view websites. Staying on point of FireFox and marketing one of the biggest things I truly loved about this browser software was the almost endless possibilities via “Add-On’s” from SEO Toolbar to Debug.

So, reading a post over at Wired entitled, “Mozilla Wants to Start Watching Where You Click,” I thought out loud “Its about time!”

If you do not know FireFox is open source basically meaning ITS FREE! People came together on this project to give to the people. It wasn’t out to make money and it constantly updating it’s software to give users the best experience possible online.

So, why not let them in on what you’re clicking on right?

The best thing a company can do is ASK for your participation. This shows that they are showing there intent and to let you know just what they plan on doing. In surveys honesty is the best policy – PERIOD!

Volunteers will be invited to download a Firefox extension, which will ask for some demographic information — age, location, your level of technical aptitude — that’s used to build a profile. Based on that profile, you’ll occasionally receive a request to take part in a usability study. Click “yes,” complete the survey or click around on a website for a few minutes, and the Test Pilot add-on will gather the information it needs.

Pretty straight forward, right? Exactly. There isn’t anything hidden behind it – no pop-ups, which in all honesty FireFox COULD do as soon as you open up a new window/tab.

It goes on to say the intent of this:

It’s also this level of scalability that makes Test Pilot special. Not only will the collected data be made open to the public, but the testing platform will as well. Any research institution that needs usability data can draft a request to query the hive mind of worldwide Firefox users. Tests can be conducted in a matter of hours with virtually no overhead — a dream compared to the hours and days spend recruiting, screening and testing participants in traditional usability studies

I will definitely be looking into this and testing it out.

What about you? Are you going to do it?

When Reviews For Products Are Bad Thing

Question: Why is Amazon so popular?

Got it?

Answer: The reviews!

That’s right people who are looking for a particular item are looking at the reviews and Amazon is one of the top companies that reviews can be ‘trusted’. Search for a product and you see great deals but you see the rating system and the comments. The obvious choice is to check out the reviews…right?

Well, going across my Google Reader a headline caught my eye over at Gizmodo: Belkin Rep Pays For Positive Reviews of Belkin Products on Amazon

I couldn’t believe it – specially as I sat looking at my Belkin wifi router by my television. I clicked on it and could not believe the story:

A Belkin representative has been caught offering money to anybody who posts a 100% positive review of certain Belkin products on Amazon.com and other e-retailers. The bozo even used his own name.

I literally laughed out loud. It wasn’t some type of PR stunt as I intentionally thought because as I read I saw:

The request was filed by one Mike Bayard, and a quick Google search and perusal of his LinkedIn profile reveals him to be a Belkin representative in charge of sales to e-retailers

This will in the end hurt Belkin products. I would guess to say that they will probably take a 10% hit from this incident. In a financial crisis as we currently are in people need to trust in companies and in this situation – the trust is gone.

What do you think?

In-Store Vs Online Deals

There are sometimes a reason why a company offers deals online. They want to build that online presence. I can respect that whole hearty. I do this myself. However, one thing is for sure I make sure that the actual store puts up notices (flyers/business card advertisements/etc) to let consumers know to always check their website.

Why? Well, for starters if you haven’t purchased anything online (which is very low percentage in to days world) you have to enter in a lot of information. From name, address, phone to email. All these things are compiled for the company to see where they need to focus special deals – if there are more consumers in a different part of town that they might need to build another store.

Why travel 30 min’s to a store if one is being built 5 min’s away?

So, what sparked the post? Well over at Gizmodo they have a new post titled, “Use Your Cellphone to Save Big Money at Best Buy” – which struck a marketing nerve.

Why not have posters/flyers advertising that if you’re in the store that purchasing online can save you money?

How about having a few computers set-up for consumers?

You want to be able to reach your customers so why not gather all the information you can on them?

Motivation Means Success

Should I really write about something so obvious? Well, apparently so since so many people don’t understand this simple concept and to be quite honest it took me a few years to understand.

This is not JUST applicable to ‘work’ i.e. your job or your career. This applies to everything in life. How can you be a successful student (graduating) if you haven’t figured out how to motivate yourself pass your Accounting courses?

For me I need music. I crave it. It’s my blood line. It keeps me going and always needing something new and unique. This was one of the main reasons I gravitated towards hip hop. Rap music was that way back in the 80′s and 90′s. It has definetly changed since then but I won’t get into that argument, again.

Nonetheless, if I EVER feel down or trying to read about economics I put on the headphones and jam out. It’s the only way for me to get going. I’ll put theories and principles to beats and it works, for me that is. Everyone is different.

In the morning I need coffee to get going. Once I get that first cup all my gears are turning (if I had a half-way decent night’s rest of course). I know people who don’t need coffee and drink pop first thing in the a.m. while others really get moving in the afternoon. One curse is that my wife is an evening person and I’m a morning. Imagine the fun we have hahaha. We cope with it and learn how to adapt.

If you are motivated in working out then you’ll be able to utilize all your muscles at the gym. If you are just going through the motions then your not developing your muscles as well as you could be.

What is your motivation and how are you utilizing it for your personal success?

Ways To Schedule Social Media

The biggest problem I hear from people involved in Social Media (SM) Marketing is the time commitment. Yet, once I dig deeper I come to find out that they themselves are getting pulled into items that they shouldn’t be doing such as constant searching and responding to non-followers/friends or constant responding to followers/friends.

You have to look at SM from a job point of view. You have to have an objective going into it. I did a post awhile back entitled “How To Make Sure Social Media Does NOT Use You” and there is a ton of truth in there that people don’t realize.

Use SM At Prime Time

Look around your SM networks and see when exactly your contacts are most lively and schedule your time right in the heart of it. When it comes to say Twitter connect your feed to twitter feed at that time as well.

Know Your Best Contacts

While talking to Joe Schmoe is good make sure you hit the big ones as well. In doing so they could broadcast your message to their network as well.

Is this wrong? Not one bit – it’s being smart but make sure you don’t forget to reply to Joe Schmoe because you have no idea who he might actually be connected with.

Timer Dings – STOP!

Don’t get caught in a constant battle of “I’ll be done in 5 more minutes”. If you set a time (which you should have) then once that time comes finish your last thing may it be an email – IM – tweet – whatever, do it and close out.

What have you found useful when utilizing social media?

Pay For Play Advertising

It’s funny how when you run across some sites and you’re not aware of it but somehow there was something wrong with that page. Well, majority of the time it’s not a grammatical problem or spelling. It will be an advertising spot in contrast to what you might be viewing. I remember when I use to frequent the forums of a popular hip hop ezine (HipHopDX) and speaking with the marketing director I found that no matter what they would not sell their reviews. I would see a review on an artist that would receive one “x” but right above it a full 728 x 90 banner advertising the release of the cd. It would crack me up each time. That was probably six years ago and I still remember that.

The truth of the matter is that a lot of companies do the complete opposite when it comes to ezine’s. They want advertisers and their not stupid and it works for the short run but their long tail effect hurts them because credibility is brought into play.

So, when I ran across the image below I couldn’t help but chuckle:

Microsoft & Apple

The original article can be found over on Gizmodo and while it is a spoof Microsoft (those that made Zune if you’re not aware) jumps on it. Along with that is right above the banner – Iphone Apps!