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TED Talks: Jason Fried of 37signals: Why work doesn’t happen at work

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Nov 30, 2010; Category: Business, Zeitgeist; Tags: Business, Work; No Comments

I haven’t worked in an office for more than a decade, but this all sounds too familiar. Work needs to be “reinvented” in order to recapture productivity, and these sound like some good suggestions.

Is “Good Enough” Really Good Enough?

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Sep 21, 2010; Category: Communication, Design/Development, Zeitgeist; Tags: Business, Communication, Marketing; One Comment

We live in an era of commodification of services. Many of the services that relied on people with specialized skills and expertise a decade ago can be accomplished by low-skilled workers, and in some cases, by automated services (translation into a foreign language, for instance). Few people would argue that services delivered by low-skilled or automated means rival the quality of services delivered by people with expertise and knowledge (try your automated translation out on a native speaker of the language), but some people feel that “good enough” is good enough.

Take website design: a service of particular interest to me. It’s possible to sign up for a free account on WordPress.com, TypePad, or Blogger (using a URL like yourbusinessname.wordpress.com), select from the limited assortment of templates, upload a few images, write a few posts, and you have a website. It’s also possible to hire your neighbor’s kid for a couple of hundred bucks to create a website for you (he’s so good with computers!).

How effective are those approaches? Judging by the ones I’ve seen, not very. They typically communicate little that would convince people in your market to do business with you, and often communicate a great deal of information that turns people away (usually inadvertently and unintentionally).

What many people fail to understand about web design/development is that a website is only partly a “technical/coding project,” and only partly a “design project,” and together those two parts don’t add up to a whole. For businesses, websites are mostly communication and marketing projects. Figuring out what to communicate and how to communicate it (both visually and in writing) is a lot of what you pay for with professional website design. Closely related to communication and fundamental to online marketing is user experience design, which helps turn website visitors into customers. If you find yourself working with a web designer who is mostly concerned with issues other than communication, user experience, and marketing, find yourself another designer.

My question is this: If a business website doesn’t get positive results (more customers), is it “good enough,” even if you paid nothing or next to it?

If your purpose is to grow your business, having a free or cheap website that gathers few visitors and converts none of them into customers isn’t much of a bargain. You don’t get rewarded for how little you spend on your website (“my website sucks but at least I didn’t spend any money on it”). You get rewarded for how effective it is. And effectiveness is still the result of expertise in communication, managing user experience, and marketing.

Disconnected: Honey, I deactivated the Facebook account.

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Aug 23, 2010; Category: Zeitgeist; Tags: Business, social media; No Comments

I’ve never been a huge fan of Facebook, once I got over the initial curiosity and connected with a few friends. I really don’t care that much about what people I haven’t seen for more than 30 years are doing with their spare time. Some of whom I barely knew 30 years ago.

There’s no question that Facebook is valuable for some businesses, IF a large part of their market uses it. I have clients, such as Zooniversity, for whom being in front of their market on Facebook is very important. But that’s not the case with my business. If you’re a client of mine and Facebook is important to your business, I’ll see that your website supports and promotes your Facebook page. Other than that, I’m done with Facebook.

Frankly, when someone from high school whose name I barely recall—who I’m sure I didn’t know well enough to say “Hi” to in the hall—wants to “friend” me, and four other people from high school (none of whom I was close to) send messages recommending that I friend this person, I’m starting to feel just a little intruded upon. I know, I can adjust my privacy settings. But every time I look at the settings panel, I surrender to an overwhelming desire to go get a beer instead. Each and every time that happens, I feel like I’ve made the right choice.

There was a time when I tried to look people up on Facebook. That stopped when so many of the people I found turned out to be fans of Sarah Palin, or into doing some kind of “Farmworld” thingy, or just plain telling me more than I wanted to know. And everyone looked so old! There’s a reason I left my hometown, I’ve decided.

There’s actually a term for what I’m experiencing: social media fatigue (google it and you’ll find a lot of material). As far as I can tell, the term has been used for at least 2 years. But I think more and more people are starting to tire of being so connected, and feeling compelled to participate. Social media can be valuable and rewarding, but you have to be selective about how and where (and if) you participate. After careful evaluation (and a beer), it’s “so long, Facebook” for me.

So, if anyone from my distant past, recent past, or even immediate future wants to connect with me, just send me an email. But please, don’t tell me you’re a Sarah Palin fan.

It’s Time for “Old Marketing” Types to Come Over to “New Marketing”

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Jun 26, 2010; Category: Marketing, Zeitgeist; Tags: Communication, Marketing, New Rules, Zeitgeist; No Comments

Old Marketing used to just be “marketing,” before there was “new marketing” to serve as a comparison. Old marketing—which includes Yellow Pages adverstising, newspaper advertising, and all forms of broadcast advertising—is still valid for a lot of businesses. And an entire industry (advertising) came into being to support that kind of marketing. But it’s no longer the only game in town.

Since the internet became a place in which people could connect, marketing opportunities have sprung up in that space. As you well know if you’ve opened a browser in the last 5 years, all of the marketing on the internet is not being done well. In fact, some of it is pretty awful. But what would we expect of a medium in which the barriers to entry—in terms of cost and expertise—are so low? Often, it’s marketing by the lowest common denominator for the lowest common denominator.

So of course, the new marketing space is often ridiculed (largely an expression of misunderstanding and fear) by people who make their living in old marketing. Those people need to get over it. The internet is a legitimate marketing space for one reason: that’s where a large part of a lot of companies’ markets are spending their time, rather than reading newspapers or the Yellow Pages or listening to the radio or watching television (all declining industries).

Old marketers have some useful skills that could be put to use on the internet, once they take the time and go to the effort of learning the new rules. Once learned, these rules can be broken for specific reasons. Break the rules without understanding what and why they are, and crashing and burning is the likely outcome (Oh! The humanity!). And, of course, that’s what usually happens when old marketing assumptions are brought to the internet.

The opportunities that exist for companies and old marketing types on the internet exist not only because that’s where people are, but also because it’s not often being done very well. Better concepts, better copy, and better images that communicate better would be raise the bar for online marketing.

But I’m not challenging old marketing types to come over because they’re needed on the internet. Frankly, they’re not.

I’m challenging old marketing types to become knowledgeable, competent, and comfortable with internet marketing because if they’re not, they’re doing their clients a disservice. Presenting clients only with old marketing solutions is a little like being a caddy with only a driver and a wedge in the bag. And it’s also a good way to watch your own market shrink.

Having a website? Meaningless. Using a website? Priceless.

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: May 12, 2010; Category: Business, Communication, Marketing, Zeitgeist; Tags: Blogging for Business, Entrepreneurs, Zeitgeist; 3 Comments

Most people think having a website has value. They’re wrong.

Lots of people and businesses and organizations have websites (although as recently as a year ago, only 37% of US small businesses had one).

But having a website is sort of like having a hammer. Just because you own one doesn’t mean you’re building a house, or even putting up a shelf. If the hammer sits unused in the toolbox, you might might as well not have a hammer, for all the good it’s doing you.

Websites are like that. They’re tools. Used properly, they can help you build a business or start a movement. Left un-utilized on your webhost account (never updated, no interaction with readers, etc.—you know the type), they accomplish nothing.

Primarily, websites are comunication/connection tools. Once you’re good at using your website for communicating and connecting (as with most tools, some practice is required for you to use it effectively: expect an occasional sore thumb), your website can also shoulder some of the burden of sales and delivery of goods and services. But first, you have to successfully use your website for communicating and connecting. (FYI, websites make very poor “look-how-impressive-we-are” tools, though that’s primarily how businesses use them.)

Most of us are reasonably good at dreaming and talking about what we would do if we had the means. We’re not nearly as good at following through when the means is right in front of us. “If I had a hammer,” the old folk song used to say.

Websites, particularly those on platforms like WordPress, are tools that provide us with the means to pursue our goals. But they have to be used. Ladies and gentlemen, pick up your hammers and let’s “hit it.”