A brilliant observation and a perfect example

As I was writing my previous post and glancing at my Ma.Gnolia bookmarks, it occurred to me that two items I’ve bookmarked recently are related in an interesting way.

The first is a piece by Doc Searls with a title that I have already repeated to at least three people: There is no demand for messages.

Here’s a great quote that just about sums up Doc’s argument:

Let me see a show of hands: who here wants a message? Right: none. And who wants to shield themselves from messages they don't want? Exactly: everybody.

Further down the link roll is another post that illustrates Doc’s point quite nicely. David at Ironic Sans has written a brilliant piece about his ridiculously huge K-mart receipt. He only bought 2 items and the receipt was 21 inches long!

A quote:

Only the top 6 inches of the receipt contains information relevant to the purchase: the date, items purchased, price, store number, etc. The remaining 15 inches contains ads for things I could have purchased if I’d known about them before I went to the register, and also a list of store hours. I don’t know about you, but when I want to know a store’s hours or what they sell, I never dig out old receipts to find the answer.

You’re absolutely right, David. No one digs out old receipts. No one reads them even when they’re new, at least not those bottom 15 inches.

So why are those extra 15 inches there? Simple. Because K-Mart’s got a message for David and his fellow customers. In fact they’ve got a whole slew of them. They’ve got more messages than they know what do with.

But as David’s post makes abundantly clear, there is no demand for these messages. None at all. Zilch. Zero. But there is demand for something else—environmental accountability. As David puts it:

How many miles of paper must K-Mart waste every day?

Amen.

Here’s a scan of the actual receipt to drive the point home:

Tags: docsearls, messages, customerpower, cluetrain

A new approach to sharing links

I’ve been hemming and hawing since at least July about the value and merits of link dumping posts.

On the one hand, I love sharing links and I believe that pointing readers to hand picked pages has some real value. But on the other, I acknowledge the difference between a posting a list of links and posting something original.

So here’s my solution: two feeds. One to subscribe to new posts and another to subscribe to links I’ve bookmarked for sharing at Ma.Gnolia.

I’ve also added a Ma.Gnolia link roll to the sidebar so site visitors can see both content streams as well.

Any feedback you might have would be great.

Tags: ma.gnolia magnolia links linkdumps feeds rss subsriptions

Turns out this whole learning from experience thing actually works

This post is part of a group writing project on the theme of "What I Learned This Year" being spearheaded by Ben Yoskovitz at the Instigator Blog.

- - -

Professionally, 2006 has been a really interesting year.

First and foremost, I was lucky enough to be able to spearhead a project—on my employers dime, no less—that embodied a lot of my personal passions, interests and beliefs.

Besides being lots and lots of fun this was also quite a challenge.

One of the things I learned along way was how alarmingly easy it is to lose sight of your convictions when you're focused on execution and all of the minutia it entails. It wasn’t until I slowed down and came up for air that realized I had been drifting away from some of the ideas and principles that had intially inspired me to take the project on.

And even though I eventually caught myself drifting and cranked the wheel hard to get back on course, I remain surprised by the experience.

And humbled.

And there’s more—an extra layer of irony to really drive it home. You see, foremost among the convictions I ended up losing sight of was a belief in the importance of remaining relentlessly focused on the user.

Which is exactly the opposite of what started to happen as I drifted towards myopia.

So anyhow, I think there are a few worthwhile lessons in there. Lessons about the difference between theory and practice, vision and execution. Lessons about human fallibility and our capacity for self-deception. And lessons about stones and glass houses, too.

Here’s hoping each and every one of them sticks in my rusty ol’ noodle.


Tags: lessons, insights, whatIlearned, what_i_learned

Links for December 15, 2006

• Modern Marketing: When You Say Community... A very insightful post from James Cherkoff on what community really means and why marketers need to be careful.
  
  
• The Long Tail: What Would Radical Transparency Mean For Wired? Chris Anderson wades well out into the blue ocean an imagines a totally transparent media model for Wired . . or anyone else, really.
  
  
• AdRants: Sony Takes It Up the A** For For Fake Blog. Oh man, oh man, oh man.
  

• AdWeek: Southwest Embraces User-Created Spots. Something to keep and eye on as it unfolds.
  
  
• Creating Passionate Users: Become the thing that replaces you. Best title for a post I’ve seen in a long time. And the actual post is great too.

Verizon’s embarrassing math problems

This is just excruciatingly painful to listen to. And it must be painful for Verizon as well, especially when you consider theseYouTube stats:

Views: 328,715
Comments: 1579

. . . and counting, off course.



(via the always wonderful Consumerist)

Bonus 1: a semi-happy ending
Bonus 2: another instance of Verizon math-impairment

Tags: youtube verizon consumers customerpower customers service customerservice math education

MyBlogLog and the meaning of life

So I’ve been poking around at MyBlogLog.com—let’s connect if you’re a member—and earlier today I came across something that really made me smile. Buried among the usual fare on their FAQ page is this question:

What is the meaning of life?

And this answer:

What we've come up with can be reduced to two fundamental concepts. One, people are not wearing enough hats. Two, Matter is energy. In the universe, there are many energy fields, which we cannot normally perceive. Some energies have a spiritual source, which act upon a person's soul. However, this soul does not exist automatically, as orthodox Christianity teaches, but has to be brought into existence by a process of guided self-observation. However, this is rarely achieved due to mankind's unique ability to be distracted from spiritual matters by everyday trivia.

Not sure I agree exactly, but kudos to them for giving it a go. Who says FAQs have to be dry and boring?

---

Related: Signal vs. Noise have started a new feature called On Writing, highlighting interesting online copy. The first post is great and I’m looking forward to more.

Tags: writing funny humor humour copywriting onlinecopy

Links for December 11, 2006

• Consumerist: Happy Returns Mean Happy Returning Customers. I’ve always been surprised how many retailers miss the obvious fact that making returns painless is a great way to create happy customers.

• Joy of Tech: The Digg Stamp. It’s funny but I think it makes a good point, too. It would be great if more of the value created by social media could find its way into the real world. Maybe not as stamps on a booty though. (via Business Innovation Insider)

Brilliant invention: never lose your keys again

This ingenious device is called the loc8tor. It's basically the classic spy movie homing device now available for home use. Attach a homing tag to your wallet, keys or even your kid and track them using the display screen in combination with--wait for it--beeps.

Just like Maxwell Smart.

Basic starter kits go for $100 USD. Are you listening Santa?





























Tags: gadget homing spy jamesbond maxwellsmart cool wishlist

Vancouver social media and marketing events

So, as I emerge from my paternity cocoon I can't help but notice that things are happening around town. Here's a few upcoming events of note:

Event: Marketing in the Myspace Era
Date: Tonight!
Host: HTCE (Hight Tech Communicators Exchange)
Description: This is being put on by a local high marketing group, mostly made up of writers. I've been attending their functions for a while and tonight the writer side of my professional life meets the social media side as frieds of Obviousness Michael Fergusson and Kate Trgovac deliver the Web 2.0 goods. Looking forward to it.

Event: Social Media Club comes to Vancouver
Date: Thursday, December 7th
Host: Bryght
Description: Chris Heuer, co-founder of Social Media Club, will officially launch the local chapter.

Event: DemoCamp Vancouver
Date: February 22. 2007 (tenetive)
Venue: TBD
Description: This is just starting to cook. The idea is to have a DemoCamp, sort of like a shorter BarCamp, just before Northern Voice starts.

Event: Northern Voice 2007
Date: February 23-24, 2007
Venue: University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Description: "Northern Voice is a gathering place for good people and great ideas. It’s a portal to the Canadian tech lifestyle." I almost went last year and really regretted not being there. I won't make that mistake this time around.



barcamp democamp moosecamp northernvoice northervoice2007 barcampvancouver democampvancouver vancouver katetrgovac michaelfergusson htce socialmediaclub chrisheuer