Monday Reading: Start Your Week Off Right
Visual:
Search engine optimization:
Social Media
Mobile
- The New York Times investigates whose really to blame -- the Iphone or AT&T?
Check back next Monday for some good reads and visuals, or follow us on Delicious for a heavier load.
Monday Reading: Start Your Week Off Right
Funny:
Thought Provoking:
Interesting:
Check back next Monday for some good reads and visuals, or follow us on Delicious for a heavier load.
Why Mario is Fun (And What Marketers Can Learn From It)
Mario is the epitome of the successful video game. There have been challengers, but none have yet to overcome the little Italian. Even gamers engrossed in modern online games typically have some roots in Nintendo's iconic series. But what is it that made Mario so damn fun? What continues to make the series successful? Shigeru Miyamoto, now senior managing director at Nintendo and one of the original minds behind Mario, says it best:
a fun game should always be easy to understand — you should be able to take one look at it and know what you have to do straight away. It should be so well constructed that you can tell at a glance what your goal is and, even if you don't succeed, you'll blame yourself rather than the game.
Miyamoto's words aren't just a glimpse at what makes Mario fun, they are a valuable lesson in clarity that can be applied to many things.
For example, when users go to your website, they have a specific objective they are looking to accomplish. They may be researching a product, learning more about your company, or making a purchase. Just like a game, your site should be so well constructed that users can understand how to reach this objective at a simple glance.
As a marketer, your job isn't just to get users visiting your site; your job is to make their visits enjoyable, and at the heart of every enjoyable experience, whether on a game or a website, is clarity. In a good website there is no room for ambiguity or confusion. Instead, create clear and easy paths that help users accomplish their objectives.
Picture via: Dr Case on Flickr
Miyamoto interview found via Maki.
Social Media Should Stop Being So Damn Tactical
The reason there are a lot of self-labeled social media experts and gurus is that people continually confuse tactics for strategy. Tactics are easy. A book on best practices will teach you 80% of what you need to know. Strategy, on the other hand, requires a blend of creativity and a ruthless determination for finding insights.
There's a place for social media best practices, and there's a place for individuals who can setup a social profile in the blink of an eye. But it's a small place. It's not an exciting place.
The real value of social media is that it gets people to think about their business problems differently. It makes companies think about their interactions with their customers and puts more emphasis on the customer experience. It provides an outlet for creative thinking, and sometimes even fosters solutions that make things better.
The reality is you don't need a social media expert teaching you tactics. Chances are you might not need a blog, a Flickr account, or even a Twitter feed. What you do need are more strategic ideas.
Use this current social media frenzy as an opportunity to rethink your interactions with your customers and gain insight on your brand. Sometimes you'll find an answer in social media, but just sometimes.
The Internet Hasn't Killed Middlemen (And It Never Will)
What's a middleman? Someone who takes your profits. Someone who stands between you and your customers. Someone who marks up the product. Yes, a middleman can be all of these things, but, more importantly, a middleman can be useful.
When the internet arrived, there was a lot of talk of no more middlemen. Well, years later, they're still here. It's true, businesses like traditional travel agents and book stores may have taken a blow, but they haven't been replaced by direct sellers. They've been replaced by other middlemen.
Amazon is a middleman.
Kayak is a middleman.
Zappos is a middleman.
Itunes is a middleman.
This new breed of middlemen combines an understanding of culture, technology, and product to bring value to both ends of the supply chain. In fact, that's what middlemen have always done, but as culture and technology change, so must the middleman.
We can bid a fond farewell to the middlemen of old, the middlemen of the old economy and not of the digital, and we can welcome new middlemen with open arms: record labels that focus on live events, e-commerce stores that thrive within e-culture, and many more middlemen who are sprouting up to take the place of their predecessors.
Sure, there are times when middlemen just get in the way, but for the most part they're a valuable part of our economy. The internet has changed a lot of things, but middlemen are here to stay.