Knowing when to focus on short-term and long-term is key to project success

Posted by adi on Nov 28, 2008 in Work

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Big projects can yield great things but managing them through to fruition is a complicated process, as evidenced by the sheer number of projects that fail to meet cost, quality or deadline goals.  Recent research by Linda Houser-Marko and Kennon Sheldon perhaps provides the answer.  Clearly any project will consist of various sub-tasks, and they suggest that at various stages of the project it pays to focus on these sub-tasks, whilst at other times it is better to focus on the end goal.

Maintaining focus whilst performing each sub-task

The research indicated that whilst people were performing each task, they perform best when they keep the overall goal in mind.  Self-control is increased by global processing, abstract thinking and high-level categorisation. Taking the first step on the long road to your goal may require a greater focus on the destination.

Evaluating difficult tasks

By contrast if you or your team are evaluating a sub task that is particularly difficult it is much better to focus on that particular task.  At the start of your journey, when evaluating progress, it’s often better to focus on the individual steps. Comparing recent failure with the ultimate goal destroys motivation – instead narrow focus to succeeding on the individual task.

With the end in sight

Once tasks are easier or the end is in sight, a goal focus is once again the psychological approach to choose. It increases positive emotion, decreases negative emotion and increases perceived performance.

Tags: Business, Motivation, project management, Self control

When dealing with an agency, make sure you keep tracks

Posted by adi on Nov 24, 2008 in Work

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I received a message today that just goes to show the importance of monitoring what your seo agency does on your behaf because left unwatched they can do you a whole lot of damage.

With the environment being a hot topic these days seldom a day goes by when we don’t get someone joining The Environment Site with the sole aim of plugging their wares (ie spamming).  After a while you get used to the signs and can deal with them quite quickly.  This particular company used the traditional “I was surfing the web and came across this great site, thought you guys would like to check it out….” line.  The members on TES are a generally savvy lot and can see through such lines pretty quickly.

Despite the sceptical questioning of the members the spammer still refused to own up that he was in fact working on behalf of the website he was plugging.  The web being the wonderful thing, the thread was also picked up on the MoneySavingExpert forum (he’d also spammed there too) and so the mucher bigger audience that MSE gets were made aware of things too.

Reap what you sow

Anyway, it all kinda settled down and I didn’t investigate things further until today.  Apparently one of our members had complained to the website about them spamming the forum.  I received a message from the websites content editor (Mr A shall we say) suggesting that the spammer was nothing to do with them, could I remove all association between the member and their website.

It was then that I did some digging around and found out that the spammer was in fact the SEO manager of a digital marketing agency, one of whose clients was none other than the website in question.  When I mentioned this to Mr A he claimed no knowledge that the spammer was doing this sort of thing.

That the process of astroturfing is now illegal is bad enough but I later received another message from the spammer still failing to own up to things and claiming that he was merely a helpful do gooder that happened to love this particular website.

Obviously the thread is live on the forum now for all to see, as it no doubt is on MSE as well as any other places this guy frequented.  I somehow doubt that was what the company intended when they hired this company to do their seo.  All of which underlines the importance of setting some clear guidelines and keeping an eye on what your seo agency are up to.

Tags: Promotion, Search engine optimization, Spam, Web Design and Development

Sigur Ros @ Alexandra Palace

Posted by adi on Nov 22, 2008 in Play

Sigur Ros

Went to see Sigur Ros at Alexandra Palace last night.  ‘Twas great.  I wasn’t sure their music would transfer well to such a large venue but they ramped things up a treat.  Birgisson’s voice soared above the audience, combining beautifully with the cool light show to create an etheral environment.  There wasn’t any moshing, people simply stood as one in mutual appreciation at the beautiful sounds flooding forth from the stage.

The light show was particularly impressive.  A sudden curtain of rainwater; a blizzard of ticker-tape; sound-sensitive lights that twinkled like stars during quieter moments and blazed like suns when the volume rose.

Top stuff.  Having seen Arcade Fire, Radiohead and now Sigur Ros in the past year, just the White Stripes to go and I’ll be quite contented

Tags: Alexandra Palace, sigur ros

The perils of gift buying

Posted by adi on Nov 17, 2008 in Play

Image by Sarah Parrott via Flickr

I’m really rather fond of buying gifts.  There’s something about understanding somone so well that you can hit the right button with a well timed gift.  The smile on their face upon receipt is one of the simple pleasures in life.  However, the process can be frought with peril.  The best gifts are undoubtably those that don’t require prompting or coercion, that come from your instinctive understanding of what the other person likes and needs.  Therefore to get the gift wrong can often be taken as a sign that you simply don’t understand them.

Recent research has shed some insight into the business of gift buying and how it can impact upon a relationship.  I’ve read a few articles in the past that suggest that a good gift affords little benefit as it merely reinforces what’s already there, but a bad gift can do significant damage.  I came across a new study today however by Elizabeth Dunn from the University of British Columbia that suggests men and women react to a rubbish gift in very different ways.

She set up an experiment whereby two strangers of opposite sex were told to chat to one another for five minutes, after which they would select a gift for the other person, with each then voting on perceived similarities between them and their new friend.

Before the session each participant had been asked to rank the gifts in order of preference.  This is where they got a little sneeky though because instead of giving the chosen gift, they split the gifts in two, with half getting their first choice gift and half getting the booby prize.

This is where it gets interesting.  When the men got the gift of their dreams it led to an upturn in their favourability towards their new friend.  Women on the other hand were largely indifferent, relying instead on the conversation they had over the preceeding minutes.

So in new relationships it seems that the way to a mans heart is with a gift, whereas for women it’s a communication thing.

How about established relationships?

The same experiment was done again but this time the participants were those in an established hetrosexual relationship.  The twist for this experiment was that in addition to be asked for similarity ratings each person was also asked how long they expected the relationship to last.  Ouch.  Right to the point there.

The men were kinda true to form.  Rubbish gifts produced poor scores on both similarity and prospects.  Women however, complex creatures that you are, bucked the trend.  They actually scored their partner higher for similarity and prospects when they received a poor gift!! I think I’ve heard a collective cheer erupting from petrol station forecourt owners across the land.

What gives though?  How can such an unintuitive answer emerge?  Apparently it’s all about womens in built desire to protect what they have.  Some nesting instinct no doubt.  Anyway, that causes them to react more strongly in the second experiment because they have a relationship to protect.

Hurrah, crap gifts ahoy

Stand easy soldier.  Before you start thinking this is a prime excuse for lazyness in the gift department do bare in mind that this experiment did only measure short-term responses.  In the long-term a perpetual display of oafishness is just as likely to send you to the dog house.

Tags: Elizabeth Dunn, Gift, Happiness, University of British Columbia

Everybody loves some stats

Posted by adi on Nov 17, 2008 in Work

Image via Wikipedia

With the Christmas shopping season looming large, if you havn’t started already, there was some interesting research published last week that looked into the importance of product specifications on our buying habits.

The experiment was conducted by Christopher Hsee at Chicago Booth Business School and asked people to choose between two cameras.  The first camera had better resolution, the second an improved vividness of picture. After being shown pictures taken by each camera some 74% of people chose the camera with superior vividness.  However when the resolution stats were provided as well as the photos the situation reversed, with more people subsequently choosing the camera with good resolution stats.

Interestingly however, whilst providing some stats helps pursuade people to buy a product, it doesn’t provide them with any greater enjoyment of that product.  The team conducted some experiments using crisps.  When participants were informed of the thickness of a crisp they suggested they would eat more crisps the thicker they were.  However those that tasted the range of crisps prior to choosing a favourite were much less inclined to choose the thickest crisp.

So whilst stats and figures are important, don’t forget to include a users experience of a product in your marketing communications.

Tags: Camera, Christmas and holiday season, Shopping, specifications, stats

It only takes a second girl

Posted by adi on Nov 15, 2008 in Default, Work

How much do you take in?

For regular readers of my blog (sure there must be hundreds of you!) you’ll know that in recent weeks I’ve been reading a lot about consciousness.  So an article in this weeks Economist peeked my attention.

The article discusses research conducted by Adam Brasel and James Glips, academics at Boston College.  Glips is an expert in human computer interaction and they conducted research into the way we use DVR technology that lets us fast forward tv shows that we have recorded.  You can view the entire research document here in pdf form, but I shall do my best to summarise the findings below.

The study discovered that even when viewers fast forwarded the adverts in between segments of a tv show they could still recollect the brand being advertised, with the recollection greater if certain conditions were met, this despite the viewer only catching the advert for a fraction of a second.

The study used eye tracking software to monitor where viewers looked whilst speeding through the adverts and found that they focused on the centre of the screen.  They also found that despite looking to avoid seeing the advert they monitored the screen very closely so as to see when the show started up again after the ad break.

With that knowledge at their disposal the researchers then placed some brands inside the adverts.  The brands were unknown to the viewers (British chocolate brands not sold in America) and mixed up the placement of the brand names.  Some were placed in the centre of the screen, others towards the periphery.

The results were quite amazing, with the centrally placed brand names being chosen by viewers twice as often in tests afterwards than the brand placed on the edge of the screen.

I’ve said a few times recently how powerful the sub-concscious is and how we absorb an awful lot more information than we are aware of, and this research seems to strongly support just this.  I guess now the question is whether marketers will start to utilise this knowledge in their advertising.

Tags: Advertising, subliminal, tv

Don’t tell the news, tell a story!

Posted by adi on Nov 14, 2008 in Work

I’m currently reading Godel, Escher & Bach: An Eternal, Golden Braid (again) and the book makes excellent use of stories to help get across what are pretty weighty topics.  The book begins with the Zeno Paradox of the Tortoise and Achilles (you can read about the paradox here if you havn’t come across it before).  Douglas Hofstadter then re-uses Mr Tortoise and Achilles, with the odd cameo from Mr Crab and various other characters, to illucidate each chapter with a dialogue.

I’ve been a big fan of storytelling since university when John Seely Brown took on cult proportions during knowledge management lectures.  Seely Brown is the chief scientist at Xerox and has long advocated the use of stories in communicating ideas and sharing knowledge.

Ten tips for using stories in your brand communications

1. Stories come directly from the brand. If your brand has a great reason for being then making a story from it will be much easier.  Apple for instance have a great brand and regularly tell great stories with it.
2. Open your ears. Great stories are all around you.  Listen to your customers, your suppliers, your employees.  They’ll all have great stories about your company.
3. Amplify your customers. Once you’ve found a great story, make sure it’s nice and simple, then give it all your marketing support to get it out there.
4. Integrate your marketing. It’s one of those things that sounds so simple but is often neglected.  Each and every piece of marketing you do should reinforce the brand and tell a mini story of its own.
5. Get in touch with your inner child. As mentioned earlier, the art of story telling often gets lost once we enter adulthood.  Reconnect with your inner child and delve into stories to understand what makes them so special.
6. Don’t forget the purchase. The aim of the story is to get people buying so don’t forget the end goal.  For this you need to ensure that your story “ticks” the age-old behavioural triggers like emotion, contrast, egocentricity, the power of beginnings, etc.  Use them, and people will respond.  Avoid them at your peril.
7. Engage your body as well as your brain. Actions speak louder than words, as the saying goes, and it’s important that your actions toe the story telling line just as much as your words do.  Marketers often fall into the trap of focusing purely on acquisition but ensuring that customers are well serviced at every touch point is just as important (if not more so).
8. Leave some intrigue. People love a bit of mystery in their stories so don’t feel compelled to tell all of your company secrets.  Leave a little to the imagination and you’ll encourage people to try and solve the riddle.
9. Empower the customer. It might seem scary but once the story is out there it can often take on a life of its own as your customers get their hands on it.  Encourage this process as the more customers talk about you the more it shows they care.
10. Don’t forget to be real. It might be tempting to create a story that fits the message you’re trying to communicate, but people tend to have a pretty good bs sensor, so resist the urge to fabricate and stick with the stories that truely represent your company.

Tags: Douglas Hofstadter, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Seely Brown, Marketing, story telling

Timing is key to Digg success

Posted by adi on Nov 14, 2008 in Work

Image via CrunchBase

So says a report by Hewlett Packard anyway.  They analysed all the diggs submitted on the site in the second half of 2007 and came to the (startling) conclusion that most diggs were made during peak traffic hours on the site.  For instance, a story submitted at 12pm US time will get approximately 400 diggs in the first 2 hours, whereas if it was submitted at midnight (US time) it would get half as many.  Check out the charts below:

Diggs by time

Promotions by hour of the day

Based on this study here are the take away points for me.

1. Success breeds success

Considering some 72% of all Diggs go to those stories that make it popular, ensuring you submit your story at the peak time to enable this is crucial.

2. The importance of sustaining success

Some 11% of all submissions peak after just 1 hour.  That is, after 1 hour they have received all the votes they will ever receive.  The average voting time is around 7 hours, so you can see the importance of submitting at the right time to ensure votes are sustained.

3. Geting success in early

I think the last point is so important that it’s worth repeating.  Nearly all of the votes for a particular story will come within the first 7 hours of it being submitted onto Digg.  We’ve already shown that time of submission is key to getting your story off to a strong start and this merely reinforces that point.

4. Digg on an empty stomach

The majority of diggs seem to occur around lunchtime US time, so if you want to give your submission the best chance of success make sure you submit it around 12 noon US time.

Tags: Digg, Hewlett-Packard Company, Submission

Should companies utilise white papers more?

Posted by adi on Nov 13, 2008 in Work

Image by Cati@ via Flickr

I don’t know about you, but white papers come with an expectation of jargon laden technical reports that aim to solve some sort of complex problem.  If you consider them as a simple piece of content that solves a user problem however and they are an excellent marketing tool that could (should?) be used by all manner of companies.

That is certainly the conclusion drawn by a report released today by TechTarget (pdf).  The report draws a number of fascinating conclusions into how people look to solve their problems and the part white papers play in that process.

Evaluating the problem

The report found that 59% of people used white papers to help solve their problem.  This trumped other tools such as webcasts and trials.

White papers are hugely popular

It was also discovered that those that use white papers tend to use rather a lot of them.  The average white paper reader ploughs through 5 or more over an average 3 month period.

Whitepapers go viral

In an era when linkbait is a much used tool in the search engine marketers tool belt the report also had some good advice for search marketers out there with news that some 41.6% of respondents having sent a white paper to a buddy in the recent past.

How to write better white papers

From an authoring point of view the report also had some insights, with the main turn-off being that the white papers were too product focused rather than consumer focused.  Remember that the whole point of a white paper is to solve a consumer problem.

So make sure it’s solving a customers problem.

Secondly make sure it’s not too long.  The web typically strips out the fluff and boils a problem down to its key points.  Users expect white papers to be exactly the same.

1. Solve a customer problem

2. Make it succinct

3. Enjoy the road to nirvana

Tags: Consumer, Internet marketing, Marketing, Web search engine, White paper

MS Cashback Search Vindicating the Approach?

Posted by adi on Nov 13, 2008 in Work

Image by BlueJeff via Flickr

Microsoft released a cashback search service this year and earlier today announced the initial results of the scheme, much to the surprise of many of the doubters that poo pooed the scheme when it was announced.

Microsoft is reporting that according to Comscore, Live Search referred 12% of all commercial transactions across the web.  There’s been a 30% increase in the number of products offered via Cashback. 4.5 million unique users per month are generating 68 million commercial queries. eBay has seen an increase of 50% on their ROI.

Does this result vindicate the approach and breathe fresh life into the cashback sector?

Whilst the results are impressive when compared to the 9% market share that the Microsoft search engine achieved over the same period I think time is needed to analyse whether this iniative will provide lasting value to Microsoft.

I’ve spoken to a few people about this and it does seem that many are searching for products on Google, then heading over to Live to get their cashback, with some even setting up scripts to automate this process for them.  Not sure that’s really the outcome Microsoft was hoping for.

They have however announced an expansion to the scheme partnering with shopping cart providers Miva Merchant, Early Impact Inc. (ProductCart) and 3DCart.  That will enable consumers who use these carts become eligible for cashback.

I’ve seen comparisons between Hulu and YouTube and it seems apt.  Hulu isn’t likely to be threatening YouTube’s market leadership but has carved out a nice niche for itself in the video sector, and it seems that Microsoft’s cashback service is doing a similar thing.

Tags: EBay, Google, Hulu, Live Search, Microsoft, YouTube