RemainComm

Drowning In Information

Help! Between my endless stream of traditional media info and my new “I can find you anywhere.” media information hydrant I feel like I’m treading water just trying to keep up.

(Cue the dun-ta-dah ‘to the rescue’ music.) I’m here to help ma’am (said in my most Dudley Do-right voice). It’s so easy to get carried away in trying to suck up all the info you really want. But c’mon, you have a life, or at least you should. Since Tivo, and podcasting have helped you tame the radio and TV info management issue, allowing you to watch and listen on your terms, I though it might be helpful to share some tips from some interactive friends for taming your online world.

Greg Swan points out that there are “Information Hoarders”, the junkies that can’t seem to get enough info. If that’s you this should be of some real help.

We’ll get to the web in a bit. Let’s start with your own little slice of info heaven, your computer. After years of e-mails, documents, downloaded photos, applications, widgets and what not, you have a treasure trove of info that caters to your interests both personal and professional. Now, if you could only find it…

First, from the makers of online search (and possible owners of the free world), try Google Desktop search. This bad boy brings the Big G’s search capability to your entire hard drive and your MS Outlook sent and received. To bad it can’t do the same for your kitchen junk drawer. Swan shares his ‘word of the day’; taxonomy to point out that it’s a good idea, if you haven’t already, to start tagging your files with the words that will make you remember them. Put that word in the file name or on the document itself.

You Speak. Who Hears? Who Listens?

As I spend more and more time peeling back the layers of communicating in the new millennium I’m always impressed at the amount of tools available to send a message or start a conversation. With so many gadgets and applications pouring out of the cloud it’s clear you need to investigate using some of them to reach your audience. Whoever that audience is, customers, friends, relatives, even pets can be reached in so many ways.

But, as exciting as it is to see all of these innovations develop, if you want to be truly effective in your communication, you can’t get swept up in the buzz of it all. Remember…remain calm.

The fact is that you need to have a clear understanding of who your audience is and what tools they use. If you try and reach them through a medium they don’t use…well…the point would be?

For example, my wife and I are spending more and more time texting each other throughout the day. It’s a great way for us to juggle the ever changing plans between our work, kids, and friends. It’s quick and unobtrusive. In fact, it has saved my butt more than a few times. See, I tend to space off phone messages and it’s easy for me to just text my bride as soon as I hang up the phone. The point is that we are starting to text so much I’ve thought about using Twitter or AIM or some other service. Then I realize my wife has no desire to use any of the tools. Because a) she doesn’t sit at a computer all day and b) her cell phone doesn’t have a data option. Yeah, I know all these services have a SMS option but the fact is…why bother if SMS works just fine?

And that’s the point; your audience has the same attitude. Unless it will profoundly improve their lives they’re just fine with where they are right now. Unless what you are trying to communicate is really revolutionary, you must reach them through the channels that exist and the ones they use. Don’t start the process of building a relationship with someone by introducing a new technology or changing their habits. They will better listen to your message in the environment they are comfortable in. 

Your path of least resistance is to find out what they use. Who are you trying to reach? How old are they? How interested in your message and how do they hear about it? Believe it or not, adoption of new things is a relatively slow process. In most cases slow enough to date your message if you try using the “next big thing”.   

That means…research...at what ever level you can. It’s better to spend the money and the time to get to look at the habits of your audience than spend the time and money whizzing in the wind.  Over the next weeks, as I continue to try and keep up, I’ll start tearing into many of these tools and we can find out some of the best and worst ways to reach your audience. Do remember, what may be ineffective today may be the “text messaging” for next week. Our goal is to use the right ones at the right time…now. 

Being an Early Adopter…OK, Maybe Not the Best Way to Meet Women.

I got a peek at some info from Ipsos I-Say regarding early adopters. As usual, according to this article, the whole “gotta have the gadget” world is still predominantly male. Beyond the psychology of the report here are some basic facts from Ipsos…

Wait…before we talk about the stats, as a card carrying male, I need to point out a few things that impact this research. First, admit it gents, as guys when someone asks about stuff like this we usually always say we know what the heck we’re talking about. Remember, we’re the ones who don’t ask for directions. (Of course now we don’t have to with GPS gizmos. See how this whole thing comes full circle.) Second, God forbid, we should even remotely come off as not being hip. iPhone? Hell yeah, I’ve got one! (OK not really but does the researcher need to know that.) Early adoption is clearly a great way to reinforce our male ego. On with the stats…

According to the Ipsos study, over 44% of males consider themselves to be technology-savvy and 51% think they have better technical skills than the average person, whereas women aren’t as confident about their technological abilities. Actually 34% admit that complicated electronics make them feel apprehensive. 

Almost 49% of males are excited about cutting-edge electronics compared to only 35% of females. Men also like to have the newest gadgets and high tech products (33% vs. 22%). More males than females believe they embrace new technology more quickly than the rest of society (38% vs. 23%).

Now that we’ve seen the numbers, some observations;

Why can’t everything have an “easy” button?

I’ve spent my fair share of setting up new software, programs, and applications. When it comes to doing this I usually can stumble my way through the set-up. But sometimes, especially when it comes to applications, there is just way too much cutting and pasting to do.

                 Photo courtesy of Staples

In this Web 2.0 world why is it that someone can put together a kick-butt application that can turn my cell phone into a TV remote, make my blog update on Twitter, or let me download a song and let out the dog at the same time, but can’t include a step that automates it all? Instead, I have to open files or directories that, as far as I know, could contain the very life of my computer. Then I have to cut and paste code into them. I'm always thinking, "One wrong step and I’ll launch an ICBM on some poor unsuspecting country…or my neighbor." Yikes, it gives me the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it.   

Hey, this could be said for anything you have to do yourself. Man, an easy button would have been sweet when I built that deluxe wall unit in college. (It’s amazing what they can do with graham crackers and vinyl veneer, isn’t it?) But when it comes to computer applications the need for an “easy” button is not only great but it is attainable. 

Developers: Most of the people who use your creation...your customers...will appreciate it if you make it easy for them. It’s nothing personal, but if it’s not easy they will find something that is. So once you design the widget or app, please design a program that automates the set up. I really don’t want to blow up my computer (much less my neighbor…at least not yet.)

From Parlor to Palm

With the speed by which the world of communication is changing, every once in awhile I stop and try to take it all in. This is one of those times. 

Back in 1987, while Bon Jovi was replacing Debbie Gibson on the radio and I was just getting rid of my amber computer monitor, I remember talking with some friends about the state of entertainment and information at a radio gathering. We were talking about where technology had led us and where it was headed. The days of the family huddling around the radio in the parlor were well behind us, radio and TV had made an indelible mark on all of us. We had all had made enough “mix tapes” and boy weren’t those CD things cool, and the internet? Hey, it might just take off. 

After many beers and some very in depth thinking (tequila shots) we were sure that there would be one “box” where you would receive all your entertainment and information including TV, Radio, Music, News, etc. You know, the “console” on high-tech steroids. You remember the “console”. Radio (AM and FM!), TV, record changer, and 8-track all in a “luxurious piece of furniture”. Many even had a remote. Remember that loud “snap” when you pushed the channel button. Of course that’s really where the computer is…almost.

But back in ’87 (insert “old-timer” voice here) we had no idea that brick we called a cell phone would evolve into the very same thing and fit into the palm of your hand. Clearly, we would have needed many more beers to even start that discussion. 

Imagine where we are going, not to mention how fast we’re getting there. Our kids can “text” faster than they can type (and some faster than they can think), e-mail is easier to get than a letter, pay phones are harder to find than Debbie Gibson music, and we can listen to what we want when we want. You can watch TV or surf the net (Of course, better TV and speedier internet is just around the corner.). If you’re lost, just open your GPS (now I really don’t need to stop for directions) and if someone wants to find you, your phone can be located the next time you use it (Yeah, the Bourne Ultimatum made me a bit paranoid. You?). 

What kind of habits do you have? The phone can relay your audio and video usage without you doing anything more than standing near a radio or TV. Family photos, more addresses than a Rolodex the size of a Volkswagen, your financial records, and a Village People ring tone, all right there in your hand. You might even be reading this on your Smartphone. And have you been to a concert lately? The folks that make Bic lighters are pissed! 

Whether you think this is a great way to save time, or just a big intrusion on your life, you have got be amazed. Of course, our kids know no other way...imagine what they’ll be coming up with when they are hanging around talking to friends in 2017. “Hey, remember when we use to gather the family around the old Nokia?” 

The iPhone...An Answer to World Peace?

Yep, add this to the already billions of posts about the iPhone. Though this might be a just a bit different from what you've grown use to seeing after the release of Apple's latest gizmo "that will change the way we____." Forget that it is exactly what was promised, that it really works the way all of the ads and podcasts said it would. Forget that it still needs some additions like text and a card slot. By the way, the real reason the iPhone is so huge is, like the iPod, it's dead freakin' sexy! Which is one of the reasons I think it may be a secret to world peace.

Let me set the stage here. I was working the below mentioned Conclave on the weekend of the iPhone's release. (More on 'clave in another post.) One of our attendees, Tom Webster of Edison Media Research and  blogger at The Infinite Dial, decided he would hop in line and pick up an iPhone. Now, Tom is a well respected and insightful thought leader in the world of research and communications. Some of the studies put forth by him and Edison have literally changed the face of radio broadcasting. He's also a great guy. So when he walks into a room there should be no shortage of people talking to him. However, put an iPhone in this guy's hand and you'd think he was walking into a dog show wearing a meat sport coat. All of us were crowded around his phone oohing and aahing, laughing and talking. It was like we were this great big group of long-time friends.

So here's my idea. We secure a couple thousand iPhones and start doling them out to select leaders of the gazillion of warring factions in the middle east. Think of it...hundreds of people from all cultures and religions crowded around touching the screen. Christian and Muslim, Shi'ite and Sunni happily flipping the pages of the music on iTunes, e-mailing their friends and zooming in and out on photos. The next thing you know suicide bombings cease, troops go home, cities are rebuilt, peace breaks out, and the price of gas sinks to a buck. C'mon, it could work...

Okay, probably not. But my point is this, the iPhone is about buzz and the way it makes people react. It's another one of those things that creates such interest that gadget freaks and non-techies alike join in. This is just plain old fashioned good marketing. The topic of interest is made so compelling it brings people together. So if we can create a well thought out plan that unifies us around something that is just popular perhaps we should do the same thing for something that is important.