RSS Puts Identification in the Hands of Your Customers

I’m listening to the Individualized-RSS podcast over at Marketing Edge podcast. The conversation is an attempt to bring the weakness of email into the strength of RSS (or verse-vica as the case maybe) – unique reader identification. This is what I alluded to in this post from a couple months ago. There’s nothing in the …

Don Norman – ‘User’ is Derogatory

“Psychologists depersonalize the people they study by calling them ‘subjects.’ We depersonalize the people we study by calling them ‘users.’ Both terms are derogatory. They take us away from our primary mission: to help people.” – Don Norman Individuals. All of us. Alone together. Even though we hide behind organizations, keyboards, and words – we’re …

What’s the Opposite of an Edge Case?

Stowe Boyd and Eric Rice have been taking about the problems of 37Signal’s Basecamp. I find Stowe’s the most interesting (verses Eric’s ‘nobody uses it anymore’). Stowe says Basecamp is great for small businesses, but it breaks down when small businesses collaborate – there’s no out-of-the-box way to connect accounts on a per-project basis. “if …

If It Weren’t For The Customers

“I believe media companies are afraid of interacting with their audiences, because they (mistakenly) believe that their audiences are made up of people just like them — resentful, mean spirited, backbiting, hostile egomaniacs with inferiority complexes who, if given the opportunity, will spout their opinions without regard or respect for anyone but themselves.” – Terry …

The LunchTrain

While at Sun this week, I shared an inspiring conversation with Rick Levine, co-author of Cluetrain Manifesto. It was a nice reminder that; relationships take commitments. new problems require new solutions. advertising dollars are better spent elsewhere. Thanks Rick.

Share You OPML, Exposing 1% of Your Audience

According to the Feedburner widget 53,657 people are subscribed to TechCrunch.com. 746 of those people are also sharing their opml. That’s 1.4% overlap. If you’re running a tech startup, thanks to Share Your OPML, you now know which 746 people to talk with first. Coincidently, I’ve talked to a bunch of ecommerce, direct-to-customer organizations over …

Where Are Your Customers Going To Be Tomorrow?

Today, perhaps a small handful of people are skimming 300+ RSS feeds on their laptops, publishing podcasts and blogs, etc. Tomorrow that number will be more. Next week that number will be more. Next year, etc. If there’s anything I took away from a childhood in rural Wisconsin, it’s when hunting, you aim for where …

Loving the Market – Hating the Marketer

“Dependency breeds resentment. Marketers resent consumers, because marketers are dependent on consumers.” – Dave Rogers Dave nails a mentality that’s troubled me for years. Whether marketers and their customers or agencies and their clients. There’s an underlying resentment rampant in the ‘creative’ world – and I just don’t get it. Part of it feels like …

A Use Case for Identity XML – Demographic Surveys

Stowe Boyd’s running a reader survey. I’ve followed Stowe from Get Real to /Message and thought I’d check out the survey. Standard demographic stuff; age, gender, household income, zip code, employment status, profession, internet usage, etc. Those common questions attempting to build an anonymous picture of people without actually getting involved with them. Reading through …