But follow that question with asking if they use their laptop, iPad or smartphone to browse the web while watching TV and you’ll probably hear an emphatic “yes.” Or at least a “sometimes.”

We’re living in an age of attention multi-tasking. We can watch TV with our peripheral vision while catching up on emails and reading the latest news headlines & blogs. All while scanning Facebook & Twitter to see what our friends have going on in their lives.

Where does this leave the traditional marketers? We are barely watching TV anymore, let alone the commercials. So what are advertisers to do?

Television advertising, as we know it, is dead.

Or is it?

I’m a fan of Mark Cuban. He’s a go-getter powerhouse in the world of business. And I’m happy to report he is on the new season of Shark Tank on ABC.

Anyway, I follow Mark on Twitter and noticed that he was live tweeting during the show. His insight was remarkable. And it lead to a host of people chatting about the current happenings on the show.

The TV Commercial Savior

Welcome Twitter hastags. And its unbelievable communication power.

The #SharkTank chat was interesting because it highlighted a pathway for the revival of a live & largely communal television watching experience. (While it’s not the first instance of this, the chat is a great example)

If you truly were interested in a show, you most likely would be interested in chatting with others about the show. Since we live in such a private society – watching TV from our living rooms – Twitter is the best option for us to interact with ease.

There are four huge implications of live tweeting:

1. Increase Live Viewership

This is obvious. But important. Those who want to chat about the show will be forced to watch it live. Which means no fast forwarding through commercials. Because once it’s DVR’d and replayed, the chatting will be over.

Think about it this way, if you want to join the party, you’ve got to arrive on time. Not two nights later.

2. Increase Loyalty

Having the TV networks ensure the stars of the show are chatting during the show, the fans will become hugely loyal. Daniel Tosh does this extremely well on the hilarious Tosh.0 on Comedy Central. He live chats with his fans and the tweets are sometimes funnier than the show itself.

3. Attract New Viewers

With people tweeting about the show, their followers may become interested and turn on the tube. It’s not hard to believe this could happen on an ever increasing large scale if the conversation is lively.

4. Advertisers May Be Welcomed

If the advertisers joined the conversation in a non-sleazy way, it could be a fun thing. A little creativity & freshness could be a great addition to the chatting.

Coming back to the title of this article, people would watch their commercials, not only because they’d have to, but because they’d want to. If the advertiser was adding compelling, high-value commentary to the chat, people would have more interest in seeing their ad.

The Long & Short of It All

By giving viewers a compelling reason to watch TV live, advertisers may be able to combat the onslaught of the DVR.

And prevent the death of the television commercial.

p.s. The absolute best option for chatting on Twitter is TweetChat. It allows you to login to your Twitter account, input the desired hashtag and instantly join the conversation. It automatically adds the hashtag as well, which is a nice addition.

Update: A few days after I wrote this, CBS announced a “Tweet Week”. Clearly they are subscribers of my blog because they took this blog post and ran with it! ;)

The beauty of Twitter is that you are allowed to follow anyone you’d like. And anyone can follow you. Unlike most other social networks, there is no requirement to reciprocate follows.

However, the entire concept of Twitter is foreign to most people. It’s not a valuable microblogging platform as initially intended. Nor is it effective as a popularity contest. Rather, it’s a powerful communication tool. And is only as effective as the level of trust and authority your followers associate with you. Let me repeat that:

Twitter is only as effective as the level of trust others associate with you.

But with most people misunderstanding Twitter, they look at what others are doing. And what they have found over these past few years is that people with large follower numbers notoriously have equal or greater following numbers.

Seeing these inflated numbers, the majority of Twitter users interested in an expansive following blindly follow back every follower they receive. Or they may have adopted software that automatically follows whoever follows them as well as searches for & automatically follows new people. In their strategy, a follow gets a follow, no questions asked. Nor any engagement needed.

As a matter of fact, the well known Twitter advocate Chris Brogan once employed this strategy. However, he said no to this autofollow strategy in 2009, but it was to late. He had already accrued too large a number of people he was following (as of this post, he follows around 138,000 people). And now he has a heck of a time managing it all.

The autofollow has created a false idea for most Twitter users. And have even given rise to large groups of people (eg. #teamfollowback) who follow you if you follow them. But the second you unfollow, their software instantly unfollows you. This does not build trust nor authority.

The Long-Term Flaw of the Auto-Followback

We all have our specialties and expertise. And we all have our interests.

If you want to successfully use Twitter as a communication tool, following everyone under the sun is not the answer. Nor will it make for an enjoyable long-term Twitter experience.

Example: A dog trainer likes gardening so she reaches out and follows a gardener on Twitter. This gardener dislikes dogs. Is she supposed to add a string of dog training tweets to her home page?

Multiply this one Twitter following interaction by 10,000 and you have what your home screen will look like after a year or so of auto-following. A jumbled mess of random, useless tweets by Twitter users you’ve never met, nor may ever care to meet.

Furthermore, when does it stop? If people say the true purpose of Twitter is to connect with everyone, shouldn’t we all be following millions of people? Or maybe just instantly be connected with everyone else on Twitter the day we sign up?

Twitter is about Your Influence, Not Your Follower Count

By reaching out to others, offering value and engaging in conversations, you’ll quickly realize the true use of Twitter. An effective communication tool perfect for connecting with your sphere of influence.

However, if you truly want to increase your follower count, try this:

• Follow & engage with those you admire.
• Head to Search.Twitter and jump into conversations you find interesting.
• Stop worrying about who is or isn’t following.

Basically, just start getting involved with your desired group of users and let them know you are out there and interested in building solid relationships.

The Questions I Pose

Would you rather have 10,000 followers who do not know you exist and are following you just because you followed them? Or 100 followers that love your tweets and cannot wait for the next one?

What has been your experience with this strategy? Is it rude not to follow others back? Or what determines why you follow someone?

Ask anyone from a rural area about technology and you’ll hear two common responses, “limited cell phone coverage” and “slow Internet speeds.” Which means most of the residents in low populated areas can’t easily access YouTube, communicate on Twitter or check-in on Foursquare.

Do you want to become a big, well-connected fish in a little, low-technology adoption pond?

This lack of social media adoption in small towns unfortunately leads to small businesses believing that the old methods of marketing (eg. newspapers, phonebooks, local TV) are the best strategies.  Yet, most businesses fail to realize it’s 2011 and technology is improving rapidly. While AT&T may be crappy today, tomorrow (actually let’s be serious, AT&T will be horrible long-term)… Verizon, Sprint and the like are quickly improving their coverage and speeds. Add to this the expansion of high speed offerings farther into the boondocks and we will be discovering that social media is on the verge of much higher adoption rates in low population areas

The Implication for Small Town Brands

If you are marketing your business in a small town and have yet to create an account on the top social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FourSquare, YouTube, etc). Nor have you found the tech innovators in the town or set alerts for your brand and town, do it right now. The sooner you can learn the networks and establish a presence, the more prepared you will be against the competition.

Specific Strategies to Start:

1. Create the Accounts

Obviously, this is step one. You may think your business will never use Twitter, Gowalla or Tumblr, but I bet you will. At least, you want to reserve your brand name. This is basic online reputation management. You can use KnowEm to search and identify networks that apply to your industry and goals.

They say, “you miss all shots you don’t take.” Similarly, you’re going to miss all customers on sites you’re not signed up for.

2. Connect with the Innovators

I don’t care how desolate your town may be, I guarantee there are some residents using the networks. Start with Search.Twitter using your town name, parks, stores and other popular locations to find people tweeting in the town. This may show other community members they’re chatting with, following or listed. Also, this may lead to blogs, FourSquare accounts, YouTube videos, Facebook profiles, the list goes on.

3. Attract the Visitors

I’ll explain this one in a killer example:

Imagine a social media savvy traveler is visiting a town for the weekend. And they send a tweet on Friday right before they leave, “heading to town XYZ for the weekend.” If you created an alert in Hootsuite for the town name XYZ. (saved keyword search) And by seeing the visitor’s tweet you can respond “glad to hear you’re coming to our town, hope you have a great time.”

You see what happened there?

If not, I’ll explain. Without any marketing dollars and without being an annoying sales person, you just created a huge brand recognition for someone who knows nothing of the town. This may open dialogue into all sorts of avenues. At least, the visitor may ask for directions to your place. At most, your Twitter account has become a point of contact and tour guide. With under 140 characters of marketing.

This is one of countless missed opportunities for businesses near Mincoqua, WI:

No one ever replied or responded to this tweet.

4. Follow the Industry Leaders

If this post has you confused, just Google some of the more popular brands in your industry that are located in bigger cities. By liking these other industry businesses on Facebook or following them on Twitter, you’ll notice what they are doing to capture the market. I understand that you may be a mom & pop general store, small coffee shop or a fishing guide, it doesn’t hurt to connect with your distant competitors. You’ll learn more from these people/businesses than you could ever imagine.

My Firsthand Story

Personally, when I moved back to the Northwoods of Wisconsin from my brief time in Chicago, I was shocked how many businesses didn’t have any online presence, let alone a social media presence. I couldn’t get social proof of businesses through Facebook, communicate to others through Twitter, and every store or restaurant I visited had to be added to FourSquare. And since the Northwoods is a huge tourist area, I bet most of the businesses over the past few years have completely missed out on easy foot traffic & sales.

Are you from a small town or have you been through one that failed at creating an online presence?

And what do you think about the above strategies?

The Ellen DeGeneres Show is genius. She is smart and funny, a tough combination to achieve.

One of her segments is Gold Digger, in which a viewer gets a few moments in a box with flying money up for grabs.

But a common theme I’ve noticed is the contestant usually freaks out and tries to grab the biggest clumps of cash. However, reflexes aren’t as fast as the fan blowing the money. So by the time their hand reaches the large wad, it’s gone. They try for the big bucks, yet end up with nothing.

Having grown up on an Indian reservation (blocks from a casino), I’ve watched these cash boxes in action first hand. And I’ve always noticed the participant grabbing for the clumps while winding up with nothing. However, what rarely happens is the contestant thinking logically.

We know the clumping strategy doesn’t work because we’re slower than the fan. But what does work is concentrating on one bill at a time. Humans have the ability to focus on one flying item and pluck it from the air. Maybe it’s an innate quality passed down from our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Whatever it is, we can focus and grab one item at a time. No matter how fast it’s flying.

To reiterate, grabbing one bill at a time is the key to tons of cash.

Building An Audience

So what does this have to do with building your audience? In one word, everything.

All to often, brands try to take a shortcut and grab for clumps of followers. They think it’s possible to bypass the need for individualized attention of their fan-base. This simply does not work.

A friend of mine shared with me a Wall Street Journal article today about a company, Bill.com, complaining that their B2B business is not seeing any positives from social media. But as I explored deeper into their strategy they are failing to understand how to cultivate a following. The article states that they have over 10,000 customers. Yet hardly any followers.

Boo hoo! Cry me a river…

A quick glance at their Facebook page shows that they are all about themselves. Of the five or so status updates they’ve posted over the last couple months (pitiful I know), their wall is of their products, brand and pictures of a sponsored race car. Not too impressive. Where are they giving back to the customer? If I were to follow them, I’d want helpful articles, how-to’s and other posts of value.

A look into their Twitter account has little to no @replies. Where’s the engagement? If I were a customer, I’d follow because they would interact with me. A two second Twitter search resulted in all sorts of chatter around the brand, yet no response from Bill.com. The following tweet was sent four days ago and resulted in no @reply from anyone:

How easy would it be to create an alert in Hootsuite for Bill.com and respond to tweets like these? One focused response with a link to a testimonial or referral to another Bill.com user for third-party recommendation would almost guarantee they earned that customer’s business.

And finally, I searched for their LinkedIn account… non-existent. Anyone complaining that their B2B social media strategy isn’t working, yet is not on LinkedIn, clearly hasn’t grasped the concept of finding a target platform. Because last time I checked, their are a lot of business people visiting LinkedIn on a daily basis.

I don’t mean to pick on you Bill.com, I bet your service is great. But you’re complaining about social media not working, yet you’re failing to do it correctly. It’s not social media’s fault, it’s yours. You are grabbing at clumps when you should be seeking out bills. Pun intended.

And who knows, I may follow or like you, Bill.com, before ever thinking of becoming a customer. Because if you added value to my life and business, I would see you as a source of knowledge and expertise. But until then, I’ll stick with your competitor, Freshbooks. They understand their customer.

The Lesson

When building your audience, you must focus individualized attention on your followers. Grabbing for clumps of visitors by sending out self-centered posts, worthless tweets (no @replies) or not utilizing the best platforms, will not get you the pay-day you’re looking for. But rather, broke and alone.

What do you think?

“On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”
~ David Ogilvy

David Ogilvy is one of the greatest ad men ever. His contributions to the marketing industry are incalculable. And anyone in advertising couldn’t imagine a world without his iconic ads.

In his day, marketing budgets were spread amongst the traditional marketing outlets; magazines, newspapers and commercials, for example. But as we have transitioned into the digital age, what could we possibly learn from this classical ad man? Turns out, a lot.

Appealing to Your Audience

The above ad contains what is arguably considered the most famous headline of all time. But why is this? To answer that, we must think critically about the underlying message here and what Ogilvy is attempting to convey to readers.

“I don’t know the rules of grammar. If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language.”
~ David Ogilvy

Imagine this scenario: It’s 1958, Americans have been living in a prosperous post-war era for years, and the automobile is the ultimate rolling status symbol. The folks at Rolls-Royce approach Ogilvy for promotion.

What could David possibly do to persuade buyers towards a Rolls-Royce versus the slew of other luxury options? In essence, a luxury car is just a luxury car, right? They all claim to be quick, comfortable and classy.

Ogilvy recognized the similarities between all the luxury automobile offerings and searched for a remarkable trait. A benefit that spoke to the audience. But what benefit would the upper-elite crave the most? The ad man knew an escape from the impoverished world is something the upper-class notoriously desire. Or in other words, they longed for peace and quiet. So by simply pulling a quote from the Technical Editor’s write-up in The Motor, he had his headline:

“At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.”

Eureka! He had struck advertising gold. And the rich and famous finally had an option to escape the average, everyday lower-class world while driving from mansion to beach-home.

Lesson: His headline spoke the language of the intended audience.

The Modern Day Challenge

You may be thinking, what does this have to do with Internet marketing? Well actually, everything. From landing page design to blog posts, the headline is vital. But first, we have to rethink the headline.

In web marketing, the modern day headline isn’t simply the start of your ad copy. But rather, it’s the link that must demand a click in Google’s SERP’s, the only thing a Twitter user reads next to a shortened URL, the bold headline font of a landing page, the clickable link in a Facebook share, the list goes on and on.

With the endless other distractions on the Internet, how can you attract their attention for longer than a split-second?

Thus, the challenge for modern day copywriting comes in when attempting to capture an audience’s attention while speaking to them in engaging yet understandable language.

The question I pose to you:

How can you craft a headline that speaks to your intended audience while staying relevant in all of these different modern day mediums?

The beauty of social media from a brand standpoint is the ease in which a community can be created. But all too often I see the company fail without knowing they failed. Let me explain in example form:

If you go to a convention, a meet & greet, a seminar, networking event or any other physical meeting with companies, do the booth representatives magically talk from a megaphone while hiding behind a huge logo? Hopefully no. But rather they have name badges on and are pressing palms with the folks. They’re answering questions and chatting with everyone they can, even the competition. To put in other words, they are being human.

So if this is how representatives act while on location, why are so many brands sitting faceless on a podium when it comes to Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and other social network websites? It makes no sense.

But lucky for us, there are also many brands who understand the power of social media. That it’s a two-way conversation and that listening is as powerful, if not more powerful, than speaking. Below are 15 examples of brands I adore. Nor just because they have an excellent company, but because they get the idea of being social. Here we go:

Twitter

First let’s look at a few companies that are rocking their Twitter following:

Dogfish Head Brewery

Besides having extremely tasty beer and an entertaining show on TV, Dogfish Head Brewery is the essence of a solid social media strategy. They interact with their fans and tweet nothing but valuable information.

SyFy

Craig does a wonderful job in promoting the SyFy brand on twitter. He frequently has Q&A sessions as well as many fun contests and giveaways.

Research in Motion (Blackberry)

If you have a Blackberry (& a Twitter account) and you are not following these guys, you’re missing out. They are on top of the ball when it comes to customer service and fan interaction. Have a question or concern about your Blackberry? Tweet it to them and you’ll quickly have your answer.

Foursquare

There’s not much to say other than the folks at Foursquare cannot shut up on Twitter. But I say this in a lovingly good way. They regularly chat with their followers.

Craftsman

I love Craftsman’s Twitter account almost as much as I love their tools. They do a great job in keeping strong brand recognition. A personal example: I once tweeted I wanted to bust out the power tools to make my desk. Twenty minutes later Rich from Craftsman kindly sent me a tweet to post a pic when I was done. No sales pitch or anything, just two guys chatting about power tools. (lesson: set a search query to alert you of keywords in your industry)

Drs. Foster & Smith

Drs. Foster & Smith is a nationwide pet supply company located in my neck of the woods. Ellen does a wonderful job posting valuable tips for pet care as well as continually chatting with pet owners on Twitter.

PR Web

I can’t count how many times I’ve chatted with Frank and Stacey over at PR Web. They understand the power of keeping in contact with their customers.

Unbounce

Oli at Unbounce does a great job chatting with anyone who will listen. He has a strong understanding of the power of Twitter.

Facebook

Next, let’s look at some strong brands on Facebook. While not exactly the same as Twitter communication-wise, Facebook can seriously boost a brand’s level of interaction with their fans.

Starbucks

Besides the new Starbucks logo kerfuffle, the company is doing extremely well with their social media campaigns. And they have over 19 million fans to support this.

Nutella

I’ve never had Nutella, but from what I hear it’s like crack in a jar. And their Facebook presence reassures this. Their constant insightful posts and fan ravings definitely creates a sense of community, which a few short years ago would be unheard of: a community of tasty hazelnut spread fanatics.

Californication

I love Showtime’s hit show Californication. While not exactly a company as the post title suggests, the show is still a very powerful brand on Facebook. They often post behind-the-scenes videos and pictures as well as upcoming news. It allows for us fans to truly feel engaged in the show outside of the few short minutes we have a week with it on TV.

Dove

Along the lines of Nutella, in years gone by, who could have imagined a soap company creating a community around its products? But yet, they have found a way to become one of the more popular brands on Facebook with over 300,000 fans.

Victoria’s Secret

I love Victoria’s Secret because of… ehem… um… their marketing ability, that’s it. They have great marketing.

Flip Video

The dead simple camera has taken the world by storm. And so has their social media strategy. Their Facebook page is filled with valuable posts and many provoking ideas to get out and record stuff. I would go as far as saying that if Flip didn’t have their strong social media campaign we wouldn’t know the camera existed.

Oreo

I was sold on Oreo’s marketing ability when the official “coin” of the Kraft Fights Hunger Bowl was an Oreo. But from a social media standpoint, it’s hard to argue against their dominant presence. And while Oreo has always had a strong offline following, their 16,000,000 Facebook fans reassures us that Oreo must be doing something right.

Conclusion

I hope you see the trend from these brands. Social media is supposed to be social. No one wants to support a faceless organization. In the world of Social Media, raving fans will only rally for the brands they can interact with.

What are you doing to connect with your audience?

The online world this week has been in an uproar. Why? Is it because of child starvation? Unfortunately, not really. Unjust wars? Nope, not this either. Global warming?

No, people have gone crazy because Starbucks announced a redesigned logo. I know, it’s preposterous, how could they change it? It’s iconic…

Are you kidding me? What’s the big deal?

We all know people don’t like change. Look at the constant rabble of Facebook users when change happens. Ok, bad example I don’t like most of Facebook’s changes either. How about the Gap Logo? Oh, I am not batting 1.000 with these.

But seriously, Starbucks has a legitimate reason for dropping coffee from its logo. They are looking towards the future. Without “Starbucks Coffee” circling the mermaid, they can branch out from coffee. The brand is powerful and known for its fast, quality service. Why not launch additional products and services around the Starbucks name? Makes sense to me.

Is the customer always right?

When a company proposes changes that don’t directly affect the end user, should they worry too much about what others think?

Most opponents to change do so under ignorance. They rarely know a slice of the story, let alone the whole pie. Or worse, they follow false pretenses. Take for instance the “Ground Zero Mosque.” If there hasn’t been more false information about a proposal I’d be shocked. It’s a seemingly wonderful project. But the opposition has taken a few sound bites amplified by their ingrown prejudices and completely blew the whole scenario out of proportion.

The Takeaway?

While the contention to the Starbucks logo hasn’t gotten to the point of rallies and riots, it has shown an important reality. As your brand grows and inevitable change happens, you will have people that don’t agree with your plans. But you have to consider the silent majority.

The silent majority are those who love your stuff but also have lives. They could be sitting on websites and forums all day talking about the decisions of your company but that little thing called a job and family gets in the way.

When planning for changes in your brand, remember these are the people that truly matter. They embrace change and understand that any decision was probably made with good reasoning.

While we all strive for a better converting website, we may find ourselves confused by all the different points-of-views of graphic designers basing answers on so-called design trends. Worse yet, our graphic designer may value a pretty website over a functional website.

So before you accept your next website design, take a look at these usability and conversion optimization articles and resources:

The Myth of the Page Fold

Summary: This article is a thorough write-up & images of what user’s look at on a website. Most importantly, they conclude that when the site is designed correctly, the content below the “fold” of your website still has a chance of being seen.

Google Labs: Browser Size

Summary: Input your website’s address and see what it looks like to the majority of users. But I would recommend those with centered website designs to shrink your browser to it’s smallest size without a horizontal scroll bar.

The $300 Million Button

Summary: By changing only one button, a company saw an increase of $300 million in sales in one year.

F-Shape Pattern for Reading Web Content

Summary: The long-running authority in usability, Jakob Nielsen conducted a study on what users looked at on websites.

Eye Tracking Results for Article Design

Summary: My favorite article of this list. They describe how changing the styling of an article can increase the chances of it being read to the bottom.

10 Useful Usability Findings and Guidelines

Summary: A great list of usability findings. Read it, trust me you’ll learn something.

15 Standard Screen Patterns

Summary: A huge collection of patterns to use when creating a highly usable framework for your design.

“Mad Libs” Style Forms Increase Conversions

Summary: An interesting take on form design. Instead of the usual table form, they present a more functional method for designing your next form.

Stop Using CAPTCHA’s

Summary: The title says it all: Please stop using CAPTCHA’s! The article gives examples of alternatives to use instead of the annoying letter guessing game.

The Ultimate Guide for A/B Split Testing

Summary: Once you have a strong design (or couple designs), you will want to test their effectiveness. For those already in the Internet marketing industry you may already know about this. But for those just getting their feet wet, this article is a very extensive resource.

25-Point Usability Checklist

Summary: A great checklist to download. Make sure you don’t overlook anything in your design.

10 Examples of Effective Landing Pages

Summary: A little landing page inspiration from the geniuses over at Unbounce.

Conclusion

I hope this list of valuable resources helps you with your next web design. And if you enjoyed this list, please share it!

Good luck with your design!

I was in the supermarket with my brother and sister buying ingredients for vegan macaroni & “cheese,” and realized something interesting. The grocery store assumes people know there is non-dairy cheese and that it’s located in the natural food aisle. This is fine for the folks who shop in that section of the store. But what about those who want to eat a bit healthier yet don’t travel up and down every aisle in the store? Without specifically seeing the couple offerings in a tiny corner of the natural food fridge, they may never know there is an alternative to dairy cheese.

Learning from Vegan Cheese

You can never assume your customers and clients know all of your offerings. But rather, you must make the effort to present all applicable options during the sales cycle. No matter how obvious the product or service is to you, keep in mind that your customers aren’t psychic.

Amazon.com does this extremely well with the “customers also bought,” “customers also viewed” and the “related items” showcases on each product’s info page.

What do you think? Do you have examples of this in your life or business?

As we all probably know by now, a growing number of shows and movies have started integrating products into the script. While some shows pull off the placement well, others fail horribly. Case in point:

If this is the future of product placement, I’m selling my TV.

Could you imagine someone doing this in real life? It would be ridiculous: