MarketMe 2.0

Skype 2.8 for Mac will ship on Tuesday, with new features including screen sharing and an integrated Wi-Fi hot spot connector.

Available only for Mac OS X at first, the new version will add screen-sharing capabilities to the app's voice, video, and chat communications features. Skype spokespeople told me that users will be able to run all four channels at once with acceptable performance.

Screen sharing is useful in business settings (I get a lot of demos over apps like Webex, for example), but it has personal applications as well: People could share photographs, and presumably videos as well, using the feature.

Skype is also getting a feature that will allow users to access WiFi hotspots on the Boingo network for 19 cents a minute. The funds will be deducted from users' Skype accounts. Boingo has about 85,000 hot spots worldwide, a Boingo rep told me. TMobile, the primary Wi-Fi provider at U.S. airports, is on the Boingo network.

The Wi-Fi access feature makes Skype a more useful product for people who use the VoIP app from their Mac laptops, and the per-minute payment scheme makes sense for highly mobile users for whom buying access by the hour or month would leave a lot of unused credits behind.

Skype co-founder Nicklas Zennstrom also started a Wi-Fi network called Fon, but Skype 2.8 doesn't yet integrate with that system.

Disruptive Telephony covered other new features in Skype 2.8, including a new way to update your Skype "mood" and to follow users in a Twitter-like fashion, bigger Avatar images, and a new way to manage and prioritize chat windows.

Also, regarding Boingo: That company announced a new Apple product: A connector app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. For $7.95 a month, users of those devices can access the entire Boingo Wi-Fi network. For U.S.-based iPhone users on the AT&T network, this is not such a great product since AT&T-provided Wi-Fi is now free for them, but international users and travelers, and iPod Touch users (perhaps those who use TruPhone for VOIP calls) may find it a good deal.

Often times I track where incoming visitors to AllFacebook are coming from. It’s a private addiction of mine to see how quickly people are coming into the site. This evening when I returned home, I noticed that one of my visitors came from a shared link on Facebook. When I clicked the link, I saw the image pictured below. It was a page which included 3 comments from visitors. I would have previously been unaware of who these visitors were but I now have insight.

Interestingly enough, these visitors happened to be Middle Eastern which helps me know how I’m doing with converting new users. For example, I’ve been seeing an increase in traffic from the Middle East with our coverage of social media’s role in the Gaza war. Since this article wasn’t related to our recent Middle Eastern coverage it let me know that I had successfully converted some new readers to the site.

It was not only encouraging but it also gave me insight that I previously wouldn’t have known. It was also great to see that other visitors experienced a social experience on this site with their friends despite it being apparent on my site in the comments. Additionally, it was great to get insight into some of the communication that I previously would have been unaware of.

This insight is invaluable in that I can now reach out to those visitors directly. This is just one additional way of reaching out to visitors of this site and it’s one step toward complete knowledge of site visitors. Ultimately the trend is toward better data about site visitors and this is definitely a feature which enables that. What has been your experience so far with Facebook’s enhanced sharing feature?

On the eve of Macworld, one hot rumor making the rounds is that Apple is set to announce a deal with three of the major record labels to make all tracks on iTunes DRM-free. In exchange, the service would introduce more variable pricing on music, with current hit songs carrying a higher price than older and less popular music.

According to CNET, the move would include both music added to iTunes going forward as well as tracks already on the service, from labels Sony BMG, Warner Music, Universal, and EMI (who already has DRM-free tracks on iTunes). While DRM has long been a hot button issue, one has to wonder if the trade-off of higher prices will be worth it to the majority of users.

iTunes, which publishes a list of its 100 most popular tracks at any given time, is dominated by popular, current music. Naturally, that means raising the prices on these tracks will be immediately obvious to tons of users, who might not necessarily think (or even understand the benefits of) DRM-free music is worth paying additional fees for.

Of course, they also might not realize that there are competitors – like Amazon – that offer both DRM-free and a 99 cent (or lower) price point. That said, if pop music isn’t your thing, the changes might be good for your wallet. According to CNET’s report, prices on the long tail of the catalog could drop to 79 cents.

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Match.com has launched a free dating service, Down To Earth - and from our first impression, it looks pretty good.

Jacob Solotaroff,  the former Director of Product Management and Member Integrity at Match.com, is heading up the project. He also writes on http://thefraudczar.com/. The marketing side of Down To Earth is headed up by Steve Hammer, it looks like the project was started back in June 2008.

Paid online-dating services have been losing marketshare to free dating sites like PlentyOfFish as singles realize they can find true love without a costly monthly subscription. In fact, Plenty Of Fish reports that 15% of their US members subscribe to paid online dating services.

Down To Earth says that the “honesty” and “respect” of their members are key to their success. Solotaroff says, “We believe that if people know they’ll be called out on outdated pictures and little white lies in their profiles, they’ll be less likely to post them.”

illustration by Tom Fishburne

The value of being ordinary is exactly zero.  Here’s what Tom Fishburne has to say about it:

“Blending into the herd” feels like one of the most common responses to the recession.  2009 is full of so much risk on its own, businesses are becoming even more risk adverse than usual to compensate.  The first projects to get cut are the speculative ones.  Many companies are pulling back on innovation as a way to batten the hatches.

This defense is illusory though.  If anything, retailers are facing even greater pressure to rationalize their shelves.  Redundant products are in danger of getting cut.  Consumers are shifting to cheaper private label if there’s no compelling reason to buy branded products. Differentiation is more important than ever.

I think this climate creates a lot of opportunity for brands that are willing to try something new.  The ones that can adapt the quickest and offer something truly unique have the potential to not only survive, but thrive.

Amen.

Not that there isn’t value in commodity products. (Check out the crowds at Wal-Mart and Costco.) But not every brand is a commodity brand. Not every company’s model meshes with the 99-cent value meal. And for those millions of companies - big and small - for whom being in business is about more than offering the cheapest product on the market, differentiation matters. If grabbing wallet-share was a struggle before, it has now become a knuckle fight to the death. Being better, smarter, faster has now become a matter of survival.

And kids, being better, faster, smarter takes a lot of work. And deliberate focus. It doesn’t happen by accident. Likewise, it sure doesn’t happen by “blending in” or “Playing it safe.” In this economy, value isn’t just your competitive edge, it’s your lifeline. The more unique you are, the more outstanding your value, the greater your opportunity to thrive in any economy - perhaps particularly a distressed one, when clients and customers are particularly careful when it comes to how they choose to spend their money.

Standing out has its advantages: When you stand out, you stand for something. When you don’t, you stand for nothing - and there isn’t much value in that.

Think of innovation and differentiation as your double-sided ticket out of this economic mess. Companies that will create unique value, unique products and unique experiences will lurch ahead, while companies that focus on trying to survive by contracting and blending in with the masses will be lucky to last the year.

After all, then the going gets tough, the tough don’t wuss out and blend with the herd.

Have a great Monday, everyone.

The Brand Builder

Janet Rae-Dupree wrote an article the other day in the New York Times contrasting those with “fixed mind-set” verses a “growth mind-set”. Very interesting article.

I’d venture to say that entrepreneurs and business owners are very much in a ‘growth mind-set’, but maybe there are characteristics of ‘fixed mind-set’ individuals that need to be adoped to create a better balance.

Read the article and share your thoughts.

WHY do some people reach their creative potential in business while other equally talented peers don’t?

 
James Yang

After three decades of painstaking research, the Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck believes that the answer to the puzzle lies in how people think about intelligence and talent. Those who believe they were born with all the smarts and gifts they’re ever going to have approach life with what she calls a “fixed mind-set.” Those who believe that their own abilities can expand over time, however, live with a “growth mind-set.”

Guess which ones prove to be most innovative over time.

“Society is obsessed with the idea of talent and genius and people who are ‘naturals’ with innate ability,” says Ms. Dweck, who is known for research that crosses the boundaries of personal, social and developmental psychology.

“People who believe in the power of talent tend not to fulfill their potential because they’re so concerned with looking smart and not making mistakes. But people who believe that talent can be developed are the ones who really push, stretch, confront their own mistakes and learn from them.”

In this case, nurture wins out over nature just about every time.

While some managers apply these principles every day, too many others instead believe that hiring the best and the brightest from top-flight schools guarantees corporate success.

The problem is that, having been identified as geniuses, the anointed become fearful of falling from grace. “It’s hard to move forward creatively and especially to foster teamwork if each person is trying to look like the biggest star in the constellation,” Ms. Dweck says.

In her 2006 book, “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,” she shows how adopting either a fixed or growth attitude toward talent can profoundly affect all aspects of a person’s life, from parenting and romantic relationships to success at school and on the job.

She attributes the success of several high-profile chief executives to their growth mind-set, citing an ability to energize a work force. These include John F. Welch Jr. of General Electric, who valued teamwork over individual genius; Louis V. Gerstner Jr. of I.B.M., who dedicated his book about I.B.M.’s turnaround to “the thousands of I.B.M.’ers who never gave up on their company”; and Anne M. Mulcahy of Xerox, who focused on morale and development of her people even as she implemented painful cuts.

But Ms. Dweck does not suggest that recruiters ignore innate talent. Instead, she suggests looking for both talent and a growth mind-set in prospective hires — people with a passion for learning who thrive on challenge and change.

After reading her book, Scott Forstall, senior vice president of Apple in charge of iPhone software, contacted Ms. Dweck to talk about his experience putting together the iPhone development team. Mr. Forstall told her that he identified a number of superstars within various departments at Apple and asked them in for a chat.

At the beginning of each interview, he warned the recruit that he couldn’t reveal details of the project he was working on. But he promised the opportunity, Ms. Dweck says, “to make mistakes and struggle, but eventually we may do something that we’ll remember the rest of our lives.”

Only people who immediately jumped at the challenge ended up on the team. “It was his intuition that he wanted people who valued stretching themselves over being king of their particular hill,” she says.

People with a growth mind-set tend to demonstrate the kind of perseverance and resilience required to convert life’s setbacks into future successes. That ability to learn from experience was cited as the No. 1 ingredient for creative achievement in a poll of 143 creativity researchers cited in “Handbook of Creativity” in 1999.

Which leads one to ask: Is it possible to shift from a fixed mind-set to a growth mind-set?

Absolutely, according to Ms. Dweck. But, “it’s not easy to just let go of something that has felt like your self for many years,” she writes. Still, she says, “nothing is better than seeing people find their way to things they value.”

Almost every local business owner I talk to inevitably brings up the never-ending solicitation for donations by local individuals, groups, and charities.

How do you donate to these “good causes” when you are barely staying afloat in the first place? We can all agree that maintaining your community image is important, but your financial support should be balanced.

Church groups, schools, sports teams, and clubs are all clamoring for funds in this tight economy. There are several ways to turn these donation seekers into a powerful marketing army for you and your brand – all without breaking the bank.

1. Target Your 9%
Partner with specific groups that benefit both your business and the organization. More importantly, determine who your Top 9% customer is and target that demographic. Because sponsoring a group will lead to increased customer counts, save yourself some marketing work and support those you really want in your store.

2. Percent of Sales Sponsorship
A great way to increase traffic and sales in your store is to donate a set percentage of sales during a certain period of time – with the presentation of a redemption coupon. For example, offer the group 10% of all sales during a 5- or 7-day period when the customer presents a card or coupon. This will encourage the group to pass out coupons to your store in an effort to drive more traffic to your store, which in turn, raises more money for them.

Offer to have the cards or coupons printed on your own dime so you can control the look of the card. Be sure to include your logo, address, phone number, web address, and wording explaining your community support. For example, “Proudly supporting the Puyallup High School Marching Band”.

3. Gift Card Sales
A growing fundraising trend includes gift card support. Allow groups to come and purchase $25 gift cards or certificates to your business for a discounted rate - $20, for example. Then the group can sell the cards for the full face value and keep the $5 difference. Your business benefits from the upfront sales and draws potentially new customers in to use their gift card.

As a business owner, you need to know that 20% to 30% of all gift certificates are never redeemed. This becomes free money in your bank account.

This promotion works best with groups with enough cash on-hand to purchase the cards upfront.

4. Seek Them Out
Imagine the excitement and buzz you can create if you were to solicit your donation to the charity! You WANT to give them money. To do this, consider a few key elements:
a.    Identify charities that include, or target, your Top 9% within 20 miles of your business
b.    Mail them a letter and follow up with a phone call
c.    Include success stories from other events
d.    Set a defined time-frame

This is a great and easy way to let them promote for you. Once an agreement has been reached, give them 500 redemption coupons and let them become your distribution and promotional team.

5. Just Say “No”
Remember; it is ok to say “no” to groups. Cordially thank them for their interest in your business, but explain that your company focuses its annual donation funds to specific charities or causes.

What have you found to be successful when others ask for donations from your company?

Jacob Madison, author of “Never Mind Marketing” and “Market Me 2.0″, teaching business owners how to target the Top 9% of their customer base and how small business owners automatically limit themselves. Visit his website at www.JacobMadison.com and sign up for his mailing list.

What is a small business and what exactly compels business owners to refer to themselves as ‘small’?

There is nothing small about these so-called ‘small businesses’. They collectively provide more jobs than all of the big corporations combined in the United States. They account for 39 percent of the country’s gross national product, create two out of every three new jobs and produce two and one half times as many innovations per employee as do large firms. Yet they widely accept the title ‘small’.

Do you know what synonyms for ‘small’ are? They include: little, diminutive, undersized, unimportant, and trivial. Are these really the images you want conveyed when referring to your business?

Using the word ‘small’ creates a subconscious association and mental limitation in your mind and the mind of others. If you want to grow, you need to end the association between your business and ‘small’.  It will only hinder your business potential.

What is an effective alternative title or word choice that clearly identifies this powerful group of businesses? I choose to settle on ‘local business owner’ and an adjective for every day use. However, even choosing ‘local’ can (and should) be debated. With the abundant use of the internet today, is any business really local anymore?

What about adding a unique positioning statement before the word ‘business’? For example, rather than saying, ‘I run a small business’ or ‘I’m a small business owner’, say, ‘I own the largest independently-owned feed supply store west of the Mississippi.’ Wow – that’s a statement someone can connect with. Or what about, ‘I run the last remaining vinyl record store in Seattle.’

As a business owner, you understand the great amount of dedication required to keep your doors open. Influential business owners, stop underestimating yourself by labeling it ‘small’. If you want to be small, say, ‘I run the smallest bar in the Bahamas’.

Jacob Madison, author of “Never Mind Marketing” and “Market Me 2.0″, teaching business owners how to target the Top 9% of their customer base and how small business owners automatically limit themselves. Visit his website at www.JacobMadison.com and sign up for his mailing list.

Google’s blog is announcing the release of Picasa for Mac at MacWorld. Even though they’ve previously released a Picasa Web Albums uploader and iPhone plug-in, the full-featured free software offers Mac users a way to edit, upload, and share video and images, surpassing iPhoto in feature set and maybe even usability.

You’re probably thinking, “I’m already using iPhoto, so what’s the big deal?” That was certainly my first thought too, but then I downloaded the software to test it out, and I changed my tune a bit. Picasa for Mac pulls in images and videos stored anywhere on your hard drive, lets you edit and tweak, save changes, and of course upload them to Picasa.

Picasa for Mac, which is still a Google Labs application (meaning it’s not perfect), has a feature set that is pretty darn extensive — it would be almost impossible to list them all — but some cool things you might like include the ability to filter by stared images, images with faces, and movies. You can also batch edit photos, create collages and movie clips, publish to Blogger, take video snapshots, one-click upload to YouTube, and a whole lot more.

And even if you’re not ready to chuck iPhoto out the window (I know I’m certainly not), you can still use both tools side by side. In fact, Picasa for Mac lets you run both applications without overwriting changes to your iPhoto library. iPhoto library images, within the Picasa software, are treated as read-only, so any photo adjustments will create a separate copy of the original image.

For more information on Picasa for Mac, watch this short video provided by Google:

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