Testing your DNA to discover cool facts about what you are made of,  is not so trivial. There are lots of misperceptions about what DNA testing is and can reveal about an individual. Some people think it’s about [...]]]> We are getting closer to launching TheMakingsofMe.com new website and social activities.

Testing your DNA to discover cool facts about what you are made of,  is not so trivial. There are lots of misperceptions about what DNA testing is and can reveal about an individual. Some people think it’s about finding out your fate. It is not!! So we thought that an explanatory video could do the job of quickly and simply explaining a very complicated issue. When we did it before with Aviisha Medical Institute, scores of potential patients who viewed the video series,  appreciated the simple, straightforward and entertaining style used to explain a concept that they thought was intimidating and scary.  In a recent article I read, the author noted that if he does not understand what someone is trying to explain to him — and it is their interest that he will understand, so that he will buy their stuff or believe their credibility, than it’s actually the presenter who is the stupid one of the two because he is losing a potential customer.  DNA testing is complicated. It is high end science that requires years of research. Thousands of scientific studies, research papers, books and journals exist about the topic.

But we just need for potential customers to quickly understand what our client does and how they can benefit. KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid.  Once more, we chose to implement animation to help express an abstract idea. The cinematographer, Ofir Lugasy, was chosen for the clip creation. Here is the result:

Last week , [...]]]> A few months ago, I wrote a a post on what I predict will be the next big thing in online marketing. The feedback was amazing and the post circulated around the web for weeks. It still brings traffic on a daily basis. The post predicts the upcoming trends we see online right now.

Last week , I was preparing for a presentation for an online training seminar and the agenda included issues that I cover in the SoLoMo post. I got a bit carried away in my amateur animation and wanted to share the results.   Let me know what you think of SoLoMo and my new animation hobby. I spare you my accented English and let Sheryl narrate.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This entry was written by Dror Gliksman.

In fact, if your Grandma is [...]]]> Let me start by telling you what your Grandma is NOT doing this summer. She is not sewing you a sweater.  She is not playing bridge at the club, and she is not even baking a casserole. She is way too busy for that kind of stuff.

In fact, if your Grandma is like most folks today, she is busy figuring out issues like discovery, business models and back-office. Cause this summer, Grandma will be launching her new Grandma App of course.  Cause this summer, everyone and their freakin’ grandma are making apps!

As a player in the online world, you probably are feeling like it’s the late 90’s all over again. Try this: swap out the word “website” and insert “App”. Don’t you feel like you just watched Monica Lewinsky on the news followed by an episode of Seinfeld?

Once again, people have that spark in their eyes. But these days, it’s not a dot.com spark. It’s about mobile applications, pads and social apps. What many are tragically thinking when they see a cool app is, “why didn’t I think of that?” Unfortunately, too many new app developers are falling into the same old trap—the same trap people fell into over a century ago, during the gold rush. You can practically hear their thoughts before they even have a working alpha, “Let’s leave everything and try to strike gold like that guy did.” Those people are sucked in by the hundreds of success stories they read about. They don’t realize there are tens of thousands of failure stories they don’t ever hear about!

History taught us that only very few will actually find the gold. The rest, the ones we don’t usually hear about, will waste their time and money to only have their butts dragged through the cold reality of failure. Some of them, while up to their ears in mud, may even call me or my online marketing colleagues and ask to be saved.  The honorable thing to do would be to remind them that 80% of App entrepreneurship is a dead end. And to the 20% that actually have a good idea —  the odds are against you.  But who am I to dash someone else’s dreams? In all honesty, I have no idea which 2% of the 20% are actually going to make it.

For every Angry Bird out there, there are hundreds of beautiful, happy, lonely, black and blue bird apps — with very few users.  Online success can be achieved only by trial and error and hard work.  It requires a true understanding of the market, the right mixture of talent, creativity and coolness, guts, dedication, money, good timing and a lot of luck.  Even if you think you have all that, my advice? Only invest in this high risk, gold finding game if you can. And make it a small portion of your time and talent and portfolio.

It doesn’t mean that there are not good opportunities out there.  Just like in the gold era there are safer and smarter investments, especially the ones that help facilitate the new frontier. In the late 19^th Century the really smart people where those making their wealth by investing in transportation, construction materials, utilities, saloon chains and Brothels. In the 90’s, it was ISP’s, hosting companies, security and search engines. So who are the facilitators this time around? Cloud providers are leading my charts, (Amazon, Rackspace, Google, VMware) APP ecospheres with some good API’s (Facebook, Salesforce, Google App, Foursquare, Twitter, Linkdin). The good apps will be the ones that ride this train and help facilitate the work and tools. If you think about it this way, the Microsoft – Skype deal does make some sense.

Micro-initiatives, those that solve a specific problem, are my favorite (Fiverr, JobsFor10). I love Yelp and Waze, which are based on crowd sourcing. But crowd sourcing is a lot like UGC (user generated content). It is very hard to reverse engineer the success tipping point. The best duplicating is highly unlikely to match the original’s success.

All successful apps have one more thing in common – your Grandma can understand and explain their benefit in just one sentence. No time for elevator speeches. Your investor will be too busy playing with his Smartphone on the way up to the office. You need a speech short enough for the time waiting for the elevator!

So, despite all of the above, my ultimate advise for businesses who are about to jump on the app wagon is to boil their business benefit down to one single thing, that  can be described in a  short tagline, and make it as simple, fun and as intuitive as possible. Then, in your spare time, you can be a good grandson, go visit your Grandma, in person (no Skype), help her with her Facebook and blog, because all she is really interested in doing is to stay informed and connected.

This entry was written by Dror Gliksman.


 

Whether you require design for a website, a web app or a [...]]]> Finding a good web designer is getting harder and harder. The good designers are being snatched by agencies and large projects. They are overloaded with work and often, you won’t know about them because they don’t have time (or need) to market themselves.

Whether you require design for a website, a web app or a social app, the designer’s role is becoming more important. The profile of the designer you need may vary, based on the nature of the project. When hiring a design firm, a large studio or a creative agency, you are at a risk of not knowing who you are really working with. Choosing a “boutique” solution has its own advantages and disadvantages. There are key issues you need to take into consideration — beyond the portfolio they flash in front of you.

Here are 5 ways to decide if they are right for the job:

1.       Are you a true right brainer?

Test: Set the meeting at the design studio. Look around the office. Is the studio too neat? Are there any funky elements in the room? How about the desk?  How about music instruments? Any signs of jazz, world music or at least indie? How about pets hanging out? Does he tend to talk too much about his Mac/PC/Software?

2. What is their cultural orientation?

Does he/she relate to the culture of the target audience and the products or subject matter or are they too far out there? Or too square?

Test: Small talk about something relevant to the project — music, shopping, technology, education. Can they carry a conversation about American Idol? Do they get the jokes you crack about Steve Jobs? Do they think the Greenbay Packers are the shipping staff at eBay? In other words, do they get it

3. Being good versus being full of yourself.

Designers are impossible to work with when they have a tendency to fall in love with their own work.

Test: Engaging in a casual conversation about work — their experience, projects they particularly liked or did not like, past jobs, etc. Do they use the opportunity to talk about themselves? Do they think that users who don’t get it are stupid — or do they recognize that the fault lies in the usability?  Are they within the limits of good taste or do they brag? Try to determine if you are dealing with confidence or an ego-centric who will fight you tooth and nail through the entire creative process.

4. The Pixel from Hell

Perfectionism can be a huge stumbling block in the fast paced world of the Internet. Some designers are unable to compromise between quality and time to market needs.

Test:  See how long it takes until you receive a proposal.

5.       How bad is your Designer Personality Disorder?

Every great designer I have met suffers from a little known psychiatric disorder, Designer Personality Disorder. This is a set of common but unspecific oddities. It may include but is not limited to: short term memory loss (especially related to quotes and time management), long term memory loss (especially related to what you told them you wanted in your first meeting), an acute tendency to make those they work for to feel guilty for asking for revisions, and PMS (Pissing off Marketing Staff) .

Test: Ask them a bit about their working methodology and how they manage payments. If they respond in a very business-like and professional manner, they may have already sought treatment and been cured. If they throw out answers like – “Don’t worry, we’ll manage” or ‘Whatever you are comfortable with”, don’t be fooled. This is not a relaxed personality talking. This is trouble waiting to happen.

Solution: Ask a web project management expert (hey – that’s me!) to handle and manage the designer.

Conclusion: Good designers are creative people that need to think out of the box. Too many times I was looking for a good designer and ran into a UI person. While a good web designer should have a command of UI and definitely the UX language, their claim to fame should be in creating cool stuff, suitable but engaging designs and translating your ideas into a graphic language that your users will relate to and understand.
This entry was written by Dror Gliksman.
 
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Guess what? [...]]]> Every entrepreneur, investor and marketer spends a great deal of time trying to guess what the next big thing will be. In the online marketing world, it has become an obsession. Internet marketers believe that identifying the next trend – from blogging to microblogging to Facebook Fan pages – is the holy grail.

Guess what? I am going to let you in on a big secret. That’s right. I am going to tell you what the next big trend will be so that first of all, you will remember that you heard it here, at the WebWhile blog, but second, because it is so simple and also so important and if you are not working with people who have already figured it out, then you may want to reconsider whether they are the right people to take your business into the future.

So what is the next big thing? The trend that everyone will latch onto as it takes us further into the future of marketing? It’s right under your nose.

No idea?
Here is a clue. Ask yourself, “what is at the center of the hottest online trends?

The answer? It’s obvious — social media, mobile apps, location based apps, and the thousands of apps and startups involved in this sphere.

Now look closer. Look at your iPhone or Android. Look at your Twitter and your Facebook accounts. How about your Linkedin? Look at all the apps you are using on a regular basis. My this and My that. You can see the answer right there. You are getting warmer. Need another hint? It’s right there in the form of an icon. It’s the brand you best identify with and are constantly working to show off and prove its value.

The next big trend is . . YOU!

YOU — are the next big thing. Wake up! There is a new world order. Social–Local-Mobile. I call it So-Lo-Mo.

It’s the YOU that is now smack in the middle. An entirely new economy is being formed, based on trying to make you feel good about you. This new world order of So-Lo-Mo cares greatly about your ego. It enable you to readily spread the word on how smart and talented you are, how happy you are, how successful you are, how in-the-know you are. Just using the apps makes you feel savvy. In the new So-Lo-Mo world, smart is the new cool. Shy and humble are irrelevant.
As a result, you’ll become more self confident, more verbal, your social skills will take an egocentric turn. With the growing confidence, you will aspire to become more vocal and independent. You may even aspire to become more economically independent. You will stop accepting every demand made of you – by your government, your boss, your teachers.
In this new world order of So-Lo-Mo, each of us is a unique, autonomous social and economic ecosystem. The new era of SaaS based powered apps, mobile clients and connectivity anywhere allows you to be in the center of virtually whatever it is you want to be. This is not just true anymore of Mommy-bloggers or off-shore developers. The next big thing is coming to theaters all across suppressed populations and industries. So-Lo-Mo citizens consider themselves as the brand. They take central stage. They want to do business with others that are like them and create coalitions for success.
So is this the ultimate power-to-the-people social revolution or just a more extreme version of capitalism where everyone is out for himself? While the jury is out busy upgrading their profile pictures, we as marketers should be adjusting our strategies and methodolgies to the new attitudes and motivations of our So-Lo-Mo customers.

I love when an article confirms what I have been thinking. Makes me believe I may be heading in the right direction after all. Kent Lewis writes – [...]]]> I was reading one of my favorite online sources for online marketing, iMedia Connection and so much related to TWO articles today that I had to share.

I love when an article confirms what I have been thinking. Makes me believe I may be heading in the right direction after all. Kent Lewis writes – and read this carefully because Dror and I have been saying this for the entire
millennium already:

. . . marketing should be agnostic to media type, and so too should the strategist developing and implementing marketing campaigns.

And at the same moment, Steve Lubetkin was writing these words in another article on iMedia:

Look for consultants whose experience in communications and online technology extends well beyond the last business
cycle.

Hey – that’s us!

I go a little bit crazy each time I meet one of these social media experts who has popped up like a mushroom after rain. Someone without any marketing background who caught on quickly to setting up a Facebook page, has a nice blog and thinks Tweeting is cool (not annoying like I do, sorry). The mushroom knows a bit about SEO and can talk intelligently about back links, ranking, keyword strategy perhaps. He may even be able to have a conversation about business goals. But he
himself never needed to achieve any goal beyond a certain number of Twitter followers. And if he can’t explain to you
how his Twitter followers will bring you income, you better not be counting on him to increase your bottom line.

Don’t get me wrong. The market need for online marketers is growing and there is an important place for these social
media experts on your marketing team. Many businesses should be running social media campaigns but may not see the direct benefit for a while. My point is that these people are not your strategists. Management needs to understand the need for an integrated marketing strategy as opposed to shooting from the hip and hiring experts to implement tactics that are the latest hype.

Dror and I always end up advising our clients on so much more than their online strategy. We can’t help but refer back
to our corporate experiences in sales and marketing positions. To look at what any company is doing online without truly understanding their business and its goals and then integrating it all with a clear understanding of the current onlineopportunities would just be, well, plain dumb.