trendwatching.com's January 2010 Trend Briefing

trendwatching.com has released their latest report. Here's a quick summary of the 10 trends:

1. Business as unusual
2. Urbany
3. Real-time reviews
4. (F)luxury
5. Mass Mingling
6. Eco-easy
7. Tracking & alerting
8. Embedded generosity
9. Profile myning
10. Maturialism

View the full report online or Download the PDF version.

Source: www.trendwatching.com. One of the world's leading trend firms, trendwatching.com sends out its free, monthly Trend Briefings to more than 160,000 subscribers worldwide.

How to Optimize for Google, a 3-part Series from SiteProNews

The slashing of paid search advertising is just one symptom of the current economic situation. I'm seeing a lot of questions out there, from Twitter to direct inquiries, regarding the dark art of SEO. While optimizing the heck out of your META tags may never grow your "Organic Search" results to the volume they might have been at when you were spending thousands of dollars per month on Adwords, there are things that can and should be done to move your site up in search engine rankings.

One mantra to keep in mind throughout any SEO effort is: Patience, Analysis, Creativity, Implementation, Repeat. SEO combines many disciplines such as Marketing, Competitive Research, Customer Awareness, and Web Development. It also helps if you are selling/making/talking about stuff that people are interested in. If you build it, it doesn't necessarily mean that 'they' will search for it. Don't try to get it all done in one day, break your site into prioritized blocks, and work to improve successful pages first, then work through the full site over time.

You are responsible for knowing what your customers are looking for, and the terms they associate with that need. Here's a three part roll up by SiteProNews, that covers of a bunch of helpful ideas to help you build an SEO framework that can close the gap between your site and the people searching for what you provide:

How to Optimize for Google:

• Part 1 of 3
  
• Part 2 of 3
  
• Part 3 of 3
  

Twittermaven Survey Results:Users’ perception of brands on Twitter

Twittermaven recently surveyed 240 people with 6 questions regarding interacting with brands. Here are some key findings, as well as a sample chart.

• Most users (89%) agree that brands should engage their customers on Twitter.
  
• almost 90% of users would frown upon poor or inappropriate brand use of Twitter.
• 60% of respondents would recommend a company based on their presence on Twitter and 80% of Twitter users will reward those brands
• More than 60% of respondents have 100+ followers and almost 50% of respondents have posted more than 1000 Tweets

For the full results, including a number of other interesting charts, read the article.

Video: Jason Fried at "Business of Software"

Business of Software conference September 2008: Jason Fried is founder of 37signals (developers of Basecamp and Ruby on Rails) and Signal vs Noise blogger

Global Insight bought in deal worth $200m

Economic forecasting firm Global Insight Inc. of Waltham (and past client of J.Y. Design) yesterday said it agreed to be purchased for $200 million by IHS Inc., of Englewood, Colo.

"Global Insight was formed in May 2001 when Joseph E. Kasputys, now its chief executive, acquired Data Resources Inc. of Lexington and its rival Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates of Philadelphia. Kasputys said he plans to remain with Global Insight as chairman emeritus under IHS...

(an IHS executive) said Global Insight will retain its name and expand its Boston area workforce in coming years but work more closely with Cambridge Energy Research and other IHS "insight" companies, which provide data, analysis, and consulting services to businesses and government agencies around the globe...

Down the road, Kasputys said, he can imagine Global Insight and Cambridge Energy analysts working side by side on research and forecasts. "This is a terrific combination of Global Insight's economic analysis and Cambridge Research's energy analysis," he said..."

Source: Boston Globe. Congrats to GI.

ECO-ICONIC

The May/June 2008 edition of Trend Briefing is now online, highlighting three new 'green' trends: ECO-ICONIC, ECO-EMBEDDED and ECO-BOOSTERS. "It's a hands-on take on how the branding and design of eco-goods and services is about to enter a new phase..."

Where does design belong in your organization?

Here's a nice article from cooper.com: "These days, more and more companies are recognizing that design and innovation are essential to their strategy and bottom line: effective design sells products and services, improves your position in the marketplace, and turns customers into loyal advocates for your brand. If you've gotten your organization to this point, take a moment to enjoy your success! Creating demand for design is no small achievement. Unfortunately, to reap the full benefits of design, you probably still have a lot of work to do on your organization's structure, processes, and culture.

One of the first things you need to do is determine where in your organization design belongs..."

Major points covered are:

• In-house vs. outsourced
  
• Internal consultancies
  
• Design teams assigned to products long-term
  
• A blended approach
  
• What's right for your organization
  

Read the full article at cooper.com

Finally! - Email Standards Project

Email Standards Project: "The Email Standards Project works with email client developers and the design community to improve web standards support and accessibility in email."

I'm very happy to see an organized attempt to address the issue of poor and inconsistent industry-wide support for rich email (html email). The Email Standards Project looks like the bandwagon to jump on. The site has a great chart right on the homepage showing popular email clients (desktop and web-based) and their rating in terms of standards support. The project has come up with an "acid test", much like the Web Standards Project, that is used to fairly and consistently test the ability of a given email client.

Check out the site, join the email list or spread the word.

8 trends to capitalize on in 2008

trendwatching.com has released it's report on "8 trends to capitalize on in 2008". Always an interesting source for high-level marketing strategy and thought, the in-depth overview is worth a read (note: the full report download is a premium item). To summarize, they've dubbed the hot 2008 trends as:

1. Status Spheres
   
2. Premiumization
   
3. Snack Culture
   
4. Online Oxygen
   
5. Eco-iconic
   
6. Brand Butlers
   
7. Miy | Make It Yourself
   
8. Crowd Mining
   

Senate passes Internet tax moratorium extension: 7 more years tax-free

"With the ban on taxing Internet connections set to expire at the end of October, both houses of Congress are taking action. Last night, the Senate passed a bill that would extend the 1998 Internet Tax Freedom Act yet again, this time for seven years. A version of the legislation passed by the House earlier this week would only extend it for another four years...

Once negotiators agree on a length for the extension and a revised version is passed, it is expected to be signed into law by President Bush."

Marketing & Customer Service in the Pacific Northwest

brandchannel.com offers up an interesting article about marketing and customer services with an eco-friendly edge in the PacNW...

The Virtues of Print in a Web 2.0 World

oreilly.com: "Dale Dougherty, the publisher of Make: Magazine did a brief interview with Publishing Executive Magazine, which included some great thoughts on how print publishers can harness the power of Web 2.0 while also playing to their own strengths...

There's a lot that publishers can and should do with technology, because Web 2.0 is providing many new ways of finding new talent, bringing great material to the top of what used to be called 'the slush pile', and then bringing it to market. But so much does begin just as Dale says, in deep engagement with your audience, which in almost every case is also the source of the content that you will feature."

Interesting article, also includes a video about how O'reilly leverages the web to augment the total customer experience for their publication "MAKE".

Google Announces Hosted site search for businesses

Official Google Blog:: "Today we've released Custom Search Business Edition (CSBE) to do just that. CSBE is a hosted site search solution that provides Google-quality results for your website. It's fast, relevant, reliable, and flexible, so that users can quickly find what they're looking for through search results customized and integrated into your business website.

CSBE builds on the Google Custom Search Engine, a hosted search solution we introduced last October that allows organizations to create a search engine and search results that are tailored to their point of view... Businesses that want further control over results presentation and integration with their website can obtain results through XML. Now those of you with business sites have the option to turn off ads and have further control over branding. In addition, CSBE provides options for email and phone support. The pricing starts at $100 per year for searching up to 5,000 pages."

Finally Google is offering a 'private label' search service, and seems affordable too. Now I feel bad for folks like Picosearch.

A List Apart: The Web Design Survey, 2007

The Web Design Survey, 2007: "Designers, developers, project managers. Writers and editors. Information architects and usability specialists. People who make websites have been at it for more than a dozen years, yet almost nothing is known, statistically, about our profession. Who are we? Where do we live? What are our titles, our skills, our educational backgrounds? Where and with whom do we work? What do we earn? What do we value?"

Give it a go to improve the findings, and you may even win something...

Create an irresistible free trial for your app

thinkvitamin.com: "Free trials are a super effective way of increasing sign-ups to your service, but to reap the rewards later it’s worth following these four tips for your campaign... So what is this success formula I’m talking about? We’ve narrowed it down to four simple rules for how a free trial of an online service should work. Let’s go through them one by one."

1. Signing up for a trial account should be easy and painless
2. Do not require trial users to enter their credit card information
3. Do not cripple the trial
4. Include a "highlight bonus"

read more | digg story

Web Apps 101: Your Three Point Success Plan

TechCrunch - Building a web app is easy. Building a successful and profitable web app is where most people fail. If you want your app to stay out of the Dead Pool, you need to know the answer the following questions:

1. Who is it aimed at?
2. Why will they use it?
3. Will they pay for it?

Also, you can download the MP3 audio and PDF presentation that appear to be the foundation for this article at: http://www.futureofwebapps.com/

read more | digg story

Future of Web Apps: FREE MP3s, Podcast and Slides

The "Future of Web Apps" happened in London from 2/20-21. Well, it's a wrap and now you can find Speaker Presentations & MP3s (includuing a Podcast RSS Feed) on the program website. I just finished pulling down the last of the presentations in iTunes. There are some great speakers in the lineup.

The Mobile Web Offers a Rich Platform for Content and Advertising

Online Publishers Association: "With strong usage growth and consumers watching and acting upon advertisements, the mobile Web is a compelling platform for content and marketing, according to the latest research from the Online Publishers Association (OPA). Going Mobile: An International Study of Content Use and Advertising on the Mobile Web is the first OPA study to go beyond the U.S., involving over 6,000 interviews in the U.S., the U.K., France, Italy, Spain and Germany. The study was conducted in partnership with TNS Media and Entertainment."

Key findings: "Heavy Access and Growing Usage, Advertising is Driving Action, PC Web Brands Driving Mobile Web Activity, Mobile Web is Vital for Consumers of Sports, Weather and News"

They've also got the Presentation of Findings in PDF.

Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn - by Guy Kawasaki

"Most people use LinkedIn to “get to someone” in order to make a sale, form a partnership, or get a job. It works well for this because it is an online network of more than 8.5 million experienced professionals from around the world representing 130 industries. However, it is a tool that is under-utilized, so I’ve compiled a top-ten list of ways to increase the value of LinkedIn..."

Some great practical tips for using LinkedIn, all rolled up into one well organized blog entry.