I know infographics are all the rage these days and everyone seems to love them. I struggle  to understand why people love them so much because quite frankly I don’t like them. They might look pretty,colorful and appealing, but in terms of conveying information they’re not very easy to use.  The only infographics I’ve liked are the animiated ones, but I’m not sure those are called infograhics.

Here are five reasons why I don’t like infograhics:

1. Hard to follow. Once you start down the image it becomes hard to follow. Most don’t have a general flow to them. I often get frustrated and overwhelmed.
2. Distracting. Will all the different fonts and colors it’s hard to know which informaiton is important and which is not. I don’t have the time to learn the color codes and visual cues.
3. Complicated. You can say the same thing in nice bullets. Much easier to read and follow.
4. Overly cute. For the most part infographics tend to be overly cute and artsy for a information sharing vehicle. The layout and presentation get in the way of conveying valuable information.
5. Efficiency. I’ve never created an infographic, but just looking at them I begin to wonder how much time and effort went into creating it. Given the snippets of information it conveys is the time/effort worth the information conveyed.

At the end of the day I feel they solve a problem that doesn’t exist. However, they look pretty and the word is in vogue, so I’ll tolerate them.

Related articles

• How To Make An Infographic (& Market It) (searchenginepeople.com)
• The manly man’s infographic: The Golden Cup [infographic] (holykaw.alltop.com)
• Visual.ly brings infographic making to the masses (holykaw.alltop.com)

An online community is an interactive group of members joined together by a common interest.  An online community can be one of the most powerful tools a marketer can deploy for retention, word of mouth marketing, and market insight. To host a successful community it is important to focus on objectives, chart a road map, assemble the right team, and plan to be flexible. Then launch the community with the backing of your most enthusiastic customers and stay engaged as the community grows. Above all, all successful communities are aware that control is in the hands of the members, so it is vital to put their needs first, build trust, and become an active part of the community. The host needs to learn to be a host and not a policeman.

Over the past decade many companies have launched online communities. There is good reason for this. Online community members visited Web sites nine times as often, stayed five times as long, and represented 65% of sales, according to a recent McKinsey & Company survey. A 2006 survey of midsize and large companies suggested that 89% of them had adopted at least one of six community-building tools, such as blogs, wikis, social networking, or content-tagging. There is therefore a great movement among companies to adopt a form of online community best suited to reach their business goals.

Benefits of an Online Community

When starting an online community it should be open to everyone interested in participating in the forum. While there will be certain restrictions imposed on the community in terms of topics and language, these will be performed with community goals in mind. In my opinion there is nothing wrong with establishing an online community  primarily as a marketing platform for your company.

There are many benefits to establishing an online community. Here are a few:

• Facilitate conversation among customers, prospects and other stakeholders
• Marketing platform for products/services
• Social media presence
• Brand building tool
• Create a self supporting user base for customers
• Gain insights into target market

Online Community Management

After setting up an online community there are a few things you need to be aware of in order to have a successful and vibrant community. Once members have signed on and agreed to the terms of participation, managing the conversations and fostering an environment of trust will be critical. To ensure the experience is beneficial for all  parties provide the following as part of the community management process:

1. A clear and concise purpose statement for the community which is visible to all members at all times.
2. Communicate the goals for the community to its members on a regular basis.
3. Develop and enforce community rules for engagement in order to maintain a fair, safe, neutral and professional environment for participants.
4. Pre-post content on the forum within 15-20 relevant categories. This ensures the forum is not deserted with the first members arrive.
5. Ensure all participants feel welcome when they join the community.  For example send an introductory gift card once a member comes online and creates a discussion thread for the first time.
6. Create a climate of trust and open communication.
7. Devise a membership reward system to encourage participation and discussion.
8. Create a regular fun activity to enjoy the lighter side of online community engagement.
9. Monitor popular topics on a regular basis in order to gain insights.
10. Monitor subjects that raise the most passion in the online community.
11. Identify the most influential members of the community and seek their assistance in community development.
12. Directly communicate with members as needed.

photo credit: Leah Gregg

photo credit: woodleywonderworks

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This is a hilarious collection of “problems” that is always grayed out and shown in a dark light on infomercials. Its overly dramatized for a purpose – otherwise who’d by the snuggie? Take a look and enjoy:

One of the things that irks me these days is the tendency for people to pronounce things dead. The idea being that some radical change is occurring  or has occurred rendering something obsolete. This old something must now in fact be pronounced dead. This pronouncement is given even though this old something has been so powerful in the past. In fact compared to this new thing the old thing has a demonstrated track record of high performance.

I’m sure there is a reason to think major changes are ahead that might permanently change things, but pronouncing things dead? Especially those things that have been mainstays for such a long time. Isn’t that taking things a bit too far.

So, here is a list of marketing tactics, techniques, ideas and thoughts that have recently been pronounced dead:

Jeff Gomez pronounces that “Print is Dead”

Marc Miller and Jason Sinkovitz pronounce that “Selling is Dead”

Michele Eggers asks “Is Marketing ROI Dead?”

Rick Aristotle Munarriz asks or states (can’t tell) “Death of Affiliate Marketing?”

And these are just a few examples. Over the years I’ve also heard the following:

• 60 second elevator speech is dead
• Personal Computer is dead
• Microsoft is dead
• Resume writing is dead
• Cover letter writing is dead

And recently I’ve heard a few people already pronounce that social media is dead.

And the biggest one of them all is when German philosopher Nietzsche announced that God is dead. Last time I checked he was the one that was dead.

photo credit: Shahram Sharif

Creativity isn’t necessarily my strongest traits. Not at least in the traditional sense. I can be creative looking at analytics and numbers or in problem solving. However, when it comes to art, design and “creation” itself I’m pretty thin. That doesn’t mean I can’t tell when something is creative and impressive. I certainly can and that is why I have so much respect for Joe DiPastena’s work.

I met Joe while working for AIR Marketing. He was one of the best creative minds at AIR. Since then he’s moved on to bigger and better things as they say. Today, he has an independent creative studio.

I had a chance to ask Joe a few questions to get a feel for how he does his thing and why his creative designs always seem to hit the mark and stand out.

Question: With everything in marketing moving into the digital space, how has that changed the way you create a “brand” compared to print?

Answer: The fundamentals in developing a brand are the same it’s the speed we do it in has changed. You still have to have everything designed with meaning, not just making “cool” designs, as designers we have to understand how to effectively bring marketing direction to design.

Q: You’ve been a creative designer for many years. What are companies looking for from a creative stand point in today’s economy?

A: Favoring efficiency and standardization, the business world is rejecting quality as subjective and unquantifiable; a luxury at best, a profit drain at worst. As designers we understand quality is easy to recognize and that our target audiences know the defining difference. The most powerful way to counter this trend is for designers to institute and embed the value quality brings to a company in the guise of good design.

Q: What is your creative philosophy if there is ever such a thing?

A: When form and function work in balance. When the written word is laid out in an environment where it is inviting, easy to navigate and is an integral part of the overall design aesthetics.

Q: What separates a good creative piece from a great one?

A: The client and how much they are willing to risk their creative.

Q: How do you measure the success of a creative piece? Buzz? Sales?

A: Yes buzz, sales, how people react, how it impacts others, if it inspires, a lot like architecture does.

Here is a sample of some of the work Joe has done recently:

Web Design:

Direct Mail:

Print Campaigns:

Brochures:

Feel free to contact Joe if you’re ever in need for his services. Tell him I sent ya’! He’ll crack a smile before getting serious. But soon enough he’ll have your marketing campaigns back on track.

Yesterday I attended the Get Motivated business seminar. I was really looking forward to the event and enjoyed many of the speakers.  There were some big names speaking and it was my first time seeing them live.  While I would rate the overall experience as “so-so”, I loved hearing from Kurt Warner, Krish Dhanam, Phil Town, Steve Forbes,  James Smith and the legendary Zig Ziglar. It was sad to see that Zig was  having a difficult time after his fall, but it was inspiring nonetheless to hear from him. Zig in my mind is a legend of all legends when it comes to motivational speakers!

Here is a brief takeaway from each of the speakers I enjoyed:

Kurt Warner -  Do not settle for “good enough”, seek perfection. Be the best at what you do. Life is defined by how we respond when we have setbacks.

Krish Dhanam – Offer praise to your inner circle (family).  Develop an attitude of gratitude. Dream with eyes open. IQ + EQ + SQ = the real you! Don’t forget the spiritual element to your success.

Phil Town – Only 3% of fund managers (who make $5 million a year) have beat the S&P 500 since 1985. Take control of your investments. Buy and hold is one of the biggest investment myths.

Steve Forbes – Figure out ways to make ordinary things extra-ordinary. Starbucks makes billions selling coffee and McDonalds sells hamburgers.

James Smith - It’s the little things you do today and not the big things that determine your destiny. One degree change in the velocity vector can land you in a different solar system in ten years!

Zig Ziglar - Attitude is everything.

I enjoyed the other speakers but could have done without Rudy Giuliani. I can’t believe this man stood up in front of 20,000 people and told them its important to connect to the Internet. It’s’ 2010 Rudy! Half the people in the audience tuned out after he said this and were on their mobile phones catching up on their emails. Plus, it seemed that after this main point, all he said was Ronald Reagan.. yada yada yada… 9/11…. yada yada … Ronald Reagan … yada yada … 9/11!

I definitely felt it was worthwhile to attend but I can’t say I was motivated afterward. I rarely attend these types of events and in some ways I now remember why I don’t. But at the same time it was good to get away, listen to some inspiring words and meet new people. Even though I can’t say I was completely motivated, I do look forward to learning more from these speakers through their books!

I’m going to stray a little from the regular topic of this blog, because this particular issue is close to my heart. It’s about helping build a school in Nepal. As you may or may not know, that is where I’m from. When my friend Shishir recently wrote to me about America’s Giving Challenge I got excited and wanted to whatever I could to help. Shishir is trying to win $50,000 from this challenge on behalf of a school that he’s helping build in Nepal. He works with Sarvodaya USA and they’ve done amazing work in Nepal.

The competition counts the number of people who donate. Multiple donations count multiple times, so if you want to give $30 you may want to consider giving $10 a day for three days. That would count as three donations. You get the point.

So, lets put Nepal on top guys! Click here to donate.

Here is more information about the school Sarvodaya hopes to build with these funds.

The day Kanchan, 7, was born, her father passed away. Several months later her mother went abroad for a job and never returned. Kanchan grew up with her grandmother, 70, and uncle, a retired health worker. Needless to say, life has been very difficult for the family. But when it came to educating Kanchan, they turned to a local community school – Jyotidaya. Jyotidaya provides free education to Kanchan and 40 other children. In addition,  about 300 children who would not have access to quality education currently benefit school’s services.

• National model that examples by the power of community’s collective action. (could be replicated in other communities).
• Alternative to expensive private school and low quality public schools.
• 1 in 8 children, mostly orphans and children from poor family study for free.
• About 300 children benefit from Jyotidaya’s high quality education.
• 100% students who have taken SLC have passed, compared to less than 50% from public schools.
• Students participate in community service and development through shramadana. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38Fd1g2PXLE
• New infrastructure will allow the school to bring innovative educational systems that integrates spiritual traditions with modern and scientific learning processes.
• Planned new construction building will use local materials such as adobe and bamboo, it will be one of the most environmentally friendly school building in Nepal. A model that promotes the use of low cost, local and traditional methods of construction.
• The school will also integrate perm culture and sustainable agriculture programs to inspire young people to take productive life style.
• New buildings will provide facilities to train public school teachers and parents in rural area to begin the transformation process of Nepalese education system.

If you can’t give, please at least forward this blog post to someone or write about it on your blog and give a link back.

I sincerely appreciate your help!

Photo used under creative commons license from Jeff Bauche on Flickr

What does this say to you?

To me it says, when you find a successful formula don’t mess with it.

H/T: Consumerist

Known as “The Phoenix 5,” this team of outgoing professionals will live together in a luxury home for six months with all expenses paid and receive a weekly salary. You’ll also have a brand new vehicle to drive around Phoenix.

To earn a paycheck each week, The Phoenix 5 must complete challenges in the community that are all geared at helping local nonprofit organizations and small businesses. Using their skills as a team, they must complete professional challenges such as overhauling the website of a nonprofit, rebranding a struggling small business, promoting a local charity event, giving a job seeker a makeover, and more…

We will work hard, but play hard too with appearances throughout the city at local entertainment venues, restaurants, unique businesses, sporting events, outdoor attractions and a variety of other fun experiences you can find in the greater Phoenix area. We’ll meet local celebrities, artists, musicians, and leaders in the community.

So what are you waiting for? Stay in touch with Joe PR Guy via Facebook and Twitter for updates.

H/T Charlotte  (Valley PR Blog)

photo credit: Rance Costa

So you want to be a hit on YouTube. Well, its harder than you think. It’s actually quite sobering to think that the chances of you winning the lottery is higher than your video going viral on YouTube.  In fact just garnering 10,000 views is an admirable feat! I just learned this stuff from a Slate magazine article written by Chris Wilson.  Here is an excerpt:

This is the great promise of YouTube: Your video can soar in popularity through sheer word-of mouth-or rather, click-of-mouth-until eventually people are making T-shirts about it. No one ever said this was going to happen for everyone. So, what are your chances of achieving YouTube stardom? I crunched the numbers to find out what percentage of YouTube videos hit it big, cracking even 10,000 or 100,000 views. The results: You might have better odds playing the lottery than of becoming a viral video sensation.

So, Charlie Bit Me is quite special after all!