innovation

What Groupon Knows About Writing That You Don’t

on May 16, 2011

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Think First Then Type, a column by the copywriter par excellence Daryl Lang, comes with tips and techniques to help you use language more effectively at work. After all, even the best and brightest ideas won’t catch on if you can’t get them understood.

Good writing is scientifically proven to enhance your sex appeal, persuade colleagues to do your work for you, and help you communicate with some of the more intelligent species of reptiles.

OK, I confess: I copied the style of that last sentence from Groupon. And why not? The fastest-growing company ever must be doing something right. Certainly, Groupon knows a thing or two about copywriting. Read this opening to a recent Groupon offer:

It’s no accident that soccer is the most popular sport in the world–it requires little equipment, is fast paced, has clear rules, and can be played while holding a baby. Witness some graceful and free-footed fireworks with today’s Groupon: for $15, you get two premium sideline tickets to any one of the Carolina RailHawks’ regular-season home games (a $30 value).

That’s classic Groupon: Begin with a quick, snort-inducing joke, then tell somebody they can save a few bucks on something fun. Groupon took a simple idea–a daily, local, social-driven coupon–and turned it into a massive business on the strength of good writing. A marketer might tell you this is a well-executed example of the AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) method.

But this is not some cookie-cutter marketing formula. Groupon editor-in-chief Aaron With recently told Mediabistro that Groupon writers generate enough copy to fill a 190-page novel–every day. That’s a lot of writers employing the cheerfully weird Groupon tone that persnickety advertisers and fickle customers expect.    Read More →

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Is a Portfolio Career Right for You?

on May 10, 2011

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On Wednesday, May 25, David Holloway will be teaching a Hired Guns Academy class on How to Develop a Portfolio Career. Below he explains what you gain by using this approach in today’s highly disrupted and unpredictable workplace.

Just about all of us have felt threatened, insecure or challenged in our career in recent years. The sort of niggling feeling that you can’t just set and forget your job; the feeling that it might all go wrong if you don’t handle things with care.

Global financial crisis? Tsunami? Things that will pass in time?

Sorry, no.    Read More →

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The Good Guns: Google for Nonprofits

on May 3, 2011

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If you’re a Hired Gun who serves on a nonprofit’s board or works as a volunteer, you’re probably already using your creativity to help the group raise its visibility. Some extra help’s on the way: with the newly retooled Google for Nonprofits program, the number of nonprofit organizations that Google’s philanthropic branch can help each year has greatly increased. If your pet nonprofit qualifies, it could score you some significant tools.

Craig “Craigslist” Newmark recently interviewed Google.org about the program. According to the group’s product manager, Kristen Olsen Cahill, the program could net your group “$10,000 a month in advertising on Google AdWords to reach more donors, free or discounted Google Apps to cut IT costs and operate more efficiently, and premium features for YouTube and our mapping technologies to raise awareness of your cause.”

You might be scratching your head, thinking, “this will all be Greek to the executive directors and fundraisers I’m trying to help–we need to take baby steps.” But Google’s thought of that, too. They are also building resources for nonprofits and have introduced the Google for Nonprofits Marketplace, where groups can tap low-cost or free resources to help get started.

If you’ve been trying to be the catalyst of change for a nonprofit, this is your chance to get them into the 21st century….

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Stand Up for Yourself: Succeeding as a Design “Team of One”

on May 2, 2011

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Jeff Gothelf, a user experience designer working for TheLadders.com, blogs for us about project management and UX careers and trends.

Several folks have written recently about how to operate a design team of one. Those posts, like this one by Leah Buley, discuss the tools, methodologies and tips/tricks for successfully pulling off a UX practice with only one practitioner. But once you’ve got the tools in place, you need to make sure your “team of one” also succeeds politically. First, you’ll need to convince the organization to fund your work and provide you with the bare essentials you need to function. Once those are in place, the onus is on you to prove that those funds were well spent. The following tactics will help keep your team funded, appreciated, and (with luck) expanding beyond its single member in the future.

Metrics: your new best friend
The beauty of online work is that it’s measurable. If it’s measurable, it’s controllable. And if it’s controllable, then you are its master. The first thing you should do is set benchmarks. Use the company’s reporting tools or free options like Google Analytics to gain a sense of where things stand now. As you begin to operate, report to the rest of the organization how the metrics are changing based on the work you’re doing. Make sure that as key performance indicators (KPIs) trend up and to the right, the UX work you’re doing gets the proper credit.    Read More →

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Be Prepared: Marketing Effectively for the “Relevant Web”

on April 28, 2011

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As I mentioned in my last post, there’s an ongoing shift toward giving readers a more relevant, adaptive web experience. This trend’s power starts with the fact that it’s beneficial for consumers–and soon this relevancy will be a requirement. For those marketers who embrace the trend, it will also be hugely profitable.

The experiences that a growing Web population expects—on-demand access to content of particular interest to them–will largely shape how people come to accept advertising directed their way. Today, I can set up and read personalized news feeds, follow the musings and links of my friends and colleagues on Facebook and Twitter, and access videos of my choice on Netflix and Hulu. Soon, I’ll enjoy a web experience that doesn’t require me to download or interact with separate sites or applications, each with their own notion of relevancy.

But even in the here and now, companies are learning how to speak (and, more important, be spoken to) in a one-to-one way with customers via social media and other tools. Many companies have someone whose job includes following Twitter feeds that involve their company in order to get real-time feedback. I’d argue that the lessons learned over the next few years will lead to a profound change in the way companies market to their customers–ads will have to become more relevant, conversational, and engaging in order to generate attention and drive action.    Read More →

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Bullet Points: Working Up to Excellence, and Bounty-Hunting Employees

on April 28, 2011

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  • “For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not.” Ira Glass talks about being creative and reaching the point where your work is “as good as your ambitions.”
  • This Saturday is the deadline for nominations to Inc. magazine’s 500|5000, its annual list of America’s fastest-growing private companies. Qualifying businesses get a free one-year subscription just for applying.
  • Earlier this month NPR reported on how “many companies and organizations are encouraging employees to be on the lookout for talent and are offering cash bonuses for referrals that lead to a hire.” As always, it pays to keep your network robust.
  • The polls are still open (til noon tomorrow!) for voting on the worst possible interview question.
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Get Your Blog On: Scott Beale of Laughing Squid on Building an Audience

on April 27, 2011

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For the second of my interviews with blog movers and shakers, I didn’t have too far to look–I’ve known Scott Beale for many years. As the creator and founder of Laughing Squid, a web hosting company and “online resource for art, culture & technology,” Scott’s an amazing source for finding out about the rise of blogs and blogging platforms. We discussed his company’s origins (including its unusual name), the backwards way he got into blogging, and how to grow a blog when you want to write about all sorts of things, not just a single niche. “Not everyone’s going to like every post, and that’s the way it should be with us,” he says. Check out the rest of our half-hour talk below:

Listen to internet radio with Bill Brazell on Blog Talk Radio
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Guns in the News: Ramona Pringle Looks at Gamers in Love (IRL)

on April 25, 2011

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One of our Hired Guns, Ramona Pringle, was featured in Friday’s New York Times. She was their go-to expert to explain the ways that video games and gaming culture help people in real life–and that includes their love life. This was the subject of her talk at SXSW Interactive last month.

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The Good Guns: Songs of Love for Japan

on April 18, 2011

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The Good Guns is a series of volunteer opportunities put together by The Hired Gun community; its members serve as active sponsors. Today’s effort is from Bryce Longton, a writer and longtime Gun. She’s using the power of music and social media to help people on the other side of the globe.

Summary: This one’s for all you Groupon addicts: Songs of Love for Japan (SOLFJ) is a 72-hour flash sale of great music for a great cause–it starts in an hour and runs until 10 am on Thursday. For $100, you can buy 100 rare and unique songs donated from 100 leading artists, including Josh Ritter, Ani DiFranco, Runaway Dorothy, Wolf Parade, and Heather Nova. If you buy the compilation, you also get a chance at concert tickets, signed CDs and other one-of-a-kind items. If $100 is too much for you, don’t despair: for $20, you can get one of the sale’s 20-song samplers (the sampler mix changes every day).
The Good Gun Profile: The project was put together by the writer Bryce Longton and the musician Cheryl B. Engelhardt. As they and everyone else were having fun meeting, greeting, and partying at South by Southwest last month, the bad news from Japan kept pouring in. Through Songs of Love for Japan, Bryce, Cheryl, and the rest of the team hope to raise a great deal of cash through the power of music. All money raised will be donated to the ShelterBox charity, which deliveries supplies and logistical support to those affected by disasters. To get your music and do your part, head to SOLFJ. And to help out even more, you can tweet something like this to your network: Check out @SOLFJapan, a 72-hour flash sale of great music for a great cause. http://solfj.org #solfj

[Image by Yoko Furusho, who hand-drew all the art on the SOLFJ site]

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Where the Money’s At: Why Facebook’s Valuation Looks More Realistic Every Day

on April 14, 2011

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We hear a lot these days about Internet behemoths like Google, Apple and Microsoft–along with that relative up-and-comer Facebook. The first three companies I mention are worth $186B, $305B and $219B, respectively–they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

But I think lots of people have grossly underestimated Facebook. There’s lots of confusion about a $70B valuation for a company involved in a pretty squishy line of work–”social media.” But people are missing the bigger picture. Facebook has 600 million users, and that figure is growing. People who predict its demise perhaps continue to think of it as just status updates. But it’s a lot more than that, and it doesn’t hurt Facebook’s market share that millennials are happy to concede privacy for ubiquity; indeed, many find the very idea of privacy quaint.

Facebook sits on, I think, a far more valuable data set than the giants–it has a wealth of information about people, information that by and large is contributed voluntarily. Let’s agree that, on its surface, Facebook is as easy a company to mock as it is to admire. Many think that Facebook has taken advantage of unsustainable trends, and like Myspace before it, it’s destined to fall to earth. But that’s a mistake born of thinking of Facebook simply as a way for friends to chat with friends.    Read More →

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Product Management, User Experience, Information Architecture, Interaction Design, Usability Testing

Project Management, Program Management, Production, Content Production

Animation, Art Direction, Creative Direction, Corporate Identity, Flash Design/Dev, Graphic Design, Web Design

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Brand Management, Business Development, Sales, Product Marketing, Event/Conference Planning, Promotions, Marcomms, Corporate Comms, Direct Marketing, E-Marketing, Public Relations, Market Research

Account Management, Account/Brand Planning, Media Strategy, Communications Planning, Media Planning/Buying, Social Media, Search (SEM, SEO), Web Metrics & Analytics

Web Development, Front End Development

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