Some Assembly Required

With Valentine's Day approaching, you can't turn on the radio without hearing a ProFlowers commercial. As I drive to and from the gym in the morning, I hear (repeatedly) the glowing endorsement from my morning talk show host. And to the uninformed, it sounds like a great product at a great price. After all, the cost of fresh flowers has soared, and bouquets at Valentine's day fetch a hefty price from would be suitors and loving husbands. But did you ever stop to wonder why ProFlowers is so much less expensive than its competitors? It's time someone told you.

When Jim and I were first dating I worked for a major company here in the St. Louis area. As our first February 14th approached, there was much public speculation as to whether he would send me a bouquet. For some reason the other women in the office were making this a go/no-go moment for my blossoming romance. In truth, I wasn't sure Jim was the flower-sending type. Don't get me wrong, he was traditional enough to do so, but he seemed far too sensible to throw away unreasonable fees for blooms. The day arrived. Deliveries of gorgeous bouquets were arriving at the front desk like inside bets on a fixed race. It was almost comical. Almost, as no flowers had arrived yet from Jim. And then it appeared: the box.

That free vase they promote in the ads? It's in the box. So are the wilted, tethered flowers with a pack of flower food to bring them back to life. Yep, it's all in the box and the recipient must assemble his or her own bouquet. While this may not sound tragic on this over-commercialized romantic holiday, imagine the implications of sending a ProFlowers delivery to your out-of-state friend who has just had a baby. Some gesture. Or to your college friend who has just broken a leg. We expect Ikea furniture to require assembly once we get it home, but not bouquets. These are intended to be easy gifts to receive. A little ray of sunshine in the recipient's day.

I never told Jim that I had to assemble that bouquet. He found out a few years later after we were married when my father sent me a ProFlowers delivery. The box arrived and the flowers were almost dead. To the credit of PF, they issued a fresh box immediately and the customer service was fantastic. Seeing this, Jim began to inquire about his own delivery on that first Valentine's Day. I debated whether to tell him, but finally shared that, yes, his bouquet had come in the same green and purple box.

While we're not saying this is a bad service to use, I feel it is my duty to write this public service announcement so that flower-givers everywhere will know what they are sending. The price may have been right, but Jim made clear he never would have used a vendor that expected the recipient to assemble the bouquet themselves. If he'd known, he would have used another company.

I still regret that I myself used ProFlowers several years back when my mom ankle her foot on vacation. She was in a Las Vegas hospital waiting to come back home and I made the grim mistake of sending her a box of flowers. I was mortified to hear that she had to have someone assemble them for her. How insensitive that must have seemed. Grateful recipients never complain, which is why these tales often go untold. There's nothing wrong with getting a great value, just be sure you know why the service in question is offering a better price.

How Blogging Helps Small Business

Brian Brown of Small Business Blog of the Day has been identifying what exactly a blogging consultant is for his readers.

We like Brian - and though he could be considered a direct competitor, we link to him because, well, his information is accurate and there's plenty of business to go around (linking to competitors is one of those things that bloggers do).

His latest column is a gem, and he boils down one of the main reasons you should be business blogging. It makes your work "fresh" again.

When you are writing a blog, you are constantly looking for new things to write about. Different angles you've never noticed about your company suddenly appear. The old things that you've dealt with a million times are new again to your new audience, and so they are new again to you. Readers comment on your stories creating yet more new and fresh ideas on old themes.

This process can't be helped. As you look for more things to write about, you are forced to examine your company in a new light, perhaps more from your clients' perspective. You are forced to find every last "neat" thing about your company that exists. And when you are constantly looking for "neat," "cool," "interesting," things to write about, your company starts feeling neat, cool, and interesting to you again, perhaps how it did when you first began the company.

My recruiting business was improved by my blogging - being forced to write about situations in a professional manner, but also being forced to think about my business. Why would I be a better choice than another recruiter.

Brian hits that right on the head. Blogs help you broadcast your message, but they also help you find that message. That is their real value.

Word Of Mouth Marketing Has No Budget But Big Results

An excellent find by Ben mcConnell of Church of the Customer, as they comb the new BIGresearch report for information on how consumers use the media.

For car-buying - Word of Mouth and TV Broadcasts rank number 1 and number 2, with newspapers and magazines ranking 4 and 5. This doesn't address individual dealers, but I'm not surprised that people buy off of recommendation and off the visual thrill of looking at a car move in high-def.

As for Word of Mouth - this information isn't shocking at all:

"... 94.2% of consumers regularly or occasionally give advice about products and services they purchased and 90.8% regularly or occasionally seek advice about products and services before making a purchase.

There is a visceral thrill to car-buying that works well in stories - and you know how people love to tell stories. The point Ben makes is that WOMM works, but needs to be measured, and given a budget. It may be more difficult to track, but from the results we're seeing, all of the statistics for media buying are a bit fuzzy - and the dollars spent on different mediums don't reflect the merging of marketing channels (you heard it on the radio but saw it on the television. Which one made you buy?).

Personally, I'm still waiting for local car dealers in St Louis to catch on to the power of blogging. As soon as I get that eighth day, I'll start calling them.

By the way - if you're in the market for a good book on customer marketing - Jackie and Ben of Church of the Customer have an excellent book - and a good blog to boot.

The Nürburgring Experience

Nothing gets my attention faster than the sound of a high performance engine. If I had to vote with my eyes closed, I'd say the best commercial on air right now is the spot for the new BMW X5.

The first time I heard it, I came rushing in from the other room to see what was causing this great symphony of piston firing heaven. Coupled with the great audio, the vision on the screen was even better. No car in sight (unless you count the weak slow ones being passed). Just the unobstructed view from the driver's seat, while the car banks hairpin turns and hums along at a neckbreaking speed. Good morning, German engineering.

At the end of the commercial, seven people pop out of the SAV as if it were just a casual drive up to the local coffeehouse. The message: fast, sleek, roomy - on yeah, and safe too.

To a lead foot like myself, this brief commercial epitomizes sheer driving pleasure. This is what BWM is all about, folks. It's great branding if you ask me. The spot was filmed at daybreak on Nürburgring, one of the most difficult racetracks in the world. And its simplicity is worthy of note. No music. No models. No pitchman stating the obvious. Just a good look at the experience of driving the ultimate driving machine on the ultimate course. Watch it and see if you don't feel like buying a one way ticket to Germany yourself.

St Louis Business Blog Review

If you are a new business blogger with a site up and no traffic, I want to talk to you. No, I'm not going to try to sell you - this is one of those near and dear to my heart events where I want to help business bloggers in the local area.

So here's the story - just contact me, and I'll do a review of your site here on Brandstorming. In addition to the advice, you'll get some traffic and a boost from this PageRank5 blog.

So don't hesitate - send me a note at jdurbin[at]durbinmedia{dotcom} and tell me that you want some free press. This is open to St Louis based business blogs only.

Durbin Media Group Sites and Clients

Every once in a while, we like to take a step back and look at the projects we have worked on and are working on. Brandstorming is our company blog, but if you are looking for other examples of our work, or our play, you might check out some of these blogs and sites, all with original content.

For a full list of our interactive portfolio, contact us. Many of the sites we have worked on we do not have permission to publish online.

Durbin Media Group Sites:

Life in A Venti Cup: Franki's fashion playground. (Designed by Durbin Media)
StlRecruiting.com: Jim's original business blog, it covers local recruiting in St Louis.
CharlotteRecruiting.com: Local Recruiting Blog for Charlotte and North Carolina
KCRecruiting.com: Local Recruiting Blog for Kansas City
SeattleRecruiting.com: Local Recruiting Blog for Seattle, WA
Brandstorming: The actual URL of this blog, currently redirected to this page. (Designed by Durbin Media)
BlogCaseStudies.com: A site dedicated to helping blog consultants with case studies of successful small business blogging.

Durbin Media Group Clients

Storkcalling.com (site redesign coming) An automated birth announcement service for expectant mothers. Great as a baby shower gift.
Storkcalling Blog: A mommy blog that talks about pregnancy and infants.
MarketingHeadhunter.com: Harry Joiner's recruiting site - site design coming in Spring 2007.
TheWinningPitch: Sue Wetzel's PR Firm. This is a hybrid blog/website entirely powered by Typepad, including her directory of products. (Designed by Durbin Media)
The Winning Pitch Blog: Franki has been writing the Winning Pitch blog about products, pr, and women's fashion. (Designed by Durbin Media)
MNHeadhunter.com: Paul DeBettignies, whose firm Nerd Search is powered in part by his blogging prowess. Five blogs in one. (Designed by Durbin Media)
Groupcast.com: Groupcast Messaging Systems. Working as their outsourced marketing arm.
SchoolReach.com: An automated parental notification service for school administrators.
KomanGroup.com: Clients when company was Franki Durbin Interactive.
Group360.com: Client when company was Franki Durbin Interactive
EliteIT Services Blog: A Forward thinking IT Consulting Firm run by Sandy and Rob Hubert.
Cogno.com blog: St Louis based Cogno offers award-winning games and books that teach children about science.
DryMax Golf: Client when company was Franki Durbin Interactive

The next question, is Are You On The List? (yes, we're Heroes Fans).

Now Where Do I Put This Quarter? Oh....

The best of the best will strut their stuff two Sundays from now. Blood, sweat and tears and a year of strategic work will take the pros to the moment they've waited for their whole lives: the SuperBowl commercials. Yes, I'm talking about the advertisers and marketing gurus who create those spots we'll be praying are worthy of note, not the ballers like Peyton Manning.

But before the big day we'll feature less recognizable creativity. Shining light on small ways big minds are coming up with new ways to surprise us daily.

Take for example these outdoor ads brought to our attention by Twenty Four. Some are just odd, others would likely be banned in the US for being too edgy (which is just a shame, as this is my personal favorite). Either way, when faced with one of these ads, you'll think for a moment before you blindly insert your cash money into the slot.

Charter Cable Update: The $.32 Fiasco

I just got off the phone with a Charter Communications Rep, curious why my appointment didn't show this morning. This is one of those stories that won't shock you, but here goes. We get out Cable and High-Speed access through Charter.

Yesterday, I called to schedule service because we haven't received our premium channels for two weeks. I reached two overseas call center reps, the first time being disconnected, and the second time getting a scheduled service call for today from 8-12. That technician never showed up.

1) My first attempt to get through the system sent me to Telephone Billing.
2) After a transfer, I spoke to an account representative who told me that no service call had been scheduled. After further discovery, she said the reason our premium channels weren't showing up was we had a $.32 past due balance on our statement.

I explained that I was getting premium channels in the bedroom, but not in the living room, so I doubted that was the case, and as for the missing service call I scheduled yesterday, they said they had no record of speaking to us since August 2005. So my time spent with the overseas call center last night equaled one hang-up and one wasted phone call as Charter didn't seem to have a record for it.

But we're not here to talk about outsourcing customer service, so let me continue.

That $.32 past due balance? I had to pay it before they could schedule a service call, but I know there is a charge for processing a credit card over the phone, and despite her claims that the fee would be waived, I didn't think I could trust her at this point.

I had a solution - cancel my premium channels (that I wasn't getting). I wasn't trying to play hardball - I just didn't want to waste more time and we don't watch them much anyway (although I would miss Rome - it does come out on DVD). She didn't want that to happen, but she couldn't schedule the call until the 32 cents was paid. The charge to Charter for taking a credit card payment over the phone is at least 40 cents. They literally lost money asking me to pay an overdue balance of 32 cents on a client who regularly overpays his account.

I wanted a technician out today - so I agreed. I gave her my card number (she said they didn't need my name, even though the name on the account is my wife's, and it was her name before we were married. She kept calling me by the wrong name, even after three corrections).

As it turns out, no technician was available until Saturday, when I won't be here - I have to wait until Monday, but they finally scheduled something.

To top off the call, she offered me wire insurance, and then wanted to upgrade my package for less than I was paying now (no more $.32 overdue!), and so the final total is about $15 less than I'm paying now. Note that I didn't threaten to leave Charter - I just wanted to kill my premium channels.

So now we're waiting for a technician, who is supposed to give us a service charge for the time we haven't had our movie channels. And what was a curiousity before about whether or not Charter's phone system is tricking customers into unplugging their cable box, is now a long double post about bad customer service with Charter Cable.

I'll be waiting for my phone call. And no I don't want the Charter Phone service. But I would like it if BBC America was available.

Is Charter Pulling A Fast One In Tech Support?

Charter Communications is our cable company. We get our cable, premium channels (boy, was Rome good last night), and cable modem all bundled up for about $120 a month. We've had some problems with the premium services and our new TiVo unit, but that's to be expected, and a technician is coming out to help us today between 8-12.

Charter is a local company, and we don't want to bash it. In fact, Franki says that she has never had a problem with Charter and they are 100% in her eyes. Of course, she hasn't had to negotiate their phone system to get help (they outsource tech support to India). I recently went through that process, and it had the same problems much outsourced work does - a long, detailed automatic system, then a scratchy connection, and of course, after 15 minutes on the phone, I was disconnected from my helpful Indian friend and had to call back. As an American Consumer, I've learned to put up with these minor inconveniences.

As I called back, something strange happened, and I want to be clear about what happened before I make a false statement.

You call the Charter customer service number. that's 1-800-211-4450. Following the prompts, you let the system know you have a problem with your cable, and it involves not receiving premium channels.

The automated voice on the line says they are going to walk you through the process of restarting your cable box before you talk to a live operator. They ask you to turn off your cable box, and unplug it from the wall, so that they can make some changes on their end. You dutifully turn off the power, unplug the cord, wait a few moments, then plug the cable box back in.

At this point, you're quite aware of what's going on. Turning off computers and unplugging them is standard tech support. We all know to do it. But Charter takes it a step further. The automated voice claims it is resetting your account from their computers. That sounds reasonable, but there's one problem.

When you call in, how do they know which cable box is yours?

I called from my Vonage phone, which Charter does not have the number to. I entered the Vonage phone as my number, which Charter does not have. I know this, because when I gave my number to the 1st Indian operator, he couldn't look up my system. I had to give him my wife's cell phone number to access the account.

So what exactly was Charter doing when it said it was resetting my cable box? Is this just an elaborate ruse to convince people to go through the motions of unplugging their cable box? When I called back, I raced through the prompts, ignoring the instructions to unplug the box this time, and nothing happened. This isn't conclusive proof, but it made me a bit dubious that anything was being done.

Possible explanations:
1) Entering your phone number really does allow them to reset your cable box, but entering a false or different phone number than they have on file confuses their system, but it makes a good faith effort

2) Resetting the cable box works in a lot of cases, so they came up with the "extra effort on their side" to make sure people went through the system.

If it is option 2, I don't know whether to clap in surprise or boo in disgust. I'll go through the system again and record the actual conversation, then report the results to you later.

Home Again

After just a few short days, we are back at home with power. How fortunate we feel. I thought this image expressed our feelings perfectly.

Has Tiffany Lost Its Luster?

When we visited Rome, it was amazing how easy it was to purchase counterfeit items throughout the city. Not from stores, but from vendors who spread their wares out on blankets or in booths that could be folded up in a moments notice. This was especially abundant Spanish Steps area. If you're not familiar with Rome, this is the center of luxury shopping in the city. Dior, Tiffany, Prada and other luxury brands all have storefronts in this world class shopping district. So it was interesting to see so many people selling low cost versions (poor quality ones, I might add) in the area.

Want a Gucci bag? Try the corner booth. Looking for Fendi sunglasses? Check the stall down the street. People buying fake luxury goods are (in most cases) doing so to impress others and probably can't or won't spend the amount needed to buy legitimate luxury items. But here's the catch: it is illegal to buy these items, and if caught you will be fined $3000 euro. That was about $4000 USD last October. So the tourists who took the risk of buying fake Fendi sunglasses from "mobile merchants" like these could be fined an amount higher than the cost of bucking up to buy a pair of legitimate Fendi shades. But based upon the number of fake items (and busy vendors) we spotted, the fine was not enough of a deterrent to keep shoppers from snatching up the phony goods.

Why does it matter? In our brand-conscious world, the abundance of counterfeit goods lowers the public perception of the luxury brands themselves. If it appears every teenager you see at the mall can afford a Louis Vuitton bag, why would you want to shell out your hard-earned money for one? What was once a status symbol has become ubiquitous. Commonplace. And who wants to pay good money for commonplace? This is precisely what has happened to the Tiffany brand in recent years.

Once the epitome of class and wealth, Tiffany has become so common (and so often copied) that the company has lost much of its cache with the upper class. The popularity of their sterling silver necklaces and bracelets actually caused problems with overcrowding in many suburban stores. The result? More established customers felt the reputation of the brand had become watered down. The other side of this issue was that Tiffany & Co. became dependent on the revenue brought in by the younger teen demographic. Now it is risking profits to correct the trend and bring the brand back to its former status.

The bottom line? Sometimes others dilute your brand worth by generating lower quality, lower cost versions. (Maybe it's a competing plumber with no experience but lower prices.) At other times the loss of brand stature is self-inflicted. (Say, when the more experienced plumber lowers his prices to compete with the novice. Savvy customers might feel his "too low" prices indicate poor quality of work or lack of experience.) Either way, it's always an uphill battle to revive public perception of your products and services - your brand. So before you buy that "Larry" Vuitton handbag (or worse yet, start manufacturing them to lure a new market), take a moment to think of the implication it can have on the brand in question. Pennies earned or saved today could end up costing you big dollars in the future.

Blogger Gets $100,000 Sponsorship Deal

For those keeping score on such things, Joel Cheesman, an Employment SEO guru, has just announced a sponsorship of his blog, Cheezhead.

JobCentral, a career site and job board, is the sponsor, and the deal is for $200,000 over two years.

In a meeting of the minds, we came up with a deal for 2 years worth $100,000 that would make JobCentral the featured sponsor of the site. For their support, Cheezhead will provide a myriad of ways to build their brand without creating intrusiveness for visitors, such as their logo in the header.

That's not chump change, and considering Joel's track record in bringing publicity, advertising, and SEO rankings to his clients, it's a good deal for JobCentral.

So what's the moral of this story? If you're a blogger, spend time developing your reputation in your market niche. Build your name, contribute to the community, and when the time comes, rather than putting search ads on your sidebars, consider corporate sponsors.

If you're a company, and you're a bit nervous about getting into blogging, consider sponsorship as a way to learn and benefit from business blogging without having to do the dirty work of writing and having legal parse your words.

Great job, Joel. Let's get this story out to bloggers and marketers as fast as possible.

Small Niche Sites Better For Advertisers

Anyone who has sat down with me in the last six months knows creating a St Louis Blog Ad network of sites is foremost on my mind. I truly believe that local search is going to be a big deal, and thus the growth of local blogs with small, committed audiences is going to be a big market for someone (might as well be me, eh?).

That progress has been impeded by traditional web advertising, where the number of eyeballs still dominates the discussion. Sites with less than a thousand unique visitors a day just aren't making much money, and with global search engine traffic, it is difficult to assess how many local readers a particular site has.

As advertisers get more savvy, they are starting to get that 100 committed eyeballs is better than 10,000 random web searches. As PPC campaigns fail for all but the most sophisticated online advertising companies (think Sony, Osh Kosh, high-end home improvement), advertisers will turn to the smaller, local business blogs for advertising. At least that's what I'm banking on.

Well, the first leak in the dam has sprung. eMarketer reports today that smaller, niche sites with less than a million monthly uniques do a better job holding the attention of readers than sites with higher traffic.

Interest in the products and brands advertised on smaller sites is greater than on larger sites: According to the study, 42% of sites with less than one million unique visitors a month advertise products of interest to their viewers, vs. 39% of sites with more than one million visitors.

This is just a small percentage, and it still applies in amounts much larger than all but a handful of blogs receive (local blogs are still in the 100-1000 range), but the recognition is what is important. What would a handful of local blogs do for advertising traffic to car dealers, retail stores, restaurants, hair salons, and employment? If you're looking to advertise locally, do you pick a site that has your home city in the name, or do you shoot for the entire web?

What makes more sense? Niche sites are a long way off from grabbing market share, but with real estate communities making the charge, and more business bloggers focusing on their local market, I see a profitable niche, for local niches.

By the way, y'all know I write StlRecruiting.com, where I help chronicle local business blogs for St Louis, right?

Power Outage HIts Chestefield - 28% without power

Day Two of the Power Outage. Luckily it's on a Sunday, so work isn't affected, and we've had the foresight to plan out our working conditions for next week, so clients don't worry, although you should reach us on our cell phones, not our home phone.

Day One was exciting - a bit of an adventure as we coped with no power. We read, lit candles, prepared batteries and the food on our gas grill, and put on an extra sweater for the cold.

Day Two, the temperature in the condo dropped to 60 degrees, and now we're wondering how much colder it will get.

Through it all, I don't blame Ameren - in fact, I have an idea for a consumer blog for them. They've been getting a lot of blame for power losses and a rate hike, but clearly it would seem a rate hike is in order.

Personally, we have high spirits, and we are grateful for our neighbors. Everyone checked in on everyone else, and there's that Midwest attitude of getting by. I think we're just in an area that gets how lucky we are, a few days, even a week without power is a chance to reflect on how good we really have it in this country. After all, this is rare.

Our prayers go out to the Ameren workers toiling in dangerous conditions.

SOON.

Let's get this out of the way. Jim and I are addicted to spicy foods. More specifically, tasty foods with an alarming amount of heat built in for good measure. We put a variety of hot sauces and spices in our morning omelettes. We pan fry everything from tilapia to tenderloin with Smoked Chipotle Tobasco. And we'd put hot sauce on our cereal if we thought it would taste good. (It doesn't.)

So when we travel we always go out of our way to eat at our favorite eat-and-run establishment that guarantees the right amount of kick: Chipotle. If you haven't been blessed enough to enjoy them, Chipotle serves up enormous gourmet burritos and tacos. They are, in fact, the home of the one pound burrito. The chain and their associated marketing campaigns are irresistibly fun and inviting. They focus on building genuine enthusiasm around eating their fresh and (you guessed it) spicy burritos.

Now, a mere mile from our home, looms a storefront with the most provocative promise displayed over its door. It simply states "SOON." Soon. To strangers this means nothing. To those who know and love the brand, it means everything.

Chipotle's award-winning marketing has always been written for and by insiders. They work with TDA to build the edgy, often controversial, brand personality. What TDA 'gets' is that Chipotle loves its customers as much as those customers love Chipotle. The contests, the billboards, the 'Honest Ingredients' campaign - they are all unapologetically for the fan base. This irreverent approach to winning business is working very well for the brand.

Profits and publicity aside, we're anxiously awaiting our nearby location to open. In the meantime, we'll have a little fun watching this commercial that pays homage (or disrespect, depending upon your point of view) to the classic "lets all go to the lobby" spots played in movie theaters. Until those doors wing open, Jim and I will be focused on a single promising message: SOON.

Storkcalling.com and the Storkcalling Blog

One of our clients is the Birth Announcement Service, StorkCalling.com. This very cool service is an automated phone dialer that parents can use to notify friends and family in a convenient manner after the birth of the child.

It works great as a baby shower gift, a birth gift, and we find a very high return rate on users for their next child.

It works like this:
1) You buy a StorkCalling.com package for $24.95 (Credit Cards Accepted).
2) You build up a list of phone contacts of friend and family (a secure and confidential list only you have access too)
3) When the baby is born, you call a toll free number and record your birth announcement.
4) StorkCalling dials up to 50 contacts and leaves your announcement instantaneously.
5) The parents have a chance to relax and call people later when they are more settled in.

The service is part of the Groupcast family of sites, and they were using a PPC campaign that wasn't yielding results. To help market the service, we've built and now write for the Storkcalling.com Blog. The Storkcalling Blog is written by me (Jim) and my sister (Charlotte). I write about other mommy blogs, and my sister writes about what to expect when you're expecting. We try to connect with the growing community of Mommy Blogs to help market our service at the same time we provide good information and help market other Mommy Blogs.

The transaction is secure. The contacts are private, and it's a nice gift. Just make sure you drop me a note if you recommend the site to someone. And if you're a Mommy Blog, please let us know and we'll link you.

And if you're just looking to get into our good graces or want to interview us on how we're approaching the site, well, that would just be peaches.

Simple Is the New Black

We're blog marketing consultants - or at least that's the major part of my contribution to the interactive marketing firm Franki and I run.

What exactly is blog marketing? It's the application of simple principles over and over and over.

Step 1: Start a Blog
Step 2: Read Lots of Other Blogs
Step 3: Write good posts and connect with your Target community.

That's it. Perform Step 2 and Step 3. Rinse and Repeat. The simplicity of what we do is often hard to explain, because most people don't believe that something as simple as reading blogs can make a difference in their sales revenue, brand, or recruiting efforts.

There is more to social media then reading and writing, but I see far too many companies stretching to gather benefit from social networks before they put in the hard work it takes to create that network. In their desire to wring profit out of a community, they skip the basic steps and then are disappointed with the results.

I have a theory about MySpace and why it took off. It wasn't the fabulous technology or the spam abilities of the founder or some massive advertising blitz. It was the simplicity of the platform. Anyone can set up a MySpace account, and gathering friends and posting pictures and video is so easy, that everyone wants to do it.

Complicated sign-ins, long user agreements, and cool, but sophisticated technology would have stunted the site's growth. But simple design, simple connections, and the ability to share led to the network effect most communities are seeking.

So when you're looking at new media - keep that in mind. Simplicity. The Basics. That's the magic formula.

St Louis Business Blog Help

St Louis Business Bloggers held their January meeting on Friday. This is a small group of business bloggers who get together to trade links and talk about how the use blogs to improve their business.

Thanks to the Kaldi's Coffee in Chesterfield, who was kind enough to let us use their back room. This is the list of the St Louis bloggers who attended.

Matthew Porter - CEO of Contegix and experienced blogger
Mike Tiffany - Recruiting Manager for Chameleonis.
Jason Christian- Owner of Career Center STL, a St Louis Job board.
Franki Durbin - Durbin Media Group - Blogging Evangelist
Jim Durbin - Durbin Media Group

Two other paticipants were there, Lisa Levy from Chameleonis, and Katy Sommer from Xiolink.

The February meeting will be 7:00-7:45 on the first Friday in February.

Who Stole My Red Stapler?

It's been hard to read lately without running into resolutions and goals for the new year. Some of them are incredibly inspiring, like Pamela's 12 ways to feel more free in '07. But it's Friday and, I'll admit, it's been a long four days back at work. So to kick off the weekend right I just had to share this "uplifting" plan to have more fun at work this year. You heard that right, more fun.

The Squidoo lens of the day featured office pranks. Kab has put together a nice compilation of ideas and examples of ways to keep your coworkers on their toes. I've only worked in a few offices with the right temperament for jokes like these. And although I'm in an office of only two these days, it's fun to think back on some of the pranks played in previous environments. We used to call them "team building exercises" if memory serves me correctly. (At least that's what we told the managers.)

Here are just a few ideas from the Squidoo lens to lighten the load at your office:

• Switch the nameplates from all desks and doors.
• Each day move a co-workers desk an inch.
• Move everything off someone's desk and into the office fridge.
• Replace photos of friends and family with that of say Scott Baio, Eugene Levy, Drew Carey, William Shatner, or The New Kids on the Block. Also set their screen saver to a slideshow of these photos.
• Drop a rubber duckie into the watercooler when you are changing the bottle.
• Remove the ink from every one of their pens.
• Open a container of lice powder, and leave it in the bathroom. Say nothing to anyone. Panic will slowly rise.
• Install the clapper on something (anything)

Those are subtle. If you're looking for drama, I like the Chia keyboard above or the classic foil wrapped / popcorn filled cube routine. Done well these are true showstoppers. Either way, you're bound to shake things up a bit. Go on, have a little fun this year.

Day 3 of the New Wall Street. Verdict: Change Is Good.

It's true. I love the new format of the WSJ. It is perfect for a skimmer like myself seeking bold headlines, chunked content and "how to sound like you've read it" summaries. I can eyeball a lengthy article to determine if it's worth reading in its entirety. If not, I at least get the benefit of mild awareness of the topic if it comes up later. So from this reader's perspective, the redesign was a terrific success in tailoring the product to meet unmet neds of the end user. Moi.

Good design is no accident. It takes planning and experience to execute it well. But if often goes unoticed. The dark side of design is that it is difficult for humans to spot good design due to its very nature. If an item is in the right spot, or perfectly sized we simply use (or read it or turn it) it and move on. But bad design? We can spot it a mile away. And anyone who's ever gotten into a late model Saab and wondered why the cupholder resides in its current spot will attest: bad design is all around us and easy to spot.

To that end, Mark Hurst has long run one of my favorite web sites: thisisbroken.com. Mark's blog is a place for people to send in faulty interfaces, devices, signs and other communication tools that are poorly thought out. Don't miss the "barricade for the blind" someone spotted at Cornell, or this contradictory "no smoking" sign spotted above. It shows us how small errors can lead to broader confusion or loss fo function. In Mark's words thisisbroken.com is "A project to make businesses more aware of their customer experience, and how to fix it."

On handwritten notes or temporary displays, a typo of lack of planning can be funny. But when it comes to newspapers, city street signs and devices, we come to rely on good design to make our lives easier. We trust these sources. We may not notice a typo, but we can't ignore a child car seat that doesn't fit securely or contradictory instructions on a medicine bottle.

In the case of the WSJ, I give them two thumbs up for keeping their readers in mind and fixing what was 'broken' for a while. It is clear they thought about their audience and took time to focus on the details others might have overlooked. I'm guessing the redesign might even meet Mark's exacting standards.

In With The New: Thoughts on Design

The holiday break brought with it the passing of several historical figures. The legendary James Brown. President Ford. And closer to home we lost an old friend as well: the classic design of the Wall Street Journal. Today marks the beginning of a new era for the iconic newspaper. Our morning paper came with a new look, a new mission and a new format. Incredibly, it even came witha new font designed specifically for its printed pages.

I miss my old friend already, but as a designer I understand the need for the evolution of interfaces. Be they print or electronic. Communication needs change. The impetus for change is never (never) that the design team needed something to work on that year. Life and the new practices and tools we adopt are the catalyst for change.

New features are being added to magazines, blogs, web sites, newspapers at a dizzying rate. Over time, these changes erode the original design and intent of the medium. Those miniscule modifications eventually destroy the usability of the tool. In the case of the WSJ, the "page jump" became some cruel version of an Easter egg hunt ("where is the rest of that article I was reading?..."). Classic sections took on awkward new roles to meet reader demand. Up to the minute information became available to us everywhere at every hour, rendering most publications useless or redundant - unless they could offer more. And they have.

The Journal isn't alone. Magazines have been morphing in front of us for years. Offering enhanced content and coverage to readers via complementary web sites and online features. And while change can be hard for readers to appreciate, the methodology and research that goes into redesigns is generally quite extensive. (The WSJ has been working on the new design for about two years and based the need for changes on generous feedback from readers.)

I sat back this morning grumbling, rejecting the new layout of my favourite paper. Even going so far as to say I'd like to switch to the online version to avoid reading the new version. A sorry replacement for my trusty old paper (embarassingly, this rant went on for a while). But then it hit me. I've been involved the the redesign process on dozens of eCommerce storefronts, web applications and web sites. It goes with the territory that we as an audience resist change. We are frustrated when we have to learn a new system or pattern. We reject the new ideas of a committee who "had our best interests" in mind. It is part of being human.

But after reading Mario R. Garcia's The Relevance of Good Design (page 8 of PDF), I realized that the journal hasn't really changed. We've changed as readers and are forcing the paper to adapt. And although I'll miss my ultra-wide morning paper with classic typefaces and clumsy reading pattern, it looks like some of the new features will be fun (yes, I admit it) and make my daily read a bit easier. And with that, I hope you all allow yourselves to embrace change in the coming year. You never know what great discoveries it might bring.