But I was left wondering where this device would “fit” in my life. It’s not a replacement for my phone. It doesn’t replace my laptop which I use for typical office work: Excel, Word, Photoshop, etc. And I can’t use public transportation (train or subway) to commute to work so I don’t have time to kill to play games, read magazines or books. So what is this thing?

Then it hit me: I could really enjoy an iPad in my kitchen. I never realized how much time our family spends in the kitchen. Like it our not, it’s the one room in my house where I “pivot” off throughout the day. I don’t particularly enjoy my kitchen — it’s a functional place where I HAVE to be doing food prep and clean-up, day-after-day. Rinse and repeat, literally. And while I’d enjoy some light entertainment in the kitchen, I’m not risking water/crumb damage to my laptop; plus, you have to tap keys and finger the trackpad which are no-no’s with dishpan hands. It’s just not right.

BUT, an iPad is different. It’s small and wouldn’t take up much countertop space. It doesn’t use keys and can be operated with a simple touch or swipe. I could listen to music, catch-up on Podcasts, passively watch some videos and the flip over to read Facebook posts or Twitter feeds. I’d use the iPad as a catch-as-catch-may entertainment device for quick snippets of content in between kitchen chores.

The iPad calendar system would also be a handy family organizer to keep track of after school activities, lessons, meetings, appointments, etc. A daily pop-up reminder would nice.

I’d love an app that offered video cooking lessons and recipes, especially for niches like “gluten free” recipes. Having it compile shopping lists for me based on the necessary ingredients would be sweet.

Face it, it’d be fun to work on an iPad crossword/Sudoku puzzle for a few minutes while you’re waiting for pizza to cook. Plus you could easily skim the day’s news and check school closings due to weather all while brewing your coffee. And, of course, while the kids eat their cereal, I could get a jump on the day’s email without leaving the room.

Now don’t get me wrong. I know all these things can be done on other devices including plain ol’ newspaper radio and TV, but it’s the all-in-one, instant availability and ease-of-use that’s enticing. And no, I don’t need a computer in every room of my house. But you must admit, the kitchen is a “work room” for most families. So if there’s a way to make it more productive and enjoyable, I’ll definitely consider it.

What do you think?

First up is ClevelandIdeas.com — a social media project conceived, developed, self-financed, promoted and maintained by the good folks at DigiKnow, Inc.

Per the ClevelandIdeas.com website, DigiKnow is sick and tired of negativity. And they’re looking to use the “Wisdom of Crowds” to generate good ideas that might be used to make Cleveland and the region stronger in the future. I interviewed King Hill (President/Principal) and Scott Chapin (Director of Consulting Services) with the following questions:

1) How did you conceive of ClevelandIdeas.com and what inspired you to invest so much into the program?

We decided that in 2009 we needed to increase our awareness locally, so in March, we created an open contest to the staff to generate a campaign/marcom idea for DigiKnow in 2009. The results of this were several strong ideas that were integrated into our “We Know” tagline. Since our theme was centered around knowledge, we came up with the idea of using the wisdom of crowds to help Cleveland brainstorm ideas.

2) What’s the primary platform that powers ClevelandIdeas.com? What unique features does it allow?

The website is built on the open-source Pligg platform that functions much like Digg or the SalesForce application that Dell’s IdeaStorm and myStarbucksIdea.com are built on. The system allows users to register and submit ideas/comments and allows any visitors to vote, pushing them up/down the list accordingly.

3) What other social media channels are you using to support or supplement the program?

Twitter was our primary social media channel to drive awareness of our efforts. We built a script that identified all of the local twitterers in the Cleveland market and followed the top 1000 users. We tweeted any interesting activities on the site as well as general activities relevant to our Cleveland audience. Facebook and LinkedIn pages/groups were also setup but were not heavily promoted. Several lively discussions developed in LinkedIn surrounding our overall concept and the need to generate ideas for Cleveland.

4) What cross channel marketing support have you used to drive awareness and participation?

The website was promoted through traditional media including radio and outdoor, through PR in local newspapers, radio and TV in addition to the social media promotion via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

5) What’s been the most surprising result or lesson learned thus far?

There have been several interesting results from this campaign. The most profound is the balance of traffic that was generated by social media, advertising and PR. Attributing website traffic as best as possible, there was a relatively even mix between these three marketing channels. The engagement of visitors was another surprise. The average time on site was 5 minutes, but more surprisingly, the average for visitors that submitted an idea was 25 minutes.

Results after 5-weeks:

• 293 ideas
• 1,885 votes
• 501 comments

6) What actionable results or intelligence have been discovered?

By controlling all of the pieces of this marketing puzzle and having full data on the site activities, we were able to see which activities we did triggered what level of response. Within this Petri dish, we were able to tweak relatively small activities and see the results. A good example of this was inviting people to follow us on Twitter. In each round of following, we got about a 50-60% follow back rate and an obvious spike in visitors to the website.

7) How will you measure the success of ClevelandIdeas.com – for the City of Cleveland and/or DigiKnow?

Our goal is not only to get the best ideas into the hands of local leaders, but to help push them to happen. Success in that sense will be to have an idea from the site become a reality and benefit the city. From DigiKnow’s standpoint, in addition to helping the city, the awareness created and the positive feedback we have already received makes this campaign a success for us.

Here are 5 THEN vs. NOW Observations

1 – Hesitation to Give Employees Access to Customers

(1995) “We can’t let our employees use email — it’s not considered official and we can’t control what they say. They’ll just gossip all day with their friends and relatives. Plus, our customers prefer telephone to email anyway.”
(2009) “We can’t control what people say about our company/brand in social media. We discourage our employees from talking about our company on Facebook and Twitter as they’re not part of our official communications department. Plus, our customers aren’t using social media anyway.”

2 – Only Young People Use It

(1995) “Email and the Web are only for academics, engineers and teenage boys searching for porn. Normal business people don’t use it, especially if they’re over 40 years old.”
(2009) “Social media is only for college kids and recent graduates. Normal business people don’t use it, especially if they’re over 40 years old.”

3 – I Don’t Have Enough Time
(1995) “People waste hours of time online talking to strangers they’ll never meet. They get addicted and ignore the real people in their life. I have real work to do and can’t be bothered.”
(2009) “I don’t care about what you had for lunch. Why should I Twitter with strangers and read blog comments? I don’t have enough time in the real world let alone the virtual one.”

4 – I Can’t Make Enough Money On It
(1995) “I’m not wasting my agency/organizations time learning about the Internet when there’s so little money to be made. I’m going to wait until a clear path to revenue has been established.”
(2009) “I can’t justify investing in a social media program unless you can prove an ROI. I’m going to wait until industry standard success metrics and money making formulas are established so I can sell this to my boss.”

5 – I Don’t Know How to Measure It
(1995) “I have no idea who is visiting my website and what they’re doing. Visits? Hits? Time on Site? And how does any of this help me improve my business?”
(2009) “Who is watching my YouTube videos? How can I get more Twitter followers? What’s the value of a view, comment, re-tweets and friend? And how does all this activity improve my business?”

Mind you, there’s a degree of truth to every comment – both then and now. My takeaway lesson is that when it comes to change, it’s good to not only reflect on where we’ve been, but also the vibe/climate that existed at that time. It might feel strangely familiar which gives you perspective on the challenges of today and the opportunities of tomorrow.

You can’t do it all with social media. There, I said it. I know marketing budgets have been slashed and management is clamoring to use those free, newfangled Web 2.0 tools. But you can’t turn to social media to save the day. It sucks, I know.

Social media is a slow build. Blog and Twitter page don’t just “go viral” before your eyes. It’s more like planting a seed, fertilizing it and tending to it carefully over time. The more you support it with complementary traditional advertising, the better the odds on it taking root and blossoming. Cross channel marketing of social media initiatives is extremely helpful, but easily overlooked, especially during tough economic times. Remember the Subservient Chicken campaign by Burger King? Yah, it was supported by a national television advertising campaign whose cost were certainly NOT chicken feed. They spent a few hundred grand on a cool Web site/social media initiative, but then invested several million dollars in advertising to support it. Very important point not to forget.

Or how about Barack Obama’s presidential campaign that set a new standard of excellence for grassroots, Internet marketing — seemingly deploying every social media channel available. According to BusinessInsider.com Obama’s spend on the internet was a surprisingly low $8 million. That’s just 3% compared to the $245 million he spent on television advertising. Clearly he wouldn’t have spent such a colossal some on television if it wasn’t necessary.

Change doesn’t have to be light-switch proposition. Start a social media initiative today, but be sure to make sure it’s “on brand” and supported by complementary advertising/public relations. Over time (months or years), transition money from the traditional media budget into the social media campaign itself, but only after it has sprouted and is displaying positive signs of growth. Abandoning a social media campaign to survive on its own does nothing more than waste your time/money and seal its fate as a failure.

Sincerely,

Gary

I love the idea of making events (be they presidential debates, the inauguration or athletic events) a communal experience.  

The only thing TNT could do better would to give people the option to select from a list of various audio commentaries: comedian (Chris Rock), coach (Bill Walton), legend (Kareem Abdul Jabbar), musician/actor (Jamie Foxx), international experts, etc. C’mon, this would be fun.  Imagine a watching The Masters golf tournament with Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog doing the commentary.  I’d pay for that!

Click Here For Demo Video

Also noteworthy, this the first time Facebook has outranked MySpace.  A sign of things to come?

We’ve been spending a lot of time together recently.  I think we should finally open up and be honest.  While I love so much about you, you drive me crazy. And here’s why…

Over the past 13 years working in web development, I’ve planned and managed over 50 large, content management system/database driven websites. If one of my projects ended up with your usability, my ass would’ve been fired long ago.

Your interface screams classic Unix developer.  It’s clean and things are organized, it’s not intuitive, logical or friendly for ordinary people.  Being with you is too much damn work.

You need an extreme makeover.  Hire some former Apple designers who understand how to use colors, space, gradients, fonts and titles for normal human beings.  How can your iPhone application be easier and nicer than your website?  Maybe simplicity is the key.  I’m overwhelmed by ALL the options that are available ALL the time.

We’ll chat more later.

XXOO,

Gary

Social media systems offer amazing new ways for people to connect, share and collaborate.  Many of these I simply can’t live without.  But for as much as I heart shiny Web 2.0 icons, the actual page structures and visual organization of social media sites drive me crazy.  They’re hurting my ability to convince intelligent people that indeed these sites DO have value once you get past their eclectic, glossy mish-mash of logos and gradients.  I think many people (especially above the age of 40 who, not by coincidence, make a majority of an organization’s spending & strategic decisions) see these sites we love as jumbled, overwhelming messes and simply give-up.

In the “old” days of Web 1.0, smart web developers followed the mantra: Form follows function.  Anything displayed on a web page was, in theory, to help the user most efficiently use the website.  Except for the turds who made all their money on banner ads and made you click through unnecessary levels of Dante’s hell.  Page designs and navigation used to be based on the prioritization of information; graphics were used to help visually coach a person though your website.  This became especially important in the late 1990’s when search engines linked people deep into your website instead of conveniently dropping them off at the front door (homepage).  Knowing this, we had to create navigation and page labels that were intuitively obvious.  The goal? Anyone could immediately determine where they were on a site at any time.  To me, the greatest compliment was “this site was SO easy to use, I found exactly what I wanted.”

Fast forward 10 years to 2008.  Facebook has over 70-million users yet their “new and improved” interface is underwhelming at best. The visual hierarchy sort’ve makes sense to users already familiar with the system; the untold number of icons/buttons/flair mean something if you take the time to learn.  But to new users, the interface is unwelcoming and cumbersome.

Social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr (to name but a few at the tip of the iceberg) are  popular because they showcase user submitted materials.  The spirt is free form — I get that.  But the site architecture, design and resulting navigation need to be more structured and obvious.  People are too busy to play Where’s Waldo when they click into a website.

Usability experts must be absolutely licking their chops right now.  There’s so much work to be done and so much potential to make these popular sites even better.  Done correctly, good usability blends into the background of the user experience.  People know where they are, where to click and what to do.  It’s comfortable to them.  They feel at home.  If you’re building a community, isn’t it all about building one home at a time?

Until then, I’ll continue my digital gold panning through the muck and muddy waters with the hope that I’ll find the mother lode:  a site that marries technology and design so seamlessly that I know where to go and what to do at all times.