The Silver Lining to the Coming FTC Changes

By now (mid-November) you may have read some of the bubbling commentary about the sweeping new FTC guidelines on endorsements and testimonials which take effect December 1st, 2009.

Much of what I've read is legal counsel, that this will affect all online and offline marketing, since:

1. Fines for violation run up to $11,000 per incident.
2. This is the first update of those regulations since 1980, when "disco" was in vogue -- a year before IBM launched the first PC (with DOS and no hard drive).
3. US law tends to overshadow other western countries.

Paul's summary of these changes could be the most abbreviated you'll ever read :)

• Testimonials may no longer be AMAZING with a your-results-may-vary disclaimer. They must reflect typical results.
• Endorsements from bloggers, sites belonging to network marketers, and links embedded by affiliate marketers (where money is made by the reader clicking) must be labelled as such.

The good news for all consumers is that the new rules raise the bar on transparency, which is a good thing for all of us as consumers. Labelling standards will evolve with case law, making our job as businesses and marketers.

One resource I have found helpful in that regard is Denise Goswell, a lawyer who was recommended strongly to me by a colleague. She has a short video and great assemblage of legalese (note to self, trademark that term!) I feel is quite helpful to anyone offering products or services today!

Watch it by clicking here. [This is an affiliate link, meaning that, like real estate brokers, I'll receive a few bucks "referral" if you buy anything from Denise -- voila, instant transparency!]

So... where's that promised silver lining??

How would a business learn what "typical results" are? Naturally, one must ask customers -- what a great reason to establish deeper channels of communication with clients than ever before!

I hope this opens your eyes to seizing the opportunity, rather than feeling constrained by regulations :)

Test: assets, assets everywhere!

[This Domain For Sale]

In working with a client with some fantastic technology for making products and web pages more findable through search (see AnswerOil) I came across a competitor who reminded me of the carnal sin of recycling old web pages/domains.

Specifically, after going through their second rebrand in 3 years, I found that a competitor of theirs abandoned their 2nd URL, www.Guidester.com.

Someone in the marketing department (perhaps IT department) decided not to point the web address at the new one, which shall go nameless. Get this -- 147,000 references to the name and 5 hardcoded links to the now-defunct URL gone.

Asset utilization tip: make sure you are taking advantage of all the domains you control!

Quick -- what do you get when you cross EQ with IT?

Growing up, you may have heard the expression, "Put yourself in the other person's shoes". The much heralded realm of Emotional Intelligence centers around this very type of empathy (the other half being self understanding).

My point today is that we always have opportunities to do this -- whether speaking to a boss, reviewing an employee, pitching a prospective customer, and on and on.

Sometimes they're "big things" and other times not. The question "are they sandals, boots, clogs, or moccasins" is a mental trigger for me to ask whether I've really imagined how the other person is experiencing our interaction.

Two great example of how this can happen every day, at a very small level, whether we're conscious or not, came to me today in playing tag to schedule a call with another businessperson.

1. He was scheduling with Outlook, and putting notes into the "email portion". I was receiving with Mac Mail, which only shows that text if I drill all the way into the calendar.
   
   Yes, it would be nice to have Apple and Microsoft get their act together -- but I think we might have better luck moving to the South Pacific the island where I live! And it's really bigger than that -- just understanding that all the different systems (Google Mail/Calendar, Blackberry, Palm Pre, iPhone, Android, ....) may or may not do things the same was as our system does.
   
   
2. More significantly, he titled his meeting request as "Updates". Now his memory may be phenomenal so that when he looks at his calendar, he thinks "Paul Travis"! But all that happens for me when I look at my calendar is to wonder, who was I supposed to have updated and how was I to have done that? It feels like an incomplete, and puts me into worry mode -- what was I thinking that I would have made such a note?
   
   My suggestion for this, on both the receiving and initiating end, is to entitle the appointment with both (a) parties involved and (b) responsibility. My standard format is "Travis calls Smith". Yes, a couple more characters than "Updates" but dramatically more helpful for both parties in recalling the discussion.

Bottom line: people are people, online or offline -- so remember to ask yourself what kind of shoes they're wearing the next time you're interacting with another person.

Travis' Second Scoop!

Following up on my hunch about guiding the airlines to the big opportunities they are missing (see July 13, 2009 blog post)...

I see that Mashable is citing a research by Wakefield and the Wi-Fi Alliance, that 76% of frequent fliers would change their airline to have Wi-Fi. 55% would change their flight by a full day to have it. And another 71% of fliers would rather have Wi-Fi access over meal service.

Now who'll validate the other hunch? :)

PS. Inquiring minds will want to know about the First Scoop, earlier this year...

One decade ago, all over again

Is anyone else's radar going off?

At the turn of the millenium, eyeballs were the metric that drove value -- not dollars -- which led to many companies to walk like zombies into the water, wishing upon a star, until they drown. Lots of money was made in the stock market, and then lots of money was lost.

Now we're seeing Twitter, Facebook, along with a gaggle of would-be's, with astronomical growth in subscribers/members/eyeballs and no clear path to profitability (ahem, one of my strong suits).

The latest to go down was www.tr.im, which like TinyURL and SnipURL, shortened long web addresses down to something easily typeable (also fit conveniently into Twitter Tweets where every character is almost 1% of your message!)

Lots of users but no revenue model...

Wake up, people -- that's an ingredient in your recipe not to forget!

[Contact me right away if you're experiencing this condition].

Getting on the Social Media Bandwagon

I gave a presentation Tuesday on the "state of the union" in Social Media to the Chamber of Commerce in Wilsonville, OR -- near Portland. (You can view the slides on my LinkedIn profile).

The conclusion? Get your toe in the water. Social Media is changing every day -- nothing has passed you by; you can still catch up.

As promised in the talk, here are the links I referenced so nobody has to burn out their favorite pen taking notes :)

• LinkedIn
• FaceBook
• Twitter
• Wikipedia
  
  
• TweetDeck
• Seesmic
• Twitter Karma
• FriendOrFollow
• Ping.FM
  
  
• WordPress
• Blogspot
  
  
• Mashable
• Go2Web20
• Inside Facebook for Retailers

Feel free to use the email link to the right to ping me f there was something I mentioned and forgot to include -- also please shoot me an email with success stories of "toe dipping"!

Another take on The Four P's

Wow... I had sensed that the new Seattle Sounders soccer team was getting traction in its first season -- but I had no clue just how well it's really doing.

Listening to Gary Wright (Sr. VP Bus. Ops. for the organization) give the lunchtime keynote at the NW Growth Financing Conference today was inspiring. He said that 67,000 people watched the game with Barcelona last night, and another recent international team drew 66,000.

They've sold 22,000 season tickets, which was a first-year target unheard of in the sport.

Gary said it is being called the most successful new franchise, not in soccer but in major league sports!

To what did he attribute this success -- a great logo, good funding, or another such secret?

He shared a completely different definition of "The Four P's" (not those that form the foundation of marketing).

1. People
2. Process
3. Product
4. Profit

Interestingly, most of the business world is headed in exactly the opposite direction, valuing profit above everything else.

In closing, Gary was quite candid that he had always dismissed soccer until getting wrapped up in it, and convinced me I have to go see what it's all about. No way will it displace my First Sport (hockey) but the Second is up for grabs :)