Even more annoying than an intro movie. Ask me for my postal code right off the bat? No way to skip around this? Sorry, rona.ca, bad idea.

For people visiting the site for the first time, you haven’t built any trust. Why should I give up a piece of myself before you show me what you have?

For returning visitors, if I just need to check on something - product, store hours, whatever, why would you throw up a roadblock like this? I’ve already committed to your company - why would you drain my goodwill reservoir like this? The rest of the site better be damn good.

This is serving you, not me. A web site, especially for a major retailer, needs to serve the customer, not themselves. There are plenty of ways to capture this information later. Entering the site is not the time to do it. Imagine if you were prevented from entering the store before you gave up this information. What would that do to your retail sales?

If you really need to look at geographical distribution, look at your server logs, or run Google Analytics. How many people are living in “A1A 1A1″?

Web Retailing 1.0 at its worst.

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So far, I’ve seen two instances of friends becoming fans of companies with a Facebook Page, and both times I’ve checked out the page because I know the friend is into really interesting things. And I discovered a really neat blog - PSFK - Ideas, Trends and Inspiration.

I know I’ve questioned the value of Facebook’s new ad program, but I’m seeing a couple of things: first, the note in my news feed is not overwhelming - it looks like any other piece of news from a friend, and this is well done. Facebook has notorious ad-blindness, but the news feeds get read. Second, the companies I’ve seen so far are small companies, not the big multinationals. And who doesn’t like to support the underdog?

We’ll see how this works out; I’m spending the next couple of weeks developing pages for three or four companies, and I’ll be talking about the process and seeing how it comes together.

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Vandelay Design has just published a collection of over 50 articles on social media, including articles StumbleUpon, Facebook, Second Life and a lot more. Check out the collection - there’s a lot of insight here. And many thanks to Vandelay for publishing three of my own articles.

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Found an interesting quote in an article in The Times Online (UK):

Social networkers go to MySpace and Facebook to chat with friends, not to champion brands. But, they do chat about the things they are most passionate about, and often that means brands, cool brands.

There is a very subtle but extremely important difference: we talk about brands in the course of a conversation but we don’t have a conversation about brands.

Products and brands come up in the flow of conversation - this is normal. But when was the last time you sat with a buddy to talk about the latest iPod? People are passionate about products - technology, music, cars, makeup, etc., and people talk about these things with their friends. However, if a “friend” (Facebook superficial acquaintance?) of mine kept pushing his product  - that was the conversation - he would not be a friend much longer.

Marketers need to figure this out, and Facebook’s new system isn’t helping.

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Over the last 16 hours or so, there has been much hue and cry over Facebook’s new ad platform. Many commentators cry “I won’t shill for Coke” or “Don’t tell me what me Facebook so-called-friends are reading”. Fine. I won’t tell you about this excellent band I just found. Do you care if I don’t tell you?

Like it or not, our real friends are our second biggest influencers, and I would not have heard about many excellent books if it wasn’t for my close friends. I appreciate these recommendations, and try to return the favour, which I also know is appreciated. If a friend fills out a widget on Blockbuster.com recommending a movie, I will pay attention.

What Facebook misses is the idea of what a friend is. Facebook gives equal weight to our close family, our closest friends (our “inner circle of advisors”), our work acquaintances and the guy with whom we were college roommates for three months. Even among our wider net of associates, certain people have different weights of authority in different areas. If I had Rob Hyndman among my friends (I don’t know him, but I like his commentary on the tech world), I would take his recommendations on books, but probably not air conditioners. And, with apologies, I really don’t care what you drink.

Facebook, I need to categorize my friends. Inner circle, friends, superficial acquaintances (you don’t need to use this terminology). If you would also give me tools so that I can specify the types of recommendations I get from my friends, I would greatly appreciate that. For example, I will take book and music recommendations from Tad, but not from my cousin. If Steve (the snappy dresser) reviews a shirt, I’m listening. Mike: tell me about the skis you are buying this year, but I don’t care for your taste in beverages.

If Facebook wants to make this “a strong trusted referral for your brand”, then I want recommendations from people I trust in certain areas, not my “Facebook friends”.

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Facebook made a range of announcements today, but the one that struck me is “Beacon”. Zuckerberg explains, quoted from TechCrunch:

Social distribution, now here is where it gets interesting. When somebody engages with your (the advertiser’s) page, that is spread virally through the network. When someone says they are a fan of your brand, that becomes a trusted referral. It goes right to their Mini feed. A strong trusted referral for your brand.

One of the issues with “Facebook friends” is that the majority are not really friends from whom a referral means anything, but a group of superficial acquaintances from whom a referral means almost as much as random review on epinions.com. I’m lucky - the vast majority of my friends (at a paltry 47) are people I trust and from whom I would probably consider a recommendation or opinion. I wonder about those with 1000 friends. Does a recommendation mean anything? Especially if 1000 people are recommending 200 different items in the same category. Who do I believe? Why would I care to sift through all this information and try to make an informed decision?

I’m thinking that this will end up like the groups: a way to align yourself with a brand, but the identification with the company (as it is with many groups) is more to brand yourself than to engage with like-minded people.

Hmmm… creating not corporate pages, but promotion pages. That would be interesting. If I saw that “Dave Walker entered the iCoke.com Untimate Nintendo Wii Contest”, that might get me interested.

I can’t wait to see how this will work, and how companies will use this, good and bad.

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Of all the things that Facebook will be announcing today, I’m most interested in the social retailing feature. David Wilson at the Social Media Optimization blog summarizes:

Facebook’s social retailing plans will allow data about Facebooker users to share their online transactions and product reviews/opinions to be shared within their social network. Marketers will also be able to plug in to the program, enabling consumer interactions such as purchases to become part of the social network.

The people looking for recommendations, and the influence of those recommendations, is huge (click here to see Deloitte’s numbers), and the ability to bring the company/marketer into these conversations is exciting, but a little dangerous. I hope this doesn’t turn into a spamfest.

The elephant has entered the room. Can’t wait to see how this one plays out.

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Some CSS, coding and design sites and articles I find useful and interesting:

• 24 Ways. 24 tips and tricks in 24 days. Done each December for the last two years, and I’m really looking forward to this year’s crop (hoping they do it…).
• CSSPlay. Lots and lots of CSS examples.
• Web 2.0 How-to Design Guide. A deconstruction of Web 2.0 design tropes. Some great ideas, and some things to avoid doing if you’re getting tired of the Web 2.0 look (Is Web 2.0 dead? Read this…) 
• Registration Usability - 87 Registration Forms Tested. An excellent look at registration form design from Get Elastic.
• Building a Bulletproof Contact Form with PHP. Clearly written, easily implemented and accessible for PHP novices. And critical for database security.

Happy Monday! Now to get my glasses fixed so I don’t have a headache by noon. Darned toddlers…

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SearchEngineWatch.com and ClickZ.com have been running articles recently about search engine marketing and social media. The odd thing, in my mind, is the focus on the social bookmarking sites.

“These days, it seems that social media marketing is on the minds of every search engine marketer. With the importance of links in the algorithms of all the major search engines, along with the benefits of putting your pages in front of a broad, targeted audience, getting your articles popular on major social media sites like del.icio.us and StumbleUpon is an important part of any search marketing strategy. ” - Eric Enge

For the last 5 years, SEM has been a large part of my web duties, so I can understand the SEM focus on StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, Digg, et al. SEM and SEO is about traffic, pure and simple. However, search engine marketers are marketing technicians, not social marketers (duck! here comes the storm!) in that SEM is about the technical aspects of web sites, algorithms, etc. while SMM is about talking to people. If SEM is focusing on the social bookmarking sites, they are missing the picture of social marketing.

Admittedly, SEM talks big about optimizing text and content for the web site users (well, for Google search bots, really), and they talk about the art and science of search engine optimization. They also talk about user-centric experiences (because that’s what the search engines like), but rarely - if ever - have I heard SEM talk about talking to people. Enge goes on in his article to talk about the advantages of making friends on StumbleUpon and del.icio.us, but again, this is one small part of the big picture of SMM.

An analogy: SEM is like taking tons of video footage of people in a store and arranging the products on the shelves, the position of the cash registers and the signage on the building to get people coming into the store and optimizing the buying flow. SMM is about talking to those people and finding out what they like to buy. And, for success, one needs the other.

The general impression I am getting (except from those who read blogs like Webwalker) is that the majority of (traditional) marketers, PR people, advertising people and SEM people are looking at SMM like the proverbial elephant (and SMM is large and somewhat ill-defined). Everyone is feeling a different part of the elephant and defining that as SMM. (I’m not innocent - I also have a perception of SMM that probably doesn’t match yours).

Instead of trying to claim the SM space for themselves, the different specialties need to join forces and combine their knowledge. Smart companies who want to make an impact will do this (and some are doing this quite successfully). The rest of us will be left holding onto the tail of the elephant.

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I’ve never really been “hip” per se, but I like to think I’m on top of the major trends and have a idea as to what’s going on in the world. Until I got smacked with a clue-by-four last night.

When Did the 80’s Come Back in a Non-ironic Way?

My wife and I went trick-or-treating with our 16-month-old son. Our first stop was our next-door neighbour, whose 17 year-old daughter babysits Ryan regularly. She comes to the door dressed in the following: black leggings with hot neon pink legwarmers, long oversized sweatshirt, big hair pulled onto an off-center ponytail and blue eyeshadow. I start making cracks about the 80’s look, needs a cinch-belt, bangles, etc., etc.

As we’re walking away, my wife leans over and says “Dave, I don’t think that was a costume. That’s what the kids are wearing now”. (She teaches tweens and teens, and is a little more up-to-date on teenage female fashion).

It was at that point I realized I am old.

In an attempt to save a little face, I will try to turn this into a marketing lesson.

The Marketing Lesson

Without talking to people outside your immediate cultural sphere, you cannot know the subtlties of different cultures, and therefore you cannot effecively market to those groups.

Cultures (or demographic - choose your term) defined here as any group with fairly homogeneous lifestyles. This is a very broad definition encompassing very small groups. I am a late-30s, suburban dweller, mid career wage earner with one small child and a first marriage of less than 5 years, which is different than a late-30s suburban dweller mid career wage earner with two teenagers and a 18 year marriage. I see the world differently, my current needs and wants are different, and I see marketing and advertising in different ways.

And unless you are me, without talking to me to find what I need, you cannot market to me effectively.

A Current Case Study

I am the web guy (marketing, design, coffee-making) for a staffing firm with a strong online presence. The company is a bit unusual; the two owners are guys in their mid-30s & early 40s with pretty good technical savvy. Most staffing firms are heavily female oriented, and most of the candidates we place and the client we have are women, 20-50 with generally low technical/web interest.

Four technical guys between 30 and 40 sit around trying to figure out what women want out of the web site. We don’t actually go out to talk to these people (too much effort? too little time? not enough money? lots of excuses…), but we make guesses as to how we should build the site. We do research, but there’s only so much you can get out of a white paper. And we wonder why we don’t have the success we think we should.

Social Media Success

We are starting to see some small gains through talking with our people online. Through various social media channels, we can talk to people in our target demographic and get some feedback on the web site. Plans are in the works to expand this, more for marketing and for research.

By opening up channels for conversation (Facebook group, forums, etc.), we can get the feedback we need to do our jobs properly. And the best part is that it doesn’t take too much effort, time or money.

And I still have a couple of years left until my son doesn’t think I’m cool anymore. I’ll take advantage of that…

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