Steam Punk Beta Tweet-O-Meter

As regular readers will know our Tweet-o-Meter features tweets per minute within a 30km area of New York, London, Paris, Munich, San Francisco, Barcelona, Oslo, Tokyo, Toronto, Rome, Moscow and Sydney.

Ben Blundell, here at CASA, has taken some time off from our TOTeM project and has hooked up a series of panel meters to the script via a custom arduino module. The result is a suitably 'steam punk' version of Tweets per minute in New York, London and Paris. We would of hooked up Munich but ran out of meters:

Analog Tweet-O-Meter from Benjamin Blundell on Vimeo.

All it needs now is a brass case and an 'on/off' handle...

Currently in beta and part of our wider 'Ask' tool it allows anyone to 'mine' data from Twitter or carry out a survey of either the world, a continent, a nation, a city or a local area. In short, we think it has notable potential for social science and the analysis of trends and relationships in a variety of areas.

We have run various beta tests on data collection with the main mining process starting next week over a 24 hour period. We aim to collect all tweets with a geo-location tag in the above cities, this is a large amount of data allowing various social, spatial and temporal analysis to be carried out.

The system is under development here at CASA as part of a wider survey tool as part of the NeISS project being coded by Steven Gray in association with Urban Tick, currently carrying out analysis on the data sampled so far.

See http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/tom/ to view the Tweet-o-Meter, we should have some early analysis soon and graphs for the cities within the next day or so. For those too young or perhaps simply nostalgic for the late 70's/early 80's hit that inspired the work, here is PopMusik via YouTube (its great...).

Thanks go to Ben and Steven for their work on this - see Bens http://www.section9.co.uk/, and Stevens http://stevenjamesgray.com/ for more info on their work both inside and outside of CASA time. Thanks also go to Russ Garrett (russ.garrett.co.uk/) and the London Hackspace for help with the code.

Writing: OmmWriter - Write those Posts/Papers Quicker...

A post of a slightly different flavour this morning (bare with us), as recently we have been churning out the words for various papers/reports and it got us thinking. Writing, as i think we all know, can be hard at times and the cold yet cluttered look of many word processing packages can make writing the latest scientific paper a laborious process. After all if you have a wide screen monitor and a browser with your word processor of choice side by side, it is only two clicks away from facebook, twitter, YouTube or any google search in the name of research. As such i thought i would write a quick post about OmmWriter, a new kind of word processor that somehow takes away the distractions, presenting a full screen experience without any icons or clutter in sight. In fact the only thing i can see at the moment, as i type, is a winter scene and a tree lost in mist at the bottom right of the screen – such is the interface.

While your typing OmmWriter also plays gentle calming music, its all very new age and to be honest something we would normally run a mile from. Its certainly a long way from the ethos that is all things digital and urban.



Yet, there is something strangely compelling about the whole experience, sure it cant help with the content but for anyone wishing to find a new way to write i heartily recommend taking a look at OmmWriter. It is available free of charge, currently only for the Mac but a windows version seems to be in the works. If they could just put an image of the city in the distance...

Google Buzz Layer on Google Maps: The InfoCrowd

Google has just announced 'Google Buzz' a social networking tool similar in some ways to Twitter but with location brought to the forefront. You can quickly add your location to your 'buzz' and its viewable on a map. Of note is the 'buzz layer' in the new Google Maps app that allows you to see whats going on in a location via the local information provided by the users using buzz - the InfoCrowd:

Interesting and big enough to cause an upset in the current social networking scene, also powerful enough to change the way we view information about the city.

Visit buzz.google.com from your phone's mobile browser to start using buzz.

Washington Snow Timelapse

Created with a Nikon D200 capturing a picture every 5 minutes between 5-6 February in DC the timelapse below by amandareckonwith over on YouTube shows the weight of snow that fell:

The difference between our own timelapse of London Snow (captured using an iPhone) showing the heaviest snow in 18 years is stark:


iPhone Timelapse Sample 2 from digitalurban on Vimeo.
Thanks go to Dr Yechezkal Gutfreund of the Draper Laboratory for sending us the link. 

Fotografic Memories: Memories, Music and Timelapse

Photographer Salman Ashrafi notes that in today's world, depending on what we do, we rarely find the time to just sit and observe everything that goes on around us. His movies, known as 'Fotografic Memories' represent Salmans' work to make up for this loss of time and we really like his technique of combining frames with timelapse and music as the first example below of Toronto demonstrates:

Downtown Toronto from Fotografic Memory on Vimeo.

The technique and concept can be adapted to any situation - below is the 'memory' of a bus ride in London comprised of 738 photographs:

BUS RIDE from Fotografic Memory on Vimeo.

Finally, Building and Clouds - Dubai:

BUILDINGS + CLOUDS from Fotografic Memory on Vimeo.

For more memories and information see fotograficmemory.com, it is well worth taking the time to explore the other work and clips on the site.

Fiverr - like Etsy, but for services

Fiverr is a new open marketplace for buyers and sellers of services.

Sellers offer a particular service that they will carry out for $5.

Examples include anything from proof-reading a CV, to creating a simple website, to creating an 'Avatar' style pic from a photo, to help in filling out immigration forms, to burning an effigy of your enemy.

I imagine that if you had a particular skill like photoshopping, and some creativity in selling a specific task you could make a reasonable amount of money. (Last night there were some 'nude photo' type offers, but they seem to have been removed now. The site owners need to police it to keep these sorts of listings off it. Although no doubt an Adult services version would be phenomenally popular)

It's effectively like Etsy, but for services. The idea that everything costs $5 is inspired, because it's a good way to get a taster of whether someone is genuine and does a good job. Once you're in touch with them after the first job, I'm sure more complex projects can be discussed.

It's also a bit like Mechanical Turk, Amazon's crowdsourcing platform, where you can recruit people to tasks like tagging huge numbers of photos, but more fun and interesting.

Update - and here's an 'Andy Warhol' version of a picture of me, made by Shirley for $5.

MGMT stream leaked album

It's one way of dealing with piracy... Since discovering that their new album, due for release in mid-April, was widely available on torrent sites, MGMT have posted it on their site for people to listen to, making it clear that the version for sale have a much higher sound quality.

Listen legally here.

Calculating the Value of a B2B Marketing Campaign

It’s the ultimate question in marketing:

What effect did this campaign have on revenue?

In short buying cycles, where the buyer generally understands the category of the offering, and the transaction is quick and simple, this can be measured relatively easily. A marketing campaign results in a website visit, a product is added to the visitor’s shopping basket, and the transaction is completed. Tying the buying event to that marketing campaign is both easy and sensible. Various marketing campaigns can be analyzed to see what offer, and what creative, drive more revenue.

But in the longer buying cycles we see in B2B, this analysis is not so simple.

Buyers progress through a buying process at their own pace, facilitated by marketing messages and campaigns, but not necessarily driven by them. Some campaigns may generate broad awareness, some might educate on criteria to consider, and some might trigger buying actions directly. All are valuable, but measuring their value requires a different approach than in simple buying processes.

Understanding the Stages

The first key step is to understand where each person is in their buying process. Some may be just names in your database, either acquired names or names that have gone inactive. Some may be interested, but not ready for sales yet, and some might be ready to engage with sales. Lead scoring allows you to objectively define where each person is in their buying process.

As part of this process, it’s important to make sure that buyers are removed from stages if time passes and they don’t continue to show the buying behaviour indicated. As buying behaviour can be transient, with interest starting and stopping at various points, it’s key not to leave an individual marked as being at a certain stage if they are no longer as interested as they once were.

Associate Value with each Stage

With the buying stages defined, it’s now possible to look at historical conversion rates to understand the value of a lead at each stage. For example, if a deal is worth $10,000, and an MQL has a 10% conversion rate to a deal, it is worth $1,000. Similarly, if a lead at the “mild interest” stage has a 1% chance of converting, it is worth $100, and if a raw name that has not yet shown any interest has a 0.2% chance of turning into revenue, it is worth $20 per name.

It’s important to note that these values are based on the conversion rate of the stage through to close, rather than the conversion rate to the subsequent stage.

Campaigns, Transitions, and Value

Now, with this value per stage established, it is finally possible to see the value of a buyer’s movement through the funnel even if it does not directly translate to closed business or qualified leads being passed to sales. For example, if a buyer moves from “mildly interested” ($100/lead) to “marketing qualified lead” ($1000/lead), their value has increased by $900. Similarly, if a buyer moves from “inactive name” ($20/lead) to “mildly interested” ($100/lead), their value has increased by $80. If net new leads enter the funnel, and are deemed to be “mildly interested”, they are immediately worth $100.

If a marketing campaign triggered that transition to take place, the simplest way to look at the value of the marketing campaign is that it added that much value to your lead funnel. If a campaign costs $50,000 and causes 1000 leads to move from “inactive name” to “mildly interested” (1000x$80), pushes 10 leads from “mildly interested” to “marketing qualified lead” status (10X$900), and creates 200 new “mildly interested” leads that were not previously in the marketing database (200X$100), the value of the marketing campaign can be calculated as:

Cost of Campaign: $50,00

Value of Campaign:
1000 X $80 = $80,000
10 X $900 = $9,000
200 X $100 = $20,000
=================
Total: $109,000

You can see that, if only the creation of qualified leads is looked at, the value of the campaign would appear to be very low, whereas it was a very successful and valuable campaign in that it triggered a lot of valuable early funnel re-engagement of inactive names, and generated new interest.


Campaign Value

Many campaigns that we run as marketers are targeted at top-of-funnel, or mid-funnel outcomes. Generating net new names, educating buyers, establishing evaluation criteria, and nurturing buyers are all very valuable activities to perform. However, they can be extremely difficult to measure unless there is a framework in place to assign value to each of the early stages in the buying process.

When the right marketing analysis framework is in place, and each stage of the buying process can be measured, valued, and analyzed, it becomes possible to associate a clear value to campaigns that are targeted at top-of-funnel activities. When we build the overall marketing dashboards for our organizations, we can then value these campaigns in the same way that we value campaigns that target moving mildly interested leads further down the funnel until they are ready for a conversation with sales.

UPDATE ERefill2007 VERSI 2.9.668 – CODE NAME: DEVIL

Kembali hadir dengan skema dan kekuatan penuh, lebih cepat dari versi sebelumnya, lebih kuat dari sebelumnya, lebih aman dari sebelumnya. Rasakan hentakan kekuatan yang sesungguhnya dari sebuah system kerja server dan biarkan adrenalin Anda mengalir sejalan dengan aliran transaksi Anda... Full Secure untuk Host to Host Server, full power sepertinya halnya full power untuk transaksi SMS ditambah dengan nilai plus peningkatan kecepatan data akses hingga dua kali lipat.

Masih kurang cepat....? Pasangkan sebuah server Linux dan jadikan sebagai data center, maka jadilah sebuah server ideal sebagaimana layaknya server dengan database terpusat dan terisolasi dari lingkungan luar.

ERefill v.2.9.668 (CODE NAME : DEVIL)
Keterangan Lebih Lengkap sebelumnya wajib Baca di ERefill v.2.9.666
Fitur terbaru dari ERefill v.2.9.668 diantaranya adalah:

• Optimalisasi Modem Wavecom Supreme
• Optimalisasi fungsi MLM
• XL Express Fiture

Ini adalah salah satu permintaan dari beberapa user, tujuannya adalah membatasi transaksi harian untuk masing-masing chip XL dalam sehari. Contohnya begini, misalkan Anda mempunyai 1 chip XL Baca Selengkapnya >>

• Timeout Module XML
• Core 3 untuk Memperluas cakupan compatibilitas kabel data dan I/O Card.
• Penanaman fungsi baru anti-freeze
• Water Mark Licensing
• XML Server (Enterprise Only)
• HTML Server (Enterprise Only)
• Point to Point Protocol, koneksi antar ERefill langsung.
• Penambahan fungsi deposit piutang dan cash.
• Penambahan akun Bank dan Nomor rekening pada data reseller
• Module Center Turbo
• Security Update untuk transaksi Stok dan Deposit
• Global Server (YM) Universal Plain Text
• Module Bridge (YM) Universal Plain Text
• Deposit dengan menggunakan Kartu Voucher sendiri.
• Fungsi baru tiket deposit.
• Fungsi pengecekan otomatis tiket deposit melalui Internet Banking (ex. KlikBCA)
• Penambahan harga jual dan harga beli yang berbeda tiap parsing terminal.
• Pembuatan perintah SMS tambahan sendiri-sendiri, termasuk penggabungan Customer Service lewat Module Center.
• Penambahan variable jawaban baru untuk jawaban transaksi, termasuk menyertakan nama reseller.
• Pengiriman pesan lebih luas, tidak harus melalui menu Reseller.
• Laporan Laba Rugi lebih realistis.
• Voucher Fisik
• Pengurutan Transaksi Descending
• Modem iTegno ready.
• Penambahan SN untuk CDMA dan SMS GSM
• Remove "erefillserver" ghost at Global Server and MM-Bridge
• USSD/XL Prefix, I'm back...
• Interactive sound alert
• YM Server v.9-R5 support new protocol YM
• Script AutoPilot
• Fix ERROR :

  1. Posting Rebat Paket Harga Lewat Menu Laporan Rekening.
  2. Pengiriman Laporan Hasil Posting Rebat Ke Reseller.
  3. MMB/MMC Protokol 9 versi 9-R5 (autoconnect)

• Anti Hack Saldo Resseller (New Fitur)

Funsi Verifikasi HP Lebih Jelasnya baca Di di ERefill v.2.9.66

Source : www.pulsamedia.com

How to to Use the Embed Action In Photoshop Elements for Digi Scrapbooking

How to to Use the Embed Action In Photoshop Elements for Digi Scrapbooking
by Julie Ann Shahin

This is a tutorial to show you another option for drop shadowing on elements such as buttons, eyelets, and other things that "attach" to a page. I use the "Embed Action (Style)" from Scrapgirls. This tutorial assumes that you have followed the instructions provided from Scrapgirls on how to install the tool in your styles palette.


Here is the layout that I am using this tool on. I want to shadow the denim ribbon eyelets.

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Step 1. In the Styles & Effects palette on the right, chose Styles, then chose the Embed Action. Make sure the layer you want to use the tool on is selected. In this case, I am using the tool on the left denim ribbon with eyelets.

Step 2. Go to Layer --> Layer Style --> Scale Effects. You can see I adjusted the scale to 30

(Click on image to enlarge)

You can compare the Embed style with the regular drop shadow which I used on the right denim ribbon. The left ribbon is a more pronounced shadow, which I prefer in this case.

Note: There are 6 different types of this tool. I try different ones until I get the look that I desire. I do not have a rule about which type to use with certain embellishments.

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In the image below, I have applied the tool to all three ribbons.

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Next, I'm going to use the Embed Tool Style on a staple. This is the staple before.

********************************************

Now I've clicked on the tool and the style has been applied to the staple. (You can click on the image to enlarge if you wish).

********************************************

As I did in Step 2 above, I've adjusted the scale of the tool until I get the desired effect.

********************************************

In my last example, I am going to apply the tool to the epoxy button in the middle of this paper circle. First, I want to duplicate this layer. Second, on the top duplicate layer -I applied the tool to the whole circle as the embellishment .png comes with the button in the middle.

********************************************

Next, on the same layer, since I want the style applied only to the button - I erase or cut away the outer circle. You can erase with the eraser tool or you can create a circle with the circle marquee tool around the button. Then, select inverse, then delete that selection.

********************************************

You can see I've applied the tool to both buttons below.

It's one of my favorite and most used tools that I use! Thanks for your support of the EDS Blog.
Credits: Falling for Fall by Two Sisters Designs at wearestorytellers.com; Daily Birdie Font by Audrey Neal at wearestorytellers.com; All Stitched Up template by Janet Phillips; Embed
Action 1801 by Scrapgirls

Keeping the Faith - At Baptist Weddings

Good Morning Everybody,

Yesterday's Twitterview went off very smoothly and was quite fun.  We'll have to try that again.  If you missed it, Peachpit is planning to post a transcript next week – I’ll keep you posted. I mentioned doing a webinar with Peachpit too, sometime in the near future - I'll keep you posted.

In the midst of trying to get ready for my Twitterview, we moved in the brand new Canon iPF 8100 printer.  I hope to get things up and running over the weekend.  I'll let you know on Monday.  I am looking forward to the gorgeous color from that printer.

Master Class Update!

One last note - two people rescheduled from our Spring to Fall Master Class, so we have two openings left in our upcoming week long Master Class beginning April 26 [link].  If you feel you want to spend a wonderful week fine tuning your photographic skills and hanging with an enthusiastic group of photographers from all around the USA, please give the studio a call at 800.292.2994 next week to reserve your space.

Hey, let's get right to today's post, another in the series, "Keeping The Faith At Weddings"

Keeping the Faith – At Baptist Weddings

Back in the day - that means quite a few yeas ago, I did a lot of Baptist weddings - heck, this is Kentucky and we've got lots of Baptist Churches in "this neck of the woods".

Some photographers call these smaller weddings "cake and punch" weddings.  I don’t think they intend any disrespect. It just means that these weddings are generally very short events - time-wise. Lots of photographers throughout the state of Kentucky/Ohio area could do a few events on the same day depending on the scheduled start times.

DAZ NOTE: ALWAYS remember this about weddings;  ALL weddings, large or small, are the celebration of two lives coming together to celebrate the rest of their lives together. Large wedding or small, the emotions and feeling of the day are the same.  It's our job to not just capture the events of the day, but also all the emotions, excitement and feelings of the day as well.

That said, let me point you to a few things you need to know when photographing smaller weddings.

Hit the “Read More…” link below for the rest of the story.

Before shooting any wedding, the first thing I do is check in with the minister/clergy and ask about any church rules and regulations I need to know about.  I also let the pastor know that I WILL NOT be taking any flash photographs during the service.  I will be discretely photographing from the back of church and balcony, if available, to capture all my shots.

I assure him/her that my flash will be TURNED OFF after the processional. And, only turned back on when the bride and groom turn and begin making their exit, the recessional.  All other photographs will be only be made with the existing light in the church (regardless how dim it might be.)  I know that the pastor appreciates the time I took in introducing myself to him/her and to check on the "house rules."

A lot of Baptist Churches I've worked in don't have a center aisle, but two side aisles instead.  The bridal procession and the bride and her dad always go down the left aisle.  The couple always recess down the right side aisle.

But I've still got to deal with the side aisle situation.  Not a big deal, but you need to know where you are going to stand to photograph the bride and her dad coming down the aisle.  Where is the most discrete location? I want to be sure that I’m out of the way of the bridesmaids and other attendants coming down the aisle too.  Also, after you get a few shots of the bride and her dad, you need to make a clean and quiet exit.

The ceremony is quite short , usually only 20 minutes.  I try to get some great shots from the back of church and then always make a dash for the balcony too.  All Baptists weddings have music, many times a soloist. Get a few shots of the soloists and musicians - it's all part of the story. Most weddings, Baptists included, have special friends or family doing Gospel readings. I include images of these special individuals, as well.

DAZNOTE: The wedding couple seldom make these images part of their wedding album, but I still take them because those moments are still part of the story.  Besides, we sell DVD's, etc and those shots need to be part of the complete coverage.

Next there will be a few comments from the pastor - yes, grab a few of those shots too - same reasons as above. This will lead into the ring exchange.

Because of the better vantage point, I'm usually in the balcony for these shots (provided there is a balcony).   I always make it a point to use my long lenses to zoom in as close as I can to capture nice close ups of this moment. I'll take at least a dozen shots of the ring exchange - all AVAILABLE light.

Be sure to get plenty of shots at multiple focal lengths of the entire church/sanctuary both from the balcony and floor level. After the ring exchange, the couple will light the "Unity Candle" - another shot not to be missed.  I like to shoot it with both a "cross-star" filter and without the filter.  You've got to be quick to pull off both shots in that short amount of time.

Also, after the lighting of the "Unity Candle", be aware that the end of the ceremony is near and if you are in the balcony, you may want to start making your way back down to the main level.  At this point in the service there will be some additional prayers which gives you time to make your balcony exit. Remember QUIET!

Here you've got to be attentive to what the pastor is saying as he/she comes to the closing of the ceremony.  You don't want to be "caught" in the balcony when the couple turn to make their exit.

DAZNOTE: I have to "giggle"  because my assistants over the years almost NEVER pay attention during the ceremony.  I’m not being critical - they are dealing with gear, etc.  Anyway, I always have to give them a "heads up" as to when the ceremony is wrapping. Just pay attention so you too don't miss the end of the ceremony.  Hint:  The bride and groom kiss right before they turn around and make their return up the aisle.

Now that you are back on the first floor you are ready to continue to follow the action to the end, which, by the way, is very near.

After the prayer and maybe a few other words to the couple, the pastor will announce them as husband and wife.  They will turn, the groom will lift the veil and kiss his bride - again, don't miss this shot. Now they will start down the aisle hugging, kissing, and handshaking guests along the way - all good stuff - get what you can.

But be sure to get several of the bride and groom walking down the aisle. Yes, you need to learn how to walk backward down the aisle without tripping over the videographer ;~)

Get a few of the receiving line hugs and kisses, the most important ones are the hugs with key family members and friends. As the guests head for the reception, usually in the church under-croft, you need to gather up the wedding party, moms, dads, and grandparents, and any other family members to be included in the alter return group shots. 

DAZNOTE: You should have had a discussion with the couple a week or two before to be sure both you and the wedding couple were "on the same page" for these images and nothing or no one is over looked.

As the receiving line is wrapping up, make your way to the front of the church, remove the center aisle runner if there is one.  It looks awful in the photographs. I just want to see the carpet/tile in the group shots, not the aisle runner too.  I's just a way to spruce up the shots.

Now you've got to kick it into high gear - you only have 35 minutes to pull off all the family group shots, wedding party shots, standard shots of the bride and groom, and all you’re "signature" shots - those really dramatic "head turning" images you want for your samples and on your website and blog.

Gang, that's about it for Baptists weddings.  Remember, it's always about honoring the place of worship where you are shooting, having a plan to get ALL the shots, and "keeping the faith" when shooting your next wedding!

_______________________________________________________

OK gang, I out of here for this week. We have a beautiful weather weekend in the Cincy here this weekend and LaDawn and I plan to enjoy every moment of it. 

More importantly though, there are many faiths celebrating this weekend in their own special way.  It a time to be reflective, to be with families, and to be celebrating the history of faith for many.  Where ever you are, what ever you do, enjoy these next few days to their fullest.

Sincerely,  -David

"Whirling Dervishes"

"Whirling Dervishes"
©David A. Ziser

OK, just one more image from our Tampa trip - I promise.  During our last night's stay on Monday, I took one more look out to the water from our 17th floor hotel room.  LaDawn pointed out the colorful reflections in the water from the lights of the buildings on the opposite side of the estuary.  I grabbed the camera and focused on the the reflections only. The rippling water gave the reflections the "whirling across the scene" feeling I'm seeing in this shot.  A quick color tweak in Lightroom to accent and enrich the tones finished the presentation.  I think it worked out as a nice color abstract piece. Camera specs: Canon 7D fitted with 18-200mm IS lens at 140mm, F5.6 @ 1/6 handheld, ISO 3200. Enjoy!  -David

Just A Little Dessert - The Tiny Add-on Sale; Twitterview Today; Partying With Big Electric Cat

Good Morning Everyone,

Hey, a couple of things real quick before we get started today. 

Twitterview Reminder

Don't forget to check out my Twitterview with Peachpit today at 2:00 p.m. EDT.  This is a first for me but we did a dry run yesterday and all looks good to go.

To tune in, just follow @Peachpit and @DigitalProTalk. You can even set up a Tweetdeck group with just those 2 tweeps and follow along or search for this hashtag: #CBTL.

Bringing Down The House With Big Electric Cat At PSW

I couldn't wait to get back home and check out the images I captured at the Photoshop World’s big party last Wednesday night.  Not only did I shoot stills with my handy dandy Canon 7D, I also shot several video clips too. 

OK, how to bring them all together as quickly as possible - well, Animoto, of course.  I did the quick edit of the stills in Lightroom and exported them as 1280px on the long side and uploaded them to Animoto.  Next I grabbed about 8 of the short 10 second video clips I captured and sent them up to Animoto too - no editing required. 

I had forgotten how easily Animoto lets you trim up the videos once you’ve uploaded to them. Total edit time took little to no time at all.  I did a quick trim of the videos, placed them in the sequence I wanted and that was that.  Next, select the music and hit "Make Video" - it's way, way to easy!

Here is my final "fun" Animoto video of the evening.  -Enjoy!

Pretty cool, don’t you think?  I love the video clips with the stills – and it’s soooo easy.

OK gang time to get on with our Business Day Thursday post. Here we go.

Just A Little Dessert - The Tiny Add-on Sale

OK gang, some good ideas coming your way that may even pay for your next vacation.

Hit the “Read More…” link below to find out how to add to your bottom line, a little bit at a time.

I have to tell ya' - sometimes I get my best sales ideas at restaurants. Today's post will point you to a new way of thinking about add-on dollars from your wedding and portrait sales.

Here's what happened.  Last week we headed down to Orlando for this year's Photoshop World.  We got in town later in the afternoon and decided to have an early dinner at Seasons 52.  It's a great restaurant and we’ve previously enjoyed the menu and service.

Seasons 52 is like any really good restaurant - lots of tasty menu choices from soups to salads to main courses.  The server took our orders and we sat back and enjoyed a great meal.

Now I don't know about you guys and girls, but I ALWAYS pass on the desserts when eating out at restaurants.  I generally over indulge with an appetizer, soup, salad, entre’ selections of the menu and just NEVER have room for dessert. Plus, I don't don't want to spend another $6-10 for the added goodies.

You're wandering how this is going to shape up into a sales lesson today, aren't you?  Just hang in here. Our server comes back to our table as we were finishing our meal and asked if we would like to try one of their mini indulgences?  Their what?

She showed us this dessert list of MINI-desserts, called mini-indulgences, at only $2.50 each.  I was hooked - the guy that never gets a dessert.  Now I could get a little mini taste of key lime pie, one of my favorite dessert flavors for only $2.50 - what a deal. The dessert offer dented neither the waistline or my wallet - I'll have one!

Folks, this is "Beauty in Sales" - one of the best sales ideas I've run across in a long time.  You are completely full, you don't want yourself heavier with the extra calories, or your wallet lighter because of the cost - BUT you can't say no to Season 52's offer.  What a great way to ever so slightly incrementally raise sales.

So how can we bring this same lesson to our own businesses?  OK, let's put everything in perspective first. Your client has just selected all the photographs for their album.  They've selected the photos for the family albums.  They've picked out images for family and friends.  They are finished, they are happy and "full" with their "photography meal". What are a few "mini-indulgences you could offer?

Remember, the offer is made after the sales close.  The price point must be low enough and the perceived value sufficient so that the customer will not say "NO". I think the price point should be around $5, $10, but certainly not over $20.

This works for weddings, family portrait, high school seniors, almost any photographic "people" session. 

Here are 7 of my $10 suggestions:

1. 5 low res (1024x768px) images for their iPod/iPhone/Facebook/screen saver.  These images would look even better on the new iPad that's ready to launch too.

2. A $20 gift card for only $10.  They can use it as a stocking stuffer at Christmas or include with other images selected for friends and family.

3. 100 "Business cards" they could use to share with friends.  I already covered a similar idea right here at DPT.

5. 10 photographic "Play Date" cards with their image.

6. 10 Note Cards presented stylishly with bows and ribbons printed on your color printer.

7. 1 4x5 B&W photograph in a value priced frame for office/grandma/friend/etc. 

Use you own imagination - the possibilities are endless.  Remember, the cost must be low and the value high.  We want the client to say "yes" at least 80% of the time.  Do this 50-100 times a year and you have part of next year's vacation already paid for by offering your own tasty selection of mini-indulgences!

Why not join the conversation and add your own ideas to the "Comments" section below.

___________________________________________________

Hey gang, that's it for me today.  We are making room for the new printer so things are a bit busy for us today. Hey, don't forget to check in for my Twitterview later today at 2:00p.m. EDT.

Have a great one!

-David

Google Docs in Plain English

Create and share online documents, spreadsheets and presentations. It's free. You can:

1) Access your documents online from any computer with an internet connection.

2) Add collaborators to your document and Docs will send them a link to access the doc online (no need to send email attachments back and forth)

3) Decide who can view and edit each document (only you, some people, or everyone)

For a quick product tour, check out: http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour...

Or to get started, visit: http://docs.google.com

Membership has its Privileges; Best Practices IP vs. Social CRM

I wrote recently about our decision to expose our pricing publicly on our website. It was one of the most commented-on posts ever on this blog, as it seems to have connected with a number of people in the same situation. The intersection of theory and reality in the world of social media always spurs some interesting debates. We all agree that transparency is great and noble... but... what about the realities of having a broad set of products that range in price by a factor of over 10x? What about low-end competitors who compete aggressively on price? When reality and theory intersect it spurs some fun debates, and I appreciate all the comments from people in similar situations.

Today, I want to share with you a similar change in philosophy that we just made at Eloqua, that had equally passionate debates.

Last week we opened up public access to Eloqua’s best practices community portal where the biggest and most vibrant community of marketers gets to work, tackles challenging business problems, and builds the lead management processes that power their businesses.

This caused substantial debate internally, that is likely not unique to Eloqua, as we wrestled with the pros and cons of making this change. Given the response to the last post, I wanted to share with you our thinking on transparency, social CRM, and best practice knowledge.

Why do Marketers Upgrade?

The challenge that we wrestled with was that one of the main reasons that our clients join us, or upgrade from low-end systems, is to join the “community”. They want to compare notes with peers, understand how other marketers are engaging their sales teams, see what analytics their colleagues in similar industries have on their marketing dashboards, and get tips and tricks from people who have gone down this path before. This "membership has its privileges" motivator was very compelling.

The thought was, in opening up our online community portal, are we not giving away the “essence” of this community? The knowledge, best practices, tips, tricks, analysis, and ideas are all there. Could you not just buy a cheap-and-cheerful solution, and then leverage the experience and expertise of this community?

It was a very valid question, and it caused us a lot of consideration. In the end, after much debate, we opened up the portal and shared our expertise publicly. Rather than decrease the value of this knowledge, through giving it away, we are trusting that it will greatly increase the enthusiasm of marketers to join the best marketers on a journey of transforming their businesses.

Does Sharing Expertise Increase or Decrease its Value?

One of the parallels that worked well to win over those who were hesitant internally was that of Mike Holmes on the home renovation TV show Holmes on Homes. Sharing his expertise publicly, week after week, to 100 Million TV viewers has not, in any way, reduced the demand for top quality home renovation contractors. Far from it, it has increased it.

Can home owners watch the show, take notes, and then do it themselves, or use a low cost contractor to get the work done? Perhaps, but they now know the realities of the projects they are tackling, and are more likely to want to engage with a renovations contractor that brings expertise as well as power tools.

Sharing Marketers' Stories

As with any company, we have long been sharing client stories of success. We share videos of Mark DiMaurizio from Comcast Spectacor talking about how the Philadelphia Flyers and 76ers use deep segmentation to connect with B2B and B2C buyers, and we show Katina Fisk of Approva talking about marketing analysis and dashboarding.

These are great testimonial videos of the end state, and they highlight a great “finished product” in terms of results (thank you Mark and Katina). However, what we wanted to showcase in opening up the community was how those results actually get built. This is where the best marketers shine.

In the online community, however, Amit Varshneya and Tom Svec look at the nuts and bolts of building the type of deep segmentation that Mark talked about by leveraging company-level rather than contact-level information. Similarly Tricia Wilkerson looks at the specifics of tracking and analyzing banner ad clickthroughs in order to generate the type of marketing analysis Katina highlights.

Each of these marketing success stories, like Mark and Katina’s, that we share comes from the work of marketers like Amit, Tom, and Tricia. By sharing these stories, we hope to paint a picture of what marketing success truly looks like. Will the passion for great marketing that is shared by community members outweigh any downsides of sharing this “under the floorboards” view? We believe it will.


Have you had similar internal debates about opening up your expertise to the world? Please share them here, we would all benefit from your experiences on this topic.

Email as a Discoverable Medium

I wrote on Tuesday about the difference between messages being "delivered" and messages being "discovered". Today, it's worth looking at that difference in approach via a very tangible marketing example. As one of the most commonly used marketing mediums, email is worth using as an example.

Email can be delivered in a very direct manner – a single email can be delivered to the exact recipient intended, assuming an email address is known and permission is granted – but that does not mean that the message has truly connected. I'm not talking about email deliverability, although that remains an important topic, I'm talking about the ability of a message to be noticed or discovered by its recipient in an overflowing inbox.

We each receive more email on a daily basis than we are able or willing to read. As we look through our inbox, this means that we make very quick decisions on which emails to read and which emails to ignore. This is based on the person or source from whom the email is received, and the subject line of the email. Receiving uninteresting or non-valuable content from a particular source quickly leads to a situation in which we recognize, and reflexively delete or ignore the content. This is known as an “emotional unsubscribe” as we have tuned out of the communication, and although we have not clicked the “unsubscribe” link, we are effectively at that state.

Once an email has been received and opened, most audience are quickly scanning for interesting content. If it is discovered, it might be read, but if it is not quickly seen, the email will be just as quickly deleted. This is why, as marketers, we need to think of email as a "discoverable" marketing medium in the same way that we might think of any topic shared in social media in terms of how likely it is to be "discovered".

Each subject line and each article title within the email is a teaser that should be designed to capture the audience’s attention and compel them to want to read more. Without being misleading or deceitful, the best headlines intrigue readers and leave them wanting more information. Rather than assuming an email will be read, we as marketers can only assume that, at best, it might be browsed quickly.

The onus is upon us to make the content within the email, and the headlines that introduce that content, compelling enough that the reader takes the time to read them and discovers the message within. If they do, we have succeeded in having our information discovered. If they do not, however, we have likely pushed that person one step further away from being open to discovering our next communication.

Super-intrusive ad for Nissan Qashqai

NissanQ
This ran in France on Yahoo and MSN on 15th March. See it here

Via the excellent Adverblog

Philips Parallel Lines - one script, 5 very different films

This trailer, released yesterday, shows a really intriguing new initiative from Philips. As a follow up to last year's award winning Carousel, they have commissioned Ridley Scott Associates to make 5 very different films from the same script.



The films look very different! Really looking foward to seeing how this develops!

The Facebook page is here

Full disclosure - the company I work for works for Philips, but I have no involvement in this project

Extracts of Local Distance: A Unique Take on Architectural Photography

Countless fragments of existing architectural photography are merged into multi-layered shapes. The resulting collages introduce a third abstract point of view next to the original ones of architect and photographer - this is the concept behind Extracts of Local Distance.

Digital scans of analogue architectural photography form tiny pieces of a large resulting puzzle. The original pictures are being analysed and categorised according to their vanishing-points and shapes. Based on this analysis, slices are being extracted from the source image. These slices retain the information of their position corresponding to their original vanishing-point and thus form a large pool of pieces, ready to be applied to new perspectives and shapes.

The clip below provides a look at the process:


Extracts of Local Distance from STOESELTNTPRO on Vimeo.

Using the extracted image segments, it is now possible to form collages of originally different pictures with a new common perspective. In order to compose a collage, a perspective-grid is defined and a lining of matching image segments is being applied. The segments are not altered to match the frame but fitting ones are chosen from the sheer mass of possible pieces. By defining additional keywords which describe the content of the original photographs, the selection of segments used for the final composition can be influenced. Thus a contextual layer is added through the semantic linking with the source material.

The recompositions mix and match the views and perspectives of both the architect and the photographer with a third, newly chosen frame. The resulting fine-art prints are entirely unique, and represent a new take on architectural imagery.

Head over to http://www.localdistance.org/ for full details, especially the results page which has some stunning images.

Skopje 2014 Visualisation

The clip below details a visualisation of municipality of Skopje (Macedonia) in 2014.



The St. Konstantin and Elena church and Alexa nder the Great monument are part of the Skopje 2014 project which envisages the transformation of the central district of the city:

The visualisation is in stark contrast to the most of the renders and animations we feature here on du and in many ways that is a good thing, indeed by the end of the clip with the rousing music we were quite getting into it. That said, we cant comment on the soundness of the plan - take a look at Macedonia: Online Rebellion Against “Skopje 2014″ Plan for full details on the reaction so far.

Paper: Mapping for the Masses Accessing Web 2.0 Through Crowdsourcing

Continuing the publication online via Issuu of our papers we include our recent paper written with Andrew Crooks, Michael Batty, and Richard Milton from CASA entitled "Mapping for the Masses Accessing Web 2.0 Through Crowdsourcing" as published in Social Science Computer Review.

"The authors describe how we are harnessing the power of web 2.0 technologies to create new approaches to collecting, mapping, and sharing geocoded data. The authors begin with GMapCreator that lets users fashion new maps using Google Maps as a base. Click the right arrow to turn the page:


The authors then describe MapTube that enables users to archive maps and demonstrate how it can be used in a variety of contexts to share map information, to put existing maps into a form that can be shared, and to create new maps from the bottom-up using a combination of crowdcasting, crowdsourcing, and traditional broadcasting. The authors conclude by arguing that such tools are helping to define a neogeography that is essentially ‘‘mapping for the masses,’’ while noting that there are many issues of quality, accuracy, copyright, and trust that will influence the impact of these tools on map-based communication."

Keywords: network economies; neogeography; web-based services; map mashups; crowdsourcing; crowdcasting; online GIS.

The paper can be downloaded from here (pdf link).

Message Delivery vs. Message Discovery

The most obvious change in marketing that we are seeing lately comes down to how our messages reach their intended recipients. This is driven, of course, by changes in the behavior of our audience of potential buyers. The information “filters” we use are shifting from being economic filters, driven by publishers, to social filters, driven by the relevance of individuals and their messages. As this takes place, we as marketers need to shift towards thinking about how messages can be "discovered", rather than how they are delivered.

There is no more obvious place where this transition is happening than in the worlds of search and social media.

Search, either natural or paid, provides an active way to discover information. A prospective buyer actively seeks information on a given topic based on keywords. Successful marketers are able to ensure that their content is present at the top of the search results, either through an effective search engine optimization strategy, or through good search engine marketing and a healthy search marketing budget.

In the various social media channels, however, information is not pushed out directly, but rather it is published, and then discovered by an audience based on recommendations from their peers, content syndication, and chance. The more interesting and relevant your content is, the larger an audience of influencers will share it, forward it, and link to it, bringing it to the much broader audience that they influence.

Distribution via Influencers

Unlike in search marketing, however, there is no clear metaphor for applying a marketing budget in order to achieve broader distribution of your information within social media. Although a variety of paid structures are being experimented with, none have received the wide acceptance that paid search marketing has.

This means that the most reliable way to ensure that your messages are maximally discoverable within the world of social media is to build strong relationships with the key influencers in your space who are likely to share those messages and ensure that your messages are sufficiently interesting, relevant and non-salesy in order to make them shareable.

Your long term reputation with each of these key influencers is based on a history of creating high quality content, but each individual content piece stands on its own in terms of its ability to be found to be interesting and sharable. The techniques of great journalists are of use here in making each content piece most interesting and most likely to be read.

Headlines, Teasers, and Discovery

Whether it is an article title, an interesting statistic, a tweet, a news headline, or a catchy name for an eBook, the majority of your potential audience will only encounter the briefest of summaries of what your content is about. Convincing your audience to take the step from headline to content by clicking on your content is as much art as is it science.

The better the headline catches the potential reader’s attention, without being misleading, the more the content is read and the messages within it discovered.

The art of writing provocative, catchy, and intriguing summaries of information in just a few words was originally developed by newspaper editors writing headlines. Their goal was to have their publication “discovered” by those passing by a news stand. Now, in a world dominated by the need to make information discoverable, these skills are required more than ever. Each article, headline, or tweet should be thought of in the same light. The better the headline catches the potential reader’s attention, without being misleading, the more the content is read and the messages within it discovered.

TV is Dead. Long Live TV.

A great post by Brian Halligan at HubSpot, on a dinner he had with a group of Madison Avenue folks, got me thinking about some possible futures for Television. Contrary to the prevailing wisdom, I don't think that Television is about to suffer the same fate as newspapers as information becomes free.

Here's why - we're lazy.

I recently watched some Olympics coverage, and was impressed with the seamless flow back and forth from the events that were being shown to a physiologist talking about the effect on the human body of the snowboard half-pipe, to a profile of one of the upcoming short track speedskaters, to an in depth look at how moguls are judged, to an interview with a hockey coach. It was this careful orchestration of content that made the experience enjoyable, and all I had to do was sit back and take it in. For that, I watched a few ads.

Could I have found all of that content online? Probably. But the point is I couldn't be bothered.

In a similar manner, iTunes beats out online downloading of music for many people. I don't subscribe to the idea that we download via iTunes because of a profound respect for copyright law (see Larry Lessig at TED on that topic). I strongly believe that many of us use iTunes just because it is easier. It's just plain easier to find, download, and be assured of quality. For that, 99c is worth it.

Television fits this iTunes model.

Television, generally, does a great job of orchestrating, curating, and sequencing the content. This has a value that needs to be appreciated by anyone predicting the downfall of television. I suspect that we, as viewers, will demonstrate a willingness to "pay" for that value through advertising.

Newspapers, while also providing content, don't cater to the same level of passively experiencing the content. One needs to leaf through a newspaper, pick an article, and read it. Far more active of an experience - and not much different than finding the same article online.

Of course, the question of what happens to the classic "30 second spot" is up in the air. Exactly how we "pay" for television with our attention is a bit unclear, but economics will find a way. Whether it is through deeper integration of product placements, integrated story-telling, or better targeting or quality of 30 second ads that make us want to watch, the model can be found.

What do you think? Is there a future for Television?

Social media analysis moves mainstream

Last week, Webtrends announced that they had extended their customer intelligence capabilities into Facebook. In this new integration, there are two things happening that are worth commenting on. First, there is a continuing move to see a unified view of online behaviour, and online messages across all communication channels, and not a siloed view where each individual communication platform is treated as somehow separate.

In exploring the Webtrends solution, you can see this evolution taking place. When a blog post is written, Tweeted about, then shared on Facebook this is a natural way that information flows in today’s environment. An analytics platform that treats each of the platforms as silos would be forcing marketers to think of communications by “silo” not by “idea”, and that would be a significant mistake. The barriers between social platforms, and between those platforms and our blogs and web properties are rapidly disappearing and already virtually non-existent.

This manifests in both the way that the data is captured (not just within properties under our direct control like main websites, but wherever the audience is, such as on Facebook) and in how it is presented, as an integrated view of activity across communication platforms.

The second interesting trend that became apparent in looking at this integration of Facebook activity into the marketing analysis world was the lack of campaign centricity. Facebook, as with almost all social media efforts, has a “flywheel” dynamic to it. Effort is put in continually, and over time, the success begins to build slowly, but with its own momentum. This is drastically different than typical marketing campaign efforts where each campaign has a fairly defined investment/payback model; a point-in-time investment which is tied to a short-term payback.

Webtrends shows metrics on community success (views, shares, fans, etc), and indicates through “flags” where the driving events (such as blog posts, tweets, and marketing promotions) took place. By doing this, they guide marketers to the view that the driving events are there to build community, engagement, and influencers, which will then over time drive the creation of qualified leads. This view is significantly different than the more direct campaign-to-lead model of typical marketing, but a much more accurate representation of the marketing realities of social media.

As we market to B2B buyers, optimizing how information finds its way to them is crucial. To do this well means that we need to think more in terms of the ideas, and less in terms of the channel by which the information is disseminated. Similarly, as we build our engagement with our buying audiences in social media, we need to think more in terms of how our efforts are building and driving community success, rather than thinking in terms of single campaigns. With their new ability to analyze Facebook, understand the flow of ideas across social media channels, and see community success mapped against the events that drove it, Webtrends helps us make important steps in this direction.

What do you think? Have you tried their new capability in your environment? What insights are you able to gain from it that you weren’t able to get previously?