Social media can be great for many things, to see a buzz about your brand, invite commentary and to also pick up interventions where necessary. I was reminded of an important point yesterday, by a user on Twitter. They posted a #Fail as a link was broken on a pay per click campaign, instead of landing on a specific product category, it went to a homepage. They posted a tweet about it. The point it reminded me of was hygiene factors.

There is no point doing fancy nancy things if the user journey is illogical, broken or it clutters it up. Many businesses spend too much time making sophisticated websites, only to find their bounce rate is enormous as the homepage takes too long to load or someone doesn’t have the latest version of a media player (seen plenty of examples of this). Users are time poor. If you are selling something, show it fast, make it easy to narrow the selection and offer a call to action (purchase) as quickly as you can, on-line preferably. The digital world allows us to do many clever things, however, let it not distract us from the job in hand which is to convert active browswers into buyers.

By having a listening strategy, you can quickly pick up the problem, hold your hands up, get it fixed and make it easier for the next person. Without social media intervention, it may not get picked up and you get a bunch of #fail messages. My advice, visit your own website as a buyer, do you make it easy? Are your hygiene factors taken care of? Does your homepage load quickly? Is it easy for a buyer to establish how and where to buy your product?

The funny thing is that the website in question was my own, the link is fixed now, we were listening and we’ve taken action. Thanks for the feedback!

Passing on some advice to an industry contact the other day, made me stop and think for a minute. How have I built my network? Most people that know me consider me reasonably well connected, which is a lovely compliment. I’ll write further blogs about it in the future, for now though I have one golden rule to pass on . Don’t spread yourself too thin.

Whether on-line or off-line, be selective with the channels you use, decide what you want to achieve – in advance – then go to work on building your network. By being selective, you can add more value, give more, see people more regularly (building a stronger relationship in time) and get more benefit. Building solid contacts is not about the first meeting, getting a business card and hounding people. It’s about meeting people, listening, asking questions, contributing, learning and being interested in others, frequency helps this (hence being selective).

Social media networks are no different. People run off setting up profiles everywhere, trying to update too many things and not really moving further forward to their end game, it’s a common mistake and don’t fall into the trap. A favourite one liner sums it up, “If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority”, couldn’t agree more.

The Worlds biggest secret is finally out. Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the “i-Pad.” Launched today by Apple CEO – Steve Jobs – the i-Pad has created a huge buzz of anticipation, primarily as Apple have been keeping details of the product under such tight security.

So tight, that the army of bloggers, Twitterers and journalists have not been able to break any major news of the product pre-launch, debate was still hot this morning about the products name and Paddy Power were even accepting bets about it. Now that is very difficult to do. Think about the world as it stands today, hardly anything remains a secret. Someone is always ready to break news, take a photo or take their two minutes of fame if offered. Which makes what Apple have achieved even more impressive.

A business psychologist whom I’ve worked with, describes trust as “for all time”, that is, if I tell you a secret, it remains between the two of us, until either party expliciity say otherwise. Steve Jobs has clearly got a trusting bunch of people at Apple, as they have been watertight on this project and have not breached ranks. That is quite something and worthy of appreciation. How they’ve done it, I don’t know. By doing it, they’ve seen a massive buzz build about the product on and off-line, that is worth millions of marketing dollars on their own. Something that many other brands will be looking at with some jealousy.

Here’s one tablet that may not go down so well for book publishers. The Apple i-Slate, i-Pad, i-Tablet (official name yet to be revealed) is making its worldwide debut on Wednesday and with it comes the promise to potentially disrupt the paper based book model.

2010 has been an interesting year so far with Google launching its Nexus One phone and now Apple taking on the Amazon Kindle in the e-book market (amongst lots of other things). So, is this the nail in the coffin for the traditional book market? Depending on where you sit on the fence, yes and no.

The traditional book market is going to undergo some big changes for three key reasons.

1. Technology and the convenience it brings.
2. Carbon footprinting.
3. The business model of publishers.

Technology. Access is the new Oxygen. Amazon Kindle sales have rocketed from £3M PA in 2007 to a whopping £610M by the end of 2010. They have proved that the switch to digital is merely a matter of pricing, choice and ease of purchase. Generation Y are leading the charge, however, Generation X are well and truly in the market too, particularly people that travel a lot. It’s estimated that 50% of all book sales will be e-books by 2020 (Source Sunday Times 24/1/2010).

Carbon Footprint. However attached we are to books, they do have an environmental footprint. Every piece of paper used has an embedded carbon footprint through production and distribution processes. Digital downloads are not zero carbon, however they cut a significant amount of journey carbon. As we become more focussed on Carbon, everything will matter.

Distruption of Business Model. Here’s one of the key drivers that really interests me. You may now know, but the average author earns 8-10% royalties on their books via publishers. E-books can earn them up to 25% royalty, so a real financial incentive to prioritise electronic distribution. As a result, you’ll see more and more authors do their launches on-line before shops because they can earn considerably more. Now think about this. Apple and Amazon have the platforms to take e-books direct to market through their e-commerce sites. Two of the most visited sites on the planet. As a result, they can afford to pay up to 70% royalty to any author that publishes directly with them and cuts out the traditional business model of publisher in between. If I were a book publisher I’d be worried as there is a sudden real motivation for authors to go down the e-book route and cut them out of the chain. You can suddenly now see why the predictions are so huge as authors will no doubt want to cash in on the huge rewards.
Personally, I love books.

I like to read in bed, holding an electronic device just won’t feel right. However, on the move, it’s a different story. When I’m travelling, on a plane or in a hotel, I don’t want to lug books around with me, having thousands of books on instant recall is a big plus and will give me a large variety of things to read, to suit my mood.

So, back to the “core” issue (ahem). The Apple table product is much more than an e-reader of course, it will web browse, play music, host clever apps and all the other cool things that Apple will load it up with to justify its $1000 price tag. In time, the price will come down as Apple realise the real money in the content business, however you do have to admire their ability to keep their prices high through their design and functionality. The combination of cool tech, accessibility and a disruptive business model for authors, guarantees that the launch towards a more digitally focussed book market will be taking a giant leap forward and Apple look determined to take a big bite of it. Paper based books aren’t going to become extinct, however the mix of paper vs. electronic will undergo huge change over the coming decade, that’s for sure.

Website for start ups and growing businesses Smarta have just launched a great e-book called “The Smartest Brains in Business: 2010 and beyond.” You can download it here. It features short and snappy insights from 30 people about how they see the immediate future. What I like about this is how quick it is to read and how interesting it is to see the contrasting views and perspectives from a diverse group of people (you might recognise the guy on page eight). It’s a fanastic example of how much quality information is available on the web nowadays and not everything has to be a massive thought leadership paper to cut through. I really enjoyed reading (and contributing to) it.

Presenting. On the Top 10 fears of human beings, it comes about third on the list, before dying. Great presentations look effortless, are interesting and engage audiences. I got sent a great link by a contact on Twitter the other day, it’s well worth a watch. Click here. It’s an online slide show about “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs” from Apple. It covers all the essentials from a master in the art. The main point of note is about preparation and rehearsal, this is key. Jobs takes about 90hrs preparation to deliver a 1hr keynote. That sounds excessive right? Well yes, it does on first glance. However, if you’re the CEO of Apple a lot depends on your delivery and it’s time well spent. The more you put in at the front end, the better the experience will be for your audience. Above all, be yourself, don’t read from slides, the shorter the better and let your personality come through.

Speaking in Manchester this morning at the Insider Technology breakfast, Dave Carter, Head of Manchester Digital Development Agency outlined his vision for how the region is going to get faster in terms of its data transfer speed. This of course should mean faster access for everyone, who can complain about that (especially when I get a paltry 0.5MB at my house), an example was given that a 4GB video would take around 46 seconds to upload. Describing a “Digiopolis”, he cited Amsterdam particularly as one European city that is investing in speeding up its City and the need for Manchester to press on with a fibre optic network. One of the panellists, Sue Woodward from The Sharp Project made some good arguments, one example she gave was about “chasing the sun”. Essentially, transferring your software development from one time zone to the other, to speed up development time whilst also making use of global talent. This requires a big pipe and a Manchester company “Mofilm” are already doing this, great stuff and innovative workstyle! My key point is that in order for Manchester to achieve it’s economic objectives identified in the MIER report, then big grand plans need to be set in place to make fibre optic available to all businesses at a competitive rate. Priority should be on business for me. Business will contribute more, be more competitive, contribute more GVA and grow the region. Chatting afterwards to the President of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Moneeb Awan, he supported the view, at the same time expressing that this is a required backbone for tech/software innovation and calling for an acceleration of the plans. The main thing is, people are talking about it in the region and everyone ultimately needs to benefit, however it’s vital that there is a joined up approach to gain maximum impact. Manchester has aspirations, great people and a desire to get things done, that’s why it’s such a great place to be. Once it gets “Digioplis” status, it will be a significant step in the direction of further regional growth. I’ve made a further post on the subject here.

If you haven’t heard of Mark Cavendish, you should of. Six stage winner in last years Tour de France, he’s one of the best cycling sprinters of all time. I read his auto-biography over Christmas, it’s a cracker, honest, fiery, critical, one of those reads you can’t put down. One particular element of the story I want to share with you. It relates to Cav’s (his nickname) rejection of sports scientist Simon Jones techniques and methodologies, you can read an essence of their relationship in this Guardian story here. Jones, credited with being one of the key people in the turnaround in British Track Cycling and winner of Coach of the Year by UK sport and Cavendish spectacularly fell out. Why? Because Cavendish rejected the scientific approach that Jones adopted to the sport. Cav argued that Jones could not recreate the moment when he took the decision to go, as it was based upon multiple factors, tiredness, heat, the other riders mental condition, the crowd, looking into a competitors eye to know that “now” was the time. Jones maintained it was a question of discipline, technique and sporting science. It reminded me very much of entrepreneurialism. Entrepreneurs typically try things that other haven’t, break new ground, take risks and love the thrill of a start up. Sometimes, the rulesbooks say “don’t do it” so they do it anyway. What’s interesting here though is that Jones’s techniques clearly work, they have produced world class Olympic Gold medal winning athletes. A bit like a bank manager reading a plan and immediately judging whether a business will succeed or fail. On the opposite side, Cavendish, rejecting those methods, achieved global success his own way. Point being, always listen to others, assess all factors before making your own decision and then do it and believe in yourself.