Tag Archives: Saumil Mehta

About 1142 days ago E-Commerce

Three Ways to Get to a Web State of Mind

I recently received a rather intriguing lunch invitation. I was to go visit a high-end San Francisco health clinic (I’m being vague on purpose here) and discuss my company Kosmix‘s viewpoint on where the Web is going, as expressed through one of our products. It was a great discussion and while the situational specifics are unimportant, the larger points are hopefully useful to many small and mid-sized businesses. This clinical practice has a leadership that understands, in broad strokes, the need to have a very strong online presence. They recognize the competitive advantage of being an information hub for this niche area of science and medicine. What’s more, they’ve even taken several solid steps in this direction by creating an actively updated blog, a newswire-style website, and a more “static” site that hosts long-form articles written by medical experts. Compared to the broader brick-and-mortar world, this is a trailblazing organization. We talked a lot about what it takes for a brick-and-mortar business to create a standalone site that’s more than a boring PR mouthpiece. That was this company’s primary goal and I’d like to share a few of our many discussion points with you (your mileage will vary based upon your specific goals). Operate like a Web company This one is so obvious it is most often overlooked. I’ve seen a lot of small companies focus on detail-level issues like the number of pages indexed by Google while ignoring the bigger picture philosophical commitment. Operating your Web “group” like a Web company requires a mindset that’s endemic to the nature of the Web as a medium. Here’s what you need to do: Move fast. I frequently ask site owners how often they release new code to refresh their site. Anything less than once a day is far too slow in my world. This doesn’t mean that you stop paying attention to customers at the cash register. This is actually an issue of attitude towards product development. The Web was built for speed and frequent change, and if your organization isn’t deeply attuned to that mental framework you’re likely moving far slower than a pure-play Web company. My company releases most of its software stack at least once a day and there are people within the company who’d like to release more frequently. Be willing to iterate and fail quickly. This follows directly from the point above. The ability to move fast and make frequent changes means that you don’t have to spend six months conceptualizing an idea. Have an idea you’d like to try on the site? Try it! Aim to put it on the site in days, not weeks or months. I’m well aware that this advice is generally peddled as a black-or-white conflict between high quality features and mindless tweaks that add no value. So it is important to add a disclaimer to ensure that an experiment always passes your human “sniff test.” If two or more sub-features are jointed at the hip and can’t be released in a couple of days of work, take the time to do it right. But once you’ve got a baseline product up, always look for an iterative approach to get from A to B. Measure obsessively. Again, this follows from the above points. Your iterative experiments need to be tied to detailed outcome measurement so you can decide a course of follow-up action. For example, if you decide to change your site’s color palette, do you know if the new color palette increased average time on site per visitor? If you don’t know the exact before/after difference, why even bother making the change? The Web provides better real-time measurement and tracking capabilities than any previous medium so it is criminally inefficient to not take advantage of them. A basic understanding of web analytics is rather easy to acquire nowadays and a combination of Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer can get you quite far for the low, low price of free. As before, exercise human “sniff test” judgment. If the data is telling you to make a decision you’d oppose as a user of your site, consider going back to the drawing board. If you have a blog, be authentic. Joel Spolsky is a renowned programmer and author and writes the “Joel on Software” blog. Spolsky recently wrote a piece for this magazine that passionately argues for true authenticity for your corporate blog instead of “utterly boring press releases rewritten to sound a little bit less stuffy”. He also writes, “Blogging as a medium seems so personal…when you’re using a blog to promote a business, that blog can’t be about you…has to be about your readers…about making them awesome.” It’s well worth your time to read the article. Give ONE person ownership over social media. If you’re building a Web property, you’re likely going to need all the distribution help you can get from social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Once again, auto-spamming all your Twitter followers every time you update the corporate blog isn’t going to work. Social media is conversational and smart Web companies generally have a unique role for a “community manager” to manage and foster conversation. Pandora Radio, for example, is a certifiable darling of the Internet set and relies on their community manager to maintain an active Twitter account: http://twitter.com/pandora_radio. I recently found a relatively unknown San Francisco fitness company that has 12,000 fans on their Facebook Page. People Magazine, one of the most recognizable media brands in the world, has less than 19,000. Why? I can’t speak for People, but being aggressive, being committed, identifying ONE owner and seeing a conversational medium as more than just a “channel” has made all the difference for this fitness company. In summary, turning your Web content into a standalone, vibrant Web property that’s not just a cost center or a marketing sideshow requires hard work and deep leadership commitment. More personally, I’m hopeful that my friends over at the health clinic will commit and dive into the wonderful Web, and so too, will you. Saumil Mehta is a product fanatic at Kosmix and an all-around Internet business geek. He tweets with nary a hint of self-promotion at @saumil and blogs about technology and personal rants at http://bitbubble.wordpress.com  

About 1142 days ago Web Analytics

Three Ways to Get to a Web State of Mind

I recently received a rather intriguing lunch invitation. I was to go visit a high-end San Francisco health clinic (I’m being vague on purpose here) and discuss my company Kosmix‘s viewpoint on where the Web is going, as expressed through one of our products. It was a great discussion and while the situational specifics are unimportant, the larger points are hopefully useful to many small and mid-sized businesses. This clinical practice has a leadership that understands, in broad strokes, the need to have a very strong online presence. They recognize the competitive advantage of being an information hub for this niche area of science and medicine. What’s more, they’ve even taken several solid steps in this direction by creating an actively updated blog, a newswire-style website, and a more “static” site that hosts long-form articles written by medical experts. Compared to the broader brick-and-mortar world, this is a trailblazing organization. We talked a lot about what it takes for a brick-and-mortar business to create a standalone site that’s more than a boring PR mouthpiece. That was this company’s primary goal and I’d like to share a few of our many discussion points with you (your mileage will vary based upon your specific goals). Operate like a Web company This one is so obvious it is most often overlooked. I’ve seen a lot of small companies focus on detail-level issues like the number of pages indexed by Google while ignoring the bigger picture philosophical commitment. Operating your Web “group” like a Web company requires a mindset that’s endemic to the nature of the Web as a medium. Here’s what you need to do: Move fast. I frequently ask site owners how often they release new code to refresh their site. Anything less than once a day is far too slow in my world. This doesn’t mean that you stop paying attention to customers at the cash register. This is actually an issue of attitude towards product development. The Web was built for speed and frequent change, and if your organization isn’t deeply attuned to that mental framework you’re likely moving far slower than a pure-play Web company. My company releases most of its software stack at least once a day and there are people within the company who’d like to release more frequently. Be willing to iterate and fail quickly. This follows directly from the point above. The ability to move fast and make frequent changes means that you don’t have to spend six months conceptualizing an idea. Have an idea you’d like to try on the site? Try it! Aim to put it on the site in days, not weeks or months. I’m well aware that this advice is generally peddled as a black-or-white conflict between high quality features and mindless tweaks that add no value. So it is important to add a disclaimer to ensure that an experiment always passes your human “sniff test.” If two or more sub-features are jointed at the hip and can’t be released in a couple of days of work, take the time to do it right. But once you’ve got a baseline product up, always look for an iterative approach to get from A to B. Measure obsessively. Again, this follows from the above points. Your iterative experiments need to be tied to detailed outcome measurement so you can decide a course of follow-up action. For example, if you decide to change your site’s color palette, do you know if the new color palette increased average time on site per visitor? If you don’t know the exact before/after difference, why even bother making the change? The Web provides better real-time measurement and tracking capabilities than any previous medium so it is criminally inefficient to not take advantage of them. A basic understanding of web analytics is rather easy to acquire nowadays and a combination of Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer can get you quite far for the low, low price of free. As before, exercise human “sniff test” judgment. If the data is telling you to make a decision you’d oppose as a user of your site, consider going back to the drawing board. If you have a blog, be authentic. Joel Spolsky is a renowned programmer and author and writes the “Joel on Software” blog. Spolsky recently wrote a piece for this magazine that passionately argues for true authenticity for your corporate blog instead of “utterly boring press releases rewritten to sound a little bit less stuffy”. He also writes, “Blogging as a medium seems so personal…when you’re using a blog to promote a business, that blog can’t be about you…has to be about your readers…about making them awesome.” It’s well worth your time to read the article. Give ONE person ownership over social media. If you’re building a Web property, you’re likely going to need all the distribution help you can get from social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Once again, auto-spamming all your Twitter followers every time you update the corporate blog isn’t going to work. Social media is conversational and smart Web companies generally have a unique role for a “community manager” to manage and foster conversation. Pandora Radio, for example, is a certifiable darling of the Internet set and relies on their community manager to maintain an active Twitter account: http://twitter.com/pandora_radio. I recently found a relatively unknown San Francisco fitness company that has 12,000 fans on their Facebook Page. People Magazine, one of the most recognizable media brands in the world, has less than 19,000. Why? I can’t speak for People, but being aggressive, being committed, identifying ONE owner and seeing a conversational medium as more than just a “channel” has made all the difference for this fitness company. In summary, turning your Web content into a standalone, vibrant Web property that’s not just a cost center or a marketing sideshow requires hard work and deep leadership commitment. More personally, I’m hopeful that my friends over at the health clinic will commit and dive into the wonderful Web, and so too, will you. Saumil Mehta is a product fanatic at Kosmix and an all-around Internet business geek. He tweets with nary a hint of self-promotion at @saumil and blogs about technology and personal rants at http://bitbubble.wordpress.com  

About 1198 days ago Blogging and Social Media

Making Cents of Social Media Tools

Let’s get this out of the way: much like you, I too am sick of every single “social media” service that’s going to magically bring customers in the door and turn them into lifetime fans of your business. Ever since Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn became mainstream applications, we’ve seen a torrent of entrants into the social space that’s matched in number only by the sheer volume of vapid celebrity tweets on Twitter. But look underneath the surface and something interesting is truly afoot. Consumers across the globe are sharing media on Twitter and Facebook, friending relative strangers, becoming fans of their cities and their favorite shows on Facebook and talking with their public officials on Twitter. It seems obvious then, that where consumers are, business must follow. As a business owner or manager, where should you start? There are several social media tools that you can begin using right away with low friction and great upside. I have picked a few select examples but this list only scratches the surface. CoTweet: Do you run a service business? Do you live and die by customer service and word–of-mouth? It doesn’t matter if you operate a small neighborhood cafe or a low-cost airline, you have most likely created a company Twitter account to engage with your customers who are also on the social network. CoTweet allows all of your employees to share one company Twitter account and engage obsessively with your current and future customers in a common voice. You can also see what the Twittersphere is saying about your business and reach out to them directly via CoTweet. Finally, you can even track all of your Twitter conversations in one place. Think it sounds hokey? Take a look at JetBlue’s rather active Twitter stream, powered by CoTweet. SalesForce Chatter: You have undoubtedly come across SalesForce’s myriad business offerings over the last few years. One of their latest is a slick collaboration offering called Chatter. Most small and mid-sized businesses deal with collaboration issues — how do you run a lean and efficient business when your team is stuck in a meeting vortex for half the day? Smart companies are solving the problem by offering their employees the same kinds of social tools we all use to keep in touch with our friends around the globe. Chatter, for example, is a piece of collaboration software that allows your employees to “follow” each other much like on Twitter or Facebook. This way, employees can stay constantly updated on projects that various colleagues are working on across teams and departments. Chatter also allows team members to create groups instantaneously to discuss and collaborate on deals they are working on together. Users can post files, talk deal strategy and competition, and get on the same page without more dreadful meetings. The key point here is that different members of your team can engage with the stream of information at their own pace and “chime in” as needed, or simply consume the updates passively.  I think we are going to see an increase in similar collaboration offerings in the next few years and Chatter is definitely a service to keep a close eye on. GetSatisfaction: No matter what business or industry you are in, you have likely already established a basic online presence via a company website that lists and/or sells all of your products online, a blog where you discuss your tactical goings-on, and likely, Facebook/Twitter pages where you engage with actual customers. But what happens when things go wrong with customers? How do you provide professional customer service online in today’s hothouse media environment? A simple “Contact Us” page with a 1-800 number simply won’t do. Enter GetSatisfaction, a thoughtful service that allows customers to report issues, start conversations and get in touch with your customer service reps painlessly.  In a nutshell, the service provides your customers a simple online interface to ask questions and report problems. Your service reps can now maintain an official online presence and work with your customers’ most pressing issues. GetSatisfaction also allows grouping of issues into meaningful “views” such as frequently asked questions, recently proposed ideas, most common problems with your product (and solutions!), etc. What’s more, you can integrate GetSatisfaction directly into your site’s domain at http://service.yourcompany.com, for example. This allows you to control the look and feel and maintain a seamless experience for your customers. Companies left and right are jumping in with both feet. Check out a traditional and established business — Nike — that has overcome these qualms and is taking advantage of social customer service. Nike integrates GetSatisfaction on their NikeRunning site, albeit mostly for technology issues.So what are you waiting for? Kick off 2010 with an aggressive investment in a few, or all, of these tools. Saumil Mehta is a product fanatic at Kosmix and an all-around Internet business geek. He tweets with nary a hint of self-promotion at @saumil and blogs about technology and personal rants at http://bitbubble.wordpress.com

About 1198 days ago E-Commerce

Making Cents of Social Media Tools

Let’s get this out of the way: much like you, I too am sick of every single “social media” service that’s going to magically bring customers in the door and turn them into lifetime fans of your business. Ever since Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn became mainstream applications, we’ve seen a torrent of entrants into the social space that’s matched in number only by the sheer volume of vapid celebrity tweets on Twitter. But look underneath the surface and something interesting is truly afoot. Consumers across the globe are sharing media on Twitter and Facebook, friending relative strangers, becoming fans of their cities and their favorite shows on Facebook and talking with their public officials on Twitter. It seems obvious then, that where consumers are, business must follow. As a business owner or manager, where should you start? There are several social media tools that you can begin using right away with low friction and great upside. I have picked a few select examples but this list only scratches the surface. CoTweet: Do you run a service business? Do you live and die by customer service and word–of-mouth? It doesn’t matter if you operate a small neighborhood cafe or a low-cost airline, you have most likely created a company Twitter account to engage with your customers who are also on the social network. CoTweet allows all of your employees to share one company Twitter account and engage obsessively with your current and future customers in a common voice. You can also see what the Twittersphere is saying about your business and reach out to them directly via CoTweet. Finally, you can even track all of your Twitter conversations in one place. Think it sounds hokey? Take a look at JetBlue’s rather active Twitter stream, powered by CoTweet. SalesForce Chatter: You have undoubtedly come across SalesForce’s myriad business offerings over the last few years. One of their latest is a slick collaboration offering called Chatter. Most small and mid-sized businesses deal with collaboration issues — how do you run a lean and efficient business when your team is stuck in a meeting vortex for half the day? Smart companies are solving the problem by offering their employees the same kinds of social tools we all use to keep in touch with our friends around the globe. Chatter, for example, is a piece of collaboration software that allows your employees to “follow” each other much like on Twitter or Facebook. This way, employees can stay constantly updated on projects that various colleagues are working on across teams and departments. Chatter also allows team members to create groups instantaneously to discuss and collaborate on deals they are working on together. Users can post files, talk deal strategy and competition, and get on the same page without more dreadful meetings. The key point here is that different members of your team can engage with the stream of information at their own pace and “chime in” as needed, or simply consume the updates passively.  I think we are going to see an increase in similar collaboration offerings in the next few years and Chatter is definitely a service to keep a close eye on. GetSatisfaction: No matter what business or industry you are in, you have likely already established a basic online presence via a company website that lists and/or sells all of your products online, a blog where you discuss your tactical goings-on, and likely, Facebook/Twitter pages where you engage with actual customers. But what happens when things go wrong with customers? How do you provide professional customer service online in today’s hothouse media environment? A simple “Contact Us” page with a 1-800 number simply won’t do. Enter GetSatisfaction, a thoughtful service that allows customers to report issues, start conversations and get in touch with your customer service reps painlessly.  In a nutshell, the service provides your customers a simple online interface to ask questions and report problems. Your service reps can now maintain an official online presence and work with your customers’ most pressing issues. GetSatisfaction also allows grouping of issues into meaningful “views” such as frequently asked questions, recently proposed ideas, most common problems with your product (and solutions!), etc. What’s more, you can integrate GetSatisfaction directly into your site’s domain at http://service.yourcompany.com, for example. This allows you to control the look and feel and maintain a seamless experience for your customers. Companies left and right are jumping in with both feet. Check out a traditional and established business — Nike — that has overcome these qualms and is taking advantage of social customer service. Nike integrates GetSatisfaction on their NikeRunning site, albeit mostly for technology issues.So what are you waiting for? Kick off 2010 with an aggressive investment in a few, or all, of these tools. Saumil Mehta is a product fanatic at Kosmix and an all-around Internet business geek. He tweets with nary a hint of self-promotion at @saumil and blogs about technology and personal rants at http://bitbubble.wordpress.com