Gearheads: The Sterling Communications Blog

Technology and the psychology of markets

Grim news about the economy continues to flow in.  Today, the Conference Board announced that consumer confidence has fallen to all-time low. This got me thinking about the impact of modern communications technology on the psychology of markets.

The great wonder of our era is that more people have access to more information than ever before. News, both good and bad, travels instantaneously. It's not just at our fingertips, but constantly surrounds us. 

On the one hand, this is an incredibly empowering force. Since people can get data and opinions on just about anything at any time from anywhere, they're able to make better decisions.  But I'm beginning to question if the connected nature of our society magnifies the impact of bad news. Today, when a company announces layoffs or there's a bad report about housing, you'll hear about it instantly—and not just once but 5 or 6 times in a single day.  Then you'll see newspapers, TV shows and blogs all offering their opinion on what it means. It's almost impossible to escape.

Viva Las Vegas! CES, Down But Not Out

In this winter of our discontent — or hardship, to quote our current Bard over The Bard — we have to seize on the shreds of hope that appear, however small they might be. A couple of weeks ago, my esteemed colleague Shira Frantzich wondered if the current economic slowdown would affect the Consumer Electronics Show. The answer is Yes … and No.

I spent my usual 5 exhausting yet entertaining days with my client NETGEAR.  Was the show smaller? Yes, absolutely. Was it slower? Hmm, not really. That might seem contradictory, but it’s not. I agree with most of what Sean Captain of Popular Science observed.

There hasn’t been an official tally yet from the CEA — they're saying 110,000 — but there’s no question that foot traffic was lighter than 2008’s official 141,000. For me, the most telling sign was that I was able to walk from the South Hall to the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, through the connecting walkways and the Central Hall, with my Sterling messenger bag on my shoulder, without bumping into anyone! In past years I would not have bothered to attempt this, but would have walked via an outside route.

Taxi drivers, the best information sources on all things Vegas, told me that they saw more people coming for half the show. That is, people came for Wed-Fri and flew out, while other people flew in for Fri-Sun. So, still plenty of people, just not as many at the same time.

The Business Case for Social Media Engagement

You’d have to be living in a hole close to the earth’s molten core not to know about — or feel the effects of — the crappy economy. And in these uncertain times, spending money on anything new might seem foolish.  But if you’re a savvy marketer, you probably realize that now is the WORST time to stop communicating with your customers, since they’re getting even pickier about who they do business with.  You know that social media can help your company build strong customer relationships. But how do you convince the people who sign your checks that, yes, this is something we should be investing in right now?  Here, in a handy, royalty-free, cut-and-paste-able format, is the business case for a social media engagement program.   Use it in good health.

Consistency of communication with the market: Whether we have a corporate initiative in place to engage with social media or not, some of our employees are already using tools and services like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Delicious, etc. and talking publicly about their work and/or issues that are relevant to us as a company. Without some level of training and guidelines to follow, they might be using those tools improperly or unintentionally disclosing information that is sensitive or positioned in a way that is inconsistent with the market message we are delivering. Providing a basic foundation on the uses and benefits of social media can maximize the value of our employees’ social media interactions with potential and existing customers and partners and minimize the risks of misinformation or unintended disclosure.

I wish I had that phone…

It’s so hard to keep up nowadays.  Whether it be with friends, family, the job, the news…or that latest technology.  I was at lunch with a friend yesterday and his eyes lit up like the dad in A Christmas Story when he received that "Italian" leg lamp...the very words that always make me feel two steps behind the Jones’.  “I got an iPhone!”

Needless to say, he whipped it out went on to show me all of the cool new apps on his new, sparkly toy.  He tried to convince me to use “Loopt,” to keep tabs on me (NO THANKS), showed me how awesome Pandora was on the iPhone (yes, it’s awesome), showed me how perfect Gmail’s interface looks on the phone…

Last night was game night at my place.  We were all sitting around the table, texting, Googling facts to try to call people out on their exaggerations…great times.  And then I saw it.  My friend’s brand-new BlackBerry Storm.  Beautiful.  Perfect.  Completely usable, practical, pretty, small and easy-to-use.  If I had that phone, my life would probably be complete for a month at least.  The Jones’ are impossible to keep up with.

I currently have a BlackBerry Curve—it’s so Saved by the Bell (though it’s only 6 months old).  It’s like a VCR in my pocket.  It has buttons.  Like the kind you have to push for something to happen. If only I had Verizon.  If only…

Twilight Years: Will we soon witness the death of the paperback?

If you have a niece, daughter, cousin, or have even spoken to a tween girl lately, chances are Twilight is on the brain. The vampire love story hit a cord among young girls in particular, and its popularity has spread like wildfire. I caved to the peer pressure from my roommate and read all 4 books in the series over the holiday. Now that I’m “in on it,” so to speak, I can’t go to the gym or dentist’s office without seeing someone lugging around one of the roughly 600-800 page books. However, if we learned anything from Oprah this holiday season, it’s that this doesn’t need to be the case. Oprah praised it and the masses followed, making the hot new gift for Christmas this year, Amazon’s Kindle.

The Kindle is an e-book reader, slightly smaller than the typical paperback book, that electronically displays pages from books, magazines, newspapers etc. Amazon’s Kindle Store allows owners to purchase and download books online, over its built-in and free Sprint powered data network connection. The Kindle Store’s prices are cheaper than purchasing paper or hardback copies. Some books, including many classics, run around $0.80, while popular new books, like the Twilight series are a bit more expensive. The popular linking of Twilight and the hottest new way to read is no accident, as the series is known for using technology and the Internet to become “the first social networking best seller.” 

Microwave is Heating Up!

I recently read about the report published by Infonetics Research  stating that the sales of microwave equipment is expected to grow significantly over the next few years. So where exactly does this play a role? Well, we’ve already been seeing the rapid growth of data traffic resulting from the quick innovation and releases of today’s newest cell phones for 3G networks, all claiming to offer the latest and greatest features and applications.

There clearly doesn't seem to be any desire for a slow down in spending on product developments, but at the same time all this increased usage clearly requires substantial investment in mobile networks to support the surge in data traffic and increase customer satisfaction for all the new phones out in the market today.

Will the Current Economic Slowdown (CES) affect next week’s CES?

There has been a lot of talk about companies scaling back their trade show efforts as a result of the economic downturn. Steve Jobs won’t be at Macworld this year, and Apple’s pulling out altogether in 2010. The Telegraph’s Claudine Beaumont says we can expect a smaller Consumer Electronics Show this year in terms of attendees. Exhibitors signed up a year ago, so we won’t know the full effect of the economic crisis on the show until 2010 (though some major companies still abandoned their booth spaces). However, there is still hope since consumers are spending money on gadgets that keep them busy at home instead of going out for entertainment.

In addition to the economic downturn, Robert Scoble claims that bloggers and online video are killing the trade show. He definitely makes a few good points about trade show ROI versus launching new products via social networking sites. He doesn’t even think CES will make it to 2011.

I found these articles interesting since I’ve been calling media over the past few weeks to schedule meetings for my client, NETGEAR, and noticed that some of the business press contacts we’ve met with year after year are not going to the show this year. However, I have noticed that more bloggers and trade press seem to be on the attendee list.

Guess we’ll just have to wait and find out, but it will be interesting to see how busy — or not so busy — the show is when I’m there next week.

On the Road to Effective Corporate Blogging

Well, it's January 1, so I guess the time is right for predictions.  My first 2009 prediction is that we're going to see a huge increase in the quality of corporate blogs. Many companies (Sterling included) got their feet wet in 2007 and 2008, but 2009 is going to be the year when corporate blogs go mainstream (and get much, much better).

Many of our clients ask me what makes for a great corporate blog; netting it all out, I think the most effective corporate blogs are the ones written by passionate people (not ghost-written by others appointed to the duty) about issues they really care about (not just to promote their own products/services) in a conversational tone that invites comments and even debate.  They're also updated frequently, talk about ideas and issues that the company's customers/partners find important and candidly answer questions about the company's products/services.

While I was on Twitter this morning, I followed a link to Jon Burg's site and found some corporate blogging rules that rang true...so I thought I'd share them with you. Enjoy, and please add your own rules to the list.