What is the Wave?
Wave is a new collaboration technology from Google. It’s just been made available in a pre-beta version to about 300,000 to 600,000 people globally. (100,000 invitees who in turn can give access to 5  additional people each).

It’s a Swiss Army Knife of a tool for collaborating and communicating in real time. It has the potential to change the way we communicate, and I forsee many virtual teams using it to improve productivity, when it’s made generally available in the months ahead. Like Google Apps, the price for admission is free, so the barriers to entry will be very low.

The best description I’ve seen for what the Wave is and how businesses might use it is by Daniel Tenner, in his post “What problems does Google Wave solve?  (read the comments too, for a lively and mostly intelligent discussion of pros and cons of Wave).

Essentially Tenner postures that Wave is not a geek/hacker tool or a social media tool, but a corporate tool that solves real world work problems.

When Should You Jump In?
Business owners, executives, project teams and the rest of us with high collaboration requirements should have an awareness of the Wave – and in my opinion that’s good enough for now.

This “preview” version is pre-beta, with all the rough edges and incomplete functionality that that implies. I’d leave this pie in the oven for now while the early adopters do the heavy work in the kitchen.

In the meanwhile, get your mind around what it is and it’s potential for revolutionizing business communications and marketing. Then when the time’s ready to jump in that Wave, you’ll be both ready and stoked.

It starts off like this: “Worst service…I have ever seen”. And ends like this: ”…Don’t ever do business with these guys, EVER! Followed by a 1 out of 5 star rating. Ouch, that  really hurts. It hurts doubly bad because studies show that consumers assign much higher credibility to peer reviews than to company generated messaging. The scary part for business owners is that the reviewer can slam you anonymously, whether you deserve it or not.

Here’s how to proactively manage your online reputation to ensure your ratings fairly match the quality of products or services your business provides.

1. Expect to get Slammed: Recognize  two immutable truths: 1. unhappy customers – and unscrupulous competitors - have a built in incentive to “punish you” in a review and will spend the time and effort to do so.  2. Satisfied customers - left unattended – will stay silent.

2. Don’t Fight ‘Em: You can never win an argument with a customer, so don’t try. Avoid responding to any but the most slanderous reviews. Your time is probably better spent influencing happy customers to go online and review you.

3. The Good Side of Bad Reviews: Mine for gold in bad reviews. Sure, we can all handle just about any amount of praise, but who’s going to tell us what we’re doing wrong? You know, the things that most of our customers won’t tell us to our faces.

Eric Kirsammer, owner of Quimby’s Bookstore in Chicago, also avoids engaging his critics openly online. Instead, Kirsammer uses negative reviews as a tool to improve customer service. (By Kasey Wehrum | Jun 1, 2009 / Inc)

The takeaway is simple: If the anonymous nature of online reviews help people be more forthcoming, shake off the hurt pride and smile at your good fortune.

4. Set a “Good to Bad Ratio” Goal: If you believe, as I do. that every business is doomed over time to get slammed, then work proactively to encourage happy customers to review you. If 49 customers say your fabulous and the 50th says you’re dog food, fabulous wins every time.

5. Monitor Online Mentions: Reputation management is not a one time thing. Be ever vigilant. Search regularly for what’s being said about your company online. For that matter, see what’s being said about your competitors too, both pro and con. Look for actionable items. A quick Google or Bing of your company name + review is one step. Search Twitter too.

6. Be Proactive: First let’s talk about  prevention. Prevention is better than a cure.  If it takes getting slammed by a reviewer to jump start your efforts at reputation management, just be prepared to roll that heavy barrel up the hill instead of down.

7. Review the Reviewer: If you’re like me, you appreciate an honest, thoughtful reviewer, whether they post something positive or not. I always click on the reviewer to see what else they’ve reviewed and what they have to say. If they’ve only reviewed one business and they slammed it -or they’ve reviewed a bunch and they love everyone, I factor that into how much their rating will influence me.

Case Study: Checkered Flag, a neighborhood carwash here in Irvine, California launched a campaign to encourage customers to rate them online.  The rules where simple:

a. Review them on any one of these sites: google, yelp, yahoo, local.com
b. Get a free car wash
c. Limit 1 per customer
d. Print out the review and bring it to the cashier for your free car wash
e. Offer expires Oct. 31, 2009

Checkered Flag handed out fliers at the register announcing the offer to patrons. The staff were very careful not to influence customers to write a good review, which earned them a righteous nod in my book. A PR friend of mine took exception, questioning whether this would be interpreted as ”paying for a review”. I think not. I see it as reimbursing the customer for the 15 to 30 minutes of their time it takes to post a review – and clearly ethical so long as the business does not try to influence customers to write good reviews – beyond their consistent delivery of good products and services.

The results so far in Google, Yahoo, and Local.com are overwhelmingly positive for Checkered Flag as of this writing. Yelp reviews, as typical of Yelpers, were less glowing, yet mostly positive.

In summary, what people are saying about you online matters. Savvy companies are making online reputation management a strategic focus. The take away here is that if you don’t have the bandwidth or inclination or marketing wherewithal inside your business to nurture your online reputation- and most small businesses don’t, then outsource it. Else, bare your loins and pray the nasties leave you be.

I was an early adopter of Microsoft Office in the late 80s. While the development underground was busy hating Redmond – and demonstrating their lack of effection by exploiting countless Windows security holes, I was busy admiring Bill Gates, the man behind the empire. I demonstrated my admiration by throwing licensing fees his way each time I upgraded to a new Office Professional version or when I bought a new laptop. Sometimes I paid for the exact same version again, just because for one valid reason or another I was unable to locate my CD or serial number when I bought a new computer. (I still can’t find the missing socks from the dryer and yet Microsoft wants me to find the installation CD from two years ago?)

There were many logical reasons for staying with Office: learning curve, functionality, compatibility, lack of viable alternatives, just to name a few. But truthfully, there was an emotional reason that made the financial pill easier to swallow: I admired Bill and his wife Melinda for their pledge to give the bulk of their fortune away during their lifetime, through the Gates Foundation.  I still admire that about them and always will. I also think Microsoft is full of lots of good, intelligent, hard working people who deserve to reap their just rewards. The only change – and this is a killer for them when multiplied times 50 or 60 million people like me –  is that I’ve finally decided to stop contributing to their fortune. I will never again willingly pay a MS Office license fee.

Why? Glad you asked: 

1. Re-License Fatigue: I think I’ve repurchased the same product enough for one lifetime (listen up Beatles - I feel this way about the White Album too!)
2. Viable Alternative: Now there’s viable alternatives: Google Apps, and to a lesser extent, ZOHO apps.
3. Better Alternative: Now there’s a better alternative:  With Google Apps and other online solutions, there are no more software upgrades or viruses
4. Less Headaches: With “cloud computing” I”m finally out of the application hosting business! Google handles all software updates, security, and backup issues for me.
5. Less Cost (Considerably): Now there’s a cheaper alternative. Google apps cost me $50 per year, which is way cheaper than all the software upgrades, not to mention the cost of my time to install and update new software and patches for myself , my family, and our less technical friends. (some corporate studies have concluded it costs about $1,250 annually per desktop to maintain MS Office).
6. Better Collaboration: Collaboration with Google Apps is hands down easier – and promises to get easier and more effective still – with the impending release of Google Wave.
7. Always Available: Well, at least anytime I need it. Now I can access my stuff at work, at home, from my wife’s computer, from my friend’s computer, on my phone, and anywhere else with an Internet connection. I can also edit offline, though frankly I don’t do this, EVER. (If I’m without an Internet connection these days, I simply thank God for the serenity. Then I crack open a book, write notes on paper (I know, archaic isn’t it?), or (don’t think I’m weird for this) talk to the people around me.

Could Microsoft have created Google Apps before Google?  Sure they could have. A good time would have been about 2002. Why didn’t they? Who knows, but one would suspect that the threat to their short term earnings was just too great for investors and therefore management. Affiliates had a hand in it too. All those heavily invested types such as Microsoft Certified companies and resellers and other influencers have been throwing mud against the tide instead of using their leadership legacy to move their customers forward with better solutions. Too bad if this is true, because users and investors not to mention MS employees will suffer in the long term.

But isn’t this the way of nature? The old gives way to the new. The marketplace in time will correct inefficiencies. In my opinion, that time for MS Office has just arrived.

Creating a top URL shortener has the bling chasers in Silicon Valley coding like mad. One of my favorite’s is ”ow.ly“.

Why ow.ly? Two reasons:

1. the ow.ly url itself is super short.

Twitter power users know the importance of limited link size in a 140 character world.

2. ow.ly’s innovative.

By taking 30 seconds to set up a free ow.ly account, my ow.ly shortcuts become branded to me.

How? Ow.ly places a thin ”HootSuite” toolbox at the top of the visited page with a recognizable version of my Twitter profile image and a link to my full Twitter profile. The toolbox also includes uber convenient widgets for users to Follow, re-Tweet, Share,  or see Top Tweets. This helps me extend my “web_tomatoes” branding, is helpful to my audience, and way, way viral.

Since we’re talking about Hooters and Owls, let me end with this ow.ly link example:  http://ow.ly/oSyp.

Decades before the World Wide Web, Dylan wrote, “the vandals took the handles” as part of the lyric to Subterranean Homesick Blues. That makes the words pretty prophetic being that today there are people feverishly scheming to register every potentially valuable  name they can conceive of in hopes of collecting a “Ransom”.

What are some quick and free things your can do to protect your brand?

1. Scan the social networking sites to see if your name’s already registered. If not, grab it. Try this cool new tool: KnowEm.com (Just for fun, try typing in a well known brand like Pepsi or Facebook for comparison.)

Free search of social networks by brand name at KnowEm.com

2. Check your brand and related names at domize.com.  The site is fast, useful and free and is just plain simple and elegant.

So there you have it. A 2 minute checkup that can help protect your brand and save your company a lot of heartache down the road.

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Something incredible happend this Wednesday. I stopped at the Stony Creek General Store in Sequoia National Forest and ran headlong into a need for Google Wave. Here’s what happened…

My son and I were just ending a four day backpacking trip through the Jennie Lakes Wilderness when we happened upon Markus Herzig who was just getting ready to mount his strangely customized Yamaha FJ-1200 motorcycle.

When I asked him where he started from his answer startled me: “Switzerland”, he said. “Wow, that’s a long way away” I ventured. “How long did it take you?”  ”A long time the way I went”, he replied and then he recited a rough outline of his travels over the past year, in lightly accented English:

“Started in Switzerland and road across Europe and the Middle East to Asia. Traveled from one end of Japan to the other and then across China, Mongolia (no roads here – broke my frame and had to wait for a replacement) and Russia, across the Bering Straight and through Alaska and down the Western Canadian Coast, and across Southern Canada to Nova Scotia and back to the West Coast of America.”

“Today I am going to Death Valley and then down to the Mexican border. Then over the next year back to Switzerland via Central and South America and Africa.”

Cool trip, but what does this have to do with Google Wave? Well, for starters this trip calls for global collaboration across languages and media. According to Google, with Google Wave people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, [voice] and more. Concurrency control technology lets all people on a Wave edit stuff at the same time – kind of like how people talk at the same time and even over one another in normal conversation.

Since Markus’ trip is currently being blogged only in German ( www.motonaut.ch ), it would be uber useful to have Google Wave’s ability to instantly translate chats, emails and other text based communication word for word into English or another of 40 different languages, as seen in this video. And wouldn’t it be cool to track Markus’ progress on an interactive map?

Good news for anyone looking to track his trip. Google Wave is due out later this year, in plenty of time for Markus’ scheduled return into Switzerland sometime in the latter half of 2010.

The tech part of me can’t wait. And at the same time I’m a bit daunted at the prospects of our shrinking world. Wish I could open up a Wave on that.

OK, this job didn’t really exist just a few years ago except in very big, very progressive companies. Now just about any company that can afford one – from the Fortune 500 to the Russell 2 million – are looking for Online Marketing mavens.

For example, here’s an ad on Craig List today:

Director of Online Marketing (Orange, CA)

We have several web properties in the financial sector. Our flagship property Lender411.com is a leading online community for mortgage and real estate providing Internet leads and other web marketing services to mortgage professionals. We have recently revamped the site with new and exciting technology and are about to execute an aggressive go-to -market strategy.

We are currently looking for an energetic web marketing and business professional with strong analytic and multi-channel marketing skills to play a pivotal role in the development and growth of our web properties. The position will focus on increasing consumer traffic and improving conversions on our sites.

Job Responsibilities:
- Develop, implement ,maintain and manage a customer acquisition plan for all the company’s web sites using SEO, SEM, email campaigns, affiliates, paid search, display banners, widgets and guerilla marketing. Structure analysis to determine ROI from various online acquisition marketing programs showing correlation with conversion rates and revenue growth.
- Strong focus on affiliate marketing since we have neglected that channel to date. Duties to include:
- Newsletter communications, acquiring/retaining/optimizing publishers.
- Promotion of affiliate programs through various affiliate outlets
- Online Grass-roots marketing
- Creating content for web site
- Analyzing/Optimizing online marketing channels & campaigns

-Define and implement results and metrics reporting. Prepare weekly traffic and advertising forecasts. Based on results and corporate objectives, initiate any modifications to marketing plans necessary to achieve and surpass goals.

- Develop, create and execute marketing budgets on a monthly basis for different campaigns
- Manage and expand the affiliate program & relationship
- Manage & supervise submission of product data feeds to search engines
- Establish presence & strategic alliances with major social network sites

• Location: Orange, CA
• Compensation: $48K-$52K/year + benefits + Bonus
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don’t contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!

Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

Interested? Better have a good social footprint on the web already (blog, twitter, LinkedIn, facebook, myspace, meetups, website, etc., etc.).

I believe this field is hot, despite the cold economy. Would love to hear from you. What’s your opinion of the need for an in-house Online Marketing Stategists and why?

Wow and uhg! These are just two common reactions I’ve observed to the recent Google Wave announcements. 

As we evolve into NAS’es (No Attention Span) creatures, there’s a higher risk of frustration as big technologies demand more time and attention to convey the what and the why. I’m not a marketing maven but I imagine this litmus test: Can it be said in a word or an eye flicker? No? Times up!

It’s Warp speed out here. Give us FAST, CLEAR, DONT BORE ME DEAR instant understanding (preferably via tweets to the mobi).

So how does Google net/net something as mamouth, nebulous, and incredulous as the Wave? How can they convince the consumer it’s the next big thing and not just some lame and freaky cobbled together thing that they’re foisting on us?

They can take a clue from Mark Warr’s invention, the Warr Guitar, below.
This video doesn’t answer the question, “what is a Warr guitar”. But it compels the viewer to want to know.

More about Google Wave in another post. Can’t wait? Check out this developer conference video – demo starts at about minute 6. (Google Wave Developer Preview at Google I/O 2009)

Wow!

Sometimes highly functional simplicity isn’t immediately obvious… but in the end it’s always remarkable.

Know of a better domain research tool? Tell us about it.

If your company is looking for good examples of web architecture to emulate, stalk topLingo’s new website.

This well known leader in custom web development has just relaunched their corporate site in response to rapid changes in the industry.  As a 20 person company in its ninth year of business, you’d expect the makeover would be well designed. After all, topLingo’s clients range from mega bank JPMorgan/Chase to high flyer Air New Zealand to the site of  iconic jazz virtuoso, MilesDavis.com.

By way of full disclosure, I should mention that I worked for topLingo for a little over a year - helping them acquire a small chunk of their 400 plus projects. In that time, I developed a lot of respect for their creative and architectural chops. So naturally, I was curious to see what their new site would look like.

topLingo Tour | Take Our Exit! from topLingo on Vimeo.

Here are the top ten things I like about their re-design:

1. Fast Loading: The use of standards compliant coding, AJAX, optimized images and other techniques makes the site super lite and fast loading.
2. Instant Attraction: The graphic design is appealling, contemporary and immediately communicates professional competance.
3. “Am I in the right place?”: If you’re looking for a top web development firm you get that you’re in the right place within about 3-5 seconds which is well within the impatience threshold of most users.
4. “Am I in the best place?”: Again, within seconds I see a client list of names I recognize, an intro paragraph that states concisely what topLingo does, and a portfolio tab for learning more.
5. Obvious Call to Action (CTA): Sure topLingo wants you to contact them or request a quote – both CTA’s are easily accessible from anywhere on the site – but for most first time visitors it’s too early in the relationship for that. Instead, the clear CTA is to PLAY the “Take Our Exit” video which allows you to get to know them better first.
6. Entices Viral: The “Stalk Us, We Don’t Mind” section in the footer is a clever way to get visitors to share info about topLingo with their network via many of the top social sites. Another viral enticement is the ability from any portfolio page to easily share the information via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and a slew more social sites.
7. Optimzed for SEO: The site is rich with search engine optimized words and phrases, without having copy that reads like it.
8. Love Means Never Getting Lost:  The site architecture uses a consistent workspace and dynamic screen slide action that keeps things simple yet interesting as the visitor navigates content. The entire site is accessible without ever feeling like you’re leaving the landing page.
9. Relationship Cadence: First of all it’s important to note that this site has one primary audience: prospective clients. And like most of us, prospective clients want to know ”are you for me?” before spending a lot of time getting to know us.  Information Architects and Marketing types talk about “messaging to the target audience” and “funnelling” audiences from the summary to the detail. The topLingo site does this by consistently burying details on deeper inside pages.
10. Manage Content From the Blog: It’s a given that content changes rapidly in the world of web development.  But why implement an expensive Content Management System (CMS) approach for every page? For many text heavy pages, much of the content can be handled by free blog software like WordPress.  For example, low level content rich pages like this page about .NET are easily maintained in the blog Admin area with a minimum of setup and fuss.

Seen other Web 2.5 sites you like? Leave a comment and share. Or just stalk your network with one of the buttons below.