When bloggers write about me, I feel compelled to reply; I saw a post on How To “Hand-le” Your Thing(a), published a week ago in Eclectic Commons, about an uncommon door handle that could be a conversation piece, depending on how you want to look at it.

"..

The first image I saw in mind’s eye as I gaze at the “Hand-le“, designed by Naomi Thellier de Poncheville was Gomez Adams’ childhood companion “Thing T. Thing” - or just plain Thing - the disembodied hand aptly portrayed by Thing in The Adams Family. Perhaps this is, Thinga’magig, Thing’s long lost love who lived in the same box in The Adams family mansion, with Uncle Fester, Mama, Puglsy, Wednesday and Lurch. Let’s not forget Mortica who knew how to “smoke” head instead of a cigarette from her mouth, or the illustrious cousin ITT.

 

 

The writer of Eclectic Commons, doc Jon Percepto, thinks that I would know more about this door handle (perhaps the "metrics" on it):

"…Perhaps if it were padded it could have other uses by hyper hormonal males or females, but that is only speculation. No three fingered hands have been spotted in Paris, so Peanut or his descendants are not suspect. Perhaps webmetricsguru.com has more complete data at hand."

Honestly, if I found a Thing(a) in Paris next week, I'd certainly notice it.   I will say one thing though - if you want to engage people, create a sense of something they will remember when they visit - you could do a lot worse than a hand sticking out of a door.

That's the question with Social Media … finishing up my last post for November (or what I think is my last post this month) is some observations about www.TripAdvisor.com, which I just joined.

A couple of days ago I wrote a post titled Consumer Generated Reviews boost Site Conversions but the other side to the door (referring back to my Thing(a) - Interesting door handle post) is that user generated reviews can create conflicting opinions.

But first, this is what the hotel says about itself:

"…In the heart of Gare de l’Est / Gare du Nord , in 5 minutes by bus from Opera and Montmartre, the Hôtel du Nord et Champagne welcomes you with its 43 rooms, single, double , triple and quadruple. In the heart of Paris, located between Opera and Montmartre, the Hôtel du Nord et Champagne welcomes you with all the services of a modern and comfortable hotel. This description is based on information provided by the hotel."

Due to the power of the internet, I know all about the hotel I booked on Expedia last week, Hotel Nord et Champagne, and why I might want to stay there (it's inexpensive and all I need is a place to sleep) but also, that some who have stayed there complained of "bed bugs", and that was one of the more recent reviews -

"….it smelt a bit mucky and of damp and looked dated and scruffy. The linen all smelt fresh though and we just wanted somewhere to put our heads down for the night near gare du nord and it is very handy for the station, so ho hum. Despite clean linen smell, we both woke up with mysterious bites the next day - YUK"

On the other hand, another reviewer, earlier this year said:

"…We found an offer on the internet for this hotel, paying 86 euros for a double room for 2 nights (french website though). We were a little worried that paying that cheap we would have a dodgy hotel, but in fact we were pleasantly surprised. The hotel and room was clean, spacious and very respectable. The staff were friendly and the TV had good reception. We had a large bathroom with a big bath, hair dryer and even a bidet!

Some people have commented that this hotel is noisy, and it is true that you can hear the rumble of the metro. However, we were on the second floor and it wasn't that loud and the metro closes at 1 am anyway. We were woken up at 5 am though, but this would have happened in any hotel with drunken people shouting in the hallway (ashamed to say they were English…). If you're looking for really nice posh hotel then this isn't it. However if you're looking for a decent clean hotel in the centre of Paris, it is a good deal."

But over a year earlier, someone else wrote:

"…Booked as a last minute deal and have been to Paris plenty of times to know that 2* places are ideal for a place to crash but was pretty displeased with my stay. Mainly due to bed bugs in my room, I was eaten alive on my one and only night, maybe a one off but not a nice experience."

So it sounds to me I have a good shot and being all bitten up if I go this hotel, but also a good chance I won't be.  

What does one do with information like that?  Bring bug spray?  Sonic devices to give potential bed bugs a headache, or just find another hotel?

I don't know, I haven't decided yet - but if good reviews bolster a sites conversion rates by at least 24% than what do inconsistent or clashing reviews do?  

In an age where it's possible for me, or anyone, to pull up this much information on a place I've never been to before - one has to wonder how anyone can afford not to pay attention to Social Media and User Generated Reviews, especially for Travel and Real Estate.

Instead of worrying about SEO, and driving traffic, people ought to be looking at this stuff, and making sure they provide experiences that visitors want to write about and say good things (because good things really happened).

On the other hand, it's a cheap hotel, maybe I can't expect much more than they offering - it's hard to say - and my experience might depend, largly on what room I get and who stayed in the room immediately before I got there.

But to the extent that it can be controlled, and monitored, the experience itself, the thing people are writing reviews about - ought to be good, because we can all read about it … all of it - and if there are better choices - people are going to pick them.

Just a thought as I end November's posts.

I've heard a little about Flux, but haven't yet actually tried it - saw a post on TechCrunch - Flux Launches Self Service Product; Full On Ning Competitor - however I have tried Ning and use it for my Social Media Committee Social Network - a miniature playground for what we're just beginning to build for the Web Analytics Association using KickApps.com as backend for our WAASOCIAL - what we're going to call our new Social Network, once it's launched.

I like Ning's approach but didn't see it, so much as a platform for the Web Analytics Association but more as my easy way to get into Social Networking by building my own plug and play Social Network - and it's invite only - only for members of my committee at the WAA, and you have to be a member of the WAA to join.  As of today, I have 52 members in my committee - and the Social Network, with out a doubt, has fostered community between my committee that would have been less, or missing, without it.

Two days ago a post appeared in TechCrunch - Ning CEO Calls Flux And Viacom To The Mat

"…But something about Flux doesn’t sit well with Bianchini, who sent us a long analysis of their business model. She goes into detail on Viacom’s history with partners, their tendency towards litigation, and conflicts between Flux’s marketing materials and terms of service. Flux undoubtedly will respond. For now they have no comment."

A couple of points that Gina Bianchini makes are particularly compelling:

"…On Flux, Viacom owns everything. On Ning, you do. 50 Cent created his own social network on Ning despite his label creating one for him on Flux. Why? Because he owns his network on Ning, on Flux Viacom does."

"…Flux is reincarnated application from Tagworld, a MySpace clone from 2004, which Viacom purchased quietly this year."

"…fShare simply enables a user to add a YouTube or Brightcove video from Flux to another service like MySpace with a click. That’s great, but it’s still a YouTube or Brightcove video that actually sends someone back to YouTube or Brightcove, not the network itself. This dramatically limits the virality of the social networks on Flux and ensures the continued success of YouTube and Brightcove at the expense of the new network."

Honestly, reading Gina's post Ning CEO Calls Flux And Viacom To The Mat anyone would have to be hard pressed to want to even touch Flux.   What's damning is the idea of ownership.  

If  someone told me today that my WAASOCIALMEDIA network was owned by Ning - I'd be flabbergasted.  The whole idea that anyone would bother to build a social network they didn't own - negates the whole point of building it - if you, as the creator, don;t own it - I say..forget it and find another platform.

So while the Gina post was harsh on Flux, if what she's saying is true, and it sounds true, I'd not waste my time on Flux - it's not worth it.

Gord Hotchkiss writes some pretty compelling posts, and lately, I've been reading them all … including the latest on The Whys of Buy: Visualizing the Buy where Gord relates a story that originally appeared in About.com Sports Medicine category on Visualization and Muscle Strength

"…Now research is suggesting that visualization can actually strengthen muscles. Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio investigated the strength benefits of imagining exercising a muscle. They reported that just thinking about exercise helped maintain muscle strength in a group of subjects.

They split 30 healthy young adults into 3 groups. For 15 minutes a day, five days a week for 12 week, Group #1 imagined exercising their little finger muscle. Group #2 imagined exercising their biceps muscle and Group #3 acted as a control group and did no imaginary exercise. Those in the first two groups were asked to think as strongly as they could about moving the muscle being tested, to make the imaginary movement as real as possible. The researchers measured muscle strength before, during and after the training sessions.

Group #1 (the finger exercisers) increased their strength 53 percent, wand Group #2 (the biceps group) increased strength by 13.4 percent. "

Hmm… I have to try that!  Darn, maybe I can get my pinky to get stronger - or something else to get better…or whatever.  But wait - it does get better:

"…If your purchase process requires a commitment on the part of the buyer, let them visualize the path required to get to the end. Use your website to build the path required to navigate through things like financing, negotiation, customer service, delivery and selection of products and options. Don’t just stop at visualization of ownership. Think about the visualization of the act of buying as well."

This referred to the idea that we can write compelling copy - but unless we can close the loop, unless we can convey to people what it's like to purchase the product, use the service, unless we can give people all the information they need to complete the purchase - even if everything else is good…if we've forgotten to enable visualization of "buying" or "owning", then we've left a lot of money, a lot of opportunity on the table.

Again, I've been reading Gord's posts because he has really good content plus he writes well…and hell….I've been in Times Square on a summer night - I live in NYC (and it would smell kinda bad at 98 degrees on a Saturday night).

Tonight I was in the Soho going to an art opening and happened to notice the New Museum is re-opening this Saturday, tomorrow.   I decided to see if I could crash an exclusive party there, but failed…seems they didn't want the press, didn't' want bloggers and I don't know how those that got invited, did.

Dejected, but somehow feeling it was OK, I made my way back into the cold, even as I wondered what I could say that would have gotten me into the pre-opening party reception.

As I walked on Prince Street towards the West Village, I passed McNally Robinson, an independent bookstore, and decided to go in at have some tea, pull out my iPod Touch and read a few books as well.  As I passed an isle near the bathroom I noticed a book called Blogging Heroes - Interviews with 30 of the World's Top Bloggers.  I found the book very helpful and interesting and decided to buy it - I also personally know a few of the bloggers and know of others or have met them very tangentially. 

I've briefly met Chris Anderson, Robert Scoble, met Rebecca Lieb several times, met Steve Rubel and about half a dozen others know who I am … so I figured, I might as well have that book.  (I bold-ed bloggers I've met (and read, of course) and those who I read but haven't met but read often, I've underlined.

Bloggers interviewed in Blogging Heroes include:

• Steve Garfield
• Grant Robertson
• Victor Agreda
• mark Frauenfelder
• Eric T.
• Robert Scoble
• Richard MacManus
• Gary Lee
• Deidre Woollard
• Rebecca Lieb
• Steve Rubel
• Scott McNulty
• Gina Trapani
• Mary Jo Foley
• Brad Hill
• Philipp Lenssen
• Chris Grant
• Kristin Darguzas
• Brian Lam
• Joel Comm
• Peter Rojas
• Mike Masnick
• Deborah Petersen
• Ken Fisher
• John Neff
• Frank Warren
• Dave Rothman
• Dave Taylor
• Ina Steiner
• Chris Anderson

But I really think it's also a good book - and I'll probably devour it by the end of the weekend - or soon after, and certainly before I go to France, next week. 

So….. maybe not getting into the New Museum's exclusive party was not a bad thing … but a good thing - or else I'd never have sat down and read the first chapters of Blogging Heroes.

Aaron Wall at SeoBook.com is saying what I've come to believe with is that contextual Advertising via AdSense is killing the Web.  Essentially, people are seeing that many sites care more about advertising than content.

While Google can get away with it because Google is a search engine and there's still a high degree of textual relevancy while sites can't often to the same thing.

And, more and more, sites that use AdSense can't compete with Social Networks and communities that have real content.

I found an interesting paper on Social Networks published by faberNovel Consulting (care of Read/WriteWeb) that shows two very interesting charts of information I've looked for, but haven't been able to find till now:

I've always wondered, by country, how much are social networks used, and how often?  This chart, above, attempts to answer that question.

The next chart shows just how different Social Networks can be - Real Identity, Size and Types of interactions above.

I haven't had time yet to read the entire study in detail, which I'll do over the weekend - the PDF file includes a case study of each of the Social Networks profiled here. 

Google is delisting all the pagerank and backlinks of expired domains according to a report I read today in MarketingPilgrim - Google About to Kill Expired Domain Sales

"..The thread comes from “GoogleGuy” who works for Google. According to the posts (which you must subscribe to read), if a domain expires, all the links and credibility the site has built will be lost. In his exact words, it said, “the authority for a domain will be reset when a domain expires.” Also, that the change will happen in “a few months.”

This kills the market for expired domains that are bought for their pagerank and backlinks alone:

 "..There is a dynamic marketplace for expired domains - people buying sites for their search engine value and rankings. People have purchased domain names after businesses have gone bankrupt or went out of business. If you are registering a new domain you’ll have to start over.

Obviously the links will still be there unless the web site owners remove them. Then, if those are good relevant links, wouldn’t the new owner want to get them again (if for traffic if nothing else)? Will they count if they are removed and then later added again?"

The only thing I'd keep adhere to - remember to wait a full month or so before resetting a domain just in case someone forgot to renew their domain - it happens. 

It's offical, according to TechCrunch, Official: Facebook Flips On Beacon:

".. Users will now have to opt-in to share purchases via Beacon".

"..It seems like a win for users, although I’m sure the ramifications of this announcement will be dissected and considered in the hours and days to come. First impressions though: the immediate defaulting to privacy is sure to appease many critics, but the details may still raise some concerns, for example Facebook is still capturing this data, the only difference now is that it wont automatically share it. Will this be enough? advertisers will still be able to tap into Beacon for purchasing preferences and other details based on activity on Facebook so the privacy option is really only skin deep." 

Eric Peterson is giving a webinar on Web Analytics 2.0 and the Web Site Optimization Ecosystem on December 11th, 2007.

I'd attend but I'll be in France at that time at LeWeb3.  However I suggest everyone who reads my blog and has the time free, attend Eric's Webinar:

Thanks to Tealeaf I’m excited to be able to present a free webinar on December 11th titled “Who, What, Where, When, and Why: Understanding Visitor Interactions on the Internet.” I’ll be presenting my thoughts on Web Analytics 2.0 and discussing the Web Site Optimization Ecosystem fundamental to helping companies effectively measure and manage visitor and customer experiences in a Web 2.0 world. Plus, everyone who registers will get copy of a whitepaper I recently published sponsored by Tealeaf titled Customer Experience Management and Web Analytics: From KPIs to Customer Transactions.

When: December 11th at 9 AM Pacific / Noon Eastern
Register at: The Tealeaf web site