The research shows a clear preference for social log in over traditional registration. 86 percent of consumers are bothered by registering at a website and most will give false information or leave forms incomplete when creating a new account.

The data shows several benefits:

• 78% of social login fans have posted a comment or message to their social networks about a product or service they liked or thought others should know about or purchase
• 4 in 5 people (83%) say they are influenced to consider buying new products or services based on positive comments or messages from people in their social network
• 69% say positive reviews may increase their likelihood to purchase a product or service
• 82% seek out or avoid companies based on reviews from friends in their social graph

Consumers are bothered by the need to create new accounts,and report leaving sites to avoid creating accounts and ceating in complete registrations.

The report suggests four significant findings that are key takeaways:

• Requiring consumers to create traditional accounts may lead to undesired outcomes
• A vast majority of consumers prefer social login
• Social login fans are more valuable customers
• Social login’s personalization capabilities are attractive

See the complete report.

Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image: David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Most website owners don’t do usability testing. It is the first thing cut from budgets. It is always perceived to be time consuming and expensive.

Jakob Nielsen points out that these perceptions are very wrong.

“Simple usability tests where users think out loud are cheap, robust, flexible, and easy to learn. Thinking aloud should be the first tool in your UX toolbox, even though it entails some risks and doesn’t solve all problems, ” says Nielsen. And, he’s been saying this since 1993!

In a thinking aloud test, test participants use the website while continuously verbalizing thoughts as they move through the user interface. A basic thinking aloud usability study, requires just three things:

1. Recruit representative users.
2. A script of tasks to perform.
3. Let the users do the talking.

Think-Aloud Benefits

The method reveals what users really think about a site: their misconceptions,, interpretatios of the user interface and what they find easy and hard to use.

Other benefits:

• Cheap. No special equipment needed; simply take notes as the user talks. It takes about a day to collect data from a few users, which is all that’s needed for the most important insights.
• Robust. Most people are poor facilitators and don’t run the study exactly according to the proper methodology. But, unless you blatantly bias users by putting words into their mouths, you’ll still get reasonably good findings.
• Flexible. You can use the method at any stage in the development lifecycle. It will work for websites, software applications, intranets, consumer products, enterprise software, mobile design.
• Convincing. Sitting in on a few thinking-aloud sessions doesn’t take a lot of time and is the best way to motivate a team to pay attention to usability.

Learn more at Useit.com.

I recently read Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.  I found the book both interesting and annoying, something I think summarizes how many people felt about Jobs as a person.

Never having made billions myself, I feel in a poor position to criticize Jobs.  However, there are things I learned in the book that bother me. I wonder if Apple could be a greater company today if it was allowed to be a little less of Jobs cult of ego.

I’ve decided that there are four key lessons to take away from Jobs and Apple.

Lesson 1: Don’t be limited by what people know they want.

This is a commonly acknowledged key to Job’s genius. He was inventing devices consumers didn’t even know to ask for. Apple brought great advancements to the world of the personal computer.

I shudder to think how techno-geeky the average PC would be today without Apple’s influence on making things easy for the average person. Just as Henry Ford knew that people wanted a motor car, not a faster horse, Jobs knew that people needed technology that was simple.

Lesson 2: Never think you know it all.

So here is where I take issue with Jobs. He really thought he knew it all. In the 656 pages of the biography there is not one mention of researching or listening to the consumer. Rather, the only influences were those things that people at Apple were willing to fight him on. And, sometimes they won.

I can only wonder if Apple’s market share would be larger today if Jobs’ genius was combined with some actual caring of usability and consumer preferences.

I offer my iPhone as an example. Sleek design, yes. Streamlined user interface yes. Usability, not so much.  Every time I have to look up a phone number I am amazed at how hard it is to find a phone number on my cell phone. And, every time my cheek activates the speaker or hangs up on a call I just have to groan a little. It’s pretty, it was easy to get started, but boy does it have some basic usability issues.

I don’t anyone knows enough to eschew usability testing, audience analysis, surveys and other means to get real information from real people. We all need to validate our ideas and concepts in the real world.

Lesson 3: Play nicely with others.

Jobs seemed to think no ideas matched his own, so mostly never licensed anything with anyone else. This is why back in the days that I worked on a Macintosh my software options were so limited. And, why after I changed jobs and worked in a PC environment I was frustrated that any files created on a Mac could not be opened on my computer and vice versa. The hours wasted!

Lesson 4: Give back.

One of the things that saddened me the most is that a person and company that made so much gave so little in return. There was no focus on charitable works.  Jobs apparently found no value in such activity and really looked down on Bill Gates for his foundation work.

At Apple, there is no value on sharing what you know. Apple under Jobs was a walled garden. If you were lucky you got invited in to play. Everyone else was left on the outside looking in. I think of all opportunities to use that genius to do good in the world and am just so disappointed.

Register Here: http://bit.ly/Ayfnc2

Content Marketing is about delivering the right thing, in the right place, at the  right time, in order to earn your customers’ attention. But it’s not only about the tools and platforms – it’s also about the right words and information.

This webinar will explore how to think about content creation and how to effectively use great content to earn attention and shift marketing from push to pull in a billion-channel universe.

Register Here: http://bit.ly/Ayfnc2

Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Users organize and share things they  find on the web. People use pinboards to track the things that interest them. Users can browse pinboards created by other people.

Millions of people have caught on to this site and its potential. There is a lot to do here, but I want to focus on how this can serve business communication needs.

Drive Traffic

Pinterest has proved to be a great way to drive traffic to your site, and in some cases, has out-performed Facebook, according to Adage.

Pinterest users are engaged. These users post a lot and conenct with social media.  This factor, along with ability to link between Pinterest and other web properties, also gives this site great search engine optimization (SEO) value.

Sell products

The most obvious use for Pinterest from a business perspective is to market and sell products. By adding a price to a pinned item, you can direct users to your online shop, and your post will be automatically listed under Pinterest’s Gifts section.

Hold a contest

use a content to encourage users to share your information. Here are just two ideas:

1. Challenge users to repin your product photos, choosing their favorite; randomly select one user who re-pinned the product that gets the pins.
2. Ask users to pin their own photos of your products. The one that gets the most engagement from other users gets a prize.

Create an Online office

Tell users about your company, products and services in a personal way. Include pictures of people, offices, and activities. Help users get a personal look at the business and the people behind it.

Offer discounts

Offer an exclusive discount or coupon open only to Pinterest connections to reinforce connection and engagement.  You can share it on the site as a QR code or printable voucher. iPhone users have the added advantage of being able to take the coupon into your store using nothing more than their phones.

Get the customer involved

Use Pinterest as a crowdsourcing service. Ask followers what they think by having them repin or like your images. Tje volume of repins and likes will let you know what your customers want.

Ask followers to post photos of realted to your business. Ask them to include a unique keyword in the description to keep track of the images and then re-pin them onto your own boards.

You can also use Pinterest to invite people to events.

Here are some tips to make your enewsletter great:

• Focus on one audience. One edition per audience will create a better connection that making users scroll through irrelevant content.
• Be selective with newsletter content. Don’t try to say everything in each issue. 
• Move readers to your website. Email readers have short attention spans 3-5 seconds. Keep content to 250 words or less. Put key facts in an introduction and link to the main story at your website.
• Make links specific. Too many newsletters drop readers onto the website’s home page. Send readers to the rest of the article or to a page specific to the article content.
• Design for mobile reading. A simpler, more streamlined format will benefit readers on every platform.
• Use data to improve. Look at click through and other data to learn about what appeals to your target audience. React and change to accommodate interests.

The report presents data collected from from 144 companies surveyed during the second quarter of 2011.  Among vendors spotlighted in the study for different use cases are Attensity, Shoutlet, Buddy Media, HooteSuite, One to One Global and Hearsay Social.

• 70% of businesses said social media efforts met company objectives
• 43% of businesses have  a formal strategy to address how social will meet specific business goals
• Companies typically oversee 39 Twitter accounts, 32 blogs, 30 Facebook pages and 29 LinkedIn accounts
• 26% of corporations offer social media education to employees
• Less than half the companies surveyed had a coordinated approach to social media

The presenter will be my colleague Chrissie Alquinta.

The webinar is designed to help anyone who has a business website and anyone interested in a web analytics program such as Google Analytics for tracking and analyzing data.

Key Takeaways:

• How tracking your website’s performance allows you to make informed decisions about the content, design, and usability of your site, as well as the most efficient allocation of business resources
• How Google Analytics can give insight into:   traffic trends, what kind of traffic a site receives, visitor behavior, and SEO and social media effectiveness

Details are at http://www.balanceinteractive.com/what-we-do/seminars-webinars/google-analytics-webinar

In 1950, some 200 million people were in the “over-60″ group; by 2000 the number had risen to 600 million, last year to 800 million, and by 2050 the number will have reached 2 billion. Globally, this older population is increasing at a rate of 2.6% per year, considerably faster than the current 1.2% annual growth in the population as a whole. Further, the 80 years and older group is increasing at 4% per year.

The nature of age has changed. People are active and healthy well into their 70s and 80s. Worldwide, consumers aged 60 and older spent more than $8 trillion in 2010; by the end of this decade, they will spend $15 trillion

The use of technology is widespread, with 69% of respondents having both fixed-line and mobile phones. The percentage that uses only a mobile phone is 11%, while 22% have fixed-line phones only. Mobile phone usage declines sharply with age. However, as many as half of the respondents over 80 say they use one.

Mature consumers have time and want to be well informed, so they tend to be heavy Internet users and shoppers. Half of the survey respondents use the Internet, with 20% taking advantage of it for shopping, research and communication. The younger of the respondents, and the wealthier and older participants, say they tend to purchase more products online, and are also more likely to use home delivery services.

For more insight, see the full report.