our website loves martinis

so have you noticed the trend of business websites adding blogs to their sites? what do you think about this? is it a movement to convince us that there are real people behind these online products or at least give us the impression that real human desires are defining the direction of the site not just a corporate, money making machine calling the shots. or just a new way to inform customers of products and features?

I guess we are supposed to feel like we could influence the site by leaving comments and interacting with the authors and other members of the site. Or maybe we are supposed to like the voices behind the blogs so much that we choose their products over another. Or maybe it's all about the current trend of creating community whereever and whenever it can be created.

I haven't fully flushed out what I think about this and I'm sure that there are many different flavors to this new method of marketing? communicating? community creation? Some of these blogs must be written by professional writers hired to project a specific image and some are probably the real deal.

Microsoft has a blog called Zune Insider described as " Music, culture and the inside scoop from Cesar Menendez a Microsoft employee working on Zune-Microsoft's new music project" and Yahoo has the Yahoo Search Marketing Blog "Our new blog connects you to the people and products that can help you make sense of the ever-changing world of online marketing, and offers a community forum for sharing news, tips and strategies." and I stumbled into the Evite blog yesterday. Each of these seems to have a different angle. What do you think? All I know is I feel like i must be slightly on guard when reading "blogs" these days. what their angle? who are they?

I must say I did find something i like on the Evite blog. S'more martinis! I don't care if they are trying to influence me a medium that I have a natural trust of due to the years of exposure to independent forms of this medium. This is a wonderful fall beverage. Can you see it. Me and all my friends dressed in a coordinating fall pallet of fleece, corduroy and velvet (possibly plaid). Sitting around a beautiful fire pit with the sun setting over a horizon of fall colored leaves. my golden retriever at my feet as i pass out this wonderful drink in antique glasses.

S'more Martinis

three reasons yelp works

do you use Yelp? if you live near a major metro area you really should. not only is it a great place find reviews of just about anything in your area, you can also use it in the following ways.

-Directory- How to get there, how to contact them and a link to the actual website.
-Events- Post your event. I've seen everything from Bumbershoot to someone's garage sale.
-Events- Find an event. It's fun to just see what's going on in town.
-Connect with people in your area- It' definitely a social network.
-Find what's hot or new in your area.

This is all useful stuff. Stuff that I do everyday and I'm finding that yelp is a constant dependable resources to find this type of information.

There is also something so not commercial about it and this since of grassrootsness makes me feel comfortable and puts me in an open mood ready to believe the reviews, and creating a desire in me to contribute.

In terms of the design and functionality of the site there are a few things that they just do right.

Everyone gets to be the star.
On the home page in the most prominent location you will find the most recently added reviews. This is awesome because as soon as you post a review you can click to the home page and swell with pride as you see your words front and center. This is also awesome because as a viewer when ever you come to the home page you find the most up to date, unfiltered information in less than a second. You feel like you have your hand on the pulse of the city as you watch what your fellow city mates are writing about make there appearance on the page.
Feedback is given and received
Nothing feels better than someone telling you that what you wrote is cool. Yelp has 3 forms of super quick feed back you can give or receive. Useful, Funny and Cool. Who knew that a simple counter of this feed back could be so motivating. I come back to the site offten for the admitadly embarrassing reason of seeing if someone rated my reviews today.

It works and it is simple, just how it should be. Oh, and what makes it even crazier is that you can't tell who left the feedback, it's just a number no name attached. Take note social network sites, do people really need to connect with someone specific or just know they are noticed and acknowledged?
Non committal interest in an event
I think this functionality is key for event functionality to work in a large community. If you find an event that interests you on Yelp you can say that you will be there, but you can also just say that you think the event sounds cool.

Most online event interactions give you the regular Yes, No and Maybe options. These options force the user make a commitment of Yes or No or give the event creator a useless false hope answer of Maybe. Who wants to say Maybe or get maybe responses. It's like saying, "well I will if nothing better comes up" or "I don't want to say no to your face but there is no way I'm showing up."

Also giving one of these answers some how implies that you are a member of the group that is having this event. This can be off putting to someone who isn't interested in making a statement of inclusion.

Being able to just tell the event organizer and participants that the event "Sounds Cool" sets the stage for buzz to start happening without giving false hope to the organizer that these people are participating. It allows the users to indicate what type of events they find interesting which can drive the creation of more successful events in the future.
One last thing, every site is always working to keep people engaged in the site and with so many sites doing a lot of the same things figuring out how to get a community to gel in a more permanent way is a often a really difficult ongoing task. Yelp is helping to solve the "sticky" site problem by rewarding and connecting the most active and model users. They hold regular parties and events for their "Elite Squad" in all of the metro areas that they serve. Meeting cool people around a free beer would keep most people engaged in a site don't you think? See their blog for wrap ups of their events.

So if you haven't tried Yelp go sign up and tell me what you think. If you are already on Yelp doesn't it rock?

don't buy 10 baby chickens because they are so cute!

went to a UX event last night hosted by Zaaz. pretty fun. among the speakers was the guy who is responsible for the above site (check it out, it's really fun) as was the man behind Common Craft (there is fun to be had here too) and Emma Rose a research at Design for Digital Inclusion (just the name gets my mind going) and Jason Carmel who works a Zaaz in site optimization (his talk was titled "Effective Use of Kittens: Site Optimization and User Experience" i'll just let you think about that. his side project is Wish Radar)

ryan has a great wrap up of the night here so i'll just let you read that if you're interested (couldn't say it better than him) but i will shamelessly take credit for this:

"Some great conversation followed in the panel q & a. In particular folks wondered whether social networks would adapt over time as their constituents aged or whether age segments would migrate from one demographic-focused social network to another. Obviously, today's 80 year old is different from the 80 year old of 20 years from now--how will social networks evolve as today's heavy users age and new generations emerge?" - ryan turner

this was my question! yeah for me. ha. just kidding but i did think the discussion was pretty good. i left wondering if the lines between all demographics are just becoming to muddy to really put money on particularly where age is concerned. jason also made the point that the future lies in portable profiles so your investment in one site becomes so much less that you can leave online communities as you move through demographics.

lots to think about. thanks Zaaz!