positive disruption by: Tom Martin | New Orleans based Social Media | B2B Digital Prospecting | Digital Strategy Agency

3 Reasons You Should NOT use a QR code on a website

A DM in my stream this morning asked if I knew of any posts that specifically talk about why you shoud NOT use a QR code on a webiste. I couldn't find any quickly, so allow me to create one for you.

I've been doing a lot of QR Code Campaign experiments over the last year and thinking about the kinds of content that work well with QR Codes. These thoughts are formed from my own direct interactions, examples of QR code usage I've seen in the real world (including the best examples of QR code usage I've seen). And based on all of this usage, testing and studying, I just can't see why you'd put a QR code on a website. And here is why.

• While QR codes can be "programmed" to link to emails, dial phone numbers, etc., the primary value of them is to instantly transport a consumer from a phyiscal place (ad, direct mail piece, location sign, etc) to a digital destination (contact page, map, menu, video, etc) in a thumb friendly manner. That is to say, QR's primary value to a consumer is it aleviates the need to type a URL into a smart phone.

• QR codes are still a nascent technology here in the US. Sure over in Japan and Asia they are widely adopted, often used and pretty much common place. But here in the US, folks are still discoving the technology, hence why you always have to explain what it is/how to use it in an ad, etc., to boost your scanning rates. 

• QR code scanning requires a dedicated app on the smartphone. Currently very few phones are being shipped with the required app, so if your audience isn't QR savvy, they likely don't have the app to scan the code on your website anyways.

Which leads me to the big payoff... the reason I think it's kind of silly to put a QR code on a website.

The person is already on your website via a computer, which is a far better tool to surf the web, find information and conduct eCommerce than a smartphone.

So, if a consumer is on your website already, why do you need to possibly confuse them with an icon/technology that they quite likely may not understand or be able to access without downloading an app? Why would you want to offload them to an environment that costs additional dollars to develop and is much harder to use (vis-a-vis a computer)?

Sure QR codes are trackable, but then so are websites, and I'm guessing you already have the website analytics tools. So that's not a good reason.

So is placing a QR code on a website ALWAYS a bad idea?

Actually, no. I think there are a couple of times where a QR code makes sense on a website.

• You're giving away a downloadable item designed to work on a smartphone. Things like apps, ringtones, wallpapers, etc. Here a QR code makes it quite easy to begin the process. No typing required.

• You want the consumer to add address/contact information to their address book. Again, no typing required... I scan, confirm and presto -- you or your company information is in my phone.

• You're offering some kind of mobile friendly information. For instance, tourism destinations might want to offer a mobile friendly PDF of their vacation guide. A hotel might want to provide a list of key locations near the hotel - restaurants, electronics retailers, bars, etc., in a simple downloadable PDF. Again, QR makes a lot of sense here.

In the end, the greatest value of a QR code is that it instantly transitions a consumer from a mobile/physical place to a digital/web place and vice versa. So if your goal is to transfer between the physical/mobile world and the online/web world (in either direction) a QR code could be the right technology.

But if all you're doing is putting a QR code on a website because its the cool, hot, trendy technology of the day... well, have fun but I honestly can't see how you're helping me move through the buying process, which is the goal of your website to begin with isn't it?

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What's Missing From Your Blogger Outreach Strategy?

Book publishers have really embraced bloggers outreach campaigns...yet the public relations firms that handle blogger outreach regularly miss one important ingredient in their blogger outreach campaigns.

Look at the picture above and tell me, what's missing?

Do you see it or not see it as it may be....

Let me know in the comments.

First person to guess correctly will win a book. That's right, the first person to correctly tell me what's missing in the picture above will get a to choose which of these books they'd like me to send to them once I'm finished. Go!

And if you're stumped, challenge your fellow PR and Marketing Pros to chime in... just use that little Tweet Button below.

NOTE: I'm not picking on these two books or their PR agencies. I just picked these two because they were on my desk today... but I can assure you, EVERY book I've received from a PR firm pitching a book was missing the same thing.

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When is a phone not a phone?

I remember it like it was yesterday. My three year old son sitting on my wife's lap in the doctor's exam room. The doctor explaining that now that my son was old enough to communicate we could finally end a three year mystery that had started at birth.

Today we'd find out if he could see in his right eye.

First they tested his good eye. He was moving right along the chart and then it happened.

The image to the left appeared. All of a sudden, he stopped. Said nothing. Just sat there. The doctor asked again, "What do you see?" Yet my son said nothing.

And then it dawned on me. "Son, do you see anything on the screen?" I asked.

"Yes" he replied.

"Well what is it?" I asked.

"I don't know." was the answer.

You see, my son had never seen such a device. The image above is of a rotary, desktop or tabletop phone. My three year old son had never seen such a device. He has only known a world in which phones were sleek, mobile or wireless.

As technology changes, so do people. We develop new new norms. We allow technology to change how we see and interact with our world. And that change, is important for we marketers to understand.

If you're in the Dallas area tonight, I'll be discussing that change at tonight's meeting of the Dallas Social Media Club.

Specifically, we'll be exploring how Mobile is changing our customer's lives. We'll talk about:

• How mobile is becoming the HUD (Heads Up Display) for life
• How mobile puts Hollywood in your back pocket
• The Encyclopedia Phontanica

If you're in Dallas, I'd love to see you. If not, I'll be sure to post up the preso some time next week for those of you that can't make it.

In the meantime, ask yourself if you honestly feel like you understand how tomorrow's customer views their mobile phone? Do they even think of it as a phone? Or like my son, have they changed their point of reference to an entirely new image?

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Content Rules - Thirsty Thursday of Knowledge

I had the pleasure last night of dining with my friend CC Chapman, co-author of Content Rules. He's in town to talk about content marketing at our local AMA luncheon today.

If you haven't yet picked up the book, do yourself a favor and do so today. Here, I'll make it easy -- you can buy Content Rules right here. [Amazon affiliate link]

But this post isn't about all the great ideas that CC and Ann share in the book, instead, it's about why brands, especially tourism or destination brands should be reaching out to content creators like CC.

CC arrived yesterday afternoon and it was a really nice day here in New Orleans. So he did like anyone who's never been to a new city would do on a nice day... he walked all over the French Quarter and a bit of the downtown. Only CC's not like every tourist or businessman in town... he's a content guy. So his walks include his camera.

As he said last night over dinner -- "I'm not sure which is going to have more fun, my camera or my belly."

So along his travels he takes a host of really cool pictures of  New Orleans and tags them all with keyword rich words that the New Orleans CVB should love. The entire set is titled "New Orleans Weekend" and a vast number of shots have a title "Walking the streets of New Orleans." On top of all of that... the shots are really well done as CC is an accomplished photographer. The only thing that would make it better for someone like the New Orleans CVB would be if the photographs were offered restriction free, but they are offered under a licese that would at least allow the tweeting of the set or individual photos in a CVB Twitter stream. 

And that's the point of reaching out to content creators -- regardless of how big or small their following is and inviting them to join you in your city. Social Media craves content, lots of it. But for many tourism marketers (hotel/restaurant/destination) budgets are tight and manpower limited. So why not harness the natural tendencies of folks like CC? Whether you simply pay attention when they're in town and then share the content they create or invite them to town on your dime with a hope that they'll create, you've got a really simple, cheap tool to help create awesome content that you can share with fans, followers and Google.

Think you might leverage this for your tourism destination, hotel or restaurant? If so, how would you approach it? See any downsides? Let me know... comment away, please.

UPDATE: Just back from CC's AMA NOLA talk -- he told a story about how he asked for restaurant rec'ds via Twitter, and only one restaurant in the whole city tweeted him back. Guess where he's having dinner tomorrow evening? And he mentioned the restaurant (GW Fins) by name in front of the entire crowd. He also asked if it was any good, to which the crowd assured him it was. Yes, just one more reason to engage creators like CC -- you might just get a free PR shout out to 70 locals and an additional shouout in any post trip blog post he writes (which he also indicated he'd be writing and including Fins).

Disclosure: GW Fins is a client of my social media markting firm - Converse Digital. But CC didn't know that until AFTER he booked his reservation and was actually surprised when I told him.

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Related articles

• Is Social Media Making It Cool To Be Square? - Thirsty Thursday of Knowledge (tommartin.typepad.com)
• Why Content & Curation is Critical to Business with @CC_Chapman [@InboundNow #14] (hubspot.com)
• Segmentation key to content marketing (mktg2bizexecs.wordpress.com)

Is Social Media Making It Cool To Be Square? - Thirsty Thursday of Knowledge

Is social media and social media marketing making it cool for brands to be square?

Personally I've always favored horizontal logos -- they just work better in ads, letterhead, etc. They're easier to place, etc. But now with social media, I'm wondering, should brands favor square logos instead?

I always admired the folks up at Landor for how they approach logo creation. They seek to understand the "power application" - the place where the logo will be seen the most or work the hardest. For instance, when they redid the NY Stock Exchange logo, they realized that the power application was the banners that hang from the ceiling and are seen on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, etc. So they decided that the logo had to work first and foremost in that application. All other applications were secondary. (At least that is how I remember the presentation which was a few years ago -- if anyone from Landor is reading and I got it wrong, please say so)

So, using Landor's Power Application approach, has Social Media become powerful enough to rise to a power application for some brands? Most brands? And if so, should logos be designed to work first and foremost as avatars living in an 80x80 world?

What do you think?

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More Thirsty Thursday Posts are Here

photo credit:  vonSchnauzer

 

Thirsty Thursday of Knowledge - Social Networking edition

Someone once asked me why I speak -- publicly that is. They wondered if it was for the money, the travel or "the notoriety?" And truth be told, all of those are great side benefits of doing a good deal of public speaking. But the real reason....

I'm here.

And you're there.

And really, it's that simple. By doing the speaking thing I get to travel around the world meeting you and others like you. Best of all, when you speak and it get's published locally in the market you'll be traveling to, lots of the local social media types will find and begin to follow you. So you get to "meet" them before you land.

Just yesterday this happened to me. I'm due to speak at Social Media Club of Dallas on April 21. A local social media person in Dallas that I had never crossed paths with saw it, looked me up and followed me. When I got the notification email, I did the same... and guess what? He's pretty friggin smart. A couple of quick DM's later and I've got a "date" to say hello before or after the speaking gig. So I've made a new connection, found a really helpful new blog, and my world is a little bit richer... all in exchange for a day of my time.

Think about it... you can do so much networking on on Twitter and other social networks, but if you really want to leverage social media networking... you gotta get face-to-face.

Maybe being a social media speaker isn't your thing... that's cool. Find something that is your thing. Create an excuse to go out an interview social media thoughtleaders or whatever your industry is about. Then create a blog where you post those thought leader interviews. It's an excellent opportunity for you to make great connections, learn something AND give folks a reason to connect with you. Win - Win - Win.

Think about it... then tell me how YOU are going to do a better job of social networking this year... ok?

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It's Not About You - Thirsty Thursday of Knowledge

Is there a right way to network in social media?

I don't know if there is only one right way, but I'm pretty sure there is at least one wrong way. Let me explain.

Over the last week or so I've been following a little dust up over in a LinkedIn group I joined. It taught/reminded me a lot about networking, especially social networking.

Long story short: this LI group is an offshoot of a Twitter hashtag. It was a small group on Twitter but over the last month or so the hashtag has gained in popularity and more and more folks seem to have created a column in their TweetDeck to follow/engage with this little tribe.

So one of the folks creates an LI group that you can ask to join and once inside, there are posts, a discussion where everyone posts their twitter handles (sort of a phone book of the group if you will) and such. All good.

So one of the folks in the group is an active networker... lots of friends on Twitter and tons of contacts on LI. He reaches out to many of the other folks in the LI group and invites them to connect on LI. Most accept but over the last few weeks a few have declined. So he pens a little rant post about how folks shouldn't offer to connect if they aren't going to take the connection when it's asked for.... on and on.

Lots of folks jump on and are either pro/con his rant.

Then the target of his rant comes on and basically says, hey, this isn't fair. The first time you tried to connect with me was via an LI invite. You never have spoken to me on Twitter and when I checked you out you had a ton of contacts on LI and I figured you were just a LinkedIn shark (code for spammer). So I said no. If you want to connect with me on LI then talk to me on Twitter first. In other words, she wanted a certain type of social media networking protocal to be followed before she was going to agree to that first real connection step -- accepting a LinkedIn connection.

Now this post isn't about who was right in this situation... it's about the right way to network in social media.

In the offline world we all make fun of the business card ninjas... you know the ones... Their idea of conference or trade show networking strategy is they can have a card out and in your hand before you have time to ask them for one. We make fun of them because the act of just offering me your card before you or I have even discussed what you do, what I do or how in the heck we might be able to help one another violates a cultural norm. Of course that doesn't stop it from happening, but it does render the approach pretty ineffective.

The same goes for online social networking. If the first time you talk to someone is asking for a permanent connection on LI or FB, then it's like you just walked up and offered them your business card. To many folks that feels icky... even if you think it's perfectly fine and would gladly welcome a reversal of the situation.

And that's the point of this post -- to remind you that it's not about you here. It's about the person you're trying to get to know. Make it all about them. Make a real, genuine effort to get to know them, to help them, to offer them social proof that you're a great person to know and have in their network.

Do that and you won't have to worry about people declining your invitations to connect on LI or become friends on FB.... because you won't be making any invitations... you'll be receiving them.

Or so I think... what about you? What do you think about social networking protocols?

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The role of foreplay in social media

If you're spending time in the social media space strictly for the joy of conversation, you can skip the rest of this post.

BUT if you're spending time on social networks with the goal of building a tribe that you can activate to grow your business, help a cause you care deeply about or just call on when you need more brainpower than you can muster on your own, then you want to invest a little time engaging in a bit of social media foreplay.

As I've noted before, social media isn't just about conversation and your follower numbers do matter. Both of these points are directly related to leveraging the incredible power of social media and social networks to achieve goals related to commerce or cause.

And if you're trying to do business here... maybe consider giving these five things a try before you make that first ask.

@them baby. One of the greatest things about Twitter is the "anyone can talk to anyone" culture that exists on the platform. Unlike Facebook and LinkedIn where you must first establish a relationship to communicate, Twitter is the ultimate cocktail party. Someone once blogged that Facebook is where you go to talk to friends and Twitter is the place you meet new ones... or something to that effect. So don't just find people and follow them. Take the time to actually Tweet with them - regardless of how "famouse" they appear. Watch their stream and find a place where you can drop something to show them you see them and that you'd really like to be a part of their Twitter. Just yesterday I was reminded of how easy this is.

John Refford asked about innovative Valentine's Day ideas for a gift. John is on a Twitter list I follow and I thought, what a great way to say hello. So I tweeted him and suggested he get a local florist to agree to send his wife flowers once a month for a year. I've done it for my wife and she loved it. I also took the opp to read his blog and comment on a QR post he wrote.

Then this morning - I see that he's updated his post and included my comment in the body of the post. Now that wasn't my goal of this interaction... BUT, that's what makes it a perfect example of how investing in a little foreplay can lead to the building of a relationship that can someday be called on to help you achieve a goal.

DM them. Use this one sparingly. Most folks seem to guard their DM box more than their eMail inbox if you can believe that. This is probably why this channel can be such a great way to extend the conversation beyond what you feel comfortable talking about in public. With the DM channel you can get a bit more personal and begin to really build a better bond. A bond that can lead to the next step...

Friend or Link to them. Most folks will probably be more likely to link with you on LinkedIn than friend you on Facebook. So go ahead... find them on LinkedIn and remind them that you met/chat on Twitter and you'd like to add another channel of connection. Think you'll find that most will take the offer and presto - now you get to see a whole other part of their life -- their professional life. You can see what they've done, who they've done it for a and often who they've done it with. And for those times where you need action -- knowing who your friends are linked to can be very important. With that data you can selectively activate your tribe versus just blasting everyone with a call for help. Funny how selectively asking for help vs the blast and see method enables you to tap your tribe more often and get better results.

Call me. Yes, it's not just a movie cliche. If you really want to form a relationship with someone you "met" on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn -- call them or better Skype them via video. Steve Woodford first taught me the true power of this when he invited me to video chat with him. To this day I've never met Steve in person but I think he'd agree, I can count on him to help me when I need it and he knows he can count on me. That's the power of investing an hour and a cocktail in a video call.

Get on a damn plane. Yes, that's right... go actually meet someone in real life. Make the ultimate gesture of interest...spend your hard earned money to go visit the people you wnat to meet or just catch up with after a long time of not seeing them in person. I love this particular kind of foreplay because it comes with a great side benefit.... you'll often meet new people that you can add to your tribe. You never know when one of your Twitter buddies will decide to host a lunch in honor of your being in town so that you can meet even more people (looking at you Stacey Hood).

At the end of the day, we all want to feel loved, important and that we matter. We want folks to see us -- in the Avatar sense. So often we're asked to do for others before they've done for us. Don't make that mistake. Use social networking tools to find and initiate contact with interesting people. Then use a bit of social media foreplay to develop a relationship with those folks. You'll be richer for it, and I don't just mean in terms of conversation.

Special thanks to fellow #UsGuys member Carl Sorvino for tweeting the impetus for this post.

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photo by NeoGaboX

Thirsty Thursday of Knowledge - Talking With Tom edition

On Tuesday, I finally was able to launch Talking With Tom -- my new video blog project/experiment.

If you missed the announcment post, you can learn more about the background of this 100% mobile based content marketing experiment.

After launching it, a number of folks asked me how I was doing it. They wanted the nitty gritty of programs, hacks, etc. So today, I thought I'd share that with you so you could do your own experiment or just maybe understand and appreciate mine.

Platform
I'm using the iPhone4 for this project because it has both a great camera, but also you can download the iMovie app from iTunes. It's the iMovie app that makes the filming and editing possible.

Editing Software
I'm using the iMovie app for all of my editing. Overall I'd say that it works reasonably well. You don't want to do any really heavy lifting or editing, but for simple clip trims and splices, it works pretty well. Primarily the difficulty is in editing long pieces of video. Because you're working on such a small area you have to zoom the video timeline in order to make accurate cuts. Hence, if you're working with a longer piece of video, it becomes really difficult to keep zooming in/out.

The other tricky thing is the titles. If you go watch the video of Greg Cangialosi talking with me, you'll notice I added a black bar at the bottom with his Twitter handle. It's really easy to add BUT iMovie adds the title to the video SEGMENT. So if you want it to be up for the entire movie and that movie has multiple segments, you have to do a little hack. I'll get to that in a minute.

It says you can add in a title card to the movie too. To do this you'd need to have that title card saved on your phone as a JPEG. I haven't gotten that ambitious yet, and as I don't have any sponsors for the project yet, so I've put this on the phase II tests.

Publishing Software
To publish the blog, I'm using Posterous. I've been goofing with Posterous for a few years now but have never really seriously taken the platform for a test run. Talking With Tom changed that. I have to say, I'm VERY impressed. First, the iPhone app is easy to use -- even letting me tag posts and then when the post goes live, the tags I generated become categories on the site. Very nice. I even learned how to embedd live hyperlinks in the post body copy -- more on that under the Hacks section.

I can also use the iPhone app to manage comments, see how many views I've had on the post, etc. The one thing I do wish it did though, was give me the ability to do some level of formatting, link creation, etc. on the body of a post without having to code it manually. So Posterous, if you're listening... please add that to the Next Update list... thx!

The Posterous site made it really easy to use a custom domain but host it on Posterous' servers. I just had to register my name, go into my Domain Management section of my GoDaddy account and update two fields. Then within a few minutes, presto, I had TalkingWithTom.com up and running on a basic Posterous theme. I then went shopping for a new theme and selected one by Cory Watilo and BAM I was in business. For those of you who can sling a bit of code, you can go in an customize stuff and if you know CSS you can get really fancy pancy. Me, I'm not smart enough for all of that so I relied on Cory's theme to get the job done. And like all good blog hosting sites, Posterous makes adding Twitter/FB Like buttons easy as clicking a button.

Lastly, I like that Posterous hosts the videos on my site vs using a YouTube or Vimeo embed. Maybe the Columbus Dispatch ought to consider using Posterous in the future.... kidding. It forces anyone who is clicking a link shared in social media to come to my home base to view the video, whether they find the site via Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or another blogger's blog -- they have to come here to view the content (video). Again, as I think through how this approach can be sponsored, I've got to think that makes the site more appealing to a sponsor than if I was using YouTube vids that could be picked up, embedded anywhere and next to anything (content wise). Any brand managers readinging this? Would love to hear your 02 on the subject.

Other Toys
Half the reason I like my little experiments is that I'm given a reason to go buy new toys to play with. Talking with Tom will be no different. Already I've added a Brando Directional Mic, wide-angle lens and my personal favorite -- a Glif. I'm really loving the Glif because I was part of the group that crowdfunded its development using Kickstarter. And if you're loking for a simple mount that will let you use your iPhone on a tripod, this is the right tool. I've been loving it.

The first few videos that will post were shot before I got the wide angle lens, so watch for the difference in February. It's pretty interesting in that it allows me to get really close to my subject but maintain a view (on the video) that doesn't feel like I'm standing right on top of them. I'm also going to pony up for a wireles lav mic. Hee hee hee... I love buying toys. This one got decent reviews... so we'll see. Again, you probably won't see videos using this until February or March.  If anyone out there is a big audio buff and know of a better solution, please let me know.

Hacks
Ok, with any new endeavor you have to figure it out as you go along. For me, these are hacks and frankly, their half the fun. So far I've needed to do two hacks.

The first is putting HTML links in the body copy of posts. In my fisrt post, a number of folks said they wished I had done that as it would have made it easier to learn more about Greg, his company Blue Sky Factory, etc. Now as I said, the Posterous iPhone app doesn't give you a way to do that...BUT what I've figured out is that if I just code the HTML mark-up into my post and upload, the Posterous site translates my code into links. Presto, now I can create links and make them open in new windows. It's kind of a pain because I don't know HMTL and typing that much on the iPhone can be difficult, but I've got a few ideas for another hack to make my work a bit easier. What about you -- got any thoughts on hacks I might use to make this easier? Trust me, I'm all ears!

The second hack is getting a constant title bar on the entire video instead of getting it fading in and out with each cut of the video. To do this with the iMovie app you simply make all of your edits and get the video finished. Then render it and it will save as a new movie in your Camera Roll. Then, go back into iMovie, import that new movie to edit. Once you've imported it (if you've used iMovie on a Mac, you know what I mean by importing the movie -- it works the same way on the iPhone) then create your title bar and copy. Now, because you've only got a single video it applies it to the entire segment so that you get that desktop professional look. You'll see I figured this out on the second video.

So that's it for now. If you've got an iPhone -- what I hope you're seeing is that you've got more than a phone. Thanks to apps like iMovie and Posterous, you've got a social media content production studio in your hands.

So the only questions left are... what are YOU going to do with it? And of course, does anyone know of any other mics, lenses, mounts, etc., that you think I should try out during this project? Maybe a steadicam or different lens/mic set ups that will give better quality video? If you do, let me know. No promise that I'll run out and buy it (remember, I still don't have a sponsor underwriting the costs to buy equipment, travel to film these folks, etc.) but I'll do my best!

And hey, if you enjoyed this post or just want to keep updated on the project, please consider subscribing so you can have posts from this blog sent directly to your eMail in box. And don't worry, I'll never share your email with anyone and I don't send anything but blog posts... because that's not what your here for right?

Thirsty Thursday of Knowledge - Test Driving Your Way To More Sales

Tweet We talk a lot about how marketing can help you sell more products...but at the end of the day, it's the product that sells the product.

Let me explain what I mean and why you might want to listen.

Last night I finally broke down and became a Netflix customer via their on-demand streaming $7.99 a month membership. Long story short, I needed the ability for my 8yr old to be able to watch a movie at my office while we worked on his Christmas gift for my wife. I haven't hooked up cable or DirecTV yet, so I needed either a DVD or streaming. The idea of unhooking a DVD player from my house and rehooking at my office didn't sound like fun so my son suggested Netflix.

I have to say I am frankly amazed and a convert. I also think I just saw the future of video entertainment and it's decidely multi-device, on-demand and smart. With Netflix, I just ordered a movie on my iPhone, jacked the iPhone to my TV in my office and presto - instant Iron Man movie. We finished the Christmas gift and there was still 10 minutes in the movie but it was getting late so we just unjacked the iPhone from the TV and headed home. As we lost Wifi the movie stopped. I told my son to give it a few minutes and then click the play button. He did and presto, the movie began streaming right where we left off -- streaming via 3G connection and the picture was still good. Think about that for your next long drive. He finished the movie and selected another on the drive home.

Once we got home, I needed my phone to make a call so he simply picked up the iPad, logged into Netflix from there and picked up watching his second movie right where he left off on the iPhone. Even better, when I was done I decided to play a bit and grabbed the iPad from him to explore. No worries though, he just picked up his iTouch, logged in and got right back on his movie. I meanwhile found something I wanted to watch and started watching via the iPad. That's right, we were BOTH streaming movies on demand at the same time. Again, if you're a parent with lots of kids -- think about that ability.

Now on the downside, a lot of the really good movies are not available on-demand, you have to pay $2 more to get the DVD membership, but there is still plenty of good stuff on the stream only side.

The point to all of this is that I've seen more Netflix advertising, online advertising and stories about Netflix than I care to remember. It was never compelling enough to make me buy.

It wasn't until I had a unique need that Netflix streaming fulfilled that I truly considered. Then, their 30 day free trial gave me permission to experience the product. After that, I was so blown away by the product benefit vs monthly cost that the purchase decision was a no brainer. Which means, at the end of the day, if you really want to be successful, have a great friggin, write home to mamma kind of product and give folks an easy way to test drive it. If you do that, the rest should take care of itself.

But that's just my POV.... what do you think?

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