If you’ve ever lived through the process of buying a house, selling a house or building a house, you know that those processes can be – and typically are – hugely stressful. We recently finished the home selling process (for the 3rd time), packed all our furnishings and belongings into PODS (I highly recommend), moved…
Category Archives: Consumer Behavior
When in Doubt, Think “In Real Life”
“In real life” is the common phrase used to distinguish offline relationships from online ones. As the number of business transactions, customer service conversations and brand building efforts occurring online grows, understanding how to communicate and build relationships virtually becomes that much more important. The good news is: there is no trick to be learned….
The Psychology of the Twitter Follow
Whether they are aware of it or not, every person on Twitter has a method to their following madness. I was recently asked by a client how I determine what accounts to follow, and as I shared the list of things I consider when deciding to follow back, I thought more about the psychology involved when…
Why you know more about social media strategy than you think
Once a business owner decides that building a strong, consistent social media presence is vital to his marketing efforts and overall business growth, the next set of steps to “going social” involve choosing which social media platforms to use, building out your social profiles and engaging with customers and prospective customers. Of those 3 items,…
Why a well-designed website does not mean your website is well-designed
I’m a stickler when it comes to things like website navigation and customer usability. I don’t know if it’s just my nature or the years I spent working in consumer behavior research, but my opinion of a brand, its products or services, its customer service and the overall brand experience is largely affected by how…
How I Avoided Commercials that Sell to my Kids
From early on in our parenting journey, Noggin was our friend. The “It’s like Preschool…on TV” cartoon network ran 24/7, included quality programming that was age-appropriate for our daughter and was commercial-free. When Noggin became Nick Jr. a few years later, nothing changed except for the name. It wasn’t until Kate, our oldest, began preschool…
Lessons Learned from Teaching a 65 Year Old How to Use Facebook
I recently had the distinct pleasure of teaching my mom how to join and use Facebook. Even though I feel that I do a pretty good job of seeing and understanding things from the viewpoint of those I am helping, there were a few things that my tech-challenged mom threw my way that I didn’t…
Are Facebook’s ‘Promoted Posts’ the Last Straw?
The widespread rollout of Facebook’s Promoted Posts, where fan page owners can pay Facebook to place an ad in their fans’ news feeds for up to 3 days, may very well be Facebook’s “Jump the Shark” moment. Why? Because the long list of challenges fan page admins already have to endure, coupled with the costs involved…
Is unhappy customer feedback necessarily bad?
In my mind, “good customer service” is… Something we, as consumers, hope to receive. Something we, as business owners and employees, try to deliver. Something that can make or break a business relationship. I had what might possibly be the most absurd customer service experience in my life a couple weeks ago when I left…
Murmuration, social technology & my issue with stats
Last month I headed to Nashville for the first Murmuration social technology conference hosted by Industry Collective. What drew me to Murmuration was its content and targeted attendee type. I have attended traditional blog & social media conferences and webinar series in the past, but this conference was specifically focused on bringing together marketers who…
