Judy Estrin, former CTO of Cisco, is releasing a book called “closing the innovation gap” in which she suggests that overall innovation and funding for innovation is in serious trouble.  Now at first read you might think that Ms. Estrin is crazy right?  I mean there are many new companies that emerge and get funding every day in Silicon Valley.  Good point.  However, have you ever payed attention to these new companies that get funded?  Most, if not all of them, are designed to create short term wealth by trying to get sold off to lager companies.

Ms. Estrin states, “In some ways, we have the problem that it looks like innovation is flourishing, but too much of it is short-term, incremental innovation.”  I couldn’t agree more, I think companies need to start thinking of long term technology solutions and business models.  Companies like Seesmic, SocialThing, Twitter, Summize, etc. are all in the game to get acquired by larger companies.  Where is the next Apple, Microsoft, IBM, or Google.  Where is the next groundbreaking technology company that is going to make an impact nationally or globally?

The NYtimes did an excellent piece on Ms. Estrin and her new book.  This quote from the article sums it all up.

“Ms. Estrin acknowledged that innovative ideas still appear all over Silicon Valley. But, she said, the technologies at the root of new products like Apple’s iPod or the Facebook social networking service were actually developed several decades ago. If entrepreneurs do not continue to develop groundbreaking technology, she said, the valley would be in dire straits in another decade. She compared the situation to a tree that appears to be growing well, but whose roots are rotting underground.”

It’s interesting to note that Ms. Estrin does discuss this lack of innovation on a national level.  Although Silicon Valley may be doing better then other parts of the country in terms of innovation and financing, overall she does not think that the U.S. is doing that great.

I have not read the book yet but from what I hear, Ms. Estrin traces the lack of innovation to what we teach our kids in school.  There is not enough of a push towards the sciences, engineering, and mathematics departments and thus we are seeing less progress in these fields.  I agree, in fact my dad (who works for Raytheon) received a notice not too long ago saying that the engineering industry as whole is seeing less and less qualified and interested individuals.  The letter urged employees to encourage children to pursue the sciences.

Ms. Estrin’s comment about VC’s needing to take more risks also rings true.  The same companies that are seeking to make a quick buck by getting acquired are being funded by the VC’s that are also looking to make a quick buck.  It appears that VC’s want to put money into the companies that can sell for the most money and not into companies that can develop new groundbreaking technologies.  Of course, I am probably not the best person to speak on the issue of what VC’s are or aren’t putting their money in, but I can address what I observe.

What do you think about Ms. Estrin’s comments and observations?  Are we in innovationt trouble?

Thanks for reading

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Retailers such as JC Penney and Victoria’s Secret are turning to social media interaction to boost back to school sales.  According to an article by Information Week:

“Social networking sites, virtual worlds, social shopping sites, visual search engines, interactive video, and widgets have emerged as key marketing platforms for the 2008 back-to-school shopping season.”

It should come as no surprise that reaching out to consumers via cost effective social media channels can be a great way to increase not only sales, but overall brand awareness and visibility.  JC Penney has actually created an online game called “DorkDodge” whose premise is to avoid undesirable dates while trying to find “dreamy” dates.  During the game interaction JC Penney shows girls how to achieve a certain desirable look with various JC Penney outfits and clothing options.

Sears launched a similar campaign with actress Vanessa Hudgens from “High School Musical.”  Vanessa dresses up in various character outfits to show that Sears has a large collection of clothes that are perfect for virtually every girl.

There is still some speculation as to whether or not using social media will actually increase these back to school sales or increase overall brand awareness.  Either way we are looking at a positive result.  I think social media is actually one of the best ways to increase brand awareness AND sales.

how would you use social media to increase sales? have you seen any examples/case studies of companies actually increasing sales with social media?

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The NYtimes blog has apparently been able to confirm that Amazon will in fact NOT be releasing a new version of the Kindle this year.  The article quotes the chief spokesperson from Amazon, Craig Berman, as saying:

“Don’t believe everything you read.” “There’s a lot of rumor and speculation about the Kindle. One thing I can tell you for sure is that there will be no new version of the Kindle this year. A new version is possible sometime next year at the earliest.”

Well that settles that.  Those of you out there who were looking to get the Kindle as a holiday present may as well go out and get an iphone, or maybe an ice cream maker?

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Nowadays if you ask people why they are using social media (or want to) you are more than likely to get a response that sounds like one of the following:

• “I want to use social media to interact with my community”
• “I want to build a community”
• “I want to get involved with my community”
• “I want to join the community conversation”

The question I have for you is “what do you mean by community?”  I find that this term is used quite a lot and is becoming a bit of a cliche when used in the same sentence as “social media.”  Everyone wants to build communities, grow communities, and engage with communities, but what does that really mean?  Have you ever though about what a community really means to you?  A community is not something you can check in your analytics, it’s not about your unique visitors you have each day or about how many clicks your page gets.

In essence a community is you and ONE other person.  If you have one loyal reader that is willing to interact with you, then you have a community; it’s a small one but it’s a community.  I think Gary Vaynerchuk echoed this idea in one of his video posts where he said that a community starts with one person and grows from there.  What I tend to notice is that a lot of people start looking at their community in terms of traffic and page views but neglect the fact that a community is all about conversation and interaction.  If you have 1 million readers and none of those people share, comment, or interact with you via any channels, then I don’t consider those readers to be a community, do you?

I may not have as many readers as many of the larger blogs out there, but you know what?  I bet that I do have a larger community then some of them.  Spend time with whatever exisintng community you have, and never neglect your community members. If your community is one person then make that one person feel special and make that one person feel like they really are a part of YOUR community.  Why?  Because that one person is going to tell someone else about your community and it will grow.  Word of mouth is one of the most effective ways to really build and grow your community.

how do you define “community” and what do you do to make people like they are really a part of YOUR community?

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Using an analytics tools such as “google analytics” is a great way to understand where your visitors come from and what they do when they visit your site (among other things).  However, I’ve noticed that a lot of folks are obsessed with their analytics, they check it daily or multiple times a day…why?  Analytics is a great way to monitor your site progress and traffic fluctuations but there is just no reason to look at it multiple times a day or even daily, you’re going to drive yourself nuts!

Constant analytics checking can actually be discouraging and disappointing.  Let’s say for example that you took the time to write what you consider to be a great post, you put it up but then notice that nobody is really reading it.  You spent all that time writing a post and nobody cared about it!  Now you are a bit upset and discouraged, well don’t be.

I used to check my analytics all the time and then realized that it was extremely counter productive, I became infatuated with little numbers instead of with the conversations and existing visitors that I already had.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for using analytics and I do think you should check it, but perhaps less frequently.  Try checking your analytics weekly, bi-weekly, or even monthly.

Here’s a little trick that I use for myself.  I set up goals for myself in between my analytics checking periods.  For example, I tell myself I won’t check my analytics for 1 month.  During that one month I promise myself that I will be a more active participant on other industry blogs.  Perhaps I promise myself that I will spend more time researching my post topics, writing guest posts, tweaking my tags, changing my site design, etc.  Once I set these goals for myself I don’t check my analytics data until my set time period is up.  So far what I have found is that in that one month period my traffic always goes up.  This is because I spend more time actually improving my blog, instead of freaking about my traffic.

Spending more time focusing on the blog (and the readers) itself, allows me to really concentrate on the things that matter.  I keep my head down and stay in the trenches, every now and then I poke my head out to see how things have changed.  Setting up goals and timeliness have really helped me improve my blog, increase my traffic, and focus more on my community.  I don’t get discouraged anymore, in fact when I see my traffic numbers rise, I get pumped up and excited to keep writing!  For a blogger it can be tough to find motivation to keep writing, especially when you’re traffic isn’t growing, or worse, is declining.

To sum up, using and analytics tool is a great way to monitor your blog and understand where your visitors are coming from and what they are reading.  BUT, give yourself a reason to check your analytics, only check your data when you have spent a good amount of time making improvements.  Use your analytics checking as a reward for the hard work you have done to improve your blog!

how often do you check your analytics?  do you set goals for yourself?

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