We have all heard the term “beta” and I’m not talking about the dreadful beta used in statistics or in stock risk calculations.  I’m talking about the “beta” we see before virtually every new tech company that emerges.  Just take a look at the web 2.0 directory and you will see that a fairly large portion of the companies have “beta” written just after (or before) their company name.  But what does the beta mean?  Well beta is supposed to mean that the company has a product that they wanted to test out on a few people, then, when testing is complete, the company will move out of beta and will officially launch to the public.  OR Beta can mean “we’re covering our ass in case something goes bad, that way, we can just tell people we’re in beta and problems are expected.”

There are a few things to know about “beta”

• Until you fully launch and open your doors to everyone (unless it’s a restricted service) you’re in beta
• If you are still testing anything, you are in beta
• If you just launched your product but you haven’t tested it yet, guess what, you’re still in beta
• Beta is not meant to justify problems, it’s more of a “be patient and work with us” notification
• If you don’t know if your company is in beta, then it’s most likely in beta
• If you are scared to announce yourself because of competition, you’re in beta
• You probably should not be in beta for more than 1 year max, otherwise you probably have some problems
• If you are in beta then you should be constantly rolling out new features and fixing bugs, beta is not a stage during which you sit around, beta = product development at a rapid pace
• Beta is all about taking the feedback you get from your beta users and turning it into something tangible, like a new feature or design element

Beta has become almost cliche, it’s a term that virtually every new startup attached to itself.  Some beta companies do not even know they are in beta.  Other companies are in beta but tell users that they are not because they want to appear more established.  Either way, let’s start using the term “beta” for what it really is.  Beta means:

“The initial development and testing stages of a product or a company that relies heavily on feedback from beta testers.  During the beta stage a company should make observable and measurable changes and improvements based on beta tester feedback.  Beta also means developing the business side of a company from pr to marketing and go to market strategy.  Post beta means opening up the flood gates and being able to handle it.”

How else would you define beta?

Thanks for reading

Follow me on twitter

Connect with me on linkedin

Connect with me on facebook

Did you enjoy the post?please subscribe to my RSS feed!

Is giving your customers too much choice really a bad thing?  Barry Schwartz a renowned psychologist explores the paradox of choice in this interesting video from the TED conference.  How much choice are you giving your customers?

I would love to hear your feeback/thoughts on the video, what did you think?

Follow me on twitter

Connect with me on linkedin

Connect with me on facebook

Did you enjoy the post?please subscribe to my RSS feed!

Let’s say you form a company with a few of your friends.  You guys are easy going but get your work done.  You’re not formal, in fact your almost the exact opposite of corporate.  You guys love to have fun and people can tell you enjoy what you do.  Your personalities make you guys hip, cool, and cutting edge.  People love your company and they love the people behind it.  Now let’s say your company begins to grow from 3 people to 15 people then to 25 people, 45, 75, etc.  How do you scale your personality within the company?

[Read more →]

Did you enjoy the post?please subscribe to my RSS feed!

I get into the elevator in my apartment building and see a sign that says “refer a friend to live in the building and make $150,” in order to qualify for the cash, the person you refer must sign a 6 or a 12 month lease.  At the very top of this little flier it says “the easiest money you will ever make.”  Someone in my apartment complex must be completely clueless or ignorant.  First of all, if getting someone to sign a 6 or 12 month lease to live in my building is that easy, then the people running the building should have no trouble doing it right?  Why give away money for something that is “so easy” to do.

Not only that but offering $150? are you kidding me?  The person signing the 6 or 12 month lease is going to be forking over thousands of dollars to live in the building and you want to offer me $150?  That hardly covers grocery costs for a week.

The point is, if you are going to market and promote a rewards program you need to make sure that:

• the reward program is feasible (It’s not easy to get someone to move into a building for 6-12 months)
• the reward is worth it ($150?….seriously?)
• the marketing collateral does not insult people (”easiest money I will ever make?”…don’t think so)

Otherwise, don’t bother trying to introduce a rewards program, it will fail.

Thanks for reading

Follow me on twitter

Connect with me on linkedin

Connect with me on facebook

Did you enjoy the post?please subscribe to my RSS feed!

Many people don’t know how easy it can be to monitor a particular brand, person, or company, online…for free. I have two words for you, Google Alerts. Google Alerts allows you to input a desired keyword or phrase that you want to monitor, say for example “Nike” or “John Smith.” Google will then send you a daily e-mail alert letting you know where that particular word or phrase was mentioned. Then, you can visit the particular site that  mentioned your keyword or phrase and see what exactly is being said.  So why would you want to know if somebody else is talking about you online?

[Read more →]

Did you enjoy the post?please subscribe to my RSS feed!