The Challenge of Working
With Overseas Developers

Recently some content changes were needed on a client's website. So after crafting the new section, I sent the content to the overseas developers with instructions for where the content could appear on the page.

Here is the page after they performed their tasks and pushed the page live:

At first glance it looks good; but when zooming in, notice what they actually inserted on the page itself (they pasted the actual instructions we provided to them alongside the content itself - straight onto the page for the world to see)!

One of the known difficulties of working with overseas devs is the language barrier. Here that manifested in an almost laughable scenario. Fortunately, these instruction comments they copied and pasted onto the page were innocuous, but consider if overseas devs placed sensitive notes on a page, of the type never intended to be displayed for the world to see.

The lesson reaffirmed here is that while the cost advantages of working with overseas devs is tantalizing, included in that cost savings is the need for you to be extra attentive and to expect to deal with unanticipated surprises.

5 Web Design Rules for Better SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of helping a website be found. Kevin Costner’s character, Ray Kinsella, famously was told in the movie Field of Dreams, "if you build it, they will come". However, in SEO if you build it you must then cultivate inbound pathways to attract the desired search traffic.

If you build it, they will come …with SEO

From a web design perspective, onsite structural work will help gradually improve the ranking signals Google and other search engines use to determine how to rank a site for relevant searches. Internet OMG preaches relentless improvement; this is certainly a fundamental truth with SEO as a site never truly achieves SEO nirvana. Rather it needs to relentlessly workshop, modify, and fortify to demonstrate to the search engines' algorithms that it is alive and kicking.

As such, here are 5 important web design concepts necessary for giving a website a fighting chance in SEO:

1. Site Fundamentals

There are several core elements that set the stage for a well-optimized website design. This includes having a domain that makes sense and relates to what you do, good site speed, text-based content (not images, flash, or video), internal link structure that the search engine can crawl including XML sitemaps, proper use of heading tags (H1, H2), and a sensible URL naming structure for internal pages.

2. Focused Content

Content quality is more effective than quantity. A well written and structured page is more effective at optimizing toward a targeted keyword phrase than an onslaught of articles. Having said that, it is useful to craft some articles and have each contain an internal link back to the primary page that is the focus page for the targeted keyword phrase. Include links on blog posts to a feature page on the site related to that post, thus creating a network of internal links on the site to boost that feature page’s authority. 

3. Transition from Rules Based Content

Web designers harness template rules to automatically assemble meta title and description tags for all pages. As such, inevitably some pages will have duplicate page titles. It is good practice for a business owner to take their new site and concoct unique metadata to replace the original placeholder information. Every page should have its own set of meta content tags to help search engines get a better individualized grasp of each page.

4. Commitment to Change

SEO is a long-term strategy. Sometimes a client will ask their web developer to be sure to have their site “SEO’d” during its design and development. They presume it will come out of the gate SEO-ready, whereas in actuality a new website will not immediately witness quick placement in search simply due to proper structure. It will be many months before a noticeable rise in search rankings happens because it takes time to foster the authority and relevance necessary to compete in search results. During that time a website owner/admin needs to learn and refine the site in conjunction with signals obtained from the search engines’ algorithms early placements. 

5. Battleground

Competitors are active in enhancing their tactics too. Some of them will be making hefty investments for intelligently optimized content and formulating placements on authoritative publishers. An investment in well-written content and custom design elements can help create a more competitive site. Furthermore, one of the SEO signals is overall site traffic and on-site visit durations. SEO has a symbiotic relationship with other digital marketing strategies including social media marketing that recruits repeat visitors. This traffic can produce more backlinks and some of them will generate subsequent repeat visits as direct (type-in) visits.

Backgrounder: 19th China Party Congress

Backgrounder on the Upcoming 19^th China Party Congress




(for immediate release)

In advance of the upcoming 19^th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, a twice-a-decade event, scheduled to open on October 18 and last one week, I am keen to observe how and if it might bestow on the current Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, an increase in power and status akin to that once held by the former chairman and founder of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Tse-tung.

Pyramid of Power

In the one-party system, the party congress serves as the determinative decision-making gathering and takes place only once every five years. The NPC (National People’s Congress) subsequently will add its affirmation to all decisions made at the party congress.

The country’s power structure has already elevated the current President’s stature above that of his predecessor, Hu Jintao. This year’s congress happens at a unique point in history, as the United States in 2017 has actively been withdrawing from globalization, whereas an enhanced empowered leader in China is intent on assuming the global leadership role being vacated and the international trade advantages that come along with it.

In fact, China has already been working to create a Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an ambitious modern-day global economic initiative taking some inspiration from the old “silk road”, a development strategy focused on connectivity and cooperation between Eurasian countries.

The upcoming congress will determine economic policies touching everything from China’s banking system and financial regulations to its tactics in dealing with multilateral trade issues to how assertive the nation wishes to be globally, including establishing a new international development institution modeled after the World Bank.

Therefore, although the upcoming congress is mostly characterized as China's central power struggle, it will have a significant impact on world trade, especially the Sino-America trade relations.

China Faces Challenges

In addition to the worrisome ever-growing debt that threatens to further slowdown the growth, China is also inflicted by widespread corruption in the system. President Xi himself clearly understands such threats, and has in the past few years enacted unprecedented anticorruption efforts.

At the September 15 Future of Asia Conference in Santa Monica, California, attended by Toolots,Inc., the company where I recently started working, journalist and author John Pomfret cited a “significant amount of fraud in the Chinese system,” something the current anti-corruption effort is trying to address.

As a result, how will the upcoming congress handle anticorruption is another keenly observed topic. Will President Xi switch gears on the anticorruption campaign by claiming it has achieved its primary goals and focus on the economy and growth once again, or will he continue with the current intensity of the campaign?

Regardless of its outcome, the upcoming 19^th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is a key world event that needs to be closely watched by companies that have both large and small stakes in the US-China relations.

5 Keys To A High Converting Landing Page

5 KEYS TO A HIGH CONVERTING LANDING PAGE
By David Alpern

Crafting an effective landing page is not as simple as one might think. There are many elements to address, being mindful of the psychology lurking beneath the surface as it relates to what the prospect ultimately wants and expects, and there is no practical and universal step-by-step guide that is applicable across industries.

Keep in mind that at the end of the day your company’s landing page is unique so you need to understand your target audience in the context of the 5 keys presented below. Yet, some things do remain constant across high-converting landing pages:

Key #1: Powerful and Compelling Headline

The headline is the magnet. That is true in any environment, in print, in an email subject line, as well as on a landing page. It needs to grab the reader’s attention with a short, punchy message that informs the reader what the product or service is all about. If you feel too limited in accomplishing this with just a headline, it is okay to also include a persuasive sub-headline. If the headline makes one look, the sub-headline should be designed to lure them to stay and go into slightly more depth.

Key #2: Pictures

Not just for the design enhancement of balancing the written content on your landing page, the brain actually processes images 60,000 times faster than text. The reader will be affected by the image(s) immediately. Best practices include using high-quality large pictures, have them be relevant (so using a cute baby, if irrelevant to your product or service is not effective), and making sure the image is not subtle. It needs to drive attention and stimulate.

Key #3: Explain the Value Proposition

Provide a straightforward explanation about your product or service. Interestingly, the explanation need not be integrated with your headline but should have some relation to your picture. An explanation should be benefit-oriented in a user oriented functional manner. For example, in place of “We make advertisements” go with the more compelling, value-oriented: “Get advertising that makes you money.” This addresses the important “What’s in it for me?” question. Another good way to convey the value proposition is through a list of benefits that are clearly focused on the user, rather than talking about yourself as a company. Ultimately, end with the CTA (call to action) with nearby testimonials, if available. CTA placement is a critical component and is okay to place the CTA in multiple locations on a single landing page, typically positioned at the end of various sections on the landing page.

Key #4: Pain & Pleasure

The fear of loss is a much more powerful motivator than the prospect of gain. Humans are wired to avoid pain, so if your landing page can cause the user to think about their pain, that can motivate them subconsciously to seek relief and thereby be more likely to convert. Pain can be communicated by discussing what will be lost as opposed to what will be gained. Pain references can appear in the testimonials as well as in the copy. Be sure to explain how your product or service can relieve the pain, as well as how it provides pleasure. Pleasure is often the by-product of what you are selling. For example, software performs tasks more efficiently, so it in effect is offering freedom, relief, and joy. Clothing is selling not just fabric but respect, trendiness, security, vibrancy, and fulfillment. A successful landing page identifies how to inspire and convey a sense of wonder and surprise.

Key #5: CTA Lead Generation Form + Contact Information

The CTA button is the most significant copy element on your entire landing page. It’s more than a “submit” button, so use a bold color that separates it from the rest of the content on the page. The CTA should be physically big on the page, powerful in value, compelling, and attractive. Yet, some people will want to bypass the CTA and contact you. Make sure you have multiple methods of contacts — phone, address, email, chat feature, as well as that cherished contact form. These help eliminate any friction in the conversion funnel and the physical address and phone help assure that you are a real company.

This post first appeared on December 8, 2015 here - http://www.mediapartnersworldwide.co/5-keys-to-a-high-converting-landing-page

SPEAKING AT ERA D2C

I will be presenting at the ERA D2C conference on 10/7/15 on the topic of Retail Synergy Between Broadcast & Digital Advertising - http://www.mediapartnersworldwide.co/mpw-speaking-at-era-d2c

Direct Response Writing For Success

Writing for Direct Response requires a different approach as compared with regular retail advertising that focuses on developing a brand and image. While some of the same key approaches are required for any successful radio campaign, I recently published an agency blog post about some of the essential elements a direct response radio script needs.

Why Some Videos Go Viral - Ylvis Case Study

How and why does an online humor bit take off when others online remain the proverbial tree in the forest? My post this week on Marketing Wizards of the West Coast takes a look at Ylvis, which is approaching 400+ million YouTube views.

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Ylvis-Lessons-in-Online-Viral-6645080.S.5856922232151883776

The Web’s Best 404 Error Pages

On Average, About 1.1% Of A Website’s Traffic Reaches An Error Page Due To Bad Links, Pulled Content, Etc. The 404 Error Page Provides An Often Overlooked Opportunity To Impact SEO, Minimize Exits, Improve User Experience, And Reinforce A Brand’s Image (And Quirkiness). Here Are Some Of The Best 404 Pages On The Internet:

http://creativemarket.com/blog/2013/07/22/the-best-404-pages-on-the-internet

SEO In A Nutshell – Yeah Right

Google’s 200 Ranking Factors: The complete list

http://holykaw.alltop.com/googles-200-ranking-factors-the-complete-list-infographic

Or, you could just write good content…

Placidly – The Voice of Peace and Desiderata

Abie Nathan was an Israeli philanthropist and a peace activist during the 60s thru 90s in Israel. In the 70s he liquidated most of his assets from his successful run as a owner of the California restaurant in Tel Aviv and bought an old ship which he turned into an off-shore modern radio station that transmitted and promoted peace and love to Israel, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the adjacent Middle East region.

He called his ship: Sfinat Ha’Shalom (The Peace Ship) and its radio station: ‘The Voice of Peace’. Each and every evening towards sunset during the initial years the station was on the air, Abie Nathan broadcast a recording of himself reciting ‘Desiderata’ in his own deep and tranquil voice. For a generation of Israelis, ‘Desiderata’ became a well-known soothing poem associate with its (and the station’s) message of love and peace.

DESIDERATA

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

THE ORIGIN OF DESIDERATA
(sourced from bolstablog.wordpress.com/2008/10/04/desiderata)

The author is Max Ehrmann, a poet and lawyer from Terre Haute, Indiana, who lived from 1872 to 1945. It has been reported that Desiderata was inspired by an urge that Ehrmann wrote about in his diary:

“I should like, if I could, to leave a humble gift — a bit of chaste prose that had caught up some noble moods.”

Around 1959, the Rev. Frederick Kates, the rector of St. Paul’s Church in Baltimore, Maryland, used the poem in a collection of devotional materials he compiled for his congregation. (Some years earlier he had come across a copy of Desiderata.) At the top of the handout was the notation, “Old St. Paul’s Church, Baltimore A.C. 1692.” The church was founded in 1692.

As the material was handed from one friend to another, the authorship became clouded. Copies with the “Old St. Paul’s Church” notation were printed and distributed liberally in the years that followed. It is perhaps understandable that a later publisher would interpret this notation as meaning that the poem itself was found in Old St. Paul’s Church, dated 1692. This notation no doubt added to the charm and historic appeal of the poem, despite the fact that the actual language in the poem suggests a more modern origin. The poem was popular prose for the “make peace, not war” movement of the 1960s.

When Adlai Stevenson died in 1965, a guest in his home found a copy of Desiderata near his bedside and discovered that Stevenson had planned to use it in his Christmas cards. The publicity that followed gave widespread fame to the poem as well as the mistaken relationship to St. Paul’s Church.

Applied Analytics – Data Mining Example

Brilliant application of data mining: How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/

Speaking Gig – Cool Social Gravity Summit – Nov 8, 2010

I will be speaking Nov 8 on social media actions for non-brands at the coolsocialgravitysummit.com conference in Irvine.

My New Column on Examiner.com

My writings have been picked up by Examiner.com where I am now the new career management columnist for Los Angeles. My latest article is entitled “5 Tactics for Personal Brand Management Online” http://www.examiner.com/article/5-tactics-for-personal-brand-management-online

Interview with Kajeet's CEO

My son just published an article about his recent conversation with the CEO of Kajeet, the cell phone service for kids: http://www.jtechnoweb.com/calling-all-kids-2010-04-06

Enhancing Discoverability

6 Tactics for Increasing Your Business’ Online Presence in Local Reviews and Directories

By David Alpern and Greg Jordan

The role the Internet plays in having prospective customers locate and assess a business cannot be overstated. Smart Momma, a baby gear and gifts retailer, saw its site traffic increase 3X over one year due in large part to online reviews. The Internet can be gold for local businesses if they also have a plan in place for the disgruntled.

Being Found

Consumers don’t get their information from just one source. BIA/Kelsey’s User View Wave VII consumer tracking study found that consumers use 7.9 different media sources when shopping locally. Each media has an impact at every level of the purchase funnel: awareness, interest, desire along with consideration, and ultimately the most important stage – action, which is typically a purchase.

“Media sources” refers to search engines (90% reported using search), Internet Yellow Pages (48% usage), vertical industry sites (24%), and comparison shopping sites (42%).

Here are 6 tactics that harness the power of the Internet to help direct more people to a business’ front door.

Be Prolific

The BIA/Kelsey’s User View Wave VII consumer tracking study cited above also revealed that nearly all consumers (97%) now use online media to shop locally. Yet, online is a large place, and the use may be in the form of gathering product information, price comparison, reviews, coupons, look-up information. Generate content that is relevant and usable in each of these forums.

Reputation Management

As consumer-generated content proliferate, so do the problems and headaches they engender. Consumers are increasingly more likely to search online for reviews before making a purchase, and what they find may be misleading information. Be it intentional or not, it damages the perception of the brand and can quickly spread. Changing these perceptions necessitates successfully communicating accurate information to balance the viewpoint.

Have a Plan

Rather than avoid online forums, formulate an action plan to manage potential damage caused by negative conversations and reviews. A disgruntled customer is 4X more likely to convey their feelings to others than a customer that enjoyed a good experience. The ratio can rapidly multiply online and spell disaster for brands that don't have strategies in place to combat online negative chatter.

Google Profile

Creating a custom profile on Google is an easy and effective way to make sure you appear when people are "Googling" you. What's more, the profile information resides at Google which means it will get indexed almost immediately. Try filling out your profile, then do a vanity search and see if you pop up! http://www.google.com/profiles/me

Yelp

Yelp is a popular site that connects people with local businesses and allows consumers to share experiences. Business owners can join the conversation and put their best foot forward by posting pictures, menus, discounts, special events notifications, and proactively responding to reviewers as necessary.

Directories

The five steps that deliver the most significant positive effect on local rankings are:
1. Google/Yahoo! local business listings that include an address and business description
2. Citations from data providers, such as InfoUSA, Localeze, and Internet yellow pages sites
3. Associating your local business listing within the proper categories
4. Completing the verification steps offered for your local business listing on Google/Yahoo!
5. Including product/service keywords (i.e., “hair salon,” “attorney”) in the title of your listing
And for the ambitious, there is also Yahoo! SearchMonkey, which allows customization of the look and feel of your search result on Yahoo! This tool involves supplying Yahoo! with an XML feed and typically is prepared by an interactive vendor and not by the business itself.

8 Obscure Interactive Social Tools

Is all the effort you put into your web presence paying off? Social media activation involves reaching beyond your immediate circle to a broader community online. You can measure the influence your actions have to see how big your brand is becoming. The Internet is littered with an innumerable roster of service offerings, so here is a compilation of 8 lesser known tools that are particularly valuable:

Keyword trends - Trendrr tracks and compares the trends of any keyword – brand names, executive officers, and can even compare them to other keywords. Trendrr produces pretty eye candy charts too.

Twitter account age – Digimantra offers a free tool that displays when an account profile launched.

Twitter importance – Tweetreach assesses how wide an impact an account has. The larger the influence an account has, the more valuable they are to have in your network.

Post to multiple accounts – Hootsuite is a web based app that is very similar to the popular TweetDeck but does not require the resource sucking Adobe Air. Hootsuite has a feature that allows posting of the same tweet to multiple Twitter accounts, which is especially useful if you facilitate multiple brand identities. Hootsuite also includes analytics that let’s you see who is clicking on your posts, who is retweeting your messages, etc.

Free conference calling – Calliflower operates a convenient platform that integrates web and phone applications and offers both USA and other countries local numbers. The web app features live chat on the site. Calliflower can save the call recording as an MP3 file and post it to iTunes for free as a podcast. Other nice features include SMS text, e-mail reminders, and various administrator features.

International VoIP calling – Truphone is a mobile VoIP service that is especially useful if your travels take you out of the country and you want to be able to call back to the USA using Wi-Fi rather than setting up your mobile phone with an international dialing plan.

Online Reputation – Online ID Calculator looks at the strength of your online Identity and reputation. When people perform a search by name for someone, they judge the results based on both volume and relevance. Quantity implies that you have something to say. Relevance is of greater important as it assesses what that quantity of posts say about you, do they back up your written and oral claims, and ultimately, are you compelling?

Online Visibility – Addictomatic instantly creates a custom page with the latest on any topic or person. It looks at how you show up across search and social media platforms such as Google, Twitter, Bing, FriendFeed (part of Facebook), Twingly YouTube, Digg, Flickr, Delicious, BlogLines, Truveo, Wikio, Yahoo, Technorati, etc.

Profiling and Understanding Users of Social Networks

If the social networking revolution has you scratching your head wondering about why people are investing time in all of this and how companies can actually benefit from this activity, there is a Harvard Business School study that relays surprising findings about the needs these networks fulfill, how people use these offerings differently, and how Twitter is holistically different.

Most obviously, social networks are an information hub about the activities of those you know. They also serve as a gateway to introductions to new resources and contacts. The HBS study also identified how they enable “under the radar” job searches without giving off the appearance of being proactively engaged in such activity, especially if presently employed.

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What are people doing on social networks?

Since people spend lots of time on these sites; what are they actually doing? Answer: Pictures. The killer app of social networks. People love to look at pictures. 70% of observed actions were related to viewing pictures and other people's profiles. As related in the Robin Williams movie “One Hour Photo”, pictures typically show people at a moment when they are having fun and are happy, a sentiment that we as humans seek for ourselves. Pictures also provide a channel that is a form of voyeurism. While we would not pry into other people's lives physically, online it does not feel intrusive or objectionable. Many first encounters that happen in the flesh after social networking voyeurism include comments like “you're that guy that did that internship in (fill in the blank) last year."

Studying behavior by gender, the biggest grouping was of men looking at women they don't know, followed by men looking at women they do know. It turns out that women also look at other women they know. Overall, women receive two-thirds of all page views. A lot of guys in relationships are looking at women they don't know. Similar to how some people use social networks as a cover for subtly pursuing a new job, they also provide an easy channel to see if anyone might be a better relationship match.


How Twitter is Different

Did you know that Twitter is used mostly by adults, Facebook was originally the domain of college students exclusively, and LinkedIn is populated by executives and professionals? Twitter, was found to be quite different not just in terms of who uses it but also how it is used. Twitter restricts users to 140-character messages. The HBS study found that 90% of posts were created by just 10% of users. This was attributed to how the service uses just words not pictures, and writing is a difficult skill for many people, whereas pictures can simply be posted without commentary if desired on other social networks. Gender-wise, there are more women then men on Twitter, men imbed links in their tweets more often, whereas women actually say things.


Who’s Hot?

Twitter has the buzz and has grown to 20 million monthly U.S. users, Facebook has 90 million, and MySpace can boast 70 million. So why doesn't MySpace get the attention it deserves? It may be that it tends to be stronger in smaller cities and communities in the poorer south and central parts of the country like Alabama, Arkansas, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and parts of Florida. The authors commented how MySpace users “aren't in Dallas, but they are in Fort Worth. Not in Miami but in Tampa. They're in California, but in cities like Fresno…not near the media hubs (except Atlanta) and far away from those elite opinion-makers in coastal urban areas”.

Forming Your Social Strategy

Corporate marketers struggle with how to use social networking to reach potential customers. They treat it as another channel to get people to click through to a site rather than what it truly should be used for, which is to create awareness and to offer up a different perspective. Studies have found that people don't respond to advertising on social networks. It is analogous to hanging with friends, when an uninvited stranger joins your conversation and tries to sell you something.

That does not work in real life, nor is it a successful social strategy. A good corporate social strategy emulates the reason for social networks in general - solving social failures in the offline world. What could work is approaching that group of friends we discussed above and saying that your product is designed for them and will make them all better friends. This may necessitate product innovation to make them more social by leveraging group dynamics, which we agree is hard, but will be more effective than just using social media as but another channel to talk to people or advertise on. These are good first steps but they are not a social strategy.

Foursquare For Sure in 2010

A survey this week from 24seven inquired about marketing trends I think will decline or go away in 2010. Among those I cited was phone-a-friend because viral activities are moving so rapidly toward online application domination. A similar question can be asked as to what will be this coming year’s new growth trends, and high on my list is location social, the process of combining location with interactivity and discovery of places, akin to being the Netflix of local recommendations.
 
Among the Internet's early adopter set, foursquare is the nearly unanimous designee for the social-media service that will become tech's next mainstream app. It’s a location-based mobile startup that lets users share locations with friends and also earn badges for checking in at various designated venues.

Others players who are competing in the location-based services market include Gowalla, Loopt, Brightkite, Google's Latitude, as well as Twitter, which has been this year’s poster boy for the new app with all the buzz. In fact, Twitter is actively working on building out its own location-based features.


In marketing it often asked about a new product if it serves a need. In the case of location social, the answer is yes. Here is an example/opportunity from my own recent experiences: I was at a charity function for a local school earlier this month. Several people I know are associated with that school, so I was casually looking around the crowded facility to see if any of them were, by chance, there. Imagine how much easier it would have been to be able to confer with a widely used app that could alert me if they were actually in attendance.


One more trend I expect to see more of in 2010 is app-to-app linkage, and indeed foursquare is already all over this, with Twitter integration already part of its offering.