creatorbase

Reflecting on July 4th

It was 7 years to the day that I launched my last startup on July 4th. Why did I pick that particular day? There were some timing issues in terms of product readiness, of course, but more important -- July 4th (for me) is a day to celebrate freedom, innovation, family and all that is good about democracy in America and abroad. 

I'm going to keep this post short because I'm getting ready for a fun-packed day and evening with the usual assortment of July 4th experiences and treats. In the spirit of freedom and entrepreneurial thinking, here's a recent post I made on LyrisHQ.com that marketers and business owners will likely find useful. Enjoy!

Your Digital Company, Today and in 2013

by Erick Mott

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) just published a new white paper on June 26th (The digital company 2013 - How technology will empower the customer) based on a study that was co-sponsored earlier this year by AT&T, Concep Global, Habeas, Nokia, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, SAP and WebEx.

I must say there are some interesting findings about proven and emerging communication channels, and how this impacts businesses and empowers people. The world is rapidly becoming more digital in terms of services, experiences and content delivered, created and shared by anyone, anywhere, anytime on a variety of fixed and mobile devices. The white paper is immediately available when you register for our webinar...

Join Jeanniey Mullen, founder of Email Experience Council (eec) and CMO of Zinio, David Daniels, VP of JupiterResearch, Des Cahill, CEO of Habeas and me for a live Habeas Huddle webinar on July 15th (now on-demand). We'll discuss the EIU research, a recent consumer behavior study fielded by Ipsos and sponsored by Habeas, and insights from the panel in general about email, online trust, digitization and mobility. If you miss the live huddle, you can always plug in on-demand immediately after.

Reputation-Based Email and Web Operations Create Results

by Erick Mott

Join Sal Tripi from Publishers Clearing House, James O’Brien from LashBack, Ray Everett-Church from Habeas, hundreds of your colleagues and me live on April 29th for a complimentary Habeas Huddle webinar. You'll learn:

• Why being compliant and reputable online is a business requirement and competitive advantage; especially in a downturn
• How to analyze, improve and manage email and Web operations with email reputation management strategies and tools
• What best practices really work to increase email delivery and online performance

Register for the webinar and receive a white paper entitled, “Exponential ROI: How You Can Achieve It with Email Reputation Management.” I'm going to moderate and we look forward to helping you with practical and thought-provoking information that you can apply immediately for your business or clients.  FYI, if you miss the live webinar, an on-demand presentation will be available on April 30th.

In the Dark but Not Blind

by Erick Mott

I was up late last night working and decided to check my Gmail account. First thing I noticed was a black screen on Google's landing page. My initial reaction was Google's site had been hacked, or there was a UI issue, or some sort of display glitch on my end. I know Google often changes their logo for certain holidays and special occasions, but I just couldn't figure out what was going on with the home page.

Then I read further and noticed their post about Earth Hour.  Ahhhh, Google the innovator and global activist was at it again. I started to think about the issues and what I could do to contribute. Then I visited the Earth Hour site and read more about this global initiative; very cool.

We just put the kids down to sleep and turned off the lights. It's now 8:00 PM PST in the San Francisco Bay Area and our neighborhood is pretty dark; looks like some of the neighbors are at it too.  True, I have the computer on but with all things considered, I think my Earth Hour contribution is a positive one. After all, I could be:

• Driving somewhere, or...
• Running the TV, lights and heat, or...
• Flying in a 757 to some exotic destination, or...
• Worse, ignoring the issues

Since having two young kids in the past few years, I find myself thinking different.  Bottom line, it's all about them: helping them to grow into healthy, happy people; doing what I can to protect their futures; enjoying life in the present but also making a personal contribution every day by thinking and acting in a responsible way.

OK, it's that time to push the button and make this blog post go global. Sure, there will be a number of servers, routers and switches running across the network to carry this message of commitment and hope. But even the engineers at Sun, HP, Dell, Cisco, etc. are innovating to make computing and communications equipment run more efficiently, so I don't feel guilty about not turning off my PC and blogging.

Our family is in the dark tonight but we're not blind to the environmental issues that are important to us all. It's now 8:25 PM PST; I think I'll take a walk and enjoy the evening sky.

Your comments, ideas and links?

"Email Insecurity Factor" Spurs Consumers to Keep Multiple In-boxes

By Erick Mott

I suspect we all take email for granted once in a while; like electricity, transportation and now mobile communications. And I'll bet my 401K that most people rely on personal or business email at least once per day to get work done, buy from favorite brands, share with groups, or exchange personal messages. For better or worse, email and the Web have become an extension of who we are and how we interact with people, businesses and society at large.

Enter spam, phising, digital threats and the like. I'm not talking about a little here or there. For example, more than 90% of all emails sent daily worldwide is considered spam or worse. This glut of bad, unwanted messages are annoying for most and makes it difficult for legitimate senders to reach opt-in audiences. Further, excessive spam and related threats are causing consumers to tiptoe online and take protective measures into their own hands by using multiple email accounts and non-stop screening.

This article provides some insight into what Habeas calls the Email Insecurity Factor and how it impacts consumers and executives that rely on email. Our reality is spam is not going away. And while most people won't give up email, they will use a number of identities and easily disposable in-boxes to deal with the problem. CIOs, CSOs and CMOs are succeeding with reputation management strategies, technologies and services to help navigate through aggressive spam filtering and consumer counter measures. From a strategic perspective, reputation management is required to be a trusted brand in a connected world.

Your comments, ideas and links?