The findings identified some key behavioral patterns in participants:

Rather than analyzing the content of these newsgroups (hard to do, as they’re huge), Smith and his team looked at structures. They did a great deal of network mapping, graphing the posts and responses, and seeing the structures that emerge. At least three types have emerged:

- Answer people – these people almost never post new threads, but answer the queries of a large number of unconnected people. In network terms, they’ve got high out-degree and low in-degree. These folks are utterly essential in the functioning of technical newsgroups, as they’re the folks that newbies end up getting support from

- Reply magnets – some people have a gift (or a technique) for posting in a way that gets responses. Reply magnets are the opposite of answer people – they post infrequently and everyone answers. Smith sees roughly 0.5% of these people in newsgroups, but their posts get 30% of the responses from roughly 30% of all users. Basically, these folks are specialists in setting the agenda, which has interesting implications for political discussions in newsgroups, as these folks are capable of nominating agenda topics with much more success that the average user.

- Discussion people both post and answer a lot, and have long, sustained connections with lots of people. They’re the classic discussion group user, but they’re less common that we tend to assume.

This echos what I’m seeing in the community behavioral analysis I’ve been performing; while there is some movement between behavior types, it’s typically incident based. Once the incident that prompted the change in behavior ends, so does the change in behavior.

Oh and the title? Well, as you might have guessed, I fall into the answer type, so feel free to ask away in comments!

Matthew Morreale, 24, could help answer a question that vexes advocates, politicians and parents of autistic children: Can we help these adults be more than a tax burden? Matthew is thought to be the first local example of a statewide trend. He runs a microenterprise, a small niche business that can be launched with minimal funding yet make a steady profit.

There are adults with developmental disabilities running mall kiosks and selling hand-made bags. They own floral businesses and they stage puppet shows for children’s parties.

Matthew runs the Matthew James Co., a shredding business that began this year with a single client but is already looking to hire additional employees. His brochure promises that he’ll “shred the competition.”

Matthew is one of a growing number of disabled entrepreneurs who are successfully running their own business. By focusing on his abilities and interests, his job coach, Cassandra Novak at Goodwill of Orange County helped him craft a self-employment plan that could help Matthew live independently.

While I’m annoyed by the default assumption that people with disabilities = tax burden, I’m delighted to read about another case of successful self-employment. This is the type of outcome we designed Active Gray Matter to support, because everyone deserves the opportunity for self reliance and independence.

Well done, Matthew!

His most recent trip video was just released, and I passed it around to some of my clients as an example of the impact of viral videos. That led to the question of whether Stride had seen a boost in sales & or brand recognition as a result, and although I assumed so, I dug in to find out specifics.

Stride has been able to capture a significant share of online traffic:

Note: Compete’s chart embedding feature only supports 13 months. Click here to view the full 24 months of traffic data.

Attention (time on site) followed a similar trajectory:

As you can see from these charts, StrideGum.com has seen major traffic spikes corresponding to each new video Matt has released, increasing Stride’s brand recognition and website visits.

Did the dollars follow? In 2007, Cadbury Schweppes Plc said confectionery sales and margins beat its targets:

U.S. gum operations, including Trident and Stride, pushed market share to nearly 35 percent compared with 27 percent before Cadbury bought the business in 2003. [Source: Washington Post]

The 8% of U.S. market share had to come from somewhere:

Sales of chewing gum brands such as Doublemint and Big Red are sagging — and some analysts say there aren’t enough new ideas in the pipeline to juice up growth.

Meanwhile, British archrival Cadbury Schweppes PLC is riding high on the most successful new gum launch in the last five years: Stride, which has already captured 3% of the U.S. market since its June debut.

Cadbury’s U.S. gains come at a time when Wrigley’s domestic business appears to have hit a plateau. U.S. sales were flat in the fourth quarter of 2006, as declines in sugary gum brands “significantly offset” growth in sales of sugar-free gum, Wrigley acknowledged earlier this month. [Source: Chicago Business. Crain Communications Inc.]

Obviously, dancing videos aren’t going to work for every organization or situation, but this should be a compelling case study for anyone who thinks online video is a waste of time or effort.

Posts that contain "Acephalous" Meme per day for the last 30 days.

Get your own chart!

While you can see a huge spike of blogs linking in during the first 2 days, it quickly trails off, illustrating again the “long tail” effect.

What is more interesting (to me) is to monitor the spread through blog topics and time – from knitters to lawyers, artists to architects, the willingness of non-academic bloggers to participate surprised even me.

That it continues to spread more than a dozen days after his initial post has implications for businesses and organizations looking to leverage the blogosphere for promotion. Specifically, campaign times, personnel, expiration dates and server loads need to be examined carefully.

What’s my gripe with MySpace? It’s garish, superficial and those autoplay music things make me batty. I am already getting junk mail from the shadier element of Internet marketers pushing it as the next great marketplace, and it’s already full of blinking and shimmering ads. I don’t need to be friends with robots, thanks – I prefer interacting with real people. That said, yes, I have a MySpace page, mostly so I retain my name there, but also to monitor the climate and effectiveness.

What I’m seeing so far is that friends there translate into connections and ideas within networks, not necessarily buyers or voters. If you’re sold on the idea of automating your contact with the teeming masses at MySpace, you’re going to have to work really hard generating value out of it. As with most things, what you put into it is what you’ll get out of it.

MySpace has reached the point where people are there because everyone else is. That isn’t necessarily a good reason to be there, unless you have a clear goal and purpose to include it as a component of your online marketing tactics. Assuming a page and automated friends will fund your retirement is a slow road to sorrow.

Update: Barbarian over at Forever Geek has posted Debunking the MySpace Myth of 100 Million Users that is well worth a read. Since almost everyone I know on MySpace has at least two accounts (one for their project, another for themselves) I tend to agree with his numbers.

The new MacEvents.com site went live Wednesday morning. The team at Clipper Web Development created a great new design and built some nifty new features into the site:

Before:

After:

One of the best additions to the site is a section designed for the media. In the past, writers interested in covering the show had to wait for the physical press kit to arrive in the mail. Now, they can go to the site and download the material they want immediately, in several different types and formats.

You can view the rest of the before and after pictures in my Flickr set.

What are you doing with your website or business to make things easier for your visitors? Share it with us in the comment section.

I spent some time today checking out the new SBA research library. I downloaded enough material that it made better sense to print in volume using their ink, so I pushed it to my local Kinko’s for output.

Here is what I got back from them:

Thank you for your e-mail.

If you have sent this message to place an order, please call your FedEx Kinko’s Office and Print Center Project Manager at (804) 288-0880 to discuss your order. The FedEx Kinko’s Project Manager will confirm:

* Your order was received
* Pricing and payment method
* Expected delivery date for your order

Want to save the trouble of a phone call next time? Connect directly to us from your PC with File, Print FedEx Kinko’s, our state-of-the-art order submission tool. Visit http://www.fedexkinkos.com/fpfk-em now to download the free software and get started.

With File, Print FedEx Kinko’s, you can choose your print options, see a preview of your printed document and pay for your order with any major credit card or FedEx Kinko’s Commercial Account Card. You can even ship your order overnight by FedEx without leaving your desk.

You can also submit your orders through our Web site by visiting http://www.fedexkinkos.com/OnlineOrdering. It’s another convenient way to send us your documents online. For more information about other FedEx Kinko’s services, or to receive customer assistance, please call 1.800.254.6567.

Thank you for your business!

Terms and Conditions:
This e-mail transmission is not encrypted and offers no security protection. Any material you send could be viewed by a third party while in transit.

If the document you are sending is copyright or trademark protected in whole or in part, please note that FedEx Kinko’s requires written permission from the copyright or trademark holder in order to reproduce copyright or trademark protected works.

By submitting this file I warrant that the documents I submit via this e-mail transmission are not protected under copyright or trademark laws or that I have the authority to print or reproduce the files. I hereby agree to indemnify and hold FedEx Kinko’s harmless from any suit, demand, or claim made against FedEx Kinko’s by reason of breach of this warranty, and I agree to any judgment or reasonable settlement offer resulting from any such suit, demand, or claim, and to pay any attorney’s fees incurred by FedEx Kinko’s in defending against such suit, demand, or claim. I agree that FedEx Kinko’s may provide a copy of this statement to anyone claiming infringement of copyright or trademark in the file(s) being submitted.

By transmitting your order you are agreeing to the foregoing indemnification of FedEx Kinko’s.

Wow, wasn’t that a mouthful? Printed, this almost fills an 8.5” x 11” page, but look – there is no compelling offer to make me do anything about it, now, is there?

Using some back of the envelope math, I figured that FedEx Kinko’s automagically sends out about 56,000 of these emails a day or 1.68 million per month (1400 stores x 40 incoming email files x 30). Sure, it might well be a few more or a few less – my point is, the email does nothing to increase sales or improve operational efficiency.

Why do I say this? I’ve been sending email orders to Kinko’s for four years, using the exact same email address. I am well past the six magical touchpoints* – I’m well aware of the service, thank you very much, and if I was going to download P2K, I’d have done so a long time ago. I prefer interacting with them as I do, because I know what the outcome will be.

Yet, each time I send an order, I get the same old tired message back. Ho hum – off to the trash can with it. This is bad technology in action – why not configure the email server to compare the number of times I’ve received this offer, and hey – offer me something different?

If you’re sending out automated emails anyway, why not use them to increase your sales? They are leaving money on the table, here, by ignoring this point of contact – I could spend more, but I’ve got no compelling reason to, with emails of this nature.

The use of coupons and samples are proven, effective methods of increasing sales, whether you make copies or bon-bons. Yes, the offer must be enough to create action, which requires some testing, but when your sales are down 2% and profits down 56%, you can’t afford to continue to do what you’ve always done.

*Studies have shown that regular, repeated contact with prospects or customers increases sales exponentially:

• First contact: 44%
• Second contact: 16%
• Third contact: 14%
• Fourth contact: 12%
• Fifth contact: 8%
• Sixth contact: 3%

Notice that over 50% of the overall conversion is generated by follow up messages!

This has all come together very quickly and amidst a whirlwind of other projects, so we’ve planned another “meet and greet” at Ethos Cafe (downtown Richmond VA) on Tuesday, June 21 from 5 – 9 pm so that you don’t miss out. There was a great crowd tonight, as well – I was really impressed with the improvements the owners have made to the cafe. Shockoe Bottom was actually still lively at 9:00 pm on a Wednesday night – it’s great to see the area rebounding.

Wil’s photographic luck was with me tonight – I managed to capture some shots without my fingers in them, unlike my last foray out to the Tranny Road Show. They aren’t as magical as his, but mine are online first LOL

The first images as you come into the cafe are stunning, with a 16 x 20 of Wil’s Pulp Fiction shot and a gorgeous image of our very own Jen:

That leads to more of Wil’s portrait work –

The other side of the space was given over to a beautiful 16 x 20 of Nate playing a guitar and one of Wil’s recent garden series. The splash of color was nicely grounded by some organic turnips.

I had a great time and made a mental note to get out more now that the weather has warmed. Cafe’s and coffeehouses like Ethos are so critical to the well being of the city and the entrepreneurial cycle – they play a significant role in providing exhibit space and recognition to creative self starters.

Back soon, promise -

Some more of my fledgling blogs are ready to leave the nest; Darlene Greene is taking the helm over at Simply The Best Loans and has already started posting up a storm; rumor has it that some in-depth details on how independent/creative professionals can smoothly navigate the mortgage waters are forthcoming, along with more of Darlene’s no nonsense advice on financial management.

Michol Little is taking the reins over at A Better Custom Home, where she’s going to demystify the construction and renovation process for residential and commercial construction. As someone who has done more than my fair share of both, I’m delighted to help her share her wealth of knowledge with others.

Maria has really caught the blog bug; she’s launched Not That You Asked, But… as a news and commentary blog with her own unique blend of caustic wit. DDOQ is also starting to see steady improvement in traffic numbers; the site is now averaging 150+ new visitors a day and already has over 4000 page views for May. We’re going to start adding in some select advertisers in addition to Amazon – both she and Jen are getting the click throughs but not sales.

Jen has also seen consistent traffic growth; she is up over 200 uniques a day and her latest blog, Practical Plastic Surgery has gotten off to a really strong start.

Wil’s site is getting ready to go under the knife; his traffic remains simply insane and we’re adding an ecommerce element and a whole new UI, complete with thumbnails and a whole slew of new WP plugins to monetize the site. He’ll essentially have the equivalent of a full content management site, which will help tremendously when he hits the road on the Everyday Queer book tour – he’ll be able to post from anywhere, and from what I’ve seen of the itinerary, that’s going to be pretty important.

Bruce and Kim got a wonderful write up in the Metro Business section of the Times Dispatch a couple of weeks ago. Bruce did a great job with his first Site Build It site; it ranks well in the search engines and is chock full of really useful information. The interest in LED light therapy is only going to continue to grow, especially in light of growing concerns over long term use of celebrex, vioxx and other pain medications – the funny thing is that they’re selling way more human than horse units; clearly, here is a collision between intended and unintended markets.

See? Told you I’ve been busy – it must be all that spring energy.

I will be posting more regularly now – I wanted to bring everyone up to speed, first. I think we’re just about there, so I’ve allocated daily writing time into my new schedule. I’m also going to add a buying/selling page to this site, since I want to extend my freelance network and I haven’t gotten around to revamping Networking Domain for it.

Toots for now.