5 Ideas That Stuck ... On Day 1 of SMX East
I'm attending SMX East 2010 in NYC again this year and rather than try to summarize the sessions, I'll cover the terms, phrases, ideas that stick with me after a long day of folding chairs and unlimited coffee.
"The scent of information" -- My favorite session of Day 1 discussed the marriage of usable web design with good SEO practices, but never one at the expense of the other. Shari Thurow debunked the myth that users have to be three clicks from the information they need, rather they need consistent design that offers the scent of information that indicates they are on the right path to their desired info (ie. home > clothing > menswear > casual > sweaters > v-neck).
"Authentic" -- The term was used in virtually ever session so far. Speakers are stressing the obvious but nonetheless important fact that content, engagement, strategies need to respect the fact the search engines and users are way smarter than you think. They will reward honest exchanges of information and scorn the hint of manipulation.
"User segmentation on the fly" -- Super cool demo on Google Analytics showed they will be beta-testing on-page metrics which is not really new -- Omniture has done this for years with Click-Map albeit not very well. What's cool about GA's version is that it will allow you to segment page clicks by user type or referral. Imagine the actionable data that would come from knowing what a referral visitor from search clicks on more often compared to a visitor who has bookmarked your site. It's user segmentation on the fly with no setup. Sweet.
"Leave blank spaces blank" -- Another gem from Shari Thurow -- if you want people to use your onsite search, leave the search window blank. Eyes are drawn to blank spaces and the prompting text that says "enter search term here" does only one thing. It deters people from seeing or using it.
"Mobile users buy in person, social users buy online." -- Tons of good data in the Local, Mobile, Social Search session -- too much to digest, but the key takeaway for me was that users you reach on mobile and social sites are small, but growing fast. That's not the key part. The telling studies show these users are most engaged, likely to comment, share and ... (wait for it) ... buy stuff.
