The Science of Communicating & Marketing Your Business

Fair warning, folks; This is going to be a ramble...

I did bring my laptop with me and opened it three times in three days. Total time in use was probably less than 5 minutes. My sister sent me her pasta sauce recipe, no messages from NextStage staff that things needed my attention and people are queuing up to purchase the research that MarketingSherpa wrote about in Exclusive Data: How to Design Your Newsletters - 5 New Action Charts (We expect to publish Designing an Email Newsletter for Maximum ROI on Friday, 8 Feb 08, and it will be available for US$375.00. Please email NextStage R&D if you'd like to be notified). Good, good and good.

I see that the blog Eric Peterson and I have started, The Future of Web Analytics, is getting some traffic. Also good. I'm anxious about what I write there. My paradigm is so different from the other folks posting there. How do I tell Eric Peterson that a click is a click is a click and has nothing to do with attention in the psycho-cognitive sense? Forgive the Freudism and in this case a cigar is just a cigar. A click doesn't really reveal much until you can determine why the click occurred, what was motivating it. I suppose I'm crafting my response there here. Was the click done in frustration? Curiosity? Was the individual's expectation high that this click would get them where they wanted to go? Was the individual an individual or a group?

I guess I'm really wondering if people realize NextStage has been monitoring and reporting on things like attention, engagement and their kin since we started in 2001. And when I write "attention, engagement and their kin" I'm mean the definitions found in the literature, not something based on wishcasting (and thanks to WindKiller for the term).

This was a long relaxing drive and primarily because Susan and I don't get rattled by too much anymore. We drove north from Nashua, NH, and crossed into Canada at the NH border. We had reasonably good weather for most of the trip thus far and it started snowing with a good blowing wind just as we crossed over. The border guard gave us some suggestions for alternative routes that made sense so we headed off in a direction we didn't intend. This is what makes things adventurous.

The first change in direction took us past the Seagull guitar factory in La Patrie, Quebec. This might not mean much to you and it was a happy coincidence for me as I'm in the market for a new guitar. I had no idea they were so close. Yes, I can purchase Seagull guitars both here in Nashua, NH, and in Truro, NS, but seeing them made and hearing them played? Priceless.

We continued to follow roads unknown to us and went past Bishop's University. Another happy coincidence as one of our associates, Sandy Law, was a grad student there and talks gloriously of it. His tales of it are so universally grand that I've considered contacting them to see if they'd be interested in my joining their faculty for a year or two.

That took us through Sherbrooke and onto Drummondville, then on TransCanada 20 up to Ville de Quebec et Levis.

Remember my mentioning asking the border guard for alternative routes north to Quebec City from the border? Two feet of snow and 35-40mph winds later, we arrived at Au Petite Chateau three hours later than anticipated. Thank goodness our hosts had espresso and cappuccino ready and waiting for us!

more to follow...

Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.

Upcoming Conferences:

• Civics, Social Media and the Countdown to Election '08 at the Boston Social Media Club's 7 Feb 08 Meeting
• New Communications Forum 2008 22-25 April 08 in Sonoma Valley, CA
• SUNY Marketing Professionals Conference at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC, 11-13 June 08

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