Timberline Interactive

Congratulations to our friends at The SCOOTER Store, which was named (for the second straight year) to Fortune magazine's list of "100 Best Companies to Work For."

"Celebrations are a way of life at this returnee to our list," writes Fortune, "from quarterly pep rallies to daily birthday parties. Forty percent of employees are salespeople who earn commissions based on their performance."

The SCOOTER Store ranked number 38 on the list. Founded in 1991 by Doug and Susanna Harrison, the company is based in New Braunfels, Texas, and had 2008 revenue of $332 million.

As its name implies, the SCOOTER Store specializes in electric mobility scooters for people with limited mobility. These scooters have brought more freedom and independence to millions of Americans; the SCOOTER Store alone served its 400,000 customer last year. The company specializes in Pride scooters and power chairs, EV Rider scooters, and Zipr scooters.

Timberline recently worked with Beau Ties of Vermont to relaunch its website on the CommerceV3 software platform.

Beau Ties began in 1993 as the bow tie experts, handmaking superior silk bow ties -- and later adding cummerbunds, ascots, and cravats to their product line. Now, some 100,000 customers later, they have obviously struck a nerve with "bow-tie deprived guys."

Congratulations to Bill Kennerson, Deb Venman, Justin Perdue and the rest of the Beau Ties crew on their great-looking new site.

Epik 1 is hosting another Web Analytics Wednesday event in Burlington, Vermont at 156 Bistro.

When it comes to their social-media efforts, companies are chucking a lot of pasta at the wall, hoping some of it will stick.

The long Phase One in the emergence of social media, say 1999 to 2006, was a period of social networking for people, not companies. From the founding of Napster (1999), Friendster (2002), MySpace (2003), Facebook (2003), Second Life (2003), Flickr (2004), and Twitter (2006), social networking was principally a landscape for people to connect and communicate with friends, amuse themselves by sharing music, pictures, and status updates, and play online role-playing games.

Companies didn't have a natural home in social media at first. But that has changed for a bunch of reasons:

• A gold-rush mentality of businesses wanting to be where the buzz is, and where the "eyeballs" of their customers are
• Social networking platforms needing to cash in on, or "monetize" their popularity via advertising
• In the best cases, a natural fit between our emotional enthusiasm for certain brands, their products or social mission -- sometimes customers really DO want to "connect" more deeply with the companies they buy from

So, social media's often awkward and unruly Phase Two is a cultural shift: Businesses and people learning to coexist online, and establish new etiquette about what's cool and uncool, what's spam and what's not, what's authentic and what's fake.

Phase one, for the early-adopting businesses that dipped their toes into social media (blogging, Twittering, creating a Facebook fan page), was not an expensive proposition. It took time and commitment, but not much money.

In phase two, corporate social media campaigns (especially for Fortune 400 companies) can be enormously complex and integrated affairs, requiring the work of expensive outside ad agencies, coordination with mobile devices, and the support of traditional media ad buys -- plus ad spending on the social network platforms themselves.

Sure, smaller companies are still doing social media on a shoestring. And many will say that this is the right way to do it -- that glitzy, costly campaigns like TGIFriday's hamburger giveaway or Pepsi's Refresh Project are too much noise.

But even smaller firms, making smaller investments, have recognized they need to track and measure social media's return on investment.

What web analytics tools exist to help companies measure social media?

• Facebook itself offers basic analytics and ad-tracking metrics
• You can Add Google Analytics tracking to your Facebook Page
• Omniture has added a suite of features to support tracking and optimizing social media. WebTrends, Coremetrics and others have done the same.
• Start-ups like Sometrics, Viralheat and Sysomos specialize in social-media tracking

And of course, there are best practices for tagging the links from your social media pages to your main site. Especially if you're doing ecommerce, your tagging is all-important in measure the impact of your social media efforts -- and it will be a subject of a future Timberline blog post!

The travails of the DMA of late have not been pretty to watch: Member discord, a proxy battle waged by a dissident board member, the resignation of president John Greco.

Enter Bob Allen, who in early February took the reins as interim CEO and President. For 23 years the President and CEO of The Vermont Country Store, Bob led the company's transition from a somewhat sleepy catalog business to a rapidly growing multichannel merchant doing an ever-increasing share of its business online.

We at Timberline know very little about the inner workings of the DMA, how effective it is in its mission for members, or how on-target that mission is to the concerns of average members. No doubt those questions will be at the forefront of Bob Allen's mind, and he said as much when he addressed members in an open letter on February 5, 2010.

What we do know is that Bob is a hardworking, immensely talented, humble and personable guy -- with the distinguished C-level multichannel experience and credibility the DMA really needs. (It doesn't hurt that Bob is a local boy, and a star of the Vermont business scene!).

Bob serves as a director of six companies: Gardeners Supply, Cuddledown, Susan Sargent Designs, JK Adams, Danforth Pewterers, and Kalow Technologies. In 2004, he received the lifetime achievement award from Catalog Success magazine, and another in 2008, from the New England Mail Order Association (NEMOA). He is a graduate of the University of Rhode Island.

We congratulate the DMA on its choice, and wish Bob Allen the best of luck as he takes on this new challenge!

Internet Explorer users with the Google toolbar are seeing something new: They're being prompted by Google to "share their location."

"Google would like to have access to your location," reads the alert, appearing atop Google results pages. "The Google Toolbar will periodically use the network to keep your location up to date." Beside the message is a big button labeled "Share my location" and a smaller one labeled "Don't share."

What does this mean? Should you agree to share, or opt out?

The aim of the feature is to display more accurate local listings to your search queries. While Google results already perform localization based on your IP address, this data is less precise than the W3C Geolocation web service that drives the toolbar feature. "We use information transmitted by nearby WiFi access points to determine your approximate location. Accuracy and coverage will vary by location, and we're working to improve both over time," explains Google.

Your computer's IP address is assigned by your Internet access provider and may be many miles from your actual location. But today, your laptop or smart phone's location changes constantly as you move about the planet. So it should be a big plus for websites to receive and respond to more accurate data on your whereabouts.

Personally, I'm not enthusiastic about enabling location-tracking in Google's Toolbar. I live in rural Vermont. Most of the things and topics I'm searching for ain't here, they're in the outside world. Few of my web searches are local in nature. Already, I receive more localized listings in my SERPs than I want, and am forced to skim over them (along with the crowd of often irrelevant News Results, Twitter posts, images, videos, etc.) Sure, if a search I'm performing is inherently newsy ("Haiti earthquake") or visual (um, "Shakira" say), the mix of other search result types is great -- but often for me they are distracting fluff. More local listings, for everything from "fish" to "divorce" to "exercise", would probably worsen rather than improve my web browsing experience.

Of course, enabling the feature may not give you MORE local results, just BETTER ones. That's worth testing -- and yes, you can toggle the feature on and off as it suits you.

Another thing: Google's MyLocation also enables third-party websites to serve you custom content for your location, courtesy of the W3C Geolocation API. Think about the websites already serving up IP-driven custom content. In my experience, this technology is most often used on display ads on schlocky sites telling you what the mortgage rates or car insurance prices are in your town -- or what fictitious hot single ladies are within a few miles of you. No thanks. I'll keep my location to myself for now until I see the benefit of sharing it.

FYI, Google's official FAQ on the "MyLocation" feature is as follows:

My Location provides more accurate local search results on Google when information is available. It also offers the W3C Geolocation API to third party websites with your permission.

Tip: Visit Google Maps and click the My Location button above the zoom slider. Click Share my location if you give your permission for Google Maps to use your location, and the map should center on your approximate location, if available.

Enable or disable My Location

My Location is off by default. Once you elect to share your location with Google or a third party website, the My Location icon appears on your Toolbar to indicate that My Location is active (active means that Toolbar is keeping your location up to date in the background). You can click this icon at any time to turn off My Location and stop sharing location with websites. Click the icon to re-enable it.

1. Click the Toolbar's wrench icon.
2. On the Tools tab, select (or deselect) the 'My Location' checkbox.
3. Click Save.

Note: When My Location is enabled, you may see prompts asking you to share your location with specific websites. To stop these requests from appearing, click the 'Remember this site' checkbox before clicking Share my location.

Accuracy

We use information transmitted by nearby WiFi access points to determine your approximate location. Accuracy and coverage will vary by location, and we're working to improve both over time.

Privacy

When My Location is active, Toolbar will automatically send local network information (including, but not limited to, visible WiFi access points) to Google Location Services in order to determine your location. This information is not tied to your Google Account, and you can disable the My Location feature at any time by clicking the My Location icon. Alternatively, you can disable the feature for a specific site:

1. Click the Toolbar's wrench icon.
2. On the Tools tab, click the Edit link next to the 'My Location' checkbox.
3. Select the site you'd like to remove from the list.
4. Click Remove site.

Toolbar does save your last location in the browser's memory so that websites can easily retrieve it. This information is periodically updated; the frequency of updates depends on changes to your location network information.

For more information on privacy, see the Toolbar Privacy Policy. You should also examine a website's privacy policy before sharing your location with them.

Alicia Morga is a leader in Hispanic marketing -- especially in using online media to reach U.S. Hispanics. She's the founder and CEO of Consorte Media, and before that she earned her stripes in the VC world and as VP Operations at Napster.

"I have a JD from Stanford Law School," she writes, "but last week I found myself outlining a banner ad strategy to test different images of women leaned over cars as a means of driving traffic to an auto site."

Her blog post Sex and Autos makes excellent reading for online marketers and A/B testing geeks like us. I'm sorry to have given away the ending with my headline, but I couldn't resist.

And the winner is...

People! Why are so many email marketers still making the mistake of kicking off the text of each and every promotional email they send with the line "Unable to view this email? Click here to view..." or words to that effect?

What's wrong with this picture?

You're using the most premium real-estate in your email to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

Okay, you're trying to give your customers an alternative to viewing your message in an email client that "breaks" your nice html layout, blocks its images, or both.

But let's face it: Today, everyone is viewing their emails in some sort of preview pane, making the split-second decision on whether to delete or open each message. In 2007 Marketing Sherpa found 69% of at-work web users viewed their emails in the preview pane. According to a recent email survey Merkle's View from the Inbox 2009 (pdf), about half of viewers have their preview panes set to block images.

So don't expect your gorgeous images to get your email opened. And don't expect subscribers to open up your email, see that it renders wrong, and click the "Unable to view" link.

That first line of text -- the one appearing in the preview pane -- is the most important element of your message. It's second only to the subject line. That's what gets your message opened today.

Having a 20% off sale? Offering free shipping? About to run out of a popular item? That's what your email subscribers should be seeing in the preview pane. This line of text ought to be elaborating upon the subject line in ways that generate interest and compel customers to open the message.

And what if they are, indeed, unable to view the message? A few things:

• The vast majority of web users (I've read 67%) are receiving HTML rather than text emails
• It's your responsibility to test that your html layouts behave without breaking in the various web-based and installed email clients
• Knowing that about 50% of us block images by default, it's your job to design HTML emails that "work" without images -- critical campaign content must appear as text (could be as image alt text, if need be)
• It's fine to display a "Can't read this?" link, but put it AFTER the key offer text, not before

It's not just that you're missing an important opportunity to pitch your audience with the particular offer. The whole "unable to view" thing sets up a subconscious atmosphere of negativity -- you're describing technical difficulties that haven't even occured yet. Don't go there!

We received word from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) just minutes ago that longtime -- but embattled -- president and CEO John Greco has resigned, effective immediately.

A search for Greco's replacement is underway.

As we enter the last three shopping days for Christmas, online retailers are, in unison, sounding a "Last Chance" note in their promotional email subject lines. Here's a sampling of some of the ecommerce companies we watch.

They employ the whole arsenal of tactics: Encouragement ("there's still time"), urgency ("last chance!"), personalization, some ALL-CAPS and an exclamation point here and there, lots of free shipping pitches, and other angles. Which do you think are most effective?

• Amazon: "tom funk: Shipping in Time for December 24" 
• American Meadows: "It's Not Too Late: Gardening Gift Certificates for Christmas" 
• Apple: "Last-minute gifts they'll love."
• Aplets & Cotlets: "Last Chance for Christmas Delivery!"
• Drugstore.com: "Final Hours: get Free Shipping on your next order"
• Evogear: "Last Chance for 2-Day Shipping Guaranteed by Christmas!"
• Garnet Hill: "Last Call for Free Shipping + 2nd Day Upgrade"
• Garrett Wade: "There's Still Time to Upgrade to 3-Day Air"
• Harry & David: "LAST DAY for FREE Christmas Delivery - NO Express Charges!"
• Lake Champlain Chocolates: "There's Still Time to Order Christmas Chocolates"
• Plow & Hearth: "Last Day - Free Shipping Upgrade"
• Savannah Candy Kitchen: "Free Upgrade to Express Shipping - Guaranteed Christmas Delivery"
• Sgt. Grit: "Great last minute gift for a Marine - Sgt Grit"
• Target: "Tomorrow’s the last day: Free shipping when you spend $50 ends Dec. 21"
• Wine.com: "Ends 1pm today - Rush shipping on us!"