The Conversion Scientist™

Father of Email Claims His Social Network is the Biggest

AUSTIN, TX – Ray Tomlinson, the man responsible for putting the “@” in our email addresses has apparently gone on the warpath against MySpace, Facebook and other social networks who claim they have the largest memberships.

“Zuckerberg Schmuckerberg!” Tomlinson was overheard saying at a social gathering. “My social network has been around since the 70s. We support photos, videos — everything Facebook does.”

The social network to which that Tomlinson refers is the world-wide email system, a system that has been in use since 1971 when Tomlinson inserted the “@” character to “separate the user from their machine,” according to Wikipedia. The symbol, known as an “at” sign, “ampersand,” was reportedly taken from a rune used by secretive Freemason accountants signaling other Freemason brothers to “ask for a discount.” This has not been confirmed.

The global email system has been embraced by Viagra retailers, relatives of Nigerian government officials, and that guy who thinks any joke is funny enough to share. But, the biggest social network on the planet has been overlooked by thousands of legitimate businesses.

Tomlinson has been largely out of the spotlight since a major cable company attempted to trademark the “@” in 1996, proposing that all email addresses take the form “name@™domain.com”. Tomlinson successfully argued the disk space that servers would need to store the additional characters “TM” should be saved to fix the Y2K problem.

It is not known if Tomlinson is seeking some form of compensation for his work, or if he simply had too many Appletinis. For instance, when it was pointed out that email doesn’t offer social applications like those supported by the OpenSocial standard, he is reported to have said, “what do you think viruses are!”

Tomlinson was not asked to comment on this story.

If you’re considering investing in a social marketing campaign, and you haven’t nailed your email strategy, you may be investing in the wrong place. Don’t miss our next post on the myths that keep businesses from using email to its full potential.

Photo copyright BBN Technologies.

"Evil" Best Buy Develops Personas

Oh no! The secret’s out. Best Buy actually took the time to profile their customers with the intention — GASP — of selling more to them. The Consumerist finds this somehow disingenuous, that one of the biggest consumer electronics retailers on the planet is not interested in selling to customers that aren’t profitable.

Maybe it’s not OK for Best Buy to do this, but do you feel some moral obligation to sell to anyone, even if you don’t make money? I don’t.

According to writer Meg Marco, Best Buy’s sins include catering "only to its most profitable customers, or ‘angels.’"

That sounds like a pretty good idea to me.

Keep reading, and I’ll lay an even bigger shocker on you.

We All Carry Personas Around With Us

The truth is, that The Consumerist has a set of personas. They just haven’t written them down. A quick review of their content will tell you that one of their key personas is the angry, cynical or distrustful consumer who likes to rant, and who will spread The Consumerist’s message to their friends via email, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc.

This is how they grow their business.

These crazed consumers are their "angels." Meg may even see someone like me — a marketer — as a "demon" on their site. The Consumerist content is targeted, relevant, and engaging, but only to those readers who will help them sell more and more advertising.

That is the power of personas, and you can use them in your business too if you want to sell more or generate more leads.

A Scandal in the Making

Here’s the shocker. I have a set of personas for this blog. And I’ve even gone so far as to write them down.

Yes, it’s a scandal in the making. I can already see the headlines:

If you’ve read this far, you’re probably one of my angels. I write for you and seek to provide value to you. You specifically. I’ve created my personas so I can target my topics and writing style to you. I think this will make you read more and share my stuff with your friends.

This is how I grow my blog.

I’m going to introduce you to my personas in the course of this series on conversion Web strategies. Don’t miss a post.

Do you think you will see yourself in them?

Thanks to Britton Manasco of Illuminating the Future for sending me this.

ConversionCast: DallasSummerMusicals.org

Conversion Scientists love their crayons.

We’re starting something new here at Conversion Sciences: The ConversionCast.

A ConversionCast is a detailed analysis of a page based on two primary scales: The four Modes of Persuasion and visitors’ position in the Sales Process.

Learn more about the Modes of Persuasion in the book Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? by Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg.

A Proven Process for Improving Your Web Site

These two issues are key to making your Web site convert. You should understand that everyone comes to your site in a certain mode, which the Eisenbergs name Methodical, Competitive, Spontaneous or Humanistic. These modes are based on research on Myers-Briggs personality types and Jungian archetypes.

You must also realize that visitors to your site are at different stages of the buying process: Awareness, Consideration or Action.

Watch These Two Five-minute Examples

In ten minutes you should begin to understand how to look at your Web site, and how to improve your conversion results.

NOTE: These turned out a little big, but consider these the HD versions. Please comment with your thoughts and ideas.

We’ll be doing more of these in the coming weeks. Don’t miss a single ConversionCast.

Thanks to Steve M. Hall and Dallas Summer Musicals.

ConversionCast: DallasSummerMusicals.org Part 1

ConversionCast: DallasSummerMusicals.org Part 2