Just b/c they're at work, doesn't mean they're working...

At-Work Internet Usage

Summary Table of Contents Sources Estimates of the number of US workers who go online from work—not including people who worked from home or checked e-mail via mobile phones—range between 65 million and 68 million. At-work Internet users log on for longer hours, visit more domains and own more digital devices than other Internet users.

The At-Work Internet Usage report analyzes the demographics and behavior of users who log in at their places of employment.

“At-work” appears to be almost everywhere.

Two-thirds of employed adults use the Internet and e-mail at their workplace, and nearly one-half of them do at least some work from home, with 18% working from home every day or nearly every day.

Being online at work does not mean loafing, either. The more mobile the workforce, the more work they are expected to do. Similarly, social media may be further blurring the line between personal and work-related Internet use.



Key questions the “At-Work Internet Usage” report answers:

•How many people use the Internet at work?
•What devices do workers use to go online? How do they feel about being “always at work”?
•Can social media use boost productivity?
•How can marketers reach this super-connected crowd?
•And many others…
eMarketer Reports—On Target and Up to Date

The At-Work Internet Usage report aggregates the latest data from a wide range of sources with eMarketer analysis to provide the information you need to make timely, well-informed digital media and marketing decisions.

What would a professional do...

I received this and wanted to make sure we had it to look it in the future to remind us what we are better at...

What would a professional do?
Every day, you do a hundred or a thousand jobs, some of which are occasionally handled by specialists. You make a sales call or give a presentation or answer the phone... you design a slide or create a simple spreadsheet. You get the idea.

When you are busy being a jack of all trades, you're competing against professionals. The recipient of your work doesn't care that you are also capable of doing other things. All she wants is the best she can get.

I'll define a professional as a specialist who does industry standard work for hire. A professional presenter, for example, could give a presentation on anything, not just the topic on which you're passionate about.

When you compete with professionals, you have a problem, because generally speaking, they're better at what they do than you are.

I think there are four valid ways the think your way out of this situation:

Hire a professional.
Be as good as a professional.
Realize that professional-quality work is not required or available and merely come close.
Do work that a professional wouldn't dare do, and use this as an advantage.
The first option requires time and money you might not have, and I'm presuming that's why you didn't do it in the first place.

The second is a smart option, particularly if you do the work often and the quality matters. Slide design and selling are two examples that come to mind here. The first step to getting good is admitting that you aren't (yet.) Invest the time and become a pro if it's important.

The third option is worth investigation, but it's what you've probably already decided without putting words to it. Is the assumption really true? Does your customer/client/employee actually believe that they haven't been shortchanged by your amateur performance? It is costing you in ways you're not measuring because you're willfully ignoring the consequences? Think of all the sub-pro experiences you've had as a customer, instances where someone was pretending to be a chef or a bartender or a computer jock but just came up short... Were you delighted?

The fourth option is really exciting. From personal YouTube videos to particularly poignant and honest presentations or direct and true sales pitches, the humility, freshness and transparency that comes with an honest performance might actually be better than what a professional could do. Harvey Milk was an amateur politician, not a pro. If you're the only person on earth who could have done what you just did, then you're a proud amateur.

You can't skate by when you refuse to mimic a professional. You must connect in a personal, lasting way that matters. That's difficult, but the professionals have no chance to compete with you.

This post comes from Seth Godin's blog

2009 is our year for local online media

If I hear one more person say...I'm going to package it with "online" or I'm going to sell "online"....I'm going to scream. Well not really, I'm actually happy of course that our sales force is selling "online" and is very excited about it. But what are we selling online? Someone could say they are going to sell print and that could mean they are selling inserts; magazines, rop, premium positions, post it notes, an eps flier in a bag that hangs on your doorstep, a special section, direct mail, etc.

"Online" is not just banners ads anymore, it hasn't been for a long time and it certainly isn't in our office. Sometimes we get hung up on selling banner ads and click thru rates that we forget the reason we're pitching online to our clients in the first place... to help them grow their business. Every client needs a different customized solution and the great part about our jobs is that if it doesn't exist; we can brainstorm and make it up!

So whether it is:
Banner Ads
Email Marketing
Sponsorships
Rich Media
Search Advertising
Videos
Mobile to Mobile...
or hopefully a customized solution that incorporates many different facets; we need to remember this...."Online" is another media where the same rules apply....
1. Get the right message
2. In front of a relevant audience
3. Alot of times (Frequency)

What do you think about "online"?

Google gets rid of print ads....did we even know Google was selling print ads?

Read prior

Will focus on online
Google still sells radio and TV ads through Google Audio and Google TV Ads. A Google spokesman wouldn't comment specifically about why the company still sees promise in those offline media even though print didn't work out, but one possibility is that radio and TV are increasingly delivered digitally, making them easier to measure. Google said it will continue to focus on how newspapers can make more money -- but online, not offline.

"We will continue to devote a team of people to look at how we can help newspaper companies," Mr. Spinnell wrote. "It is clear that the current Print Ads product is not the right solution, so we are freeing up those resources to try to come up with new and innovative online solutions that will have a meaningful impact for users, advertisers and publishers."

Google has been able to maintain its profit margins, despite a slowing economy to which even search isn't resistant. But the company has been more aggressive about monetizing previously ad-free areas and has cut projects that aren't expected to have a clear contribution to the bottom line. Another recent victim of the cuts include Google's virtual world experiment, Lively.

The people working on print ads will be moved to other roles within Google; Google has confirmed there are no layoffs associated with this move.

This sounds like a good idea...oh wait we're already doing this one!

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