By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

Have you ever felt like there was too much to do—that your schedule just wouldn’t allow you to do anymore—that there just weren’t enough hours in the day? I know I have. Sometimes it feels like I’m buried under a stream of tweets, deadlines, to-do lists, new articles to read and that’s before account for the more personal commitments.

Evan Williams is the co-founder of Twitter, a realm of social networking based on sharing information with your followers. I use Twitter. I get the latest news, reviews and updates on Twitter. I like Twitter, but it’s contributing to the world of “too much.” It’s heaping piles of information, under which people are being buried.

Williams himself admits in an interview with Om Malik that there are challenges in a web of infinite info. Malik opines, “Ev, when you look at the web of today, say compared to the days of Blogger, what do you see? You feel there is just too much stuff on the web these days?”

“I totally agree. There’s too much stuff,” Williams responds. “It seems to me that almost all tools we rely on to manage information weren’t designed for a world of infinite info.”

Williams wants his creation to be an “antidote to infinite information, not a cause of it.” He continues, “We can let people follow as many accounts as possible. We just need to let them find the right stuff.”

The interview reminded me of a comic I’d read a few weeks back by Stuart McMillen. Entitled “Amusing Ourselves To Death”, McMillen’s comic uses the words of Neil Postman to compare George Orwell’s view of the future in “1984” to Aldous Huxley’s in “Brave New World.”

“Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us,” Postman writes and McMillen illustrates.

There are ways to avoid that ruined future. Beyond unplugging from everything, there are ways to start digging out. I’m not going to say that what we love will ruin us

Patton Oswalt said there’s a similar problem in geek culture. He wrote this piece for Wired saying, “I’m not a nerd. I used to be one, back 30 years ago when nerd meant something.”

His problem is that anyone can use the Internet to become an instant “expert” on anything, “The problem with the Internet, however, is that it lets anyone become otaku (a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests) about anything instantly.” The danger? Patton writes that it “creates weak otakus.” It creates weak experts, who are more interested in adding to the noise than adding anything of value. Patton describes our current state as “Etewaf: Everything That Ever Was—Available Forever.” Patton’s solution strikes me as one Tyler Durden would come up with. He sees “Etewaf as the Balrog, the helter-skelter, the A-pop-alypse that rains cleansing fire down onto the otaku landscape, burns away the chaff, and forces us to start over with only a few thin, near-meatless scraps on which to build.”

I don’t subscribe to that theory; because I don’t think what we love will ruin us if we can learn to manage it. Instead of losing focus trying to gather everything in, we can refine our focus by doing things that matter. Going back to Williams, he recognizes there’s an overflow of information, but has a more creative solution.

“I think we need to design (our products) for a world of infinite information,” Williams tells Malik. “There’s always somewhere else to go, delivering more value in less time should always be the focus.”

I have to ask myself if I’m following that advice. The goal should always be to deliver more value in less time; otherwise we’d all be better off grabbing a shovel to start digging out from the avalanche of information overload.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

Mashable has a great new guide up on how to customize the new profiles on Facebook. The new profiles are now almost a month old and many people have found creative ways to stand out. The most common method was to hack up creative ways to use the new picture lay out. Alexandre Oudin was among those profiled by Mashable for using the picture boxes as a larger piece of art. Rob McCann led off the second round of profiles, for the creative display of a broken train bridge.

There’s more to do with the new profiles than just creatively displaying pictures though. For instance, there’s a lot more information you can share about yourself, your work and your life. No longer constrained by limited amounts of information, you can add projects you’ve worked on, colleagues and more.

With the additional customization features, some things have departed. Mashable notes that profiles’ tabs have disappeared due to “low usage.”

Like most changes with Facebook, even if they’re unpopular, they’re unlikely to revert to the old style. It’s best to take advantage of the opportunity for customization now and prepare for future changes.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

With more than 26 million views on YouTube, you could say the Old Spice advertisement “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” was a hit. But that’s not how they engaged their audience. In Mashable’s Top 10 digital advertising trends, Wieden + Kennedy are given adulation for the interactive twist they gave the campaign. The Old Spice Guy, Isaiah Mustafa, responded directly to people with videos. His farewell video is embedded below.

No one had ever directly responded to their audience before, and it made for a compelling product. The extra videos accumulated millions of extra views, and in turn generated more interest in the brand.

Mashable lists the other innovations as bar code scanning, location-based advertising, iAds, promoted tweets, group buying, personalized video, CAPTCHA advertising, error message advertising and ChatRoulette. You can read their full reasoning here.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

For five days last week, users of the Google Chrome web browser were invited to “browse for a good cause.” For every tab opened, people could contribute vaccinations, books, clean water, shelter or trees. It broke down like this:

• 10 tabs = 1 tree planted
• 10 tabs = 1 book published and donated
• 25 tabs = 1 vaccination treatment provided
• 100 tabs = 1 square foot of shelter built
• 200 tabs = 1 person’s clean water for a year

I tweeted about it last week, and opened hundreds of tabs myself. I’m completely astonished at the end result though, as Chrome users opened 60 million tabs.

Check out how the donations break down:

Chrome For A Cause

• $245,278 toward planting trees in the Atlantic Forest, one of the world’s endangered tropical forests.
• $232,791 toward providing clean water, by building freshwater wells for communities in developing nations.
• $112,078 toward building shelter, to be constructed by volunteers for impoverished families in Latin America.
• $267,336 toward administering vaccinations against meningitis to combat outbreaks in Africa.
• $142,518 toward publishing books by local writers and illustrators, which will be created and donated to schools and libraries across Asia and Africa.

All this was accomplished through a simple Chrome plug-in that kept track of the number of tabs you opened and then offered you an option at the end of each day to distribute your tabs to the specific charities.

If you contributed, you can read more about how your opened tabs will make an impact on the websites below:

• The Nature Conservancy
• charity: water
• Un Techo para mi País
• Doctors Without Borders
• Room to Read

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

“Facebook is ramping up efforts to entice companies… to sell wares on its pages and convert more of its 500 million users into online shoppers,” writes Business Week’s Olga Kharif.

It’s the most direct way yet that Facebook is looking to make shopping a more social experience. Kharif talked to Facebook’s David Fish, who’s running a group at aimed at creating commerce partnerships. Facebook has already met with 20 companies, and aims “to help retailers set up shop on its pages and build tools that let web users interact while buying.”

Facebook wants to create social commerce on the web. Shopping is best when it’s a shared experience. If you’re looking for a new TV, getting validation from a friend is a good thing. If you’re looking for a new outfit, you want to be told it looks good before dropping money on it.

Now, Facebook wants to help retailers spark new purchases through pages driven by “recommendations from friends who ‘like’ to buy.”

“It’s not natural to go to Facebook to shop—yet,” Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester Research told Business Week. “But it’s not a long step.”

That’s an important distinction. People are already going to Facebook to socialize with friends, and if they see something their friends have “liked” or purchased, they may be more inclined to follow suit. It’s in Facebook’s best interests to keep them on the site, which is why it makes sense to offer the experience directly. It’s also in retailers’ interests to engage people where they’re at, which right now is on Facebook. They can also use that store front as part of their social media strategy to engage customers directly.

Facebook’s Fisch is part of a group “meeting with retailers to help Facebook develop software that lets users solicit advice and product reviews from Facebook friends in real time, even while they’re shopping on other sites,” writes Khalid. That’s good news for retailers because their potential customers can tap into a pool of their friends and make a more informed purchase.

The Forbes article also highlights the company “Payvment,” which writes software “that can turn Facebook pages into storefronts.” There’s value there because people can have the instant gratification of making a purchase if they just got a good response from friends about a product.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

There’s a really interesting article on The Wall Street Journal right now, “Phone-Wielding Shoppers Strike Fear Into Retailers.”

The premise is simple: smartphones in the hands of shoppers is a scary story for retail stores. The WSJ writers tell the story of Tri Tang, who found a GPS in one store, compared the price to online retailers using the smartphone and ended up buying it elsewhere for cheaper.

The lowest price won and beat out the convenience and instant gratification of walking out of the store with device in hand. Smartphones are making for smarter shoppers, who are more apt at finding the best devices for the best prices. The WSJ notes, “Mr. Tang’s smartphone reckoning represents a revolution in retailing—what Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Chief Executive Mike Duke has dubbed a ‘new era of price transparency.’”

Retailers should start to embrace that transparency, and the added value that comes with it. If there’s a customer in your store with a smartphone, the most important takeaway is that they’re in the store.

“Only a couple of retailers can play the lowest-price game,” Noam Paransky, senior manager at consultancy Kurt Salmon Associates, told the WSJ. “‘This is going to accelerate the demise of retailers who do not have either competitive pricing’ or a standout store experience.”

That standout store experience is what’s going to keep customers coming back and it’s going to prompt them to share their experiences with others. If someone had a fantastically helpful experience with a representative, they can instantly share it on their smartphone.

Comparing the numbers of smartphone-equipped users on Black Friday in 2009 and 2010, there was a 50-fold increase according to the WSJ article. If that trend continues, which is likely from market research, then more and more people will be electronically equipped all the time. Right now the technology is best suited for comparing big-ticket items, like TVs or the GPS mentioned above. Right now, you’re not likely to se someone price-checking the cost of broccoli at the supermarket.

A traditional brick-and-mortar store may not be able to compete with internet giants on price, but they have an arsenal at their disposal that internet shops can’t compete with: service and customer experience. Shoppers in stores also don’t have to worry about shipping or delivery costs, which can add to the final price.

As one commenter on the WSJ article wrote, “There is value to being able to pick up or return purchases to a local brick and mortar location… There is also value to instant gratification in addition being able to see products side by side. These advantages do not however give the local retailer a license to mark up products to a ridiculous level.”

Retailers shouldn’t be fearing the smartphone, they should be embracing the connectivity it brings.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

On Twitter or Facebook, conversations usually happen in small clusters. I’ll respond to what someone else has written or they’ll respond to me and the conversation continues. There’s increased likelihood that others will chime in if the conversation is on Facebook, but it also happens frequently enough on Twitter among friends. The important takeaway for businesses is that the conversation groups are small, so you have to think small.

Brian Sheehan writes as much on AdAge in his article, Why Big Brands Are Dominating Social Media, “the emergence of the web, and especially social marketing, now means the highway to success now has many more ‘on ramps’ for smaller companies. So why is it, then, when we look at some of the most effective forms of social marketing, big marketers are vastly out-performing smaller ones?”

It’s an important question because on Facebook and Twitter everyone has an equal footing. Everyone can drive on the “highway”, as Sheehan calls it, because of these on ramps. To take the analogy a step further, it’s important for companies to not just get on the freeway but to actually drive. If a company has a presence on Twitter, Facebook or other social networks, but isn’t actively updating then it’s about as useful as a stranded car blocking the left lane of the highway.

Sheehan points to resources playing a big factor an in an example writes, “Pepsico’s Gatorade has a group of full-time staff who man their “Mission Control” room, monitoring and participating in social media 24 hours a day. Smaller brands may not be able to afford that.”

With varying sizes of companies come varying levels of expectations. If I’m looking for a response from a major corporation, I’ll expect quicker than if I was hoping for a response from a city shop. I think most people can understand that the timing will be different, but they would like to actually get a response.

One way to overcome the resource gap is through creativity. “Big marketers may have access to more creative talent, but small brands need to demand from themselves a higher level of creativity,” writes Sheehan. “Small companies are known for their entrepreneurialism and imagination.”

He’s right. When one customer comes to a mega-corporation with one question, they’ll get one answer. That conversation is just as small as the one I have with friends, but it’s not being overlooked as insignificant because small conversations add to create a level of dominance in the social media field.

An effective social media strategy will be one that incorporates large, creative ideas into influential posts that can be shared quickly in small conversations.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

The Internet is now as popular as TV. It’s true, according to the latest research from Forrester cited by the Wall Street Journal. “The stat marks a big shift for the country at large; this is the first year in Forrester’s survey that people have reported spending equal amounts of time on the two activities — 13 hours a week.”

The amazing thing is that Internet activity has seen such amazing growth. People are still watching TV at about the same rates as previous surveys, but they’re also finding more time to get online.

The Wall Street Journal notes that according to the survey of 40,000 people, “e-commerce and social networking have seen the biggest rise in popularity since 2007.” The number of Americans shopping online has doubled, which can be seen in the numbers of shoppers going online for holiday shopping (cyber shopping increased 12 percent over the same period last year according to All Things D.)

When creating a strategy for public relations, it’s important to embrace the web because it’s grabbing more focus than ever. Thirty-five percent of Americans are visiting social networking sites, a 20 percent jump from 2007.

The New York Times even wrote on how “The Atlantic,” a 153-old magazine, transitioned and saved itself by embracing the web. “The Atlantic, the intellectual’s monthly that always seemed more comfortable as an academic exercise than a business, is on track to turn a tidy profit of $1.8 million this year. That would be the first time in at least a decade that it had not lost money.”

How’d they make the transition? A “cultural transfusion” and “a dose of counter intuition”, the New York Times writes.

Justin B. Smith, president of the Atlantic Media Company, told the New York Times, “We imagined ourselves as a venture-capital-backed start-up in Silicon Valley whose mission was to attack and disrupt The Atlantic. In essence, we brainstormed the question, ‘What would we do if the goal was to aggressively cannibalize ourselves?’”

The strategy isn’t a cure-all template for media companies, the article reads, but web strategy and how to position one’s company and brand on the Internet should be a key part of every business strategy. Embracing the web, moving forward it’s as important as ever.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

I wasn’t entirely surprised when I read the headline “Why The New York Times eliminated its social media editor position” on Poynter. In fact, when you look at how the New York Times has approached social media, it’s one of the best and that’s why the NYT’s social media editor Jennifer Preston is changing positions.

“Social media can’t belong to one person; it needs to be part of everyone’s job,” Poynteer quotes Preston as saying. “It has to be integrated into the existing editorial process and production process. I’m convinced that’s the only way we’re going to crack the engagement nut.”

This is true for everyone who’s interested in social media strategy. You have to take the Three Musketeers approach of “All for one and one for all.”

Mallary Jean at Poynter writes, “The move is part of the Times’ efforts to more fully integrate its print and digital operations. It’s also an acknowledgment that social media needs to be — and is already — a shared responsibility.”

That last part is key. If you’re attempting to drive engagement with an audience, you have to be ready to do it all the time. The same key points Jean makes for helping journalists effectively use social media, can be translated to helping brands use social media.

“What did I hear at the very beginning?” Preston is quoted. “‘Twitter is all about what people are having for lunch.’ Now, no one says that anymore.”

For the uninitiated, social media interaction and engagement can be strange and off-putting. People may think it’s just for over-sharers, but they’d be missing the larger point. Jean writes, “Times staffers regularly use social media to publish real-time news and updates for breaking stories and live events. Some departments… have started using Facebook to help seed communities around areas of content.” The New York Times is acting like a brand in that regard, because it’s seeking to group like-minded people with things they enjoy.

“Hiring a social media editor is an important first step for newsrooms, Preston said. But she sees the social media editor as more of a temporary role than a permanent one. It becomes less necessary, she said, once more people in the newsroom start regularly using social media.” Preston makes another key point there, that as everyone becomes more involved in social media aspects, it’s less vital that you need someone exclusively dedicated to it. The goal is that eventually, people won’t need to be reminded about the importance or use of social media and that it becomes natural.

Within a PR agency, the public relations work we do now links and overlaps extensively with social media. Where one used to write a release and send it out, now the message can be shared and distributed in more ways and following up can be a more engaging process.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

Google wants to open up the debate between Mac and PC, and it’s planning on doing so with Chrome OS. Announced in 2009, Google targeted Chrome OS as “an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks.”

Today, they started the process of delivering on that promise and are even giving some lucky people a chance to get a Chrome OS Notebook for free.

So what is Chrome OS? Google explains it pretty well in the introduction video.

They want users to be able to connect to the web instantly, which is good for most businesses’ web strategies. “Chrome notebooks boot in about 10 seconds and resume from sleep instantly,” Google claims. They want users to be able to have the same experience everywhere, so apps, documents, and settings are stored in the cloud. Google says you could even lose your computer, and log into another Chrome OS notebook and get right back to work.

From a business perspective, I love the cloud concept because it’s great for strategy. If it doesn’t matter where I’m logging in from when I access my documents, then I can log in from anywhere. That’s beneficial to collaboration and to getting things done.

Google’s also getting into a little bit of one-upmanship by teaming with Verizon Wireless to offer 100MB of free 3G data every month for the first two years. I have to say I was stunned at that kind of deal. There are also contract-free plans for users who will need more bandwidth. Integrating 3G into a device isn’t new, but giving away data on a laptop is a pretty big step.

Another benefit for business that I see in Chrome OS is in the security settings and automatic updates. A lot of the in-depth security features are listed on their page, or you can check out their informational video.

Google says its Chrome OS is “a work in progress” and they’re looking for people to test it out and offer suggestions on how to make it better. They’re taking applications from people to be part of a pilot program. From the selection list, it looks like they’re taking applicants from all walks of life, including business, education, non-profits, developers and the even individuals.

I applied to test drive a Chrome notebook, and it might be worth it for you to check out their site for more information.