Extream Make Over - have they really gone over board!

Following the trends of today's great Internet guru's is both an enlightening and enriching spend of time. But every now and then there is a slip up, somethings that are said or done that well "your not quite sure about".

Below is a write up of one of my favourite's Guy Kawasaki who for me plays the roles of an Internet guru, a pure genius to be followed & my motivational speaker. One of the distinct sayings from Guy what i learnt and learnt well is in summary - Do not be afraid to make it crappy, perfection kills both product growth and enhancements.

Well i was browsing through my amazingly crappy page on twitter where i landed on a post by Guy on his new business cards; Click here to see the video from StickerGiant:

http://www.stickergiant.com/blog/new-alltop-business-card-stickers/

Now if you look closely at these alltop cards, they are actually stickers. The name guy Kawasaki is on the back of the card, the piece of paper you are supposed to rip out and use the alltop as a sticker.

Concept wise: brilliant, giving out freebies is an amazing alternate source of marketing. This technique has been followed since ages - e.g. free key chains when you visit a car showroom, badges when you visit an election booth etc. Getting your info out there any means possible.

Now the true problem with the above concept as i see it - the very purpose of the visiting card is defeated. How you may ask? well its simple the purpose of the business card is to insure your information is available with the users at a minimum search effort. when you look at the alltop cards from Guy, well you have the rip off paper that has the contact information. True Question Are you gonna store that rip off paper or junk it?

Innovation is the key here, conceptually a great - but practically here is a bomb.

My Solution: Try a holographic sticker if you like, at one angle you get to see Guy Kawasaki and in another angle you have the alltop.

Now of course we are talking about Guy Kawasaki, and if i were to receive this alltop sticker, i doubt very much i would be using it as a sticker. :) well that's my point of view.

Twitter - what a bunch of bull!

Today one of the most largely following application on the web is "Twitter". Lets try to break down what twitter is all about, look at the pros and cons of the making of this very successful application.

Twitter - Share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world. Reach out to millions of online users in a single click. Best used to market a product - the product being YOU!!

But saying the above, what is this web application that promises such great extra-ordinary capabilities that the best Internet marketing companies today shy away from. At the very base it’s only a single line text box and a submit button. That’s it - Keeping it SIMPLE!

From a core business function - twitter all but covers just 3 critical aspects of any social networking site:

1. Adding friends
2. Basic Demographic information
3. Status Updates.

A simple 3 step process that has over a million users hooked on a simple but yet so elegantly looking site.
Twitter in my view surely raises the bar from a social networking aspect - after all who ever thought of making something so simple and crappy as just status updates would get so many users hooked. In this world where business managers try to cramp as much functionality into one application here comes a small application that blows this thought wide open.

Now i might dumb the whole business functionality and nothing to take away from the amazing work done by the twitter team - but keeping the core simple - that's the motto clearly defined for this site.

Suggestion: keep it simple that's the way to go.