How funny that I should stumble across this article today on Slate while eating lunch: Copy-Editing the Culture: The Holiday Horrors of Starbucks, Wendy’s, and a Foreign Film.

From the headline alone, I knew immediately what the author was referencing as far as Starbuck’s goes. I saw an ad on Facebook this morning that featured their new holiday tagline, “Let’s Merry,” and though I’m not quite as worked up about it as this guy is, I definitely winced when I saw it.

“Merry” is an adjective. “Let’s,” as in “let us,” as in “permit us to,” demands a verb. Presumably, this slogan represents some effort to make a pun. The effort fails. Would Starbucks write, “Let’s funny” or “Let’s delicious”? Apparently, Starbucks would. Customers ought to be concerned: Word play at the expense of grammar is not play at all. It’s antisocial.

I’m with ya, buddy (although you’d probably smack me for my use of “ya”).

I also second his call out of the Starbuck’s sizing terminology:

(The shop’s drink-size appellations shift, inexplicably, from general descriptions to specific numerals—and, what’s more, from English to Italian.)

I love you Starbuck’s, but seriously, what is that?

We know, we know, Facebook has had so many changes lately it’s hard to keep up with them all. If you are a casual user, there are plenty of new features to explore. You may see some changes in accessing some of your games, or notice different content on some business pages, but generally you’re good to go.

However, it gets trickier if you’re a business owner who has developed Facebook apps. Starting October 1st, apps that run on Facebook must be hosted from a secure server. Facebook is requiring this to help protect the privacy of its users. What does it mean to you? If you don’t have a SSL certificate for your app’s site domain, your app will not show up on Facebook anymore – meaning your fans won’t see it!

Don’t worry, we’re here to help. If you host your application with us, we can get a SSL certificate set up for your domain. If you use a different host, they’ll be able to help you. Either way, you’ll just need to provide some specific information that verifies you are the owner of the site, and you’ll likely have to pay a small amount to buy the certification from the company that provides it. The most commonly known certificate provider is VeriSign, but there are plenty to choose from, with a variety of features and prices.

If we can help you, let us know. In the meantime, enjoy the latest features on Facebook… we will be back soon to guide you through more of the interesting changes that are happening there — stay tuned!

Change. No one likes it.  There are a lot of complaints on the social feeds today about the new features on Facebook.  Every 6 month or so our News Feed fills up with “I hate this new layout” and “I’m gonna stop using Facebook if they keep changing it” (like that will ever happen).  However, if you take a couple minutes to figure these features out it you will see that they are actually very useful.  So don’t fret, we have put together a quick and easy guide to understanding these new features.

Ticker & Chat: The new ticker on the top right of your homepage shows real-time posts making them easier to go through.  Just hover over any story to see entire update.  Additionally by clicking your chat sidebar the ticker attaches to the top.  You can chat while navigating to any page you like while watching your friend’s status updates change.

Photo Layout: You probably noticed the creative way our pictures are now laid out in our News Feed.  This is purely for our viewing experience and gives business pages a more unique way to attract “likes”.

Top Stories:  Facebook’s new concept shows posts that you will most likely find interesting and puts them at the top of your feed when you first log in.  The top stories are marked by a blue tag on the top left corner of the post.  To remove them from your top stories just click on the blue tag and they will be removed.  To add a top story that you are interested in just hover over an update where the blue tab would be and click-it’s that easy!

Friend Lists:  Facebook’s new “Smart Lists” are just that-Smart.  Smart lists automatically create lists for your city, work, family, and school.  You can add friends or brands you follow to the lists Facebook automatically created for you, or you can create a new list to organize your friends even better.  To create a new list or edit an existing list click on “Lists” on the left of your News Feed.

Here you can see a list I created based on my favorite movies and television shows making it easy for me to skip all the news feed and go straight to my shows.

Friend List Dropdown:  You can also organize your friend into lists right from their profile page.

Subscribe:  The subscribe button allows you to hear from people that you are interested in, even if you’re not friends.  You are automatically subscribed to all your current friends updates and with the subscribe button you can choose which of their updates you see.  For example, if you have a friend who is always playing Facebook games (we all have those friends), you can hide all those game posts in a simple step.

Not all profiles have a Subscribe button.  Only people who allow subscribers will have the Subscribe button on their profile.  If you choose to allow Subscribers they will only see the things you share publicly.

What do you think of all these new features?  Love it or hate it?

Exploring the Buddypress Add-on for WordPress to turn our blog into a social community.

http://buddypress.org/

I went to the movies on Labor Day and one of the previews was for “The Social Network” (which, just like actual “Facebook,” totally baffled my mom). I haven’t heard that much about the movie to this point. I remember reading some column about how scathing it was a few months ago, but that’s about it.

Unfortunately, now having seen the trailer, I still can’t tell you much about it. Why is that? Because I was so busy marveling at the choice of music that accompanies the entire preview to notice any of the actors or plot points. The whole thing plays against a gussied up version of Radiohead’s classic anthem, “Creep,” sung by a youth choir accompanied by piano.

As I listened to it alongside a montage of Facebook status updates, changes in relationship status, profile pictures and the like, I was totally blown away by what an absolute perfect commentary it is on Facebook and the population(s) it serves. Totally one of those connections you can’t believe you haven’t already made yourself.

To whomever is responsible for this stroke of genius: Bravo.

Surprisingly enough (even to me!), I think not.

This morning James called my attention to a really great column from Al Ries that was published at adage.com a few days ago, “Long Slogans are Absolutely, Positively More Effective Than Short Ones.” Now, we work on the web where it’s a commonly agreed upon fact that your homepage  has about three seconds to grab the attention of a viewer before they move on to something else that will, so right away I start running through all the reasons I disagree with Mr. Ries:

• Long isn’t catchy
• Long is too hard to remember
• People lose interest before you’ve made your point
• Long is too complicated

You can preface all of these arguments with “usually” because, of course, there are exceptions to every rule, but generally that’s where I stand on slogans. Short, simple and straightforward win the day.

Then, about a quarter of the way through the article, Mr. Ries gives a list of short slogans that he deems ineffective, followed by this statement:

Short slogans like these, in my opinion, are not very effective. And it’s not because they’re short; it’s because they’re not very memorable.

Hmmm. He might be on to something there.

So what does make a slogan memorable? According to Mr. Ries: Emotion.

Sure, slogans should be as short as possible, but there’s a trade-off. Slogans should be long enough to contain some words that knock on the right side of the consumer’s brain. The emotional side of the brain as opposed to the left side, the logical, analytical side.

Sold.

Check out the original post to see some  examples of both “good” and “bad” slogans, but here’s one of our own:

Our “official” slogan is “Strategy. Creativity. Technology.” That is absolutely the most succinct and simple way to describe us, but if I asked you what is was tomorrow, would you remember?

Now consider our homepage. We have a short little Flash animation that automatically runs  if you’ve never been to the site before. It mimics someone typing in a word processor (which sounds boring, but actually isn’t – I swear ). At the climax, if you will, the screen reads “Thoughtprocess Interactive: a blend of strategy and creativity with a dash of techie geek.” “Geek” is then replaced with “chic .”

This is clearly a play on our tagline and essentially boils down to the exact same thing. But, I have never heard anyone refer to or even comment on our tagline. This 48 second Flash animation on the other hand gets rave reviews. It’s truly rare for a new client not to mention it in our first conversation.

If Mr. Ries is to be believed, that’s because the second example adds in just a handful of additional descriptive words that inject a little warmth and playfulness: otherwise known as emotion.

This article in the Boston Globe doesn’t talk about web design directly, but it presents fascinating data about a number of things that influence the success of websites. The concept ( “easy = true” ) is simple, but the ramifications are profound. Or maybe I just THINK they’re profound because the concept is easy?

If you’re anything like the crew here at TPI, you probably aren’t taking much of a break this holiday season. Staying busy is the name of the game and we certainly do our best to keep the machine running as much as possible. That said, we sincerely hope you DO get some time to relax, spend time with those most important to you and maybe even take a few minutes to improve your business for 2010! I know, I know… who has time for reading when there so many cookies, candy and pies around just calling your name?! The truth is that investing time in your business (even when you’re not ‘working’) by reading about relevant marketing strategies, business models and successful (and not-so-successful) stories can give valuable insight into areas where your own techniques might be lacking.

To that end, I’ve taken the liberty of compiling a short list (in no particular order) of some great marketing and business books to light your fire and help jumpstart your business in 2010 with new fervor, focus and inspiration. A lot of ideas in these books aren’t earth-shattering, new and different ideas, but common sense practices that sometimes fall by the wayside in business and want for a good reminder. The key is using the good advice you find. Good advice only works if you put it into practice.

Admittedly, I haven’t ready all of these books. For what its worth, its a list I’ve compiled from other business leaders I follow and have been written by or invaluably helpful to them. That’s good enough for me and I will undoubtedly be picking up a few of these to read on a few cold nights this winter.

Have you already read any of these? What are your thoughts? We’d love to add to our library as well so definitely leave us a comment with your own recommendations!

Happy Reading!

1. How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie: An oldie but a goodie. A nice reminder on how the key to being successful is all in how you treat the people around you.

2. Citizen Marketers: When People Are the Message – Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba: If you’re curious about social media and how it might relate to your business, this one is a good resource.

3. Love Is the Killer App – Tim Sanders: I haven’t read this one but its definitely on my list. Its also about dealing with people but with an emphasis on networking and sharing information.

4. Good to Great – Jim Collins: Need I say more? Which one will YOUR business be?

5. Just Ask a Woman: Cracking the Code of What Women Want and How They Buy – Mary Lou Quinlan: This was recommended to me and I’m actually looking forward to reading it. Discover the power of the female buyer!

6. Blue Ocean Strategy – W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne: All about the ‘blue ocean’ of uncrowded and untapped market space.

7. The Long Tail – Chris Anderson: From the Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine. If anyone will know about the future of business, this is the guy.

8. How To Be That Guy – Scott Ginsberg: This guy started wearing a nametag everywhere as an experiment and learned a lot about how people responded to it. Now he shares how to be unforgettable.

9. Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing – Harry Beckwith: Selling the way you do business and treat customers, rather than a product. Because everyone wants good customer service!

10. Purple Cow – Seth Godin: And just for good measure, Mr. Godin is considered one of the most brilliant minds in marketing. Read this one.