About People

08/09/2016

New About People website is finally complete. Take a look and let us know what you think. www.aboutpeople.com

03/22/2015

Hey folks! Please help me figure out what to do with About People. Its not the same old About People without Mike and I can't decide what it should look like going forward. Any ideas? Know any like minded people that might want to join me in bringing the company and site back to life?

11/05/2012

Mike and I have written a lot about body language and perception. Check out our bookAxis of Influencefor lots of rich intel on this subject.

09/24/2012

I delivered a webinar last week as a guest of Advisor's Assistant. My topic was "Little Disasters - the accidental blunders that keep people from trusting your website."

We use a 15-Point criteria when we analyze websites. However, in my research into financial sites, I discovered something intriguing. If you look to correct only two mistakes, you'd vastly improve nearly all sites in the financial industry.

Those two are "Use Visuals" and "Format the content for how people read websites."

I showed screen shots from a dozen financial sites. About 95% of them contained those same mistakes. I didn't set off to find those particular mistakes; they were everywhere. It was difficult to find a site that was not full of bad decisions.

When you want to know how to fix those mistakes, just ask us! Or, go to these two sites:

http://www.useit.com/
http://www.writingontheweb.com/

09/15/2012

I just read a research paper that falls waaaaaay outside my area of expertise and interest. But, I did because innovators often look into areas outside their own expertise to find “out of the box” solutions.

The paper was titled: “Appearance Matters: Neural Correlates of Food Choice and Packaging Aesthetics.” The benefit is greater insight into the specific colors that influence consumer perceptions and likelihood of buying.

The distilled and simplified version of the results are:

1.Attractiveness trumps everything else in packaging.
2.The colors blue, green and white (bright colors) give a package a healthy appearance, but these are also the colors that are liked most, even across cultures.
How can you use this information?

1.Look at the colors used in your marketing. Are they bright colors (blue, green and white)? If not, perhaps it’s time to rethink the colors that represent you and your organization.
2.Look at the colors that dominate your website. Ditto from above.
In every area of business (with the exception of fashion), color choice is driven by research into consumer preference. Today, bright colors are more popular with consumers than primary colors. Personally, I prefer primary colors, but the colors Pam and I use are not about us; the colors are chosen for their ability to reach out to and please visitors to our site.

* If you care to read the actual research, here's the link:

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0041738

PLOS ONE: an inclusive, peer-reviewed, open-access resource from the PUBLIC LIBRARY OF SCIENCE. Reports of well-performed scientific studies from all disciplines freely available to the whole world.

08/13/2012

Our new website has been up for a couple of months now. Take a look and tell us what you think - www.aboutpeople.com. The experience was humbling and educational. Stay tuned for lots of lessons learned!

We can teach you how people think, behave and make decisions. We can teach you how to become much better at influencing, motivating and inspiring other people.

06/10/2012

Ever wonder where to put graphic elements on your webstite - and why? The answers fall under the heading of psychological marketing and part of that comes from Neuro Science.

For example, see those faces above, especially the ones on the far right. Did you feel a slight pull in the direction of where their eyes are looking? That little optical pull is neuromarketing in action. That is where you'd put important information. Cool?

04/28/2012

How do you like our new logo? See the little people who make up the design? They symbolize the tactics that make a strategy succeed.

04/28/2012

Pam and I are very close to releasing our new (totally redesigned) website. It will be a really good example of a site based on SEO as well as consumer psychology. Stay tuned!

02/29/2012

Pam has always used a strange expression to mean telling someone the truth. She'll say, "Jack told Beth how the cow ate the cabbage." (Told you it was strange.) She and I were discussing the likeability and credibility of the Republican candidates and used that expression as a tool to capture and encapsulate their messages. Here's what we came up with. Can you see the truth in these:

• Newt will roll his eyes and tell you that it’s not a cabbage.
•S antorum will tell you the cow should not be allowed to eat a cabbage.
• Romney will smile and say that he plays polo with the owners of a corporate cabbage farm.
• Ron Paul will explain that we don't need to get involved with cows eating cabbage.

02/29/2012

Politicians are like corporations in that they have an identity they want to popularize. What most corporations and politicians fail to recognize is that they also popularize their "hidden identity," through their messages. Finding those hidden identities is one of the most fun and fascinating things we do.

02/19/2012

Re are re-inventing ourselves. Stay tuned and help us pick a new look.