Even a trained, skilled observer has to be aware of built-in demographic blind spots. Likes and dislikes intrude, preventing you from being entirely objective. But at some level, we’re all consumers. Often I ask clients to get in touch with their inner consumer by remembering those times they are all by themselves in front of a TV with the remote. No bosses to impress, no project to support, just you, the TV, and the hammer.

You’re the boss. And you’re brutal. If you’re even the slightest bit bored, you change channels and keep changing channels, until you find something that captures your attention, even if you have to surf through all 500 channels. It’s a fiercely competitive environment.

Then there’s the iPad, where 500 channels is nothing. As of July 1, 2011, the number of apps specifically developed for iPads cracked the 100,000 barrier. Not bad, considering the device was launch just over a year ago, on April 3, 2010, just 454 days if you’re keeping score at home. (For a comparison, the New York Times could recently find only 232 Android apps for tablet devices.)

Obviously, if you want the full tablet experience, you go to the iPad. And sales reflect that: Since its launch, Apple has sold 21 million iPads including the one I’m writing this piece on. After waiting and waiting, I could resist no longer and finally bought one.

And now it’s me, the iPad, and 100,000 apps. Go ahead, make my day.

Of course, this is the device that was so eagerly anticipated by the publishing industry mainly because no squinting is required. The smart phone is good for a lot of things, but as a reader, it’s barely adequate even for text messages. The iPad, on the other hand, could finally be the device that puts the final nail in the print coffin, yet – paradoxically – saves the publishing industry.

There are now numbers to support the coffin contention. According to the latest Forrester research, people with tablets don’t read as many print newspapers, books and magazines than they used to – 32 per cent of tablet owners read fewer newspapers and 23 per cent reading magazines less often. And an Online Publishers Association (OPA) survey released in June shows that tablet owners prefer their tablet to all other media, including newspapers and magazines, by 58 and 57 per cent respectively.

There are other equally disturbing numbers, especially if you cling to print. Tablet owners skew young – nearly 50 per cent are between 18-34; male – 60 per cent; and affluent – more than 40 per cent have incomes above $50,000 a year. And women are the next wave of tablet users: 45 per cent of those surveyed who expect to buy a tablet in the next 12 months are women.

Finally, the number one activity for tablet owners? 87 per cent responded that they access content and information.

Those are the numbers. But as a focus group of one, all I can say is that the iPad has changed my life. And I really didn’t expect it to. How different could it be from my lightweight, rugged Panasonic laptop? Or my big, fast Dell desktop? Throughout all those turns of the wheel, I kept buying newspapers, magazines and books. Now, I have to admit, I’m not so sure.

When I bought an iPod, making the change to iTunes for music was easy and exciting. If there were record stores in heaven, they’d look like iTunes. Every tune ever recorded is available wherever you are. I don’t mind paying 99 cents to get exactly what I want. Gone are the days when you had to buy the entire CD (cassette, 8-track, vinyl) album to get the one song worth listening to. Single-handedly, Apple saved the music industry.

Now, with the iPad, iBooks and various apps, I can duplicate that experience with books. I can even borrow books at the library. Also, the iPad has finally made the mobile viewing of movies and other long-form videos bearable, and for the first time in my life, I have downloaded a movie.

Because newspaper and magazine articles have been free on the Internet for such a long time, they constitute a special case. Why would I pay for Wired or the New York Times, for example, when I can almost always get the same content on the Internet for free, and even read it on the iPad?

It gets more complicated. With 100,000 apps to choose from – PLUS the Internet – it’s almost impossible to get through the buffet lineup. With that much on my plate, how will I choose? Will I even get to newspapers or magazines?

My electronic information-gathering is to some degree based on the time of day and state of mind. I’m in front of a desktop most of the day and get most information in the form of e-lerts. But if I want to kick back and read, I find that more and more, and without willing it to be so, I read using the iPad. Books pile up in the corners. Newspapers go into the recycling bin without being cracked. And iPad magazines are just as fun to read by the fire or in bed as they are in print.

There are challenges. I don’t recommend reading your iPad in the bathtub. Or at the beach, as Apple still hasn’t figured out how to handle glare, which is one reason why dedicated e-readers are popular, even though they deliver a limited experience.

When you remember, however, that the iPad is a pioneer device and it already does everything better, it’s just common sense to anticipate the day when iPad 4.0 or 5.0 renders all other reading media obsolete. How long will it be before you can roll up your tablet, drop it in the tub, or use it to make a perfect cup of coffee every time?

Don’t just take my word (or Forresters or the OPA). Get one and try it out yourself. After using it for a while, you will probably agree it’s a game changer. It will be trickier, however, to predict exactly how the game will change.

For the first time, publishers are able to deliver the complete experience to a mobile device. People who are used to print formats and like them will download and use apps or new versions of HTML that simulate a high-quality print experience. But it’s clear that the next generation of publishers isn’t satisfied with just duplicating the print experience.

Khoi Vinh could be the face of that next generation. He was art director of the New York Times for four and half years, and resigned to figure out what’s next for magazines. His answer to the question: “So is there a bigger solution for magazines, one that will bring in significant revenue along the lines of what they saw in the pre-digital world?” is “I don’t know” or “Probably not.”

Vinh worries that publishers will waste too many cycles on “this chimerical vision of resuscitating lost glories.” And while they’re doing that, iPad owners will turn to apps like Flipboard –“that are more of a window to the world at large than a cul-de sac of denial.” Add the ever-present issue/challenge/opportunity of social media, and, he says “I can’t see how the 20^th Century concept of a magazine can survive, even if it does look great on a tablet.”

Flipboard, for want of a better word, is a mash-up of various magazines, newspapers, video and social media, but unlike a straight portal, there’s an editorial consciousness at work, compiling, sorting, organizing, presenting, and melding.  It’s fascinating, although like any surfing experience, it’s impossible ever to get to the end or wrap it up in a satisfying way. You just stop, in mid-experience, and go on to something else. One of the great things about print, that cul-de-sac of denial, is that, in whatever form, it has a beginning, middle and end. Flipboard starts well, but talk about a never-ending story.

After a month with my iPad, one thing is clear, to me at least. We have the device. We just have to figure out what to do with it. And I have faith in the innovative ingenuity of publishers. Now that they have a target device, even if it is the pioneer version, they’ll find the optimum format. And once they do, the money will follow.

As lines of fanboys and girls form outside Apple stores across the continent to catch a glimpse of the iPad 2, many magazine publishers are still waffling about whether or not they should build an app and get in on the action.

My bias is clear and obvious. If I were a magazine publisher I would have launched a free app the moment iPad 1 was out of the box, so that when 2 rolled out, I could charge for the premium edition.

Even now that I have to jostle with more than 60,000 other iPad apps, it’s worth it. Why? Well, I hardly know where to begin.

Let’s start with some big numbers. Apple’s Steve Jobs says there are 200 million Apple IDs out there. That’s a lot of potential customers.

Apple says it sold nearly 15 million units of version 1 last year, and while the vastly superior version 2 has only been on sale since March 11, (and the lines form tomorrow in Canada, which bought more than 4 million iPad 1s last year, punching above its weight), it sold 1 million units in 3 days.

Yep, three days.

These things are moving faster than hula hoops at the height of the craze.

Still, everyone’s concerned about the drop off in magazine app sales after the initial wave of enthusiasm. Wired magazine, for example sold 100,000 of its first iPad edition; by November it was down to 23,000. Condé Nast publications such as Vanity Fair experienced a similar drop-off. Maybe the iPad isn’t the savior of magazines after all.

Ok, but hold on. People is #34 among all iPad apps, and Martha Stewart Living, O, Wired and the New Yorker are all in the top 100 in the iTunes store. That’s all categories – movies, music, whatever.

And here’s an interesting piece of information: recent third party research indicates that ads are more effective on the iPad than in the corresponding print edition. According to Affinity’s Vista syndicated numbers, ads in the iPad edition of the Sport Illustrated Swimsuit edition generated a 21% higher recall than in the print edition, and reader action (visiting the advertiser’s web site, clicking on the iPad screen) were 34% higher than in print.

There were ads in the swimsuit edition? (Never mind.)

No one is sure why – is it because an interactive tablet naturally prompts more interaction, or is the novelty of the iPad that makes even the ads interesting?

But Condé Nast, for one, isn’t waiting around to find out. The UK division is investing in new iPad apps for Wired, GQ, and 21 iPhone apps across seven of its magazine brands in 2011.

We tend to forget about iPhone, but the rumored iPhone 5 is lurking down the pike, with the same enhanced A5 dual-core processor that makes the iPad more than twice as fast as its predecessor (and 9 times faster at processing graphics), and a 4-inch-screen. That’s a whole extra half inch!

Neither should we forget the raft of tablets about to give the iPad a run for its money – including the Blackberry Playbook and a variety of Android powered tablets.

Devices galore. But the iPad2 is the real game changer: 15 per cent lighter, down to 1.3 pounds, one-third thinner, faster, featuring two cameras—one in the front and one in the back—high resolution, HDMI compatible, etc. Even the cover is clever. It attaches magnetically and automatically puts the iPad to sleep when it’s applied and wakes it up when it’s removed. It even serves as a stand.

So back to my obvious bias. I’ve always been a believer in following eyeballs. Over the years, magazine publishers and distributors have been fiendishly clever about getting their products in front of eyeballs, on the newsstand, at the check-out, even at the doctor’s office.

But when online publishing came along, we became uncertain and afraid. Not without reason. Almost instantly, ads on web sites became commodities, and only search engine companies and Facebook were making any money on ads. And how: Facebook is worth $50 billion. That’s “billion”.

All that uncertainty has been resolved with the tablet, specifically the iPad and its 60,000-plus apps. It’s reasonable to assume there will be at least 30 million iPads in the hands of American consumers by the end of this year, and many of them will be your customers. Unlike desktops and even laptops, iPads are not computers – I’m not 100% sure what they are, but they are at least magazine readers and browsers and represent a golden opportunity for magazines.

The invention of the iPad may not be as game-changing as the invention of the TV, but it definitely trumps the FM radio. Wired has already hailed the app store as the Internet killer, which sounds extreme to me.

Whatever else it is, it’s a 9.7 inch newsstand times 30 million (and that’s just a start). People are lining up for it, and you have an opportunity to own your own pipeline direct to that eager (some would say over-eager) consumer. An iPad app for your magazine is a key piece in your total brand strategy. It could revitalize a flagging franchise or make 2011 a year for growing revenue.

Not only that, it’s easier to play Angry Birds on a 10-inch screen.

Get Interactive!

I would like to hear from any publishers who have an iPad app or are in the middle of creating one. I’d also like to know if you’ve decided not to go ahead and why. In the next post, I’m planning to compile a list of app-building tips and would like to feature as many of your apps as possible.

It’s 9:00 a.m. on Monday. An analyst and two investment bankers in crisp navy blue suits sit impatiently at your boardroom table. The PowerPoint projector bursts to life and your heart starts racing. It’s show time! You have 20 minutes to convince them that your company is worthy of their time and money.

Relentless competition for capital among private and public companies has made courting investors an integral part of building a successful company. Of all the communication channels available, the investor presentation stands out as one of the most direct and effective ways to get on a money manager’s radar screen.

A presentation is often an investor’s first introduction to a company. To make a favourable impression you must persuade investors in a very short time that your company has the technical expertise, business acumen and potential to develop innovative products for a ready market, or in the case of mining, to uncover and identify a promising deposit and take it to the feasibility stage. While a flawless presentation alone will not open the purse strings, a poor one will certainly limit your chances of securing a second meeting or a cash infusion.

The overall objective of the presentation is to make a sound business case for your company. Outline the value of investment proposition and demonstrate how investors are going to benefit from the company’s progress through a handful of well-placed key messages that resonate with your audience.

Venture capitalists, retail investors, analysts, portfolio managers and fund managers all have different information requirements and varying degrees of knowledge about your industry. A fund manager who specializes in your sector will naturally require a higher-level briefing than a money manager who includes companies in your space as just one component of a larger portfolio. Know what will interest your audience and tailor the pitch accordingly.

Research and qualify prospective investors well before your presentation. Identify their investment style and criteria, portfolio of companies, stage and focus of investment and other parameters.

Before you set up a meeting, draw up a list of “hardball” questions that could arise and develop some credible answers. Above all, rehearse the presentation beforehand, particularly if other members of the management team will be speaking.

The presentation should flow seamlessly, using clear and assertive words that tell a compelling story to capture and maintain investor interest. The key is to simplify the story, limiting each slide to one take-away point, paring down excessive verbiage on slides and adding visuals to illustrate important points. Be sure to maintain a consistent level of disclosure, and tone down any blatant promotion.

Arouse interest immediately by hooking the audience with your “elevator pitch” — a clear, 30-second description of the company and its investment attributes — along with a noteworthy accomplishment or milestone that establishes credibility at the outset. The entire presentation should be structured to support these key messages. Limit your presentation to less than 20 minutes — that’s 20 to 25 slides, maximum — and allow an additional 10 minutes for questions, but be prepared to go longer if required. Limit each slide to one take-away point, pare down the text to essentials, and add visuals to illustrate important points.

Design your presentation so it’s easy to follow. Succinctly explain your business, products and technology or, in the case of resource companies, your exploration and development strategy.  Choose key investment strengths and reinforce them throughout the presentation. Describe your target market, business strategy and management expertise concluding with financials and a strong, confident close.

Be sure to provide investors with a hard copy of the presentation so they can take notes. You may also want to hand out an investor package providing more details on the technology, development program or the market opportunity. Investors can refer to this if an applicable question comes up.

The Target Market

Define the market opportunity in realistic terms. Investors want to know that you understand your company’s or product’s true market potential. Describe the market’s size, characteristics, growth potential and trends.

One common mistake company executives make in an investor presentation is displaying the multi-billion-dollar international market they’re targeting without identifying what part of that market they can realistically capture. Be specific about your strategy for penetrating that market.

Innovation

Technology investors are looking for undiscovered companies with leading science and intellectual property that addresses an unmet need. Explain the technology in very simple terms. Where possible, use analogies to drive the point home. Focus on the novelty of the technology, how it works, proof of concept, how it compares to the gold-standard in the industry and the company’s product development and marketing plan.

Investors want to know that senior executives have a good understanding of the market and their competition. Anticipate the inevitable questions: Who else is pursuing this market? What, in particular, is unique about this technology? Always be prepared to explain diplomatically who your competitors are and your sustainable competitive advantage. Describe your ownership of any patents, proprietary process or technology, exclusive licences or agreements. Discuss core competencies that give you a clear advantage over the competition.

In the case of mineral exploration, investors like to acquire shares in companies during the early stages of discovery, betting that geologists with past successes will continue their winning streak. Early geophysical or geochemical evaluations indicating mineralization on a property may initially pique the interest of the market. But each progressive stage of exploration will also raise new questions that management should be prepared to address concerning the size, continuity and grade of the deposit, risk factors, potential native or environmental conflicts, infrastructure, the economic viability of extraction and the company’s strategy for moving forward.

Business Strategy

Whatever stage a company is at, you must be able to clearly articulate its goals and long-term business plan. If, for example, the company is working to expand its portfolio of products, how is management going to finance and manage the growth?

If management is looking to sell or license rights to a product, development rights to a property, or enter into a joint venture, they should be able to confidently convey their strategy for doing so. What is management’s track record of negotiating similar deals under favourable terms? Is the background and expertise of management suited to their stated business strategy?

Management Expertise

Investors like management teams that can get results, ideally made up of professionals with a track record of successful discovery, expertise in taking a product or project beyond the feasibility stage, as well as experience forming partnerships and raising capital.

Briefly highlight management’s track record and expertise by pointing out relevant past accomplishments. Don’t just rattle off credentials — be specific. How exactly did they help their former company achieve its goals?

Financials and Milestones

Given that few start-up companies are profitable, conventional valuation guidelines such as price/earnings ratios rarely apply. Instead, valuation may revolve around discovery, intellectual property, or management expertise. Investors pay close attention to the progress of product/project development, partnerships, associated news flow, and, in particular, the amount of cash a company has on hand compared with its quarterly expenditures.

Always end the presentation on a high note by either recapping the company’s investment highlights or showing a timeline detailing business milestones. If you’re looking for financing, specify how much you need in this round and how it will be used, with emphasis on the company’s investment merits.

Finally, it’s always a good idea to follow up with investors after a presentation. Feedback surveys or a follow-up call from an independent third party will likely elicit candid responses from investors on what they thought of the company, its management and the presentation.

At the very least, send the investor a letter or handwritten note, as opposed to an e-mail. The personal touch will leave a more lasting impression, which can help keep the lines of communication open whether the final decision is favourable or not.

Watson is some machine.

Named after the founder of IBM, Watson is a supercomputer worthy of the title. Built from 10 racks of IBM servers, it has 15 terabytes of RAM and the processing power of 2,800 of the most powerful computers on the market.

Watson is a humdinger, all right. But even with all that firepower, so far it has only managed to tie a human contestant on Jeopardy!. As I write, there are two nights left to go, and Watson better get game or it’s going to lose to some guy named Brad.

Watson is a quantum leap ahead of the most famous IBM computer to date, Deep Blue, which humbled world chess champ Garry Kasparov in 1997.

But as impressive as Watson is, it still has trouble with trivia. During a dry run before its appearance on Jeopardy!, it answered the question: “What do grasshoppers eat?” with “Kosher!” causing its programmers to choke on their pastrami sandwich and write another million lines of codes to correct the problem.

Is it just me, or is this a massive amount of effort to create nothing more than a giant nerd? A nerd that can answer most trivia questions in three to five seconds, but a nerd nonetheless.

Consider the evidence. It plays chess. It competes on Jeopardy!, the exclusive domain of nerds.
If these IBM scientists had a life, maybe they could create a machine that does something useful: Pick stocks that only increase in value; remember where I left my car keys; or find a decent restaurant in Nanaimo.

Instead, it’s really good at identifying the names of Beatles songs from their lyrics. Big deal. I already know how to do that.

According to some experts, Watson’s ability to answer questions will revolutionize call centres. Great. Instead of getting some bozo from South Carolina, we’ll get some bozo from the cloud answering the question: “What’s this $350 charge on my cellphone bill?” with “Would you like to speak to my supervisor?” and then hang up.

Our desire to create a machine that’s smarter than we are is kind of pathetic. After all, we’re limited by that fundamental law of computing: Garbage in, garbage out. We can only create a reflection of ourselves. Which explains why Watson is so easily confused. It’s one of us.
Meanwhile, Watson and Brad conclude their epic battle tonight. May the best nerd win.

As we watch the B.C. Liberal leadership hopefuls peck each others’ eyes out, the one man who is most qualified to be B.C.’s next premier beavers away in humble obscurity, forever shut out of the political Promised Land.

Remember Colin Hansen? Not too long ago he was considered Gordon Campbell’s logical successor.

But that was before he got tangled up in the web of deceit that is the HST debacle. Campbell resigned; Hansen may as well have. His chances of becoming B.C.’s next leader went the way of all those sales tax exemptions we used to enjoy.

As far as I can tell, his punishment for backing up the boss on HST is to be forced to work his butt off as Minister of Everything while his fellow cabinet ministers take several months off to play politics.

Campbell resigned and went to Maui, his (mostly) happy place.

So, as finance minister, Hansen has to table a budget tomorrow to open the first session of the legislature in 256 days.

As health minister, he has launched an investigation into how two unqualified radiologists managed to review thousands of CT scans.

As finance minister, he has appointed a panel of experts to examine the virtues of the HST. (Good luck with that).

Busy, busy.

I wonder how he feels watching the mayor of Parksville duke it out with a CKNW talk show host for a job that could have been, should have been, his.

Whatever he thinks, in a couple of weeks Christy Clark or George Abbott or Kevin Falcon or somebody will be the premier of the province and he won’t.

Maybe it’s a good thing he doesn’t have too much time to think.

What’s sad is that Colin Hansen is the right man for the job. He’s been humbled by defeat, forged by fire, and is probably the one person in government who really knows what’s going on. The others are too busy fending off the threat of Clark.

As for the NDP, are you kidding? If you think Colin Hansen displays questionable political ethics, how about the Gang of 13? Not to mention Adrian Dix and his (alleged) political dirty tricks.

As the rest of our elected representatives wear themselves out doing the Funky Political Chicken, Colin Hansen just quietly goes about the business of government, a big “L” for Liar or Loser, or both, pasted on his forehead.

But how long will it be before all is forgiven and a solid majority of British Columbians, plus or minus four per cent, wonder where the Minister of Everything went when we need him?

Considering the alternatives, not long.

I’m having flashbacks.

No, I’m not ready for the Charlie Sheen Memorial Rehab Ward just yet. It’s this magnificent burst of Wet Coast sunshine that’s taking me back to the same time last year when the sun came out and turned the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics into the Party Of The Century.

And now we get to remember them every year, right around Groundhog Day. If the sun comes out every year at exactly the same time — bonus.

As these anniversary stories go, there will be a lot of talk about the legacy of the Winter Olympics, and that legacy will be compared to Expo 86 and so on.

Expo 86 was the Miracle Of Yaletown, multicultural diversity, tourism and convention business, not to mention that Vancouver was thrust onto the world stage, liked it and has stayed there ever since.

It’s still a bit early to figure out the 2010 legacy since it’s still a work-in-progress. But the trend is good: My contacts at Tourism Vancouver tell me 2011 will be our biggest year ever in terms of convention business, likely a combination of the convention centre getting built in time for the Olympic media and all those beauty shots of Vancouver on NBC.

(For those of you who are lucky enough to hold your convention in sunshine enjoy the seawall. For everyone else, welcome to the Wet Coast.)

By the time we’re done analyzing, we’ll probably conclude the legacy of 2010 is like 1986, just more: More condos, more cultural diversity, and even higher prices for teardowns.

But there is one vital difference: 2010 showed the world that Canadians, and especially Vancouverites, really know how to have a good time. All the problems and anxieties of the first couple of days were overwhelmed by a tsunami of celebration.

I’m still blown away by that YouTube video of 10,000 people flash-dancing in the street.

The other thing that’s clear: Robson Square is the heart of this city. If we really want to wave our red mittens high, we’ll do everything we can to build on that legacy. If that means preserving the square for sidewalk cafés, street vendors, pedestrians and zip rides, let’s do it. If that means keeping at least part of the Vancouver Art Gallery in the square, let’s do it. If that means reliving the Party Of The Century same time every year in the square, let’s do it.

In a world where taking to the streets usually means something different, what greater Olympic legacy could we hope to have?

All the current talk about social media usually centers around Twitter, FaceBook and YouTube, and the old standby e-newsletter is increasingly overlooked.

Because it has been around for what seems like forever, e-mail doesn’t get the respect it deserves among marketers these days, but it’s still an incredibly powerful communications source.

Consider: According to Email Marketing Reports, the world’s Internet users send out 247 billion emails a day.

In the time it takes to read this sentence, 20 million emails will be sent.

And if you think email usage is on the wane, think again. The Radicati Group estimates there are 2.9 billion email accounts in 2010, growing to 3.8 billion by 2014.

According to a May 2010 survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 62 per cent of American Internet users go on line everyday to read and send emails. And if you’re like me, you do it 30 times a day from desktop, laptop and mobile.

So, email remains the most ubiquitous form of communication on the planet. If you want people to read your magazine, you have a pretty good idea where to find them: reading their email.

Email newsletters remain a great way to get peoples’ attention. They are relatively easy to put together and by using a mail program such as Constant Contact, you can comply with the best practices governing email communication, which prevents your work from ending up in the junk mail folder, at the same time giving you the power to monitor the number of people who opened, responded or rejected your newsletter.

Think about your e-newsletter as an online shop window, where you’re able to display the unique contents of your editorial vision and voice, a sampler of all the good things available in your magazine, both on your website and on the newsstand.

Of course, there are e-newsletters and there are e-newsletters. Fortunately, Min’s e-newsletter of 2010 is a magazine newsletter we can all learn from. It’s called Talk of the South, and it’s the twice weekly e-newsletter of Garden & Gun Magazine, which also gets my award for weirdest magazine title yet.

G&G, says Min, gets it. Successful social media is powered by word of mouth, and one of the most powerful peer-to-peer recommendations has to be: “Did you see this?” Talk of the South is a “Did you see this?” machine, and fascinating stories about Southern living are its product.

You owe it to yourself to visit Talk of the South if only to ogle the photo of the cheeseburger featured in “The Most Southern Restaurant Ever”. At least take a look before you start in on your New Year’s health and resolutions.

Don’t be surprised if you find yourself contemplating a pilgrimage to Charleston, South Carolina to visit Husk restaurant and devour one in person.

The content of Talk of the South is not repurposed from the magazine, which means the first time anyone sees it is when it turns up in the Inbox. The voice is that of a friend who has discovered something wonderful and just has to share it with you, preferably over a pulled port sandwich at Husk. Unlike too many e-newsletters, Talk of the South is not some half-hearted utilitarian effort, but always features a big, gorgeous magazine photo, with a story synopsis that invites the reader to drill deeper into the magazine site. It’s an invite that’s tough to resist.

A completely different approach, but one that’s equally catchy is CNET’s Cheapskate and his Deal of the Day. When you get hundreds of emails a day, it’s easy to miss some or let them fall through the cracks, even the ones that make it past the spam filter. But I defy any red-blooded male (or female for that matter) to resist the following subject line: “Get a 50-inch plasma HDTV for $668 shipped.” (Read more)

The Cheapskate understands that everyone wants a bargain, and it makes sense that people who sign up for email newsletters are particularly receptive to tech deals, so a tech deal alert of the day makes sense for that audience.

E-newsletters encourage email users to interact with your web site on a periodic basis, and work particularly well for maintaining the loyalty of current readers. But they also work for drawing new customers especially when you have a built-in team of “Have you seen this?” advocates who will forward links to their like-minded friends and colleagues.

It’s a simple enough editorial imperative. Be it a cheeseburger to die for or an incredibly cheap 50-inch HDTV, all you have to do is come up with a topic that will promote word of mouth and will get people beating a path to your magazine or your advertiser. According to Min, the Talk of the South has led so much traffic to featured e-commerce sites “it’s burned a few servers and saved a few small businesses.” Not the least of them being Garden & Gun magazine.

As you’re building your word of mouth e-newsletter, make sure to keep a couple of tips in mind.

The subject line has to capture the reader’s attention. “Get a 50-inch plasma HDTV for $668 shipped” fits that criterion nicely.

Respect the spam filter. Avoid unnecessary punctuation. Exclamation marks, all capital letters, trigger words such as “free” and “weight loss”, and spelling mistakes will get your email consigned to the junk file.

In terms of content, keep it useful and accessible. If you open a channel with your readers, then assault them with subscription and advertising messages, they’ll close it pretty quickly. Education – how-to articles, tips and exclusive industry reports – identify you and your brand as an expert. And if you get the voice right, you become that magical word of mouth magician: the expert friend.

The expert friend is even better than the expert, because he or she understands you better, and recommendations come with empathy, enthusiasm and relevance.

Like this one. For all you dog lovers out there, have you seen this? It’s Talk of the South’s Good Dog photo contest. Check out Molly, the winner of the Dogs Being Dogs Category in G&G’s Most Popular Photos of 2010 newsletter.

Now that’s an effective marketing campaign. Some dog, too.

The essential ingredients of any presentation, whether it’s a speech, podcast or media interview, are key messages – those essential points you want your audience to take away from the story.  But giving a presentation or landing an interview means nothing if you don’t have anything memorable to say.  Making your points stick requires coming up with quotable quotes or catchy sound bites that evoke vivid images and engage your audience.

How do you develop a punchy sound bite to support your key message?  By using one or more of the following techniques to bring your points to life:

Analogies and Metaphors : Analogies and metaphors are powerful tools for painting distinctive visual images that stick in someone’s mind.

One of my favourite quotes was coined during the 1987 stock market crash, when one commentator aptly stated “predicting the market bottom was like trying to catch falling knives.”

A BC mining executive interviewed by a Business in Vancouver reporter about the chronic skills shortage facing the industry skilfully made his point with the sound bite: “We’re living on the fumes of our talent from 15 and 20 years ago.”

Lamenting on her lingering fondness for the political arena, B.C. Liberal Leadership candidate Christie Clark told BC Business Magazine that leaving politics was like breaking up with a boyfriend.  “In the first six months after you leave, you still remember the reasons why you left.  And then a couple of years down the road … you’re thinking, God, that guy was great! I miss him so much!’  And you pick up the phone and dial.”

In all cases, the speaker effectively employed an analogy or metaphor as a hook to get their point across.

Bold Action Words: All too often, interview subjects water down the impact of their statement by prefacing their comments with “I think” or “I feel.”  When you talk, be direct.  Use colourful words expressing action and dynamic verbs that paint a picture or express action to get your point across.

Emotion: People respond better to emotion than factual information. One of the best ways of connecting with an audience is by building bridges to their emotions.   U.S. President Barack Obama tugged at the heart strings of Americans during a recent memorial service for victims of the tragic Arizona shooting.  Referring  to nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green, Obama poignantly recounted the innocence of the young victim with the passage:  “If there are rain puddles in heaven, Christina is jumping in them today.”  Take a page from Obama’s book.  Identify your audience’s emotional  triggers and engage those emotions with anecdotes and colourful sound bites people can relate to, so your words resonate in the hearts and minds of the audience.

Clichés: The much maligned cliché may seem corny, but it has a way of sticking in people’s minds particularly if you add a twist to it.  Commenting on a political opposition party’s internal problems and inability to capitalize on the crisis facing the government in power, one pundit pointed out that the opposition party ” seemed intent on snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.”

Organizers of the 2011 RBC GranFondo Kelowna cycling event, which followed the highly successful RBC GranFondo Whistler, used a clever twist to the cliché “on the heels of” when announcing the Okanagan event  by proclaiming “On the wheels of the inaugural RBC GranFondo Whistler last month, organizers are now turning their attention to another BC cycling hotbed – Kelowna.”

Numbers: Numbers  are also useful for putting a message in context as long as you convey them in a manner people can relate to.   Telling a reporter that 69,000 Canadians die each year from heart disease just doesn’t have as much impact as  stating “Every seven minute in Canada, someone dies from heart disease or stroke.”

Similarly, most people simply can’t relate to the enormity of “millions” or “billions.”   If you’re talking about large numbers, put it in terms people get, such as “The city generates enough waste each month to fill three football stadiums.”  Numbers can be particularly challenging when discussing technical topics.  If you’re talking about levels of contamination in parts per billion, for instance, follow it with an example that’s easy to grasp such as “That’s the equivalent of adding half a teaspoon of salt into a Olympic size swimming pool.”

Rhetorical Questions: A rhetorical question, posed for its persuasive effect without the expectation of a reply, can also make a strong impression.  An individual talking about the difficulty in getting information from government may state:  “Disclosure of records from City Hall has become glacially slow.  What are they trying to hide? ” which encourages the listener to consider what the obvious answer to the question must be.

While sound bites are useful, don’t overuse them.  Try to state your thoughts in complete self-contained sentences keeping  your key messages simple and succinct. Sparingly sprinkle your interview with catchy sound bites at appropriate junctures to highlight important points.  Practice being sound bite savvy and you’ll spark more life into your presentation and leave a lasting impression with your target audience.

The shooting in Arizona shocked the nation into grief – and presented Sarah Palin with an immediate political problem: her now-notorious gunsight map.

Palin scrubbed the map from her Palin PAC website, and then issued the following statement on her Facebook page: “My sincere condolences are offered to the family of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of today’s tragic shooting in Arizona. On behalf of Todd and my family, we all pray for the victims and their families, and for peace and justice.”

Then, as Palin came under a barrage of criticism, Palin supporters stepped forward to offer defenses. The gunsights were not really gunsights. The criticism of Palin was unfair, even “obscene.”

And of course, Palin and her supporters had some justice on their side. Obviously, Palin never intended to summon people to harm Representative Giffords. There was no evidence that the shooter was a Palin follower, and in short order it became evident that he was actuated by a serious mental illness. Whatever you think about Palin’s “don’t retreat, reload” rhetoric, it could not be blamed for this crime.

So – argument won? No. Argument lost.

Palin failed to appreciate the question being posed to her. That question was not: “Are you culpable for the shooting?” The question was: “Having put this unfortunate image on the record, can you respond to the shooting in a way that demonstrates your larger humanity? And possibly also your potential to serve as leader of the entire nation?”

Here it seems to me are the elements of such an answer.

(1) Take the accusation seriously. That does not mean you accept the accusation, nor even that you explicitly acknowledge it. But understand why people – not all of them necessarily out to get you – might feel negatively about this past action in light of current events.

(2) Express real grief and sincere compassion. “My condolences are offered” is not the language of someone whose heart is much troubled.

(3) Be visible. They’re laying flowers at the congressional office of Gabrielle Giffords. Any reason you can’t join them?

(4) Join the conversation. You have often complained about out-of-bounds personal comments directed toward you (eg, David Letterman’s). Now try to show toward others the same empathy that you demand from others. Innocent as you feel yourself to be, try to imagine how it must have felt to be Giffords during this past campaign season: guns showing up at her rallies, her offices vandalized, death threats – and your map as the finishing touch. Imagine how her family must feel. Speak to them.

(5) Challenge your opponents. In the past hours, many people have cited President Obama’s (borrowed) line about bringing a knife to a gun fight. They have a point! At the same time as you publicly commit to raise your game, invite your political opponents to raise theirs. Instead of deflecting the blame, share it.

(6) Raise the issue of mental health. Remember how you were going to be an advocate for children with special needs? Can’t more be done to intervene to help potentially dangerous schizophrenics – and to protect society from the risk of violence? (Read this by Dr. Sally Satel to start your thinking on the subject. ) The best way to underscore that Loughner was not motivated by Tea Party ideology is to remind them of what did impel him.

(7) Think what you would like – not your supporters – but your opponents to say about you. “She was tough, but never a hater.” “No matter how strongly she disagreed, she was always gracious.” “I might not agree with her answer, but I could see she had thought hard about it.” Then, having thought about it, go be that person.

(8) Last: suppose you were president right now. The country would want you to say something about this terrible crime. What is that something? Say it now.

Of course, Palin has yet to give the answer called for by events. Instead, her rapid response operation has focused on pounding home the message that Palin is innocent, that she has been unfairly maligned by hostile critics. Which in this case happened to be a perfectly credible message. And also perfectly inadequate. Palin’s post-shooting message was about Palin, not about Giffords. It was defensive, not inspiring. And it was petty at a moment when Palin had been handed perhaps her last clear chance to show herself presidentially magnanimous.