From a product management perspective, applications (mobile or web) really need to serve two functions at the highest level: to serve or to entertain. When you think about it, that’s more than a New Media question, one could relate that purpose to the “real world” as well. Let’s play a quick game: name any brand and you should be able to categorize it as a service or entertainment (maybe even both but remember we said at its highest level). Let’s dive in further…

When starting a new media product development session, one of the first questions we always ask is : will this app serve or entertain? Case in point: TMZ’s mobile app entertains where as Bank Of America’s mobile app serves a purpose. Yet another example: angry birds entertains, but goto meeting offers a service. Make sense?

Starting off a product planning session with this simple question in mind can help drive both the user experience and the product roadmap successfully. The benefit to developing and managing mobile applications is offering that very personal experience, but the downside is the loss of verbal tone. When a user interacts with the mobile app, ideally they should have been condition first, in the “pre-sale” phase, as to the benefit this application will lend. Setting that tone early one, is really driven from the product development deliverables which treat marketing as the first customer.

Although there are many questions and requirements to complete when developing a mobile app, we find that the service vs entertainment is a great starting point from the onset.

The right domain can make all of the difference when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO) and your local strategy. Domains are not just web addresses, they are your first impression tools. They serve a strong purpose informing search engines what your site is about even before a user clicks on your domain. But does a domain name really matter when developing a strong local strategy for your New Media product/service?

Much controversy has been swirling around the search engine impact of keyword driven domain names. Sites like Search Engine Land.com cover the Local SEO benefits and drawbacks very well, but what we’re going to focus this blog post on the local branding element. There are really two types of geo-targeting when it comes to a branding element regarding a new media product/service. Obviously a good local strategy strives to connect the product/service with an inherent local audience. For example building a review based social application will have more positive uptake when target audience when local elements are prominent: example ” they have the best sweet tea this side of the big chicken” (in case you don’t know, The Big Chicken is a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Marietta, Georgia, which features a 56-foot-tall chicken rising up from the top of the building). So here we have a great local landmark, that wouldn’t mean much to some outside of a 20 mile radius of Marietta, but when developing a domain strategy for this web application, one might lean towards BestOfMarietta.com or MariettaSpeaks.com as a good local strategy name choice. Now this is somewhat a single use example, but the premise is pretty clear.

Although we have seen many cases of local strategy domain name abuse (your city-application or service.com) used thousands of times, but in general tastefully burying in a local strategy can act as an attractive invitation to both search engines and other automated indexing services, as well as develop a strong connection to your local user base.

As the Internet’s push for local search dominance continues to take shape, consumers, business owners, and executives alike are starting to wonder if it’s really all it’s cracked up to be. Consumers like the fact that finding a nearby doctor or plumber is at their finger tips, while tons of local businesses love showing up on major search engine results pages; but the measurement of conversion is still somewhat ambiguous.

Local Search For Goliath

When it comes to local search, how do large franchise organizations with tons of local locations factor in? With an estimate as high as 50% of all Internet searches being local in nature, local search has become an important aspect for national retail franchise businesses. As a New Media organization design their product road-maps with a local focus, factors like independent location weighting have to come into play when dealing with national retailers. As product managers and creative leaders, we need to to develop product road-maps with an inherent local strategy in place. For example, a great local strategy expert tip is adding a GEO modifier to ratings and reviews…Tommy 92636. This element gives the reader an additional perspective into the reviewers mindset and may lend creditability to the review.

What’s Ahead For Local Search?

All in all, the evolution of local search strategy hasn’t even peaked. As local strategy experts chasing the the ultimate product element, “Relevance”, we have to continually bear in mind use case scenarios that put ourselves virtually in the same experience path as other consumers. Doing so not only helps improve local search relevancy, but also adds aids retailers who really are offering fantastic products or services regardless of national or local origin.

Concept and strategy come in many different formats: thoughts, ideas, group discovery and even real world pain points. An interesting paradigm shift is beginning to emerge and we believe will soon be paramount in all discovery sessions; tap and touch. The introduction of the iPhone and iPad touch technologies is nothing too new. For years we have used ATM’s and in-car navigation systems successfully with just our fingertips. Even pen based PDA’s and tablet PC’s have entered our environments striving to achieve that “always with you” device status ready to capture ideas, thoughts and back of the napkin drawings. But in reality most product ideas and buisness models still begin with paper (napkin or menu) and pen.

One thing we have noticed over the past decade of providing product leadership and strategy to numerous new media organizations, is a very simple starting point that can be captured with a pen or touch: What’s wrong or missing? Who thinks so? This simple, yet often overlooked initial step is key to starting any new product design or enhancing a product road-map.

In our opinion, there are 3 questions that should be answered when kicking off any product concept:

1) I wish this app or web service could:________

2) According to research, ____ other users wish it could do that or something similiar as well.

3) If it did do that, there are at least ____ other partners that may be interested and could benefit from the audience it would target.

See, 3 simple questions that can be answered with a pen, a stylus, a keyboard, or a tap and touch; the choice is yours. We suspect the pen and paper are most comfortable very familiar ultimately making them most popular because they are readily available almost everywhere. Until we can pick up an iPad, being used as a to-go menu at your favorite restaurant, and jot down an idea the most important thing to remember is  no matter what your “weapon of choice”, make your product team happy by presenting your next great product idea to them with these 3 questions answered.