Pronoun Power, Looong Content, Buffett’s Billion, and More – Roger’s Picks

It was a busy week between speaking gigs in New Orleans and Austin, but never fear – I’ve still got a great selection of the best content I found during the last 7 days! Did you [related: see pronoun article below] find a fascinating feature or amazing article? Leave a comment with a link to your own discovery!

Advertisers certainly hope that shopper behavior is affected by their ads, and Neurons Inc (@NeuronsInc) shows off some actual data in Effects of ad on in-store behaviour – underlying physiology and brain processes. The blog post is short, but at the very end there’s a link to the study in pdf format.

Parkinson’s Law says, “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” Most of us tend to let tasks go until a deadline is staring us in the face. In A Beginners Guide To Parkinson’s Law: How To Do More Stuff By Giving Yourself Less Time, Joel Runyon (@joelrunyon) tells us how to turn Parkinson’s Law to your advantage and get more productive.

Got influence? Business Grow‘s Mark Schaefer‘s(@markwschaefer) latest podcast brings in Tom Webster (@webby2001) of Edison Research. This episode, Influence Marketing is hot and about to get hotter and see how bloggers, covers topics ranging from “Flout: The New Standard for Influence. Really.” to “How to create raving advocates the right way.” [Podcast]

Clicks don’t mean consumption. Catchy headlines may draw traffic, but more often than not the content doesn’t hold the viewer’s attention for long. Tony Haile (@arctictony) uses a data-based analysis in What You Think You Know About the Web Is Wrong to tell us the metrics we should be watching.

Like your content recommendations crowdsourced? Jeffrey Henning (@JHenning) shares 10 of the most retweeted articles from a total of over 2,000 links posted in the #MRX community in #MRX Top 10: Behavioral Economics, Consumer Psychology & Understanding Emotions.

Conversion optimization and psychology are good partners, Neuromarketing readers know. Darren Hunt (@darrenhunt) brings them together in Conversion Rate Optimisation – How a bit of psychology helps, a wide-ranging piece that’s well worth a read.

He is known as the man behind “the happiest place on earth,” but he founded a business empire that continues to dominate its space even as it adapts to new technology. Adam Toren (@thebizguy) shares 5 Magical Tips Walt Disney Can Teach Entrepreneurs About Marketing.

What’s better than great content for getting links? Long, great content! Starting with a chart showing that the longer your content is, the more people link to it, Emma Siemasko (@EmmaFayeS) provides readers with a full roadmap in A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Long-form Content That Converts.

I’m not a big fan of infographics, because all too often they do little more than expand a half-dozen data points into an image that takes four scrolls to view. This one from Linda Bustos (@getelastic), How Important Is Web Personalization?, is worth a look – personalization is powerful but under-used.

When I tweeted this link, at least one follower suggested that you shouldn’t worry about pleasing your boss and just do good work. I disagree – in just about every business, making your boss look good will benefit you as much as her. Eric Barker (@bakadesuyo) tells you how to do that and more in Get a raise: 10 steps to getting your boss to think you’re the best.

In my speeches, I often use an example showing how adding “you” language to a benefit statement increased conversion by 400%. Now, fellow Pubcon keynoter and conversion expert Tim Ash (@tim_ash) tells you how in some cases another pronoun can beat “you”. Trust me, you will like Me vs. You: How Pronouns Affect Click Conversion Rates.

Home improvement retailer Lowes wants to get inside its customers’ heads. In an article in Warc (@WarcEditors),Lowe’s grasps innovation nettle, the company talks about the huge impact of change and the importance of adopting new methods and technologies for understanding consumer behavior.

My Stuff

The NCAA college basketball tournament is underway now and dominating sports news, but before the tipoff the big story was from the world of business: Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway insured a billion-dollar prize from Quicken Loans for the fan that picked a perfect bracket. At Forbes, I analyze the brilliant strategy that may garner Quicken as many as 15 million new leads: How Buffett’s Billion Dollar Challenge Seduces Your Brain and weigh things again.

This year at Pubcon New Orleans, founder Brett Tabke (@btabke) put together a very conversion-oriented lineup of speakers. I did the opening keynote for the Masters Group Training, and the aforementioned Tim Ash did the final Pubcon keynote. For the opening keynote, Brett brought in the best-known name in persuasion, Robert Cialdini (@RobertCialdini) . In How the World’s Leading Persuasion Expert Gets Your Business Card, I describe how the influence master uses his own recipe for conference lead generation.