A random sentence in a random Wall Street Journal article made it real for me.
Michael Woods, a 32-year-old attorney… said his New Year’s resolution is to reduce his screen time, something his two Amazon Echos and Google Home hub help him with.
“Not because I want to get rid of my phone, but just because I want to be more present,” he said.
When will the voice tipping point hit you?
You’ve undoubtedly heard of The Tipping Point. “The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire” says the promotional copy.
I don’t know when the tipping point for searching by voice will arrive – but it will.
If you’re like most readers, you’ll enjoy this article and move on, leaving any preparation for “voice inevitability” as a “some day” kind of thing.
Remember Billy Mays?
Billy Mays – The OxyClean guy – died 10 years ago.
(I’m still talking about “voice.” Stick with me.)
Today I searched “Billy Mays Cardiac Arrest” and, sure enough, there was the article I wrote a decade ago, right on top, just where I left it.
The article ranks ahead of CNN, ABC News, and the Sudden Cardiac Association.
It’s a terrible, pithy little article. But I wrote it first. And I won the Google lottery.
I wrote it before anyone confirmed his cause of death. Irresponsible?
No.
Look at it again.
Google doesn’t “count” punctuation.
The headline reads, Billy Mays dead: cardiac arrest? | Cardiac Science
The body copy: “While we have no proprietary knowledge of the circumstances of Billy Mays death, cardiac arrest causes heart function to cease abruptly and without warning.”
The whole thing was a ruse to get you to the (now very deprecated) Cardiac Science site where you might learn more about automated external defibrillators (AEDs).
Getting “there” first counts. A lot!
Google CEO @sundarpichai said, by mid-2016, voice search already represented 20% of Google mobile app queries.
And, according to @digiday AI Marketing Summit survey, 43% of companies invest in technology to enable voice marketing. I believe this:
At some point, you WILL re-engineer your site to accommodate voice searches versus typed searches. That is, if you want to be found in a search. Share on XYou can do it now and be first.
You can do it later, kicking and screaming.
But you will do it. Or lose.
You decide.
Want proof?
In writing this article for you, I went to incognito and did two searches. The first, as I would typically type it in a search box. The second, as I would have asked Google, Alexa, or Siri. (Click to enlarge.)
The top results are completely different. Zero overlap.
The spoken search also yielded the “People Also Ask box.
I think you’ll agree: At a minimum, you’ll want to start writing to accommodate both kinds of searches. Over time, I suspect “writing for voice search” will surpass “writing for typed search.” We’ll see.
In closing
There are a ton of smarter-than-me authorities writing about “voice marketing.”
Just search for it.
Voice or text. Your choice. ????
+++
Fast Round
-
That picture of Beth! That photo was taken in 2001 in Cape Town. It still makes me laugh.
I posted it for a reason, though.
You know how, after a presentation at a conference, the speaker ends with an anti-climatic, “Do you have any questions?” and no one has a question. The speaker ends up looking like Beth, in a glazed stare, hoping someone will validate them with a question. * See postscript.
Don’t get that Beth look. And there’s a way to guarantee you won’t be the speaker without questions: Plant questions in the audience!
This came up yesterday. I was talking with Walt Maclay. He’s giving a talk about manufacturing wearable devices today (Wednesday, January 23) in an hour (9 am.).
You’re welcome to join us live or for the replay and slides.
I wrote Walt: “I encourage you to give me two questions I can ask in case of silence. And give me something real – an opportunity to materially expound on something you said versus rehash.
Also, when you’re done with your presentation, NEVER leave your last screen of ‘Questions?’ up. We’d be staring at it for 15 minutes.
Instead, have an excellent summary slide. One, where if the audience only took that snapshot, they’d have everything they need to capture your talk.”
I concluded, “P.S. That was good advice. I’m putting it in a Journey.”
So, thanks, Walt!
-
Google slapped with $57 million fine. For violating GDPR. Remember when we talked about that? Here’s a refresher. It includes a Privacy Policy you can just cut, paste, tweak, and use.
Thank you for joining me on The Journey.
Want to guess the winning Super Bowl score for a chance to win 50% off 10x Conference registration?
Good luck!
P.S. A ???? for those who read to the bottom.
My friend Ron – who wrote virtually every funny line I uttered on the Wharton Follies stage – was at a conference where an exceptionally tall and somewhat belligerent speaker demanded,
I’m not going to continue until someone asks me a question.
And no one did. For an uncomfortably long time.
So Ron spoke up.
“Exactly how tall are you?”
???? ???? ???? ???? ????
