website Archives - Bredemarket

Bredemarket.com and Virtual Flypaper

Flypaper can be nasty if you’re a fly. Or a human caught in Facebook’s flypaper…or Bredemarket’s.

But let’s look at flies. Here is a description of one popular flypaper brand.

“Black Flag® Fly Paper traps houseflies, mosquitoes and other flying insects in the home, porch, patio and garden. This product provides long-lasting protection after opening.

“Catches all flying insects

“Once they land, they never leave”

Kind of has that “Hotel California” feel to it, don’t you think?

But there is virtual flypaper also, where certain websites do everything they can to keep you stuck within their ecosystem.

Take Facebook, which now bans pages from posting more than two outbound links in a given month…unless you pay an additional fee for something called Meta Verified.

Or just post to groups rather than pages, then repost the group post to the page.

Or quit posting to Facebook altogether.

Which Bredemarket can’t do, because outbound links from Facebook are one of the Bredemarket website’s main sources of traffic to…the Bredemarket ecosystem.

And my own virtual flypaper.

Although mine isn’t as onerous as Marky Mark’s. But it still has the goal of keeping you within the Bredemarket ecosystem.

You see, this post, like all the other Bredemarket posts and pages, includes hyperlinks. Some of which go to other websites, while others go to other posts and pages on the Bredemarket website. These other posts and pages have their own hyperlinks. Some posts have a half dozen hyperlinks, while some pages (such as the Biometric Product Marketing Expert page) have over a hundred hyperlinks.

Now most people ignore the hyperlinks because it takes effort to click on one, and no effort to just read on and ignore it. But the curious people will click, which is good for me.

Nothing would delight me more than to view my daily analytics and see 300 visitors and 600 views.

Because that means that some of those visitors saw the hyperlinks and kept on clicking, and clicking, and clicking, perhaps eventually landing here or here or here or here.

At Bredemarket, we are programmed to receive.

In-app Browsers: Chrome, Safari, and Edge Browser Privacy Settings Are Not Enough

Many of us select our favorite browser—Chrome, Safari, Edge, whatever—based on its privacy controls. Once we set our privacy controls to our satisfaction, we think we’re protected.

Not always.

Let’s say you’re in the Facebook app and click on a link. Facebook isn’t going to send you off to your default browser to access the link. Because Facebook has a special feature just for you.

“The in-app browser for Facebook and Instagram allows people to open web links within the Facebook or Instagram mobile app on iOS or Android. For example, when a customer sees a business ad on the Facebook app and taps on it, web links in the ad open in the in-app browser by default.

“The in-app browser uses industry-standard technology to enable customers to seamlessly view and take action on websites without leaving the Facebook app.”

Because you want a seamless experience…don’t you? DON’T YOU? YOU DO. MARKY MARK SAYS SO.

Marky Mark as depicted by Loren Feldman.

And naturally there’s something in it for Facebook also. Because the primary purpose of any social app is to keep you in that app forever and ever. If you suddenly switch to Chrome you have left the Meta ecosystem (which also includes Instagram, lest we forget) and have entered the Google ecosystem.

This is bad…for Facebook.

If we are locked within Facebook’s walled garden, then Meta captures all our data.

And then some.

“Facebook and Instagram applications use embedded browsers that automatically open when you click on external links within the app, rather than opening your default browser. This behavior allows Meta to inject JavaScript code into visited websites, enabling tracking of user interactions including form inputs, button clicks, and purchases made on external sites.”

Now obviously your own browser can do the same thing, but it’s relatively easy to clear your browser data, including cookies. It’s harder to clear the data from the in-app browsers within Facebook and Instagram. Once you find where the control is hidden this week, you can Clear Data (which differs from Clear Cache).

By the way, privacy-sucking in-app browsers are not solely provided by Marky Mark. Tik Tok does it also. The Amazon app uses JavaScript, but Felix Krause could not detect any tracking.

Other apps do not use JavaScript in their in-app browsers, including Reddit, Robinhood, Snapchat, and X.

~~But you can test yourself. Go to your favorite social app, type~~ ~~https://inappbrowser.com/~~ ~~to your feed, and click on the link.~~ The site may no longer be active.

The Two-Way Door Decision

In business there’s something called a “Type 2 decision.” Because of my biometric background I shy away from the term (which means “false positive” in biometrics) and prefer to use the term “two-way door decision.”

If you’ve been through an airport security checkpoint, either entering or leaving a security area, you know that you can only go one way.

Amazon and the two-way door decision

But other entrances and exits DO allow you to change your mind.

“The [two-way door decision] concept was introduced by Jeff Bezos in his Amazon shareholder letters, using the metaphor of walking through a door. With a two-way door decision, you can walk through the door, see what’s on the other side, and if you don’t like it, you can easily turn around and come back through. If you make a suboptimal two-way door decision, you don’t have to live with the consequences for long—you can reopen the door and go back through.”

Amazon Fresh is not a good example.

While in the end the original decision was reversible, the reversal was not without pain. The rise and fall of Amazon Fresh took years. (Technically less than a year in Upland, if you don’t count the years of planning, but still a long time.)

But what about trying a new product marketing idea? While some ideas, such as pricing a luxury car at one dollar, can cause permanent damage, others can easily be reversed.

I’ll use Bredemarket as an example. Back in 2020 I was heavily pushing my Bredemarket 404 Web/Social Media Checkup. While it remains on my website, I haven’t promoted it in years. I could certainly still do it (and did it for one client), but while it parallels my analysis strengths, I find other areas (such as market and competitive analysis in the biometric industry) much more satisfying and financially rewarding.

On the other hand, I DID pull my editing services from the Bredemarket website. That’s not rewarding at all.

Enough about me…what about you?

But what if YOU want to try a new product marketing idea and see if it resonates with your prospects?

Now you could go through an entire tiered go-to-market launch,

Or alternatively, you could send up a trial balloon such as a blog post, a social media post, or a data sheet.

Then measure the results.

If the content resonates with your prospects, double down.
If your prospects are indifferent, never mention the idea again.
If your prospects hate it, delete it.

Because of my “I ask, then I act” bias, I gravitate toward these trial balloons. As long as the idea doesn’t kill your company, why not try it quickly, rather than paralyzing yourself by repeated inaction?

Your trial balloon

Are you ready to launch a trial balloon, but need some help with the helium? Set up a meeting with Bredemarket and we can discuss your options.

Some 2.45 Things You Do

A study entitled “Browsing behavior exposes identities on the web” (also cited by Biometric Update) offers an informative view of how “something you do” can identify you when combined with other things you do.

“Though most users are unique in their four most-visited domains, we find that we often need fewer data points for user identification. To determine how many domains are needed to pinpoint a user, we examine fingerprints at the individual level. For each unique user i, we randomly select a domain from their fingerprint and group all unique users who have that domain in their fingerprints (see Methods). Then, we select another most-visited domain from user i and narrow our group to those with both domains (Fig. 1c). We repeat this step, incrementally adding domains, until we isolate user i. At this point, we have a set of domains which exists only within user i’s fingerprint. Our analysis shows that we need an average of 2.45 steps to identify a unique user within the data set (Fig. 1d). This finding indicates that although four domains guarantee uniqueness, users’ distinct online habits facilitate their identification with fewer domains.”

Think about the four domains that YOU visit the most. If you don’t know what they are, Chrome users can visit chrome://site-engagement/ and order the list. I can almost guarantee that one of my four most-visited websites is NOT one of yours.

And as for my wildebeest friend…

Content That Attracts

One drawback of working as a consultant, rather than as an embedded employee within a company, is that you often don’t get to see how your content affects your client.

But I recently was exposed to some data that revealed how Bredemarket’s content impacted one of my clients.

I can’t reveal the client or the content, but suffice it to say that a particular piece of content resonated with the client’s prospects and customers.

Why?

Because it not only described my client’s green widget, but also described the emotional effects that using this green widget had on others.

Don’t forget to tell the story.

Prospects may not remember that the green widget supports 1000 ppi resolution.
But prospects will remember that the green widget brought closure to a family when a family member was successfully identified with the green widget.

If You Can’t Develop a Product, Who Can?

Many people get ideas for products or services.

But if you have an idea for a software application, mobile app, or web solution and you don’t have the technical skills to create it yourself, how can you make your idea a reality?

One avenue is to engage with a product development firm that can perform all aspects of product development from concept to launch:

design
development
testing
launch

And if you engage with the right firm, you will receive expert handling of your development effort, an intuitive user-centered design for your solution, an agile and scalable product, and (most importantly) rapid time to market.

If you have product development needs, talk to Silicon Tech Solutions. Offering a complete suite of services (custom software development, digital transformation, product development, and IT outsourcing), Silicon Tech Solutions addresses multiple needs for small and mid-size businesses. With a team that has gained experience from employment at Amazon and Facebook and from multiple consulting projects, Silicon Tech Solutions is ready to help your firm.

Get more information from Silicon Tech Solutions by contacting them via Bredemarket at my Silicon Tech Solutions page.

Bridging the Content Gap: Increasing Your Content Quantity and Recency

(All pictures Imagen 4)

Tech marketers, do you have a “content gap” that you don’t even know about? (But your prospects know about it.)

When I approach a Bredemarket content prospect, I like to check the prospect’s current online content first.

Not a full-fledged analysis like the one I perform for my web/social media checkup. Which, if you didn’t notice, is numbered “Bredemarket 404.”
But just enough to see what content you’re generating, or not (quantity). And when you last posted content (recency).

You don’t need me to analyze the quantity and recency of your company’s online content. You can analyze it yourself.

And you SHOULD survey it.

Because whether you look at your content or avert your eyes, your prospects are looking at your content or lack thereof.

If your company doesn’t display online content, your competitor does.

Do you dare take a look at yourself and answer the following questions?

Date of most recent blog post
Date of most recent case study
Date of most recent video
Date of most recent white paper
Date of most recent Facebook company post
Date of most recent Instagram company post, reel, or story
Date of most recent LinkedIn company post or article
And all the other social media outlets you’ve opened over the years (yes, even the Snapchat the intern created in 2019)

Now I will be honest. While I am in some ways a content freak, even I fall behind at times.

Bredemarket’s most recent white paper dates from October 2023.
Bredemarket’s most recent case study (actually case studies) dates from April 2023, over two years ago as I write this.

Physician, heal thyself.

But what is the status of YOUR content? Quantity? Recency?

And what are you going to do about it?

Click here to bridge your content gap.

Or don’t.

What are you going to do?

The Optimized Fashionista

(Imagen 4)

SEO experts—I mean AEO (ANSWER engine optimization) experts—are like fashionistas.

Everything is seasonal.

“This fall, hems and carousels are up, and bright red and hashtags are down!”

21 Days of Bredemarket “CPA” Services

What in the heck does Bredemarket do?

Content, proposal, and analysis (“CPA”) marketing and writing services.

But what in the heck does Bredemarket DO?

During the first 21 days of March, my biometric, identity, and technology clients received blog posts, an ebook, emails, a landing page, slides, a press release, a Request for Information (RFI) response, a process, and other things.

Can I help your firm? Let me know on my “CPA” page.

CPA

Want to know how many blog posts and emails I wrote? Watch the video.

21 days of CPA.

(CPA wildebeest Imagen 3)