EverNote and Some Lessons for You

There is an interesting product out there called EverNote (thx, Ken).  When you go to the web site, you get nice page and a video which you can view in order to get a view of the product.

This video tour feature is rapidly becoming a must have so people can figure it what you have quickly.  So, some tips are probably in order:

1. Volume.  If you play the video tour for EverNote on a simple laptop with no mondo-speakers or whatever, it is very difficult to hear.  Sounds obvious but it in scanning a bunch of these around the web, this is a more common problem than I would have guessed.

2. Get to the Problem/Solution set quickly.  You can use flash (Tungle did) or a video like EverNote. Either way, doesn't much matter but the messaging remains the same. What's the problem and show me your solution.  The problem is explained in Tungle's demo in the form of meet this person and here is her problem, Tungle to the rescue. EverNote dives immediately into clipping something off a web page and tossing it into big pile of stuff.  In showing this to people, I got "big deal" a bunch of times and had to say, "no, wait, this is cool, check this part out."  The cool part is searching/finding text in pictures. This meant take a bunch of pictures with your camera phone and then you can search this stuff just like it was text.   The ding here was that the "quick" demo took a almost 60 seconds to get to the 'cool' part.  Get to the point, quickly.  60 seconds is a lifetime on the Internet and the 'big deal' factor is an ever present danger.  In this case, the people I showed the video to, assumed it was yet another screen clipping service missing the point of all the other features. 

3. You shouldn't be in show business.  EverNote's voice over is poor. The person speaks too fast, mumbles a bit, and has the volume problem I've already mentioned.  Now, you'll hammer me because this was probably the founder in a garage, no money, 'free' service, etc.  Sorry, that doesn't cut it.  Unless you are a loner living in a cave (with a DSL connection), you have friends, family, etc, that can help/will help for that same 'free' we talk about.  I would argue that there are tons of students out there wanting to be in radio/TV who would gladly help you for a chance to put this on their resume.  In the case of Tungle, she was okay, but used the car phone to record it which somewhat detracts from the message.  My point here is that in both cases, Tungle and EverNote, the demo is an opportunity to get people to go, cool!, and sign up.  Having anything that detracts from that objective is bad.

4. There are no Emmy Awards for this stuff.  As a counter point to item 3, don't get nuts here.  Get to the problem/solution set, do it without distracting the viewer, do it quickly and you will be fine.  This is not, in my opinion, the place which requires millions of dollars to be spent.  The simple thing is to simply put the video/flash demo up and get feedback before it goes live.  I'd argue that both Tungle and EverNote could have (long before the product was available) put their respective demo's up on their blogs for feedback. There is a balance against doing the Vaporware thing and letting your competition know what you are doing/saying, but feedback from the normal person, not the echo chamber and your mom, is important.

EverNote looks cool hope I can try it, Tungle is saving me hours of headaches with scheduling. 

Note: Tungle is a JLA Investment.