Crowd.dev

crowddev

Here's a new problem, and a new set of jobs for humans, that will be caused as more and more Robotaxis show up (think of an Uber that works without a human in the car). What is the problem? Transportation behavior will change as we get more and more vehicles on the road with no humans inside. Something that's already happening in San Francisco, where you see many autonomous vehicles driving around with no humans inside from companies like Waymo, Zoox, and others. Expected are many others, including Tesla, and GM's Cruise which we hear will be back on the road later this year. The problem? Football stadiums, concerts, basketball stadiums, conferences, events like the Olympics, all will see radically different usage patterns. For instance, today, if you attend a football game, you park in one of dozens of parking lots around the stadium and you walk in, or take a shuttle to one of the entrances. This adds some "randomness" to the flow of crowds in and out and lets city officials who plan out traffic flows bring traffic to those parking lots with a few different routes. Even today it's often a mess with traffic taking an hour to get into many venues with large numbers of people but officials, and others, who work in these industries tell me autonomous vehicles will make traffic far worse. Why? Well, let's assume in five years you are in a Cybertruck taking your family to a football game and that by then the Cybertruck can drive with no humans in the car. Will you want your Cybertruck to take you to a far off parking lot and make you walk to the stadium? No. You'll want it to drop you off near the football stadium. And here's the rub: so will everyone else. Which means you'll have thousands of Waymos, Cruises, Teslas, all trying to get to the same drop-off point. This new human expectation will lead to traffic nightmares. Worse, I've been talking with executives at these kinds of venues and they say the coordination between sports teams, city officials/police, and ride-sharing companies is nearly non-existent.One told me they tried to get Uber and Lyft to come meet with them to design new traffic flows for their vehicles and they just don't get very little help or interest from the ride-sharing companies. One, who works with the 49ers, tells me city officials often put up signs for Uber/Lyft drivers that lead them into dead-end roads where they need to waste time turning around and figuring out where they need to go. Signage, cones, road closures, all could be done in a much better way around venues. And that's before you consider the humans. Often crowds of humans getting out of venues are drunk, don't follow traffic rules, and, sometimes, even turn riotous. Has the autonomous vehicle industry worked with venues to understand how traffic systems change around event venues? No, is the answer I keep hearing, and getting Waymo or Tesla interested in studying the problem together and designing new traffic facilities around big-crowd venues is difficult. Oh, it can happen. At Coachella, for instance, Uber built a huge parking lot with waiting areas for humans that were covered (it's hot often waiting for your ride to show up). Uber also built contextual systems to work with drivers around the Western United States to convince drivers to come to Palm Springs for a month and drive people around (Coachella is two weekends, where 150,000 people visit each weekend, followed by a country music festival that has slightly smaller crowds, but Uber, alone, brings thousands of cars to handle the crowds of people who want to use it to get to and from the venue). Along with the parking lot city officials block off lanes and have clear signs for Uber/Lyft/Taxis to use and have police at every intersection directing traffic and making sure things flow smoothly. Even with all that work it often takes one to three hours of standing in line to get a Taxi or an Uber out of the venue. Now imagine if thousands of people were arriving in autonomous vehicles. If the vehicles weren't programmed into where to go, and if Tesla doesn't have its own drop off and pickup lot things could get nasty, and fast. Last week at NVIDIA's big event my Tesla was programmed to pick up a friend at the Marriott. Problem was it took me down a route that is usually just fine, but during that event NVIDIA and city officials had the street in front of the conference center closed due to the large crowds that were attending that event. My Tesla didn't know about the closed street so it tried to take me down that closed street, figured it out too late, and then got stuck in traffic going on a detour around, wasting 15 minutes. Now 15 minutes doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is if I was driving an Uber passenger. Why? Well, first of all now I have a passenger who isn't happy with the navigation choices the car made, maybe giving me a lower score than I otherwise would get, but, worse, if I was picking up a passenger that person might see that I'm now 15 minutes away instead of two and decide to hop in a cab or cancel my ride. Wasted time, which means if I'm driving an Uber I don't get paid. There also is a difference between permanent venues, like a football stadium, which have the same problems every weekend (while football isn't being played these stadiums are often used for other things, like concerts) and music festivals that only happen one or two weekends a year, like Coachella. There aren't enough vehicles to support these temporary crowds so vehicles have to be moved into that area. There are dozens of such festivals all over the world, and that's counting just the ones with 50,000 attendees or more, like EDC in Vegas, Glastonbury in UK, etc. So, a company, like a Tesla, which is expected to have humanless vehicles driving in most Western Countries, would need to work with dozens of venues to setup drop off and pick up zones, and with local police to understand how to work with them so that they understand how to work with autonomous vehicles. Once in a while one of those will get stuck, for instance, maybe with a blown tire or an equipment malfunction, or, worse, an accident. At SXSW a drunk driver plowed through crowds of people one year, killing many, and causing a major first-responder response. In such a situation all the constituencies would need to work together to change traffic flows to make sure more vehicles aren't drawn to the area, or interfere with first responders. Is there a relationship lead between all these constituencies? I hear there is not, except in the best of cases. So, this leads to a new job for humans. AI's can't attend city council or meetings with police. AI's can't often figure out why all traffic has stopped. Once, at Half Moon Bay's pumpkin festival it started to rain. Everyone headed for their cars at the same time, but both Waze and Apple Maps continued to give incorrect data for an hour, both on recommendations for what street to head down, and on time it will take to get out of the area. These systems are built for normal traffic flows, and often can't understand that police have even reversed traffic, so that cars are going down the wrong way on a road. Which leads to the AI. Uber's founder, Travis Kalanick, told me his goal is to have one car near someone who is calling for a ride. That way the ride will arrive in less than five minutes and everyone is happy. Uber built a complex "traffic control system" that hooks drivers and passengers up together. That system usually works great, but when high-crowd events show up these systems often mislead drivers and passengers alike. Waymo is, so far, punting, and refuses to go near these events, and has a very small number of passengers today. Even if you live in San Francisco you can't just get a Waymo, you have to wait to be added to the system and they are adding new passengers slowly so that the whole system remains healthy and doesn't hit these large-crowd issues yet. That will change as they scale up the system to be in many more cities over the next few years and open up the system to everyone, not just a limited number of beta testers. So, to wrap it up, soon entrepreneurs, like Elon Musk, who is making plans for bringing its millions of vehicles online to do human-less driving, will need to do new AI modeling work for how cars should behave around high-crowd events, leading to new traffic-control systems to bring thousands of cars in and out of these venues, and will need teams of humans working with venues and cities to build new drop-off-areas for autonomous vehicles to drop off and pick up people. That is a human job, not one that an AI or robot can do. And a company that has aspirations for building a global network of autonomous vehicles, will need many such workers to work with local customs/officials/venues/teams/events. I see very little modeling work, although I saw MIT Media Lab doing some early work to understand how cities would change due to autonomous vehicles, and I don't see anyone in the AI/Autonomous Vehicle industry talking about research/work in this areas. (And yes, I do have a list of those people here on X: https://x.com/scobleizer/lists) I'm doing this post to try to spur industry interest in working on these issues and to connect people who may already be working on them. Are you positioned for these new jobs? If you are, these are fun things to work on and you might even get free tickets to go see concerts or football games for you and your family. I got taken to a Taylor Swift concert by an entrepreneur who built technology systems for the local stadium, so I know it's possible. :-) Technology solves old problems and causes new problems. Which is why I'm still on team human. AI's aren't good at figuring this stuff out and I don't see them getting good at figuring them out, either, for years. Sounds like a good job to have for a while. Here's a new problem, and a new set of jobs for humans, that will be caused as more and more Robotaxis show up (think of an Uber that works without a human in the car). What is the problem? Transportation behavior will change as we get more and more vehicles on the road with no humans inside. Something that's already happening in San Francisco, where you see many autonomous vehicles driving around with no humans inside from companies like Waymo, Zoox, and others. Expected are many others, including Tesla, and GM's Cruise which we hear will be back on the road later this year. The problem? Football stadiums, concerts, basketball stadiums, conferences, events like the Olympics, all will see radically different usage patterns. For instance, today, if you attend a football game, you park in one of dozens of parking lots around the stadium and you walk in, or take a shuttle to one of the entrances. This adds some "randomness" to the flow of crowds in and out and lets city officials who plan out traffic flows bring traffic to those parking lots with a few different routes. Even today it's often a mess with traffic taking an hour to get into many venues with large numbers of people but officials, and others, who work in these industries tell me autonomous vehicles will make traffic far worse. Why? Well, let's assume in five years you are in a Cybertruck taking your family to a football game and that by then the Cybertruck can drive with no humans in the car. Will you want your Cybertruck to take you to a far off parking lot and make you walk to the stadium? No. You'll want it to drop you off near the football stadium. And here's the rub: so will everyone else. Which means you'll have thousands of Waymos, Cruises, Teslas, all trying to get to the same drop-off point. This new human expectation will lead to traffic nightmares. Worse, I've been talking with executives at these kinds of venues and they say the coordination between sports teams, city officials/police, and ride-sharing companies is nearly non-existent.One told me they tried to get Uber and Lyft to come meet with them to design new traffic flows for their vehicles and they just don't get very little help or interest from the ride-sharing companies. One, who works with the 49ers, tells me city officials often put up signs for Uber/Lyft drivers that lead them into dead-end roads where they need to waste time turning around and figuring out where they need to go. Signage, cones, road closures, all could be done in a much better way around venues. And that's before you consider the humans. Often crowds of humans getting out of venues are drunk, don't follow traffic rules, and, sometimes, even turn riotous. Has the autonomous vehicle industry worked with venues to understand how traffic systems change around event venues? No, is the answer I keep hearing, and getting Waymo or Tesla interested in studying the problem together and designing new traffic facilities around big-crowd venues is difficult. Oh, it can happen. At Coachella, for instance, Uber built a huge parking lot with waiting areas for humans that were covered (it's hot often waiting for your ride to show up). Uber also built contextual systems to work with drivers around the Western United States to convince drivers to come to Palm Springs for a month and drive people around (Coachella is two weekends, where 150,000 people visit each weekend, followed by a country music festival that has slightly smaller crowds, but Uber, alone, brings thousands of cars to handle the crowds of people who want to use it to get to and from the venue). Along with the parking lot city officials block off lanes and have clear signs for Uber/Lyft/Taxis to use and have police at every intersection directing traffic and making sure things flow smoothly. Even with all that work it often takes one to three hours of standing in line to get a Taxi or an Uber out of the venue. Now imagine if thousands of people were arriving in autonomous vehicles. If the vehicles weren't programmed into where to go, and if Tesla doesn't have its own drop off and pickup lot things could get nasty, and fast. Last week at NVIDIA's big event my Tesla was programmed to pick up a friend at the Marriott. Problem was it took me down a route that is usually just fine, but during that event NVIDIA and city officials had the street in front of the conference center closed due to the large crowds that were attending that event. My Tesla didn't know about the closed street so it tried to take me down that closed street, figured it out too late, and then got stuck in traffic going on a detour around, wasting 15 minutes. Now 15 minutes doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is if I was driving an Uber passenger. Why? Well, first of all now I have a passenger who isn't happy with the navigation choices the car made, maybe giving me a lower score than I otherwise would get, but, worse, if I was picking up a passenger that person might see that I'm now 15 minutes away instead of two and decide to hop in a cab or cancel my ride. Wasted time, which means if I'm driving an Uber I don't get paid. There also is a difference between permanent venues, like a football stadium, which have the same problems every weekend (while football isn't being played these stadiums are often used for other things, like concerts) and music festivals that only happen one or two weekends a year, like Coachella. There aren't enough vehicles to support these temporary crowds so vehicles have to be moved into that area. There are dozens of such festivals all over the world, and that's counting just the ones with 50,000 attendees or more, like EDC in Vegas, Glastonbury in UK, etc. So, a company, like a Tesla, which is expected to have humanless vehicles driving in most Western Countries, would need to work with dozens of venues to setup drop off and pick up zones, and with local police to understand how to work with them so that they understand how to work with autonomous vehicles. Once in a while one of those will get stuck, for instance, maybe with a blown tire or an equipment malfunction, or, worse, an accident. At SXSW a drunk driver plowed through crowds of people one year, killing many, and causing a major first-responder response. In such a situation all the constituencies would need to work together to change traffic flows to make sure more vehicles aren't drawn to the area, or interfere with first responders. Is there a relationship lead between all these constituencies? I hear there is not, except in the best of cases. So, this leads to a new job for humans. AI's can't attend city council or meetings with police. AI's can't often figure out why all traffic has stopped. Once, at Half Moon Bay's pumpkin festival it started to rain. Everyone headed for their cars at the same time, but both Waze and Apple Maps continued to give incorrect data for an hour, both on recommendations for what street to head down, and on time it will take to get out of the area. These systems are built for normal traffic flows, and often can't understand that police have even reversed traffic, so that cars are going down the wrong way on a road. Which leads to the AI. Uber's founder, Travis Kalanick, told me his goal is to have one car near someone who is calling for a ride. That way the ride will arrive in less than five minutes and everyone is happy. Uber built a complex "traffic control system" that hooks drivers and passengers up together. That system usually works great, but when high-crowd events show up these systems often mislead drivers and passengers alike. Waymo is, so far, punting, and refuses to go near these events, and has a very small number of passengers today. Even if you live in San Francisco you can't just get a Waymo, you have to wait to be added to the system and they are adding new passengers slowly so that the whole system remains healthy and doesn't hit these large-crowd issues yet. That will change as they scale up the system to be in many more cities over the next few years and open up the system to everyone, not just a limited number of beta testers. So, to wrap it up, soon entrepreneurs, like Elon Musk, who is making plans for bringing its millions of vehicles online to do human-less driving, will need to do new AI modeling work for how cars should behave around high-crowd events, leading to new traffic-control systems to bring thousands of cars in and out of these venues, and will need teams of humans working with venues and cities to build new drop-off-areas for autonomous vehicles to drop off and pick up people. That is a human job, not one that an AI or robot can do. And a company that has aspirations for building a global network of autonomous vehicles, will need many such workers to work with local customs/officials/venues/teams/events. I see very little modeling work, although I saw MIT Media Lab doing some early work to understand how cities would change due to autonomous vehicles, and I don't see anyone in the AI/Autonomous Vehicle industry talking about research/work in this areas. (And yes, I do have a list of those people here on X: https://x.com/scobleizer/lists ) https://x.com/scobleizer/lists I'm doing this post to try to spur industry interest in working on these issues and to connect people who may already be working on them. Are you positioned for these new jobs? If you are, these are fun things to work on and you might even get free tickets to go see concerts or football games for you and your family. I got taken to a Taylor Swift concert by an entrepreneur who built technology systems for the local stadium, so I know it's possible. :-) Technology solves old problems and causes new problems. Which is why I'm still on team human. AI's aren't good at figuring this stuff out and I don't see them getting good at figuring them out, either, for years. Sounds like a good job to have for a while.

On The Drop Off and Pick Up Problem for Robotaxis at Crowded Events like Football Games and Concerts

ফুটবল গেমস এবং কনসার্টের মতো ভিড়পূর্ণ ইভেন্টগুলিতে রোবোটক্সির জন্য ড্রপ অফ এবং পিক আপ সমস্যা

Zum Bring- und Abholproblem für Robotertaxis bei überfüllten Veranstaltungen wie Fußballspielen und Konzerten

Πρόβλημα κατά την παράδοση και την παραλαβή για ρομποταξία σε πολυσύχναστες εκδηλώσεις όπως αγώνες ποδοσφαίρου και συναυλίες

Sobre el problema de dejar y recoger a los robotaxis en eventos multitudinarios como partidos de fútbol y conciertos

Բազմամարդ իրադարձությունների ժամանակ, ինչպիսիք են ֆուտբոլային խաղերը և համերգները, ռոբոտաշինգի խնդիրը թողնելու և վերցնելու մասին

Sul problema del ritiro e della consegna dei robotaxi durante eventi affollati come partite di calcio e concerti

サッカーの試合やコンサートなどの混雑したイベントでのロボタクシーの降車・乗車問題について

Robotaxis izlaišanas un uzņemšanas problēma pārpildītos pasākumos, piemēram, futbola spēlēs un koncertos

Problemă de livrare și ridicare pentru Robotaxis la evenimente aglomerate precum jocuri de fotbal și concerte

Dejinta oo u soo qaado dhibta Robotaxis ee Munaasabadaha dadka badan sida Ciyaaraha Kubadda Cagta iyo Riwaayadaha

Kwenye Kuacha na Kuchukua Tatizo kwa Roboteksi kwenye Matukio yenye Watu wengi kama vile Michezo ya Kandanda na Tamasha

Eka The Drop Off and Pick Up Problem for Robotaxis eka Swiendlakalo leswi Taleke ku fana na Mintlangu ya Bolo ya Milenge na Tikhonsati

The Noonification: The Crowded AI Spaces Still Have Room for One More Genius (7/16/2024)

The Crowded AI Spaces Still Have Room for One More Genius

জনাকীর্ণ এআই স্পেসগুলিতে এখনও আরও একটি প্রতিভা থাকার জায়গা রয়েছে

In den überfüllten KI-Räumen ist noch Platz für ein weiteres Genie

Los abarrotados espacios de IA todavía tienen espacio para un genio más

Les espaces IA bondés ont encore de la place pour un génie supplémentaire

भीड़-भाड़ वाले एआई स्पेस में अभी भी एक और प्रतिभा के लिए जगह है

混雑したAI空間にはまだもう一人の天才の余地がある

혼잡한 AI 공간에는 아직 천재가 한 명 더 들어갈 여지가 있습니다

Os lotados espaços de IA ainda têm espaço para mais um gênio

В переполненных пространствах ИИ все еще есть место для еще одного гения

Kalabalık Yapay Zeka Alanlarında Hala Bir Dahiye Daha Yer Var

Không gian AI đông đúc vẫn còn chỗ cho một thiên tài nữa

拥挤的人工智能领域仍有空间容纳更多天才

In today's crowded marketplace, attention is currency. Value-based marketing is the investment that earns it. In today’s highly competitive era where businesses fight it out each day for their share in the industry, consumers are bombarded with marketing messages from every corner. Newspapers are filled with rampant advertisements, social media feeds overflow with promotional content, email inboxes are inundated with marketing copies, and even physical spaces are no longer immune to the constant barrage of "buy this" or "try that." The marketing landscape has turned pretty tough, but what practices make businesses see themselves over the shore? Or, in this crowded and noisy marketplace, how can businesses stand out and truly connect with their target audience? The answer lies in value-based marketing— an approach that shifts the focus from simply promoting products or services and refraining from being advertorial to emphasizing on demonstrating the inherent value a brand can offer to its customers. It’s less about being bullish with your marketing campaigns and goals and more about staying focused on building genuine relationships, fostering trust, and ultimately, earning customer loyalty in a sustainable and meaningful way. Value-based marketing- How is it a winning strategy in a crowded marketplace Today's consumers are bombarded with messages, and since they do not like them, they've become quite adept at filtering out noise. Traditional and self-promotional marketing messages often get lost in the sea of information and leave the customers disenchanted with the business. Value-based marketing, however, cuts through the clutter by offering something different— insightful content, helpful solutions, and genuine connections. By focusing on value first, brands can grab the attention of their audience and establish themselves as a trusted resource, not just another advertisement. Cuts through the clutter- Living in a time when marketing appears boisterous and customers are growing increasingly skeptical about the claims businesses make, value-based marketing is something to watch out for. Modern-day consumers don't want to be sold to; instead, they want to be informed and empowered. Value-based marketing prioritizes delivering value to customers throughout the entire marketing process, rather than just focusing on making sales. This naturally facilitates trust through transparency, authenticity, and genuine concern for the customer's needs. By providing valuable information, educational content, and helpful resources, brands demonstrate their expertise and establish themselves as a trustworthy source. Fosters trust and credibility- The last few years in marketing have been largely characterized by emotions. Contemporary customers look for that emotional connection in whatever marketing is directed at them. Marketers too try to leverage the emotional element in their marketing programs through advertising, public relations, etc. For this reason and catering to modern-day needs, it goes beyond talking about features and benefits. Instead, it taps into the emotions, values, and aspirations of the target audience. By understanding their desires, fears, and motivations, businesses can craft marketing messages that resonate on a deeper level. This emotional connection is crucial for building brand loyalty and fostering long-term relationships with customers. Creates emotional connections- When you provide genuine value, it doesn't go unnoticed. When subjected to value-based marketing, consumers are more likely to share valuable content, recommend your brand, and engage with your marketing efforts if they perceive it as informative and helpful. This organic reach and engagement not only saves on marketing costs but also expands a brand's reach to a wider audience through word-of-mouth marketing and social sharing. It is this aspect of value-based marketing that generates tremendous organic reach and engagement for businesses. Generates organic reach and engagement- What, if not customer loyalty, can be more rewarding for a business? Value-based marketing goes beyond traditional marketing in that it doesn't stop at the point of sale but moves up to make the customers stay loyal. It does so by building long-term relationships with customers by consistently providing value even after the initial purchase. This can be achieved through excellent customer service, personalized experiences, and continued educational content that keeps your brand relevant and top-of-mind. By consistently demonstrating your commitment to your customers' well-being, you command great loyalty and encourage repeat business. Builds customer loyalty- Implementing Value-Based Marketing Even though value-based marketing can be significantly yielding for businesses, the question of “how to integrate value-based marketing into one’s business strategies” remains a tough nut to crack. Despite such decisional challenges that businesses routinely face, below are some ways through which businesses can integrate value-based practices in their activities. Understanding your ideal customer's needs, wants, and challenges is crucial for crafting relevant and valuable content. So, the identification of needs becomes preliminary. Identify your target audience- Don't just talk about your product or service— instead, explain how it solves real problems for your target audience. After all, no customer likes boasting and blabbering about one’s products because that’s the easiest thing to do, and gone are the days when customers used to fall for them. Focus on providing solutions- Create informative blog posts, helpful guides, insightful videos, or engaging social media content that educates and empowers your audience. Through this, businesses can establish a connection with them. Offer valuable content- Being phony can put a business in a precarious situation. Businesses should not make exaggerated claims or misleading statements. Instead, they can build trust by being honest and upfront about their brand and its offerings. Be authentic and transparent- It’s recommended that businesses be very keen to what their customers have to say. Engaging with the audience by actively listening to their voices & grievances, and promptly responding to their feedback and concerns, and using their insights to improve marketing efforts can help build relationships on a personal level. Listen and respond- Summing up Marketing has come of age. The modern day customers will fail to associate themselves with anything that is everything, but emotional. Businesses, therefore, ought to find novel ways of creating value for them and coming up with smart ways to let them know that they are held dearly and close to their hearts. To make this happen, value-based marketing emerges as a strong beacon of trust, authenticity, and genuine connection. By emphasizing value outreach to the target audience, contemporary businesses can cut through the clutter, build lasting relationships, and ultimately achieve sustainable business growth.

Why Value-Based Marketing Wins in a Crowded Marketplace

The Baltimore Station was hot and crowded

The SaaS industry has seen incredible growth in the last few years. claims that around 66% of spending on software is expected to go to SaaS technologies by 2025. BetterCloud statistics indicate that of businesses plan to switch all their systems to SaaS by 2025. reports that 75% of business leaders have moved to SaaS. Gartner 80% Workday While Covid played a role in accelerating the digital transformation journey, it doesn't take away from the fact that SaaS provides several advantages over traditional software, including lower costs, easier deployment, and increased flexibility. These innate capabilities will continue to drive demand for SaaS products. However, this growth has also made the SaaS market very crowded, with new vendors constantly popping up. The top 5 regions for SaaS companies itself have close to 30K companies within them. It makes it difficult for customers to find the right solution for their needs and for SaaS players to sell their products to a large audience. With so many SaaS products coming up in the last few years, you'd think the latest ones will take away the major revenue pie. But it's different from what happened. claims that 2021 was its "biggest year ever," as its revenue increased by 225% in less than 20 months. The number of employees for , the largest SaaS provider in the world, increased from 767 in 2007 to 73,541 in 2022. achieved a record revenue of $17.61 billion for the fiscal Year 2022, with 15% YoY growth. Shopify Salesforce Adobe How Strong Brands Stand Out So what’s common in some of these companies? All of them represent strong brands among customers and continue to strengthen their position even as the SaaS industry gets crowded. Let’s first define brand equity; it is how people see your brand. SaaS How do they recognize you? What makes you different from the others? But coming back to our topic, why branding is important? Crowded markets need companies to create differentiation. With technological advancements happening every week, with every company, it makes it all the more important to create a strong brand that is differentiated among peers. After all, branding is a 360-degree experience that the customer or user has with the brand. There are 5 key aspects that have allowed the world’s top SaaS companies to create a strong brand for themselves. 1) Great designs, consistently! Great designs not only create a strong differentiation visually but also create a recall value. It’s all about how your users, prospects, or even non-customers think about you when they listen to your name. Think brand colors, think brand design, typography, or even nomenclature and articulation. ’s red theme has been consistent for more than 30 years now. Updated for the first time in 1993, it has consistently evolved but stayed true to its red logo color and design which stands for modern, minimalist, and attractive. Adobe Another key design very relevant in today’s digital world is your product pages. Prospects and users can make up their minds within 3 secs of looking at the product pages. An example is how Adobe revamped the webpage, which had 30+ features . Adobe Creative Cloud Express So when Adobe first built its product page, a lot of information was stuffed onto a single page. Not only did this make the page busy and difficult to read, but it also led to a poor user experience (UX). Plus, the page only ranked for brand keywords due to which they were missing out on some serious traffic. To capitalize on this goldmine of keywords, the Adobe team built a network of feature pages. They broke down every feature into digestible terms and created a page around it. This ensured Creative Cloud Express ranks for seriously competitive keywords, boosting organic traffic and overall user experience. The product pages for CC Express have: An above-the-line CTA. Tips on how to use the feature. Details on the specific use cases. A final CTA to the product. Definitely, a good page design that has led to better awareness for Adobe Creative Cloud Express. 2) Great Experience, every time! A large part of having a great brand is how SaaS users experience the brand, be it a sales pitch, a booth visit, a website demo, or an in-person visit to the experience center. Business presentations often overload the audience with one-sided information dumps. Rather than droning on at listeners, it’s much more powerful to share intimate conversations with them. A great example is how ServiceNow does it. InnovationPark program is a series of modular experiences that reflect real-life work scenarios, such as replacing a laptop, refilling a prescription, or preparing a store or event. Over here they lead customers through immersive, tailored sessions to demonstrate what’s possible with ServiceNow technology. Rather than focusing on a particular product, each experience resolves a specific scenario to showcase how versatile tech can be when used across industries and business functions. Just one example is when they put tablets in the hands of attendees. By leading the audience through stories, the presenters make experiences such as chatting with a chatbot, approving a hotel desk for an employee, or communicating with a supplier about a supply chain disruption come alive in the (literal) hands of customers. Instead of sitting back and watching a demo, the audience gets to engage with technology, putting themselves in the shoes of people in various functions, such as a sourcing manager at a logistics company, a patient checking in for surgery, or an expecting parent requesting time off. This empowers them to empathize and see their businesses from different vantage points, eventually building a positive mindset about the product. 3) Community-driven advocacy The growth of SaaS companies is now being driven by how connected and engaged their community of ecosystems is. This allows the community members to help the other community members to drive maximum benefit out of these interactions, which ensures positive word of mouth and greater ecosystem satisfaction. This community could be developers or even product users or partners. A great example here is Salesforce. Salesforce customers need help using . It takes self-trained, motivated admins, developers, and consultants to plug the Salesforce platform into a company's operations. If it's a successful implementation, it takes even more talent to scale up as the Salesforce customer's business grows. To help develop this self-driven talent pool, Salesforce launched Trailhead, a free training site with an outdoorsy theme that includes a gamification element to mark learners' progress. Salesforce A Salesforce Trailblazer, or trainee, will then earn credentials called "badges" and gain skills following guided training paths. This is part of the brilliance of Salesforce, building and continuing to curate this massive community of people -- most of whom are not, and have never been -- employed by Salesforce but are activists and fanatical fans out there. They not only help the community with implementation-related queries but also strengthen the Salesforce brand greatly. Not just Salesforce, you’d notice that most of the top SaaS brands such as Atlassian, and Hubspot have built a strong community of developers, users, admins, partners, or customers to drive higher share-of-voice (SOV). 4) Content is king! still Content plays a great role in building a strong brand value for a SaaS company. For example, it helps improve SEO, reach the right audience, tell a compelling brand story, attract the attention of the right people, position the SaaS company as a thought leader, and so on. Done rightly, content can help drive word-of-mouth marketing by aligning customers with company strategy and encouraging them to tell the same story. While SaaS companies keep building top-of-the-funnel content that is educational, there is none better than Hubspot. You run a quick Google search on anything and , and there is at least one HubSpot article among the top 10 results. This SaaS marketing company has become one of the most trusted sources of information and a well-known name for content marketers the world over. content creation marketing From in-depth B2B content marketing guides to their state of marketing reports, HubSpot has gradually grown into a go-to knowledge hub for both new and seasoned content marketing professionals. Taking inbound marketing to a whole new level  Hubspot has created a winning strategy that reflects positively on its brand and helps it differentiate itself from its peers. Another example is Adobe. Adobe’s blog doesn’t have all the educational articles you’d expect. In addition to the usual how-to posts, Adobe’s blog covers news stories, goings-on in the design and digital worlds, and event coverage. There are plenty of posts packed full of inspiration. there’s a ton of user-generated content. just And After exploring the blog, we figured all Adobe’s content meets at least one of three goals: Inspire Educate Engage By focusing on these high-level (and more abstract) goals, as well as metrics and performance-driven goals, Adobe raises the bar. This in turn makes its content more shareable, more useful, and more likely to turn prospects into customers, and users into advocates. 5) Innovation, always If there was ever one thing that a SaaS company would really love to be known for - then it’s innovation. No tech company has survived the test of time without innovating itself. Innovation refers to keep evolving SaaS solutions to evolving customer needs and remaining relevant to the audience. One such example is ServiceNow. On May 29, 2018, Forbes magazine placed ServiceNow first on its annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. ServiceNow has systemized customer-led innovation by designing partner programs, a customer advisory board, and many other programs that enable employees to listen to customers and build in tandem, responding to their challenges and opportunities with creativity and an innovative mindset. This philosophy placed ServiceNow in a unique position to help during the COVID-19 pandemic where to help build safer workplaces. Servicenow partnered with the state to offer this app as a product, in conjunction with other products it developed, to form Safe Workplace Suite. Washington state created an emergency app Another key example here is Intuit. Intuit's growth strategy has been driven by a combination of in-house innovation and strategic acquisitions. This has led to Intuit being known for its innovative solutions. As an example, Intuit has plans to continually improve the AI-Driven expert platform. This includes the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) to offer personalized and predictive offers and experiences. In addition, to connecting customers directly with experts such as Accountants to help them file their tax returns. As the SaaS industry grows exponentially, the need for a strong brand will only increase. The above branding aspects and some prominent players mentioned above have been the guiding light for new-age SaaS brands as they learn and create a space for themselves. and #logodesigndotnet #branding The lead image for this article was generated by HackerNoon's via the prompt "times square new york with lots of billboards". AI Image Generator

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拥挤的 SaaS 空间中的 5 个基本品牌元素

Onyeka Akumah is a technology entrepreneur with a focus on the agriculture, real estate, and transportation sectors. He is popularly known as the founder and CEO of Farmcrowdy, but he is also a co-founder at CrowdyVest, PlentyWaka and Rent Smallsmall. In this episode of , Onyeka and I discuss his entire career and entrepreneurship journey so far - from his days at British council, Jumia, Konga to setting up a business that failed before finally launching Farmcrowdy. This is a very interesting, enlightening, and insightful episode. Amazing conversation, good vibes and best of all, a lot of lessons to learn. #FoundersConnect Watch the Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSy1LXbivNw Video timestamps - Introduction, growing up and early career stories 00:00 - The part he played in helping to set up Jumia in Nigeria 15:00 - Becoming VP, Marketing at Konga 26:00 - First business that failed 28:05 - Farmcrowdy 33:00 - The challenge at Farmcrowdy (early days) 37:30 - Raising funds for Farmcrowdy and pitching to 80+ 41:30 - Farmcrowdy is doing well, competitors are springing up every day 42:00 - Farmcrowdy moves away from crowdfunding 42:50 - Launching Crowdyvest 45:15 - How Plentywaka Started 46:30 - How Plentywaka survived the 2020 lockdown 48:00 - Launching Rent Smallsmall 53:00 - Raising money for all the businesses 55:00 - Lessons about creating the best team 56:50 - Most important business lessons so far 1:00:00

#FoundersConnect: Interview with Onyeka Akumah, CEO Farmcrowdy & Co-founder CrowdyVest, PlentyWaka

How to Build and Deploy a Decentralized Crowdfunding Smart Contract on the Linea Blockchain

How I Created a Social Recommendation Network in Brazil

As developers, we spend hours crafting great content, but often overlook how it appears when shared on social media. Let's fix that with this practical guide to social share images (OG images). What Are OG Images & Why They Matter Open Graph (OG) images are preview images that appear when your content is shared on social platforms. They're your first impression in a crowded social feed. Simple example: When you share your blog post on Twitter/LinkedIn, the large image that appears is the OG image. Quick Size Reference Here's what you need to know for major platforms: Facebook/LinkedIn:
- 1200 x 630px (1.91:1 ratio)
- Minimum: 600 x 315px
- Max file size: 8MB

Twitter:
- 1200 x 600px (2:1 ratio)
- Large card: 1200 x 600px
- Small card: 440 x 220px Pro tip: Design for 1200 x 630px - it works well across all platforms. Implementation in 30 Seconds Add these meta tags to your <head>: 
<meta property="og:image" content="https://yourdomain.com/og-image.png" />
<meta property="og:image:width" content="1200" />
<meta property="og:image:height" content="630" />


<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" />
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://yourdomain.com/og-image.png" /> 5 Design Tips That Actually Work Text Hierarchy

Main message: 5-7 words max
Font size: Min 30px (test on mobile)


Contrast is King

Dark text on light bg (or vice versa)
Test: Can you read it at thumbnail size?


Brand Consistency

Logo placement (pick a corner and stick to it)
Use your brand colors


Whitespace

Don't overcrowd
Leave 10% padding on edges


Mobile-First

Test how it looks on phone screens
Most shares are viewed on mobile Common Gotchas to Avoid ❌ Using generic stock photos ✅ Custom graphics or branded templates ❌ Text too small/too much ✅ Large, scannable text ❌ Inconsistent branding ✅ Use templates with your brand elements Quick Testing Test your OG images with these tools: Facebook Debugger
Twitter Card Validator
LinkedIn Post Inspector Automate It (Because We're Developers) Why create OG images manually when you can automate? Some approaches: DIY Solution: // Using Node.js + Sharp
const sharp = require('sharp');

async function generateOG(text) {
  return await sharp('template.png')
    .resize(1200, 630)
    .composite([{
      input: Buffer.from(`<svg>...</svg>`),
      top: 0,
      left: 0,
    }])
    .png()
    .toBuffer();
} Vercel's OG Image Generation: // pages/api/og.tsx
import { ImageResponse } from '@vercel/og';

export default function handler() {
  return new ImageResponse(
    (
      <div style={{ 
        background: 'white',
        width: '100%',
        height: '100%',
        padding: '50px'
      }}>
        <h1>Hello OG Image</h1>
      </div>
    )
  );
} Want To Make This Easier? I built gleam.so because I got tired of making OG images manually. It's free to try, and I'd love your feedback: 👉 Create your first OG image Get 75% off all paid plans with code: PH75OFF Happy coding! ✨ Found this helpful? Follow me on Twitter/X for more web dev tips. As developers, we spend hours crafting great content, but often overlook how it appears when shared on social media. Let's fix that with this practical guide to social share images (OG images). What Are OG Images & Why They Matter Open Graph (OG) images are preview images that appear when your content is shared on social platforms. They're your first impression in a crowded social feed. Simple example: When you share your blog post on Twitter/LinkedIn, the large image that appears is the OG image. Quick Size Reference Here's what you need to know for major platforms: Facebook/LinkedIn:
- 1200 x 630px (1.91:1 ratio)
- Minimum: 600 x 315px
- Max file size: 8MB

Twitter:
- 1200 x 600px (2:1 ratio)
- Large card: 1200 x 600px
- Small card: 440 x 220px Facebook/LinkedIn:
- 1200 x 630px (1.91:1 ratio)
- Minimum: 600 x 315px
- Max file size: 8MB

Twitter:
- 1200 x 600px (2:1 ratio)
- Large card: 1200 x 600px
- Small card: 440 x 220px Pro tip: Design for 1200 x 630px - it works well across all platforms. Pro tip: Implementation in 30 Seconds Add these meta tags to your <head> : <head> 
<meta property="og:image" content="https://yourdomain.com/og-image.png" />
<meta property="og:image:width" content="1200" />
<meta property="og:image:height" content="630" />


<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" />
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://yourdomain.com/og-image.png" /> 
<meta property="og:image" content="https://yourdomain.com/og-image.png" />
<meta property="og:image:width" content="1200" />
<meta property="og:image:height" content="630" />


<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" />
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://yourdomain.com/og-image.png" /> 5 Design Tips That Actually Work Text Hierarchy

Main message: 5-7 words max
Font size: Min 30px (test on mobile) Contrast is King

Dark text on light bg (or vice versa)
Test: Can you read it at thumbnail size? Brand Consistency

Logo placement (pick a corner and stick to it)
Use your brand colors Whitespace

Don't overcrowd
Leave 10% padding on edges Mobile-First

Test how it looks on phone screens
Most shares are viewed on mobile Text Hierarchy Main message: 5-7 words max
Font size: Min 30px (test on mobile) Text Hierarchy Main message: 5-7 words max Font size: Min 30px (test on mobile) Main message: 5-7 words max Font size: Min 30px (test on mobile) Contrast is King Dark text on light bg (or vice versa)
Test: Can you read it at thumbnail size? Contrast is King Dark text on light bg (or vice versa) Test: Can you read it at thumbnail size? Dark text on light bg (or vice versa) Test: Can you read it at thumbnail size? Brand Consistency Logo placement (pick a corner and stick to it)
Use your brand colors Brand Consistency Logo placement (pick a corner and stick to it) Use your brand colors Logo placement (pick a corner and stick to it) Use your brand colors Whitespace Don't overcrowd
Leave 10% padding on edges Whitespace Don't overcrowd Leave 10% padding on edges Don't overcrowd Leave 10% padding on edges Mobile-First Test how it looks on phone screens
Most shares are viewed on mobile Mobile-First Test how it looks on phone screens Most shares are viewed on mobile Test how it looks on phone screens Most shares are viewed on mobile Common Gotchas to Avoid ❌ Using generic stock photos ✅ Custom graphics or branded templates ❌ Text too small/too much ✅ Large, scannable text ❌ Inconsistent branding ✅ Use templates with your brand elements Quick Testing Test your OG images with these tools: Facebook Debugger Twitter Card Validator LinkedIn Post Inspector Facebook Debugger Facebook Debugger Twitter Card Validator Twitter Card Validator LinkedIn Post Inspector LinkedIn Post Inspector Automate It (Because We're Developers) Why create OG images manually when you can automate? Some approaches: DIY Solution : DIY Solution // Using Node.js + Sharp
const sharp = require('sharp');

async function generateOG(text) {
  return await sharp('template.png')
    .resize(1200, 630)
    .composite([{
      input: Buffer.from(`<svg>...</svg>`),
      top: 0,
      left: 0,
    }])
    .png()
    .toBuffer();
} // Using Node.js + Sharp
const sharp = require('sharp');

async function generateOG(text) {
  return await sharp('template.png')
    .resize(1200, 630)
    .composite([{
      input: Buffer.from(`<svg>...</svg>`),
      top: 0,
      left: 0,
    }])
    .png()
    .toBuffer();
} Vercel's OG Image Generation : Vercel's OG Image Generation // pages/api/og.tsx
import { ImageResponse } from '@vercel/og';

export default function handler() {
  return new ImageResponse(
    (
      <div style={{ 
        background: 'white',
        width: '100%',
        height: '100%',
        padding: '50px'
      }}>
        <h1>Hello OG Image</h1>
      </div>
    )
  );
} // pages/api/og.tsx
import { ImageResponse } from '@vercel/og';

export default function handler() {
  return new ImageResponse(
    (
      <div style={{ 
        background: 'white',
        width: '100%',
        height: '100%',
        padding: '50px'
      }}>
        <h1>Hello OG Image</h1>
      </div>
    )
  );
} Want To Make This Easier? Want To Make This Easier? I built gleam.so because I got tired of making OG images manually. It's free to try, and I'd love your feedback: 👉 Create your first OG image Create your first OG image Get 75% off all paid plans with code: PH75OFF PH75OFF Happy coding! ✨ Found this helpful? Follow me on Twitter/X for more web dev tips. Found this helpful? Follow me on Twitter/X Follow me on Twitter/X for more web dev tips.

The Essential Guide to Social Share Images in 2024

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