Anyone that knows me, knows that I am bullish on foursquare. I think that there is a ton of value in these “gameified” location-based-services, far beyond the check-in. But as it turns out, not EVERYONE out there feels the same way. I still run into lots of friends that still call me a nerd for using foursquare, or tell me that it’s silly, or just don’t see why anyone would bother wasting time with such an application.

“Why would I tell people where I am?” they say.

“Who cares about being the mayor of a dry-cleaner?” they say mockingly.

And when I try explaining to them that these services can be more than just check-ins and mayorships, they glaze over in the eyes, and just shrug me off. Maybe I’ve just always stunk at articulating the value of foursquare to others. Maybe I just haven’t had a really good use case, a good story that demonstrates the salient points in my pitch.

Well, I think maybe I’ve got one now.

This past weekend, I found myself in downtown Brooklyn for a wedding – an area that I’ve never been to, and that I don’t know at all. So when Erica left to head over for wedding setup, I was left at the Sheraton, hungry and flying solo. I needed some breakfast.

There was an overpriced cafe on the bottom floor of the adjacent hotel, as well as a lame looking Au Bon Pain outlet around the corner, but I had some time to kill, and wanted something a bit more…a bit more good.

I grabbed my phone, fired up foursquare, and tapped the “explore” tab. I entered “breakfast”, tweaked the sliders to bring the distance range down to a walkable level, and hit “search”. When the results loaded up, sitting at the top of the page was a little spot called “Ted & Honey“, just under a mile away. And displayed on the screen, along with the location information, was an indication that two acquaintances of mine (whose tastes I trust) had been there before. A good digital wink and nod, that this place was legit.

Fifteen minutes later, I was sitting outside of Ted & Honey, enjoying a great coffee and breakfast sandwich, at an awesome breakfast spot that I would have never found on my own.

To me, this is one of the ultimate promises of a service like foursquare, fulfilled: city exploration, aided by tips and guidance from friends.

I love it when a good piece of technology, does exactly what it is designed to do.

TJ’s tweet just now inspired me to finish up this short little post that I’ve been sitting on for a long time now.

I get a ton of email, and I’m guessing you do to. We all do. Newsletters, alerts, notifications of @ replies, “you’ve been tagged” emails, invites, calendar requests, follow-ups, and just straight-up, good old fashioned spam. It never ever ever ever ends.

So earlier this year, I made a resolution of sorts, to start aggressively unsubscribing from almost everything that I didn’t need or read on a regular basis. It felt good to push back against the email tide, and slowly but surely, my inbox started to feel a bit lighter.

But what I noticed along the way, was just how awful nearly every unsubscribe process was. And it wasn’t just the small guys (they actually tend to handle unsubs well, since they all use Constant Contact), it was everyone. Big brands, small businesses, newsletters, alerts…everything. The unsubscribe fail-whale seemed to plague all types. It didn’t discriminate.

In my unsubscribe travels, I began to see five annoying unsubscribe trends. All of these problems are easily solvable, and all of these things should be done if you want your unsubscribe process to suck less.

1. Make the unsubscribe link clear. I know this sounds so obvious, but allow those who want to leave your list, to do so easily. And help them to do so, by displaying the unsubscribe link prominently – right at the top of the message, or directly under the body copy (first line after the body). And make sure your unsubscribe link uses one of two words – “remove” or “unsubscribe”. Don’t bury the link in a pile of extraneous copy, and don’t try and hide it. If someone wants off of your list, give them a clear indication of how they can leave. Trust me, the last thing you want, is someone that want’s off of your list, but can’t figure out how to unsubscribe. When that happens, they hit the “spam” button, and you do NOT want that.
2. Make the unsubscribe process, one-click. There’s nothing more annoying than an eleventeen step unsubscribe process, that asks me at every turn, if I’m “sure” I want to unsubscribe. I’ve found your unsubscribe link, I’ve hit that link, now just let me go. Trust me, I’m sure. The only thing I should see after hitting “unsubscribe” is the message on the confirm page, telling me that I’ve been unsubscribed.
3. If you simply can’t make it one click, make it easy, and prefill my data. If for some reason the idea of a one-click unsubscribe has you in cold sweats, and you insist on asking me how “sure” I am before leaving your list, at least prefill that unsubscribe form you are sending me to on your website. Don’t make me go back to my email client, look at which email address is actually subscribed to this list (so may of us use aliases, and single inboxes remember), just prefill the form, and make it simple.
4. Don’t make me log-in, and update my “account preferences”. Chances are, if I’m trying to unsubscribe from what you’re sending me, I’m pretty disengaged. And it’s highly likely that I don’t recall what my password or log-in credentials are, for the account I hastily created when I was forced to do so. So now if I have to do a “forgot password” routine, just to get the password, just to log-in to the site, just to unsubscribe, I hate you. And I’m smashing that “spam” button. If you have a site or product that sends out a variety of emails (transactional, marketing, updates, etc), and there are legitimate reasons to have a “manage preferences” section, by all means include that link in your emails. But also include a simple, one-click, “unsubscribe from all email” link as well.
5. Save me. It’s entirely possible that I still love you and your brand or product, and that I still want to communicate with you…just not through email. Banana Republic for instance, sent me roughly 14,000 emails each day when I was on their list. I just couldn’t take it anymore, and decided to shift from email, to Facebook as my means of communicating with them. Now I get my Banana Republic information in a way that is more in line with how I want to consume it. Take that unsubscribe confirmation page (after your shiny new one-click unsubscribe), and include big links to your Facebook and Twitter pages. Offer your users alternate ways to engage with you. It may just be that they hate email, not you.

Social media may be the newest and shiniest toy, but email is the engine that runs it. So make sure you do it well. The most engaging, high-touch, wonderfully personalized social campaigns, can be railroaded by annoying email executions. So get your unsubscribe house in order.

At the end of this month, I leave behind an amazing (albeit short-lived) role at Samuel Adams, and head over to Hill Holliday, where I will be joining the digital strategy team.

Now I’m not LeBron James, and this isn’t “The Decision“, so I’ll spare everyone the gratuitous self-importance here, and stick to the facts. Because if I’m being honest with myself, I’m guessing that the only people who really care about this, are my parents. And let’s face it, they don’t even really know what I do for work anyways.

That said, I’m excited for what lies ahead, and can’t wait to work with Mike, Brad, DJ, Kelsey, Adam, Ilya, Jeff, Alica, Cindy, and lots of others at Hill Holliday that I look forward to meeting in a couple of weeks.

I’ll really miss all of the great friends I’ve made at Samuel Adams, and going back to paying for beer will certainly take some getting used to. But when bellying up to the bar, I’ll always remain loyal to Jim Koch and the Samuel Adams brand. Truly a great beer made by even better people.

But like Dennis and Charlie say…sometimes it’s all about saying “YES” and being open to the next adventure.

See you guys out there.

I just grabbed myself a small coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts across the street. I only wanted a small, because it’s almost 4:30pm, and having a coffee this late in the day in general, is asking for trouble. As I was walking back to the office, I remembered how much I hate the small coffee cups at Dunkin’ Donuts. It’s the only size, that uses the flat lids, where the plastic sits almost flush with the level of the liquid inside. Which means if you try to drink from this cup while walking, you almost invariably end up wearing the first three or four sips. It’s not a fun time. I love DD, but why don’t they use the same cup design for all sizes? Why does the small get this design, while the mediums and up, get a much nicer, much less spilly design?

And another thing while we’re talking Dunkin’ cups…

This time of year (summer), you’ll see nearly every other iced coffee orderer, asking for an extra (empty) styrofoam cup to put their plastic iced coffee cup into. For insulation I presume.

Some Dunkin’ Donuts have put up signs by the registers that inform these double-cuppers, that cup #2 will cost them an extra 30 cents or so. Which is reasonable, since there is most certainly a cost associated with the extra packaging. But since this sign is at the register, and the second cup request almost always happens at the delivery point of the coffee (after the coffee has been paid for), this system isn’t optimal. It may deter some people from asking for the second cup, but it’s unlikely you’d be denied by the coffee runner behind the counter, due to the small disconnect between the runner and the ringer at the register.

So the double cupping summer phenomenon begs a few questions from me.

• Does Dunkin’ Donuts track how many empty hot cups are given out to insulate full iced cups? Seems like the math is do-able. The number of cups ordered and used by a DD outlet, should be essentially equal to the number of drinks sold in each size and temperature. So measuring the delta should be a decent indicator of how often this happens. Once done, you’d presumably be able to determine the value of that delta, and get an understanding of how it may be affecting your bottom line.
• And to that point, if it were affecting the bottom line, would it make sense to just make iced coffee cups that had a more heavily insulated area where it’s held?
• And lastly, how come you NEVER see this (the double cupping on iced drinks) at Starbucks? The cups are presumably made out of the same plastics, the liquid inside is presumably the same temperature. Are Starbucks customers just tougher? Probably not. Is it because they maybe use those little cardboard hot cup sleeves, on their iced cups? Maybe, but I don’t often see this. Or maybe it’s simply because the iced cups don’t FIT inside of the hot cups at Starbucks. Maybe that’s it.

Who knows. Maybe I’ve just had too much caffeine.