The Breaking of the English Language Should "Pique" Your Interest

I just finished writing an email for work purposes, and during that process I wanted to use the expression "pique your interest". It was then I realized I wasn't exactly sure how to spell the word in that context. Was it "peak", "peek", "pique", or something entirely different?

So what's a guy to do? Google search, of course. It's here where I found a great blog entry from Cicada Song about people using the expression. The correct spelling is "pique", but do more people use it correctly or incorrectly? Her Google search results:

"peaked her interest" = 455
"peaked his interest" = 965
"peaked their interest" = 857,000

"peeked her interest" = 428,000
"peeked his interest" = 342,000
"peeked their interest" = 238,000

"piqued her interest" = 27,000
"piqued his interest" = 45,300
"piqued their interest" = 18,900

Fascinating results. Not only do the majority of people on the Internet not know how to properly spell out the expression, but weren't even close. At least with "peaked", it sort of reads like you raised interest, which is sort of what "piqued" means (check the definition here) but "peeked" has nothing to do with anything in the way "piqued your interest" is supposed to.

What does that say about our grasp of the English language? What does that say about anything? I don't know, I just found it interesting and worth sharing.

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Tips to Control Your Personal Brand

The idea of personal branding is extremely important to me. I started this blog as one way to control my personal brand, so that there were other things to find out about me besides a fake Amazon review under my name. I also started Leaders of the New as a way for other future advertisers to control their personal brand.

Yesterday, Mashable (which is quickly becoming one of my favourite blogs) posted an article about 5 ways to control your personal brand right now. If you have any sort of interest in controlling your personal brand, it's a must-read.

Thanks to the article, I signed up for a Google Profile, which will help bring up direct information about you when people try and search for you. For current and potential Leaders of the New, it wouldn't be a bad idea to post the link to your interview on your Google Profile.

I'm not going to run through all 5 tips, because the article explains it a lot better than I could. The one other thing I wanted to mention is that the E-elevator pitch is real, and happening right now.



There is a service called twtjobs, that allows users to create and distribute a resume through Twitter in 140 characters or less. When I first came up with the e-elevator pitch, I half meant it as a joke. Now it's real. Should I brush up my current pitch?

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Google Analytics Makes Numbers Fun, Maybe Overly Personal

image from Blogoscoped

Back when I first started blogging, I was naive enough to believe that literally nobody on the Internet would ever read my blog, let alone find it. Maybe if I had access to analytics back then and was able to see that people actually did read what I had to say, I would have been a lot more conscious about the things I wrote.

A few nights ago, while trying to find a new design, I found a guide on how to configure Google Analytics to my Blogger blog. If you're on a Wordpress account, it's even easier. I just got in my first round of numbers, and the level of information I can get kind of freaks me out.

I'm used to not having any real reference of how people use any site I've ever made. I just put it out there, make some content and people do what they do. The thoroughness of Google Analytics is almost too much information to me.

Now there's so much more to scrutinize. I get mad if my unique visitor count drops from one day to the next, or a less than desired number of people read a specific post. I sit here and wonder how could anybody find my site when they searched "Cundari Toronto" when I don't think I've ever mentioned them on my blog. I can see how much time people spend on my site to the second how long people spend reading my page. I can even tell how effective my tweets are in driving traffic to my blog.

The most heartbreaking thing I've discovered about my blog to date: I started this blog so that when someone Google searches my name, this blog shows up. When I looked at my numbers, then tried searching for my name on Google, I realized that my blog didn't appear anywhere. My profile did, but nothing I wrote showed up. Since then, I've played with some of my tags to try and shake things up. We'll see how that goes.

It's nothing new if you've played with analytics before. I did for the first time a few weeks ago using Compete for my internship. But when it's your blog, you might take all the numbers a bit personally, for better or for worse.

image from sheremembers

I almost feel like I've opened Pandora's box. All I wanted to know was roughly how many people look at my blog, but now I could tell you all sorts of weird facts and figures about it. And based on those weird facts, trying to come up with strategies to boost my "stickiness" or drive users to a specific part of my blog. Knowing the type of person that I am, I might even just sit here analyzing numbers more than writing content, which is what I started this blog for in the first place.

For most people, tracking your blog this intricately is probably not on your radar. However, if you've ever wondered how your site or blog is performing, there are free tools out there to do so. You never know what you might find, or know how deeply you'll get into it.

In the meantime, I'll be hitting "refresh" on my browser until the next set of numbers rolls in.

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LEADERS OF THE NEW: The Blueprint

"The revolution will not be televised."
- Gil Scott Heron

The revolution is here, on jettlandicho.com. Not just me, but I'm bringing some friends along with me. Together, we'll begin (and hopefully) maintain a section of my blog called "Leaders of the New", where I'll be interacting with the next generation of advertisers.

For the past two years (and in some cases, longer) I've been in the company of some of the brightest young minds entering the advertising industry. Some of them have just gotten their foot in the door while others are trying to find their way in. What they all have in common though, is that they're the future of this industry. While Ad Week or Marketing Magazine won't talk about these guys and gals (yet), their stories are just as compelling as anyone else's. They're hungry to establish themselves, and maybe their fresh ideas, skills and work-ethic will revolutionize the game.

Through "Leaders of the New", here's their chance to get a bit of spotlight before they hit the big time. To start, I'll be doing interviews with them, but we could take this a lot farther depending on how far we want to go. At the very least, it's a chance for them to put their best foot forward when potential employers Google search them. At most, who knows?

The wheels for this are already in motion. As I'm typing this, at least a dozen people have committed to partake in this endeavour. Some people already have their questions. And depending on where we go with this, there's potential to do so much more.

While I can't commit to a regular time-frame for these just yet, I'm thinking maybe once a week or so for each "Leaders of the New" feature.

Want to be a "Leader of the New"? Send me an e-mail and we'll see what we can do!

Until we get our act together and start this feature off for real, check out this classic LARPing video:

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