As some of you have heard, I'm leaving University Marketing and Communications, and will be doing freelance Web design and consulting. But that doesn't mean I'll stop blogging. It just means that I'm moving the blog to a new location at http://www.heidicool.com/blog/.

For the past month I've been cross-posting entries to both locations, and am now ready to shift things over to a new site which includes the Web Development Blog as well as a project portfolio and other information related to my Web development background and philosophy. There you will be able to see which social media services I use—and why, peruse what I've been reading in the blogosphere and, of course, continue reading my blog entries on Web development, marketing and related subjects.

I will continue to post on an array of topics geared to academic, corporate and non-profit Web developers, bloggers, content managers, marketers and anyone else with an interest in the Web.

Articles will include the usual mix of content, marketing, social media and code such as:

• 5 Tips to ensure your readers can read your HTML e-mail messages
• Converting Word documents to HTML
• Copy Writing: Long vs. Short, Does it Matter?
• Don't build your Web site in a vacuum
• Flickr: Tags, Groups, Interestingness and Social Networking

You can also expect a few marketing entries about the move, as I learn how long it takes to rebuild readership in the new location. Hopefully it will be an interesting case study.

If you are currently subscribed to the blog entries or comments, you can update your subscriptions with these feeds:

• Web Development Blog Entries RSS
• Web Development Blog Comments RSS

Thank you for reading!

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Getting rich is never quick.

Some new Twitter users want to help me get rich, find peace with my life and help me tap my inner invisible pink unicorn to be spiritually one with the universe. I know this because they post links telling me they can make this happen if I buy their books and CD's or read their blogs. They just never tell me exactly HOW this is supposed to happen.

Instead they babble repetitively in varying sized and colored typefaces, repeating their promises over and over again, but with slightly different wording. They do this because they read somewhere that "long-form" copy is persuasive and sells. I'm not buying it.

If you're in business for the long run, no matter the field, content that merely badgers readers into buying your whatsits and whatnots is not the solution. It may help you sell a short run of something, but it won't establish a relationship with your clients, build a solid customer base or solidify your branding strategy. So what will?

You have goals, but so do your site visitors.

People visit our sites for a reason. They have a need they wish to fill. After having searched Google, discovered your site on StumbleUpon, followed a link from a source they trust or typed in the link they saw on your business card, they've come to your site in the hopes that you can fill their needs. This is true whether you are peddling products, services or information. For example, your visitors may need to:

• Buy a glow-in-the-dark dog collar with built in GPS so they don't misplace Fido at night.
• Pick the right graduate school so they can research light-emitting polymers that will help them develop new green technologies.
• Decide which restaurant to visit next Tuesday.
• Find a skin cream that will soothe itchy winter skin.
• Choose a good book for their nephew's 3rd birthday present.
• Learn something new about Web marketing strategies.

If your site can serve that need, then you need to make this clear right away. As soon as they see your home page, or some interior page they've landed upon, they should know if you provide what they seek. If your site isn't meant for them, they can move on. If your site appears to offer what they seek, they will stay a bit longer to find out if your offering is the one most appropriate to their specific needs.

Give readers the tools they need to make an informed purchasing decision.

Now that your visitor has decided to explore your site, you need to give him or her the information needed to make a decision. Doing this is merely a matter of offering content that accurately conveys the features and benefits of your product or service. This will allow your readers to judge the quality of what you offer, and determine if that offer will serve their specific need.

How much information your reader requires depends on your offering. If a visitor is picking a graduate school, he or she will want to know about the faculty, the facilities, fellow students, courses offered etc. This is a big decision that requires making a well-informed choice. If your visitor has a hankering for Italian food, then your restaurant menu, location, hours and some photos (of both food and the restaurant) will probably suffice.

Imagine yourself in the role of your visitor. Let's say you're looking for information about Web marketing. If you are reading this sentence then you've already made a decision. You've decided to read this entry and you've stuck around past the first few paragraphs. If you'd been looking for information on developing Web sites with AJAX you'd have already left.

People talk about Web content in terms of stickiness—methods they can use to keep visitors on the site or encourage them to return in the future. But that's not an end goal. It's merely a tactic used in the hopes that long or repeated visits will encourage readers to buy, or otherwise consume, our stuff. If we provide content that let's visitors make an informed decision, then we've done our job. We've established trust and given them the tools they need to choose wisely. If they like our program, skin cream, menu, Web advice they'll buy/eat/read it now and come back for more later.

By giving visitors the information they seek, we serve both their goals and ours, while forging customer relationships that can last well into the future.

Web Content Development Resources

• Are You Using the Right Content Development Strategy for Your Website?
• Long vs. Short Articles as Content Strategy
• The Discipline of Content Strategy
• Web Content Strategy - The Official Presentation

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Look who needs a glow-in-the-dark
GPS enabled dog collar!
How to we reach his owners?

Social Media Marketing is hip. It seems like everyone wants to get involved, call themselves an expert and use the magical powers of social media to triple sales, recruit students, etc. But social media isn't magic. Social media, like advertising, direct mail and telemarketing is but one of many tools in the marketer's toolbox. Like any tool it needs to be used in the proper context—in conjunction with other marketing strategies. As such social media—when used for marketing—still relies on basic marketing principles such as understanding your target audience, the features and benefits of your product or service, brand awareness and so forth.

Lately I've noticed that a great number of online marketers are unfamiliar with these marketing basics. So today I'd like discuss the importance of understanding your target audience. On the most basic level this is a fairly intuitive process. If you are marketing a new glow-in-the-dark dog-collar with a built in GPS unit, then you can guess that your core audience will consist of:

• Dog owners
• Friends of dog owners

Your secondary audience may also include:

• People who like to make a unique fashion statement by wearing a collar
• Night-time joggers in need of additional safety accessories
• Ravers who see this as a cool alternative to glow-sticks, etc.

Targeting the market: The group of 'dog owners' is too broad to reach effectively.

Your product will not appeal to everyone on the planet who has a dog, so there is no point in spending the time and money it would take to reach all of them.

For example, I recently mentioned the word "dog" in a Tweet (a message I posted on Twitter.) Within 2 minutes I received an e-mail saying that person X was now following me on Twitter. (X had probably set up a search on "dog" and was auto-following anyone who mentioned the word.) I clicked on the link to see who person X might be and discovered that he is marketing some sort of dog-related service. Being currently dogless and unclear of the mission of his site, I neither signed up for the service nor followed X back on Twitter. Instead I posted a brief rant to friends on why following everyone mentioning the word "dog" was not a viable marketing tactic.

X missed out for three reasons.

1. I'm not currently a member of his potential audience.
2. I do not buy things from people/organizations who take marketing short-cuts. They may be taking short-cuts with their product or service as well.
3. Customers and potential customers share bad experiences and I shared this with many friends who now also will not buy from X.

Targeting the market: who among these groups would be most likely to buy your collar?

In the long run we'll make more sales if we can match our product to customers who have a desire or need for that product. A good way to examine this need is to explore the features. Our collar:

• Glows in the dark—a valuable safety feature for night-time dog-walking
• Features built in GPS—handy for tracking your dog if he's walked off leash, sneaks out of the yard or is used in hunting
• Is available in a range of sizes—meant to accommodate either the smallest puppy or the largest Mastiff.
• Is offered in a range of styles including 5 colors of leather as well as 5 durable canvas models—accommodates different preferences and holds up to strenuous use
• Includes an innovative quick release buckle—that can be easily opened or closed with just one hand

Our collar has practical rather than decorative features. While it comes in a variety of colors, it's not a huge variety and none feature rhinestones. From this alone we can guess that it will not appeal to small dog owners who dress up their pets in decorative outfits. It's rugged and easy to use and may appeal to hunters and other owners of medium to large dogs, especially working breeds.

Market research can help us segment the population further.

We may learn that certain breeds are more likely to wander and their owners would desire such a collar. Perhaps owners of Golden Retrievers are 50% more likely to buy multiple collars for their dog than German Shepherd owners. If we have an existing customer base for related products we can analyze past purchases to look for buying patterns that may relate to our new product. If our Fluffy Anti Flea shampoo buyers have been good collar purchasers in the past, while our dog brush buyers have not, then we should promote our collar to the shampoo buyers.

Our market research team can also offer additional demographic information that may help us fine-tune our lists. Perhaps college-educated Volvo drivers replace their dog collars 50% more often than Cadillac drivers. If such correlations exist, we may want to consider those as well. The more we learn about dog-collar buying patterns the more likely we are to narrow our audience down to the group most likely to be interested in our product—while ensuring that there are enough potential buyers in that group for us to make a profit.

We've identified and fine-tuned the market(s): how do we reach them?

Let's say we've decided to target college-educated Volvo drivers with Golden Retrievers as one of our market segments. We've discovered that we can buy mailing lists for this group, that they watch the Discovery Channel and regularly buy from L.L. Bean. Accordingly we might want to initiate a direct mail campaign that we send to the list, advertise on the right shows on the Discovery Channel and make an arrangement with L.L. Bean to distribute the product through their catalog. As our focus, today, is on social media let's assume we already have these (and other) strategies in place. Now we want to supplement these efforts through social media.

Where do these people spend their time online?

By now we've learned something of the demographic make-up of our target audience. We know they've gone to college and have enough disposable income to afford Volvos. Perhaps we've also discovered that their average age is 35-60 and they tend to live near major metropolitan areas. A little research on the more popular social media services may show us that we're more likely to find these people on Facebook and Twitter than on MySpace.

Our audience is easy to find on Facebook.

Facebook skews a bit younger than our target age, but a quick search shows there are over 500 groups relating to Golden Retrievers on Facebook. This may then be a good place to put up a Facebook page, to advertise, and to participate in discussions about dogs and accessories. It will take time, but it might be worth reviewing the various groups and selecting a few active ones to join. There we can participate in conversations and even talk about our dog collars, so long as remember that social media is about people and not just about our products.

Tracking them down on Twitter will be more labor-intensive.

Twitter searches on Volvos and Golden Retrievers pull up many hits, but many of these won't be relevant to our project. Twitter conversations aren't as easily segmented by topic as they are on Facebook or StumbleUpon. Choosing who to follow on Twitter will take more research. We could do several additional searches on "dog collar" "hunting dog," etc. By carefully reading through these results we can pick people one-by-one that may fit our audience.

Services such as Twellow can help us find people by categories, such as "animal welfare" that may give us leads. We should also look into dog-related associations, dog shows and related groups that may be communicating about a related topic through the use of a Twitter Hashtag such as #dog. Ideally you would want something more specific, but there are countless Twitter services and tools available to help you with your research.

Finding the right people and forging those connections on Twitter takes time. This is not a place to push our product, but a place for us to join a community in which we can share ideas on topics of common interest.

It's important to remember that people will only follow us back if we have something worthwhile to say. Before following any of them, we have to make sure that we've posted some worthwhile Tweets—most of which are not about our new collar. Here we want to keep it human. We can post Tweets about our own dog, dog-training tips, and observations about life in general that have nothing to do with dogs. If we offer interesting insights and links that might intrigue members of our audience and respond to questions within our areas of expertise we'll forge far stronger connections than we would if we treated our Twitter stream as an advertising platform.

Define your audience then connect with them on their terms.

Taking the time to narrow your audience to an easily defined niche makes marketing more cost effective. People think of social media as being a free alternative to traditional advertising or direct mail, but making successful connections requires time and labor. By targeting your audience you can focus that labor on connecting with the people who matter most to your goals.

Once you've found that audience you need to connect with them on their own terms if you want to achieve any level of success. Study the usage patterns of the social media services/platforms you intend to use. Find out how your audience uses these tools, then follow their lead. If you put as much effort into tailoring your communication methods to your market as you put into developing a product or service that suits their needs you'll have a far better chance of establishing connections than you would with a more generic approach. It doesn't take magic, just time, research and work.

Market Segmentation, Demographics and Social Media Marketing Resources

• Bureau of Labor Statistics: Demographic Data
• How Marketing Plans Work: Psychographics
• Market Segmentation
• Market Segmentation: A Guide to Sources of Information
• Social Media Marketing Beginner’s Guide
• The Beginners Guide to Social Media ebook

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New Year's Eve around the world

Now that the New Year has been rung in, it seems that the meme of the moment is to blog about the year in review. So I thought I'd follow suit. I looked over my blog entries to see if I'd trended towards any new themes for 2008. While I have written more on social media this year (who hasn't?) I quickly noted that my topics overall continued to range across a wide array of Web related subjects. Next I looked at my stats to see which articles were getting the most traffic and comments.

As it happens the most read article of 2008 was also the most read article of 2007. While quick trendy subjects such as Plurk: Social Media Marketing in Action brought in new readers and temporary traffic spikes, the more timeless subjects such as writing, marketing and navigation were the ones that drew in the most readers overall. So, instead of presenting you with my top 10 articles of 2008, I've decided to break them up into 2 groups, the top 5 written in 2008 and the top 5 from year's past that continue to draw readers—even with the passage of time.

Top 5 Web Development Blog Entries written in 2008

5. Testing Web sites with multiple browser versions

Suggestions on ways to test sites in multiple browsers, reasons for testing and why we still can't ignore Internet Explorer 6.0.

4. Reflections on social media networking and marketing

Overview of popular uses for social media, nature of word-of-mouth and the impact of social media on marketing goals.

3. Wayfinding within your Web site

This follow-up to Your home page is NOT your index; it's your store front provides tips on navigational aids that will help users to explore your site no matter which page they may enter through.

2. An URL by any other name would still work like an URL, part 1: subdomains

Exploring the differences between subdomains and subdirectories and their impact (or lack thereof) upon marketing.

1. Embedding YouTube Videos the Standards Compliant Way—SFWobject 2.0

Embedding YouTube Videos is one of the easiest things you can do on the Web, but if you're a stickler for standards compliant HTML, you can't just copy and paste. SFWobject 2.0 provides an easy remedy.

Top 5 Web Development Blog Entries read in 2008

5. CSS Tip: Positioning photos with floats

Positioning photos with hspace or tables is awkward and dated, but the CSS float property makes it easy for anyone to include images in their Web sites and blogs so that they float cleanly to the right or left of the text.

4. An Introduction to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Part 1

Search Engine Optimization may seem complicated, but by following these simple SEO basics you can make a significant impact.

3. I'm not going to teach you XHTML/HTML, but you should learn it anyway

This brief introduction to HTML provides links and resources for learning HTML as well as a homework assignment users can try as a way to get started.

2. So you want to build a website

This is the first in a series of articles that make up my Planning your Web site tutorial—in which I walk readers through a process of identifying goals, understanding their audience, choosing content, outlining a site and organizing pages and navigation.

1. Voice and Tone: Writing to reflect your personality as well as your message (Part 1)

Writing is more than the stringing of words into a sentence. This article addresses the importance of using a tone suitable to both the audience and the subject matter in order to better connect with readers and clearly convey your message.

Conclusions

The Web is constantly evolving and we're all trying to keep up with the latest trends and technologies. But no matter which platform we use to publish, which strategies we apply, it always seems to come back to the basics. The most basic element of the Web is content. While video and audio continue to build in popularity, the core of our content is still composed of words. That's probably why the Voice and Tone article was read more than any other.

You, my readers, understand the importance of fundamentals over the latest fad. I think that is why—for the most part—the most popular subjects on this blog are the ones that address these basic strategies, those that can be applied now and in the future. In 2009 I expect to be writing more on social media topics such as Facebook and Twitter, but I'll also be writing more about content and general marketing principles, the foundations we build upon in all of our Web-based endeavors.

What about you? If you're a blogger what will you focus on in 2009? If you're a regular (or new) reader, what would you like to see here?

Happy New Year!

P.S. Read more of my thoughts on social media and the Web on Ariwriter

Ari Herzog recently interviewed me for his blog, AriWriter: Strategies and tips on social media and online marketing. You can read the full article, Guest Interview with Heidi Cool: How a University Experiments with Social Media, online.
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Everyone wants to know how to take advantage of social media. Whether it's to promote a business or an academic program, it's not unusual to hear people as, "How should we be using Twitter?" or "What should we do with Facebook?" The questions often focus on the tools, but as I've mentioned before, in Social Media: Your Interactive Information Resource, social media is about making connections—human connections. While this has been apparent to me for sometime, it's become increasingly clear over the past month. So rather than writing a typical how-to or advice article, today I'll just tell you about two recent events that really drive this message home.

Heidi thinks the veil between the 'brick and mortar' world and the 'cyber world' becomes more elusive each day.

That's what I wrote as my Facebook status message when I returned home from the Cleveland Social Media Club party on December 10. As the name suggests the Cleveland SMC is "a community for the champions of Social Media and those seeking to learn." (If you live in Northeast Ohio and work with, or are interested in, social media you should join.) What makes this group different from many online communities is the regional nature of it. We're all here so we can actually meet in person. As such they've already had several events, but this was the first one that I attended.

My friends tell me that I'm no longer shy, but I am an introvert, so I have to admit I was just a wee bit nervous. Although I knew a few people in the group—either in person or online—many were unknown, or at best vague cyber-acquaintances. Thus I wasn't sure how well I'd handle the small talk. As it turns out it wasn't a problem. I knew the host, Dave Stack, from the real world, his best friend is friends with one of my best friends, I'd previously met a few folks from a Cleveland bloggers meet-up, and George Nemeth was there and George knows everybody and is more than happy to make introductions. Within no time I felt as at ease as I would have with people I'd known much longer.

I met some great people and look forward to seeing them again at a future event. But I don't have to wait until the next event to continue the conversations. Members of Cleveland SMC can friend each other and converse on that site, but we also post our other profiles there. Since the event I've connected with several of them on Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. And thus the conversations continue.

It doesn't matter if/when we meet again face-to-face. It doesn't matter if one person prefers Twitter and another prefers Facebook. Once the connection is made it can be continued on any one or more of the online services available. Cleveland Social Media Club (on Ning) provides an information hub, but it's also enabled us to easily create multiple redundant pathways to one another. Thus, if one service goes down, the connections aren't lost, we still have other channels available.

When a service goes down: the demise of Pownce

While multiple channels are available, Pownce was my social media tool of choice. Alas, in early December, Leah Culver announced that Pownce would be shutting down on December 15.

Pownce was the service that hooked me on social media. It's where I learned that you could forge real connections online. Pownce gave me access not only to my peers but also to leaders in the field. If I went to Pownce with an idea I had about a Web project I wasn't getting feedback from just anybody. I was getting feedback from people in all areas of the business—ranging from the managing director of Octane Interactive, Wayne Smallman, to the lead designer at Digg, Daniel Burka. Pownce was an incredible resource.

Of course, it wasn't all about work. Powncers shared photos, absurd videos and thought-provoking articles while also conversing about everything from politics to bacon. My friends group contained liberals and republicans, atheists and born-agains and people from several different continents and cultures. But we had our geekiness in common, so everyone played nicely together in the sandbox. As we shared media and stories, personal experiences and jokes we got to know each other on many levels, much as one does in the brick and mortar world.

By the time December rolled around we'd become a pretty tight community. Then we heard about the shutdown. As you can imagine, the community reeled. Where would we go? What would we do? Sure we're on Twitter, but how can you discuss global warming or share pierogie recipes in 140 characters? It was clear, the sky was falling and there was very little we could do about it. Or was there?

A community comes together

All gnashing of teeth and wailing aside (and yes there was a lot of that) one of the first things people did was to start announcing where else they could be found. Pownce always made it easy to post our other profile addresses on the site, but now people were indicating where their primary addresses would be. People posted their addresses for Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed. People shared e-mails. One fellow declared that he preferred IM and shared 5 different ways to connect with him that way.

We had this information, we had the ability to download our data, but it was clear that we were scattering into the wind. In my panic, I decided I needed to create a new, possibly temporary home for us, someplace that would still exist after December 15, where we could continue to share our contact information. Given that I was already familiar with Ning, I created Pownce Refugees, a place to keep the community alive after Pownce shutdown.

At the time I really wasn't certain about my long term goals, I just needed something I could launch quickly. I configured the page to use the colors from the Pownce home page, enabled some features that I thought might be useful and spread the word. As I and others started playing with it I added RSS feeds of Pownce mentions on Twitter, the Pownce Exiles Room on FriendFeed, the Pownce Exiles group on Vox, Pownce in the news and so forth. This way I thought we could use this page to keep track of Pownce-related activity elsewhere.

The next thing I did was to start creating groups for Pownce theme days. On Pownce we would often post content related to a day's theme. Thus we had Music Video Monday, Wordle Wednesday, Foto Friday and so forth. It sounds silly, but it was a good way to get new people involved as it gave them ideas on things to post. When you are new to social networking, it can be intimidating, but theme days provided some great starting points.

As I was busy priming the pump with groups and content, people started joining. Then they told other people to join. They spread the word on Twitter and other places, and within no time we had more than 100 members.

100? That's not much, Twitter has 6 million users

100 isn't much (we're now at 139), but it was enough to begin a new community. It was also enough to catch the attention of the Ning staff. As a result of our rapid growth, they featured us on the Ning Blog in an article entitled, Former Pownce members find a new home.

This was actually a fairly major accomplishment as Ning is a rather large enterprise. In April 2008 there were over 230,000 networks on Ning, and they were growing at over 1,000 per day. Only 3-4 are featured on the blog in any given day.

The other good news was our traffic. I created Pownce Refugees on December 1, and installed the analytics on December 6. As of December 15 (Pownce shut-down) we had

• 933 unique visitors
• 1,870 total visits
• 12,836 page views (6.86 pages per visit)

By way of comparison this blog was 20 months old by the time it started generating that level of traffic.

Our traffic sources also told an interesting story.

• 56.2% were direct traffic, meaning members (or others) who already knew the address,
• 40.11% were from referring sites and
• only3.69% were from search engines.

The top referring sites were Pownce, Stumbleupon, Gmail, Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook (I'd created a Facebook page for the site), Plurk and Ustream.

Those of you who check stats regularly know that this is atypical. Search engine traffic often plays a much larger role, often times 50% or more. But this was a social media site, marketed through social media to active social media users. It worked well because we (I credit our early adopters for spreading the word) were focused on a very specific niche (Pownce users), who were well-versed in social media tools, and we had a deadline that affected everyone involved.

Where are we now?

Since then we've lost a bit of momentum and probably need to refocus marketing on community building strategies. But traffic is steady and we have a core of regular visitors. As of yesterday we've had a total of:

• 3,000 unique visitors
• 5,193 total visits
• 25,741 page views (4.96 pages per visit)

Traffic sources have shifted slightly. The increase in direct traffic is from membership growth and usage.

• 67.8% are direct traffic
• 27.09% are from referring sites and
• 5.1% are from search engines.

Where will we be next year?

Who knows? The goal was to stay in touch. That seems to be working. In the meantime various members of the community and others are also working to build services with features more akin to the original Pownce. And while the economic climate is gloomy, new services continue to emerge. In another year we could be spending our lunch hours exploring some yet unknown site with yet another funny name.

But what this has shown me is that social media works. In the right situation it can be a very effective marketing tool. But it's the people and the connections between them, that make it so.

* For those 7 of you unfamiliar with the science fiction classic, Soylent Green, there is a classic line towards the end that states, "Soylent Green is people!" Alas, soylent green was also what people ate.

What is the secret of Soylent Green?

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Page displays your browser conditions including browser size, browser version, OS, etc. Great to find out what clients are really using if they don't know such things.
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Sixteenth Edition Of a Monthly Series

Even as many people are debating the importance of blogging, the number of active bloggers is still growing. And even if we have grown comfortable with the number of people we are reading, there are voices we are no doubt missing. Each month, I try to find five new ones that you may not have heard, who are working hard in obscurity. Most are interested in a lot of the same things I am - including technology, information gathering, gadgetry and social networking,

To get on this list, bloggers need to post regularly, cover something resembling technology, and have less than 1,000 subscribers or so. We are more than happy to take nominations as well, either here, by e-mail, FriendFeed or Twitter.

The June 2009 blogs are:

1) Jungle G by Jorge Escobar (jungleg.com)

Focus: Social networks, Influence, Technology
Three Recent Posts:

• Social Media is a Personal Support System
• The Importance of a Blogger’s Voice
• Facebook’s (And Other Social Platform’s) Preferential Treatment Should Not Be Ignored

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2) Spatially Relevant by Jon Gatrell (spatiallyrelevant.org)

Focus: Product development, Social media
Three Recent Posts:

• I’ll trade you 3 lifestreams for 1 blog
• Really? Kinda has a social media revival feel to it
• Roadmapping: Implementing Strategy

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3) Sticky Figure by Steve Woodruff (brandimpact.wordpress.com)

Focus: Social Networking, iPhone, Marketing
Three Recent Posts:

• Good-bye, Social Media – Hello, Networked Communications
• Why I Won’t Stop Blogging
  
• Why it’s Stupid to Ignore Social Networks

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4) OwenGreaves.com (owengreaves.net)

Focus: High Tech, Business, Social Media
Three Recent Posts:

• I.T. Decisions – Who Makes Them In Your Organization?
• Your Break Even Point
• Your Passion Is In Front Of You – You’re Just Not Paying Attention

RSS Feed: Subscribe Now

5) Twittercism (twittercism.com)

Focus: Twitter, Microblogging
Three Recent Posts:

• Six Ways Twitter’s Direct Message System Could Be Radically Improved
• A Block On Twitter Isn’t A Block At All
• Three Ways Twitter Could (And Should) Improve The Suggested User List

RSS Feed: Subscribe Now

Want to be on this list? You can catch my eye by posting great information in the field of technology, social media, blogging and the Web. I'll be more likely to highlight you if you blog almost every day, and bring new stories to the table that don't repeat discussions launched elsewhere. And if you have more than 1,000 subscribers, you're probably too big for this.

To see even more new blogs I'm adding to my reader, or get a sneak peek for next month's highlighted blogs, follow my activity on Toluu. If you don't have a login to Toluu, send me an e-mail to louisgray@mac.com and I'll get that set up right away.
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Canadians are a funny lot.

They use strange words and spell with a U. They kiss cod. They enjoy being frozen solid nearly 8 months a year, and they call their money Loonies and Toonies.

Don’t get me wrong; they’re nice people just the same. They’re nature lovers and humanitarians and they like things simple and friendly.

And contrary to popular belief, they’re actually pretty smart.

But there’s just one problem. Your marketing strategies? You notice how they’ve been changing? That the old-school methods aren’t working anymore . . . at all?

Well, I’ve figured out whose fault it is.

Blame Canada

You see, Canucks have a strange mindset. They’re gentle people, and mostly kind of quiet. If you drove up to the frozen tundra and started screaming, “Buy my stuff!” at the top of your lungs, you’d probably startle the wildlife and be ushered off (politely) by Mounties in red coats and really great hats.

It’s happening all over. Those wily Canadians are causing a marketing revolution, and it’s spreading too fast to contain.

Think about it for a minute. All of a sudden, your potential customers hate screaming and being pushed around, don’t they? It’s almost like they’ve been influenced by an evil foreign power.

And no one wants to be told what to do anymore. They want to be persuaded, gently convinced that what you have to sell is really good for them.

It’s those Canadians; I’m sure of it.

If you were trying to persuade a Canadian, he’d listen — as long as you were making sense. In Canada, they know when you’re pulling the wool over their eyes. They like to hear good reasons they should trust you, and they observe you for a while to see whether you actually mean what you say.

Now everyone’s picking up on that. Your potential customers are looking for good reasons to trust you, and they’re watching every move you make.

They’re thinking more, too, damn them. And getting slower to make a decision to buy.

They even want you to be a nice person.

That whole “nice” thing

I’m noticing the “nice” thing cropping up all over the place these days. And once again, I blame Canada.

You see, Canadians have a reputation for being really, really nice. They take care of each other and they ask if anyone needs help.

They actually like doing it, too. The whole “no man is an island” saying? They actually believe that in Canada. They’re all about caring and sharing and being kind to the animals. (Especially the moose. They’re kind of obsessed with moose.)

Well, that do-good attitude is leaking all over. You might have noticed it yourself. Customers expect you to be nice to others and ethical in general and do the right thing. They want to know that you actually care about their well-being. Then they’ll think about buying from you.

Tough stuff. Customers who want you to care before they buy.

Yeah, I blame Canada.

It gets worse

The other thing about those Canucks? They like to help other people. All the time. It’s like a compulsion.

If you need information, directions, help . . . You can’t go wrong up north. Everyone’s so nice and helpful that it would almost make you cry.

So now everyone wants you to be helpful like that. They want you to give them valuable information and tell them directions and hold open doors for them. They need to know that you’re willing to give before you receive.

No more me, myself and I. It’s all about asking what you can do for your customers today.

Don’t forget to ask in their language, too. No fluff. No fancy words. No jargon.

Canadians hate that. And now everybody tunes you out if you use fancy fluff and jargon. You have to learn to speak in words your target market understands. Yes, even words like “aboot” and “hoose.”

So if you have to change how you’re reaching your customers, I say blame Canada.

If you have to learn how to simplify your message and talk in the language of your target audience, blame Canada.

If you have to become more convincing, quieter, and more ethical, blame Canada.

Oh, and when you start reaching more people, gaining more readers, and making more sales?

Beauty, eh?

(Happy Canada Day, everybody.)

About the Author: James Chartrand is an unrepentant Canuck who survives exclusively on maple syrup, poutine, and beer. He is unfailingly polite and helps entrepreneurs and freelancers earn a decent living online at Men with Pens (dot CA, of course).

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I recently spoke at and attended the Conversational Marketing Summit in NYC. On day two, I heard something from Brian Wallace of Blackberry that echoed thoughts I've been preaching for a while. He said "I was selling in the idea that social media is free, until the community manager headcount came in."

This underscores a fundamental truth to social media that many organizations underestimate--being social means having real live people who actively participate in your initiatives. It's difficult to automate and a challenge to scale, but it can also help move your business forward in ways that produce leveraged outcomes such as new/better products or services.

The economics of using social media in business require the participation of people to fuel it. It is not simply enabled by technology that maintains itself. One of the biggest lessons to be taken away from a social platform such as Twitter is that the ecosystem it's a part of if, is itself built on people who keep it humming along with not only content, but a seemingly endless stream of third party applications. This phenomenon is not entirely new--it's been referred to as end-user innovation (innovation by consumers and end users, rather than suppliers).

There are a few considerations every organization needs to consider when developing their blueprints for their own unique social media design. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, there are few things you can plan for as you review the many options before you.

Here are three to consider:

Seeding. As you plan your approach for designing your social system, take into account that you'll have to invest to grow your effort into a healthy ecosystem that can produce data, insights or even new ideas. People will be required in order to do this.

Feeding. Whether it's a community, Wiki or internal collaboration solution you've put in place, it will have to be fed with a steady stream of content. Some of this can be automated and some of it can come from your participants--but there has to be some editorial judgment made for every piece of content and functionality. People are required for that.

Weeding. A productive social business design will require efforts to prune and weed out material that can inhibit its growth (just like a garden). In some cases, automated moderation services can do this--but in others people will be required to ensure that interactions are productive. Weeding can also include creating a separate environment--for example, Nokia's "blog hub" encourages employees to vent freely internally (using anonymous aliases).You can bet that someone is looking at the data and analyzing it. If not, they should be.

It's worth noting that seeding, feeding, and weeding all take place after any social initiative has been launched. But not taking into account the manpower that's involved in these as you develop your social business design strategy can lead to a lack of adoption or participation--essential elements to any social initiative. Ignoring these realities will continue to propagate the myth that social media is fast, cheap and easy. As organizations look to grow or scale their current initiatives, it's proving to be anything but.

David is part of the founding team at Dachis Corporation, an Austin based start-up delivering social business design services. He is both an active practitioner and thinker in the worlds of digital marketing, experience design, and the social web. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/armano

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