About TJ O'Connor

Building a Better Presence: Simple Tips for SMBs

October 11, 2010 by TJ O'Connor Leave a Comment

For those of you too busy to watch the hour segment, here is a summary of what we discussed.

Make Your Presence Felt

For starters — What do we mean by web presence?

Your web presence consists of ALL branded properties on the web including your website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc…

For this discussion, we won’t be delving into off-brand communities. For one, these communities don’t really count as part of your main “presence”. Also, this topic was covered in detail by Justin Levy in recent NMLTV episode, I highly suggest you check it out.

So, now that we are clear on what your “presence” consists of, here’s a few ideas to get you thinking about how to improve it:

Keep It Consistent

You’d be surprised how many people fail at the most basic of rules: use consistent branding. Many companies create style guides to help employees adhere to branding guidelines, and — speaking from personal experience — it really does help.

A style guide doesn’t have to complex, provide a few versions of the logo (web/print/etc…), choose a font and some colors, and you have already provided a great starting place for any new branded design.

Once you have these guideline, apply them EVERYWHERE. Visit your website homepage. Now your Twitter page. Do the link colors match? If not, you have some work to do with your branding efforts.

Keep It Simple

Another basic principle that seems to elude many companies is a strong call-to-action. For any website to be effective, it needs 2 things:

Clear Goals – This defines what you want your website visitors to do: purchase an item, sign up for a newsletter, read an article, etc… These are the driving factors behind your website. If your website doesn’t have any goals, what do you expect it to do for you?
Calls-to-action – Once you have clearly defined the goals internally, you should work the same language into the site itself. Create big buttons that guide the user toward the intended action: “Contact Us”, “Download File”, etc… This is where design and functionality meet, there is a fine line between distracting the user and drawing their attention.

Humanize Your Website

One of the main reasons behind the rise of social media is a simple principle: people want to talk to other people.

Gone are the days of when corporations would shout down from their ivory towers, it just doesn’t cut it anymore. Stop thinking about your website as a marketing tool, and start thinking about it as a way to engage in the conversation that is already taking place on the web.

A simple way to humanize your website is to get feedback from your audience, whether via blog comments, twitter, or another similar collaboration tool. This allows you to engage with those who matter most — your audience.

Another way to humanize your website it to give a personal touch to otherwise corporate page. Take the contact page for instance.

How you would YOU prefer to communicate: “Chat with Jim” (who you can follow on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc…), or “Use the form below”?

Optimize for People, SEO Will Follow

The final topic deals with the content your website. Here’s a simple test to determine your website effectiveness.

Print out your homepage
Give it to someone outside of your business
Ask them to describe your business back to you using your homepage

The description they give you is exactly what your audience sees when they visit your homepage.

If this clearly and succinctly describes your business (including your industry, objectives, location, contact info), then your homepage content is doing its job. If not, it’s time for a redesign.

Regardless of the application, you should always be focused on including the terms that make the most sense for your business. If the terms help people understand what you do and how to find you, it will help your organic SEO as well.

These tips are NOT a comprehensive web strategy, but should give you some ideas on to improve the overall experience for your users.

How else do you build a better presence for your users?

Photo Credit: LA Cinnamon

Filed Under: Business, Featured, Social Media Tagged With: Design, Humanize, Presence, SEO, SMB, strategy, tips, website

The Burden of Information

August 24, 2010 by TJ O'Connor Leave a Comment

“Information is a source of learning. But unless it is organized, processed, and available to the right people in a format for decision making, it is a burden, not a benefit.”

- William Pollard

Every day, we make decisions based on information. What we often fail to realize is that HOW this information is gathered and presented is equally as important as the information itself.

Let’s take a closer look at information gathering to see how we can eliminate burden and maximize benefit with social media analytics.

Know What You Can Track
This is the most essential step in the entire process of analytics. With all the different social APIs out there, some information can be tracked more easily than others.

For instance, Twitter Search doesn’t include the total number of hits in its results. Even within Google, Blog Search returns the total results in its Feed for the results, and the standard Google Search doesn’t. The record count is accessible through the AJAX API, but that requires some programming to access the data.

Knowing what information is available is a great first step.

Know What You CAN’T Track
Knowing the ins and outs of the various social APIs is extremely helpful in information gathering, but even more useful is knowing what you can’t track. Some of the most important metrics are often the most difficult: number of actual leads generated, number of visits to brick-and-mortar store, etc…

In social campaigns, hard metrics like ROI are often overlooked, even though they are the true measure of success. No amount of Twitter followers is going to help your business if you aren’t making money.

Don’t just throw your hands up and give up on these hard metrics — sometimes it is simpler than you think. Talk to the people in your organization who manage your databases, and see if there is a way to integrate that information into your social analytics.

See the Forest For The Trees
Some of the most important insights are gleaned from combining information from various sources. For instance: Google Analytics says you had a 900% increase in traffic this month, with a majority of the new traffic coming from Twitter.

Awesome, right? Well, not necessarily. What if most of that traffic was driven to your blog to make negative comments? Traffic does not necessarily denote success — and this is where aggregating metrics becomes a powerful tool. The more information you have, the easier it will be to step back and see the big picture.

Show Me The Data
Through visual charts and reports, it is easy to make it look like a campaign is succeeding, even if it is not. There are a few things to watch out for here.

First, make sure you know exactly what the numbers mean. Sure, your fancy new “Buzz” score sounds cool, but how is it being calculated? Some metrics include generic search terms that don’t include anything specific to your brand, and this should be made clear in the reports.

If lots of people are buzzing about “cars” in general, that doesn’t mean much to a local dealership, and it probably won’t impact sales. These types of metrics are important of track overall trends, but unless they are targeted to your brand, they don’t represent success of the campaign. Knowing exactly where these numbers come from allow better insight into their significance.

From Strategy to Action
In the end, having the right information will make the business decisions much easier. It will allow you to monitor the trends, build an informed strategy, and execute that strategy with confidence.

Do you use analytics to make better decisions? How has it worked (or not worked) for you?

Photo Credit: Ben Weiner

Filed Under: Analytics, Business, Featured, Social Media Tagged With: API, Data, Google, strategy, twitter

Think Like a Five-Year Old

July 21, 2010 by TJ O'Connor Leave a Comment

Most children go through a phase in which everything in their surrounding environment is met with simple question: “Why?” I would contend that those of us in the social space could better help our clients if we all thought a little more like a five-year old.

Build with Purpose

This philosophy extends beyond social marketing, and into web design, user interface development, etc… As a developer, when someone came to me with a piece of code, I would always ask them: Why did you build it this way?

If their response is a blank stare, I know they won’t last very long on my team. Good developers always have a reason why they build something in a particular way, even if it isn’t the best reason (sometime it is just “easier that way”). Great developers have generally thought about several different possible scenarios, weighed the benefits of each, and made the appropriate choice for the circumstances.

With that said…let’s talk social.

Social Icons Everywhere…But not a Drop to Drink.

Everywhere I look, I am being bombarded with social media icons: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc…
As a social media marketer, this is a great. It shows that traditional media and large corporations are listening to what we have been shouting from the rooftops for the last several years. To use the old cliché, they are starting to “get it.”
As a consumer, nothing is more disappointing then taking precious time out of my day to check out a company’s Twitter account, only to see a single tweet: “Trying to figure out this Twitter thing”.
For anyone considering a social presence, ask yourself a simple question…why do you tweet?

Do it Small….but Right

Earlier this week we spoke with a client about a website redesign, specifically the integration of social into the website. After a brief discussion, we decided they would better off with Facebook and YouTube, but without Twitter.

I can almost guarantee this campaign will be successful, because the client has a clear sense of its audience, and we found the right platforms to reach that audience.

Next time you are planning updates to your website or social presence, be sure to ask yourself, “Why?”

————–

Photo Credit: hmk

Filed Under: Business, Content Management, Featured, Social Media, Web 2.0 Tagged With: Design, Development, socialmedia, strategy

Live Phish App: Give the People What They Want

June 23, 2010 by TJ O'Connor Leave a Comment

Phish is one of those bands who has always supported digital distribution as a way to get their music to fans. The recent release of the Live Phish App for the iPhone shows they continue to be one step ahead of the game.

Grateful to the Dead

For the uninitiated, Phish is essentially this generation’s answer to the Grateful Dead: a jam band that pulls from a diverse blend of musical genres, emphasizes improvisation, and plays a different set list at every show. Much like their psychedelic predecessor, they encourage open recording and trading of their live shows. This business model (now taught at many universities), is ultimately responsible for their widespread popularity and continued success.

Embracing Digital Downloads

After years of financial success through ticket sales alone, Phish decided to branch out into the digital realm. In 2002, Phish began making all of their live shows available for purchase on their newly created Live Phish website. Ever since its inception, every performance is made available on the website within 24 hours of the show.
The most important thing to note here is that the audience-recorded bootlegs of the same shows are still made legally available for free.

Shows Are Priced to Sell

In terms of pricing, their pricing model is extremely competitive. Each show costs a $10 for basic MP3 and $15 for high-quality FLAC. While this pricing is similar to an album on iTunes, remember that Phish shows are generally 2.5+ hours of music, where most iTunes albums are less than an hour.
In addition, they offer bulk discounts for anyone ordering multiple shows. The more you buy, the less you pay — another important factor in their success.

Live Phish App: Free Downloadable Content

Ever since the release of the iPhone, iTunes has been flooded with cheesy band/artist applications that offer little more than some photos, and maybe a free song or two. Live Phish blows these applications out of the water.
Initially, I was surprised to see that the app was paid ($3.99 on iTunes), not free. It seemed a bit expensive, especially based on my expectations for the content. However, along with the app purchase, I received a $10 coupon for the Live Phish store, which allowed me to purchase an entire show.
Again — they are giving away music, for free.

Live Phish App: Free Streaming Content

Once logged into the application, I have the ability to stream every show I have ever purchased from LivePhish.com directly to my iPhone. This essentially serves as a free cloud hosting service for the hundreds of songs I have downloaded over the years.
In addition to my purchased shows, there is a constantly revolving list of shows that you can stream –in their entirety — for free. This is a great feature, but it also serves to preview shows that can then be purchased from the site.
Finally – the app has a 24/7 streaming radio station that plays shows from the vault.

Take a Lesson

This app could have easily been built as a CD store, with the ability to browse the albums, preview tracks, and purchase.
It could also have been built as another generic band app, with some photos or other useless content aimed at generating sales.
Instead, they thought about what the average fan would want…and gave it to them (along with more free stuff).
This demonstrates something the recording industry has failed to recognize: people are willing to pay for content, you just need to make it worth it.
In other words — give the people what they want.

What other bands are doing this as well?

Filed Under: Business, Featured, Mobile Tagged With: Apple, Digital Distribution, iPhone, iTunes, MP3, Music, Phish, strategy

Getting Value from Analytics

June 4, 2010 by TJ O'Connor Leave a Comment

Though many of us use analytics to track how well a particular website or blog is doing, this data rarely gets the attention it deserves. Here are some tips on how to get the most out of your analytics:

Educate Yourself
Most analytics reports use their own terminology to get across the same idea. The first step is to understand exactly what these terms means – so you can truly understand the data.

Check Frequently
Checking your analytics often will allow you to see when something has changed drastically, and allow you to adapt more quickly. Even if you don’t understand the “why”, you will begin to see when something is going well (or poorly). If you don’t like the idea of having to check the site everyday, send a report to your email instead.

Recognize Patterns
The most important factor in reading analytics is to look for patterns in the data. Once you have figured out the patterns you can begin to decipher meaning. For example, you have an album review blog that sees a huge influx of traffic on Tuesdays – because major labels always release new albums on Tuesday. This is a simple example, but demonstrates the power of recognizing patterns.

Evolve Constantly
This is the step that most people fail to achieve with analytics. How do you take data and convert it into strategy? Let’s take the example above one step further. If you figure out that everyone is coming to the site on Tuesday – you should probably try to release content on Tuesdays. It may sound like a simple solution, but that one small change can drastically improve your traffic. Any successful website will continue to evolve long after it has been created.

How else do YOU use analytics?

Photo Credit: CLUC

Filed Under: Analytics, Business, Featured Tagged With: Data, strategy

Facebook Talks Semantics with Open Graph

May 26, 2010 by TJ O'Connor Leave a Comment

The recent announcement of Facebook’s Open Graph Protocol has made it clear that the “Semantic Web” (in which meaning is defined for content) is closer to becoming a reality than ever before.

Intelligent Agents

For the uninitiated, here is the original vision for the Semantic Web as expressed by Tim Berners-Lee:

“I have a dream for the Web [in which computers] become capable of analyzing all the data on the Web – the content, links, and transactions between people and computers. A ‘Semantic Web’, which should make this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines. The ‘intelligent agents’ people have touted for ages will finally materialize.”

What this amounts to are web pages that (in addition to content) contain meta-data which are used to define the information within.

Let’s take a look at a few different ways this can be applied in the real world.

Meaningful Content

Here is an example of how we would describe “The Rock” IMDB page using the Facebook Open Graph protocol:

<meta property=”og:title” content=”The Rock” />
<meta property=”og:type” content=”movie” />
<meta property=”og:site_name” content=”IMDb” />
<meta property=”og:image” content=”http://ia.media-imdb.com/rock.jpg”/>
<meta property=”og:url” content=”http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117500/”/>

This information, while hidden from the user, is easily readable by other machines, making it very simple to connect web content with objects from the Social Graph.

Now, when you click “Like” using Facebook social plug-ins, it knows exactly what information you are linking to, and how to properly store and display the connections.

Developer Simplicity

Before the release of the Graph API, it was a hassle to get data out of Facebook. Their solution consisted of a custom authentication protocol, Facebook specific markup language, and several other convoluted ways to access simple information about a user.

With the Graph API, Facebook turned it around considerably.

For authentication, they have switch to oAuth, an open protocol used by sites like Twitter, Flickr, and Google to authenticate users.

As for accessing the data, they have created a simple, clean API that returns the data in the JavaScript friendly JSON format. (Example: http://bit.ly/dirXn4).

OpenGraph versus “Open”

For those of use who have been watching the evolution of Semantic tools (SPARQL) over the years, it is both disappointing and exciting to see Facebook venturing into this territory.

The excitement comes because we know Facebook has lots of users, which means their user graph is already extremely robust, and is only going to get bigger. This has been the biggest challenge in Semantic: without users, you don’t have a graph. Without a graph, there isn’t anything to find.

The disappointment comes because Facebook has ditched the traditional set of Semantic technologies for yet another custom protocol. This means tools already written to build and query Semantic graphs must now be abandoned (or rewritten) to utilize the less-robust Facebook graph information. Technology aside, the bigger issue here is that the graph is owned by Facebook. This is pretty ironic, considering it is a proprietary technology with “open” in the name.

In my opinion, for anything to truly revolutionize the web, it has to be based on open standards.
What do you think?

Photo Credit: Marc_Smith

Filed Under: Featured, Semantic Web Tagged With: API, facebook, Intelligent Agents, Microformats, oAuth, Open Graph

Browser Update: Microsoft Looking Toward the Future

May 17, 2010 by TJ O'Connor Leave a Comment

For most web developers, the most frustrating part of their job is tweaking websites to work with non-standards-compliant browsers such as IE6. Microsoft has long been behind the browser curve due to their resistance to open standards. Two recent developments from the folks at Microsoft seem to indicate they are ready to re-engage with the web.

IE6 Just Won’t Die

Ask web designers what the most frustrating part of their job is, and most will go into a 15 minute tirade about Internet Explorer 6.

The Microsoft browser (which was last updated in 2001), is infamous for its security flaws and lack of adherence to open web standards (maintained by the W3C).

Even with these flaws, it managed to hold on to a huge share of the browser market. It was still prevalent among 55% of businesses in December 2007, over a year after the release of Internet Explorer 7.

Even with the recent release of Internet Explorer 8, IE6 still currently holds about 20% of the global browser market

The web has been trying to push IE6 out for quite some time, but it looks like Microsoft finally gets the point.

They have even started a web campaign (see left) to educate users about the flaws inherent in IE6 and urge them to upgrade to IE8. The site is currently hosted at Microsoft Australia, but will hopefully be expanded to users around the globe.

Ever since Google (and YouTube) stopped supporting IE6, it was only a matter of time before the rest of the web followed suit.

While the elimin ation of IE6 is likely going to be a slow, tedious process, at least it’s a start.

“IE9 looks great”

At a recent conference, Microsoft announced plans for Internet Explorer 9. To the delight of the web community, everything seems to be moving in the right direction.

5_17_10 IE9 Tweet.png Even the folks at Mozilla have kind words for their biggest browser rival. “IE9 looks great, very glad to see it. Congrats to the IE team!” said Mike Shaver, vice president of engineering at Firefox backer Mozilla, in a tweet (right).

There are many improvements planned for the latest incarnation, but the major ones are as follows:

HTML5 Web Standards
This version of IE will focus on the latest in open web standard, meaning less browser-specific coding for developers. It is also focused on passing the Acid Test, which is a common measure of standards-compliance.
High-performance JavaScript engine
Microsoft has built a new JavaScript engine that is focused on performance, taking advantage of the multi-core processors installed in newer machines. Their initial release is already outperforming the FF3 engine in benchmark testing.
Developer feedback
Microsoft has released a “test drive” version of the browser to gain feedback from developers as it goes through the remaining stages of development.

Looking Ahead

Microsoft finally understands that to make a better web, the focus should be on open standards, not proprietary technology. With Microsoft aboard, it will keep the entire browser industry moving forward (instead of holding it back).

Now that Microsoft is back in a big way, Firefox and Chrome better step up their game.

What do you think? Will you be using Internet Explorer 9?

Filed Under: Featured, Web 2.0 Tagged With: Browser, CSS, HTML5, IE6, IE8, IE9, Internet Explorer, Microsoft

Explaining Social Media to Non-Natives

May 12, 2010 by TJ O'Connor Leave a Comment

While speaking at the ITEC conferences, I talk to lots of folks about social media. Interestingly enough, some STILL don’t see the value.

Here’s my advice for how to respond to the common argument against social media:

“We block Facebook at our company”
Yes, I understand your company blocks Facebook. They block it because employees would spend a lot of time there, yes? Well, if your employees (and other workers) are active on Facebook, then your customers are likely active on Facebook as well. They may even be having conversations about your products or services. Isn’t that worth investigating?
“Twitter is for my kids”
Actually, your kids are probably on Facebook or MySpace, not Twitter. The average age for Twitter users is around 30 years old, making Twitter the “oldest” platform other than LinkedIn. Also, for all the “noise” on Twitter, it has consistently been the first source of information for organizations ranging from Boston Police to the NFL Draft.
“We have a website, we have no need for a blog”
Well…not exactly. Your website probably serves as a good source of information about your products, company, etc…, but, chances are, it isn’t very engaging. Take a look at your homepage. What has changed this week? This month? If your website isn’t changing, there isn’t any reason to come back. Using a blog to provide frequently updated content keeps users engaged, brings them back to your site and builds you up as a trusted industry resource.

Interestingly enough, these are the people I enjoy speaking to the most. There’s something really great about seeing someone’s eyes light up when they finally “get it”.

So, the next time you encounter someone who isn’t convinced about social media, take a minute to explain it to them. You may be surprised.

Photo Credit: Webtreats

Filed Under: Business, Featured, Social Media, Web 2.0 Tagged With: Blog, Digital Native, facebook, twitter

How HTML5 is Changing the Game

April 28, 2010 by TJ O'Connor Leave a Comment

With the recent release of the iPad, there has been a lot of conversation about HTML5 and what it means for the future of video. This post will serve as a brief introduction to HTML, and discuss how it is changing video delivery.

What is HTML5?
HTML5 is the next major revision of the HTML markup language that aims to reduce our reliance on third-party plug-ins (Flash, Silverlight, etc…) by enhancing the core features with rich-internet application capabilities such as: vector graphics and embedded video. For now, let’s focus on the video.

HTML5 Video
Traditionally, websites have delivered video through a third-party technology such as Quicktime, Windows Media Player, or Adobe Flash. The widespread availability and adoption of these tools made this a viable solution for many years, but there is now a better option. HTML5 includes built-in support for video through the use of a <video> tag. This will allow users to add video to their site just as easily as they add text or links.

So…what’s the catch?

The Codec Problem
HTML5 is designed to be the new standard in online video, but there is a heated debate between the major browsers over which format(s) should be supported. Take a look at the following chart (which is an abbreviated version of this chart:

As you can see, Chrome is the only one that supports both formats, with Firefox and Safari on opposing sides of the coin, and Internet Explorer providing little support for either. I won’t get into the driving factors behind the debate (mainly patent issues), but you can see that this is no way for a “standard” to move forward.

iPad Launches Using H.264, Internet Follows Suit
With the release of the iPad this month, several high-profile websites created HTML5-ready version of their content to ensure their video could be delivered to the estimated 1 million units already in use. Since iPad uses Safari, these sites are all encoding their video in H.264 format.

Looking Ahead
HTML5 is still in development, and the debate on video codecs will need to be resolved for it to become an “official” standard. The success of H.264 on the iPad may help that conversation along, since so many sites are already serving video in this format.

Regardless of what codes is chosen, the advent of HTML5 will likely bring about a major decline in use of Flash / Silverlight for both embedded video players and rich-internet applications, along with an increase in standards-based sites that use the new built-in features of HTML5.

Stay tuned for the next few posts, as I will be expanding on the topic of video delivery on the web.

Photo credit: bioxid

Filed Under: Business, Featured, Web 2.0 Tagged With: Codec, H.264, HTML5, iPad, Ogg, Vector, Video

About TJ O'Connor

Live Phish App: Give the People What They Want

Getting Value from Analytics

Facebook Talks Semantics with Open Graph

Browser Update: Microsoft Looking Toward the Future

How HTML5 is Changing the Game

Subscribe via Feed

Subscribe via Email

Connect with TJ

Categories

Archives

About TJ O'Connor

Make Your Presence Felt

Keep It Consistent

Keep It Simple

Humanize Your Website

Optimize for People, SEO Will Follow

Subscribe via Feed

Subscribe via Email

Connect with TJ

Categories

Tags

Archives