Bye Bye Birdie? Not Anytime Soon for Twitter

Amidst all the chatter, people want to matter.

As a self-proclaimed social media "junkie," it's embarrassing to admit that, at one point, I thought Twitter was completely useless. When I first learned about Twitter, I thought it was merely an abbreviated version of the Facebook status update. I mean, who really cares what someone is having for dinner, how much they spent on a pair of shoes, or on what side of Jon vs. Kate they fall, right? Wrong. At least I was.

Being open minded enough to give Twitter a chance, I have learned that it is more than just a lame "what are you doing" update mechanism, but rather, a real-time, interactive sharing resource. I can honestly tell you that I have learned so much via Twitter and have actually befriended several of my "followers." On several occasions, I have even heard breaking news via Twitter. I've mastered the language of "tweople" (people), "tweeps" (peeps), "twamily" (family), etc. and I've found my fit in this space.

Twitter is here to stay – well, at least for now, and for as long as you can expect a social media tool to live. If, for some reason, Twitter is not around in the near future, it won’t be because it did not work or add value; it will be because something better came along – something with additional features or a better application built on what Twitter already started. So, my advice? Jump in and learn.

People and businesses are realizing the benefits of this real-time interactive network, and they're making the most of it. What's in it for you? Twitter provides the user with as much or as little as they desire. I, for example, have separate Twitter accounts for my professional life and my personal life. I follow different people for different reasons. Users elect to follow people with whom they want to interact, be entertained or share information. Users are able to "unfollow" people easily if their tweets are no longer relevant. It's that simple and that easy. It's also really engaging once you learn how to use it.

Beyond the social aspect, there are so many business opportunities provided by Twitter. I work for a marketing communications firm. Every day, we help companies navigate the world of social media. For businesses, Twitter provides yet another outlet to communicate messaging such as job opportunities, news, sales, products, services and more.

How do you matter among the chatter? You post timely and relevant content. You take the time to build a network of followers. You follow engaging people. You play in the space and learn as you go. As a personal user, I encourage you to give it a try. For businesses, I recommend learning how to maximize this opportunity. In either scenario, if you don't like it at first, stick with it. I promise you it has more to offer than you can possibly imagine.

Davis & Kuelthau Web Site Wins WebAward

We’re excited to announce that we have recently been recognized with the Web Marketing Association’s WebAward on behalf of our client, Davis & Kuelthau.

This award is for “outstanding achievement in Web site development” in the category of “Legal Standard of Excellence.” The WebAward Competition, now in it’s 13^th year, recognizes the best Web sites within 96 industries and includes nominations from more than 47 countries around the world.

Being able to partner with a great client such as Davis & Kuelthau to create award-winning work is always a positive experience. Congratulations to both the Davis & Kuelthau and Versant teams for creating work of which they can be very proud!

Starting Down the Social Media Path

At Versant, our sense is that the tide has finally changed and more businesses now are recognizing the extent to which their competitors are already involved and gaining traction in social media. Considering the seemingly constant attention social media draws, it is not surprising that many businesses are worried about missing their opportunities to leverage social media before it is too crowded to make an impact.

Often the anxiety we sense from these organizations is rooted in the simple fact that their leadership and decision makers, on a personal level, have never actually participated in any social media channel (except for maybe LinkedIn). So without ever setting up a Facebook profile, how will they understand how a Facebook fan page works? Without ever setting up a Twitter account, how will they understand the etiquette of retweeting?

Now this is not a problem that needs to be purely solved before their businesses can become active in social media, but it does highlight the amount of learning that often needs to occur before many organizations are willing to invest the time to make their efforts worthwhile.

Given this, below are a couple resources that Versant recently created as part of our inSHORT Learning series that are related to helping organizations gain a better understanding of social media marketing:

Twitter as a Marketing Tool 

At its core, successful marketing is all about developing relationships, and Twitter is a simple tool to help expand and build those relationships. This episode of inSHORT Learning provides a review of Twitter and how it can be used as a marketing tool. 

Monitoring Your Brand Online

What are people saying about your brand online? How can you keep track of what your competitors are doing online? This episode of inSHORT Learning reviews a few online tools that are great starting points to help you monitor a brand’s online presence.

Feel free to leave a comment or connect with us on Twitter to share your learning experiences of marketing through social media.

- Korre Johnson

Don’t Interrupt the Conversation, Join it

As I was reading through my friends’ Twitter updates yesterday morning, I ran across a tweet that inspired me – @thatwoman_soho: “Marketing is an introduction to the conversation. Social media tools and channels allow the conversation to flow freely.”

The quote hits upon one of the main ideas of social media – it’s social. It’s about conversation and sharing. If you find something in the social media space of interest or of value to you, give something in return, whether it be a comment, your ideas/perceptions or even a simple retweet. This is what keeps social media going, and it’s a beautiful thing.

Her quote also subtly points out that marketing is different than social media. Are they related? Certainly. Effectively using social media is indeed a great way to market yourself or your organization as well as extend the reach of your brand.

Sometimes though, people tend to view social media as the silver bullet for their marketing solutions. After all, you can’t avoid the news and publicity it’s receiving everywhere you look. Many of your friends or coworkers are likely using at least one or two social media tools, as are small to large businesses and even the president of the United States. Considering the growth of social media we have had in only the last few years, it’s no wonder why some have placed social media on the pedestal they have. But is it really the “wonder drug” for marketing in the online world?

Potentially, but only if used for the right reasons. Keep in mind that social media is driven by the communities of people who use it, and that the people logging into these spaces have an objective in mind with little patience for interruptions. Let the conversations flow and add your own useful interactions to them, but just remember that marketing in this space requires you to continually add value to the conversation.

If things are done right, your following will grow and garner trust in you, making your marketing more successful. Just don’t interrupt the conversation, join it. 

An Emerging Double Standard in Business Communications

You find yourself on the phone with a prospect, or maybe it’s a face-to-face meeting with a client, or networking at an event or trade show. In each of these situations the expectations across any organization are likely to be pretty consistent and clear; at that moment you are the organization, so represent it in the best possible manner. Every day millions of professionals, across a broad array of industries and skill sets, are trusted to do just that.

Seems pretty straight forward, but why is it that this level of trust is not always so easily transferred to the social media space? The trust and related freedom to share insights, discuss an idea, or talk about a service provided by your organization that is common place in the “real world” can suddenly come under a microscope of perceived marketing perfection. Fear of a documented misstep and the desire to put out only the best, most aligned messages, drives rules, processes and approvals that take the “social” out of social media and make it just another marketing channel.

Certainly, as representatives of our organizations, we must always put our best foot forward. But a key step in leveraging the benefits of social media is recognizing that in many ways the perceived control risks are not much different than the risks all business take when engaging in a discussion with a prospect or client. Developing social media policy is a sound business decision, but ensure that it empowers your associates to engage in the conversation, and start to put the power of social media to work for your organization.

What do you think? Should organizations take the risk of trusting their employees more in social media?

Don’t Take My Word for It

Social media and technology are accelerating the pace of conversation, and everyone is talking about everyone else more than ever before. This matters to you as a business person because there are likely conversations going on right now that are influencing your company’s brand and the relationship someone might want to build with it. You can’t control it, but you can influence it. By remaining authentic and transparent in everything you do, you can be genuine in your approach and invite your brand ambassadors to help share your story as well.

At Versant, we rebuilt our Web site to be a communications hub of sorts, to share what we do and what we are about, and also provide ongoing learning that we hope will help our clients and others.

Our new site is designed to be a reflection of who we are and how we’ve built this company. It showcases our work, yes. But it also lets you know what it’s like to work with us and how we create communications that connect. And because we believe strongly in what we have to offer, and the importance of transparency, we’ve even included how we do what we do. That might be gutsy for some firms to do, but at Versant, that’s how we do business.

But don’t take my word for it. After all, I can talk nonstop about our work and our great team. Our new site also lets our customers tell our story. On the site are both written and video testimonials from many of our clients and I encourage you to look at these. Let me know what you think. After all, it’s your opinion that counts, not mine.

Marketing Through Twitter? Authenticity Please!

Making use of Twitter to extend the reach of your brand is worth consideration, as there are many fantastic opportunities ready and waiting for businesses and people to grab hold of. To ensure your Twitter strategy is successful, I recommend the following:

Step 1 of 1. Be Authentic.

That’s it! Assuming you have created your Twitter account and have begun building your following, the only thing left for you to do is be authentic to your audience. Your audience, the group of people following you on Twitter, likely joined you because they were interested in what you had to say. Whether it’s something you stand for, a project or product you are working on, or simply passing along something you found interesting from the Web, you have created or expanded the brand that represents you into a new channel… and people took notice!

Your responsibility to these followers is simple – keep them engaged and listening. Selling and self-promotion are not the foundations of conversation, and neither are they the foundations for your authentic voice online. Take for example two huge, but very different Twitter users.

Everyone knows about Starbucks, but did you know that they effectively interact with their followers via Twitter? In fact, they talk to others on Twitter more than they talk about themselves. On the other hand, Zappo’s CEO Tony Hsieh has a Twitter account on behalf of the company and on top of interacting with his followers, he is also posting research he has found on “happiness” and sharing what his new favorite Chapstick flavor is. As you can imagine, this isn’t strictly business. The reason for this is simple – to extend the reach of your brand or personality as the face of your organization.
Whatever you do online, with Twitter or other social media services, just remember one thing – it’s about authentic relationships and communications. Sure you can try selling to people, but likely they’re going out of their way to find something a little more interesting.

- Brandon Meves

Follow Versant on Twitter at http://twitter.com/versanttweets.

Twitter: Microblogging Extraordinaire!

What started out as a simple way to tell your friends “what are you doing” in 140 characters or less, has exploded into a service that can build and measure brands, be used for market research, and even turn the lights off in your house. I’m talking about Twitter, and at least for now, there is simply no end to the ways people and businesses will utilize this popular service.

But let’s step back for a minute and go over the basics of Twitter. The main function is communication, much like a blog, thus is why Twitter is often called a form of “microblogging.” Twitter gives a user the ability to update their friends on their status, ask questions and receive feedback, and also keep track of their friends as well. All of this is done for free on the Twitter Web site. If you have a little more Web experience, this can be achieved with downloadable programs and widgets for your blog or social networks.

Individuals are not the only ones using Twitter. In fact, there are thousands of businesses effectively using Twitter to extend the reach of their brand. Whether sharing news on products or answering customer questions, these businesses are entering a channel that is completely opt-in and has people talking.

Of course the best way to understand Twitter is to try it out for yourself! And if you are still afraid to get your feet wet, check out the video Twitter in Plain English which will cover everything you need to get started.

Happy Tweeting, and stay tuned next week for another blog post that goes in-depth on how you can integrate Twitter with your marketing or social media strategies.

- Brandon Meves

Follow Versant on Twitter at http://twitter.com/versanttweets.

Stay Out of the Doghouse!

In the spirit of this holiday season, JCPenney recently released a viral campaign that is making headlines everywhere. The fun theme stems from the commonly-held notion that a guy’s “wrong-doing” will result in him being sent to the doghouse. Of course this has always been one of the standard male jokes, especially during this time of year with gift-giving. Nevertheless, apparently the key to getting out of the doghouse, at least in JCPenney’s eyes, is to simply buy affordable diamond gifts that they provide.

Currently, the “Beware of the Doghouse” campaign is utilizing traditional media such as print, but also heavily reaching the online crowd through online banners, blogging and other digital efforts. Interestingly enough, they have also connected to consumers through a Facebook application that provides the ability to interact with friends and share stories.

To check out the site, visit www.bewareofthedoghouse.com where you can watch an entertaining video and place your own friends or significant other in the “doghouse”.

Launch of DiscoverFairway.com

Fairway Market is “Like No Other Market.” That’s their consumer-focused brand. So when the chain of family owned and operated full-service retail food stores with four locations in metropolitan New York wanted Versant’s help expanding their online presence in a more interactive way, we created www.discoverfairway.com.

Fairway conducts nearly 10 million transactions annually, making them one of the highest grossing food stores per square foot in the industry. This microsite allows Fairway to also engage customers online as well. The site has a host of unique and fun features including a weekly webisode (online video) that provides a glimpse of the people and stores in action.

This microsite helps Fairway engage their customers, it gives them an increased online presence, and most importantly, gives them the control over their brand. The Fairway Market is a fun place to shop, and this helps bring that personality and experience online.

I encourage you to visit the site and try some of the things we have implemented on this page. We think you’ll experience a food market microsite “like no other market” has. And please, feel free to leave a comment on this post to let me know what you think!

Communication Prevails in Recent Conventions

Regardless of your political stance, one cannot deny the fact that both the Democratic and the Republican parties are getting quite innovative in the way they communicate. As expected, the media is also advancing the technology they are using on, and off the air, to cover the campaigns.

Behind all the tech tools and ideas are some of the world’s greatest strategists, communicators, entrepreneurs and tech wizards. When watching the conventions for both the Democratic and Republican parties, the sets of the major networks were dominated by interactive maps, floating pie charts, live feeds and giant plasma screens. I realized that this wasn’t just politics, but also a live classroom and the subject was communication.

The Democratic convention offered streaming online video coverage in HD. Viewers at home were not only able to watch the convention on the Internet, they could choose different camera angles or listen to it in Spanish – this effort accommodated 35 million Spanish-speaking Americans. YouTube was involved as well. People attending the convention were able to share their views, photos and videos through 56 available kiosks. Blogs were also crucial to the communication tactics as 120 blogs were credentialed as members of the media for the convention.

The Republican convention offered new communication tactics as well, including the social networking sites Facebook and MySpace, and Twitter feeds which gave ongoing updates to those following the convention. The Republican convention partnered with USTREAM.TV to provide live online streams as another method for people to watch the coverage. The basic goal of all of these methods was finding a way to reach as many people as possible through different online channels.

Despite being the most Internet driven and blogged about convention ever, TV ratings didn’t take a hit. In fact, the ratings for the first night of the Democratic convention were up 88 percent compared to 2004. But even with the all-star numbers, Barack Obama trailed roughly 600,000 viewers behind John McCain, who had a record-breaking 38.9 million people tune into his acceptance speech, according to Nielsen Media Research.

As the election gets closer, we continue to see the candidates communicate via television, the Web, mobile phones and more. I’m curious what they still have up their sleeves as they make their last big push to be elected the 44th President of the United States.

See how they use communication on their campaign sites:

http://www.johnmccain.com
http://www.barackobama.com

Traditional Media vs. New Media – Times they are a changin’…quickly

Newspapers and magazines are seeing a decline in overall readership while new media, including the Web, online news sites and e-mail marketing, continues to increase its reach. Although the trends indicate gloom and doom for the newspaper and magazine industry, it looks pretty sunny in the world of new media.

A March 2008 USA Today article listed the media sectors expected to see the biggest gains by 2012. These sectors include:

Online video and rich media – Opportunities are opening to reach potential consumers with ads in or next to Internet video clips. In addition, many sites provide interactive services. Spending on these sites will grow 389 percent, to $12.2 billion, in the next three years.

Online search – Spending will grow 113 percent, to $26.1 billion, for ads and services at giants, including Google and Yahoo as well as smaller providers such as ClipBlast and Citysearch. The big attraction is that these sites, in addition to displaying ads, also generate leads as customers click through to a sponsor's site.

Event sponsorships – Companies will spend more than $33 billion, up 72 percent from last year, to attach their brand names to sports, music, theater and other events. The trend is already well underway: Sponsors paid more than $2 billion last year on pro football, baseball, basketball and hockey-related opportunities. Companies like the opportunities events provide to connect with new customers.

E-direct marketing – Marketers will spend $22.1 billion, up 121 percent, to pitch messages to consumers via e-mail.

Traditional forms of media have been around for hundreds of years – the first American newspaper appeared in Boston in 1690. Don’t expect your daily newspaper or Sunday Tribune to go down without a fight. Readers will continue to view traditional media as a reliable, steadfast source of information. But, the shift to the Web as our main and most accessible source of news and information is coming at us fast. And the power of new media continues to grow exponentially. It’s crucial to the success of your brand to stay aware of the trends and continue to look for innovative ways to reach your target audience.

Times they are a changin’ for sure. Although he most likely wasn’t referring to the Web when he wrote those words, even Dylan himself couldn’t have predicted how quickly things could change. He’s probably surfing the Web now, downloading his own tunes.

Millennials Have (Technology) Expectations

Last month, I attended a conference hosted by Sun Microsystems in Santa Clara, CA, on Managing the Millennials as part of the Learning Innovation Network of which Versant is a member. Our discussions focused on how Millennials are acquiring knowledge in this new “Learning 2.0” atmosphere.

Previous research shows that many Millennials expect instant gratification, think globally, use mobile technology and prefer having mentors. Currently, they make up 25 percent of the workforce and that number is projected to be 47 percent by 2014. So how do Millennials fit into the organizations of today, and more importantly, tomorrow?

Prior to attending the conference, many colleagues and business partners provided me with questions ranging from how to engage these young workers across the organization and other generations, to specifics such as how do they utilize social networking and other technology? Provided below is some of our learning on recent research conducted by Microsoft and Insurity using 700 Millennial respondents.

Social Networking and New Technology Will Continue to Rise
Social network use is climbing at a fast rate. Currently, two-thirds of Millennials are visiting social networks on a daily basis and over half of them are spending 20 or more minutes with each visit. Recent research confirms that Millennials use technology to stay connected and communicate as seen below.

How New Media and Technology Will Affect the Workplace
What are Millennials’ expectations for technology in the workplace? As indicated below, the theme remains the same – quick and easy communication is in. Additionally, you’ll note that different tools used in communication are scattered throughout the responses such as smart phones, portable computers and Web-based services.

The Big Point
It’s not news that technology is shaping our lives, no matter what age we are. As I discovered at the conference, providing additional means of communication along with accessibility to online tools are necessary for educating and engaging Millennials in the workplace of the future. This is how the majority of learning will occur.

RSS and Strategic Blog Thoughts – Part 2 of 2

In my last post I gave you a quick explanation of RSS and its many benefits, along with some key tips for building up your blog strategy. Here are three more tactics to keep your readers engaged:

1. Decide on full or partial RSS feeds

There has been an ongoing debate as to whether you should allow your blog followers to see all or some of the blog copy in your posts while using RSS readers. Either way, there are definite pros and cons.

With partial feeds, some people love the idea of seeing a headline and a couple lines of text so they can quickly decide if they would like to read more or scroll to other posts. However, it can be bothersome for individuals to have to open additional Web pages to get the full post.

As for full feeds, the need to navigate away from your RSS reader is minimized. This method seems to be the most preferred method for blog readers and writers. However, as one might imagine, in-depth posts can contain several images or graphs which can be cumbersome or even annoying to some readers who need to load and scroll through the entire post when they are only interested in one segment of it. On the flip side, it would be a poor choice to not have a full feed for posts that are generally only two paragraphs long.

2. Use FeedBurner Stats

If you are going to be allowing your readers to view posts via RSS, you might as well enable FeedBurner Stats through the FeedBurner service. FeedBurner Stats gives you the ability to see how many subscribers you have for your blog at any given time and when they are reading it. The end goal is to determine how you can more effectively blog to reach your readers.

After conducting your analysis, you may find out there are certain days of the week which are more active for your readers, or if there are seasonal or industry related patterns. Analyzing the activity may give you additional insight to let you know which promotional or strategic tactics are working or not working for your blog.

3. Minimize unsubscribers

A measureable goal while blogging is to increase your number of readers and subscribers. This can lead to increased Web site hits, more products and services sold, establish a reputation of knowledge leadership and more. Many of us will do whatever it takes to increase readership, but sometimes as bloggers we forget about how to maintain the readers we already have.

The reasons that readers unsubscribe include having too few posts, irrelevant or uninteresting content, or headlines that don’t accurately describe the content. Researching causes and prevention tactics of unsubscribers, and then making the necessary changes, is crucial for any bloggers success.

Final Word

I encourage you to try some of the tips I have mentioned in this two-part blog about RSS and blog strategies. There are many great ways to optimize your blog that will help take you to the next level in the ever-changing blogosphere. Good luck and happy blogging!

RSS and Strategic Blog Thoughts – Part 1 of 2

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) means people no longer need to visit countless pages all over the Web to read news articles, blog rants and more. This means that people are not frequently visiting sites that they did previously because they are getting their information via RSS. While RSS is a great thing, its popularity is changing how we communicate with customers.

So, how do we keep visitors coming back to our site to see our other news, products and services?

1. Employ the use of strategic linking

Let’s say you write a post about the importance of segmenting your market and the immense benefit of conducting preliminary research. You already have a Web page with this information and a specific call to action; why not link back to it? This can be especially useful for people who are reading your blog on RSS readers such as Google Reader and are not actually at your site. The post is no longer a dead end!

2. Employ different blog tactics

Consider a monthly product or service spotlight. In this type of post, you could explain the benefits of what you are selling, combine it with customer testimonials and link back to a specific Web page.

Other strategies include creating contests or blog-only invitations for visitors to see something new. Whatever you decide, don’t refrain from doing something incredibly creative to get customers thinking AND acting in a new way!

3. The blog store

The blog store is a basic concept which employs a blog to sell products but certainly isn’t limited to them. Nike has done a terrific job with this on some of their sites. Tell the benefits, show a picture, add a couple reviews and link back to your official store and see the sales numbers rise.

Bottom line, try some new things and check back soon to see the second post of this two-part series on how to use RSS and blog strategies to promote yourself and your brand.

Evolution

Media is continuing at a rapid rate of change from traditional media to digital media. For the first half of 2007, television and radio media were down almost 2.5%, as compared to 2006. Newspapers continue their long-term decline, down 5.8% so far this year.

The effectiveness of television is being dramatically impacted by the use of DVRs. Forrester research predicts that by 2010, more than half of all U.S. households will own a DVR. It puts us in control and we are using that control to skip the ads interrupting our programs.

Newspaper circulation continues to decline, as more readers are going online for their local news and to look for items they once found in the Classifieds (Jobs, Auto, Real Estate, etc.).

Radio is losing market share by the use of MP3 Players (iPods) and the personal digital media they offer.

The Internet will continue to be a huge force of change with the increase in online advertising, up over 17% in the last year. This significant growth is predicted to continue at a similar rate over the next five years.

The Internet is now the source of information and entertainment for an ever-increasing number of individuals. During the month of July, there were over 9 billion videos viewed on the Web, indicating that the propensity of broadband has made video an interactive mainstay of the Net.

What this means for the future of advertising is that it will need to evolve. It has to. Successful marketers will need to integrate advertising into people's lives by engaging them in the communication. The reality is that consumers and technology are both evolving quickly, and the advertising industry must evolve along with them.

Versant and PRA Bring Home Ektron Award

Recently, Plunkett Raysich Architects was awarded the Ektron All Star: Best Architecture Site. The PRA site has been recognized as an exceptional example of development using Ektron, which is the development tool we use to build many of our client Web sites. The PRA Web site is one of twenty honored as All Stars across many business categories.

“Ektron’s All Stars have built highly successful sites that combine clear design and navigation with compelling content and forward-thinking strategies,” said Bill Rogers, founder and chief executive officer, Ektron. “Versant has demonstrated excellence in developing a site for Plunkett Raysich Architects that successfully represents the firm as a knowledge leader in architectural design, with emphasis on PRA's talented employees and the high caliber designs they produce. It’s no surprise that PRA’s Web site traffic has increased 76% since the new site was introduced, with more return visitors to rich site content including the knowledge center, blog and dynamic portfolio.”

I simply cannot express how happy I am with our outstanding group here at Versant. Our interactive, client services and creative teams were all major players in this project and this award proves their exceptional talent and capabilities.

Ektron Web site
Plunkett Raysich Architects Web site

Boiling Point: Web Standards Support for HTML E-mail

I’ve noticed a recent buzz around the ‘net lately that HTML e-mail developers (myself included) are becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of standards support among popular e-mail clients. In fact, with Microsoft’s release of Outlook 2007, they had to add a disclaimer to their own e-mails in order to ensure their recipients were able to view the content of the newsletter.

This problem is further illustrated by Campaign Monitor’s “Guide to CSS Support in E-mail: 2007 Edition”. Right now there are only a handful of CSS properties that are supported across the board — most of which are font and color related. These are essentially broken though, because various e-mail clients strip out the contents of <head> and we are forced to use in-line CSS or non-standard CSS insertion within the <body> to get the job done. Talk about a hack!

Don’t get me wrong — I am not advocating a world where micro-sites are delivered to your e-mail box, but rather a world where HTML e-mails will be more usable and lightweight, especially considering that most clients do not download images initially. Standards support will save us all time, money and the headaches that come up when “that margin looks a little off in Windows Live Mail.”

It is a hope of mine (and many others) that someday we will be able to code an e-mail with the grace and separation of structure and design that CSS affords us with traditional Web design. In the meantime, join the fight.

Geek Alert

I will be the first to admit that I use many internal resources to help me learn about and then apply and invest emerging technologies to help customers and Versant be the best at strategic solutions in branding and marketing. But the scene this week in our Milwaukee office conference room really drove the point home.

A picture says a thousand words, and when you look at our people (they are not all geeks) in an Ektron training session, it really makes me aware of just how much our business is changing.

The change is for the better. Our investment in technologies is huge and the tools and deliverables Versant is creating today are second to none, and it’s helping us create award-winning work. Our investment in the development of our people is also huge. We strive to provide our clients with the necessary technology tools to compete today. We believe that smart Versant associates are critical to long and rewarding relationships with customers.

This week-long training session with our partner Ektron was about sharing their learning with our team.

Our partnership with Ektron to use their EMS400 Content Management System gives us a robust, well-supported product that we have been using for years. It supports our ability to provide a cost-efficient and feature-rich starting point when developing a new Web site. It also allows us to focus our expertise on enhancing the platform in creative and customized ways to deliver the most powerful solution for our clients. Now, with this additional level of training, our ability to enhance and extend the Ektron CMS is now second to none.

Our work for many of our clients has Web components. It is rewarding to see all these associates so fully engaged and it is thrilling to see so many wires and wired Versant associates learning to be the best…

Will

Reaching Multiple Audiences With Targeted Web Video

Just one year ago, we launched a completely redesigned, next generation Web site for one of our clients, Plunkett Raysich Architects. The excitement for their organization and ours was high as we unveiled a beautifully designed strategic site with compelling content and engaging graphics. And while our hope was that PRA would utilize this site as a tool, versus an online brochure, they went beyond that. They not only saw it as a business development and recruitment tool but as one that should be continually improved, specifically with online video.

Many sites are adding video to their online arsenal. That’s not unusual. However, not all are maximizing the ability to communicate to multiple audiences the way PRA has. Using the capabilities of Versant Video, we have created video for PRA that speaks to the casual visitor, the existing customer, the interested prospect, the engaged employee and the potential employee recruit who is still on campus.

We’ve learned that Web video invites visitors to participate in your brand. Rather than just reading words on a page, visitors are listening, watching facial expressions and body language, and really seeing the brand come to life through customers, leadership and employees. While creating video was once an expensive and labor-intensive endeavor, it can now be extremely efficient and cost effective. And ultimately, you have the ability to measure traffic to those elements, allowing you to do more of what’s working and tweak what isn’t.

PRA is a client that gets it. They’re constantly seeking better ways to use technology. And in this business climate of intense competition for customers and high-performing, talented employees, they are not afraid to explore different ways to reach these coveted audiences. PRA has effectively brought their brand to life and are able to differentiate themselves from the competition using online video.

Employer Branding, Recruitment Marketing and the 2008 Presidential Campaign

Have you visited any of the current presidential candidates’ Web sites? Anyone involved in recruiting should pay attention as these sites provide great examples of how to apply Web 2.0 thinking to employer branding and recruitment marketing. Here are just a few examples:

www.barackobama.com – Visit the Obama Mobile section of Barack Obama’s site and you will find an emerging media channel being used to capture and retain attention. How do your campus recruiters stay in touch with students? Do you think text messaging would help break through the clutter and encourage them to participate in your next on-campus recruiting event?

www.joinrudy2008.com – Take a look at the video embedded in the header of Rudy’s Story. Here, Rudy Giuliani talks about his promise to voters and his core beliefs. What communication channels do you use to communicate your brand promise and values to job seekers? Would video of employee testimonials help provide job seekers with insight into your unique organizational culture?

www.hillaryclinton.com – You will notice on Hillary Clinton’s site a number of icons linking to social networking sites. Her MySpace page proudly boasts friends such as “Latinos for Hillary”, “GLBT for Hillary” and “Hillary Rocks 2008”. How can your employer brand take shape in this social networking environment? Would the benefits outweigh the risks?

www.brownback.com – Check out The Daily Brownbacker blog section on Sam Brownback’s site. Blogs engage users and encourage repeat visitors since people expect to see fresh content when they return later. Think about your career Web site – after a job seeker applies for a position is there any reason to return? Do you think blog posts from select employees (representing your hard-to-fill positions) could reinforce your recruitment marketing efforts?

You can learn a lot from how these presidential candidates invest their marketing dollars. Over time, I expect to see more and more employers take similar steps toward investing their employer branding and recruitment marketing dollars into Web 2.0 strategies.

- Korre Johnson

“My Workplace”: The Future of Online Communities at Work

Without a doubt, online communities and collaboration tools have quickly become a critical part of today’s online experience.

In May of 2006, Nielsen/Netratings issued a study revealing that the top 10 social networking sites collectively grew by 47% year over year, reaching 45% of all active Web users. Some of the big players in the game included, MySpace which topped the list with an astonishing growth rate of 367% and MSN Spaces with a 286% increase in growth. Today, there are several online communities which compete for our attention:  Facebook, LinkedIn, Hi5, YouTube, Yahoo 360°, Friendster, Xanga, Orkut, Gather, Wayn, Classmates.com, Bebo, the list goes on. That notwithstanding, the proliferation of Blogs, Wikis and Discussion Forums across the Internet is just another indication of the critical importance of having an online community incorporated in your corporate Web strategy.

Not only do community Web sites drive visitor retention rates, but it is quickly becoming a tune universally accepted and played by most Web users. Online communities are not going to wane anytime soon, if ever. Look around you, it is quickly finding its way into almost every mainstream Web site just like reality TV has become omnipresent in mainstream TV.

User generated content is king! With the advent of AJAX and other Rich Internet Application (RIA) techniques, a lot of Web developers and designers have gone to town with new ways for creating unique interactions within this online community space.

What does this mean for my corporate Web site?

Online communities will soon have a permanent place at the corporate round-table. You cannot afford to ignore the signs. Be it in your intranet, extranet or public-facing Web site strategy, there is a dying need to employ elements of community-based Web sites. Some of these community elements include: document management and sharing among users, discussion forums, blogs, wikis, personalization, to mention a few.

The majority of students in high schools and colleges are already heavily leveraged into the online community participation culture. This means that for companies who are really serious about attracting and retaining young talent, this is the way to go.

There are significant benefits of jumping onto this bandwagon. Besides facilitating conversation between users, community is a huge driver for collaboration – a prerequisite for companies trying to sustain a competitive edge in today’s economy. Though implementing a fully functional, community-based online presence requires some significant thought, there is help out there. We have learned a number of lessons and have formed a lot of best practices along the way.

Several content management systems now come with certain elements of community-based sites. Within the .NET practice, Microsoft SharePoint (MOSS 2007) comes with Starter Sites/Templates for Blogs, Wikis, Forums, My Site (which allows users to create and customize their own user profiles); the Ektron CMS has several elements (.NET server controls, etc) already built-in for enabling some of these community interactions including a Community Starter Site.

The future is very bright for community-based Web sites and now is the time to hop on!

E-mail Marketing - A great way to deliver a targeted message with metrics!

In the last couple of years, it seems as if e-mail has become a less popular medium for delivering a targeted message. Why? Well, a few things have occurred that make sending e-mail more difficult:

• An increased volume of unsolicited SPAM e-mails
• E-mail scams otherwise known as phishing e-mails
• Tighter e-mail security by ISP’s, hosts
• E-mail programs which disable images and links by default
• An increase in the overall number of day-to-day e-mails being received

I’m amazed when I check my “Junk E-Mail” folder in Outlook and see how many e-mails from companies that I want to hear from end up there. These companies are just going about it the wrong way!

The fact is, there aren’t too many mediums that provide the same features that are offered with modern day e-mail marketing:

• Quantifiable results of your campaigns
• Live on-demand stats (analytics)
• Low cost
• Reinforce your brand
• Promote your Web site and content within
• Easy administration and re-use of templates
• Viral marketing – forward to a friend option

To avoid landing in junk e-mail folders, those sending the e-mails need to be wary of the pitfalls and the best strategies to use. But I think you’ll agree, compared to other marketing methods be it traditional or online, e-mail marketing still offers some great features and great return on investment. So, next time you’re looking for a way to deliver a targeted message with measurable results, you should seriously consider e-mail marketing.

Web Content is King

Today, it seems everyone wants their Web site to be at the top of the major search engines. And why wouldn’t they? With the ever-increasing number of people accessing the internet every day, and many using it as their sole information resource, it pays to be on top.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is big business today as companies scramble to get their Web site into the top 10 listings on Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, and other search engines. It’s important to understand that there are two ways to get to the top of search engine networks:

1. Organic listings – This is done by search engines crawling or spidering your site and indexing its content, then they assess its relevance and match the content with users’ search terms.
2. Pay Per Click - Paid listings – Google, MSN and Yahoo let you pay for certain keywords, phrases and terms on their online ad networks (i.e. Google Adwords) and then match the content with users’ search terms, putting your ad next to the search results.

The second option is definitely the quick fix to getting your business noticed right away, but competing with other companies for keywords, phrases and terms can get costly. Option one takes more time and is heavily dependent on a number of things, including:

• Good Web site structure
• Page design and layout
• Title, Meta tagging
• Reciprocal links

But no matter how much of this you do, the best way to get your site found is truly by adding relevant content and keeping things fresh. Give search engines a reason to come back by adding and updating things on your site. It all comes down to one simple truth…Web Content is King!

PRA Goes Web 2.0

August 31^st marked the launch date of the Plunkett Raysich Architects (PRA) new Web site. This is one of the many exciting Ektron-driven sites we’ve developed so far. We implemented some very cool custom functionality by leveraging the Ektron Content Management System (CMS) API including a:

• Portfolio
  • Project search
  • Project view
• Knowledge center
• Blog
• News/Events area
• Client testimonials
• Careers section
• RSS feeds
• Dynamic menus using menu module and site map

The greatest thing about this site is how easy it is to update content. PRA, like most companies, has a limited amount of time they can commit to their Web site. By building the site on the Ektron CMS framework, PRA staff can now:

• Add new content
• Publish blogs
• Add files to their knowledge center
• Update their portfolio
• Refine the site menu navigation
• Deploy contact forms

And, they can do it quickly and easily! Thanks to the great PRA team for being so easy to work with and for embracing technology in order to strategically move their online presence forward.

Milwaukee Rotary Goes Live!

This month we launched the all-new and improved Milwaukee Rotary Web site. The new site features some very cool functions, not to mention the Ektron Content Management System (CMS) under the hood.

Milwaukee Rotary had an existing Web site that had been developed in 2000 on PHP and MySQL. One of the challenges they faced was the manual update and synchronization of their Web database with member information from their local Microsoft Access database. With a custom solution, Versant recommended condensing the database and moving it to one location with a custom Web application interface.

Along with the new site, Versant created an extensive extranet application for Rotary members to manage their accounts that includes the following:

• Calendar of events
• Committee management with e-mail notification reminder
• Member search and management
• Bulk member e-mail

The new site was built on ASP.NET using the latest Ektron CMS 6.0 with a SQL Server back-end. Data synchronization challenges are a thing of the past and now Rotary can count on reliable information in one place. Our clients are really leveraging the CMS and adding new content all the time! The new site will save Rotary time and money, and give them reliable information on demand!

Thanks to the client for all their hard work and content entry, we really enjoyed the project.

You can view the new site here: http://www.milwaukeerotary.com.

Sterling Investments Live

This past week we launched the new Sterling Investment Partners Web site. Sterling is a merger and acquisition company based in Westport, CT. One of the requirements of the new site was that it needed to showcase the current portfolio of companies that Sterling works with, and provide relevant information as it relates to that company during and after the merger and acquisition process.

Due to the complexity of managing the various content items, we elected to build the site on a Content Management System (CMS). We then built a number of custom modules to organize and display the content in different ways. For instance, when you are viewing a portfolio company profile, you are also able to view related news releases, video or additional information on the same page without having to find it in another section of the site.

Every item on the site, including the drop-down menus, content, images and files is managed by the CMS, which makes it a breeze for the client to update and manage. We also shot and integrated a lot of custom video testimonials from the partners and clients throughout the site using Flash video, which is a really slick feature.

Thanks to everyone at Sterling for all their help, it has been a fun site to build. You can check out the new site here.

US Maintenance Web Site Launch

We launched the US Maintenance Web site last Friday. This was a great project to work on, and our first Web site built on the latest installment of Ektron’s CMS400.NET 6.0 content management system (CMS).

With a tight deadline and much to accomplish, we really came together as a team and leveraged the CMS feature set. Design, structure, content entry, programming and development occurred simultaneously using the Rapid Application Development model.

One of the challenges we faced in designing the site was merging three companies and their respective service offerings under the new US Maintenance corporate umbrella. We accomplished this using tabbed navigation that proved to be a great solution, and one you can check out for yourself.

The Shift to Web 2.0

The demands on any business today have changed. The marketplace is a rapidly changing. Businesses need to keep on top of trends and be much more responsive to the demands of their customers. Ten years ago when people wanted a product or a service they went to the phone book. If they wanted news, they turned on TV. If they wanted a book they went to the store. Today people want results, and they want them fast! When I want to find a product or a service I hit Google, not the phone book. This is the trend among a growing population (in the tens of millions) of Web savvy users.

So how does this relate to the Web? Today, a Web site is as crucial to a company as its bricks and mortar establishment. I would go as to far as to say that if your not on the Web, your dead! The thing is, having a Web site isn’t enough these days, you need a Web application. Enter Web 2.0.

I found a great explanation of Web 2.0 on an ASP.NET blog:

“Web 2.0, it is an unescapable change in the way the web will grow in the future. It is the convergence of several emerging ideas and technologies that individually wouldn't mean as much but that taken together make a real difference.”

Put simply, a Web application built on the Web 2.0 initiative leverages Web technology such as content management systems (CMS), RSS, AJAX and blogs to create a much more engaging and enriched user experience. Some great and popular examples are MySpace.com, Wikipedia and FlickR.

The above technologies and sites offer some great examples of how companies can reinvigorate their own sites by hopping on the Web 2.0 bandwagon. We rebuilt our corporate Web site last year on a number of these initiatives, including a CMS and a RSS news feed, and we started an employee blog to discuss our thoughts on various topics across a range of business areas. This approach helped us increase our Web presence and it gained us higher search engine rankings which, in turn, has lead to increased traffic and even yielded some key business leads. And that’s great for business!