eMarketer is offering a free webinar called "Doing a Website Redesign for 2010 with an Internet Marketing Strategy in Mind." Sounds pretty timely to me. Below are details. I'm registering--let me know if you're interested and I'll snag a conference room.
Free Live Webinar: Wednesday January 13, 2010 at 1:00pm ET
The Internet has made apparent that a company's website is an increasingly important asset. Many businesses are now embarking on website redesign projects to "improve" their websites. However, in order to really get the most out of a website redesign, companies need to construct their website in the context of a greater Internet marketing strategy.This webinar will be hosted by HubSpot's VP of Marketing, Mike Volpe. Mike leads HubSpot's lead generation and branding strategy. Since Mike joined HubSpot, the company has grown from 12 to 1,800 customers, 5 to 100 employees, and raised $33 million of venture capital.
This free live webinar will cover:
* Before you get started - when and why to do a website redesign * Keyword research to build out your website content strategically * Building your website's reputation via blogs and social media * How to measure results from your Internet marketing efforts
An article at MarketingProfs.com recently discussed the 10 biggest dot-com naming trends.
These clever trends range from The Hookup, in which two words are linked together to create a whole new word and add it to our vernacular (Think YouTube, which was the winner, and TalkShoe, which was a sad, play-on-accent loser), to The Misspeller (Boku, a phonetic take on the French word beaucoup, won this race, and Cuil- do we really need another way to spell "cool?"- came in last place).
Photo sharing site Flickr came in first for The Letter-Dropper trend, and iStalkr, last. A bit intrigued by this creepy dot-com, I looked it up. This a tool that allows you to "stalk" those who subscribe to the same feeds as you do (Digg, YouTube, Flickr, etc), and vice versa. In essence, you see what they are reading and they you.
True it is an ill-conceived name, but I am more struck by the idea that someone out there believes we need yet another way to connect with each other. As we begin to have more of a relationship with our computers and our favored websites and articles (and therefore I posit less of a relationship with our human companions), we are inventing more ways to interact without actually interacting. Have the water cooler discussion, just not by the water cooler. One could propose that we are becoming more e-articulate, but less conversationally so. Or perhaps we are intrinsic cataloguers. All this from a site that isn't doing well and is poorly named.
In any case, 10 Best and Worst Internet Company Names of the Decade gives you pause. Every one of the "best" I do use, have used or at the very least have heard of. Of the "worst," only a couple have ever made it across my computer screen. Their bad names in consideration, it is also their function that has doomed them. Most of them are something I just don't have use for.
So here are a few questions to consider-
What companies have come before and what will come after? Will people get the name? What relevance does it carry? Is there any weight to it?
On-demand information for Idaho winter fun. The Bogus mobile project was developed to target iPhone and other webkit based mobile browsers to provide useful information for the skier on the go. An additional version was developed to target less capable mobile browsers, bringing the best possible experience to a wide range of devices. The content on the mobile site reflects the most frequently visited content on the main Bogus site plus other helpful information. To enhance the experience, AJAX content loading was used to minimize requests and keep the mobile site responsive. Handy info for those great Idaho powder days.
I don't do any consulting, but that doesn't stop people from asking me questions. The most common question people ask me when they want a new website is, "If you were in charge of this, who are the 2 or 3 people you’d want to be sure to talk to – to help think through the issues, help us figure out who should do the work, etc.?"
The second most common question people ask me, "In addition to Apple’s site, are there 2 or 3 that you think are really appealing and work well for their business?"
I think these are perhaps the tenth and eleventh questions you should ask, not the first two. Here's my list of difficult and important questions you have to answer before you spend a nickel:
What is the goal of the site?
In other words, when it's working great, what specific outcomes will occur?
Who are we trying to please? If it's the boss, what does she want? Is impressing a certain kind of person important? Which kind?
How many people on your team have to be involved? At what level?
Who are we trying to reach? Is it everyone? Our customers? A certain kind of prospect?
What are the sites that this group has demonstrated they enjoy interacting with?
Are we trying to close sales?
Are we telling a story?
Are we earning permission to follow up?
Are we hoping that people will watch or learn?
Do we need people to spread the word using various social media tools?
Are we building a tribe of people who will use the site to connect with each other?
Do people find the site via word of mouth? Are they looking to answer a specific question?
Is there ongoing news and updates that need to be presented to people?
Is the site part of a larger suite of places online where people can find out about us, or is this our one sign post?
Is that information high in bandwidth or just little bits of data?
Do we want people to call us?
How many times a month would we like people to come by? For how long?
Who needs to update this site? How often?
How often can we afford to overhaul this site?
Does showing up in the search engines matter? If so, for what terms? At what cost? Will we be willing to compromise any of the things above in order to achieve this goal?
Will the site need to be universally accessible? Do issues of disability or language or browser come into it?
How much money do we have to spend? How much time?
And finally,
Does the organization understand that 'everything' is not an option?
Miss Gibson, if you please, our Director of Media and Research has recently passed her Google Adwords Certification!
So what does this mean? It means that not only is Robbin a whiz at taking brutal exams (it is rumored that she participated in Exam Gauntlet XVI where she took fourteen back to back exams in a twenty-four hour period, pausing only to devour Powerbars and swig Rockstar energy drinks, and passed every exam with a 92% or better. For fun. No kidding) but she now has a full and developed understanding of how to better create, enhance and position our clients' websites and advertising to ensure maximum exposure and optimization on Google, Yahoo, Bing and just about any other search engine you can name.
We're so proud of her! Just another delicious dish served up from your friends at Drake Cooper.
This weird looking barcode above is a QR Code, and not only that, but it's Drake Cooper's QR Code. QR codes are unique, two-dimensional bar codes, which can be placed on any item. They allow consumers to use their wireless devices to interact in a graphical manner with traditional and digital media. Consumers can take a picture of this bar code using their camera phone on a mobile device and through bar code reading software, the 2D code is interpreted to provide product information, downloads, or take consumers to a mobile website. Most U.S. phones don't have the technology installed in them but there is an application for iPhones as well as downloads for other smartphones to read the bar code. If you have the software on your phone take a picture of the code above and it will take you to our (Drake Cooper's) website.
The technology has roots in Japan where up to 40% of cell phone users have reportedly accessed bar codes on their mobile devices. QR codes are fairly common in culture pubs like Nylon and XLR8R but have more recently started to creep into mainstream magazines like GQ, television shows like CSI: NY and Pepsi has even placed them on bottles of soda. While it's hard to say when QR codes will become more common practice in the U.S., we should start planning now on how best to use them now.
Pretty cool way to get consumers to your website for more information at the exact moment they may be wanting more from your brand.
For those who haven't noticed, eclectic art and entertainment is starting to emerge on Facebook FunSpace. This example is the brain child of Slide Inc., which builds social media entertainment applications, and Katalyst Media, an Ashton Kutcher-led production firm. See the Keep your eyes on Slide. The company has a lot of heat behind it and is doing some fantastic stuff. There might be ideas there about the evolution of our clients' sites.
Addressing the troubling rise of what’s being referred to as “nature deficit disorder” is the driving force behind a new initiative that deems 2009 “Be Outside – Idaho Children in Nature” year. More than 100 state and federal agencies are partnering with educators, health care professionals and private entities to help raise awareness about the importance of children establishing a meaningful and lasting bond with the great outdoors.
In support of this initiative, Drake Cooper worked with Idaho’s Department of Parks and Recreation to design a website encouraging nature-deficient youth to go outside and play. The website, designed by Justin Yonk of Drake Cooper, includes 101 ideas for ways to play outside, the latest news and events happening outside in Idaho, information on how to get involved with the initiative, Idaho maps featuring destinations and attractions and plenty of other goodies.
Image by Getty Images via DaylifeMy favorite website experience of 2008 is....believe it or not, the newly updated Wall Street Journal - www.wsj.com. Last year the site got a major overhaul, which it badly needed. In fact, tracking the older versions of the Wall Street Journal's online experience shows how the world wide web has matured and how we all want (demand?) to get our information. At first they barely had a web experience. Then once they did, they required a subscription to get to anything worthwhile. Other papers moved ahead of them providing the full content of their papers online. And then so did everyone one else in the news business. With print waning I wondered if the old school, yet still relevant, WSJ would just eventually fade away into its place in history.
But, like most times, I was wrong. At last, in 2008 the WSJ jumped head first into the online game and leapfrogged many other news sources with their new site, reigning in 34 million readers a month, 2.2 million a day. For comparative purposes the print circulation is 1.876 million and largely comprised of US readers. How have they excelled online? Lots of ways, but for starters: it is easy to navigate, it is esthetically pleasing (to me), ads are tastefully done and presented in a very professional way. There is a massive amount of information, but the navigation is very manageable. It loads quickly. It provides video, audio and basically covers a topic from many angles including reader comments. I love that, in some cases, writers are adding video blogs about their stories. When I read something I want to pass along it is easy to post a story to Facebook or any other social tool. It is kept current throughout the day. And mostly it really comes off being a very "high end" site, for lack of a better word, which I am going to speculate resonates well with their target audience (typically well employed males 45 to 55 years of age). Of course the content itself is critical to the equation too, but beyond that, the presentation, usability and navigability is the best out there for a news source according to me.
I am impressed an old-line newspaper like this could advance their digital game so far, so quickly. I think they are leading the pack, and I think it is worth checking out for business news if you haven't already.
So the next question is: did Rupert Murdoch drive this? If he is going after the New York Times, as he has stated, this may be a good way to get there.
Image via CrunchBase This week, the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project released a new data memo titled Adults and Social Network Websites that looks at how adults use sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace. Among the main findings of the report:
The share of adult internet users who have a profile on an online social network site has more than quadrupled in the past four years -- from 8% in 2005 to 35% now, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project's December 2008 tracking survey.
While media coverage and policy attention focus heavily on how children and young adults use social network sites, adults still make up the bulk of the users of these websites. Adults make up a larger portion of the US population than teens, which is why the 35% number represents a larger number of users than the 65% of online teens who also use online social networks.
Still, younger online adults are much more likely than their older counterparts to use social networks, with 75% of adults 18-24 using these networks, compared to just 7% of adults 65 and older. At its core, use of online social networks is still a phenomenon of the young.
Overall, personal use of social networks seems to be more prevalent than professional use of networks, both in the orientation of the networks that adults choose to use as well as the reasons they give for using the applications. Most adults, like teens, are using online social networks to connect with people they already know.
When users do use social networks for professional and personal reasons, they will often maintain multiple profiles, generally on different sites.
Most, but not all adult social network users are privacy conscious; 60% of adult social network users restrict access to their profiles so that only their friends can see it, and 58% of adult social network users restrict access to certain content within their profile.
I follow Matt Dickman on Twitter. He has a solid understanding of marketing technology and coming trends and is an interesting blogger. Matt is Vice President, Digital Marketing at Fleishman-Hillard in Cleveland.
Here is a recent post on Matt's blog Techno Marketer, about the ages of users on Facebook and MySpace that is worth checking out. Facebook is reaching critical mass in the US, overtaking MySpace in the 36-45 age range. Facebook's over 40 growth is still booming at 24% although their growth in the under under 30 age group has become stagnant. MySpace still dominates the high school and college crowd.
GREAT piece of research here for marketers and technologists.Contains internet, advertising, social media data. From Morgan Stanley (surprising?) presentation @ Web2.0 Summit: http://is.gd/6xAf
Throughout the conference there was a lot of talk about how well Barack Obama used online channels and social media (most specifically Facebook) to get people energized and engaged. Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook CEO) noted the tremendous success of "Facebook Causes" in particular during the election - growing by "hundreds of thousands of people a day."
"Clearly a sea-change has washed upon the country. Just as in the 60's a new medium became the dominant medium in this election. Whereas TV was the new one-way broadcast medium when JFK used it so adeptly during his debate with Nixon, in 2008 the Internet brings interactivity, dialog, and conversation to the mix." -Gavin Newsom, Mayor, San Francisco (12,179 supporters on Facebook) Facebook page HERE.
For us marketers, understanding and harnessing web 2.0 and social media...and turning it into effective marketing, not just more marketing, will continue to be important. We should look no further than our recent presidential election for our case studies.
Here is some work our Project Managers are loving right now-
Toxel. Ad upon ad is posted here. They always cite what it is for and give a link to the agency, etc. Here are a few faves-
For BBC- For Air Canada For Bare Wetsuits-
Shynola is a super rad production and media company. They've done a lot of music videos and commercials- a lot of which are in vector. Their music video for Queens of the Stone Age is pretty unreal.
Also DDB Especially this commercial for Volkswagon Golf.
This agency is pretty wacky. Every time you click to their site, you'll get a different page. Sometimes they are selling butterflies, sometimes it is a Sheriff's website. You never know. And if you call them on one of their ads, looking for a hot air balloon ride, say, they will actually book one for you.
It's not for every client, but it is innovative and thoughtful.
Sometimes I send messages I shouldn't send. Like the time I told that girl I had a crush on her over text message. Or the time I sent that late night email to my ex-girlfriend that we should get back together. Gmail can't always prevent you from sending messages you might later regret, but today we're launching a new Labs feature I wrote called Mail Goggles which may help.
When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you're really sure you want to send that late night Friday email. And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you're in the right state of mind?
By default, Mail Goggles is only active late night on the weekend as that is the time you're most likely to need it. Once enabled, you can adjust when it's active in the General settings.
Hopefully Mail Goggles will prevent many of you out there from sending messages you wish you hadn't. Like that late night memo -- I mean mission statement -- to the entire firm.
The Drake Cooper interactive team continues to receive national accolades for their outstanding work. Most recently, the Idaho Scenic Byways website was recognized at the annual National Transportation Public Affairs Workshop (NTPAW) as the "Nation’s Best Website."
The award was given by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and it recognizes Idaho Scenic Byways for its well-designed, interactive website which provides a comprehensive way for travelers to view Idaho’s scenic byways in great visual detail.
With Google Maps integration, site visitors can click and choose any desired byway to find information on areas of interest, lodging, events and attractions unique to each byway. Scenic photography is used to help tell the story, with each byway having it’s own photo album. Travelers can use the site to order a free scenic byway guide, link to a national byways web site, or even send a cool e-postcard from the Idaho byway of their choice.
The Idaho Scenic Byways web site is the result of collaboration between the Idaho Transportation Department, Idaho Division of Tourism Development, and Drake Cooper, all of which make up the collaborate in Idaho Scenic Byways’ marketing efforts. The site was designed and developed to promote awareness of the beauty and diversity of Idaho’s scenic byways.
The NTPAW was held in Nashville last month. The award is based on quality, intelligence and creativity, and is peer-judged. Nice work DC interactive!
Drake Cooper has been working with the Idaho Travel Council since 1981. We love them. Together we put forth advertising, pr, web and other marketing materials to help encourage travelers to explore the great state of Idaho.
As we all know, there's lots of great places in the world to visit and tons of great online tourism environments. So it was an honor to hear that the primary DC/ITC site, VisitIdaho.org, was an Official Honoree at the 12th Annual Webby Awards. Some of the other top nominees were SouthAustralia.com, VisitBritain.com, Us.Holland.com, Montereyinfo.org and Furuvik.se.
Each of these sites are very cool to check out, combining engaging environments that highlight the core reasons people should visit. We particularly enjoy what Furuvik.se did--a complete user experience of the area, which, surprisingly, you don't even need to understand the language to comprehend the experience they offer. Excellent.
The Official Honoree distinction is awarded to work that scores in the top 15% of all work entered into the Webby Awards. There are nearly 10,000 entries received from all 50 states and over 60 countries.
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