Mostly resources for teaching and conferences now!
Information presented at Duke Clinical Research Institute on April 11, 2014: "What We Know About Your Website Users" presentation
See the list of sources used in the presentation for further exploration and learning.
Example of a communication plan in Word document format that can be used for an organization or specific program.
If you have any questions or don't see what you need, please contact me.
If you remember nothing else about this blog post, take away this:
I talk with small business owners every week who have this backwards. Recently, I had a typical conversation with a retail business owner who had a few online videos on his website:
Me: “Tell me about these videos.” Biz Owner: “We had to create videos. You know, people really want to watch videos, we had to do it.” Me: “I’m not getting any of the important things you told me about your business in these videos. They don’t match your branding or feel or have a clear message. I was confused when I watched them.” Biz Owner: “Oh. Hmm. . . . . But people like videos so I had to do something.”
Like many business owners, he had it backwards - he was choosing to use a video to tell others about his business, BUT he wasn’t clear on the story and message that he wanted to share
We know videos have extremely high abandonment rates - many viewers will leave after 10 or 20 seconds. Bad videos aren’t going to help your business at all. In fact, they just undermine your credibility.
FIRST determine what story you want to tell. Think of stories that best tell what you do and how people’s lives are changed by your business. (If you are having trouble with this, consider checking out The Story of Telling blog by Bernadette Jiwa.)
After you are clear on what the story is, THEN choose the proper format - text, video, graphic, photos or some combination of these.
Your story will give you clues as to the best way to tell it. For example, if you are explaining a process, a graphic or video might be great. On the other hand, if you are talking about a decisive moment in your business history, a photo and text combination might work.
For example, a young woman I know wanted to start a cape business. Knowing kids and beautiful capes would be involved, she made a great video for a Kickstarter campaign. Her campaign goal was $15,000. She was wildly successful and raised $45,000 to start her business. That video really helped her.
Again:
Burn this idea into your consciousness and make your content decisions by it. Take a moment right now if you can to think of a story you can tell about your business. Send me an email if you want to run it by me for feedback.
In my next post, I’ll talk in more detail about when a video format may be the best way to tell a story.
It's Valentine's Day weekend, so why not take a little time to show your website some love? Here are five suggestions to improve your website quickly: 1. Check for broken links. Having links that don't work frustrates your users and damages your credibility. Don't use up the goodwill of your site visitors on something easily fixable like broken links. There are free broken link checkers online such as: http://www.brokenlinkcheck.com/
2. Fix spelling errors. Quickly find spelling errors on your website with this website: http://respelt.com. Fix any errors to boost credibility and show you are detail oriented.
3. Update something, anything. Take a moment and see if you can freshen up just one thing on your website. Do you have a news item you could put up? Do you need to change your copyright date to 2014? Do you need to change some text?
4. Write a blog post. Blogging is valuable beyond being a useful tool to drive traffic to your website. For example, recent blog posts show visitors your website is up to date AND allow them to get to know you better. Both reasons encourage visitors to come back to you because they position you as someone current and approachable in your area of expertise.
5. Make sure you have a recent headshot. We know from usability research that website visitors scrutinize real photos of people and that a photo also adds credibility. But you need to make sure your headshot is recent. No, that photo from five years ago doesn't work. Change your photo every couple of years - and more often if you drastically change your look.
What one thing can you do for your website today? A little love goes a long way toward having a better website.
Content strategy is a relatively new term that began to be used in web circles in the late 90s. It's commonly used by many professionals now. What is it? Why should you care? Here's my short explanation of what content strategy is:
Content strategy provides useful information to your audience so they get what they want, when they want it, and how they want it. It's the planning, creation, and management of content in all forms.
If you bother to make content (create a website for example), it's worth thinking about content strategy. Simply put, you are more likely to get your goals met if you do some planning first.
Is content strategy the same as a communication plan? No. A communication plan would contain a content strategy. A communication plan is broader - it will specify overall goals for your organization, audiences, timelines, measures of success, etc.
You may be a very tiny business, perhaps a one person show, and wonder if you should be worried about this stuff. The answer is yes. You are more likely to be a successful and lasting business if you plan your communication. You will also then ensure you won't look like a zombie (book forthcoming on this topic).
If you don't have much time to devote to communication planning or content strategy, you can head the right direction by answering these questions:
This is a start toward a communication plan and content strategy. Let me know if you have questions or need help!
Information presented at Duke University Tech Expo on Jan. 9, 2014: "What We Know About Your Website Users" presentation
See the list of sources used in the presentation for further exploration and learning.
Duke ProComm development program
Example of a communication plan that can be used for an organization or specific program.
If you have any questions or don't see what you need, please contact me.
I'm an avid reader of both fiction and non-fiction. I'll take a book over television, movies, or games any day. Right now one of the books I'm really enjoying is The Functional Art: An introduction to information graphics and visualization. It's written by Alberto Cairo, one of the folks who attracted me to graduate school at the University of North Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communication. (Now he's moved on to the University of Miami). I didn't have the chance to learn directly from Cairo as he was on leave when I was at grad school, so I wanted to check out his book.
What I'm really liking (and I'm only on p.80) are the practical examples he offers from his own career. He also offers context and history about the field of infographics - for example, explaining the stark differences between Nigel Holmes and Edward Tufte. These two men have influenced infographics and data visualization greatly, and I was fortunate to hear both of them speak live in 2008 (not together, I can't imagine that would happen). There is value in both of their perspectives.
This book really seems to provide a nice lay of the landscape to someone new to infographics as well as some really practical direction. It has reminded me of things I forgot from my coursework already. I haven't dug into the instructional DVD yet.
My favorite quote of the book so far:
" . . .graphics should not simplify messages. They should clarify them, highlight trends, uncover patterns, and reveal realities not visible before."
I'm looking forward to reading more.
I had a fantastic weekend attending WordCamp Raleigh, a conference for those using or working with WordPress (WP). Just in case you don't know, WP is an open source content-management system and blogging tool based on PHP and MySQL. I use it to run my website and those of my clients.
I learned a bunch of helpful things at WordCamp - plug-ins and e-commerce tools and even some of the history of WP. There were three tracks of sessions you could attend - users, power users, and developers - lots of options no matter what your level of understanding of WP is. Some folks had been using it for years (WP has been around 10 years,) but others had just started exploring it two weeks prior.
1) Ubiquitous use. Approximately 20% of the websites in the world are run on the WordPress system from tiny blogs to major sites like CNN. Even if you think you don't want to use the WordPress system, it's good to understand it so you can compare other systems to it. How else will you know if WordPress is right to use for your business or blog (or those of your clients)?
2) Unbelievably friendly users. Maybe it's the open source thing, but wow, I was impressed by how forthcoming and helpful WordCamp speakers and fellow attendees were. The conference organizers were on site and very nice as well. The event was organized but informal, which I liked.
3) Unbeatable value. Professional development was a stellar deal for a mere $35 conference fee, which also included lunch and a t-shirt. And I was able to sit down with and ask questions directly of core contributors to WordPress. All of my questions were answered, and during the various sessions, I was exposed to features of WordPress that I was unfamiliar with. Super helpful.
So, go check out the upcoming schedule of worldwide WordCamps and see if you can attend!
My productivity and focus increased by about 40% after I meditated for 20 minutes today. In a short period, I wrote a bio for one website, finalized the schedule for a new website project, thanked a referral source, and did some research. And I had fun doing it. That is all. Om!
I've seen so many inactive blogs are out there! I'm brainstorming how to avoid ending up in the blog graveyard. Many people, including me, have started blogs and then stopped for various reasons. I understand that some blogs naturally have a short life, but many end because of blogging burnout or other priorities taking over.
To avoid this, I’m coming up with a few rules for my new blog on communication topics:
1) One line is good enough. Sometimes I may not have much to say or time to say it. And that’s ok. One line, one photo, one complete thought is enough for a post.
2) No scheduled content. I refuse to write a blog post because I “should.” Obligatory blog posts completely ruin the fun of blogging for me. If I don’t have anything to share that is either useful to others OR helpful for me to express, then I wait. This means I may post three times one week, and then maybe not post for another three weeks.
3) Respond to comments. I commit to responding to comments on my blog or social media posts I make. If I don’t, I miss the chance to connect with others, which is one of my main motives for blogging.
With these guidelines in mind, I'm feeling enthusiastic about blogging again!