Managing Subscriptions

I've realized a tactical mistake I made in signing up for information and knowledge using my work email and now that I am changing jobs I have to figure out which enewsletters I want to still subscribe to. However, its not easy to change your email address on most of these enewsletters. Most ownly offer the option to unsubscribe - what a lost opportunity for them. A few let me manage my subscriptions but not change my email address. And some have allowed me to change my email and then they send an email to the new address and I've had to confirm - even though I had to login in the first place to change the information.

If you want readers, make it easy to subscribe and manage their accounts.

Hide and Seek with the Search Engines

It use to be, not so long ago, you typed in something in the search field and hit search or “I’m feeling lucky” and in return you got ten blue links, and you hoped that at least one was relevant.

But now, as searchers, we have expectations: we want personalized and highly relevant results; the ability to search from mobile devices; we want real time results (think twitter streams); and we want it in the format we wish to consume it in (think video).

With all those demands and expectations on the search engine it is no wonder that search engine optimization and search engine marketing has gotten more complex.

At the recent “The Search Engine Tune Up” conference produced by Marketing Magazine in Toronto, speakers talked about ways to be invisible to search engines and guiding principles for SEM.

10 Ways to be invisible

Just to be clear, you don’t want your site to be invisible, but some organizations seem to do it naturally. Andrew Goodman outlined at least 10 ways to stay invisible.

1. Be a minimalist with no or little content on your home page so that search spiders can’t categorize your site.
2. Ignore the importance of information architecture and use uncertain or vague categories. Search engines collect data on click streams so if all the visitors to your site are confused there are no clear paths to denote important content.
3. Make sure your site is slllllloooooooow. Search engines look at the user experience over time and how that relates to conversion, so if users are abandoning or exiting quickly, there are no clear paths to mark.
4. Make sure you don’t provide any indexing views like a sitemap so that search engines can understand the site.
5. Hide stuff; throw up a firewall just when the user thinks they may have found what they want and so the search engine can’t index it.
6. Less is more – provide very little content on your products or services and don’t provide content in different formats (e.g. photos with descriptions).
7. Don’t use title or heading tags – you don’t want anyone to know what they’re looking at or how to reference it, that goes for search engines too.
8. Don’t write for the web with search engine optimization and social media in mind, just keep those long, heavy text, scrolling pages with no headings or chunked text, oh, and it doesn’t matter if they aren’t clearly written or updated… they’re invisible.
9. Don’t measure referrals or build them, if you want to stay invisible, you don’t want to build up your linking neighbourhood with relevant referring links.
10. Focus on having 10 blue links returned in the results and cross your fingers that your site is one of them, or not if you want to stay invisible; ignore the importance of local search and universal search results that return photos and videos, which get higher click throughs.

5 Guiding Principles for Search Engine Marketing

Yes, it is still easy to remain invisible. But if you do want to be noticed and are exploring search engine marketing then consider these guiding principles:

1. Where you rank is incredibly important for getting visitors – people are less likely to scroll or go to another page, they are more likely to conduct a different search.
2. Search today is blended and personalized and shows photos and videos available on the topic (and just to add to your challenges search engines are using partnerships and their own brand to add to the results – think http://books.google.com/ ); people notice photos in the results first.
3. Free is important as search becomes your funnel, the goal then is to collect attention like currency and then monetize when you’ve built your bank of attention (think http://www.yelp.ca/ which offers free restaurant reviews and had over 26 million visitors in December and now sells ads on their site).
4. Consider mobile devices and what the user experience is – 41% of mobile users compare prices and read product reviews on their device while in the store; 37% have made a purchase using their mobile; 45% abandon the sales process because the shopping cart didn’t load properly - according to Tyler Calder at Search Engine People; He adds that “1.5 Million items were sold through Ebay’s iPhone Application through the holidays (1 item every 2 seconds)”.
5. Get social – in the past year Facebook traffic has increased 185% and on March 15, 2010 Facebook overtook Google as the most visited site; Consumers value other people’s opinions higher than any advertisement; Facebook can provide targeted demographics so you can go where your audience is.

Hide or Seek
As you can tell, it is easy for a site to stay hidden. There are now too many pages for the search engines to index. If you are not putting key words in your page title, headings, content, alt tags and links and you don’t have a site map or relevant links why should the search engines bother with you?

But if you do want to get noticed, seek out communities of interest like Facebook as social networking sites are where your customers are looking for information, and keep in mind, they may well be looking with their mobile device.

Online Investor Relations - Transparency and Credibility are Key

Online investor relations has a mandate to be transparent and credible; it is a mandate that is being imposed by both legal considerations and a discerning public. And frankly, it is good business.

Online investor relations has a mandate to be transparent and credible; it is a mandate that is being imposed by both legal considerations and a discerning public. And frankly, it is good business.

In the aftermath of Worldcom and Enron, legislation like the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act – which has global implications, and the Ontario Securities Commission rulings, companies will have to be transparent in their dealings or else. This is a good opportunity for some companies to regain their credibility.

It’s a fact: stockholders (and potential stockholders) and media search websites for investor information. As such, your corporate website should ‘own’ that information in the form of a dedicated and detailed investor section or “room”...

Who is vital for Investor Relations
Create a contacts page

The number one priority for users seeking investor information - contact information. Key contacts or people and their respective contact information (especially phone number AND email) are extremely important to the media and to institutional investors in particular.
According to IR Web Report “fewer than 20 per cent of companies are providing credible IR contact information on their websites.” It may be available in the global navigation banner in the form of “Contact Us” but it should also be repeated right on the Investor Relations home page.

Who is using investor relations information…

• 56% of investment professionals used company websites at least monthly, with 28% using them weekly.- the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute member technology usage survey, 2000
• 89% of investment professionals were using company sites at least monthly, with 75% using sites at least weekly- a survey by Rivel Research Group, 2003
• 74% of retail investors spent some time online doing investment-related activities - According to the Voice of the American Shareholder study by the National Association of Investors Corporation (NAIC) 2003
• 90% of retail investors who use the Web use company websites to confirm investment ideas and decisions.
• Source: 09 June 2004, How credible is your IR website? ByDominic Jones

What your Investor Relations site should do

Publicly traded companies must:

• Be transparent
• Release both positive and negative news, through: advertising, public meetings, regular news releases and a proactive website
• Have performance-based reporting (e.g. scorecards)
• Satisfy investor needs
• Have strong corporate governance

Therefore, a formal approach is required for your investor relations room which should also contain a corporate governance section.

Corporate Governance for Investor Relations
An optimal corporate Governance section on your site would include:

• Strategy and vision statements
• Company history, products/services, geographical reach, sector
• Company markets and future trends
• Competitor profile, sector challenges
• List of directors and committees
• Biographies of directors, date of appointment, policies of appointments, remuneration etc
• Terms of reference for nominations, remuneration & audit committees, their role and authority
• Performance evaluations
• Non-audit fees paid to the auditors and tendering process where non-audit fees exceed audit fees
• Detail of proxy votes and abstentions
• Any pending litigation
• Company policies
• Executive Compensation
• Fiduciary/Oversight Duties
• Affiliate Transactions
• Shareholder Voting Issues
• Proxy Statement
• Compliance with Disclosure Laws
• Internal Control Policies and Procedures
• Whistleblower Policies
• Drafting and Reviewing Committee Charters
• Audit Committee Responsibilities
• Insider Trading Programs
• Stock Plans
• Letter from the Spokesperson

In addition to the above, your investor relations room should contain:

• Contact details – investor relations email, phone; analysts and advisors
• About us (or links to it) – including company activities and fact sheets
• Annual report, interim, quarterly and preliminary statements
• Archive of annual reports and financial data (for 5-10 years) including relevant shareholder circulars, revenue, operating profit, pre and post tax profit, EBITDA (earnings before interest taxation, depreciation and amortization), and dividend payments
• Shareholder documents relating to listings in other markets (if applicable)
• Extracts of financial highlights & summaries (indicated audited or not) from financial reports so information isn’t buried
• Company information – brochures and newsletters
• Calendar of events (AGM, dividend payouts, result announcements)
• FAQs
• Glossary of terms
• Credit ratings (S&P, Moody’s, Fitch)
• Press releases and archives (or link to your media room or to financial releases
• Relevant news (good and bad)

Some Best Practices – how to have the best Investor Relations Room:

• Recognizable URL, identifiable branding
• Company intangibles – brand and human capital
• Searchable, indexed
• Reports in multiple languages
• Translations of webcasts
• Financial data in more than one currency
• Multiple formats (e.g. for annual reports) – pdfs and html (financial reports in Excel); printable
• Virtual visits to company facilities
• Accessibility (visual, hearing, cognitive and motor impairments) www.w3.org/WAI/Resources; browser/os compatibility
• Quantitative and qualitative information
• Key financial ratios
• Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)
• Return on Net Assets (RONA)
• Total Shareholder Return (TSR)
• Cash Flow Per Share
• Discounted Cash Flow Per Share
• Earnings Per Share (EPS)
• Interest cover and gearing ratios
• Dividend and capital history including stock splits
• Capital gains tax information
• Tax information – mergers/acquisitions
• Financial presentations – available as webcasts and related slides; include Q&As; and archived
• Executive presentations, speeches, reports, articles
• Share price history as downloadable spreadsheet
• Access to electronic filings (e.g. US Securities & Exchange Commission using EDGAR system)
• Stock price (current) and Data
• Opportunity to purchase (e.g. how to contact a broker etc)
• Stock symbol and trading codes; stock exchanges where traded (links); relevant banking terms
• Shareholder information
• Analysis by size, type and geographical holding
• Percentage holdings and details by principal shareholders
• AGM details including votes for and against resolutions and abstentions
• Reasons for any resignations of directors
• Electronic proxies, forms, share registration facilities, etc.
• Shareholder information forms (change of address, stock transfers etc)
• Any dividend reinvestment plans, savings accounts, etc
• Share price, trading volumes etc
• Outstanding bond and note issuance with maturities, coupons, security rankings
• SEC Filings
• Reconciliations
• Investor Inquiries/FAQs – specific to finance
• Transfer Agents
• Dividend Reinvestment
• Dividend History
• Investment Clubs
• Splits & Dividends
• Analyst Coverage
• Analyst Estimates
• Historical price lookup
• Sales & Earnings
• Earning Estimates
  

Tools to consider for Investor Relations:

• Investment Calculator – to assess value of shareholdings over time
• Events Calendar
• Investor Webcasts
• Email Alerts (subscribe)
• Interactive Stock Chart
• Email option for investor news, alerts
• Help and feedback options

Related links to consider for investor relations:

• Industry, regulators, competitors
• Corporate Citizenship
• News
• Diversity Programs and Corporate culture
• Some websites that feature good IR practices include Deutschebank and Carmanah Technologies.
  

Why you need an investor relations section on your website

The purpose behind making information available via the Internet is directly related to who is using it and how it is being used. According to Rivel Research...

• 44% of U.S. portfolio managers said they had bought stock as a result of information they obtained on corporate websites.

Company websites had a "substantial impact" on their attitudes toward a company and its stock, stated:

• 48% of U.S. portfolio managers,
• 43% of European portfolio managers, and
• 43% of Canadian portfolio managers
• Source: Rivel Research, March 2003 report

Of course you need to provide information that your users require but you also need to provide information to address legal issues and perceptions.

The Importance of Disclosure
“Times have changed. These days, an explosion of do-it-yourself investing -- driven by Internet and cable news delivered up to the second--is shaking up the marketplace. And securities regulators, conscious of the growing importance of the retail investor, are demanding disclosure be more equitable,” writes Kevin Liblin in “No More Secrets” (Canadian Business, October 10, 2000).

To even the playing field for non-institutional investors, more and more companies are making webcasts and conference calls available to all investors.

There are differing opinions on the value of disclosure; there are some benefits and some costs that can be attributed to it. What companies need to keep in mind is that transparency means nothing to hide – and if you don’t hide anything you become more credible. You’ll have to do your own cost benefit analysis.

“When firms choose to submit to more onerous disclosure requirements they experience an increase in stock prices, reduced bid-ask spreads and greater share turnover,” says the Ontario Securities Commission in a Cost Benefit Analysis of Investor Confidence. “However, when regulations are imposed, some firms may find the costs outweigh the benefits.”

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act, is U.S. compliance legislation covering governance issues, regulations for audit committee responsibility and protection for whistleblowers. And while some believe SOX is too much and too costly, the fact remains it is law.

“It is now becoming fashionable to believe that corporate behaviour should always be viewed with suspicion,” says Dominic D’Alessandro, CEO of Manulife Financial, quoted in a May 6 Globe and Mail article. “This is a very dangerous premise upon which to develop a governance regime. I am afraid that by doing so we run the risk of imposing onerous and impractical restraints that will stifle entrepreneurial activity.” He estimates that it will cost Manulife up to $30 million a year to comply with new regulation from both sides of the border, particularly the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

How you deliver investor relations
Transparency and credibility must start at the top. The CEO needs to be committed to ensuring that information is available and that there are resources to provide the information to investors and media. The CEO, as chief spokesperson, also needs to stand behind that commitment and be available to answer questions from the investment community including media and analysts.
Setting up an investor relations room and maintaining it with up-to-date information will require a commitment of time as well as standards and processes to ensure that all information that you say you’ll provided is posted in a timely fashion and in user-friendly formats – such as financial reports in excel as well as PDF.

Conclusion - transparent and credible
A valuable online investor relations site or section does require a lot of work but it will be invaluable to investors and media, and therefore to you. By providing as much information as you can and keeping it current and accurate you move towards ‘transparency’ and also to greater credibility.

Some might ask “can we afford to do it?” If transparency and credibility are key goals for your investor relations then the more appropriate question is “Can you afford not to?”

Online Media Relations - Establishing Credibility

Successful online media relations requires some smart thinking and a lot of diligence put into the who, what, why and how.

News has taken on a life of its own on the Internet and it has become more demanding. Internet users, including members of the media, can search the Internet for information they need and turn-it-around as quickly as it takes to type. The rules are different and they are blurred; advertising isn’t necessarily clearly separated from editorial, and corrections are not necessarily posted as corrections – the information is usually quietly up-dated (and sometimes ignored altogether). And of course, there’s also the issue of photo manipulation.

Who
The number one priority of surfing journalists: contact information. If you want to remain friendly with the journalists covering your beat, you better provide names and phone numbers right on the media relations home page. In fact, it’s best if you organize this contact information into categories including areas of expertise and geography (two great examples of this include the IBM and Microsoft media relations home pages).

"It's amazing why companies keep information such as addresses and phone numbers a secret," Hollywood's KNX Newsradio Executive Producer Ed Pyle told ClickZ (March 20, 2001). "Unless you're located in Area 51, you ought to make this information very easy to access.”

Despite the basic necessity and learning of anyone that’s ever received one hour of media or public relations training, it is still not uncommon to come across press releases that have NO CONTACT INFORMATION!!! There is absolutely no excuse for such an omission which deserves a rap on the knuckles.

And if you do publish the contact information, you better make sure that person is available to return a journalists phone call quickly (within an hour or two, or use a substitute).

Stan Sutter, in a poignant Marketing Magazine Article entitled 10 Things I Hate About PR” also points out yet another unforgivable shortcoming of bad PR: “So many press releases we see are just badly done. They're often overwritten and take forever to get to the point. And they're often missing the basic who, what, where, when, why and how much: information that journalists all need as the starting point of any story.”

What
Everyone, especially media, want information fast and they want it to be current. Therefore, be committed to keeping your information up-to-date and make it easy to find – have descriptive, clear headings and date information.

Your media room should contain:

• Contacts, addresses, phone numbers and email (for each contact or office)
• News – up-to-date and newsworthy
• Fact sheets and backgrounders (include number of offices, number of employees, safety info – if applicable, etc)
• Press Releases – clearly named and dated, with an archive for older releases
• Biographies of executives
• Press clippings – links to other articles
• FAQs
• News features
• Case studies
• Speeches and presentations by senior executives – in html, PDF and original formats (Word or PowerPoint)
• Executive and product photos – high and low resolution options, easy to download
• Product/service information (brochures in downloadable formats)
• Brand your site (but don’t recommend downloadable logos because logos are part of your branding, image and reputation – if you post downloadable logos you lose control of how and where they are used)
• Audio and Video clips – name them clearly and indicate size and format; Provide sound bites from the CEO
• Global and local information
• Calendar of events – with a contact for more information
• Quick links to affiliations, partners, community, industry information etc.
  

Why
Media need a quick reference tool to find the details about your organization – and let’s face it, you’d rather they find out from you then someone else. No matter what angle the reporter’s story, if they can’t find the information they need you will be giving them the message that you’re not being cooperative or transparent and you will lose credibility. If you lose credibility, then who knows what angle a journalist will cover. If you hang your clothing on your line then there is no need for anyone to look for dirty laundry!

How
It can’t be said enough... Make sure your information is current and accurate.
Make sure online information can be found and is accessible – this includes:

• clear taxonomy (naming conventions)
• structured information architecture
• following through on posting information you said you would
• no broken links
• information available (as appropriate):
• in a variety of formats (html, PDF, Word, PowerPoint and Excel)
• in a variety of languages
• Make sure your story is news worthy (especially press releases)
• Write well – be concise and spell check
• Forums and blogs can create dialogue and interaction but make sure you moderate them

Conclusion
Stan Stutter further advises media relations professionals “you should know your target and their needs. If it's clear you know what my media organization is about and what I'm delivering to readers, I'm much more likely to take you seriously. Don't waste our time with useless and badly targeted information.”

Therefore, availability of contacts and corporate information is the most important means for online media rooms to be effective agents for transparency and credibility. It’s hard to measure a media room’s success but everyone knows the consequences of not having a strong media relations presence.

Get discovered – Understanding search engine optimization

If you’re one of the 694 million people who used the Internet in March 2006 (according to comScore) then you also probably conducted at least one of the 2.7 billion searches on Google or 1.6 billion searches Yahoo (Center for Media Research). Did you find what you were looking for?
Everyone loves a great find – whether it is where to purchase gas at the best price or get a good deal on shoes. It is human nature to search out our interests and revel in our discoveries. So it is no surprise that the behaviour of users on the world wide web has shifted from send me information and tell me what I need, to I want to choose what information I receive, when I receive it and how I receive it. Users want more control of their information and they are demanding the flexibility.

So what does this mean for your website, especially when you are trying to drive traffic to it so you can achieve your strategic site goals? Essentially, people are using search engines to find what they want, so you better know how to make sure they find you.

Search has become an online sales tool; a highly effective marketing channel for engaging consumers throughout the purchasing consideration process. Consumers pull information to themselves in various ways with different media and may take as many as 12 searches before they make their purchasing decision, each find helps them to refine their search and define their needs more until they get very specific in what they want, including brand choice. So users will arrive at your site at different phases of their decision making process – are you ready for them?

The importance of search engine optimization

A quick scan of the facts reveals why SEO is so important for marketing effectiveness:

• Being found and clicked on
  62% of users click on first page search results with an accumulative 90% clicking on results from the first three pages of returns. And 87% of results clicked on were from the organic (non paid) portion of the search results – which are totally dependent on their ranking by ensuring they follow the optimization techniques.
• Given credibility – leaders rise to the top
  “…users ascribe industry leadership to those brands within top results, and believe them to be leaders in their fields given their placement in the results” according to Robert Murray, President, iProspect

Some things you should do to be found

So how do you ensure that your product, service or information is one of the top results amongst billions? More importantly, how do you ensure that you’re included in the 12 searches made in a buying cycle? You need to increase your search engine optimization, which requires a good understanding of search engines. For instance:

Crawlers (A web crawler, also known as a web spider or web robot, is a program which browses the World Wide Web in a methodical, automated manner.) rank by:

• Content – should be relative and descriptive
• Title tag – concise and descriptive
• Design – strong information architecture as base (read Design II – structure comes before design and Information Architecture – the science of layout)
• Links – cross links and external links
• Age - how long your site has been up
• Neighbourhood - who are you linking to and who is linking to you
  

Here are some tips and best practices that you should follow:

• Try the 8 second test – have someone view the page for the first time for 8 seconds then ask them what they think the site is about – you may be surprised
• Page titles (title tag written in the head of your html and appears in your browser title bar) should be between 40-69 characters (Google)
• Have user friendly URLs (ideally the url should be easy to remember and reference so avoid complex folder systems or if dynamic, don’t return more than 3 parameters)
• Write about 250 words per page which will enhance search engines’ efforts to index
• Be more specific in writing your headings (e.g. not Our Office but Our Toronto Consulting Office)
• Have keywords in main body content and throughout the site – top to bottom; in headlines and sub-headings; in call to action links
• Have 10 phrases for your site, each phrase should have two or more words
• Maintain context – put words in link so search engines know what the link means and it will also look at text around the link to ensure it is in context (so not just a page of links, and please, no “Click here”)
• Use your own search engine to test key words – if your site isn’t promoting your key words then how can the search engine find them…?
• Write good headings and people will remember them.
• Users misspell words in over 10% of queries (tend to go to spammers) and 50% of users will still click on a misspelled response – therefore develop a strategy for misspellings (good example see About.com)
• Cross link within your own site by indicating links to similar or related content
• Use a 301 redirect – which Google likes (The W3C guidelines for a 301 "permanent redirect" say that this is for use when a page has been permanently moved and you want people to record the new address in place of the old one - read more on redirects on SearchEngineWatch.); use it when changing URLS; is dynamic; It is normal to dip in traffic when change URLs (code example: www.beyondink.com/301-codes)
• Use 404 pages - Page not found error (The 404 or Not Found error message is an HTTP standard response code indicating that the client was able to communicate with the server, but the server either could not find the file that was requested, or it was configured not to fulfill the request and not reveal the reason why. See wikipedia for full definition) – Search engines will index them so use keywords on them and customize them so they keep your navigation that way people are more likely to stay on your site (see A List Apart for coding a 404 error page)
• Use robot.txt to block internal search pages or repetitive pages (like printable versions) so search engine doesn’t think pages are redundant or doing something suspicious
• Search engines like PDFs because they are text based; they can be added to site map and should be added under a publication page (but not if you have an html version)
• Create an information architecture that includes key words (Most costly Search Engine Optimization mistake is a bad IA; IA represents 80-85% of usability)

Tools and techniques to try
To see how search engines (specifically Google) see your site:

• On Google search your site; click on Google’s Cache; then select cache text only to see what it sees
• or you can copy and paste your page from the browser into notepad
• In search: type site:url (your url) – to check if your site is indexed
• Site ranking with some search engines http://rankcomparison.di.unipi.it/
• Meta Tag Analyzer & Trends www.golexa.com
• Find out who is linking to you http://www.i4market.com/tools/backlinks.html
• Assess keywords & link popularity http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/web-page-analyser.shtml
• Check for broken links http://www.dead-links.com/check_links.php
• Link checker & reports – download http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html

Search engines are just a tool to help you help people find your site faster. You shouldn’t let terms like search engine optimization intimidate you. You can quietly, efficiently and effectively help people discover your site by arming yourself with the knowledge and tools that work best in today’s online world. The only other option is to just stay lost.

Evaluating and Benchmarking – how does your site measure up?

Think of your favourite website. Now think of six reasons it is your favourite. Now think of your own website, assuming it’s not your favourite, and ask yourself how it ranks within the six criteria you chose.

We all do it – judge websites. But most people rely on their first impression (see: You’ll never get a second millisecond to make a first impression) and can’t articulate the criteria that they are using to judge a site. Some may indicate colour, photos, fonts and general layout. The savvier user will mention ease-of-use and ability to find information. But in general, people don’t have the words or experience to tell you what is wrong with their site. They just know it sucks and isn’t working for them.

Getting users to be more specific is the value of good interviewing and focus group assessments. Interviews and focus groups will reveal problems and provide invaluable suggestions for improvement, but understanding where a site goes wrong and what direction it should be going in can be best ascertained through a thorough evaluation and benchmarking against competitive sites.

Evaluation and benchmarking criteria for a good site
What are the best practices that make up a good evaluation? According to “How visitors rate sites” by Larisa Thomason on Netmechanic here are some things to look for:

• Visual design or a “professional look” is the first test of a site’s credibility and first impressions have the biggest impact on a user’s overall impression.“Choose a color scheme that reflects your audience’s preference not your own,” writes Thomason.
• Typography: use safe fonts that are common to standard use.
• Images and Multimedia: dazzle but don’t annoy. Photos should be real and, where possible, action oriented – they should tell a story. Multimedia should have a purpose and should be quick to load.And you should always have alternative information for those who don’t want to go the multimedia route.
• Layout includes the overall structure and bullets and headings as well as the placement of information. (Plan where your information goes – don’t leave huge blocks of white space).
• Content: according to Netmechanic “sites should be designed to deliver information to visitors.” Never forget that “content is king”.

Indeed, content is very important and so is planning. If you don’t have a plan, it often manifests itself on the site in the form of poor information architecture and usability. Intranets are especially known for getting out of hand with multiple “micro-sites”, lack of standards and no governance model. The poor person in charge of posting information (yes, most don’t even have a qualified webmaster and some don’t even have anyone with web responsibilities listed in their job descriptions), is told to “just put it on the intranet” without instructions as to placement, inter-linking, or archiving. Consequently, the site is a hodgepodge of materials without a plan to support and standardize what, where and how information is available.

Aside from content and planning, sites should be evaluated based on look and feel, usability, layout, and tools and innovation. Some basic criteria wI recommend:

• Content: needs to be current and frequently updated to be considered trustworthy. It should be written for the web, in scannable chunks with lots of headings to break up content – not just print material that is posted.
• Planning: “most intranets in a mess lack a common vision for what the intranet should be,” according to Jerry Stevenson in “Taming a Chaotic Intranet” in an item posted with IABC. Does the site have a mission, vision and goals? Are content owners identified? Is there a governance model? Are metrics being recorded and analyzed?
• Look and Feel: consistency is vital – set and follow standards and guidelines. If you find microsites popping up using every colour scheme imaginable, your site loses credibility.
  Usability: all sites should have a sitemap, breadcrumbs (path trail), a good search engine and a taxonomy that works with your audience. Avoid using acronyms and non-descriptive words that don’t tell the user what content can be found under that category.
• Layout: scrolling should be kept to a minimum and white space should be part of the design, not an indicator that you ran out of content.
• Tools and Innovation: can people do what they need to do? A good search engine that provides forgiveness for misspelling is one standard tool. Consider collaboration tools like wikis, communication innovations like blogs, and applications like calculators. Make sure that if a page is likely to be printed, it prints well or has an alternate format. And if you have online forms make them easy – the best are forms that can be completed and submitted online. It is not innovative to make people print a form, fill it out in ink, and then send it somewhere.

Once you evaluate your own site and give it a score, you should do the same to about four other competitive sites. Granted, it is difficult to benchmark against other intranet sites, which is why it is best left to professionals who have the expertise and relationships to get permission to look at intranets for various organizations. But you should still be able to evaluate your site with best practices.

Best practices are good ideas that work: when you see a good idea put it to use on your site and track it to make sure it works for you. You should evaluate your site on a regular basis; after all it is a work in progress and should be continually updated to meet the changing needs of your organization. Don’t leave your evaluation to phrases like “it sucks” it might be easier to improve then you think.

Getting printed content online – means rewriting not just posting

Content has long been crowned king of importance. The reasons are obvious – give people the information they need or want to achieve their goals or tasks and ultimately you achieve your goals for success. So if content is so important why isn’t it given the attention it deserves?

Posting brochure wear online is a common practice that doesn’t give content the respect it deserves. You wouldn’t put a film on radio or a radio spot on a poster – each medium needs messaging tailored for it. Though it is slowly seeping into the culture that websites are viewed differently then print and there seems to be a growing understanding that writing for the web is different then writing for print, people are still taking the easy way out and posting print material online “for now”. But it just doesn’t work – the truth is, anything written for print needs to be rewritten if it’s going on your website.

Content for Print
When writing and designing for print it is understood that the information printed will be static – it can’t change and therefore should have some longevity. The printed matter usually serves one master – either promotional/marketing purposes, informative or educational. Very rarely will you have a printed piece that has multiple mandates. Therefore, print pieces usually have one tone or style of writing – it can be formal – say for an annual report, or informal – for an event. And since the audience can be defined writing can reflect the audiences’ demographics – annual reports are typically written for the financially savvy, there is an expectation of knowledge; promotional pieces are littered with adjectives. Print is understood to be a push communication – you need to distribute it to a defined audience where you’ll be sure they’ll receive it but never sure if they’ll read it.

And now you want to put that online?

Let’s change gears, the information highway has its own rules, and while content still reigns it needs some careful handling.

Content for Online
Content for online is meant to be dynamic – it better change or you’ll lose your audience. The more it changes and invites interactivity the more respect your site will get. Online content serves many masters – people can enter your site from various pages and for various reasons – they may be searching for information or be ready to purchase – and you need to be ready for the opportunity to give them what they want. You’re not going to know your audience before they get to your site so writing needs to be simple, clear and concise. Online is understood to be a pull communication – you need to pull or attract people to your site, once on your site the goal becomes getting them to return and even to stay a while.

Print and online are different mediums. People even see and read them differently. Consider that:

• Reading is harder to do online since screens have flicker rates and varying resolutions so your eyes need a break more often than with print and screens are read 25% slower than paper.
• 79% of readers scan pages so content online needs to be chunked into manageable bites with subheadings denoting different topics.
• Wording needs to be concise – you have seconds to get your point across and you’re competing with all types of distractions.
• People read print in a linear way – one page at a time; start to finish. People jump around web pages – following links according to their interest – they may come back to the original article or they may not.

So it’s not a simple case of putting print online as website content. Print material should be condensed by 50% when being put online and it needs to be rewritten.
Here are some tips for converting printed content for use online:

1. As Thomas Jefferson said, "The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do."
2. As to the adjective, follow Mark Twain’s advice “When in doubt, leave it out.”
3. Check your spelling and grammar – you can even turn on a readability option in Word, under Tools> Spelling and Grammar, that will indicate grade level and reading ease.
4. Use links to reference or add depth to different areas.
5. Add credibility - Source your material and include its date. Update content frequently.

And for anything over one screen long or about 250 words – please make sure there is a print option. Content is King and some people will always prefer the printed page.
Sources for statistics: Nielsen Norman Group; Sun.com

How to talk to IT staff

In a recent seminar, a communications person lamented about how hard it is to talk to IT staff. She had requested something and was told no because there was a firewall issue. She didn’t get what she wanted, and worse, she doesn’t know or understand why not.

Technology has its own mystique and jargon and woe behold those not in the know.

IT support is vital and most people take it for granted. Having someone available to answer your questions and provide you with technical solutions is mandatory in today’s technically dependent world. It’s true that they can have cumbersome protocols and processes and you may end up waiting in a long queue, depending on the support IT receives, but at least you have the peace of mind in knowing that technology is someone else’s problem.

So when one of our attendees asked, “How do you talk to IT?” I developed these helpful tips for communicating with your IT department staff.

1. Put yourself in their shoes – IT staff are under appreciated. When something technical goes wrong they’re blamed, never mind where the fault or cause lay. They deal with a demanding and impatient clientele – let’s face it, everyone wants it now and everyone’s job is a priority. And they often deal with stupid, not just ignorant, questions. (We’ve all heard the tales about the “any” key and the disk drive being used as a cup holder). So give IT a break – make sure you give them time to deal with your request and if possible, supply them with the financial resources to achieve it.

2. Set project goals and communicate them – Define the scope of what you want to achieve and then….

3. Involve IT in your project – Ask IT what is the best way to achieve your goals from a technical standpoint. They may already have a solution that can do what you want which will save you time and money. I know of several examples in which senior executives approved application purchases independently of each other and of IT – meaning software was often duplicated or redundant and unnecessary purchases were made. And worse, IT was expected to support all purchases even though they were never a part of the decision making process. (Are you starting to feel their pain?)

4. Respect. Ask. Listen – Respect your IT department. I guarantee they’ve had a hard day. Ask intelligent questions, and anything you don’t know or understand should be asked. And listen to what they are really saying. If they say something can’t be done the way you’re asking (and they probably hope that’ll be the end of it and you’ll go away because they are really busy), then ask them if they have any ideas of other ways you can achieve your goals using technology. You may be surprised at how willing they are to provide you with a solution once you make it obvious you value their opinion.

5. Be prepared and do your homework – At a recent workshop I attended for communication professionals, the presenter held her mouse over her video clip in PowerPoint to play it and then proceeded to keep clicking her mouse resulting in the video clip starting over again. She did this several times and said she didn’t understand technology or why it wasn’t working. I finally told her to move her mouse off of the video to advance the slide. She obviously hadn’t practiced nor did she ask anyone. She reveled in her ignorance and blamed technology. For shame. Ironically her presentation was on leadership – which she did not display. I have news for any communications professional shrugging their shoulders dismissively about trying to understand technology – it’s here to stay. According to Charles Darwin “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

6. Become friends, or at least friendly, with your IT staff – Treat IT staff to a coffee or lunch and pick their brains about improvements you can make. Start to understand technology in your corporate environment – you may be able to help each other.

7. Build a business case – If you have a problem or an idea that you want to implement research its feasibility. Ask IT what can be done and what the cost is or do your own research to find out. Build a business case to show the advantages and get approval and financial support. If you go to IT with a project that they had input in and with your own budget – things will go a lot smoother. Reading our free white paper on Finding ROI will provide some good ideas.

8. Adjust expectations – Sometimes only a partial solution is available or a phased in approach needs to be taken (due to time and financial constraints). Don’t blame IT. Work with them to get the best solution today and for tomorrow.

9. Keep informed and share what you know – It’s hard to know about everything going on with technology, especially as it is continually changing. By keeping informed about terms and trends, however, and never being afraid to ask questions your knowledge and understanding will grow.
10. Appreciate – Give IT the credit they deserve and thank them for their help. It may be hard to grasp some of the technical jargon, but “thank you” is always understood.

As a communications professional you have enough on your plate to worry about without trying to understand all the latest technology and its ramifications. Instead, try understanding your IT support staff and work with them, they’ll appreciate having your respect and understanding and you can get what you need with peace of mind in knowing someone else is worrying about it for you.

All Access Pass – How accessible is your website?

We all hate barriers that prevent us from getting what we need or want. We quickly become frustrated and annoyed when access is denied, especially when it needn’t be. We may try to find ways around the barriers or we may just give up and move on, looking for an easier way to get what we want.

In a competitive marketplace, can you afford to lose the approximately 15% of individuals who have a disability because you didn’t spend time providing access and removing barriers?
What does web accessibility really mean?

“Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the web. More specifically, Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web” – according to w3.

There are various types and degrees of disabilities and the approximately 15% of people who have reported having a disability all experience the same frustration at being denied access to websites simply because the site does not comply with w3 accessibility guidelines or follow best practices.

What does disability include?
Disabilities range from mild limitations (like temporary backache) to more severe levels, and types include:

• mobility
• pain
• agility
• hearing
• seeing
• psychological
• learning
• memory
• speech
• developmental

Additional considerations include:

• an aging population
• arthritis sufferers
• visual implications (including colour blindness)
• reading levels and literacy
• temporary loss of mobility
• technical barriers
  

Remove barriers and provide access
Making your site more accessible will improve your site’s usability overall which will affect not only those that have a disability but everyone else who is trying to get what they want quickly and efficiently. Incorporating as many of the accessibility guidelines below will improve your users’ experience.

Guidelines to improving accessibility
Images

• Use alternative text (ALT) attributes on all images to describe them, especially if they are also links.
• Text in graphics may be used (e.g. logos) but if it is informative or directional words within a graphic a text equivalent should be provided.
• If you are using image maps (images which contain multiple links) provide text links beneath the image.

Multimedia and video

• Have text equivalents for multimedia, video and any scripting, applets, and plug-ins.
• Use captioning that is synchronized (video, multimedia, scripting)
• Have transcripts of audio and video, include description of video
• Have auditory descriptions (video, multimedia, scripting)
• If the video or multimedia is embedded, is the control panel accessible? Does it have a text equivalent? Can various devices access the control panel?
  
• Take into account various devices:
  i. Input devices include pointer devices, keyboards, Braille devices, head wands, microphones, mouse and others.
  ii. Output devices may include monitors, printers, speech synthesizers and Braille devices.
  Programmatic objects, event handlers and triggers should have html equivalents. Use logical event handlers such as “onfocus”, “onblur”, “onselect” since “onmouse” is device specific.

Style, formatting and colour

• Use cascading style sheets (CSS) to control font sizes, colours and style effects, and if possible, to position items on page. Use relative units such as percentages and "em" font sizes to establish measurements, so that users can change the units easily via their browser. Style sheets enforce consistency and are time savers in maintenance.
• Use tables minimally, use table headings, make line by line reading easy (table cells will be read by reading devices as paragraphs); summarize your table’s content; never nest tables (use a table within a table).
• Indenting - Use html list styles for lists only not to indent. Use "blockquote" for verbatim quotes only and not to indent.
• Have a font toggle option with at least 3 font sizes.
• Have printable versions especially for detailed content, and no advertising on the print version please.
• Don’t rely on colour alone to indicate sections or changes. All information should be understandable without colour. Red is the hardest colour to read and should be used sparingly.
• To aid viewing high contrast between text and background is needed. The best is black text on a white background followed by blue text on white or off-white. Check colour contrast, luminosity, colour difference and brightness.
  

Written content

• Write meaningful page titles and headings. Apply CSS styles to headings.
• Write simple and concisely; Write for the web don’t just put printed content online.
• Links should promote navigability; hypertext links need to make sense if they are read out of context – no “click here” or “more”.
• Content organization and “findability”
• Keep popular content within 3 clicks; have task specific content in one area to reduce mousing.
• Navigation should be consistent throughout the site with common menu bars.
• Have a site map.
• Have intuitive navigation with alternate search methods (e.g. Alpha lists, site maps, date sorts etc).

Have search

• Keyword search
• Forgiving or “best guess” search with misspellings allowed
• Have query by example or similarity searches

Code

• Validate your markup code.
• Test your site in different browsers.
• Avoid auto refresh as it can disorient users, instead advise them to refresh their page or provide re-directs
• Offer various language options when possible. If changing language indicate it properly in code so that Braille readers can understand it (e.g. "lang" attribute in HTML; "xml:lang" in XML)
• Just say no to blinking content; moving content should be minimalized and should offer a way for users to freeze or stop it and a text description should be provided for screen readers. Marques and ticker tapes are considered hard to read and have low usability for the average user.
• Avoid popup windows (they are not only annoying but also not accessible to non-visual browsers). If you are going to use them then indicate that a new window is going to open.
  Forms should have labels for all form controls and the labels should be on the same line as the control so they can be read in context.

Accessing
Making your site accessible is not only a best practice and a way to reach people with disabilities, it is also the socially responsible thing to do and will reduce your legal liability for discrimination. If your site follows accessibility guidelines then it will improve your usability, be browser compliant, be easy to maintain, fast to load and be consistent. Improved accessibility and usability increases site use and reduces abandon rates. It just makes sense. So, how accessible is your site?

Resources

• W3 www.w3.org/TR/WCAG and http://www.w3.org/WAI/
• Government of Canada – Common Look and Feel (CLF) Guide: http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/clf-nsi/standards/1-1/w3c/w3c_e.asp
• Citizens With Disabilities Ontario www.cwd-o.org
• CSS validator http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

Let your content go — Online marketing shifts

Just when you thought you understood search engine optimization (SEO), increased adoption of Web 2.0 is greatly influencing online marketing, branding and of course the user experience. This shift is affecting how and where to get your message out, what content and in what format you offer, and user behaviors.

Eight online marketing shifts to take note of are:

• From defining your brand – to having your brand defined “Your brand isn’t what you say it is, it’s what Google says it is”
• From “interruptive” marketing – to peer to peer testimonials and reviews
• From telling your story – to getting customers to tell stories about you
• From posting content on your own site – to becoming part of communities on the web – “Let your content go”
• From having a passive customer waiting to be served – to having active participants demanding control and a voice
• From users hoping to find something relevant – to expecting a high degree of relevancy in the format of their choice
• From attracting “HITS” – to targeting customers
• From treating everyone the same – to understanding behaviors

It’s no longer enough to follow SEO techniques, with the further adoption of social networking and collaboration sites, all content needs to be optimized, no matter where it resides on the Internet. It’s also important to note that it’s not enough to have your content just on your website.

“Be in the path of every audience” advises Fredrick Marckini, Founder of iProspect and Chief Global Search Officer, Isobar, and keynote at the recent Search Engine Strategies conference held in Toronto.

Your content needs to reside on the web, woven into social networks and collaborative sites like YouTube, Slideshare, Flickr and Facebook. Each video, image, presentation and piece of textual content needs to be optimized using relevant keywords in context with your brand and then it can reside anywhere on the web and it should always link back to you.

• Blogging will continue to grow; there are over 80 million blogs and the trend is for them to be organic and authentic, less blogs from CEOs and more from subject matter experts.
• There are over 7 million videos on YouTube with an average length of five minutes but most are only watched for 10 seconds. Quality and relevancy is the way to capture audiences.

Your content will need to be offered in different formats as user expectations and demands expand.

Google has tabs for images, groups, news and maps and last year started offering Universal or blended search which means your search engine results page (SERP) could be a mixture of images, stories and videos. So not only is relevancy expected but the type of content in the format of the users’ choice will soon be mandatory. People who consume video will demand it; people who want to play a collaborative role will find a way to contribute.

“Own the results page by offering content under all tabs” Marckini advises.

Relevancy will also be affected by growth and quality. 20% of searches on Google have never been done before. Keywords in context within content will become more critical while tagging will increase.

“Your brand isn’t what you say it is - it is what Google says it is” - according to Mitch Joel, President, Twist Image.

If you think Joel is giving Google too much credit, think again. 80% of people’s first experience with a brand is within search. However, if its news you’re after Yahoo is the hot ticket with its news claiming 33.7 million readers, Google follows with 10.3 million readers of its News tab and then the New York Times with 1 million readers.

So stop thinking just about getting your website found and start thinking about your overall web presence. Start participating in Web 2.0 by starting and/or commenting on blogs, belonging to relevant communities and offering collaboration. Expect users to be more demanding but also offer more of themselves in the way of opinions and hopefully testimonials. Understand your online reputation and your brand. Offer quality and relevancy and shift with the times. And let your content go – it belongs to the World Wide Web community.
Sources:
· Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin
· SES conference, Toronto

when short is sweet

Personally, I dislike Twitter. I don't really care what other people are doing at every given moment and most of their thoughts of wisdom, well aren't. And I'm starting to get a bit paranoid about those that are following me. But I do like that it's short and when used effectively it can be great - a link to a relevant article is about the best example.

No surprise, I'm not a "texter". I like to talk to people and not write coded short forms that can be misunderstood or not understood. But hearing that people buried in the rubble in Haiti have sent texts to friends and been saved is fantastic. It is a brilliant use of technology. And that the charitable organizations have quickly caught on and have coordinated texting to donations is also brilliant. Make it easy. Easy to ask for help. Easy to give it.

You Talking To Me? Online Communications Considerations

Communicating is a tough gig. Once you’ve nailed down what you want to say you need to consider how you’re going to say it. Your tone, use of words, and body language all make an impact and when you start removing these cues it just gets tougher. Now, there are even more things to consider in addition to generation, gender, and learning styles, there is jargon and communication methods or channels.

Take age – it’s no longer just the youth and the adults you need to consider, now, according to Econtent magazine’s article “The Generational Divide” there are four generations in the workforce, each with different values:

Traditionalists

• Loyalty
• Patience
• Mission
• Respect

Baby Boomers

• Teamwork
• Long hours
• Hard work
• Recognition
  

Generation X

• Competence
• Ongoing learning
• Informality
• Feedback

Millennials (or Generation Y)

• Achievement
• Structure
• Collaboration
• Mission
  

Wikipedia explains the generation distinctions as:

• Lost Generation (1883–1900)
  Greatest Generation (1901–1924)
  Silent Generation (1925–1942)
  Baby Boomer (1943–1960)
  Generation X (1961–1981)
  Generation Y (1982–2001)
  Generation Z (2001–)

Gender is another well document variance. According to Dr. Louann Brizendine, a neuropsychiatrist at the University of California in San Francisco and author of The Female Brain in a Canadian Living article, women have 11 per cent more neurons governing language and hearing then men. And it isn’t just about brain circuitry, according to an article on Microsoft’s site “6 tips for bridging the communication gap”. In general terms:

• when women start projects they ask a lot of questions, men just start – then men think women aren’t up to the task
• women tend to use anecdotal or relationship stories while men use sport or war terms
• women try to build relationships and consensus while men like to take leadership
• women get details to show involvement and understanding while men want only enough detail to get the big picture
• women tend to talk more about feelings while men like facts and statistics
  

Understanding learning types is critical if you want to transfer knowledge. There are three basic types of learners:

• Visual learners (let me see it)
• Audio learners (tell me again)
• Kinesthetic learners (let me do it)
• And of course a combination of any two

Then there is jargon relative to a role, industry or company. Just check out some of the sites explaining IT jargon: Top 10 IT Jargon You Love to Hate (slide show) on Network World; IT Jargon Busted; and IT Jargon Buster. But when a communications person asks an IT employee for something and they are told “we can’t because of the firewall” the communications person just hears “No blah, blah, blah” - like that Far Side cartoon by Gary Larson on “What we say” and “What they hear” – with “they” referring to dogs, who apparently only hear their name and blah, blah, blah.

The way in which people receive information can impact how receptive they are to it. Different generations prefer different methods, for Millennials instant messaging and social networking sites are the norm but Baby Boomers are less comfortable with text messaging and traditionalist prefer face to face. Therefore, one method will seldom reach all audiences; consider the variety of communication methods and channels:

• Email (pushed out but maybe overloaded)
• Enewsletters and RSS (pulled in but is it relevant)
• Websites (if you find it does it speak your language)
• Social networking/communities like Facebook, LinkedIn (who else is in the community)
• Collaboration – e.g. Wikis (is it pre-populated by subject matter experts
• Consumer generated media – e.g. blogs, YouTube, Slideshare, rating/rankings (can it keep visitor attention after 10 seconds)
• Customization and Personalization – e.g. bookmarking, portals, RSS (what are the choices)
• Mobile Devices - e.g. ringtones, images, weather, news, maps, direction, twitter, buddyping, text messaging (is it legible in small format and interesting)
• Instant Messaging (do you understand the lexicon and abbreviations)
• Print (also static – think of all those PDFs online)
• Face-to-face (usually refers to in person but teleconferencing is effective)
  

There is a lot to consider when communicating and it is important to match the message to the medium and the medium to the audience. Don’t assume because you have a website that everyone can hear you – Generation Xers and Millennials probably won’t know of your existence. If you don’t have any imagery - a visual learner will move on. If you use jargon or acronyms you’ll lose people at the beginning of their search. And if your message isn’t interesting, why bother? Even dogs are trained with audio and visual cues, as well as a treat or two.

Focusing on your website user by developing personas

Is your website organized and designed for your audiences to achieve the results that they want and you need?

Common website Problems

• Senior staff want something to go on the home page, and then something else and something else and so on... the site looks unorganized and without a clear purpose.
  
• Users complain that they can’t find information or that it is buried deep within the bowels of the site and it takes forever to find it or it is impossible to remember where it is;
  users phone staff to be sent the information or to be given a direct link or step by step directions - taking up their time and yours.

Both these problems are being experienced not only on intranets but also on external websites. The first problem highlights strategy and governance issues and the second problem adds organization (of information architecture) and design issues. Both problems create inefficiencies gobbling up time both for employees and for customers.

First impressions count

Your website is being judged within 50 milliseconds with visitors sustaining their first impressions by seeking out ways to prove themselves right (that is, if they like it they look for evidence they should like it, if they don’t like it they confirm why and leave). Read Making and sustaining a good first impression for more information.

Risk

The risk in creating a bad impression can’t be understated – if the site is outdated, poorly designed and disorganized visitors will leave with the impression that the organization isn’t current, professional or efficient and that will hit you where it counts – your bottom line.

Solution

You may have heard of a user-centric approach to information architecture and design but if you take that up a notch you have a persona approach.

What are Personas?

Personas are representative of larger groups with detailed attributes to enable a focused approach to usability and design.
Personas are representatives, defined with “significant rigor and precision”, and built on a combination of assumptive reasoning and data, which allows for focussing requirements.
Personas also align the project team and clarify how to focus the requirements.

How they work
“To create a product that must satisfy a broad audience of users…you will have far greater success by designing for one single person”. – Alan Cooper (author of The Inmates are Running the Asylum).

Developing personas allows anyone developing or designing, or for that matter, writing, to focus on a person rather than referencing multiple data points. People respond to people, they are easier to remember than a compilation of data. Also, personas are generative – people can relate to them, understand them, acknowledge the relationship they would have with them or what they are designing, as well as the experience they will have and it can be acknowledge that they will change overtime. This real perspective brings life to the design. Personas help a team focus on important aspects of target users – they simplify the reference points.

Why you’d use them
You should be interested in a Persona Approach if:

• you are familiar with the concept of personas;
  
• if you want a user-centric design with a well rounded focus;
  
• if you have a diverse audience you need to understand
  
• if you have a targeted audience you need to understand
• if you don’t know who your audience is, or if your audience is very broad
  

How to Develop Personas

Personas are developed through workshops and data collection methods including interviews and focus groups. Assumptions are gathered along with research data and affinity is established with defined categories. Then “skeleton” personas are created and details are added until the personas are built. Then the personas need to be reviewed and a prime persona chosen. The prime persona establishes clarity in prioritizing, as the prime personas needs are those that must be met. Once that is done then the personas need to be used.

How to Use Personas
It needs to be said that anyone involved in the project where personas will be used (be it an IA, Design or even Content) needs to understand them and how they were developed. The personas need to be used as a reference for making decisions – there is no opportunity for senior staff to add something to the home page unless it meets the prime persona’s requirements or is a major factor for one of the other personas. It goes without saying that the personas must be aligned to the site's strategic objectives and goals which in turn should be reflective of the organization's goals. And if the personas were crafted correctly, information will be easier to find.

Results
It is far easier to say to people “that is something Debbie Persona would want” then to quote demographical information and statistics. It is easier to gain consensus once you have your personas as people can more clearly understand what “Debbie Persona’s” requirements are. And when it comes to creating focused, user friendly, and user centric design, personas are a great tool to keep the focus on the user to create something they will like and use – and that means a successful experience for all.

For more information, view "How to effectively focus on your website user: Creating Personas".

Socializing Social Responsibility

There is a growing trend to socialize social responsibility, that is, corporations invite people to join a community that reflects a topic or issue supporting a cause in which the company also plays a supporting role but generates good will for them alone.

Take a look at what Pepsi is doing at http://www.refresheverything.com/ or Aviva at http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/.

How effect these efforts are, only time will tell but they are already working to some degree because people are talking about them. How do I know? I first saw reference to Aviva`s social responsibility efforts on Facebook - someone had tagged it as a favourite or recommended it. And I first saw mention about Pepsi`s social responsibility on LinkedIn in the `Those in the Media`discussion group where someone mentioned a blog post about Pepsi dropping its superbowl ads for the social activity site: http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/the-pepsi-refresh-project-social-campaign/.

Certainly if the goal is to generate discussion then these initiatives are working. And if you haven`t already, its time to join the conversation and consider socializing online for whatever you want to communicate.