By Molly Williams

We are often told by clients that they simply don’t have time or the know-how to engage in social networking, even when an effective social network campaign might be just the ticket to achieving many of their business goals. Furthermore, as they don’t see the clear value in engaging a community via social media tools, they have little motivation to learn more about it.

While the issue of value is significant, it’s not for this article. In this piece, we’re going to dispel the myth that effective participation in social networking is a black hole of time and too complicated to engage in. It’s not. In fact, you can execute a successful social networking campaign in the same time that it takes to read the daily industry news or eat lunch.

So, without further ado, we have compiled a few simple tips to help you start building a valuable and effective social networking community.*

1. Start small

There are dozens, even hundreds, of social networking tools to choose from. So which one is right for you? The answer to this question usually involves a larger conversation about what you’re trying to communicate, to whom and how. But on the whole, it’s a safe bet to look at four of the major social networking players: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube , and Flickr. If you don’t have video and photos to share then you can eliminate YouTube and Flickr right away and start your efforts by focusing on Facebook and Twitter. You can always add others as the need arises.

2. Choose your spokesperson wisely

It’s easy to assume that an intern or junior staffer is best suited to manage your social networking accounts. The thinking is often that because they’re typically younger they’re already actively engaged in these channels and they have the time to spend updating them. And the truth is they may be the most appropriate choices, but we would argue that a more experienced representative of your company’s brand and reputation is typically better suited to fill that role.

Now, it doesn’t have to be the CEO of your company – and probably shouldn’t be – but keep in mind that social networking is real-time messaging about your organization. Would you put a junior staffer in front of The New York Times to talk about your company? Probably not. So why would you assign that person to speak about it every day to hundreds or thousands of people – people ready and willing to share your messages to hundreds and thousands of others, including perhaps The New York Times? Finding the right person to manage your social networks is a hugely important consideration and not a role that you can afford to cast off as intern work.

3. Keep it personal

For most organizations, it’s important that they engage on social networks as human beings, not as nameless, faceless corporate entities. Social networking is ultimately about building and maintaining relationships between individuals and communities of individuals. Therefore, inject a little personality into your social network updates. Post updates for your company as a real person, using the “description” or “about” fields as a place to introduce yourself, your name, your photo, and so on.

4. Keep it to just 1 hour per day

Social networking does not have to dominate your week. Commit to spending 1 hour a day engaged with your networking channels. This doesn’t have to be 1 full, committed hour. You can break it up throughout the day.

5. Monitor, publish and communicate

A successful rule for using your one hour per day is to divide it into three primary activities:

1. Monitoring (staying current on known issues, discovering who your influencers are, and staying current with issues you might not be aware of that affect your organization)
2. Publishing (providing news updates about your company or issues that are of interest to your company, promoting events, discussing projects underway at your organization, posting coupons or sale information, encouraging specific actions from your community)
3. Connecting (finding like-minded people, associations and organizations working on similar issues and using the tools provided on the social networking sites to communicate with them).

Use the system below to determine how much time to devote to each task.

For those just starting out

• 40% Monitoring
• 40% Publishing
• 20% Connecting

For those slightly more established

• 20% Monitoring
• 40% Publishing
• 40% Connecting

For more help setting up a social media program for your organization, contact me.

* Note: these tactics are not one-size-fits-all, but for many organizations these activities will move them much closer to social networking success.

Feature image courtesy of guydonges – Flickr Creative Commons

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By Will Sullivan and Molly Williams

As creative professionals, there is often a significant difference between what we think we need to do, or what we might want to do, and what actually needs to be done.

It’s among a host of core reasons why many businesses find success online elusive.

The problem: we don’t know what that thing is, that obvious thing, that will make our mark or take us to the next level.

Getting to the obvious isn’t easy. Obvious is that element that causes you to say, “That’s so simple” when you see a new product, design, or business that fits a previously unmet, and specific, need. The best ideas are often the most obvious.

So, what steps must we take to ensure that we’re working toward the obvious? Below are 5 considerations that creative professionals should take into account when presented with a new problem or opportunity online. Whether for new business opportunities, existing clients, or for your own company activities, these steps will help you to measure the true value of your creative efforts.

1. Focus on the problem, and the problem alone. This can be one of the most challenging tasks because it requires that you know what the problem is in the first place. What your client tells you or what you perceive to be the problem might not actually be the problem. Take the time upfront to analyze the situation presented to you, conduct research, look at existing analytics, talk to people and dig deep to find the core problem that needs addressing.

2. Ask yourself what the simplest route is to solving that problem. As your mind begins to wander and your creative nature urges you to think bigger and bolder ideas, bring yourself back to the simple ones. Sometimes the most obvious ideas, the ideas that will achieve all your goals, aren’t outside the box, they’re smack dab in the middle of it.

3. Don’t let suggestions about what could be done, or what might be done, play a roll in your decision about what must be done.

4. Test early and often. Choosing a simple path, or a solution that seems to be obvious, should not only be obvious to you. It should be obvious to your customers and audiences. The best way to check this? Test. If you choose a simple route, your assertion of the obvious should be relatively simple to test, and cost effective to boot. Testing ensures that you’re not working in an echo chamber, making uninformed assumptions, and that you’re not missing an even simpler route to arriving at the final, most obvious destination.

5. Obvious and simple aren’t pejorative terms. Remember that obvious doesn’t necessarily mean “boring” or “rehashed.” Some of the simplest, most obvious solutions were ground breaking: Apple’s product design, Google’s homepage, Twitter, The Drudge Report site design, Got Milk, Just Do It, and many, many more.

Have a simple idea in mind that solved an obvious problem? Please share it below!

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By Will Sullivan

The Coming Media Revolution

The Apple iPad will strike deep into the hearts and minds of the world today. The device has been hailed as no less than the harbinger of a media revolution – both for its delivery, and our corresponding consumption, of media content.

And while it may or may not deliver on these bold promises, the fact remains: the way we are consuming media online is changing rapidly. And we must, as writers and developers of content, keep pace with that change.

There is a plethora of advice out there online about writing for the Web. But I find, at this moment, that one rule stands above the rest – and it was written at a time when the Web did not exist.

It is rule #17 in Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style : Omit needles words.

Strunk and White

Among the collected cantankerous voices in the world of grammar and writing instruction, E.B. White’s has to be my favorite. Now, there are numerous opinions regarding whether those writing copy should heed the advice of his, and fellow writer William Strunk’s, legendary tome. Some of these opinions are fundamentalist, while others believe the guide provides sound counsel that you should cherry pick to your liking. I’m certainly in the latter camp.

I still carry the copy of Strunk & White that I received during an interview with a journalism organization in 2004. The woman doing the interviewing – grilling would be more accurate – handed me a copy and said “memorize this.”

And while I haven’t exactly followed her advice to the letter, Strunk & White has become a go-to reference for me, even if just for the entertainment of E.B. White’s voice.

Of all the rules in Strunk & White, rule #17 has always stood out. Omitting needless words is note merely about editing, it is about discipline. It is not only about numbers on the page, it is about developing a clear and concise message. In our modern context, it might be better understood as “Omit Needless Ideas.”

As White says:

“This requires not that the writer make all sentences short, or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”

The last four words in that sentence are the most important: That Every Word Tell.

As usability expert Jakob Nielsen has reported, only 16 percent of those reading online read word for word. To flip that, nearly 84 percent of those reading your site will not read every word you poured your heart into. They will not care that an extra graph about your company just had to go into the About Us section, and they will never notice those extra five sentences, appealing to donate to your cause.

People do not read online, because they scan. And, if we’re learning anything about online content, it is that when attention spans are short, words are subject to the same market forces as every other commodity.

Simply put — If you are not communicating clearly via content that your readers want and need and the words on your page aren’t telling, users will go elsewhere.

Well, then, how do we do this? How do we ensure that every word tells? How do we ensure that we eliminate needless ideas?

Here are a few tactics:

1. Take the word count for your page, and cut it in half. Then, cut it in half again. This is not a new idea, and it’s not necessarily meant for literal interpretation. Ideally, you should be able to communicate your idea in a quarter the number of words on the page. If you aren’t able to, your idea and your message isn’t clear enough.

2. Eliminate jargon and marketing language. People quite simply hate it. Furthermore, when you remove marketing language and industry/company/cause-related jargon, you are forced to communicate more clearly.

3. If a long paragraph contains multiple ideas, break it up. If people are scanning, they may glaze over a bulky text block. Creating space makes your ideas easier for readers to consume.

4. Write short sentences and avoid multiple clauses. Clauses are often difficult to consume when scanning. They also require punctuation, which can be distracting when reading online.

5. Use the tricks of the trade: Sub headings, bullets and bullet lists, and contextual links that highlight key ideas.

These rules are by no means revolutionary. I intend them as best practices – subtle reminders that you might refer to when developing copy.

And the fact remains, our attention spans are disappearing. While we can learn to write short, we must do so without diminishing the impact of our messages.

Photo courtesy of ToastyKen – Flickr

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Strategy+Content+Design+Development.

We wish the tag line could say, “and so much more.” While colloquial, and perhaps even cliché, we are indeed more than the services we provide. Craft Interactive is an idea, a gamble that we’ve reached an age where building a world-class presence online to better serve your audiences and advance your message isn’t only available to those with massive budgets.

“Living the Making”

No, you’re not reading backwards. Living the Making is among our most treasured mottos at Craft Interactive. At its core a fundamental cultural belief we treasure as a collective of digital artisans: we intend to turn the traditional model of work on its ear by focusing on product first, profit second.

Rather than making a living, we want to live a creative and professional lifestyle making and creating those products and services for which we have passion and working with like-minded partners who feel the same.

Making a living suggests that money is an end in itself. At Craft Interactive, that just ain’t so.

A Democracy of Accountability

Everyone has a vote, but does everyone have a responsibility to contribute – and the accountability to deliver on what they promised. In the Craft Collective, the strength of our network is not only rooted in our shared vision of an evolution in the work model – but also a commitment to professionalism and delivery of an excellent work product.

We are not “two kids in a garage” as the old start-up pejorative goes. Among our artisans, we share more than a decade of world-class digital consulting and business experience. We’ve worked for some of the world’s largest companies and causes. We’ve lost track of time in jobs where hours become days become weeks without end. And we think it can and should be different.

The emerging digital tools available to the virtual consultant are evolving at a rapid pace. These tools, many of them cloud based, allow us to work precisely in the manner that fits our business model, and more importantly, our business culture. They allow us to focus on developing professional products for our clients at incredibly competitive prices.

Why you should care

So, what, you might ask, does our collective ethos have to do with you? I’m glad you asked.

It means we’re focused. We know what business we’re in, and what services we can knock out of the park. Each of us remains within our 99^th percentile. That leads to well planned, managed, and executed projects – delivered on time and on budget. And, it avoids what we like to call the plumber effect – you think you need to fix your sink and someone tells you the entire house needs new pipes.

Speaking of budget, when you work with Craft Interactive, you pay lower fees than you would working with many of our competitors. Why? Because we want to offer our services to people who need them, regardless of whether your number has 2 or 6 zeros behind it.

Welcome to Craft Interactive.

Please join our conversation on Twitter, shout-out to us on Facebook, or LinkedIn.

And, if you’re ready to talk about what the Craft Collective can offer you and your business, please e-mail us.

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By Molly Williams

Is it really 2010 already? I’ve put together a few predictions for where I see the industry going in 2010. At a later date, I’ll expand on these ideas, but for now here’s a glimpse into the next year.

1. Mobile Internet use will explode

In 2010, advanced smart phones, 4G technology, and improved mobile security systems will make it possible for people to navigate the Web from their phones the same way they do on their home or laptop computers. And with this shift, there will be an explosion of companies and organizations adding a significant mobile component to their digital programs. They had better. Or, come 2011, they’re going to find themselves a year behind their competitors spending twice the money to catch up with them.

For international organizations, this change will be even more dramatic. In many developing countries, where Internet connectivity simply isn’t as consistent and omnipresent as it is in the US and Europe and where mobile networks are growing at an enormous rate, consumers will simply bypass computers altogether. They will use their mobile phones exclusively to access the Web.

Unfortunately, I also predict that many organizations will make the mistake of spending huge amounts of money to build fancy mobile apps and extravagant WAP, or mobile sites, that might win them “street cred” among some but will do little to connect with their audiences or achieve their business goals. This will be a mistake for most. The key to navigating this dramatic shift from computers to mobile will be to tip toe into the mobile waters. Base-level mobile sites and simple apps will be all that most companies need to lay a foundation on which to build in 2011 and beyond.

2. E-mail marketing makes a come back

In 2010, we’ll continue to see organizations clamoring to enter the social media space and generate big followings. However, consumers will become pickier about who they align their interests with and will become more reluctant to “follow” and “friend” without having developed a relationship with an organization first. This is where e-mail marketing comes in. Companies who do it right will figure out how to leverage e-mailing marketing to bolster their social media success.

Think of e-mail marketing as the gateway to social media. Organizations can build trust among their target audiences through credible and consistent e-mail alerts. This is a transparent, opt-in marketing tool. Now, let’s be clear that random bits of nonsense sent via e-mail will not go over well. Online users will ignore them, delete them, unsubscribe to the company’s mailing list and worst yet, they may even bad mouth the e-mail-abusing company on their social networks. Such behavior might ultimately tarnish the company’s brand and create an audience even more reluctant to engage with the company online and offline. Like most other forms of marketing, e-mails need to provide value to their audiences. Reports, important news updates, events, coupons, sales, job openings, etc are all examples of information that consumers value. And of course, each e-mail should tease the company’s social media channels encouraging e-mail subscribers to find the company there. Once the trust is built through valuable and consistent e-mails, users will be more likely to engage socially.

3. Traditional advertising continues to cede significant ground to online marketing

In our current economic and political climate – which isn’t going to change much in 2010 – consumers have proven to be inconsistent and unpredictable. Therefore, it no longer makes sense for many companies to commit to huge print and television ad buys with 6-month lead times because in doing so they must commit to one key message that may not resonate with their audiences when the ads finally run. That’s an economic gamble that companies don’t need to make anymore. SEM, online advertising, social media and Web sites provide platforms for companies to customize their messaging in real-time in direct response to their audiences. In 2010, ad networks will standardize video advertising, mobile ad networks will mature, social media marketing will continue to expand, and traditional advertisers are going to see a major hit to their bottom lines.

4.  Online video becomes a “must have” not just a “nice to have”

Online video is huge. We all already know this, but in 2010 the video watching experience online will become even more opulent, more dynamic, and more interactive. And because of this it will become – if it hasn’t already – the online source for news and entertainment. Therefore, it  will take on an even more important role in online communications and marketing.

To appeal to their audiences’ evolving tastes, all organizations will need to make a financial investment, and not necessarily a big one, in showing more than they tell through the use of video on their Web sites. Additionally, video will need to be richly integrated with mobile devices and will require seamless incorporation among social media channels.

5. Oh and my final prediction for the year, the St. Louis Cardinals will win the world series!

Feature image courtesy of Nocturbulous – Flickr Creative Commons

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