General Business

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Previously, we discussed the importance of Human-Centered Design in website development. This week, we’ll look at the three basic phases of Human-Centered Design.

INSPIRATION – This first phase of intense creativity, grounded in research. It’s a process of learning about the needs and desires of all users of the site, from internal content editors to end users. It’s when you imagine how you might approach the project, based on what you learn.

IDEATION – This is the brainstorming and iteration phase, during which you begin putting into form the ideas you came up with in the previous phase. Ideally, you bring in people like those who will actually use the site to test your ideas and give you feedback. 

IMPLEMENTATION – This is where you bring the site design into its final iteration, do the launch, and promote its use.

It takes some practice to get used to using this process, but there is help available. You can download a free PDF copy of The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design that will get you solving problems like a designer. BONUS: This guide helps you apply Human-Centered Design principles to all types of challenges, not just webdev.

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All the best editing and technology design in the world cannot overcome a bad attitude, and that's true from organization management to the content editor/manager.

We may all indulge in a joke now and then about how fast the world is moving, but the reality is that technology acceptance is no longer solely the realm of the resident geeks and nerds. It’s imperative that everyone involved in dissemination of marketing content get on board and, if not actually embrace the new way of doing things, then at least accept and not resist it.

This is a real challenge in some organizations and companies, and it's never more obvious than when dealing with how to get messaging out of the heads of those responsible for generating it and onto the website or other marketing vehicles.

Resonetrics can help your organization (or your client's) create an atmosphere of not just acceptance, but embrace of technology in helping move your marketing forward. If management is on board, it can be a fairly brief process that sticks, positioning the organization to leap ahead in its market visibility and penetration. 

This process may consist of analyzing the marketing team's technological strengths and weaknesses, providing tech introductions and training where needed, and helping develop an internal marketing workflow that optimizes strengths and minimizes weaknesses. It may also include arranging external assistance where needed. 

As with every successful small business, Resonetrics is evolving with its marketplace. We have always specialized in helping small to midsize businesses leverage the power of new technology in their marketing. Now, with the spread of technology throughout the business world, we find ourselves moving toward a more solid niche, with a slightly different focus.

Forging A New Path
One of the influences on this focus is the fact that we’ve been working with larger organizations. We believe this is due to the fact that larger, enterprise-level clients are catching up to the need for a deep, rich and highly interactive online presence in today’s fast-paced world. 

There have only been just so many of us out here, staying ahead of the curve in testing, evaluating and implementing new technologies for these companies’ marketing staffs. We believe our results have gotten the attention of these larger clients, and they have been reaching out to us here at Resonetrics. They seek help in moving forward into the new age of “Web-as-central-hub,” rather than as an afterthought or adjunct to traditional marketing with print and broadcast promotion. 

With this evolving marketplace, we now find ourselves again out in front, sharpening our service focus as the needs of our clients change. They have discovered that not only does the Web serve best as the hub for the many spokes on their marketing wheel, but also that—with the proper back end—their websites can and must integrate well with other enterprise functions such as administration, recordkeeping and internal communications. 

They’ve also come to embrace the idea that good marketing aims at two audiences: external consumers and internal stakeholders, including employees and management. The work we do has morphed to accommodate this reality, which has frankly always been the case. We're just glad this level of client is finally realizing it. It helps us help them far more effectively.

Technological Darwinism
To ignore the power of this integration—because it can be difficult to implement—has been the standard for many, if not most, businesses until now. But at this point in the growing sophistication of the consumer marketplace, it is simply not an option for those who want to remain in business. As in the natural world, those who can't or won't evolve do so at their own peril. 

But the reality of how quickly and completely technological evolution plays out can strain even the most well-organized and resourced businesses and groups. Their main challenge these days isn’t getting their websites launched and functional, though that remains a significant effort. 

The real obstacle is finding a way to task existing employees with maintaining the freshness of their site’s content once it’s launched. Without constantly refreshed content, websites plummet rapidly in search engine ratings, and give visitors little reason to return. This dwindling engagement shows up directly on the bottom line. The emergence of tools to accurately and reliably track such changes is one of the factors driving the evolution we've described so far.

Implementation Is Key
Up till now, typically the corporate website has been an afterthought in the priorities and schedules of already harried marketing departments. Staff who have been trained mainly in the daily activities traditionally associated with their service or product specialties found themselves pressed into service as digital content managers and/or social media managers. But as more and more businesses, institutions and organizations realize the power and immediacy of websites as a 24/7 information bank and sales representative, they recognize that they must allocate dedicated resources to keep their sites viable. 

They have begun tasking people to manage this constant flow of content. This means employers have their hands full, trying to deal with some inevitable resistance by those being pushed out of their comfort zones, into tasks that likely didn't even exist when their original job descriptions were written. Other departments, perhaps longer in the game and more experienced, are creating new job titles and descriptions in recognition that the Internet has proven not to be a fad but likely the most powerful marketing and operations tools ever invented.

Either way, there is a ramp-up to developing acceptance by all staff involved, and that’s a cultural issue. Here at Resonetrics, we certainly find ourselves dealing with it on a close basis. While we don’t get directly involved with the development of staff and new attitudes toward technology in the workplace, it does affect our work. We help these clients with both new technology acceptance, and with identifying and implementing solutions to the very real and immediate technological challenges of this situation.

Next Time: The Internet Evolves
 

Last time, we discussed the rise of the Content Management System (CMS) as a tool to allow businesses to retain control of and access to their own websites on a timely basis. This post will describe how we are responding to this evolution in creating and maintaining a professional, useful online presence.

Enter Resonetrics
At Resonetrics, our challenge is to empower our clients not just to produce, but to regularly—and with as little effort and as few resources as possible—publish their own online content at a professional level. It has become part of our job to help them take ownership of their corporate voice in the world’s busiest and most densely packed information pool. And that’s the new era we’re kicking off with this post.

In concrete terms, what does this actually mean?
First, we take stock of the specific problem to be solved. We’ve thought a lot about it, and based on our experience, we think it comes down to three basic issues:

1. Content organization & preparation – If it’s being done right, every organization’s website content consists of material provided from across the breadth of their expertise and knowledge. This means a variety of voices, language usage, tonal approaches, visual design and image types are being submitted by various contributors from all departments and sectors of the organization. It’s critical that this disparate content is well-edited and organized to shape it into a cohesive, single brand voice for the client. This is a skill set unto itself. Not everyone has it, but everyone can learn enough to ultimately execute at a higher level.
2. User interface design – Regardless which CMS people use, unless they are dedicated content managers, they are usually administrative professionals primarily responsible for other activities more traditional to their jobs. This means that website content updates are basically just another load on their plate, which needs to get done at whatever frequency is called for. If their experience with the CMS they’re required to use is difficult, stressful and unrewarding, they will reject it. If you notice a strong resistance to this task in your organization, we’re probably talking about you. Part of our job is to identify the collective wisdom already accumulated to date around this issue, and leverage it to prescribe specific strategies to successfully deal with your particular situation. We do that both in individual consults and here on our blog, as appropriate.
3. Corporate culture – All the best editing and technology design in the world cannot overcome a bad attitude, from organization management to the content manager. We may all indulge in a joke now and then about how fast the world is moving, but the reality is that technology acceptance is no longer solely the realm of the resident geeks and nerds. It’s imperative that everyone involved in dissemination of marketing content get on board and, if not actually embrace the new way of doing things, then at least accept and not resist it.

Tools Change, But The Mission Remains
A hundred years ago, wagon builders and harness makers, blacksmiths and wheelwrights all thought they were in the business of manufacturing their little piece of the huge horse-drawn conveyance pie. But then along came the automobile, and they had to decide if they were in their specialty business, or if they were in the larger transportation field. 

Those who decided the former either retired, took their former trade into hobby status, or ended up going out of business altogether. Those who recognized the larger picture stayed in business and thrived in their new part of it. That's why, for the longest time, Fisher Bodyworks still used a carriage as its trademark, paying homage to its humble beginnings. Massive brands such as General Motors carried that logo on their vehicles well into the 1970s.

But rest assured, GM continued to modernize until, along with other American car makers, it held on too long to the old manufacturing models. It was beaten out of its top spot by foreign car makers who weren't invested in history, but in the future. Those victors still lead auto makers today, while the “Big Three” American companies—who pioneered modern vehicle manufacturing processes—continue to struggle to find their place in the highly robotic, overwhelmingly technologized global industry.

Get Proactive or Perish
It’s the same now for every modern organization, whether commercial, financial, institutional or nonprofit: Master the technology, or it will surely master you. 

At Resonetrics, we’re embracing technology and staying out ahead of it, so our clients can concentrate on what they do best. They trust us to thoroughly grasp its implications and lead with this bold vision, so they can feel confident in the direction we’re helping them move. 

In return, we ask only that they respond with open minds and a willingness to try new tools that will smooth the path ahead for us all.

In future posts, we’ll be diving deep to address myriad facets of the three issues listed above, as they relate to discovering, formulating and helping you implement best practices in these areas. We invite you to forge ahead with us into a future that may not look a whole lot like the past, but whose promise is great. 

We need only remember that however uncomfortable it may be to venture out of our comfort zones, a ship is safe at harbor…but that’s not what ships are for.
 

Hat tip to my colleague Jeff Couret, for the pointer to this informative Moz article on how to identify low-quality content on your site:
https://moz.com/blog/low-quality-pages

I've been in discussions with a startup client about how important it is to have a content strategy, and how much value we could get from a content strategist.
Of course, everyone thinks they're a great writer - just as everyone has a nephew who could build our corporate web site; so why do we need a professional to sort out our content? Can't we just write about our product and trust Google to pick up our articles and blog posts?

If you think that, ask yourself if you understand what bounce rate tells you about the content quality of a page (hint: a high bounce rate isn't necessarily bad). And do you know what pogo-sticking is, and what is says about your content quality?

A content strategist will monitor and improve your offerings to site visitors in a way that gets you SEO credit for your great writing, and satisfies your users. And that makes Google very happy.
 

In other news, your check is in the mail.

Comcast says its customers shouldn't worry about having their browsing histories or personal information sold off by Comcast, because the cable giant doesn't have any immediate plans to do so. And if they do decide to change that policy, customers should rely on the state governments to stand up to a company that writes its own laws in many places.

In short, Comcast may be able to sell out its customers now, but customers should trust them not to.

And who can you trust, if not the company that once changed a customer's name to "Asshole Brown" out of spite?

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/31/comcast_we_will_never_sell_your_data/

Did you know 73% of the top 30 media companies use Drupal? Neither did I.

Drupal.org has 3 new industry-specific pages, offering case studies and talking points, like the one above, for prospective site builders who are considering Drupal.

The three market verticals are Higher Ed, Media/Publishing, and Government.

Having worked in all 3, I can attest there's lots of opportunity there. Hopefully these new pages will help get the word out.

https://www.drupal.org/association/blog/drupalorg-industry-pages-are-live

People undervalue persistence. You’ve been told since you were a kid stories of trains getting up mountains with the power of persistence. Get up. Try again. And again. It feels like the most cliche advice there ever was: I think I can.

But still, we underestimate how beneficial that extra effort becomes.

https://m.signalvnoise.com/persistence-is-undervalued-d1f5a5a5fda2#.qzc8k0hyg

Even if only a few people use precise words, employ thoughtful reasoning and ask difficult questions, it still forces those around them to catch up. It's easy to imagine a slippery slope down, but there's also the cultural ratchet, a positive function in which people race to learn more and understand more so they can keep up with those around them.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2017/01/the-candy-diet.html

Here's a simple technique for learning something quickly - and I find, also deeply. If you can explain something in layman's terms to an intelligent novice, you will have assimilated the subject in a deep way.

By the way I was trained to teach meditation this way - avoiding spiritual jargon and Sanskrit terminology - and found it marvelously effective.

It is the process of thinking about an idea while teaching it that make the method so effective. Once you can explain an idea with simple language and create graphic analogies, you have deeply understood it and will remember it for a long time.

http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/the-feynman-technique-3-steps-to-learning-something-new/