Archive for the 'E-Business' Category

9 Intriguing Business Rules of Thumb

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

The book, Rules of Thumb, by Tom Parker, is a fascinating read because it’s a fine collection of heuristic sayings: a measuring device for common sense principles of life.

I thought nine rules were especially interesting due to their potential for influencing business decisions. They reminded me of how we make ‘back-of-the-envelope calculations’ which are better than a guess but less than an accurate than a proven fact.

Here are 9 business rules of thumb to ponder:

#9 Business Decisions - 80% of all bad decisions are snap decisions. Good managers make the best decisions after sleeping on it.

#8 Organizational Management - A corporation should limit its executive staff to one hundred people or less, even though it may have thousands of employees.

#7 Advertisements - A good ad should have no more than seven words and two things to look at.

#6 Time Management - A job with a new client with take 25% longer than the same job with an established client.

#5 Product Marketing - Any new product should have at least three easily recognizable advantages over the competition.

#4 Advertising - To attract women, show babies and women. To attract men, show men.

#3 Public Speaking - You should expect your actual speech to take one-third more time than it took you during practice.

#2 Press - Don’t tell a reporter anything you don’t want printed. Not that they can’t be trusted, but what you tell reporters off the record can lead them to another source who may not be so discreet.

#1 Elevator Pitch - The idea for a new venture is likely to be strategically unsound if it can’t be put into one coherent sentence.

170 Essential Social Media Tools

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010

Here is a list of 170 essential social media tools, including performance analytics tools, social search tools, news clipping services, demographic profiling services, brand optimization tools, social monitoring tools, and similar services.

Disclosure — I am the CEO of Heardable.com, a brand performance rating platform, that I have included in this list.

  1. Ace Metrix - Patent-pending measurement methodology monitoring television advertising.
  2. Actionly - Monitoring & insights for Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, Google Buzz, blogs, and news.
  3. AlchemyAPI - Content analysis and meta-data annotation tools.
  4. Alterian - Campaign management, web content management, email, and social media monitoring.
  5. AMI Software - Internet monitoring, intelligence development & evidence based horizon scanning.
  6. Amplified Analytics - Forecasting tools & predictive analytical models by quantifying qualitative information.
  7. Arkovi - Social media archiving services.
  8. Atomic Intelligence - Organizing web content through text indexing, unstructured text parsing, and machine learning.
  9. Attensity - Listen to and analyze multi-channel customer conversations.
  10. Attentio - Analyze buzz around brands or products + multi-language sentiment.
  11. BlogPulse - Real-time view of the most popular topics that bloggers are writing about.
  12. BrandsEye - Online reputation monitoring.
  13. Brandtology - Sentiment analysis in 12 languages.
  14. Brandwatch - Social media monitoring (reputation, sentiment & moderation).
  15. BurrellesLuce - Media monitoring, press clipping services, and public relations software.
  16. Businesswire - Press release distribution, clipping services, and online measurement (A Berkshire Hathaway company).
  17. BuzzAnalytics - Internet buzz tracking in 20 languages + opinion research/polling.
  18. BuzzDing - Online reputation management and social media monitoring.
  19. Buzzient - Enterprise-class social media analytics.
  20. BuzzLogic - Proprietary conversational analytics to optimize online advertising.
  21. BuzzNumbers - Social media monitoring, reporting & engagement.
  22. BuzzStream - Manage word-of-mouth marketing campaigns.
  23. Chartbeat - Real-time monitoring of your online presence.
  24. Chatmeter - Reputation monitoring & management.
  25. Clarabridge - Text mining & analytics.
  26. Clicky - Real-time web analytics.
  27. ClearForest - Deriving meaning from unstructured information such as news, blogs, research reports & more.
  28. Clixpy - Tracks everything your website users do.
  29. Collective Intellect - Social media analytics.
  30. ComMetric - Understand how influencers across all types of digital media are networked.
  31. Comscore - Digital market intelligence and measurement.
  32. Compete - Mine your online performance.
  33. Conductor - Organic search visibility platform.
  34. Converseon - Social media listening and consulting.
  35. Conversition - Bridging the gap between social media and research.
  36. Crazyegg - Build heatmaps and track clicks.
  37. Crimson Hexagon - Social media monitoring & analysis.
  38. CrowdControlHQ - Social media software and reporting.
  39. CyberAlert - News monitoring & clipping, social media monitoring, PR measurement.
  40. Cymfony - Market influence analytics.
  41. Dialogix - Social media monitoring tool from Australia.
  42. dna13 - Real-time reputation management and PR software.
  43. ecairn - Social media tool for marketing agencies.
  44. Echo Research - Reputation analysis, media measurement & research.
  45. Eloqua - Integrated campaign management & social sharing.
  46. Engagor - Social media listening tool.
  47. Entrenza - Track your online presence & monitor brand perceptions.
  48. Evolve24 - Enterprise listening platform.
  49. Evri - Discover & follow trending stories.
  50. Explosive Commerce - Social media management software.
  51. Feng-gui - Attention analysis for websites and advertisements.
  52. Flurry - Smartphone analytics.
  53. Folowen - Find people & organization across social media.
  54. GeeYee - Social media analysis service.
  55. Google Adwords - Keyword research tool for online advertising.
  56. Google Alerts - Automatically monitor selected keywords & receive email alerts.
  57. Google Analytics - Free web analytics tool.
  58. Google News - Automated news aggregator.
  59. Google Reader - Atom and RSS feed reader / aggregator.
  60. Google Trends - Insights into popular search patterns.
  61. Heardable - Measures the effectiveness of online brands.
  62. HotGrinds - Opinion mining.
  63. HowSociable? - Brand visibility metrics.
  64. ICUC Moderation - Social media & blog moderation services for brands.
  65. iMente - Social media measurement (in Spanish).
  66. Imooty - Media monitoring tool.
  67. ImpactWatch - Media coverage dashboard.
  68. Infegy - Enterprise socia media monitoring.
  69. Infonic - Linguistic processing technology for analysing digital news coverage.
  70. Infonitor - Internet trends & opinions (in German).
  71. Integrasco - Manage online word of mouth.
  72. Interwoven - Manage website content and visitor information.
  73. Jamiq - Monitor social media across Asian languages and markets.
  74. Janya - Multilingual semantic processing to harvest online insights.
  75. Jodange - Indexes feelings and statements from traditional and social media.
  76. KnowEm - Claim your brand name across the social media landscape.
  77. Leximancer - Analytics technology for unstructured, qualitative, textual data.
  78. Linkfluence - Social web insights (in French).
  79. ListenLogic - Social market research & analytics.
  80. Lithium - Social CRM.
  81. Managing News - News and data aggregation engine.
  82. Market Sentinel - Conversation & influence analysis.
  83. Media Proof i-news - Media analysis & news monitoring.
  84. MediaHound - Marketing metrics.
  85. MediaMiser - Media analysis, monitoring, and measurement.
  86. Mediatrack Research - Analysis, evaluation, and measurement of international media.
  87. Meltwater - Reputation management, web-based collaboration & online marketing campaign management.
  88. Metatale - Social measurement (in Dutch).
  89. Metricly - Aggregated dashboards of web data.
  90. MightyBrand - Monitor your brand online.
  91. Mint (Have A Mint) - Website analytics.
  92. Moreover - Content monitoring & aggregation.
  93. Morningside Analytics - Mapping of data clusters.
  94. NetBase - Understand consumer insights.
  95. Networked Insights - Social-media listening platform for actionable insights.
  96. New Media Intelligence - A digital media monitoring agency.
  97. Nexalogy Environics - A social media intelligence service.
  98. Nielsen - A global leader in measurement and information.
  99. ObjectiveMarketer - Social media marketing and campaign management solution.
  100. Omgili - Search engine for online discussions.
  101. Onalytica - Extract business insights from social conversations.
  102. Open Amplify - Create custom taxonomies to classify & analyze content.
  103. Optify - Marketing software enabling lead generation through SEO and social.
  104. Overtone - Meaningful insights from customer feedback and social media.
  105. Parnassus Group - Social media intelligence.
  106. Perception Metrics - Data-driven media insights.
  107. Personified - Business intelligence and talent management consulting.
  108. Postrank - Real-time data and analysis on any topic, trend, or interest.
  109. PR Newswire - News distribution, targeting, monitoring, and marketing solutions.
  110. PR Web - Press release distribution services to create buzz & increase online visibility.
  111. Psydex - Real-time search, data mining, and predictive analytics.
  112. Quantcast - Online audience insights.
  113. Quarkbase - Website information & research.
  114. Radian6 - Social media monitoring & engagement.
  115. RapLeaf - Personalized online experiences for your customers.
  116. Reedge - Content behavioral targeting & conversion rate optimization.
  117. RepuMetrix - Online reputation monitoring & social media measurement.
  118. Reputation Institute - Corporate reputation ratings.
  119. ReputationHQ - Online reputation manager.
  120. Ripple6 - Social networking software and platform for social media marketing.
  121. Samepoint - Real-time search & trends.
  122. Satmetrix - Customer experience management software.
  123. Sentiment Metrics - Social media monitoring, measurement, and engagement.
  124. SentiMetrix - Online reputation analysis (in Italian and English).
  125. Serendio - Customer experience analytics.
  126. Shoutlet - Social media marketing platform.
  127. Silverbakk - Social media monitoring based on language and relevance.
  128. SlideShare - Share presentations, get stats & generate leads.
  129. SociafyQ - Open social network analytics.
  130. Social Mention - Real-time search results.
  131. SocialMetrix - Social buzz measurement (in English, Portugese, and Spanish).
  132. SocialRep - Social market intelligence.
  133. SocialReport - Enterprise-class social network analytics.
  134. Socialscape - Social media conversation monitoring.
  135. Social Target - Social media intelligence.
  136. Socialware - Social middleware company.
  137. So ME Tracker - Social media tracking (in Swedish).
  138. Spinn3r - Real-time indexing of the blogosphere.
  139. Spiral16 - Software for web and social media monitoring.
  140. Spredfast - Enterprise social media management.
  141. Sprout Social - Social media management & CRM.
  142. StartPR - Find, manage, and respond to mentions of your company.
  143. Storify - Turn what people post on social media into compelling stories.
  144. Surchur - Real-time search.
  145. Symscio - Communications research firm specializing in media analysis & surveys.
  146. Syncapse - Social media management.
  147. Synthesio - Social media monitoring & engagement.
  148. Sysomos - Business intelligence for social media.
  149. Techrigy - Social media monitoring & analysis.
  150. Tinker - Follow live conversations in social media.
  151. Traackr - Measuring online infuence.
  152. TraceBuzz - Find, filter, and show you buzz.
  153. Trackur - White-labeled social media monitoring tools.
  154. Translated Labs - Readibility analyzer.
  155. Trendrr - Track the popularity and awareness of trends.
  156. Trustworthy - Tracking social media response.
  157. Truviso - Web analytics software.
  158. UKNetMonitor - Internet reputation monitoring.
  159. Unilyzer - Social media dashboard software.
  160. Viral Heat - Social media monitoring & analytics.
  161. Visible - Social media solutions for enterprise social intelligence.
  162. Vitrue - Social relationship management platform.
  163. Vocus - On-demand software for public relations management.
  164. Wavemetrix - Buzz research.
  165. WebClipping - Media monitoring & clipping service.
  166. Website Grader - How well is your website doing?
  167. WebTrends - Mobile & social analytics.
  168. Whitevector - Monitoring & analyzing social media.
  169. WiseWindow - Mass opinion business intelligence.
  170. WooRank - Website analysis tool.

What’s Your Brand Health Score?

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

Here is a new screencast profiling Heardable.com, the world’s first online brand optimization platform.

Get your free brand health score so you can start optimizing your brand’s performance — today!

Measure the effectiveness of any brand online in real-time — for free. Compare your score to competitors in your business category or in your local zip code.

Over 1 million brands have been scored so far.

Go to: http://heardable.com to get your free Heardable Score.

  1. Get found
  2. Boost brand awareness
  3. Increase traffic
  4. Generate more revenue

To Chat or Not to Chat: That Is The Question

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

I was recently on LinkedIn when the subject of Live Chat came up in a Q&A post. Someone asked for live chat vendor recommendations and LinkedIn users chimed in. One responder questioned the viability of live chat, saying, “the phone is the best way to chat.” I concurred, but went on to say that for many reasons, a good percentage of online visitors shy away from calling a company on the phone — so live chat is extremely viable for many companies — especially firms engaging in e-commerce.

In my 10+ years working in online marketing at Ford and Bank of America, I can tell you there are generally four types of online consumer interactions:

1) those who will call
2) those who submit forms
3) those who prefer to do business face-to-face
4) those who respond to live chat (or click to call)

If you have an e-commerce website and you are trying to increase conversions, you need to do everything you can to provide consumers with the ‘transactive preference of their choice’ while doing all that you can to ethically steer users down the transactive path that works best for your business. For example, when I worked for Countrywide/BofA, we saw that phone leads converted into sales at much higher ratios than forms, chat or within the branch, so we promoted the telephone call-to-action multiple times on any given landing page. We also used multivariate testing to rotate our page designs to generate the highest conversions.

Even after all that, a percentage of website visitors still opted to submit form and/or engage in a live chat. When our site visitors chatted with us, our goal was to be helpful, but steer them into a live phone conversation whenever possible.

By providing multiple ways to engage with us, we found we were able to maximize our overall visit-to-lead ratio while keeping customer satisfaction at peak levels. A win-win for everyone.

It is my belief that live chat helps transform an ordinary website into one that is more actionable for the user. An actionable website is one that makes it easier for visitors to respond, communicate, and transact.

I like to think of live chat tools as beacons of assistance in a sea of online uncertainty. Have you ever traveled to a foreign country where you don’t speak the language? Aren’t you filled with relief when, at the airport, an airline representative recognizes you are confused, waves you over with a smile, then clarifies an important piece of information about your departure time and gate? It kinda reminds us of those old Motel 6 television commercials that closed with Tom Bodett’s soothing voice saying, ‘We’ll leave the light on for you.”

Having live chat on your web properties is like leaving the light on for your customers. And it’s good for your business/brand to boot.

Live Chat Resources:

Activa Live Chat

activEngage

AliveChat

Boldchat

ClickAndChat

Egain

Kayako

LIVECHAT

LivePerson

LiveZilla

nGenera

Olark

Provide Support

SiteMax

Velaro

Volusion

WhosOn

ZaZaChat

Writing Seminar: The Write Way

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

The Write Way: Writing Smarter to Expand Your Brand Reach

1-Day or 2-Day Power Writing Seminar

Instructor: Jon Samsel

Who this course is intended for: Companies looking to train their marketing/communication staff on the importance of writing and the skills required to help a brand become successful online. Website writing best practices, search engine optimization (SEO), and storytelling are emphasized. Ideal for novice to intermediate level-staff looking to quickly boost their proficiency. No prior programming skills needed.

Inquiries: 310-402-2890 or email: jsamsel@gmail.com


IMPORTANCE OF WRITING

Famed management consultant, Peter Drucker, said, “As soon as you take one step up the career ladder your effectiveness depends on your ability to communicate your thoughts in writing.” In other words, if you want to be noticed within or outside your organization, you have to be able to express yourself-clearly and concisely.

The same can be said when you are an employee representing a company online, whether that’s on a corporate website, press release, training module, marketing campaign, social media site or email. Your writing is a critical extension of your company’s brand — so it’s important that business leaders invest in assisting their employees become the best ambassadors of communication possible.

  • Your writing creates an image
  • Text is the universal language of the web
  • Being readable and findable is critical
  • Great writing attracts customers

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN FROM THIS COURSE

The purpose of the training course is to help you become a better web writer, whether you are writing for humans or for search engines. You will increase your knowledge of today’s effective writing techniques, better understand the emotional mechanics of storytelling, and learn how to apply winning search engine marketing best practices.

  • How to make your website more relevant
  • What must be done to get good search engine rankings
  • Best ways to submit, subscribe & syndicate to be found
  • Why stories matter and how best to exploit them
  • Customers who interact are more likely to transact
  • The difference between branding and direct response content
  • How extending text & tags to multiple media to amplify your reach
  • How usability testing can be used to validate your choices
  • How to monitor and track your success over time

COURSE REVIEW

Web Writing

  • Writing for humans
  • Text elements of a high-impact website
  • Designing content structure
  • Tailoring your writing to different audiences and needs
  • Editing & testing text for clarity, concision & response
  • Writing to sell: persuasion & direct response
  • Social media writing & representing the brand voice
  • Syndication: The power of web distribution
  • Measuring success with text tools

SEO

  • Writing for engines & bots
  • SEO basics
  • Business planning & goal setting
  • Keyword selection, relevancy, and density
  • Competitive assessment
  • Code: titles, meta tags, URLs & site maps
  • Copy writing
  • Offsite SEO & social search
  • Measuring success with SEO tools

Storytelling

  • Writing for emotional engagement
  • Integrated marketing: The holy grail of marketers
  • The new PR: Participation not propaganda
  • Advertelling: Successful brands are about people
  • Word of mouth matters when the experience is the brand
  • Ratings, testimonials and user generated content
  • Educational training, kiosks and demos
  • Narrative stories & branded entertainment

FORMAT

One-day or tow-day tutorial encompassing lectures, live demos and exercises. Real-world examples are used to highlight points throughout the day. Copies of the presentation slides and exercises with be provided to all attendees.

INSTRUCTOR BIO

Jon Samsel is a published author, speaker, instructor, consultant and thought leader in the areas of branding, online marketing and writing. He has worked as an online marketing executive at Fortune 100 companies such as Bank of America, Ford and Countrywide where he was responsible for a broad range of marketing activities such as paid and organic search marketing, display advertising, DRTV, social media engagement, mobile marketing, and multivariate testing, including the task of coordinating teams of designers, programmers, copywriters and others involved.

His book, ‘Dead Ahead: The Web Dilemma and the New Rules of Business,’ co-authored with Laurie Windham and published back in 1999, predicted many of the changes the Internet has had on businesses and organizational processes. Jon’s book, ‘Writing for Interactive Media,’ first published in 1995, has been utilized as a textbook in over 40 colleges and universities throughout the US and Canada. He wrote and produced, ‘The Killer Content Workbook,’ for Apple, Inc., one of the first interactive PDF’s ever created to incorporate text, audio, video, embedded forms and interactive user response.

Jon is an adjunct writing instructor at UCLA and UC Irvine where he has taught courses in multimedia, fiction and non-fiction writing. Jon has co-authored four published books, edited 12 books/directories, and is a published poet and Hollywood screenwriter. Jon is an online marketing/writing consultant and a regular seminar speaker for Richmond Events.

COMPLIMENTARY VALUE ADDS

Free 1-Year Premium Subscription to Heardable.com

Heardable is the world’s first and only online brand optimization platform. All workshop attendees will receive a 1-year premium subscription to Heardable.com (a $2,999 value) redeemable via a special promotional code provided at the end of the class.

Free copy of writing for interactive media

All workshop attendees will receive a free copy of Jon Samsel and Darryl Wimberley’s book, ‘Writing for Interactive Media.’

PRICING

Custom class configurations and pricing available upon request.

TESTIMONIALS

Comments about Jon Samsel’s training seminar, The Write Way: Writing Smarter to Expand Your Brand Reach:

‘The class was well balanced with real life scenarios, and tactical hands on training. From individual to group work the attendees were able to participate at their own comfort level. Culminating at the end of the day into a presentation that applied all that had been shown throughout the day. If you are doing publishing on a website, this class is well worth the time and money spent…a great investment for any corporation.’   – Robbie Holland, Senior Manager of Content Management & Localization at Hilton Worldwide

‘Jon has an amazing understanding of consumer insights and behavior as they relate to online usability– skills that bring immediate value to strategic consulting projects. Understanding, and leveraging the technology through best practices and innovation are critical success factors, and Jon is clearly one of the best in his field. –Christophe Bertrand, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Hitachi Data Systems

‘Jon’s vision and in-depth knowledge of both the business and creative aspects of new media production is truly remarkable. This is a man truly “gets it” and empowers those around him to do their best work. Bottom line – Jon is a rare commodity, a visionary in the area of online direct response marketing and a creative powerhouse.’  –David Greene, Owner of Creative-Spark

JON SAMSEL
Digital Brand Strategist, Author & Web Consultant
310-402-2890
jsamsel@gmail.com
jon.samsel @ skype
jonsamsel.com - blog
linkedin.com/in/jonsamsel @ linkedIn
twitter.com/jonsamsel @ twitter

Marketers vs. Web Developers (a love story)

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

I’ve been working in online marketing or e-commerce since the late-1990’s. Heck, I still own my first Mac PowerBook 5300 (and it works!). Technology, software, Internet connectivity–everything has pretty much changed over the years. But one thing I can tell you that has not changed much is the relationship between online marketers and web developers.

Like two star-crossed lovers meeting in the night, these two disparate groups are intricately intertwined and dependent on each other. But like oil and water, togetherness is sometimes a four letter word. The result: Bruised egos, project delays, blown budgets, finger-pointing, and soured relationships. Worst of all, it’s bad business to let interdepartmental issues impact a company’s bottom line. Frankly, it’s unacceptable.

In looking back on my dealings with IT development managers over the years, I am struck by the fact that nearly all of my interactions have common threads that include ALIGNMENT, QUALITY, and COMMUNICATION issues. I’ve identified nine specific pains points common to marketer/developer relations that, if improved early on, can really boost a company’s web productivity. An added benefit is improving interdepartmental relationships BEFORE they spiral out of control.

Mutual SLA(s)

  1. Deadlines: Are deadlines being met? Are key milestones being hit?
  2. Quality: What is the caliber of the deliverables? Are they meeting or exceeding expectations?
  3. Value Add: Assess the subject matter expertise of the people we’re interacting with. Are people thinking outside the box? Are we getting any value add?
  4. Trust: Do we respect our partners? Do they have our back? Can we take them at their word or do we need to document everything up front to cover ourselves later?
  5. Teamwork: Does the other party have a shared desire to help us achieve our goals? Is it easy or difficult to resolve unexpected challenges?Are people listening?
  6. Flexibility: Can our partners adapt to changing market conditions? Will they put in the extra effort needed to be successful? Are they working at web speed or legacy software development speed?
  7. Surprises: Do we encounter frequent surprises or changes in direction? Are delays common?
  8. People: Are we dealing with like peers or is their disparity in skill sets and maturity levels? Do we have weak links that are dragging us all down?
  9. Support: How effective is the quality & style of communication? Is the other party easy to work with? How accessible are they in times of urgency?

Monthly Relationship Scorecard Review

One technique I have used over the years in a monthly relationship scorecard, or mutual SLA review session.  SLA stands for Service Level Agreement and serves as a contract between a service provider and a customer that specifies what services the service provider will furnish, and how those services should be measured. A mutual SLA simply applies the terms of agreement to both the provider (web developers) and customer (marketer).

The way a mutual SLA review session works is for both sides to rate each other (monthly) based on the nine variables mentioned above. Typically a marketing manager and web development manager sit down face to face to compare scores and review feedback. As uncomfortable and contentious as the first few review sessions usually go, the ensuing sessions using turn into effective get-togethers that resolve problems before they get too large to solve.

The goal of these sessions is to close the gap between self ratings (perceptions of our own performance) against partner ratings (how are peers actually rate us).

Challenge Resolution Sessions

A more professional and systematic approach to problem resolution can be attained via regularly scheduled Challenge Resolution Sessions. Rather than resorting to emotionally-charged finger pointing exercises (as if often the case after unresolved issues boil over), a challenge resolution session can be a healthy and effective way to air dirty laundry while solving critical impasses.

Sessions topics to consider include:

  • What went wrong
  • Impact the “challenge” is having on the business
  • Why this issue is important to us
  • How this “challenge” is making us “feel” (feelings, if left to fester, are like a cancer within)
  • Root cause of the problem
  • Recommended solutions
  • What we’ve learned
  • How we can prevent this type of situation from happening in the future

Conclusion

There are several ways that marketing professionals and their web development partners can have a more effective and productive working relationship that can help a company attain its online goals less arduously.  Mutual SLA(s), monthly relationship scorecard reviews, and challenge resolutions sessions are three ways I have personally actualized better relationships between marketers and web developers.

Communication is never easy. Neither is love; Ask any married couple. Perhaps my suggestions for documenting, discussing, and resolving online development and communication issues will prove helpful to both marketing professional and e-commerce/web development teams as they work together to improve their mutually-dependent relationships.

Ain’t love grand?

The Most Innovative Companies in Design (Ranked by WebsiteGrader Score)

Monday, September 7th, 2009

Recently, I wrote a blog post titled, “Which SEO Agencies Practice What They Preach?” The article generated a lot of comments from professionals within the creative agency world–most of them lukewarm. Respondents fell into two camps: 1) Those who disagreed with the methodology of utilizing a free site grading service to evaluate and compare SEO companies, 2) Those who were embarrassed by the results. After rereading my post, I not only stand by my words, but I have decided to expand the concept of comparing leading class companies by WebsiteGrader Score into a regular feature on my blog.

Why compare firms by WebsiteGrader Score? Because looking under the hood can tell you a lot about what companies are doing to promote their brands–both on site and off site.

So which category would I zero in on next? Well, it didn’t take me long to decide. I stumbled across an interesting article by Linda Tischler published on FastCompany.com on Feb 11, 2009 titled, “The Fast Company 50: The Most Innovative Companies in Design” that purported to profile extraordinary design enterprises across the nation, part of a larger article looking at firms across various industries.

Prepping the List to Grade

I had only heard of two of the design companies profiled by Fast Company, so I looked up each company on Google and verified the corporate URL for each firm. Then went to Websitegrader.com and evaluated each site.

Here are the top 10 design firms ranked by Fast Company along with their WSG score:

  1. Ideo 98.3
  2. Marcel Wanders Studio 71.0
  3. Rockwell Group 77.0
  4. Pentagram 97.3
  5. Whipsaw 53.0
  6. Ammunition 71.0
  7. Frog design 95.0
  8. Fuseproject 88.0
  9. Smart Design 93.0
  10. NewDealDesign 59.0

Big Ah-Ha’s

Ideo had the highest WebsiteGrader score and they were also ranked #1 design firm by Fast Company. That’s a fairly compelling confirmation that this firm is as good as they appear to be. Pentagram, Frog Design and Smart Design each scored above 90%, so my takeaway is that they each made a respectable showing and deserve some props.

Most of the other firms on the list scored lower than I would have expected. These are not big dumb brands…these are cutting-edge design companies. It just doesn’t seem acceptable that any of the firms on this list score below ninety percent, yet 6 out of 10 did!

The two design firms that scored that lowest were Whipsaw and NewDealDesign. Yes, it’s true both sites were built using Flash. But in 2009, there are plenty of ways to optimize a Flash website in a way that makes them accessible to humans, search engines, and social media sites. These two firms, for whatever reason, chose not to put the extra effort in to make their online content and code up to par. Tsk, tsk.

Digging under the hood at NewDealDesign.com, you will see that basic SEO best practices were not performed at all. According to WebsiteGrader, meta descriptions and keywords were missing from the NewDealDesign website. Images on the site were missing ALT text. There were a surprisingly low number of pages indexed by Yahoo: 26. One of the most important measures for a website is how many other sites link to it. The more links the better. NewDealDesign had only 577 inbound links, and the domain is 9 years and 9 months old. One would surmise that a leading design firm would have many, many more inbound links. No blog, no RSS feeds and no contact forms were detected on the site either.

In Conclusion: There May Be A ‘Return On Awesomeness’ After All

To be fair, NewDealDesign appears to be an offline design firm (packaged goods, industrial design, etc.) and doesn’t appear to offer web strategy & design services. Their client list is impressive: Puma, Samsung, Microsoft, Epson, Dell, HP, Kensington, Nokia, Logitech, SAP, Sun, Toshiba, Verison, and more.

But some of other design firms included on The Fast Company Most Innovative Companies list appear to do a fair amount of web strategy & design work. It seems fair to expect a design company’s website and online brand strategy to be deployed professionally and thoroughly. It surprises me when this is not the case–and the Fast Company list of innovative design firms did not disappoint.

So while many of the design firms profiled in this post failed the ‘practice what you preach’ smell test, they appear to be lauded by the press for their exceptional creative abilities nonetheless.  And the fact that they are being hired by the world’s top brands to transform the ordinary into extrordinary–through design–may be proof positive that generating a ‘return on awesomeness’ is possible after all.

50 Resourceful E-Marketing Tweets from Yours Truly

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
  1. Apple’s design process revealed!
  2. Hilarious video about ‘Death By Committee’ group decision making processes. Love the logo designs!
  3. Naming tools to help get your creative juices flowing.
  4. The Components of a Writing Business Plan.
  5. Website up-time tool.
  6. What every web designer needs: A handy Lorem Ipsum generator!
  7. An online font tester!
  8. 100 things on the Internet that might be of interest to you.
  9. Type in a word to find rhymes, synonyms, definitions, and more.
  10. Life of Pi - Interactive promo. The mood that this creates is almost like a movie. Awesome.
  11. The website is down: Sales guy vs. web dude. Funny!
  12. ZeFrank’s song about social networking
  13. Good site for hiring freelancers to work on social media gigs or web dev projects.
  14. Quantcast - Free, competitive website analytics.
  15. See every mouse movement and every click on your website. Record & more.
  16. Fun brain teasers and exercises.
  17. Need to quickly translate text into another foreign language?
  18. Nice gift idea - give a personalized book to your child or relative.
  19. SEO tool. How many desired .edu or .gov links does your site have?
  20. Over 1,500 stories about coffee’s impact on real lives. Very cleaver marketing.
  21. Social search engine. Pretty cool.
  22. Where’s WaldObama? 1,474 mega-pixel picture of the Inauguration. Wow.
  23. Mint or Rudder - which is best online tool to manage your money?
  24. Runners. Track your distance, pace, progress & calories with this cool NIKE tool.
  25. Looking for the perfect Web 2.0 domain name? Try Dot-o-mator.
  26. Download free Web 2.0 logo designs!
  27. UGC traffic to triple by 2012, according to Cisco.
  28. UGC / user reviews are critical. See latest Nielsen findings.
  29. “The Crying Game” of viral marketing. So well done. Click till you see the surprise ending!
  30. U.S. real estate prices from 1980-present plotted to a roller coaster ride!
  31. I just love Howcast - learn about almost anything!
  32. Creepy girl. Watch as her eyes follow your cursor.
  33. Amazing interactive simulation by Motorola.
  34. Heatmap simulation for any image you upload. Sweet.
  35. Design for Emotion and Flow.
  36. Website User Journeys, Needs, and Trust: A Volkswagen Case Study.
  37. Very helpful usability blog site by Craig Tomlin.
  38. Net Promoter Score: Pro’s? Con’s? Full of bologna?
  39. Get Elastic’s landing page optimization webinar recap.
  40. Consumer purchase preferences by zip code.
  41. Free version of the Word of Mouth Manual Volume II.
  42. Social media marketing case study: Will It Blend.
  43. Free 34 page ebook - The New Rules of Viral Marketing.
  44. Social Web Analytics eBook 2008.
  45. Introduction to Good Usability - Free PDF Ebook.
  46. How to think virally w/ Jeff Benjamin, the creator of  Subservient Chicken.
  47. Customer Feedback Usability Insights.
  48. 5 new skills for the future of marketing.
  49. Bring Holistic Awareness to Your Design.
  50. Long live the Cluetrain Manifesto! 95 theses ahead of their time.

Source: http://twitter.com/jonsamsel

Internet + Web Effect = The Empowered Consumer

Friday, December 12th, 2008

The Internet and its colossal impact on businesses worldwide is something I like to refer to as the Web Effect, a precept that Laurie Windham and I first postulated nine years ago in our book, “Dead Ahead: The Web Dilemma and the New Rules of Business.” The Web Effect loosely plays on Edward Lorenz’s chaos theory principle known as The Butterfly Effect.  The Butterfly Effect has become a popular metaphor for describing the chaos theory, the notion that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in China can send ripples of effects throughout larger and more complex systems, causing say –– a hurricane in Florida.

Following this analogy, the Web is a true “phenomenon” that has impacted nearly everyone.  The “complex system” that’s been impacted by the Web is our global economy.  Much like the ripples in a pond which repel from a center point and then move outward, the Web effects businesses in ways that cannot be entirely predicted, and that will continue to impact organizations in this unsettling way for many years to come.

The ripples in the Web Effect demonstrate the various stages of impact:

  • The Web Effect begins with access.  People with access to the Web quickly develop a preference for the Web as a vehicle for performing many business and leisure tasks.
  • This access quickly led to preference to do business and expand relationships on the Web in every market.
  • As consumers and business customers develop a preference for using the Web, they now demand that all companies service them online.

The result of the Web Effect is that it has created an empowered customer. Control of the transaction has shifted from the seller to the buyer, from the vendor to the customer.

Now that there has been this monumental shift in control to an online user, that control cannot easily be taken away.  More than a demand––it can be said that the Web has become a prerequisite to doing business with a company.

The Four Demands of the Empowered Customer

Monday, December 8th, 2008

What type of website experience causes visitors to come back repeatedly? Great ones! Oh, if creating awesome website were only that easy, we’d all have one. Right?

While tactical approaches to designing websites vary widely, successful web strategies are based on a few simple principles –– something I first wrote about nine years ago in a book I co-authored with Laurie Windham about doing business online. In that book, “Dead Ahead: The Web Dilemma and the New Rules of Business,” Laurie and I warned businesses that they needed to fulfill the demands of their site visitors, or face their wrath.

The four demands of the empowered customer are:

  1. Give me what I need when I need it
  2. Don’t waste my time
  3. Give me meaningful content, not fluff
  4. Don’t exploit me

When you factor the demands of the empowered customer together, you realize that people want a Holistic Experience that is based on their interpretation of the rules. Playing on that concept, a Holistic Website integrates marketing, sales and customer usage activities to enable shopping, buying, receiving, and consuming –– in one cohesive site. It puts the user in the center of the universe, anticipating, stimulating and facilitating their behavior. It fulfills the promise of the company’s value proposition by satisfying user needs.

Companies who can combine these holistic insights with solid user centric design and testing will find themselves much better prepared to develop a website that truly delights their customers.

Translation and Localization: Managing the Language and Cross-Cultural Mix in Global Corporate Communications

Monday, December 1st, 2008

Doing business in multiple languages requires a company to rely on qualified internal resources and expert consultants to translate and localize their content. By managing the cross-cultural language mix in their global corporate communications, firms can increase their chance of success while avoiding common communications bloopers.

Below is a link to an article on localization and translation that JBI Localization’s Jacques Boulanger provided to me several years ago for a CD-ROM project I was producing for Apple Computer. The information is still very relevant today.

Translation and Localization: Managing the Language and Cross-Cultural Mix in Global Corporate Communications

8 Stage Website Planning Process

Thursday, November 27th, 2008

After several requests, I have decided to publish my eight stage website planning process. If you are a web designer or developer tasked with building a new website, or if you are a web executive contemplating a redesign of your corporate site, think of this outline as a handy checklist for each stage in the web planning process–from discovery through optimization.

I have also included a PowerPoint version of the 8 stage website planning process here.


Stage 1: Discover

Purpose of site
Top 5 business goals
Top 5 user goals
Approximate page count
Style, tone & brand positioning
Top 5 unique features
Traffic sources
Onsite advertising
Calls to action / lead routing
Domain name / URL
How site complements current strategy
How site augments current strategy
Websites this site might emulate
Competitive sites
Timeline / launch date(s)
Definition of successful launch

Stage 2: Plan

Project team & roles
Financial overview
Marketing overview
Communications overview
Project management process
Key project phases
Content requirements
Assumptions & dependencies
Visitor personas & task paths
Major site features & functionality
Design, navigation & architecture
Publishing platform/CMS
Databases, integration & technologies
Tracking & reporting
Natural search & ADA requirements
Hosting & service level agreements

Stage 3: Build
Wireframes & design mock-ups
New content / rights clearance
API’s and RSS feeds
Prototype pages
Usability testing
Searchability testing
Source codes & phone #’s
Landing pages / transactive pages
Legal & compliance
Change control process
Quality control
Staging & user acceptance testing

Stage 4: Publish
Article creation / RSS feeds
Asset management
Publishing sign off process
Syndication
Publishing calendar
Subject matter experts / moderators
User generated content
Multimedia publishing
Publishing platform/CMS
Legal & compliance sign off

Stage 5: Maintain
Up-time requirements
System administration
Software/hardware upgrades
Hosting/security
Documentation
Capacity
Page load times
System performance tuning
Back-up/archiving

Stage 6: Market
Paid campaigns
Natural campaigns
Inbound link building
Landing page overflow
Inter/Intra site linking
Syndication of content
Campaign tracking & reporting
Integrated / stand alone
URL promotion

Stage 7: Measure
Analytic packages
Tagging, tracking & reporting
Cookies & logic
Campaign set up / mods
Natural vs. paid breakout
Tracking to goals
Social / delayed response
Banner performance
LP funnel performance
Site load time / up time

Stage 8: Optimize
Direct response testing
Multivariate testing
Landing page testing
Banner ad testing
Best practice sharing