Web Log.  A blog is a website maintained by an individual or group that is characterized by a persistent record of old content and the regular addition of new content.  A typical blog will present these entries in reverse chronological order.

Blogroll

A list of recommended blogs that is typically displayed in a persistent sidebar

Blogosphere

The whole of the blogging world, including all blogs and those who write them

Embedding

Placing a pre-written piece of code into your blog or website so that you can display a video, widget, banner, or content block created by someone else.  By giving your visitors embeddable code you can ensure that material you produce will link back to your own site.

Lifecasting

The continual broadcast of daily life through digital media

Linklog

An online list of links to other sites (typically used to facilitate research into a particular topic)

Microblog

A blog of short posts which typically have a pre-defined length limit. Twitter and Tumblr are both well known microblogging services.

Photoblog

A dynamic online gallery of photographs.  Some Photoblogs use standard blogging services like Blogger and Wordpress, others use dedicated online photo galleries like Flickr, but to really customize your photoblog presentation it is best to consult with a CMS specialist.

Ping

An automated process that tells a search engine, aggregators, and individual blogs that you have updated your blog and that there is a reason for them to look at what you have written.  It is considered good form to ping any blog that you’ve quoted or referenced.

Podcast

A regular video or audio broadcast released through RSS or other web syndication

RSS

Really Simple Syndication.  By using RSS any blogger can create a “feed” of their content so that subscribers can read it from an aggregator of their choice.  Since most e-mail programs now include RSS readers, this means a subscriber can read your blog direct from their own inbox.  It also means that your content can be easily republished, a key factor for anyone seeking to go viral.

Video Blog (a.k.a Vlog and Vidblog)

A blog that presents a portion of its content through an embedded online video.  A typical vlog presentation will place the current video entry in a central location with links to other related videos on one side and a space for written comments below.

Viral

Content that has been spread throughout the web by viewers and readers.  You can make your content easier to spread by using embeddable code.

Webcomic

A serial comic that uses online syndication to publish one strip or one page at a time.  Web comics typically display one entry per webpage, and are built to facilitate both chronological and reverse chronological browsing of the archive.

What do I mean by uninitiated? When I was becoming a fan of baseball, I was flummoxed by lingo such as Texas-league single, dinger, blooper, the other way, southpaw, and frozen rope. The more I learned about the game (initiated into its finer points by my college pal Jack, baseball’s biggest fan), the more fluent I became in baseball-ese.

Your business uses particular terms:  You know the meaning of each. Your audience might not! That’s when using lingo can get you into trouble.

Consider your audience

Is your target audience already familiar with your industry? If they’re initiated, you can use more lingo with less explanation. If you sell dental equipment to dentist, you don’t need to define plaque. If you’re a dentist communicating to your clientele, you do.

Take care if English isn’t the first language of many in your customers.  It’s normal for Americans to refer to aspects of our culture, but we’re using terms and references that mean nothing to someone who grew up on a different continent. References to sports (we’ll have to punt), movies and TV (beam me up!), and politics (whistle stop tour) can be puzzling to the non-native speaker.

Just explain it

You can explain your terms either simply within a sentence, or tidily in a footnote, or thoroughly in a glossary. For example: When plaque (an often-invisible biofilm) builds up on your teeth, it can harden into a mineral called tartar.

The first time you use an acronym, spell it out. I could tell you that I’m experienced in the preparation of CSI formatted documents. You might wonder if I’m writing TV scripts. I should instead clarify my meaning: I prepare documents that follow the CSI (Construction Specification Institute) formatting standard.

Be consistent

On the NBC Olympics web site, I read this: …if a skier does not qualify (DNF)…. Oops! DNF means did not finish. Sure, that means the skier did not qualify. But qualify and finish are not identical. Be consistent with your usage of terms, phrases and aconnyms. Don’t assume your reader will figure it out. They might not. And why should they?You’re trying to get your message across.

Be clear and consistent in how you use lingo. You’ll educate your reader and build their confidence that you’re an expert in your business.

Just type the URL for a blog into the appropriate field and Wordle will create a “Word Cloud” just for you.  Wordle looks through the most recent blog posts, and the more often a word is used, the larger it appears in the cloud.

Here’s what the recent Gold Mine posts look like:

Words from the Gold Mine courtesy of www.wordle.net

And this is not the only automated word art you can create online.  Flipscript is a site dedicated to making ambigrams upon command (ambigrams are those words that can be flipped or rotated, and then read again).

Some sites even claim to have an automated process for creating logos.  However, the art of simultaneously tying words to an industry, market, and identity is not one that I would trust to an automated process which, by their very nature, will try to handle everything in the same way.

Besides, creating art from words is nothing new.  Our own Natalya Brandt is quite skilled at it, and cartoonist Will Eisner was well known for his ability to organically incorporate titles and mastheads into his designs so that they would become a natural part of the illustrated narrative rather than editorial asides.

This is the first part of a 3-part blog series focusing on producing dynamite video footage for your website while getting the most bang for your buck.

The tips I provide below are based on a conventional corporate-video formula intended to yield about 5 minutes of final, edited video footage. They are just guidelines and as such, you can tweak them to fit your situation.

Pre-Production

Secure 5 Interviewees
3 happy customers and 2 expert employees. Getting customers is often challenging because people are busy, but testimonial footage from raving fans is gold. Choose people that are outgoing and vivacious.

Secure 1 Location for a Morning, Afternoon or Evening
Of course, this will often be one’s place of business. Budget is burned moving between multiple locations, so schedule everyone to come to one place. It may be a scheduling challenge to get everyone there, but saves a lot of money. When you first meet with your video producer for the project, do so at this prospective location and ask him or her to scout it with you to see if it is indeed suitable for shooting.

Choose 3 Enduring Themes on which to Focus
For example: quality, honesty and customer-service. What you choose should flow from your business’s particular strengths and objectives. This will give your video shoot focus and the final video footage clarity.

List Talking Points for Each Interviewee
These talking points should synthesize the 3 enduring themes with the unique stories and perspectives each interviewee has to offer. Discuss these with your interviewees when they arrive for the shoot. The point is not to put words in their mouths, but to keep the shoot focused so you get the footage you need quickly.

Make a Shot List
On shooting day, when you are not shooting interviews, you will be shooting B-roll, i.e. the visual footage to be inserted on top of the interview sound bites in the final edited piece. First list as many shots as you can that match what you expect interviewees to talk about. Then make a wish list of other shots that might be archived for future video projects.

Part 2 of this series focuses on what to do on shooting day. Until then, start dreaming about what YOUR video would look like, who would be in it and what wonderful things they would say about your company.

Hat Tricks in Hockey

I know that a hockey player makes a hat trick if he or she scores three goals in one game. By why is it called a hat trick? Apparently the term began among cricket teams, where it was the sporting thing to buy a new hat for any bowler who dismissed three batsmen with consecutive deliveries. Sort of like three strikes, you’re out except to three different batters. Hockey adopted the term to mean three goals, you’re great.

The Button in Curling

Curling is cool! A friend likens it to watching paint dry, but I get a kick out of it (partly because the announcers have done an excellent job of educating us viewers, and partly because I can multi-task while watching. It’s not like you need to be glued to every second of the action.)

My favorite term in curling is the button. In most target-focused sports, we call that the Bull’s Eye. Bull’s Eye has a intense and belligerent sound to it, suitable for something in which you embed sharp projectiles. But button, onto which the curlers slide a smooth stone, fits the gentle action of curling.

Jump n’ Spin

Figure skating likes to name moves after the skaters who perfected them; for instance, Axel and Salchow. I know the essential difference of their jumps (Axel starts forward, Salchow starts backward), but all the skaters move so fast, I can’t tell how many times they’ve rotated.

In snowboarding, they helpfully designate spins by degree of rotation. A 360 is a 360° – spinning around once. A 540 is spinning around once-and-a-half (so it’s a type of Axel). Snowboarding terms also have a whimsical realism about them:  An inverted aerial with a 180° flip is called a crippler. I don’t think this was named after some rider named Crippler.

I’ve added to my vocabulary during the Winter Olympics. Sure, these are terms I can use only in narrow context but knowing the lingo adds to my appreciation of the athletes’ prowess and artistry.

Next week, I’ll consider more lingo – and its dangers.

Traditionally any time you wanted to make an alteration to a website you needed to contact your Webmaster, who would in turn render your changes into code and and then use specialized programs to upload this code onto the servers which shared your information with the rest of the world.

No matter how responsive or dedicated your webmaster, the need to work through an additional person would build in a lag - one which would only be exacerbated by the fact that updating a website typically required a minimum of four programs (one to receive the request, one to write the changes to the page code, one to upload the changes, and one to confirm that the altered web pages still presented themselves correctly online).

Online Content Management Systems address all of these sources of delay.

First - A well-designed CMS does not require a user to know code in order to make simple updates.  Instead, they incorporate what-you-see-is-what-you-get style text editors that can create the code on their own.

Second - Modern CMS allow you to upload and edit files through the world-wide-web.  The only program you need to use on your computer is your every-day web browser - which is, most likely, the same program you are using to read this blog entry right now.

Third - Because you use your web browser in order to make changes to your website you do not need to start a new program to view your website.

Finally - Because you do not need to understand coding or have access to a suite of specialized programs, anyone can now update a website - not just a trained Webmaster.

If you have ever maintained a blog or joined an online forum, you have already used an Online Content Management System.

By getting a custom tailored CMS for your website you can experience the same ease of interface in maintaining any element of your site - from event scheduling to portfolio maintenance, to e-commerce.

Clearly this was some new sort of chat functionality, which surprised me, as I already had a GTalk session open.

Apparently Google was launching it’s answer to Facebook and Twitter, and you know what, I couldn’t be bothered.  I already have all the personal social media tools I need.  In fact, I have more social media tools at my disposal than I know what to do with.

But, of course, the key to a social media tool isn’t so much what it does, but who’s on it.  Even anonymous dating sites can serve as effective social media tools if you know your friends ’secret’ names.  So I figured I’d give Buzz a week to get up to speed and then take a peek around to see who was there.

Silly me - Buzz doesn’t have a sign up process, or at least not one of it’s own.  If you have a Google profile (and if you use Google for anything other than anonymous searches, you do) you are given a Buzz account.

Okay, so my friends all already have accounts.  In fact, everyone I know with a Google e-mail address already has an account, and I can follow it right away.  That’s wonderful.  There are just a few small problems.

• Since everyone was given an account automatically, I can’t easily tell who is and is not using the service (though after some digging I discovered that most are not).
• Some of the people in my address book aren’t friends.  There is no reason for me to see what their status is.
• Likewise, there are people who could follow me who have no reason to know what I’m up to.  In fact, I still sometimes get SPAM, which means I know there are people who I don’t want learning my daily activities who could, in theory gain access.

Those strike me as some fairly big disincentives to posting accurate status messages.  Since status form the spine of most modern social media services, it would seem that Buzz is a technological invertebrate.  To make matters worse, my GTalk status is automatically imported into Buzz whether I want it to be or not - which means I can’t really give my status there anymore either.

There’s another problem with the Buzz approach…

Most social media sites provide you with a way to expand your social circle.  Buzz lets you learn what people in your address book are up to.  I can tell you right now that I already know everyone in my address book - and if I want to know what they’re up to I can send them an e-mail.

So not only does Buzz introduce security issues into my Google account that hadn’t originally been there, but it doesn’t even add value to the services already available.

As always, the folks at Google are responding well to both positive and negative feedback.  However, without major changes, I will be very surprised if this networking tool doesn’t suffer the same sort of colony collapse as Google’s other social media attempts.

1. Web sites cost too much.
2. He gets his business by word of mouth.

I responded to his mistake #1 last week.  Here are my thoughts about Reason #2.

OK: Pierre gets business from word-of-mouth advertising. So he has a Marketing Plan and it’s called Referrals. Great! Referrals are fantastic, and are the easiest prospect to turn into a customer. But I can’t imagine that any business can make a go of it if their marketing plan is so passive,  based only on people telling people.

Does Steady stream of referrals = No need for web site? Not the way I add it up.

Why Prospects Want to Visit Your Site

• Because they forget your name, your phone number or your email address. So they google what they do remember, locate you on the Web, and get in touch. 
• Because they (however much they trust the person who gave them your name) want to learn about you and your business before calling.
• And because they will not do business with a company that doesn’t have a web site. After all, it’s an:

Essential Business Tool

A Web site is a vital means of marketing in 21^st century business. Compare it with another business tool: Let’s say you meet a CPA and you ask for her business card. Oh, she doesn’t bother with business cards! They’re such an expense and hassle.  She’ll just tell you her phone number, you can jot it down and contact her later.

Would you believe someone without business cards is really a CPA? Would you want her anywhere near your taxes?

Many of your potential customers will have the same reaction to hearing you don’t have a web site. People who are really in business have the essential tools.

Pierre’s Biggest Mistake

But the biggest mistake Pierre is making is assuming that a site’s sole purpose is to sell to new customers. With “word-of-mouth brings in business” stuck in his head, he’s decided that only potential new customers would visit his site.

Web sites have immense potential for educating and informing your target audience. So teach using relevant content and links! Pierre should consider the value having a web site can bring to:

• Existing customers, by helping them continuing to consider you as a helpful and informative expert in your field. Keep them as customers, and keep them as sources of referrals.

• Pierre’s own schedule! Whatever you explain on your web site, you won’t need to explain (as much) in person. Consider just the basics, such as your open hours or directions to your office. If you provide this information on your web site, you or your receptionist would spend less time on the phone and more time on other tasks.

• Prospective customers. Your web content itself can pre-qualify your prospects, by explaining that your dental practice is limited to children, or what size yards you landscape.  And if your site demonstrates your expertise, and your willingness to provide information, even not-yet-customers will bookmark the site. Let’s consider that landscape example: You do large properties. A site visitor has a small yard. But your information on pruning roses is helpful to her: She’ll think very nice thoughts about you, return to your site to learn more (because you change up the information seasonally, right?). Eventually, she’ll buy from you or refer people to you.

My advise to Pierre is to switch from his passive “word of mouth” approach, and take action. Be helpful and memorable; it’s a better way to bring in business. With a web site that engages visitors and provides them information they can use, you’ve got that essential business tool to expand your business.

]]> http://www.marissaberger.com/blog/2010/02/17/why-bother-with-a-web-site-part-2/feed/ http://www.marissaberger.com/blog/2010/02/16/man-or-machine-who-can-find-your-inbox/ http://www.marissaberger.com/blog/2010/02/16/man-or-machine-who-can-find-your-inbox/#comments Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:15:49 +0000 Aaron Rubman http://www.marissaberger.com/blog/?p=1198 For the life of the Internet, the art of protecting online e-mail addresses has rested upon the ability of web developers to come up with effective ways to sort man from machine.  In short, a CAPTCHA.

If a machine can identify and grab your e-mail address, you will become a target for SPAM - but removing your e-mail altogether is not an option if you want to provide legitimate clients and leads with a way to reach you without having to leave their computer.

When I first started looking at website code (back when a 28.8 baud audio modem was state of the art) you could fool machines by replacing each letter with a specific three digit code.  At the time I wondered why the code switched from plain text to an indecipherable block of numbers whenever I reached an e-mail address.

Eventually I realized that each of those numbers corresponded to a letter - and so did everyone who wrote the programs on the prowl for e-mail addresses.  With a simple addition to their code, these e-mail harvesters were once again on the prowl.

Code alone, it would seem, was insufficient to separate human visitors from machine.

In response to this development, another solution came to popularity - placing e-mail addresses within graphics (and later within flash animations).

At first the only problem with this approach was that you could not link these pictures directly to an e-mail address (as the process of doing so would once again make the address detectable within the code of the page).

However, as optical character recognition (OCR) has grown more sophisticated, these methods have become less secure.

On the whole, OCR is quite useful.  Any time you scan a document directly into a word processing or spreadsheet program you are using some form of OCR.  However, because OCR has become so good - machines can now just look at how a page is presented to visitors (instead of at its code) to determine if any e-mail addresses appear.

However, just as OCR posed a problem, its use also presented a solution.  Every so often OCR programs will misread words.  These words, then, can be used to sort a human from an OCR using machine.  ReCAPTCHA offered a service that could be integrated into form and forum protections.

MB/I can now place just such a protection on your e-mail addresses, making them harder for spammers to gather and exploit.

While no protection is absolute, requiring human input goes a long way towards keeping your e-mail address out of the hands of abusive e-mailers.

E-mail Newsletters Can Help Your Web Site

Online marketing is often referred to as “search engine optimization” or “SEO” or “internet marketing”. The idea is to get your Web site so it shows up in Google’s index of results on the search engine results page or “SERP”. But can an offline tool like e-mail newsletters help your online marketing? The short answer is “Yes!”, and it’s actually quite easy.

Each of us has a pile of expert information in our heads about our respective businesses. It’s kind of like the TV commercial showing the digital camera with all those pictures trapped inside - this valuable information is just clamoring to get out. Many people write newsletters to educate their customers about their industry and how they can help them. This is great, but once someone reads - then deletes - that e-mail, it ceases to exist and have any value.

Repurpose Your Content

An excellent strategy is to take that same e-mail content and repurpose it into different forms for the Internet. Once you’ve taken the effort to write your newsletter, it doesn’t take much more energy to turn it into:

• A post in your blog
• An online press release for Google News
• An article for an online article repository
• A short video on YouTube

With just a little extra effort, you can repurpose your information into a slightly different form that has many potential audiences. In addition, each of these tools will give you an opportunity to extend the longevity of your content by creating online content that people will find through the search engines. The more you do this, the more you’ll be rewarded with top placement on the search engines, often with multiple positions, rather than just one! In addition, you’ll build links to your own Web site naturally, which are extremely valuable for search engine placement.

I Love FREE!

The best news about all this, is that most of these tools are 100% free! With just a little bit of effort, you or your assistant can create multiple streams of marketing messages that different people will find when they’re searching for your services. Since they don’t cost you anything, you just can’t lose.

If you’re just not sure where to start, I highly recommend that you get a copy of David Meerman Scott’s best seller, “The New Rules of Marketing and PR”. It’s readily available on Amazon.com and other book retailers. Then pick one tool and start small. Be consistent and put your information out on a regular schedule. You’ll start to see more traffic to your site, and hopefully, more phone calls!