How do you get visitors, how do you keep visitors returning and how do you convert visits to sales? If you want real-life practical demonstrations of how to do this, then do I have the video for you!
In this recorded presentation, Andrew Fingerman spoke to the folks at Telluride about Extreme Makeovers of Photography Websites. Using dozens of live examples, Andrew shows photographers how to turn a photography website into a more powerful marketing tool to attract new visitors, turn them into customers, and keep them coming back for more... but it applies to much more than photography websites.
His examples of how blogs are an integral part of the site, and examples of how web site owners have made them relevant are core demonstrations of the 'new' way the web works. This is no 'casual' presentation. It uses real life examples and works through what has changed and why it matters. It's worth putting aside some time. The 'technical difficulties' mean that sound drops occassionally, but persevere.
Andrew isn't a 'big name' outside photography, and this isn't some 'flashy' speaker on a podium. He's a coffee addict whose livelihood depends on doing.
Know what your website does .. and does not do. A clear Vision or sense of purpose is a key factor that separates websites that succeed versus those that fail. A clear vision underpins all our design decisions. It helps us decide what functionality to include or exclude. Just because [insert trendy web site here - Apple, Microsoft, Google or Digg] does [insert fancy widget] is reason to be aware of a capability, but does not make it essential. Conversely, there are things your website HAS to do to win over your target market. When you don't focus, you will regularly fail to recognise what's essential. This is the situation Yahoo! seems to have been for the last several years.
It saddens me to write about Yahoo! in this context. I've been a member since March 1998, and a paying member for most of that time. It's apparently unbelievable to new web adopters that Yahoo! was once one of the great innovators. "Once upon a Time" they were leaders in tools we now take for granted - task list on same page as calendar, synchronization of data with the phone (or PDA in those days) and they developed a brilliant desktop search tool (that indexed USB drives and maybe even network drives - but my memory is unreliable here - it was a very long time ago).
The decline has been obvious for a long time, the missed opportunities, cost cutting the wrong things. So what has prompted this outburst (and planned, painful separation). The final straw seems trivial perhaps: Plaxo (Plaxo.com) has stated that they will no longer synchronize their data aggregation tool with Yahoo! because it has become too hard.
So what? Well let's look at why I used Yahoo! for so long, what did a paying customer like me join Yahoo! for. I'm a consultant operating a small to medium business looking for a low cost online place to centralize my personal and business information. It needs to be available to my phone, and any other application that uses my core contact, to do and calendar information.
Yahoo! was originally ideal. Each contact page has a unique URL so I can place that in, for example, a project management tool - click on the name, up comes the contact details, use it in a mind map of something - click on the entry and I can dial/email without having to interrupt workflow. Same with Notes - click on the URL and I can update the annotation. No PC-based package can offer that.
Now ... see what I almost, but don't quite, have - a low cost CRM. All the components are there - calendar, Notes, Tasks with due date and Contact details - all with unique hyperlinks. All can be synchronised to the Phone. Plus email with aliases (for paying customers). A centralized, accessible anywhere, collection of the information I need to run my life and my business. All wasted because while Google worked and worked to make synchronization of their data easy and pervasive throughout the web, Yahoo! have been tardy in making our data available to us. All wasted because they dropped the focus on paying customers and failed to do the next stage of development and connect the systems they already had.
Today, it is much easier to be assimilated by the Google Borg than remain in the Yahoo! camp. Google has, with focus and dedication, made it easy. But why is it so? Ease of data exchange is a priority with anyone that has the disposable income to use a smartphone. Isn't that the demographic to aim for? Which demographic contains IT journalists, bloggers, those who make recommendations to new users? Now look at your own websites - have you ignored Smartphone users or made data hard to get at?
As a sidenote, this is not a universal truth - just a general one: I've sometimes had to design websites for Indigenous or Rural and Remote communities where Smartphones are just not a priority - as always - know your audience, know your purpose.
Desktop search was another sad episode. I don't know the full story, but it looked to me as if Yahoo! bought in a package. One that I tried a couple of times and uninstalled each time. One that wasn't as function rich as the original Yahoo! product. One that doesn't touch USB drives (last I looked, I gave them a second chance before I installed Google desktop - that's it). The USB function isn't just important for me. Lots of people would overflow their local drive. However, for me it is crucial - I have 2 Terabytes of supplementary material I want indexed - training courses, white papers, coding examples and - if it's my turn to cook - recipes. Google desktop on my Mac still is nowhere near as good as the old Yahoo! desktop search, but it's reliable. Yahoo! started to lose me from the moment I had to install Google desktop search.
Increasingly, I'm even using Google Search for work. I don't want distracting news items or social 'stuff' distracting me when I have a task to complete. Surely this is something that Yahoo! could let me personalize.
Yahoo! continues to do some excellent things in small areas. Yahoo! Pipes is a great tool. However, the bright spots of excellence don't seem to be treasured and disappear in the surrounding smog of directionless missed opportunity. I'll keep my email addresses - I've had them a long time - but my contacts have moved to - you guessed it - Google as my central repository. How the mighty are fallen. All we can do is observe, learn and apply to our own websites. The web is always dynamic, and there is no place for complacency. So .. is there really a clear vision for each of your sites? If not, prepare to lose your visitors. Even a Yahoo! can fail.
I saw this little heading and photo on Huffington Post, and I couldn't resist. I don't want to make any comment on the rights and wrongs of the situation - the couple Jon and Kate have enough to worry about. The question that springs to mind looking at the body language in the photo - is this what a reunited couple looks like, or just a couple willing to sit in the same room?
The tools of connectivity - the mobile phone, email and twitter enable a new phenomenon - the flash mob event. Like all forces, it can be used for good or evil. Here I've collected some of the best examples. This is part of our Keeping up with the Internet Memes series - web behaviours and the best startups - web nostalgia in the inspirational Understanding the Dance.
Sound of Music - Antwerp Central Station
More than 200 dancers perform "Do Re Mi", in the Central Station of Antwerp. Dance and music routines take rehearsal - just 2 rehearsals created this spectacular! These 4 fantastic minutes start on the 23 of march 2009, 08:00 AM. It is a promotion stunt for a Belgian television program, where they are looking for someone to play the leading role in the musical of "The Sound of Music".
High Five Escalator
My favourite of the improv everywhere projects - it creates smiles on a bleak morning. I like the way it shows how easy it is to make someone's day happier. The full story with background pictures and interviews is on the iproveverywhere site.
Unexpected Performance - Stansted Airport, London
Stansted Airport, London. 7 hidden cameras. 14 undercover actors. 1 unexpected performance. Some people love it, some just let it all wash over them unmoved. The passengers are as fun to watch as the performance.
No Pants
The Improvanywhere no pants day got a spectacular boost in 2006 when a Cop arrested participants. A month later a judge dismissed all of the charges. It is not illegal to wear your underwear in public in New York City. The publicity (reported by news agencies around the world while David Letterman made two monologue jokes about it and staged a No Pants Cab Ride as a parody) led to continued spectacular growth. Now this is no longer the "secret" event with a few participants in the know - it's become almost a parade. Fun to watch though!
No Shirts (111 Shirtless Men in Abercombie and Fitch)
In the interests of equity - if we present no pants, then we'd better present no shirts. It's fascinating to see how corporates that promote topless models cope with a situation like this. The best bit is that 2 guys were thrown out while they were actually buying $45 shirts! Isn't this performance art at it's best?
...
The Freeze Mob
NYC - Frozen Grand Central Station
The inspirational classic freeze mob. Replicated across the World it's a great concept. The video was put together professionally too - top production values. Arguably one of Improveverywhere's greatest projects.
Paris, France - The largest Freeze Mob
This video is the compilation of 20 videopodcasters, who covered the event. Around 3,000 people froze on the Champs Elysee.
Trafalgar Square Freeze
At 3:30pm on a secret cue, almost everyone in the square froze. For 5 minutes the participants held their positions, and then magically everyone unfroze. The participants in Britain take the performance art aspect of the frozen positions in innovative directions.
Free Commercial Bonus Video!
Liverpool St Station, London, UK - The T-Mobile Dance This doesn't really count as performance art because it was organised as an Ad. But it's still fun! Watch the moment Liverpool Street Station danced to create this special T-Mobile Advert.
Keeping up a consistent image across the web and keeping your content fresh is vital to good business and strong relationships. We've talked about some Web 2.0 aspects already, but your online profile is a key part of your personal and business web 2.0 brand. Profiles must be kept fresh. With a little upfront effort, the task of maintaining multiple profiles can be less tedious, freeing up time to better connect with other people. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr, Picasa and YouTube are just the start of it - for people active on social websites, you could have several dozen social media profiles.
Keep an Inventory
The first step is to exactly know where you have a social media profile and where you do not. Start by checking with Check User Names, which will search dozens of popular social media websites to see if your username is active. Check any you normally use. If any don’t ring any bells, see if it’s yours or if somebody already owns it.
Preserve (Reserve) Your Identity
Mashable Tip: Always keep note of other people using your most common username. Making sure people don’t confuse you for somebody else is important for friends, potential employers and particularly if your business is on the web.
Therefore it's important to sign up for the most popular social networks regardless of whether you are going to use them all. This prevents someone else taking your online presence, being mistaken for you and it protects an account that you may want to use later.
This doesn’t mean you should be active on all of these services. Take a long, hard look at all of the services available and your time constraints and choose the ones that pique your interest the most. Keep some focus when choosing platforms. For the rest, place a note on your profile with contact information and links to your favorite social profiles.
Organise, Centralise and Synchronise
Keep track of your email accounts and other feeds. The best tool for me has been netvibes.
One tab has all my email accounts on one page, plus twitter feed and facebook feed. Another tab has various modules plus direct links to all my sites, my client sites and any admin areas. Netvibes starts every time firefox does.
Do not become a Robot, but keep similar tasks together. For example a common action on social media is sending an update that you have updated your blog. Normally, you would have to copy and paste this type of message into Twitter, Facebook, and so on. With services such as Ping.fm and Twitterfeed, this can be done without any work on your end. Find tools that can help you spread you reach without eating up your time.
Atomkeep is a cool tool for updating all of your social media profiles at once - it connects to your Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other accounts and allows you to change bios and profile pictures with one action.
I also use PeopleBrowsr to create a more dynamic dashboard for special events and handling the group concept. It combines multiple sources of information in one place. PeopleBrowsr is an online visual dashboard that combines your Web profiles and connections. For an event like SXSW it has created a centralized dashboard for SXSW and all conversations, parties, and events related to the big festival.
If you’re unfamiliar with PeopleBrowsr, the site functions similar to TweetDeck providing users with a column view of status updates and custom created groups, but it also combines your friends and updates across a myriad of other social sites like Flickr, Facebook, FriendFeed and LinkedIn for an all-in-one Web-based view of your social world.
Foundation Board Member Institute of Government Business Analysis & Process Reengineering (IGBAPR) Past Member Executive Committee Canberra Branch Australian Computer Society
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