Off-Piste

No excuses. We’ve been buried — and in the best way. Lots of work and plenty of proposals in the pipeline. As much as I want to, trying to write a post at the end of the day, after getting a four-year-old and a six-month-old to bed has proven a mighty challenge. Hell, I don’t even know what happend on Grey’s Anatomy last night (don’t spoil it!)

With that, here’s a shameless re-direct to a great post by one of our favorite gurus, ValMal over at Conversation Agent:

100 Thoughts on Social Media

Five favorites:

1. make the content rock (or at least swing)
2. participate sincerely, and not to brown nose (does this count?)
3. stay offline when you’re tired or argumentative (see explanation above, gotta problem w/ that?)
4. make your writing a work of art (personal favorite, JF)
5. appreciate success is several years in the making (man, are we learning that)

More soon!

Social media maniacs, viral marketeers, bloggers and Web-casters — your arsenal of strategy is white hot and more popular than the center cafeteria table. And with good (eh, maybe decent) reason. The outreach works. It’s inexpensive compared to traditional efforts, and from Foursquare to Facebook, it’s just fun.

But there’s still something that’s going to knock it on its heels: Reality.

Earlier this week, Mike enjoyed the privilege of participating in Social Media Strategy, an interactive panel session hosted by Business Innovation Growth in Charlotte, NC. It was a full afternoon of conversation, questions and answers regarding the effectiveness of social media in both B2B and B2C contexts. And like so many of these exchanges, it took place (irony alert) in real time, in the real world — with cocktails afterward.

One of the most important realizations resulting from our participation in that panel was that there’s no need to beat the death out of the “social media buy-in” message. Self-proclaimed experts hell bent on simply describing social media benefits are a few spaces back on the board; most companies are at the “ok, enough people are doing it – I want to do it too” phase. The challenge now is that getting started is still overwhelming to them.

Rest easy. If you have any appreciation for marketing, you’re already on board. Social media effectiveness is built on basic marketing principles: company buy-in, clear program objectives, ongoing testing, analysis and improvement. These apply regardless of media.

The best way to start a social media effort? Start a social media effort. Pick a point, choose a goal, and commit to the channel. Don’t treat it as a the holy grail. Instead, think of it as another outlet that deserves the same respect as advertising, PR, traditional web presence, broadcast, print, etc.

Of course, don’t forget what we learned by simply showing up: information sharing, thought leadership, and business interaction is sometimes best facilitated by smiles, handshakes, and the actual exchange of business cards. Mike left Charlotte with new friends, a fresh perspective, and several valuable points of contact from which our business will inevitably benefit.

Last week, we completed a quick pitch for a local art gallery looking to tune up their Web presence and boost their marketing efforts. It’s a non-profit organization doing a beautiful job hosting events, showing exhibitions, and generally enriching the local arts community. And while the gallery is working to build visibility among potential patrons, it’s having no problem attracting the help of a dedicated team of volunteers.

And that, perhaps, is part of it’s challenge.

What organization in its right mind doesn’t appreciate the help of unpaid people passionate about the cause? We don’t merely welcome the idea — we do our best to let it climb right in bed and cozy up with us. The trouble is that volunteers tend to be people with a million commitments and obligations: careers, family, other interests. Nine out of ten are happy to show up and help in any way possible — from sweeping the floor to passing out Champagne. But the volunteers you need to be wary of are the folks with highly specialized skills. These are the volunteers who can bring your efforts to a dead stop. They tend to turn around projects you consider critical at their convenience.

We’ve seen this before. Whether it’s a non-profit or small business, somebody knows somebody’s nephew who is a graphic designer or web developer. They promise they can work up a perfect poster or whip the website in to shape and are happy to contribute time. They usually get things off to a good start, but then they do what most busy people who need to pay the bills do — they fade in the stretch.

Part of the reason we were approached by this organization was because, as much as they appreciated the efforts of their more technically minded volunteers, they were suffering from their inability to consistently contribute. The folks running the show have recognized that if they want to get their marketing up to a speed that matches their vision, it’s probably worth a line-item in the annual budget.

We definitely look forward to the chance to work on behalf of the gallery, and understand that non-profits generally don’t have budget to burn. We also appreciate their realization that, as much as they depend on volunteers to support and sustain their organization, they will be well served making a modest investment in a professional firm that can make getting them what they need a top priority.

Slideshow presentations have become landing page mainstays — done well, they’re an eye-catching and effective way to convey a lot of info and imagery. And they serve up plenty of that “wow, the Web sure is cool” factor. Who doesn’t dig a little animation, so to speak?

After reading an article this morning citing 30 standout slideshow examples, and having a quick Twitter tete-a-tete (incongruity noted) with one of our designers revealed genuine concerns about slideshows.

We’re seeing the same syndrome that, just a couple years ago, was generally confined to PowerPoint. People want slides so packed with information that they become unappealing and unreadable. We all know the dangers of PowerPoint abuse. We’ve all fallen asleep to the droning presenter who does little more than read every word on his or her slides. We’ve all grappled with clients who insist every iota of information has to be in the presentation and then wonders why feedback was in the cellar.

Think of slides as flashcards — the old-school animals-and-alphabet ones your nursery school teacher would chant with you morning after morning. One message, one image, now move on. The information sticks because it is the right dose for a typical attention span — and today’s hyper-media audience has an attention span that makes a nursery school student look like a Buddhist monk.

Like the idea of slides for y0ur site build or redesign? Great. Keep content under control. Keep design clean. They’ll get the job done. Load them up like a jitney bus bound for Cartagena and your slides wont be worth . . . well, enough about that.

In case you missed it, yesterday’s Washington Post and MSNBC Online featured an article examining tortured souls who can’t control their addiction to smartphones. PeakTwo founding partners Mike Granetz and Jay Ferrari were two of the tortured souls featured.

The article kicked up plenty of online chatter. Feedback forums for WaPo and MSNBC, which uses Newsvine, had in excess of 100 comments. Stepping back from the controversy and critique, we found it to be a fascinating example of how content impact can evolve (maybe mutate is a better word) depending on audience.

Comparing three online outlets — the Post reader forum, the MSNBC Newsvine forum, and Facebook — it was interesting to observe trends in feedback tenor.

Readers at the Washington Post, which trend toward an older demographic, were tough. Jay was accused of negligent parenting. Mike was a detached husband. Many people were, to be blunt, just nuts. They worked in personal agendas and launched personal attacks. The animosity would have been unsettling to those who don’t realize those folks tend to be a bit ahem marginal upstairs.

MSNBC readers were on a bit more even keel. While the forum’s debate had a bit of personal vitriol, it swung between the dangers of this alleged addiction and the overall advantages of technology. Those readers trend a bit younger, a bit more savvy with online media. Not surprising that more participants would defend innovation and dismiss the stodgy hysteria that dominated WaPo.

Facebook was all congrats and smiles. Of course, we’re referring to our personal and company accounts — the classic captive audience. That’s important to note, however. We’ve built rosters of friends and followers who know us and can see past a one-dimensional depiction.

For this crowd, the placement was a big win for company awareness. Instead of being seen as negligent or absent, we were praised as being well-connected consultants and “hip” parents/husbands who went to great lengths to balance entrepreneurial and familial responsibility.

What does this demonstrate? You can count on a single message to change based on audience perception and agenda. What follows is a need to be present on as many platforms as possible, to lead the response when you can, and participate in the resulting dialog.

At times, you’ll be handing over your identity to fate. Make the front page of a major daily and you can’t be quite sure what will happen. The impressions, positive or negative, are invaluable. We’re sure happy about the SEO impact, for example, and will talk more about that in the next post.