I had the pleasure of being invited to present at the Annual Economic Development Association of British Columbia Conference in Osoyoos on June 7th, 2010.

They asked me to speak to the 140 delegates about social media, so that they could get a better understanding of how social networking fits for an association like EDABC.

The conference was held at Spirit Ridge Vineyard Conference Centre in Osoyoos – the setting couldn’t be more inspiring.  The entire complex is nestled into the landscape – behind it the dramatic craggy cliffs, and in front, vineyards sloping down to the lake.  The first thing I noticed when I got out of the car was the sound of crickets, and the cry of eagles soaring above.

For this online version of the presentation, I’ve condensed things quite a bit and removed the video vignettes I use in the live presentation.  It runs about 25 minutes.

Here are some links I spoke about in the presentation:

• NYCEDC on Facebook
• WorldBizChicago on Twitter
• Posting and content management via HootSuite
• Posting from Twitter to a Website
• A branded YouTube channel for DigiBC: VXChannel
• The Whitehouse on LinkedIn
• My Flickr page and my ’set’ of photos from the conference centre setting in Osoyoos

If you’re interested in having me speak to your organization please email me.

I also do workshops to help jump-start your organization into the world of social networking.

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The tools of the my trade were my 1965 Mustang with a giant Motorola 2-way radio strapped under the dash, a pager, a Sony cassette recorder and a bag full of spare batteries.

1976 - self portrait -|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|- 2010 - photo by Kris Krug

Stories were my business – and on a good day I’d cover a couple of press conferences, stop by city hall or the police department (the cop shop), and I’d pick up one or two more stories by doing the rounds.

If the newsroom got hold of a good story they needed me to cover, they’d page me.  My beeper would go off and I’d have to find a pay phone to call back to the station.  I’d write my stories long hand on a steno pad, or if I was close to city hall, would pop in there where we had a desk and a typewriter I could use.

Filing stories meant cracking open a phone headset, and with 2 alligator clips, ‘patching in’ my cassette deck audio output to the phone wiring so I could feed clips back to the station.  Then I’d file my story over the phone while they recorded it at the other end.

It’s no surprise that in those days, we didn’t spend a lot of time talking about the technology of delivering the story.  We spent all of our time talking about ‘the story’ itself.

Flash forward to 2010.

I now have a huge collection of digital tools, both software and hardware, that make my 1976 toolset look ridiculously archaic.

These days, it seems to me we’re always talking about the technology.

And why not, it’s exciting.

Particularly in the social networking sphere where things are developing fast and furious.  But it’s easy to get lost in the conversation about the technology, and forget the point.  What are you there to talk about?  What stories are we actually going to tell with all these new tools?

One of the first things I tell clients is that for business, a social media strategy is actually a content strategy.  It’s about opening up and telling the stories about your product, your company, and your employees – really about anything that someone might be interested in learning about.  Interestingly, often this kind of content isn’t found on the company’s own web site.

The second thing I tell clients?

Stories talk back.  Social media is about engagement. Sure it’s ok to tell people about your products of what you’ve got on sale, but you also have to engage in the conversation.  The analogy I use is that it’s like the customer service desk, not the bulletin board.

I encourage my clients to get involved with social media – but – with a couple of key pieces in place. First, we spend some time thinking and planning the kind of stories they intend to share.  Second, that they understand that social media isn’t   ‘set and forget’; they need to be engaged in a meaningful conversation in order for it to provide meaningful results.

I wouldn’t for a minute go back to the dark ages of 1976. I love my digital studio and suite of distribution tools. I love knowing there’s something new coming at any moment.

I would, however, encourage you to remember that without ‘the story’ none of it means very much.

Oh.

And I would take the Mustang back.

—–

thanks to kk+ for the 2010 photo!

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Digital content is really a collection of things. More and more, I find myself using them in conjunction with one another, building a series of communications channels that work in different ways, and often reaching different people.

Twitter.

I’m doing quite a lot of work with Twitter now on behalf of clients and on my own websites. I’m using it primarily to:

• augment posts and keep the site active
• build (extend) audience

Twitter messages are short – 140 characters – but can link to longer stories as well.

So, it’s particularly good at sending out quick blasts of info like events, updates, and special offers. It’s also great for posting something that might not warrant a full article, but you still want to mention.

Twitter is really helpful in building your community because of the way it connects a variety of people who might not even know about you (through other people who ‘follow’ your twitter feed).

The short story is, I’m really pleased at how effective it is in spreading the word and building community.

If this is something you’re interested in, let me know and we can talk about how it can serve your goals. Fees are based on time spent creating and sending ‘Tweets’ and managing the Twitter account for you.

You can see my full personal twitter feed at twitter.com/bigsnit and you’ll see a selection of my most recent “tweets” in the right hand sidebar of this page.

Facebook “Pages”

You may have a personal Facebook page, and know how for some people, it’s a key piece in keeping in touch with friends and family.

While Facebook isn’t open to the world in the same way a web page is, the fact that it’s a ‘friend to friend’ community makes it extremely powerful, and its usage continues to grow despite detractors who thought it would become passé.

Now you can have a Facebook page for your business.

The functionality is similar to a personal page.  You show up in Facebook search, and Facebook members can become ‘Fans’ of your page.  It’s also a handy place to list things like events, and of course you can link back to your web page.

LIke the Twitter feeds, I’m now managing Facebook pages and content on behalf of a number of clients. If this is of interest to you, please let me know and we can talk about how it can work for you.

Video

Even though traditional TV viewing numbers are down, I seem to be doing more and more video these days. This isn’t too surprising considering that people still consume a huge amount of video – it’s just that now they are watching it online at places like YouTube and SurfTheChannel.

Authenticity is something consumers value more highly then ever.  Videos give you an opportunity to  tell your company’s story and to bring people ‘behind the scenes’.

They’re also a terrific way to show people ‘how to’ do almost anything.

Email me if you’re interested.

You’ll find an example of a simple “how to” I did recently for BasicGov.com on their home page.

Recent Community Activity

NVOCA: This week I was invited to be part of a group of people sharing ideas with the North Vancouver Office of Cultural Affairs. It’s a fairly serious sounding organization, but in fact, is staffed by a great bunch of people who are working hard to bring the North Shore’s incredible arts community into the limelight. I’m looking forward to seeing how things unfold over the next few months as they start reaching out into the community.

LoCoBC: In October I was one of the presenters at the launch event for LoCo BC. They’re a new network for small and medium businesses in BC. I put together some screencasts of the organizer and one of the main presenters – you’ll find that on the VanGoGreen website.

Just for Fun

I always have a few side projects going on, where I try stuff out and play around.

I firmly believe that ‘doing’ is better than endlessly ‘talking about doing’.

Here’s the latest, called BrainPicker.

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Using an SaaS (Software as a Service) model, they’re providing a package of admin and organizational tools to local governments.

Typically, these tools are only available through expensive enterprise software – and the little guys find themselves making do with patched together solutions for tracking things like building permits , code enforcement, or planning. BasicGov’s approach seems even more relevant given the current economy.

What these guys have done is distill the key services required and created a web-based solution. Their clients have no technology overhead to deal with, they pay on monthly subscription basis, so they can start without spending heaps of cash, and all they need in place is an internet connection and a browser.

The goal of this project was to provide a high-level overview of the suite of products – essentially an introduction to the concept of SaaS without ever using the acronym, and how these products help solve specific challenges faced by small governments.

BasicGov, wisely, is using YouTube as a key platform to distribute these videos.

It’s fitting, considering their own model.

Just like their own service, using YouTube allows them to get all the benefits of a large scale distribution platform, with zero overhead. The idea is to use the videos as an introduction to the services, not as a ‘how to’ per se – though we may do some of those later.

Creating the videos gave me an interesting insight into their product as well. The team sat down with me and walked though each of the 3 key modules. I took notes, but mostly I was just trying to get oriented. I’ve never worked in local government, so a lot of the details were new to me.

Often with this type of software, a casual observer (me) will find it difficult to retrace their way through the various functions. I was surprised when I logged on back at my office, and discovered I was able to work my way through all the pieces with ease. Which of course was one of the goals BasicGov laid out when they started.

PRODUCTION

We worked through an iterative process, using storyboards to identify key screens and copy.

I often use Final Draft A/V for this kind of thing, but in this case, I opted for Story Board Quick. I like being able to generate HTML and FLASH versions of the boards – I work virtually most of the time and it makes sharing the info with the client quick. I also strip out the copy and provide the client with a clean copy deck – often this is the easiest place for them to identify changes.

For screen capture, I knew I wanted something other than Camtasia. It’s not really a Mac or PC thing, I work with both (I do all my audio on PC). Given that I planned on editing on Final Cut at high resolution, I wanted something clean and lean that made it easy for me to get the screens I wanted, with the zoom factor I wanted, etc.

I opted for I Show U HD. It plays nice with Mac and was rock solid. It was a real bonus being able to select from a variety of resolutions and frame rates – I imported all my clips directly to FCP.

Through the process I created rough cuts for the client to review. These I provided to them in Flash Video – using Adobe’s CS4 media encoder. I was then able to load them up on a server for them to grab and review at their convenience. What this meant was that we were able to move through more iterations faster than would have been the case with ‘in person’ reviews.

Once we finalized the copy of flow, I created a ‘finished’ voice track to replace my working tracks. I record all my audio on a Sound Devices 702T through a 422 field mixer. Then I haul the audio into Adobe Audition for editing, and master with T-Racks 24, then haul the mastered files back into Final Cut.

Because BasicGov wanted to take advantage of YouTube’s HD options, everything was captured at 1280 x 720, and the YouTube versions, both regular and HD, looks great. You can see them here:

• Overview
• Permits and Inspections
• Code Enforcement
• Planning

The team at BasicGov was a real delight to work with, and I hope we’ll do some more projects together soon.

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New Media BC is an industry association for new media professionals. Their goal with this podcast was to extend the organization’s  brand, and at the same time, get people excited about the kind of  keynote speakers they attract at their annual conference.

So, in this case, I produced a mini ’show’ for them, covering a variety of topics meant to highlight NMBC’s personality, its position in the industry, and the kind of guest speakers who’d be at the annual VidFest conference (now called Vancouver Digital Week)

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Despite the fact that everything is prepared digitally, and often sent digitally, printing hard copy just hasn’t gone away. Even if I send only a digital copy, inevitably a copy is printed. It’s not just habit – most people find it easier to review and mark-up hard copy in advance of a meeting.

I do use recycled paper in my printer, and when ever feasible I print double sided – but I came across an idea that makes perfect sense, and one I’m going to start using right way.

It’s a font created in Holland that uses less ink.

It’s called the Ecofont, and it maintains readability, but because the characters aren’t ’solid’, it uses less ink when printing.

Here’s the info from the folks who created it – a Dutch ad agency…

The prints we make for our ‘daily use’ not only use paper, but also ink. According to SPRANQ creative communications (Utrecht, The Netherlands) your ink cartridges could last longer. SPRANQ has therefore developed a new font: the Ecofont.

“After Dutch holey cheese, there now is a Dutch font with holes as well.”

Appealing ideas are often simple: how much of a letter can be removed while maintaining readability? After extensive testing with all kinds of shapes, the best results were achieved using small circles. After lots of late hours (and coffee) this resulted in a font that uses up to 20% less ink. Free to download, free to use.

One of my great frustrations is that I’m still printing loads of documents that end up going into recycling. So, I’m going to start using the Ecofont in my printed documents starting today.

Interestingly, on the screen at least, the cut-out dots don’t really show up until you get to a fairly big size – around 24 px and up.

I think, just to help spread the word, I’ll add a “made with the ecofont” in the footer.

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Publishers should be thinking a lot more seriously about electronic books and how to leap ahead of their competitors.

Sony’s eBook has only been available in Canada for a few months, and it’s far from the perfect product, but it provides a glimpse into what’s coming.

Playing with the eBook Reader reminds me of the first MP3 players I used in the 90’s. At the time, people scoffed at the idea that the small players would replace their CD collection. People scoffed at the idea of an online music store where songs would be downloaded. And we all know how that turned out.

The shift to electronic books could easily follow the same pattern, assuming the hardware meets our needs. The Sony eBook is close – more on the problems later.

First – the good.

I love the eBook reader.

It’s sleek, easy to use, and the screen technology is far better than anything I’ve seen before.

Partly this is due to the high resolution of the e-ink technology – it’s more than twice the resolution of your typical computer screen – so text is crisp. Since the screen technology doesn’t depend on back lighting (like your laptop) it looks totally flat, so the effect is much closer to the look of paper than a digital screen.

The Sony eBook also displays images (in black and white), plays MP3’s and allows you to load up Word documents, PDF files, jpg and gif pictures, along with their own e-book format and other open electronic book formats.

I’ve loaded about 70 books into my reader and I’ve barely touched the internal memory. This version of the reader has 2 slots for Sony memory sticks, so there’s really no limit to the amount of content you can carry around.

I found that I quickly adjusted to the form factor. The placement of the ‘next page’ buttons line up with where you normally hold a book, and there’s a bookmark function to hold your place.

Essentially, the reading experience is different, but not in a negative way. The feel of the book obviously isn’t there, but it functions pretty much like a book, and that’s what makes its potential so powerful.

Riding the bus, sitting in a doctor’s waiting room, or hanging out on a park bench – this device is ideal. Like an mp3 player, it’s light and easy to carry – so I’m more likely to have it with me than I might a big heavy book. And considering that I can haul around hundreds of books, it’s hands down a much better option.

Opportunities

I can see a lot of major advantages in terms of publishing.

Timeliness

Reference and technical books, particularly those about software, are largely out of date by the time they’re published. With an electronic book, updates and changes could be made as often as required, and just a download away. It’s a natural for serialization. And dare I say it – a daily newspaper ?

Presentations

While I can haul out my laptop for a quick one-on-one presentation with a potential client, the size of the eBook is more easier to deal with, and I can literally stand in the elevator and walk through a presentation on the way up. Keep in mind that the screen only displayed in black and white (actually, 4 shades of grey) so I do repurpose my presentations to make them look good on the screen, but you can also just load up any PDF, Word doc, JPG or Gif image, and the eBook will simply display colour as monochrome images.

eBook and Podcasts

Given that Sony’s included an MP3 player right in the eBook, it seems natural to bundle books with author podcasts, as well as serialized “books on MP3″ packages that could be used for promotion

Trees

Books use paper. eBooks use bytes. Need I say more ? Shipping ? Fogetaboutit.

Here’s where I think things need to improve

Software. Sony makes great consumer entertainment products but its software is often horrid. Given that they have a great model with the iTunes store, there’s really no excuse for the state of Sony eBook store. The software is also the interface for loading books onto the eBook reader. It needs a major over-haul in look & feel as well as functionality.

Connectivity. Hard to beleive, but Sony’s software is PC only. Given the nature of the eBook reader, the Apple crowd should be a prime target market. But unless they’re running their MacBook in dual boot mode, they’re out of luck.

Tether. Connectivity to the computer is via a USB cable. I’m assuming the reason there’s no Bluetooth or other wireless connectivity is space, but I’d dearly love to be able to move data back and forth without having to find the cable and plug in. This is a challenge Apple still hasn’t solved with the iPod so I supposed I shouldn’t be so demanding. All I know is that as long as the device has to hook up to my computer, it’s potential is limited.

Price. The 505 model is 300.00 Canadian, which seems expensive given the price of things like iPods, game consoles and and digital cameras. The goal here is to get people using the device so they’ll buy books. Consumers don’t like paying for technology development and a price point that’s too high will keep the adoption rate low.

The newly released 700 models has some nice new features including touch scrolling, but at 400.00 it’s just way too expensive. Amazon’s competitor, the wireless Kindle, is 359.00 USD

Why publishers need to pay attention

The book isn’t going away any time soon, but things are going to change dramatically. Electronic books open up some new possibilities for existing publishing models, and throw the doors wide open to new models.

Is it possible that within a few years the biggest book seller might be a hardware manufacturer ? There’s a reason Amazon created it’s own electronic book reader.

Why not publish dailies in ebook form, so that I can grab up update on my way out the door and read it on the bus ?

Sony’s eBook reader already supports RSS feeds – with a wireless connection there’s no reason I couldn’t be walking through the mall, train station or even at transit bus shelter and downloading the latest update to the periodicals and books I’ve subscribed to.

The e-paper will get better. The connectivity will improve. The price will come down. There’ll be other models and competitors. All those things bode well for publishers – IF they get with it and start to explore what’s possible.

Links:

Get this article for your Sony eBook Reader (open BBeb format)

• bigsnit_blog_lrf.zip

Sony eBook reader at SonyStyle.ca

• 505 model
• New 700 Model

Amazon’s Kindle

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Matt Mullenweg is the 24 year founder of WordPress, an open source blogging and content management software.

He was the keynote speaker this morning at the Northern Voice blogging conference in Vancouver.

This is audio of his complete presentation, un-edited.

Matt Mullengweg at the podium, Photo by kk+ Vancouver fashion photographer, bon vivant and all around nice guy who’s wicked with a lens.

Robert’s notes…

I’m a user and was a fan of WordPress before I met Matt. Hearing him speak has convinced me that one of the reasons WordPress has done so well is that Matt clearly keeps his eye on the goal; to make WordPress serve its users.

His presentation may be based on his work at WordPress, but his ideas are equally relevant to web sites, magazines, radio, tv, and any other form of communication in existence today.

Monique Trottier has a nice text summary of the presentation on So Misguided.

Matt Mullenweg
Keynote Address at the Northern Voice conference
Vancouver, British Columbia
Saturday Feb 23rd, 2008

runs: 42:48

Photo above by Penmachine and used under CC license

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Dr. Tony Bates posed an interested challenge. The former University of British Columbia professor is a world authority on distance education and e-learning, and over many years in the field he’s accumulated a huge bibliography.

His desire to share the information he has, and how he’s categorized that information, was the key driver for his new website.

As you might expect from someone involved in e-learning, Dr. Bates has had a web site for a long time. As he watched technology evolve, he realized his site of flat files and PDF downloads was woefully out of date.

He knew he wanted it updated for look and feel, but primarily he wanted to be able to take advantage of modern web technology to be able to manage his constantly growing list of bibliographical entries – nearing 2,000 at last count. And because his focus is on sharing the information he has, he had a strong desire to include other people’s thoughts on the bibliographical collection, make suggestions of their own, and if so inclined, help keep it up to date.

And then there was the budget.

No large institution or big commercial brand behind this project. Dr. Bates was paying out of his pocket.

Although he never got into details, I know that a number of web development companies he approached in Vancouver never even responded to his request for quotes. Those that did were scared off by the sheer volume of content, and the limited budget.

Dr. Bates was referred to me by Loc Dao of RandomLink Interactive. Loc’s company is primarily a Drupal developer and they were knee deep in a number of large projects, and he wondered if I wanted to take it on.

After meeting with Dr. Bates I was hooked on the challenge. Here was a guy who’d prepared all his material in advance (his 110 page Word doc of content was sitting in my in-box) . He was clear about what he wanted to accomplish, yet was willing to listen to ideas and consider options.

The Challenge

At its heart, the challenge was one of finding a way to help Dr. Bates manage his lists of bibliographical information by topic.

While all the bibliographical entries fell within the broad e-learning or distant education categories, Dr. Bates has developed a system of categorizing the bibliographies and cross indexed them to help others looking for specific topics or types of information. His Word doc outlined over 40 different topic categories, each with it’s own bibliography. Many of the bibliographical references were found in multiple categories. In the past, he’d simply managed the lists by hand, and generated a PDF for download. As you can imagine, managing those lists was becoming a nightmare.

The rest of the site was primarily informational pages that he wanted to be able to edit, and Dr. Bates also wanted to have a blog. The site map was very straightforward – I use OmniGraffle for both site maps and wire frames, and it didn’t take us long to settle on a plan.

One minor problem

I still wasn’t sure just how I was going to sort the bibliographical entries, and at our meetings, Dr. Bates was rightly concerned about this. I asked him to trust me, that I was working on it, and that I wanted to move ahead with the visual design while I continued to sort out just how it was going to work. To his credit, he did trust me, and designer Sara Bailey with At Large Media moved ahead with the design phase.

Themes, CSS and CMS’s for non-programmers

I’ve licensed Brian Gardner’s “Revolution Pro Business” theme and have been working with it for a while, both for my own blog and for other sites like VanGoGreen.com, Glave.com, FinancialPeaceofMind.ca and Eco-Shed.ca. Ironically, but perhaps proving the point, FinancialPeaceofMind.ca doesn’t even have a blog, it’s a web site running nicely with WordPress as its CMS.

I’m not a programmer, so the huge amount of functionality Brian has built into the template is very attractive. I can pick and choose what to keep and what to remove, and customizing pages to fit the project. It’s a credit to Brian that the ‘bones’ of his theme are so strong. Sara did a wonderful design, and I set about adjusting the CSS and the page templates to fit.

Like the other recent WordPress customizations I’ve done, this site uses WordPress primarily as a CMS, with blogging being almost secondary. It’s an interesting shift in focus, and getting easier with each subsequent release of WordPress. I’ve also been using OpenAds in conjunction with WordPress quite a bit, and really happy with the results. Ditto with Slide Show Pro – a CMS for flash. By mixing and matching these tools, I can give clients the ability to update a lot of different aspects of their site, and harness database driven dynamic content.

I like keeping the dynamic menu system, so I customize section page templates for each section, then use child pages for any pages within that section. Be settling on a set number of ‘parent’ pages, I can plan the main nav and instruct my clients to only create child pages within those sections. In Dr. Bates’ case, each and every page on the site is editable in the standard WordPress input screen. Limiting the number of parent pages means the nav won’t get broken since new pages are child pages, and they cascade out of the main menu.

Time to Decide

Dr. Bates wanted to be able to add entries to any of his lists of topics, as well as add new topics in the future. He also wanted to be able to cross index entries to more than one list. Because of the limited budget, I originally thought I’d just re-create his lists and he could update them using the WordPress WYSIWYG input screen.

But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to find a solution that harnessed both WordPress’s ease of content input, the power of the database, and the WordPress engine. It was going to be mean more work (for me) getting things set up, but in the end, the right solution for my client

I knew that I was either going to use WordPress tags or categories to generate a list, and once I started adding real content, it become apparent right away that the most convenient way to do this was via categories.

On the WordPress manage categories page I was able to create all 43 categories, which would now show up as a nested list when creating a new post.

I also decided that each bibliographical entry would be it’s own post, thereby allowing me to assign it to one or more categories. Data input is quick and easy; each bibliography entry is a post, and once it’s created, the only thing left to do is click on the correct category and add some tags. Yes, adding the initial bibliographical entries was a huge amount of data input, but once in, adding anything new would be quick and simple.

To generate a list, we call up a category, and presto – a complete list of all bibliographical entries in that category is generated. WordPress lists these in reverse chronological order in which in they were created – and over time this will actually be a benefit, showing the ‘newest’ entries at the top of the list.

a href=”/category/general/”><strong>General publications</strong></a>
<ul>
<li><a href=”/category/general/e-learning-and-distant-education/”>e-learning and distance education</a></li>
<li><a href=”/category/general/e-learning/”>e-learning</a></li>
<li><a href=”/category/general/distant-education/”>Distance education</a></li>

For the bibliographical entries, we’re assigning author name(s), and year of publication as key tags, then any others we think are relevant. This rolls up in a tag cloud widget in the sidebar. We’re using the tags to generate a list of publications by author last name as well.

Authors:
<ul>
<li><a href=”/tag/a”>A</a></li>
<li><a href=”/tag/b”>B</a></li>
<li><a href=”/tag/c”>C</a></li>
<li><a href=”/tag/d”>D</a></li>
<li><a href=”/tag/e”>E</a></li>
<li><a href=”/tag/f”>F</a></li>

One of the key factors in the success of this collection is that users can find the information they’re looking at in a variety of ways. WordPress search is robust and is delivering excellent returns, or users can find lists based on Dr. Bates’ topic categorizations, or the tag cloud.

To roll up featured stories in the side bar, we created a separate category so that Dr Bates can easily assign an entry to show up. Over time, as the different sections of the site flesh out, we’ll probably roll-up entries relevant to that section in the side bar.

I was able to delivered Dr. Bates his site on time and on budget – with a lot more functionality than originally planned

Tips?

Well, here are a few:

• Set up a development environment and try loads of different plugs ins. Push things around and see what happens. WordPress is easy to reinstall or fix if you mess something up.
• Use a dev subdomain so that you can show your client work in progress. I’d never do this with a flat file site, but showing the client how the backend functions early in the process makes a huge difference. And if they’re inputting any content themselves, they can do that even while you’re continuing to tweak design.
• Moving from dev to your live site (changing domains) involves a few hoops – there are good directions here. Follow them and you’ll be fine. Here’s a tip – if you move the site rather than use the import/export function in WordPress, all your site setting move with. Nice.
• The more you work with a theme, you more you’ll be able to customize it.
• If you are getting confused about which php page is used to generate the page, add the name of the php file right into the template as plain text – then you’ll see it each time the page is called. In the early days of customizing templates, I found this helped clear a lot of confusion as I moved further into customizing pages.
• Play play play. If you think it should be able to do something it probably can.
• WordPress as a CMS provides all the functionality you’ll need for most sites.
• Look for apps that work nicely with WordPress – Open Ads for ad serving is a fantastic tool, Easy PHP Calendar has a plug-in that brings the data input right in the the WordPress CMS.
• The WordPress forums are huge resource. I’ve run into loads of apparent impasses only to find an answer in the forum, many without having to even post a question. If you think it should work, and it doesn’t, check the forum. If you are going to post a question though, make sure you’ve at least TRIED to find a solution first.

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A web site is a fluid publishing environment. Unlike producing a TV commercial or creating a newspaper advertisement, a web site is designed to be changed and updated starting the minute it is launched.

For a lot of companies, this is one of the most perplexing and challenging aspects of operating a web site. How often do things need to be updated? What parts of the web site should be changed? Is the site accomplishing its goals? Are people using the site in the way it was intended?

Finding answers to these questions is critical to a successful online project, and analysis of web metrics is one of the key tools to assist in finding answers. Peter Drucker’s phrase sums it up nicely “What gets measured gets managed”.

My career in broadcasting introduced me to metrics early on. Radio and TV stations sell ads based on audience size. They use independent measures exclusively as a means of setting their rates, and they spend a significant amount of money to acquire and analyze those numbers.

My first job was at a tiny radio station in Dauphin, Manitoba. They couldn’t afford to buy into the radio ratings system but the station manager, the late Hugh Dunlop, had his own way of measuring. When reporting on a traffic accident (a big story in a small prairie town), he’d always end his report saying the cars involved in the crash had been towed to so-and-so’s service station. Then Hugh would drive over to see how many people showed up to gawk at the wrecks.

Hardly scientific, but better than no measurement at all. I call this “Dunloping” it.

Contests and write-in campaigns are other ways of “Dunloping” the numbers – the numbers are highly subjective but they’re better than nothing.

Fortunately, web sites generate a plethora of useful statistics. Yet it’s surprising how often we encounter companies that are making minimal use of their web measures, and are in fact more often “Dunloping” it than using more reliable information available to them. So, one of my first recommendations is that they embrace the mantra: If You Can’t Measure It – Don’t Do It.

In almost all cases, embracing this notion is easy because the data is usually being gathered. A little analysis, even simple analysis, will go a long way to helping you make informed choices, leading to more successful online projects.

What Do the Numbers Mean?

Sometimes a client will say to us “We have x-thousand page views a month. Is that good?” Metrics have to be considered in context. Because web technology provides us with a multitude of different measurement tools, answers to those key questions hardly ever come from one set of measures.

The importance of various measures is directly related to a site’s goals. And a combination of measures provides a more complete picture than relying on just one set of numbers.
For a community site, the amount of time viewers spend on the site will be a key measure, as will the number of user-generated posts. For a site that depends on banner ad sales, page views will be far more important.

The important thing is to start with a few key measures, analyzing them on a regular basis. Measurement analysis can get quite esoteric, and if you have the resources to do so, by all means delve deep. For the vast majority of small to medium businesses, a few key measures will provide important data to help determine the direction of the web site.

If you can’t afford analytic software, get the data, put it into Excel and make a few key charts and graphs. Do it monthly, and use the same format so you can compare results.

I like to group 2 or 3 measures together into what I refer to as ‘key indicators’. Take for example, an e-mail newsletter. Grouping list size, open rate, and click through rate together provides a significant snapshot of the campaign’s strength.

While growing the size of an email list is obviously desirable, a small list that has a high open rate (people actually read the newsletter after it has been sent) and a high click through rate (people who click on links in the newsletter) may actually serve the goals better than a larger list with a low click-through rate. In the example below, key indicators are graphed together to provide a quick view of the health of the list.

A set of key website indicators might include page views, bandwidth, and files served. This provides a snapshot of how much people are actually using the web site.

On the other hand, trying to determine which section of a web site to focus more attention on requires analysis of a different data set.

The goal here is to get away from decisions based on anecdotal or emotional data. You have a myriad choices to make as an online content creator, so use the numbers as a means of guiding those choices.

Trending is another important data point. Not all new projects show instant success, so looking at changes over time is important. Analysis helps you make decisions, assess your successes and fix mistakes.

Just as in TV, radio and print, measuring the success of your online efforts is key to your ongoing strategy. The web gives us an abundant set of detailed data, and the companies who are most successful online are aggressive in their use of that data. They’re also strict with themselves, building on the things that people actually view online, and ditching the things that aren’t generating any good usage stats. To be successful online you have to measure your data, and also be prepared to LEARN from that data. Be rigorous, measure what you’re doing, and you’ll be able to build a meaningful project for your online audience

In Summary

• If you have a web site, you have measurable results.
• Devise a way of reporting the data and look at it regularly.
• If your data isn’t pretty, make simple graphs and charts.
• You don’t need a lot of data, but you do need to use what you have.
• If you have to, Dunlop It.
• Ask ‘why is this happening’. Look for linkages in the data.
• Add some qualitative data when you can

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