Versant Technology

RSS and Strategic Blog Thoughts – Part 2 of 2

In my last post I gave you a quick explanation of RSS and its many benefits, along with some key tips for building up your blog strategy. Here are three more tactics to keep your readers engaged:

1. Decide on full or partial RSS feeds

There has been an ongoing debate as to whether you should allow your blog followers to see all or some of the blog copy in your posts while using RSS readers. Either way, there are definite pros and cons.

With partial feeds, some people love the idea of seeing a headline and a couple lines of text so they can quickly decide if they would like to read more or scroll to other posts. However, it can be bothersome for individuals to have to open additional Web pages to get the full post.

As for full feeds, the need to navigate away from your RSS reader is minimized. This method seems to be the most preferred method for blog readers and writers. However, as one might imagine, in-depth posts can contain several images or graphs which can be cumbersome or even annoying to some readers who need to load and scroll through the entire post when they are only interested in one segment of it. On the flip side, it would be a poor choice to not have a full feed for posts that are generally only two paragraphs long.

2. Use FeedBurner Stats

If you are going to be allowing your readers to view posts via RSS, you might as well enable FeedBurner Stats through the FeedBurner service. FeedBurner Stats gives you the ability to see how many subscribers you have for your blog at any given time and when they are reading it. The end goal is to determine how you can more effectively blog to reach your readers.

After conducting your analysis, you may find out there are certain days of the week which are more active for your readers, or if there are seasonal or industry related patterns. Analyzing the activity may give you additional insight to let you know which promotional or strategic tactics are working or not working for your blog.

3. Minimize unsubscribers

A measureable goal while blogging is to increase your number of readers and subscribers. This can lead to increased Web site hits, more products and services sold, establish a reputation of knowledge leadership and more. Many of us will do whatever it takes to increase readership, but sometimes as bloggers we forget about how to maintain the readers we already have.

The reasons that readers unsubscribe include having too few posts, irrelevant or uninteresting content, or headlines that don’t accurately describe the content. Researching causes and prevention tactics of unsubscribers, and then making the necessary changes, is crucial for any bloggers success.

Final Word

I encourage you to try some of the tips I have mentioned in this two-part blog about RSS and blog strategies. There are many great ways to optimize your blog that will help take you to the next level in the ever-changing blogosphere. Good luck and happy blogging!

RSS and Strategic Blog Thoughts – Part 1 of 2

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) means people no longer need to visit countless pages all over the Web to read news articles, blog rants and more. This means that people are not frequently visiting sites that they did previously because they are getting their information via RSS. While RSS is a great thing, its popularity is changing how we communicate with customers.

So, how do we keep visitors coming back to our site to see our other news, products and services?

1. Employ the use of strategic linking

Let’s say you write a post about the importance of segmenting your market and the immense benefit of conducting preliminary research. You already have a Web page with this information and a specific call to action; why not link back to it? This can be especially useful for people who are reading your blog on RSS readers such as Google Reader and are not actually at your site. The post is no longer a dead end!

2. Employ different blog tactics

Consider a monthly product or service spotlight. In this type of post, you could explain the benefits of what you are selling, combine it with customer testimonials and link back to a specific Web page.

Other strategies include creating contests or blog-only invitations for visitors to see something new. Whatever you decide, don’t refrain from doing something incredibly creative to get customers thinking AND acting in a new way!

3. The blog store

The blog store is a basic concept which employs a blog to sell products but certainly isn’t limited to them. Nike has done a terrific job with this on some of their sites. Tell the benefits, show a picture, add a couple reviews and link back to your official store and see the sales numbers rise.

Bottom line, try some new things and check back soon to see the second post of this two-part series on how to use RSS and blog strategies to promote yourself and your brand.

Boiling Point: Web Standards Support for HTML E-mail

I’ve noticed a recent buzz around the ‘net lately that HTML e-mail developers (myself included) are becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of standards support among popular e-mail clients. In fact, with Microsoft’s release of Outlook 2007, they had to add a disclaimer to their own e-mails in order to ensure their recipients were able to view the content of the newsletter.

This problem is further illustrated by Campaign Monitor’s “Guide to CSS Support in E-mail: 2007 Edition”. Right now there are only a handful of CSS properties that are supported across the board — most of which are font and color related. These are essentially broken though, because various e-mail clients strip out the contents of <head> and we are forced to use in-line CSS or non-standard CSS insertion within the <body> to get the job done. Talk about a hack!

Don’t get me wrong — I am not advocating a world where micro-sites are delivered to your e-mail box, but rather a world where HTML e-mails will be more usable and lightweight, especially considering that most clients do not download images initially. Standards support will save us all time, money and the headaches that come up when “that margin looks a little off in Windows Live Mail.”

It is a hope of mine (and many others) that someday we will be able to code an e-mail with the grace and separation of structure and design that CSS affords us with traditional Web design. In the meantime, join the fight.

Reaching Multiple Audiences With Targeted Web Video

Just one year ago, we launched a completely redesigned, next generation Web site for one of our clients, Plunkett Raysich Architects. The excitement for their organization and ours was high as we unveiled a beautifully designed strategic site with compelling content and engaging graphics. And while our hope was that PRA would utilize this site as a tool, versus an online brochure, they went beyond that. They not only saw it as a business development and recruitment tool but as one that should be continually improved, specifically with online video.

Many sites are adding video to their online arsenal. That’s not unusual. However, not all are maximizing the ability to communicate to multiple audiences the way PRA has. Using the capabilities of Versant Video, we have created video for PRA that speaks to the casual visitor, the existing customer, the interested prospect, the engaged employee and the potential employee recruit who is still on campus.

We’ve learned that Web video invites visitors to participate in your brand. Rather than just reading words on a page, visitors are listening, watching facial expressions and body language, and really seeing the brand come to life through customers, leadership and employees. While creating video was once an expensive and labor-intensive endeavor, it can now be extremely efficient and cost effective. And ultimately, you have the ability to measure traffic to those elements, allowing you to do more of what’s working and tweak what isn’t.

PRA is a client that gets it. They’re constantly seeking better ways to use technology. And in this business climate of intense competition for customers and high-performing, talented employees, they are not afraid to explore different ways to reach these coveted audiences. PRA has effectively brought their brand to life and are able to differentiate themselves from the competition using online video.

“My Workplace”: The Future of Online Communities at Work

Without a doubt, online communities and collaboration tools have quickly become a critical part of today’s online experience.

In May of 2006, Nielsen/Netratings issued a study revealing that the top 10 social networking sites collectively grew by 47% year over year, reaching 45% of all active Web users. Some of the big players in the game included, MySpace which topped the list with an astonishing growth rate of 367% and MSN Spaces with a 286% increase in growth. Today, there are several online communities which compete for our attention:  Facebook, LinkedIn, Hi5, YouTube, Yahoo 360°, Friendster, Xanga, Orkut, Gather, Wayn, Classmates.com, Bebo, the list goes on. That notwithstanding, the proliferation of Blogs, Wikis and Discussion Forums across the Internet is just another indication of the critical importance of having an online community incorporated in your corporate Web strategy.

Not only do community Web sites drive visitor retention rates, but it is quickly becoming a tune universally accepted and played by most Web users. Online communities are not going to wane anytime soon, if ever. Look around you, it is quickly finding its way into almost every mainstream Web site just like reality TV has become omnipresent in mainstream TV.

User generated content is king! With the advent of AJAX and other Rich Internet Application (RIA) techniques, a lot of Web developers and designers have gone to town with new ways for creating unique interactions within this online community space.

What does this mean for my corporate Web site?

Online communities will soon have a permanent place at the corporate round-table. You cannot afford to ignore the signs. Be it in your intranet, extranet or public-facing Web site strategy, there is a dying need to employ elements of community-based Web sites. Some of these community elements include: document management and sharing among users, discussion forums, blogs, wikis, personalization, to mention a few.

The majority of students in high schools and colleges are already heavily leveraged into the online community participation culture. This means that for companies who are really serious about attracting and retaining young talent, this is the way to go.

There are significant benefits of jumping onto this bandwagon. Besides facilitating conversation between users, community is a huge driver for collaboration – a prerequisite for companies trying to sustain a competitive edge in today’s economy. Though implementing a fully functional, community-based online presence requires some significant thought, there is help out there. We have learned a number of lessons and have formed a lot of best practices along the way.

Several content management systems now come with certain elements of community-based sites. Within the .NET practice, Microsoft SharePoint (MOSS 2007) comes with Starter Sites/Templates for Blogs, Wikis, Forums, My Site (which allows users to create and customize their own user profiles); the Ektron CMS has several elements (.NET server controls, etc) already built-in for enabling some of these community interactions including a Community Starter Site.

The future is very bright for community-based Web sites and now is the time to hop on!

E-mail Marketing - A great way to deliver a targeted message with metrics!

In the last couple of years, it seems as if e-mail has become a less popular medium for delivering a targeted message. Why? Well, a few things have occurred that make sending e-mail more difficult:

• An increased volume of unsolicited SPAM e-mails
• E-mail scams otherwise known as phishing e-mails
• Tighter e-mail security by ISP’s, hosts
• E-mail programs which disable images and links by default
• An increase in the overall number of day-to-day e-mails being received

I’m amazed when I check my “Junk E-Mail” folder in Outlook and see how many e-mails from companies that I want to hear from end up there. These companies are just going about it the wrong way!

The fact is, there aren’t too many mediums that provide the same features that are offered with modern day e-mail marketing:

• Quantifiable results of your campaigns
• Live on-demand stats (analytics)
• Low cost
• Reinforce your brand
• Promote your Web site and content within
• Easy administration and re-use of templates
• Viral marketing – forward to a friend option

To avoid landing in junk e-mail folders, those sending the e-mails need to be wary of the pitfalls and the best strategies to use. But I think you’ll agree, compared to other marketing methods be it traditional or online, e-mail marketing still offers some great features and great return on investment. So, next time you’re looking for a way to deliver a targeted message with measurable results, you should seriously consider e-mail marketing.

Related link: MessageDirect (PDF)

Web Content is King

Today, it seems everyone wants their Web site to be at the top of the major search engines. And why wouldn’t they? With the ever-increasing number of people accessing the internet every day, and many using it as their sole information resource, it pays to be on top.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is big business today as companies scramble to get their Web site into the top 10 listings on Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, and other search engines. It’s important to understand that there are two ways to get to the top of search engine networks:

1. Organic listings – This is done by search engines crawling or spidering your site and indexing its content, then they assess its relevance and match the content with users’ search terms.
2. Pay Per Click - Paid listings – Google, MSN and Yahoo let you pay for certain keywords, phrases and terms on their online ad networks (i.e. Google Adwords) and then match the content with users’ search terms, putting your ad next to the search results.

The second option is definitely the quick fix to getting your business noticed right away, but competing with other companies for keywords, phrases and terms can get costly. Option one takes more time and is heavily dependent on a number of things, including:

• Good Web site structure
• Page design and layout
• Title, Meta tagging
• Reciprocal links

But no matter how much of this you do, the best way to get your site found is truly by adding relevant content and keeping things fresh. Give search engines a reason to come back by adding and updating things on your site. It all comes down to one simple truth…Web Content is King! To help our customers with SEO and Brand Protection on the web we've created our own product called brandclickmedia, you can find out more about this exciting product at www.brandclickmedia.com.

Related link: brandclickmedia (PDF)

Will Microsoft become the new Macromedia?

If you had asked me my opinion about Microsoft’s Web design and development software three years ago, you would not have heard a favorable answer. FrontPage was a terrible Web editor which generated horrendous MSHTML code. As for a graphic editor, let’s not go there – Windows paint was about all they had. The only program that I really liked was Visual Studio, which showed some promise. It was fair to say that Macromedia (now owned by Adobe) and Adobe had the market sewn up.

Well, it looks as if Microsoft has learned from their mistakes and they are starting to release some good Web design and development software. The last installment of Microsoft Office came with Frontpage 2003. Granted, it was never going to topple Dreamweaver, but it definitely was catching up in terms of features.

Then, Visual Studio 2005 was released and, from a programming/Q&A standpoint, it wipes the floor with Dreamweaver! Plus, Microsoft began to understand what made Macromedia and Adobe so popular – free trials of their software and support for the developer community. Microsoft launched a light-weight version of Visual Studio called Visual Web Developer for free and launched an awesome community-based portal Web site around its .NET framework with code samples and discussion forums. They also jumped on the AJAX bandwagon by releasing the Atlas framework for Visual Studio.

That isn’t all Microsoft has been working on. It seems they want to go head to head with Adobe, taking on three of their biggest products: Photoshop, Dreameaver and Illustrator. Microsoft has created three new products in its “Expression” series: Graphic Designer, Interactive Designer and Web Designer.

This represents a fundamental shift for Microsoft towards building good software for designers and developers out there, and it seems Adobe is squarely in Microsoft’s sights. The release of a suite of Microsoft designer/developer software that works in unison will help streamline the design and development process which will ultimately save time and money on projects. Now the only challenge Microsoft has is to hook the community!

PRA Goes Web 2.0

August 31^st marked the launch date of the Plunkett Raysich Architects (PRA) new Web site. This is one of the many exciting Ektron-driven sites we’ve developed so far. We implemented some very cool custom functionality by leveraging the Ektron Content Management System (CMS) API including a:

• Portfolio
  • Project search
  • Project view
• Knowledge center
• Blog
• News/Events area
• Client testimonials
• Careers section
• RSS feeds
• Dynamic menus using menu module and site map

The greatest thing about this site is how easy it is to update content. PRA, like most companies, has a limited amount of time they can commit to their Web site. By building the site on the Ektron CMS framework, PRA staff can now:

• Add new content
• Publish blogs
• Add files to their knowledge center
• Update their portfolio
• Refine the site menu navigation
• Deploy contact forms

And, they can do it quickly and easily! Thanks to the great PRA team for being so easy to work with and for embracing technology in order to strategically move their online presence forward.

Related link: Versant CMS (PDF)

Milwaukee Rotary Goes Live!

This month we launched the all-new and improved Milwaukee Rotary Web site. The new site features some very cool functions, not to mention the Ektron Content Management System (CMS) under the hood.

Milwaukee Rotary had an existing Web site that had been developed in 2000 on PHP and MySQL. One of the challenges they faced was the manual update and synchronization of their Web database with member information from their local Microsoft Access database. With a custom solution, Versant recommended condensing the database and moving it to one location with a custom Web application interface.

Along with the new site, Versant created an extensive extranet application for Rotary members to manage their accounts that includes the following:

• Calendar of events
• Committee management with e-mail notification reminder
• Member search and management
• Bulk member e-mail

The new site was built on ASP.NET using the latest Ektron CMS 6.0 with a SQL Server back-end. Data synchronization challenges are a thing of the past and now Rotary can count on reliable information in one place. Our clients are really leveraging the CMS and adding new content all the time! The new site will save Rotary time and money, and give them reliable information on demand!

Thanks to the client for all their hard work and content entry, we really enjoyed the project.

You can view the new site here: http://www.milwaukeerotary.com.

Related link: Versant CMS (PDF)

RSS will become Mainstream

We’ve talked about RSS before on our technology blog, however, I feel many non-technical people don’t quite understand what RSS is and how it’s used.

With the upcoming release of Microsoft Office 12 and Internet Explorer 7, which include extensive RSS support, as well as support from major players Google and Yahoo, I believe RSS is finally going to become a mainstream technology.

We’ve probably all heard RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. But when I mentioned the technology in a meeting yesterday, most everyone’s eyes glazed over. So I decided to talk about some really practical uses for RSS that I believe will make life easier.

Ultimately, RSS is about providing information in a common format that can be syndicated. Why use RSS to syndicate information? In today’s fast-paced world, people don’t necessarily have time to visit their favorite Web site and find information on the latest news, stock prices or weather. RSS can provide an instant update to you without ever having to visit the Web site. It’s your live feed to the information you want!

Still not convinced? Here are a couple of scenarios where RSS is useful.

Let’s say I’m looking to buy a house. Every day I would have to go to various real estate sites and run my same search: single family, 3 bedroom, 1 bath, up to $250,000 in Milwaukee.

The problem is that most houses I find will already have been sold because I can’t search the sites non-stop. If, however, these sites provided listings in RSS, I could subscribe to a feed with my criteria. Then, when a new property was added, the information would be immediately pushed out to me instead of my having to search for it.

Second scenario: I’m looking for a job as an accountant with a particular company but none currently exist. If they offered an RSS job feed for their positions I could subscribe to it, instead of checking the newspaper or Web site daily, or not checking and risk the chance of missing the position altogether.

This is the power of RSS – instant updates to the information you want on demand!

Sterling Investments Live

This past week we launched the new Sterling Investment Partners Web site. Sterling is a merger and acquisition company based in Westport, CT. One of the requirements of the new site was that it needed to showcase the current portfolio of companies that Sterling works with, and provide relevant information as it relates to that company during and after the merger and acquisition process.

Due to the complexity of managing the various content items, we elected to build the site on a Content Management System (CMS). We then built a number of custom modules to organize and display the content in different ways. For instance, when you are viewing a portfolio company profile, you are also able to view related news releases, video or additional information on the same page without having to find it in another section of the site.

Every item on the site, including the drop-down menus, content, images and files is managed by the CMS, which makes it a breeze for the client to update and manage. We also shot and integrated a lot of custom video testimonials from the partners and clients throughout the site using Flash video, which is a really slick feature.

Thanks to everyone at Sterling for all their help, it has been a fun site to build. You can check out the new site here.