Tagged with 'web 2.0'

Recently, I had the opportunity to be captured on video riffing on a few Internet trends. And since riffing only served to energize me about these issues, I thought I might add some additional dimension to my 90 seconds of comments. Watch me and read me.

The Internet is Evolving

In 1999 science fiction author William Gibson said in an NPR interview, “…the future is already here. It’s just not evenly distributed.” Gison’s point is driven home every day working with our clients.  For many, their impression of the internet or the way they use it is rooted in something I was doing 5 or 6 years ago. Their future is my past. Or when I attend a high technology conference like last week’s Drupalcon, I spend my evenings catching up on some fantastic new way the Internet is used to deliver information and services. In this case, the technologists’ present is MY future.  While we are all at different places in experiencing the Internet, most certainly it continues to be a moving target.  If you are building a website, you want to take your cue from the future to insure the greatest relevance.  To do otherwise is to build early obsolescence into your web presence.

Internet Devices are Evolving

The place and manner in which we access the Internet is evolving. Mobile device browsers are taking their place alongside Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox & Chrome as ways people access information on the Internet. But that’s not all that is changing. People who visit your website through a mobile device are looking for different content than the visitors with their computer. Instead of a browse to the home page and meandering from there, the mobile user is digging for some very specific information, not a generalists view. It is important that you address the questions, “Is your content sufficient for the kinds of inquiries a mobile visitor seeks? Is your content management system capable of delivering that information? Is your presentation layer – that which people see – as friendly on a mobile device as it appears on a big monitor?

It’s About Your Internet Presence, Not Your Website

In a discussion with a prospect, I noted to him that a search for his name didn’t yield his bio on his website.  Now that was, indeed, a problem in itself. But not my point. What the search revealed was this person being represented on several industry sites, an association site, and social media sites. It is no longer (never was) sufficient to simply define the Internet marketing task as building and managing a website. Rather, it is about managing the Internet presence of your organization and the people who represent it.

We recently completed a website for Leonard, Street & Deinard which is built on the Drupal content management system (CMS).  At launch the site includes some effective functionality which was enabled largely due to the CMS.  Although Drupal-based sites are propagating rapidly on the Internet, to our knowledge, this site is one of the first enterprise law firm Drupal websites.  BigLaw, it seems has Drupal constipation. In fact, based on our own experience, do-it-the-way-they-did-it-yesterday (because it is safe) law firms continue to build new sites on proprietary content management systems for twice the price and half the functionality that is available to them.

Not surprisingly, the innovation in law websites comes from the entrepreneurial companies – both law firms and the professionals whose clients are law firms. In particular, we recently learned of Simplicity Law, a Littleton, Colorado based law firm with a differentiated set of services focused on small business. Their creative business model is represented by a forward looking site built on Drupal.

Most important for the Simplicity Law site is the effortless content presentation.  For example, a page featuring small business law articles includes a “most popular” list generated by Drupal’s ability to incorporate visitor behavior. Content is “tagged” for organization by the site administrator and access by the site visitor. And, bless their souls, site visitors are invited to add their comments to the articles presented. You can call this Web 2.0. I just think it is a site that initiates the client relationship by inviting engagement. You know, client centric.  BigLaw are you listening? No. I don’t think so.

I was discussing this site with one of my strategic partners in the LiftOff Law consortium, John Hellerman of Hellerman Baretz Communications. I was excited when John told me his firm’s new website was also built on Drupal CMS.  And indeed it was good to note his site features integrated social media and social forwarding capabilities. Additionally, one of my favorite practices Hellerman Baretz embraces is featuring (like, to the home page) recent posts headline from their blog. What I also especially liked was the seamless integration of the blog into the site.  Unlike some BigLaw firms who hold their blogs out at arm’s length (because they might bite? … or smell?) or call them not-so-clever things like “blawgs” (ha, ha, ha, uh, not funny) or simply bury them in a link from an attorney bio, the Hellerman Baretz blog is just another way of presenting content. The blog is prominently accessible through the site’s top level navigation as “Knowledge” Knowledge. How accurate. And useful.

It’s great to see this kind of website execution from professional services firm like Leonard Street & Deinard, Simplicity Law and Hellerman Baretz. We’re not claiming Drupal CMS is the Holy Grail. And we also know some of the things we and others try aren’t as effective as we thought they might be. But at least we try, revise and try again. In doing so we endeavor to share a common plane with our entrepreneurial law firm clients who are also evolving their client services to serve their market.

As social media marketing gets a grip on your attention and wallet, its seeds of failure are already sown. Now I am very much of a wind-at-my-back kind of person. And if ever there was a powerful wind, the gale force of social media marketing certainly seems like it. So why such negativity?

As a lifelong early adopter I’ve jumped on a lot of bandwagons that have either stalled at the starting line or tanked altogether. Back in the days, I sold – or tried to sell -  the Apple II computer with 4K of internal memory and a cassette tape recorder for loading programs (yes, you read that right – no disks, no harddrives) and the original Odyssey video game. I skydived the first internet bubble without a parachute and went splat. It is not unusual for some things to start with a bang and end with a whimper. Yet, today, Apple makes great computers, video games rival movies for entertainment dollar spent. And the Internet, well, it’s back. And that’s why I think your social media marketing initiative is going to fail

I just reviewed my friend Chris Rollyson’s article on the Web 2.0 adoption curve. It is déjà vu all over again.

Chris Rollyson's Web 2.0 Adoption Curve

I’ve been here in a different life. And based on my current experience working in the trenches of Web 2.0 implementation, I’d say he’s right on. Here’s what I believe is happening.

Social media gained traction with kids who are both more naturally social and technically savvy. While there were many small initiatives, the ones that have entered our consciousness include MySpace and Facebook. MySpace remains segmented into the youth culture. Facebook made a strategic move, breaking from its students-only membership policy to become the most visited social media website. Yahoo gobbled up the social photo site Flickr and Google absorbed the social video site YouTube. Game on. LinkedIn, a social medium for business folks grew 150% year over year 2007-2008.

The role of social media marketing in the captivating 2008 presidential election not only increased visibility but also provided a clear case study of demonstrable success. Today you can’t avoid a news story about the micro-blog tool, Twitter. The battle cry has gone forth, “I gotta get me some of that social media stuff.” And here’s where it begins to crack.

Expectation is great. You know, if it worked for Obama, it can work for me. But for most who don’t have the proper coaching or understanding it won’t. Social media marketing is disruptive. It requires new skills, new tools, new tactics and an entirely new strategy. And, on a mass basis, we’re not ready for that. So initiatives are going to fail. The failure will feed on itself. Enthusiasm will wane. Momentum will disappear. Disappointment will be pervasive.

But Web 2.0 won’t go away for the simple reason that it’s a great idea. Chris calls this the “triumph of determination.” We’ll pick up the pieces and attack the project again. This time we’ll be a little more prepared; a little wiser. We’ll learn from our mistakes and mass adoption will succeed.

So am I suggesting you sit this round out? Not hardly. There are definitely benefits to be gained and learnings to be achieved. And you won’t get these by staying away. In fact the opposite it true, the most successful Web 2.0 implementers will be the ones who gain experience in this first round. Just go into this with your eyes open and know that this is not business as usual. But then, right now, what is?

One of the speakers at this year’s Web Content Conference proposed that Web 1.0 was about connecting people to content, Web 2.0 about connecting people to each other, and Web 3.0 will be about connecting content to people. While everyone feels differently about “Web 3.0,” and some think we should just do away with the versioning altogether (the Web is the Web is the Web), it is undeniable that content is important and will be even more important as the Internet continues to evolve. Google’s Dick Costolo talks about “hypersyndication” – a world where all content is shared, remixed, socialized and distributed everywhere. For that scenario to be possible, there has to be quality content.

Even media conglomerate Time Warner realizes the importance of quality content – its strategy is now to focus more on “content creation.” According to Time Warner’s new CEO, Jeff Bewkes, “in a digital age, content becomes more valuable, not less, because it’s becoming cheaper to deliver.”

As the headline of the New York Times article boldly proclaims, “content is back.”

Should you put a link to LinkedIn on a biography page of a law firm website? That was the question posed recently on the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) listserv by Gail Lamarche Director of Marketing at Henderson, Franklin, Starnes & Holt.

I opined that, for professional services firms such as this law firm, the attorney biography page is the best thing we have as a “money page” on the website. Therefore, driving visitors away from the money page was, strategically, a bad idea. Moreover, it seemed if there were really content on LinkedIn that was valuable to the site visitor, then that information should be on the bio page. And if it wasn’t there, the bio page was somehow deficient.

Smug I was in the righteousness of my response. But I got an earful of dissent from LMA listserv contributors. The arguments are worthy of consideration:

Jayne Navarre, LawGravity, presented these points persuasively:

• Branding – The LinkeIn link is like a hip badge of Web 2.0 awareness
• Connections – LinkedIn provides a transparent view to an attorney’s connections, arguably a value to any prospective client
• Authoritative – Access to the LinkedIn Questions & Answers provides additional proof of the attorney’s authority

Heather Milligan, Director of Marketing at Barger Wolen emphasized that LinkedIn:

• Human – helps make the attorney “dynamic, human, liked”( in case we have any residual concerns about their humanity) and helps the attorney pass the “known, liked & trusted” test of prospective clients.
• Dimensional – And in rebuttal to my “bio is deficient” comment, Heather notes that to maintain a certain appearance consistent with other bios and the overall website, “the firm bio is controlled for content, style, etc….(while) LinkedIn is the perfect place where an attorney can bring together their outside interests and professional careers, making them more human and likeable.
• Connections – Perhaps the most valuable feature, LinkedIn is fundamentally a connecting tool that might serendipitously reveal a third party connection to the site visitor which presents all kinds of opportunity for real introduction.

It’s not a slam dunk either way. The answer to Gail’s original question seems to be, “It depends.” The circumstances dictate the strategy. I’ll give it a nod of possibility and something worth trying.  Yes, I know, “first I was against it, now I’m for it.” Thanks to the enlightenment of my marketing peers.

But I’ll have this last (never!) word.  Think doubly hard about sending your site visitor from the most valuable conversion page of  your site to an information wasteland. Don’t do it unless the LinkedIn profile to which you are sending visitors:

• provides a rich set of business connections
• demonstrates some effort to contribute authoritatively to the online Q&A discourse
• otherwise expands on the website attorney bio page
• (if possible) provides a path back

And whatever you do, measure the results. Professionals keep score.

Now you can link away to my LinkedIn profile.

After two days packed with great speakers on topics ranging from website design to online marketing ROI, Web Content 2008 ended on a high note with a cocktail reception in Duo Consulting’s office. The conference brought together marketing and technology professionals from a wide variety of industries, all hoping to find out how to create, organize, maintain and deliver web content in today’s Web 2.0 environment.

In true Web 2.0 fashion, conference goers were busy tweeting (#wc08) while listening to the speakers; photos taken at the conference were uploaded to Flickr; I also had the privilege of blogging at CMSWire on various sessions, including Duo CEO’s own Marketing in a Connected World and Content Management Meets Facebook (more below).

The questions asked at the end of each session and the conversations I was a part of are evidence of how relevant many of the speakers were. While Web 2.0 technology and social media may be part and parcel of the everyday life of those highly involved in technology, others in industries like health care or higher education often struggle with what to do about the new media landscape that they’re facing. Conferences like Web Content 2008 allow not only an exchange of ideas, but also an exchange of perspectives.

As a graduate student, it was enlightening for me to see how companies in the real world are trying to figure out how to manage their web content and what to make of the Web 2.0 “hype.” My takeaway from the conference: Web 2.0 isn’t for everybody. Web 2.0 technology merely provides tools, but companies need to first figure out what their strategy and business goals are before even thinking about “implementing Web 2.0.” That said, content and content management will inevitably play an increasingly important role in any company’s strategy (Web 3.0!). Effective content management is what will separate the successes from the failures.

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Some Web Content 2008 sessions:

Keynote: Hypersyndication and the Future of Media
Keynote: The Many-Armed Starfish: Today and Tomorrow in Social Media
Cross-Media 1:1 Marketing: Providing Personalized Content to Drive Sales
Design is Content, Too
Adding Dynamite to Dynamic Web Content
Don’t Let Web 2.0 Ruin Your Online Marketing