Posted: May 18th, 2010 | Filed under: Stuff I've Done, Thinking | Tags: Content Strategy, Hanson Dodge | Comments Off
(This article originally appeared in Hanson Dodge Creative’s May 2010 Active Insights newsletter.)
Back in the early days of interactive, all we talked about was HTML— the simple way to breathe life into website and, by extension, user experience. Quickly we realized HTML wasn’t enough. Websites needed to be easier to get around and find things in, so we started talking about usability. But before long, even usability wasn’t enough. People began to clamor for a user experience that’s beyond beautiful, useful and thrilling. Websites packed with pertinent information — that also reflect our clients’ brands, and, of course, their marketing goals.
Flash-forward to 2009. We aren’t just designing website user experiences any more. We’re designing experiences for any number of online, mobile and offline properties. Consumers have grown to expect all of the things we’re designing to be beautiful, fun and easy to use. That stuff’s a given.
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Posted: May 10th, 2010 | Filed under: Thinking | Tags: Marketing, Social Media, Twitter | Comments Off
The Huffington Post reported the other day on some recent studies that show what we reasonable people have been saying for years: that the people with the most followers are not necessarily the most influential on Twitter.
In fact, there does not seem to be a correlation at all between follower count and influence.
Of course, anybody on Twitter for more than a few days already knows this: the funniest, most interesting and engaging Twitterers don’t care how many people are following them. They’re there because they’re curious, interested in other people and like to share. And they’re highly influential because of it – everybody pays attention when they speak, because it’s sure to be something good.
And on the flip side: mass followings, spam and begging for “re-tweets” are a surefire way to lose friends and alienate social media people.
You see, Twitter isn’t really anything more than a big party, taken to the internet. The funny and interesting people get all the attention, and the ones desperate to make friends are avoided like that cousin at the cookout trying recruit for his new pyramid scheme.
So why do marketers continue to obsess over friend, fan and follower count? Because it’s far easier to measure numbers than a person’s charm. Problem is, the old marketing measurements don’t apply in social media. But the old-fashioned ideas of being interesting and a good listener do.
Read more about the study at ReadWriteWeb.
Posted: May 5th, 2010 | Filed under: Events | Tags: Content Strategy | 1 Comment »
Milwaukee has a new UX nerd group in town: mkeUX. Two local UXers Mike Kornacki and Michael Seidel have teamed up to form this informal group that will meet to “pop the tops on a few beers and let the ideas ping-pong,” according to its first blog post.
I’ll be helping to pop beers and ping pong on June 9th when Margot Bloomstein and I are there to chat about content strategy. Head on down!
Content Strategy on the Realz
Wednesday June 9th, 6pm
Lightburn Design
325 East Chicago Street
Milwaukee, WI 53202 (map)
More info: http://mkeux.com/
