January 2009

Jeremiah Owyang has a great post at Web Stategy by Jeremiah on the importance of showing results from your efforts in the coming year. I posted the entire article here but I urge you to go to the site and read the comments for a well rounded conversation on the subject.

I’m a former community manager, and many of my friends are currently in this role, and I want to make sure they are armed with the right knowledge to succeed during hard times –I know some of them may get laid off.

Community Managers are at risk of being let go
During a recession, we know that marketing, sometimes new media and unknown expenses get cut. Unfortunately, to some, the Community Manager role may sit in all three of those areas of scrutiny. Although I’ve been tracking quite a few Community Managers working at enterprise class companies, they must quickly learn to measure, and demonstrate ROI or risk getting cut.

Community Managers must educate stakeholders and management.
Measurement depends on which objective they are trying to solve, so I’ll break it down into specific objectives and tasks. During incidents the community manager should report in real-time to key stakeholders. Secondly, they should provide weekly updates that can be quickly scanned in 30 seconds to community managers. Each month, they should provide a detailed report, and initiate a 30-60 minute meeting with key stakeholders to discuss changes.

Among these changes they should measure:

Improvement in marketing efficiency
Community Managers should measure increased speed from word of mouth or marketing awareness, the best way to measure this is time from awareness to close –or spread of WOM. This could also include increase understanding of customers (listening) for marketing research, or warning stakeholders about potential detractors before they become real issues. Unfortunately, these metrics aren’t valued as much as the next two, so focus accordingly.

Reduction in support costs
The bottom line is always important to business, so if you can measure a decrese in customers going to physical stores, emailing account reps, or calling the support center as they instead rely on community to help self-support themselves, you can start to put dollar costs on this actual community savings.

Actual improvement to sales
This matters most. Community Managers should start to measure how clicks from community directly impact ecommerce, go to product pages (perhaps if you’re B2B) or to affiliate marketing to demonstrate how community interaction increases revenue. If you can demonstrate this (like Dell’s million dollar sales in Twitter) tout this loudly to management.

Conduct additional research
If you’re like most companies, layoffs are coming, therefore Community Managers must educate the powers that be the value that they offer when it comes to customer service and support. Rather than focus purely on the role that they have, they should demonstrate the overall of the community –then discusss why a role is needed (like a physical store manager) in order to keep it running smoothly. Consider running quarterly surveys that measure Net Ratings or customer satisfaction, and don’t forget to quote qualitative responses from community members themselves, there’s nothing like a pure customer testimonial about why they are customers.

Read more and the all important comments at his blog.

U.S. Coast Guard Commandant, Adm. Thad Allen introduces his social media initiative.

Thanks to Scott!

While online community management isn’t a new job, it is still a career that tends to evolve out of other positions instead of a career where people have formal degrees in the field. I happen to have a computer science degree and an MBA, but I know other community managers with formal training in marketing, library science, communications, criminal justice, product design, and more. Some of the best community managers I know have a broad background with a diverse job history, which seems to give them a variety of experiences to draw from when managing communities filled with people from diverse backgrounds and experiences.

Great post over at Web Worker Daily. If I was in Oregon I’d go check out the speaker.  Community Management will become a huge part of successful online brands in the coming year whether you are a plumber or a president.

Will corporate America realize it before it’s gone? Will corporate America destroy it before it gains roots? Brands that “get it” will survive but brands that “spam” will wonder what hit them. A Community Manager’s position is quickly becoming as important as a well trained designer or programmer on a website.

Will we soon see a degree program in this field? I bet it won’t be long now…

Here is an interesting post I ran across about a woman who feels she learned more about her work by becoming a design instructor.

My students have taught me this: we can’t simply move on. In order to prevent becoming stale as designers—and it’s happened to all of us—we have to keep our eyes open and our minds inquisitive. Keep asking questions. Keep learning. It can be so easy to get into a professional rut, and assume that our real world experiences teach us everything we need to know.

Read the rest of the story.

I’ve heard the phrase “Those who can’t do, teach” but I find it to way off when it comes to design instructors. I myself began teaching over 10 years ago and I learned more in my first year of teaching than I did in the previous 10 years of professional work. Bottom line, if you are hitting a wall with your design skills or wish for a better job I challenge you to try teaching a class in some aspect of your passion. You will never regret it. You might even learn something too ; )

Here are some tips on how to move forward after you’ve taken that first step of creating your company’s Fan Page on Facebook, set up a photo album or two and set up your company information. You got an initial shot of a few fans but what can you do to really get the fans coming in and keep them engaged?

While ‘one visit’ fans are useful and great – you can send them emails at anytime as they have ‘opted in’ by becoming a fan, you really want to get a 2-way communication going. You want a conversation hub – not a destination.

Discuss
Post a discussion and invite all your fans to participate in it. They will see it and their friends will see it (and hopefully they will become fans too) as well as to come and join in on the discussion.  It doesn’t need to be a ‘hard sell’,  for homebuilders it can be something like how to get your home ready for winter or for a car manufacturer, what sort of options people are looking for in their next car.

Online Polls
Another great way to get people back is to set up a Poll each week. You can easily add a polling application to your page and start asking questions. These can be unrelated to your core business but still allow you to collect informative data. Polls take very little time to answer and are not intrusive to the user.

Special Offer
Offer them something for becoming a fan.  Sears offered a $10 coupon or $5 gift card for becoming a fan. Papa John’s Pizza offered an online code for a medium pizza if you got friendly with them, and even Burger King got into the act recently with their ‘Sacrifice’ application that gave you a free whopper coupon if you dropped 10 friends.

Unique Fan Pages
Make fan pages for things other than just your company. If you offer condos or apartments, make a fan page for the building or complex.  Offer $1000 off a condo if you become a friend or if you make a purchase.  Offer $50 off a month in rent if you sign a year lease.  Then use the page to get people who live there talking to each other and about you. Make them happy with where they live and they will talk you up.

Combining this with ‘traditional’ advertising can also help to give you a boost as well.  Put your Facebook info in your ad and tell them what they will get if they become a friend.  Set up a redirection from your site so that you can advertise www.YourSite.com/facebook (Facebook fan page URLs are difficult at best).

Post Job Openings
We know these are difficult times but some companies are still hiring.  Post your job openings on your fan page and your resumes are at least a little filtered.

Via: TheJuice

One of the best web workers sites, A List Apart, has a post titled “Elevate Web Design at the University Level”.

It’s interesting becuase it speaks to one of my major concerns as a design instructor and employeer.

Connections between higher education and business have to be created, nurtured, and sustained. These relationships support the growth of educational institutions and the community’s desire to retain recent graduates who might otherwise leave the community. Partnering colleges and universities with local companies that provide career paths in web design and development allows recent graduates to see the community as a viable place to further their professional interests.

It goes on to try and address the needs of our industry…

When you drive, bike, or scooter to work each morning, do you pass a university? If so, contact the web educator at the university and see what you can do to help connect the school to you, your company, and your professional organizations. Does the educator need/want a guest lecturer to come to class and speak on your area of expertise? Yes, you are an expert on something and you should share your expertise with educators and their students.

Its an instrersting call to action for employeers out there. It seems as if for too long the responsability has been on the educator to reach out to the community. I agree. If we as employeers of web developers and designers want quality people to hire then we should be assisting in any way we can at the ground level.

Take some time to read the article while I go on to work on my next piece title “How To Fix Your Design Program”.

Via: TechCrunch

Madness?

Thinking about entering a college design program? The first thing you MUST do is some serious research into the world you are entering. The most research I hear from my new students is their in-depth knowledge of what they read online about how much Graphic/Web Designers make annually as if it were some sort guarantee for the future as long as you graduate. It’s not.

Students can be quickly overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge needed to become successful as a designer and may feel the need to quit school before they finish. If you have already started your program, restart your brain and refocus on your goals. The career of a designer can be a real joy if you start out right.

Becoming a “successful” designer will be only partly due to your creative ability. There are many other hurdles and challenges to face along the way. I believe that there are a lot of great new designers in the world waiting to blossom and these are my suggestions on how to keep your mind on the prize.

It’s Your Money. Spend it Wisely.

Are you the shy and artistic type? Get over it quick. Your instructors have knowledge but they are not trained in ways of the Jedi. I mean they are not mind readers. Come early to class, raise your hand and stay late. Engage your instructor even if you think they are stupid. They might be socially awkward but who cares. Get in their face and don’t leave until you understand the premise, project or idea your instructor is dishing out. Teachers are there to work for you. Make them earn every penny.

Don’t take out extra loans and spend the money on expensive beer or shoes. Get your degree and buy the booze and boots later.

Too cool for school? Then quit now. You may not realize it till graduation but while you were trying to look cool in front of everyone class you were missing out and now every one’s portfolio looks better than yours. What to do? Oh sure, blame the school or the instructors. Blame the school or program. It can’t be your fault. They promised a design education on a silver platter right? Who would of known you were supposed to actually work to get your degree? On the opposite side if you truly feel that the school you are attending is not for you then quit and find a school that is.

Don’t Focus On The Equipment.

Stop whining about the school computers. So what if your computer at home is a gigahertz monster? Every modern design student before you and after you have had the same issues. The school computers are crap. Sometimes they are not but most times they are. It doesn’t matter. Many students enter design school in today’s world with some experience in Photoshop but no understanding of when to use Photoshop. That is why you are in school. You need to focus on the “why” as much as you focus on the “how”.

Focus on your creativity and not how fast Photoshop opens.

If you can work with an 8×10 300DPI image without the program crashing you are already working with materials far above what you will probably work with on your first job. Not good with computers or technology? Someone in your class is. You will probably be to embarrassed to ask the instructor your “stupid” computer questions (they are not, by the way) so ask that guy or gal in class who seems to know it all. Become close friends with them because you two will need each other. I find more often than not that students who make close friends within their classes are ultimately more successful.

Don’t Be a Loner.

I hate to break it to you but web and print design are team sports. You always are working with or for someone as a professional designer so brush up on those social skills. You must be able to communicate your ideas to other creatives and non-creatives in order to have your vision realized. You won’t be working alone on projects in the “real world” but within a team. Prepare yourself.

Ask yourself, how do you communicate best? Writing, speaking or drawing? Become proficient at them all. You will need every tool available to get your point of view across.I can’t count how many times I’ve been stuck trying to explain a design concept with only my voice and hands.

Practice your communication skills. Having a great team to work with is your fast track to becoming a well respected and well paid designer. Taking your classes team projects seriously will prepare you tremendously in the future for working within a design or development team. Try being the leader. Try being a follower. Try it all! You will be amazed by the resources you didn’t even know you had when working on your first team project.

Do Your Homework… and then some.

Here’s a simple way to have a great portfolio when you graduate. Let’s say your instructor handed the class a project to re-work a logo for a gas station. Complete the logo assignment and then produce two more for related industries on your own time. That’s right I said it. Work on your own time outside of class. How did the best designers in the world get that way? Passion. Do you honestly think you will get everything you want out of life by just meeting expectations? I thought not. I knew you were much smarter than that.

A gas station logo you say? How about branding that gas delivering trucking company or that fancy-schmancy touch-less car wash they just put in? These logo’s do not have to be fully realized vectors but they should be far enough along that only minor touches are needed to complete them when portfolio time comes.

In my experience, 99% percent of all design students wait till their last quarter to start stockpiling design work. Don’t make this mistake. Damn it, don’t throw those thumbnail sketches away! Keep them organized by class for later reference somewhere safe. Backup those thumb drives and CD’s with your Photoshop & Illustrator files! Keep it all. If there is only one thing that you will listen to make it be this. I promise you will get much more sleep in your last semester or quarter and look better for all those graduation photos!

Step Outside of School.

There is probably a large design community in your town and you don’t even know it. Go online… Look for design “meet-ups”, design camps or other design related get-together’s in town. No car? E-mail a member for a ride. Do what you can to get there and participate. Don’t sit in the back with your arms folded. Everyone else is out of their element just like you so you are not fooling anyone. Introduce yourself and ask people about what they do. Just becuase your a student does not mean you are not worthy. Go stick your neck out and I promise you will see rewards from it.

Statistics show that 80% of employment opportunities come from people you know. That statistic may be correct for people looking for a job at a Mall but for a professional designer or developer I’d say it hovers closer to 100% when you are either in school or just getting out of school. Stop reading this, close your laptop, leave your residence and meet people. Your future depends upon it.

Embrace Art and Design History.

Sure you want to be the next Neville Brody or Stephen Sagmeister, (You probably don’t know who they are but you should) but even they respected and studied those who came before them. You must have an understanding of what has been done so you will know what not to do. Or, better yet, you can improve and reinvent what has come before.

Being a great designer is not about raw talent. It is about having a deep understanding of the effect of form on the human psyche. How does an image of the American Flag affect you? How do you think it affects others and why? Do you like Pink? Why is Pink for girls and Blue for boys? Why? Keep asking that and you’ll eventually find out. These answers will lead to skills and skills will lead to a successful career.

Learn Your Terms and Tools.

First impressions are important but so are third, fourth and fifth impressions. If you are in a job interview and they ask you a question about your work that you can’t answer then prepare yourself to not get a callback. What does XHTML stand for? What is the W3C?  How about your experience with FTP tools, Time Tracking tools or project management tools? These are questions you may be asked during an interview.

Remember, you are going to work for a business and businesses use business tools. Organizations use organizational tools and so on. And while you are at it, brush up on your skills with Microsoft Word and Excel. You will be surprised how quickly this becomes important. Not for design but for communication and correspondence.

Learn Your Place.

Web Designer, Front-End Developer, Interaction Designer, etc… There are so many creative ways to title a creative position in today’s world. It is so important to research these job titles so you know what you are applying for after you graduate. Then, if you are lucky, you get hired and it becomes even more important to know your place within the organization. Maybe you will get lucky during school and be able to tour some studios. Ask questions! That’s why you are there.

So you have landed your first job. Who do you go to with questions about your design, computer, software, chair, lunch-break, 401K and voice mail? In a larger company there might be a different person for each area but in smaller companies you might be faced with a Jack of all Trades that covers all these areas. Learn the landscape as quickly as possible.

Some final points to review:

1. Don’t be afraid to fail. Failure is the best teacher.
2. Participate in school and in life. Networking is the most important skill that school will not teach you.
3. Dress better than everyone else. (Or as best as you can afford)
4. Never be satisfied with your work.
5. Teach yourself as much about the software as possible on your own time. The “How” is easy. The “Why” is hard.
6. Learn to work efficiently using both Mac and a PC.
7. Get an internship as early as possible or start freelancing. Either way, work for free. You will learn a lot.
8. Take a Speech class. Even if your school doesn’t offer it. Verbal skills are important to communicate ideas.
9. Take advantage of your student discounts on computers and software before you graduate.
10. Be emotionally invested in your work.
11. Participate. Now. Today. Everyday.

Whether you’ve just started at Berkeley or DeVry you will have the same issues the students before you did. Overcome them and focus as much attention as you possibly can on your future. You may not be a unique butterfly but your work can be and will soar if you invest your time and your heart in to it.